by Vance Huxley
“Wrong, we’ve got three volunteers to drive a BMW and two of them have a moped or scooter to get out here without needing a bus.” Rob glanced at Abel. “We can go out every single day, though we’ll have to pay our way.”
“We already do, ever since we sold the fairy though Laurence always insisted on paying for Kelis. We’ll just be eating burgers rather than going to restaurants for meals.” Abel heaved a huge mock-sigh. “Just when I’d learned how to eat peas without a spoon.” They’d also be paying for more petrol, because Laurence always insisted on paying at least half. Poor for an Earl came nothing close to what they thought of as skint, though Laurence never made a big thing of it.
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It only took Jenny twenty-four hours to persuade her dad to loan her the pickup truck for the day. Three other Taverners came along to supply a driver and help with the transfer. With Eric to drive the BMW, along with Una, that made ten of them to disguise eight short tubby green munchkins nipping out of the lychgate and into the flat back. In theory nobody would see, but even Kelis wasn’t totally sure about her veil. Once in the truck the goblins became eight stone garden ornaments, while ten batlins swooped down to roost in the emptied tool-chest.
The three original Taverners hadn’t really thought about the consequences when they cast veils. Una spent the whole trip fraying their ears. She started by complaining she hadn’t been taught the veil glyph, but soon moved on to her real complaint. In common with all the advanced Taverners, Una spent all the magic she absorbed each day practicing the glyphs she already knew. She’d never be able to perfect a new glyph even if someone showed her the veil. Unfortunately the best way to have more magic to spare was to be more efficient when casting glyphs, but the practice needed magic.
At least the goblins themselves diverted Frederick, his three resident Taverners, Effy and the four other town Taverners who were here to work on the house. “Those are the first magical creatures to look like the fairy stories, or some stories anyway. Except the flying ones. Those wings are creepy and confusing. A little fat green cartoon shouldn’t have Dracula wings.” Rachel, who really liked working on the old house, inspected one of the larger Goblins. “They can really be seen by anyone?”
Abel explained, again, because sometimes Rachel skipped details other than something she could cast. The goblins looked nervous, but relaxed when Frederick showed them his wheelie bins and told them the houses along the road had more. Places like the nursing homes had industrial sized versions. Frederick had a more practical concern. “I know they turn to stone, but won’t that damage anything they perch on? The weight I mean.”
“Ask them about it, and for a demo.” Frederick did, cautiously, and the spectators were treated to a variety of stone creatures. A few half-turned, looking part-stone and part-green so they could still talk. Several perched on the garage or shed roof to prove they didn’t weigh as much as stone.
“It is just our skin that looks like stone, great lord. We weigh the same no matter how we look.” The Goblin glanced towards the Old, stuffing itself with something from the bin.
“Great Lord?” Frederick looked startled, then cautious.
“The stories say only nobles or sorcerers kept goblins as lookouts, and both like to be called that.” It glanced at Abel. “That one does not own the church and prefers to be called Abel or apprentice, but we are not sure about that. The Olds think we should call him sorcerer to be safe.”
The Old stopped eating for a moment to interrupt. “The magic users near our home are strange, not like the stories but the dryad said they are young and still training. He warned us their teacher is powerful, so we must show respect.” It licked its lips slowly. “We know that part. We saw them wield fire to chase away the Ratlins and to hunt and kill the slithery slippery.”
“Can any of you wield fire?” The startled younger Goblin edged away from six proud smiles with flames dancing above their hands.
“They are training as well. Ask the dryads. There are many in the orchard, but they will let you pass.” Kelis looked from one to the other. “We explained all this. You guard the gardens, hide as garden ornaments in the day, and raid the local rubbish bins for food at night.”
The Goblin nodded. “But the Olds said it is safest to ask, to check that the sorceress meant it the first time.” It looked towards the bins, managing to stop the lick halfway, so Abel sent it to join the feast. At least all the talk of respect reassured Frederick, more so when a succession of batlins brought living birds and insects to ask if they were allowed in the garden or not. Kelis’ declaration that she’d have a firework display all of her own if they killed harmless songbirds or butterflies had been taken to heart.
