The Wizard Returns: Book Three of the Wizard Born Series (35 page)

“Jamie?” Evelyn took a deep breath. “Why in Heaven’s name ––”

The back door burst open, and Fred and Melanie shot from it and ran to the horse. “She’s beautiful!” Melanie squealed, as she and Fred began stroking Sugar’s neck.

Fred turned to Jamie. “Can we ride her?”

“We’ve got to hit the books,” Jamie said. When she stuck her lower lip out, he said, “Maybe later.”

Evelyn turned back to Jamie. “As I was saying,
why
in Heaven’s name did you buy a horse?”

“Well....” He scratched the back of his neck and grimaced.

“He bought her so I wouldn’t have to walk all the way from Mrs. Tully’s house to here, that’s why.” Aiven nodded firmly. “It’s far. It’s...four miles, I bet.”

Evelyn crossed her arms. “It’s only two, I heard.”

“That’s still really far. My legs are short, and it would be hard.”

Evelyn gave Jamie a steady look. He shrugged and said, “Mrs. Tully won’t let me walk her home, so I can’t make a doorway to her house. I figured she could use my horse, and....” He shrugged again. “Brinna can ride home with her, too.” He looked at Aiven. “This animal is strong enough for two, isn’t it?”

“I do not require a horse, Master Jamie, and even if I did, there are three of us,” Mrs. Tully said with a nod toward Aiven.

“I’ll walk home,” Brinna said. “Since I live closer.”

“I shall walk.” Mrs. Tully raised her chin as if to settle the matter. “But I still say the horse is not necessary.”

Jamie pressed up his mouth thoughtfully. “Maybe I can buy a carriage. How much do those cost?”

“Jamie, no.” Evelyn said. “Don’t throw your money around.”

“I have a carriage,” Brinna said. “A modest one, but it shall do. It is an open two-wheeler, with one bench, but I think the three of us would fit.”

“’Cause I’m little,” Aiven said.

“You may ride in my lap,” Mrs. Tully said. She turned back to Jamie with her mouth open as if to argue about the need for a horse, but a look of resignation seemed to cross her face and she only sighed.

Jamie pulled at one earlobe and looked at Brinna. “Why don’t you use your carriage now, instead of walking everywhere?”

“Because I have no horse. I had to sell it after my husband died, but I kept the carriage. It is old, and not of much value.”

Evelyn uncrossed her arms as she regarded the animal. “It seems like a lot of money to spend, Jamie. I don’t know what horses cost, but I really don’t —”

“Jamie didn’t spend much at all!” Aiven said, bouncing on the balls of his feet and squeezing his hands together at his chest.

Mrs. Tully frowned at Aiven. “Don’t interrupt adults when they are speaking.”

“Sorry,” he said, still looking as if he were about to burst. She sighed and gestured for him to continue. “I got the horse to limp.” He nodded and grinned, obviously pleased with himself. “Sugar really was a good faker, she was. We took her out of the stable to walk her and look her over, and Sugar favored her right front leg like she was going lame, and Mr. Niall was real embarrassed and everything. He sold her to us for only
three
silvers, and he threw in the saddle for free, mostly ’cause it’s old.”

“The girth strap had a split in it,” Jamie said, “almost completely in two, but I fixed it.”

“Jamie used his magic on it. He looked at it real hard and pointed his fingers at it, and
zing
, it melted back together, kinda. Looks good as new.”

“I feel like you took advantage of that man, Jamie,” Evelyn said. “You too, Aiven, using your magic like that to make the horse look less valuable. That seems unethical.”

“Cry no tears for Niall Heaney, Mrs. Wallace,” Mrs. Tully said. “He once sold a horse to my husband that died within a month. This evens out the score a bit, in my view.” Mrs. Tully looked at the horse and shook her head. “Though Mr. Kennerly will not be happy about this. He will not enjoy cleaning up after it. He takes his responsibility of this lawn most seriously, he does.”

“That won’t be a problem.” Aiven said. “I already told her to go in the yard way over here.” He gestured behind him, to where the yard gave way to high grass and natural wildness. “We don’t have to tie her up or put up a fence, either. I told her to stay here in the yard...well...asked her to, more like. But she said she will.”

“You can get her to do that?” Evelyn asked.

“I can get a horse to do
anything
.”

Jamie rolled his eyes. “He’s only told me that about ten times.”

