The Necromancer: The Reluctant Apprentice

by Rani Clark

  Mr. Ragnar stood on the smoke and brought his left hand up. With two fingers he drew a half circle in the air, black light appearing as he moved his hand. With two fingers from his other hand he made a motion as if he was pulling back on a bow. A black streak of power resembling an arrow appeared as he drew the invisible string back. He let it fly, hitting the Demon Beast in the chest. It stumbled back into the hole and vanished, a loud crack thundering through the air.

  Jaska stared at the mess he had caused. His master fell to the ground, blood dripping from several injuries. He looked at Monarch. “What just happened?”

  “Your master saved you,” he said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t. My power isn’t quite up to the task yet.”

  “It’s alright.”

  Mr. Ragnar pushed himself to stand and held his arm, “Jaska! What in the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

  Monarch stepped aside to allow Jaska to step forward. The Spirit Guide tipped his hat and vanished. “I-I was practicing summoning things. I’m sorry, sir.”

  “By yourself? What were you thinking? You could have been-”

  “I didn’t know I would summon that Demon Beast. I’ve been doing this for almost two weeks.”

  Mr. Ragnar glared at him, blood flowing from a cut on the side of his head. He held his arm, “I might need some help sewing myself up.”

  Jaska nodded and walked with him inside. His master sat on the couch with a grunt, “I’ll go and get the first aid kit,” he muttered.

  He was seeing how irresponsible he had been the more he thought about it. He could have hurt Leif or Lantern. The Demon Beast wouldn’t have stopped. Mr. Ragnar was taking his shirt off when he stepped back into the room. He had never seen his master without a shirt. There was a scar shaped like a bite mark on his shoulder and four long scratches across his chest that looked close to healing.

  “Is your arm ok?” Jaska asked, handing him the kit.

  “Well I was thrown into a fence.” He began to wipe the blood from his arm, “Mind taking care of my face?”

  Jaska reached into the box and took out an antiseptic wipe. He began to clean the blood from Mr. Ragnar’s head, trying to be gentle. “I’m sorry. I was just trying to practice.”

  “Unless I’m with you don’t try to summon anything.”

  “Sorry, sir.”

  Mr. Ragnar flinched, “Careful. On the plus side, I’m impressed you summoned something so powerful. However, you look like death. How long has it been since you’ve seen the sun?”

  He shrugged, “Does it matter? Hold still.”

  Mr. Ragnar waited to speak until he was finished with his head. “It matters because you don’t look well. How much sleep do you get?”

  “I typically stay up until four or five and sleep most of the day.” He looked at his lap, “I’m sorry I almost got you killed.”

  “You also put Leif, Lantern, and yourself in danger. It was a dumb thing to do.” He flexed his shoulder, “Go to bed.”

  Jaska nodded and retreated upstairs, feeling terrible for what he had almost done. He hadn’t meant to hurt anyone; the spell had sounded interesting enough. He took off his shoes and climbed into bed. He turned over and stroked Lantern’s fur as he tried not to think about what had occurred in the backyard. He drifted off into a miserable sleep.

  20

  He hoped Mr. Ragnar was alright. He hadn’t been in trouble here yet and found himself feeling odd about it. When he got in trouble with his mother he had been grounded, but he didn’t think Mr. Ragnar would ground him. There wasn’t anything to ground him from anyway. Lantern held his hand as they walked down to the dining room at a reasonable hour. Leif was making oatmeal and Mr. Ragnar was sitting at the dining room table reading the newspaper.

  Mr. Ragnar didn’t say anything until Jaska had gotten Lantern his breakfast. “I expect you to help me clean up the backyard.”

  “Yes, sir. By the way, how did you do all of that last night?”

  “The fighting? It’s just a few tricks using necromancy.”

  “The arrow thing was really cool.”

  Mr. Ragnar stared at him in surprise before speaking, “Thank you. I can teach it to you.”

  Leif came in with three bowls of oatmeal. He set the food down before going back for the toast, jam, and orange juice. “What happened last night?”

  “Jaska summoned a Demon Beast on accident. I had to kill it.”

  Leif stared at Jaska, “You did what?”

  “It was an accident. I’ve been practicing summoning spells and . . . it was an accident.”

  “That’s one hell of an accident. Jeez,” Leif muttered. “Well, I obviously sleep like a log,” he joked. “I didn’t hear anything.”

  “Can we not talk about this? I know what I did was wrong, can you just ground me or yell at me and get it over with?”

  Mr. Ragnar chuckled, “I’m not going to ground you. I’m angry, but I’m not grounding you. Think of the cleaning as your punishment.”

  “That’s it?”

  “I’m not your father and I’m not going to treat you like an eight-year-old. You screwed up, did something extremely dumb and dangerous, and now you know. Don’t summon things without me.”

  “Vladimir, you old softy.”

  Jaska glanced at Monarch who had appeared in the chair next to Lantern, “He was helping me.”

