Deadly Wands (2 page)

John tried to get the Mongols to marry one of
his sons, with their offspring becoming king, but the oldest,
Aidian, had already married a powerful Scottish quad, and John's
only other quad son was still a child. The ambassador scoured the
royal family, and concluded that Lady Elizabeth would produce the
most acceptable heirs to the throne.

"Let me see your wands," George insisted,
holding up her hands. "Richie gave you grandfather's sticks! No
wonder your blasts are so strong. These make you more powerful than
Aidian. Mother will demand them back once she finds out. Regardless
that grandfather gave them to Richie after he won the national
dueling championship."

She flashed her uncle big puppy eyes. "Let me
fly with you to France. I'd rather die fighting there than live
dropping Mongol babies here."

George groaned. And not because of his burns.
A great side effect of wands were their ability to heal. Quads
rarely became sick, and recovered quickly when wounded. The burns
covering his body were already changing color as he sucked juice
from his wands and directed them to his injuries. Wands also extend
a natural lifespan, and the more powerful the wands, the longer
they extended life. Genghis Khan was three and a half centuries old
and boasted that he’d live forever.

The catch -- and there’s always a catch -- is
that wand use is literally addictive, and the better the wand, the
stronger the addiction. Part of the reason the Mongol Empire kept
expanding is that its millions of quads needed someone to fight. A
powerful quad who stops using wands ages quickly and turns sickly.
Hence, immortality requires lots of death. For one to live forever,
many more must die.

"You can’t come with us. My volunteers will
work without pay or thanks, but not if the Queen forbids it."

"I'll just go alone. The French are desperate
for quads and many women fight on the front lines."

"Then we can’t go. Mother will assume I’m
helping you, and no one will risk going with me if I'm angering the
queen."

In anguish she started punching blast-holes
in the stone walls.

"Can you at least loan me money? I'll have to
try Africa."

"Liz, I'm broke. I'm financing this operation
out of my own pocket. If John takes my estates, then I’m literally
sacrificing everything.”

"But you're earning tons of money making
longbows!"

At ground level, most wands lose
effectiveness beyond one hundred meters, while his two-meter-tall
longbows offered twice the range.

"I was. This last year was very profitable.
But then some longshoremen mistook William, my business partner,
for a Mongol and tried to teach him a lesson. He killed one and
injured several others who had no idea he was a quad."

"You never told me he was a quad!"

"I never knew he was a quad. He only used
hand wands in my presence. But it gets worse. He fought in
self-defense, so nothing should have come of it, but he projected
blades six meters long. That makes him among the most powerful in
the country. Everyone wants to know where he got his wands, and why
he hid their power. Who the hell hides their power for three years?
He must be a veteran to fight like that.

“Anyways, someone’s wand recorded the fight,
and you know how these things spread from stick to stick. Pretty
soon John got a copy and ordered Will's arrest just to put me out
of business. That's why I'm free to return to France so soon. I’m
taking several thousand longbows with me.”

"I remember you speaking highly of William,"
she nudged her uncle.

"Oh, he's great. He’s an engineer by nature,
but he thinks of himself as an innovator. Sure, he's secretive and
paranoid, but he has enough fancy ideas to last a lifetime."

"Is he a good man?" she asked quietly.

Silence. No longer able to concentrate on
healing himself, George opened his eyes and examined his favorite
niece.

"Ah, crap. You want to fly off with him."

"Well, I can't live in the Mongol Empire, and
the rest is a war zone. A lone girl will not survive long. Fleeing
with him doubles my chances of survival. Will you at least
introduce us?"

George held up his hands like she had
influenza and physically backed away.

"And risk an opportunity to help France? No,
if you do this, I must be seen elsewhere. However, you can bring
him his money. He's hiding at my lake cabin, where I took you
fishing when you were just a kid."

She laughed since they went fishing there
just last week. Finally, she was no longer a kid. Liz already took
everything she needed with her. Now she just had to get out of her
grandmother's reach.

