by Booth, John
Esmeralda sighed impatiently. “It's been dry for weeks. Sometimes we get a fire, but I've never known three to break out at the same time. If you go and try to stop one of them I shall organize the people against the other two. We can't possibly stop all three.”
“Can you stop any of them?” I looked closely at Esmeralda as she answered. It's the sort of thing she lies about.
“I don't know, Jake. I have considered asking the Valhalla wizards for help, but that might come at too high a price.”
“The King?”
“Is rallying the people to the east. With the wind blowing from the east the city is under threat if we don't get that one under control. We'll lose our fruit and grape harvest in the north and next year's grain in the south if those fires rage on. It's a disaster whatever we do.”
There was a distinct smell of smoke in the air. I went to the window and stared out. A haze was developing in the air above the city and the sky was black on the horizon. I didn't think for a moment that the darkness was rain clouds.
Esmeralda did one of her 'reading my mind' tricks.
“There are rain clouds over the ocean, but the wind is blowing the wrong way.”
“I'll see what I can do,” I said and hopped to the cliffs overlooking the sea.
As Esmeralda said there were rain clouds away in the distance. I guessed they must be about twelve miles away. I sat in the lotus position facing the clouds and imagined the winds driving the clouds towards Salice. I ordered the wind to change direction.
After a few minutes I gave up. The clouds might be coming towards me or they might not. I couldn't tell. I felt a bit foolish to tell the truth. This felt like my King Canute moment when I finally proved I couldn't do everything.
I needed to get on and do something that worked. If the King was in the east and rallying people there, I'd better start in the north and see what I could do. I looked north and saw an ominous cloud of smoke rising and spreading out like a black mushroom. I hopped into the sky in front of it.
Skydiving without a parachute can be worrying. I fell towards the ground so fast my eyes misted up with tears. I used my newly discovered levitation skills to halt my descent and looked around. I was worryingly high in the sky and from where I floated I could see all three fires progressing across the land. None of them looked in the slightest bit under control. I stared at the blazing tree a long way below my feet and wished the fire to be out. For a couple of seconds the fires stopped and then they flared to life again with increased intensity.
I needed to make a plan. Last year Mr. Griffith brought a fire officer into the woodyard to talk about fires and how to put them out. A fire in a woodyard isn't a brilliant idea and learning how to deal with them made good sense. The fire officer said that a fire needs three things to stay ablaze and Malcolm had said 'yeah, flames' and the officer told him he was dead wrong.
'Fire needs three things, fuel, air and heat. Take away any one of them and the fire will stop.' He said that pouring water on fires made the fuel too cold to burn and that foam extinguishers stopped air getting to the fire as did fire blankets, but you had to keep the fire covered because it would start again if the fuel was hot enough. It didn't need a spark.
That was what I'd done wrong. I'd killed the flames but the trees were so hot that they'd started burning again as soon as they got the chance. Fuel seemed to be the easiest of the three things to deal with. I'd create a firebreak in the forest.
I hopped to a few hundred feet over forest that wasn't yet on fire. I concentrated and trees ripped out of the earth. I flew over the forest in a line parallel to the fire, creating a zone of barren earth over a hundred feet wide behind me. I saw animals struggling to clear the destruction I had created and not all of them making it.
When I reached a place where the forest changed to foothills I turned and flew back to where I'd started. The fire was almost upon the firebreak. I tore up trees and vegetation in the other direction until I reached a lake.
The effort exhausted me and I dropped to the shore to catch my breath. That was when I heard the screams. People were trapped on the wrong side of the firebreak. They were unable to get to safety because of the trees and debris I'd thrown across the forest. I'd forgotten that the people of Salice were fighting this fire.
Despite the fact that my head hurt and I couldn't see straight I knew I had to rescue the people I'd put in danger. I struggled to my feet and flew into the air. The magic was easy; it was my mind that was exhausted. Smoke blew into my face making my eyes water. I cast a protective shield and stayed low to the trees and the devastation I'd wrought. I saw women and children beside their men desperately trying to find a way through the broken trees.
There was no time to explain to them what I was going to do or to be careful. Everyone I saw I lifted over the debris to the ground beyond. I knew I hurt some of them as I dragged them through branches, but I had no choice. There were miles of forest to cover and no time left.
The world became red and black. The further I travelled along the firebreak the closer the fire got to it. The more people I found, the harder it was to lift them to safety over the destruction I'd wrought.
Somehow they must have figured out what I was doing because the further I flew the more of them stood still waiting for me, huddled together in family groups with cloth held against their faces to try and stop inhaling the smoke. There was no screaming and no panic, just endless groups of people expecting me to save them.
I don't know how I kept going. I knew I couldn't stop or people would die, so stopping wasn't an option. After an endless time, I reached the foothills and glided less than elegantly to land on barren earth. Unconsciousness washed over me like a welcoming blanket.
“Drink, my Lord Wizard, drink.”
I opened my eyes to find I was in a cottage. It must be dark outside because the light came from a couple of lanterns. A man with a face coated in ash offered me a large flagon. I drank and coughed as I hadn't been expecting it to be filled with beer. Nevertheless, I downed the whole flagon a few seconds later. I've never tasted anything so good.
