by Ian Gregoire
The instructor frowned at her. “What are you talking about?”
“You turned me into a villain in the eyes of the class, equating me with your hypothetical enemy invaders. Then you forced me to play the role.” Without waiting to be dismissed she walked swiftly away from Master Pedrano, heading for the exit.
Hopefully, the next class of the day wouldn’t be quite so infuriating.
Outside on campus grounds Kayden stomped indignantly towards Barella Hall to attend her next class. She was berating herself for not having ignored the provocation in Master Pedrano’s class, potentially getting herself into more trouble with Fay, when her attention was drawn by laughter up ahead. It was coming from a group of five male apprentices walking in the opposite direction, one of whom was Lazar. After the group breezed past her, Kayden stopped abruptly in her tracks. She realised that Lazar didn’t look like an apprentice who’d recently been castigated by the campus administrator, which got her thinking.
Now was as good a time as any to take care of her Lazar predicament, she decided, spinning around.
“Hey! You!” she called out.
All five apprentices peered back over their shoulders at her, and the group slowly shuffled to a stop as one, turning around to face her. She promptly marched towards them, wondering why Lazar was looking to his left and his right like an idiot, as if there was a possibility she had been calling out to someone other than him. Reaching the group, Kayden grabbed Lazar by the arm.
“A word,” she said brusquely, pulling him away from the other four apprentices and dragging him towards the nearby armoury building.
Lazar offered no resistance as he was led wordlessly into the space between the armoury and the adjacent storage building. “Wow!” he said with a smile when Kayden brought them to a halt. “Not only do you want to speak to me while on campus grounds, you want to do so in full view of other people, including some of my friends. It must be love after all.”
“Shut up, you idiot,” she retorted. A quick glance over her shoulder confirmed that Lazar’s friends were watching, so she marched him further forward and around the back of the armoury, where prying eyes couldn’t observe them.
“It’s over!” she said. “No more late-night trysts at Delmara Inn. I don’t know what I was thinking.” She turned on her heels to leave but Lazar swiftly seized her by the arm. “Don’t touch me!” she hissed vehemently.
Raising both hands in placation, Lazar took a step back. “I’m sorry,” he said. “But you can’t just say that then walk away without explanation.”
“I don’t owe you an explanation.”
“Well I want one anyway,” insisted Lazar. “This is about last night, isn’t it? Because I implied that what’s between us is more than just physical now. Look, I told you I’m prepared to wait if you’re not ready to acknowledge things have changed. There’s no need for us to stop seeing each other in the meantime, especially since we’re both enjoying the physical aspects of spending time together.”
Staring up at Lazar’s earnest face, Kayden suddenly felt small before his six feet, two inches frame, despite standing at five feet, ten inches herself. “Would you be realistic for a moment,” she implored, keeping her voice low. “Even if there was something between us, and I wanted to be courted by you… what would be the point?”
It appeared as though Lazar was about to make his case, but she pre-empted him; there was nothing he could say to convince her.
“You are a level nine apprentice, and I’m level ten. In a matter of weeks the final term of my apprenticeship will begin, at the end of which I’ll be inducted into the Order after I pass the end of level tests. So, I will be gone and you will still be here for another year, assuming you pass the level nine tests. Do you seriously expect me to believe you’ll save yourself for a year to be with me?” Before Lazar could give his response, she provided one of her own. “Please! You and I both know you’ll be adding a dozen more notches to your belt within a month of my leaving. And you know what? I don’t care! When I’m residing in Temis Rulan I’ll be surrounded by thousands of real men, so why would I give you a second thought?”
“Wow!” drawled Lazar, slow clapping, though he didn’t look at all impressed. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard so much nonsense in my life.” He moved a step closer to Kayden, gazing fixedly into her eyes. “Kayden, if you want to talk about being realistic, let’s just cut to the chase about what your problem really is. When you and I first started laying together, you assumed it would remain a strictly physical arrangement. Given our history, it never once occurred to you that genuine affection could develop between the two of us. Now that it has, it scares you. That’s why you’re unwilling to to acknowledge your feelings. Somehow you’ve got it into your head that opening your heart to someone will make you vulnerable.”
