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

guards shouted for the workers to give up the cards the molemen had given them. But as Theissen and the others willingly walked out the door, they could tell that most of the workers hid the cards where they could not be found.

Forcefully shoved back to the front entrance, Ruban was the only one left of the threesome still with them. Leoner and Forntbas had remained behind to shouting threats at the workers which they swore to fulfill if any of their employees left their job.

Ruban slapped a cold red stone into Theissen’s bare hand. “Here! This is proof enough that we don’t need the molemen’s stones. So go and try to beat us. You’ll end up like all our other competitors. Suicidal losers.”

Theissen just stared at the stone. Then he lifted his eyes to Ruban. The stone was the size and shape of a child’s heart, a ruby larger than Theissen had ever seen in the molemen’s cavern, and flawless to the naked eye.

“Look at that,” one of the ex-molemen murmured.

“See?” Ruban said with a smug grin, adjusting his gloves as if touching Theissen’s hand could infect him. “So go on your way, Wizard.” Then Ruban rounded on the worker, “As for you, you traitor, you are nothing to us.”

Ruban turned away from them and stomped out of the foyer.

Tilting his head, Theissen turned to Karo, then the man who had volunteered to leave with them. “Well, I think we’re done here.”

He walked out the main doors just peering at the red stone with fascination. They trotted after him, all of them staring at the stone Ruban had freely given Theissen as if they had plenty of stones to use. A dark mood settled on all of them except for Theissen who hopped down the steps of the building, just shaking his head as he peered at the ruby.

“What are we going to do now?” Karo asked. Grief swelled over him, his eyes gazing sorrowfully at the jeweler who swiftly looked stricken that he had just walked out on his job.

“We go home,” Theissen replied, strolling straight to the carriage. The driver had waited cheerfully, napping some in his own carriage seat.

“What about me?” the worker asked. He was trembling. He kept peering up at Theissen with desperation. “I have no work now.”

“What are you talking about?” Theissen blinked, tearing his eyes from the red stone to look at him. “Get in the carriage. You’re working for us. We’ll go to your house, and we’ll make sure you are moved into the tower tonight. No one can threaten you there.”

“But…but the ruby?” The stonecutter reached out to see if it was real.

Theissen jerked it back. “Don’t touch it. It’s cursed.”

The former molemen stared at him, then it.

“Cursed?”

Nodding, Theissen then turned to Karo. “Get another carriage and hurry back to the tower. I’m sure by tonight or tomorrow we’ll see more people come in. Trust me.”

“But you said that stone was cursed.” Karo pointed at it.

Theissen nodded with a grin. “It is. Which means they don’t have a legitimate source for stones. They need your business. Ruban, the creep, gave the stone to me so I would turn to stone and I would be taken out of the way. It’s a demon stone. But the idiot doesn’t understand wizards at all.”

“What do you mean?” Karo asked.

The others still watched the perfectly cut ruby, enraptured by it.

Chuckling, Theissen replied, “I can untie the knot and cure the stone. It isn’t even a ruby.”

“Then what is it?” Karo asked, peering at the colored, clear rock.

Shrugging, Theissen gestured to the driver to go. “We’ll find out when I untie the entire knot. To the Ki Tai tower!”

“You aren’t gonna pay me with that demon stone, are you?” the carriage driver called back.

“No. I’ll give you a silver coin. Is that fair?”

“Plenty fair.” The driver urged the horse on.

When they reached the tower and Theissen hopped off the carriage to send the jeweler back with it to his home to gather his wife and kids (the driver now having two more silver coins in his pouch for the job), he went up to his room (running breathlessly up the stairs and inside) for something to hold the stone. He grabbed the silver teacup. Running back down to the main floor, he practically crashed into Karo, taking the stone into the kitchen. Tippany was there with Manda sorting through a basket of herbs, tying them in bunches to dry.

“What is that?” Tippany walked over, peering at the stone.

“Don’t touch it,” Theissen said. He set it on the counter. “It is a demon stone.”

Tippany lurched back.

Theissen then picked up a cut off chicken leg, setting it against the stone. For the first few seconds, nothing happened. Then, the leg abruptly went rigid. Theissen set the crystalizing chicken on the counter and just watched the claws, the leg and every piece of flesh rapidly turn into a clear amber color. The bone inside shone through like diamonds.

“Oh, heavens!” Manda dropped her bundle.

“What happened to it?” Tippany leaned near like she would pick it up, but barely dared to.

Theissen lifted the crystalline chicken leg off the table and sighed. “Demon stone. Only this demon stone won’t turn you into anything like the red one.”

“Why not?” one of Manda’s twins asked, peering up at the changed chicken leg with horror and curiosity mixed.

Shrugging, Theissen muttered, “Maybe because it isn’t the original one. But can you imagine wearing a dead chicken? Or person? Just chopped up, shaped, and cut into tiny pieces?”

“I think I’m going to throw up.” Tippany turned towards one of the empty cooking bowls.

“Go on ahead,” Theissen said peering down at the red stone. “The stink of this demon is nasty. I think it is even as bad as gole stench. I nearly vomited twice on the ride up here.”

