Tyrant Spell

Issue Five

PowerSummer Solstice

EDITOR’S PAGE

TYRANT SPELL!! Hi! Welcome to the fifth edition of Tyrant Spell.

This is it guys. One last chance to contribute to Tyrant Spell before, like Persephone, she goes underground for a while, unless there are so many contributions that I simply have to carry on!! Otherwise the Lammas/Autumn Equinox issue will be the last edition of Tyrant Spell in its current format.! The serials, The One and Only and THE BOY WITH THE SNOWSTORM will form the content of a short issue of the magazine, which will continue to appear every two months until the full version is re-born.!If you would like to give me feedback on Tyrant Spell you can do so either by commenting here on Issuu or email me. Alternatively, message me at AlexandraLesley22 on Facebook. When Tyrant Spell goes commercial, fees will be paid to contributors, but for now, exposure is the payment offered! Some of the stories will be published in novel form in due course and that will include any original illustrations, so please contact me if you would like to illustrate one of the serials.! I would particularly like to receive poems, articles and stories, that are related to next month’s themes. Photos and artwork would be great too as long as these reflect a theme or the general tone of Tyrant Spell. Issues 1 & 2 are still available on issuu.com.! The deadline for contributions for the Lammas/ Autumn Equinox edition is July 28th. Just email. The address is on the back cover. Contributions should be in the form of attachments and all will be considered for publication and all emails answered. All suitable submissions received after this date will be held over for a future issue.

Alix3

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INTRODUCTION TO THE THEME OF ISSUE FIVE

Summer Solstice! Three days when the sunʼs power, the peak of the light illuminates and regenerates the earth and all forms of life upon it.

! Restorative power is being blasted outwards before the swing back to darkness and the slowing down begins. This is when the gradual return to the seemingly dormant phase of our life at winter solstice takes place, but thatʼs actually when itʼs all going on backstage, in the artisteʼs nerves, in the mind of the writer, the artistʼs inner eye, before pen or brush or feet take to the stage, move in front of or behind the camera and take a bow in the glow of the SUMMER SOLSTICE." This monthʼs theme story THE MERRY GO ROUND is one boyʼs coming of age story, set at Summer Solstice and it reminds us what a gift, that of illumination is and also to seize the day and to never be afraid to live your dreams.

Blessed Be.!

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Contents

Editor’s Page!! ! ! 3

Introduction to this issue’s theme! ! ! ! 4

Contents! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! 5

Serial The One and Only, part five ! ! ! ! 6

! ! ! ! ! ! !

Small Tortoiseshell 31

Serial Clio, part four! ! ! ! ! 32 ! ! ! ! ! ! Mystery Poet ! ! 54

Contacts on the back cover

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THE MERRY GO ROUND 23

Serial, THE ONE AND ONLY, part five

Resume of Parts One, Two, Three & Four:

Daisy bumps into someone she can’t see in the woods

and wakes up feeling and behaving reckless and

ruthless. She asks her cousin Charlotte to go to The

Bridge, the club where Daisy’s boyfriend Kieron plays

with his band, Lonely Little Bleeding Hearts. They are

regular performers there.

At the club, Charlotte meets Ed, the quiet but

gorgeous looking boy who serves the non alcoholic

drinks that The Bridge sells to its teenage patrons.

Daisy sings with the band as their guest vocalist

and is really very good. She also seduces the

keyboard player Declan, even though she loves Kieron

and knows that her friend Cheryl fancies Declan.

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Charlotte sees Daisy kissing Declan and is

disturbed by her cousin’s behaviour and by the evil

look that she glimpses for a moment in her eyes.

Daisy has made Declan, the band’s keyboard player

and main songwriter, into her puppet. She leads

him on with promises that she can persuade her

mother, a TV personality in America, to fund them

going there to try to get a recording deal, with

Daisy as singer.

Daisy has no intention of going to America

with Declan. Cheryl finds out about Daisy and

Declan seeing one another behind everyone’s backs

and doesn’t tell Kieron, but falls out with Daisy.

Meanwhile Charlotte is watching her cousin and is

spooked by her increasingly reckless behaviour.

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On a sixth form trip to Kelvingrove Art

Gallery in Glasgow, where Daisy has arranged to

meet the band who are doing a gig in the city,

something terrible happens. Will, the band’s

drummer, who has always lusted after Daisy, is

overcome by a fit of jealousy, somehow

precipitated into a fury by Daisy, or something to

do with Daisy...

And tragedy occurs when Will rips a medieval

sword from its case, which transforms from a

rusting relic into the shining lethal weapon that it

once was.

Will then uses the sword against a defenseless

Declan.

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He is eaten up with guilt and remorse after

Declan bleeds to death, there on the gallery floor.

Although he was jealous of the attention Daisy was

paying Declan and despite his being very hot

tempered, he can’t believe that he has done what he

has done. Was he really responsible?

Daisy convinces the police that Declan took

the sword from the case and that it was he himself,

who, while larking about with it, sliced his own

arm off.

She goes to the doctor because she is

becoming convinced that she is going mad. She

feels guilty about Declan’s death and not just

because he and Will were fighting over her.

Somehow, she knows that she is responsible, even

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though Will wielded the sword, it was she who

killed Declan with it.

