by Paul Edwards
Chapter Three
We finished our meal and packed away our utensils, we both climbed back onto the wagons front seat and were soon back onto the road listening to the clop clop sound of the horses hooves.
I looked up into the sky and saw that the sun had risen to just above the tops of the forests trees. The sun looked odd to me and it seemed to be brighter than it should have been.
"Doesn't the sun look kind of strange?" I asked Shelley.
"Ya... it looks bigger... and its brighter."
"I wonder if we're still on the earth?"
"We must be, I saw the Orion constellation last night, and it looked perfectly normal... but I have noticed I feel a real spring to my step, like I lost a few pounds."
"Isn't the planet Venus about the same size as Earth?"
"Ya... but its uninhabitable... oh my god!"
A feeling of awe came over me.
"They changed a world with magic... that’s... that’s unbelievable," I said.
"Who?"
"It must have been the three sorcerers in the papyrus we found, Moses, Jannes and Jambres."
"I wonder what else they accomplished?"
I examined the forest as we traveled by it, the trees seemed to be perfectly normal, a mix of deciduous varieties interspersed with few conifers. The grass and weeds lining the road seemed normal as well.
I saw black and brown squirrels jumping between the trees branches as well as small birds darting and gliding in the sky. If we were not on Earth we were in a close copy of Earth's ecosystem.
We travelled for another three hours before the forest gave away to a landscape of farmland. The farms were composed of small fields separated by fences of made of roughly hewn stones, the farmhouses consisted of small one story stone and wood cottages with thatched roofs.
I saw people working in the fields with hoes, it appeared to in the middle of the growing season so they must have been weeding the crops. I did not see any modern farm machinery only wagons pulled by what looked like oxen.
The city was now visible in the distance, I could see its large stone walls.
We started to pass other wagon's coming in the opposite direction on the road. They were mostly pulled by oxen although I did see a fine wooden carriage pulled by a team of impressive looking horses. The drivers paid us little or no attention, we appeared to be not too unusual.
I noticed the clothing worn by the people of this world looked vaguely medieval, the men wore shirts and pantaloons of rough cloth, while the women wore simple ankle length dresses also of rough cloth. I observed most of the men were armed with short steel swords that they wore in scabbards about their waists.
It took about forty five minutes before we had reached the cities gates, the walls surrounding the city looked to be at least a hundred feet high. The city gate was more like a small tunnel through the wall, it was large enough for a wagon.
There were two bored looking guards carrying long pikes guarding the entrance, they worn steel helmets and a sparse amount of amour.
I pulled the wagon to a stop as one of the men raised his arm.
"Hwo gtahh ert?" he yelled in a stern voice.
"Oh oh," I heard Shelley whisper.
"I am a simple farmer, come to buy some supplies," I yelled in ancient Egyptian.
"Hwo gtahh ert? Buhj fee!!" I could see he was getting angry.
"I have an idea." Shelley whispered as she reached into one of her pants pockets.
She took out her smart phone and started to tap furiously on its touch screen. She then held it out in front of her.
"The STRUDEL website, it has a voice activated translator now," Shelley whispered.
"You can get the internet here?" I asked.
"Got sick of crappy reception, so I made a spell that gives me five bars everywhere."
"HWO GTAHH ERT!!!!!!!!!!!!" The guard yelled his face red."
I looked at phones screen, the phrase "you who are?" was written on it. Shelley quickly tapped the screen and then whispered the phrase I had just said.
"Weert yuojn wetb opppb se ntk vttr," Shelley yelled as she read the resulting script from the phones screen.
The guard took a step back as if surprised, then he stared at us both intently, his mouth formed a broad almost lascivious grin and he waved us through the gate.
The tunnel under the wall was not very well lit, but I could see the bottoms of a series of portcullis's as we traveled underneath them. We traveled until we were in the center of the tunnel about twenty five feet in, I then pulled the horses to a stop.
"We should get rid of the wagon while we have a chance," I said to Shelley.
We both climbed off the wagons bench and stood next to each other on the road, I used my bracelet to dispel the wagon as well as my sword, we then turned and starting walking towards the tunnels exit.
