by Booth, John
I went over to her and kissed her. One thing led to another and Merlin didn’t mind being put in his cot to let us get on with it.
“Esmeralda’s going to be so jealous when I tell her,” Jenny said.
“You and Esmeralda talk about… I mean details?”
“Forty minutes.”
I looked where Jenny was looking and saw the clock.
“You time me?”
“Only for Esmeralda, she insists.”
“But the clocks in Salice are different.”
“I gave her a travel clock ages ago. She can convert the time.”
I whimpered. I hadn’t realized the competition had got so… well… competitive.
Jenny plucked a piece of straw from my hair and looked at it curiously. A feeling of intense fear ran through me.
“I have to go and see my parents. Check they’re safe.”
“You’re not staying for tea?”
“Best not.”
I got dressed with impressive speed. As I was about to hop, Jenny remembered something.
“I forgot. There’s something important I have to tell you.”
She was still waving that piece of straw in her hand and I was terrified she was going to ask about it.
“It can wait till later.”
I hopped before she could say another word.
I had tea with my parents and seeing them increased my resolve. It was time to deal with Dafydd and eliminate him as a suspect or destroy his capabilities to attack me, whichever was appropriate. I settled down to sleep in my bedroom and pondered that this was still the place I thought of as home. I hoped that was how I’d see our new house once we moved in.
I woke up on the floor though I didn’t remember falling out of bed. The sheets were all over the place and I was covered in a sheen of sweat. That was a simple matter to fix.
It was a beautiful morning, bright, but cold. Mam made one of her fry-up specials and by the time I had finished it I felt ready for anything.
“Do you know your Aunt’s house?” Mam asked.
I remembered the tea and cakes at her husband’s funeral. I have a very good memory when cakes are involved.
“She hasn’t moved has she?”
“Same house for the last thirty years.”
“Do you want to come?”
Mam shook her head so I hopped.
For someone born and bred in Wales I have a very poor knowledge of our cities. My knowledge of Cardiff was pretty sketchy, though I’d visited the castle a couple of times with school. Auntie May lived in a stone cottage some way from the city proper and it was a very attractive location. I could imagine living there.
I had hopped to outside the house as people can get a bit flustered when you materialize next to them. Aunt May came to the door a minute after I pressed the doorbell.
A look of anxiety came over her face when she saw me.
“Has something happened? Is Mandy all right?”
“Mam’s fine. I just thought of another way to try and find your son and it needs me to be here in person.”
Auntie May ushered me into the lounge and insisted on making me a cup of tea before we did anything else. I sometimes think that the Welsh would respond to the Apocalypse by inviting the four horsemen in to have a cup of tea.
“Are your wives well, dear?”
“Wives and children doing well, thank you Auntie.”
“Not that we had double weddings on other worlds in my day, but I must say that Bishop Danedi was a very nice man, for a heathen.”
I nodded. I don’t know if it’s only me that nods at whatever old people say, but I certainly do. Anything for a quiet life.
“Do you have something of Dafydd’s I can use to find him? Any personal possession will do.”
Auntie May looked around the room as if for inspiration.
“He took everything just after your wedding. He was very insistent about it.”
“He must have left something.”
Auntie May shook her head. “Will his PhD certificate do? I had it framed and put up in the hall to show the neighbors.”
I went into the hall and brought it back with me.
“He got that three years after he left for America,” Auntie May said proudly. “The first one in the family.”
“Do you mind if I take it out of the frame?”
She nodded and I carefully took off the back.
When I had the certificate in my hands I scanned it for magic. There was nothing. It seemed unlikely that it would be locked to my cousin unless he had spent a lot of time hugging it, but as Dad says, beggars can’t be chooses.
“Can I borrow this for a while? I’ll take good care of it.”
“It’s the only thing of his I have left.”
“I promise it will be back to you later today.”
She reluctantly gave her assent.
“I’m going to try and find your son. Don’t be surprised when I vanish.”
I hopped to where the certificate was attuned.
I arrived in a large study. Books lined the walls and there was a large comfortable armchair in front of me.
“Who the hell are you?”
I turned to find a man glowering at me from behind an impressive desk. He had a grey neatly trimmed beard and wore round glasses, John Lennon style. He had a cultured American accent.
“And how did you get in here? I locked the door.”
I decided to try the truth. It had never worked before, but there had to be a first time for everything.
“My name is Jake. I’m a wizard, though not exactly the Hogwarts type. Does this PhD certificate mean anything to you?”
The act of handing him the certificate threw him off course and he ended up staring at it instead of glaring at me.
“It’s a forgery. Very good, but I knew all the PhD students in Languages that year. I was one of them. In fact it could almost be my certificate altered to change David into Dafydd.”
I took the certificate from him. When I looked carefully I could see that the letters were slightly crushed together on the first name. There was no sign of how it had been done though.
“Your certificate was stolen?”