"Please tell me you haven't shagged him!" she
suddenly demanded, since he often used the cabin for sex.

"Liz!" he shouted, properly scandalized. "How
can you even think such a thing?"

"Because you’re handsome, charming, and
persistent. So tell me the truth."

Chuckling, he shook his head. "No, we never
had sex."

"But you tried."

Now he laughed loudly. "His paranoia doesn't
let him drink enough. That guy never lets his guard down. I thought
I had a chance since he never visited the local prostitutes, as far
as the gossipy servants could tell. I've had more success with
monks."

The strength of her relief surprised her. She
didn't even realize she had been holding her breath.

"We're not gonna get far without money,
though. I can hock my jewelry, but that takes time."

George suddenly got excited. "I know where
you can get money. From your evil uncle. My dear brother John has
been skimming off government revenues ever since he talked his way
into mother's confidence. That's how he's been able to buy all
those properties when the queen keeps raising taxes to fund the
conquest of Ireland. I even know where: in that old vault in his
castle keep."

"But how can I get it?"

"It was built before wands were discovered,
so the vault is high in the keep tower where it could be easily
defended from ground attack. Just hover near the top and loosen the
mortared stones around the arrow slits."

The prospect of sticking it to that bastard
John made up her mind. She blamed him for the treaty, and hence for
her arranged marriage to that odious man. She looked at the
position of the Sun.

"I've got to go!”

She hugged him hard, then flew to his castle.
The forgotten uncle she left behind cried alone, somehow knowing
he’d never see her again.

CHAPTER 2

The lake reflected the last twilight of the
setting sun as William finished peeing against a tree downwind of
the cabin. No one enjoys stumbling in the woods at night, so
William took care of business while he had some light left. As a
cool breeze rustled the leaves above, he sensed someone land softly
behind him. Assuming a threat, he whirled around and cut the air as
far as his steel could reach while he prepared to blast with his
other wand.

Poor Elizabeth had the wit to duck under the
deadly blade while her hands held large travel bags. Not wanting to
die, today of all days, she quickly shouted out:

"Prince George sent me! William, I brought
your stuff from his castle."

The sight of a beautiful blond, all alone,
stunned William. Never trusting, he instinctively scanned the
skies.

"No one followed me," the girl assured him.
"I flew as high as possible and from cloud to cloud to avoid being
seen. And only Uncle George knows I’m here. Sorry to surprise you,
but these things weigh a ton. George couldn’t come himself, and I
was the only one he could trust with your life," she added to give
herself leverage. Now that she got a good look at him, she found
herself liking everything she saw. Imagining herself in his arms,
Liz visibly flushed. “Wow, you are lovely. No wonder my uncle
wanted you.”

William, not wanting to recall the prince’s
advances, continued to scan the skies. “Gorgeous girls don’t tell
strange men they’re lovely.”

“Gorgeous?” That caught her breath. Blood
rushed to her ego. “Did you just call me gorgeous?” He had no idea
how much she needed that, like medicine for a raging fever.

Flustered, he cursed under his breath. A girl
he just met already had him off balance. A really hot girl.

"Wow!" she exclaimed, examining the distance
between them. "You put out over seven meters of steel. I doubt
there's a dozen quads in the country that can beat that. You’re a
damn super-quad!"

A “super” quad could extend flame at least
seven meters. A quad is only as powerful as his wands, so
super-quads must always beware poison or an arrow in the back
because their wands were literally worth a fortune. Like the
chicken and the egg, even great quads didn’t become super-quads
without super wands.

William tried not to let the flattery affect
him. "Hey, I know you. George showed you my factory despite me
forbidding tours."

His sword disappeared back into his wand. She
took off the helmet that protected her eyes and ears when
flying.

"I am his niece, Lady Elizabeth. My father is
Prince Richard. Because I am his only legitimate child, some refer
to me as the heir to the heir." And, with that, she did a curtsy
that caused her hair to fall over her face, then threw her hair
back over her head because she knew guys really liked that. She
ended up with one foot forward and her hands on her hips, trying to
look as sexy as possible. He saw through it, of course, but it
still made him smile.

