Section 11: The Fourth Time

Aunt Susan patted her chest in relief. Thank goodness Annan had come back. Annan, meanwhile, was worried about Tasia.

When he got home, he found Old Zoren sitting in the yard, telling the story of how some huge creature had saved him.

Annan pressed him, asking whether it had been Tasia. Old Zoren struggled to recall. "I didn't get a good look, but the one who saved me... seemed to have horns..."

Tasia was safe.

Then Aunt Susan started shooing Old Zoren out. He had nearly gotten her little Annan killed, and he still expected dinner?

Dinner was the roast meat they had brought back, cooked with some washed wild greens and served with black bread.

Annan was still breaking up his black bread to put in the meat broth when Aunt Susan hurriedly finished hers.

"You eat that fast?"

"The housework isn't done yet." Aunt Susan went to tackle the chores that had piled up during the day.

"Susan ate even faster when she was young."

Uncle Hollin watched Aunt Susan leave the kitchen, remembering the time, years ago, when she had been so hungry she swallowed an entire piece of black bread.

That was the moment Hollin realized he had to marry Susan.

"Aunt Susan was already so... when she was young?"

Annan had yet to learn words like fat or plump, but the beauty of language lay in knowing when to leave something unsaid.

"Of course not. She was very thin back then." Holin thought of the girl he had dug out of a pile of corpses. "We did everything we could to survive in those days..."

Now... put it this way: as a woodcutter with a home and family in town, Hollin was about as sturdy as an ordinary professional. But beside Aunt Susan, he looked like a monkey at a brown bear's feet.

Annan ate slowly. The black bread was made with bran, and getting medical care in a place like this was a nuisance. He could only chew carefully, taking what Aunt Susan called "noble-like" little bites.

After dinner, Annan helped Martin, who had been waiting to wash up, clean the bowls and spoons. Then he fell sound asleep in the modest town, where there was no nightlife to speak of.

Early the next morning, Annan asked Aunt Susan to help him find a job that paid daily. But it was Uncle Hollin who came through again. A friend of his who cleaned a certain knight's stables had fallen ill, and Annan could fill in for two days. All he had to do was clean the stable and feed the horses.

Uncle Hollin went out early to make the arrangements. Annan would fill in for two days and earn thirty copper coins.

Annan could go out on his own, but Aunt Susan was still worried and had Martin take him there.

Past the bustling streets of Pinglin Town stood a mansion set amid gardens, its air utterly unlike the rest of the town. Guards patrolled its grounds far more often than they did the area around Aunt Susan's house.

"One day, I'm going to get Uncle Hollin and Aunt Susan a big house like this," Martin murmured wistfully.

They went around the front of the mansion, and Annan saw the groom waiting for him. After sending Martin home, he followed the groom into the stable behind the house.

The stable barely smelled at all. Annan didn't even have to handle the most troublesome tasks of feeding and washing the horses. He only had to clear away manure now and then.

In his spare time, Annan admired the plants and flowers in the garden. Occasionally, he looked up at the mansion's freshly painted white walls and imagined how many Gold Narl it would take to buy the place.

What he liked best, of course, was chatting with the groom.

The groom did not share his enthusiasm, so Annan went back to staring blankly at the garden and mansion.

That afternoon, Annan's unfocused gaze suddenly settled on a figure who had appeared on the terrace.

A deep-purple lace dress traced her full figure, and long, wavy hair spilled loosely over her shoulders. The red lips beneath her straight nose were striking.

Annan thought she looked familiar. The woman on the terrace thought the same of him.

Aunt Susan had still smeared ash on Annan before he went out, but his black hair was unmistakable.

Was this the fourth or fifth time he had run into Lady Fine Wine?

But her wary frown spoiled the almost fated encounter. "Are you following me?"

She was some distance away, though, and Annan couldn't understand her very well. By the time her challenge drifted to his ears on the wind, all he caught was, "You... me?"

At that crucial moment, inspiration struck. Annan remembered what Mr. Faster had taught him.

"Yes..."

Lady Fine Wine's brows gradually relaxed, and the corners of her mouth curved upward. She remembered that this boy "claimed" not to speak the Common Tongue.

"Why are you here?"

Annan understood her this time. He picked up the manure fork from beneath the shed and held it up for her to see.

"Mr. Faster is gone. I'm working!"

"I hope the next time I see you won't be in my bedroom."

Annan understood half of that and guessed the rest. I want to be a mage, not a thief.

He wanted to say a little more to the "big boss" Mr. Faster had mentioned, but she had already turned and left the terrace. With Lady Fine Wine gone, Annan had no choice but to seek out the groom and keep practicing his spoken Common Tongue.

Click—

Lady Fine Wine opened the door after a knock. Sir Sean looked worried. "The servants heard shouting from your room. I was afraid something had happened."

"I saw a familiar little fellow. And I couldn't help remarking on how little there is to see outside the window."

"It certainly can't compare to Breeze City at the foot of the Snow Mountains..." Sir Sean stepped aside before following Lady Fine Wine. "A familiar little fellow?"

"A boy doing odd jobs around town. I'd like something to eat."

Sir Sean waved a servant over to escort Lady Fine Wine to the dining room, then stepped onto the terrace, where the scent of her perfume still lingered.

He surveyed the empty garden and the stable, the only other place visible from there.

After leaving the terrace and the room, he summoned the butler. "Has anything happened in the garden or the stable lately?"

"Uh... one of the grooms took leave yesterday and found a young man to fill in for him. Is something wrong, sir?"

"Nothing."

The master of the house might have said it was nothing, but the butler didn't believe him. He hurried to the stable and began to berate the young man who looked up at him. "You little..."

Something about those clear eyes made the butler swallow his usual cutting words. He changed tack. "You unlucky fellow. Sir Sean has noticed you. Get out of here before he decides to make trouble for you."

The butler had no idea why Sir Sean had asked. He simply wanted to avoid trouble.

Annan had no choice but to leave the stable where he had worked for only a few hours. He did not even get paid for the day.

Lady Fine Wine was clearly behind this trouble that had come out of nowhere.

Out of work again, Annan tried to think of another way to earn money. Taverns had spirits, restaurants had coffee and tea, and even poor people's houses had a few panes of glass full of impurities. All the easy ways he could think of to make money were already taken.

Gunpowder and papermaking? Annan didn't know whether this world had them. Even if it didn't, he couldn't reproduce them... Though he had heard of a spell that could bring back forgotten memories.

That created a paradox: Annan needed to become a mage to recall what he had forgotten, but he needed to recall it to earn the money to become a mage.

On his way back, Annan once again gazed longingly at the Library and at the old man sitting in the sunlight behind its window.

For the next two days, Annan was forced to accompany Martin as he chased stray dogs and explored the woods. On the third day, Mr. Faster finally returned from the city.