Jake's Women (Wizards) Read Free Page B

into tears. I found it difficult to believe that she still hadn’t managed to find her sister. They had such a strong emotional bond that her magic should have let her hop straight to Anna wherever she was in the multiverse.
    That Urda couldn’t find her meant strong magical forces were in play. She was right; I should have been there to help. I should have paid more attention to her when I had the chance.
    “Powerful magic must be involved,” Esmeralda said as if she had read my mind. “Anna is being hidden from you. The important question is not where she is, but why she was taken.”
    Urda nodded, “I have wracked my brains for an answer, but the only thing I can think of is the places she knows how to travel to. Her training had not progressed much further than that.”
    Urda had a point. Travelling through Hop Space is easy for a wizard, reaching a specific destination is not, unless you have already been there. A single universe is infinite and almost anything you can imagine exists, but Hop Space links an infinite number of infinite universes and unless you can imagine a place perfectly, you’ll almost certainly end up at the wrong one.
    Esmeralda disagreed, “Tydan has an unusually large number of wizards. Could someone be kidnapping and recruiting them?” Tydan was Urda and Anna’s home world. Not a nice place.
    “I have visited Barren, which is where the wizards congregate and there are no rumors of wizards disappearing.”
    That killed the conversation and the three of them stared into space.
    “What about Wales?” I shouted at them. It was a futile gesture as nobody was listening to me. There was a threat to Jenny and my family in Wales, but it didn’t seem to have occurred to any of them. I came close to jumping up and down in frustration. Actually, I may have jumped a couple of times.
    “The King needs relieving at the food store,” Esmeralda said after a few minutes silence. “I’ll go.”
    She struggled to get to her feet.
    “No dear, I will take over from him,” Queen Janti said quietly. “You stay here in the warm. Urda, can you hop me there?”
    Urda nodded and a few seconds later, they were gone.
    Esmeralda sat at the table with her eyes focused on something infinitely far away. She spoke to the empty room.
    “I don’t know which is worse, Jake. Knowing you are safe somewhere far beyond reach, or having you here causing crisis after crisis. It is a dilemma.”
    That was typical of Esmeralda. Her knack of insulting me where I could overhear was running true to form. I moved around the table so I could kiss her on the cheek. Before I could get to her, I found myself back in the tube.
     
    “Are they well?” Fluffy asked after I willed myself out of the tube.
    “We have to get out of here.”
    “That bad?”
    “Worse, I think Jenny and my parents are in danger. Anna is still missing and the only reason I can think of is that someone is after my family.”
    Fluffy shook his head. “That does not make any sense. Those with access to the Temple of Representatives can locate the Earth through your image whenever they want.”
    “Then perhaps the kidnappers don’t have a representative at the Conference. All I know for certain is that it’s Wales they’re after, and the only thing they could possibly want when they get there is my family.”
    It would turn out I was half-right, which is pretty good going for me.

4.            Frustrations
     
    “There must be a way out.” It was the fourth or fifth time I had said it and Fluffy never agreed with me.
    “Representatives have to stay here until the Conference is finished.”
    “What conference?” I waved my hands at the whiteness surrounding us. It was hardly hyper-active out there.
    “Meetings like yours and Alisandra are taking place by the tens of thousands. They will go on for weeks as various get-togethers, formal and informal, are organized by the Representatives.”
    “I don’t see any gold-embossed