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

However, Theissen thought it best not to pry.

“Then I can pretty much take over back there?” Theissen asked.

Grinning, the carpenter nodded. “By all means. Lumen journeymen have a reputation for cleaning up disorganized messes and making something of them. Why else did I jump at hiring you?”

“Thank you, sir.” And Theissen turned to go inside, nodding also to the woman. “Good day, ma’am.”

He heard her say as he went back into the shop, “What a well-mannered young man. He looks a lot like his brother. Funny how their manners are so different. That other one had a bit of a mouth.”

Theissen paused at the stairs, almost gone up to the larder to seal the doorway but instead waiting to hear more.

The carpenter laughed. “Indeed, though I would not call that one ill-mannered exactly.”

“But rash. And outspoken. You know that is why those Munden apprentices hate him.”

With another laugh, the carpenter shook his head. “That isn’t it. They hate him because he made it plain that they would never be as good as him. And look at them, still apprentices after four years. Their comrades had already surpassed them and left. That boy had trained five apprentices to be journeymen you know. Those three just hate him for being left behind. You know that is why they chased his other brother out of town.”

Tolbetan. Theissen nodded to himself. Tolbetan had said he was chased out of one town because of something Kinnerlin had done. He never said it had been Liptan Town. Up until then he had thought it was Brakir’s Town. When they had gotten the letter he had only assumed that Tolbetan had made a pass at some townsman’s daughter and the father had chased him off. He had mentioned a romance somewhere in that letter.

“That man? Oh, don’t you start with that one. He was here a week.” Her voice had turned to one of gossiping scandal. “Do you know how many girls he kissed in just a week?”

Chuckling to himself, Theissen continued up the stairs. That sounded like Tolbetan. 

*

“I’m starving!”

“Then clean up,” Theissen said. He was sitting on a stool watching the boys sulking after setting aside their projects. The floor was covered in sawdust and wood shavings. The wood racks were disorganized, different sizes jammed in all the wrong places. Tools were on the ground, scattered like children’s toys.

“You aren’t the boss of us!” one shouted.

“Yes, I am,” Theissen replied, getting up.

He walked around to the back door, peering out for the first time. It opened into a narrow alley that sloped up the hill. Down a ways he saw a young lady sweeping. He smiled at her with a small wave. She blushed, ducking back into the doorway. Sighing, he pulled his head back in.

Both boys were nowhere to be seen.

“Is that how it is going to be?” he murmured aloud with amusement. However, he walked to the side door and slowly tramped up the stairs to the second floor. Both boys were trying the lock. Nothing budged.

Folding his arms, Theissen leaned against the wall behind them and waited.

One boy cursed and kicked the door.

“Now that language will not be tolerated,” Theissen said.

“Shove it!” the stocky boy said. He looked likely to punch him.

Theissen shook his head with a casual smile. “No. I won’t. And I told you. You aren’t eating until you clean up the shop.”

“Make us!” the lanky boy snapped.

Grinning wider, Theissen turned and walked down the stairs. “I am. Have fun trying to break into the larder. The door won’t open until you clean up that shop.”

The stocky boy cursed again.

Theissen ignored him, returning downstairs. Entering the main shop again, Theissen started to clean up a small space for himself. He could smell the growing animosity the boys were feeling towards him, but that was unavoidable. They had to learn discipline before they were ever going to learn anything else. It was no wonder to him that their carpentry training was going so badly. Neither boy listened to their master, and neither boy was progressing because of it. It was like those three men in the town. They too had the same repugnant conceit. The only difference was Kinnerlin obviously was unable to train their belligerence out of them. If this shop was to do any better, he had to correct these boys right from the start.

“Excuse me, but can you come to the front of the shop for a moment?” Lordri Carpenter asked, leaning in the open door.

Nodding, Theissen crossed the room and stepped into front shop. Standing there was a man Theissen recognized from a few brief meetings with his father.

“Lord Baron Grianne! What are you doing here?” Theissen bowed, nearly scraping to the ground.

The lord baron gazed on Theissen with surprise, but then smiled with a generous grin. Both apprentices had entered in the room glaring at Theissen soon after, but dignitary only had eyes on the Lumen carpenter’s son.

“My goodness! It really is the carpenter’s son from Lumen! Are you Dalance or Tolbetan?”

“Theissen, actually,” he said, lifting his head.

Lord Baron Grianne blinked at him, not recognizing the name.

“His fourth son,” Theissen reminded him.

A light turned on in his eyes. “Ah, yes! The gifted one. I am surprised your father let you leave Lumen. Who will be the heir now? Surely not your sister.”

Theissen laughed as he shook his head. “No, my lord. I have a younger brother. Kolbran. He’ll be inheriting my father’s shop.”

“Ah, very well then. That is good. You Carpentersons are so reliable,” the lord baron said.

Smiling, Theissen caught sight of the two apprentices, both of whom sulked, glaring at him as they inched towards the master. Undoubtedly they were going to beg the master to open up the larder.

Theissen said, “How did your daughter like her wedding gift?”

Lord Baron Grianne grinned broader, nodding. “Oh, loved it. Your father does fine work.”

Theissen peeked a look at his new master and said, “Actually, I did most of it. A little after you put in your order Lord Baron Kirsch of Skarbrone came in and demanded my father’s full attention on a rather infamously large order.”

