The Sorceress's Apprentice

by Joshua Jackson

  “I said don’t move,” he repeated in a low, lethal growl.

  The cacophony of emotions in his eyes settled on anger. It was the deep, fierce anger of someone who’d lost a loved one. This wasn’t just some guy on a quest to save a random princess and get a crown out of it; for him, this was personal and that overrode any fear he might’ve had, which did not bode well for me.

  “Look,” I took on a plaintive tone, “I am sitting in freezing water. I would like to at least stand up before I freeze to death.”

  “What makes you think you’re leaving here alive?” he snarled, not moving the sword from my throat.

  “It would be a shame if you killed me after going through all that work to save me,” I remarked.

  “That was before I knew what you were, sorceress,” he retorted. “You broke into our house and stole our princess from us. You expect me to let you just walk away from that?”

  “I suppose you make a fair point,” I allowed, trying to stall so I could think of some way out of this.

  “Any last words?”

  “More of a question, if you do not mind,” I said.

  A look of confusion briefly fluttered across his face. Then he nodded.

  “The princess was more than just your princess to you, ya?” I inquired, still stalling. “You are not doing this for the crown, ya?”

  There was a slight droop in his shoulders and the Alkite’s anger faded slightly, replaced by pain. “She was—is my friend and I will get her back,” he answered, the anger building back up.

  “You love her, ya?”

  “I—I don’t know,” he was caught off guard by the question. “I guess I like her but I never thought about...Why am I telling you this? What matters is that I get her back and avenge her, starting with your head.”

  “Of course you must kill me. As a ruler myself, I can certainly understand the needs of justice,” I nodded, an insane idea starting to take shape in my brain. Insane enough it might actually work. “It is a pity though, that you will fail utterly to save your precious princess.”

  “You don’t know that,” the Alkite shot back.

  “You will not even get into the Eisenberge,” I stated plainly.

  “How would you know?”

  “Do you think you are the first knight to come galivanting into my domain?” I questioned sharply. “Since I took your princess, I have capture three such knights. They are now all dead of course.”

  “Another reason to kill you,” he commented.

  “Hardly,” I snorted disdainfully. “They were trespasser within my territory. It is well within my rights to execute them but you are missing the point.”

  “Which is?”

  “You are walking into a trap, of course,” I answered. “You see, I never expected Sennacheriv to just hand over the throne to us. I would happily take it if he did, but I knew he never would. I took Ariadne to bait him into sending his army into the Finsternis which would nullify your numerical superiority.”

  “But Sennacheriv isn’t sending his army,” the Alkite pointed out.

  “So I have noticed,” I retorted with a touch of bitterness. “But in preparation, I have loaded the Mountain Road with my soldiers, who will catch and kill anyone trying to get through. So far we are three for three.”

  “Fine, it’s a challenge; I never supposed this to be easy,” he said stiffly.

  “You mistake ‘challenge’ for ‘impossible’,” I said.

  “What does this have to do with me killing you?” he demanded, coming back to the point.

  “You need me to save your princess,” I stated.

  For a moment, I thought he might drop his scimitar in shock at the suggestion. “I…what?” he finally said.

  “If you want a prayer of a chance to save Ariadne, you need me to do it,” I repeated. “I can get you through the trap. I know the Eisenberge and can guide you through it. I know where Ariadne is and I can keep you alive long enough to get there. Most importantly, I have magic, which would give us a fighting chance against the Mistress.”

  “You’re telling me that you’d betray your Mistress and get back the princess you abducted?” He sounded dubious.

  “Ya,” I lied.

  “Why?”

  I gestured around with my cuffs. “Do you think I had the soldiers drag me down here and toss me in this freezing water for fun?”

  “Probably not.”

  “Of course not,” I emphasized. “It seems I may have saved Alkilion by abducting your princess. Quite by accident, I assure you, but it interfered with the Mistress’s own design and that did not go over very well. She stripped me of my authority, blocked my magic, and ordered me executed.”

