Witch's Bell Book One (29 page)

But now, Ebony remembered. She
remembered the way that woman had screamed as the book of spells
had been kicked from the man's arms. She'd shrieked, not from
fright, but from something else.

The more Ebony thought about it
now, the more things didn't seem to fit. While before she'd been
happy to take the situation as it had come
– looking like a standard kidnapping
and Death Summoning in the cemetery. Now Ebony was looking at it
with a new set of non-magical eyes. Now she could see the corners
jutting out from this picture and fraying like a garment about to
fall apart.

It was just a feeling. But now Ebony
had a box of files to potentially back it up.

She heard Ben start to make his
way towards her.
“I'm going to give you a lift,” he said with a sniff. “I've
heard some of your recent spectacular experiences with public
transport, and I'd rather take you home myself.”

Ebony was torn between the
conversation and the overwhelming urge to tear open the box and see
what was inside.

“
Whatever you are doing now, can
wait until Monday,” Ben cautioned, as if in reply to what Ebony was
thinking. “Right now you should go home and get some
rest.”

Ben finally appeared around the
corner, his face a picture of kindness, but determination. He was
not in one of those moods where he would back down, Ebony realized
as she turned to him, her leg hiding the box.

It was odd, but even though Ebony had
such a strong feeling about Miss Grimshore, she wasn't yet ready to
share it with Ben. There was still a large section of her mind that
doubted her feeling, that was trying to tell her she was just
clutching at the hope she hadn't made a mistake back in that crypt,
so that she could fob off dealing with the reality of her
punishment.

That's why she needed time to make her
case, as her dad would have no doubt told her. Keep your thoughts
in the dark until you know what they'll look like in the light of
day.

“
So, you coming?” Ben cast an
eye over the files on her desk, then back to her.

“
I have to go to Harry's first,”
Ebony smiled politely, trying to damp down the urge to stay here
all night and devour this box completely.

“
I figured. The old codger
mustn't be too happy with all the time you're spending away from
him.”

“
Not too happy at all,” Ebony
fixed her bag back onto her shoulder, making it comfortable.
“Okay,” she said with a breath, trying to put the box out of her
mind. She'd come back to it first thing on Monday, she assured
herself. She might even get here early. “I'm ready to
go.”

Ben just nodded and led the
way.

It didn't take Ebony long to make it
back to Harry's. And after she'd plunged a hand into the bowl of
sweets on her counter, tossing several to Ben as a thank-you for
the lift, she was finally alone again.

She pottered for several minutes.
Tidying up books, and just generally talking to Harry.

“
You wouldn't believe the week
I've had, Harry, you just wouldn't believe it,” she picked up a box
and shifted it to one side, making a wider avenue for customers to
walk towards the red banana lounge at the back of the store. “It's
just been so ... different.”

Harry didn't reply, or perhaps
he did, but Ebony couldn't pick up on it any more. If he'd chosen
to speak to her through the whirling dust motes sifting through the
air
– she
couldn't hear. If he'd spoken through the creaking old floor
boards, once again, she wouldn't be able to make it out.

She wasn't magical any
more.

No, if Harry wanted to talk to her, he
would actually have to speak.

So Ebony continued on in silence for a
while, just pottering while she muttered and sighed to herself. The
edge was gone from her week. And even though she still resented it,
she was starting to get vaguely used to not having magic. Or
rather, she was starting to get used to the feeling. There was
still too much to readjust to, too much to experience anew. But the
new sensation of being more fragile, well, that was starting to
seep into the background a little. And while Ebony was still aware
that she didn't have anywhere near the skill or ability she'd once
had, the fact was starting to scare her less.

But still, she felt adrift. Lost in an
ocean that was too large, too deep, and too everywhere to get away
from. Perhaps a better way to describe her current state was not
one of being comfortable with her lot, but one of resignation. She
couldn't change it, could she?

As Ebony leaned down to shove some
books onto a shelf, she heard the door open gently, and the bell
tinkle several times.

Confused, Ebony bolted upright. She'd
left the closed-sign on, right? And she'd locked the door behind
her? Was it Ben, was it her dad?

Ebony walked carefully into the center
of the store, trying to get a better look at who had come through
the door. She still had a book in her hands, and was clutching it
far tighter than it needed to be held, her knuckles popping up
against white flesh.

“
Umm, hello?” someone said from
the vicinity of the counter. The voice sounded female, old, and
about as threatening as a kitten in a cage.

Shaking her head slightly,
Ebony walked out towards the counter, finally loosening her grip on
the book when she got a sight of the woman
– an old dear in a light coat, a
sweet little hat, and beige granny-shoes.

Ebony sucked in her lips, and
tried for a smile.
“Sorry,” she said flicking her eyes to the door, about to
tell the woman that the shop was closed. But Ebony stopped. The
shop-sign had been turned to open, and the door was quite clearly
unbolted from the inside.

Rather than jumping to the
conclusion that the woman had broken in from the skylight above,
then bolted downstairs to unlock the door and turn around the
sign
– as if
to mess with Ebony's mind – Ebony simply shook her head.

Harry.

Even though Ebony didn't have any
magic at the moment, Harry still had plenty. More than enough to
shift around the things in his store. He would have opened the door
and turned the sign over, probably as a punishment for Ebony for
being so absent in the past week.

Ebony tried to smile at the
dear old lady, while keeping the curse she wanted to hurl at Harry
very silent indeed.
“How can I help you?”

