We are Watching You Silas Bloodstock

By Stuart Lowes

Silas Bloodstock is just an ordinary teenager, or so it seems. He enjoys listening to rock music and spending time with his friends, but he’s hiding a secret from most of them: he is the son of two powerful magicians.

In Silas’ world, there are factions of ogres and fairies, who use magic for good or evil. But these creatures are unknown to ordinary mortals like you and me.

Enter Magnus Black, a dark sorcerer who seeks to rule the world and plunge it into chaos. Only one person can stop him: Silas Bloodstock. On Silas’ 16th birthday, he will gain powers to combat Magnus Black. But the sorcerer knows this too, and he commands his followers to kill Silas at any cost.

As the countdown to Silas’ birthday begins, he must fight to stay alive and protect his friends and family from Magnus Black’s wrath. This thrilling tale of magic and adventure will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very end.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Sep 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781398451568

Stuart Lowes

Stuart Lowes was born on the fourth of July, 1959, an artist and writer, he is also a Geordie. He spent the first part of his life living in Byker Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland. He has lived for the last forty years in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, with his wife of thirty-five years and his six children. He has painted portraits for many famous people including the Royal Family, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley and many others.

Book preview

We are Watching You

Silas Bloodstock

Stuart Lowes

Austin Macauley Publishers

We are Watching You Silas Bloodstock

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

About the Author

Stuart Lowes was born on the fourth of July, 1959, an artist and writer, he is also a Geordie. He spent the first part of his life living in Byker Newcastle, Gateshead and Sunderland. He has lived for the last forty years in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire, with his wife of thirty-five years and his six children. He has painted portraits for many famous people including the Royal Family, Johnny Cash, Neil Diamond, Cliff Richard, Elvis Presley and many others.

Dedication

Dedicated to all our children and grandchildren.

Copyright Information ©

Stuart Lowes 2023

The right of Stuart Lowes to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales 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.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398451551 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398451568 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2023

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Silas Bloodstock was the son of two magic practitioners.

His dad was a magician, whose bloodline stretched for generations, and his mum was a fourth-generation magician.

His grandmother was someone famous in the Magic World, or as you could call her, an Orator a teacher of magic. His mum Emily, was also an Orator of some renown, his dad’s family went way back and he was a powerful magician who had risen through the ranks of the Magic World to become one of the most famous magicians of his time, a wizard, only the elite were called wizards and only the most powerful. His name was Silas Bloodstock the first.

Silas junior had a lot to live up to, he knew that Silas Bloodstock at first impressions seems like an ordinary teenager, he likes listening to rock music and spend time with his many friends. He goes to an ordinary school with his ordinary friends and loves to spend his spare time with them. There is Ben, his best friend, and there is Mary, whose parents are also non mortal, Ben though is just an ordinary mortal boy.

Silas had known them since they all went to primary school together, they do normal things, play football together, go to the cinema and often go to the bowling alley for some fun. He spends time with his family, his dad, his mum and his two brothers. But Silas is hiding a secret from most of his friends, that he is the son of two magicians.

In the world today, people are made up of different factions, there are mortals, ordinary people like you and me, who go about their daily lives not knowing that there are also non mortals among us. People who live by magic and use magic as an everyday tool, not your theatre type of magic, tricks that are performed on stage and TV, no, real magic, on days when the farmers plants need water before they die and then suddenly it pours down with rain, that’s magic performed by magic practitioners who wanted to help.

There are also other factions in the world today, there are the Orgs (ogres) a very nasty bunch, and there are the Fai, (Fairies) beautiful creatures who are not three inches tall, like it says in the books, but full-size people who also use magic for good only.

There are also the Merpeople and various others as well. Such as giants, gentle people who do no harm but stand about twelve foot high, and the Gobli, Elfin, Nymphs, Yetis and Bigfoot, who do exist, they are tall creatures of about 8-foot high, gentle in tune with the natural world and forests, they are not hairy as often described but they do wear animal skins for protection. They do exist, as does the Loch Ness monster, but on the rare occasion that they have been seen it is by people who are more attuned to nature, they are a quiet, docile creature who lives in the water and usually avoids the mortals and everybody else. And if you can’t see them, you can usually feel their presence, or you can smell them from a strong sickly fishy smell.

There are also dragons unseen by mortals, they used to be gigantic creatures who have appeared as legends in literature and in children’s books, but they no longer exist, now there are Dragonettes, small dragons of about a foot long.

