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

“Migdrin!”

Theissen froze. A sick feeling filled his throat.

“His name is Migdrin. He said he saw you on the street, and he said you were an evil man. He said you tried to kill him once, so he wants revenge.”

Theissen stood up. “Migdrin Shoemakerson?”

“I don’t know his family name. He came here years ago, angry and bitter about some kid. He said you tried to kill him.”

Staring into space, Theissen’s darker memories washed over him. His ears starting ringing a little.

“Did you?” he heard Theobold ask at his right.

Jerking out of mild shock, Theissen shook his head. “That was a long time ago. I was barely a child. Migdrin tried to drown my brother Kinnerlin in the river for mouthing off at him. So I made the river rise up and push him under. I didn’t exactly try to kill him, but Migdrin did promise he’d get me for it.”

Theobold exhaled heavily, taking that information in like a marble carving that did not quite fit his mental décor. His feathers ruffled from dismay. Yet he nodded with understanding. “So. This man has a grudge against you then.”

Nodding, Theissen closed his eyes.

“You know, when he ran away from Lumen, people talked. His brother, Lonse, took it hard and harassed Milrina and me all the time because of it. But I never expected to see him again.” Theissen then chuckled. “Though it does seem fitting that he joined a bunch of thugs. Migdrin was always such a lazy creep. I could never understand why Dalance and he were such good friends.”

“Your brother?”

Theissen nodded again, trying in his mind’s eye to put the bearded man together with Migdrin. It was surreal.

“So, that was Migdrin?” Milrina walked over to him.

He lifted his eyes and met hers. “Yeah.”

She cringed, pulling her arms into herself. “No wonder he creeped me out so much.”

“Are we going to be safe?” Karo asked, approaching with a less sulky look. In fact, there was a blush of shame on his face. He had shown to the others the document Theissen had given him. They were all walking over to him with lowered heads as if they would beg an apology.

Theissen met his gaze. “That is entirely up to you. Now you have two options if you want to continue with your plan to sell. You can either remain in the inn and establish it as your home base for business operations, or you can join the birdmen up at the tower. So, what will it be?”

Some of the molemen came forward. They had elected a spokesman who said, “Some of us want to go to the tower and have our business up there. We don’t think this place is safe for the kinds of things we want to do.”

Looking about, Theissen finally admitted that was true. This neighborhood was proving too rough for some of them. He nodded to the man.

“All right. You can go up and do that. I can have Theobold help you heave the—”

“We were hoping you could just move it for us.” The moleman ducked his head blushing.

“That is so exhausting.” Theissen muttered. His body was already screaming for rest from one day of city travel. “That distance.”

Yet when he met their begging eyes, he realized they were thinking the same exact thing he was. And worse, he remembered that they had been pushing that load of precious ores and stones up and down hills for months. Exhaustion was already their close neighbor.

“Fine,” he muttered in a lower breath, feeling like such a pushover. “You go on ahead and I’ll stay here for the night. I have to fix up, fire proof, break proof, and who-knows-what-else proof, this inn anyway. Maybe then, after we turn in these thugs, we’ll have a chance to start business.”

A more relaxed murmur passed through them. The group separated. But five hung back on the edge of the crowd, glancing back at the inn.

“So…what about the rest of you?” Theissen they did not look like they wanted to leave at all.

Karo was among them. “We were just thinking, that maybe your idea for an inn wasn’t all that bad.”

“What?” Theissen gaped at him. “You want to become an innkeeper?”

Giving him a dirty look, Karo shook his head. “No. But if that cousin of yours can cook and teach us all that, then maybe when our people are looking for a place to stay while they deliver merchandise, we ought to have one ready for them. The tower would not appeal to most molemen. They’d prefer to stay low near the ground.”

Finally some good news. It was a relief, really, to hear it. And Theissen smiled. “Alright then. You can be in charge of that, unless you have chosen someone else to—”

“We picked Vans here.” Karo led out a bit with his hand to a neat and somewhat quiet former-moleman who bowed to Theissen. He had been one of the remaining molemen whom Theissen had not made any close acquaintance with. But apparently Karo had confidence in Vans. Theissen had not noticed it before.

“Ok, Vans. I want you to coordinate with Milrina. She knows the city rather well,” Theissen said, gesturing to her.

Milrina blushed, ducking her head as her eyes took in the other molemen and women who had stayed behind. “Not all that well.”

“Don’t be modest.” Theissen gave her a genuine smile.

They would have gone further into the logistics of the new inn, had not the merchant’s daughter jogged down the road with three constables. It was clear she could not find more than that.

“There they are! See! He held them so they could not get away!”

“They’re buried in the street! How did he do that?” one constable exclaimed.

“He’s a wizard,” the girl declared with pride, looking over at Theissen. Yet she went white when she saw Theissen smiling at Milrina. She retreated a step, almost horrified.

All of the former molemen, along with Theobold, Milrina and Theissen, turned.

