The Wizard Returns: Book Three of the Wizard Born Series (36 page)

“It’s peaceful, too, just the two of us out here.” Jamie added. “I was afraid that Fred and Melanie would want to take the horse and come with us.”

“Melanie said it’s not very comfortable with two in the saddle.” They ran a few more strides and Bryce said, “You didn’t buy that horse for yourself, did you?”

“I really think Mrs. Tully needs one, especially if she’s going to take care of the house.”

“You gonna keep the house?”

“I’m thinking about it.”

“That’s pretty cool, having your own place, and you’re still in high school.” They ran by a field that had a rustic wooden fence running along the edge of the road. A few cows grazed nearby, ignoring the boys as they passed. “This wouldn’t be such a bad place to live, I bet.”

“Except there are no schools around here,” Jamie said. “Or a hospital.”

“Well, yeah, except for that.” Bryce nodded. “Maybe you can take some of that money from the house and build one.”

“A hospital? There’s not enough money in the closet for that.”

“No, but you could probably build a school. A little one-room school house. Wouldn’t that be awesome?”

“I guess.”

They ran on, and after a while they neared another dirt road on their left that met the one they were on. “Let’s turn here,” Jamie said. “This will take us back home.”

* * *

Jamie joined his friends in the bedroom, his hair damp and a towel across his shoulders.

Rollie looked up and said. “Did Brinna get connected with John Paul?”

“They’re Skyping now.” Jamie turned to Bryce, who was sitting in a chair by the book-covered desk. “John Paul wants somebody to take Brinna’s picture and e-mail it to him. Can you do that in a little while?” Bryce shrugged and Jamie added, “And take a picture of the horse for my parents, and you probably ought to get one of Aiven, too.”

“Where is he, anyway?”

“He’s still out back, playing with the horse. Mrs. Tully and Gramma said they’d keep an eye on him from the kitchen window.”

“Hope he doesn’t decide to go for a swim in the river. He could drown.”

“I think the horse would save him.”

“You serious?” Bryce said.

“Those two are so tightly linked it’s eerie, because I can sense it.”

“You don’t need magic to sense it,” Melanie said. “Even I can tell, and I don’t have any more magic than a doorknob.”

“Hey.” Bryce leaned toward Melanie. “Tell Jamie about what you found.”

She pointed at the book in her lap. “This is another journal, by some wizard named Kwell. He was trying to figure out how to raise a demon.”

“Ohhh,” Jamie groaned, “that never works. It’s a good way to get yourself killed.”

“Anyway,” Melanie continued, opening the book and searching through some pages before settling on a particular one. “Right here he says he’s made a
magic opening
, as he calls it, to a place that’s dark and warm, suitable for demons.” She tapped the journal with one fingertip. “This last entry says he’s getting a lantern to investigate.” She flipped the page, looked up and shrugged. “And that’s it. It’s blank after that.”

“I bet he made a doorway by sheer dumb luck,” Jamie said. “Must’ve opened to some deep underground cavern, and the doorway closed on him. Probably couldn’t reopen it and he died there.”

“I guess that’s an example of Darwinism in the wizard breed,” Melanie said. “The stupider ones killed themselves off, hopefully before reproducing.”

“Or at least the incompetent ones did,” Jamie said.

“How strong do you think Aiven is going to be,” Bryce asked.

“Who knows? He’s still really young.”

“You started doing some serious magic when you were just eight,” Rollie said. “I oughta know. I was there.”

“I had an advantage, because of Eddan’s memories. I didn’t have to learn stuff, just remember it.”

Melanie tapped the book again and nodded. “But this is good. Something about demons, finally. It’s not been a total waste.”

“A waste?” Jamie blinked at her and his eyebrows drew down. “Is that what you feel like it is?”

“Oh, no!” Melanie leaned over and put an apologetic hand on Jamie’s arm. “I didn’t mean for it to sound like that. I
like
it here.”

“Me too,” Bryce added.

“These books are interesting,” Melanie said, “and I had fun going into town and riding the horse and everything. It’s going to be a memorable spring break.”

Jamie turned to Rollie. “How about you? Are you okay with being here? You’re the only one who hasn’t gotten out of the house and done something.”

Rollie shrugged. “I’m cool. If I need a break, I can always go outside and play with Aiven.”

“You should run with us tomorrow,” Bryce said, “if you can keep up.”

