The Blood King’s Apprentice

by David Alastair Hayden

  Chonda Lu lopped off one of the big wraith’s hands. “That’s it! Keep going.”

  The familiar kenja of the kavaru licked his soul.

  He recoiled. Not out of disgust but because of how strongly he craved the familiar power that he’d always considered an essential part of himself.

  He understood now that Chonda Lu’s essence had always lurked within him, waiting to take over. How this could be, he had no idea. All he knew was that whenever the moment of his special destiny finally arrived, he would cease to exist. He would become Chonda Lu. At best, only a small sliver of himself would remain within the reborn Kaiaru.

  In ancient times, a volunteer would take on a kavaru and choose to lose their identity to a reborn Kaiaru. But Turesobei had never volunteered. And if given the choice, he never would. Chonda Lu may be better than most of them, but he was still Kaiaru. In fact, when it happened, he would rather none of himself remain. He didn't want to know what he’d become.

  But despite everything, he craved the connection with the kavaru. He didn’t want the special destiny it held. But he couldn’t resist it. The link formed between him and Chonda Lu. Their minds touched. Time slowed to a crawl.

  No. Turesobei tried to draw away. Maybe death would be better.

  “What are you waiting for?” Chonda Lu asked telepathically. “Finish it.”

  “I know what you did to Motekeru. I know what you’re capable of. And I want no part of it.”

  Chonda Lu flicked his head back and scowled at him then returned to fighting, “Unless you want to die, you have no choice but to restore our bond.”

  “Maybe I’d rather die.”

  “And risk the lives of your friends?”

  Turesobei sighed. “I don’t want to become you.”

  “You are a Kaiaru inheritant. Your fate was sealed the moment Lu Bei placed my kavaru on you after you were born. The transformation is inevitable. And as soon as the kavaru returns to you, the spells protecting you from this knowledge will renew. You will continue on with your life just as you did before, in blissful ignorance.”

  The big wraith leapt toward them, leading dozens more of its ghostly brethren.

  Lu Bei blasted it in the face with a fireball and it stumbled back. “Sobei, hurry. The Storm Dragon’s wheeling back toward us.”

  Chonda Lu unleashed a darkfire blast and burned away ten wraiths. But the spell only stunned the big one.

  The Storm Dragon plunged toward them, her jaws spread open. To summon the protective bubble, Chonda Lu would have to lower his defenses. The big wraith would tear through him.

  “Finish the bond,” Chonda Lu urged, “or we’ll both die.”

  “I will remember.” Turesobei insisted. “And somehow I will stop you from taking possession of my body. My future is my own.”

  Chonda Lu sighed. “You cannot stop fate.”

  Turesobei smiled wryly. “I have fought dragons, bargained with Keepers, trained with the Blood King, survived a race across a frozen wasteland and defeated the beings that killed you. I may contain your power but I am so much more than you. I have compassion and honor and love. So whatever your intention and whatever you think my fate is, my life is my own. I will make my own destiny.”

  He thought, for a moment, he saw a glint of pride flash in Lu Bei’s eyes and a smile tug at the corner of his mouth. But then he remembered what Chonda Lu had said: Lu Bei was the one who had placed the kavaru on him.

  Chonda Lu opened his mouth to reply. Lightning crackled in the Storm Dragon’s maw. But Turesobei closed his eyes and shut it all out. He focused on the three individual parts of himself: the Storm Dragon’s anger and her raging power, Chonda Lu’s calculating mind and immortal perspective, and the simple baojendari boy’s friends and family and responsibilities. They were all so different, and yet, all him. They belonged together, reunited, as they had been. He didn’t resist it. Instead, he embraced it.

  With a sudden rush, they were bound together. Chonda Lu and the Storm Dragon both vanished. It was just him and Lu Bei now. And a giant wraith with a few dozen hungry friends.

  Immediately, he pictured the Nexus in his mind. He imagined himself there with Iniru and Enashoma and Kurine and all the others.

  The Wraithspace blurred and spun around him. The teleportation spell grabbed him and jerked him forward.

  Chapter Forty

  Turesobei reappeared in the Nexus of the Realms. But he was no longer in his room.

