The 13th Mage (25 page)

And she did.

She was suddenly made of plastic and metal, she had a million eyes, millions of transactions flowed in her veins.

“What was that!” she said pulling out of him again.

“Oh, just The Way of the Witch, it grabs me sometimes, getting the hang of it now though.”

By the time he arrived at the airport Jennifer was more skilled at Borrowing than anyone he had ever met.

It puzzled him, made him uneasy, the way in which she was able to absorb all magic knowledge and skills like that.

The flight was on time. H
e sat by the window, and settled down for the hour
trip
.
He was worried, Jennifer was inside his mind chatting away about this and that, he thought about having a sleep.

“She must be very special for you to give your life away for her.”

“Pardon?”

Next to Owen sat a small, dark young woman, her large eyes a fierce golden color, eyes that penetrated into his being.
Normally he would be weary of someone who could do that, but she wasn’t being intrusive, she simply was all there, every ounce of her attention on him.

“I’m
Carolina
, you might think I’m mad but I can hear a woman’s voice coming from you, she is very worried, she regrets things past, choices made.”

“How does she know? What is she?”

“I don’t know...
she is no mage, that’s for sure.”
”So, I am not mad after all,” she said smiling widely at Owen.

“Sorry, my name is Owen, the woman is Jennifer.
What are you?”

“Oh, just an ordinary human being, nothing special about me at all. Only sometimes I can see things others cannot, among my people I am a Seer,”

“Your people?”

“Mapuche, I am from
Chile
.
Although I am not fully native, only an eighth Mapuche, also Gypsy and Spanish.
In fact I don’t really know much about my native side at all.
The only Mapuche in me are my looks and my strange skills.”

The plane picked up speed for takeoff.

Owen was still surprised at the way in which the woman’s eyes seemed to glow, “what brings you here?”

“A letter from a friend.
Do you believe in coincidences Owen?”

“Not really.”

“Nor do I.
May I speak to Jennifer through you?”

“Yes, of course.”

“Jennifer, it is not what is inside us that dictates our lives, not what we are made up of but the choices we make that turn the balance between good and evil.
What we see as evil or good are only functions of evil and good working through people or things, the choice is ours every day whether we want to let the function of evil work through us or against us.
Every moment is a new moment with infinite possibilities, don’t limit yourself by your past choices. One
person has the power to change the history of the entire world, one choice, one second, can tip the balance one way or the other.”

“I don’t know what to say, I don’t really understand.”

“When the time comes you will remember and understand.”

Having said her piece the young Mapuche woman sat back and closed her eyes.

Owen looked at her for a while, she looked so young, yet she radiated wisdom and oldness.
It reminded him of the old Healer he had visited in
Brazil
.

He woke up to the noise of the passengers leaving the plane, the young woman was already gone.

“About time.”

“What?”

“You’ve been asleep for ages and I wanted to ask her some questions, now she’s gone.”

“I guess she told you everything you needed to know. Don’t forget what I said, you must keep quiet now, the less we interact the better, just observe and feel everything that happens to me.”

“I can feel them near.”

“Near you?”

“No, near you.”

“
Okay, got it.
”

The day was overc
ast and the fields lush with green. I
t was a good day for battle.
He
could hardly feel Jennifer now. S
he was keeping invisible and was getting very good at it.
He
wondered what Rossini
was up to. A
ll interest in Owen’s business had vanished as soon as he’d met Aeoife. A smile escaped his lips.

He would go to the Shadow’s main hideout first, challenge whoever was in charge and enter into
a magic battle. I
t would be great exposure for Jennifer to learn all their strengths and weaknesses.

The fight with the Shadow had left her mothe
r’s kitchen in a terrible state.
Jennifer took the pan and brush and began to clean up.

She worked slowly, very slowly.
Doing things while Borrowing and keeping that borrowing invisible as well as private was extremely difficult, but she was getting the hang of it.
If any mage had ever told her that moving around while Borrowing had never been done before in the history of the world then she might not have tried it, but no one had taught her the limits of magic, so she didn’t have any.
By the time she finished she could move to near normal pace, soon she would be able to leave the house, the sooner she got on her way the better.
The only problem would be getting from the airport the Shadow’s hideout, it looked as though
it was in the middle of nowhere. F
inding public transport would be difficult.

“On the
Derby
hills, the Peak District, I’ve heard of that,” she said to herself, she remembered from a book she had as a child.
A place of magic, but she never thought it was evil magic.
There again magic in itself wasn’t good or evil, it was the people who used who gave it the coloring of one or the other.
That was one thing she knew for sure now.

