Raccciman’s World

“I thought Werin didn't have a prentice.”

“He picked me special for this job.”

“He knew you could see magic.”

I shook my head.

“He just wanted a someone small, then.”

Werin's screams hadn't stopped, but they seemed to be getting fainter. I could hear other sounds too, now. A commotion and some yelling. “What's going on?”

“The lady, whom you so rightly observed, is not of light, has expanded Werin's muscles. His skin is not stretching sufficiently to compensate.”

That didn't make no sense. I took a quick look myself, but all I could see was the lady and her writhing cloak drifting over away to our right, where the noises were coming from.

“Every time...” his whisper halted, and he took a deep breath and tried again. “Every time he moves, his skin tears open.”

I swallowed hard. “He's moving a lot?”

“She appears to be sending him to fight the Police.”

It didn't do to think about things, sometimes, and I wasn't going to think about what them policemen saw running towards them, not nohow. I glared up at the glowing moon, and thought about something else. “If sorcerers can't see magic, I guess I'm a wizard.”

“Even if you were born a wizard, your powers wouldn't manifest for years yet. And they wouldn't make you see magic.”

“How would you know,” I jeered.

“Because I'm a wizard.”

I gulped and tried to match up a soft voice and sneaking around in the dark with the flashy and fiery stories of wizard powers.

Beside me the wizard shifted restlessly. “This isn't what I thought I was setting Weaselface up for.”

Setting Weaselface up. The whispered words entered into my head and knocked around with Werin's screams, until my breathing grew labored and I thought I would shriek.

“His ego, Master Liwhe's greed, I thought it would make for the perfect diversion while I pursued a little errand of my own,” he continued. “And it was working perfectly, right up until the moon turned into a giant lantern.”

My breath rasped in my ears, and I concentrated on not blacking out.