Apprentice

by Nicholas Hale

  "Weren't there other girls who showed this affinity? Surely some of the girls in the families of other knights must have shown this..."

  "They wouldn't know. It wouldn't have been—"

  "Strong enough for them to notice. And if it is, the council writes it off as a malady of the mind. I think I get it now. So, what was your plan? With Brie, I mean."

  "I honestly don't know. The reach of the council is far. All I wanted to do was keep her safe. I thought of taking a boat to Aegis."

  "I doubt you wanted to get caught, have your leg chopped off and end up in the mines. But I don't think they would look for either of you here."

  "And that's one of the things I wanted to talk to you about..."

  "Leaving? Believe me, I would like nothing more than to set you free."

  "I thought as much."

  "It's just that it would raise too many questions. And just letting you escape? That won't work either. There are only two ports near enough that you could make a break for—forget Braemar, it's too far. One of them is Slaver Port. I don't think I need to explain why going there would be a bad idea. The port at Bren is slightly safer, not as many slavers. But most of the ships there are Aegean navy and they don't take civilians aboard—certainly not Rygans. There are few merchant ships, but they're under very strict watch by the guards—apparently, slaves have tried to escape in the past. And all this is if you can escape the nomads to get to the port. You must have noticed how capable they are. They know these deserts better than anyone."

  "You seem to have thought this through."

  "My intentions were to set you free. But it's more complicated than that. It was hard enough interfering to keep the nomads from taking you away. Setting you free would make my men distrust me. Besides, Marduk is the safest place in southern Ryga for you and Brie. I can keep you safe from the nomads and I'm sure the Rhial Knights won't look for you here."

  "Ironic, isn't it?"

  Olaf was smiling as he said it. Azrael looked at both him and Brie. He had been hunted half across the continent by one of the great powers on Ryga. He was captured by the slaver nomads and had lost his leg. Brie had traveled with him through all this. He was wondering how Olaf was still able to smile.

  "You'll be safe here. I promise you. No one will touch either of you. I'm here on a mission. It might take some time. Maybe a few months till I'm done. And when I am done, things will change here. I can put you on a ship to the isles myself."

  "That is much more than I expected when I was captured. You have my thanks."

  Azrael nodded. There was one more thing.

  "Can you teach me how to stop the voices?"

  Olaf raised his eyebrow. "You can still hear them?"

  "Not as frequently. I take some medicinal herbs."

  "I could. But it's not so much stopping them as controlling them. You must understand one thing though. It is dangerous. The voices that speak to us are…dangerous. And learning to control them involves letting them deeper into your mind and understanding them. The temple has instructors who are trained for this very purpose. And if something goes wrong, there are potions at hand to control things, potions that I do not have with me here. Would you still risk it?"

  "I need to know. I can't live in constant fear of them."

  *

  Olaf looked at the man in front of him. He certainly was a good man. That much was evident multiple times in the past few days. First saving his life in the cage and again when he purchased him from the nomads. And if Azrael was telling him the truth, then he had been hearing the voice since he was a child.

  Rufus had taken him along to the small apartment that he had set Tysha and Brie up in. He had seen how afraid the little girl had been. She was unable to distinguish between her own thoughts and the voice. Azrael had probably been suffering like this for a long time now. Yet, some parts of the story did not make sense. No matter how strong the voice, there would have to be a call. An invocation of a cant that would cause a Reverberation . Brie had picked it up from the temple. But Azrael was in Aegis all his younger life. It would be almost impossible for his voice to pick up an invocation from another continent.

  There was only one logical explanation and the answer made him feel giddy.

  The Twilight Circle.

  Rufus had come across them during his research. It was that bit of knowledge that ultimately led to his death. To seek it out he had no choice but to break into the temple sanctum. Only few among the most trusted council members were allowed inside the sanctum. And even fewer knew the contents of the books there. It was already impossible to break in, yet Rufus had somehow managed it. Hoping that the break-in would not be noticed was just a fantasy. In an old musty tome, Rufus had found a reference to the Twilight Circle.

  They were mentioned as being the worst enemies of the Rhial Knights in some of the books, but this particular tome held a more objective view of the Twilight Circle. Much of it was indecipherable but there were clear references to the circle being a part of the Rhial Knights during the formative years.

  There were also clear mentions of women being members of the circle.

  The knights focused only on a certain aspect of the voice—much of the cants used were to aid warriors in both defense and offense. Yet, the Twilight Circle was mentioned to have assassins as well as mages. When Rufus had first mentioned this, Olaf was curious as to why this was not common knowledge.

