Golden Mane, Book One of The Adventures of Sarah Coppernick

by SJB Gilmour

  Sarah nodded.

  ‘Well there are some humans who have taken it onto themselves to become hunters of werewolves and vampires. Some of them are even slightly talented, and I mean very slightly talented sorcerers. They don’t have much power at all, but they have enough to help them find those poor souls who become lycanthropes.’

  ‘What do they do?’ asked Sarah.

  ‘They kill them.’

  The next few days were quite a blur for Sarah. Her world had well and truly been turned upside down. Everything about the supernatural seemed to be almost completely true. She found it easy to accept that various gods, sorcerers, trolls, goblins and all sorts of other enchanted creatures were real. She had even managed to come to grips with the fact that she was a werewolf and was going to be able to change into a giant wolf one day. What was really beyond her ability to cope with was what she’d done to Mandy Kelly.

  ‘You needn’t worry too much about your Miss Kelly,’ Angela told her one day. ‘If you like, I can do a bit of scrying to find out how she’s doing.’

  Sarah nodded mutely. She was just itching to see someone do something enchanted, but also very worried about what she might discover.

  Mel gaped at Sarah. ‘You bit someone and didn’t kill them?’ she asked incredulously.

  Sarah felt awful. She nodded, blinking back tears. ‘I didn’t know I was a werewolf,’ she murmured.

  Mel thought about this for a moment or two then shrugged. ‘Okay,’ she said finally. Then she looked at her aunt. ‘You gonna scry for her?’

  Angela nodded.

  ‘Cool!’ yelled the black-haired girl. She leaped out of her chair. The noise of it sliding back then falling over startled Benjamin. He had been fast asleep in his usual spot by the blackboard, which naturally was right in the middle of Angela’s way. It was as if he’d chosen to nap in the most inconvenient spot, just to annoy her. He’d been lying on his back with his paws in the air, snoring. Quite a bit of drool had dripped from his chops to the floor. He gave a start then rolled over, shaking his head, sending more slobber flying. He gave Mel a disapproving glance then shuffled a bit until he was almost out of Angela’s way.

  Angela leaned over him and drew a nine-pointed star on the blackboard then muttered a quick incantation. She turned to Sarah.

  ‘Sarah, dear, if I’m to find the one you bit, I’m going to need some of your spit.’

  Sarah was dumbstruck. She blinked.

  ‘Well, any bodily fluid will do, I suppose. Blood, pee, snot… Spit’s easier to aim. Could you step up and lob some into the centre of this nonagram, please?’

  At the mention of spit, Benjamin got up and moved to the other side of the classroom. Apparently, his own slobber was fine, but someone else’s wasn’t so good.

  Sarah swallowed, not trusting herself to say anything. It sounded so weird for such a well-spoken lady like Angela to suddenly ask her ‘lob’ spit. Nervously, she got up and went to the board. Blushing now because she knew all eyes in the room were watching her intently, she leaned forward and spat. She didn’t quite hit the middle of the diagram Angela had drawn, but apparently it was enough.

  The middle of the nonagram flickered as though it was a television screen. It showed Mandy sitting very unhappily on a stool in the middle of what looked like a jail cell.

  ‘Oh dear,’ Angela murmured. ‘It appears we now know why she’s not at school. She’s been taken.’

  ‘Taken?’ asked Sarah with a gulp.

  Angela nodded. When he had seen the image, Benjamin had resumed his slobber-free human form. He was now standing behind Sarah, with one hand on her shoulder.

  ‘She’s still alive, cub,’ he told her. ‘That means whoever’s taken her is unlikely to be a hunter. She’s not in any immediate danger.’

  ‘But taken by who?’ Sarah demanded. ‘What are they going to do with her?’

  Angela paused and glanced at Benjamin. It wasn’t much of a pause, but it told Sarah that whatever was going on was two things - this was bad, and this was something they weren’t going to tell her all about just yet. The image on the blackboard flickered out.

  Later, while Sarah and Mel were sitting in the office kitchen, eating their lunch, Angela and Benjamin had left them all alone. Or so Sarah thought. Quite invisible and sitting in a corner, armed with several deadly knives and a crossbow, was the quickling Maddy. If anything came into that room, which also happened to be guarded by some very serious enchantments and wards, they’d probably be dead in about half a second. An armed quickling was a very, very dangerous individual.

