Hamilton Swoop, Wizard of Green Ridge (13 page)

"Thank you, child. I am the youngest as I don't consider Diamond to be a Master Wizard. However, I'm going to need more strength and stamina than I possess if I am to move forward on this Thermite nonsense."

Whiskers purred as Thalia scratched the cat's ears and throat. “I'm sure that if you need more help, the Guild will provide it."

Hamilton rose and walked to the window. He looked at his reflection. “You're right, but that's not the kind of help I was thinking about.” He ran his fingers through his beard, holding on to the tip of it for a moment and then releasing it. “No. I am too old for this job. Not mentally, but certainly physically. But, as I said before, now I can do something about it."

You gonna sign up for Guild health insurance?

"In a manner of speaking. This will ensure my health and the source is the Guild—more or less."

Huh?

Hamilton left the window and disappeared into the bedroom. He returned a moment later with Obsidian's wand in hand and sat down. He closed his eyes in concentration, mumbled an incantation under his breath, and then tapped himself once on either shoulder with the wand.

We dub thee knight. Rise, Sir Hamilton.

Hamilton stood while the cat and girl looked at him, amazed. His gray beard and hair morphed to a chestnut brown.

Now that is impressive. Instant hair color. You could make a fortune selling that.

Hamilton ignored the cat. He stood and stretched his muscles working each joint one at a time.

It was then that Thalia and Whiskers saw the other changes that occurred. Hamilton's skin texture smoothed and the color became more even. His face filled out and the gauntness disappeared. The dark circles beneath his eyes faded. Within less than a minute, a man of no more than thirty stood before them.

Thalia's eyes grew wide. “Could you teach me that? Please."

Hamilton gripped the arms of the chair and lowered himself into it supporting his weight with the strength in his arms. Once seated, he replied, “Someday, perhaps. The rejuvenation spell is not an easy one to learn, but why? Do you want to look like you're twelve again?"

"Well, no, but it will be worth knowing ... for the future.” Thalia blushed.

Hamilton blinked his eyes several times and frowned. Thalia asked, “What's the matter?"

"I think this spell messed up my vision and ... and I feel foolish.” Hamilton removed his glasses and smiled.

Hey. New old man. How about me? I could do with shedding a few years too.

Hamilton looked at the cat. “You shed enough already. How old are you, anyway?"

Whiskers stretched.
In cat years? Somewhere around four hundred and seventy, give or take a year or so.

"But that would make you..."

Yeah. Thorn wasn't the first wizard I lived with and at the rate you're going, you won't be the last. How about shaving off a few hundred?

"I had no idea. Guess I should be calling you ‘Old Cat'."

So how about dropping two hundred?

"I can't, Whiskers. The rejuve spell must be performed on one's self."

Whiskers flicked her tail.
That's a pile of rats’ gonads! How do you think I lived this long? I didn't do this to myself. Maybe you can't cast the spell on another human, but how does that keep you from doing it to a cat? Come on. What's the problem? Ethics? I've watched you doing business for years, Old Man. You gave up ethics a long time ago.

Hamilton wanted to disagree, but instead was forced to concede the point. “OK, cat. I'll give it a shot. Two hundred years, huh?"

Remember, that's two hundred cat years. I don't want to disappear.

Hamilton picked up Obsidian's wand and walked over to where Whiskers sat on the couch. He raised the wand, spoke an incantation and touched the cat on the top of her head. For a moment, it seemed as if nothing happened. Then he noticed that Whiskers’ body filled out and her fur became thicker and shinier.

Whiskers jumped down from the couch and raced around the perimeter of the room. Then she jumped back on the couch next to Thalia.
That felt good. That's one I owe you, Old Man. Thanks.

Hamilton returned to his seat and put the wand on the table next to him. “Let's just call it even. If you hadn't found that cylinder, we might all be dead now."

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The next day, Thalia complained that she didn't feel like she was doing much to help. Hamilton told her, “Although it might not appear so, your presence when I was questioning others had a very positive effect on them.” As that didn't seem to be enough for her, he sent her on an errand to Center City's library to do some research on swamp needles. “I want to know as much about them as possible. What they eat. How long they live. How they breed. And most important, what kills them. Can you do that for me?"

Thalia brightened. “Yes, sir. I'll do my best."

