Wizard of Jatte by Rowan Erlking (librera reader txt) 📕

He was not laughing now. Not through a bruised lip and bloody nose. In fact, he groaned as his men rushed around him, helping him up, or at least trying to. Korgin bellowed that he would do it himself, wiping the blood off of his face. Most of them backed off. Watching their boss dab his wounds, they also glared at Theissen, waiting for orders. The bearded man scowled savagely at him. His hate swirled around him with blackening odor so vile it was worse than anything Theissen had ever smelled before. Then it became clear. This man hated him the most, though he did not know why. The hatred of the others was less severe and less smelly.

“Who in Jatte are you?” Theissen asked the bearded man, walking closer to see him better.

But the bearded man stepped back, lifting his fists up for a fight. “Don’t take another step, Carpenterson.”

Theissen halted. All of this was too familiar. Why?

The boss shouted curses at Theissen, but the wizard did not really hear them. He walked even closer to the bearded man. “You know what? I don’t care who you are. If you or that creep Korgin ever comes near my friends or my house again, I’ll bury you.”

Korgin swore, shouting for his men to attack Theissen.

Without even looking at them, Theissen reach into the earth and made their feet sink deep into the road.

“That’s illegal,” the bearded man snarled as if he had not seen or heard Korgin either.

“So is brawling,” Theissen replied with a growl. He showed the scar on his arm.

The bearded man glanced at it then shook his head with a huff. “So what? You think that’ll scare me?”

“He had his hand chopped off, moron!” Theobold countered, flapping over to him. “Isn’t that the punishment for brawlers?”

“Brawling?” Korgin called over to Theissen, keeping his distance now that he could see what Theissen could do. “I own the law here. No one in my band is going to lose his hand. No one would dare accuse us.”

“I would,” Theissen replied, turning from the bearded man. He advanced on Korgin instead. The bearded man’s smelly hate had begun to turn his stomach. Distance from him was all he wanted now.

“You?” Korgin laughed, but he retreated as Theissen advanced. Several of the other men rounded on him, but Theissen also made their feet sink into the ground as if they were sea urchins. Watching this, the bearded man stagger back. He retreated from the crowd as more of Theissen’s own men got up to back him.

“Yes. Me. Now get out of this street.” Theissen glared down on the boss.

“Or what?” Korgin replied with bite, unable to hide the shake in his voice. “Everyone saw that fire show. It was you, wasn’t it?”

Theissen smirked with a nod. “I was cleaning up a mess.”

By then the bearded man had run off.

Several of the other thugs had backed away also. Most of the ones with their feet stuck in the ground looked desperate enough to chew them off to retreat from the wizard.

But Korgin continued to laugh with bravado. “That means the magicians will come after you.”

“Fine,” Theissen said. He glanced to Theobold. His smirk was not gone, though his eyes narrowed to a piercing glare. “They already know I’m here anyway. I met one this morning.”

Immediately Korgin’s fake smile fell to one of real pleasure. “Then you’ll be dead my nightfall.”

“Not a chance.” Theissen snorted and walked back towards his inn to see if the actual construction was damaged. From the front door Theissen could see that nothing had been harmed. At least his friends had managed to defend the place.

He turned back to Korgin. “First off, I know how magician magic works, so they can’t surprise me. Secondly, I’ve already taken on a magician when I was a kid and beat him. So really, this is just an irritation. Now, be smart and go away before I am forced to turn you into a mouse to feed to my cats.”

The cats had followed Theissen the entire time. Most were still rubbing around his ankles with joy that he was back.

“Or my snake,” Theissen added with a wince, reaching down to his leg to pull it off. It had gone up to his thigh and was now squeezing a little too tight to be comfortable.

The eagle made a cry, almost as if annoyed he was left out.

Theissen laughed, and waved to it. “Or my eagle.”

“Not to your demon?” Theobold stuck his head next to Theissen’s with a chuckle.

Making a face, Theissen handed off the snake. “Don’t be so silly, Theobold. You eat fruit.”

“By the way,” Teppan called from five yards away with an ill-hidden grumble. “When can we eat? I’m starving.”

“That’s right!” Theissen stomped back to the inn without another thought to the thugs that had just threatened them. “I have good news! Teppan, you tell them. I’m going to talk to the merchant’s wife.”

He tugged on the daughter’s arm to go with him, gently brushing her bruise on her face to heal it. As he tramped up the steps, the ground unearthed the thugs feet, tossing them aside. He then rapped on the house door.

The woman practically fell on him when she opened it up, sobbing and fervently thanking him.

“This isn’t over,” Korgin shouted, withdrawing from the street with a glare at the crowd that gathered on the road to watch. “This isn’t over.”

