Golden Mane, Book One of The Adventures of Sarah Coppernick

by SJB Gilmour

  The giant worm gave a bit of a shake and two eyes appeared behind the glasses. ‘Oh, hello Miss Angela! I must have nodded off there for a moment. Do forgive me!’

  Angela smiled sweetly at the giant worm and gave him a friendly pat on the head. ‘That’s alright, my old friend. I’d like to introduce you to two students of mine. Melanie and Sarah, this is Nathan, our bookwyrm.’

  ‘Hello,’ said Sarah. She was quite confused as to how to greet the odd creature. He had no hands to shake, so she thought it best to give a polite nod instead. Mel glanced at Sarah and did the same.

  ‘Hello ladies, pleased to meet you, pleased to meet you,’ Nathan said warmly. ‘Welcome to the main access area of Heirogryph Tomes Library!’ The strange purple creature seemed very proud of his library. ‘Now, Angela will show you where everything is, I’m sure. The usual rules apply here,’ he instructed. ‘You know, keeping your voices down and all that. And I must advise that if you need a tome you can’t reach,’ he nodded at the floor-to-ceiling bookshelves, ‘you ask me. That’s what I’m here for. We can’t have you climbing the shelves, now, can we?’

  ‘What’s the difference between a tome and an ordinary old book?’ Sarah asked. She ignored Mel’s stifled giggle. Just because everyone else knew what it was, didn’t mean she knew as well. And nobody had seen fit to tell her, so Sarah thought it was a fair question.

  Nathan seemed surprised. ‘Well,’ he said after a moment. ‘A tome is a book that has been enchanted or contains enchanted text or spells. They will only respond to creatures with the power to understand them. Ordinary mortals won’t even see them.’ As the massive worm explained, his eyes lit up and his head began to glow slightly, giving off just enough light so that if he wanted to read in complete darkness, he would be able to see with ease.

  ‘You see, Sarah,’ he said, slithering out from behind the counter. ‘All these tomes are indeed just books, but they all have something extra special about them. Some contain spells, and incantations, not to mention hexes and curses. Other tomes contain the usual subjects you’d find in a library. You know… History, car maintenance, biographies, recipes… That sort of thing. Of course, everything here is either a copy of one of Master McConnell’s originals or an original that’s still in circulation. Master McConnell’s private library, much bigger than this one, I’m told, is not on these premises and is strictly off-limits.’ His eyes whirled wishfully. ‘Oh, that’d be a wonder,’ he mused. ‘Did you know it’s supposed to have more than…’

  Sarah could see Nathan was really warming to his subject. He appeared set on talking for quite a while. Thankfully, Angela came to the rescue.

  ‘Thank you, Nathan,’ Angela said. ‘I’m sure this library is more than adequate for our needs.’

  Nathan seemed abashed. ‘Oh yes,’ he replied. ‘Quite.’

  Angela then ushered the girls through the bookshelves, all stacked very neatly with the same sort of books Sarah had seen in the sealed bookshelf in reception. Finally, they came to a small reading area in the middle of the room. The girls each took a seat on some very comfy armchairs while Angela went back to chat with Nathan.

  After a few minutes, Angela still had not yet returned. ‘What are we supposed to do?’ Sarah asked Mel, who was also getting quite impatient at just sitting still with nothing to do.

  ‘I don’t know about you,’ Mel replied, ‘but I’m going to have look around. She didn’t tell us not to, so we can’t get into too much trouble, can we?’

  Sarah agreed that that was probably true, so the two friends wandered about the library, frequently stopping to look at the strange tomes on the shelves. Some appeared quite new and a great many had the Heirogryph logo on their spines. Some also appeared to be very old. Although she had just started to learn Magaeic, Sarah found she could easily understand many of the titles. One section sparked her curiosity more than the others. On the flat narrow end of the bookshelf was a small dusty sign.

  Warlocks to Wyverns.

  Sarah scanned through the books until she found what she was looking for. It was a big tome bound in black leather with gold-edged pages. On the spine and cover was the title Who’s Who of Werewolves Volume 1672 (Mortal Centuries 19 - 22). She pulled it out of the bookshelf and got quite a surprise. The enchanted book floated in the air about half a metre in front of her, just the right height for reading. Gingerly, she reached forward to grasp the tome, which seemed to have no weight at all, and held it firmly. It offered no resistance when she walked back to her seat, and it politely waited for her to sit down and get settled before it positioned itself in front of her and opened itself to the first page.

