Shadow

by David L Dawson

  I think I can set someone’s heart on fire, she thought, looking down at the Book of Fire with a shudder.

  “What time is it?” Emily asked in ancient Elvish.

  Cressida looked at the clock and replied perfectly, “Ten past one.”

  Emily said, again, in ancient Elvish. “Are you hungry?”

  Cressida thought of the appropriate Elvish word. “Famished.”

  After lunch Bram helped Ginger lay even more layers of protective spells around the house. They were all glad that even Phobos himself hadn’t been able to penetrate the spells but it was good to make sure, and Bram wanted to be useful anyway. Joe’s Grandpa was quite a competent sorcerer. Quite why he decided to become a professional gardener was a mystery to Cressida, even though she found nature to be quite relaxing.

  Cressida found Emily opening a black satchel as she returned to the living room. When she pulled out a wooden hilted knife she was startled for a moment.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to frighten you,” said Emily.

  “Don’t worry,” said Cressida. “When you’ve had a god knocking on your bedroom window in the middle of the night you tend to frighten less easily.”

  Emily smiled wistfully. “Lichen made me this dagger with his own two hands for my last birthday. It’s a tradition to give someone you love, among Elves, a dagger you’ve fashioned yourself. I wanted to make one myself for him but…”

  “You miss him?”

  “Yes, I miss him. He taught me so much and he was my only family. Snaps is all right as cats go, but…he can’t talk back.”

  She thrust the dagger out dramatically and said, “I promise to Lichen I will use this to pierce the heart of his killer.”

  Cressida didn’t know where to look so she just sat down and began rummaging through her notes. Soon enough Emily put the dagger away and began the lessons again.

  Corona/Joe watched with awe as the window in the kitchen glowed a magnificent yellow. Bram grinned, giving himself a clap. Ginger was impressed. Together they had orchestrated a complicated spell and it had worked. The house was now as protected as it would ever get. Any more spells and they might accidentally blow themselves up.

  “You really are good at this,” Corona/Joe gushed.

  “It’ll come to you in time,” said Bram. “I’m sure of it.”

  “It better.” Corona didn’t think so. It was like the magical genes that flowed in Joe’s body were too idle to work. It was frustrating inhabiting a body that didn’t quite work the way it was supposed to. She suddenly understood Joe a lot better now. It must’ve been ten times as worse for him.

  Ginger peered into the living room, noting the excited expression on her daughter’s face. She really did appear to be drinking in everything Emily taught her. She wished she could learn the language too, to help Cressida, but she thought it was probably better this way. She knew as well as anyone, being a teacher, that one-on-one tutoring was an excellent way of absorbing and retaining information.

  “How do you think she’s doing?” Bram asked.

  “She’s doing remarkably well considering who her teacher is.” Ginger considered Emily, who appeared to have an impatient scowl on her face. “Emily is…well, Emily is Emily. I’ve never been able to figure her out.”

  “She’s bored easily,” said Bram.

  “Cressida?”

  “No,” said Bram. “Emily.”

  There was a knock at the back door. Through the window the spells guarding the house flickered, a vibrant kaleidoscope of colors, that when threaded together was powerful enough to combat the shadow of a god. Ginger knew the spells would be acting a lot more ferociously if they were under attack but she was still on her guard.

  “Are you going to let us in or what?” Seth shouted through the door.

  The spies were let in a few moments later. They were hungry and promptly fed. Miss Weber had left enough supplies on the sky platform to keep them going but she wanted to check on Cressida. How was she doing learning another language? According to Ginger she seemed to be excelling at it, which was a surprise to all of them.

  “She is smart, I’ve always known that,” added Ginger.

  “I’m not sure I believe in destiny but Rafreya does so I have to assume the Goddess had this very thing in mind for her all this time,” said Miss Weber.

  Tucking into a cheese sandwich, Seth said, “The cows that produced this cheese must be the most wonderful cows in existence.”

