LITMIR.BIZ

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said. “That’s a sight I might even pay to see.”

      “Don’t get out your money just yet,” Ellen said. “I don’t blush easy.”

      Harris amusingly grinned, and without saying the pun that was clearly on his mind, he said, “Anyway, we do need to shift the subject to our niece. She needs a name.”

      “I was thinking Paige,” Ellen said, which brought a grin across Allyson’s face.

      Harris mulled it over for a brief moment before responding with, “Paige is a fine name… it’s even the name of Allyson’s mother. But is there any reason that you’re suggesting the name Paige?”

      Ellen glanced at Allyson before saying, “She’s a page from my grandpa’s life.”

      “How so?” Harris questioned.

      “She has my grandpa’s birthmark,” Ellen said. Harris stared at Ellen as if she was a ghost. “Wh-what? Did I say something wrong?”

      “Your grandpa had the moon-stars birthmark?!” Harris demanded to know.

      “Yeah, it’s a trait within my dad’s side of the family that gets passed down from parent to child; however, it didn’t get passed down to my dad or his twin brother.”

      “The birthmark reappeared because Tanya and Mike both had the recessive gene for it,” Allyson suggested.

      When a disquieting expression came across Harris’s face, Ellen asked, “What’s going on?”

      “Ellen, what do you know about the moon-stars birthmark?” Harris prompted.

      “It’s cool looking,” Ellen said as she looked towards her niece.

      “Yes, there’s that,” Harris agreed. Ellen turned back towards Harris. “But have you ever heard the phrase ‘the mark of Merlin’ or ‘the Merlin’s mark’?”

      Ellen slowly shook her head before asking, “Is that a book?”

      “The name of the birthmark that our niece has is actually called ‘the mark of Merlin’ and it originated in England more than a millennium ago.”

      “How do you know this?” Ellen quickly asked.

      “My ancestors had carried the mark of Merlin as well,” Harris said.

      “Would that make you and Ellen blood relatives?” Jane asked Harris.

      “Our common ancestor is too far in the distant past for us to be considered blood relatives,” Harris assured Jane.

      “How can you be so sure?” Ellen asked.

      “Look at the darkest freckle to our niece’s birthmark,” Harris prompted.

      “Okay, what about it?”

      “The darkest freckle remains constant from parent to child and in my family’s line the one clockwise to it was the darkest,” Harris explained.

      “Okay, well, why is the birthmark called the mark of Merlin?” Ellen asked.

      Harris shot a worried glance at Jane before saying, “I hope you and Jane are open-minded.”

      Ellen and Jane gave Harris baffled looks as Ellen said, “I believe I have an open mind.”

      “Okay, here’s what I know,” Harris said before turning towards Allyson. “Oh and I will be making long distant calls— possibly many of them—to London to find out what I don’t know.”

      Allyson amusingly grinned before saying, “Perhaps your parents can tell us more about it once they get here.”

      “Maybe, but I think it would be my grandmother who would know more about it. Anyway, here’s what I know.” Harris then restated what he had told Allyson for Ellen and Jane to hear.

      Ellen’s eyes grew wide, and once Harris was done she asked, “So our niece is a wizard?”

      “Well, for a girl I think the proper term is a sorceress, but yeah,” Harris confirmed.

      “And my family’s line has… had anyway, the power over the beasts?”

      Harris nodded while saying, “Correct.”

      “Is that why birds, rabbits, mice and squirrels don’t seem to be afraid of me, and why every stray dog around my house comes to me all willy-nilly while wagging its tail every time I’m in sight of one?”

      Harris gave Ellen a curious look before saying, “In my understanding, you have to recite a one-time incantation to activate your power over the beasts, and I thought that the ability would be forever lost once the birthmark had vanished from the family’s line.”

      “I have actually seen a sparrow land on Ellen’s head one day,” Jane began. “So perhaps the animals not fearing Ellen is a residual trait.”

      “I’m definitely going to be calling my grandmother about this,” Harris announced.

      “In the meantime, this baby girl still needs a name,” Allyson pointed out.

      “Yes,” Harris quickly agreed.

      “What was your great-grandmother’s name?” Ellen asked. “The one who had carried the mark of Merlin?”

      “Sonya Rosemary Clifton,” Harris replied.

      “Then I propose that we name our niece Sonya Paige… Anderson,” Ellen suggested.

      Harris grinned before saying, “That sounds like an excellent name.”

      “It does,” Allyson agreed.

      Ellen grinned just before a thought had occurred to her. “Wait! If Sonya is a sorceress then would she be a good sorceress or an evil one?”

      “And there lies the root of my worry,” Harris said.

      Everyone shot Harris a curious look as Ellen asked, “What do you mean?”

      “From Merlin’s time to modern times—in the Fire and Water line alone—there have been good sorcerer-slash-sorceress, bad ones, angels and even the devil incarnate.”

      “So in other words, spin the wheel and the choices are angel, devil and everywhere in between,” Ellen replied.

      “Exactly,” Harris confirmed.

      “Great!” Ellen sarcastically uttered.

      “What was your grandfather like?” Jane asked.

      Ellen shrugged before saying, “From the stories I’ve been told he definitely wasn’t an angel, but he wasn’t the ‘go out of your way to hurt someone’ type either. So I’ll guess that he was near the center of the two extremes. Of course that could’ve been different though if he would’ve known that he was a wizard. And speaking of being a wizard… or even a sorceress, once Sonya is old enough, will she be able to perform magic or—if it really exists—witchcraft?”

      “Witches and warlocks do exist,” Harris began. “And Sonya would still have to learn the incantation to any spell as any other witch or warlock would, but by her being a sorceress, her magic-casting ability will be greatly better than theirs. In fact, many witches and warlocks are actually the children, the grandchildren and so on of a wizard or a sorceress.”

      “So if I wanted to study witchcraft, how powerful could I become?” Ellen asked curiously.

      “Way to go, Harris,” Harris scolded himself. Everyone shot him a curious look. “Putting dangerous ideas in a teenager’s head.”

      “Learning the truth just makes me wonder,” Ellen retorted. “And since the idea is there, how powerful can I become?”

      Harris slightly sighed before saying, “As a witch, you would be two… perhaps even three times more powerful than anyone not descended from Merlin…”

      “Cool!”

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