The Apprentice In The Master’s Shadow

by Ian Gregoire

  A short while later, they were in sight of one of the few two-storey buildings on the commune. It was surely Josario’s residence, and Kayden knew it was their destination. Fay’s presence was inside the house, while dozens of armed Sanatsai cultists were gathered outside. Vashik led her to the front door, and preceded her into the building. Immediately, Kayden smelled the mouth-watering aromas of a hot breakfast, and she followed her guide straight to the dining room. Upon entering, she saw four Jaymidari cultists standing around a food laden dining table, with Josario sitting at the end facing her, while Fay was sitting opposite him, with her back to Kayden.

  “The guest of honour has arrived,” proclaimed Josario, with a mischievous look upon his face.

  Fay slowly got up out of her chair and turned around. A wave a relief swept over Kayden; she’d never been more glad to see Fay in her life. The two weeks she had spent away from Antaris felt more like two months. She smiled warmly at her master, but the smile died on her lips just as quickly as it was born. The neutral expression on Fay’s face had shifted quickly to one of outrage. It was abundantly clear just how angry she was.

  Fay glanced back sharply over her shoulder to glare at Josario. “Is this how you treat your guests?” she said harshly through gritted teeth.

  “She may not be looking her very best, but I can’t take all the credit for that,” replied Josario, gazing fixedly at Kayden. “Any mistreatment she might have experienced while in my… care, was relatively brief. And, truth be told, she looked a little worse for wear when she first arrived.” He shifted his gaze to Fay. “I’m certainly not responsible for the recent stab wound that my people noted in her abdomen in the bathhouse this morning.”

  Returning her attention to the haggard looking apprentice, Fay looked Kayden up and down, searching for evidence to substantiate the claim that she’d been stabbed.

  “I’m all right,” Kayden offered. “I look worse than I actually feel.”

  Despite the assurance, Fay was still angered by the sight of the decapitation collar around Kayden’s neck. Thrusting out a hand, she combined invocations of Yuksaydan and Shakbarilson to instantly vaporise the collar, causing Kayden to yelp and grab her neck with both hands in a panic. Again, Fay glanced over her shoulder to address Josario. “I suppose you didn’t put the decapitation collar around her neck either,” she snapped rhetorically.

  “Of course I did,” he replied in a nonchalant tone. “But in my defence, your apprentice did come here and try to kill me.” He glanced at Kayden. “Didn’t you, my pretty?” There was no response from Kayden, not that Josario looked like he wanted or expected one. “That said, I’m not holding a grudge.” He gestured at the empty seat at the side of the table, halfway between himself and Fay. “Why don’t you have a seat and join us for breakfast, my pretty. I know you must be hungry.”

  “We’re not staying!” Fay interjected. She glanced at her apprentice. “Come on, Kayden, we’re leaving.”

  Kayden’s mouth opened in wide-eyed astonishment. “Master Fay!” she whined like a little girl. “I haven’t eaten for three days.” Her eyes darted to the food laid out upon the dining table. She was clearly desperate for something to eat.

  “Master Fay, is it?” said Josario, before succumbing to a fit of snickering laughter. “Oh, dearest Emiliana. You’ve not taken to calling yourself Fay Annis, after that self-righteous bitch you killed for me, have you? Do you imagine that taking on her name will absolve you of her murder?” He snickered some more.

  Fay glowered across the table at Josario. “I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” she said through gritted teeth, angry that he’d brought it up in front of Kayden. She glanced sideways, noting that the apprentice had moved alongside her.

  “I still remember the look of betrayal on her stupid face as her life ebbed away,” Josario drawled. “Until that moment, it had never occurred to her that the remarkable young Santasai she had trained and groomed to hunt down and kill men like me, would end up being the death of her.” Again, Josario snickered, enjoying his recollection. “I will always owe that woman a debt of gratitude for bringing you into my life. It was the start of a beautiful friendship.”

  The mockery in Josario’s voice only served to anger Fay even further.

