Chapter 29 or Easter Holiday 9
In August the words for Wednesday were given to us by River at Drifting through Life. The words for Wednesday August 21 were:
1. peril
2. coral
3. sure
4. rocky
5. lampshades
6. furious immobility
And a photo of this path, River once walked.
These words and the photo brought me back to the
Unicorn Farm.
This chapter will not make it into the book, if I ever come to publish it, as Susan cannot know most of what transpires here.
It continues the story from two tracks: both the one from back in March; chapter 28, (wherein Susan an Tue was back in Susan's home, persuading Persephone, the ghost to come back to the magician's cottage with them) and the more recent Easter holiday tale.
Persephone,
the ghost from Susan's house, turned out to be an invaluable asset. As
soon as she got accustomed to the fact that her best friend, Sandra -
the mother of Tue, Heidi and Lis - was now a grown up lady with children
of her own, she moved in at the Magician's cottage
When Susan met
her in the Easter holidays she was amazed at her growth. Of course her
outward form was the same as ever, but her mind, spirit or what ever you
may call it had developed beyond that of a small, petulant girl. She
had started visiting other houses, and after watching the twins' antics
she found that she was great at teleporting. Being immaterial she had no
problem with ending up inside tings. Only large mountains or wast
masses of water made her dizzy and sent her back. She could also turn
totally invisible at will, and if she took care not to touch anybody,
she could stay unnoticed even in a room filed with people. She was sent
spying on Torben now and then, and came back with disturbing reports of
him and his Dutch friend's plannings.
One night Susan, Heidi, Tue
and Lis were very late in getting home, They had explored the bed of
Susan's rivulet, all the way from the Unicorn Farm to where it tumbled
over the cliffs down to the beach below. It was only a trickle now, the
winter's snow only a memory in the mild Easter winds, and in a month or
so the stream would totally disappear, only to be revived during very
violent summer thunderstorms and downpours.
Then they followed the
rocky path along the cliff all the way to where it reached its highest
point, marked by a small cairn. They then had to backtrack to get to he
path leading to the Magician's Cottage.
Heidi and Tue even
advocated continuing all the way to the bridge connecting their isle
with the mainland, but Lis shot down the notion, stating that the only
shop there open outside of the tourist season would surely be closed by
the time they got there.
The children had expected a sounding
off for being late for dinner, but nothing happened. Sandra served the
dinner and Kai did the dishes afterwards as usual, but both of them
seemed to be absent-minded Sandra put a load of broccoli on Heidi's
plate, and when she complained, that she did indeed still not eat his
vegetable, Sandra just scooped them back in the bowl without a word. Kai
almost dropped at least four plates while cleaning them, and only his
extraordinary nimbleness prevented any major catastrophes.
After
dinner Sandra brewed a big pot of tea. When the doorbell rang, and Gilvi
and Thora was shown to the garden, the children were sent off to bed.
Half
an hour later Percy and Sandra sat around the garden table table with
Gilvi, Thora, Taathi, Taavi, Jon and Birgitta. Lis and Tue were in their
room, while Susan was bedded in Heidi's room. None of them slept.
All
their tries at pleading, sneaking or listening in, had only resulted in
Kai, the Magician-wizard and father of Tue, Heidi and Lis keeping guard
in furious immobility on the landing outside their bedrooms.
The
evening wore on. Luckily Percy was a ghost, and did not get tired from
the questioning from all the professors and Sandra. One by one the
professors fell silent, all questions asked. The night fell and the
small band of humans and a ghost went inside.
"We're in dire peril,"
Sandra said as they gathered in the living room. "When, or dare I say
if, Tristan is rolling out his plan, all of Denmark, Iceland, the Faeroe
islands and possibly the rest of the Scandinavian countries will be
under his inclement rule." In the beginning he will seem to be the
benevolent dictator, but then, in steadily mounting degrees, people
will begin to suffer. Not the magical community, but everybody else will
be enslaved, persecuted, maybe killed in this crazy plan of his. And
they wont' realize until it's too late, far too late."
"Are you sure?" Birgitta asked.
"Yes
I'm sure." Sandra answered. "He'll write his propaganda flyers on
highly suggestive paper, place billboards everywhere, likewise prepared.
And his election will be certain.
Sandra reached up, into
the coral lampshade. "Is this what I think it is?" she asked very
quietly. Gilvi looked at the small black thing in her hand and nodded.
Birgitta stretched out her hand, and Sandra dropped the microphone into
it. Birgitta drew her wand, cast an intricate spell over it, and a
smallish 3D Picture of Torben rose from it. "Him!" Sandra whispered,
going pale. She gestured with her wand and it wrote in the air:
"Pretend you do not believe what I said about Tristan!"
"Oy Sandra," Birgitta said, "I do not think you're right. Tristan is not a bad sort of guy. A bit brash, maybe, but you're making him out to be the very devil"
Taavi said: "He's a wizard, just like us. He might be more harsh, more determined. But maybe it is just what we need."
"I see, you do not believe me, Sandra said with a sigh. "let's stop this futile discussion and find our beds. It is late."
As
Sandra saw her guests out, she once again had her wand write in the
air. "We will have to go underground. You may or may not wish to follow,
but we're a family, we're harder to protect."
In September the words for Wednesday are given to us by Delores at Mumblings. 