Wizards (13 page)

Esmeralda gave Sir Danth a hug.

"I have introduced Jake to all the players, Uncle Danth. I hope it will prove enough."

"It will have to be, Essie. We're in no position to fight a war."

That was it. I was fed up of being used and decided to get to the bottom of it.

"Jenny, why don't you and Sir Danth chat here for a while? I have to have a quiet word with Esmeralda."

I took Esmeralda firmly by the arm and walked her to a corner of the room free of people. She tried to pull her arm from my grasp, but I refused to let go and held her even tighter.

"I shall have a bruise, you brute," Esmeralda complained as I let her go, positioning myself so she couldn't easily escape back into the room. She rubbed her arm furiously.

"Explanations, right now. Or Jenny, Fluffy and I are out of here and hopping back to Wales and you can try and explain that to everyone in this room."

"You just turned up so conveniently."

"And while we're at it. How do you always know where I am?"

"That's your fault. Don't lay that one at my door. I'm the one who has to put up with it." Esmeralda spoke so vehemently I was taken aback for a second. Then I remembered who was conning who.

"I'm not going to wait any longer for an explanation."

I turned as if I was going off to collect Jenny. Esmeralda grabbed me and spun me back to face her.

"You are so self-centered, Jake Morrissey. You would leave us here to die or turned into slaves because we've offended you."

I stared at her dumbly, completely lost for words. Esmeralda seemed to take this as a sign of indifference.

"We are vulnerable. Salice is a rich country, richer in that the Master made us work hard for years and put the wealth we created into the coffers. Half our soldiers were on his side, and when we finally removed him, many brave men died. You didn't notice that. All you saw was an easy victory."

"No one died that I saw."

"You were not everywhere, Jake. Your magic projects around you and protects those with you. You're not even aware you're doing it."

"I see."

"You don't," Esmeralda said. "We are a prize to be taken by anyone with the means, if not by one of the kings in this room, then by any one of their lords or dukes with ambition. That's how kingdoms usually fall. Father is trying to forge alliances with the kingdoms to protect us, but without your victory over Wizard Plath, they wouldn't even have come here.

When you appeared back in your room, it was as if the gods had answered our prayers. And you wanted to come to the ball, with a dragon no less. No one would dare attack us if we could claim a wizard on our side."

"You could have asked me."

"And what if you refused? Let our women be raped and our children made slaves because you couldn't be bothered to help us? A lie was safer for us."

"Hi!" Jenny said brightly as she ran over to us. "Sir Danth said to tell you everyone is going into the ballroom." Jenny came close and held me in her arms, grinning up at me. "It appears you and I really are the guests of honor and it's traditional for the guests of honor to have the first dance."

This was far worse than I'd thought. Not only was I a pawn in Esmeralda's game of political chess, but I was expected to dance in front of other people. Now this might sound stupid, but while I went along with the dress thing and Jenny's desire to see Salice, and even wearing the stupid waiter clothes, I had never considered the possibility that I would be made to dance. I can't dance. My left foot has left feet.

"Jenny, I don't do the dancing thing."

Jenny put her hands on her hips and gave me the sort of stare a killer bull gives a matador before trampling him into the dust.

"Well, you'd better learn damned quick."

"It's traditional. Just the two of you on the dance floor, in front of all our honored guests," Esmeralda chipped in. She was not even trying to hide the smirk on her face.

I know when I am defeated. I took Jenny's hand and stomped into the ballroom. To my surprise, I spotted Grimaldi just in front of us. I stopped behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

"I will need to borrow your large hairbrush tomorrow," I told him grimly as he turned towards me. "Two young ladies are in need of its attention."

Grimaldi grinned and nodded at me as if he understood perfectly.

Jenny and I walked forward into a large clear space in the middle of the dance floor. Hundreds of faces in glittering costumes looked expectantly at the two of us and we took up our position in the very center of the floor. A soft drum roll echoed, indicating the music was about to start.

Jenny pressed her palm against mine and whispered urgently.

"Learn how to dance from me, like we learnt how to speak the language of Salice."

What a brilliant idea. I should have thought of it myself, but then the whole thing took me by surprise. I breathed in and concentrated. Jenny eyes were screwed up tight trying to send me instructions. I opened my mind and took it all in.

The music started. It was in waltz time, a fact I wouldn't have known moments before. There was a little hesitation on my part as I realized I should lead rather than follow, after all, this was Jenny's knowledge. Then we set out across the floor. This was a different kind of learning than taking on a language. It seemed to me it was my legs, arms and feet that now knew what they were doing while I just watched on in awe.

Jenny relaxed as she realized that I knew how to dance. That was fortunate because the death grip she had on my hand was beginning to hurt.

I think we did better than okay because the audience started to clap in appreciation as Jenny spun below my raised hand and she tried out some fancy moves. I have to admit I had no idea that she could dance. I mean, I knew she could shuffle to music in a pub because we'd done that, but what she was doing now was in a different league. It made me wonder, not for the first time, why she was attracted to me. After all, it's not as if I have any real talents.

The music was coming to an end and we were once again in the center of the empty floor. I looked up as a shadow blocked out half the lights in the room and smiled. Fluffy had been dancing with us in glim and was slowly bringing his body into visibility. His massive wings arced in an almost complete circle around us as he danced, reared up and stood tall on his back legs.

When he was fully visible, he floated into the air and rotated into the horizontal. On the very last note Fluffy puffed an enormous smoke ring towards us. Then he vanished. The smoke ring drifted slowly through the air and down onto us, missing our backs by inches. When it hit the floor, it spread outwards in ripples finally dissipating as it reached the feet of the crowd. The applause they gave us went on for minutes. Jenny curtseyed to the onlookers while I tried for a dignified bow.

