Jan Stirling writes: "When I was thirty-eight they came out with a statistic that women my age were more likely to be killed by terrorists than married for the first time. Along came Steve, who proposed, rescuing me from those hypothetical terrorists. We married, I changed my name and moved to another country (Canada), thus beginning a whole new life. Within two years I tried writing for the very first time (I hear this happens to a lot of SF&F spousal units, must be something in the air) and two years later I made my first sale to Chicks in Chainmail."
S. M. Stirling was born in France in 1953, to Canadian parents—although his mother was born in England and grew up in Peru. After that he lived in Europe, Canada, Africa, and the US and visited several other continents. He graduated from law school in Canada but had his dorsal fin surgically removed, and published his first novel (Snowbrother) in 1984, going full-time as a writer in 1988, the year of his marriage to Janet Moore of Milford, Massachusetts, who he met, wooed and proposed to at successive World Fantasy Conventions. In 1995 he suddenly realized that he could live anywhere and they decamped from Toronto, that large, cold, gray city on Lake Ontario, and moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico. He became an American citizen in 2004. His latest books are In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, from Tor, and The Sunrise Lands from ROC books. His hobbies mostly involve reading—history, anthropology, archaeology, and travel, besides fiction—but he also cooks and bakes for fun and food. For twenty years he also pursued the martial arts, until hyperextension injuries convinced him he was in danger of becoming the most deadly cripple in human history. Currently he lives with his wife Janet, also an author, and the compulsory authorial cats.
Maggie set down her purse on the granite topped island and took a deep breath of kitchen air redolent of the aroma of baking and vanilla.
"You're doing a different kind of magic these days, I see," she said.
I grinned and picked up a cupcake to frost. "Brady needed sixty of these for class tomorrow."
"There are sixty kids in his class? And cupcakes? I learned all about those before I even hit school."
"They're having a do," I said. "At least this time I knew about it." I glanced at Maggie who was eyeing a cupcake and frosted a lopsided one for her. "There you go."
"Mmmph! Fangyou," Maggie said. "C'n I have some sprinkles?"
When I'd opened the door to find my former partner on the doorstep I'd been delightfully surprised. Now I was beginning to wonder if this was just a casual drop in. Back before I was married, I'd been a member of the Cabal, what we'd jokingly called our association of white witches who fought practitioners of black magic. Maggie had continued the fight and close as we'd been we seldom saw one another any more. So naturally I wondered.
"Can you stay for dinner?" I asked.
"You bet. I want to see the kids. They must be what . . . fifteen and eight now?"
"Your memory always amazes me. Brady is eight, but it's fifteen going on sixteen and 'when am I getting a car?' for Lisa."
Maggie laughed. "We were the same," she said. "Except I don't think we expected to have a car given to us. I seem to recall earning mine."
"These days it's the least you can do to show your unworthy love. We parents should get together more often so that we can show some solidarity. Then when someone gets crazy, the majority can stand firm instead of feeling like the isolated skinflint whose poor misunderstood kids are being laughed at by their peers for having to take the bus."
With a laugh Maggie nodded, then grew more serious. "So has Lisa shown any interest in the craft?" she asked, elaborately casual.
Aha! I thought. Raising an eyebrow I asked, "Is that why you're here?"
"Kinda." Maggie shrugged. "She's the right age for questions."
"You don't know teenagers if you think they ask questions about what you expect them to," I said. "I've never discussed it with her and no, she's never brought it up. As far as I can tell it's not even a cloud on her horizon."
"She could easily have the gift," Maggie pointed out. "It is or was very strong in you before you gave it up."
That was a sore point with my friend. Joe had told me that he couldn't bear to see me put myself in danger. It was as simple as that. He was prepared to walk away from what we had, but I just couldn't let him. Truth was I was more than a little burned out by then and didn't see it as a sacrifice. More as a rescue, really.
I shook my head. "She's never shown any sign of it." I frosted another cupcake.
"No odd occurrences around the house, for instance?"
I squeezed the cupcake until the top popped off. "You can have this one too if you'd like," I offered. Then looked at her. "What are you getting at?"
Maggie held her hands out in surrender. "Okay. What about the nose incident?"
The nose incident. There was only one way she could know about that. Diana must have told her.
"Yeah, that was weird," I agreed.
One morning Brady had been breathing through his mouth, when asked about it he said his nose was stuffed up. Something odd about the way he looked had prompted me to take a look only to find his nostrils thick with fur. Definitely a curse. I was way out of practice, so I called on my old group leader Diana who'd made it go away.
