Wizard of Jatte, Rowan Erlking [latest novels to read .TXT] 📗

were like bellowed demands.

Some of the other things he learned from the magic scroll were that there were several kinds of spells that operated by different rules beyond the basics. The writer listed the word spells and graphic spells the magicians used. He also mentioned herbalist kinds of magic using potions and mechanics to make spells work. The last thing he mentioned was curses, warning the reader not to dabble in them, or how the writer put it: Spells are dangerous skills that must be taken seriously.

Theissen didn’t like taking magic seriously. That was one thing he disagreed about with the writer of the scrolls. To him, magic was nothing more than the easy way to deal with things. Cheating. Of course, the writer had said that wizards tended to take their skills for granted. And that, Theissen found he chided himself for. He was a bit too flippant with his magic, making snowflakes spin around and dance for the children during their playtime; forming things out of sawdust for the new apprentices and making the sawdust figurines dance for his own amusement; turning the colors of frocks into different shades, and leaving handprints on the backs of people’s coats—all of it was in good fun. But this writer really did seem to know what he was talking about, and Theissen found himself regarding his skills a little more seriously without planning to.

Of course reading the other two parts was highly educational. The demon scroll was the most informative. Almost all of it was new to him.

“I had no idea there were so many different kinds of demons,” Theissen said out loud while reading as he ate lunch.

Several of the apprentices looked up at him. Boid gave Tomis an uncomfortable glance. Whenever Theissen got serious about his magic studies they inched away. He seemed to take on a more powerful and somewhat foreboding look when he brooded over that book.

“Look here,” Theissen pointed to one section, not really talking to anyone in particular but dying to share with anyone. “It says that there are demons that inhabit bodies and make them move like they are alive. Parasites. Have you all heard of these?”

Some of the boys nodded.

“How come my mother never told me about these? She only said ‘beware of demons’,” Theissen muttered. “How am I supposed to be beware of anything if I have no idea what they look like?”

Tomis squirmed in his seat. The others sitting next to him glanced at Boid, hoping he’d do something to change the subject. Boid had a way of getting Theissen to put down his books to teach them more about woodcarving. Theissen was always in a good mood when he taught them woodcarving. Studying demons made him annoyed. Tired. Even irritable. Generally Theissen was a tease and often skipped when he walked. But not when studying about demons, as if he could smell them in the room when he talked about them.

Boid also squirmed. Their tools and wood were all cleaned up. It would look too deliberate if he got up to get Theissen to do a carving for them.

“And according to this, the demon I met in that wood was Gole. Here it describes it.”

One of the boys actually looked over, interested this time. “A Gole? Was that what it was?”

Another of the apprentices stooped over the book.

Theissen nodded. “Yes. When I first saw it, it was this huge ugly thing. Look here. It says what a Gole is. With thick leathery skin, they have the best sense of smell, sight, and hearing in our world. That about sums it up. But look. It says it is the most dangerous of morphisms in our world.”

“What’s a morphism?” Sims asked.

“A morphism,” Theissen said, while turning a page, “Is a demon that used to be human. Apparently they chose to change their shape for some presumed advantage. Unfortunately, when more than one person chooses that shape they tend to breed and make a species. It says here that morphisms can interbreed with humans, but then they are half demon.”

“Ooh.” One of the boys shuddered.

“My thoughts exactly,” Theissen said. He then flipped to other pages. “Here he has listed about four kinds of morphisms. Sand Swimmers in Perri—”

“Perri? You don’t mean that desert country in the north?” Tomis asked.

Nodding, Theissen added, “Yes. It borders on Westhaven. I think most of the demons in the book are from areas connected to Westhaven. That Gole thing looked foreign, like it originated in the north.”

“What other demons do they have in there?” Boid asked. But someone jabbed him in the side trying to tell him to shut up.

Theissen didn’t see it. “Of morphisms, he also mentions Skin Suckers, demons that live exclusively on an island and can’t get off it because they absorb everything they touch, including the water—like a sponge. Um,” he flipped a few pages. There were descriptions of how to deal with each demon like an instruction handbook along with histories, origins and descriptions. “Water Breathers in the Sea of Tior….” He flipped more pages and then stopped. “That about sums up morphisms. The next section is on cursed beings.”

“What is the difference between a cursed being and a morphism?”

“Hey, you didn’t mention the demon trees of Angledoli!” Tomis said, poking the page.

Theissen flipped the pages again. He hadn’t seen anything about the demon trees. “Huh. Maybe he doesn’t know about them. Angledoli isn’t connected to Westhaven as far as I know.”

“But what are the differences between cursed beings and morphisms?” that boy asked again.

With a shrug, Theissen started to read the heading paragraph on that page. “Cursed Beings. These are demons that became demon through a force outside themselves. Their transformation is unwanted, and often unwarranted.”

Theissen paused. He had read about curses. The warnings about using them had been plain enough. It never occurred to him that curses themselves were demon creators.

