Jake's War, Book Two of Wizards (9 page)

“No need to get up for me,” the King said as he stepped into my view. “I don't plan to stay long.”

I've had a few conversations with the King of Salice and was dreading the one we would have when I attempted to apologize for getting his daughter pregnant.

What I can tell you for a fact is that he's nobody's fool. He likes to stay in the background and let others, especially his daughter, do the talking for him. But she doesn't do anything he hasn't already approved. That would probably include getting pregnant, if I was to be honest about it. The King and Esmeralda have been playing me like a violin since the day we first met.

The King gave me a kindly smile. I started to get to my feet but he waved me back down.

“Some of my advisers think Salice would be better off without you, Jake. They believe trouble follows you around and the appearance of the wizards from Valhalla is yet more proof of your recklessness and danger to us all.”

I started to speak, but he raised his hand.

“My daughter has already remonstrated with them. She has yet to learn to be tolerant of dissenting views. A ruler needs to know
all
the things his people think, however foolish some of those thoughts are.”

Esmeralda flushed at the rebuke and nodded.

“Without you, my people would be ruled by a despot, be it Wizard Plath or another of his ilk. I would be dead, that much is certain. Salice attracts Wizards, as do the neighboring kingdoms. We are a handsome people, rich in health, food to eat and we have a certain amount of grace, elegance and learning that appeals to them. It has been that way for generations. They come, they despoil, and then they leave us fallow for a couple of generations to recover.”

“We have our own wizards now, Father. There is hope.”

“My advisers fear the wizards from Valhalla. What they do not see is that these wizards did not simply take over the kingdom, but came in warily, using their diplomatic status to protect themselves. They did that because they fear you, Jake.”

The King's smile turned suddenly to a stern frown.

“So would you please avoid getting yourself killed? My daughter needs a husband and there are very few in the multiverse who would put up with her. The children will need a father. It is time to learn caution, Jake.”

He waited a few seconds to be sure his message had sunk in and then strolled back to the cloisters and into the Palace.

“Meep.” [He's worse than being surrounded by dragons.]

Fluffy's thoughts broke the tension and Urda tried to stifle a giggle.

“We need to work out who attacked us yesterday,” I said, still determined to try and wrest control of the meeting from Esmeralda.

“Well duh,” said my girlfriend, showing no loyalty at all. Esmeralda reached for a sheet of parchment on the ground.

“I have made a list of the relevant points,” she said.

“It was those wizards,” Wenna said loudly. It was an unexpected outburst and I wondered if she was going to say more. “Who else could it be?”

Well, that was a bit disappointing. I'd hoped for more.

“Meep.” [The attack came from somewhere on the Palace grounds.]

“It could have been Bronwyn,” Esmeralda said. “The spells used were
'The Eating Death
' and '
The Light that Burns'
. Both were in the books she stole.”

As soon as Esmeralda said the names of the spells they became visible in my mind. Her words triggered an information dump and I saw the relevant pages as if I was holding them in front of me.
The Eating Death
was horrible but the book said it couldn't be used on a wizard.

“Two spells needs two wizards,” Wenna said. Esmeralda patted her on the shoulder in praise.

“The
books
say that wizards can only handle one spell at a time.” Esmeralda gave me a
'those rules don't count for you'
look. I was beginning to wonder if we were establishing a telepathic link because I'd never been able to read her this well before.

“And this trick required both spells to be cast at once. That was very astute of you, Wenna. It took me ages to work it out.”

Because I now had read the pages on the spells in question, I understood what Esmeralda meant.

“The Death spell is too weak to use on a wizard. Even in our sleep we would protect ourselves against something so feeble. Somebody worked out that if all our concentration was on the Light spell it might get through. That's pretty clever.”

 “I told you it was the Valhalla wizards,” Wenna said with satisfaction.

“Bronwyn might have found herself another wizard,” Urda said. “And she knows the Palace well enough to hop in and out of it pretty much at will. I'm assuming she's learned to hop without a court. How to do that was in the books and she already knew you could do it, Jake.”

