The Mad Apprentice

by Django Wexler

  She indicated Dex’s leg, now tightly bandaged. “But I was never good enough to accompany Kasdeja on her assignments. Before I was ready, she was killed in battle. Now my master sends me out alone. I think she would just as soon be rid of me, as a failed experiment.”

  Dear God. Geryon had warned her that not every Reader trained apprentices as “liberally” as he did, but she had never expected a story like this. And Dex, bought from her family like a loaf of bread. Who knows where Isaac came from either. She chewed on her lip. It’s inhuman.

  Geryon is a Reader, Ending had whispered. His magic is based on cruelty and death. But from the sound of it, Geryon was a veritable saint compared to the rest of the old Readers. Or is he? Alice remembered Emma, the girl Geryon had “helped” by relieving her of her Reader talent, who now served at the Library like an automaton. She shivered.

  Dex intervened rapidly to change the subject to a discussion of bound creatures and what they were capable of. Alice demonstrated the Swarm and the devilfish, and Isaac explained that since they’d last met, he’d bound a fire-spirit called a salamander, which could project fire or let him melt objects between his hands.

  Dex’s silver swords, she said, belonged to a holy warrior she called a caryatid. She used another creature that she called a “moon-sprite” to generate clouds of milky-white stuff, like solidified moonlight. She could sculpt and spin it into any form she wanted, as soft as cloth or as strong as steel. At Alice’s prompting, she crafted pillows and thin sheets for all four of them, fluffy and white and very faintly glittering, like clouds flecked with silver dust.

  Just the sight of the bedding made Alice realize how tired she was, and the others apparently felt the same way. Soranna checked Dex’s bandage one more time and then curled up, making a tight ball under her moon-sheet, and Dex herself stretched out, careful with her injured leg. Alice found herself yawning, and was just trying to decide whether or not her stomach would stretch for one more flaky meat-pastry, when Isaac touched her shoulder.

  “Alice.” He kept his voice low. “I think it’s time for that answer I owe you.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  ISAAC’S CONFESSION

  “I HAVE TROUBLE BELIEVING WHAT Soranna told us,” Alice said as they walked to the other end of the tent.

  “I don’t,” Isaac said grimly. “It makes sense, from the Reader’s point of view. Finding new talents before the others get to them has always been a problem. The Eddicant has created a breeding population to draw from that she can keep all to herself. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wasn’t the only one.”

  “But it’s horrible! She’s got those people living in a world full of monsters.”

  “Maybe she thinks she can breed them in harsh conditions to produce more Readers. Like picking the fastest horses for studs.”

  “You can’t treat people like horses.” Alice frowned. “You sound like you agree with what she’s doing.”

  “Of course not. It’s horrible. I’m just saying that it makes sense, from her point of view.” Isaac shook his head. “The old Readers do what’s best for themselves, always. It’s a bit like evolution, really. Any of them who weren’t smart and nasty enough were killed by the others long ago.”

  Once they were out of earshot of the others, Alice turned to face Isaac, arms folded.

  “All right,” she said. “Explain.”

  “I need to ask you a question first,” he said. “What are you really doing here? It can’t be just to rescue Jacob.”

  Alice blinked, taken aback. “I don’t see how that is any of your business,” she said. “Besides, he needs our help.”

  “But you didn’t want the rest of us to come with you. If you were just trying to rescue someone, you wouldn’t act like you were ashamed of what you were doing.”

  “I just didn’t want the rest of you to get hurt. Torment—”

  “You can’t predict what Torment will do, and you know it. You didn’t want us to come because you’ve got something else in mind.”

  “It’s not like that,” Alice said. She paused. “I am going to rescue Jacob. But there’s something else too. I didn’t want anyone getting hurt just for my sake.”

  “Oh.” Isaac regarded her thoughtfully. “I can believe that. So what is the ‘something else’? Some treasure for Geryon?”

