Larry’s long night, followed by his early morning musings, left him exhausted. He’d fallen asleep on the blankets of the abandoned nursery under the desk in the office.
Nose twitching and legs bicycling in his sleep, Larry dreamed of many things. Running in wet grass, the sun warm on his fur. Laughing at jokes and japes shared with his friends. Working side by side with some of the greatest magical partners he could wish for.
He woke with a start when a shaft of bright sunlight reached his face. Squinting blearily, Larry realized the light came from a gap in the wooden boards hastily nailed over the shattered office windows after the battle of the previous night.
Larry shook his head to clear away the last remnants of his dreams. Stomach growling, he went in search of a late lunch ... or two.
As he picked his way gingerly across the scrapyard forecourt, avoiding the small pieces of metal and glass glittering in the bright afternoon sunshine, Larry thanked Artemis, the goddess of Familiars, for his creation. Life had been ... was good. He just needed to recommit to living it again, remember to trust his gut—and make damn sure to always be there for his magical partner, whether or not they wanted his support.
* * *
As streetlights whizzed by the car window, Larry stretched tiredly. “Are we there, yet?” He whined his query from the back seat of the small car.
Jesse glanced into the rear-view mirror and gave Larry the hairy eyeball. “No, we’re not, as you very well know. You saw the Boston signs we just passed as well as I did. We’ve got another half hour until we reach our old covenstead.” She turned her attention back to the dark road in front of the windscreen. “Who knew you’d be such a terrible traveler?”
Larry sneezed, leaving a liberal coating of spit on the car’s back window. He pushed his wet nose against the window and smeared it further. “Who says I can read? Maybe I didn’t see the highway sign.”
“Oh, knock it off fur-face. You can read better than I can. After all, you’ve had more than four centuries to learn, compared to my mere two.” Jesse chuckled at her own comeback.
Cerri, sitting upright in the passenger seat of the compact vehicle, peered absently into the darkness whizzing by. “Will you two stop bickering? It’s breaking my concentration. I need to make sure we aren’t being followed. My Earth magic doesn’t work as well from a moving vehicle, and you two are driving me crazy.”
Larry met Jesse’s eyes in the rearview mirror and they exchanged a mute apology. In unison, they chorused, “Sorry, Cerri!”
Larry turned to look out the window, then realized he’d smeared it so badly he couldn’t see a thing. Grimacing in self-recrimination, he padded to the window on the other side of the car. He understood why they were driving the four hours to his old coven, instead of traveling the ley line, a trip of mere minutes, but he didn’t have to like it.
When they planned their trip early that morning, Cerri had wisely pointed out it was likely the bad guys had a mage watching the local ley lines to make sure no one escaped the scrapyard with the Universum. After the chaos of the previous night’s battle, the mage watchers normally hiding outside the perimeter of the scrapyard had withdrawn when the attackers had retreated. But they’d be back the next night. Everyone agreed.
The trio had slipped through the back gate as twilight descended, hurrying to a rusty, paint-bleached old Honda parked inconspicuously on a side street around the corner from the scrapyard. The car belonged to the teenaged son of Ed the beaver’s magical partner. Ed had helped the kid out of a couple of scrapes with the traffic cops since he’d gotten his license, and he was happy to repay the favor, no questions asked.
Larry had heard the teen’s muttered words to the beaver, before the kid sloped away into the gathering darkness. “Just tell ‘em not to wreck the car, Ed. The old man’ll kill me.”
“Don’t worry, I’ve got it,” Ed had assured to worried teen. “Don’t I always come through for you?”
* * *
Jesse blew out an anxious breath as she turned onto the narrow road leading to their old coven. The ancient oaks lining either side of the driveway stretched heavy branches overhead. Dappled moonlight reflected on the car windows.
Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!
The vehicle’s passengers had lapsed into an uneasy silence as they drove the last miles to their destination. Wrapped in their own thoughts, each knew that much depended on the outcome of the upcoming meeting with Jesse and Larry’s old coven.
Larry had used his surprisingly still-active mind link with the coven and contacted his Raven friend after lunch, earlier in the day. Sid had filled Larry in on the coven’s happenings since they had excommunicated him and Jesse. Immediately after they departed for their new assignment at the scrapyard, Litha had overseen a leadership purge. She’d installed loyal Fire-witch cronies in all the top administrative positions and banned all social gatherings not approved in advance by her newly appointed assistants.
What she and her co-conspirators neglected to consider was how the Familiars assigned to the ousted witches would react to their magical partners’ poor treatment. An underground network had quickly formed amongst the disaffected coven members, with communication amongst the would-be rebels facilitated by their discontented Familiars.
