The Event - Tales of the Triad, Book One

Chapter 8 - Enemies

  Dogg moved with the pack. He knew he was the leader and that he was changing, but the how and why eluded him. It didn't seem to matter that much, either, as long as he was running the show. His thought process was sharper in some ways, but different than before. The world around him looked, smelled and tasted like never before and he could see in the dark far better than in the light.

  He was becoming a creature of the shadows and he continually looked for the place he wanted to be. He found it in the sewers and the underground, some of which still survived. He realized that there were others like him and he could feel their presence, some close, some miles away. He searched for them and gradually found many willing to follow him. They still looked like people, no fangs, disjointed arms, or grotesque faces, but they were not human.

  They were becoming Goblins. They didn't name themselves that and they were not Goblins of Hollywood or of fairy tales. They were the race who had been here before, from which the legends and tales began after this small section of the universe containing earth and a few billion cubic light years of space had fallen into the rip.

  The eyes were the greatest physical change, being large and the iris being able to open wider, like a cat, to take advantage of every speck of light available. If you would see them, you would be hard pressed to call them anything but slightly odd in appearance. Mentally, they were still just as smart as any human. They slowly came to hate all who were not them and they became more cruel in their nature, to the weak among themselves, but especially to any other being that fell into their hands. In this, their cruel nature and their hatred, Dogg's clan matched the movie version of Goblins.

  There were those among them, like Dogg, who could control the dire wolves and other dark creatures and who could use the crystals. These were the leaders and each leader gathered those around them into tribes and lead them underground. Underground they would build their strength and learn who they were, before returning to raid the Human settlements.

  Dogg led the thirty members of his tribe through the underground waterways beneath the lava encrusted city of Atlanta. Within the group, two captives struggled through the dark, the occasional patch of light only making the darkness between all the worse. A man and a woman, both in their early twenty's, were naked and bruised from the beatings they were still receiving. They were doing their best not to fall, knowing that they would be dragged through the muck until they got to their feet again, with the kicks and fists of their captors to urge them on. Their hands tied with wire and gags choking them, the one didn't even know the name of the other. The only knowledge shared between them was that they were helpless and these people had no interest in mercy.

  The third captive had been killed in front of them when he had fallen and broken his leg. With no interest in carrying the prisoner, the Goblins followed the basic instinct within each of them. If you're not Goblin, you're food. The couple could only look at each other, horrified at the fate of the unknown man and fearing that this was also the end reserved for them.

  Ahead, the concrete channel gave way to a natural cave system, formed during the waves of change that had swept over the earth. Many such structures had come into existence during that time and would be used by many who survived that time. These were to be home to the people of the Dogg, as they would come to be known among the many branches of the Goblin hierarchy. Now they moved into their new home, Dogg leading them to the one place he knew his power over them would be made permanent, the crystal cavern, several miles ahead.

  The ground became more uneven and many rocks, large and small caused the Humans to trip, stub toes and cut their legs, until Dogg ordered them carried. By holding each of the captives over the heads of three Goblins, the group was able to actually run through the dark. They soon reached the cavern that Dogg desired to make his home. First, he touched a lite crystal and caused it to emit a low yellow glow, which to Goblin eyes, was enough to see across most of the open space. To the Humans, it was enough to see a few feet around the crystal itself and not much more than dim shadows at that.

  The group waited while Dogg searched for the crystal he wanted first, the dark energy that would confirm his authority over his people and give him mastery over other Goblin tribes as well. He found several, including a monster almost fifteen feet tall and called his followers over with the prisoners. He had one of the Humans laid across the crystals and, drawing his knife, nicked the jugular of the man.

  Holding him against the largest crystal, Dogg pushed his power through the dying mans chest and fed the ebbing life into the dark crystal, which took on a sickly glow from the sacrifice. It took several hours for the man to finally die, but when it was done, Dogg had his power base in his kingdom.

  Filtering the energy flow through the blood of a dying Human was only one of the ancient memories coming back to the new generation of Goblins and there were some parts of the ancient knowledge that would only return to the magic users. The same could be said of all the races, with the greater the magic ability, the greater the knowledge of what went before and in the case of a few Wizards, what may come in the future.

  The woman captive would meet the same fate in the morning, when Dogg had rested and fed, but she found that it would have been better to have died sooner. The Goblins took great pleasure in exacting the maximum suffering from their prisoners, usually in the crudest and most personal ways possible. Tomorrow she would welcome death and the people of the Dogg would start building their new home.

  Frank and his group had fractured again. Changes were still growing and differences were causing stress and distrust among the people. Frank and his people were becoming shorter and stockier, with powerful muscles and sturdy bones. His people didn't prefer dark or light, but were at home in either. They did like the underground spaces they found and worked the stone with skill and craftsmanship which seemed to spring from nowhere. In fact, it sprang from the genetic history still embedded within them, just as the other peoples were reacting to the genetic history of their ancestry.

