Journeyman (A Wizard's Life) Read Free

with the caravan.
    “Thank you, Enek. You have been too kind,” he told the hunter.
    “There is no such thing,” Enek asserted. “If, in your travels, you have a chance to do for someone else what I have done for you, do it in repayment of my help to you. Someday the help will find me when I need it most.”
    Benen thought about it and liked it. “A nice philosophy. I accept.”
    They drank to it with a third tankard of ale and, before long, a fourth.
    The rest of the afternoon and evening were a blur to Benen, but in the morning he found that Enek had made sure they had rooms. He checked his purse and found it still full. He let out a sigh of relief.
    There was a note for him on the bed side. He supposed it was from Enek.
    The hunter was illiterate. His note consisted of a crude stick man drawing of himself and his dog and an arrow pointing away from drawings of a few buildings. Benen took this to mean that Enek had left town.
    He felt abandoned. He had really enjoyed the jovial hunter’s company.
    Benen made arrangements to stay in the room for another few days, paying with one of his eighths of a gold piece. Even this small amount of gold made the eyes of the tavern keeper go wide; He had to go to his coffers to get change for Benen.
    After that, the young wizard passed his time thinking on his success in changing himself back to his proper colouring and pondering shape-shifting in general.
    He had come back to his previous colour successfully only when he had changed back from the eagle form.
    Perhaps I was trying too small of a change to use the Builder, he thought. Benen ran through the constellations in his head, looking for one that would fit with what he thought he would have needed for this cosmetic change. He could not think of one, which was strange since he knew all the constellations. Then he got it: he knew all the constellations visible from Estren, but not the ones visible in the opposite hemisphere. He realized then that he had a gigantic gap in his knowledge of magic and astronomy.
    He cursed his former master yet again.
     
    #
     
    The caravan, when it arrived, spent a few hours loading and off-loading cargo. While this busy activity was going on, Benen tried to approach the caravan master, but he was rebuffed; the man was too busy coordinating the work to deal with a troublesome passenger just then.
    While waiting for the work to be finished, Benen figured out in his head how best he could have done the same work using magic. It would have been faster and require only one person: Benen. Of course, he knew his time and effort should not be wasted replacing labourers, a wizard would be more useful tackling problems only magic could solve. Benen imagined himself hunting down vicious criminals for the crown or solving crimes using magical spells. He intended to present these ideas to the king when he got to the capital. It was criminal that wizards spent their time studying and navel-gazing when they could make a real difference in the world. Benen would change that. He would speak to the king and make his proposals. But first he had to get to the capital.
    The caravan master turned out to be named Drokken. He was a gruff man with little patience, especially not for a young man like Benen who was to accompany the caravan without contributing anything. Since Enek had made the arrangements though, he agreed to take on Benen so long as he kept out of the way of the real workers. This was fine with Benen, he just wanted company and directions to the capital. Also, if the caravan was attacked, he would be able to protect it; he liked feeling that he would be contributing, even if Drokken did not know it.
    When the caravan got underway, Benen walked alongside one of the waggons, finding a spot where there wasn’t a guard stationed; he did not want to be accused of being in the way.
    All told, the caravan consisted of three oxen-drawn waggons, their handlers, half-a-dozen cargo loaders, a group of ten guards,