Chapter 9

The following new character appears in this chapter:

Angus Bryden

Wizard, about 5’-8’’tall, 140 pounds or so, 78 years of age, but looks much older, his hair, long beard, and eyes are all gray, very sick when Max first met him

We were up at the normal time at the Kane’s on Monday, the 12th of October. Jill and I had packed everything last night except the things we would need for today; our sleepwear, and toiletries which we would need this morning. Kaera had breakfast ready as usual when we joined them in the kitchen. She seemed rather sad, and Jill went over to her.

“We’ll be back. Max can transfer us here easily from anywhere on the east coast,” she assured the older woman who seemed relieved on hearing this.

“Good,” she said. “I’ve gotten used to having you here. Most of Nick’s students were single boys, so it has been really nice to have a young woman here to talk with and to help with the chores. My Daughter seldom comes by, and I miss my children and grandchildren,” she told Jill in a weepie voice but seemed better after a hug.

Following breakfast, we all took care of the daily chores that are necessary on any farm; feeding the horses, pigs, and chickens plus cleaning out the barn and the pens. Jill and Kaera had also collected the eggs for that morning.

After cleaning up, we dressed in our travel clothes before checking again that we had everything packed. I gave Jill a couple of hundred dollars extra to give to Kaera, as I was sure that Nick wouldn’t accept it before we moved our things downstairs and out into the back of the pickup.

We had acquired a new road atlas on one of our trips to pay Jill’s utility bills. There had been much consideration given to the various routes to the residence of my final teacher once Nick informed us who he was and where he lived.

“Angus Bryden is a cantankerous old man,” Nick told us the night we discussed leaving. “Of course, he was also a cantankerous young man. He has been living in the same house since before I met him in 1965. He’s three years older than I am and has a very strong Talent. I met him through the Council when they sent me to study Magic with him. He was also attending Edinboro University, a part of the Pennsylvania University system. The school was founded in 1857, but wasn’t a part of the University system until quite a few years later. Angus was taking painting and got me admitted to the furniture course. I stayed two years, as he did, before we both quit.

“I came back here and married Kaera, but Angus never married. His family was what I considered wealthy, but he always said they were only a bit better off than most folks in the area. Angus took care of his Parents and two siblings all of their lives, but there’s no one left to take care of him now,” Nick told us sounding rather sad.

“Did you ever use what you had learned about furniture making?” I asked interested.

“I made some of the furniture here in the house, along with repairing and improving some furniture that we bought over time, so the two years weren’t wasted,” he told me with a bit of pride.

“Union City, where he lives, still had several furniture factories at the time I was there, and the furniture course was quite popular,” he added.

We did a lot of research using the map atlas to determine the best route to take to northern Pennsylvania. While there were a number of different routes that we could use, several required extensive detours to get to them, adding to the time and the distance needed to get there. We did eventually work out a route that appeared to be the shortest, but it still involved driving something over six hundred and twenty miles and would require something like nine and a half hours of driving plus additional time for stops for gas, eating, and pit stops. We figured that we were looking at eleven hours for the trip.

The pickup was loaded by 0730 that morning, and we were ready to leave. Kaera came out of the house to wish Nick a safe trip, and Nick was very touched by how she was all teared up. They hugged and kissed for a short time before parting, looking embarrassed that we had seen them doing that. Jill joined them and gave Kaera a hug and a kiss on the cheek. I gave her a hug too, as she had been like an Aunt to me while we were here.

When we had cleared the area around the house and the buildings, Nick stopped the truck, got out, and raised the shell around them.

“Got to keep Kaera safe,” he told us as he got back in the truck, and we started for Sneedville. Nick also did the driving from Sneedville over Clinch Mountain and on the road to Kingsport. From there it was an easy drive to Bristol on the Tennessee / Virginia border.

“You know it was in Bristol that Country Music got its big commercial start. That was in 1927 when Ralph Peer arrived there to record a number of local artists. The Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers were among them, and are the best known, but there were quite a few other acts that were recorded,” Nick reminded us, as we approached Bristol from the Tennessee side.

