A Hidden Witch (A Modern Witch Series: Book 2) (18 page)

To make matters worse, most of the new arrivals
seemed to believe they needed some sort of computer part to
activate their Net power. Which was true, but Nell was pretty sure
most of the parts littered in Moira’s yard pre-dated the Internet.
Ginia had been shocked to discover floppy disks actually still
existed.

Nell waded through the crowd, dispensing cookies
and blueberries as she went. Yup, Ginia was looking a little
frazzled. Time for a rescue. “Hey, sweetie. How’s it going?”

“It’s a little crazy, Mama. I’m trying to get
everyone scanned, but most of them can’t spellcode, so I have to
teach them how to do that first.”

Since Ginia’s current audience was all over
sixty, Nell guessed that wasn’t going overly well.

And no way did she plan to spend the entire week
teaching the witch population of Nova Scotia to code. Time for Plan
B.

“Go find Lauren and your brother, sweetie. I
have an idea.”

Ginia dashed off, looking relieved. Nell clapped
her hands and spell-projected her voice. “Good morning, everybody!
Can I get you all to take a seat and face this direction?”

Lauren made her way over with a grumpy Aervyn in
tow. Nell handed him a cookie. Chocolate chips could work miracles
on four-year-old moods.

“I hope you have a plan,” Lauren said. “This is
nuts.”

“I do. I think we need to teach them how to
activate Net power without spellcoding. Just like you did with
Aervyn and Elorie, but we’ll give them a group demonstration
first.”

She turned back to the now-seated and mostly
quiet group. “We weren’t expecting such a crowd this morning, so
thanks for your patience. As many of you have obviously heard, one
way of using Net power is online, with spellcoding. But it can also
be activated much like mind power, and we think that might be an
easier way to test most of you.”

“Thank goodness,” said a voice at the back.
Judging from the laughter, a lot of people agreed with him.

Nell grinned. It didn’t look like Realm was
going to pick up a flood of new players from the east. “What we’re
going to do first is a quick demonstration, with Ginia activating
her Net power. Lauren and Aervyn will mindlink and broadcast so all
of you can see.”

Marcus stood up on her left. “I’ll help with
that. This is a sizable crowd.”

Nell was pretty sure Aervyn could have handled
the job on his own, but she wasn’t about to argue with the local
talent.

Ginia pulled out her commandeered iPhone, which
got plenty of murmurs all on its own. Marcus leaned over toward
Nell. “You’re going to have to raise the rates for Realm if she
keeps using that up here.”

Nell snorted. Her girl was smarter than that.
“She and Jamie hunkered down last night and hooked up a wireless
bubble on her laptop. They juiced the range, so it should work from
here.”

“Interesting.” Marcus pulled an iPhone out of
his pocket.

Wait just a minute. “You’ve had that all this
time?” While she’d been paying a gadzillion dollars a minute in
roaming charges?

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “Just how many Net
witches do you think we have sitting here, and how many iPhones?
I’d never get it back.”

That grated on Nell’s last nerve. Selfish old
man. Okay, maybe she was a little cranky too, but witches shared.
It was an unspoken rule.

Nell felt Lauren’s incoming mindlink and
realized the demonstration was ready to begin. Time to stop
squabbling with Marcus.

Very slowly, Ginia walked through the exercise
of activating her Net power, with Lauren providing mental
commentary. When they’d done it several times, Aervyn ran the
slow-motion replay. No one in the audience so much as blinked until
he was finished.

Then bedlam broke out. Marcus raised a hand.
QUIET
.

Lauren winced.
Warn me the next time you plan
to mind-yell, please
.

My apologies. I wasn’t aware you were so
sensitive.

Nell grabbed Lauren before she whacked Marcus
with a mental two-by-four.
Later, girl. Right now, we have a
herd of witches to train, and we need him. Play nicely, and I’ll
help you get even later
.

She’d never heard Lauren growl before. Trust
Marcus to bring out the best in all the women around him.

Are you two done yet?
Marcus asked dryly.
I suggest you pick a volunteer to test.

Nell looked at the waiting audience and tried to
figure out the best way to proceed. Ginia tugged on her arm. “Start
with the kids, Mama. I’m pretty sure Kevin is a Net witch.”