  They were becoming Dwarfs. While there were some physical changes, the greatest change was mental, like the Goblins. Unlike the Goblins, they did not hate others; they merely preferred their own company to that of others. The interest of the Goblins was power and destruction of all others. The interest of the Dwarfs was creation of a world within, a place of beauty, of stone and minerals, of carvings and crafts, of metal and crystal and precious materials, a world built around those things which they loved.

  The Goblins too, had their crafts, and carvings, but it seemed a twisted version of the Dwarf kingdom, cruder, more bloodthirsty.

  In many instances, the split between Human and Dwarf was peaceful, the two groups simply drifting apart, each to the interests of their heart. In other places it was more heated, even violent. How the rift formed and the later feelings of each small community toward the other species began here. In many communities, Dwarf and Human began with trade and respect, if not friendship. In others bigotry took root at once and ruled the lives of the region for centuries.

  Frank saw the airship coming from the south and waved at the men with him. Pointing, he indicated the airship and moved further into the underbrush. They were hunting for six goats which had escaped from their pen.

  Goats were becoming more important to the Dwarf colony, because of their size and diet, as well as the fact that they were not susceptible to many of the health problems that cattle were and, for their size, they gave a lot of milk.

  Frank and the others had been searching for the animals for almost three hours now and they were close. He didn't need any visitors to make the chase any longer than it already was. The airship, silent in the sky, continued on toward the Human colony a few miles distant and Frank motioned his men to continue after the goats. He wondered who they were and how the ship stayed in the air, but the goats were more important, nearly half his herd being involved in the escape. They were very close and he was impatient to get them ba
ck where they belonged. He had other work waiting on him and it wouldn't take care of itself.

  Joshua directed John toward the last position of the colony he had been asked to leave. Cecilia was behind him, nervously clutching his hand and biting the nails of her free hand. Elizabeth leaned on Cecilia's shoulder, trying to see past all of the bodies between her and the cockpit windshield.

  She and Cecilia had quickly become friends, together with Tricia and didn't wish to be apart if they could help it. Tricia was with Christine, working on learning animal husbandry in the new farmland on the Citadel, as the plateau had come to be known. John wasn't sure who started it, just one day everyone was calling it that. Cecilia wanted to see her dad, so she was along and Elizabeth wanted to be there for her friend and see some more of the country.

  Joshua was the one who knew exactly where the colony was, but wasn't too happy about returning, even if it was as an ambassador from the Citadel. He hoped it would be a peaceful reunion, but he had his hand resting on the butt of his wand, all the same. He pointed with his left hand, his right still in a death grip from Cecilia. “See the trees next to the bend of the river? The colony was about three hundred yards to the west of that bend. We can land at the clearing there.”

  John nodded, swinging the airship west and slowing down, decreasing the altitude and circling the clearing to get a view of the ground before touching down near the center. When the motion had stopped, Joshua disentangled himself from Cecilia and moved to the door, wand in hand. John got up and motioned for Elizabeth to take the pilots seat, while he moved to back up Joshua at the door. Cecilia hung back a few feet from John but exited the ship when they did and moved across the clearing toward the now visible buildings and fences.

  “Looks like a thriving community from here.”

  “They had a good start when I left. When WE left, that is.” Joshua pointed at a woman peering at them from the edge of the village. “That looks like Tammy, doesn't it, Cecilia?”

  “Uh-huh, it does.” She waved and called out, “Miss Tammy, its Cecilia. Hellooo!”

  The woman hesitantly waved back then more excitedly began moving around the fence and coming toward the approaching three. When she got closer, they could see the smile on her face as she ran to Cecilia and threw her arms around the girl.

  “Baby sister, it is so good to see you again. We've been so worried about you after, you know, you and Frank had words. I prayed you would find Joshua and he would take care of you.” Looking at Joshua, she said. “I see it happened.” She let go of Cecilia and hugged Joshua as well. “Everyone is going to be so happy to see you two. Come on, I'll make sure nobody takes a shot at you.”

  “Thanks, I feel better now.” John smiled and held out his hand. “My names John and I take it that you are Miss Tammy?”

  “If you're a friend of theirs, then you're welcome here as well. Nice to meet you.”

  They walked back toward the village, seeing more people, some with bows or spears in their hands, all looking curiously at the visitors, but somewhat reassured by the actions of Tammy. As they walked through the gate, many of the people crowded around Cecilia and Joshua, hugging them and shaking hands.

  There were a lot of questions about where they went and about the airship. Joshua introduced John and told them a little about what had gone on since he and Cecilia had seen them last. Then it was Cecilia's turn, and she asked about Frank.

  Tammy answered her. “He's fine. He and his people finally started their own place about a week after you left. It was touchy for a while, people changing and all and Joshua doing his thing. Once we split up and we started seeing each other in the field, we would wave and chat or help each other with work and we've been getting along fine. We can't live together, but we make good neighbors.”

  Joshua nodded. “That's probably a good thing. Once I left, I really missed you people, but I knew that if I stayed and tried to force the issue, well, it would have been bad. I think good neighbors are the best for all of us, right now.”

