The Wizard Returns: Book Three of the Wizard Born Series (45 page)

“Fred has been dancing practically her whole life,” Evelyn said. “We’ll show you a video of one of her shows when we get a chance.”

By this time, Fred had been joined by a couple of teenage girls who Evelyn recognized. “Those two bought some of Fred’s love potion, didn’t they?”

“Many of the girls here did,” Mrs. Tully said. “Fred sold every packet that she prepared.”

Fred was laughing and spinning with the girls, and soon they were joined by others, including Melanie and Brinna. Before long, there were nearly three dozen, some of them young children, kicking up their heels to the lively music. Evelyn looked across the square and saw Mayor Tully, waiting under an awning with a group of well-dressed, important-looking men, scowling deeply.

“The mayor looks mad,” Evelyn said.

“That’s because Fred’s stealing his thunder,” Jamie said.

The music stopped and the girls clapped, then dispersed. Fred rejoined her friends on the sidewalk, fanning herself with one hand and breathing heavily. “That was fun!”

“You didn’t make the mayor too happy,” Jamie said. “He’s taking the stage now.”

The stout politician’s scowl vanished as he stepped up onto the platform. He raised both arms and said, “Welcome, citizens of Rivershire, and our lovely guests, to this year’s Founders’ Festival!” He flashed a toothy smile while a handful of people clapped weakly, then he pulled a piece of paper from his coat pocket and began a speech. That was obviously the cue for the crowd to ignore him and start talking among themselves.

“I can’t hear him,” Bryce said.

“I can make him louder,” Jamie offered. “I can amplify his voice.”

“Please don’t,” Brinna said. “No one wants to hear him anyway.”

Mrs. Tully nodded. “’Tis true.”

So they waited until he finished and left the stage. Fred eyed the musicians. “Is it time for the dance, Brinna?”

As if answering her question, the band struck up a tune, and the crowd immediately formed a giant circle that began rotating counterclockwise in time to the music. The circle paused, and the dancers stepped inward and clapped once, stepped back and began turning in the opposite direction.

“It’s like a Scottish circle dance!” Fred grabbed Jamie’s hand. “Come on!” She pulled him into the circle, and Melanie dragged Bryce, too.

Evelyn turned to Rollie. “How about you?”

He stared at the dancers for a moment, then said, “Oh, what the heck.” He walked toward the moving group and looked back over his shoulder at Aiven. “You coming?”

Aiven gazed up at Mrs. Tully, and she said, “Not without me, you don’t,” and she led him to the circle.

Evelyn stood with Brinna and watched. “Brinna, aren’t you going to dance?”

She managed a half-smile and sighed. “It doesn’t seem right, for some reason.”

Evelyn nodded sympathetically, then stepped forward and caught Jamie by the arm when he danced by. “Jamie, is it time yet?”

He glanced at his watch. “Close enough. I’ll be right back.” He left the circle and pushed through the crowd on the sidewalk.

“Where’s he going, Mrs. Wallace?” Brinna asked.

“He has a little chore. He’ll be right back.”

The dancers formed two lines, the men on one side of the street and the women on the other, while they waited for the next tune. Evelyn noticed quite a bit of jostling for position among the girls. “Brinna, are they trying to get across from a special boy?”

“Oh yes. They will pair up according to where they stand in line, and no one wants to dance with a homely man.”

Brinna’s face grew sadder as the next number began. Each line danced in place for a moment, then moved forward until they met in the middle of the street. There, they paired off and twirled as couples, first one direction, then the other. Then they separated and rejoined their lines at the edges of the street.

Brinna sighed noticeably, and Evelyn glanced over her shoulder to see Jamie coming, accompanied by a man dressed in blue. A moment later, a male voice said, “Excuse me, Miss, may I have this dance?”

Brinna spun to see John Paul, wearing his police uniform, standing with Jamie. She gaped at him for a split-second, then threw herself into his arms. He spun her in a joyous embrace. “John Paul!” she said into his shoulder. “You came!”

He put her down, but kept his hands on her hips. “Only for an hour. I’m on duty, and this is my dinner break.”

“I’ll take what I can get,” she said with a sly smile and led him to the lines of dancers.

Evelyn watched the merry crowd form into a new dance, a circle within a circle, and Mrs. Tully joined her on the sidewalk, panting and fanning herself with the end of her shawl.