  “We were never friends,” she blurted, clenching her fists at her side. “I was just a means to an end. You used me, and turned me into a monster.”

  Josario stood up so abruptly he unwittingly knocked his chair over. “You were no monster,” he thundered, voice rising with every word. “You were a magnificent force of nature, who killed with unparalleled savagery, the like of which I had never seen before… or since.” He paused, becoming less animated as he regained his composure. A sadistic half-smile curled his lips. “I will never forget what you did to First Minister Sevino in the dungeon beneath the royal palace in Dankona for as long as I live.” He continued in a quieter, more measured tone of voice, to add, “The way you used your Zarantar to rip every inch of skin from his naked body in the blink of an eye… To this day it remains the most gruesome sight I have ever witnessed.”

  The memory of the event turned Fay’s stomach. The poor man’s inhuman screaming was horrific.

  “It took the poor bastard almost three days to die,” Josario concluded with a chuckle.

  “Only a monster could have committed such an evil act,” Fay lamented. “Proving my point.” And what did it say about the humanity of her former mentor that he could make light of such suffering? she thought, glowering at him.

  “Dearest Emi,” he said. “Did I not teach you that conventional standards of morality do not apply to people like us? And, please, don’t try to rewrite history for the benefit of your apprentice; I never compelled you to kill anyone. You did all that because you wanted to, because you enjoyed having the power of life and death.” A calculating smile tugged the corners of his mouth before he turned his gaze to Kayden. “Next thing you know, my pretty, your master will be claiming that I forced her to murder her own mother.”

  Fay ground her teeth as her fingernails dug deeper into the palms of her clenched fists.

  “Not that she didn’t have it coming,” continued Josario, shifting his gaze to Fay. “So what if you are the product of rape? How dare that ungrateful woman abandon and reject such a special daughter after you’d gone to all that trouble to find her, and just because your father could be any one of the dozen drunken layabouts who took turns fucking her senseless years earlier. You did the right thing snuffing her out. If she couldn’t recognise what a special child she’d given birth to, then she didn’t deserve you.”

  Kayden couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Though she was aware that Fay had been the infamous rogue Sanatsai known simply as the Rogue, and had spearheaded Josario’s armies during the Great War, she hadn’t been privy to any specific details until now. Staring at the black-clad woman she called Master and friend, it was increasingly obvious that something was wrong. She had never seen Fay looking so tightly wound before, and clearly it was more than just what was being said that was eliciting the reaction. Something in Josario’s voice was having a very negative effect on her master’s psyche.

  “Have a care, old man,” Fay uttered. Her cold monotone made her sound like someone else.

  Glancing at Josario standing on the other side of the dining table, Kayden could see that he was savouring Fay’s reaction. He was wilfully provoking his former protégée. All of a sudden, Kayden could feel the air in the room bristling with Zarantar from Fay. Something bad was about to happen. Josario had succeeded in getting under Fay’s skin. Reaching out, Kayden placed her hand gently on Fay’s arm.

  “Fay?” she said.

  Her master’s head spun around sharply, but there was no recognition in her eyes. It was as though Fay was staring at a complete stranger. Panic briefly stirred Kayden, until she saw the fog of confusion lift rapidly from Fay’s countenance. In the blink of an eye she had her friend back.

  “I’m prepare
d to skip breakfast if we can leave right now,” said Kayden.

  “All right.”

  Kayden turned towards Josario, staring daggers at him. “You can leave her alone now,” she said forcefully. “You’ve lost her, and you’re never getting her back. The reunion you were hoping for is over. Fay and I are leaving now… unless you want to try to stop us.” She lurched forward and snatched a buttered bread roll off the dining table. There was no way she was setting foot off the commune without a bite to eat.

  Looking like a man who’d just been outmanoeuvred, Josario offered no reply as he silently eyed both master and apprentice across the table.

  The fraught silence in the dining room lengthened, and in a moment of profound clarity Fay knew that the day in which she’d be surpassed by her audacious apprentice would arrive sooner than she anticipated. The ease with which Kayden seemed able to resist Josario’s malign influence was a source of amazement. In turn, observing the perturbed expression on Josario’s face, she gathered that his inability to influence and manipulate Kayden was a source of consternation to him.