  People nodded in agreement. John spoke up for the first time since the back slapping had stopped. “We're just here for a visit ourselves so Cecilia could visit her dad first, but just to say hi and let you know that there are others out there, that you're not on your own unless you want to be. We are trying to map out the different settlements and the danger zones, so that we can all benefit from trade and shared knowledge.”

  Willie, an older, slender black man spoke up. “Trade? What do we have that you want? Better yet what do you have that we want?”

  “You're a farm community, yes? I'm a blacksmith. Do you need my services?”

  Willie nodded. “Damn straight. I've got two busted plows and horses that need shoes. What do you want in trade?”

  John smiled. “Seed. Heritage seed, no hybrid stuff. Scrap metals, so I don't have to spend time gathering it up and these.” He held up a crystal.

  “You want broken glass?”

  “These are special crystals. They power our airship and there are many in a cave near here. We will mine them ourselves if you don't want to, but we will pay you for the privilege.”

  The villagers looked at each other. “A cave you say. Which direction?”

  Joshua responded, “Southeast.”

  “Well, it sounds good to us, but you may need to talk to Frank about the cave. He and his kind tend to claim them.”

  “That's fine. We will want to talk with him anyway. If you have any ideas how we can stay together and help each other and any other communities we may find I would like to hear them. I don't want to move in, I just want to stay in contact and share information and of course, trade.”

  Tammy nodded. “We will think about it. That's all I'll promise right now.”

  “That's good enough. Do you have any sick or injured? We can offer some help there as well.”

  They talked for a moment among themselves and pointed to a small house nearby. One of the boys had taken a bad fall, and was hurt inside, ribs and maybe more. John sent Joshua back to move the ship closer and to get Elizabeth, who had the best healing skills in the group. After introducing her, they followed Tammy to the house.

  The youngster, Jackie, about thirteen years old, was in serious pain. His face was gray and he was having a hard time breathing. The villagers had made him as comfortable as they could and given him what medical attention they had available, mostly keep him clean, liquids and soups when he wanted them and keep him company when he was afraid.

  Elizabeth touched his abdomen lightly and recoiled from the massive infection she felt inside. She pulled a brilliant blue crystal, laced with golden threads and held it close to her breast. Her right hand went to the same spot on the boy’s abdomen as earlier, but this time she didn't actually touch him. Her hand hovered about the place where she felt the greatest mass of corruption and began to glow with the same light as the crystal in her left hand.

  The boy stopped moaning and lay quietly for the first time since the group had entered the room. His color began to improve and he was breathing easier. Elizabeth was starting to pale and John laid a hand on her shoulder and fed energy into her. She stood straighter, refreshed by the infusion of strength and finished the task at hand. When she stopped, the boy was sleeping, breathing normally, his color a healthy pink and his fever was gone. The villagers were stunned, both at the recovery and the method. Tammy reacted first, hugging Elizabeth and bursting into tears, gasping her thanks between sobs.

  Elizabeth was a bit overwhelmed, since her work with the sick and injured had been with Christine, Joshua and John, the people expecting magic from her. This was her first experience, with her own powers, in a group who had never seen healing before. With her success, others came forward and told of injuries, infections, deafness and loss of sight in an eye. John left her with Joshua and moved out of the crowd that was forming around the house.

  “We will help everyone, but not all at once. Tammy, Willie, can you help us get these people organized, you
know, most needy first? You know these people and we have a ten year old girl doing the healing. She will get tired fast and she won't want to stop. If we don't control the crowd, she will be hurt.”

  “We'll take care of it.” Willie responded. He yelled and clapped his hands, whistled, but the crowd was too loud. He and Tammy couldn't make enough noise to get their attention. They looked helplessly at John, who shook his head and lifted his fist. Lightning flared and thunder pealed across the clearing. The crowd fell silent and turned to the trio. John turned to Willie and waited. Willie stepped up to the plate without hesitation.

  “You people need to get out of that house. That little girl will see everyone before she leaves, but she's only a little girl and she is dog tired from what she just did. You need to give her a few minutes to rest and then Tammy will show you in to her, one at a time. It is just like going to a doctor now, isn't it. You don't just bust into his office and start yelling and acting crazy now, do you?”

  The crowd started to move out of the building and into the center of the village, looking a little shamefaced.

  John nodded to Willie and asked about his broken plow. “If you don't mind, we can let Joshua stay with Elizabeth and I can take a look at some of the other needs you may have, just to get an idea of what we might be able to help you with.”

  Tammy waved Willie on and the two walked through the small cluster of houses and shacks that made up the core of the settlement.

  Near the edge of the meadow where they had landed was Willie's home, a solid stone and log house, with a chimney and a tin roof. There was a porch around the front and one side, with a rocking chair and a glider, a type of furniture that John remembered from the forties on his grandparent’s front porch. Willie walked around the side to a small shed, also stone and log and opened the door. Inside were farm implements, tools of Willie's trade. Disc and harrow, hoes and broad bladed plows, chains and bolts and hand tools beyond counting.

  “How did you get all this in this little shed?”

  “Piled it up, built the shed around it.”

