by Phil Gabriel
The tree spirit’s moves were better, more graceful, than ours, and she was capturing more magic than we had been able to gather. Following her moves, I felt the flow of magic increase, the trickle now a steady stream.
As we danced, my breathing eased, although the new steps were much more physically demanding. A deep inhalation that tickled my lungs showed why. The Nang Tani was flooding the area with her oxygen-loaded exhalations. I have a high tolerance for alcohol, but this was something else. The iPhone switched songs, now playing an old song by Sweet, “Love Is Like Oxygen.” Euterpe was playing her games. Drunk on oxygen, I laughed, and the group laughed with me.
At the change in music, the tree spirit looked back at me with a smile on her face, acknowledging the change in the song. Her steps changed tempo, matching the new tune, but still very effective at gathering magic. I wondered momentarily if she could see Euterpe.
The laughter of the children as they danced with us under the pouring rain, the grace of the Nang Tani tree spirit, the exaltation of magic, all combined to bring tears of joy to my eyes. I wept with the joy of practicing magic, then wept for those who couldn’t share my madness. Luckily, the rain washed the tears away before they could be noticed.
This day, gloomy and overcast to some, was bright and memorable to me. Something I would treasure in my old age if I lived that long.
After an hour, I could dance no more, even invigorated by the extra oxygen. I couldn’t make my feet move in the smooth patterns of the dance. Euterpe must have sensed this as the music faded away, leaving us. I had managed to recover enough magical energy to replenish what I had used upgrading Daeng’s eyes.
Daeng’s Buddha amulet glowed with the magical energy she had managed to gather, enough to fuel her luck and health spells for a long time.
Finally, we stopped and formed a circle. The Nang Tani gave a slight wai to the group, and we all answered with a much deeper wai. She reached out and touched the shoulder of the girl who had talent, then leaned in and whispered in her ear. Then she made another bow to the group and faded away in a wisp of fog that wafted back to her tree. Was it my imagination, or had she smiled and winked at me before fading?
The children, a brother and sister it seemed, from the way the girl was protective of the younger boy, laughed and clapped as the tree spirit left. I was sure their joyous laughter had helped draw the Nang Tani out to dance with us. They deserved a reward.
I reached into my pocket to give them some money, then hesitated as the image of a western farang handing money to a prepubescent girl flashed through my mind.
“Pe-Daeng,” I said, “give the children a thousand baht each.”
She looked at me in surprise. “You like little girls?” She stepped in front of the children unconsciously. Good instincts.
“I’m always looking for new talent,” I said before I realized how that sounded.
Kitty-Sue laughed and spat out a sentence of Thai.
“Oh Lord, no!” I said at the same time. “Magical talent, the child is a potential magician. She could see Tani the Tiger-Lily, and she spoke to her.”
“Tani the Tiger-Lily?” asked Daeng in puzzlement.
“He makes nicknames for powerful beings,” said the ninja shapeshifter assassin I had nicknamed Kitty-Sue. “One of these days, he’ll tease the wrong one and end up splattered across the landscape.”
“Tani Tiger-Lily,” mused Daeng. “Because of the flower in her hair? It’s more of a lotus than a lily.”
“Have you ever noticed how much a lotus looks like...” I stopped the simile at Kitty-Sue’s murderous glare. At least she was learning my sense of humor wasn’t just reserved for kitsune jokes.
“It’s a good name, though,” said Daeng. “Thais always use nicknames.”
“Yeah,” I said, “because your real names are too damn long.”
The girl had been standing shyly behind Daeng. She peeked out from behind her and smiled. “My name Toy,” she said.
“And she speaks English,” I said with a large smile at the kid.
“Nit-noy,” she said. Well, even a little bit of English was good. She knew enough to know we were talking about names.
We had gotten far away from the original subject. “Pe-Daeng,” I said, ensuring the children heard me use the honorific, “talented children like Toy need to be supported. She doesn’t have a wicha grandmother to help her.
“Give her and her little brother the money and get her full name. Tell her to come back here for dancing lessons with the green lady. Tiger-Lily can teach her some basics that we can’t.”