“It must be the Valhalla lot,” Jenny countered. “Bronwyn finding another wizard is far too unlikely.”

Esmeralda acknowledged the point though I could tell she didn't agree.

“There are three problems with it being the Valhalla wizards. The first is that they were being watched at the time and were eating.”

“They could have created an illusion,” Wenna said, unwilling to let anybody disprove her theory, whatever they said. I grinned. It was the most spirit I'd seen her show. She usually looked ready to burst into tears at the drop of a hat.

“The second is this was an opportunistic attack. The Valhalla wizards are experienced and would work to a plan unless they were very angry. While Jake is easily capable of making a saint swear, he has to be in the room with them to achieve the effect. They couldn't have been sure who was riding Retnor if they could see the rider at all. It could just as easily have been Jenny on him.”

The butterflies feeling in my stomach came back and I cast spells right, left and center, blocking The Eating Death from those present and working my way outward through the Palace. I even protected the animals. It was a horrible way to die. I almost missed Esmeralda's third point as a wave of exhaustion ran through me.

“Thirdly, no wizard who knows anything of Dragon Lore would dare kill a dragon like that. The Dragons would come after them and destroy them, including their families, their friends, and possibly their world for such an outrage.”

“Meep.” [You can count on it.]

I looked in Fluffy's eyes and it seemed I could see the galaxies of the night sky on that strange world reflected in them. I suspect that dragons are all connected to each other whether Fluffy was aware of it or not. What I saw in his eyes was the cold certainty that dragon deaths are always avenged.

“Which means that either Bronwyn has help or we have another enemy we know nothing about,” Jenny said bleakly. Then she grinned at Esmeralda. “Which is a problem for Jake to sort out. We have our first dress fittings in half an hour.”

Chapter Fourteen: Home and Away

Before Jenny left she reminded me I hadn't spoken to my parents properly for months and they were doubtless worried about me. I kept forgetting I'd spent four months in agony. The memories had receded to the point where all I could recall were brief flashes of the people I saw in hospital. I wondered if my magic had obliterated the memories for my sanity. I couldn't remember the pain at all.

I made a mental note to visit home as soon as possible while Jenny gave Fluffy a quick cuddle and told him she'd fly with him soon. I watched Urda and Wenna to take my mind off them. I admit it, I sometimes get jealous.

The girls were aware of my attention on them. Urda kept glancing my way as they talked and kept dropping things. Wenna looked at me from time to time, like a frightened rabbit caught in the headlights of an oncoming car. I decided to go over and put them out of their misery. To my surprise, Wenna backed away from me, hiding behind Urda.

“Wenna, did you have much contact with Bronwyn?”

It seemed an innocuous question, but Wenna cringed.

“I b-b-barely sp-spoke to her, wh-why?”

“I'm not accusing you of anything. I hoped she might have given you a hint of where she's gone. We need to find her.”

“N-n-no, she's cr-crazy. I have to g-go.”

Wenna fled the lawn. Jenny came up behind me and gave me a playful squeeze around the waist before she followed Esmeralda into the Palace.

“What was that all about?”

Urda shrugged. She seemed ill at ease, so I figured it must be something about me affecting both girls. I saw Fluffy glim away out of the corner of my eye, leaving Urda and me alone on the lawn.

“Looks like it's just the two of us.”

Urda looked away, avoiding any eye contact.

“Jake, it's my sixteenth birthday today, I think.”

I understood the caveat. When you flee a world for one with a different calendar it must be difficult to keep track. At least I hadn't missed this birthday.

“Congratulations,” I said, moving closer and giving her a hug. She leaned into my shoulder and put an arm around me, making the whole thing a lot more intimate than I'd intended. Still, I could hardly back away having started it.

“There's a custom on my world. On your sixteenth, if you're a girl.”

“The only customs I know about your world are far from nice.”