“Keep up? Are you kidding? I can run fifty miles for every mile you run. Maybe more.” He wiggled his fingers and his eyebrows. “I got
the power
.”

“Oh yeah?’ Jamie said. “Maybe you should try to use it once in a while. Your parents aren’t here, you know.”

Jamie shifted in his seat when Brinna knocked and stepped in. She said, “Excuse me, ladies and gentleman. Dinner is served.”

They filed out to the main room, but didn’t make it to the table before they heard someone at the front door. Jamie started to get it, but Brinna stopped him with a hand on his arm. “It is not the master’s place to answer.” She looked toward the kitchen and said. “Ma must be busy. I shall take care of it.”

They watched as she opened the door and had a short conversation with another woman, then she turned to Jamie and said, “It’s Ma’s neighbor, the widow Miller. She’s hurt.”

“Let her in, please,” he said urgently.

A frail, elderly woman shuffled inside, holding her left hand gingerly, her face tight with pain. Everyone rushed to her at once, but Fred held one arm out. “Give her some room.” Fred put a hand on the old woman’s elbow and guided her to the bench seat. “What happened, Mrs. Miller?”

The old woman sat and glanced up at Fred. “I scalded my hand. I was making tea, and the kettle slipped.”

Her hand was bright red and trembling, and blisters had formed on the back of it and on part of her wrist. Jamie sucked in his breath when he saw it, and called for Mrs. Tully, who was already on her way from the kitchen with Evelyn.

“That burn could get be a problem.” Fred turned to Bryce. “Run down in the cellar and get the box that has my potion stuff in it.” Then she looked at Jamie. “I need more light. Make me one of your little suns, please.”

Jamie gestured, and a glowing ball appeared above his hand, and he floated it up near the ceiling.

Bryce reappeared with the orange plastic bin. Fred took it from him, set it on the floor beside her, and lifted the lid. “Now, Mrs. Miller, I’m not a true healer, but I can take care of little things like this.”

“Are you going to use your tube of healing jelly?” Melanie said.

“No, the big jar of it. This burn covers a large area.” She pulled out a container of petroleum jelly and removed the lid. She knelt beside the trembling woman and scooped out a generous dab of pale green goo with two fingers. “I just washed my hands for dinner, so this should be okay. Though I don’t think it matters with this stuff. It’s got my special healing powder mixed in, and it can kill just about any germ.” She gave Mrs. Miller a reassuring nod. “This might hurt a little when I first smear it on, but not for long.”

She spread the jelly over the back of the widow’s hand, and the old woman flinched at first, then she sighed, and the pain seemed to vanish with that long breath. Fred scooped out another dab, turned the woman’s hand over, and spread it on the rest of the burn. “How’s that, Mrs. Miller?”

“It’s wonderful,” she whispered, her face softening. She flexed her fingers and smiled. “The pain is gone. Thank you, young lady. Thank you so much.”

“Melanie,” Fred said, “could you get something to dab off the excess goo, please?” Melanie left for the kitchen and returned a moment later with a couple of paper towels. Fred gingerly wiped the old woman’s hand, and Jamie could see that the blisters had healed and the redness was gone. It looked normal.

“There you go, Mrs. Miller.” Fred stood and helped the old woman up. “Good as new.”

“I don’t know how to thank you” she said. “I...I have no money on my person at the moment. Could you...could you let me pay you some other day?”

Fred looked at Mrs. Tully, who gave her head a tight shake. “Well....” Fred put one hand on Mrs. Miller’s frail shoulder. “I don’t how much to charge you for this, because I’ve never done it before.” She bit one corner of her lip and her eyes grew thoughtful. “Um...do you have any chickens?” The woman nodded, and Fred said, “How about next time you see Mrs. Tully, you give her a few eggs? Then she can bring them here and cook us some breakfast. Would that be okay?”

A look of relief spread across the woman’s face, and she smiled again. “Yes. Yes, that would be fine. I shall give her some as soon as my hens lay enough.”

“There’s no rush.” Fred guided her to the door, one hand resting gently on her back.

“I shall walk you home,” Mrs. Tully said, untying her apron as she spoke.

“No you won’t.” Mrs. Miller turned and pointed a bony finger at Mrs. Tully. “You’ll stay here and serve your fine meal, you will. These people are hungry!”

“Then join us for dinner,” Jamie said. “We have enough, I’m sure.”

“I ate already.” She nodded to settle the matter, and headed for the door. “You’ve done enough. I must be on my way.” She paused a moment and held a shaking hand to Fred’s arm, touching her tenderly. “Thank you, dear.”

