by Clark Bolton
“Enough Swrak, give it a rest before we use one of those halters on you.” The leader, a man named Gerik, warned the tall lanky man who decided to pace around rather than make a run for it. “The man we came to see will come.”
“Yes.” Swrak said as if trying to reassure himself.
“Might even pay you extra.” Gerik said with a grin.
A short time later two officers from the palace guard walked in and had a look around before motioning to a third man. It appeared to all of them that there might be others around but they did not follow the third man in.
“This him?” Cachner asked of Gerik with a look that suggested his time was being wasted.
“Yes, my lord.” Gerik replied as he did his best to look attentive. “This is Swrak, the guy we’ve been telling you about.”
“Where you from.” Cachner asked authoritatively of Swrak.
“I’m from Kass, my lord.”
Cachner seemed unhappy with the response. “You said he was Runeholden.”
Gerik cleared his throat nervously before trying his best to put a positive spin on things. “Kass is right next to Runeholden, my lord, in fact the squire there is their liege lord. Ain’t that right Swrak?” The man nodded his head enthusiastically rather than reply.
“You’ve searched for months and can’t find one peasant in this city from Runeholden, Gerik?” Cachner said with contempt. “Why is that no one has even heard of the place?”
“Begging your pardon, my lord, we have found a few who know the name but not where it lies. Swrak is the only one in Astrum we thinks that has been near the place.”
Shaking his head at the situation Cachner settled himself down enough to ask “Do you know of any mages in Runeholden … or even Kass?”
The question apparently seemed odd and confusing to Swrak who took a moment to reply. “No my lord, ain’t no one there but artisans … you know the ones … they make those saddle bags and other leather stuff!”
“Saddle bags!” Cachner echoed as he tried to recall if that could account for all the tax revenues that the town had sent to Astrum over the years. Runeholden was one of the treasuries favorites as not only was the account settled on time and without complaint but was by far the highest for a town its size for any fiefdom beholding to the Earl of Astrum. So far this fact about Runeholden was about the only information he could garner on the town to date.
After Cachner appeared to tire of questioning Swrak, Gerik asked “Should we pay him my lord.”
Pausing on his way out Cachner asked “What did you offer him?”
“Three gold marks my lord.”
“Pay him half that, and find me someone from Runeholden next time.”
“Yes, my lord!” Gerik replied as he smiled at Swrak, who seemed not at all to be disappointed to be paid less than what was promised.
Chapter 6
The next few months passed quickly for Autbek as he settled into a routine. He worked tirelessly, as was his nature, eager to take every opportunity to learn from his master and to teach. Tenric became evermore cordial but never truly friendly with him and came to rely more on him, perhaps even more than on Sterncast who had been an apprentice of Tenric’s now for some nine years. As it happened Autbek became the primary instructor for both Haspeth and Castor since he showed such an interest in it.
No one else, including Tenric, seemed to give the other two blue-boys much priority. This seemed largely due to the fact that Tenric’s relationship with the Earl and his court was strained. Autbek was aware of this from firsthand experience as he had been present on several occasions to hear scribes and other officials comment negatively on the high cost of Tenric’s planned academy, as well as the fact that they questioned the wisdom of having a court mage that seemed to provide no useful services.
The results of the grumbling and the fact that Tenric had produced no information on the rumored impending catastrophe resulted in Tenric having to spend a great deal of time away at court. This negatively affected the atmosphere within the mages wing particularly with respect to relationships between those from Astrum and those from distant lands which included practically all of Tenric’s senior staff.
This Autbek turned to his advantage as it allowed him to set the pace of Haspeth’s and Castor’s studies. The two considered him relentless as he pushed them to excel as fast as they were able.
When Haspeth became able to cast the most simple of cantrips after nearly a year of training Autbek was elated though he avoided the subject with his master. Tenric must surely know, he figured, that he had accelerated training way beyond what all published masters deemed appropriate, and perhaps even safe.
“Your students are that way.” Sterncast muttered harshly to Autbek as he brushed past. He was obviously in a bad mood again and Autbek could guess why as he noticed a stranger sitting outside the library from whence Sterncast had just come.
Thinking at first the older man was some bureaucrat from the court who had come to “count beans” as Tenric would say whenever one would show up, but this older man had a different look about him and was not dressed in the typical Astrum style and certainly not that of a court official. In fact the man had a slightly priestly look to him though his scant robes represented no cult that Autbek was aware of.
The man was now studying a pile of scrolls that apparently Sterncast had just handed off to him but paused to nod his head politely as Autbek approached. “Ah, perhaps I’ll get it right this time.” The man beamed with a smile. “Could you be this Autbek I’ve heard good things about?”
“I am sir.” Autbek said kindly as he waited for the man to introduce himself.
“Good, don’t want two apprentices here unhappy with me.”
Autbek then figured the man had mistaken Sterncast for him and so that explained Sterncast’s mood. “You are sir?”
“A reader of scrolls my young man, and a great annoyance to your master, who has kindly relented to my requests to see this fabulous library.” The man gestured past one of the librarians who was standing just inside the library as if guarding it. “I’m afraid though that I’m not fit to actually enter it.”
