The Magician’s Apprentice

Tessia blinked in surprise, then, suspicion in her eyes, she looked at Jayan. “That’s possible?” she asked him quietly.

Not quietly enough, it turned out. Even as Jayan nodded, the others had lifted their heads. They were grinning.

“That changed your mind, by any chance?” Aken asked slyly.

SShe gave him a withering look. “Not if you were the last man in Kyralia.”

The others laughed. Tessia’s mouth twitched, then relaxed into a smile. “Well, we’ve all learned something today, haven’t we?” She picked up another fruit, and as Mikken examined one for himself she began explaining how to judge when it was ripe.

After a while she looked at Jayan and raised an eyebrow questioningly. Did I convince them? he imagined her asking. He shrugged and nodded. She leaned closer, her gaze moving to the magicians still talking several paces away.

“What do you think they’re discussing? The same old things over and over?”

He nodded. “Probably.”

“It’s such a waste of time. If they didn’t keep going over it, Lord Dakon could spend some time teaching us. I haven’t learned any magic since before we arrived in Imardin.”

Jayan gave her a disbelieving look. “I didn’t think you were that interested.”

She snorted softly. “Amazing what a bit of threat to your life and others’ can do. Not to mention the death of your parents.”

“Well, if it’s any consolation, I haven’t had any lessons either.”

“It’s all very well for you,” she retorted. “You’ve had years of training. I’ve only had months.”

“I could teach you,” Jayan said. Then he gulped a mouthful of air and looked away. Where had that come from?

Then he remembered Lord Dakon, months ago, telling him to help Tessia practise. That helping another learn would benefit Jayan, too. But Dakon hadn’t meant Jayan to teach Tessia, which apprentices weren’t supposed to do.

The thought that she might die simply from lack of training was wrong, however. Surely the circumstances were extreme enough to justify bending the rules a little.

Tessia was staring at him now, but as he met her gaze again she nodded quickly.

“Now?”

He looked at the others. They were stuffing themselves with fruit, too occupied with their feasting to pay much attention to what Tessia and Jayan might do. He stood up. She followed suit and looked at him expectantly. Thinking hard, Jayan moved away from the others, considering what he could possibly teach her.

“More sophisticated defence methods,” he said aloud. “That’s the obvious thing to teach you first.”

“Sounds sensible to me,” she replied.

So he began to teach her ways to modify her shield. Lord Dakon had taught her basic shielding, since that was all a new and powerful apprentice needed to know at first. What had he said? “There’s no point confusing a new apprentice with complications. Just get into a good habit of strong shielding to begin with; then, when you can do it without thinking, start refining.”

Jayan hadn’t noticed that they’d gained an audience until a voice spoke near his shoulder.

“I’ve never tried that. Would you show me?”

He turned to find Leoran standing behind him. He considered the boy, then shrugged and gestured for him to join Tessia. “Of course. This sort of thing could save your life, too.”

“And mine?” Aken asked. The young apprentice didn’t wait for an answer, but jogged to Leoran’s side. Jayan smiled wryly and turned to look at Mikken and Refan. They shook their heads.

“Already know it,” Mikken said.

As Jayan continued teaching the different forms of shielding he knew, Mikken stepped forward and began to help. The older apprentice revealed a method that Jayan hadn’t heard of before, though it had some serious flaws. They began debating the advantages and disadvantages, each demonstrating using the other apprentices.

“Stop! Stop right now!”

All jumped at the shout. Turning, they saw Mikken’s master, Lord Ardalen, striding towards them.

“What are you doing?” the magician demanded. “You’re teaching each other, aren’t you?” Reaching them, he laid a hand on Mikken’s shoulder, his expression sympathetic but his voice revealing anger as he looked at Jayan. “I expect you think you’re showing initiative and co-operation – and you are – but you should not be doing this. Apprentices are forbidden to teach apprentices. You are not allowed to teach until you become higher magicians.”

“But why?” Aken asked, his frustration clear.

“It is dangerous.” This came from Lord Bolvin, Leoran’s master, as he reached them. The other magicians were coming closer, Jayan saw. Dakon was frowning. He felt a pang of guilt and fear that he might have offended his master.

“What is going on?” Lord Dakon asked as he came up to them. When the situation was explained his frown deepened. “I see. Be assured Jayan here has been trained to teach others safely. He is close to the end of his own training, so I have begun preparing him for the day he takes on his own pupil. Your apprentices were quite safe.”

To Jayan’s amusement, the magicians now began debating the issue, forming a new circle that excluded their juniors. He looked over at Tessia, who wore a wry smile. She met his eyes, shrugged, then walked back to the blanket and the near empty bowl of fruit. As Jayan followed, the other apprentices tagged behind.

“That stinks,” Aken said as he dropped sullenly onto the blanket.

The others nodded.

“Well . . .” Jayan began. “Do you think they’d protest if we started playing Kyrima? That’s supposed to be good at developing battle strategy skills.”

The others looked up eagerly. Tessia’s shoulders sagged. “Oh, how wonderful,” she muttered sarcastically.

Jayan ignored her. She’d play if he badgered her. And she wasn’t too bad at it, either. As the others paired off he turned to face her.

“Can’t leave me partnerless,” he said.

She pulled a face, grabbed the bowl and stood up. “Forgot my little speech earlier, have you, Jayan? Not if you were the last man in Kyralia.”

It was reassuring to Hanara to find that many of his master’s new allies had brought more than one slave with them. Some had as many as ten, though not all were source slaves. Knowing this, he was able to tolerate Jochara, and it helped that Takado appeared to prefer to give Hanara the more complex tasks since Jochara, not yet used to their master’s ways, was slower to grasp what was being asked of him.

If Takado had urged them to battle each other for his favour, then it would have been clear he didn’t want two source slaves and would kill the loser. But since they were constantly on the move, there was so much work to do that both Hanara and Jochara were exhausted by the time Takado allowed them to sleep.

If every new ally presents him with gifts, we’re not going to be able to carry everything, Hanara thought now as he shifted the weight on his shoulders.

Takado’s allies had swelled to twelve. Slaves at the pass directed the new arrivals to slaves stationed at intervals along the mountains, all of whom only knew where the next and previous positions were. When Takado made camp at the end of each day he sent a slave to the end of the line, to inform arriving allies where to find him.

Two more had reached them last night. Fortunately the gifts they’d brought had been consumable. Takado needed food for his followers and slaves more than he needed heavy gold trinkets. Though they raided local farms and villages, the habitations were often far apart and most occupants had now left, taking what little food they had. Even those foolish enough to stay didn’t have much in their stores, winter only just having ended.

Sometimes they came across domestic animals to slaughter and cook; otherwise there were wild animals to hunt. Fortunately, they didn’t have to worry about cookfires or smoke revealing their location, as usually one or another magician roasted the meat with magic. Slaves skilled in tracking for hunts kept them informed on the Kryalian magicians’ location and numbers.