Magic of Home: an Uncollected Anthology story Read online

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  The Magic of Home

  Copyright © 2014 by Annie Reed

  Published by Thunder Valley Press

  Cover and Layout copyright © 2014 Thunder Valley Press

  Cover design by Thunder Valley Press

  Cover art copyright © XiXinXing/Bigstock.com

  Smashwords Edition

  This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.

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  The motorcycle whispered to Twig as they zoomed past the shipyards at the south end of Moretown Bay.

  Home.

  Tucked safely inside her helmet, the tips of Twig’s long ears quivered in response to the motorcycle’s rumbling voice. She felt its yearning not only in the subtle change in its magic, but in the throaty roar of the engine as they increased speed, racing north on I-5 toward the city that shared its name with the bay.

  Twig leaned forward. “Almost there,” she said. “Almost there.”

  Her words tore apart on the damp night air rushing past her, but she knew their meaning would still reach the heart of the machine that had been her friend for a decade. Not all magical beings needed ears to hear or words to understand.

  As much as she wanted to get them both home, they couldn’t afford to draw the attention of any police—or wizards—who might be patrolling the freeway.

  I-5 passed through the center of the city as the freeway wound its way north into Canada, a wide ribbon of asphalt and concrete hemmed in by high-rise office buildings, luxury hotels, and apartment buildings too rich for Twig’s blood. This part of the freeway had always been heavily patrolled. Twig doubted that had changed in the years she’d been gone, so she throttled back on the engine to bring their speed closer to the surrounding traffic.

  The motorcycle fought her, so Twig whispered soothing words to it until it accepted her decision. She hoped it was the right one.

  Under other circumstances, just seeing the city itself might have taken her breath away. Tonight the sky was clear. No fog had rolled in off the water to obscure the view, and the tall buildings in the city center gleamed like jewels against the starry sky. She could make out the spires of the Justice Center, gleaming white and silver like a monument to law and order for all, human and magic folk alike. Spotlights had turned the modern glass and steel Trexler Towers blue and green, the colors for a local sports team.

  Twig wasn’t surprised that the city was still celebrating the team’s world championship, even though that particular sport wasn’t truly played on a global scale. Everyone, magic folk and humans alike, needed something outside themselves to believe in.

  Hurry, the motorcycle whispered. Gillfoil approaches.

  Twig tensed. As sensitive as her ears were to the currents of magic in the world around her, the motorcycle’s senses far exceeded hers. If the motorcycle felt the presence of the gang’s enforcer, that meant he was near.

  “Where?” she asked.

  Behind. Less than a mile.

  “Can we make it?”

  The motorcycle hesitated. Twig could imagine her friend calculating speed and distance, and the effect of mass and magic on both.

  No.

  Her heart sank. So close. They were so damn close.

  The damp air carried a trace of the tantalizing scent of tall pines and loamy earth even over prevailing mustiness of the bay. She could almost feel the warm embrace of her grandmother’s arms, the strong magic of her grandfather and his father and the wizard they protected.

  It had been years since Twig had been to the enclave on Marlette Island, but it was still her home. They were still her people. Even someone like Gillfoil wouldn’t dare set foot on sacred elven soil.

  The freeway had widened to five lanes. The two on the left led through the heart of the city; the three on the right branched into a maze of off-ramps and interchanges.

  One of those interchanges would take them to another freeway that would eventually lead to the island, but that route would add another hour to the journey. Twig had hoped to take a ferry to the island instead, but the exit for the ferries was still five miles away.

  Gillfoil operated outside the law, and things like speed limits and the police were minor annoyances at most. He’d have more than enough time to overtake them no matter what route they tried to take to the island.

  Twig had no hope of fighting him on the open road. Gillfoil was ruthless, and she didn’t have enough magic to go up against him on her own.

  She had no time for second thoughts.

  She leaned into a quick turn, cutting across two lanes of traffic, thankful for the quick reflexes of the drivers who braked and swerved to avoid hitting them. She pointed the motorcycle toward an exit on the left they had nearly missed.

  She could feel her friend’s disappointment as the tone of its magic slid into a more subdued range even as she gunned the engine at the bottom of the exit ramp and they tore down a darkened city street.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered to the rumble of the motorcycle’s engine echoing off cracked concrete sidewalks and boarded up storefronts. “I don’t know where else to go.”

  The motorcycle didn’t answer.

  It didn’t know either.

  * * *

  Twig left her friend in a spot in the alley behind Jocko’s club where the flow of magic was thin. The overflowing trash bin at the mouth of the alley would hide the motorcycle from sight of those passing by on the street, and without a strong flow of magic, Gillfoil wouldn’t be able to sense her friend unless he stumbled on the alley by accident.

  At least Twig hoped so. Even with the sensitivity her long ears afforded her, Gillfoil’s sense of magic was greater than her own.

  She’d locked her helmet down on the seat. Before she reached the entrance to Jocko’s club she scrubbed her hands through her hair until it was a wild auburn tangle around her thin face.

