A/N: Hey guys! So, after a ridiculously long dry spell I am back with a new story! Prepare for a long one, because I have only a vague idea where this is going. Okay, okay, so I have more idea than when I started True Love's Curse, but only a little tiny bit more. Mostly I just started to miss writing sassy characters.
Also, just in case you couldn't tell, its Pied Piper themed. Cuz I got jealous of all the fun Captain was having! X)
Chapter 1: The Piper's Parade
Have you ever watched the Piper's Parade from the peak of the gleaming white and copper-green face of the clock tower?
Well, I haven't, and it has become my newest and dearest wish. Okay, third dearest... fourth? Lets just go with it is pretty high up there.
I've seen the Piper's Parade a few times, I mean, if you live anywhere near Habedash you have seen the Piper's Parade at least once, and you've probably heard it every year whether you participate in the festivities or not. But those times that I went I was being bumped and blocked and was desperately wishing that I was just a few inches taller. You would think that people would have more respect for a witch! The best witch in Habedash no less! Okay, well, apprentice to the best witch in Habedash, but it is almost the same thing.
It's the height, I'm sure of it. If I was just a few inches taller I would be able to pull off the intimidating glare right, and then no one would dare jostle such a obviously powerful witch! But then, Granny has the glare right, and she is even shorter than I am... Maybe I need more wrinkles.
Anyway, this year, I am going to the parade. And I will not be bumped and pushed and shoved about, because Hamich says that he knows how to sneak up to the top of the clock tower so we can get the best view in the whole city! 'Course, Hamich and Jakes aren't really clever enough to talk their way out if they get caught, so that's why they need me to use all my tricks and smarts to keep us out of serious trouble. That and Jakes wanted to bring some sparklers up too, so we can celebrate right! And what sort of witch doesn't know how to make some simple sparklers?
Oh, and one other little thing that I would finish if I could just find that sulfur!
I dig around Granny's shelves pushing aside all manners of roots and jars with a clink and a rustle, and try to repress a sneeze as something particularly peppery manages to get up my nose. It took me years to master Granny's strange organization, but it still manages to get the better of me sometimes.
"Granny!" I call up the stairs from the basement where I am working, "Granny! I can't find the sulfur!"
"Did you look behind the Woolwart?" Granny's voice drifts down.
I look behind the dried bunch of Woolwart.
"It's not there!" I call back up.
There is an offended thump thump thump as Granny marches down the hallway and stomps down the stairs, as if the sulfur has committed a heinous crime by being out of place. "Know that sulfur is there," she mutters to herself as she grabs the stool from the corner and climbs up for a better look at the offending shelf. Granny is the sort of petite little gray haired lady that looks kindly and harmless until she starts swearing like a sailor and threatening to curse you eight ways to next Tuesday if you don't listen careful.
After a good minute of searching she turns a suspicious eye back on me, "What do you need it for?"
"Hamich, Jakes, and I were going to light some sparklers for the parade," I explain, not quite meeting her eyes.
She has given me the lecture before. She knows she has given me the lecture before and she knows that I remember it very well. So instead of the full lecture about the Frippery of those Piper's Children with their Music and their mountain and their gallivanting about, she gives me that look that she has been giving me recently, the one that says I am a grown woman and allowed to make my own decisions. Then she turns back and mutters threats at the shelves.
I sigh with relief, tugging at my braid once her back is turned. I had been expecting the full lecture, and if that had happened I would never make it to Teal Street in time. Or worse she might have started asking questions about what the cauldron was doing out because it certainly wasn't needed for the sparklers.
The thing to know about Granny is that she is an excellent witch and a sensible woman, but anything that she doesn't understand is tossed aside as Useless Frippery. Things like ladies' bustles and politics and horses and tea spoons and pocket watches and puff pastries and the time I turned my hair blue (she made me turn it back to brown almost immediately, it was that or not be allowed near the more sensitive potions) and especially Music. Granny says that as witches we deal in sensible things like cough medicine and whiskey. Granny is a great believer that anything that cannot be cured with a potion or a spot of advice can be cured with a good bottle of whiskey, and it is just as likely that someone will be sent out with one as the other.
"I could swear that I just used it too," she mutters into a bundle of herbs as she reaches her arm all the way to the far back of the shelves.
