Jake's Women (Wizards) (19 page)

33.
      
Crucified

Taken totally off guard, they dragged me into the middle of the lawn. My attempts at resistance failed as a vortex of power swirled around and through me. It wasn’t that I had been stripped of my power; it was that I couldn’t use my magic because it was ripped away by the vortex as soon as I started to form it into something useful.

I felt a fool. Even the simplest of shields would have made this attack impossible. Now it was impossible to break out of their trap.

My attackers were a team from the Cult. I could see eight of them, but there must be more behind me. I heard chanting coming from behind me as well as in front. The Cult sounded very like monks from Earth singing to the glory of God.

A for real, Jesus type cross appeared on the ground in front of me and two Cultists crouched beside it, large copper nails and hammers in their hands. Bronwyn’s dark sense of humor appeared to have gotten the better of her in planning this attack.

I struggled as if my life depended on it, because it certainly did. The Cult were taking no chances, a powerful magic shield surrounded us, though they would still have been vulnerable to an air attack as the shield was virtually non-existent above us. Fluffy could have crisped the lot of them in seconds. Unfortunately, I had no telepathic link with my dragon to call him to my aid.

I saw Esmeralda at our window; then she was gone. Probably off to find the palace guards. Not that they would be able to get through the shield. It was strong enough to be visible to ordinary humans, shimmering in a large circle around us and it would resist any attack they could come up with. Not even bullets would get through it.

I tried to set up a shield to block the vortex swirling around me, but my attempts blew away as soon as they started to form. My arms were forced straight out and I was spun around and pushed onto the cross fast enough to knock the wind out of me and leave me seeing stars.

Fortunately, I didn’t see them strike the first blows, but excruciating pain in the palms of my hands let me know they were nailing me to the cross. To say it hurt would be an understatement. The pain was blinding and for many seconds I couldn’t think. Then they pulled off my trainers and drove nails through my feet. I lost consciousness.

As the cross lifted into the air I woke, mainly because the pain in my hands was so intense. They tied ropes around my torso fixing me to the main pole of the cross, because otherwise my hands would have been ripped apart by my weight.

As chance would have it, the cross pointed at our royal apartments. The phrase
‘I can see my house from here’
rippled through my mind and I laughed.

The chant the Cult had been performing since the start, stopped.

I laughed again, more to annoy them than for any other reason. Somehow, my mind was blocking the pain. I knew it was there, but it was no longer incapacitating.

“Jake Morrissey, we have come to execute you.”

The spokesman pulled back his hood to reveal a teenager, certainly a man younger than me. His face was horribly disfigured. That was one of the many things the fanatics of Tydan had done to boys with magic powers. The girls they raped first, then they cut. A wave of sympathy ran through me. The Cult were as much victims as villains.

“The Goddess has told us you are un-killable, but we know that is her compassion speaking; her unwillingness to contemplate the death of a fellow god. She gave us leave to prove her wrong and as a consequence you will die. Then no one can stop us creating an empire for the Goddess.”

Judging by the amount of blood pooling below me, my wounds were severe and I would soon pass out again. However, there was no reason I couldn’t scare this little shit before I went into the big night.

“You can't win. If you kill me, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.” Well, what were the chances of him having watched the film that came from?

Judging by the way his face paled and his fellow Cultists stepped back it was score one for Jake, with a little help from Hollywood.

It might well be my last words. It was getting difficult to see and my heart was beating unreasonably fast. I didn’t have long left. Looking up to our apartment window I searched for Esmeralda. I wanted to see her one last time.

She was out on the steep roof and the crazy woman was carrying a flag. She had it raised and as I watched she brought it down like she was cutting off someone’s head.

There was a long loud cracking sound. I looked down to see the Cultists falling to the ground. Their heads looked wrong and it took me a second to see that most were missing parts of them. The vortex slowed and then was gone.

Seconds passed before I realized I should be doing something. I stopped the loss of blood from my wounds and ripped the nails out of my body. Sagging against the ropes, which were now the only things holding me up, it was relatively easy to heal my hands and feet as most of the flesh was still there and still alive, but I couldn’t deal with the loss of blood so easily. I was going to faint any second. I cut the ropes and fell to the ground. It was a long way down and when I landed, it hurt.

