by Booth, John
Speaking to her turned out to be a mistake. She moved further round me and applied the cane to my right side and then across my ribs. My world dissolved in a red haze of pain.
“I like you Jake Morrissey, and I like Jenny and Esmeralda even more. But I can't trust older people and you've all turned against me. Just because I paid back that old pervert for what he tried to do to me. They'd have given him ten years over here.”
Bronwyn paused for breath and put the cane down on the bed.
“I've got the magic books from the Royal Library. I've already learned enough to take you down, the great Wizard Morrissey. I'm going to go somewhere where I can be in charge and I'm going to learn all these books by heart. I want Salice and I'm going to have it when I'm ready. Then I'll make Princess Esmeralda lick my shoes clean every night.”
“I don't seem to be strong enough to kill you with magic, Jake. I've been trying and it doesn't work. Even with you trapped inside the circle it takes effort to hurt you. But I can lock you up in so much pain you won't ever be able to use your magic to get free. And there aren't any magicians to save you. They hate you just as much as me.”
Then there was darkness, silence and pain. Mainly there was pain.
Chapter Five: Rescue
I know I lay in that circle for a long time. Bronwyn's magic stopped me healing while preserving me so I could experience pain far beyond the point where my body would normally give up and die. Pain never becomes your friend.
I remember a light coming on and someone screaming. I saw Bronwyn's father's face as he turned me over and yelled at his wife to call an ambulance. Then the mists of pain overwhelmed me again.
I lay in a white room and faces appeared in front of me from time to time, always anxious or professional, one or the other, or both. My Mam and Dad, Jenny came and then vanished. I heard flashes of conversation when the pain eased for a few seconds, 'no hope', 'slowly fading'. I could have told them that. I'd seen what Bronwyn's magic did to Grimaldi.
Not able to concentrate worth a damn, I knew my magic was stretching it out more than Bronwyn could have done. I wasn't able to cure myself because I couldn't control it that well, but at some primal level my magic worked hard against her magic. Keeping me alive, because deep down I didn't want to die.
They explained to me what they did when it was over. It took them all working together to do it. Their first plan had been to take me back to Salice, but they discovered I wouldn't survive without the intensive care machinery. So they had to do it in the hospital.
Mam, Dad and Jenny created a pattern of visiting me in the middle of the night. They came at 2 a.m. when the evening shift changed and the hospital was at its quietist. They always brought cupcakes and persuaded the staff to have one each as a ritual. No refusals were allowed.
I remember Jenny's face that night. She looked so lovely, so alive, and I wanted so much to take the worried look off her face and make her smile. All I could do was move my eyes, trying to send her a message of my love.
The room darkened. I didn't know the staff were already in a drugged sleep, courtesy of Mam's finest cakes laced with sedative. I couldn't focus on what appeared from nowhere, obscuring the florescent tubes on the ceiling like a big black tent.
There were five beds in the intensive care ward. All of them occupied. Fluffy took great care coming out of Glim. His wingspan is over thirty feet and he needed to materialize fully as the rider he carried didn't have Jenny's feel for when it was safe to get off. His wings touched the walls on both sides of the room by the time he had completed the maneuver. The floor creaked under his weight.
His rider wore a dark hooded cloak and for a second I thought it was Bronwyn. Then she pushed aside the hood and I saw it was Urda. She looked anxious. A girl of fifteen shouldn't have dark shadows around tired eyes. She kissed me on the forehead as though I was someone special to her and held two pebbles up in front of me. Even in my agony their shapes buzzed. They were Esmeralda's lucky stones, the only things keeping Salice safe from Bronwyn.
At some level I knew what Urda was going to do and I tried to tell her to stop. Chances were it would fail anyway and it would leave Salice defenseless, Salice and Esmeralda.
Urda talked to me, but I couldn't hear her. She held my hand and I felt that despite the pain. Jenny sat on the other side of the bed and held my other hand. I couldn't see her, but I would know her touch anywhere.
