Shaman

By EJ Marrick

“Have you tried being a shaman in the modern world? It’s not as if the Gods understand you have to earn a living or the bills don’t get paid! I thought I was doing OK and managing to keep my secret life hidden from my work colleagues. That was until I bumped into an intriguing man who kept interfering in my life and in my dreams.
“He wasn’t supposed to stay in touch with me but somehow we kept meeting. Before we knew it, everything ended up spiralling out of control but he was called away so I thought that was all there could ever be as he was sure I’d never see him again.
“But what do I know? Not a lot apparently!
“I was resigning myself to life without him but before I could make sense of what had happened to me; my life was in pieces, I was hijacked and then I was thrown together with him again.
“Though this time we not only had to work out how we felt about each other, we had to make sense of Fae politics, otherwise I could end up bound to them for the next hundred years. And, if that wasn’t enough to be going on with, we weren’t sure if our feelings were real or just another part of their games...”

• Language: English
• Publisher: EJ Marrick
• Release date: Feb 25, 2018
• ISBN: 9781370890644

EJ Marrick

I’m currently based in the Malverns, though I come form South West Wales originally and you’ll find a lot of references to those places in what I write. Its true what they say, its always best and easiest to write about what you know. That’s why you’ll probably find a fair few references to IT as well as that’s where I used to work. I’m new to publishing, though I have been telling stories on-line for a long time, mostly in chat-rooms and in emails but it helped me to develop my creative writing. Then I slipped a disc and was forced to have some serious downtime, there isn’t much to do except read and cuddle the cats when you can barely move. Whilst I found a lot of good authors in that time I realised there were some stories that I wanted to read that I couldn’t find out there. So, having nothing better to do, I thought I’d better write them down and before I knew it I was wrapped up in my own worlds. That’s when my friends staged an intervention and convinced me that I really ought to publish them. Since then its been a mad whorl of editors, cover artists and website designers. But now my books are going out into the big wide world and I just hope you like them.

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Legal

All rights are reserved to the author. No part of this ebook may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Cover Art: © 2017 J Chadwick

Editing: Sally V Fisher

Chapter 1

I was sitting in the office, sipping my tea. It was too hot but I hoped the caffeine would kick in quickly. It had been a long night, again! But I needed to concentrate on the report I was supposed to be writing. The trouble is it is really boring, who on earth can be interested in writing a configuration manual? Maybe I’m just tired, because standardising our network configurations was my idea in the first place, so there’s no one else I can blame.

Right now though I found my attention slipping, the blue flecks on the cubicle walls, the sound of the sales team shouting at each other, audible even though they were on the other side of the office. Maybe I should just go through my emails instead?

Ahh, procrastination is my friend! I quickly plugged in my headphones hoping music would help me escape into a world where there were no distractions and I could finish this blasted document.

Unfortunately, I made the mistake of looking out of the window. There was a raven sitting on the tree. I should have known… Yet another sign, and it’s only Thursday.

That means I really do have to finish this manual today, I’m going to have to ask Adam, my boss, for the day off tomorrow or I’m never going to get any peace.

Has anyone told you how hard it is to be a shaman in the modern world? I don’t think the Gods have any idea about jobs and needing to pay the bills. If they had, you’d think they’d save their emergency call outs until the weekend wouldn’t you?

I knew what I was going to have to do, that was why I’d not had any sleep after all! I’d spent all of last night on a vision quest. Someone was messing with they lay lines again and guess who was going to have to go and fix it?

Still, having accepted my ‘destiny’ as it were, I now entered a blissful state of concentration and the document just flew by. In fact I’d only gone and missed lunch again.

I picked up my large stripy tea cup, I hate it, it is a horrible cup but at least it holds a lot of tea and headed for the kitchen to start the tea ritual. That’s the good thing about working for a small firm, they know the importance of good tea. However, that doesn’t extend to the kettle, it’s a cheap thing and it takes ages to boil but at least it gives me a chance to do nothing for a few minutes. I put the teabag in my cup and thought about my plan for the afternoon. Email that document, see Adam about taking tomorrow off and try not to get myself landed with the perennial project from hell; you know, the one that rattles round every office and never seems to go away.

Bother! I seem to have made my tea on auto pilot, time to get back to my desk again and get that document sorted.

