The Wizard Returns: Book Three of the Wizard Born Series (21 page)

“So is it a lot?” Rachel asked. “Thousands?”

Larry shook his head and grinned.

“A hundred thousand?”

“Millions, depending on the quality of the gold. Jamie, you’re a millionaire.”

Jamie stood and backed away from the chest. “No way.” He shook his head forcefully. “No
way
that’s mine.”

“Of course it is, Master Jamie,” Mrs. Tully said.

“I can’t take that! It’s...it’s blood money!”

“What does that mean?” Mrs. Tully asked.

“It means Renn got it from killing people and taking it.”

“Master Renn earned much of his money fairly, he did. He performed services and was paid handsomely, so I’m told.”

“What kind of services?” Fred asked.

“He often did things for the town, and other towns, too. Mayor Duncan was always knocking on the door inquiring about some task or other.”

“So it’s fine, Jamie,” Larry said. “It’s not all blood money.”

Jamie scowled and crossed his arms. “I
still
won’t take it.”

Evelyn turned to Mrs. Tully. “What would happen if Jamie refused to take the money, or the house?”

“The town would take possession of it, and I’m sure it would end up in the hands of one of Mayor Duncan’s rich friends.”

“That is for certain,” Brinna said with a firm nod.

“I take it you don’t think too highly of the mayor, Mrs. Tully,” Evelyn said.

“He is a —” She seemed to catch herself and said in a low voice, “A decent person does not speak ill of another.”

“So there you have it, Jamie,” Larry said. “You can either take the money and the house, or let it fall into the hands of some rich, corrupt jerk.”

Mrs. Tully looked at Jamie with pleading eyes. “Please keep the house, Master Jamie. I would much rather see it go to you than one of the mayor’s friends. You seem like a good person, a fair person. You made sure I got paid, and you are very polite and well-mannered.”

“He ought to be,” Carl said. “My mother-in-law helped raise him.”

Jamie stared at the chest with his mouth tight as a wire. “But...what am I gonna
do
with it?”

“You can give it to charity,” Evelyn said, “if it bothers you so much. But right now, we need to move on. We have things to go over before we leave today.”

Carl knelt again beside the chest and picked up a couple of coins. “I’ll take these back with us and see how much they’re worth.”

Jamie closed the lid and lowered the hatch back in place, then he passed his hand over the floor and the lines disappeared, showing no indication that there was anything there, the planks now smooth and uninterrupted.

“Okay,” Evelyn said with a nod. “So it’s settled. Jamie, Fred, Rollie and I will come here next Friday afternoon, since they only have a half day of school. Can you be here to help us, Mrs. Tully?”

“Of course. I will prepare a stew for your dinner. I will stop at the market on my way here that morning and pick up a chicken and some vegetables. I will bake some bread, too.”

“You’ll need money for the market. Jamie, will you please give her some more from the other chest?”

“I have enough.” Mrs. Tully pointed to her pile of silver coins on the table.

“Nonsense, that’s your salary. Jamie, give her some money.”

She started to protest further, but Rachel put a hand on her arm and said, “There’s no use arguing with her, Mrs. Tully. You won’t win.”

As Jamie grabbed another handful of coins from the big chest, Evelyn said, “Good. Now, can someone get me some paper and a pen? We need to make a list of what we’ll need to bring with us this Friday.”

* * *

Carl and John Paul were the last ones through the glowing doorway back into Carl’s family room, and while everyone else stood around chatting excitedly about what they’d just seen at the stone house, Carl pulled his friend aside.

“John Paul, I want to thank you for going back to Eddan’s world with us. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I feel safer when you’re with us.”

“It was nothing, Carl. I like doing it. I’m going to try to get off this Friday afternoon so I can help Jamie and the others move into the house.” He groaned and shook his head. “I guess I’ll have to trade shifts again. I’ll be working Sundays for the next month, probably.”

“I’ve done that.” Carl nodded. “Hey, uh, I’m sorry about my wife and her friends pestering you about your love life. I know it’s none of their business, but they can’t help it. They’re hard-wired that way. They seem to think you need a girlfriend.”

“They’re right.” John Paul gave a short laugh. “I do need one. Problem is, there aren’t any available women in Thibodaux that are my age.”

