by John Booth
“Only the women are capable of magic and many of them are wizards. They rule their worlds and the men are subservient. I think a Zone is one or more worlds.”
Esmeralda looked thoughtful. She had a mind like a steel trap with one subject always uppermost, protecting Salice.
“Women rulers make good sense. But why do their men put up with it?”
“Sex magic seems to be their women’s number one skill.”
“And yet she took you against your will at the Conference?”
“I resisted, but it was more like a dream than reality. The Conference was a mix of magic and technology and our bodies were stored elsewhere.”
She placed her hand on my groin and touched my hardness.
“Did all of you resist?”
“Alisandra can be very persuasive.”
Esmeralda squeezed a little too hard for comfort.
“And later you sealed the alliance with Malevon with sex?”
Her grip tightened. How had she known? I was sure Jenny didn’t have a clue.
“It’s their way. The alliance is important.” My voice rose to a squeak at the end.
Esmeralda let go and I tried not to gasp with relief. I was more than a little deflated. At this rate, there would be little chance of pregnancy tonight.
She kissed me on the cheek. “It is always good to start negotiations from a position of advantage. Now I have two things to use against her.”
She’d lost me. “Alisandra isn’t coming to negotiate. The deal is done. They want to be on my side when the war starts. Though don’t ask me what war.”
Esmeralda kissed me on the mouth, putting her arms around me so we fell over across the bed. I suddenly discovered that I would be able to perform after all. The next few seconds were a frenzy to rid me of my jeans. Her nightdress had pushed up to her waist as we rushed to consummate the act.
I didn’t take us long to climax. As I collapsed to her side she gave a little laugh. “Alisandra is not coming to negotiate? You do say the funniest things.”
My mind was inside her body and I hardly heard. Esmeralda wanted to be pregnant again and I would not deny her. Before she finished speaking the deed was done.
She rolled over to face me.
“Do not think that ‘a quickie’ as Jenny calls them will satisfy me, Lord Wizard. Though I will give you a little time to recover your ardor. A wife should always be considerate in bed.”
She snuggled up to me and I stifled a sigh. A husband’s job is never done. Let me tell you, life can be hard for a wizard at times.
“Queen Alisandra,” Esmeralda said sweetly as she curtsied. Both women wore smiles that never reached their eyes.
“Princess Esmeralda. Please call me Alisandra. I would not stand on ceremony given our common interests.”
She was staring straight at me as she spoke. I sensed a stiffening from Queen Janti at her words. I don’t know how much Esmeralda had told her parents, but I suspected they knew most of it. Esmeralda would have told them anything that might affect the safety of the realm.
The King indicated we should leave the Ballroom and we made our way to the conference room, Alisandra with her retinue of short kilted male guards, each carrying one of those damnable magic pistols, and the Royal Family, Sir Danth Yard, Bishop Danedi and Captain Assad. When I looked at Treva he grinned at me and I couldn’t help grinning back. Though I still missed Captain Cari, Treva had become a good friend.
“What brings you here?” Esmeralda asked as soon as we were seated. The Heir spoke for the King in these situations. The King appeared to have fallen asleep but I knew he was listening intently.
Alisandra had either been well briefed or was quick on the uptake because she did not hesitate.
“Allies should meet occasionally, don’t you think?”
“You have had two years, why now?”
“Things have changed. The Diamond Worlds have severed links with us.”
No loss in my opinion.
“Is that because I destroyed the Knights of Justice?” I asked. I’ve had a few tussles with the Diamond Worlds.
Alisandra looked me in the eyes. “Did you tell them of our alliance?”
“No, did you?”
A tiny shake of the head. “We think they are being influenced. But there is no sign of magic being used.”
“And what has this to do with Salice?” Esmeralda asked.
“We understand you have an alliance with a hedge-wizard world. We want them to send spies to the Diamond Worlds that cannot be traced back to us.”
