Jake's Justice, Book Three of Wizards (4 page)

“Not enough left in me to light a candle.” I smiled thinly at her.

“Walking is good for us,” Esmeralda said, but I couldn’t help noticing her wince as she strode off towards the ballroom.

[I will meet you there.] Fluffy vanished into glim. He was a little too large to walk the corridors anyway.

The whole court was waiting when we got there. Perhaps fifty lords and their ladies with four times as many servants in attendance. I didn’t care for all the deference the servants showed, but on the other hand I’d never seen an unemployed person in Salice.

Looking for an excuse to avoid meeting anybody’s eye, I gaze up at the magnificent domed ceiling above us. The upper walls and ceiling were decorated with impressive murals painted on plaster. Gold leaf covered the ornate pillars between the paintings with embossed royal purple wallpaper surrounding them.
 
I was struck by the subtle distinction that separates pornography from art. If you tried to film the scenes I was looking at in
Wales
you’d certainly get arrested, but here, Lords and Ladies looked at them and didn’t even blush. Or notice half the time for that matter.

“My Lord Wizard, next time you invite such illustrious guests to visit us, perhaps you could provide us with a little warning?”

That was the King. The hubbub in the room ended on his first word. I reluctantly lowered my gaze to him. At least he didn’t look angry with me. Queen Janti gave me an encouraging smile. I smiled back.

“They didn’t tell me they were coming, your Majesty, or I certainly would have.”

The King laughed. “Well, no damage done, except to your apartments. They now smell of roasted fish, I’m informed. And it will be something to tell our grandchildren; that many dragons visiting us is a rare event.”

[They were all the dragons, your Majesty. All that remain in the multiverse. Though many of them were invisible in glim.]

Everybody stared at Fluffy who had materialized above us, hanging in midair. People moved out of the way so he had somewhere to land. Jenny stepped up to him as his feet dropped to the floor and put her arm on his neck.

The King looked taken aback by Fluffy’s comment. You tended to think of dragons as lords of the multiverse, not as an endangered species.

“And why did your brethren choose to visit us in such a spectacular way?”

“Jake has made an idiot of himself once again.” No guesses as to who said that. The King looked at his daughter enquiringly and she continued.

“He made a deal with the Wizard of Valhalla to attend something called The Conference Between the Worlds in exchange for the power he used to defeat Bronwyn. When he attends the conference, the Valhallans will obtain the locations of all the worlds the delegates represent, the dragon worlds, the hidden worlds and Earth. He didn’t even think to ask them what being their representative meant.”

Boy, that girl can make a guy feel small.

The King frowned at his daughter. “My Lord Wizard Morrissey had the temerity to save Salice and all our lives, including those of many people from his home world by making a deal with the Valhallans?”

Esmeralda stamped her foot. “You cannot possibly approve.”

Queen Janti smiled at her daughter. “Well, I for one am glad to be alive and even happier that I might live to see my daughter give birth. Jake has a way of getting himself out of the mess he creates, and I will not condemn him for saving us.”

The assembled dignitaries burst into spontaneous applause and Esmeralda went red in the face.

Some time later, after the lords and ladies had gone, we circled the chairs on the stage leaving Fluffy a big space to sit.

“
Valhalla
has known where we are for millennia,” the King said quietly. “So we are not directly threatened by this Conference. In fact, if the Valhallans are busy elsewhere it might give us a breathing space. But this is very bad news for the Hidden Worlds.”

“What about Earth?” Jenny asked.

“You are too technologically advanced to make a good serf world,” Esmeralda told her. “The danger is to your family. They would make good levers against Jake.”

“Only if Jake becomes a threat,” the King pointed out. “I think they are probably safe enough until them.”

“Perhaps we should bring them here?” Queen Janti asked.

I shook my head. “This is my problem and I’ll fix it when it happens. You should leave it to me.”

[I cannot, Jake. I have been tasked with accompanying you.]

“Okay, then leave it to me and Fluffy to sort out. There’s a more immediate problem we have to deal with.”

Startled eyes turned to me.

“The fires Bronwyn started destroyed a lot of crops. People are going to starve unless we do something.”

The King shook his head. “There is nothing to be done. Poor harvests in
Denton
, Frode and Alegon mean they will not sell us the food we need. Chancellor Hart and Bishop Danedi are calling on the nobility to provide whatever spare grain they have in storage. It will be distributed to those in most need. Despite that, it is certain that many will starve and some will die this winter. I have released all the grain we have in our reserves, but it will not be enough.”

Standing up, I faced the King. “I refuse to accept that.”

“Jake, should we go back to
Wales
and take Esmeralda?” Jenny asked.

“The royal family will not starve,” Queen Janti said and put a hand on Jenny’s shoulder. “Our people would not allow it.”

Jenny looked incredulous. “We eat what we want while outside the Palace, others, including children, starve?”

“It will not be easy for them or us.” The King sighed. “I shall try and eat as little as possible. The scraps from the royal table are distributed to the poor at the Palace gates.”

“It will not happen,” I said and left the group, striding towards the door. “I shall find a way to stop it.”

4.
          
Needs

A wizard without power is a pretty pathetic creature. Magic trickled into me and slowly built up my reserves, but I would be able to do little more than hop for a day or two. The logical thing was to take to my bed and do nothing. However, I wasn’t noted for being logical.

