Vacation

I want to start by apologizing for this not going up yesterday. There were issues.

On to the point. I will be on a three week vacation. Since this is a writing exercise to keep me writing regularly and to keep me trying new things, I have decided to wait until I get back to continue the story. Writing ahead and posting the content isn’t exactly keeping with the point of this. I will see you all again in October.

L. E. White

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Whistle While You Work #8

It was almost a week after the ritual before Hennessy walked back into the workshop. Tomas was standing at the vice, smoothing a board with a plane. Hennessy stood watching him with a smile.

“Oh,” Tomas said when he noticed his employer in the doorway. “I am sorry sir, I did not see you.”

“Quite all right. I was watching. What are you building?”

“A work table for the kitchen.” Tomas put the plane down and walked to the workbench along the other wall. “Your cook said she needed another.”

“Very good. I am glad to see you taking initiative with other projects while you are waiting on me.”

“Idle hands are the devils’ toys,” Tomas said.

Hennessy nodded as he moved to stand beside Tomas. He took the rod up and repeated the whistling inspection he had performed before. Everything was the same. The ribbons of color wrapped the shaft, but none of them turned red. Tomas let out the breath he had been holding and smiled.

“Well done,” the wizard said. “You have turned out a tool that I can enchant in less than three weeks. I am impressed.” Hennessy looked back at the boards for the table. “It has only been a week since I last checked this. How much time have you spent on it?”

Tomas lowered his head a little. “I worked on it the night you inspected it, even though you told me to wait. I have not touched the rod since.”

Hennessy nodded. “That is marvelous. I knew you ignored me, but in checking this now, I would have assumed you would have worked on it each day. That means you finished the rod in no more than two weeks.”

The wizard sat the rod on the bench and sighed. “If you continue to do such work at this speed, you will run me ragged trying to keep up.” He shook his head and started for the door. “I will be ready to cast the enchantments the day after tomorrow. The spell must be cast at sunset. Do not do anything else to the rod between now and then.”

***

Tomas left the keep, bow in hand, and headed into the woods. While his position meant that he and Maleena could have joined the rest of the staff for meals, neither of them had a taste for the spicy southern food that Hennessy loved. Therefore, they had decided to keep a kitchen. Hennessy had told them they could have anything they wanted, but the couples simple tastes did not require much to maintain. One deer would last them for weeks.

It wasn’t long before Tomas was crouched behind a bush, peeking through the leaves at a large runner bird. He wasn’t sure if he could kill it in a single shot, but he decided it was worth the risk. If he missed, the bird would try to tear him to pieces, but runner bird was a delicacy and the feathers were valuable.

He drew and stood, taking in a deep breath as he did so. The bird looked at him as he rose up, and it let out a soft squawk.

He released the shaft. The thin splinter struck the bird in the side of its melon sized head. It blinked, took one step toward him, and fell.

Tomas waited for a moment before leaving the bush. He glanced around one more time and then smiled as he headed toward his kill.

The bird in the clearing rustled its wings and kicked its legs on the ground. It didn’t get up, but just kicked and flapped.

Tomas was half was to it when he heard another soft squawk to his right. He stopped moving as he watched another long, slender neck lift up out of the brush.

And then another.

Then a third.

Whistle While You Work #7

After the master magicians had regained their wits and the guests were removed to the dormitories, they gathered together to examine the great staff. It appeared so plain, like a piece of drift wood. It was worn and warped by the sea and the winds.

They studied it and held it. They swung it through the air and a few whistled or hummed simple spells.

But no matter what they did, none of them knew what it could do.

“This is ridiculous.” a tall, wispy man with no hair stomped his foot when he spoke. “I say, we let someone try it out.”

A round wizard, so hairy that one might have imagined he was a bear, laughed. “And I suppose you will volunteer to try it will you?”

The wispy wizard walked to the wall and sat down without a word.

Hennessy stood up and stepped to the table. “I think we can all agree that after what happened to Grand Master SiHeen, none of us are just going to pick up the staff and give it a try.”

Many of the wizards nodded, though the tall, wispy fellow crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at Hennessy.

“At the same time, I must admit that I am tempted to follow Markov’s suggestion.” Hennessy nodded towards the wispy wizard, ignoring the gape mouthed expressions of some of his fellows. ”Wouldn’t it be wonderful to simply snatch up the staff? We all dream of lifting it into the air and changing the world by swinging it through the air. I would love to lay claim to something as grand as a staff.”

Now all of the assembly looked at him. A few were already nodding.

“We must all consult our oracles and through coordinated effort, determine the power of this item. Only then can we decide who will wield it.”

***

Lady JoTaugh walked. She hated it, but she walked anyway. If she wanted to survive, she had to show that she was humble.

He would not have it any other way.

She was careful, sticking to the center of the path. The grass that surrounded her looked soft, but it was covered in sharp, bristling thorns that would have torn through her thick skin like a knight’s sword through a lady’s flesh. Her thick yellow blood would have turned the blue field green in seconds if she had stepped out of line.

He would not have it any other way.

She stopped unable to continue. She could not see him, but she could feel his presence. It was like trying to push her way through heavy snow, and she knew that it would just get worse.

“Why have you come?”

Her skin rippled at the force of those words like sheets drying in a strong wind.

“I bring a message. Those who watched the forging of the stick say that one without voice heard the whole of the song.”

“So?”

Lady JoTaugh blinked before continuing. “He is the same one who tried a song on his own. No training.”

A naked man shimmered into view in front of her. Lady JoTaugh closed her eyes and dropped to her knees. She lowered her head until she felt the dirt on her eyebrows. “You will visit him. You will offer him power and you will hide this from the other mortals.”

She did not move or open her eyes until his pressure was gone. It faded over time, and she realized that he had walked away. When she looked up, she found a path pushed through the tall grass.