I woke up the next morning to a soft knock. I'm a light sleeper and wake at home if the cat jumps on my windowsill. Jenny was curled up beside me in the enormous four poster bed. It was so warm we had kicked the sheets off us in the night.

I jumped out of the bed and opened the door a crack. There was nobody there, but I could see I had been left a gift. I picked it up and closed the door.

Apparently, Grimaldi took me at my word. I looked down at the hairbrush in my hands with feelings of satisfaction. Made of dark varnished oak, it was about nine inches long. The back of the head was as smooth as glass and shaped into a curved edged rectangle about four inches by five. It was much heavier than it looked.

I turned back to the bed. Jenny's nightdress had ridden up to her waist during the night and the target presented was beautiful. I grinned and put the brush down on the bedside table as I got back into bed. Jenny's quick thinking saved me the previous night and I had forgiven her.

After our dance, we mingled with the guests late into the night. To my surprise, the King and Queen provided a large buffet for their guests with all sorts of delicious titbits. Somehow, I never associated state balls with fried chicken and baked potato, but in Salice that's exactly how it was.

Jenny and I danced at least a dozen times before the night was over. She drank rather too much fizzy alcohol and I held her upright when I hopped us to our room. She woke up enough to get undressed and then we crashed out. The next thing I knew was the knock at the door.

I picked up the heavy hairbrush and felt its weight against the palm of my hand. While I'd never use such a thing on Jenny, there was one person in the palace for which I considered it more than appropriate. For a wizard, it seems the thought can become the deed and without consciously wishing it, I found myself standing in front of Esmeralda's bed.

She woke the instant I arrived, though I could have sworn I made no sound at all. Her curtains were open and morning sunlight flooded into the room.

"Why are you here, Wizard?" Esmeralda asked irritably as she pulled her sheets higher so they were around her chin.

"How do you do that? How did you know it was me?" This weird ability of hers was beginning to wind me up. It was more than a little disconcerting.

"I know exactly where you are when you're in Salice. I know exactly what you are doing, at all times."

"That's disgusting."

"You dare to lecture me about it! I have to live with it, so believe me when I say I know better than you what you mean. You woke some power in me when you gave me your lucky stones the day we met, and this curse you've bestowed will not go away."

"You see everybody in Salice?"

Esmeralda sighed in exasperation. "No Jake, the only one I ever see is you, all the time. Now tell me, what are you doing in my bedroom?"

I should have felt sorry for her, but discovering she was spying on me every second of the day, regardless of whether she wanted to or not, made me angry again. And there was still the little matter of her using me and telling everyone I was Salice's wizard. I swung the hairbrush so it slapped into my palm. It bloody hurt, but I think I avoided wincing.

"It is time for a reckoning, Princess Esmeralda," I said in my most menacing voice. I slapped the hairbrush into my palm again, this time very gently, though I hoped with a lot of meaning. "You tricked me into coming to this ball and you lied to your guests about my intent in coming here. Lies that could easily have got both me and Jenny killed."

I expected, okay let's be honest, I hoped Esmeralda would cower in her bed and beg my forgiveness. Instead, she looked at me eyes brimming with a steely resolve.

"You are correct, Wizard Morrissey. I have committed a grievous crime against your integrity and the punishment you have come to mete out is certainly deserved. You would be within your rights to kill me for what I've done to you, and what you offer instead is most merciful."

She was playing me again, I was sure of it. I was the one who was supposed to be in charge. However, it felt as though she was leading me on.

"I've been punished many times in my life and so I am familiar with the structure of the punishment you have in mind. Would you prefer me lying over your lap or should I bend over the bed?"

This was all going much too fast for me and I was mentally searching for the pause button. Unfortunately, while that works fine when watching a DVD, this was real life. Esmeralda took my standing there feeling perplexed as an answer and slid out of bed. She positioned herself in front of me, turned and pulled her nightshirt over her head as she bent over the bed placing her head between her arms.

"Do your worst, Wizard Morrissey, for I most surely deserve it. I will do my best not to shame myself or you further by crying out when I am put to my trials."

I took one look at her proffered naked backside and hopped straight back to my room.

"Where have you been, Jake? And what on Earth is the hairbrush for?"

"Nothing," I replied, throwing it away across the room as though it had caught fire.

"Wherever you've been, it seems to have got you excited," Jenny said as she looked meaningfully downwards. I knew exactly what she was referring to. I jumped onto the bed and pulled the sheets up. Sometimes a man could get no privacy at all.

Jenny started to snuggle up to me and I remembered what Esmeralda had said.

"We can't. Not here, not now."

"Why not? You're more than up for it." She squeezed me meaningfully. I gulped.

"She can see me, whatever I do in Salice," I whispered urgently. At the time, I couldn't understand the blank look I received in reply. Why is it a woman can only read your mind when you don't want her to?

"Princess Esmeralda can see every single thing I say and do, every single thing, including this!"

"That bitch!" Jenny exploded. Then interest took over, "How do you know?"

"She just told me." Sometimes I should just bite my tongue and think about it, before I say things out loud.

"Where?"

"Up in her bedroom." See what I mean?

"Let me get this straight. You just hopped back from Princess Esmeralda's room having gone there wearing only your pajamas. How could you?"

Do you see how women can distort the things you say and do and make something completely unfair and unreasonable out of them? I had no option at that point but to explain to Jenny exactly why I went to Esmeralda's room and what I planned to do there. It was a lot less bad than what she was thinking; at least I hoped it was.