Jake's War, Book Two of Wizards (23 page)

The Ballroom was set out as a vast dining area and with all our guests plus those of the Royal Family. Camera flashes went off everywhere as people from home took pictures of their surroundings and each other. The way they were going their batteries would be flat long before the wedding. I wondered if they realized there were no power points in Salice.

Jenny's college and school friends occupied one corner of the ballroom and were making a lot more noise than the other guests.

“You should worry more about keeping your friends under control,” I said pointedly. Jenny sighed.

“They're just having fun, Jake. Do you remember having fun?”

“Bah humbug!” I said and Jenny laughed.

We worked our way down the tables saying hello to all the guests. Jenny seemed to know who everybody was including my relatives and Esmeralda's guests as well. I used a generic smile followed by 'hello, how are you?' on everyone, which seemed to work.

When Jenny headed towards her friends' tables I stopped. As we were holding hands, this brought Jenny to a halt as well.

“You're not coming?” Jenny let go of my hand and frowned at me.

“I nearly turned your friend Callum into a frog this afternoon. If I see him again today I might just do it.”

“He's not that bad.”

“He pushed me into the coach.”

Jenny shook her head and said something under her breath.

“Okay, I'll go over and talk to them on my own.” She looked behind me as if searching for someone. “Go and see what your Valhalla friends are talking to our two policemen about.”

I turned to see what she meant and saw she was right. Card Brindel and Meldar Lind appeared to be in deep conversation with Inspector Thomas and Sergeant Jones. When I turned back I found Jenny had left for her friends without me.

It wasn't until I was almost on top of them that I caught any of the conversation.

“So we are stuck here until Sunday because the moon is in the wrong celestial house,” the Inspector said.

“Ah, I see,” Meldar spotted me and smiled. “Greetings, Wizard Morrissey. Inspector Thomas has been explaining to me that he isn't one of your wedding guests. I was most intrigued by the reason you gave for keeping him here.”

“We shouldn't indulge in shop-talk in front of the Inspector and the Sergeant. I'll be happy to discuss it with you later, if you desire.”

Meldar raised an eyebrow quizzically and smiled. “Indeed, wizard talk can be boring for those without the gift.”

“I don't understand any of this,” Sergeant Jones said, “One minute we're in Wales and the next minute we're here, looking up at two moons in the sky.”

Card scowled, a look that came easy to his face. “Wizard Morrissey hopped you from your world to this one in that vehicle. Something the Wizards Association of Valhalla would have told you was impossible given the amount of iron in it.”

The Inspector seemed to be a little the worse for wear. He held a flagon of ale in his hand and from his state I would guess it wasn't anything like his first.

“I don't believe any of it. Someone's faked those moons with mirrors or something. If this is another planet how come everybody's human and there are sheep? I've seen sheep in the fields.”

Meldar put a friendly hand on the Inspector's shoulder.

“The human worlds are like this because humans live on them. One in a hundred thousand living things is capable of hopping to another world if the circumstances warrant it. Compared with the speed of evolution that means it happens all the time. The instinctive urge is to hop to an 'ideal' world and all inhabitable places are ideal sometimes. And that's ignoring the influence of wizards who journey back and forth taking whoever and whatever they like with them.”

“There’s an infinity of alien worlds occupied by strange beings, but their food and atmospheres would kill us,” Card chipped in. “Then there are the worlds where our close cousins live. Rarely they share a world with humans, but more often than not they don't.”

“Cousins?” I asked, “You mean like monkeys?”

Card grimaced. He seemed to have a wide range of negative expressions.

“The companion races of man, those more powerful in magic than us. Even if you have never seen them there must be folktales about them on your world. They leave our worlds when the humans build cities. We believe they occupy many worlds of their own, shielded from us so we can never find them.”

Meldar helped the Inspector sit down before he fell over.

