Soul of the Sorcerer - Part Three: Daughter of the Dragon (9 page)

Further along the moat, two heavily cloaked figures also watched the Emperor and his strange entourage. The male Ebony Being turned to the female one “I was not aware that they were here!”

“No, but we best not get involved. It is nearly time for us to commence with our main purpose. You keep tracking the sisters while I go and watch the stones on Arrenloft.”  The female being moved out of the crowd while the male turned his attention to the sisters and their stalls.

At the stalls the daughters of Ingemar still huddled together in conversation; “If the Emperor is under some kind of influence from those creatures, it will explain about the recent tax rises.” Justina said.

“But for what purpose?” Maria added.

“Who knows how the minds of Daemen work?” Umaia pondered.

Edala remembered back to her previous encounters with Daemen; “All I can tell you, is that compared to Lord Hozjoh and the possessor Daemon Mordja and their kind, these seem far more subtle in their approach. I don’t think that the Emperor was possessed in anyway...damn…I didn’t even look at them with my soul vision, did you Justy?”  

Justina blushed slightly, something she did not very often do!

“No sorry Eadie, I’m a bit out of practice when it comes to Daemen!”

Maria pondered for a moment before speaking, “I think we need to try and find out what’s going on, just in case we need to prepare to leave the city in a hurry. It would not be good for us to be here if what happened at Seadawn starts to happen here!”

“I think the Urchin needs to pay them a visit and listen to what is said behind closed doors!” Edala said with a wry smile.

“Are you sure child, if you get caught it may be beyond our means to rescue you?” Maria said with a mixture of concern and affection on her face.

“What could possibly go wrong?” Edala concluded with a cheeky grin.

Her sisters all rolled their eyes in unison.

It had only been twenty four hours since Bethany had been strong enough to stand on her feet again and since that time she had lived through a torrent of sensory overload in Lloyd’s world; cars, planes, trains and people, more people than she had seen in her whole life up to this point. But the thing that had struck her the most was the noise.

In Lloyd’s home village it had not been too bad, but in the busy local town, it was a wonder that anyone got any sleep.

“Try these!” Amy’s voice said before the curtain to the changing cubicle opened and a blue pair of jeans came through, “They are a size bigger than the last pair” Amy added, luckily Bethany wasn’t completely acclimatised to Earth culture and was probably sometime off from developing the over image conscious state of mind of many young women, and men for that matter.

Bethany slipped the jeans over her legs and the light pink underwear that Amy had also bought for her, the jeans fitted very nicely, showing curves that she would never have dared reveal back home. She paused, as if sad for a moment, with some recollection of a childhood memory, “
It’s fine Mother I’m not going to follow you into your profession!”
she whispered into the air.

Outside the waiting room Darrion and Lloyd sat glumly on two spare chairs in the nearby shoe department.

“I don’t understand how you and I can purchase everything we need in a matter of half an hour and yet two hours later we are still waiting for your Mother and Bethany!” Darrion said, failing to conceal the abject boredom from his voice.

“I would like to say you get used to it,” the young Sorcerer replied “but you never do.”

At this point Amy and Bethany emerged from the store changing rooms, Bethany already dressed in blue jeans and a white t-shirt, and in their arms they carried a number of other items.

“Right, we are done, just need to pay.” Amy said leading Bethany towards the
Pay Here
sign; Darrion and Lloyd trudged along like automatons behind them.

Within a few minutes they walked through a pair of large doors out into the busy high street.

“LLOYD!” an excited voice yelled at him from across the street. A young man, a few inches shorter than Lloyd and dressed in a very smart suit, dodged through the cars in the street and crossed over, as he got closer Lloyd recognised the face of Paul Watson and grinned in recognition. The two gripped hands warmly and then slipped into conversation like only old friends can.

“Man! I hardly recognised you with a beard; I was starting to think the rumours of you being dead were true!”

“No they were overrated, what have they been saying about me?”

“Well, not being nasty, but you vanishing off to London with your Mum...hello Doctor Brook,” he added hastily seeing Amy standing beside Darrion, “well me and the lads thought that was well suspicious after Mr Miller tried to cut that necklace from your neck.”

Lloyd instinctively reached up to his chest and could feel the large coin sized Talisman of Joran cold against his skin, it had felt cold ever since he had restored the forbidden tomes.

Lloyd looked at his Mother and Darrion, “I’m going to tell him everything, they all knew about my soul vision and the circle of stones anyway.”

“If you’re sure; why don’t you go for a coffee somewhere here’s some cash, we will meet you at home, take the 101 bus” she said placing some notes in his hand.

“Do you wanna come Beth?” he asked the redhead.

“Yes please” she said placing her bundle of bags into Darrion’s hands. The Master sighed the sigh of a defeated man.

“Where shall we go?” Lloyd asked his friend who still seemed to have the same air of excitement about him he had had since the first year of school.

