Chapter 19

They estimated it was about a five-hour drive to Barks Bay.

It was late in the afternoon when they pulled up at the end of the road that they had built and they got out of the buggy to look at the rest of the road. “Damn, that road is a mess,” Darcy said.

“I’ll say, I wonder when someone last came out to run a grader over it.” Speeder commented. The road before them seemed to weave between the trees and if a new one grew in the middle of what had been the road people had just gone around it. The ruts were deep in many places due to the heavy rainfall in this region.

Darcy shook his head, “I’m not sure it has ever been graded. It’s a damn cart track, not a main road. It’s a wonder anyone even uses it.”

“We use it,” said a voice and a dishevelled looking man stepped out from between two trees. He was joined by two more men and a woman. The other men wore clothes similar to what a lot of miners wore, with the long sleeves and belted long twill pants tucked into their boots. Battered hats of no particular description other than they had a brim, were on their heads.

The first man was better dressed. He wore a nicer shirt but still had the twill pants, and he looked down on his luck. The woman wore pants like the men and Darcy noticed her boots looked more suited to riding a lanky, as did the first man’s.

“Good afternoon,” Darcy said as he tipped back his Akubra styled hat, removed his sunnies and folded them and put them in his shirt pocket. He was wearing a lightweight, blue, buttoned-styled shirt with short sleeves over a black T-shirt and loose but comfortable black cargo-style shorts that stopped halfway down his thighs. He had also elected for more sturdy footwear.

Speeder had dressed similarly, except he had picked a green shirt. The boys had found they could wear the same clothes so it made packing easier. They both looked quite smart in their clothes and more one person had eyed-off their assets in Fur Hills.

“On a camping holiday?” the man asked nodding at the trailer.

“Something like that,” Darcy answered.

“We could do with some new camping gear. How about you leave your vehicle here and then you keep moving down the road,” the man said.

“Sorry, but that isn’t going to happen. What will happen is one of two things. One, you will walk away peacefully and let us do what we have to do. Two, you will end up wearing one of these,” Darcy said. He made a motion in the air and a cuff appeared between his fingers. “The choice is yours.”

“What are you, some sort of Shield?” the man sneered. He had not had an easy time of late when dealing with Shields and had little respect for the ones he had met, thanks to the Mayor of Bark Bay.

“Something like that. So what do you choose?” Darcy asked.

“Simon, come on, we don’t need Shield trouble,” the woman whined. “Sorry misters, come on Simon let’s go.”

She stepped back to turn, and Simon frustrated with her whining and his circumstances, swung his open palm at her but it never connected as he froze in half-swing. She stumbled backwards when she caught his movement and ended up on her arse on the ground looking at the frozen man. The other two men shifted back into the trees and disappeared.

Darcy stepped towards the man and slipped the cuff on him and then stepped back and clicked his fingers. The man continued the swing as if nothing had happened and swiped at air. He righted himself and looked at the woman on her arse on the ground with a confused expression. Then he noticed he had the cuff on his wrist.

“Hey!” He yelled out. He tugged at the cuff but it didn’t budge. He grunted and pulled a knife to cut it off his wrist.

“I wouldn’t do that if I was you,” Speeder warned him, knowing full well the idiot wouldn’t listen.

Simon sneered at him and pushed the blade under the edge of the cuff. Speeder had to duck to avoid the knife, as it shot out of Simon’s hand when the cuff zapped him. Simon screamed and danced around shaking his arm.

The woman started laughing as if she had never seen anything so funny before in her life. This, of course, made Simon angrier and he went to strike her again, so he got zapped again. He howled and danced around a bit more and she just laughed harder. She had tears coming from her eyes.

“Some people never learn,” Darcy said shaking his head.

“Dirty fucking Shield,” Simon snarled at Darcy, once he calmed down a little. “That’s all you are good for. You’re not real magicians.”

“You don’t think I can do real magic,” Darcy asked Simon.

“No, none of you can,” the man sneered.

“Fine, since I was going to do this anyway, you may as well watch,” Darcy replied. He moved to the side of the road, bent and placed a crystal into the earth. He did the same on the other side. Then he moved, so he was in the middle of the road and turned to face the way ahead.

