Disclaimer: Harry Potter and his world belong to J. K. Rowling. In this story, Harry Potter is very old, and is known as 'The Great Wizard.' His name is Bellamy.

Chapter 17:

Tasha greeted him the moment he returned, "Two tabby, one ginger, and one sort of blackish tabby ginger - quite an ugly colour, but they're all amazing."

Valencio was confused, and Tasha explained, "Ginger's kittens, of course!"

"Ginger's kittens!" and he hurried to look. There was already a cooing audience, the four tiny kittens lined up suckling. Ginger blinked at them lazily, not apparently perturbed as one after another put out a finger to touch.

Tasha said, "John came to see, said they were amazingly beautiful, and he'll bring us the pup next Friday."

Kaede asked, "When they're grown a little, can I have one?"

"Three are already claimed, but there's the ugly one left."

Kaede smiled, "I think I like ugly."

Valencio agreed, "I like ugly." He stroked Ginger's head, and she purred, before touching 'Ugly.'

Tasha smiled at him, "Did you want to keep her then?"

"Not if Kaede wants her. And anyway, I guess she'll have more kittens one day."

Tasha remarked, "Every single cat and dog on the place, except for Ginger, is supposedly either neutered, or under a lifetime anti-conception spell."

Kaede spoke softly, "Thank you, Vince. I'll call her Susiya, after a dear friend, who was not at all ugly."

"Susiya," Valencio repeated, wanting to remember.

That evening, Carol hushed the room, and said that Evita wished to speak. Valencio looked at the floor, thinking it was harder to listen all the time. Twelve-year-olds, poor kids. First Evita had her say, then Inge, both very brief. But then, Brigitta had been spared, Tashfin found dead. Valencio suddenly exclaimed, "I know who it was. I reckon it was old Bouchra Khatabi, you know, the one in the wheelchair. She raised a hand to us when we were in that first group went to see the App. Box."

Carol frowned, thinking, but Brigitta was waiting, and she turned her full attention back to the girl.

Valencio said, "Sorry, Brigitta. I should not have interrupted."

Brigitta continued, "Anyway, as everyone knows, Abensur marked me for his own use, which he got away with, because neither Hicham nor Haru bothered disputing. And when he did it for the first time, he was gentle. The only time he frightened me was not so long before Zhor and Najia came, and he put straps around my knees, ankles, wrists, even waist and thighs, and bent me over the Brieke-tei, just like Clarence described. But while he was excited, and kept saying it was going to happen to me whether I wanted it or not, I still think if I'd made a fuss, he would have stopped. But I bit my lip and tried to remember that he had to be kept happy, even if he hurt me. Evita could do it, so I could, too. But he went very, very slowly, and scarcely hurt, and after a while, when I saw he had the Brieke-tei in his bedroom, it only got me excited."

She looked up frankly at them. "I think I was extremely lucky, and in any other culture, Abensur would simply have been an ordinary, kind man, even though he might have killed us all then, if he had orders - and only felt a mild regret."

Carol said, "I'm sure he would have killed us as kindly as possible. He would have contrived it somehow that we wouldn't even know it was happening."

Valencio said, "We did have our weapons. I had enough for everyone."

Carol looked at him kindly, and said, "I have not the smallest doubt that you would have been dead first. He would not have risked you attacking."

Valencio nodded. "You're probably right. He knew me very well." He looked at Brigitta, quite seriously, "Thank you, Brigitta. You were the one chiefly responsible for giving all of us, our lives back."

Brigitta went red, and looked down.

Helene said, "It's funny that Brigitta said that about the Brieke-tei, as Issan wanted that about that time, though he was less gentle than you say Abensur was."

"Zhang too," said Eva. "We'd been together for years by then, and suddenly there was this fancy."

A few others said that they, too, had experienced it.

"Botan was horrible," shuddered Angini. "I bled, and then was sore for days. I was too embarrassed to tell one of the guards, though I should have. He might have been punished."

"When was it?" asked Jimmy.

"About six weeks before Zhor and Najia came, I think, but then he went off on a job a few days later, thank goodness."

