“You can ask your gods for something more realistic next time” Avia hissed. “Do you think I’ll leave my grandson to any stranger claiming he can take care of him?”
“Of course not” Jadoog beamed towards her. “I’ll follow along with you, and when we’ve evaluated each other, we decide how to arrange it.” He watched Avia and tuned down the smile a little to not make her uncomfortable. His senses told him a big smile caused her to feel distrust. “I promise I’ll be quiet and respect your need for solitude. Wizards tend to need it too.” It made her relax enough not to appear hostile. Jadoog could not have asked for a better sign.
“Can’t stop you from walking along the path now, can I? I’m Avia.” They shook hands. “And this young man is Putt, but apparently you knew that already.”
“Bahadur told me your name too. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”
“We’ll see about that. You’ll likely change your mind. How do you know Bahadur?”
“He’s my younger brother. I came to town when I got the message he was about to become a father. And me an uncle. Babies are cute, aren’t they?”
“Small children, small trouble” Avia commented. “Shall we?” She rose and put on her pack. Putt followed her example, and so did he. When Avia walked away along the path, Putt lingered.
“Go ahead, young man.” Putt followed Avia’s lead but stayed close to him than trying to catch up with his grandmother. It was something he wanted to say.
“What is it?” he asked the child.
“You know, I won’t become a wizard,” Putt said. He was worried.
“So? Why is that?”
“I was tested, and I failed.” It was something dead in the boy’s voice. Jadoog was quite sure there was no one in the city qualified to tell if Putt had potential or not, except for him.
“Tested? What kind of test?”
“I got to smell on two bottles.” Jadoog sighed. That test was stupid and as reliable as telling if it was going to rain based on if a deer crossed the road or not.
“I can’t tell if you’ll become a wizard or not yet, son, but I do know that the smelling test doesn’t tell you anything else than that you have a sense of smell.”
“Really?” There was an encouraging hope in the child’s voice.
“Really.”
Jadoog and Putt had made a campfire when she returned with a deer across her shoulders. She gazed at their new group member. He was a little shorter than she, neat beard, long curly dark hair and a dark-green coat all the way down to his black boots. She could not help finding him handsome, though he was way too young for her. He looked a bit like her husband Inkus had done when he was younger. She gutted and skinned the deer and arranged the meat over the fire. All three of them kept a comfortable silence in their doings, and she realized that this arrangement might actually work. If Jadoog were a real wizard time would tell. And if he would take Putt on or not would also be something for the future. Right now, there was no reason not to trust him enough to share camp with him. After all, she was a warrior, and he was not even armed.
From her pack, she brought out a jar of wax and let it get warm and soft by the fire. Soon she could rub it out over the wood in her bow and work it in. She loved this bow, but it would not last forever. No matter how much oil and wax she forced into its fibers, it would fail her one day. Not soon, but perhaps she should keep her eyes open for suitable wood. Who knows where she would be when she desperately needed a new bow.
A movement was caught in the corner of her eye from outside the light of the campfire, and she was on her feet. She had no time to string the bow. She drew both swords.
“Who’s there?” she called out. A figure separated itself from the shadows. The hands were raised.
“It’s me, Osapi” replied a boyish voice. The name sounded vaguely familiar, but she could not place it.
“Step into the light!” she ordered, and the young man revealed himself. She had seen his face before but where?
“I was sent to kill you once, remember?” Oh, yes, she remembered now. When Oon Barsate had left them in anger with the prisoner. A ball of blue light appeared above them removing every shadow. She turned to Jadoog. Of course. Well, then she knew he was a wizard of some sort at least. Osapi stared in terror.
“Relax” Jadoog soothed. “The light won’t hurt you.”
“What do you want?” Avia demanded.
“I… “ the young man began, but he had lost his courage with the strange light’s appearance. “I wanted to ask you to be my master. To take me on as your apprentice.” Avia stared. She returned her swords in their scabbards.
“You have a master already.”
