The Apprentice to Zdrell

by David K Bennett

  Once he could reliably do five, The Master said he should have some fun with the several stones. When Jonny asked what The Master meant, he only laughed at Jonny.

  “Jonny, I’m surprised at you. You are the child here. Play with them. If you can’t think of anything fun to do with them I am sure Roald can, can’t you, Roald?”

  “Yeah, Jonny,” Roald enthused, happy to be included. “Why don’t you make them move like you’re a juggler, only don’t use your hands.”

  “Okay, I get it,” Jonny said thoughtfully. “Let me try this.”

  Jonny looked at the table and three of the stones went up into the air. They started off in a line and then the middle one dropped slightly forming an open triangle. Jonny focused fiercely and then all three began to move in a circular pattern. Each stone was chasing each other around an imaginary circle. They started slowly, but as Jonny got the hang of the concept, he was able to make them move faster and faster until it was hard to see the individual stones. It looked like a blurry ring hanging in midair.

  Roald let out a whoop. “That is so prodigious, Jonny!”

  Jonny looked at Roald and smiled, but almost as soon as he did, his expression changed.

  “Oh, no! I’m losing them,” he yelled. The three stones suddenly lost their circular pattern and each flew off in a different direction. Everyone ducked for cover. The Master was laughing.

  “Oh, Jonny, that was very good,” The Master said, still laughing. “But do try to not get distracted. We might not be able to get out of the way in time.”

  “Sorry,” Jonny said, blushing.

  “Why don’t you try it again, Jonny,” The Master suggested. “This time using four stones. I have something I want you to try.”

  Jonny nodded and one at a time four stones rose from the blanket where he now had a large assortment of stones of different sizes. They were all river stones, smooth and mostly round. The four he lifted were all about the size of a walnut. Once he had them up, he arranged them into a rough square and once again slowly started them chasing one another in a circle.

  “Good, Jonny. Do not make them go too fast. I want you to try a few different things.”

  Jonny nodded without taking his eyes off the stones.

  “First, I want you to see if you can make the circle go flat, so that the stones are spinning like a plate laid flat. Do you know what I mean?”

  “Yes, Master,” Jonny said still focusing on the stones. “I’ll try.”

  No one said anything as the stones continued to circle. Slowly, the imaginary hoop the stones followed began to tilt.

  “Wow,” said Roald, as the tilt became greater and greater. “This is so prodigious!”

  “Stop saying that, Roald,” Jonny muttered as the stones assumed a flat circle. “This would have been easier if I had started with them like this, Master.”

  “I know,” The Master said. “I wanted to see if you could do it. Well done. Practice it several more times and then you are released for the day.”

  § § §

  The next day was no different. When Jonny and Roald arrived at the workshop, The Master was already there and from the expression on his face, Jonny could tell he had something new for him to try.

  “You have done well with multiple objects Jonny. Now I think you are ready for the next area of your training to begin. Lift a medium stone and hold in the air for me, will you.”

  Jonny did not know what The Master intended, but complied. He selected a stone the size of robin’s egg, lifted it into the air, and held it hovering above the worktable.

  “Good. Now don’t drop it when I tell you what to do next,” The Master said, with the grin Jonny was coming to loath.

  Jonny did not say anything, just nodded his head to indicate he understood.

  “Okay, Jonny, what I want you to do is close your eyes for just a second.”

  Jonny did not look at The Master, but he was glad he had been warned. Jonny opened his mouth to protest, but The Master did not give him a chance.

  “This should not be so big a thing, Jonny. You look away from a single stone when you start to lift a new one all the time.”

  Jonny had to admit he was right. The more he thought about it, the more he figured that lately he had not really so much looked in the basket for a stone as felt for it with his mind.

  He closed his eyes but kept his mental focus on the stone. He kept his eyes shut for several seconds and was not sure what was happening with the rock so he opened his eyes. The rock was still hanging right where it had been when he closed his eyes. Jonny smiled.

  “Good, Jonny,” The Master said, his lips turning up just slightly. “Now close your eyes again and keep them closed.”

  Jonny was a little worried, but the stone burned brightly in his mind. He closed his eyes and focused on his mental image of the stone.

  “Good. Now make the stone go up and down in a line.”

  “But how will I know how high or low it’s going?”

  “Don’t worry about that, Jonny. I am not concerned with accuracy right now. I just want to see you move it without using your eyes. I will tell you if it is working.”

  “Okay,” Jonny said, concentrating on making the stone go up and down. He had mastered doing that with his eyes open days earlier. He pushed at the mental image of the rock just as he had done with his eyes open. It seemed to work the same as before, but he was not sure.

  “Is it working, Master?” Jonny asked nervously.

  “You tell me, Jonny. Does it feel like it usually does?”

  “Yes, but I can’t be sure.”

  “Well, it is working just fine, Jonny. It is going up and down just the same as you have shown me previously.”

