by Clark Bolton
The creature clicked and moved its head in circles at the question but this only confused the three as they watched. Autbek repeated the question several times and then asked it a different one.
“Will it harm you?” he asked.
Haspeth pulled on his shirtsleeve then and whispered harshly to him, “You can’t give him that Autbek. Not without asking the master first!”
“Why not? It’s perfectly safe I think.”
“You think! Gods man what if Tenric does not think so!”
“He might not like it, you're right. But I think the Dieknotkow deserves it and I think he wants me too.”
“Wants you to, are you daft? He don’t know!” Haspeth gestured sharply toward the man-bird as he said it.
Autbek thought for a moment. For some strange reason he did not want to back down, and then looking down at his hand he realized he was wearing the amulet about his wrist. “Wow!” He exclaimed then with a racing heart he laid the amulet around the Dieknotkow’s neck.
Stepping back he seemed pleased with himself and so in fact did Castor who came to stand beside him. Without a word Castor reached up and adjusted the amulet so that the chain was hidden by its feathers and so that the figurine hung down the man-bird’s back where it was less likely to be seen.
Autbek leaned in close to the creature and quietly asked it. “Have we done the right thing?”
The Dieknotkow hissed and then in a high squeaky voice said, “Yes … pleased.”
A shiver ran up his spine. This time he was sure of the words as they were most certainly the clearest the Dieknotkow had ever said to him. “You’re welcome, sir.” He replied.
His two companions looked at him questioningly for a moment. He then released though they heard the words they may not have known the language since the spell had been cast on him only.
“So what did it say?” Castor asked softly after a moment’s pause.
“He said yes and that he is pleased.”
“He?” Haspeth whispered to Autbek. “You never called it a he before!”
“Well I think it is a he … a man of sorts.” Turning he motioned for them to leave with him.
Chapter 8
Autbek smiled at the three blue-girls, as he and his friends called them but never to their faces, filed into the room for their second class in arcane-script. When seated he had Haspeth close the door that led to an adjoining room where the girl’s families waited as he was not about to let them listen in on anymore lessons. Tenric had made it clear that secrecy was in order and if that could not be maintained then the classes had to end.
“Good! Now ladies let’s get started shall we.” He decided on calling them ladies as opposed to girls figuring that would be more to their liking. As he stared for a moment at Onaleen he confirmed she was no mere girl, and in fact it took some will on his part not to glance at her bosom too much.
The three girls were all about Autbek’s age, which was now eighteen since his latest birthday had come and passed while in the service of the Mage-Councilor. They all smiled and politely remained silent as they awaited his lecture with apparent enthusiasm. When handed parchment, quills, and ink they gladly accepted them and laid them out neatly on the table before them.
He smiled at Onaleen, who smiled back a bit bashfully. “Today we are going to write a few of those arcane-symbols you looked at last week.” This got a frown from the girls which he figured was to be expected. “Now I know they are a bit of a pain to look at on the page but you all need to get past that, and soon you will find them a joy. Right, Haspeth?”
Haspeth had tuned out already as he stood in the back of the room, and so had been staring at Pemmesa’s back. She was the one he had set his sights on as Resbeka seemed a bit cold toward him already and Onaleen seemed to be taken for the moment. “Umm … yea … right … right. At first a really bloody big pain … and now very … nice.”
The girls smiled to themselves at Haspeth’s comments, obvious to them also that he was not prepared for the question. When Autbek turned to Castor for a comment the reply was a bit more coherent.
“Joy is the word I would use.” Castor said in his usual dry humor.
“Yes, so take your quill and dip it like so!” Autbek then went on to draw a single simple symbol on a piece of parchment he had laid on the table for the girls to see. They immediately twisted their heads a bit so as to try and picture it from his angle. “Oh, sorry … let me walk over here and do that.” He was more than a little nervous to squeeze in next to Onaleen and Pemmesa so he could draw the symbol again from a better point of view for the girls. Onaleen’s perfume made it pleasurable suddenly, he realized as he forced himself to concentrate.
Onaleen watched him draw then exclaimed softly. “Oh, it moves!”
“Yes! It will appear to do that but it’s not really moving and with time your mind will adjust.” He turned to get another comment from Haspeth. “How long did it take for you, Haspeth, before they appeared to stop dancing on the page?”
“Ah, about a year I guess.” This got a few giggles from the girls until they realized that they might have to suffer that long.
“So long?” One of them asked.
Autbek walked to the front of the room with his hands clasped behind his back. “For some anyway. Though for most it will not be so long … and remember now there are great rewards for your studies. You will all be quite highly regarded … though some may wish to avoid a mage others I think will want you in their service as the Earl most certainly does.”
“Really, sir?” Onaleen asked innocently.
“Yes … really! Haspeth, why don’t you demonstrate.” He pointed at an unlit candle on a small side table.
Haspeth puffed up and walked to within several feet of the table then cast a cantrip causing the candle to suddenly alight with a brighter than normal glow. He turned and smiled proudly to the girls who sat with jaws agape.
“Only a year girls! That and much more will be your capabilities.”
