Amber Uncovered (Amber Preserved Book 1) Read online

  “Rose, I brought Amber up here to introduce the two of you. Also, so I could show her some graphic demonstrations of magic. Would you care to assist me with that?”

  “What do you wish for me to do Charles? As you ask, so shall I comply.”

  “She talks funny,” Alicia said.

  Rose hovered in the air, glaring at the young child.

  “Hush Alicia,” Charles admonished. “She talks in a combination of the way people used to speak. long ago and all the different ways they've talked since. The fae, since that's what Rose is, have been around for a very long time and they've picked up their speech patterns a little here and there ever since they've been around humans.”

  “You don't mean as a race, do you?” Amber asked. “You mean each individual fae has been around that long?”

  Charles grinned.

  She's quick on the uptake, that's for sure.

  “Yes, not all of them have been around that long, but fae births are few so a lot of them have been around that long. As far as we can tell the fae are immortal, barring accident or injury. None of them will ever die of old age.”

  Alicia poked a finger up at Rose, who took offense. The little fae darted acrobatically though the air, diving under Alicia's finger before coming at it from underneath. The girl squealed and pulled her hand back, shaking her finger.

  “She bit me!” Alicia said.

  “I did tell you she could be unpleasant, but I saw that, you tried to poke her. Think about how big your finger is compared to Rose for a second. Maybe she saw that as a threat? Your finger is bigger than one of her legs even.”

  Alicia sulked, staring at Rose.

  “I'm sorry she tried to poke you Rose. She doesn't know any better,” Charles said.

  Alicia's glare turned away from Rose and to Charles.

  “She is forgiven as long as she does not try such again,” Rose said. “Now, what would you have me do to demonstrate magic?”

  Charles had almost forgotten his request. He'd been worried for Alicia since Rose could do a lot worse than give someone a little bite.

  “Hm, I think BLTs for lunch. The lettuce is ready, but the tomatoes aren't ripe yet. Rose, would you help a few of the tomatoes ripen up?”

  “You wish to slice them?” she asked.

  He nodded.

  “Then they shall be large as well,” Rose said.

  She flew towards the garden and Charles urged the children along as well. As they watched, Rose hovered over a tomato plant with several decent sized, green, tomatoes on it. There was a strange shimmering, or twisting of the light, between Rose and the tomatoes. Moments later the tomatoes were growing in size, and the green was fading to be replaced with a brownish-orange, then true orange, and finally a deep red.

  “That's one of the things magic can do. It can hasten the growth rate of a plant, or specific parts of the plant. Earth Magic, of which you have some Amber, can be used with plant life, soil, or stone. Also on almost anything made from those things.”

  Charles looked at the girls and felt disappointed.

  They don't seem to get it, that what they just watched isn't something that would ever happen in the real world without magic.

  “They seem unimpressed,” Rose said. “Perhaps a different demonstration? Take them down to the empty lot and watch the roses you planted yesterday. You shan't see me, but I will continue the demonstration.”

  “Okay,” Charles said, his voice reflecting his own disappointment.

  He picked the tomatoes and led the girls back downstairs. After dropping the tomatoes off in his kitchen, he led the girls out to the lot.

  As they watched the rose bushes, which looked a lot like brown sticks at the moment, they began to grow. The branches filled out and more appeared. Leaves sprouted from the branches first, followed by blossoms which slowly unfurled into beautiful roses.

  Alicia clapped her hands.

  “It's like in the movies,” she said.

  Amber was staring at the plants as well, her face guarded.

  Great, it looks like that got through to them, but how do I explain roses at this time of year?

  He needn't have worried. As they watched, the roses continued their cycle of growth, the petals shriveling and dropping, only to be replaced by rose hips.

  Rose's voice came out of the thin air.

  “That last was so you do not believe that only growth can come from magic, decay can as well. Creation and destruction are both sides of a coin. Magic can be used for either.”

  * * *

  Charles brought the girls back into the house. They decided earlier that everyone would help clean out the apartment for Amber. Even with four of them it was going to take more than a day. After the apartment was emptied, it would need to be scrubbed and stocked.

  He opened the storage room across the basement from the apartment and had them move the boxes into there. The storage room was for people who lived in the building but had too many things. They could put boxes of items down here to keep them out of the way but still handy. The room was half full of boxes already, so Charles sectioned off another portion to hold the boxes from the apartment.

  “You know, we really ought to donate all this stuff,” he said. “I'm sure some of the charity secondhand shops around here would love to have it.”

  “No-one on the street goes there,” Alicia said. “You want to get it to people could use it, let me know and I talk to a few folks that I know could use it.”

  “Well, there are lots of families that have to buy from the secondhand shops though.”

  “They got money, they can buy stuff wherever. You want to give it away, I get it to people without money,” she retorted.

  Charles considered the idea, then embellished on it.

  “With the way you kids eat I'm guessing you don't eat much on the streets?”

  “We can eat plenty, but not much of it taste as good as what you made last night,” Alicia said.

