The Blood King’s Apprentice

by David Alastair Hayden

  He could tell by the flex of the jaw that Gyoroe was still irritated. He was merely choosing to ignore Lu Bei so they could get on with the work.

  Turesobei closed his eyes, took deep breaths and imagined each part of his body relaxing, starting with his toes and going all the way up to his scalp. Don’t fight it. Don’t press it. You don’t have to master everything today. You have time to get it right. Don’t think about the Blood King punishing you for failing.

  He performed the energy activations again. The bubble popped.

  “Excellent.” Gyoroe waved a hand and another bubble appeared. “Again.”

  After twelve successes, Gyoroe allowed him to take a short break for tea.

  “Now you will perform the activation using half the energy it would take to open a gate.”

  Turesobei groaned. He was already tired from the lesser attempts. “I’ll give it my best.”

  The first attempt failed. Luckily, he was allowed another short break. The second attempt worked, but it left him exhausted.

  “I can’t…do anymore.”

  “Then you may go now. Study the scroll and get some rest. In the morning, we will continue working on your performance of the gate song, and you will burst a bubble with the full energy required for opening a gate.”

  * * *

  Turesobei had worked through dinner, so he had servants bring a light meal to his room. He ate half of it then slipped into the bath. A few hours later, Zaiporo tapped on the door and Turesobei invited him in.

  “Interested in a bit of light sparring?” Zaiporo asked. “I thought you might need to let the demons out, so to speak. And we could discuss our battle tactics. But if you’re too tired we can do it some other time.”

  “I’ve gotten enough rest to handle sparring and maybe a swim in the Bath. And with all the magic practice I’m doing, a physical workout sounds like a good break.”

  They went to the Training Hall, selected wooden swords and began to spar lightly.

  “So are Iniru and Kurine getting along any better?” Turesobei asked.

  “They’re not fighting.” Zaiporo sliced low and Turesobei blocked the attack. “But they’re not talking either. It makes our training sessions difficult. But at least Iniru is back to her old self. For weeks she would sometimes drift off in the middle of practice. You almost dying rekindled her spirit for sure. She fights like a beast now.”

  Turesobei lunged in. “Has she said anything about me?”

  Zaiporo parried the sword-stroke and countered. “She hardly talks to me anymore. It’s all combat training, all the time. I think she’s still mad at me for taking Kurine’s side after the fight against the muck-demons.”

  Turesobei twisted away from the attack. “You weren’t wrong.”

  “Now Kurine, she talks all the time. Mostly about you. And of course that just keeps Iniru on edge.”

  Turesobei feinted with a kick then slashed high with his sword. “You can’t keep Kurine from being enthusiastic.”

  “Too true.” Zaiporo ducked under the attack. “What’s worse is that lately Shoma gets annoyed with Iniru every other day for some reason or other. And sometimes Kurine, too.”

  “That’s because Enashoma’s jealous.”

  “What? Why?”

  “Because you keep checking out Iniru and Kurine.”

  “No, I don’t!”

  “Yes, you do.” Turesobei blocked a slash. “It’s okay. I’m not bothered by it. There’s a lot to—”

  “Check out? Yeah okay, I do. But Shoma should know it’s harmless.”

  Turesobei’s counterattack missed wildly. Then Zaiporo took him to the ground with a leg sweep and tagged him in the chest with the tip of his sword.

  Zaiporo sat down next to him. “As bad as I wanted to be free, I would never have left Ekaran without her. And I’m patient. We do everything at her pace.”

  “It wouldn’t hurt to remind her how much she means to you. You and I—we know Shoma’s special. But she may not feel that way compared to Iniru with her combat training and Kurine with her strength and Awasa with her powers.”

  “Huh. I hadn’t thought of that.” Zaiporo wiped his brow and gave Turesobei a speculative look. “I thought you didn't know anything about girls.”

  Turesobei sighed. “I don't. Shoma’s not a ‘girl.’ Not to me anyway.” He shrugged. “The Bath now?”

