The Sorceress's Apprentice

by Joshua Jackson

  “Death is certain if we simply do nothing,” I went on. “So we have nothing to lose and we have everything to gain. If we’re going to die, then let’s die on our own terms, not theirs.”

  They looked around at each other and nodded. There was a subtle shift in their postures and countenances; they stood a little straighter, their faces tightened with determination, their eyes glared. Even Adler looked confident.

  “What do we do?” Rolf asked.

  I thought for a moment. “What do we have that could be used as a weapon?”

  “We have some hunting bows, maybe a couple dozen,” Titan volunteered.

  I winced. Bows were a coward’s weapon; true warriors faced each other face to face.

  “Zimri,” Athala spoke up, reading my mind, “we need every advantage we can get and we cannot be choosy with our options.”

  Jaw tightening, I nodded. We were facing near impossible odds, again, and I had to be practical. If there was one thing I’d learned from Athala, it was the need to be practical. Honor wouldn’t save us.

  “Fine,” I allowed with a heavy sigh. “Gather the bows and all arrows you can and distribute them to the best archers. Anything else? This is a mining town, right? You have pick axes, hammers? I’ll take kitchen knives at this point.”

  “Ya, we have that,” Raban spoke up eagerly.

  “Good, gather anything that can be used as a weapon and start passing it out to the men.”

  “And women!” Liesl declared.

  “Uh, no,” I shook my head. I wasn’t about to lead women to get slaughtered. I could never show my face in Alkilion again if I did.

  “We are fighting!” Liesl retorted sharply.

  “Women don’t fight,” I firmly said, crossing my arms.

  “Athala is fighting,” Liesl pointed out.

  “Athala is different,” I said. “She’s a sorceress.”

  “So she is not a woman then?”

  “Uhhh,” I cast a wary glance at Athala who watched me intently. She wasn’t amused; more curious as to what I was going to say, which added a ton of unnecessary pressure.

  “It’s not that I don’t see Athala as a woman,” I stammered, internally asking myself the question of how did I see her? “It’s just that she’s had magic and most of the time, we haven’t had much of a choice.”

  “You do not have a choice here either,” Liesl defiantly responded. “You said we should fight so that we die on our own terms. Was that only for the men?”

  “Well, I, uh, guess, uh, not,” I helplessly stammered. “But—”

  “You know as well as I do we need every person we can get,” Athala finally cut in, naturally coming to the side of Liesl. “That includes the women. With them, we have about three hundred people?”

  “Something like that,” Rolf nodded. He seemed totally fine with the idea of his wife picking up a hammer and swinging it at soldiers. I couldn’t possibly begin to fathom the idea, despite having seen Athala occasionally attempt to use a dagger.

  “That is a huge difference, Zimri,” Athala argued. “If Aidan wins, then everyone dies, including the women. Trust me, he will not care about gender. So why will not give ourselves every possible chance to win?”

  “But women fighting,” I grimaced. “It’s so…so dishonorable.”

  “What are we fighting for, Zimri? Honor or to save these people?” Athala asked.

  Her question hit me like a thunderclap. Fighting had always been about honor for me. Even this insane quest was at its base about my family’s honor. The battles Alkilion fought against the desert nomads or the occasional pirate were really nothing more than an opportunity for young knights like myself to show off our prowess. The more skilled and honorable we were, the greater prestige we gained and the further we advanced.

  But it wasn’t just about winning; how we won was just as important. We had to show we were braver, stronger, and more skilled than anyone else. Tricks and cheap shots were worse than defeat. That’s why none of us ever trained with a bow. There was no courage or skill so far as we were concerned in shooting someone from a distance. A real warrior faced his opponent head on and he never fought a woman and certainly never sent a woman to fight. What kind of man sent a weak woman in to fight for him?

  Yet, looking around, I truly understood I wasn’t in Alkilion. Those skirmishes had no real consequences. Desert raiders and pirates were never going to seriously threaten Alkilion. At worst, they might burn a village or two if we lost but nothing more than that. In those petty squabbles, nothing of significance was at stake.

