Wizards (7 page)

I can only say I will do my best to bring you truly astounding stories in this newspaper. Believe me when I say that the best is yet to come.'

Jenny wanted to ring Jake and tell him about the story. The reporter didn't mention Fluffy so everything must be all right. Jake was wrong to shout at her over saving the reporter's life.

Jenny stared at Jake's name on her mobile's names list for a long time. Finally, she pressed the call button and waited with baited breath as his mobile rang. After only two rings, it jumped to answer phone mode.

"This is Jake Morrissey. Please leave a message at the tone."

Jenny threw the phone on the bed and then rushed to retrieve it as it bounced onto the floor. Half an hour later, she rang Jake's parents.

"I'm sorry, love," Jake's mother Mandy told her. "He said he was going to be away for a few days and we shouldn't worry about him. I'm surprised he didn't tell you, you being his girlfriend and all."

"We had a big fight," Jenny admitted reluctantly.

"Never mind love. I'm sure he'll get over it. He often does this, goes wandering on his own. I can't think where he gets it from. I can't get his father as far as Blackpool without a struggle. Do you want me to get him to call you when he gets back?"

"No, it's all right. I'm sure he will call me soon."

The next day, Jenny attended college. She was taking a degree in art. Several of her friends came up to express their relief at Jake's exit from her life, but she snapped angrily at them and they soon gave up and left her to mope.

It was during the lunch break that she got an idea. Jake might be up in the hills in the Bat Cave with Fluffy. Jenny missed Fluffy almost as much as she missed Jake. She could drive up the hills to where they left the bikes and search for the cave entrance.

Jenny's parents had bought her a car shortly after the kidnap incident. Her parents did not want her coming home alone by bus again. She usually left the car at home when with Jake, because he couldn't afford to own a car and she didn't want to rub his nose in her greater wealth. On the other hand, he had a pet dragon and Jenny would happily trade in her car if it meant she would see them again.

When she walked out of college that evening she had the strange feeling she was being watched. After being kidnapped she had become a little paranoid when she was out on her own. It was one reason she was attracted to Jake, because he always made her feel safe whenever she was with him.

Jenny was running by the time she reached her car. Only after she got in and locked the doors did she begin to feel foolish over her panic attack.

Jenny persuaded herself to drive up into the hills, though by now all she really wanted to do was go home. It wasn't all that far to the hills, though she was delayed by commuter traffic. Half an hour later, she pulled into a picnic area not far from where she and Jake had parked their bikes.

She was walking through the trees beyond the car park when she heard the sound of another vehicle entering the picnic area. It was rather late in the day for tourists to be about and she turned to see who it was. A black SUV with dark tinted windows pulled up beside her car. Jenny waited to see who got out, but nobody did.

Only when she gave up waiting and continued her walk to where they left their bikes did she hear the slam of a car door. Jenny quickened her pace to a fast walk and then she began to run. She was convinced she was being followed.

A deer trail ran off to the left from where they left their bikes. Jenny ran along the barely discernible deer path into the trees, the only alternative was to stop and think and that might give the man behind her a chance to catch up.

Jenny slowed down when she got the stitch. She bent over, her hands resting on her knees and her bottom pressed against a large boulder embedded into the side of the mountain. She didn't know it, but the boulder was the door to the Bat Cave. Had she known it she could have been safe in the cave with Fluffy within seconds.

As soon as she got her breath back, she began to run. Very soon, she discovered she was hopelessly lost.

It was starting to get dark and Jenny became acutely aware she had no hope of finding the cave or Jake like this. Jenny was a clever girl and she'd put her satnav in her handbag before setting off. She fumed impatiently as the device took ages to find enough satellites to give her a position. The bright little arrow indicating her position was lost in a sea of white space, but the car park was clearly visible at the end of the winding single track road.

Jenny spun the unit until the arrow pointed towards the car park and began to walk through the trees. Fortunately, the ground was firm, and there was little undergrowth to trip her up.

On the way back, she heard someone walking nearby and hid until they passed. It didn't take her long to get back to her car. The black SUV was still parked alongside it and its dark blank windows made her shudder. Gravel scattered in all direction as she made a fast getaway.

Next day, she drove straight home from college. She rang Jake's mobile again but was put straight though to his answer service. Jenny wondered where he was and what he was doing. Their argument seemed silly and petty the more days passed by and she wondered if he felt the same.

Jenny woke in her bed late into the night. Her room was silent and she wondered what woke her. Then she heard a loud tap on her window.

Jenny's bedroom was above the kitchen. Short of putting up a ladder, there was no way anybody could reach her window. She got up and put her dressing gown on over her nightie before going over to the window and opening the curtains to look.

Fluffy's head was so close to the window that it took her a moment to recognize him. He was perched in mid-air against her window and his warm breath steamed up the glass.

"Meep," the dragon told her and Jenny knew that he was saying he had missed her.

"I'll come right down."

A minute later Jenny was outside her front door cuddling Fluffy's head in her arms while he wrapped his front legs tight around her. Fluffy's front legs were very much like arms and it felt very similar to when Jake cuddled her.

"Meep, meep, meep," Fluffy told her quietly.

"I miss Jake too. Do you know where he's gone?"

"Meep," Fluffy said sadly.

The bright flash of a camera took both of them by surprise. Jenny had been looking away from the flash and was able to see that it was the reporter, Peter Williams, with a camera. A second flash from the camera straight into her face left her blind.