She had? Something tugs at the back of my mind. I move over to the bench in the back corner where Granny does her mixing and sure enough, there sits the innocent little jar of egg yellow powder.
"Granny," I call to her.
"Just a moment," she calls and I turn back to see just her legs hanging out of the shelf.
"Granny, you don't need-"
"I almost got it," is her muffled response. Her legs kick and her skirt ruffles about and with a grunt she wiggles back out, triumphantly holding a jar of rust red flakes. She curses as she catches sight of the color of the contents, then turns to see me holding the proper jar.
"See, I knew it was around here somewhere," she says with a huff, then shoves the jar of flakes back into the depths of the shelf with a jitter and a clink from the other contents.
She dusts herself off and picks a stray leaf off of her vest. "Well, then I will leave you to it-" she is about to head back upstairs when her gaze falls on the small cauldron on my work bench, quietly boiling a few sips of dark purple liquid. "Willow Wetherwitch, what is boiling in your cauldron?"
"Nothing," is my automatic response, but I don't know why I bother.
Granny fixes me with one of her notorious Glares and I break instantly. "We were going to go watch the parade from the clock tower, so I thought I would use a Look Aside potion so we don't get caught," I mutter, suddenly intently interested in the dark greenish stain I had made on the stone floor several years back.
Granny gives the cauldron a sniff, then tests the consistency with a nearby spoon. She looks at me then back at the purple potion. "You know, if you are going to be using it outside you should add a little extra leftroot extract, little extra mint for flavor too," I groan as she gives it another sniff, "and I think you might have gone a bit heavy on the milkw-"
"No!" I grab the mint away before she can start adding things. "This is mine. My potion." I had been working on it all week after all.
"Now, Willow, this is a very tricky potion, you could-"
I hold the ingredients closer. She shakes her head and drops in, with a plip, just a single pellet of ruby colored oak blood. "Wouldn't want you getting caught," she says with a wink, then tromps back upstairs. "And don't you get caught up in all that Useless Frippery, Willow," she calls down, "I expect you to make me dinner tonight. I have a craving for beets."
I sigh once the door shuts. "Oh, that's am awfully tricky potion Will," I mutter to myself, "You are doing an excellent job with it, I'm so proud of you! Oh, it was nothing, Granny, just doing like you taught me." But I add the extra ingredients just like she suggested. I would have showed it to her before I left, really I would have! She would have smiled and shook her head like she just had... At least it will taste a little better now, I guess.
The potion has to simmer down a bit and cool, so I make the sparklers while I wait. Sparklers are easy, they are the same as fireworks, just glued to a stick instead of put in a careful casing, and fireworks are the very first thing a witch learns. Even Maribelle on East street can do them.
I roll up sparkler after sparkler, and when I am just about out of powder I check the clock. "Rats!" I jump up and toss the sparklers in a bag, then burn myself putting the Look Aside in a bottle. Hamish and I had agreed on noon a block from the east side of the court house on Teal, and it was five after. And not just five after on Granny's clock which was always ten minutes ahead, but actually five after. I spend another two minutes digging around for a cork, pull on my boots, shake out my skirt, and run out the door. "Bye Granny!" I shout before the door slams shut.
I dash past the slower pedestrians, feet on the cobblestones clop clop clop, and duck into that alley with the black gate that is never locked. Under the Toolhouse arch, down the block with the blue houses, turn at the Millers street, and decide to climb to the upper level and take the Jack arch because the Rose arch is going to be completely blocked with people waiting for the parade to go by. I am back on street level and two blocks away before I realize that I am still wearing the heavy leather gloves. I slow down, tuck them into my bag and keep up a brisk pace past Palm arch. I dodge a man with a cane, pass a blue carriage, round the final corner and find Hamish, Jakes, and Georgie all waiting for me on the corner. As soon as Jakes catches sight of me he snaps closed the pocket watch that his rich daddy bought for him. "Ten minutes late," he proclaims with his tall voice.
"Stuff it, Jakes," I shove my bag at the younger boy, younger but still lanky and plenty taller than me. He's got this long nose just like his father, perfect for looking down at people. Granny has a long nose too, maybe that is what I need instead of wrinkles.
"We agreed on noon, and it is important to be timely lest you offend-"
"I was making your rat eaten sparklers, Jakes, so stuff it," I repeat, "And that means it's not really my fault."
