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

“You’re not mad? You know, us bothering you?” Karo asked again, still wringing his hands.

“You mean right now while I’m working on this, or meaning about the old stuff you said back at the inn over a month ago?” Theissen had looked back at his plans again.

Karo bowed low. “Never mind. Thank you.”

“When do you want to go?” Theissen drew on another line and then scribbled more notes.

The former mole man bit his lip, hunching his shoulders. “Is tomorrow too early?”

Theissen looked up. “Tomorrow? I guess so. It will have to be in the afternoon, though. I have to go to the inn and talk to Milrina about the books she and Vans have been keeping. That tax man came by yesterday and asked about our profits. And since I registered all our businesses, I’m the one who has to answer for them.”

Karo bowed low again. “Tomorrow afternoon it is. And I’ll have our books available for you to pay the taxes also.”

Giving him a smile, Theissen chuckled. “You know, you don’t have to bow and scrape, Karo. I keep my word. So don’t worry.”

But Karo bowed low one more time before he exited the room. Of course once he was gone the former mole man practically danced down all the stairs to his quarters where he told the other former molemen the news. Theissen could hear a cheer. He chuckled again, adding final touches to the plans.

*

“What is it that you are doing, really?” Manda asked, walking into the carpentry shop just after Theissen had come down and rolled out his plans for Teppan to look at.

Passing her a mild glance, Theissen hid a smile. “You’ll see when I am done.”

Teppan peered at the sheets. “Desks?”

Nodding, Theissen gestured to the drawers. “This I want you and the new kid to work on. The work up is simple, geometric. It won’t be too hard to do in our spare time.”

“But why? Your skills are in wood carving?” Teppan turned with a suspicious glance. “This is not your usual style.”

“Utilitarian,” Theissen said with a nod. “They’re for the rooms upstairs, actually.”

He then pulled over the stackable chair design he had.

“I want about twenty of these,” he said.

“They don’t look comfortable,” Teppan murmured, also examining the plan for the tables, which according to Theissen’s plans could expand with a midsection added in if necessary.

“Don’t worry about comfort. That’s not their purpose.” Theissen then drew out another one. “These beds should be easy to make.”

With another skeptical eye, Teppan said, “Roll away beds? Theissen, what are you up to?”

Theissen merely smirked. “I was just thinking. I intend to take on apprentices and other workers here to help supply the molemen’s businesses. The tower is only so big. So, I was thinking that I ought to make more sensible accommodations for them.”

Teppan tapped the paper for the chairs and the desks. “These are not household type things, and I know that look in your eye. You are planning something. I can feel it.”

Blinking innocently at him, Theissen collected up the plans then set them in a stack on the carpenter’s managing desk. “Me? Planning something? Since when have I not been planning something?”

Giving him a look, Teppan decided not to answer.

A light chiming came from the shops clock, noting the half hour. it was getting close to noon. Theissen hurried to the racks at the front entrance and gathered his coat.

“Gotta run!”

“Are you really going to the jeweler’s with the molemen this afternoon?” Teppan asked, following him.

Nodding, Theissen opened the door to the tower then crossed inside to where Manda had a basket ready with packaged spices and things to pass on to Milrina. “I should be meeting them outside the trade building once I am done with business at the inn.”

“How long do you think that will take?” Teppan leaned out the door. He was sure now that he was expected to keep the shop while Theissen was gone. He did that a lot lately. Recently, Theissen trusted him with much of the work, saying Teppan was nearly ready to start heavy training towards being a journeyman.

Theissen grinned with a shrug, taking the basket. He strode to the front door, patting the dog on the head and telling him to stay with the twins. It gave a small whimper but it did as told, jogging to the stairs and stopping there.

He waved to Teppan. “Don’t worry. I figure it will be a brief visit. We’re just scouting and announcing our intentions to the entire guild. It should prove fun.”

“Your kind of fun is dangerous,” Teppan murmured as Theissen rushed out the door.

Trotting down the hill in a light jog, Theissen waved to the shopkeeper on the corner. Then he gave another wave to the now-busy little eatery. It had gained a great deal more business since his groups’ arrival into the neighborhood. A great deal. Striding further, Theissen found a carriage for hire on the curb, waiting for business. Much traffic had come to the neighborhoods all around the tower since its cleansing.

Leaning on the outside of the carriage, the driver tipped his hat to the wizard, as they usually did when they saw each other, expecting the wizard to pass by. Theissen often went on foot, which most people found puzzling. But Theissen bowed back this time, halting next to the carriage, and somewhat breathless.

“I’d like a lift to the Wizard Inn,” Theissen said.

Jumping up, the carriage driver was soon in his seat. He gestured for Theissen to climb on to the back seat. Theissen quickly climbed aboard.

The driver urged his horse to start.

“What’s your cost?” Theissen asked, as the carriage lurched forward.

Flushed and nervous, the carriage driver barely glanced back. “Oh, sixty coppers, if you please.”

