"Good. Now… we have one hour left. That should be enough time for everyone to get to their appropriate station along the bluff outlooks. You already have your teams. I expect you to gather as much loose boulder as possible during your off time until one of the others gives the signal fire. When they do, leave your station immediately and come to their aid at once. We will need all the manpower and castings we have to sink the mentee's barge… I don't expect us to lose – we have the advantage, we are mentors after all - but…" The prince's eyes rested on mine, for just a moment, before flitting to the rest of our circle. "But I don't want us to be taken for fools either."
"Is it just me or does the prince seem extra irritable this morning?" My twin followed me off the docks with a shy fifth-year Alchemy apprentice named Barrett trailing silently behind. The three of us were partners for today's mock battle.
"I wouldn't know." Darren and I had barely spoken in months, and every time we had he'd been unusually curt.
"I thought you two were friends."
"We… I think his brother said something to him."
"Blayne?" My brother's tone was full of unadulterated hatred. Ella had finally disclosed to him why she had left court with her parents so many years before. "Why would he involve himself in something that regards you?"
Because he thinks I'm a threat. But I didn't say that aloud. "Because a prince shouldn't associate with lowborns like me."
"Well Darren is obviously not worth your time if he believes that."
I was of the same mind. Though it had still taken me some time to accept Darren's newfound coldness. Our first week in Port Langli I had tried to talk to him about that night in the palace.
"What did Blayne say to you? Why are you acting this way?"
Darren regarded me coolly. "What way?"
"You've barely spoken to me since we arrived. You seem irritated anytime I try to approach you. Even now, Darren, you won't look at me!"
"Did it ever occur to you that I am simply tired of your incessant chatter?"
I put my hands on my hips. "You are lying! Why are you lying, Darren?"
"So what if I am?" he snapped. "I don't need to explain myself to a lowborn like you!"
And that had been the end of the conversation. Darren hadn't apologized, and I had refused to ignore his callous remark. I knew there was more he wasn't telling me – but until he was ready I wasn't going to go out of my way to be insulted.
"This is it?" We had reached our assigned lookout, almost two full miles out from the township center.
"It's the last tower west." I pointed to low granite steps that led to a small platform along the port's natural bluff wall. As the most prominent trading post in Jerar the Crown had made sure Port Langli was well fortified against pirates. Luckily that had been a relatively easy feat: the port was a mile-wide cove surrounded by steep bluffs on either side. It hadn't taken much to build a couple of watchtowers along its rim, each armed with a heavy three-man catapult in case it was needed. Any ship approaching would be spotted before it could enter the bay.
Which was exactly what Darren was relying on for today's battle.
"I can barely see the cove!" Barrett complained. "Why did the prince post us here? The mentees would never sail this far out! The western bluffs are much too steep to climb and there's no beach for them to moor!"
"We'll be the last to see action," Alex agreed.
I didn't reply. I had a feeling Darren had stationed us as far away as possible so he wouldn't have to run into me. The non-heir, Eve, Jayson, and Tyra were all positioned in the towers along the eastern bluff where there were more approachable shores for a warship to breach our harbor. Priscilla and Ray had posts in the port itself along the front of the beach in case the mentees tried to enter directly… Ella, two other fourth-years, and I were stuck on the western bluff: the side hindered by steep cliff walls and a foreboding surf.
My partners weren't happy - and they weren't even a part of Combat. Thanks Darren, I thought sourly, your message is loud and clear.
"Well, we will make sure to run fast if someone lights their tower's beacon fire," was all I could say. It was cold and windy in our station. The mid-August air was unusually chilly and it had made the bluffs a terrible place to be, especially with the icy chainmail brushing against our skin. No amount of over-layers could shield us from that.
"I'll take the first watch," Barrett offered. He didn't look very eager to gather the local rock for our catapult. I couldn't blame him for wanting to avoid the task. I wasn't exactly looking forward to spending the whole day gathering ammunition until the mentees decided to make their move.
"Can't you just cast the rocks here?" Alex grumbled.
"If the mentees take the war barge Darren thinks they are using, we'll need to cast as much magic as possible to sink it," I replied. "My magic will be needed to make the rocks fly further. I can't waste it on something we can gather locally."
My twin made a face. "I bet his highness is making his partners do all the work."
I wasn't sure that was true but I was in no mood to defend the prince. I elbowed my brother instead. "Come here and help me with this rock, Alex. You wouldn't want to do less than your ladylove. I'll be sure to tell Ella if you spend the whole time complaining while I do all the labor."
My brother's eyes twinkled at the mention of her name. "She really is wonderful, isn't she?"
I rolled my eyes, but secretly I was pleased. Since Ella had given him a second chance last winter Alex had kept to his word. He hadn't so much as looked at another apprentice, and he had kept his flirtatious charm for her and her alone. The two were happy. I could see it in Ella's eyes: she loved my brother, and he her - even more, if it was possible.
It was the way Ian had started to look at me.
It wasn't the way I looked at him.
"You and Ian are a great couple." Alex was studying my face. "It's what you want, isn't it?"
