Accidental Archaeologist

2. The Beginnings of a Plan

2

THE BEGINNINGS OF A PLAN

The station house was insufferably warm as Thordric made his way to Inspector Jimmson’s office. As he passed, the constables, busy working at their desks, dipped their heads to him respectfully. No matter how much time passed, he still found it strange to think that he no longer had to run the inspector’s errands now that he was part of the Wizard Council instead of a lowly runner at the station.

It had been nearly three years since Jimmson had married Thordric’s mother, but despite that and his new twin baby sisters, Thordric couldn’t help but think of him as an inspector first and his stepfather second.

He reached the door and knocked politely before going in. The inspector was sitting in his chair, facing away, and he appeared to be making strange cooing sounds. Thordric raised an eyebrow and coughed.

The inspector turned around quickly, his arms held protectively over Thordric’s baby sisters, frowning so much that his eyebrows met in the middle. However, that wasn’t what made Thordric snort the most. Inspector Jimmson was known for having a large, emotionally responsive moustache. On this occasion, however, it appeared to be half missing.

‘Now, there’s no need to laugh, boy,’ the inspector said, anxiously glancing at the windows to see if any of the constables were looking in. They weren’t. ‘You should have seen the trouble I went through this morning trying to get in without anyone noticing.’

Thordric snorted again and his sisters gurgled at him happily. ‘What happened?’ he asked, taking Elle, the slightly bigger of the two. Her sister, Mae, scowled at her and dribbled over the inspector’s hand.

‘Look in her hand,’ the inspector replied, gesturing to Elle.

Thordric looked down at Elle’s tightly clenched pudgy fist and gently prized it open. Inside was a handful of stiff brown hairs, matching the inspector’s moustache. Thordric laughed and the inspector shushed him impatiently.

‘Well, boy,’ he said. ‘Can you grow it back again?’

‘Of course I can,’ Thordric said. ‘I did it before, didn’t I?’

He handed Elle back to the inspector and looked at his moustache, picturing the hair growing back while willing it to do so. It started growing almost immediately, catching up with the other side. Before it could get too long, however, Thordric stopped it. He pulled a mirror out of his pocket and held it up for the inspector to see. The inspector turned his head from side to side, looking at his moustache from all angles. Satisfied, he let out a large sigh which caused Elle and Mae to gurgle at him.

‘Thank you, boy. Now I can stop hiding from everyone. You, er, won’t tell anyone about this, will you?’ he said, bobbing the twins up and down on his knees. Elle, spotting the new hair growth, was already reaching up to grab it again but she couldn’t quite get it. Instead, she made herself content with teething on the inspector’s tie. Mae saw her and started chewing the other side.

‘I won’t say a word, not even to mother,’ Thordric promised. ‘I suppose she’s working today, seeing as you have the girls?’ he asked.

‘Yes, she’s in the morgue now. Two unexplained deaths came in this morning needing post-mortem examinations if I recall. Honestly, I can’t fathom how she does it. And to think she uses those same hands to make dinner of an evening.’ The inspector shook his head, turning a little pale.

‘You get used to it after a while,’ Thordric lied.

His mother had her hands buried in the latest poor soul’s chest when he entered the morgue.

‘Thordric, what a pleasant surprise. Has Vey given you some time off?’ she said, wiping her hands on her apron and passing him a mug of tea. He took it, carefully avoiding the part that she had touched and took a sip. It tasted of blueberries and chocolate, a new blend made by the Wizard Council, if he was not mistaken.

‘I suppose you could put it that way. He told me to find something I’m passionate about, but I can’t think of anything.’

‘Well, what is it for?’ she asked, her hands back in her victim. Thordric averted his eyes.

‘I said I wanted something useful to do,’ he said.

‘Useful in what way?’ she said. Alarmingly, she picked up some type of saw and began hacking at the body with it. Thordric looked desperately into his teacup, trying to ignore the sound of metal grinding on bone.

‘That’s just it, I’m not sure,’ he said. ‘Vey keeps coming up with potions to help with different ailments, Wizard Batsu has developed a new type of plant that disperses bad odours and refreshes everything with its scent and Wizard Myak is the one who is developing all these new tea blends that give different benefits depending on the flavour. I don’t know how to compete with that.’

‘Then don’t,’ his mother said, shrugging as she put down the saw and looked critically at what she’d done. ‘Listen, Thordric. You and Vey have been working together trying to make the council a better place than it was when Kalljard was there. Why don’t you use your passion for that to help you figure out what to do?’ she said.

Thordric stared at her without blinking. ‘Mother, you’re a genius!’ he said, getting up and splashing tea down his front.

‘I’m glad you think so,’ she replied, now picking up a dangerously sharp metal instrument and plunging it deep into the body. Thordric suddenly felt the need to stretch his legs.

‘There’s a cloth over there that you can dry yourself off with on your way out,’ she added, without looking up.

Thordric took it and hurriedly left the room.

He walked back to the Wizard Council’s turquoise, crescent-moon-shaped building, striding straight past the giant main doors and around to the back, where a single small door was set into the wall. He pulled a silver key from his pocket, emblazoned with the new Council emblem: a book and potion bottle in front of a silver half-moon.

That had been Thordric’s idea, his way of letting people see that the council had changed. The book and potion bottle had been the old symbol, but he had added the silver half-moon as a tribute to Vey’s father, whose methods they now used to train young wizards, including half-wizards.

He unlocked the door and went in, passing the dormitories of the lower-level wizards and making his way up to Vey’s room at the very top of the building. Vey opened the door before he could even knock and beckoned him in.

