Excerpt: M A G I C: Tamer

“Interesting,” she heard the male Seer say quietly.

“Indeed,” his partner replied, just as quietly. Then, louder: “Minna.”

For a moment Minna debated whether or not to look up, but the silent insistence that followed the Seer’s words convinced her to reluctantly list her head and look at them. To her intense annoyance, they weren’t even looking at her, but rather behind her, as though something fascinating was taking place just outside the ring. “Can I go home now?” she demanded waspishly.

“Perhaps,” the male Seer replied absently. “Look behind yourself now, if you would.”

“Why?”

“Minna. Now, please.”

The calm tone of voice only thinly veiled impatience. Reluctantly, Minna turned to look behind her. At first she saw nothing out of the ordinary, just the kids who wanted to see how her testing would end, Krylla looking at something on the ground in disgust. Then she noticed the cats.

If she cared to count them Minna thought there’d be over ten of them. Calico, black, white, gray with patches of color – cats of different color and size had crept up to the edge of the circle and were pawing at thin air, as though they’d hit an invisible barrier. A dirty kitten of an undeterminable color mewled at the edge of the chalk pitifully. Behind her a brown tabby hissed a warning at one of the kids who had dared to reach down to pet him.

Minna searched for something to say, but was halted by the male Seer speaking again. “Yes, quite interesting.”

Minna scowled and turned back to look at him, crossing her arms over her chest. “I didn’t do anything,” she informed him tartly, “so if you think this is some sort of magic thing –“

“It is not,” the female Seer said, “some sort of ‘magic thing’. It is magic. Yours.”

“I’ve never heard of a magic that calls cats,” Minna scoffed, knowing she was being rude and not particularly caring. The stares of the people on the sidelines combined with the searching looks of the Seers and the cat’s inexplicable appearance were all combining to put her in a rotten mood. To her great surprise, the Seer smiled.

“I’m not surprised. Taming isn’t a common magic.”

Minna frowned in confusion. Several of the older spectators gasped and if she’d bothered to look, she’d have seen a look of shock on Kastrid’s face. “What’s taming?” Minna ventured to ask.

“Are you even more of a fool than you look?”

Minna turned at the sound of the familiar voice. She clenched her hands into fists and narrowed her eyes as her eyes fell on Kastrid. Dressed from head to toe in black velvet, porcelain skin framed by ebony hair knotted into a complicated style at the nape of her neck and cruel green eyes, Kastrid looked every bit the necromancer she’d been declared to be. “Shut it, Kastrid.”

Kastrid smirked. “I don’t listen to merchant scum.”

The cats hissed at her, crouching into predatory positions. Minna echoed their hiss in her reply: “Merchant scum delivered that oh so lovely dress you’re wearing, or did you forget?”

Minna was vaguely aware of the Seers moving to stop the rapidly escalating argument, but she ignored them. It wasn’t so easy to ignore Krylla’s high pitched attempts to side with Kastrid. “It’s jus’ a means t’ an end, stupid.”

“Krylla,” Kastrid snapped. “Stay out of this.”

Obediently, but with a sullen look on her face, Krylla retreated to stand behind Kastrid. One of the cats leaped at Krylla and sank its teeth into her shoe. Krylla shrieked. “Get it off, get it off, get it off!”

“Stop it,” Minna ordered, glancing down at the kitten. “It’s not worth it.”

The kitten hung on for a moment longer. Minna sighed. “Now,” she ordered. “That screaming can’t be good for your ears.” To Krylla, she added, “Shut up. You’re not hurt.”

This didn’t have any effect on Krylla or the kitten, who continued to scream at the top of her lungs while the kitten kept its teeth firmly embedded in her shoe. A calico cat finally extracted itself from the line of felines and padded over to the kitten, where it placed an admonishing paw on the kitten’s back. The kitten reluctantly withdrew its teeth from Krylla’s boot and remarked, Nasty taste.