Australian Magic

By Gabriëlle Monego

Australian Magic is the first part of an epic fantasy series about The Mediator.
The world has changed. When it started they called it climate change.
Mother Nature was getting her own back and in the process released all the magic that had been popping up in legends throughout history.
The world has settled in a new rhythm. Now, in a world that is populated by a variety of different races, humans are a lot lower on the food chain and the one man any race could all turn to has disappeared. Some said it was time for him to go. He’d been sleeping at the wheel they say. To them he was just the Mediator but to M he was Dad.
Her mother had died when she was young.
She never inherited her mothers Witch magic, so the coven, her mothers family, hadn’t been anything more than study hall until she was twelve.
Her father disappeared and left only a letter that created more questions than answers. One thing is clear, nobody that had been a part of her life when she was growing up want to get in touch with her now. She’s on her own.
While M is trying to find her place in life some humans want to rule the world again, tired of being prey. Willing to risk hell on earth to get what they want, they are possessed and on a mission. The races of Australia don’t get along anymore while the magic of Australia is now the biggest uncorrupted source of magic left in the world. A source of magic that is like a beacon to demons, a sure way to bring hell to earth. So far demons have only been able to get as far as possession of their human summoners in Australia. What can one young woman do to help her country? Her dad, The Mediator, had magic and she can only feel the use of others magic. The Mediator knew everyone and she’s no-one. But is she really on her own? Trouble seems to want her company. Demons want her country and nobody wants to get along.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Gabriëlle Monego
• Release date: May 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311601933

Gabriëlle Monego

Hello,Thank you for your interest in my books and myself.Between work, school and taking care of my beautiful humans, a cranky, little bird and a decisive, big German Shepherd, I write. Most of what I write is fantasy fiction, based in Australia. We live in Queensland, Australia, the sunshine state.Ever since I was little I have loved writing. I was talked into publishing my first book, Australian Magic but I enjoyed publishing my other stories to the world (and I am still learning). The feedback (and constructive comments from readers) has been amazing.I will be publishing several more books this year. Keep an eye out for Supernatural Medicine, Change and Accidental Assassin.Thank you for looking me up and enjoy.(and if you have some spare time let me know what you thought)GM

Book preview

AUSTRALIAN MAGIC

The Mediator book 1

BY GABRIELLE MONEGO

A Smashwords Edition

Copyright 2014 Gabrielle Monego

Artwork by Mila Perry

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

Thank you for downloading this e-book. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoy this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favourite authorized retailer. Thank you for respecting the hard work of the author.

For Giselle who made me write it and for all the people that were, are or will become stem cell donors anywhere in the world, thank you!

*****

Table of Contents

Copyright page

Dedication

Prologue

Chapter 1 Alone

Chapter 2 Change

Chapter 3 Others

Meet Anna

Chapter 4 Memories

Meet the prisoners

Chapter 5 Unknown

Chapter 6 Gathering

Meet the Mediator

Chapter 7 Races

Chapter 8 Shifters

Meet the end and the beginning

Chapter 9 Fight

Chapter 10 Emissaries

Chapter 11 Introductions

Chapter 12 The Mediator

Chapter 13 Magic

Chapter 14 The Forest

Chapter 15 Introduced

Chapter 16 Status

Chapter 17 Awakening

Chapter 18 Deal

Chapter 19 Unseelie

Chapter 20 Evil

Chapter 21 Star

Chapter 22 Customary

Chapter 23 News

Chapter 24 Meeting

Chapter 25 Scultone

Chapter 26 Planning

Chapter 27 Demons

Chapter 28 Aftermath

Chapter 29 Marked

Chapter 30 Dragons

Chapter 31 Solutions

Chapter 32 Finally

A preview of the next adventure

Acknowledgments

Meet the author

*****

PROLOGUE

With his daughter standing in the doorway his heart was breaking but he had to hurry.

It had been years since they killed his wife, the memories still haunting him every night like it was only yesterday. His daughter looked so much like his Anna, her mother, and he loved them both as much.

He’d always known this day would come.

They had been getting bolder and, if possible, more cruel as time went on.

He’d made a good home for his daughter in Perth. Making deals with the Lady of the River and the Giants. Threatening all the other races. His daughter was all he lived for now. The reason he still tried, every day, to be a good man.

As she had gotten older she proved that she could kill and for the first time since her mother died he had been at peace. He stopped taking her on trips and slowly found reliable humans to take a place in her life. Cutting out the last of the supernatural races that she had befriended over the years. It was the only way he could think of to keep his daughter safe.

After the bold murder of his wife he made his deal with the Devil. If his daughter remained ignorant, she would stay alive. He didn’t need to change much about how he did business, just turn a blind eye. They had boldly moved into the building he called home. He made sure his daughter didn’t spend too much time with their lot but he couldn’t tell her anything out of fear of breaking his deal. His deal, his burdens, his heritage and his work. She could never know the truth of it all.