  A wild rose vine in full bloom surrounded him. A stream of sunlight warmed his face. A decorative fountain splashed nearby. Through cloudy vision, he saw the northern end of the Courtyard, though his viewing angle was peculiar. An odd numbness spread throughout his body and he couldn’t feel the ground beneath his feet. Maybe it was a moment of disorientation brought upon him by the teleportation spell.

  He tried to move but couldn’t. Something held him pinned in place. He strained his head to the right. A rose vine wrapped around his upper right arm, pierced through his elbow, ran down the length of his forearm and popped out from his palm. His mouth went dry and his heart skipped a beat. Oddly, he didn’t feel any pain.

  He carefully switched his gaze to his left side. A thorn punctured the thumb of his left hand and a rose blossom peeked through the forearm. A glance down explained why he couldn’t feel the ground beneath his feet. He was suspended halfway up the trellis. Vines burst through both legs at the thighs and two more wove through his feet and shins. Three vines curled out from his gut. Bright red blossoms peeked out amongst the crimson blood.

  Though it had returned him to the Nexus, the teleport had failed to get him there safely. His body was fused into the rose vine.

  Panic set in and his constricted lungs gasped desperately for air.

  The pain finally caught up to his nerves as shockwaves of bone-piercing agony threaded through him. A hoarse scream tore from his throat, then died as he spat up blood.

  Only adrenaline and agony were keeping him conscious. Once those faded, he would die.

  Hannya appeared before him and stared in bewilderment. Lu Bei zoomed out from behind her. At least the fetch had teleported back safely. He flew up and met Turesobei face-to-face. He had never seen the fetch so worried before.

  “Master—what—what can we do?”

  Turesobei turned his head in an attempt to shake it and a new pain erupted. A vine was piercing the flesh of one shoulder, near the neck.

  “Don’t move, master! There’s a thorn near your right eye.”

  Turesobei almost nodded in response.

  The pain started to fade.

  Delicate rose petals drifted down around him.

  How many must be trapped inside him? He would be buried with roses and roses would be buried with him. The thought almost made him giggle. Not a good sign.

  He was dying. What would he see in the Shadowland? Would Paradise call him, or Torment? Would Chonda Lu be there with him? What would happen to Lu Bei? And what about the Storm Dragon’s energy? If he died, would they die too? It was odd, given all he’d faced, but he’d never considered that before.

  His companions rushed into the Courtyard and gaped up in horror. Motekeru’s eyes dimmed. His broad metal shoulders slumped. The hounds whimpered and collapsed onto their bellies. Shoma began to cry and Zaiporo held her tight. Kurine fell to her knees, trembling. Tears streaked down her face. Iniru stood statue still, her face a blank mask.

  He wanted to tell them all he loved them. But when he tried to speak, he gurgled up blood. He tried to say it through his fading eyes. That was the best he could do.

  The Blood King appeared out of thin air. His eyes switched from scarlet to pale blue as his expression shifted from fury to concern. He waved a hand and spoke a word.

  A blinding flash engulfed Turesobei.

  Awake and aware, he lay on the ground. Though free of vines, thorns and rose blooms, the bleeding wounds, torn flesh and broken bones remained. The Blood King cast a healing spell. As the sparkling cloud descended
, Turesobei faded.

  The magic was too late. It wasn’t going to be enough.

  His heartbeat stopped. He wished his friends love….

  A crimson bolt spiked into him. He flopped as his heart surged back to life. Its thumping rhythm pounded in his ears. Had it always been this loud?

  He started to sit up, but strong hands held him down, keeping him inside the healing energy cloud. A few minutes later, the healing cloud dissipated. Heart racing, he sat up—alive and healed, with no trace of injury. The familiar amber kavaru hung comfortingly from his neck.

  The Blood King knelt on the ground beside him, panting. Sweat poured from his brow. The damage must’ve been terrible if it had taxed the Blood King’s abilities.

  Turesobei turned to thank him but stopped. The Blood King’s narrowed eyes flickered between scarlet and orange, until they settled on the latter. The Blood King whipped out a bronze spell strip and spoke a command.

