by Booth, John
The room we entered echoed with female sobbing. I spotted Grimaldi's young assistants, Helda, and Bletty, sitting against the wall with handkerchiefs held to their faces. Esmeralda moved aside and I saw Grimaldi sitting in a wooden chair with a young woman kneeling in front of him. He sat bolt upright with one arm raised. His face was a bloody wreck as if someone had hit it repeatedly with a hammer. If it hadn't been for the U of hair around his otherwise bald head I doubt I would have recognized him. The thing that chilled me was that he sat like a statue with even the blood on his face frozen in place. Only his eyes moved and what they showed was unendurable pain.
I could only see the back of the head of the woman who knelt in front of him. She must have sensed me looking at her because she turned. It was Urda, the girl I had rescued from being burnt at the stake a few months ago. Last time I had spoken to her it had looked as though she might have magical talent.
“Wizard Morrissey,” she said, dropping her gaze from my face to the floor. “I sense some force holding him like this, but I cannot break it.”
“How did it happen?”
“The Master made Bronwyn a pretty dress and she threw it in his face, laughing and telling him that it was ugly,” Helda said from behind her handkerchief. “It was a terrible insult and he had spent hours on the embroidery. He put her over his knee and started to apply his hairbrush to her bottom as well she deserved. She froze him solid and then she…” Helda couldn't continue with her story and resumed her sobbing.
A red haze of anger clouded my vision. He had been like this for hours, possibly days, and nobody had done anything. I turned to Esmeralda not trying to keep the anger from my voice.
“I don't suppose you could have got Bronwyn to undo this before you banished her.”
Esmeralda's face turned harder than I had ever seen it.
“I pleaded with her, My Lord Wizard… On my knees.”
I should have known. I pushed Urda away more harshly than I intended as I took her place in front of my favorite tailor. I put my hands on his knees and worked a magic that was becoming easier with repetition. I'll say this for Bronwyn, once she found a magical technique she stuck with it, no matter how evil it was.
Grimaldi moaned and his warm blood began to drip onto my hands along with bits of his flesh. I had healed Fluffy some months ago when someone shot an arrow through his wing, but that was a minor injury compared to what had been done to Grimaldi. I felt my magic fail as I tried to fix the things broken inside him.
“Enough,” he whispered, his words hissing through broken teeth. “You cannot save everyone, Jake.” Grimaldi winked at me, slowly and deliberately, and then his eyes glazed over and he was dead.
“Fix him, Jake!” Jenny shouted and shook my shoulders. I slumped back against her because I knew it was hopeless, he was gone. I felt the life leave him. There was no one left to save.
Helda and Bletty began to wail. Jenny continued to shake me as if I was a rag doll. I didn't resist. I was too tired and I knew I deserved it. Three weeks I had sat in a prison cell because I was too scared to face Jenny and all that time I knew Bronwyn was a time bomb waiting to explode. This was as much my fault as if I'd killed Grimaldi myself.
The shaking stopped when Esmeralda dragged Jenny away. She held Jenny close to her. I put an arm around Urda and felt her silent sobbing. We stayed like that for some time.
Chapter Three: Searching
I woke at five in the morning. Jenny's back pressed against me as she snored lightly.
We could have slept anywhere. One advantage of being able to hop across the multiverse is that one bedroom is as close as any other. However, leaving Salice last night would have been a betrayal of Grimaldi. He would be buried as soon as his family arrived from the neighboring kingdom of Frode. Word had been sent of his injuries when he was first found. Given how small the local city states are, his family could well arrive today.
I dressed as quietly as I could. There were pressing tasks that couldn't wait. I hopped back to Wales.
Fluffy lives in a large cave halfway up a mountain in the Snowdonia National Park. I named it the Bat Cave when I was a lot younger and influenced by films. There are no bats in it. For one thing, Fluffy finds roasted bat a delicacy, though he normally prefers sheep, whole.
“Meep.” [It's about time you got here.]