"So really it's your fault, Jakes," Hamich punches Jakes playfully on the arm and laughs his deeper laugh that I have yet to get used to even after hearing it for the last few years.
Hamich used to be a pudgy little blond boy like his brother Georgie. When we met he said my pigtails were dumb, and I told him that his curls made him look like a girl. He couldn't come up with a response so he decided to be my friend instead of trying to argue with me. Even now that he has grown tall and put on muscle and has all the girls chasing after his silly curly head, he knows better than to argue with me.
"Hey, Georgie, didn't know you were coming," I address little Georgie directly, because he is so shy it's the only way to get him talking.
"Hamich said I could," he tells his shoes in a small voice.
"Without asking any of us," Jakes feels the need to add for some reason. Georgie studies his shoes even more intently and mutters something I can't make out. I roll my eyes, Jakes can be such a bully when he gets in these moods of his.
"Aww, what's the matter Jakes?" I ask innocently, "You upset that you couldn't invite your brother?" Jakes turns bright red as Hamich and Georgie try to stifle their laughter. Jakes' brother is a bit of a sore spot for him. I never decided which he was more jealous of, the fact that his brother, Marcus, is off at a prestigious university, or that the last time Marcus came home, he spent most of the time flirting with me, and not without some success either.
"Besides," I add, "there is more than enough Look Aside for all of us."
"Uhg, that stuff tastes like rat droppings," Jakes makes a face and sticks out his tongue.
"Better that than caught," I shoot, 'cause we all know what Jakes' Daddy will do if Jakes gets caught. "And I think I might have fixed the taste a little this time."
Hamich grins as he starts leading the way toward the main square, "You are brilliant, Will." There is shy but emphatic agreement from Georgie and grudging from Jakes.
"Of course I am," I grin, ego sufficiently stroked for all the work I put in. It's nice to be appreciated.
The ever constant background hum of city noise grows into shape as the streets become more crowded. The bright and gaudy sound of excitement rises as we walk towards the river that the parade always follows, and I feel my annoyance rising as I am swept along with the crowd. I hate being pushed. I hate not being in control. I take the opportunity to practice glaring, but no one seems to notice. Rats.
Finally, we reach the main square, the fountain all full of flowers. Purple and gold banners with pipes on them hang from every wall, lines of little flags strung from roof to roof, and a solid roar from the crowd. People crammed in to every spare spot around the clearing where the parade will perform its final act before making its way back across the river and up the mountain to the Children's Village.
There is the stern faced courthouse, the smiling statue of the Piper, and there, rising above everything, the tower. Arches stacked double and topped with a clock face, standing tall and proud, laden with streamers, and hanging the largest banner of all right above the bottom arch where the parade with march through to return to their mountain side. Hamich breaks away from the current of people who are cutting through the clock arch, instead we dart towards the nearby steps of the court house. A number of people have already set up on the steps, waving little ribbons or blowing tin horns, so we have to dart around them. The real problem, however, appears in the form of a certain Captain Partridge of the Queen's Guard, standing right at the entrance of the tower alley that Hamich was heading for. Hamich ducks instead to the top of the steps, behind a pillar where we can converse without drawing too much attention.
"Should we use the potion?" Hamich looks to me for instruction.
I check back at the alley where Captain Partridge is currently directing a couple off towards the park or something. "It looks too narrow, one of us is bound to bump into him," I glance at Hamich's broad shoulders and my long whip of a braid then back at the alley. "Besides, he is specifically on the look out for strange things, so I don't know how well it will work on him." I tug on my braid for a minute.
Captain Partridge... It could be much, much worse, Captain Partridge is something of a family friend ever since Granny mixed up a cure for his dying brother, back before he was a Captain. In a good mood Captain Partridge is even a little mischievous himself, in a bad mood? Well, when I was younger, he once made Granny walk halfway across the city to pick me up at the jail because he knew she would be furious with me, and all because I accidentally set one little boat on fire. But Captain Partridge liked Music and parades and he looked to be in a good mood today, and if all else failed, I knew where Joanna was this morning.
"Alright, let me do the talking," I warn the boys, and we pick through the crowd and walk right up to Captain Partridge, just as bold as brass.
