by Booth, John
Breaking the chains required a lot of magical power and I felt myself begin to weaken as I cut chain after chain. I remembered an English lesson where the teacher read a story where magic was no good against iron. Whoever wrote that had probably met a real wizard. I should have brought a pair of bolt cutters with me, but that lesson would have to wait for another day and another battlefield.
The ranting on the stage continued on as I cut the tenth chain and got the freed children to place a hand on my body and their other hand on the person to their left. Then I hopped them to Salice.
Nine girls and one boy fell to the grass in the courtyard. I joined them a moment later. Apparently, hopping large amounts of iron also takes it out of you and I'd been cutting the children's chains close to the spikes. I'd know better next time.
"Is this all of them?" Esmeralda asked. She must have been waiting in the courtyard to get to me so fast.
"Less than a third of them. Move this lot away when I leave so I can bring the next group into the same place."
"You look exhausted, Jake."
"Cutting and hopping iron," I muttered in explanation.
"Idiot!" was her less than sympathetic reply. I couldn't think why she was so determined to marry me, given she never had a positive word to say about me.
I hopped back into the corral and promptly fell over one of the girls. Those in the pen had realized I was rescuing them in stages and spread out to make it look less obvious. However, despite their best efforts somebody must have noticed something, because the ranting from the stage had stopped.
"They're trying to escape. Kill them!" the same ugly voice that had been spewing hate shouted.
I concentrated and a ring of light formed around the corral. It was like a massive halo a couple of feet thick and it rose vertically to form a cylinder thirty or forty feet high. Two guards got caught in the light and I watched them stiffen. I created the shield in the nick of time as I saw arrow after arrow become embedded in it.
"I need to free you all quickly," I shouted at the panicked children. "You must hold out your leg so I can see the chain clearly."
Some of the children fell over in their eagerness to stick their feet out. The chains were fastened at their ankles. Most of the ankles I saw dripped with blood and were badly bruised from chaffing against the crude iron bracelets the chains were linked to.
This time I broke the chains at the link and the bracelets fell away. This took much less power than breaking the much thicker link at the other end. I felt like a moron for not having thought of doing it that way earlier.
The crowd surged against my barrier of light, smashing their swords and knives against it repeatedly.
"Get a battering ram. We must force them to use up their demonic power."
The voice was that of Mr. Religious-Nut, as I'd christened the raving lunatic on the stage. It seemed he actually knew something about magic, because that technique would work, given time. I had to make sure they didn't get the time.
It seemed to take hours to remove the chains. One or two of the children were too weak with hunger to move, and I walked carefully around the corral making sure that every single child was free. I explained to the children we were going to hop as a group out to a place where they would be cared for and where nobody ever burnt witches. Many of them looked at me dubiously, but they went along with it. After all, what choice did they have?
The children formed a circle around me. Those too weak to stand were placed on the ground by my feet and I pulled up my trousers so that they could touch my legs. I'd done a head count and there were twenty-six of them in total.
"Hold on," I shouted and tried to hop. We stayed exactly where we were. There were too many of them. I couldn't take them all in one hop.
The effort of trying to hop them left me dripping with sweat. I told the children to let go for now, as I tried to think what to do next. I felt a blow like someone hit me in the stomach and lifted my eyes to see a massive battering-ram had just hit my shield.
The ram was a tree trunk eighteen inches in diameter and yards long with what looked like leather straps on both sides. At least fifty people wielded it. They retreated and charged at the barrier. I was prepared for the impact the second time and it didn't wind me. It still hurt though.
For the first time since I put up the barrier I looked at the two guards I had trapped within it. Blue black faces with tongues sticking out and empty staring eyes greeted me. I had killed them, probably by making it impossible for them to breathe. They still stood in position though. Unable to fall to the ground while my barrier held them, their eyes fixed accusingly on me, for all they were dead.
If I only took some of the children with me we could hop away. However, the barrier would collapse the instant I left and these madmen would kill the rest of them. If I waited too long, the ram would exhaust my power and I'd die along with the children. I had little magical power left. I knew I didn't have the power to turn the ground to marsh as I did in Salice.
"Are we going to die?" a little girl asked. I looked up and saw a sea of anxious eyes looking at me, waiting to hear my answer.
Before I could think of an answer, one of the girls saved me the trouble.
"He cannot take us all with him at once."
"I can probably take half of you," I admitted reluctantly. These were not words I wanted to say to the desperate faces around me. "As soon as I go the shield will vanish."
The girl who spoke looked around and picked up a length of chain lying on the ground. She swung it experimentally, the iron manacle on its end whistled through the air. Despite the fact the chain was tied to the stake, there was enough of it available to make a formidable weapon.
"The older ones will stay. Take the young ones and the ones too weak to fight back. These men will suffer for those they kill."
"I'll come back as quickly as possible. My name's Jake, by the way."
"I am Urda," the girl said. She looked to be about fifteen and fifty at the same time if you know what I mean. I admired her courage. If I'd been in the same position, I'm sure I would have been begging to be saved rather than getting ready to fight.