Autbek couldn’t place the man’s accent but was liking his humor, which had been greatly lacking within the mages wing as of late. “They do love their order.” He joked with the man as he nodded toward the librarian.
“Yes, and when they have it I shall love it as well.” The man replied as he glanced at the half-opened crates that littered the rear of the room behind the librarian.
They chit-chatted for a couple of minutes until Autbek had to outright ask, “Have we met somewhere before because I think I’ve forgotten your name?” Knowing full well that they had not but the man still had not offered his name.
“We have not, Autbek, but a mutual friend of ours has invited me here where it seems I’m not always recognized.” The man said with a kind of mock frown. “Refreshing though and useful for idle banter that would otherwise turn to serious refusals.”
“Oh…” Autbek said with furrowed brow. “… then I am to know you?” Thinking hard he could not come up with much except maybe for the possibility that the man was a mage whose name he should know.
“I should say so!” The man said seriously. “We are both working on the same problem though not for the same master. I with my mind and tongue, and you with your magic.”
Not being overly fond of riddles Autbek sought to end the conversation now as he could think of a number of things to do, one of which was to get what he had come to the library for. “You’re not a mage then.” Autbek said as he squeezed by the librarian who only grudgingly let him past.
“Not by your standards, Autbek, that is for certain.” The man called out from his bench.
“Oh, well a librarian then.” Autbek replied glancing sidewise at the real librarian to see if he had successfully irked the annoying little man.
“Well I have owned a few over the years, which I suppose qualifies me for the position.�
�� The man called out. “Is there an opening, Autbek?”
Smiling and suppressing a chuckle, Autbek could now see that the librarian was actually getting upset, and since he did have to rely on the man’s cooperation he figured he’d better end this conversation or at least take it elsewhere. “Sorry, no openings.”
“What do you have there, my boy?” The man asked with genuine interest as Autbek attempted to walk by with a large tome.
“Some teaching materials.” Autbek said with a tight smile. “For mages though, not librarians!”
“Ah, Berdtom said you were an instructor here.” The man said just loud enough for Autbek to hear. “Very unusual for your age.”
The comments stopped Autbek in his tracks. “Did he?” Confused about what he should say next he slowly walked back to the man and glanced to make sure the librarian was out of sight. “I still don’t quite-“
“Eifled…” The man said with a nod, “…Lately of Bene Aimont where I had the pleasure of your friend’s company.
Autbek furrowed his brow as he tried to place the name. “Eifled the Elder? The soothsayer?”
“The first title I can live with…” Eifled replied, “…the second one not so much!”
Autbek walked into his room and plopped the large tome down onto his writing table as he continued to think about his short conversation with Eifled. He had wanted to ask the man more and also had wanted to open up to him but had hastily decided to leave as he was concerned about what Berdtom might think of it. He best talk with his friend first before saying something he might regret to Eifled.
“I hope that’s for you, my lord.” Haspeth said in a low tone. Both he and Castor were staring at the tome like it was a pile of offal.
“No, my peasant … this is very much for you two!” Autbek replied. Opening the tome he paged through it to the point where a number of pages had gone missing. “This used to have every arcane-script rune in it.” He told them as he caressed the binding were the pages had been. “Now I shall write some new pages to replace the many that are not here.”
“Why?” Castor said as he glanced knowingly at Haspeth. The both of them knew this was likely to involve instruction, and some very boring stuff at that.
“Because…” Autbek said as he glanced fiercely at his two students. “…It has come to my attention that the value of knowing each and every of the one thousand and twenty-four runes comprising arcane-script separates the lesser mages from the greater!” Surprisingly the conversation with Eifled had finally persuaded him to enforce this task upon them. He had been thinking about it for a long time, especially during the few times that Tenric had struggled with his own lack of understanding of the more obscure parts of arcane-script.
“Yea but, O’t, nobody bloody-well knows all of them!” Haspeth whined.
“Shall I list off their names for you?” Autbek replied seriously.
“They all have names?” Haspeth asked as he stared at the tome.
“You know nearly a third of them already!” Autbek reminded him.
“Did!” Castor interjected with a smirk.
Haspeth turned with a scowl to his short friend. “When you can cast spells you can comment on such things, Castor!”
“I can name more than you, I’m sure.” Castor replied smugly.
“Well then, we’ll bloody-well see who gets to the end of the tome first won’t we!”
“Got a gold mark that says it will be me.” Castor boasted.
“You’re on!” Haspeth said as he extend his arm. “But first O’t has to finish making the book.” He declared.
“You don’t have a gold mark do you.” Castor replied as he kept Haspeth from grasping his arm to seal the wager. “You gave it to your mother didn’t you?”
Haspeth looked annoyed at the fact. “Least I have one.”
“Well maybe you shouldn’t.” Castor remarked. “That milk will make you fat.”