I headed down the long office, sales were on the left and I hastily looked the other way, after all no one wants anything to do with the sales team and my eyes met one of the programmers. He attracted my attention. Can you have a look at this document?

I plastered a fake smile on my face Sure, what’s the problem?

He was only in his twenties, his first job after uni. Looking at his eager smiling face I couldn’t work out whether I was flattered I was approachable enough for him to ask me or worried that I was becoming old enough to be regarded as wise. Ho well at least it wasn’t anything serious, just Word being its usual cantankerous self.

I carried on, past the networking department, past the managers and on to my own little corner. I’m not quite a manager and not quite a techie any more. I seem to be in a limbo. I seem to be vital for translating tech speak into management speak but I don’t have an official job title, despite having more work to do than I can manage.

Putting my tea down carefully I realised it was already getting cold. But I quickly sent off my document for review, it would be nice to have to meet my boss to ask him a favour after having met my deadlines for the week. Besides, I was getting signs again, nothing anyone else would notice, hopefully, but when I put my tea down it knocked a pen. If you have a certain mindset, it had aligned with two paper clips and was looking suspiciously like an arrow pointing to the Boss’ office. I took a quick sip of, ugh, cold tea!

So I set off to visit the boss. One of the privileges of being the boss is that he gets an office to himself. Of course it means he’s out of touch with the rest of us, but he does his best. I looked through the small window, more of a peep-hole really, in his door and fortunately there was no one with him. You do feel a fool when you get to the door and there is already someone there. Do you wait like an idiot or do you keep coming back? As it was I could just knock.

Yes

I opened the door.

Oh hello Carolyn, I was just going to ring you.

My heart sank, what had I done now? I ran over the last week quickly in my head, I didn’t think I had accidentally let anyone know I was a shaman or anything.

Look! You can come out as a Pagan or Gay at work these days, but if you tell people you’re a shaman you can kiss your career goodbye. Being a shaman is all in the way you look at things. Everything can be explainable as a coincidence, but once you accept the calling you know it isn’t. So you end up acting on things like an alignment of a pen and two paper clips and that is too close to madness for most people.

They found out at my last job and there was no way I was going to let that happen again. You have to leave when it gets bad enough that at team meetings, if someone else doesn’t repeat what you’ve said no one will listen, even when you have a good idea.

I’ve got a problem with my network connection and IT support are always too busy he went on. I hope he didn’t notice the sigh I breathed out.

Yeah, sure thing I replied. You can never leave IT support. Once people know you can fix things they quickly realise it’s faster to ask you than to ask the overworked IT techs. People kept asking why, even though I now had a ‘normal’ desk job, I always wore trousers, well this was the answer.

As I crawled under the desk to put the network cable back in properly I was very grateful that I wasn’t in a short skirt. Doing this in a skirt, without the entire office knowing what colour your knickers are is impossible! For your information, they are black and sensible – come on, I can’t let on who I really am at work so who on earth am I going to meet who cares about my knickers… Outside work is a whole other ball game!

Done! I said, still a bit muffled from having my head under the desk.

Oh thanks I stood up, but something in the way he said it made me look at him. No I mean really look at him. Not at his dark curly hair, though that did look a bit more dishevelled than normal, or at the crease in his forehead, or even at the fact his shirt was looking more rumpled than usual. None of these things mattered at the moment, what intrigued me was his aura; it swirled round and the way he looked at me made me think he knew something he couldn’t say. There was no point in pushing it, the higher-ups believed in mushroom management. It was coming up to appraisal time so that was probably it.

Adam I said pausing until he looked up. I’ve got a bit of an issue, is there any chance I can take a day’s flexi tomorrow?

He sighed. Now’s probably not the best of times His aura swirled again and I KNEW there was something he really wanted to tell me. But what choice did I have? So I pushed, I have two days of flexi owing and I can’t take all of that before the end of the month. Can I just have tomorrow?

His aura settled and he looked resigned, Ok, no problem, you may as well use a bit today as well. There is only an hour to go.

Thanks, Adam, I said as I slipped back out the door. There was something going on, but I put it to the back of my mind, already thinking of what I was going to have to do tomorrow. I barely remembered to wave to everyone on the way out.

