Golden Mane, Book One of The Adventures of Sarah Coppernick

by SJB Gilmour

  ‘Spellweaving?’ Sarah hadn’t heard that term before.

  Angela seemed surprised for a moment. Then she gave Sarah an understanding look.

  ‘Oh, I see,’ she murmured. ‘This really is very new to you, isn’t it?’

  Sarah nodded.

  ‘Well, let’s find out where we’re up to. You know Master McConnell’s a werewolf?’

  ‘Uh huh,’ Sarah replied nervously.

  ‘And that he’s a sorcerer?’

  ‘Uh huh,’ she said again, though this time she wasn’t quite so sure of herself.

  ‘It’s quite alright, my dear. We call him Master because Master McConnell is in fact a Master sorcerer and his specialty is spellweaving. He creates and writes spells for other sorcerers to use. He’s considered quite the expert. If ever there’s any question about the authenticity of a spell or hex, Master McConnell is one of the foremost authorities to call upon. Does that explain enough for now?’

  Sarah nodded again. Her mind was so full of questions, she barely knew where to start or what to say.

  ‘Now, Sarah, I know you must have hundreds of questions. I’ll do my best to answer as many as I can, but if we’re to get along as smashingly as I hope we will,’ and now she looked at Sarah appealingly, ‘promise you’ll try to be patient. You’ve a great deal to learn and if we don’t teach you things in the right order, we could miss out on some of the more important bits.’

  This made sense to Sarah and even though she was just itching to know as much as she could as fast as she could possibly learn it, she knew this strange woman was right. She’d just have to hurry up and wait.

  ‘Okay,’ she said as Angela led her through yet another doorway and she found herself back in the foyer. As soon as the door behind them swung shut, another behind the reception counter burst open. Another young girl about Sarah’s age, also dressed in a school uniform, stormed through. The girl had shoulder-length black hair, green eyes and pale olive skin. Also, she was even skinnier (and Sarah couldn’t help noticing, even flatter) than Sarah. She was very angry. Angela rolled her eyes skywards as if to say ‘Why me?’

  ‘Why can’t he stay in the classroom?’ the girl demanded. ‘It’s not like he’s done anything wrong, now is it? And why do I have to wear this stupid uniform?’ The girl stood in front of Angela with her hands on her hips.

  Angela smiled reasonably at the girl. ‘Now Melanie,’ she said quite calmly. ‘You know the rules. No make-up. No pets or familiars and no weapons. Like it or not, this is school. It’s a school uniform or it’s a military one. Your parents were quite clear on that. It’s this school, or the Academy. That’s all there is to it.’

  This only provoked the angry girl even further. She seemed ready to throw a full-blown tantrum.

  Uh, oh, thought Sarah. She would never have the nerve to do that in front of a stranger.

  ‘Mel,’ said Angela, nodding towards Sarah. ‘This is Sarah Coppernick. She’ll be joining you in your lessons here. Sarah, this is my niece, Melanie Hazelwood.’

  Sarah extended her hand to Mel. The two girls shook hands and stared at each other for a moment. All the fire seemed to drain out of Mel and she smiled shyly.

  ‘Well,’ declared Angela, clapping her hands together again. ‘Time to go to class. Follow me.’ She marched through the glass doors so briskly that Sarah and Mel had to jog to keep up. Angela led them down a long marble-floored corridor to the elevator. She pressed the call button and the doors slid open almost immediately. The two girls had to run the last few steps to make it inside.

  The doors closed behind them and Sarah realised she was in an elevator unlike any she’d seen before. At first, everything appeared to be normal. The walls were stainless steel and there were buttons along one side to open and close the doors and more numbered buttons. Then the walls shimmered and instead of being plain old stainless steel, they glowed every colour of the rainbow and flickered brightly. Then the buttons disappeared and two large eyes and a mouth appeared in their place.

  ‘Where to?’ the elevator demanded impatiently.

  ‘Whoa!’ Sarah gasped at the odd sight and backed against one of the walls.

  ‘Classroom, please,’ ordered Angela. She then fished in her purse and produced a small silver quill like the ones in the glass bowl on the reception counter. She popped the quill into the elevator’s mouth.