Castor could not resist. “Candle lighters don’t get paid a lot … but it’s worth it.”
Autbek smiled at the joke for a moment then moved swiftly on as the giggles died down. “Now … go ahead and make a copy of that symbol I wrote for you. Castor here … and Haspeth will help if you have difficulties. He then watched with pride as his three new apprentices worked to complete the very first bit of arcane-script writing on the very symbol he had first learned more than ten years before.
The day following the blue-girls second lesson Autbek, Haspeth and Castor stood on the outskirts of the construction site watching their master stride about again with a host of engineers and scribes trailing after him. This had been going on most of the day and at first they had trailed along like everybody else but after a while they seemed to have been forgotten. Not so for Sterncast who was forced to keep up with his master while bearing a portable writing stand on which he took notes from time to time.
“Poor sot!” Haspeth leered.
“Yea.” Castor grunted, also enjoying Sterncast’s plight.
Autbek surveyed the site again and figured it had to be nearly half the size of the Earl’s palace. It was going to be the site for the mage academy and Tenric had boasted it would contain a massive library, a hundred classrooms, as well as quarters for the students and staff.
For the most part Tenric had kept the three of them in the dark, preferring instead to have his two original apprentices responsible for all the drawings and measurements as well as drafting lists of items that the school would need. Autbek had felt left out at first but on his first day at the massive site before him he decided he was lucky not to be involved yet.
The place was one pile of rubble after another and paths had to be cleared by the construction staff just so people could walk from one end to the other. Huge puddles the size of ponds dotted the place and there still was several walls remaining of the buildings that had previously occupied the site. He figured it would be full of bugs excep
t for the fact it was nearly winter and much too cold for them.
Turning toward Caster, Haspeth offered a wager, “Bet you that gold mark you got that not one student is schooled here for at least five years.”
The much shorter and younger boy immediately replied, “Nope, spent it already.”
“On what? You can’t spend that much already, unless you're Autbek!”
They both got a good laugh out of that remark even if Autbek did not. He simply furrowed his brow and looked to the setting sun, doing his best to ignore them. He could see now that the engineering staff was packing up for the day and that Tenric was heading back to where the horses were stabled.
As usually the three of them had walked. “Let’s head back!” He announced to the two who needed no urging. He paused for a moment to allow one of the others to lead so he did not have to ask the way to the palace. That’s when he noticed someone waving to him, not from the construction site but from across the main road.
It was Berdtom that had caught their attention. After crossing the road the three ducked down a side street that Berdtom had turned into. “Tom, good to see you.” Autbek said as they embraced briefly. “Been a few week since I heard from you.” He turned to see the reaction of his other two friends; though they had met Berdtom a number of times and to some extent were aware of their close relationship he had not really spoken of it much.
“Greetings, master Berdtom” Haspeth said.
“Hello to you, master Haspeth and congratulations on your progress.” Berdtom told the young man as he shook his hand. “And a pleasure as always, Castor.”
Castor smiled at the man but said nothing.
“Can we talk a bit, O’t?” Berdtom asked, clearing indicating he wanted to speak to Autbek alone.
“Ah, sure!” he said nodding his head and following Berdtom a short way until they found a low wall to sit on. “Where have you been Tom?”
“Away, far away at times. How about you?”
“Here about, never far from the mages wing. It’s difficult at times to be shut in so but we get by.”
“I’ve heard, and mostly good things. Now do you suppose we could find a spot to talk more securely? Your two friends are best to wait where they are or perhaps they can find their way to the palace.”
Autbek turned to check on them and found them leaning patiently against a wall about thirty paces away. “How about a pub or inn? They could use one and so could I.”
Berdtom smiled and added, “Fine, we can find a private room there for the two of us while your friends enjoy themselves.”
“Great!” Standing up he yelled to the two to follow them. “You know of one as I’m afraid I’m not familiar with this part of Astrum.”
“Yep, know of one not far. The Restful Ditch, very nice if you like cheap.”
“Sounds fine, and by the way all I have is gold marks.”
“Got us covered my boy.”
They found the large pub with no difficulty and soon found themselves in a darkened hall filled with a number of people, most of who were sitting at various long tables. He motioned for Castor and Haspeth to have a seat and then after Berdtom handed them a few copper coins they left them happily to themselves.
Berdtom asked the barkeep for permission to use one of the smaller rooms up stairs after slapping down a few more copper coins. They climbed the stairs and soon found an empty room.
“Can you shield us O’t?” Berdtom asked as he shed his heavy cloak and made himself comfortable in a wooden chair.
Nodding he cast the non-detection spell easily enough and then sat down to hear what news this friend had.
“I see you’ve seen the construction site. What do you think of it, will it do for a college of sorcery?”
“Ha, yeah I think it will. It certainly is massive enough though I don’t know how long it’s going to take to get it completed. I guess my master will have it done in several phases I suppose.”
Berdtom stared at him with a big smile on his face for a few moments. “What if I told you Tenric will never complete it? In fact he will not even finish a single phase of this wondrous academy of sorcerers, nor will he remain in Astrum much longer.” He said with a swirl of his hand.