And now they had come to collect.

A colony of native Weres were being persecuted near Darwin. They had been sentenced to death by the human rulers of the district. This wasn’t turning a blind eye. This would be the extermination of a race and he knew he had to intervene. One of the children had escaped, a young Were that would stand to loose her whole clan. Guiliana had begged him to help them and now he was packing to leave with her to save her clan. She was waiting in the pub at the corner of the street as he packed. He would never be able to come back to this home all he could hope for was that one day he would be able to see his daughter again.

He was packing to go on the run after this last job and still he couldn’t tell his daughter about the evil forces that were trying so hard to corrupt the Magic that made Australia. All he could do was trust that his preparations had been enough, rely on his daughters love and hope for the best.

*****

Chapter 1

ALONE

It was about five years ago when Dad, my only family, left me.

I’m sorry baby. I’ve stayed as long as I could and you're 18 now, you'll be 'right.

It didn’t make any sense to me. He couldn't be talking about my magic. It was a well established fact that I didn't have any; and why did dad look so sad packing his bags. He packed his bags regularly to go on business. He put in the picture of mum at the seaside, taken on our last holiday together. He also took his favourite blue runners and his whole shaving kit. I tried asking him what was wrong but he just softly said how sorry he was that he had to leave so soon! He took a few more things than usual but he had said his next job was a big one, so I took little notice.

I haven’t seen him since that day. I stood in the doorway that last morning trying to read his face, looking at his sea green eyes that looked so sad and pitch black hair, much darker than my own. The determined set of his shoulders and the tension that radiated from him made me anxious. I knew on some level that I was losing something, but was not sure what was happening. Dad was very quiet. By 9 a.m. his bags where at the door and he walked into the kitchen to make us a cup of tea. Now every time someone offers me tea, I expect bad news with it. He walked up to the windows, closed the deep blood red curtains that my mum had loved so much, after touching each of the windowpanes, he then touched the doors, mumbling under his breath the whole time. It left me tingling. He sat me down at our beautiful round oak table and told me he was leaving. He had no plans to come back.

Before I had a chance to recover from my horror he handed me an envelope sealed in plastic, pulled out surgical tape and told me to lift my shirt.

We haven’t got much time before somebody checks, lift your shirt. He taped the envelope to my waist and had just covered it up with my shirt when the doorbell rang. In a rush dad said not to open the letter with anybody around and not to trust anybody, especially people I knew. No matter what!

As he stood at the door of the kitchen, dad started talking fast.

Keep up your martial arts training, get into street fighting, be careful with your money and you should be able to keep the apartment. Don’t try to find me, whatever you do! Don’t even trust anybody you know. Just don’t tell anyone anything! Don’t lie but avoid answering. He opened the kitchen door breaking the magic seal he had created and walked to the front door.

I am sorry to leave at such short notice baby, but things came up. I really haven’t got time to talk now He opened the door looking calm and collected as if nothing unusual was happening and there was sweet little old Mrs Walker from two doors down asking for some help with getting the groceries up the stairs. The look in her eye as she looked at dad sent shivers down my spine. The sneer on her face made me gasp. Dad didn't seem to notice and when she turned to me she looked as she always did. Dad told her I'd help and, as her back retreated back down the stairs, he gave me a long hard hug.

Did you see her face?

I know she looks like she's a million years old! Dad replied.

But dad__ He interrupted me putting a hand over my mouth.

She is a sweet old thing isn't she? You be a good girl and go help her out.

The stern look on his face and the icy note in his voice left me with no room to argue. He told me he loved me and asked me to remember to be careful when I went out.

He was gone when I got back. Mrs Walker took forever while she made me put the groceries away and I never even saw him leave.

The rest of the day seemed everyone needed something, had something for me or had an urgent need for conversation just as they were passing me. They all asked about dad. Some were more obvious that others.

Like, So what are your plans?

For what? I’d ask.

When is your dad coming back?

Like I ever know what he’s up to. I’d reply with a half smile.

A few were scarier in their intensity. Did he leave you anything?

Like what? I’d questioned.

Later that day after I came home from the shops and my study trip to the Library, run by some of the local Were Cats, I found that somebody had been going through our stuff, systematically. It wasn’t a mess; it was the lack there off! I never straightened the magazines on the corner of the coffee table and the freezer usually had stuff falling out when you opened it because dad and I just shoved things in, not arranging it the way I found things that night. Whoever it was must have had a touch of OCD and that gave them away. I remember feeling scared, violated and very angry.