Daeng tilted her head in puzzlement. “My grandmother taught me. Why can’t we teach her?”
“We’re not her family,” I said. “My—our—brand of magic depends on making Deals. It’s our code, the rules we live by.”
“So, make a ‘Deal’ with Toy,” said Daeng, making air quotes with her fingers. “Nobody helps her, she’s gonna have a rough life.” She turned and smiled at Toy to let her know we weren’t saying anything bad about her.
“We can’t make Deals with children,” I said, “or anyone that isn’t able to consent.” Kitty-Sue followed up with a string of Thai that, I hoped, explained the restrictions of my brand of magic to Daeng.
“But she still needs hope,” whispered Daeng. “Growing up like this”—she waved at our group— “will be very hard.”
Hope. Could I give the child some hope? Without making a Deal? How about a gift? A gift of good luck? This would take a few minutes of spell-work. Stepping over to a relatively dry spot under the branches of Tiger-Lily’s tree, I reached into my dragonskin bag and extracted one of my most prized possessions. A golden Saudi Guinea coin, gifted from a dragon’s hoard. Engraved with my special brand of glyphs that turned it from potent object to an Artifact of Power. I didn’t have many more of these, and probably wouldn’t be able to get more anytime soon.
The two siblings were dancing to the music from my iPhone, some Thai tune I didn’t recognize. Euterpe doing her part to keep the kids amused.
While they danced and played, I worked on the coin. Daeng looked on in interest, John with a studied indifference, and Kitty-Sue with the patience of a predator.
“I can give her some hope,” I said. “Make life easier for her. I’ll need a lock of her hair.”
Kitty-Sue moved faster than I could see, flashing out with her knife and slicing a lock of hair from Toy. She had acted before I could finish my sentence. She held out the lock of hair to me. I stepped back abruptly, holding my hands up.
“It has to be freely given,” I said. “It’s useless if stolen.”
“But she’s a child,” said Kitty-Sue. “Do the ‘rules’ keep you from accepting the hair from her?” I was getting sick of air quotes.
“Not exactly,” I said. “I can weave a luck charm for her without breaking the rules. It will be like Daeng’s amulet.”
“Really?” asked Kitty-Sue, glancing at Daeng. “Didn’t seem to keep someone from ending up as a hooker in a low-class bar.” She smiled at John and said, “No offense.”
“My good luck charms have some more ‘oomph’ to them,” I said.
“So, she’ll win the lottery?”
“Hell, no,” I said, “that’s ruined more lives than it’s ever helped. If money were the answer, I could make the kid rich.”
At the mention of money, Daeng’s ears perked up. She would soon learn that mundane cash was only a small part of our life.
“All that aside,” I said, “Toy has to agree to give me this token.”
“OK,” said Kitty-Sue. She chatted with Toy in Thai for a few moments, then turned to me and said, “She agrees.”
Looking at Daeng, I said, “See how easy it is to get a child to agree to terms? She would happily give up twenty years of her life in exchange for an ice cream. That’s why we don’t make Deals with children. It’s too easy to cheat them.” Still, I took the tuft of Toy’s hair from Kitty-Sue and quickly braided it into a small
circular wreath.
This was going to take a few minutes. “Kitty-Sue,” I asked, “could you take the kids to have a snack?”
When the group returned, the new amulet was ready. I had fixed the coin to a thick gold chain. I held the necklace out to Daeng so she could inspect my work.
She pulled her glasses down on her nose and gasped, “It’s so bright!”
She looked at her amulet, then compared it to mine. “You’ll teach me to make my Buddha better?”
“Yes,” I said. “Eventually.”
She pushed her glasses back up and examined how the chain looked in the normal spectrum. “That’s a two-baht chain,” said Daeng. “You can’t give that to a child. Someone will snatch it off her neck in five minutes.”
“Not with the spells I put on it,” I said. “It will appear as a worthless chain to mundanes. Anyone who tries to steal from Toy will be in for a nasty surprise.”
