Renegades Of Wolfenvald, Book Two of The Adventures of Sarah Coppernick

by SJB Gilmour

  ‘It’s not my custom to associate with devils!’ Angela grated. She turned to Sarah and Melanie. ‘See?’ she demanded. ‘This is why Cromwell here isn’t—’

  ‘Isn’t what?’ Oliver interrupted. ‘Trusted?’ He laughed. ‘That’s rubbish. There are probably dozens of other necromancers out there with the strength to keep Beezel under control. You could have done it with one hand tied behind your back. I’m the only one with the cahones.’ He pointed at Melanie and then back to Angela. ‘You Troy women are just jealous that I’ve got the guts to go where you’re scared to.’

  ‘You go too far,’ Angela said coldly. Her glorious eyes flashed dangerously and the air around her began to shimmer. ‘I’ll not have you giving Mel and Sarah any foolish ideas about chasing devils. You’re lucky the Coppernicks aren’t here. Roberta would’ve had your liver by now.’

  ‘You and they brought these two to me for an education. What would you have me teach them if not the risks they might be facing? If I didn’t, you’d curse my name for glossing over the very real dangers that you’re all marching headlong into.’ He waved at Sarah. ‘Even this young pup had the sense to see that.’ He chuckled to himself. ‘She’s not even a necromancer! She’s just a child and she had the guts to question old Beezel! Oh,’ he chuckled again, ‘you’ll go far, Coppernick!’

  The word “pup” annoyed Sarah a little. ‘The term is cub,’ she muttered. ‘I’m not a dog.’

  ‘Very well,’ Angela conceded, taking a few deep breaths to calm herself down. ‘But next time, make sure I’m present before you surprise them like that.’

  Oliver shook his head. ‘You’ve been a necromancer now for how many centuries? You know as well as I do that unless you summon one, you’ll never meet a devil unless it’s a complete surprise.’

  Angela glared at him. ‘I’m going to the library,’ she announced shortly. ‘I’ll be back when this place doesn’t smell so bad.’ Then she turned and stormed out of the observatory.

  ‘And I thought you had a bad temper, Troy,’ Oliver remarked as he watched her leave. Then with a negligent wave at the shattered remains of the door, he instructed her, ‘Fix that, will you?’

  Sarah thought for a moment while Melanie reconstructed the door. Oliver’s reasoning was sound, she had to admit. His methods bothered her a little, as did his unpredictability. Some things that Sarah thought would make perfect sense, he would also dismiss as if they were of no importance. His keeping secret the location of Conundrum also bothered her and so far, Oliver had told her nothing about the maze or other dangers she might face trying to get to Conundrum Gate.

  He also couldn’t remember, or refused to be bothered looking up who he’d lent the Babylonian Heresies to. Sarah decided to try yet again.

  ‘These things aren’t all that helpful, you know,’ she began. ‘Why don’t we try to find that Babylonian thing?’ The tome she was holding was a foul-smelling title called The Necronomicon which muttered bitterly about being treated with such contempt.

  ‘It’s probably not worth the effort,’ Oliver scoffed. ‘I’ve read the silly thing once already. I’m sure I’d have remembered if it predicted anything like what we’re going up against.’

  ‘But some tomes change!’ Sarah protested. ‘Look at what happened to The Serpentine!’

  ‘Bah!’ Oliver snorted. ‘I think I’d know if a bloody book was playing tricks on me. It was hundreds of years ago — ancient history! It’s not worth it. I’m sure McConnell’s out there right now, looking for the damned thing. Let him do the work. You’ve got more important things to do here. You need to keep studying what’s real, not what might happen according to some long-lost prophecy that nobody can remember.’ He paused and looked at her sideways. ‘Hmm, maybe we need a change.’ He took the tome from Sarah and put it back on his desk. Then he dragged a chair in front of Sarah’s desk. ‘How are your exercises going?’

  Sarah concentrated. She drew the thick coat of mist around her mind so tight it became a solid barrier. ‘Try now.’

  She felt Oliver’s mind, pressing against the barrier she had erected around her consciousness. His first passes were mild, tentative. Suddenly, she felt a sharp stab at the barrier that rocked her in her seat. Sarah gasped but held firm. Oliver’s blow had not hurt but it had shaken her somewhat.

  ‘Good,’ Oliver congratulated her, patting her on the shoulder. ‘Much better. You’ll have to get into the habit of keeping that barrier up, even when you’re sleeping,’ he instructed.