Though once the goblins and batlins were settled in, Abel, Kelis, Rob and Ferryl/Claris were surrounded by eager faces. At least the veil glyph had no nasty side effects though the trainees wouldn’t have the magic to practice much. The enclosed garden soon rang with laughter as young people managed to cast the glyph accurately and started wondering what they could hide.
“We won’t hide too much, or too often.” Petra’s long face matched most of the others. Those like Effy still squandered magic trying to cast wind glyphs because they hadn’t learned control. Despite being more economic, the advanced students ran out of magic before they’d finished practicing. They couldn’t try every glyph they knew every day, which slowed their progress.
“Except these four, with all that lovely tree magic.” Jenny stopped, hand to mouth, while the rest looked puzzled and then suspicious. “Sorry, it just popped out.”
“Not to worry, I told Laurence and Claris knows now. Our dryad-free oak tree gives us extra magic.” Kelis stuck to the story she’d given Laurence, that they could only use one tree, and Jenny kept her mouth shut this time.
“A mature oak? Crikey, no wonder you three always perfect the glyphs first. That and Ferryl Shayde as a teacher of course.” Una shook a fist at Abel. “Cheat.” She turned to Jenny. “I suppose girlfriends get a free top-up, and that’s why you’re catching up so fast?”
“Ex, remember, though the first zap might persuade a girl to stay friends even with Abel.” Jenny shrugged, with a smug little smile. “He lets me get the occasional top-up when I visit Brinsford, for old time’s sake.” Her look at Claris had a lot of mischief in it, because she knew Ferryl lived inside her. “I’ll bet Claris has better control than she tells us.”
“How much magic is there in an oak tree? It must have more than a rhododendron.” As everyone turned towards her Rachel looked decidedly guilty. “I plead extreme youth and wanting to be better at magic than my brother.”
“I can relate to wanting to beat any boy, but fourteen isn’t young enough for age to fly as an excuse. Not in this company. What did you do?” Though despite her tone, Petra had a tiny smile as she asked.
“The game notes say everything absorbs magic but plants don’t leak it. I tried to get some from a rose bush, but couldn’t really cut a good glyph and got nothing. The rhododendron is a big old thing with thick branches so I tried that. I did what you told us, drew the glyph on my hand with a finger and put it over the cut, and this trickle came out.” She giggled. “That is truly weird. But I must have overdone it, because the bush looks ill. It’s sort of wilted. I’ve had to use up some of my daily allowance the last week to try and revive it.”
Petra laughed. “Me too, except I didn’t do as much damage and it was the lilac bush. There isn’t a lot and it doesn’t seem to top up as fast as I do, but I get a little bit every three or four days.” From the smiles or shifty looks quite a few were doing similar. Shawn confessed to taking a trip into the countryside now and then to drain a bit from each thick shoot in a random hedgerow. They all had the same complaints. The plants had to have a stout enough shoot to cut a decent glyph but even then didn’t give much magic, and took ages to build it back up.
“So how much in an oak tree?” Petra nudged Jenny. “What does it feel like?”
“
I felt wobbly and silly the first time, like when I got squiffy once but a lot more. It sort of rushes in and fills you right up, and it’s fresh and zingy.” Jenny giggled. “It’s still a real buzz. Once you’ve tried it I’ll bet you never get tempted by booze. I doubt even drugs feel that good, and there’s no downside to tree magic.”
“Hey Rob, watch out, there’ll be a line of hopefuls wanting to charm you into giving them access to that oak tree.” Justin hesitated. “I realised what Rachel did so I’ve been more careful, but it’s slow going. Could the advanced students get a bit of extra now and then from your tree, Abel? That has to be better than being caught cutting branches in the neighbour’s shrubbery.”
Effy smiled brightly. “Or the newcomers so we can catch up?” Abel exchanged glances with the other three as an argument broke out over who should get any surplus. Jenny came across, looking decidedly guilty.
“Sorry, it just slipped out.” She looked back at the rest. “Will telling them you’ve got an extra supply of magic cause a lot of trouble?”