Theissen only passed him a dry look in response as he negotiated a meal for his fellow travelers. He told the merchant’s wife and daughter about the tower and how they cleaned it out of spiders. The two women gasped in all the right places, forgetting the boss of the local gang in that moment, at least feeling safe with Theissen right next to them.

“But what do we do when you go back?” The merchant’s wife whispered into Theissen’s ear.

He sighed, thinking about it. “Ok. How about I teach you a protective spell you can do in case you are nervous? It works for anybody. Wizard or not.”

Merchantwife grinned. Pulling her daughter close, she nodded. “I’d like that very much.”

They had to wait for the next day to go to the city center. But before they could even do that, Theissen remained behind in the neighborhood of the inn to set up protective wards and prepare things for the ex-molemen. Of course the night before he was also busy healing bruises, cuts, and broken bones. Then he helped finish the inn with a bit more magic than he had wanted to use. In the end he put up a small hate ward in the inn doorway so that no one who hated him could enter inside. When they had gone to sleep on the bare floors, all they had left to finish was the roof.

In the morning, Theissen took most of the birdmen up the hill to the tower. He met Theobold there in the cul-de-sac, having sent him back the night before to inform Ronen and Daanee what had happened (with some dinner wrapped in a kerchief) so they would not worry. Theobold had remained at the tower for the night, cleaning the topmost levels to make a roost for himself.

“We had a visitor this morning,” Theobold announced once he landed on the newly swept cobblestone. He looked well rested and in better spirits.

“Really?” Theissen set down the bucket he had been carrying. “Who?” He gestured for the others to go inside to start setting up a home. Most of the ash had already been swept out and was now being stuffed into sacks and stacked on the side of the tower. The shopkeeper had taken some of the sacks home to use and to sell. There were still piles of it left.

“Some guy in a uniform. Looked official.” Theobold dusted off his robe some. The ash still stuck to a number of his feathers despite the bath he had the night before.

“Uniform? I hope it wasn’t a constable.” Theissen frowned.

Most of the others went inside, heading straight for the stairs as he had told them to do—though Teppan stopped to listen in. He rested his bag on the ground. Also the man that had led one of their two donkeys paused to ask where to take the animal.

“No.” Theobold attempted to ignore that Teppan was there. “It didn’t look like any of those constables we saw in Dhilia or in any of those towns.”

“Most don’t look the same,” Theissen said, picking up his bucket again. He gestured for Teppan to take it and go indoors.

Teppan made a sour face, but did as he was told.

“What did this one look like?”

Grinning at Teppan with pleasure, Theobold replied, “Oh, khaki suit. Brimmed cap on his head. Saber at his side. Looked nice. Mustache. Oh, and he was decorated, like someone official.”

“Anyone with him?” Theissen did not recognize the description to anything he knew at all. It didn’t even sound like a soldier.

Seeing Theissen was entirely focused on Theobold, the donkey driver sighed impatiently on the road, then turned to look at an empty house. With a shrug, he went there instead of waiting.

Theobold shook his head. “Nope. Just him. He came up the hill and almost peered in the doorway. Brave soul whoever he was.”

“Foreign or local?” Theissen asked, now scratching his chin.

Tilting his head, Theobold nodded. “Actually, there was a foreign look to him, now that I think on it. Yeah. His eyes didn’t look Jatten, and his face was kind of angular. Pointed chin.”

“You said he had a mustache. Was it a thin Jatte mustache or a thick one?”

Nodding more, Theobold grinned. “Thick, bushy. He’s definitely foreign.”

Theissen didn’t know it was a good or bad thing. Obviously this man who had come up the hill was the exploring type. He had seen the fire and went to investigate. Perhaps it was a sign of things to come. Theissen only hoped the Jatte government would not send people to investigate until after he had registered their group. As squatters inside the city limits, they would have trouble.

“Ok. Continue keeping an eye out.” Theissen turned with a nod to himself, heading back down the road.

“Hey! Aren’t you taking me with you to the city center?” Theobold flapped after him.

Halting, Theissen cringed apologetically. “I’m sorry, but after last night I decided that I really ought to do this on my own. No offence, but a demon downtown may be treated as trouble. You had better stay here for your own protection.”

Theobold made a face. Folding his arms, he sulked. “Somehow I knew you were going to say that. Fine. I’ll stay here and keep look out. You be careful. I saw how that man with the beard glared at you. I think you know him. Am I right?”

The bird man was astute, but Theissen just shook his head. He clenched his forehead as he thought over it. “I don’t know. He was certainly familiar. I have been racking my brains since then to know how. All I know for certain is that he really hates me.”

“Who do you know that really hates you?” Theobold blinked at him with an assuring innocence. The birdman doubted that