Chapter 4

The following new characters appears in this chapter and others:

Kennith Sweeney

Ley Line Wizard, 6’-0’’ tall, 175 pounds, 28 years old, brown hair and dark eyes, very handsome

Bob

Minor demon, short at 4’-6’’ tall, red skin and horns on his head, gray beard and hair, Seventeenth century clothing, buckles on his shoes

Over the next several days, I spent a lot of time studying the Books. I had finished the first Book by the end of the fourth day and had practiced a number of the spells that it contained. Most of them were protective spells of various kinds. Many of them were similar to the Earth Witch spells that I knew. However, instead of using plant material to create amulets or charms and then infusing them with my Magic, these spells used only words and Ley Line Magic to create similar results, but the spells were much more potent than my Earth Witch spells.

Josh was here to see me on the evening of the fourth day, and he had been surprised by what I had shown him.

“Gee, Maddy, you are progressing awfully fast through those books, and I can feel that your Magic is much stronger now than it was in the past,” he told me.

“I’ve only started on the second Book,” I told him, as I didn’t feel that I was moving that fast.

While studying, I hadn’t taken time to go to the store for more groceries, but we always seemed to have plenty to eat. I didn’t notice anything until the seventh day when Al complained about his food.

“This stuff again?” he grumbled. “Didn’t you get anything different? They do make a variety of food for cats. You can get different meals instead of the same one all of the time,” he scolded me, still he finished everything in his bowl, which still scooted across the floor when he ate.

That was when I took time out from studying to check on what was left in the house in the way of food to discover that we were nearly out of food, having only a bit of bread and some cans of soup. Even the freezer was nearly empty.

“Where did all of the food go?” I asked, puzzled.

“You ate it. As a matter of fact, we have been nearly out of food for the past two days, but somehow food has appeared each day when it was time to eat. You have spent all of your time studying or practicing Magic and haven’t noticed,” Al told me in a sarcastic voice.

“We need to go to the store for groceries. Josh is coming over again tonight,” I told Al, ignoring his sarcasm.

“Do you have any money? There wasn’t a lot left after you were at the store the last time,” he reminded me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the four one hundred dollar bills to show him.

“Where did that come from? Did the Magic produce them?” he asked, looking up at the bills in my hand.

“No, I found them in the pocket of that jacket I bought,” I told him.

“That ugly jacket that you bought at Goodwill?” he asked.

“Hey, I like that jacket, but yes, it was in one of the pockets,” I admitted.

Following that, we got ready to go to the store. I needed to change clothes, as I had been wearing the same clothes each day while studying and needed to put on something more appropriate for going out. Before leaving, I made sure that the new wards around the house and my property were at full strength, as I didn’t need any surprises when I returned home.

At the store, I parked in the area where I usually do and cast a ward around my car. I didn’t need anymore graffiti on it. We got one of the large shopping carts when we reached the store.

“You should really load up on staples, like cat food,” Al told me from the child seat of the shopping cart, as we moved into the grocery section of the store.

“Yes, canned goods and frozen things, but things like milk, eggs, fresh juice, and other things will only be good for a limited time even with a preservation spell on them,” I reminded him.

After loading up on food and other necessities like detergent, soap, and dish washing liquid, plus toilet paper and paper towels, we headed over to the pet food area to get Al’s food. He usually goes through two cans of cat food a day, or one can and a bowl of dry cat food, but he didn’t really care for the dry cat food. I got one of the empty boxes there on the shelves and loaded it with two weeks of canned cat food, being sure to get a variety of meals.

We had a pretty full cart by the time we were ready to check out. The bill ate up nearly half of the money that I had found, but we had food for a couple of weeks.

There were no problems leaving the store, but there was an accident at the light to cross the busy main highway through town, and we needed to sit in line at the light until it was cleaned up, and the police allowed us to proceed.

When we neared my property, I lowered the wards at the driveway and pulled in and up to the house. I raised the wards again and made sure they were all at full strength before lowering the one around the front of the house, so we could carry the purchases inside. I left the car outside in the driveway, but cast wards around it again before going inside and pulling up the ward around the house again. I was definitely into playing it safe. None of those Ley Line Wizards were sneaking up on me again, or that demon either. I would definitely know if they tried.

Josh got a real surprise when he came over that evening. He nearly rammed his car into the wards around my property before he realized they were there. Luckily, he managed to stop in time. The wards reacted to the closeness of his Magic and set off the alarm that I had tied to them. The first that I knew that he or anyone was here was when the alarm went off. I went out to see who it was.

“Sorry, Josh,” I told him on seeing his car in the entrance to my driveway. The wards started just inside my property line which was back from the road and its right-of-way. “I forgot you were coming over,” I added.

“Where did you learn these wards?” he asked, as I lowered them so he could drive onto my property. I got in the car to ride back to my house.

“They were in the Book that I’ve been studying,” I explained, as we drove up to the house. The second ward there was also a surprise to him.

“This is different than the first one!” he exclaimed on sensing the ward before I relaxed it so we could enter the house.

“You aren’t taking any chances, are you, Maddy?” he asked once we were inside, and I had restored the ward around the house.