  Jonny wanted to open his eyes to see, but he could tell Master Silurian did not want him to.

  “Now, bring it to hover again.”

  Jonny stopped it in place.

  “Good. Now here is the hardest part. I want you to slowly drop it down till it is just barely off the table.”

  “But how can I do that when I don’t even know how high it is?” Jonny moaned.

  “Just do your best, Jonny. I think you will do better than you suspect,” The Master replied evenly.

  Jonny did not feel like he had any other option, so he tried to bring the stone slowly down to just above where he thought the table was. When it was where he thought it should be, he stopped lowering the stone.

  “How is that, Master?”

  “Open your eyes and see.”

  Jonny opened his eyes and looked. The stone was hovering about four inches above the tabletop. Jonny had thought it was closer, but still it was not too bad.

  “Pretty good, Jonny. Let’s do it again.”

  And work they did. By the end of the day Jonny could bring a stone into the air, hover it, and make it run in circles, then stop it less than an inch from the surface of the table, all without opening his eyes.

  As they finished, The Master asked him a question.

  “Do you know why I am having you do all this, Jonny?”

  “Not really, Master.”

  “I’m trying to help you develop your zdrell sight. I know you’ve read about it in some of my books.”

  “Yes, Master, but they never talk about anything like this. They talk about second sight in dealing with demons and foretelling the future. This isn’t anything like that, is it?”

  “Yes and no. Jonny, most of the wizards for the last several hundred years were ignorant of the type of things you are able to do. You are doing zdrell, a type of magic I had mostly only read about until I met you. For that reason, the books you have been reading don’t mention the sight in the way you use it.

  “When you move a rock, you see it in your mind first. Right?”

  “Yes, I guess so,” Jonny said, wondering what The Master meant.

  “So you see it in your mind.” Jonny nodded. “That is a type of the second sight, zdrell sight. Really, the second sight is not one thing. It is j
ust a term we use when we are talking about a way to see things you do not see with your eyes. Do you understand?”

  “I guess . . .”

  “Herglish really is very imprecise when talking about magic. That is why you need to learn Klathar. It is the language of magic and only it really has the words necessary to describe the different types of ‘second sight’ as well as other aspects of magic. Only when speaking Klathar can these things be properly discussed. Only now, as I watch you and see you perform, do I understand some of the words I learned when I first learned Klathar. How can you describe blue to someone who has never seen a color?” he said, staring off into the distance.

  “Enough of this,” the old wizard said, shaking his head.

  “So now, names aside, how did you know where the tabletop was? Did you see it in your mind?”

  Now Jonny had to stop and think. How did he know? Until that moment, he really had not thought deeply about it. He just did. “Well, I guess, I just sort of sense where it is. I don’t see it like a picture. It’s more like when you’re in a dark room and you kind of know where the furniture is, but you have to feel your way around. You can’t see anything, but you sort of guess where things are. I guess that’s the best way to describe it.”

  “That is a good way to describe it. Right now, it is not clear to you because you are not used to thinking of it as a way of seeing, but with practice you should be able to see at least as clearly with your zdrell sight as you do with your eyes.”

  Jonny marveled at the idea, to be able to see and not use your eyes. “You really think so, Master?” he asked hopefully.

  “Yes I really do, but it will be work. It will be more work than anything you have done before. Moreover, while we are developing your zdrell sight, I am going to have to teach you to read in Klathar, the High Wizard’s tongue. This book here,” he said, pointing to the heavy volume which had been sitting unopened on Jonny’s worktable for weeks now, “is the only one that talks about the types of things you can do and it is written in that language. You also will not be a proper wizard until you can read it. There may be some masters who would let a boy become journeyman without learning Klathar, but I am not one of them. It might even do you good to learn one of the Grimoridan languages as well.”

  “But, Master,” Jonny protested. “That will take years!”

  “Yes,” The Master replied gravely. “Yes it will. Best we get started.”

  Chapter 23

  The Master kept Jonny working hard through the whole summer. As the weeks passed, so increased the abilities of Jonny’s zdrell sight. The Master took to having Jonny blindfolded, first when he was working with Jonny, and gradually more and more, until Jonny was using his zdrell sight to see all the time except when he was studying in a subject where he had to read.

  As Mid-Summer’s day came and went things changed around the castle. Eleander left to attend the annual wizard’s conclave and be tested and awarded his master’s rank. New apprentices came, and others left, apprenticed out in other trades, because they lacked the talent to be wizards. Journeymen were consistently coming and going. Because of Master Silurian’s reputation as a powerful wizard, many journeymen came to study with him, though only a few stayed for more than a month. The Master would not allow any to stay who did not work hard and study harder.

  The Master continued to push Jonny on studying the various forms of magic. Jonny showed no aptitude for materials magic, or divination, and he drove the journeymen who tried to teach him incantation or gestures to distraction. He would pronounce spells incorrectly, or move incorrectly with his gestures, and yet, sometimes the spells would still work. His other teachers did not understand, but Master Silurian knew that with Jonny’s increased understanding of zdrell, he could do with his mind what other wizards could only do with complicated chants and movements. The Master was content to allow the journeymen to be puzzled over Jonny’s accomplishments.

