Journeyman (A Wizard's Life) (7 page)

“Good day, Benen.”

“Are you sure you want to be my wife, Dania?”

“I am. I make no decision without thinking it through, and I think the two of us would be perfect for one another.”

“Oh? Can you tell me how you envision our marriage?”

“As a wizard, you are an educated man. Unlike my sisters, I know how to read and I am familiar with some of the rudiments of science. I would be a helpmate to you in your research and an adviser to you in other areas. Ours would be a partnership of equals.”

Benen found the idea of marriage as a partnership appealing, but he felt nothing for Dania herself. She had a business-like manner about the subject of marriage and love that did not appeal to him.

“And where would we live?” he asked her.

“We will decide this together, but I assume we will most likely move to a larger city with a well-equipped library, a centre of learning.”

“And children?”

“If we have the time and you have the desire.”

“Thank you, Dania. I will meet your younger sister now.” The girl nodded and left the room.

Benen knew he could not choose Dania, there was no emotional or physical connection between them; she would be a good lab assistant, but not a good wife.

The last sister entered and he motioned for her to sit across from him. She was quite young, two years younger than he was. He watched her walk to the seat and saw she was not used to the fancy dress. Where Brenia had been graceful, and Dania deliberate, the third sister was hesitant in her movements. When she smiled, it was shyly.

“Hello,” she greeted him as she sat. She had a small voice.

“Hello Sania.” She blushed and smiled when he said her name. The colour in her cheeks suited her perfectly. She was not a beauty like her eldest sister, but there was something more genuine about her appearance. “Can you tell me what our marriage would be like?”

“Oh dear, I’m not sure. I’d be there for you, I guess, and do what I can for you. And you, you’d be there for me, when I’m not well — for me and the children. We’d help each other and try to make the other happy. Isn’t that what marriage is supposed to be like?”

Benen warmed to the young girl. She had an earnestness that was endearing and disarming.

“Are you sure you want to marry me?” he asked.

“Who wouldn’t want to be your wife? You came to help us even though we mistrusted you. You’re a good man, Benen.”

“It doesn’t bother you that I’m a wizard?”

“I’d be proud to be the wizard’s wife. You can do things no one else can and, instead of using your powers to hurt people, you came to help us.”

“Thank you Sania. I’d like to take some time to consider now.”

The girl got up and was about to go, but then, on impulse, gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. She blushed after doing it and hurried from the room. It did not have the same effect Brenia’s kiss had, but it warmed him and made him smile.

He pondered the question of which daughter to marry, alone in the sitting room for long enough that his host came to look in on him.

“Is there a problem, Benen?” Pol asked. He took the seat across from Benen.

“How does one choose? Each of your daughters is a delight in her own way, Headman.”

The compliment pleased Pol. “Thank you, they take after their mother.”

“How did
you
choose your wife, Headman? If you don’t mind my asking.”

“She chose
me,
actually.” The man smiled at the memory. “In this part of Estren, the woman traditionally chooses the man she wishes to marry and proposes.”

“But you agreed to marry her. Why her above any other offers you might have had?”

“You overestimate my appeal, wizard.” He smiled. “Although there
was
one other offer. Why did I choose my Miria?” He thought for a moment. “I guess she seemed the most likely to make me happy in the long run. The other woman, Shella, was ambitious and smart and beautiful, but she was always thinking of the next scheme to advance herself and, presumably, her family. She moved to a big city after I turned her down.”

“Thank you for the advice then, Headman. I just need a bit more time.” Benen stood up. “ Perhaps I will take a walk to clear my head. You will have my decision when I return.”

The headman agreed to this and saw Benen to the door.

As he walked in the woods, Benen considered each of the girls in turn.

Brenia was by far the most beautiful. More than that, she was a sensual delight. He
lusted
for her, but she also intimidated him. Her plans were grand and not at all what he wanted out of his own life. She was the wife his baser parts yearned for.

Dania was someone he could truly discuss intellectual subjects with. She was smart and educated, but she seemed cold and unemotional about their marriage. She wanted someone to have conversations with. She was the wife his brain yearned for.

Sania was cute and meek, friendly, if shy. She was warm and caring and wanted to build a life where she would take care of him and he of her. She was the wife his heart yearned for.

He couldn’t satisfy all his organs with any one wife and he could not marry all three; he had to choose.

First he eliminated Dania, her distance and calculation had made her unattractive to him. He would love to cultivate a friendship with her, if possible, but he did not want her as his wife.

He knew then that he
should
choose Sania. If he chose Brenia, he would be able to satisfy his need to be with her, sexually, but what then? She would want to move to a big city and go to balls and be part of ‘society’ which he had no interest in. Still, he wanted her and he struggled with this for most of the rest of his walk. Finally, he decided he would marry Brenia even though he knew it was the wrong decision, in the long run. His desire for her was that strong: she was magnetic.

He returned to the headman’s house and, when he entered, found himself in the presence of all three women. They had been waiting for him in the foyer. The headman was also present. All four turned to him with expectation when they saw him.

“Welcome back, Benen. How was your walk?” asked the headman.

“Good, thank you,” he said, buying some more time. Seeing all three girls again, Benen was no longer sure if Brenia was the right choice. Sania’s shy smile had caught his eye when he had entered and he remembered what the headman had said about his own choice of wives. Sania cared about him, it seemed. The other two girls saw him as a the best match around, but not as a person.