  Not here, though. Here, everything was at stake. If we lost, everyone here was going to die. Suddenly all of Athala’s jabs about honor being meaningless to the dead made perfect sense. What good was my honor if it got me killed? More importantly, what good was my honor if it got them killed? Was my honor worth their lives?

  “Zimri?” Titan spoke up, snapping my focus back.

  “Uh, yeah,” I nodded. Deciding my honor wasn’t worth their lives, I added, “Find weapons for the women too. I want everyone armed and ready to go in two hours. Rolf, Raban, could you see to that?”

  “Right away,” Rolf responded and Raban nodded his assent. Both quickly hustled out to rouse the rest of the village.

  “This is insane,” Adler muttered. “Brave words and a bunch of villagers will not be enough to beat an army.”

  “No,” I agreed. “We still need a plan.”

  “I have an idea,” Titan volunteered.

  “That no one wants to hear,” Adler snorted. “We are in enough trouble as it is without you messing things up further. I am certain it is your fault they failed to kill Lord Aidan in the first place.”

  Adler had finally snapped my last nerve. “Have you nothing good to say?” I wheeled on him. “Since the moment I met you, you’ve done nothing but belittle Titan, disparage any attempt to do something about your miserable existence, and generally bring everyone down. You may think you’re protecting us but you aren’t. You’re doing Aidan’s work for him, spreading doubt and fear everywhere so that everyone around is too frightened, too depressed to anything. If you have nothing but doom and gloom to contribute, go get the forge running. We’re going to need axes, swords and whatever else we’ve got sharpened and refined.”

  “You do not order—”

  “I said go!” I thundered at him, surprised by the ferocity in my own voice.

  Adler too seemed to be caught off guard. With a look of shock, he gave a curt nod and scuttled out of the room.

  “What do you need from me?” Athala asked, giving me a look with a mixture of surprise and respect.

  “Figure out a way to counter Aidan’s magic,” I told her. “Pray to Olympia for guidance or whatever it is you’re supposed to do to contact her. If she wanted us to be her champions, she damn well better give us guidance.”

  She nodded and strode out, leaving Titan and I alone.

  “I guess you are used to giving orders, being a lord,” Titan suggested with a shrug.

  “Huh? No,” I shook my head. “I’m usually getting orders. Anyway, we’ve wasted enough time. What did you have in mind?”

  “You really want to know what I think?”

  “Yeah, of course,” I nodded. “You’ve got a natural knack for warfare.”

  Titan’s eyes lit up. “I noticed they like to form these shield walls which are near impenetrable. So instead of facing them head on, I was thinking ambush.”

  Another idea that went against the code of honor but I’d made enough concessions at this point one more didn’t matter. Taking a deep breath, I nodded. “Got a place in mind?”

  Titan’s lips curled into a vicious smirk. “I do.”

  Chapter 37-Zimri

  “You scared?” I asked Titan as we stood with Athala in the middle of the road leading towards the village.

  “Not really,” Titan shrugged. “Is that strange?”

  “I suppose,” I answered.

  “Were you befo
re your first battle?”

  “I, uh,” I stopped short. It occurred to me this was my first battle. Athala and I’d been fighting practically non-stop since stepping foot in the Eisenberge but those had been skirmishes where the goal wasn’t winning but simply surviving. We never had to beat our foes, merely escape them. But this was an actual, real, pitched battle. Surviving and escaping wasn’t enough; we had to win and that did frighten me.

  “Yeah, you could say that,” I said, swallowing hard.

  “I am excited,” he said, voice pitched up just a bit.

  “You are excited to kill people?” Athala answered, a quizzical expression etched on her face.

  “Well, no,” he said. “But for once, I am really good at something and I am looking forward to using my talent.”

  Athala and I exchanged a confused look and a shrug. We’d battled enough to know fights were little more than an exercise in avoiding a horrible death.