“Two baht?” said Kitty-Sue. “It’s worth much more than that.”
“Baht is also a unit of weight for gold in Thai,” I said, surprised that she hadn’t absorbed this info along with her language skills. “Two baht is about one ounce of gold.”
Daeng pulled her glasses down again and looked at Toy. “I see the colors of the charm match Toy’s colors. Why is that?”
“The charm is attuned to Toy’s aura,” I said. “The magic will only work for her. That’s why I needed the lock of her hair.”
I handed the charm and necklace to Daeng. “Make sure she agrees to accept this gift. You must say it is given freely, with no expectation of anything in return. She must put it around her neck herself.”
As Daeng spoke with Toy, I raised an eyebrow at Kitty-Sue. She nodded. She would follow the conversation to ensure Daeng translated correctly. As Daeng held the charm out, Kitty-Sue nodded to indicate the translation had been correct.
Toy examined the necklace in fascination. I expected her to put it on right away. Instead she surprised me by turning and putting the necklace around her little brother’s neck.
She turned to Daeng and chattered in Thai. I waited patiently for a translation. The necklace’s spells wouldn’t help the little boy, as it wasn’t attuned to his aura.
“She says that Chackrit needs the good luck magic more than her,” said Daeng.
“Chackrit?” I asked, unsure of the pronunciation.
“That’s the boy’s name,” said Kitty-Sue.
I tried a few more times, but couldn’t get the tones right.
“Can I call him Jack?” I asked finally. Toy nodded.
“Tell Toy that the good luck magic won’t work right for Jack,” I said.
Toy crossed her arms stubbornly and spoke through Daeng.
“She says Jack needs the luck much more than her,” said Daeng. “She says she can take care of herself.”
I briefly wondered what kind of trouble the child could have that required his older sister to sacrifice her good luck charm for him.
“Oh, for Pete’s sake,” I said. “Give me a lock of Jack’s hair and I’ll make another charm.” I was rewarded by Toy’s expression as it changed from a stubborn pout to a bright smile. I hoped she wouldn’t turn into a witch who would end up trying to kill me.
With a fresh lock of hair, I sent the children out for another ice cream cone while I worked on the second charm. At this rate, I would soon be out of magic-infused gold coins. Not to mention the time it would take me to refine them into Artifacts of Power.
John watched my work calmly. However, there was an undercurrent of agitation in his manner. Finally, he said, “That spell is a refinement of that ‘bulletproof’ spell you used in Vietnam.”
“It’s based on that spell,” I said.
“Does it redirect bullets at any innocent bystanders?” he asked.
The memory came back suddenly. The firefight in that tiny village. We had been surrounded by VC troops and bullets had been zipping through the air. I still remembered the sound the bullets made as they thwipped past my ears.
As the bullets continued to miss, I had felt triumph that my spell worked. Followed by terror as the bullets that missed me hit my teammates. Even John, able to blend into the scenery and become almost invisible, had been hit several times.
I looked at John and shrugged in apology. “This spell is much more complex,” I said. “Good luck for the wearer doesn’t mean that anyone around will automatically have bad luck.”
“And you’ve tied these spells to not one, but two Artifacts of Power,” he said. “I know people who would give a considerable sum for just one of those charms.”
John didn’t know I was one of the few people in the world who could create Artifacts. A secret I kept very close. I wanted to avoid the fate of the goose that laid the golden eggs. Hell, being a healer was bad enough.
“Yeah,” I said, “but I’m almost out of Artifacts.” Until I can make more. “I’m not interested in selling them off.”
John looked at me coolly, certain I wasn’t telling the whole truth. Too bad; we were allies, not friends.
The amulet was completed and gifted to little Jack. He was very proud of his and Toy’s matching amulets.
“That kid is going to live a strange life,” I said.
“Why? Is he going to become a magician?” asked Kitty-Sue.
“I don’t see a trace of the talent,” I said. “Not like Toy or Pe-Daeng. But wearing that amulet every day will make him sensitive to magic.”
“Sensitive?” asked Daeng. “Will it hurt him?”