  “Sounds good.”

  They went to the Bath Hall, opened the door and peeked in. The girls weren’t swimming.

  An elderly servant approached. “A massage?” he asked lifelessly.

  “Maybe later,” Turesobei said.

  He and Zaiporo stripped down and dove into the water. They swam a few laps then settled on the large, curved stones in the corners of the shallow end so they could simply soak and relax.

  Zaiporo sighed. “If only we could solve your girl problems so easily….”

  “I should never have let Kurine leave her village and come with us to the Forbidden Library. But it would have broken her heart and I…just couldn't. And I don't know if you've noticed, but she's really hard to say no to.”

  “Don’t you think that’s telling you something? That maybe you should choose her instead?”

  “Over Iniru? No way! I love Iniru. I always have.”

  “Okay, don’t get mad at me, but you’ve only known Iniru for a year. You were apart for most of that time and you’ve always been in danger when you’re together.”

  “Yeah, so?”

  “Things are different when you’re in danger. The adrenaline’s pumping and every decision is life or death. But now that the pace has slowed down, maybe you aren’t as into her as you thought. Maybe she was just your first crush.”

  “I don’t think the problem is Iniru. It’s Kurine…there’s just something about her.”

  “She’s hot, for one thing.”

  Turesobei nodded. “That’s true. But so is Iniru.”

  “Kurine’s also friendly, caring and energetic. And Sobei, that girl loves you. She would do anything for you.”

  “Trust me, I know that.” Turesobei leaned back in the water. “To be honest the only problem with Kurine is that she’s not Iniru.”

  Chapter Fifty-Four

  Turesobei stayed up nearly all night studying the complicated characters on the scroll, and then joined Gyoroe on the platform at dawn. He popped the test bubble successfully using half the energy necessary to operate the gates. Then he performed the song for the Autumn Gate.

  Gyoroe shook his head. “Listen more carefully.”

  He closed his eyes and listened, but he could hardly tell any difference. He tried again, altering one note ever so slightly.

  “Closer. But you are still not there. Sing it along with me.”

  After a few more hours practicing the song, Gyoroe’s eyes flickered orange and red.

  “Perhaps I should take a break so I can approach it fresh later,” Turesobei suggested.

  The eyes dimmed back to emerald. That had been a close one. He’d better figure the song out soon, or he was going to get tortured. They moved on to kenja channeling, and Turesobei popped the bubble at three-quarters the strength required.

  That left him panting, so he was allowed a small break, after which he had to perform the song repeatedly. At sunset, he failed to pop the bubble at max strength. Irritated, the purple-eyed Gyoroe dismissed him for the rest of the day. Turesobei scurried away before the eyes could turn orange.

  He took a short nap then joined the others for dinner. Unfortunately, Awasa hadn’t lined everyone up this time so that he could sit in the middle again. He stood there awkwardly and lamely waved a hand in greeting.

  Iniru gave him a friendly hello, winked then returned to her conversation with Enashoma while Kurine beamed a warm smile at him and patted the seat beside her. He hesitated and glanced at Awasa.

  She nodded and mouthed, “Go on.”

  He shrugged and sat beside Kurine. She practically bounced with happiness and gave h
im a kiss on the cheek. A flicker of annoyance crossed Iniru's face, then she turned back to Enashoma. Well, that was a surprising reaction. He had expected something more…demonstrative…from her. There would probably be hell to pay later, but what could he do?

  Kurine shoved a bowl of squid and fermented kombu toward him. “You’ve got to try this. They added these hot peppers just for me. It’s awesome.”

  “I don’t think that’s going to make me like it more.”

  “Why doesn’t anyone like this?”

  “Because it tastes awful. Our mothers used to make us eat fermented kombu once each week.”

  “So it’s good for you too? Then you really should eat it.”

  “No thanks.”

  Instead he picked at a simple meal of fish, rice and spinach. He’d completely lost interest in eating. Probably because he didn’t have to eat. But maybe also because he’d been too worried about the Blood King, learning magic and avoiding his relationship problems to enjoy anything.

