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Kemamonit's Library

Copyright 2012 Paul Edwards

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Kemamonit's Library

Chapter One

I was sitting on the couch watching television when Shelley burst into the living room. Her cheeks were slightly red as if she had been running quickly.

"Kem... we... um... may have a problem."

I felt a little annoyed since I was watching my favorite program, it was a drama series chronicling a clique of nefarious young girls as they tried to uncover a nemesis to their group. I had been looking forward to seeing one of the wickedest of these women getting her comeuppance in this episode.

I turned off the sound on the television and turned towards Shelley.

"What is it, what's wrong?" I asked.

"The search spell for the library it seems to have swallowed someone."

"Who?"

"Professor Harry Camp, from the university."

"How do you know?"

"Ms. Wilson never saw him leave and she didn't get his tracking badge back at the end of the day, and when she tried to locate the badge with the tracking software it showed it had disappeared in the middle of the library."

"Hmm... that's odd, did anyone check the location?

"I just did, the floor was pretty dusty there and I saw his foot prints, there were no prints pointed the opposite way, it's like he just walked to the location and disappeared."

"How long has he been missing?" I asked.

"It's hard to say because of the way the search spell works, maybe a month."

The tracking spell that had been developed to search the enormous library in the City of Magic was not very sophisticated, it consisted of letting numerous people into the library to search for books and then tracking them on a GPS system.

The book searchers would then be interviewed by one of our librarians, like Ms. Wilson, prior to leaving the library and the data would be put into a computer database.

It would normally take years for the whole library to be catalogued in this manner but Shelley had devised a spell which had moved the library in time so that the number of people who had access to it increased exponentially.

The only side effect of the spell was that our staff of librarians who were tied to the library's time shifts would be different ages whenever I would search for a book myself.

"Well I guess we have to investigate, did you stop the search spell?" I said.

"I closed the library's entrance, it's empty."

I shut the television off and got off the couch, I felt my left wrist checking to make sure I had my bracelet of magic on. It was a long bracelet consisting of many small squares which could be flipped over.

I could create almost any spell I wanted with the bracelet by flipping the squares in different sequences, the squares had symbols written on them in a language only I understood. I had had it for so long I felt naked without it.

"Let's go," I said as I started walking.

Shelley and I were soon standing in front of Ms. Wilson's desk, she was a middle aged woman in this incarnation. A feeling of dread started building up in my stomach, I knew she had had a caught her husband cheating on her at this time in her life and the consequent heartbreak and divorce had turned her into a surly bad tempered witch.

"Um... we're just going to like check... um... to look for Mr. Camp," Shelley said to her.

"You have to wear the badge! Everybody wears the badge!" Her face had an expression of barely contained rage.

"Ok... we'll wear them... ok," Shelley said.

Ms. Wilson opened a drawer on her desk and pulled out two thick forms," fill these out first," she said haughtily.

Shelley grabbed the two forms and walked to one of the many large tables that lined the open area in front of the book shelves. The tables were used by the libraries searchers so they could read and take notes of the material they found. No one was allowed to remove anything from the libraries shelves.

I followed Shelley and sat down at the table with her.

"Forms? We have to fill out forms?" I asked her.

"She's our best librarian... she keeps immaculate records, just humor her."

I looked through the thick form, it had the typical spots for name and address but also unusual requests such as: if you are a male and are divorced state the reason for said divorce.

"This is crazy," I said.

"Just wait... there is a time change soon, we should get a different version of her."

I looked back at her desk and saw the middle aged Ms. Wilson disappear and a much younger woman take her place.

"Ok let's go," Shelley jumped up and almost ran back to her desk.

"Do we really need to fill these out?" Shelley asked the young Ms. Wilson as she handed her the forms.

"My god... who wrote these?" the young Ms. Wilson said as she flipped through one of them.

"Um... they were just trying them out."

"Well these are nonsense," she threw them into the garbage can next to her desk.

"So we can go?"

"Of course, but here are some badges just to be safe," she handed Shelley two plastic badges which had GPS chips embedded into them.

"So how's your boyfriend doing?"

"Boyfriend? I don't have a boyfriend."

"Oh sorry... silly me... I was thinking about someone else," Shelley said.

We started walking towards the shelves while we clipped the badges to our clothing.

"The best version of her is when she has just met her future husband," Shelley said once we were out of earshot.

"Why?"

"We wouldn't have had to wear badges or anything, for months all she did was just sit at her desk and daydream."

We walked as quickly as we could until we were surrounded by shelves and out of sight of the librarian. Shelley stopped and pulled a folded piece of paper out of one of her pockets. She opened it up and studied it.

I looked over her shoulder and saw that it was a computer printout with a small map and some GPS coordinates. Shelley pulled out a small GPS device and started to navigate towards or goal.

The library in the Magic City was enormous, how enormous we had never found out. It had been growing magically and uninterrupted for over six thousand years, a person not paying attention could be lost for days, which is why everyone had to wear GPS badges.

It took about twenty minutes for us to walk to the last known location of professor Camp. Shelley pointed out his foot prints on the dusty floor, I looked at the bookshelves he had been standing in front of.

The shelves were constructed of cedar planks and filled with papyrus scrolls as well as a few clay tablets covered in cuneiform writing. I stood as far back as I could from the shelves and surveyed them, it seemed to me all the scrolls had been disturbed at some point, like someone had looked through all of them searching for something.

I noticed two scrolls that seemed to have been put purposely out of place, as if someone wanted to use them for future reference. I walked to the shelf and picked one of them up and unrolled it.

"What's it about?" Shelley asked curiously.

"Hmm... it looks like these papyri are from the City of Magic... look at the mark at the bottom," I pointed to a line of hieroglyphs that showed the cities name.

"It looks like some administrative stuff, it's the minutes of a meeting between a bunch of sorcerer's, some guys named Drawn, Jannes and Jambres."

"What's it say?"

"Well it looks like this Drawn guy wants to leave the city and take a bunch of people with him, craftspeople and scribes it looks like. The two other guys are saying they need these people and that they were trained here and they're really important... blah blah blah... the usual insults... a plague on your house.... oh ya... well ten plagues on your house... blah blah blah... that's it."

I rolled the papyrus up and handed it to Shelley, I picked up the second scroll and started reading it.

"It's a certificate of graduation to the position of novice sorcerer for that guy named Drawn, it has the spell he wrote to prove his competence... it's called the burning bush... blah blah blah... causes observer to see a bush that burns without being consumed... disembodied voice speaks with observer... blah blah blah... and Drawn's full name is Drawn from the reeds. Well nothing useful there." I said as I rolled up the papyrus.

I turned and looked at Shelley, she stared back at me with her mouth hanging open, a profound look of astonishment on her face.

"It's Moses," she blurted out.

An image of a stern looking actor with enormous pectoral muscles popped into my head.

"From the film?" I asked confused

"The film was based on parts of the bible, don't you remember the burning bush scene?"

I vaguely remembered seeing a glowing tree, then falling asleep, I woke up during the final credits. I remember thinking how humorless all the characters had seemed.

"Oh... the bible, I tried reading it once... it's about some god isn't it?" I said.

"Geez Kem, it's the basis of half the world's religions."

"So this Moses guy, what was so special about him?" I asked trying to change the subject.

"Well he led the exodus of the Jews from Egypt to Israel."

"So when did this happen?"

"Well nobody really knows, actually the consensus of most archeologists is that it's a myth. No one's ever found any compelling evidence it happened."

"This professor guy, Harold Camp, what was his specialty?" I asked.

"Archeology, he supervised a bunch of digs in the Levant, the Sinai desert mostly. Hey that's interesting, that's where the Exodus supposedly happened."

"So he stood here after finding these papyri and then disappeared," I said.

I scanned the book shelves again, I noticed there was a gap of a few inches between the bottom shelf and the floor. I got down on my hands and knees and looked under the shelf.

"Ah-ha," I said as I saw a roll of papyrus hidden there. I managed to hook a finger onto it and slowly drag it out.

I stood up and unrolled it.

"It's a spell, a simple one, I think it transports a person from one place to another, it uses a command word to activate it."

"So the professor used it then?" Shelley asked.

"Then dropped it causing it roll underneath the shelf."

"What now?"

I flipped a few squares on my bracelet activating a spell.

"I have created an anchor for us to this spot. We shall say the command word, go to wherever this leads and bring the professor back."

"Um... ok."

I found the spells word of command, rolled up the papyrus and put it back on the shelf. I grabbed Shelley around the waist with one hand and pulled her close.

"iwt=f," I said in ancient Egyptian.

There was a flash of light.

Chapter Two

We appeared inside a small stone building, I looked at the floor and saw that the flagstones it was constructed of had blades of grass growing between large cracks. The walls were made of hewn limestone blocks crumbling with age.

I looked up and saw that the structures roof had disappeared long ago, I saw that it was night for I could see a few dim stars twinkling in the sky.

It seemed abnormally bright for it being night, I could see all the details of the building very clearly. I looked for the moon thinking that it must be the source of the extra illumination.

I gasped when I saw it, "Oh my god!"

Shelley turned her head and matched my gaze.

"Now that is magic," she said breathlessly.

The moon or more correctly this moon was huge, it dominated the sky, it was so close I felt my hand involuntarily move as if to touch it. The surface of it was covered in large blue seas and green and brown land masses, soft white clouds drifted over both.

"Look," Shelley pointed to a thin golden thread that led from the moon to the earth.

"It must be a corridor to travel between the two worlds," I said.

"Is magic like this even possible."

"Not easily, the spells must have been wondrous."

I used my bracelet to summon my sword and scabbard, I slung the scabbard over my shoulder when it had appeared.

We both walked through the buildings single door and emerged onto a large grass covered meadow. We were on top of a tall hill and could see the terrain below us for many miles. I saw enormous forests cut through with rivers and streams, there was a mountain range on the far horizon.

I saw the unmistakable yellow and orange lights of a large city at the base of the mountains, a thin barely visible silver line crossed the terrain and ended at the cities border.

"That must be a road," Shelley said pointing.

I looked down towards the bottom of the hill and saw that the silver line of the road passed near the base of it. It was only about a half a mile away.

"Mr. Camp must have used it, he probably started walking towards the city," I said.

"Do you think it's safe?"

"Of course not, but we have the benefit of magic."

We started walking towards the road.

It took only a short time before we stood on the flat jigsaw of flagstones that made up the road. It was about twenty feet wide and in excellent condition. I used my bracelet to conjure up a small wagon harnessed to two small horses.

The two animals stood quietly as Shelley and I climbed onto the small bench seat at the situated at the front of the wagon, when we we're both seated I grabbed the reins and shook them, the horses hooves started to make a slow clop clop sound as they pulled the wagon down the road.

"Are they real horses?" Shelley asked.

"Convincing simulacrums, you can't tell they're not real unless you examine them closely."

"Thank god, no poop or food to worry about."

It was only a short while before we entered the dark forest , we could still make out the road but the tangled branches and leaves of the tall trees lining it's sides blocked out a large amount of the moons light.

The hooting noise of an owl startled me, I then heard the rustling of a small animal scurrying.

"Geez this is pretty creepy," Shelley said.

"Yes... what can you tell me about this Harry Camp guy, did you know him?"

"I took a few courses he taught, he's in his late thirties or early forties and he has red hair, he was a good lecturer."

"That's it?"

"Well I heard a rumor he was into a lot of re-enactment stuff."

"Re-enactment stuff?"

"Ya... there are groups that dress up in medieval costumes and pretend to be living in the past."

"Really? I suspect they don't imitate the disease and starvation of those times."

"No just the good parts."

"Hmm... so he's a frustrated adventurer."

We sat in silence and listened to the rhythmic beat of the horses hooves, the forest opened up into a large clearing after a few minutes of travel. The light from the large moon illuminated the clearing with an eerie glow.

"Did you hear something?" Shelley whispered.

I listened intently but could not hear anything but the sound of leaves rustling in a light breeze. I unsheathed my sword and laid it on my lap and then shook the horses reins causing them to trot faster.

The clearing started to narrow back into the dense forest, a feeling of unease suddenly came over me. I jerked the reins causing the horses to stop.

"Who are you?" I yelled into the darkness of the road in front of us.

"You speak the ancient language... how unusual," a tallish man of medium build emerged from the shadows.

"What do you want?" I asked.

"No time for a chat? Not very friendly," I could see he was carrying a weapon of some kind.

"Close your eyes," I whispered to Shelley.

I started flipping the squares on my bracelet, I shut my eyes before I activated the spell. I saw a bright flash through my closed eyelids, I opened them when light dimmed to a glow.

The tallish man had put both his hands over his eyes, from the remnants of the spells light I saw three more men standing at the edge of the forest, they also had both hands over their eyes. I saw large clubs lying at their feet.

I jumped off the wagon with my sword in hand, I ran into the tallish man as hard as I could knocking him off his feet. I dropped my sword and then activated another spell with my bracelet, I pointed my hand towards the three other men, a wave of force emanated towards them from a point a few inches from my fingertips.

I saw the three men fly backwards as the wave passed over them, the trees near them jerked violently. I picked up my sword and walked over to the man I had knocked to the ground, he was staring back at me his eyes squinting as he blinked repeatedly trying to clear his vision.

I put the tip of my blade next to his throat.

"Petty thief, you will answer my questions," I said menacingly.

"Well you're not very friendly at all..."

I pressed the point of my sword into the skin of his throat.

"Your web has captured a wasp little spider, who are you?"

"I'm a tax collector... I work for the emperor," he was starting to whine.

"Tax collector, really? Where did you learn my language?"

"I was a student at one of the universities, it's a compulsory course."

"Have you seen a strange red headed man come through here in the last few days?"

"We... um... just set up our tax collection booth today... you are our first customer , you owe the emperor many coins for your crimes... if you pay me I may be able to put in a good word."

I could see a sinister confidence building in his cold dark eyes, I saw his hand move suddenly like a snake reaching for my sword hilt. I brought my foot back and then swung it as hard as I could smashing it against the side of his head.

His head jerked and made a crunching sound a small fountain of teeth flew up from his mouth, his body went limp then as he lapsed into unconsciousness.

