I returned some two hours later, with books on technology, electronics, engineering and a few others. I was excited at the knowledge in their pages and went to Magus; his room was shut and locked. I could get no answer.
I used magic to open his door, hoping to find him asleep, but that hope was soon extinguished.
The next place to look would be the hotel bar, and that is where I found him. He was holding court with a group of young men, arguing against the existence of gods.
I rescued him, proffering the excuse that we had a later appointment and we needed to eat and ready ourselves.
We ate at the hotel restaurant, a good meal of some fish dish. With a free evening ahead of us he suggested that we go out and explore the culture of this world.
We wandered out onto the street and randomly turned right, walking down to the intersection and crossing turned left and walking till we found the first bar. Magus immediately ordered a glass of wine for the both of us, steering us to an empty table against a wall.
Whilst I sat and savoured the glass, Magus wanted to try more of the varieties on offer. He was finishing his second and waiting at the bar to select his third when the guy next to him commented that only gays drank wine.
Magus laughed, saying that he didn't think much of their wimpy beer, at least wine had taste and body. The guy wasn't too pleased by the counter and belligerently stuck his face up close to Magus's declaring that beer drinkers were twice as good as any wine lover.
Magus laughed again declaring that the beer must have addled his brain if he believed that. The guy took a swing at him, for an old man in the guise of a young one Magus was remarkably quick, he stepped back avoiding the roundhouse swing, but backing into the man next to him.
With his beer spilt he entered the fray, pushing Magus back towards his protagonist allowing him to take another jab. Magus was able to block that one but with the situation becoming more confused I began to consider an exit strategy.
Magus pre-empted my aid by swinging at the guy and knocking him to the floor, the guy whose beer he spilt wanted a piece of the action, catching him by the shoulder to pull him round. Magus turned and jabbed him in the gut, doubling him over.
He needed little help from me, I would have been using magic to settle the matter, not something we wanted to do too often. We were afraid the use of magic would alert those who would see us fail, though we were sure they had little knowledge of the ring itself, they would know of our magic.
The fight was escalating with Magus dodging to the end of the bar, I was making my way round the perimeter of the room, heading for the door. As Magus also headed to the door we heard the wail of the approaching carriages of the constabulary. It was time to get out.
"Stay where you are."
The uniformed man was waving a weapon at us as he exited his vehicle, Magus and I both took to our heels, running from the approaching flashing lights. With reinforcements coming the constable gave chase, shouting at us to halt and surrender ourselves to his questioning.
Magus saw a carriage in front of us, the driver was getting out but the engine was still running.
"Quickly, we can use that vehicle to make our escape." Pointing at it.
While I went round to the passenger side he pushed the man aside and clambered into the driving seat.
"Do you know how to drive these things?" I asked him, as he closed the door.
"I think so," he replied, looking round at the controls.
He moved the lever between us and stabbed his foot on one of the pedals, nothing happened, he put his foot on the other and the vehicle shot forward, he turned the wheel narrowly missing the vehicle parked in front and we were off down the road.
His foot eased off the pedal as we speeded up, he laughed.
"This is easy," he said.
Unfortunately one of the constabulary carriages was visible behind us, and catching up fast. Magus turned the wheel as we crossed an intersection and there was trouble ahead. We were now in a stream of traffic.
Down the road in front of us was more flashing lights and the stream of traffic was slowing to queue in front. We were trapped, abandoning the carriage was an option, but with the flashing lights around us I couldn't see us getting far.
I levitated the vehicle as I would a broom; the magic word was 'levictus'. The car rose from the road, rushing headlong over the queue of cars lined up before us.
The red and blue flashing lights of the constable's carriages slipped beneath us. Their upturned faces pulsing in the strobing lights, their arms pointing up with weapons in fists. I let us down gently.
Magus pushed his foot down on the pedal again as the carriage first, jerked us forward as we touched, then backwards as the engine roared back into life.
I turned and looked; the constables were following us, and gaining.
"Magus, take a side road."
We swerved round a corner, grazing some rubbish bins, as we straightened I levitated the carriage, pushing it high as fast as I could. We were rooftop high, some five floors up, before the carriages following us entered the alley.
As we cleared the roof I turned us, gliding over the hotch potch roofscape below. There to our left was a square of roof big enough for our vehicle.
I swooped over, hovering above. Slowly I let us land, the tyres touched and the undercarriage creaked. I released it, and there was an almighty groan. We dropped eight feet as the shed below gave way.
Magus was the first to recover his wits, pulling the handle and pushing on his door with his shoulder. His door was stuck; no doubt our various bumps had caused it to stick. I tried my door; it opened perhaps six inches, stopped by the rubble of the shed.
