CHAPTER FOUR
Wendy felt him before he even touched her. He stood behind her in the shower for such a long time that she thought he might be having second thoughts on being there. She didn’t want to move in case she might spook him. This was a step that he had to make on his own. She had realized the mistake she made with Victor. She had pushed Victor into forming a relationship with her and after that she had realized her feelings for him were simply magnified because she was partly wizard. She knew better now. She knew that what she felt for Max didn’t matter much if he felt the same way or not. This was physical.
He touched her shoulder slightly tracing it down to the arm then back to the neck. He leaned forward, interrupting the flow of water and making things very real for Wendy. Her pulse rate increased dramatically before she realized that he was taking in her pulse. His lips brushed slightly on her neck before he sighed.
“What have you done to me?” he whispered hoarsely in her ear. “I don’t know what you are talking about,” she whispered back.
Max’s free hand came round her waist to the front and pulled her back against him. She gasped.
“You know exactly what I’m talking about. I don’t get jealous. I don’t worry and I don’t feel the need to possess.” When she didn’t answer, he moved his hand to her breast and squeezed. Her nipples puckered up exposing her reactions plainly to him.
She swallowed before she answered, “You are powerful.” “What’s the point?”
“I am powerful too.”
“Still not getting the point.”
“I can,” she turned slowly to him and looked into his confused green eyes. “I can match you in every way, every aspect you can think of.” He didn’t make a move so she put her hands on his shoulders, caressing him down his bare chest. “I match you intellectually. In strength and will. I match you in power hence neither can overwhelm the other. And more so…” her hand had reached his abdomen and it quivered in anxiety.
She looked down and realized that she was at the edge of the thick bush of blond triangle. She pulled her hand back and looked up. “I’ve learned how to block you from my mind.”
His hand dug into her hair and tilted her face up. She licked lips as she got ready for the kiss. “That is very logical.”
She smiled, “I know how you like logic.”
“How about good old fashioned ‘We’ve got chemistry’?” “I thought that might be too romantic for you.”
“It’s not about romance. I want you and you want me.” “Plain and simple.” Her smile grew.
“Plain and simple.” He caught her face between his hands and dived into her mouth. Wendy wound her hand round his neck. She never thought a kiss could take her so far but by the time Max pulled back, her knees were weak. She stared at him as if she had never seen him before and for some strange reason, she got the impression that was the reaction he wanted to see because he dived in again and this time he lifted her from the floor. She wrapped her legs around his waist and he walked out of the bathroom.
*
Wendy was having a hard time pulling herself completely out of sleep but when she turned and her hand fell on the empty side that Max had fallen asleep on. Her eyes snapped open and she sat up as she looked at the empty side. She groaned and fell back onto the pillow.
“Your Highness, you are going to be late,” Annie said. “Late for what?” she groaned into the pillow.
“They are sending the son Julius to the other world.”
“Oh!” she sat up and groaned again. “I think I need a bath today.” “I’ll send for it.”
“Hand me that bathrobe first.” As she stepped out of bed as Annie brought her the robe. Her shyness was dissipating slowly but surely. She turned around and Annie gasped. “What is it?”
“Your back…”
“What about my back?” She struggled to look at what was on her back but she couldn’t.
“What is it?”
“There are markings.”
“Get me a mirror and call Amber.” Wendy was left alone as she kept looking for a way to see what was on her back. “And somebody get me a bath!” she shouted.
When Amber came in a minute later, and saw Wendy’s back she laughed. “So that was the reason for the weird firelight show.”
“What firelight show?”
“Late last night when you were having sex with Max…” “How do you know it was Max?”
“Because the tattoo on your back is the original shape of a phoenix, the signia of his bloodline.”
“What?” she turned fully around to face Amber.
“Most of the wizard families can follow their heritage back into the ancient times. Most of those descendants are members of the wizard council or they work for the council in some capacity. Your father is one of them. His signia is the chimera.”
“Why. Is. The tattoo. On my back!”