“But I
can
. I can get her to come without saying a word. Watch!” He stared at Sugar, and she raised her head and snorted, then she walked away from Fred and Melanie and came to him, lowering her head so he could stroke her. He patted her muzzle and looked up at Evelyn. “See, Mrs. Wallace?”

“I still think it’s a mistake,” Evelyn said. “This will only make extra work for Mrs. Tully and Mr. Kennerly.”

“No it won’t,” Jamie said. “Aiven has to take care of her. He has to do everything...feed her, groom her, water her...I don’t know what else horses need, but he’s going to do it.”

Evelyn fixed Aiven with a steely look. “How about the carriage?”

“I can handle it, Mrs. Wallace. I can keep it clean and hook the horse up to it and everything.”

His tone was so certain that she knew it was true, not just boasting from a ten-year-old.

Mrs. Tully rubbed the horse behind the ear. “Mr. Kennerly won’t mind the extra manure, as long as it doesn’t hurt the grass. He often brings in some anyway, in his wagon, for the flower beds.”

“Fred?’ Jamie said. “Maybe you should go ahead and ride now, while the horse is saddled and everything.”

Melanie clapped and beamed, and Fred said, “Aiven, will you help us. Neither of us knows how to ride a horse.”

The boy stared at them as if they’d announced that they didn’t know how to breathe. “How can you
not
know how to ride a horse?”

“We don’t have a lot of horses where we come from.”

“How do you get around? Do you fly, like Jamie?”

Fred laughed. “Uh, no, we drive cars.” He looked at her quizzically and she said, “We’ll show you on the laptop sometime.”

Aiven shook his head, and Jamie told him, “The magic box inside, in the corner by the table.”

“Oh,” he said, and unsure look still in his eyes.

“All right, Aiven.” Fred rubbed her hands together and looked at the horse. “How do we do this?”

Jamie got a magic book and joined Rollie and Bryce in the sitting area, while Fred and Melanie rode Sugar up and down the road in front of the house under Aiven’s guidance. The girls didn’t ride for long, and soon came inside while Aiven took the horse to the back.

Melanie stood beside Bryce and put one hand on his shoulder. Fred plopped next to Jamie, and he looked up from his book and said, “Was that fun?”

“It was exciting! But my butt is a little sore already, and I didn’t ride very long.” She caressed Jamie’s shoulder and gave him a sly smile. “You know, it would be more fun if we had another horse. Then we could ride together instead of taking turns.”

“I’m not buying another horse.”

“Aw, please?” Fred made her puppy dog face.

“No.”

Her eyebrows drew down even more. “Why not? You have plenty of money.”

“Because we don’t need one.”

“You can give it to Brinna when we leave. She could use one, too.”

“No, Fred.” He gave her a firm look.

“Oh well.” Fred leaned back and sighed. “It
is
pretty fun. Maybe we can go for a ride in the carriage tomorrow.”

“Speaking of money,” Rollie said, “how much did those girls give you, Fred?”

“A five piece each. I guess that’s the going rate now for a love potion. They must’ve talked to Feather.” She
tsked
and shook her head. “They all want that spell for the big festival this Friday. Must be a pretty big deal, like the prom.”

“Jamie, do you know anything about it?” Rollie asked.

“The prom? No, I’ve never been. Fred went with Kyle last year, remember?”

Fred frowned. “That’s not funny.”

Rollie gave Jamie a level look. “You know what I mean.”

“Eddan never went to dances and stuff like that. That required being social.” He turned to Fred. “Did you have enough packets of love potion?”

“I made twenty-five yesterday.” She dug in the pocket of her jeans and pulled out six coins and showed them to Jamie. “What should I do with these?”

“Dump them in the vase with the others, I guess.”

“Jamie?” Rollie’s face grew thoughtful. “I have a question about the oath we took. I thought we couldn’t make money off our power. Is it is one of those deals where the situation has changed, so it changes how it affects us?”

“I’m not sure, but I do know that it says we can’t
enrich
ourselves. Fred didn’t exactly make big bucks today.”

“She made like...sixty dollars in American money. That’s more than I make in a shift at the vet clinic.”

“I want to be a witch,” Melanie said. “They only pay me minimum wage at Lanny’s Pizza.”

“Hey, Fred,” Bryce said. “If you have trouble getting a decent job after college, you can always move here.”

“That’s not such a bad idea.” Then she frowned again. “But I’m not living here full-time unless my house has a real bathroom and a kitchen.”