* * * *

I left work and did the usual, you know the drill… I took the bike to Tesco, loaded up on all the food I was going to need for the weekend, making sure it included lots of tea and bacon. You can’t expect me to work on an empty stomach, so bacon sarnies for breakfast are a must!

I finally got home and took off my work ‘uniform.’ I really do think of it as a uniform. Not only does it mean I don’t have to think about what I wear, it means I don’t have to ruin clothes I like. But it does mean that I’m very glad to get out of it.

Ok no so I didn’t get changed into clothes I like. I took a shower instead, ready for my early start, mostly because my hair is so long washing it in the morning means it won’t be dry until lunch, so afterwards I just slobbed around in my dressing gown and started planning for the weekend.

I put the map on the coffee table, what did I know? Well the vision last night had shown me someone had made something that was twisting the ley lines and it was in a wood. I’d tried to go looking for it in the vision, but all I could work out was that it was south somewhere. I sighed. South was a bit vague, I wondered if I could narrow it down. I picked up a pendulum and swung it over the map, shut my eyes and dropped it. It landed just south of Swindon, ahhh Avebury.

Well the problem wasn’t going to be in Avebury itself. Unbidden I could see the circle of enormous stones and the village within, I knew it well. But the problem wouldn’t be there, the Guardians would see to that – no not those Guardians! Real people with bin bags and buckets of water!

They do a marvellous job, Avebury is so popular there’s always someone trying to mess it up for everyone else. If you see someone with a black bin bag or a bucket and cloth, those will be the Guardians. Please say thank you, because you don’t really think places like that stay pristine without people doing the boring mundane clearing do you?

People go there all the time, either tourists to marvel at the ancient craftsmanship or pagans worshipping the Old Gods and they all leave litter behind, sometimes accidentally, mostly deliberately, so everyone who really cares about the place has to go out and clean up. I don’t understand it. I was always taught: leave only footprints, take only memories. If you revere a place why would you want to mess it up? But it is the reason I never go to a ‘sacred site’ without a carrier bag for rubbish.

That was all I was going to get tonight; I’d just have to go to Swindon and wing it. So I went to bed, I’d get ready in the morning.

* * * *

Ok now you know why I cycle to work, I don’t have a car per se, no I’m not going to cycle to Swindon! I’m going in my little monster. I love my van, but it’s not really suitable for work, it’s an electric purple VW camper van. It has a few flowers and stickers on it, courtesy of its previous owner, but I really do love it. It has everything I want; a comfy bed, a cooker, a kettle, a loo, lights, and so far it has been incredibly reliable. It doesn’t go fast and it doesn’t have aircon but it gets me there. I checked my supplies before starting out; runes, salt, incense, iron, my staff and, of course, food and clothes. Sorted!

The journey to Swindon was boring, so I won’t bore you with it, I came down the 417 and as soon as I crested the hill north of Swindon, I breathed in deeply. I could see Witch Hill. It’s a hill on the other side of the motorway with a copse of trees on one side. They say they used to hang witches on there but, in all honesty, they hanged all sorts of criminals there. It was the edge of the parish and could be seen for miles around but it was still one of my favourite views, because I knew it meant I was getting close to my favourite places.

I still had a relatively boring bit to go, getting over the motorway and trying to work out where I really needed to be.

I kept going straight, heading into Marlborough and I still felt a pull toward Avebury, so I went that way. I was looking forward to going there and maybe meeting up with some people. But the pull took me straight over the roundabout, ohh goody I was going to get to wave at the white horse. I know it’s one of the modern ones but I still like it. I don’t know why but I feel better knowing it’s there! All too soon though I was past it and heading for the small roundabout, left or straight on? I took the car with the puncture on the main road as a sign, I was going left!

Quickly out of the village, I ended up on single track roads, barely wide enough for my van. It was a beautiful summer day so I had all the windows open and could smell the countryside around me. Each time I came to a junction I did the same thing, just went where the feeling took me. I soon had absolutely no idea where I was.

There is something about driving round in your home, and yes the van was much more my home than the flat ever could be. Being lost didn’t matter, I had everything I could possibly need. It’s incredibly liberating just being, not knowing what will come next, you should try it some time.

I was really in my element. I had even done some wild food foraging courses last year so I didn’t have to go back to town as often; that’s the thing about Avebury, you can find someone who knows about anything.