“There are traits which are sort of passed on and one of them is possessiveness. He wanted to possess you and that is why the tattoo is on your back.” When Wendy continued frowning Amber thought it best to explain as much as she could. “Max might have marked you consciously or otherwise as his.”
“I don’t even remember when this got on me.” She pointed to the back. “You don’t remember the pain?”
“No!” she objected.
Amber smiled, “Then you have nothing to worry about. He probably doesn’t remember if it happened.”
“And that is good why?”
“I didn’t say it’s good. I said you have nothing to worry about. After they send Julius through the wormhole, they will be making way to Astrakhan…” “I still don’t see the upside of that.”
“There is none or maybe the fact that you could marry ‘Victor’ two point oh without a hitch.”
“What the hell am I going to do about this?” she sat on the bed as the maids brought in the bathtub and the water.
“Well, you should try not sleeping with him again, however great the sex was.” Amber waited to hear if she was going to say something but she didn’t. She slipped into the bath when it was ready and she shut her eyes to shut out the world.
*
After the bath and after she was dressed, she was informed they were having breakfast at Gorham’s from where, they would escort Julius and witness that he was sent through. By the time she got to the castle, she was starving and if it wasn’t for the fact that everyone else seemed depressed and full, she would have eaten the whole basket of bread. She kept looking at Max waiting for him to signal something or the other but he had the wraparounds back on his eyes and he was in actual sense oblivious to her presence.
They rode more or less in silence until the spot that they could perform the opening incantations. The goodbye was sad enough that Wendy had to walk away to give the family a little privacy. When Julius asked if he had done something wrong and Sidney started to cry, Wendy felt her heart crack open for the mother.
“Is there another way to prove your point?” Wendy asked Max.
“I’m not proving a point. I’m trying to do my job and the boy has to go.” “I’m not telling you not to do your job. I’m asking if there’s another way.”
“No.” he felt her move away from him and felt as if he had disappointed her. He wanted to tell her the truth but it wasn’t his place to do so. They watched for a few minutes as the child was reassured that nothing was his fault. When he finally accepted that it wasn’t his fault, he stopped crying and said goodbye to them.
“I’ll come get you.” Sidney promised.
“Okay, momma.” He stepped to the center of the circle that had been traced on the ground with the intricate patterns and Leo started the chant. It had a little modification to it but no one noticed. Wendy had never bothered to learn the chant. Max was distracted because he was watching Wendy. Sidney was too distraught to notice and Gorham didn’t know the chant so there was no way he could have noticed the changes. The bright light surrounded Julius and as it faded, he was gone.
“It’s done,” Leo announced.
“We should be going back. It’s not safe to stay for long out of the city.” Wendy said as she climbed back over her war horse. The others followed her lead however grudgingly they did so. She waited patiently for everyone and then took the lead back to the city.
Sidney and Gorham climbed down from the horses as Wendy’s horse and the other trotted round about. They were about to go when Sidney caught Max’s leg. “How will I know if he got there safely?”
“Henry would have been waiting. If something went wrong, he’ll send word.”
“I didn’t know Henry was going to be waiting.” Leo stated as he looked around. “There was no point in divulging that information. Why would you have …” but he didn’t get to finish asking. He was knocked off the horse by a strong wind and Leo snapped his whip on his horse and he surged forward, toward the gate.
Sidney and Gorham were taken by surprise not knowing what to do. Wendy glanced to see Max trying to regain his feet and to the other side, Leo was making a clean getaway. She whipped her hand out as if wielding an invincible rope and threw it to Leo. She jerked it back with all the force she could master and Leo flew from the horse to the ground with his hands pinned on his sides. She climbed down slowly and walked to Leo. She looked down at him puzzled. She still had no idea what was going on.
“Where were you going?” she asked calmly before Max showed up and lifted him from the ground. By the way his face was set, Wendy knew he was angry. He had never been angry in all the time she had known him but she had figured that if he ever was, he would calmly evaluate the situation before he did something drastic like punch Leo unconscious a moment later. “Do you mind explaining?” Wendy asked folding her hands in front of herself.
