Chapter 8: Zombies & Honeycakes

Seeking feedback on my work-in-process novel, Jack and the Beanstalk Cafe.

Start from the beginning: Chapter 1

Previous Chapter: Chapter 7

Where we left off: Gillian invites Jack to stay the night on her sofa. Gillian decides to help him translate his runes to English so Philomena can find someone to reverse engineer the spell and prevent anyone from ever lifting the Vampire King’s curse.

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Gillian

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When the breakfast crowd thinned, Gillian quickly scrawled a few translations on Jack’s research papers and grabbed a fresh pot of tea from the kitchen before going upstairs.

Gillian knocked on the door–she’d learned her lesson– and entered her flat. She found Jack sitting in the center of her rug, surrounded on all sides by his papers and a pen in hand. He looked up with a smile that brought out his dimple.

“Gill! I think I’ve got something!” Jack gestured to the floor next to him. “Come here and look.”

Gillian set the steaming pot of tea on the side table and gingerly picked her way through his papers strewn across the floor. She sank down in the small space he had cleared beside him until they were both sitting cross-legged, with knees almost touching.

“Sorry, I didn't get very far on the translations,” she started. “The cafe was busier than I—“

“Don’t worry about it,” Jack cut her off. “I was able to make a lot of progress on my half.”

“Your half?”

“You didn’t think I was going to make you do all my work did you?” Jack replied with a laugh. “Look, I found a whole phrase!”

Gillian felt like an idiot. Of course he had a second set of translation keys. Philomena’s fireplace idea was out.

“It says ‘punctus septentrionalissimus trium.’ It means—”

It was Gillian’s turn to interrupt. “‘The north of three points,’” she translated.

“Well…yes. How did you know that?”

“Um, I took Latin A levels,” she said. It wasn’t much of a lie. Her father grew up speaking Latin and forced her to learn. Time in the dungeons was a great motivator to remember her declensions and conjugations. She rolled her neck to shake off the memory.

Jack looked at her. “It took me all morning to translate that from the Anglo-Saxon symbols to Latin and then to English. And you just know Latin off the top of your head? Can you actually speak Latin, too? Say something!”

“Like what?” she asked warily. “Non Gillian mihi nomen est. Gill mihi nomen est.”

Jack grinned even wider, if that was possible. “This is amazing!” He leaned over and gave her shoulder a light bump with his. “You’re full of surprises.”

Gillian was suddenly very aware of how close they were sitting. She could smell the apple scent in Jack’s hair, a hint of bergamot on his breath, something like citrus that must be from his detergent… And then there was the ever present aroma of salt and iron, normally muted, that now assaulted her senses.

Her pupils dilated and a sharp pain ran through her canines. But there was something else, too. The heady combination of scents and warmth from Jack’s shoulder made her stomach flip and her chest ache. Her cheeks heated and she leaned away from him without meeting his eye.

“But what does that mean? ‘The north of three points?’” she repeated.

Jack cleared his throat before answering, “I’m not sure, but at least this proves I was right about these drawings having a hidden meaning. I’ll keep going on the translations and you can help with the Latin. Having a walking, talking Latin dictionary is going to save so much time!”

Gillian rolled her eyes, thankful for the break in tension. “I have to get back to the cafe. I’ll check on you later,” she said. “I brought you a fresh pot of Earl Grey. Do you need anything else?”

“Just that amazing brain of yours,” he said with a wink.

“Zombies actually aren’t allowed in the Beanstalk,” Gillian replied before leaving Jack to his research.

***

The dining room was empty except for a lycanthrope napping in the sunlit corner by the window and Philomena restocking the pastry display with a fresh batch of raspberry lemon muffins.

“We made some progress on the rune,” Gillian said.

“Good, good. Can you hand me that tray?” Philomena gestured toward a victoria sponge cake, lightly dusted with sugar, that was on the counter near Gillian.

“So, how did you know the witch who made the rune?” Gillian asked while passing the cake to Philomena.

The gnome put the cake in the glass display cabinet and turned toward Gillian with her hands resting lightly on her hips.

“Well, Alice was a friend,” she said with a small smile. “Her husband ran a tavern in Kilkenny where I stayed while working with the leprechauns.”

Philomena pulled herself up to sit on the countertop behind her and gave Gillian a grin. “She was a mighty powerful witch and her husband had no idea. A human, can you believe it?”