“Years ago. I had it replaced. Now what exactly did you mean when you said you were a wizard?”
“It means I can do this.”
I hopped back to Auntie May taking the forged certificate with me. It seems I had hit another dead end.
38. Friends
Mam looked worried. I had just given my parents a summary of what I’d found out about Dafydd, which was more a list of what I hadn’t found out.
“Why would he lie about his PhD?” Mam asked. “It’s not as if anybody cared. Going to live in America would be a pretty big thing for our family, all on its own.”
“And you really think he might be your mystery bomber?” this from Dad.
I nodded. After all, it wasn’t as if we had a large number of candidates, and Betty had said the bomber was connected to me, and I trusted Betty’s visions.
“But that means he tried to kill me and your Dad,” Mam protested. “He always struck me as a very nice young man.”
“Whoever the bomber is, he is not a nice person. All we know for certain is that he is a Wizard who has spent time with the Balmack.”
Dad waved his unlit pipe at me. He stopped smoking years ago, but he found holding it comfortable.
“And he’s insane. Don’t forget that, son.”
“I’m not likely to forget that, Dad. Believe me.”
Mam remained unconvinced. “You haven’t found a trace of magic and yet you’ve made Dafydd into a master wizard and a mass murderer.”
“He’s been living a lie and has become extraordinary rich, if the safe in his apartment is anything to go by.”
“You don’t have to be a wizard to do those things, son.”
We were going round in circles, and Mam and Dad were right. All I was going on was what Betty had told me and a gut feelin
g. But it felt right.
“It doesn’t matter what I think. The trail is stone cold. I just wouldn’t be surprised if he turned out to be the bomber.”
Mam sniffed. “Well I hope you’re wrong. May would never be able to live with the shame if it turned out her son was a murderer. She’s always been very proud, my eldest sister. And a stalwart of the chapel. I thought she was going to faint when I told her you were going to be a bigamist.”
Sometimes your parents surprise you. That was the first time that Mam had given the slightest hint that she didn’t approve of my status. Dad made a sound that I took to be a warning to Mam.
“I know that you’re in a special position being the wizard for Salice,” Mam said, speaking just a little too quickly. “And Esmeralda is certainly a catch, though not a patch on Jenny.”
Dad intervened. “Jake’s marriage arrangements are no concern of ours, dear.”
“Of course, you’re right,” Mam said. “And the grandchildren are lovely. But sometimes it would be nice to tell people about both of them and not just Merlin.”
The conversation lapsed as none of us was sure what to say next. Dad broke the lingering silence as he remembered something.
“Oh, there’s something important I have to tell you. Bronwyn’s dad rang this morning and he said…”
I put up my hand and he stopped talking. I didn’t want to hear anything about Bronwyn because of what had happened at the cloisters.
“I don’t want to know, Dad. There’s nothing I can do about it, whatever you say.”
“But son, this is important. Bronwyn’s dad tells me that…”
I really didn’t want to know anything about Bronwyn or the Cult. Unwanted memories of being crucified came back to me. I trembled and my heart was racing. The need to get away was overwhelming and I hopped to the Bat Cave.
[This thing with your cousin is most curious. I have thought about it at length and it is unlikely he would be a wizard, especially one so powerful.]
I stroked my dragons head while sitting with my back resting against his body. This was the position we used to sit in when we were young. It was comforting.
“Bronwyn is a powerful wizard and she’s not even related to me.”
[Earth has never produced much in the way of wizards. Worlds that embrace technology never do. Salice has never produced a home grown wizard in its history and that despite many children born of wizards over the centuries.]
“They’ve broken that duck now. Morgana is certainly a wizard.”
[Some worlds produce many wizards. Urda’s world for example where it seems every other person has some ability to harness magic. But Earth has never been one of the productive worlds.]
“Don’t you dragons have a theory? I thought your Elders had a theory for everything.”
Fluffy shrugged, which bounced me onto the floor. I half-suspected it was deliberate.
[Dragons find magic lore fascinating. Many collect books of wisdom from across the multiverse, and once knowledge becomes known to one of us, we can all access it.]
“Tell me the theory.” I knew he was only looking for an opening. Fluffy loved philosophical discussions.
[There are several. The one dragons favor is that regular use of magic around pregnant females makes it more likely that their children will be born with the ability.]
“That doesn’t explain me or Bronwyn.”
[We do not deny it. But the theory works well in most cases.]
I moved to sit against him again.
[Speaking of the Elders. They have sent me a request to put to you.]
The Elders were getting pushy these days. I wondered what they wanted this time.
“I’m listening.”
[They want you to keep an eye on the Diabli for them.]
Now that sounded plain stupid.
“The more I travel to the Damaged Zone the more likely they are to catch me. Your dragon butterfly was dead against me going there again, and I’m with him on this one.”
[My apologies, I did not put that well. The Elders would like you to enter the space outside hop space and observe the Diabli attempts to escape the Damaged Zone from a safe distance.]