Jimmy frowned and said, "There may have been something in our group. I wonder if some of us were used that way. I don't remember anything, but Abensur treated Stewart differently from everyone else, and he sometimes acted as if he was especially fond of Harry, too."

Brigitta shuddered. "He wouldn't use a man like that!"

Valencio said nothing, and neither did anyone else.

For a half hour, the talk was general. It was different, these days. The subject of their experiences in captivity was no longer avoided, and there were fewer uncomfortable silences. But even now, there was little talk of what had happened in the working bedrooms, and Clarence, as well as Valencio, preferred to act as if he'd never known any of the men in that way.

xdividerx

Friday afternoon, Bellamy found Valencio with a load of washing in the laundry. He said, "Vince?"

Valencio turned and beamed, reaching out for the little black and white pup, and cuddling, as Bellamy watched, smiling.

"You'll have to name her," he said.

The puppy whined.

Valencio shook his head, and said, "No idea." He stroked, and the pup wet his arm, making him laugh, and set her down. The pup sniffed around, and finished wetting on the floor.

Valencio said, "Toilet-training, first, I think."

"Do you know how to go about it?"

"There's a book in the library. Tasha's had it out for weeks." He suddenly laughed, "Did you put it there?"

Bellamy grinned, "I delegated. Dot arranged it."

Valencio glanced at his wrists, and said, "I bet you wear your watches everywhere else!"

"Of course I do. Don't like embarrassing questions."

"How do you handle it, when people ask awkward questions?"

"Unless they need to know, for some reason, I just change the subject. We all have things in our pasts we don't like to share."

"Reporters are not easily put off," observed Valencio, picking up the puppy again.

"I have a very simple rule, no interviews, no autographs. I'm seldom pestered by reporters, and the bodyguards help, they don't let them near."

Valencio nodded. Simple. No interviews, no autographs. He remembered autograph signing sessions. His mother had been very fierce about his 'duty to his fans.' Not that he was planning on doing any acting, of course. He didn't think he could stand his history being known... He asked, "Have the bodyguards ever saved your life?"

"A few times. One died once. I felt dreadful. Alexander, the father of Kupec, who nearly always looks after me, now."

"It seems strange, that you have bodyguards."

"I never asked for them, the DMT insists. It's mostly because no-one else can do the work I do. I'm valuable to them."

Valencio abandoned his laundry, and strolled out to show the pup to Tasha. He remarked to Bellamy, "Ginger's kittens were all claimed within hours."

"Dot or Michael can do anti-conception spells, so there's not another litter too soon."

"Can they do only temporary ones?"

"There are lifetime ones, but I prefer the ones that last a year. It's good to have room for accidents." He grinned, "Everyone else at home thinks there's far too many cats and dogs, but I like them."

Connie, Mary and Bernice told their stories that evening, girls of ten and eleven, taken from a Catholic Confirmation ceremony, right out in front of anyone, and apparently without any disturbance, or not that the women could remember. Connie said, "Like Emma, I always felt as if there should have been scars, but the edges of the straps were soft."

The puppy, still not named, lay in a basket, next to Tasha, who touched gently whenever there was the slightest whimper. Ginger was still in their cottage, with the four kittens.

There were not many to go, and those left were beginning to feel the pressure. Gloria was becoming increasingly edgy, and was sometimes very rude to Bellamy, who seemed to have no trouble keeping his temper. At the same time, she was demanding, and Valencio had a few times saddled up a horse for her, when she announced she had to gallop fast with John.

Valencio was glad he'd told his story early on, though Tasha still maintained he hadn't done it at all. Valencio was defensive, "I told them about how I was caught, and they know now that I was in films."

Tasha quoted derisively, "I hated the Brieke-tei. Five years later, I tried to strangle Narzu-Han." She smiled at her husband, "It's just a little short on detail."

"Clarence didn't say any more, and some of the women were even more brief."

"Don't worry about it. It's not compulsory after all. Just that one has to face what happened, I think, and I don't believe you have."

Valencio said, "Look, the pup's making a mess again."

Tasha made an exclamation, and went to the puppy. Valencio heaved a sigh. Good puppy.

