by John Booth
Jake’s Break
Wizards VI
By
John Booth
Jake is in trouble with both his wives, but that’s nothing new. They have banished him from their homes because they are enduring endless pregnancies that only advance when he’s in the room with them and who wants to be very pregnant for years on end?
So he’s been off having fun with Lana and Esta, learning magic at the foremost university on the subject in the multiverse. The three of them have become the go-to-team for the university whenever anything needs fixing.
His dragon, Fluffy, has joined Dragon society and they are trying to find out where the Krake come from. The Krake are energy creatures that seem to have it in for Jake, and who are in contact with the Diabli, lizard like wizards of immense power that even the most ancient civilizations of the multiverse fear.
Meanwhile, Bronwyn has been spying on the Diamond Worlds and their resurgent anti-wizard army, The Knights of Justice. Jake almost wiped them out a few years ago with the help of the Dragons, but they are back, and the leader of the Diamond Worlds is under the control of a Krake. Not that Jake cares; live and let live is his moto. However, Bronwyn sees them as a threat to Tydan.
So it’s all set up to go pear shaped. All it needs is one good push and Bronwyn has the leverage to make Jake do it. She is willing to fix Jake’s wives – for a price.
This adventure takes Jake to new worlds and he uncovers secrets about the war to come. He discovers new truths about himself as he fights to save his friends and family. Messing with the Diamond Worlds was bound to lead to trouble. This time some of that is going to take place at home whether he likes it or not, and worse, high tech empires are beginning to take an interest in the Earth.
JAKE’S BREAK
Wizards VI
Copyright ©2015 John Booth.
Electronic edition published by John Booth
Cover Design by JBE
Cover Background:
© Kjpargeter Dreamstime.com - 3D Space Background Photo
John Booth asserts the moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the authors’ imaginations or are used fictitiously and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Other books by John Booth on Amazon Kindle
Wizards Series
Wizards
Jake’s War
Jake’s Justice
Jake’s Women
Jake’s Quest
Jake’s Break
Magic Limited
The Heist
Jalon
Jalia on the Road
Gally Delbar
Jalia in the North
Jalia and the Slavers
Jalia at Bay
Jalia Prevails
Tom & Laura Series
The Spellbinder
Scotland Hard
Revenge of the Brotherhood
Magic Series
House of Silver Magic
Sapphire Magic: Breaking Glass
Gold Magic: Terror in Mind
The Magic Series (Anthology)
Standalone Fantasy
Andrew Hawks
London Gothic
Carlotta and the Krius Scepter
Shaddowdon
Horror
The Lost
The Inspector Monde Mysteries
Visit the author’s web page Scrawls in the Dust
Contents
1. Giant
2. Betty
3. Salice
4. Dragon’s Den
5. Jenny
6. The Roos
7. Mission Creep
8. Briefings
9. Preparations
10. Fight
11. Mission
12. The Lightest Touch
13. The Temple
14. Inside the Walls
15. Caught
16. Escape
17. Magic?
18. Home
19. Plans
20. Wives
21. Rescue
22. Choices
23. Reception
24. Tricked
25. Party
26. Journey
27. Supper
28. Killan
29. Actions
30. Silicon Glen
31. Chips
32. Conference
33. Divorce
34. Antagonism
35. Confrontation
36. Fight
37. Spaceship
38. Consequences
39. MRSA
40. Death Waits
41. Advice
42. Rehearsal
43. Portents
44. Healing
45. Church
46. Blood
47. Revenge
48. Massacre
49. Dreams And Repercussions
50. Ghost Fleet
51. Lord Rangot
52. Redux
1. Giant
I jumped back as three yards of crudely sharpened sword threatened to cut me in half.
“Look out,” Lana shouted out, much too late to have helped.
“What do you think I’m doing?” I replied as I stumbled down the scree littering the side of the mountain. Why anybody would want such a treacherous surface as their front yard defeated me. It must be hell in winter.
The giant ignored Lana. I was his target and his eyes never left me. Steam billowed from his mouth as he yelled something incomprehensible, taking one massive step towards me. If his species ever conquered space, they’d need a new speech for their first moon landing.
I backed down the slope as fast as I dared, my eyes fixed on the giant. He was far too dangerous to turn my back on.
“Well done,” Lana said, waving her arms in excitement. “Keep it up.”
The giant hunkered down, adding gorilla-like to my descriptive tally. It was probably a good idea to keep his center of gravity low on such a treacherous surface. Speaking of treachery, what was keeping Esta? She’d had long enough to search the cave and find the book. She’d had long enough to search a library, maybe even long enough to write the book from scratch. I couldn’t keep on decoying all day.