  Kurine laughed at a joke Zaiporo told. Iniru and Enashoma were smiling. Awasa stared off into the distance with a contented look on her face.

  The others seemed able to enjoy themselves despite the circumstances. Kurine especially.

  What’s wrong with me? This is no way to live when I probably only have a few months left before a guardian or the Blood King himself kills me. This is practically Paradise. My friends are all here. And I have two girlfriends. Yet I’m walking around completely miserable. This has to change. I have to balance learning magic and having fun, or I’m going to miss out on everything and probably go nuts.

  After they finished eating Kurine grabbed his arm. “Let’s go out for a moonlit stroll.”

  “Well, I should probably—”

  Iniru waved goodbye to him and hurried out.

  “Sounds like a good idea to me,” Awasa said.

  “Sure, why not?” he said with a sigh.

  Kurine hugged him. “Great!”

  They walked out into the Courtyard. No one else was around.

  Even in this wan light she could now correctly identify all the plants they passed. She knelt beside the stream and he joined her. She dangled her hand in the water and tried to catch a silvery, moonlit minnow that darted past. Her eyes were bright and she smiled so deeply that Turesobei smiled along for no reason. She was like a little kid. All the world was magical to her, and a butterfly fascinated her as much as a dazzling spell.

  “I wish my people could live in a place like this.” She dried her hand on her robes. “I wish my mother could see such fine cloth. What she would do to work with this….”

  “Do you miss sewing?”

  “I was good at it, and in Aikora, sewing provides a good living. But I never loved it.”

  “I felt that way about magic once. But after my adventure to Wakaro, I changed my mind.”

  “It’s who you are. You can’t escape that.”

  “So if sewing’s not your passion, what is?”

  Laughing, she tackled him. “Being the best girlfriend ever.”

  Beside the murmuring stream, to the chirping of crickets and croaking of frogs, beneath the pale moonlight, on a soft bed of moss, they kissed….

  Kurine tickled his ear and stroked his neck. “Let’s say this is all over and done. You’ve escaped the Nexus, returned to your Okoro and saved your people. What then?”

  “Wow, that’s a lot to do!” He shrugged. “I don’t know. If I stay home, things will be awkward. I’m sixteen, so I’m still not an adult amongst my people. I’d have to continue my wizardry training until I was eighteen. After that my grandfather would retire and I’d become the clan’s High Wizard. Officially, I’d be the second-most powerful man in our clan and province, though the High Wizard doesn’t usually concern himself with matters of state.”

  “That all sounds very important.”

  “It is,” he said. “And I don’t know what they’d do without me, but I don’t want to be the High Wizard. I don’t want that responsibility. Besides, I’m the only one of us who’s going to be welcome in Ekaran. I don’t know if any of the others will even dare go back with me. So after I’ve saved my people, I’m thinking about moving on to some place where we can all be together.”

  “A new home for me too, then?”

  “I’m not abandoning any of my friends.” He stroked her hair. “Especially not you.”

  “You, Chonda Turesobei, are the sweetest. So after that, what then?”

  “After all that?” He laughed. “I don’t know. We’d…we’d have to make a living somehow. Magic is always in high demand and we all have skills. I suppose it depends on whether we settled in the country or in the city. That would—”

  Kurine patted his face. “No. I mean, would you stop wandering and settle down? Would you marry me? Would we have kids?”

  He stared at her wide-eyed, sat up and started laughing. “You’re amazing. You know that?”

  “Obviously.”

  “We’re trapped in this place with little hope of escaping and you want to know if several years and a dozen desperate battles from now whether the two of us will settle down and start a family?”

  “There’s nothing wrong with hope or thinking about the future.” She took his hands. “I want to know. I need to know. Pretend Iniru isn't a factor.”

  “I can't just pretend that.”

  “Please try to for me.”

