Her gaze scanned the crowd, but no one said anything; no one had any idea what to say, but you could tell they were wondering what was going on. Nodding, January walked down the steps and moved to the left, and as she stopped beside the balustrade the lights dimmed and then went out, plunging the room into darkness.
There was a murmur of sound from the assembled reporters. It sounded a little nervous. Maybe they were not used to this kind of theatricality. The lights came up as quickly as they had dimmed and the murmuring fell away into a shocked silence.
Centre stage at the top of the stairs was Ceri. Her staff glowed blue in her hand, the crystal in its head shining brightly. She was wearing a silk tabard with chord shoulder straps, cut in the middle to well below her navel, but joined over her breasts by a metal medallion. A chord belt with similar pendant medallions fixed the skimpy dress around her hips. She wore flat, leather sandals on her feet and there were silver bands around her wrists and biceps. Her crown was just about visible beneath her hair. She stood straight and proud, but she was as nervous as Hell.
Flanking her were Lily, on the left in her Lilith outfit, and Faran, in his red robes. And flanking them were Pansh and Naton respectively, both in polished breastplates and leather kilts, long swords resting in their arms. Aja stood just to Ceri’s left, behind Ceri and Lily. She was dressed in a lot of leather straps which culminated in a loincloth-like skirt, and those straps had enough daggers mounted on them to fell an army.
Ceri waited a couple of beats for the shock to settle and then she spoke, putting all the confidence and authority she could manage into her voice.
‘Good morning, ladies and gentlemen of the Press. My name is Ceridwyn Brent. I am a Doctor of Thaumatology at the London Metropolitan University. I am also a sorceress.’ The murmuring started again and she raised her voice to cut through it. ‘Sorcery is nothing to do with demons. It is a different kind of magic, using different techniques to that wielded by wizards, witches, and demons. I am not a pacted magician, I am a sorceress. There are more like me in the world and we don’t know where they are, but it’s time we found out.’
She paused to let that sink in and then went on. ‘That said, in the Demon Realm I’m known as Ayasha, Overlord of All Demons, heir to the throne of Gorefguhadget, bearer of the Iron Crown. As of today, the Government of Great Britain is opening official diplomatic negotiations with the Demon Realm, and you are now sitting in the Realm’s Consulate. Legally, you are all currently on the soil of another world, one which both I and the Government hope will have a fruitful and peaceful future with Earth.’
Another pause, and now her audience was getting restive. They wanted details. They wanted to ask questions. But she had one thing left to say before the chaos engulfed her.
‘Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the new age of magic. I think it’s going to be wonderful.’
Epilogue
Kennington, London, May 25th, 2013.
‘There’s a werewolf on the path,’ Twill announced.
Ceri looked up from the equations she was studying on her tablet and frowned. ‘I wasn’t expecting Michael.’
‘I don’t believe that it is Michael. I think I know him, though.’
Still frowning, Ceri went down to the front door, opened it up, and found a tall, heavily built man in biker leathers standing on the porch looking bemused.
‘Dane! I haven’t seen you in ages.’
‘I know,’ the werewolf replied, ‘but what’s with the coppers on the gate? They won’t let us in unless we have the right paperwork or something.’
‘I’ll take care of it,’ Twill said, buzzing past them toward the gate where the rest of the North Hills pack, or a significant number of them, were waiting around looking disgruntled. The road was full of motorcycles.
‘What are you doing here?’ Ceri asked. ‘Not that I mind, but it’s a surprise.’
‘It’s Crierwy’s first birthday,’ Dane replied. ‘You still haven’t met her. I know things got a bit crazy last year, but we thought it had settled down…’
‘Yeah, well, this is now the official consulate building of the Demon Realm. Long story, I’ll tell you all about it when we’re inside. You named her Crierwy?’
