The 13th Mage (26 page)

Jennifer and Heather would be safe if he was allowed to keep them.
It was all he wanted, for them to be safe.

He got up and held his head.
Stellar was possessing him, she was trying to manipulate his mind.

“Common sense Owen, not possession, it is the perfect solution. Tell me where she is Owen, tell me where Heather is.”

“She… she is…”

“Owen, no, don’t say it”.

“Who is that Owen?
Who is borrowing into your mind?”

“Jennifer, it’s Jennifer.”

“Good God.
She is advancing very quickly, I can’t even detect her, she is completely invisible.
It is truly amazing.”

“Don’t speak Owen, don’t even think.
She is in your mind, just hold on.”

“Owen, where is the child?
Where is Heather?”

“Owen don’t say it”.

“She is…”

He struggled, stopped himself speaking, but in his mind’s eye he saw
Oak Place
, he saw Esther giving Heather her bottle.

“No! Owen, think of a wall, I beg you.”

“Good boy.”

Stellar got up quickly and reached for her phone, she dialed.

“Sorry Owen, I have to possess you for a minute.”

“They are at…”

Her mouth gesticulated but no sound came out.

She looked at Owen surprised, picked up a paper weight and knocked him over
the
head.

Owen fell to the floor unconscious.

Stellar placed the paperweight back on the desk and picked up the phone, “The baby is at
Oak Place
, bring the woman too, I think she might be Jennifer’s mother, she could be of use.”

Stellar put the phone down, straightened her blouse, checked her hair in the mirror over the fireplace and rang for assistance.
She was looking forward to meeting Jennifer.
If Jennifer could take control over her while Borrowing, she had to be very skilled indeed.
They had taken too long to get to her, but Stellar was sure it was not too late
to control her
, once they had the baby Jennifer wouldn’t be a threat, she would simply vanish into her anger and rage allowing them to have full access to the
Thirteenth
Mage.

A wet cloth whipped his face, he tried to move but he couldn’t.

“Owen, wake up.”

It was a male voice.

He opened his eyes and saw his face looking down at him.

“Sean?”

Sean helped him up and s
at beside him, he looked around. T
hey were in a cellar.
His head was pounding.

“Jennifer!”

There was no answer.

It was possible she was knocked out as well, too much of a shock.

“Where are we Sean?”

“We are prisoners, the mages, Shadow.”

“We are on earth then.”

“Yes.”

“What are you doing here?
I thought I asked you to stay put for the time being, your skills are not developed, you are like a new born child here on earth.”

“I thought I could talk to them.
I wanted to remind them of our deal.”

“How did you get out of the
Old Ones
world? I didn’t claim you.”

“Well, I broke out, it didn’t matter the
Old Ones
knew where I was because I would be here and the Shadow cannot hurt me as long as I am
Old Ones
property.
This
is where they brought me first. T
he dimensional walls here are very thin.”

“We have to get out of here, they know where Heather is.”

Owen looked around for a weak point, the walls were sealed, they were in
a
mage cage.

“How did they find out where Heather was?”

Owen looked away from his brother, it was humiliating to admit he had failed, had walked straight into their hands.

“I told them, that Lady Stellar is very strong, I underestimated her skills.
The only rewarding thought is that Jennifer has some of those skills now.”

He felt for the walls, it was very good protection, but there a
gain it could never be complete. N
othing was completely integral in a place where the dimensions mingled.

Like an ant taking a grain at a time, Owen began making a hole in the thinnest of the energy impregnated walls.

Jennifer was shaken to the core.
She was alone.
Owen was nowhere to be found, he had disappeared from the face of the earth.

Before boarding the plane she had called Harry Johnson to collect Heather and Esther, get them to a safe house.
He didn’t quite understand why he was being asked such a thing but assured Jennifer he would take charge of the baby until her return.
If only her mother had accepted a mobile phone Jennifer would have been able to warn her.
She hoped against hope that Esther wouldn’t refuse to go with Harry Johnson, it would be just like her mother to stay behind.

The Shadow were in London, that
meant
it was
only
a matter of minutes before they would get to the house.

Time seemed to stand still.
Everything moved slowly, the plane was taking an eternity to arrive.

Tears were on the border of her eyes, waiting to explode.

They had underestimated the enemy.

They had underestimated what the Shadow could do.
Now Heather might fall into their hands and there was nothing Jennifer could do.

She waited.

The plane landed, Jennifer went to one of the cash machines, touched it and withdrew a few hundred pounds, no card, no PIN.
She would return it when it was all over, she promised herself.