Then my world shuddered and I screamed as the top layer of Bronwyn's magic lifted from me.
“Jake, you must trust me. Give me your magic so I can heal you.”
I didn't really understand Urda's words. Now I could scream that was all I wanted to do. Scream all the pain I felt out into the world. The next layer of Bronwyn's magic fell away and I convulsed. I could see inside myself now that my magic was back. Every organ in my body was on the verge of failure, there was nothing I could do, nothing anybody could do to save me.
“Jake!” Urda spat out my name and hit me with the hand holding the pebbles. Despite all the other pain, it hurt. She showed me the pebbles, ordinary now, nothing more than tumbled stones. “Give me your magic. Don't leave us helpless.”
That made sense. Better Urda than Bronwyn any day. I concentrated and energies in me began to flow into Urda. I closed my eyes and waited to die.
She began using the magic on me. I looked at her and saw tears streaming down her face from behind closed eyes. She chanted something and I felt my body beginning to heal. It was not like the rough healing I attempted on Grimaldi, this was precision stuff. Every cell in my body was being ordered to act in concert, some sacrificing themselves for the greater good. If my best attempt at healing was like a bandage then Urda's was like antibiotics, surgery and sheer will-power rolled into one. She performed a symphony of healing with a whole orchestra of techniques, each playing their individual parts note perfect.
Then it was over and I felt her magic flood over me, suffusing me in a warm glow. Urda collapsed over the bed. I wanted to sleep, but Jenny was shaking me urgently.
“Jake, wake up.”
“Later.”
“Jake Morrissey, wake up this instant. People have risked their lives to save you!”
That was my Mam, telling off her son as if I was still ten years old.
I reluctantly opened my eyes. Mam looked haggard and much older. So did Dad.
“You have to wake up the staff and make them forget they went to sleep,” that was Jenny again.
I touched Urda, letting strength flow down my hand and into her. I poured magic into her, forcing it to fit, and I knew somehow that it would be permanent. She would be a full wizard from now on. She had earned it. I reached for her hand, the one with the pebbles in it, and made them buzz as brightly as ever. Urda looked up at me.
“Thank you, Urda.”
“I studied for months to learn to heal, not knowing if you could give me the strength to make it work.”
“Months?” Why had she begun learning to heal me that long ago?
“You've been in here for nearly four months,” Dad said, giving me one of his encouraging smiles. “I should have known you were a wizard. That's a proper profession for any Welshman, look you.”
“Jake, you must sort out the ward staff. They mustn't know what's happened and you don't want your mother arrested for drugging people,” Jenny persisted.
I looked at her properly for the first time. It was the stress that made me say what I said next. Either that or my mind and good sense completely parted company.
“You've put on a bit of weight.”
Jenny flushed and her hand strayed to the bulge of her tummy. “This bit of weight kicks too. Birth control pills against a wizard didn't stand a chance.”
It was my turn to blush. I wanted to talk to her, but not in front of my parents and Urda.
“And Esmeralda's in exactly the same condition.” This time there was a touch of ice in Jenny's voice. “We'll have to have a long chat about that later, Jake Morrissey.”
&nb
sp; Dad gave me an encouraging wink, but Mam looked disapproving. I wanted to shrink under my sheets and disappear.
“I never get any of the fun the other girls get,” Urda said to gasps. She ducked a swipe from Jenny and ran for the door. The distraction reminded everyone of more important things and the rest of them reluctantly followed her.
“Don't forget about the staff,” Jenny called. She blew me a kiss at the door as I nodded my agreement.
It took me a few minutes to realize I owed Urda another favor. Okay, I admit it. I can be slow on the uptake sometimes and needed her clever distraction or my head would have exploded.
I'd somehow managed to get my girlfriend and betrothed pregnant at the same time. Even for a Wizard, that was pushing my luck a lot.
Chapter Six: Complications
When I woke the staff and changed their memories the doctors were called and expressed amazement at the improvement in my health. Connections were removed from my orifices, which was a major improvement from my point of view, if a little embarrassing.