That night Noah came by on his way to work, he had lived next door to us forever, I felt like confiding in him but he was also asking for dad. He’s gone on another trip. I told him, remembering not to confide in anyone. He asked me where, so I told him I never knew where dad went on his trips, what made him think this one was any different. The rest of the day I had tried to go on as normal, study, train, eat and drink but my mind was going a million miles a minute. The envelope was a constant reminder that nothing was normal. That and those conversations, they were nothing if not unusual, nobody had ever asked about dad before. That first day after dad left was hell. It was hard not to talk to someone. It was even harder to see all these familiar faces the next day and wonder who had gone through our stuff. But the worst thing was that dammed letter taped to my side. It was a constant reminder that nothing would ever be the same again. It was worse even than the time after mum’s death, I'd been five and I had dad then. This time I was completely alone.

At the end of that horrible day the envelope was burning a psychological hole in my side while the tape itched and had me scratching a real hole in my side. I studied (or at least looked at the books like a good girl), ate and drank and did my training at home and at the gym like I always did whether dad was there or not. But my heart wasn’t in it and my mind wouldn’t stop racing. What was happening, where did dad go, why break in and search our apartment? I closed the curtains turned most the lights off in the apartment like every other day when I was going to bed but this time got a big glass of my dad’s whiskey. I never really liked the stuff but sculled half the glass before turning off the last light in the kitchen and locking myself in my room. After sitting on my bed for what felt like an eternity, but must have only been half an hour at most, looking at the envelope I decided to have a shower first, a long one. Call me paranoid, but I taped the envelope to the outside of the shower stall so it wouldn’t leave my sight. I then procrastinated a bit more by doing the full body lotion thing and stalled with a good facial cleanse. When I couldn’t put it off any longer, dressed in my favourite pj’s (red silk shorts and singlet), I sat back on the bed and finally opened the damned thing.

His beautiful handwriting stood out against the thick paper. I could just see him sitting at his desk writing with his black heavy fountain pen, writing in his journal, or doing the crosswords and Sudoko in the paper, paying bills or writing shopping lists, and sometimes he wrote letters on his special thick marbled pager. Just like this one. I cried then. Before even reading what he had to say, I cried like a little girl who had lost her daddy. It was the last time I cried for a long time. I didn’t start reading my fathers rambling until I had dry, yet very puffy and red eyes. He wrote his letter the same way he talked, quickly, going from one thing to the next with me just trying to catch up.

My dear Angel Baby,

It has been a long time coming and I don’t know how old you will be when you read this. So let me start by telling you how much we love you.

Your mother was a brave woman. She died in the war that has been raging since before the magic returned completely to this world. Long before. She was as stubborn as you already are and as beautiful. You are 7 years old as I write this and I hope you will be women with lots of experience when you read this. I can only hope the fates are kind to an old man and make this fact. You are a good fighter already and I can only hope the killer instincts you will need to survive in this world will develop. If they let us stay together until you have come of age I will be most proud indeed to see what will develop first with those instincts. It’s hard to think of you as anything other than a child. My baby, I don’t know how old you are, so I’ll start with the basics.

DO NOT TRUST ANYONE YOU THINK YOU KNOW, other than Will and Lisa!

Keep up your routines and training. If anybody asks where I am tell the truth and don’t lie, ‘keep it simple stupid’. You don’t know where I am or when I’ll be back and, if you don’t hate me too much for leaving, hope I’ll be back soon because you haven’t heard from me. If anyone asks if I gave you anything or told you anything just ask them, Like what? DON’T LIE, THEY’LL KNOW. Keep it simple! Even if you are old enough to leave, in case you haven’t developed more magic. I am sorry, it’s always a gamble when different races procreate and sometimes a child might end up more human than ‘Other’.

Stay where you are. Stay at least awhile before you go even if you want to leave. There are people out to find me and they have to think I didn’t tell you anything and that you are waiting for me to return. It is very important to do this, it will keep you safe. They are human magic users and some are possessed. The possessed are strong enough to summon a demon but not good enough to contain them. Killing them is done by killing the body they inhabit. You won't need enchanted weapons but be careful they are faster and stronger than normal humans. They will kill you if they so much as think you know anything. These people know no reason, so please DON’T TRY TO FIND ME!!

If your magic has come don’t use it, please. You must be at least fourteen. Late Magic shows in puberty. Your mother was a very strong witch. If nothing else you'll have that. Again I urge you don’t tell anyone anything, but if your magic has come, you’ll know all this and by now will be shaking your head going, ‘I know already, get on with it’. My fierce little Angel, regardless of whatever happens, work on your patience! Learn to walk away. You’re a stubborn and short-tempered little thing that takes things very literal when the mood strikes you.

*****

Chapter 2

CHANGE

Last thing I remember from that fateful day is the pain. Like liquid fire pouring red hot down to every nerve in my whole body. The last thought, ‘Lord, help me. Please let me die.’

