After The Rabbit (Waldo Rabbit Series) (9 page)

“They’re going to get the wrong idea,” Alice said.

“What? How I’m a master who takes care of his servants? If anything, I think it a fine lesson.”

She began tugging at her hair more violently. “It looks weird… unnatural even.”

“I am just providing Gronk with what he needs.” Waldo’s fingers continued moving relentlessly across the ogre’s pea green skin. “I didn’t hear any complaints when I took care of myself or you this morning.”

“That was different. We’re married, so it’s okay for us to do those sorts of things. Anyway, we were inside the tent where no one could see.”

Gronk sent her a tusked smile. “Gronk no fit in tent. Alice like better if Master and Gronk go out in wood where nobody see?”

Alice quickly shook her head.

“You’re going to need to get used to this, Alice.” Waldo told her. “It’s going to be a daily routine. From now on I’ll be doing this every morning.”

“Really, darling?”

Waldo nodded. “It’s necessary. If I don’t take care of this, bad things could happen. Anyway I am about done.”

He drew the last of the protective runes over Gronk’s back, writing them in ashes with his fingertips.

“
Loratos est videtur
.” He cast a spell sending a little of his magical energy into the runes. The ash faded from sight as the wards were activated and hidden. “There, now all three of us are shielded from magical detection and guarded against magical attack. We can finally get going.”

“I still say it looks weird,” Alice muttered.

XXX

As they were tramping through the woods, the kids all concentrated around Waldo. It was to be expected they would want to stay as far away from Gronk as possible. While Alice was in her human form once more and trying her best to coax the children into walking with her, they all remembered her with claws and horns. Being the only one the children had not seen turn into a monster, they apparently felt Waldo to be the safest alternative, the previous night’s talk about enslavement and possibly being fed to the ogre notwithstanding.

Waldo merely accepted it was his curse to be the loveable one.

XXX

Waldo was thinking about what had happened last night. Despite being taken by surprise
, he had not hesitated to draw his wand and fight. As with the encounter with his grandfather he’d been ready and willing to use lethal magic. By all rights, yesterday should have had his first kill. Who knew goblins took so long to cook?

Even though Gronk had needed to intervene and do the actual killing, Waldo was feeling rather proud of himself. Clearly, since setting out on his quest, he had gotten stronger. He had survived an attack from an angry mob, robbed a hedgewizard, escaped an archlich, outsmarted a White Mage, and acquired two Great Monsters as his familiars. He was pretty amazing.

Waldo could see he was becoming harder. Facing dangers out in the real world was definitely making him a true Dark Mage. All the weaknesses were being worn away. Soon only his true self would remain, a man without remorse or pity who cared only about himself. A merciless, black hearted fiend capable of any sort of cruelty or perversion. A terrifying…

He felt a tug on his robes and looked down. One of the boys was looking up at him. “Yes?”

“Lord Rabbit, thank you for making my rash go away.”

Waldo waved it off. “It was nothing. I wanted to practice a little of my healing magic. And the proper title when addressing a mage is ‘Master’ not ‘Lord or ‘Sir.’”

The boy nodded with a goofy grin on his face.

Waldo looked away and tried to get back to his thoughts. A terrifying and unpredictable force. All who looked upon him would quiver in… He was again interrupted by someone yanking on his robes. It was the fat boy who had been tied to the pole. “Yes?”

“Thank you for saving me. Not only from the goblins but from the ogre too, I was really scared I was going to be eaten.”

“Then may want to go on a diet. It helps to be able to run and to not look like the main course of a meal.”

The boy’s eyes widened, and his head wobbled up and down.

Waldo refocused. All who looked upon him would quiver with fear. For he would be the cruelest, wickedest, and most dreaded Dark Mage in all the land!

“Master Rabbit?”

Waldo looked down. There was an eight-year-old girl with messy chestnut hair and eyes the color of mud staring up excitedly. He thought her name was Jenna. “Yes?”

She held her hands up and waved them about excitedly. “Again!”

Waldo sighed and pulled out his wand. “Fine, but this is the last time.
Levitarus
.”

The girl lifted ten feet into the air and gave a squeal of pure delight. She began flopping her arms and legs about as if she could control where she went. Waldo motioned his wand to move her slowly through the air in front of him. Jenna was laughing and wriggling, having the time of her life.

As this was happening, Waldo heard a loud snort from behind him. He turned to see Gronk’s grin. Through their bond, Waldo could sense amusement.

“What? She kept bothering me about using my magic to make her fly. Since Alice won’t let me gag her, this is the only way to get her to stop.”

Gronk nodded, though the smirk didn’t change at all. “Gronk see Master know what he do.”

Waldo then shifted his gaze to Alice. Through their connection, he perceived she was also pleased. Though her emotions were more… maternal?

“What?”

She brought her hands together and sighed. “You’re going to make a wonderful father someday.”