“Oh, my,” the lord baron murmured, glancing to Lordri Carpenter and then back at Theissen. “Your family did that order? And you finished mine? But you were only a child then.”

The apprentices froze, staring at Theissen now. Their own master listened with interest.

“I was thirteen, my lord,” Theissen said. “I was an official apprentice then.”

But the lord baron looked to Lordri Carpenter. “Indeed. You really did pick up a good journeyman. Normally I go far south to Lumen for the best work. But you should see the job they did for me. And,” he gave a good nod to Theissen, “The furniture of Lord Baron Kirsch is legendary. The man won’t exactly say who did it. Said he wanted to keep that blessed carpenter exclusively his own.”

“What a blasted liar,” Theissen exclaimed aloud, not using his formal polite business tone as he has just been doing. “That man said he would spread my father’s fame nationwide, especially for all pain he put him through.”

“All the pain?” Lord Baron Grianne asked, looking somewhat puzzled.

But Theissen remembered whom he was speaking to and how he never wanted to repeat that kind of work. He bowed and said with a small grimace, “I apologize. I should not speak ill of a lord baron. It was simply extremely strenuous on my father’s health to fill such an order. We don’t care to fill such an order again.”

Turning with look of forgiving understanding, Lord Baron Grianne smiled. “I understand. But I hope you will be willing to fulfil the order I am arranging with your new master. Nothing so elaborate as the wedding present for my daughter, but I do have a few cottages to furnish for some guests.”

“I accept.” Theissen said, casting a glance to Lordri Carpenter who smiled.

Both men grinned at him.

“Well done,” the lord baron said, walking back through the door towards his carriage that waited on the curb. “I’ll send my man over with the exact requirements. Good day to you.”

“Good day!” the carpenter said, waving, looking too pleased for words.

Theissen smiled. Both watched as the carriage rolled down the road.

“Master,” one of the apprentices stepped forward, tugging on Lordri Carpenter’s coat tails.

“Lucky day! Lucky day!” His master started his dance again, wiggling his posterior and then sticking out his foot in a hop from one foot to the other, raising his hands together in the air “I got a major contract and an excellent journeyman all in one day! Lucky day!”

The two apprentices sighed together as they looked up at Theissen with a despairing glare. Theissen merely smirked, glancing at them and the master carpenter. When Lordri Carpenter’s eyes met Theissen’s he suddenly jumped forward and clasped the young man’s hands in his. Theissen nearly fell back.

“You will take over that order, won’t you?”

Blinking, Theissen almost choked. “But, didn’t he want your work?”

“Master.” The boy tugged again.

The man shook his head and let go, not noticing the apprentice. “Oh, he was just checking out what I could do. He was about to leave when I got the bright idea of calling you in. I had told him I got a journeyman from Lumen, but he did not seem to believe me. But really, I can tell he only wanted your work. Nothing fancy of course, or he would not have stepped into my shop at all. I only do simple home furnishings. But he was looking for you, I think. He mentioned going south to Lumen, you know. He was just calculating the expense of shipping and travel. We are, after all, halfway from Tucken to Lumen you know. And stabling horses can get quite expensive, not to mention the hourly wage of a team driver.”

“Master!” That apprentice nearly shouted.

“What is it?” Lordri at last said, sounding just as annoyed.

The boy scowled and then pointed at Theissen. “He locked the larder.”

“You really did, huh?” The carpenter looked impressed. “How did you manage that?”

“We’re hungry!” the other boy snapped.

Lordri Carpenter just stared at him as if the notion was a novel idea.

“Then just clean the shop,” Theissen said, turning to talk to the master carpenter again. “That should be our first priority.”

The master carpenter nodded sheepishly. “Yes, yes. I have been slack on that.”

“If I may say so, my father would not have approved. A clean shop, he says, is key to good work.”

“Nice saying, though I don’t know how such a busy man could manage that,” Lordri looked bemused

One of the apprentices stomped his foot. “But we’re hungry!”

Theissen turned again towards him. “What’s your name?”

“I’m not telling you!” The boy pulled back, glaring at him.

With a shrug, Theissen said as straightforward as ever, “Well, whoever you are, if you are truly hungry, you will clean up the shop. Otherwise you might as well get used to the idea that the larder will be locked forever.”

“Forever?” Lordri Carpenter murmured. “Even from me?”

To that, Theissen blushed with a laugh as he ducked his head. “Oh, no sir. Not from you. I’ll personally unlock it for you and I to have dinner.”

“That’s not fair!” the stocky eleven-year-old shouted.

Theissen glanced toward him, “And what is your name?”

The kid sulked, but he said, “Tomis.”

Nodding, Theissen smiled. “I’m Theissen. And fair is defined by the rules, not by whether you like what is happening. The rules are: those who do their part and clean up afterwards get to eat. Those that do not, don’t. Understand?”

“What makes you the boss?” Tomis said with a growl.

Glancing at the master carpenter, Theissen said, “He does.”

“But he never stopped us from getting lunch!”

“Things change,” Theissen replied then turned to look out the door. He noticed that people in the streets were rushing somewhat with interest down the hill.

The other apprentice glared at him in silence. Then he tugged on Tomis’s sleeve. “Come on. We don’t have to listen to him. We’ll take care of it ourselves.”

Theissen made a face with a glance