Urda picked out the girls with some fight still left in them and stood them in a line in front of us, giving each a length of chain. The girls swung the chains experimentally, getting the feel of them.
The men outside the barrier were lining up for yet another charge with the battering ram. I had already decided I would stay until they hit the barrier again. What we needed was some kind of diversion.
As if in answer to my unspoken prayer, an explosion of flame came from the far side of the square. One of the buildings was ablaze with fire shooting out of its windows. The men wielding the battering ram faltered and the crowd turned to see what was happening. A second explosion followed the first and a building three away from the one burning went up like a torch. It lit up the square.
"Fire!" someone shouted, not unreasonably under the circumstances.
"We must save the town," another screamed.
"Kill the witches! They must not escape!" shouted the familiar voice of Mr. Religious-Nut. Fortunately, no one paid any attention and most of the crowd ran towards the blaze to try and save their town.
"Go now," Urda urged and she had a point. I got the children to hold onto me and hopped to Salice.
Something cold hit me in the face. I spluttered as water got up my nose and into my mouth.
"Wake up Jake." Esmeralda urged.
"How long?"
"Only a minute, if that. These girls cannot speak our language but I could tell from the way they shook you that you still have work to do."
Amazingly, I felt much better than I had in Barren. Then I realized it was because the stress of maintaining the shield had gone.
"I have to go back. There are more children to rescue."
I reached for two of the children who were upright and willed them knowledge of the language of Salice.
"These two can act a
s translators, use them."
I hopped back to Barren and into carnage.
A big man in brown robes was down on his knees shielding his head with his hands as chain after chain swung down on top of him. His hands were already torn and broken and before I could get the girls to stop, one of the iron manacles smashed into his head and his skull caved in. He fell to the ground as his blood splattered in all directions.
I followed the length of chain in the man's head back to its owner and found Urda holding the other end with a look of grim satisfaction on her face. She noticed me staring at her in horror.
"This was Father Drog, the man shouting for our deaths. I am glad he will go to hell ahead of me."
I looked around the square trying to get a feel for what was happening. At least eight buildings on the far side of the square were on fire. The mob had gone from around us and the children in the corral were on their knees and crying. In the light of the fires, people ran around urgently. There was also a strong and incongruous smell of petrol.
Urda started to swing her weapon as two figures, one tall and one much smaller stepped towards us. Both of them wore cloaks with hoods and they could have been anybody.
Then the tall one pulled back her hood and it was Jenny.
"Don't hurt them, Urda, they're my friends!"
"I should think so," Bronwyn said as she pulled back her hood. She saw the dead man on the ground in front of her and pulled a disgusted face, "Looks like this one got his comeuppance."
"What's going on?"
"We created a diversion," Jenny said happily. She waved in the general direction of the burning buildings.
"Molotov cocktails are cool," Bronwyn said.
"How did you get here?"
"Jenny gave me a piggyback on the hopscotch court. After I lugged through loads of milk bottles and cans of petrol."
"Eh?"
"I climbed on Jenny's back and I hopped us using the court," Bronwyn said slowly, as if she was talking to an idiot. Looking back on it, perhaps she was.
"You try hop, skip and jumping with an eleven year old on your back," Jenny moaned. "My back hurts."
"We were hoping to get a lift with you to Salice. I've never been there so I can't hop there."
Before I could say anything, there was a scream from the side of the corral. It was the berserker kind of scream someone makes when they are about to attack. Bronwyn and Jenny turned to see what I already could. Tyden, holding a sword, ran at Bronwyn and there was pure murder in his eyes.
He never made it. A chain swung by one of the girls' standing guard hit him straight between the legs. I winced in sympathy because his testicles had certainly been turned to mincemeat by the force of that blow.
Tyden's face turned white as snow and his jaw dangled open leaving his mouth shaping a silent oh. I'm not sure he actually felt the pain because a second chain smashed down on his head caving it in like a melon. Tyden was dead before he hit the ground.
Bronwyn looked down on Tyden's smashed face and she turned to me and smiled in delight. I wanted to vomit, but I knew we didn't have the time.
"Everybody gather round me and drop those damned chains. Quickly, we need to get out of here before anybody else tries to be a hero."
The girls gathered around me. Bronwyn and Jenny spent a minute or two rounding everybody up and making sure everybody connected to me. Jenny reached over the girls and put her hand on my neck. Bronwyn grabbed Jenny's hand and paused to stare at Tyden's body one last time. A moment later I hopped us to Salice.
"I don't think any of them are wizards," Esmeralda said as she stormed into our bedroom without even knocking.
I stopped what I was doing with Jenny, not an easy thing for any man to do.
"I thought I locked that door."
"This is my castle. I have a key to every room."
Jenny pulled the sheets up to cover her nakedness. Esmeralda didn't look in the slightest bit bothered and I wouldn't have been surprised to discover she had been waiting, eye to keyhole, for the most embarrassing moment to enter.
"They may not be wizards, but believe me when I tell you, Urda for one, will be an asset to any kingdom."
"You promised us wizards."