  “No! If that was it, I would have left with Ellen. This is something . . . personal. And I told you, it’s no business of yours!” She glared at him. “What are you doing here? I’m sure it’s not out of the goodness of your heart.”

  “I’m here because of my brother,” Isaac said.

  “Evander?” He’d told Alice the story, back in the library, when he was trying to convince her to let him escape with the Dragon book. They’d grown up together, until Isaac’s master had traded Evander to another Reader like he was a milk-cow. “Why? Was he supposed to be on the expedition?”

  Isaac gave a bitter chuckle. “Who do you think we came here to find?”

  It took Alice a moment to parse that. When she did, her eyes went wide.

  “Wait. I thought Jacob was Esau’s apprentice.”

  “Esau changed his name,” Isaac said. “Like a pet.”

  “You’re certain?”

  “Of course I’m certain! I told you, we’ve met a few times since. He would joke about it.” Isaac’s expression was dark with anger. “I’m not surprised he killed Esau. That monster deserved it.”

  “But why would your master send you to kill him?”

  “Maybe it’s a test.” Isaac kicked idly at the fabric of the tent. “He wants to be sure I’m loyal enough, or something. Maybe he just forgot all about Evander, or who he traded him to. I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  “So you knew this from the beginning,” Alice said. Isaac’s sullen behavior and his bloodshot eyes suddenly made a little more sense. “What were you going to do when we found him?”

  “I have no idea. Try to help him escape, maybe. Or maybe convince him to come along peacefully and beg for mercy. I couldn’t let the rest of you find out. You’d have tried to stop me.”

  “And that’s why you were pretending I didn’t exist?” Alice said.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I thought . . . You were the only one who knew the story. I was afraid if I talked to you, I might let something slip, and you’d figure it out. You could have told the others.” He scratched his cheek and looked away, embarrassed. “I thought you were still angry with me.”

  “I ought to be. Angry, I mean. That was a dirty trick you pulled to steal the Dragon.”

  “I’m sorry,” Isaac said again, looking at the floor.

  “When I got here, though, all I could think was that it was good to see a familiar face.” Alice shook her head. “At least until you started giving me the silent treatment.”

  “I’m—”

  Alice rolled her eyes. “Please stop apologizing.”

  “Sorry,” Isaac muttered, then realized what he’d said and started giggling. The laughter was infectious, and Alice found herself grinning.

  “I’m glad I got the chance to tell you,” Isaac said. “I wouldn’t want you to think I was just . . .”

  “Being a jerk?”

  “Yeah.” He met her eyes. “Especially if that was . . . the last time we saw each other.”

  There was a long silence. Alice was blushing again, but she couldn’t look away. His eyes were brown, she noted inanely, with a ring of green specks. Pretty eyes.

  Isaac looked down, breaking the spell.

  “So what are you going to do now?” she said. “About Jacob. I mean, Evander. Whichever.”

  “I don’t know.” His frown returned. “I had only just worked up the nerve to tell you about it.”

  “If he is being controlled by Torment,” Alice said, “that might give us a way out of this. Geryon and the othe
rs wouldn’t need to punish him if it wasn’t his fault.”

  “You don’t know them,” Isaac said darkly. “But I guess it’s possible.”

  “We could even convince your master to take him back!” Alice felt a surge of excitement. She had been wondering what would happen to Jacob, in the event that they succeeded, and this seemed like the perfect answer. “You can be together again!”

  Isaac’s face was a mix of hope and his usual black certainty that something would go wrong. He nodded, grudgingly. “If we could do that . . .”

  “It’ll work. I know it’ll work.”

  “Yeah.” He scratched his cheek again. “Listen. I know you have your own reasons for being here—”

  “Not this again.”

  Isaac coughed. “I just wanted to say thank you. For coming to help Jacob, whatever made you do it.”

  “Oh. Well. Yes.” Now it was Alice’s turn to feel embarrassed and look away. “I know I told everyone I would do it alone, but I’m glad you stayed to help. It makes things . . . easier.”