  “Blocked your magic?”

  “These cuffs,” I lifted my bound arms up, “block magic and they are rather difficult to remove. I know how to do it, of course, but I do not have the materials needed.”

  The Alkite considered that for a long moment, his face pensive but not as angry as before. “Fine, let’s say I believe you,” he finally spoke. “Why fight against her? Why not just kill me and run away?”

  “First because I cannot kill you, not like this,” I pointed out. “Secondly, because she would know that I had escaped. She would never stop hunting me until I was killed. I would never be free, never have rest, not that I would live long anyway. The Mistress does not like to leave loose ends. It is me or her.”

  That was mostly true. I didn’t believe for a second I could run from her for long. Of course, I already knew I stood absolutely zero chance against her in a fight. But I also had no intention of fighting the Mistress or getting the princess back. I had very different plans for this Alkite knight, plans that would get me back in the Mistress’s favor. Not that he needed to know that.

  “And I am supposed to just…trust you?” he asked, clearly not convinced.

  “I do not expect you to trust me,” I replied. “I certainly do not trust you. But we have a common enemy and a common objective. What is the Ashkenazi saying? The enemy of my enemy—”

  “Is my friend,” he finished. “So what? I just follow you through the Eisenberge, we fight the Sorceress, rescue Ariadne, and go our separate ways?”

  “More or less,” I shrugged. “Although do not think for a moment it will be nearly as easy as you make it sound. There is a very good chance we will not survive beyond Black Falls, even with my help.”

  “Encouraging,” he remarked.

  “A poor chance is better than no chance at all,” I pointed out.

  “I suppose.” He sighed heavily, dropping his shoulders. He looked tired, I noticed for the first time, now that his anger was fading somewhat. I wondered how long he had been going.

  “Let’s say I decide to go along with this insanity,” he finally said after a few minute’s contemplation. “What is our first move?”

  “Get out of the water,” I answered. I had lost feeling in my extremities and probably already had a mild case of hypothermia. The Alkite didn’t look a lot better; his dark skin was turning ashen and his lips were bluing. “We will not get very far if we freeze to death.”

  The Alkite nodded and sheathed his scimitar. “Good point,” he acknowledged and reached out a hand, hauling me to my feet. Standing in the air, I keenly felt the cold and began to shiver uncontrollably as we started our way back to the beach.

  “Zimri,” he stated suddenly.

  “Huh?”

  “My name, it’s Zimri,” he restated.

  “Oh, I am—”

  “Athala, I remember,” he finished for me.

  “I guess you would,” I looked at him again. His jaw was set with the same determination I had seen that night nearly two weeks ago. He was brave, I’d give him that much.

  “Does this mean we are partners?” I asked.

  Zimri stopped and sighed. “Yeah,” he finally said, “I guess it does.”

  Chapter 13-Zimri

  I had completely lost my mind. That was the only explanation for m
e even considering this lunacy, let alone actually agreeing to it. The concussion, the stress of Baasha, and the nightmarish journey up the Finsternis Tal had snapped my twig. How was I actually seriously contemplating teaming up with the Sorceress’s apprentice? The very same apprentice who had so unceremoniously crashed Ariadne’s celebration and kidnapped her. I was supposed to trust my life to this psychopath?

  And yet…

  She made good points. Apparently three of the other contestants hadn’t even survived getting into the mountains. I wasn’t arrogant enough to believe I could easily succeed where they had failed. Certainly not on my own anyway. Even if I miraculously managed to, I would still have to navigate the Eisenberge. Then there was the issue of facing the Sorceress. What the apprentice had done was frightening enough and I knew it was only by her choice I hadn’t ended up a pile of ash like the Rabshakeh. And if that was the apprentice, I shuddered to think of what the Mistress could do. Athala was right; I needed her help to do this. So here I was.

  After retrieving my kayak, I found Athala again at the entrance to a massive cavern. She gave me an annoyed glare and her right foot tapped impatiently. But she was also shaking violently and her lips were starting to match her eyes.