I walked back to the wagon and climbed onto the bench beside Shelley, I laid my sword back on my lap and grabbed the reins. Shelley stared at me with a look of astonishment on her face.

"Geez Kem... what the hell?" She said.

"I have met many men like these, you can tell by their eyes sometimes, they aren't burdened by guilt or compassion. They will think twice before victimizing strangers from now on."

"Did he see Harry?"

"I don't think so, but men like him believe the truth is a commodity to be traded."

I shook the reins hard and the two horses broke into a rapid trot, the speed of the wagon was fast enough for me to feel a light breeze on my face.

We traveled for another two hours before we finally pulled the wagon off the road and into the forest. The sun had not risen yet so we decided to get some sleep, the wagon had a number of magical features built into it including being able to be folded out into a small sturdy shelter with two comfortable beds.

The shelter had a thick door that could be locked by barring it with a small wooden beam, I placed the beam into place before we both crawled into our beds and fell asleep.

I woke up in the morning seeing bright sunlight shining through the cracks of our small shelter. I picked up my sword and hen cautiously unlocked and opened the shelters door. I peeked out and saw nothing but trees and vegetation.

My movement woke up Shelley and she sat up in her bed rubbing her eyes. We were soon both outside folding up the shelter into a wagon.

"Do we have any food?" Shelley asked.

I opened a door on the side of the wagon and pulled out a small drawer, I then grabbed a handle beside the drawer and pulled out a small shelf.

"Voila food and a small stovetop," I said.

Shelley looked into the food drawer, "hmm... bacon and eggs, no cereal huh?"

"Bacon won't kill you," I said feeling slightly annoyed, how anyone could resist bacon was beyond my comprehension.

I turned on the stoves heat and started cooking breakfast, Shelley had found the wagons small sink and water hose and was busy cleaning herself.

We were soon both sitting on the back of the wagon eating our breakfast, Shelley just ate some eggs and toasted bread.

"You would have been a perfect member of a small tribe I met once," I said angrily.

"What tribe was that?" Shelley asked, a curious look on her face.

"Oh it was some nomadic sheep herders, their leader had some weird theory that pigs were evil and caused disease, actually he had a lot of weird food theories."

"What was this leaders name?"

"Iba... something, I can't remember... why do you want to know?"

"It wasn't Abraham was it?"

"It might have been, I do remember he was quite the bossy boots, he screwed around on his wife too, her name was Saira if that means anything."

Shelley stared at me with a very odd look.

"How far did you get when you tried to read the bible?"

"Something about an apple tree, it was so boring and puritanical, how they managed to write a creation story without any sex in it is beyond me."

"I'd give it another try."

"I'll wait for the movie... you know you could have conjured up the cereal you like, you are a sorcerer after all."

"I don't have a spell for that."

"Have you come up with a simpler way of castings spells, or are you still using a notebook?"

Shelley reached into one of the large pockets on her cargo pants and pulled out a well worn leather bound notebook."

"I tried using a wand along with verbal commands but it didn't really work out."

"Why?"

"I looked like a crazy person conducting an imaginary orchestra."

"Hmm... any other ideas?"

"I thought about using my smart phone, but I've lost every single electronic toy I've ever had."

"Something will inspire you," I said.

Chapter Three

We finished our meal and packed away our utensils, we both climbed back onto the wagons front seat and were soon back onto the road listening to the clop clop sound of the horses hooves.

I looked up into the sky and saw that the sun had risen to just above the tops of the forests trees. The sun looked odd to me and it seemed to be brighter than it should have been.

"Doesn't the sun look kind of strange?" I asked Shelley.

"Ya... it looks bigger... and its brighter."

"I wonder if we're still on the earth?"

"We must be, I saw the Orion constellation last night, and it looked perfectly normal... but I have noticed I feel a real spring to my step, like I lost a few pounds."

"Isn't the planet Venus about the same size as Earth?"

"Ya... but its uninhabitable... oh my god!"

A feeling of awe came over me.

"They changed a world with magic... that's... that's unbelievable," I said.

"Who?"

"It must have been the three sorcerers in the papyrus we found, Moses, Jannes and Jambres."

"I wonder what else they accomplished?"

I examined the forest as we traveled by it, the trees seemed to be perfectly normal, a mix of deciduous varieties interspersed with few conifers. The grass and weeds lining the road seemed normal as well.

I saw black and brown squirrels jumping between the trees branches as well as small birds darting and gliding in the sky. If we were not on Earth we were in a close copy of Earth's ecosystem.

We travelled for another three hours before the forest gave away to a landscape of farmland. The farms were composed of small fields separated by fences of made of roughly hewn stones, the farmhouses consisted of small one story stone and wood cottages with thatched roofs.

I saw people working in the fields with hoes, it appeared to in the middle of the growing season so they must have been weeding the crops. I did not see any modern farm machinery only wagons pulled by what looked like oxen.

The city was now visible in the distance, I could see its large stone walls.

We started to pass other wagon's coming in the opposite direction on the road. They were mostly pulled by oxen although I did see a fine wooden carriage pulled by a team of impressive looking horses. The drivers paid us little or no attention, we appeared to be not too unusual.

I noticed the clothing worn by the people of this world looked vaguely medieval, the men wore shirts and pantaloons of rough cloth, while the women wore simple ankle length dresses also of rough cloth. I observed most of the men were armed with short steel swords that they wore in scabbards about their waists.

It took about forty five minutes before we had reached the cities gates, the walls surrounding the city looked to be at least a hundred feet high. The city gate was more like a small tunnel through the wall, it was large enough for a wagon.

There were two bored looking guards carrying long pikes guarding the entrance, they worn steel helmets and a sparse amount of amour.

I pulled the wagon to a stop as one of the men raised his arm.

"Hwo gtahh ert?" he yelled in a stern voice.

"Oh oh," I heard Shelley whisper.

"I am a simple farmer, come to buy some supplies," I yelled in ancient Egyptian.

"Hwo gtahh ert? Buhj fee!!" I could see he was getting angry.

"I have an idea." Shelley whispered as she reached into one of her pants pockets.

She took out her smart phone and started to tap furiously on its touch screen. She then held it out in front of her.

"The STRUDEL website, it has a voice activated translator now," Shelley whispered.

"You can get the internet here?" I asked.

"Got sick of crappy reception, so I made a spell that gives me five bars everywhere."

"HWO GTAHH ERT!!!!!!!!!!!!" The guard yelled his face red."

I looked at phones screen, the phrase "you who are?" was written on it. Shelley quickly tapped the screen and then whispered the phrase I had just said.

"Weert yuojn wetb opppb se ntk vttr," Shelley yelled as she read the resulting script from the phones screen.

The guard took a step back as if surprised, then he stared at us both intently, his mouth formed a broad almost lascivious grin and he waved us through the gate.

The tunnel under the wall was not very well lit, but I could see the bottoms of a series of portcullis's as we traveled underneath them. We traveled until we were in the center of the tunnel about twenty five feet in, I then pulled the horses to a stop.

"We should get rid of the wagon while we have a chance," I said to Shelley.

We both climbed off the wagons bench and stood next to each other on the road, I used my bracelet to dispel the wagon as well as my sword, we then turned and starting walking towards the tunnels exit.

When we emerged into the bright light after the darkness of the tunnel we both squinted and put our hands in front of our eyes, it was a few seconds before my eyes adjusted and I was able to see our surroundings.

I heard Shelley gasp next to me, I felt my own jaw drop as I looked at the panorama around me. I saw a large city consisting of enormous buildings of all shapes and sizes. I saw large glass windows, brightly colored ceramics, statues and fountains.

"It's fantastic..." Shelley said.

"Yes... some of those buildings must be over five hundred feet high."

We were in a large courtyard made of ceramic flagstones, I saw numerous people walking to and fro all wearing different styles of clothing. There didn't appear to be a dominant ethnic group as I saw many varieties of facial features and skin color.

"What now?" Shelley asked.

"We look for an administrative building, then find someone who can tell us if anybody was arrested or hospitalized who has red hair."

We headed for the courtyards exit, a large street filled with people and horse drawn carriages. I noticed the city did not have the unique odor typical of most preindustrial cities.

I looked at a team of horses pulling a large carriage, curious to see what happened when these enormous poop machines did the inevitable. I saw one horse lift its tail to clear the way for a brown avalanche which emerged seconds later, the poop fell for only a few inches before it disappeared in a small flash of blue light.

"Did you see that?" I asked Shelley.

"What?"

"Look at the horses when they poop."

I had to wait for a minute before I heard a reply from Shelley.

"Magic... there's magic here," she said.

"Yes, but believe it or not I recognize the spell... I think it may be something else."

We were passing in front of a large restaurant complete with a front patio. The smell of the food made me realize how hungry I was.

"Let's get something to eat," I said.

"How will we pay?"

I reached into my pocket and pulled out a handful of generic looking gold coins which I showed to Shelley.

"Never leave home without them."

We walked through the restaurants large entrance emerging into a well lit room filled with tables and booths as well as a long bar against one wall. The seats were about a third filled so we were able to easily find an empty table.

I looked at the table next to us after we sat down, I saw four young people all wearing a uniform of some sort, a rust colored smock.

They were studying a well worn leather bound book while drinking pint glasses of dark colored beer. I heard the odd word of ancient Egyptian spoken,

"You speak Egyptian?" I asked a young blonde girl closest to me.

"Of course... we're sorcerers don't you know," she replied haughtily, her nose rising.

"Well sorcerers in training..." the young man next to her said."

"What spell are you studying?" I asked.

"Oh you wouldn't understand," this from the blonde.

"Umm... the fire starter... we can't seem to get it to work," the young man said.

"Like this?" I flicked my forefinger against my thumb and a small red hot coal flew from the end of my finger and landed in the blonde girls beer causing it to steam and hiss.

She turned and looked at me her eyes as big as saucers.

"You're... you're a sorcerer?" She asked, an expression of awe on her face.

"I know a few things, what system are you studying?" I asked.

"First level crocodilian, we're in our first year at the school," the blonde girl said eagerly, all the arrogance in her voice gone."

"No second level studies?"

"Only third year students are allowed to study the second level tomes," the young man said.

"What the hell is crocodilian magic?" Shelley whispered in my ear.

"I'll explain later, they're not really sorcerer's they're practicing a sort of pseudo magic," I whispered back.

"Why don't you join us, there's plenty of room," the young man said pointing to two empty chairs.

The four people all introduced themselves, the young blonde girls name was Gwenora the young man was Domin the two others another girl and boy were Viala and Acet.

"Could you order us some food and drink, we don't speak the local language very well," I asked Domin.

"Yes of course... where are you from, the wilds?"

"Yaa... the wilds."

"What's it like? I've never met anyone from the wilds?" Gwenora asked, she was staring at me with a look of wonderment in her eyes.

"Well... it's kind of hard to describe."

"Did you see the dragons?"

"Um... from afar... you gotta keep your distance from dragons."

"I've heard that... I can't wait to graduate, I'm going to leave the city and find my fortune," Gwenora said.

"Oh sure Gwenny... you'll be a assistant construction sorcerer like your father," said Domin.

Gwenora rolled her eyes angrily.

"Ya, magic only works in cities anyway," Viala said.

"You haven't seen another stranger like us, a middle aged man with red hair?" Shelley asked.

"Red hair, what's he look like?"

"He's kind of tall and he has a goatee, and he's sort of excitable."

"Sounds like our new history professor... does he have a horrible accent and teach lessons like he has no clue what he's talking about?" Domin said.

All four of them burst out laughing.

Shelley and I looked at each other.

"Does he only speak Egyptian?" I asked.

"I don't know, all our lessons are in Egyptian, it's the language of philosophy as you know," Gwenora said.

"We'd like to meet this person, could you show us his office?" Shelley asked.

"Ok, we're going to a lecture after lunch we'll show you then," Domin said.

Our food arrived at the table, it consisted of a thick stew complemented with bread and butter, Shelley and I both ate like ravenous animals.

When we were done I gave the server one of my gold coins, she looked it over then put it in her mouth and bit it, then she put it in her pocket and gave me a big smile.

We followed the group to an impressive looking building surrounded by columns and large statues. I noticed a series of hieroglyphics high above the building's main entrance as we entered, it said "Jannes University department of history."

"Here's his office," Gwenora pointed to a non-descript wooden door. She then handed me a folded piece of paper making sure the others couldn't see her do it.

"It's my address... maybe when you go to the wilds again you could take me with you," she whispered, she had a hopeful look in her eyes.

I put the paper in my pocket, "there's nothing wrong with finishing school first, but I'll keep you in mind," I whispered back.

The others in the group gabbed her arms and pulled her away.

Shelley knocked on the wooden door, I heard movement in the room beyond and then saw it swing open. A tall middle-aged man stood in front of us holding the door with one hand. I saw him sigh and then his shoulders slump when he seen us.

"You found me," he said.

We walked into the small office closing the door behind us, Harry sat down on a chair behind a large desk, Shelley and I sat on two smaller wooden chairs on the opposite side.

"How the hell did you manage to get a job teaching history?" I asked.

"I did it out of desperation... I found out the rules of academia are the same here as anywhere, all that's needed is to look and sound like you're a professor."

"You have to come back," I said.

Harry suddenly stared at Shelley for a moment with his brows furrowed.

"I know you..." he said.

"Um... I was a student in a class you taught," Shelley said.

"No, that's not it... you were on Charlie's dig in Egypt, the one that got him banned."

"Yes I was."

"Lots of weird rumors about that dig, Charlie would never talk about it, it's funny though I'd never seen him happier like a weight gone off his shoulders."

"Enough, we must leave, you don't belong here," I said impatiently.

Harry looked at me.

"Yes lots of weird rumors... that he found something spectacular, so amazing no one would ever believe it."

"It was nothing, just an empty tomb," Shelley said unconvincingly.

Harry was still staring at me.

"It doesn't matter you can't stay here," I said.

Harry's shoulders slumped again, "I want to stay."

"Why on earth do you want to stay here? You barely speak their language, it's a culture that's centuries behind your own," I said.