Daisy can’t stop herself being unkind or rude

or cruel and one night she sees a strange boy/girl

in the bathroom, who disappears, but then she sees

his eyes looking at her from her own face,

reflected in the mirror!

Charlotte would like Daisy to confide in her,

but knows that she won’t. She is suspicious that Daisy

and Will are not telling the truth about what

happened to Declan, but daren’t think about what

the alternatives to their story might be.

Ed, the boy who works at The Bridge, joins the

band after kieron hears how good a musician he is

and asks him to play with them.

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Then, in the middle of the night, Charlotte

sees Daisy floating in the air, outside her bedroom

window.

In the morning she goes to the graveyard.

Unable to face Declan’s funeral on the following

day, she takes a wreath to his elder sister’s grave,

where he is also to be interred and sees Will

sitting nearby. Charlotte hides and hears Will

talking to Declan, telling him that he is sorry for

killing him.

Now Charlotte knows his secret!

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THE ONE AND ONLY

A tale of possession

Interlude

MARTIN

Red liquid, like froth from a bottle top. The lid

flipped, spurting, not coke, but blood. Angry. A

severed head, its wound jagged blue black skin,

with the blood still pouring, bounced along the

ground and the body lay where it had toppled

forward, still twitching and blood was still

pouring and running into the grass. The head

came to rest and was looking at him. Blink-blink-

blinking blood-shot eyes, then staring at him

accusingly.

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He woke himself up screaming and for a

moment saw a girl with blue, blue eyes in place

of the other, staring at him in horror. She

mouthed his name, Martin.

Gone now, gone again. He sat up off the

floor by his bed. He burst into tears.

Last night he hadn’t even taken his make up

off. It came off onto his hands now, white - red!

He stared at them in horror and jumped to

his feet swaying slightly. Nausea was a rush he

didn’t like, he dashed for the bathroom, made it

through his door into the corridor and threw up

on the floor before he got to the bathroom, which

was occupied anyway. Disgusting noises were

coming from behind the door and he threw up

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again. Leaving the pools of vomit on the worn

and already stained carpet he stumbled back to

his own rooms and collapsed onto the chair in

the kitchen, laid his head on the table.

Half an hour later he woke up and stared at

first unseeingly at the pictures on the front of the

fridge. Then he stared at them with a

contemptuous sneer forming on his lips. Photos of

people in clubs and bars. Photos he’d taken. Photos

of nameless others. Strangers, people he would

never see again.

One was different, the girl from the cafe on

the precinct. He knew her name. He didn’t know

her though. She didn’t know him. She’d never seen

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him without his make up except in the cafe and

there, she didn’t know who he was. She didn’t

know his name. No one he met at night and

mostly in the day as well, knew that, only the Job

Centre and Social Services.

Charlotte

I began to watch Daisy and what I saw disturbed

me more and more. She was moody and bad

tempered, but at first I didn’t worry about her or

anything. She took me everywhere. We went

wherever the band were performing and I was

enjoying it, especially now that Ed was in the

band.

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But besides that I was enjoying being the

centre of attention along with Daisy. We were with

the band. We were special and we got noticed,

admired. We got on the dance floor in a club and

everyone watched us, made space for us. They loved

Daisy because she sang with the band and they saw

that I was with them and they were in awe of me

too.

Meanwhile, I noticed that Daisy was growing

thinner and thinner and that she had dark shadows

under her eyes and one night we were in this place

in Leeds and on the dance floor and I came off to

get my drink and I was watching the dancing,

watching Daisy. There was a space around her and as

she swirled her hips like a belly dancer I saw a

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weird thing. Inside her, like I could suddenly see

through her clothes and her skin and everything, I

could see a snake! It was writhing and swaying

from side to side as though it were trying to

break free, but something was stopping it. It was

frightening. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I blinked

and I could still see it. It swiveled its head and

looked right at me and it looked terrified,

terrifying, but as though it were trying to tell me

something. The nearest I could get to the feeling

it gave me was that it needed my help. I was

scared and shut my eyes and when I opened them

I couldn’t see it anymore and Daisy caught me

looking and smiled, a smile that seemed to say

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that she knew what I had seen, but was saying, you

can’t do anything about it! Hah, hah, forget it! Ok?

Meanwhile, Will was freaking me out. He was

moody with everyone, not that unusual for him, but

I knew why he was especially moody! He

encouraged the band to play songs that were

Declan’s favourites. He seemed to resent Ed though,

but not that much, because Ed didn’t pay any

attention to Daisy. He wasn’t unfriendly, but it was

me that he smiled at when we walked into The

Bridge and we got on really well. He hadn’t asked

me out, but I felt that he would soon and it was

sort of delicious, waiting, and he stopped me

worrying so much about Daisy or what I knew

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about Will. It distracted me and besides, I was

having fun. Other girls envied me as much as they

did Daisy. I was with the band. I liked the attention!

Will

Daisy is avoiding me. She won’t look at me. I’m a

killer. Too freaky for her now. Well, she goaded me,

maybe more than that. There’s something spooky

going on. Charlie is Daisy’s cousin and I know she

suspects us both, always giving us sneaky looks,

thinks I’ve not noticed. Daisy is always looking at

me, but when I look at her, she looks away, looks

down. I want her so badly. She’s the only one who

knows what happened, the only one can help me. The

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one and only person in the world I can talk to or

be with right now. I’ll make her stop avoiding me -

somehow.

