Hidden Magic

by K. D. Faerydae

  “Dan, have you seen Grace anywhere?” Harry asked. “She’d love to see these badgers.”

  “Nah, I haven’t seen her or Chris for ages now,” he replied. Then he carried on chatting to the fairies, Sarra and Zoe, having taken a particular shine to them both.

  * * *

  Grace and Christian had been a lot more frightened by their Nomed encounter than either of them was prepared to show. They were still unsure as to whether or not the monsters were actually real monsters or guests from the party. They didn’t know how to act, or what actually had happened, or who the scary people were and why there was now a flipping huge horse in Grace’s back garden.

  They both stood gobsmacked, staring at Zavier.

  Ice flew down and landed on Zavier’s back.

  Grace and Christian turned and grabbed each other tightly.

  “Oh my God, it’s HEDWIG!” they chorused, open-mouthed.

  “What do you want me to do, Zavier? It doesn’t look as if the boy child is going to leave her anytime soon,” Ice said.

  “Well it’s not ideal, but I think we will have to take them both back with us,” he replied.

  “Okay. Well, the cloning enchantment will take a little longer for two, but it can still be done. Let’s send Chester and Benjamin to talk to them and I’ll get started on the enchantment,” Ice said.

  “Is that horse talking to Hedwig?” Christian asked Grace.

  “Tonight, Christian, I think anything is possible,” Grace replied.

  Then Chester flew into the centre of the garden where Grace and Christian were hugging and landed gently in the snow in front of them.

  “Hello, Mr Robin, what are you doing here at this time of the night?” Grace said, letting go of Christian and smiling at Chester.

  “Well, you see, the thing is, I’ve come from a magical place called Liberty…” Chester began to say.

  “Oh my God, the robin’s talking, Christian… the robin’s actually talking!” Grace gasped.

  “F-f-flippin’ heck!” Chris said, throwing his head back in disbelief. “I don’t know how much more of this I can take.” He dropped his head into his hands.

  Benjamin hopped across the garden in the thickening snow. “Hi, remember me?” he said, twitching his little nose as he stood up on his hind legs to talk to Grace. “Well, you helped me before and now I need your help again,” he said.

  Grace had now, rather strangely, accepted the fact that the animals could and were talking to her and continued to have a conversation with them as if it were quite normal.

  “Hello, you’re the little bunny that I found underneath the apple tree, aren’t you. How can I help you?” she asked.

  “Well, that’s Zavier, the Berthold of Maytime Meadow,” Benjamin said, pointing at Zavier, “and he needs to take you into Liberty. You see, we need you to help us fight the Nomeds, the Great Prophet said so.”

  “Well, I don’t like fighting and I couldn’t possibly go to a place called Liberty with you, wherever that is, because my mum and dad will wonder where I am. Once, I went to Christian’s house without asking and my dad shouted at me, he was really angry, so I’d better stay here.”

  “Don’t worry about your mum and dad, Ice will make sure that they are okay, they won’t even realise that you’ve gone,” Chester said.

  “Well, what about Christian? I’m not going without him and what about the fighting? I don’t like fighting.” Grace shivered.

  “Christian can come too and as for the fighting, well there’s a lot more to that than I can explain to you right now. We will need to explain everything to you properly once we get you back to Liberty. There are lots of good creatures in Liberty just like us and we will all look after you and protect you as best as we can. But please, please, you must come, we really do need your help.”

  Grace was unable to say no to any animal in need at the best of times, let alone when there was a cute bunny and a little robin right in front of her, literally begging for her help.

  “Okay, okay then, let me get my coat and I’ll come with you,” she agreed.

  Grace went into the gazebo to get the coats. Christian was standing in the middle of the garden in his Superman costume with his mouth gaping wide, too shocked to argue.

  “Here, Christian, put this on,” Grace said, handing him Harry’s jacket.

  Christian put on the jacket and rolled the sleeves up so that his fingertips just emerged out of the ends of them. The waist of the jacket was so long on him that it hovered just above the level of his feet.

  “Ha, ha, now you look like E.T!” Grace giggled.

  “What about Hedwig? Is she coming?” Christian asked Chester.

  “Hedwig?” Chester asked, in a puzzled tone. Then he noticed that Christian was looking straight at Ice. “Oh, you mean Ice. Yes, yes, of course she’s coming.”

  “THERE YOU ARE, SIS! What have you been doing out here? You’re missing some hilarhair, hillairous, funny, badgers out in the front garden,” Harry called out in a drunken slur from the back door. He had spotted Grace’s red coat through the thickly falling snow, but he hadn’t noticed the new friends that she had with her. He made his way down the garden towards her, slurping out of his beer can with one hand and pulling his Where’s Wally hat down over one ear with the other hand.

  “Brrr,” he shivered.

  “We don’t have time for this. We must get the girl away from here, before any more of the Humans come out,” Zavier whispered to Ice. And then, against all of his better judgement, he walked straight up to Harry. The snow was still falling heavily, the flakes were thick and fluffy and as Harry peered through the thick snowfall further into the garden, he saw the huge grey horse walking towards him.

  “I’m afraid that the girl child must to come with us,” Zavier told Harry. “But don’t worry, we will take good care of her and we will return her to you, safe and sound, as soon as we can. Okay?” Then, as suddenly as he had appeared from within the snow, Zavier disappeared back into it.

  Harry just stood there in the snow, clutching his beer can to his mouth.

