The Storey of the Wise King, The Castle Builder and the Magician (cont.)
Now the magician knew there were some bricks in the land which had curses hidden within them. And if a cursed green brick which had been laid on Lammas Day, should hear a Drover whistling as he passed by with a herd of pigs, over 15 in number. Then there was a possibility that a green brick might turn red, and possibly much worse things may occur, depending on how strong the curse within the brick. Time might suddenly stand still on one side of the street and animals start shouting at people in English and throw bread at them, thus disturbing the happy Kingdom.
The magician decided that it was not fair to ask only him to guarantee against these unforseen things, when both the Castle Builder and the King both had experts which also knew about the cursed bricks. Other strange things were in the letter: and how was it that a blackbird which inspired the spells could be owned by the Castle Builder, was it one particular blackbird or all blackbirds in the land. And was it true the magician would never ever be allowed to use the idea of blackbirds in his magic ever again? This vexed the magician.
The Castle Builder agreed that maybe the letter was a little strange and when dealing with magicians, things often took twists and turns and they agreed to carry on with the magic plans exactly as they were without the letter being signed. A new letter would be written when the magician actually had to begin making his magic and the magician would be paid as agreed for his magic.
