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

He made a face, and Daanee laughed more.

“I did not eat the heart of my mother,” he said. “In fact, I have a younger sister, Doreen. And a younger brother, Kolbran.”

“So you are the oldest?” she asked, taking a step closer to his cage.

Shaking his head, Theissen replied, “Oh, no. The oldest is Alania. She married a silversmith down in Pepersin Town. I also have three older brothers, all of them accomplished carpenters by now, though Tolbetan never really cared for it as much as Dalance and Kinnerlin did. Dalance is living in the capitol right now and Kinnerlin lives up the coast in Coastal Town. Tolbetan said he stopped somewhere in a village in the center of Jatte, but he—”

“Did she ask for all that?” one demon asked another.

Theissen choked on his words and flushed. “Uh, that is, no. I’m not the oldest.”

Daanee walked the rest of the way back and patted his hand with her clawed hand. “You seem to miss them. I’m sure your family is doing all right.”

“Hey!” Several of his guards shouted.

She jumped right away from Theissen.

“He is dangerous!”

Daanee trotted back the length of the corridor to where she had come from. Theissen could only follow the sound of her feet a short distance before it was lost in the echo of the caves. The woman muttered to the others before she departed that he did not seem as dangerous as all that.

“A gole talks sweetly to you before biting off your head,” one warned.

“You know,” Theissen said with a sigh. “He’s right. Goles do that. But I’m not a gole.”

“He’s a wizard, and that’s worse!” another demon said as a different one banged the bars to rattle them. They seemed to have forgotten how Theissen had bent their spears with a touch. At that moment, Theissen wondered how easy it would be for him to bend the bars then try to sneak out of the cave. So far, it didn’t seem like a good plan.

“He looks harmless,” the woman said. “And lost.”

Yes, lost. He was about as lost as he could be, sitting underground in pitch black. Theissen drew in a long breath, smelling that strange breeze again, wondering how the air was getting in from above ground. Was he in the mountain or under it? He felt out with his hand to find out, groping in the slimy wall with the least obvious move he could manage.

“Those demon crows look harmless,” the demon guard said to her.

“No, they don’t,” Theissen muttered.

“You stay out of this!”

Pretending to look the other way, seeing the same kind of blackness all around, he felt through the airy wall more. Yes, the rock was different: moist beyond a five-foot thickness of granite. It was also pocked with holes. Cracked in spots. After that he felt softer material, like soil, earth. Then clinging to that earth…. Yes! It was plant life. Vines! Those vines that hung down from the mountain he had just gone in. He tried to hide his relief, staring into the blackness with new thoughts forming plans of escape.

“Come on! What kind of threats?”

He had lost track of the conversation, but by then he didn’t care. Theissen felt back out, searching for his tools again and his valuables. The tools and belt were still where he last felt them. The silver cup had been removed with the rose bush and his coin pouch, but his writing kit was with the Westhaven book and his handkerchiefs. His clothes except for the ones on his back were scattered among the demons that had sorted through his bag. The bag itself remained on the floor with his other things, though it felt likely it would be taken somewhere for use later.

“Turn us back into humans? Can he actually do that?”

He suddenly felt her run back to his cage across the floor, grabbing the bars. “Did you really say you could do that?”

Blinking, yet no image at last came to light, Theissen responded with a nod, though his heart suddenly pounded a mile a minute from being so startled. “Yes. I said that.”

“Is it a lie?” she asked, giving of a strange odor that Theissen was not familiar with. “Can you really do that?”

Getting a hold of his senses or at least the ones left to him, he nodded again. “I can. I undid all the knots in a gole three years ago. He was human the last time I saw him.”

He didn’t dare mention that the Liptan constables then promptly beheaded the thing.

“Why did you do that?” one of the men asked.

Theissen just shrugged. “It wanted to eat me. I didn’t want to be eaten.”

He could feel their silence. No smell of fear. No smell of hate. Strangely, that other smell grew stronger. He didn’t recognize it through the demonic mildew stench though.

“Was it happy it was human?” one of the demons asked.

Making a face, Theissen replied. “I was happy it couldn’t eat me. I wasn’t concerned about anything else.”

All of the demons pulled back, grumbling.

“Just like a wizard. No cares except for himself.”

Perhaps they caught sight of the disgusted look on Theissen’s face then because one of the demons poked him with a spear. “Stop that! Do you actually think that just living like moles is so uncomfortable…?”

“Eating dirt,” one cut in

“…that we’d want to be human again?”

But it did sound like they did. Theissen’s expression eased to confused curiosity.

Another demon snorted. “What would there be out there for us if we were human? How would we live? We’d only be poor beggars. Mining would not even be good for us anymore.”

Theissen leaned on the bars again. “Maybe you could get a job.”

One of the demons banged on the bars, only not so hard. “What job? And under what lord? We know how it goes out there! Those jewel merchants come by to barter for our stones and metal all the time. They say no one will buy from people like us. They say people only buy from respected masters of business.”

