Changeling: Zombie Dawn by Steve Feasey Page B

communicate with him in this manner. Sadly, I could not, and the signals that I was picking up were jumbled and chaotic.’
    ‘But it’s not possible to use the thought transfer spell over any great distance – a few hundred metres is about the most I’ve ever managed.’
    ‘That’s why you’re merging that spell with the location one – piggybacking one on the other, if you like.’ The old woman paused and thought for a moment. ‘It will be difficult, very difficult, but I believe you can do it.’ She looked at the girl and nodded encouragingly. ‘You are more powerful than I was at your age, Alexa, and you’re going to be a great sorceress one day.’
    ‘Thank you, but—’
    ‘You’ll need to be careful about the side effects of the sorcery. The thought transfer spell creates thermal energy as a by-product and the location magic generates kinetic energy. What the result of combining them will be is anyone’s guess.’
    Tom and Lucien appeared in the doorway.
    Alexa looked up at her father and managed a brave smile.
    ‘All set to go?’ Hag asked.
    ‘Yes, we’re ready.’ Lucien looked at his daughter. ‘Have the two of you discussed the best way to find Trey?’
    ‘Yes,’ the old woman said, getting to her feet and shuffling towards the two men. ‘She’ll be fine. We should go. Now. Let’s not all stand around getting mushy – it’ll serve none of us any good.’ She laid a hand on Alexa’s arm as she passed, and in a low voice meant only for the girl’s ears added, ‘You find that boy, and when you do, you make it up with him. You two need each other.’
    It was the only vaguely sentimental thing that Alexa had ever heard from the ancient sorceress.
    And now she sat on her own attempting to put the old woman’s plan into action.
    In her mind she pictured the spells as two separate entities, each unique and individual for now. She needed to give them some imaginary form for what she was going to attempt, so she settled on animals, conjuring up the image of a blood-red fox for the location spell, while the thought transfer magic took the form of a bright blue monkey. These creatures were indistinct and ethereal to begin with, little more than vague coloured outlines, but as Alexa intoned the archaic words and sounds necessary to cast the spells, they took on a more ‘ solid ’ form inside her head. She hadn’t even begun the difficult part, and already her head was swimming with the effort of holding two spells together in her mind.
    She sensed the heat generated by the thought transfer spell, and regretted not changing into something lighter and more comfortable before starting. In addition, she was aware that the empty ceramic mug she’d placed on the coffee table before her had begun to shake and jitter on the glass top, making a harsh staccato noise. As quickly as they’d come, Alexa pushed these thoughts away, knowing that she must block everything else out if she was going to succeed with her plans.
    She took a deep breath, pulling the air in through her nostrils and slowly expelling it through her mouth as she
    began the complicated task of merging the spells. She imagined the two spells becoming one, folding the energies and structures into each other. In her mind’s eye she watched the blue monkey approach the fox cautiously only to be driven back as the other animal snapped at it aggressively. The monkey skittered away its eyes never leaving its crimson adversary. It came again, drawing the fox towards it, but this time, as the fox lunged at it, the monkey rose up on to its back legs and leaped into the air, coming down squarely on the fox’s back. It wrapped its back legs around the other creature’s middle and adopted a stranglehold around the fox’s neck with its forelimbs. The fox turned its head this way and that trying to bite the monkey, but its simian foe was not to be thwarted. The monkey hung on, never relinquishing its grip on the fox’s neck, until the macabre