Chapter 13

"I am not positive but I think he brings those he wants with him. Those must be ones controlled by the trainee."

Security called the ranch and soon Hassan, Mordock, Malochuck and a lot more security was coming our way. This time they would use the helicopter because I didn't want them running through the complex and disturbing the family. The term family seemed so right on many levels that I had to smile.

While the ship was watched from a distance we had a meeting about what to do. Malochuck of course wanted to go in, guns blazing and kill all those responsible. An alternate was to just rush aboard with spells primed and Vessio would concede defeat when faced by those against him. He did have some good comments on Vessio. The man was very good and would be elevated to an apprentice in a few years when Maximus came back. They didn't know he was dead and it was a good idea to keep secret.

Hassan wanted to use the charged crystals again while Mordock told me privately to try the time spells. I had my own ideas and explained to them that a person proficient in magic looked for magic attacks more than conventional. That was why our attack on Malochuck was so well done. We used radios and a mechanical means of breaking the crystals instead of magical. One of my old ideas for using a narcotic gas to take down Malochuck was not suitable then but may be better choice now.

Malochuck himself kept some of the gas we wanted and I sent for it. It would not usually kill unless someone was allergic to it. It had a smell of fish and was colourless. Being close to the ocean made the smell a non issue. There were six masks with the proper filter that would neutralise the gas but a contained air system used by fireman would be better.

Malochuck mentioned how Vessio was usually a night person and had a sit down supper at six and with control of a ship I could see him getting service too.

The plan hinged on Malochuck, wearing a disguise, meet the captain and make his orders verbal. We could work from there. Malochuck was not a coward and did get changed into a cheaper suit and wore nothing of magic. We waited patently for nearly twenty minutes before four men in waiters uniforms came to us.

When they stood at attention I said, "We have a job for each of you."

They were fitted with a small tank of gas and a triggering device that allowed the gas to escape through a muffling device. The reason we needed so much was because the room was so large and there was a good chance the man could escape through one of the hatches. With the devices in place, the men's allegiance was changed to me and they would not really know what they were doing when the time came. It was more of a post hypnotic suggestion.

The men hurried back onboard and prepared for their duties without even recognising they had a part to play.

At fifteen minutes to six we all made it onto the ship in small groups to allay suspicions. Our own magical paraphernalia had been removed so we would not be discovered. The ship had a well stocked arsenal and both Sonya and I stocked up. Instead of all lethal weapons we each had a taser. I didn't like to kill but I would if I was forced to.

Two of the waiters came into the room pushing squeaky carts and trailing a plume of invisible gas behind them. When they stopped they simply took a lungful of air and waited instructions. The windward side of the salon a wooden bar kept the hatch from opening while gas drifted in through the open portholes. When the waiters and guests started to fall into their soup, Mr Vessio ran for the lea side of the ship. This was the closest hatch and the only one unlocked. He came out in time to receive a fist into his abdomen and he silently crumpled onto the deck.

I said my own spell to keep him asleep and gave the mental signal to stop the gas and flush it from the room. With my contained air supply I was able to pull Vessio upwind a bit and went back into the room to remove all the people. There happened to be over twenty individuals. The captain and some of his officers along with some young and pretty ladies that I had to assume were part of Vessio's harem.

An antidote was injected into each but everybody but the crew stayed under a sleeping spell. Hours later Vessio awoke to find that I was his rightful master.

When his eyes opened he saw the five of us and Malochuck watching him. "Master," he cried as he tried to get onto his knees. Part of this was a guilty consciousness but more was because his former master was there along with me.

I said, "What were you doing on this ship?"

"Master... I came when I heard that there may be a problem. My... former master may have been in trouble and I was trying to see what I could do to help him."

Vessio's mind was very quick but while reading it I found some very small gaps as if he had a great many strong spells like mine put on him. He looked young and Malochuck had never looked too diligently into his past. Erasmus had trained me to fight and use my senses. The human senses are very acute if we adjust our mind to use them. I could detect an odd smell from the man and from two of the women still unconscious.