  John looked at Willie to see if he was laughing or serious. Sometimes it was hard to tell with some people and John suspected that Willie was going to be one of them. There was the smallest possible glint in the corner of Willies eye that made John feel that this was a man he would enjoy spending some time with. Not sure the others would feel the same. Sometimes John felt they lacked a proper sense of humor.

  Willie picked up a plow and held it out to John, who took it and looked at the crack running along the center. The blade was designed to peel back the earth in the spring and break the soil free of the grass and roots that had taken hold of it during the fall and winter. Without this, planting would be a back breaking nightmare, shovel, hoe, brute strength and an early grave from simply being worked to death.

  “We got two good plows still and one set each of the disc and harrow. Harvest is by hand with the sickles and the one scythe.”

  John walked outside with the damaged plow blade and sat it on a flat rock near the shed. He pulled out a wand and held the tip close to the end of the crack before beginning to weld with a thin yellow hot beam from the tip of the wand. He did it with short precise dots first, and then joined those dot with welds between them. When he was done, the blade was smooth and clean, with no sign it had been repaired. Willie watched and when John was done looked more closely.

  “I could have sworn I saw that metal movin while you was welded it, flowing into itself like water.”

  “That's part of the crystals doing. I use a forge and anvil as well, but this is easier. Any training I would give would depend on the person I had to train, whether or not they had the right gene to use the crystal. If not, I would just train them on the forge and hand tools. If they could use the crystal, I would train them on both.”

  “You makin sense, but it's still pretty strange. How much for this repair?”

  “First one's free. You got to test my work, right? Make sure I do it right.”

  Willie grinned and bobbed his head in agreement. “You an awful honest man, you know that.”

  Whatever else he was going to say was set aside when a shout of hello came from the field and Frank appeared, leading six goats and three men. Willie waved and told John who it was, who then went to get Cecilia, while Willie greeted the Dwarfs. By the time John had pulled Cecilia out of the building where Elizabeth was still working, Frank and Willie were coming into the center of the village.

  Cecilia saw her dad and ran to him, with Frank throwing out his arms and actually picking her up off the ground. John nodded to Joshua, who had poked his head out of the door for a moment to check on the reunion, then went back inside with Elizabeth. There were only two people still in the room with them, the rest being taken care of while John was welding the plow share, so it was only a moment or two before everyone was being introduced. Frank shook Joshua's hand cordially enough and apologized for his treatment earlier, but Joshua had already accepted the necessity of the separation and said so.

  After the hugs and back slapping died down, John explained their mission and asked about the cave. Frank didn't know about that particular set of caves, so he didn't have any claim on them. John offered them to him and offered to take some representatives from his group to look them over, if he wanted. Perhaps they would be more suitable than the current location, maybe not, but John would rather have that set of caves under the control of an ally than an enemy and said so.

  Frank nodded and said, “We don't have any magic users, so the crystals wouldn't actually help us that much, except as a trade item. How much trade would there be from, what, five, six Wizards?”

  “How much will there be if the Goblin Wizard gets in there?”

  “Goblins? What the hell are you talking about?”

  John and Joshua filled him in on the attack at the West Base and on the experience with Dogg. Frank was skeptical, but after Cecilia and Elizabeth both told what they had seen and heard and after Joshua reminded him about the people they had met at the beginning of their trek, Frank decided that it was too much of a risk to ignore. They planned to head to the caves in an hour, which would give Frank time to get the goats back to the pen and to get a few more of his group to look the caves over.

  At the appointed time the airship lifted off and headed for the caves. Frank fell in love within a few hundred yards of the entrance and so did his people. After agreeing to work out a trade deal with John's group, Frank and his people set off to do a deep exploration of the cave system. John, with another load of crystals not found in his southern cave system, headed home to continue experimenting.

  Joshua had several crystals in his leather clad hands, sorting them by color, shape and internal arrangement. Since they had gone straight from picking up Joshua and Cecilia to Atlanta and Elizabeth, then from the Citadel to West Base, there had been little time to examine anything earlier.

  By the time they got back to base, it was late evening and both kids were asleep. John knew that he and Joshua would not be able to sleep until they at least laid out a plan of attack on their new found treasure. They were right, of course. Not only did the two girls wake up, refreshed and eager to see what the new crystals could do, Christine was waiting, along with Suki, professor Johnson, Tricia and Jenny. John and Joshua handed over the goodies and followed the crowd.

  The crowd was ready, with a test booth, remote manipulators, (sticks with a long wire wrapped around them pushed through a block wall) remote viewing, (a couple of mirrors) and many other technological wonders. Listening to Christine describing the equipment, Joshua leaned into John and whispered, “She's been hanging around you way too much.” Unfortunately, Christine heard him. Wizardly hearing was added to her list of abilities.

  By the time the sun rose, they had two major finds. One was a crystal that formed a ward, a barrier that would alert the user to anyone penetrating the barrier and the ward would turn away most people by giving them a lot of discomfort.
Dizziness at first, then nausea, followed quickly by falling down, puking and wishing to die. A small crystal, the size of an AAA battery, could set up a ward barrier about twenty feet in diameter, with a twelve foot tall crystal shielding most of the plateau. With a combination of ward, thrust and booster, an actual force field could be set up and held for hours, a field that could even withstand the best attack John could muster.

