Nothing But Necromancy (Macrow Necromancers Book 1)

by J A Campbell

  It was scary going through the house. While her mom had not been found there, the police had gotten a search warrant and tossed pretty much everything without regard to where it went or who’d put it back. Harmony had the irrational thought of restoring the house to its original disorder, but Melissa wisely stopped her and reminded her it wouldn’t matter to her mom. That didn’t help with the tears, but she probably should have gotten out of the house as soon as possible or it would have only been worse.

  She hardly slept that night and was awake that next morning early for the truant officer to collect her. They rode in silence to the airport. He’d upgraded her ticket to First Class and made sure they were seated together.

  He gestured her to the window without asking. Harmony opened her book and commenced to attempt to read with the big, warm hulking presence beside her. The flight attendants even tiptoed around their area, eyeing Cousin Macrow with a mix of fear and attraction.

  A couple of the younger ones attempted flirtation. He took his coffee black, passed on the atrocious-looking breakfast, and ignored their flirtation while treating them with polite but distant courtesy. Harmony got the feeling he was used to women falling all over him.

  At last they got off the plane.

  “My car’s in the short term parking.”

  Harmony stopped short seeing the Beetle drive up with another black car following.

  “You....” She startled, seeing suitcases falling off nearby carts. A deep breath and a metallic briefcase clattering against a cart stopped rattling.

  “Good,” Cousin Macrow intoned right in her ear.

  Harmony bit back a girlie squeak.

  “I’ll ride with Miss Hendricks,” he said to the man who was just getting out of her Beetle. He wasn’t quite a clone to him, but she could see he might aspire to it.

  Harmony peered inside. A set of keys dangled in the ignition of her running car. Well, at least they hadn’t hot-wired it, though she would have liked to see how it was done—just in case the school took her keys from her…which seemed like a very likely thing at the moment.

  “I’ll drive,” Cousin Macrow said as he opened the back and tossed her luggage in.

  Harmony opted not to argue. She figured she was in enough trouble already and she probably should save her strength for the school. She contented herself with the thought that she’d get to see the Columbia River Valley in all its glory without having to keep her eyes peeled for Oregon traffic.

  He drove like a machine, keeping to the fast lane, and keeping a precise distance between himself and the car in front of him. The black car, another Benz sedan, followed, presumably to give him a ride back to whatever bat cave or bunker he came from.

  Harmony had finally had it. “All right, what do you think the school will do to me?”

  “Considering the circumstances and the fact that you’re a House mage, a full necromancer, instead of an incidental, probably little this time,” he said. “They’re delighted to have you and Ms. Winters in attendance…even if they don’t have a clue how to proceed with proper training.”

  This time, weighed on her like an anvil.

  “And if I get in trouble again….”

  He chuckled at if….The sound was about as reassuring as tumbling rocks overhead. “Others who are not so impressed with House affiliation will deal with you,” he said. “While your powers are rare, you do not necessarily have to be in control of your mental faculties for others to make use of them.”

  Harmony Hendricks, possibly one of the most alive people she’d ever met, wore the face of a corpse. Elise started to speak her name and wasn’t even sure the girl would recognize it or her. Her backpack was strapped to her back and she carried a battered guitar case which looked to be held together with old concert stickers as well as a bag full of clothing and rocks.

  “It’s good to have you back,” she had to swallow to say the words as Harmony nearly passed her in the dorm hall without seeing her.

  Harmony blinked, then nodded.

  There wasn’t anything else she could say. Still, Elise followed her up to their shared room ostensibly to get some tea. Truth was the girl had preceded her down the stairs and followed her up for weeks to keep her safe when she was on crutches. She knew she owed her nothing, but she wanted to make sure she was all right before she continued on to her classes.

  Harmony crumpled, boneless, to her bed like getting up the stairs had taken the last bit of energy out of her. She didn’t even remove her shoes, just left her feet off the bed so they wouldn’t dirty the covers.