"What was your objective?"

"I was in Houston when I felt the surge of magic. A quick search showed me that there was a takeover happening. I fled to one of my homes and tried to think of what to do. The Fastopona Sucra was just up the coast and I wanted to come back here but also have a safe place to stay. I thought that if I rescued Mr Malochuck then I would get some kind of reward.

His mind was searched as he spoke to us and the words and thoughts jibed. The problem arose with the ship. The Suulas Soona was already here and just as available as the Fastopona Sucra. He didn't need to get the other ship.

"Tell me your whereabouts for the last two months."

The man had been all over this planet trying to make a few measly million dollars here and there. Other planets were listed but not the world of Sookra. The smell of the noja spice on him was only from that location but it was shipped to many other worlds that had something to trade.

"Who are the people with you and tell me all of their history."

From Sonya I heard privately, "What are you after Master. He sounds honest to me."

"Smell him love."

The crew as well as the women were listed where it looked like he was giving as much information as possible. Two of the women who just happened to have the smell of the spice had a form of an epicanthic fold. Both the Fassie and the Saranam had this feature but slaves had been sold from Sookra for a very long time.

The two women called Elaine and Alison had a much more comprehensive history with a good amount of detail. The rest of his circle were less well known though he had them for a lot longer. This sounded like he had been prepared for this questioning and the two women mentioned by name were more important than he wanted to talk about. All this and he was under a compulsion to tell the truth.

I had not gone over to The Lady Luck or Suulas Soona but I still didn't know what was in their hold. "What is the nature of each of the six magic sites on the Suulas Soona?"

This shocked him but it was only a momentary thing. "I have no idea Master. I have not been over to that ship in at least a year."

Vessio went back to sleep and we put some beryllium manacles on him. If he could lie to us then he could do much more.

In the now empty salon we sat down and talked. Sonya said, "The man smelt of noja. It is not that uncommon in areas that trade magically."

I replied, "The two women that he knew for the least amount of time happened to have the best history. They also smelt of the same spice."

Hassan asked, "I have traded with both Fassie and Saranam on Sookra. The spice is good and brings a good profit but what is so special about it?"

"Nobody ever goes from one country to the other. They always go off world to get to the other country. Their mutual hate is very strong. It is only the Fassie though that sell the spice. It doesn't grow well enough for export in Saranam."

Sara said, "I noticed the surprise when you mentioned the six magic centres on the other ship."

"That is our next mystery and I think it may be a dangerous one to play with."

The twelve girls had not been sent home yet and were being escorted all over the ship by very eager officers. When they were called for they came into the salon and they each looked very happy to be out and around especially in a place like the Sultan's Fist. This ship was not the largest yacht around but it was four hundred and sixty feet long. The Lucky Lady was a minnow by comparison and just exceeded three hundred feet.

The girls took off their pretty clothing and we formed a circle when the officers left. There was no way to absorb the power so we just did this for fun. We were able to stay as far away as last time but our perceptions were somewhat clearer. Hassan, Mordock and Malochuck piggybacked our view and tried to make out the six magical sites. They were not that strong and could represent crystals, or vessels but the latter would move around unless they were restricted. They could also be spells but only the strongest would leak this much energy.

Working with the worse case possible we went closer and tried to catch more detail. We went from right overhead to water level. The locations were easy to find but more information was not forthcoming.

Alison was awoken and questioned by me. Her answers mimicked Vessio's almost to the letter as if they had already worked out what to say. When I started to yell at her in Fassie she automatically replied in the same tongue.

An hour later the same thing happened with Elaine. Something was very wrong here and from my point of view I had very little understanding of it. Nobody should have been able to lie but they were.

The most direct way to find out was to pick through the spells the weakest of them had. We could find out more by getting into the hold of The Lady Luck but that could be dangerous too.

