Chapter 63
Apposite adj: I have avoided this word (four times) until now; but if you’re still with me, I think you’re ready for it. It means “apt in the circumstances or in relation to something” OED.
Chapter 64
Inevitably adv: unavoidably.
“I’m Grace, and this is Zoë.” The name Zoë comes from a Greek word meaning ‘Life’. You will remember, perhaps, that Myrddin’s name for her was Einioes (EenYOess), which is the Welsh word for ‘Life’. He called Grace ‘Grasslonrwydd’ (GRASSlonrwith), which means ‘Grace’ or ‘Graciousness’ in Welsh.
Incidentally, Zack is a short form of Zachariah, which is a Hebrew name meaning ‘The Lord re-called’.
TO NOTE ...
If you enjoyed A Wizard of Dreams, please be advised that Book 2: Amazing Grace begins exactly where Book 1 pauses for breath. The story grows and grows.
All my e-books are just 99p or 99c because I never want the price to prevent any child from reading them.
There is a great deal more interesting information on my website - https://myrddinsheir.com
Brief Author Autobiography
Once upon a time –a long time ago – I was born in Bootle (Liverpool 20). There was a war on. Later, I wanted to follow in the footsteps of J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis but instead was plunged into the maelstrom of inner city education. In the 1970s I wrote some stories for children to see if I could, and Penguin published them. I thought I would write something really good when I retired from teaching.
After fourteen years of headship in Hackney I came back up north in 1993 and met my wonderful wife Amy. We looked after my increasingly ill parents full-time until they didn’t need us to do it anymore, by which time the first of our two daughters was ready to go off to University and on to the first rung of the housing ladder. We did the sums and I went back to teaching.
In 2008 Amy and I set off for a life by the western shores of the Caribbean. It was only after I survived a murder attempt by three local thugs in November 2010 (skull crushed in two places, seventeen stitches in head wounds) that I realised how easy it is to die without accomplishing a cherished ambition.
So we came back to the UK and I set to work on Myrddin’s Heir: the epic story I will leave behind. It took three years to write the first four books, which I uploaded into the Kindle Store all at once in 2013 at 99p each. Self-publishing means self-marketing, so here I am. Book 5 was published in April 2014 for the same price, and Book 6 followed in June 2016.
This is a story for bright children from 10–110 years of age. It’s longer than L of the R, longer even than HP &… To finish it I need to live another 15 years. I’d like to finish it, because I know how it ends.
Chapter 1
The Mind Reader And The Clairvoyant
The new year 7s streamed into the building like bees into a hive. Nick had finally spotted Gordon and was swimming against the swarm. He threaded his way towards his best friend, relief oozing from every pore. Gordon noticed and waved. Nick wouldn't be growing out of that new blazer any time soon. There was room for two of him in there.
Grace signalled to a girl already by the door. "That's Miranda," she told Gordon. "She's my best friend from primary school." The girl waved back and stood waiting.
"Does she know about Zoë?"
"No, nobody does. Only my mums, and now you and Zack."
"Your mums? How many have you got?
"Two."
Nick and Gordon followed Miranda and Grace into the big Main Hall. 180 had seemed like a lot of children in the playground, but it didn't seem like so many now. They fitted on six rows of chairs at the front, either side of a central aisle. Zack and Zoë sat side by side in their new school uniforms. It was odd seeing them like that: perched on the edge of the stage, getting a good look at everyone else. It didn't seem odd to anyone else because no-one else could see them. No-one else knew they were there.
Teaching staff stood along both sides. A smiling lady walked out to the front to face them. She put a finger to her lips and you could have heard a pin drop. She made a "Please stand" motion with her hands. Everyone obediently stood up. Gordon was reminded of his visit to the Planet of the Apes, where the principle form of communication was sign language. He got an image of that 500 lb silverback gorilla on the Starship Velociraptor's viewing monitor. The gorilla had stretched out his hand and flicked it back: clearly inviting him to a close encounter of the third kind.
"Wow! He's impressive!"