Urda looked up and grinned. “It wasn't always as bad as when you rescued us. That only happened over the last few years when times got hard. The rains had failed for years and it's easier to blame witches when the crops fail than to blame the weather.”

“Good to know it wasn't all bad.”

“There were lots of good times before Father Drog convinced everybody witches were the cause of the weather going wrong. Spring Festival was always lovely with pretty colored banners and acrobats showing off their skills in the marketplace.”

I managed to disentangle myself from Urda as she talked without making it look as though I was trying to escape from her clutches. Diplomacy is my new middle name.

“So what's this custom then?” One day I'm going to learn to avoid trouble rather than diving straight towards it. One day, but not this day.

Urda's face colored.

“A girl gets to choose the man to deflower her.”

She saw the look on my face and continued before I could say anything.

“Not for marriage or anything like that. But as a sign of her new status as an adult. It doesn't mean anything. Well yes it does, but it's not like a betrothal or anything and…”

I put a hand up to stop her talking before her head exploded. It looked as though it might.

“But you, Wenna and the others girls were … by…” Words failed me. She was far from being a virgin for all the wrong reasons. The men of her world did terrible things to witches before they killed them.

Urda looked as though she might start to cry. “That was different. This is a good thing.”

I was out of my depth. Why she brought this up with me was beyond my understanding. Surely she could have talked to Jenny about it or one of the girls from Barren? I decided on bluff Welsh humor as my response.

“Who's the lucky young man you have in mind? Is he nice? Well he must be, mustn't he?”

Urda gave me a look I couldn't interpret and ran across the lawn and into the Palace. I didn't even consider following her. I'd talk to Jenny about it when I got the chance, she'd know what to say and do. However, there was one thing I could do for Urda and I planned to do it right now.

Thom is the major domo for the Palace. The man who makes everything happen. He could usually be found in or near the kitchens and I located him after a couple of quick hops. In some ways he's the poshest guy in the kingdom. He always wears immaculate clothes that fit him perfectly. His diction is far better than the King's.

“Wizard Morrissey, it is good to see you looking well after your recent problems.”

It took me a few seconds to realize he was talking about my time in hospital. That already seemed like something that had happened years ago.

“It's good to be back, Thom. Can you do me a favor?”

Thom is excellent at deadpan humor. I suspect he practices it in front of a mirror.

“Even I cannot get you out of imminent marriages, sir. That would require the skills of an exceptionally powerful wizard.”

I couldn't think of a good comeback so I ignored him.

“It's Urda's birthday today. Her sixteenth, which is important where she comes from.”

“She has not mentioned it. The Princess will be displeased with her when she finds out.” Thom went so far as to raise an eyebrow. Excellent, I had his full attention.

“I was wondering if you could arrange a surprise birthday party. And let the royal family know.”

He frowned.

“It is very short notice and chef will be most annoyed that I haven't given her more time. But I think I can arrange something. Will Wizard Morrissey be finding the time to attend in person?”

Being talked about in the third person is disconcerting. I'm sure Thom did it for exactly that reason. I grinned at him.

“I shall do my best, but these things have a way of going wrong with me.”

“So we have all noticed. Betting on whether you will manage to attend your own wedding has reached fever pitch among the common folk.”

“What're the odds?”

“I have bet on your attendance at twenty to one.”

“I'll do my best to help you collect,” I said, and hopped back home, duty done.

My mattress was bare. A few blankets were neatly folded on top of it. My room had the air of a hotel room nobody had used for years. A quick mental calculation told me I hadn't been home for about five months. It looked like the world had moved on without me.

“Jake, is that you?”

“Yes, Mam, I'm coming down.”

I didn't make it down the stairs because Mam beat me up to the landing and came at me like a steam train, hugging me tightly. When she finally finished she held me at arms' length and looked me up and down.

“You could do with putting on a bit of weight. You're all skin and bones, boy.”

“Better than being too fat, Mam.”