  Sarah gulped and nodded. ‘I’ll try.’

  Oliver turned to Melanie. ‘How about you?’

  Sarah watched her dark-haired friend frown in concentration. She realised that Melanie must be finding it harder than she had. Sarah gently felt out with her mind to observe Melanie’s consciousness. She was surprised to see just how sharp Melanie’s mind was, though the barrier her friend had erected was only a smoky grey.

  Oliver shot Sarah a sharp look of disapproval. Guiltily, she withdrew her thoughts from Melanie’s mind and sat watching the blonde sorcerer as he faced his olive-skinned pupil. Soon they were both sweating in concentration.

  Finally, Oliver sat back and breathed deeply. ‘Do you get it now?’ he asked Melanie.

  Melanie wiped her beaded brow and nodded. ‘Uh huh,’ she grunted, still concentrating very hard.

  Oliver nodded. ‘Good.’ He turned to Sarah. ‘Okay, now you can have a look, but remember, don’t use too much power or it’ll be obvious. If the subject can see light coming out of your eyes, then they’ve probably got a fair idea of what you’re doing and will take countermeasures.’

  Sarah glanced at Melanie for permission. When Melanie nodded with a tight grin, Sarah reached out again with her mind. The barrier she encountered this time was vastly different. It was jet black and hard as a rock. She pushed at it tentatively. Gaining no access, she pressed harder until Melanie grunted from the effort of maintaining the barrier. Sarah relaxed and gently withdrew her own mind’s force from Melanie’s.

  Melanie breathed deeply and shuddered. She leaned over her desk and rested her head on her arms for a long moment, panting heavily.

  ‘Are you alright?’ Sarah asked anxiously. ‘Did I hurt you?’ Suddenly she was afraid for her friend.

  ‘No,’ Melanie moaned, not lifting her head. ‘It didn’t hurt. I’m just buggered. Geez, you’re strong. When you hit that troll, it must have hurt it like hell.’

  ‘Troll?’ Oliver asked. ‘Are you telling me you’ve already read minds before, Coppernick?’

  ‘Only one,’ Sarah admitted. ‘Well, only one thing other than a few mortals. It was a troll. That’s how we found out about my parents under Troll Mountain.’

  Oliver nodded approvingly and made the two girls practice, one holding her mental shield in place while the other tried to punch through it. After an hour or so, Sarah was getting the hang of it and found it quite easy. Melanie was exhausted.

  Sarah didn’t understand. ‘Why is she so tired?’ she demanded.

  Oliver put one hand on Sarah’s shoulder. ‘She’ll be alright.’ He glanced at Melanie. ‘You going to live Troy?’

  Melanie moaned again. ‘Just give me a minute.’

  Oliver smiled at Sarah fondly. ‘Your powers are greater than Melanie’s at the moment, Golden Mane. You’ve got the might of Wolfenvald behind you and that makes you just about the strongest non-deity I’ve ever seen. When you hit that troll, as Troy here put it, what happened?’

  ‘Light came out of her eyes,’ Melanie supplied. ‘She looked like she was on fire.’

  Oliver paused for a long moment. ‘That is a lot of power,’ he mused finally. ‘With that kind of strength, you should be able to do a lot more than just read minds. You’d be able to access entire memories, and if you learned how, you could probably learn in an instant everything the subject has ever learned!’

  ‘That’s kind of what happened with the troll,’ Sarah admitted. ‘I didn’t really know how I was doing it though. I was ve
ry angry and Wolfenvald kind of just told me how to do it. I guess I wasn’t really thinking.’

  Oliver nodded. ‘The danger of the untutored student.’ He levelled one finger at her. ‘You need to study, study, and study.’

  Sarah nodded. ‘I know.’ Then she cocked her head to one side. ‘I know I’m strong but back then you said “at the moment”, what did you mean?’

  Oliver walked over to a couch and flopped down. He looked over at Melanie with a resigned expression.

  ‘You might as well tell her, Troy. It’d be better if it came from you.’

  Now Sarah was very confused indeed. She glanced from Melanie to Oliver, not knowing what was going on.

  Melanie sighed and sat back up. Her face had drained so pale her olive skin almost looked green.

  ‘You remember what Aunt Angela said about Apollo?’ she asked Sarah quietly. Even her voice was strained and tired.

