by Booth, John
“On the bed,” she commanded and it took me a moment to realize she meant sit on it rather than something more intimate. Despite my determination to end our relationship, there was something about the girl that made me continue to desire her. I used my magical sight on her while she rummaged in a drawer, spilling underwear at her feet.
My ability to see on the magical plane had become much sharper. With everything else that was happening to my abilities that came as little surprise. There really was something about this girl. It wasn’t an attraction magic. It was more like she was a bubbling spring of something I couldn’t explain. Something related to magic, but not magic as I knew it.
“You will need this, Jake.” She held out a silver dagger. It was about six inches long in a silver sheath. As soon as I saw it I remembered seeing it among the treasure yesterday. But it hadn’t been in the photographs and we hadn’t inventoried it.
I took it from her and as soon as it was in my hands I wanted to keep it. It felt right in my hand as though it had been made especially for me.
“Why did you hide it from Gorsham?”
“Take it out of the sheath.” I did as I was told. The blade was engraved with strange slash like symbols.
“Those marks are in runic. Can you read it?”
I shook my head.
“I can. It says ‘Jake Morrissey’s knife of truth.’ Somebody made that for you maybe a thousand years ago and then hid it among that treasure so you would find it.”
“Bollocks.” Even I couldn’t believe a thing that unlikely.
Betty sat beside me and put a hand on me. It felt so right for her to do that and equally so wrong. My resolution was beginning to waver. I desired to hold this woman so strongly it hurt to resist.
“Jake, I was born with the sight. I’ve been waiting for you for most of my life, though I wasn’t sure it was you until we made love. I know this was meant for you and so does Dad. Just as I know I am the third woman in your life and you will need me.”
“It’s wrong.” Boy, was that an understatement. “Having two pregnant wives is hard enough.”
“I am not to be your wife, Jake. And I will not bear you children. That’s not the path we have been set on. I will become your lover and your mistress.”
It would be so easy to go along with her as it matched my desires perfectly, but I knew it was wrong. I stood up and banged my head on the low ceiling.
Betty laughed. “It will happen whether you want it or not. But you have to take care. Black clouds of death are swirling around you.”
“Thanks for the dagger. I have to go.” Quickly, before the desire to hold her overcame me.
“And you haven’t even come once yet.” Betty laughed again. “But if you survive you will come here often, Jake. I guarantee it.”
That was a perfect cue to exist and I hopped to the BatCave.
12. Talks
“Jake Morrissey, where have you been? I’ve been worried sick,” Jenny said before I saw her. “And what have you done to the couch? That was a gift from my parents.”
I tried for dignified and aloof. “I do not breathe fire. Perhaps you could have words with the one who does?”
Instead of answering, Jenny ran to me and hugged.
[It was Jake’s fault. He made me laugh.]
“See, it was your fault,” Jenny said as she squeezed me. “After you were nearly killed this morning, I was worried about you.”
I gave my dragon a significant look.
[She’s my rider, Jake. We are connected and she felt what happened with the Knights. I had to get her from the hospital to calm her down.]
“Hospital?” I looked down at Jenny feeling my legs turn to jelly. “Are you all right? Is the baby okay?”
“Routine checkup.” Jenny smiled up at me. “They were a bit worried when my blood pressure and heartbeat shot up while you two were trying to get yourselves killed. After the dragons rescued you they dropped down to almost normal.”
I gave her a hug. “There was never any danger. The dragons set us up.”
“But Retnor didn’t know that. And you might have got yourself killed.”
“I never have yet, have I?” Given my track record for trouble, that wasn’t a particularly strong argument. Jenny sighed.
“Where have you been anyway? We’ve been waiting ages.”
I pointed at Malcolm’s broken metal detector lying next to the ruined couch.
“Thought I’d try my luck with a metal detector yesterday and guess what? I got very lucky. I had to go back today and register the find as treasure trove.”
Jenny’s eyes narrowed. She’s becoming almost as suspicious as Esmeralda. I put it down to them living together. The sooner I get Jenny settled back in Wales the better.
“Is this something legal, Jake? You’re not going to end up in jail again?”
“Totally legal. An untouched hoard of gold, silver and gems that’s been buried in the ground for a thousand years. I’m sharing the reward with the farmer whose land it’s on. He’s called Mr. Hardy.”
“Won’t it take a long time before you get the money?”
Damn all intelligent women. How come Jenny instantly saw the flaw in the plan when I didn’t? I stared at the cave floor.
“There is that. But the treasure trove could be over a million pounds.”
Jenny looked shocked and then I saw wheels in her head begin to spin. “We can probably get a loan based on that and buy a house.” She hugged me again. “We need to make our marriage legal in Wales and you need to make a will here to protect your child.”
I nodded. We’d talked about a quick civil ceremony in the local registry office. I just hadn’t had the time to arrange it. At least we were off the subject of me getting myself killed.
“I’ll make some tea,” Jenny said, suddenly going all domestic. “Can you get rid of the couch as it’s smelling the place up?”
I touched the charred remains and hopped it to the local dump.