Daisy

I was waiting outside for Kieron. I needed the air. It

was warm for March, stuffy inside the club.

Suffocating. I needed to get away from Will. Charlie

went home in a taxi, Ed took it too. He’s not like one

of the band really, not yet, but Jazz gets on with

him, so he went with them. Kieron and Will stayed to

finish striking the stage. Will stores his drum kit

here. The door creaked open. It was Will, just him.

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“Daisy,” he looked at me, with this pleading

look in his eyes.

I turned away. I tried to walk back into

The Bridge, get past him, but he grabbed my

arm. He pulled me around the corner out of the

light, pushed me up against the wall. I opened

my mouth to protest, but he smothered my voice

with his mouth, tried to slide my legs apart with

his knee.

i pushed him away, then i saw his face. i

had him. He would do anything for me. i pulled

him in close to me again.

“Dais, Oh Daisy,” he groaned.

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“Not here,” i told him, “ Monday night, i’ve

got the first dress rehearsal of Oliver. Come to

the school gate, about eight. i can get into the

green room. It’s at the back. Bring some spray

paint. There’s something i want you to do for me

- first.”

I heard Kieron at the door. I pushed Will

away again and mouthed “Go,” and walked back

into the light. Kieron smiled, “Babe,” he took my

hand. We walked away.

Alexandra Lesley

To be continued.

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Merry go round

The girl was beautiful and looking straight at him.

before the merry go round took her to the other

side, he jumped on. it spun slowly. a ride for small

children, but he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

The boy climbed onto the horse behind the

girl’s. He held onto the pole. made of yew, but

painted gold and the horse he rode was painted

blindingly white and had a real mane of golden

horse hair.

The boy was afraid, anxious, he was afraid all

the time. He was afraid of the future, well, his

future, as it was unfolding before him.

He sat on the horse and held tight to the

pole as the merry go round took him after the girl,

moving in a clockwise direction and before he got

to the other side he had changed.

He was a man and his shoulders were bowed

down with the weight of responsibility, for the

business, the family business, his inheritance, and

as the merry go round turned and he reached the

point opposite where he had boarded, he changed

once more.

Now middle aged, he felt the bitterness of

his life sitting on his curved back like an ugly

child, deformed and stupid, as his mind was dark

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and uninviting, which was why no woman or man had

brightened his life with love and laughter.

As the merry go round took him to the other

side, he felt his mind slipping away from him

wandering back to his childhood and he felt his

bones, brittle with age, begin to crumble and a sour

taste rose in his mouth as his teeth began to rot and

then he was dead and lay in his coffin with only

worms for company.

As the ride came full circle the dark changed

then, suddenly, and he was warm and comforted as

he floated in space where colours burst forth at

last in his eyes, red and blue and purple and gold.

and then as the merry go round lurched

around to the left again, he found himself in the

pretty girl’s arms and his mouth was at her breast

and the most wonderful tasting milk was nourishing

him as her love nurtured him.

Then he sat beside her as the horse came up to

the top of the ride again. he was small, like the

other children on the merry go round and he

laughed with sudden joy and ecstasy!

Then a teenage boy rode behind the girl who

had long golden hair and blue eyes and bent his ear

to her mouth as she turned and whispered

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something to him, but he didn’t listen and turned

to snatch a kiss instead. It was exquisite.

But suddenly the girl was scowling at him and

he was afraid again. As the ride came to the six o’

clock point again, he tried to dismount, but

couldn’t. It was as though he were glued to the

rump of the steed. The merry go round went round

and round and round and he was terrified. as it

went round past the place that he had got on for

the third time he realized that what he was afraid

of was just this. He held tight to the girl and

leaning forward bent his head to her ear and

begged him to help him.

Then once more the girl turned to him and

smiling she kissed him, a long and loving kiss. Then

she whispered to him to listen and once more told

him her secret and who to tell it to and then from

her belt she pulled out her wand of yew and

circled them with it anti clockwise. and the merry

go round changed direction and went round

widdershins three times.

Gently the merry go round came to a stop and

she pushed him off to stumble down the steps onto

the concrete floor of the fair ground.

As he stood there reeling slightly he looked

back at the girl, but she was gone.

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Photo Credit Jebulon

The merry go round began to turn again in a

clockwise direction and as the boy watched it and

waited to see if the girl was still there and had

switched horses and was still on the ride, he

thought of what she had told him.

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He then thought of his father and realized

that it was his strong desire for his son to follow

in his footsteps and take over his business

manufacturing and supplying executive office

furniture that had made the boy feel trapped and

that he had been going round in circles like a caged

tiger.

What he needed to do, he knew now, was to go

in a straight line.

He found the fairground office nearby. It was,

fittingly, in a tent, an impermanent structure, like

the fair itself, always moving on, but returning to

the same towns for a week or two each year and

then moving on again. It was ordered, but free to go,

to return or to keep moving on, never to come back

to this town at all perhaps.

Inside, there was a small desk, actually it was

an old trestle table, with no one sitting behind it.

The boy went up to the desk anyway where he could

see a bell standing on it to his right. On the left

there was a picture frame. He picked it up and saw a

smiling girl with long golden hair and blue eyes. He

smiled back at her photograph.

A gruff voice suddenly interrupted to tell him

to put that down and what do you want?

