Wizards (3 page)

This girl certainly takes after her father, I thought. I wasn't sure I could have spoken so intelligently if someone had been cutting me up a few minutes before.

We found her clothes and she got dressed. Her mobile lay by her clothes, switched off naturally. The deceased probably watched crime shows and knew mobiles could be traced.

"I need to leave the way I came," I told her. "As soon as you switch that mobile on, the police will find you, but I'd give them a call anyway. Tell them what happened, except for me. Don't try and explain what that bastard is doing in the wall."

"I couldn't if I wanted to. How did you do it?"

I grinned and shrugged. Who knows how magic really works?

"Don't worry about this. They'll never understand it," I said as I drew a hopscotch court on the concrete floor.

"Haven't you forgotten something?" Jenny asked.

"Oh yes, my name's Jake Morrissey." She grinned and waved the mouse in front of my face to give me a bigger clue.

"I want it back though. I can never use the pad properly, the pointer goes everywhere."

"I'll see what I can do," I said taking the mouse from her. I didn't need a stone to skip home. I had learnt how to do without by the age of sixteen. A couple of hops and skips and I was back in my room.

That was how I met Jenny. As I suspected from my previous experiences, the death of her abductor was explained away as an electrical surge. Don't ask me how that was supposed to work, but the papers accepted it without question and the public didn't care. It was one less sociopath to worry about as far as they were concerned.

Jenny has become my girlfriend. I suspect she's told her father something of what happened because he came and asked me what I wanted for saving his daughter. I said I'd like to keep on knowing her and he clapped me on the back. He also told me that if I ever hurt her he might have to take some rather drastic action, but I assured him that was the last thing on my mind.

Okay, I'll admit it, being a wizard isn't always a pain.

Chapter Three
: Wizard's Luck

B
eing broke and having a girlfriend from a well-off family has presented me with problems. Jenny was fascinated by my ability to hopscotch to other places and became annoyed when she found I couldn't teach her to do it too. Despite this minor contretemps in our relationship, she decided to stay on as my girlfriend anyway.

All her friends were rich, educated and trendy and they had little time for the ugly unkempt piece of white trash from the valleys that was yours truly. This resulted in the two of us going for long walks and riding our bikes to beauty spots, because a) This kept me away from her other friends, and b) It was the most I could afford.

I will say this though. Despite me hardly being the catch of the year, I was always made welcome in the Owen house. Her parents treated me with considerable respect that I felt obliged to return.

But I did want to match the gifts Jenny's male friends liked to bestow on her. I couldn't compete directly with an iPod or the latest computer game for her X-Box, but I could go to places nobody else could and pick up gifts that were, at least, unique on planet Earth.

I picked this particular dimension/planet/whatever because I met a wise man on a road there a few years ago when I was fifteen. Most of the places I travelled tended to be far away from communities because of the interface issue. Spectacular waves breaking on rocks are great to look at, but if you're a fishing community, the best bet is to live somewhere where a gentle swell is thought of as rough weather.

The road ran parallel to the coast but a quarter of a mile inland. Judging by the waves I'd seen hit those particular cliffs, this still seemed a little too close for comfort to me. I had been following a brightly-colored bird when I first encountered the road. As a fifteen year old, I'd already learnt a degree of caution and was slowly backing away through the tall grasses when a voice called to me.

What he said wasn't in English or Welsh, but he spoke in a jovial tone and the meaning was clear. Come and say hello. Somewhat against my better judgment I turned and returned to the road.

The man was in classic wise-man regalia, though a little flashier than those I'd seen before. He looked ancient to me at the time, but looking back at it through older eyes he was probably in his fifties. His long beard was a mix of white and black with the white winning the call on a recount. He wore a long hooded black cloak, but the clothes beneath were colored in faded crimsons and greens. To my fifteen year old eyes he looked like an old hippy.

"Tanto?" he asked enquiringly.

"Not a clue," I replied. I was reminded of a story I had been told at school that the first white man to ask a Native American the name of his female companion was told 'squaw'. It was many years before the ex-European Americans discovered this was actually a derogatory name for a rather naughty part of the female anatomy. I suddenly realized that I didn't want to be known as 'Not-a-clue' on this particular planet - now that would be embarrassing.

However, this guy was a particularly wise wise-man who knew something of wizards and their powers. He took a book from out of his cloak and then clasped my hand in his with the book pressed hard into my palm.

"You will understand if you concentrate," he told me in something that didn't sound anything like English or Welsh.

So I concentrated and somehow a link formed between us allowing me to absorb his language. It was as if I learned all the words in the book by reading his mind. I tried this later with a maths book and my teacher back on Earth, but it didn't work. Perhaps I should've chosen a teacher who understood the subject he was teaching.

Anyway, by the time he let go I was fluent in his language. He told me he recognized me as a wizard even though he only saw my back. I suspect that the fact my tee-shirt had 'Glastonbury' emblazoned on it above the picture of a rock concert might have given him a clue.

We talked for a while and he asked me to hold some small pebbles he picked up from the road and think 'Be lucky' at them. It seemed a reasonable enough request and I did about twenty for him before it became boring. He shared his food with me, which consisted of bread and cheese and we chatted about girls and told each other jokes, which was a pleasant enough way to kill an hour or two.

