by John Booth
Over the weeks I’d been here I’d scanned the students and lecturers. Only a few were as powerful as Lana or Esta. None of them were as powerful as Urda or Bronwyn, not even those with the title Mage or Archmage. Maybe that was why they welcomed hedge wizards to the Accord through the university, to improve the breeding stock.
However, I had learnt that power and control are very different things and suspected that all the university Mages could take me in a fight. They had access to sophisticated weapons, which was all a spell was in the end.
Jeram was waiting for me outside the lecture theatre.
“Jake, that was an amazing thing you did with those people, changing them back from statues.”
I shrugged, because there was nothing to say. If he had seen them return to flesh, he would know it had been highly embarrassing for all concerned and I had to strip the compulsions from their minds just to get them to stop what they were doing.
“Take me with you on your next adventure. I have expertise you will need.”
“I don’t plan to do these things, they just happen to me.”
“Nevertheless, will you take me with you, if you can?”
I liked Jeram, but I didn’t understand why he would want to get involved in one of my messes. No one in their right mind would. One the other hand, it seemed important to him.
“If I get the chance, I will invite you along.”
Jeram smiled and gave me a small bow. “Thank you, Wizard Morrissey.” He turned and walked back the way we had come.
Chancellor Landow caught up with me further down the corridor.
“Wizard Morrissey, we have to talk.”
Apart from being out of breath, the one thing that struck me about the Chancellor was that he had toned down his condescension. I stopped and waited for him to get his breath back.
“We have found more petrified humans in the palace.”
I wasn’t sure what that had to do with me. The University was awash with Mages who could deal with them.
“We would like you to teach us how to restore them.”
Okay, scratch that idea, which still left a big problem.
“I don’t really know how I do it. It’s not like normal magic. Surely you have some expert who knows?”
The Chancellor did not take the news well.
“We have lost a victim trying.”
“If a mage was touching me while I did it, he might learn from me.”
The Chancellor’s face brightened. “That would be excellent. Take my hand.”
We hopped into a large brightly lit room, empty except for statues and three people in brightly colored robes, two men and a woman. Someone had draped sheets over the more obscene of the statues.
The Chancellor let go of my hand and called to the others.
“I have brought Wizard Morrissey. He tells me he does not know how to teach the magic, but that we can observe him while he performs it.”
The woman snorted. “How can he be unable teach us? All magic techniques can be learned by touch.” She had a soured wrinkled face and looked older than Methuselah.
I shrugged. “You can hold onto me when I do it, if you want.”
She appraised me top to toe, the way someone might assess horseflesh. Then she nodded. “That will be satisfactory.”
From the way the others reacted it was easy to tell she was the boss.
“I am Grand Mage Matha,” she said. “Restore the child for me and we should be able to restore the others.”
I looked at her with magical sight and was stunned. She was the most powerful wizard I had ever seen, short of the Diabli. She might even give them a run for their money in a fair fight.
I looked where she had waved. A small petrified girl looking sweet and innocent waited a few feet beyond her hand. She had her hands clasped in front of her, as if pleading for her life.
I offered my hand and Matha took it. Then I did something incredibly complicated with my magic. It flowed out to the girl and stopped. Other magic flowed across the shape I had created and it swirled around the girl like a whirlwind. I’d seen this dozens of times now and it still amazed me. It struck me that I had offered a plea to the wild magic and it had agreed to help. I couldn’t imagine anyone on Balmack seeing it that way.
The girl gasped and fell to the floor. One of the other mage’s stepped up and placed a blanket over her. Then the girl started screaming.
Matha let go of my hand and rushed over to the child, comforting her in her arms. I glimpsed magic flow between them as Matha taught the child the Balmack language.
“They killed mummy,” the girl cried and Matha hugged her. Another flow of magic calmed the child, but did not in any way compel her, so skillfully was it applied.
Some minutes later, Matha handed the child to a woman who had been summoned to the room.
She stood and looked at me for a second time. Waving all the others out of the room she created a pair of chairs and sank into one of them. I took the other.
“What are you, Wizard Morrissey?”
“I don’t understand?”
She waved her hand impatiently. “I know you are of human stock. You are a hedge wizard with a growing reputation for causing trouble wherever you go. You have forged unlikely alliances, just as you have created deadly enemies and you have formed an unlikely friendship with a dragon of ancient and noble lineage. But what are you?”
I shook my head and she sighed.
“It doesn’t matter. You must restore the other petrified people while the others are gone. We will maintain the fiction that you have taught me how to do it and we will claim I did it.”
“You didn’t learn how to do it?”
She gave a bitter laugh. “I could send the appeal you made, but would anything respond? If I tried, it wouldn’t have your signature on it.”
I could only shake my head. I hadn’t sent a message, so much as asked the magic to restore them. It somehow created that swirling thing. That was why I couldn’t teach the method.
Matha leaned across and patted me on the shoulder.
“Don’t fret about it. I’m sure it will all become clear in time. But let’s get on, shall we? The others will get curious if we take too long and there are a lot of people to restore.”
