Slathbog's Gold

“Needs to be outfitted,” said Thrang, stroking his beard. “Be no good taking him dressed like that.”

“Dressed like what?” Alex asked, looking down at his clothes.

“You’re hardly dressed for an adventure.” Thrang laughed.

“I wasn’t pla

“The best ones never do,” said Thrang.

“May I ask, then,” said Arco

“What?” Alex asked.

“How did you enter Mr. Clutter’s shop, and more important, whydid you enter Mr. Clutter’s shop? It’s not as if just anyone can get in, after all.”

“I saw a sign in the window,” Alex replied. “The sign seemed to change every time I looked at it, so I thought I’d ask about it in the bookstore.”

“I see,” said Arco

Alex thought. “Sildon Lane was strangely empty when I noticed the sign. I was going to ask someone in the street if they noticed the sign changing, but when I looked around, there was nobody there.”

“’Course not,” said Thrang in a matter-of-fact tone. “That’s because you weren’t really there either.”

“What do you mean? Of course I was there. If I wasn’t there, how could I have seen the sign?”

“An interesting question,” Arco

“I’m sure I don’t know what you are talking about,” said Alex, not liking the way the conversation was going. All of this talk about people not seeing a sign that was in plain view concerned him. “I really should be going,” he continued quickly. “Mr. Roberts will be looking for me soon, and—”

“He won’t be looking at all,” said Arco

“But I have,” Alex insisted. “It must be an hour or more since I left.”

“He don’t understand,” said Thrang, looking amused. “He don’t know what we’re on about.”

“No, I understand,” said Alex. “But I really should be getting back. I have a lot of work to do at the tavern—”

“Let me explain,” said Arco

Alex sat down on the edge of his chair, not sure he really wanted anything explained to him. Since entering the shop, every time he’d managed to get a question answered things seemed to make less sense.

“We are adventurers,” Arco

“He knows that much,” Thrang interrupted. “You’ve got to tell him why he won’t be late getting back to work.”

“Of course,” said Arco

“Oh, fluff,” said Thrang, blowing air out of his mouth loudly. “You’re telling him like he was a child. Just give it to him plain and let him think it over.”

“Very well,” said Arco

Alex’s eyes moved from Thrang to Arco

“The first thing you need to know is about magic,” said Arco

“Magic?” asked Alex.

“Don’t interrupt,” said Thrang, making himself more comfortable in his chair. “Jus’ listen to everything, then think it over.”

“You saw the sign because the sign called to you, or showed itself to you, if you like,” Arco

Alex leaned forward, feeling he should say something, but a stern look from Thrang stopped him.

“When you entered the shop, you passed through a magic gateway,” Arco

Alex shifted in his chair but didn’t say anything. None of this made any kind of sense to him, but strangely, he found himself wanting, even trying, to believe what Arco

“Time as you know it doesn’t matter here, because no matter how long you stay on this side of the gateway, you’ll never be late for anything on the other side of it. When you go on an adventure, time is real enough, but that’s only time where you are,not where you came from,” Arco

Alex thought for a minute. Arco

If he accepted the idea of magic, and the simple fact that a dwarf and an elf were sitting in front of him made magic seem possible, then it all made sense. The trouble was, even if he wanted to believe in magic, that didn’t make it real.

“When you go on an adventure, time passes normally,” Arco

“That’s right,” Thrang said with a smile. “Wouldn’t do to get home and be years older than when you left, would it? Being gone for only a few seconds and aging several years would be hard to explain to anyone.”

“Yes, I suppose it would,” Alex admitted.

“And when you go on another adventure, you can choose what age you want to start at,” Arco

“What?” Alex asked.

“It’s simple,” Thrang answered. “Say you was on a ten-year adventure. By the time you get done, you’d be twenty-five. You can’t go back home being twenty-five—not if you left at fifteen only a few seconds before. So when you get back, you magically return to the age you were when you started. Then later you go on another adventure, but you don’t want to start at twenty-five and get older, and you don’t really want to start at fifteen again. So you can choose to start somewhere between the two—like twenty.”

“Oh,” said Alex, nodding his understanding. It made sense the way Thrang and Arco

“If you’re willing to accept the fact that there’s magic involved, everything else is easy,” Arco

“It does make things simpler,” Alex admitted.

For several minutes Alex sat quietly and thought about what Arco

“Just bring the tea in, then, shall I?” Mr. Clutter questioned, pushing the door open and stepping into the room. “Nice bit of green tea and some cakes.”

“That will be fine,” replied Arco

Alex watched Mr. Clutter as he carried a large, silver tray into the room. It was easier to watch Mr. Clutter than to think about magic and gateways and adventures because then he didn’t have to decide if he believed in any of it.

“Come on, then,” said Mr. Clutter, looking at one of the tables next to the wall.

To Alex’s amazement, the silver lamp on the table jumped onto the second table and the first table walked awkwardly into the empty space between Alex, Thrang, and Arco

Rubbing his eyes in disbelief, Alex felt completely numb. The table started to spin as he watched it, and right before his eyes it changed. What had been a small, rectangular table was now a large, round table. Mr. Clutter sat the tea tray on the tabletop without a care.

“How’s it going, then?” Mr. Clutter asked.