A Change of Fortune

Chapter 2:

  It was very quiet in Morocco, most of the male Kobi-Wynn in New York, even Yiko, and almost all the women and children. Ahjmed, Adil and Hicham were enjoying making themselves feared, a couple of the younger ones, enthusiastic fighters as well. Gossip came back to the prisoners who shared it about. There was little else to talk about, after all. There had been a lot of dueling, both between the Kobis and against American wizard law-keepers, referred to as Svend, who tried to protect their community from being inflicted with unpleasant spells. At least they mostly left medj alone. Ahjmed killed Usman in a duel, and Iyad killed both Tsotuno, who was only seventeen, and Ichiri.

  Narzu-Han left Morocco, and they heard he’d led a rescue. Faheem and Iyad had been arrested by the American Svend, but were free again. There were whispers of a terrible revenge taken against American wizardry. The prisoners tended to assume that any wizard was better dead, and were unconcerned when they heard of yet another Kobi death - Seiji.

  There were only seven Kobi-Wynn Fighters left now, plus Haru and the youths. There was also supposed to be another, but very old, in Japan - a teacher. Hicham returned to Morocco. There was a new generation in Enclosure 1, Marietta, Bridget, Angini, others, Helene still leader. Emma was still there, still only nineteen, still not popular. Two new ones arrived. Ingrid was small and blonde, just fourteen, and wore a white wristband. Treen was fifteen.

  As was usual with new ones, Valencio was roped in by Kaede to start teaching them Arabic, an hour each morning, more if they wanted. Treen was sullen and resentful, hating the wizards, hating the world. Ingrid was very frightened, but by the end of the week, the scabs of scratch marks over the numbers on their arms were starting to heal. Valencio left it to Helene to press on them the importance of absolute obedience to the wizards, and only tried to cheer them up by mocking the ‘bloody wizards’ as he started getting them familiar with the new language they should know.

  After a week, Ingrid said to him slowly, “I have to go to Hicham tonight.”

  Valencio glanced uneasily at Kaede, who sat close. He didn’t know what to say, and Hicham could be so rough.

  Kaede said calmly, “Just try and do as he says. He may very likely claim you as Favorite, which is to your advantage.”

  Valencio said, “He’s pretty dumb. It shouldn’t be too hard to please him,” and he went into an act, opening eyes wide, glistening with unshed tears, sighing piteously, saying, “Oh, Hicham. I was so frightened, but you make me feel so safe. Please, will you be my Favorite?”

  Ingrid giggled, though with a suggestion of impending tears, and Kaede suggested, “Ask Mariabella. She was his Favorite before he went to New York.”

  Valencio added, “Astra before that, and Margaret was his for years. They all thought he was all right, as far as I know.”

  “Helene told me he’s got bad breath and I should try hard not to make a face.”

  Valencio remembered Hicham’s passionate kisses - he’d hated that, but at least he hadn’t had bad breath then.

  Treen said, “I wish I was a Favorite. Easier to have just one than a different one every night, and maybe more from tomorrow, Abensur said.”

  Kaede took over and Valencio sat back, absent-mindedly removing a blade from a seam. Just innocent girls! The bastard wizards had no right!

  Kaede glanced at his expressionless face and then to his hands as a blade passed from one to the other. She said calmly, “Thank you, Valencio. We might forget about Arabic for today. Same time tomorrow, if you will.”

  Valencio gathered himself, smiled at the pair, wished them luck and walked away, his stride getting faster until he was running as hard as he could, but not in sight of the girls. Even now, it made him so terribly, terribly angry.

  Enclosure 2 had some astonishing news at breakfast. Little Ingrid had resisted, but instead of forcing her, maybe punishing her, Hicham had let her out of his room and she’d run back to the enclosure all by herself. Not only that, but she’d actually taken up a shoe, and beaten him with it! Valencio was flabbergasted. Hicham! He remembered that first time with him, being yanked roughly to his feet because he didn’t answer to ‘No. 143.’ That Hicham could have tolerated disobedience! There was a lot of speculation. It wasn’t only Valencio who found it hard to believe. It was the first intimation the prisoners had that something might have changed.

  Ingrid was at the morning lesson as usual, but quiet and very apprehensive, forcibly reminding Valencio of how he’d felt the day after he’d killed Charandev. She no longer wore her white wristband, but it had not been replaced by yellow for Hicham. Could it be that the girl had lied? That she’d simply been rejected? But Hicham wasn’t hard to arouse and Ingrid was a beautiful young girl.