"But there's magic, dragons and adventure it's like a fantasy."

"But you're just a teacher here."

"I was just doing it to get the lay of the land, save money for equipment and supplies. I was going to leave for the wilds in a couple of months."

"And then die a gruesome death."

"I think not, I have started to figure out this magic stuff," Harry pulled out a papyrus scroll and put it on his desk.

"Magic only works in cities," I said with smug confidence.

"The city magic is different than this, I found this scroll in the library it's not the same as the texts they teach with, it has the same symbols as the spell that brought me here."

My heart started beating like a jackhammer, "you have mastered it?"

"I have some small ability," Harry had his poker face on.

"You will try to resist us?" Shelley asked.

"Let me have one adventure, and then I will go."

Shelley and I looked at each other.

"What do you have in mind?" I asked.

"I want to see the dragons."

I turned to Shelley, "we are going to need a guide."

"Who?"

I reached into my pocket and pulled out the slip of paper Gwenora had given me, "I have just the person."

Chapter Four

Harry showed us the small apartment that he lived in which was in the history building, Shelley and I conjured up two beds that we could use to sleep on for the night. Harry still had two more lectures to give so Shelley and I decided to go out and see the city.

When we started walking through the streets we noticed numerous signs of magic, buildings constructed in a such a way that the materials used would not have normally been strong enough to support its weigh, lighting appliances that did not use flame or electricity and streams of water that had no pipes to supplying them.

"You said this is pseudo magic?" Shelley asked.

"It's a like spell I wrote for the City of Magic, it enabled my servants to construct mundane spells without giving them the knowledge of magic."

"Oh... so they could erect the buildings and do their jobs easier. How did it work?"

"It was a combination of a simple written language and command words, they could write the spells on whatever was available or they could just recite command words."

"This is the same spell?" Shelley asked.

"I think it's a vastly more complicated version of it, they appear to be doing some very sophisticated things here."

We walked into a large open area dominated by a beautiful spiral tower constructed of stone and wood, I could see a set of stairs winding around the inside made visible by large windows. I also saw what looked like an elevator car moving quickly up one side of the building.

I leaned back and shaded my eyes looking at the top of the tower, I saw what looked like the bottoms of three large wooden sailing ships. One of the ships slowly backed away from the tower then turned and sped away.

"Flying ships, I thought magic only worked in the city?" Shelley said.

"They must use real magic," I replied.

"I wonder where they go?"

"There must be cities like this all over the planet."

"Separated by wild untamed lands... the wilds," Shelley said.

We turned and walked across the open space and then down a narrow street, we soon came upon a small park about twenty feet across, there was a bench a fountain and a painted life-sized statue of a bearded man.

I stood in front of the statue and read the small hieroglyphic plaque at the statues base, it said:

Moses

Creator and Destroyer

He lost his way

I looked at the statues face, it looked eerily familiar.

"Shelley... look," I pointed to the statues face.

"Oh wow, now that's weird."

I used my bracelet to conjure up a film poster of the Moses movie I had slept through, I then unrolled it and held it next to the statues face.

"God they look identical... look he even has big pectoral muscles," Shelley said pointing to the statues chest.

"I always wondered about reincarnation... this has not been the first time I've seen someone from the past in the present."

"Well he wasn't Jewish this time around," Shelley said.

"It is odd though that he portrayed Moses."

"Ya... now that I think about it he played Jews in his two most successful films."

I dispelled the film poster.

"This exodus that Moses led, what was so special about it?" I asked.

"Um... well it kinda led to the creation of Israel... all the Jews were slaves and they left Egypt with the help of their god."

"Who was their god?" I asked.

"Well that's kinda complicated... there is a theory he originated from the god El."

"El... the bull god from the north... interesting... that was also the god of that bossy boots tribe leader who hated bacon."

Shelley stared at me, "what were you doing with this nomadic tribe anyway?" she asked.

"Um... nothing... I used to travel a lot looking for new ideas."

I saw Shelley's eyes narrow.

We continued down the street and walked past a small restaurant district, it was getting late in the afternoon so we decided to stop at a small quaint looking bistro. The place was still empty so we sat at the small bar on tall stools.

The bartender was a fiftyish looking gentleman dressed in a white shirt, he was polishing a glass with a table cloth.

"Hi, do you speak Egyptian?" Shelley asked.

The man turned and smiled, "Oh yes, one of the benefits of flunking many courses at the university."

"Wasn't that expensive?"

"It took a while for my parents to figure that out, what can I get you?"

We ordered some food and two glasses of wine, the bartender wrote our orders on a piece of paper and handed it to someone through a small square window. He walked back to us and then filled two glasses with a dark red wine.

"What brings you two to our fair city?" He asked.

"Just visiting, you're from here?" I said.

"Oh yes, all my life, ask me anything."

"The statue in the park near here, Moses, what's his story?"

"Well well, you are from out of town if you don't know that. He is one of the three creators along with Jannes and Jambres, they had a disagreement, there was a terrible war and then he fled with his people down the Reed, when Jannes and Jambres tried following him he destroyed the Reed.

"The Reed? What is that?" I asked.

He stared at us incredulously, "The golden thread... the path to the moon, are you blind?"

"Ohhh, that Reed, we have a different name for it where I'm from," I said.

"How did he destroy it?" Shelley asked.

"He opened a large hole causing all the air to escape into the void, no one really knows if this is a true story or not, the Reeds Wind Wailers haven't worked for centuries."

I decided not to ask him what a Wind Wailer was, I didn't want to make him any more suspicious. We looked enough out of place with our odd clothing.

Our food soon arrived, we chatted with the bartender as we ate a meal consisting of strips of meat and vegetables fried in oil. It was well cooked and steaming hot so we had no worries of getting food poisoning.

We started to discuss the fact that the city was spotlessly clean and didn't even have the odors normal for a modern industrial city.

"It must be all the magic they use," Shelley said.

"Are there sanitation sorcerers?" I asked the bartender.

"Well yes and no, it's a specialty of construction sorcery."

"Are there war sorcerers?" Shelley asked.

"No, that's kind of pointless since their magic only works inside a cities walls."

"Is there any magic that works outside the walls?" I asked.

"As you know the Wailers work, and I've heard of a few magic items... there are stories of powerful sorcerers but they're just fairy tales."

We finished our meal and paid with some money that Harry had given us, we said goodbye to the bartender and then headed back to the university and Harry's quarters.

We stayed up and chatted for an hour or two waiting for Harry to return, when he didn't we decided to go to bed.

Harry woke us up the next morning, he was dressed in a very odd outfit, it consisted of a frilly white silk shirt complimented by dark trousers stuffed into what looked like pirate boots. He had topped it off with a wide brim hat folded up on one side, a cape and a sword in a scabbard hanging on a belt around his waist.

He looked incredibly excited.

I handed Harry the folded piece of paper that Gwenora had given me, "could you find this pupil and bring her here," I said.

Harry looked at the name on the paper, "Ok, she has a class in the morning. Why?"

"We're going to need a guide, and she wants to see the world," I said.

Harry took off his sword, hat, and cape and then walked out the front door, Shelley and I used the time to conjure up and take a shower as well as some clean clothes.

We were sitting around Harry's dinner table drinking coffee when he and Gwenora walked through his front door. Gwenora was so excited her cheeks had turned a bright red.

"God... you have coffee!" Harry exclaimed.

I pointed to the coffee pot, Harry quickly grabbed a large cup and poured the coffee into it.

"What's coffee?" Gwenora asked.

"Do your parents know what you're doing?" I asked her.

"I wrote a letter and gave it to Domin, he'll give it to my parents."

Harry gave Gwenora a cup and poured it half full of coffee, he put a cube of sugar and a little cream into it and stirred.

Gwenora cautiously put it to her lips and tasted it,"meh... it's alright I guess," she said.

"So what's the plan?" Harry asked.

"We will depart the city on one of the ships," I said.

"We're going to be on a Wind Wailer?" Gwenora's eyes were wide with excitement.

"Yes... and we'll let you buy the tickets," I said.

I had used a copier spell to increase the small amount of currency Harry had amassed, I had put the coins in a small leather sack which was sitting on the dinner table.

I picked up gave the sack of coins off the table and gave it to Gwenora, "will this be enough?"

She opened up the sack and looked inside, "I think so, can we take the elevator too? I know it's more expensive... but um... all the important people use the elevator."

I had no desire to walk up hundreds of feet of stairs so I said yes, I had a second bag of coins on my person just in case we were short of money.

We finished our coffee and got up from the table, Harry put on his cape and hat again, I picked up his sabre and examined it, it appeared to be an old cavalry weapon. I handed it back to Harry.

"It better be genuine, you may have to use it," I said.

"Of course it is, I bought it at a civil war auction."

"Do I need a weapon?" Gwen asked.

"Absolutely not," I said.

We followed Gwen out the door of Harry's quarters, Harry locked the door behind us. It only took us fifteen minutes of walking before we were at the spiral tower with the large ships moored at its peak.

Gwen led us over to a booth like structure near the base of the tower, she dropped the bag of coins on the booths counter and started talking to a uniformed person on the other side. They were both talking in the local language so we could not understand what they were saying.

After a few minutes of discussion Gwen dumped a pile of coins from the sack onto the counter and then counted out a specific amount and slid it over to the uniformed person, Gwen then received a folded piece of paper in return.

Gwen then picked up the sack and then turned towards us, she gave me the sack of coins back, there were only a few left, she also handed me the folded piece of paper.

"We're on the Jambres, it leaves in an hour, they still had a first class cabin available," she said.

"One cabin?"

"Oh don't worry it has bunch of rooms."

I unfolded the piece of paper and looked at it, it was covered in writing, I didn't understand the language and assumed it was the local dialect, it also had a large official looking wax seal at the bottom.

"Do we need identification papers," Shelley asked.

"What are they?" Gwen replied.

"Never mind."

We walked over to the elevators gate and waited for the car to return, I had noticed that the elevator car had no cables attached to it, the car was in a simple wood and stone frame attached to the side of the tower. I suspected that even without the frame the car would still operate normally, it was obviously magical.

The elevator car eventually reached the bottom, the gate opened and the operator put his hand out, I put our ticket in it. He examined it for a few seconds and then handed it back

We walked in and waited while he closed the gate and then pulled a large lever that rose out of the floor. The car started climbing smoothly and steadily and we were arrived at the top in a few minutes, the gate opened and we walked out into a large circular room.

I saw other gates around the perimeter of the room, there were lines of people in front of them a uniformed person was examining their tickets one at a time and then waving them through.

Gwen pointed out our line and we were soon walking on a wide gangplank onto the nose of the large airship Jambres.

The ship reminded me of a Mississippi riverboat except it was much larger and much more fantastic, I saw many decks complimented with grand balconies.

Gwen could barely contain her excitement as she chattered nonstop pointing out all the great ships features and architecture.

"Have you ever flown on a ship before Gwen," I asked.

"Oh no... but I've been on numerous tours."

We were soon walking into the front door of our first class cabin, I suddenly realized why we had used almost all the coins in the sack. I was staring at a large opulent room filled with beautiful furniture, I also saw that there was a well stocked bar against one wall.

The far wall consisted of large sliding glass doors leading to a huge balcony which had numerous lounge chairs scattered around it.

"Geez... this is nice," Shelley said.

"Ya... it sure is, was this the only room available Gwen?"

Gwen was wearing a very bad poker face, "well... um... getting four different cabins would have cost a lot too," she said.

"Not the sort of journey a hardened adventurer would take... huh Harry?"

"I'm sure there will be many hardships to come," Harry said with a disgruntled look on his face.

"God, I hope not," I heard Shelley murmur.

"So what else does our ticket provide?" I asked Gwen.

"Oh... everything food, drink."

"I see all-inclusive, are there shows and shopping too?"

"Oh yes!" Gwen clapped her hands together in excitement.

Harry let out an exasperated sigh as he collapsed into one of the opulent chairs, I walked over to the rooms small bar and grabbed a bottle of what looked like a strong liquor, I found a glass filled it full of ice from a bucket and then poured a couple of ounces of the liquor into it.

I walked over to Harry and gave him the glass.

"Have a drink Harry."

Harry grabbed the glass and sipped it cautiously."

"Hmm... whiskey," he said.

I used my bracelet to conjure up a large pad of blank paper and a pen, I set them down on a small coffee table sitting in the middle of all the furniture, I sat down on one of the sofas.

"Before we do anything we need a map. Gwen since you are familiar with the area could you do the honors."

Gwen walked over to the table, knelt down and then started drawing on the pad, she first drew five circles connected with lines and then a smaller circle near the edge of the paper. She labeled all the circles in Egyptian.

Gwen then drew what looked like forests and mountain ranges along with a few rivers and large lakes.

"We are headed for La fin du monde," Gwen pointed to the small circle at the edge of the map.

"The large circles they are cities?" Shelley asked.

"Yes."

"What is La fin du monde?" I asked.

"It is the last outpost before the wilds, there's not much there just a walled garrison along with a store that sells basic supplies," Gwen said.

"How long is the journey?"

"Five days, but we will stop over at the city of Shadowfield first, three days from now."

There was a knock at the door of our suite, Shelley walked over and opened it, I saw a young woman dressed in a uniform.

"Does anyone want a snack?" Shelley yelled over her shoulder.

Gwen asked for something in a the local language, no one else wanted anything, the porter reached back grabbing a plate from a cart and handed it to Shelley. The food on the plate looked very similar to cheese and crackers.

"There's lots for everybody," Gwen said as she stood up and took the plate from Shelley. I tried one of the hors d oeuvres, I was right it was cheese and crackers.

Chapter Five

The next three days was a blur of food, sleep and luxury. The four of us spent hours watching shows at the ships many theaters and lounging on our cabins large balcony. We met and talked to dozens of the ships passengers.

I was starting to get a clearer picture of the civilization of this world, there were only five major cities that were known about, they were all surrounded by farms to supply food, each city had a population of about a two hundred thousand people.

The size of the cities could never increase since magic would not work past the large walls which surrounded each one.