The closest description of the giant I had come up with was a twelve foot version of that guy in Braveheart. He wore a kilt and some kind of blanket over his chest. His face had a couple of streaks of blue across it. Maybe that was his species natural coloring, or maybe he found the mountain as cold as I did. I was using magic to keep my fingers and toes from getting frostbite. It was unlikely he had that capability.
I had been doing too much thinking and not enough running. His sword caught the bottom of my boots as I jumped clear and I skinned my knee on a chunk of granite.
‘Don’t use magic’ they had said. ‘Nothing that might alert his species to the possibility of such things.’ That was easy to say from the safety of a university office, difficult to live up to when you faced imminent death.
I tried mind control. As expected, it bounced off the giant’s helmet. Ever since I’d discovered that mind control could be stopped by steel, everybody in the universe seemed to be wearing it.
“Jake!”
I ducked and felt
steel slice through my hair, tearing out a few chunks on the way. Making a mental note to come back when time permitted and teach these cretins how to sharpen steel, I teleported onto the giant’s back with a total disregard for protocol. Ripping off the creature’s helmet I ordered him to sleep and then held on tight as we slid fifty feet down the slope. We came to a halt at the edge of a long vertical drop.
“Jake, you cheated,” Lana accused.
“No, I saved the day by standing on the shoulders of a giant.”
My attempt at humor fell flat as Lana didn’t have the necessary cultural referents. I needed Fluffy with me; he would have got it straight away.
“I suppose we should be glad you didn’t kill him.” Lana hopped to my side in a casual display of wizardry, now there was no one in a fit state to see it.
“I offered you the chance to be the distraction.”
“Never use a girl when a boy will suffice,” she said smugly. “Though in this case ‘nearly suffice’ seems closer to the mark.”
Esta shouted down to us from the mouth of the cave. She was waving the book we had been tasked to retrieve. A postgraduate had lost it to the giant some weeks ago and decided to leave it to lesser mortals to get it back. The only thing lesser than second year undergraduates were the first years and they were all busy, or so we had been told. Anyway, we drew the short straw.
The next second Esta stood beside us.
“You weren’t supposed to kill him,” she said.
“I didn’t.” I would have said more, but Lana had drawn her sword.
Lana is one of those Amazon type females straight out of a comic book, beautiful, blonde, big breasted and deadly with a sword or a knife. For a moment I thought she was going to finish the job, but instead she lifted the end of the giant’s kilt with the pointy end of her sword. Esta gasped at what was revealed.
“In perfect proportion,” Lana said appreciatively.
“Makes Jake, Mister Teenie Peenie by comparison,” Esta said and giggled.
I felt my face going red. No one likes to be compared, especially with a giant.
“And you two say my mind is in the gutter,” I responded, going for the high ground.
“We are only window shopping, Jake,” Lana said. “And you are an adequate lover.”
Never has the word adequate sounded so inadequate before.
“What was so special about that book, anyway?” Changing the subject was the only strategy I had left.
Esta tossed it to me. I flipped its pages and though it wasn’t in a language I knew, the problem was obvious. Lots of excellent moving illustrations of industrial revolution type designs.
“He must have been using it to compare with the Giants’ technology,” Esta said.
“The Giants could learn more from you,” I pointed out.
Esta was dressed like a female Robin Hood, complete with bow and quiver full of arrows. Now that technology was something they could use, though it would take them years to figure out what part of a tree to cut to make a perfect bow.
The giant groaned and we took a step back from him
“Time to go home?” Esta suggested.
Without waiting for a reply, she hopped and we followed.
2. Betty
I hopped into Betty’s office as soon as the de-briefing on the mission had finished. Lana and Esta had lied straight-faced about my indiscretions to our tutor, so it had gone well
Betty held out a cup of tea just in front of where I materialized.
“Thanks, Love.” I took the cup from her hand. They have lots of things on Balmack, tea wasn’t one of them.
Betty turned hurriedly and went to sit behind her desk. I guessed that meant that sex was off the agenda, again.
Betty laughed. “Don’t look so hurt, Jake. I have work to do, remember?”
“But, it’s been ages.” A man has needs and mine were not being met.
“You should call round my flat more often. You do have a daughter there.”
I took a sip of tea. It was exactly the way I liked it and at just the right temperature. Betty was part Norn and could see the future when I didn’t mess it up. Not that she would ever say a word about it until it was too late.
“I saw Freyja yesterday,” God, that sounded defensive, even to me. “And we couldn’t have sex that night because of…”
“My Mother.” Betty looked down at her desk. “I know she’s a pain. But she is the only one who will babysit all the hours I need. You should have thought about that before you got me pregnant.” Betty paused for breath. “Which is another good reason I should avoid you. You are Satan’s anti-pill.”
