by Booth, John
“Meep.” [He's worse than being surrounded by dragons.]
Fluffy's thoughts broke the tension and Urda tried to stifle a giggle.
“We need to work out who attacked us yesterday,” I said, still determined to try and wrest control of the meeting from Esmeralda.
“Well duh,” said my girlfriend, showing no loyalty at all. Esmeralda reached for a sheet of parchment on the ground.
“I have made a list of the relevant points,” she said.
“It was those wizards,” Wenna said loudly. It was an unexpected outburst and I wondered if she was going to say more. “Who else could it be?”
Well, that was a bit disappointing. I'd hoped for more.
“Meep.” [The attack came from somewhere on the Palace grounds.]
“It could have been Bronwyn,” Esmeralda said. “The spells used were 'The Eating Death' and 'The Light that Burns'. Both were in the books she stole.”
As soon as Esmeralda said the names of the spells they became visible in my mind. Her words triggered an information dump and I saw the relevant pages as if I was holding them in front of me. The Eating Death was horrible but the book said it couldn't be used on a wizard.
“Two spells needs two wizards,” Wenna said. Esmeralda patted her on the shoulder in praise.
“The books say that wizards can only handle one spell at a time.” Esmeralda gave me a 'those rules don't count for you' look. I was beginning to wonder if we were establishing a telepathic link because I'd never been able to read her this well before.
“And this trick required both spells to be cast at once. That was very astute of you, Wenna. It took me ages to work it out.”
Because I now had read the pages on the spells in question, I understood what Esmeralda meant.
“The Death spell is too weak to use on a wizard. Even in our sleep we would protect ourselves against something so feeble. Somebody worked out that if all our concentration was on the Light spell it might get through. That's pretty clever.”
“I told you it was the Valhalla wizards,” Wenna said with satisfaction.
“Bronwyn might have found herself another wizard,” Urda said. “And she knows the Palace well enough to hop in and out of it pretty much at will. I'm assuming she's learned to hop without a court. How to do that was in the books and she already knew you could do it, Jake.”
“It must be the Valhalla lot,” Jenny countered. “Bronwyn finding another wizard is far too unlikely.”
Esmeralda acknowledged the point though I could tell she didn't agree.
“There are three problems with it being the Valhalla wizards. The first is that they were being watched at the time and were eating.”
“They could have created an illusion,” Wenna said, unwilling to let anybody disprove her theory, whatever they said. I grinned. It was the most spirit I'd seen her show. She usually looked ready to burst into tears at the drop of a hat.
“The second is this was an opportunistic attack. The Valhalla wizards are experienced and would work to a plan unless they were very angry. While Jake is easily capable of making a saint swear, he has to be in the room with them to achieve the effect. They couldn't have been sure who was riding Retnor if they could see the rider at all. It could just as easily have been Jenny on him.”
The butterflies feeling in my stomach came back and I cast spells right, left and center, blocking The Eating Death from those present and working my way outward through the Palace. I even protected the animals. It was a horrible way to die. I almost missed Esmeralda's third point as a wave of exhaustion ran through me.
“Thirdly, no wizard who knows anything of Dragon Lore would dare kill a dragon like that. The Dragons would come after them and destroy them, including their families, their friends, and possibly their world for such an outrage.”
“Meep.” [You can count on it.]
I looked in Fluffy's eyes and it seemed I could see the galaxies of the night sky on that strange world reflected in them. I suspect that dragons are all connected to each other whether Fluffy was aware of it or not. What I saw in his eyes was the cold certainty that dragon deaths are always avenged.
“Which means that either Bronwyn has help or we have another enemy we know nothing about,” Jenny said bleakly. Then she grinned at Esmeralda. “Which is a problem for Jake to sort out. We have our first dress fittings in half an hour.”
Chapter Fourteen: Home and Away
Before Jenny left she reminded me I hadn't spoken to my parents properly for months and they were doubtless worried about me. I kept forgetting I'd spent four months in agony. The memories had receded to the point where all I could recall were brief flashes of the people I saw in hospital. I wondered if my magic had obliterated the memories for my sanity. I couldn't remember the pain at all.
I made a mental note to visit home as soon as possible while Jenny gave Fluffy a quick cuddle and told him she'd fly with him soon. I watched Urda and Wenna to take my mind off them. I admit it, I sometimes get jealous.
The girls were aware of my attention on them. Urda kept glancing my way as they talked and kept dropping things. Wenna looked at me from time to time, like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. I decided to go over and put them out of their misery. To my surprise, Wenna backed away from me, hiding behind Urda.
“Wenna, did you have much contact with Bronwyn?”
It seemed an innocuous question, but Wenna cringed.
“I b-b-barely sp-spoke to her, wh-why?”
“I'm not accusing you of anything. I hoped she might have given you a hint of where she's gone. We need to find her.”
“N-n-no, she's cr-crazy. I have to g-go.”
Wenna fled the lawn. Jenny came up behind me and gave me a playful squeeze around the waist before she followed Esmeralda into the Palace.