"I knew you'd lead me to him," Williams said triumphantly as his camera kept on flashing. "I knew I'd seen your face somewhere and it didn't take long to find you in the Chronicle's archives. I guess we know how your abductor died now, flattened into a concrete wall by your pet dragon."

"Why are you doing this?" Jenny asked. She held her hand in front of her face to try and ward off the flashes.

"This is going to make me famous," Williams crowed triumphantly. "The nationals will pay a fortune for these pictures and world syndication rights will set me up for life."

"Meep, meep?" Fluffy asked. He had moved behind her, panicked by the flashing light

"Go quickly. I'll be safe. He wouldn't dare hurt me."

Fluffy took to the air as lights came on in various bedrooms around the neighborhood. The flashing had been bright enough to wake people up. Fluffy was gone before the first curtain opened.

"Get out of here now or I'll cry rape," Jenny said angrily.

"I've got what I came for, darling," Williams said triumphantly, patting his camera protectively. He strode away towards a black SUV parked across the road.

The people looking through their windows closed their curtains again as they saw the man leave and that Jenny was safe. Jenny stood by her front door shivering with shock. Tears started to run down her face.

"Did I miss something?" Jake asked as he appeared in the middle of the path. "I got your messages and decided to check you were okay. Do you always stand outside your front door in the middle of the night?"

I left Salice three days after the incident with the wizard. Princess Esmeralda insisted I stay at the palace as a guest. I suspect her real reason for keeping me around was to make sure I was on hand if the other wizard returned. I kept wondering how he managed to disappear without using a hopscotch court. I didn't know how to do that.

I would have looked up the technique in the royal library if I could have got to it, but Esmeralda or one of her parents always appeared if I wandered in the library's direction and would invite me to partake of one of the thousands of tea sessions royalty indulged in.

I know I'm not fantastically clever, but even I could work out they were running a distraction scheme to keep me from getting to the library. The only useful piece of information I got from them was that the evil wizard's name was Plath the Great. Esmeralda told me he had been wandering the kingdoms of Mystrang for years looking for one of them to take as his own.

I said that I didn't understand. The Master took Salice with a few magic stones. Surely a wizard as powerful as Plath could take any kingdom he wanted. Esmeralda gave me one of those funny looks she reserves for me and didn't answer the question.

It was later that evening after another interminable banquet that I bade my leave of them and drew a hopscotch court on the stone floor of the royal dining room with a piece of chalk. Esmeralda came to me and kissed me on the mouth, which was both sexy and embarrassing, as this was in front of her parents, about twenty courtiers and an equal number of servants.

"Do remember to come and visit us soon," she said. Esmeralda smiled sweetly and I blushed for the second time in a minute.

"I seem to bring trouble with me."

"Not at all. You've always brought salvation with you, Jake."

I looked across the room and was surprised to find the queen waving goodbye in a friendly way. Even the king smiled benignly at me.

Completely embarrassed by everything, I hopped and skipped my way home.

"Is that you, Jake?" mum called from her bedroom. I had arrived back in my own room.

"Yes, I'm home," I called back.

"I've never worked out how you manage to sneak into the house so quietly," mum called up to me. "If you were as quiet in your room, I swear I'd never know if you were living with us or not."

"Sorry, Mum."

"Jenny phoned for you a couple of days ago. Call her back. She's far too good for you and you'll only have yourself to blame if you lose her."

I switched on my mobile and saw Jenny had left me a lot of messages. It took some time to listen to them. I gathered I might be forgiven if I apologized. Also, if I didn't contact her soon she would hire a hit man. That the newspaper reporter hadn't mentioned Fluffy, that she missed me terribly, and that I should call her back at once.

Looking at my watch, I found it was two o'clock in the morning. I could hardly ring Jenny at this time of night unless she was awake. There was only one way to discover the truth and that was to hopscotch to her house and see if the light was on in her bedroom.

No sooner said than done. I'd become adept in transferring myself to places I knew well. I didn't have to throw a stone on the hopscotch court to reach them, just as I no longer needed a stone to return home. I simply hop skipped and teleported to outside Jenny's house.

It was disconcerting to find Jenny standing outside the front door in her dressing gown, and I found myself saying something stupid to her. When she turned to look at me I realized she was crying and felt like a prat.

After a little kissing and cuddling, we retired to Jenny's kitchen and as I made the tea, she explained everything that had happened in my absence. I had learnt enough not to say 'I told you so' though I did think it.

"Fluffy's returned to the Bat Cave?" I asked.

"I suppose so. Oh Jake, what are we going to do about that reporter? He has all those pictures of Fluffy."

"You know this reporter’s name though?"

"Peter Williams, it was in his report."

"Do you think you can find out where he lives, using the internet or something?"

Jenny hesitated. I have difficulty finding porn on the internet so that will tell you just how useless I am with it. I've little affinity for technology, which is one reason I left school with nothing much in the way of qualifications.

"He might be in the phone book," she suggested dubiously. "Reporters probably like to be found."

I had my doubts about it, but again, I wisely kept my counsel on the matter. Jenny seemed to have forgotten we had broken up and I wasn't going to give her any excuses to remember.

He wasn't in the phone book, but he did have a website and it had his home address on it. Maybe reporters do want to be found after all, or possibly Peter Williams was not much cleverer than me. Either way, it gave me a course of action.

"I'm going over there," I said glibly, "You wait here."

"You aren't just leaving me," Jenny said in outrage, "I'm coming too."