by Vance Huxley
By the time Dryad Woods had worked through all the possibilities, Abel felt overwhelmed. He took away a short summary of the options for Ferryl, a list of the locations of the woodlands, a proposal for supplying a legitimate income, and a thousand pounds in twenties.
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None of those waiting made any comment on how long it had taken until they came outside, when they all stopped dead. Shannon and Rob looked at their watches. “Never! Three hours?” Rob looked around and then up, where the sun behind the clouds looked much too low.
“My watch says it’s past four. It can’t have been later than one when we went in.” Shannon turned to Abel. “Three hours to drink a cup of coffee and eat a couple of biscuits? And what’s with the magic box? How can that be a contract?”
“Magical waiting room, it had to be. Either they slowed time or put us out for a while.” Kelis rounded on Abel. “How long did it seem to you?”
“At least three hours.” Shannon still looked suspicious so Abel tried to explain the amount of time. “Magical contracts have to be held in a magically guarded box like the one I brought in, a sort of safe. Nobody else can touch it so they can’t get at the papers. That took a long while because the solicitor and Ferryl Shayde had to adapt the protection so it didn’t hurt them or me, and put glyphs on the papers so they couldn’t be altered.” He touched his arm when he said Ferryl Shayde, to remind everyone but Shannon that the other Taverners still thought the sorceress lived in his tattoo.
Kelis narrowed her eyes at him before turning to Ferryl. “Were you bored, Fay?”
“No, it was fascinating because I am new to all this as well. Though I was also able to employ the solicitor in a non-magical way, to help me settle in England.” Abel heard just a trace of vas instead of was, and realised Ferryl had spoken like that when meeting Shannon the first time. She now had a very faint accent, presumably German. “I have only played Bonny’s Tavern and practiced glyphs at home. This is the first time I’ve seen any other sort of magic at work.” She looked up the street, at the charity shops that had taken over any empty premises. “Is there still time for me to visit a few shops? I’d like more clothes so I can stay longer.”
After Shannon called home to reassure her mum she hadn’t pranged the car, and the rest told their parents they’d met friends and been delayed, the group of teenagers went shopping. Ferryl had some money left from selling the gold statuette so they visited several clothing shops, especially the charity outlets. She wasn’t interested in current fashions, and seemed perfectly happy buying second-hand clothes. Ferryl looked particularly pleased when she found a pair of mid-calf leather boots that fitted her properly, and wore them immediately.
During the shopping Ferryl ‘let slip’ her surname, and that she had come to Stourton on holiday. Kelis had sent her a beta version of Bonny’s Tavern, and she wanted to visit the place where it had been created. Now, if things worked out, she might be staying in England, in Stourton. The solicitor would be looking into it. Kelis promptly phoned her mum, then invited Fay home to stay the night. After Abel treated them all to a huge, fancy frothy coffee he confessed to stealing Fay’s name for the game character. Zephyr confessed she used Ferryl Shayde because she didn’t want enemies to recognise her old one. A very thoughtful Shannon, somewhat reassured when Zephyr swore she’d never been called Braeth Huntian, drove them back to Brinsford. Jenny looked annoyed that she had to be dropped off at home, because she wanted to know what had really happened.
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Kelis waited until Shannon drove out of sight, but only just. “Right Abel, give.” She looked up at the rain and then at the dark, cold church. “No, not yet. After tea. Better still, you can come home with me now, Fay or Ferryl, and explain. Remember, we met you in town, where you were staying in the hostel. I told mum I didn’t think that was good enough for a Taverner from abroad, which is why she agreed to you stopping over.” Kelis poked Rob and Abel in the ribs, laughing at their expressions. “I’m blaming you two for that. Mum will think it’s Abel’s fault because she knows what he’s like when he meets a new girl. He just can’t wait to drag them back to Brinsford.”
“Don’t you dare!” Abel considered jabbing Kelis back but settled for wagging a finger. “Not a girlfriend, not this time.”