  Turesobei stared into her emerald eyes and sighed. “I’m—” He was just giving her a little hope, a dream to hold onto during the dark days that lay ahead of them. It was too far into the future to make solid promises. “I’m sure we would marry.”

  “I want to have a home and a family. Not right away, of course. First, I want to travel your world and see all the rivers and forests. I want to see my homeland when it was still warm, before the years of ice.”

  “You don’t want much, do you?”

  “Just you…and the world.”

  He laughed. “I’m sure we would travel, get married and maybe…someday…start a family.”

  Kurine began to cry softly. He wiped her tears away. This was exactly the opposite of what he’d hoped to accomplish with those words. How did he always manage to screw everything up?

  “What’s wrong?”

  She clung to him. “Nothing…nothing is wrong. It sounds perfect. It’s exactly what I want.”

  Turesobei wasn’t sure it was what he wanted, but it did sound nice. And it made him feel warm and tingly inside, because it made her happy.

  “How about we go in now and share a cup of tea?”

  “Not yet. I have other plans first.”

  “What other—” she shoved him down, “—oof!”

  “Other plans for you.”

  * * *

  He was in trouble. The emerald-eyed Gyoroe wasn’t waiting for him on the platform. It was the impatient one with the purple eyes. His arms were crossed and his foot already tapping.

  “About time, apprentice.”

  Turesobei glanced around. It was fairly bright now, but it hadn’t even been light outside when he’d left his room a minute ago. This was going to be a long day.

  “Perform the song.”

  He sang it as best he could without looking at Gyoroe.

  “That is better, surprisingly, but it is still not good enough.”

  “I’ll keep practicing.”

  “See that you do.” He summoned the bubble. “We are skipping ahead to full-strength.”

  Turesobei focused his internal energy, gathered a wide range of kenja from the surrounding environment and channeled it into the bubble spell. For a moment, nothing happened. Then the bubble popped. He leaned back and sighed contentedly, sweat dripping from his brow. He was tired but not exhausted.

  Gyoroe’s eyes faded into pale blue as he smiled wide. “Excellent work.”

  Thank the gods, the kind one was dominant now. “I can handle that part well enough. Especially with the amount of kenja available here in
the Nexus.”

  “And you will get better at it with practice. How are you progressing with the characters on the scroll?”

  “I have them all memorized, but I can only picture them in pairs.”

  “Keep at it,” Gyoroe said. “Now I want you to listen to me perform the song again. Close your eyes and listen. Not intently but casually. Let the notes flow over you. Lose yourself in the song and do not worry about duplicating it.”

  Turesobei knelt, closed his eyes and unfocused his mind, allowing every thought that came to him to drift away like feathers in a storm. Gyoroe sang the spell several times. Turesobei lost himself in the music. The notes washed across him. Notes of song…notes of kenja within chords…. Of course! It was all the same, in a certain sense, music and magic.

  Turesobei joined in and their voices harmonized perfectly. Only a tiny amount of kenja channeled outward through him, yet the stone arch of the Autumn Gate vibrated in synch.

  Gyoroe stopped singing but Turesobei continued.

  He invested some of the kenja he had gathered earlier into the song and channeled it through the gate, while holding the characters from the scroll in his mind.

  A tiny spark flickered within the center of the stone portal’s arch.

  He sang another round but nothing happened. Probably because he couldn’t hold the all characters in his mind properly. His breathing grew ragged, his throat hoarse. The subtler tones of the song failed him. He stopped and took a deep breath.

  “Excellent work, apprentice! You need only master the characters.”

  “I get what you meant about the subtle intonations now. It’s another one of those things you can’t teach, that I have to figure out on my own.”

  “You have done well and it is not even noon yet. Take an hour off, then spend the rest of the day memorizing the scroll and practicing the spell of evoking the Storm Dragon.”

  Over his free hour, Turesobei meditated on the gate platform while staring at the Autumn Gate. When it had vibrated in tune with his song, he had felt something in it respond to him. As if the gate were somehow alive.