  Chapter Forty-One

  Three suns blazed overhead. Parched scrublands stretched into the distance in all directions. Turesobei stumbled over a rock, fell and scraped his knees against sharp gravel. He winced as he climbed to his feet. Aching with thirst, he trudged forward. If he didn’t find water and shelter soon, he’d die from heat exhaustion.

  He cried out for help but no one answered. Maybe that was to be expected. He had no idea. He couldn’t remember how he’d come here or what had happened to his friends. All he could remember was this barren land.

  As the miles passed, the sweat that drenched his clothes dried away. He wanted to pull the clothes off, to escape the heat they held in. But the puckering blisters on his exposed skin warned him that was folly. The pain was already excruciating. He couldn’t risk making it worse.

  A small pool of water glittered ahead. He staggered toward it. But after a few minutes, he was no closer. He paused. It might be a mirage. His knees buckled and he lurched forward. He caught his balance and continued on. Mirage or not, he had to try.

  Minutes of pain and exhaustion passed…then hours. The suns never moved and the pool remained just ahead.

  Finally, he collapsed and everything went dark.

  He came to in the Courtyard, surrounded by bloodstained rose blossoms. Spell strip in hand, the Blood King loomed over him. Delight sparkled in his maniacal, orange eyes. The dream-state had been so real, Turesobei had never thought to question it.

  Confused, panting and sweating, his companions sat up. Kurine was crying. The heat must have been terrible for her.

  The Blood King’s eyes slipped into scarlet. “You idiot! You nearly ruined everything! A few inches to the right and a rose vine would have pierced through your brain. I could not have resurrected you.”

  Turesobei opened his mouth to explain, but the Blood King continued to rant.

  “Why would you cast an incomplete teleportation spell?”

  “I didn’t know that it was a teleportation spell! You told me to learn the spell and had me activating its energy pathways. What did you think would happen?”

  “I did not think anything would happen.” The Blood King’s eyes flashed to yellow and narrowed with suspicion. “It should have taken you weeks of study to see the depth of the characters. And then months of practice before you could manage a casting.”

  Turesobei shrugged. “I focused on my kavaru and imagined I was Chonda Lu to see if I could get the kavaru’s memories to help me fill in the blanks.”

  The Blood King groaned and his eyes flared violet. “You are like a child covered in oil and playing with fire.”

  “If you had taught me the spell like normal, I wouldn't have almost killed myself.”

  “Seeing the cubic characters cannot be taught. You have to figure it out on your own. Otherwise, you would waste weeks straining to see something you are not ready to understand. You were only supposed to practice the energy activations.”

  “That’s what I did.”

  “I never said that you should try to cast the spell. And I never imagined you would be so foolish as to call on Chonda Lu’s memories to help you.” The Blood King shook his head. “Given that you mispronounced the seventh character, this could have been much worse.”

  “There are seven characters per cube? I thought there were only six!”

  The Blood King closed his eyes and groaned. “The characters on the outside of the cube combine their shadows, so to speak, to create a seventh character in the center. How you could survive such a mistake and arrive here, I have no idea. You should have been blasted into nothingness.”

  “I didn’t come here first. The spell took me to the Wraithspace.”

  “You…you entered the Wraithspace and escaped?”

  “I had help.”

  The eyes blazed yellow. “From whom?”

  “From Lu Bei and…the Storm Dragon, maybe. No, not her. She was trying to kill us. It was….” He shrugged. “I can’t remember. All I can recall is how uncomfortable it was and how powerless I felt. And I think I made it out by casting a location spell and envisioning the Nexus and my friends.”

  “It does make sense that without the coordinates you would end up in Wraithspace.” He scowled. “How do you know the term Wraithspace? Did the fetch tell you?”

  “I knew about it from Master,” Lu Bei said.

  “I didn’t intend for any of it to happen,” Turesobei said. He stopped short of saying it wasn’t his fault, fearing he would upset the Blood King.

  “The problem is that you do not understand what you are, what you truly are,” the Blood King said. “Yet you are willing to use what you do not understand to your advantage.”

  “Huh?”

  “Your destiny. It makes you powerful, but it is also a liability.”