“I never mentioned girlfriend. That takes you a couple of days at least.” Kelis turned towards home. “Come on Ferryl. Sorry, I mean Fay. We’ll leave these two to stand in the rain and argue with each other. They’ll have got it over with by the time Bonny’s Tavern meets. I’ll bet Jenny rides over for this one, rain or not.” Ferryl grinned, shrugged, and followed Kelis as instructed.
“Not a girlfriend, not this time. Else I’ll never get a real one.” Abel glared at Rob’s grin but didn’t dent it one tiny bit.
“You don’t want one. Well you do, but can’t have her.”
“I don’t want anyone just now. Kelis has moved on.”
Rob laughed out loud. “I could have meant Jenny, Claris, Fay or half a dozen different Taverners but you immediately thought of Kelis, which just makes my point. Never mind, you’ll have a bigger choice under the mistletoe this New Year.” Despite being true, that didn’t cheer Abel up very much.
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The long Bonny’s Tavern meeting that evening included Jenny as expected. She had an advanced lesson in water glyphs as soon as she walked in, as the rest cast tiny glyphs to dry her clothes. Once she’d been promised proper lessons the five of them, six with Zephyr, went through the high points of Abel’s interview.
Looking through the options for Ferryl, they ranged from her appearing with a full identity as a twenty-one-year-old with an inheritance to a long-lost penniless orphaned relative of Abel’s. One stood out, but with a few differences because Abel’s mum might be too curious about a long-lost relative. Not only that, but Abel occasionally holding a relative’s hand to get answers would look really odd. Hopefully Woods and Green could act as trustees for an orphan, Fay Elle Shayde, with no link to Abel’s family. Abel would pay for creating details of her identity, dead parents and a small inheritance through the magical law system. The inheritance would pay for her rent and living expenses, when Mz. Shayde found lodgings. Although the idea hadn’t been mentioned to Woods, Ferryl hoped that would be with Kelis’s mum.
Some options already included Woods and Green contacting Stourton Comprehensive, asking if a foreign student could pick up the school year in January. Her preferred subjects would coincide with Abel’s, and her school records from Germany would show a suitable level of academic achievement. Dryad Woods really liked that idea, simply because it would be something different from a sorceress becoming a different adult to hide her age. Altering or creating all those records would be difficult, so it would be interesting.
Abel described the inheritance, a rough outline of what he could claim because of his blood link to Celtchar. As he finished the list Kelis sat back, shaking her head in confusion. “You keep saying when you are older or when you open doors, so are you filthy rich or not?”
“Yes and no. We can visit lots of trees and slurp up enough magic to reduce Jenny to a heap of happy giggles, but can’t get into the properties.” Jenny produced a small giggle but stopped, more interested in the next part. “We can get a small but steady income for the company marketing the game if we make a slight alteration to the game setup and the illustrations. The changes will make Jenny curse unless we fill her with tree magic first.” That brought a waved fist, not a giggle, because Jenny had thought she’d done with changing the background scenario. When Abel showed them the extra, and how much they’d be paid, she agreed the artwork and rulebook would need reprinting but it would be worth it. Abel held up the gold sovereign. “Meanwhile this lets me try to open a series of locked doors. It’ll be well over a year before I’m eighteen and can officially inherit, and even then explaining could be a bit awkward. Though it could take that long just to get the final big key because Castle House sounds like a puzzl
e box.”
“We should ask Creepio to come and look.” Rob wasn’t put off by the reaction from the rest. “Seriously. We can ask him one question. Is something evil lurking behind that door? Ferryl insists there’s something very nasty in there, but Creepio should be able to tell us how deep the whatever is inside.” He pointed at the coin. “We know Abel will be safe trying the doors, but is he safe from what’s behind them?”
“Theoretically, because of the coin, but he may not be strong enough to control it. In either case it could lash out at anyone else nearby.” Ferryl stood up and paced back and forth, just as she used to in Abel’s tattoo. “I am sure the entity I helped to trap and hopefully control is not behind that door. Even so, and even though I really don’t like the church, Rob has a point. Though I’d like to sleep on it? In a proper bed? In the warm?” Her face broke into a smile. “Just because I can deal with sleeping on a camp bed in the cold doesn’t mean I like it.”
