A Life Less Ordinary (6 page)

The Grassmarket is set within a hollow and is actually lower than most of the surrounding area of Edinburgh. Once, long ago, it was a market in truth, but now the modern world has passed it by. There are a handful of shops and cafes that had spilled out onto the pavement, yet most of the area’s charm is long gone. I watched as the tourists stared up towards the castle – which dominated the skyline – and took hundreds of photographs. I wondered if any of them saw the magical field surrounding the castle. Even in daytime, I could see the haze glowing against the sun.

“So,” Master Revels said. He touched my cheek, gently, but firmly pointing me down towards the bridge at the end. “What do you see?”

I scowled, realising that it was another test. The Grassmarket didn’t look very busy, apart from the tourists and a single piper droning away, massacring
The Flower of Scotland
. I looked from one end to the other and then realised that I was wasting my time. I should be looking
beyond
. It was hard to focus with the piper blaring away in the background, but somehow I managed to peer into the magical world. A moment later, the market opened up before us.

“My god,” I said, in awe. I’d seen how magic could be used to fit an entire castle into a small house before, but this was fantastic. “This is the real market?”

Master Revels nodded. “We stand here between the worlds,” he said, seriously. He gave my hand a squeeze as I stumbled back against him. “Many of the other worlds have points that intersect this location in space and time. This is neutral ground. No one, not even the most powerful and dangerous of the Great Powers, would dare to pick a fight here. The market itself would rise up against them.”

He took my hand and led me into the market. There were stalls and people everywhere. Here, where the mundane world couldn’t see them, most of them had dropped their glamour-spells and walked uncovered, allowing everyone with the right eyes to see them. I saw goblins, elves, fairies and a strange creature that looked like an eyeball floating without any visible means of support. Even more surprising, when I had finished staring at the creature, was the small goblin lady walking beside it, as if they were a married pair. A massive humanoid wolf walked past them and I lost sight of the odd couple in the crowd. I looked up as a shadow fell over the market, only to see a dragon flying overhead. Fiona was tiny, but this one was larger than a train. Its bright red eyes gazed down on the humans and humanoids below as if it were considering dinner. Master Revels seemed unconcerned by the possibility and so I tried to force myself to ignore it. It wasn’t easy.

I saw, standing in a private circle, a couple dancing to the beat of an inaudible tune. The man was the darkest man I had ever seen, wearing a white suit and a dignified expression that seemed to contrast oddly with the joy of his partner. The woman was as pale as a ghost, with a long dark dress and very dark hair. Her face was suffused with joy. They were dancing together, completely unaware of the outside world. I felt a twinge of envy. They were happy in their own way.

“No one knows who they are,” Master Revels said, when I asked. He looked oddly pensive at the thought. “They have been dancing for far longer than I have been alive. The magic around them won’t let anyone interfere with the revels.”

He shrugged, dispassionately. “There are three basic rules to remember here,” he added, as we reached another strange statue. It was of an angel, with stone wings and a sad expression, from what little of it I could see. The angel’s hands were permanently covering its face. “Be extremely polite to everyone you meet here, don’t steal anything and don’t start any fights.” He smiled as he passed me a pouch of gold coins. “If you want to buy something, you can – but make sure you bargain first.”

I looked up at him, surprised. “You’re not going to stay with me?”

“I have other business to see to,” Master Revels explained. “Don’t worry; remember the rules and you will be safe here. This is neutral ground.”

He turned and walked off towards the castle, leaving me standing on my own. I was tempted to follow him, but I had to admit that the idea of an afternoon spent exploring the market was rather more tempting. Besides, it had been months since I’d had any money to spend on myself and I wanted to enjoy it. It was impossible to tell just how large the market actually was, yet I was sure I’d find something I wanted. I grinned to myself and started to explore, heading towards the animal sounds in the distance. I just hoped that I wouldn’t bump into Circe again.

