Trans Witch: College of Secrets Read online

  Lily turned the key.

  The voice in the back of Lily's mind laughed and whispered, "Thank ye fer freein' me lady friend, lass!"

  Green lightning spread out along the surface of the great statue, spreading from the keyhole, up the serpent body, and finally encompassing the great dragon's head.

  Scrambling to get away from the terrible energies crawling over the statue's surface, Lily stumbled, barking her shin on a stone.

  No, not a stone. A small statue. A marble statue of a rotund tabby cat, mouth frozen open in a hiss.

  Lily sobbed and picked up the stone Monty and limped away from the now moving Leviathan, fearing they would both be crushed.

  The Leviathan roared.

  Chapter Twenty-Seven

  The dragon's cry of defiance forced air from Lily's lungs as she made her retreat. Up ahead, Dean Professor Wizard Jackie Wheeler leaped over the newly sculpted statue of Naille and dashed for the Something.

  The Leviathan slid into the pond. The water rose as the dragon settled in, her head still above the surface, making a straight line for the Something.

  As Lily watched, the Something flickered and went out like a snuffed candle. Darkness fell upon the clearing, lit only by moonlight and the green headlights of the Leviathan's eyes.

  Caught in those headlights stood Dean Wheeler, who had fallen to her knees, hands upraised in vain to defend against the gargantuan beast as it rose out of the lake above her.

  The Leviathan opened her mouth and roared her anger at Dean Wheeler.

  Lily knew that the dragon meant to eat the lying witch.

  Surprising even herself, Lily called out, "No! Spare her, great Leviathan! Please!"

  Dean Wheeler peered out from under her arms, eyes wide and glowing in the light of the Leviathan's eyes.

  The twin spotlights swiveled and focused upon Lily now.

  "Who are you, to make demands of me?" boomed the Leviathan. Her hot breath washed over Lily. The scent of the sea accompanied the humid wind.

  "My name is Lily Shelley. My wife Penny has kept you company in this garden of statues. She stands, still made of stone, next to where you stood for so long. I was the one who freed you, using a key from a friend of yours."

  Despite her brave words, Lily trembled in fear under the intense gaze of the dragon.

  "Yes, I hear the truth in your words. You ask me to spare this coward, who is responsible for many who stand frozen here. Why would you spare her?"

  Lily stood straighter. "Because a witch's magic comes from the heart. Because I believe that although the things she has done are evil, it seems to me that they began from a heart that wished to do good. To preserve the school for which she's responsible. To hold back the chaos she feels inside when her Leviathan nature exerts itself. When she works that forbidden magic."

  "Forbidden?" cried the Leviathan. "Oh yes, I remember it well. The High Wizards of the Three Wyrms combined their powers to trap me in stone, believing me to be the bane of their kind of magic."

  "They were wrong to do so," said Lily. "They force each and every person in the School for Applied Metaphysics to undergo a geas, which is bound up in their Charter."

  "Yes. This angers me greatly," said the Leviathan.

  "Then break the geas!" cried Lily. "Free those who have been turned to stone! We will rebuild the Fourth Facet and begin again."

  "Fourth? No, child. Leviathan was the First Facet. The others arose later. Ours is the oldest of magics. The others had to be invented. The Three Wyrms are my children. Basilisk, Drake, and Wyvern."

  "Reclaim your rightful place in the college, then!"

  The twin headlights of the Leviathan's gaze narrowed and intensified; their heat uncomfortable upon Lily's face. She resisted the urge to hold up a hand to block the light, standing firm despite her fear.

  "Yes. This is wisdom you speak. Retribution out of anger is not our way. We shall undo what has been done and put things back as they should be."

  The Leviathan flicked her tail and lightning arced from it to a nearby statue, which crawled with the green energy. The electricity arced to statues on either side, making a chain that jumped from one to another, even reaching out to the fallen elf on the shore of the pond. A finger of green energy reached out to touch the stone cat in Lily's arms, and she had her arms full of squirming, angry Monty. She let him leap to the ground; Monty growled low and dangerous in his belly. Lily's foot tingled and feeling returned to her whole leg.

  Lily watched in wonder as people all around the lake began to shout and talk in confusion among one another, stretching their limbs for the first time in years.

  "Oh my God, Lily!" cried a familiar voice. Lily whirled in time to catch Penny in her arms. "You did it, you found me!" The two women embraced and kissed, shadows flailing wildly around them as the Leviathan's magical energies made their way around the pond to every last statue.

  Lily cried out in pain as her wrist caught fire. A blue-hot wire pulled itself out of her skin and blossomed into fireworks that burst and dissipated before their eyes. Penny gasped as the same happened to her.

