The Apprentice to Zdrell

by David K Bennett

  “You mean you just give up?”

  “No, I mean I lay the problem aside and work on something totally unrelated. It has to do with the way the mind works, Jonny. Even when I am not working on a problem, part of me knows it is there and will keep thinking about it while I work on something else. Many times working on something I think is unrelated will give me that critical insight that allows me to go back and solve my original problem.”

  “So you’re saying I should just leave it alone and do something else?”

  “Yes.”

  “But what would I do?”

  “It does not matter, but it is best if it has little or nothing to do with your problem. Seeing this blade makes me want to see if you can do something for me.”

  “What, Master?”

  “I want you to make me a ring. I want you to make a ring that will hold power like this blade is doing. I saw an amulet like that long ago. The amulet’s owner was a very old powerful wizard, and I have no idea who has it now since he died over one hundred years ago, but I believe you could create one like it for me. It would be very useful.”

  “Yes, Master, I would be happy to help,” Jonny said, pleased to have a task to take his mind off the unfinished sword.

  “Tell Kason this is an official commission and not part of the journeyman project, since you are making it for me. Oh, and one other thing, the amulet I remember seeing had crystals of some sort, they may have been quartz or diamond, embedded in the metal. I am not sure if they were essential to the amulet’s power, but they may have had something to do with it. I unfortunately did not have much time to study it, but I do remember that clearly.”

  Jonny thanked his master and was about to leave when The Master looked up and said, “Where did you put the line cutter?”

  The question took Jonny by surprise, he had not thought about the ring, or the demon, for a few days.

  “It’s with me right now,” Jonny said, reaching in his shirt to pull out his holding container.

  “Extraordinary!” The Master said when he saw the container and Jonny opened it to show him the ring.

  “This container completely shielded the presence of your line cutter. I had no idea what you had done with the ring; I half feared that you had destroyed it. I have a container like this, but you created yours all on your own. The container I have is over two thousand years old. It is one of the most valuable magical items I own. Jonny, you never cease to amaze me. After seeing this, I have no doubt that you will be able to create a magical storage ring for me.”

  “Thank you, Master,” Jonny said, flushed with embarrassment.

  “No, Thank you, Jonny”

  Chapter 59

  The new commission from Master Silurian was just what Jonny needed. He had noticed as he had worked on the sword that somehow it took energy and held onto it. It was not what he had been trying to do so he had mostly ignored that aspect of it. Now he turned every form of sight he possessed on it trying to see how it worked so he could duplicate it in the ring for The Master.

  At first he thought of making The Master’s ring out of steel as he had with the sword, but since he had also made the demon ring of steel he was leery of doing that. He also had no idea how to easily embed jewels of any sort in a steel ring.

  In the end, he decided to use a silver alloy commonly used for jewelry where durability was also a factor. He also decided to use very small chips of diamond. He had seen before in working with other jewelry that small diamond chips seemed to sometimes act as mirrors for reflecting force lines as well as light.

  His initial process for forming the ring was similar to what he had used in the previous two rings, but as the ring began to cool he added several diamond chips so that they were nearly invisible, submerged in the metal. As soon as he had done this, he saw that they did indeed seem to have a reflective property for the force lines. He kept the ring hot enough that he could keep rearranging the chips and modifying the structure of the ring until it felt right.

  When he finally sensed he had it right, he set the ring down on a cloth to cool and looked up. To his surprise, it was dark and no one else was there. He had no idea how long he had been working on the ring, but it obviously had been several hours. As soon as he thought of it, he realized he was very hungry and needed to go to the toilet very badly.

  After he had taken care of his bodily needs, Jonny went back and looked at the ring. He put it on and focused some of the power he had from the power ring at it. The energy disappeared into the ring without a trace. Even so, while wearing it, Jonny could feel the energy was still there. He focused more energy at the ring and again it was absorbed.

  Now came the test. Jonny focused his attention on the ring and attempted to release the stored power in it. Here was where Jonny found the diamond chips mattered. Pushing his awareness along the imperfection provided by one of the chips Jonny found it easy to release the power. He used it to heat one of the forges that were standing empty. In no time, the forge was blazing with heat as though it had been stoked for hours.

  Jonny was impressed. He had not realized how much power he had placed in the ring or how easily it could be released. Best of all, Jonny now knew what he needed to do to finish his sword. He was very excited and wanted to show this new ring to The Master, but figured that he needed to get some rest. He hung the new ring on the thong with his amulets and fell into bed.