Autbek quickly stepped in-between the two to end the battle of wits that Castor always seemed to win, which would then ultimately end in Haspeth threatening something physical. “Enough! You’ll start today and by the time you reach some missing pages I will have rewritten them.” He announced as he sat down to begin doing just that.
One evening a few days later Autbek had just finished feeding the Dieknotkow and was leaning against the window sill as he looked from the Dieknotkow to Castor, who was sitting on the floor with a pile of parchments. With but a single candle the boy was working on memorizing the recent list of arcane-script runes that Autbek had given him.
Feeling a little sorry for the younger boy and guessing he could use more light, Autbek walked over and cast a cantrip that caused the candle to glow several times brighter. “Thanks.” Castor replied without looking up. It was then that Autbek noticed the many sketches the kid was making as he memorized each new rune. Castor was fond of sketching but Autbek had not seen him do anything like this before.
“So you sketch each one?” He asked.
“Yea, helps me remember them.”
“Not as accurately though I think.” Autbek remarked as he bent down to examine a few of the pages. The illustrations were impressive but the runes were depicted differently as if oddly alive. When he came upon one that clearly depicted Haspeth in a crude position with one of the runes, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“…yea he gets that one confused with two others … every time.” Castor remarked with a grin.
A low whisper coming from the Dieknotkow caused both of them to pause for a moment as they glanced over at the spread-eagle figure. The main care-taker, Dasring, was not around at the moment and wouldn’t likely be as he always left the man-bird to Autbek’s care as the creature clearly preferred Autbek above all others, including Tenric.
“Restless tonight.” Castor remarked as he went back to sketching.
“Yes.” Autbek remarked as he furrowed his brow and walked over to listen to what the man-bird was saying. At times he could interpret some of it, as could Tenric, but most of the time it was jumbled nonsense, so he was surprised when heard a nearly complete sentence.
“…mage Autbek … as will be with … moon.”
“Odd.” Autbek remarked as he stepped back. The bird-mage seemed to stare at him more than any other person, even Tenric, and had on other occasions mentioned his name.
“He definitely likes you, O’t.” Castor remarked as he looked up from his work.
“He does at that and I wish I knew why.” Autbek said as he shook his head slowly. “I don’t pet him near as much as Dasring does nor feed him anything special.”
“He sees a future with you I think.” Castor said with a nod. “He can see it … like the rest of us.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Autbek asked as he sat down on a bench.
“Nothing.” Castor replied with a shrug. “Just don’t think our master is going to stick around for our sake.”
“Hmm, you know something I don’t?”
Castor shook his head slowly and then sat silently for a while before stating. “I miss the city.” He said this as he stared out the window.
“Why don’t you sneak into the city again.” Autbek asked with a knowing smile on his lips.
“You know about that, huh.” Castor replied with a smirk.
“Magic has its advantages don’t forget, and I can guess why. Being an apprentice is a seven day a week job with hardly a holiday and we have not had one in some time.”
“Summer festival is here again.” Castor noted.
“You haven’t been out to it have you?”
“Not during the day.” Castor replied dryly.
“…talk me … of moon … Autbek.” The Dieknotkow hissed softly.
Autbek frowned at the man-bird. “Maybe he wants to fly as an eagle again.”
“Why not? Unless you are tired and don’t want apprentices anymore.”
“Hmm, just know our master doesn’t want any more right now. He told me as much and in fact gets
down right irritated if anyone suggests it.”
Autbek had come to the conclusion that Tenric thought the Dieknotkow was underappreciated by the Earl and his court and so he denied them the chance to identify yet more apprentices. That plus the fact Tenric considered himself way too busy to bother with it until the mage academy was actually built.
“Why don’t you bring those three girls in like you want to so badly?” Castor asked as he went back to sketching.
“What? And subject them to all this excitement.” Autbek said with a chuckle. “Not to mention Haspeth.”
“Yea, his tongue hangs out enough already.”
“Yes!” Autbek replied as he pictured a naked Onaleen again. Something he found himself often doing.
Autbek sat impatiently in his seating room outside the mages-wing waiting for Berdtom to arrive. When the knock on the door finally happened he jumped up quickly to open it.
“O’t, good to see you!” Berdtom said as they embraced.
“Yes, been waiting to hear from you.” Autbek exclaimed. “I met that Eifled fellow, did you know he was here in the palace?”
“Know! I practically dragged him out of Bene Aimont, O’t. In fact he is waiting outside to talk with us now.” Berdtom replied with a grin.
“You could have warned me!”
“Hey, been busy and could not be sure when or even if he would agree to come to Astrum.”
“Why, I mean can he help me or you?” Autbek asked as he sat down nervously. Every time they discussed his forced service to the Earl he got like this and always he was disappointed. He had as of late been convincing himself their efforts had failed and that it was best just to accept it.
“Don’t know the answer to that yet, O’t. But I do know there is no one else like him between here and the Six-Cities. A finer sage there is not I assure you.”
“A sage? Thought you wanted him as a soothsayer.”
“Ha-ha, I’ll let him explain that soothsayer business to you himself. Right now it’s the sage I need more than anything if we are going to be the first to figure this riddle out.”
