An Unexpected Magician, page 1
By
Guy Antibes
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Author’s Note
Map of Central Gania
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Chapter Thirty-Six
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Justin Spede: Characters & Locations
A Bit About Guy
Books by Guy Antibes
Copyright Page
An Unexpected Magician Copyright ©2023 Guy Antibes. All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the permission of the author.
~
This is a work of fiction. There are no real locations used in the book; the people, settings, and specific places are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblances to actual persons, locations, or places are purely coincidental.
Published by CasiePress LLC in Salt Lake City, UT, July 2023.
www.casiepress.com
ISBN:
Cover Design: Kenneth Cassell
Book Design: Kenneth Cassell
Principal Reader: Bev Cassell
~
Author’s Note
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The Justin Spede series is a bit of a departure from the pure sword and sorcery books I’ve written in the past. There is magic, but it plays, at least for now, a very minor role. There is action, and we are now immersed in a world where gunpowder has risen to displace magic as the offense of choice.
The first book in the series is principally an origin book, creating the world and setting the stage for more adventures as Justin’s close group of selected friends band together to do good deeds.
— Guy Antibes
Map of Central Gania
Chapter One
~
“W
hat is it now?” Bertie Bender said, looking down at his grandson Justin.
“Justin’s suspended for two weeks,” Turpin Spede, Justin’s uncle, said, standing at his nephew’s side.
“And you expect me to take him in?” Bertie asked. “I’m a sick man.”
“You don’t have a choice! He doesn’t have another place open to him. Verona can’t deal with the boy, and neither can I. His last episode at school was the last straw,” Turpin said. “I want him out of my house before my kids get more poisoned by his bad attitude.”
Bertie looked at his fourteen-year-old orphan grandson. “And what did you do this time? I’m too old to be a nursemaid of my daughter’s naughty son.”
“I didn’t do anything,” the boy said.
That was life after Justin’s parents died a year previously. Life was nothing. Not that he was a model son to Brian and Roberta Spede before they died. His older brother and sister hated him, and Justin hated them back, but Justin didn’t expect his tantrum on that fateful night would leave him as the sole survivor of Brian and Roberta’s family.
“Nothing!” Turpin snorted. “He was in another fight, but this time with his teacher.”
“Who won?” Bertie asked.
“The teacher,” Justin said listlessly.
“Justin purposely refused to turn in his work as usual. This time the teacher challenged Justin, and the fight began. They are giving Justin one more chance,” Turpin said. “Keep him focused, and make him turn his work in.”
“I don’t want him. He is a menace,” Bertie Bender said, even though Justin stood in front of him with his uncle.
“Then let him be a menace here. Verona won’t take him back. He’s all yours,” Turpin said, backing up and entering the carriage.
Justin looked back at the road and made no move to catch his uncle. They didn’t want him, and he didn’t want them. Justin only hoped he bothered them as much as they had bothered him.
“Should I bring my bags inside?” Justin asked.
Bertie had taken a few steps toward the carriage as it trundled off. He clutched his fists and took a deep breath before bending over and clutching his knees, continuing to breathe heavily. He shook his head and pointed inside.
Justin didn’t know what that meant, but he helped his grandfather into the house and helped him lay down on a couch in the sitting room, where Bertie spent most of his time before retrieving his bags.
In a few minutes, Bertie sat up. “You will literally be the death of me,” the grandfather said. “I don’t want you here, but a letter will take a couple of weeks to make it to Manford, where your aunt Melinda lives. You’ll end up there, not here.”
~
Grant and Melinda Seaside arrived three weeks later. Bertie’s health had declined so much that Justin’s Uncle Turpin had come to stay in Bertie’s mansion.
“And he hasn’t been back to school?” Grant asked Bertie.
“No, he hasn’t,” Turpin said. “They decided not to let him back in at this point of the school year. It’s your time to suffer.”
Grant grunted. “As if the boy hasn’t suffered enough,” he said under his breath.
“What did you say?” Turpin asked with a voice tinged with anger.
Melinda stepped in front of her husband, who was much bigger and stronger than Turpin. “We will take the boy. It’s not that he’ll be a financial burden.”
Justin sat in the corner, observing everything. He felt numb. The past few weeks with his grandfather hadn’t been what he had expected. Justin didn’t have an option but to care for his grandfather. He had been scared for a few hours, a few nights, before the old man caught his breath.
Justin would rather be gone when the old man expired. In Justin’s opinion, Bertie Bender was a nasty man in the same league as his Uncle Turpin, even if they weren’t related. His mother was like her father, Justin’s grandfather. Justin suddenly felt as alone as he ever had.