  It was nearly noon when he woke. He still had no idea when he went to bed, surely sometime after midnight, but before dawn. He got a piece of bread and went in search of Kason. When Kason saw him, he at first looked irritated, but then his face lit up.

  “Did you finish it?” Kason asked.

  Jonny nodded.

  “Let’s have a look at it.”

  Jonny took the ring off the thong and put it in Kason’s hand. Kason looked at it closely, and then took it out to look at it in the light.

  “Oh Jonny, ‘tis very good,” he said with wonder in his voice, “but there’s something strange about it. I can’t put me finger on it. It doesn’t, doesn’t seem like anything’s wrong, more like there’s more there than you can see. Is that part of the way it’s supposed to be?”

  Jonny nodded again.

  “You’ve done well, lad. Each time you do something, I think I’ve seen it all, and then you do something I’ve never seen before. Things will get dreadfully dull once you’ve left us all behind. Now go and show this to Master Silurian. I know he’ll be pleased. Tell him I’ll discuss payment with him later.”

  § § §

  Pleased was not the word to describe The Master’s reaction, overjoyed was closer but still inadequate. When Jonny handed him the ring, he was immediately taken by the look of it and told Jonny so, then he closed his eyes and focused his attention on it. He stayed that way for several minutes, long enough that Jonny began to get worried, but then he opened his eyes and there were tears beginning to flow from them. Jonny was about to apologize when The Master smiled the most brilliant smile Jonny had ever seen on his face, and then began to laugh.

  “Jonny, Jonny, Jonny,” The Master said still chuckling. “I tell you next to nothing, ask for something no one has been able to create since the Great War, ask the impossible of you, and instead of failing you have returned with an object of power that is almost certainly many times more powerful than the Amulet of Karaken!”

  Master Silurian leaned back and started laughing again. Jonny did not know what to do. He was happy The Master was pleased with his work, but he was afraid of this reaction. There was an almost maniacal edge to his master’s laugh. His concern must have showed for when The Master looked at Jonny, he controlled his mirth with visible effort.

  “Do not be afraid, Jonny,” The Master said. “I have not gone insane. It is just that once again you have succeeded beyond my wildest dreams. For nearly two hundred years, I have sought an object like this. The ability to store energy in an object and have it ready at need was one of the greatest accomplishments of th
e zdrell masters. I cannot tell you the number of uses this has. One of the greatest limitations those of us who shun demon magic face is that there are certain magical operations that require great power; you know this from your studies. Without an object such as this, the only non-demon way of doing those things was to find several wizards of comparable skill and technique to pool their talents. You already know how difficult it is to get more than two wizards to agree on what to eat for lunch, let alone work together on a common cause; it has been very rare indeed. So, there are many great works I have wanted to try for years. I have been unable to do, so many, so very many things, because I lack the strength.

  “When I first saw the Amulet of Karaken I was jealous, but had I known that I would not see its like again for over a hundred years, who knows to what extremes I might have gone to get it. It is probably best I did not know. Now you come to me with an object you have created yourself that I can already tell is superior in every way to that amulet. What can I say?”

  Jonny did not know what to say either. Once again, he was both happy and irritated by the way The Master had kept him in the dark about the difficulty of what he had attempted. Had he known the magnitude of the challenge, he would surely have been intimidated by it. Even so, it still rankled.

  “Nothing to say, Jonny?” The Master said with a smile.

  “What can I say, Master?” Jonny said and shrugged. “I guess, I guess I did good. I’m glad you’re happy.”

  “Happy? Jonny, happy does not even begin to express the way I am feeling right now. For the first time in many, many years I believe that I’m feeling hope, hope that this age might not see the end of free humans in our world.”

  Jonny was more confused than before, and it showed on his face.

  “Jonny,” The Master began. “There is so much you do not know, so much I have not told you about this world we live in, and I guess now I can put it off no longer. With your ability to create objects like this, you will become involved all too soon. In fact, you are already involved, whether you know it or not.

  “You know I have had a sense of urgency about developing your skills for some time, don’t you?”

  “Yes, Master. I always knew there was something big you thought somehow involved me. Sometimes I wanted to ask you, but other times I was afraid you would tell me. I really started worrying when I found out what you had been hiding from me about going under the knife.”

  “Yes, I can see how finding out a terrible truth would make you reluctant to learn another one. Unfortunately, this truth is many times more frightening than that one, though they are connected.

  “Most people believe that the Great War was fought over whether the Grimoridans could extend their empire to our continent, Skryla. That was the publicly announced reason, but it was not the main reason for the war. I believe you were taught this much in your history lessons.”

