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

Theissen’s face suddenly felt hot. His heart jumped in his chest. She meant it.

Wrapping his arm around her waist, he gave her a gentle hug. He whispered, “Thank you.”

Tippany rested her hand on his head, ruffling his hair. “Theissen Wizard—”

He pulled back, peering hard into her face. “Just Theissen, please. No wizard. Just Theissen.”

She blushed. “Ok. Theissen. I also came up to ask if you would like to come to the winter festival with me.”

His face turned an even darker shade of red. “You’re asking me?”

“Before anybody else does,” she replied with a bashful smile.

He laughed, amazed, and pulled her with him down the stairs. “I like you. You flatter me. Before anybody else does….”

“You have no idea how many girls have been watching you, Theissen.” Tippany hurried along his side, taking hold of his hand. “I have to get to you first before they do. They’re like hungry birds.”

They trotted down the stairs to the dining hall, holding hands. Several of the former molemen did double takes, and Daanee stared at him with increased shock that he would condescend to publicly show affection for anyone other than his demon pal who lived in the tower. Ronen only smiled, nudging Teppan who smothered a laugh.

“Well, is everyone here?” Theissen walked over to the table as Tippany hurried to help Manda with the food trays.

Karo nodded, gesturing for Theissen to meet the stonecutter’s wife and children. Theissen crossed the room. His face was still red from embarrassment as he extended his hand out to the man’s family.

“What’s that?” someone exclaimed.

“It looks like a plant.”

“Growing that fast?”

“There’s a flower.”

Theissen turned to see what they were staring at. A pungent odor had billowed in the room, rank with powerful magic of a spell with a melodious background song. In two snaps, the plant vines wrapped around him like his snake did when showing affection, and yanked him off his feet into the mouth of an alarmingly expanding blossom.

Everyone jumped up. Though, Tippany screamed, dropping the tray she was holding.

“Theissen!”

He reached out to the spell’s flow to fight it. But like all spells, it acted faster and more forcefully than wizard’s magic. He could not grab hold of the threads in time. All he felt, saw, heard, and tasted as his body was taken into the floor by the fleeing plant was darkness and silence.

“He just sucked up into the floor!” one of Manda’s twins shouted. The dog barked at the spot where the clothes Theissen had been wearing lay empty in a pile on the ground.

“Theissen!” Tippany ran over, throwing herself against the floor. If she could have, she would have clawed it open with her bare hands.

“That’s just him playing one of his stupid pranks,” a former moleman said with a nervous glance. “That’s how he climbed out of our caverns. Just moved the earth.”

But Karo groped the clothes, searching for Theissen in them. He shook his head. “No. This was not his doing. What was that plant thing?”

Tippany’s cries for Theissen filled the dining room. The dog would not stop barking. 

“What was that then?” Teppan’s body shook as he stared at the spot.

“The magicians did something maybe?” Ronen held Daanee close, though it was unlikely she would be the next one to vanish.

“That wasn’t magician magic,” Manda murmured, feeling the ground with her hand. She shot Tippany a commiserating look as the girl sobbed Theissen’s name. “Magicians don’t use plants in their magic. I know. I worked with one once.”

 “Was it a witch then?”

“Does the wizard have a witch that hates him?”

The dog’s barking reduced to a whimper. It rested its head next to Tippany who sobbed against the stone.

“Help her up,” Manda said.

The twins rushed over, lifting Tippany off the floor. The young woman fought them at first, but then she rose to her knees and looked desperately at Manda. “We have to find him!”

Manda shrugged without hope. “Where do we start? He has too many enemies.”

Tippany nodded rising to her feet. “Then we have to find his allies.”

That thought settled around them like a life preserver.

“I’ll go to the inn and notify Milrina,” Dobbis said, turning towards the door.

Karo shook his head. He set Theissen’s empty clothes on the nearest chair. “We need to draw up a plan. We can’t just scatter off like that.”

“I’m going home anyway,” Tippany said, nodding to Dobbis. “So you put down that Dobbis and I are going to the inn.”

“Maybe that bearded man hired a witch to kill him,” one of the former molemen murmured.

“That’s something to check out,” Manda said, nodding to Karo to write down. “Someone ought to visit the boss of that area. Find out what happened to his thug.”

“He has an Angledon captain that hates him,” Teppan offered with a nod. “Theobold told me about him.”

“Then you go and find this captain. Did you hear his name?” Karo asked.

Teppan nodded with determination. “Captain Shmiter.”

“Then go and check that source.” Manda then turned to Karo. “What else?”

“The wizard also offended the magicians,” Dobbis said. “Especially the one-handed one has been after him.”

“That one wanted him dead since the day he was born,” Tippany murmured.

Everyone stared at her.

She lifted her eyes. “He told me. It’s because of him that magician has only one hand. The magician tried to have him punished for creating a demon in his village back home. Framed him, really. I wouldn’t be surprised at all if he used witch spells. He did before.”