Going out into the street was a big challenge, the amount of movement and egos overwhelmed her at first.
She walked down her street toward the centre of town, th
e bus to
Dublin
left from there and
would go past the airport.

She would have to walk past Aeoife’s house.
That could be dangerous, she could be found out.

Rossini was with Aeoife that morning, Jennifer didn’t exactly know how she knew but she could feel him there.
Feel the
Staff
.

She stopped.

He had the
Staff
with him.

If she was to get the
Staff
then she could stop the Shadow from getting to Heather, Owen had mentioned that some of the Council Elders were Shadow. That meant they were less powerful than Rossini.

The
Staff
was calling her, she knew she would be able to get it if she so wanted, Rossini would be no threat.

No. If Owen couldn’t get it off him then there was no way she could, thought Jennifer.
She was losing control. H
er mind seemed to split in two, not knowing where it was.

She sat on a garden wall and waited until she was in full control of all the places she was in, and then she carried on her way.

She found that if she didn’t veer away from her plan she could keep all the balls in the air, but she didn’t have room to maneuver, she couldn’t change her mind or think of another strategy.

Owen was entering the Peak District, it was misty, beautiful, the hills and trees called to him, to her, their essence mixing with theirs, she got on the bus and paid
the driver, the third
seat on the right was still available, she made her way over and sat down. Owen thought about a line of attack, he would be there soon, where was Jennifer?

“I’m still with you.”

He was startled. S
he was completely invisible, as though she didn’t exist at all.

The woman next to her started talking about the weather, Jennifer let her body answer her usual response
s
.

Owen was struggling with the misty conditions, cars and tractors were all going slowly, he reached over the passenger seat for the
map, but looking at it and staying on the now invisible road was difficult.

Jennifer opened he
r backpack and took out the map. S
he looked at it and projected an image of it to Owen.

“How did you do that?”

”Can you see it?”

“Yes, perfectly, in my mind’s eye I can see the map, it just appeared there.
Ok, you can turn it off now. How can you remember the map so well?”

The woman started telling Jennifer about her eldest son, he was starting university the next summer, after a year traveling the world.

“I don’t remember it, I am looking at it.”

“You are Borrowing while doing other things in your own body?”
A wave of surprise and admiration reached Jennifer from Owen.

She hoped he wouldn’t ask her where she was, but then she realized by the
way
he had felt and thought, that he would never think she had managed to leave the house, or even the room for that matter.
She realized that what she was doing was impossible.

If it was impossible then the Shadow would never suspect her presence near them if they found out she was Borrowing into Owen’s mind.
She could take them by surprise.

But, what would she do?
She couldn’t kill them.
She couldn’t fight them yet, not until she learned their magic.
The point was not to defeat them, but make her invulnerable to them, stronger than them, strong enough to protect Heather.

The woman’s son was handsome and available.

Jennifer had a baby and was not married.

There again the woman’s son was in love with a very nice local girl, a bit simple perhaps but they made a lovely couple.

Not having to chat made things much easier for Jennifer.
She was getting clearer by the minute.

At the airport she went straight to the airline counter and bought a ticket for that afternoon’s flight.
She would have to wait three hours.

There was a cafeteria upstairs, she went up and paid for a fruit juice and a sandwich, she was getting good at it, being in two places at once.

She sat by the window and watched as the planes were towed here and there, buses collecting passengers arriving from distant lands, or maybe not so far.
The thought crossed her mind of borrowing into one of those passengers at the same time, but decided she
would leave it for another time. M
ultiple borrowing she thought must be like watching several
televisions
at once.
It would take some getting used to.

Owen drove up a small private road, there was much energy near him, Jennifer became nervous, deep down she had felt the plan was a mistake, now the feeling was making itself present in her stomach and it was growing.
It had never been Owen’s battle to begin with, he shouldn’t have gone.
It was a mistake, a terrible mistake.
She looked at her watch, time had hardly gone by at all
. I
t would be hours before she
got
there.
She thought about telling Owen to turn around, to come back, but she knew him well enough now, after being in his mind, that he wouldn’t do it.
Once he had made up his mind about something there was nothing that would stop him achieving it.
If she possessed him and made him turn around the battle of wills would be so great it would alert every mage in the isles.

Owen stopped the car outside some large gates, the place was walled from side to side, and the gate was padlocked.
He stopped the engine and felt for his surroundings, there was strong magic all around.