It didn’t stop, he didn’t let me die and the seconds it must have taken me to pass out seemed to last an eternity. When I came around I remember the voices, like those of angels, talking of taking me with them. My only thought was PLEASE! I don't remember if I wanted to go with them or if I wanted them to just kill me. It wasn’t until much later that I found out whom those beautiful voices belonged to.

Where was I? Well, I was with the Fey, in their forest in the Middle of Australia. I’ve been told that this used to be desert once upon a time; however, all that changed, just like my life did the day I read my dad's letter, and like the change the world underwent mine wasn't instant either.

Dad went on in his letter telling me so much, without giving me anything I really needed to know about what he did and what he meant with the whole war thing or even what magic he hoped to have me develop. Rambling again, I remember thinking. I went over it so many times I could dream the content. As I reread the passages I memorized them like he had taught me to do for my studies, but really it was mostly stuff I knew. He clearly had written this for a seven year old me.

I don’t know how old you are so here are the basics to dealing with the races:

Stay north of the river!

About the races:

REMEMBER, BEING OUTNUMBERED IS NEVER A GOOD THING regardless the race!

Never pick a fight with any sort of Were. Be aware they only fight fair with their own kind. If you make them your friends, great! But try not to piss any Were off dear, for they ALL travel and live in packs. If a Were tries to pick a fight walk away if you can; if not, leave no witnesses alive and no scent trail to follow.

Only get your knives from the dwarves, equipment made by them will outlast anything. See Jack, he's the smithy in Ravensthorpe if you ever go down that way. He is the best on this side of the great forests. He’ll be there at his forge on the north side of town, he always has been. Tell him I said ‘Hello’. If he or any other dwarf offers you anything, take it and remember to thank them profusely!

Don’t take anything from elves or fairies and if you have to, please be very literal with the terms of any arrangement. They are tricky little devils, and that also goes for the ones that are our size. If you somehow meet them at the edges of the Middle Forests or anywhere else for that matter, all I can advise is to behave yourself and try not to let your temper get the better of you, listen and learn baby, just listen and learn as much as you can.

Swim in any natural holes with the bracelet your mother gave you and the water folk will leave you in peace. If any creature like a Bunyip tries to get you, put a knife in its left eye. The left eye is the door to the soul with any creature, more chance of a kill that way than with the right eye. And never camp at a shore if you don’t know the owners of the water.

You can trade plants and information with witches and warlocks, but never spells. Don’t repeat any spells they try to give you. They should be easily recognisable to you because they will feel like home. That happens because you have their blood in your veins and hopefully their magic.

There aren’t many Trolls in Australia and they live mostly in the mountains. They are good people baby, don’t hurt them or theirs and they’ll do anything to help. If you go to the Kimberly region, go to Halls Creek and ask for Ronnie at the Servo, we go way back. He’ll put you up safely.

You can only recognize Shifters by their eyes, the colour changes with their moods. Only the best of the Clans can keep that from happening and even they’ll have trouble if you piss them off enough. That does not mean that you should piss off everybody you suspect to be a Shifter dear, it’s just something I thought to point out.

Garlic doesn’t work on Vampires. They can eat little bits of normal food and walk in weak sunlight without crisping or sparkling, and they don’t have to sleep during the day when they are older than about 150. They are hard to kill and the easiest way to recognize them is to touch them, shake their hand, they try to avoid it like the plague. They are ice cold when they haven’t fed but still too cold for our climate when they have. There aren’t any in Perth, so don’t worry about them. The best thing with these things is to steer well clear.

Burn anything with your blood on it! Remember the basics and you will be fine. I have faith in that.

I love you little Angel

Be safe,

Dad

I lived in our apartment for another year and a bit. In the first six months most of the people that had been in our building my whole life left. Nobody left a forwarding address. Noah had hung around after everybody else had left. He still asked on occasion if I had heard anything from dad. I started thinking of him as my resident spy and fed him heart-rending stories of how I hung out for dad to return. Knowing full well it would never happen.

I'd become paranoid after the break in and had put most of my valuables and stuff of memories in a safe at the Perth Guarders Building downtown. I paid for long term. It would be well protected for fifteen years and if I didn't return after my lease was up they would sell everything. The Guarders Buildings were run by Witches and Weres. Spells and muscle. Even the human population used them. I had a bag always packed with the rest of my valuables and took it with me wherever I went. It wasn't much. I had a job at the bar on the corner owned by Will and learned to fight dirty (from Will’s wife Liz), they took me under their wing when dad left, and never asking any questions. Will once told me he owed dad, though he never told me why. At the insistence of Liz I started wearing my knife fulltime on my thigh. I kept up my studies like mum & dad had wanted me to but started to loose interest.

Then I made the decision that would change my life forever. I sold the apartment with most of the furniture in it. With some of the money from the apartment I bought a new bike to replace the one I'd had since I was thirteen. I also bought a solar powered digital camera, expensive but awesome.

A week or so before I was going on the