Jake's Justice, Book Three of Wizards (19 page)

I knew that made no sense, but I started crying and she comforted me until I got control of myself. Then she pushed me away again.

“Now tell me exactly how many times you did it with Jenny. I want to know the positions you used because I’m sure she’s found your usual position as uncomfortable as I do.”

“You’ll kill me. I’m not up to it.”

A broad smile spread across her face. I’m not saying there was evil in it because she might kill me if I did.

“Wives are allowed to exhaust their husbands like that. It’s in the contract.”

It didn’t quite kill me, but I may need to put it in bandages and buy it a splint.

19.
      
Small Gifts

The girl at the checkout was giving me strange looks as I piled the packets of bacon, butter, boxes of eggs, packs of sausages, cans of baked bean, packets of mushrooms, packets of tomatoes and many loafs of bread into the trolley. I hoped I’d got the maths right as I’d raided my savings sock and this was all the money I had.

“Do you have a card?” she asked brightly. “Are you having a group breakfast somewhere?”

I counted my money and was relieved to find I had enough.

“Here you are. Visiting relatives.”

She gave me a sympathetic look. “I hate it when they come without warning. I hope you have someone to help you cook it all.”

I thought of the waiting servants back in the Palace and grinned. “One or two. We’ll be fine.”

Waving goodbye to the checkout girl I pushed the packed trolley towards the car park. There was a brick wall just outside the door and I hopped the trolley to Salice as soon as I was out of sight.

“Get it off the trolley. You’re having an English Breakfast this morning.”

Willing hands emptied the trolley, though there were baffled looks as the servants’ encountered vacuum packed bacon and plastic wrapped bread for the first time.

“You need to cut the bacon out of it,” I explained to the girl with the pack in her hand. “I’ll be back to show you how in a minute.” I hopped the trolley back to
Wales
and collected my pound deposit from its lock.

The people of Salice are naturally quick on the uptake and it took only a couple of minutes to unwrap everything, explain about cans, how to heat beans, and get everything frying nicely. I hopped to Esmeralda’s bedroom to find her getting dressed. She smiled at me, looking happier than I’d seen her in months.

“My Lord Wizard has returned for his seventh?”

My hands moved instinctively to protect my groin. It had been a turbulent and exhausting night.

“Only for breakfast. I have brought you exotic food from
Wales
.”

She looked puzzled, so I explained. “With food so scarce here I felt guilty about having breakfast with you, so I raided my savings and bought enough for us and a few others. The servants are preparing it right now.”

Esmeralda looked embarrassed. Something she doesn’t do very often.

“Then we shall dine on your beneficence. I’m so glad you are staying for a while.”

“You might not be so happy if more of my enemies turn up.”

Esmeralda dismissed that idea with a wave of her hand. The truth was that I was still feeling fragile over the Braton. When I was with Esmeralda I could push those thoughts down. She was a hard lady when it came to protecting her kingdom and the people in it and I was part of that protection. When she called me Lord Wizard she was reminding me of the importance of my role here and it felt good.

“Then let us go to the dining room and sample your strange exotic food.”

The King and Queen along with a sampling of noblemen and women had already gathered in the dining room. Word must have spread quickly because they rarely gathered at the same time. Most of the food they already knew, hens, pigs and mushrooms were common to Salice and Earth as were the grains. Despite this, there were big differences. I had brought smoked bacon, which they’d never encountered, and our Welsh sausages were new to them. Baked beans and tomato sauce, not to mention tomatoes, were completely unknown.

The thing that most delighted them most was sliced bread. Bread in Salice was hard and grit from the grinding wheels gave it a dangerous edge as you could lose a tooth if you didn’t check for hard bits first. The chef had fried some of the bread (according to my instructions), toasted some and left a third untouched. The untouched bread was going down a storm as it was so soft.

“I see you all live like kings in
Wales
,” Queen Janti said. “You must bring back the recipe for this bread so we might make it here.”

“You realize you are making me break my wow to lose weight, Jake,” the King said and winked at me.

“Did the Valhallans go home?” their absence having struck me.

“Immediately after you hopped out of the meeting,” the Queen said as she took another slice of bread. “They were angry. I doubt they are used to being refused.”

A flicker of a smile crossed Esmeralda’s face. “It shall give me great pleasure to refuse them often in the years to come.”

“My Lord Wizard,” said a familiar voice. I turned to find Urda and Anna behind my chair. Anna was looking at the food avariciously and I remembered she was familiar with an English Breakfast as she’d spent time in
Wales
. “We must talk.”

“Let Anna get some breakfast while we talk.” I got up and motioned Anna to use my chair. She grinned and rushed to get a plate.

Urda led me out of the room and into the corridor. When she was satisfied that no one was listening she spoke.

“There have been big changes in Barren and the surrounding lands. I discovered this when I looked for you there, but it has proved difficult to talk to you about it alone.”

Barren was a small town on Urda’s home world and it was not a friendly place. Dried up, deadly and inhospitable described both the landscape and the people.

“Good, it could hardly get worse.”

