Chapter 38: Turf War
Two days later, Wil returned to Harper Valley and fixed the leyline.
After several months of doubt and fear that he wouldn’t be able to do it, it came together in a matter of minutes. That wouldn’t have been such a bad thing, if there wasn’t an audience for his efforts, who expected something big and world changing.
King Martinus, Arabella, and half their retinues gathered on Skalet Peak to watch Wil fulfill his promise of fixing things and giving them better control. They made an event of it, complete with food and drink everywhere, though Wil suspected the satyr king brought a feast with him everywhere.
Wil stood in the center of the clearing, and Isom waited with the king. He had to be more careful now, with the camps and now permanent settlements littering the mountain clearing around the lake. Closing his eyes, he reached out for the chaotic leyline, and let himself be caught up in it.
Awareness of the mountain flooded him as he reached out to the land. He called, and it answered, like an old friend who’d been waiting for him. The earth rippled, each wave stronger than the last. The camps and houses shifted and creaked but mostly held, while the waves continued to the lake. Instinct told him exactly how to change things, and he embraced it.
The lake widened as earth first fell into it, and then gathered to form sloping hills above the recessed water. More time in Faerie and a deeper connection to the leyline, almost a relationship, made the task the simplest it had been since Wil had stopped Skalet’s cursed storm. The island in the middle of the lake widened as it rose above the water, the tree pushing up into the heavens.
Wil tugged, and the two pieces of the leyline lined up and melded into one. The flow of raining power diminished. The rift and the land itself were still saturated in magic, but the flow had slowed to a near stop. If he had to guess, he would’ve called it ninety percent healed. Time would do the rest.
He raised his fists in the air, and the assembly cheered. Wil had just enough time to brace himself before King Martinus enveloped him in a big hug and lifted him into the air. Balance became an ongoing struggle, but he was stuck on the satyr’s shoulder.
“He just keeps on giving,” Martinus crowed. “Master Wilbur McKenzie, friend to all of Faerie!”
After that, things got a little embarrassing. After another hour of celebration and exploring the renovated landscape, Wil and Isom finally took off down the mountain. The King and rest of the council would come to Harper Valley in just weeks, when President Bullworth and his entourage came to verify Wil’s findings.
A couple days of partying and then flying back home had Wil in the best kind of mood, bright and optimistic. It was nearly spoiled when he arrived home and saw Thomas and Darlene in the middle of an argument on the porch.
“Why are you defending them?” Darlene demanded. She stood with her hands supporting her lower back. It was her default stance these days when she couldn’t find a place to sit, or when she was mad. “You really want to let them spy on us?”
“I’m saying we don’t have a choice other than just upping our security and making sure they don’t get anything else from us going forward.”
Wil climbed off the Thunderhawk. Isom had lingered in the woods for a bit longer, finding some prey before he went home. It was probably for the best. He couldn’t imagine walking into a scene like this and the wampus cat not using his mind reading to fan the flames.
“What’s going on?” Wil asked as he climbed the steps to the porch. He threw an arm around Darlene’s shoulders and pulled her close. She vibrated with irritation, and he saw fear on Thomas’ face. He’d never admit it, but Darlene scared him.
“Your friend from Cloverton is defending the assholes spying on us,” Darlene spat.
“I am doing no such thing!” Thomas was on his back foot, frustration tinting his words. “I’m saying that there are no legal avenues for us to get back at the people doing this. All we can do is prevent it from happening again.”
“Again,” Wil said through a deep breath, “what happened?”
Thomas and Darlene started speaking at the same time. At a sharp look, Thomas fell silent and Darlene answered, “Those three wizards who confronted us at Mack’s have been watching us closely. And now they have gadgets of their own based on our designs. They’re demonstrating them every day and selling them, getting the word out about them being the ones to discover this.”
A bucket of ice water upended itself over Wil’s head, chilling him to the bone. All of his good news and hope evaporated in an instant. The look on Thomas’ face told him that Darlene wasn’t wrong or exaggerating by much. “Is this true?”
Thomas nodded, swallowing hard. “And your girlfriend thinks that I’m helping them.”
“I didn’t say that,” Darlene snapped.
“You didn’t have to! You wear your suspicion like one of your ugly dresses.” As soon as the words came out of his mouth, Thomas realized it was a mistake.
“You try finding something good to wear while pregnant!” She all but screamed. Darlene’s face was a brilliant red. Rather than go on, she turned to Wil and said, “it gets worse. Ask your new best friend over there what we found.”
Thomas closed his eyes and took a deep breath.
“What else is there, Thomas?” Wil asked quietly.
“Weapons,” said Darlene. “They’re making enchanted guns and bullets.”
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Wil was not the type of person who felt much anger. He knew he was forgiving to a fault, and he had very little desire to change that. The problem with not dealing with anger often was how hard things were when it became the only thing he could think about. Wil took a deep breath.
“What.”
Thomas flinched. “They’re making weapons with our research. And they’re selling them in town.”
Wil nodded. “Where are they?” His tone was even, pleasant even.
Darlene looked at him funny. “Are you going to tell your father?”
“Where are they?” Wil repeated.
Thomas’ eyes widened. “You need to be careful, Wil. Whatever you’re thinking or feeling right now, we need to play it smart.”
“Where. Are. They.” Wil’s heart lurched in his chest. That sense of coldness never left him, it only got colder, until it burned him from the inside out. “I just want to talk with them.”
Darlene and Thomas shared a look, and she softened. “If we tell you, do you promise to just talk?” she asked carefully. So much for her earlier anger, Wil wanted to point out.