‘Aleena’s idea. She liked the sound of it, and she’s a little beauty.’ His face straightened. ‘But we were hoping you and Alexandra could take a look at her. There’ve been some… odd things happening around her and… Well, she’s a perfect kid. She was a quiet baby, loved riding the bikes with us, hardly ever cried. But she hasn’t said a word, not even a mumble and… Well, like I said, odd things have been happening…’
Frowning, Ceri looked down the path to where Aleena, a child in her arms, was finally being allowed through the gate. Ceri saw the flicker of light pass through the wards as they entered, though neither Aleena nor Dane appeared to notice. She felt it as they approached, the slight tightening in the back of her skull, the feeling of power…
‘Ceri,’ the tall, beautiful Alpha female of the pack said as she stopped on the porch, ‘it’s nice to see you again. I’d like to introduce you to my daughter, Crierwy.’
Ceri looked down into the dark eyes of the child. She was, indeed, a pretty kid with a thin mess of black hair. She looked very calm, and when she saw Ceri she reached out a thin arm and giggled.
‘You’d better come in,’ Ceri said urgently before backing into the house and yelling up the stairs. ‘Gwyn? Get down here, please.’
Dane and Aleena looked at each other and then followed Ceri quickly into the hall. By the time Gwyn was coming down the stairs, most of the rest of the pack were filing in. Gwyn got to the small landing and then came to a stop, her eyes widening. That was all Ceri needed to know.
‘Dane, Aleena, we know why strange things are happening around Crierwy.’
‘You’re making me nervous, Ceri,’ Dane told her.
‘Right…’ There was no easy way to say it, so she just blurted it out. ‘Your daughter has one of the dragon bloodlines in her.’ She watched the look of shock developing on the child’s parents’ faces, but she felt she had to spell it out. ‘She’s going to be a sorceress.’
###
About the Author
I was born in the vicinity of Hadrian's Wall so perhaps a bit of history rubbed off. Ancient history obviously, and border history, right on the edge of the Empire. I always preferred the Dark Ages anyway; there’s so much more room for imagination when people aren’t writing down every last detail. So my idea of a good fantasy novel involved dirt and leather, not shining plate armour and Hollywood-medieval manners. The same applies to my sci-fi, really; I prefer gritty over shiny.
Oddly, then, one of the first fantasy novels I remember reading was The Dark Is Rising, by Susan Cooper (later made into a terrible juvenile movie). These days we would call Cooper’s series Young Adult Contemporary Fantasy and looking back on it, it influenced me a lot. It has that mix of modern day life, hidden history, and magic which failed to hit popular culture until the early days of Buffy and Anne Rice. Of course, Cooper’s characters spend their time around places I could actually visit in Cornwall, and South East England, and mid-Wales. In fact, when I went to university in Aberystwyth, it was partially because some of Cooper’s books were set a few miles to the north around Tywyn.
I got into writing through roleplaying, however, so my early work was related to the kind of roleplaying game I was interested in. I wrote science fiction when I was playing Traveller. I wrote “high fantasy” when I was playing Dungeons & Dragons. I wrote a lot of superhero fiction when I was playing City of Heroes. I still love the idea of a modern world with magic in it and I’ve been trying to write a novel based on this for a long time. As with any form of expression, practice is the key and I can look back on all the aborted attempts at books, and the more successful short stories, as steps along the path to the Thaumatology Series.
Writing, sadly, is not my main source of income. By day, I’m a computer programmer. I work for a
telecommunications company in Manchester, England. My favourite authors are Terry Pratchett, Susan Cooper, and (recently) Kim Harrison. Kim’s Hollows books were what finally spurred me to publish something, even if the trail to here came by way of Susan, back in school, several decades ago.
For More Information
The Thaumatology Blog: http://thaumatology.wordpress.com
The Steel Beneath the Skin Blog: http://steelbeneaththeskin.wordpress.com
Other Books by this Author
The Thaumatology Series
Thaumatology 101
Demon’s Moon
Legacy
Dragon’s Blood
Disturbia
Hammer of Witches
Eagle’s Shadow
Ancient
Dragonfall
The Other Side of Hell
For Whom the Wedding Bells Toll
Anthologies set in the Thaumatology Universe
Tales from High Towers’ Study
Tales from the Dubh Linn
The Aneka Jansen Books
Steel Beneath The Skin
The Cold Steel Mind
Steel Heart
The Winter War
The Greatest Heights of Honour
The Ultrahumans Books
Ugly
Find all of these at https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/Thaumatologist
Thaumatology 12: Vengeance Page 27