"Ah, Will and company, up to your usual mischief today?" he greets us, but he is all smiles below his gruff black mustache, we might have just gotten very lucky.
"Only a little," I grin innocently, "just trying to find a good spot for the parade."
He laughs, "Good luck with that, I swear the crowd gets larger every year."
"It's a shame you are working during the parade though," I comment and the boys make sounds of agreement behind me.
"Oh, no," he says happily, and this is obviously the source of his good mood, "The new recruits are on duty for the once the parade starts, he glances up at the very clock tower we are trying to climb, "Can't be more than ten minutes now, and my replacement is always early."
"Always early, imagine that," Jakes drawls behind me. I take the opportunity to flip my braid back behind my shoulder and it lands heavily on his arm. He stifles a yelp of surprise.
"Oh!" I continue pleasantly, ignoring Jakes and his antics, "you must be heading over to Yates arch soon then, Joanna was telling me recently that it has the best view of the fiddlers and, of course you know, they are her favorite."
Captain Partridge is all attention as soon as I mention Joanna, "Yates Arch?" he says thoughtfully, "Yes there would be a good view there, wouldn't there? And not too crowded..." he trails off.
"And of course it is right at the beginning of the parade so as soon as it passes you can cut over to other streets and catch it again! And you know Joanna, she is not much of one to stay in the same place long." I give him only a moment to absorb that, then quickly finish, "Well, enjoy the parade, I think we are going to try our luck on the Court House steps here," I smile and wave and shoo all the boys back to the steps.
"Why the heck did we even bother with that?" Jakes whines, "I would have stayed home and watched from my balcony if I had known that we would just be watching from the court house stairs!"
"Watch and learn, boys," I grin and squeeze past a smelly man and a family of screaming children to get a better view of Captain Partridge.
It works better than I had dared hope. With little more than a final glance over the crowd, Officer Partridge strolls across the square, giving the more rambunctious kids a stern look, but as soon as he hits the edge of the square he is hurrying off.
Hamich grins ear to ear and picks me up he is so pleased, though admittedly, Hamich is pretty easy to please.
"How'd you know he would do that?" Jakes says under the din of the crowd.
I could tell him that Granny once told me I was too shy and would get in less trouble if I was better with people so I spent the next few years practicing. I could tell him that I had already used a similar trick on Officer Partridge last month. However, I decide to go with the more enigmatic response.
"Well he certainly didn't want to miss Joanna," I tuck a satisfied grin into the corner of my lips and dig around in my bag for the potion, letting Jakes ponder that one on his own.
The smelly man gives us a bit of a look when I brandish the vial and take a small sip then cough on the taste. The mint helped... but only barely.
We pass the bottle around, the boys grimacing in turn before they take their turn. Hamich shudders and laughs after he tries it and passes it to Jakes, "At least it doesn't have that after taste of old fish anymore," he shrugs, always the optimist.
None of the other boys seem to agree.
I look back to the smelly man, who seems to have completely forgotten about us. I jump and wave my arms a bit, but no one pays us any mind. Perfect.
With that done we all duck through the crowd and to the alley we had been headed to before. Bricks line either side and it is darker from the walkway above so we are given a bit of privacy. Hamich points to a ladder probably used by those who maintain the clock tower, but it is folded just out of our reach. "This is why we want Georgie here."
Georgie's eyes go wide.
In a short matter of time, Georgie is standing on Hamich's shoulders, but he is just a hand's width short. "I can't reach!" he says, still straining his fingers as he says so. He looks apologetically down at us.
"What about me?" I ask Hamich, "Can you lift me?"
"Not with you standing like Georgie is." Hamich is strong, but still looks a little pinched just with Georgie.
"He could reach it if he jumps," Jakes eyes the distance between Georgie and the ladder.
"No!" Georgie shakes his head violently which makes Hamich grimace at the movement.
"We promise to catch you!" I move to the front of Hamich as Jakes moves to the back.
"I- I can't!" Georgie stutters.
"You are so brave, Georgie, I know you can, and we will catch you once you knock it loose. All you have to do is knock it loose," I say comfortingly, holding up my arms prepped to catch him. Georgie mumbles something.
He can jump. He's got to jump. Or all of this was for nothing!
"JUMP!" Jakes shouts from behind, and I will never admit it to him, but for once his bossy voice is useful, because it startles Georgie into jumping.