She ran out and got into a taxi, showed him the map and offered a hundred pounds if he could get her there very quickly indeed, “a matter of life and death.”

“Put your seat belt on Miss,” said the driver, a wide smile on his face.

The gates were locked, she tried to break it but it repelled her hands and her energy.
The walls around the grounds were
very high and also unreachable. I
t felt as though she was touching the wrong end of a magnet.

Across the private road was the forest that Owen had been looking at, she looked closely but saw no creatures from other dimensions, nothing but ordinary trees.

She heard a car approaching and hid behind some bushes, the gates opened, the car drove in, she waited until it turned the corner before running in after it.

Owen.

She could feel something small, a small sense that he was there, like a left over trail of energy leading into the house, down, under the house.

Sean!

Sean was there too, Sean was with the Shadow!

She crouched down behind a tree by the back entrance to the house.
There wasn’t much movement in the house.
Someone worked in a greenhouse, probably a mortal. She surprised herself at the way in which she now classified people as mortal or mages, it was something new to her.

The house was large, had dozens of window, a few terraces, all impeccably kept.
She wondered how many people it took to keep it looking that way, or maybe it was all done with magic, in which case only one person could do it.

If she had a place like this she would open it up to the public, the house and the grounds open for everyone to enjoy.
It was a beautiful place.

She closed her eyes and tried to locate Owen and Sean.
Their trails both ended under the house somewhere, ended and disappeared there.
She reasoned they must be in a space bubble, like the one Aeoife had taught her to make.
If that was the case then she wouldn’t be able to get them out, she didn’t know how to undo another mage’s space bubble. Owen had said that she was not like other mages.
She could absorb knowledge, magic skills.
This was her only weapon, she had to start
using it before it was too late. T
here was no choice but to face Stellar directly herself as soon as possible.

She stood up and brushed the leaves from her clothes and hair,
the
dumb things were always getting stuck to her.

She cleaned her shoes on the back of her jeans and walked round to the front door, rang the bell and waited.

The door opened revealing the blond mage, Jennifer sent her to keep David Andrews company and stormed into the house.

Stellar filled the house with her presence, so much so that it took Jennifer a few seconds to locate her.

She ran up the stairs and burst into the study.

Stellar sent her a wave of energy which would have left most mages breathless, Jennifer absorbed it and sent it back, making one of Stellar’s curls fall over her left eye.

“Jennifer? By all the Gods and Goddesses, it is you.
This is such good fortune, please sit,” she said pointing to a chair beside her.

“I’ll stand, I want you to release Owen and Sean, and I want you to leave my baby alone.”

“Well, my dearest girl, you are nice looking too. I didn’t expect you here just yet but no matter, this is even better than expected, really. You have saved us a lot of trouble.”

Jennifer began to build a space bubble around Stellar.

Stellar brushed it away with a small flick of her fingers, looked at the younger woman with arrogance.

Jennifer smiled, now she knew how to destroy other people’s space bubbles, if Owen and Sean were in one all she had to do was to follow their trail and destroy the bubble.

Stellar looked at her, puzzled by the smile.

“So, you like a good battle Jennifer?
I would love to oblige but this is a really bad time.
We don’t want you getting hurt.”

“I won’t get hurt you old hag, but if you don’t return those men to me now and leave my baby alone I will send you somewhere you won’t return from, ever.”

Stellar looked at herself in the mirror, fixed the curl back into her hair and put on some lipstick.

Jennifer couldn’t make the first move, she couldn’t show how inexperienced she was, but waiting was killing her.

“I have been considered the most beautiful woman on earth by countless of generations, by countless people.
I have Holy Virgins and Goddesses named after me all over the globe.”

She turned to face Jennifer.

“You on the other hand are nothing more than an ordinary looking Irish girl, your eyes are too small and you skin covered in those horrible spots, freckles, whatever.”

The feeling of ugliness and helplessness overtook Jennifer, leaving her small and frail.
Owen would never love her, not after meeting Stellar.

“At least my youth is real. What do you really look like, how old are you really?”

Stellar laughed.

That one didn’t work, thought Jennifer.
She had to think beyond beauty before using the magic she had just learned.
Stellar was using psychology, things she knew would make a freckled girl feel bad, to make hers work.

Jennifer walked around the room, not taking her eyes off her opponent, Stellar was very tall, but nowadays that was a plus, the room was decorated in extremely good taste, Stellar was elegant, perfect.

“You are the most perfect woman I have ever seen in my life.”

“Thank you dear, your old self used to think so too.”

“Sorry?”

“I will call for tea and then we can have a civilized discussion on how we can resolve this whole mess.”