“And then there are the multi-dimensional species like the Dragons. It's said they occupy the folds in time and space itself. They can foresee the future and change the past, or so it's been claimed. In all of Valhalla's historical records there's never been a single instance of a wizard finding common purpose with a dragon. Oh, they sometimes take humans for riders, but never wizards. Can you see now why Valhalla finds you so fascinating, Jake?”

“So is this place real or fake?” Sergeant Jones asked. He looked bewildered.

“Whichever one you want it to be,” I replied.

“And is Bronwyn Matthews here?” Sergeant Jones looked hopeful as he spoke.

“She might be, though I hope not. Her parents are here. I saw them talking to the King and Queen earlier.”

Inspector Thomas looked up at me with glazed eyes.

“I don't think my training covers this.”

“Neither do I, Inspector. Sergeant, can you get the Inspector to his room so he can sleep it off? I'll explain things in the morning.”

Who was I kidding?
I had no intention of explaining anything, but someone would have to carry the Inspector out if he stayed here any longer. Sergeant Jones seemed to think it was a good idea and helped the Inspector to his feet. I watched the two of them staggering towards the ballroom door and wondered if I should send someone with them to help.

“Such strange people,” Meldar remarked. “What exactly is a policeman?”

There was no equivalent in the language of Salice. However, I spoke Valhallan, though it was a language I hated.

“A policeman is an '
official appointed by the state within an organization sanctioned by the state to prevent and investigate infringements of duly constituted laws with a view to providing evidence to a tribunal where appropriate punitive measures of redress can be decided and enforced'
.”

Believe it or not that was what they called a policeman in Valhallan, possibly the most tedious language in all the universes.

Meldar nodded.

“You allow these fools to persecute you?”

“They're only doing their job.”

“JAKE MORRISSEY!”

Callum stood in the middle of the room holding a struggling Jenny by her wrist. Captain Cari and another guard made their way between the tables to get to them.

“Excuse me?” I said to Meldar and Card and headed for Jenny. I have special skills and a clear path opened up in front as people found themselves lifted gently out of the way. I signaled the Captain to stay out of it and approached Callum.

“Let go of Jenny.” It was a command and Callum had no choice but to obey. She stepped forward to stand by my side, rubbing her wrist, which looked a little bruised.

“What do you want, Callum?”

Callum had drunk far too much. He turned his head as if looking for support among his mates. He wasn't getting any.

“How did Jenny ever fall for a wanker like you?”

“That's her choice, Callum, not yours.”

“Because I say you're not good enough for her.” Callum struggled out of his jacket and threw it on the floor. “Let's see if you've got the guts to fight.”

One of his friends grabbed at his shoulder. “Don't be stupid man. Let it go.”

Callum turned and punched him, knocking him to the floor.

“Jake, don't kill him,” Jenny said urgently. “He's just drunk.”

Why does everyone think I'm going to kill people? The moment Jenny was safe my rage had subsided. Now I just felt sad for this pathetic lump of humanity who obviously carried a torch for Jenny.

“Scared to fight?” Callum sneered.

Okay, now I had to do something violent to him or all of Jenny's friends would think I was a coward. It was a matter of pride.

“How about first person to end up on the floor concedes defeat?”

“Where'd you ever learn a word like concede, council house boy?”

Esmeralda had come down to watch and stood beside Captain Cari with a small smile playing across her lips. I wondered what she thought I would do. Compared with Bronwyn or Wenna this man was less than nothing as a threat.

The guests became silent. Callum's heavy breathing was the only noticeable sound in the room. Everybody stared at me. I took a step closer to Callum.

Callum charged at me, fists flailing. I stepped to one side and hit him on the back, driving him down to the floor. No magic was necessary, which was a good thing because I would have felt guilty if I'd used any.

“I win. Go and sober up.”

He got up and tried to attack me again, but two of his friends pinioned him and held him against the floor.

“Sorry about that,” one of his captors said cheerfully. “Callum's never been able to hold his liquor.”

“Try and keep him sober until after the wedding,” I suggested. I turned to Jenny and took her hand in mine. Passing a hand over her wrist took most of the bruising away.

