The Sorceress's Apprentice

by Joshua Jackson

  Adler glared at me but wisely didn’t say anything.

  “Just how dangerous is this raid?” Rolf asked.

  “Having your son along will greatly increase our odds of success,” Athala deftly answered. “Since Zimri and I will be going after Aidan, the castle will be focused on us, not Titan.”

  “That is hardly a guarantee,” Adler noted with a snort.

  “We are raiding the fortress of a sorcerer,” Athala retorted. “Of course, it is not guaranteed.”

  Rolf and Liesl looked thoughtfully at each other.

  “You cannot seriously be considering this.” Adler was horrified. “If they fail, if he gets captured, Lord Aidan will burn our entire village to the ground—with us in it!”

  “And if—when we succeed, you will be free of the Mistress for the first time in almost a century!” Athala rebutted sharply.

  “Until she puts in a new master of us,” Adler countered. “Or simply razes us to the ground in retribution like she did Wiese. Even if you win, we lose.”

  “The Mistress did not raze Wiese; I did,” Athala corrected. “It is a long story. The point is, with Aidan gone, there will not be a functioning military force for kilometers. You will have time to prepare a defense.”

  “Defense?”

  “Fight back,” I said. “You have resources and people here. The Immergrün is easily defendable. You can carve out your own independent kingdom, free of the Sorceress, right here.”

  “Fight back? Against the Mistress?” Adler scoffed. “No one fights the Mistress.”

  I sighed. “Why not?” I asked. “I am and look how far I’ve gotten. You don’t know your own strength and you don’t know until you try. What’s your alternative? Living in slavery for the rest of your life?”

  “It is living,” Adler growled.

  “No,” I shook my head. “You’re existing and that’s not living. Trust me; I know the difference. We’re offering you the chance at something more, something better. We’re offering you a chance to take command of your own destiny.”

  “That sounds very good, gebraten,” Adler said. “But will you fight with us, or will you tear Aidan down and leave us to fend for ourselves?”

  “How about I cut the Sorceress’s head off? Does that work for you?” I snarled. “Look, we can beat Aidan but we need Titan to do it.”

  “Titan, what do you think?” Rolf asked.

  “I want to go,” Titan said a little unsure of himself. “Zimri says I can do it and he would know. Besides, what do I have to look forward to? Getting drafted into the Mistress’s army and getting my mind shattered? I would rather die trying to give myself a real life than just sit around, waiting for that living death.”

  “And what about us? Do our lives mean nothing to you?” Adler demanded of his brother.

  “They are going anyway,” Titan quietly answered. “So whatever you are afraid of happening will happen whether I go or not. I might as well make sure they succeed.”

  “Titan,” Liesl looked earnestly at her son, “You are 16 now. This is your choice. We cannot tell you what to do.”

  “Mom!” Adler exclaimed. “You cannot let him do this!”

  “What do you want to do, Titan?” Rolf ignored his elder son. “Do you want to go?”

  Titan shot Adler an uncomfortable, almost sheepish look, and nodded. “Ya, I do.”

  “Well,” Rolf sighed heavily, “I cannot stop you. Take whatever weapons you need.”

  “I cannot believe this,” Adler snarled as he stormed out of the forge.

  Titan’s shoulders slumped. “Maybe I should stay,” he said.

  “No,” I shook my head. “Don’t let Adler run your life. That’s the whole point: you get to choose your destiny.”

  “He is just worried,” Rolf said encouragingly. “A lot of things can go wrong.”

  “They won’t,” I assured.

  “Do not make promises you cannot keep and do not take me for a fool. I know just how dangerous this stunt is; probably better than you do,” Liesl pointed out tightly, moving to the door. “Just make sure Aidan is dead when all is said and done.”

  “I suppose you will be needing some arms,” Rolf observed with equal tightness. “Why do we not pick something out for you?”

  “Ya, sure,” Titan nodded with no enthusiasm, leaving Athala and I alone.