There were still two chairs so the lack of a couch wasn’t desperate, but I added getting another to the many things I had to do. I could create one with magic, but it would disappear when I stopped thinking about it. More worryingly, I might be the one sitting on it when it happened.
Jenny offered me a cup of tea and put a large bowl of it out for Fluffy. Fortunately he didn’t like milk or sugar or we would soon be out of those too. When I sat down the knife in my pocket jabbed me, reminding me it was there.
“What do you make of this?” I asked, holding the knife where Fluffy could see it.
[It’s a small knife.]
Jenny took it from me for a closer look.
“Is this from your treasure hoard? I thought you had to hand it all in?”
“Mr. Hardy and his daughter hid it from the archaeologist.”
Jenny looked at me with big innocent eyes. “He has a daughter? Is she pretty?”
“I didn’t notice. She’s all muscles from working on the farm.”
“What’s her name?”
I felt we were getting into dangerous territory, but if I tried to change the subject Jenny would be even more suspicious. “Betty Hardy.”
“Short for Elizabeth? Elizabeth Hardy, that’s a nice name. How old is she?”
“Late twenties, early thirties, I think.” Adding a few years seemed a sensible precaution.
[Why did they hide the knife and give it to you, Jake?]
God bless my dragon.
“Because it has my name on the blade, in runes or something. ‘Jake Morrissey’s knife of truth’ or something like that. Mister Hardy thought it was meant for me.” Best not to mention Betty’s part in giving it to me in her bedroom. Why complicate an already complicated matter?
“They know you’re a wizard?” Jenny snapped. “That was careless of you, Jake.”
“When a Knight of Justice appears from nowhere and names you one before trying to kill you, it’s difficult to be discrete about it.” ‘Women.’
[Show me the blade, Jenny.]
Jenny put a hand on Fluffy’s neck as she held the exposed blade a little above his nose. I slipped into my newly enhanced magical sight and examined them closely. There was a glow connecting them and I felt a little jealous. This intimacy between them was something I would never be able to share. In some ways my wife and my dragon were closer to each other than I would ever get to either of them.
Fluffy took on that look of concentration I was becoming all too familiar with.
[The translation is misleading. It says Jake Morrissey. Knife of… the last word means something between reality and being. Truth is much too simple, perhaps gestalt is a better word.]
“I’m not sure I know what gestalt means.”
Jenny laughed. “We should get an English Professor to share his knowledge with you. At least then you’d be a little less ignorant.”
“Okay, if you’re so clever, what does gestalt mean?”
Jenny pouted and considered. “It’s the sum of everything being greater than the parts, mostly referring to a person’s or society’s experience. Sort of all of what we are.” She stuck her tongue out at me. That’s what a college education gives a girl, knowledge and no manners. I couldn’t help smiling.
“I’m going to keep calling it the Knife of Truth; the Knife of Some Stuff seems kind of lame. Does it look magic to you, Fluffy?”
Fluffy touched the blade with his tongue. [I cannot tell. Perhaps of a form I am not familiar with.]
“Maybe somebody in the past knew you’d need a letter opener about now. Or maybe it’s for getting stones out of a dragon’s claws.” Oh, Jenny was definitely on form now she had calmed down.
“Very funny,” I said (my responses to teasing are legendary) and Fluffy echoed the words in my head.
Jenny put the knife in its sheath and threw it to me. Despite the distance being over eight feet I caught it easily and slipped it into my pocket in one smooth motion. It truly felt a part of me.
“Forgive the intrusion.”
I spun round to face the intruder and placed a shield of energy between him and us. He was very tall with thin features and a body that looked sort of stretched. Dressed in clothes that looked like something from a Robin Hood film, he bowed towards us gracefully. His face was much paler than a human’s ever gets and he was young, or more accurately, he looked ageless.
“I mean you no harm. I am the Representative of the… I suppose you would call us Elves. I prefer the term ‘Brethren of the Trees’ with humans as our ‘Brethren of the Plains’, your species were called that by us, many centuries ago.”
His voice was as graceful as his movements. But I wasn’t fooled. His people had taken Wenna and my mother into the hidden worlds and damned near killed me when I tried to get to them. My role as Valhallan representative was going to reveal their worlds’ locations to them. They must be after me.
“I’m sorry the Vahallans will find out where you live. If I can, I’ll stop them using that information.”
He smiled. “Do not fear me, Wizard Morrissey. I am not here to kill you. I would have struck at you by now if I was.”
“You’ll forgive me if I don’t take that on trust.”
[His people never lie, though they are renowned for misleading with the truth.]
The elf looked Fluffy in the eyes. “Dragon Retnor, your species and mine have roamed the multiverse together since the dawn of time. We will be at your side in the battle to come. Please try to be polite.”
He turned back to me. “I have been remiss. My name is Farolan. I have come to reassure you that we will not be one of those that attack you. You caused Wenna to come to us and for that alone we would honor you.”
“Is Wenna safe and happy?” Jenny asked.
“She grows into that she wished to be. Birds sing her name from the treetops.”
