Journeyman (A Wizard's Life) (10 page)

Over the winter, Benen worked mostly inside his hut, for which he created a fireplace as soon as the weather turned cold. He made the place gradually more sophisticated, adding rooms as he felt a need for them. The first room he made was a proper bedroom, the second a study, and the third, a laboratory. Tired of preparing food in the original central room, he eventually made a kitchen. Benen dearly wanted to have an observatory, but he still did not have a telescope. He did tinker with the lenses he had previously acquired, but he did not have the skill needed to arrange them into the configuration required for a telescope — if they even could be.

By the end of his first year of hermitage, Benen had a domain he could call home that would be the envy of many villagers.

In the second year, Benen started working on magic again. He had to divide his time between taking care of the livestock and gardens, and researching, but he did not mind. He liked having this balance in his life. It kept him grounded.

One night, Timmon came into Benen’s laboratory and found him working magic on a flat, square sheet of gold. It was only a few centimetres to a side.

“What are you working on, Benen?” he asked the wizard.

“Something I’ve put off for far too long.”

“Oh?”

Benen motioned to the square golden sheet. “Timmon, can you try to touch this?”

“I don’t have arms, Benen,” Timmon stated the obvious.

“Just, um, imagine you have arms and try.”

A few seconds later, the ghost went: “Hmmm . . . .”

“Is that a good ‘hmmm’?” Benen asked it.

“It’s very strange. I feel myself drawn into the gold. I don’t think I like the feeling, though.”

“That’s a good start. You’ll see. When I’m done you’ll want to go into the gold.”

“Why would I want that?”

“Because I think I can give you a body again.”

“This sheet of gold?”

“It’s a test. We’d have to buy a human-shaped hollow golden statue for you to inhabit.”

“How do you plan on paying for that, Benen?”

“One thing at a time, Timmon. First, I get the magic right and then we’ll worry about getting the golden body.”

“Where did you even get the idea for this?”

“From a wizard called Tawn. He had made himself a statue of sorts that he called a vessel. He seemed able to inhabit the statue; he even used magic while in there. I had a chance to examine it during our . . . meeting.”

“Would it be like being alive, being in there?” Benen could hear the hope in Timmon’s disembodied voice.

“I don’t know, Timmon. I hope it feels better being in there than your current state . . . I hope it frees you from your connection to me and gives you back a semblance of life.”

“Thank you, Benen, for doing this.”

“Don’t. I’ve not done it yet. And, Timmon, it’s my fault you’re in this half-living state to begin with; your thanks are unnecessary. I’m just sorry it’s taken me so long to look into this for you.”

There were obstacles Benen had to overcome to make the gold a proper vessel for the ghost. He had to change some of the enchantments to account for his state, but even that was not enough. The gold was alway uncomfortable to Timmon. In the end, the solution came to Benen while he and Timmon were enjoying their time around the fire. The next night, Benen presented Timmon with the square sheet of gold again. This time when Timmon touched it, he reported a more positive result.

“It feels . . . cozy, now. What did you do?”

“I added an enchantment of fire to the mixture. I figured the metal was not hospitable to you because it was so cold.”

Timmon spent a lot of time fondling the square thereafter. He found that while he was partially in the sheet, he could cause it to move and deform. This pleased Benen as it affirmed he was on the right path.

Another problem Benen had to tackle was Timmon’s difficulty being separated from Benen. The ghost reported that he felt better near the wizard, more alive and clear of mind. Benen did not think that giving Timmon a body was enough, if he was still bound to him.

He experimented with many different effects from a few constellations, trying to find a means of overcoming this. In particular, he’d had high hopes that the magic of the Mask of Heaven would do the trick. He tried using the Mask to make the gold a
spiritual
duplicate of himself, but this too was a failure.

In the end, Benen decided to try something more primal and basic. He melted the sheet and added a quantity of his blood to the metal. When it cooled, he left it in the house and went flying for a time. When he returned, Timmon was ecstatic. The metal was acting as a replacement for Benen at last. Everything was in place, all that was missing was a more sizable amount of gold with which to craft a body for Timmon.

“I could make a small body for you out of this gold,” Benen suggested. “It would be at most two centimetres tall though.”

“I don’t think I’d fit,” Timmon objected.

“You can’t squeeze into the sheet?”

“No, I’ve just been putting my hand in it. I think I’m the same size as when I was alive.”

Benen was sure Timmon’s size was entirely determined by Timmon, but he doubted he could convince the ghost of this. Regardless, Benen did not want to give his friend anything less than the best he could do for him, and that meant a full-sized body.

Of course, Benen did not have the means of getting so much gold. He had trouble imagining how such a sum of money could be raised.

“It might take decades, maybe even centuries, to raise that sort of money, Timmon,” he told the ghost.

“I know you’re doing your best. I can wait.” If Timmon was anything, it was patient.

Trying to shorten the time Timmon would have to wait, Benen decided that his next area of study should be transmutation.

I might not be able to earn the gold, but maybe I can
make
it
. The thought got him thinking and he spent long hours in the laboratory thereafter.

Benen’s work on creating gold from baser elements was interrupted after only a few months by unwanted visitors.

#

They arrived during the day, their voices disturbing Benen’s work. He went to a window and looked out from his laboratory. He could not see them from there, so he went from room to room, looking out for the trespassers.