It wasn’t a bad idea, but they definitely didn’t
need several dozen witches watching. “Can I get anyone under twelve
to come up here, please? And can I ask the rest of you to collect
into groups of five or six and practice? We’ll come around to you
and help as we’re able.”

The back yard settled into the relative order of
witches hard at work.

After a few minutes with the dozen or so Nova
Scotia witchlings, a couple of things were clear. One, the children
with Net power caught on fast. Aervyn had figured out a way to
piggyback onto their channels, kind of like a pair of guiding
hands, and it got results very quickly.

And two, while Net power was evidently quite
common, most of them were like Nell—a spark or two, but nothing
more. The exception was Kevin. His initial, Aervyn-assisted
fireworks were almost as bright as Ginia’s—and then he repeated it
on his own seconds later.

His quiet grin snagged Nell’s heart. She looked
over at Elorie, who had been watching with silent pride. “Looks
like you have a training buddy.”

Elorie pulled Kevin in for a hug. “I guess I
do.”

~ ~ ~

Preparing tea for her guests, Moira smiled in
satisfaction. Apparently you could teach an old witch new tricks.
She was a Net witch—imagine that!—and a strong one, if Ginia and
Lauren were to be believed.

What an irony that would be. Her entire life,
she’d been the witch with a little bit of a lot of magics, but
never a big dose of anything. It had made her a good trainer, and
she had thought that her life’s purpose. Now, it appeared she would
be joining her granddaughter in the history books as part of the
first wave of witches with an entirely new form of power.

She felt positively giddy.

“Don’t rub it in,” said Marcus, coming into her
kitchen. Nell was right behind him, not trying to hide her grin at
all.

“I’m hardly doing that,” Moira said. “You’ve
been a powerful witch since you were three years old. Surely you
don’t begrudge others a little power of their own.”

Marcus picked up mugs of tea to carry to the
table. She was pleased; hospitality was not one of her nephew’s
stronger traits.

“I don’t,” he said. “It just seems rather unfair
that those of us who have used our Net power the most are actually
the most restricted in what we can do with it.”

“Tell me about it,” Nell said. “I have an entire
crew of seriously unhappy Realm players.”

Moira sat down at the table and gestured for
them to join her. “So explain this to me—I haven’t really
understood it just yet. Why is it that some of us are so different?
That would be the wee bit I’m not understanding.”

“None of us do,” Nell said. “But it looks like
those of us with a lot of spellcoding experience are limited in how
we can use Net power. Marcus gets powerful readings on our scans
when he’s spellcoding, but he can only access a tiny fraction of
that in the way we tried today.”

Marcus scowled. “It’s as if our brains have
gotten hardwired.”

“It’s not the only kind of magic where that
happens.” Moira stirred her tea contemplatively. “It works that way
with astral travel as well. Mediums and travelers are fueled by the
same power source, but generally witches with that talent can only
do one or the other, unless they’re carefully trained in both while
their talents are first emerging.”

Marcus raised an eyebrow. “That’s interesting.
So if both are trained early, then a witchling retains both
abilities?”

“That’s what our histories say.” She reached out
to touch her nephew’s hand and hoped he might accept a small bit of
comfort. “As you know, it’s a great sadness that we lose most of
our astral travelers far too young.”

He said nothing, but she noticed he didn’t take
his hand away, either. Her healer’s heart was gladdened by the
small victory.

Marcus looked over at Nell. “If Aunt Moira’s
correct, we need to think carefully about how we proceed with
training.”

“Yup.” Nell topped up everyone’s tea. “We’ll
need to teach all our Net witches to work with their power offline
and online.” She grinned at Moira. “We need to teach you to
spellcode.”

Ginia had been teaching her for several days
now, but old witches knew how to keep secrets. “I think you’ll have
better luck with young Kevin. His mind likes new challenges.”

“She has a point,” Marcus said. “We have seven
Net witches with decent strength of the non-spellcoding variety. We
clearly don’t want to be teaching everyone at once.”

This was a problem Moira could solve. “We
shouldn’t try. We’ll train those from this village first, with
Nell’s help, and then once we’ve figured things out here, you can
help me with our more far-flung witches.”