Just for the weekend I could forget about everything and pretend I didn’t need to go back to the real world.

All of a sudden I crested a hill and I could see the valley below me with the river and the canal wending their leisurely path through the bottom. I suddenly felt like stopping and yes, there was a tiny lay-by.

It was so small I only just managed to squeeze the van in. But I made it and could turn the engine off and appreciate the view. Peace, perfect peace. There was no sound but the birds and I drank in the scene. It felt like a weight had lifted from my shoulders.

Time for tea! I clambered in the back and lit the gas. The weather was so nice I decided to open the side door, which was when I saw it. A small round barrow was in an enclosure next to the van. Ahh, this must be why I’d stopped here.

I turned the kettle off, tea could wait. Now I was looking at it properly I could see the energy of the barrow was swirling and distorted. I needed to do something about it. I thought about taking all my stuff with me in case I needed it, but it was all of six steps away. It was probably tempting the Fates but I could always come back.

I went over the small stile and walked forward carefully, I didn’t like the way the energy was moving and the barrow seemed, empty, lifeless. Yes, I know that doesn’t sound right. Barrows aren’t meant to be full of live people, but they are meant to be full of dead ones!

I went round the perimeter. I took it slowly and carefully, trying to work out what was going on; with the energy in this state I didn’t want to risk contacting one of the inhabitants, they were likely to be pissed off.

Then I saw it, someone had been messing about – again!

There was a collection of stones on the side in the shape of a pentagram. I was guessing that some pagans had been coming up here for their rituals. Sighing I went back to the van, I knew I shouldn’t have tempted fate but it really was so close it didn’t matter. I got the gloves – I didn’t want to touch someone else’s magic – after all I had no idea what they’d been doing. Then I got one of my carrier bags and carefully collected all the stones. Once I had taken them off the barrow, I could feel the energy returning to normal.

I put the stones on the road, it was getting late and it was the best I could do. I’d have to dispose of them properly in the morning but I didn’t want them in the van with me all night.

I went back to acknowledge the inhabitants of the barrow, well it was only polite, it’s their home after all. They were back and it was obvious they wanted to say something. So I prepared myself, I’m lucky, I don’t need drumming or anything to go into a trance. To be honest I used to need it, but it seemed irreverent to disturb the peace of places like this, so I found an alternative way. I just lay down on the barrow, closed my eyes, focussed on my breathing and slipped gently from one world to the next.

I found myself in a large roundhouse, the fire in the middle providing a flickering, smoky light. I could just about make out six men sitting around it. One of them turned to me, he was short and wiry with hard chiselled features and long, slightly messy dark hair. His piercing brown eyes held me transfixed as he spoke.

Thank you, we were being driven out of our home, you have saved us, I couldn’t speak, his eyes were holding me, assessing me, but I did manage to nod in acknowledgement.

We know what you seek and we will help you now. If you head to the east between the King and the Queen you will find where the lines are broken.

I knew where he meant, there was only one King and Queen that related to woodland. It meant I was going to Savernake. I nodded again, this time indicating my understanding.

He broke eye contact and I could look around again. One of his companions handed me a drink, I accepted so as not to cause offence, but hey, I know the rules about eating and drinking in a vision quest.

It is time for you to see for yourself, the leader got up at that point and moved the skins from the door. I followed him, the setting sun streamed through the flap, blinding me momentarily. I nearly stumbled, but when I came out of the hut all evidence of habitation in the valley was gone. I felt as though this was how the valley had looked when they had lived. Yes, there was no sign of the canal or the buildings I knew, just the river winding slowly through the valley bottom. I tried hard to not think of myself lying on top of the barrow, it might end the vision too soon.

Now if you know anything about shamanism you’ll be wondering why I’ve not mentioned my spirit guide by now – well this is why. Now I was outside I could transform, and I did. I became my own guide. As my wings and tail grew, my eyes sharpened and I could see clearly to the other side of the valley. Beautiful though it was, this wasn’t what I was here for.

I could see the leader in the doorway of his hut and I inclined my head in acknowledgement before I gripped the ground with my claws and launched myself into the air, my wings beating powerfully trying to give me lift.

Three beats later I had gained enough altitude and could glide on the thermals. I headed east to Savernake, it was quicker than you’d expect, almost before I