  Kaede merely went on with the lesson as if nothing had happened, and Valencio took his cue from her. What if he’d had that opportunity? No extra guards outside the door and she’d been outside the enclosure area, in Hicham’s own room. He could have rendered him unconscious, stolen a robe, put on a casual air of assurance and power, and strolled out the gates. He grinned ruefully to himself. Nearly all the guards did their stint in the enclosure, and there would be few who didn’t know him by sight. He would have made the attempt, of course. He would have been leaving Tasha and Emma and all the others. But maybe he could have brought help...

  There was no word of punishment for Ingrid, not that day and not the next. Valencio didn’t hear the details, but Helene told him that Haru had chosen Ingrid from a line-up, and, naturally, had punished when she was not immediately obedient. “I’ve got my fingers crossed he didn’t notice she was virgin. He never takes any notice of those he uses, so maybe he didn’t.”

  But still, the wizards didn’t seem to know what had happened when she’d gone to Hicham.

  Daily lessons for the girls continued. Neither of them spoke to Valencio about ‘work’ any more, but after a while, they started to look less unhappy. They were getting accustomed to the life. It was still a mystery how a slight girl, scarcely more than a child, had managed to beat up a powerful wizard. At last, a whisper went around that there may have been something happen to the powerful Kobi-Wynn, something to do with the English wizard, John Bellamy. But the information was vague and all that was known for sure was that a lot of them were travelling, none but Hicham had returned, and that there was no talk of the children returning.

  Then there was something else happen that was wildly unusual. Treen gave Valencio the news, whistling at him as he ran the perimeter track. “A girl Kobi-Wynn. Smaller than Ingrid. Not at all pretty, with a nose that looks too big for her face. She appeared outside the enclosure and asked us what we were doing here, so we told her.”

  “What did she say?”

  “She told Abensur to show her the classrooms.”

  There were more details by breakfast the following morning. That her name was Zhor, that she was thirteen and had demanded lessons, though none of the prisoners had ever known a girl being allowed access to live subjects. But this time, it seemed it was permitted, as Clarence, Didi and Sheri were advised that they were needed for work.

  They were back before lunch, and reported that Zhor was the only student, and Haru had started by just testing her on the incantations for many of the Vidi-Curses, before having her practice, first, tying up and then stunning. Clarence moaned that he had so many bruises, but Clarence always complained, and there was anti-bruising lotion.

  Valencio asked, “How did she go at stunning?”

  “Did it first try. She did everything first try.”

  Different ones the following day, and it became a regular thing. Each time they were silenced, though they were only silenced normally if they made a nuisance of themselves. By the end of the week, they had some gossip from a different source. “She’s Riza’s pet, showing indications of enhanced power and a strong telepathic talent.”

  There were ten used the day that Valencio was included, and it seemed that Zhor was to learn to inflict some of t
he minor curses. Donkey ears, which seemed a standard and simple one, commonly used. Valencio loathed looking a fool, but followed his normal practice and just looked away and tried to be patient. If he ever actually looked at a student, the guards always jumped to attention, even now.

  It was Shirley’s turn, the successful donkey ears making the Kobi girl smile in pleasure. Valencio glanced at his friend and looked away, pained. Suddenly he jumped and stared at the arrogant Kobi girl, who flinched and stepped back, holding her head. Rafu and Hwang promptly raised their wands, threatening. Valencio took his eyes off the girl and looked away as if indifferently, shutting himself off from her mind’s exploration, as he’d done with Yiko and Narzu-Han.

  Haru looked at him suspiciously before questioning Zhor, but in Japanese. Valencio heard his name a few times, but could not understand what they were saying. Haru made up his mind and said, “Valencio, you are not wanted any more. You are to be returned to the enclosure.”

  Two additional guards made their appearance. Expressionless, Valencio allowed himself to be escorted back to the enclosure. He tried to explain to Carol - “She was looking into my mind, and I felt it and did something to stop her, I think. Because then she was holding her head and glaring at me.”

  Carol looked at him thoughtfully. “Maybe it’s time you thought carefully whether you might have some telepathy and try and develop it.”

  Valencio replied doubtfully, “I thought only wizards could have that.”

  Helene told him the following day that according to Shar-kutsu, only wizards could have telepathy, and when it was detected within the Kobis, there would be special teaching.

