I nodded and started to place a handful of pages in the book. Each time I closed it there was a flash and suddenly the pages were absorbed. Before too long the book was as thick as my thumb. I got the last page placed and closed the book one final time. While I was working on this Stain and Sandra had been talking about different things. I had not been paying attention.
"Stain, I am done" I leaned back in my chair. That's when I noticed that a glass of water was sitting in front of me. "Thank you Sandra." I downed the glass in one large gulp.
"Well, Sandra." Stain stood up. "Thanks for everything, I know your contribution will help Ott. Thanks also for talking to an old man." He grinned.
Sandra stood up and laughed. She walked up to Stain and gave him a kiss on the cheek, "Old man. Ha. That will be the day." She walked over to me. "Ott, I hope you learn well from your master. I know I did when he was teaching me." My expression must have been funny because she started laughing again. "He is a good teacher, if stubborn."
We walked back up the hallway saying our farewells. Once outside I looked at Stain. "She was one of your apprentices?"
Stain smiled, "Why yes. About three apprentices ago. She is earth and water. A good combination for a healer since the body seems to be mainly earth and water. Not much fire or wind in us." He started heading back to the inn. It was much later. I thought long and hard about what I knew. Most apprenticeships took around seven years. How old was Stain to have three apprentices before me? Most master's only had three unless they had more than one at a time. Like my uncle.
We arrived at the inn and went up to our rooms. It was already quite late. Our various companions were around, proof in the sounds coming from various spaces.
"Ott, go to bed. In the morning we will be going through your new spells and you will be practicing some of them. At least in the morning, MaPaine has you for the afternoon." He turned and went into his room, shutting the curtain gently. Moments later his lantern went out, guess he was tired.
I went into my room. Pat, Cracklecord, and Fiosrach were all sitting evidently waiting for me. "Well, I guess he survived." This from Pat.
I walked over to my bed, suddenly bone tired. "Evening guys." I laid down and relaxed.
"So how was the day?" Cracklecord asked.
"Educational and interesting." I thought about it for a minute. "I do not know if I am ever going to be bored as Stain's apprentice."
All three chuckled at that. "Well, at least there is that." Fiosrach rumbled.
That reminded me. "Fiosrach, you are a guardian." I reached over and pulled out the Finisher in its scabbard. "Can you guard this? It is a special sword that MaPaine gave me."
"Oh my!" Cracklecord gasped out. "The Finisher!" She jumped into my lap. "It choose you for its bearer?" Her eyes were wide and small flames flickered along her spine.
"The Finisher?" Pat sounded shocked. "Well I did not expect that."
"I guess." I was too tired to think about their reactions.
Fiosrach had taken the sword. "Sure. I will just hide it here in your room until you need it."
"Thanks." I rolled over. That was the last thought of my night.
***
The next couple of days followed an interesting pattern. In the morning I would work with Stain memorizing some of the new spells I had in my spell book. We would have lunch with Brooke and Raven in the common room. After that Pot would show up to take me to sword practice. I would spend hours learning new positions and facing off against either Pot or MaPaine. Either way I learned quickly to defend myself and slowly learned how to attack using the short sword. MaPaine explained that it is much better for me to be able to defend than attack. He made sure I was able to defend against every weapon he could get his hands on. The healing supplies that Sandra gifted to me were extremely handy after my sword lessons. I would then eat and then go meet some more mages, never more than three. Some were welcoming of me, polite and helpful. Others were obviously not happy with being asked to share their spells with Stain or me. No mages were told of my ability to work more than one family of magic. My spell book continued to grow and the sack that Mick had given me continued to prove it could hold a lot of other sacks. I usually went back to the inn and crashed for the night. There had not been anymore sign of the men who had chased Raven and me that day.
That was my life for the last four days. Tonight would be the last night in Haver's Town. Guess it was time to face the day.
I climbed out of bed and could hear everyone else moving around, already up for the day. I did my absolutions and ventured out of my room to locate something to eat. There was a bowl of fruit already set on the table. Stain was waiting for me while he read something. Cracklecord was lounging in the fire. Pat was nibbling on some fruit. Fiosrach was sitting on the table in a patch of sunlight. I walked over to the table and sat down. I started to eat, knowing that this morning should be interesting. One of the mages last night had specialized in fighting spells. I had not had time to look at the spells he had shared but I assumed that they consisted of spells that would be used in combat.
"So, what spells will I be learning this morning?" I asked Stain. So far this week I had learned healing, finding, hiding, just to list a few. They were all interesting but so far Stain had not taught me any offensive spells. I had hopes that I would be learning some today, thanks to the fighter mage.