Chapter 27

Jamie looked up when Bryce rose from the padded chair in the sitting area and said, “Dude, it’s almost four o’clock. We need to run.”

Jamie glanced at his watch out of habit, and set his book down beside him on the bench seat, next to Fred. She put hers down, too, and said, “Jamie, I need to take a shower. Will you heat the water before you go?”

“Will you give Melanie your pendant and get her to guard you?”

Fred groaned, “Yeah. Sure. Guard.”

“I
mean
it. You need to be protected when you’re vulnerable like that.”

Fred put one hand on his arm and gave him a steady look. “Jamie. We’ve been here for over two days, and the boogey man hasn’t appeared yet.”

“That doesn’t mean he won’t! It could happen any time, especially when our guard is down. A wizard could show up when we least expect it.”

“Don’t you think they would’ve been here by now?”

“Not necessarily. They may not know how to make doorways or translocate yet. It takes a sorcerer many years to learn that. But they could still hurt one of us.”

“You make it sound like all wizards are bad.”

“Well...some are, or at least they used to be. I don’t know who still lives here.”

Fred glanced around the room. “Speaking of wizards, where’s our little one?”

“He’s out in the back with Rollie,” Bryce said, “playing catch. Or trying to, anyway.”

“Where’s Gramma?” Jamie asked.

“She’s in the bedroom,” Fred said, “getting dressed. She just showered.”

“So everybody’s safe and accounted for, Jamie,” Bryce said with a nod of his head toward the door. “Get up. Let’s
go!
”

“Okay.” Jamie stood and sighed. “Let me heat the water for Fred first.”

Jamie and Bryce jogged away from the house, following the same route Fred and the others had taken earlier.

“Anything look familiar to you?” Bryce said as they passed the fork in the road.

“The hills looked the same when I was flying over them. The trees have grown a lot since Eddan was here, and when I went to the stable, I could tell the town had grown, too. It wasn’t much more than a village twenty years ago.”

“Where was Eddan’s tower?”

“Back behind us.” Jamie pointed over his shoulder with a jerk of his thumb. “Over the river and up on the ridge.”

“I wouldn’t mind seeing it before we leave.”

“Not much to see. It’s a pile of rubble, now.”

“Still, it must’ve been important. You talk about it a lot.”

It only took them a few minutes to reach the edge of town. When they neared the gates, Jamie pointed at them and said. “These are new.” They crossed onto the paving stones and he pointed again. “These are, too.” He looked around at the unfamiliar homes that lined the street. “It’s really changed.”

The closer they got to the center of town, the more people they saw. A few gawked at the boys as they ran. Bryce said, “I guess they’ve never seen a couple of guys jogging before.”

“There probably aren’t any Nike outlet shops here.”

Bryce gestured at the two-story wooden buildings that lined the road. “There are plenty of other shops, though.”

“None of this was here during Eddan’s time. None of it looks familiar.” But the people looked familiar, in a way. Jamie didn’t know the names of the men and women on foot or horseback, but it seemed like he could have. He could tell from their manner of dress which ones were probably farmers’ wives, and who the tradesmen were. He knew what kind of houses they lived in, what they ate for dinner, what stories they might’ve told their children before bedtime.

They reached the main intersection, weaving around pedestrians and dodging a couple of carriages. Bryce gestured with a broad sweep of his arm. “It does kinda look like Main Street in Hendersonville, with all the stores and everything. Melanie told me that, but I...wow. Don’t you think so?” He poked Jamie with one finger. “Earth to Jamie. Come in, Jamie, do you read me?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, it does kinda. I was just reminiscing.”

“Are you still struggling with Eddan’s memories?”

“I’ve been able to keep ’em under control most of the time, but right now they’re really popping up.”

Bryce pointed to a row of push carts and open wagons loaded with vegetables and fruit for sale. “This must be the where Mrs. Tully buys food.”

“Probably.” Jamie pointed with his left hand. “Let’s turn on this street.”

Soon they were on the southern edge of town, and the scenery quickly changed over to something that looked familiar to Jamie: farms and fields, flowing over the gently rolling landscape in green, bucolic lushness. The air smelled pure, the breeze cool against Jamie’s skin, the sun warm on his face.

“It’s nice out here,” Bryce said. “This is a good place to run. No cars to dodge, and no pavement.” He glanced down. “Running on these dirt roads is good for the knees.”