“You’re welcome.” Fred let her out of the door and waited until the old woman was safely on her way before closing it. Fred said to Mrs. Tully, “I didn’t know what to charge her. You told me that if I didn’t charge people enough they wouldn’t respect me, but she looked so pitiful.”

“You did the proper thing. Mrs. Miller struggles to get by. I help her when I can, but I don’t always have enough for myself.”

“I think you did the proper thing, too,” Evelyn said.

Bryce frowned. “Maybe we should give her a ride on the horse.”

Mrs. Tully shook her head. “You will insult her. She is a proud woman.”

Aiven, who had stayed quietly at the edges of the group the whole time, piped up, “That was great, Fred! You put that magic jelly on the burn and
zing
, it healed up, just like that!” His blue-gray eyes were wide. “I’ve never seen witch magic before. Witches are powerful, too, aren’t they Jamie?”

“Yep. Different kind of magic, though.”

“Unh hunh. But you and Fred together, you’re probably the most powerful in the whole world! Don’t you think?”

Jamie rolled his eyes. “Oh, could be.” He patted Aiven on the shoulder. “Right now I’ve got a powerful hunger. Let’s eat.”

Dinner was boisterous, with nine people crowded around the two tables, which were set end-to-end. Mrs. Tully insisted on sitting by Aiven, and she cut up his ham for him and made sure that he ate with good manners. She also had to shush him from time to time so that someone else could get a word in. He was a chatterbox.

At one point Bryce leaned close to Jamie and said in a low voice, “Just think. Six hours ago we could hardly get a word out of him. Now we can’t get him to shut up.”

Jamie looked at the brown-haired boy at the card table, rattling on about how much he liked the new clothes Evelyn had bought for him, how he had never gotten new clothes before, and they were the best clothes he’d ever had, and anything else about clothes he could think of. Then he talked about the horse, the smartest, most beautiful horse ever, and on and on. Jamie shook his head slowly. “You’d think he’d be intimidated, thrown in with a bunch of strangers like this.”

“I would be,” Bryce said.

“Me, too.”

* * *

After dinner, Evelyn pulled Jamie aside before he went to help clean up the kitchen. “You need to give some money to Brinna and Mrs. Tully before they go. Brinna was talking about bringing Aiven a wooden toy from her store, and she’ll probably bring a brush set for Fred, too. I don’t want her to use her own money.”

“Fine. What does Mrs. Tully need it for?”

“I think she’s going to stop at the market tomorrow morning before she comes here. And I overheard her say that she needs to get Mr. Kennerly to bring some hay and oats for the horse.”

Jamie scratched his chin. “You know, you can give them money just as easily as I can.” He gestured at the coin-filled vase on the shelf. “You know where it is.”

She shook her head firmly. “I don’t think anybody but you should be sticking their hand in that vase. It would set a bad precedent, otherwise.”

“I don’t care. That’s why I put the money there, to make it easier for everybody to get to it, instead of bugging me every time somebody needs some.”

She stepped close to him and her voice grew low and terse. “Don’t be so cavalier about that money. I know you didn’t earn it, so it doesn’t mean that much to you, but it’s still money, and money can cause problems. Like it or not, you are the master of this house, and you need to act like it. Maintaining strict authority over those coins is part of that responsibility.”

Jamie opened his mouth to argue, but thought better of it when he saw the look in her eyes.

Jamie and the others stood on the stoop and waved goodbye to Mrs. Tully, Brinna, and Aiven as they left. Brinna and Aiven rode the horse and Mrs. Tully was on foot.

“Somehow I knew Mrs. Tully would be the one to walk,” Bryce said.

“It’s only a mile to Brinna’s house,” Evelyn said. “Mrs. Tully will ride from there to her house. And tomorrow they should have the carriage, so they won’t have this problem.”

Melanie fingered her lip as she watched them disappear in the dusk. “Aiven sure seems to be okay with the situation, doesn’t he? I mean, he’s going home with strangers, right? You’d think he’d be a little apprehensive about that.”

Fred put her hand on the doorknob and nodded. “Seems like it. But you saw how he was at dinner tonight. He seems to fit right in. I mean, except for being a bit of a motor mouth.”

“I think he’s glad to be here,” Bryce said as Fred opened the door for them. “I don’t think he had a great situation, living with his uncle’s family.”