Jake's Quest - Wizards V (22 page)

36.
              
Bellweather

We left the warehouse at five minute intervals. I went first because I needed to get away from the others before I revealed something I would regret. The Great Destroyer was pretty much Satan in my companions eyes, destroyer of worlds, killer of billions, the one who would take away the lights in the sky. But Issus had called me the Great Destroyer and I didn’t want to tell them that. Maybe she had been referring to some other Great Destroyer? In a multiverse of infinite universes there must be more than one.

The warehouse was in an industrial district in a world that had no clean air laws. The walls of the warehouses were covered in soot and the air smelled of sulfur and coal tar. I once visited a foundry that stank like this place, but I’d never experienced it out in the open air.

It was morning in Bellweather, and the cobbled streets echoed with shouts and the sound of iron shod hooves on cobbles. Most of the buildings had large wooden double doors big enough to take a horse pulling a wagon and that was what most of them were being used for. I had to press against the wall when a wagon, laden with barrels went past; it was that or be crushed by it.

A man shouted at me. I shook my head as if I couldn’t hear and set off toward him, pretending to stumble so I could reach out and touch his hand. That was all it took to learn his language.

“Are you one of the new stevedores?” he asked.

“I’m just on my way into town.”

“You look useful. Like you can handle yourself and do some real work. We have boxes of vegetables to load. Would you be interested in a job?”

It was tempting, but getting to the center of the city was more important.

“Not really.”

“If you help load a wagon the driver will give you a lift into town. It’ll be faster than walking.”

So I ended up being a warehouse man for an hour. Not that I was unfamiliar with the job. It was much like the work I did for Mr. Griffiths in the woodyard. Move some boxes from A to B and stack them up so they wouldn’t fall off the wagon. The man who gave me the job and the driver helped out, so the wagon was loaded in no time.

As I sat alongside the driver at the front of the wagon with two carthorses pulling us I wondered whether this was my true vocation. It certainly felt comfortable and familiar, and there’s satisfaction in doing simple physical work.

“If you help me unload at the other end, there’ll be money in it for you,” the driver told me. He was a dried up sort of man, more wrinkles than features if you know what I mean.

“Do you do this run often?”

He uttered something between a bark and a laugh.

“Since I was twelve. Getting difficult to get men to work at it these days. Too many fancy jobs in the building trade or in the steelworks.”

“People will always need vegetables.”

That brought another bark of laughter and then we sat in silence, a silence only broken when the driver found reason to curse his horses.

As we approached the center of the city the streets became wider. Trees lined some of them, though most looked sickly as if the air was sucking the life out of them. The street led us to a massive steel bridge crossing the dirtiest river I have ever seen. Just before we got to the bridge, a smaller newer road branched down to the river’s edge where it ended in a steel girder frame. Most of the wagons headed that way and then appeared to drive straight into the river.

The driver spat. “Give me a bridge made from sweat and steel any day. You won’t catch me going that way.”

True to his word we carried on up the road to the bridge. As we passed the frame I could see through it to a similar road on the other side of the river. It was a chain bridge.

“They charge a shilling to go through it. This bridge is free.”

“Not a big fan of magic, me,” I said sympathetically.

The driver grunted and spat on the road.

On the other side of river, the air was cleaner and for the first time the sun showed through the smog. The buildings were newer and the street bustled with activity. We entered an open air market and the driver took a side street that curved behind the market to where dozens of similar wagons were parked alongside a loading bay.

“You’re late, Josh” a red faced man shouted as we backed the wagon into an empty loading slot.

“Can’t get the workers,” my driver shouted back.

“What’s he then?” the man asked, pointing at me. “You his new girlfriend?”

Some of the unloaders looked up at this and chuckled.

“I’m just lending a helping hand.”

Getting down from the wagon I went to the rear and picked up a couple of boxes. “Where do you want them?”

When we finished, Josh gave me a small gold coin and a couple of copper ones.

“You can come back anytime. We always need good workers,” he said as we shook hands.

I wandered around the market and tried to get a feel for the place. Some of the buildings were six or seven stories high and for the price of one of the copper coins I was allowed to visit the flat roof of the tallest. There were lots of other people up there, which suggested that Bellweather had discovered tourism.

Looking down, I saw wagons heading back out of the city. I used magic to zoom in on them and spotted Josh as he drove his wagon onto the bridge.

Curls of magic enveloped the piers of the bridge. I would never have seen it using normal sight. The bridge began to sway and groan. People pushed at either side of me as the tourist converged to watch the drama unfold.

“It’s going to collapse,” someone said unnecessarily. Around fifty wagons were on the bridge and the drivers were urging their horses to trot if not to gallop. It was supposed to be one lane each side, but the driver behind Josh cut across into the other lane and sideswiped Josh’s wagon as he went past, breaking one of the wagon’s wheels. The crowd gasped as the steel frame of the bridge began to buckle and collapse.

I hopped to the wagon and grabbed hold of it. It was still moving; one axle grinding on the road surface and that gave me enough momentum to hop the wagon, horses and Josh back to the warehouse where we had loaded up. I calmed the horses with a touch and turned to find Josh staring at me.

