Alec the Wanderer: Generations of Eredwynn #4 (12 page)

Amanda giggled. “So this is how the other half live, huh? I know that being with you two, we won’t be treated to this kind of service all the time, but seeing it once was cool!”

Lia looked at me expectantly, so I made introductions. “Lia, this is my wife Carol and our other Consort, Amanda. Our Consorts were having some trouble with a man; Carol stunned him and they came home with us.”

Lia produced her friendliest smile. “Nice to meet you, Carol. You’re as pretty as I’d heard. I’d like to welcome all three of you to the family and let you know that I’m always available, in case you need to gripe about my brother. After you eat, you can show me your wardrobe and then we can go to the tailor’s. I’m sure that Alec can afford to dress his ladies nicely. After that, he said something about showing you the range. I’ll find him and let him take you over.”

My girls turned to me to see if her plans would work with my plans. “Lia is a sweet young lady, even if she tries to hide it. I think you’ll have a good time with her. Don’t let her spend ALL my money, but get anything you want. Most of it will have to be left here when we hit the road again, but it will be nice for you to have clothes to come home to. Carol and Barbara don’t really need any clothes at all when we’re home, in my opinion. But I was told once that there is more to life than making love. I’m still not sure I believe that.”

I got the blushes I was shooting for and a nod from Carol. She’d gotten my message that Barbara was now completely family. My magic was up half-way already and I’d never seen it recover that fast without Raven around. We finished eating quickly, Barbara dressed and Lia took charge. They trooped out of the room on their mission, leaving me alone once again.

I got ready for my day and walked to the roof. I flew down and made my way over to the range where a number of students and Aunt Alba had already gathered. Alba saw me coming and
blinked
over to me.

“I heard you were back, and brought Consorts, too! That really surprised me but since they’re here, you should have them tested. Davie says that your wife is a sorceress? What have you learned about that?”

I laughed. “I don’t know what to answer! Well, we learned that Carol is a sorceress and can make wind vortexes that Father calls ‘tornadoes’. She can also do some impressive things with lightning and lightning-powered things from Father’s realm. Our Consorts are from that realm as well and still think it’s cool when we dim the lamps with magic. You’re welcome to ask them if they want to be tested. They are supposed to come watch the girls work on the range because I thought the spells would entertain them. If you could have your girls put on a little show, novice to expert, I think that would be nice.”

Alba smiled and nodded. “We’d be happy to. I’ll go talk to them and you can locate your family.”

I nodded,
shielded
and took to the air. I flew back over the castle wall and landed in the middle of the courtyard as the girls were coming out of the tailor’s. The sisters froze when they saw me, then Barbara yelled, “Holy crap, dude! You were flying!”

Carol, Lia and I all started laughing and I replied, “That isn’t such an uncommon thing around here for the wizards and the single sorceress of Eredwynn. Flying is actually the preferred mode of transportation for most of them. I’m just one of the strange ones that prefers to walk from place to place.”

Amanda looked at me shyly and hesitantly asked, “Is there a way that you can make us fly? That’s something I’ve always wanted to do.”

I nodded. “After a fashion, you could fly. We can wrap you in a
levitation
bubble and carry you airborne with us. Aunt Alba is waiting for us at the range and we could
fly
you out there.”

Lia shook her head with a grin. “I’ll pass on going to the range with you. If I go out there, Alba will put me to work teaching novices how to cast
magic arrows
and that gets boring quickly. I might catch up with you ladies later, and remember to pick up your stuff before the tailor closes at sunset.”

The girls hugged Lia goodbye and I wrapped the sisters in
levitation
. As they got light, they became giddy. Their giggling was contagious and Carol and I had to compose ourselves before we could
shield
up and
fly
ourselves. I tethered Amanda to me while Carol brought Barbara along. We lifted them slowly up and over the wall. We set them down, still giggling, behind the line of girls at the firing range. As soon as I released Amanda, she grabbed me, hugged me, and spoke in a whisper, “I’m sure that we’re dreaming now. That kind of thing doesn’t happen in real life!”

I laughed and kissed her gently. “I had to prove to your sister last night that this wasn’t a dream. Do I have to prove it to you tonight?”

“If you’ll prove it the same way she told me you proved it to her, yes! I was hoping that you would want me to come to your room tonight. I think that’s the way the Queen said I was supposed to phrase that.”

I laughed again. “We have Aunt Alba, who is the wizard trainer. Now we have Aunt Isabel who is the Consort trainer. Who’s going to be next? My mother the construction worker trainer? Speaking of my mother, we’d better find her soon or I’ll be in trouble for not introducing my newest family members!”

Aunt Alba came over to join us. “Carol, I’m so happy to see you again! My son said that you’re a sorceress and I was the one that found you, so I get to claim some credit. Now, introduce me to these ladies you discovered in the other realm.”

“This is Amanda and her sister Barbara. They weren’t happy in the life they were stuck in and accepted our offer to help. Then those two becoming Consorts just sorta happened after that. You know how lovable these Stephenson men are. They are really hoping that you’ll get your girls to show them some magic. I don’t think that they’d be as interested in my sorceress magic, even though my stun did come in handy once.”

“Well, my girls are ready to show them what they’ve learned so far. We’ll start on the right end and work our way up from there.
Shield
your ladies, please. Accidents can and do happen when someone is learning magic!”

Alba led us to the novice end of the range and signaled the girls to begin. A volley of
magic
arrows
brought gasps and applause from the sisters. Alba grinned at their reaction and moved to the adepts. Their
energy
bolts
really got the girls’ attention when they realized that those spells could do some serious damage. The next two stops were what I was really looking forward to. Alba had a half dozen apprentices lined up and they simultaneously cast
flamestrike
on the targets down range. Barb and Amanda both screamed and ran backwards from the line, even though the spells had been cast twenty yards away. The wizard girls laughed, because they’d been affected that way too, not that long ago. We calmed the girls and moved back to our spot for the final demonstration.