To that, Theissen snorted. “They were lying. Most townspeople buy from anyone with a cart, good merchandise, and a strong voice. If you set up shop alongside those lords, I bet you could sell just as well as they do.”

“But they won’t buy from demons,” one of the men said with a disheartened voice.

That, Theissen could not deny. However, he tilted his head and said, “No, but they would buy from humans—from you if you were human that is.”

They returned to silence again.

“We thought of that, actually,” one of them at last said.

“But we will not try it,” the familiar sound of the chief said, cutting all of them off.

The crowd at Theissen’s cage parted and dispersed. Theissen could feel the weight of the chief’s disapproving glare on him and them. The chief walked closer, but remained arms’ length from Theissen had he tried to reach out.

“I see you don’t waste time in attempting mischief,” the chief said.

Theissen leaned back from the cage, feeling the demon’s hate directed at him. “What do you want? Why did you have me locked up?”

“I see you still have not learned to be respectful.” The chief’s voice grated with displeasure and smugness.

Slapping the slimy rock underneath him, Theissen shrugged. “Hard to feel inclined to pleasantries while caged up and sitting in slime, especially after being robbed.”

A guard struck the cage so that it really rattled. Theissen covered his ears with his hands to block it out, only lifting them to hear the chief curse at him.

“…kind of man! How dare you talk to me without even a word of respect! I am at least allowing you to live. Now you will do what I tell you.”

“And what’s my motivation again?” Theissen asked, scooting from the bars.

The guard struck them once more. This time Theissen was prepared to block out the noise.

“You will not interrupt me!”

Theissen had not thought he was interrupting, but apparently any retort in his own defense would be seen as such.

“You will help us kill the trees the birdmen live in. Understand?”

At least the demon didn’t beat around the bush. Direct, pointed, and Theissen thought he was also completely out of his mind.

“Kill trees?” Theissen frowned. “I can’t do that.”

“Can’t or won’t?” the chief asked in a dangerous voice.

Exhaling as he clamping another slime-covered hand to his already sticky forehead, Theissen ran his fingers down the side of his face. “Shouldn’t. To magically damage—”

The bars banged again.

“You will kill all the trees, or I will have you killed!” the chief shouted.

Theissen’s ears were ringing now. He wished it would stop. “But killing the forest would only—”

“Not the forest! Particular trees! Trees that they live off of!”

Making a face, Theissen scooted from the bars, hunching over as the ceiling sloped downward. “Yeah, but killing anything using magic only makes more demons. I read all about it in a—”

“You will do it!” The chief shouted.

“Goodness, are you stupid?” Theissen yelled back. Their shock silenced them. “You are like your idiot ancestors! They didn’t listen to the warnings the last wizard gave them! I’m telling you! It is wrong to use magic for—”

He felt that demon spear stick him again, this time it went in through his clothes and cut through the skin to his side. The pain was unexpected. Theissen shuddered, pulling his arms in as the demon yanked the bloody spear out.

“Consider, as you sit there, your predicament,” the chief said in a voice most deadly, “If you are still alive when I come back, reconsider your choice.”

The chief turned and walked out of the cavern.

Theissen could feel his blood seep through his shirt and vest. It was warm. He clutched his side, drawing himself up from the pain, clenching it with his hand as he tried to steady his breathing. With one thought, feeling in to where both skin and flesh parted, he pulled all the pieces back together. They had not meant to kill him. It was not a lethal stab. However, it was a warning.

Just listening to his own breathing, Theissen felt the scars on his hands and on his wrist. Punished again, only, this time a sense of injustice burned in his chest. He felt no guilt for his defiance. He also felt that no mercy should be given this tyrant. Escape was the only option. Next time they just might go for his throat.

Remaining in the muck as the room cleared, Theissen felt out to see who stayed behind in the cavern with him. Two guards, and not all that attentive either. He felt out for his things once more. His tools were still on that wall. That room was also empty. Reaching in, Theissen drew his tools into the cavern walls and dragged it towards his cell, not moving but breathing like he was still hurt for his guards’ benefit. He found his teacup and the coin pouch with the treasures in that luminescent room. The rose bush he discovered had been moved to a room full of demons, all of them marveling over it. He decided to give that one up for lost. Making his bag, his writing kit and his Westhaven book sink into the floor, Theissen waited until he had all items back in his hands, packing them carefully into the bag, including his tool belt.

Feeling the wall where the air was blowing in, Theissen pressed his hand against it. Almost immediately it parted for him, creating a hole large enough to climb into. Without even a look into the darkness, he squeezed in the hole, opening the way before him several feet ahead. Almost immediately light broke into the cave.

“Hey! What’s he doing?”

Squinting in the wonderful welcome sunlight, Theissen closed up the stone behind him, crawling out as he grabbed on the vines for support. The cliff dropped straight down under him. He could almost see the doors to the demon realm below,