  “Adamah’s breath, you’d think we were already dead,” I remarked to my friend. “We do have a chance, right?”

  “A fair one, I think,” Athala said. “But you must excuse a people who have never known anything but slavery to the Mistress. When you have lived in total fear for so long, it is hard to have courage.”

  “That was remarkably insightful,” I said, surprised.

  “I am always insightful; I just do not always speak what is on my mind, unlike a certain Alkite I know,” she commented.

  “Point taken,” I mocked a wince.

  “Another insight is that you are a hypocrite,” she added.

  “How so?” I asked, caught off guard.

  “You talk about fighting so they can choose their own path in life and not having someone else dictate your life for you,” she said, “yet is that not what you yourself are doing?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Why are you here, Zimri?”

  I frowned. “I’m here to rescue Ari.”

  “Perhaps,” Athala admitted. “I have seen your loyalty to your friends to know you would literally throw yourself at a dragon for them. Perhaps you would have come here on your own. But is that what truly brought you here?”

  “I’m still not following.”

  “Zimri, do you want to marry Ariadne?” Athala asked pointedly.

  “I’d be happy to marry her, sure,” I replied, still confused.

  “That is not what I asked,” she said. “Do you want to marry Ariadne?”

  “I suppose not,” I said.

  “Do you want to be king?” she prompted.

  “Adamah’s breath, no!” I exclaimed. “You know that.”

  “So if it were solely up to you, would you have come to the Eisenberge, knowing that the result would either be death or marrying a woman you do not want to marry to inherit a throne you do not want?”

  “Well, when you put it that way…”

  “Then why are you here?” she asked again.

  “I guess because my family told me to,” I admitted, “because that’s what’s best for my family.”

  “Exactly,” Athala declared triumphantly. “Hypocrite.”

  We stood in silence for a long moment as I had uncomfortable flashbacks to my conversation with the deranged priest of Shama’im. “My dear boy,” he had said, “why you do anything is the most important part. You will need reasons of your own to complete your quest.”

  “That’s why I started,” I said, “but not why I’m here anymore. After seeing Helga and her family, getting to know Titan, and understanding the fear and misery that the Sorceress inflicts, I’m here to end her rule. Of course I’m here to save Ari, but I’m here to save the whole Eisenberge.”

  “I think you are having delusions of grandeur,” Athala noted sardonically.

  I laughed. “I’m not savior or anything like that,” I said. “I’m just talking about ending the Sorceress’s reign. It’s what I was doing anyway but now I’m not doing it because my parents told me to but because I want to give these people a chance, you know?”

  “Not really,” Athala shrugged. “I am just doing this to stay alive.”

  “I guess you wouldn’t,” I responded. “But I want to help them, given them a chance to choose their own destiny without that psychopath controlling their lives.”

  “And marrying Ariadne and becoming king?”

  “I’m not sure,” I sighed. “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there. But even if I must become king, if it saved Ari and freed the Eisenberge, I’ll happily pay that price.”

  Athala gave me an appraising look. “You have grown,” sh
e commented.

  “You’re still taller,” I joked.

  “No, I meant you have matured,” she said. “You are surer of yourself, more confident in what you are doing. I guess you have figured out your purpose.”

  “Yeah, I guess I have,” I smiled. “I guess that priest was right.”

  “Priest?”

  “Long story,” I brushed off, recalling another part of that conversation. “Speaking of which, do you know an Olympia?”

  “Like the goddess?” Athala snorted. “She has not been here in over a century, assuming she ever existed in the first place.”

  “That’s what Aidan said,” I frowned. “A priest I talked to told me to seek out an Olympia.”

  “He probably meant the goddess,” Athala answered. “She was the goddess of the Eisenberge before the Mistress took over but that was a long time ago. She is not of much use now.”

  “That’s okay,” I felt relieved. “If my experience with the priest was any indication, I could do without divine aid.”