Theissen grinned wider when he saw the constables with the merchant’s daughter, and attempted to approach to explain the situation, but the constables pulled back, staring at his bloody shirtfront.

“Stop right there, demon!” The constable drew his sword.

Halting, hanging his arms, Theissen moaned. “I’m not a demon.”

“Liar! You’re the blood-thirsty demon that was reported flying about the city center this morning!”

Dropping his shoulders more and rolling his eyes, Theissen glanced back at Theobold. The birdman looked indignant.

“Blood thirsty?” Theobold snapped. “Where to people get off calling me blood thirsty?”

The constables stared at him.

“You’re the demon?”

Theobold promptly fluffed out his feathers. Then he extended his wings. “I most certainly am! But I eat fruit! Not blood.”

“Then why is he so bloody?” One of the constables pointed at Theissen.

“Because one of your men stabbed him,” Milrina replied, stepping up to meet them.

“But he’s not dead.” Every one of them gaped, especially at the bloody hole in Theissen’s shirt-front.

“That’s because he’s a wizard,” Karo interjected.

The merchant’s daughter huffed. She turned, briskly walking from the group. She barely passed near Theissen, not even looking him in the eye now. Her cheeks had flushed in a peculiar way that confused him. He watched her despite himself, wondering why she was suddenly so upset.

The merchant’s daughter slammed the house door when she had gone inside.

“So, that little lady told us Korgin’s gang was here and set fire your inn. Do you have proof it is your property and not someone else’s?” the head of the three constables asked, approaching Theissen cautiously.

Theissen nodded. Digging into his pocket, he produced the documents. He held them out, but did not let them go. Somehow he felt that trusting the constables in this part of town was not a good idea.

The constable’s face contorted, reading the word. He saw the wizard registration as well as the registration for the old wizard’s land. He looked up at Theissen. “Ok. So, you make it legal. But you are disturbing the peace here, and that is punishable by—”

Theissen grabbed the constable’s shirt, jerking him up to his face. “Are you saying you side with Korgin and his punks over a peaceful neighborhood ruled by law?”

The constable’s face drained of all color, he eked out. “Attacking an officer is a punishable offense.”

“And so is extortion, taking bribes, and general corrupt governance. All of it is against the rule of law.” Theissen did not let go yet. “Trust me when I say I know the laws of Jatte like the palms of my hands.”

Releasing him, Theissen held up his scarred hands so the constable could see them.

“If you think that you can bend the rules to fit your greed,” Theissen said, “you have another thing coming.”

“You can’t do anything to us,” the constable growled back, though he was still pale. “And if you don’t release those men in the ground right now, you might find yourself at the chopping block for threatening government officials.”

It was worse than standing between a rock and a hard place. It was like being set into a mortar with the pestle on his back, grinding him into dust. He’d lose to the twisted law if he continued to play it straight and not use magic to get rid of them all. However, what kind of man would that turn him into? There had to be another way.

“What a load of crap!” Milrina grabbed a hold of Theissen’s arm.

“What did you say, missy?” the constable snapped at her.

Milrina lifted her chin. “You are so full of it. My fiancé works in the law office under Lord Governor Wabrin, and we have a street full of witnesses that have seen your corruption. If you don’t get out of here right now and take your scumbag friends with you, I’ll have my cousin sink you into the earth too. Then I’ll go summon the Lord Governor’s bailiffs over here to deal with you. They’ll go by the law.”

“You lie! You are nothing but—”

“I’m Milrina Weaverdaughter. My fiancé is Rumi Landownerson. Do you want to challenge that?”

The constable stumbled backward. He looked to Theissen who was blinking at his cousin, still taking in exactly what connections she had.

“You’re engaged to a Landownerson?” Theissen murmured aloud.

She nodded briskly to him. “I am.”

“But you said you didn’t have any money for—”

Milrina gave him a dry look. “He isn’t the heir. His father sent him to Jattereen to make his way in the world. His family is actually rather nice. We stayed in a manor village outside South Town when I visited. That’s where I met him. He was horseback riding.”

“Oh.” Theissen didn’t really understand though. He just nodded to keep the constable from running off just yet. “Well then, we should call on him. Clear this all up.”

“No!” The constable pulled back, looking desperately to his other men. “I promise to keep my men in line.”

Theissen narrowed his eyes, smiling darkly at him. “You do that. And you make sure that Korgin’s men never bother anyone on my street again. In fact, I urge you all to mend your ways. Or else.”

“I’ll do that. Just….” The constable looked desperate. “Just don’t—”

“Get out of my sight,” Theissen shot back. He turned, letting the rocky ground heave out all its captives. As soon as they could run, the other constables and Korgin’s thugs scrambled out of there. Theissen didn’t even look watch them. He was too tired. Besides the one he had reason to fear was not among them.

They spent most of that evening cleaning up and fixing the fire damage. Since fire changed the nature of the objects, Theissen could not heal the burns with