“Silurian, please, just don’t kill him with all your helping him to stay alive.”
“Yes, dear one. I’ll try to keep that in mind.”
Chapter 47
One day in Clost, the second month of summer, The Master called Jonny into his study and announced that it was time to for Jonny to try out his skills in a more realistic environment.
“Jonny, this is to be a mock battle. You will use all your skills and knowledge to defeat three journeymen.”
Jonny was scared. It must have showed on his face.
Master Silurian waved his hand, placating. “Don’t be upset, Jonny. Not three weeks past I had archers shooting at you. Those arrows were real, and this battle is real, but it is about learning. If you lose, you will not die, soon that may not be the case. If you lose, you may even learn more. The experience will do you good, win or lose. The one piece of advice I will give you is that stealth and guile are often more important than strength and power.”
The mock battle was to be staged at an old cabin in the woods above the castle. The Master told him he could have the help of up to three apprentices or one journeyman.
The task would be a simple hit and run. The three journeymen would be guarding an item in a cabin away from the castle. Jonny needed to retrieve the object and return to the castle with it in his possession.
The only stipulation The Master gave was that no one, Jonny or his opponents, was to do any physical harm to the other side.
Jonny thought for a long time and decided that his only ally would be Grelnick. Jonny had worked with him more than any of the other boys and felt he could trust and rely on him to do what he needed.
Jonny had a week to prepare, but he was not allowed near the cabin. Meanwhile, the journeymen worked feverishly on their preparations. Jonny had no idea what they were, but he expected they would be impressive.
The night of the battle arrived. Master Silurian had decreed that the encounter would take place at night so that all would have to rely on other than simple physical senses. The item was a marker amulet, one that glowed like a bright light to magical senses.
Jonny flew, holding Grelnick, to within one hundred yards of the cabin, then set him down.
“Grelnick, I’m going to fly high over the top and see if I can get an idea of the layout. Stay here till I get back.”
“What if you don’t come back,” Grelick said nervously.
“Stay until sunrise. Go back to the castle if I don’t show.”
Jonny was familiar with the area from all his flying trips, but he wanted to see what his opponents had done to prepare. He went straight up very high, and drifted slowly over the cabin. The amulet was indeed a searchlight to his sight, and even brighter when he looked using the demon amulet.
Something large flashed past him. Jonny did not know what it was, but he did not stay around to find out. He flew a half-mile away, high, then circled back low to Grelnick. He told Grelnick what the layout was and outlined his plan. Then they started their assault.
§ § §
Jonny knew that trying to get the amulet directly would never work. The spell he had dodged as he had looked had been very powerful. Master Silurian had said guile, or trickiness, would work better than power, so he would be tricky.
Jonny used Grelnick as a decoy. He flew him low and fast over the top of the cabin. From inside shouts came and several spells flared in the night. Grelnick was hit repeatedly with spells. The voices inside grew louder as Grelnick continued to circle the cabin. The journeymen were yelling at each other, each blaming the other for their spell not knocking out “Jonny” though it was really Grelnick. Jonny was pretty sure poor Grelnick was unconscious, but the journeymen had no way to know Jonny was making him fly, while not flying himself.
Meanwhile, Jonny crept close to the cabin and was able to look in a window opposite to where he had Grelnick flying and simply reached in with his zdrell and floated the amulet quietly out and into his pouch. The three journeymen were still focused on Grelnick, and blaming each other. None of them saw him until he had the amulet and was already leaving. One ran outside looking for him. After three steps, he was in the air, pulling the unconscious Grelnick behind.
§ § §
They flew back to the castle and The Master received them with great joy and not a few harsh words for their opponents who Jonny had so successfully distracted. When Jonny later found out the strength and potency of the spells that had been used on Grelnick he was very glad he had opted to follow The Master’s suggestion for wit over power. He knew he could never have withstood those spells and was nearly downed by the first spell that passed him by.
For their part, his three opponents gave him their hearty congratulations, but Jonny could tell they were quite annoyed to have been beaten by a thirteen-year-old boy, no matter how talented. All three soon left to begin their separate journeys to the wizards’ conclave the following year, where they hoped to be confirmed masters. They all left, The Master said, much wiser for the experience.
Jonny himself could not make up his mind how to feel about the experience. On the one hand, he had felt excited and flushed through the whole escapade. On the other hand, he felt like it had gone too quickly. Looking back it all seemed like a blur. Lastly, below it all, he felt like on some level he had cheated. Sure, they had nearly gotten him with that first spell, but other than that, he had successfully tricked them into wasting their efforts on Grelnick. It just didn’t feel like it had been an honorable fight.