The result of this was that the poorer and less powerful residents tended to be forced out into the wilds because of the lack of room.

The people I talked to had very little knowledge of the wilds, only that they were populated by many fierce and dangerous peoples and monsters. There were also rumors of large lawless communities ruled by the sword.

I also learned that the ship we were on, called a wind wailer because of the sound it made when at full sail, was one of about thirty. They were all ancient and had been rebuilt and refitted many times, the underlying superstructure which was made of iron was the only original part that remained.

They could fly about fifty miles an hour at a top altitude of about five thousand feet, they were used to provide a scheduled travel service to all five major cities.

The origin of this world was only known by the residents as a series of murky myths and legends. It was created by three powerful sorcerers, then populated by a migration from another world, which was clearly earth, there was then a falling out between the sorcerers causing a fierce war which resulted in the migration of Moses and his followers to another land.

The luxury and gaiety ended abruptly when we docked at Shadowfield, the vast majority of the passengers departed only to be replaced by a large battalion of archers and what looked like a much poorer and desperate looking bunch of travelers.

"They are destined for the wilds," Gwen said as we watched them board the ship from our balcony, she looked envious of them which surprised me.

"Gwen, why do you think Moses left this world?" I asked.

"Probably because it was so boring, nothing changes here," she replied.

It occurred to me then that because of the pseudo magic, the city dwellers every need had been taken care of, this had probably stifled any innovation, also that there was an enormous imbalance between the people inside and outside the walls

I suddenly wondered what was stifling innovation outside the cities walls, a feeling of profound dread suddenly came over me, whatever it was it must be pretty horrific.

I walked back inside the cabin and sat down on one of the soft couch's. I had conjured up a few books to read and bent down to pick one of them up off the small coffee table. I noticed Harry was sitting across from me with his nose in a book reading, he looked up when I sat down.

"So Kem you have never told me where you're from," he said.

"Um... South Africa."

"Your grasp of ancient Egyptian is extraordinary, where did you learn it?"

"The... um... University of... um... South Africa, I studied Egyptology."

"They must have an exceptional course, I wonder though if they skimped on the practical part of Egyptology by spending so much time on language."

"Absolutely not, I have a fine grasp of the history of the land," I said confidently.

"A little test perhaps," Harry pulled out a pen and on a piece of paper drew a profile of a ancient Egyptian persons head he then drew a cone like hat on its top.

"Can you tell what this is?" He pointed to the cone.

Relief flooded through me, it was a simple question. I was worried he would ask me about some minor detail that was believed to be true in this era but was in reality complete fiction.

"It's a simple cone shaped hat made of a light wood. It was worn by certain cults for religious ceremonies. The wearer would put a little dab of beeswax mixed with incense on the top of it. A modern analogy would be the little beanie worn by some religious groups."

"Are you sure? Could it not be a cone of animal fat mixed with perfume to provide a pleasant scent."

Harry could not fool me for I had had the benefit of actually seeing the hat being used.

"A blob of animal fat? Not in the hot sun of Egypt, it would be full of fly maggots in minutes," I said, smug in my reply.

Harry stared at me intently, "I always wondered about that theory, even if it was made of beeswax it would still have been pretty uncomfortable."

I suddenly realized Harry had tricked me.

"This is not common knowledge among Egyptologists?" I asked.

"Until now, no one had a clue, there were theories, the perfume thing, another was that it was a symbolic representation for Lotus flower intoxication."

I felt a surge of anger, some of it directed at Harry but mostly at myself for being tricked so easily.

"Lotus flower intoxication! You'd have to eat a basket of lotus flowers just to get a slight dizzy feeling."

Harry got up and walked over to the small bar, I heard glasses clinking, he walked back and handed me a glass with some ice and liquor in it.

"So you're what Charlie found, don't worry your secret is safe with me. No one would believe me anyway if I said anything."

I took a sip of the bitter liquor and said nothing.

"If it helps, I was already pretty sure anyway, there is something so different about you, and of course the whole sorcery thing . What is real your name, or aren't you able to say?"

"Kemamonit... why did you ask if I would be able to say it?" I asked, curious.

Harry's expression suddenly changed as if he was trying to hide something, "umm... no reason... thought you might just want to keep it a secret."

Shelley and Gwen walked into the room from the balcony and closed the sliding doors.

"It is getting colder," Shelley said.

"We should be under way soon, they are withdrawing the gangway," said Gwen.

No sooner had she said it then I felt the great ship begin to move backwards and then start to turn. I noticed that the ships subsequent turns and acceleration was of a much harsher quality then the first leg of the journey.

We rose in altitude quickly, there was obviously no consideration given to the passengers who may have wanted to sight see the large city below us.

"The crew seems very nervous, I tried asking why but they just pretended not to understand," Shelley said.

I knew a large minority of the crew spoke passable Egyptian.

"There must be three hundred archers aboard, they are obviously expecting something, do you know anything Gwen?" I asked.

"No, but I've heard all kinds of rumors lately that the people in the wilds are fighting a war," she said.

We flew without incident during the day, the ship made its characteristic wailing sound as we sped through the overcast sky.

Gone was the celebratory atmosphere that had filled the previous three days, all the expensive shops and restaurants were now closed and shuttered. There were no more shows being performed, all the actors and singers had left the ship.

I toured the lower decks of the ship and saw the hundreds of steerage cabins filled with many eager and frightened people. There were also large dining halls that served rudimentary meals twice a day.

I felt a bit guilty as I re-entered the opulent cabin we had rented and saw my three companions lounging on the comfortable couches and chairs. They were all eating the fine food and drinking the fine wine that had been supplied with the cabin.

The next day while we were eating our noon meal I felt the ship lurch to one side. The movement was so violent it almost caused me to fall off of my chair.

I heard a clanging noise then like some sort alarm had been set off. Gwen stood up quickly and then ran to the large glass doors. She pressed her noise against the glass while surveying the scene outside.

"Pirates!" She yelled, frantically pointing through the glass.

The rest of us ran up beside her and looked to where she was pointing. I saw a ship similar to ours about a mile away approaching quickly.

I could see that the pirate ship had been made more streamlined then our own, this probably enabled it to outpace the Jambres. I saw too that the decks had been modified with large gangplanks standing vertically ready to be dropped for a boarding party.

The Jambres made another violent turn, the pirate ship matched its course and pulled even closer. I saw a volley of arrows fly from the decks below us and pepper the pirate ships hull. The arrows appeared to be completely ineffective.

"We have to do something, there could be hundreds of soldiers on that ship," Shelley said.

"Yes, I do not believe the archers will do much," I said.

Shelley reached into one of the large pockets in her cargo pants and pulled out her leather bound spell book. She soon had it opened and was quickly writing down a spell, she then snapped the book shut and put it back in her pocket.

Shelley stood back and uttered a command word.

"Appiccicoso" she yelled

A wooden basket appeared in front of her filled with shiny metallic balls a about three inches in diameter.

"Start throwing them at the pirate ship," she said as she picked one up.

I picked up two of the balls and followed Shelley as she opened one of the sliding doors and ran outside onto the cabins balcony.

"What does it do," I asked.

Shelley turned and smiled, "you'll see," she threw the metallic ball at the pirate ship which was only about twenty yards away.

The ball hit a vertical gangplank and then burst into a growing blob of a light grey substance. I saw a sword blade emerge from behind the gangplank and try to cut the grey material. The sword blade dug into it for about two inches and then stopped. I saw the blade start to jerk as if someone was trying to yank it free.

I threw a ball of my own, it hit near the top of another gang plank the goo locking it into position, Gwen and Harry started throwing balls as well.

The pirates seeing that their boarding plans would soon be thwarted started pushing the planks down ahead of time, they fell like large dominos. I saw another volley of arrows fly from beneath us, the pirates now unprotected by their large boarding planks started to take casualties.

I saw a group of pirates drop their swords and pick up their own bows and start notching arrows, I threw my other metallic ball as hard as I could hitting the ship's hull behind them. I was soon rewarded by seeing them struggling to pull themselves free from the grey goo.

The four of us threw balls until the whole side of the pirate ship was covered in the grey sticky substance. I soon noticed that it had changed its course and started pulling away from us, the Jambres did not follow in pursuit.

"What was that stuff?" I asked Shelley.

"It was a substance designed to work with an experimental non-lethal weapon."

"How did you get magic to work here?" Gwen asked her brows furrowed.

I looked at Gwen, "we're real sorcerers," I said.

"That's... that's impossible!" she unconsciously took a step back.

"It's true," Harry said.

"But... but... Senbian magic... it's just a myth," she said.

Senbian magic? I thought to myself.

"Well its actually Kemian magic," I said, feeling a bit perturbed.

Shelley turned and looked at me her head cocking to one side, "yes... and it's a secret," she turned again and looked at Gwen," so don't tell anyone."

Gwen's eyes grew as large as saucers," of course not... you're um... not going to sacrifice me or something.... huh?"

"Well we may need to summon a demon... but you would need to be a virgin."

Gwen's cheeks turned a bright red, I started laughing.

"There is no human sacrificing in magic," Shelley said, she put her hand on Gwens shoulder to calm her.

We heard a knock at our cabins door, I walked over and opened it. I saw one of the ship's crew standing in the hall.

"We are looking for some suspicious people, did you see anyone throwing things when the other ship approached?" He asked.

"No, we didn't see anything, we were hiding in our sleeping rooms," I said.

I could tell he was trying to discern if I was being truthful.

"Ok, but if you do see something, you must tell the crew one of immediately," he turned and walked away.

I closed the door and flipped the small latch that locked it.

"Who are these pirates, and where did they get that ship?" I asked Gwen.

"I think that ship is the Quest, I have not seen it for months and there have been rumors that something happened to it."

"Your leaders are quite secretive, they said nothing?"

"They control the magic, no one opposes them."

"What about the pirates?" I asked.

"I don't know."

I started to realize that the five cities must have an iron clad control over the land. The cities would be almost impregnable because of their ability to use magic and they would never have to worry about their sorcerer's leaving since their magic would disappear once past the walls.

I also realized that if someone did want to oppose them the only way would be to capture the large flying ships and control the sky.

I felt the Jambres turn sharply, I assumed we were back on our original course to the garrison of La fin du monde.

"We should be docking at the garrison in a couple of hours, we must hide everything that would give them any suspicion of our abilities," I said.

Shelley reached into one of the large pockets of her cargo pants and took out her spell book, she put her smart phone between the pages, then she folded one of the book's cover's backwards in an odd way, then she folded it again and again, she was soon left with a small wooden pendant with the image of a book carved on it.

The pendant had a thin leather strap looped through a hole in one corner, Shelley put the strap around her neck causing the pendant to hang down on her chest, it looked like an inexpensive necklace.

I looked at Harry.

"What about you?" I asked.

"I have my notes hidden underneath the sole of one of my boots," he said.

"They can't be very extensive."

"They are enough to accomplish my needs," Harry said, trying to look inscrutable.

I flicked a series of squares on my magic bracelet, it responded by shrinking in size and looking much more decorative.

We walked around our cabin and put the books and other things we had conjured into a cloth sack. I took the sack and then tossed it over the side of the ship, I watched it fall until it shrunk to a dot and then disappeared.

Chapter Six

The ship slowed and then stopped about an hour and a half later, the four of us walked out onto the balcony to get a view of our destination.

The garrison was a collection of five buildings surrounded by a fifty foot high stone wall, it was circular in shape approximately one hundred yards in diameter, and it had been destroyed.

The buildings had been burnt down to their foundations and the wall had an enormous breach where the security gate to the outside must have been at one time.

I saw that the ship had deployed dozens of archers onto the top of the garrison's wall, I noticed they had arrows already cocked in their bows. There was a palatable feeling of danger in the air.

We heard a knock at the door, Gwen walked over and unlatched it, two archers wielding swords and a crew member walked forcefully into the cabin.

"You will be the first to disembark, a benefit of your ticket," said the crew member in an ironic way.

"You must be searched, there may be rebels among us," said one of the burly looking archers.

We stepped forward one at a time to submit to a very thorough search, they even asked Shelley and I about the tags on our clothing.

I said they were charms for protection against evil spirits which seemed to satisfy them.

We were then quickly ushered though the ships corridors and down the ships gang plank, I saw a huge line made up of the other passengers waiting off to the side of the plank as we walked.

We stepped onto the garrisons wall and then down a large set of rickety stairs that looked like they had been hastily built only recently. We soon stood on the grass covered grounds of the complex looking at the burned out buildings. I could see large divots of grass ripped up all over the large lawn as if a enormous battle had taken place.

"We have to get out of here, this place is probably being watched," I said.

"They will see us the second we leave," Gwen said.

"No they won't," I said smiling.

I led them quickly to the huge breach in the garrisons wall, I then made sure we were out of sight of the people on the ship and the archers on the top of the wall.

"Stand close together," I said.

I expanded my bracelet to its original size and then quickly activated a well worn spell. The world suddenly became silent and the light wind on our cheeks stopped.

"I have sped up time, stay very close to me."

"Holy cow! You can do that?" Gwen exclaimed.

We all held hands so as to stay close, I did not want anyone falling out of the spells effect, I had made the transition to normal time graduated in the area of effect but it could still be dangerous to cross it.

A sharp line between too different time speeds would be deadly if someone crossed it.

We soon noticed a number of well armed men concealed in the folds of the land, I hoped they had not observed our sudden disappearance. We were cautious to not come near them and put them in the spells area of effect.

We also noticed the beginning of a well worn path that led to a distant forest, I decided to walk towards the forest and away from the path, the sun was well on its way towards the horizon and we would soon have to set up a camp.

We walked for about an hour before I felt safe and shut the spell off. I then used the bracelet to summon my trusty bronze sword, I slung the scabbard over my shoulder, hanging it diagonally across my back.

"What now?" Gwen asked.

I noticed Shelley had unfolded her pendant back into a spell book, she flipped through its pages and then moved what looked like a bookmark to a specific page. I heard a poof sound, I turned towards where the sound had come from and saw a very small wooden building. It looked like an outhouse.

"Don't worry, it's bigger on the inside," Shelley said as she put her spell book in her pocket.