  Sarah nodded. ‘He wanted to marry your grandmother Cassandra. She went along with it at first, but then she backed out and he cursed her. Then she went back to him after all.’

  ‘Right,’ Angela said from the doorway. She had returned from the library with a pile of muttering tomes. ‘There’s a bit more to it, I’m afraid.’

  All three looked up, startled.

  Sarah’s beautiful teacher smiled and dumped the tomes on the a table, wrinkling her nose as she did so.

  ‘Muhammad and Ishmael do have an absolutely awful odour about them,’ she complained. ‘And as for Ahab,’ she waved her hand in front of her nose, ‘Phew!’ She raised one eyebrow at Oliver. ‘Do you like smelly things?’ she demanded. ‘Bruce is as fifthly as a pig in a wallow, your librarians should really be buried in sarcophagi and every demon or other creature you bring in here stinks to high heaven!’

  Oliver glowered at her. ‘You don’t smell so bad most of the time,’ he argued pointedly. Then he shrugged. ‘At least you’ve regained your temper. Are all the Troy females so cranky?’

  Angela smiled him. ‘Melanie, I’m afraid it seems Apollo is a persistent sort. His offer to my mother still stands, as it does for all her female descendants.’

  Sarah was shocked. She gazed at Angela, not daring to speak.

  ‘When each female descendant of Cassandra reaches her mid to late teens, Apollo starts pursuing her.’

  ‘That’s disgusting!’ Sarah blurted out. She spun round to face Melanie. ‘He’s… He’s like, your grandfather!’

  ‘No relation, dear,’ Angela corrected. ‘Melanie’s human grandfathers are both quite dead, I’m afraid. Apollo was a lover, little more. Besides,’ she added calmly, ‘Apollo has a very strong sense of propriety. He probably won’t be making any overtures to Melanie for a number of years, but He is certainly keeping a watchful eye over her.’ For a brief moment, she seemed slightly doubtful about that, and then she brightened and smiled sweetly at Sarah. ‘Didn’t it seem just a little odd to you that Susan and David barely put up any sort of argument against Mel here coming to train with Oliver?’

  Sarah cocked her head to one side again. ‘No?’

  ‘Anyone stupid enough not to know that if they pick a fight with Mel, they’re picking a fight with Apollo, probably isn’t much of a threat,’ Melanie’s aunt explained. ‘Those who do know that Apollo is watching over her are more likely to attack you, Sarah. You’re very young, but you’re just about the most indestructible thing on Earth. The gold that flows in your veins is stronger than ever. Anyway,’ she went on, returning to the subject of Apollo, ‘Since Mel is the only one of Susan’s daughters who has decided to become a necromancer, her Necrotante is going to have a very special guest of honour. When that happens, our Melanie here is going to be a very, very strong young lady, even if she refuses to ever have anything to do with Apollo.’

  ‘I keep telling you,’ Mel remarked, just as annoyed as Sarah had been at being called a pup, ‘I’m not a lady.’

  ‘And I think it’s still gross,’ Sarah insisted.

  Angela sighed. ‘Sarah, Apollo just sees a pretty girl and wants her. He thinks in terms of bloodlines and reasons that if Mel’s grandmother was worth pursuing, then her offspring must be too.’

  Sarah was absolutely appalled. ‘Oh man,’ she moaned.

  ‘Actually, it’s kind of flattering, if you think about it in the right light. Being wooed by mere men sort of fades into insignificance once you’ve been pursued by a god.’ She grinned and shook her head. ‘David certainly takes a lot of pride in the fact that Susan chose him over Apollo.’

  Oliver nodded. ‘Old David’s a special case,’ he agreed. ‘Michelangelo certainly thought so, and despite his other perversions, he did have an eye for a quality male of the species. David was lucky Apollo’s not as jealous as Athena. He’d look ridiculous with a head of snakes.’

  Being thirteen now, Sarah had some idea about the process of human relations but she still found the whole idea quite disgusting. Instinctively, she changed back into wolf form. She sat on her haunches with her head cocked to one side, her eyebrows furrowed in concentration. As had happened in the past, those confusing emotions disappeared. Thinking like a wolf instead of a human, she found the concepts of what was involved did not bother her at all. Instead, she found herself wondering why such a simple, harmless activity could be made to be so important to humans and their gods.

  ‘Okay,’ she said finally in the manner of wolves. ‘I get it now. Sorry I got so upset.’

