by Booth, John
That made us laugh and I reached to stroke my son’s cheek.
“He’s looking happy.”
“He likes to fly. I suspect he is a dragon rider in the making.”
“Time for Fluffy and I to go in search of my knife.”
Jenny looked anxious. “You will be careful won’t you, especially with Retnor?”
[I need no one to look after me.]
“Looked what happened the last time he took you with him.”
[I got a cool pair of sunglasses?]
“You’re both impossible.” Jenny pushed me away, though she was smiling.
I walked purposely towards Fluffy, but Jenny called me back.
“You need to take us home first,” Jenny said. “Urda said she’d be gone for a while.”
“Your parents’ house?”
When she nodded I waved a hand.
“Collect up your stuff then.” The cave was strewn with baby stuff.
Half an hour later I hopped my wife and child back to her parents. Then, after a tearful goodbye on her part I hopped back to the Bat Cave.
“Are you sure you are up to this?” I asked my dragon.
[Certain. I need to get out more, in any case.]
Sitting on my dragon’s back I conjured up my memories of the knife. The essence of what it was, the connection I had with it.
Then I hopped.
When I looked around at where we had arrived I was plain astonished.
26. Dealings
We were in a tent, a tent that would not have been out of place in a small circus. The floor was strewn with delicate rugs, overlapping so it was impossible to tell if the floor beneath was earth or whether we were in a gigantic room with a tent in it. Light defused through the silk and if we were outside it must be a still day because the tent sides were still. It was hot and dry, but not unpleasantly so.
“How lovely to see you, Jake. And you too, Retnor.”
A woman’s voice, soft and seductive. One I knew all too well. Alisandra.
Fluffy shuffled round to face our unexpected host. We had done a deal where he was using my eyes to see, but wasn’t in control of them. It still felt itchy, but I could live with it. We turned to face a throne, which was raised on a dais against the wall. Alisandra was sitting on the throne with her legs crossed, dressed as usual in nothing much, transparent silks draped over her body to reveal as much as they concealed. She looked delighted to see us.
Not so her husbands. Josa, Elis and Tam. The first two flanked her, each with a hand touching hers. Tam stood behind her combing her hair. If you can imagine a look of envy mixed with jealousy with a healthy dollop of anger that was pretty much how they looked.
I dismounted, still too confused to say anything sensible. Fluffy recovered first.
[Lady Alisandra, Queen of the Tridon Zone and Representative of the Conference Between the Worlds. How delightful to find you here, not to mention unexpected.]
“However you find me, you are always welcome, Retnor, Prince of Dragons. I shall long remember our tryst. Dragons have such exceptional staying power.”
Now that was a surprise. I was shocked.
“You... And Alisandra?” You think you know your dragon and then something like this turns up. “You never mentioned it.”
Fluffy turned his elegant head towards me and I could swear he was smirking,
[A gentleman never tells.]
“I tell you.” It was an accusation.
[But you have never been a gentleman, Jake.]
Alisandra had been following our exchange with amused interest.
“And neither am I a Lady, Lord Retnor. We had at it until I could no longer walk as I remember. Long and hard, just the way I like it”
I looked away and tried to hide my blush.
Alisandra laughed in delight.
“I have made the Great Wizard Morrissey blush like a schoolgirl. How could this encounter possibly be improved upon?” She looked again at Fluffy. Her eyes narrowed. “Those eye shades do not suit you.”
[I think they make me look cool.]
I saw a tendril of magic flow from Alisandra and bounce against the dark lenses. Fluffy was stopping her finding out about his eyes. That was when I saw what was behind us against the far wall. There was a full sized waxwork of me standing on a plinth inside a glass case. It was wearing the clothes I had worn when taken to the conference.
Magically enhancing my sight so I could zoom in to see if the knife was there, I found myself blushing instead.
Alisandra had followed my gaze. “Do you like it? The artist consulted with me to ensure the most intimate detail was captured.”
Given that the waxwork’s flies were undone and something large was sticking out of my jeans, I was in no doubt that one part of me had been accurately modelled. The women of Malevon have a way of making me feel like a prude.
[Do you show that off to all your guests?]
Alisandra laughed so hard I thought she might injure herself.
“I keep him zipped up in polite company. And I do not want my fellow Malevon Queens getting any ideas.”
The lightning bolts came from all directions and bounced off the shield I’d placed around my body before we hopped. Some bounced onto Fluffy and met a similar shield before ricocheting off him onto the floor and into the sides of the tent.
The bolts that bounced up set the tent blazing. Those that hit the floor started the rugs smoldering. The energy that bounced off me and hit Alisandra turned her dress to ash and vaporized the top layers of her skin.
She screamed and I ran to catch her as she fell. I applied healing magic paying particular attention to her eyes and eyelids. A shield that a nuclear bomb would fail to penetrate sprang up in a hemisphere around us. I added light as none could get in from outside. Alisandra was badly injured and I had to heal her quickly before shock set in. Somewhere in the distance I heard men wailing.