“He’s a lying conniving bastard whom I can’t read.” “You can’t read him?”
“Well, he’s watched me a lot of times and heard me even more explaining how it works. So he could block me.”
“What exactly do you think he has done?” Before he could answer the horns sounded at the gate tower. Someone or some people were approaching the city. “I’ll go check it out.” She started to walk away and then paused, “Don’t kill him yet.” She straddled the horse and rode back toward the city gates which were already locked. She signaled for it to be opened just as Jared rode next to her.
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea to go out there when you don’t know who it is.” “Then how will we know who it is?”
Jared looked up at the lookouts in the tower. “Where are they?”
“The group stopped about a quarter of a mile away. Only one rider is approaching.”
“Open the gate!” she shouted and turned to Jared “Someone has to go talk to him.” “Fine, but be careful.”
She rode out and the closer she got to the other rider, the better she could recognize him. He stopped his horse with the precision of a life time rider. She rode round him, circling once then twice. “Dad, what are you doing here?”
“Can’t I come visit my daughter?”
“Well, no. You are supposed to be taking care of Julius.”
“I would have been doing that but Julius didn’t make it.” Wendy gasped. “No, not that he died. He showed up on the other side then disappeared again. I’m here to find out what went wrong.”
Wendy looked beyond his father to the group behind. “Who are they?” Her father looked back. “There is the professor and his assistant…” “What is a professor doing here?”
“I need his help to locate something.” “And the others?”
“The others are wizards who have been authorized to help you win this war.” “There is something more going on here that I don’t know about, isn’t there?” “Yes and as soon as I can get everyone seated down I might explain.”
“Fine, follow me. I think we should stop by Gorham’s castle first then we’ll proceed to mine.”
He called out to the others as the gates were opened to them. Wendy led them to Gorham’s where the king himself was waiting. He watched as the procession entered his gates then his eyes reverted back to Henry. He felt an animosity against Henry that he was surprised he still held. The two stood face to face watching each other as the evaluated the man that Diane might have loved.
“Weren’t you supposed to be watching over my son?” Gorham asked. “That is why I am here. Where are Max and Leo?”
“Down in the dungeon.” He saw the questioning look on Henry’s face. “Sidney is down there helping Max lock up Leo.”
“Why?”
“Leo attacked Max and tried to get away. That’s about all I know.” “Dad,” Wendy called out. “Do you need everyone here?”
“No but you’ll need to stay so find someone to show them where they need to go.”
Wendy looked around for someone she could send. Of course she could send any of the guards but she wanted someone who wasn’t overtly afraid of wizards. She saw a young eager guard hovering about. “You,” he approached. “What’s your name?”
“Oliver.”
“Oliver, I want you to lead my guests to my castle. Find Amber or Ken. You know them?” the boy nodded. “Tell them I have guests and they should get them settled in. Tell them also that I need a room reserved for my father…”
“And one for the professor. He’s staying here with us.” Henry interrupted.
“And another extra room. Also find Annie or Hudson and tell them I need one of them here. Do you remember everything I’ve said?”
“Yes your Highness.” He bowed.
“Take this horse.” She handed his father’s horse out but added, “And make sure you bring it back here as soon as possible.”
The boy jumped on the horse and the others followed him out of the gate. The professor stared as the other’s left. Wendy approached him. “Do you need some help?”
“Um, yes I believe this might be a wee bit too high for me to get off.” “Just swing your legs around the horse and I’ll bring you down.”
He adjusted his spectacles and looked at Wendy closely. “You are quiet skinny young lady. I doubt you could carry me down.”
Wendy laughed at that. “I’m stronger than I look.”
His eyes were still keenly studying her. “There is a little resemblance. Even if you didn’t have the white hair, I’d recognize you anywhere.”
“Why is that?” Wendy asked smiling at the likable old man.