‘So,’ he said, handing Thordric a plate of cold meat and fruits. Thordric took it gladly, realising that he had missed dinner in the serving halls. ‘What was it that my dear Uncle wanted?’

The inspector, as well as being Thordric’s stepfather, was also Lizzie’s brother, therefore making he and Vey like cousins. Thordric had always been comfortable with that arrangement, for Vey and Lizzie had been like family ever since he had known them. He thought Vey rather liked it too, after not having much of a family for so long.

‘He had a bit of trouble with his moustache,’ he replied. ‘One of the twins had pulled half of it out.’

Vey laughed. ‘I think your sisters are going to be very lively as they get older.’

‘They’re lively now,’ Thordric said with a grin. ‘Mother seems to be able to handle them well, though.’

He ate everything on his plate, absently levitating a large crystal ball between himself and Vey in an unusual game of catch. When he had finished, Vey looked at him seriously. ‘Have you given any thought to what I said earlier?’ he said. ‘I feel awful when you get all gloomy like that.’

To his surprise, Thordric smiled. ‘Actually, I have. There’s a lot of wizards who refused to be part of the council before you took over, aren’t there?’

‘You mean the Wanderers?’ Vey asked, interested.

‘The very same. I thought I would find them and let them know what happened. I could also find other half-wizards and tell them about our training.’

Vey sat back in his chair, tugging at his beard again. Thordric wondered how he hadn’t pulled it out by now. ‘It’s not quite what I was thinking, but it’s definitely a worthy cause. We’ve got a few records of them somewhere; nothing detailed mind, but I think they mention the location they were last at.’

‘Kalljard kept records of them?’ Thordric asked.

‘Of course he did. You know as well as I what a suspicious man he was. I think being High Wizard for nearly a thousand years went to his head.’

Thordric had to agree; Kalljard had certainly been a nasty piece of work.

‘Come with me, I believe the records are now in the library,’ Vey said, getting up. ‘I need your help down there, sometime,’ he added. ‘You’ve worked with Father’s books more than I have; I’m afraid I don’t know which section to put them in.’

The library was bathed in a warm red glow from the floating fires along the walls. Thordric had wondered whether it was safe to have fires like that around the books at first, but Vey had assured him that they wouldn’t actually burn anything.

‘Now, let’s see, where would it be?’ Vey said, scanning the shelves for the section names.

‘Maybe under Distant Towns?’ Thordric hastened a guess. If, as their name suggested, they really did wander, then he supposed they wouldn’t still be anywhere near Jard Town. He went over to the travelling section, finding the Distant Towns subsection a short way in. There, in front of him, was a thin, velvet-covered folder with a black label attached to it, with the word ‘Wanderers’ written on it in red ink. Snatching it up, he took it back to Vey.

‘Ah, you found it,’ he said as Thordric handed it to him. He put it on a table, carefully unwrapping the velvet cloth to reveal the leather-bound folder underneath. Opening it, among a great cloud of dust, they found a map and a few names written in faded ink on a small piece of paper.

‘Now,’ Vey continued, unfolding the map, and spreading it full out on the table. ‘As you know, all the wizards of the council and the Wizard Council Training Facility live here in town.’ He pointed to a dot on the map labelled Jard Town. ‘No Wanderers would have dared to stay here in case they were caught, so…’

They both scanned the map. In the top right corner, in a place called Neathin Valley, was a cluster of red dots, much like ants. He counted seven.

Thordric counted the list of names; there were also seven. ‘They must be here, look,’ he told Vey, showing him the names and dots.

‘Neathin Valley? I’ve never been there for myself, but I’ve heard some strange rumours about the place. I’m sure my father’s sister used to live there.’

‘Didn’t Lizzie say that she visited her sister-in-law fairly recently? Perhaps I could ask her about it,’ Thordric said, rather excitedly.

‘Yes, if my aunt still lives there.’ Vey looked at the large clock in the room, its pendulum floating rather than swinging. ‘Let’s go back to my chambers. It’s not altogether safe to be here after hours, not even for me. Wizard Callus will be furious if he catches anyone lingering here with his precious books still out of place, High Wizard or not.’

Thordric agreed heartily. He had once had the misfortune to spill ink over a book he had borrowed. The word ‘imbecile’ that Wizard Callus had magically stamped all over his body hadn’t come off for six weeks.

Once they were safely in Vey’s chambers, they spread the map out again on the floor. ‘So, how do I get there?’ Thordric asked, looking at the distance between Jard Town and Neathin Valley. It was nearly two thousand miles. ‘I can’t take a carriage all that way.’

‘Of course not,’ Vey laughed. ‘You’ll have to travel by floating ship.’

‘You mean the floating Ships of Kal?’ Thordric gasped. He knew that the late High Wizard Kalljard had created them over five hundred years ago, but he had never even set eyes on one before.

‘The very same,’ Vey said. ‘Kalljard had very few good ideas, but those ships were definitely one of them.’

‘But I thought that boarding one cost over a year’s worth of wages?’

‘It did,’ Vey said. ‘Until I found out how they really work. You see, everyone thought that the magic used on them was terribly advanced and took a lot of energy, so a large fee was at least somewhat acceptable. However, not long after Kalljard…departed, I had a chance to go on one.’

‘And?’ Thordric asked, fascinated.

‘It was nothing more than a compound of minerals and herbs, rather like a potion, in fact, used as fuel. I was terribly disappointed to find out that all of the ingredients were as easy to obtain as the ones we use in our simple potions.’

‘How much is it now?’ Thordric asked.

‘Six coins each way, including cabins and food. Of course, you won’t have to pay anything seeing as you’re going on official business,’ he said smugly. ‘Now, get to bed and we’ll discuss it all in the morning.’