  The best was found in the early hours of the next morning, a serendipitous event. A new crystal, shaped like a column, with hexagonal divisions and with colors that began with hot pink and ended in cobalt blue. In sync with a lite crystal, a booster and a ward it could remove the contamination from water or earth. With this combination mounted on a platform and pulled across land or water, they could collect the debris from the synthetic waste left behind, the poison that had prevented them from farming over most of the plateau. It was a good night’s work.

  Tiffanie was in a bad mood and everyone was avoiding her. Not only had her attack on the relief camp failed, it had failed miserably and she had lost some of the fear her followers had for her. She knew that it was only a matter of time before she was again the undisputed master of her tribe, but the loss of so many fighters would slow her quest for dominion. Even worse, Mark was dead and his knowledge had been such a help in setting up her kingdom. He would have made an excellent consort.

  She was almost six feet tall, her long blond hair worn in an intricate braid well past her waist, well muscled and was fast becoming an excellent Goblin Queen, with nothing but hatred for the other races and disdain for her own. The wolves had been a fortunate discovery, as were the crystals. She hadn't counted on the Human camp being guarded by so much magic, so strong and the working automatic weapons had been a complete surprise.

  Of course, when the people had pulled out, they had taken everything with them or destroyed what they could not remove completely. Even the buildings had charges planted in them and were blown up and burned, leaving nothing of value behind. She would have done that herself, of course, but that the leaders of the base had been so prepared to leave and destroy everything so fast and so completely was surprising as well.

  She had begun consolidating her power base weeks ago, taking control of three smaller tribes by killing the leaders in single combat and offering the followers a choice of death or submission. Submission was acceptable, once their leader was ripped apart and the choice morsels were on the cooking fire. Traditions had to be maintained, you know.

  Tiffanie had planned on using the victory and the prisoners to draw in the other tribes in the surrounding area, but with the loss, she would once again have to endure single combat to gain followers. It would be easy, since she was sure that the other tribal leaders would think her weak after this failure and be overconfident, but it would upset her carefully laid out timetable, possibly delaying her plans for weeks or months.

  She looked around for someone to punish and kicked an older Goblin who didn't duck fast enough. Her guards smiled at the sound of her heel crunching on his cheekbone, pleased that they had such a tough leader. They knew that they would be Captains in her army, maybe even generals if they were lucky and the spoils would come to them before the common folk.

  Tiffanie continued through the cave system she had claimed from the last tribe, watching her people digging new tunnels and new homes in the sandstone walls. They were a mixed group, men and women, children and teenagers, blond, brunette, red heads, black, white, red and yellow. All Human at one time, now all moving to that mindset of being Goblin. One day the physical differences between them would lessen, but not quite fade completely. How they thought was the link between them, the binding agent that made them stand together against all others.

  This cave would be a warren and a fortress, protecting and nurturing the tribe until they one day became a nation, numbering in the tens of thousands. Food was being brought from the outside and would be for many years to come, but already, some things were being harvested from within the cave system. Fish from the river, crickets, bats and mushrooms were a few of the things that already lived within. In time, the Goblins would have other crops and other herds that also loved and thrived in the dark recesses of the earth. They would raid the world above for supplies and materials, but mostly for delicacies, like Humans or sheep and birds, that could not take the dark and thrive. The Goblins knew from old how to live within the earth and this new generation was remembering.

  Suki was looking for John again. He was always hard to find, not because he was hiding, but because he was always moving from one group to the next, helping here, advice there, observation and questions in between. The news wasn't critical, but it was news and pretty good news at that. He finally found John at the dairy farm with several of the smaller children, milking a goat.

  “You have all kinds of hidden talent, don't you?”

  “Raised on a farm in the forties. Everything was by hand. Even this, cheese making, wood cutting, you name it.”

  “The forties. The 1940's? Never mind, that was a stupid question; you're not two hundred years old. Are you?”

  “You look confused. Something I said?” John smiled.

  “Never mind, I don't want to know. I do have something you want to hear. The battle at West Base, you and Joshua finally passed out.”

  “You are trying to make me feel good, huh.”

  “Hey, you want to hear this? I'll answer that, yes, you want to hear this. Joshua stayed up a little longer than you, because he hadn't been flying for days and fighting and doing as much as you. Anyway, half the guns were out and Joshua was going fast and we were about to be overrun. Well, you were about to be overrun, because I was on the Citadel. You guys were in deep do do.”

  The kids giggled at that.

  “The airships were almost fifteen minutes away and you were in and out and she picked up your wand and started fighting, then grabbed the wires to your guns and kept them going until the airships arrived and started strafing the woods. She saved everyone and she turned the battle.”

  “Who and what are you talking about?” John had finished milking the goat and was standing up, facing Suki.

  “Jenny. You remember her, cute, twelve, spoiled brat.”