Kayden bristled at at Lazar’s presumption: that he knew her sufficiently well to analyse her.
“Caring about someone other than yourself doesn’t make you weak, Kayden,” continued Lazar. “You don’t have to walk away from what’s happening between us.”
“Lazar, why don’t stick your stupid theories where the sun doesn’t shine?” she threatened. “You think that just because I allowed you to defile my body a few times you now know what’s in my head and in my heart? You don’t know the first thing about me… and you never will. Now, get this through your thick head as I will only say it once: I’ve had my fun with you, now I’m done. Accept it! And just so we’re clear, my warning to you remains in place. If you tell anyone about us, you will regret it.” With the message delivered loud and clear, she was about to depart when she remembered something else. “Oh, and one more thing. You might want to give Master Fay a wide berth today, she knows all about your curfew-breaking and she’s in a foul mood about it.”
“Lazar? We’re all heading to our next classes; we’ll see you at lunch.”
Turning sharply to face the voice, Kayden saw one of the four apprentices Lazar had been walking with standing at the junction of the walkway separating the armoury from the storage building. He looked young—more adolescent than adult. She might have wondered why Lazar was friends with someone who had to be a level five apprentice if she weren’t so startled.
“How long have you been standing there?” she snapped, almond shaped eyes widening. Without waiting for a response she thrust out a hand, invoking Yuksaydan. The apprentice was taken completely by surprise, lifted off his feet and pulled behind the armoury, landing on his hands and knees in front of her. She wasted no time in grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, yanking him back on to his feet, then pinning him against the wall of the armoury. “I don’t know how much you just heard,” she snarled, her manic face mere inches from his, “but if you repeat a word of it to anyone, I will put you in the ground.”
“Let go of me, you crazy bitch!” blurted the ruffled apprentice, pushing her back.
Kayden slammed him against the wall a second time, with such force the sound of his head striking the masonry was audible. “Did you hear me?” she shrieked. “I will end you!” She slammed him against the wall a third time, and again the back of his head struck the masonry.
Swiftly, Lazar seized hold of Kayden, wrestling her away from his younger counterpart, lifting her off her feet in the process.
“Put me down!” she snapped, wriggling futilely in his arms, legs kicking comically in the air.
Complying promptly, Lazar set her down, releasing his hold of her. “What has got into you?” he said harshly, his expression stern. “You want to kill someone to protect your guilty secret?”
Kayden back-pedalled slowly, readying to leave. “Stay away from me,” she intoned breathlessly. “And remember what I said.” She shifted her focus to the other apprentice. “And you…” she said, pointing a finger, “you do not want to test me.” Turning on her heels, she stormed swiftly away from the scene, her heart beating rapidly.
“Shit! I’m bleeding,” she heard the injured apprentic
e moan as she departed. “What the fuck did you do to upset that bitch? I didn’t even hear anything.”
A short while later Kayden arrived outside Barella Hall with her heart still racing. She opted not to enter the lecture building immediately, choosing instead to remain outside for a brief spell to regain her composure. Standing to one side, she placed both hands against the wall, closed her eyes and gently rested her forehead on the cool stone masonry, taking long composed breaths—inhaling through her nose, exhaling through her mouth.
Being someone who prided herself on her self-control, Kayden was perturbed that she had almost completely lost it with Lazar and the unknown apprentice. She couldn’t understand why she was so angry; it didn’t make any sense. Would it really be so bad if her peers found out she and Lazar had been lovers for the last few months? There were undoubtedly scores of other women on campus who would love to lay with Lazar—no doubt a number of them already had. As for the men on campus, there wasn’t a single one who wouldn’t be insanely envious of Lazar’s good fortune, so the prospect of her trysts with him becoming common knowledge couldn’t possibly be the source of her anger.
