Chapter 12

The following new character appears in the last few chapter:

Marcus Walls

Ranch owner, the women's former master, 5'-6'' tall, 190 pounds, 46 years old, hair going gray, washed out blue eyes

We spent a very quiet night at the hotel. It had been a long and trying day, and we all slept very well. In the morning we were up later than the previous day, and each had a leisurely shower alone before dressing and checking out the hotel's breakfast again. As 10:00 o'clock approached, we turned in the room key after returning to pick up our luggage and to check the room before canceling the wards around it. We exited the hotel before transferring to the area near the entrance to the Otherworld on Kesh Corran. Brian appeared there at 10:00. He was smiling broadly.

"Good morning!" he said, as he approached us.

"Good Morning, Master," we three replied as he stopped in front of us.

"I am happy to inform you that all three of you have passed the test for Master. It was not an easy decision for some on the Panel, as they initially thought that none of you could possibly be prepared for the test with such a short period of study. Your ability to answer all of their questions and perform all of the spells and their glyphs eventually convinced then that all three of you were ready to be accepted as Master Level Sorcerers and Sorceress," he informed us before handing each of us a sheet of parchment with our names on them that proclaimed us to have achieved Master's Level in the use of Magic. We all thanked him profusely before he returned to the Otherworld, and we transferred to the O'Connell Realm with our baggage.

It was a bit after 5:00 in the morning when we arrived and the sun wouldn't be rising for nearly an hour, but the moon would still be up for a short while after that. None of the O'Connells would be up yet however. We sat among the trees on the west side of the Glen and watched the moon for a time before turning to the east side to watch sun rise for a short time. About a-half hour later we were sitting watching the moon set on the west side of the Glen. It wouldn't be up again until well after sunset, just as it had been last night in Ireland.

We sat in the Glen enjoying the peace there and waiting until when we thought the O'Connells would be up and about. I had questions that I needed to ask the Sisters, or should I say my Wives, now that we were married.

"Now that we have our Master's Level accreditation, have you decided when We will go to deal with your old master?" I asked, as we sat looking at where the moon had disappeared below the horizon.

"Soon!" Laura answered. "We need to see when the next full moon is and be sure that it will be up for most of the night. We plan on removing him at night. We will be able to see, but his guards will have a much harder time in the dark."

"All right. We can check on the moon's schedule on the computer.," I agreed. "How much help are we going to need?"

"Help?" Lesia asked.

"Surely you don't plan on taking out him and all of his guards or security people by yourselves, do you?" I asked.

"Oh! We hadn't considered that," Laura said with a frown, and looked thoughtful for several minutes.

"He does have a number of guards plus other people who work for him. He has a 110 acre ranch, as he calls it. He has some cows and plants some crops, mostly corn, sorghum, and wheat. The deer and other animals get into the crops a lot. He and his men hunt on his land, and they always have venison, and duck or goose for their meals. Occasionally they sell a few cows," Laura told me.

"He has horses, too. Some of the men ride them to take care of the cattle, and they all ride them when they go hunting. He also has a number of dogs. German Shepherds and pit-bulls. They are mean noisy dogs, and we were always afraid of them," Lesia told me with a shiver.

"No dog could get through your wards," I told her, and gave her a little squeeze to remind her that I was here for her. There was quiet for a while following this.

"What is his name?" I asked.

"His name is Marcus Walls," Laura told me, but Lesia hadn't said anything.

"Just what part of Oklahoma is he located in?" I asked next. "It's a big state."

"His ranch isn't far from McAlister in Pittsburg County. The men often went there for supplies and to relax. He even allowed us to go there a couple of times. He appeared to be a very important person there. Sometimes the men would go to Eufaula for a holiday, but we were never allowed to go there. There are a lot of tourists there to use the lake and vacation," Laura told me.

"Once we determine when the next full moon will be, we will need to take a scouting trip or two to Oklahoma to check out the McAlister area before we start anything serious," I told them.

We waited until 8:00 that morning before transferring to the front of Gus's house. I rang the doorbell. Inside I could hear the scurrying of small feet, and shortly the door was opened partway, and young Margie O'Connell peeked out.

"Hello, Uncle Conrad. Do you want to come in?" she asked sweetly.

"Yes, dear. We came to see your Uncle Gus or your Father," I told her with a return smile.

"They are in the dining room. Our Moms are making breakfast," she told us, as she opened the door wider. We three stepped inside and Lesia helped her close the door.

"This way!" young Margie told us and led us down the hall to the dining room. Gus and Sean were in there going over some kind of schedule or spreadsheet. They looked up as we entered the room.

"How did it go?" Gus asked on seeing us.

"We now each hold the rank of Master," I told him, and the three of us presented our certificates for his and Sean's inspection.