  That earned a raised eyebrow.

  “He was weird,” I explained.

  “That sounds entertaining,” she remarked.

  “I’m certain it would’ve amused you,” I answered.

  We stood in comfortable silence while Titan and Rolf discussed which sword was best for him. After all we’d been through, it felt so right and natural to be with her. Not saying or doing anything; just being.

  Surreptitiously, I glanced over at her. Athala looked little different: sky blue eyes had that hard intensity to them, her jaw set firmly, and stony visage unreadable. Yet, she was completely different. She was more...human, I guess. No longer was she this monster from legend. Athala was a woman who thought, who dreamed, who shouted, who cried, and even, when someone’s butt was on fire, laughed. She was my friend, one I had a hard time imagining life without.

  “You know, I’m really happy I came,” I remarked, breaking the silence.

  “Oh?” Athala asked, not looking up.

  “Yeah, because I got to meet you,” I said, “And that’s something I wouldn’t trade for the world.”

  Chapter 29-Athala

  “I think he is in love with it,” Titan sardonically remarked.

  “How could I not be?” Zimri defended himself, lovingly holding his new sword. “This might be the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”

  “Ya, my dad knows how to make a sword,” Titan proudly commented.

  “That’s the truth,” Zimri agreed.

  I just rolled my eyes; boys and their toys. “We have work to do,” I grumbled, trying to get them to focus. “The Festung is just beyond these trees.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Zimri nodded dismissively. “We’ve been over this. We jump the guards at the gate, you get the Baasha’s location, Titan goes after him, and we go after Aidan. Pretty simple.”

  “Not nearly as simple as you think,” I remarked with a sigh. “Come on; there is no point in waiting around.”

  Zimri and Titan nodded, finishing off the last of their dinner Liesl had graciously packed. Standing, we all took a drink and headed out into the clearing before the Festung.

  “Adamah’s breath,” Zimri remarked as he saw the Festung glinting in the moonlight.

  “Ya, it is impressive,” I blandly replied.

  “How did they build walls that high?” he asked. “They’ve got to be 150 meters high.”

  “Something like that,” I concurred. “Short answer is they did not build them; rather they carved the walls from the side of the mountain.”

  “That’s got to be impregnable,” Zimri commented.

  “It has never been taken by an attacking army,” I offered.

  “That’s encouraging,” Zimri scoffed.

  “We are not an attacking army,” I replied with far more confidence than I felt.

  “It is not impregnable,” Titan suddenly spoke, studiously examining the Festung. “I can think of a couple different ways an army could take it.”

  “Really?” Zimri raised an eyebrow.

  “It would not be easy,” Titan answered, a bit abashed, “but it is possible.”

  “Boys!” I hissed. “Stealth!”

  They quieted down and we skulked quickly across the opening toward the Festung. The moon was far brighter than I’d like but it wasn’t full at least. We didn’t have the time to sit around for a cloudy night or the new moon, still several weeks away. Still, I felt like we were running in bright pink dresses in broad daylight.

  Titan suddenly halted. “There are soldiers up ahead,” he reported. “We should go that way.” He pointed to the right, towards the side of the wall.

  “The gate is over there,” I countered. “We have to face the soldiers sooner or later.”

  “I know,” Titan nodded. “But they can see us coming if we attack straight on. If we hug the wall, we can use the curvature to hide our approach until the last possible moment.”

  “He’s got a good point,” Zimri concurred and reluctantly, I agreed. Crouching low, we scurried away from the gate towards the far side of the wall.

  The delay of a quarter hour was irritating but it probably gave us the best chance. Zimri and Titan exploded from around the curve of the wall. Immediately I saw why Zimri so badly wanted Titan with us. Having a second sword prevented the soldiers from forming a shield wall and focusing solely on Zimri, giving the Alkite the freedom to take the soldiers on one at a time.