There were thousands of animals in a number of stalls, ranging from common pets to more exotic creatures, some of which I only vaguely recognised. One store was selling gnomes, baby basilisks and even a handful of talking animals, which had apparently travelled to our world to escape some great catastrophe in their own world. An oversized mouse caught sight of me and started to explain that they’d been enslaved and needed to buy themselves free. I was horrified, but what could I do? The storeowner was demanding a vast sum of money for even one talking mouse.

“I’m sorry,” I said, and walked on to the next section. At first sight, it was a butcher’s market, but they were offering eye of newt and tongue of frog, along with hundreds of other ingredients I recognised were needed for spells of one kind or another. One sealed jar claimed to contain Gorgon eyes, harvested at great personal risk. A young buyer opened the jar without goggles and was instantly turned to stone. I recoiled, turned my back and walked away. There was nothing I could do for him.

The book stalls seemed more promising at first, although it didn’t take long to realise that they weren’t selling anything I hadn’t already seen in the library back home. Most of the books were fairly basic spellbooks, copied out by hand; anything really interesting or unique would probably be offered privately to the people with the money or power to pay for it. I picked one of the rarer books up and examined it, but shook my head when I saw the price. I had nowhere near that much money.

A hand caught at my dress, catching my attention. “Can I have some of your blood, lady?”

I stared down in astonishment and horror. The speaker was a young boy – he couldn’t be more than seven years old – with fangs growing out of his mouth. His pale skin and red eyes told the full story. Somehow, he’d been bitten by a vampire and survived the experience, making the transition from human to vampire without problems. I had no idea why he was begging at first and then I remembered what Master Revels had said. The market was neutral ground and no one, not even a starving vampire, would willingly take the risk of breaking that truce. And if he was a vampire, no matter how old he looked, it was a fair bet that he was a great deal older.

“No,” I said, firmly. The vampire gazed up into my eyes and I felt my resolve starting to weaken. One of the books I had read had talked about vampires. A vampire had considerable powers to influence a human mind, even if the vampire in question hadn’t drawn on the person’s blood. Once they had sucked some of their blood, the person would become a slave, to all intents and purposes. I shook my head angrily, pushing away the compulsion that threatened to overwhelm my mind. “No!”

The vampire turned and walked off. I resisted the urge to stick a stake through its back and walked in the other direction, heading towards the sound of a man calling out for bids. There was a large tent, marked with a sign promising auctions today, so I entered. I saw, to my horror, a family standing on the stage, wearing nothing apart from iron collars around their necks. Their eyes were bleak and hopeless.

“And now, ladies and gentlemen,” the barker was saying, “we have a family enslaved for a lucky winner! One man, a proven hard worker; one woman, a proven cook; one son, a promising worker in the future...and last, but not least, a daughter with many promising charms, if you know what I mean!” There was a roar of laughter from the crowd. I looked up at the daughter – she couldn’t have been much younger than me – and stared in dismay. The iron collar around her neck kept her rooted to the spot and would force her to obey orders, whatever the orders were. I felt sick. Whatever they had done, if they had done anything to deserve punishment, they didn’t deserve to be enslaved.

I turned and fled out of the tent as the bids started to rise higher and higher. I wondered if I should try to bid myself, just so I could free them, but I doubted I had anything like enough money to bid on even one of them. Master Revels might have the sort of money needed to buy slaves, yet I had no idea where to find him. I tried to push the image of the girl’s helpless face out of my mind and walked over to one of the eateries. I needed something to eat, if only to take my mind off the slaves. The cook – a humanoid creature with six arms and four legs – waved at me. I wandered over to the counter and sat down, examining the menu. There was very little that was familiar, so I found myself ordering a burger and chips. It was in front of me almost before I sat down at the table, a great steaming burger and a massive pile of chips. It tasted far better than anything I’d had in the mundane world.

“Hi,” a voice said. I didn’t look up from my burger. I hadn’t realised how hungry I was until I’d taken the first bite. “Can I join you?”