"Weird? C'mon, Ann, Diana said it looked like a mink had been stuffed up his nose."
"That doesn't necessarily have anything to do with Lisa."
"I'm not saying she'd do it deliberately. But who else would it be? And if it isn't looked into then next time Brady could wake up looking like Bobo the dog-faced boy. You were lucky this time."
I had to admit that was true. Maybe I was being an ostrich about this. But I'd promised Joe, my husband, that I was through with magic and I'd kept that promise. Still, it was possible that one or both of the kids had the gift. If it showed up it would have to be dealt with.
"Do you want her to be picking up her information on street corners?" Maggie prompted.
I laughed. "I doubt they discuss magic on street corners," I said. "Sex yes, as in olden times, but not magic."
"No, now they talk about it on the internet. Which is way worse," Maggie said, "because it's so private. Do you know how much dangerous information and misinformation is available to anybody with a computer? You don't even have to look that hard. And talk about predators. That's where I spend most of my time these days, on computer cases."
"Times have changed," I agreed, trying to stave off that "bad mother" feeling.
Brady came in from school then and saved me from a discussion I didn't want to have. It took him a minute but he remembered Maggie as a fun friend of Mom's and unselfconsciously monopolized her until his sister came in when they both fought for her attention.
I finished the cupcakes and started dinner, throwing in a comment every now and then to show I was paying attention. But all the while I worried at what Maggie had said. Had Lisa cursed her brother? Unintentionally I was sure. That is if she had. My kids got along very well and loved each other I knew. But there were spats and little brothers will get annoying at times. And she certainly had the genes for it. I stifled a sigh. No question about it, I was going to have to have a heart to heart talk with my daughter.
Dinner was marred slightly by the fact that Maggie and Joe can't stand each other. My husband is the most reasonable of men about most things, but magic and the Cabal are not among them.
We were having dinner in the dining room in honor of our guest. The table is round and I'd intended to have Maggie sit next to me where she'd be out of Joe's line of sight. But the kids insisted she sit between them, which placed her directly opposite him. He glowered at her the whole time. She glowered back. It was a full on glower-off.
The kids picked up on the hostility and watched their sniping with fascination. So much so that I dismissed them the minute dinner was over. I'd do the dishes myself tonight. Maggie could help. It was the least she could do.
When Lisa came in a little later to say that she was going over to Blair's to study Maggie piped up.
"Blair McCall?"
Lisa was taken by surprise, but then, so was I.
"Yeah," Lisa said. "You know her?"
"I've heard of her. She's a role player, I believe."
My daughter nodded, giving our guest the once over. Obviously wondering how an adult could know of such things.
"Be home by ten," I told her. I'd have given her a hug but my hands were wet. I hate using the dish washer, it sounds like a war is going on in that thing.
With husband and children elsewhere I turned to Maggie.
"So, how do you know Blair?" Whom I had yet to meet, hint though I would.
Maggie bit her lip as she dried a plate. "She's come up on our radar. Based on the sites she visits and the comments she makes she's someone we're watching. We're pretty sure she hasn't done anything yet, but she could be dangerous."
I looked at the door my beloved daughter had just exited, then back at my friend. "Now you tell me?"
With a shrug and a defensive tip of her head Maggie said, "Like I told you, she hasn't done anything yet. She may never act on any of the things she's said. You know how melodramatic girls that age can be. We're watching the situation." She bowed her head and looked up at me from under her eyelashes. "I was going to tell you."
Right. If there was one thing I knew it was that the people on the Cabal's radar were not being watched for their lack of potential. They posed a danger to themselves and others. Whether through malice or ignorance didn't matter, the results tended to be the same. Messy.
"What's going on?" I asked. There were a lot of other questions I wanted answered, and I intended to get those answers, but now was not the time.
"According to Blair's messages they're planning a ceremony tonight in the woods behind Johnson's farm. It could just be role playing," she said quickly. "Like I said it's something she does. Avidly."
I took off my apron and dropped it on the counter. "Then we'd better get in position."
Without another word I walked out in search of my husband who was in the den. "Honey," I said, "Maggie and I are going out for a drive. Remind Brady to go to bed at nine if I'm not back by then." Then I left him sitting there before he could think of anything to say. And he would have.
Maggie had her purse and a grim expression when I met up with her in the hallway.
"We'll take my car," she said. "I've got equipment."