Sid told Larry the underground resistance had done a lot of self-reflection. The witches involved realized they’d been complacent, not really paying attention to the new, darker, political undercurrents that began when Litha and her friends joined the coven several years ago. They had not listened to their gut feelings, nor had they shared their concerns with their High Priestess, Mabel.
Nor did they communicate their concerns with me, her Familiar, or Jesse, her assistant, Larry reflected with bitterness. Maybe he hadn’t been completely to blame for all that had happened. Perhaps there had been more willful blindness infecting the coven than his, alone.
* * *
As they pulled to a stop in the clearing in front of the covenstead, a massive midnight black bird landed smoothly on the hood of their car. The bird peered through the windshield with an inquisitive tilt to his head.
“Hey, Larry. Long time no see.”
“Hey, Sid. Same.” Larry hopped out of the car when Jesse opened the back door, then padded into a patch of moonlight near the front of the car.
The raven flapped his wings briefly before gliding to the ground next to Larry. A glint of metal shining in the moonlight caught the massive bird’s eye. He expertly clawed the ground, exposing a metal pull tab from a long-ago consumed soda can. “Cool, a 1970s Dr. Pepper tab. Don’t have one of these in my collection.”
Larry suppressed a snort of impatience and nervously eyed the covenstead looking for signs they’d been spotted. Sid was a raven, after all. He just could not resist shiny things. Although it was news to Larry that the acquisitive bird had what sounded like an extensive soda tab collection. “So, what’s the scoop, Sid?”
“No need to worry about Litha’s crew, bud.” Sid had correctly identified Larry’s concern. “We’ve got the lot of ‘em locked up in the null-magic cells under the covenstead. They can cool their heels there until we sort this mess out, then we’ll hand them—and that bitch Litha, if she ever shows back up, over to the Council for punishment.”
With a quick twist of his head, Sid fixed Jesse with an apologetic eye. “Hey Jesse. Sorry for what happened before. Our bad.”
“No worries, Sid.” Jesse’s soft smile contrasted with her sad eyes. “We all messed this one up.”
Cerri stepped forward, reminding Larry of their current mission. “Sid, this is Cerri, Earth witch and Priestess of Cerridwen. She’s an SBI agent whose team is hunting the jack ... idiots bent on ending all life as we know it.”
Sid’s head dipped in respectful acknowledgement. “Hail and Welcome, ma’am. I, and the rest of my coven—those not in the dungeon, anyway—are at your service. Let’s head inside so you can bring us up to date.”
The trio followed Sid as he flew toward the covenstead. As they reached the top of the steps leading to a set of beautifully carved double doors, the doors swung open, wide and welcoming, and light spilled out from within. Relieved faces filled the doorway, all chattering at once.
“Welcome home, Jesse.”
“Hey Larry.”
“We are sooo sorry, guys.”
“We gave those assholes what for, though.”
“Hope they like their cells.”
Overwhelmed, Larry and Jesse hung back. Cerri placed a firm hand on each of them and pushed them toward the open door. She whispered encouragement. “Come on, you two. Time to stop looking back and move forward.”
In a louder voice, Cerri addressed the gathered witches. “Let’s move this meeting inside, everyone. We have a lot to discuss, and not a lot of time to do it.”
* * *
The return trip to the scrapyard was much faster, as almost everyone traveled by ley line. There was no way to hide the arrival of a covenful of witches, along with their Familiars, so they didn’t even try. Besides, the reinforcements meant they’d be ready to implement the next part of their plan.
Before they left the coven, Cerri had called in a few favors from the Boston SBI office. Within the hour, several black-suited mages had arrived to take custody of Litha’s unhappy co-conspirators.
Larry snickered at the dark sunglasses the SBI agents wore. Talk about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery. These guys must have watched Men in Black waayyy too many times.
Cerri discreetly nudged him and mind-spoke a rebuke. “You’re just jealous. You only wish you’d be able to carry off that G-Man look.”
“Nah, I’m happy with my junkyard dog look, thank you very much.”
Cerri hid a smile, but Jesse’s guffaw informed Larry that he wasn’t very good at hiding his thoughts. Not that he should hide them from his magical partner, Larry admitted, especially considering his new commitment to trust and communication with her.
An elderly witch and her opossum Familiar had remained behind to drive Ed’s teenage friend’s car back to Connecticut. Larry had insisted they honor their promise to get the kid’s car back to him. He just hoped the ancient crone could see well enough behind her thick glasses to get it there in one piece.