"Yes." I took a shaky breath and reminded myself that wanting anyone else was a farce. I just needed more time. "Yes, it is."
****
Several hours had passed and I was forced to remove my chainmail, no longer cold but pouring with sweat and heat from an endless cycle of carrying large rocks from one side of the bluff to our post. This is useless, I grumbled, the rocks are only good if the mentees actually attack our post… If they attack someone else's we are going to have to leave them behind! And that will be four hours of wasted effort.
What was Darren thinking?
A slow fog had started to roll into the cove. I could barely make out the houses lining its shore, let alone the waters below us.
I called to my brother. "Can you see anything?" Alex was currently stationed as guard while Barrett and I collected the rock. At first I hadn't thought anything of the damp air, but now I was starting to feel drowsy...
I was beginning to suspect the Combat mentees had cast their first weather assault laced with some sort of sleeping draft that the Alchemy apprentices might have brewed up.
My brother yawned. "No there isn't any – wait! Ryiah, Barrett, one of the others just lit their signal!"
I dropped what I was holding and rushed over to the cliff's ledge. Just as Alex had said, there was a blaze of orange and red in one of the eastern towers. It was harder to see in the fog but it was definitely a fire.
"They must have spotted the mentees' warship!"
The three of us took off for the beacon, sprinting down the winding trail as fast as our legs could carry us. We had almost five miles before we would reach the fire's location. Most of the others would already be done casting by the time we arrived.
About twenty minutes into our run I saw Ella, waving frantically for us to stop. She was one station away from the beach and two more from the fire's lookout.
"We have to keep going!" Barrett panted. "We'll have to leave her behind!"
"You go right on ahead," Alex told the two of us, "I'm going to see what she needs-"
"Ryi
ah!" Ella shouted. "I need Ryiah!"
"Go!" I told my twin. I didn't want to think about what Darren would do if he found out I was defying orders, but I told myself it would only take a minute to find out what was wrong. Had Ella seen the fire? She must have, or at least guessed it when she saw us.
I caught up to my friend. "Ella, what's wrong? We saw the beacon down by the beach!"
Her eyes were wide. "I saw it too but then I saw something else. My partners wouldn't listen but it doesn't matter, I need someone from Combat…" She grabbed my arm and pulled me to her tower's lookout, pointing to something below in the waters. It was too hard to discern with the fog, just a cluster of darkness in the shadow below.
"I think the mentees are using a longboat," she whispered. "It's fast. It's small. It could easily approach the shore without anyone realizing!"
"But the others lit the signal fire," I protested. "Why would they light it…?" I stared down at the eastern waters. I could see a large barge approaching the shores. "See, Ella, there's the mentees' warship."
"It could be a trap."
"Ella, that's just a shadow – we have to-"
"Why would this fog be laced with a casting for sleep?" She threw her hands up in the air. "Why is it only extending as far as this side of the coast? Why would the mentees try to shield the shore from sight?"
She had a point – and she'd assumed the same as I about the casting. The fog was tainted.
"What should we do? Should we light another fire? It would only confuse everyone. No one is going to come here when there is a barge on the other side of the bluffs."
Ella studied the ledge. "We do this on our own, Ryiah. I don't want Darren blaming us if we are wrong and there really are mentees on that barge."
"So how do we get down there to the longboat?"
"Do you remember Priscilla and your mentee Merrick bragging about all the secret caverns along the coast?"
How could I forget? Priscilla and her vile cousin Merrick, who had just joined the apprentice ranks this summer, had done nothing but praise their family's township since they arrived. Port Langli, or as I liked to call it, Port of the Langli Cousins: each more loathsome than the last.
"Well, I am pretty sure I spotted a vertical opening to one of those sea caves while I was gathering rock for the catapult," she said. "It doesn't look like you can climb down… but it was an opening and the bottom was filled with water. We could jump in, find the exit, and then surprise the mentees from behind while they are attempting to scale the beach."
"But what if there is no exit? What if the tide changes?" I didn't know much about the sea but one hole in the rock wasn't enough to guarantee another, and if we became trapped…
"We can always cast our way free. You haven't used any of your magic yet, right?"
"Well, no…" I still wasn't sure.
"Then we should be able to cast enough force to break the cave walls. No, you can, Ry. If you and Darren could hold off Caine in that mock battle last year then you can do this. We probably won't even have to."
I made a face. "You are lucky we are friends."
"You will help me then?"
"I will. But you had better be right. Darren will have our heads if we are wrong."
****
This is nothing. You've climbed cliffs five times the scale of this drop… I swallowed. That didn't mean I wasn't scared. Climbing I could control; falling was luck.
Ella leaped into the dark waters below, and I heard the telltale splash as she landed inside the sea cave. "Ry," she called from the water, "come on, it's fun!"
I struggled to see her, peering down into over a hundred feet of shadow. Fun was the last thing it looked. I made a silent prayer to the gods: Please, don't let this be a mistake. Then I took the plunge, jumping into the dark hollow with my tunic flapping along the black cavern sky.
I hit the waters with a loud splash and then I was submerged into the icy pool. I emerged for air with a loud gasp, sputtering out water that had somehow founds its way into my nose. "It's so cold." Teeth chattering, I swam after Ella, following the smooth, sloping ceiling with our hands as we searched for an exit in its tunnel-like passage.