“Huh?”

Meanwhile, Jenna began shouting for him to send her higher into the air.

XXX

They finally stumbled across the village where the children came from. It was a little place called Peabody and looked like every other small village in this part of Lothas.

There had been a huge commotion among the villagers as the children were quickly reunited with their parents. A big bearded fellow by the name of Lorimer addressed them. “Thank you, Master Rabbit, for returning our little ones to us.” The man performed an awkward bow, and most of the villagers followed his example. “We are truly grateful to you.”

“You have an odd way of showing it.”

Every man except for Lorimer was armed with either a spear, a rusty sword, or a bow. The archers had them nocked and drawn.

“Ah, please forgive us for being wary. It is not you we fear.” Lorimer’s eyes went past him and settled on Gronk. “We suffered an ogre attack recently. An entire family was slaughtered and eaten.”

Gronk planted his hands on his hips. “Maybe they asking for it, you no know. Humans no think about ogre side.”

This made all the men grip their weapons a little tighter and caused the mothers to hold their children close to them.

Alice tried to elbow Gronk in the ribs but wasn’t quite tall enough to manage. She got him around the hips instead.

“I confess I am more than a little surprised to see a White Mage traveling with such a beast. Another White Mage came here and killed the one that attacked us. She made it very clear her order didn’t believe monsters should be allowed to live.”

“She really said that?” Alice asked, looking rather unhappy.

“She did. Doesn’t Master Rabbit feel the same?”

“Well, of course I do. I am a White Mage, after all,” Waldo gave his robes a shake as if to draw extra attention to them. “I prefer to work them to death, is all.”

“Ah, as you say, Master Rabbit.”

One of the boys who’d been returned picked this moment to point at Alice and shout. “She’s a monster, too! I saw her with horns and claws and wings! She was gonna eat us, but Master Rabbit stopped her!” His mother quieted him, but the other children all nodded.

“The kids went through a lot,” Waldo said. “Obviously they’re a bit confused.”

“It’s not surprising.”

“Master Rabbit wanted to make us slaves,” one of the girls said. Her mother immediately smacked her on top of the head and told her to be silent.

“Anyway, this other White Mage, her name wouldn’t have been Melissa by any chance, would it?”

“Why, yes, do you know Mistress Cornwall?”

“As a matter of fact, we ran into each other in Middleton a few days ago. She did me a great favor.”

“Ah, well, good. Hopefully, you will meet her again soon.”

“With my luck, I probably will. I am going to Norwich, could you tell me how to get there?”

“Norwich is about three days travel to the northeast. If you follow the path outside our gate, it will take you to the main road five miles from here.”

Waldo nodded. “Sounds simple enough.”

Lorimer glanced to Gronk and back. “You won’t be allowed to take your ogre into Norwich. They don’t permit monsters.”

“Really? I know Stratford allows them, and Middleton has hundreds if not thousands of them.”

“That may be, but they’re not by the marshlands. They don’t have to deal with raiders. I expect your ogre will be killed on sight, even if he is travelling with you.”

“I see. Well, good to know.”

This was not happy news. Norwich was where he was supposed to find his third familiar. How could there be a Great Monster living in a city where monsters were forbidden? Normally, Waldo would assume Enver lied to him. However, he had found Alice and Gronk where Enver’s map said they would be. It only seemed logical to assume the third monster would be there, too.

Well, he would go and search regardless. It was not as if he had a better option.

As Waldo was thinking, Alice noted a wooden pole in the center on the village common with ten long strips of colored ribbon running down from the top of it. “Oh, you have a summer’s pole ready. Is it almost the summer solstice?”

“It’s tomorrow,” Lorimer said. “We would invite you to stay and join us, but I am sure Master Rabbit wants to waste no time getting to Norwich.”

“The solstice is tomorrow?” Waldo asked. “It completely slipped my mind.”

“Could we stay and celebrate it?” Alice asked.

Waldo immediately shook his head. “There is no time to waste, but I promise we will do something on the road.”

“Great,” Alice sighed.

“The village would normally want to give you some sort of reward for what you’ve done,” Lorimer said. “But I know White Mages don’t believe in such things.”

“Yes, we do,” Waldo said.

Lorimer looked at him in surprise. “Mistress Cornwall said her order didn’t fight for rewards. The only thing she asked was for us to remember her service and tell others about it.”

“Obviously, Melissa is an idiot. I’ll take as much as you want to give me.”

Alice quickly strode to Waldo’s side, waving her hands. “My husband is joking, of course we don’t want anything. Knowing these children are safe again is reward enough.”

“No, it’s not.”

Alice turned to him with a rigid smile and grabbed his elbow hard enough to make him flinch. “Yes, it is.”

He really did hate her silly rules. “Right, I am joking. I do that some times. Because who would want to get a reward they can actually spend when they can get nothing instead?”