The next evening, Valencio thought about suggesting they watch a film instead, but Tasha was already looking stern. Reluctantly, he rose, and followed her to the ballroom, hoping that the talk might only be of dogs, cats and horses that evening. Maybe Belinda could play for them. Belinda had spoken early, almost casually betraying herself a little. 'When things get too difficult, one can always pretend you're somewhere else.' And after that, though she was always present, she rarely spoke about anything to do with the Khatabi enclosures.

There were a lot of curious glances at Valencio that evening. He knew what that was about. Inge and Brigitta had gone with Dot to choose an assortment of films that week, and among them were two of those he'd been in - the second and the third. He had no intention of indulging his curiosity by watching the second film, which he scarcely remembered, released only a couple of months before he was taken, and he'd already seen the third film on TV. He wondered for the first time, if it really would make it easier to accept, if he told what had happened to him. But the women? How could he tell the women? The bitter shame was still too much a part of him.

Carol stood, and said, "Just so everyone knows, John will no longer be staying here from the end of June, or at least, not for a while."

Kaede said, "So there's just over two weeks, and if he's our good luck charm, maybe I'd best speak tonight."

Maliwan said, "Of course, if we don't choose to speak, no-one's going to make us!"

Gloria said aggressively, "No-one's going to make me speak!"

No-one said anything, but Valencio wondered why she was there every single night, along with the rest of them. All she had to do was stay away, not like him, under orders. He glanced at Tasha, and wondered if she'd seen those films.

Tasha had declined, looking at the pictures on the cover, and deciding she didn't want to see him as he'd been before. They had all sustained damage, she knew. But some of them were worse damaged than others, and Valencio, who casually drove to Duich, even Edinburgh, and seemed to have no fear of doing new things - she thought he might be the most damaged of all.

Kaede asked, "May I speak?"

Carol smiled, "Chocolates? Or beer, like Bellamy had?"

Kaede said, "We put him through a lot, when he's the one who rescued us."

Gloria said, "He's tough. I suspect he hasn't told us the half of what's happened to him in his life." She looked away, momentarily shamefaced. "He can tolerate my tantrums!"

Kaede said, "They seem to have something about women in white. Myself, Susiya, Azahari. We were taken just after we bowed our heads, and took the vows to become nuns, but before they cut off our hair. It must have been a challenge, as there was a whole congregation of proud, but regretful parents, as well as sixty nuns, and a few probationers and priests, all in the church. And yet they kept them all under control. The three of us were sorted out, and then Yiko Khatabi looked at us, and we repeated in unison that our vows to God were unimportant. I remember it exactly. In French, of course - that a life in a closed order is a waste of beautiful women, and we were going to serve the needs of men, instead. And then, as the congregation gaped, the three of us filed out after Yiko."

Valencio remembered Ugly, the kitten, whom she'd named Susiya. That had been her dear friend.

"They stripped us, and studied us a lot more closely then, and made the discovery that I was not a virgin. I think I was nearly rejected, but Yiko caressed my face, and they decided to keep me after all. They performed the Nala Spell, gave us numbers - we were 4, 5 and 6, almost the first of a new intake for Enclosure 1. Enclosure 2 was empty."

"It must have been straight after Pamela."

Kaede nodded. "I am the oldest survivor here."

"The clothing of Susiya and Azahari was put away carefully, and they were given new clothes, and not touched, but Yiko looked at my gown, laughed, and vanished it. He didn't tolerate any struggle, just told me that it would be easier on me if I did what I was told, and I think it was. Taking us away from in front of a large congregation, without any hint of a struggle, was enough for me. There hadn't been a wand in sight. He had me that night, and there were several others in the succeeding nights, but the others were not touched until we arrived in Morocco. Then they had to put on the dresses they wore when making their vows, and Yuri had Susiya, and Karim used Azahari. They secured wrists and ankles, even when they'd intended to be obedient, and when the first ones were finished, there were several more, though I usually only had one a night, and so did they, after the first night.

