The young necromancers g.., p.1
The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts, page 1
The Young Necromancer's Guide to Ghosts
Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Thodestool Fiction
Copyright © 2024 Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Published by Thodestool Fiction
Waterloo ON
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, recording or otherwise (except brief passages for purposes of review) without the prior permission of the author or a licence from The Canadian Copyright Licensing Agency (Access Copyright).
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this production are fictitious. No identification with actual persons (living or deceased), places, buildings, and products is intended or should be inferred.
Without in any way limiting the author’s exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
Generative AI technologies were not used at any point in the creation or production of this work.
Publisher: Vanessa Ricci-Thode
Editors: Sydnee Thompson
Cover designed by Getcovers
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
This is a first edition of The Young Necromancer’s Guide to Ghosts.
To my kid (again) and her cousins Charlotte and Alli
Author's Note
Hello reader! While this book takes place in the Fireborn universe, it is not part of that series and you don’t have to read any of my other books to read this one. This book does, however, take place after the events of the series and contains some spoilers for it. Also note that Canadian spelling is being used throughout the book.
1
Lusi could talk to dead people and no one but her sister, Marsi, believed her. Lusi didn’t want to talk to dead people, and she really wished they’d stop talking to her but there wasn’t anything she could do about it. She wished she could do something about it, especially right now, because the ghost of this lost girl was trailing along behind her, and she kept forgetting which supplies she was supposed to be picking up. She didn’t have time to be distracted by ghosts. If she took much longer in getting back to Marsi, the caravan would leave without them both.
And then Uncle might find them.
Lusi shivered and glanced over her shoulder at the centre of the market square, like she expected to see Uncle storming her way. But instead it was just the transparent face of the ghost girl leaning eagerly toward her, with the strange grey sheen of the dead. She looked like she was close to Lusi’s age, but shorter, with shining blonde hair, pale skin and blue eyes begging for Lusi’s attention.
Sometimes ghosts were angry and that was terrifying, but this ghost was just sad and awkward. And distracting. Lusi whipped around again to focus on the items on the table in front of her like she’d never seen bread before in her life.
Get it together, Lus.
Lusi was twelve years old and knew how to do this. Well, she’d never run away from home before, but she sure had bought things from markets. Marsi, who was sixteen and in charge, had gone to get them some travel gear, and Lusi was supposed to be buying food and something to carry their new stuff in. Well, she had a bag with big straps.
“I can help you!” the ghost said from beside her. “Please, I know you can hear me.”
Lusi couldn’t draw attention to herself by talking to someone no one else could see, so she pretended that she couldn’t hear the ghost. She didn’t know how the ghosts knew. They didn’t try to talk to anyone else.
Lusi nervously picked up a large round loaf and handed over some coins with shaking hands. She stuffed it into the bag, took a quick glance around, and went farther into the market. There was a space between two stone buildings, a narrow alley full of boxes and old junk, and Lusi crept down it, far enough people passing in front wouldn’t notice her.
“I can’t talk to you,” she said, finally acknowledging the ghost. “People will think I’m crazy. Please, just leave me alone.”
She stared at the bag in her hands the whole time and then rushed back out into the market lane without waiting for the ghost to respond.
“Please,” the ghost said from beside her. “I haven’t had anyone to talk to in five years.”
Lusi gasped, practically feeling the ghost’s lonely desperation, but kept walking, eyes frantically searching the market. Was bread enough? There were so many good smells in the market but even never-ran-away-before Lusi knew she couldn’t bring most things on the road. Nothing they had to cook, nothing too messy, nothing that would go bad before they could finish.
And what time was it? Lusi didn’t see a clock anywhere. It was late afternoon, but that didn’t tell her much. They had to be quick—the next caravan was leaving soon. They had to keep moving. Marsi didn’t think two cities between them and home was enough for Uncle to not be able to track them yet. They’d split up to get things faster.
Lusi’s heart raced and her skin buzzed with cold fear at the thought of missing the caravan. Marsi would never leave without her, but then they’d both be stuck here. But no, bread wasn’t going to be enough. It was days yet till the Guild, and Lusi had no idea when they’d stop again. She looked around desperately, spotted a butcher’s cart and rushed over, selected a string of several spicy pork pipe links and very nearly flung money at the butcher before rushing off as she stuffed the meat into her bag. At a farmer’s wagon, she selected some of last season’s apples, not quite wrinkled yet, and a bundle of peas still in their pods.
As she made her way back to the square where she had to meet Marsi, she passed a baker’s table, and the rich smell stopped her. She had bread already, but this table was piled with cakes and sticky buns and cookies. Lusi really wanted cake. Too messy. She settled for some cookies wrapped in wax paper.
“My name is Shirla,” the ghost said. “Why are you so afraid? You’re not afraid of me, you seem mad at me.”
“I have to find my sister,” Lusi snapped. Her cheeks flushed with heat when the nearest vendor looked up at her. Lusi hurried away, back toward the edge of the market where the merchants gathered with their caravans and travel coaches stopped to let travellers get a bite and stretch.