While that was more reasonable, it still struck me as stupid.
“Even seeing me may give them a clue on how to escape. It’s too dangerous.”
[Having them loose in the multiverse without our knowledge is considered even more dangerous.]
I didn’t see that. Three or even a thousand Diabli in the multiverse wasn’t much of a risk. After all, every universe was infinite and there were an infinite number of them. It could take a thousand years for our paths to cross.
“Why would they bother us if they escaped? If I was them I’d spend a few centuries partying.”
[Jake, this is not a joke. This universe and the one with Salice are in their back yard, as are the Dragon Worlds. And the Diabli’s first thought will be for revenge.]
“Revenge against the Dragons?”
[And Humans, and Elves. We formed an alliance that drove them from many universes after they invented the swords. The use of those weapons destroyed the universes around them. Several of those lost contained alliance worlds.]
Now that was food for thought. The Diabli were well off my immediate threat list, but would it hurt to keep the Dragons placated? I owed them a lot.
“On one condition.”
Fluffy didn’t answer for a few seconds.
[Name it.]
“I want to know how the Diabli swords are made and how they work.”
[Unthinkable. The magic involved is vile and you might be tempted to use it.]
“I need to be able to defend myself against the swords.”
I felt Fluffy tense and I suspected he was having an argument with the Elders.
[Defense is impossible.]
“I won’t believe that until I have tested it for myself. Those are my terms and your Elders can take it or leave it.”
There was another long pause.
[The Elders are to discuss the matter. I believe they will put it to a vote of all the dragons, after they have considered the implications.]
That was fair enough. I wondered which way Fluffy would vote if they gave him the chance. I certainly had no intention of asking him as that would put him under unfair pressure. There were so few dragons left in the multiverse that his vote one way or the other might be critical to the outcome.
Regardless of the Elders decision, I decided to go and look every year or so to satisfy my own curiosity, but I wanted to know how those weapons worked so I wasn’t going to tell them that.
I remembered that Fluffy’s eyes should have healed by now. While he was busy talking to the Elders I used my magical sight to take a look.
They looked regrown and healthy. All that was left was to remove the protective covers and see it they worked.
[How are my eyes?]
“I didn’t think you’d notice me looking.”
[It could be months or even years before the Elders get back to you. Did you think I would not notice you stomping around in my head?]
“The growing is complete. Whether they work is an entirely different matter.”
[They feel perfect.]
“Do you want me to remove the covers now?”
Fluffy didn’t answer immediately. That worried me, as it suggested he had already tested them.
[We should have an unveiling with my friends. I want them all to know at the same time.]
“The cloisters lawn in the Palace?” A shudder went through me as I suggested it and my palms hurt. What was I thinking of? I never wanted to see that place again.
[That sounds perfect. I could bring Jenny and Merlin.]
‘And still prove I’m useful.’ I added mentally. I knew my best friend better than he thought.
“That’s a good idea. I’ll set it up when I go to Salice.”
[Not now?]
“I want to go flying with you. You can use my eyes and
we can visit a few worlds along the way.”
[I would enjoy that, Jake. You have always been a true friend.]
39. Mistake
I woke up on the floor in the Bat Cave though I distinctly remember starting the night on the sofa. The sheet I had pulled over myself was yards away and from the state of the sofa it looked as though I had had a wrestling match with its cushions and they won.
I was hot and sticky and aching all over; especially in the groin. Fluffy has a wide neck and I spent over six hours in the saddle, except that Fluffy doesn’t have a saddle. I walked bow legged to the bathroom.
Yes, the Bat Cave has a bathroom of sorts. It used to be a toilet and basin with a modesty curtain, but in the rebuild after the fire I’d used a side bubble in the rock to make an actual room with a closable door.
[Did we really fly in space?] Fluffy asked sleepily.
“You had to put us into glim when we got too close to the International Space Station. Don’t you remember?”
[I thought I dreamed that bit.]
“I hope they didn’t take any pictures.”
I felt a surge of excitement from my dragon. [You think they might have taken pictures? Do you think we can get copies?]
“What would you do with them?” I was genuinely curious. What Fluffy did to while away the time when I wasn’t around was a mystery to me. We always ended up talking about my problems when we were together.
[I have a couple of profiles on the internet.]
Fluffy claws are bigger than the average phone, so that sounded extremely unlikely.
“How do you… enter anything?”
He was laughing. The smell of dragonfire is distinctive. I normally redo the magic to fire proof the furniture every couple of days, but I couldn’t remember whether I’d done it recently.
[Dragons are magic users, remember?]
It was surprisingly easy to forget that fact. Fluffy rarely used magic in an obvious manner, but if he wanted to type on a keyboard with it, there was no reason he couldn’t.
I checked my watch and found it was nearly ten. I had slept most of the morning away.
“Are you up for the unveiling this afternoon? Assuming Jenny is available.”