Alba nodded to the group of experts and one nodded to her spotter. The spotter amplified her voice and called, “
Meteor
Swarm
!”

Barbara looked up at me and asked, “What’s a
meteor
swarm
? That’s not like bees, is it? I hate bees!”

I shook my head with a grin, then noticed that the caster had overheard and was looking in our direction. Gravel, dead grass and sticks started rising from the ground around us and disappearing. The girl that had cast the spell went absolutely white and began screaming, “Mis-target! Mis-target!”

Alba and I instantly threw
dome
shields
over the area and crossed our fingers.
Dome
shields
had never been tested against the
meteor
swarm
spell.

Carol stared at the sky, looking at something that none of us could see. Suddenly the burning stones popped into existence and Carol clapped her hands over her head. The hair on our heads and arms stood up, and an incredibly powerful bolt of
lightning
came from my little bride. The bolt struck the stones, shattering them to sand. A light rain of sand and dust settled on the shields while we all stared at Carol.

She shrugged. “I told you that I could do almost anything with lightning now. It seemed safer to rain sand than those huge rocks!”

Alba and I hugged her while the sisters slowly backed away. The girl that had cast the spell was sobbing, and that’s what grabbed Carol’s attention. She went to her and hugged her. She comforted her by telling her that mistakes happen and she’d learned a valuable lesson. She quietly told about the lightning storm and the tornadoes that she’d caused. The girl relaxed, picked up her wand from the ground where she’d thrown it, and walked with her friends toward the dorm.

Carol waved the sisters to her and it was clear that they were terrified by what they’d seen. They went to her slowly and were stiff as boards as she hugged them. I waited for her to talk to them and Alba came over to me.

“Did you see what she did? That was the most impressive display of magic I’ve seen without Davie around! I guess that what Della told us was right on the mark. Her magic is certainly more powerful than I would have imagined.”

I chuckled nervously. “Now I know I won’t ever complain about her cooking. Intercepting a caster’s most powerful spell like she did scares even me! I’m glad she loves me and is on our team. Thank you for the display, my dear Aunt. Perhaps some of the experts need a refresher course in focus. Just a suggestion.”

Everyone was warned before we dropped the
dome shields
and sand rained across the area. It slid off the
shielded
girls and I gathered my little family to me. “This has been quite an interesting morning! I can tell that you Vegas girls were scared badly by Carol’s spell. Just remember that we love you and our magic won’t ever hurt you. She had to do that to keep you from getting hurt. Now I suggest that we fly over to Kastan and have lunch at the inn there. They usually have a really nice stew.”

The girls agreed with my plan, so we wrapped the sisters in bubbles and lifted off. We climbed to a thousand feet, grinning at the sisters’ giggles. We accelerated to a good travel speed and arrived in the closest town to Wizard’s Castle. We landed on the outskirts and walked in. The girls seemed to have gotten over the shock of seeing Carol’s very powerful spell, but they looked at her with a new respect.

As we entered the inn, the innkeeper greeted us. “Good noontide to ya, Alec! Are ya here for a room or just for lunch today?”

“We’re just here for lunch today. We’re hanging out and visiting with the family at the castle for a few days. I told my beautiful wife and my lovely Consorts that you had a great stew here. I hope you have some for us!”

The man grinned happily. “Of course we do. Can I get you drinks before I serve it up?”

I looked at the girls around the table. “Wine, ale or water for you ladies? The man knows I’m a big fan of his ale, so what will you have?”

Barbara leaned across the table close to me. “Amanda and I like wine, but we don’t even have real ID’s, let alone fake ones. There’s no way this guy’s gonna buy us being twenty-one!”

I laughed. “We’ll have three glasses of wine for the ladies and my ale, of course. Then we’ll have that stew! I haven’t found anything like it in two realms.”

The innkeeper grinned happily and went to the back. We all stared at Amanda, who was gazing off into space, shaking her head. She looked up and saw that she was the center of attention. “I was just thinking, we live here now and even simple things that we grew up with, like the drinking age, are different. Will we ever fit in here?”

Carol put an arm around her and I replied comfortingly, “Life is different all over. Different cultures have different rules and people are really good at adapting. I’ve traveled all over this world and seen many strange things, but I learned to fit in. I’m sure that I’d be feeling the same way as you are if I were living on the Vegas Strip all of a sudden.”

She smiled, seemingly comforted a bit, and the innkeeper returned with our drinks. A young lady set bowls, spoons and bread in front of us and left us to our meal.

While we were eating, Barbara asked, “What do you have to do to learn that magic stuff like we saw? I saw some girls that looked really young out there, working with those arrow spells. If anyone can learn it, I’d sure like to give it a shot!”

I smiled, happy that she hadn’t been completely scared away from magic by the day’s events. “There is a little test that my Aunt Alba gives people to check for magic. It’s pretty simple, but you should know that not many folks have magic. It’s less than twenty percent of the people she tests who pass. If you wanted to take the test I could arrange it, but I wouldn’t want you to be to upset if you didn’t pass.”

“It’s not like I’ve hoped to do magic my whole life. If I could, that would be cool; if I can’t, it ain’t no biggie. I’d like to try when we get back, if Alba isn’t busy.”

I nodded. “How about you, Amanda? Do you think that you’d be interested in trying that, too?”

She shrugged. “It might be cool. You sure as hell won’t catch me doing that
meteor
swarm
spell though! I don’t think we saw what it was supposed to do, but I saw enough to know that I don’t want to see it again!”