I rolled onto my back to see Esmeralda standing above me, hands on hips and looking ready to kill.

“Did I not warn you to be careful, you incompetent fool.”

Losing consciousness seemed like the only option available, so I took it.

I woke up in my bed. My hands and feet hurt, though a quick magical inspection revealed they were ghost pains rather than actual damage. You can heal the body, but sometimes the mind insists on showing you who is boss.

Esmeralda stepped into sight holding Morgana at her breast.

“It’s Morgana you have to thank for your life. She screamed the place down when you were attacked and I felt an overwhelming desire to look out of the window.”

“Thanks kid, I owe you one,” I said to my daughter, who stopped suckling long enough to gurgle happily at me.

“And you owe Captain Assad your life. I was all for storming to your rescue. He came up with the idea to use the snipers from the rooftops, high enough up to get above that shield of theirs.”

That explained a lot.

“Please convey my thanks to Treva. Who came up with the flag?”

Esmeralda smirked. “That idea was mine. We didn’t want any of them to escape and had to sort out who was going to shoot who, as well as the signal to fire. I was hoping you would look up and see me to give you hope, but you did not.”

“I was busy with other things.”

“Dying while making stupid speeches?”

She had a point, so I didn’t respond.

“I am furious with the Cult for invading our home,” Esmeralda continued.

Home?
That reminded me I was supposed to be with Jenny viewing a house. A glance at my watch showed I was already ten minutes late.

“Got to go and meet Jenny.”

Esmeralda frowned.

“Jake, you are in no condition to go…”

But I was gone before she could finish the sentence.

I arrived in Jenny’s bedroom and nearly fell over. Only grabbing onto the bed prevented me from falling.

“Jake, is that you? See Dad, I told you he’d be here.”

Jenny ran up the stairs and into the bedroom.

“Are you all right? You’re so pale.”

“Lost a tiny bit of blood. Nothing serious.”

I walked across the room using magic to keep me upright. “I’ll be fine.” Taking her hand I hopped us downstairs. Walking down the stairs would have been a mistake. It was a great relief to get into the back of my father in law’s car.

The car started and I put my hand over my mouth to prevent spewing all over Jenny. The world was spinning.

“Stop the car, Dad,” Jenny said urgently.

“Jake, how much blood did you lose?”

“A few pints. I was being crucified at the time.” A man should make light of his problems, I’ve always believed.

“Dad, get us to the hospital as fast as you can.”

That sounded like a good idea under the circumstances and I let unconsciousness take me again.

I woke briefly at Accident and Emergency. Jenny was telling a doctor to put me on a drip immediately as I’d lost a lot of blood. The doctor wanted to know how I’d lost the blood and Jenny gave a pretty good impersonation of Esmeralda in full regal mode. I think he must have surrendered because I felt a needle being stuck in my arm. That’s my Jenny. Then I fell asleep again.

34.
      
Revelations

I woke up feeling wonderful. Sunlight streamed into the room and though there was a slight smell of antiseptic, I could live with it. I rolled over and opened my eyes to see Betty smiling at me. For all her smiles she looked anxious and slightly worried.

“Where am I?”

“Hospital. Don’t you remember?”

Now it was pointed out to me, I did. I remembered Jenny screaming at the doctor before it all went black.

“They pumped five pints of blood into you.. You have been crying and whimpering all night, though you seem to have forgotten it now you’re awake.”

Leaving aside why Betty was sitting next to my bed, I was glad she was with me because something was bugging me.

“I nearly died yesterday. I’ve been getting premonitions before danger, but there was absolutely no warning this time.”

Betty nodded.

“I told you your magical sight would grow deeper. You should be delighted. Very few wizards have that gift.”

She was missing the point.

“It didn’t work.”

Betty reached over and patted my hand. “Did you die, dear?”

“No but…”

“Did the bad guys?”

“Yes, but…”

“You didn’t need a premonition. Not that you should rely on them. The magic that permeates the universe is not in time, but exists outside it. It can’t warn you of things a long way in the future because there are too many possibilities. It’s only good for the immediate stuff. It isn’t the same as a Norn prophesy.”

“I could have used it yesterday, though,” I grumbled.