  “She's right,” Amber added. “There's ways to get food if you aren't picky or squeamish. But you sounded like you had an idea.”

  “Well, I normally give away the extras from my garden to the people in the building. What if I set up something down here in the basement where people could pick up the things we're giving away, and get some fresh food too.”

  Amber was shaking her head already.

  “You don't want to do that. This might not be the best neighborhood, but it would go downhill fast if you tried doing that. The type of people you're talking about would hang around waiting for the next handout. When it wasn't fast enough for them, they'd try stealing things from here or other places nearby.”

  Charles was staring at her, aghast.

  “Trust me, I've seen it happen. Besides, I'm living down here, remember?”

  She paled slightly before continuing.

  “Remember what Eric said? About a benefactor, one who knew me and that I had magic? I'm sure that sooner or later someone would recognize me.”

  “Okay, you're right, at least on that last part,” Charles said. “I can't believe the first part though, people aren't like that.”

  “Maybe the people you know aren't, but don't you know anyone who always just wants to have things given to them and not have to work for them?” Amber asked. “You'll find lots of those hanging around if you try your plan.”

  They did manage to get all the boxes out of the apartment by dinner time so Charles could show it to Amber.

  “See, it's got a small bedroom, a small bathroom, a mini-kitchen, and this larger area out front for a living room or whatever you want to call it.”

  “I see what you mean about it being too small to rent out, at least compared to your apartment or the one Kathryn's using, but I love it. I've never had any space that was just mine and now I get all this?” Amber said.

  “I'll get a mini-refrigerator to go in here also. You'll probably take most of your meals with me, but it would be a good place to hold some snacks or cold drinks.�
�

  “Will you show me how to cook?” Amber asked. “At least some simple things? That narrow oven had to be gotten specifically for this place and it's cute. I'd like to use it at least once.”

  “If I'm cooking for us anyhow, I can show you how while I do,” Charles said.

  Amber smiled, the first unstrained one Charles had seen on her face.

  “Thank you. I think this place will be perfect for me.”

  Alicia looked slightly jealous as Amber claimed the apartment, but she didn't say anything.

  “Yes Alicia, you can come over whenever I'm here,” Amber said, noticing her look.

  That seemed to mollify the younger girl somewhat.

  “What we doing now?” Alicia asked.

  “I think we're done for the day. It's dinner time now.”

  “You gonna cook for us again?” Alicia asked eagerly.

  “Not today, I'm kind of worn out. Didn't get enough sleep last night and we worked all day. Besides I'd been looking forward to ordering Chinese last night and didn't get to, now I'll try to convince you all that we should get Chinese delivered.”

  “Why don't you just cook it?” Amber asked. “A lot cheaper that way, right?”

  Charles blushed.

  “Well, I've never been able to manage a decent Chinese. It's better tasting if I order it from a restaurant. Pizza too. I can do it, and it tastes good, but it takes an hour or more to do it right so I normally just order that. Anything other than Chinese or pizza, I cook.”

  Amber turned to Kathryn.

  “Is he actually embarrassed that he can't cook Chinese?”

  “Charles prides himself on his cooking skills. With good reason too, except when it comes to Chinese, which I happen to like a lot.”

  “Ah, that explains it then,” Amber said.

  “What does?” Alicia asked.

  “I'm guessing Charles tried to learn to cook Chinese to impress Kathryn, but failed miserably,” Amber said.

  She turned to Kathryn again.

  “Am I right?”

  “Close enough, but let's drop it before Charles dies of embarrassment.”

  Charles knew he was blushing furiously, he could feel the heat in his cheeks.

  “I really need to get Greg to spend more time here,” he said. “I'm heavily outnumbered in the gender wars.”

  They took pity on Charles and ordered Chinese for delivery.

  * * *

  The first part of the following days was spent getting the apartment spic and span.

  Not that it'll stay that way, Charles thought. Not if the other teenagers I've known are any indication.

  After lunch, Kathryn and Alicia left to retrieve Kathryn's belongings. They'd decided to stay overnight at her house then come back in the morning. Charles and Amber went out shopping. She needed a bed for her apartment. The rest of the furnishings had come from things they'd encountered when clearing out the apartment. Evidently a lot of people had left a piece or two of decent quality furniture when moving, Charles had tucked them down here when they did, and Amber didn't mind in the least if her furniture was used.

  Getting a bed was easy, she picked one of the simplest beds they saw. Not being used to sleeping in a bed gave her an advantage, she figured that if it was at all comfortable it was going to be a step up.

  It wasn't even dinner time yet when they had the bed in place and made up with sheets, linens, and a blanket they'd gotten while they were out. So Charles decided it was time to start with the lessons.

  He picked a couple of books off of his shelves.

  “Yes, I know, you'll say it's like school. But you need to know some things before you start doing actual magic on purpose. These two books are on the topics I mentioned, the Inquisition and the Witch Trials. I want you to read them and I'll give you a light quiz on them to make sure you have before we do much else.”

  Amber groaned but took the books.

