A Life Less Ordinary (11 page)

Master Revels scowled at her, but nodded, closing the book gently and putting it on the table. I couldn’t help but notice that someone had carefully engraved a devil’s head onto the book’s cover, leaving me wondering if it was a threat or a promise. Some magical books had their own defences, from spells that made it impossible for one to see them to spells that cursed anyone who tried to touch them without taking the proper precautions. Master Revels had trained me to watch for the latter, after telling me a series of horror stories about people who had opened one only to find themselves trapped within a pocket dimension.

“I suppose I do owe you an explanation or two,” Master Revels conceded. I got the impression that he wasn’t keen to talk about it to anyone, even to me. “Where would you like me to begin?”

I hesitated. “You mentioned a number,” I said, slowly. He’d warned me not to mention their name out loud. “What are they and what do they do?”

“You can speak freely here,” Master Revels said. “The Thirteen...well, as much as anyone is, they’re the rulers of the magical world.”

I looked up, surprised. “I always had the impression that there weren’t any rulers,” I said, puzzled. “You certainly implied as much.”

Master Revels sighed heavily. “The Thirteen are the most powerful human magic-users in the world,” he said. “I should add that they’re the most powerful
known
magic users in the world. They...they generally act to maintain the status quo.”

He didn’t sound as if he wanted to continue, but he seemed to feel that he had no choice. “The magical world has too many Beings of Power and suchlike – like Circe – for anyone to control them properly. If the Thirteen sought to assert real control, they would find themselves destroyed in short order. As powerful as they are, they are still outgunned by the combined power of every other human mage in existence...and that doesn’t even count the elves, or the Walking Gods, or the hundreds of others who are so much more than human. The Thirteen’s main task is preventing the magical world from bleeding too heavily into the mundane world, hence our assignment to stop Mr Pygmalion.”

I frowned. “How did they know that a magician was involved?”

“Trade secret,” Master Revels said. “Let’s just say that a very powerful entity laid down the ground rules over one thousand and five hundred years ago and very few people dare to disobey. The mundane world is to remain...well, mundane. We are not allowed to operate openly in their world.”

“Oh,” I said. I remembered the slaves and shuddered. “Why don’t they stop the slave trade then?”

Master Revels winced. “They are limited in what they can do because the last thing they want is their enemies banding together to destroy them,” he admitted. “If Mr Pygmalion had been kidnapping girls into the magical world and leaving them there, or sending them out on the Fairy Roads of Happenstance with no hope of a return to Earth, the Thirteen would probably not have been able to do anything about it – if they cared enough to think that they
should
do something about it. Controlling humans is quite hard enough; controlling elves or goblins or demons is much harder. A year or so before you met me, I had to hunt down a vampire that had gotten loose into the mundane world and started to prey on ordinary humans. He could have caused a disaster.”

I stared down at my hands. “But why would that cause a disaster?”

Master Revels considered it for a long moment. “There is a fundamental issue when it comes to magic, one laid down in the laws of the universe,” he said, finally. “If you are born in the mundane world, you have to have a willingness to accept magic if you want to use it. You cannot just tell yourself that you believe in magic; you have to actually
believe
in magic. The mundane world doesn’t birth many people who are capable of truly accepting magic into their lives.”

“But that leaves them helpless against magic,” I protested, remembering Circe and Mr Pygmalion. “They have no defence.”

“Quite so,” Master Revels agreed. “You can be harmed by magic even if you don’t believe in it. Yet...what would happen if magical events became so common that the mundane world started to accept,
en masse
, the possibility of magic actually existing? It would completely destroy mundane society and probably ruin ours as well. The Thirteen’s task is to prevent that from happening. Mr Pygmalion’s actions risked exposure.”

“If one of the girls had somehow escaped from her spell, or if the spell had simply worn off,” I guessed. Master Revels nodded. “What would have happened then?”