  Benjamin and Angela had transported themselves several kilometres away and were now meeting with Roberta and Robert in their living room.

  ‘This changes things,’ Robert said with uncharacteristic heat. ‘Sarah’s going to need twenty-four hour protection.’

  Roberta whirled on Benjamin. ‘Who’s watching her now?’

  ‘Maddy…’ he began. Roberta appeared about to protest that this was not enough, but Benjamin held up his hand. ‘She’ll be okay for now. We won’t be long. I came here to tell you what we saw and to advise you to be ready to leave at short notice.’

  ‘I’m always ready,’ Roberta growled.

  ‘Nonetheless. We must assume the worst. If the Kelly girl’s been taken, and hasn’t been taken just to be an addition to a private lycanthrope security pack, it could have been by whoever took Sarah’s parents.’

  ‘Either way, that means two things,’ said Roberta, her voice low and serious. ‘Whoever it is knows Sarah’s whereabouts, and they have the power to use the Kelly girl to do Sarah harm. The most effective creature against a pure-blood werewolf is a lycanthrope made by that werewolf.’

  Angela reappeared in the kitchen, just as Sarah was washing down the last of her sandwich with some diet cola. As they followed their teacher back to the classroom, Sarah let out a huge burp. If she hadn’t been so concerned about what she’d seen earlier, she’d probably have thought the burp was funny. Now she didn’t feel like laughing at all.

  ‘Change of curriculum, this afternoon, ladies,’ Miss Haring announced brightly. ‘Sarah, we now know there’s a slim chance you might be in some sort of danger. So, we’re going to begin studying sorcery proper. You’ll just have to catch up on your basic supernatural history in your own time.’

  Sarah nodded.

  ‘Right. Have you given any thought as to what sort of sorcery you’d like to study?’

  ‘I’m sorry,’ was all Sarah could manage. She’d only just come round to the idea that she wasn’t human. Now she felt afraid, miserable and dumb. This wasn’t going well at all. Angela gave her an understanding smile. It didn’t help much.

  ‘Well, don’t worry about it too much Sarah. Sometimes it takes decades for a witch to decide what she wants to be. Sometimes we know it the moment we can walk. Melanie wants to be a necromancer. That’s a sorcerer who can reach through the divisions between heavens and hells to contact souls on those other planes or parallel universes, if you prefer. The talent certainly runs in her family.’

  Angela smiled at Sarah’s quizzical expression. She was sitting with her head tilted to one side. She had no idea what a necromancer did, but it certainly sounded cool. Also, she didn’t want to keep the attention on her obviously huge lapse in general knowledge.

  ‘What are you, Miss Harding?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Oh, I’m just a garden variety human sorcerer,’ replied Angela with a wave of her hand. ‘I’ve been a number of things over the years. Necromancer for the most part. I’ve been a soldier, a nurse, a teacher and once,’ and now she rolled her eyes, ‘I tried to be an artist.’ She looked embarrassed for a moment. ‘That was a complete failure of course. As I said, the aptitude for necromancy runs in Mel’s family. Mel’s father is a necromancer. Her mother and grandmother are both seers. My sister and her husband use their skills in their business. There’s always a certain amount of crossover between the fields of necromancy and seeing.’

  �
��That’s right,’ Mel told Sarah. ‘Mum and Dad run their own anti-Pixierazzi and news service. They move around a lot.’

  ‘Pixierazzi?’ asked Sarah. She was trying hard to suppress a giggle.

  Mel nodded. ‘The Pixies run the Pixie Postal Service, but they also run a crystal ball gossip channel.’

  Sarah sighed. More stuff she had no idea about.

  ‘Pixies are a troublesome lot,’ Angela told Sarah. ‘They’re merchants mostly, but a few colonies of them aren’t so reputable. The Pixierazzi are the enchanted version of paparazzi. Whenever a story’s about to break, they’re all over it and cause no end of trouble by getting in the way. Fortunately, they breed like rabbits so it’s no great loss if a few dozen of them or more get blown up every now and then in pursuit of a story. In fact, they seem to think it’s quite a worthy way to die. Silly little fellows. My sister and her brother use their skills to find out what’s about to happen before the Pixierazzi and warn their subscribers who pay them for the heads-up.’