  “You took your time,” she brusquely remarked. “What is that thing?”

  “It’s called a kayak but now it’s firewood,” I answered. “Where does that go?” I pointed to the cavern.

  “That is the Mountain Road,” Athala answered. “It is the only safe way into the Eisenberge.”

  “Fun,” I commented, looking back over at her. “You don’t look so good.”

  “I am not,” she answered, shaking. “I need you to undress me.”

  “You…what!?” I nearly tripped.

  “I need you to take off my clothes,” she emphasized the word. “I need to get warm soon or I will die. To get warm, I need to get this dress off, which I cannot do with these cuffs. I would much rather endure your clumsy fingers than freeze to death.”

  Despite the cold, heat bloomed in my face as I tried to process what she was saying. She wanted me to get her naked? The rational part of me understood why but the rest of me rebelled against the idea. What would Ariadne say? My sisters? My mother? I could hear my mother chastising me already.

  “I am certain you have slept with a few girls by now,” she pointed out, “so one more naked woman should not bother you.”

  “I have not!” My embarrassment turned to anger at the accusation. “And I am very uncomfortable with this. I would never strip a woman, even you, of her dignity.”

  “Schaf Alkite honor,” she growled. “You are perfectly happy to cut off my head but seeing me naked to save my life, now that is a horrifying thought!”

  “It’s my honor too,” I retorted.

  “Fine, keep your honor,” she shot back. “But do me the favor of executing me now since I would rather that than slowly freezing to death. Oh, and good luck saving your princess.”

  My jaw worked furiously as he mentally wrestled. “Shala all over again,” I finally mumbled, shoulders slumping in resignation. “Fine, I’ll do it.”

  She arched an eyebrow. “Most men would be eager to undress me, unless you do not find me attractive or are not interested in women.”

  “I’m not going to dignify the latter with a response,” I retorted, “and most men would be too frightened of getting turned to ash for even thinking of undressing you.”

  “True,” she acknowledged.

  Keeping my eyes firmly fixed on her forehead, I reached to the buttons on the dress and then drew back. It was so wrong, I felt sick. Of course, that might’ve been just the cold.

  “Before I turn into an icicle,” she prompted.

  I bit my bottom lip and then reached forward again, awkwardly trying to undo the top buttons. My frozen fingers clumsily worked the button free, practically ripping it off.

  “It would be easier if you actually looked at what you are doing,” she casually observed.

  “No,” I flatly answered.

  We lapsed into an uneasy silence as I worked her buttons free and then removed the dress. The soaked wool was heavy and clung to her like a second skin and frozen fingers did not help. Getting it past the cuffs was another challenge, eventually forcing me to cut the dress apart with my dagger. Eventually we got her free, leaving her shivering naked in the cold.

  I hadn’t planned on staring but I couldn’t help it. Tall, lithe, and toned, she might have been an exceptionally beautiful woman. But that wasn’t want made me stare.

  It was the dozens and dozens of scars.

  Her body seemed to have been a grotesque experiment in how much abuse the human body could take. The most noticeable was the long scar thick as my wrist running from her left clavicle across her chest. A spider web of scars radiated out from just under her rib cage on her left side. Her right hip was covered with a huge burn scar. Along her left forearm were a long series of slashes, like tally marks. Her back was a mass of scar tissue, scars on top of scars. I had seen enough floggings to recognize the wounds; this girl had been beaten severely, a lot.

  And those were just the big ones.

  “How are you alive?” I finally managed to ask.

  Her eyes narrowed into a warning glare as she saw where my eyes were. “Get a fire going,” she ordered sharply, “and give me your cloak.”

  “My cloak?” I snapped my face up to hers.

  “I am standing here in nothing so hand it over,” she barked.

  Shrugging, I handed the brown cloak over to her. She quickly wrapped around herself, using it simultaneously as a towel and blanket. Somehow, naked, blue with cold, and covered in scars, she managed to maintain a haughty, commanding air, ordering me around like her servant. It was actually kind of impressive.