"Well, I have picked three spells I want you to master. One that is used by many earth mages daily, a type of scrying spell. The second spell is another healing spell, Sandra called it the knitter. It mends broken bones. The final spell that you will have to master is the dust devil spell. You received it last night." He handed me the three pages for the spells he had chosen. "These three spells should give you a good idea of the range that earth magic can accomplish. The scrying spell will show you how an earth mage handles communication and observation at a distance. Every family of magic has some form of scrying spell." Stain reached for his drink. "The second spell uses the idea that the body knows how each bone is to be placed and encourages the healing process, just at an incredible rate. Months of healing done in only a few moments." He grinned darkly, "I have heard that particular spell is very effective, it's only downside being that the pain is still there. All the pain from those months are felt in those few moments. It is much better to use on someone who is unconscious. The third spell is one of the few earth spells that is often used to fight. Most fighting earth spells are defensive in nature. The ones that are used for attacks are very few. Most are very advanced spells. They take a lot of energy to cast and usually are most effective against whole groups of people instead of one on one."
That sounded dangerous. "What kind of spell is best for against a lot of people? Especially an earth spell." I had not even heard of any stories of such a spell.
Stain shook his head, "I know only a few earth spells like that, but one I have seen and used is the Tremor spell. It causes the ground to shake as long as you can hold the spell." My expression must have showed that I was not impressed with this spell. Stain looked critically at me. "One of the most important things about being a mage is not doing magic, but knowing what kind of magic you should be doing in what situation. Imagine you are facing a lot of charging armed warriors, perhaps they are mounted. Now in the middle of their charge you shake the ground up and down only a few inches but to the point that they all fall to the ground, their weapons flying through the air, their mounts falling with them. That one spell can devastate an army." He leaned back and watched my reaction.
I honestly had not thought about anything like that. I said as much to Stain.
"Even small spells can be used creatively to do things that perhaps they were never meant to do." He pointed to the scrying spell. "I know of one mage who was able to create two mirrors that would show what the other mirror was reflecting. He used the scrying spell to make that happen." He grinned, "Of course there were a few embarrassing moments that happened before he realized he needed to store
them facedown." He pointed to the knitter page. "I have seen this one used to gain information. Imagine using it on someone who is still awake." The image sent shivers down my spine. That amount of pain would be horrible. "As far as the dust devil spell, the size and strength of the dust devil is limited by the amount of energy and focus that the mage casting it provides." He stood up. "Today we will go outside for your lessons." He motioned me to follow him. "Most of the other guests have already left, we will have the courtyard to ourselves."
We left the others in the rooms and went down to the courtyard.
"How am I going to practice the healer spell?" I did not see any way to do that without some poor person suffering.
"Oh." Stain smiled again. "I have made arrangements. First let's cover the scrying spell." He walked over to the side of the building. "First, we have to have a flat, earthen surface. We could use the ground but I prefer to do this spell on a wall. That way I do not get a pain in my neck." He took out his mage knife and scratched a shallow circle in the wall. "Ing is aware of what we are doing. I will repair the damage when we are done. Now." He closed his eyes and lifted one hand towards the wall. I could see the earth magic drift from his hand to the circle and fill it up like a vase. Once the circle was full of earth energy his hand dropped. Suddenly an image appeared, I could see a young boy playing outside. Stain opened his eyes. "One of my relatives. He has no magical ability, so using him for a target does not cause any problems." He watched for a moment, then he drained the magic from the circle. "Always remove the magic or some other mage might be able to see what you were scrying." He rubbed his hand over the circle rubbing his scratch out, a little earth magic helping. "Now, why not try it?" He stepped back and waited.
I had gotten used to his manner of teaching by now. He would give me a challenge and watch me try to replicate his result, giving tips if I seemed to be failing to make any headway. I pulled out my mage knife, a knife that had never been used for anything other than magic. I pulled out the copy of the spell that Stain had handed me. The instructions were fairly simple. Draw a circle. Focus my will into the circle and fill it with earth energy. Now focus my will on a specific thing, person, or place that I wished to see and project that upon the circle. Sounded simple enough.
About an hour later I finally got all the steps to work. I opened my eyes to see my father working. He was making arrows. I watched for a moment when his head snapped up. He looked right at me and smiled. Suddenly he waved. I was so surprised I lost my focus and the image vanished. I absorbed the magic from the circle and smoothed it out.
"What happened? Could he see me?" I thought this only worked one way.
Stain smiled. "Your father has some magical ability, not enough to be a mage but enough to sense when someone is spying on him. And I have a feeling that he might have felt that you were the one watching." He motioned to me. "Well, you seem to have that one figured out. More practice will help you keep the image focused for longer periods of time. Now, onto the healing spell." Stain led me back into the main courtyard and headed to the kitchen door. He stopped and stuck his head inside the door. I could hear him asking someone a question. Ing's daughter's voice answered him. He leaned back as a bucket was shoved towards him. He took the bucket and walked away, stopping at a set of stools.
"Now, to practice the healing spell." He set the bucket down and sat down. His hand dipped into the bucket and pulled out a bone, a leg bone of a bird of some sort. "The great thing about this spell is it works on any kind of bone." He suddenly snapped the bone in half. "Now, to perform this spell you do not have to be touching the bone. You simply load the bone with earth magic and then perform the spell. It runs on its own, no control needed." He proceeded to do just that. The bone absorbed the earth energy until it seemed to vibrate. Stain cast the spell and the two pieces of bone jumped towards one another. The broken ends started to merge and the crack seemed to melt until the bone was whole once more. Stain held it up, "Fairly easy, once you get the hang of it." He stood up. "Now let me show you the dirt devil spell and then I have some matters to deal with while you practice both the healing spell and the dirt devil spell."