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He turned to look at a tall man with gold

coloured hair and a bronzed body, naked from

the waist up and rippling alarmingly with

muscles.

The boy indicated the photo on the desk

and told the man that he had a message for the

girl’s father, who was the owner of the fair

and a strongman.

The man’s face went pale. He told the boy

that his daughter was dead and the boy looked

into his face and said, “I know.”

He said that he would give him the girl’s

message, if he would take him on for a year,

before he went to university the following

year to study art.

The strongman weighed up the pale and

puny looking boy with honest eyes standing in

front of him and nodded. he said, “we leave

tonight.”

The boy delivered the girl’s message.

“She said to tell you that it wasn’t your

fault. You closed the bar across the seat

tight. she undid the bar herself with magic

and stood up in her seat because she had told

her friends that she would fly from the top

of the ferris wheel and land on the ground at

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their feet. She flew from the seat, and it was a

dream come true, but then she was suddenly

afraid and the spell broke and she fell.”

The strongman was crying. he told the boy to

go and see his wife in the blue caravan and to tell

her what he had told him. he added, “she will find

you some work to do before i turn you into a

strongman like me, if you like to be one that is.”

He grinned through his tears.

The boy nodded now and left the tent.

before he went to the blue caravan he rang his

mother and asked her to post the application to

university that was in his bedside cabinet and he

told her where he was going. She cried and told

him that she would come to say goodbye to him

before he left and pack him some things. then he

rang his father who was abroad buying new

materials and wouldn’t be able to get home before

the day after tomorrow, by which time the boy

would have begun his new life.

He was apprehensive, a little anxious,

excited, elated, but not afraid. He was feeling

courageous and looking forward to the future,

the one that he had chosen for himself.

The sun shone down on the summer fair as it

rumbled away that night and stood poised on the

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horizon where it would wait a while before it

carried on its way towards another summer that

when you were as old as the sun was not so very

far off, even though life was too short not to

live for your dreams.

The boy fell asleep that night and in his

dreams he met a girl with long golden hair and

together they rode on the merry go round.

Sam Smith

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CLIOResume of Parts One, Two and Three:

Callum is going nowhere, well, heʼs going home on the bus from his dead end job one summer night, when he misses his stop and has to get off in a dark lane to walk back. He meets a girl, singing and dawdling in the lane, a very strange - but drop-dead gorgeous - girl." Much to his surprise and absolute rapture, she seduces him! She agrees to see him again too! " When he gets home and sees his face in the bathroom mirror, all his spots have gone!" It is Saturday and he decides to go into town. At the bus stop he meets a girl he sees every morning, but has never had the balls to speak to. Today he introduces himself!" The girl is called Clio. On the way into town they get on like a school thatʼs been the target of an arsonist. Clio tells Callum, who used to be in a band, about the choir that she is in and suggests that he joins. Callum agrees to go to the next rehearsal, but when he sees that his spots have all come back, he doesnʼt go." Instead, on the next day, he gets off the bus on his way home from work, in the spot where he met the strange girl two nights previously and she is there again.

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" When she sees that his spots have returned, she somehow knows that he has met Clio and is as cross as a box of frogs about it." Like a pet lamb, Callum follows her up the track that leads onto the moor." After the inevitable and enjoyable, Callum asks the girlʼs name, feeling that they now know one another well enough to disclose intimate details such as names! ʻSheʼ, says the girl, ʻyou may call me She.ʼ Callum thinks that ʻSheʼ doesnʼt want to tell him her name. He asks her out on ʻErʼ a proper date, but She refuses, saying that she is happy to see him just there in the lane and that she is there most nights." On the way home Callum thinks about Clio and feels guilty for not turning up at the choir practice." His spots disappear and reappear and when he sees Clio on the bus on Monday morning he is embarrassed, but Clio challenges him about missing the practice and somehow when he has explained that his spots make him embarrassed, suddenly Clio is friendly again and tells him that what she noticed about him was his smile. There is an extra choir practice, and Callum finishes work earlier that night and finds that his feet take him to the community centre and when he has sung for the choir mistress, suddenly he is asked to sing a duet with Clio at the choirʼs next gig. The Elemental Voices is a rock choir and theyʼre good and Callum is chuffed! Better still he sits

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with Clio on the bus ride home and every morning and is really looking forward to the choir practice on Saturday." On Friday night, as he is riding home on the bus, Callum looks to see if She is at the bottom of the track, hoping that she isnʼt! He is horrified when he sees as the bus passes the bottom of the track, a large black dog attacking She and hears her screaming as she tries to protect herself. He yells at the driver who stops the bus and Callum flies back along the lane and up the track, like the gallant idiot that he is!

CLIOPart Four:

The dogʼs paws landed on Callumʼs chest and he fell onto his back. Its teeth were on his neck and he put his hands around its neck and tried to push it away. No good. His heart was in his mouth and he felt the creatureʼs teeth begin to sink into his skin, then, abruptly, the dog drew back, still snarling and Callum lurched upwards trying to throw it off. Its face lurched towards his own and that was when Callum bit it, firmly, on its shiny black nose!" The dog yelped in pain and with a puzzled look leaped away from Callum now and raced back up the track and as Callum sat up, he watched in astonishment as the beast tried to hide itself behind She, peering around her waist at him with a now wary look in its black eyes.