"I decided to try and serve God in this new environment, and I tried to look after the children, and after a while, I started a school for them, though we had so few books then. I thought it would be a comfort, this sign of normality, and they should at least, learn to read well, as maybe one day, we would be free. We learned Arabic quickly, like every new one does, but at that time, the language we spoke was mostly French. Later, it changed to English.

"Susiya and Azahari were killed in a cull, and then I lost more friends in the next cull, but it wasn't until the affair of Laura and Emma that I decided that God could not exist, and that maybe it served me right. I'd been prepared to throw away my life for superstition, and instead I'd been made a prisoner, but at least someplace where I could be useful. So I continued with the school, and taught Emma to read, but she was the last of the really small children."

She smiled at Carol, and said, "I've always liked chocolates."

Carol offered the chocolates, and said, "Your school. It was so important to me. Sometimes, I'd whine that I had a tummy ache and didn't want to go to school, and when I was told I had to, I was comforted. Like you said, it was a sign of normality."

Bernice said to Kaede, "I never knew you were going to be a nun."

Kaede said, "I was going to be a nun - to throw my life away for superstition, and now I have my life given back to me."

She studied the chocolate, still wrapped in her hand. "I don't like it that John's put magic on us, but I understand he thinks it necessary. I will not ask him again to take it off."

xdividerx

Lucy and Eva the next evening. They'd been seventeen and eighteen, models, taken for the new enclosure in New York, then taken to Japan, then finally to Morocco. Eva concluded, "When we got there, we looked for those others from New York, but we were not surprised they were not there, and we could only hope that the same thing hadn't happened to the ones in Japan."

"We still have no ideas how to make the memorial at the conclusion of the Pamela Track."

Gloria said viciously, "If Bellamy would properly free us, there'd be no problem."

No-one spoke up to agree, but Maliwan offered her the chocolates.

Valencio asked Eva, "Was there a boy called Jeremy in Japan?"

Eva shook her head. "No boys or men, only the one called Patrick, who'd vanished not long before."

Valencio nodded casually, and wandered off.

Eva whispered to Lucy, "He was a real film star, not just any actor."

"Kaede nearly cried when she looked at the picture on the cover."

"Someone told me he attacked his first owner, and that was Faheem, and then Adil owned him, and he stuck a blade in his eye."

Valencio gave them a resentful look. He didn't like them whispering about him. They took their eyes off him, and Lucy said, "We survived, against all the odds."

"Are we too old to start modelling again, do you think?"

xdividerx

The following day, Valencio saddled Patrick for Gloria again. He was one of the few people whom she didn't seem to want to snap at these days, but even Valencio took no risks. He was surprised when she announced she intended to ride Kennedy afterwards, but only said, "Tell me when you want him, and I'll have him saddled."

Kennedy was the horse that had thought all people were enemies, as Bellamy had explained in February, when they'd bought him. No. 23, now Kennedy.

There were only five now who hadn't told their stories - Thierry, Farfalla, and Adolfina, plus Gloria and Maliwan. Valencio asked Tasha if he found a job, was she ready to leave yet. Tasha answered that maybe when the kittens were older, and the pup, whom she'd named Shona. Valencio caressed the little dog, and said how nice it would be when she could follow at his heels, as Trey and Shaz followed John.

He still felt they had to leave, become independent. They could not rely on wizards forever, whether or not they were good people. Some of the older ones would never leave, he thought. Bernice, Connie, Mary, Kaede, Kwai-Jeeha, who had to be over sixty, he thought, though she didn't look it. Both Emma and Thierry were still so timid, and he'd promised Emma he'd stay until she no longer needed him. Did she really need him?

John had promised a home, as long as any of them were alive. For some, he suspected, it would be needed. It was a good home - comfortable, without worries, no demands.

That day, Dot put a notice up, notifying them that she and Michael would be leaving at the end of June. Carol told anyone who asked that she'd been acting as manager for several weeks, and that if help was needed, all she had to do was ask, and apparation was instant. She appeared calm and confident.

Valencio was positive she was nervous, but when Tasha sighed that they could depend on Carol, who always knew what to do, said, "Of course we can, and there's the other seven of the Committee as well, of course."

