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

“A lord baron?” a different ex-mole man murmured, staring after the horses then looking out at the carriages.

“Is that like a chief or village elder?” Karo asked.

Theissen shook his head, watching out the door also. “More like a chief, though his power is in his money and landholdings rather than in command of a people.”

“Power in money?” another moleman repeated quizzically.

Nodding, Theissen stepped from the stall to get a better look. “Yeah. Some people in the world believe that money can buy everything, including loyalties and power.”

“Do you think that?” Karo asked, following after him while hiking up his slipping pants. Theissen mentally added belts to his list of things to purchase for the rest of the trip.

Theobold snorted, flapping once under his robe. “Are you joking? Our carpenter friend?”

Theissen’s good humor returned with a glance to Theobold. Then he walked over to their carts to make the wheels sink into the ground, doubly securing it for safety. Right after, he climbed back up the ladder to return to his planned nap.

“If he really thought that, he would have used his magic to make gold rise from the ground. Then he would have taken over the forest where we lived, demanding taxes from us and the caravans that passed through it.”

“He can do that?”

Theobold’s voice went solemn as he spoke to the former demons, lowering into a whisper. “I bet he could.”

The village behind the inn kept Theissen very busy with his carpentry projects. His human apprentices worked with him as requested, not kicking up as much fuss as they had the first day they arrived though still making quite a stir when they entered each home and shop. No one in the village had ever seen anyone dressed like them. Not their long soft white robes slashed down the back where their wings normally had emerged, hiding their back-less shirts underneath. But also most villagers found their attachment to Theissen doubly curious. Neither Ronen nor Teppan left his side when they entered the village. They did is as if they half expected the locals to jump them while they helped Theissen with the basics of their work projects. Yet, Theissen went around as if their behavior wasn’t strange at all. He initially chatted casually with Theobold then sent him off with other projects to complete in the barn since the locals were spooked that a demon was roaming about.

“So, how long will it take for glue to dry?” the bookshop owner asked. He examined the unfinished ladders they had just made quite carefully.

“Give it two days,” Theissen said, packing up his supplies and handing some of them to Teppan to carry. Teppan had only just swept up the sawdust, stuffing it into a bag for tinder. “After that, I’ll return and finish it.”

“It’s not finished now?” the man asked, watching Ronen collect the rest of the scrap pieces into a pouch as if he were planning on using them later. Ronen passed him a sheepish smile, taking up another piece. 

Shaking his head, Theissen gently smiled. “Nope. All good things take time.”

Drawing in a breath, the shopkeeper sighed and nodded. “Yes, I suppose so. Then thank you. I’ll see you in two days.”

Theissen waved, walking straight to the door, double checking to make sure he had all his tools with him on his belt.

“Where to next?” Teppan asked once they were out the door and on the planked walkway, peering over Theissen’s shoulder to see the papers in his hand.

Pulling the papers away from him, Theissen tucked them back into his pocket. “We go to the Shoemaker’s. We need to sand those stools we put together, and the glue for those foot molds ought to be done drying.”

“Are we really going to carve those blocks by hand?” Ronen said with a voice that leaned towards a whine.

With a cold look, Theissen continued his march across the street. “Of course we are.”

“But you could do it so much faster by—”

Theissen whipped around, warning in his glare. “No. And don’t mention that again.”

Teppan and Ronen pulled back. Mentioning Theissen’s magic gifts had become taboo the moment they had set foot into the village, but neither ex-birdman really understood why. In fact, they kept wondering why Theissen didn’t just finish all the woodwork with magic. However, even their fellow Theobold warned them not to bring up that Theissen was a wizard unless they wanted the journeyman carpenter really angry.

They entered the shoemaker’s shop just as they caught sight of Dobbis trotting happily from the mercantile shop. Dobbos was patting his pocket full of gold coins. It was clear Dobbis’s group was undercutting the usual feather price by twenty gold coins, charging only twenty per feather since this town did not seem so wealthy. They still made a profit of over ten times the price the feather merchants usually paid the birdmen.

Passing Theissen a brisk, yet somewhat cold nod, Dobbis gestured to the other former birdmen travelling with him to hurry back to the inn. They were done working for the day.

Most of the villagers stared when members of their traveling group went about gathering supplies for the rest of their trip east. The former molemen mostly stayed in the barn guarding the cart. Yet, a few of them had gone out to shops to collect things for the trip that Theissen had bartered in trade for woodwork, and some had into the inn for food. Of course, by that time everyone in the village knew a birdman demon was also travelling with them.