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" Not so fierce now then, Callum, thought with satisfaction, although he was still trembling. Then he realized what must be the truth. He had obviously been duped." “Hey,” he said angrily and started to his feet and began moving towards the girl and her dog!" He stopped and stood in the middle of the track, when at his advance the dog began to growl again, softly." “Hey,” said She and gave him a lovely smile." “Is that your dog?”" “He is not.”" “But he is with you?”" “Yes.”" “Was he attacking you or not?”" She looked down at the dog and fondled his ears in a way that made Callum suddenly jealous." “Well?” he asked again, but his anger was leaving him as She continued to smile happily at him." “He can be a bit temperamental,” she saw Callum begin to scowl again, “but no, we were only playing!” She grinned." Callum found himself grinning back.

" On the next day when Callum met Clio at the bus stop to go to choir practice and Clio - said that she didnʼt notice them anyway, what she noticed was his smile, he thought and snorted to himself while he sat at the back of the bus and Clio sat at the front with her back to him - slapped him!

" “What happened to your spots?” " She had said this through tight lips and turned her back on him, got onto the bus, sat down at the front on the aisle side of the seat and looked out through the window." Callumʼs face, especially his right cheek, was still glowing red when Jade asked Clio and he to go over their new duet. Despite what had just happened between them and the fact that every time Jade looked away, Clio glared at him, Callum loved the song and they both discovered just how well their voices sounded together. Good. A bit more than good, actually, as Jade said, “Sends shivers up and down my spine!”" It was a love song and as they sang the words to one another, Clio, even to herself, forgot how angry she had been and seemed to mean the words, seemed to feel them! Callum did too." On the way home on the bus, clio suddenly turned to him, swiveling right round in her seat, looked him the eye with a quizzical expression in her own and blurted out, “I donʼt know why I slapped you! Callum,” she said all serious, “Iʼm sorry, but, Iʼm not.”" Callum opened his mouth without thinking and blurted back, “My spots have gone!”" “Yes,” Clio stared at him, her eyes, and his eyes going dreamy and then their heads moved together and they kissed." Clio looked at him again and smiled, then her eyes widening, remarked, “Theyʼve come back! What?”

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" Callum wondered How does she suspect? She is more canny than the other one! He said, “They come and go,” then he lied, “I donʼt know why.”" As the hot summer grew hotter and the days were long, the nights short and only slightly cooler, Clio became the most important thing in Callumʼs life. Clio was off school and came to meet Callum from work every evening and they sometimes ate in the cafe, sometimes at Callumʼs house, where his mum fed them and seemed to get on with Clio. They were like a couple of schoolgirls, always ganging up on him, putting cream on his spots (worse than ever now. Theyʼll all join up soon and Iʼll look so bad, Iʼll have to carry a bell) and sometimes they had a meal at Clioʼs with her dad, who seemed to like him. " And the choir had gigs in different towns all over the country and Callum and Clio were the stars." One night Callum came out of work and walked about the village in a daze, just thinking about Clio and their plans. Clio had a course in singer/songwriting booked for September, in the city, at a music college. It would be for a term. They had decided to apply for university the following year and get on the same or similar courses and when they left that they would forge a career in music together, as a duo or in a band. Callum wasnʼt looking forward to being apart from Clio, not even for four months.

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" He wandered off the main road and when he got back was just in time to see his bus trundling into the distance and then turning off towards his home, without him." Rats." He began to walk home and was nearly there when he heard someone singing the duet that he and Clio sang. He had stopped staying on the bus beyond his stop, just to see if She was there in the track and then ignore her, and stay on the bus and get off later to walk a long way home, confused, thinking about Clio and about his continuing fascination with She. But now he found himself passing his own turning and then turning into the lane by the river and there in the lane she was. She stood in front of him singing the words that Clio sang." He walked up to her." “Why are you singing that song?” he asked angrily." “I like it. I heard it somewhere and I liked it,” she said and smiled at him. “Sing with me, where we wonʼt be heard,” she invited. Her eyes tempted him to follow her, but when they reached the track, Callum sprinted past She and ran up the lane, and before he reached his own house, he swerved down the loan to where he knew Clio lived and ran into her garden and standing outside her bedroom window he called very softly." “Clio, itʼs me.”

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" Amazingly, Clio was in her room, she heard and came to her open window and looked out." “Calʼ, what do you want, at this time of night? Iʼve got school tomorrow.”" Callum had been in Clioʼs room before, but in the day time, at weekend, with her Dad nearby, in the sitting room." “May I come in?” he implored her." Clio looked a little bit exasperated, but relented. " “Climb in through the window then,” she said and when he was in the room she took his hands and pulled him towards her and kissed him." “Dadʼs in bed. He has to be up early.”" She led him to her bed and sat down patting the space beside her." His heart was hammering and he could hardly breath, not just from running and he made to stand up, “I should go, Clio,” he muttered, as another part of him stirred at her closeness, but she pulled him back down and taking his hand put it over own heart." “See,“ she sighed, mineʼs the same.”" Then gently she pushed him down onto her bed and lie down next to him and like the lyrics of their song, she snuggled into him and he felt her heart against his own and her lips were on his neck, kissing the hollow above his left collar bone. Then she raised her head and looking into his