“Witchcraft,” he said white faced. Then he spat at me.

I didn’t stop to argue with him. Instead, I hopped back to the warehouse.

Lana was the only one back. She was wearing new clothes and looking pleased with herself.

“The tensions between magic and technology remind me of home. Only chain bridges are accepted here and even then there have been riots in the ship building industry and on the railways after they are installed.”

“Any reports of magic being used to sabotage them?” I asked.

“Not that I saw. It’s the magic users getting all the attacks for being cheaper than the traditional transport systems. Why do you ask?”

“I just saw someone using magic to destroy a large bridge.”

“The wizards here don’t have that kind of capability,” Lana said with certainty.

“Then I guess we have found Dafydd,” I replied and hopped back to the viewing platform.

Nobody noticed me arrive. All attention was focused on the massive bridge lying on its side in the river. The river was breaking it up with surprising speed and downstream river traffic was pulling for the banks as chunks of roadway floated towards them.

“It was magic that did it,” one of the women said.

“Murderers. They should be hung and have their heads chopped off, that’ll teach them.”

“Drowned,” another suggested. “You have to drown witches or they come back to haunt you.”

Dafydd might still be somewhere nearby watching the scene and that was why I had returned. I scanned the tops of buildings that would have a good view of the bridge. There were a lot of people watching from them, but none of them seemed to be Dafydd.

I paid particular attention to any of them who showed traces of magical ability. In magic sight, all magic users give some sign of what they are. There were a few out there, including the woman who had said that magic did it. She had most probably seen the magic forces that would be invisible to the ordinary people. I hoped the others on the roof wouldn’t realize that.

The crowd on the roof slowly dispersed. I stayed up there scanning the buildings until the light began to fade. Wherever Dafydd was, he wasn’t out there now.

It was dark when I returned to the warehouse. The others had lit oil lamps which glowed a reassuring yellow.

“You didn’t catch him?” Jeram asked.

“No sign of him. I think he left as soon as he finished destroying the bridge.”

Esta frowned. “You could have caught him. You were there when it started.”

“I had to rescue a friend.”

“You don’t have any friends here,” Lana pointed out.

It was a fair point and probably truer than she had intended.

“I’m sure you’re right, but I still had to save him and his horses.”

37.
              
Reactions

We converted the warehouse into four rooms. I embellished mine with a wet room as I needed to take a shower. There are only so many times you can clean yourself with magic before the desire to use real water becomes overwhelming. A door formed on a pristine wall and somebody knocked.

“Come in.”

The door opened and Lana entered. She seemed unusually reticent considering how much time we had spent together.

“Jake, can I interest you in a gun?”

She held out what looked like a pistol. When I took it I found it was barely bigger than my palm though it was surprisingly heavy. I shook my head and tried to hand it back to her, but she stepped away.

“I’m not really a weapons man.”

“It’s from home, intelligent bullets.”

Well, I had to ask. No one could have resisted it.

“High explosive with variable effect shaped charges. The bullet knows how far it is from the gun and makes sure you will not get injured by the blast. It directs all of its energy into the target Fired from a few yards away it will kill whoever it hits, wherever it hits them. Our police use them.”

Not a police force you wanted mad at you.

“Then why do you carry a sword?”

She pulled a second gun from her pocket. “These are impersonal and very messy. When I cut someone’s head off with a sword I can avoid the splatter.”

I tossed the gun back to her and she caught it deftly in her left hand. Now she had two guns and both were pointing at me.

“Are you sure you don’t want one? Sometimes the physical can be far more effective than the magical. Esta has taken two.”

I sighed and flopped onto the bed. Last night I had hopped to the Bat Cave, but tonight I was going to stay here. Going to Jenny would have started up another competition with Esmeralda and I wasn’t sure we had squared things up after the last one. Always better to avoid getting Esmeralda riled up, even if it meant taking a sacrifice.

“You are staying here tonight? Do your wives tire of you?”

“Are you spending the night back home?” I responded.

“Not now.” She began to open her shirt, starting with the top button.

“I need to sleep.”

She stopped. “Did it upset you when I hit you? You deserved it.”

“No.” That wasn’t it at all. “I found out I don’t really know you.”

“And whose fault is that?”

She hopped without waiting for a reply, which was fortunate because I didn’t have one.

I took a shower and luxuriated in the warm water spraying over me. Esta was standing by the wet room door when I turned around.

“How could you do that to Lana?”

She sounded angry.

“I thought you didn’t want me to sleep with her?” I felt suddenly vulnerable, naked with water dripping off me.

“Not for that reason. We are going to her home and don’t you dare follow us.”

And I was alone in the wet room again, not at all sure about what was going on. Why had she come to tell me? Why would I follow them, even if I could? Both of them were capable of covering their trail in hop space. I gave up and used magic to dry myself before hopping onto the bed.

When I dissolved my room next morning I found the rest of the warehouse already restored to its previous state. Esta and Jeram hopped into the room, each carrying two mugs.
 
