Bricking It

by A. A. Albright

  ‘I waited twenty-one years for it,’ I said, groggily. ‘So you can go and whistle.’ A faint surge travelled through my fingers. Not a lot, but just enough. I pointed. ‘Conáil.’

  He stopped, frozen to the spot. My spell was a tad on the feeble side, I guess, because although he couldn’t move he started to speak. ‘You’re not right, Wanda Wayfair. This power isn’t right. It … it’s too … it’s too …’ His eyes rounded as he spied Dizzy, still snuggled up into Max’s hair. ‘You! I should have known you’d still be alive. Why couldn’t you die with your master like a proper familiar? You little …’

  He began to move once more. Dizzy’s shakes grew violent and he hid beneath Max’s hair, but all Kilian had to do was point, and the bat fell to the ground with a thud.

  Spells went flying at the warlock from every direction. Christine brushed herself off and muttered, ‘Bind.’ I picked Dizzy up, barely even watching as a swirl of energy encircled Kilian Berry, a golden and terrible rope tightening and tightening until the light left his eyes. As his head lolled over, Christine took in a breath and looked around at the others. ‘He won’t stay bound for long, and I’m not sure I have the energy in me to keep it up. Melissa, you’ll have to help me. We’ll have to repeat it constantly until we can get him to the Wyrd Court and disempower him.’

  Melissa looked back at me. ‘Guess I’ve got a job to do. See you at the healer’s.’ She blew me an air kiss, and left the room.

  As they rushed out of the sub-sub basement, I remained with Gabriel and Max, staring down at Dizzy.

  ‘Is he …?’ Max’s voice sounded strangled. Memories of our time together rushed into my mind. Dizzy making sarcastic comments about the horror movies he loved to hate. Max tickling him under his tiny chin while he hand-fed him slices of mango. Waking up to see the bat’s face, staring down at me from his perch on the ceiling. He was weird. He was annoying. But I just wasn’t ready to let him go.

  Gabriel reached out and gently touched the bat’s body. ‘I can’t tell. But if it was a death spell that Kilian hit him with …’

  ‘No.’ I shook my head, crying. ‘I don’t believe it. It’s not his time. It’s not.’ I hugged him tight and, as I did, I felt his wings begin to flutter against my chest.

  ‘Jeez, Wanda!’ he squeaked. ‘What are you trying to do? Squeeze the life out of me?’

  We all gawked down at the bat. ‘I guess it wasn’t a death spell then,’ said Gabriel. He grabbed my hand once more. ‘Max, hold onto Wanda. Dizzy, hold onto Max, so I’ll be able to take you all at once.’ By the time he snapped his fingers, I’d already closed my eyes.

  20. The Source

  The ceiling above me was so nice and calming, painted in a pale shade of green. The room smelled faintly of flowers and candles, and I knew that if I turned my head to the right, I would see afternoon light spilling through a wide window. I was still a bit too tired for that.

  The door opened, and a woman dressed in a pale green tunic walked in. She went straight to a drip that I didn’t even realise was in my arm, and changed the bag.

  ‘A drip? Please tell me it’s feeding me a magical potion that’ll make the pain go away. And maybe slim down my hips while it’s at it. Hey, where’s my mam and the others?’

  The woman jumped. ‘Oh, pixie piddle. I didn’t know you were awake.’ She smiled softly. ‘It’s very good to see your eyes open, Wanda. It was touch and go there for a while. Your mother is sleeping in a room nearby, as are the others who were rescued from the graveyard. You’ve all been in here about two days.’

  ‘Here?’

  ‘You’re in the Night and Gale Healing Hospital. It’s in Healer’s Hollow – just off Warren Lane.’

  I sat forward as she came to fluff the pillows up behind me. ‘You never told me what’s in the drip.’

  ‘Oh.’ She laughed. ‘You really do like to get to the point. It’s just a glucose drip, Wanda. There’s … there’s not a lot else we can do in a situation like this. And by the way, your hips are just fine the way they are – a lot of women would kill for a figure like yours.’ She sat on the edge of the bed, and I got a better look at her. She had fair hair, and pale brown eyes set into a heart-shaped face. ‘You and the others had a lot of power taken from you. It’ll take you all a while to recuperate. Here.’ She twirled her fingers, and a glass of ice-shavings appeared in her hand. She handed it to me. ‘You must be thirsty.’

