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

“It tore up the barn and stomped something awful out of the road as it mashed up the streets. Five men were hurt. One of them died. Gored by them horns. And then, the magician all puffed up and pompous like comes out and says he would save us. He then stirred up the wind like a storm, which near tore off the shingles and broke a few windows, but that cow it ran off into the forest like it feared for its life. Of course, the magician just run off when he saw the wreck he made.”

“We’d a gored his own gullet if we’d a found him,” one of the men offered with a frank nod.

Theissen swallowed. Clearing his throat, he said, “But wouldn’t it have been better to just take him in front of the town elders?”

One of the men smirked at him. “We are the town elders.”

Giving them another look, Theissen shook his head. “You? But you all look so young!”

He got a laugh from several in the crowd. Many of them nodded.

“All the really old folk don’t take part in the courts,” the bearded man said. “Most of them are too sick in bed to do anything.”

“Freeloaders if you ask me,” one of the men said.

Theissen’s eyes grew wide.

“Don’t listen to him,” one of the other men said to Theissen. “His old man died when he was a kid. He doesn’t get how much parents do sacrifice for their children and how wise old men can be. He just sees anyone not working with his hands as dead weight.”

Squirming, Theissen frowned. “Then I suppose he doesn’t see intellectual work as real work, huh?”

That man nodded. “Sure right. We don’t favor taxmen or scholars riding on hard labor here. Things have got to be practical. Useful. None of this frilly flimflam.”

Glancing around the place, Theissen did notice that the town was rather plain. Perhaps this was what his father meant by strict to perfection. There were hardly any curtains at the windows, just plain white. No lace. The women were even dressed plainly. Simple straight dresses and plain kerchiefs or bonnets. Their faces had no traces of paint or powdered blush. It was considerably drabber than Lumen Village; that was for sure.

“So. Journeyman carpenter, are you?” the bearded man said. “What kind of carpentry do you do?”

Thinking it was safest not to elaborate, Theissen said, “Oh, just about anything, really.”

“No fancy stuff?” one asked with a critical tone he knew also was a demand for a straight answer.

Ducking his head sheepishly, Theissen replied, “Only if the buyer requires it.”

“Who would be fool enough to do that?” One man guffawed loudly, slapping Theissen hard on the back, so much that Theissen almost fell off his chair.

Straightening himself up, Theissen just shrugged. “Oh, lord barons and all that. But really, my work is mostly about filling orders as the customer sees fit. Lately I’ve been fixing furniture in villages and mending fences.”

“Good tasks, to be sure,” one replied with an approving nod. “But what are your intentions here?”

Raising his eyes, Theissen decided to give as strong an answer as possible, making his intentions quite clear. “I am only staying for a rest before I continue on. I hope to trade labor for bed and food while I am here, if that is all right by you.”

All the men smiled with approval.

“Good,” one said. “We could use more arms and hands.”

“As well as knowledge of wood.”

“Especially before winter starts.”

Theissen looked around a bit and said, “But that’s not for another month yet, isn’t it?”

They smiled at him.

“Winter comes earlier along the mountains,” the bearded man said.

“Just watch the leaves. They’re already blowing with autumn winds. There was a strong gust this morning.”

Theissen knew that gust was his creation, but he decided not to mention it. With how they talked about the magician, it was clear they did not look any better on magic than they did on book learning.

“I see.”

The townspeople ushered Theissen to their main recovery project where the cow had done its greatest damage. It was a community barn where they had been keeping all kinds of animals for carriages and winter housing. Enormous in size, it also was elaborate in its chambers and sections. Several walls were gouged and punctured as if by a giant hand. The bull’s tracks were everywhere, and horn marks practically scoured the walls. It was like they had been nine feet in length at least.

“So, what do you want to do?” Theissen asked, watching several men pointing over at a collapsed part of the barn, talking together and cursing the magician in low voices.

The bearded man, who had at last introduced himself as the cobbler, gestured to the group that was heaving over another post to lift that corner up. “We need you over there. If you would just help them with that, then we’d like you to find a way to fix or mend the main beam. The winter snow gets very heavy on the roofs in these parts and we don’t think that props are enough to work it. You know wood and stress points and all that. You could help us devise a new beam there, and then we can start planking up the walls again.”

Theissen nodded, peering up at the beam. However, his eyes followed the other beams along the roof. The barn was not stable, even now. Several roof beams were cracked. That one part leaning over was the only thing holding the entire barn up. Already he could hear the wood creak, waiting to topple over and crush everything inside. Though it had been good against winter snow, it was not fit against a demon bull’s rampage.