Given the constant demand for intensive care beds I was whisked out to a normal ward long before the sun rose. However, when I tried to get out of my bed to do what the pipes were no longer doing for me, I fell straight on my face.
Four months without walking takes it out of your muscles, apparently. It would have been nice if one of the doctors or nurses had mentioned this before I found out the hard way, but you can't have everything.
I had picked up a lot from Urda when she healed me and was able to encourage my muscles to strengthen at an unnatural speed. I knew I would never be as good at healing as her. On the other hand, I would never be as bad at it as I'd been before. A nurse informed me it might be two weeks before I could leave hospital, but I was sure I'd be fit enough to leave a lot sooner.
I didn't expect my first visitors. They arrived early in the morning, taking advantage of the open visiting policy on my new ward.
“It's good to see you recovering, Jake,” Brian Matthews said rather more cheerily than the occasion warranted. His wife, Gwyneth, stood behind him wringing the bottom of her jacket with her hands.
“Do you know where Bronwyn—?” Gwyneth said before lapsing into silence. Her husband leaned over me and spoke urgently.
“Listen, Jake. I've told the police I gave you a key and you were in the house looking for clues as to where Bronwyn might have gone. They'll be here soon to question you.”
“You found me in the circle,” I said, remembering it vaguely.
“We came home from hospital and there you were. I dragged you out of Bronwyn's room and told the police I found you out on the landing.”
Gwyneth started to cry, I put out a hand to her.
“Bronwyn isn't as bad as you think,” I told her.
Mr. Matthews gave me a most peculiar look. “I've been through what she did to you. And we know what she did to Mr. Grimaldi. How can you say that?”
“You know about Salice?” Did everybody in Wales have a hot line to my deepest secrets?
“Jenny told us. We've met the royal family. We're going back. Bronwyn might....”
“Did Jenny tell you Bronwyn was raped in a world she visited? I healed her body, but I never thought to heal her mind. She has all this anger and an incredible power. I should have fixed that too.”
“It doesn't excuse…”
“Can you cure her?” Gwyneth interrupted.
I looked up and smiled much more confidently than I felt and nodded. The real question was 'could I survive another encounter with her' and I didn't know. It all depended on what she found in those damned books.
The sound of heavy feet on linoleum brought our conversation to a close. Inspector Thomas and Sergeant Jones glared down at the three of us. I could tell from their faces that the presence of the Matthews had wrecked their plans of catching me in a lie.
“It's only when you see who comes to visit when you're ill, that you find out who your real friends are,” I said and smiled at the two men.
The scowls on the policemen's faces deepened. It was good of them to come and cheer me up like this.
Jenny turned up much later in the day. By then I had managed to leave my bed and stagger to the television room. I was sipping from a cup of tea watching some daytime soap when she pulled an armchair in front of me, sat and stared, her arms neatly folded over the bulge in her tummy.
“You're looking beautiful today.” It was worth a try.
“I'm fat and ugly. Now tell me what happened.”
“I was stupid. Bronwyn caught me in some kind of magic circle and….”
The tapping of her foot gave it away. She's picked the habit up from Esmeralda who often taps her foot at me, just like that. Her question hadn't been about Bronwyn and I should have known that.
“It was just after I rescued Esmeralda from Talder Plath. It was a near thing. I caught her halfway down a cliff as she was falling to her death. I carried her through hop-space with my blood pounding in my ears and when we got back to Salice … it happened. I didn't mean it too. I didn't want it too, but it did. I'm sorry, Jenny.” I held back tears and looked at her feet. Her foot wasn't tapping anymore. I couldn't tell if that was good or bad news.
“Esmeralda said it was her fault. That she caught you at a moment when you weren't in control and used you. That isn't true. You've wanted her from the beginning. That's why she always knew where you were. That's why you were always angry with her, to hide how you felt about her from yourself.”