  Yet Titan did seem excited. The lanky teen was bouncing on his toes as he waited the army coming our way. Clad all in black except the steel-gray bracers on his arms, he was an intimidating sight with his hood shading his eyes and the black veil covering the lower half of his face. I was glad to have him on my side.

  “Remember the plan?” I whispered.

  “Of course,” Athala snapped back. “We have only rehearsed it a dozen times! Why are we whispering?”

  “I don’t know,” I tried talking normally. “It seemed like the smart thing to do.”

  “Well, it looks like we are going to find out how good it is,” Titan gestured ahead. “Here they come.”

  We heard the tromping before we saw them come around the bend. Two figures rode on horses, the first I’d seen in the Eisenberge, at the head of a massive column of identically armed soldiers, armor glinting in the scattered light and spears bristling like a massive hedgehog. Shaking off the growing nerves, I stepped forward to face them.

  “Stop!” I commanded sharply. “You may not pass any further. The towns of the Immergrün are under my protection.”

  The two riders trotted forward slightly. “Yet they are under my jurisdiction,” Aidan observed casually.

  “Not any longer,” I informed the sorcerer. “They have decided you are no longer fit—Baasha?”

  I stared in shock, recognizing the bulky Alkite knight as the second rider. “What are you doing? This guy was going to kill you?”

  “We had a difference of opinions on how to rescue the princess,” the Alkite replied with a cold smile. “But we’ve coming to an understanding, one that involves killing you.”

  “You know the only way you walk out of here with Ariadne is to sell yourself to Katrina, right?” I demanded. “You’d basically hand Alkilion over to her.”

  Baasha shrugged in his saddle. “So long as I’m king and you’re dead, I don’t really care.”

  I was stunned. Baasha was an egotistical, self-centered jerk but I’d never thought of him as a traitor. “Are you under a spell?”

  “No, actually,” Aidan answered for his compatriot. “None was needed. He willingly sought me out and proposed this deal. Believe me, I am as shocked as you.”

  “Titan!” I commanded, refocusing my astonishment into anger at the traitor.

  Beside me, the warrior knocked an arrow and fired, sending the projectile whistling towards Aidan. The sorcerer calmly held up his hand.”

  “Schütze!” he cried and the arrow shattered as if it had slammed into a brick wall.

  “Adorable,” Aidan smiled keenly. “Now it is my turn: Tot sie!”

  Nothing happened.

  A confused and irritated look flashed across the sorcerer’s face. “I said, Tot sie!” he repeated, more forcefully this time. Again, nothing happened.

  “Is that supposed to mean something?” I asked.

  Aidan turned a murderous glare on Athala. “That is supposed to be impossible!” he yelled. “How did you, how could you have undone my spell?”

  “I guess I really am the more powerful sorcerer, if your spells can so easily be defeated,” she taunted back.

  “Defeat this!” he snarled. “Feuer!”

  A flash of flame leapt from his hand and suddenly the air in front of him exploded in a brilliant shower of white flame and sparks. Even knowing what was coming and looking away, my eyes still throbbed from the stunning flash. The horses reared up, panicking, and tossed Aidan to the ground while only Baasha’s years of training managed to keep the dazed knight in his saddle.

  “As I was saying,” Athala continued to mock, starting her retreat.

  “Finish them!” Aidan ordered Baasha.

  “Excuse me?” Baasha, still blinking the stars out of his eyes, gave Aidan an annoyed look. “I don’t take—”

  “I said finish them,” Aidan thundered savagely, fixing Baasha with a wild glare. “You wanted to kill him, go get him!”

  “Again,” I whispered to Titan, who fired another arrow at the distracted sorcerer.

  “Schütze!” Apparently he wasn’t as distracted as I thought.

  “Athala is mine!” The sorcerer turned with a flourish and chased after Athala as she disappeared into the forest.

  Baasha’s expression was a mixture of surprise, annoyance, and resignation. While not the smartest knight, even he could see our obvious ploy to pull Aidan away from the coming battle. Yet the sorcerer was so blinded by anger and hate, he blundered after Athala anyway.

  “You really want to be working for that guy?” I asked my rival.