  “Its goat’s cheese,” said Ginger.

  Miss Weber couldn’t help but think of herself, when her family was together and happy and she was just discovering magic. Cressida had a wonderful time ahead of her should this situation all work out for the best.

  Abe stuck the crystal into the earth and murmured the spell. It glowed purple briefly, signifying it was switched on, and then it dimmed again. He grinned, and then looked towards the house. The sky platform was parked in the garden and everybody appeared to be inside doing something. Were they having a party?

  He walked around a bit more and placed another crystal into the ground, then activated it. He would plant one crystal in the ground every two meters in roughly a circle around the Widdershins house, far enough away that they wouldn’t detect the crystals or him (he was shielded by a spell that made people deliberately not notice him). The crystals were to augment his primary spell, the one he would perform later on tonight. It would certainly be a test of his powers, and it would prove quite a show.

  Cressida stroked Martin’s soft fur as Emily wrote down on the blackboard an assortment of ancient Elvish words. The wolf had sensed her tiredness and come to offer his support, which she was glad of.

  “Do you mind if we talk while she goes on about pronouns?” Cressida asked.

  “It’s important you learn every little thing,” said Martin.

  “I know that.”

  “Don’t tire. You can do this. You are strong.”

  Cressida pulled from Martin’s mind to find Emily staring at her with thunder in her eyes.

  “We only have an hour left,” Emily reminded her.

  “I can make it.”

  Ginger smiled and sat back down at the kitchen table. She shouldn’t really be peeking in so much but she just couldn’t help it. She saw Bram grin.

  “Care for a game of cards?” he inquired.

  Seth, Miss Weber, the triplets and even Joe agreed to a game. Soon the cards had been shuffled, dealt and the game had begun. Ginger liked a good game of ‘Degrees.’ Perhaps it would take all their minds off their dire predicament?

  Ginger felt a little guilty that her own daughter had seen to the heart of the matter and she had not. Cressida had realized that Bram’s life was in danger too and had revealed the truth, even if it meant destroying the house of lies they’d already told him. Bram had taken the whole situation rather splendidly, which was good. She liked Bram. She never would have been able to forgive herself if she’d just sent him off to his house and the Shadow Assemblage had found him and hurt him. She still felt that way when he thrashed them all at cards ten minutes later.

  Emily, still standing in front of the blackboard, and still as energetic as ever despite being on her feet all day, clasped her hands expectantly.

  “Before we finish class for today I want you to walk up to me and tell me, in ancient Elvish, to have a good evening and a sleep filled with wonderful dreams,” she said.

  Cressida felt so tired she thought she could float all the way to her bed.

  “I think that’s easy enough,” said Cressida confidently. She stood up, walked over to Emily, and told her to have a good evening in perfect ancient Elvish.

  “You’re coming along excellently,” Emily applauded. “Just don’t get too cocky.”

  “Me?” said Cressida, mock offended.

  Chapter 16 – Switching Channels

  Corona was flicking through the channels on the television, trying to find something entertaining to watch. She had heard of this medium befo
re, of course. The irie weren’t totally out of touch with the human world. Yet it still confused her. What was the point in watching the lives of others when humans had such bizarre real lives?

  There was a program, something factual she thought, talking about the recent Snow Day celebrations. One man, with a grey moustache and a humongous belly, was shouting animatedly at a woman with curly black hair and a smug mouth. She could hear clapping in the background, so there must be some type of audience that she couldn’t see.

  “We’ve been researching this for many years and we are right,” the fat man shouted.

  “Then why haven’t you proved it?” said the woman, calmly.

  “We’re not quite at that stage yet,” said the fat man, his face going red. “The fact still remains that we celebrate Snow Day on the wrong date! All the calculations are wrong! It should be exactly a week after the day we celebrate it!”

  The curly haired woman laughed. “This is just stupid. Why am I even here listening to this? Somebody turn this man into a cockroach or something!”

