The personal library of Dicax Sid was the largest collection of scientific and historical reading material in the Western Kingdom and for Murphy, the most books she had ever seen in her entire life. Sid led his two guests through the stacks to the central reading table, which was also stacked with books.
"Have you read all these books?" asked Murphy.
Sid narrowed his heavy-lidded eye as if calculating an answer. "I'd say a little more than half."
"And to think they called me bookish for reading four out of the five books available at the nunnery," said Murphy. "The mother superior always regretted teaching me to read."
"It's a gift that keeps giving. I've spent the last few nights pouring over the subject of eternal life and am working on compiling the knowledge from my collection into a single volume."
Sid sat down at the table and pulled a big freshly bound book in front of himself.
"Here's one more for you," said Melock dropping Kulju's spellbook down with a thud. "I destroyed the pages he copied the instructions for becoming a lich onto."
"And the tomb itself?"
"Buried safely once again."
"Let's keep it that way," said Sid.
Murphy elbowed Melock in the side and whispered, "What about your picture?"
Sid tilted his head disapprovingly and said, "You're not carrying around a copy of that old Lich's magic, are you? That's a terribly dangerous thing to do."
"I assure you it's for scientific purposes only and utterly inaccessible to anyone on this planet," said Melock.
"You better make it inaccessible to people off this planet if you plan on continuing your immortality research because this desk holds all this planet has to offer."
Sid flipped through his large book, opened to the page where he'd written out the Lich's spell himself some time ago, raised an eyebrow, and proceeded on to a chapter that began with a drawing of a double helix. The undulating spiral of a ladder caught the attention of his guests and they sat down on either side of the learned wizard.
"If you want to extend your existence beyond what we've already achieved, you're going to have to expand your research into the DNA level. I would advise seeking out the 71EEB8, the true masters of genetic engineering. They are a species of clones who have survived for multiple galactic rotations. They travel among the stars and have expanded their reach out beyond the Flower nebula. They claim to have been stable for half a million years since their last major iteration."
Murphy was making a puzzled face Melock had seen before.
"Clones are like identical twins. They all look the same," said Melock.
"So all these 71 people look alike?" said Murphy.
"Indeed and in this case, they are all middle-aged bald men," added Sid.
"I do like to get in fights with old bald men," smiled Murphy.
"They're the good guys. Probably one of the most altruistic races in the galaxy. If you can find them I'm sure they would share their secrets."
"So how do we find them?" asked Melock.
"I don't know. But, I know someone who might. I once met a technowizard called Tykö who had studied with the clones for many years and raved about their skills. And now that I think about it, you're probably going to want to seek him out as well. He's a bit of jack-of-all-trades and an expert in just about every type of technology."
"Sid, I've been through nearly every habitable world in our quadrant and never heard a word of this clone species."
"That's because they are on the other side of the galaxy, beyond the Zone of Avoidance," said Sid. "Have you been to the moon?"
"It's a rock, why would I?"
"The whale watcher. He lives there in his observatory. I can give you the coordinates and he can get you into deep space."
Sid got up and scanned a nearby bookshelf, pulled out a massive tome, opened it, and flipped through pages until he came to an illustration of the moon. There were runes below the image.
"Here we go," said Sid.
Melock took out his mobile device and snapped an image of the page.
"Excuse me," said Murphy, "are you actually going to travel to the moon?"
The two old wizards looked at her and smiled.
"Could I go? I've always looked up at the big blue cheese and wondered about the goddess of the moon."
"It's not made of cheese," said Melock, "but I was hoping you'd like to join me. I always find it useful to bring some muscle on these types of adventures."
"I would like to go very much. I was briefly the bodyguard of Sir Philip of Gretch but he turned out to be a degenerate so I had to relieve him of his title," said Murphy. "That is to say, I have bodyguard experience and you've seen my fighting in action already."
"Of course, you'd be an excellent companion. Would new weapons and armor plus room and board be sufficient payment?"
The look on her face said yes but she said, "It will be hard to replace my Lord John."
Melock looked to Sid, "She lost her war hammer. Do you think we could raid the King's armory?"
Sid ran his hand through his hair making it stand up in gravity-defying waves. "Given the state of things these days, maybe not. However..."
He got up and went deep into the shelves of books. After a few clangs, a crash, and a reshelving of books and boxes he returned holding an iron mace with a flanged head.
"The centaur's mace. You still have it," said Melock.
"I think she would be pleased for it to pass on to another female warrior."
Sid handed her the weapon. Murphy spun it around, flipped it through the air, twirled it in her fingers, slowed it, and felt its balance. Then she sliced the air a few times with vicious swings.
"A fine weapon. The gods have guided it to my hand." She touched it to her forehead and closed her eyes in silence.
Sid looked to Melock with a raised eyebrow, "a real believer this one."
"Indeed. She claims to be on a quest against evil," said Melock.
"There will be plenty of evildoers for you to vanquish I'm sure, but if you're going into space you'll need one of these."
Sid held out a chunky blown glass ring with a rainbow inside.
YOU ARE READING
Space Wizards
Science FictionUsually, they say not to judge a book by its cover but....
