A Hidden Witch - By Debora Geary Page 0,27

stealth counterspell in place.

Nell: And at least you could have helped me out of the sorcerer fog when you called.

Marcus: You can blame your daughter for the fog. She’s been leaving deception spells like that all over Realm. I think she’s preparing something big.

Sophie: She’s got mad spellcoding skills. If we can get it figured out, I bet she’s one of our strongest Net witches.

Marcus: I might have another candidate. I spent some rather unenjoyable time teaching Aunt Moira to spellcode this afternoon.

Sophie: Aunt Moira’s coding??

Marcus: Hardly. She threatened to curse my computer—one of those old Irish witch curses you can’t get rid of—and I believe she meant it.

Nell: Go, Moira.

Marcus: Wait until it’s your laptop she’s threatening.

Sophie: So how’d she do?

Marcus: I handled most of the coding, but she has a deft touch blending spell and code.

Nell: Moira’s a Net witch—now there’s deep irony for you.

Sophie: That is so very hard to imagine.

Marcus: Indeed. Nell, did you manage to get a reading on that boy wonder of yours?

Nell: Nope. We tried, but he’s four. He just doesn’t have the logic circuits to program yet. It never occurred to me to try doing the coding part for him, though.

Marcus: It stood to reason that the important part was activating the spell, not writing it.

Nell: You’d have saved me a couple of painful hours by mentioning that a little sooner.

Marcus: You have a perfectly good brain of your own.

Nell: Try to avoid being a conceited ass for five more minutes, and then we’ll let you go back to getting your butt kicked by my nine-year-old.

Sophie: Keep it up, and I’ll help her.

Marcus: As I believe I’ve said before, she doesn’t need help. Have you managed any more work with Elorie?

Nell: Not really. She’s fairly shaken, and also very busy with her Art Fair, so right now, we’re proceeding without her. Ginia’s readings are really strong, and Jamie’s mindlinking with her as she spellcodes to try to figure out how the magic actually works.

Marcus: Smart man.

Nell: Smart girl—it was Ginia’s idea. Lauren’s coming in tomorrow to help as well. I don’t think you’ve met her yet, Marcus. She’s our newest resident mind witch.

Marcus: We hear things even in the boonies of Nova Scotia.

Nell: Cranky old man.

Marcus: No one would argue with you.

Sophie: I need to head to bed, you two. Blessed be.

Nell: It seems I need to go chase Warrior Girl to bed as well.

Marcus: Do that. Perhaps the rest of us can catch up while she sleeps.

Chapter 7

Jamie lounged on the grass in his new back yard, a pint of ice cream in his hand. Lauren had vetoed working in the coding cave in the basement. Feeling the warm sun and the light touch of a breeze on his face, he conceded that maybe she had a point.

No need to let her know that, though. “So we’re outside, catching some sun, and we’ve fortified ourselves with chocolate ice cream. Are we finally ready to begin actual work?”

Lauren rolled her eyes at Ginia. “Girls work better on chocolate. So, what is it I’m supposed to be looking for, exactly? And please tell me it doesn’t involve learning how to code.”

God, he hoped not. “In theory, Net power is just like any other power source. You need to access it, and then apply it. Spellcoding is one application, but there may be others. First, we need to know how Ginia accesses Net power.”

“Okay, makes sense,” Lauren said. “Jennie did something similar when she worked out how I powered Cat Woman with Aervyn.”

That had been the first magic trick where they’d gotten some clue as to the strength of Lauren’s talent. As the guy who’d been on the receiving end of their illusion spell, Jamie resisted the temptation to reach up and make sure he wasn’t wearing fuzzy ears again. “I’ve been trying to link with Ginia and watch, but I’m not getting a good read. All I see is a burst of light, and that’s not very helpful. We figured you’d get better results.”

Ginia giggled. “Auntie Nat figured. Uncle Jamie and I were dopes, and we didn’t think of it.”

Lauren poked Ginia with her spoon. “That’s probably because I’m not a supreme awesome coder like you, hot stuff. Show me what you can do, and I’ll try to watch.”

Ginia picked up her laptop, which already had several simple spellcoding sequences set up. Lauren closed her eyes and dropped quickly into mindlink. Jamie wondered if she had any idea how skilled a mind witch