"Here're 10 royals. Take a carriage and have them wait for you. Get a receipt."

During the several days that followed, Hamilton went over Thalia's notes which he had to admit, were extensive. He was disappointed that although the newspaper had run the story about the bounty on the cylinders and the police had posted several reward posters, no one tried to claim the money. It had snowed off and on for four days. Although his new physical vigor provided him with increased energy he felt frustrated as he had nowhere to direct it. The day arrived for the Guild meeting. He, Thalia, and Whiskers boarded the Guild's carriage and they rode through the snowy streets. Hamilton had a half-formed plan, but there were still too many things he hadn't worked out.

As they reached the outer door, Hamilton felt a wave pass through his body. He felt weak and gripped the door frame to steady himself. Thalia noticed his distress and, with a worried note in her voice, “Hamilton, what is it?"

The wave passed and Hamilton regained his strength. “Someone just tried to break into my shop in Green Ridge."

"In Green Ridge? How can you tell?” asked Thalia.

"When my powers were returned to me, I decided that my shop in Green Ridge could do with more protection. So I set wards to protect the shop. Kinsian wards. No one should have been able to get within two feet of the place."

"Thieves?"

"Perhaps but the shop was posted so it's dubious that a professional would attempt it."

"Did they get in?” asked Thalia with concern.

"No. My wards held. But the attempt to break in wasn't physical. Someone with the talent was trying to get in and, as there are no wizards that I am aware of in Green Ridge ... I've got to get back there."

"But what about the Guild?"

"I'll go by tomorrow as planned. Then I'll leave. The Guild can survive without me for a few days. As I recall, Master Topaz expressed an inordinate interest in the trunk I acquired. I thought he was interested in the contents, but maybe I was wrong. Maybe he was interested in the trunk, itself."

"But why?” Thalia asked.

"That's what I intend to find out."

After they were ushered into the hall, the younger wizards and acolytes including Diamond were amazed at Hamilton's physical transformation. The older wizards, however, took it as a matter of course.

Diamond's “Harrumph” brought the group to order. Then he turned the floor over to Hamilton who stood before the Guild.

"Before I say more, I would like to find out what information the Guild has gathered in the last week. Please raise your hand if you have anything to contribute.” Hamilton looked at those gathered. No hand shot up but, as he waited, a few of those gathered did raise hands tentatively.

"Master Alchemist. Good news this time?” asked Hamilton as he recognized Hardension.

"Perhaps. I experimented with that material you collected. As you already know, the debilitating effect it has on magic is temporary. My experiments have shown that the problem comes from breathing in the fumes when it burns. I might be able to design a filter that, when worn over the mouth and nose, prevents the wearer from being affected."

"That sounds like more than a perhaps. How effective will it be?"

"I believe that it will only last for about 30 minutes—maybe not even that long. Then it will become saturated. However, even after the gas has dissipated, removing the mask may prove to be a problem. The fumes from the burning er, goo—I've been calling it ‘Dragon Oil'—contains unburned materials that tend to stick to whatever is around—hair, clothing, furniture, etc. The aromatics produced from such, if inhaled, will still have a detrimental effect although not as strong as inhaling the burning vapors."

"Do you mean that they persist forever?” asked Hamilton.

"No, but it took about 3 hours for the effects to completely cease. The big problem is in getting the materials for the masks. They aren't available locally."

"What about the cylinder? Were you able to determine what it was made of or how it worked?"

The corners of Hardension's mouth turned down matching his drooping mustache. “Like I said before, the cylinder is made of base metals. Nothing special about it. As to how it works, no. I was hoping to find one that had not been used, but no one has come forth to claim a reward as yet.” The Master Alchemist sat down.

"Anyone else?” asked Hamilton.

Whimper's hand lifted to half mast.

"Acolyte Whimper? What can you add?"

Whimper got unsteadily to his feet. “Well, I er, went with Jamie, er, Acolyte in training James, to the Dark Line Swamp.” The red haired boy sitting next to Whimper looked up and then back down again.

"And?” Hamilton prompted after a moment's of silence.

"Well, er, it was frozen over and covered with snow.” Again, there was a pause as Whimper mustered his courage. “There wasn't anything special there, but in the hills that border it, we found some caves. One of them was really big ... and there was some smoke coming out of it, some black smoke."