We stopped for fuel before crossing into Virginia, and also got some snacks to take with us. I took over the driving for a time then. From Bristol we continued up I-81, which we had gotten on in Kingsport, to Wytheville, Virginia where we switched to I-77. We followed I-77 north to Beckley, West Virginia, where one of my men had lived, but he had never returned from Ashcanastan, having been killed in the ambush on our last mission there.

From Beckley, we continued north on I-77 to Charleston, West Virginia where we stopped for fuel, lunch, and a pit stop. We were all taking turns driving now and would go for an hour to an hour and a half before changing. In Charleston, we switched to I-79 and drove north on it to the Pennsylvania line.

We continued north on I-79 through Pennsylvania, stopping north of Pittsburgh again for fuel, food, and a pit stop. We eventually reached the interchange at exit 166, and left I-79 to take US 6 to Union City some nineteen miles away. Nick pointed out Edinboro University as we passed it on US 6. We arrived in Union City just before 1830 that evening and took Main Street with all of its preserved buildings north through town to Waterford Street before turning right onto Murray Street and driving out of town and into the countryside. Shortly we came to a driveway that Nick told us to turn into. A good way up the drive sat an old house, and we parked on the side of it.

Nick rang the bell when we reached the large front porch, and we waited for someone to answer the door. Eventually, the door was opened by a stoop shouldered old man leaning on a cane. He couldn’t have weighed more than 140 pounds and appeared to be about 5’-6’’ tall, but it was hard to tell, as he didn’t or couldn’t stand up straight. His hair, long beard, and eyes were all gray. I knew that Nick had said that he was three years older than he was, but this man before us looked to be nearly ninety at least.

“What do you want?” he asked in a near whisper.

“Angus, it’s me Nick,” he told him, but it took the man many seconds to make the connection.

“Nick ... Nick Kane?” he asked in surprise in a bit stronger voice.

“Yes, you remember we went to Edinboro together while you taught me Magic,” Nick reminded him, but he didn’t appear to believe that his friend could look so old.

“Yes, it’s been a long time,” he said, but was looking at Jill and me.

“Who are these strangers with you?” he demanded in a bit better voice.

“This is my most recent student, Max Hardtrick and his Wife,” Nick told him.

“Hardtrick ... I’ve heard that name somewhere,” Angus said but couldn’t recall where.

“He was down in Atlanta when they had all of that trouble,” Nick reminded him.

“Have you come all of this way to see a dying old man?” he asked us next.

“No, I brought him up here for you to teach him more Magic,” Nick said but looked confused by what Angus had said.

“What do you mean a ‘dying old man’?” he asked.

“The doctors don’t give me long to live, and I don’t takes students or teach Magic anymore,” Angus told him.

“With all of the medical spells that you know, why haven’t you gotten some help?” Nick asked.

“Yes, I still know the spells, but there is no one locally who is powerful enough to use them, and I can’t use them on myself,” Angus answered in an upset voice.

“Well, we’re here now, and we can use them. Just tell us what spells to use,” Nick told him in an assertive voice.

“You’re not strong enough either, Nick. The spells that will cure me need someone with a huge Talent to cast them. That’s why I haven’t asked the Council for help, there just isn’t anyone strong enough today,” he told Nick who turned to me.

“Cast the shell spell. Don’t worry about the size, Angus has a large piece of property, something over sixty acres,” he told me. I cast the shell spell and let it go until the shell was about nine hundred feet in diameter, and then tinted it a nice pink for a change, as Jill likes pink. Angus just stood there for several minutes before he said anything.

“You were always full of surprises Nioclas O’Cathain,” he said in Gaelic.

“And you were always a stubborn fellow, Aengus Bhrighdeinn,” Nick answered in Gaelic.

“Has he done that often?” Angus asked pointing with his cane at the shell.

“Aye, around my house and buildings, as well as around his Wife’s relative’s houses and buildings also,” Nick told him.

