Ferryl Shayde

by Vance Huxley

  * * *

  Some evenings, while Abel completed his homework, Ferryl experimented with the new sign, the mark within a shield. Eventually she concluded that Kelis had produced a new protection hex. Not a strong one, but Ferryl thought it might be similar to the signs on churches, the protection depended on how many believed in it working. Alternatively, the Tavern signs were more like the hexes on cars and cookers, in which case the protection depended on the amount of magic put into them. As an experiment, Ferryl asked Abel to draw a Tavern sign, while pushing magic through the pencil. Despite his less than perfect artwork, the result glowed afterwards.

  Kelis caught Abel alone to tell him she had put signs on all the doors and windows at home, but they were rubbed off by the cleaner. Abel still had the same trouble at school, where the cleaners periodically removed the original hexes Ferryl taught him to draw. Noticing when one had been removed became a lot easier now Abel could see the faint reddish glow, the same one he’d seen on the bus stop curse, from the active protection.

  At school Kelis warded the female toilets, using Tavern signs, but had to shepherd all the creatures out first. They tried to avoid her so she’d used herself to force them out of the window after warding the door, and then sealed it. Ferryl still wasn’t sure how effective that would be, but creatures were deterred so Kelis’s and Abel’s belief seemed to be enough as yet. Either that or Kelis had enough intent to properly infuse her hexes with magic. Finding out would have been easier if Ferryl had agreed to teach Kelis more about magic, but she refused until the new trainee had control. Abel drew wax hexes on as many outside walls as possible, to help the interior ones.

  According to Ferryl, Abel and then Kelis had to learn to put the glyph beneath the surface where it didn’t show. Abel had done so several times now but with Ferryl in charge of his hand. His only solo attempt, on a small tree in Castle House gardens, left a definite burn showing on the surface of the root. Ferryl had been right about one thing, drawing the glyphs and lines to connect the newer trees to Castle House’s protection became easier when Abel could see them. He could also see the soft glow of bluish power in the stone slab over the pit, and brighter lines where his blood had cracked some glyphs.

  At least Rob’s room had protection now, because Kelis insisted on hanging the new Tavern sign on his door and in his window. She claimed that both Rob’s and Abel’s rooms counted as Taverns, where players met to start their game, so Abel hung up signs as well. He really wanted Kelis to see the result, a fine web of magic lines connecting the signs and enclosing the room. Despite Abel’s improved eyesight not causing any problems, Ferryl still refused to touch Kelis’s. As a result, Abel had to remember not to comment on what he could see in the evenings after dusk drew in. He couldn’t see quite as well after dark, except on clear nights when moonlight worked as well as sunlight.

  Seraph glared at Abel every time he passed her, but didn’t try to order him about again. Abel could hear his name sometimes, and muttered insults from her group as he passed, but those were more or less normal for any passing geek. Henry worried him more, because Abel didn’t expect much conversation or even warning so he took care to never be alone anyplace Henry might find him. On the plus side, more of the geeks, the computer and art students, began to experiment with the game Abel and his friends were creating. The unpaid beta testers took the new rules and characters home, adding them to the original version. Several had now tried playing the Tavern game as if they had bought it, and came back with suggestions for improving the flow.

  School in general settled down, and although the creatures roamed the school grounds Abel and Kelis cleared more and more of the inside. The biggest failures were the staff rooms and the canteen, and especially the food. Now Abel knew the creatures left traces when they died, he felt sure the ones crawling in the food weren’t hygienic.

  Abel still felt the tingle on a regular basis, especially late evening when Kelis must practice after her homework. The muttered, “Tomorrow morning at ten, cave, Glyphmistress” as the three of them walked home on Friday, followed by a big smile, didn’t come as a huge surprise.

  * * *

  Abel arrived a little early, but still later than Kelis. “Perhaps I picked the wrong apprentice.” Abel opened his mouth to reply before he registered the humour in Ferryl’s voice, though he couldn’t really argue the point. As he came into the clearing Kelis sat in the cave with a leaf dancing above her outstretched palm. She’d certainly managed it a lot faster than he had.