  She’d look more human this way, and with her dark leathers, she’d look more like she belonged in The Shadows with the rest of the hard case humans who called this part of Moretown Bay home.

  Unfortunately, there was no hiding her ears, not without a veil, and Twig couldn’t use one. A veil tinged with her magic would be like a homing signal to Gillfoil.

  Delicately pointed, the tips of her ears were longer than her index finger, curving up and back along the sides of her head. They marked her as royalty among her people, a position she’d given up when she’d left Marlette Island. Her family may or may not want her back, but her ears would have at least given her entry into the enclave had she been able to get there.

  Her ears gave her trouble now even getting through the door into Jocko’s club.

  Her ears, and the fact that she looked about fourteen years old to most humans.

  The bouncer manning the front door of Jocko’s Club was definitely human. He shook his head when he saw her.

  “Come back when you reach puberty, honey.” His gaze slid down the front of her leathers. “And you grow some tits the size of those ears.”

  The man towered over her, all beefy muscles and heavy brows. He had a scar that ran along one side of his chin and another on his forehead. Heavy tattoos were clearly visible on his skull through the shaved stubble of his dark hair.

  Twig resisted the urge to tell him tha
t she had reached puberty before he’d been born.

  As for the rest, she wasn’t surprised.

  The outline of a naked woman gyrated overhead, illuminating the name of the club: Snow’s Palace. The finest strip club in The Shadows, or so Jocko had told her on the day he cashed out his pension and bought the place.

  The bouncer clearly thought that any woman who came here was looking for work, but Twig didn’t have time to deal with his assumptions.

  “I need to speak with Jocko,” she said.

  “Last time I checked, dwarves don’t get along so well with elves. Especially underage elves.”

  Twig stepped toward the bouncer. She crooked her finger in a come-closer gesture, and he actually bent forward.

  Bad move.

  Twig grabbed the lobe of his ear with one hand while the other found his crotch and squeezed. Hard.

  All the color left his face the same time the air left his lungs. Twig had a strong grip. The years she’d spent riding motorcycles had only enhanced her natural strength.

  “This particular dwarf will see me,” she said. “He likes me. Will that be a problem for you?”

  The bouncer shook his head. Beads of sweat had popped out on his forehead, but he hadn’t yelled for help. He probably didn’t want anyone to know that he’d let a little elf girl get him by the balls.

  “I didn’t think so,” Twig said.

  She let go of him, and he sank to his knees, his hands cradling his bruised privates. Twig walked past him into the club without a second glance.

  Jocko had made few changes in the years since he’d bought the place. Other than the battered surfboards that hung from the walls at the sides of the club, testaments to Jocko’s favorite pastime, the decor was still the same combination of exploitation and desperation that Twig remembered.

  The elevated stage up front still dominated the windowless room. The same battered round tables were scattered on the floor in front of the stage, and Twig could have sworn the same tired drunks sat at those tables sucking down the same overpriced drinks while they watched the dancers perform.

  Except for dim candles on the tables and the discrete lights behind the bar in back, the only lights in the place were the spotlights focused on the three women dancing on stage.

  The tips of Twig’s ears tingled as she heard the tone of the women’s magic.

  Make that three changelings who had shaped their bodies to look like human women.

  The sound of oldies rock pounded at Twig’s sensitive ears. Surfing music by the Beach Boys to go with the new wall decorations. Only Jocko would make his strippers dance to something like that.

  She took a moment to admire the changelings as they danced to beats that had never been meant for a bump and grind routine. Jocko always did know how to pick quality staff, even if his choice in music left a lot to be desired.

  Twig made her way to the bar.

  The bartender was human. He was dark and muscular but not as beefy as the bouncer, and he possessed no magic that Twig could hear.

  She leaned over the polished wooden surface of the bar so she wouldn’t have to shout over the music. “Jocko? Is he here tonight?”

  The bartender raised one eyebrow, probably wondering how a kid made it past the bouncer, but instead of telling her to get the hell out, he merely nodded toward a table at the far corner of the room.

  She should have known. Jocko never used to hire bouncers for inside his club, and it didn’t look like that had changed. He’d always preferred to do that kind of work himself.

  Jocko, now he had changed. Twig saw that immediately when she got close to his table. It wasn’t that his hair was longer and thicker or that his beard was clean. It wasn’t even the tropical print shirt he wore to hide the massive bulk of his body, or the sandals on his hairy feet.

  It was his eyes.

  When Twig had seen Jocko last, those deep brown eyes had held a twinkle of excitement. Back then the club had still been a new adventure. He’d renamed the place to deliberately poke fun at an old fairy tale the humans used to tell their children, and he was always surrounded by friends and drinks and laughter.

  Twig had been one of those friends right up until the day she decided to leave Moretown Bay.

  Now Jocko sat alone at his table, an untouched mug of beer in front of him. He looked at Twig with eyes that appeared to have forgotten laughter existed in the world, and for a moment, she didn’t think he even recognized her.