  I let out a weak little chuckle. ‘If it weren’t for the fact that you magicked this here, this place might almost seem like a normal hospital. But … what’ll happen when we do recuperate? Our power? Is it all gone now? I mean …’ I held my hand up and wiggled my fingers. ‘… I’m pretty sure I still feel a little bit of something. Is it just because he didn’t get it all?’

  She patted my hand and gave me a reassuring smile. ‘A witch’s power comes from deep, deep inside. Kilian Berry found a way to draw it out, but even with the spells he used, he couldn’t take the source of your power. That is still there. And it will replenish your magic, slowly but surely, like water refilling in a well. It might take you a few weeks. But you will get it back. Every ounce of it.’

  I chewed on the ice shavings. The simple act of talking was making my throat feel like sandpaper. ‘But Franklin Lovage and those other skeletons. How did they get so drained, then, if the source can’t be taken?’

  She sighed sadly. ‘All of the details haven’t been made public yet. But it seems like those poor witches died because he kept taking. He didn’t give them time to recuperate in between each draining. And a lot of good it did him in the end.’

  I thought back to what Kilian had said. ‘He told me he had a bit of trouble controlling the power, now that I think of it.’ I let out a dry, hacking laugh. ‘It took him a while to distinguish between life force and magical power, according to him. Took him a while to distinguish between crazy and evil, more like. Anyway, like you said, it did him no good in the end. Where is he now? Witchfield?’

  ‘He is. He’s on remand in the prison until his trial. The weight of evidence against him was overwhelming, even without the trial. He’s already been disempowered. In the highly unlikely event that he’s found innocent, he’ll get it back – just his own power mind, not what he stole.’

  ‘But …’ I really needed more sleep – and lessons – because I was finding all of this incredibly confusing. ‘If my power can’t be fully taken because I have a source or whatever, how is it that we can disempower criminals?’

  She gritted her teeth. For a moment I thought she was irritated with me, but when she opened her mouth to speak it became clear that her anger was directed at a whole different place. ‘You know, it’s a crying shame, Wanda, the way we treat unempowered witches like you were for so long. We don’t teach you anything. That really has to change. Disempowerment … it’s … it’s not really disempowerment. Because like you said, we can’t take away the source. Instead, we put a sort of a magical lock on it. Kilian Berry won’t be calling himself a warlock or a witch for a very long time to come.’

  ‘A long time? I was hoping it’d be more like never.’ I sighed. ‘Can I go and see my mam now?’

  She arched a brow. ‘If you can make it out of that bed you can.’

  I pushed off the covers. Even that much hurt. Memories of all that had happened in the graveyard spilled into my mind. I had been thrown through the air, smashed against a headstone, hurled into a sarcophagus – and that was before I’d had my power nearly drained. Apparently, all that physical abuse had left me a bit sore and useless. Who would have thought?

  ‘Just be patient, Wanda. You’ll be on your feet on no time at all,’ she said kindly, crossing to the door. ‘I’ll leave you to get some more sleep. When you think you can manage some food, just hit the buzzer next to your bed.’

  Food was the last thing on my mind. I might be too feeble to stand up, but there was still so much I needed to know. ‘Wait – what about the shackles? How did you get them off me? I seriously
doubt Kilian would have offered to remove them.’

  She paused and gave me a puzzled look. ‘He didn’t. But we didn’t remove them either. When you arrived they were on the floor in front of you. One of your friends who took you here – the guy who looks like a scruffier version of the gorgeous guy on Wyrd News? He told me that you mumbled something in your unconscious haze, pulled your wrists apart, and the shackles just … fell off.’ She gave me a funny little smile. ‘Your coven has asked me to keep it a secret, and I’ve agreed.’

  ‘Why? I mean, is it a big deal? The shackles were rusty. They probably just gave way.’

  ‘Sure. Let’s go with that. Either way, I won’t be spreading the news. My grandmother was a Wayfair, back when there were thousands of you. I’m a member of the Night and Gale coven these days, but I still consider myself loyal to the Wayfairs.’

  ‘Seems like a lot of people do.’