“Where’s Aiven?”

Mrs. Tully took a deep breath before replying, “Still dancing. Rollie said he would look after him.”

“And you trust Rollie?”

“Don’t you?”

“Of course.”

“Then I do, too.”

They stood together and admired the dancers until everyone took a short break, and many headed to the refreshment stand.

“I’m dying of thirst,” Fred said when she returned, “but there’s a line a mile long for drinks.”

“I left a twelve pack of water bottles on the table at the house,” Evelyn said.

“Fat lot of good that’ll do us now.” Then realization seemed to dawn on her face. “Oh...Jamie. I’ll be right back.”

Fred returned a moment later with Jamie in tow. He urged the onlookers to step back, then he outlined a glowing doorway, pushed it open, and stepped through it. A few seconds later, he returned with the water under one arm, and the doorway winked out. The people standing nearby gasped in astonishment, and Evelyn heard someone say, “That’s him. That’s the new sorcerer.”

Jamie began popping the bottles free from the package and handing them out to his friends. “You’re a handy guy,” John Paul said, standing with Brinna and holding her hand tightly.

Evelyn turned to Mrs. Tully and asked, “Will there be fireworks tonight?”

“No. Paulsbury always has them for their festival, but we never do.”

Evelyn said to Jamie, “You can do fireworks, can’t you?”

“Uh...I can blast stuff.”

“I think it would be nice of you to entertain these people. They’re all staring at you now, anyway. I think they’d love to see a few of your tricks.”

“No,” Fred said, her eyes widening. “You should put on a show! A big one!”

“Aw....” Jamie frowned. “Dang. I don’t know.”

“Yeah you do. You’ve always wanted to do that...fly through the air and blow stuff up in front of a crowd. Come on.” Fred grabbed both of his hands and squeezed them. “It’ll be awesome. Show ’em what the Crew can do.” She nodded firmly. “I already danced.”

“And I can be your MC,” Rollie said. “Come on, dude, let’s do it.”

“Well...if we’re going to do it, we need a plan.” Jamie’s face grew thoughtful. “Brinna, do you know where I can find some rocks?”

“There are some behind these buildings.” She nodded to her left. “There’s some construction going on back there.”

“I’ll be back in a sec.”

Jamie vanished with a
poof
and Bryce stared at the place where he’d stood. “Whoa. Never seen that. That must be translocating.”

“I’ll be able to do that soon,” Aiven said confidently.

Jamie reappeared moments later, holding an old tattered cloth filled with rocks. “Rollie, Bryce, we need to work something out.”

The boys huddled together and talked for a few of minutes, then Jamie said, “Fred, can you ask the band to play some appropriate music?”

Fred ran to the stage and had a word with the musicians, who were just returning from their break, then she hurried back and nodded to Jamie.

Rollie turned to Jamie. “Be sure to amplify my voice real loud, and put a little reverb on it, if you can. And give me more light, too.”

Rollie hopped up on the stage and Jamie moved one of the floating suns over his friend’s head. Rollie spread his arms wide and his voice, augmented by Jamie’s magic, boomed out, “Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, it’s time for the entertainment portion of tonight’s festivities.” He waited a moment until he had everyone’s undivided attention. “Is everyone having a good time?” He smiled and scanned the crowd. “If you’re having a good time, let me hear you say yeah!”

A pitiful few in the crowd responded, and Rollie’s shoulders sagged and his mouth fell halfway open. “Excuse me, but I thought I was addressing a live audience. Is this the Rivershire cemetery?” He got a few laughs and he straightened his shoulders. “Let’s try this again. If you’re having a good time tonight, let me hear you say yeah!”

More people responded, but Rollie shook his head. “Let’s try it one more time, only this time, say it like you really mean it.” He cleared his throat and raised his chin. “If you’re having a good time tonight,” — he punched the air with one fist — “
let me hear you say yeah
!”

The crowd roared back at him, and Rollie pretended to stumble and covered his ears with his hands. He nodded and said, “That’s more like it.” He stepped to the front edge of the stage and put one hand to his chest. “My name is Rollie Wilkins, and I’m about to present to you...a young man...who will
amaze
you with the most fantastic, spectacular feats of necromancy and prestidigitation you have ever witnessed, or will
ever
witness, even if you live a thousand years!”

“He’s really hamming it up,” John Paul said.