“Have you made your decision? It is not good to keep the ladies in such suspense.”

“I have,” he said with more confidence than he felt. Brenia had smiled at him and it had made his heart flutter.

“And what is the decision?”

“Uh, umm . . .” He stopped looking at Brenia and looked at Sania. She had read the look he had just given her elder sister and knew he had chosen Brenia. She looked crestfallen, her eyes already beginning to fill with tears she was holding back.

Would Brenia weep if I did not choose her?
he wondered. He thought the answer was no, she would not. She would be angry. Dania? She would be disappointed, but not emotionally affected. Sania was the only one he thought would be touched emotionally by losing him.

“I choose Sania to be my wife, if she will have me.” He declared before he changed his mind again.

The girl looked at him with surprise for a moment before she smiled, excited and genuinely happy, and ran to him. She jumped into his arms and gushed: “Yes! Yes! Yes! A thousand times yes!”.

He did not know if the other sisters had reacted as he had predicted, he was too busy enjoying the affections of his soon-to-be bride.

#

The wedding was wonderful, the entire village turned out for it. Even relatives living in other nearby villages came to see the wizard wed the headman’s daughter. Sania’s sisters, reluctantly at first, agreed to serve as her bride’s maids. Benen’s best man was a volunteer from the village, a young man named Eggan. He had been selected from a large pool of volunteers; everyone wanted to get a chance to get to know the hero-wizard.

The happy couple’s union was celebrated for hours, with plenty of food and drink. By evening, when the two were rather drunk, they were told they must withdraw and complete their union. Benen was not sure what they meant at first, but Eggan clarified things for him.

For the moment, the couple was to continue living in the headman’s house; there was plenty of space. A guest bedroom had been made theirs in an isolated portion of the large building and two of the other guest bedrooms in that area had been cleared for their use. This is where they retired to after the party.

When they were alone, Benen and Sania both grew shy. Neither had ever been intimate with another.

Taking the lead, Sania, blushing fetchingly, undid the four cinches that held her bodice together. The dress fell off her, revealing her naked body beneath. Seeing her thus, Benen lost his shyness and, together, they figured things out well enough, their enthusiasm taking the place of experience.

That night, after Sania was asleep, Benen lay in the darkness thanking the Creator for his luck. He had spent some time watching his wife sleep and was now preparing to go to sleep himself when he felt a cold presence he had almost forgotten about.

“I’ve found you at last,” Timmon’s voice said. It spoke low, in consideration for the sleeping lady. “I’ve actually been nearby but I didn’t want to . . . interrupt.”

“That’s, hmm, considerate of you. So, you had trouble finding me again? I thought you said you had a sense of where I am?”

“I do, but you moved around so much and went so far I had difficulty keeping up with you. Also, it seems I’m only awake at night.”

“What happens to you during the day?”

“I dream.”

“What are your dreams like?” Benen was curious about the creature.

“Over and over, I live through the moments of my death.”

“Oh.”

“I know you killed me now.”

“Oh.”

“It’s okay. I was going to kill your friend.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

“Even my emotions are cold now,” Timmon said.

“I’m not moving again, Timmon. Now that I’m married, I will settle down here. I’ll have time to look into your condition if you want. I could try to cure you.”

“You can bring me back to life?”

“. . . no. I cannot do that. I can give you peace, maybe.”

Timmon sighed.

Benen and his ghostly victim made an agreement that Timmon would only speak to him when Benen was alone. For his part, Benen would endeavour to be alone a part of each night and also, he would look into what he could do for poor Timmon. Benen almost relished the challenge.

The happy couple did not stay in the headman’s house for long. After a few weeks, Benen spent some of his gold coins to have a house built. It would be a wooden house with a tin roof. Four bedrooms were planned as well as a laboratory, a study, and an observatory. Benen would have to acquire or make a telescope himself, as no one in the area had ever heard of such a thing.

Every time a peddler came to the village, Benen asked after books — especially magical ones — and a telescope. This way he gathered a small library over the years; the peddlers knew that Benen would buy any books they brought to the village, so they made sure to keep an eye out.

During this time, the wizard became a sort of wise man or witch doctor for the villagers. He would heal the injured and cure the sick, as well as perform other tasks the people could not manage themselves. For this, he received coins, and this work kept him and his wife quite comfortable.

For ten years he lived in the house he had built, with his wife, whom he loved more each day.

Their life together was almost perfect. He spent a lot of his time reading, working in the lab, and trying to cobble together a working telescope — when he wasn’t doing something for one of the villagers. She liked to cook and knit. This was good because Benen was not a very inventive chef and would always prepare the same dishes if left to it.

In the evenings, when possible, he read to her from a book. He’d acquired some novels specifically for reading to Sania and they cherished these times together.

The only thing that marred their relationship was their trouble having children.

It was not for lack of trying. The couple had bad luck conceiving and, on the few occasions when Sania was pregnant, she never brought the child further than the first trimester before losing the baby.

It was hard on the couple, but they got through it, and their patience was finally rewarded with a pregnancy that lasted well into the third trimester.

It was then that Benen received a visit from the elders of a village a week’s walk from his home.

This in itself was unusual. He sometimes had requests for his services from the nearby villages, but never from this far away. These elders were truly desperate. He met with them right away.