“Wizards aren’t welcome on the Diamond Worlds,” Me again. Though they had a few magic users who they didn’t think of as wizards, anyone Bronwyn sent would be risking their lives.
Alisandra’s eyes burned into me.
“But their ability to catch them is minimal since someone wiped out the Knights of Justice.”
After a moment’s thought, I decided not to answer her. They had attacked me first, but nobody ever took that into account. They may have been regarded as good guys, but they hunted wizards and dragons.
The King opened his eyes and leaned forward. “We will consult with Queen Bronwyn to see if she will help you. Is that all we have to discuss?”
Alisandra stood and her guards huddled close to her. “It is.”
She hopped, taking her retinue with her.
“How rude,” Janti said. “And we have a banquet planned for this evening.”
“But now we can have an excellent time,” Sir Danth said and slapped his thighs. “There’s nothing like a banquet without a guest of honor.”
“Especially without that one,” Esmeralda muttered. “What a bitch.”
The King tutted at his daughter’s language, but I could tell his heart wasn’t really in it.
“Bronwyn is attending school in Wales,” the King said as he looked at me. “Will you talk to her?”
I had been avoiding Bronwyn and hadn’t seen her for over a year. But it would have to be me. I nodded reluctantly.
8. Bronwyn
I arrived at the front door of Bronwyn’s house and immediately thought better of it. I hadn’t seen her for ages and the truth was that I was a little bit scared to see her again. She was the only other major league wizard on Earth and was born only a few miles from me. Given how few wizards Earth produced over the centuries, that was so unlikely I seriously wondered if we were related. But we were not.
That wasn’t reasonable and neither was she.
I was about to hop to the Bat Cave when the door was pulled open.
“Jake.”
It took me a few moments to realize the young woman staring at me was Bronwyn. She looked so much older than fifteen, and years older than when I saw her last.
“I sensed you out here.” She looked at me intently. “You were going to leave, weren’t you?”
“No. Maybe, I don’t know… You’re looking… well.”
Anger fought with amusement and fortunately amusement won. She did one of those flouncing movements girls do so her hair rippled across her face and she turned her back on me.
“Come on in before I change my mind.”
Then I was alone on the doorstep again.
“Jake!”
I hurried into the house.
I found her in the kitchen making a pot of tea. For a goddess in charge of a world of wizards, it was such a Welsh girl thing to do that I found myself smiling. You can take the girl out of the valleys, but you can’t take the valleys out of the girl. Tea and biscuits offered every time you visit, usually just before they rip your face to shreds.
“Sit.”
I sat, wondering how she was controlling me. It didn’t seem to involve magic.
She brought over a tray with scones, jam and cream as well as tea and placed it on the table in front of me, then sat down facing me. Neither of us moved as her eyes roved over me and mine over her.
She wasn’t a little girl any more. Her figure had filled out and every boy close
to her age would be fighting to ask her out. If they liked powerful girls that is, because there was tempered steel in her eyes when you took a moment to look.
“You look well, Jake. Less haunted than when I last saw you. Why are you here? I know it isn’t just to say hello.”
I swallowed. Bronwyn had grown up in so many ways.
While I tried to get a few words out she poured me a cup of tea with hands so steady they could have been robotic. She cut a scone in half and smeared raspberry jam and clotted cream onto both pieces. I thought she had done them for herself, but she placed the plate in front of me.
“Eat.”
It was easier to obey than trying to formulate a sentence, so I did. I still wasn’t sure if I actually had a choice. Bronwyn exuded confidence and power.
“Why haven’t you come to see me, Jake? I’ve missed you.” Suddenly the confidence was gone and there was a hurt little girl in front of me.
“You have your life.” I paused trying to find the right words. “A world to run; a childhood to recapture.”
“But not you as a friend to lean on, to guide me?” she whispered.
“I…”
“Esmeralda, Jenny, and the kids are always welcoming. Even though Esmeralda still hasn’t forgiven me for the damage I did in Salice, but she lets me visit.”