He looked into the forest and saw creatures from other worlds.
The wall between the dimensions was weaker there.
He thought about entering the forest but remembered the effect nature had on him now, and decided to take a rain-
check
.

Why would they want to weaken the dimensional wall?
He didn’t know.
It didn’t really make any sense at all.

He tried to touch the lock but it was protected, he would have to announce himself if he wanted to go inside.
That was okay, it was part of the plan after all.

On the side of the gate there was a chain, it was attached to a brass bell on top on the other side of the gate, a few meters from the wall.

He pulled it until he saw someone walking down the path.

It was a gatekeeper. A mortal.

“There is an intercom to your left, sir.”

“Oh, sorry.
I need to see your master.”

“Is Lady Stellar expecting you sir?”

The name was very familiar, Stellar.
He wondered where he had heard of her.
Then thought he had probably met her at a Council meeting.

“No, but tell her it is Owen The Last Challenger.”

The gatekeeper looked Owen up and down and frowned.

“Your one of them queer ones then.”

“Sorry?”

“Lots of queer people have been coming of late.”

Mages, thought Owen.

“Strange things happening in the woods too, UFOs, we had the army here day before yesterday.
Collecting samples they were.
Radioactive samples.”

He reached into his jacket and took out a walky-talky, then turned around to stop Owen from listening.

“Lady Stellar asks if you are accompanied sir.”

Owen looked around him, then back to the gatekeeper.

“There is no one else here, I am alone.”

The gatekeeper took out his keys and unlocked the gate.

“I would be grateful if you used the intercom next time sir,” he mumbled while locking the gate behind Owen.

“Follow the drive, the house is at the end.”

Owen nodded and walked away.
The gravel under his feet announced his arrival at the house.

The blond Shadow was waiting for him at the front door, she asked him to follow her, Lady Stellar was waiting for him in the study, she was beautiful, strikingly so, like a Greek Goddess.

“I am very surprised to see you here Owen O’Neill, please sit down,” her voice sang.

No greeting, Owen thought, at least she was honest enough not to try to be friendly.

“Lady Stellar, I have come to ask you and your associates to leave Jennifer and Heather Stone in peace.”

“What makes you think I have had anything to do with the events surrounding your charges?”

“To begin with not many mages know they are my charges, in fact only Rossini and the group of Shadows you belong to know about my role in this. Secondly the knowledge about the events you mentioned did not leave the circle of Shadow.”

Stellar looked at Owen up and down, she sat next to him and smiled.

“How did you find me Owen?”

“That is of no importance, the important thing is that I need you to leave these young mages alone immediately.”

“Or else?”

“I will be forced to Challenge you.”

“Ah, first you challenge Rossini, now me.
Do you realize who I am Owen?”

“I know you belong to the Council of Elders, or you would not have recognized me as the Last Challenger.”

“No, you don’t know who I am.”

She stood up to her full height, physical and energy wise, a type of magic muscle flexing.

“I am Stellar The Last Challenger, until you had the audacity to take my title.
But no matter.
I would be
Staff
Holder if it wasn’t for the fact that a better proposition came my way in the nick of time. Do you know what the
Staff
actually is Owen?”

“Yes, it’s a time machine.”

“Oh, it’s much more than that Owen.
To begin with if you are unfortunate enough to take hold of it on your own it would possess
you.
Like a drug, an obsession.
You couldn’t possibly share it afterwards.
But in a group, a powerful enough group it is much more than just a magic tool or a time machine.
It is a notch in the fabric of reality, the very matter that holds the universe together.
It is capable not only of taking you into the past and future but of changing reality, the nature of things.
With it we could make Hitler into a humanitarian, Gandy into a ruthless dictator, the earth, gravity, atoms, into anything our minds could conceive.”

She walked toward Owen, he felt apprehensive.

She took his hand.

“As you know one of our numbers is down, we need another powerful mage to take his place. How about it Owen?
With you as part of our group nothing would happen to Jennifer or Heather, they would be completely safe.”

Owen took his hand back, he couldn’t believe what he was hearing, she was asking him to join them.

“I wouldn’t ask you if I didn’t know you Owen.
You are very ambitious, very protective.
You have a special type of energy not often seen in us.
You could keep your charges, take care of them as you saw fit.
We only need the
Thirteenth
mage to activate the
Staff
.
She could do so now, even at her present stage of development.
We could then steer it together, the rest of us.
As a group we could control it, not letting it get hold of us and disabling us.”