  Kelis looked up and as her concentration wavered the leaf fell off to one side. “Glyphmistress!”

  “Definitely. How are you getting on with the dust?”

  Kelis lost her smile. “Not as well because I can’t take dust into my bedroom. I could, but the cleaner would probably complain because it would go everywhere.”

  “Ferryl brought me gravel for indoors.” Abel laughed. “The first time I got it right three bits were embedded in the ceiling.”

  “Crikey! What did your mum say? Though she doesn’t clean your room does she? I wish my room could be private.” Kelis sighed. “The cleaner moved my pictures, and there were things crawling all over my room when she’d gone. I shooed the gross little critturs out and hung the signs back up, so I’m all right for another week.”

  “Ferryl cleaned up the gravel the first time. I’ll warn you, this will make you feel a bit inadequate.” Abel glanced at his jacket arm. “Will you collect up a lot of twigs if I scatter them, Ferryl, please?”

  “A teacher’s work is never done.” Though from the ripple of amusement Ferryl enjoyed this part. Abel broke several small sticks into much smaller pieces and scattered them before she took over his hand and collected them back in a neat heap. “Glyphmistress.” Once again he heard the distinct pride in her voice afterwards, while Kelis looked crestfallen.

  Not for long, her smile soon came back. “I don’t care. This is good enough to stump Rob. If I try to keep quiet any longer while he’s arguing how magic should work, I’ll burst.” She made the usual extravagant gesture. “Tonight the Glyphmistress is revealed. I want my moment of glory before Ferryl squishes me. Sorry Ferryl.”

  “Not me, not yet. He may be frightened and reject magic or denounce you both as witches. I would be considered a devil, a familiar.”

  “Ferryl agrees she should stay a secret for now. She doesn’t want to upset her star pupil.”

  Kelis giggled and promised to only show Rob the leaf. “You can juggle gravel the next time, then if you get it wrong Ferryl can clear up. Sorry, I meant if you would, please, Ferryl?”

  “You two really are polite.” A tendril of mist drifted out and this time Kelis had no hesitation in stretching out her hand. “A pleasure. I like to encourage Abel to try harder.”

  * * *

  The Tavern met in Abel’s room tonight, and Rob had barely arrived when Kelis burst in with, “Look Rob, I’ve got a new trick for the game.” Kelis placed the leaf on her palm and put her other hand on her jacket sleeve, and moments later the leaf fluttered upwards. “It’s a training exercise for an apprentice sorceress.”

  “Roll up your sleeve and do it again.” Kelis took off her jacket and, after hesitating, rolled up her shirt sleeve. That showed faint marks where bruises had faded, but didn’t uncover her mark. Abel still felt the tingle when she touched the cloth over it. Rob looked over, under, and even blew on the leaf, which sent it tumbling to the ground. Kelis replaced it on her palm, and up it fluttered. “I give in. How are you doing it?”

  “I told you. Magic training.”

  Rob looked from one grinning face to the other so Abel put a leaf on his palm, careful to let it flutter a bit more than Kelis’s. “That is very noble.” Kelis grinned because she knew he’d done it on purpose, and her leaf jumped a bit more then flew off her hand.

  Rob looked at them both, and went around and around it. “How?”

  “You know how. We’ve been telling you, but you keep insisting magic doesn’t wo
rk like that.” Kelis’s leaf fluttered up again. “Ta-da. Yes, it does.”

  “So the concentrating on those symbols makes a leaf float. Really?” He shook his head. “Throwing fire, shrinking, levitation, all those powers in the game?”

  “Magic. This is wind, and I’m told there are more.”

  “If I can find my wits and remember them!”

  Kelis wasn’t connected so she didn’t hear, still smiling proudly. “It’s all down to practice and intent but you need a mark first, to protect you the same way the Tavern is protected.” Rob looked at the picture hung on the door, and then the one on the window.

  Abel tried very hard to stay serious when he wanted to howl with laughter. Rob still couldn’t decide if this was a windup. “Those are real. You have to make up your own protection, a personal symbol, and draw it on your skin. It’s called a ward.”