"Congratulations!" both of them said with grins as they stood and shook each of our hands. Annie and Sara soon entered from the kitchen, having been alerted by the children.

"Did you make it?" they both asked on seeing us.

"Yes!" Gus told his Wife and Sister-in-Law before hold up our certificates.

"Congratulations!" both wives said and came over to kiss my twins and then me.

"I knew that you could do it," Sara told me, as she released me after kissing my cheek.

"It was your encouragement that got me started," I reminded her.

"Stay and have breakfast," Annie insisted.

"We had breakfast... !" Lesia started to say but needed to stop to calculate how long ago. " ... Four hours ago in Castlebaldwin."

"How long have you been here?" Sara asked in wonder.

"Since before sun-up!" Laura told her.

"Since before sun-up!!" the O'Connells asked in shock.

"Yes, we watched the moon for a time, and then the sun come up and the moon set. Later we talked about and made plans for our revenge against our old master," Laura told them.

"When do you plan on taking this revenge?" Gus asked.

"In July when there is a full moon," Lesia told them. "But first we need to do some reconnaissance."

"Let us know if you require any help," Sara told us and had a look on her face that said that she remembered what the twins had told her last fall, and she still wasn't happy about it.

The women cleaned off the table, and the children brought in the dishes and silverware. My Wives set the table, and we were all soon ready to eat. By 9:15 or so we had said our goodbyes and returned to the Eternal Flame's Glen to transfer home. It was a bit after 8:15 in the morning when the three of us appeared in the living room of my house outside of Wichita. It was still early on Saturday morning there, but we felt like we had been up for more than half a day already.

"What are we doing for the remainder of the day?" Lesia asked.

"If you ladies will take care of the luggage and the clothes, I will get some meat from the freezer so we can have a decent meal this afternoon. Following that, I will go on the computer for moon data, and also to see what can be found on McAlester, Oklahoma," I told my Wives.

"Yes, we'll take care of the luggage and clothes," Laura agreed, and both Wives left to do that. I went down to the freezer and removed a large roast, brought it up to the kitchen, and started it defrosting.

The moon data was very simple to look up on my computer, and I printed it out to show to my Wives. Concrete information about McAlester was more difficult to find. Oh, there were plenty of facts in addition to lots of ads for hotels, motels, businesses, and vacation sites not to mention real estate for sale, but the kind of information that I was looking for was much more difficult to locate, especially on a Saturday morning. I eventually did find some of what I wanted to know in the county archives, but that was later in the week. I was less than happy when I put my computer to sleep later that afternoon.

"What's wrong?" Lesia asked as I entered the kitchen.

"We are going to have to go to McAlester to do a site reconnaissance. Hard data seems to be difficult to obtain on the computer. There are too many ads and not enough information available, at least not the kind that we need," I told her.

"Is that wise?" Laura asked.

"It shouldn't be a problem. We can use a glamour so no one will recognize us," I assured them.

"How much time will we have? When is the next full moon?" Lesia asked. I pulled out the printout of moon data from the other papers that I had brought with me and showed it to them.

"The full moon is technically on the 9th of July, a Saturday. There is a nearly full moon beginning on Wednesday the 6th and running through Wednesday the 13th. Moonrise will begin at 6:19 PM on the 6th and become later each day, and won't be until 10:32 PM on the 12th. Moon set runs from 3:47 AM on the 7th to 9:28 AM on the 13th," I told them and showed them the printout.

"That's a pretty broad range of times. During the week isn't an ideal time for our attack since the guards and workers are all there then. The weekend would be better, since some of them are always off then, especially on Friday and Saturday nights," Laura told me.

"Moonrise is at 8:07 on Friday night, and at 8:52 on Saturday night with moon set at 5:29 Saturday morning, and 6:27 on Sunday morning. That should give us about eight hours of moon light after sunset each day," I told them on checking the printout again.

"Yes, we won't need all of that time. Most of those there will be in bed before midnight, and we should only have to deal with one or two guards on night duty," Lesia said.

"Don't forget the dogs," Laura reminded her.

"We can deal with them. I can have some of the Wolf Clan go with us to make sure that the dogs get their scent during the week. Maybe one or two of the Bear Clan could go also. It would need to be those with Second Level Talents so they can vanish when the guards check and not leave any footprints. The barking will drive the guards nuts, but they won't find anything when they check and by the weekend they will disregard the dog's barking," I told them.

"Yes, that sounds like a good idea. Where will they stay?" Lesia asked.

"Some of them have motor homes that they can take. Some will need to go in their cars or trucks for local transportation," I told them.

"Yes, there are a number of RV campsites near the lakes in the area," Laura assured me.

"We'll need to check on those when we go to recon the area," I reminded them before I came to the most important point. "Where exactly is this ranch in relation to McAlester?" I asked them since they had only dealt in generalities before this.