  “Now, I'm going to show you how to gather your magic. You frequently won't have enough magic in yourself to do what you want without drawing more in. There are several ways to do that though. The first, as I think you may have noticed, is by drawing on stored magic in a crystal.”

  “Is that what that was?” Amber exclaimed. “I didn't know what happened. I thought I'd gotten an electric shock somehow and was feeling that in my body.”

  “So you did trigger that crystal? Do you remember how?”

  “I was focusing on it, trying to get it clean. I remember thinking 'I want all the dirt gone, I want all of it.' and then I was hit with a rush of energy like you wouldn't believe, only you would believe it wouldn't you?”

  He nodded.

  “Yes, I would. You're lucky nothing happened because of that.”

  “What do you mean nothing happened? I got some more of my memories back and then what the air did when Eric went after me? Nothing even close to that ever happened before. The biggest thing that ever happened was a dust devil hiding me for a few minutes.”

  Charles looked at her curiously for a moment.

  “You held onto all that energy and it didn't do anything to you?”

  “Well, I did feel some of it go away, first when I had those memories return, then again when I opened the window to put the crystal back.”

  “I meant to ask about that, I know I locked it before I left.”

  “Um, knowing what I do now? I think I unlocked it with magic somehow. I pushed and it didn't move, then I heard a little scraping sound and it did. So...”

  Amber trailed off.

  “It's possible, I can't say for sure, but the rest of the magic you still had with you when Eric found you?”

  She nodded.

  “Uh huh.”

  “That's incredible. It tells me that your capacity for magic storage is much larger than mine. That, in and by itself, suggests that you'll be a stronger wizard than I am also. Your capacity tends to reflect your potential strength. You can increase it with practice, but that can be rough.”

  She stared at him, not quite understanding where he was going.

  “Never mind, that doesn't matter for the moment,” Charles said. “Now, I was going to teach you how to draw your energy. The second method is drawing from yourself. To do that, focus on a memory with a strong emotional content. In general I recommend drawing from happy memories, but in some cases other memories can, and should, be used.”

  “Like when?” she asked.

  “For example, destructive spells seem to work better when the memory you're drawing from is one with a negative component. Sorrow, anger, and hatred work well. But, constructive magic, like what I do with the garden, seems to work better with memories that contain a positive emotional content.”

  Amber laughed bitterly.

  “Well, I ought to be good on the destructive end of things. I can't imagine my being much good at the constructive ones though.”

  “Really? Is Alicia a good friend?” he asked.

  “One of the best,” Amber replied. “What's that got to do with anything?”

  “Do you remember meeting her?”

  “Yeah, she was this scrawny little kid that walked into the building and just moved in like it was home. No-one even talked to her for more than a day. Eric was laughing his ass off about it.”

  Charles sighed.

  “Could you possibly keep the cursing to a minimum? I don't see any reason for it, at least not in this case or in most cases.”

  “What?” Amber asked.

  “Just humor me here.”

  “Fine, you want me to stop using exclamations too, or just curse words?”

  “Just curse words.”

  “Fine. Like I was saying, no-one even talked to her for a day and Eric was laughing his a... his backside off about it. So me, who'd been trying to stay unnoticed for forever and a day, ever since Jay took over from Andrew, had to sneak over after everyone was asleep and start talking to her.”

  “Do you remember when you first realized you were good friends
?”

  Amber's face broke into a smile.

  “The first time she told me she had my back and proved it.”

  “See how you feel right now? That's the type of memory to use for constructive magic.”

  “Oh, you bas... this is gonna be harder than I thought,” she said to herself. “Let me try again. Oh, you child of uncertain paternity, you tricked me into that.”

  Must... not... laugh... he thought. No encouraging her on this. If she wants to strain herself to replace curse words with things that have a similar meaning, I'll let it slide. But I have to keep a straight face.

  “No, I didn't trick you. I simply instructed you on how to find a positive memory that can be used for constructive magic. Remember, I'm teaching you. If that means I have to dig a little to find things we can use, then I will.”

  The training went on until late. By the time they were done Amber could call up a memory and draw power from it. Not well, but she said she could feel a tiny thrill and a warm, comforting sensation in her chest when she did it. Charles promised that, with practice, the amount she could draw from herself would increase. He also promised to show her how to tap a crystal properly so she didn't get a massive rush all at once unless she needed it.

  She apologized to Charles again, both for stealing the crystal, if only temporarily, and for avoiding him so much before. He was satisfied with her progress by the time she went to bed proclaiming that her life had taken a turn for the better.

  * * *

  * * *

  Chapter 9

  When Alicia got home, Charles commented that the two girls really needed new clothes.

  “We go through all those boxes we moved in the basement and I bet we find some, I stopped after one set the other day,” Alicia said.

  Charles looked as though he were considering the idea for a moment before giving them permission.

  “Only those boxes though, remember the ones on the other side belong to the people who currently own or rent apartments here.”

  Amber nodded her assent while Alicia murmured something that sounded like a yes under her breath. So Charles gave them permission to go rummage through the boxes they'd moved, providing that they put everything they weren't keeping back in the boxes before they were done.