Fluffy talks in meeps, but Jenny and I always know exactly what he means. He's fifteen feet long with a thirty foot wingspan. His scales are iridescent orange highlighted with streaks of gold. His tail is capable of knocking over a one ton boulder so it's best to be careful when walking behind him.
“Me and Jenny went to Salice to sort out Bronwyn.”
“Meep, meep.” [I know, I always know where Jenny is.]
That was news to me, as was the thing I'd come to talk to Fluffy about.
“Jenny tells me you can hop. When did you discover you could do that?”
“Meep, meep, meeeep.” [The first time you took me to Salice. Glim and hopping are different aspects of transcending the space time continuum. When I go into Glim I am partly in the space where hops take place.]
When did my dragon swallow a dictionary? That was another interesting question I'd have to investigate when I got the time. Fluffy is still a very young dragon having hatched from an egg a little over eight years ago.
“Can you track Bronwyn through hop-space?”
[No.] Fluffy didn't bother to meep. I suspect he knew how disappointed I would be. [I take it she has fled Salice?]
“Banished by Esmeralda,” I said and Fluffy telepathed the equivalent of a whistle.
“Meep.” [That woman is something special. You should marry her.]
“Leaving Jenny for you?” I didn't mean to sound bitter, but I knew I did. Though Jenny and Fluffy have only known each other a few months they're bonded together in a way I don't understand. I hatched Fluffy from an egg and looked after him when he was small. It's not fair.
“Meep, meep, meep.” [Jenny is my rider. We bonded when I first carried her. That's why I know where she is. You are my friend and a powerful wizard. You should marry both women for the good of your species.]
That was Esmeralda's answer too, but Jenny was a girl from the valleys and I knew neither she nor her parents would wear that idea for a second. I wasn't sure I could cope with it either. Being bossed about by one woman is bad enough, but two? There'd be three of them if you counted my Mam.
Fluffy stretched his neck and nudged me with his head.
“Meeeeep.” [You don't have a choice anyway.]
Fluffy grinned, showing razor sharp teeth capable of ripping a sheep into pieces, bones and all.
“What do you mean?”
Fluffy hunched his shoulders up and down, a sure sign he was laughing at me, and said nothing.
“Are you coming to Salice?”
“Meep.” [Later.]
I hopped from the cave into Esmeralda's bedroom.
On reflection, this was certainly a mistake. I'd been hoping Fluffy might have gained powers to allow him to track Bronwyn through hop-space. Since he hadn't, it was up to me to do it and I was running out of time. It was the need to get on with it that led me to hop to Esmeralda's room. I should have known how she would react.
She woke the instant I arrived, lifting her head from her pillow as if I had just goosed her.
Her eyes widened and then narrowed, a half smile turning into a scowl before I was sure I'd seen it.
“Is My Lord Wizard in need of urgent relief? You have taken it unasked before.”
She flung the sheets from her bed and inched up her nightgown. This was damnably unfair as both of us had been willing participants that awful night.
“Stop doing that. I just need you to…”
She spun on to all fours and looked back at me.
“Or did you bring the hairbrush again? I am my Lord Wizard's long suffering betrothed and will submit willingly to your hand.” Her hand went to the hem of her nightdress and be
gan to lift it.
“Will you stop doing that?”
Esmeralda slumped back onto the bed and rolled over to gaze at me.
“I know I have failed you by letting Grimaldi die,” she said, and I saw her eyes well up with tears. “I should have made Bronwyn heal him. Beat me, my Lord Wizard, for I surely deserve it.”
She had taken on the pain and guilt I felt as if it was her own. I struggled to avoid bursting into tears.
“It wasn't your fault, it was mine,” I said, turning away. How did this woman always get the better of me? I was supposed to be the powerful one.
She left her bed, put her arms around my shoulders and held me tight.
“Grimaldi was a good man. You freed him from his pain and that was the only gift you had left to give.”