“Don’t worry Jenny, it had to come out eventually. After all, someone would wonder why we always learn faster. That argument is why we didn’t tell everyone. They’d all swarm into Brinsford at the weekends and draw attention to Castle House. Then the locals would try to find out why thirty-odd schoolkids went into the wood and wouldn’t be able to get in themselves.” Abel took hold of Ferryl/Claris’ hand.
“We’d have to make dozens of those pebbles, and someone would lose one. That or an apprentice or witch, or maybe a Leech, would get hold of the glyph.” Kelis glanced at the others. “Maybe we’ll have to push the experiments on a bit. I’ve got my gold bar with me?”
Abel asked Zephyr to connect to Ferryl. “Ferryl? How much of a problem is it to let each one have a gold bar’s worth to top up once a week?”
“Making that many gold bars will take a long time. It will be another chore, filling them all up at the weekend, and if a teacher catches you with twenty gold bars?”
“How about lead? You said that’s nearly as good. The three of us would only have a dozen each in our schoolbags. Four of us if you end up back at school.” Abel worried a little if she didn’t, because then Ferryl/Claris would spend all day hanging about near the school in case he got into trouble. He noticed Jenny looking at the held hands and spooky-phone with a little smile.
“Lead is almost as good, but will poison the user.” The mental voice stopped for a moment and Abel felt a little squeeze of his hand. When she continued Ferryl sounded definitely intrigued. “I’m thinking of putting it in the bone of course, the usual sorcerer way, but you won’t be doing that. Carrying a bar of it shouldn’t hurt anyone. Once again we are doing this the wrong way round, teaching later lessons earlier, but the circumstances are very different. No sorceress would let apprentices have extra magic except to carry out a specific task for her.” Her mental snigger came as a surprise. “Certainly not to improve their glyphs and maybe be as strong as their mistress!”
“Pass that on to Kelis and Rob please, Zephyr, to Jenny as well.” Abel waited until the others nodded, then raised his voice. “If you lot have done arguing, you could ask a sorceress for an answer. Politely of course, instead of screaming at each other?”
The group split up, looking a bit guilty and shooting rueful glances at each other. “Not screaming, Abel.” Una gave a little shrug and a smile. “Though if only one can get a chance at that tree, and I’ve got my sword?” At least a few smiles reappeared. “Please Ferryl Shayde, how many of us can top up from an oak tree, if you allow us to?”
Abel answered for her, of course. “All of you, every day, and then it dies. Or we can try an experiment.” The apprentices looked disappointed and then cautiously hopeful. “If you can agree, without fighting among yourselves, each of you can have a little extra each week. You’ll need a lead bar this big.” Abel pulled out an experimental gold bar to demonstrate. “It’s about the weight of a bag of sweets, about a hundred grams.”
“We’ve each got one, just to try them. Now you can help the experiment. We put the magic in, but can you take it out?” Kelis took hers out and held it up. “Don’t run off with it, because this one is gold. Ferryl insisted for the first tries, because that’s what sorceresses use.”
“Me too, given the choice. Unfortunately, I can only afford lead. How do we take the magic out? Ah, sorry. Who gets to try?” Una tried to look guilty and failed.
Abel looked them over and shrugged. “If this works the ones who came on the Goblin run can come back to Brinsford with us. Just this once they get a top-up from the tree.”
“Blimey, you’d think they’d won the lottery. We really have been spoiled, haven’t we?” Rob spoke very quietly but the laughing and joking would have drowned him out anyway.
“I’ve got some idea how they feel, even if I’ve been spoiled a little. Not having enough magic to practice is a real pain.” Jenny eyed up the small bar. “Will anything metal be just as good?”
“Maybe. Sorceresses really do use gold, or diamonds. Ooh, wait until Kelis shows you her diamond.” Rob nodded towards Kelis. “Her boyfriend might be rich, but he couldn’t afford a rock like the one Abel gave her.”
“Well Kelis? Because I definitely don’t remember a rock of any size from lover-boy.” Jenny gave Ferryl/Claris the once-over, especially her ring hand. “Claris seems to have missed out as well.”
“Laurence is an ex-boyfriend but Rob is right.” A happy little smile lit Kelis’ face. “Abel really did give me a huge rock, long before we knew about storing magic.”
