The Great Magician

By Mike Ward

A man in the 1930s recession is sent to a parallel version of Earth after offending a female magician. Ninety years later a cyclist having a bad day finds himself sent to a parallel version of Earth by the same female magician. Hovering in the sky above the other Earth the Great Magician observes both men. One man should have been dead years ago, but he is still only 32 years old, and he is held at that age by magic that comes from the Great Magician.

The Great Magician has ultimate power and basically controls everything that goes on in this world. The men and women in the Council of Magicians all have cloaks of immortality and will live for thousands of years, but those cloaks of immortality can be removed if they should offend the Great Magician.

Magic comes from the magic rings worn by all the magicians, male and female, on this world. There are magicians who are kind and other magicians who are not so kind. The Great Magician is fond of the intricate dances that are performed by some of the female magicians on this world. This gives the female magicians who can perform the dances power and influence with the Great Magician, and since only women dance then female magicians have a special influence with the Great Magician that the men do not.

One of the Great Magician's favorite dancers is the Lady Mary. It can take decades to learn how to perform the dances properly, and the Lady Mary is a most expert dancer. Before the day is out the cyclist who has come to this world will be tricked into becoming a servant of the Lady Mary. The Great Magician sees potential in this man who has come from another world, and he may be useful. So the Great Magician will watch and observe. There are two possible paths for this cyclist. On one path the cyclist will be sentenced to death by the Council of Magicians. On the other path the cyclist may be an expert at an art that was lost to this world more than 10,000 years ago. The first thing the cyclist must do when he arrives on this world is run from red haired humanoid creatures who think he might make a good lunch. The Great Magician watches and waits to see what happens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mike Ward
• Release date: Sep 4, 2016
• ISBN: 9781370181285

Mike Ward

Mike Ward was born in Glasgow, Scotland and currently lives in Florida, United States with his wife and two children. He is the author of two novels, two non-fiction books and six series of novellas:Parallel Realities seriesThe House on Mars seriesJacksonville Jack seriesStephen Haggerty Assassin seriesLisa Molin Assassin seriesDangerous Scotsman seriesHe is also the author of 60 short stories and novellas

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The Great Magician

by Mike Ward

(Author of The Banker With a Face Full of Evil)

Copyright 2016 Mike Ward

Published by Mike Ward at Smashwords

Smashwords Edition License Notes

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Table of Contents

The Great Magician

Excerpt from Lisa Molin Assassin – One Hell of an Execution in Tallinn in Estonia

About Mike Ward

Other Books by Mike Ward

Connect with Mike Ward

Excerpt from The Banker With a Face Full of Evil

The Great Magician

The day started normally enough. Robert Gerard got up, ate and then got onto his bicycle. The cycling team he belonged to in Northeast Florida were practicing hard and there was a lot of competition to be on the team. In fact the competition was so tough that just lately Robert had begun to take steroids and that would be his undoing. Just before he left Robert popped his usual morning pill. Steroids will make a lot of changes to your body if you are foolish enough to take them. Apart from ugly side effects like a male looking face if you are female and enlarged nipples if you are male the main problem with steroids is what is commonly referred to as roid rage and Robert had that. Just lately he had taken to kicking the cars of motorists who got in his way. This was an ugly habit and Robert knew that if he didn't stop it then sooner or later it would get him into trouble. The problem was the rage came with the steroids, he wished it didn't happen but everyone else on the team was taking steroids apart from one guy so if he didn't take them he wouldn't be on the team,

Unfortunately for Robert it was already too late. Trouble was coming at him fast and it was coming at him in the form of a small woman in a hot car who was not what she seemed. Robert was already doing over 30 miles an hour when he shot off the pavement and crossed the street in front of a car at a stop sign. He had thought he had enough time, he miscalculated and as he was going past her as the woman began to move. He swerved quickly to one side, she slammed her brakes on and they just missed each other by literally a fraction of a second. Had Robert sat back and thought properly he would have realized that he was only intact due to the woman's extremely fast reactions. He had made a mistake, a bad mistake and what he should have done was just waved and then rode off.

Instead he did what he always did. He yelled Hey asshole, what do you think you're doing.

Even at that point there was still time to save the situation. The woman's driver window was already open and she heard every word he said. Had she just sworn at him and driven off then he would have given chase, tried to catch her and she would have taken a side street, accelerated and he would have chased her some more and then given up. In some versions of reality this was his future until in six months time he kicked the side panel of an unmarked car belonging to a Jacksonville cop and ended up with two bullets in the chest and two in the brain.

