Search results for query: *

Chapter Twenty-Five: Stafford High School, York, Now Richard had been mentally preparing to leave as soon as he saw the first news reports. It hadn’t been easy to decide if they should stay or go. It was uncommon, back home, for an incident on one side of the country to have any immediate...

Chapter Twenty-Four: Stafford High School, York, Now “So tell me,” Mr Staunton said, quietly. “What the hell happened in Edinburgh?” Norris had no answer. They had been sent to Stafford High School only a few short hours ago, to teach the local students about magic, the magical community...

Chapter Twenty-Three: London, Now “… Death toll is currently estimated to be around thirty thousand people,” the BBC announcer said. She looked tired, as if she hadn’t had time to put on her makeup before being rushed in front of a camera. “The First Minister has called for calm, and asked...

Chapter Twenty-Two: South Queensferry, Now Selena – her real name was a closely-guarded secret, certainly from the rest of the Sisters of the River – had always loved the Forth River, right from the moment her parents had moved to South Queensferry when she’d been a young girl. It had seemed...

Chapter Twenty-One: Gatehouse, York, Now. “This is the dining hall,” Norris said, as he showed Janie into the giant chamber. “I think you will find the food is actually edible, unlike the slop they used to serve back home.” Janie didn’t smile. She’d spent the last day answering questions...

Chapter Twenty: York, Now Helen sat on the broomstick and floated high over York. She knew she shouldn’t be flying so high, certainly not now. The skies over Britain were teeming with aircraft, from tiny little propeller planes and helicopters to jumbo jets that were larger than anything...

Chapter Nineteen: York, England, Now “They refused to hand Mr Nicolson over,” Inspector Javier reported. His tone was cold, angry. “Apparently, seriously injuring – and nearly killing – four teenagers is a very minor matter.” Polly kept her face under tight control. She had enough...

Chapter Eighteen: Glasgow, Now “This is …” Norris shook his head in disbelief. He had never flown before and he’d never expected he’d ever have the chance to fly, and now he was riding through the sky in a carriage that could have come straight out of a Disney movie. He half-expected a...

Chapter Seventeen: Cromwell High School, York, Now Janet felt torn between feeling like an imposter and an infiltrator. Cromwell High School might have been in York, only a few short miles from St Champions, but it was so different from her old school it might as well have been on another...

Chapter Sixteen: Gatehouse, York, Now Norris was starting to wonder, in all honesty, if he’d been forgotten. He’d done what he could to help Brains, but Brains had moved ahead of him so quickly that Norris had been left feeling useless. Richard and Janet had been unwilling or unable to...

Chapter Fifteen: Lake District, Now “We were here, only a couple of weeks ago,” Steve said, his arms wrapped around Helen’s back as she guided the broomstick towards the estate. “Did you know …” Helen shook her head. Her relatives –some of them, at least - had had to abandon their...

Chapter Fourteen: Glasgow, Now Jack looked up as Janie slipped into the abandoned house. “You found the stuff?” Janie nodded and squatted down beside him. “Pretty much,” she said. “You know how hard it was to find?” “Yeah,” Jack said. “But we made it.” He gritted his teeth as he...

On one hand, a reasonably big single-culture state is pretty unlikely. On the other, the more cultures there are, the harder it is to write it <grin> Chris

Chapter Thirteen: York, Now Norris felt … weirdly disconnected from the world around him. It was an odd sensation, as if he truly didn’t belong. The concrete estate seemed strange now, as well as hostile. He couldn’t keep himself from glancing back, time and time again, to check that...

Chapter Twelve: London, Now “She has been brainwashed,” Lord Burghley said, after the PM returned to the emergency committee chamber and replayed the interview with Janet Mayweather. “Magic, by its very nature, is dangerously addictive.” Polly kept her thoughts to herself, as she stood...

Chapter Eleven: London, Now Janet had dreamed, when she was a little girl, of marrying a prince and living in a palace. The fantasy had faded, as she’d grown older and realised it was never going to happen. She was a working class girl, from a working class family, and such girls did not...

Chapter Ten: London, Now Richard felt cold as the flying carriage started to descend over London. It wasn’t the first time he’d visited London – he’d travelled to the capital with Janet, before they’d figured out how to reopen the gate and return to Mystic Albion – but he hadn’t grasped...

Chapter Nine: Gatehouse, York, Now “This is a very neat solution to the low-magic environment,” Brains said, studying the diagram Norris had drawn out for him. “Given time, we would have duplicated these spells ourselves.” Norris gritted his teeth, feeling a surge of anger that – he was...

Chapter Eight: Gatehouse, York, Now Helen had never been quite sure what to make of the mundane world’s reporters. There was no such profession in Mystic Albion. The population was not large enough to support anything bigger than a handful of broadsheet writers, collecting the news and...

Chapter Seven: Gatehouse, York, Now Janet felt … uneasy … as she stepped out of Gatehouse. It was hard, almost impossible, to put her feelings into words. She had known she was doomed to a life on the estate, unless one of Steve's money-making schemes actually made a great deal of money, and...