The Wizard Returns: Book Three of the Wizard Born Series (41 page)

“Would it be better if we try to find someone to adopt Aiven? I know he must be a burden for you.”

“No.” She glanced out of the window again at Aiven, then picked up the bucket from the sink. “Excuse me, Mrs. Wallace. I have to mop the floors in the bedrooms.”

Jamie was reading with his friends in the sitting area while Mrs. Tully cleaned the first bedroom. Rollie gestured at the book he was reading and said, “Check this out. I almost gave up on this one ’cause it’s pretty much just a journal from some farmer’s wife. This entry is from October 2, 1622. ‘Dire news from Sumner’s Village. All of the women have been hung or burned as witches. There are none left alive older than five years of age. The Inquisitors have moved on to Barcley town.’ That’s pretty awful, huh? Killing all the womenfolk?”

“That happened on Earth, in England and Europe, if I remember my history correctly,” Melanie said. “It’s amazing how closely this world parallels ours, sometimes.”

“There’s more,” Rollie said. “She goes on to say that the local women are ‘frightfully agitated’ and have spoken to their husbands about ensuring their safety.”

Bryce grunted a laugh. “I bet. Probably told them that if they want to sleep in the same beds with them, they’d better make sure the witch hunters stay away.”

“Easier said than done,” Melanie said. “I don’t know how powerful the Church was here in those days, but on Earth, it was pretty much the law of the land. If you interfered with a church official, you could go to jail, and sometimes even be put to death.”

“What else does it say, Rollie?” Jamie asked.

“Hmm.” His eyes darted back and forth as he scanned the pages. “Okay, here she says two families came through town with all of their possessions loaded onto wagons, on their way to the coast. ‘Seeking passage on a ship in order to escape the madness of the witch hunts.’ Must’ve been bad, to make them up and move like that.”

“Passage to where?” Melanie asked.

Rollie flipped the page and shrugged. “Doesn’t say.”

“Keep reading,” Fred said. “I want to know what happened.”

Everyone closed their books and focused on Rollie as he perused the ancient journal. He held his finger on a spot and looked up. “It gets better. The women have gotten together and demanded that the men do something, so they had a town meeting with the local priest, who said that God would protect the righteous and that they should have no fear. She goes on to say that she has taken to constant prayer, but the terror in her heart grows daily.”

“What a horrible thing to go through,” Fred said. “If I had been alive then, I’d have been a goner.”

“No doubt, since you’re a witch.” Rollie turned back to the journal, and after a moment his eyebrows shot up and he tapped the page with one finger. “Listen to this. A sorcerer named Tevan has come to town, ‘offering a path to safety.’ They have a meeting in the town square and he makes some kind of pitch for his services.” Rollie read further and stopped at another page. “He offers to ‘open a magic gate to the New World,’ for a fee, of course. He says it’s a ‘beautiful land, ripe for farming in a lovely river valley, with fertile soil and plenty of game.’ He goes on to say that the land is free for the taking, and safe.”

“Sounds like a sales pitch by a developer,” Bryce said.

“What does he mean by
gate
?” Jamie said. “Is that like a doorway?”

Rollie shrugged and turned his attention back to the book. “Hmmm...okay, it looks like the town elders went with the wizard to check out the place and came back ‘speaking glowing praise of a fair land.’ The woman that wrote this and her husband have decided to take the wizard up on his offer, along with most of the rest of the town.” His finger moved across the pages and stopped again. “Everybody is leaving but the priest. He is staying because that’s where his church is, but nobody really wants him to go anyway, because he won’t stand up to the Inquisitors.”

“He was put in a tough spot,” Bryce said.

“Yeah.” Rollie’s eyes skimmed back and forth, and he turned another page. “Here it says they’ve packed everything they can carry into their wagon and a couple of sledges, and they’re heading to the magic gate with their livestock. She sounds pretty anxious.”

“I would be too,” Melanie said.

“Hmmm...it looks like she missed a few days of making entries, and then right here it’s October 29th. She says ‘We have staked our claim on a nice parcel near the river. This new land seems perfect for farming, and the sorcerer Tevan has offered to fell trees with his magic.”

“For a fee?” Jamie asked.