  She smiled. ‘And so they should. I have to go and check on your mother. You should try and get back to sleep, Wanda, and I’ll come and see you again later.’

  ‘No.’ I shook my head, my voice weakening. ‘I have one more question. I …’ I just about managed to lift my head enough to see that, not only had she not heard me, but she had already shut the door behind her. ‘What about Will?’ I whispered as I closed my eyes.

  ≈

  When I woke again, I realised that I wasn’t alone in the room. Turning my head to one side, I saw Melissa, Christine, Max (with Dizzy on his shoulder), Gabriel and Agatha.

  ‘She’s awake!’ Melissa grinned. ‘You’re awake, Wanda!’

  ‘And that,’ I murmured groggily, ‘is exactly why you have to remain a Wayfair. Investigative skills like that are what’ll make our coven a real success.’

  Turning my head the other way, I saw my mother in a wheelchair, looking drawn but happy, surrounded by about a dozen other Wayfairs.

  ‘You all came,’ I said, sitting up.

  ‘Of course we did.’ My mother’s voice was hoarse. ‘Even more of us are in the hospital, but we couldn’t all fit in your room. Oh, and speaking of your room, we’ve put a bit of a spell around it so your healer won’t realise we’re all in here and chase us out.’

  ‘No. I mean … the day before yesterday. Or the day before that or ... whenever it was. You all came to the Wizard’s Graveyard. You shouldn’t have done that. Everyone must know now, about you all being secret Wayfairs.’

  Gabriel Godbody gave a funny little shrug. ‘Turns out that being a spy was kind of boring. A lot of snooping and sneaking around, but we never really get to be part of the action. So … we’re out of the closet. And hey, now that we’ve all declared ourselves Wayfairs, the Minister has a few more wages to pay, so y’know … whatever we can do to make her day a little bit worse is a bonus.’

  I groaned. ‘It’s all my fault. I shouldn’t have gone there alone.’

  ‘No.’ Dizzy shook his head. ‘You shouldn’t.’

  I eyeballed the bat. ‘Well if you’d just been honest upfront to begin with … hey … how come you’re still here, anyway? You were Harry Berry’s familiar, right? I mean, I don’t want to hasten your trip to the afterlife or anything but … his murder has been solved. Oh.’ I clapped a hand over my mouth. ‘I remember now. In the graveyard. You … you …’

  Dizzy flew from Max’s shoulder and landed on the blanket in front of me. ‘I didn’t die, Wanda. Not then, and not since. Kilian just knocked me out for a bit.’

  I felt a relieved smile begin to form. ‘So I didn’t do anything weird … any necromancy? You’re not still alive because of me?’

  The bat shook his head. ‘If you’re a necromancer, then I’m a Megabat.’ He laughed like he’d said something hilarious. ‘I heard every word you guys said after I went thud, but it just took me a second to open my eyes. But I don’t think I’ll be joining Harry, either. I guess it’s true that I was his familiar, but he was never my witch. I didn’t choose him. He bought me from Franklin Lovage. Franklin specialised in training magical animals to be familiars for witches who don’t get chosen the natural way. There were spells done that were supposed to bond us, but I never felt bonded. Harry was horrible. But even he didn’t deserve to die the way he did. I saw the whole thing. I stayed with Harry till the end, even when he was dying, right up until he turned into a skeleton. And then when I didn’t die, I figured it was either because I was never a real familiar, or because I had to go find you. So … I found you.’

  ‘But when you did find Wanda you didn’t exactly come clean, did you?’ said Max.

  Dizzy shrugged. ‘When I found Wanda, I meant to tell her. But she made me feel so safe. And I wanted to keep her safe. I was afraid if she went off after Kilian, he’d do to her what he did to Harry and I’d lose her too.’ He looked up at me. Was that a tear I saw? ‘Sorry I kept it from you for so long, Wanda. I should have known you could handle Kilian Berry.’

  I let him cuddle into me. It felt surprisingly nice considering he was a bat. ‘Well, I didn’t handle him, actually. I would have been a gonner if you hadn’t brought the coven along and saved the day. So thanks, Dizzy.’ I gave him a little kiss, then looked around at the others. ‘I guess I won’t be solving any more murders anytime soon. Well, anytime ever. Before Kilian drained me I used a lot of magic. There’s no way the Minister didn’t track it.’