“No, I’m going to make them realize what a stupid idea this was,” Wil said. “When I’m through with them, they’re going to have nightmares for the rest of their lives if they don’t pack up and leave.” The words tumbled out of his mouth, faster and faster until he realized he trembled.
“Okay,” said Darlene, “I changed my mind. Let’s talk to your dad and maybe Thomas can do something to prove they spied on us, and we can use that to --”
“I’ll tell you,” said Thomas, “but only on the condition that I come with you. Let’s not do something that will land us before another tribunal.”
Wil nodded once. He turned around and mounted his Thunderhawk. Thomas came up behind him, reluctant to hold onto him while this angry. Darlene carefully climbed down the steps, then waddled out in front of them.
“Promise me you won’t hurt them physically,” said Darlene. “Nothing that can get you arrested. Deal?”
“Deal,” said Wil.
He didn’t need to hurt people to assert himself. It was a lesson he should’ve learned with Hugo, early on. So many people in the world, they didn’t back down when you asked nicely. They only stopped when you made them stop. It wasn’t a mindset he wanted to have, but they crossed a line. It was one thing to eventually make weapons with this technology. Wil had no control over that. But to try to take his hard work, and then steal the credit while making it on weapons?
“They’ve set up shop on the north side of town,” Thomas said behind him. “The neighborhood before the town ends and the road out begins.”
They blasted off, keeping at ten feet above the ground as Wil pushed the Thunderhawk as fast as it could go. Harper Valley melted around them. Thomas shouted something, probably a plea for restraint, but all Wil could focus on was getting there.
The place they were at was one of many places Wil had surveyed a few weeks before. He knew the area fairly well, and hated that the trio of wizards had been right under his nose when he passed by. They had to have laughed at him when he left. Wil pushed the Thunderhawk harder. Thomas clung to him for dear life as they blazed over the town to the gasps and calls from people beneath.
The three wizards had set up a booth outside their rustic cottage. A quick dip into his wizardsense and Wil saw the leyline behind it, twisted into a familiar rune. A crowd of about twenty people had assembled in front of the property. Behind the booth, there were piles of straw with targets painted on, covered in little holes. Smoke billowed up from one of them.
The red headed meathead of the three held a rifle in his hand. The dark-skinned earth mage handled money, while the monocle’d man was surrounded by little gadgets and faricite batteries of his own. The crowd parted for Wil as he drove right up to the booth. He got up and retrieved his staff from its compartment. Purple light shone from the wood.
“Ah, Master McKenzie,” the man with the monocle said. “We’ve been expecting you one of these days. See anything you like? Anything you want to buy?”
Thomas pushed past Wil, putting himself between the two. “Mark, don’t do this. You three have crossed a line.”
“And what line is that?” McGinnis strolled their way, cradling his gun. “The finish line? We sure did. We got here first, and now all of Harper Valley will know that you may be big for here, you ain’t nothing compared to real wizards.”
Wil saw red. Without thinking about it, he tapped into the leyline. McGinnis had just enough time to wipe the smirk off his face, then the earth rumbled and swallowed him up to his neck. Mark opened his mouth to protest, then he was swallowed as well. A gasp went through the crowd, and they backed up.
“Stand down, McKenzie!” the final wizard shouted. When Wil tried to submerge her as well, the land fought him. Not enough to stop her from sinking up to her knees, but she didn’t go any deeper. “Don’t make me…” she struggled to stay above ground.
“Wil, you can’t do this,” Thomas said,” but Wil ignored him. “You’ll hurt Gayle if you keep pushing. You’re stronger than her.”
Wil looked down on McGinnis, blistering rage consuming him. He took a deep breath and released the magic pulling Gayle down. “Let me make something clear. I don’t know how you stole our information, and I’m not sure I care. You do not sell weapons in this town. Not on my watch.”
“You don’t get to decide that,” McGinnis growled. “The cat’s out of the bag. We’ve started, and there’s no stopping us now. Unless you’re gonna fight us in front of all these witnesses. We both know you don’t have the guts.”
For the first time, Wil became truly aware of the people watching and whispering from a distance. No one wanted to get in the middle of a bunch of feuding wizards, and he couldn’t blame them.
“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” said Wil. “I don’t need to. Look into my eyes…McGinnis, was it?”
Wil didn’t have to go deep to do as he promised. All it took was a thought, an idea, and the knowledge of how to make McGinnis do all the work for him.
The mage recoiled. “What did you do to me?”
“Leave town. All three of you. Leave town.” Wil pointed his staff at a pile of altered guns. The smart thing to do would have been to take one of them for study, break down exactly what kinds of weapons they were marketing. Instead, he blasted it with lightning until all that remained was burning wood and metal slag.
Wil got back on his Thunderhawk, heart pounding. He looked over to see Thomas bent over, whispering something in McGinnis’ ear. Then he straightened up, kicked dirt in the mage’s face, and got behind Wil. They flew off.
After a few minutes, Wil had cooled down enough to ask, “what did you say to him?”
“I told him that if he wasn’t careful, I was going to encourage you next time. I should’ve put an end to those three’s shenanigans early.” He paused. “I’m sorry I haven’t. Their spying is my fault.”
Isom’s warnings echoed in his head, but Wil pushed them back.
“Don’t beat yourself up about it,” said Wil. “This just means it’s time to get back to work. If they bother us again, they’ll regret it.”
Wil didn’t like being angry, and as they flew home, he tried not to regret it. They started this fight, but after Hugo had nearly ruined everything…Wil would finish it if he had to.