‘A fine idea,’ said Grace. ‘But do you think you could do me a favour and hand these two over to Garrett to take them up to their new home? We have some things to talk over here.’
‘Of course,’ said Murdock, bowing. ‘Would you two like to come with me?’ he said, turning to the children. ‘I’m sure you’d like to see where your new home will be.’
‘Excellent!’ said Grady, enthusiastically jumping up.
They headed for a different door to the one they had entered. As it opened their Uncle Garrett jumped up from outside where his head had been just about at keyhole level.
‘Oh! Ummm. Just picking up my ... my ...’
‘Hearing aid?’ said Murdock.
‘Yes, that’s the one,’ said Garrett, smiling. ‘I’ll take them from here then.’
‘Thank you,’ said Murdock. ‘I will see you two later. It’s been a pleasure to meet you both.’ said the elf, bowing deeply with a little cough.
‘Thank you Murdock,’ said Niamh.
‘Right then. Follow me,’ said Garrett, setting briskly off down the corridor.
‘Uncle Garrett,’ said Grady, as they walked. ‘Do you have any idea about what we will have to do while we are here? I mean, if we were back at home we’d be going to school and stuff like that. What happens here?’
‘Oh, well that’s already been sorted as far as I know,’ said Garrett.
‘What do you mean?’ said Niamh.
‘Well you can’t expect not to go to school just because you’ve been brought to a magical land full of witches and wizards, can you?’
‘You mean like real normal school with reading and writing and ... maths?’
‘Oh yes,’ said Garrett. ‘The whole shooting box.’
‘But they can’t make us go to school here, can they?’ said Niamh. ‘I mean, can’t we just go somewhere to learn how to be witches and wizards?’
‘I’m probably not the best person to ask about school, to be honest,’ said Garrett. ‘But I can tell you that school here is much MUCH more fun than school back where you come from. Everyone who comes from there usually says so.’
‘What do you mean by everyone who comes from there?’ asked Niamh.
‘Well, you aren’t the first ones to come to us from the other side. Over time there have been a few children over there who have had one too many accidents that can’t be explained. That’s their uncontrolled magical powers manifesting. Sometimes it will just be the odd accident – rain over someone’s head on a clear day, and just occasionally some big stuff like making things move by themselves or setting someone’s hair on fire. Every time there’s an accident like that it’s a beacon to us and we need to go rescue the world over there from them. No telling what would happen if we leave them there with access to all that mad magic over on your side. We bring them and their families back here and help them learn how to manage it all. Once they have control they can do whatever they want but not many people ever go back. It’s pretty good fun over here. Come over here for a moment and take a look out this window.’
Niamh and Grady wandered over to where Garrett stood and looked out over the castle gardens and beyond. On this side of the castle there were views down to the big deep harbour which stood on the other side of the hills from the city.
‘Tell me what you see,’ said Garrett.
Niamh stared out at the view. ‘I can see trees and flowers and gardeners, and lawns and fountains and sky and lots of other stuff. What am I supposed to see?’
‘Look again,’ said Garrett. ‘Lift your eyes and don’t look for the obvious. Now tell me what you see.’
Grady was the one who responded this time. ‘I can see ... dragons flying and ... and ... garden faeries? And broomsticks racing around the hills! And witches and wizards! And ... and ... and this place is going to be great! No wonder they don’t go back!’
‘Yes, you’re absolutely right. It’s a great place to be. Especially for you two. But there’s an awful lot of work ahead of you. Do you understand what I mean?’
‘Well ... no, not really,’ said Niamh. ‘Do you mean like trying to make new friends and living somewhere new?’
Garrett chuckled. ‘Not at all, Niamh,’ he said. ‘I have no doubt you two will make friends just fine but you have to learn how to use that magic of yours now and do it in a way which stops you hurting yourself and everyone else around you. You don’t realise it yet but there’s quite a bit of magic in you two. Bel has already told me about what you two got up to back home and its things which by rights you shouldn’t be able to do. But first things first. Its school you need, whether you like it or not.’