  A very lifelike drawing of a wolf was in the middle of the page. When Sarah looked at it, it came alive and looked straight at her.

  ‘Hello,’ it said. Now this was an absolute surprise to Sarah. Though the language the wolf spoke was clearly not English, Sarah found she could easily understand it. Then it dawned on her that this was the language of wolves!

  ‘Of course you can understand me,’ the wolf told her. ‘Just as the necromancer next to you can. Wolf is an emotive language. No words; just feelings. Far less limiting than plain old English.’

  ‘H… Hello?’ Sarah stammered back.

  ‘Now, was there someone in particular you were looking for? Or would you like to just start reading?’ The wolf asked her politely, wagging his tail.

  Sarah thought about this for a moment. Deciding on what she really wanted to know, she told the book, ‘I’d like to look up my parents, Henry and Jozefa Coppernick.’

  The wolf tilted his head to one side for a moment. ‘Ahh, yes, those two. Very curious indeed.’ The pages flicked past until they settled in the middle of the ‘C’ chapter. There at the top of the page was a picture of her mother and father, very similar to the one on her mantelpiece in the living room at home.

  Coppernick, Henryk & Jozefa: (Kopernik, Henryk & Jozefa – formerly Witch-Hazel). Brown Coat werewolves. Cryptographers. Lycanthrope liberators. Residents of Earth. Achievements: Peace and justice achieved in four inter-family wizarding disputes; The McConnell Fracas, the 5000-year Zeus Feud, the Lithuanian Pixie Massacre and the Sao Paulo Ogre Coup.

  Offspring: Unlisted. DOB: Unlisted. Status: Missing. Known Associations: Former Members of the Sorcerers’ Guild Diplomatic Corp. Werewolves’ Council directors and founders of the Sorcerers’ Backgammon Social Society.

  Sarah’s eyes widened as she read. She was so engrossed that she hardly noticed Mel come back with another big floating tome. Sarah closed the chapter and flicked back to the front page.

  ‘Sorry I couldn’t give you any more information,’ said the wolf. ‘They disappeared on whatever their last mission was, probably. It must have been classified, because it’s not in my pages. Is there anyone else you’d like to know about?’

  Soon Sarah had read all about Roberta and Robert, which wasn’t much. Their photographs were old and most of their information was ‘Unlisted’. The book didn’t even have a record of Benjamin at all.

  ‘Do you know about my Uncle Benjamin?’ she asked the wolf.

  The wolf sat on his haunches and tilted his head to one side again. ‘Sorry, can’t help you there either Sarah,’ he said sadly. ‘You might try The History of The Sorcerers’ Guild by Leo Vincenza, or Most Unusual Moments in Wizardry by Madame Curie. Of course, his involvement in The McConnell Fracas is still being investigated so there’s very little public record of that, but he’s almost certainly listed in The Concise Enchanter’s Almanac by His Highness, Viscount Vladimir Dracul, of Transylvania. Though,’ the wolf in the tome added huffily, ‘that tome’s never been very well respected by serious academics.’

  ‘Dracula!’ exclaimed Sarah out loud. ‘But he’s not real!’

  ‘Oh yes he is,’ Mel said, looking up from the tome she had been reading. ‘Uncle Vlad is very real. Well, he’s not really my uncle, he’s just one of my dad’s mates. But he’s real all right. His name’s Dracul, though. Mortals ke
ep adding an “a” to the end of his name for some reason. It sends him wild!’ She chuckled.

  ‘And he’s really a vampire?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘Yep. Teeth, turns into a bat, no reflection, the whole deal. ‘Cept all that stuff about garlic and crucifixes doesn’t really work. Best way to kill a wraith is to chop off its head and punch a wooden stake through its heart. Shooting it with silver will slow it down a bit, but won’t kill it. Wraiths are pretty tough. Mortals just made that other stuff up to make themselves feel better.’

  ‘What about daylight?’

  Mel nodded, her green eyes bright. ‘He’ll burn alright. I’ve seen it. He stuck his hand out the window once when we had lunch with him. Whoosh! Caught fire just like that. By dinnertime, he was fine. He can go out in the daylight if he prepares himself first though…’ Mel furrowed her brow. ‘I dunno how he does that, but I know he can do it for a short while…’

  ‘Lunch? He drinks blood!’ The whole idea sounded awful.

