We had breakfast with them, an assortment of dried fruit and honeyed seeds, compacted into a bar. And more of the cookies from the barrel, one for now and one for later.
We said goodbye to the girls, and Davina, she gave Martin a long lingering kiss as they parted
Alice turned and beamed at me as we left, a radiant toothy smile.
Like the duchess's cat, only the smile was important.
Outside we waited a few minutes till a passing taxi picked us up and whisked us to the airport.
In the airport we wandered round, the huge hall had bars and shops and restaurants.
Eventually, in another section we found lines of people queuing with luggage and passports in hand. Near the end of the line was a man on his own, he tucked his wallet and passport into his back pocket.
With a little bit of magic it was in my hands. I carefully examined this green pasteboard document, and the rest of the contents of the little leather pocket. There was money, a lot of those plastic cards that everyone used, a few cards with pictures on them.
I absorbed their essence, then hurried to the man.
"Is this yours," I asked, showing him the wallet. "The picture looks like you."
He took it with effusive thanks, praising another god, Allah, for its return.
I turned to Martin. "Come; let us find a quiet place. I want to see what we got."
"There's a restaurant back aways, my stomach still complains of the poor breakfast we had."
We sat, and ordered from the menu the attractive waitress brought. While we waited, Martin chided me.
"You shouldn't give magic away to strangers you meet," he warned. "A little learning is a dangerous thing."
"Tis harmless enough that she can heal," I answered.
With our meal in front of us I conjured up the man's wallet and Sam's passport, with its all important visa.
I carefully examined this green pasteboard document, and the rest of the contents of the little leather pocket. I detailed it out, more for my benefit that Magus's. We needed travel documents, the passports with the visa's, we needed tickets, but that was simply a matter of money. I manipulated the copy of Sam's passport so that it fitted Martin, with his picture, name and details.
I gave it to him.
"What do you think? They won't know it from an original."
He looked at it and handed it back.
"Well, you could always make a large scale entrancement field. If we could be sure they wouldn't detect it it'd have my voice. But disguise and subterfuge are our best weapons; they have carried us so far," I answered his unspoken question.
"Hrruumf." I took his reply to be affirmative, he himself had warned me that certain adepts could detect magic usage, the more powerful the spell the further it could be detected. They'd have to be next to me to detect my little passport job.
We finished the meal in silence, me thinking that I'd soon be able to clear my mind of the rock and ring, just as soon as we were out of the country. I was also thinking guiltily, of Sissy, the first two nights I'm away from her and I've slept in the beds of two different women.
I was going to have to have a quiet word with Magus.
In the taxi on the way back to the travel agent, I gave him the card. I concocted the two identities for us, Miami driving licenses; various bank cards, library cards and the like, two addresses in the same apartment block, enough to get us through, and hopefully out the other end.
The flight and rest stops was going to be 43 hours, or just over, yet you departed on a Sunday morning and arrived on a Wednesday morning, which seemed three days, time must vary when you fly.
The flight was that evening. We were advised to allow three hours to book in, 'early was better'. It was around mid day now, with eight hours to go, we could have four hours free, or four hours in one of those gambling palaces, Magus somehow had the idea that we would find fine wines there.
Our progress through the departure was accompanied with liberal use of the blue powder. The only hitch was the screen showed a blur in the scanner, my image was in two different realities, my real self and my here self. The quantum physics of the device was to blame.
We jumped from one flight to another at our first stop in London, barely having time to look around. The people seemed the same, though there were more people in exotic dress. The shops were certainly the same, as were the goods they carried.
The stopover in Singapore proved there were vast cultural distances as well as physical ones. We ask where in the airport we could sleep; we were shown these little coffin type boxes in a wall, much more practical for this crowded world than the airy hotel bedrooms in America.
The Australian Customs and Immigration were a fussy lot. There was a long list of things we couldn't bring in, but he did give us good advice on where to change our money, he seemed quite happy in his job.
Immigration was fun to; he wanted to know why we were here.
I told him "We just wanted to see what the place was like, y'know, just absorb the local culture."
"Why here?" he asked.
"It's just one of a number of places I want to explore." That seemed to satisfy him. He gave us back our passports and return tickets and wished us. "G'day."