“Come in then, and I’ll see if I can remember the correct spells,” he told us and opened the door all of the way. I lowered the shell before entering though, not wishing to call attention to us or him.

The interior of the house was much like the exterior, in that it was old but very well preserved. It was obvious that Angus knew a lot about preservation and repair spells. From what Nick had said on the front porch, he also knew many medical spells.

We three were led through the house past the parlors to a closed door across the hall from the dining room. Angus opened it to reveal a room that turned out to be his den, but I thought of it as the library, since it contained many built-in bookcases with storage below the shelves that held books ... lots and lots of books.

“Now, let me see, medical references would be ... be on the left,” he said after a brief hesitation with a weak smile. “It’s been some years since I’ve been in here,” he continued as he moved to the left and began examining the titles of books on the second shelf.

“Ah ... here is the one I want,” he said and pulled it off the shelf, but nearly dropped the large heavy book, which Nick caught.

“Where do you want to sit?” he asked him.

“At the desk, the easy chairs are too hard for me to get out of now,” Angus replied, and they moved over to the desk which had a swivel chair. When seated, Angus began going through the book flipping pages and mumbling to himself.

Nick and I were standing behind him, and I could see that the book appeared to be a handwritten one. But it had been done by someone with excellent skills in calligraphy, as the print was large and there were letters of a larger size at the top of each page that were very fancily drawn to open each page. The book was clearly very old, and whether it was an original or a copy of one, I couldn’t tell.

All of the Magic that I had learned so far had come to me orally, as Magic users have very strong and extensive memories, so they can remember all of the spells and their signs or glyphs exactly. Yet Angus had books, many books written in Gaelic, at least this one was, and I presumed the others were, that contained Magic spells and their signs or glyphs. Looking around the room at the hundreds of books it contained, I knew that this was a priceless collection.

“Hah!” Angus said finally. “This is the spell that I was looking for, plus the two spells following it. Can you read Gaelic, young Max?” he asked. I leaned in to look at the page closer, and read what it said easily, though I wasn’t sure where or how I had learned to read Gaelic.

“Yes, I can read it,” I told him.

“Good, memorize it and its glyph. This is one of the spells you will need to restore me to health. Sit down here and study this spell along with the next two. You will need to cast each of them, but separately. You may need to wait a day between casting each spell. They require a very strong Talent to cast them properly,” he told me, and tried to rise from the chair, so I could sit down, but he was too weak to move.

“Allow us to help you, Master,” Nick said, and the two of us gently helped him up and over to one of the stuffed chairs near the bookcases.

After sitting down at the desk, I read through the spell and traced its glyph in the air from the picture drawn in the book. I also read the instructions about casting this spell and the two following it, along with the signs that needed to be chalked inside the healing circle.

“This book says that you need four, the book calls them Wizards, to cast this spell. We only have three Magic users,” I told him. “Can we do it with only three Magic users?”

“While three is a prime number, I don’t believe so. This spell requires both the recipient and those casting it to be aligned with the four cardinal points of the compass with a Wizard, or Magic user as you called them, at each of those cardinal points,” Angus told us, but it was obvious that he was slipping back into his previous condition.

“Kaera!” Nick exclaimed. “She has a minor Talent, and would make four of us.”

“Yes, I never met your Wife, although you sent me pictures of all of you in your letters,” Angus said but in a bare whisper.

“We don’t have a lot of time to find someone else. He isn’t getting any better,” Nick told us looking over at me.

“All right, I’ll transfer us to your place, and we’ll bring Kaera back. Jill, look after Angus, see if he has anything to eat here. We may need to bring food with us when we return,” I told them.

“Do we transfer from in here or outside?” Nick asked.

“Outside, I’ll cast a minor shell around the house to keep it safe, since those books are priceless,” I told him. Outside I cast the spell for a shell that was large enough to surround the house, and then the transfer spell. The two of us appeared inside the shell around Nick’s property.

“Kaera, I’m back,” he called, and she came out of the house at a run and right into his arms. He held her for several minutes before saying anything.