“Not quite a real diamond. I found it, and Kelis liked it.” “Help, Ferryl, what do I say?”
“How about the truth?” Abel stared at the spooky-phone. It still led to Jenny and all the other three. Jenny narrowed her eyes. “I’d appreciate it?”
“Good idea, but keep away from making metals and stick to the stone being worthless because of the glyph being visible. Jenny is too smart for anything else, and there’ll be little fragments of memories still in there. You don’t want her hunting for them.” At least nobody could hear Ferryl’s voice through Abel’s skin.
Abel gave up, because he preferred the truth but magic seemed determined to make him tell an increasing number of porkies. He explained the gem, and that Kelis hadn’t known it was real. He hadn’t known himself that it could store magic. “I daren’t give everyone a blooming great diamond. It’ll scratch glass and all that, and someone would be tempted to give it to a jeweller eventually to see if it was the real thing. Then the jeweller would find out it is, but someone had managed to inscribe the inside.”
“Curses.” Jenny thought a moment, then glanced at the rest. “I’ll settle for one a bit smaller than Kelis’? Just me, and I swear I really won’t let anyone examine it.” She smiled happily. “I’ll get one of those kits with plastic gold and jewels for making fake costume stuff and surround it with crap, or put it on an obviously cheap chain. You can do the same for Claris in time. It’ll be a way of keeping track of your women.”
“Done, now shush.” Not only had the rest sorted out who would try the experiment, Abel didn’t want Rob or Kelis getting into a discussion about his women. He could already feel Kelis’ eyes on him, so he held out the gold bar. “Who gets to try?”
“Me, please.” Rachel’s smile faltered. “I’ve had to promise to use my top-up on growth glyphs to heal the rhododendron first. Though any that’s left I can use for anything I like, such as a veil.”
“It’s a good job Justin can see through veils or he’d never know where she’d pop up next.” Frederick held out a hand. “I’ve been volunteered as a beginner, and because it’s my house and I’m finding learning is hard work. Now how do I do this?”
“Haven’t you got a notebook?” Justin held up his.
“I worry someone will see it, and maybe try something and learn about magic when they shouldn’t.” Frederick’s manner sobered everyone, and so did his next words. “Then th
ey’d end up having a breakdown.” Even after the magic transfer experiments proved to be a success, everyone kept thinking about that. Several swore they would be buying lockable diaries, while some were going to hide the information on their phones or computers with a really long, complicated password.
The phones came in handy as various people tried to find out where to buy lead. It wasn’t easy because scrap yards didn’t want to sell to casual visitors and builder’s merchants sold lead-free alternatives. The search came to a halt when Frederick took them to the old kitchen and showed them the thick lead waste pipes leading out through the wall. If someone would help him replace those with plastic there’d be enough lead to make a stack of bars. There was also some old lead flashing on the derelict garage to one side of the house, to get everyone started. The best at casting heat glyphs promptly offered to melt the lead if they could get a top-up from a tree to replace the magic.
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Back in Brinsford Abel realised he also had access to some scrap lead, from the overgrown summer house in Castle House gardens. The roof had collapsed, which made collecting the scrap really easy for Abel and Rob. Back at the church, Kelis helped Abel melt the lead into blobs about the right weight, though Rob reckoned he could make a little mould out of some old bricks for the next attempt. For now, Abel and Kelis drew the glyph on the blobs with an old nail before cooling them with wind glyphs.
Once a few were cool enough, Jenny and Rob took them away to the mystery tree to fill them. When the blobs were handed round everyone tried them, taking enough magic to fill right up, and big smiles broke out. As a bonus, just this once, the crude lead shapes were filled back up. Jenny came back very giggly again, pure fresh tree magic still had that effect on her.
Before going home, Jenny insisted on going to say hello to Kelis’ mum. Once everyone left, Kelis told Abel he’d better get on with making diamonds. Jenny had really wanted to see Kelis’ rock. His second girlfriend would settle for much smaller than a goose egg, so she could actually wear it without looking ridiculous. Just as well when Ferryl explained just how good diamonds were at holding magic, much better than gold.