by John Booth
He waited to see if any of the rest of us were going to interrupt him. We all decided against it.
“The contest ground is set with traps for the unwary and there are dangerous creatures below. Your time starts now.”
17. Transformations
As the crowd roared with anticipation Lana hopped into the arena, and Bob and Estan flew across the lake towards the jungle, I ignored them and used my magic sight to investigate the key the Chancellor still held aloft. Esmeralda claims I’ve learned nothing in the last few years, but I have acquired a strong sense of caution and something about this trial seemed wrong.
The key was solid metal, but giving off a lot of magical energy. When I looked closer, zooming in to look at its surface, I saw runes. A purple aura surrounded it. It was a distinctive magical object. And why was he still holding it up like that anyway?
I stepped closer to the edge of the balcony where Jeram stood. He seemed equally reluctant to join the competition.
“Wizard Morrissey, I have heard much about you.”
“Was any of it good?”
He laughed. “I am sure some of it was good. But you must give me time to remember them if you want a list.”
“You don’t seem eager to join the trial?”
Jeram surveyed the arena. “Best to look before you leap.”
I nodded.
I turned my attention to the jungle below. The five keys were easy to spot on the magical plane because of the large amounts of energy they were giving off. The one Estan had chosen was twenty feet underwater in the middle of the lake. He hovered six feet above the surface and tried to bring it to him using magic.
I magnified the scene around the key. Dirt swirled, caught in the magic Estan used and the key rose up about an inch before settling back on the mud. Magical forces slid through it as though it wasn’t there. The key looked very much like the one in the Chancellor’s hand, except that the aura around it was red and not purple.
A quick check of the key buried a couple of feet underground below where Lana hovered confirmed my suspicion.
“The keys are fakes.”
Jeram gave me a sharp look and nodded. “Intriguing, isn’t it?”
It happened so fast my eyes had trouble registering it. A creature that looked like the front end of a shark and the back three quarters of a crocodile leapt out of the water below where Estan hovered. The boy had magic shields in place, but the creature sailed through them as though they didn’t exist. One moment the boy was standing in the air. The next he was up to his chest in crocoshark with razor sharp teeth closed in around him.
Then he was gone. The crocoshark’s teeth crashed against each other in frustration as it continued to rise through the air.
“Look.”
Jeram pointed up and I saw Estan’s body falling through the sky. He had hopped high into the air but it looked as though the crocoshark had injured him.
“See you later,” I said to Jeram. Hopping into the air, I matched velocity with Estan and brought us to a halt in mid-air. The kid was unconscious and a small amount of blood was seeping through his shirt. He didn’t seem to be injured enough to have been knocked out.
I sent my magical senses into him to start the healing process. The wounds around his chest were superficial. He had a cloth wrapped around him and that had protected him, or should I say her. Estan was a girl with the cloth used to flatten her breasts. I probed her bloodstream and found poison flowing through it. Not enough to kill, but more than enough to paralyze.
It took me some time to get most of it out of her. She started to groan and opened her eyes discovering that she was in my arms. I let her go and she slipped gently down to sit on the surface I’d created in the air. Stepping back, I extended the force field into a cup shape that she wouldn’t fall out of. Then I looked around to see how the other applicants were doing.
It looked like Lana and Bob had been busy. Amazon girl looked down on the writing body of a massive snake. It had lost its head and her sword was bloody. She appeared to be breathing hard, but was otherwise unhurt.
Bob had fought some kind of lion come wolf beast. It was difficult to tell exactly what it had been because it had been sliced neatly in two, starting at the head. That sword of his must be incredibly sharp, given that I was certain none of these creatures could be harmed using magic.
The crowd was silent. I glanced at their faces and saw disgust mixed with contempt. Apparently the Balmack Accord didn’t hold with violence even though their trial encouraged it. As far as I was concerned, I would avoid killing any of their animals unless it was them or me. I had a strong interest in me.
I needed to get a closer look at one of the fake keys and the one Estan had been after was the easiest target. It took a few seconds to freeze a twelve foot diameter cylinder of lake all the way down to the key. I used the heat I’d removed from the ice to warm the water round the iceberg driving the crocoshark away without hurting it.
Landing on top end of the ice cylinder, I cut a plug of ice down to the mud and raised it slowly. The key came with it, neatly frozen to the bottom of the plug. With the plug hovering a few feet in the air, I pulled the key free and let the plug slide back into its hole. A solitary person in the audience clapped loud enough for me to hear.
The key was warm to the touch and was a dark silvery color, not at all like the gold key the Chancellor had held aloft. It felt alive, not like any kind of metal. Probing its surface I discovered it was being held in its current shape by a strong transformation spell. The work involved in creating it was incredible and well beyond any magic I could formulate. That was when I knew what it was.
I looked up towards the balcony to see Jeram cheerfully salute me and vanish. That meant I didn’t have much time. Bob and Lana had recovered their keys and found they were cut into pieces. It wouldn’t take them long to figure it out either. When I looked up to where I’d left her, I couldn’t see Estan in the sky, which meant that all of my opponents were back in the race.