‘But school? Really?’ said Niamh. ‘We’ve just got here and there’s so much to see and ...’
‘Guys, trust me on this – it won’t be too hard though. We have the same classes here you have back home ... more or less anyway. You’ll still have to do your reading and writing and maths and so on. But you’ll also need to learn some ... other things which will be a bit more fun.’
‘Like what?’ asked Grady.
‘Well, wand work for a start,’ said Garrett. ‘Plus we need to figure out which sports you want to play – like spell casting or broomstick racing, or best of all – dragon racing.’
‘You race dragons?’ said Grady with undisguised delight.
‘Oh yeah,’ said Garrett. ‘There’s huge competition between the schools. You’ll love it.’ Niamh and Grady both looked excited at the idea of learning how to use wands. They’d be flicking more than just icing at each other!
Chapter 6
A Werewolf in the House
After leaving the audience with the king they wound their way along long corridors with paintings and more statues and busts of heads. Spiral staircases wound up the towers between floors, each giving a different view of the gardens below. As they moved up floor after floor they found the walls of the corridors seemed to grow brighter and sparkle as if the rock was some sort of special quartz lit from within like a lamp in a Christmas time display.
Their rooms were on the top floor of the castle with doors opposite each other just like they had been at Avalon’s End. Each room had a door which opened onto the bathroom around which flew more tiny faeries industriously scrubbing and polishing so the crazily patterned tiles and ornate silver fittings gleamed.
Just like their old home, their parents’ room was just down the corridor. In fact, if it weren’t for the dragons lazily sculling through the air outside their windows they would have felt right at home.
The rooms were laid out with everything they could need, and while bigger than their old rooms, they were not extravagant in size or fittings. Each had a four poster bed with fluffy pillows that on inspection turned out to be their old favourites from home. Small but precious objects from their bedrooms were scattered around the rooms. Niamh’s medals from dancing competitions were hung in pride of place on one wall. The small vase which had sat on Niamh’s bedside table now sat on a more ornate table in this room. And in the vase was a small posy of wildflowers much like those her mother had brought back to life not many months ago.
Grady had similar treats arranged for him. Posters of his favourite movies, toys from home, even his favourite model jets. And just like Niamh, he also had all of his clothes from home brought along for him and packed away in his room.
Just then there was a knock on the door followed by their parents’ faces poking round the corner. ‘Everything okay? Thought we’d come and see how you’re getting on. How do you like the place?’ asked Grace. ‘Have you found everything you need?’
‘Well we’ve found our clothes, our toys and our books, but we haven’t had a chance to see around the castle yet. Can we go and take a look please? Emmy said we could call for one of the children we met downstairs to come help us.’
‘Did you get on well with them?’
‘Yes, they all seemed really nice,’ said Niamh.
‘Except for Hugh,’ said Grady. ‘He told me to
stay out of his way.’
‘Hmmm. Yes, well I’ve been told Hugh can be like that sometimes, Grady, but don’t worry. I’m sure you’ll get on well with him – eventually.’ Grady thought his mum didn’t sound totally convincing when she said that.
‘Mum,’ said Niamh, ‘Bree said if we want to ask for one of the children we could call for a messenger who would let them know we need them. Can we try it now? I’d love to see one of the messenger faeries.’
‘Well, why not,’ said her father. ‘You haven’t got wands yet to call anyone so this is the next best thing.’
‘But if everyone can use wands then why do we need messenger faeries?’ asked Grady.
‘Good question, Grady,’ replied Merritt. ‘But what say you want to send something to someone, a letter, or a package. How would you do it?’
‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ said Grady. ‘Anyway, can we give it a go?’
‘Of course – Niamh, as you are the oldest you can try it first.’ That decision brought howls of protest from Grady, but there has to be some things that older sisters get to do first.
