Wandmaker's Apprentice

by Ed Masessa

  Luis finally returned, a broad smile announcing his success. “Porcupine quills!” He held them aloft like a trophy.

  “Good,” Bryndis said. “Henry is brewing some poison. We might have a chance at living through the night.”

  “It’s only a wolf,” Luis said snidely. “We have more than enough firepower to take him on.”

  “One wolf, maybe,” Bryndis said, watching the tree line. “I have hunted wolves and they have hunted me. When there is one, there are many.” As if on cue, the sun set and the campsite was cloaked in ominous darkness. “If anyone has to pee, do it now. We will stand guard in shifts.” She looked toward Henry.

  It took him a minute to realize she was giving him direction to lead his troops. “Right. We’ll do it in pairs, switching off every … ” Bryndis slyly held up two fingers. “Every two hours. Katelyn and I will take the first watch, then Serena and Luis, then Bryndis and Brianna.” Luis grinned. Henry had intentionally paired Brianna with Bryndis to give his sister the best protection, but in the process he had handed Luis an opportunity to spend time alone with Serena—and it was too late to take it back without looking foolish.

  “Good plan, matching one skilled with a weapon with one not as skilled.” Bryndis winked at Henry, then turned to Luis. “You should practice. Now let’s eat. I’m famished.”

  The attack came at two in the morning. Serena and Luis were nearing the end of their shift. Drowsiness had dulled their senses by the time wolves snarled from three directions. “Wake up!” Serena yelled, and rapidly nocked an arrow. Immediately, they tossed their blankets aside and manned the positions Henry had assigned them, forming a circle with their backs to the fire.

  “How many do you think there are?” Henry asked, surprisingly calm.

  “Too many,” Bryndis answered. “Let them make the first move. Do not panic.”

  The wolves were nearly invisible, hidden among dark shadows within the trees. Only their eyes gave them away, light from the fire reflecting yellowish-red orbs. Henry counted three wolves, but gradually a fourth appeared. They were spread out, completely surrounding the apprentices.

  “They will try to separate us—pick off the weakest,” Bryndis said. “We cannot allow that to happen. We must attack first. Remain calm. Breathe as evenly as you can. Try not to show your fear.”

  Henry picked up on the even pacing of her voice and how she used it to regulate their fear. She was definitely in her element when hunting.

  “Here’s what we’ll do,” she instructed. “No sudden moves. Blowgun boy, take that one. Aim for the neck. Serena, take that one. Not a direct hit. Try for an ear. We only want to wound them. Brianna, swing a rock on your sling as fast as you can. Do not release it. Chances are you’ll miss. You will do better to threaten it.”

  Bryndis had Katelyn move closer to her side, the two of them facing the one Bryndis identified as the alpha male. “When I give the word, we attack as one. Ready … now!”

  Luis and Serena fired, wounding their wolves, while Brianna swung wildly as she yelled. As soon as they attacked, the alpha male charged. Katelyn whipped her bola at its front legs, tripping the large wolf, which sprawled in a tumbling heap. Bryndis quickly pounced on it. While it was dazed, she wrapped the cord of her harpoon around the wolf’s snout, then secured the rear legs with loose cord from the bola.

  Seeing their leader taken down, the other three slunk back into the tree line. Bryndis held the deadly tip of her harpoon against the wolf’s neck. She stared hard into its eyes as she applied more pressure to the tip. Finally, in an act of submission, the wolf looked away.

  Bryndis slowly stood. The wolf remained still. “The pack has seen their leader go down.” She breathed heavily, the combination of adrenaline and exertion catching up to her. “They need a new leader. Blowgun boy, come here and bite the wolf on the neck as hard as you can.”

  Luis gulped. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

  Bryndis turned on him angrily—then suddenly burst out laughing. “Of course I’m kidding. Not even a crazy wolf would believe you’re the boss.”

  They arrived back at the castle around midmorning. The downhill trek was all the more appreciated considering their lack of sleep. Despite Bryndis’s reassurances, they had scarcely closed their eyes all night.