  “’Bye, Harry, we’ll try not to be too long,” Grace said, as she walked down the garden with Christian on her right and Zavier on her left. The top of her head barely even reached the top of the huge shire horse’s leg. She gave her brother a wave, the bright red colour of her glove clear for Harry to see, then along with Zavier, Christian, Ice, Benjamin and Chester, she disappeared out through the broken fence and into the woods. The snow continued to fall thick and fast and within moments, the huge horseshoe indents that had covered the garden were completely covered.

  Harry was still frozen to the spot in disbelief. The beer can had begun to stick to his lips as he gawped down the garden, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. His dumbfounded state was only partially broken as the two badgers rushed past him on their way out of the garden and into the woods. He turned and slowly walked towards the back door. As he entered the house, the music still played, people still laughed, lights still flashed but Harry’s world had changed; it was surreal, muffled, he was totally dazed.

  Dan was on his way out to find him.

  “Haz, did you find Grace? Mum’s been looking for her and Christian everywhere. It’s time for them to go to bed. She said that Christian can stay if he wants to, but they’ve gotta go to bed now,” Dan said.

  No response.

  “Harry!” Dan snapped, pulling the beer can that had frozen to Harry’s lip away from his mouth.

  “Agghhh!” Harry complained, holding his hand to his now bleeding top lip.

  “WHERE IS GRACE?” Dan mouthed slowly and sarcastically to his brother.

  “The horse said that she had to go with him, but not to worry, he’ll bring her back safe and sound.”

  “I think you’d better stick to shandy, bruv, you obviously can’t handle your beer, can you?” Dan said, laughing.

  Then the back door opened and Grace and Christian walked in.

  “T
hank God, Mum’s been looking everywhere for you two, you’d better go and see her right now,” Dan said.

  “Okay, okay, keep your wig on,” Grace said and she went straight to find her mum.

  The cloning enchantment had not only cloned their physical bodies, it had also cloned their spirits and minds. Nobody would ever know that the real Grace and Christian were on their way to Liberty, for the cloned Grace and Christian would act exactly the same as the real Grace and Christian would do if they were there. The only thing distinguishing them from their true selves, were the small regeneration marks, a tiny baptismal cross symbol that was on the nape of their necks, partially covered by their hair lines, the sign of a clone.

  Harry, still gawping, looked at Grace and Chris, shook his head in disbelief as if trying to shake away the fuzziness and then he looked at the beer can in his hand and promptly tipped its remaining contents down the sink.

  “No more beer for me tonight,” he muttered. Then he drunkenly danced his way into the lounge and, now that he was well and truly wearing his beer goggles, he quite happily joined the plump Dalmatian for a dance. Harry was one hundred percent convinced that it had all been alcohol-induced and that he had not met a talking horse after all.

  The cloned Grace and Christian said their goodnights, which took a lot longer than it should have done. For some reason, drunk people like to kiss and hug and tell you how much they love you, so by the time that Grace had managed to get away from Grandad Arthur, it was almost 3 am on New Year’s Day.

  * * *

  Meanwhile, the real Grace and Christian were well on their way through the snow-covered woodland. It was safer for them to be in the Human world at night, so Zavier was deliberately taking his time to get them back to the gate. Grace and Christian were extremely tired, so Zavier had told them to climb a small tree and then clamber upon his back, where they could sleep. Grace climbed on first and sat astride Zavier’s huge back and then she snuggled herself up against his thick neck and mane, taking care not to squash little Benjamin, who was nestled safely within it. Christian sat behind Grace and wrapped his arms around her waist and fell asleep with his cheek resting on her back and drool dribbling from the corner of his mouth.

  Ice and Chester flew above them, travelling from tree to tree, keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of Adramalech and the juvenile Nomed that Zavier had earlier seen off. Unbeknown to them, they had scared the evil pair well and truly out of the area and they were nowhere to be seen. It was still dark and cold in the Human world. The snow had stopped falling now but it had left behind a thick blanket that covered the whole of the woodland, disguising its paths, trees and bushes almost beyond the point of recognition. It was, however, breaking dawn in Liberty. The gentle rocking movement of Zavier’s walking had soothed Grace and Christian off into a deep sleep, but as soon as this rocking movement stopped, they both awoke. They sat upright and rubbed their weary eyes. It had been a very long and eventful night for the two children.

  There before them was a dense, snow-covered holly bush.

  “Is this Liberty?” Grace asked.

  “No Grace, this is not Liberty,” Zavier replied.

  The bush rustled and shook, causing the snow to fall away from it, then its prickly maze of leaves and branches began to twist and turn, pulling and parting until eventually the ancient wooden gate that lay behind it was revealed. Francis was perched on top of one of the stone pillars that supported the gate.

  “About time! Two more minutes alone with this arrogant arse… excuse my language… and I might have had to abandon my post.”

  “He loves me really, don’t you, Boogles?” Aaron’s voice could be heard saying from the other side of the gate.

  Then the wrought-iron handle turned, the iron latch lifted and the gate creaked open on its own.

  Zavier walked through the gate.

  “Wowzers!” said Grace.

  “Whoa!” agreed Christian.

  They looked around in awe at their surroundings. The sun shone brightly, illuminating patches of the dazzling bluebells that had started ever so faintly chiming in honour of their arrival. Among the bluebells stood a magnificent black stallion, his shiny black coat gleaming in the sunlight. Above him flew a beautiful, striking tawny owl. The woodland birds were singing enchantingly. Grace and Christian had never been to such a beautiful place. They were filled with an indescribable warm and cosy feeling… a truly euphoric and magical sensation that neither of them had ever felt before.

  “NOW THIS, MY DEAR CHILDREN… THIS… IS LIBERTY!” Zavier said proudly.