Jake's Women (Wizards)

by Booth, John

  As soon as I could I ducked into an alley and hopped to the cave. I’d left Fluffy with Jenny and Merlin for company though it didn’t look as though they were having fun. Merlin was crying in his cot.

  “I don’t know what’s got into him,” Jenny said, sounding exasperated. “He was fine until I held him up for Retnor to sniff and he’s been crying ever since.”

  I switched to magic sight. Tendrils of magic were bouncing against Fluffy’s eyes.

  “He wants to heal Fluffy and he can’t.” Daft as it seemed that was what it looked like. “He’s frustrated.”

  “Jake, he’s not four weeks old.”

  “Watch. I’ll block him so he can’t see Fluffy magically.” It was simple to place a shield around Fluffy so that, to Merlin, it would look as though he had disappeared. After a few annoyed sobs, Merlin stopped crying.

  [I am sorry I upset him.]

  “It wasn’t you. It was your injury.”

  Jenny managed to pull herself together. “Is he linked to Retnor through my link to him?”

  I looked. “No. I think he just likes dragons.”

  “Takes after his father and mother then,” Jenny said with pride in her voice.

  [And I like him.]

  Before we could get together for a group hug, Urda arrived in the cave with Anna. Since she had left hospital I doubt Anna had been more than twenty feet from her sister. The girl had always been shy, now she was positively withdrawn. She ran to cuddle Fluffy as soon as she saw him. He was hardly a cuddly toy, but then I was calling him Fluffy again, so who was I to raise a protest?

  Urda gave me a workmanlike nod and Fluffy dropped his head so she could look closely at his eyes. After a few moments she left him to stand in front of me. I could see she was close to crying.

  “There is nothing I can do for him, Lord Wizard. Some parts of the body are easy to heal, but once the eyes are dead there is nothing to do but remove them.”

  I put my arms out and Urda slipped into them and burst into tears.

  [Dragon with very good hearing standing here.]

  “You’ll be fine.” I said, putting on my cheerful voice.

  Urda’s sobbing got louder. Anna held tight to Fluffy.

  [You could do the glasses, assuming you remembered.]

  I handed Urda over to Jenny who took her to our extremely charred sofa. The bag with the sunglasses in was a few feet away and I pulled it to me with a sliver of magic.

  While it was just about possible for a wizard to conjure physical things from nothing, in practice it was much easier to steal material from anything nearby. I really didn’t know enough about plastics to create dark glasses that would look good, so the easiest way for me to create a pair of protective cups over Fluffy’s eyes was to use some ready made material. The glasses evaporated and cups of dark plastic formed over my dragon’s eyes. I used magic to order the atoms to line up for maximum strength. Finally I glued them to his scales at the molecular level.

  [I take it, it is done? I can feel them. Jake, let me see.]

  It turns out that magical sight isn’t much good for walking around a room. Fluffy had banged his head on the cave roof and his shoulder on stone walls dozens of times. He could see living things well, but inanimate objects were a problem. To see like he used to do he could use my eyes, but only if I allowed him to.

  I let him into my mind and he took control of my eyes. That is a spooky kind of thing and I clenched my fingers into fists to stop myself taking control back. Fluffy did face on and profile looks. A claw preened his scales, something he does when he’s pleased.

  [Cool. Even better than the bow tie I wore at your wedding.]

  “I have an idea to fix your eyes.”

  Fluffy let go of my eyes and seemed to shrink in on himself.

  [No one can fix eyes. It has never been done. The Dragons know these things.]

  “I will.”

  [Dragons have been known to live for decades after going blind.]

  Yeah, for beings that measure their age in millennia that must be truly something.

  “We might only be able to number our lives in heartbeats with the Progenitors after us.”

  Okay, that was lame attempt to change the subject. But as they had shot at us, it might be vaguely accurate.