Remembering the instructions from Bree, Niamh stepped away from everyone into a clear space, briskly clapped her hands twice in front of her face and said in a loud clear voice ‘Messenger please.’ For a moment nothing happened. Then the faint sound of a bell echoed through the room before a flash of sparkling lights suddenly appeared right on the tip of Niamh’s nose and which, despite being warned this might happen, caused her to leap backward, trip, and fall on the bed. Grady burst out laughing. His sister shot him a filthy look but she recovered her composure and stood as regally as she could in front of the tiny creature hovering in front of her. It wore the green tunic and dark livery Niamh would later come to realise was the uniform anyone working in the castle wore. If the creature had wings, which Niamh expected faeries to have, then they were beating too fast for her to see them. The little man seemed to hang in mid air with a very faint golden nimbus of light around him.
‘How can I help?’ he said in a clear voice, which seemed much too loud for someone so small.
Niamh, trying to look every inch the princess, drew herself up and said, ‘Can you please find Bree, ummm ...’ and faltered as she realised she couldn’t remember Bree’s name.
The faerie looked very confused and said, ‘I’m sorry, but I don’t know any Bree Ummm. Is she new to the castle?’ The faerie cocked its head to one side and looked expectant. Niamh just looked deflated as her attempt at being royal had not really worked.
Grace turned to the faerie. ‘Please find Bree Gryphongate and ask her to come to see Niamh as soon as possible.’
‘But of course,’ replied the faerie and with another bell-like sound and a sparkle of lights, he disappeared.
Grace turned back to Niamh and continued: ‘We just wanted to check in and see how you guys have been doing. It’s been a busy day. And going back to the question, how are you guys doing? Need a hug?’
‘Always, Dad!’ said Niamh, who leant in to her father for a big hug. Niamh always thought life felt better when getting a hug from her mum or dad, and today felt especially good.
‘Dad,’ said Grady, in the tone he used which his father had come to recognise as usually signalling the start of a long and difficult question. ‘What happens next? We don’t feel any different here and the other children laughed at us for not having wands or being able to do magic. Can we? Use magic and wands I mean? And what do we do now we’re here. Are we staying in the palace for good?’
‘Yeah, Dad,’ chimed in Niamh. ‘And are we really a princess and prince?’
‘Okay, okay. One at a time,’ said Merritt, holding up his hands. ‘First off – yes you are Princess Niamh and Prince Grady, but generally no one around here will call you that. My father has been working for a long time to change the way we do things around here and isn’t really very keen on the prince and princess thing. But yes, from time to time you will be called Princess and Prince. On some occasions you’ll even have a tiara to wear, Niamh and it’ll be a real one too. You might not like it though, as its pretty heavy,’ said Merritt, grinning at Grace as he said this.
‘Oh, I’m sure I won’t mind,’ said Niamh with undisguised delight at the idea of wearing a real tiara.
‘And as far as magic goes we’re not a hundred per cent sure. We think you almost certainly will as you did some pretty clever stuff back when we were attacked in the forest. But over here it’s different. We don’t know how you’ll go with the magic from this world but tomorrow we’ll go some way to finding out.’
‘How will we find out, Dad?’ asked Grady. ‘And what’s happening tomorrow?’
‘Tomorrow we’re going to head into town to pick up a couple of things for you, or at least measure you up for some things you’ll need.’
‘Like what?’ asked Niamh.
‘Like your first broomstick and wand,’ said Grace.
‘No way!’ said Grady.
‘Yes way!’ said Merritt, in the same over-excited voice as Grady. ‘We can’t have you going to school without a wand or broomstick. That would be like going to school with no clothes on and I don’t think the headmistress would like having to stare at your bottoms each day now, would she?’
Both children burst out laughing saying, ‘Daaad. Don’t be rude.’
‘Well anyway, we need to get these to figure out just how strong your magical ability really might be. Your wand and broomstick are the two most special things a witch or wizard can have. In fact, you can hardly be called a witch or wizard if you don’t have a genuine broomstick and a decent wand.’
The children could not keep the delight off their faces. They could see themselves casting spells and racing around the countryside among trees and birds and zooming through the clouds on hot summer days.
