Chapter 20

They arrived at the dilapidated Guild Hall.

The compound consisted of six main buildings and several rows of cottages for the people who would live here. Darcy could see that things had been going downhill here for a long time. Darcy waited for the two Novices to join them from the carrier. Tomas introduced his friend as Matte and they both wondered what Darcy planned to do here, as the place was a disaster zone.

Melisa had told him that they had not had a head for the Guild here for at least ten years and it had been abandoned several years before. The magical item the Guild Mage held had failed when she died and no new head had been appointed or sent here from Batton despite numerous requests for one.

“Speeder, I think we need to carry out a few repairs first,” Darcy told him and handed him three bags of crystals from his pack. “You do those three buildings and the grounds around them and we’ll do the others. Take Roma and Tomas with you and return to the main hall with a rough inventory please.”

Speeder, Roma and Tomas agreed and headed off. Simon said, “Why are you going to fix things Lord Lighting? Shouldn’t the Head of the Guild do this?”

Darcy grinned, “Well, I think I have acquired that mantle, so I guess the Head of the Guild will be doing his duty.”

Simon looked at Darcy speculatively, “You are something else aren’t you? There is not one ordinary thing about you or what you can do such as that road fixing you did. Just how powerful are you?”

“Very, unlike anyone on this Island has ever seen,” replied Darcy. “Here, Simon, take this bag. I want you to go to the Hospital and Matte you do the School. Just place a crystal over each doorway and on the paths. I have spelled them for you so they will simply attach themselves.”

“Why are you are entrusting me with a huge bag of Quaz crystals, are you mad?” Simon gasped when he realised what was in the bag.

“No, you were angry with your life and your circumstances but I believe that is not who you are. Have some faith in me and a little more in yourself. Help is here, Simon,” Darcy replied gently.

Simon looked at Darcy. “Thank you,” he said and went to do what he had been asked to do. He even chuckled, as he believed that if Darcy said he was going to help, then he damn well would. He also knew that if he pissed off with the crystals that the Wizard would find him. He had a feeling that life had just gotten a whole lot better for him. He didn’t know how things would change but they would.

Matte was also wondering just who and what Lord Lighting was. He had decided from their first meeting that he was not a man you pissed off. He had told Tomas as much. He also told him that they had to do as he said and bugger the Mayor. He believed the man was going to create havoc here, and if they were smart, they would support him, as he suspected the man was a true Wizard.

Tomas had also realised that for Lord Lighting to know what he was, meant he was very powerful, so he agreed. He wasn’t a stupid man and he had accepted the position as Shield because he hoped to help bring some law and order back to Bark Bay. Considering the size of the city, they didn’t have a lot of Mages here.

Darcy moved to the actual Guild Hall itself and placed the crystals as he poked around. Simon met back up with Darcy in the main entrance of the Hall. Matte and the others also joined them after a few minutes. “Okay, my Lord, do your thing,” Simon grinned at Darcy.

Darcy smiled, “Already did, I told you the crystals were spelled.”

Simon chuckled, “So you did.” He looked around and realised the building had already started to look a lot cleaner and in better repair. He guessed the spells were a lot like those Darcy had used on the road.

Matte and Tomas had also realised that the crystals held some very interesting spells as they handled them and were glad they had decided to support the Wizard or was it Lord Wizard Lightning. They had both noted the title Simon had used.

“Tomas, how about you take your men back to the barracks and deliver an invitation to the Mayor and her councillors that they are invited to dinner at the Guild Hall tonight. I also wish that anyone who currently wears a magical item to also attend,” Darcy said.

Tomas frowned and scratched his head, “That would be about thirty people that I know of, my Lord. How are you going to cater to them, no body lives here anymore?”

Darcy looked at Simon. Simon sighed, “Okay, I’ll do it but I need money, my Lord.”

Darcy removed his pack and pulled an item out. “Put this on,” he said to Simon and then handed one to Roma. “Just say my name and then wait a moment. If I’m busy, Vam will answer for me. Anything you discuss with him, I will also know about so it will be as if you are talking to me. The same goes if you call Speeder.”