“Like I said, the mundane world is very good at averting its collective eyes from any suggestion of magic,” Master Revels said, “but the results could still have been very bad. A few years ago, there was a reporter who actually managed to deduce most of the story behind a series of unfortunate events in Pendle, down near the Lake District. There have been witches there for generations. If he hadn’t been...handled carefully, he might have exposed part of the magical world to mundane scrutiny and who knows what could happen then?

“And even if there was a successful integration between magical and mundane humans, what would happen when the mundane encountered the elves? Or demons or giants; all the other creatures who regard humanity as their rightful prey, to be hunted and toyed with and abused as they see fit? The law separating the mundane world from the magical world might collapse, or the being behind it might intervene directly. Either one would lead to disaster.”

He shook his head. “No, we’re better off maintaining the barriers between the two worlds,” he concluded. “And that is what the Thirteen does.”

I nodded slowly. “And what do
you
do?”

Master Revels smiled. “I work for them as one of their...let’s just call me a policeman, for the moment,” he said. “When someone breaks the rules, they send me to deal with it.”

“He’s a little more than just a policeman,” Fiona put in, mischievously. By now, I was sure I could recognise a scaly dragon grin. “He is responsible for so much more.” She fluttered her wings. “And all of this, one day, will be yours.”

I stared at Master Revels, who nodded. “The reason I need an apprentice is because I cannot do this job forever,” he explained. “I cast spells in the hope that I would get a perfect apprentice walking up to my door. You came.”

“Oh,” I said. I wasn’t sure I liked the sound of that. Living in the magical world was so much better than the dull mundane world – I never wanted to go back – yet I didn’t like the thought of someone casting a spell to summon me. “Why did you choose me?”

“The magic chose you,” Master Revels corrected. “It is rarely wrong.”

“Oh,” I said, again.

“You have a sense of justice, you think quickly on your feet, you learn rapidly and you have a remarkable talent for unfocused magic,” Master Revels added. “Do you think that just anyone could have thrown off Circe’s spell so easily? You gained fame and renown for that throughout the magical world.”

“It wasn’t that easy,” I protested, weakly. I didn’t want to pass up on the praise, but I thought I should be honest, if nothing else. “I had to struggle.”

“It should not have been possible at all,” Master Revels said, firmly. “Even the Thirteen themselves are a little nervous whenever her name is mentioned, because they view her as powerful, dangerous and unpredictable. You broke her spell and walked away free and clear.”

“And naked,” I said, sourly. I hadn’t forgotten that, yet. “I need to think.”

“I understand,” Master Revels said. He hesitated. “If it’s any consolation, I felt the same way when my master taught me what I needed to know. I didn’t understand that the job needed doing and that I was the best person for the job, perhaps the only person who could lift his burden from his shoulders. It took me time to learn and he was always patient with me. I owe you no less.”

“Thank you,” I said. I paused. I didn’t want to ask him, but the question had to be asked. “What would you say if I went on a date with Cardonel?”

“I’d say that that has nothing to do with what we are discussing,” Master Revels said, crossly. He smiled, humourlessly. “If you are planning to go on a date with him, make sure he swears by his name to leave you unharmed and safe. You cannot trust an elf, ever. Keep that in mind.”

I swallowed, hard. “I will, sir,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to go on a date with him or not, yet I didn’t want Master Revels thinking that I would do everything he told me to do. “And thank you. Thank you for this opportunity.”

“You don’t know the half of it yet,” Master Revels said grimly. There was a note in his voice that suggested trouble and strife. It struck me, then, that I had no idea how old he actually was. “Don’t be so quick to thank me for anything.”

Chapter Ten

“So,” I said. “Why are we here?”

“You have to learn to use your senses,” Master Revels said, dryly. He didn’t seem very patient with me, but then...I had a date in the evening. His response had been to make icy comments about half-elves and what they could do, given half a chance. “Open your eyes and look around.”

I knew what he meant. Magic didn’t exist in plain sight, not in the mundane world. It existed at the corner of one’s eye. Just because I couldn’t see the magic didn’t mean that it wasn’t there. I closed my eyes and felt out with my developing senses...there was a nexus of magic right
there
. I opened my eyes and smiled. A third path was shimmering into view.