Esta handed one of hers to Lana who took it gratefully.

Jeram offered me one of his mugs.

“Fresh from home and made with Fane’s fair hand,” he said happily.

I took the mug and tasted the dark liquid it held. The drink was even better than the scent it gave off. I made a mental note to find out what it was when I got the chance. Salice needed better brews than the herbal tea they usually drank.

Esta and Lana sat close together and pointedly ignored me.

“Does anybody have an idea of how to find Dafydd?” I asked.

“Can we agree to call him the Bomber?” Lana asked. “You make him sound like an old friend.”

“If
the Bomber
is taking an active hand in the magic versus technology dispute, we might be able to track him through the actions he’s taken,” Jeram offered.

I shook my head. “I know him well enough to know he’s paranoid. All we’ll discover is how much damage he’s done.”

Lana reluctantly raised her eyes to look at me. “We might see a pattern and predict
the Bomber’s
next move.”

I waved that idea away as it was rubbish.

“He’s writing a thesis on this culture. He’ll be all over the city today taking notes. We should try and catch him.”

Esta stood up and glared at me. “That is a stupid idea, Jake, even for you. There are millions of people in the city. What chance would we have of finding him? I vote we go to the city library and try out Jeram’s idea. At least his makes sense.”

I stood, anger rising. “Go on then. Do what you want. I’m searching the city for Dafydd.”

Not waiting for a reply I hopped to the viewing platform, which was empty of people. It was still early in the morning and smog hung over the city. I couldn’t see the remnants of the bridge, let alone the river.

Staring into the pale yellow mist I began to calm down. Once my anger was gone I saw I’d been stupid. They were right and I was wrong. What chance did I have of finding Dafydd if I couldn’t see more than a few feet in front of my own face? I couldn’t understand why I had been so angry with them.

Sure, they had hit me because they were annoyed with me, but despite the pain at the time I was unharmed by the experience. When I thought about Lana and Esta I anger welled up, but what had they done to me? If anything, it should be them hating me.

Sounds of people shouting drifted up from the streets below. I couldn’t see a thing using normal vision and all magic sight told me was there were a lot of people milling about down there. I could have deduced that from the sounds alone. Whoever they were, they were very angry. Hopping to the ground floor, I made my way to the exit only to be stopped by a man in a uniform.

“I wouldn’t go out there sir, if I was you.”

“What’s going on?”

He shook his head. “The mob have caught another one. It won’t be pretty.”

He saw I was still baffled and continued his explanation.

“Witches sir, usually young girls, poor things. If she’s lucky they’ll strangle her and get it over quick.”

“And if she isn’t lucky?”

“You don’t want to know, sir.”

I’ve seen some horrible things and my imagination filled in the blanks.

“I’m going to help the witches, how about you?”

The man stood aside to let me pass. I saw the name of the building on his uniform. He wasn’t a law officer and the mob sounded very angry. There was a loud agonized female scream. I would have to move quickly or there would be no one left to save.

I had to hop to get passed the door as the street was so crowded. Careless of who might see me I hopped to a raised platform in front of a large building. Eight posts previously used for flags held girls and boys tied high at the wrists and bound again at the waist. Their clothes had been ripped from them and a man with a long whip stood poised to hit them. A girl at the far end of the flags dripped blood from stripes across her back. She might have been twelve and was slumped as if unconscious.

“Stop.”

I used a general mind control command that brought almost everybody in the street to a standstill. I was so angry that my usual repugnance for mind control was overwhelmed by the need to stop these morons.

The only sounds were heavy breathing from the crowd.

Four people continued to move and I increased the power to bring them under control. Magic users who were probably unaware they had any gifts.

I went to the girl with the whip marks and healed her. Only thin red lines remained when I’d finished and they would fade once her body completed the healing process.

It was clear from the way those tied up had responded to my command that none of them had any magical ability.

As I dissolved the ropes holding them I brought them out of the mind lock I’d put on them. Making clothes for them was easy, though some in the crowd would find their clothes lacking in material.

Looking at the frozen crowd and then looking at me, the kids seemed unable to decide who to be more frightened of.

“Do these people know you?”

The girl who had been whipped pointed at the man with the whip.

“He’s my dad.”

Some of the others pointed at people in the crowd, saying similar things. That complicated matters.

“I can make them forget what they were doing and that you were involved, but if their minds are made up, sooner or later they will attack you again.”

A boy spoke up. “I don’t want to stay. Mum and dad thinks I have the devil in me.”

Some of the kids started sobbing.

“I can take you somewhere safe, but it will be very different from living here.”

Nobody said anything so I considered it a done deal. I turned to the silent crowd.

“You will forget you ever saw me. The children are dead, you saw them die. You did this to them. Return to your homes and do not come out on the streets again until tomorrow.”

The crowd began to disperse. They would invent the scenes of death I’d told them to imagine and by the morning all traces of mind control would be gone.

I got the kids to form a circle holding hands and then I hopped us to Salice.