“If you kill me before the Conference your worlds will be safe.” I wanted to know why he wouldn’t be attacking me. If that sounds ungrateful, then just put me down as a little bit paranoid.
Farolan smiled disarmingly. “You know how difficult it is to reach one of our worlds even when you know where it is. The Conference rules state that we must declare where our worlds are at the start of Conference. They will have moved before the Valhallans have the time to look.”
Fluffy whistled in surprise. I understood why, to hop a whole planet was almost beyond belief. And they had many planets.
“And this is the reason you have come to visit, to tell us that you don’t plan to attack me?” That just seemed unreasonable.
“We know many things that you do not. For instance, that knife in your pocket is of an ancient primitive magic. To use it you would have to make a sacrifice of yourself. I doubt you are willing to risk death simply for information. Put it somewhere safe and forget about it.”
“Thanks, I’ll think about it.”
“I will see you at the Conference, should either of you survive long enough to attend.”
Farolan didn’t hop as I know it, nor did he glim. He faded away as if someone had cut the power to whatever it was that was lighting him.
“He was so beautiful,” Jenny whispered.
“Why did he really come to visit us?”
[Not for the purpose he claimed. His people are as devious as they are talented.]
“Retnor,” Jenny scolded. “Nothing that beautiful could be evil.”
[They are beyond our notions of good and evil, but evil comes of their actions as often as good.]
“Should we be worried?”
[We should be afraid. They have noticed us and that is never a good thing.]
“Are you going to follow his advice with the knife?”
The knife felt good in my pocket. I didn’t want to put it anywhere. It was going to stay with me.
“No, I can’t see myself sacrificing myself for information I won’t be able to use.”
“I’m putting on some more tea then.”
That’s my Jenny. She gets visited by a god. Says he’s pretty, and then goes to brew another pot of tea.
13.
Grand Hotel
Jenny had been looking at her watch every five minutes for the last half hour so I looked at mine as it’s difficult to judge the time of day in a cave. It was half past seven and I was getting hungry. It had been a long day. Normally I would have raided the palace kitchens in Salice and brought back a meal for all of us, but with their food crisis over there that didn’t seem right. She was also looking at her mobile and I checked the magic that gave us a signal in the cave was still in place. I gave it a boost as it had stared to fade.
Jenny’s phone rang and she snatched at it.
“Yes, he’s here with me… See you in half an hour then… Love you too.”
She put down the phone and smiled at me in a way that instantly got my nerves on edge. I was about to be asked to do something I wouldn’t like. I could tell.
“That was my parents. They’ve invited us out to dinner and we have to meet them in half an hour.”
I mouthed an ‘Oh God.’ This was worse than I thought.
“Jake, you haven’t really spoken to them since you came out of the coma.”
“The wedding, the reception,” I spluttered, though I knew what she meant.
“Always when there were a dozen people or more in the room with you. They want to see you alone, with just the four of us.”
That was what was worrying me. ‘Sorry I got your daughter up the duff, Mr. Owens. Hope you didn’t mind me marrying your daughter at the same time as I married another woman.’ Those were just some of the things I’d never got around to saying, and Jenny wondered why I’d been avoiding them?
“Have you got a decent suit? What about that grey one you wore last year?”
“Back at Mam’s.”
Jenny waved her hands at me. “Go and put it on and then come right back.”
I turned.
“Don’t you dare run away, Jake. I expect you here in ten min
utes.”
Damn, that was Plan A and B down the tubes. Accepting defeat I hopped to my room and got changed. Jenny was right. I needed to make peace with her parents. Was hoping I could leave it for another ten years wrong of me?
Unfortunately, absolutely nobody attacked me at home so I had to hop back to the cave wearing said suit, a clean shirt and an itchy tie. Jenny was wearing a stunning dress when I arrived.
“Retnor helped me make a quick hop home,” she said before I could ask.
She came over and straightened up my shirt and tie. Why do your women do that? It’s so embarrassing. It was like being six years old again.
[You should have worn a bow tie. Bow ties are cool.]
‘Dragons are weird.’ “If I ever want your sartorial advice, I’ll ask.”
[I shall await your call. You cannot remain the worst dressed wizard in the multiverse for much longer. People are beginning to talk.]
“Leave him alone, Retnor. Ess and I will sort him out for you.”
‘Ess’ eh? Those two must be getting really close if Jenny dared to shorten Esmeralda’s name. I was too frightened to do it and I was married to the woman. Maybe I’d try it during a moment of intense passion and catch her unaware? Might be fun, if a little risky.
“Where are we meeting your parents?”
“The Grand Hotel.”
‘Good grief.’ “That hotel and me have a bit of a history together, you do remember. Urda? Ida? People getting hurt?”
Jenny licked her handkerchief and wiped away something on my face. “Then you won’t have any trouble hopping there. Their restaurant is the best in town.”
A vision of terrified kitchen staff being forced to boil water to pour over themselves sprang to mind. Urda had wiped their memories, but some trace might remain. Still, I hadn’t been wearing a suit, so maybe no one would recognize me.
The Concierge took a deep indrawn breath when he looked up to see me smiling at him. Before he could say anything, Jenny spoke.