"Nice try, lady, but that won’t work on me,"
he said, trying not to like her too much.

"It looks like it already has," she said,
gesturing towards his genitals. "You were taking so long that I was
not sure if you were peeing or masturbating. George mentioned that
you don't go out much."

Red faced, William turned around, exposing
his vulnerable back, to tuck himself back in. He stumbled behind
the tree to recover his composure.

"Thanks for bringing my stuff. You can go
now."

"Oh, because flying at night is dangerous,
Uncle George made me promise to spend the night at his cabin."

Liz heard a groan from behind the tree. She
needed him before, but wanted him now, so she changed the subject
by opening his bag.

"George paid what he says he owed you. I
found three other small bags hidden in your room."

"I can't believe you found three out of the
four!" Her thoroughness apparently impressed him more than the
money. He reset his wands in their arm sockets and walked over to
rifle through his stuff. "You brought my tool chest!" he yelled
excitedly. "Oh, thank you. I need these tools to maintain my wand
launchers."

He seemed as happy as if she dropped him a
ton of gold.

Making herself at home while he concentrated
on his tools, she folded up his sleeves to examine the launchers.
Leather and small wires held each wand in place on the underside of
each arm. The wires, though, bit into his arms, scaring them.
Looking closer, she saw layers of scabs.

“Wearing those launchers must hurt like
hell.”

“Actually I don’t feel anything anymore. My
underarms have thicker calluses than my feet. It’s a small price to
pay for a lethal advantage.”

He did not seem to be joking.

“You wear them all the time?”

“Always,” he said flatly. “I’m the last of my
line and I promised my parents I’d reproduce before my death. My
mother was especially impatient with me.”

William feared death less than breaking a
promise to his mommy. They say good sons make good husbands, and
this one was apparently childless, single, and ridiculously cute.
Involuntarily, she jumped in joy. The poor bastard doesn’t even
know how attractive he is.

"Then this must launch them," Liz concluded,
pushing against a lever that caused the wand to spring into his
open hand. "That's bloody brilliant!" Now virtually in his arms,
Elizabeth gazed into his sky-blue eyes, admiration lighting up her
face. "No wonder George praised you so much."

While a man cannot fall in love with a woman
he isn’t attracted to, a woman cannot fall in love with a man she
doesn’t respect. What he saw in her eyes made his skin tingle.

"Won't they look for you?"

"I was suppose to marry the Mongol ambassador
today to cement a treaty which would allow the Empire to start air
bases in England to attack France from behind. I’d rather die than
destroy Free Europe. So, yes, they’ll look for me. That’s why I
must leave the country.”

Having sized him up, she realized that she
could not ask him to take care of her; he must volunteer to save
the damsel from danger. With that she used her wands to lift her
bag and backpack and move them into the cabin. Enjoying the view of
her from behind, he did the same. Inside she laid out her
cards.

"My Uncle John is the one pursuing you.
Without him, you and George would still be in business. He’s also
the one behind the treaty, so we both need to flee England because
of him. I’d like to strike back before I leave.

“He has been skimming tax revenues and hiding
them in a vault at Castle Edinburgh. I got to know the area during
his son's wedding a few years ago. But it’ll take two fliers. If we
go late at night, no one may even notice us. If they do, the only
decent quad is my cousin Aidian, and I'll take care of him."

William needed to warn her. "We can't run
away together. The Mongol intelligence service is after me. Being
with me will only unnecessarily endanger you. You’ll be safer
without me."

She tried a new argument. "A lone woman is
not safe anywhere. I can shoot five-meter-long flames, but doing so
will attract the very attention I need to avoid. If I fight back
and lose, I’m gang-raped to death; if I win, my identify will be
investigated. Either way, I’m screwed. If I’m returned alive, the
queen will make me reproduce with that horrible man who built
pyramids of skulls, and the Mongols will complete their conquest of
Europe. If we flee together, then we can pass ourselves off as a
married couple."