Brisbane, it was warm and sticky, like Miami. I asked the driver to take us to a little one or two star hotel. Here we would divine the first leg of the triangulation; we could relax and recover from our hours of flying. This 'Jet lag' would disturb our sleep for a few nights, but our journey tomorrow would be only a few hundred miles, the penultimate step.
The hotel was perfect, sat on a small rise our bedrooms looked out over the city, a field of glistening lights with the traffic snaking through it.
We performed our ritual first, divining the line of the ring. I squinted and looked, it pointed towards Darwin. A great evolutionary philosopher. I wondered who Brisbane was, some adventurer no doubt.
After looking at the map, we decided that a small jump inland was the best option, a little town called Goondiwindi, with its airstrip, looked about right.
I was all for a quiet night, a meal, a few drinks in the bar, I wouldn't have minded one of those cookies, with the Californian shit in it. I had more books, bought at the airport, along with a handful of technology magazines.
Over dinner Magus persuaded me to accompany him to a 'Liverpudlian Yates wine bar',
While I was in the toilet, no more than five minutes gone, Magus was in a full steam argument with the barman, he'd tried to pay in dollars and thought he was being short changed, with my ability to magic it out of thin air I wouldn't have bothered. I should have given him some of the new aussie stuff.
Unfortunately the argument was attracting the attention of the other clientele. The barkeep came round to follow through on his threat to physically through him out. Magus just put a hand to his chest and felled him to the floor. Several people in the bar stood up.
I was still by the door to the toilet. Sure that Magus would recognise my magic. I created a Beareocious, coming in through the bar door, in the panic that ensued Magus created a distraction field about him. He became a blind spot in their sight.
I made the creature advance from the doorway, and stand upright, head crashing through the false ceiling. I ran to him and he extended the field about me. We took the opportunity to dodge behind my magical creature, now howling loudly, and out the door. Hailing the first taxi past as we hastened from the scene.
We had expended a great deal of magical energy avoiding the fracas, a beacon for anyone near enough to see. A small probability but enough to trigger a worrying niggle.
We made our way home and slept with a comfortable lie in, in the morning.
Enquires with the receptionist after breakfast gave us the address of a local airstrip where we might find an air taxi, someone to fly us to Goondiwindi. Archerfield airfield in the southern suburbs was a likely place to find one.
First though I must change some more dollars, and a bank was to be our first port of call. My 10,000 bought 11,248; I wondered why they didn't just use gold. None of this fuss then.
A short taxi ride to the airstrip and Magus's haggling saw us in the air for the short hour's trip. By mid afternoon we were climbing into a taxi, and headed to Goondiwindi Motel and tracks restaurant. The only place to stay according to the driver.
As was our want we set the divination up, spinning the ring once more. The line was slightly right of our first, crossing a place called Wilton, which when we looked was nothing but a dusty airstrip. When we plotted more carefully the two lines together crossed at a remote township called Cloncurry. A small township set among the rocks of western Queensland.
At least there was a small airstrip just north of it, we could fly in and save a tedious overland journey, if his map was good we could even fly ourselves on broomsticks, they were easy to illusion.
A phone call to the airstrip and a few moments haggling the price and the deal was done.
Tomorrow we would depart for our final destination, the place of the ringkeeper.
We stayed exclusively to the restaurant and bar, being treated to a Karaoke night and some typical Aussie humour. An enjoyable night spoilt a little by my thoughts wondering about the upcoming meeting with the new ringbearer.
I favoured subterfuge still; he must have the gift, it was necessary for the ring to draw directly on your magic. We could find him by that, the ring would guide us and when we met him I would boldly put the ring on his finger. The power of the ring itself would half convince him, at least enough to listen without much fuss. Still no matter the planning, fate still held my prize.
We had an early night and a 7am start, and still fighting the lessening effects of the time shift.
The town, when we flew over had looked sparse, rugged, a green blot in a hostile environment. Like some barracks set at a remote border to guard from invasion.
"Where to," the cab driver asked. We hadn't given a destination when our pilot booked it through the tower.
"Just a mo," I replied while Magus was spinning the ring. The line went to the hospital. "Concurry hospital." I announced.