It was Robert Gerard's extremely bad luck that the woman looked horrified, stopped and began to apologize. It was no coincidence that most of the cars kicked by Robert Gerard belonged to women, especially to teenage girls. Robert was a bully, disliked women to a certain extent and liked to hear the sound of his voice raised.

The woman opened her window some more and began to say how sorry she was. In an instant Robert was off his bike and kicking the side panel of her car. He had time to realize that the car was very expensive and then the woman was out of the car and running at him. This was the point where he usually shouted at the girl if it was a young girl until she was in tears and then rode off. Something was screaming at him to ride off but the woman was short so he didn't. Seconds later his wrist was grabbed by an arm that was incredibly strong and then he was slapped hard in the face. He was so shocked he fell over. And then he kicked at the woman and caught her on the back of the leg as she was walking back to her car.

Robert knew as soon as he had kicked the woman that he had made a mistake because he had never seen rage like the rage the woman showed on her face. She bent down, picked him up by the ankle and then threw him, only this wasn't an ordinary throw. Robert looked down and saw trees underneath him. He sailed over two trees and then he began to turn over in the air. Suddenly he was dizzy. His mind was racing, he knew there was no way a woman could have thrown him the way this one did. He continued to spin and then he was falling. He hit the ground hard, bounced a couple of times and then rolled into a thorn bush. A few seconds later his bicycle landed with a crash in the same thorn bush. This annoyed him even more than the fact that the woman had thrown him. If his precious bike was damaged...

He stood up and looked around. The phrase from the Wizard of Oz about not being in Kansas anymore came right into his head. Instead of the asphalt road there was a dirt track. Instead of the neat Florida subdivision there was a row of wooden houses. And there was something looking at him that was definitely not human. Robert picked up his bike, jumped on it and began to ride. Whatever had been watching him was now chasing him. It was covered in dark hair, looked vaguely humanoid and it could speak after a fashion. He rode and then he watched as other creatures looking a lot like the first one came out of the houses. Some of the houses had humans in and some of them had the creatures in and it looked as though they lived together.

Are you catching us a nice meal Raggart? one of the humans yelled and Robert realized they were not going to help him.

Look at him ride, another one yelled. This one was a woman and was quite beautiful. Robert was still looking at her as one of the creatures jumped across the trail in front of him. It opened its mouth as it sailed past him and Robert saw long teeth, red hair and eyes that had rudimentary intelligence. He had time to realize that it had jumped from the top window of a house and then it was up and chasing after him. He emerged from the village with five of the creatures chasing him and as he passed the last house a woman stepped out onto the porch and threw a rock at his head. It hit his skull, hurt like hell and the shock of it almost made him fall off his bike. He hit a thorn bush, managed to stay in the saddle, swerved to avoid another of the creatures that jumped at him and then he was riding uphill out of the village. He was halfway up the hill when he realized that he was not going to make it. The creatures were baying behind him and he knew that sound. That was the sound that wolves made when they knew they had their prey cornered.

Leave him alone, a voice yelled and the creatures stopped suddenly.

He looked back and they were standing there all five of them. One of them had a knife in its hand. The knife was serrated and looked like it was made for killing. Robert looked at the knife and his blood ran cold.

Can we have him Mary, one of the creatures said. He would make good eating.

Leave him be, the woman said.

Robert looked at her and realized that she bore a resemblance to the woman in the car he had just kicked. What's going on? he said. Where am I?

The woman looked at him and she seemed to be appraising him. I see that you met my sister, she said. Annoyed her I see you have.

Speak English please, Robert said.

For a moment something dark crossed the woman's face and then it was gone as fast it had come. I'm sorry, she said. I know your way of speaking but it has been sometime since I was in your world.

What do you mean in my world, Robert said.

I mean exactly what I said. It should be plain to you that this is not your world.

The roid rage Robert had been feeling when he bumped into this woman's sister was completely gone now and an ice cold fear had formed inside him instead. He was good at kicking women's cars but a situation like this was a little unnerving. However, Robert was not dumb, he was just an asshole and to be honest he shouldn't have been calling other people assholes when he was such a major one himself. That thought passed through his mind. That had been said to him by a young woman with a baby when he had kicked her car. Afterward he had felt bad about that but not bad enough to go back and apologize or pay for the damage he had done to her car.

He looked at the woman. "How