  Then he snorted. “Never thought you’d come back here again,” he said. “I’d tell you to pull up a chair, but you won’t be staying that long.”

  “Hello to you, too,” she said.

  She turned one of the empty chairs at Jocko’s table around backwards and straddled it, giving herself a moment to listen to the eddies of magic that swirled around one of her oldest friends in Moretown Bay. She sensed no spells at work, no mood dampening hexes or defensive glamours that would account for Jocko’s reaction to her.

  He was genuinely annoyed. She’d always heard it said that dwarves had long memories, although among her clan it was more joke than warning. Apparently the saying was true.

  Twig wasn’t egotistical enough to believe that Jocko had slipped into a years-long mope just because of her. Something else was going on. Something serious. If Gillfoil hadn’t been on her tail, she could take the time to cajole it out of him, but right now time was a commodity she didn’t have to spend on anybody but the friend who waited patiently for her in the alley.

  “Snap out of it,” she said. “I need your help.”

  Jocko snorted. “Oh, that’s rich. Waltz in here like it’s yesterday, bring whatever trouble you got into with you. What am I supposed to do about it?” He jerked his head toward the stage. “I’m not in that line of work anymore, in case you haven’t noticed.”

  No kidding. “If you were still a cop, I wouldn’t have come to you.”

  Jocko had worked Vice until he’d abruptly quit and cashed in his pension. Twig had never seen any of his old cop buddies in the club, and he’d never talked about any of them.

  The friends who used to flock to this place had been people like Twig—strays and oddities who called this rough neighborhood home. Once Jocko had made it clear he was no longer in the business of busting their ass for buying a piece of strange on the street or using an unlicensed spell or two, the street people began to trust him. They’d recognized a kindred spirit in the dwarf who stood over six feet tall and never talked about what had to be a singularly unique heritage.

  “I need a Merlin,” she said.

  His eyes narrowed, the flat emptiness replaced with genuine emotion—anger. “Get the hell out of my club.”

  Twig didn’t move.

  She was pushing him hard, asking for an introduction to a wizard who worked black market spells, but she didn’t have time for subtle. Jocko knew everyone on the streets. She’d been away for too long to find a Merlin on her own, and she couldn’t afford to have some street snitch remember her face when Gillfoil came around asking about her.

  “Please,” she said.

  Jocko abruptly turned his head toward the dancers on the stage. Other people might have mistaken the gesture for a dismissal, but Twig knew better.

  The oversized dwarf who’d never had his kin’s natural aversion to elves had a soft spot for women in trouble. All sorts of women in trouble, whether they were elves or changelings or goblin gang members tired of being used as a punching bag by their male counterparts. The first dancers he’d hired at the club were former prostitutes, changelings most of them. Jocko gave them a job and kept them on the payroll as long as they kept off the streets.

  In those early days Jocko had more wannabe dancers applying for work than he had money to pay them. If he couldn’t hire them, he found a place for them to stay on the cheap and used his street connections to find them other work. He even busted a few abusers’ heads before word got out that trying to get your woman back by crossing the dwarf at Snow’s Pa
lace wasn’t good for your health.

  Twig had never worked the stage, never did the bump and grind for dollar bills shoved in a G-string, but she’d been one of the women Jocko had rescued. She’d been grateful, and she’d been his friend, and never once in all the years they’d known each other had she played on his one weakness.

  Until now.

  He heaved a great sigh that smelled of alcohol and cigarettes. Twig tried not to react. Jocko never used to drink, and he’d never smoked as far as she knew.

  “There’s a price,” he said, still not looking at her.

  “I’ve got money.” Not a lot, but she hoped it was enough to buy the spell that the wizard on Marlette could have done in his sleep.

  “Still haven’t learned, have you?” He gave her a sideways glance. “Not everything’s about money.”

  A shiver ran up Twig’s spine.

  He was trying to judge how desperate she was. The old-school wizards didn’t take payment in money—they took magic. The Merlin that Jocko had in mind must be old school, which meant he’d want more than her money.

  Twig only had one real thing of any value to another magic user—her ears.

  She tried to imagine what life would be like without the ability to hear the world of magic around her. To sense its currents and eddies by the tones and harmonies of light and dark magic, and magic that fell somewhere in between. Could she give that up for her friend?

  A friend who had been trapped inside a machine for as long as Twig had been alive?

  The answer was a no-brainer. She never would have liberated the motorcycle from Gillfoil’s gang if she hadn’t been prepared to do whatever it took to free her friend.

  “I know that,” she said. “I’m still asking.”

  Jocko sighed again, and Twig waited. She’d said all she could to convince him. He’d either do it for her or not. She couldn’t play on his emotions by telling him the motorcycle’s story. It wouldn’t have mattered, not to Jocko. The being inside the motorcycle wasn’t a woman. Jocko had always said that men could look out for themselves, and he didn’t care if that made him a sexist pig.