A Wizard of the White Council by Jonathan Moeller Read Free Book Online Page A

said Arran. 
    The boy gave him a strange look. “You an immigrant or something?”
    “Yes,” said Arran. “I am.”
    “From where?”
    Arran thought it over. “Iraq.”
    “You don’t look Iraqi. There’s an Iraqi kid in my class, Abdul or something like that, and you don’t look like him.” 
    “My family is from an obscure region of Iraq,” said Arran. This was not going well. “But I am new to Chicago. And I would like to ask you some questions, since I am unfamiliar with this city.”
    The boy nodded. “Okay. It’s not like I have anything better to do. The stupid bus is late, again.” 
    “That jeep that pulled up to the curb a few minutes ago,” said Arran. “What was that?”
    The boy scowled. “Jeep? I didn’t see any jeep.”
    Arran tried to explain. “That large box-shaped jeep. The doors opened, people put coins into a machine, and then the jeep drove away.”
    “Oh! That’s not a jeep. You must really be from a foreign country if you didn’t know that. That was the bus.”
    “Bus.” Arran nodded. “What is a bus?”
    “It’s…you know, the bus. You get on, pay two dollars, and then ride the bus until you get where you want to go. Sometimes you have to get off and change buses. It’s a real pain. I wish was old enough to drive.” 
    Arran thought this over. “Could you take me on a tour of this city, this Chicago?”
    The boy rolled his eyes and looked back at his glass rectangle. “Dude, I got better things to do with my time than to take a smelly old guy on a tour.”
    Arran dug in his pocket. “Wait.” He pulled out one of the dollars that the drunken man had given him. “In exchange for this dollar, will you show me the customs of the buses?”
    The boy’s eyes got wide. “You’ll give me fifty dollars to show you around on the buses?” 
    “No, it’s just one dollar.” 
    The boy snatched the dollar from Arran’s hand. “Right. Sure. Okay, mister, you got a deal. If I went home I’d just have to mow the lawn. I’ll show you how to use the buses. But you better not be a kidnapper or a pervert or something like that. If you try anything I’ll kick you in the balls until they burst.” 
    “That sounds unpleasant.” Arran spread his hands. “I just want to find my way around the city.” If he could learn to use the buses, they would be an invaluable aid to him. “What’s your name?”
    The boy thought about it. “You can call me Robert.”
    Arran nodded. “Arran Belphon, at your service.” 
    “Okay, Mr. Belphon.” Robert scratched his arm. “Stupid mosquitoes. We’ll wait for the bus. We might have to stand, since it’s Saturday and everyone’s going shopping.”
    “Saturday?” said Arran. “What’s that?”
    “You know. Saturday. I get off school and my parents get off work.” 
    “A day of rest, then,” said Arran. Robert had to be the son of a noble or a scholar. No one else could afford to attend a university. 
    “So where do you want to go?” said Robert. “Are you visiting relatives here or something?”
    “No,” said Arran. “I’m looking for two people. An old man named Alastarius and a boy named Lithon Scepteris. Lithon would be two or three years older than you, I think.”
    Robert shrugged. “Never met either of them. Are they friends of yours?”
    “No.” Arran stared into the street and watched the jeeps drive back and forth. “Alastarius was a…a friend of woman I knew in my homeland. She told me to find him before she died.”
    “Was she sick?”
    Arran shook his head. “No. She was killed. I saw it happen.”
    Robert’s eyes got wide. “Wow, Mr. Belphon. That sucks.” 
    “Indeed.” Arran closed his eyes and thought of everything that had happened since Marugon had returned from Earth. 
    They sat in silence.
    Robert jumped to his feet and craned his neck. “The bus is coming. So where do you want to go, Mr. Belphon?”
    “Just show me around the city.”
    Robert grinned. “It’s a big city. That