  For the next twenty minutes or so, I worked on hacking the kayak to pieces with my scimitar. The weapon wasn’t designed for chopping wood, but the labor helped warm me up. It did not help my aching side. Every stroke, every breath was increasing agony but I figured that was preferable to freezing to death.

  “Could you light this?” I asked Athala, finishing up the kindling and piling it together.

  “Are you joking?” she retorted, lifting up the cuffs.

  “Oh, right,” I felt embarrassed. The cold was addling my brain. Fumbling around with my tinder box, I managed to get a small, smoky fire lit. It wasn’t much but it was something.

  “Give me your dagger,” Athala suddenly commanded.

  “What!?” I blinked in surprise.

  “I am going to need to do some tailoring,” she motioned to the body of the first soldier I’d killed, which she’d apparently dragged here. “I am not going to hike up the Mountain Pass in only my skin.”

  “You’re going to wear his armor?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Do not be ridiculous,” she snorted as she futilely attempted to pull off the man’s armor. “I am going take his undergarments.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “I think you might be different sizes,” I remarked. She shot me a withering look. “Need a hand?” I asked.

  “Was that a joke?” she snapped, looking at her cuffed wrists.

  “It could be,” I allowed an impish smile. “Don’t sorceresses have a sense of humor?”

  “Do Alkites?” she retorted.

  “Of course,” I answered, getting down to help her disassemble the soldier’s armor. It was a gruesome task, one I wasn’t entirely comfortable with.

  “Where should we bury him?” I asked, looking around.

  “Leave him,” Athala brusquely answered.

  “Leave him?” I was appalled.

  “Of course,” she answered, busying herself with altering the stretchy black top. “I am cuffed, you are injured, we are both exhausted, and we have no tools to dig a grave.”

  “But we have to bury him!” I protested.

  “Why?” Athala looked up at me.

  I just stared at her. “Why? Because it’s indecent a
nd humiliating!” I tried to explain. “He was one of your soldiers; certainly he deserves a decent burial and to be sent back to Adamah’s embrace.”

  “He was the Mistress’s soldier, not mine,” she corrected. “He was trying to kill me.”

  “But to leave him exposed like this, to be eaten by animals and birds,” I shuddered. “It’s so dishonorable.”

  “He is dead; he does not care about his honor,” she pointed out flatly. “He never did.”

  “But his family…”

  “Does not care either,” she bluntly stated. “He has been dead to them for a long time; he has been dead to himself for a long time.”

  “We can’t just leave him here,” I shook my head.

  Athala sighed heavily. “If you wish to bury him with all the proper rights or whatever, feel free. I have more important things to do.”

  I looked at the body and grimaced. Athala was technically right: we didn’t have the strength or the tools to bury him. But I couldn’t just leave him there. Grabbing his wrists, I dragged the body away from the fire, trying to find a depression or something to deposit the body. I did, rolling the body into it. Then finding some rocks, I piled them over the body and felt like I should say something. I felt awkward. What do you say at the grave of someone you killed? Eventually, I muttered some phrases I’d heard from Adamah’s priests at funerals and hurried back to our fire.

  Athala was more or less dressed, the shirt coming up to under her arms, the sleeves dangling empty and my cloak properly draped over her shoulders. She greeted me with a disdainful look.

  “Feel better about yourself?” she sardonically asked.

  “A little, yeah,” I shrugged. “I don’t get why you don’t have any respect for the dead.”

  “What is the point? They are dead,” she returned. “Tie the sleeves behind my back.”

  “Please,” I demanded.

  “What?” she arched an eyebrow.

  “Say ‘please’,” I repeated. “I’m not your servant or slave to order around. We are equal partners in this so you will ask me politely.”

  “We are not equal partners,” she snarled at me. “I am the sorceress, I know the Eisenberge, and I am the one who will keep you alive to rescue your precious princess.”