28. Survival
I did a quick count up in my head. Over seven weeks since I’d last been here. The time had flown by; probably because keeping up with my courses was a full time job and I had to do that if I wanted to stay here. Not that it had done me any good so far. I had not found a trace of the Bomber.
I lifted the huge knocker with a flick of magic and the door opened as before. No public address though, maybe the battery had run down?
[Hello Jake. Have you missed me?]
I walked into the huge cave that made up most of the embassy.
“How could I miss anything your size?”
Fluffy looked offended and wiped at his face with a claw. [I am a svelte dragon, I’ll have you know.]
“One too many sheep if you ask me.” I clasped his neck as best I could and hugged him. I had missed him and now thoughts of wives and children were flooding through me.
“How are they?”
[Your wives are angry with you. They blame you for the state of their pregnancies.]
“But they insisted.” God knows, I wasn’t overly anxious for more kids.
[I should have said; the lack of progress in their pregnancies.]
I worked out the dates. They should be three months pregnant, maybe a little more.
“I don’t understand. I can’t make a pregnancy go any faster.”
Fluffy inclined his head and nuzzled against me.
[The problem is that they are stuck at one month pregnant, maybe two. Urda has examined them and found there is no growth. The fetuses are otherwise healthy.]
I had to think about closing my mouth because my jaw had dropped open.
“Merlin and Morgana told me they would stop them.” The self-centered li
ttle ragamuffins.
Fluffy shook his head and smoke drifted from his nostril. [You cannot blame your children for this. Your wives are convinced you put a spell on them, probably without even realizing it. They are extremely annoyed.]
I stared at the bracelet on my wrist. I had to get rid of the thing before I ended up divorced in duplicate. Then it occurred to me, Fluffy could hop me home.
“Take me back to Wales.” I slid up and onto his back.
[The Balmack will know. That bracelet does more than stopping you hopping further than you can see. And then your time here will have been wasted.]
I got off him.
“Then why did you come? Did Esmeralda want you to torture me?”
[That is always a possibility,] Fluffy mused, [But I was sent here by Merlin. He is upset that you didn’t take his advice. He is worried there might be consequences.]
“Tell my baby son that he should give clearer advice, because his Daddy didn’t understand it the last time.”
Fluffy laughed and I shielded myself as dragonfire spurted around me. Next time I would choose a unicorn for a friend or maybe a giant turtle. They would be easier on the furnishings and my eyebrows.
[I think Merlin is well aware of your limitations.]
More laughter, more flames.
Anger rose in me and I stomped out of the embassy, leaving my dragon laughing himself silly. I was no cooler as I walked down the wide avenue towards the chain bridge back to the university.
A premonition washed over me like a million feet trampling over my grave and I looked at the furthest tree and hopped to it, magic shields at full.
The blast was enormous and the bubble shield around me was flung into a building with staggering force. The momentum alone would have killed me in days past, but I’ve learned a few things at the university and I dissipated the energy.
I ordered my shield to lift me into the air. A crater cut the wide avenue in two. Trees were uprooted and scattered across the previously immaculate gardens. The Embassy was a heap of rubble.
Fluffy.
I dived down to what remained of the embassy roof. It was almost at ground level. My magical senses showed that Fluffy was buried beneath, protected in part by a large stone beam. Despite that miracle, it looked as though he was dying.
Trying to remove the roof would bring more of it down on Fluffy. I couldn’t hop to him because though I could see him with magical sight that wasn’t the same as seeing him with my eyes. I stared at the bracelet and felt my magic flow through me binding its powers. The multiverse came flooding back and I knew exactly where I was. I was dizzy and disoriented, but I couldn’t afford the time and I suppressed it.
I hopped to Fluffy and touched him. His body was crushed and he couldn’t breathe with so much of the roof pressing down on him. I held onto him and hopped us halfway across the multiverse to the meeting world of the dragons. This is where I had saved Galator and it is where I would save my best friend.
Fluffy is a big dragon and the damage done to him was catastrophic. Most of his internal organs were crushed, many bones were broken and he was only holding on to life by a whisker.
I reshaped his body holding him in position with magic and put his organs back where they belonged. Bones were easy and I started knitting them together. Soft tissue was much more difficult and his stomach sack had been punctured. That was where his dragonfire came from. Free from magical encapsulation, it had burnt much of his abdomen. The only good thing was that he was unconscious and could not feel the pain.
Healing takes a lot of power and I was using most of what I had to keep him alive. Energy flowed out of me at a rate I would have believed impossible. It was a race to heal my dragon before I ran out of power and that was only seconds away.
[USE THIS.] Galator’s voice almost knocked me to the ground. I felt a claw touch my leg and power flooded through me. Now we had a chance, Galator was an old and powerful dragon. Fluffy’s bones had healed and most of his arteries were pumping blood, but several of his organs were not regenerating fast enough. It still wasn’t going to be enough.
“For my lover.” A soft voice I never expected to hear told me. Issus placed her hand on my shoulder and for a second or two heavenly choirs sang and the world was at peace. Then I redoubled my efforts to save my friend as her calming influence and massive power flowed into and through me. Time ceased to have meaning and there was only the task.