  Valencio asked, “Nikola?”

  Helene smiled, “She has him talking freely these days, and says he never seems to notice when he’s being pumped for information, except that he looks at her hopefully afterwards for his reward.”

  “So how are they taught?”

  “He didn’t seem to know, though he told her about the test they did before Sorting, trying to ensure none with the talent were made el-Kobi. It starts to become stronger around mid-teens, he said, but there are always indications earlier.”

  Valencio said, “Well, I’ll try, of course. But I’ve never yet known what a guard was thinking.”

  “Narzu-Han?”

  “Occasionally, but he was different. Because he had it himself, he could talk to me without words, sometimes.”

  The prisoners were still unsure if anything had happened to the men, only knowing that it was very quiet and the el-Kobi were worried and unhappy. The Kobi-Wynn, both men and women, seemed to be scattered, although Yiko was back in Japan, they heard. Narzu-Han was supposed to be in Turkey, Nikola discovered from Shar-kutsu, who’d heard from Abensur.

  The lessons for Zhor went on for nearly two months, but then they were abruptly cut short mid-week, when Riza returned to Morocco. Valencio had not been used again. Zhor was now proficient in all the standard control spells aside from the Pain Curse, and was skilled in numerous Vidi-Curses. She had not been taught anything painful, though the slaves knew from experience that other students would have been working on the Spell of Pain at her level of competence.

  Gloria was steaming one day. “Bloody witch. Elephant skin, and Haru couldn’t undo it. He tried again and again, and then he tried to get her to undo it herself and she couldn’t. I thought I’d be like that forever!”

  Valencio asked, “Did Hicham fix it then?”

  “Haru finally managed it. I don’t know why he didn’t ask Hicham, but it wasn’t even suggested.” Hicham’s magic was failing, although word had not yet filtered through to the slaves. As far as anyone knew, Zhor was the only Kobi-Wynn child left in Morocco, a few were in Japan, and the rest were presumably travelling with their mothers or teachers.

  At last, there was some definite information. It came from Bridget and was confirmed by Nikola, both of them experts at gathering information. That the Kobi-Wynn, men and women, were scattered around the world, some unable to be found. Nearly all the children were gone too, and that most of the Fighters were out trying to find them, only a minimum left to guard the Compound. It was because of something that the English wizard, John Bellamy, had done to them. He’d set out to destroy the family, except that he hadn’t killed any. He’d done something else, something to their minds.

  It was hard for them to believe. For the prisoners, the wizards were so powerful - it seemed, invincible. That Narzu-Han and Yiko could have been defeated! All the others, as well. Ahjmed, Adil, Hicham - feared all over Arabia and Asia. Defeated by just one man. It was John Bellamy whom Brahim had gone to, to have a spell reversed. And now it sounded like he might have put a spell on Ahjmed, Yiko, Narzu-Han, Iyad, Hicham, Faheem and Adil.

  Valencio thought of it in pleasure. He hoped Adil was suffering! But Narzu-Han? He was a bloody wizard, and he should be happy he’d been defeated, but instead, it made him acutely uncomfortable. He laughed to himself, imagining the scenario of Narzu-Han being attacked while he was present. He’d have had to fight off the impulse to go to his defense. Maybe slaves did things like that, out of some sort of misplaced loyalty to their masters.

  Speculation continued, though they took great care what they said to the wizards. The children were all gone. That was something possibly even more significant than the defeat of the men - if they really had been defeated. There were not many children anyway, as Riza had become very selective.

  “There’s Salo, Museveni and Laki,” Shirley said. “They were Kobi-Wynn.”

  “There’s more, but they’re not here, not in Japan, and maybe they’ve gone, like several did some years ago.”

  “No wonder, I’d go if I were in a family like this.”

  “A wonder they don’t clear out before the Sorting,” said Valencio. “I certainly would have done.”

  “Leave everything you know at the age of eleven or twelve?”

  “If necessary.”

  Kaede said, “Sterilizing them at the age of thirteen. It’s an atrocious breach of human rights.”

  “And then breeding the chosen ones like pedigree horses or something...”

  Carol said slowly, “If the children are gone, what’s to become of us? They’ll have no use for us.”

  Riza was still travelling a great deal, they heard. Yiko was in Japan, and was not travelling at all. They were sure now. Something had happened, and something very significant. What was it to mean for them?

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