"I promised you accused witches, and I still wouldn't be so sure of your facts. I felt powers stirring in the dark last night."
"That was probably Bronwyn," Jenny put in cheerfully. "The Friendship Ball is in two days’ time. Are you coming?"
Jenny sat up and looked straight at Esmeralda.
"You could join us. Do you fancy a threesome?"
Esmeralda's face went the brightest red I've ever seen on a person. She ran out of the room as if being chased by demons. I got out of bed and closed the door. I locked it and left the key half turned in the lock. She wouldn't find it so easy to get in the next time.
"Threesome?"
"Don't get your hopes up. I was annoyed with her and wanted to embarrass her as much as she embarrassed me."
I snuggled up to Jenny and put my tongue into her ear. She squirmed away from me in disgust.
"I think a threesome is a wonderful idea and since you were the one who brought it up…"
Jenny stared at me in horror. I tried to keep a straight face but I couldn't and burst out laughing.
"Not in a million years, Jake."
"I was joking."
"I'm not." Jenny snuggled up to me. "Now where were we?"
"Forget it," I told her and rolled away. "It's not just my pride you've hurt."
Jenny began to tickle me and one thing led to another. But even as we carried on a part of my mind was worrying about the police back in Wales and the smile on Bronwyn's face after she looked at Tyden's body. That girl was more damaged than I had thought.
Chapter Twelve: Friendship Ball
Salice is cool and Esmeralda is even cooler," Bronwyn said for what I swear was the hundredth time. Ever since we took her to Salice it was pretty well all she could talk about.
"Esmeralda said I could come to the Friendship Ball. She even got some strange man called Grimaldi to measure me for a dress."
"Bronwyn, your parents are watching you like hawks. Nipping out for a few hours to the Bat Cave is one thing, if you vanish for more than half a day your parents are going to notice."
Bronwyn glared at me and I heard the word 'spoilsport' whispered under her breath. Ever since we rescued her from the clutches of the now deceased Tyden she had been locking herself in her room and hopping to visit us. She took to ignoring her parents when they knocked at her door to get them used to getting no answer. The trouble was, while they would leave her alone for a few hours, they would get worried if she didn't answer for too long. If they broke into her room they would know she was gone. Given the interest the police were taking in my every move, this would be very bad news for me.
"There's also the question of school," Jenny put in. The Friendship Ball was taking place on a Wednesday as far as Wales was concerned. Bronwyn went back to school the same day. Salice time and Welsh time were within an hour of each other and the ball would run from five in the evening to two a.m. Unless Bronwyn only visited for a couple of hours, she'd never manage to get up for school on Thursday morning.
"I don't see why I have to go to school anyway. I'll just bunk off again as soon as I get there."
"I can imagine how that would go down with the school and the police," I said. "Don't you think they'll notice?"
"If it's any consolation, I don't think I'll be able to go to the ball either."
Jenny's statement hit me like a bolt from the blue. I thought Jenny was determined to go, if only to annoy the hell out of Esmeralda.
"You're planning on leaving me to my 'betrothed's' tender mercies? I'll never get out of the place virgo intacto."
"I trust you totally, Jake. So you better be in my room at two o'clock Thursday morning to prove you aren't up to anything."
I didn't point out how easy it would be for me to fool her if I really wanted to
. She already knew that.
"Why can't you come?"
"I'm way behind on my course work." Jenny held up the thick volume she had been reading half-heartedly while we talked. "I need to read and absorb this entire book by the end of the week as we have a test on Friday."
I took the book off her to have a look. It was a critique of Shakespeare's plays by somebody I'd never heard of.
"Have you read it?" I asked, an idea forming in the back of my mind.
"Yes, but that doesn't mean I can remember any of it," Jenny said in exasperation as she grabbed her book off me.
I snatched the book back to her considerable annoyance.
"Put your hand on the side of it."
Jenny realized I was up to something and reluctantly stuck out her hand. When Jenny's hand was in place, I put my hand on the other side and absorbed the book from her mind in the same way I first learnt the language of Salice. Then I pushed the book's information back at her in the way I taught her the language.
"What was the point of that Jake?"
"Page 64, Shakespeare's Hamlet…"
"Is arguably the bard's finest work, though it contains a number of significant flaws… That's amazing. I can remember it word for word."
"You can fix my parents, Jake," Bronwyn said eagerly. "Make them fall asleep, or get them to forget I'm supposed to be in the house."
"I don't do that sort of thing, Bronwyn. It isn't right and you know it."
"You just don't want me to go."
She had a point, but that wasn't the reason I wouldn't do it. It was wrong to mess with people's minds, whatever Bronwyn thought about it. I didn't want to become one of the evil wizards out there and it seemed to me like a slippery slope. When you started using your powers for your own convenience, you were on your way.
"Inspector Thomas is in hospital because of his throat, and that's your doing."
"You just made that up," I accused.
"Daddy told me this morning," Bronwyn said and stuck her tongue out.
"I've to go fix him," I said anxiously. The man annoyed me and I wished him laryngitis. It was stupid and petty of me and it wasn't meant to last this long. I had to go and cure the man right now.