Gordon went rigid with shock. That had been Grace's voice in his head, as clearly as if she had just spoken to him. It wasn't the telepathy that startled him so much - Zoë would have taught her that, as Zack had taught him. It was the fact that she was reading his mind.
"Whoah!" he thought back. "How long have you been able to do that?"
"Do what?" Zack asked him. It was a crossed line, like being on the phone to two people at once.
"She's always been able to do it," Zoë informed them both. OK, three people.
"Grace just read my mind," Gordon told Zack.
"Whoah!" Zack said. Zoë was smiling. Grace's eyes danced with mischief. It had been fun surprising Gordon with that little party trick of hers. Normally she kept it under wraps. Nobody likes being labelled a weirdo, and with children it doesn't take much.
The headteacher strode down the centre aisle to the front of the hall. Most of the children remembered him from the ‘Welcome Evening’ they'd attended at the end of the previous term. He motioned them to sit down again and welcomed them to their new school. They were to listen carefully to their names being read out, tutor group by tutor group. Each group would then follow their tutor to their new form room and be given their house badges, timetables and a lot more besides.
Templemead High School had three houses: Ash, Elm and Oak. First up was Ash. The head of Ash House introduced his two year 7 tutors and the names were read out. Gordon mentally ticked off those who came from his school as they stood up and followed their tutors out of the hall. He thought he detected a pattern. Each of the pupils from his primary school class had a best friend with them in their tutor group. The exception was Kieran, but Gordon had little sympathy for him. Separate him from one toe-rag and he would simply team up with another. There was never any shortage, and finding each other was one of the few things they were all good at.
A horrible thought occurred to him. What if Grace and Miranda weren't in the same tutor group as him and Nick? He told himself not to worry. If Myrddin had arranged for their paths to cross in the same school, surely he would have made sure they were in the same tutor group?
"Who's Myrddin?" Grace wanted to know.
This mind-reading thing was going to take some getting used to. He definitely needed to develop some screening techniques; otherwise it could get embarrassing. A second later, he went bright pink, having realised that Grace would know what he was thinking. He filled his mind with an image of a blank white screen. He didn't dare look at her, but he suspected she would be smiling quietly to herself again. "I'll tell you later," he promised.
Dean went the way of Elm, as did a number of other, nicer children from his class at primary school. Gordon still had all his fingers and toes crossed. With only sixty children left, Grace and Miranda were still on his left and Nick on his right.
The first Oak House tutor to be introduced was a Mrs Peters. She was young and pretty. She held her register in a way that drew attention to the rings on the third finger of her left hand. She was smiling, but her eyes were sad. "Her baby died." Grace's voice was in his head again.
"Young women miscarry sometimes," Zoë said, "but on this day next year, Mrs Peters will bring her beautiful, new baby girl into school for us to see."
A beautiful new baby would heal that wound. Apparently, Zoë could see into the future. Myrddin had promised to teach him prescience. Could he also teach him to read minds? Skills like those would be useful additions to
the powers he already had.
Mrs Peters read out her list, and they were all on it. So was Tom, which was fine. Since his dad had been killed in Afghanistan, Gordon had been helping Tom catch up with his reading. He was making good progress. Little by little they were becoming friends. He was a much nicer boy than he had been.
Their new tutor led them to their form room. Gordon could see the satisfaction on Zack's face. He thought he could also tell that behind that cool exterior, Zoë was pleased as well. If Grace and Zoë didn't know who Myrddin was, maybe they didn't know that Myrddin had almost certainly brought them all together in the first place. There was so much everyone had to learn about everyone else.
Grace was the only other person he'd ever met who'd been able to see Zack. Was he the only person she had ever met who could see Zoë? What had Grace and Zoë been doing in Avalon?
The questions were piling up.
NOTES
AMAZING GRACE; HIS VISIT TO THE PLANET OF THE APES; A CLOSE ENCOUNTER OF THE THIRD KIND; TEMPLEMEAD HIGH SCHOOL; HER BABY DIED; PRESCIENCE
A Wizard of Dreams (Myrddin's Heir Book 1) Page 24