Lusi wished Marsi had managed to get a little more money before they ran away so that they could take a coach. They’d be there already.
But they’d had to leave home sooner than they’d planned. Marsi wouldn’t talk about it, but something had changed with Uncle trying to get her to marry Mero, his nephew. Mero wasn’t any sort of cousin because Uncle wasn’t really their uncle. He was their stepmom’s brother-in-law. But he acted like king of the entire extended family.
The first time Uncle told Marsi she was marrying Mero, she’d joked she’d rather have a wife—though Lusi was pretty sure it wasn’t actually a joke, while Lusi didn’t want to marry anyone ever. And then not long after that, Marsi had ended up with bruises all over her arms that she wouldn’t talk about, but that was when she started talking about running away.
The plan had always been the two of them going together. Marsi wouldn’t even consider leaving Lusi behind, not with Uncle’s angry scheming and everyone treating Lusi like she was crazy and stupid. Lusi missed their dad, but he was still so lost from their mom dying when Lusi was born and didn’t seem to notice the way Uncle was ruining everything.
But Lusi and Marsi were a team. They always had been. But now Lusi didn’t see Marsi, and that weird cold buzzing feeling got colder. It buzzed like a whole hive of bees. She started to shake.
Lusi was late, she knew it. Shirla had distracted her too much, she’d taken too long. But when the fountain where Lusi and Marsi were supposed to meet came into view, Lusi stopped abruptly because Marsi wasn’t there waiting for her. Lusi shrank in on herself—slouching, ducking her head, folding her arms in against her body and tucking them under her travel cloak—and eased back into the crowd around one of the vendor tables. Her gaze darted around the crowds in the square, looking for the familiar tall, broad build of her sister with the long dark braid.
No, no braid. Marsi had never been allowed short hair before, so their first night on the run she’d cut her braid right off. Her dark hair was a short choppy mess, a little longer on the top. Lusi scanned again, but didn’t see anyone even closely resembling Marsi.
But then she saw something that made her heartbeat race and the buzz go so cold she was numb, like she floated up over the hard-packed dirt of the lane. The pale bald head and short blocky frame of Uncle. How had he caught up to them so fast? The first place Marsi had brought them was a hub with six roads leading in and out of it. How could he possibly have known?
And then a thought that made the buzz ring in Lusi’s ears. What if he knew where they were going? Would he have guessed they’d go straight to the Guild? Marsi had never talked about it—all of their plans had been secret things whispered softly in the dead of night with their destination not revealed by Marsi until they’d left. But both girls were wizards good enough to train, good enough to someday be in the Guild—Marsi was a full elemental and a healer while Lusi was a terramancer and… whatever it was that made her see ghosts.
Away from home and their usual mentors, t he Guild itself was the only place they could go for their exams.
The caravan taking them north to the Guild was on the other end of the market square with Uncle directly between it and where Lusi stood shaking. And the caravan was leaving. The wagons were packed up and everyone was getting into them, a routine that had become familiar to Lusi over the last two days.
She had minutes left. Three at most.
Lusi wrapped her arms around herself and stared between Uncle and the caravan. He still had his back to her and there was still a good crowd. Maybe…
Without even thinking about it, she plunged forward, sticking to the edges near the vendor tables and the people milling around them and moving as quickly as she could. She had to get to the caravan. That had to be where Marsi had gone.
Before
The big table in the front room was where Lusi’s stepmom, Lida, did all her seamstressing. Lusi sat across from her and painstakingly stitched a new hem panel onto her pants. Getting the stitching as straight as possible wouldn’t stop the kids at school from teasing her—the patchwork clothing style was common but mostly among kids who couldn’t afford to buy something new or even get hand-me-downs with each new growth spurt—but Lusi wanted to look as neat as possible.
The less she did to draw attention to herself the better.
Marsi got new clothes when she needed them but was so much taller and broader than Lusi that hand-me-downs had ceased being an option ages ago. The family could afford new clothes, but Lida insisted Lusi learn how to repair her own. Lusi didn’t know why Marsi didn’t have to repair her clothing, but it probably had something to do with the way everyone else thought Lusi was a crazy freak.
Marsi was in the seat next to Lusi, books and parchment spread out before her as she did schoolwork. She had her final tests coming soon. She’d be done school in another season. Their stepbrother, Lio, wasn’t around—he never was—off somewhere being a menace and adding a new layer of dirt to his general filthiness.
And Dad was at work, sweeping up after one of the local craftsmen who was a friend of Uncle’s.
Lusi and Marsi were the only wizards in the family, having inherited their magical talents from their mother, who had been a teacher until she died along with Lusi’s twin brother the day Lusi was born. Her birthdays always ended up being sombre.
