Sorcerer on the Street

Case 5. Daily Bread

A bluebottle buzzed against the closed window, bouncing off the pane abruptly only to try again. The tiny seemed completely oblivious to the fact that there was any obstruction there, until after the third try it fell down the outside of the building, the tiniest of flames burning it up from the inside. Some people might feel sorry for such a creature, but I wasn't sure it was even sapient enough to feel pain. And there were still untold millions of them in the city down below.

I turned my gaze back to the tarot card on the desk beside me. The Wheel. Its image seemed to show some part of a milling machine, with buckets of fine flour being carried around the outer edge of a spoked wheel. If I remembered correctly, this card could represent the cycle of life and death, or some concept of karma or cosmic justice. I wasn't sure if flies and cockroaches could even understand the concept of good and evil, let alone try to lead a better life. But the card was apparently helping them towards the next world. And on the balance of probability, if I accepted reincarnation as a legitimate theory, the only way would be up for these creatures. What surprised me more was the fact that John's first attempt at casting a spell himself was still working after nearly a whole day. It was more stable than most apprentices could manage, and would probably keep the flows of power balanced until the card itself was touched or moved.

John wasn't here right now. He'd left me in his room while he visited a bakery at the end of the street. If he was lucky some of the rolls baked this morning might be burned at the edges or otherwise of lower quality than she shop liked to stock; and in that case, John could get them fairly cheaply. He had explained to me that the availability or otherwise of early-morning seconds was his way of deciding whether he could afford to eat breakfast each day. I hoped that he would be lucky this time.

I didn't have to wait long before the door opened. And as soon as I saw John's face, I knew that he wouldn't like to be asked about the results of this quest. He was more disappointed than I had ever seen a man, and I had to wonder if he was really starving himself now.

"Jenrick collared me in the hall," he said with a sigh as he threw himself down on the bed. "The owner, I think. Or at least the guy downstairs who leers at me every time I leave the building. He wanted more money off me."

"Do you have enough?" I asked, not sure what else I could say.

"For tonight. Need to see what I have left."

He sat up, which I'm sure took a great effort of will in the circumstances. And then he pulled a purse from his pocket and tipped the contents onto the desk. It took quick reflexes to stop the coins from rolling into the card in the centre, but somehow he managed it. And then he set about counting them. It seemed to me that he was doing quite well, as far as money was concerned. But that was before I forced myself to think about inflation; and how much more everything cost now than it had the last time I had to calculate a weekly budget for my household.

"Thirteen dollars and seventy-four cents," John said, after pushing the coins into neat little piles and counting each one. "Plus a British nickel, some coin with what looks like Greek writing on, and... I don't even know what this is."

"It's a transit token," I answered quickly. I was about to say something sarcastic; mock him for not knowing the history of the city. But he was just as much a traveller as I was, he was new here. And I wouldn't even have recognised the little sliver of brass if I hadn't seen someone trying to donate a bunch to the museum at some point. Instead, I explained a little. "I think they were around forty or fifty years ago. Good for a train ride from the suburbs into the city. Guess you didn't check your change when you got it."

"Yeah," he said. "There's always something new to learn, isn't there? I guess you've had a long time to pick up every little bit of knowledge."

"That's why I'm the master," I said, trying to avoid this segueing into a comment on my physical limitations now. "But you learn fast, boy. I don't doubt that you'll know as much as I do in a decade or ten."