And then, unfortunately, there are the dark magic practitioners and their masters, the evil sorcerers, who are only interested in ruling the world and all mortal and non-mortal people, they especially think that mortals are scum and need to be ruled or wiped off the face of the earth.

All these things are unknown by ordinary mortals like you and me. Because of all this, Silas was having difficulty keeping up with his studies, when his parents found that Silas was having difficulties his mum sent for a fellow teacher to take him under his wing.

Crumbus Bumble was well known among the magic fraternity and was meant to be one of the kindest most patient of teachers, Crumbus Bumble was a short man, standing no more than five foot tall he had a lot of hair which reminded you of famous physicist Albert Einstein. The hair on top of his head made him look about three inches taller, he was still only five foot three inches tall, he wore thick round spectacles which made his eyes look bulging, he also wore welders goggles on top of his head for some reason known only to him. He wore a long khaki wind cheater coat and across his chest he wore a brown leather shotgun cartridge belt, in the belt were no cartridges but half size test tubes in each hole, which contained ready-made potions. He wore crumpled trousers and brown leather boots that were very worn and went over his ankles, to protect him from snake bites he says, the boots have comfortable flat soles, he also carried a small bag that looked like a doctors bag, containing his wand and various other potions and concoctions, when Crumbus arrived for the first time he just popped out of thin air, giving Silas a fright.

‘Hello, I’m Crumbus, Crumbus Bumble,’ he said, ‘I’ve come to see a young man called Silas, Silas Bloodstock, is that you?’

‘Er, yeah it is,’ said Silas.

‘Good, come along don’t keep me waiting.’ And off he strode, carrying his small doctors looking bag with him.

He put his hand into the bag and pulled out a curious bent stick. ‘This is my wand, Cyrus,’ he said, ‘mind your manners in front of him.’

‘Follow me,’ he said, so Silas hurried along behind him, all of a sudden the two of them vaporated and materialised in a small room, apparently this was Crumbus’ study. Crumbus’ study was fantastic, that was the only way to describe it, it was about eighteen feet by twenty feet in length and was packed with things, lots of things, on one wall it was lined with book shelves containing books about Magic, titles such as The History of Magic Magic for Beginners Magic for Magicians Magic for Young Minds Magic Lore Magic Food for the Mind, and the classic, ’Magic Herbs and Potions".

On one wall hung an enormous dragon skull, against the opposite wall stood a bench, it contained jars and jars of potions and samples of forgotten and mysterious things, and experiments that were bubbling away.

At the other end of the room stood his desk which was piles high with parchment, scrolls, papers and books and quills, with just enough space around the desk so that you can sit next to it and write if you needed to.

And on the wall by the door were portraits of old magic makers, wizards and some sorcerers, some very old in very old frames, whose eyes followed you around the room.

On the floor were ornate rugs, Persian, I think, covering it. And standing in the corner was a bird stand, perched upon it was a peacock whose tail reached to the floor that looked like it may be stuffed, or it may be asleep, or was it? But it looked as though it was watching you from one eye that was slightly open, and on the ceiling of the study there was a reproduction of the current night sky floating in mid-air like a hologram.

‘Hello,’ Silas said innocently as he looked at the peacock.

‘That’s Doctor Archibald,’ Crumbus said, ‘he’s very wise but he’s very grumpy, so I wouldn’t put your fingers too close, he bites.’

‘Hello,’ said Doctor Archibald, ‘I can see you, what’s a boy doing here? I wonder.’

Silas was surprised to hear the peacock speak. ‘I didn’t know that they spoke.’

‘They do sometimes, but only the most intelligent ones,’ Crumbus said.

‘I’m cleverer than you, Crumbus Bumble and don’t you forget it!’ said the bird.

‘Just ignore him, Silas, he’s a bird with too much to say, a bird with little brain.’

‘Hnph.’ And with that, Doctor Archibald closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.

In the study that day Silas had his first lesson, he was shown some basic magic, not your theatre type of magic but real magic, old world magic. He was shown how to make a seed grow into a sapling, he put the seed in his hand and using magic he made the seed grow into a sapling just by rubbing it with his fingers and using an incantation that Crumbus had taught him. ‘Affirmative Informative, Informative Affirmative,’ Crumbus said and the seed grew. ‘All it needs now is a pot of compost and there you have it, all ready to grow in the pot and in a couple of weeks it’ll be ready to plant in the ground,’ Crumbus said.