“Your father used to talk about you every time he came to see me. He so …” “Andrew, I think you should listen to her and get off the horse.” Henry interrupted.
He sighed tiredly the swung his leg over the horse and he landed on an invincible platform. Wendy lowered him to the ground. “Ah, that never ceases to amaze me. You know I always call Henry when I want to change my bulbs.”
“Really?” the old man nodded, “And he comes?” “Sometimes. He’s a good friend of mine.”
“It’s good to know at least this fact about him. He keeps his life very private.”
“Wendy!” Henry called out and as she turned towards him, he narrowed his eyes to her. “Time’s wasting.”
“Okay professor, we need to join the others.” They started walking behind the others. “So, what are you here to help him find?”
“Some stones, very valuable, very rare and they have very specific properties. At least that is what Henry tells me. I’ve only seen one and examined it.”
“And these stones, why are they important?”
“All I know is it has something to do with you.” The old man looked at Wendy for a full minute before he asked, “It would be an honor if you would permit me to experiment on you…”
“No!”
“I just need to know how you interact with the stone and if or how the vibrations from you affect it.”
“You have the stone here?” Wendy slowed down as they reached the stairs.
“No,” he walked slowly up the stairs pausing once in a while to rest then he would continue up. “Henry has it on his persons. He can’t risk parting with it when we are on this universe. He doesn’t feel it’s safe enough.”
“Oh!” they paused at the entrance to Gorham’s library. She could only assume the king was taking them to the inner office. “I guess he’ll tell me when it is absolutely necessary.”
The professor burst into laughter and had to support himself on the door frame. It took a rather long time for him to calm himself enough to talk again. “You really know him then. I kept telling him he should make some effort to spend more time with you and “And he is impatient.” “I’ve never thought so.”
“That’s because you are his only family he can relate to.” Wendy’s interest suddenly peaked up but the professor noticed, “I see. He’s also never talked to you about them.”
“No, never.”
“I think that is best. I don’t think you’ll like them.” He shook his head still in thought as he opened the door and immediately Wendy’s eyes met Henry’s.
“It’s about time. We have too many things to clarify before we figure out what our next move is going to be.”
“What happened to Julius? Where is he?” Gorham finally broke his patience and asked what had been bothering him since they had arrived.
Henry turned slowly to face him, “I would have preferred to wait for Sidney but I can see you aren’t going to wait so let me clarify this before I continue. Everything that has happened has been in an effort to protect your son.”
“Protect him from what?” Gorham’s stress level was rising and Wendy could tell because she couldn’t stop herself from notice the swirl in his aura.
“The wizard council wanted to take no risk. Your son being alive is an abomination…”
“Don’t you dare tell me that he is an abomination when Wendy is standing here as well!” Gorham walked over and was standing before Henry who didn’t waver from where he was.
“And because Sydney wasn’t in your council, they saw forth to enforce this law?”
“Not exactly,” Henry’s eyes turned to look at Wendy who was watching the exchange in silence. “They never found out about Wendy until she crossed back over. And by then she was grown up and able to make well informed choices but I’m still paying for breaking the law.” Gorham was about to interrupt again but Henry held up his hand to stop him. “Knowing what I’ve done and knowing you from the many reports I have on you, specifically from Victor, I didn’t think killing your children to be the best cause of action. So, I stood up in their defense and got saddled with ensuring your son’s security until this war is over.
“There’s a war brewing in the wizard community. Unfortunately the population of wizards is very small for a war among us to make a statement and so the renegades have picked a side and hence we have been forced to watch and see how far they are going to take it. It’s gone far enough.”
“You still didn’t tell me where my son is.”
“Your son is still alive. That I’m sure about. For the next part, we need Sidney to be here because you aren’t going to understand any of it.”
Gorham frowned annoyingly toward Henry. How in the world was one supposed to react when you’ve found out your only son was missing? “Try me.”
Henry raised his eyebrow but accepted the challenge. “Ever heard of the Mantegna?” Gorham shook his head. At the same time Sidney walked into the library followed by Max.