Jenny looked curious at that. “What have you told Kelis’s mum? How long are you staying here?”
Kelis smirked as everyone looked at her. “I’ve asked if Fay can stay a few days while her accommodation in Stourton is sorted out, and Fay offered to pay. I’ve hinted Fay has a problem, something sad in her past, and mum is a sucker for a sob story. Ferryl might have to sleep in the church a few more times but by New Year I reckon she’ll be a lodger.” Her face fell as she remembered. “For as long as we’ve got the house.”
The four of them set into making a list of the most important questions Abel hadn’t asked. He couldn’t ask them over a phone, so they’d have to wait. One thing could be settled over the phone. Abel called the following morning and when he gave his name the receptionist put him straight through to Terese Green. When he told her Fay Elle Shayde would like her affairs in Germany put in order so she could attend Stourton Comprehensive, option four, Mz Green chuckled and promised it would be a priority. Abel’s extra stipulation, that she wouldn’t be related to anyone local, apparently simplified the job.
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Abel had a number of other mundane things to do before visiting Dryad Woods or Terese Green again. First among them involved his clothing. All the exercise, building up his strength to cast glyphs, had filled him out a little even if he stayed wiry rather than muscly. Abel knew his mum couldn’t afford to buy new clothes so he nipped out of school at lunchtimes and went shopping. A second-hand school blazer looked the same, it was just a size larger, and providing he bought the same brands from charity shops, things like jeans weren’t obvious.
While he did that Abel worked on his big problem. He could get a few quid out of Dryad Woods, so he wanted to give some money to his mum. Not a lot of money because even if Woods insisted his blood link to Celtchar made Abel the magical heir to the sorcerer, he couldn’t suddenly announce it. Even without reaching the centre of Castle House, or turning eighteen, he had access to thousands of acres of land and the income from it. Abel himself still had difficulty accepting that all he needed was that trace of Celtchar’s bloodline-his mum certainly wouldn’t believe it.
Just proving the blood relationship would be impossible without magic, and Abel daren’t bring magic into the equation. Abel’s mum, one of the few adults who saw magical creatures, walked a fine line. She’d had years of therapy in her youth, to banish the hallucinations, but now knew they were real. That, and the Tavern ward for meditation that also frightened creatures away, were a big hint that things weren’t as she’d always been told.
Stan the poacher, the second of the three adults Abel knew of who could see some magical creatures, had a similar problem. He admitted to not asking questions or thinking about it too hard. He said he could feel the loony bin sneaking up on him if he did. Frederick, the other adult, had actually had a major breakdown and only recovered when a dryad befriended him. Ferryl Shayde assured Abel that breakdowns were common if an adult, someone over twenty-five, discovered how to activate their magic. Now Abel, sure his mum did the same as Stan, didn’t push too hard. She slept better, her hip didn’t hurt as much and most creatures avoided her, so her life had improved. She even put out saucers of warm milk and sugar for the brownies and pixies that helped to keep the house clean.
Abel declaring himself a trainee sorcerer would destroy whatever scenario his mum had come up with to keep her sanity. He went round and round it, alone or with his friends, but couldn’t come up with an answer. Abel wasn’t old enough to have a convenient win on the lottery, or to bet on horses or cards. For the first time in his life Abel could buy his mum a really nice Christmas present, except he couldn’t.
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To take his mind off it, and stop him sending his friends crackers, they all decided to have a proper look at the next door in Castle House. Not to open it, but Woods had said there were puzzles to solve. They should try and find out if that included the first door, or they’d look pretty stupid when Creepio turned up.
Abel opened the front door with the key and walked into the entrance hall without any problem. The room didn’t react, except as usual the frog-dragon opened its electric blue eyes. Abel inspected the double doors that should let him into the house proper. Apart from a curved, carved handle on each one there wasn’t any sort of keyhole or snek. He’d promised not to actually touch the doors, so Abel could only think of one way to see if anything had altered. He took a deep breath and pulled the coin from his pocket.