That was good, because after all these years I didn't even have a wand. I was glad she wasn't arguing with me about how out of practice I was because I had no defense. Still, as I got in the car it felt like old times. It felt good. Or would have if it wasn't my daughter we were going to rescue.
"Tell me what you know," I said as I fastened my seat belt.
"They mean to call up Leonard," she said.
"Leonard!" I yelped. My blood ran cold. "Is she nuts?" Despite the innocuous sounding name, Leonard is a demon of the first order, chief of the minor demons and Inspector General of Black Magic. He was master of the sabbats and presided over these in the form of a giant black goat with the ears of a fox. No one knows why goat ears weren't good enough for him. Probably he wasn't content with being supernatural, he had to be unnatural, too. It's a demon thing.
"Are we there yet?" I asked in subtle encouragement.
The woods behind Johnson's farm barely deserve the name. You can walk through them in any direction in half an hour and come out on a road or neighboring farm. None of the trees is over thirty years old, so they're fairly slim and healthy and the undergrowth is extreme, brambles everywhere. But like the primeval forests in the Brothers Grimm it has a dandy clearing perfect for magical mischief making; or picnics, which is probably its daytime job.
Things were already underway by the time we got there. Thirteen kids all predictably robed and hooded in black, except Blair whose robes were trimmed in crimson. Lisa was wearing white and was bound spreadeagled on the makeshift altar. By makeshift I mean it looked like an old dining room table. It wobbled when Lisa shifted, earning her a glare from Blair. My daughter mouthed "Sorry," ignored by her friend.
The circle had been cast, candles were lit and the young acolytes were swaying and droning like extras in a horror movie. I looked at Maggie. Maybe they were just role playing.
She shook her head, eyes fixed on Blair. Just then the young high priestess began her invocation. In perfect Latin. It was the right one, too. Maggie hadn't been kidding about the kinds of things you can find on the net.
Within moments a thick, black cloud began to form over the table and the kids stopped their noise and froze in place. Blair picked up a knife that looked longer than her arm and Lisa finally began to look worried.
A goat's head began to form out of the cloud. It had three horns and, as advertised, a fox's ears. I don't know how it managed it with a goat's features, but the face leered and Lisa screamed. So did the other kids. I didn't blame them, there was a feeling of overwhelming evil rolling off the monster. To paraphrase Martha Stewart, it was not a good thing.
"Where is my sacrifice?" it asked in a voice like the grinding of rocks.
"Right here," Blair said in a voice that implied, dumbass.
The demon actually sighed. "The sacrifice requires a virgin," it said with exaggerated patience.
"You fink!" Blair snapped at Lisa.
The demon looked around. "Ah," it said. "That one will do."
Leonard and its cloud moved toward a runty acolyte who fell over backward, squealing in horror.
Frantically I looked at Maggie. She fired a flare into the cloud that burst with an array of demon banishing chemicals causing Leonard to join the general screaming going on and vanish, putting a firm period to little Blair's invocation.
I rushed forward over crackling leaves saying loudly, "This is what happens when you call on demons. Sometimes they show up!"
"Mom?" Lisa said, somehow sounding mortified in just the one word.
"I'll just borrow this if I may," I said to Blair, removing the knife from her limp fingers.
Then I began sawing at the clothesline that bound my daughter. The knife was very sharp and she was free in moments. Her friend looked like she was in shock. Though why I was still thinking of Blair as her friend when she'd obviously intended to kill Lisa is beyond me.
"Where are your clothes?" I asked my daughter.
"In the car," she said sullenly.
"Go get them," I commanded in the mommy voice that brooked no argument. "Meet me back here. Now!"
She hurried off holding up the hem of her virginal white costume. Virginal. Well at least that was one thing I didn't have to worry about tonight.
Blair made to slip away, but Maggie detained her with an authoritative hand on her slender shoulder.
"Oh, no, my dear. We need to talk," Maggie said.
The talk would determine several things, one of which was whether her abilities, which seemed substantial, would be permanently blocked and how susceptible she was to demonic influence. Which may have been the cause of this whole episode. Or, she could just be a rotten human being.
Lisa and I rode in the backseat. That's because I knew that the front passenger side seatbelt can be locked from the driver's side. I also figured Blair was eager to escape that little talk that Maggie had promised so the lock would be necessary.
Blair crossed her arms. "I can't believe you didn't tell me you weren't a virgin," she muttered.
"Yeah?" Lisa said. "Well I can't believe you were going to kill me. I thought you were my friend!"