  They staggered into the foyer, where Coralis was waiting. “Well, look what the cat dragged in.”

  Henry rolled his red-rimmed eyes. “Speaking for the group, we respectfully request a day off.” That was one of the few things they had talked—more like grumbled—about the entire morning.

  “So, our band of merry apprentices has a leader,” Coralis said cheerfully.

  “More or less.” Henry wasn’t in the mood. He’d been afraid to put his socks back on, and his feet had sprouted some nasty blisters.

  Serena shook her bow angrily. “We could have been killed!”

  “Do tell,” Coralis taunted. “You could die falling down a flight of stairs on any given day. What made your excursion so dangerous?”

  “We were attacked by wolves!” Brianna exclaimed. “And all we had to defend ourselves with were rocks, ropes, and sticks.”

  “Wolves?” Coralis echoed. “Perhaps you should fill me in.”

  Henry recounted their adventure, giving the lion’s share of the credit to Bryndis.

  “Impressive,” Coralis admitted.

  “We could have been killed,” Serena repeated through clenched teeth.

  “Nonsense.” Coralis snorted. “Henry, as their leader, did you feel as though your lives were in danger?”

  “No.” He answered immediately, which stunned the group.

  “Perhaps you’d like to explain,” Coralis prodded.

  Henry blew out a deep breath, reached into Serena’s quiver, and pulled out a plain wooden stick.

  “Is that a wand?” Katelyn asked.

  Luis scowled. “You knew we had a wand and didn’t think to tell us?”

  “I suspected,” Henry said defensively. “I noticed something about one of the arrows.”

  “And kept it to yourself?” Brianna snapped.

  “Look, we succeeded without having to rely on a wand. That was the point!” Henry insisted. “We worked as a team—a darn good one—and we found out what we could accomplish using nothing but our wits and some primitive weapons. You guys were amazing! I mean, just think about what we did. We took down a pack of wolves!”

  “And we did it without killing them,” Bryndis added proudly.

  “I have to admit, I feel pretty good about that part,” Luis added. “And I can’t wait to make some decent darts for this.” He held the blowgun up triumphantly.

  “Well then,” Coralis said, smiling proudly. “I’d say you’ve earned a day off. Gretchen has prepared an early lunch. The rest of the day is yours.”

  As they shuffled out, Henry held back. “You knew those wolves were out there. And I’m guessing you knew they wouldn’t hurt us.”

  Coralis looked at him in mock surprise. “Dear boy, I knew nothing of the sort.”

  “Right.” Henry smiled.

  As he got to the door, Coralis called out to him. “But we will have to work on your nature skills. That is not the way to prepare poison hemlock.”

  Henry grinned broadly. He had never mentioned the hemlock.

  “Never thought I’d see that.”

  “What do you think he’s doing?”

  “Are those the legs of a man or an emaciated chicken?”

  “Hope his heart can take it.”

  Since her arrival, Molly had been a stickler about exercise. Every day began with yoga and ended with calisthenics to improve the apprentices’ coordination and stamina. Today, they had just finished a few warm-up exercises in the courtyard—stretching, bending, lunging. They were about to start some light soccer drills when Coralis appeared, bringing all motion to a screeching halt. He jogged in place and attempted to bend in ways that his muscles had all but forgotten how to do.

  “It hurt
s me just to look at him.” Katelyn winced.

  “When was the last time those legs saw daylight?” Luis laughed.

  “We’re going to need sunglasses to keep them from blinding us,” Bryndis added.

  “I can hear you!” Coralis shouted. He jogged awkwardly toward the group. “So … whose team am I on?”

  “You can’t be serious.” Molly had the ball tucked under an arm. She flipped it at Coralis and it bounced off his chest, startling him.

  “What was that for?” He sounded offended.

  “No offense, sir, but those aren’t even proper shorts.” Luis struggled to talk without laughing.

  “In my day, we didn’t need shorts.” He looked down. His lips contorted in an ugly grimace. “There was probably a good reason for that,” he said as he unrolled his pants down to their normal length. He straightened up with a broad grin. “So who wants to be on the winning team?”