  “I was just going to make some tea,” Elise lied as she got into the hot water pot she kept going most of the time. “Might help you feel better.”

  Now, what would her mom brew? She always seemed to know just the right tea for whatever ailed a person, though she never had any real training as an herbalist. Elise glanced at her antique wooden tea box and pounced upon the 3-G herbal tea: ginseng for energy and resilience, ginger to uplift the spirit and ease the stomach, and gingko biloba to increase blood flow to the brain perhaps to help with the shock. She added just a bit of honey and passed the cup over to Harmony.

  For a moment, Harmony just stared at the cup in her hands. Then she took a cautious sip and a smile spread across her lips.

  “Thank you,” she nodded. Her voice sounded hoarse and dusty. A single tear rolled out of her right eye. “It tastes like gingerbread.”

  Elise got a cup for herself and sat down across the room. Harmony looked like she was about to give up, which was so out of character for someone who’d proven to be dauntless and tenacious, it was alarming. Elise considered quietly going to get Mrs. Mathers, but trouble with the administration just might be the reason that she was in such bad shape.

  Elise wasn’t quite sure she could trust them herself, and she certainly wouldn’t trust them with her roommate in such a fragile condition. She opted for small talk. Sometimes just the pro forma niceties would get someone talking.

  “How was your trip?”

  “Someone murdered my mom,” Harmony said. “I don’t know how or why. The police aren’t releasing any information yet. Folks who have just the slightest details have the most appalled looks on their faces. The family attorney won’t tell me anything until she knows for sure. She’s promised, but I don’t even know if I want to hear it….”

  Elise’s breath caught. The sting of a burn on her fingers alerted her she’d spilled her own tea. She hastened to wipe it up and blew on her reddening hand to cool it down. Normally, Harmony noticed things like that and offered some word of kindness or help, but she still sat across from her almost oblivious. Elise understood, murder was something that happened in ghettoes, on television, not to someone you knew—and not to someone’s mom.

  “I’m…” Elise shook her head; the usual words didn’t even begin to cover it. “I don’t know what to say, Harmony. That’s a horrible thing to happen.”

  “Yeah,” Harmony agreed. “My grandmother seems to believe it’s my fault, too…something to do with the people who hired her to keep me.”

  I’m adopted. Harmony isn’t her mother’s child. And the mages from House Macrow who came here by darkness seem to think this school is safer for us than their own House school.

  “We need answers,” Elise said, opting not to tell her about the House Macrow visit yet. Harmony had run once when she thought she’d put others in danger, there was no telling what she’d do in the state she was presently in. “I tried to find them in the library and I stirred up a poltergeist, instead. They said it was my powers.”

  “Probably the ghostly equivalent of a night watchman.” Harmony drained the cup, looking somewhat brighter. “Saw him a couple of times, but I guess I hadn’t gotten into his zone.”

  “I don’t know who to ask,” Elise said.

  “I’d ask my mom, but….” Harmony opened her hands in an empty gesture.

  “We could have a séance.”

  Elise slapped her hand over her
mouth, unsure of what madness possessed her to suggest such a thing, particularly to Harmony. They were both in trouble for their respective exploits and this could potentially blow up in their faces even more. The old Elise didn’t even believe in séances. Her adoptive parents would have called them “hokum.”

  Harmony grinned lopsidedly. “You know; we could do that….”

  Elise shook her head. “Harmony, I nearly destroyed the library. We’re not safe anywhere near people. But, we could go out to the woods....”

  Harmony’s laugh was sharper than usual, but there was a twinkle in her eyes. “What have a million pine trees done to you?”

  “We don’t know how….”

  “Actually, we do,” Harmony said. “Or rather, I do. Mom used to hang with a medium. I watched.”

  She got up, gathered candles, which were one of those forbidden items for their room, under her shirt, and the guitar case. “Come on.”