  [The Elders think it was an automatic system designed to stop rubble from space damaging the Conference World. This was my fault, Jake. I knew that light could penetrate glim. That’s how we see. We could have flown through a star and my mind would have limited the light to something safe, but I wasn’t prepared for that beam of light and it burnt us.]

  “But how did they see us in the first place?”

  [If someone was to look closely at a dragon in glim they might see that the background looks a little darker. Enough of a difference for a Progenitor machine to detect.]

  I wasn’t sure I was annoyed or pleased. On the one hand this meant they probably didn’t even know they had shot at us, on the other hand they probably didn’t even know they had shot us. Which I found annoying. When I die, I want the person who does it to know what he’s done, and hopefully, feel bad about it.

  “You said you had an idea, Jake?” Jenny asked.

  Anna had joined her sister and Jenny on the sofa and they were indulging in a group hug. I felt slightly envious of them.

  I took the book out of the bag where the glasses had been.

  “Borrowed this book from the town library.”

  “Nicked it you mean,” Jenny said indignantly. “That’s a reference book.”

  “I’ll put it back when I’ve finished with it.” Sheesh, woman are always so focused on the minor details.

  “It’s on stem cell research,” I explained to a row of blank faces.

  “Aren’t they the things babies have?” Jenny asked. “Some mothers freeze the umbilical cord when a baby is born to help him later. The NHS doesn’t offer it.”

  “A stem cell can grow a whole organ, like a liver, or a kidney, or an eye.”

  Jenny stood up. “You want to use something from Merlin to help Retnor? Not if it risks Merlin.”

  [I would not allow that.] Fluffy kicked in.

  “I am confused,” Urda said. Her sister looked baffled enough for both of them.

  I shouted. I don’t normally shout, but this was getting silly.

  “We are not taking anything from anybody.”

  Silence descended, though Jenny sniffed loudly.

  “This book tells me enough to figure out how to turn an eye cell into a stem cell,” I hope. “Then we stand back and give Fluffy time to regrow his eyes.”

  “How long will that take?” Urda asked.

  “Days, weeks, possibly months. I don’t know. This isn’t like magical healing, though we might be able to help it along.”

  “We should study this book,” Urda suggested.

  Three hours later, we still didn’t have a clue about anything in the book. While notionally written in English, every sentence contained at least three words none of us knew.

  “Damn it. I’m going to find an expert.”

  I hopped to the local college. A search through the campus guide showed that stem cell research wasn’t on the curriculum. However, I found the name of a lecturer who might know something on the subject.

  I knocked on the door and entered. The woman inside looked shocked, as if people usually waited. I slapped a compulsion on her and her eyes glazed over.

  “What do you know about stem cell research?”

  “Very little,” she answered in a monotone. I’d probably overdone the compulsion, but I was filled with dread that if I didn’t act soon Fluffy’s eyes would be gone forever.

  “Do you know anybody who does?”

  She nodded, “My brother in Cambridge.”

  “Call him.”

  Instead of reaching for the phone she picked up her tablet. I moved round her desk so I could watch over her shoulder. A guy appeared on the screen. He looked to be in his forties and had a
stubble type beard.

  “Hi sis, who’s your young friend?”

  It shouldn’t be possible, but I tried it anyway. To my surprise I saw the compulsion take hold.

  “Show me your room.”

  He panned his camera around the room. I’d never tried what I was about to do, but I was feeling desperate. Touching the woman’s tablet, I felt through the internet for the device at the other end. I felt dizzy because it seemed we were connected via half the cities on the planet, not to mention a few dozen server farms. I hopped.

  Amazingly I landed in the right office, though about three feet off the floor. I sprawled across the carpet as I fell and knocked over a chair. My victim waited quietly behind his desk.

  “Have you anything on turning cells into stem cells?”

  He grunted and reached for a box file and started to open it. I reached over and stopped him.

  “Put your hand on the box and think about what’s inside.”

  I put my hand on the box and absorbed what he knew. My head spun with scientific gobbledegook.

  “A science dictionary with all the definitions of the terms used in the papers in it?”