When Jonny explained his feelings to The Master, a few days after the encounter, the old man had started to laugh, but seeing Jonny’s scowl stopped and explained.
“I’m sorry for laughing at you, but I forget sometimes how young you are, and how old I am. You must understand this, Jonny, there really are no “honorable” fights. Yes, there are those who follow the rules, and those who use treachery and betrayal, but even fights that follow the rules are truly not things of honor. The best fight is the one that doesn’t happen. Among true men of honor, disagreements can and should be resolved without direct conflict. Fights happen when one of the parties decides their way is the only way, regardless of others.”
Jonny sat, trying to grasp what his master was telling him, but he just couldn’t wrap his mind around it.
“Master, are you saying there is no honor in battle?”
“Yes, Jonny, that is just what I’m saying, though you will find few who would agree with me.”
“But, Master, are you saying that if you fight, you are not honorable?” Jonny could not believe that.
“No, Jonny. There are many times when one is forced to fight. They say it takes two to fight, and that is true, but it only takes one to decide to fight. It is the one who decides to make the fight inevitable who is less than honorable. To defend yourself or those dear to you from an aggressor can be very honorable.”
“But, didn’t you just say—“
“Here is the important point, Jonny, when a fight is forced upon you, then you must do all you can to win, and win in a way that minimizes the casualties of the fight. That is why what you did in that test was well done indeed. By avoiding a direct conflict you shortened the battle and increased your chances for success.”
Jonny’s head was swimming, trying to grapple with this different way of seeing the test. Master Silurian sat and watched him, saying nothing for several moments. Finally, he spoke.
“One last thing to consider, Jonny, and then you need to get back to your studies. Winning a fight means making hard choices. You and Grelnick both knew that he was going to take the brunt of the attack so you could get the amulet unnoticed. That was a hard choice for both of you, but you made it and Grelnick was brave enough to accept it. In the future, you will need to make similar choices with more dire consequences. Understand, the best path is rarely the least painful, for you and others.”
Jonny left The Master and went off to study, but his mind was not on his studies for several days. He
kept replaying The Master’s words, and thinking about this test, and wondering what other tests he would face, and if he would be brave enough to choose the right course.
He didn’t know it at the time, but he would be tested again very soon.
Chapter 48
Not long after the three journeymen left, a few weeks before mid-fall day, a new one came to the castle. This was nothing unusual. Master Silurian had a very impressive reputation. He was known as one of the most powerful wizards in the continent, possibly in the world. It was also well known that he had almost nothing to do with demon magic, but had a very good command of the various other sorts. He was considered preeminent in force magics but also knowledgeable in nearly all the other branches of magical study. Because of this, there was a steady stream of journeymen who came to study with him.
This new journeyman was different. He already had something of a reputation, and when Jonny first saw him, he knew why. This man, and he was a man for he was nearly twenty years old, carried himself like a master, not like a humble journeyman. He was tall and had dark hair that fell to the middle of his back and a long face with a prominent nose. He went by the name of Flask. He said he had chosen it because he was a vessel that yearned to be filled with all the knowledge he could find. He did not dress like a journeyman either. He wore a rich brown cloak, a shirt of finer material than most traders owned, and rode in on a fine roan horse.
The other journeymen said he could have been confirmed a master two years ago, but had deliberately avoided the wizards’ conclave so he could continue to acquire experience and knowledge as a journeyman. Once he was confirmed a master, no other wizard would be obligated to teach or mentor him as they were while he remained a journeyman. This fact was lost on most journeymen, who only aspired to the title of master, not realizing that once attained it effectively cut them off from much of the instruction that was a journeyman’s due.
There was no doubt Flask was a cut above other journeymen. He had traveled widely, having finished his apprenticeship when only fourteen. He had studied with many of the most renowned masters in the continent and had quickly learned from them and then moved on. He, like Master Silurian, was reputed to be skilled in several different disciplines, but unlike The Master, he was known to be fond of demon magic, though he had sworn not to practice it while studying with Master Silurian.
Jonny quickly saw that The Master was not entirely pleased to have Flask studying with him. The journeyman’s well-known affinity for demon magic, as well as his fame and ego, were not to The Master’s liking. The apprentices and the other journeymen did not share this opinion. They all flocked to him and tried to become his friend, to bathe in the reflected glow of his presence.
Jonny, sensing his master’s reticence stayed aloof as well. He sensed there was something very strong and very dangerous in Flask.
