Ahren found himself unconsciously performing some of his movements just a little more slowly or with a little more exaggeration so that she had time to study them, and so, without even noticing it, he slipped into the role of a teacher. Falk allowed him to do this, and over the next few days an energy-sapping training regime was developed for Ahren and Khara. Having three trainers almost brought Ahren to his knees, and he was thankful that he had had the presence of mind to bring a full supply of healing herbs with him. Three days’ training took their toll on Khara too, and Ahren overcame any reservations he might have had, and shared his energizing herbal soup with her.
He learned from her, and she learned from him, and even if they hardly spoke to each other, a kind of grudging respect for the other’s abilities was developing between them.
Chapter 13
44 days to the winter solstice
Their voyage was slowly coming to an end. The weather had been good up to this point, the winds had been favourable, and although the lookout had twice spotted pirate ships, these had turned tail quickly. The Queen of the Waves was considerably bigger and clearly a warship, so that any pirate worth his salt would keep a wide berth from her.
One of the sailors had answered Ahren’s questions regarding pirates by saying that there weren’t many on the route to the Silver Cliff. They tended to stay further south, where, however, right old battles went on among them, over who should wreak havoc on which routes. Apparently, many merchants paid a considerable amount of money to the leaders of the big pirate fleets so that their ships would have safe passage. Ahren was amazed to learn that traders paid buccaneers, who in turn protected them from other marauding pirates by providing them with escort. And this courtesy cost a pretty penny.
Ahren’s training was hard and demanding but it filled out his days, and all in all, Ahren was grateful for it. He was still amazed by the vastness of the ocean, and even though the captain travelled within sight of the coast, the apprentice was still glad he didn’t have time to brood. He had come to the conclusion that it was better to help Khara learn the Northern language rather than wait for her to think of the suitable word in the middle of sword training, or for a slap in the face because he hadn’t understood her staccato commands and then made mistakes. And so he was busy every waking moment, learning Windblade techniques, climbing up and down the rigging, or teaching Khara phrases such as ‘hold the blade higher’ or ‘please don’t slap my face’.
They had been travelling off the coast of Kelkor for two days now, and the landscape was beginning to change markedly. Where before you could see the rolling hills and large fields of Knight Marshes, with little fishing villages and the silhouettes of castles barely visible in the distance, now you were looking at coastal cliffs, craggy mountainsides and groups of fishermen’s huts squeezed together. Sometimes Ahren could see the shadows of enormous shapes in the sky dancing among the clouds, and once he saw a giant, herding a flock of sheep. He was not surprised that Kelkor was called the untamed country, and he broke into a sweat every time he remembered that they would have to travel through it.
He was standing at the railing now looking out at the oncoming dusk. Large clouds were gathering on the horizon, and Ahren hoped that, despite the worried looks on the sailors, the bad weather would pass them by.
Suddenly the young man felt an urgent need to be alone. He climbed up the rigging, something he could now do in his sleep, and before he knew it, he had reached the crow’s nest, which he happily climbed into. It was true that the pitching and rolling of the ship could be felt more dramatically up here but he was happy to have nobody around him for the moment. He looked again at the storm clouds and stared spellbound at them. The flashes of lightning and the swirling movements of the massive clouds were strangely hypnotic and soothing. Ahren thought about all the lives he had taken already, and all the effort he had endured, and he began to question the point of what he was trying to achieve. What if HE, WHO FORCES was just misunderstood? Perhaps he could talk to HIM and they could come to a peaceful solution? He stood up at the thought and leaned forward in the crow’s nest while he stared at the storm. Images appeared in his head, and he saw himself smiling and walking towards the Pall Pillar, and inside himself he felt a warm, welcoming presence. He slowly walked towards it in his mind’s eye. The thought of preventing all that bloodshed and looming conflict was truly seductive.
Without realising it, his feet had left the safety of the crow’s nest and the young man was balancing and walking along the wooden beam of the mainsail, towards the Pall Pillar and away from the mainmast, further and further out over the foaming ocean waves.
His eyes were fixed on the seething mass of storm clouds in front of him, but inside he was only looking at the vision of himself approaching the Pall Pillar. Only a few more steps and peace was at hand. A ceasefire, which would bring eternal peace to all of Jorath, freed from the threat of a devastating war…
Suddenly, his left foot was standing on air. He had reached the end of the beam and there was a piercing pain in his head as something attempted to seize hold of his thoughts and to turn them, so that they were only a poor imitation of his hopes and dreams. Ahren gasped in pain and fought with all his might against this mysterious force that was raging in his mind like an invisible clenched fist. Fully concentrating on the battle within himself, he lost his balance, and as the ship pitched to one side, he plunged silently into the dark water below.
The current caught him and tossed him about wildly, his clothes filled with water and he was pulled downward into the depths. Ahren knew he had to move, to force himself up to the surface, but pushing away the intruder who had entered his innermost being was costing him all his energy and he sank like a stone.