Tasha asked him to saddle Honey for her, and said, "I'm going to practise jumping, but John told me not to think about taking her to a show yet, or maybe only for Best Rider or Show events.

"You look so lovely on her, your hair is just the colour of her mane and tail."

"Yes, but at a gymkhana, you have to wear a riding hat."

No-one told their stories that evening, instead, there was speculation about exactly what Bellamy had done to the Khatabi men and women.

Valencio remarked, "I can't imagine anyone being able to defeat Yiko."

Mariabella said, "Hicham seemed to think it was done when there were five of them together, including Yiko and Narzu-Han."

"We could ask him. I'd love to know a bit more."

Carol rose, but came back disappointed. "He's out. Michael seemed to think a girlfriend."

A lot of the women looked rather blank. Their John, and he was out with a girlfriend. Gloria said, "We're only medj, of course, dirt-people. He wouldn't want to have sex with one of us."

Unwisely, Valencio said, "His wife was medj, remember."

Gloria snapped that it didn't mean a thing, and stalked off, leaving early.

She was angry again in the morning, when Bellamy explained that he couldn't attend the ballroom as requested that evening, as he was expected somewhere else. Gloria glared at him, and almost spat, "Wednesday, since we're not important enough to make you change your date."

Bellamy smiled at her, "I like Rhoda, I promised I'd go to a wedding with her, and I don't expect to be back until morning."

Maliwan put a hand on the arm of her angry friend, and Gloria abruptly turned her back on him.

The talk went on to Bellamy's new invention, the Farfalla, which, he said with satisfaction, would be under every wizard Christmas tree in the land.

Adolfina said, "Carol told me that wizards are not religious."

Bellamy grinned. "Religious we're not mostly, but Christmas is special, and you don't have to be religious to enjoy a festival. And anyway, Jesus was probably a wizard!"

There was vociferous argument then. Bellamy put up his case for it, but had to admit that Jesus didn't figure in wizarding history. "Christmas trees do, though, for millennia. I reckon the idea of a Christmas tree seeped into medj culture from wizard culture," and he was able to quote a few sources that spoke about a mid-winter festival that included several customs that could easily have been the forerunners of a traditional Christmas.

There were no stories Tuesday evening. Instead, there was talk of all they knew of how Bellamy had so weakened the Khatabi family. Ingrid was asked again for that wonderful story when she'd expected to lose her virginity, and instead had beaten Hicham with a shoe. Mariabella said again how changed Hicham was, that he'd never been all that bad before, just indifferent. But afterwards, he was very, very careful not ever to hurt. "He even agreed to see the healer, and have his bad breath fixed, though I didn't ask for ages - still frightened of being punished." She added, "He's married to Agneta, one of the trainee healers, now."

Nikola said, "Shar-kutsu told me Bellamy made the healers, the three of them, go into the App. Box when it was tested for the first time. He told them it was perfectly likely to explode, or just to kill all the occupants. And when they hesitated, he threatened to conjure vertical bars, and restrain them."

There were broad grins from most of those who had been in Enclosure 2, but Jimmy looked sick at the memory.

Carol asked with relish, "Do you think Ahjmed might be the same as Hicham, creeping around timidly for fear of being drawn into an argument?"

"I hope so," said Shirley, fervently. Ahjmed had been around a long time, and most of them had experienced his casual cruelty.

Lucy said, "Yiko used me several times when I was in Japan, but of course, I never thought of resisting. Funny to think I might have been able to beat him up, and he wouldn't have done anything."

Eva said, "He stopped coming to the enclosures remember. Maybe someone did resist, and he found he couldn't force her."

It was a very pleasant thought.

Valencio couldn't imagine it. Yiko didn't need magic. He could just tell someone to want him, and they would.

The gathering dissolved into small groups. Gloria said that Kennedy was being perfectly well behaved, but that no-one else should ride him yet, and the boss didn't want her going off with him alone. Maharni said that she wanted to ride Nigretta in the showing at the next horse show in mid July, and Ingrid put in a claim for Annie Oakley. Helene said that it was unlikely that Bellamy would be there, but Emma said that they were all very brave now, and he was no longer needed. Gloria started to write down horses and prospective riders, as they would need to practise together.