Abel nearly jumped out of his skin, not just because of the shout of alarm behind him but because the frog-dragon moved! It turned its head a little, enough for a long thin tongue to press on the wall. A panel about half a metre square turned transparent and a small rectangular opening appeared at the bottom. Abel held up a hand to stop the others shouting questions and inspected the view behind the transparent panel. It looked like a maze with five levels. A cube behind the panel had been divided up into different sections by more transparent panels, some with holes in them. At the top far corner, as far as possible from the opening, was a horizontal slot. Abel wasn’t jumping to conclusions but it looked about the right size for the sovereign.
Moving very slowly Abel used his phone to take half a dozen pictures at different angles, zooming to get a good shot of the little slot, then shut it down and put it away. He took a step back and the panel became a featureless patch of wall. “I can still see the outline, though it isn’t easy because magic swirls all around and across it.” Zephyr made a very tentative move to leave his tattoo as Abel turned and headed for the exit. “I think I could come out now. The air does not seem to burn.”
“Wait until we reach the door, Zephyr, so we can take a dive outside if necessary.” One step from the outside door Abel stopped and raised his voice. “Someone tell me if anything behind me moves. Zephyr thinks she can come out now.” Despite Jenny’s objections, the rest agreed he could manage one step before anything could trap him inside.
Zephyr trickled out of her tattoo, into the open. “The magic tickles. It is inspecting me but is not hurting.” She moved out a little further, then more. “Too much. The air is starting to warm so that must be a warning. I will come back now.” The sprite eased back into the tattoo and Abel walked outside. As he passed the threshold the front door closed, gently but firmly, but this time he had to physically lock it. Zephyr connected to everyone to explain, while they collected round Abel to look at his phone.
“It’s a multi-storey maze made of glass. Passages and little rooms, some dead ends, and those look like holes in some walls and in the top of some passages and rooms.” Jenny cocked her head one way then the other. “Dad used to play these with me on the computer, when I was a lot younger. The idea was to move a little ball through a 3D maze that became more and more difficult. There’ll be a lot of dead ends but one path that winds its way right through from the bottom to the top. Then pop the coin in the slot and the door unlocks.”
“A path for what? Whatever it is has to carry that sovereign. How big are those passages?” Rob
took a closer look. “The panel looked to be about half a metre square, and there’s five horizontal sections.”
“Floors. Five floors in the crazy maze hotel. Are you supposed to train a mouse to carry the coin?” Kelis took a turn looking at the phone. “No, because the defences would fry it before it got near. Maybe the house would allow you to use a pictsie or brownie if you bound it?” She held her hands up at Abel’s expression. “Okay, okay, no binding. Sheesh, I didn’t mean killing it! Though even if you bound something like that, and the house allowed it to try, it might not get up from one floor to the next. There doesn’t seem to be much grip and those holes would be a bit tight.”
“Look below the slot at the back, students. You have not inspected the whole inside for clues.” Ferryl moved the pictures back to the zoomed shot of the little slot at the rear and tapped the screen. “Do the simple part first.”
“Yes sensei.” Abel’s phone went round everyone again and all of them agreed. The glyph for wind had been etched very, very faintly just below the slot at the back. If Abel hadn’t zoomed in to get that picture, even Ferryl might have missed it. The first conclusion floored Abel. “I haven’t got enough control of wind to blow a gold sovereign around the corridors and up through the holes. If I drop it I’ll never get enough purchase with wind to lift it off a smooth surface.”
“But I could.” Ferryl sounded thoughtful rather than smug. “This is designed for someone with superb mastery of the glyph, a very experienced sorceress. Dryad Woods may be right. Celtchar might be trying to make sure nobody ever inherits. He killed any relatives he knew of, so whoever finally tried would be young and inexperienced. It could take you years to reach the required level, years during which you would be relatively unprotected and might be killed.”
“Will the hallway allow one of us in it now that Abel’s got the coin? It let Zephyr out to fly.” Jenny glanced at the door and back to the phone. “Ferryl could try, then if she fails Kelis could go because she’s the best of us with wind.For now.” After getting to a certain stage with fire, Jenny had decided that wind seemed to be easier after all. With Kelis concentrating on water, Jenny now wanted to be the mistress of wind though she’d already started on water as well.