Chapter 17

Spike had been watching the video and audio feed of Darcy with his guests from in the conference room with the others.

He decided that this was his cue and appeared beside Darcy. “Hi Bro, Russet said we had unexpected visitors. Hello, visitors, I’m Spike.”

“Ah good. Spike, would you mind terribly showing them your vambrace?” Darcy asked him nicely with mirth in his eyes.

“Not a problem. Rauor, appear please,” Spike said and his vambrace became visible. “I’m an Earth Mage. My etching of the Dogs head has the pretty violet Benitoite crystal with it. We mine them here. The dogs head is the symbol of our people.”

“Since our Queen also had the Benitoite gem the vambraces agreed that her ministers and personal shields should also have one,” he told them hoping he had said that how Darcy had coached him.

“Does it do anything?” Ethyl asked looking at the vambrace. Neither she nor any of the others had ever seen one with so many gems or chunks of crystal embedded in it. Only the Queen and the High Guild Mage had four gem vambraces. They only had half the number of Quaz crystals that this man had on his and they were smaller.

“Yes, it’s a bit hard to explain but it seems to enhance any spell I do that I don’t have a gem for that skill. For example, I don’t have Nature, but I can work with wood and I can tame a wild animal, near as well as I can manipulate rocks and metals,” Spike said happily. He’d discovered a lot of new thing in the last two and a half years that he could now do since Darcy had added the gem.

Darcy also stared at him, “Crap!”

“That surprised you didn’t it, Bro? That’s what you get for playing,” Spike said with a huge grin. He loved that he got to be the one to tell Darcy.

“And just when where you all going to tell me this?” Darcy asked.

“When you asked, the AI’s wanted to know how long it would take you to work it out,” Spike said and started chuckling at Darcy’s worried frown.

The other four looked between the two men wondering what was wrong. Lord Oak cleared his throat. He was worried and wanted to get this business over with and away from them. He didn’t feel comfortable being near these two men. “Well, we still need an audience with Huntress. Our Queen has sent us her to secure the crystals.”

“Secure in what way?” Darcy asked with a raised eyebrow.

“We have sixty soldiers that will assist us in guarding them for you,” Lord Oak announced and hoped they turned up soon, he was wondering what was keeping them.

“In your dreams, buddy,” Darcy snarled.

Lord Oak stepped back and pulled himself taller. Arrogantly, he replied, “The Queen can’t let such an asset be left unguarded. We need to make sure they are not under the control of people who would abuse the use of them.”

Darcy’s eyes narrowed and he asked them, “When you came through the shield did you get any odd feelings?”

“Yes, Archie and I felt like we were being stuck with pins and needles,” Ethyl volunteered and shivered. “It was worse for Raven and Decan. I thought Decan was having a fit and Raven the poor dear; she shuddered and shivered for ages afterwards.”

Raven gave Ethyl a piercing look that showed she wasn’t pleased with her blabbing. Darcy just nodded, “When you four leave here you will find you will not be let through next time. I had to spell a window in the shield to let you in. You will also find that your soldiers are sitting down the road waiting for you.”

“Even if they get out of their vehicles they will find there is no access to us, through the shield. We protect what is ours. I wasn’t going to do this but I think you need to get the message and take it back to your Queen.”

“If she wants crystals, she can buy them at the going rate just like everyone else. We offer a reasonable number to the Cities in the north that keeps their value and worth. Our agents have been more than accommodating in making sure those in need get their share.”

“If you harass us again it will not go well with your Queen. I am not a normal Mage and my people and I, can and will protect our land and property. If you don’t believe me perhaps this will convince you,” Darcy said and made his items appear.

“Oh by the Gods! You’re a Lord Wizard!” Raven shrieked and took several steps back from him. The others also stepped further back in shock, as his power radiated at them now he had unmasked it.

Darcy frowned, “No, I’m a Paladin. A Queen’s Envoy.”

Raven collected herself and looked at him in disbelief at his statement, was he stupid or just oblivious? Sarcastically she replied, “Your Queen must have had a funny sense of humour. I’ve heard of Lord Wizards being called Queens’ Envoys since they are directly beneath a Queen. Only a Lord Wizard or higher wears six gems, you have six gems.”

“It doesn’t matter if they are not the traditional ones. The fact you have two special gems that you say can mimic any of the skills you need makes you even more powerful and you wear not one but two sets of items. I’ve never heard or read of such a thing. I bet if you try to add an opal or an emerald you would be akin to a Queen Wizard and a very powerful one at that.”

“What!” Darcy exclaimed as what she was telling him, became apparent to him. “God damn it. I’m going to ring that bloody woman’s neck when I find her again.”

“What woman, Darcy?” Huntress asked as she, Blaze and Shelly join them. Blaze had been worried how Darcy would react when he did find out what he had done to them and himself in his desire to protect them.

