This turned out to be a complicated task. It took him four attempts, and as many weeks, before he had finally created a scabbard that would hide the nature of the sword. In the end, it was only when he added some metal bands to the outside of the scabbard that Jonny finally achieved the balance he required. By the time he was finally finished, he determined that whatever his gifts were, working with wood was not one of them. The scabbard was an odd, unsightly thing, with crude, rough carvings, but that actually was an advantage in hiding the nature of the weapon it concealed.
§ § §
With the scabbard completed, Jonny felt somewhat safer, knowing that sword was now not so actively advertising its presence to anyone with eyes to see its power. Jonny also knew that the time had come for him to present himself to his two masters to gain his status as a journeyman.
He thought he would approach Kason first, and then Master Silurian.
“I wondered when you’d be talking to me, lad,” Kason said when Jonny came to him. They were both in the negotiation room where Kason normally received clients.
“It’s past time, and you and I both know it.”
“Yes, Master Kason,” Jonny replied, unwilling to meet his eyes.
“Boy, you know how little I like it when you call me that.”
Jonny only answered, “Yes, Master.”
“I’m no master of yours, boy,” Kason grunted. “But I’ll have your journeyman certificate writ before the even.”
Jonny heard the dismissal in his voice and left. He was sad that Kason was so short with him, but he did not think it was anger Kason was feeling, but more an irritation that Jonny would be leaving him soon, with the loss of income that would entail, or possibly it was fear.
Things had never been the same between them since that night when Jonny had finished the master ring. The other workers in the shop had felt it too, and some had secretly rejoiced. Kason never tore into Jonny, as he had so many of the apprentices or journeymen, for some mistake. Partly this was because Jonny so rarely did anything that could earn Kason’s wrath, but Kason had always treated Jonny differently, and though the others knew the reason for it, that did not stop them from resenting it. Now that Jonny seemed to be less than fully in Kason’s good graces, the other workers were actually treating Jonny better, though none dared ask what Jonny he had done to earn Kason’s ire.
Jonny enjoyed the improved camaraderie, but it made him both happy and sad since he knew he would be leaving soon.
Kason was good as his word and handed Jonny his certificate before the evening meal. Normally the awarding of journeyman status was a great cause for celebration in the shop, but since no one but Kason had even known that Jonny was working on journeyman projects, he also told no one of Jonny’s change in status.
That suited Jonny just fine. Being a journeyman would only have meaning as he worked in other places. Even if everyone were told about Jonny’s new status, his work there would scarcely change. He had been doing journeyman and master level work for some time. No one really treated him like an apprentice any more anyway, so it mattered little to Jonny if they knew.
Jonny knew that it would change things quite a bit when he presented himself to Master Silurian. For that reason, and for other reasons that he felt, but could not explain, he delayed going to see The Master.
Chapter 63
Boregond
Master Boregond hated to travel. No, that was not true; he hated to travel by mundane means. He traveled quite a bit by means of demon magic and found it most refreshing, but he was not doing that now. He was traveling by carriage on a hot dusty road and was not enjoying it one bit.
The roads had gotten much better since they entered Salaways. He hated to admit that Silurian did a better job at keeping his kingdom in good repair than most, but it was true. Moreover, it was all because of Silurian that he had to travel in this slow uncomfortable way, Silurian and the demons.
Boregond was in Salaways because a demon reported that he had been summoned by a journeyman of Silurian’s who had possessed a line cutter. The demon had not destroyed the line cutter, but had killed his summoner, even though the summoning wizard had claimed not to know anything about it. Now Boregond had to find out about this line cutter. If he could find it, he had to destroy it.
He also had to find out what other devices Silurian might have found. The only known line cutters in existence had been made before the Great War. If Silurian had found an unknown cache of ancient artifacts, there was no knowing what he might have acquired in addition to the line cutter.
It was the uncertainty of thiswhole affair that made it necessary for Boregond to travel by these unsavory means. Until Boregond could find and destroy the line cutter, no demon would risk itself in the artifact’s presence.
Boregond was reminded again how only those who worked with demons were aware how truly fickle and skittish they were. The only reason anyone worked with them at all was that in spite of being skittish, they were immensely powerful and could, when properly bound, provide astonishing services for those who knew how to handle them.
Only one thing frightened demons--death. They were effectively immortal, and were so powerful that few things could harm them in any way, let alone kill them. Line cutters were one of the few artifacts that had the power to harm a demon, and for that reason Boregond had been charged by no less than Supreme Grandmaster Jelnick, the oldest and greatest demon wizard in the world with finding and destroying this line cutter.