He then levitated so he was several metres off the road. Pulling his wand, he had it extend to its full two-metre length and turned it so it was horizontal to the ground. “Fifty kilometres, Clear, Fill, Bridge, Seal, Repair,” he announced clearly.

As they watched the road roll forward, a small cloud of dust and debris formed in front of it. The trees appeared to fall over and they were devoured by the cloud. Everything in the way of his new road got sucked into the cloud and deposited as required as it moved forward and left a bright, clean paved road behind.

The woman, who had got up and was now standing beside Speeder said, “How does the road know how to make sure the rain doesn’t wash it away?”

“Darcy forms how he wants the road to appear in his mind. So if a section needs to be higher or lower, then he moves the earth to be where he wants it. If he knows he has to let water get past because there is a steam or an incline that has to drain, he creates tunnels under his road so the water can travel through them and not wash the road away.”

“There is a big creek up ahead what will he do there?” she asked.

“Build a bridge,” Speeder said.

Darcy returned to the ground and walked over to the man who was still staring at the cloud that was moving away from them. “We need to plant a few more crystals. How about we chat along the way, get your things and get in, you too, ma’am,” he indicated at the woman.

Once their guests were in the back of the buggy, Darcy followed the road. “What happens to any people that are on the road?” Simon suddenly asked with concern.

“There are no people on this road, I checked. Even so, if you saw a large cloud of dirt coming at you, what would you do?”

“Run,” Simon said and then chuckled.

“That’s what most people do. Even so, my spell won’t harm a living creature. They are simply lifted out of the way until the cloud goes past, and then put back down,” Darcy informed Simon. “So who are you people and why have you resorted to robbery to survive?”

The man became sullen. The woman said, “I’m Roma, and he is Simon. The other two were Doughy and Mark. We met them yesterday on the road. We were headed to Fur Hills. Bark Bay’s got no work for us and we heard they did.”

“Our lankys got scared off in a storm last night so we were reduced to walking. We got to the bit of road where it changed and Doughy made us get off it when he saw you coming. He told Simon to talk to you since he was better dressed. Sorry about us trying to rob you but the other men were a bit creepy and well we were kinda in trouble.”

“So we are going in the wrong direction for you people, sorry. I’ll take you to Fur Hills in the morning if you wish,” Darcy informed them.

“You will drive us all the way back?” Roma asked in disbelief.

Darcy chuckled, “No, I’ll just blink you. We are only driving so I can look at the scenery, fix the road and I like driving.”

“That is stupid,” Simon said. “You can teleport but you choose to drive. If the magicians I know could do that they would never drive or walk.”

“Well, if I had teleported I’d have not met you two and you would still be walking,” Darcy replied.

Roma chuckled, “That we would.”

Darcy pulled up and Speeder did the honours and got out to plant the crystals before they started again. “Won’t someone try to steal them?” Simon asked.

“They can try but if you can get that crystal to leave Darcy’s road, you are a better magician than he is,” Speeder snickered.

It was dark when they got to a Tavern that was just outside of the city. Darcy said, “Speeder, why don’t you get us settled in and I’ll take care of Roma and Simon.”

Speeder agreed and Darcy faced the two people. “Okay, here is the deal. Simon, I realise you are angry for a whole lot of reasons but hitting women doesn’t solve anything. When the cuff believes you have learnt this little fact, it will return to me.”

“In the meantime, I have some friends who will put up with you for a while. Be nice to them, and they will be nice to you. Don’t try and steal from them, as they are Mages. They are also Dog-Shifters, so if you see a rather large dog or two in the house, don’t panic, as it will be one of them.”

“They will help you find work.” He then handed them each a sack of coins. “If you don’t wish to go to them, then you can take the money and we will part ways here, the choice is yours,” Darcy finished.

“Why are you helping us?” Simon asked. He’d had a bit of a think about many things since spending the last couple of hours in Darcy’s company. He had already worked out this bloke was not an ordinary magician, nor was his friend.