Anger wasn’t what drove Justin. He just felt numb ever since his two siblings had begun to act like Uncle Turpin and Grandpa Bertie. His father never seemed to understand, but his mother was just as bad as Justin’s grandfather.
Aunt Melinda helped Justin pack his bags, and Uncle Grant helped take them to the box wagon. It had a covered bench inside and was filled with purchases his aunt and uncle had made before picking him up.
“I hope you are feeling better,” Justin struggled to say as he left.
“I hope so, too, Justin,” Bertie said. “Mind Melinda. She may have Seaside on the backside of her name, but she is a Spede, like your uncle.”
Uncle Turpin only grunted with his arms folded as Justin walked out the door.
Aunt Melinda climbed on the driver’s seat as Uncle Grant, and Justin climbed into the back of the wagon.
“It doesn’t look like you’ll miss them. You call me Grant or Uncle Grant,” Justin’s uncle said.
“I like being Aunt Melinda, for now,” his aunt said from her perch just before she snapped the reins, and the wagon lurched forward.
“There are a few rules in our house that you’ll need to know. If you follow them, we will get along fine.”
“Rules?” Justin asked.
“No talking back to your aunt or me,” Grant said. “Refuse to do any chores, and you will be punished.”
“What kind of punishment?” Justin asked, getting engaged in the conversation.
“That depends on what you refuse and how you refuse it,” Grant said. “No physical attacks on me, your aunt, or your nieces.”
Justin nodded. “What about school?”
“I’m not sure you’ll be allowed to attend in Manford. Turpin said you aren’t dumb. If you know how to read, write, and do basic numbers, that’s all they care about where we live.”
Justin felt a loss all of a sudden. He didn’t like school, but it was the teachers, not so much the schoolwork. He had read books in his grandfather’s small library between his grandfather’s grumbling and complaining.
“What will I do all day if I can’t get into the local school?” Justin asked.
“Homeschool!” Aunt Melinda said from the front. “Between Grant and I, you’ll get a better education in Manford than those taught privately.”
Grant pierced Justin with his gaze. “Do you know how to learn?”
Justin pursed his lips and didn’t respond other than a slight nod.
“We’ll know what to do when you have settled in. You’ll get your own room. I know you have money, but Melanie and I don’t do so badly, so don’t worry about us bleeding you dry.”
& nbsp; “Like Uncle Turpin?” Justin asked.
“Did he take much of your inheritance?” Grant asked.
“I had to pay 100 shillings a month for room and board.”
“Ten pounds is enough to rent an entire house,” Grant said.
“I think my rent did,” Justin said.
“But they still didn’t want you around?” Grant said.
Justin nodded his head in agreement. He made them pay for his bad behavior for every penny his uncle and aunt Spede took from him. They took him to his grandfather’s house the day Justin was expelled from school when Uncle Spede insisted Justin write a draft for six months room and board in advance, and Justin refused.
Grant sighed. “Life hasn’t taught Turpin any good lessons. I had more than enough of those in the Wonn Imperial Army.” He looked appraisingly at Justin. “Give Melinda and me a chance, at least.” Grant smiled. “Free of charge. That’s enough of me for now.”
Justin’s uncle climbed through the front and onto the driver’s bench, taking the reins from his wife. Justin spent the rest of the day alone in the back, trying to assess if he was heading away from trouble or into more.
They stayed at inns each night, with Justin sleeping on a pile of blankets on the floor of the same room most of the time. But the food was plentiful, if not the best.
Justin rolled the flap over the wagon window to watch the road incline over mountains into high valleys before transversing a saddle that took them down on the east side and into the Province of Landellay. Manford, his new home, was a large market town close to the eastern mountains.
He watched the rolling plains get closer as they descended into Landellay. The flocks of goats and sheep gave way to cattle, and then with flatter ground, the woods became patchier, interspersed more and more with cultivated fields.
Grant allowed Justin to sit with him on the driver’s bench as they rode through a city almost as large as Pancel, where his other relatives lived, but Manford had a different feel. The buildings in the center of town weren’t as tall, and everything seemed more spread out and newer.
They headed north once they reached the city center, and a mile or two from the gate, they arrived at a big house with an enclosed courtyard and grazing fields in the back.
“My manor,” Grant said with a smile, “just outside Manford. We have the benefits of living away from all the busyness of the city but close enough for everything. Not too much land, but enough to keep a few animals and grow crops for our use.”
“I thought you said you were retired,” Justin said. “This doesn’t look like retirement.”
Grant laughed. “We’ll talk about it when you are settled. I still do the things I want.”
Justin shrugged. He didn’t want to do anything. Justin brought his bags into the house and up the stairs. Grant led him to a large back bedroom. He’d never had a room of such size. The furniture looked new, and there was a view of the mountains in the distance and the pasture. Three cows were on one side of a rock wall, and a horse on the other. Two of Uncle Grant’s horses were probably still hitched to the wagon.