Boregond had this dubious honor because he was the demon wizard closest to Salaways who also possessed expertise in other branches of magic, since demon magic would not be available to whomever went to recover the line cutter. The demons had made it clear that it was the humans’ job to eliminate the threat of a previously unknown line cutter. So, in spite of the inconvenience, here he was.
Boregond had not always been a demon wizard. He had even, over a century earlier, been a journeyman who studied under Silurian, so he knew and understood him better than most. Boregond had only adopted demon magic as his primary mode when he had seen that method triumph consistently over other types of magic, both in his duels, and in the contests of others. In spite of this, he knew that the other branches of magic could be very potent, especially in an old master like Silurian.
Boregond knew he could not approach master Silurian directly about the line cutter. Silurian knew where Boregond’s loyalties lay, and he would be no direct help at all. Therefore, Boregond exited the carriage at Alavar not as Master Boregond, demon master, but as master merchant Carson, come to Alavar to explore new sources and markets for his trading business.
He was certain that the line cutter had to come from some previously unknown cache of ancient artifacts. If Silurian had a trove such as this, Boregond was certain the traders of the city would be the first to know about it, because there would be much in the find that did not interest Silurian, but would be sold to help support the costs of running the kingdom. Traders were always interested in items pre-dating the Great War.
§ § §
At first, his efforts seemed to be fruitless. Though he met with many of the great traders of the city, and hinted broadly that he had heard of ancient artifacts recently originating from Alavar, no one seemed to know what he was talking about. The more he pushed, the more baffled his listeners became.
After five days, Boregond was nearly ready to despair when he met for luncheon with the last of the heads of the great trading houses of Salaways, a Master Zolic. At first, his inquiries were met with the same sort of bafflement he had encountered earlier with the other traders, when suddenly Master Zolic leaned back and laughed.
“Ah, Master Carson,” Zolic said, still chuckling. “I now know of what you’re hinting. You keep asking about artifacts of ancient date, when in fact what you are looking for are items newly made here in Alavar, which most outside of our fair land believe must have been made in the old days. Nevertheless, I can tell you, without a doubt, they are n
ot ancient at all. They are made right here by our master metal worker Kason, and I will tell you they are the equal of anything made by the ancients.
“No doubt,” Zolic continued, “they are sold by others outside of Salaways as ancient artifacts. If it were not for the sheer volume produced by master Kason in the last year, and the fame they have gained on their own, I think I would be tempted to do the same. Look at this,” Zolic said, placing an ornate dagger on the table between them.
Boregond looked, and was impressed. The dagger was beautiful, finely wrought, and with an obvious air of utility as well. More than that, the blade was etched in a pattern he had never seen before. With a shock, he realized that the etchings were not purely decorative. They definitely added the slightest bit of magic to the blade, a magic that Boregond had only seen before in ancient artifacts.
Zolic smiled broadly, as he watched Boregond’s reaction. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”
“Yes,” Boregond said, not taking his eyes off the dagger, “it is.”
“That’s what you’ve been looking for, isn’t it?” Zolic said.
“Yes, I believe it is. I believe this might just be what I was looking for,” he said, handing the knife back to its owner.
“Yes, well I expect you’ll want to go and see Master Kason about acquiring one, or a shipment, for yourself. I only wish I could say that I had the exclusive contract to trade his wares, but I don’t. It never used to bother me before, but with the fame his work’s been getting of late, I greatly wish I had pursued that sort of arrangement with him earlier,” Zolic said wistfully.
“It is true, you can’t always win,” Boregond said with a type of joviality that he did not feel.
“True, true, but that doesn’t mean you can’t try,” Zolic said laughing also with forced humor.
§ § §
The dagger Zolic had shown Boregond concerned him greatly. His thoughts spun. How could an artifact, made in the style of the ancient zdrell masters, look as though it had been forged in the last year? Had Silurian found some way to reach back through time and obtain work created thousands of years earlier? No, that was impossible; if Silurian had that kind of power, he would not content himself with simply bringing things forward in time. He would bring a zdrell master himself. No, no all this was impossible, but then how had the dagger come to be?
Boregond puzzled over it for some time in his rooms. The only possibility that he could see was that Silurian had somehow found one of the caches of the ancients, which were rumored to be sealed so that items stored inside did not age. Things that were stored for three thousand years could look the same as the day the cache was sealed. He was not pleased with this explanation either, but it at least fit the facts. If Silurian had found a cache that contained a large number of weapons, what better way to distribute the items without drawing attention than to give them to a contemporary weapons maker to distribute as his own work. It would also explain the sudden appearance of a line cutter.