Alison and Elaine now got the came restraints as Vessio now wore. There was something here that I didn't understand and smelt as much as the rotting fish in the harbour.

The three remained unconscious and were moved to a large helicopter and escorted to the ranch. I was very uncomfortable about each of my guests and they were soon stretched out and had a gag in their mouths even with the sleep spells. I had only succeeded before because of surprise and now I didn't have it. Vessio had a lot of time to contact others and by now the other apprentices could know of my intentions.

Sleep that night was not as it usually was. Worry clouded my dreams. The next morning I felt better but not much. I put on a smile and fed the children and pretended to feed their dolls to.

When the rest were awake we had a quick breakfast and got right down to work opening as portal to the Toronto base. I needed help and it had to be help that understood enough about magic to actually help me.

By noon a portal existed and we used the rest of our recently acquired power to tune the portals. After the bird, Sara quickly went through again and she came out seconds later to say, "Everything looks find but you put the portal into the lowest level. It is just outside your quarters."

She had to have hurried so I would not be first. I couldn't read those thoughts though because she kept them hidden. We would have to come to some arrangements in the future where we found other ways to test experiments without using our lives.

"Is everything else fine?"

"Yes, Master. They want you home though. You are missed."

After thinking on her first words, I had no idea how the portal got there. I was visualising the gym on the upper floor. For a moment I considered a node or perhaps something in the lab that complicated this but it didn't matter.

Elaine went through with my ladies. She was still unconscious. She went onto the rack that Mordock had graced not long ago. When she was secure I went to meet the family and let them see that we were alright.

I let Sonya choose some of the ladies that could help us and we went to what had been Mordock's torture chamber. They were not pleased with the surroundings at all.

"Ladies, I am not here to torture anybody. It is just a more secure way of holding someone in position while their secrets are revealed. Apparently this woman is able to lie while under a truth spell and I just want to find out the method but also what is so important that it was hid so well."

What we had done and what we found was introduced so the women had a chance to understand as much as possible.

Sonya empathically said for the group, "The woman won't get hurt?"

"There is always a danger but we have unravelled quite a few spells recently and this should be no different."

Air mattresses now appeared after the girls had a chance to talk. A real master would not allow this but I wanted them to know that they had a say in what and how we did this.

Hassan and Mordock got in the group because I needed their expertise. Only a supreme egotist would believe that he could do everything right.

We charged up some crystals for any sudden needs and I built a shield around the woman the same as I had done to Hassan and everybody since. This woman I knew had to be dangerous even if I didn't know why.

Hours later we had to call a break. We found small spells as all those magic practitioners had but this woman had a camouflaged shield over her mind that protected everything. I had never even heard of this before but the mages in Saranam and Fassie were the best. Their world may be in the Middle Ages but the magic was the best. Scholars from three universes went there to study.

For a second I thought of sending the woman and her two partners to Erasmus and let him get by the blocks but I quickly saw that he may well do that but destroy them in doing so.

Hassan went back to Houston and brought the other prisoners and we worked on them with no further success. Vessio's shield was different and we had some edges to pry against but I was not going to start pulling stings at random to see if I could defeat his shield.

The Plugga got some guests and they were warned to leave them alone. They were treated like hospital patients but ones I wanted sedated all the time.

We went back to the slave quarters here and we slept in the gym like we had done so many times. I was tired but there were so many expectant faces that I had to do something to make them happy.

The energy we produced went into a way of closing the portal quickly as well as the magical equivalent of a door bell. It would be nice to know we had visitors.

The next morning the girls that were in the penthouse in Houston went back to the ranch with me to talk about Toronto. By noon all the slaves had left so their education could begin and what help we could give was handed out.

With no further leads we had to go back to the Lucky Lady even though many complications had to be tied up. One of which was Malochuck and the new personality we had to fashion for him.

