RS01. The Reluctant Sorcerer by Simon Hawke Read Free Book Online Page B

my, uh, magic chariot is beyond repair, and I doubt I’ll ever be able to build another one. I’ll simply never be able to find the necessary materials here. The conditions seem much too primitive. I’m afraid I’ve traveled a great deal further than I intended. And there may be no way back.” “Well, the journey may be long,” said Mick, “yet each journey begins with but a single step, y’know. In due time, after you’ve rested and we’ve made some plans, you can make your way to the coast and find a ship that’ll take you across the Gulfstream Waters, back to your London, in the Land of Ing.” “I’m afraid it’s not that simple, Mick,” said Brewster. “Where I need to go, no ship can take me, unless it’s a ship that can travel across time.” Mick frowned, puzzled. “I don’t understand,” he said.
    Brewster took a deep breath. “Well, it’ll take some explaining,” he said. “And, quite frankly, I don’t think you’ll believe me. It’s a long story.” “Is it now?” said Mick with a smile. “Well, it just so happens that I’m in the mood for a good story. Come on, then. You can tell me all about it over breakfast.”

CHAPTER THREE
     
    Brewster had never been in the habit of having much more for breakfast than a cup of coffee and a piece of toast or two. Yet, despite the fact that he was rather hungry for a change, Brewster knew he could never even make a dent in all the provender that Mick had laid out on the table. He now knew where the phrase “groaning board” had come from.
    “There, now, I think that should do for a wee momin’ snack,” said Mick, surveying the table with pleasure and smacking his lips over the smoked meats, the huge circular bread loaves, the jars of preserves and jams and jellies, the basket of hard-boiled eggs, the sausages, the vegetables, the roast turkey, the fruits, the flapjacks, the pot of tea, and of course, the jug of peregrine wine.
    “Dig in, Doc, before your belly starts a-rumblin’.” Brewster watched, astonished, as his host tore off a large turkey leg and devoured it in less time than it took him to put honey in his tea.
    Breakfast with a leprechaun can be a rather disquieting experience if you’re not used to it, as only dwarfs anddragons are known to have greater appetites. Dwarfs, however, are slightly larger in stature than most leprechauns, and dragons are considerably larger, but Brewster didn’t know about either dwarfs or dragons yet. In fact, he didn’t even know about leprechauns, exactly, because he still hadn’t fully realized what sort of situation his time machine had popped him into and he thought Mick was a midget.
    To be perfectly fair, Brewster’s ignorance up to this point was not entirely inexcusable. While Mick had made a point of mentioning that he was one of the “little people,” the term also happened to apply to midgets in the world that Brewster came from, so Brewster had not connected it with leprechauns. Perhaps he might have noticed that Mick’s ears were unusually large and slightly pointed (unlike elves, whose ears are in proportion, but are very pointed), only Mick wore his hair rather long and shaggy and Brewster never really got a good look at his ears. And the previous night, while Mick had been discussing things like elves and such, Brewster had not been in any condition to pay very close attention.
    Now, the peregrine bush did, indeed, come as a bit of a surprise to him, and you might think that would have clued him in to the fact that he wasn’t in Kansas anymore, as a little girl named Dorothy once put it. However, if there’s one thing scientists know, especially the very bright ones, it’s that there is an awful lot they don’t know. This is why they’re scientists.
    Botany was never Brewster’s field of expertise. Though he had never heard of migratory bushes, he knew that didn’t necessarily mean such things did not exist. Quite obviously, they did exist, for he had seen one. And