Wizard's Sword (The Battle Wizard Saga, No.2) (4 page)

"But, we haven′t seen any evidence," Tony said. "A fellow researcher said she was on the track of black fairy magic last semester."

"But no one has seen her for four months." Shaniqua said. "I wonder if we′ll ever see her again." She and Tony looked at each other and shook their heads.

"Was she reported missing?"

Shaniqua nodded. "Yes, by her parents, the Martins. They live in Wyoming. When they couldn′t get in touch with Holly, they came here. She was the first in her family to attend college; they were so proud. Now we haven′t heard from them either for more than a month. I don′t know if they went back or…"

Sig leaned back in his chair, "Wow."

Tony grimaced and nodded. Sig looked back and forth between them. Shaniqua looked forlorn. "They were so nice."

†††

Next, Sig sought the prime on a project to map North American Ley lines. The prime wasn′t available, and his number one assistant, Dmitri Nastase, had left to attend football practice. Sig recognized the name. It belonged to the giant All America football player with whom Sig already had two unpleasant encounters.

He looked forward to meeting him again when Rick wasn′t around to pull on his leash. He could claim not receiving the ostentation lecture as an excuse—if he survived the encounter.

It was just as well that he′d run out of people to discuss assignments. He had fifteen minutes before his appointment to meet the blond Amazon, Arianna, for a Karate match.

The address she gave turned out to be a small warehouse a few miles from campus. After parking, he grabbed his gear and went to the side door. Two women carrying gym bags climbed the short flight of stairs and entered ahead of him.

Inside, he looked around. The familiar sounds and smells of workouts filled the space. Metallic clanks and grunts sounded from the weight lifting area. Wooden swords and staffs clacked as some sparred. Stamping, scraping, and slapping sounded from a group engaged in hand-to-hand combat.

However, the familiarity stopped there. In small-town Minnesota, the gym would be filled with guys. Here, there weren′t any other males in a gym filled with over a dozen Amazons. It even smelled a lot better than his memory of the high school gym.

Women stopped to look at him. Sig felt like a spotlight illuminated him. He wanted to run. Instead, he looked around for a familiar face.

Arianna sauntered up wearing karate gi; a black belt wrapped around her waist. "You made it, good. We′re next on the mats in about five minutes."

Sig hefted his bag. "Where can I change?"

Arianna′s eyebrows rose. "Change? We usually come dressed or…" She gestured over to where the two women who preceded him had stripped down to their underwear and now donned workout clothes.

Sig wrenched his eyes away, trying not to stare. Tall, muscular, and shapely, they were staring material.

"We use the facilities at the gas station down the block if you have to go potty. We keep the women′s side clean. I don′t know what the men′s side is like. Or, you can change by that bench over there." Arianna looked at him with a challenge in her eyes then smiled, "Do you go commando?"

Sig blushed. "No, the bench will be fine."

Not wanting to seem prudish, he sat down, untied and pulled off his boots, then stood and dropped his pants. It seemed like the spotlight intensified. He quickly pulled off his shirt and donned his gi. He wanted to cover up the flush that suffused his body.

He turned toward the sound of quiet clapping. Giselle, the redhead they met last night said, "Nice, I like the jock strap and cup. I bet Arianna didn′t mention the storeroom where men change."

Sig′s head swiveled to look at Arianna. She smiled. "Storeroom? I guess I forgot about it. Well, no one got injured during the process."

Giselle shook her head, still smiling broadly. "Don′t let her get into your head. She′ll go for every advantage she can, not that she needs it."

Sig gritted his teeth, nodded, and smiled back. "No harm done. Good trick. I′m learning the rules."

Giselle laughed. "Honey, there aren′t any rules."

She and Arianna looked at each other and laughed. Sig noticed several nearby women smiling.

While they shared a laugh at his expense, he noticed that Giselle′s hair was the same red-gold color as the girl′s he fell for who turned out to be a witch that buried him alive. Giselle didn′t have the voluptuous beauty that Madeline possessed, but he noticed that her chiseled, broad-shouldered frame came with an adequate compliment of well-placed curves.

After a quick warm up, he met Arianna on the mats. Sig noted that she appeared to be at least two inches taller than his six feet and he guessed she massed as much. Her legs were longer than his were, but he thought he had longer arms.

They met in the middle of the mat and bowed. Before he straightened, she dropped and lashed out with a leg sweep. Half expecting it, based on previous actions and Giselle′s warning, he sprang into the air and blocked the upward kick to the groin that followed. He landed spinning and slammed a kick to her side that she partially blocked. He just managed to pull his leg back before she grabbed it.

He began the match thinking he would have to ease up, but quickly realized he could get hurt if he didn′t give it his all. She used her better leg reach to good effect and surprised him with her strength.

After almost five minutes of a very even match, he panted from exertion. It felt good pressing hard like this, but he knew there would be aches in the morning.

He needed to end the match if he could. He′d try passing strikes, his best move. She managed to avoid a kick at her thigh, but he raked her knee on the return. She lost balance. He whirled and kicked at her head. She leaned to the side to miss the initial kick and unbent just in time to catch his returning heel in the back of her head.

Stunned, she dropped to one knee. He grabbed and twisted her wrist, pulled her arm straight out, and kicked her twice in the side with his heel. If he′d applied full force, it could have broken her ribs. He spun and drove his knee against her extended elbow, pulling up short so he didn′t break it.

He stepped back, put his hands together, and bowed. She shook her head groggily as she stood and bowed back.

Sig heard applause and turned to see Rick with a group of ten women who stopped what they were doing to watch. They appraised him seriously.

Rick stopped clapping. "Now that you′ve beaten their number one in hand-to-hand they′ll want you to come back and teach them how you did it."