‘We also need to get you your robes for school, and perhaps you’d like to have a look around the town. It’s a very pretty place to live. In fact, it’s very similar to home, your old home – lots of stone walls and a river – two of them in fact – and beautiful bridges. You’ll like it, I’m sure.’
‘It sounds lovely, Mum,’ said Niamh eagerly. ‘Can I ...’ she started to say, but was interrupted by her father giving his thighs a slap and standing up in his time for me to get on with things way.
‘Time for Mum and me to go. We’re going to check out our rooms as well and then we have some things we need to do. The girls should be up shortly and we’ll send someone to help teach you some of the castle rules. See you at lunch?’
‘Of course, Dad. See you soon,’ said Niamh, giving her father a hug.
Merritt let Grace walk through the door first and smiled back at the children as he left. Closing the door gently behind him and walking down the corridor to their room he placed his arm around Grace’s shoulders. ‘They have no idea what’s coming really, do they,’ he said to Grace. ‘Do you remember getting your first wand and trying to use it? I just about blew my foot off waving it around the place. I am so worried that Grady is going to do the same thing!’
‘Yes, I know what you mean,’ said Grace. ‘I had so much trouble with my first wand too. For some reason it didn’t feel right for me and I had to swap it. They had given me an Ash wand to start with but it just didn’t fit with my talents. I had to swap to a Rowan before I could cast a half decent enchantment and even that wasn’t right. I’m sure these two will do well though. Bel is convinced they have a great deal of magical strength. Maybe he is right – maybe they are going to be even stronger than us.’
‘Well if Murdock is right they’ll need to be. I know things have been quiet for a while but I don’t trust it to stay that way. We need to find out what Balthasar is planning – and he will be planning by all accounts.’ Running a hand through his hair Merritt looked suddenly tired. Sighing, he continued. ‘Let’s just try and keep this as normal as possible for those two, and get them as strong as they can be before things get crazy.’
Niamh and Grady
had barely stopped talking after their parents had left the room. Thoughts of school and wands and broomsticks raced through their heads and they charged around throwing pretend spells at each other and turning one another into frogs.
‘I wish Bree would turn up,’ said Niamh. ‘I want to go and see some of the castle,’ she said impatiently.
‘Yes, and I could do with another snack,’ said Grady. ‘I’m still hungry.’
‘You greedy little piglet,’ said Niamh. ‘Don’t you ever stop thinking about food?’
‘Sometimes,’ said Grady, laughing. ‘But not often! I’m a growing boy,’ he said, posing with a Peter Pan stance. Niamh was just about to throw a pillow at him, but before she could grab it and hurl it there was a flurry of noise outside the room and two huge black shapes came bounding through the doorway. The real dogs in the children’s life had made their way upstairs accompanied by a shaggy-haired woman who was walking a few paces behind the beasts. Both the children thought later that “walking” wasn’t the right way to describe how she moved. “Padding” along behind the dogs felt a better description, even “prowling” captured better the lean economy of movement she displayed. Once into the room the dogs made a beeline straight for the bed, jumping clean over Niamh and behind Grady as the bed covers suddenly became a mass of bustling black fur entwined with destructively wagging tails. The dogs enjoyed a few moments of frenzied pleasure as they cuddled up to their owners again.
Behind them the woman who had brought them in lounged back in a chair, draping herself around the cushions to get comfortable. The children played and squealed with the dogs while the woman said nothing but watched with keen eyes darting around.
The dogs’ frenzied entrance didn’t last long though and they soon settled down. The children scratched the animals behind their ears eliciting happy sounds from both of them. Suddenly a shrill and extremely high-pitched whistle came from the shaggy woman’s lips. The dogs sprang off the bed, ran to the woman’s feet and supplicated themselves in front of her. The children were supremely shocked by this. While the dogs had been moderately well-behaved with them at home the immediate and unbending submission to this visitor was something new.
Azrael's Twins Page 10