Jake's War, Book Two of Wizards Read Free

been like this for hours, possibly days, and nobody had done anything. I turned to Esmeralda not trying to keep the anger from my voice.
    “I don't suppose you could have got Bronwyn to undo this before you banished her.”
    Esmeralda's face turned harder than I had ever seen it.
    “I pleaded with her, My Lord Wizard… On my knees.”
    I should have known. I pushed Urda away more harshly than I intended as I took her place in front of my favorite tailor. I put my hands on his knees and worked a magic that was becoming easier with repetition. I'll say this for Bronwyn, once she found a magical technique she stuck with it, no matter how evil it was.
    Grimaldi moaned and his warm blood began to drip onto my hands along with bits of his flesh. I had healed Fluffy some months ago when someone shot an arrow through his wing, but that was a minor injury compared to what had been done to Grimaldi. I felt my magic fail as I tried to fix the things broken inside him.
    “Enough,” he whispered, his words hissing through broken teeth. “You cannot save everyone, Jake.” Grimaldi winked at me, slowly and deliberately, and then his eyes glazed over and he was dead.
     
    “Fix him, Jake!” Jenny shouted and shook my shoulders. I slumped back against her because I knew it was hopeless, he was gone. I felt the life leave him. There was no one left to save.
    Helda and Bletty began to wail. Jenny continued to shake me as if I was a rag doll. I didn't resist. I was too tired and I knew I deserved it. Three weeks I had sat in a prison cell because I was too scared to face Jenny and all that time I knew Bronwyn was a time bomb waiting to explode. This was as much my fault as if I'd killed Grimaldi myself.
    The shaking stopped when Esmeralda dragged Jenny away. She held Jenny close to her. I put an arm around Urda and felt her silent sobbing. We stayed like that for some time.

 
    Chapter Three: Searching
     
     
     
     
    I woke at five in the morning. Jenny's back pressed against me as she snored lightly.
    We could have slept anywhere. One advantage of being able to hop across the multiverse is that one bedroom is as close as any other. However, leaving Salice last night would have been a betrayal of Grimaldi. He would be buried as soon as his family arrived from the neighboring kingdom of Frode. Word had been sent of his injuries when he was first found. Given how small the local city states are, his family could well arrive today.
    I dressed as quietly as I could. There were pressing tasks that couldn't wait. I hopped back to Wales.
     
    Fluffy lives in a large cave halfway up a mountain in the Snowdonia National Park. I named it the Bat Cave when I was a lot younger and influenced by films. There are no bats in it. For one thing, Fluffy finds roasted bat a delicacy, though he normally prefers sheep, whole.
    “Meep.” [It's about time you got here.]
    Fluffy talks in meeps , but Jenny and I always know exactly what he means. He's fifteen feet long with a thirty foot wingspan. His scales are iridescent orange highlighted with streaks of gold. His tail is capable of knocking over a one ton boulder so it's best to be careful when walking behind him.
    “Me and Jenny went to Salice to sort out Bronwyn.”
    “Meep, meep.” [I know, I always know where Jenny is.]
    That was news to me, as was the thing I'd come to talk to Fluffy about.
    “Jenny tells me you can hop. When did you discover you could do that?”
    “Meep, meep, meeeep.” [The first time you took me to Salice. Glim and hopping are different aspects of transcending the space time continuum. When I go into Glim I am partly in the space where hops take place.]
    When did my dragon swallow a dictionary ? That was another interesting question I'd have to investigate when I got the time. Fluffy is still a very young dragon having hatched from an egg a little over eight years ago.
    “Can you track Bronwyn through hop-space?”
    [No.] Fluffy didn't bother to meep. I suspect he knew