"Did you enter the cave?"

Whimper looked down at the table in front of him and said in a tiny voice, “No. We was sorta scared."

"Was the cave large enough to contain the dragon?"

Still looking down, the boy replied, “Maybe. I've never seen the dragon, but the mouth of the cave was really big."

"Look at me, boy. You have nothing to be ashamed of. You and James did us all a service. Only a fool would have walked into that cave not knowing what was in there. I would not expect you to confront a Master Wizard by yourselves, let alone confront a dragon.” Whimper sat down and Hamilton scanned the group. “Surely someone has something more to add? It's been a week. How about you, Runemaster Argus?"

Argus’ head bobbed up and looked about. “Oh, me. Yes, I'm the Runemaster.” He remained sitting.

"Master Argus,” began Hamilton speaking with as much patience as he could muster. “Have you discovered any more from the runes I provided?"

"Runes?"

"Yes. The copies of the runes I gave you. From the cloak, the lock plate, and the Orb."

"Oh, those runes. Yes. Remarkable. Remarkable runes. No. Couldn't do much with them without the other one."

"The other one? That's all there was. What other one?” Hamilton shook his head in confusion.

"When I got the books, I was able to translate them to the extent that they referred to a fourth one. The one that was supposed to give the direction? The way? The reason? The key? Something like that. Remarkable. Where's the other one?"

"I'm afraid I don't know, Master Argus."

"Well, you find that one and I'll be able to answer your questions."

Thanks for nothing
, thought Hamilton but instead he said, “I'll see what I can do. As a matter of fact, I'm led to believe that I may have left something behind in Green Ridge. Perhaps the rune you need. I will be returning there for a few days, but I will back here before the week is out."

Then, readdressing the Guild, he asked, “Anyone else?” When no one raised a hand, he looked at Diamond and asked, “Master Diamond, what can you tell me about Topaz?"

"He's not a wizard. At least not a Guild wizard,” replied Diamond. There was a raw edge to his voice.

"But didn't you say, just last week, that he was a Master Wizard? What has changed?"

Diamond did not look happy. He sounded defensive. “He joined our Guild about six months ago. Said he was from the Mercy Guild in Havenshire. It was obvious that he had the talent so I saw no reason at the time to bother checking his references. I checked them this week. Havenshire never heard of him and no one matching his description was ever in their Guild. I've sent inquiries to Guild Central, but haven't gotten a response yet."

Hamilton's anger grew at the Guild's lack of help, but he hammered the feeling down so that it wouldn't show.

"I asked Thalia, here, to do some research and she did an excellent job.” Thalia blushed. “Thanks to her, I am now an expert on swamp needles, but this Thermite thing, which looks just like a giant swamp needle, certainly doesn't act like one. They are summer creatures and can't deal with the cold. Once they leave their larval forms behind, they live less than two months. And while they live, they eat insects, lots of insects. However, the largest one ever found was about two feet across. Obviously, Thermite, if it is a big swamp needle, should be dead. To keep a body that large going would require food, a whole lot of food. Where would it get that much?” The room was silent.

"That was a question."

There was still no response. Hamilton shook his head. “Pitiful. In the mean time, I expect the Guild to answer that question. Someone is supplying the food. In the form of meat. Beef, chicken, horse—meat. Someone in Center City. Find out who and we'll have a better handle on what and where Thermite is."

Diamond, looking put-upon, stood up and protested, “Master Citrine, we are not detectives. Just what do you expect us to do?"

"Sit down.” Diamond, looking miffed, sat. Hamilton, his anger and frustration having passed their limits, stood and addressed the Guild. “What do I expect you to do? A hell of a lot more than you've done so far! When I was in the Guild, forty years ago, the Masters were wizards, true wizards. They knew and used magic for the greater good, but you, you pathetic lot of has-beens and never-wases, what do you do now? Entertain at birthing parties? Do magic tricks on holidays? And you expect me to save you? Me, a wizard who hasn't done a bit of magic for decades, because of the Guild, I might add.” Hamilton took a breath and then continued. “Now, suddenly, I'm to be your savior, the one man to pull your butts out of the fire. And for what?” He looked about the room. The acolytes cowered, the senior wizards looked angry, Thalia looked shocked and Diamond's face approached beethood.