  They then examined all the records kept at the temple. Rhial Knights were forbidden from undertaking missions on their own, and there was a complete lack of missions to the Aegean Isles. Only a few knights were ever sent on missions there and those knights always seemed to have the deepest family connections to the council. Rufus had intended on leaving for the isles to investigate the matter himself, but his plan had been cut short by the council.

  And now, as he stood before Azrael, all his suspicions had been confirmed. It had to be the Twilight Circle. They would be able to help Brie. At first when he set out escaping Simea, he wasn't sure how he would even find them. The tomes Rufus had found were nearly a thousand years old. He wasn't even sure the organization existed, and if it did, was it still called the Twilight Circle? The Aegean Isles themselves were formed out of several years of turmoil before which they were independent islands. He did not know the changes that took place in all those years.

  For everything else the Rhial Council had been, they were always a force of righteousness in the north.

  Was the Twilight Circle a force of good? Or were they amoral?

  He had set out with many questions. Thinking about each one raised a slew of other questions, yet some of those questions had been answered.

  Here was proof that the circle existed. There were numerous islands that formed Aegis, but the circle would have a strong presence wherever Azrael made his home. That would be the most likely explanation for him feeling the Reverberations.

  He felt a twinge of guilt as he thought about it, but he needed more information. He would need to probe Azrael for more details. If he knew even a single phrase that the voice had spoken to him, he could analyze it for signatures. The circle too had to use cants to draw out the power of the voice.

  And he also needed more details about Aegis.

  Azrael would be the best source of information. And from what it seemed, he was a man in some position of power, with familial ties to noble blood. A kind-hearted one at that. He had no intention of exploiting that kindness, but perhaps his power could come in useful when the time came for him to step out into Aegis.

  Since the day Rufus was murdered, it had been his first piece of good luck. If gaining the man's trust meant teaching him about the Voice, then so be it.

  A few years ago, he would have found it unthinkable, but being on the run all the way from Simea to the plains to the desert had given him time to think. If a man could hear the voice, then who were the council to determine if he was worthy of the knowledge to control it? Brie's suffering had shown him what
a voice not controlled could do. She would have been driven mad, had Rufus not calmed her with the potions.

  Besides, Azrael did not seek knowledge for power. He only sought it out to survive. The council be damned.

  "Very well then. I will show you how to control the voice."

  Chapter 44

  Of all the elemental spells that a mage could learn, air spells were the most complicated. Most of them involved a combination of summoning elemental air and altering the properties of the air around the caster. Air was already present in abundance, so it made sense that most elemental air spells made use of a combination of air from the elemental planes and air in the caster's own plane.

  The basic foundation for many of the higher-order air spells was known as impact air. It involved compressing the air in front of the caster into a bubble and releasing it in the desired direction as a shockwave that traveled through the air and struck its target.

  Making a lance of air meant altering the shape of the compressed air bubble during the release into a single point. Forming various shapes during the release and changing the number of bubbles that were formed led to different spells of air.

  It was true that most elemental spells worked in a similar way. But the nature of air meant the preciseness in the casting and the focus of the caster himself needed to be flawless. Even a slight breeze or the change in temperature could cause many air spells to go awry. Most proficient mages couldn't strike their target with a single air lance, which was why the spells were heavily modified and complicated—for instance, an air lance required additional compressed bubbles of air around the lance to maintain its direction as it was fired.

  Even producing a basic shockwave with impact air caused such heavy recoil in front of the caster that they would fly backward uncontrollably. This required an additional air cushion behind the caster to maintain his balance as he cast a shockwave.

  But despite all this, air spells were revered for one reason. They were deadly at close range. Where fire couldn't burn and lightning couldn't strike, air could crush. With enough practice a caster could predict the amount of recoil and use it for an additional reason—to gain distance from his opponent.

  Lorian placed both hands in front of him and moved them appropriately to focus the bulk of the release at a single point. He felt the rush of blood and excitement throughout his body as the released shockwave exploded in front of him.

  He heard the satisfying crunch of bones as he was lifted off the ground and flew up back-first into the air.

  Not his own bones, however.

  Mid-air and a good distance away from his original position, Lorian saw the effects of his handiwork. A large skeleton—most likely that of a primate—buckled as its ribcage was crushed. It reared its head as if to scream, but was there was no sound.

  It was far from finished, though, observed Lorian.

  "Impressive..."

  Lorian landed on his feet a short distance away and turned to see Amadeus sitting in the balcony of his pit. He looked almost bored. One hand held a goblet of wine, while he raised the other and pointed it to the skeleton. His fingers moved like those of a puppeteer. In an instant the undead primate had closed the distance that Lorian had created and raised its arms to strike. Lorian had expected its strength, but not its speed.

  "But these are not common undead you face."