Thinking back to the business with Master Pedrano during the military theory class she’d recently attended, while she didn’t appreciate being singled out because of her heritage, it was a minor annoyance at best. On any other day it would have been water off a duck’s back, hardly worth getting upset about. Consequently, it was easy to dismiss this incident as the source of her ire; after all, she was mad before she even entered the classroom. The burning anger she’d been feeling, that was only now beginning to abate, had been ignited in Fay’s office. What Kayden couldn’t explain was why it had raged unabated so long after the fact. Although her anger in the moment was to some extent understandable, she fully accepted she had done wrong and that her master was more than justified in punishing her, so that should have been the end of the matter.
So why wasn’t it?
Kayden felt, then heard someone’s presence on her left, coming to a halt in front of the entrance to Barella Hall.
“I see you don’t like learning Karazhni any more than the rest of us, despite always pretending otherwise.”
With an imperceptible sigh Kayden opened her eyes, lifted her forehead away from the wall of the building, then stood upright as she turned to face her roommate and fellow level ten apprentice, Danya Shaylanis.
“Did you want something, Danya?” asked Kayden, her tone making her sound weary.
Much to Kayden’s relief, Danya didn’t want anything and simply entered the building without another word. For a woman who loved the sound of her own voice as much as Danya did, it was not like her to pass up the opportunity to talk someone’s ears off. She briefly wondered if the look on her face was angry enough to scare her colleague away before realising the real reason for the swift departure: Danya didn’t want to be late for class. With that in mind Kayden quickly followed suit, entering the building to attend her next lesson.
Kayden couldn’t help but snicker as she and the rest of the class had to listen while Danya and her speaking partner conversed with each other while standing at the centre of the circle of chairs arranged around them. The scenario the pair had to play out was that of a married couple trying to decide what they want to do for entertainment that evening.
As bad as Danya’s accent and pronunciation were, at least her phrases were coherent enough to make sense. The same could not be said of Renzo Kantara. His butchering of Karazhni should have elicited more than the occasional restrained chuckle from the class, but given how most of Kayden’s classmates also had difficulty getting to grips with the language perhaps it was no surprise if they missed his more humorous slips. She particularly enjoyed his question, “In which direction should we eat squirrels under the river?” which caused her to laugh out loud.
“That’s enough, Kayden,” Sister Melora had admonished her. But Kayden could tell from the look in the eyes of the middle-aged Jaymidari teaching the class that she too wanted to laugh. She was impressed by the woman’s restraint.
Finally, the Sister ended the embarrassing spectacle.
“All right Renzo and Danya, that was certainly better,” she said, “but still plenty of room for improvement. You may both sit back down.”
Both apprentices looked mightily relieved to have their ordeal brought to an end. They both reclaimed their respective seats in the circle.
“Room for improvement? That’s the understatement of the year,” quipped Kayden under her breath, though not nearly as quietly as she thought.
“You think you’re so perfect!” snapped Renzo from the opposite side of the circle. “Why don’t you shut you mouth before I shut it for you.”
Rising to her feet, Kayden retorted, “I’d like to see you try.” She scowled at her classmate for having the temerity to threaten her.
“That’s enough! Both of you!” intervened Sister Melora. “Renzo, there’s no need for threats. And Kayden, if you don’t have words of encouragement to offer, would you kindly be quiet.”
Kayden sat back down. “With all due respect, Sister, telling people they’re improving when they clearly aren’t is not helping them. You know as well as I do that if someone’s life was dependent on Renzo’s ability to string together a coherent sentence in any foreign language, we’d have to skip straight to the part where we grab shovels to dig a shallow grave for the body.”
There was a stifled chorus of laughter from the gathered apprentices.
“If it was your life on the line,” retorted Renzo, “I’d happily fuck up all my sentences.”
“Renzo! Kindly watch your language,” snapped the Sister. “One more outburst like that and you’ll be paying a visit to the administrator’s office.”