  Finally, Josario broke the silence. “Well, if you both have elsewhere to be,” he said, “far be it for me to delay you any longer.” There was an air of resignation to his voice, but Fay knew him well enough to realise it wasn’t genuine. He was toying with them. “I’ll certainly be sad to see you leave, but at least it will free up my morning to take care of some other business. I need to give the order for my people to slaughter a bunch of foreign Sanatsai amassed nearby, and planning to attack our communes this coming Thirdday.”

  Fay’s heart skipped a beat, and a wave of nausea swept over her. How could he know about the pending mission against his cult? She glanced sideways at Kayden, giving her a questioning look.

  “Well don’t look at me,” said Kayden, through a mouthful of bread roll. “I didn’t tell him.”

  “She’s telling the truth,” Josario interjected, drawing Fay’s attention back to him. Giving her a knowing smile, he said, “Did you honestly think the Order could make a move against me without my knowledge? I’ve been aware of the slow build-up of manpower for many weeks, and when I give the word, all those men and women will be dead within a quarter-hour.”

  “If you give that order you’ll simply be sending your followers to their deaths,” Fay countered. “A measly two thousand fanatics would struggle to overcome just five hundred Sanatsai trained by the Order, so how do you think they’d fare against the five thousand waiting to move against you?”

  To Fay’s surprise, her assertion provoked a bout of hearty laughter from Josario. She narrowed her eyes at him, wondering if his apparent lack of concern was genuine. If so, why?

  “Oh, my dear, Emiliana,” said Josario, regaining his composure. “Have we been apart so long that you’ve forgotten who I am? Do you actually believe that my seven decades of exile, travelling to the far ends of Karlandria, only yielded a measly two thousand fanatics, as you put it? Did I not tell you, this very morning, that I have set in motion plans that will reshape the entire continent? The resources at my disposal are greater than you realise, my beloved, so I can assure you that five thousand Sanatsai from the Order are no obstacle to my ambitions.”

  Remembering what an accomplished liar Josario had been when she knew him, Fay couldn’t decide if his grandiose bluster was simply more deception. His claims lacked credibility in light of the fact he’d spent the last few years living under an assumed identity in southern Anzarmenia, and leading a numerically insignificant cult.

  “As a gesture of goodwill,” continued Josario, intruding upon Fay’s thoughts. “I am prepared to spare the lives of your cohorts, and allow them to leave Anzarmenia unharmed.” His voice became more fervent as he added, “All you have to do is join me. Take your rightful place at my side, you and your apprentice both.”

  “We’ll die before we serve you,” snapped Kayden.

  For a moment, Josario’s gaze lingered on the apprentice. “You chose her well, Emi. There’s something dark and outrageously powerful lurking deep within her, just waiting for the right person to bring it out.” He returned his gaze to Fay. “But that’s a matter for another day. Today, let us focus on your fellow Sanatsai. You have their lives in your hands, and I’ve told you what I want in return for showing them mercy.”

  Now I know you’re lying, thought Fay. Mercy was never part of Josario’s vocabulary. If he truly had the means to slaughter her comrades, he would do so, irrespective of whether she agreed to serve him faithfully once more.

  “You’re bluffing!” she said in riposte. “You were bluffing about reshaping Karlandria in your image, and your bluffing now about taking on the Order.” At last she had him over a barrel. “I think it’s time to discuss the terms of surrender for your people.”

  Josario looked bitterly disappointed. “I guess you no longer know me as well as you once did,” he quipped. “It seems I have to provide you with a demonstration to remind you of the folly of those who oppose me.” He disappeared in a burst of black vapour.

  “Wait!” yelled Fay across the dining table, knowing in her heart of hearts that she had just condemned five thousand people to their deaths. Again, she sensed the Zarantar of the Saharbashi, and instantly a burst of black vapour coalesced into Josario’s tall, elderly form.