“No, of course not,” I said. “He will know that magic exists, see things most humans never see, become part of our world.”
“You could help them,” said Kitty-Sue.
“How?” I said.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Start a school like Hogwarts or something.”
I was about to object that I had neither the time nor temperament to start a school, but my objections stopped when I saw the Nang Tani stick her head out of her tree. She gave a big smile and a nod.
If the local tree spirit liked the idea, I should listen.
“OK,” I said. “I’ll start a school.”
Turning to Daeng, I said, “That will be your job. The job you’ll do for me after our trip. School for the kids and magical training.”
19
Lord of the Ring
Two days later, Kitty-Sue, Daeng, John, and I sat in a row ringside of a Muay Thai fight in Chiang Rai. Princess was propped between our chairs, where she could get a good view of the fights.
In my hand was a warm bottle of Singha beer. I gathered energy and let it flow down my arm to my hand. Daeng, sitting to my left, felt the tingle of magic and pulled down her glasses to watch. With a moment’s concentration, I removed the heat from the bottle to chill it down. The bottle frosted over and beads of water formed on the glass.
“Can you teach me that spell?” she asked excitedly. “It looks simple.”
“Sure,” I said. “Magic is moving energy. Heat is a form of energy. With this spell, you can encourage the heat to move.” After a few minutes, she had the spell down and was practicing on her can of Coke. I applauded her success in dropping the temperature of the can by several degrees.
Daeng put her glasses back on and sighed. “I’m glad I got the spell to work,” she said. “But I’m still getting headaches without my glasses.”
“It just takes practice,” I said. I pulled another warm beer and a can of Coke from the small cooler between my feet, chilled them down quickly, and passed them to Kitty-Sue and John on my right.
Tonight, they were in disguise. John was wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt, much too large for him, as well as a pair of brown cargo pants.
Kitty-Sue was transformed. To avoid the implication of the kitsune queen’s assassin nosing around in Thai Kingdom business, she had used her shape-shifting abilities to hide her identity. True shape-shifting, not a glamour. Her new appearance was as real as real.
Now she h
ad the look of a plus-sized American woman in her late twenties; blue eyes and short blond hair topped off her disguise. She had a pearl necklace around her neck and a dolphin-shaped brooch pinned to her blouse. Plus-sized, but not flabby, she had the look of a well-fed mama bear.
“Thanks for the beer,” she said, grabbing the bottle out of my hand and popping the cap with a thumb. She drank it down in one swallow. “Holy crapsticks! It’s hotter than the inside of a grain silo in August. Dig me out another of those brewskis.”
“Kitt—” I started, only to be interrupted by a slap on my thigh.
“Call me Pam!” she said. “I’m in character.”
Yeah, cartoon character. But I chilled down another beer with my left hand while rubbing the stinging palm print on my thigh.
She exchanged her empty bottle for the frosty bottle, then looked down at the Coke in her left hand. She looked over at John and said, “Bowman, are you sure you want to drink this crappy sugar water? It’ll ruin your liver.”
John just smiled and held out his hip flask filled with Laphroaig. “I’m just using it as a mixer,” he said.
Daeng looked past me in surprise. This was a facet of my crazy kitsune girlfriend she hadn’t seen before. “Is she imitating someone?” whispered Daeng.
Of course, even though she was transformed, Kitty-Sue’s hyper-acute kitsune hearing still worked. “Hell yes!” she said. “This is just like an adventure from my favorite show, Bowman.”
The mention of the name of the show tickled a memory. A cartoon about a group of secret agents who go on improbable adventures. Cyborgs, satellites, and Russian robots? All impossible. Some writers don’t know when to quit.
“What makes you think this scene is like that show?” I asked.
“Ain’t it obvious?” said “Pam” as she downed another beer. “Monkey-man is a handsome killer who’s good with an archery set, so he’s Bowman. I’m Pam, the lovable HR girl with a rough exterior but a heart of gold. You, Scott are… are... Well, I haven’t figured out your part yet. Comic relief?” She nodded to herself as if confirming her decision.