“Probably. She says that the men have erected temporary shelters, and pens for the livestock, but the weather has been mild and they have not suffered terribly for the transition.” Rollie read another few moments and suddenly sat up straight. “Whoa! Get this. ‘The moon was bright and beautiful last night, so much larger and more colorful than our view from home. I went to sleep happy, knowing we are safe and in a good place, but I know I shall never get over my love for my fair
Ireland!
”

“Ireland?” Jamie jerked upright on his chair. “Did she really say that?” Everyone else seemed to be on the edge of their seats, too, staring at Rollie.

Rollie turned the book around and showed them, his finger next to the passage.

They all looked wordlessly at Rollie as the implications of that passage sank in, until Bryce said, “Renn must’ve gone to Earth and brought that book back for some reason. Or somebody else did.”

“I don’t think so.” Jamie shook his head slowly. “Think about what she said. The moon looked bigger and more colorful. She was talking about this moon on
this
world. That last part was written here.”

Fred’s brow furrowed deeply, and her words came out slowly. “Are you saying...what I think you’re saying?”

“I think the wizard made a doorway from Ireland to here and didn’t realize that it was a different world.” He bit his lip and nodded. “I think this world may have been settled by people from Earth.”

“Naw,” Bryce said. “No way.”

“Let’s ask Mrs. Tully.” Jamie walked to the door and called Mrs. Tully from the bedroom to join them. Evelyn followed her out into the main room. “Mrs. Tully,” Jamie said, “what planet do you think this is?”

“Why, Earth, of course.”

Jamie and his friends exchanged glances and he shook his head. “Has your family lived here long?”

“Since the town was founded, four hundred years ago.”

“Do you know where your family was originally from?”

“Yes, Ireland. County Cork, to be precise.”

“Ireland?” Evelyn said. “That can’t be!”

“’Tis true, though my mother’s family is originally from Scotland.”

Jamie scratched the side of his nose and grimaced. “Mrs. Tully, I don’t know how to tell you this, but...this isn’t Earth.”

“Of course it is.”

“You might call it Earth, but it’s not the Earth you think it is. There is no Ireland or Scotland here, they’re on
our
Earth. This is a completely different planet.”

* * *

Mrs. Tully would not even pretend to accept what Jamie was trying to tell her until Brinna arrived and he made his case. He found a picture on the Internet of a full moon and showed them. He gestured at the laptop’s screen. “This is what it looks like from our Earth, no matter where you go. It’s always this white and this size, never colorful and big like it is here.” He pointed heavenward. “And the stars are all different. Nowhere on our Earth will you see constellations like you do here, because it’s in a completely different part of space. Maybe even another universe, for all I know.”

“But...how can that be?” Brinna said. “How could we not know?”

“The sorcerer who made the doorway for your ancestors may not have known either. Maybe he thought he was just opening one to a different place on Earth.” He shrugged. “And this world looks so much like
our
Earth. Melanie has a theory about why it does, but I won’t go into that right now.”

Brinna was silent for a moment, her face thoughtful. “That might explain why no one has ever heard from the people who took ship so long ago. We always thought that they must have perished.”

“We came across an entry in the journal that mentions some people heading for the coast to take ship,” Melanie said. “They were probably hoping to go to the
New World
, as they called it back then. Many of those people established successful colonies on our Earth that grew into towns, and then major cities.”

“It explains some of the last names here, too,” Bryce said. “Carthy is probably short for McCarthy, and Malley could be O’Malley.”

Jamie rubbed his chin. “It might explain why there have always been way more wizards and witches here than on Earth. Most of them probably came here with the other settlers, to get away from the witch hunters, and they never went back. Then they married and passed their magic genes on to their children.”

“Mrs. Tully?” Fred said. “If your family is originally from County Cork, then you and I could be related, because I think that’s where my family is from. I could be related to several people here.” Then she and Melanie looked at each other and said simultaneously, “Shira Coy!”

By dinnertime, Mrs. Tully seemed closer to accepting the fact that she lived on a different world than that of her ancestors, especially after Jamie showed her pictures from the Internet of modern-day Ireland. Brinna was fascinated.

Aiven seemed to be the most excited of all. “Jamie, you and I could be related, don’t you think? That’s why I’m a sorcerer, too, because we’re probably cousins.”