I dissolved the ice in the lake, mixing water temperatures so it wouldn’t endanger the crocoshark. It and I had a destiny together. Lifting my body to eight feet above the water I waited for the inevitable attack.
There was only a split second in which to act. As the beast flew out of the water, I hopped to what I hoped was its blind side. The gaping maw of the creature missed me by inches as it sped upwards, but then, it was essential to be close.
Dodging a flailing croc leg I touched the key to the flank of the beast and then threw it away. Only just in time as the mouth forming from the key snapped viciously at me.
The crocoshark restored from its transformation as a key toppled backwards into the water and I reached for the key which was all that remained of its doppelganger. The key was still rising and I nearly missed it.
Hopping to the balcony I stumbled into the Chancellor, key in hand with Estan and Jeram arriving only milliseconds behind me with their keys.
Lana and Bob arrived with their broken keys a few seconds later. Once the whole keys had been grabbed they had no other choice but to come back with what they had.
The Chancellor took my key from me with a look of distain on his face.
“The murderer has arrived back first. Scores will be announced later.
The crowd booed, which I thought was distinctly unsporting of them. I gave them a bow, which raised the noise even louder.
18. Reward
Jeram patted me on the back in a friendly way, while Lana and Bob looked angry, but resigned. Estan was giving me a look I couldn’t completely fathom. There was anguish in it as though I had done a great wrong in saving her life, but there was also something else, possibly resolve.
The crowd had become subdued, though hushed conversations hissed around us. Estan was still staring at me so I gave her a broad wink. That didn’t seem to help and she retreated as far away from me as she could get. I wondered if she was annoyed that I had discovered that she was a girl, or even if she knew. Not everybody
knows how healing magic works.
There was a tug at my shirt and I turned to find Harlan had crept up on me. He didn’t look particularly happy and I assumed he’d lost his bet. Served him right for not betting on me, I have a track record.
“Wizard Morrissey, we need to leave at once.”
I looked around and saw individuals attempting to lead the others away. We each had our own minder by the look of it. A stern faced girl was trying to get Lana to leave with little success. The young man minding Estan was trying to stop her reaching the Chancellor, who was in a huddle with the other judges. I guessed she wanted to complain about my interference. Bob and Jeram, on the other hand, were not putting up any resistance and I decided to follow their lead.
“Lead on, Harlan. What’s next on the agenda?”
Harlan ignored my question and hurried off in the direction of the door we had come in by. I guessed each applicant had their own door, corridor, eating places and cell. Though it seemed like overkill to me. Why would they want to stop us talking to each other? It was not like we could cheat.
I ran after him until I caught up and put a hand on his shoulder.
“Why are we in such a hurry?”
Harlan looked flustered. “The applicants should not fraternize. It was inappropriate for you to have talked to Jeram Wist at the beginning of the trial. It is frowned upon.”
“No one has given me a rule book.”
Harlan ignored my comment and removed my hand from his shoulder. “Fraternization with your helper is also discouraged.”
“Did I win?” I winked slowly and deliberately. “I won’t tell anybody you told me.”
Harlan pursed his lips and then spoke reluctantly.
“A number of factors are used to calculate the final score. You were first back though.” He sounded just a touch bitter about it.
“Did you lose a lot of money?”
“Enough to hurt. Never bet on a pretty face.”
I laughed. “You bet on Lana d’Fallon. Can’t say I blame you. She would be my first choice every time, not necessarily for winning contests though.”
He gave me the mother of all disapproving looks. It seemed that Harlan was a prude as well as a bad gambler.
“I will take you for your lunch. You have the rest of the day off, but you cannot leave your quarters except for meals. The next test will be at the same time tomorrow morning.”
And I couldn’t get him to say another word to me. Not at lunch or on the way back to my cell. It was almost a relief when the door closed on him, leaving me alone in my cell.
I returned to the problem of how to get the bracelet off my wrist without anybody knowing. It might be possible to disable it, if I surrounded it with the right magic.
An hour or two of fruitless trying later there was a knock at the door and Estan walked in. Now I knew she was a woman I appreciated how pretty she was. Even the page boy haircut looked cute on her. A guard closed the door behind her and we were alone.
“Hi. How did you get in? I thought we were prisoners?”
Estan frowned and leaned against the wall, which was about as far away from me as she could get.
“I asked them to let me thank you according to the customs of my people. We are not prisoners so much as being isolated. They don’t want us to know how well or badly we are doing.”
“We wouldn’t risk our lives if we knew we had already lost?”
The corners of her mouth twitched in a suppressed smile.
“Are you always so cynical?”
“A cynic is an optimist with experience.”
Again the twitch; bigger this time. I decided I was going to get her to smile properly before she left the room.
“They call you a murderer and yet you went out of your way to save my life.”
“I’m a complex kind of guy.”