  Mel nodded again. ‘Right now, they’re in the catacombs under Rome. Something’s going on with mummies and the Illuminati. I wasn’t allowed to go, so they sent me to school. When it burned down, I came here.’

  Burned down! Sarah had to hear about this! ‘What happened?’ she asked.

  Mel flushed. ‘It wasn’t my fault, really,’ she said defensively.

  ‘You burned down your own school?’ Sarah was amazed. How she had wished she could have done that to old Mr Dyson’s precious school.

  ‘Only one building,’ hedged Mel. ‘I was actually trying to put it out. Most of the school was already on fire. I tried a spell but it didn’t work out right.’

  ‘What?’ Sarah asked. This was so cool!

  ‘Well, I tried to make it rain. I must have got the words wrong and I called down a shower of oil. When it hit the building, the whole school went up in smoke. It was awful.’

  ‘Well, you weren’t the first to confuse ‘aquaslick’ with ‘aguasilk’, Mel, and I’m pretty sure you won’t be the last,’ Angela commented.

  At that precise moment, there was a commotion outside the window. Sarah looked up to see a flying lizard about the size of a cat and the shape of a chameleon with wings. It was scratching furiously at the window to be let in.

  ‘Jimbo!’ yelled Mel, as she raced to the window to open it. Then she paused and looked desperately at Angela. Her aunt pursed her lips reproachfully at Mel, and then seemed to think better of getting into an argument with her. She nodded at the window and at that, it swung open by itself. In flew the little dragon. It circled the room once then landed on a bust of Julius Caesar sitting perilously high up on top of one of the bookcases.

  ‘What the…’ Sarah was very surprised and about use language she knew she really shouldn’t. ‘What is that thing?’

  ‘This,’ Mel said holding out her arm much the way a falconer would, ‘is Jimbo, my firedrake. He’s a baby dragon hatchling. He’s one of the last of the diamondbacks. I found him when my parents took me to Vendor when they were investigating The Reaches War.’

  ‘The Reaches War?’ asked Sarah.

  Mel nodded sadly. ‘There was a war between the dragons and the phoenixes. Most of them used to live in some of the mountain ranges on Vendor that are too hilly for the elves. The dragons won, but not before nearly half of them were wiped out.’ She nodded at Jimbo. ‘His home was destroyed and his parents were dead, so I took care of him.’ Jimbo landed on her arm and she scratched the tiny dragon’s neck affectionately. ‘He’s just a baby,’ she went on. She looked at Sarah who obviously had never seen such a creature before. ‘Firedrakes are what you call baby dragons. Same way baby wolves are cubs.’

  Then even more amazingly, the tiny flying reptile changed colour to the exact green of Mel’s school jumper!

  ‘Whoa,’ breathed Sarah, staring at the amazing little creature. ‘How big will he grow?’

  Mel shrugged. ‘Diamondbacks can grow to about the size of a bus. But he won’t grow any more than he has now until he’s with more of his own kind. Dragons are weird that way. Guess he’ll stay like this till I can get him back to Vendor where I found him. I don’t think there are any diamondbacks left on Earth.’

  ‘Let me get this straight,’ said Sarah very carefully. ‘You’ve actually been to another planet?’

  ‘Yup,’ Mel said as if it was nothing out of the ordinary. She continued to scratch Jimbo. ‘It must be so cool to be able to fly,’ she breathed with a dreamy expression. ‘I love dragons! And check out his teeth!’ To Jimbo, Mel said, ‘Show us your teeth, Jimbo! C’mon, atta boy!’

  Jimbo complied by baring rows of the most deadly-looking fangs Sarah had ever seen.

  ‘Wish I had teeth like that,’ Mel said, scratching the little creature behind his eye-ridges. ‘He can find me anywhere.’

  ‘Thank you, Mel,’ Angela said crisply. ‘Jimbo can perch back on young cousin Julius up there.’

  Jimbo fixed her with a baleful glare and flew back up to the brass bust and settled down with his face resolutely turned away from Angela. Sarah giggled. This was going to be more fun than she’d ever imagined!