I thought about telling her that it was a coincidence that I was never there when she visited, but that would be a lie. When I knew she was visiting, I fled. This girl had sent wizards to crucify me and then she defeated me in battle without the slightest effort, despite the fact that I am much more powerful than her.
Moving my arm across the table I took her hand and squeezed gently.
“We have too much history.”
She pulled her hand away as though I had burned her.
“So why have you come?”
“The Diamond Worlds are behaving oddly. The Malevon want a third party to spy on them to find out why.”
I saw wheels spinning behind Bronwyn’s eyes. The girl knew politics backwards.
“Do it yourself, or send Urda.”
“I’m unavailable and Urda’s needed to guard Salice. Salice isn’t exactly flush with wizards to protect it.”
Her eyes narrowed and she stood and leaned over the table.
“Balmack has accepted you? Why do you keep trying to get yourself killed?”
I shrugged as I didn’t see I had a choice. I didn’t see her hand coming either and nearly fell off the chair with the force of the blow across my face.
Bronwyn turned away from me, standing facing the kitchen sink, her hands gripping the sink tightly.
“Okay, you’ll get your spies. Now get out of here.”
I hopped to the Bat Cave. I could have sworn that Bronwyn had spoken through tears and that didn’t make any sense at all. My cheek hurt from Bronwyn’s blow and I put a hand up to soothe it.
[The women are fighting back? I knew it would happen eventually.]
My dragon sent spurts of flame across the cave as he laughed. I looked at the hand I’d been using to nurse my cheek and found it speckled with blood.
It wasn’t difficult to heal the scratches, but I still didn’t understand why she’d hit me. It was not as if we were close. Fluffy found the sight of me healing myself even funnier and the cave was soon engulfed in dragonfire.
9. Diabli
By the time Fluffy stopped laughing and I’d had a quick clean up so the place no longer stank of dragonfire quite a lot of time had passed. Jenny would be furious if I didn’t get to her soon.
[Jake, the Elders would like you to check on the Diabli before you go to Balmack.]
“That’s easy for them to say. My life is getting complicated again.”
[Again?] I dodged a small jet of dragonfire Fluffy wasn’t able to suppress.
“Whatever. I was just with Bronwyn asking her to use the Cult to spy on the Diamond Worlds for Malevon.”
[Impressive. No wonder you arrived with scratch marks. Have you mated with her as well?]
I was shocked. “She’s a child. That’s disgusting.”
Fluffy cocked his massive head to one side and stared at me. [Human mores are beyond my understanding. She is of an age to bare offspring and it is obvious that she is deeply attracted to you.]
I spluttered. There are some things that you just can’t explain to a dragon. And anyway, the idea of a girl Bronwyn’s age lusting after me was ludicrous. She was still a child for God’s sake.
[The Elders will be upset if you do not check on the Diabli for them.]
“They told us it would take a hundred years for them to escape.”
[Probably. They said it would probably take the Diabli a hundred years. There is a difference, Jake. And there are things going on across the multiverse that worry them.]
I waited for an explanation, but Fluffy remained silent. This gave me a chance to ask him a question that had been nagging at me ever since I was first found out that the Diabli were trapped in the Damaged Zone.
“How come there are no Diabli anywhere in the multiverse? Humans, Elves and Dragons are everywhere.”
Fully sat on the floor and stretched his head forward in a way that reminded me of a cat. [Mathematics was never your strong point.]
“I can add up if I have to.”
[Mathematicians describe two types of infinities, one infinitely bigger than the other.]
Now that was plain silly. How can anything be bigger than infinity?
[In the bigger one, anything is possible. If the multiverse was that big then there would be an infinite number of Jake’s talking to an infinite number of dragons called Fluffy. In the smaller infinity, even one other Jake Morrissey would be extremely unlikely. The multiverse is of the smaller variety, for which we should all be duly thankful.]
