Ferryl Shayde - Book 3 - A Very Different Game

by Vance Huxley

  Abel’s new task wasn’t connected to the game launch, it involved the magical Taverners. Now that he was seventeen Abel could buy a 125 cc motorbike, pass his CBT and visit the nearest of his parks and patches of woodland. Ferryl would also buy a motorbike though passing her CBT should be a doddle because she’d done it once as Jenny. Not only would seeing a couple of the locations give Abel a better idea of his inheritance, but Ferryl might work out if he could let anyone else have some sort of access. Hopefully she would also work out how to create proper protection for Elmwood Park, the sort that didn’t also bar the non-magical. The town houses were another big mystery until Ferryl and Zephyr could visit a couple to find out why Abel, the owner, couldn’t access rented property.

  Group visits relied on Jenny passing her car test, then she could borrow the minibus. Rob didn’t fancy a bike, so he would wait until he’d passed his driving test and then borrow a car if necessary. Kelis would definitely have a car, according to her mum, but she had to pay for lessons and pass her test without spending her fifteen hundred pounds. Since her mum didn’t have a convenient no-claims bonus to help out, Kelis would need that to pay for insurance. Rob offered to help out, so if he learned to drive he could borrow the car now and then or take a turn with driving.

  A more immediate chore awaited them all the following weekend. Jenny arranged for drivers and borrowed her dad’s pickup truck so the Taverners could move the first of the donated furniture from Kelis’s house to Stourton. That took the shine off Kelis’s excitement over the proposed launch. As she pointed out, from now until they moved out her house would be slowly emptying, sort of bleeding furniture. Not all of it, because Kelis and her mum would keep their own beds and dressing tables, as well as some of the comfy chairs and kitchen equipment. It was all much better quality than the Summers left behind. Ferryl insisted on furnishing the empty storeroom with furniture already in the rented flat. Abel really wanted to tell her not to worry, he’d chuck the lot away if she wanted better stuff from Kelis’s house, but daren’t admit what he’d done to anyone.

  At least Kelis’s mum wouldn’t be skint because she’d sold the brooch from Kelis, and all the jewellery her husband had given her including her wedding band. The money would last a long time because the flat would be cheaper to heat, the Council Tax would be a lot less and there weren’t the huge gardens to maintain. The divorce proceedings were moving along quicker than expected, as if Mr Ventner just wanted this part over. Kelis kept saying she didn’t care about moving, the house meant nothing, but Abel saw her face as he helped the others to remove the huge dining table. He began to wonder if he could cheer her up again, long-term.

  ∼∼

  Almost a week later Abel stood in the sitting room in Castle House, eyeing up the remaining ornaments. There hadn’t been many so he had to use the money from them with care. Unfortunately, all the ones left in here were magical constructs. Perhaps he should sell them anyway, because some were downright ugly. Most buyers wouldn’t know about the magic, so he’d get a decent price. “No, you don’t. Enough is enough.”

  When Abel turned round, despite her light tone Kelis looked absolutely serious. “Don’t what?”

  “Sell that lot to buy mum’s house so it can suddenly and miraculously appear at just the right price in a few years’ time.” Kelis suddenly burst into laughter. “I knew it! It’s all over your face.”

  “It wouldn’t be a crime.”

  “I know it wouldn’t. It would be incredibly generous and sweet, and a complete waste. I don’t ever want to live there again, and neither does mum.” Despite Kelis looking and sounding completely serious, Abel didn’t believe her.

  “I’ve seen your face when we carry furniture out of there. You were really sad to see the dining table go.” Abel flopped down on a settee. “I was looking straight at you.”

  “Not sad about the table, just the memories. I hate the house, and nearly everything that ever happened in it.” Kelis started towards the settee, swerved and sat in an armchair. “But I remember that table when we had Christmas dinner, all of our families having a wonderful time together. I remember coming back to that house with your magical mark.” Her hand strayed unconsciously towards her arm and stopped. “Chasing all those creatures out of my bedroom, and drawing the first Tavern shield.” Her hands went up above her head and waved back and forth as she sang “I can do magic” very quietly. “That library was slimeball’s den, but it’s also where Ferryl flew the first time, and….” Kelis paused for a moment or two, looking wistful. “Where I kissed a boy, the first time. Lots of memories, but the house can burn for all I care.” Her voice strengthened. “So, don’t you do anything noble.”