  Penny's eyes couldn't be rounder as she said, "Lily! It's the geas! It's gone!"

  "Now go, all of you, before my wrath returns," said the dragon.

  The Something burst to life, this time the line forming a vertical oval of green electricity. Even from halfway around the pond, Lily could see the well-lit bookshelves of the SOAM Library stacks on the other side.

  She also watched as Dean Wheeler threw herself into the Something and disappeared.

  "Lily! I see you've found your mate. You've done well!" Naille the elf approached them, smiling.

  "Naille! You saved the day, tackling her like that," said Lily. "Allow me to introduce—"

  "Oh, we've met," said Penny. "Naille here tried to warn me away from researching the history of Leviathan."

  "Well, I knew what had happened to others who followed that path and didn't want to see it happen to you."

  "If you knew about this," said Lily, gesturing at the people lining up on the shore of the pond to step through the portal, "Why didn't you do something before now?"

  Naille shook his head. "The Charter, and the accompanying geas, bound me as the Leviathan was bound. I was trapped, along with a handful of my brethren, in your world. I could struggle against its influence but could not act directly. And every time I helped one of you to learn what happened, the Administration used the gloves of transmogrification to add another statue to this place. By the time Penny began her research, I had become resigned to my fate, and did not wish to cause more grief by 'helping'."

  "Then why did you help me?" asked Lily.

  Naille smiled. "Penny made it so far without my help that I felt guilty for trying to discourage her. I did worry that you'd end up as a part of this collection, but your determination made me feel that I had to at least try to help or I'd never forgive myself. And since I will outlive your great-grandchildren, that's a long time to live with guilt like that."

  Penny said, "Lily and I aren't planning on having any children."

  Naille shrugged. "Figuratively speaking, then."

  Monty let out a yowl. Penny looked down just in time to see the large cat leap at her face. She managed to catch him in her arms, laughing. "Yes, of course you're our baby! Did you miss me, sweetie?"

  "Did he ever! He waited on your side of the bed every night and pestered me every morning when I woke up and you still weren't home. He's the one who found you, you know."

  Penny kissed the orange cat on the head, much to his dismay. "Well, I knew that between the two of you, you'd find me." She toyed with the coin in the pendant around the cat's neck.

  "I'm not sure we would have, without that coin you left me," said Lily.

  "Coin? You mean the penny I gave to Hannah for you?"

  "Yes. That bit of you inside it helped me in my search, and gave me comfort, knowing you were still alive. And Mon
ty used it to find the book that let us turn the Nothing into Something to get to this place."

  "I knew I could count on Hannah." said Penny, squeezing Lily tight in her arms. "You should keep it! You know what they say about found pennies. We're good luck!"

  Lily kissed her again and said, "You know I will, love. Always."

  "You had better get to the portal," said Naille. "The Leviathan seems to be growing more irritated by the minute."

  "What about you, Naille? Aren't you coming back?"

  The elf shook his head. "This is my home, or at least, it's my world. I might come back and visit someday, but I have relatives to catch up with."

  "That's too bad," said Penny, touching the elf on his upper arm. "We could use the help putting things back together."

  "Now that the geas is gone, SOAM is going to be wide open to the rest of the University," said Lily. "The entire world, even! If Wheeler is to be believed, that spells the end of the wizard college."

  Naille smiled. "Leviathan Facet and SOAM have the two of you, now. I've believed in each of you as individual witches. Together, you'll be unstoppable."

  Penny shook her head. "It'll be a mess, but I never believed that SOAM needed protecting. With some smaller enchantments and some good PR, I think everything will turn out fine!"

  The dragon rumbled, causing ripples to splash upon the shores of the pond.

  Lily kissed the elf on the forehead. "Thanks for everything, but we'd better go."

  Naille smiled, waved, snapped his fingers, and vanished in a puff of smoke.

  Penny took Lily's hand and the two of them dashed toward the Something, Monty bounding behind them. They were the last to depart, and as they stood in front of the portal, the Leviathan spoke once more: "I am grateful for my freedom, Lily Shelley. I place my trust in you and those you hold close to make Leviathan Facet as great as it once was."

  Lily laughed. "That's a lot to live up to. This is only my second day on the job!"

  The Leviathan rumbled. "If you have accomplished so much in two days, I imagine you are perfect for the job. Farewell."

  And with that, the dragon submerged into the pond with barely a ripple, the surface reflecting the moon as clearly as if there had been no disruption.

