The Apprentice to Zdrell

by David K Bennett

  The boy’s eyes, which had been closed from the start of his incantation, snapped open, staring through the crowd. His voice took on a higher pitch and he said, “I see things flying without wings or demons. I see uproar in the crowd, and fire burning a wizard’s face. I see a demon laughing.” He paused, and shook his head appearing to wrestle with the force of his vision. “Demons fight. Wizard fights wizard. Thousands die . . . so many dead,” his voice trailed off to a whisper. The boy closed his eyes, bowing his head, bringing his hands to his face and began to sob.

  The crowd sat in stunned silence, not knowing how to react. Finally, a few of the crowd began to applaud, even as the boy’s master mounted the stage and led the still sobbing boy off.

  § § §

  Finally, it was time for Jonny to perform. He was nervous, but The Master had drilled him enough that he felt that he could do this with his eyes closed if he needed to. He stepped to the front of the performing stage and began his introduction.

  “Esteemed judges, masters, journeymen and apprentices, I am called Jonny; apprentice to my master the Elder Master Wizard Silurian. I have for your pleasure and entertainment prepared a series of conjurations, which shall all be performed by the direct manipulation of force lines. There will be no use of demons for any of the tasks I perform.”

  This brought a surprised murmur from the crowd. Many of them were unfriendly, but others were of frank amazement.

  Jonny continued. “I would first like to have a journeyman or master come and verify that all things on the stage are as they appear and that I have prepared no manipulation tricks.”

  On the stage, Jonny had a large earthenware pot half full of water, a small pot also half-full of water and a wide shallow bowl that was empty sitting on another table. He had a small bundle of fire starting tinder sitting in front of the bowls on the table. A journeyman came from the audience and checked all of the props for hidden wires or strings.

  “Would you please dip your hand in the water in both pots and tell me whether they are hot or cold.”

  This was according to the script. The journeyman did not look happy about getting his hand wet but he verified that the water was regular water, possibly a little cold. Jonny thanked him and he went back to the audience.

  “The first thing I wish to demonstrate is the bending of force lines to move an object.”

  Jonny looked at the smaller pot, and it began to slide across the table. There were immediately cries from the audience. They believed that Jonny was using some sort of manipulation trick to move the pot. Master Silurian had anticipated this, so Jonny continued with his dialog.

  “If moving the pot on the table is insufficient to convince, then I will remove it from the table.”

  The pot floated up free from the table and moved off over the stage until it hovered about six feet above the ground. The comments from the audience grew louder. Several were loudly complaining that Jonny was using some kind of sleight of hand to pass off as magic; others had grasped amulets and were staring intently at the floating pot of water with amazement on their faces.

  Finally, one of the complainers said, “I’ll prove that he is using some sleight of hand trickery,” and he stormed up onto the stage. He passed his hand over and around the pot from every angle and could find nothing. This only encouraged him to greater efforts, all in vain.

  Jonny then lifted the pot a bit higher so it was out of the man’s grasp, and then started to tip it so the water ran out and landed on his head. The crowd laughed and the man ran off the stage.

  Jonny said, “I seem to have lost all the water in my pot. I guess I’ll just have to get some more.”

  Whereupon, the pot dropped down into the larger one and came up again filled with water. The crowd applauded as Jonny brought the pot to hover above the shallow bowl. He then caused it to poor a small amount of water into the bowl. He set the pot back down on the table where it had started. The crowd watched attentively, waiting to see what would happen next.

  “Aside from being able to manipulate objects. My master has also taught me to influence their temperature.”

  With that, Jonny concentrated on the bowl. After a few moments, he used his power to have the bowl float up and over the crowd. After the bowl had hovered for a few moments he had it slowly turn over. The audience had clearly been expecting it, but was even more surprised when nothing came out. He floated the bowl down until it was sitting in the lap of a wizard who stared at it with a look of horror on his face. He was shocked because he could clearly see that the water in the bowl had all turned to ice. He exclaimed and then passed the bowl around for others to see that the water was frozen solid in the bowl, but the bottom of the bowl was warm to the touch.

  Jonny was pleased with the effect on the crowd but he had one more thing left to do. “My master says that it is always best to end a show with a bang, so I have one for you.”

  The ball of tinder which had been sitting on the table slowly rose into the air till it was about thirty feet above the stage, then Jonny focused a bit more on it and the entire ball burst into a large ball of flame which took less than a second to consume itself.

  The audience sat in stunned silence for a few moments and then erupted into applause. Jonny left the stage and as he left The Master mounted the stage.

  “That is correct gentlemen, none of that was demon magic. All of it my apprentice accomplished through manipulations of the forces available. So, when you are told that significant magic cannot be accomplished without demons, don’t you believe it. Thank you.”