Now that was hardly fair. Accurate perhaps, but not fair.
I put my empty cup onto her desk. Sitting on the edge of the desk I leaned over and breathed in her heady scent. Betty and I shared a deep physical attraction and I knew that, whatever her protests, she wanted me just as much as I wanted her.
She pushed her chair back.
“Don’t try that hoodoo on me, Jake Morrissey. I’m a reformed slut since giving birth and don’t you forget it.”
She stood up and stepped away from me as I slid around the desk and tried to catch her. I hopped so she stepped into my arms. She struggled weakly trying to get free
“That’s cheating,” she whispered in my ear.
I hugged her and she stopped struggling.
“We haven’t got the time. My boss is going to come round that corner in seven minutes.”
Her clothes and mine vanished as I used the smallest, but most precise of magic. Her hand slid down my body.
“I guess this is big enough for the both of us,” she giggled, and then she squeezed me hard.
“And remember,” she whispered as we snuggled down onto the floor. “No more babies.”
Betty stood guiltily as the Director of the Derby Hoard Museum walked into the office. I had dressed us in the same way I’d undressed us earlier, but girls take longer to recover than men. I sat on a wooden chair at the far side of the room.
Betty smoothed her dress, not that it need it. Magic has many uses and doing the laundry is one of the easiest. I’d even tidied up her hair, not that my women appreciate such things.
“Ms. Hardy, I was going to ask you to…” At this point he noticed me and it stopped his train of thought.
“Hello Peter,” I said cheerfully and stood, offering my hand. As co-discoverer of the hoard this museum housed we had met many times. I don’t think he likes me very much.
“Mister Morrissey. I didn’t know we had scheduled you for a talk today?”
“Jake is just visiting,” Betty said a little too brightly. “You’ve come for the weekly report.” She lifted a folder off her desk and handed it to him.
“And are we…”
“Doing well? Absolutely, visitor numbers are up and we’ve got some great customer reviews online.”
Peter Foan found his glasses, which he kept dangling from a chain around his neck and slipped them on. He opened the folder and mumbled to himself as he read.
“Yes, yes, excellent.”
He took off his glasses to talk to Betty. How vain is that?
“Remember we have a meeting at three o’clock to discuss the new display.”
Betty nodded, she was looking more relaxed and her face had lost the reddish hue it had had when he first entered the room
“Right… I’ll be off then.”
“So all three of us have had it off,” I said as he closed the office door behind him.
Betty threw her stapler at me and I changed it into rose petals before it hit.
“That was my best stapler.”
I gathered the petals and changed them back to a stapler before floating it over to her desk.
“Satisfied?”
Betty stifled a grin. “You need to sort your wives out. You’re out of practice.”
“We only had seven minutes.”
“Even so.”
Betty laughed as I play acted
reaching over to slap her.
“You were not much good at that sort of thing either,” she said primly. “And before I forget, you need to go and see Bronwyn.”
Now that was a mood killer. The last person I ever wanted to see was Bronwyn.
“It’s important. I know she scares you, but she has important news she has to share with you. About the Diamond Worlds and the Krake.”
“She doesn’t scare me.” As if. “Is this one of your Norn predictions?”
Betty gave a small shake of her head. “She used the telephone. She has already spoken to your wives, but as they are barely talking to you at the moment, she reached out to me.”
I had that ‘someone walked over your grave’ feeling.
“How does she know about you?”
A slight frown crossed Betty’s face. “Bronwyn knows everything about you. Surely you know how she feels?”
It was my turn to shake my head. Bronwyn was close to my families in Wales and Salice, but we contrived to avoid each other. Or, at least, one of us did.
Betty put a hand on my shoulder. “You’ll have to deal with her eventually. Her passion isn’t going to fade.”
“She’s just a child.”
“Children grow up and she’s a young woman now. With a young woman’s urges and needs”
“She’ll always be a child to me.”
Betty laughed. “Well that particular child is also a God to a whole planet and most of her people are wizards. When she isn’t going to college, that is. You can’t ignore her and you shouldn’t. Things are on the move again.”
Just what I needed. What was wrong with a few decades of peace and quiet?
I decided that Salice was far enough away from Bronwyn and hopped to the Palace.
3. Salice
I arrived in the Day Room of our apartments. Morgana sensed me arrive and ran towards me with open arms. She was only a few months over three years old, but looked and acted much older.
“Jake Morrissey, get out of here,” Esmeralda screamed. She had been pregnant for well over a year, but looked about four months gone. “Go, go now.”