Read Fain the Sorcerer for Free Online

punishment in the present undoes no crimes in the past, no matter what changes Fain affected in the past, Thorn would proceed to more or less the same point in the present. Fain could not, after all, change the man ’ s nature. But he wished he understood the root of it.
    He wished himself into the past, surprising a few guards as he appeared out of thin air a week earlier, sprinting from the palace.
    38
     
     

CHAPTER 13
    In which Fain begins a bar brawl
     
    Feeling a sudden thirst for ale, Fain walked through the forest and found the old man roasting chestnuts outside the cave.
    ‘ You! Idiot! ’ he shouted at the man. ‘ Have you any ale? ’
    ‘ Take this jar from my head and I will —’
    Fain knocked him against the mossy wall, shattering the urn and freeing the man ’ s head. The man called out some nonsense which sounded like ‘ Fan your fear to put with mine! ’ or something like that, and then told him about the three wishes. Again Fain pretended it was the first he ’ d heard of all this. ‘ So — three wishes! Well, having thought about it for a second: I wish to be able to become invisible whenever I wish — including the clothes I am wearing at the time I make the wish, old man! Secondly, I wish to have the ability to transport myself from one place to another — with clothing intact! And, thirdly, I want to be able to travel forward in time — while retaining my clothes! ’
    ‘ You choose well, young stranger, ’ cackled the old lunatic.
    Fain immediately wished himself transported to an alehouse he had heard tell of in town. Nothing happened but that he for some reason started walking away from the cave. He stopped, angry, and walked back to the cave mouth. ‘ Betrayal old man? What of the power to transport myself from place to place? ’
    ‘ Simply place one leg in front of the other alternately, young one. Though I confess, I felt sure you possessed this power already. ’ ATER
    ‘ And let me guess — you also believed I already had the ability to travel forward in time? ’
    ‘ Are you not constantly doing so? ’
    ‘ Two gifts wasted! ’ Fain thought. Should he slip back in time and get more immediately? How long did the old man have that thing on his head? Days? Weeks? How stupid could a man be? What sort of cheated existence had marooned the old man in a cave from which he dealt such perversity?
    Feeling he could not abide the man any more, Fain strode off to the river, where he washed the dragon grime from his body. Then he went back into Envashes town to visit a barber, where his head was restored to a more human appearance. And finally he went to an inn, where he ordered several meals, paying with the inexhaustible gold from his pockets. He delicately relished the beer as though it were a crime. Satisfied, he leaned back in his chair. A great feeling of lethargy filled him. Must he travel over a thousand years into the future to deal with the dragon? ‘ Perhaps, ’ he thought momentarily, ‘ my word need not be my bond. ’ But upon glancing at a mirror, he saw an empty wedge develop across his neck and a skull grinning from his face. ‘ My word is my bond! ’ he shrieked aloud, and all was well with his reflection and his intent.
    Fain looked around him. Above the fireplace was a painting of blind black sharks in a bright yellow sea. Strolling over, Fain scrutinised the dark signature in its corner — Drake the Adept. An old crone, her face like a whiskery potato, stabbed his shoulder with her chin and said ‘ Something eldritch aint it? There ’ s another over there — by the door. ’
    Fain went with her to the other, smaller painting — this portrayed a triangular, pointed building with a saucer-like eye near its base. The structure seemed to be in the centre of a lush, curlicued forest grown from red earth. ‘ What do you know about this Drake? ’
    ‘ It ’ s said these are not imagined scenes but a record of places he visited on his travels. He ’ s now