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eyes kissed him on the mouth and it was so different from what had happened with She." This felt like the words in the song too, Callum was sure, though heʼd never felt this way before, he knew that it was falling in love. He - they were falling in love - Clio was falling in love with him, falling in love with him - wow." He held her, but after a moment, she raised herself and began to undress. She was so beautiful! He did the same and then Clio made love to him. She was shy, but confident and wholly focussed and although he knew that for her, it was the first time, she knew just what to do. He felt as though it were the first time for him too. It was. For he had never been in love before and just holding her then was so special, because he didnʼt want to let go of her - ever." He knew that he had to go home and when Clio sat up and her head leaving his shoulder was a wrench, he reluctantly, reached for his tee and suddenly Clio was kissing him again and then they sat holding each other for a long time and then suddenly Clio said, “Go, before I canʼt let you, Callum and Dad will find you here with me in the morning, both of us sleeping like babies. And then heʼll go ballistic!”" He reached for his tee again and smiled at Clio. She reached out her hand and held his cheek. Her eyes then slowly became amazed and she looked at him as though he had just turned into a frog and she suddenly didnʼt know him anymore." He was afraid!

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" But she grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet and tugged him over to the other side of her room, then stopped. Callum faced the mirror there and he didnʼt need to hear Clioʼs next remark, because he could see for himself." “Callum, your spots have gone! How?”" Over his shoulder, in the mirror, he saw her shaking her head in disbelief." “I donʼt know,” he sounded dazed, even to himself, “I donʼt know how.”" The choir were buzzing. Jade had just told them that they had been asked to take part in an event to be televised on national TV the following summer, and, she told Callum and Clio, that they would take important roles as two of the choirʼs soloist performers and as a duo as well!" Clio was feeling excited and happy and sad all at the same time. She was about to go to college, and at age seventeen it would be the first time that she had been away from home for any length of time, away from her Dad, and now she was unhappy because she knew that she was going to miss Callum terribly as well." Then there was the other girl." Clio didnʼt even know her name. Doe she go to school here ? Is she in my year - or in the fifth? " She knew Callum wasnʼt seeing her now and that he loved her, but she wasnʼt sure that this other girl would stay away from

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him. From what Callum had revealed, she was cunning and she wanted Callum for herself!" So it was with some misgivings, as well as feeling like she was going on an exciting adventure without the one person that she wanted to share it with, that Clio went off to college. She had so many doubts that to lighten Callumʼs mood as much as her own, she said a stupid thing, a really stupid thing, like, was she in self destruct mode or something? As Callum waved her off,even as the train slowly pulled away, an evil sprite jumped into her mouth!" “Hey, Callum, letʼs cool it while Iʼm away. Be free babe. Hang out,” she paused, “with whoever you like,” she gulped, “and I will. Just chill!” she was yelling now. The train was whisking her away, but she could see Callum was open mouthed." “Donʼt worry. See you at half term.” She took a big breath and gazing at the dwindling figure standing stock still on the platform, certain though that he probably wouldnʼt hear her now, biting back tears that were going to become a deluge any moment, she tried to shout, but her words fizzled out as a storm of emotion took her." “I DIDNʼT,” sob, mean it” sob. " Then she collapsed in a heap on the seat in the old fashioned carriage she had all to herself and was swallowed by the tide!

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" Callum was confused by Clioʼs parting words. She had hugged him so tightly before she got on the train, tearing herself away and Callum was reassured of her feelings for him and also that he would be able to breathe again! He was breathless still, though, as Clio let go of his hand to board the train and he only closed the door for her when the guard blew the whistle." Now, weeks later and only two phone calls, lots of texts, his mind was still whirling a little. Clio had told him that she loved him both times when she had called and again when he had called at a weekʼs interval as they had agreed, so that Clio could concentrate on her course, and she was due to call him tonight. " He was waiting in his room on Sunday evening, when he noticed a green hair grip with a dragonfly decoration on it under his chest of drawers and went to retrieve it, he sat with it on the edge of his bed , turning it this way and that so the iridescent wings changed colours, blue and green and pink and purple in the late sunlight coming through his window. " He missed Clio in a way that made his chest hurt and gave him a hollow feeling and he had told her this and that he was waiting and counting the days, hours, minutes even until her half term break ʻand alone. Iʼm going to choir practice,ʼ I made sure that she knew, and only hanging out a bit with Stuart, while heʼs working for his dad until he goes off

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to Australia to start his new job in farm management - not music - and that guyʼs a mean bass guitarist - still, Robbie - lucky git, on holiday in Nairobi, heʼ s stayed with music and his lead guitar makes Stuartʼs bass sound like a battery driven toy, and heʼs interested in forming a band with us, so itʼs all great! " At least that was what Callum told himself." The phone didnʼt ring." Next day Callum left his mobile on all day at work, even though he wasnʼt supposed to. No call. No text. No answer to his own." Just before his stop on the way home that night, Callumʼs head began to swim and heʼd only had one lager, just to cheer himself up a bit, no chips though. He shook his head, but when he stood up he went so dizzy that he had to sit back down. The bus went by his stop. It even seemed to speed up and flung him back against his seat. The driver was new and didnʼt know where his regular passengers normally alighted. Then Callum passed out." He came to at the sound of singing and groggily, in a sort of dream, he got to his feet and walked along the aisle of the bus and rang the bell. The driver came to a stop where there was no stop at the bottom of a certain lane and called out “Thatʼs you.” " Callum slurred, “Cheers mate,” as he slipped down the steps.