“What was that all about?”
Urda shrugged. She seemed ill at ease, so I figured it must be something about me affecting both girls. I saw Fluffy glim away out of the corner of my eye, leaving Urda and me alone on the lawn.
“Looks like it's just the two of us.”
Urda looked away, avoiding any eye contact.
“Jake, it's my sixteenth birthday today, I think.”
I understood the caveat. When you flee a world for one with a different calendar it must be difficult to keep track. At least I hadn't missed this birthday.
“Congratulations,” I said, moving closer and giving her a hug. She leaned into my shoulder and put an arm around me, making the whole thing a lot more intimate than I'd intended. Still, I could hardly back away having started it.
“There's a custom on my world. On your sixteenth, if you're a girl.”
“The only customs I know about your world are far from nice.”
Urda looked up and grinned. “It wasn't always as bad as when you rescued us. That only happened over the last few years when times got hard. The rains had failed for years and it's easier to blame witches when the crops fail than to blame the weather.”
“Good to know it wasn't all bad.”
“There were lots of good times before Father Drog convinced everybody witches were the cause of the weather going wrong. Spring Festival was always lovely with pretty colored banners and acrobats showing off their skills in the marketplace.”
I managed to disentangle myself from Urda as she talked without making it look as though I was trying to escape from her clutches. Diplomacy is my new middle name.
“So what's this custom then?” One day I'm going to learn to avoid trouble rather than diving straight towards it. One day, but not this day.
Urda's face colored.
“A girl gets to choose the man to deflower her.”
She saw the look on my face and continued before I could say anything.
“Not for marriage or anything like that. But as a sign of her new status as an adult. It doesn't mean anything. Well yes it does, but it's not like a betrothal or anything and…”
I
put a hand up to stop her talking before her head exploded. It looked as though it might.
“But you, Wenna and the others girls were … by…” Words failed me. She was far from being a virgin for all the wrong reasons. The men of her world did terrible things to witches before they killed them.
Urda looked as though she might start to cry. “That was different. This is a good thing.”
I was out of my depth. Why she brought this up with me was beyond my understanding. Surely she could have talked to Jenny about it or one of the girls from Barren? I decided on bluff Welsh humor as my response.
“Who's the lucky young man you have in mind? Is he nice? Well he must be, mustn't he?”
Urda gave me a look I couldn't interpret and ran across the lawn and into the Palace. I didn't even consider following her. I'd talk to Jenny about it when I got the chance, she'd know what to say and do. However, there was one thing I could do for Urda and I planned to do it right now.
Thom is the major domo for the Palace. The man who makes everything happen. He could usually be found in or near the kitchens and I located him after a couple of quick hops. In some ways he's the poshest guy in the kingdom. He always wears immaculate clothes that fit him perfectly. His diction is far better than the King's.
“Wizard Morrissey, it is good to see you looking well after your recent problems.”
It took me a few seconds to realize he was talking about my time in hospital. That already seemed like something that had happened years ago.
“It's good to be back, Thom. Can you do me a favor?”
Thom is excellent at deadpan humor. I suspect he practices it in front of a mirror.
“Even I cannot get you out of imminent marriages, sir. That would require the skills of an exceptionally powerful wizard.”
I couldn't think of a good comeback so I ignored him.
“It's Urda's birthday today. Her sixteenth, which is important where she comes from.”
“She has not mentioned it. The Princess will be displeased with her when she finds out.” Thom went so far as to raise an eyebrow. Excellent, I had his full attention.
“I was wondering if you could arrange a surprise birthday party. And let the royal family know.”
He frowned.
“It is very short notice and chef will be most annoyed that I haven't given her more time. But I think I can arrange something. Will Wizard Morrissey be finding the time to attend in person?”
Being talked about in the third person is disconcerting. I'm sure Thom did it for exactly that reason. I grinned at him.
“I shall do my best, but these things have a way of going wrong with me.”
“So we have all noticed. Betting on whether you will manage to attend your own wedding has reached fever pitch among the common folk.”
“What're the odds?”
“I have bet on your attendance at twenty to one.”
“I'll do my best to help you collect,” I said, and hopped back home, duty done.
My mattress was bare. A few blankets were neatly folded on top of it. My room had the air of a hotel room nobody had used for years. A quick mental calculation told me I hadn't been home for about five months. It looked like the world had moved on without me.
“Jake, is that you?”
“Yes, Mam, I'm coming down.”
I didn't make it down the stairs because Mam beat me up to the landing and came at me like a steam train, hugging me tightly. When she finally finished she held me at arms' length and looked me up and down.
“You could do with putting on a bit of weight. You're all skin and bones, boy.”
“Better than being too fat, Mam.”
She gave me another hug and dragged me downstairs to the kitchen where she immediately started making sandwiches.
“I don't know what your Auntie May is going to say. First you'll whisk her off to some land nobody's heard of and then she'll find out you're getting married to two women at the same time. It'll be a miracle if nobody in the family has a heart attack. May is very Chapel, you know. Goes to church every Sunday regular as clockwork, unless it's raining.”
