Winter's Magic (The Order Book 1) Read online

  Copyright © H. M. Clarke 2017

  2nd Edition

  All rights reserved; no part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

  First published in The United States of America in 2014

  HMC Press, Dayton, Ohio.

  Cover design by Deranged Doctor Design

  The moral rights of the author have been asserted.

  Also by H.M. Clarke

  The Way to Freedom Series

  1: The Kalarthri

  1.1: The Cavern of Sethi

  2: The Dream Thief

  3. The Awakening

  4. The Enemy Within

  5. The Unknown Queen

  6. The Searchers

  7. The Whisperer

  8. The Deceiver

  9. The Great Game

  10. The Gathering

  11. The Mark of Fate

  The Complete Season One–Books 1-5

  The Complete Season Two–Books 6-10

  Coming Soon

  12. The Mark of Service

  The Blackwatch Chronicles

  1: Proven

  2: Uprising

  The Book: A Blackwatch Chronicles Short Story

  Coming Soon

  3: Sacrifice

  The Verge

  1: The Enclave

  Coming Soon

  2: Citizen Erased

  John McCall Mysteries

  1: Howling Vengeance

  The Order

  1: Winter’s Magic

  Marion: An ‘Order’ Short Story

  ◆◆◆

  DEDICATION

  As always, this book is dedicated to my two beautiful children, Keith and Ariadne.

  ◆◆◆

  CONTENTS

  ◆◆◆

  Acknowledgments

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  ◆◆◆

  Salman Rushdie came to Adelaide for Writers' Week in 1984. He wrote of the "grim enigma of Adelaide" in the Tatler, saying that:

  "Adelaide is an ideal setting for a Stephen King novel, or horror film. You know why all those films and books are always set in sleepy, conservative towns?" he asked. "Because sleepy, conservative towns are where those things happen. Exorcism, omens, shining, poltergeists. Adelaide is Amityville, or Salem, and things here go bump in the night."

  ◆◆◆

  CHAPTER

  ONE

  ◆◆◆

  He sat at his desk, the creased starched whiteness of his business shirt beckoning her to touch it. Her fingertips itched to reach out and stroke the cotton fabric and the muscle that moved beneath it.

  But Kaitlyn dare not.

  He was at least ten years older and a widower, but that did not stop her longing. His short brown hair and beard now held a tinge of gray, and the soft sound of his voice was seductive to her ears. Intelligent and witty, he was everything that she could ever want in a man.

  Sighing, she turned away from the sight of Chris’s straight back to stare at her own monitor and the insistent flashing of the message icon that kept trying to catch her eye.

  Not more work, was her first thought. Kaitlyn glanced down at the clock on her desk. It was four thirty; it was Friday and to her it was time to go home.

  The message icon kept blinking.

  Kaitlyn glared again at the flashing icon. She rubbed the end of her nose with the tips of her fingers as she decided what to do. Should she open it or can it wait until Monday?

  The icon still blinked at her furiously.

  Perhaps she had better read it. No one could possibly expect her to do any work this late in the day. Tucking her long hair behind her ears, Kaitlyn bent forward and tentatively moved her cursor and clicked on the icon. The message suddenly opened to reveal a picture of a cartoon dapper dog escorting a young puff balled poodle out on the town. Underneath the cartoon was written in bright blue letters.

  I’m blowing this place in five minutes—want to go to the pub?

  Kaitlyn nearly laughed out loud. The annoyance she felt suddenly evaporated into relief. Trust David to send a message stating exactly what she was thinking. She suddenly blushed, remembering her thoughts about Chris. Perhaps not exactly what she was thinking.

  Smiling, Kaitlyn quickly typed a reply.

  Only if you shout me to dinner as well.

  His reply came quickly.

  Deal. I’ll be around in a minute. Just let me pack my bag.

  Kaitlyn quickly shut down her terminal and began to pack her books and papers into her backpack. She had just finished doing up the last buckle on her bag when David popped his head around the wall of her cubicle.

  “Ready to blow this place?”

  “Yes,” Kaitlyn answered, shrugging the strap of her backpack over her shoulder. Swinging out of her chair, she turned to the two occupied cubicles next to her. “See ya, Chris, Mark.” Both men turned at the sound of her cheery voice and gave her a wave good bye with a ‘see you Monday’ and ‘have a nice weekend.’

  David grabbed Kaitlyn by the arm and hurried her away from her desk and herded her through the double security doors and out of the office.

  “C’mon Kath, I need a drink. Today has not been good to me.”

  “Friday’s have never been good to you, Daf,” Kaitlyn replied with a laugh and threw a companionable arm about him as they walked into the waiting lift.

  Kaitlyn pressed the button for the ground floor before turning to look at David.

