Beauty and the Magician (Tales of the Red Witch Book 1)

Chapter 13 - Retracing steps

Toby came hop-scotching down the craggy terrain of the stairs as he did most mornings, rubbing his empty stomach. His mouth watered thinking about the sweets he had stashed away in the pantry. He stopped on the bottom step, freezing when he caught sight of his dejected master.

Eben was sitting at the sticky filthy table. He had pushed a pile of dishes and food to the floor to clear a spot for his muddy elbows to rest. His chin which looked darkened with the shadow of a beard was propped up on one hand. A bouquet of Gypsophila tied with a neat bow of rough hemp twine sat on the table by his other hand. His fingers grasped the cufflink, tapping out a code on the table. He was dirty, his coat was missing and his sleeves were pushed up. His bloodshot eyes were glazed over and he was lost in thought. He had not noticed him, even though he had made plenty of noise while tripping down the stairs.

Toby looked back at the stairs when a book precariously perched on a pile tipped forward and slide down the mountain to land neatly on it's cover at the bottom. Lately, the stairs resembled more of a bookshelf and one had to be careful to navigate around the piles when ascending or descending or risk causing a literary avalanche.

Toby turned his attention to the splatter covered cupboard.

"I take it you ain't had no luck finding the prince." Toby said somewhat sheepishly. Normally he enjoyed goading his annoying master, but something in his face said this was not the time. He stepped lightly over to the cupboard pulling out the few bits of cake and chocolates he had stashed and taking a seat next to Eben at the newly cleared section of table.

"Whatever gives you that impression?" Eben said sarcastically. His smudgy face still firmly on his hand.

"Well, I jus figured-" Toby started. His eyes wide. He could not recall having ever seen his master look like this, so discouraged and dirty.

"The locator charm did not work and the whole day was quite miserable and a waste of time, I am no closer to finding the prince than I was months ago." Eben said raising his head to look at the boy. He ran his hands over his black hair causing the curls to flatten before they sprung back up in disarray.

"Wha cha gonna do?" Toby said as he stuffed a chocolate into his mouth. "I could help." And he knew he could if his master would only let him. Whether he liked it or not, the irresponsible man before him was the closest thing to a family that he had ever known and this place was the best home he had ever had.

He thought back to the days before he had managed to stumble through the odd wooden door that had seemed to shimmer against the greasy grey grime of the city streets around it. Now he didn't have to worry about anything. They had plenty of customers to buy whatever they needed and they had magic to keep the house warm and comfortable and he was getting to learn magic. It was beyond anything he could have dreamed of.

He just wished Eben would let him help. He had told him that he was a very good magician in training and that he was learning quicker than he had at his age. But his master refused and instead chose to ignore him and leave him behind. Unwanted and forgotten.

Stubborn old idiot.

There was no way he was going to find the prince on his own, but Toby thought it best to keep his mouth shut on that thought. It's not like anyone listened to him anyway. What could a thirteen year old orphan who had spent the majority of his life finding things know about finding a lost prince? Granted, finding a prince was probably not quite the same as stumbling upon a perfectly good piece of day old bread in a trash bin behind a posh bakery. But part of finding that bread was knowing where to look in the first place. And if the prince was really as disreputable as the gossips around town led him to believe... well Toby knew where to look for disreputables.

His master sighed. "There has to be something that has been overlooked. I have to go back to the beginning; back to Jegerborg and Hafenstadt. I have to discover what it is that everyone else has missed." He looked up turning his attention to Toby. "You can help by staying here and minding the shop."

He was sick of staying put, but he knew this wasn't a time to argue. Working the shop wasn't so bad most of the time. Customers meant money and money meant cake. And besides, most of the customers were nice and he did rather like knowing that he was helping somebody.

"Wha cha lookin for?" He asked.

"Well, if I knew then I wouldn't have to discover it, now would I?" Eben said, his tone irksome. He pushed up from the table and headed towards the door that lead out to Hafenstadt.

"Maybe you should wash and change first. You smell like you've been rollin around in a barnyard." Toby said pinching his nose. In truth, the whole room smelled like a mixture of trash, barnyard, and feet, but Eben's smell did little to better any of it.

Eben raised his arms sniffing his stained shirt and wincing as if just noticing his sorry appearance for the first time.

He nodded.

"You should get some sleep too. You look terrible." He said while shoveling stale cake in his mouth.

"Even if I had all the time in the world, I'm not sure I would be able to sleep." Eben sighed out.

"Then can ya teach me the fire charm again before you go?" He asked hopeful.

"We'd have to do it now, I must not waste any more time."

He didn't care so much that Eben was leaving. He was used to being on his own, However it does tend to get too quiet around the house without him stumbling around and when he's gone he can't learn any new spells. Well he could, but it was hard to learn the hand movements from a drawing in a book. The last time he had tried, he had nearly turned the house into an elephant.

"Fine, how long you gonna be gone for this time?" Toby said pushing up from the table.

"Hopefully not more than a day or so. You know I dislike being away from Other for long." Eben said while twisting his waistcoat button. Perhaps that was true, however, Eben did appear to be gone quite a bit. Especially in the last six months.

Toby rolled his eyes while scaling the bookshelf stairs to his room to fetch his tattered magic book. He couldn't help but feel like a slave, forced to do all the unpleasant work while Eben ran off and had all the fun. He had never even seen the Magician's Council or the Citadel! He was certain that was something he should have done by now. He vowed that when he became a master magician he would never stay at home; he would travel the world saving maidens and fighting monsters.

He vowed to not be a homebody magician locked up inhis bedroom who refused to let his apprentice leave. Well, at least with Ebengone, he would be able to sneak out.