‘Well, Silas, you are going to learn many things over the next few weeks, I hope that you are ready to learn, and don’t discount anything you see because all is never the way it seems.’

‘Now let’s get on.’

Taking a small instrument in his hand which looked like a coin and a small spinning top Crumbus spun it until it stood up balancing on its end, Watch the Scope, keep staring at it as Silas stared at it he could not take his eyes off it, as he looked he could see an image of himself, he was swimming in what looked like a river, all of a sudden he could see himself being pulled under the water by a hand, Silas was shocked and started to panic as the image went under the water, Silas shook himself awake, and horrified he told his teacher what he had seen.

Overcome by emotion, Silas Felt sick, leaning over the sink in the study he was sick.

‘Come, my boy, try and put it out of your mind but tell me exactly what you had seen,’ Silas told him about the experience and how he felt. All Crumbus said was, ‘These may be scenes from the future that may or may not happen, beware.’

When Silas got home, he told his mum what had happened, she just told him, ‘Put them out of your mind, Silas, you know what an overactive imagination you have.’

But Silas wasn’t sure, he was certain that his mother knew more than she was letting on, and he couldn’t shake this feeling that someone is watching him and everything he does.

Silas is fourteen and because of this he decided that he needed to get himself a girlfriend.

He had decided that his old friend Mary, whom he’d known forever would be perfect, and he liked her a lot and couldn’t stop thinking about her he even dreamed about her.

Mary was ecstatic she had known Silas for ages and loved him.

Silas decided Mary would be ideal, OK he’d have to put with some kissing and hugging but that was what girls did, wasn’t it, his mother would be pleased she treated Mary like a daughter anyway and they got on really well together.

Mary was fun though, so he decided it was worth it.

Mary was fifteen, a year older than Silas and she mothered him a bit.

Her family consisted of her dad, her mum her two brothers and her sister, they were a non-mortal family, but only used Magic when they had to. Anyway, she was much better than his friend Ben, Silas had decided that Ben had been his best friend up until a couple of months ago, but Ben had become unreliable for some reason, known only to himself.

There was something going on there he was sure of it, little did Silas know that Ben was dealing with some problems of his own, he had feelings for Silas and didn’t know what to do about it, so Ben had decided the best thing was for him to distance himself a bit from Silas, if that meant not seeing him for a while, then so be it.

He hoped that Silas would be OK about that and hopefully he would understand.

Silas was fourteen a handsome young lad with dark-brown hair and green eyes, he kept his hair short but not too short, he found it more convenient that way, he had a bit of hair where his sideburns would form and had a few pimples because of his teenage years, but, nothing to worry about.

He was about five feet eight inches in height and was of stocky build, but not fat, all in all a nice-looking young man.

His clothes were casual, he wore a black long sleeved t shirt and a black t shirt over the top with a small design on the breast pocket a skull, and he wore black jeans, socks and skater shoes.

Black seems to be the colour of choice for the youth of today. His clothes were warm and functional, but not too warm.

Mary was a pretty young girl of fifteen, she had just started to get her body shape she wasn’t thin, but she wasn’t fat either, she was petite as some would say, she was what you would call perfect for her age.

She had a pretty face, with that little button nose that young girls had, she wore her black hair in a bob and she had beautiful blue eyes, she wore similar clothes to Silas but she added a feminine touch by wearing a slide in her hair, and although her clothes were similar they weren’t black they were muted colours of autumn greens and browns.

Silas was an ordinary looking boy but looking at him no one would realise that he was trying to straddle the mortal world and the world of magic.

It was hard sometimes magic practitioners weren’t immortal but barring accidental death or being murdered they lived for a very long time, some practitioners and wizards have been known to live well into their hundred and twenty years plus.

The unusual name of Bloodstock came from two families who merged due to the marriage of two of their offspring.

Creating the name Bloodstock one was called Blood and the other called Stock obviously.

Because they were very pretentious the name was adopted by the whole family; they called themselves Bloodstock.

The name goes back a long way and the original Blood family it is said to go way back to the first magician, wizard, Merlin.

The family name has been around for a long time and has become famous over the years, reinforced by Ina Savage, solving the mystery of what happened to Jethro Wolfsbain who mysteriously disappeared,

Ina who became a Bloodstock through marriage, worked out that Jethro had vaporated himself into an eight-foot-tall rock and before he could get out he suffocated. Ina reevaporated