Lida’s face was pinched in concentration as she worked, laying out a pattern and occasionally pushing a strand of her greying brown hair out of her hazel eyes, never speaking or looking up at either girl. And even though Lida wasn’t using the sewing machine right now, Lusi was still not allowed to use it to make her own chore go faster. The silence was uneasy, but it always had been for as long as Lusi could remember, and so she barely noticed anymore. Marsi did notice, because she remembered, just barely, the days before Lida came into their lives, and the silence of their father had been a sad thing, but still one full of love.
Lusi was a bit surprised Marsi was around today. She found as many reasons as she could to be out of the apartment—chores, school, taking on as many odd jobs as she could.
The apartment door burst open and Uncle marched in, startling Lusi who poked herself in the finger with the needle. Lusi forgot all about her injured finger and shrank deeper into her seat, trying to make herself small as possible, hoping he would overlook her today. His sharp, pale blue gaze always saw too much.
As much as Dad seemed like a living ghost with his faraway gaze, long silences and sad smiles, Lusi would give anything to have him here now. Uncle was always more tolerable when Dad was around. But Uncle rarely came around when Dad was home.
Whatever thing Uncle had said to Lida in his booming voice had been lost to panic as Lusi went still, holding her breath and desperate to go unnoticed. Uncle clapped Lida on the shoulder, and she sat stiff in her chair, her work set aside. The two of them had the same olive skin tone—like many of the neighbours did—but even though Uncle acted like they were siblings and best friends, Lida’s pinched face said she didn’t like Uncle anymore than Lusi did.
“Oh, you don’t have to take it so seriously!” Uncle said, waving a dismissive hand at the fabric spread across the table. “You don’t need the work! You know I’ll always take care of you.”
“Of course.” Lida smiled, small and tight.
“Ah, but here’s the family’s brilliant star!” Uncle moved around the table to stand behind Marsi, looking over her shoulder at her books. “Going to outshine your whole class, eh?”
“Yes, Uncle,” Marsi said automatically.
“With a sharp mind like yours, you’ve got to use it.” There was a pause and Lusi kept staring at the half-finished pants in front of her, but she knew Uncle was looking at her. He sniffed like some animal had just pooped on the floor, but then he was back to Marsi, leaving Lusi alone.
Uncle leaned on the back of Marsi’s chair, his voice low like the two of them were sharing a secret when he said, “I know what it’s like. It’s hard being the best. We’ve got to watch out for each other to stay sharp.”
Marsi gripped her quill so hard her hand went white. She made a couple of quick notations and then shuffled the papers away and slammed the books closed in quick, efficient movements.
“Yes, well, I can’t neglect my duties, even if it is to keep my mind sharp. Lusi and I have to clean the rugs today.”
Marsi sprang from her chair and swiftly gathered up the rugs in the front room. Lusi knew better than to be stuck alone with Uncle. She slid out of her seat and scuttled after her sister, who only paused once in the doorway to make sure Lusi was following.
Neither of them said a word until after the first of the rugs had been hung in the building’s courtyard. Both girls dragged their hands across the rugs, starting at the top, and using their magic to dislodge the dirt. The magic tingled through Lusi’s hands, cool and rough like digging in sand. Marsi could do magic with all of the elements and healing too, but Lusi was a terramancer and could only do things with earth. That made it handy when it came time to clean.
“I didn’t think Uncle was that bad today,” Lusi ventured. “He even left me alone!”
“He’s not really being honest,” Marsi said slowly.
“It didn’t seem like he was lying about anything—you are smart!”
Marsi blew out a large breath and ran her hand over her dark hair. Marsi was like their dad, with straight black hair and hazel eyes. All three of them had the same light brown skin, but Lusi had long fuzzy brown hair and dark brown eyes. Everyone said she looked like her mom.
“It’s not that I’m not smart. It’s the way he says it, like he’s the only one who sees how smart I am. He says he knows what it’s like for me, but he doesn’t. That’s the part that’s a lie. And he’s…” Marsi put her hands on her hips and glared across the courtyard at nothing. “He wants me to believe he’s the only one who understands. He wants me to believe that he and Mero are the only ones who see my worth so I fool myself into believing they’re the only ones I can depend on.”
“So he’s telling weird lies so that… what? That you trust him?”
“Not just that I trust him, but that I trust only him—over you and Dad and Lida and anyone else.”
“Well that’s stupid. I didn’t think Uncle was stupid.”
Marsi sighed and went back to dragging her hands across the rug. “Uncle’s not stupid, that’s the problem. He thinks he’s smarter than me, but he’s not. I think he’s starting to realize that and so he’s getting desperate. And if he can’t trick me into trusting him and going to marry Mero…”
“What? They can’t make you do anything you don’t want to. Dad would never let him!”
Marsi pressed her lips together and scratched the top of her head. “I don’t know that Dad would see what was going on until it was too late.”
“Okay but everyone has to get married, would Mero be that bad?”
Marsi gave her a sudden look. “No one has to ever get married. Remember Auntie Kami at the end of the block?”
“With all the dogs?”
