by Guy Antibes
The bridge wasn’t any worse than usual. Jack would have liked to have used the ice spell, but the river ran too hard to make that practical. He let Fasher go over first. The bridge creaked and protested the weight in its own way. Corina lightly made her way over the bridge as if it were made out of stone. Jack was probably the heaviest of the three.
He stepped out onto the planks, and his next step broke a rotting board. Jack had to scramble back to the edge and try again. The bridge continued to complain until Jack worked his way two-thirds of the way across. The bridge began to shift as one of the posts broke away.
Jack shook his head and teleported the rest of the way across. “That was stupid I could have gotten us all across the river.”
“It was more fun this way,” Corina said. She didn’t seem to express any fear, at least not yet.
Fasher smirked.
Jack sighed and led them toward the Winder house. Jack’s mother was harvesting something from their back garden and turned her head. The change in her expression from fear to wonder that her son had arrived warmed Jack’s heart until she opened her mouth.
“What are you doing here?” she said. “She began to rant by putting her hands on her hips. “Do you realize what you brought to Raker Falls?” Her voice wasn’t raised, but she got her point across.
“I’m here to get rid of them.”
“You and who else? That Tanner Simple tried, and he’s in bed being treated for burns along with Helen, that girlfriend of his.”
“Penny?” Jack asked.
Her mother’s anger instantly deflated. “Still out. Helen still manages to care for her, but I’ve been helping more after the woman got singed by the wizards.”
“If you permit me to go inside, I’d like to do what I can,” Fasher said.
“Oh, I forgot,” Jack’s mother said. The anger suddenly disappeared. “You all go in, but stay away from the front windows. The wizards patrol the streets.”
They entered the house. Jack took a deep breath and inhaled the aroma of home. He had only spent a few minutes at home when he first arrived from Passoran, but this time, he could go up to his room.
“Show me where Penny is first,” Fasher said.
“With my children gone, I have plenty of space.” The woman sighed. Jack had heard that sigh too many times when he was the only one still at home. “She has the first-floor bedroom.”
Jack led the way. She looked pale and small in the bed. Someone had combed her hair, and she wore a white nightgown that made her look corpse-like.
“We had to move her here from her home when the wizards kicked her family out of their home. Her family didn’t want her in the inn, not in the state she’s in now.”
Jack nodded. Fasher gently pushed him aside. He grabbed a chair and placed it next to the bed.
“Hold my hand,” Fasher said. “I don’t need it for what I’m going to do, but I want to feel your power.”
Jack did as he was asked. The wizard nodded his head. “What do you think?” Jack asked.
“It is as you suspected. Penny took in your power and didn’t properly let it pass through her. That is why you were able to help Myra but not Penny. Hold her hand this time.”
Jack did as Fasher asked. The wizard took Jack’s wrist and Penny’s wrist in each hand and closed his eyes. He muttered a word under his breath, and Jack suddenly felt filled like he had consumed a barrel of ale, except this time, he was full of power. He let go of Penny’s hand and let the power equalize. Jack didn’t think about what he was doing, but the power went somewhere. He had no idea where.
“I sort of let it go through me, but I don’t know where it went,” Jack said, saying what he had been thinking.
“Back to where it came. The ability to channel power in both directions is what makes you unique as a helper.”
Jack suspected there was more, but he had learned enough for now. He leaned over Fasher to look at Penny. Fasher slapped her hand, and her eyes fluttered open.
“Where am I?” she said. Her voice could hardly be heard.
“In my house,” Jack said. “I’ve retrieved Fasher and Corina while you’ve been asleep.”
“Asleep? I haven’t been asleep. You overdid your spell,” she said, staring at Jack.
“Whatever you say,” Jack said back. “You need to get up and walk around.”
“No,” Penny said.