“I'm very disappointed,” Esmeralda said from behind me. “No former suitors of mine have tried to kill you.”

“They know what a wizard is and have more sense.”

“True.” Esmeralda put her arms across Jenny and me and hugged us. “But why would any man be my suitor in the first place if he wasn't willing to die for me?”

“You're a hard woman, Esmeralda Doran,” Jenny said.

“Jake says that about me too. I can't think why.”

People returned to their seats and the level of background chatter got back to normal. I noticed the King and Queen watching us from the stage. They were smiling and I hoped they were pleased with the way I resolved the problem.

“Shall we join the rest of the royalty?” Esmeralda asked. I nodded and walked to the stage with my brides on either side of me.

Dad materialized in front of us and slid across the floor. He was bleeding from the head and appeared to be conscious. Urda appeared a moment later with Anna in her arms. They looked bruised and battered.

“Wenna's got your mother,” Urda said as she collapsed on the floor.

I let go of the girls and hopped to the Grand Hotel.

Chapter Thirty-Four: Chase

I arrived in the bar to scenes of chaos. Panicked people milled around the exits struggling with each other to be the first one out, chairs and tables were scattered over the floor and the fire alarm blared though there was no sign of a fire. I saw a woman fall to the floor and a man attempt to walk over her body.

“Stop!” It was a command and everybody stood still regardless of how inappropriate that was. Several people fell over, including the man stepping on the woman. I sent out a wave of magic to silence the fire alarm, which was making it impossible to think.

“Everybody, go and sit down where you were before this all started.”

I helped the woman on the floor to her feet and healed her cracked ribs and bruised kidneys while I held her hand. Nobody spoke because I hadn't given them permission.

A female member of the hotel staff stood by the bar. She wore a name tag that said her name was Hazel.

“Hazel,” I said. “What did you see?”

“Someone wearing a hooded cloak attacked a family over there.” She pointed at a table lying on its side. “The father was thrown at the wall along with his youngest daughter. I think there was blood. His other daughter fought with the one in the cloak. The fight didn't make any sense to me but I think the daughter was winning. The one in the cloak grabbed the mother and they … disappeared. They all just disappeared.”

“Show me exactly where the person in the cloak stood when she vanished.”

Hazel walked across the room to the upturned table and said, “Where I am now.”

I moved her out of the way and stood in the place she'd indicated. I then spoke to the other people in the room in a loud voice.

“You will calmly leave the room after I go. Then you'll return to normal. You will not be upset or frightened.”

I relaxed the control over them and vanished into hop-space.

Wenna's attempts to obliterate all her traces were excellent, but she kidnapped my mother and that motivated me. I made the mist wind back in space and time until I could see the initial swirl of Wenna's entry. I strode through hop-space forcing the mist in front of me to show me her path. What I followed wasn't particularly clear, but it was clear enough.

I didn't expect Wenna to hop far so it was a surprise when the trail continued out into the dark, well past Salice and her own universe. The trail became difficult to follow as the mist thinned. Then the trail ended in a small collection of lights in the middle of nowhere. I aimed at the end of the trail and left hop-space.

There was a flash of heat. It was so hot that the uppermost layer of my exposed skin and clothes vaporized in a millisecond. I couldn't see anything and thought I'd gone blind. Then a red light became visible and I found myself in the center of a protective sphere, my magic holding me away from its edges. I reached out with my mind and recoiled in horror.

I had materialized in molten lava. Not on it, but a mile or so beneath its surface. My subconscious must have sensed it as I arrived and forced a sphere of magical energy out from me, holding me at its center. It was amazing I survived.

If Wenna created this trap then her skills must far surpass mine. This was not where I was supposed to come out. It was a completely different planet that I would never have gone to by choice.

I fled back into hop-space. It was the work of a few seconds to shake the fine ash of dead skin and cloth off me. The layer vaporized was too thin to have done any real damage though it was lucky I'd blinked when I arrived. However, I think this proves that the speed of thought isn't as fast as some people claim.