The Stranger's Woes Read Online Free Page B

“But you must know that already without my telling you. And they say that you were imprisoned in Xolomi for five hundred years for the murder of the entire ancient royal dynasty that abdicated the throne in favor of the first of the Gurigs. That crime, by the way, is a historical fact, but the guilty parties were never found, no matter what people may think. They also say that you are the very first of the ancient Grand Magicians. You came back to life, dug your way out of the grave, stole one of Sir Juffin’s numerous souls, and—”
    “Wow, curiouser and curiouser!” The quote, which was known to me alone, sprang unbidden to my lips. “I see. What else?”
    “More of the same. They say you are even more powerful than Loiso Pondoxo, but that you haven’t yet come into your full powers since you first have to kill all the living Magicians—former Magicians, I mean. The ones that are left. That’s why you entered the Secret Investigative Force, they say.”
    “Yikes! More powerful than Loiso Pondoxo? Oh, come on! I’m such a fine, upstanding guy. Sweet and inoffensive as a stuffed animal. Not without my little eccentricities, mind you, but even those are completely innocent. Come on, do people really believe all that nonsense?”
    “Of course they do,” Shixola said. “There’s nothing they like better than being on intimate terms with a miracle, at least in their imaginations. Otherwise life is so monotonous, so dull.”
    “You’re all right, Shixola. You have a clear and simple explanation for everything. I wish I did.”
    “Are you making fun of me, Sir Max?” Shixola said guardedly.
    “Not in the least. But tell me about these outlaws of yours. Better yet, about their predecessors. Is it a tale of derring-do?”
    “It’s the stuff of romance and adventure, all right. Red Jiffa’s men were known as the Magaxon Foxes. Those fellows were determined to become legends right from the start. Take Sir Jiffa Savanxa. He hailed from a very distinguished family—distant relatives of the king himself. It’s not every day that gentlemen like him run off to become outlaws.
    “His story began during the Troubled Times, but things were different at first. Back then, the Magaxon Foxes hunted down Mutinous Magicians who were fleeing to Echo from the Residences of the provincial Orders of Magic. (These were the Junior Magicians, of course—the Senior Magicians were more than they could handle.) The Foxes were thus performing a service for the king, and for those who remained loyal to him.
    “After the Code was introduced, Sir Jiffa refused to return to the Capital to collect his laurels. I think he had simply found his true calling. That happens, you know.”
    “You got that right, Shixola,” I said grinning. “And what did these wholesome kids do next?”
    “That’s easy to guess. They kept on hunting. Only now they were more interested in ordinary people. Ordinary and rich. Merchants, for instance. At first the king tried to reason with Jiffa. Huntsmen from the Royal Court tried bringing him back into the fold for at least a dozen years. Finally the late king realized it was a lost cause. Jiffa and his brigands were declared outlaws, and the huntsmen had to try to chase them down out of other motives. Sir Jiffa was a master in the arts of secrecy and camouflage, and he taught his people all he knew. The Foxes knew how to make themselves invisible. Literally. Finally they were captured and their hideouts were discovered. You know, Sir Max, they hid underground, and Jiffa had his own palace down there. There was a whole system of passageways that led into the Magaxon Forest. The Foxes really did live like foxes, in lairs. It’s no wonder that the huntsmen gave chase for five dozen years.”
    “What did they do with the stolen goods?” I said, naively recalling the legend of Robin Hood I had been so fond of as a child.
    “They stuffed the corners of their lairs with the loot. What else can you do with