"You know that what you did was stupid," Wiz told him finally. "I mean terminally stupid. Why didn’t you just wait for the dragon to leave?"
"Were I by myself I might have," Llewllyn admitted with a disarming smile. "But Anna was there."
"So you risked her life as well as your own to impress her."
"No, to protect her. Better for me to face near-certain death at the fangs and claws of a dragon than for anything to happen to her. Were I slain perhaps the monster would be satisfied and not look further among the rocks."
"Still it was stupid."
Llewllyn nodded, as if to show he was too well bred to argue with his employer. "Perhaps, My Lord. I can only say that love makes a man do strange and wonderful things."
Wiz snorted.
"But I do love her," Llewllyn proclaimed. "Why, I would shed my last drop of heart’s blood for her."
"Yeah, but will you marry her?"
"Of course, My Lord, in due time. Do you doubt me?"
"Your record in that department isn’t exactly sterling," Wiz said as they turned the corner into the main square.
"Ah, but I was young and callow then, a mere stripling. You see before you not a boy, but a man full-grown, a man redeemed by love."
Wiz thought that what he saw before him was a pompous windbag and he was about to say something to that effect. But just then the world stuttered.
One instant Llewllyn was beside him and the next he was in front and staring open-mouthed. Everyone was running and screaming and there was dust in the air that hadn’t been there before.
Wiz started to ask what had happened. Then he saw the brick. No, not a brick, a piece of worked stone. Like part of a cornice. It was lying in the street behind Llewllyn, surrounded by the dust it had raised when it fell. There were several other pieces of freshly broken stone nearby. Looking up he could see that a big chunk of the stonework on the building was missing.
Wiz looked back and saw Llewllyn had progressed to working his jaws, but not far enough to actually make noise. He also saw they had drawn a crowd.
"It, it, it… bounced," Llewllyn finally managed. "It just hit you and it split to pieces and it bounced right off the top of your head."
Looking around, Wiz saw that several councilors and the sheriff had joined the excited group.
"Think nothing of it," he said over the rising buzz of conversation. "As a great wizard I am protected by a spell that renders me invulnerable to mortal danger." The conversation grew even louder.
"But you froze. Like a statue," his assistant said.
Wiz had been hoping no one would notice that. "A side effect," he said with a wave of his hand. "So long as the danger lasts I am immobile and invulnerable. Now come. Let us be on our way."
Maybe that will stop people from trying to terminate my contract with extreme prejudice, he thought as the crowd parted before them. At least it might if I can find someplace to sit down before I get the shakes.
Wiz didn’t see the bald little man with the leather sack of mason’s tools lounging at the edge of the crowd and wouldn’t have recognized him if he had. Nor would he have attached any special importance to the thoughtful way he rubbed his chin as Wiz and Llewllyn proceeded on their way.
Having a piece of rock dumped on his head may not have hurt Wiz physically, but it sure didn’t do anything for his mood. Between Llewllyn’s bragging, the mayor’s insistence on having the new spell before the next executive committee meeting and being sneered at by Pieter Halder on the town hall steps, he was in a foul mood when he got home that evening.
Anna, however, was still starry-eyed and bubbling. For once Llewllyn wasn’t hanging around, so Wiz was spared that, but the maid’s innocent prattling about the wonders of her true love was just as hard to take.
"… and someday we’ll be married," the maid finished up her latest, albeit short, line of thought.
"You hope," Wiz said in an undertone, unable to contain himself further.
Not enough of an undertone, unfortunately. "Why of course we will," Anna said innocently.
"Look Anna, I don’t mean to burst your bubble or anything, but are you sure Llewllyn is the marrying kind?"
"My bubble?" Anna said blankly.
"A figure of speech. I mean your illusions about Llewllyn." As soon as he said it, he knew it was the wrong thing to say, but by then it was too late.
"But they’re not illusions. They’re real. As real as Llewllyn’s magic that saved me from the dragon!"
"Uh, yeah, his magic is another thing. I mean…"
"Oh, I know what you mean," Anna burst out. "You’re jealous of Llewllyn’s powers and I think you’re awful!" Then she remembered she was talking to her employer and dashed from the room in a flood of tears.
Wiz watched her go and turned back to his tea. "Women!" he snorted.
"Men!" Malkin retorted. "Well, that was nicely done. What do you intend for an encore? Pull the wings off flies?"
"Now wait a minute. You’re the one who brought up the dull butter knife."
"Aye, and I would too. But that doesn’t excuse being cruel to the child. That was cruel and all it’s likely to accomplish is driving them closer together."
"Little trollop’s right," Widder Hackett chimed in. "All you did was hurt her feelings."
"But I was trying to let her down easy. To help her."
"By making her miserable?" Malkin replied.
"Help her my left foot," Widder Hackett grated. "Of all the shoddy, ill-done…" There was a lot more.
Wiz looked to either side at the women, one visible and now silent, one invisible and just working up a good head of steam.
"All right have it your way," he snapped. "I’m a miserable failure as a human being. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to get some air." With that he stormed out of the kitchen with Widder Hackett still railing in his ear.
Wiz stood on the stoop for an instant, looking out along the dark street. There were no street lights and the moon was only half-full. There wasn’t so much as a candle showing in a window, which made the street gloomy and forbidding. It was as if the houses were bombed out and abandoned, he thought. Somewhere several streets over a dog howled, adding to the effect.