The Magical Realm of Shadows Part 1 Chapter 4

Cul Na Sithe (The Corner of Tranquility)

The next morning, Jack brought home a silver ring and got a scolding from aunty for being a naughty boy. Even so – after Aunty had bitten the silver and checked the quality of the emerald – she was smiling when she put it in her pocket.

“Who’s a clever boy then?”

“You’re far too clever for your own good, Jack.” But Aunty still gave him a kiss.

The children passed the time becoming familiar with their new surroundings; some of it spent helping aunty tidy up the allotment, or in the kitchen doing chores they would never have volunteered for at home.

They visited the village shop, and while Aunty bought necessities like flour, cooking oil and Scotch, they took turns talking to Mam and Dad on the old-fashioned phone, reassuring them that they were having fun.

When they got home, Aunty asked them all to get out of the car and walk up the drive, saying she doubted the Morris could make the climb fully-loaded.

While Aunty was putting away the groceries, Hecate strolled in through the kitchen door with a dead rat in her mouth and offered it to her.

“No, I’m not proud you - wicked girl. Why do you kill things when I feed you?” Hecate took the rat outside.

Aunty had told them the milkman would drive up in his Land Rover every two days, but apart from that, the only visitor to the cottage was a gamekeeper called Mr Bottomley. He turned up at lunch time with a sack full of game for the dogs.
Mr Bottomley was a tall, moustached man with bright red cheeks and nose, Aunty said that was because he spent so much time outdoors. Dressed in tweeds, with a deer stalker hat, he seemed a bit awkward around them, like he wasn’t used to children, and he only spoke to Aunty. He wouldn’t even let Billy have a go with his shotgun.

They heard him mumble something to Aunty like, “Is that them, they don’t look like much.”

Aunty put on a cross face, so he went outside to do some work. After he’d chopped the firewood, Mr Bottomley quickly drank three bottles of homemade barley wine, and then staggered off back to the woods. Aunty bragged that many a big drinker had been humbled by her barley wine.

“Right then, children, I’ll get on with making you a rabbit in cider casserole, as a treat,” said Aunty.

Diana and Billy pulled faces at each other behind her back.

“Would you believe it, children? I forgot to get some more white pepper. What a silly old bird I am.”

“Who’s a silly old bird,” Jack agreed.

“Shut up, Jack,” said Aunty, looking vexed.

Gerri was given a rabbit, skin and everything; she immediately shied away from the approaching Gel and ran up to the orchard with it. Everyone watched in astonishment as Gel took his rabbit and swallowed it whole. It made Candy nervous and she jumped on Brigit’s’ knee, trembling.

Candy had her rabbit skinned, boned and chopped, but still raw. To their surprise, she had no problem wolfing it down.

Aunty said, “No matter what size and shape a dog is, it’s still just a wolf at heart.

Lily was feeding Jack chopped nuts, to be rewarded by him repeating, “Who’s a pretty girl then?”

Then Hecate came back and stalked Jack, looking for a chance to jump up and snatch him off the stool.

“Hecate!” Aunty shouted, and then followed up with those strange words again, “Hogath Ddrwg.”

Hecate mewed an apology, as though she’d forgotten she wasn’t supposed to do it. Jack took off and hovered above the cat, before bombing her head with poop.

“Silly moggy,” he screeched.

“Jack! Behave yourself!” Aunty shook her head and groaned, “Familiars, who’d have them?”

Lily and Brigit enjoyed the casserole and ate the rabbit Diana and Billy had only picked over.

“What’s wrong, little ones?” Aunty asked them, with a mouthful of pan-fried trout. “Don’t you like it?”

“It’s not that, Aunty,” Diana put on her best airs and graces. “I just can’t stop thinking of Bugsy and Thumper at home”

“Aunty, can’t we order a pizza, please?” Billy asked.

Once Diana and Billy had filled up on Wensleydale cheese and tomato toasties, they settled around the fire.

They had hoped to go out and do some roaming after the meal, but Aunty insisted on getting back to the old dusty books.

It was like still being at school, Lily, Diana and Billy fidgeted and looked bored as Aunty waffled on about the fundamental principles of magic and Albert Einstein.

In the evening, Aunty bathed Billy in the kitchen sink. For the girls, kettles and pans were used to fill a tin bath put in front of the living room fire. Because the weather was still mild for the time of year, the children didn’t miss the mod cons too much. Nobody had even mentioned television yet.

Bath time over, they settled in front of the fire again, while Aunty looked for stories to read.

“Can you teach us some real magic, Aunty?” Lily asked enthusiastically.

“Ah, now, you cannot actually learn magic, my dear. If you have the gift it will awaken when you come of age. How old are you, now?”