“Bloody Queen Wizard Lee,” he spat. “I bet she is rolling around on the bloody floor laughing her devious, manipulative, arse off. God damn her, how could she do this to me,” he wailed.

“Hey! Darcy,” Spike said to distract him.

“What?” Darcy responded, still angrily with himself for being an idiot.

Spike pressed something onto his vambrace.

“OH!! FUCK!!” he screamed and shuddered violently.

They had all stepped back from him when he had started screaming long and loudly. He collapsed to his knees and with his hands on the floor and his head bowed. He breathed in several deep, yet fast breaths, and then he started mumbling under his breath.

“I’m sorry sis, I probably shouldn’t have done that,” Spike said and gave her a frightened and worried look.

“What did you do Spike?” Shelly asked and knelt down in front of Darcy but she was afraid to touch him as he was still saying some strange words even she didn’t know, and his magical glow was pulsing like a star going nova.

“Look at his vambrace,” Spike replied. “I was polishing the black opal when Darcy called me. Raven said that he would be a Queen Wizard if he had one, so I pressed it onto the vambrace.”

Raven snickered, “And now he recites the spells. I don’t understand what he is saying but I bet this Queen Lee person gave them to him and he didn’t even know it. She is indeed very devious. I think I would like her.”

Darcy sat back and then drew in a deep breath before he said softly, “Damn, when that woman goes for payback she has a fucked up way of doing it.”

“Why would she wish to pay you back?” Huntress asked concerned.

“Because I tried to kill her,” he replied.

“No,” Shelly gasped.

“Oh yeah, I did. It was my assignment. I was a spy, and the man I worked for knew she was powerful but she didn’t have any magical items at the time, so she was vulnerable. I was supposed to stop her from getting to where she needed to go.”

“The problem was that she had just saved all of our arses from becoming space dust when our ships programming had been tampered with and I couldn’t do it. I was never good at killing in cold blood. I woke up in my cabin after my shift on the bridge and I had a knife in my hands. Man, I was scared shitless.”

“The only thing I could think of was that there was no blood on the knife. When I looked closer, there were tiny fibres from a cord and I knew what it was I had cut. I ran, man, I’ve never run so hard in all my life. I got there just as Lee was about finished putting her spacesuit on to go outside and fix the spaceship.”

“I grabbed the special jetpack they used in case they lose contact with the hull of the spaceship. I made sure that it belonged to one of the other people and helped her put it on, and then handed her his poles. Then I got the hell out of there.”

“I didn’t know whose items they were and I knew I was consigning the poor bastard to a horrible death, but I couldn’t kill her, I just couldn’t. Then Lee pulls another rabbit out of the hat. She saved him, fucked if I know how, but she saved him for me,” he choked out.

He sniffed and said, “She lives a charmed life that woman, but I’m so glad she didn’t die. The universe would be a much sadder place if she wasn’t in it. Now she has done this to me. I hate telling people what do. I always preferred to watch people and help if I could, but now I’m supposed to rule a set of bloody islands. I don’t know how to be a Regent Wizard.”

“Oh, you poor man, how sad your life is. You have just been given a gift I would kill for and you bemoan it, you are pathetic,” Raven sneered. She couldn’t believe that he didn’t want what he had been given.

Wack!! Ka-thump!! Darcy blinked as he looked at Raven now sprawled on the floor beside him. He looked up and Blaze was wringing her hand and going, “Ow, ow.”

Blaze looked at the woman with venom as she nursed her hand, “Damn you’re a tingko if I have ever met one. The reason Regent Wizard Darcy Dibir is wearing the bling and not you, is becase he won’t kill. He can’t even kill a damn longears so he can eat it. Didn’t you listen, he was spelled to kill someone and he still couldn’t do it.”

She knelt down in front of him and put her hands on his cheeks, “Honey, do you honestly believe Lee would send you here if she didn’t think you were worth saving too? Even I know bling that serves a Queen or as you prefer, a Regent Wizard is very choosy.”

“Just like Lee, Vam and your entity knew what they were doing when they chose to go to you. You are the only person here who doesn’t know just how good a person you are.” She kissed him softly and then helped him to his feet with Shelly’s assistance. Blaze glanced at her mother and said, “My Dame, I suggest you toss those horrible people out of our town, they make it stink.”

Huntress chuckled and looked at her son, “Feel up to blinking a few bad smells out of here?”

“My Dame it would be my pleasure to help you,” he said, relieved that Darcy wasn’t mad at him.

Huntress put out her hand and pulled Raven to her feet. She glanced at Spike and touched Decon. Spike touched the Oaks and before they could blink, they were outside the shield. She smiled when quite a few of the men started at their appearance.

Huntress called to one of the soldiers. He was covered in all sorts of badges and pins and she said, “Get these people off my land. If you ever come onto my land again without an invitation, you will be sent home in boxes.”