  David Wheeler is Kaitlyn’s best friend. They had met at high school when he and his family had emigrated from England to Australia. He was tall, well over six feet, blue eyed and scruffy looking with a dress sense straight from the 1920s and even though he had been living in Australia for over a decade, David still had a strong drawling English accent.

  “When do you find out about that Art Competition you’ve entered?” he asked as the elevator doors closed and the familiar sinking feeling started in the pit of her stomach.

  “Tomorrow, but I still don’t want you to come. I’ll be too embarrassed,” Kaitlyn said quickly. Really, she had not invited anyone because she had a good feeling that she would not win. And she did not want anyone seeing her in a dress. It would give the guys in the office a heart attack if they knew she had legs. Kaitlyn quickly changed the subject.

  “So, where are you taking me?”

  “I was thinking of going to the Tavern-”

  “No, not the Tavern,” Kaitlyn groaned. “Since you’re paying, I want to go to the Gryphon, then you can take me to the movies afterward.”

  “What! I didn’t say anything about any movies,” David puffed up with mock indignation. “All I wanted was a beer and a good chin wag, and now I’m up for meals and movie tickets.”

  “David, don’t fret so much. You know that you only ever spend your hard earned money on me. Actually, the only time I ever see you spend anything is when I make you,” Kaitlyn said as the elevator gently came to a halt and the door opened out into the building foyer.
>
  David rolled his eyes at her as he stepped from the elevator. “Don’t bring that old bugbear up again. I own my home and I clothe myself, don’t I?”

  “Yeah, I’ll give you that. But you really should let me come shopping with you one day so I can get you into a store other than Goodwill.”

  “There is nothing wrong with my dress sense and you’ve even said that I look cute,” he said pressing his hand to his chest.

  “Yes, in a scruffy, British professor, sort of way. It does suit you, but sometimes it is nice to have a change.”

  “Come on Kate, you haven’t changed your style since you were eighteen. How do you expect me to?”

  The conversation continued on in this vein as they walked down Gawler Place and turned down Grenfell Street towards Hindmarsh Square where the sandstone built ‘Pubic House’ called the Gryphon was located. Next to the pub were the cinema and café’s and David and Kaitlyn stopped there first to try to get a glimpse of what movies were on before going to eat. On seeing the sizeable crowds in the foyer, the two decided to go straight to The Gryphon—well, the growling of David’s stomach that decided for them.

  David shouldered his way through the crowd by the pub door and Kaitlyn followed him as his tall form made a path towards a miraculously empty table.

  Dumping her bag in the spare seat, Kaitlyn slumped into the chair opposite David.

  “What do you want? Your usual?”

  “I’ll have a schnitzel, chips and hard fried egg-”

  “-and Diane sauce, so yes to the usual.” David went to the bar and ordered their meals and returned bearing two schooners for the both of them and a plastic stand bearing their order number.

  “So, what was so bad today that it has driven you to drink?” Kaitlyn asked after taking a sip from her Cooper’s Pale Ale.

  David took a mouthful of his beer and swallowed. “Had a call from Him today.”

  “Him? You mean Ishmael?”

  “Yeah. I mean Him. He promised to give me a month off field work after the last assignment, but now two weeks into my month of desk jockeying I get the call.”

  “But that’s unfair. That was the deal for you taking the last field assignment,” Kaitlyn said indignantly. “Agents are supposed to be rotated.”

  “It’s what I get for being good at what I do.” David drained the rest of his glass. “I’m just going to get another,” he said, jiggling his glass as he rose from their table.

  Kaitlyn played with her half full glass as she waited for David to return. Her own day at work had been calm and routine, or to put it in layman’s terms—boring. She felt the familiar twinge of envy as she turned and watched David waiting at the bar. They had joined the Restricted Practitioner’s Unit at the same time after they finished their degrees at Flinders University. David quickly became a fully qualified field agent, but she on the other hand was stuck as a rookie behind a desk doing research work. She had been subconded out to work for the Australian Federal Police for a short period, but that was about as exciting as it got.

  Kaitlyn looked sourly back into her glass. Why does David always get all the fun?…No, not always fun. Fieldwork can be downright dangerous, after all David was nearly killed on his last assignment. But even so, she would like a chance to help hunt down the bad guys.

  The clinking sounds of glass suddenly interrupted Kaitlyn’s musing into her drink. She glanced up to see David sitting down in his chair while arranging on the table a schooner and two bottles of coke.

  “The woman at the bar said that our meals won’t be long, so I got us some cokes to drink while we eat.”

  “Thanks Daf,” Kaitlyn said as she pulled the coke bottle and the ice filled glass to her side of the table. “When do you start?” she asked David idly as she took another sip of her drink in an effort to hide her envy.