Several of the Amazons nodded.

Sig shrugged and winced. "I′ll be happy to. I need the workout, but first I need to ice these bruises. I feel like I lost. That was the toughest fight I′ve ever been in."

Arianna punched his shoulder. "You charmer; I bet you say that to all the girls. Let′s plan to do it again, but right now, that ice is the right prescription. If you feel like you lost, just imagine how I feel." She rubbed the back of her head.

Rick asked Arianna, "Who owes who?"

Arianna rolled her eyes, went over to a pile of clothes, pulled out five dollars, and handed it to Rick.

Sig wrinkled his forehead and looked between them.

Rick smiled. "You didn′t use the gas station down the street to change. I won."

Arianna shrugged and smiled.

Sig rolled his eyes, grabbed his bag, and pushed Rick toward the door.

He could feel the flush of embarrassment warming his face and neck.

Back in his room, Sig iced his contusions for half-an-hour before reporting for his first daily check up and training.

Professor Herman was already puttering about in the calibration lab when Sig showed up at 6:30 p.m. "Ah, there you are. I′ve asked Giselle to help me today." He gestured toward a doorway as the tall redheaded Amazon strode into the lab. "Giselle, this is Sig. He′s our subject for today."

"We′ve met."

He smiled and winked. "We′ll have to stop meeting this way."

She looked at him levelly. "You seem to be everywhere."

"Giselle is an expert at measurement."

Sig frowned at her. "This isn′t going to get embarrassing is it?"

She arched an eyebrow and looked him over slowly. It looked enchanting on her high-cheek-boned Nordic features. Then she said, "Do you have some measurement you′re embarrassed about?"

Sig blushed.

The Professor glanced between them. "Do I detect a modicum of friction?"

Giselle smiled. "No, it′s all good fun; although he just beat our tribe′s best hand-to-hand warrior and it wouldn′t hurt to take him down a notch."

He looked at Sig. "In that form? Impressive."

Sig ducked his head as he nodded.

She looked puzzled and asked the Professor, "What do you mean in that form?"

"You′ll see shortly." 

She shrugged and said, "I′m ready with the equipment."

Sig nodded.

Professor Herman gestured at a table on which rested a candelabrum, a bowl of water, and several other artifacts. "You′ve tried all of this magic at home with your great-grandfather and with me, but I want you to do it again for baseline measurements."

Sig expressed his continuing frustration at his continuing lack of magic by exhaling forcefully through pursed lips before he said. "OK, I′ll try again."

He tried everything, again, with the same results— nothing. He still couldn′t light a candle with magic, the spell for remote viewing in the water left nothing but clear water. He couldn′t make the prism radiate light. The vellum of alchemy formulas didn′t levitate. Nothing he tried worked.

Becoming accustomed to disappointment made him uncomfortable.

The Professor called a halt. "All right, that′s the last test."

Sig turned to Giselle. "Did you get any interesting readings?"

Arthur held up a hand. "Not just yet. We must attempt the same in the other form."

"Attempt? I appreciate the faith you have in me." Sig muttered.

"It′s for the baseline measurement."

Giselle looked quizzical "Other form?"

"Yes, change. Giselle prepare to take measurements."

Sig reached and pulled the chain holding the enchanted talisman Grampa Thor gave him from his shirt. He looked up at the ceiling to check clearance.

Appearing to be concerned she would miss the change, Giselle watched intently

He muttered the magic word that triggered his change, "Aðalbrandr."

"Holy crap!" She said.

Blurring and expanding rapidly, suddenly a nine-foot tall, seven-hundred pound Nordic warrior crouched in front of her.

Sig straightened up from the position he assumed while transforming to avoid crashing into ceilings. Before he fully straightened, the helmet he now wore brushed the overhead acoustic tiles. He shook his head. "I didn′t think it looked like a ten foot ceiling."

Giselle stood by her console with her mouth hanging open. She shut it and said, "Oh, that other form."

He went through the magic exercises again with the same lack of result.

When finished, the Professor asked Giselle, "What does the telemetry show?"

"Weirdness. Really weird."

"What manner of anomaly to you see?"

She pointed to one of the screens. "The potentiometer shoots up like a rocket." Then she pointed to the other screen. "But nothing happens."

Sig walked over and bent down to look. "Potentiometer?"

She pointed. "It measures stored magical energy. It tells us what potential a person gathers to affect the flux before and after exercising magic. Over here we measure magic expenditure, or how much the flux changes. Combine the information and you arrive at a measure of efficiency. We compare the change in potential against magic actually expended. The difference between potential change and the expended magic gives the amount of dissipation. Less dissipation means higher efficiency."

"So, the potential decreases after magic is expended?"

"Yes it does. We also measure how quickly the potential rebuilds, among other things."

"What are my results?"

She pointed to a reading on one screen. "Your potential almost runs off the chart, see here, here, and here, where it peaks when you try to do something; but when you try to release it, nothing happens, as measured over here." She pointed to the other screen.

"Now look at the how your potential slowly bleeds off, without any release. See, the potential is still diminishing from your last peak. We usually see a sharp drop in potential on that display, with an accompanying jump in magic expended on this one. We compare them to determine efficiency."

She turned to look up at him. "You could say that you have zero efficiency. Everything dissipates. Nothing is expended. I measured the same results in both forms. Professor what do you make of this?"

Sig turned away from Giselle, toward the Professor, who stroked his mustache with his fingertips, while studying the display screens.

"Is that a sword on your back?" Giselle asked.

Sig turned and pulled the five-foot long broadsword, Aðalbrandr from the sheath on his back. "Oh, this little thing?" She tensed momentarily when he waggled the sword.