  Elise decided to follow. It wasn’t past curfew, they wouldn’t get in trouble for a walk in the woods, and it had been her idea. Besides, she was curious. If the school wasn’t going to teach her how to connect to her specific powers, perhaps Harmony could. She’d grown up with all sorts of practitioners and didn’t seem as fazed by the prospect of power as Elise was. Thankfully, it wasn’t raining. River fog off the Columbia lifted like veils before their footsteps. The night air was thick with the scents of pine. Fronds, black in the darkness, whispered secrets as the girls passed.

  Harmony took them to a clearing where she’d probably been before. “You know, we’re supposed to have three people at least, according to Madame Marzella, but I don’t know of a third person I’d want to invite. Anyone else involved with this could get in more trouble than the two of us would, so we’re winging it….I brought along items of Mom’s, things I picked because they meant something to her…These are the kinds of things Madame Marzella asked for from people before she conducted the séances for them.”

  She set out the beautiful polished rosewood guitar from the battle-scarred case, a brightly colored t-shirt next to it on the ground, and then opened a pouch to sprinkle stones of various types on top of the shirt.

  “These are things of Mom’s that were dear to her,” Harmony said. “She owned this guitar since she was a child and played sometimes at local music festivals. I made this t-shirt for her when I was a kid at a summer art camp. The rocks came from all the places she’d traveled that she wanted to keep near to her. Might work even better if we had some cannabis, but I think the JM would bust us for that—and I don’t want to get involved in drugs, either. Life’s too weird right now as it is without any kind of chemical enhancement.”

  She proceeded to light the candles and set them on a flat spot. Then she held out her hands and asked Elise to take them.

  Elise shivered at how cold Harmony’s hands felt. She was still in shock and this couldn’t be good for her, but she couldn’t back out…. It probably wouldn’t work. All her life, her parents had told her mediums were fake, nonsense, mumbo-jumbo. Of course, she hadn’t believed in magic, either. She drew her jacket tighter around her.

  “Beloved Mom, we bring you gifts from life into death. Be guided by the light of this world and visit upon us. We need your help, your wisdom, your guidance.”

  Elise’s heartbeat was loud in her ears. They waited for a response, but nothing.

  “Repeat with me,” Harmony said, tightening her hands.

  “Beloved Mom, we bring you gifts from life into death. Be guided by the light of this world and visit upon us.”

  Elise shivered, wished she’d brought a heavier coat. She wasn’t fooling herself. It got colder back home in Virginia. She was scared. Two full necromancers in the woods with no instructions summoning a murder victim…what could possibly go right? What had possessed her?

  Harmony….

  The name came from everywhere, the sky, the earth, the river. Sparks from the candles flew around them like fireflies, threatening to ignite the autumn leaves.

  “Mom,” Harmony’s arms trembled so hard Elise thought she’d let go and break the circle. She grasped her roommate’s hands and held them tight, forcing contact she wasn’t sure she should keep.

  Harmony….

  The voice was stronger.

  “We need your help.” Harmony’s voice shook. “Please, Mom. I don’t know what to do.”

  You are my child as much as theirs….

  Elise saw her as clearly as she saw Callie. Bet Hendricks had long brown hair reaching past her waist, a plain kind face. She wore the tie dyed shirt Harmony had made for her along with necklaces of various types of beads and bangles. Her jeans were sky blue, faded soft as a chamois, and her feet were bare.

  “Mom.”

  “Break the circle!” A male voice commanded. Elise’s hands wouldn’t move. The ghostly figure of Harmony’s mom cried out in anger and frustration.

  Nooooooooooo…I need to talk to my daughter…Please….

  The man bent and forced their hands apart, extinguishing the candles with a barked command. The guitar, shirt, and rocks poured into the guitar case. The lid shut and locked with finality though no human hands performed any of the actions to make it so.

  “Come with me,” he ordered.