I didn't say anything. What could I possibly say? I didn't think that was why I'd done those things, but I could no longer deny I didn't care about Esmeralda. When Plath threw her off the cliff I broke his neck without a second thought. But there was another matter bothering me.
“When did you find out? You were on the pill…”
“You got Esmeralda pregnant the first time. She claims you're the most powerful wizard there's ever been and you would have known it subconsciously. You have all that power in your hands and no control. So your subconscious made me pregnant to make it right. Your subconscious needs serious psychiatric help, Jake.”
“What can I do to make it up to you?”
Jenny uttered a harsh bark of a laugh. “I've dropped out of college. With you, Bronwyn and the baby to worry about I've hardly had any time to do anything for myself. I could have used you there when I told my parents. They were not best pleased.”
“They know about Esmeralda and you. Retnor took them to Salice, just to prove it. I've always wanted a white wedding in Chapel, but wearing white with a noticeable bulge isn't what people like me do. Mom and Dad are old fashioned about things like that and people would talk.”
“I never knew you were religious.”
“I'm not.” Jenny looked sternly at me. “Jake Morrissey, you are going to make it up to me and give me the wedding I deserve.”
“Anything you want, anywhere you want. I'll do anything you want.”
Jenny smiled. It was a smile of victory and I quickly counted fingers and toes. Somehow she had got me, though I couldn't tell how. Marrying her wasn't an issue. I've known she was the love of my life almost since the first day we met. I just didn't think she would ever want to marry me.
“We're having our wedding in ten days' time, in the cathedral, in Salice. Everyone's been invited, so you'll have to bring all my guests over as well as your own. Esmeralda has set aside the left side of the cathedral for our families and friends so you're going to be very busy. I want the place full to the very top.”
A number of questions were bubbling up inside me trying to get out. The one that made it to the surface wasn't the most rational one.
“Who's going to be on the right hand side of the church?”
Jenny gave me a look of pure astonishment.
“Why, all her guests, of course. You'll be marrying her too.”
Chapter Seven: Wedding Plans
The wedding date had been set immediately on Urda's return to Sali
ce with news of her success. Ten days was the fastest the wedding could be scheduled, allowing time for the royal families of the neighboring kingdoms to be informed and to make their way to Salice. It would be seen as a snub if the other kings had not been invited and anything faster would have appeared far too hasty.
I gathered that though wizards were allowed to marry multiple wives, it would be considered scandalous if any of the wizard's brides gave birth before the marriage. Pregnant brides at weddings weren't all that unusual in Salice, though normally they weren't so far gone as my brides would be.
Jenny gave me more details than I wanted or could cope with. It seemed all her family and most of mine knew something of what was happening, if not the actual details, such as the fact that I would be marrying two brides on another world. Jenny had made a mystery of it, telling friends and relatives that the wedding would take place at a secret location and that they were to bring along enough clothes for a week away. They would start arriving in town five days from now, so it was important I was fully recovered by then.
“Didn't people find it a bit strange that you were busy arranging a wedding while the groom was in hospital dying?”
“We didn't tell them. Your mother and father told everybody you were away on one of your trips and didn't know I was pregnant. They said you'd marry me as soon as you got back. Strangely, your relatives accepted it without question.”
I grinned. My mysterious vanishing acts were notorious among the family. I suspected it was all they ever talked about at the gatherings of the clan.
“You don't seem to have any friends to invite,” Jenny said as if it was a fault.
“There's Dan Griffith.”
“He's your employer and we've already invited him and his wife. I meant people your own age.”
“Never found the need for them.”
I will admit to sounding defensive. But when you can hop to other worlds the kids at home seemed kind of boring. Besides which, I didn't know how to take any of them with me back then. And I had Fluffy. When your best friend is a fire breathing dragon, human friends just don't cut it. Jenny was my first and only girlfriend and if I hadn't saved her life from a serial killer we wouldn't have met, or if we had met she wouldn't have been interested in me. After all, I don't have WIZARD tattooed on my forehead.