I looked up in some surprise. There were only a handful of customers in the store and there were plenty of other seats. The man in front of me was...I stared. He was tall, and patrician, with long blond hair and very fine cheekbones. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but there was something about him that was overwhelmingly sexy. I swallowed hard. Whatever it was, however he did it, I wanted to roll over and spread my legs for him. And he knew it. I could have drowned in those eyes forever. If there was such a thing as love at first sight, this was it; no, maybe not love, but certainly lust at first sight. I had never felt such feelings before...

And they might not be natural.

“Of course,” I said, swallowing again. “What is your...ah, what would you like to be called?”

“It always gets the newcomers that way,” the man said, as he sat down in front of me and helped himself to a chip. I couldn’t find the urge to argue. “You may call me Cardonel.”

I frowned as I took another bite of my burger. It helped to keep my mind off him and his body and the two of us...I pushed that thought aside, angrily. If he was using magic to manipulate me, I wasn’t going to fall for it. Besides, he was too handsome to be true; the more I looked at him, the more I was sure that he was covered by a glamour-spell of some kind. There was something about his ears that didn’t seem quite right.

“You may call me Dizzy,” I said, slowly. The lust wasn’t diminishing even though I was sure that it was a spell. If anything, it was growing stronger. His smile – oh god, those cheekbones – was overpowering. “I...”

“You’re the one who escaped one of
her
spells,” Cardonel said, flatly. His smile seemed to grow more powerful as I finished my burger and gave serious thought to ordering another one. “Did you think that that would go unnoticed?”

“Circe?” I asked, surprised. Who
was
this man...if he was a man? Maybe
what
was he would be a better question. “It wasn’t exactly easy.”

Cardonel’s eyes widened. “There are very few human magicians who could have broken one of her curses,” he said. “And you’re not even afraid to say her name!”

He leaned forward. “Do you have any idea just how...interesting that makes you?”

I caught myself before I could lean forward and kiss his lips. His voice just sent shivers of lust down my spine. I was certain now that I was being manipulated, yet that didn’t make resisting it any easier. And if he was scared to say her name out loud...if she was who she claimed to be, she would be able to hear her name spoken, wherever she was. Someone so powerful had to daunt the entire magical community.

“And your Master is one of the most famous magicians in the world,” Cardonel continued. “You’re going to be something remarkable if you don’t kill yourself first. You’re going to be really special.”

He was still leaning forward until I leaned back, angrily. Whatever I was feeling, whatever the cause of it, I wasn’t going to allow those feelings to push me into doing something that I would regret. I still wanted to start panting for him, or worse, yet now I understood it better I could control it. Or so I told myself.

“But you need to ask yourself a question,” Cardonel said, apparently unbothered by my unspoken refusal to get hot and sweaty with him. “What is your master, really?”

I looked up, sharply. “Why are you talking to me?”

“Let’s just say that I have your best interests at heart,” Cardonel said, sincerely. At least he sounded sincere, but I had to remind myself that he could be using a glamour-spell to project whatever feelings he wanted to project into the air. “You’re a newcomer to a very dangerous world, one with more potential than actual training. You have to understand just where you stand.”

“Oh,” I said. My head was a mess. I wanted to leave, now, yet something kept me in my seat. It might have been a spell of some kind, or it might just have been my curiosity. Even if I couldn’t trust Cardonel any further than I could throw him, I wanted to hear what he had to say. Or perhaps he was
making
me want to hear what he had to say. “And where, may I ask, do I stand?”

“In the middle,” Cardonel said. He looked down at me. “You need to ask your master just what he is and where he stands. It won’t be long before everyone has to choose a side. I hope you choose wisely.”

“Thank you,” I said, sourly. “And what are you going to do now?”

He leaned forward, so close that his lips were almost brushing mine. “We could go out together,” he whispered. His voice was touching off all the glands in my body. I knew he was bad news and yet I couldn’t help a sudden surge of arousal. “I could show you strange pleasures and wonders that you would never find for yourself. We could have an evening to remember and then do it all again, and again, and again.”

“Doubtless,” a new voice said. “However, Dizzy has her own obligations at the moment.”