  He pulled a thick tome from the bookcase to his right. We repeated the process and I had it all.

  This was worse than Valhallan. I knew stuff, but I wasn’t sure what I knew. It would have to do.

  “Thanks. You will remember none of this.”

  I returned to the lecturer’s office and spoke to her.

  “You will remember nothing to do with me.”

  As I hopped out of the room I heard her say to her tablet, “James, how lovely to see you. Why did you call?”

  I probed with magical sight into the depths of Fluffy’s left eye. I now knew what all the bits were and what they were supposed to do. The devastation was incredible. I excised all the dead cells in his eye socket and then picked one of the few remaining healthy ones.

  ‘Become an eye,’ I told it. Not that I spoke and not that I used those words. I changed chemical markers and activated certain genes, but what that amounted to was the instruction to become an eye. I also sterilized the air behind the plastic and the plastic itself. Bacteria vanished and white blood cells with microphages activated flooded the area. Then I did the same thing to the other eye.

  [It itches.] Fluffy complained as he saw me reengage with my body.

  “I saw what you did, Jake,” Urda said with awe. “If this works I think you have invented a new form of healing magic.”

  I sat down on the sofa.

  “Give me a moment to get my breath and I shall be on my way to get the Knife of Truth.”

  Jenny placed a hand on my crotch. “You are going nowhere today. Do you understand?” She gave a warning squeeze and I gasped.

  [You cannot find the knife. That world is big beyond belief. Where would you look?]

  I tapped my head. “I’ve had an idea, Fluffy. That knife was in my possession for a few months and it must be partially imprinted to me. If I can find people using one of their possessions, I should also be able to hop to one of my own.”

  “That’s insane,” Jenny said and Urda nodded.

  “All my best plans are,” I said; admittedly, a little smugly.

  [He has a point.] Fluffy acknowledged. [When he goes, I shall go with him.]

  25. Decisions

  Morgana was smiling at me. Her mother would dismiss it as wind, but a father knows these things. I smiled back and gently tickled her tummy. She gave me a gurgling laugh in response.

  “Daddy’s going away for a short while to get a very important knife. Now I want you to be a good girl and don’t get upset when mummy shouts. She doesn’t mean it.”

  “Unless I’m shouting at you, Lord Wizard.”

  I hadn’t heard Esmeralda enter the room. I never did when I was about to say something I would regret.

  “You used to call me Jake.”

  “That was before you started acting like a moron.”

  I could almost hear the wheels in her head grinding to an inevitable conclusion.

  “I retract that, Lord Wizard. You have always acted the fool, but your current plans need a new word to cover them. Even fools show some sense.”

  Putting Morgana back in her cot I turned to face my wife. As I expected she had her arms folded across her beautiful bosom and her left foot was busy tapping.

  “The knife is important. Betty has…”

  “Betty!” If a word can be shredded as it is spoken then that word was. “A eighth breed Norn, not even a proper elf. Why pray, do you let her words rule your world while ignoring mine and Jennifer’s?”

  Dangerous territory this. I had to watch where I put my mouth in case my foot ended up in the same place at the same time. ‘Do not hint of sex’ kept repeating in my brain.

  “Betty is an excellent lay… Norn.” Disaster, what was I thinking? “She may not be a professional soothsayer, but she has never led me wrong.”

  Esmeralda’s eyes were unreadable, but to my surprise she relaxed and the foot stopped tapping.

  “Would My Lord Wizard care to explain the logic of taking a blind dragon on such a dangerous mission? Perhaps the professional woman you associate with has suggested it?”

  Hmm, maybe I wasn’t fully out of the woods yet.

  “That was my idea. Well, after Fluffy suggested it. He needs to realize he’s still needed, still of value to fight at my side.”

  Esmeralda moved to Morgana’s cot and stroked our baby’s face.

  “Listen to him, darling, and learn to do the opposite. This fighting dragon of his is reliant on Urda to bring him sheep because he can no longer fly to hunt. Your Father isn’t very clever, is he? Silly Daddy.”