“
Oh no, you can't help me,” the
old woman said with a sweet chuckle. “But I can help
you.”

Ebony tried to still look
polite, but her face squeezed in with confusion.
“Sorry?”

“
I'm here to help
you.”

“
Ah ... I don't think I need any
help,” Ebony cursed Harry louder and louder in her mind. Not only
did he leave the shop open at nine o'clock at night, but he let in
a nutter.

“
I'm from the Church of
Wanting,” said the woman, pulling out a pamphlet from a pocket and
depositing it on the counter.

Ebony just sighed. Well this
was great. Now she'd have to find a polite way of telling the lady
she wasn't interested, and sending the old-timer out into the
night
–
probably to trip over in the dark, or get mugged.

“
The Church of Wanting is an
ancient sect,” the woman started to get rolling like a boulder down
a hill.

Really, ancient? Ebony wondered to
herself. She'd never heard of it.

“
We believe that the Creator
gave man one single gift, and one single curse –
wanting.”

“
Wanting?” Ebony repeated, not
because she wanted the conversation to go on, just because the
entire concept seemed incongruous. Sects like this were always
about blind faith and complete devotion.

“
Yes. To want is a gift, and yet
it is a curse.”

“
I don't get it. If it is
simultaneously a curse and a gift, wouldn't it just cancel itself
out?” Ebony asked, her magical knowledge coming to the forefront.
She may have lost her actual ability to sense and conjure up magic,
but that didn't mean she'd forgotten about the Lore. And if you
cursed and blessed the same thing, at the same time, with the same
power – then they both canceled each other out.

The woman put up a gloved hand
and nodded sagely, as if she got this question all the time.
“It is a curse when
you do not know what you want and a blessing when you
do.”

Once again, Ebony had no
interest at all in keeping this conversation going. She wasn't in
the mood to be proselytized to. But there was something about the
odd way this woman was describing things, that irked Ebony.
“That's not the
usual way people see it,” Ebony's face tightened as if she were
having a hard time explaining something simple to a child. “Surely
it’s a blessing when you get what you want and a curse when you
don't get what you want.”

“
Oh no, dear,” the woman shook
her head emphatically. “That's just silly. Because sometimes you
get what you want and realize you don't want it. In which case,
what you wanted wasn't what you really wanted, so getting what you
wanted was a curse.”

Ebony shook her head, not
following the complex explanation.
“Okay, say I want this lollipop,” Ebony
reached over and grabbed at a blue lollipop from her bowl. “I've
got it now, and I'm feeling pretty good about it – which is a
blessing.”

The woman shook her
head.
“It's
all in the pamphlet. But really dear, its knowing what you want
that's important. The getting of it is the second step. It's the
knowledge that's the blessing.”

Ebony just sighed, suddenly
feeling tired from her day, her week, and her general condition.
She didn't want to have this conversation now, especially when the
woman was quite obviously mistaken. Trying to convince her of it,
however, would be impossible.
“Look, thank you for your time,” Ebony tried for a
concerted smile, “but I'm actually just about to close.”

“
Oh of course, dear, it's very
late,” the woman said earnestly, then smiled a very friendly, very
grandmotherly smile. “You have a good weekend, though. And I'll
leave the pamphlet here for you,” she patted it down onto the
counter. “Good bye, now!” she gave a cheerful wave and walked out
the door.

Ebony just shook her head, not really
grasping what had just happened, but suddenly feeling too tired to
care. She quickly marched over to the door and locked it, taking
the open-sign off completely.

“
Thanks for that, Harry,” she
quipped as she tossed the sign onto the counter. “Just what I
needed.”

Harry didn't respond.

Ebony sighed. Okay, enough of today,
she thought bitterly, time to go home.

She'd have to walk though, she
realized with a strange pang in her stomach. And even though her
house was remarkably close to the shop
– it would still be dark
outside.

You'll be fine, she told
herself with a bare smile.
“I'm going home now, Harry, you have a good
night.”

Harry responded by apparently tipping
over a box of books in the corner, several heavy tomes spilling out
and piling over Ebony's feet.

She rolled her eyes. He was like a
child who didn't want to be left alone, and who knew the best way
to punish his parents was to destroy their stuff. But still, at
least he was communicating with her, she realized, as she stooped
to pick up the books.

She looked down at the books as
she gathered them into her arm and piled them neatly onto the
counter. They all had decidedly odd names, like
“Death in the Middle: When You
can’t get from the Beginning to the End,” and “What a Girl Wanted,”
and “What do you Want? A Powerful Self Help Guide to Writing
Yourself Anew.”

Ebony frowned; obviously Harry was
playing some kind of a joke on her. She'd never seen these books
before, and judging by their ridiculous names, they probably
weren't real to begin with. Just strange tomes Harry had conjured
up to make some kind of point.

But what that point was, Ebony didn't
care. She didn't have the brains to deal with today any more. It
was just too strange. So Ebony finished arranging the books and
quickly marched out the door, locking it behind her, but still
remembering to give the door an affectionate pat.

Ebony walked off into the night, her
arms closing around her in an effort to keep the cold out. But no
matter how much she tried to huddle into herself, she couldn't
shake the strange feeling of cold that settled in her stomach as if
she'd just swallowed a kilo of ice.

As she turned down the lane-way
that cut across to her home street, the chill only grew
thicker
–
more smothering, as if she was now buried deep under a snow drift,
with little chance of ever escaping.

It wasn't until she was halfway
through the dark lane-way that she heard the heavy steps behind
her.

Thud, thud, thud.