Theobold got restless watching the carts after the first day. Though Theissen had arranged for him to do a few woodworking projects in the mean time, after a few hours of watching the others go in and out he pitched a fit then forced the former molemen take the post while he went off flying to ‘scout ahead.’ Actually, he just wanted to be anywhere but cooped up inside the barn with the stable hands and animals. No one entirely blamed him, including Theissen. After all, he had been cooped up with the birdmen for months feeling the same way.

Collecting the wood blocks from the shoemaker’s and leaving their sanded and now stained stools behind, Theissen led his apprentices on to their next stop. From there they left partially completely projects and went on to another home. Then another. For three days they went around like this—all day, each day.

After the end of three days, most of the simple projects were completed. All they had left to do was finish carving the shoe molds and refine the scrollwork on the cabinets and chests. This was mostly Theissen’s job, keeping him in the village while the others remained at or around the inn. 

“…Take a look?” a passing villager said to the green grocer just below where Theobold was perched in the batch of trees, carving little animals out of the wood pieces Ronen had collected. The leaves were not entirely off this cluster, still falling down despite that it was already winter in most of Jatte. It gave him just enough cover so that no one could see him without looking directly up. “Certainly there has got to be something strange inside those carts.”

“Food for the demon?” the green grocer suggested with a nervous twitch.

“I don’t think so. The cook down in the inn says he eats mostly fruit and bread.”

Theobold quietly sighed, relaxing more in the branches. He started carving long strokes for the bear’s fur.

“Are you sure that just isn’t for show?”

“No, I think they have something like gold inside those carts. I heard one of the maids say the men who were pushing it were going at it with sweat down their faces.”

“Maybe they are the demon’s slaves.”

“But then why is that carpenter with them?”

Disgusted, Theobold dropped down from the tree right behind the pair, his wings tucked so they would not catch on the tree branches. “He chooses to be.”

Both men yelped, leaping as if they had been tossed backwards. The green grocer dashed off, tripping over himself to get away. But the other villager tripped backward on a tree root and landed straight on his back. He stared up at the birdman with horror.

“And what’s in those carts is none of your business,” the birdman added, the carving knife clenched tight in his fist.

A choking yipe escaped the villager’s throat. He skittered backward, hastily climbing to his feet. He darted around the trees to get back to the main village house cluster.

Theobold frowned.

“What are you spooking them for?” Karo came around the tree, walking alone though struggling with his sagging clothes that had not fit him well since he had become human.

Pivoting around first as if to take on an attacker, Theobold then sighed with relief when he saw who it was. “Oh, well…I was just listening in—”

“So was I,” Karo said, peering towards the village with same beady eye gaze he had formerly used when he was a moleman.

Nodding, the birdman followed his gaze. “I didn’t want them to think we were ignorant of their sneaky suspicions.”

Karo frowned. He looked back towards the inn. “I think we ought to leave here soon.”

“Theissen isn’t done with all his work projects yet.” Theobold frowned. But he agreed with Karo.

“And we can’t leave him, can we?”

“Leave him?” Theobold stared, blinking twice at the former moleman. “Are you insane? We need him.”

“That’s what I meant.” Karo’s frown deepened. “But I really don’t feel safe here.”

Theobold nodded, gazing back towards the village. “I know how you feel.”

Theissen gathered the group together in their barn stalls that evening, nodding to both Karo and Theobold before he started to speak. “Alright. You are all anxious about getting a move on, and I agree we ought to keep going. So, I’ve talked it over with a few of you, and I think the main group of you ought to head on tomorrow morning.”

“Without you?” Daanee gasped aloud, glancing at Ronen and then others with them.

Several of the former birdwomen murmured, clustering together.

Theissen nodded. “Yes. Theobold can travel with you to give a show of strength. He tells me people think you are all his slaves or something.”

“Idiotic,” one of the former molemen muttered with a snort. He looked at how relaxed Theobold lounged in the hay of the loft, though the birdman’s eyes sparkled with mischief.

“I think so too. But let’s play on their idiocy.” Theissen then turned to the cluster of ex-molemen. “I want you to arrange yourselves into two groups besides. One group will push and pull the carts. The other group will be armed and protect the group. Theobold will keep lookout from above.”

“Are we all going?” an ex-birdwoman asked.

Theissen drew in a breath, turned to her, and sighed, nodding. “I think the more that go, the better. I can catch up if you all just stay on the main highway.”

“You don’t need us?” Ronen asked, glancing at Teppan.

Theissen did look at them as if he wanted them to stay. However, Theissen glanced to Daanee