He continued. “Subject to curses, most demons created this way do not pass on their genetics. The nature of a curse is usually terminal.”

“What does he mean by terminal?” one of the apprentices asked.

“It means it is meant to kill,” Theissen said.

The boys drew back with a gasp. They stared at him. So far magic had been a thing of mystery. Looking at Theissen’s frown, they could tell even he was disgusted at the idea of using magic to kill. That calmed them somewhat.

Continuing to read aloud: “These demons are all hostile. There are only three known breeds of Cursed Beings among the demons: Flesh Eaters, Night Stalkers, and Walking Corpses.”

Theissen suddenly felt sick. He didn’t want to read any more. The idea of these smelly demons walking around with mal-intent was too much. Why in the world would anyone use a curse if this would be the result?

“Let’s carve some wood,” Boid said giving up on being subtle.

Looking up, Theissen closed the book with a grateful nod. “Good suggestion. I need a breather.”

The other boys darted over to the tools, digging out what scraps they could then getting Theissen’s tools for him. He gratefully accepted both wood and tool, the feel of them in his hands already calming his queasy stomach.

He turned the wood in his hands and then started to smile. Nodding to his lead apprentices, he said, “Let’s carve monkeys today. Do all of you remember what a monkey looks like?”

One of the boys nodded. “I saw one in a traveling circus once. Long arms, hairy with a tail that curled.”

Theissen nodded.

“Let’s try that. I saw one once when visiting a coastal village. A sailor had one. They look a bit like people and cats in a way. Wide mouths.” He was about to add it was similar to a Gole’s face, but he stopped himself. He didn’t want to think of demons for a while.

*

The magicians had just finished teaching him a fire conjuring spell. The process was elaborate and somewhat silly to him. His mind had floated back to the spell scroll in the Westhaven book where there was a potion and spell for making fire instead of conjuring one. Of course, that fire seemed to be more like a weapon rather than a plain fire for cooking. In fact, the more time he spent reading that book, the more he realized that it was written with suggestions of how to deal with and defeat demons over most other kinds of magic, though it was also full of herbalist remedies and potions. Theissen started to wonder about the writer of the book more and more.

“Tell me about Westhaven,” Theissen said after their lesson.

Pandoros was putting away their pieces of charcoal and the pan they were setting the fire on. Undi had swept up the spell book they were using almost protectively. It was the one book they did not allow Theissen to take home to read. There were times Theissen had felt like snatching it and copying the contents down, but it was the one thing left they had control over when dealing with him, and he didn’t want to steal anything of theirs anyway.

“Westhaven? Why are you curious?” Pandoros asked.

Blushing somewhat, Theissen had not told them about the book he had purchases yet. In a way, he felt guilty for bypassing their lessons with another text, sure they’d get angry with him. Still not ready to tell the complete truth, he said, “Well, you mentioned once that the best and most complicated spells were invented in Westhaven. Why is that? What kind of place is it?”

Both magicians regarded one another. Undi frowned. He continued to put things away, dusting off one silver instrument with his hand. He then went and pulled out a yellowed scroll, long and only tied closed by a piece of twine. “Do you know your geography?”

Shrugging, Theissen walked over to him. “I know the geography of Jatte and names of the lands directly around it. Our teacher Yuld Scribeson did not go into detail about the lands to the far north though.”

Undi nodded and untied the twine. “Then you’d better have a look at this as I explain.”

He rolled out not a record, but a map. It was as large as the tabletop, and he had to hold the edges down with the blotter and inkbottles to keep it flat. The thing had a tendency to curl up again. The map was in a foreign language, the letters somewhat familiar to him, but he didn’t know where he had seen them before.

On the map he saw both the eastern and western seas. He noticed that it showed a larger north than he had ever seen on a map before. Everything was labeled but in that foreign script.

“This is an old map. Older than several generations back when Ki Tai was still a power in the world. Look here.” Undi pointed off to the right side of the northern continent at an island. “It is just an insignificant little island, you’d think. But here is where the invaders came from.”

Theissen blinked. Something in the back of his mind from his readings out of the Westhaven book came to his mind. It was in a section on demons. Blue-eyed demons.

“The Sky Children, demons of dangerous power, invaded almost all of the northern continent, taking over half of Ki Tai and making the nation of Westhaven.”

“The demons made it Westhaven?” Theissen hadn’t read that.

Pandoros nodded. “They did. And they ruled over the humans, using them as slaves. It was said to be a dark period, a period when magicians had to go into hiding to save themselves.”

“Many fled south and spread to the southern continent. That is how magicians came to Minor Gull,” Undi said.

Minor Gull. Yes, the author of the book also called the southern continent that. He also called the northern continent Greater Gull. Yuld never used such terms. Perhaps his teacher considered it insulting. Something being called minor and another greater would have the scholar squirming uncomfortably.

“The thing is,” Undi said while tapping the map where Westhaven was clearly marked,