Hamich grunts, the ladder clatters, and with a small shriek Georgie is safe in mine and Hamich's arms. The ladder rattles down and lands with a bang behind us and Jakes cheers. We all pat Georgie on the back and congratulate him. Then we are all scrambling up the ladder, because in the distance, we hear the tell tale clap of a cannon that signals the start of the parade. A cheer rises from the crowd as thick as fog and louder than the thunderous echo from the cannon.
In short order we are all up the wooden ladder and standing on one of two small platforms on either side of the clock face. A locked door probably leads to the inner workings of the clock and bells, but Hamich is even bolder and we do not stop here. He shows us how to scale the stone embellishments to the very top. We duck a few ropes hanging streamers across the square and finally are all seated on the flat bit between the small rat gargoyles and the sloping copper roof.
Our excitement is tangible as in the distance we make out the thump, bang, and twiddle of music, and we catch glimpses of the parade on its way through the streets. We kick our heels for a bit, waiting, until Hamich pulls out the apples and sweet bread he brought and passes them around. Jakes digs about for his matches and lights one on the head of our stony rat companions. We pass out sparklers and eat our treats and feel like kings on the very top of the world! Georgie smiles and points his sparkler just before the sound breaks like a wave out of the streets and into the square, followed moments later by the parade itself!
Three pipers, of course, lead the way, dressed in motley colors and topped with feathered hats. They do not dance, they march. The Piper's Children would consider it blasphemous to suggest that the great Piper danced. He was a stately figure who saved our city after all. So the pipers march, playing their pipes while a fourth one, an old man in motley robes holds up a bone white pipe. The Piper's pipe. The crowd all press their hands to their hearts as the pipe passes, but their attention is not held by the pipe for long. Behind the pipers come ribbon twirlers and acrobats! Then come more of the Piper's Children all dressed in purple, tossing candy to the children in the crowd, following the music of pipes just as the original Children did. The children in the crowd push forward to grab at the sweets, but the parents pull them out of the clearing in the square that will soon fill up even more.
The pipers stops just below our perch and turn to face the square. The final show of the parade is about to begin! The Piper's pipe is lifted and on cue the full force of Piper's Children each with their own instrument march into the square, playing for all they are worth.
The music is huge and grand and fills your ears, your head, your every sense with shaking beats from the drum and sweeping notes from the strings and through it all weaves the sharp and playful notes of the pipers, darting through the song like a bird through the clouds. It all meshes into something larger than just the players, a thing that flows through your every limb and moves you to the beat, that grabs your heart and squeezes tight and steals your breath away.
The Piper's Children all form up before the pipers, and at a motion from the three pipers the music shifts. It is slow and heavy and the trill of pipes is no where to be heard.
Rats enter from the street.
Performers dressed in black with paper-mache masks, but the crowds pull back from them all the same. The cheers turn to jeers as the Rats dart around and grab dancers in mock fights. A couple children scream, and the four of us are suddenly glad for our high perch, though not a single one of us will admit it.
I have never seen a Rat. People that stopped being people, the Piper's Children say. They wear awful rat masks, and move all wrong, and eat your eyes, and steal your soul, and feed on fear, and gobble up bad children in the night! But the Piper's Children and our Queen keep them out and keep us safe. And just as the Rats break past the dancers and start to go for the Piper's Children that is just what happens! The Pipers raise the pipes to their lips and play, and all of the Children pick up instruments and play the great grand song! The Rats jerk back and shake their heads, then jerk back more and dance about in dismay, because everyone knows that there is nothing Rats hate more than Music!
All four of us cheer and light new sparklers and wave them about manically as the Piper's drive the Rats back out of the square. A cheer goes up, so loud it almost drowns out even the music for a moment, and we are screaming our heads off right along, even Georgie!
A new song starts as the Piper's Children start their next song, the one where the Piper comes to lead the Children up the mountain and teach them about Music. I love this one, and we all keep cheering such that we almost miss the only angry shout in the entire city, just below us.
"Hey you kids!"
I glance down at the platform with the door, not quite comprehending why there is a guard on it.
So, not much happening yet, but I promise the real story starts up next chapter. (I make no promises, not even a little, about how often this will be updated, just sayin' now)