“The people believe it was you and Bronwyn that did it. You were seen fighting with Bronwyn in the sky and rending the earth around you.”

Oh grief, what had I done this time? Bronwyn had been trying to exhaust my remaining magic at the time and the forces we unleashed between us were beyond imagination. But it had been in the middle of a desert, what harm could we have done?

“They are planning to build statues in your honor.”

“What?”

“You brought water to them. The
Great
Desert
is now a massive freshwater lake. The land has become green and, though it’s too early to be sure, you seem to have changed the climate. There has been much rain these last few weeks.”

I remembered the water. It was not something I was ever likely to forget as there was so much of it. How Bronwyn created it was beyond my understanding.

“It was Bronwyn’s magic not mine.”

“They have made you into gods, Jake.”

“I’ll try and live with it.”

Urda reached out and grabbed hold of me. “You forget my world has many potential wizards, all of whom are now honored. This may yet become a problem.”

I knew that as Urda’s people were prone to fanaticism, but I had other problems to deal with at that moment.

“I hear you and I’ll bear it in mind. How is Anna’s magic coming along?”

Urda smiled. “She is making much progress. Soon she will be able to join us in protecting Salice.”

“Come back in and have some breakfast. It’s all from
Wales
, so you don’t need to worry about using the local food stocks.”

Urda curtseyed. “Thank you, my Lord Wizard. I love a good fry-up.”

As breakfast was winding down, Fluffy stuck his head out of Glim and stared at me.

[You are needed at the woodyard. Jenny asked me to tell you. And don’t forget twelve-thirty.]

Esmeralda gave Fluffy a disapproving look.

I smiled at her. “Got to go, my love.”

There was no one in the office. I opened the door and stared down into the yard. A large lorry was parked outside the massive storage shed where Mr. Griffith kept his coach. I zoomed in using my magically enhanced sight and saw Mr. Griffith and Malcolm talking to two men who had their backs to me. Hopping closer, I walked towards them. Mr. Griffith spotted me immediately.

“There he is now. Jake, we need your help.”

“What can I do for you?” While I was speaking the men who had their backs to me turned around. One was unknown to me; the other was Bronwyn’s father, Brian Matthews. He put out his hand and I shook it.

“Jake, it’s good to see you again. Your father rang me yesterday and told me about the food shortage. I’ve brought you a lorry full. Under the circumstances it was the least I could do.”

“We need to get it all unloaded, you see,” Mr. Griffith said eagerly. “And you’re my best man with a fork lift truck. Peter here is the driver and he has to get back to the depot as soon as possible to pick up his next load.”

I could have unloaded it in an instant, but not with a civilian watching. “Sure I can do that. Peter, perhaps you’d like to go to the office and wait?”

“I have to stay with my vehicle while it’s being unloaded. Company policy.”

Damn, I’d have to do it the hard way.

It took an hour to unload the pallets. Malcolm, Mr. Griffith and Mr. Matthews withdrew to wait in the office while the driver watched me so closely it was irritating. When I finished he held out an electronic pad for me to sign.

“Good job. Some of the clowns in these places are hopeless. One of them put a fork through one of my wheels.”

Well, that explained the pathological watching. I smiled and shook the driver’s hand. As he drove off the others made their way from the office to join me.

“I want to talk to you about my metal detector,” Malcolm said. “I didn’t say you could go and find treasure with it. What’s my cut going to be?”

“You can have it back now. Go out and find your own.”

Malcolm looked upset and Mr. Griffith gave me a reproachful look. Thinking about it, they had a point.

“How does ten thousand sound? After I get paid by the Treasure Trove people, mind.”

Malcolm’s grin stretched almost across his face. “That would be fantastic.”

I put out my hand and we shook on it. That must be the most expensive loan of a metal detector in history. On the other hand, this way I wasn’t going to have to explain how I broke it.

Mr. Matthews looked at the pallets. “We’d better start unpacking them; they’ll never go onto the bus like that.”

I raised my hand to stop him. “No need. I can do it with magic. But Mr. Griffith needs to tell me how much weight the bus can take.”

There was much pursing of lips and muttering from Mr. Griffiths. In the end he decided I should fill the storage space below the seats and see how far the bus went down on its axles. That took no time at all.

“Best to pile stuff down the center aisle next and then try moving the bus.”

That kind of magic is simple. The food was in boxes and so I piled them two high between the seats. The suspension groaned. We had packed less than a third of the boxes Mr. Matthews bought us.

“No more, boyo. I think she’s gonna blow.” Mr. Griffith’s quick change from fake Welsh to fake Scottish accent had me laughing. Mr. Matthews smiled.

“This is only a start. Let me know when you’re ready for some more.”

He turned to go, but I stopped him.

“How’s Bronwyn?”

“Not herself, Jake. She sounds so young and immature, but she’s alive and not trying to kill anyone.” He sounded sad and happy at the same time.

“It wouldn’t be wise for me to visit her, you understand?”

“Maybe when she’s older.”

I nodded. When I was hopping with a zimmer frame would be soon enough for me.

“He’s a good man,” Mr. Griffith said solemnly. “Shall we see if the old girl still has it in her?”