All That Glitters
By: Terry D. Scheerer
He stopped near a lighted window and with his back to the street opened the small bag to peer inside. The dim light glistened red, green and white off the contents of the bag—dozens of rubies, pearls and emeralds—he was rich!
Markel quickly closed the bag and tucked it safely deep inside his shirt. He looked around, but there were few people abroad at this late hour and no one seemed interested in a little thief, so he headed for the nearest city gate, one hand on the pommel of his dagger the entire way.
# # #
Just before sunrise Markel crested a low hill some way from the city and stopped to rest. He sat down on a boulder and wished that he had a drink.
“You are late, little thief,” someone said from the nearby bushes.
Markel jumped up in surprise, but recognized the voice. He turned as the wizard Fallon, his partner in crime, emerged from hiding and came toward him.
“Why do you do that?” Markel asked in frustration. “You nearly scared me to death.”
Fallon chuckled and held out a wine skin. “You are not dead, however,” he said, “so you must have been successful.”
Markel grabbed the wine skin and gulped down several swallows before he answered. He then wiped his mouth and smiled. “Aye, all went as planned,” he said and reached into his shirt to pull forth the leather bag. He handed it over to Fallon.
The wizard’s long beard quivered in excitement as he opened the bag and poured the contents into his open hand. Gems spilled out and the rising sun sparkled off the stones.
“Amazing,” he said as they both gazed at their new found wealth. “Well done, my friend. We will never have to work again!”
As the sun made the stones shimmer in the morning light Fallon’s hand began to tingle, and as they watched in horror the gems suddenly turned from shiny baubles into ordinary pebbles. Fallon now held only a handful of dull rocks.
“What?” Markel said as he watched the transformation. “What… what has happened?" he cried and grabbed the stones from Fallon’s hand. He frantically picked up one after another to look closely at it and did not believe what his eyes beheld. “How could this happen?” he asked, furious and confused.
Fallon sighed and sat down upon the same boulder Markel recently used. “We have been magicked,” he said softly.
“What?” Markel said, as he still stared in disbelief at his former fortune. “What do you mean?”
Fallon chuckled and folded his long arms across his chest. “Snowden must have had his court magician magick the stones, so we would see them as gems instead of ordinary rocks, but the spell wore off at sunrise.”
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