The Wizard's Misery The Chronicles of the Midlands Book One

Chapter Twelve

A little while later, Brandon figured that it was time to give her another dose of medicine, so he took the bottles out of his pocket and walked over to where she lay sleeping. She was lying on her back with her head propped up on the pillows and he easily opened her mouth and poured in a little of the red medicine followed by the green one. He watched as she swallowed them and then he replaced the caps on the bottles and put them back into the pocket of his cloak.He noticed that she had pushed the covers down and thought, "She must be hot." So, he pulled off one of the blankets and laid it on his cot.

As he did this, she stirred and rolled over, her long braid coming into view and he stood there staring at it for a moment. "I swear it looks like her hair is getting lighter," he thought and so he hurried over to the lamp and carried it back to the bedside. He held it close to her head and what he had thought was confirmed. Her hair was several shades lighter. Instead of being a rich golden blonde, it was now a pale yellow more like Robin's. "The stone is changing her," he thought in amazement.

He walked over and put the lamp back on its stand and then just stood there a moment, staring across the room towards the girl's bed. "I wonder what else it's doing to her?" he thought as he walked back over to his cot and sat down.

Celine turned over onto her back and murmured something unintelligible and he rose and went over to see if she was waking up. "Celine?" he inquired softly, peering into her face. Again he was struck at how pretty she was. "Sleeping beauty," he said aloud as he brushed a few damp tendrils of hair away from her face. A small smile pulled at the corners of her mouth and he thought that maybe she had heard him and flushing with embarrassment, he turned away and sat on his cot. "I hope she doesn't remember that when she wakes up," he thought.

He sat there for a few moments debating if whether he should go down to tavern and get something to eat and then decided against it. He really wasn't hungry and didn't feel like drinking any more ale so he laid back down on his cot. He thought back over the events of the day and felt bad for having let Molly down so badly. She had looked really angry when he had left to go upstairs with the doctor."It's incredible how one little kiss can affect a woman," he thought. "I only kissed her that one time and she made so much out of it. Women! They're more trouble than they're worth sometimes!"

He looked over at Celine and thought about all the trouble she had caused him over the past few days. He had helped her evade the soldiers, he had helped her cousin get away from the assassins and now he was caring for her while she was sick. "She's been a lot of trouble and now she may have destroyed the best chance for us to defeat Maledictor," he thought miserably. He knew that he should be angry at her but for some reason he wasn't. "I guess it's because it wasn't really her fault. She was only doing what she thought best with the information she had been given," he reasoned.

"Maledictor is the one who deserves my anger. He's a cold blooded killer who killed my father and so many other people. He's almost destroyed the kingdom with his tyranny and I can't let him go unpunished!" he thought angrily as he sat there furiously indulging in his anger. Then he started strategizing to calm himself down.

"Well, if the stone works and everything goes according to plan, then within a week I'll be in Sovereign City to take care of Maledictor and his wizards. Having their magic neutralized will assure our victory," he thought, smiling to himself. "But, if it turns out that the stone is no good, I'll just have to see to it that the wizards find out that Maledictor no longer has the real one but has a fake. Robin should have delivered it to John Robertson by then and he'll see to it that it gets back to Maledictor. Then when the wizards find out that Maledictor has the fake, they'll defect and we'll have a better chance of defeating him," he planned. "That'll be the only course of action left," he thought frowning, really wanting all of the wizards neutralized and not just Maledictor.