  “There shouldn’t be any danger. The knife is probably in a store room or in the garbage. It should be a quick in and out mission.”

  “Have any of Daddy’s mission ever been quick and safe, little one? He does talk such nonsense.”

  “Fluffy is going and that’s the end of it.” It was time the wizardly foot was put firmly down. The effect was somewhat ruined by a gurgling fit from my daughter.

  “Yes, Daddy is funny, isn’t he?” Esmeralda liked to rub it in.

  “I’m going.”

  “Not yet, My Lord Wizard. For one thing you have not kissed me goodbye, and secondly, I wish to discuss the matter of Urda going to Barren.”

  “She’s not. We don’t need to scout out what’s going on in Barren and the risk is far too great. It might prompt the Cult to make a pre-emptive strike on us.”

  “And by going, in disguise, to the very world they were born in, they might discover the timing of the attack we both know is overdue. My kingdom is under threat and we need to know what our enemy is up to.”

  I could see Esmeralda’s point, but my gut was telling me that spying on Barren would be a mistake. It was not something that could be explained.

  “They? You plan to send Anna as well?”

  Esmeralda dismissed my concern with a wave of her hand. “They are inseparable at the moment, so there was no choice.”

  ‘Was?’ Past tense?

  “You’ve already sent them haven’t you? Against my orders.”

  Esmeralda’s face hardened and she seemed to grow in stature. “You may be my husband, Jake Morrissey, though you are neither attentive or reliable at it. But I am the Heir and you do not rule this Kingdom. The King and I have made the best decision we can while you are too busy on a fool’s errand to pay attention to the crisis we face. Salice is in trouble. Our soldiers are busy distributing food to the people and we are not ready to fight. Our people are on the verge of starvation and need those supplies. Winter is still upon us, Jake.”

  “I got you the food.”

  “And minstrels sing your praises every night,” Esmeralda said in a harsh voice. Then she smiled. “And we are personally grateful to you for saving our nation. But we still have to do what is best for Salice.”

  I wasn’t happy about it, but i
n the end she was right. I had married into the royal family, but it was their country, not mine.

  “It will all end in tears.”

  “Perhaps. But I will have my goodbye kiss.”

  As we hugged after kissing, Esmeralda whispered in my ear. “Come back safely, my love.”

  The Bat Cave was strangely empty when I hopped in. A few sheep were penned into a corner, not looking the least bit happy about their confinement. I didn’t blame them. But there was no sign of Fluffy or Jenny and Merlin, and all three of them should have been here.

  A flapping of leathery wings and a cry of delight made me turn to the massive entrance in the side of the cliff. As I looked on in astonishment, Fluffy made a belly flop landing, sliding across the room with my wife and child on his back. He slid into the wall where he bounced to a halt.

  Jenny got off. Merlin was in one of those papoose type things across her chest.

  “It’s great, Jake. Retnor can see though my eyes when I’m riding him. It’s the same as if he could see.”

  I nodded to where Fluffy was digging himself out from the wall.

  “Wonderful coordination with it.”

  [To be fair, Jake. My usual landings have never been that good.]

  He had a point and I laughed.

  “I see Urda has left you a few meals.”

  [Yes, but they are stinking out the cave.]

  I wisely said nothing. The scent of a dragon’s lair takes some time to get used to, even without added sheep.

  Jenny kissed me. “You have Esmeralda’s perfume all over you. Are we going to have to catch up in the bedroom?”

  “Nothing happened.” I raised my arms in surrender. “She was just saying goodbye.”

  “She only wears that scent because she knows it sticks to you. She likes to mark her conquests and rub it in my face.”

  “Peace. I have not fired any shots in her so there is no need for retaliation.”

  Jenny gave me a salacious smile. “Nothing to stop you firing a few shots in my direction. Assuming your cannon is in fully working order.”

  [NOT IN FRONT OF THE DRAGON.]