  “Right.” Isaac looked back over his shoulder, toward the others, and cleared his throat loudly. “I suppose we had better get some rest too.”

  Dex’s moon-cloth blankets and pillows were as soft and fine as any down, and the thick carpets were as good as a featherbed. Alice suspected she would have gotten to sleep just as well if it had been a bed of nails, though; the past few hours had left her exhausted and aching. It seemed like no sooner had she put her head down on the pillow than Dex was shaking her awake, but she guessed she’d been asleep for hours.

  Actually, she thought as she sat up, it has definitely been a few hours. In her parched state, she’d guzzled quite a few pitchers of water during the meal. She caught Soranna’s eye as the girl began untying Dex’s bandages.

  “Has this tent got . . .” Alice gestured vaguely, then, at Soranna’s obvious incomprehension, finished, “. . . a toilet? Or something?”

  “Oh!”

  Soranna covered her mouth with one hand and stifled a giggle. She pointed Alice to a discreet alcove, concealed behind a hanging fold of purple silk. By the time Alice emerged, much relieved, the girl had unwound Dex’s bandage to reveal a thin, puckered pink scar, vivid against her dusky brown skin. It looked painful, but from Dex’s face as she put her weight on the leg, Soranna’s magic had done its work well.

  “You have my gratitude, Sister Soranna,” Dex said. “I don’t know that even the Most Favored could have put me back together so adeptly, and she has a great deal of experience at it.”

  Soranna blushed, but she was obviously pleased. Alice grabbed a few leftover scraps of fruit from the table and gathered everyone by the tent flap. Their time in the pocket-world was nearly up, and everything was beginning to look a bit insubstantial, as though it was preparing to return to the mist out of which it had been formed.

  “Remember,” Alice said, “stay as close together as you can. I’ll do my best to keep Torment from separating us, but he’s probably stronger than I am. Hold hands if you need to. Are you ready?”

  “Ready,” Isaac said. Dex grinned, and Soranna gave a tiny nod.

  Alice swept open the tent flap and ducked through, feeling the solid mist passing all around her. The tower room was just as she’d left it, with Ellen’s ruined barricade slumping against the wall by the door. The others appeared behind her, and the doorway of mist wavered for a moment and then collapsed.

  “I’ll try to open a path to the keep,” Alice said. “My guess is that’s where Torment is keeping Jacob.”

  “I’m not sure that will be necessary.” Isaac pointed to the doorway.

  Looking outside, Alice could see that the view had changed. She was once again looking out on the broad avenue ending, far in the distance, at the domed keep’s front gate.

  An invitation, the Dragon called it. Apparently now the others are included as well. She wasn’t sure if this was a positive development or not.

  “I don’t like it,” Isaac said. “Why would he let us just walk up to his front door? It must be a trap.”

  “It could be,” Alice admitted. “But if we’re not going to leave, what other choice do we have?”

  Isaac grimaced, but said nothing. Alice led the way out onto the bridge, with Dex and Soranna close behind. Isaac brought up the rear, keeping a wary lookout over his shoulder.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  THE GIANT’S PLAYGROUND

  “THERE!” ISAAC SAID.

  Alice followed his pointing finger. Something was moving on a nearby bridge, paralleling their route to the dome. It kept to the shadows, but she got a glimpse of a long, low shape, with dark fur rippling along its flanks. When it turned to look at them, the lantern light made its yellow eyes glow like a pair of headlamps.

  “They’re definitely following us,” Isaac said.

  “I have seen them as well,” Dex said.

  “They’re escorts,” Alice muttered. “I think they’re making sure we don’t leave the path.”

  Alice wished she didn’t feel like a fly accepting an invitation from a spider. Or a rabbit from a wolf. She grit her teeth. If it comes to that, we’ll show him we aren’t just a pack of rabbits.