  Harmony, normally the rebellious one of the two of them, was up like a shot, her eyes wide and fearful. When she hesitated. Elise felt as though strings pulled her up and dragged her along behind him. For the first time in her life, she felt like the bad kid going to the principal’s office for discipline. Part of her was afraid—the other part wanted to dance and laugh in triumph.

  She’d helped call the dead. She was a necromancer. This was what she was born to do!

  Instead of their dorm, they headed to the Administration Building where the headmaster, Professor Harkenrider, and Professor Richards were already assembled.

  “I caught these two conducting a séance without any training,” their captor spoke to the headmaster.

  “Professor Thompson, are you certain?” Professor Richards asked.

  He nodded. In the office light, he wasn’t near as frightening as he had been in the woods. Professor Thompson was nearing sixty, his hair had faded to that indeterminate shade between brown and gray and it was retreating from his forehead with unseemly haste. While he wasn’t overweight, he wasn’t trim and shapely, either. Glasses had fallen down on his nose. His clothing was an almost colorblind mix of nondescript grays and browns.

  The man who walked in the room as Professor Thompson made his announcement was a different story. Elise’s breath caught at the sight of him. Tall, blond, and clad all in black, he looked like he’d just come off some paramilitary operation—or a movie set. She’d never seen the stranger on the school grounds before, but now was not a time for curiosity. From the warning look on her roommate’s face, now was a time for keeping her mouth shut and doing what she was told. Taking behavior advice from Harmony normally didn’t seem like the most prudent thing to do, but she mimicked her roommate's lowered eyes and folded hands.

  “Elise, apparently you didn’t learn your lesson from destroying the library,” Professor Richards scolded. “The staff and student volunteers are still taping up the books that were damaged.”

  Elise hung her head, though a small part of her was still so elated at using her powers, that she couldn’t feel too bad.

  “And Harmony, so soon after leaving the school without permission?” Professor Harkenrider added.

  She also hung her head, but Elise saw her hands tighten and Harmony looked back up.

  “How were we supposed to know we weren’t allowed to perform a séance?” Harmony asked. “I needed to talk to my mom…how else could I do that?”

  The headmaster stood. “I do believe part of your orientation was the directive not to try any magic you hadn’t received training in.” He arched his eyebrows and met her glare.

  “Oh.” Harmony hung her head again. “I suppose watching Madame Marzella back home
doesn’t count?”

  They ignored the question, which Elise expected. But, she noted that Professor Thompson pulled out a notebook and wrote something down. Was it Madame Marzella’s name? Would the woman be in some kind of trouble for the mention?

  “‘Oh’ is right. We understand what it is like to be discovering new powers, and you’ve both had some emotional shocks recently. We are inclined to be lenient this time. You’ll spend a week doing dishes after breakfast. The students will be instructed not to use the normal vat. Enjoy.” The Headmaster smiled tightly and turned and left the room.

  Professor Richards and Professor Harkenrider both followed, shaking their heads as well, though Elise thought she saw an amused smile on Harkenrider’s face.

  Elise and Harmony traded glances before looking at Professor Thompson and the other man who no one had identified yet. Strangely he didn’t seem terribly upset.

  “Perhaps you two should get to your room and stay in it until breakfast. I will be watching. Oh, and I’m in charge of one of your new necromancy classes. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Uh, sure. Sorry, Professor.” Elise grabbed Harmony’s arm and pulled her out of the room.

  Harmony grabbed her guitar case on the way out.

  “That didn’t go so well,” Elise said as soon as they were out of earshot.

  “We did it though, Elise. We would have been able to talk to her. We just got stopped.”

  “True, but cleaning up after breakfast?”

  Harmony laughed. “At least I’m getting punished for something I actually did. They used to punish me for putting stickers on my locker at school. It wasn’t me. They didn’t believe me until it happened when I was out sick. I did everything from clean the boys’ bathroom to planting trees.”