Legend of the Sorcerer Read Free Page B

Mangrove Hotel’s arts and crafts camp counselor. The hotel ran a small program for their guests’ children, freeing the adults to take fishing excursions and the like. Their regular arts and crafts teacher had taken a sudden leave of absence to tend to a sick family member. So, for the next two weeks, for two hours each day, Jordy would be teaching children to draw, paint, whatever she wanted. The managershowed her to the supply room, which was surprisingly well-stocked, then arranged for her to move to a smaller room in the hotel.
    “I know what you’re going to say, Fred,” she said as she threw her clothes back in her suitcase and collected her toothbrush and shampoo. “Trust me, I know I’m doing the right thing. I’m excited. When was the last time that happened? I know I have to go back and face reality. But the rent is paid for the month. Once I get home, life will just bite me in the butt all over again. And maybe I’m still sore from the last time.”
    She
would
go back. She’d find new clients, make new friends. She’d come back stronger, and this time she’d take care of her own business. She wouldn’t live, eat, and sleep work, either. She’d find balance.
    In short, she’d get a life.
    She drew in a deep breath and stepped out on the balcony, absorbing the bright sunshine. However, in order to achieve those goals, she had to be able to sculpt, and to do that, she had to rediscover her imagination. Who better to help her than a group of children?
    Cai managed to get the still-lecturing Alfred to accompany him out to the gardens. His grandfather was quite the horticulturist and had created an Eden of their very own behind their home. It was an interesting twist on the delicate tea gardens he remembered with fondness. He’d created a haven that was both serene and whimsical.
    Cai often found Alfred out here in the late afternoon talking to his plants, or any one of the pieces of statuary he’d collected over the years. He held forth on a number of subjects, clearly delighted to have a never-tiring audience. At times he’d ask questions, pausing as if hearing a response,answering phantom questions, debating unspoken points.
    Many times, Cai would take a seat out of view, and listen as Alfred told the plants his stories of the dark ages and the days of Arthur. Cai marveled over the richness of detail and vast wealth of his grandfather’s knowledge. Of course, Alfred would sense when Cai was there, and would suddenly zero in on him with his laser-like blue eyes, firing this question or that, ready for debate. So in touch with reality and yet living in fantasy. As a child, Cai had learned to enjoy his grandfather’s oddities. As an adult, he sometimes wished he had the same capacity for unselfconscious whimsy.
    He forced a smile now, wishing Alfred would turn to his marble and stone creatures for a speech or two so he could make some phone calls.
    Dilys had already left for Mangrove, so she could not help him. Not that he could count on her. Dilys was an eccentric herself with an unswerving loyalty to Alfred.
    Their relationship was an odd one. Cai thought she was part Welsh, but her accent was an odd hybrid of English, Scottish, and God only knew what else. She looked to be anywhere from sixty to one hundred sixty. Short, stout-bodied, and stronger than most men, she wore a dour expression that didn’t invite conversation. She was a one-woman dynamo. Cai was convinced she’d missed her calling as ruler of a great nation. She could have done that and still had time left over to cook for twelve, run a household of a hundred, and take care of two reclusive men who appreciated her more than the air they breathed. He had no idea why she was so devoted to Alfred, but had stopped trying to discover the answer by his teens. He supposed most would consider her a housekeeper, cook, maid, whatever. Cai thought of her simply as their keeper, period.
    The funny thing was that Cai didn’t even know what her