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" The driver, who had a glazed look in his eyes, as though he were stoned, chirruped, “..welcome.”" She was waiting. She was hot! She was bestial! He was bestial too. Like a beast the water ran by and in a freaky summer way it began to rain; it poured and the water swelled and the river burst its banks, but as the rain stopped and the flood diminished before it reached the pool in the heart of the woods and trickled down the road and under Callumʼs knees, the tears did their own flooding over his cheeks and She, suddenly aware of his emotion, an unfamiliar sensation and one she had not known herself for a long time, turned to him and found that like a mother she had to hold him until he had stopped sobbing against her breast." Later, Callum realized that somehow he had been tricked again. It was as though he had been bewitched, he felt, for he had not intended to betray his single hearted love for Clio." On the previous evening, however, Clio had been asked out by a student on her course. A boy with a cheeky grin that reminded her of Callumʼs had taken her hand and wouldnʼt take no for an answer and the time appointed for her call to Callum had gone by before she realized it. Then she had drunk too much and had gone back to the boyʼs college flat and he had swept her off her feet and as the freaky summer storm had thrust against the window, he had stormed into her love for Callum and taken it to himself. He was as shocked as a puppy spurned for its

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amorous attention to a stranger it had believed would love it, when she suddenly, afterwards, had jumped off the bunk and done a bunk. When Clio had dressed and stormed off into the storm with tears running down her face, he had shook his head and thought, Girls, who understands them, mad for something and then when they get it they cry and chuck it back at you. What didnʼt I do right? Iʼm good. She seemed to like it. A lot!"

Two Confrontations and a Revelation" Callum felt guilty. Clio felt guilty. Neither had told the other what had happened. Both had guessed. When Callum met Clio at the station, they had hugged each other even harder than when she had left and then avoided each otherʼs eyes." They spent the night together, Callum sneaking in through the window after Clioʼs dad Sean had gone to bed and just held one another until they could resist no longer and then very tenderly had made love." When Callum told her that he had been asked to dinner on the following day, Clio had tried to explode, but couldnʼt. Her half-hearted rebuke only made Callum make a sensible excuse for keeping his promise to go to dinner at Sheʼs.

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" “Itʼs only Sunday dinner. Her family will be there. She told me they wanted to meet me.”" “But youʼre going out with me arenʼt you? Arenʼt you Callum?”" “Yeah, I am babe. Itʼs just that she said she wanted to say goodbye and this was her way-”" “And you believe her? Sheʼs, what is her name, sheʼs taking you home to meet her family because she isnʼt going to see you again?”" “Yeah, its sort of an occasion for them just now, the start of their New Year, but the end of it too. She just wants to, to make it up to me that sheʼs been so secretive, so I said Iʼd go. I promised.”" “Ok,” Clio said through clenched teeth. “Itʼs autumn. October, nearly Halloween. What are her family, witches or something?”" “I think they might be,” callum mumbled, too softly for Clio to hear and then, louder, “Itʼs a traditional thing. I donʼt think theyʼre Scottish.”" “Well, Iʼm Irish and I think itʼs weird and we have some funny customs!”" Callum was silent." “Well, go on then, go to your farewell dinner,” then she added softly, “hope it chokes her and you.”" On the following afternoon, when Clio sat in her living room, fidgeting while her dad tried to watch a film on TV,

! ! !

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sighing and muttering to herself, he finally couldnʼt concentrate any longer." “What is it, colleen?” he asked, switching off the film and turning to look at his daughter, resignedly." Clio had been, she realized now, just waiting to say something. What she wouldnʼt say to a friend and seem disloyal in some way to Callum or allow outside criticism of him, she knew she wanted to say to her dad and that it wouldnʼt make him hate Callum, so she had to say it. After all, her dad was a boy wasnʼt he, well he had been. He might understand Callum better than she did over this. Besides, she had a hunch, an intuition that he could help and that now was the time to confide in him. " They were close, closer than most fathers and daughters, perhaps partly because Sean had brought her up. When her mother had died, when Clio was still a baby, they had moved here from Ireland, because, Sean said, he had to get away from his memories and from a world where he could be swallowed up by love and grief." “Itʼs this girl that Callum met, before we started going out together.”" Sean looked stern; his jaw tightened." “Oh, he isnʼt going to see her anymore. In fact heʼs going this afternoon to say goodbye.”" “But,” prompted Sean when Clio went silent.

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" “But, well, itʼs a bit weird. Sheʼs a bit weird. In fact Callum doesnʼt even know her name, just calls her she, says thatʼs what she told him to call her and nothing else,” Clio said and didnʼt notice the sudden alert in her fatherʼs expression." “At least, thatʼs what he told me, probably doesnʼt want me to know her name, probably goes to the grammar school, might even be in the choir, though I donʼt think they could have kept her identity secret if she were. Callum would have given her away. Besides, sheʼs a good singer, apparently. Callum said I didnʼt need to know who she was anyway. I told him I wasnʼt jealous. I wouldnʼt try to find her and scratch her eyes out, or strangle her, even if she does sing like an angel. He said she wonʼt tell him her name, so he can only call her she. Perhaps she has a horrible name like Mildred. Well, heʼs welcome to Mildew and Sheʼs welcome to him if they decide they canʼt say goodbye after all!” Clioʼs tirade ended on a squeak. She looked at her dad and was surprised to see how alarmed he looked." “Clio,” he said urgently, “this is important. Where is Callum going to say goodbye to the she?”" “At her house. Her family have a hill top farm, I think, you know, one of those remote places up on the moors. Callumʼs going to have Sunday dinner with her and her family,” Clio added, noticing how tight her dadʼs face was now, tense. “I know, thatʼs why I donʼt think she really wants to say goodbye.”" “Itʼs worse than you think darlinʼ and youʼll have to be quick. When is Callum going?” " “On the bus at 2 oʼ clock. Why Dad?”