  “He wants to have a briefing with me tomorrow. He’s given me one concession though, He’s going to let me choose my own team,” David replied with a scowl.

  “I wish I could go on assignment,” Kaitlyn said wistfully.

  “Be careful of what you wish for Kaitlyn…” David let his words trail off unfinished.

  “But I do want this Daf, I know I’m ready for it. We’ve both been working there for over five years and yet you’ve been promoted to field assignments and I’ve been kept on the rookie list.” Kaitlyn could not keep the resentment she felt from her voice.

  “Ah, come on now, Kate. Let’s talk about something else.” David looked about him, searching for inspiration. He glimpsed a group of office workers standing near the bar, their creased white business shirts reminding him of someone.

  “How did your Chris watching go today?” David said with a smirk.

  “I don’t watch Chris!” Kaitlyn tried to put as much indignation into her reply as she could. How did David know about that? He sits on the other side of the floor from her and she had not mentioned a word about her ‘thing’ for Chris to anyone. Especially David.

  “Who are you trying to kid? Nearly everyone in the office apart from Chris himself knows that you moon over him all day.”

  “I do not!”

  But any further retort was stopped by the appearance of the waitress with their dinner. They both ate in silence with Kaitlyn throwing a still smirking David a narrow eyed glare across the table. Once their meals were finished, conversation started again as they both got up from the table to leave.

  As Kaitlyn and David came out of the Gryphon deep in conversation about the quality of Australian films compared to that of British Cinema, they walked straight into the path of a preaching evangelist. The man was gray and grizzled and dressed in a much mended tweed suit and was gesticulating wildly at passing people with a black leather covered bible while shouting at the top of his lungs about the love of Jesus and the vengeance of God on all sinners.

  As soon as he saw them the man’s eyes hardened and his face contorted into a hate-filled grimace. Automatically Kaitlyn tried to take a step backwards but David had a hold of her hand and he hurried on as if unaware of the man’s scrutiny.

  “Demons! Lovers of Lucifer! Plague on Humanity!”

  Repelled by his words Kaitlyn hurried after David but the man followed after them.

  “I see you. I know you!” he shouted after them.

  “Well, drop me a letter sometime,” David threw back over his shoulder.

  “David, don’t encourage him,” Kaitlyn hissed at him as they crossed the street to the cinema. The evangelist kept shouting abuse at them, but stayed on his side of the street.

  “I am not encouraging him,” David replied with a touch of annoyance. “How can I let him say that crap without a response?” He said as they halted outside of the cinema’s main doors. “Idiots like that need to be stood up to Kate.”

  The tone of David’s voice told Kaitlyn to drop the subject and as he pushed through the door into the cinema foyer, she turned back and saw the strange man arguing with two Police Officers. Someone must have called to complain about him.

  Quickly pointing out a movie for them to see, Kaitlyn sent David to the box office to buy their tickets. As soon as he was gone, she turned back to look through the glass doors of the Foyer to see what had happened to the Preacher.

  He and the Police Officers were gone, leaving a sour feeling sitting in the pit of her stomach.

  CHAPTER

  TWO

  ◆◆◆

  David stood in the driveway staring up at the large Federation style house in Somerton Park. He had been standing on the course gravel for at least the last quarter of an hour, pondering to himself what this meeting will bring. This was the first time he had been called to meet at ‘His’ house. Usually briefings were given via a video feed from the office conference room, but this time He wanted to see David personally.

  David was dreading it.

  David scuffed at the gravel with a booted foot. He should not really delay this. Why did the Old Man want to see him face to face? He only ever sees mem
bers of the Old Guard personally.

  He kicked at the gravel again. Better get this over with. Whatever this was about it must be important to warrant a face to face visit.

  “I am glad to see you Sir, the master has been waiting for you.”

  David jumped in surprise. The figure had appeared from out of nowhere.

  He was a tall, angular man with swept back blonde hair and bright blue eyes that seemed to absorb everything. He wore an immaculately tailored three-piece black suit with customary starched white shirt and black bow tie. The man was the stereotypical image of a butler.

  “Please, if you would follow me?”

  The butler gestured toward the house with an immaculate white-gloved hand.

  David gave the man a curt nod and followed as the butler spun quickly on his heel and walked smartly back to the house with David slouching along after him.

  The butler led David around to the front of the three-storey mansion and showed him into the front entrance hall. It was a large open space with a wide central stairway that lead up to a landing on the second floor. David glanced around at the large oil paintings and mirrors that decorated the silk lined walls.

  “May I take your coat?”

  David jumped again at the sound of the butler’s voice. The man had a habit of blending easily into the background. “No. Thank you,” he said quickly.

  “Mr. Rothe is waiting for you in the parlor.” The butler gestured towards a large ornate wooden door to one side of the entrance hall.