“Don’t worry about the wagon. I’ll unload it and put it away. Find places for your things. There is a water closet behind that door and a closet beside it. Make yourself at home.”
Grant left Justin to himself. He sat down on the bed. The mattress seemed new. He had expected another lecture like the one he had when he entered the wagon, but Grant left him alone. Both left Justin alone, but he didn’t feel ostracized like he felt at home before his parents and siblings died.
He shook his head and flopped back onto the bed, looking up at the ceiling. The door opened, and two grinning faces appeared. The cousins, Justin guessed.
“Who are you?” Justin said.
“I’m Natalie, and this is Maggie,” the taller one said as she pushed her sister into the room in front of her. “You are Justin?”
Justin couldn’t help but smile at the two girls. He guessed they were between five years old and ten years old. He decided to ask.
“I am eight and a half,” Natalie said. “Maggie is six.”
“I’m six,” Maggie said, grinning, very proud of the fact.
“I’m fourteen,” Justin said. “Is this a nice place to live?”
The girls nodded and giggled. “You’ll like it here.”
Aunt Melanie called. “Girls, leave him alone. He has to put his things away. He can answer all your questions at dinner. I have a treat from Pancel that you might want to eat.”
The girls’ eyes grew. “A treat!” Maggie said and ran out of the room.
“Later!” Natalie said as she followed her sister.
Justin stood up and looked out the window. So far, so good, he thought. Justin almost smiled but stopped himself. He wanted to feel more pain. It was easy at his uncle’s and when his grandfather had more energy. They relentlessly nagged him.
He looked around the room and began to stow his belongings. Justin didn’t have much. Uncle Turpin allowed him little pocket money and held onto the passbook to his Pancel bank account. Justin still didn’t know how much money was in his inheritance. No one would tell him.
Justin shrugged at the thought. What good was the money anyway? There wasn’t anything he cared to spend it on; he thought as he began to put his clothes away. The only decoration he brought from Pancel was a miniature painting of his family from the house before Uncle Turpin and Grandpa Spede sold it.
When he was done, he laid down and went to sleep until Grant knocked on the door.
“Dinner’s ready. We all wash our hands and faces before we eat. I suggest you join us in that little ritual. There is a sink in the water closet and another in the bathroom at the end of the hall,” Grant said.
“Is this house new?” Justin asked.
“New enough. Before we moved in, I had plumbers run piping inside the walls for indoor plumbing so everything had a new, fresh look. Hurry up, so we don’t have to wait for you.”
Justin snorted after Uncle Grant closed the door. It sounded like Grant wanted him to join the family. Aunt Verona always had Justin eat in his room. His Spede cousins always accused him of stinking and having bad breath, even when Justin had just brushed his teeth and bathed.
Justin felt uncertain as he walked down the stairs and followed the voices to a kitchen table set for dinner. Aunt Melinda informed his cousins that there would be no tidbits before dinner, and Grant wasn’t around.
“What do I do?” Justin asked. “I washed my face and hands.”
Aunt Melinda gave Justin a grin. “Good for you! Sit over there, and we can chat while I’m getting everything served up.”
Just as Justin sat, Grant came rushing in. “I had to get the wagon horses fed and watered.” He looked at Justin. “Maybe I can show you the next time, and you can help.”
“I do chores instead of paying you 100 shillings a month?” Justin asked.
Grant smiled. “No, instead,” Grant said, his smile fading. “You live here; you contribute. No slavery, no extortion. Justin Spede will join the Seaside family. You look like you could use some exercise, and I’d never have you do something I wouldn’t do or haven’t done myself.”
“Okay,” Justin said.
Grant didn’t raise his voice or get upset, but Justin did not doubt Grant was serious. Living here was going to require some adjustments. Justin didn’t know who would be doing the adjusting. Maybe everyone. Justin did see that he hadn’t been talked to like a real person before he met his uncle and aunt, and he didn’t know how to say “no” to them. No could be saved for later.
Chapter Two
~
A fter a spring and summer of homeschooling, Justin enrolled in the Manford Academy for Young Men. School was a dismal affair for Justin. Some subjects were easy, and others, not so much. He tried not doing his work as he had in Pancel, but Grant didn’t put up with that and followed up with Justin every day.
“I don’t have much else to do,” Grant said.
Justin could tell that wasn’t true, but Grant monitored Justin’s progress closely. Once Justin knew he couldn’t manipulate Grant like he could his grandfather and his Uncle Spede, he began to find himself learning more. He began to flourish in class and soon had caught up with his age group. That was when boredom hit, and his bad habits started to reappear.