Even if it hadn’t been life saving it would have saved me a lot of pain. Betty should try being crucified before she dismissed my grievance. Those nails really hurt and I shuddered as memories came flooding back. I was never going to be able to look at a cross without thinking about it. It took real effort to push those memories back into a hole and bury them. My hands were shaking though Betty didn’t seem to have noticed. She had her serious face on.

“Jake, what would you have done if you had had a premonition?”

“I’d have put up a shield.”

“And what would they have done?”

That was simple, their vortex would have failed and they would have hopped back to Barren and waited for another opportunity, probably when I was at Jenny’s or my parents. That was when it dawned on me what she was getting at.

“Okay, it might have been better this way, but it hurt.”

Betty patted my hand again. She reached to the floor for her handbag and took out a stapled document made up of what looked like ten pages or more.

“Be a dear and sign this.”

She handed me the document and a pen. The title was Agreement on Treasure Trove Distribution. I turned to the last page and signed where it indicated.

“Didn’t your parents teach you to read things before you sign them?” Betty asked, eyebrows raised in mock surprise.

“If I can’t trust you then I’m doomed anyway.”

She patted my hand yet again and stood up to leave.

“Jake, you think you have dealt with what just happened to you, but you haven’t. For the first time in your life your magic had no control over events and you nearly died. You remember the pain, but you haven’t dealt with the emotions. You have buried them deep inside you. They will come back and overwhelm you when you least expect it.”

I laughed. “I assure you I remember it all very clearly and I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.”

Betty shook her head. She reached out and placed two fingers of her right hand on my forehead and her eyes glinted gold.

“When you hear the words ‘
I used you as my gun’
it will be time to let go. Remember that.”

I closed my eyes and I drifted to sleep for a few seconds. When I opened them again Betty had moved even closer.

“Jenny is waiting for you at her parents. She knows you will discharge yourself as soon as you find your clothes.”

Betty stooped lower to kiss me, and it wasn’t a kiss on the cheek. When she let me up for air I was gasping.

“You’re much more fun now your magic has stopped making you stupid.”

She left the room with a cheery wave while I tried to make sense of those words.
What did she mean? My magic had made me stupid?

Discharging myself proved difficult. The nurse called a doctor who told me that I was anemic to the point of death with no sign of what had caused it, and that I should stay in for further tests. When I said ‘no’ they got in a legal guy who made me sign a release that said the hospital would be blameless if I dropped dead at the exit. Eventually they brought me my clothes and I left the hospital to find a quiet spot to hop to Jenny’s bedroom.

The room was empty, but there were voices downstairs. As I approached the lounge I heard Esmeralda shouting.

“Next time I’m going to pin him. He can get the bolt removed after he’s recovered.”

I walked in to find my in-laws doting over Morgana and Merlin while Jenny and Esmeralda stood facing each other with their arms folded across their chests. Now I am not the best judge of these things, but it looked as though they were fighting as much as agreeing with each other. They turned to face me as I walked in.

“I knew you wouldn’t stay in hospital,” Jenny said and opened her arms to me.

I gave her a quick hug and a kiss. Esmeralda’s arms stayed firmly crossed though it must have cost her a great deal to let Jenny get one up on her by a hug and a kiss.

“Do you have any idea how worried I have been?” Esmeralda said coldly.

I was lost for an answer so I said nothing.

“I watched you being nailed to a cross.”

Esmeralda’s arms fell to her sides and she burst into tears. I stepped forward hesitantly and she came into my arms as sobs wracked her. Then she pushed me away just far enough to start hitting me, and she wasn’t pulling her punches.

“Never, ever, do that to me again. Do you hear me?”

I hugged her again, mainly to stop her hitting me. After a while she calmed and I was able to disengage.

“It must have been horrible for you,” Jenny said quietly. “To have to watch Jake being hurt like that and stand helplessly by.”

“We threw the bodies in the cesspit.”

Jenny’s mother looked a bit upset at that comment. I was surprised Esmeralda hadn’t fed the bodies to the dogs. Probably afraid they would make the dogs sick.

“Do I have to steal more ammunition for Captain Assad? His men must be running low on shells.”

“That will not be necessary, Lord Wizard,” Esmeralda was back in Heir to the Throne mode.