“Ok.” Theissen walked over to the group, but as he walked through the barn, he touched the tall wood posts he passed, gently stroking them. With each one he touched, the wood rippled and pulled the cracks inside together, holding back to place as if it had never been broken. One by one he touched until he joined the group of men with a grip on the beam they were heaving up.

“Heave!”

All the men pushed. The roof groaned from the weight. Theissen closed his eyes, concentrating on the wood under his fingers and its connection with the wood above. It shuddered and they heaved again.

“Heave!”

Theissen mended the beam right above them just as it was about to crack apart.

“Heave!”

The beams further down were holding, though a far crack revealed itself. Theissen focused on it, feeling where it had broken apart, drawing each piece back into place.

“Heave!”

They almost got the post straight, sweat pouring down their necks, backs and foreheads as the entire weight of the barn seemed to press down on them. Theissen reached in one last time, encouraging the wood to bond together and lift up the weight of the roof while they set in this new post.

“Ho!” one man called. The wood post was in. Everyone broke apart and staggered back, staring up at the barn’s ceiling. Most stared with complete awe, shaking their hands with disbelief.

“That was too easy,” one said.

Theissen blinked. He almost ducked his head as he realized that he was the one that had made it too easy. It should have taken them all longer. Things should have fallen from the ceiling. All of them had braced for it to collapse in some way. Unfortunately realizing it too late, seeing now that most of the animals were out, Theissen had no explanation for it. He pretended to be awed too.

“Maybe the bull had not done as much damage as you thought,” he murmured.

One man cast a look at him. “You want to believe that?”

“That roof should have come down,” another said.

“Yeah.”

Giving up with acting, Theissen just shrugged and walked over as if to inspect the roof beams as he was hired to do. “Well, I might as well see what should be reinforced.”

The cobbler looked at him sideways, narrowing his eyes into slits. “Where did you say you were from?”

Theissen lowered his gaze to meet with his. “Lumen Village.”

He saw the cobbler nod to himself, the man’s expression darkening. “I hear you have a magician in Lumen. Am I right?”

Nodding without thinking about it much, Theissen said, “Yes, actually.”

The man rushed up and grabbed Theissen by his shirt and shoved him into the remarkably stable barn pillar that should have come crashing down just minutes before. “Magicians are very sneaky little weasels aren’t they?”

Shaking as he felt his spine being shoved into the wood, Theissen tried to get free hoping he didn’t have to resort to magic.

“Tell me you ain’t a magician! Tell me you ain’t a magician!” The man bellowed purple faced at Theissen, spit showering the young carpenter’s face with every word.

Coughing once, Theissen nodded his head. “I ain’t—I mean, I’m not a magician.”

“Then what was that magic you just did, you rat? I saw it! We all did!” He banged Theissen’s head against the post rather hard.

Between the throbbing of his back and the new splitting lump that grew on the crest of his skull, Theissen’s thoughts chided him for acting so quickly to mend the roof. “Ow! Just calm down! I was just helping.”

“Just helping? Like that magician helped? What are you? Demon? Witch? Or that blasted old magician in disguise!” He slammed Theissen’s back against the post again.

His secret had been blown anyway. And with a push, the roof began to shake, sending pieces of loose wood showering down. Everyone around him ducked under toppled walls and wood parts, but his assailant still did not let go. He shoved Theissen harder into the post.

“You blasted magicians are all alike! You won’t quit until you get your money! Well we ain’t paying you until you clean all this up proper!”

“Oh, get off! I’m not him!” Theissen shoved back, this time using the ground to drag the man from him.

It startled the cobbler so much that he yowled. The ground had pulled him a good three feet away, enough for Theissen to shake off the soreness and dust off the particles of wood that had fallen. The ground held the man there, three feet deep and squirming, though stuck like a rooted plant. The others stared up at Theissen, watching him walk from the post, glance up at the barn and then bend over to the ground as if feeling the quality of the ground up gravel there. Then, as if suddenly coming alive, the pieces of wood practically crawled across the ground, climbed up the posts and immediately fixed themselves back into the ceiling. Theissen straightened up from there then walked back to the post, almost to the spot where the man had rammed his head. He set his hand on it and breathed in a deep breath. Exhaling, Theissen closed his eyes.

All around them they heard the barn quake and groan. Above them they saw the wood cracks in the walls suddenly seal themselves up. All the gashes, all the gouges, even the hoof torn ground, healed up. It was as if everything had come to life, moving, swirling up hay and scattered oats. Water gathered in clouds and floated back towards troughs, raining down. And then everything settled. Looking about, the only proof their barn had ever been attacked by a rampaging demon bull was that the door was not there, being repaired somewhere in town though the hinges were entirely bent along with the shattered wood.

Theissen then turned toward the cobbler who suddenly cowered in the dirt with tremors of terror as Theissen approached him. The carpenter’s son stood not two