“Blow the coffee, I will buy you a beer! I was meeting up with Danny and Reese anyway, as we are celebrating Reese joining the army.” the wiry young man replied.

“Oooh beer!” Bethany grinned, “I like your old friends already.”

The pub they entered was part of a nationwide chain of pubs providing food, as well as all manner of beer, and it seemed very popular with the young.

His other two childhood friends were already halfway through a pint and they did a double take, first at the bearded Lloyd and then at the curvaceous redhead who walked in holding his arm.

A few years ago, the child in them would have probably whispered the chant of “GINGER” to each other, now though, the indications were that this girl was in the early stages of being a flowering beauty.

“Alright Brooksy?” Danny Pope said with a grin, he was still tall, but not as wiry as he had once been. Lloyd could tell from his grin, under his roman like nose, that he was genuinely pleased to see him. Unlike Paul, who had crossed to the bar, he was dressed in Jeans and t-shirt similar to Reese Woodgate sitting beside him.

Reese had matured a lot since the day that they had all attended the fateful metalwork lesson together, gone were the freckles and his hair had been cut to meet army requirements.  He also greeted Lloyd with a smile, even though it was a shocked one.

“Alright mate! I can’t believe how long it’s been since we’ve seen you and you turn up now with a beard and a beautiful girlfriend!”

“This is my friend Beth, she is still learning our language, so you may need to speak a little slowly.

“Oh, where are you from?” Reese asked Bethany, however, it was Lloyd who replied.

“Guys, listen. Do you remember my rainbow vision and the spot I sometimes spoke of which seemed to hover in front of my eyes?”

They all nodded, “well it got a whole lot more interesting than that…”

It was about twenty minutes later that Lloyd finally finished the story. Mind you, it had meant dragging his old friends into the quiet pub garden to demonstrate casting electric darts into the air, to convince them that both Bethany and he were mages.

“Feck me! And I thought me joining the army was going to be the exciting career path.” Reese replied.

They all returned to their table where Paul Watson again insisted on buying all of them another beer. As he went to the bar Lloyd turned to the other two “So what’s Watty up to these days, flash suit and buying all the beer?”

“He’s just qualified from his electronic engineering apprenticeship, he’s getting paid a packet, but he always looks after us.” Danny Pope replied.

“What about you Dan?” Lloyd asked.

“I’ve just started work for the metal fabrication company that I did my apprenticeship with; at the moment I’m still the junior welder, but it’s better than doing nothing.”

After the second pint Lloyd decided that it was not too good an idea for Beth to be drinking too much after just recovering from the Daemon venom; she had not been saying much and he had noticed that her eyes were beginning to dilate from the alcohol. He necked the remainder of his pint and suggested that they started making a move home.

“Let’s all give Lloyd our contact details, and arrange for a proper drinking session when he’s next back in town.” Paul Watson suggested. This they did and there was then many an embrace, especially with Bethany in the
Happy Stage
of inebriation, before they parted ways and the two air mages jumped on the 101 bus back to the village.

The United Kingdom’s National Health Service had been Doctor Amy Brook’s employer all of her working life. It was often a much maligned organisation, but it was one that gave the best care it could to all, no matter their status or wealth; it had even given her lovely Grandmother Rebecca a hip replacement at the age of ninety nine and she had walked again having a happy and pain free last few years of her life; which ended at the age of one hundred and three. She therefore really valued the NHS and the principles it represented, her loyalty to it even meant turning down several opportunities for work in the private sector. Therefore, what she was doing at the moment, planning on stealing several very expensive bits of equipment, was genuinely mortifying.

After Darrion had explained about it being very hard to translocate to a location without first seeing it, Amy had arranged to visit an old work colleague who worked in the Accident and Emergency department. This was so that Darrion, Lloyd and Bethany could follow her ethereally to check for locations they may be able to translocate to in the dead of night and hopefully acquire the equipment that Amy would need to give Boadaiska the best chance of survival.

“So it would be a bit of a change from what you have been used to” her friend Susan Johnson said, referring to the consultant position which was opening at the hospital.

“I think I would like to freshen up some of my old skills” she replied to the afro-Caribbean woman, who was as stunning now as she had been when they had met back in university.
If Kenelm ever met this woman there would be no stopping him,
she thought to herself.

“Have there been any changes to the life support equipment in recent years? I could do with a run over it, if there has. That way I might be able to answer some questions during the interview.” she asked.

“Sure, let me take you to the equipment store” Susan replied, before leading the way with Amy following eagerly.

The store room door was protected by a pin encoded lock; Amy did not pay much attention to Susan as she entered the key, but she did not need to.

Outside the hospital Darrion, Bethany and Lloyd sat on a bench in a small ornamental garden, intended for use by patients and their families, the setting sun casting them in a glow of red. Even though they were all dressed in contemporary earth clothing, they drew many a strange look from passers-by as they sat there, eyes closed, each clutching a small crystal ball in their hands.