  The two areas The Master concentrated on tutoring Jonny personally were learning Klathar, and in developing his zdrell sight. The two skills developed apace, and The Master proved once more correct, as time and again, Jonny found that Klathar let him describe things he saw with his improved sight, where Herglish would not.

  Chapter 24

  “Master Silurian,” Feldor said, as they were coming to the end of another planning meeting, “do you intend to personally appear in stage events at the Harvest Festival?”

  “Feldor, let’s not start this again,” The Master said with a sigh. “You know I have no intention of appearing. Yet every year you ask.”

  “I only ask, sir, because I am asked repeatedly by members of the city council and merchant guilds. It is difficult, to come up with reasons why you as the ruler of Salaways, and a wizard, fail to perform, year after year.”

  “We’ve been over this, Feldor, magic is not amusement for the masses.” He put up a hand to forestall Feldor’s response. “I know, I know, the people don’t understand, but after ninety years, you think they would have learned.” He sighed. “You shouldn’t have to make excuses, Feldor, I will address the issue at the next council meeting. And besides, I will be in meetings with the trading guild for most of the festival.”

  Feldor sighed.

  Silurian, pretended not to notice. “So do we have anything else to cover today?”

  “No, sir.”

  “Good. I’ll see you at dinner.”

  Feldor gathered his books and left Master Silurian who was already muttering as he read from one of the many volumes on his cluttered desk.

  § § §

  By the end of summer, Jonny had greatly improved his zdrell sight. He reached the point where he could walk around blindfolded all day and still function nearly normally. He could even do things with his sight he could not do with normal eyes. He could see through walls that weren’t too thick. It did not matter if a room was dark or light either. He could see behind and to the side without turning his head. He also learned to see what he was now reading about in “his” book, lines of force. He saw them everywhere. He now realized that when he lifted an object, he did it by bending the lines of force, which normally held the object down.

  As his sight improved a whole new world opened up to him. Jonny found that inanimate objects, things of simple composition, were clearer to see with his second sight. A rock, a coin, or a pot, were all simple objects, but to his zdrell sight, even the smallest bug was a mass of confusion. As he understood the differences, he discovered why lifting a small twig was much more difficult than lifting a large stone. Living matter, or things that had once had life, were much more complicated, harder to see, and harder to manipulate.

  During this same time, Jonny and Roald’s friendship continued, but like all things, it changed. Jonny spent more time with The Master or the various journeymen, following his lessons. The Master decided Roald’s talent for organization and numbers should be cultivated. He had Roald continue organizing the workshop. At the same time, he started having him spend time with Feldor learning more math and bookkeeping tasks. Roald turned out to be almost as good at these things as Jonny was at magic. Master Silurian decided his talent was not to be wasted.

  Jonny had a standoffish relationship with the other apprentices and journeymen in the castle. The apprentices were mostly in awe of him. They knew he was The Master’s prize pupil and that he could do incredible magic in ways they could not understand. The journeymen were even more puzzled by Jonny. Here was a young boy, eight or ten years younger than they were who could do amazing things that they could not duplicate, and yet he was only an apprentice.

  Traditionally apprentices were held in contempt by journeymen, since only a very small fraction of them would ever succeed at magic. The journeymen took great pleasure in lording it over the apprentices; bullying them was a popular pastime.

  With Jonny, all that was different. While Jonny did not complain when a journeyman asked him to do something demeaning, the knowledge had a way of getting back to The
Master. When it did, that journeyman quickly found themselves engaged in menial tasks that were normally an apprentice’s job. The journeymen learned to steer clear of Jonny, and Jonny did not try to make friends with them. Many of them may have resented Jonny, but they made sure they did not talk about it where The Master could hear.

  § § §

  The night before the Harvest Festival found both Jonny and Roald together in their room, getting ready for the next day’s festivities. It was the first time in several days that they were together for more than a few minutes. Jonny’s studies and Roald’s had been going in increasingly different directions, and though they still shared the same room, they saw little of each other.

  Roald had gradually over the near year they were together stopped waking up in the night screaming. Jonny had adjusted to it, learning to go back to sleep, in spite of it. Roald would never explain what caused it, and would get mad at Jonny whenever he asked. He had gotten even madder, when Jonny tried asking one of the other apprentices. That apprentice wouldn’t talk either, and Roald had found out and had yelled at Jonny about how it was none of his business. Jonny hadn’t pursued it further, but he still wondered, and feared what the secret might be.

  Jonny sat fiddling with the new robes Master Feldor had given him earlier in the day. The Master wanted all his apprentices looking their best at the Festival. Roald sat at the desk making some annotations in a book, which appeared to be one of Feldor’s ledgers.