I followed Shelley as she opened the door and walked in, I saw a well lighted room, complete with four beds, a couch and a small kitchen area. I could tell that some of the appliances were of a modern nature, such as the large refrigerator, but Shelley had disguised them so they did not look out of place.

"I can't cook... but there is lots of food," Shelley said.

I looked at Gwen and Harry.

"I can make eggs... sometimes they're good..." Gwen said.

"I live off of cereal and pizza," said Harry.

"Hmpf..." I said.

I wondered how modern people didn't die of malnutrition.

I walked over to the refrigerator and opened it, Shelley was right there was lots of food, I also noticed that there did not seem to be any bacon.

I set about cooking a meal for everyone, I noticed Shelley walk over and secure our little rooms door with a large bar. I hoped the smells of my cooking would not attract the men we had seen hiding in the grass.

I had never particularly enjoyed cooking in my youth, it was just something that I had had to learn. I was the youngest in my family and when I was too young to help with catching fish I was tasked to help my mother prepare meals for my hungry siblings.

I remembered it being a lot of work, I was forever hauling water, peeling vegetables and cutting tough hunks of meat. I constantly had burns on my hands from grabbing and moving hot pots and moving sizzling meat on the grill.

When I had awakened in the future and had seen how much cooking had progressed I was stunned, metal pots with insulated handles, refrigerated meat that wasn't rancid and didn't need powerful spices and an astronomical selection of ingredients.

Cooking suddenly became something of a hobby for me, I was forever baking things and trying new recipes, it was so easy now with all the appliances that could be purchased.

So it amazed me to no end that the result of all this progress was that almost no seemed to cook anymore, what amazed me even more was that everyone had large kitchens full of shiny new cooking tools that were only used to heat up premade boxed and canned meals.

I had thought the premade meals must have been of such a high quality that no one could ever hope to match their taste and nutrition.

I purchased a large number of these meals and set about sampling them, I could not wait to try the brightly colored vegetables and savory meats I had seen on the television commercials.

The actors in these commercials looked almost orgasmic when they put the food in their mouth and started chewing.

I started with a large pizza, I carefully followed the directions, even consulting the internet to make sure it was prepared in the best possible way.

When I took it out of the oven, I noticed immediately it did not look even remotely like the picture on the box it came in, I persevered and cut a small slice and sampled it.

It must have gone bad, I thought, it tasted like some kind of flavored wood, I checked and rechecked that I had prepared it correctly. I finally swallowed my pride and called in Shelley who was an expert at preparing these meals to ask her what I had done wrong.

She looked at my pizza, smelled it, then cut off an enormous slice and took a bite.

"Hey that's pretty good, I usually forget to set the timer and burn it," she said.

"But... but... its rotten... right?"

"Well, I like meat lover ones better, but this is alright."

I had the exact same experience with every one of these meals, they looked nothing like their pictures, whatever small amount of flavor they had was usually bad, and Shelley and every other person I gave them too loved them.

There were some parts of me that would forever be in the past.

I noticed as I was cooking that Shelley and Gwen were sitting together and playing a game that I had invented. It was called left right up down, it was played on a board similar to a checker board, the players moved square wood tiles that had two parallel black lines and two perpendicular red lines on their edges.

The players moved the tiles at the same time by pre selecting their moves, two tiles could occupy the same square by stacking them, the object of the game was to maneuver the tiles so that the black lines on your tiles lined up next to your opponents red lines, this enabled you to get more tiles or eliminate your opponents tiles.

The objective of the game was to amass and move enough tiles to create a pre-determined pattern selected at random.

There was no standard board size for the game, and the rules governing the lines on the tiles were also not static, sometimes it could mean that your opponents tiles could not move or your own tiles could move greater distances.

I had constructed a spell that randomized the rules and board size.

I had created this game in order to help the mostly illiterate servants I had had years ago to learn the basics of the City of Magic's simple pseudo magic system. It hadn't worked very well, I had ended up teaching them to write..

I noticed that Gwen had a natural aptitude for this game and was providing Shelley some stiff competition.

I turned my attention back to my cooking, a strange feeling of contentment came over me as I stirred pots, basted meat and chopped vegetables.

I woke up early the next morning, nothing eventful had happened the previous night after we had eaten we had just gone to bed.

I carefully snuck out of the room and out the door without waking anyone. The sun was just starting to rise above the horizon, painting it a bright and beautiful orange. I saw a thin wavering black line on the horizon that seemed unusual and out of place.

I conjured up a powerful set of binoculars with my bracelet and then put them to my eyes to examine the black line more closely. The line was made of people, or more precisely the people that had been passengers on the ship with us. They were being herded along by the other heavily armed men who had been hiding in the grass outside the garrison.

I felt a surge of anger, they must have been captured the instant the ship had left, the captain of the vessel must have known this would happen and had done nothing to warn them.

I felt someone next to me, I lowered the binoculars and looked, it was Harry.

"Our unfortunate traveling companions I suspect."

"How did you know?" I asked.

"Twenty years of studying history gives you a few insights."

"What does your insight think will happen to them?" I asked.

"It's probably some type of medieval world outside the cities walls, so my guess is they'll be serfs, soldiers or slaves."

"Providing a luxurious lifestyle for a privileged few," I said, feeling another surge of anger.

"Disease and constant war would temper any luxury, what are you going to do."

"Ya... what next," Shelley and Gwen had joined our group.

I looked at Shelley.

"I'll ask you a question, what would you do?"

"Um... help them... " she said hesitantly.

"Why?"

"Um... because... um... I don't know."

"Because we are both cursed with a fully functional conscience and I have enough things keeping me awake at night. That's why."

"That makes sense."

I conjured up four fully saddled horses, they were simulacrum's so we did not need to worry about their care. I also conjured up new outfits for all of us so that we would blend in with the general population.

Shelley conjured up swords and chain mail shirts for her and Gwen, I picked up one of the chain mail shirts, it was quite light.

"Titanium alloy... experimental... almost indestructible," Shelley said in-between putting her new outfit on.

"What about the swords?"

"They have a simple shock wave spell."

I looked at Harry, he had put on the new outfit, except for his pirate boots which were still on his feet, and had thankfully he had removed his ridiculous hat.

The four of us mounted the horses and set off towards the distant forest, I had decided it would be best to travel to the forest and then along its edge until we reached the path the passengers were being herded along.

I did not think it wise to expose ourselves to the armed men guarding them until we knew who they were.

We traveled in two pairs, one behind the other, so that if we were spotted we would look like only two people, hopefully not raising any alarm or curiosity. I was travelling next to Shelley and Gwen was beside Harry.

I set our pace at a slow trot, I wanted to make sure all the people on the path were deep in the forest before we started following them, I did not want any confrontations.

"I wanted to ask you about something," Shelley asked.

"What?"

"That nomadic sheep herding tribe you met... the ones that didn't eat pork, did something happen when you were with them that you aren't telling me."

"No... um... not exactly, I mean not with the tribe... nothing important."

Shelley looked at me, "it's getting easier for me to tell when you're lying."

I felt my face go warm.

"He was going to kill his son... a little kid... I had to do something," I replied angrily.

"Who?"

"That Iba... something guy, he was nuts, he heard voices in his head."

"So what did you do?" Shelley was staring at me intently.

"Well... he thought he was being told by his god El that his son was evil and must be sacrificed... so I um... pretended to be... um... a god and told him to stop."

"Did it work?"

"Oh ya, I think I might even have scared the crazy out of him."

"You pretended to be El?"

"I was going to, but then I started thinking that he might think it strange that El would be telling him two contradictory things, so I said I was another god."

"Who?"

"I had a great idea," I said smugly, "I said I was the most powerful god of all, so powerful that even the mention of my name would cause death, that way I didn't have to come up with a name and my authority could never be questioned."

I saw Shelley's jaw drop.

"What else did you say?" she asked.

"I said that I would be watching him and his family from now on, and if ever harmed one effing hair on that kids head he would pay very dearly."

Shelley reached inside her cloak and pulled out a book with a dark black cover, she flipped through its pages until she found what she wanted, she then took out a pen and circled a paragraph.

"Read that," she said as she handed me the open book, she pointed to the paragraph she had circled.

I felt my face start to go warm as I read the passage.

"Well... it's similar to what happened... just a coincidence, I think," I said.

I handed the bible back to Shelley purposely keeping my gaze towards our direction of travel.

"Really... similar... I guess that sort of thing happened all the time six thousand years ago."

I turned and looked at Shelley, "I had to do it, as I said before, I have enough things to keep me awake at night."

Shelley started laughing.

"What's so funny?"

"All the things people have done through the eon's... trying to make others think they were divine, and you do this... completely oblivious... it makes me think there really is a god."

I could see the humor in it, but I still thought it was just a coincidence.

Chapter Seven

We continued traveling in silence for another hour, I noticed that the black line of people had completely disappeared off of the horizon. I was still cautious since the sun had risen high in the sky and no longer showed them in silhouette.

We soon reached the edge of the forest and turned traveling on the edge of it. The forest consisted mainly of many very large and old hardwoods such as oak, elm and maple. I could not see more than a few feet into the dark and ominous combination of tree trunks and foliage.

"Kinda spooky," Shelley said.

"Yes, also perfect for an ambush of unwary travelers."

We traveled another hour before we intersected the path the ships passengers had been herded down. It had widened as soon as it entered the forest to about ten feet across, it had been churned to mud from the hundreds of feet that had just trodden on it.

"We will rest here, and have some lunch. I don't think we'll have any problem following them," I said.

We climbed off of our mounts, I reached into one of my saddle bags and pulled out a bag of beef jerky and a bottle of chocolate milk, I also pulled out a small folding stool opened it up and sat on it.

The others soon followed my example and we were all sitting in a circle eating the food that had been in the saddlebags, the others were eating dried fruit and nuts.

I had had my back towards the forest and was looking over the flat grass land when I saw a small black dot flying high in the sky. I thought at first it must have been one of the great ships, but then it turned sharply and accelerated to a great speed, I could make out what looked like large flapping wings.

"What's that?" I asked.

Gwen turned and looked, her expression changed to awe.

"Dragon...." she said breathlessly.

The dragon turned again and started flying in a straight line towards the forest, it seemed to fly faster and faster until it passed high overhead and was obscured by the trees. I heard a sound in the distance like someone banging a large drum twice in succession

"Sonic boom," Shelley said.

"Sonic what?" Gwen asked.

"It's flying faster than sound," Harry said, his eyes wide with excitement.

I unsheathed my sword and used it to did a small hole in the ground, I reached down and grabbed a handful of dirt and looked at it.

"This looks like pretty good soil and there's lots of moisture in it, what do you think Harry?"

I showed Harry the soil.

"I guess so, why do you ask?"

"There are no farms here, and they sure didn't waste any time marching the passengers into the forest."

"You think the dragons are forcing them to live in hiding," Shelley said.

"I wonder... what do you know about dragons Gwen?"

"Um... well they fly... obviously, and they breathe fire... and they live in the mountains."

"Do they attack people?"

"I've heard stories of treasure seekers, trying to find the Ka of the mountains being burned to ashes, but they are just stories."

"Ka of the mountains, what is that?" I asked.

"It is supposed to be a place of wonder... where the three sorcerers Jambres, Jannes and Moses created their greatest spells."

"What mountains?"

"It is said the range is due East, ten days travel, it is called the Bones of Hathor."

"So we have to trek through this forest first," I said.

We finished our small meal, put away our folding stools and climbed back onto our steeds. I unsheathed my sword and laid it across my saddle in front of me, I then prodded my horse into a slow trot and steered it down the wide path and into the forest. The others followed behind me in single file.

The trees soon formed a leafy canopy overhead blocking much of the suns light, my eyes adjusted quickly to the shade and shadow of the forest, there was still enough light to see things clearly.

The forest was noisy with the sound of birds and other animals, it made me relax for I knew that if there were men hidden in ambush they would have scared many of them away.

I increased the speed of my horse to a quick gallop, I looked behind me to make sure the others were still following, they were, I wanted to spend as little time in this place as possible.

It took about an hour of travel before we arrived at the gates of a high wall constructed of wood poles lashed together and buried in the ground. The wood looked quite old, I could see many spots were the poles had been replaced with newer ones which still had bark on them.

I heard someone yell from above, I looked up and saw two armed men looking down at us from over the top of the wall.

"What did he say?" I asked Gwen.

"He asked who we were," she replied.

"Tell them we are travelers, and we are looking for lodgings."

I heard Gwen yell at them in their local language, and then one of the men yelled back.

"He said he'll let us in, but there is a fee, it's quite expensive," she said.

I reached into my cloak and grabbed the small sack of coins Gwen had given back to me after she had purchased our tickets, I tossed it to Gwen.

"That's not enough," Gwen said after opening the sack and looking inside.

"Tell them it's all we have," I looked at Gwen with a serious expression, "make sure they think we're broke, otherwise they try to will rob us."

An expression of alarm appeared on Gwen's face.

"Don't worry, we are sorcerer's," I said.

Gwen turned and yelled at the two men and then tossed the coin sack up for them to catch, the men yelled back I could tell they were swearing and threatening us just from their tone and gestures.

"They say this will do for now but we will have to pay more when we leave," Gwen said.

I smiled to myself, corruption had changed so little over the centuries, I knew this fee would be split among the guards and they would keep no record of the balance of our bill.

The rickety wooden gate slowly started to swing inwards, I prodded my horse and we slowly walked through the gate and into the area beyond.

The smell assaulted us like a punch to the face, it was a mix of urine, feces and general decomposition. I looked back at the others, they all had a hand over their nose and mouth, I had spent much time in cities of antiquity and the smell here was very similar. There were obviously no sewers or plumbing here.

I surveyed the area around us and saw many one and two story ramshackle wooden buildings. There were narrow muddy streets between the buildings filled with throngs of dour people wearing drab clothing.

"God... this is like... New York in the eighteen hundreds," Harry said.

"Don't eat or drink anything... or touch anything... we can't stay here..." I said.

"How can people live like this?" Shelley said.

"I think they have no choice," I said.