Theissen pulled out his money pouch and dug out two silver pieces. “I’ll give you these if you stay outside the inn and wait for me. I have to meet some friends in the mercantile district this afternoon, and I really don’t feel like walking.”

“Two in silver?” The driver about choked in surprise, staring at the coins. He then looked back at Theissen’s face, also keeping one eye on the road. “But aren’t you the wizard? Can’t you just magic yourself away to places?”

Theissen settled back in his seat with a smirk. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I don’t know one magic user—magician, herbalist, magister or wizard who could just magic themselves to places. We have to walk just like everyone else.”

“But I hear rumors that the magicians up north in Westhaven fly,” the carriage driver said.

Lifting his eyebrows, Theissen just smirked. “Then you heard more than me. I have a friend in Westhaven who knows lots of magic and he has never once mentioned flying. In fact, he mentioned that flying through magic was near impossible without making a person a demon.”

“Flying demons,” the carriage driver muttered. “I heard you had one of those.”

Theissen frowned. “Have? No one has anyone, especially a demon.”

“The old wizard had demons,” the driver said.

Nodding as he remembered all the kirrels and the flying fanged dog that he now nicknamed as a Fanger, he chuckled. “Yeah, but it is against Jatte law to make demons. You’d get your head chopped off for it.”

With a shudder at the thought, the carriage driver rode on without saying another word.

They arrived at the inn around the time Milrina was serving lunch on the ground floor. Several locals ate at the inn, but Theissen also noticed within the crowd a number of travelers that had come from the west. They were dressed in livery of a lord baron, perhaps passing through for business. Among them was the livery of a familiar type, though his memory could not yet pin down where he had seen it before. Shrugging, Theissen walked past it all to the manager’s office.

“Oh, you’re early.” Vans looked up from the desk. He had been writing with a demon quill. He looked nothing like the former moleman he had been. In fact, no one would have known he was born and raised underground in the Dondit Mountains with the way his eyes sparkled or how his tailored clothes was utterly dust free. Not all the ex-molemen were like that.

Theissen nodded as he drew up a chair. “Are you still working on the books?”

Vans ducked his head some. “I’m sorry. I had a few more purchases to log. Then we got that government official that keeps coming by to see the mistress—” He caught look of Theissen’s smirk at hearing Milrina called ‘the mistress’. “Her fiancé is a bother, you know. Never have I seen a more jealous man. He glares at every man who works here. I find it intolerable.”

“Intolerable or not, you must admit there is something admirable about his persistence in protecting his investment,” Theissen said. He then tapped the page Vans was on. “How much more do you have left?”

“Oh, I still need to deduct the pay each of us has earned,” Vans said, lowering his eyes to the page with a blush.

Theissen tilted his head, waiting.

Vans peeked up at him. “Are you really letting us have as much as you said?”

Nodding, Theissen rose from the chair, reaching out for a spare paper. “Do you need it in writing?”

Cringing, Vans nodded. “Legalities, I think. That tax man actually thought we were cheating you.”

Busting into a guffaw, Theissen pulled out his own pen and reached for the inkbottle. “I’ll write it down and sign it. Don’t worry.”

“You may have to write down one for each of us,” Vans said.

Theissen nodded once more, writing all the information Vans needed, listing the names of his so-called employees that ran the inn. They were paid only a little less than Milrina who, with Vans, was given the responsibility of running the inn. Milrina was paid more only in that she really did run the place where Vans mostly acted under her instruction.

As soon as he signed it, Theissen passed the paper to Vans.

“Have everyone sign—no.” Theissen read the stress in the flow around the man. “Forget it. I’ll go out and have everyone sign it. You look bogged down.”

Vans gave him a grateful smile and continued his work.

Theissen walked out with the pen and the paper in hand, seeking everyone that remained behind in the inn. He went to the kitchen first.

“Hi, all. Could you all stop what you are doing and come over and sign this for me?” Theissen wiped breadcrumbs off one of the cutting boards then set the paper down, beckoning the four workers in the room to him. Two were former mole women. One other was an ex-birdwoman. Milrina was working with her then, showing her how to pinch the edges of a pie they were making.

“What is that?” Milrina set the pie pan down, nodding to the others to go over as he asked.

“Vans needs a legal document proving you work for me for what pay. Minor details for the tax man, that’s all.” He handed her the pen.

Taking it, Milrina signed her name where he pointed. Then she passed it on to the others. The molewomen hesitated. They struggled with the writing as it was still something new to them. Most molemen did not write or read. The women didn’t at all. The fact that Vans and Karo could proved they were higher in the molemen hierarchy than Theissen realized. But that also explained why they were the most forward of the molemen he had worked with.

The women signed their names.

“Where are the others?” Theissen glanced back to the door.

Milrina looked up at the ceiling, counting with her fingers. “Kodo has gone to the market to pick up some lamb. I sent Pago to get more heating coal for the rooms. Lill and Ferna are probably out in the front serving lunch, and I figure Elis is upstairs cleaning. Why? Do you need this signed this