  A thought occurred to her. ‘Why couldn’t you go with your parents?’ Sarah had only seen mummies on television and thought it would have been very exciting to see them for real. Even if she didn’t get to see a mummy, she’d heard of the Illuminati and thought they weren’t supposed to exist. This business of being a sorcerer was really beginning to sound cool.

  The dark-haired girl wrinkled her nose. ‘I’m too young, they said. They said it was too dangerous.’

  Angela gave Mel a reproving look. ‘Mummies are not very nice at all, Mel, you know that. Re-animated corpses are not to be trusted, and as for the Illuminati? Not a group for you to get mixed up with, young lady!’

  ‘I know,’ Mel grumbled. ‘Just as well, I guess.’

  ‘Why?’ asked Sarah.

  Mel shuddered. ‘Ugh,’ she muttered, ‘No way! Haven’t you ever met a mummy?’

  Sarah shook her head.

  Mel chuckled. ‘You’re lucky. They stink!’

  Chapter Four

  And so, Sarah’s classes went on. Her world had truly changed forever. Aside from all the wondrous things she was discovering, Sarah noticed she was never truly alone. Aunt Roberta had taken to curling up outside her door at night, while Uncle Robert kept watch downstairs. Every morning, when Robert dropped her off at Benjamin’s office, she was met at the curb by Angela and Maddy.

  Sarah and Mel soon became very close friends. In class, Sarah found her new curriculum was very, very different to the one she had been studying at Mr Dyson’s horrible school. Angela taught she and Mel many of the normal subjects like English and mathematics of course, but added several that were quite literally out of this world. Geography for instance, covered not just the countries and continents of Earth, but also facts and figures regarding planets that most mortals didn’t even know existed.

  Also, Sarah was beginning to learn the basic vocabulary of Magaeic, the instructional language of sorcery.

  ‘Magaeic,’ Angela explained to her, ‘is mostly a command language. It’s rarely used for conversation. Your Uncle Benjamin is a spellweaver and an expert in the dialect. For some reason, spells and enchantments work best when used with Magaeic. Powerful sorcerers can use English, or any other language for that matter, however most use Magaeic. It’s also dynamic and constantly growing. When a spellweaver writes a new spell, he or she will often have to create an entirely new word for it.’ She smiled at Sarah. ‘A text you might like to read is this one…’ She wrote on the blackboard: Magaeic Dictionary by B McConnell. ‘Look it up next time you’re in the library.’

  Sarah decided that this was a very good idea. She’d not been to the library yet, but couldn’t wait to see it. It was some days before she got the chance, however. She still had not quite got the hang of getting around in her uncle’s strange building. The enchanted elevator completely baffled her.
At first, she had tried to use an ordinary spoon to feed it. The machine merely spat it out at her.

  ‘Bah!’ it yelled at her. ‘Silver only!’

  From then on, it refused to take her anywhere unless she popped something made from silver in its mouth. She didn’t have any, and felt very awkward about taking the quills from the bowl on the reception counter. Considering the fact that she had only recently learned that silver could be dangerous, she was quite nervous when it came to handling the stuff.

  After a few weeks of studying both natural and supernatural school curricula, Angela finally announced that it was time for the girls to visit the library. They took their bags, lunches, drinks and pencil cases and took the enchanted elevator to the top floor of Benjamin’s building.

  ‘Library!’ announced the elevator gruffly when it had swallowed the quill. ‘Everybody out!’ It gave an impatient shudder. Sarah thought that was just a bit cheeky.

  Angela obviously thought so too. ‘There’s no need to be rude!’

  ‘Humph!’ huffed the elevator and all but slammed its doors shut as soon as they were all out.

  The elevator also annoyed Mel. ‘He’s been getting grumpier and grumpier lately,’ she agreed.

  Sarah walked through the door to the library and was stunned speechless. She stared in amazement at what was behind the counter. There, coiled up on an enormously wide stool, was the largest worm she had ever seen. It was purple and about half a metre wide at its head. The only way Sarah could distinguish between its head and its tail was a large polka-dot bow tie it wore, and a huge set of bi-focal glasses. Judging by the snores it was making, it was also fast asleep.

  ‘Hello, Nathan!’ Angela said cheerfully in a hushed voice.