  He left the stage to the applause of the audience, though several in the audience who were not applauding and looked as if they had eaten something very sour; two of them were judges. The Master rejoined Jonny and complimented him on a well-done performance. Jonny basked in his master’s approval, which meant more to him than the applause of the crowd, though he had enjoyed that too.

  § § §

  Jonny sat in the audience and watched the last apprentice perform. At first he hardly noticed what the apprentice was doing, he was so flushed from his successful performance. His attention perked up when a pair of pain tables were wheeled onto the stage, and apprentices quickly strapped in place, gagged.

  The apprentice explained that he would summon a demon, in broad daylight, that would create a pile of four hundred gold pieces. He worked rapidly, applying the tine knife to the two apprentices while performing his summoning. Something about the young man’s attitude bothered Jonny. He seemed too casual for performing a sophisticated summoning.

  The apprentice worked quickly when the demon appeared as well, running through the terms of the binding faster than Jonny had previously heard done. Then the demon did the unexpected, it asked the apprentice to clarify a term of the binding. Several members of the audience quietly gasped, waiting to see what the apprentice would do. The apprentice did not seem to notice the audience’s reaction, and quickly spoke his clarification.

  The binding was concluded and the demon waited for the agreed upon pain offering. It took nearly twenty minutes to complete the torture of the apprentices. All the while, Jonny sat and fidgeted. He did not want to watch this part, but he found it hard to look away. He was glad that the boys were both gagged, otherwise he doubted he could have stayed.

  Finally, the offering was finished, and the demon began to perform its task. It faded from visible sight, but Jonny was still able to follow its movements, though less clearly, with his zdrell sight. The crowd murmured when the demon seemed to disappear. Several of the wizards in the audience grasped amulets. Within a few moments, gold pieces began to appear on the stage next to the apprentice. At the disappearance of the demon, he had started to look concerned, but when the gold began to appear, his look of supreme confidence returned.

  Bit by bit the pile of gold grew, but as he watched, Jonny and those wizards holding amulets, looked more and more puzzled. The demon, instead of hovering over the stage and converting air, or rocks, or whatev
er substance they had expected into the gold coins, seemed to be flying extremely fast, darting in many directions all over the conclave grounds. At times it would hover over a member of the audience, or a tent, and then it would return to the stage just long enough to drop one, or several gold pieces on the growing pile.

  Jonny began to have a suspicion, and from the looks on the faces of several of the wizards who also seemed able to see the demon, he was not alone. Finally, one of those wizards opened the money pouch at his side and stared within. “The demon isn’t making that gold!” the man shouted, “He’s stealing it! Everyone, check your money.”

  The apprentice on the stage stood paralyzed, his face ashen. As more and more shouts from the audience confirmed that the demon was indeed stealing the gold still collecting on the stage, he began to panic. The apprentice called out to the demon. It appeared visible again, hovering over the stage. The apprentice spoke, “Demon, I bound you to produce a pile of four hundred golds, not steal it.”

  The demon spoke, its voice booming, “I have produced this unfinished pile, mortal. You did not specify the method. Do you wish me to continue?”

  “No,” the downcast apprentice replied quietly.

  “Then our business is concluded, foolish mortal.” The demon laughed as it disappeared through the portal.

  The humiliated apprentice turned to the crowd and spoke clearly, if quietly, “I am sorry for my failure.” He looked down, and then squared his shoulders and continued. “If any of you have lost golds because of this demonstration please come to the tent of my master, Feltran, and I will repay all.” He gathered up the gold in a bag, brought for that purpose, and silently departed the stage.

  There was considerable confusion in the audience after this last, unexpected, demonstration. The judges were leaning together and whispering in agitated tone.

  After several moments of consultation, the head judge mounted the stage and announced that the winner of the competition would be announced the following morning. Jonny got up to leave when he heard a familiar voice.

  “Jonny! Jonny, just look at you! You’re bigger and uglier than ever. And then you go and put on a silly demonstration like that. No one would believe that you’re the best apprentice of Master Silurian.” Jonny could see the speaker was laughing and did not mean a word that he said.

  It was Eleander, the journeyman who had befriended Jonny when he first came to the castle.

  “Eleander,” Jonny shouted. “It’s great to see you!”

  “I’m not called by that name anymore, Jonny, you should know that. I’m called Skylock now, Master Skylock to you,” he said grinning.

  “Well, Master Skylock, did you see my demonstration then?”