Jenny found me pacing our apartments. I ignored her and she went to brew some tea. We had servants for that sort of thing, but Jenny kept them at arms length. She much preferred to do such things herself.

She set the tea tray on a table and sat down.

“Jake, are you having some?”

I sat at the other side of the table and she smiled. She hadn’t smiled at me like that since the wedding.

“Am I forgiven then?”

Jenny poured a little milk in my tea and then put in three spoons of sugar, just the way I like it.

“Esmeralda was more mad at you than I was, and the King brought it home to me today. You did what you did to save our lives. We should be grateful.”

I put my hand on hers and squeezed it gently.

“The baby’s been kicking a lot today.”

Moving my chair around the table I placed my hand on her swollen tummy. There was a little kick that sent butterflies through me. This was my child inside her.

“Probably a bit disturbed by all the dragons shouting at him.”

“What if the baby’s a girl?”

“Then she’s bound to be pretty, given her mother’s looks.”

“She could take after you, Jake.”

I smiled. “There’s always plastic surgery.”

Jenny gently pushed me away from her. “I want to have our baby in
Wales
, Jake, in a proper NHS hospital with surgeons and midwives and things. Not here where they have an old woman for a midwife and you’re expected to squat when you give birth.”

“You have to squat?”

“That’s what Esmeralda told me.”

This brought up something that had been bothering me since the wedding. The King and everybody else in Salice assumed that we would all move into the Palace apartments permanently. But all Jenny’s family and friends were back on Earth, as were my parents. We could hardly live in Mam and Dad’s house. My room was barely big enough for me, but on the other hand I couldn’t keep Jenny from the people and things she was familiar with.

“What about Esmeralda? You’re both due about the same time. Will she come with us?”

Jenny’s eyes went wide. “You think Princess Esmeralda would allow the heir to the throne of Salice to be born on another planet? She’d rather die in childbirth. Besides which, how would that look to her people? Running away to somewhere safer?”

I saw the logic, but I also made a decision that would undoubtedly hurt Esmeralda. “You and I are moving back to
Wales
. I’ll find a way to buy a house. Somewhere nice and normal in the suburbs.”

Jenny took my hand. “Jake you’ve got no money, a part-time job, and no qualifications.”

“I’m also a wizard. I’ll find a way.”

Jenny’s face broke out in the happiest smile I’d seen from her in months. Then she sobered. “You can’t abandon Esmeralda and your other child.”

“I won’t, but Esmeralda and Salice don’t own me.”

Jenny slid her arms around me and we got up to embrace.

“Let’s go to bed, Jake. I’ve missed you.”

“What if Esmeralda walks in?” There are some things frightening enough to put me off sex.

Jenny smiled slyly as her hand moved south and found me more than ready for her. “Lock the door if you’re scared.”

I made a scoffing sound and lifted her into my arms to carry her to the bedroom. Enough magic had trickled into me to lock the door remotely and quietly. I didn’t want Jenny to know I had done it.

After the best five minutes I’ve spent in weeks, I pondered the money situation. Jenny snuggled up to me and giggled. “You must have been gagging for it, Mister Fastest-gun-in-the-west.”

I pulled her closer. “It’s been two whole weeks. Let me get my breath back and I’ll demonstrate my slow draw.”

She snuggled into my shoulder. “No need. I’m satisfied. We mustn’t wear your pistol out. Not for at least another half-hour.”

Jenny can be highly distracting when she wants to be and it was difficult to concentrate. I reluctantly dragged my mind back to the question of money. I could buy a lottery ticket and then, if I could get close enough to the lottery machine, I could force the right balls into the slot. But the manipulation might show up on television, which would be a very bad thing. As I thought about it I came to the conclusion it was just too difficult.

A few months ago we’d broken up some royal jewelry from the Palace and I’d sold the gold for cash in a market back home. But even the smallest house in
Wales
cost a fortune these days and moving that much gold onto the streets might be spotted. What I needed was a windfall, a bit of luck that no one would question. The problem was … what?

I was brought back to reality by the things Jenny was doing to me. Where an innocent girl from the valleys had learnt these thing was beyond me. She giggled when I joined her below the sheets and forty minutes later I was too exhausted to worry about money, conferences, or even a hoard of angry dragons.

Esmeralda banged loudly on Jenny’s door. Sliding my girl’s arms off of me as she continued to sleep, I hopped to my room in
Wales
. I love Esmeralda very much, which is why I ran rather than let her find me in the arms of my other wife. To minimize any pain she might feel. Well, that was my rationalization at the time and I’m sticking to it.

“Is that you, Jake?” Mam called up the stairs.

I yelled back in the affirmative.

“I’ll make you breakfast,” she yelled back and I went for a quick shower. Mam’s cooking was the best in the multiverse and I was starving. My reserves of magic were filling up much faster than I expected. At this rate I’d be full in days rather than weeks. That was strange and had never happened before, but I wasn’t going to knock it. The faster I got it back the better.

“Hullo love, how are Jenny and Esmeralda?” Mam placed a plate laden with bacon and eggs on the kitchen table and I grabbed a knife and fork from the dresser. I love Mam’s fry-ups.