“He’s good at this,” Evelyn said. “He used to MC their shows.”

Rollie raised one arm and gazed heavenward. “From a world far away, circling a star so distant that it is but a speck in the night sky, the most powerful wizard on the planet, the only sorcerer ever to defeat the evil wizard Renn, I give you the one...the only...
Jamie the Sorcerer!
” Rollie clapped his hands and the crowd applauded with him, then he hopped down from the stage and the band played a fanfare.

The magic sun drifted out to the middle of the square, hovering at rooftop level. Jamie walked under it and the crowd backed away, giving him plenty of room, their faces electric with anticipation, the band playing slow, ominous music in the background. Jamie floated slowly up to the glowing sphere, and when he neared it, he touched it with one finger and it split into three smaller suns of different colors — red, blue, and green. He twirled his finger while he hovered high above the pavement, and the spheres began to move in a circle, widening until they orbited the full width of the street. Jamie let them go on for a minute, then he clapped his hands once, and they flew toward the center of their rotation and slammed together with a blinding flash.

The suns had vanished. The crowd applauded as Jamie dropped to the street and looked at Rollie and Bryce, standing near the stage, each holding two fistfuls of rocks. Jamie raised his left hand and Rollie levitated from the ground. Jamie leisurely swept his arm up and away from his body, and Rollie floated over to the rooftop of the building far to the left of the stage, where Jamie settled him gently. Then Jamie turned to Bryce and repeated the gesture with his right arm, and Bryce drifted to the building opposite Rollie’s, where Jamie eased Bryce onto the roof. Jamie’s friends now bookended the square, two stories up, standing in the moonlight, awaiting Jamie’s cue.

Jamie gave Rollie a curt nod and Rollie leaned back and hurled a rock high over the bandstand. Jamie whipped one hand up and sent a bolt of energy from his fingertips that caught the projectile at its zenith, blasting it into a sparkling burst of tiny bits. The crowd clapped appreciatively.

Jamie nodded to Bryce, who launched a stone from the opposite direction, and when it was high over the stage, Jamie raised his other arm and blasted it, too. Rollie fired another rock skyward, and Jamie destroyed it, and Bryce quickly followed with another throw. Rollie and Bryce continued their rock-hurling, gradually picking up the pace until Jamie’s bolts of energy flew from his hands at a dizzying, blinding pace.

“Wow,” Evelyn heard Aiven say from nearby.

“You can say that again,” John Paul added.

Rollie cupped his hand to his mouth and called to Jamie, “Last one.” Jamie nodded and turned to Bryce, who flashed a thumb’s up.

Jamie put his hands behind his back, took a deep breath and yelled, “Throw!” Rollie and Bryce hurled their rocks simultaneously. Jamie pulled his hands out and they tracked the rocks across the sky until they crossed. Then he unleashed a V-shaped pair of white-hot streams that intercepted the stones on their downward arc, annihilating them at the same time.

The crowd cheered heartily, and Jamie extended both arms toward his two friends atop the buildings. Rollie and Bryce drifted from the roofs and settled onto the pavement in front of Jamie. They exchanged high fives and Rollie and Bryce retreated to the sidewalk near Evelyn and the others.

“That was great!” Aiven said when they joined them.

“Show ain’t over yet,” Rollie said. “Watch.”

The crowd quieted and Jamie floated from the street, spinning gracefully as he rose, arms out from his side. He gradually gained speed as he gained altitude, and began to glow all over. He was higher than the treetops and climbing faster, glowing brighter. His pace grew quicker still, and he seemed to be on fire. Higher he went, and his body flared white hot. He rose so high that he was but a glimmering speck, nearly lost among the stars, then he stopped and hovered in the sky.

The musicians had stopped playing, craning their necks skyward to see what Jamie would do. The crowd was whisper-silent, their eyes wide. For a long moment, time seemed to stand still.

Then Jamie fell.

Faster he came, and brighter still was the flame. He dropped like a meteor, straight for the square. He was headfirst now, arms by his side, shrieking through the air, a human missile. He was dropping impossibly fast, down to the crowd below. Some covered their faces with their arms and ducked as if Jamie was going to crash into them and explode.

At the last possible instant, he spread his arms and leveled out over the crowd, right at roof level. He soared over them and slowed, then let his fire flicker out as he hovered above their heads.