  There wasn’t much point in Abel denying it now, even if he didn’t consider buying the house particularly noble. “I thought you might want to go back sometime?”

  “Nope, never. Though if you’re feeling generous, I have got one request.” Kelis had a little smile now, just a hint of tease. “I’m pretty certain we’ll prise that second door open sometime, and then there’ll be more bedrooms. I reckon some will be even fancier, in which case I’d like the big one upstairs in case I need some me time. Mum can hardly object if I occasionally sleep ten houses away in my own, admittedly sumptuous room. There’s even room to park my car out front, once I can drive it.”

  Abel laughed at her big smile because despite it being permanently parked up behind the shop, Kelis loved her little hatchback. “If we park the minibus here, you could sleep in that.” Abel preferred the eight-seater minibus, the larger part of the BMW trade-in, because it would double up as a van. He’d suggested Mrs Ventner getting some cash and a cheaper vehicle for the Tavern, but all the adults agreed the two vehicles were better value.

  “Not likely! A sorceress likes her comfort. I might even move in here permanently after I leave school, once we can work out how to explain you owning the place.” Kelis lifted a quizzical eyebrow. “That’s if the master of Castle House won’t get embarrassed?”

  “You can move in tomorrow if you like. Why would I get embarrassed?” Abel shrugged, then smiled at her. “I don’t even blush much now.”

  “I know, but you might not want me in here with you and your new girl. Hah! Gotcha!”

  She had, Abel could feel the heat in his cheeks. “We don’t do anything that would be embarrassing. Why do you do that, keep switching on me? You tease me about not getting a girl without magic, then about getting one, and now, just because I like Ferryl you’re trying to make it something more.”

  “I just like to keep you on your toes, make sure you know what you’re doing.” A magnificent smirk spread across Kelis’s face. “It might be my behaviour that embarrasses you.” She held up her hands in mock surrender as Abel glared. “All right, I’ll quit. Just remember, no giving me or anyone else all your ill-gotten gains, right? So why are you in here instead of the library? You usually keep Ferryl company while Zephyr helps her stare at the aquarium for hours.”

  “I’m actually doing homework in there, but Ferryl definitely stares. Too much, in my opinion, although I’m hoping she’ll stop before it becomes a real obsession. Ferryl knows I won’t let her bind any shades to power glyphs to control that aquarium, so she can’t get the wit out. Maybe a wit, but she’ll never know. I feel guilty but I can’t do it, let something die just to find out.” Abel sighed, patting his arm and tattoo. “Ferryl might stop if she hasn’t got Zephyr helping her, though I’m sure she already knows exactly what’s needed.”

  “Five shades, six to be certain in case there are inactive glyphs we haven’t detected.”

  “Six shades according to Zephyr.” Once more Abel tried to think of a way round it.

  “What a waste. You only need six to get to something important, while the sorcerer slaughtered things wholesale to make stuff like walking footstools. I wonder if they’re bored now you’ve stopped them wandering….” Kelis stopped mid-speech, eyes wide as Abel lunged out of his seat with his arms open and a
big smile starting.

  “Brilliant!” The smile died before Abel reached her and he turned on his heel. “Er, thanks Kelis. Good idea.” He headed out of the door without looking back, completely missing Kelis’s half-lifted arms and stricken look.

  ∼∼

  Abel marched down the corridor berating himself. A hug wouldn’t have mattered if it had been Jenny or even Una or Petra who’d come up with the idea. But it had been Kelis, and he’d nearly grabbed her and maybe reactivated that ruddy magical link. He had to be more careful because even if Kelis had got herself past the whole thing and had boyfriends, it only needed him to be stupid once to wreck her life. Abel stopped outside the library and calmed down. Maybe this idea wouldn’t work so he’d sneak up on it.