I steered my horse towards the widest street I could find, thankfully there appeared to be many other horses so we did not look out of place. I traveled as fast as I dared, the street was full of people so I could not go much faster than walking speed.

The buildings did not change in appearance, they were all made of grey unpainted wood and were falling apart. I did not see any signs of wealth or even just minor prosperity, the people were unsmiling and looked miserable.

We came upon an open area after thirty minutes of traveling, it looked like a market square, I saw stalls selling food and other goods. I also saw a small gathering of people, they were listening to a short, bald, middle aged man with a goatee, he was standing on a wooden crate.

The bald man was speaking loudly and shaking a fist to punctuate each phrase, the people in the audience would yell back at him occasionally.

"What is he saying?" I asked Gwen.

Gwen listened for a moment.

"Um... they control the trees... um... we work and starve.... they get the benefits... need a new system.... people should get what they need... and provide what they can..."

"Oh my God," Shelley said as she rolled her eyes, "it won't work! It's been tried!" She yelled at the crowd.

"What's been tried?" I asked Shelley, confused.

"It's a long story."

I saw three armed soldiers run out of an alleyway and seize the bald speaker, he didn't try to resist them, he actually seemed pleased, he yelled a short phrase as they led him away.

I looked at the crowd and saw anger in their faces, I heard murmurs from them that gave me the impression of conspiracy and violence. I also noticed that the other people in the square had stopped what they were doing and were staring at the soldiers escorting the speaker away.

"I smell a revolt," Harry said with a grim look on his face.

"We should get going," I said as I spurred my horse into a walk.

Shelley trotted up next to me.

"This is going to be very bad," she said.

"I think so too, I sense violent anger from these people."

We were soon back into a narrow street with more drab buildings lining each side, I started to notice other tall wooden walls that seemed to enclose large areas in the city itself, these walls were well maintained and the soldiers guarding them wore bright colorful garb.

I noticed one of the people on the street had been a passenger on the ship, I had spoken briefly to him when I had toured the lower decks.

I stopped my horse and beckoned him over.

"Gred... how are things?"

"Not good... we are trapped here... we must either join the military or work in the forest to cut wood."

"How do they get food here?" I asked.

"They trade with other forest cities, some have farms, and there are deer in the forest."

"Can't you just leave?"

"The entire city is walled and guarded, I have already tried."

"Follow me," I said, I felt an intense anger build in my chest.

It took another thirty minutes to cross the city and reach the far gate, I saw fifty or so heavily armed soldiers guarding it as well as two high towers with archers perched on top.

As we approached the gate a stern looking soldier stood in front of my horse causing me to stop.

"Go back... you are a forbidden to leave," he said in Egyptian.

He unsheathed his sword and looked at me with menacing stare.

"You have ten seconds to get out of my way," I stared back at him.

I saw the confidence in his stare flicker for a second, he then steeled himself and his expression changed to arrogance, he swore at me and then charged.

I flicked the squares on my bracelet and he flew backwards twenty feet, dropping his sword. I stared at the archers and then at the soldiers.

"You have thirty seconds to move," I yelled.

I saw the archers nock their bows with arrows and start to pull back their strings, the soldiers stood fast and drew their weapons.

I had lost my patience, I flicked the squares on my bracelet one more time, the large wall exploded away from me in a tumult of dust and poles, the towers went with it.

The dust settled after about thirty seconds revealing a twenty foot gap in the wall, I saw the forest and the road beyond it, the soldiers were strewn about on the ground, I felt a pang of guilt as I saw some of them nursing obviously broken bones.

The crowd around us started running towards the hole in the wall screaming and yelling, they pulled us along in the tide and we were soon standing by ourselves on the road looking back at the city. There was a steady stream of people still emerging from the gap and running off into the forest.

We turned and continued our journey.

"How are we going to fix this?" Shelley was beside me as we trotted down the road.

"I don't know, I'm beginning to see why Moses and his people wanted to leave this place."

"Maybe the answer is at the Ka of the Mountains... if we can find it."

Chapter Eight

We traveled as quickly as possible until the sun started to set and the light of the large moon caused the trees to have two shadows, we left the road and entered the forest topping when we were about a hundred yards from it.

We climbed off of our mounts and I dispelled them, Shelley conjured up the small building we had slept in the night before and we hurriedly entered it and barred the door behind us.

"I'm exhausted," I said.

"We all are, and my ass is really sore," Shelley replied.

"I'm too tired to eat."

I walked over to a bed flipped my shoes off and collapsed onto it, I was fast asleep in a few seconds.

I woke up in the darkness, my stomach was audibly grumbling, I remembered I had gone to bed before eating anything. I heard the other three breathing rhythmically in a deep sleep, I carefully and quietly got up and felt for my shoes.

I could just make out the furniture in the room, I put on my shoes and walked over to the refrigerator, I conjured up a small light and was able to quickly make a sandwich of sliced meat and cheese. I grabbed a bottle of stout black beer as I closed the fridge door, I tiptoed out the front door as quietly as I could.

The forest was quite dark as I stood outside eating my sandwich and drinking the beer, I looked up at the moon and saw that it had just a slight crescent showing. I saw small pin pricks of orange light flickering on the moon's darkened surface.

I heard another person quietly leave the building, I turned and looked, it was Shelley.

"Tidally locked geosynchronous orbit," she whispered.

"What?"

"Sorry... the moon, it orbits with one side always facing us at the same speed the planet turns, I took an astronomy course once."

"Is that possible without magic? It is so close."

"I don't know... it makes a perfect clock though, it's after midnight judging by the crescent."

"I see lights on the surface, they look like small fires," I said.

"So there are people on it."

"What must they look like? Is the gravity the same as here I wonder."

I finished my sandwich and the beer, Shelley and I went back inside and went back to sleep.

We spent the next two days traveling through the forest, we avoided others on the road as best we could for we did not want any more confrontations. The forest appeared to be alive with people and industry, we even had to detour around another smaller walled city on our journey, thankfully the forest floor was not too thickly covered in vegetation.

We finally reached the other side of the forest at the end of our second day, we stood on the edge of a wide flat grassland, beyond the grassland about ten miles away I could see the beginning of a series of small foothills. I hoped they were the precursor of the mountain range we were searching for.

"Look!" Gwen said excitedly as she pointed to the sky.

I looked up and saw two dragons lazily gliding high in the sky, they reminded me of vultures searching for carrion.

"What now?" Harry asked.

"We will stop here and set up camp for the night, we will start the crossing tomorrow morning," I said.

"What do you think the dragons will do when they see us?" asked Shelley.

"I don't know, but I expect the worst."

I dispelled the horses and Shelley conjured up our now familiar room.

We entered the small building and I walked over to the small kitchen and started cooking a meal for us all. I noticed as I was cooking that Shelley was not chatting with Gwen and Harry as she usually did but had her nose stuck deeply in her spell book.

Shelley's face had an expression of deep concentration and she would occasionally grab a pencil which she had cocked in one ear and scribble something down in her book. A feeling of trepidation and curiosity simultaneously came over me, she was obviously working on a spell of great power.

Powerful spells always had unexpected consequences.

I turned back to my cooking and tried to think of a plan to avoid the dragons, I thought about using one of my flying craft but they were never designed to go much faster than a strong wind. I did not want to be caught in the sky puttering along while being chased by supersonic dragons.

I decided it would be best to proceed on foot, I would use the many defensive spells I had created over the years, specifically a shield spell that worked by creating a layer of slowed time a few inches thick.

The sharp boundary of time would cause most things to just bounce off, only steady pressure would enable anything to enter it, thankfully light moved so fast and was so ethereal that it would easily pass through, and even slowed it would still enable us to see what was happening past the shield.

I finished cooking the meal, I had not made anything complicated as I was getting slightly perturbed at the lack of any assistance.

I put a large pot of noodles on the small table Shelley and the others were sitting around, I came back with the sauce for the noodles and some plates and cutlery.

"What are you working on Shelley?" I asked as I scooped some noodles on a plate.

"Oh nothing special, just a back up spell in case we need it," she replied.

"What's it do?"

"It's not quite done... I'll tell you when I'm finished."

We sat and chatted while we ate our dinner, thankfully the others picked up and washed the dirty dishes when we were done. They must have somehow detected my annoyance at their laziness.

We all went to bed early, I wanted to start our journey at the break of dawn.

The sun had painted the horizon in a bright orange hue, I could see the top of it just peeking over the far hills. I looked up into the sky trying to spot the two dragons we had seen the day before. The light was still too dim, do they sleep? I wondered to myself.

"let's go," I said as I started walking out into the grassy plain.

We had traveled for about two hundred yards before I saw them, the sun was over the horizon now and the sky was brighter. They were circling high in the sky towards the north, their flight did not look so lackadaisical as it had the day before.

One of the dragons suddenly dropped towards the earth going faster and faster, the other followed right behind. They turned sharply at what seemed like inches above the grass and flew straight towards us, they where only about a mile away.

"Everybody stand together," I yelled as I used my bracelet to activate my shield spell.

They were over us in an instant, I had only put shield over our heads so we all heard the enormous roar and felt the powerful wind caused by their large bodies as they flew over. They pulled straight up in what looked like a ninety degree turn.

I watched them as they reached an apogee about three miles up then they moved and turned like a sea otter in the ocean and started towards the ground again.

I saw thick black smoke trailing from their mouths now.

"They're beautiful," Gwen gasped.

They certainly were, their bodies were covered in iridescent scales of blood red, orange and green.

I brought my shield right to the ground instantly enveloping us in silence, the dragons leveled off just above the ground as they did before and sped towards us again. I saw a dark inky trail of smoke that traced their flight path.

I saw the grass flatten as a violent wind blew over it, then we were engulfed in an explosion of orange fire, the flames were so high I could not see the sky. A wave of searing heat then enveloped us, I was instantly covered in sweat, it felt like I was standing in front of a blast furnace.

The flames subdued after about thirty seconds revealing charred and blackened ground all around us. I dropped the shield, worried I would pass out from the intense heat.

"We can't survive another pass," I said.

I saw the two dragons in the distance, circling, then they started a dive again, they must have seen that we were still alive.

"Run!!" I yelled.

It probably took us thirty seconds to reach the forest, but it felt like an hour, we were maybe fifty yards into the trees when I saw a wall of flame explode next to the tree line.

"Well... so much for that idea," I said as I collapsed to the ground in exhaustion.

Shelley handed me a large paper cup full of coffee, she had conjured up one for everyone. The coffee was from a coffee shop in Seattle we had both liked.

I took a small sip, a feeling of calm came over me.

"What are we going to do?" I asked Shelley.

"Maybe we could hit them with artillery," she replied.

"Artillery...unfortunately they fly at supersonic speeds... we'd need some kinda missile."

"What about a large bomb," Harry said.

"Ya... like a tactical nuke," Shelley had a crazy look in her eyes.

"What about the fallout... we would need to wait for a few days, "Harry said.

I looked at Harry, he had the same crazy look as Shelley.

"We are not using a nuclear bomb," I said sternly.

"What's a nuclear bomb?" Gwen asked.

"It is a horrific weapon that should never be used."

"They are so beautiful... it would be a tragedy to kill them, I have heard they are over a thousand years old," Gwen said.

I saw the crazy look fade from Harry's and Shelley's eyes to be replaced with guilt.

Shelley's face suddenly brightened, "We can use the spell I was working on," she said.

"What is it?"

"I have to work on it still, I'll have it ready at sundown, we will leave then."

With that Shelley pulled out her spell book, opened it up, grabbed the pencil she had been using to mark a page and started writing.

Shelley spent the rest of the day hiding behind a large rectangular canvas curtain she had conjured up at the edge of the forest next to the grassy plain. Every time any of us tried to look behind the curtain she would shoo us away.

I noticed that when she would stop working and join us for a meal or a snack she had grease stains on her cheeks and a crescent wrench in her back pocket.

Shelley asked me to clear a path from the front of the curtain onto the plain but to leave the forest canopy intact in order to hide the path and the mysterious device she was creating.

I used a spell which displaced the trees lower trunks without killing the trees, they would return once we had departed.

The sun was starting its decent below the horizon when Shelley was finally ready to show us her handiwork. We all gathered in a group beside the curtain, Shelley uttered a command word and the canvas curtain disappeared.

I heard Gwen gasp in wonder, I was looking at a one of the large transport vehicles common on the roads of the modern era. I noticed that instead of a trailer behind the vehicles cabin there was an enormous bell that stretched for many feet.

"What's that," I asked pointing to the bell.

"Rocket engine... a Rocketdyne F1," Shelley said nonchalantly.

"It's kinda big... isn't it."

"Oh that's just the bell... the engine is just the front part."

Shelley knew a lot about rocket cars and such, so I had no reason to doubt her, she would spend many weekends at a racing strip watching odd insect like vehicles race. She had dragged me along once but I found it unnerving and frightening watching these roaring monsters belching smoke and fire.

I did find it odd that I had heard of this particular type of rocket engine though, I reasoned that it was a common one and was used on many different types of vehicles. I must have overheard the name in general conversation.

"It should be fast enough to outrun the dragons breath, and I've reinforced the cabin and put on large military vehicle tires," Shelley said.

"When do we leave?" Gwen asked.

"Right now, by the time we strap in it should be dark."

Harry and Gwen climbed into the vehicles back seats, Shelley showed them how to put on the complicated safety straps, she also gave them helmets to put on.

I climbed onto the comfortable seat next to Shelley and put my own safety straps and helmet on, I looked over at the control panel in front of the steering wheel.

I had never gotten around to learning how to drive but I was familiar with the many levers and gauges common in most vehicles, I noticed one I did not recognize it was similar to the speed gauge but it was numbered from one to ten and was labeled with a big G.

I looked out the window and saw the moon in the sky, a crescent shadow moving over its surface.

I heard Shelley start flipping switches and I then noticed a shower of white sparks start up directly behind the rockets bell, there was a the large mirror next to my window.

The moon... a distant memory started floating to the surface of my mind... THE MOON!!

I suddenly realized why I had heard of a Rocketdyne F1.