  The Azhurai had shown him this creature. Amadeus seemed to have improved its speed since the last apprentice had faced it. Lorian knew the attack that would come next as the construct locked its hands together to make a mace. That was its strongest blow—when it attacked with both its hands. It would try and crush him.

  In the visions that the Azhurai had shown him, he had seen several of the apprentices try to block it with a shield spell.

  They all failed.

  Shield spells were not based on sheer mental strength. They were absolute. At one point the shield spell would not benefit at all from additional energy or effort. There was always an upper limit to how much damage a shield spell could absorb, and Amadeus had designed the construct with this in mind. The creature would strike with force enough to break through the shield spell and to shatter the bones of the caster behind it.

  Fortunately there were spells similar to shield spells that could deflect damage. They were harder to cast, but when executed properly, they would divert the attackers strike. They could not deflect lances and swords as they would pierce straight through, but they were perfect for crushing blows like the one he was about to face. In fact, Lorian had learned, they worked better the more blunt the shape of the attack was—and the constructs interlocked hands formed a mace larger than any he had practiced on.

  The spell was completed just in time. The massive strike of the primate was deflected and crashed into the ground next to where Lorian was standing. The impact shattered the floor sending dust and debris rising into the air.

  The creature raised it arms for a second strike. This time it changed the angle of the strike and launched it sideways.

  No! thought Lorian. The deflection spell he designed only worked for vertical strikes. Instinctively Lorian cast a shield spell to his side. He regretted it the moment he cast it, but it had probably saved his life. He heard a resounding crack as the shield barrier broke and he was shot off his feet sideways. Lorian felt himself crash into the wall of the pit. He coughed up blood as he felt the shock of the impact spread throughout his body.

  "You see what I mean?" asked Amadeus.

  Damn him, thought Lorian.

  The essence infused into this construct made it almost living. And it seemed to learn from its mistakes. Lorian knew what he had to do to destroy it.

  The Azhurai had shown him.

  It was vulnerable on its spine. Once that was broken, the creature would fall apart. But it hadn't even given him room to breathe. And it was always facing him. It was too quick, thought Lorian. The one the Azhurai had shown him in its visions was slow enough for the caster to get behind and shatter its spine.

  Lorian had initially thought the impact air at close range could pass through its rib cage and shatter its spine, but he was wrong. Its bone structure was strong enough to absorb the shock before it could pass all the way through. It would take far too many strikes to the front to be able to crush its spine.

  A fireball would be useless. Lorian knew it was resistant to fire. A lightning strike could work—it was often the choice spell when precision was needed and damage to a single point was vital, but it was too hard to aim at its spine. The creature was constantly moving and never stayed still. He had tried twice and missed. He wasn't a fool to keep wasting energy trying the same thing. An impact air would work, but all he needed was to get at its back.

  Lorian fell to the ground and got back up as quickly as he could. His legs felt weak. He wouldn't survive a second strike from it. It had already closed the distance between them and was standing above him. It raised its hands and let loose another blow.

  No time for a spell.

  Lorian ducked and felt the bony knuckles brush against his robes as the blow barely missed him. He heard a crack as they connected to the wall of the pit, again sending up dust and debris.

  The walls of the pit! He could use them.

  He would only have a few moments to execute it and the timing would have to be perfect. Its hands were already raised for a second strike. The hottest fireball he could produce. It was simple enough to cast as it was the spell he was most familiar with. The strike was halfway to its target when Lorian's spell completed. The wall behind him exploded as a portion of it turned liquid.

  Lorian lost his balance trying to move out of the way of the strike. Well enough, as long as he could avoid the life-threatening strike. He fell to the ground twisting his ankle at the same time the folded fists struck the wall of liquid earth. The fists sank into the wall and went as far as they could.

  Still lying on the ground, Lorian cast a spell to reverse the liquefaction. A freezing spell
. He didn't need to put in too much effort into it. Even before he completed the spell, the liquid began to harden. It only took an instant and the wall had solidified.

  The creature began tugging to pull its fists out. It was strong enough to break the rocky wall that had trapped its hands, so he needed to act quickly. He rolled along the floor and stood up behind the skeleton. He heard a cracking sound as the wall began to give.

  He was positioned right behind the large primate, its spine exposed to him. It was the only chance he would get. And he hoped that his spell would be strong enough. He began the impact air spell. He couldn't hurry through and bungle it. If the spine were still intact after his spell, it would turn and pummel him to death.

  He heard the wall crumble and could see both its fists break free. Before the creature could turn, Lorian released the impact air. It was far more powerful than his earlier one. He put all the energy he could muster into this one taking care to focus the resulting shockwave along the spine. He was launched off his feet just as before, but he heard the crushing sound of the spine cracking. He couldn't balance himself and was flying through the air.