When we emerged into the bright light after the darkness of the tunnel we both squinted and put our hands in front of our eyes, it was a few seconds before my eyes adjusted and I was able to see our surroundings.
I heard Shelley gasp next to me, I felt my own jaw drop as I looked at the panorama around me. I saw a large city consisting of enormous buildings of all shapes and sizes. I saw large glass windows, brightly colored ceramics, statues and fountains.
"It's fantastic..." Shelley said.
"Yes... some of those buildings must be over five hundred feet high."
We were in a large courtyard made of ceramic flagstones, I saw numerous people walking to and fro all wearing different styles of clothing. There didn't appear to be a dominant ethnic group as I saw many varieties of facial features and skin color.
"What now?" Shelley asked.
"We look for an administrative building, then find someone who can tell us if anybody was arrested or hospitalized who has red hair."
We headed for the courtyards exit, a large street filled with people and horse drawn carriages. I noticed the city did not have the unique odor typical of most preindustrial cities.
I looked at a team of horses pulling a large carriage, curious to see what happened when these enormous poop machines did the inevitable. I saw one horse lift its tail to clear the way for a brown avalanche which emerged seconds later, the poop fell for only a few inches before it disappeared in a small flash of blue light.
"Did you see that?" I asked Shelley.
"What?"
"Look at the horses when they poop."
I had to wait for a minute before I heard a reply from Shelley.
"Magic... there's magic here," she said.
"Yes, but believe it or not I recognize the spell... I think it may be something else."
We were passing in front of a large restaurant complete with a front patio. The smell of the food made me realize how hungry I was.
"Let's get something to eat," I said.
"How will we pay?"
I reached into my pocket and pulled out a handful of generic looking gold coins which I showed to Shelley.
"Never leave home without them."
We walked through the restaurants large entrance emerging into a well lit room filled with tables and booths as well as a long bar against one wall. The seats were about a third filled so we were able to easily find an empty table.
I looked at the table next to us after we sat down, I saw four young people all wearing a uniform of some sort, a rust colored smock.
They were studying a well worn leather bound book while drinking pint glasses of dark colored beer. I heard the odd word of ancient Egyptian spoken,
"You speak Egyptian?" I asked a young blonde girl closest to me.
"Of course... we're sorcerers don't you know," she replied haughtily, her nose rising.
"Well sorcerers in training..." the young man next to her said."
"What spell are you studying?" I asked.
"Oh you wouldn't understand," this from the blonde.
"Umm... the fire starter... we can't seem to get it to work," the young man said.
"Like this?" I flicked my forefinger against my thumb and a small red hot coal flew from the end of my finger and landed in the blonde girls beer causing it to steam and hiss.
She turned and looked at me her eyes as big as saucers.
"You're... you're a sorcerer?" She asked, an expression of awe on her face.
"I know a few things, what system are you studying?" I asked.
"First level crocodilian, we're in our first year at the school," the blonde girl said eagerly, all the arrogance in her voice gone."
"No second level studies?"
"Only third year students are allowed to study the second level tomes," the young man said.
"What the hell is crocodilian magic?" Shelley whispered in my ear.
"I'll explain later, they're not really sorcerer's they're practicing a sort of pseudo magic," I whispered back.
"Why don't you join us, there's plenty of room," the young man said pointing to two empty chairs.
The four people all introduced themselves, the young blonde girls name was Gwenora the young man was Domin the two others another girl and boy were Viala and Acet.
"Could you order us some food and drink, we don't speak the local language very well," I asked Domin.
"Yes of course... where are you from, the wilds?"
"Yaa... the wilds."
"What's it like? I've never met anyone from the wilds?" Gwenora asked, she was staring at me with a look of wonderment in her eyes.
"Well... it's kind of hard to describe."
"Did you see the dragons?"
"Um... from afar... you gotta keep your distance from dragons."
"I've heard that... I can't wait to graduate, I'm going to leave the city and find my fortune," Gwenora said.
"Oh sure Gwenny... you'll be a assistant construction sorcerer like your father," said Domin.
