In Shadowed Silence: Chapter 4
Elton Fend had answered his door naked.
Aulric sat at the very table at which the old man had performed a feat that should have been impossible at his age. The cottage was an awful mess; it looked as though he and the milkmaid had fucked on or against every available surface. The small bed was rumpled, its mattress askew on its frame, one of the doors of the antique armoire was hanging by one hinge, and the contents of several tables, the dresser top, and even a books from an upturned bookcase lay scattered over the floor.
There was a wet spot on the table before him. This he eyed with great trepidation... and scooted his chair back a bit.
The old wizard had righted the dressing screen, under which he had found his green robe. He whistled merrily as he dressed. The young thief tried to scrub the image of the skinny, bony old man's naked body off his brain. It was useless. Some things you just can't un-see.
Elton Fend picked his unsteady way over the debris, still grinning like an idiot. "Worked like a charm, didn't it?" At Aulric's blank, but slightly fearful look, he said, "The potion, boy." The old man waited for a reaction, but Aulric wasn't sure what he wanted.
Fend sighed impatiently. "The potion of vitality," he exclaimed, his frail frame puffing up with pride. "Granted," he admitted, "It was just supposed to give me energy, sharpen my focus, keep me up at night, but..." he broke off, muttering, as he righted a chair to sit upon. He suddenly cackled madly. "It certainly kept me up, didn't it, boy?" His crazed laughter subsided. "Happy accident, and all." The old man grinned.
It began to dawn on Aulric what the crazy old geezer was talking about.
"So the potion was responsible for..." Aulric gestured around the room, speechless.
The hedge wizard nodded smugly. "Sure was. But mind you," he pointed sternly at the young man, "what the Llyn got?" He jerked his gnarled old thumb back at his chest, pointing to himself. "All me."
Llyn? Ah the milkmaid.
"She did seem... thrilled," he replied. He had to laugh, in spite of it all. "You had to have been quite the man in your younger years."
Elton grinned broadly. "You don't know the half of it, sonny. I could tell you stories that'd straighten your shorties, and then curl 'em right back up." He winked and chuckled.
The old hedge wizard waved it all off. "But never you mind all that. What brings you here today, Aulric? Lessons?" He looked slightly hopeful.
He stood and fished the note from his pocket. Failing to find a clean spot on the table, he sidestepped a fallen chair and handed it directly to his sometimes-mentor. "That. I... I don't read well enough to..." Embarrassed, he waved vaguely at the parchment.
The old man squinted at him, the wrinkles around his bright blue eyes bunching up. He considered the young thief with a pointed gaze. "Ohhh, you don't say?"
The bastard's making fun of me,
Aulric thought.
He spoke before thinking. "Go fuck yourself, old man," and instantly regretted his words, but the elderly wizard seemed unruffled.
"Oh, I think I'm maybe a bit too tired yet for all that," he quipped, his eyes sparkling with good humor. "But let's see about this lot." He raised the note to the light to better see it, holding it near arm's length. He cast a quick wink in Aulric's direction.
"Well, I'd say it was someone's doctored books," he posed. "Or part of them, at least." He wrinkled his nose at the leaf of parchment. "Atrocious penmanship," he snorted with disgust.
Aulric had put his face in his hand. He made a circling gesture with his free hand, motioning with exasperation for the old man to turn the sheet over, and so didn't see the hedge wizard's sly glance at him, nor his mischievous grin while he turned the parchment over.
"Ah, well. This side isn't like the other," Elton noted obtusely. "Thought maybe you were finally losing your marbles, skulking about in the dark as you do."
Aulric groaned. "Can we please make this a little less painful," he pleaded. "Get on with it, you kooky old geezer!"
"Bah," the old man scolded. "You're no fun at all, are you, young master Crabbypants?"
Aulric glared. "If you're going to waste my time..."
Elton interrupted him gently. "It's that important to you, is it?" His bright eyes held Aulric fast.
The young thief fixed a shocked stare upon the venerable hedge wizard.
Son of a bitch. He's doing this on purpose,
Aulric realized. He couldn't just write the old man off as just an amusing kind of crazy anymore. Fend was learning every bit as much from Aulric as he had been teaching. It was a sobering revelation.
Just how much does he