  The elevator gave a lurch. Instead of normal downwards pressure one feels when an elevator goes up, the occupants of this elevator all swayed slightly to the left as the strange machine seemed to be moving sideways! Then it shuddered and seemed to be going down and Sarah felt quite light. Then she began to feel heavier as the elevator slowed down and eventually stopped.

  ‘Destination three hundred and eight!’ announced the elevator abruptly. ‘Head Office. Student’s classroom, broom closet and assorted bolts and nuts!’ The doors slid open and Sarah was amazed. She paused to look about her. First, she looked around the rest of the elevator. The only other thing she could see in the glowing walls was a small brass plaque.

  Ottispuschenshuffen, Ottispuschenshuffen & Ottispuschenshuffen.

  Enchanted Elevators, Ladders and Stairways.

  Since before any of us can remember.

  ‘Come on, don’t dawdle!’ chided the elevator. ‘Out you get!’ It gave a shudder, quite an unnerving experience, and Sarah shot out into a large corridor. The corridor opened up into a classroom with bookshelves, a blackboard and wooden desks and chairs. There were windows along one wall. Sarah peered out, not quite sure of what to expect since in the elevator, she’d felt as if she was going downwards. Out through the window, she looked far down at the construction site outside with the cranes and trucks and men in hard hats. The building she was in seemed somehow much, much taller that it appeared to be from the outside.

  The strangest thing about the classroom however, was that it was so huge. The room and the corridor outside seemed much larger than she thought could be housed in the building. Why, the room next door wasn’t even a real room! It was a small play area that included playground equipment, a netball hoop and a hopscotch diagram painted onto the floor.

  ‘But… but where are we?’ she demanded, feeling quite unsure of herself. Here she was with two strangers in a very strange building in a schoolroom that couldn’t exist!

  ‘You’re in my office, Sarah,’ said Benjamin from behind her. He pointed out the corridor where other rooms were obviously offices set up for business. There were desks, printers, telephones and filing cabinets.

  Sarah whirled around in surprise. How did he keep appearing like that?

  ‘Well,’ he waved negligently at the office equipment and files. ‘One of them. I rarely use more than a simple pencil, to be honest so I’m afraid none of this gets much use. If I’m not using the space, we might as well do something constructive with it, wouldn’t you say? We’ve turned it into a bit of a classroom for you.’

  He showed her to one of the student desks and indicated that she sit down. Then he crossed to the teacher’s desk and sat on it, gesturing to Angela to take over.

  With a polite nod to Benjamin, Angela stood in front of the blackboard and waited for Mel to take her seat next to Sarah. When both girls were seated, she spoke.

  ‘Now girls, perhaps we should do this the way we’re used to at an ordinary school. Sarah, Mel, I’d like each of you to stand up and tell us a little bit about yourself.’

  While she was saying this, the air shimmered around Benjamin and Sarah felt that all-too-familiar tingling on the end of her nose. Then there was a magnificent silver and black wolf sitting between Angela’s desk and the blackboard. Benjamin lay down on his belly and rested his muzzle on his forepaws and closed his eyes as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

  Mel, who up until this point had behaved as if she’d seen it all before, leaned forward in amazement and stared at Sarah’s uncle.

  ‘Whoa, a werewolf!’ Mel exclaimed. She turned to Sarah. ‘If he’s your
uncle, are you a werewolf too? I’m going to be a necromancer.’

  Angela tapped Mel’s desk with a ruler and cleared her throat. ‘Miss Hazelwood, since you’re being so vocal this morning, you can start.’

  Mel looked up at her aunt, whose full height seemed very imposing. She gulped.

  ‘Yes, Ma’am,’ she said and stood to face Sarah and Angela, who walked back to her seat at her desk and sat down, nudging Benjamin out of the way of her long legs.

  ‘My name is Mel Hazelwood,’ she said. ‘I’m eleven and a half and I’m a witch and I’m going to be a necromancer one day,’ she repeated.

  ‘What’s a necromancer?’ Sarah asked, curious.

  ‘Sarah, there are nine basic fields of sorcery.’ Angela rose from her chair, nudging poor Benjamin out of the way again as she crossed to the blackboard. The great silver and black wolf frowned in a harried expression and padded over to the other side of the room where he turned around several times on the spot then once more lay down to rest.

  Angela began writing on the board. ‘Each field has its own chapter or chapters,’ she said. ‘These are regulated by Masters of that particular field. The fields are healing, seeing, alchemy, flora, fauna, spellweaving, smithing and necromancy.’