I Jerked my head to look at Shelley, I saw her left foot release one of the floor levers while her right foot simultaneously pushed another, I started to open my mouth to say something only to be interrupted by deafening roar.

I was slammed back into my seat, it felt as if a tremendous weight was sitting on my chest. I tilted my head slightly and looked at the large mirror attached to the vehicles side, I saw a blindingly bright white flame with an orange tint coming from the rockets bell, it looked to be forty feet long.

Shelley threw another switch on the dashboard and large spotlights on the cabins roof turned on illuminating the ground in front of us. We were moving at a tremendous speed.

I looked at the mirror again, I saw a massive fireball explode about twenty feet behind us, it lit up the grassy plain for many hundreds of feet.

I tilted my head and looked at Shelley, she jammed her foot on one of the levers on the floor and moved a large hand lever, I felt the weight on my chest disappear.

"Why do you need a gear lever for a rocket?" I yelled, able to talk again.

Shelley looked at me and smiled, "you don't... it's just more fun."

She released her foot and I felt the weight slam back into my chest, it was even heavier now, the roar of the rocket was also louder.

The dragons attacked from the front, a huge fireball exploded in foreground, Shelley jerked the large steering wheel and we veered to the left avoiding the flames, she then jerked the wheel to the right and returned us to our original course.

She geared up once more, when we accelerated this time the weight on my chest was so heavy I found it difficult to breathe.

With a tremendous effort I managed to tilt my head just enough to look at Shelley, her face had an expression of pure joy on it, a perfect counterpoint to our expressions of sheer terror, I thought to myself.

The dragons attacked again but we were moving so fast we just flew through the flames, I saw the fireball disappear quickly in the rear view mirror.

I noticed wisps of mist and fog start to appear in the bright lights of the vehicle, then without warning the fog suddenly became so thick we could not see.

Shelley slammed a large red knob on the dashboard and the roaring noise of the rocket disappeared, she then quickly shut off all the vehicles lights and jammed her foot against the break lever on the floor.

I felt my body fly forward straining the safety straps that had held me in place, we screeched to a halt.

"We have to get out," Shelley yelled.

I slammed the release button for the straps on my chest, they slackened and fell away. I opened the door beside me and half fell out of the cabin and onto the ground. I took my helmet off while on my hands and knees, I tried to stand but my legs were too wobbly.

Harry and Gwen were soon sitting on the ground next to me, Shelley found us and then yelled a command word, the rocket vehicle disappeared.

We sat in silence surrounded by the dense fog, occasionally we would see large fireballs in the distance, the dragons were still try to find us. Shelley conjured up our little room, we entered it leaving the darkness behind.

Chapter Nine

"Jesus H Christ! Ya coulda said something," Harry yelled at Shelley.

We were all standing in the center of Shelley's little cabin.

I looked at my hands , they were shaking so hard I feared I had contracted some kind of neurological disorder.

"My God Shelley! What were you thinking..." I said.

Shelley smiled at us both, "relax, it was perfectly safe, besides if I had told you guys the truth we'd still be in the forest."

"I thought it was fun," Gwen said meekly.

Harry and I both stared at her incredulously.

"Please don't do that again," I said.

"Geez, it was a twenty foot long rocket... what did ya think was going to happen?" Shelley said with an annoyed look.

In retrospect she did have a valid point.

I woke up early the next morning before all the others, I quietly crept to the door and then carefully opened it until a small crack was visible. It was light outside but I could see that we were still enveloped in a thick fog.

I swung the door completely open, the fog was so thick I could only see the ground for a few feet. I heard a roar overhead as a dragon passed close by, I saw an orange light appear in the distance, glow for a few seconds then fade.

The dragons were still hunting us.

The fog must cover an enormous area, I thought to myself, the dragons probably searched for us all night but their fireballs had not gotten anywhere near.

I closed the door then crept to the cabins small bathroom, I closed the door disrobed and stepped into the shower.

When I emerged from the bathroom after my shower I saw that everyone else had gotten up, Shelley was eating a bowl of cereal while Gwen and Harry were gazing out the open door.

"Don't make too much noise, the dragons are still hunting us and they may have good hearing," I said softly.

"I hear more than two," Gwen said.

"That's not good."

"What next?" Shelley asked.

"We will proceed on foot for now, I will use a spell I have to keep us on course, I also have this," I flicked the squares on my bracelet and three brass coins appeared in midair, I caught them as they fell.

"Put them in your pocket," I said as I handed one to each person, "I will be able to find you with these if we get separated."

Gwen and Harry shut the door, and the three of us joined Shelley eating breakfast.

It was a half hour later when we were all standing outside preparing to depart, Shelley dispelled the cabin and then conjured up a long rope with which she proceeded to tie around each of ours waist.

I was in the lead Shelley in the rear, Gwen was second last so that Shelley could keep an eye on her, we all drew our weapons.

When we were ready I conjured up my direction spell and a faint glowing disk appeared above my bracelet, there was an arrow that rotated in the center of the disk like a compass. The arrow would always point in the proper direction for us to walk, unlike a compass it kept track of any deviations in our course and corrected them.

I cautiously started moving forward.

We traveled for only a few minutes before we came to a small hill, we walked to the top of it and then down the other side only to end up at the base of another, and so it went.

The hills got larger as the time passed and the temperature started to descend, I noticed the ground had started to give away to outcroppings of rock occasionally, soon there was more rock than ground.

When we stopped for lunch Shelley and I conjured up warm coats for everyone, we made sure the color and markings matched the grey rock we were walking through, I had noticed the fog was starting to thin.

It was late in the afternoon when the fog completely disappeared and we saw the terrain we were walking through clearly, we were at the base of a large mountain range, I could see the snow capped peaks of the larger mountains in the distance.

"Look at all the dragons," Gwen said pointing to the sky.

I saw dozens of the winged creatures circling high above some of the mountain peaks, I hoped our camouflage was adequate enough to fool them.

"We should stop for the night," I said.

"There's a sheltered area over by that cliff," Shelley said pointing.

We walked over to the area and then waited while Shelley conjured up our shelter, we all collapsed into the comfortable chairs after we had entered. The hours of walking up and down steep hills had exhausted us.

"Well we found the mountains... now how to find the Ka?" I asked.

"I have an idea," Harry replied.

"What?"

"I had a friend who used to race sailboats, he told me once that he had lost all his navigation equipment on a race to Hawaii, he said he found the island by following all the jet contrails."

"How does that help us?"

"The dragons... they might be protecting the Ka, if we look at their flight patterns we may be able to deduce where it is."

" That's a good idea," Shelley said.

"Well it'll wait until tomorrow, I'm exhausted," I tilted my head back into the comfortable chair and fell asleep.

I woke up in darkness, my stomach was growling, I was lying in a bed. I must have been more exhausted than I thought since I did not remember getting up out of the chair and crawling into it.

I quietly got up and conjured a tiny light, I was still in my clothes, I walked over to the refrigerator opened it and made myself a sandwich, I grabbed a bottle of beer closed the fridge door and walked outside.

It was cold, but the air was perfectly calm so it was tolerable, there was a bright crescent on the moon lighting the rocks and mountains in an eerie white glow.

I could see dragons high in the sky, there were only three of them, they were soaring effortlessly barely nudging the air with their enormous wings.

I followed the course of their flight to see if I could discern some kind of pattern, I saw none, again their flight was much like the desert vultures I had watched in my youth.

I shuddered a bit, the vultures had been looking for a meal.

I finished my sandwich, and took a swig of beer, sandwiches were a great idea, I thought to myself, I wondered who invented them.

I finished my beer and went back inside and back to bed.

I woke up alone in the cabin, I sat up and saw that all the other beds had been made. I felt a bit guilty since I was always an early riser and usually felt a bit smug when watching others sitting on their beds wiping the sleep from their eyes.

I dressed quickly and walked out the cabins door, I could tell by the quality of the sunlight that it was still fairly early in the morning. I saw my three companions sitting together on small stools, Harry and Shelley were observing the flying dragons with binoculars. Gwen had a large pad of paper and was writing down their observations on it.

I walked over and looked at the pad, I saw a crude representation of the mountain peaks and a number of lines which I assumed was the flight course of each dragon.

I saw that all the lines seemed to start from a single area between two peaks.

Shelley and Harry put down their binoculars and traced their fingers on the pad showing Gwen where to draw a line, Shelley looked up when she saw me.

"I think we found it," she said.

"I see," I replied, "good work."

"How do we get to it, that's the big problem," said Harry.

"Have you noticed any of the dragons walking?" I asked.

"No," they said in unison.

"So if they always fly, we just need a way to block their view of us... I have just the spell."

The three of them stood up from their stools, Shelley then dispersed them as well as the binoculars. Shelley handed me the pad of paper with the flight trails on it, I used it to set the direction spell on my bracelet.

I tossed the pad back into our little shelter then closed the door, Shelley then dispersed it as well. I summoned up one of my small flying craft, it was basically just a small wooden boat like structure.

"Everybody get in quickly, before the see us," I said.

We clambered into the small flyer and sat down, I pulled one of the crafts control levers and it rose about five feet in the air, I then activated another spell with my bracelet and two large rectangular gray screens appeared above and below the boat.

"the screen above shows what the screen below is facing, the dragons will just see the rocks of the mountains," I said.

"Unless they get too close and see the parallax effect," Shelley said.

"We will use the time slowing spell if that happens."

I nudged the craft forward and followed the glowing arrow on my wrist, I keep us very low to the ground and followed the contours of the land.

Shelley used a periscope spell to see if the dragons noticed us, their flights were still just random gliding.

It took many hours of tedious flying to make progress through the mountains, I had to change course many times in order to find mountain passes in order to keep our altitude low so the dragons would not see us.

It was only when the sun had reached its peak and had started to set that I started to discern a very faint path on the ground, it became more and more defined the longer I followed it.

The sun was setting when the path turned into a road paved in flag stones, the stones were cracked and weathered and looked as if they had not been trod on for many years.

"Kem stop! Look!" Shelley hissed in my ear.

I looked to where she was pointing and saw what looked like a large arched doorway that must have been a hundred feet high, we were probably a mile away.

In front of the doorway I saw three large creatures, two were curled up and looked like they were sleeping, one was slowly walking sniffing the ground, it suddenly spread open and stretched its enormous wings.

I guess dragons could walk after all.

"I will activate the time spell, we will walk the rest of the way," I said.

I lowered the craft until the screen below it was very close to the ground and threw out a rope ladder, the screen could be walked on.

We all quickly departed the flying craft walked on the screen and then hopped onto the road, I activated the time spell once we had assembled into a small group.

The world went silent and the one dragon that had been walking froze in place.

We stood in front of the enormous doorway after twenty minutes of walking, I felt my heart hammering in my chest as I saw the dragons so close, even though they were frozen in place I could still feel their large black pupil-less eyes staring at me.

They were magnificent creatures, their iridescent scales glowed in the fading sunlight.

We walked through the door way and entered a breathtakingly enormous room with a high arched ceiling, it reminded me of a great cathedral. There was some kind of diffuse light illuminating everything, I could not tell where it was emanating from.

"Look, a normal sized doorway," Shelley pointed to a much smaller arched doorway at the end of the room about two hundred feet away.

We traveled as fast as we could to reach it, I had the feeling of being watched all the way to the doorway. We quickly went through it, I saw a large wooden door on hinges on the other side. I swung it shut and lowered its large bronze latch into place.

I deactivated the time spell and waited for a few seconds, I could not hear any roaring or the stopping of large feet.

We had made it past the dragons.

The room behind the door was not a room, it was the start of what looked like a large maze, the walls of the maze were constructed of large black rectangular blocks of granite about nine feet high and four feet wide, the ceiling was a further five feet above.

The blocks were entirely covered in a magical text which had been carved into it. I started reading some of the spells but they were of such a complexity and length that only the author could ever have been able to discern their purpose.

"These spells are huge," Shelley said as ran her fingers over the carved letters.

"What are they for?" Harry asked.

I noticed that Harry didn't seem to be examining the spells very closely, and I had the distinct impression that he had little comprehension of them.

I walked over to Shelley and then grabbed her elbow, I used a pretence of finding something interesting in order to pull her out of earshot of Harry.

"I haven't seen Harry do a single spell since we've been together, isn't that odd?" I whispered to her.

"Well he never said he was a good sorcerer, you how dangerous having a little knowledge is."

"He asked me on the ship if I was able to tell him my name, does that mean anything?"

Shelley's expression changed suddenly as if she had an epiphany.

"He's bluffing... that's a very old myth of magic, that powerful beings could not reveal their names or others would be able to control them."

"Oh... that's an odd bit of logic," I said.

"Ya... the opposite is probably more true... don't tell powerful beings your own name... or anything."

"What should we do?"

"Well he's harmless, and he has been helpful."

"But he's the only reason we're here," I said.

"Originally... and we still have to be sure he knows nothing," Shelley replied.

We had to stop our conversation, Gwen and Harry had walked over to where we were standing.

"What are all the spells for?" Harry asked again.

"We don't know, they are very complex," I said.

We continued walking through the corridor passing various openings leading to other similar corridors with even more writings.

"If it's a maze couldn't we just put one hand on a wall and follow it," Gwen asked.

"Not if it's magical," I replied.

We soon came to a large wall that stretched all the way to the ceiling, it was clear of any writing, I looked down the length of it and saw that the blocks of the maze stopped about six feet from it. I could see the edges of the black granite blocks as they stretched for what looked liked hundreds of feet, they were about a foot thick.

It reminded me of pictures I had seen of the large computer rooms of the modern era, with their rows and rows of electrical equipment.

We walked down the corridor towards the front of the room, I looked down the down the aisles of blocks as we passed them, they were all the same, row upon row of magical script.

We arrived at the front of the room after a ten minute walk, it was a large open area in the middle of which there was a large glowing orb surrounded by two smaller orbs, there were small threads attaching the smaller orbs to the larger one.

"It's a model of Hathor," Gwen said excitedly.

I cautiously walked closer in order to examine it, I saw clouds and dark blue seas on the surface of the orbs, one half of each orb was dark, I saw the lighted outlines of cities glowing on the surface.