I struggled to find my voice. I knew I'd start blubbing if she continued to hold me so I pushed her away. As usual, she took my actions the wrong way.
“As my Lord Wizard desires.”
“I have to stop Bronwyn before she kills anybody else. I might be able to track her through her hopscotch court assuming it's still there.”
Esmeralda sniffed disdainfully. “Contrary to your beliefs, I don't know everything that happens in the Palace. Our discussion was out in the cloisters. The court may still be there.”
I hopped to the cloisters. I think Esmeralda may have said something as I hopped, but my mission was too urgent to go back and check.
A maid was attacking one edge of the court with a mop. I shooed her away. She must have recognized me because she fled as if the hounds of hell were at her feet. Being a wizard does have some perks.
I've tracked wizards through hop-space before. Wizards leave a trail of disturbed space around them. It's possible to cover your tracks if you know how. While Bronwyn knew I could track her she had no experience in covering her tracks. On the other hand, trails soon vanished as the mists shifted and it was over a day since she hopped. My chances of tracking her at this point were close to zero.
I hopped across the court and left Salice behind.
Hop-space is weird. Until recently I didn't even know it existed. I just went from here to there without seeing the space in-between. The only time I'd spent in it was when I was tracking someone.
Think swirling mists from one of those old black and white movies of London smog. That's pretty much hop-space. I'd swear I could feel cobbles beneath my feet. There are impressions of colors though everything I could see was grey. When a wizard travels through hop-space they leave an emptier bit, a line of nothingness in the mists that begins to fill up again as soon as it forms.
You can mess up the mists if you want. I learned to do that after an evil wizard tracked me to Earth. It's a bit like swirling your arms as you hop. I do it automatically when I hop these days, but Bronwyn hasn't had the time to learn. Not that it mattered this time as it had been so long since she hopped.
There was nothing to indicate where she'd gone. When I stared harder into the mist I saw a million motes of light. Most looked unhealthy and I knew they were places unsafe for me to go. I found a light that looked pleasant and it grew out of the mist and enveloped me. I saw flashes of countryside around me. Mountains, rivers, caves and forests whizzed by so fast they were more impressions than real.
A thin line of nothing led to somewhere and I followed it to materialize on a flat stony desert. A boy, no older than ten, stared at me with fear in his eyes. He hopped and jumped a couple of times across a crudely drawn hopscotch court and vanished. I didn't try and chase him as what would be the point? He was hardly going to lead me to Bronwyn.
When I returned to our palace room I found Jenny and Esmeralda huddled together whispering on the bed. They turned to face me as I appeared, though I could have sworn I made no sound. Jenny saw the look on my face and frowned.
“No sign of Bronwyn?”
“None. I need something she's worn, something personal.”
It was Esmeralda's turn to look unhappy. “I searched her room and everything has gone…”
“I'll try her parent's house.”
Esmeralda put a hand towards me. “Wait, Jake. There's something else.”
I waited impatiently, but Esmeralda seemed reluctant to continue. Jenny put an arm across Esmeralda's shoulder and I was struck by how full of life they both looked. If there was ever such a thing as a healthy glow, those two had cornered the market.
“He has to know,” Jenny said in a whisper.
I felt something lumpy take shape in the depths of my stomach. The girls were about to tell me something I didn't want to know, I was certain of it.
“Some of our books are missing,” Esmeralda blurted.
The feeling of doom vanished and I grinned at them.
“So what?”
“Books from the Royal Collection … on magic.”
I still couldn't get concerned. My grin must have got to Esmeralda because she turned to Jenny with her fists clenched.
“You try,” she said through gritted teeth.
“Jake, you're very powerful, but the books explain how to use magic effectively. Bronwyn may be able to beat you once she's studied them.”
I felt a twinge of doubt, but dismissed it. Bronwyn would be dealt with long before she had the chance to do any significant learning.
“I can handle her. When I catch her I'll block her from her magic and the problem will be over.”