I followed him away from the stools. He stopped in the middle of the courtyard. "A dirt devil is usually created by wind, in fact the wind family has a spell that creates one that way. However, this spell manipulates the dirt not the wind. In other words you have a dirt devil without the problem of a massive amount of wind blowing everything around. This is useful in a fight because you can temporarily blind an opponent without having trash distract you. If you use enough magic the dirt devil might pick up the person and lift them to such a height that the fall can injure them or even kill them." He closed his eyes. Earth magic flowed from him to a small pile of dirt. The dirt started to churn like a finger was being dragged through it. The churning picked up speed until the dirt started to lift. Before too long a small dirt devil about my size stood in front of us.
Stain opened his eyes and smiled. "Well, I have not done that one in a while." The dirt devil begin to move around the courtyard. "I can control where it goes as long as I maintain my attention, will, and energy. If I fail to do that.." The dirt devil collapsed into a pile of dirt again. "That is all it takes. Now if it had been big enough to pick you up and I let it collapse while you were above the roof of the inn what do you thing would happen?" His smile was dark once more.
"I think you would have to find another apprentice." I smiled. This looked like it was going to be fun.
"Now, I think you understand what to do. Practice the bone setting spell until you can cast it on the first try. Once you have I want you to work on the dirt devil spell until you can control it enough to move it around the courtyard." He started to walk off. "I will come get you for lunch. Keep practicing."
Practice, the story of my life now. Do not get me wrong, it is not boring. But when will I get to actually do something. I thought that is what apprentices did. Work of some sort. I sighed, better get to it. I walked over and sat on the stool. Time to break some bones.
***
As I sat breaking bones and healing them my mind rumbled around a little. I eventually got to the point I was breaking and healing the bones without really focusing.
"Ahem.." A gravelly voice caught my attention.
I looked up and saw Fiosrach watching me.
"Hey Fiosrach. What are you up to?" I leaned back and stretched my back.
"I was just wondering what kind of creature that group of bones is supposed to come from?" He looked at the bones sitting in front of me.
I looked down and blushed. The bones I had been healing had formed a large mass. Evidently I had not paid enough attention and fused all the bones into a weird wad of bones. It resembled a tangle of bushes.
"Um.. I think they were chicken bones." I picked up the bones and tried to pry them apart.
"Not any kind of chicken I have seen!" Pat said from the top of the wall.
I looked up and shrugged. "Oh well... I guess that illustrates the point about paying attention."
Pat glided down to the ground and leaned back on his haunches. "Looks interesting though. What other spells do you have to practice?"
I sat the bucket of fused bones aside and stood up. "A dirt devil spell." I looked around. There was not anyone in the courtyard. I took a couple of deep breaths. "Let's see if I can do this."
Over the next hour I tried to recreate what Stain had demonstrated earlier. Every once in a while I would get a slight rotation going in the dust that covered the courtyard. I could not seem to get the hang of creating a dirt devil.
"Not really impressive." Raven called from the shadows beside Tag. She stepped out and walked towards me. "What exactly are you trying to do."
I realized how I had to have looked. Standing there staring at the ground while the dirt seemed to move with the wind. I felt embarrassed that she saw me that way. Her skill was much more impressive than mine. I had watched her practicing throughout the week. She
handled almost any blade with absolute confidence, never cutting herself. Her obvious disdain for my attempts made me mad.
"I am working on a dirt devil spell." I snapped.
"Well... does that mean you are supposed to create some wind instead of staring at the dirt?" Her tone was snide and dripping with sarcasm.
She made me so mad. "It is an Earth spell. It moves the dirt without the need for wind."
"Would creating one from wind work better?" She sneered at me.
I sighed. "This way it does not disturb anything else but the dirt and the target."
Her eyes lit up a little. "An offensive spell? How much damage can it cause?"
I glanced at her. "Stain said that if the dirt devil was large enough it could pick up a person and then drop them from a high enough height that it would kill them."
She stepped back and leaned on the wall. "Ok. Let's see what you can do." Her tone made it obvious she thought nothing would happen.
I almost threw the bucket of bones at her head.
Pat snickered. "Yeah, Ott, why not you show her what you can do?" He motioned with his claw. A smirk was crossing his snout, but it was not to make fun of me. His sneaky side was showing.
I grinned.
"Fine." I turned away from Raven and focused on the small pile of dirt. I brought to mind how the spell worked and realized that I had not really focused on the result of what I wanted and how it would occur. I just assumed that wanting it to form would make it happen. No wonder nothing had formed.
This time I focused all my anger at Raven and poured earth magic into the dirt. It started to rotate and after a few rotations it was spinning fast enough to look liquid. Raven had moved from the wall and closer to the dirt.
I grinned and focused more. The dirt rose into a dirt devil, if only about waist high.
The Wandering Apprentice Page 21