  “A tattoo is best.” Kelis laughed at the mixture of shock and speculation in Rob’s look. “No, mine is in permanent marker in case Mum or Dad see it.” She paused a moment. “I’ll show you if this sleeve will go up far enough.” She struggled, but managed to get it pushed up far enough with her arm straight upwards.

  “There’s no shield.”

  “No roots either. Abel’s has roots.” Kelis giggled. “This tickled when he drew it, but not much. You’ll love it, it’s really amazing.”

  “Give the poor guy a minute, Kelis.” Abel interrupted because Rob looked as if he needed oxygen or possibly a resuscitation unit, not just a minute. He’d sagged back in the chair, mouth open as if gasping for air, unable to speak. “Remember how you were? I mean how long you watched, not the dancing about later.”

  “The Glyphmistress victory dance. You’ll have to learn the steps for when you are a Glyphmaster.”

  Rob looked beseechingly at Abel, who explained. “She means the first time the leaf moves, or you make a symbol work.”

  “Or some idiot tries to bind him.” Nobody else heard Ferryl, and Abel ignored her.

  “Glyphs, they are glyphs, not symbols. This rotten git cheated with that magical world because it’s real. Though the creatures really are gross. Don’t worry.” Abel sat back and let Kelis rattle on. She explained the whole thing, sort of, before Rob managed to get a word in. Then she went through it all again, and a third time but much slower and actually answering questions.

  “It’s like the game, but I need a mark before I start?” Rob looked straight at Abel, probably trying to avoid a fourth repeat of the whole thing.

  “A ward. Something you design.” Abel wasn’t binding anyone else!

  “Can I see yours, please?”

  Abel smiled and took off his jacket, because he knew Ferryl would have to sit still now. He usually kept her covered around Rob, so that she could move but also so he didn’t notice the addition. Rob stared at the flower. “You got another tattoo? He glanced down to where Abel’s mum would be watching TV. “Which makes you a lot braver than me.”

  “An addition that I’ll swear has always been there. Mum tries to not look anyway, if she sees me with my arms bare.” Abel glanced at Kelis. “Though you can use permanent marker as well.”

  “Not unless you or Kelis draws it. I think. Perhaps you just need to touch and activate it. An apprentice usually lives with the sorcerer or witch, so they are protected until they learn to apply a mark properly.” Abel felt a slight twitch as Ferryl started to move then remembered not to. “It really is best if Rob creates his own.”

  Rob looked at the flower, then at Kelis’s arm where the mark had now been covered up again. “I can put it someplace Mum or Dad will never see it.”

  “Someplace you can touch in public, without blushing. Believe me, you will want to touch it whenever you need to calm down.” Kelis blushed, just a little bit. “Abel warned me, and anyway he drew mine so it had to be a safe spot. Though you’ll be able to feel it through clothes, which I didn’t know at the time.”

  “So who draws mine?” Rob smiled hopefully at Kelis. “You’ll do a better job.”

  Abel saw the shock on her face so Kelis had remembered the binding part. “In your dreams, buster.”

  Abel didn’t wait to be asked. “You have to draw it.”

  “Definitely, unless you wish to bind him.” Ferryl sniggered. “Kelis doesn’t.”

  “Does it have to be something made up? Yours is the same as Abel’s.” Rob inspected the flower. “Without the roots.”

  Abel had his instructions from Ferryl. “Different, so make up your own.”

  “That one.” Rob pointed to the Tavern protection shield. “If you designed it to protect the tavern, I’ll bet it protects me.”

  “Kelis designed it, but it does protect the area from small creatures.” Abel played for time because he felt sure Ferryl would object but needed a reason.

  Though the answer from a thoughtful-sounding Ferryl surprised him. “That might be a good idea. When he truly understands Rob can make his own, down to the bone, as can Kelis, though hers seems to be very firmly embedded. Take care not to bind him.”