“Is everybody safe?” I tried to rise and he pressed me back down.
“You've done enough. Orchards centuries in the making have been saved by your actions, not to mention the vines on the banks of the Scown.”
“But the people fighting the fire?”
“Are safe, and now have reason to go on living.”
I got the feeling he wasn't going to tell me if anybody died. Compulsion wasn't an option as I'd done that far too much in the last couple of days. Perhaps that was only an excuse and the truth was I really didn't want to know.
There was a commotion outside. I heard gasping and shouting. A few seconds later Jenny burst into the room and ran over to hug me.
“Can't….breathe…” I managed to croak and she loosened her arms enough to let my lungs grab some air.
“We got a message you were injured,” she said in between kissing me.
[I was worried too.]
That explained the commotion outside, Jenny had arrived by dragon.
“Just exhausted, though I think someone may have just cracked my ribs.”
Jenny let me go as she sat up to get the room to punch me.
“Ooow.”
“We were worried,” she said tartly. “After all, we've gone to a lot of trouble to give you this wedding and missing it by reason of death isn't an acceptable excuse.”
“I'll try and remember that.”
“See that you do.”
Jenny put her hand on my cheek and traced the line of my chin with her finger.
“How are the other fires going?”
Jenny smiled. “All under control. Urda hopped to the Palace looking like a goddess, all boundless energy and stuff. She hopped here and saw what you were doing before creating a firebreak in the fields to the south. The wind has changed direction so the King found it relatively easy to stop the fires in the east. What's more, there ar
e clouds in the sky and it looks like it's going to rain. How good is that?”
“Sounds fantastic. How many people did I kill with my firebreak?”
Jenny took my hand and squeezed it gently.
“A few. Less than the fire would have killed if you'd let it continue out of control.”
“Innocents, women and children, dead at my hands.”
[A wizard has to make hard choices, Jake. There are no actions without consequence.]
“Retnor's right, Jake. You did your best.”
Visions of Talder Plath's neck snapping and Ida's face after I took his magic away flashed through my mind followed by images of people waiting for me to save their lives as the fire raced towards them. It wasn't fair.
“And we know at least one of the fires was started by Bronwyn. Someone saw her. So it wasn't your fault at all.”
I reached into my pocket and found Bronwyn's mobile phone. I turned it on and held it so Jenny could see and hear Bronwyn calling for a truce.
“I texted back and agreed as soon as I heard it.”
“The lying bitch,” Jenny said and cuddled me.
It was looking more and more likely I would have to do the same thing to Bronwyn that I did to Ida, no matter how much I hated the thought of it. I couldn't help thinking I might not get the choice with Bronwyn. I don't think I could kill a twelve year old girl whatever she's done. The problem was I was certain she'd be happy to kill me without the slightest hesitation.
Chapter Thirty-One: Gold
“Look, I want rubbish things made of gold,” I told the royal treasurer for the twentieth time. He had brought me jewellery of staggering beauty set with precious stones and that wasn't what I wanted at all. “If I try to sell any of that I'll have the police all over me.”
There were forty-two kids camped out in the Grand Hotel. They occupied eleven rooms at what I guessed was probably over a hundred pounds a room per night and that was before we counted meals, laundry and God knows what else.
Dad had suggested the other day that we use the rip-off merchants in the market who give money for old gold, no questions asked. Thursday was market day back home and today was Thursday so I needed to get a move on.
“I offered my Lord Wizard gold bars earlier,” Stadon Hart complained.
To be fair, this was true. But gold bars would be just as difficult to explain as fine jewellery. The Royal Treasurer was angry and having increasing difficulty containing it. Stadon is a good guy and what I was doing to him wasn't fair. It was a little funny though. He's a small thin man with a big moustache and said moustache was quivering with barely suppressed anger.
Esmeralda stepped into the room carrying a blacksmith's hammer. She'd given up on my attempts to get what I wanted some time ago and wandered off. I stepped back sharply as my betrothed carrying anything that might be considered a weapon was a frightening sight. Well, it frightened me.
She swept the jewellery off the table onto the floor and started hitting it with the hammer. It didn't do much for the gold nor for the mosaic tiles they were on. After a minute of smashing she stopped and looked up at me.
“Pick up the bits you can sell and get a move on. You have wedding guests to transport today.”
Throwing the hammer down she stalked out of the room. I looked at Stadon open mouthed and noticed his equally shocked expression. He recovered faster than I did.
“If my Lord Wizard is now satisfied, I shall take my leave of you.”
He didn't wait for an answer but swept from the room, the hem of his cloak scattering bits of broken jewellery across the floor.
I picked up the felt bag on the table and got on my hands and knees to pick up the gold. I removed any remaining precious stones from their settings while putting the gold in the bag. I dropped the diamonds and rubies on the table for Esmeralda to deal with later. It occurred to me that there was more wealth on the table than I could earn in my lifetime and that Esmeralda treated it as though it was worth nothing. Some of the items I mangled further using magic to hide the craftsmanship that had gone into them. It was a shame, but Esmeralda was right, I didn't have the time for anything else.