“I’ve got to go to the Bat Cave.” The need to escape from my wives was becoming unbearable. Especially from Esmeralda, as she was bringing back memories I didn’t want to remember. For a second I was back on the cross looking at my blood pooling below.

Jenny reached over to the sideboard and handed me my mobile phone. For obvious reasons it wasn’t much good to me and I rarely carry it.

“Take this. The estate agents are going to ring me back with another viewing time and I want you there. I’ll send you a text.”

I took the phone and hopped before Esmeralda came up with a reason for me to stay.

Fluffy was happily munching a flame grilled sheep and the smell was horrendous. I cleansed the air before addressing my dragon.

“How dare you hop Esmeralda to Jenny’s house? Facing the two of them at once was a real pain.”

[Jenny has been worried about you, though I do not know why. She did not call me and I have not been to Salice in days.]

If Fluffy didn’t hop Esmeralda to Wales, then who did? I stored it in my unanswered questions to resolve list and apologized to my dragon.

“Sorry. I thought it was you. I had a close call yesterday. The Cult again.”

[It is hard to keep track of all your enemies, Jake. Perhaps we should make a chart?]

“The walls aren’t big enough.”

Fluffy snorted in laughter and flames shot across the room. I protected the furniture.

[You appear troubled. Is there something I can do?]

I sat on the sofa arm and eyed up my dragon. His iridescent orange and green scales glistened in the reflected light of the cave. The glass like walls reflected far more light than the old cave had done.

“Betty told me that my magic has been making me stupid.”

It was bothering me. I’d never been much of an academic and C was my best grade at school. Suppose I had stopped myself from being a genius?

[Stupid is a harsh word. Your magic was not making you stupid. Well, not really, though I suppose it could be described as that.]

Talk about splitting hairs, dragons can split hairs that have already been split earlier.

“What was it doing then?”

Fluffy hunkered down on the floor and put his head between his front legs and tilted his head up towards me. I automatically checked on how well his eyes were healing and saw they were almost grown.

[You were… incurious, unimaginative, uncreative.]

That sounded a lot like stupid to me. But what do I know?

“And you’ve known all along?” That was worse somehow. That he’d known about the magic and not told me.

[That magic was on you before I was hatched. It’s not something another wizard would see unless they knew it was there. But we are brothers and eventually I saw the magic for what it was.]

“Then why didn’t you tell me?”

[It was your magic. At first I thought you had put it there yourself. Later, I decided not to tell you because it was keeping you safe. It’s been dissipating of its own accord since the day you met Jenny.]

I was lost. What did he mean?

“How does being stupid keep you safe?”

[Consider Bronwyn; a case of having too much power and imagination before she was able to handle it. All those abilities and no self control: The ability to hurt your parents if they discipline you, to take revenge, and exert mind control on the normal people. And last, but not least, the multiverse is not kind to hedge wizards. Other wizards hunt them down and kill them when they dare to stick their noses above the parapet.]

I reran our conversation in my mind. Something I was prone to do these days.

“You said, ‘at first I thought you had put it there yourself’. Who do you think put it there now?”

Fluffy shook his head as if trying to drive away the question.

[There are two possibilities. That you put it there yourself because something happened that traumatized you. The other option is that the magic put it there to protect you.]

It was my turn to laugh out loud.

“Magic isn’t sentient.”

It occurred to me as I said it, that a couple of years ago I would never have used a word like sentient. Two years ago I wouldn’t have known what sentient meant.

[Now we are talking theology. Some of the peoples of the multiverse believe that magic is alive. The Elves believe that living things and magic are indistinguishable, two sides of the same coin. That is one reason they live so close to the natural world.]

“I don’t believe magic is alive and I don’t believe I put this spell on myself. I always wanted to do better at school and even tried using magic to make me cleverer.”

[In that you were doomed to fail. While magic can affect the brain and make people appear stupid, it cannot change intelligence. What it can do is increase knowledge.]

“Is the spell gone now?”

I felt magical fingers probing into me and it was difficult not to throw up a shield.

[Nothing remains of it.]

A shiver ran through me. I had no idea why.

“We shall have more words on this later.” I needed to get to the bottom of what my magic had done to me and why, but I’d just had an idea about how to help Auntie May.