I sat down by Fluffy’s neck and leaned my back against him.
“A pretty story, but how do you know?”
Fluffy grinned. [Because the lizard men we call the Diabli come from one galaxy in one universe and nowhere else.]
Do you know that trick with three cups and a ball? I had a feeling I’d been caught in a circular logic version of that.
“But why didn’t they spread out, like humans?”
[Humans spread to compatible worlds, but the Balti could only find such worlds in their own galaxy, and not many of them. It is why they are so belligerent. Their worlds are poisonous to us and ours to them, if they remain long enough to eat the food.]
“If they breakout of the Damaged Zone they will be dead in a few months?” Well that was a problem solved.
[They can change worlds to make them compatible with their metabolism. Naturally all the plants and animals already on those worlds would die as a consequence.]
I spotted a logical conclusion.
“That’s why Humans, Elves and Dragons fought on the same side against them.”
[Finally, you understand. The Diabli do not want an empire of slave worlds. They wish to make us all extinct.]
I looked at my watch and grimaced.
“I have to go. Jenny’s expecting me. I’ll try and fit a visit to the Diabli into the schedule.”
I hopped into our bedroom. Jenny wasn’t there. When I opened the door I nearly fell over Britney waiting on the landing. She stared at me suspiciously. “How did you get in there?”
“Secret passage,” my mouth replied. My brain caught up a few moments later and wondered what I was going to do if she asked to see it. Then the thinking bit reminded the rest of my mind that I was a wizard. If I wanted a secret passage, there would be a secret passage.
She stared around me into the bedroom. “I can’t see one?”
“It’s secret. What are you doing here?”
“School’s finished and Mam told us to come here as they’re out shopping.”
“It’s only two thirty.”
“Finished for the summer holidays.” If I could bottle the sarcasm that dripped from her words, well, I’d have a lot
of sarcasm in a lot of bottles.
I edged past her to make my way to the playroom. I could feel her eyes boring into my back as I walked.
“You’re always coming from nowhere.”
“I’m a wizard.” I could have bit my tongue off for saying something so stupid.
Britney’s eyes narrowed and brow wrinkled.
“Where’s your wand?”
“Lent it to a friend of mine called Harry.” I didn’t seem to be able to get off this track. It was like being caught in a death spiral.
“Yeah, right.” So much contempt from one so young didn’t seem right.
“Jake, is that you?”
Rescued by the wife. “Coming,” I yelled in Jenny’s general direction and set off at a run. Give me evil wizards over little girls any day. Evil wizards I can hit.
Jenny was in the playroom with Merlin and Brad. Merlin was watching Brad, who had used the alphabet bricks to construct a rude word. Jenny hadn’t seen it because she was facing the other way talking on the phone.
“Good, then it’s all set for tomorrow. See you then.”
She put down the phone and smiled at me. “That was Jean. They’re coming over tomorrow for Gwydion’s birthday. Esmeralda’s bringing Morgana along with Urda and Anna.”
“Can we come?” Brad asked. He sounded sullen.
“Gwydion’s only one. You’d be bored.”
I nodded, no doubt Britney would be full of questions about where Esmeralda lived and how she’d got here.
“Auntie ‘Meralda’s got a funny accent. Where does she come from?” Britney asked from the door. She saw the word her brother had constructed and giggled. Was I like that at ten? I hoped not.
“It’s rude to comment on people’s accents,” Jenny said imperturbably, neatly dodging the question.
“We want to see Auntie ‘Meralda,” Brad chimed in. He had a grin on his face and was pointing at the bricks. Jenny still hadn’t noticed.
“Daddy needs this,” Merlin said loudly, pointing at the bricks in front of him. I turned away, feeling my face heat up.
“Did you do this?” Jenny asked in delight. I turned to see she was looking at Brad, who was squirming. He pointed at Merlin.