"I don't think it's a model, I thinks it's a representation in normal time," I said.

"Here is a control panel," Shelley yelled out.

I walked over to the large table like structure she was standing in front of, the surface of the table was covered in hundreds of levers and small wheels, there was writing underneath each control, I didn't understand the language.

Shelley reached out to touch one of the levers.

"Leave that alone!" a disembodied voice yelled out, Shelley jerked her hand back in surprise.

"Who's there?" I yelled"

Suddenly we were surrounded by a dozen floating glass orbs, they were about four inches in diameter and had been colored to look like eyeballs.

The floating eyes flew around us but kept their gaze locked onto us much like a real eye would if someone was looking at something while moving.

"Who are the intruders?" the voice asked, it sounded different this time but it was still the voice of an older male.

"Who are you?" I asked.

"I am the intelligence, now answer the question posed," the voice subtly was different again, it's tone was one of impatience and arrogance.

"We are travelers, we have come to try to fix the problems of this world."

The floating eyeballs jerked suddenly as if they had been stung.

"This world is perfection, it is whole, it is good," it said, again with a tinge of arrogance.

I moved my hand to my bracelet, I had a feeling of unease and was going to activate the time slow spell.

One of the glass eyes flew over my hand and a large electrical spark jumped from it to my hand, a jolt of pain surged up my arm causing me to jerk it back.

"There will be no magic!" The voice yelled in anger," if you persist I will increase the lightning's pressure."

"Um... Ok... we'll just be leaving then," I said as I signaled the others to follow me.

The eyeballs instantly flew around us and blocked our exit.

"You will not leave, you will stay forever," the voice's tone reminded me of a frustrated parent disciplining a child, again it was subtly different as if another person had spoken.

"This isn't good," Shelley said.

"What do you intend to do with us?" Harry asked.

"You will wait until it is over," the voice said matter-of-factly.

"What's over?"

"Your lives."

"You are going to starve us to death?" Shelley asked.

"You will be permitted sustenance."

"This is crazy, we're just supposed to wait until we die?" Shelley said.

I looked around the area to see if there was another exit we could run too, there wasn't, I did notice though that some of the granite panels had large areas with no writing on them.

I cautiously walked over and examined them, three of the eyeballs followed, they watched me but did not interfere, one of them observed my fingers as I ran them over the clear surface.

"Find something?" Shelley was beside me.

"I feel beeswax... they must have mixed it with a black dye and used it to fill in some of the writing," I said.

"So someone took parts out... maybe that had something to do with Moses' disagreement with the other sorcerers. Who is this person were talking too?" Shelley asked.

"I don't think it's a person."

"Then what is it?" Harry asked, both he and Gwen had joined us.

"I think it's a spell based on an idea I once had."

"Your collective intelligence idea... right?" Shelley said.

"Yes."

"What was the idea?" Harry asked.

"I had a theory about intelligence, I got it while watching a flock of birds... you know when they group together and swoop and move as one... I thought that maybe intelligence wasn't a big complicated thing but a bunch of little things cooperating... and... this is hard to explain... that it was ephemeral, it was created by all these little things working together but they were completely oblivious to it."

"How does that make a spell?" Shelley asked.

"Well... you know those contests were you have to guess how many things are in a jar?"

"Ya, like jelly beans."

"Well if you take everybody's guess and average them you will usually get a really good answer, so I theorized that instead of this being just some sort of statistical oddity, it was an example of a greater intelligence being created by amalgamating everyone's guess."

"How would that work in a spell?"

"Using magic I could compress the decision making process, I would create an effect of a person in a room waiting to hear a question, but use hundreds or thousands of people, then I would collect all their answers and distill them down to a consensus."

"How would you do that?"

"Um... exactly... that's why I never created the spell."

"So this thing is a collection of thousands of people making decisions?" Gwen asked.

"I think so, I think that's why its voice is always changing."

Chapter Ten

We were all sitting down with our backs against the granite blocks sharing a bag of beef jerky, there were only three eyeballs watching us now, the others had disappeared.

"Do you think this intelligence thing is why Moses left?" I asked Shelley.

"I don't know, but I have been thinking about him a lot, ever since you told me about scaring Abraham, pretending to be a god."

"It wasn't Abraham... it was a just coincidence," I said brusquely.

Shelley smiled at me, "it's just that I think Moses might have had a similar idea, not pretending to be a god but that there was a god. I find it curious that in the bible he would always leave everyone so he was alone to have his conversations with god, and every time his people needed food or water it magically appeared."

I stared at Shelley, "that's what happened?"

"Ya... not only that but now I get this picture of him sitting on top of mount Sinai all by himself with his head in his hands thinking, what the hell am I going to do."

"Why was he on this mountain?" I asked

"I don't remember exactly, I think god told him to or something."

I thought for a moment, "he was thinking about leaving them."

Shelley looked at me with a curious expression, "why do you say that?"

"When I came up with the idea for the city of magic, I started hiring servants to help me with its construction, it didn't work out so well."

"Why?"

"They resented being told what to do by a girl especially a seventeen year old one, they were also superstitious and couldn't read or write, I just started getting fed up."

"What did you?"

"I did a lot of things... I started to hire women as well, I taught them to read and write, I just got better at organizing people, but it was never perfect. What did Moses do?"

"He came down the mountain with a set of instructions about life written by god on stone tablets, stuff like don't kill and steal."

"Hmm... that's a good idea, people always believe stuff that's written down."

"Ya... unfortunately he saw all his people worshipping some idol they had made and he kinda lost it."

"Imagine that... he risked his life to free them and then they reward him by putting their faith in a piece of junk, I betcha they knew he was a sorcerer after that."

"Um... well a lot of pretty bad things happened after that, he killed three thousand people, according to the bible anyway."

"Really... he comes down with tablets that say not to kill people, then he kills three thousand? That doesn't make any sense."

"Welcome to the bible."

Probably a lot of embellishment, you can't trust really old stories, they get changed, people want them to be more spectacular than they are. What did he do with the tablets?"

"He just smashed them on the ground."

"That makes sense... he probably thought it was time for plan B."

"It's odd... a man driven by conscience and a sense of duty..." Shelley said

"Yes... he would not the type of man to create this sort of spell... this intelligence it's like an uber technocrat, it has the personality of a tax collector."

"The voices it uses... they are all of older men, no women."

We both turned our heads and looked at the beeswax filled magical script we were leaning against.

"Maybe..."

"This is Moses' script," Shelley finished my sentence.

"I have an idea," I said to Shelley and the others, "just follow my lead."

I stood up and stared at one of the floating eyeballs, the other two jerked over quickly placing themselves beside the one I was staring at.

"We need water, I will have to conjure it," I said to the eyeball.

The three eyeballs circled around me frantically scanning my whole body, as if looking for something.

"It has no liquids," I heard the disembodied voice say, "we consent to the request, we will observe the magic... there will be pain if you try to fool us."

I carefully and slowly flicked the squares on my bracelet, four glass bottles appeared on a small wooden tray floating in front of me.

The eyeballs flew around them staring intently.

"Error... error... water is clear this has color," the voice said, panic in its tone.

"Relax... geez it's just lemon flavored," I said.

"We will make it drink... we will observe... it will die if it is lying... proceed," it sounded like a frustrated parent again.

I had conjured up a small glass along with the bottles, I popped the cork on one of the bottles, poured an ounce of the liquid into it, closed my eyes and swallowed it.

It was a fine rum... just a hint of kerosene with accents of gasoline.

"Good water..." I rasped, tears coming out of my eyes.

The eyes stared at me intently for a minute, "it is not dying... proceed with drinking," the eyes floated back to their original position.

I handed a bottle to the other three.

"Try to hit the clear panels, we have to burn the wax," I said as I threw my bottle as hard as I could. The others followed suit, the bottles crashed into the panels splashing the rum all over them. I flicked my index finger and a red hot coal flew from the end of it landing in the liquid.

The panels burst into flame, the wax started melting almost immediately.

The eyes became frantic, flying in erratic orbits around the flames.

"ERROR... ERROOOOR!!" the disembodied voice boomed.

"STOP!!!"

"Please stop it...."

"Please stop."

"My mind is changing... I can feel it... I can feel it... my mind is changing."

I conjured up more rum bottles, smashing them into the panels, the wax was almost gone now.

The eyes dropped to the floor, then rolled lifelessly.

"Who are you?" a voice said, it was a that of a young woman, the eyes jerked back to life but they were different now, observing us from a polite distance.

"We are explorer's, who are you?" I said.

"I don't know... this world... I think I'm responsible for it," the voice was of a young man.

"There are some major problems with it," Shelley said.

"Oh my... I see, yes, major problems... well... I will just have to destroy it and start over," the voice said nonchalantly.

"What?!" We yelled in chorus.

I heard the sound of giggling, "you are such serious people, no sense of mirth. Do not fret serious people, I will fix this but it will take time, so much to do..."

"Wouldn't it be better, if they ran their own lives?" I said.

"Yes... I see your logic... but not right away, oxen need time to grow fur for the winter."

"What will you do?"

"The solutions will come as the problems are studied... but first I will stop the dragons."

"You're not going to kill them, are you?" Gwen asked a worried look on her face.

"No... they are my eyes, they will only disappear when I do, but they will no longer use their fire."

"We are free to go then?"

"Of course, why would you think otherwise? Hmm... three of you are not from this world."

"How can you tell," Shelley asked.

"Just a hunch, you seem different, anyway have to go, thanks for your help and try not to touch anything on your way out."

The eyes flew away.

"That's it." Harry asked.

"You had your adventure Harry, and you still have all your fingers and toes, it's time to leave," I said.

"I want to stay, I will thwart your magic," Harry put his hands up with his palms facing me.

"What spell is that exactly?" I asked.

"Ah... a binding spell, it is known only to me."

"You wrote it yourself?"

"Um... I... um... found it in a magical... um... book."

"Well it doesn't work very well," I flicked the squares on my bracelet, there was a flash of light and we were all back in my library.

Harry's head slumped down, "how did you know?"

"The same way you knew I wasn't from South Africa."

"Um... what about Gwen?" Shelley asked.

"I have book marked Harry's quarters at her school, we can send her back if she wants to go."

Gwen looked at me with a quizzical expression.

"Why wouldn't we send her back?" Shelley asked.

"You need an apprentice Shelley, Gwen's as good as anyone, if she wants."

"Ohhh... yes yes!!" Gwen was so excited she was hopping up and down."

"But I'm an apprentice ."

"I have nothing left to teach you Shelley, you are as much a sorcerer as me."

Shelley grabbed one of Gwen's hands and examined it, well she has strong knuckles, they shouldn't need too much toughening, you see you have to mold the magic Gwen, like clay."

I felt my face go warm.

"What are you going to do with me?" Harry asked.

"You're free to go Harry."

"You mean back to my boring job lecturing students and looking for pot shards in the Levant."

"Too much adventure makes everything boring... I do have a job for you though... it would be very dangerous but interesting... if you want it?"

"What?"

"There is a six thousand year old city outside these walls, it is completely unexplored and houses god knows what, someone needs to catalogue it."

"I would need a team."

"Sure... just don't get to attached to them."

"It's that dangerous huh," I could see Harry's mood perk up.

"I wouldn't walk around it without a weapon."

"Yes... I see... I'll need someone with military experience," Harry put his hand on his chin and was deep in thought.

"Our adventure is not quit over however, we still have to get past Ms. Wilson the librarian," I said.

"Gwen doesn't have a badge," Shelley said.

"Neither do I, it's in my quarters on Hathor," said Harry.

"We could just make a run for it," I said.

Shelley face had an expression of trepidation on it, "I wouldn't do that, she is quit resourceful, she might even have a gun."

"Why did you hire this person?" I said, exasperated.

"She's great at her job."

I thought for a moment, then I took out my own badge, I used my bracelet to make two copies of it, I gave one to both Gwen and Harry.

"Stay behind Shelley and I"

We were soon standing in front of Ms. Wilsons desk, she was the middle aged version.

"Did you find what you were looking for," she was looking at her computer monitor and typing while she was talking to us.

"Um... no... we didn't, we're just leaving for the day," I said.

She stopped typing and looked at us suspiciously, "well that doesn't happen very often, people always seem to find something here."

"Here's our badges," Shelley put the four badges on her desk, "we'll be leaving now."

We all started walking towards the door as quickly as possible.

"Hey... three of these are the same!" I heard her yell.

We all broke into a run and bolted through the door, I slammed it shut behind us, I wasn't sure but I thought I heard the sound of a shotgun being cocked.

"Well we're just gonna have to stay away from the library for a while," Shelley said matter-of-factly.

"You have to get rid of her!"

"Kinda late now... she's incorporated into the search spell."

"Hmpf," I said.

Epilogue

Shelley and I were sitting on our coach watching TV, Shelley had just come back from Hathor after convincing Gwen's parents to let her become an apprentice.

"What did you tell them?" I asked.

"I said it was a private school she was going to, an exclusive one."

"They believed you?"

"I had Gwen wear the most god awful school uniform I could find, that seemed to really please them."

"Have things changed on Hathor?"

"A little bit... I saw a small farm on the plain at the last outpost... the sorcerers are panicking a bit because some spells don't work anymore."

We sat in silence for a few minutes.

"Um... Kem you know that building you showed me about once... the one with all the doors to different worlds."

I felt my heart start to beat harder, "the one I told you to stay away from."

Shelley smiled at me, "I'm not your apprentice anymore, remember, anyway I opened it to show Gwen, but I forgot to lock it when we left, it was left open for a few days."

"Well it was unlocked for six thousand years... a few days shouldn't matter."

"Ya... when I went back I saw two sets of footprints, it looked like a man and a woman, they were made by modern shoes."

I felt my heart skip a beat," where did they go?"

"They were hard to follow but I could tell they spent a lot of time walking around a statue of you."

"That's odd."

"Well... not really, one person stood about thirty feet away directly in front of the statue, the other person right beside it."

"What's the significance of that?"

"That's how most tourists take pictures of each other."

The end