Jack shook his head and left the room. She wouldn’t listen to him, he realized. He sat down on a bench in the hall, thoroughly relieved that Fasher was able to bring Penny back. He wouldn’t show it in front of Penny, but he took some deep breaths, grateful that Fasher knew exactly what to do. How the wizard did it, Jack had no idea, but it worked perfectly.
He walked upstairs to look at his room and opened the door to Helen, sitting at Tanner’s side. They were holding hands. Jack was about to withdraw. He only hoped the heat in Helen’s cheeks didn’t start a fire.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
~
“D on’t go!” Tanner said. “Is Fasher with you?”
“And Corina. Penny is already conscious, thanks to him. How are you two?” Jack looked at Helen, who looked fit enough.
“Better than we let on,” Tanner said. He sat up. “Helen is better than I am. I ran out of my energy rods.” He rummaged around in Jack’s bedside table and handed three rods to Jack. “I still need a bit of help.”
Jack sat and powered a rod while he told them about his trip to the village. He wasn’t too far with the second when Fasher and Corina crowded into Jack’s formerly private space.
Fasher hugged Helen and took Tanner’s hand into both of his. “I’ll work on you first. You look like you can stay awake long enough to tell us what is going on.”
“Jack first. He was at the point when he reached the village.”
Fasher told the village story, while Jack finished with the second rod and grabbed the third.
Corina ended telling about the trip home and ended with Jack destroying the bridge out the back and finally realizing he could teleport across the river. Everyone laughed at Jack, of course.
He tried to take it without comment. “I got them back safe and sound, didn’t I?” he finally said as he tossed the third rod into Tanner’s lap. “Your turn.”
Helen’s story wasn’t much different from Jack’s mother’s account.
“Myra seemed to have changed her outlook some, but the Black Fingers were able to coerce her again. Our friend Ferrio didn’t perish at the abbey. He is strutting through the village streets along with the worst of them.”
Jack nodded. “Do you have any ideas about what we should do?”
“There are thirteen of them,” Helen said.
“Fifteen, counting Myra and the monk that came with you.” Tanner held a healing rod in each hand. He closed his eyes and laid back. “That feels good.”
Fasher snorted and walked over to the bed, gently pushing Helen out of the way, and took Tanner’s wrist. “Not too bad. Hold tight.”
Whatever Fasher did made Tanner gasp. He removed one of the rods from Tanner’s hand. “You are overdoing it, my friend.”
The wizard let go with a flourish. “There, now the healing rods will do more than make you feel good,” he said a bit derisively.
Tanner’s eyebrows rose. “You are right. I feel like a new man.”
“I’ll take the old one,” Helen said, making everyone laugh.
“Back to our problem.” Fasher took the rod and laid it on the dresser. “One at a time is best.”
Tanner sighed, but he looked at Helen.
“They go on regular patrols. There are three of them together. One group goes one direction and the other patrols in the opposite direction.”
“So we can take each patrol out which leaves us with nine,” Jack said.
Helen nodded. “You always were a little too fast with the ideas. We have to be able to keep the remaining group in Penny’s house as long as possible, so the wizards don’t start ki
lling people.”
“I can take care of that,” Fasher said. “I won’t attack anyone, but I certainly can restrain them for a bit.”
“Can I help?” Corina asked.
“No. You will have to help with one of the patrols.”
“Penny knows how to throw wizard bolts.”
Fasher inhaled. “And you taught her something she shouldn’t have learned, at least not yet.”
Everyone was certainly back to their old roles, now that they had returned to Raker Falls.
“There aren’t any other trained wizards in Raker Falls,” Helen said.
Jack looked at Fasher and then looked at Tanner. “Maybe there is one,” Jack said.
“Not me, I gave all that stuff up. Remember, I was immune to the coercion spell.”
“Because of the charm I gave you,” Fasher said.
Tanner’s eyes grew. “You promised you’d never tell.”
“Some promises are made to be broken, my friend,” Fasher said. “We have to save the village, and you will be recovered well enough to practice a few spells tomorrow morning before we go Black Finger hunting.”