“But wouldn’t a human age much faster than a witch?” Gillian asked, her mind drifting inexplicably to Jack.

What does he have to do with this?

“Oh, yes,” Philomena agreed. “I told her she was playing with fire. She and her children would outlive him by hundreds of years. But you have to understand, back then, the humans were hunting witches.” Philomena’s smile dropped.

“It was a dangerous time for all our kind. And Alice– well, she thought having a husband who was recognized in the community would protect her. It might have worked for a few more years, but then, of course, she got herself wrapped up with your father.”

“What happened?” Gillian rarely heard stories about her dad from before he turned her.

“The Black Death happened. Well, that’s what the humans called it. That’s what we called it too, but we knew what it really was– the Vampire King.” Her voice was dripping with disdain now.

“This was 1348, when your father was trying to overthrow the previous Vampire Count. He created so many new vampires to build himself up an army… but once he’d killed Dracula– well, the fresh vampires still needed somewhere to feed.” Her face twisted with disgust. “He shipped them to Ireland and just dumped them at the port.”

“Oh my gods,” Gillian whispered, her hand over her mouth.

“The gods couldn’t help us, child. The vampires spread like wildfire. Whole communities were destroyed overnight. Humans, mostly. But it didn’t stop there– no one was safe. For five years this went on.”

Philomena took a steadying breath before continuing. “Alice was terrified. She had a young son and she would have done anything for him. She made the plan to create the runes to track your father down and strip him of his ability to create more vampires.”

“If she was so powerful, why didn’t she just kill him?” Gillian interrupted.

“I wanted to know the same thing. She told me some ridiculous story– said, everyone deserves a chance to make the right choice.” Philomena waved a dismissive hand. “Well, that didn't work out for her, did it?”

“What do you mean?”

“The Vampire King caught wind of her plan. Came to Ireland to hunt her down and stop her from activating the runes.” Philomena crossed her arms. “She was so scared. She came to find me in my room one night, dragging along one of her neighbor friends. Some human woman. She begged me to protect them. The human also had a child and agreed to take Alice’s baby and run away, in case the worst should happen.”

Philomena’s hands twisted in her lap. “I performed one of the most powerful concealment spells I’ve ever done– no one was going to find and hurt that child. I don’t think even I could have broken through that shield. But I should have insisted Alice go under it, too. She said her rune wouldn’t work if she were under the spell but…”

She trailed off, a vacant look in her eyes.

“Phi?”

“Alice disappeared. The rune worked– obviously. She saved us. But something happened to her. There were rumors– people said she ran off to England. But I searched. She’d once mentioned some family friend– a Sir Hunger-something whom she knew in England. He hadn’t heard from her. She was supposedly spotted in Flanders once. But that was a deadend, too.”

Philomena’s brow furrowed. “I just know the Vampire King did something to her.”

Gillian reached out her hand to rest on Philomena’s arm. “I’m sorry, Phi.”

“Yes, well,” Philomena said, brushing off Gillian’s hand and standing abruptly. “Let’s just get that rune figured out before your father gets his hands on it.”

***

Gillian and Jack spent the rest of the day working on the translation– Jack converted the symbols to letters while Gillian worked in the cafe, and Gillian translated the letters to English on her breaks. When the cafe finally closed in the evening, Jack came downstairs to continue his project while Gillian wiped tables and balanced the till.

“I have another phrase ready for you, Gill,” Jack called over to her from a table by the cafe’s counter.

Gillian looked up from where she stood, counting money in the cash register, and waited for Jack to continue.

“‘Tria simul puncta, frangit incantatio. Duo simul puncta, facit incantatio.’”

“‘Three points together, the incantation does break. Two points together the incantation–’” Gillian stopped when she realized what she’d said. The incantation! The one thing she was trying to keep Jack from discovering and she let it slip!

“The incantation? What does that mean? Is this some kind of witchcraft symbol?” Jack asked.

“Um, hold on. Let me look at what you have written. Latin can be tricky,” Gillian said and came around the counter to Jack’s table. She stood behind him and leaned over his shoulder to look at the translation.

“Ah, yes. Right here,” she pointed out where he had written incantatio– which most definitely meant incantation. “This word has a few meanings, it most likely means ‘charming’ or ‘enchanting’ in this context,” she finished.