  Mel turned to her very seriously. ‘Listen, Sarah, there’s a big difference between the rubbish you see on TV and the real world. It doesn’t have to be blood at all. Any fresh meat will do. When it is blood they drink, it doesn’t have to be human. Most vampires get their blood wholesale from butchers. Human blood doesn’t even taste that nice.’

  The matter-of fact tone Mel was using made the whole conversation very disturbing. Even more so was the implication that Mel herself had actually tasted human blood. Sarah felt very surprised that her new friend knew so much about vampires that she could discuss such hideous things so casually. She gave an involuntary shudder.

  Mel noticed her expression and grinned. ‘You’ll get used to it. You were raised as a mortal human, weren’t you?’

  Sarah nodded, not quite sure what to say.

  ‘That explains it, then. Just because vampires and wraiths do drink blood, it doesn’t mean that’s all they can eat. Uncle Vlad is a real gourmet. He goes on and on about wine.’ She rolled her eyes. ‘Should hear him carry on if he gets a steak that’s been overcooked. The last time my folks and I had dinner with him, he killed his chef.’

  ‘She’s right, you know,’ the wolf on the page said to Sarah. ‘Wraiths need a very high protein diet… A lot like werewolves, actually.’

  Sarah stared at the wolf on the page in absolute horror. She recalled just how much Roberta would complain if her t-bone at a restaurant was overcooked.

  ‘Are you saying I’m going to start drinking blood?’ she demanded.

  The wolf sniffed and shook his head several times. ‘Of course not!’ He sounded quite offended. ‘It’s far too salty for wolves. You just need the right concentration of proteins, vitamins and minerals. Wraiths need blood because their systems need the iron and the salt as well as the protein. Your salt requirements aren’t nearly so high. All werewolves really need is a diet rich in protein and fresh vegetables. Blood tastes nice, but too much salt hardens your arteries,’ the wolf told her. ‘Red beans are good too, but they’re really beneath most dignified wolves, and the can upset one’s digestion if they’re not cooked properly.’

  Sarah began to feel a bit better.

  ‘Uncle Vlad sends me Solstice cards every year and he’s invited me to study at Renfields.’ Mel continued.

  ‘At what?’

  ‘He runs a school for succubi, witches and vampires called Renfields. But, since most of his students end up in big trouble, my parents won’t let me go. It’s like they don’t trust me or something.’

  ‘Well, you did burn down your last school.’

  ‘Don’t remind me!’ Mel sniffed. ‘When Mum and Dad found out, they were furious. I suggested Renfields, but that only made them angrier. They were going to send me to the Amazon Academy at Lentekhi, but Aunt Angela talked them out of it. Said I’m not ready or some rubbish. Anyway, Uncle Vlad is as real as you.’

  ‘Next you’ll be telling me that Frankenstein owns a restaurant!’ Sarah scoffed.

  Mel frowned. ‘No, he’s not real. The bloke the story was based on is real enough, though. His name is Frank Stein and he used to be a necromancer with the Sorcerers’ Guild, I think. He left all that when golems were outlawed. He’s mostly retired now. He just runs a clothes shop with a few golems working for him.’

  ‘You’re joking!’ Sarah accused her.

  ‘No, I’m not. Where do you think I got this stupid jumper?’ She pulled out the label at the back of her jumper and held it out for Sarah to see.

  Sarah leaned forward to see the label. Her hair fell in front of her eyes so she brushed it out of the way with an exasperated sigh. She looked at the label.

  Frank Stein’s Haberdashery.

  Manchester, Buttons and School Uniforms for Witches and Warlocks.

  Sarah brushed her shaggy hair out of her eyes yet again. ‘Vampires don’t have to drink blood. That’s a relief. Doctor Frankenstein was just a necromancer who used to make golems. What is a golem, by the way?’

  The wolf on the page sniffed with disdain. ‘Golems are usually animated corpses, or creatures made out of various body parts from other creatures, mud and bits of straw. They’re not very useful and they usually taste awful.’

  ‘Forget I asked!’ Sarah murmured with a shudder.

  Mel smiled in agreement. ‘Mummies and golems are both wrapped up much the same way, I think. I think Stein was trying to make the perfect mummy wrapping and that’s how he ended up in the rag trade.’

  Sarah brushed her hair out of her eyes yet again. ‘Don’t worry, I get the picture,’ she said, a trifle grumpily. ‘Damn this hair. I wish there was something I could do about it! It just won’t stay right.’