When Benen finally spotted them, he was struck by how weak and worn they looked. Of course, they’d had to cross a portion of the desolation to make it to his domain, so this was hardly surprising.

Although he had at first been inclined to expel the unwanted visitors from his oasis, upon seeing them Benen had to reconsider. Turning them away would surely result in their deaths. Benen sighed and went to speak with his soon-to-be — hopefully temporary — guests.

Benen knew he would not look impressive to his guests. His clothing was old, dirty, and tattered and he had let his hair and beard grow since he had become a hermit. He felt he needed to make sure these visitors knew he was in charge and respected his authority here.

When they spotted him, the strangers hailed him.

“Hey, you there! Is this your master’s land?”

There were five of them: three men and two women. They looked parched and starving. Benen guessed they had wandered the desolation for days, perhaps even weeks.

“
I
am master here,” Benen declared.

“Oh. Sorry. It’s just that . . . you . . .” the stranger faltered.

“No need to explain. I am the wizard Benen, this is my domain. You remain here only at my sufferance. Is that understood?”

The visitors looked at one another.

“You expect us to believe you’re a wizard?” This was said by one of the men. He was a tall man with a shaved head — now burned from exposure — and a muscular build. He had a few scars visible on his arms. “We’ll stay here if we want to.” He advanced on Benen, his hands balled into fists. “Now show me where the water is, I’ve got a thirst.”

Benen used the magic of the Pinnacle to lift and throw the man back some five metres. He landed hard and was winded and bruised. He got up slowly. The other four looked at Benen with large round eyes, their mouths open.

“I will show you to the water now. You will drink of it and I will let you slaughter one of my animals so that you can have a meal. You can stay overnight on the land, taking no more than what I have just granted you. Fail in any of these particulars and I
will
expel you. Threaten me again in any way and I
will
kill you.”

The visitors nodded, even the man Benen had thrown.

Benen showed his guests where the water basins were and pointed to the animal they could have. He loaned them his butchering knives and made them a fire to cook on. Then, satisfied that he had done his work as host, he retired to his home. Using the same magic he had previously used to make the structure, he molded sand into a solid substance and used it to block up the entrance.

Benen could hear the chatter of the five men and women as they ate and rested. He was trying to work, but their talk distracted him.

“Lucky we found this place, I thought we were done for,” said one, a man.

“It’s strange though, isn’t it, this place?” said a woman.

“Wonderful is what you mean,” said the other woman.

“We could take it,” said the man Benen had thrown. He recognized his voice.

“You saw what he can do, Gar” said the first woman.

“I bet you he can’t do that in his sleep . . .” said Gar. “You leave it to me and I’ll take care of the wizard.”

“Don’t, Gar.” said the other man. “Let’s be thankful for what he’s let us have and leave in peace like he wants us to.”

“I’m not going back out there,” said the second woman. “We’ll die.”

“Maybe the wizard can point us west and we can make it out of the desolation, Orah,” said the first woman.

“They’ll have told the other villages along the desolation about us, we’ll find no welcome there,” said Gar. “This place is our best hope and there’s just this one guy standing in our way.”

“No. I’ll have no part in it,” said the other man.

“I said I’ll take care of it, you don’t need no part of it,” said Gar.

Benen used the same method he had used to seal the doorway to now seal the window in the laboratory. He’d heard enough and didn’t want to hear more. He was just glad he’d be rid of these people in the morning. He wondered though, what they were doing in the desolation to begin with. They were not equipped for survival: no provisions, no water, inappropriate clothing . . . .

When he lay down to sleep, Benen had no fear of being attacked by his guests; Timmon would wake him if anyone entered his home. Morning came without any disturbance, which did surprise Benen. He created a new door out of his house and went to see his guests.

They were breakfasting on the remains of last night’s supper. The man, Gar, went pale when he saw Benen and kept his eyes down. His attitude was completely changed.

“Finish your food and be on your way,” Benen told them.

One of the women, Orah, he thought from the sound of her voice, threw herself at his feet. “Please, no. Please. We’ll do anything. We’ll die out there!” Tears ran down her face as she begged.

Benen steeled himself. He needed to be left alone. A wizard needed to be alone or people got hurt.

“No. You must go,” he said it with finality.

The other man, spoke then, “Please, we could work for you. We could take care of the gardens and the animals. We could do whatever work needs doing . . . .”

Benen shook his head and pointed west.

“Go that way. If you go straight, you will reach eastern Estren in three or four days.”

There was no more discussion. Benen withdrew to his home again, sealing himself in once more.

He was troubled the whole day as he tried to work. His thoughts kept coming back to the five faces he had sent out into the desolation. He knew it was unlikely they would travel west without veering. They would get lost and eventually die. What could Benen do? He did not want them living here with him. He wanted solitude.

They will die out there.

It will be my fault.

He sighed and undressed. Next he changed into his giant eagle form and went to search for the group he had sent west.

He found them, moving north-west. Benen swooped low over them and then moved off a short distance toward his oasis. He circled there until the group moved toward him, then he moved further. After hours of this, he had brought them to his domain once more. He went back to his home and changed back to his human form. Once dressed, he went to speak to the five he had saved.

“Tell me your crimes,” he said. The group hesitated. “You were cast out into the desolation because you are criminals, am I not correct?”

Orah and one of the men stepped forward together. “We are adulterers,” said the man. “Our love was stronger than our will. We broke our vows to our partners.”