  “I did, Jonny, and a pitiful thing it was too . . . except in comparison to all of the other ones! That was incredible, Jonny. I wish I had your talent. I see The Master has kept you busy since I left. You’ve probably got all sorts of new tricks I haven’t seen. But it looks like Master Silurian hasn’t kept you too busy to keep you from growing. You are at least six inches taller than when I last saw you, even though you still are one of the smallest apprentices here. Of course you probably are the youngest apprentice in this contest so I guess it makes sense.”

  Jonny beamed. He was so happy to see Eleander, no, Master Skylock again. The Master had gone off somewhere shortly after Jonny’s demonstration, so Jonny was only too happy to accompany Skylock when he suggested that they go back to his camp to eat and catch up on what had gone on since they had last seen each other.

  Jonny had a very good time talking with Skylock and telling him about all the changes at the castle. He also loved hearing about what Skylock had been doing since he had been awarded master status. Skylock said that he had still not decided on a place to settle down and so had been traveling for most of the last year. He told Jonny about all of the different places he had visited and things and people he had seen.

  After several hours Skylock told Jonny he had better head back to The Master’s camp otherwise he would get concerned about Jonny’s whereabouts. Jonny doubted that, but knew he did need to get back. It was late and he was getting very tired. The excitement of the day had kept Jonny going, but now he felt the fatigue of the day’s events set in. He bid Skylock farewell after arranging to meet again the next afternoon.

  As Jonny started walking back to The Master’s camp he started to realize just how late it was. The moon was out and not many people were walking between camps. In the distance, he could hear the singsong chants of demon wizards performing summonings. There seemed to be a lot of them and the sound of the chants with the soft cries from the appentices being tortured made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. He started walking more quickly, wanting to get back to the safety of The Master’s camp. The Master had told him it was not wise to be out walking late at night and now he understood why.

  He was walking down a narrow way between several large tents when without warning he was grabbed from behind. He was dragged into a dimly lit tent and then thrown to the floor.

  “Hey,” said the young man who had just released him. “You’re not Darslom! What were you doing walking out there? Actually, it doesn’t matter,” he said giving Jonny no time to respond. “You’ll have to do. Now take off your shirt and get on the rack. I have to get this summoning going now or I’ll miss The Confluence all together.”

  Jonny was confused, but he saw the rack the young man had pointed towards and he suddenly realized what he wanted. Jonny was to be his sacrifice for a summoning! Jonny started to stammer how the man had mistaken him for someone else, that he could not be a sacrifice, but he was having none of it. He said he did not care who Jonny was, and he had to have a sacrifice for his summoning and Jonny was going to be one whether he wanted to or not. He grabbed Jonny and since he was over six feet tall easily held him immobilized while he pulled Jonny’s cloak and shirt off. He then took Jonny and started to strap him down to the pain rack. He let out a surprised grunt when the dim light in the tent caught Jonny’s as yet unscarred back.

  He took a step back and said, “What’s this? You’re too old not to have been used before. Why are there no scars on your back?”

  Again, just as Jonny started to answer the man continued. “What do I care? It’ll just be easier to do you, the demons always like a first timer, not that they get’em often.”

  Jonny was more scared than he could remember being. He knew from watching what it was like to be made a sacrifice and did not want to be made one, especially for this man whose name he did not even know. Jonny looked over his shoulder and saw the man hastily arranging things. Then he pulled out a tine knife. This one was bigger by half than any Jonny had seen used in Silurian’s castle and now he was even more scared.

  As the man began to approach, Jonny could see he was going to do a more controversial type of summoning with Jonny. He would put Jonny to pain and then open a portal. This method was more risky than the summonings which Jonny had already seen, but he knew from the literature that it was also the fastest way to get results. The fresh pain drew the demons very quickly to the portal.

  Jonny was tied down so he could not move; all he could see was that huge tine knife in the man’s hand. Suddenly Jonny realized, as the man moved to a position behind Jonny, Jonny was not seeing the man with his eyes, but with his sight. With the realization he was using his sight, he suddenly realized what he had to do. He was mad at himself for taking this long to remember.

  The knife was already burning clearly in Jonny’s sight, so all he did was take control of it and make it fly straight upward through the tent roof and high into the night sky. Unfortunately for the man holding the knife, that meant he too was pulled off the ground and through the same hole in the tent’s roof the knife made as it flew upward. At some point he must have lost his grip on the knife because he shortly afterwards came falling back down outside the tent with a great dull thud.

  Jonny was still tied to the rack. Using a combinati
on of his talent and wiggling he was able to get free after several moments. He put his clothes back on and ran all the way back to the master’s camp without a backward glance.

  He did not know what had happened to his would be torturer, but he was mad enough that he did not care. As he ran, he kept a fist-sized rock in his hand so he could defend himself if the need arose.