Chapter 21

Ray then smiled at the angry man.

“On whose say so? Yours? You may be the Chairman, but you are not the only councillor. What say the rest of you? If you kick my family out, you lose the whole family and all of the people they are married to.”

He gave them a moment to think about his statement before saying, “Are you ready to lose your midwives and weavers and some of your best miners, smiths and gardeners? Are you ready for the town to be depleted of two hundred or more souls?”

The men all blanched as they all knew Ray had a strong following amongst the younger men. They also realised that he headed a very big family, especially if you include the cousins and uncles and aunts who were all loyal to him and Marx.

The size of his family was why they elected to put him on the council even though he was under forty. His four uncles had supported him as their representative and the new head of the family since he was so like his father.

They also realised the town would be crippled if a third of the people moved away. Especially if the young people who were also their relatives left and followed Ray. That was unacceptable to them all, even Elder Stone, who sat back down in shock.

The seven other councillors found themselves saying, “Opposed.”

“Good,” replied Ray. “As for my sister. Jax is very welcome to come and visit us whenever she so wishes. If it wasn’t for her magic and her medical chocolates, most of you would be sick in bed tonight. You had all caught the Red-spot disease, but her intervention saved you from it.”

“You should be thanking her, not berating her. Jax has always done the best she could for this community, and I and her other brothers and sisters would not like to see her treated as an outsider. As a High Mage, she isn’t subject to our marriage rules, as you well know.”

The councillors all looked at each other sheepishly.

Elder Otto asked, “Do you intend to rule the Island, High Mage Jax?”

Jax smiled, “No, I have other commitments I must meet. I only came here to visit my family for a few days, to ensure they were all well. I’m glad I did come, although I’m sorry that several people lost their lives before I could get here.”

“A lot more would have died if you hadn’t come at all. I’m sorry for the poor welcome High Mage Jax. You are welcome to my hearth whenever you choose to visit,” Elder Spade spoke and bowed his head.

“Thank you, I shall try to visit as often as I can, but I can’t make promises as to when,” Jax replied.

“Come when you can, and you will be welcomed,” Elder Liam replied.

“Not by me,” grunted Elder Stone as he got up, flung back his chair and stomped out of the meeting.

The other men watched the old man leave. They all knew what his problem was. He had never been happy that Hana chose Max over him when she was ready to marry again. Then she chose Max’s son rather than being his second wife.

Liam had heard rumours that he had been pestering Hana. However, no proof was ever given to him to investigate the rumours, and Hana had denied them.

Even so, he did wonder, as did several others.

“Well, that went better than expected,” Jax said as she and her brother walked back to Marx’s house.

“Yes, however, I have a feeling you made an enemy with Elder Stone,” Ray commented.

“Nah, that old bastard was always my enemy. He got pissed at me when Hana refused to see him and would send me to the door to tell him to go away. I wonder if he knows little Max is his son?”

Ray stopped in his tracks, “What?”

Jax looked at her brother, “Sorry, I can always tell weird stuff like that. Marx thought she was stepping out on him, and I think the fact he couldn’t get her pregnant was why she went with Stone when he kept pursuing her.”

“So, what was the jibe about May Hammer?”

“Well, I knew he was going to see her after Hana had told him to piss off. I bumped into him one night when he was leaving May’s house. I was running late getting home from the university. That was about a week before Dad died. I had totally forgotten about it until now.”

“You know he was supposed to have inspected that tunnel before Dad went down with the men that day, don’t you?”

Jax shook her head, “No, that I didn’t know. I thought that the two Burgis men who had questioned Dad about the crystals were responsible for the cave-in. They were talking about it when I went to retrieve the crystals the day I disappeared.”

“I was hiding from them when I found the cave with the transporter ring. They were trying to capture me, wanting to force me to tell them where the crystals were. I had gotten lost and stood on the ring as a way to get out of there.”

Ray frowned, “Sir Varis’s men. I had seen them visiting with Elder Stone the morning of the day Marx said you had left home. I was wondering what they were doing in the village, as they were not welcome. Stone said they were just delivering a message that Sir Varis wanted us to increase production.”

“That was odd. I had wondered why they had been close by to follow me into the old mine entrance. Have they been back since?”