  “That doesn’t make me feel better.”

  “It should, I tried to help. If not for that Demon Beast we would be doing fine and not having this conversation at all.”

  “I find it extremely disturbing that you thought it was a good idea for him to do this. You knew he wasn’t ready.”

  “I asked him if he thought it was a good idea. He wanted to continue. To be honest, I didn’t think he would summon a monster.”

  “Good to know that the being who is supposed to be helping my young apprentice is also irresponsible.”

  “Sorry. I’m not here to tell him not to do something like that. You’re supposed to be teaching him these things and I help him out. I guide him through things while his main teacher is a Master Necromancer. And one so powerful and all-knowing at that.”

  “Aren’t you smug.”

  “Apparently so.”

  Jaska stifled a laugh and looked at his lap. He heard Mr. Ragnar make an angry sighing noise before he spoke. “This is exactly what I need right now. An apprentice who doesn’t think he’s smart and is irresponsible because he doesn’t understand his abilities and a Spirit Guide who thinks he’s got all the answers.”

  “I never said I think that. I never even said I know that, but since you put it out there.”

  “Monarch, go away.”

  “Fine. See you later, Jaska.”

  Mr. Ragnar tapped his fingers on the table, “I take it you’ve gotten better acquainted?”

  “Yes. I actually like him, we’ve become friends.”

  “I’m glad to hear that.” He put his fingers to the injury on the side of his face, “I don’t heal as fast as I used to and I really don’t want to have to clean up after you all of the time.”

  “I’m sorry about yesterday, ok? I don’t know what else I can say.”

  “I just want you to understand that when you do things like this with necromancy it has serious consequences.” Mr. Ragnar stood, “That’s all I’m going to say about it. Finish breakfast and meet me outside.”

  Jaska watched him go, he had never seen the man this mad. Leif cleared his throat, “Wow. You really pissed him off.”

  “It isn’t like I meant to.”

  “He knows that, he just doesn’t want you to get hurt since, apparently, you’re great at necromancy.”

  “I’m not. If I was I wouldn’t have summoned that thing.”

  “By accident. You didn’t mean to so relax.” Leif leaned back and sipped his coffee, “Besides, he’s really proud of you. He likes that he has an apprentice who can actually do something.”

  Jaska stood, “I better get out there to help hi
m.” He didn’t enjoy the fact that he was good at necromancy, he wanted to be bad at it.

  Lantern followed him. Jaska sighed and put on the creature’s jacket before heading outside. Lantern leapt into the snow, tossing it in the air with a shrieking laugh. Mr. Ragnar was surveying the damage, looking miserable as he did so. Jaska stood beside him and did the same. He hadn’t paid that much attention to what the beast had done to the backyard. It had cracked the cement patio, the tree was on its side, and the fence was dented from where Mr. Ragnar had been thrown.

  “That must have really hurt,” Jaska muttered.

  “It did. Let’s start with the tree.” He handed his student an axe.

  Jaska nodded and followed him to where the tree had fallen. Mr. Ragnar sighed, “I’m going to have to plant a new one.”

  The two started chopping the tree. Jaska was already viewing this as the worst punishment. “Sir?” he asked after he swung the axe.

  “What?”

  “I’m sorry I’m not better at this. I know if I was-”

  “Hang on.” Mr. Ragnar stood up straight, “You are incredibly good at this. That’s why it’s such a problem.”

  “I don’t think-”

  “You were going to graduate high school early.”

  “I was supposed to go earlier, but my mother didn’t feel like I was emotionally ready.”

  “Then why don’t you think-?”

  “Can we just get this done, Mr. Ragnar?”

  He nodded and didn’t say anything else. By the time they were finished cleaning things up it was nearly four. Jaska was soaked by the snow and freezing, Lantern had gone in hours ago. Mr. Ragnar set the shovel he had been using against the house before they headed inside.

  “Go and get into some dry clothes, I’ll make hot chocolate.”

  Jaska glanced at him before heading up to put on his gray hoodie and sweatpants. He touched his chest, it had started burning again. He looked at himself in the mirror and noticed a red mark on the left side of his chest. It might have been red from him scratching at it, but there was an indentation coming up through the red. Rather than asking Mr. Ragnar he put his hoodie back on and tried to ignore it no matter how uncomfortable it was.

  Lantern was playing with his blocks in the living room. Jaska sat across from him and began to stack the blocks with him. Mr. Ragnar brought a mug of hot chocolate into him as he sat down on the couch dressed in dry pajamas and his robe. He leaned back and sipped his hot drink.

  “We’ll start training again tomorrow.”

  Jaska nodded and continued to stack the structure he was mindlessly building. Lantern knocked the blocks down and started again. “I really am sorry about last night.”

  “It’s fine. I am impressed by what you did. It’s difficult to summon a creature like that, even for Master Necromancers. And you did it by accident.”

  He scratched his chest, “How can I learn to fight like that?”

