The Magician’s Apprentice

But they did not retreat.

He looked up at Takado. His master’s teeth were set in a grimace. Hanara hoped nobody could see this but Asara and Dachido. Perhaps from a distance it looked like a smile. On either side, two more magicians fell.

Then the Kyralians began to back away.

Takado gave a cry of triumph. “At last!”

“Now we give chase?” Asara asked. “Not yet,” Takado said. “We must wait until they break into smaller groups.”

“But they’re not.”

Sure enough, the Kyralians were retreating in an ordered formation, protected by those still strong enough to shield the rest of the army.

Takado hummed in thought. “They’ll probably keep that up until they reach their horses. Then we might have our chance.” Asara drew in a sharp breath.

“Ah! I have an idea,” she said. Looking at Takado, she grinned. Then, as she told him, he also began to smile.

“A bold idea,” he said. “Go. Try it if you dare.”

She chuckled, then turned and sprang away from the fight.

CHAPTER 38

It was growing clear that staring at the roof of the tent was not going to send Tessia back to sleep. Sighing, she turned on her side and looked at the other young women asleep on their pallets. Someone had decided that, now there were more female apprentices in the army, they should all share the same tent. There were five of them, not including herself, ranging in age from fourteen to twenty-five.

Is this really all the female apprentices in Kyralia? There must be more than seventy male apprentices, though she was not sure if that number had been skewed by magicians taking on new apprentices in order to strengthen themselves as preparation for war. How many women have magical talent, but never develop it? How many never know they have it?

She wondered why these particular girls had become apprentices. They were all a little frightened to find themselves at war, Tessia suspected. Even those who had been flippant, or enthusiastic about seeing a fight.

Yet nobody complained that we apprentices get to sit around waiting while our masters go off to fight.

Tessia felt a rush of apprehension. No magicians had died the last time, but that didn’t mean none would this time. Mistakes could be made. The Sachakans might not let the Kyralians retreat this time, if it came to that.

But at least she didn’t have to worry about Jayan. Once again, despite now being a higher magician, he’d been left in charge of the apprentices. He was a logical choice for the role, since he’d led them before and they all regarded him as a hero since “defeating” three Sachakans “all on his own” in the bol storehouse. She had to admit his solution had been clever, and admire his quick thinking.

And now the girls are even more inclined to swoon over him. She thought back to the previous night’s conversation with the female apprentices. They’ve started with Mikken, too, sighing over his tragic but brave escape from the pass, making his way back all alone, and rejoining the army when he could have gone back to Imardin. She smiled to herself. Still, you can’t help admiring him for that.

Tessia sighed. She was not going to fall back to sleep again. I may as well get up and see if I can make myself useful.

As quietly as she could, she rose and wrapped her blanket around her shoulders. Picking up her boots, she took them outside the tent and sat down on a box to pull them on. It was not quite the full darkness of night, nor the brightening gloom of dawn, but she could see figures pacing the boundary of the camp in the distance, and the pointed shapes of other tents. Fires glowed with dying embers. Lamps flickered, thirsty for oil.

Rising, she began to wander, no destination in mind. Just a circuit of the camp, she decided. The male apprentices either slept in their master’s tent, or had their own individual shelters. She passed a small group of them playing a game of some sort. They saw her and beckoned, but aside from smiling politely she ignored them and continued walking.

A gap of about ten strides curved through the camp, and it wasn’t until she had crossed it and passed a few more tents that she realised it divided the magicians and apprentices from the servants’ area. The tents here were certainly plainer, and rectangular. She saw tables covered in pots, pans and kettles, as well as baskets and boxes filled with sacks, fruit, vegetables and other foodstuffs. She glimpsed people sleeping shoulder to shoulder with only blankets or mats of dried grass between themselves and the ground. She noticed the smell of animals, held within pens or cages.

Then a familiar mix of odours caught her attention. She stopped, recognising the twin scent of illness and cures, then quickened her pace. A large rectangular tent appeared ahead. She paused at the entrance, taking in the makeshift beds of dried grass matting covered in blankets, the sick men and women, the bowls for excrement or washing water, and the table covered in cures, some mixed, some not, some in the process of being prepared.

In the shadows at the back of the tent someone was bending over a patient. Tessia could hear the rasping sound of breathing. She moved into the tent and approached.

“I have some briskbark ointment back in my tent,” she said. “Shall I go and get it?”

The figure straightened, then turned to face Tessia. Instead of the surprised face of a man, she was confronted by a beaming, familiar smile.

“Tessia!” Kendaria exclaimed. “I heard you were here. I was going to seek you out, but the healers put me on night duty.”

“Alone?” Tessia glanced at the other patients. “Without even an assistant?”

Kendaria scowled. “It’s my punishment for daring to be a woman. Besides, most of them are managing to sleep, except for this fellow here.” She took Tessia’s arm and led her out of the tent. “And he’s not going to live much longer, no matter who watches over him,” she added quietly. “Poor man.”

“I can get my bag,” Tessia offered. “Might ease his pain.”

Kendaria shook her head. “What I’ve given him will do the job well enough. So, how are you? I’ve heard so many stories of chasing Sachakans, battles and such, and you’ve been there right from the start. How have you managed it?”

Tessia shrugged. “I don’t know if management has been part of it. Wherever Lord Dakon went, I went too. He has gone wherever Lord Werrin then Magician Sabin and now the king took him. And they’ve gone wherever the Sachakans forced them to go.” She looked back at the tent. “You’ve obviously managed to convince the guild to let you do a little healing.”

“Only the boring or unpleasant work that they don’t want to do.” Kendaria’s face darkened. “They treat me like a servant most of the time, sending me off to get them food or drink. One even thought he could help himself to my bed, but he was so obvious about his intentions I put some papea spice under my pillow and blew it into his eyes. They were streaming for days afterwards.”

“That’s terrible!” Tessia gasped. “Did you complain about his behaviour?”

“Of course, but the guild master told me that since most people think the only women who hang about armies are there to service the men, I should not be surprised if men make assumptions about me.”

Tessia gaped at her. “He said what? Does he make that assumption about me? Or the other female apprentices or magicians?” She shook her head. “Or the servants? Do they work hard to feed and support us only to be treated like...like...?”

Kendaria grimaced and nodded. “I’ve had more than a few women come to me asking for a preventative for conception. Who do you think got me the papea spice? It’s not a cure ingredient.”

Appalled, Tessia could not speak. She considered telling Lord Dakon. He would tell Magician Sabin, she was sure. But would anybody do anything about it? Even if they forbade it, would the men taking advantage of the servant women pay any attention?

“Is it true what they’re saying about you?” Kendaria asked, a little hesitantly.

Snapping out of her thoughts, Tessia turned to look at the healer. “What are they saying about me?”

“That you can heal with magic. That you mended a broken back.”

“Oh.” Tessia smiled. “It is and it isn’t. I’ve been trying to use magic to heal, but haven’t found a way yet. What