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

at the carpenter. The man shrugged as if to say dealing with them was going to be harder than it looked. But there was a confident spark in Theissen’s eyes. There was no way he was going to quit after one roadblock. Doreen was worse to deal with, and Kolbran was lazier.

Turning towards the door again, Theissen stepped outside. The carpenter followed nodding.

“What’s going on?” Theissen asked watching nearly every townsperson go in the same mood as when a trial was on in Lumen Village.

“Oh, someone found a demon trying to come into town. That woman I was talking with earlier was just mentioning it to me. I guess they are planning a hanging or what have you.” The master looked bemused at the rolling carts and the children that hurried to join the procession.

“A demon?” Theissen didn’t like the sound of that. Certainly none would have come into the town. There were wards on the rooftops and dangling wind chimes everywhere. Any demon threat would have steered clear from that town.

Tomis stuck his head out the door, calling to a boy on the street. “Pebbi! Hey! Where are you going?”

A wiry kid stopped in the middle of the street, the goat cart he was driving rolling slightly down the incline. “What’s that?”

“Where are you all going to?” Tomis ran out to meet him.

The other apprentice squeezed past them, kicking Theissen in the shins as he ran by. He stuck out his tongue watching Theissen glare as he rubbed his leg. With a touch, Theissen healed the bruise, yet fixed his eye on the boy whom he decided really needed a good spanking.

The goat cart boy Pebbi pointed down the hill. Theissen only caught pieces of the conversation, and frowned.

“What do you say? Should we close up shop and take a look?” the carpenter asked.

Theissen blinked and then shrugged. If it was a demon, he wanted to make sure it wasn’t the demon he thought it might be. He couldn’t smell it (it was too far away and all that), but the ominous pull of flow around him made him wonder what else could be causing such a stir.

“Yeah, sure.”

The master carpenter dug into his pockets and produced a key. Nudging Theissen gently to come outside, the master turned and closed the two doors behind them.

Everyone walked down the street towards the city skirts, or it nearly seemed so. It was like a parade much like when Lord Baron Kirsch had come to Lumen Village, only the crowd was five times larger than any one Theissen had ever seen before. Though he was tall, giving him advantage to see over many heads, he still could only see a sea of bobbing hats and parasols among other tall men and kids riding on their father’s and brother’s shoulders. There was almost a party atmosphere, excepting of course the growing stench of demon that had now reached Theissen’s senses. He started to turn green again, looking around for a place where he could vomit.

“There you are, Lumen boy!” Someone shoved him from behind.

Theissen crashed into the man walking in front of him. The man turned with a glare, first at Theissen then at the ones behind him.

“I’m sorry,” Theissen murmured, covering his mouth as he tried to block out the growing stink of hate that was now coming from behind, encircling him in stench.

Someone kicked him in the shins again. Theissen looked down and saw the nameless apprentice.

“I see other people hate you too!” The kid cackled then slipped into the crowd.

“You little creep!” Theissen chased after him.

The three men were close behind. “Hey, Lumen boy! What’s the rush?”

Theissen found himself breaking through the front edge of the crowd as he chased after the kid. He halted, losing sight of him. There he saw some of the constables erecting not a gallows but setting up a chopping block, something Theissen was very familiar with. It looked as if there had been one at that location before, but it had been burned at some point. Struggling under the grips of two constables was the demon, its beady eyes scouring the crowd, shouting, “I know you are in there! I can hear you! I can smell you!”

Blinking, Theissen pulled back.

Someone shoved him from behind. Another person grabbed the back of his neck.

Breathing in his ear, one of the Munden apprentices said, “You had better leave town right now, Lumen boy.”

Theissen wrenched himself from that man’s grip and rounded on him. “Why? Are you threatened by me?”

The man clenched his teeth with a gesture for Theissen to come close. Theissen didn’t however, shaking his head to say he wasn’t that stupid.

The man swiped out to grab hold.

With an urging thought and a smirk, Theissen drew up a rock from the cobblestone road just enough to catch the man’s foot. Then he stepped aside to let him fall. As the man fell, Theissen slipped further into the crowd, trying to find his master and that little punk that kicked him in the shins.

“I can smell you!” the demon shrieked.

Theissen found Lordri Carpenter in the middle of the crowd not far from the center and nudged him in the arm. “Let’s go. This will only end in blood.”

Turning with a look of amazement, the man shook his head. “Oh no. I have never seen a demon up close. Look at that.”

“I’d rather not,” Theissen said.

Tomis gave a snort. “He’s scared.”

The other boy snickered. “Coward.”

He then tried to kick Theissen again. This time, he found his foot stuck to the ground, not noticing Theissen’s justified smirk. Staring at it, the boy tried to pull from the crack that his foot had somehow fallen into. Theissen took that moment to move to his master’s other side.

“Demons are bad news. I’d rather not watch,” he said.

The carpenter snorted, peeking once at Theissen. “If you want, but look over there. The magicians are here. It should get exciting now.”