“Sixteen, Aunty.”

“Almost,” Brigit corrected her and got a dirty look in return.

“A very good age, Lily,” said Aunty. “You have the potential to become a very powerful witch, and I’m sure that will be realized before long.”

“But, Aunty,” Billy piped up. “If they were witches, they’d be even nastier. All the girls at their school would have no hair left.”

“Get lost! Billy!” Lily fumed.

“Right, children, I think it’s time for a story about jealousy and envying beauty:

“A long time ago in Ancient Pelasgia, the name of which has long since been forgotten, there dwelled an apprentice sorceress named Tamandra. Now although Tamandra was pretty, she wished to be even more so; not only that, but she also wished for her rivals to become ugly, or at least less pretty than she.

Tirelessly, Tamandra slaved over potions and charms to help achieve her ends, but as she was still a novice, her efforts were of no avail. Also, her intentions were selfish as regards what she wished for herself and evil in what she would do unto others, such negative magic is the most difficult to master successfully.

Of course, anything can be achieved if one is willing to invest regardless of the cost, and the price of Tamandra’s success was to barter her soul.

And so the vain young sorceress came to kneel at the feet of the Fates, offering her life force in exchange for the power to indulge her dreams. The three goddesses listened patiently to her pleas, and then deliberated amongst themselves, before weighing her future on the scales of destiny. One could consider their decision to purchase Tamandra’s soul as callous, but then, what are the fickle follies of mortals to the gods?

Tamandra returned home and set once more about her elixirs, talismans and incantations, and slowly but surely, she noticed how the changes she desired were materialising before her eyes.

But Tamandra could not refrain from gloating, as she witnessed her rivals looks gradually fade, as orchid blooms inevitably wither, while she continued to blossom like a rose blessed by divinity. Like a moth to a flame she found herself obsessed with mirrors and reflections, never tiring of seeing her own image.

As Tamandra began to ridicule her rivals more openly, she found that they merely laughed and mocked her. At first, she assumed they were blind to the realities of her magic art and dismissed it, but as time passed and their derision increased, she determined to visit the sacred oracle and solve the mystery.

After sacrificing generously, she entered the sacred temple and knelt before the long dead remains of an ancient oak, and the serpent that dwelled upon it. After delivering her inquiry, the voice of the Pythoness spoke, advising her to visit the pool of purity.

So Tamandra journeyed to the grove of the virgin and knelt before the precincts sacred pool – to her horror, the reflection looking back at her was that of a wrinkled old hag covered in warts. Another reflection appeared over her shoulder, which Tamandra recognized as her main rival’s; rather than being gnarled and withered, as she had appeared in Tamandra’s eyes, she was as stunning as the Goddess of Love.

Tamandra shrieked her despair, flew to the mountain abode of the Fates, and threw herself at their feet, pleading for them to take pity on her, as though such non-sentimental beings could be moved. When no sympathy was forthcoming, Tamandra cried: “Why did you cheat me, O faithless ones?”

“We gave you what you wished for, only in reverse,” The Fates answered as one.

“But I sold you my soul. No matter what I wished for, you never intended to keep faith.” She sobbed in self-pity.

“That’s not true; there was a way you could have had beauty for the rest of your natural life,” The Fates assured her.

“How, tell me how?”

“You could have wished for everyone to become more beautiful.”

The evening ended with Lily and Brigit playing some music, Diana and Billy entertaining them by dancing to “Lord of the Dance,” while Candy twirled round on her hind legs. Aunty was completely enchanted when they played an extract from Mozart’s “The Magic Flute,” at her request.

Then Aunty handed out presents. Lily’s didn’t seem to make any sense at all, a piece of dried fruit with red, velvety skin, like a bon bon, wrapped in greaseproof paper. Aunty said it was a goodness sweet, but Lily wasn’t to eat it.

Brigit’s made sense, as it was a miniature flute that was telescopic and opened to full-size, with a chain so it could hang around her neck. Opening and closing it, Brigit asked, “How do the keys fold away?”

“Don’t try to make sense of it, Brigit,” Aunty said. “It’s a magic flute.”

Diana was given a small doll that was actually a mandrake root which had grown in the shape of a woman; she said the doll was called Aria. Diana complained that she was too old for dolls, but Aunty said she should keep it with her at all times.

Billy got the silver ring Jack had stolen. Aunty put it round his neck on a silver chain, saying he would know what to do with it when the time came.

As the children got up to go to bed, Aunty said something none of them understood. But then, she was a strange old bird.

“Tomorrow is the last day of Honoria, children. After that the portals will be closed for another year.”