“I can see it,” I said, in relief. I always wondered, at the back of my mind, if one day I would be unable to see anything magical, like the mundane humans. Were there people who lived in the mundane world who had lost the ability to see and use magic? I hadn’t dared to ask. “Are you coming?”

We stood at the top of a slope, heading down towards Blackford Pond. A second path led down a steeper slope towards the hill. The third path seemed to lead in a direction that defied purely mortal senses, tempting me to walk right out of the mundane world and into a very different magical direction. I started towards it and stopped in surprise when I realised that he wasn’t following me.

“I cannot walk that path,” Master Revels explained. He didn’t sound too pleased about it and I didn’t blame him. If he worked for the Thirteen, enforcing what little law there was in the magical world, having a place that was completely off-limits to him had to be galling. “Don’t worry, Dizzy; you’ll be perfectly safe.”

I took one last look at him and started to walk, holding my head up high. The path seemed to shimmer and twist under my footsteps – as if I was walking on slippery ice – but it remained stable. The woodland surrounding us seemed to shift and change as I walked further, taking on a darker, more complex aspect. I felt great powers shifting in the air around me and, just for a second, the watchful gaze of an unseen eye. My entire body tingled as the environment changed yet again – if the defences had rejected me, so much power could have torn me apart or enslaved me permanently – before the path twisted around me and terminated. I had reached my destination.

Master Revels hadn’t said much about what I should expect, but that was par for the course with him. Over the last few days, he had introduced me to a dozen of the most significant figures and groups in the magical world, ranging from demented old witches with a cackling problem to scrawny overweight nerds convinced that they could bridge the gap between science and magic. This time, I found myself standing on a warm grassy knoll, with the sun blazing down on me from high overhead. In the distance, there was a pool, with a handful of naked women either swimming or sitting around it chatting to their friends. It seemed so safe and tranquil that I hesitated to walk closer, but I knew that I had no choice.

“Well met,” one of the women called, as I approached the small group. She was slight, yet stunningly beautiful, with dark brown skin and a smile that instantly drove away all my doubts and fears. Her long brown hair fell over her breasts as she stood up and held out a hand, before pulling me into a hug. I blushed in embarrassment as she held me and she giggled. It was a surprisingly charming sound.

“Welcome to Haven,” she said, in an oddly-accented voice. I’d grown up in a multicultural environment and I couldn’t place the accent. “You may call me Sister Varsha, Spokeswoman of the Sisterhood. You are welcome in this place.”

“You may call me Dizzy,” I said, recalling my manners. One lesson that my master had driven into me time and time again was to remember my manners at all times. The magical world had a habit of punishing bad manners; indeed, the Elves regarded any display of bad manners as an insult that could be punished a thousand times over. He’d warned me that, for a trivial impoliteness, I could find myself gifted with a donkey’s ears or worse. “Thank you for welcoming me.”

Sister Varsha laughed. “You don’t have to fear us here,” she promised. I had the odd feeling that she was nothing more than what she seemed to be. There was certainly no trace of a glamour-spell surrounding her, although I could pick up streams of magic running through the surrounding forest. It was the most magical place I’d visited. “We are not your enemies or those of your master.”

“Come, don’t tease the girl,” another woman said. She was older, with pinched features and a gimlet eye that seemed to stare right into my soul. “This place is a refuge for all of womankind, even those who believe that their rightful place is by their man – or master. She can relax here and be one of us.”

“We don’t allow men here,” Sister Varsha explained, with a wink. She indicated her nakedness with a single wave of her hand. “Very few men could even discover the path that leads here and those who walked it would find themselves without their manhood when they reached the end, if the other defences failed to deter them. The Great Powers were summoned and used to create wards that could never be broken, even if all the men were to combine their powers and try to break in.”

Her gaze broadened. “We are a home for those women who have nowhere else to go,” she added, softly. “They run from their homes, from their husbands and families and children, and eventually they come to us. We take them in, we love them and care for them and eventually they are healed, either to go back to the mundane world or to go onwards to one of the many other worlds. And some stay here with us.”