  “Jenny. The 'you're a stupid man,' Jenny. She stepped in. Jenny.”

  “Hard to swallow, huh. I heard one of the guys in your position, the loader on the first gun. When you went down the first time, after the explosion, Jenny ran in and grabbed the wand you lost. The guy started to say something, but you came back up and started flinging fireballs again. Then the gunner went down and he started shooting, so he never mentioned it.

  “Anyway Dave, that's the guys name, he said that when you finally passed out and the guns stopped working, Jenny was there again, but she wasn't doing anything, except running her hands over the wand and smiling really wickedly, like she always did. You know, mocking people around her. Then the next man over, Wilton, got hit by a sling stone and his head cracked and sprayed Jenny with everything. She lost it, I mean breakfast, her composure, the smile, all she did was stand there and stare at this dead guy’s brains and blood running down her dress and arms, dripping off her chin.” Suki looked down at the very large eyes on the kids. “Sorry. Don't mean to scare you.”

  He looked back up as the kids wrapped their arms around John's legs, threatening to knock him down for a moment. Oblivious, Suki continued. “Dave said she started crying, and looking around for a few seconds, then the first Goblin jumped over the sandbags. She just stared at him for a fraction of a second, he raised his club and she screamed and started flaming everything that moved. She didn't stop crying or firing until after the airships had leveled the forest and there was nothing left to kill. Then she just collapsed. She hasn't spoken much since then and she hasn't been too much of a pain either. She eats when it's ready, does what she's told and just sits there when she's done. Anyway, I just thought you might want to know. I gotta get back to the hanger before those guys bur
n it down.”

  “Thanks Suki. I think I need to get over to the kids quarters. I'll catch you later.” After Suki left, John and the little ones washed up. He left the kids with the adults who were taking care of them before heading back to get Christine. He figured he might need a backup. She was agreeable and together they went down the corridor to the section set aside for the younger girls. Charlie was on duty at the door and sent Elizabeth to get Jenny, when John asked for her.

  “What's she done now?”

  “Nothing bad, that I'm aware of. I haven't seen her since West Base and I was reminded this morning that we have another Wizard that I have been ignoring. I thought I should rectify that lapse.”

  “Really. How about that. You see this?” she asked, pointing at her right ear.

  “Yes.”

  “This is a finely tuned BS detector and the alarms are going off.”

  “Impressive.” Christine laughed. “We'll tell you later, here are the girls.”

  Elizabeth was leading a very quiet Jenny by the hand and stopped in front of the adults.

  “She doesn't talk much, but she let me know that she did not want to see you, John. But she didn't put up much of a fight.”

  John bent over and looked at Jenny. “So you do remember me, right?”

  “Yes.”

  John had to strain to hear her voice and looked at Christine. “Let’s go to the courtyard, where we can all sit down. You too, Elizabeth.” John led the way to the outdoor courtyard, where the group sat at one of the stone tables John had made.

  “One of these days, you need to set up classes for what you've learned. One day this place is a disaster zone and a week later I come back and it's got cleared land where there were demolished buildings and pavement, filled with barns, fields and barracks. Suki says that almost all of it was your doing.”

  “Actually, by a strange coincidence, that is one of the things I wanted to talk about today. Training. How many Wizards are there?”

  “You know, you jump around in a conversation a lot. There's you, me, Joshua, Elizabeth, Jenny and the Goblin.”

  “Dogg maybe, as well. He was running the wolf pack. There are more out there, that just haven't made any connection with their magic yet and others that are still looking for the crystals. Right now, we have five Wizards on our side and we don't know enough about how we work our magic or how long we can do it or even how strong we are, in relation to the enemy Wizards.”

  “So you want to start a school?”

  “Yes. But we don't have teachers. We are just students here, because we are so new to this. Everyone has one side of their magic that is stronger than anyone else, so they will teach what they know to the others. Christine can use the communication crystals better and with more strength than any of us, so far. Elizabeth can use the healing crystals better than the rest of us. Joshua . . . I knew I forgot someone. Any idea where Joshua is?”

  Jenny answered slowly, “He and Cecilia are in the lunchroom. He came and got her a few minutes before Elizabeth showed up.”

  “Thanks, Jenny. I've got him.” Christine had a crystal in her hand. “He's coming. Cecilia's coming too, is it OK?”

  “Oh, sure. No big secrets going on. Probably a good idea not to have a Star Chamber meeting.” Puzzled looks formed on faces all around. “A secret meeting of just us Wizards. It might give people the wrong ideas about what we are doing.”

  Joshua and Cecilia walked out the door into the open air, with Suki, Charlie and Gary hot on their heels. “Want us to drag another table over? I think you’re out of seats.”

  “No need.” John laid his hand on the expanded stone table they were sitting around and it grew to almost double the length, the bench attached to it growing accordingly. “Plenty of room at this one.”

  “Neat trick”, Joshua said “and you didn't use a crystal. That's twice I've seen you do something without one.”

  “Twice?” Christine looked puzzled. “When was the other time and what did he do?”