Gold is heavy. This was the first time I'd held so much of it at one time and it surprised me just how much the bag weighed. I hopped over to the Grand Hotel just in time for breakfast.
The table with my parents, Urda and Anna, was set for four, but nobody objected when I joined them. A waitress came over to add an extra knife and fork and to offer me a choice of tea or coffee. I'm a tea man through and through and she hurried off to get me a pot.
The room was crowded with Bronwyn's children. They seemed unusually subdued. There was no chattering or laughter as they concentrated on eating, just a fair degree of bottom wriggling as though the seats were uncomfortable.
“Did you do something to the kids?”
Urda smiled at me wearily. “When I got back from dealing with the fires in the south I was very tired. I found them running from room to room having pillow fights. I might have been a little hard on them.”
“Did you put the compulsion against magic on them?”
“Before I set off for Salice. There have been no more incidents since.”
Anna smiled shyly at me and I smiled back. A full English breakfast arrived and though, as a Welshman I have little time for the English, their breakfast fare is the best in the world. Mam spoke as soon as I began to eat.
“Jake, we have a big hotel bill building up for the children and we have to be out of our rooms by eleven. I was hoping to get them some clothes today as they only have what they came with.”
Dad intervened. “What your mother is asking is, did you get any money?”
“Look in the bag,” I said between mouthfuls. I had put the bag down on the floor when the food arrived. Mam was nearest so she picked it up and looked inside.
“What did you do to it? Put it through a mangle?”
“Esmeralda … blacksmith's hammer.”
“You're going to have to watch yourself with that one,” Dad warned me. “She'll have your guts for garters if you don't.”
I nodded in agreement. Esmeralda was always a handful.
“We're going down to the market to flog this lot?” Dad asked.
“I wouldn't think of doing it without you.”
Dad hefted the bag, estimating its weight. “How much do you think it's worth and what do you think we'll be offered?”
I shook my head as I didn't have a clue.
“Time will tell.”
Our town has an ancient market square, which is a car park on every day but market days. Right now it was packed with covered stalls in four long rows It's not a sensible idea to put anything on display in North Wales without some sort of cover over it. It rains a lot up here.
The most I ever buy in the market is the odd battery or things for the Bat Cave. Mam and Dad come at the weekend to buy fruit and vegetables, but I haven't gone with them since I was little. Saturday was always an opportunity to go exploring on other worlds or to spend time with Fluffy.
In recent years the television has been flooded with adverts for people to post old jewellery off to various companies who send back a check. It always sounded a dodgy idea to me. Like offering new lamps for old if you know what I mean.
A couple of men in suits set up a stall in the market making the same offer. I remembered Dad telling me about it some months ago, though I hadn't paid much attention. I didn't own any gold at the time.
The men sat under canvas looking forlorn when we arrived. Nobody was taking up their offer though it was still early in the day. We drifted over to them as though we didn't have a care in the world and I placed the bag on the table.
One of the men looked up. He didn't seem to be impressed with either me or Dad, though his interest changed as soon as he lifted the bag. He nudged his partner and tipped the gold over the table. Both men's eyes noticeably widened.
“Load of old rubbish,” the first man said as he picke
d up a couple of pieces. “No hallmarks either, so it's probably plated.”
Dad picked up the bag and started to put the gold back. The second man put his hand on Dad's hand to stop him.
“What are you doing?”
Dad shrugged. “You're not interested. I'm sure the jeweler down the road will be. We just thought we'd try you first.”
“No need to be hasty. We didn't say we wouldn't offer you a price.”
I smiled and then covered it up as best I could. I didn't often get a chance to see Dad in action and I'd let him play with them for a while.
“Well now, it's not likely to be a good price, is it? Saying it's plated when it's solid gold. Look at where the pieces are broken, man. The gold goes all the way through.”
It was obvious once Dad pointed it out and one of the men used a pen knife to scrape at a piece. There was no change in color.
“It's not hallmarked though. How do we know you came by it legitimately?”
Dad started picking up the pieces again.
“I didn't think lads like you would care.”
Clever, Dad was leading them to believe the gold might be stolen and be available at a knockdown price. I had my own way of dealing with these two, but Dad's way was far too much fun to stop.
The first man took the bag away from him. Not roughly, but with considerable determination.
“Why don't we weigh all these pieces up and make you an offer? If you don't like it you can always go somewhere else.”
“That sounds like a fair idea.” Dad stood back and let the men get on with it. They weighed each piece in turn and wrote the weight down on a piece of paper. When they finished, the second man used a pocket calculator to add it all up.
“We can offer you four hundred for the lot.”
Dad laughed so hard I thought he might hurt himself. He reached for the bag and again Man Number Two stopped him.
“Don't be hasty. This is good money were offering. And it's cash.”
Dad shook his hand free and pulled the bag away from them. The men's eyes followed it as though it was hypnotizing them. They looked like dogs salivating for a bone.