The Master had instructed everyone in the castle that Flask was not to be told of Jonny’s abilities, especially flying, until The Master decided whether he could trust him. Even so, Flask quickly determined that there was something special about Jonny, not from what he saw him do, but from the way everyone treated him
Jonny tried avoiding Flask as much as possible, but since he studied in the same room with the journeymen (the only apprentice to have that privilege), and ate in the same dining room, it was not entirely possible. When Flask asked the other journeymen why Jonny was given journeyman privileges, they only said that Jonny was The Master’s star pupil or that Master Silurian had decreed it. Jonny could see that no matter how much others tried to play down Jonny’s importance in the castle, Flask would not give up until he found out what they were all hiding.
One afternoon when Jonny was studying a new book The Master had recently acquired, in the journeymen’s workshop, Flask entered and came over to Jonny.
“Boy,” Flask began, addressing himself imperiously to Jonny. “Run over and get me a large saucer of water and place it here on this worktable,” he said pointing to the work table next to where Jonny had been studying.
Activity in the workshop stopped. All eyes were on Jonny to see what he would do. Flask was perfectly within his rights to ask any apprentice, even Jonny, to fetch and carry for him if he was not already engaged in another task for The Master. But Jonny was no ordinary apprentice and had not been treated like one for years. There was not another journeyman in the place who would dream of demanding that Jonny do their dirty work for them. They knew what Jonny could do, Flask did not, but he clearly wanted to find out.
Jonny looked up slowly from his book, stood up, and walked over to where the crockery was kept, took out and filled a saucer and brought it over to the table. As he was approaching the table, Flask, seemingly accidentally, stuck out his foot just far enough so Jonny would trip on it. But Jonny had spent too long playing the game of not being surprised and simply stepped around the foot as though he had not seen it and set down the saucer. When he finished, he walked back to his table without saying a word, or even looking at Flask.
This was obviously not the reaction Flask had been expecting. He looked for moment as if he was going to try something more, but then a thought apparently occurred to him. He turned to one of the journeymen who was watching and spoke.
“Chandar, isn’t it?” he asked.
“Y-yes,” stammered the journeyman.
“Have you ever seen a map made from water before?” Flask asked, clearly inviting all around, and knowing they had not seen anything like it before.
“N-No,” Chandar stammered his reply.
“It’s really quite interesting,” Flask said smugly. “I’d be happy to show you how it’s done, if you’re interested.”
Chandar was plainly interested, as was every other journeyman in the room. Jonny was interested too, but he tried not to show it since he knew that had been Flask’s intention all along. Chandar and the other journeymen gathered around the table blocking Jonny’s view, but he closed his eyes so he could concentrate his zdrell sight on what was happening.
Flask took some powder he did not name and sprinkled it on the surface of the water in the saucer. He then made some gestures and spoke a short incantation, and the water in saucer began to move and have a texture. It formed into a three dimensional map of the area surrounding the castle. The powder he had sprinkled on the water somehow gave it depth and shading. Everyone was impressed, and stated their approval. Jonny too was impressed, but he also noted that Flask had not really explained how it was done.
§ § §
So it went for several days. Flask would at least once a day treat Jonny as though he were a regular apprentice. Each time Jonny would respond only as an apprentice might. He never got mad or was in any way disrespectful. As soon as he finished whatever task Flask had asked him to do, he went back to his studies and ignored Flask. Flask for his part would try and do some little feat to draw a reaction from Jonny, and though Jonny did not want to show it, he quickly saw that Flask was indeed a very talented magician.
The annual Harvest Festival came and went. Jonny got into town and saw Roald, but otherwise just watched the events, taking care not to draw attention to himself. Flask, took care to be seen doing small bits of magic among the crowds. He never did enough to be considered a performance, but very much enjoyed the attention of the crowds.
After the Harvest Festival, someone must have talked. Several of the Journeymen had been up late the previous night talking and joking with Flask, so it was hard to know who had said what, but someone had told Flask that Jonny was truly very talented. That morning when Flask had entered the workroom he walked right over to Jonny, who was again studying in one of the books.
“So you’re something special, are you?” Flask challenged.
“What do you mean?” Jonny asked quietly.
“It’s obvious isn’t it? After all, you’re the only apprentice I’ve ever seen who’s treated like he was a master. So what’s so special about you that no one will tell me about?”
> “I know a few tricks,” Jonny answered calmly. He didn’t feel calm. He was reflecting on how Master Silurian had said that it only took one to start a fight, and how he might have one whether he wanted one or not.
The Apprentice to Zdrell Page 25