“No, I’m not. That demon and those Wizards are NOT going to sneak up on me again,” I assured him.

Over dinner, we discussed the book I was on, and what I had learned so far. Josh also told me what he had been doing over the past several days.

“You haven’t been bothered by the Wizard’s Guild again, have you?” I asked on hearing what he had been doing.

“No, they pretty much stay in the city, and ignore those in the suburbs and rural areas ... at least for now. They don’t bother the Ley Line Wizards either. It isn’t healthy,” he told me with a smile.

We had just finished eating, but hadn’t cleared the table yet, when there was another alert from the wards around my property. This time it was coming from the back of my land, as the alarm had a different sound. The alarm on each side of my property had a different sounds so I would know where the intruders were. The alarm on the ward around my house was different from all of the others.

“What’s that?” Josh asked in a startled voice.

“That’s the alarm for the back of my property. Someone is trying to sneak onto my land from the back or east side,” I told him as we both rose from the table.

“What are you going to do?” he asked.

“I’m going out there to find out what is going on, and who wants on my property,” I told him in a determined voice.

“I’ll ... I’ll go with you, in case there is trouble,” Josh said but sounded unsure of himself.

We went out the kitchen door and headed for the rear of my property. Because I live on ten acres, there would normally be a bit of searching involved, but the ward was also flashing as well as the audible alarm that it had sounded in the house, and we headed for the flashing light. It would require someone with a good bit of Magic to make the ward flash, and I hoped that I was ready to face them.

My property is now 500 feet deep and 870 feet long, so it is just a tad under ten acres, but that is because of the expansion of the right-of-way for the road when the county widened it some thirty years ago. Because the house is set well back from the road, it is about 300 feet from the back of the house to the back property line.

Josh and I slowed as we approached the property line, and I could see several people caught in the ward when it flashed. As we drew closer, I turned on the powerful hand light that I had brought with me and shined it on them, but didn’t relax the ward or release them.

Up close, we could see that there were four women caught in the ward, They were struggling but could not free themselves. They stopped when I turned the light on them.

“Who are you people, and why are you trying to sneak onto my land?” I demanded when we were close enough. None of them answered.

“Suit yourselves, but you aren’t getting released from that ward until you tell me what you are up to,” I informed them. All of them looked stricken on hearing this, and one began to cry, but I wasn’t about to release them until I learned what they were doing. After a couple of minutes, the one who appeared to be the oldest spoke up.

“We were only looking for some herbs. We need fresh herbs for our charms, but they are hard to find and expensive when you can,” she told me.

“So, you thought you would steal some of mine, did you?” I demanded.

“The woman who lived here previously never minded if we picked some of the herbs. She told us that she had more than she needed,” the woman told me.

“So, you have been sneaking in here to steal herbs since before my Mother died some seven years ago,” I said.

“Well, no one ever complained before,” she told me.

“Because I wasn’t aware of what you were doing. I have a garden where I grow most of the herbs that I need, and I was away at school for a number of years,” I told them.

“The house was closed for several years after the woman died,” she admitted.

“I’ve been back for over three years, and you never thought to come and ask me if it was alright to harvest some of the herbs growing here. I would probably have said yes, but you had to continue to steal them.

“Well, these wards will be up from now on, so you can forget about getting any of my herbs. Raise your own. It isn’t difficult and seeds are available,” I told them before relaxing the ward holding them.

“Get out of here and don’t come back,” I told them, and they hurried away in the dark. I brought the wards back up to full strength, before we turned around and headed back to the house.

“Weren’t you a bit hard on them?” Josh asked, as we walked back.

“They have been coming here for who knows how many years and stealing herbs. They could have started growing them at any point during that time. They didn’t. They would rather take them from someone else.

“If they had asked, I would probably have allowed them to continue picking herbs, but they didn’t, and I’m not about to allow anyone to just wonder onto my property and do what they wish now; not with a demon and those Ley Line Wizards after me,” I told him.

“Put that way, I can see your point,” Josh admitted with a shy smile. He left shortly after that, and I did the dishes after returning all of the wards to full strength and put the remaining food away. Al had already eaten and was asleep through all of this.

Later that evening, I was studying before going to bed when the alarm for the wards went off again. It was coming from the front of the property near the road.

“Is someone trying to turn around in my driveway?” I wondered out loud.

“Stop that terrible racket,” Al said, as the alarm had awakened him.

“I need to go out and see what’s going on,” I told him and grabbed the large hand light from the counter. We went out the front door. There was no flashing visible from the ward, but I headed for the driveway entrance, as that was the most logical place for an intruder to be. On arriving there, I didn’t find anyone or anything there.

“What’s going on?” I asked, not expecting an answer.

“Look further down the road,” Al suggested, and I shined the hand light down the property line. About a hundred and fifty feet from the driveway, I could just see several people caught in the ward. The trees would have prevented me from seeing them from the house. I walked in their direction wondering what was going on.

As I got closer, I could see that there were four young men caught in the ward. The light revealed their scruffy appearance, and that, they were all wearing gang colors, and they all had cans of spray paint in their hands. I could also see the remains of dried paint on their arms and hands, and it was possibly still in other places that I couldn’t see.