  “Oh, so that’s the way it’s going to be, is it?” Molly laughed. “I accept your challenge!”

  On a scale of athletic talent from zero to ten, the apprentices covered the full range. Henry was the zero, Luis and Bryndis the tens. “How could you not know how to play football?” Luis asked Henry as he tried to give him a few quick pointers.

  “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not very athletic.” Henry swiped at the ball with his left foot and missed as it rolled between his legs. “And this isn’t football; it’s soccer.”

  “Only in America.” Luis scooped the ball with his toe, bounced it from knee to knee, then popped it in the air and used his head to pass it back to Henry.

  “Show-off!” Serena shouted from the opposite side of the makeshift playing field.

  “Give it to me.” Bryndis deftly stopped a pass from Serena and popped it in the air as Luis had done. Then, with a powerful sweep of her leg, she kicked the ball straight up into the air. It seemed to go up forever before plummeting directly back to her, where she somehow caught it with her foot. She smiled at Luis, who nodded respectfully.

  “Can you do that?” Henry gulped. He had hoped this would be a quick game of casual soccer in which the ball might not even come to him. Now it was looking like he could be carted off the field on a stretcher.

  “Don’t worry, team.” Katelyn stepped up to join Luis and Henry. “Finesse will win more football games than brute strength. Though … she is quite good.”

  “Well then, let’s hope Molly is a better goalkeeper than Coralis.” Luis fired a shot at her, which she swatted away with one hand as if it were a pesky fly. “Not bad for an old lady!” He laughed and she threw the ball back at him, which he stopped with his chest. An audible “Umph” confirmed the speed and power of the ball’s flight.

  Luis, Katelyn, and Molly formed a triangle, passing the ball back and forth from knee to knee, foot to foot, head to head. Henry was so far out of his league it was ridiculous. Somehow, though, it didn’t really bother him. When he’d played baseball back home, it had felt like the whole world was laughing at him. Here, he felt surrounded by friends … even if his athletic efforts remained somewhat laughable.

  The past week had been a whirlwind of lessons, assignments, and experiments. Molly had accomplished exactly what she was brought in to do: She got them focused on learning and kept them on track by wearing them out. Each day was surprisingly different from the previous one, with no apparent structure or lesson plan. Their classroom was the whole compound and the entire surrounding forest. And they were learning at such an accelerated rate that Henry thought Coralis must be spiking their water with nanobots.

  He grinned, thinking back to when Katelyn had first used that word. She had turned out to be their resident techno geek, mostly due to her love of reading science fiction. She and Henry had similar reading habits—taking copious notes as they read in order to explore terms and concepts more fully.

  There was a time when Henry had been reluctant or embarrassed to participate in classroom discussions. More often than not, it led to ridicule. But here, Katelyn led the way, sharing her knowledge with such open willingness that at times, Molly let her take over instructions as she sat and watched. Katelyn’s love of sci-fi had led not only to her interest in cutting-edge technology; it had also fostered a fascination with unique and unusual power sources—which included the sun. The ultimate power source was her ultimate obsession.

  To Henry’s surprise, Luis was equally engaged and helpful. The bully tactics he had employed upon his arrival had mostly dissipated, though he could still get under Henry’s skin by flirting with Serena. Growing up in a jungle had subconsciously imprinted an incredible amount of knowledge in his brain. Molly had called it osmosis and said he absorbed knowledge the way a plant absorbed water. Just as a car mechanic understood an engine, Luis knew plants. And that knowledge extended to soil and animal life—because all those elements worked together.

  Next was Serena, whose life on the open plains and time spent with Elders gave her an uncanny sense of the universe around her and enabled her to understand systems and patterns on a global and even a cosmic scale. She was absolutely amazing when it came to explaining weather patterns. During a discussion of tornadoes, she spoke with such force and authority that Henry could have sworn a breeze stirred in the closed room.

  Bryndis was still a bit of a mystery. She had yet to share the tale of how she’d ended up at the castle, but she was in her glory when telling stories about her prowess on the open seas. Fishing and seal hunting were her life, and to hear her tell it there wasn’t a seaworthy craft she couldn’t handle. Henry suspected some of it was poppycock, as Coralis would say. But if even half of it were true, she knew her way around water.