She could see Marcus fighting with himself. A
solitary witch, he had never enjoyed the communal aspects of
witchcraft, but no one was more aware of the dangers of power left
untended. He finally nodded, just once. “It’s a good plan.”

“So who do we have from here, then?” Nell asked.
“It was a bit crazy, so I’m not sure I caught all the results.”

Marcus started counting off on his fingers.
“Young Kevin, and Elorie, of course. Aunt Moira, and then your
Ginia and Aervyn. I think that’s all in the first group to train.
Sophie and I can’t do the mental fireworks, but we can help teach
spellcoding.”

Nell nodded. “As can Ginia and I.”

Witches to train. Moira could feel the gladness
in her heart. “You and Sophie will be busy. We’ve other witchlings
and other magics to train as well.”

Marcus grunted. “There are plenty of hands to
help. Lauren with the mind-witch lessons, and Mike would be an
excellent choice to teach Sean the finer points of his earth
magics.”

“Aye. It would be good if the ground rumbled a
little less around here.” Sean’s earth talents were not of the
gentler sort that worked with plants and growing things, but rather
the hard magics of rock and land.

Nell grinned. “Aervyn has some skill in that
direction as well, but I’m not sure you want to put him and Sean in
the same training group.”

Sometimes it was handy to be the wise elder
witch. “It will be good for Mike to earn his breakfast. I’m sure he
can handle two small boys.” And if not, she’d always had a soft
spot for witchling mischief, particularly if she wasn’t in charge
of cleanup afterward.

~ ~ ~

Elorie looked around at her fellow students and
leaned toward Moira. “I feel a little old for this class,
Gran.”

Moira chortled. “How do you think I feel,
especially with sweet Ginia about to be our teacher?”

Lauren, Marcus, and Ginia had their heads
together in one corner of the room; Kevin and Aervyn were tucked in
another corner with a bowl of blueberries. Elorie felt a bit
useless. Organizing training had been her job just a week ago.

Sophie sat quietly in the corner, reading one of
Gran’s herbals. For some reason Elorie didn’t want to explore, her
presence grated. “Why is Sophie here? I thought her Net power was
only the spellcoding kind.”

“She’s never been a threat to who you are,
granddaughter mine.” Gran’s eyes were quiet and sad. “Do you truly
not know why she’s here?”

Elorie squirmed. She felt like she was ten years
old again, caught napping in witch history class. And she was
disappointing Gran—that much was obvious. She just wasn’t sure
why.

Their three teachers turned around, interrupting
her puzzlement. Marcus called the two boys over. “Lets see if we
can figure out what to do with this Net power of yours, shall
we?”

So like Uncle Marcus. No preliminaries, just
straight to the point. Not that she really minded today. Everything
in her yearned to finally
do
magic.

Lauren smiled, as if she had read Elorie’s
thoughts. With her gizmo off, it was entirely possible. Nothing
like four mind witches in the room to decimate your privacy.

Well, hopefully action would keep their brains
focused on something other than her leaky thoughts. Elorie roused
herself and caught Ginia’s eye. “Show me what you did yesterday,
blending spells together. I want to try that.”

Moira spoke just as Ginia nodded yes. “Slow
down, my sweet girls. We need a plan.” She held up a hand before
the protests could begin. “I felt this Net power, and I’d like
nothing better to play with it. But we must learn with
caution.”

She paused and looked around the room with great
seriousness. “We are the first, the pioneers. Magic can be
dangerous, and we play with unknown magic here. Care and caution
will keep us safe.”

Elorie had spoken variations of that last
sentence a hundred times in her life. And now, with memories of the
rush of power strong in her mind, she finally understood why very
few witchlings ever paid attention.

Moira leaned over and spoke quietly. “I know it
calls you, child, but you must learn control first.”

“I know. I had no idea it could feel this way,
though.”

“Neither did I.” Wonder crossed Gran’s face.
“It’s more power than I’ve ever known. Such magic, waiting for
us…”

“Then let’s get started, shall we?” Marcus
nodded at Ginia. “Let’s have you do your joining trick. Aervyn and
I will give you two simple spells to work with.”