“Oh, so I’m your answering service now,” said a voice that startled the others.

Darcy chuckled, “Vam you have been doing it for years just so you stay in the loop, you love it.”

Vam chuckled. He loved being with Darcy. He couldn’t remember having half this much fun with his previous owner as he now did with Darcy. He had been as surprised as everyone else had been, when the opal had attached to the brace.

He wasn’t sure if Darcy knew of the power that had been imbued in that opal. Spike had cut and polished it with love for Darcy. Black opals held a special power within themselves and were not ordinary Nature discipline gems; they were rarely used. Vam knew that Darcy could change the very shape of this planet and its people if he wished with the gems he now had.

“Do these items speak?” Roma asked as she examined the Mad.

“Yes, they have a lot of uses. Press your thumb onto the screen and say ‘link account’. Your previous bank accounts will now be accessible from the Mad and it will only recognise you as its owner. Simon and Roma, you will find I’ve placed sufficient funds in your accounts so you can pay for whatever you believe you require and hire the people you need.”

“You may need to stock up for about twenty people to live here initially. Please check the kitchens and make sure you have all the items you require. Speeder can you go with them please, and if you think any of the items we have that should be added, please retrieve them for Simon and Roma. They will also require a room.”

“Matte and Tomas, I believe you should collect your personal belongings as I will need you here in the future. You have of course the right to refuse me if you wish and I will understand,” Darcy said.

Matte looked at Tomas and grinned, “I’m not that stupid. Anywhere, in particular, you wish us to live here, My Lord?”

“No, as long as you don’t pick the Guild Mages rooms, you could pick a cottage if you wish. I haven’t decided who belongs in that position but I think you two will be an asset to whoever it is I do choose,” Darcy replied.

“My Lord, I know this is a bit presumptuous, but can you come look at some of the men we have with us, I think there are one or two whom you may like and we should have guards here,” Tomas asked surprised at his own audacity.

“Gladly,” Darcy said and he left Speeder to get Simon and Roma squared away.

They found the soldiers had made themselves comfortable.

They were sitting near the hospital in one of the pavilions that were scattered around inside the enclosure. Darcy pushed a crystal into the path and the path fixed itself as they followed it to the soldiers.

As they approached one of the men stood, “Hey, Tomas, I thought we were supposed to be arresting this man, not helping him.”

One of the other men chuckled, “Marsden, you’re an idiot. You don’t go arresting Wizards, not ones like him anyway.”

Darcy looked at Tomas and he nodded back, “His name is Finder.”

Darcy put his hand out to Finder, “I’m Lord Lightning.”

When their hand touched, Finder yelped out, “Fuck me!” and looked at Darcy with huge eyes.

Darcy chuckled, “If you play your cards right.”

The men gave Darcy a variety of expressions at his comment. Finder chuckled and said, “He’s a Shifter, idiots, like me and I’d like to see any of you say no to Lord Lightning if he asked.”

Darcy looked at the other men and moved so he was standing near one of the youngest of them that he guessed was the same age as Finder. The young man hurried to his feet. He was tall and lanky like Finder. “Brothers?” Darcy asked.

The young man flicked his eyes at Finder and then back at Darcy, he replied, “Yes, my Lord, I’m Spotter.”

“So how long have you two Dogs been changed for?” Darcy asked ignoring the whispers of the other men as they wondered how he knew what they were.

“Five years, some Dogs joined our pack and after a couple of weeks quite a few of us, particularly the females experienced the change. The big one, Grunt said it was a gift from our saviour, the Lord Wizard. We were to move to the cities and spread it to those who could accept it,” Spotter replied.

“So how are Grunt and his sons?” Darcy asked delightedly. He was also amused that Grunt had called him a Lord Wizard. He guessed he had used the title to make the change more believable and acceptable to the packs. Simon had called him a Lord too so he decided to go with it, as it was more believable to these people than he being a Queen was.