Theissen did look. There were two of them, both in the same red robes that his village magician wore. The men were of two ages, but they had the same concentrated looks of intellectualism that was so familiar to him.

Theissen frowned. “I’ve had enough of magicians,”

He felt a kick from behind. The nameless brat had loosened his foot and already moved to the other side also. The boy dodged Theissen’s swipe, cackling, but that only urged Theissen to cause another hole to swallow up the kid’s foot. The apprentice tripped, catching himself on a woman’s skirt. She yelped and so did her husband who smacked the kid on the head.

Chuckling, Theissen turned, deciding to go home on his own.

“There you are! I will kill you! I will eat out your eyes! Don’t you turn away from me! I can see you! I can hear your heart pounding, you nasty filthy human freak!” The demon thrashed, pointing out its human length arms at the crowd. The constables shouted, fighting the growing manic strength it suddenly had with every effort they could. So far their nightsticks were proving ineffectual. “Don’t think you can hide from me! I can see you as clear as day for miles! I will hunt you down to—”

“Restrain that thing!” a constable bellowed to his fellows. He then gestured to the magicians standing by. “Hurry it up and figure out what we can do to it. None of our swords can even cut its skin!”

Theissen turned, looking back. Of course. Rough callused skin. He had not undone that knot. Of course they would not be able to just cut its head off.

“I’ll rip off your arms! I’ll drink your blood, you foul coward! You are my dessert! Nothing escapes from me!”

The magicians peered at it. One shook his head with a whisper to the other.

Theissen watched as the demon shouted curses at him, staring directly at where he was standing. Many heads turned to look at where the demon was looking. Theissen flushed, and turned to look also to pretend he did not know whom the demon was talking about. That was when he saw his three stalkers also weaving through the crowd towards him. Slumping, Theissen glanced up at the sky. If it was not one thing, it was another.

“Don’t you pretend you can’t hear me!” the demon shouted. “I know you can hear me! You’re standing right there!”

Those around him started to whisper, this time because they noticed he was a stranger to their town. Some stared at his face. Many murmured with that familiar look of recognition. It was clear that many knew Kinnerlin. Some of the ladies blushed which caused him to blush in response. He still tried to pretend that the demon was not talking about him, turning to avoid the threesome that was converging on him by going back towards his master.

“I’ll rip off your hands! I’ll tear out your throat! I’ll—”

“Shut up,” Theissen whispered under his breath.

It did stop, if only for a moment.

“Don’t tell me to shut up! I can hear you!” It bellowed.

The constables stirred, none of them even attempting such. The magicians turned to look towards the crowd.

“You can hear me, huh?” Theissen whispered. “In this crowd?”

The demon cackled. “Of course I can hear you! Don’t you know what I am?”

Theissen raised his eyebrows, noticing his master turn to look at him quizzically. “No. And I don’t particularly care. Now leave me alone.”

“Leave you alone?” The demon cackled with laughter. The crowd ducked some, waiting for some kind of attack. The constables certainly got ready. One had an axe out, but with every hack, nothing even made a dent in the demon’s many folds of rough skin. “I will never leave you alone! They can’t kill me! You have to face me! You have no choice!”

Letting out a moan, Theissen clenched his head. “Oh, go away. You are an annoyance.”

“I’m what?” the carpenter asked, but the demon immediately cut him off with another laugh.

“Buwah ha ha! Go away? When I get out of here I’ll—”

“You won’t get out of here,” one of the magicians said. The other had gone into the crowd to search out whom the demon was talking to. 

“I’ll eat you next, you magic man,” the demon barked with a voice that was growing hoarse.

Theissen sighed, deciding it really was best that he walk away. He turned.

“Where do you think you are going?”

Both the demon and also the young apprentice of Munden said that at the same time. It gave Theissen chills.

Everyone around Theissen turned around. Lordri Carpenter jumped back. The apprentices did also. Even the man who had said it took a jump back from him.

“Him!” The magician suddenly called out.

It was over. There was no escaping it. Theissen turned and blinked apologetically at the magician. “Pardon?”

He watched the serious faced man in red and black robes approach him. The crowd parted like a plowed row in a field.

“Pardon?” The demon cackled. “Those are last words. Yours! Bring me my dinner!”

Theissen saw several things at once. The threesome looked immediately delighted and shoved him towards the magician. The magician stared at him with curiosity, mostly noticing Theissen’s carpentry belt and his simple attire. His master stared up at him with horror as if all his dreams of his lucky day were about to come to an end. The apprentices looked stuck between being overjoyed and shocked.

Gesturing with a crook of his finger, the magician said over the cries of the demon, “Young man, why is that demon singling you out?”

First he shrugged, still intent on playing ignorant. Theissen could see it was not working. He then sighed and walked over to the magician, keeping arm’s length from him in fear of what spell he might cast on him. Then he bowed low. “My apologies, sir. I merely had not expected him to follow me into town.”

The people around him gasped. More moved away, though the master carpenter had not, staring at the journeyman like a curious bird, cocking his head at an odd angle.

“He followed you here?” The