Tanner moaned.
“Did you know Tanner was a wizard?” Jack asked Helen.
She nodded. “I wouldn’t dare tell anyone, but since you all know…” She patted Tanner’s hand. “My little wizard.”
Her being so open with her comments, startled Jack. Their relationship was a secret, or so he thought. Maybe it was a secret only to him. He thought of Helen and Lark but decided the complications that pairing caused was better forgotten.
“Penny wants to get out of bed,” Jack’s mother said, calling from downstairs.
“You go, Jack,” Fasher said.
A groan involuntarily emerged from Jack as he trudged down the stairs.
“I want Helen,” Penny said when Jack entered the room.
“She is occupied with Tanner and Fasher at present, so you’ve got me. How can I help?”
Penny made a disagreeable face but ended it with a sigh. “I am too weak to walk. I need some help.”
Jack helped her sit up. Even sitting up, she wasn’t too stable, but Jack spotted a healing rod. He grabbed it and charged it up.
“Here hold onto this while I help you stand.”
Penny took the rod without a word. Jack had to be a little familiar with Penny as he supported her on one side. She got to her feet, but most of her stability was from Jack.
They walked around to the other side of the bed, where Penny collapsed into his arms. “Am I your hero?” Jack asked.
Penny ignored the comment and found enough strength to stand on her own, but then she leaned over and fell on the bed. Jack helped get her straightened out and tucked her in.
“I suppose that is enough for now.”
“We do it again in half an hour. I can’t wait weeks to get better,” she said, grasping the healing rod.
Jack thought of something. “I’ll be right back.”
He ran upstairs. Helen was repeating her version of the Passoranian story and stopped when Jack showed up at the door.
“Can I give Penny the healing spell directly?” Jack asked.
“You can if you go easy. Try not to overload her this time,” Fasher said.
Jack padded back to Penny’s room. The girl had fallen asleep, but Jack took her hand and rubbed it for a minute while he thought about how to deliver the spell more slowly.
“That feels good,” Penny said, raising her eyes lazily. “Keep it up.”
Jack felt embarrassed all of a sudden, holding her hand, and he dropped it. “Just a moment,” he said.
He closed his eyes, imagining the spell, and opened them. He took her hand again and delivered the spell as gently as he could, focusing on giving Penny strength more than healing.
She moaned and closed her eyes. She shifted her body a bit, and her breath fell into an easy rhythm.
“That should be enough,” Jack said.
“It isn’t, but I feel better. Let’s try walking again.”
Jack stood and helped her up. She was much more stable than before. They walked carefully down the hallway. Penny wasn’t about to run, but she was stable all the way back. Jack tucked her into bed again.
“Thank you,” Penny said. She gave Jack’s hand a squeeze and closed her eyes.
Jack stood in front of the slumbering Penny, perplexed about the spell. It seemed to work too well, and some of it seemed to reflect its soothing properties back into him.
He trudged up the stairs. “She is better. The spell seemed to work.”
“I peeked when you reached the end of the hallway by the stairs. I’d say you did it as well as I would,” Fasher said.
Jack nodded. “Any more ideas?” He rubbed his hands, trying to get the calming feeling to go away.
“No. The more we involve the villagers, the more they will get hurt. Tanner and Helen will need to get into my house to retrieve enough armor so they won’t get so burned this time.”
“I know what burning is all about,” Jack said. “I still have burns that haven’t healed yet.”
“Let’s go over our plan a few times,” Helen said.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
~
J ack gave Penny a treatment every half hour until dark. It was an endurance test, Jack thought. He could tell how much better she felt by the number of insults she threw at him.
They ate their dinner in various places in the house. Corina ate with Penny, and Fasher consumed his meal with Tanner and Helen giving them another treatment right after. Jack, happily out of Penny’s bedroom, ate with his mother and father. He didn’t know if Penny or his parents were worse to be around at that moment.