  Melissa coughed, sparking off a fit that took over everyone in the room. Eventually, she spoke. ‘Well, I might have fiddled with her scanner while I was in her office to do some filing. Which means she had no way of tracking your magic use. Or recording it. Terrible pity.’

  Even though Melissa was telling me what should be very good news, her smile didn’t reach all the way to her eyes. The others looked uncomfortable, too. ‘What’s going on? What aren’t you all telling me?’ I bit my lip. ‘Is it Will? He’s not in Witchfield too, is he? Because he shouldn’t be. He helped.’ I grabbed my mother’s hand. ‘You didn’t see it all because you fainted, but you must have seen some of it. And Mr Caulfield, he’ll be able to vouch for Will, too.’

  She squeezed my hand in the way she always did when she had bad news to break – a little bit too tight, like she was afraid I might pull away before I had heard her out. ‘Will Berry hasn’t been arrested, Wanda. Myself and the others who were kidnapped have told the Wyrd Court the truth as we know it. From what we could tell, Will had no idea what his father was doing. Mr Caulfield has said that while I was unconscious, the younger Mr Berry even made some valiant attempts to save your life. And Kilian Berry swears his son wasn’t in on the scheme. So I suppose Will has at least that much going for him. You’ll be able to give some evidence to the Wyrd Court, of course – to back up Will’s side of the story as to how you and he came to be in the sub-sub basement together in the first place. But he’s already in the clear, Wanda, so it’s really not necessary.’

  I sat back for a moment, pulling my hand from my mother’s. Like Melissa, she had told me good news. So what was with the weirdness? Another fit of coughing broke out, and people looked everywhere but at me. Dizzy began to shake in my arms. Max was looking at his feet and playing with his Pendant of Privilege.

  ‘For the love of Gretel,’ I said. ‘Will one of you please tell me what’s going on?’

  Gabriel looked around at them all. ‘No one’s going to tell her?’ He rolled his eyes and raked his hands through his hair. ‘Fine, then. I guess it’s up to me. And I’m sorry, Wanda.’ He fixed his eyes on mine, in a way that made it all too clear he was feeling sorry for me. ‘I wish I could say I was surprised, but … here’s the thing. Will … well, Will has gone and done exactly what he told you he was going to do. He’s reported you to Justine Plimpton for carrying on a Wayfair investigation while you were under a ban. And as if that wasn’t bad enough, he’s also informed her of each and every spell he saw you perform while you were in the sub-sub basement together.’

  Melissa threw herself into my arms, stroking my hair. ‘I’m so sorry, Wanda. All my meddlin
g with the Minister’s scanner means nothing in the end. She’s got you for working a case and using magic outside of class. I hate that guy.’

  She let go of me and sat back down, her green eyes shining with fury.

  ‘Well, that’s that then, isn’t it?’ I stroked Dizzy’s wings, looking down at him, doing my best to remain composed. ‘I suppose I shouldn’t have expected anything else from a Berry.’

  21. Rallying Around

  The next day I managed to leave my bed and walk as far as the window. The day after that I managed to walk half way along the corridor outside my door. I had help, of course. Dizzy stayed close, ready to shout out for a healer if I needed any help. And Max sneaked in enough pizza and black bean burritos to keep my energy up. The taste of the food at the Night and Gale hospital was just one more thing they had in common with human hospitals.

  My mother and the other survivors went on little walks, too, as their energy began to return. We became quite the little band of troublemakers, practising spells with our slowly returning magic, wreaking havoc wherever we went.

  About a week had passed when I stood at the window of the cafeteria, looking down onto the street below. The hospital was situated in Warren Lane, but Warren Lane, as I had previously discovered, was more than just one simple lane. Really, it was a small city within a city. From this height I could see just how like a rabbit warren it was; it wound and veered in many different directions. Some of the offshoots had names themselves – the hospital, as my healer had informed me, was situated in Healer’s Hollow, and had Aherne’s Apothecary and a branch of the Fit Witch Yoga Studio as its nearest neighbours (according to Melissa, there was a Fit Witch studio in just about every witch enclave in Ireland – I had promised to take a class with her as soon as I was feeling strong enough).