  A pair of enormous stone doors were set into the wall at the end of the avenue. Alice strode out ahead of the others and pushed on one of them, expecting to have to use Spike’s power to shift it, but to her surprise the stone moved easily under her hand. The big door swung inward without even a whisper of sound, revealing an enormous chamber beyond.

  It was the sort of room that medieval kings had built to impress their subjects, and Alice supposed it must serve much the same purpose here. Everything was on a grand scale, from the rows of massive pillars by the walls to the mountainous staircase at the rear leading up to a curtained doorway. Torches were bracketed to the stone at regular intervals, and their light glittered off gold fittings encrusting every surface: banded around the pillars like the rings of giants, edging the steps, even in elaborate designs inlaid into the smooth, polished floor.

  Most decorated of all was the statue, which stood in the middle of the room as a gaudy centerpiece. It went all the way to the ceiling, at least fifty feet overhead, and depicted a huge, muscular, bearded man, wearing only a loincloth, his hands pressed flat against the vaulted ceiling as though he were another pillar. He was made entirely of polished steel, and every curve of his muscles gleamed in the torchlight. Heavy gold chains hung around the man’s neck, and bracelets adorned his wrists and ankles, each a broad hoop of gold or silver that Alice could easily have stepped through. His eyes looked directly down at the entrance, and his expression was thoughtful, as though he were deciding whether to crush the insects below under his sandaled feet.

  It was all, Alice felt, in extremely bad taste. Her father had told her once, after they’d visited a colleague’s over-decorated mansion, that the fancier the display someone felt they had to put on, the more desperately they wanted to impress you. Even her father might have been awed by the sheer amount of precious metal on display here, but Alice had spent enough time in the world of the Readers to realize that wealth in ordinary, human terms meant nothing to them. There was no point to hoarding gold and gems when in some book, somewhere, there was probably a creature that could create them out of thin air.

  By his expression, Isaac had similar thoughts, but Soranna’s eyes were wide. For someone who had grown up in a forest, it probably was impressive. Dex had a calculating look on her face, like a thief sizing up a potential haul.

  The front door swung shut behind them, as silently as it had opened. Alice led the way across the polished floor, her boots clattering at every step. They were just coming to the feet of the great statue when the curtain at the top of the steps billowed. Alice halted at once, ready to grab her threads.

  Jacob emerged and peered down at them, arms folded. He looked d
irty and wan, eyes sunk deep in their sockets and hair wild and unkempt. Alice heard the hiss of Isaac’s breath beside her.

  “What are you doing here?” Jacob said, in a voice that boomed and echoed throughout the chamber. It was nothing like the hesitant, halting tone he’d used the last time he’d spoken to Alice. “I did not give you permission to enter my domain.”

  “We’re here to help you!” Alice called back. Her voice bounced around the room and came back to her in weird, distorted echoes.

  “Here to kill me, you mean, at your masters’ bidding,” Jacob said. When Alice hesitated, he laughed. “I hope I’ve already demonstrated the foolishness of making the attempt.”

  “Torment is using you,” Alice said. “Just . . . come down here and talk to us, all right?”

  “Don’t be an idiot.” Jacob raised his hands. “I have taken up my so-called master’s mantle. The sooner the other Readers accept that, the better. I should obliterate the lot of you, to make sure they get the message.” He cocked his head. “However, I will show mercy. Leave this place and never return, and you may keep your lives.”

  “I . . .” Alice paused, not sure what to say. Isaac stepped in front of her.

  “Evander!” he shouted. “I know it’s not really you saying that. You’d never be this stupid.”

  Jacob blinked. It was hard to read his expression at this distance, but he seemed uncertain. His hands fell to his sides.

  “I . . . Isaac?” The deep, booming voice was gone. “Is that you?”

  “It’s me!” Isaac took a step forward.

  “You came . . . for me?”

  “Of course.” There was a hitch in Isaac’s voice. “Of course I did.”