  The wolf in the tome looked at her. ‘Well, you are a werewolf, after all. If your coat’s not shiny, it’s probably because you’re not getting enough of the right foods.’

  ‘What?’ Sarah asked in confusion.

  ‘Well, you’re a growing cub. You probably need a bit more oil and vitamin E. Add a couple of spoonfuls of olive oil to every meal. Butter is good too. The occasional raw egg and plenty of fish aren’t bad either. Try it. Does wonders. Now, have you finished with me or should I hang around for a while longer?’

  Stunned, Sarah mumbled that she didn’t need the tome any more and it shut itself and drifted off, back to its place on the bookshelf it had come from.

  Mel was trying very hard not to giggle. ‘Raw eggs and fish! Yuck!’ she chortled. ‘Are you going to have to mix it all up in a dog bowl?’ She laughed even harder.

  Sarah didn’t think it was funny at all. The thought that she might have to eat fattier foods made her worry terribly. Like most girls her age, Sarah was frightfully worried about her waistline. She felt her face redden and her temper rising just as it had at school when other kids were picking on her. Mel laughed even harder, ignoring her tome’s request for attention. Sarah went to stand up to confront her friend, when something very strange happened.

  She heard a rushing sound in her ears and then her nose started to tingle mightily. The air in front of her blurred and then everything seemed much bigger. She gave a startled yelp and sat down on her haunches and curled her tail down under herself between her hind legs. She had turned into a wolf cub!

  In a blind panic, she bolted in the direction of the front counter in search of Angela, whining most terribly. Mel doubled over in a fit of laughter that brought several shushes from the stacks of tomes in the shelves.

  The counter was empty. Desperately, Sarah looked about her. She couldn’t see Angela or Nathan anywhere. Then she realised something - she could smell her teacher! She sniffed several times, making sure she got it right, and then she carefully followed the scent around the counter and into the tearoom. There she found Angela and Nathan playing cards. Angela held hers in her hand. Nathan’s however, hovered just in front of him in the same way the tome she had been reading had done. Sarah gave a relieved yelp and leaped onto Angela’s lap.

  ‘Help me! Help me!’ she tried to say, but all
that came out was a series of panicked yelps.

  Angela gave a startled exclamation and hugged the little wolf cub. ‘Well, Sarah!’ she cried. ‘You’ve finally done it! I’m so happy for you! Your coat is certainly a lovely golden colour. We must get you to a mirror!’

  ‘Yes,’ agreed Nathan. He winked at an empty space beside the table and a large mirror appeared. Angela put Sarah down on the carpet. The poor thing was very frightened. She didn’t know what was going on. Her tail felt very unusual, as she had not had one before. Also, walking on all fours, though very easy, but most unusual indeed. She nervously walked towards the mirror and was amazed by what she saw. There, standing in front of her, was an adorable little golden-haired wolf cub. Her tail wagged anxiously. She glanced down at her paws, which seemed far too big for the rest of her body. For the first time in her life, she understood exactly why nobody in her family liked to wear shoes.

  Then Sarah saw something even more amazing. An empty spot in the air about a metre from her shimmered and flickered with little sparks of rainbow-coloured light. Then in the middle of the shimmering air, Benjamin appeared wearing galoshes, thick tweed pants and a heavy woollen overcoat. Over his shoulder was slung a big double-barrelled shotgun. On his head he wore a felt hat with woolly flaps that hung over his ears.

  ‘Hullo Sarah!’ He said brightly. Then he too turned into a wolf and stepped towards her, his tongue lolling out happily. ‘Looks like you’ve finally done it!’

  ‘Done it?’ Sarah yelped. ‘How?’ She didn’t like her change in circumstances one little bit.

  ‘Don’t worry,’ he told her reassuringly. ‘It’ll get easier from now on and each time you change form, you’ll grow just a little bit more. In a few months or so, you’ll be fully grown!’

  Mel appeared, finally having managed to get her giggling under control. She stopped in surprise when she saw Benjamin in his wolf form. Even though she was used to the massive wolf by now, he was still an imposing figure and commanded a great deal of respect.

  ‘It’s always a shock at first,’ he continued. ‘Usually, it comes as a complete surprise. One minute you’re about to get mad at someone, then blam! You’re a wolf.’ He smiled. ‘That’s the scary bit. As soon as you’re over the initial panic, the instincts of the werewolf come to you. After a few moments, it’ll seem as natural as anything.’