“Who’ll confront the magicians then?” Karo asked, searching around the crowd of people.

Manda sighed and lifted her hand. “I’ll go and spy on them. Confronting magicians is a dangerous business.”

“We’ll go with you, Mama,” one of the twins said.

The extremely short woman patted her child’s head, and then the other one, nodding. “Yes. We can do it.”

Karo wrote that down.

“Anything else we can check?” Manda turned to look at the residents of the inn.

“There are the jewelers we just threatened,” Karo said, lifting his eyes. “After all, they just did try to use magic and poison to kill him. I’d say that is reason enough to check them out.”

The jewel cutter trembled, glancing to his wife and children.

Tippany walked over to him. “Don’t worry. You’ll be safe in this tower. They won’t get to you.”

“They got to him,” the jewel cutter said.

“It might not have been them,” Manda interrupted. “Our wizard has many enemies.”

“The feather merchants,” Dobbis said with a nod.

Karo wrote that down. “Someone ought to check them out.”

“I’ll go,” Ronen said. “They don’t know me or Daanee. We can act like we’re buying for our new home or something.”

Nodding, Karo penned their names onto his list.

“Anyone else we ought to check?” Manda asked, glancing to the others.

“The Lord Baron Kirsch,” Tippany said.

Many heads turned to stare at her.

She nodded. “Theissen publicly embarrassed him today and threw him out of his inn. I think that is reason enough for revenge.”

“Oh, wow. A lord baron.” Karo looked to Manda. “That wizard really did try to take on the world. What do we do against a lord baron?”

“Mom?” One of Manda’s twins tugged on her sleeve. “I can go if someone takes me.”

Manda nodded to her. “Pick his pocket?”

The little girl grinned. “Pick his door lock.”

“I’ll go with her,” one of the former birdmen offered. “We can hire a carriage tonight.”

Karo penned that in. He then looked up. “Ok, is there any other place we can look?”

No one said a word for a full five minutes, thinking hard.

“I’ll read the list then.” Karo lifted the paper, pointing to each individual. “Dobbis and Tippany are going to the inn to notify Milrina of what happened. Maybe she can think of others that they can search through, though if you are in the area you ought to seek out that boss Korgin something-or-other. Teppan will go find that Captain Shmiter. Manda and one of the twins will go and spy on the magicians. Someone needs to sneak into the jeweler’s guild and check that out. We didn’t get a volunteer for that one. Ronen and Daanee will search out the feather merchants. Going to Lord Baron Kirsch will be Winder and the other twin—”

“I’m Kalli and that’s Kori!” The little girl stamped her foot.

“Fine, Kalli will go with Winder and Kori will go with her mother. Satisfied.” Karo gave her a stern glare that reminded all that he had once been a demon. He lifted his eyes to the paper and continued. “And that is all we can think of unless someone else wants to volunteer to go see the herbalists to check if he is with them.”

“I’ll go!” a former moleman offered.

“I’ll go with him,” one of the former birdwomen said.

Karo nodded to them. “Ok, I guess that means that I and someone else should go back to the jeweler’s guild, though I know they won’t let me in.”

The jewel cutter stepped from his wife. “I’ll go with you.”

Giving a smile, Karo penned the man’s name to his paper. “All right then. We have a plan. Meet up here and write down what you discovered as soon as you can. Spend what money you have too. We are going to get our wizard back. He would do the same for any one of us.”

They all nodded. Grabbing some food off the table Manda had set up, in clusters they hurried out the door. Those that remained behind stared morosely at their meal, hoping and praying that they would find the one friend that had bent over backward to help them. They left Theissen’s clothes on the seat, not daring to touch them.

*

Tippany and Dobbis hopped out of their hired carriage, paying the driver to stay with three pieces of silver. They promised more if he helped them all night. Dobbis ran into the inn while Tippany rushed home. She told her mother of what transpired at the tower. Almost immediately the merchant’s wife and the merchant hurried out into the street with their sons. They called on their neighbors to help them in the search. Tippany hurried to the inn right after.

She found Milrina sobbing against the counter top, clutching it. “No! They’ll kill him! Theissen!”

Rushing to her, Tippany grabbed Milrina tightly in a hug. “Come on. We’ll find him.”

“You don’t understand!” Milrina looked up at her. “The magician has been trying to kill him for years! He’s dead! He’d dead!”

Clenching her teeth, Tippany gave Milrina a good shake. “Don’t give up on him! He’s not a pushover! He’s not weak!”

“He’s dead!” Milrina sobbed she pushed out of Tippany’s arms. “Theissen is dead!”

Tears rolled from Tippany’s eyes, but she did not join Milrina in her sobs. Squaring her jaw, she seized Milrina’s arms and shouted. “Snap out of it! Now is not the time to break down! You need to help us find him!”

But Milrina just stared at Tippany, simply white with surprise that the timid girl had yelled at her. However she did quit crying.

“Do you know anyone who can do magic that might use it against him?” Tippany looked her in the eyes, watching