  Corona flicked the channel over the remote, bored with the current program. She couldn’t care less when Snow Day was celebrated. As far as the iries were concerned, there was no point in having a party or giving gifts just because some creature had frozen the planet. It was something to forget, fear even, but not celebrate.

  The new channel appeared more interesting. A troll was walking down the aisle with some woman. They appeared to be getting married. Then all of a sudden another troll ran in and shouted, at the top of his voice, “You can’t marry him because you’re carrying my baby!” Then a fight erupted, during which the female human was kidnapped by someone who appeared to be her twin sister but with a nervous tick. The car in which they were driving then plunged off a cliff and then the screen went blank. After that followed a long scrawl of names, presumably the people who wrote and starred in this melodrama. I wonder what happens next, thought Corona. It is rather compelling.

  “I thought you said you hated Enchanter Close?” asked Cressida. Corona almost jumped out of Joe’s skin. Cressida was sat next to her on the sofa. When had she arrived? Corona realized she must have been so engrossed in the show, that she was oblivious of everything else. I have to be more careful, she thought.

  “I watch it occasionally,” Corona/Joe admitted.

  “So you were lying when you said you hated the soaps?” Cressida teased.

  “I don’t lie,” said Corona/Joe nastily, unaware Cressida was messing with him.

  Cressida was taken aback by her friend’s venom. She said, “What is wrong with you?”

  Corona realized she had some apologizing to do. She didn’t want to turn Joe into something he wasn’t, then people would definitely think he was acting strange, put two and two together, and realize that he was possessed by an irie. She couldn’t do that, not now she was so close to getting the book.

  “I’m sorry,” said Corona/Joe. “It’s just I’m still upset…over Grandpa. I really should have told him what we were doing if his life was in danger too.”

  “He’s here now, and safe, so there’s no need to worry,” said Cressida.

  “I suppose,” said Corona/Joe, surprised the emotion was actually genuine. Bram seemed a nice enough person for a human and while she didn’t care either way it would be a shame if he died.

  Cressida sniffed the air. “I think dinner is nearly ready. I’m starving.”

  “Me too,” Corona/Joe lied. She hated human food.

  While Cressida flicked through the television channels herself, unable to stay on one station for more than five seconds, Corona regarded Cressida and this house for a while. It was a nice house. The girl had a loving family and good friends. It was a pity that, later on, she had to steal the book and flee.

  Chapter 17 – Cressida’s Life Plan

  Ginger sprinkled some of her freshly ground garlic into the frying pan and watched it sizzle. She loved the smell of garlic, especially garlic cooking. It had an aroma unlike anything else in the universe. Sure, it may make your breath stink, and you couldn’t get the smell off your hands for days no matter how much you washed them but it was worth it. Garlic made a meal.

  They were having chicken stir-fry for dinner. In the frying pan, her large stir-fry pan, was diced chicken, cubed carrots, bean sprouts, slithers of cabbage, red peppers, onion, garlic and a little chicken stock. The odor it gave off made you realize that some main courses were tastier than the dessert.

  She heard something sniffing her hair.

  “You smell of lemongrass,” said Seth.

  “Please don’t sniff my hair,” said Ginger, concentrating on the pan. “It’s odd and I don’t like it.”

  “I like a woman who can cook,” said Seth, taking a step back, standing by the kitchen table. “Eating is a very important thing.”

  “Please try to remember I am married and that I love my husband and will never, ever cheat on him,” stated Ginger. “If you flirt with me one more time I will use a spell on you and turn that handsome face of yours into cheese.”

  Seth grinned. “So you think I’m handsome?”

  She ignored him, and after a few seconds of silence, apart from the fizzing of the chicken in the pan, Seth went away. She laughed, and then frowned. Looking at the pan she realized something was missing; a key ingredient. What was it?

  “Soy sauce!” she shouted. “How could I forget that?”