  Jonny had been taught a lot about the Great War, but he still felt like it was so far away he did not really know much about it. It was mostly referred to obliquely by people when they said things like, “Don’t forget that Skryla isn’t Grimor, not that the Grimoridans didn’t try to crush us, but we showed them and we’ll show them again if we need to!” The Great War had been long enough ago that it was mostly the subject of epic stories, but he had been taught how it was the beginning point for the current political situation.

  The Master continued, “Jonny, few people realize that the Great War was fought to eliminate zdrell from the world. The demons and their wizards had eliminated all the zdrell masters in Grimor in their consolidation of that continent. The Great War was their pretext for eliminating the zdrell masters in Skryla, and they were successful. Once the last zdrell master in Skryla was dead, they abandoned their attempt to conquer this continent within three months, though they had been fighting for nearly twenty years. That was the real reason for the war, and that is why you have been in danger almost since the moment you became my apprentice, even though you did not know it.”

  Jonny was both amazed and confused. “But why would anyone care about me, Master? I’m no zdrell master, I’m just a kid, a nobody.”

  “Jonny,” The Master said, smiling sadly. “You are so much more than a nobody. You may only be ranked as an apprentice, but you are already a zdrell master, and what frightens and heartens me most is that you are already stronger and more gifted than most of the masters I have read of. And you are still just learning to use all that you can do. You could ultimately become one of the most powerful wizards this world has ever seen.”

  Jonny just shook his head. “I could never be greater than you, Master.” No matter what The Master said, Jonny would not believe he could be greater than his master.

  A look of irritation passed across Master Silurian’s face. “I tire of this absurd worship you seem to have for me, Jonny. I am only a man and you have already surpassed me in so many ways I can hardly name them.”

  “But you know so much more than me, Master!”

  “Yes, yes, I do know more than you, and that is why you must understand that I know I, with all my vast experience, can never hope to accomplish so much that you do easily. I could never, listen closely, never could I have created this ring, yet for you it was only a few days work. That, Jonny, is power!”

  Jonny was ashamed, proud and humiliated all at the same time. He was ashamed because he had contradicted The Master needlessly, and made him admit his limitations. He felt a little proud because he had heard The Master’s words. The tiniest possibility that he could become a truly great wizard, even surpassing The Master, was intoxicating. He felt humiliated because of the previous two things and because The Master had needed to shout at him to get him to listen. His emotions were in such turmoil; he was powerless to say anything.

  The Master, too, said nothing for several moments and then he shook his head and said, “Jonny, Jonny, do not worry. Here you have brought me the greatest gift I have ever received and I have burdened you with nothing but more cares. Go and use what you have learned here and finish that sword. Do not forget you still need to make one more thing. That was the agreement. In many ways you have far surpassed it, and I almost, almost, want to release you from it. Whatever you make I am sure it will be wonderful and surprising.”

  Chapter 60

  Jonny walked from the castle back to town. He could easily have flown. He longed to fly, but even more than that, he needed time to think. With everything The Master had told him, his head was spinning. It took him over three hours to get back to his quarters at Kason’s. In that time he thought of many things, but now, even more than earlier that night, he realized that he was in very real danger. The demons and those who used them would come for him, would stop at nothing to destroy him, as soon as they realized he existed. Jonny knew he had to be ready, because he felt sure that they would come looking for him very soon.

  § § §

  One of the things Jonny decided on his long walk back was what he would work on next. He knew he had to finish the sword. He knew it would be very valuable in defending him against demons, but he felt that he needed something more before he attempted to finish it. He needed to use some of the insight he had gained in creating the ring for Master Silurian as well as the two previous rings and the sword. He felt he needed to create yet one more ring that was the sum of all he had learned.

  Jonny began work on the new ring the next night, after he had told Kason about The Master’s joyous reception of the ring and then spent the day working on mundane projects. Jonny knew this ring would be different. He wanted to make something using zdrell that could be made no other way. He did not make this ring out of a single piece of metal or alloy. He carefully trimmed four pieces of heavy gauge wire, each from a different metal: gold, silver, copper, and iron, and laid them down at the edge of one of the jewelry forges.

  The forge was cold.

  Jonny closed his eyes and using only his zdrell vision to see them began to heat them with his mind. He wanted t
o form and join the different pieces of metal in a way that could not normally be done. Each metal had a different melting point and other characteristics. He heated each wire until it was nearly liquid and then wove them together and rolled them into a ring.