The point is that this dimension was one of the few that I knew where I could speak the language and people might be willing to barter with me. I took twenty of the polished pebbles mum uses to put on the soil around pot plants and concentrated good luck thoughts at them for over an hour. Then I set off to find my girlfriend a present that none of her posh friends would be able to match.

Naturally, it was pissing down with rain when I arrived. It had been quite pleasant in Wales so the cold blustery wind came as a bit of a shock. I made my way down to the road, soaking my jeans on the wet grasses and then decided which way to go. It was no contest really. One direction would have the rain blowing straight into my face, so I chose the other.

The road was well made with small ditches on each side to allow water to drain away and it had a proper cambered surface. I've shoveled tar onto roads for a few months, which was, by the way, one of my worst jobs I've ever done, so I know a little about building them.

However, the road was falling apart and the center of the road had weathered, exposing the core beneath. A couple more years and it would become something resembling a track. I was sure it had been in better shape the last time I was here.

The road led me to the top of a rise and I found I was looking down at a town straight out of a children's story book. Elegant stone buildings stood alongside a small river that wound its way in and out of the town. There were three bridges across the river, each of them impossibly elegant. Poles with oil lanterns at their tops lined every avenue between cherry trees in full blossom. In the center of the town was a hill complete with a Disney style palace. The only thing missing were people. The town appeared to be completely deserted.

Having come this far in the rain I was not inclined to hop and skip back to Wales without looking around. Though the lack of people was worrying, the town didn't look as neglected as the road leading to it. I would've been much happier if the buildings showed any lights. The rain clouds above darkened the sky and I would have expected to see at least a few lamps showing, if not the street lamps lit.

I walked down the road which connected to the one following the river on its meandering path through the town. Looking down into the river's murky water I saw the odd fish surfacing. Whatever was wrong about this place it wasn't a lack of food. Not with fish being so plentiful.

I was so busy looking at the river I didn't notice the door opening on one of the buildings on the far side of the road. The first I knew that the town wasn't deserted was when strong hands pulled me off the street and into a house.

I protested, but my captor ignored me and dragged me into a dark cellar. Only when the cellar door closed did someone open a shutter on a lantern so I could see anything.

"The Master doesn't like strangers. We're supposed to call out the guard and they would have come and killed you." I turned to look at the ruffian who pulled me off the street and discovered she was an attractive girl about my own age. She wore a highly unattractive brown outfit like a monk's habit.

"Why are you down in the cellar?" I asked. I had seen no guards and the idea I'd be killed for walking down a street seemed unlikely.

"The Master tells us we are unworthy of living in the light," another girl told me. It was difficult to be certain in the light of a single lantern, but I seemed to be surrounded by girls ranging in ages from ten to twenty.

"You all look pretty fit to me," I said jovially. They looked at me blankly. "I mean you're all attractive young women… that err, the light would be very happy to shine on."

The blank looks continued so I tried another tack.

"Where are the adults?"

"They serve the Master in the castle."

It was my turn to look blank.

"Men, women and boys aren't trusted to stay in the town and are imprisoned each night after they've worked the fields. Children under the age of eight stay with their mothers," the girl who dragged me off the street explained.

"Girls between nine and nineteen are allowed out to look after the village, to clean the houses, sweep the streets and mend anything that's been damaged. The Master says he may need to sell the town one day."

"Has it always been like this?" I asked. There was a sinking feeling coming over me, and I needed to find out if my intuition was right.

"My name's Esmeralda," the girl who took me off the street said. She held out her hand. I was taken with the urge to kiss it, though I couldn't explain why. All the girls giggled when I did. They stopped when Esmeralda gave them a stern look.

"Three years ago this was a peaceful little kingdom run by my parents, the king and queen. Then a man arrived with outrageous luck and took over, leaving my parents languishing in the deepest cells of the dungeons."

"I don't understand," I said, though in fact, I was beginning to realize I did.

"An evil wizard gave the Master a bag of lucky stones," Esmeralda continued. "If there had only been one or two, we might have prevailed, but against twenty we were powerless. An arrow shot at him would turn away. Men attempting to take him prisoner slipped and broke their necks. My father fell and smashed his legs simply because he called out for his guards."

"This is insane. How can good luck be used to take over a town?"

"Kingdom, we are a kingdom," Esmeralda corrected me tartly. "Do you think that there is any place in the world where there are not those who seek more power than they have? This man's untouchability led officers from our army to his side. They were only too willing to carry out his wishes in exchange for power. With a wizard's lucky stone in his hands such a commander could easily subdue the rest of us."

"I see," I said, because I did.

"You have to leave unless you wish to be killed," Esmeralda said. "The Master is particularly wary of strangers. We will wait until the early hours of the morning and escort you to safety.

"You could all come too?" I suggested.

"And leave our families behind? Do you think for a moment the Master would not punish them for our sins?"

That was more than enough for me. I sighed loudly and faced Esmeralda.

"I can't go. I have to fix this because it's all my fault."

She stared at me uncomprehendingly.

"Three years ago I met a man on the road. He asked me to hold some pebbles from the road and wish them lucky. It seemed like a harmless request."

I expected the slap across the face. I wasn't prepared for how hard it was and I was thrown to the floor.

The pointy toed shoe stopped inches from my groin and I looked up to see Esmeralda seething with barely contained rage.

"I would kill you for the harm you've done, but for the fact I know you are right. You have to fix this disaster you created."