  “I’m not working for him,” Baasha retorted angrily.

  “Doesn’t look that way to me,” I rebutted.

  “He’s a means to an end,” Baasha snapped back.

  “He’s not the one you need to worry about,” I answered.

  “I’ll deal with her when the time comes,” he replied. “First, I have to deal with you and your friends in the woods.”

  I blinked.

  “Did you really think I would believe it’s just the two of you against all of us? Come now Zimri, even you’re not that stupid,” he said.

  “Debatable,” I answered back, internally noting that I’d spent the last two months pretty much doing exactly that.

  “Perhaps,” he shrugged. “Shield wall! Face the woods!”

  With precise synchronization, shields overlapped and the outside columns pivoted to face the forest. Titan and I exchanged a worried look as our ambush began quickly unravelling.

  “Fire!” Titan thundered at the forest, knocking another arrow.

  A dozen or so arrows materialized from behind the trees but for the most part, they skipped harmlessly off the ready shields of the soldiers. One managed to find its mark, dropping a soldier two ranks deep.

  “Fire into the center!” Titan ordered, firing his own missile right at Baasha.

  The Alkite knight batted the arrow away with his shield and leveled a withering glare at Titan.

  “Coward!” he snarled, spurring his horse into a charge.

  Titan fired another shot, which Baasha deflected again and raised his scimitar for the killing stroke as he bore down on the Eisenbergian. At the last minute, I stepped in the way, raising my shield to ward off the blow. Baasha slammed down with all his prodigious strength and my whole arm shivered with the impact.

  “I could have handled that!” Titan yelled at me while Baasha ran past.

  “I know,” I nodded, shaking the feeling back into my shield arm. “But he’s an Alkite so he’s my responsibility. Besides, you need to handle that.” I pointed to the growing chaos.

  Our battle plan had completely fallen apart by now. The townspeople were still firing arrows but the soldiers had simply put their shields over their heads.

  “You need to break up their ranks somehow,” I told Titan. “If our people charge now, they’ll be skewered.”

  Titan nodded and dashed off, leaving me alone with Baasha.

  “I’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Baasha’s eyes gleamed murderously
and raised his sword.

  “So have I,” I returned, raising my own weapon.

  Baasha charged again, spurring his horse into a gallop. Holding my position to the last moment I hopped to my right and swung my blade at Baasha’s thigh. Instead of trying to strike me with his sword, Baasha swung his shield back, slamming me across the side of my head. His forward momentum canceled out a lot of the force of the blow but it was still more than enough to toss me to the ground and leave me with a ringing headache.

  “You’ll never beat me on foot,” Baasha pointed out, checking his horse and turning about for another charge.

  “Then fight me fair or are you too much of a coward for that?” I shot back, trying to steady myself.

  “I’m a pragmatist, Zimri,” the knight retorted. “Besides, you are so far beneath me, you don’t deserve a fair fight. You’re little more than a peasant and you’ll die like a peasant.”

  Anger flashed through me at the slight, true as it might be. “Then finish it!” I challenged, desperately trying to figure out a way to unhorse with my rattled brain.

  Baasha charged again. I got ready to fake right and jump to my left. But three meters from me, the horse suddenly screamed, rearing up and tossing Baasha a couple meters before collapsing, an arrow protruding from its flank. Behind stood Titan, bow in hand.

  “Titan!” I shouted incredulously. “Have you no honor?”

  “Honor does not win battles and you are taking too long,” the Eisenbergian retorted. “I need your help so finish him and let us go!”

  I looked at Baasha who lay sprawled on the ground. He didn’t look conscious and probably had a broken rib at the least. It would be so easy for me to go over and slit his throat. After all the bullying and abuse he’d heaped on me and others, I was sorely tempted. I thought about Shala and wondered if she was okay. He certainly deserved no less.

  But I couldn’t do it. Shaking off the rest of the cobwebs, I ran up to Titan.

  “What do you need?”

  “You are just going to leave him?” Titan asked, drawing another arrow and aiming it at the downed Baasha.