“How so? I mean the Earl has given his blessing has he not and all the engineers and such are already working on it.”
“Yes!” Berdtom said as he leaned forward and continued in a hushed tone. “Well rumors have been laid long enough now to hatch and hatch one of them has O’t. The Mage-Councilor is spending more and more of his time fighting this rumor in the Earl’s court, and I tell you it is bigger even than the Great Mage Tenric.”
“So that demonstration I helped him with was not enough?”
“Not by far, O’t, though it has gained you some attention I must say.”
“You mean that part with Fesmbol and that idiot Bek? Yea, I actually enjoyed that and do you know my master has not mentioned it, though he must have seen or at least heard about parts of it.”
“I’m sure he has, O’t, in fact I know he has.” Berdtom said with a smirk.
“How so, Tom?” He said accusingly.
“Well let’s just say that Tenric’s great black-door between you mages and the rest of the palace stops more than people. It also stops letters, although sometimes they need a little help making their way back to the sender.”
Autbek stared at his friend for a moment. “Are you telling me your intercepting letters … in the palace?”
“Just those I figure Tenric won’t tear up. You forget your isolation comes at a cost and rightly so. Lords and ladies would be all over you but for that door, O’t … and some careless messengers.”
“I guess I should be happy.” He said but decided he really wasn’t. “Who was Fesmbol anyways? The Earl seems to strangely tolerate him in some way I think-“
“Yes, he is a new comer of sorts to the court. A recently discovered nephew I believe or at least recently recognized.” Berdtom said with a tight smile.
“Hope he wasn’t one of those sending me letters as I found him juvenile.”
Berdtom frowned slightly and then changed the subject. “Well anyways … Eifled and I have been following events very closely and despite Tenric’s best efforts the court in general has tired and has turned a deaf ear to both him and Eifled. It makes justification for the enormous cost of this academy of Tenric’s nearly impossible to accomplish.”
“Does my master not realize this? I mean they were out there today getting ready to start building it.”
“He doesn’t, O’t, and part of the problem is he is neither of Astrum nor of Bene Aimont.” Berdtom said sadly. “He is also fighting the rumor that all talk of a coming catastrophe is a hoax to somehow garner favors from the Earl. Either reality is hard enough for him to fight alone, and together I conclude he is doomed.”
“You mean that rumor that there is no great threat to Astrum … and that the rumor alone will spell the end of the realm?” Autbek said while rolling his eyes to show his contempt for the whole idea of the thing.
“Exactly, he fights the intangible!”
“You know that sounds like horse-apples, even coming from you Tom.”
“Ha-ha! Yes I know it does and I will laugh all the harder when your master has gone though I know what he means to you.”
Autbek sat back for a moment to think of the consequences of Tenric leaving Astrum. “It would be sad, very sad. I don’t know what I would do with myself Tom.”
“Take heart O’t, for what will happen to you in his absence may very well be what’s best for us all. Things are about to happen quickly and you will be in the middle of it so keep your head down and loyalties straight!”
“My loyalties? Should I not want him to stay?”
“To that you will have no choice but to part from him, for the Earl will not let you go with him I think, so put that out of your mind. The Earl wants his mages and when Tenric departs you will be mage number one in the land of Astrum.�
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“Number one! That’s a sad state of affairs. Tenric is an experienced mage … a sorcerer. I’m not anywhere near him in ability.”
“Ha, don’t sell yourself short O’t. The Runeholdens have trained you well this I know. I’ve been to the capital O’t and in fact have just returned, and there learned a thing or two about mages. You’ve been schooled like no other and now with Tenric’s tutelage under your belt you must know that in time you will surpass him.”
“What! Now … I can’t believe this Tom, I’m just an apprentice. I need years of study to perform the feats of divination Tenric does now.”
“Ok, ok. Forget I said it. However, you will be on your own soon, though you will have some added clout.”
“Like what do you mean?”
“You're going to be given an office, an office in the Earl’s court. Now I know you don’t want it and it will scare the hell out of you but Tenric and the Earl will insist as it meets their needs.”
“You mean an office in the palace, I practically already have that.”
“No, you misunderstand. I mean you are to become an officer of the court.”
“What?”
“You will be made the Vis Mage-Councilor within a fortnight I should think.”
“A what? I mean why me?”
Berdtom stood and walked to the door and turned back to say. “Who else O’t, you are after all the only lord among the apprentices and if you have not noticed yet you are years ahead of Sterncast. Your glorious master needs time away from the court and that means he needs a proxy, and that proxy’s name is Autbek”
His heart raced and he hoped Berdtom was wrong, just wrong. “Gods!”
“Sorry my boy, now let’s go get something to drink so you can wash court politics to the place it belongs … your bowels.” With that Berdtom opened the door and headed down to join Castor and Haspeth.
He found the two quite enjoying themselves. Both Castor and Haspeth had a pint of ale in front of them and were amusing themselves by teasing a rather young serving wench. Autbek’s first thought was that Castor was way too young to be drinking or to be in pub like this one. Other than a teenage wench or two there was no other his age.