  ‘That’s eight,’ Sarah said.

  Angela nodded. ‘There is one other type of sorcerer that doesn’t have any sort of recognised chapter, and that’s oracularity. Oracles are sorcerers who claim to be able to communicate directly with gods without the usual prayers and rites. They’re often attached to particular churches or cults whose worshippers deify the particular entity in question and they’re usually able to explain and or declare prophecies with much greater precision than seers.’ She made a disdainful face. ‘Most oracles are insane of course. The constant touch of a god’s mind usually overwhelms their own and they go quite mad, I’m afraid.’ She paused and looked sternly at Mel. ‘The same thing can be said for necromancers occasionally. Folk who routinely seek out spirits who have departed this world often run into devils and demons and they can be particularly nasty if they set their minds to it. At best, necromancers border on the paranoid. At their worst, well we’ll worry about that later.’

  Sarah stared at her teacher, then at Mel and then up at the list on the board.

  ‘There are a few other categories,’ Angela continued. ‘They’re sort of hard to define and vary so greatly that they don’t really fit into the standard nine. Illusionists and charmers for example. Some are little more than con-men without much talent at all. Those with more power tend to use their gifts for naughty purposes so most of them are outcasts.’

  ‘Except the gnomes,’ Mel interrupted.

  ‘That’s right Mel. The gnomes tend to be a self-conscious lot and take themselves very seriously. They just adore pomp and ceremony too, so the illusionists among them spend most of their time making themselves and those who pay them look better than every other gnome. They’re quite competitive about it.’ Angela chuckled to herself for a moment. ‘Oh dear, yes the gnomes are a funny lot.’

  Then she sobered and turned to the board again. ‘Not all enchanted beings are practicing sorcerers, however,’ Angela told Sarah over her shoulder. ‘There are werewolves like your aunt and uncle who rarely practice any sorcery at all. There are also demons and devils, their masters. There are elves, pixies, fairies and all sorts of other creatures. You met our resident quickling, Maddy this morning. Most enchanted creatures,’ and she turned and nodded at Sarah meaningfully, ‘especially werewolves, have some powers of sorcery. The more powerful the creature, the more sorcery they can perform. Also, some enchanted creatures are more suited to certain fields of sorcery. Goblins tend to gravitate towards smithing, although they’re also expert translators.’

  ‘I love Jilde!’ Mel interrupted again. She turned to Sarah. ‘You should see the airships of Jilde! They’re fantastic!’

  Sarah had no idea what this girl was talking about. Her blank expression made Angela smile.

  ‘Sarah dear, Jilde is the home world of the goblins. It has no moon and very little in the way of natural resources except silver and other heavy metals. The Jildere Academy turns out smiths by the score. Most of them go into their main industry making airships and ornithopters.’ She stepped over to a large array of posters on one wall and pointed at what Sarah had assumed were science fiction posters. ‘These,’ she told Sarah, pointing at large bronze flying ships and air balloons, ‘are ornithopters and of course as Mel said, the much larger airships of Jilde.’

  Sarah gaped at the machines blankly. This was becoming all too weird for her!

  ‘They make machines that fly!’ Mel piped up, excitedly. ‘Really fly, not just shoot through the air because they’re hooked up to jet engines!’

  ‘Yes Mel, we know.’ Angela remarked. To Sarah she said, ‘Sarah, Earth is one of the only worlds we know of that burns fossil fuels for energy.’ She shrugged. ‘Then of course, humans discovered electricity very late for such smart creatures. The goblins use a mix of sorcery, geothermal and nuclear energy to power their society, same as the gnomes. That’s why so many gnomes are miners, smiths and alchemists. The elves of course are strictly hydro-electric and solar-powered…’ She paused for a moment. ‘Now, where was I?’ she mused. Then she smiled. ‘Oh yes… Folk of Were!’ She turned back to the board and resumed writing, ‘the natives of Wolfenvald. Werewolves, wereeagles and werecats, tend to be necromancers, spell-weavers or healers. They’re the fields that require the most power. Except the Grey Werewolves. They tend to be seers or smiths. They’re the enchanted versions of human engineers and mathematicians.’ She shook her head slightly. ‘Mad,’ she murmured, ‘quite mad, the lot of them.’