Then suddenly there was a hand in the surge, pulling him roughly by the hair, and slowly but surely raising him to the surface. The pain helped him shake off the trance he had been in, and the attack on his mind subsided. Instead he felt the ice-cold water and the pull of the current while his lungs screamed in vain for air. Disorientated, he instinctively breathed in and swallowed sea water. He began coughing, and more seawater entered his lungs while his field of vision grew smaller. He felt nothing but weakness as his head broke through the surface of the water and he heard Falk’s voice in the distance.
‘Good work, Khara. Wait, I’ll help you.’
Strong hands wrapped around his chest, and the painful tugging of his hair was gone. The apprentice struggled to open his eyes, but he couldn’t. His chest felt strangely numb, and he heard Falk calling anxiously, ‘he’s not breathing, Uldini, bring him on deck!’
‘Bring him over the surface of the water. Water is too unstable and constantly moving. No magic can work precisely enough in those conditions’, shouted Uldini forcefully.
The last thing he heard was Falk complaining about useless magicians. He felt his body being exposed to the cold wind. Then everything went black and he lost consciousness.
The first thing Ahren was aware of when he woke up coughing was a sharp pain in his chest. He was lying under a blanket in the captain’s cabin and Jelninolan was bending over him and placing both her hands on his chest. From wherever she touched him, a hot fire travelled through his body and burned the pain away. Within a few heartbeats Ahren had warmed up and was in a sweat, but otherwise he felt well.
His memories were strangely muddled, but something important must have happened. All his companions were around him, and Uldini had constructed a magic shield around them. It was burning a dangerous red, and cast the cabin in a strange light. Khara was sitting soaking wet on a stool, and she was shivering under a blanket. Falk too was wet, and was looking at him anxiously.
‘He’s waking up’, grunted his master in a dull voice, before giving a sigh of relief.
Uldini’s shield flickered and went out, while his crystal ball hovered in the air before going over to Ahren and briefly grazing his forehead.
‘What happened?’ asked Ahren, confused. He tr
ied to sit up but Jelninolan increased the pressure on him so that he lay rooted to the spot.
‘If you stand up now, I’ll have to start from the beginning again. So stay still’, she murmured, her face the picture of concentration.
Falk turned to Uldini. ‘How does it look?’
The crystal ball released itself from Ahren’s forehead and floated back to the Arch Wizard.
‘Everything is in order. My charm has re-established itself and I’ve strengthened it in the process. HE won’t break through again for the moment.’
Jelninolan took her hands away from Ahren’s chest, leaving behind a comfortable warmth that radiated through his whole body.
‘I’m finished with him’, said the elf curtly and went over to Khara to carry out the same process. Steam rose up from her attendant’s blanket and clothing, and the girl thanked the priestess in a low whisper.
Ahren sat up and looked tensely around the room.
‘What happened?’ he asked again, frowning.
Falk wanted to answer but Uldini interjected.
‘I’m an old fool, that’s what happened. I told you before that I’d protected you from the influence of HIM, WHO FORCES until your Naming makes you immune to HIS Thought Manipulation, didn’t I?’
The Arch Wizard paused briefly and Ahren nodded weakly.
‘Now, I never realised that HE could not only absorb your blessing, but that through that, HE had a direct connection to your spirit, for so long as you have not been named. HE has used all the strength that HE had sucked out of you over the past few weeks to circumvent my protective magic. The storm that you saw outside was a manifestation of HIS will. HE almost succeeded in drowning you.’
The memories were returning in a blur. Snatches of images that awakened in him more of a feeling than a reliving of what had happened.
‘HE wanted me to go to the Pall Pillar so that we could talk. HE had promised that there would be no war.’
Falk snorted. ‘You can bet your life on that. HE is good at turning your own wishes against yourself. What happened then?’
‘HE tried to control my thoughts and I defended myself. But because of the vision I had walked too far out on the beam and I fell off’, said Ahren with horror in his voice. The memory of the alien will, that had wrapped itself so firmly around his own, was too hard to bear and made him feel sick.
Falk laid a comforting hand on his back.
‘You’re safe now. Uldini has strengthened the protection that lay on you. That should last for quite a time.’
His master looked over at Khara and continued.
‘Luckily she saw you falling in, shouted out a warning and dived straight in after you. One of the sailors alerted us and by the time I got to you in the water, she had already pulled you up to the surface. Uldini floated you on board and Jelninolan persuaded your lungs to get back to work.’
Ahren became dizzy again and looked in a daze at his companions.
‘Thank you’, was all he could stutter. He had barely escaped death once again, and although it wasn’t his fault this time, he wouldn’t be here now if it weren’t for the others. Culhen sensed how he was feeling and jumped without warning onto his bed and started licking the young man’s face.
Khara looked at him impassively, and Jelninolan continued performing her magic. Finally the girl said, ‘Ahren bad student. Many lessons needed. He dead, waste my work.’
The others laughed and the apprentice bit his tongue to stop himself giving back a cheeky answer.
Uldini stood up and said in an exaggeratedly celebratory voice, ‘If Khara is making jokes about Ahren too, she is officially one of us!’