“Did you really kill the Balmack Representative?” She looked appalled at the very idea.
That made me grimace.
“I did. He got in the way while I wielding a Diabli sword.”
She was suddenly furious with me.
“You make up lies about such a terrible thing? There are no Diabli swords since the Diabli destroyed themselves.”
“If you say so. Perhaps you should go?”
This talk of the many people I had killed was getting me down. I did my best not to think about it most of the time. Not being believed made it all the worse.
Estan’s fingers played with the laces of her shirt. Her breasts were still strapped, but I found the gesture sensual and it was way better to think of a woman’s body than all the deaths on my hands.
“You discovered I am a woman when you healed me. My real name is Esta though I would prefer you keep that to yourself for the time being.”
I nodded. I was much more interested in what her hands were doing than the conversation.
“In Prion, women are subservient in all matters to men. For calling you a liar, I should offer you my body to be beaten; for saving my life I should offer my body for your pleasure.”
“In Wales, women just say ‘thank you’ and shake the man’s hand.” And never ever admit it if they have made a mistake, in my experience.
‘Down boy’ I instructed a part of my body. It paid no attention. It never does.
“What a strange world you come from. But I see the offer of my body did not displease you, or was it the thought of punishing me?”
Damn it. I would have to start wearing looser fitting jeans.
“You are a beautiful young woman, but I am married,” Boy, was that an understatement, “And it is not the custom on my world for a man to stray.” Keep your face straight, Jake. “So I must regretfully decline your offer.”
She smiled then, a sly smile with hooded eyes. I had won my bet with myself.
“It is your choice. Are you absolutely sure?”
The cloth she used for strapping her breasts materialized on the floor. Her small, but pert bosoms strained at her shirt. She pulled the cord free that held her shirt together and the material parted.
“I.”
Estan tugged at the cord holding her shorts up and they fell too. She had the figure of a supermodel and her skin was smooth as silk.
She walked over to me and pushed me down onto the bed, thrusting her hips towards mine.
“We should…” I tried, but that was as far as I could get.
She pulled at my jeans and hopped them off me. No one had ever done that to me before and it was a massive turn on. Her hand grasped me firmly and I knew she had broken any slight resistance I had left. I think this had been inevitable from the moment she made the offer, regardless of whatever I had told her.
I am only flesh and blood after all.
“When we finish, you shall spank me for my lies and then you shall take me again.”
Typical woman; as soon as she had me by the short hairs she was issuing instructions.
I helped Esta bind her breasts when we got dressed. She wasn’t talking and I wasn’t sure whether I had done something wrong. I had followed most of her instructions to the letter; though I refused to punish her, despite her request to the contrary.
She certainly hadn’t complained at any point. But still, it was as though I had disappointed her on some fundamental level. Perhaps I wasn’t as good as the last man she’d had? She was far from inexperienced in bed. In fact she knew things I would never have thought of.
“Why the disguise? You aren’t on Prion and I don’t think the Balmack Accord practices male chauvinism. They are generally an enlightened bunch.”
She pulled away from me and fastened the laces on her shirt, never looking up and meeting my eyes.
“There are no places where men do not use women. No place in the multiverse where a woman is ever truly equal.”
I had a fleeting fantasy of introducing her to Alisandra and the women of Malevon. That was a place the boot was firmly on the other foot.
“I didn’t use you. What we did was mu
tual.”
Esta gave a bitter laugh as she pulled up her shorts and fastened them.
“You are the same as all men. Do not try to deny it.”
“I thought we might have just become friends.”
She leaned forward till her nose almost touched mine and for the first time met my eyes.
“If the opportunity presents itself during the trials I shall cut your throat, murderer. Studying at Haldor University is my life’s ambition and you shall not prevent me achieving it.”
“And what we just did together?”
“I pay my debts according to the laws of my people. You had the chance to prove you were what you claimed and you did not.”
Esta knocked on the door and it opened. She walked out without looking back and the door closed silently behind her.
I went back to examining the bracelet for weaknesses. The room had become cold and I shivered.
19. Landmines
Harlan must have taken the Chancellors words to heart as we were the first to arrive at the balcony. I had enjoyed the first test and was feeling confident. The Chancellor looked on me as though I was something he’d found stuck to his shoe. He didn’t make any other acknowledgement. Harlan waited as if expecting congratulations and the Chancellor gave him a look that might vaporize steel. Harlan took the hint and left.
“Nice day for it,” I informed the Chancellor and his bunch of peacock dressed cronies, who were studiously ignoring me. “When I was at school the tests were boring, we sat at little tables and were told to keep our eyes fixed on the paper in front of us.”
No response.
“That was to make sure we didn’t cheat. There was quite a competition to sit alongside Sally White as she was the brightest person in our year. Or it may have been because she was the best looking. I forget.”
“Shut up!”
My next comment would have driven him crazy, but I was upstaged by the arrival of Lana d’Fallon and her po-faced female minder. Lana eyed me up in a predatory fashion and I grinned right back at her.