Gwenora rolled her eyes angrily.
"Ya, magic only works in cities anyway," Viala said.
"You haven't seen another stranger like us, a middle aged man with red hair?" Shelley asked.
"Red hair, what's he look like?"
"He's kind of tall and he has a goatee, and he's sort of excitable."
"Sounds like our new history professor... does he have a horrible accent and teach lessons like he has no clue what he's talking about?" Domin said.
All four of them burst out laughing.
Shelley and I looked at each other.
"Does he only speak Egyptian?" I asked.
"I don't know, all our lessons are in Egyptian, it's the language of philosophy as you know," Gwenora said.
"We'd like to meet this person, could you show us his office?" Shelley asked.
"Ok, we're going to a lecture after lunch we'll show you then," Domin said.
Our food arrived at the table, it consisted of a thick stew complemented with bread and butter, Shelley and I both ate like ravenous animals.
When we were done I gave the server one of my gold coins, she looked it over then put it in her mouth and bit it, then she put it in her pocket and gave me a big smile.
We followed the group to an impressive looking building surrounded by columns and large statues. I noticed a series of hieroglyphics high above the building's main entrance as we entered, it said "Jannes University department of history."
"Here's his office," Gwenora pointed to a non-descript wooden door. She then handed me a folded piece of paper making sure the others couldn't see her do it.
"It's my address... maybe when you go to the wilds again you could take me with you," she whispered, she had a hopeful look in her eyes.
I put the paper in my pocket, "there's nothing wrong with finishing school first, but I'll keep you in mind," I whispered back.
The others in the group gabbed her arms and pulled her away.
Shelley knocked on the wooden door, I heard movement in the room beyond and then saw it swing open. A tall middle-aged man stood in front of us holding the door with one hand. I saw him sigh and then his shoulders slump when he seen us.
"You found me," he said.
We walked into the small office closing the door behind us, Harry sat down on a chair behind a large desk, Shelley and I sat on two smaller wooden chairs on the opposite side.
"How the hell did you manage to get a job teaching history?" I asked.
"I did it out of desperation... I found out the rules of academia are the same here as anywhere, all that's needed is to look and sound like you're a professor."
"You have to come back," I said.
Harry suddenly stared at Shelley for a moment with his brows furrowed.
"I know you...” he said.
"Um... I was a student in a class you taught," Shelley said.
"No, that's not it... you were on Charlie's dig in Egypt, the one that got him banned."
"Yes I was."
"Lots of weird rumors about that dig, Charlie would never talk about it, it's funny though I'd never seen him happier like a weight gone off his shoulders."
"Enough, we must leave, you don't belong here," I said impatiently.
Harry looked at me.
"Yes lots of weird rumors... that he found something spectacular, so amazing no one would ever believe it."
"It was nothing, just an empty tomb," Shelley said unconvincingly.
Harry was still staring at me.
"It doesn't matter you can't stay here," I said.
Harry's shoulders slumped again, "I want to stay."
"Why on earth do you want to stay here? You barely speak their language, it's a culture that's centuries behind your own," I said.
"But there's magic, dragons and adventure it's like a fantasy."
"But you're just a teacher here."
"I was just doing it to get the lay of the land, save money for equipment and supplies. I was going to leave for the wilds in a couple of months."
"And then die a gruesome death."
"I think not, I have started to figure out this magic stuff," Harry pulled out a papyrus scroll and put it on his desk.
"Magic only works in cities," I said with smug confidence.
"The city magic is different than this, I found this scroll in the library it's not the same as the texts they teach with, it has the same symbols as the spell that brought me here."
My heart started beating like a jackhammer, "you have mastered it?"
"I have some small ability," Harry had his poker face on.
"You will try to resist us?" Shelley asked.
"Let me have one adventure, and then I will go."
Shelley and I looked at each other.
"What do you have in mind?" I asked.
"I want to see the dragons."
I turned to Shelley, "we are going to need a guide."
"Who?"
I reached into my pocket and pulled out the slip of paper Gwenora had given me, "I have just the person."