  “Well, when I was healing that Jackie kid up at Cecilia's home, I think he did the Zeus thing and tossed a thunderbolt without a crystal.” Elizabeth smiled at John. “Yes, I noticed how you got that crowd off of me. Thank you, by the way.”

  “You're quite welcome.”

  Cecilia asked, “Zeus? Thunderbolt?”

  Elizabeth answered, “Greek god, actually the ruling Greek god and his favorite weapon. Lightning. He did something else, too. When I was healing Jackie, I got tired and nearly stopped. He shared power or something with me.”

  John spoke again. “Yes, I have learned a few things about what I can do and I can do a few things without the crystals. But the crystals got me started. I can't explain everything right now, but I need you to work with me on this, trust me on this. We need all of us as strong as we can get, as fast as we can get there.”

  They all looked at each other before Christine spoke. “And that's why you think we need a school of magic.”

  “I don't want to have this be a secret but I don't want all of our strengths or our weakness's being blabbed for anyone to hear. The fact that some of our stuff is dangerous is a good reason why we need to keep people away from our training ground and it is the truth. But I feel we need witnesses from the non magic people to report back to the rest so that everyone knows we are not doing anything to worry them about. Does this make sense?”

  “You need more than that,” said Charlie. “You need people to take notes on what you're doing, stenographers, file clerks, cooks and caretakers. If you make this a real school you need other teachers as well, not just Wizards.”

  Joshua gave his opinion as well. “The healing crystals are important, but if you don't have the gene it's just a pretty rock. The people up at my old home are using natural herbs and home cures for many ailments. They can't handle the big stuff, like that kid we helped, but for the smaller things these herbs work. We need to give classes for regular people too, just like Charlie says. It's a school and some people major in building, some in farming, some in healing and some in other magic. But we set up a base curriculum that everyone takes with the other stuff as, uh, what you call it, extra curriculum, options, Christine help me here.”

  “I see where you are going and I agree with what you're saying. I think we should test every student for magic ability and offer even non magic users access to some of the basic classes so that everyone in our camp, our friends and allies, are used to magic and has at least the basic understanding of what it is and how it works, at least as much as we understand so far. For security reasons, some things are not announced to the general population but that is no more than any other government would do.”

  “Government.” Gary shook his head. “We don't have a government. We have a military base with John as the Commanding Officer. We have a small group of soldiers headed by a civilian Wizard, supported by a Wizards Council, with a bunch of refugees in tow. We have Goblins and Dark Wizards and Dire Wolves, prehistoric creatures, attacking us without reason. We have an air force mechanic building state of the art steam boilers and engines for a power supply, wind mills and water wheels and you want to start a school. What the hell. I'm in. Would you like me to ask the Professor to act as Dean?”

  John grunted. “My mind is going. I never thought of Johnson. Yes, unless any of you object, I think that he would be an excellent choice as Dean. Jenny, you spent a lot of time with him didn't you? What do you think?”

  Jenny jumped, startled by John asking her opinion. “You really want me to talk?”

  “Sure, you're one of us aren't you? What I hear is that you were the Hero of the battle for West Base and that most of us owe you our lives. Why wouldn't I want to hear your opinion?”

  Everyone except Suki looked at John as though he was indeed nuts.

  “What are you talking about?” asked Elizabeth. “Is that true, Jenny?”

  “Joshua, when I went down the last time did my guns stop for a minute?”

  “Yes, but
I thought you were sitting down to conserve energy when they started back up. Matter of fact, I followed your example and knelt down behind the sandbags myself to save my strength.”

  “No, I was out. Jenny stepped up, picked up my wand and started lobbing fireballs down the length of the line. The Goblins actually got inside the sandbags when she stepped into it. Then she grabbed the gun wires and we held on until the airships arrived and swept the forest.” John put an arm around Jenny and gave her a hug. “You're darn right I want your opinion. You are part of this council and I am taking a personal interest in your training as a Wizard. It's the least I can do for someone who saved my life.”

  Jenny was crying, leaning against John as the tears came silently down her face. Elizabeth put her arm around her as well and whispered something to her. Everyone else just stared at her for a moment then they all started talking at once.

  John looked over at Suki, who gave him the thumbs up and a broad smile. Once the noise and the tears had stopped, John took control back. “I suggest we get together at least once a week and have a council meeting. We may need to include others in these meetings, but we will not have elections.”

  Eyes were on him at that announcement. “We are in a state of war. As the Commanding Officer, I will give orders and will listen to suggestions and accept advice, but I cannot be overridden except by a three quarters vote of the council. We may have village elders or a town council in the villages, to handle local affairs but this is too big to be allowed to become a popularity contest or allow politics or special interest groups to take charge and muddy the waters. I ask that you take a vote, by show of hands if you will agree to this.”

  “Before you vote, may I make a suggestion?”

  “Sure Gary. What do you have?”

  “Roberts rules of order. If we adopt those as our meeting guidelines, we will have a much more organized and possibly productive meeting.”

  Others nodded as well. “That's a good thought, John. I like it and I have actually used them before, at club meetings in school. They do help keep things orderly.” Christine said.