  That and Titan was a marvel with the blade. He moved with an astonishing speed and grace, maximizing his long frame to scythe through the dozen or more soldiers. Zimri was good but Titan was special.

  “Do not kill them!” I shouted, earning an annoyed snarl from Zimri, who suddenly held back from decapitating a soldier he’d just down. “Find the officer in charge!”

  That part wasn’t hard: the officer was the only one not fighting, instead making a run for the gateway. Titan sprinted after him, closing the distance in long, quick strides. The officer turned, trying to defend himself, only for Titan to swiftly disarm him and slam a gauntleted fist into his face. He crumpled to the ground.

  “I may have over did it!” Titan called, turning to strike down another soldier, reflexively cutting open his throat. “SORRY!” he called.

  “She has enough!” Zimri shouted, hamstringing the soldier currently engaging him.

  Within a few more moments, the skirmish was over. Most of the soldiers were disabled, although Zimri and Titan’s lack of restraint had killed more than I’d have liked. Still it was something, I decided.

  “Bring him to me,” I ordered, pointing to the still unconscious officer.

  Titan just raised an eyebrow.

  “The ‘please’ is understood,” Zimri translated, earning an eyeroll from me.

  Titan shrugged and dragged the unconscious officer, depositing him in front of me. “I am not sure what good he will be,” he apologetically said.

  In truth, the officer wasn’t in good shape at all. His nose was broken and right eye socket shattered. Apparently Titan packed a terrific punch. But he was still breathing, which was all I needed.

  “He is fine,” I said, placing my hand on the soldier’s face and letting the magic fill me. “Ich sehe, was du siehst Ich höre, was du hörst Ich fühle, was du fühlst Ich schmecke was du schmeckst Ich rieche, was du riechst Ich weiß, was du weißt.”

  Instantly my mind was flooded with images and thoughts, much of it overwhelming until I managed to focus my control over the inundation, specifying the information I sought. It took a moment but soon enough I saw a burly, albeit dejected and disheveled Alkite languishing in a cell.

  “Tod,” I declared, releasing my grip on the man’s mind. He dropped lifelessly to the ground.

  “That…is creepy,” Titan stared in horrified awe.

  “You get used to it,” Zimri shrugged.

  “Really?”

  “No.”

  “Focus!” I sharply ordered, rolling my eyes.

  “Y
ou know where Baasha is?” Zimri asked.

  “Ya,” I nodded. “Titan, come here.”

  “Uh, why?” Titan suddenly looked wary.

  “So I can show you where the Alkite is,” I told him. “You have never been here so trying to give you directions is moot.”

  “Uh, how?” Titan hadn’t moved.

  “By magic.” I stepped forward and reached my hand up.

  “Whoa!” Titan quickly retreated, warding me off. “You never said anything about using magic on me.”

  “Because you would say no,” I replied. “Now hold still. I promise this will not harm you.”

  “No way are you going to screw with my brain,” Titan kept backing away. “Zimri? Help?”

  Zimri put himself behind Titan, holding him still. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but trust her,” he said. “She won’t harm you, you have my word.”

  “I thought family was supposed to trust each other,” I pointed out.

  “But you do not believe we are family!” he protested.

  “Believe me, if she was going to do something, she’d have done it long ago,” Zimri added, although I’m not sure how much that reassured Titan. “Athala’s a pragmatist to the core; she’s not going to do anything to jeopardize our mission.”

  “Are you sure I can trust her?” Titan looked at Zimri.

  “I trust her with my life,” Zimri shrugged.

  I suddenly had the urge to hug him. We’d certainly come a long way from him holding a sword to my throat.

  “Alright,” Titan finally conceded. “Nothing permanent, okay?”

  “Depends on how you define permanent,” I answered noncommittally. “I will put in your mind what I saw from him. You will always have that knowledge, so I guess it is permanent. It will not alter your health or behavior in anyway. It is not bewusstseinskontrolle.”