“They were well, last I heard, my Lord. We knew where a couple of other big packs lived so they went to go visit them. We then heard they were heading further south as a lot of the packs lived down that way in the forests. I also, heard they had recently established a new town about a hundred klicks east from Tail Valley, they called it Rollover.”

“Ah, thank you, we have been trying to establish the mystery of why that town appeared on our map last time it updated. Huntress accepted the request for a township when it arrived. We had hoped it was them but I’ve not had a chance to visit. I will have to put it on my ‘to do’ list,” Darcy replied.

“I think they would like that. He was a nice Dog and I got the impression that he and his sons thought highly of you, my Lord,” Spotter replied.

Darcy was surprised to hear that. He had expected trouble from Grunt, but apparently, he had decided to do Darcy’s job for him. They’d had other Dogs turn up over the years and Darcy had just assumed they were from the gene escaping. Apparently, Grunt and his sons had helped it escape. Rollover would be turning in her grave if she knew what they had been doing.

“So, how would you and Finder like to become Shields?” Darcy asked.

“Sure, why not, beats doing what we’re doing now. Do we get paid? It sure would be nice to get paid once and a while,” Spotter replied.

The men around them also grumbled about the lack of pay. ‘How to win loyalty,’ Darcy thought. He decided, what the hell, a few guards wouldn’t hurt. “Sure, Tomas, I’ll get you to find accommodation for these men. You can put a roster together for them.”

“Spotter and Finder will be assigned to the Hall for the new Guild Mage when I find the person. I noticed the cottages, so if the men have families put them in them. You still have some crystals Tomas, so fix them up for the guards,” Darcy instructed him.

“Before, you go,” he said and then removed some boxes from his pack. He handed the flat looking boxes that were about 20cm square to Tomas, Matte, Spotter and Finder. He looked at the men again and handed another to one of them. “If you accept you’re the Head Guard, so I want you to help Tomas,” he said to the man.

He then asked the five men he had given boxes to, “Repeat after me, ‘I promise that I will learn to serve and act in the best interests of all people, to the best of my abilities’.”

The men all looked at each other and repeated the pledge. Darcy grinned at them and then handed out Mads to the rest of the men. “Put them on your wrist and then place your thumb on them,” he instructed the men.

They did as he asked as they were all intrigued by the device, some had even seen or heard of them and were quite excited to be getting one for free. They told the others that they were hideously expensive and many of the men were wide-eyed at getting one.

“Okay, how about you men upgrade your bling,” Darcy said. He grinned at the wows as they opened their boxes. “Keep those boxes handy, you will also find a pack inside of them like mine. Just drop your boxes in them. The box is great for keeping your valuables in and the pack for keeping a lot of whatever else you want to cart around like your shopping and raincoats, it’s deeper than it looks.”

The new man, Kurt, had received a two-gem medallion with a Mad but the others had received four-gemmed vambraces that he had made. They were a little shorter than his was and he found that they fitted smaller people better. There were just as effective as the original vambraces.

Tomas and Matte were surprised their medallions didn’t disappear but they did feel the new entity take it over. Darcy smiled, “It just makes you stronger so don’t let it go to your head.”

He then touched Tomas’s vambrace. “Treasurer Tomas, you now have all of their accounts. I’ve added a second account to your vambrace so you can add any other people we employ to it or deactivate them if we no longer employ that person. Their Mads or vambraces will record their hours of work.”

“Your vambrace will update accordingly and they will automatically be paid at the end of each week. If you change jobs from being the Treasurer, you can simply transfer the account to the new person. I’ll also give you some spare Mads for new employees.”

He then looked at the others and said, “All of the items you have received have a lot of features you will learn about. One handy one is that they act as communicators. You can also remove the screen so that it becomes bigger and then use it to read the books, write in with the stylus and access the other handy features.”

“You will find a book called Laws in the device so make sure you read it. Mages, you also have spellbooks. As you become more proficient, new spells will appear. Some you will use all of the time others only occasional but they are yours to learn. If you know any other spells, you can put them in the book.”

“Matte we will discuss your duties later. Now that I have made you all happy, how about you make me happy and go get your personal items and families and move in,” Darcy said. He wasn’t surprised that they all grinned back at him. “Go on, get,” he said with a wave and a big grin.