  A bottle of soy sauce appeared on the counter by the oven. Ginger couldn’t remember making the spell to bring it to her, and for a second suspected that Seth was still lurking somewhere, hoping to woo her by being helpful in the kitchen.

  “How was that?” Cressida asked.

  “That was you?” Ginger asked, opening the top of the bottle and adding a little soy sauce to the stir-fry. “I’m impressed! When I left you the other night you found it difficult teleporting even a pea, never mind a small glass bottle.”

  Cressida shrugged her shoulders and said, “Maybe I’m finally learning a little discipline. Or maybe I’m actually happy.”

  “You weren’t happy before?” Ginger asked. It was something of a shock to learn your own child hadn’t been happy. It made you wonder whether it was your fault and if it made you a bad parent or not. Ginger had often been a tad disappointed that Cressida had failed all her subjects at school, but she had figured she would find what she was good at when she got older. It looked like she was extremely good at magic.

  “Magic is what I was meant to do,” said Cressida, her face beaming. “It’s what’s been missing from my life this whole time. I may have moaned about not having the magic gene before but now that I know what it’s really like to perform magic it…I can’t even describe it. It just feels as if this is what I was meant to do. The Book of Fire may have put me in terrible danger but I’ll always be grateful to it.”

  Ginger wanted to give her daughter a hug but she couldn’t leave the pan otherwise the stir-fry would burn. Then she thought a few well-done chunks of chicken wouldn’t harm anyone so she hugged her anyway. She had never seen Cressida this alive before, this happy, and it made her want to cry.

  “I’ve also decided what I want to be when I grow up,” declared Cressida.

  “Nothing dangerous I hope,” said Ginger, quickly returning to the frying pan. “You’ve been in quite enough danger lately to last a whole lifetime.”

  Cressida hesitated, and then said, “I want to work for the Enchanter Spy Network. I want to be a spy, just like Miss Weber and Seth. Won’t that be great?”

  “So you want what is quite possibly the most dangerous job on the planet?”

  “Well…”

  Cressida was quite sure there must be other jobs more dangerous than being an enchanter spy. She racked her brain for one.

  “Would it do me any good to tell you that you can’t be a spy?” said Ginger.

  “Not really,” said Cressida. “I’d just do it anyway.”

  “Then you have my blessing.
”

  Cressida grinned. “Yeah!”

  “Just be very careful.”

  Cressida smiled. “I’m always careful.”

  She decided to give her mother a report on exactly what Phobos had told her last night; everything, excluding the news that Rafreya might be dead. She still didn’t believe the lie, of course, but there was a nagging feeling that maybe he was telling the truth. Her mother could’ve comforted her if she’d told her but she just couldn’t say the words out loud.

  “Are you really excited for me?” Cressida asked.

  “Believe it or not, I am,” said Ginger. “I’m excited because you’re excited.”

  Cressida retired to the bathroom to wash up before dinner, banishing thoughts of her Goddess’s death and focusing on the positive. She was immensely excited about all the opportunities opening up before her. Enchanters could do so much, be so much, in Pangaea, a world steeped in magic. She could be so many things but she only wanted one of them, to be a spy.

  She opened the bathroom door to find Emily seated on the edge of the bathtub, cell phone in her hands. She jumped guiltily when she saw Cressida.

  “It was my mom,” said Emily.

  “Great!” said Cressida. “Is she coming to pick you up and take you home?”

  “I did think that at first when she called me, but she was just calling to say she’d heard of Lichen’s death and wanted to know if I could phone a local estate agent and put the house up for sale.” Emily threw the phone into the bath. “They didn’t even ask how I was or where I’d stay if the house was sold under me. They didn’t know I was living here! They wouldn’t care if I ended up living under a bridge with a homeless troll.”

  “I’m sure that’s not true,” said Cressida. “They’re your parents.”

  “They’ve never acted like it,” said Emily. “They might as well be dead.”