  As soon as they emerged from the Something, it collapsed into a jagged line of electricity again. The ends grew closer, the line grew thinner, until all that remained was a glowing green dot, hovering in the air, fading to nothing as they watched.

  The center of the labyrinth of bookshelves had never been so crowded; Lily guessed that thirty people milled about in its close confines. The people wore clothing of many decades; slim pencil skirt suits of the fifties, drapey colorful clothes from the seventies, and even square-shouldered eighties fashions. One man wore a tuxedo. A rather tall woman wore her hair in a short bob that reminded Lily of silent film stars she'd watched.

  "Aunt Penny!" cried Zach, pushing his way through the crowd to pounce on Penny.

  Penny laughed, hugging her nephew tight. "It's like you haven't seen me in weeks!"

  "You know I haven't," said Zach.

  Lily sighed in relief. "I'm glad you got your legs back, kiddo."

  Zach let go of Penny and hugged Lily. "Yeah, me too! After you ran off, that blonde lady and that little guy ran after you. Then Mom lost her crap and started yelling at everyone to do something about my legs. No one knew what to do, but then there was this, like, kaboom, you know? And then, like, everyone but Mom and me yelled out and held their wrists. There were little fireworks popping everywhere! The old lady librarian said it was something to do with geese or some stuff like that. When that happened, my legs felt funny, and then they turned back to legs!"

  "I did not 'lose my crap', young man. I was trying to get someone to fix your legs!" Ellen stood behind Zach, looking relieved and exhausted. "It is lucky for your aunt that the spell wore off."

  Lily and Penny exchanged a grin.

  "What?" asked Ellen.

  "Never mind. I'll tell you later," said Lily. "Did you see where the Dean went to?"

  Ellen nodded. "Not long after all the fireworks, she ran past in a panic. Looked like she'd seen a ghost."

  Lily sighed. "I had hoped she'd stick around. I need to talk to her about the future of SOAM. We'll need her organizational skills and that brilliant smile of hers to keep the whole place from falling apart."

  Penny stared at Lily. "You mean, after all she's put us through, you think she should stay in charge?"

  "Why not? She doesn't have the geas to hold over everyone anymore. We'll have to make up a new Charter, one that includes all four Facets, and we'll need more honest relations with the rest of Moraine University. I don't want that job. Do you?" Lily smiled at her wife and touched the end of her nose with affection.

  "I guess I should cancel the audit and exposé, then," said Ellen.

  Lily nodded. "Probably best. Though really, both are likely to happen anyway, within a few days, with no geas to stop people from talking. I think it's better to let that run its course than to make things harder on us all."

  "Hey, Mom? Aunts?" said Zach, a sheepish grin upon his face. "Could we get something to eat? All this running around and getting stoned has me hungry!"

  Lily and Penny laughed.

  Ellen frowned. "I don't know. It's half past midnight—"

  "Pepperoni's should still be open!" said Penny, smiling and bouncing up and down like a teenager. "And I haven't eaten in a couple of weeks!"

  Lily said, "Come on, sis. First round's on me."

  Ellen sighed and threw her hands in the air. "All right, if you put it that way, why not?"

  "Wait a moment. Stop right there, Jesse Nguyen!" said Lily, spotting her student at the exit portal.

  Jesse turned and smiled. "Just giving you some time with your family. I'm glad you're all okay!"

  Lily beamed at Jesse. "Gather the Quartet and Shanice. Have them meet us at Pepperoni's. I want all my family there!" She touched her nose and pointed to the sky. Jesse grinned and repeated the gesture.

  Ellen frowned. "How will we all get there? Zach drove me in his old bomb, and he doesn't have room in that thing for everyone."

  Lily smiled and pulled out her phone. "No problem sis. I know a guy."

  About the Author

  E. Chris Garrison writes fantasy and science fiction novels and short stories.

  Her urban fantasies feature ghosts, demonic possession, and sinister fairy folk delivered with a “lightly dark” side of humor.

  Her latest series is Trans-Continental, a steampunk adventure with a transgender woman protagonist. The series is set in one of the worlds in Chris’s dimension-hopping science fiction adventure, Reality Check, also published by Silly Hat Books. Reality Check reached #1 in Science Fiction on Amazon.com in 2013. Silly Hat Books released Alien Beer and Other Stories, a collection of her short stories, in 2017.

  Chrissy lives in Indianapolis, Indiana, with her wife, step- daughter and many cats. She also enjoys gaming, home brewing beer, and finding innovative uses for duct tape. Keep up on the latest news and releases from Chris at https://sillyhatbooks.com/

  Photo Credit: (c) Ellie Sophia Photography

  www.elliesophia.com