Free Journeyman (A Wizard's Life) by Eric Guindon

the least I can do. I am sorry for the damages, but you should have just talked to me to begin with.”
    “I do not like visitors and I’d never seen you before. Don’t you go to the moots?”
    Benen remembered hearing about wizard moots from the king’s adviser in the capital many years before. He had intended to go to the next one but had missed it, forgotten it really, with all that had happened in his life since.
    “No, I’ve not been.”
    “Humph,” was all the wizard had to say to that. Benen flew to the ground below and retrieved the pieces of the vessel for Tawn. As he flew back with them he examined the pieces carefully; he thought he might have a use for such a thing himself.
    Once the vessel was returned, Benen and Tawn exchanged terse farewells.
    Benen flew back to the village of Gronin in eagle form, unsure how the villagers would take the news he brought.
     
    #
     
    They did not take the news well at all.
    “But, it’s extortion!” Elder Kalder was outraged. “If we stop giving him what he wants he’ll turn our land to desert!”
    “No. This land was desert. It’s only through the wizard’s intervention that you can live here. Your ancestors settled here with his help. He has a lawful document.”
    “Bah, we’re not taking your word for this!” Elder Hurd pointed at Benen. “Only you have seen it.”
    “You can ask to see it when the wizard comes,” Benen suggested.
    The three elders were not impressed. “You well know we can’t read.”
    “I’m sorry. You will have to take my word for it then, the wizard Tawn has lawful right to payment from your village every harvest. If you stop paying him, he will stop keeping this land verdant and it will soon become inhospitable.”
    “I told you he would side with his own kind,” said elder Kalder to the other.
    “I’m not siding with anyone!” Benen was out of patience for these men. “Do what you will, but be warned of the consequences.” He stormed out. As he left, he heard mutters of wizard behind him.
    It’s like they don’t want to understand . . .
    Benen flew back to his home in giant eagle form as swiftly as he could. He regretted having ever left.
    When he walked into the village two days later, having changed back to his human form and dressed before approaching, he was accosted by the first villagers who saw him.
    “Benen! Hurry, your wife is not well. We’re so glad you came back.”
    He rushed to his home and found his wife being tended by the village’s leech doctor.
    “Get away from her!”
    Benen had him remove his leeches from Sania. As the doctor complied, Benen looked at his wife; she was evidently in distress. Her skin was pale and clammy and her breathing was laboured.
    “When did this start?” he asked the others in the room. It was filled with family and well-wishers.
    Pol told Benen Sania had begun to feel unwell two days before and took to her bed yesterday.
    “Should we remove the baby from her? Surely it’s developed enough.”
    The leech doctor brought out his instruments. “We can,” he said. “It’s always risky, of course.”
    Benen did not like to trust his wife and baby’s lives to this man. He wanted to do it himself, but he did not have the knowledge needed. He could use the Cleaver to cut, but he needed to know where and how deeply. This thought of magic made him wonder if perhaps his wife had been cursed. Two days before was just a short time after Benen’s altercation with the wizard Tawn. Could he have somehow done this?
    Using his detection spell Benen looked over Sania. He did not see any lines of magic on her, but he did see a knotted bundle of lines in her belly: the baby! Was it casting magic?
    He looked closer, trying to see the details of the tangle. It seemed almost to be part of the baby. When the lines pulsed, as they sometimes did, Sania cried out in pain.
    She’ll die, he thought. The baby isn’t right. This is killing her.
    Benen nodded his ascent for the leech doctor to