Blair turned around as far as the seat belt would permit, looking shocked. "I wasn't going to kill you! What kind of lunatic do you think I am?"
"You had a knife," Lisa pointed out.
"Purely for ceremonial reasons," Blair shot back.
"So what was Leonard supposed to get for a party favor?" Maggie asked.
"Yeah," Lisa said. "What?"
Blair sat forward again. "Your soul," she muttered.
"My what?"
"You wouldn't even have missed it," Blair said impatiently.
"She would eventually," Maggie muttered.
"Bigtime!" Lisa agreed.
"That's one of the things we'll be discussing, Blair," Maggie said.
I wanted to do more than just discuss things with the little rat, but I knew that was no longer my prerogative.
Sure enough when we got to my house Blair attempted to get out, saying, "Thanks for the ride, I'll just call my folks to come get me." When the seat belt wouldn't disengage she became frantic. "Let me out of here!" she shouted, yanking on the belt. "You have no right to keep me here!"
"Well, you have no right to sacrifice your friends to Satan. Let me tell you, girl that's one slippery slope you're on. I promised you a talk and a talk we shall have. You guys had better go," Maggie said over her shoulder.
"Let me know how this goes," I said.
"You got it," my friend assured me.
I got out, but my daughter hung back. "But . . . ," she started to say.
"Out!" I snapped.
Lisa's heart was in the right place, but her mind was in neutral to say the least. She popped out of the car like a Jack-in-the-box at my tone of voice, giving Blair a look at once angry and regretful.
At that point Blair began to scream. The sound was muffled by the specially made little Ford, but you could still hear her. I hoped she gave out quickly or my friend would be deaf in two shakes.
We waved them away from the end of the driveway and then I turned to my daughter, still clad in her sacrificial gear.
"What were you thinking?" I asked. I couldn't hold the question back any longer.
"I thought we were role playing," she whined.
"She had a knife," I pointed out. "You were tied up and she was planning to sacrifice you to a demon."
"Ma-awm! I'm not stoopid. If I thought she was going to kill me or something of course I wouldn't have let her tie me up. But we've role played before and nothing like this ever happened."
"She's tied you up before?" I visualized all sorts of kinky scenarios.
"No! But this was a new game. At least that's what she said."
"Have your other games involved magic?" I asked.
Lisa studied her feet. "Yeah, I guess."
I bit my lip. How to be subtle at this point? "Did anything you role played ever seem to come true in real life?"
She looked thoughtful. "Y'know, sometimes I think it kinda did. Like there was one time we wanted to avoid a test so we cast a spell to make the teacher not be able to give it? And Ms. Calabrini didn't make it in to school that day."
"What happened to her?" I asked. This could be serious.
"Oh, her car broke down. Nothing too bad either. At least I don't think it was, she's still driving that car." Now she gave me a look.
Despite my relief at Ms. Calabrini's fortuitous escape I dreaded what was coming next. Now she would accuse me of spying on her and invading her privacy. Never mind I'd just saved her soul. That small fact would be blithely forgotten in rampaging teenage paranoia.
"How come you were following me?" she demanded.
"Well, my dear," I said, brushing the hair from her forehead, "that's a story that starts before you were born. We need to have a talk too."
"Mom, my best friend just tried to sacrifice my soul to a demon. Don't you think I've been punished enough for one night?"
She almost had a point, but I'd been a mother long enough to persevere.
"There's the small matter of your, ahem, virginity," I pointed out.
Even in the dark driveway I could see her blushing.
"That's private!" she snapped. "Did you tell grandma when you gave up yours?"
Now I blushed, because I sure hadn't. Oh, I had options, I could have said, "I'm not you," like a lot of parents would. But that was a cop out. I took a deep breath.
"Did you at least take precautions?"
"Of course we did," she muttered.
"There's no of course about it, my love. When two teenagers get together to have sex it's usually as well planned as a car crash."
"Well, we did." She kicked an imaginary pebble.
I smiled, because she was whole and safe and sound. And probably not pregnant.
"I'm glad we had this talk, sweetie, because I can't emphasize enough the importance of communication at this point in your life."
"Then how about telling me the story that starts before I was born?" Lisa asked.
Damn! She would ask. Well, sometimes, good parenting means coming through on your platitudes.
"Okay," I sighed. "But I need a stiff cuppa cocoa and a cupcake, how about you?"
"Mom, I've never needed a cupcake so bad in my life."