The all laughed and loaded into the carrier.

Darcy went and found a set of rooms for him and Speeder.

They had parked the trailer around the back of the hall and then Speeder, Simon and Roma had gone shopping in the buggy after they had selected the items out of the trailer they wanted for the kitchen. Simon had been in seventh heaven and after picking over the trailer, he told Speeder they just needed some more food.

Once Darcy was happy with his accommodation, he wandered over to the Hospital. He was surprised to find a lot of the better equipment was in a storage room and in need of repair. He was busy moving it to where he believed it should be, when he heard someone call out.

He went out into the waiting room and found two young ladies. One was holding her bloody side and the other was trying to support her. “We were attacked, he stabbed Bess, please, we need a doctor or somewhere I can fix her,” the pretty blonde said as she struggled to support the other woman.

Darcy went and collected the gurney styled bed on wheels he had seen in a hallway. He then helped the blonde lay her friend on it. He ripped the dress further and removed the pad so he could access the wound and placed his hand on it. Bess arched and shuddered before she lay still. Darcy smiled at the other woman, “She is fine, she just needs some rest now.”

“You don’t exactly look like a doctor,” the woman said perplexed, as Darcy was dressed similarly to the day before.

“I’m not, but I do need to find some staff for the hospital if I wish for it to reopen,” Darcy said.

“Good luck with that. Those pompous arses over at Central wouldn’t come and work here for the pittance the Guild would pay. I do know of a couple of younger Doctors who have left there in disgust. They have been trying to set up a new practice but the Doctors’ Guild has told everyone they have been deregistered so they are just administering to the poor.”

“Are you one of them?” Darcy asked.

“Yes, how did you guess?” she asked in surprise.

“Why did you bring your friend here?” Darcy asked.

She blushed and decided to be honest, “We were going to borrow some stuff for our practice. Our darn cart broke a wheel on that thing they call a road. A man approached to help us, we thought, but all he wanted was our purses. When he attacked me, Bess tried to stop him and he stabbed her and then limped off after I kicked him in the nuts.”

“I was hoping I could find enough stuff still here to treat Bess. We were surprised to find the doors open and the place looking prosperous, so I called out and you turned up,” she finished.

“I see, and you are?” Darcy prompted.

“Doctor Fiona Falls and my friend Bess Donavan is my nurse,” Fiona informed him.

“Well Fiona, I’m Lord Lightning and I’m in need of a Guild Mage, interested?”

She looked at him stunned, “But I’m a doctor.”

“I don’t see why you can’t be both. Who better to manage a Guild Hospital? Admittedly, there is more to the job but Melisa still manages to find time to teach so I don’t see why you can’t also practice your profession. You can staff the hospital from your friends. We also have accommodation if they need it.”

“Do it,” Bess said to her friend as she sat up. “You organise the rest of us anyway, so do it. The others would love to move in here even if they did get paid shit.”

“No, they will be paid the same as the people in Mount Dog and the other towns and cities south of here, we have the same pay scales and Laws and they all abide by them,” Darcy said as he removed two boxes from his pack.

“You, young lady, are not living to your full potential either,” he said to Bess, and handed her a box and then handed one to Fiona. “Why is a skilled teacher working as a nurse?” he asked Bess.

“It was better than being unemployed,” Bess answered. “I had a run in with the current headmistress so I was sacked.”

“Well, I’m sure that Fiona would love for you to run the school here. I’ll probably need to get Huntress and Melisa to find a couple of volunteers to come here and help you with some of the disciplines but I’m sure you will learn fast and be effective in no time. So are you ladies going to work for me?”

“What sort of name is Lord Lightning and why can you appoint a Guild Mage?” Fiona asked looking at the box in her hands.

Bess giggled, “For him, perfect, he is a Wizard, Fiona, I think a Lord Wizard at that. So who better to pick a Guild mage? That healing spell was awesome by the way.”

“It was my pleasure, dear,” Darcy said and bowed his head at her.