  ‘That’s okay,’ Melanie said calmly. She wearily rose from her desk and began walking around the room, swinging her arms to get the blood flowing. ‘Most of the time, I just try not to think about it.’

  ‘Apollo has made the same offer to all the women in my family since He and Cassandra eventually parted ways,’ Angela explained to the young Golden Mane. ‘Actually, most of us have respectfully declined.’

  ‘Did you accept?’ Sarah asked, realising that if she were in her human form, such a question would make her blush to the roots of her golden hair.

  ‘A lady never tells,’ Angela replied primly, giving Melanie a meaningful stare. Then she sighed. ‘I’m afraid Melanie is right about one thing. It seems neither of my nieces are ladies.’

  ‘Sally?’ Mel asked.

  Sarah furrowed her brow at her. ‘Your sister?’

  Melanie nodded. ‘Mum doesn’t talk about her much. I think they had a big fight?’ She turned to her aunt eagerly.

  ‘All this is very interesting,’ Oliver interrupted. ‘But are the soap opera antics of Cassandra’s descendants really all that important?’

  ‘You brought it up,’ Sarah told him. ‘If you don’t like it, go do something else.’

  Angela ignored the sorcerer and sat down on a couch opposite him. Melanie flopped into one of the armchairs while Sarah lay down on a rug with her muzzle resting on her paws.

  ‘Oh please!’ Oliver protested and hauled himself out of his couch. ‘If you three women are going to spend the rest of the day gossipping and doing all sorts of secret women’s business, then I’m going fishing!’ He stormed towards the door.

  ‘Bring back dinner!’ Angela called out as he slammed the door to his own observatory. The door slammed so hard it broke its hinges and hung off at an angle, complaining in a miserable monotone about how nobody cared about it and that they’d all be sorry if it decided not to open when it was told to.

  ‘Hey!’ Melanie protested. ‘I just fixed that thing!’ She repaired the door, which shut it up a little, but it kept muttering angrily to itself for several minutes afterwards.

  ‘What’s up with him?’ Sarah wondered aloud.

  ‘He’s probably jealous,’ Angela replied. ‘Now, where were we? Ah yes, Sally.’ She glanced at Mel. ‘I’m sorry that I have to be the one to tell you this, Mel. I really thought Susan would have explained it all, but she’s a little more delicate than I am. About fifteen or sixteen hundred years ago, when Sally had just turned sixteen, Apollo started to pursue her. That sounds young now, I know, but back then, s
ixteen was child-bearing age. In fact, most women who weren’t married off by that age were considered somehow defective.

  ‘Anyway, as you’d expect, Susan went through the roof and forbade her from ever going anywhere near Apollo. Naturally, Sally went and did the opposite.’

  ‘What did she do?’ Sarah asked.

  ‘She ran away with Him. The affair only lasted until Sally was about twenty or so. By all accounts, Sally was quite enthusiastic about the whole thing until she got bored.’

  Sarah raised one of her golden eyebrows. ‘She got bored with a god?’

  Angela nodded. ‘Eventually she went off in search of someone more exciting.’

  ‘My sister sounds like a tramp!’ Melanie declared, wrinkling her nose.

  ‘Well, I’m afraid a certain level of passion runs through our veins, Mel. Look at your mother. She’s had dozens of children and your father is a very good-looking man. Your mother and I are considered beautiful by some standards, but David is an absolute dream! She didn’t catch him on her looks alone.’

  Melanie blushed at her aunt’s description of her father and refused to follow that particular line of conversation.

  ‘Well I’m not going to be a man-eater like that!’ she declared hotly.

  Angela chuckled. ‘You’re thirteen, Mel. In a few years you might find yourself in a different frame of mind.’

  Sarah felt curious. ‘So what happened to Sally? And what will happen if Mel agrees to be with Apollo?’

  ‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ Melanie moaned. She sat up straight. ‘Is there any way to make sure I don’t end up like that tramp?’ “Tramp” was not quite the word Melanie used.

  ‘I agree that right now you’re too young, Melanie, but one day, you might decide to at least consider Apollo’s offer. None of us, well maybe your mother will... But none of the rest of us will think ill of you if you do,’ Melanie’s aunt pressed. She turned back to Sarah. ‘Melanie’s power is growing. Even the possibility that she might one day consider His offer is enough for Apollo to bless every female descendant of Cassandra with great strength. If Melanie, or any of her other sisters say yes, then suddenly they’ll become even more powerful.’