Jack slept on the floor in his bedroom, enduring Tanner’s snoring, but in the morning, he changed into clean clothes and gave Penny another treatment.
This time she walked around the house and even did a bit of exercising. Fasher declared her fit to help fight the wizards, but she couldn’t run away.
Tanner and Helen were also ready to go. Jack would help them retrieve the armor and try to cleanse Ferrio, Torlo, and Myra from the Black Finger coercion spell. That was step one. If any Passoranian failed to respond properly, they would tie them up and gag them.
Another wizard on their side and one less on the enemy side was too big a chance to pass up.
Jack took them on side paths to Fasher’s house. It was a bit early for the patrols, so they made it to Fasher’s house without an incident. Fasher gave Jack his key so they could enter from the back door. Jack tried the key in the door and gently opened it.
The kitchen was empty. Jack took the door to his office storage space and told Tanner and Helen to stay while he invoked invisibility while he sought out the monk, the priest, and the priestess.
Torlo slept on the examination table in Fasher’s office. Jack let his power build and touched Torlo gently as he said, “Clean.”
The monk’s eyes opened. He looked at his blackened fingers and stared at Jack. “You’ve returned!”
“And we have work to do,” Jack said.
“The feather worked?”
Jack nodded. “And Penny is awake.”
“Ah,” Torlo looked relieved. “But we go from one problem to another,” he said brushing the smudges on his fingers on his monk’s robe.
Jack liked that Torlo included himself in dealing with the problem.
“Ferrio?”
Torlo shook his head. “He is well and truly converted. I’m not sure your spell will have an effect on him.”
“Myra?”
Torlo gave Jack a twisted grin. “Can anyone be sure about Myra?”
“I suppose not,” Jack said. “We have to give her a try.”
“I agree. Now that Fasher is here, she will want her money.”
“She will. I wonder if she hasn’t amassed a pile of Fasher’s possessions already.”
“Not yet, but she has talked about it,” Torlo said.
Jack wondered if he had turned the only available wizard of the three. “Where is Myra?”
“She evidently likes to sleep in. Ferrio now sleeps at the mansion.”
“Then let’s wake her up,” Jack said.
They crept up the stairs. The woman snored a bit, but Jack wouldn’t take any chances. He grabbed Torlo’s hand and invoked invisibility. He wasn’t sure if it worked, but they continued through the barely open door.
Myra sat up. “Who is in my room? I can smell, you know.”
Jack sighed. He hadn’t bathed since he arrived back in Raker Falls. He stepped over and grabbed Myra’s hand and said the trigger word. When he let go of her hand, the black came off on Jack’s fingers.
“Jack Winder has returned, eh?” Myra said. “I’m not one of the Black Fingers, at least not now.”
Jack reappeared with Torlo.
“You brought the monk,” she said. “He refused to sleep in Fasher Tempest’s room when Ferrio moved out a few days ago.”
“I see that as admirable,” Jack said.
“Suit yourself. This bed is more comfortable anyway. Give me a little privacy to change, will you?”
Jack closed the door, but he slipped to a window to see if Myra would climb out. He sighed as he saw the woman use a drainpipe to escape. She ran in the direction of the mansion, while Tanner and Helen watched the back door on the other side of the house.
“She should have asked a few questions if she had her wits about her.”
Jack shook his head. “I’ll treat her just like any of the others. I guess she figured the Black Fingers will prevail in Raker Falls.”
“What do you plan on doing?”
Jack told him their plan to take out the patrollers first and then attack the mansion.
“I’m glad the woman left. She claims to follow Grishel, but all she does is chase her own tail to find guidance in her life,” Torlo said.
“I hope she enjoys whatever wealth she stole, for she won’t have it long,” Jack said. “She has betrayed me four times. I think that is enough, don’t you?”
“Grishel himself wouldn’t exercise such patience.”
“Or stupidity,” Jack said. “We will lock up and return to my parent’s house before we get into position. The patrols are due out any time now.”