Everyone stared at him.

“So, what are you going to do?” Manda asked him.

He looked down to her and shrugged. “Untie the knot.”

With that, he reached into the teacup and pulled apart the complicated knot of flow he saw within the red stone, untangling the most tied-up net of magic he had ever seen. Obviously the spell that made the demon stone was one of the worst, most intricate pieces of magic ever performed. Undoing it really was a test of strength, one which he could not perform while touching the stone himself. With his hand touching the stone, he had to fight the tangles that were struggling to knot him up like the stone itself. At least in the teacup he had some distance to work with.

“Ew! What is that?”

“Disgusting!”

Tippany vomited this time.

A few others caught themselves, turning away.

But with the stink cleared, Theissen breathed in deep. Yet a new revulsion replaced the stench of demon. It was a child’s heart.

“Some poor kid….” Karo murmured.

Tippany started to cry. Theissen went over to her and wrapped his arm around her, covering her face so she did not have to see it.

“What do we do with it? Bury it?” Manda murmured, always the pragmatist.

“Look Mom! The chicken leg is back to normal!” The twins were screaming, hopping all around with the dog running under the table, barking.

Theissen peered at the chicken leg. Sure enough, the leg was flesh again, and its knots gone. Apparently with the original stone undone, the other things cursed by it were also cured.

“We should do something though,” Tippany murmured into Theissen’s chest. “That poor child.”

Nodding, Theissen frowned at the heart. “Maybe we should consult an herbalist. I don’t know divining spells at all. I bet an herbalist can probably find the owner of the heart, or at least the family the child belonged to.”

“In the meantime,” Manda hastily covered the heart with a pot lid, nodding to Theissen that he could let Tippany go, “we ought to set it somewhere safe and out of the way.”

“Agreed.” Theissen let the merchant’s daughter go then picked up both the cup and the lid, lifting them off the table. “In the meantime, Manda, prepare dinner so that we can feed about five more people. We’re having more eating with us tonight. Tippany, would you mind helping Manda while I go find a safe place for this?”

The merchant’s daughter nodded, wiping her eyes.

“Where are you going?” Karo followed Theissen out the door. The wizard took long strides, hastening his trip.

Theissen looked back, already at the foot of the stairs. “Me? Oh, just upstairs. I have a box I figure I can put the heart into. It was going to be a wedding present for Milrina and Rumi, but I think it will work just as fine for the heart until we discover the owner.”

Karo heaved a sigh. “Okay. I just needed to know in case that jewel cutter returned and asked for you.”

With a nod, Theissen climbed up the stairs back to his room.

Once in his room, Theissen set the teacup with the heart on the desk, pulled out a chair from his desk, and immediately started to write a letter to Jonis.

 

Dear Friend,

I know you are busy right now, but please if you can help me find an answer to a quandary I have fallen into, I’d appreciate it. Someone tried to curse me with a demon stone today, failed thankfully. But the when I undid the curse on the stone, I discovered that it was once a child’s heart. I want to find the owner of the heart and comfort the family, but I’m clueless as how to do that. Please, if you know any spells for matching property to people or families, I would much appreciate it.

Waiting for a quick response,

Theissen

 

He dried the ink, folded the paper, and stuffed it into the red envelope. Closing it up, the envelope stiffened then zipped away through the cracks between the window and the frame.

There. That was done.

Rising from his chair, Theissen dropped to his bed. Gazing at the ceiling, he found his thoughts wandering to the new set of troubles he had stirred up that day. Perhaps the magician was right. Wizards were trouble. It was his very nature to dislike stifled things. Naturally he wanted to clear them up. He enjoyed watching the healthy flow of change and growth. He hated seeing one controlling force push, suppress, and oppress others like that jewelry guild was doing. It was like a giant demon gole, consuming everything, stomping on opposition, and gloating as it listened to its prey scream from pain. It was only natural that he untangle the knots that he saw in the beast. Only natural.

“Theissen Wizard.” Tippany rapped on the door. “Dinner is ready.”

Blinking, Theissen sat up. He glanced at the window. Somehow the sun had gone down without letting him know. His room was dark. Heaving out a sigh, he climbed off his bed and walked over to his door, opening it. “Alright. I’m coming.”

Tippany smiled. She stepped aside as she lifted her candle to his lamp to give it light. Then she blew the candle out, tucking it in her pocket.

They walked down the hall to the stairs, descending wordlessly for one floor before he drew in a breath and said, “I thought you were still mad at me.”

Ducking her head, blushing again, Tippany replied, “Your—I mean, Milrina told me about the whole thing with that lord baron. She also told me about how you saved her life.”

He paused, somehow losing the ability to step down. “Why are you always here? Don’t I make you nervous at all?”

Tippany turned, blinking at him with surprise. “What do you mean?”

He walked down a few more steps so they could look each other in the eye. “What I mean is, every girl except for my cousin has been terrified of me once they discovered that I was a wizard. You knew on the first day, and yet you still keep coming. Why?”

Blinking her wide eyes at him, she then smiled. “Because, I knew you were good the first day I met you. It doesn’t