Helene said, "We're nearly finished our work here, and maybe we could make this gymkhana almost like a graduation ceremony. All of us go, every single one of us, and as many as possible compete."

Carol looked at her thoughtfully, and said, "Some of us will probably leave by Christmas. Maybe we need to do one very big thing together, as a team effort."

"The horses were our first achievement. Just riding for some, successfully competing for others. It seems appropriate, doesn't it."

Valencio grinned, "There's only a few weeks. You'll have to practise!"

There was other talk. Connie said there was an artist who used to live on Bellamy's place and there was a gallery of her pictures there. "Clare de Silva, and her paintings were lovely. He said he'd take Mary and I to see it one day."

Clarence spoke with Jimmy and Valencio about starting on the hayshed, and then they could make their own hay. Brigitta looked at Jimmy, and asked, "Will you be here by autumn?"

Jimmy smiled at her. "I'll be wherever you are until I can persuade you to marry me!"

Brigitta replied that she couldn't think about marriage until she'd finished school - two years.

Clarence said to Valencio, "I think you should stay a while as well, though I know you're ready to move on. Just that the women need a few men around."

"Dot and Michael will be gone. It'll be just us."

Clarence grinned at him understandingly, "No bloody wizards!"

Valencio allowed, "They're good for some things. There's an awful lot of work to do with the horses, now Melanie or Susan are not just waving wands."

Jimmy asked Clarence, "What about you? Would you do without magic entirely if you could?"

"Heavy work building's good with magic. And I've still got my shaver."

"Me, too," admitted Valencio. "I wouldn't know how to shave with a razor."

Jimmy demanded clarification, and Clarence described it, and then said, with a smile, "Valencio was coming visiting Enclosure 1 every night for over a year, so he could use my shaver."

Jimmy asked blankly, "Why?"

Valencio answered, "I didn't want them to notice that I was growing up and needed to shave. Afraid they'd castrate me, and if they did, the later the better."

Jimmy stared at him, appalled. Valencio looked at him uneasily, and said, "It never happened. Even when Nusa'pei said to Narzu-Han they should do it, Narzu-Han refused, and just hobbled me a while instead."

Clarence said, "About six months, wasn't it?"

Jimmy was still looking horrified, and Valencio said, "Being hobbled was great. The women thought they had to console me, because it was such a terrible punishment, and every morning, a different one would come and help me shower. I loved it."

Clarence laughed, "No wonder you took it so cheerfully!"

Jimmy swallowed, and asked, "Just feet?"

"Feet and right hand." Valencio grinned, remembering the achievement. He stood. "Like this. Feet about a foot apart, and right wrist tied to right ankle. And I learned to hit anyway, and knocked down one of the guards with my right fist. I don't think he could quite understand how he was suddenly on the ground." He'd never spoken of his time in captivity so easily. Maybe the women were right. Maybe it didn't all need to be buried.

Brigitta said, "Show me."

"Show you what?"

"How you hit out with a tied down right hand."

"It was fifteen years ago! And it's a hard floor."

Brigitta said airily, "I don't believe it then."

"Come outside then, on the grass, and I'll see whether I can still do it." He looked at those who followed him out, and said, "Someone will have to volunteer to be hit, of course."

"I think you might pretend a guard."

Valencio looked at his feet, and moved them experimentally, remembering the short steps, and then raised his right fist, and stopped where he would have been pulled short by the hobbles. He said, "Come on, Clarence. I won't connect, and I probably can't even do it any more."

Clarence grinned, approached Valencio, and raised a hand. "This is my wand, and I'm about to inflict donkey ears."

Valencio's eyes narrowed, and he jacknifed his body, lashed out with feet and right fist, neatly rolled, and came to his feet again, raising both hands for applause. There were cheers, and Clarence shook his head. "If I were a guard, I certainly wouldn't have expected that!"

"What did they do to you?"

"Narzu-Han was my owner at that time. He probably gave me date scones!"

Clarence said, "I wonder if Bernice can cook date scones."