  All this was so outlandish it almost seemed funny to Sarah. ‘It sounds like a lot of sorcerers are crazy,’ she commented.

  ‘Mortal humans don’t have the monopoly on lunacy, I can assure of that. They are however, much more creative, despite their slowness to adopt electricity.’ She looked up and smiled dreamily. ‘Their art, their music and oh, their food! Mmm! If humans weren’t so creative, most enchanted folk wouldn’t have a bar of them, especially the werewolves. They do have reputation for being a bit of superior. The elves, goblins and gnomes of course look at them as being a bit dim as well.

  ‘Folk of Were are creatures like yourself and your aunt and uncles who have a natural shape other than human. Your ancestral home is the world of Wolfenvald.’ She waved at the ceiling. ‘It’s off that way, kind of. Some hundred thousand light-years or so as the phoenix flies. Of course, there are much faster ways of getting around, but we’ll get to those soon enough.’

  ‘Wait a minute!’ Sarah blurted. ‘I’m from another planet?’ Her voice went up and ended in a squawk.

  Angela gave Benjamin a chiding look. ‘You could have explained that much to her at least, Master McConnell,’ she admonished. Then to Sarah she continued, ‘Yes dear, sort of. I’m told you were born here, so no, you’re not really an alien in the true sense of the word. Your parents however, were most definitely not of this world. It’s well known that they were whelped on Wolfenvald. Most enchanted species have their own ancestral home-worlds. Elves have Vendor, gnomes have Gnumphlatia, goblins have Jilde… or what’s left of it. Werewolves have Wolfenvald. You’ll be learning about most of these planets and more as we go on, though I’m afraid it’ll be up to Master McConnell and your aunt and uncle to teach you about Wolfenvald. Only Folk of Were can go there.’

  Sarah felt stunned, but since she seemed to be the only surprised one in the room, she gulped and tried not to look too shocked.

  ‘Do try to keep up Sarah, dear,’ Angela chided her. ‘You’re a werewolf, so I should expect you to be not quite so dull as your average human. I know all this seems new and weird to you, but it’s very important you get past the human idea that they’re the only ones in the universe.

  ‘Most people on Earth think there’s only one god. There are actually far more than any of us ha
ve been able to count. The Judeo-Christian God or Jehovah, or Allah, or whatever He likes to be called does exist, but so do all the old Greek, Norse, Celtic, Asian and Pacific gods as well as all rest. Some of them have a habit of appearing among us quite regularly. In fact, you’ll probably meet some of them soon if you haven’t already. The Greek or Hellenic gods are particularly nosey. Apollo, Demeter and Pallas Athene are almost always about somewhere. Zeus too, the bossy old fellow.’

  Sarah was beginning to feel quite lost and more than a little tired of sitting there, blinking like a goldfish. It didn’t help that the Miss Harding seemed to expect her to be smart when she was really feeling dumber by the minute.

  ‘In your case,’ Angela continued, ‘your mother became pregnant with you while she was human and so she had to give birth in human form. I gather she stayed on Earth to give birth. The best hospitals are all on Earth. If she had conceived in wolf form, she could only have whelped as a wolf, and probably would have done so on Wolfenvald.

  ‘There are werecats, of course and even wereeagles, but they’re almost extinct in this part of the universe. Lycanthropes, what most mortals think are true werewolves, are only made outside of Wolfenvald when they’re bitten by a full-blood. They can travel to Wolfenvald without harm, but only if they’re taken there by a full-blood. They don’t have the power to get there on their own.’

  Sarah nodded. ‘Uncle Robert and Aunt Roberta told me a bit about them last night.’

  Angela nodded seriously. ‘Dangerous. Very dangerous.’

  ‘Have you met many?’ She wondered what would become of Mandy Kelly.

  Angela nodded again. ‘A few,’ she admitted. ‘Occasionally, I’ve been asked to help werewolves such as your aunt and uncle catch them. If we get to the lycanthrope first, it’s taken to Wolfenvald. There, the werewolf essence can escape, leaving the mortal human once more.’

  ‘First?’

  Angela frowned. ‘Sarah, I was going to wait until much later to tell you this, but since you’re coping so well thus far, I might as well tell you now.’ She focused on Sarah seriously. ‘Dear, you know how popular books about vampires and werewolves are at the moment?’