I looked at Magus, then looked at the glass before us; I melted and softened it, then gave it a magical push. It fell clean away, skittering down the bonnet.
I clambered through, helping Magus as he cleared the steering wheel.
"We do not steal anymore of their carriages!" I proclaimed. "Next time we'll use magic."
"Well...."
"No, you said you could drive that thing!"
"I said 'I thought I could'." He wheedled.
"Nevermind, we will use magic next time."
We were still standing amid the rubble and our now useless carriage, I wondered about our erstwhile pursuers. Picking my way out I looked over the wall, there was some dingy alleyway below us, empty of life by the look.
Magus came to join me. Looking around at the dismal roofs left and right it was like an alien world, a world of dark colours and shadows.
I rescued a plank from the debris of the shed.
"Magus, let us get back to the hotel, and our nice warm beds." I floated the plank and sat astride it, waiting for Magus to mount.
I used my wand to activate the spell I'd put on the hotel door, it gave a feint yellow line to follow.
As, high above, we approached the hotel; I was dismayed to see the flashing blue red lights at its entrance. My heart pounded as I worried that they'd discovered the loss of the real ring.
I steered us into a darkened back alley and turned to Magus.
"Do you think it's about the ring?" I asked.
"I don't know."
"We should find out." I stated.
I changed our apparel, and our looks. We were two old men, dark suits and dark hats with long white beards. I created a cane and a limp for myself.
We walked from the alley onto the main street and slowly made our way to the hotel. Once there we pushed our way through the crowd of gawkers, till we stood before a constable who was barring the way.
"May we go through?" I asked.
"No, this is a crime scene. Come back in an hour or so."
"But we were to meet someone inside." I protested. "What's happened, has there been a murder?"
"Na, we're looking for two perps who hi-jacked a cab and caused mayhem with the crosstown traffic, we traced them back here. Now be on your way before you gets in trouble. Shalom."
We backed out of the crowd, turning and retracing our steps till there was distance between us.
"Well so much for the comfy beds, we'll have to find others for the night." I said sadly.
"But not around here." Put in Magus. "We'd best travel a distance from here before we try again."
"Let's go back to the plank, fly quietly to some other part of this town. It's getting dark now, no one will see us," I said
"Ay, why not." He replied.
We mounted the plank again, lifting into the air and skimming the rooftops. We had been flying less than five minutes when we saw a group of people gathered on one of the rooftops.
"Stop a minute." Magus prompted from behind me.
"What's the matter?" I asked.
"Nothing, I've got something I want to try."
I complied with his mysterious request, dropping us to the roof below.
"We'll join that group of people," he said, pointing to the roof some three across from ours.
With his wand he conjured up a bag.
"Ingredients," he said glancing at me.
Opening it up before me, he set about mixing the potion, adding all to the mortis set before him. Grinding it made a fine blue powder.
"We are ready," he proclaimed.
The powder worked, they greeted us as friends as he had promised. It was a formula used for settling squabbles, ensure calm in the proceedings.
There were two men and six females, celebrating a birthday for Janice, the blond among them. We stayed there for an hour or so, till the late night air grew cold. Down where they lived, a 'two bed apartment, the party continued until the beer ran out.
I fished out some money from my pocket, donating it to the pool of money collected, and let one of the men with two of the girls go out for fresh supplies while we sucked at our half empty bottles. Magus wanted to go and look for some wines but was easily persuaded to stay and entertain the girls.
With fresh supplies of beer the party lasted another couple of hours, though it had been a long day for me I still felt surprisingly fresh, finding interest in the animated discussions of the state of the world, with its rising population and increasing pollution levels.
I could see Magus ensconced with the birthday girl, competing for her attention with one of the men as I listened to the two girls I sat with compared the merits of singles bars, nodding and agreeing as each in turn talked of one's they'd visited.
As the beer ran dry for the second time the others began to take their leave, exchanging hugs and kisses with the birthday girl as they exited, agreeing that it had been nice and they should 'do it again' soon.
Soon we were left alone with Janis, the blond birthday girl and her flat mate Silvia. Both were a little drunk and giggly, we helped tidy up a bit before they declared themselves tired and ready for bed, though they seemed a little reluctant to claim their beds.
Magus declared that we had need to discuss a private matter before we were ready to retire and both girls took that as their cue to leave us together in the living room. I shucked my guise and used our robes and the various scatter cushions to fashion a bed for us.
We were lying there, having decided our next move would be. We would travel down to this Florida place, it was far enough away to give us a good angle, and the climate was nice.
I thought of the girls, lying in comfortable beds, Sissy would be abed as well. This was the first time apart since we met that fateful day, some two years past. Was she missing me as much as I was missing her?