  “Changed your mind already, Emi?” he said with a smug look upon his face.

  Lips pursed, Fay glowered at her former mentor while her mind ticked over in contemplation. It was still possible to recover the situation, she realised. There was one more card left up her sleeve that she could play. “Even if you succeeded in eliminating my fellow Sanatsai, it wouldn’t change anything,” she said. “Your days of using Anzarmenia as a safe haven from which to scheme and plot against the Nine Kingdoms are over. Her Majesty, Queen Serefina, is a friend of mine. Your spy in Nerezan no doubt informed you last week of my private audience with Her Majesty, wherein we discussed the presence of your cult in her realm. The conversation was a brief one, but needless to say she was far from happy to learn of your activities, especially the recruitment of spies in her royal court. She actually wanted to deploy all four of her Sanatsai battalions to permanently remove you and your cultists, but I managed to persuade her to allow the Order to take care of the problem.” Fay allowed herself a subtle half-smile. “However, as that no longer seems possible, I have no choice but to send word to Her Majesty that she should immediately dispatch her forces to destroy you.”

  Suddenly, Josario didn’t look quite so sure of himself. His confidence that he retained the upper hand was clearly being chipped away.

  “Not so smug now, are you?” Kayden taunted him.

  “While you may not be concerned about five thousand Sanatsai of the Order,” continued Fay. “Do you have the resources to take on a kingdom? One that has good relations with all the realms of the Nine Kingdoms, and can call upon us for military assistance in the event of conflict with a foreign enemy?”

  Looking perturbed, Josario stared across the table at Fay. “How do you propose to get word to the queen if I do not permit you to leave?” he said, trying to reassert control of the situation.

  Fay casually tapped the side of her head with her index finger. She didn’t need to say a word. Though Josario was unaware of her ability to establish mind-to-mind communication with other people, the silent gesture would serve as a reminder that she was capable of the impossible, and didn’t need to set foot off the commune to get word to Queen Serefina.

  “It seems we find ourselves at an impasse, my beloved.” said Josario.

  “Yes,” Fay concurred, “and this is how we shall resolve it. I will call off the pending attack by the Order, and in exchange you will disband your cult with immediate effect, freeing your followers from your malignant influence. They will then be handed over to the custody of the Royal Guard in Nagornorak, and maybe someday they can resume their lives. To ensure compliance, Her Majesty’s Sanatsai battalions will still be deployed her
e to the south, permanently uprooting the presence of your cult.

  “As for what happens to you… If you wish to live to see another day, you will leave Anzarmenia today and go back to wherever it is you came from, never to be seen or heard from again.”

  The look of resignation on Josario’s face told Fay that she had successfully scuppered the machinations of her erstwhile mentor. He would not be exacting revenge for his defeat against the Nine Kingdoms. As for his boast that he’d already set in motion plans that would alter the destiny of Karlandria? If he truly had the power to shape events throughout an entire continent, he wouldn’t have needed to waste three years establishing a cult in Anzarmenia.

  “Well played, Emi,” he said in admiration, though he wore a forlorn smile on his face. “You have bested me.”

  “My name is Fay Annis.”

  “As you wish. But now it is time for you and your pretty young friend to depart and call off the redundant mission of your Sanatsai counterparts. It would not be a good idea for either of you to still be here when I announce to my people the disbanding of our collective, and my subsequent departure from Anzarmenia.” He beckoned for one of the dutiful Jaymidari around the table to approach him. “I will arrange for your horses and belongings to be brought to the front of the house at once.” He leaned over to whisper in the ear of the young woman waiting expectantly at his side.

  It appeared to Fay that Josario was simply passing on instructions to pave the way for her departure with Kayden, but not being able to hear what was being whispered meant there remained a possibility he was up to something. Whatever the case, Fay knew it would be necessary to stay vigilant until she and her apprentice were safely away. She watched closely as the young Jaymidari cultist left the dining room to carry out her master’s bidding, while Josario requested the remaining Jaymidari to clear the dining table.