“That girl Brinna seems to like you.”

“Yeah.” He exhaled heavily and rubbed the side of his face with one hand. “I like her, too. A lot. It’s crazy though, I mean...she lives on another planet, for cryin’ out loud. How hopeless is that?”

“Don’t write her off too soon, buddy. When you’ve got somebody like Jamie around...and Fred too...anything’s possible. I mean
anything
.”

“I sure hope so.” He stared at the floor for a moment before turning back to Carl. “That boy of yours...he’s got a heavy load on his shoulders right now, doesn’t he?”

“Yeah, and it keeps getting heavier, seems like. But he’s holding up okay. We’ve been through some tough times together this past year, with Renn tryin to kill him and Fred getting kidnapped and all. Jamie’s used to a lot of pressure, I think.”

“He seems to handle it pretty well.” John Paul laughed again. “Except for the money. I’ve never seen
anybody
try to run away from a fortune.”

“It’s not the money that’s the problem, it’s what it represents, I believe. Jamie probably can’t look at it without thinking of Renn. That guy was a bona fide psycho mass murderer. He probably killed over a hundred people, women and children too, I heard. That money and that house have a bloody stain on it, in Jamie’s eyes.”

“Well, maybe he’ll do some good with it.”

“I like to think so.”

“I know so. You raised that boy right, Carl. You oughta be proud.”

Carl smiled whimsically. “I am.”

“Why don’t you go over there and tell him? And while you’re at it, ask him if he’ll make a doorway back to my house. I need to go home.”

Chapter 16

Early afternoon on Friday, Jamie surveyed the supplies piled on the floor, filling every available space in the family room and spilling into the hall, all the way to the stairs near the front door. “That’s a lot of stuff,” he said to no one in particular. There were ice chests and cardboard boxes full of food, a first aid kit, a card table and folding chairs, suitcases, a floor lamp, suitcases, and much more.

“We’ll probably forget something,” Fred said as she laid an armload of blankets on the table by the kitchen.

“Well, that’ll just be too bad, ’cause we’re not going back and forth to get stuff. I’m only making one doorway. That’s it. If we forget something, we can do without it.”

“We’ll be fine, Jamie,” Evelyn said, examining the list in her hand, her reading glasses perched on the end of her nose. “Where is your father?”

“He’s in the garage with John Paul, getting the camp stove and air mattresses and stuff.” Jamie heard the front door slam and saw Rollie walk in, carrying a suitcase and an athletic bag. “Rollie, is your mom home yet?”

“She just called, and she and Fred’s mom are on their way. They’re taking off for their lunch break, so they gotta hurry.”

“We need to hurry, too. Why is this taking so long?”

“Relax, Jamie,” Evelyn said. “We’ll get there in time.”

“Where’s Mom?” Just then, Jamie heard her footsteps in the hall, and she walked in with his pillow.

“You almost forgot this.” She tossed it to him, and he smiled sheepishly after he caught it.

Carl and John Paul came in carrying the camp stove and other equipment. “Is this about it?” Carl said.

Evelyn folded her list and nodded. “I think so. All we need are Lisa and Adele. Is Larry not coming?”

“He can’t get off from work. We can handle it without him.” Carl turned to Jamie. “Now, remember what we talked about. You have to set up the laptop and establish the video connection before you close the magic doorway. I don’t care how many wizards you think we’re attracting. Let the rest of us worry about carrying the stuff.”

“Is the computer in here turned on?”

“It’s ready to go.” He glanced at his watch. “Where are Lisa and Adele?”

“We’re here!” Lisa yelled from the door, and the two women bustled in, nearly breathless. “Sorry it took us so long, but our boss can be a real chatterbox.”

“But we’re ready to help,” Adele said, and she surveyed the room. “Look at all this stuff! You look like you’re moving in for good.”

“We have to be prepared,” Evelyn said. “We don’t know how long we’ll have to stay there.” She nodded to Jamie. “I think we’re ready to go.”

“It’s about time,” he grumbled, then outlined the glowing doorway. “Come on Fred, let’s
go
.”

“You don’t have to bark at me,” she said when she joined him.

“Sorry...Dad? John Paul?”