  And then it hit him. He had just managed to kick the ball more than five meters when he pulled up short and looked back at Coralis. This was no random gathering of apprentices. They each embraced one of the four basic elements. Serena, Katelyn, Luis, and Bryndis had each exhibited a talent for mastering air, fire, earth, and water. Which also explained the colors of their coats—gray for air, maroon for fire, brown for earth, and blue for water.

  Across the field, Coralis easily caught a pass from Brianna, but just before he tossed it back, he made brief eye contact with Henry … and winked.

  Talent-wise, the teams matched up fairly evenly. Katelyn versus Serena for finesse. Luis versus Bryndis for power and speed. Henry’s clumsiness versus Brianna’s recklessness. And while some of the players were more competitive than others, they all relished the opportunity to break free from the rigors of their training, if only for a few hours.

  Henry laughed. For the first time, he had kicked the ball in the direction he was aiming, which surprised Luis so much that he nearly tripped over it. Bryndis easily swiped the ball away from him and used some dazzling footwork to sneak a shot past Molly for a goal.

  Brianna and Serena locked arms with her, yelling “GOOOOOOAL!” with all the exuberance of a television announcer.

  But their celebration was cut short by a terrifying screech from beyond the walls. A lone bird streaked skyward as if shot from a cannon. Henry quickly identified it as a falcon, but the three large birds that raced after it were much, much different. At first they appeared to be owls—until he saw that each bird had four deadly clawed legs.

  “Strix,” hissed Coralis. “Quickly, everyone take shelter within the shadow of the wall! It will be harder for them to see you.”

  Molly herded them toward the perimeter of the compound; they sprinted like lambs with a wolf hot on their tails. But Henry felt rooted in place, watching the scene unfold beyond the walls, wishing there were something he could do to help.

  The Strix and the falcon were too evenly matched. Predator hunting predator: It would never be able to shake off their pursuit. Henry stared intently at their bold red wings. When they dipped low enough he could see their bright yellow eyes—the eyes of something demonic.

  The falcon raced furiously into a vertical climb, then looped over in a fantastic roller coas
ter move, plummeting toward the ground faster than physics should have allowed. Henry glanced at Coralis, who seemed momentarily stunned.

  The avian quartet passed directly between Henry and Coralis in a blur of speed, pulling up at the last second. And in that split second, one of the Strix made eye contact with Henry. It broke off from the pack and turned like a fighter jet in a wide arc. And then it sped straight for him with an ear-shattering screech, extending its four legs forward, its long, sharp beak zeroing in for the kill.

  Henry was frozen in place, eerily calm. He heard Coralis say something as if from far away. Something about their eyes and sunlight.

  “Henry!” Brianna screamed, breaking him out of his hypnotic trance. In one fluid motion, he whipped his wand from his pocket and willed the power of the sun into it. Blinding light burst forth, slamming into the bird that was now mere centimeters away, reducing it instantly to ash.

  “Henry, are you all right?” Serena rushed to his side. As she reached out for him, another of the Strix peeled off from its chase, taking aim at human prey.

  Henry saw it coming, but Serena stood between him and the bird. “Serena, get down!”

  Instead of following his order, she frowned—dark and angry. Serena reached for her wand and spun around. Feet spread slightly apart for balance, she pointed directly at the oncoming bird. “Be gone!” she screamed. There was no burst of light. Instead, a small, tight spiral of air thrust forward from the tip of her wand, growing into a cylinder of wind that surrounded the bird like an impenetrable cage.

  Henry’s wide eyes volleyed back and forth between Serena and the bird. He had never seen that look on her before. She was in total possession of her power as she held the bird trapped a mere meter away from her arm. The Strix fought viciously to free itself, snapping and clawing wildly at its invisible cell. Then its eyes began to change. Something was happening, and Coralis saw it, too.

  “Serena, now!” Coralis shouted into her mind with such force that Henry felt it as well.