“It is done. Let him go, Jake.”
I slumped onto Fluffy, who was snoring. Little puffs of flames and smoke jetted from his nostrils. Rolling over I found myself looking into angels eyes.
“How strange that the Great Destroyer should also become the multiverse’s greatest healer.”
I wanted to protest, but I was far too tired.
[I WAS THE ONLY DRAGON NEAR ENOUGH TO HELP] Galator said wearily. [THE SEARCH FOR THE KRAKE HAS TAKEN US TO EDGES OF THE MULTIVERSE WE DID NOT KNOW EXISTED.]
Issus stroked my forehead and I heard birds singing.
“I like what you have done to your bracelet.”
I looked at my wrist and saw swirling magic defeating the bracelet’s power. The magic involved looked far too sophisticated to be anything I could manage.
Issus stood and sighed.
“We nearly lost everything today. It is fortunate that Lord Retnor and I are tied in a lover’s bond or I would not have been able to get here in time.”
She looked at me in a most severe fashion.
“You should heed your children in future. But all is not yet lost. Do you remember what I told you the last time we met?”
It was an effort to speak, but to ignore her would be a blasphemy.
“Justice is more important than revenge.”
She smiled and my heart nearly broke.
“There may be hope for you yet, Jake Morrissey.”
Then she drifted into nothingness, with birdsongs echoing around her.
[IF YOU DON’T MIND, I AM GOING TO SLEEP.]
“You do that, Galator. And thank you for helping me save my friend.”
He was asleep before I finished speaking and I quickly joined him, snuggled up against my dragon.
29. Revelation
I woke with a crick in my neck from lying against Fluffy. Fortunately, that kind of thing is not something a wizard has to suffer and a few seconds later I felt great.
I opened my eyes to an extraordinary scene. Massed around us were dragons sleeping head to tail to form a protective circle. As soon as I moved the nearest dragon opened an eye, but said nothing. I stood and addressed him.
“Thank you for protecting us.”
Eyes opened around the circle.
[IT WAS OUR PLEASURE. GALATOR HAS LEFT ON URGENT MATTERS. RETNOR WILL NEED MANY DAYS TO RECOVER. DO YOU WISH US TO GUARD HIM?]
“I’ll take him home. He should be safe there.”
[THEN WE WILL TAKE OUR LEAVE.]
And then they were gone.
Fluffy was snoring and snorting flame. I touched his flank and extended my senses through him. The dragons were right. It would take him time to fully recover as the shock to his system had left his adrenal systems in a mess.
[Did we win?]
I patted him on the neck. “We survived. Sometimes that’s the best we can hope for.”
Fluffy opened his eyes wearily. [Jenny needs you. She suffered when I suffered.]
That link of theirs was more trouble than it was worth.
“I’ll take you home.”
I hopped us to the Bat Cave and Fluffy sent me a thought of pure delight at being home. I’d stock the cave with sheep later.
Hopping home I found Jenny lying on the carpet in the recovery position, a pillow under her head. I knelt beside her and checked her over. She was in shock and I reduced the levels of endorphins in her blood. Jenny smiled and rolled over.
Where was Merlin? Panic overwhelmed me for a second.
[Safe Daddy. In cot.]
A rush of relief ran throu
gh me and it took me a few seconds to realize Merlin had used telepathy.
[Mummy good now.]
It wasn’t a question. I felt the relief in his thoughts.
“Jake, you’re back,” Jenny said sleepily. “Is Retnor safe? There was so much pain.”
“He’s back in the Bat Cave sleeping.”
“I know, but is he safe?”
I helped Jenny to her feet and into a chair.
“I think so.”
“Who attacked him?”
Without any warning rage filled me. My legs shook and I found my fists clenching and unclenching.
“It was the Bomber again. I always end up having to save people afterwards.”
Jenny got to her feet unsteadily and hugged me. “This isn’t your fault, Jake.”
I wanted to push her away. It was my fault. It was always my fault and I’d nearly lost my best friend this time.
“I have to feed Merlin, Jake. Did you know he can talk telepathically? He told me he was safe as soon as I woke.”
I smiled at her. “Our son is capable of many things.”
Jenny punched me lightly. “Now don’t start that again. Our son is perfectly normal. Just gifted in a few special ways. Takes after his father.”
We went to the kitchen and I filled the kettle while Jenny prepared Merlin’s breakfast. The ordinariness of it calmed me down. Having Jenny near me after so many weeks away was like bathing in warm water. I wondered how I could get her into bed without Merlin knowing. Maybe he’d go to sleep after he ate?
“You can get those thoughts out of your head,” Jenny said with a smirk. “I have a busy schedule today. Jean and I are taking Merlin and Gwydion to the petting zoo. Your Mother asked us to take the twins, so the car’s going to be full. You could meet us there if you wanted?”
“I have to go back to Balmack.”
Jenny’s face fell. “I thought you’d come home for good.”
“I can visit now. I fixed their bracelet thing.”