“Can't do anything about it, Mam. How's Dad taking it?”
“Well, we've got used to it by now, boy. When Jenny showed us your dragon you could have knocked me over with a feather. And when I think of all the time and trouble we took sending you to counselors thinking you were growing up to be a pyromaniac. And all the time it was that dragon of yours setting fire to things.”
A sandwich that looked as though it could feed a small army was placed in front of me on a dinner plate. The plate was only just big enough.
“Eat up now. I'll make you a nice mug of tea to go with it.”
“Mam, there could be trouble at the wedding.”
“Then you better make sure there isn't, hadn't you? I've met the Matthews, such a nice couple, and I can't believe their daughter would do such a thing. You have to fix it, Jake. And her. Her parents don't deserve what she's done to them. You have to make it right.”
I swallowed hard. I had taken much too big a bite from the sandwich and it took some effort to avoid choking.
“No pressure on me then, Mam?”
Chapter Fifteen: Urda's Party
Mam and Dad kept me longer in Wales than I expected and it was nearly nine in the evening when I hopped back to my room in the Palace. I hoped to find Jenny there, but all I found was a note on our bed saying 'You'd better come'. I changed into my wizard's costume, as I might as well look the part if I was going to a party.
I didn't want to get the kind of reaction that hopping into the room would cause, especially as I hoped to pretend I'd been there for some time. I hopped to a corridor close to the ballroom, certain it would be the location for the party. Mam gift-wrapped a box of chocolates for me, so I even had a present.
Two guards saluted me as I cracked open the doors and slid through the smallest gap I could, pressing the doors closed behind me as though I had been leaning on them for ages. The royal orchestra was playing Strauss, courtesy of a CD Jenny once played to them and the room was packed with guests. How Thom managed to arrange such a major event on such short notice was beyond me.
The room was crowded with more children and teenagers than I'd seen before in Salice. The youngsters dominated the dance floor while the adults stood at the tables laden with food at the edges of the room. The thrones had gone from the stage to be replaced by the orchestra. I recognized absolutely nobody as I scanned the room for Jenny or Urda.
A hand tapping on my back spun me around to find Urda in a pretty party dress. She looked angry with me.
“Did you organize this?” she hissed angrily.
“Err… I only suggested it. Thom did it.” Okay, that was a dirty trick, trying to blame Thom, but a man has to try to deflect an angry woman any way he can.
Urda's face transformed to a wonderful smile and she put her arms around my neck, dragging me down so she could kiss me.
“Thank you, Jake. It's the best thing ever.”
I seem to spend a lot of my time disentangling myself from Urda. She didn't want to let go and I ended up lifting her off the ground as I straightened up.
“I have a present for you. It's not much.”
Urda slid down my chest bringing her hands down to hold onto my hips.
“Give it to me,” she commanded and I handed over Mum's box.
“It's only chocolates,” I said quickly, not wanting to get her hopes up.
Chocolate is not one of the words that translates into the local tongue as they don't have it in Salice and she gave me a puzzled look.
“Sweets,” I said, which did translate.
Urda showed no signs of disappointment as she tore off the fancy wrappings and I helped her get the cellophane off beneath it. She looked dubiously at the dark delights in front of her.
“Go on, try one of those, they're my favorites,” Jenny said, reaching from behind me to point at a hazelnut with toffee confection.
I looked around to see an audience of important people gathering around us.
Urda took the chocolate and bit into it. She chewed it slowly before grinning with delight. From the looks on the faces around us, Urda was going to be sharing her present with them whether she wanted to or not.
Jenny dragged me away from the mob as they crowded around Urda.
“You could have bought a bigger box. I have this sudden craving for strawberry creams.”
“I didn't think.”
Jenny pulled me further from the crowd muttering, “You never do,” under her breath. When we were far enough away to not be overheard she pinned me against the wall.
“Did you talk to Urda about her world's sixteenth birthday traditions?”
Her tone was accusatory though I couldn't see what she was bothered about.
“Yeah, she explained it all to me. It's a bit strange but it sounds pretty harmless. I don't see why she shouldn't.”
Jenny's jaw dropped open in surprise.
“Harmless! Did you agree to it?”
Sensing that I might not fully understand what Jenny was going on about I chose caution and phrased my next words accordingly.
“Urda says that on her world a girl can choose the first man to do it with her on her sixteenth birthday. I don't know who the boy is, but it's none of our business anyway. I don't even know why she told me.”
Jenny's face went through a series of expressions before settling on relief, or maybe exasperation. She seemed to switch between them. She punched me lightly on the shoulder and laughed.
“Of course you don't know. Even though it would have been obvious to a two year old.”
I'm supposed to be the super powerful wizard that saves everybody, but half the time I have no idea what Jenny or Esmeralda are going on about. I've often thought that boys should be given a manual on how girls think. Maybe they could set an exam on it. I would have studied for one of those, though I doubt I would have passed it.
“So what's all the fuss about?”