They wandered back inside, and Tasha asked Valencio what he'd been up to. He looked more cheerful than she was accustomed to seeing him, when in the ballroom.

There was a lot of talk of future plans. Some spoke about starting businesses. Others about training for a career. Yet others spoke only about doing hobby courses, available in Bogridge.

Wednesday evening, Bellamy, Michael and Dot found there were ample supplies of beer, as well as other drinks, and party foods. "We're celebrating the downfall of the Khatabis," Carol said, "And we want to start with a detailed description of what happened."

Bellamy settled himself down with a beer, and started to talk, a lot more willingly than he had on the previous occasion.

"We were in New York spell-breaking, and they were having terrible problems with the Khatabis. They asked me to kill Yiko Khatabi, as they said he was the ringleader. But killing one wouldn't have made much difference. So as soon as I got the address, I went there, found five men in a room, paralysed and tied them up, and then gave them instructions, one by one - not to hurt any person or animal, and I told each of them that they had to go to a different place, and stay there."

"Who did you tell?"

"Yiko, Ahjmed, Hicham, Adil, Narzu-Han, and two others in a second room, Iyad and Faheem. Seven men, then eight women in a different area of the house, except I told the women they could defend themselves if attacked, and that they should take their children."

"Those ones you say, especially Yiko and Ahjmed, they were very powerful, and Yiko and Narzu-Han, they had telepathy as well."

Bellamy nodded. "Yiko and Narzu-Han combined, and came close to defeating me. I couldn't hold the paralysis of the others, so it was a good thing I tied them up to begin with."

Kaede said, "I saw Yiko hold over a hundred people under control once, and give specific instructions to myself and two others at the same time."

Carol said, "The Khatabi-Richi spoke of him with absolute awe. They said there was no-one else like him, and all the most powerful Khatabis bore his blood."

They stared at Bellamy, as if they hadn't seen him before. Gloria said accusingly, "He was a hundred and twenty years old."

Valencio stared into the distance. Narzu-Han, always so controlled, always so much in command. Nearly always. Just once, he'd seen him lose his temper. Surprising he'd survived it, really. Yiko, who didn't seem quite human. Small, yellow-skinned, old, and so very, very knowing. Yiko and Narzu-Han had been together, with Ahjmed, who was feared all over Arabia. Adil and Hicham, as well. Five of the most powerful wizards in the world, two with telepathy, and John had defeated them.

Valencio sighed, and turned his attention back to the man who looked so ordinary, a little embarrassed, as he took in the expressions on the faces of those around him.

Bellamy continued his story, hurriedly, "Anyway, I left the women's quarters, and a couple of youths saw me, and one slapped a paralysis spell on me. The interesting thing was that he hadn't needed to draw a wand. But anyway, I don't need a wand either, so I freed myself, and made them forget. None of the others would know they'd been spoken to, either. And then I disapparated out of there. That's all there was to it."

Helene spoke curiously, "How long did it take?"

"About an hour."

Helene repeated slowly, "About an hour."

Carol asked, "If they'd been in the other house with us, as they often were, would you have known?"

"I asked one if there were any other powerful Khatabi wizards in New York, and he said not. Pity I said wizards, though, as otherwise he might have told me about Riza. I knew there was an old lady with Najia in the hotel, but she kept out of sight?"

"What did Najia have to do with it?" asked Carol, very curiously.

Bellamy hesitated an instant, and then said casually, "I think Riza might have been keeping a watch or something, and maybe Najia was looking after her, as she was so old."

Gloria asked suspiciously, "What are you not telling us, John?"

"I didn't tell you how worried I was before I entered the women's quarters. There were so many, all together, and the men came close to taking me down. If the women could combine like that, I might have been lost."

Gloria still looked at him with some suspicion, but allowed the conversation to stray to the women. They'd so seldom seen any of the Khatabi women.

Valencio grinned. He reckoned he knew what it was, that Najia was supposed to have had his baby, an 'outcross' for old Riza's breeding programme. He guessed it was no wonder.