The medical stuff I’d picked up for Fluffy turned out to be really useful. My mind ran along her veins and commanded cells to regenerate. I placed a sterilized cushion of air around her injuries so that nothing could touch her. White blood cells and plasma flowed from her to cover the burns. I accelerated growth, reusing dead cells as food for those that could multiply. Magic compressed months of healing into minutes.
Alisandra’s eyes flickered and tendrils of her magic flowed around us, taking in the situation.
“And here I am, naked in your arms again. I think the gods are trying to tell us something, don’t you?”
“Can you stand?”
“Well enough.”
I helped her to her feet. She brushed the ash and dead skin from her body and I saw her magic try to penetrate the shield I’d placed around us. She failed.
“If you would be so kind?”
I made the shield transparent and looked into a scene of destruction. The fires were out, but the tent was in tatters revealing we were inside a room with large plate glass windows. The smoke was gone and Fluffy was by the throne with Alisandra’s husbands sitting on the floor in front of him. I could only see their backs, but their postures were ones of profound despair.
Everything looked safe so I dropped the shield.
Alisandra removed the remaining ash from her body with a flickering thought and then she was dressed again. Every bit the queen she had been before, though the silks she wore were colored in somber hues
[Impressive, my lady. It is good to see you are well]
“Thank you, Retnor. I hope whatever Jake is doing to restore your eyes is equally effective.”
[We can but hope.]
So much for keeping secrets from her.
Alisandra walked over to Fluffy and turned to face her husbands.
“In your attempts to hurt Lord Morrissey you very nearly killed me. You are divorced and banished. Go far from this place and never return.”
That raised a big question.
“Hold on a minute. I thought the men in Malevon couldn’t use magic. H
ow did they attack me?”
Alisandra kicked Josa. “Show him.”
Josa stumbled to his feet and took a small rectangular box from his pocket. He handed it to me without speaking a word. The box had a single button on it. Having seen what it could do, I probed it with magic rather than pressing the button. That’s a step up for me; a year ago I would have pressed it without thinking.
The insides consisted of nine tubes. Seven were sealed and two were broken open at the end. A cunning mechanism moved a striker over a tube and when the button was pressed the tube was breached and the striker would move on to the next tube.
The tubes contained raw magic and a seed spell that would covert the magic into lightning. This was similar to how the Cult staffs worked, though this mechanism was much smaller and had a multi shot capability. However, when I probed the tubes I couldn’t figure out how they held the magic in. They just did.
“I’ve never seen anything this clever before.”
Alisandra shrugged. “They are not easy to obtain as they are made for military use and rationed. Our army has equal numbers of men and women. We have to give our men the means to fight.”
“Did you know your husbands had them?”
“Even I have enemies, Jake. They were for my husbands’ self-protection.”
I gave the box back to Josa and he put it in his pocket. The three men slouched out of the room without looking back.
Alisandra made her way to her throne. She waved a hand and the tent remade itself. Another gesture restored the carpets. When she finished, the room looked very much the way it had before the blasts, but all the joy and happiness had somehow leached out of it.
She sighed. “You have a way of tiring me out, Jake. I am exhausted and we must conclude our meeting faster than I would like. You have come for the knife and I want something in return. Shall we deal?”
[How did you obtain it?]
That was typical Fluffy. He fretted when he didn’t know all the answers.
“You made some kind of deal with the Progenitors?” It wasn’t really a question on my part.
A frown flittered across Alisandra’s face. “You remember the misunderstanding between us?”
I nodded. It wasn’t the kind of misunderstanding you forgot.
“I made strong protest to the Progenitors and when they acknowledged the harm they had done me, I asked for your clothes in recompense.”
“And you knew about the knife…?”
“Because Farolan talks too much in the bedroom.”
[It showed great presence of mind to turn your dishonor into an advantage.]
Alisandra gave a wan smile. “Women have been doing that throughout the ages, regardless of wizardry.”
This was a truly dangerous woman. I had to keep reminding myself of that. She looked so sweet and sexy, but when the chips were down she could be cold as ice. Her explanation left only one question to ask.
“What do you want for the knife?”
“An alliance between Malevon and yourself. I speak for all my people because this is something we have already agreed upon. We will stand by your side if you will stand by ours, should circumstances require it.”
“Done.”
“This alliance must be sealed in the traditional Malevon way.”
I had no doubts at all of what that would involve. It would be another secret to keep from my wives. But I would have made the deal whatever it involved. It just felt right.
27. Visits
We arrived back at the Bat Cave in the early afternoon. Fluffy has a way with expressing his disapproval with me.
[You stink of Alisandra.]
“It’s the Malevon way to seal an alliance. What was I supposed to do?”
[Not enjoy it so much.]
Not true as it happens. The all too realistic waxwork of me had creeped me out and I wasn’t sure I wanted to be seen as a sex object. The meeting of our bodies proved much less enjoyable than I expected. But Fluffy was right about one thing. I needed a shower. And magic wouldn’t do. It was going to take a lot of hot water to leave me feeling clean.
Jenny’s house and the Palace were out, so it looked like my parents were going to get an unexpected visit from their son. I hopped.