  Ferryl looked round as Abel came in. She’d knelt with her nose almost against the glass instead of sitting on the swivel chair as usual. “Hi Abel. I’m trying to see whatever it is, but it’s just out of sight. If I could see it, and it isn’t a wit, I’d stop beating my brain to death trying to get it.” She stood up, still looking into the glass tank.

  “So how would you get the whatever out if you could reach it? Do the shades actually inhabit the tree or dead dog, or are they attached to a bit of something else? Those bound shades that were in the garden, the dead trees, had two of your wits in them.” Abel looked into the tank, deliberately not meeting Ferryl’s eyes. He was hopeless at fooling her or anyone else, so she’d twig immediately. “Does everything with a bound shade have a wit inside or is it something else?”

  “A bound shade without a vessel is usually kept in a tattoo on whoever binds and controls it, only released when it’s needed. That ogre the churchman, John, brought to Castle House is a bound shade. A live creature that is controlled through a tattoo is a bound servant. I have a tiny spider one for the leech.” Abel almost asked where it was but shut up for two reasons. Firstly, he didn’t want to be sidetracked. The other reason was Abel had seen Ferryl in a miniskirt and crop top when she dropped the fur seeming. There’d been no sign of a spider tattoo so maybe it embarrassed her. Ferryl had continued, oblivious to his minor brainstorm. “If a shade is bound into a vessel, it has to be anchored to something solid containing magic and instructions. The anchor can be wood, stone, or bone, not necessarily a wit. Wits can hold very complicated instructions, because of how the bone is altered to hold knowledge. The wits in the trees still had all my information on them but the sorcerer had also inscribed his own instructions, tied to whatever he’d killed. I wiped those off again, healed them.”

  “So, if you take the solid thing out, does the shade come with it? Or can you move the shade to another instruction?” Abel kept his eyes firmly on a big striped angelfish.

  “The shade has to stay bound to the original solid medium with the magic in it, or finish dying. Though if new instructions are inscribed, then the old ones erased, that would alter its purpose.” Abel saw the reflection of Ferryl shrug. “A sorceress wouldn’t bother because it would take time and care to avoid killing the shade. It’s a lot easier to bind a new shade.”

  Abel braced himself and turned towards her, trying for expressionless. “But if the sorcerer didn’t want to kill something new, and found a better use for a shade than controlling a walking footstool?” He saw her brow furrow, then clear, and Ferryl gave him a single penetrating glance. Abel couldn’t keep his face completely straight, a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth.

  “Really?”

  “They’re dead already. An aquarium might be more exciting for them. After all mmmph.” Abel quit trying to talk and kissed back.

  “That’s for thinking about my problem long enough to find me an answer.”

  “Kelis came up with it. I told her the problem and she said the stools might like a change.” Abel smiled and pointed. “She’s in the sitting room, with five bored footstools.”

  A few moments later he tried to get his breath back while Ferryl gave him a wicked smile. “That’s because I can’t kiss Kelis to say thank you.” She whirled and set off down the corridor. Abel watched her with a wry smile. Actually, Ferryl could kiss Kelis even if it might shock the hell out of her. Him kissing Kelis was the problem, though after those two from Ferryl it seemed a lot less problematic.

  “Can I go to help? I will be able to see the flows. Then if you have to remove shades again I can tell you how.”

  “Go for it, Zephyr. Just knock before you go in.” A shimmer shot off down the corridor and around the edge of the door without knocking or opening it. Since there’d been no yelp of alarm before she did, Ferryl must have restrained herself. Abel sat down in an armchair and relaxed. Ferryl would be busy working on the solution now rather than fretting, and he hoped transferring the shades would distract Kelis from her worries. Actually, wondering what might be on the wit, if it was one, might distract him. Though instead Abel curled up with the Highway Code, trying to memorise who had right of way and stopping distances. Perhaps Kelis had the right idea, inscribing them all on a wit would be quicker than learning them.