  “Well even I have used them, believe it or not and it's a good suggestion. Thanks Gary. Does anyone have a copy or do we remember enough to write them down?”

  It turned out that no one had a copy but Gary and Suki had seen several book stores during their recovery operations, which was what the looting was now called. They felt it would be an easy thing to find. Jenny asked if there were many books that survived and it was decided that there should be a recovery operation for books and writing supplies as soon as possible. At the end of that discussion, John was voted in as Commander in Chief, under his terms.

  It was decided to spend the next two days recovering as much educational material as possible and have an ongoing team effort to recover as much reading and writing supplies and school books as the team could find. They also talked about a school board, but tabled that until they had talked to Professor Johnson, so he would have some input. Then they adjourned, John and the Wizards heading to the field outside of town to do a little practice and to continue clearing farm land and the watershed.

  Joshua and Christine walked with John and Elizabeth with Jenny as they headed out. “You know,” said Joshua, “you do things that we can't. We have to change crystals or carry three or four different wants to do what you do with one or two or none. Why is that?”

  “I was wondering about that, too. That green noisy death ray. I can't figure out what crystals you use. For that matter, I am having a hard time keeping track of all the combinations we can use.” Christine pulled a notebook out of the pouch they had all started to carry. “I've been writing things down, like you do all the time, including what handle shape has what crystal but I feel like I've missed a lot somewhere. We need to sit down and compare notes.”

  “That's a good idea.” John paused, then said, “I was working on a chart with Suki on the different combinations, but it's not finished. We can include a class on crystal types and combos. Combos are really important here. The ward can be set with the new com link and actually call you, sound an alarm sort of, if somebody walks through it, for instance. In addition, there are a lot more crystals than I've told you about so far. I wasn't trying to hide anything, relax.” John lifted his hands as though defending himself from Christine's indignation. “I just haven't had time to sort them yet and with everything else it just got put off for a time. By the way, a couple of my wands have more than one crystal in them, too. Something I've been working on lately that you all should look at when we get time.

  “There's another cave west of here, right on the water, that I went to just before I met up with Christine. I pulled a dozen crystals out that I found nowhere else, so far. With the ground sinking, that cave may be under water by now but, I brought about four hundred pounds of those crystals out before I left.”

  Jenny tugged on John's hand. “Well, where are they? Does Suki have them?”

  “No Jenny, they are still on the pontoon boat. I just never got them out of the foot locker. One locker is full and there are two canvas bags in the second locker with some of them also. One of the stones was one of a kind. I didn't find another like it. That is the stone that lets me do more things with a single wand than you can do.”

  “So show us what it looks like and we'll look for more.”

  “Well Joshua, that's a problem. It's not where I can show you. When I was handling it, uh, it sort of fused with me.”

  “Fused. With you? It's inside you?”

  Everyone else had stopped walking when John said that. He turned and looked back at them, nodding. “Yeah. It knocked me out and when I came too, I could feel it spreading out within, melding with me, kind of permeating my cells like little tiny bubbles. It was a weird feeling.”

  “Is that why you don't always need a crystal?” Elizabeth and Jenny were both looking at John oddly and spoke at the same time.

  “I think so. At least why I can do it this soon. All of our true Wizards will be able to do things, to use magic, without crystals. It takes time to develop and we will always need to use crystals to be the most efficient. Because we can amplify our magic with the crystals, we can work longer with than without, also. The crystals last longer too, with this meld crystal.”

  “What does that mean?” Joshua asked.

  “You haven't noticed? The crystals shrink with use. As we do magic with them, we supply energy and they supply focus and mass. After awhile, they just disappear, used up in the process. Always carry spares and eat a lot before and after you use magic.”

  Jenny and Elizabeth both took out their notebooks and started writing. Elizabeth shook her head. “John, you drive us all nuts. Why don't you write all this down and let us make copies.”

  “I write stuff down all the time. I just don't always remember what I have shared with you. Some things just don't become clear to me at the time; they sort of form slowly in my subconscious and pop out later. Surprise!”

  “So,” asked Jenny, “you have notes on stuff that you may or may not have shared with everyone and some of the notes are, confused?”

  “Yes. Very well put.”

  Elizabeth looked at John and pointed the eraser of her pencil at his nose. “John, you will give us those notes and you will tell us whatever you haven't told us! Jenny and I will make sure the others get copies. Got it? We will start tonight after supper, so don't get any ideas that you have free time.”

  Christine and Joshua started walking toward the practice field again.

  “Looks like they have the situation well in hand.”

  Joshua nodded. “I feel better already. Meet you at the hanger, John. I'm going to get the crystals out of the pontoon boat before they get any more miles on them.”

  “You’re just going to leave me here with these two?”

  “Yes.” Christine waved. “Bye-bye John.” They walked off, talking.

  John turned to the two girls. “Just when did this first name th
ing start. Shouldn't you be more respectful of the adults?”

  “We are respectful to the adults. When you grow up, we will be respectful of you.” They smiled sweetly, each taking one of his hands and leading him off toward the hanger.