“‘Three points together, the charming does break’? That makes even less sense,” Jack said.

“Like I said, Latin is an odd language and the meaning of words sometimes depend on the context of the situation. Maybe this means that combining three points will not be charming, or you know, not good?” Gillian finished lamely. She knew her argument didn’t make much sense but she hoped Jack would buy it.

“Let’s look at everything we’ve done so far today. If context matters, maybe we can get a big picture view,” Jack said and they looked at his translation together.

The north of three points.

Three points together the incantation does break. Two points together the incantation does make.

The north point finds. The east point brings death. The west point brings death.

“It must be some type of spell,” Jack said after a moment. “There isn’t much known about cultural superstitions during this period. This is an amazing find,” Jack finished excitedly.

“Aren’t there still, like, one hundred fifty more symbols to translate? Let’s finish that before we get ahead of ourselves.”

Gillian’s chest tightened as Jack deflated at her words, his shoulders slumped. She had her own reasons for solving the rune, but she couldn’t let Jack tell anyone else about his findings. If word got out about this, her father would hunt them down and use the rune to break his curse.

Gillian returned to her work at the counter as Jack hunched over his paperwork again. She was finishing up her closing duties when the front door of the cafe opened.

“We’re closed!” Gillian said in a rush. She had been foolish to leave the door unlocked with the human out in the open. Alban the Wise walked in and closed the door behind himself.

“It’s only me,” he called out to her. “Ah, if it isn’t your muffin emergency,” he said with a wink as he walked over to Jack’s table.

“Your what?” Jack looked up at the ancient elf.

“Nothing,” Gillian said quickly. “Al, why don’t you go to the back and check on Phi.” The cook was still busy in the kitchen cleaning up and promised to stay out of sight while Jack was downstairs.

“What are you working on there, son?” Al said to Jack, ignoring Gillian entirely.

“I’m Jack,” he said, holding out his hand to the elf, who shook it eagerly. “I’m working on my doctorate on early Roman alphabets and Gill here is helping me with the Latin translations,” he explained.

“Gillian,” Gillian corrected automatically.

“Do you mind?” Alban asked, as he sat down beside him and picked up the paper Jack was working on. “Hmm, looks like you need to head over to London Bridge.”

Gillian and Jack stared at Alban, who looked back at them blankly.

“Al, what are you talking about?”

“Well, right here,” he pointed to Jack’s latest translation. “‘Mortem si quaeris, ad praetorium occidentale prope forum Londiniī exitium tuum inveniēs.’”

Gillian quickly translated the phrase to English, “‘If death is what you seek, find your demise at the western palace near London forum.’ What does that have to do with the London Bridge?”

“Hold on, who are you people? Is this a Latin translators guild or something?” Jack said with a grin.

Alban gave him a wink and said, “a long time ago, the London forum was the city center– itt was the place to be. And it was just north of where the London Bridge is today.”

“History buff, eh?” Jack said, “Why would a cave drawing in Derby give us directions to a palace in London?”

“Gillian’s Latin is a bit rusty.” Alban ignored Gillian’s eye roll. “Praetorium is better translated as headquarters. Back then, there was an officers’ station by the honeycake shop, just west of the forum.”

“You really know your Roman history,” Jack said. “I’ve never seen any mention of Roman honeycake shops in London.”

“They were delicious,” Alban said dreamily.

Gillian’s eyes widened and she watched Jack warily but he only laughed.

“I could go for a honeycake right now, whatever that is,” Jack said. “But how does knowing all of this information help us? Whatever was at the headquarters is long gone by now. There’s probably a Starbucks there.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, Jack,” Alban said with a wink while Gillian brought over a plate of lemon poppyseed cake. “There was a church built over the site of the praetorium, and that church is still there. It’s the All-Hallows-by-the-Tower. You might just find what you’re looking for.”

“But what are we looking for, anyway?” Gillian said as she pulled a chair over to their table and tucked in between the two men. “‘If death is what you seek, find your demise at the praetorium’? That doesn’t sound ominous at all,” she finished sardonically.

“Come on, Gill. We have to go.” Jack took out his mobile and looked up the church that was now standing over the praetorium. “There are free tours starting at 10:30 a.m. tomorrow.”

Alban gave Gillian a pointed look.

“Are there any night tours?”

Next Chapter: Chapter 9