The walls of the cave were stained blue and green algae dotted its ceiling. It was beautiful in a lonely, cold sort of way. My entire body was quivering by the time we had swam five minutes.
We continued our quiet trek to what we hoped was the sea's entrance.
Finally, after almost fifteen more minutes of searching in numb semi-darkness, we reached the end of the tunnel only to find it covered in the same dark limestone wall as the rest of the cavern.
There was no exit.
"It must be underwater." Ella bit her lip. The current tide meant we were fifteen feet from the bottom of the cave. "I think I can see some light below – that has to be the way the water is getting in. I'm going to dive down and check."
"Be careful," I warned.
My friend smiled, shivering as she did, and then she was gone. I waited nervously for her to return, hoping that our efforts wouldn't leave us trapped in a dark ocean cave.
Five minutes later Ella emerged, wheezing water as she did.
"The entrance is right below us. You'll need to be careful, though. Coral lines the rim and it's definitely sharp."
"Did you see the mentees? Did you spot their boat?"
She grinned broadly. "They are just west of us. I saw Ian and your mentee Merrick on the nearby rocks arguing over the best way to climb the bluffs. It's too dangerous, apparently. They are stuck and the rest of their group doesn't seem too happy. There's two second-years keeping guard of their boat right next to the cave's entrance but they couldn't see me. The cavern is hidden in a high outcropping of rock – they'd have to know exactly where to look to find it."
"Do you think it will be easy to pick them off?"
She hesitated. "I'm not sure… Do you think Ian would…?"
I laughed sharply. "He would never fall for that trick twice."
"Well, then we both cast loud distractions in opposite directions to scatter their group. When a couple of them go to investigate we take on whoever is left. Hopefully the element of surprise will even the odds."
It was a good a plan as any. Taking a deep breath I followed Ella into the dark waters, squinting with salt-burned eyes until I spotted a small crevice of light coming from below. Avoiding the beautiful but deadly reef I propelled my body through the entrance and into a bright, shallow pool on its other side.
I surfaced. A second later Ella popped up beside me. Slowly, we raised ourselves onto the slick rocky shore surrounding the cave.
The two of us crouched low and tiptoe-climbed along the rocks until we were ten feet away from where Ian and my mentee stood arguing. The rest of their group – except for the two mentees guarding the boat - were standing close by, waiting impatiently for the others to make a decision.
"I know it's somewhere around here. Priscilla and I used to play in it when we were kids!" Merrick was saying.
"We've combed this shore for an hour," Ian challenged. "We need to stop wasting time and find a new way up. The mentors are going to realize that barge is empty any minute and then they will be looking for us! We will lose any advantage we had in surprising them if we continue to look for your precious cave!"
"Fine! Go ahead and be leader – even though I am the one that grew up here!" Merrick tore off his black armband and tossed it at Ian.
The fourth-year bent low to pick it up, brushing the sand off his new prize with a self-satisfied smirk.
That's the boy that I'm courting. I couldn't help grinning. Ian looked good with the armband. Even on enemy lines. Forbidden and dangerous – especially after he stood up to Priscilla's bratty cousin.
Ella elbowed me. "Enough drooling, we've got to cause a distraction!"
A series of hushed whispers took over as my friend and I sent two castings at opposite ends of the beach. There was a loud boom and then sand went flying where I had cast
mine. Ella's magic split a boulder in two.
"What was that?"
"They've found us!"
"We've got to get to the boat-"
"No." Ian's voice rang out clearly. "We aren't going back to the boat. Not yet. I want two five-man parties scouting the beach. We don't know that it's them. There is no way the mentors could have already made it back this quickly. You saw them in the looking glass on the eastern bluffs, did you not? That's three miles from where we are now."
Just as Ella had predicted Ian split up his team, leaving only ten behind. The rest of the mentees left in search parties to scout the remains of the beach. Merrick and Ian were the only two Combat apprentices who had stayed.
"This is too good to be true," Ella breathed. "All we have to do is capture Ian and we end the battle right now. He's practically unguarded."
"Yes, but we have to make it past the others first."
"No, not if we do another casting close by – he'll be forced to send Merrick and some of the others to investigate."
"No, he won't," I said. "He'll never leave himself that exposed. He would wait for one of the other scouting parties to return."
"Fine. Then I'll reveal myself."
"Ella, no!" I whispered. "They'll catch you!"
"Yes, but you know Merrick won't be able to restrain himself from going after me. That second-year is as vain as his cousin. He'll want to claim first capture… And while he's chasing me it'll leave Ian unguarded. That's the best odds you could have!"
I thought it over. She was right, of course. This was our one chance to capture Ian while the other Combat mentees were away. And if Ian saw that it was me again… well he might just be too surprised to make the first move. "Okay, let's do it."
Ella took off, climbing along the crags until she was two hundred yards away. Then I watched as she threw a large casting in the direction of Ian's party.
Two Restoration apprentices collapsed.
The Black Mage: Apprentice Page 12