Fiona jumped when a man appeared beside her. “Sorry, I was just looking for his Lordship here,” Speeder said and grinned.

“Darcy, Simon and Roma are cooking up a storm and we even picked up some stuff for lunch to feed the troops. We also collected four other people who are helping them. It seems you have had a bit of an emergency here,” Speeder finished.

Darcy smiled, “Yep, but it was a good one. This is Doctor Fiona Falls she will be our new Guild Mage after she says the pledge and her friend Bess Donovan, is going to run the School. We will need to get her some help until she becomes more proficient but I suspect she is a fast learner. Ladies, this is my Shield, Speeder.”

“Excellent, I bet they’re hungry too,” replied Speeder.

Darcy then asked the girls to say the pledge. Both repeated it after him with no hesitation. “Ladies if you open your boxes, I’ll explain the contents as we go get some lunch,” Darcy told them as he helped Bess off the table. He ran a spell over her dress to clean and repair it.

The girls opened their boxes, and put on their new bling. After retrieving their packs from them and putting the box inside it, the men explained the niceties of what they were now wearing as they headed for lunch.

The rest of the day was spent moving the other new people in. Once the new guards came back, they were sent to help Fiona and Bess collect their people and possessions. Two of the guards were married and once their wives were moved into the lovely cottages that they were thrilled with, they ended up helping Simon with the dinner party.

The four new doctors and their two nurses took little to convince once Fiona showed them her bling with four gems and explained about the hospital looking like new and that they would be paid. They even moved all their pharmaceuticals and equipment to the Hospital as Fiona said she would make sure they were reimbursed.

Darcy contacted Melisa and she said she could organise getting them the basics sent and she would get her people to coordinate with Fiona and her people. She even had a couple of people who would love to come to help her and Bess, with the school and hospital. It was arranged for Boner and Romp to collect them and bring them over when they were ready.

Darcy pointed out that Matte and Tomas would be able to help, as they did have some skills. Fiona was introduced to her Treasurer and Darcy asked if she would consider Matte as her aide. Fiona demurred but his hopeful look and the fact Darcy had asked, told her Matte would do well, so she agreed to his delight.

Then they had to get ready for the dinner party.

Darcy had a lot of fun watching the guests as they were greeted by the new Guild Mage.

The person who was most shocked was Mayor Aletta White. She was one of the last to arrive. Apparently, she and Fiona had a bit of history, and Darcy worked out that one of the reasons Fiona had been sacked from the hospital was the Mayor and her son. Her son, Sonny, ran Central Hospital, and he had not been happy when Fiona refused his advances. Fiona mentioned that he was a lousy doctor too.

“Why wasn’t I consulted?” Aletta asked shrilly after Speeder introduced them to each other.

Fiona replied, “I was unaware that the Magical Guild had to ask you for permission to appoint a new Guild Mage.”

“Why did they you pick you?” Aletta asked, and the look on her face and her tone expressed that she didn’t think highly of Fiona’s worth.

“You would have to ask Lord Lightning, he seems to think I’m capable of doing the job,” Fiona replied more frostily.

“How can he pick a Guild Mage, the item here was destroyed,” Aletta commented.

Fiona shrugged, “He made a new one.”

Aletta then scoffed, “Don’t lie to me, no one can make new items.”

Fiona frowned and wondered where Aletta had her head for the last three years. Even she knew that the new towns at Mount Dog had new magical items and that they controlled the crystal distribution. It had been talked about for ages. They hadn’t seen many new crystals here because they didn’t have a Guild Mage to distribute them.

“Lord Lightning, I’m going to kill you,” she said looking around for Darcy.

Aletta sneered, “Why, did you just realise the items you have are fakes?”

“No,” Fiona said. “I just realised that bloody Lord Lighting will expect me to sell the damn crystals for him. Shield, your boss and I are going to have words after this little party.”

Speeder shrugged, “I doubt Lord Lighting even gave that little fact much thought. The Guild Mages in the south have been doing it for years and have been perfectly happy to do so. Just contact Melisa she will help you out with how they distribute them and the going rates.”