Jennifer couldn’t understand the change in the energy, it was bloated, it was confident, and it was familiar, secure.

“What do you mean by my old self?”

“Oh, just an old Greek saying my dear, it means it has always been that way.”

Jennifer sat down, she had to think of a way to rattle Stellar’s cage, she had to think of ways to make her use her magic.

“Are Owen and Sean still alive?”

“Oh yes, we couldn’t kill them even if we wanted to, it would attract the wrong type of attention from certain parties.
Don’t worry, you will get them back as soon as we have what we want.”

“Heather?”

Stellar smiled.

“Tea My Lady.”

It was the butler, the type Jennifer could remember from films.

“Thank you James that will be all.”

“James, huh? The perfect butler.”

“I’ll be mother,” said Stellar filling Jennifer’s a cup with tea and handing her some biscuits.

Jennifer felt a pain deep in her heart.

Mother.

She could feel her mother.
Her mother was close by, not physically, only her essence. Jennifer got up spilling her tea and biscuits all over the carpet.

“Where’s my mother! “

Stellar hushed her and gestured for her to sit down.

“Now, now, your mother is in a good place, she volunteered to go, we have not forced her to do anything she didn’t want to do.”

“What have you done to my mother Stellar?”

“Come with me, I’ll show you where she is,” she answered offering her hand.

Jennifer hesitated
for a few seconds but decided it was a risk worth taking and
took her hand.

They were somewhere dark. Stellar was there, other mages too, Jennifer couldn’t count them due to the darkness, they were forming a circle, in the middle of the floor was a large black whirlpool leading down, infinitely down. It oozed evil.

The Shadow, thought Jennifer.

She looked around, there was nothing to defend herself with, nothing to hold on to, the whirl was attracting her, pulling her, she was terrified.

She imagined the Virgin and Child, and held on to it, but it melted in her hands.
Stellar laughed.

“Religious icons are useless, have you never read the Bible?” She said.

Jennifer was slipping.
The whirl was getting larger, closer.

Concentrate, thought Jennifer, none of this is real, it’s a mental construction, the whirl stopped growing and Jennifer was able to stand up.
I can beat this, she thought.

Stellar nodded to one of the other mages, he left the circle, returning a few minutes later leading Esther by the hand.

“Don’t hurt my mother if you know what’s good for you Stellar.”

Stellar smiled and pushed Esther down into the whirlpool.

NO!

The order was final, rage destroyed the circle, destroyed the room.
Jennifer could see Stellar trying to pull away from her, trying to take her hand back, back in the real world, she could also see the whirlpool, the blackness pulling, getting bigger by the second, her mother was on the edge, holding on, telling Jennifer to get away.

“NO! Not my mother you bitch, you don’t touch my mother!”

She looked into Stellar’s eyes, their hands locked.
Stellar was saying something, calling someone, Joitan.
She was calling Joitan to save her, help her get away before it was too late.

She went into Stellar’s mind, chasing her into herself, absorbing everything therein, consuming the older mage, taking her magic.

“Jennifer, get away, baby, run, leave, please listen to me!”

It was her mother.
Back into the blackness she reached for her mother, they locked eyes. Her mother was dying, going into hell.

“Don’t leave me mom, please don’t leave me, I love you.”

The whirlpool shrank. Hope and realization entered Jennifer’s heart. She loved her mother more than anyone in the whole universe. The whirlpool shrank to a small black dot. Light engulfed them.

“Mom, don’t die. Don’t leave me please, take me with you.”

The dot disappeared.
Esther kissed her on the forehead and hugged her tightly.

“I’m so sorry my love, I thought I was doing the right thing.
They said I could take your place.”

“Mommy, please don’t go, don’t leave me all alone. Take me with you.”

“No, you have a young baby to take care of. Stay with her, bring her up to be as wonderful as you are.”

“Stellar was going to kill her. S
he wanted my baby so she could kill her to release the
Thirteenth
Mage
monster
.
She wanted to kill my baby.”

The room disappeared.

Esther lay in a hospital bed, tubes all over her.

Jennifer looked around, she had transported to the hospital in mind and body, it was probably one of Stellar’s skills.

She took her mother’s hand and stroked her hair.
Her body was still alive but her soul had already left.

“Oh, I didn’t see you come in, are you a relative?”

“I’m her daughter.”

“Jennifer Stone?”

“Yes.”

“I’ll call the doctor, wait here, he won’t be long,” the nurse said, leaving quickly out of the room.

The doctor arrived a few minutes later, he reminded Jennifer of the young woman Owen had met on the plane.
He looked young but seemed ancient.