Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (ereader ebook .TXT) 📖

pay, rather tactfully too since I heard about her advances towards you.”

It took a moment for Theissen to believe the man was serious. Theissen watched him pull out a bag of coins. The lord baron held them out. “We owe you at least eighty in gold.”

“Eighty?” Theissen walked straight over, taking the bag, and looked into it. It certainly was all gold. There was a unique flow to gold, as there was to silver and other precious metals. He peered up at the man. “But my work wasn’t worth—”

“Are you kidding? A man who keeps true to his word, and also protects his virtue under the mountain of duress that my wife puts people through, is worth much more than that in gold. I was hoping you’d just accept eighty.” The lord baron smiled. Then so did his thug, revealing a row of perfectly straight teeth in his rock hard jaw.

Theissen just looked dazed, glancing once to Manda who stared at the heavy coin pouch in Theissen’s hands, and then over at her dumbfounded twins who peered greedily at the purse also.

The dog ran in, panting eagerly with the desire to play.

About that time Dobbis came in bickering with Karo over the prices of lamp oil and coal. Teppan jogged in from the shop to ask Theissen a question, with Ronen shouting after for him to also ask about the varnish they were using. They all stopped and stared at Theissen who was still speechless.

“Hi, Manda!” Tippany walked through the front door hauling in a basket full of fruit. She was carrying a rather large one in her hands with glee as she skipped in. “Is Theissen around?”

She looked up when she saw the lord baron and his man, freezing on the spot.

Lord Baron Dennerin patted Theissen on the shoulder as he turned, whispering to his man. He then said to Theissen as his man went and opened the door for him. “Good luck to you. And congratulations on your marriage.”

He gave Tippany a nod, and walked from the tower.

Tippany’s face went bright red. She dropped her basket.

Theissen looked up, almost chasing the man to the outside to clear it up. But he stopped when he saw a tear on the merchant daughter’s face. “Oh, come on. Don’t cry. He didn’t know what he was talking about.”

“Who is he?” Tippany turned, angrily wiping her tear away. She set down the large fruit.

Hanging his arms, Theissen about dropped to his knees. “He was just the Lord Baron Dennerin, a village owner from outside Pepersin. He was just thanking me for not sleeping with his wife.”

Tippany slapped him then ran back outside.

“Tippany!” He got up, darting after her.

Ahead of them, the lord baron’s carriage rumbled down the hill. Her feet ran as if she were one of his horses, chasing after him in his livery. It was hard enough to keep up. In fact, Tippany was gone down an alley and already out of sight before he could chase her down. Theissen stopped, panting and clenching his knees.

“Not a good day to lose your flying demon, is it?” someone said.

Theissen looked up, blinking at whomever was bothering him now.

 He saws Henren the one-handed magician from Lumen.

Theissen straightened up, preparing himself for the worst. “What do you want?”

Henren Magician just smiled. “I was just watching. Seeing how you were handling your gallery of freaks and clients. Not so easy trying to be the magic man for a big city is it?”

“I’m not here to play magic man for the city, Magician.” Theissen kept his eyes on the magician’s wrists to make sure there was no revival of that demonic magic the man had put there previously. “I’m here to help my friends start their businesses while setting up a carpentry shop of my own. That’s all.”

“As a registered wizard?” The magician sneered.

Theissen backed away from him. Exposing his back to the likes of this man was always a bad idea. He would most likely find it stabbed or cursed. “No. I registered as a wizard to claim the plot of land. I—”

His dog bounded out of the tower. It barked furiously at the magician, leaping in between them.

The magician cursed as he backed away from Theissen. “You keep that beast tied!”

“Come back, Birdie!” One of the twins ran out after it.

Theissen stepped back from the magician with a smile, peeking at his dog.

 The dog still growled on his behalf.

Patting the dog’s head, Theissen turned to go. “Come on, Birdie. Let’s go back inside.”

“Watch yourself, Wizard,” Henren snapped, also backing down the street. “Next time we meet, you’ll be the dog’s food.”

His robes billowing after him with the same dramatic atmosphere of doom, the magician stomped off. Funny though, watching him now, Theissen could see the man was mostly a lot of show. In a way, the magician’s threats were like the pathetic curses of a beggar at a rich man who stiffed him a coin. The magician was bitter and impotent.

Going back up the hill, Theissen patted the dog on its head again. “Good dog.”

Birdie wagged his tail with joy, panting as he trotted after him.

*

“Tippany, can you please just come out and talk to me?” Theissen stood on the merchant’s doorstep, not even stopping at the inn to check on things. The inn practically ran itself anyway.

Her younger brother stuck his head out the window and stuck his tongue out at him. “Go away! She doesn’t want to see you!”

