false healing potions when there was one among them
with the power of true healing.
Abruptly, there was a loud, surprising clunk! as the
wagon’s side panel flipped downward, revealing a
polished wooden counter and, behind it, a row of shelves
lined with glimmering purple bottles. Grimm’s glowering
eyes barely managed to peer over the countertop, but the
crowd hardly noticed the taciturn dwarf. All were gazing
at the display of sparkling elixirs.
Jastom gestured expansively to the wagon. “Indeed,
my good gentlefolk, just one of these elixirs, and all that
troubles you will be cured. And all it costs is a mere ten
coins of steel. A small price to pay for a miracle, wouldn’t
you say?”
There was a single moment of silence, and then as one
the crowd gave a cry of excitement as they rushed
forward, jingling purses in hand.
*****
All morning and all afternoon the townsfolk crowded
about the black varnished wagon, listening to Jastom extol
the wondrous properties of the potions and then setting
down their cold steel on the counter in trade for the small
purple bottles.
There was only one minor crisis, this around midday,
when the supply of potions ran out. Grimm was busily
scurrying about inside the cramped wagon, measuring this
and pouring that as he hurriedly tried to mix a new batch
of elixirs. However, a few burly, red-necked farmers grew
impatient and began shaking the wagon. Jars and bottles
and pots went flying wildly inside, spilling their contents
and covering Grimm with a sticky, medicinal-smelling
mess. Luckily, the dwarf had managed to finish a handful
of potions by then, and Jastom used these to placate the
belligerent farmers, selling them the bottles for half price.
Losing steel was not something Jastom much cared for,
but losing the wagon – and Grimm – would have been
disastrous.
After that interruption, Grimm was able to finish
filling empty bottles with the thick, pungent elixir, and
business proceeded more smoothly. However, the dwarf’s
eyes were still smoldering like hot iron.
“Fine way to make a living,” he grumbled to himself as
he tried to pick sticky clumps of herbs from his thick black
beard. “I suppose we’ll swindle ourselves right out of our
own necks one of these days.”
“What did that glum-looking little fellow say?” a
blacksmith demanded, hesitating as he started to lay down
his ten coins of steel on the wooden counter. “Something
about swindle?”
Jastom shot a murderous look at Grimm and then
turned his most radiant smile to the smith. “You’ll have to
forgive my friend’s mumblings,” he said in a conspiratorial
whisper. “He hasn’t been quite the same ever since one of
the ponies kicked him in the head.”
The blacksmith nodded in sympathetic understanding.
He left the wagon, small purple bottle in hand. Jastom’s
bulging purse was ten coins heavier. And Grimm kept his
mouth shut.
*****
It was midafternoon when Jastom sold the last of the
potions. The corpulent merchant who bought it gripped
the purple bottle tightly in his chubby fingers and scurried
off through the streets, a gleam in his eye. The fellow
hadn’t seemed to want to discuss the exact nature of his
malady, but Jastom suspected it had something to do with
the equally corpulent young maiden who was waiting for
him in the door of a nearby inn, smiling and batting her
eyelids in a dreadful imitation of demureness. Jastom
shook his head, chuckling.
Abruptly there was a loud WHOOP! Jastom turned to
see an old woman throw down her crooked cane and
begin dancing a spry jig to a piper’s merry tune. Other
folk quickly joined the dance, heedless of the aches and
cares that had burdened them only a short while ago. One
shabbily-dressed fellow, finding himself without a
partner, settled for a spotted pig that had the misfortune to
be wandering through the town square. The pig squealed
in surprise as the man whirled it about, and Jastom
couldn’t help but laugh aloud at the spectacle.
This was the work of the elixirs, of course. Jastom
wasn’t altogether certain what Grimm put in the small
purple bottles, but he knew the important ingredient was
something called dwarf spirits. And while dwarf spirits