  “Oh, that.”

  “Yes, that.”

  Images, thoughts, realizations echoed through his mind. He stood up. “My destiny! When I was trapped in the Wraithspace, I saw…I saw….” His mind went fuzzy and he nearly fainted. The ideas were like words on the tip of his tongue. He couldn’t quite form them, and the more he tried the weaker he became.

  “You don’t remember, master?” Lu Bei asked.

  Turesobei shook his head. “Not quite. Do you?”

  An expression of relief passed along the fetch’s face. “I do, master. But I can’t tell you.”

  One of the Blood King’s eyes blazed scarlet, the other violet. “I have had enough of this. I am going to break Chonda Lu’s spell of the most secret secrets. And then you will know what you are.”

  The Blood King stalked toward him, but Hannya stepped in his way.

  “My lord, this is unwise.”

  “I cannot alter the boy’s destiny, but I can tell him what it is. Maybe it will increase his common sense.”

  “Go ahead,” Turesobei said. “I’d like to know.”

  Lu Bei tut-tutted. “Bad idea, BK. Not gonna work.”

  The Blood King glared at the fetch then placed his palms against Turesobei’s temples and chanted. A surge of kenja washed over his skin, but none of it sank in. The Blood King’s pupils flared and his face creased as he projected more kenja toward Turesobei.

  A bolt of energy fired out from Turesobei’s kavaru and struck the Blood King. He cried out in surprise and stumbled back. Then he clenched his hands into fists and glared at Turesobei, as if that were his fault.

  “Reflection ward,” Lu Bei said. “Bound into the secrecy spell along with the one that keeps master or anyone else from removing his kavaru. It’s all locked onto the kavaru. Time locked. You know, that bit of magic Master should never have shared with one of you. I think you realize you’re never going to get past that time lock. Even you can’t—”

  The Blood King’s hand snapped out and grabbed Lu Bei by the throat. “Give me one reason I should not kill you?”

  Lu Bei gasped. “I’m…charming…and I…make a great…bowl of…tea.” The fetch winked. “That’s two…reasons.”

  Why did Lu Bei have to antagonize him?
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br />   “Please don’t hurt him,” Enashoma begged.

  “Don’t take my mistakes out on him,” Turesobei pleaded.

  “Your love for him gives me even better reason to punish him.” The Blood King squeezed harder. Lu Bei turned into a book and fell from his grasp. “You think that will protect you, fetch?!”

  “Beloved,” Hannya said, “the boy needs the fetch to assist him with his studies. Without him, how would Turesobei have figured out the scroll you gave him? Besides, the fetch is harmless.”

  He glared at her for several moments, then his eyes turned orange. “This, fetch, is the result of your insolence.”

  The Blood King drew the bronze spell strip and tortured them again. But this time, it was the straightforward type he’d first used. When it was done, he pointed at Turesobei. “Rest for two hours then report for training.”

  The Blood King stalked back toward the Throne Room. Hannya followed in his wake.

  Enashoma reached him first. “Sobei, are you okay?”

  “From the torture?”

  She nodded toward the trellis.

  “Yeah, I’m okay. I’m sorry you all got tortured. It was my fault.”

  “You didn’t know,” Kurine said.

  Lu Bei returned to fetch form. “The second time was my fault. I am deeply sorry.”

  Enashoma shot Lu Bei a nasty look. “You should’ve known better!”

  “Yes, madam. I should have.”

  “You’ve got to be more careful,” Iniru said to Turesobei, a hint of fear in her voice.

  Turesobei shook his head no and started to explain, but Awasa jumped in.

  “Magic is always a risk, and Turesobei can’t afford to be careful. This magic is far beyond him. And if he doesn’t succeed, the Blood King will have no more use for any of us.”

  Kurine wiped her tears away and sat beside Turesobei. “I do think you should rest more, especially for the next few days, whenever he lets you. Come eat with us again.”

  “I can’t let up.” He glanced at Iniru. Slowing down meant dealing with a different set of forces he didn’t understand and couldn’t control. “And I can’t let a mistake rattle me. Awasa is right. I have to work hard and I have to keep taking risks.”