Theissen exhaled with a frown. “I just need to clear up a misunderstanding.”

“She won’t see you, you blackguard!” The boy slammed the window shut. The glass rattled in the frame.

However, his mother opened the front door. A frown seemed carved into her face. She was wiping her hands on an apron as she beckoned Theissen over.

Walking up, Theissen bowed his head to her.

“I heard what was said.” A disapproving look was in her eye. “What kind of explanation can you possibly give that could convince me to let you see my daughter after that?”

Gazing honestly into her face, Theissen excavated through his own confused feelings for a reply. He lowered his head. “I’m not here to win her or anything. I don’t deserve that. I just didn’t want her thinking I was the kind of man that played around with a woman’s feelings.”

The merchant’s wife’s gaze remained steady. She waited.

“Tippany walked in on an awkward conversation about a sticky situation I found myself in years ago. I was hired by a landowner’s wife about a few months into my journey, and I finished my work for her as agreed. But the woman made advances…” He shook his head, cringing even now at what he had barely escaped from. “And I had to run off without getting my pay. Her husband hunted me down to pay me. Though, I had been sure he was after my head because all the rumors about him said he would believe his wife first and not some journeyman passing through. His remarks about my being married was that he thought Tippany was Milrina. I had told the stewards and servants in his house that I was engaged to keep the maids from throwing themselves at me.”

“That happens to you a lot, doesn’t it?” The merchant’s wife’s frown melted into a forgiving smirk.

Theissen glanced painfully up at her. “Only before they find out I’m a wizard. Then they run the other way.”

With a sigh, the merchant’s wife stepped out the door, closing it behind her to shut out the listening ears and watching faces of her sons. “I apologize for thinking ill of you. I should have known you were an honorable young man.”

“But Tippany won’t—”

“You are evasive, Wizard.” The mother cut him off with a chiding smile. “I don’t think you are sure yourself of what you want.”

He frowned, then looked up at Tippany’s window. She peered out through the curtains. Her expression was morose, her eyes red.

“I don’t know,” he murmured. His eyes trailed to the miniature rose bush that still had yet to bloom. Winter was nearing the end. Another month, and spring would begin to show it signs of starting.

“Well,” the merchant’s wife patted his shoulder, turning back to the door. “Come back when you do know. In the meantime, think about it. I’m sure a smart man like you can come up with something good.”

He watched her go back inside. Trudging down the steps, Theissen brushed his fingers past the rosebush. Several of the branches rapidly grew and blossomed.

Theissen walked slowly back to the tower, reaching it by sunset.

Chapter Forty-Four: I Promised I’d Help You Establish Yourself

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

“And I’m telling you, they won’t deal.” Karo sat across the desk from where Theissen was drawing up plans for an elaborate writing desk. Theissen had also finished plans for a set of tables that could accommodate a large classroom. A stack of these plans rested on the desk for an idea he was working on, one that kept Theissen busy while carpentry work had gotten more specialized and required more drying and fitting rather than busy carving. He hated those waiting periods. Often he had to fill it with other work. Most of the small tasks in the shop he left to his apprentices. Now that he had also taken on a local boy, his time filled up more, but not enough. Usually he trained the boy in the basics of carpentry every afternoon after the boy finished his morning school class--which left Theissen’s mornings empty.

Lifting his eyes from his project, Theissen gave the now dignified-looking ex-moleman a longsuffering expression. “What exactly did they say?”

Nodding, Karo drew out from his pocket a list he had made. Karo turned out to be the master of lists. He frequently recorded complaints and failings of a project, something that annoyed Theissen.

“They said that if we don’t sell our rough stones to them at the usual low price, they’ll take their business elsewhere. Apparently there is a mine they get jewels from in the Coastal Mountains. They even claimed that their jewels were cheaper.”

“They’re lying.” Theissen went back to his plans, shifting his ruler to mark up another side of the desk he was going to make.

“I know that, but they really won’t budge. And we can’t cut stones.” Karo frowned. “You have got to use your magic to change their mind.”

“My magic doesn’t do that,” Theissen said without looking up. “But what I will do is go with you to meet with them to renegotiate.”

“Renegotiate?” Karo echoed. “But isn’t that what I just asked you to—”

“What I mean is,” Theissen drew another line om the paper, marking the measurements then using his protractor to check angles and mark them again, “I intend to go with you to scout out their shop. They’ve got to have some disgruntled workers willing to leave their monopoly for better pay, right?” He sketched on another mark. “I think once we advertise that we’re hiring skilled artisans, and then prove that we’re serious, I think we can sway a few people to help fix your little precious stone problem.”

“You’d do that?” Karo’s eyes went wide.

Theissen looked up at him. “This city is too big for one jeweler to rule everything. Besides, I promised I’d help you establish yourself. The