“I’m home, Mam” I shouted from my room.
“I’m just brewing a pot,” Mam shouted back
“She always is,” Dad shouted up to me.
“I’m having a shower first. I’ll be down in a bit.”
After showering I cleaned my clothes before putting them back on. There are many advantages to being a wizard, but the ability to instantly dry clean is one of the most useful.
I found Mam and Dad in the living room. A big pot of tea was on the coffee table along with a selection of biscuits.
“Have you rung May yet?”
“What?” Incomprehension was often my middle name.
“My sister, your aunt. Jenny was supposed to tell you May wanted to talk to you.”
“I’ll get round to it.” Someday. Maybe next year.
As soon as I started on a biscuit I discovered I was starving and grabbed a handful.
“Are they not feeding you properly?” Mam asked.
“You’d think with living in a palace, you’d never be hungry.” My Dad paused, remembering that Salice had been on the verge of starvation a month or two ago. “Is the food you got getting to the people?”
“Yes. Distribution is the big problem with all the snow on the ground, but Esmeralda tells me that everybody is getting fed.”
“And Bronwyn?”
I shrugged. There was nothing to tell.
“Inspector Thomas has been on the phone a few times,” Dad continued. “I think he was hoping you had found something.”
I felt the letter, still in its plastic wallet in my jacket pocket. I’d meant to let Betty have a look at it, but our last encounter had been all ‘wham bam, get lost you man’ and I’d forgotten about it. My life gets hopelessly complicated sometimes.
“Tell him I’m still working on it.” ‘When I remember’ I added silently.
“Nine people died when that bomb went off,” Dad reminded me.
He was right. It was time I prioritized finding the bomber. I would get on it as soon as I’d eaten all the biscuits.
Once back in my room I took out the letter and tried hopping to its author. I ended up in a newsagents, by the writing paper section. That having failed, the next best thing was to let Betty have a look at it. She had a lot of knowledge about ancient Britain and the languages they spoke. Maybe it included the language the letter was written in.
I girded my loins, literally and figuratively and hopped into her bedroom at Highfields Farm. It was, unexpectedly and disappointingly, empty. Well that was a complete waste of loin girding.
I hopped to the front door of the farmhouse and rang the doorbell. Still no response. I magicked myself some wellingtons and trudged across the farmyard to the massive milking shed. It was empty. Betty and her father were probably out in the fields, but I wasn’t going to chase them that far. Stepping onto a cleaner patch of ground I changed the wellingtons back to trainers and hopped to Betty’s bedroom. It was still empty, so I found a piece of paper and left a note.
‘Missed you today. This is a letter sent to the police. If it means anything to you, get in touch ASAP. Jake.’
Then I hopped to Salice.
I found Janti and Esmeralda in conference with the usual group of Lords and Ladies that managed the kingdom.
“The King is at the Storehouse,” Esmeralda told me before I could ask. “We are managing the situation.”
I gave her a quick kiss on the forehead and sat at the table.
“Which situation is that?”
Esmeralda looked embarrassed and was unusually silent. Her mother decided to answer when it was clear she wasn’t going to.
“Urda and Anna are late getting back from Tydan. They were told to spend no more than an hour in Barren before returning and it h
as been nearly six.”
I felt a hard lump in my stomach.
“You may say it,” Esmeralda said in a toneless voice.
“Say what?”
“That you were right and I was wrong. They should not have gone.”
I dismissed that with a wave of my hand. What was done, was done. The only question was what to do about it.
“Will you attempt a rescue mission?” That from Treva.
“Jake will not,” Esmeralda said before I could answer. “Our best hope is Bronwyn and we must not compromise her.”
“What choice do we have?” Queen Janti asked. The people round the table offered nothing in reply.
“Salice is at risk through my hand. I will find a way to put things right.”
I looked at Esmeralda in surprise. She sounded defeated and that wasn’t like her at all.
“Then let us close this meeting,” Queen Janti said firmly. She stood and walked purposely away from the table. I went to my wife’s side.
“We will get them back.”
She ignored my words.
“It is good to see you safe and that you have recovered your precious knife.” She touched my cheek. “There is something you must do for me. Come husband, this is a matter of duty.”
We walked back to our apartments. I could have hopped us there, but I got the feeling Esmeralda needed time to think before we arrived.
A servant was looking after Morgana in our bedroom. Esmeralda dismissed her with a curt wave and the girl fled the room.
“You want me to go to Barren anyway?” I suggested. Esmeralda went to her dressing table and opened a draw. When she turned round she was holding the paddle her mother had given me as a wedding present.
“No. I want you to beat me, my Lord Wizard. For the damage I have done the kingdom.”
“It was a joint decision as I remember. Do you want me to put your father over my knee when I finish with you?”
Esmeralda ran to me and dropped to her knees. “The King agreed with you, but I insisted we must have the information. I need this, Jake. I need the sting of pain to remind me that my duty to the realm should always take precedence over my arrogance.”
She stood and handed me the paddle before undoing her skirt. She was wearing nothing underneath.