Obviously something more was called for, so Wiz tried. “Well, I’m glad you’re safe.”
Anna sighed. “I owe it all to Llewllyn. Isn’t he wonderful?”
Malkin kept her eyes on her plate.
“Quite remarkable,” Wiz said dryly, rising from the table. “But if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.” Like trying to keep my dinner down, he thought as he headed up the stairs.
Since Llewllyn had developed the habit of cadging meals with them the scene was repeated at lunch the next day.
Since the mayor had summoned Wiz to discuss the fanfare spell, the scene was prolonged because Llewllyn insisted on accompanying him to the town hall. The young man paused several times to ostentatiously greet important people, keeping Wiz close so he could bask in his reflected glory. Somehow he managed to work the fact that he had defeated a dragon into each conversation, so Wiz had to listen to more or less the same story three or four more times. By the time they reached the street that led to the main square Wiz was thoroughly fed up with his assistant.
“You know that what you did was stupid,” Wiz told him finally. “I mean terminally stupid. Why didn’t you just wait for the dragon to leave?”
“Were I by myself I might have,” Llewllyn admitted with a disarming smile.
“But Anna was there.”
“So you risked her life as well as your own to impress her.”
“No, to protect her. Better for me to face near-certain death at the fangs and claws of a dragon than for anything to happen to her. Were I slain perhaps the monster would be satisfied and not look further among the rocks.”
“Still it was stupid.”
Llewllyn nodded, as if to show he was too well bred to argue with his employer. “Perhaps, My Lord. I can only say that love makes a man do strange and wonderful things.”
Wiz snorted.
“But I do love her,” Llewllyn proclaimed. “Why, I would shed my last drop of heart’s blood for her.”
“Yeah, but will you marry her?”
“Of course, My Lord, in due time. Do you doubt me?”
“Your record in that department isn’t exactly sterling,” Wiz said as they turned the corner into the main square.
“Ah, but I was young and callow then, a mere stripling. You see before you not a boy, but a man full-grown, a man redeemed by love.”
Wiz thought that what he saw before him was a pompous windbag and he was about to say something to that effect. But just then the world stuttered.
One instant Llewllyn was beside him and the next he was in front and staring open-mouthed. Everyone was running and screaming and there was dust in the air that hadn’t been there before.
Wiz started to ask what had happened. Then he saw the brick. No, not a brick, a piece of worked stone. Like part of a cornice. It was lying in the street behind Llewllyn, surrounded by the dust it had raised when it fell. There were several other pieces of freshly broken stone nearby. Looking up he could see that a big chunk of the stonework on the building was missing.
Wiz looked back and saw Llewllyn had progressed to working his jaws, but not far enough to actually make noise. He also saw they had drawn a crowd.
“It, it, it . . . bounced,” Llewllyn finally managed. “It just hit you and it split to pieces and it bounced right off the top of your head.”
Looking around, Wiz saw that several councilors and the sheriff had joined the excited group.
“Think nothing of it,” he said over the rising buzz of conversation. “As a great wizard I am protected by a spell that renders me invulnerable to mortal danger.” The conversation grew even louder.
“But you froze. Like a statue,” his assistant said.
Wiz had been hoping no one would notice that. “A side effect,” he said with a wave of his hand. “So long as the danger lasts I am immobile and invulnerable. Now come. Let us be on our way.”
Maybe that will stop people from trying to terminate my contract with extreme prejudice, he thought as the crowd parted before them. At least it might if I can find someplace to sit down before I get the shakes.