“Henry?”
“It’s been a long time Sidney.” He said but Sidney walked up to him and slapped him without so much as a warning.
“Try that again and you’ll lose more than a hand.” His eyes changed color so swiftly and then they changed back before one could take notice of the color change unless they had been watching like Wendy had been. He’d never lost his temper before but he was close to losing it. Everything that could go wrong had gone wrong and none of them had any idea what he had running on all this. “Like I just told your husband, as far as I know, your son is still alive. He appeared on the other side one minute and then the next time he was gone. I have no idea where he went to and that is why I’m here. The passage had been tampered with.”
Gorham didn’t know anything about Henry but he pulled Sidney to his side in the pretense of comforting her but the truth of the matter was that he was hoping to stop another assault in case she tried to attack again.
“Leo tampered with it. I think he was hoping it would take some time for us to discover so he might have had time to disappear,” Max said.
“You think?” Henry asked and now his anger was showing on his face. “I can’t read him.”
“Of course, you can’t. He wouldn’t have tried to double-cross you if you could. How in the world didn’t you notice that he said the wrong chant?”
“I – I …”
“You were distracted.”
“Dad!” Wendy interrupted feeling a need defend Max.
“A child is missing Wendy. A very powerful child is in the hands of our enemies…”
Henry watched his daughter for a moment then turned to Max. “He knows better.” Max shrunk back in guilt. Henry removed his coat slowly and turned to Sidney. “I need time with the wizard prisoner in your dungeons.”
“Tell me what is going on first.”
“It’s about the Mantegna.” Sidney gasped as Henry continued to walk to the door. “I would suggest the castle be evacuated of all the innocents for at least one hour as I drag the information out of Leo.”
Wendy didn’t want to leave but somebody had to show her father to the dungeon. “I’ll show him the way.” She left a very quiet room behind her as the door closed behind her.
*
They walked through the corridors slowly and in silence. Henry didn’t want to ask her what she was thinking but he wanted to know. Not asking was probably better at the moment at least until he would get all the edginess out of him. He had had no doubt that Leo was on their side considering how well he followed orders but if he had had any doubts about either of them, he would have put his money on Max.
“I don’t appreciate you talking to Max like that.” Wendy interrupted his thoughts. He had to smile. “Are you defending him?”
“Of course not!” she objected but the fact that she knew she was the one who was trying to keep him there and unable to do his duty, made her burn in guilt. He looked at her father only to find that he was watching her and able to read every reaction on her face. “What I mean …”
“What you mean to do is establishing a boundary. You are not to interfere with wizard business or we will interfere with yours.” Wendy flinched as if she had been slapped down. He saw this and tried to make his statement gentler. “You are my daughter and I protect you as much as I can but when it comes to your heart, only you alone can learn to protect it against all the attacks it will receive throughout your entire life.”
“Are you saying I shouldn’t fall in love?”
“No.” he sighed, “I’ve never told you that when I associated with Madison, I had the opportunity to see the future.”
Wendy was still looking down. She felt very small and stupid. “Let me guess, you saw Armageddon?”
Henry smiled again, “I saw the battlefield where I met your mother. I never saw her in the vision but I knew I had to be there when the time came.”
“What if that was when you’d have died had Diane not had an agenda? What would you have thought about it?”
“Probably I would have thought that I had it coming. The point is, love is never planned for, filed or stored until the appropriate time. Love simply happens.”
“And the point is?” she was still not looking at him.
“Simply sleeping with Max isn’t going to heal the hurt and betrayal you feel …”
he stopped walking and looked back at the shocked Wendy standing very still. “Is it more than a physical relationship?”
Her face rose slowly as she looked into his father’s eyes to make her point. “I am grateful you took care of me when I had a broken heart and I thought I would never get over it but do not for a second presume that you know where my heart lies now.”
She closed her eyes for a long time and when she finally opened them, there was no anger, no remorse but calmness that she had been taught to portray. “I know for certain that I like him.”
