Anger rose swiftly inRob as he backed away, examining his flipper-like hand with theother and wondering how the merchant had done it. He should havefelt the vibrational tingle that accompanies magical activity. Hisreaction now gave him a look of guilt, causing the merchant to sliphis hand inside the neck of his robe to grip a small sphericalamulet of crystal that hung on a chain about his neck. He evidentlyhoped this would protect him from any malicious magic.
One of his bodyguardsnoticed Rob's angry expression.
‘Calm down, my Lord. Itis not good for you to become too excited. You must useforbearance.’
For several seconds Roband the merchant stood glaring at each other, until theirconcentration was broken by a nearby shout.
‘You there lad! Comehere!’ commanded a loud masculine voice. Suddenly a bare-footedyoung boy broke into a run a few paces to the right of Rob, duckingand weaving through the crowd.
‘Catch him!’ yelled thetown's watch sergeant as his two assistants raced off after theboy. The crowd stopped momentarily to observe the chase, thenresumed its chaotic journey.
Rob’s feet were solidlyanchored to the cobblestone road as he sought to control his anger,still pondering the strange transformation of his hand. His mindwas jerked suddenly back to his surroundings when he felt thepressure of a hand on his shoulder, and someone behind him said‘You there lad!’ in a voice mimicking that of the watchsergeant.
His heart missed a beatand anger surged again as he spun around to face whoever had thetemerity to touch him, only to see a smiling young woman of his ownage with a brown leather bag slung over one shoulder.
She had short-croppedraven hair and the purple tattoo of a warrior on her light tanface. Her clothes were more those of a traveller, a loose longsleeved olive shirt tucked into darker green masculine pantaloonsthat vanished into knee-high brown leather boots. Attached to theside of each boot was a dagger of the type that might be thrown orwielded. On her wrists, partially covered from view by her looseshirtsleeves, she wore a pair of brown leather bracers inlaid withsmall glowing figures of tortoises carved finely from mother-of-pearl.
‘By the Powers, Ithought ... Melanie, it’s good to see you.’
Melanie’s smilingexpression changed to one of concern as she took in the angryexpression on his face, but looking into his eyes she relaxed andhugged him briefly.
‘What’s wrong Rob?’ sheasked with a hint of worry in her voice.
‘Someone’s played atrick on me,’ he said, looking suspiciously at her and tucking hisnew flipper under his left arm to hide it.
‘Calm down Rob, it’snot good for you. You must use forbearance. There’s a tavern at theend of the street. Let’s go there and sit down for a while,’ shesuggested with some perplexity, and taking his good left arm shetowed him along, fighting her way through the crowd. The twobodyguards followed them, grinning like gargoyles. They knew herwell. It was quite possible that whatever had happened to Rob’shand might have been one of her practical jokes.
Algrin the merchantfollowed them away from his stall for several paces, watching themsuspiciously as they wove their way through the crowd to thetavern. He was curious about the young wizard, and wanted anotherglimpse of his malformed hand. He should have been less worriedabout Rob and Melanie and more diligent about his stall, for behindhim, one of the street vagrants who was loathe to pass up such anopportunity, slipped in and pocketed the three fire dragon amuletsthat Rob had shown an interest in.
Wiping his clammy browas he fought his way back through the crowd to his stall, he wasthinking that perhaps he was wrong about the young wizard, when henoticed the missing amulets. He cursed loudly at having beentricked by the young pair into leaving his goods unprotected.
‘I’ll fix thosethieving young bastards,’ he thought angrily to himself as hecalled over a young lad he knew and handed him a coin to deliver ahastily scribbled message.
Upon their arrival atthe tavern, Rob sent his bodyguards home with Melanie’s bag andfound a dimly lit booth in the back of the room. He called for ajug of ale and for a moment observed the motley bunch around themto see if anyone had an undesirable interest in them. The place waspoorly ventilated and reeked of a sour, unpleasant aroma indicativeof unwashed bodies and spilt beer. Nearby were two black clad menwho whispered together while looking about furtively, as if worriedabout something or someone.
A cloud of foul pipesmoke wafted over to them and Rob coughed and spluttered, resentingthis violation to his lungs. There was a low murmur of hushedvoices but nobody seemed interested in them, so he relaxed a littleand returned his attention to Melanie. He gave an almostimperceptible signal with his hand. She understood his gesture andnodded slightly in assent.
His eyes glowed a dullpurple colour momentarily as he created a mindlink between them.They could now talk, send mental pictures and feelings to eachother in safety using mindspeak, a form of mind magic.
Mind wizards, thepractitioners of mind magic, had an internal font of magic theycalled their source and were feared for their abilities to controland manipulate peoples’ minds. They were rare in this city as theconsortium of religious groups known as the Unity of Wisdom whichgoverned the small city-state of Panmagica had outlawed thepractice of this type of magic.
‘It’s really lovely tohave you back <feeling of loving hug>. I’m surprised at howfast the last few weeks have gone. Did you learn much from theshield master?’ asked Rob through the mindlink.
‘Rob, it was great! Youwould have loved it there. I found the food a bit spicy at firstbut I grew accustomed to it. The brew was magnificent and thepeople really nice and very hospitable. I didn’t get much time forsightseeing, as the weather was pretty horrible and we had a busytraining schedule. We were also snowed in most of the time.
‘The strangest thingwas the night sky. All the stars were different and the world hadtwo moons. We were in a town by the edge of a