“Right behind you,” Carl said. “Okay, everybody else wait ’till we give you the okay, then grab a box or something and follow us. We need to make this fast. We can chitchat later.”

Jamie and Fred stepped through the portal to the front yard of the stone house, followed by Carl and John Paul. Jamie scanned the area, his senses keen for any hint of foreign magic, but he felt nothing. He motioned to those behind him, still on the other side of the doorway. “Okay, we’re good.”

Rollie was the next one through, carrying Jamie’s laptop bag in one hand and a small folding table in the other, an orange extension cord coiled under one arm. Jamie took them from him and headed toward the house. Mrs. Tully must’ve been waiting for them, because she had the front door open before he reached the bottom step, and Brinna joined her a moment later.

“Welcome back, Master Jamie,” the stern-faced woman said as she moved aside for him.

“I have to set this stuff up first, Mrs. Tully. Do you care where I put it?”

“It is your house. Put it where you please.” Jamie glanced over his shoulder to see everyone else filing through the doorway onto the lawn, arms full of supplies. Brinna hurried to John Paul and greeted him sweetly, her hand resting on his arm and her eyes locked with his. Jamie smiled in spite of his anxiety and hurried up the steps and into the house.

The main room was exactly as it had been during their last visit. Jamie went to the far left corner behind the table near the kitchen and set his load on the floor. Then he pulled a few books from the shelf, exposing part of the wall behind it, and set up the little folding table in front of it. Behind him, he could hear the footsteps of people carrying things into the house, and Gramma directing them.

Jamie slipped the laptop from the bag, opened it and plugged the power cord in the back. Then he turned and yelled over his shoulder, “I need somebody to stand near the magic doorway and somebody else to stand in the family room. You need to tell me when I get the mini portal in the right place.”

“I got it,” Adele called from just outside the front door. “Rachel’s by the computer in your family room.”

This little tiny doorway is going to be too small for another wizard to feel
. Jamie knelt beside the folding table, touched his finger to the exposed wall, and willed another portal to form, a glowing circle no bigger than a nickel, joining Eddan’s world to Earth. “How about that?” he yelled.

A moment later, Adele called back, “Rachel said move it a little lower and to the right about a foot.”

Jamie dissolved the tiny portal, re-aligned his magic sense of space, and touched his glowing finger to the wall again. “How about now?”

“Perfect!” Adele replied a few seconds later.

Jamie pulled out the yellow cable for the Internet connection, plugged it into the laptop, and pushed it through the miniature magic portal. He felt the cable grow taut as his mother pulled on it from the family room, another world away, and he smiled.
This is going to work!
Then he made a slightly bigger portal and pushed the plug of the extension cord into it. It began snaking through, seemingly on its own, as his mother must’ve grabbed it and stretched it to the electric outlet underneath the computer in his house back in Hendersonville.

He plugged the laptop into the extension cord, powered it on and drummed his fingers on his knee while it booted up. His heart beat faster as he considered what he was doing, making history’s first interplanetary Internet connection.
This is really cool when you think about it
. The main screen appeared, he clicked the icon for the video connection and....

There she was. His mother, onscreen, sitting in front of the computer in the family room, thousands of light years away. “Hi Mom!” he waved, and she smiled and waved back. “Can you hear me?”

“Perfectly!” Her voice sounded tinny through the laptop’s speakers. “Oh, this is great! I can’t wait to show Carl.”

“Let’s hurry up and move all our stuff, first.”
I can set up the external speakers later
.

He turned to see Brinna standing behind him, her eyes wide as twin blue moons. “What...what manner of magic is
that?
” she said.

“The laptop? It’s not magic, it’s just technology.”

“Technology?”

“It’s...let me think of the best way to put it....It seems like magic, but it’s not. Anybody can do it. You, your mom...anybody.”

She shook her head, obviously not believing him.

“I’ll show you,” he said. “Follow me.” He led her outside to the lawn and the glowing doorway.

She hesitated when they reached it and she held out a tentative hand. “Is this the way to your house...your world?”

“It’s fine. It won’t hurt or anything.” He moved aside as Rachel walked through it to the yard, carrying an armload of pillows.

“Brinna?” she said and stopped in her tracks. “Are you going into my house? Let me go with you. I’ll give you a quick tour.”

“Mom! We don’t have time for that.”