Esmeralda turned her back on me and Jenny stared at me open mouthed. I hopped to Bronwyn's parents’ house. The sooner I caught Bronwyn and finished this business the better.
Chapter Four: Bronwyn
When Bronwyn first disappeared from her home I had visited it with Jenny. When we saw the hopscotch court chalked onto the patio Jenny jumped to the logical conclusion that Bronwyn was a wizard. It all took place a couple of months ago, but it felt like something from a previous life. I had never entered the house so I had to materialize in the back garden. It's difficult to hop into confined places you've never been to and I try to avoid it.
Yellow police tape still clung to the doors and windows. Some of it flapped in the wind and it had begun to peel off in the rain. Did I mention it was raining? It was raining cats and dogs with the odd sheep and wolf thrown in. I dived for the nearest cover before I ended up soaked to the skin.
I huddled against the back door and used magic to unlock it. I shook myself dry like a dog, but much more successfully. Like opening locked doors, magic has a practical side.
The living room was dark and gloomy. I considered switching on the lights but decided against it. The police might be keeping a watch in case Bronwyn returned. I had no idea where Bronwyn's room was, but somewhere upstairs seemed logical. The house was much larger than my parents' house and I looked in three rooms before I found the hall that led to the stairs.
There were oil paintings on the walls. Real paintings, not prints or anything like that. I was impressed, especially as they didn't feature the mountains of Snowdon that my Dad favored. I never understood why Dad wasn't satisfied with simply looking out of the window like the rest of us.
The first bedroom was Bronwyn's parent's room. En suite I noticed, with a distinct twinge of envy. I never used to notice things like that, or care. It's amazing how having a posh girlfriend and a princess as a betrothed can change your point of view. It was becoming clear that I would have to stop living with my parents soon, despite the convenience of free laundry and Mam's cooking.
The second room was Bronwyn's. Someone had rolled the carpet up and drawn a pentagram just inside the door. Why she would bother with such nonsense was beyond me, but to be fair to her she was only eleven and probably believed in fairies too. I walked into the circle without a second thought.
This turned out to be a big mistake as getting into the circle was easy, but once in I found I couldn't move a muscle. Bronwyn switched on the lights and stepped in front of me, hands defiantly on her hips.
“I knew you'd come,” she said triump
hantly. “And that you'd be stupid enough to step into the circle.”
I tried to hop, but nothing happened. I sent a thought with all my might at her. It should have stopped her magic, but all it did was force her to take a step backwards. She frowned. A reaction I get from girls all the time.
“Your magic isn't supposed to be able to get out of the circle. Trust you to break the rules. You're supposed to be unconscious too.”
I did feel a little tired though that was fading fast.
“Give it up, Bronwyn. You're just a kid.”
Her face hardened.
“I'm twelve today. And I'm never going back to having people tell me what to do or when to do it. No one is ever going to hurt me again.”
“Happy Birthday,” I said sarcastically. “You killed Grimaldi when you were only eleven, who're you going to kill today?”
I had hoped for some sort of reaction, preferably remorse, and she certainly gave me one. She smiled sweetly. It was a smile that sent shivers down my spine. Bronwyn reached behind her and took something off the bed. It was a school cane like something you might see in a historical drama. It was the first one I'd ever seen in the flesh.
“Daddy used this on me when I came back after hopping to Salice. 'Don't tell me lies!' he shouted at me. He screamed when I used it on him. He screamed a lot.”
“Your Dad loves you.”
Bronwyn swung the cane, hitting me on the arm. I hurt like hell and I couldn't move to rub it. The next five strokes hurt even worse as she methodically worked her way down my left side.
“Painful, isn't it?”
“Social services would have got him if he'd ever used that on you.”
She moved round me and applied the cane to my back and down my legs in answer. I could barely think through the pain.
“He never hit me hard enough to leave a bruise. But it still hurt.”
“I think you've given me a few bruises.”