The others laughed again and the young man hid his tired face in the wolf’s fur. He knew they were only laughing out of relief that he had been saved, but he really wished they could find another way of expressing their feelings.
Happily, the night was uneventful. Ahren was woken up a few times as the sea was rough, and his companions changed watch from time, each one ensuring that he wouldn’t be taking another enforced bath. But when the dawn broke he felt as good as new.
He stepped on board and found the others huddled together at the starboard railing. The captain was there too, a thickset man with powerful forearms and short black hair streaked with grey. His navy blue uniform always looked immaculate although Ahren had often seen him working alongside his men. As someone who managed to dirty his leather armour even when collecting water, the apprentice was curious as to how the captain managed this trick. But when he saw the concerned looks on the group he thought he might leave that question for another occasion.
The storm of the day before could still be seen on the horizon. It had, however, gathered itself together into one large cloud, and in its middle was an inferno of lightning flashes which gave its whole appearance a dark purple aura.
‘It’s following us and slowly coming closer. We knew already that this was no ordinary storm, but it seems to have another function quite apart from yesterday’s imparting of a thought-vortex’, said Uldini darkly.
‘Can you not ward it off?’ asked Ahren cautiously.
The ancient Arch Wizard shook his head.
‘That there is highly concentrated magic, tied into a natural phenomenon. The storm arose naturally, it has just been hijacked. I wouldn’t know where to begin. If I try to dissolve it and I fail, then my magic will only strengthen it.’
He turned to the captain.
‘You may not like it, but we really have no other option. Jelninolan and I will protect the ship as much as we can, and we’ll sit out the storm to the bitter end. If we have an opportunity to break out of it beforehand, I will let you know.’
The captain saluted without saying a word and went off to give his first mate orders, which the latter then bellowed out to the remainder of the crew.
‘I’m not normally that keen on the military but I have to say one thing for them: they don’t waste time on idle chatter when it comes to a crisis’, he said contentedly.
‘I know you like it when we blindly accept your advice, but do we really not have any other options?’ asked Falk caustically and with a nervous glance over at the seething mass of cloud.
Uldini shook his head morosely.
‘I can’t think of anything, and Jelninolan is at a loss. We could try to influence its course just a little, but the Adversary’s magic is like a crossbow, and the storm is its missile. He gathers it together, aims it at us and shoots. At the moment it’s some distance away but when it gets to us, then there will be no magic that we can charm it with. Our shields will hold off the worst of it. I hope so, anyway’, said the Arch Wizard morosely.
‘You hope so?!’ pressed Ahren in a shocked voice. ‘What is that supposed to mean?’
‘Let me just put it like this’, said the little figure. ‘When it starts, there should be nobody below deck who can’t breathe under water, and everybody on deck had better tie themselves tightly to something.’
Ahren stared at the conjurer, hoping to see a sign that Uldini had been pulling his leg. But his dark face remained impassive, and Ahren understood that his last words had been deadly serious.
‘I need to make sure Culhen is safe somehow’, he blurted out fearfully, and called the wolf over to him. The animal approached with his tail wagging, and Ahren stroked him absentmindedly as he looked around. Culhen’s head was up to the young man’s hip now. The one-time blood wolf wouldn’t know how to hold on to something for the duration of the storm. Fixing his weight somewhere on deck was practically impossible. Ahren spent some time searching the ship for a suitable place until the captain interrupted him.
‘Stop running around the ship like a headless chicken and getting in the way of the crew. You can leave your animal in my cabin during the storm. It’s on deck, and it’ll be safe enough for him when the portholes open. It would be dangerous for a human in there, but your dog is large and strong and should be able to cope with a little water.’
Ahren agreed gratefully and gave Culhen a quick hug. The wolf was beginning to get nervous himself too as he sensed the impending storm.
Then there was the sound of thunder in the distance, which rolled over the water and broke over the ship like an explosion of the gods. Every head turned towards the horizon and the apprentice saw how the electrical storm front was suddenly racing towards them.
‘The spell has spoken. Jelninolan, you go aft and I’ll go ‘fore. The mainmast will be our point of contact where we can smelt our protective shields together. That should cover the whole ship’, shouted Uldini over the sounds of the high winds.
The elf nodded and ran back to the quarterdeck where Khara was already waiting with a rope. She quickly bound the elf and herself to the railing. Ahren looked around and saw how Falk was doing the same for himself and Uldini. The crew performed their last few actions with the sails and ropes before following the others’ examples. Ahren brought Culhen into the captain’s cabin before finally tying himself to the mainmast in the middle of the ship, from where he would have a good view over what would happen. And if he were honest with himself, he wanted to position himself as far as possibly away from the railings. He tied two Elfish knots, just as his master had drummed into him, and he was now securely attached to the thick timber which held the mainsail.
The sun was swallowed up by the approaching seething wall of wind and rain, and the captain called out: ‘everyone, watch out for your neighbour! If you hear something crashing above you, get yourselves to safety! Put your faith in two wizards and in the gods! May we see each other again on the other side of the storm!’
The Naming Page 22
