Free Ravenwild: Book 01 - Ravenwild by Peter Plasse Page A

on her lap.
     
    Hemlock smoothed his robe and spoke quietly. “As I explained earlier, the only purpose of this preemptive travel adventure is to convince you of the reality of the technology. If I could please take the liberty of reminding you that the very future of my entire race of people hangs in the balance, and without you, or some others with talents and abilities equal to yours, my people are doomed. Extinct. Done. We’ve been over this.
    “Let me say, again, these brief trips are entirely safe. I say that with a one hundred percent ironclad guarantee. And finally, if you choose, you can go to her right now and all be together, and come home the instant you wish.”
    “Why can’t you just bring her back?” asked Jessica.
    “That,” replied Hemlock, “I cannot do. Either she has to will it, or you have to go and get her. To do as you ask is not possible but, again, she is in no danger. She is with a young lad of about her own age who is a perfect gentleman, and will come to no harm. You have my oath on it as a wizard-of-the-first-school.”
    “What does that mean?” asked Jacqueline, “A wizard-of-the-first-school. Do wizards have to go to wizard school, like in Harry Potter and Hogwarts?”
    “Well, yes we do, as a matter of fact. But it is not quite the same as Hogwarts. Similar enough, though. For example, your father is board-certified in Emergency Medicine. He, you might say, is an Emergency Medicine doctor of the first school. That is to say, there is no Emergency Medicine schooling higher than what he achieved. Same with me, sort of. There is no more wizard training I can receive under another wizard. Once one achieves wizard-of-the-first-school, the rest of what one learns is by self-study. And, of course, one would be expected to bring the younger wizards along, but there are presently not a lot of young wizards to teach, only a handful, really. Anyway, hopefully, your Mom and Dad will help me to fix that. Meanwhile, do you wish to visit Stephanie in Ravenwild? You have merely to ask, and I shall make it so.”
    “Stupid Stephanie,” said Orie. “I can’t believe she just took off like that without even asking us. Now we have to go there. We could have gone anywhere, anytime.” He shook his head in disgust.
    “I know it,” echoed Jacqueline. “Stupid Stephanie.”
    “Now, now,” said Jessica. “We’ll have none of that. It is true that she should have waited so that we could all go together, but there is no use crying over spilt milk. Hemlock, how soon can you get us there?”
    “Wait a minute, Mom,” broke in Orie. “We need to talk about his. Do we all need to go there to get her? Hemlock said she was perfectly safe. Why can’t you and Jacqueline go get her, and then Dad and I could go somewhere else. Jacqueline, you want to go with Mom, right?”
    “Duh,” said Jacqueline, rolling her eyes.
    “Orie, don’t be ridiculous,” snapped his mother. She nodded in Hemlock’s direction. “We don’t know who this is. We are clueless about this. No disrespect intended. If one goes, we all go. And we are all going. And we are all going now . I won’t have it any other way. Help me out here, Blake.” She looked at him with a look that said, “This is the way it’s going to be. Period.”
    Blake stroked his chin. “I agree with your mother. It looks like we are headed for, where did you say this was again, Hemlock?”
    “It is called Ravenwild. It is a small country on a planet that is also quite small compared with your Earth. There are basically two other countries, Slova and Vultura. The principal race of Ravenwild is Human, such as yourselves, although about thirty percent of the population is made up of Elves and Dwarves. The Elves are the oldest of the intelligent races. The principle races of Slova and Vultura are Trolls and Gnomes, respectively. They, like the citizenry of Ravenwild, are unmistakable in their physical characteristics.
    “Ravenwild has been at war with