  “Since you seem to have summoning down, why don’t we work on fighting skills? I can teach you how to create energy at the very least.” Mr. Ragnar set his mug on the coffee table, “We need to talk about something else.”

  Jaska glanced at him, “What?”

  “Your place here. How are you liking necromancy?”

  He stared at his master, “What?”

  “How are you liking it? You obviously like something about it since you were practicing without me.”

  “If I say I liked it what happens?”

  “Nothing. I just want to know if you enjoy it. I don’t want to force you into something you hate. However, since you have this much power, as you’ve demonstrated, I think it’s best if you train how to use it.”

  “I don’t know. What happened was just . . . I guess it was a way to get my mind off of being here.”

  “Because you hate it here.”

  “Of course I hate it here,” he snapped. “Why the hell would I like it?”

  Mr. Ragnar shrugged, “I don’t know. Just a thought.” He sipped his drink, “You never answered my question.”

  “I don’t know yet.” He hadn’t been thinking about his enjoyment when practicing those summoning spells. “I don’t have a choice to be here anyway so what else can I do?”

  Leif interrupted anything Mr. Ragnar was going to say when he stepped in wearing an apron, “I’m making Spanish style spaghetti. Who doesn’t like seafood?”

  Jaska raised his hand.

  “Fair enough. Separate dish for you. Want to help, Lantern?”

  Lantern leapt up and followed him, clicking his claws as he did so. Jaska drank the rest of his hot chocolate as Mr. Ragnar took a book from the shelf and began to read it. When the doorbell rang Jaska stood to get it.

  “Freddie?”

  Freddie Hallows stood at the door. The snow fell lightly across her long hair. She smiled at him, “Jaska, so good to see you! Is Vladimir here?”

  “Yeah, come in.”

  Mr. Ragnar stood, “Freddie? What are you doing here?”

  “What a great way to greet me. I feel so welcome.”

  He kissed her lightly on the lips, “That isn’t what I meant and you know it.” He took her coat, sliding it from her shoulders and hanging it on the coatrack. “You look lovely.”

  Rather than a dress like the last time he had seen her, Freddie was dressed in thin black pants and a red shirt with long sleeves. “Thanks. I thought I would drop by and see how things were.”

  “Things are . . . fine.”

  “I saw your fence. I would love to hear how that got dented, I saw the blood too.”

  “Have a seat in the living room while I make some tea.”

  Freddie followed Jaska into the living room. She sat down on the couch and crossed her legs, “How’s your training coming along?”

  He rubbed his chest, shifting uncomfortably, “Fine, I guess. I sort of summoned a Demon Beast accidentally while Mr. Ragnar wasn’t here and that’s why the fence is dented.”

  Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped, “You summoned a Demon Beast?”

  “It was an accident,” he muttered. “Mr. Ragnar got hurt protecting me from it.”

  “How did you accidentally do something like that?”

  “Monarch and I have been practicing summoning ghosts and I wanted to try something powerful. I didn’t know it would be dangerous although he did say it was a bad idea. Mr. Ragnar killed the thing before things got out of hand.”

  “Why wasn’t he helping you?”

  “He’s been working so I’ve been practicing by myself.”

  There was a crash and shouting from the kitchen. Jaska stood to see what it was. He thought it was Leif and Mr. Ragnar arguing, but to his surprise he stepped in to see Lantern covered in red sauce. “What happened?”

  “He reached for the bowl and grabbed it before I could get it,” Leif told him. “Luckily, that was just the remnants.”

  Jaska sighed, “Alright, well, he needed a bath anyway.” He picked Lantern up, “I’ll be right back.”

  Lantern was licking the sauce from his fingers as they walked up the steps and towards the bathroom. Jaska set the creature down and began to fill the tub with warm water, squirting in a few shots of bubble bath. Jaska grabbed a towel and wet it before wiping the excess sauce from the creature’s feathers. Lantern huffed and clicked his claws.

  “Don’t reach for things that are up high. You know how to ask so don’t give me that look,” he added when Lantern blinked at him with his puppy-dog eyes, his ears plastered to his head.

  He lifted the creature into the bath and started gently scrubbing him. He had purchased baby shampoo, not sure if he could use regular shampoo. “Why did you even want to try this? You don’t like seafood.”

  After a few minutes of scrubbing and rinsing, the creature was clean. Jaska lifted him out of the bath and wrapped him in a towel. It was in these moments of caring for the creature that he felt the best. He didn’t think about necromancy or missing his old life. All he thought a
bout was what was best for Lantern. It was relaxing.

  “Dinner!” Mr. Ragnar called up the stairs.

  “I’ll be down in a minute!”

  Lantern pointed to his mouth. Jaska nodded and brushed him down quickly, he was hungry from working out in the snow all day and he was feeling incredibly weak. Leif didn’t look happy when he came down. Jaska set Lantern in his chair and went to get him his dinner.