  Abel almost suggested Kelis activate it, but she might bind Rob by accident and probably wouldn’t do it anyway. Rob must have been thinking, because he hooked his thumb in his belt, with his hand on the outside of his hip. “Just here.”

  Kelis jumped to her feet. “I feel a sudden urge to spend what, ten minutes? Yes, ten minutes in the toilet. Just until you’ve got your jeans back on.” She left the room with a giggle and “I hope your mum doesn’t come in.”

  “You’ve got to actually draw it. Firm lines, with clear intent to protect yourself. I hope I can actually activate it, because I’m not really expert.”

  “I will instruct you, so there is no binding.” Abel suppressed his sigh of relief.

  * * *

  Ten minutes later Kelis knocked gently. “Can an innocent maid enter without getting an eyeful?”

  “No eyeful, idiot, because much to my relief Rob doesn’t go commando. Not that it matters because he just turned down the top of the waistband on his jeans.” Abel tapped his waist, at the side. “It’s there.”

  Kelis eyed Rob. “Did yours burn as well?”

  “Yes, just when his finger touched it for a second, but Abel said yours didn’t.”

  “It did, but I don’t think I said anything because I was more interested in the magic.” Kelis turned to Abel. “Well, sensei? Why does it burn right at the beginning?”

  Ferryl knew who Kelis had asked. “It will be the connection to their magic. To the flesh, not to the bone. It certainly confirms that the glyph works, and the Tavern mark should be stronger connected directly to Rob.” Abel explained, and the rest of the evening passed in discussing magic and instructing Rob in leaf floating. Rob also promised to make a glyph pebble so he could come into the garden, once Kelis redrew the shape from hers.

  Ten minutes after Rob left to go home, a text arrived from his phone. “Gross!” He must have started seeing creatures. At least the game had warned him which ones might be dangerous, and they’d avoid his ward.

  At the Tuesday meeting in Rob’s room, his dad called up to tell them to keep the noise down. That happened after Ferryl Shayde had been introduced and just completed introducing the mercenary game character, Robyn D’Ritche, complete with the tankard and scruffy horse. At least the rest of the explanation became much simpler with Ferryl sending out her little mist tendrils so she could answer either Rob or Kelis directly. Abel showed how he could float gravel, Kelis showed how to scatter it while trying, and Ferryl showed how a true Glyphmistress could collect it again.

  With both Abel’s friends in on the secret, the Taverners made a big decision. Some people out there might be magically aware but not realise. They would be vulnerable to the likes of Seraphim. After some serious discussion with Ferryl, one real glyph went into The Tavern game instructions, the wind glyph. Instead of drawing on a hand with a finger, the players were to try and float a leaf by imagining the glyph.

  “Can that
be done, Ferryl?” Rob looked at his hand, but the leaf stayed still. Kelis tried and hers moved slightly.

  “Only if they are already active, if they have already discovered how to push magic, as Abel calls it. Telling them to make the leaf float, hover, should stop any accidents. Nobody will blow off a roof while concentrating on a leaf and using pure imagination. Not hovering gravel, because that could be dangerous.”

  Abel explained about gravel stuck into his ceiling, and tried moving a leaf just thinking about it. The leaf moved up, but fluttered to the side. “Do we still need to draw an invisible glyph with a finger?”

  “Yes. You will need very good control to control the strength and intent without drawing the shape first.”

  “If we put in a moment of meditation before starting the game, some people won’t bother.” Abel chuckled. “The rest probably won’t move the leaf, but if one can we need to talk to them.”

  “I can give you a contact email, I’ve got three spare inboxes that came with the domain Mum and Dad bought me for my birthday.” Rob sniggered. “We can tell them to email Ferryl Shayde.”

  Kelis started scribbling, adding to her notes. “Just in case, they contact?” She looked at Rob and he gave her the address. He logged on immediately and started setting it up while Kelis continued. “Any player who moves a leaf must email Ferryl Shayde at Dragon Toast.” They all laughed about that because as far as the game and betas were concerned, Ferryl Shayde was a generic game character. Ferryl herself found the idea of having her own contact address fascinating.