“I apologise, Sister,” he said in contrition. “But since we’ve decided to be honest with each other, I may as well point out that it’s hard to muster any enthusiasm to learn the obsolete language of a long-lost empire. I still don’t understand why it was suddenly introduced to the syllabus this year in the first place. It makes no sense. When are any of us ever going to need to speak Karazhni?”
With her hands on her lap, Sister Melora sat up a little straighter in her chair. “All right, class,” she said, gaining the attention of the seventeen apprentices, “Renzo has raised an important point that is worth a little discussion. As you all know, late last year the Order stipulated the teaching of Karazhni for all apprentices. While you may not yet appreciate the wisdom of the decision, I can assure you it has a purpose.” She glanced casually around the circle. “So… who would like to hazard a guess as to what that reason might be?”
“I don’t need to guess,” said Kayden. “Master Fay already told me the reason.”
“Well, if you could hold off answering for a moment, let’s see if anyone can come up with the answer.” Sister Melora held out a hand in Danya’s direction, inviting the apprentice to speak. “What about you, Danya? Tell us why you think the Order would want you to be conversant in a language that Renzo describes as obsolete.”
The willowy apprentice shrugged non-committally. “Because… once upon a time Karazhni was the most widely spoken language on the continent?” Surprisingly, it wasn’t a terrible guess, Kayden mused. “And the Order thinks that by making us learn it the language will become fashionable again?”
Kayden silently shook her head.
“You were on the right track with your first point, Danya,” said Sister Melora, “but not so much with the second point. Could you elaborate on why Karazhni was once the most widely spoken language across Karlandria?”
It was difficult for Kayden to contain her irritation at the prospect of Sister Melora wasting time asking each of her clueless classmates, in turn, their thoughts on the matter. All that was going to be accomplished was a reduction in the time left for the actual language lesson. This wouldn’t have been so bad if she had already had her turn at role-playing a conversation.
Even after Danya had correctly stated that Karazhni was once the continent’s most spoken language—in its capacity as the official tongue of the Karazhnadari Empire—Kayden doubted whether anyone else in the class had the imagination to be able to pick up that thread and come to the logical conclusion. Was it really so hard to imagine that the members of the Council had growing concerns about political developments happening three thousand miles away in the Far West? Or that the Order will be paying very close to attention to goings on in present day Karazhnaya for the foreseeable future?
“All right, Kayden,” said Sister Melora. “Would you like to tell the rest of the class why the Order has made the teaching of Karazhni compulsory?”
Finally! thought Kayden. Now she could quickly give the answer so the class could resume; she was the only apprentice who’d not yet had the opportunity to do an improvised conversation.
“The Council believes that events in Karazhnaya over the last decade have the potential for serious turmoil in the not-too-distant future. Consequently, there is a need for Sanatsai fluent in Karazhni in order to conduct more covert missions in the country, and if the need should arise, to initiate direct intervention.”
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” blurted Renzo, obviously exasperated. “We have to learn this stupid language because of a primitive, backwater wasteland in the Far West?” There was a brief murmur of agreement from some of the apprentices. “Who cares what’s going on in Karazhnaya? It’s three thousand miles away. Why should it concern us?”
“Kayden, would you like to address those points?” said Sister Melora rhetorically. “What has been going in Karazhnaya over the last ten years, and why is the Council concerned about it?”
Oh, sure! Why not? she thought. Let’s waste even more time talking about why we’re learning a language rather than actually learning the damn thing. Kayden let out a sigh. “Starting with the second point first, the Council’s concerns should be obvious.” To anyone with a brain that is. “Even if we ignore the fact that Karazhnaya is the historic birthplace of the largest empire this continent has ever seen, it would be unwise to lose sight of the fact that for over a thousand years, now, Karazhnaya has been known as the ‘Land of the Saharbashi’. According to legend, the very first practitioner of Zarantar Najist was a native of Karazhnaya. Over time, the Saharbashi became so numerous that not only did the infighting between rival figures turn Karazhnaya into a wasteland, it also brought about the demise of the Karazhnadari Empire from within.