“Then you shouldn’t be bothered about how I treat him. He’s after all a subordinate and he needs to remember that.”
“I thought you didn’t work for the council?” Wendy narrowed her eyes at him in doubt.
As Henry continued to hold eye-contact, he admitted to her his truest ambition. “I’m going to own the council.”
*
Gorham, Sidney, Max and the professor were left in the library alone. The professor watched in silence always fascinated by this species. They resembled humans in every aspect. Studying Henry alone wasn’t enough and now several of them were in one room with him. None of them took any notice as he moved further into the room.
“What is the Mantegna?” None of them answered the man who was called Gorham.
Sidney the slight woman looked in shock at the young blind man. “Can it be true? Are the Mantegna real?”
“The council have been afraid of the fact that they may have been real but ever since they found out about Wendy, they knew the next thing to come back would have been the stones.”
“They are myths. I haven’t ever found one reference to an actual location to the stones and not even how they may work.”
“What is the Mantegna?” Gorham asked again.
Sidney looked at him not knowing how to start. “There have been myths. Stories passed on from mother to daughter, father to son. Stories that are believed to have taken place at some point in our history but the evidence such occurrences have been lost due to dying out of our community like after the Great War where many of the wizards were killed. Others were lost due to the fact that most of the people who experienced such events were killed in the process.”
“And the Mantegna?”
“They are rare stones. Only four of them are believed to exist. They cannot be destroyed as the magic evolved in such an instance is believed to be able to destroy a whole world.” Sidney sighed as she wiped her face with her hands. “Nobody knows where they were taken… maybe the council knows.” She looked at Max who shook his head. “Anyway, they have been lost for thousands of years almost as long as the…”Her eyes widened as she realized the answer she had never thought of. “They have been lost for almost as long as Excrician genocide.”
“Do you I need to ask what that is?”
Sidney smiled lovingly at him. “The Excrician genocide was almost similar to what happened after the Great War. There were the Elementals who were even more powerful than wizards. After an incident, I don’t even know what exactly happened, the wizard council gave the order to have them eliminated, I guess.”
“It’s one of the major decisions that the council has ever done excluding moving our people from this universe.” Max added.
“How do the stones, the elementals and the Excrician genocide have to do with our missing son?”
“The stones are supposed to be controlled by elementals. People like your children and Wendy. They may have wanted your son to have control of one or more of the stones they may have.” Max said.
“If the stones are as dangerous as you make them sound then wouldn’t it have made more sense to have done away with the renegade wizards before all this escalated to this point?”
“We needed to find out exactly what was going on and whether they had the right stone. Either way, they had to have committed a crime for the council to pass judgment. As far as everyone knows, having the stones is not a crime. Even using them is not a crime but the purpose for which they may be used would cause a problem if it has to include committing murder. They have yet to commit a crime.”
“So you cannot do anything about my son?” Sidney asked.
“We have Leo. We don’t know anyone else who may have been responsible for this.”
Sidney’s eyes narrowed, “You can’t even read him, how will having him help?” “Henry will get the information.”
“But still the council will not intercede in Julius’s kidnapping.”
“I have no authority to te…” before he finished Sidney was holding him by the neck and slammed him back to the wall.
“You came here and took my son and now you aren’t going to do anything to bring him back to me?”
“As I already said, I have no authority. Now take your hands off of me unless you want a fight.” Sidney’s anger had not dissipated but she hesitated then put her hand down. “You really should mind your manners. Sooner or later you are going to challenge someone with no patience and you will die.”
Sidney frowned at him but she moved away. Then Wendy walked into the room at that moment. She noticed the tension in the room but said nothing about it. “Henry told me to tell you that all innocents should be taken from the Castle for at least an hour.”
“Wait, he plans to torture him here?” Wendy just shrugged her shoulders and went to the professor.
“We will be leaving now Professor. He said he won’t be in any mood to have a discussion after this and I should take you to yo