Boregond would have to pay a visit to Master Kason.
Chapter 64
Jonny saw the stranger step down from a carriage that had stopped near the workshop, late in the morning of a mid-summer day. He appeared to be a fat wealthy merchant of the type that had been visiting the shop with greater and greater frequency as the fame of Jonny’s weapons had grown.
Jonny would not normally have paid him more than a glance, but there was something familiar about him. Jonny kept watching the supposed merchant as he continued to rearrange some of the items in the display area. Then he had it; it had been long ago but Jonny could not forget this man. He was the demon master Boregond; even though he was dressed and playing the part of a merchant, Jonny was certain it was him.
Boregond had already glanced at Jonny once or twice but had not really seen him; there was no trace of recognition in his gaze. Jonny understood that. Master Boregond looked unchanged from the last time Jonny had seen him, but Jonny now bore little resemblance to the scrawny scared little boy he had been the last time Boregond had seen him. At nearly fifteen and a half, he was fully two feet taller now than then, and still growing rapidly. His hair was still red, but now more the color of tarnished copper.
Jonny was puzzled that Master Boregond was not wearing his master magician’s robes. He was a vain man, even in the robes of a master trader that much was obvious, so why should he not be actively advertising his status as a master magician? The only thing Jonny could think of was that Boregond must not want Master Silurian to know he was here and what he was about.
Boregond and Kason were already involved in conversation. As Jonny watched, they moved, carrying one of Jonny’s enhanced daggers into the negotiating office where Kason discussed important deals. It was not long before they emerged. Both of them looked angry and Jonny saw they were heading for him. He was not at all sure what he was going to do when they got to him.
Kason got to him first. “Jonny,” he said gesturing with the dagger. “Please tell this gentleman who made this weapon. He seems to think that you are incapable of having crafted any part of it!”
Jonny hesitated, unsure of what to say. He knew what Kason wanted him to say, to take credit for the blade, but he also knew that Kason did not know who Boregond was or what his real reason for being there might be.
“I would say,” Jonny began carefully, “that I was the one who worked on this blade.”
Jonny could immediately see that his answer pleased neither Kason nor Boregond. Kason was obviously mad because Jonny had not plainly defended his work. Boregond looked as though he sensed evasiveness in Jonny’s answer and he was upset, but for different reasons.
Kason was not about to allow Jonny’s abilities to be slighted.
“Jonny, tell this man that you didn’t just work on this blade but that yours is the only hand that’s ever touched it, that before you started, it was an unformed lump of metal and now it is as fine a blade as ever this man’s seen!”
“Sir, Master? . . . ,” Jonny began.
“Carson, Master Trader Carson,” Boregond said.
“Master Trader Carson, I would say that I am the only person here who has ever worked on this blade.”
“As I thought,” Boregond said. “You say you are the only one here who has worked on this blade, but you do not say who might have worked on it before it came here.”
“Are you daft, man?” Kason yelled. “He said he was the only one that worked on it. Before it came here it was a lump of metal, nothing more.”
“You sir, are the one who insists that it was a lump of metal. Your young man here has not said that. In fact, he has been very careful not to say what state it was in prior to coming here.”
Kason was turning red with rage, but Jonny held up his hand to signal him to back down. Kason looked closely at Jonny, and then with great effort held his tongue.
“Why do you think that I could not have produced this blade?” Jonny asked mildly.
“First, because you are so young, but more so because this blade has been magicked. I’ve seen its like before, but no wizard has lived that could produce one such since before the Great War.”
Jonny was not shocked by this comment, but he could see that Kason was. Master Silurian had said as much to Jonny previously, but had apparently not shared this insight with Kason. Now Jonny understood fully what Boregond was asking, and in many ways he was more worried than he had been when he thought it had been a simple dispute.
“So you believe, Master Wizard Boregond, that we are receiving blades from somewhere else, and that these blades have been magicked and stored for more than a thousand years and we have been taking them and turning them into finished weapons and selling them as if we had made them wholly ourselves?” Jonny asked quietly.
Both men now were shocked. Both showed surprise when Jonny used Boregond’s name, but Kason showed even more surprise and indignation at Jonny’s telling of Boregond’s version of events.
“Yes, I’d say that’s just about exa
ctly how I see things,” Boregond said. He continued low and dangerously, “But I want to know how you knew my identity.”
The Apprentice to Zdrell Page 34