There was some conversation about Laki Khatabi then, whom Clarence and Valencio could remember once demonstrating the Paralysis spell without use of a wand. Bellamy was interested, but afterwards fell into apparent deep thought, by himself. Valencio looked back at him just as he suddenly grinned to himself, and asked Carol if she was finished with him, as he was going for a walk.

Michael and Dot regarded him dubiously, and Michael said, "You're not going to go looking for a fight, are you?"

Bellamy was grinning, "I haven't been in a fight for ages."

Dot frowned disapprovingly as he left, walking quite quickly, and Michael shook his head.

Gloria said, "A fight?"

Michael explained, "He was always well behaved when married to Pat, but he's a legend. Getting into fistfights, slipping his bodyguards whenever he chooses, non-stop series of girlfriends, overlapping, sometimes more than one in his bed at a time..."

Helene said, "He's never taken any notice of any of us in that way."

Dot said, "He never does with his employees, either, like we're in a different category, and off limits."

Michael said, "It's part of the job of his bodyguards to keep away the girls who fancy going to bed with him."

Tiffany said, "He told us that one of you let in a girl one time, when he was asleep."

"I heard he nearly killed the one who did that, and we're threatened with instant dismissal if it ever happens again."

Gloria said abruptly, "It's unfair of him getting into fistfights when he can just kill his opponent if he gets hurt."

"He's very fast, and strong, or so I've been told, never having seen him fight, but he never uses magic, and there's been times he's ended up in a medj hospital somewhere, when he's been beaten up."

"I had a fight with him once," said Jimmy. "He didn't like his boxing gloves, and sort of held them out at his sides, and shook his hands a couple of times, as if he thought they might come off. Yet I couldn't touch him, and as I was very angry at the time, I was trying hard."

"He mentioned that once," said Michael, "He said he won."

"I knew I was hopelessly outclassed the moment he started to hit back, even though he didn't hit hard. But afterwards, he walked straight into something he didn't see. His sight was bad, he was still thin then, and I was thrashed!"

"You'd think, with all his power, even that he can beat people without magic, that he'd never be defeated."

"No matter how powerful, he can be defeated if someone gets him in the back, or he can be tricked. He's only human, and sometimes very rash."

"It was rash of him to come to Morocco," said Emma softly.

Gloria asked, "How did he get whipped?"

Michael shook his head. "I know nothing of him being whipped."

There were no stories the next evening, but there was a lot of hilarity - Gloria, whose mood sometimes seemed to influence the mood of them all. But also Bernice, who kissed Clarence, told him that of course they were properly married, and she'd ask Dot just to supply a magically forged, legal marriage document, the same as Tasha had.

It was known that Bernice had visited a priest, but it seemed it wasn't the priest who'd made her feel better, as she announced very loudly that she was far happier as an atheist than she had ever been as a Catholic. And she laughed to Clarence that she'd told him he was just an ignorant, small town priest.

"Why?" asked Clarence.

Bernice said airily that it had suddenly hit her just how foolish she'd been all these years. Clarence squeezed her, very pleased that she seemed now so happy, and they whispered to each other, and went to bed early.

Meantime, Valencio was in Gloria's room, at her pressing invitation. They made love, and afterwards, she cuddled up to him, very close, and then, after a while, started to cry. Valencio kissed her and said tenderly that it was hardly complimentary, and obviously his lovemaking left a lot to be desired. Gloria laughed through her tears and calmed.

At last, she took a long, shuddering breath, and said, "I've just been a little unsettled lately."

Valencio smiled at the understatement, and kissed her again.

Gloria said, "I asked John to have sex with me last night. He said no. He said I might be like my horse, he'd think everything was fine, and then I'd lay back my ears and bite his bottom."

Valencio laughed, and offered, "You can bite my bottom if you feel the need."

Gloria said solemnly, "I do not feel the need to bite your bottom." But then she pushed him gently, and said, "You'd best go back to Tasha. She'll be looking for you by now."

Tasha was still in the ballroom, talking to Didi and Sheri. She smiled at Valencio, and asked, "She feel better now?"

Valencio said he didn't actually know, she was always a mystery to him.

xchapter endx