Chapter 16

“Good morning, team,” Anton said to his men towards the end of June.

They all chirped good mornings back and went on eating. Anton had also realised that this team ate a phenomenal amount of food to his way of thinking. Yet, not one of them were fat. In fact, they were all in superb condition and had a healthy glow.

Anton frowned at this realisation. He cocked a finger at Jacky, and once they had moved away from the table and into a quiet corner, he asked, “What did you do to those men?”

“Pardon, Sir?” Jacky answered evasively. The look Anton gave him had him confessing about giving them all a bracelet.

“David!” Anton called out, and David joined them. “Please show me the bracelet.”

David automatically held up his wrist and had it appear. “There are some gems underneath, but I can’t take it off,” David explained.

For some reason, David also didn’t want to show Anton. So, Anton has no idea what David’s magic disciplines were. Anton looked at Jacky for an explanation.

Jacky shrugged and said, “I had diamonds, as you know, so I put a diamond and three small Quaz crystals on the bracelets that I gave the boys and put some health spells on them.”

He decided not to mention the other gem as it wasn’t known as a magical gem for any particular discipline that he knew of.

Anton blanched. “You made magical items to protect them, and you have magical crystals?”

“Yes, I found some Quaz crystals, as we call them, in a cave with the diamonds before I came here.”

“Do you have many of them?” Anton asked Jacky with barely suppressed excitement.

“Not that many, and I used up quite a few of the smaller ones on the bracelets to hold the spells,” Jacky answered.

He wasn’t willing to say that he still had five long socks filled with crystals, and they were all very large. He had put the two pouches of them into David’s swag, so they had about half of them each.

Something in Anton’s voice and posture warned Jacky not to say any more. It reminded him of how his father had reacted. He also didn’t mention that he had added more crystals to both of his items and David’s bracelet to strengthen them.

Or that he still had a lot more diamonds, Olivine crystals and those pink and smoky-grey ones he wasn’t sure of either. Jacky and David were quite sure that the new gems had added to their abilities, as they could both transport themselves over short distances, now. Jacky didn’t mention that fact to Anton either.

“Can we get back to where you found them?” Anton asked excitedly.

Jacky shook his head, “No, I don’t know how to get back to where I came from. The cave I came to here didn’t have any crystals or even a dais in it.”

“Damn,” Anton swore. He then noted the wary looks on David’s and Jacky’s faces.

Glumly, he said, “Sorry, I’ve been looking for a way off this cursed planet too. Please go finish your breakfasts, and tell the men to pack. We are moving out of here within the hour.”

“Yes, Sir,” they both answered, saluted, and went back to the table.

“That was weird,” David said as he watched Anton leave.

“Yes, he is hiding something, but I’m not sure what,” Jacky replied with a thoughtful frown.

David told the team they all had to pack after breakfast.

He then sat down to finish his breakfast. He and Jacky hadn’t even bothered to unpack their kits as it was better to leave everything in the swags. The other advantage was their personal belongings didn’t go missing either.

Tommy came up to Jacky and whispered, “Can you do that spell thing to Russo’s pack like you did to mine?”

Jacky sighed and looked at Tommy. “Who else knows?” he asked but didn’t keep his voice down as he looked around the faces.

Due to their group’s mixed races, the hotel staff had given them their own small dining room to keep other patrons happy. Anton hadn’t bucked this because the room had also become their personal meeting and training room, and he didn’t have to pay for it out of his budget.

They even had access to a small private garden that they used when they were socialising and to come to and from the building. The hotel’s management had also looked after them exceptionally well and even upped the amount of food they were served to keep the men happy.

Jacky saw the looks that passed between the men, and he sighed. “Bracelets appear,” he said.

He and David both chuckled as all of the men became aware of what was on their wrists.

“Since you are all wearing my bling, you are not to mention it, or the fact you will be able to perform limited magical spells because you wear them to anyone outside this room. Is that understood?”

“Hot damn,” Tommy shouted, and then he hugged Jacky and laid a big wet kiss on his lips and even added a bit of tongue.

“Get off me,” Jacky cried and pushed the exuberant Tommy away.

Unperturbed, Tommy went and kissed Russo. It was not as if it was a secret that they were a couple. The other boys even gave them some privacy now and then. The other men all had to laugh at Tommy’s actions.

“Right, go get your swags and bring them down here, and we will fix them,” Jacky said to his team.

The men all hurried off to get their gear.

David and Jacky fixed the swags of the men in the team.

The men were all appreciative and took great delight in stuffing all of the gear they had into them. Since the Brits and the Yanks had been issued with Australian uniforms after they got to Cairns, it meant they had room for their old ones and didn’t have to parcel them up to send for them later.