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" Sean looked at the clock on the mantel. Noon. There was time. He looked at his daughter and felt very sorry and yet relieved at what he was about to tell her at last." “Sit down again, colleen. Iʼve something to tell you.”" Mystified, Clio sat." “I havenʼt told you the truth about your mother, Clio. When I met her, she was trying to get through a gate into this world and I opened it for her.”" “Into this world?” Clio interrupted. “What do you mean Dad?”" “Your mother was a she too.”" “A she?”" “Yes. Itʼs spelt Sidhe, but pronounced She. They are faerie people Clio.”" “No, youʼre kidding me Dad,” she knew he wasnʼt even before he shook his head emphatically. “But that means, that means that I..” she couldnʼt go on. All of a sudden, a lot of things about herself began to make more sense to Clio." “Yes, youʼre half faerie, colleen and,” he paused, “thereʼs something else,” he took a deep breath, “your mother isnʼt dead. She left you with me when you were a baby.”Clio looked as though she had been smacked. " “Oh, she wanted you darlinʼ, she wanted you so much, but there were others, she said, in her world, who wanted you too, bad faeries. So she left you with me.”

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" “You told me she was dead Dad. You lied,” Clioʼs voice wavered and was full of hurt.“She is dead to us, colleen. It was what she wanted.”" “Where is she?” Clio asked, her voice, almost a whisper, stricken by this revelation." “At home, I mean in Ireland, or in her world there at any rate. Itʼs different from ours.” Sean said and brought back to the present crisis, glanced at the clock again. “Thereʼs something else. I donʼt think she, the faery that Callum has been enchanted by, I donʼt think she means to say goodbye at all. She is luring Callum onto the moors to a gateway, probably in a hill. There is no farm. If she leads him through the gateway, the doorway to her home, it may be a long time before you see him again.”" Clio stared at her dad. “How long?”" “A week, a year, years, or maybe never again! So you must stop him. Donʼt let him get on the bus. tell him the truth. Heʼll believe you. He knows her power. I know that he does.” " Without a word, Clio got to her feet and was moving. She turned back and went to Sean and hugged him. He sighed." “Youʼll tell me all about her wonʼt you Dad,” she looked up at him. The tension had left his body as she hugged him and now he nodded." “Go Clio. Go get your boy.”

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" Clio ran to Callumʼs house,throwing her coat on as she flew. She burst into the kitchen, startling Ellie, Callumʼs mum, as she bit into a cheese and tomato sandwich." “Whereʼs Callum?” Clio said breathlessly." “Isnʼt he with you? He said he was going for Sunday dinner. I assumed..” Eleanor stopped speaking at the horrified expression on the girlʼs face and watched with growing concern when Clio turned and ran back out through the back door as though the hounds of hell were on her heels and perhaps they were." The leaves were swirling around them as Callum climbed the track with She. He had caught the earlier bus at twelve because, heʼd suddenly thought that the other would make him late and She had been waiting as though she knew he would be early. It was gloomy, but not raining and their feet rustled through the leaves. She wore delicate fawn coloured boots, but Callumʼs were heavy and not just because they were thick soled and made of strong leather." Clio ran up the track at a speed she would never have believed that she could run, as though her life depended on it and perhaps it did." Clearing the trees at last she saw them, walking up the moorland path, holding hands. The girl, the sidhe, had long silver hair and a grey cloak. Little purple flowers hung from her hair and were caught on her cloak, Clio saw as she caught up to them.

" The faery turned before Callum did and shot Clio a venomous look that almost stopped her in her tracks." “Clio!” Callum exclaimed." The sidhe put her hand to her waist, a gesture that Callum missed, but Clio saw. She drew a dagger with a hilt that sparkled with gems, even in the October dimness, as it flew towards Clioʼs heart, like lightening, so fast, that even Clio didnʼt see it coming, catching only the flash of the gem stones, like fairy dust in the air before her. The blade found its target and a scream stabbed through the thin upland air, yet seemed to hang there like a butterfly caught in a net." """ " " " " Lavinia Hinde

The concluding part of Clio is in the next issue.

THE WITCH AND THE MAN IN THE MOON

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"

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! ! Lady, in your Palace Hall, ! ! Once, perchance, my face was seen;! ! Can no memory now recall! ! Thought again to what has been?

There will be a poem from this poet in every issue of Tyrant Spell. There is a prize for guessing the identity of the poet, but if you know please donʼt tell anyone but the editor. The first person who guesses correctly will receive a book of poems by the mystery poet.

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To contribute to Tyrant Spell please email the editor first at ruby.brooklyn@btinternet.com