We arrived by helicopter and once I was standing on the dock I knew something was wrong. Holding Sonya and Sara's hand I scanned the ship very carefully and found the six magical sources missing. I hurriedly scanned the rest of the ship then did the Sultan's Fist but they were gone.

Security was called and they didn't see anything amiss. At almost the same time I got a call from security at the ranch. Malochuck had somehow gained some of his freedom and was keeping security at bay.

We hurried back to the ranch. Malochuck had been altered a great deal and it would take a while for him to regain all his old powers. I just hoped that the spells I put on him that made me his master were still working. We found the man barricaded in an office. He had tried to get into the complex but couldn't.

I called out, "Malochuck, it is your Master. Come out now."

There was no answer but I could feel that the man was confused. Being as intimate as I had to be when I controlled him made me able to read his thoughts much better. I raced in followed by Sonya and Sara then the rest. The man managed to look at me with something like his old face and I snarled, "Submit!" This was the command of a good many of the spells put on him.

An empty hand came up and the man snarled. Ralph was right behind me and pushed me to one side and shot at Malochuck. The man stared at the hole in his arm and we rushed him. He cast out a weak attack but it was Sonya with her hands that hit him first and put him out. Again he had not thought a conventional attack threatening.

It was when Malochuck was being moved past me that I detected the noja smell on his breath. I held my ring for power and looked into Malochuck's mind. I looked at the constructs I had put in and found them slightly different. Looking around I found a lot of other minor differences. I had been in the man's mind to a great depth and could see that there were too many changes for this man to be Malochuck. Erasmus doppelganger came to mind but they were not bright enough. The only conclusion I could think of was that someone must have made a quick copy of Malochuck's mind and put the copy over their own.

The person impersonating Malochuck was taken into the slave quarters after giving the incantation to open the portal.

I thanked Ralph for his quick action. "It looks like Malochuck was going crazy. He was going to cast a spell at me and I am sure that it was not one to make me fall asleep."

"You are welcome sir. That is my job after all."

Inside the complex I said to the rest of our group. "This man may not be Malochuck. Again I smelt the noja. The constructs in his brain are similar but not the same. The brain underneath is well protected like what the two women from the boat had."

We all looked into the mind again and I pointed out differences that I found.

Mordock said, "You're right. It is possible this is Malochuck and his brain has been changed but I doubt it. This leads to the question of where exactly the real Malochuck is."

We all knew how easy it was to remove a body after a person got to a certain proficiency in magic. This didn't mean the Malochuck was dead though.

I placed a healing spell on the man but I could see that it was very ineffective and had to do it a great many times to get his wound to start to heal. This was noted by the rest as a shield we could not detect protecting the man from external magic.

We stripped the man before us and examined all of his clothing. The smell of noja was not on them but the material appeared to be newer than what Malochuck had been wearing yesterday.

We found an amulet hanging from a chain around his neck but none of us touched it directly. I picked it up with my PK and put it to one side. His buttons though were very well disguised by spells to hide the magic they contained. If we had not been looking closely then we would have missed this.

We formed a circle and studied the constructs of the man's mind after putting up a shield to protect us. The outward form of the constructs were similar to what I had put in but there was a difference. We worked for hours just investigating and then very tentatively started to undo the bindings.

It was very late by the time we had finished the first one and this looked like the easiest. It was constructed by a master and it was only our recent work and the efforts of five of us that allowed the bindings to be removed. There were many tricks here that I didn't know of but would in the future. The obedience spell was very different too and again it took hours to study it before it was removed.

We rested often to eat and drink. The girls were tired and so was I. They were chaffed by my constant attention and we had to use healing spells on ourselves. During one rest break, Sara went through the portal to Toronto to bring in some reinforcements. Thirty three volunteers came through and we began once more.

During my next break Ann said, "Three men came looking for Mr Mordock. They were quite insistent about finding him. All of us that were in the house were asked a great many questions. They went to the portal but didn't enter."