The three mages carefully studied Susan typing the four digit number and remembered the pin; they would need it later because the translocation spell would not carry them through a closed door. Luckily the main hospital entrance was an automatic door and they made plans accordingly.

Amy found them, still on the bench, an hour later and she handed each a sandwich and takeaway coffee which she had bought in the hospital cafe. The time passed slowly for Amy while they waited until about eleven in the evening, when the hospital would be quietening down. Luckily it was not a weekend, when night times are usually very busy, especially for Accident and Emergency departments, with revellers over doing their alcohol consumption.

Fortunately, for Lloyd, Bethany and Darrion, the time went far faster, as each meditated to help ensure their air soul portal was as fully charged as possible.

Because of Lloyd’s local knowledge he was to direct Bethany in the translocation of the equipment to the garden at the back of the house in the village. Darrion’s task was to be sure they would not be detected by any of the security cameras and help Amy in wedging open any closed doors which may impede the translocation spell.

Dead on midnight Darrion strolled into the hospital dressed in a baseball cap and wearing the weakest pair of reading glasses that Amy had been able to find. It wasn’t much of a disguise but it would suffice.

“Can I help you sir?” asked a chubby security man in a dark blue uniform; Darrion approached the reception desk behind which he sat.

“Yes please, I am trying to find this.” he said reaching towards the man with a small piece of folded paper in his hand; as the man took hold of the paper Darrion touched the man’s hand with his right index finger, while simultaneously pointing at the main security camera junction box, with his left.

The man froze on the spot, paralysed by the powerful jolt that shot through his body. The junction box vibrated with energy and the cables feeding to and from it strained against their fixings as the high current flowing through them caused an electromagnetic field to be produced.

Amy was quickly by the security man’s side to help lower him to the floor; she checked his pulse.

“He’s fine, move to the main passage and check that no doors are locked” she ordered. A look of relief came over Darrion’s face on hearing the news that the man would be okay.

He headed up the main corridor, banks of pale white lighting reflecting on the blue tiled floor beneath his feet. At the end of the corridor he turned right at a T junction and found the first set of heavy fire doors which would need wedging open. Normally these would always be open, but the automatic closing mechanism for this one must have failed. He reached into his back pocket and retrieved a plastic wedge Amy had given him. He pulled open one of the doors and kicked the wedge tight underneath it.

Running onwards he passed several ward entrances, which were also security key protected doors. At the end of the corridor it turned left and Darrion could see the way was clear to the equipment storeroom they had followed Amy to earlier. He reached his hand into his coat, retrieving his crystal, and began the spell to contact Lloyd.

“Lloyd the path is clear.” Darrion’s voice filled Lloyd’s mind.

“You ready Beth?” he asked his friend, who nodded and stood up off of the bench from where they had been seated for most of the day.

They both visualised the equipment door and recited the spell to translocate them to the area just in front of it. They were pleased that it was not that far to travel, as they used the version of the spell which needed more power in an effort to reduce any disturbance at the point of destination.

Even so, when they appeared, a concussion of air expanded down the hallway causing windows to rattle and a stack of papers to fly into the air from a desk at a nurses’ station near the end of the corridor. The spell had been a necessary risk; however, as they needed to know that the path to the door would allow translocation, meaning that their mission to steal the medical equipment had a chance of success.

Lloyd punched in the key code and opened the door with a relieved smile. Sitting behind it were the various bits of equipment they were after. His Mother had indicated these earlier by tapping her right index finger on them three times during her tour. It had been moved around since they had watched from afar, but fortunately the devices they needed were still either free standing on the floor of the room or stacked in boxes on shelves.

It took them about a minute to find everything they needed and neither noticed the movement behind them in the door frame as they cast the translocation spell.

“What do you think you are doing?” a crisp female voice made them jump as they uttered the last word.

In the second before they vanished, they turned just in time to see Amy’s friend Susan, collapse from an electrifying touch from Darrion. They did not see that, unfortunately, in his race to get to her, his momentum had made it difficult to catch the tall woman, and she fell forward, head bashing against the door handle with a thud.

“Damn!” Darrion said dropping to his knees, Amy was at his side in an instant, checking the unconscious doctors pulse and head injury. Susan’s eyes opened and she winced in pain “Amy?” she said as her vision focussed on her friend and she sat up slowly.

“That man with a beard and a girl with ginger hair vanished into thin air with the equipment I was showing you yesterday!” she said, a mixture of confusion and accusation.

“There’s going to be only one way to explain this. Do you think you can transport all three of us home?” she said to her husband.

Susan watched as the man next to Amy looked into mid air, “I believe so my love, it is only a few leagues after all.”

He took hold of both Amy and Susan’s hands and said the words of the translocation spell.