“Yeah, maybe.” Jamie tried not to roll his eyes. “Though I don’t know where my ancestors are from.”

“Sikes is English,” Fred said. “I looked it up once.”

“My family could be from English, too.” Aiven bobbed his head.

“You mean England,” Evelyn said. “Mrs. Tully, do you know if any of the other settlers came from different towns in Ireland, or other countries?”

“There are many from Scotland and England, but most from this town are from Ireland.”

“Then that sorcerer probably made many doorways around the same time he did for your ancestors,” Jamie said. “Probably travelled around offering his services.”

Mrs. Tully took a deep breath while she regarded Jamie. “This town was mostly settled by people from County Cork. During the Founders’ Festival, a large map will be displayed that shows where the local families hail from, originally.”

“I’d like to see that,” Melanie said.

“Jamie, let’s go,” Fred said. “I want to go to that festival.”

“What if we still haven’t found what we’re looking for? We need to focus on the books, Fred.”

“Jamie,” Evelyn said, “I think you should go, too. This could be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for you, and you can still work most of the day.”

“You really should go,” Brinna said. “It’s
wonderful
. The best part doesn’t start until late in the afternoon, anyway.”

“Please, Jamie?” Fred said, and put on her best puppy dog face.

Jamie sighed. “We’ll see.”

Later that night after Mrs. Tully, Brinna, and Aiven had gone, Jamie sat with Fred at the laptop to share the unbelievable news with her parents about the people from Eddan’s world. Larry was so excited Jamie thought he was going to burst into flames. “I
told
you she could be a McCoy,” Larry said. “I’ve
got
to get over there and meet Shira Coy’s family.” He pulled a piece of paper from his back pocket and unfolded it. “I did some checking on our family tree last night, and it looks like my ancestor, Donal Callahan, married a girl named Fiona McCoy, from County Cork, back in the early seventeenth century. So Shira could be descended from my ancient grandmother’s family, and they could’ve moved to Eddan’s world with the other settlers.”

“Hold on.” Jamie turned in his seat. “Somebody’s at the door.”

“Again? That place is turning into Grand Central Station.”

The knocking continued, louder and more frantic, and a muffled voice cried, “Help!”

Evelyn opened the door, and standing outside was a desperate-looking middle-aged man with an unconscious woman in his arms. “Is this the home of the new witch?” he said frantically.

“Yes,” Evelyn said. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s my wife. She collapsed.”

“Bring here in, by all means.” Evelyn hurried him to the sitting area where he laid the limp woman on the bench seat.

“She screamed and put her hands to her head, then she fell to the floor,” he said, looking from face to face. “This has never happened before.”

Bryce leaned over her and checked her pulse at her neck. “How long ago was that?”

“Thirty minutes. I put her in my wagon and drove here as fast as I could. Somebody can help her, can’t you?” His eyebrows drew down. “You’re not a witch, looks like.”

“I’m a doctor’s son,” Bryce said. “Fred’s the witch.”

Fred laid her hand on her chest. “That’s me, but...gosh....” She cast an anxious glance at Jamie and then Evelyn. “This is way out of my league.”

“It could be a ruptured blood vessel in her brain,” Evelyn said.

“Jamie,” Bryce said, his tone urgent, “look into her brain and tell me what you see.”

“Hold on.” Jamie knelt beside the woman on the bench seat and the room grew silent. He closed his eyes and sent his mind inside her skull. “What am I looking for?”

“A burst blood vessel and blood spreading around it.”

“Hold on.” Jamie’s awareness penetrated the gray mass, searching for anything unusual. “I can’t tell...never looked in one before.” He sucked in his breath sharply. “Uh oh.”

“What is it?”

“I see a dark area...it’s...it’s spreading pretty fast.”

“That’s got to be it. See if you can find the blood vessel and repair it.”

Jamie shook his head, eyes still closed. “Boy...I don’t know.”

The woman shuddered and moaned. Her husband said, “You’ve got to save her!”

Jamie probed the recesses of the spreading darkness but couldn’t distinguish the healthy arteries from the damaged ones. “There are so many.”

The woman shuddered violently and Rollie said, “I think she’s having a seizure.”