  ∼∼

  Abel wasn’t learning the Highway Code during the next eight days. He barely had time to keep up with his schoolwork. Rob and Jenny joined in with the great wit rescue as well, because the first chore had to be extracting the shades from the stools. Dismantling the stools without disturbing the magic that preserved the shades turned out to be slow, careful work, just as Ferryl had warned. Twice Jenny lost track of time and stayed until her dad texted to ask if she was okay. He still didn’t like her riding her moped in the dark. Because the house always had lighting, none of them had noticed the garden getting darker, though nobody could see the lights from outside. Despite being able to see through them from inside, from outside the windows still looked boarded up. Eventually Ferryl had six small, carved cubes of wood.

  The distraction wasn’t working properly for Rob because Melanie had reported the toadstools another four times, and swore she’d seen a troll twice. She’d seen all of them from her bedroom, though they’d been hidden from the downstairs rooms by the back fence. Unfortunately, Rob’s bedroom faced the street, and by the time she’d brought him through there wasn’t a sign. Ferryl still couldn’t identify the toadstools, because they were very ghostly, misty, so Melanie only had a vague description. Now she’d been allowed to play Bonny’s Tavern again, Melanie used the sightings in an attempt to wangle an invite to play at Kelis’s house.

  The five Taverners still held some meetings in Kelis’s house, in the original Bonny’s Tavern, because they didn’t want any parents knowing about the house. So far none of the parents seemed to realise they’d got inside, even making remarks about the amount of time the teenagers spent in a cold cave. Rob had ordered a cheap garden shed over the internet, to put up in the garden so they could allegedly meet there. Late in March, Rob turned up at Bonny’s Tavern with his little sister. Melanie, now almost fifteen, clutched a battered toy fox and looked frightened. That warned the others there must be a real problem, because she should have been triumphant about getting into the original Bonny’s Tavern.

  Rob pointed to a seat. “Sit down please, Melanie.” He turned to the others. “Melanie the trainee sorceress. She’s fluttered a leaf half a dozen times, but daren’t tell me. She didn’t contact Ferryl Shayde because she recognised the email domain and knew it would come to me.” He went to the little fridge, opening it and putting in a dozen cans he’d brought in a carrier bag. “Tell them why you didn’t tell me the first time, Melanie.”

  “I wasn’t sure, and didn’t want Rob to laugh at me. Then Diane said she thought her leaf moved. She didn’t say so on Skype, during the game, she texted me afterwards.” Melanie hugged her toy harder. “She daren’t tell Jenny, but we wondered if you all flutter leaves, if that’s why it’s in the game. I know you go into that spooky wood because I’ve followed you, but I’ve never worked up the nerve to go inside so I don’t know what you do in there.” All those present knew she never would, because the barr
ier would stop her.

  “So why tell him now?” Kelis paused, looking a little bit guilty. “Sorry. Would you like a drink first?”

  For some reason the answer shocked Melanie. Her eyes widened and she clutched her toy fox to her, her eyes darting from one to another of the older teenagers. Eventually, after a couple of tries, she managed to answer. “Yes please, because it’s really true, isn’t it? I was worried about imagining things because of the stuff over the fence. Then Rob fluttered a leaf and said it was real, but he’s always winding me up.” Behind her Rob shrugged, totally unrepentant. The winding up went both ways. “None of you are even surprised. Why didn’t you warn me?”

  “Rachel was watching for the first signs. Most people mention the funny feeling down their arms, and we tell them then.” Kelis smiled happily, turning to Abel. “You told the others about Ferryl really being called Zephyr so everyone could call Fay Ferryl, which confused the hell out of them. Now’s your chance to explain to someone who never got used to the other version.”

  “Zephyr, fly out nice and steady please.” Abel pointed to the shimmer. “Melanie, meet our resident sorceress. She is called Zephyr.” He held out a hand to Ferryl. “Both resident sorceresses because Fay is the real deal, the original Ferryl Shayde.”

  “Rob explained where the name came from.” Melanie sounded distracted, her whole attention on Zephyr. “Are you invisible, er, Zephyr? Sorceress? I can see a smoky line out of Abel’s shoulder and a fuzzy bit.” She squinted, then ducked her head to look from a different angle. “Is that because I can’t see properly yet? Rob said I’d start to see weird stuff, and gave me this.” She dug inside her sweatshirt and held up a Tavern hex. Another dangled from a cord around the toy fox’s neck.