“Yes. No. I did. But…” He cleared his throat. “You gave me more training in those few minutes we met than I got from him in a whole year.” Jadoog burst out laughing.
“I believe you.” Avia glared at Jadoog not sure what to think of it.
“He’s not dangerous at least,” Jadoog added and the light floated back into his hands and disappeared.
“You want me as your master?” Avia clarified with a sigh of disbelief. This was not happening! From being alone less than a few months ago, they were now a party of four. He nodded. She studied his light-blue eyes which shyly turned to the ground in front of him.
“How old are you?”
“Nineteen.” That old? He appeared younger. Well, this was just too much for one day, she thought.
“It’s too late at night to send you away” she muttered. “You would just make camp behind the next tree anyway. Sit down and share our meal and we’ll see tomorrow.” Osapi relaxed and sent her a grateful smile. “I haven’t promised you anything else but food and a place by the fire for tonight” she reminded him. He nodded.
“Got to start somewhere” Jadoog encouraged him with a grin. What was the matter with him? Avia shrugged it off. She sat down beside Putt and gave him a short hug over the shoulders. He responded to the affection, but his focus was on Jadoog. It was not strange at all. He had just performed some magic and expressed thoughts about taking on the boy as his apprentice.
They ate. Putt broke the silence for once and told her what Jadoog had told him about the smelling test. Avia smiled and agreed it was promising for him. Yet she could not feel anything but ashamed for her feelings of hope that maybe someone competent would take care of Putt. She loved the boy, but she thought it was not enough. No matter how she turned and twisted the situation in her head the boy’s presence made her feel like a caged bird. It was not his fault in any way. It was just the way she was, her fault alone. And not for the first time she asked herself what kind of mother she had been for Arica. She had not felt caged then when the girl grew up. She had had her tough years when Arica was a baby, like most parents, with crying, and screaming, and nappies, and falling when she began to walk. But she had been there, most of the time. As well as Arica’s father, Inkus. He had also been a part of her life. They had been a family for twenty years. Then Inkus died, and Arica moved away to get married soon after. Had her daughter moved because it was only her mother left? She did not think so. Arica had never expressed anything indicating that or that she had been a lousy mother. It was nothing strange to find love and start a family at that age. Arica had thought Avia was a bad grandmother though, and a problematic, willful mother who did not want to stay with her daughter at old age. What had her daughter made of the ‘Mamasiente’ title she got? She pushed the thoughts away. Arica was dead. The only relative she had left was Putt.
The next morning, Avia felt she was in a new phase of her life. She had to evaluate Jadoog’s abilities to take care of Putt and his chances to make a decent wizard out of him. And she had to test Osapi’s capabilities to become her apprentice. A new apprentice. Was it wise in the first place? Did she not have enough on her mind right now? And she was old. She did not want to leave work half-finished. But a dominant part of her brain yelled that a new student would be precisely what she needed right now. Besides, Os
api was not a young boy. He had some training, and if she died before she was through with him, he would manage on his own. After all, he had left his master to find her. He knew she was old and the risk that constituted. She rose and got the fire started.
“Osapi!” She shook his shoulder. “Go and fill our water bags.” To her pleasure, she saw that though he had been asleep and most likely would want to stay asleep he did as he was told without a word or a sound as a protest. It was a promising start. Not that she was a friend of blind obedience, but it was part of the relationship that the apprentice did the tedious tasks. Putt, on the other hand, was on his feet trying to get his possible future master awake. An annoyed grunt came from the man rolled up in a thick blanket. Jadoog sat up and scratched his hair. Avia guessed he was not one who fancied staying outdoors. Osapi returned, and Jadoog grabbed one of the water skins from his hand. Then he pulled out a pot from his luggage and filled it with water. The pot went on the fire. Avia stared, not getting what was going on.
“Fine, then you go and fill that skin again” she ordered Jadoog. He stared back at her. But she was the oldest, and he was the one needing to build her trust for him. If he wanted to waste water, he had to fetch new. He left with the bag in his hand. Avia noted he did not give the task to Putt. She turned to Osapi.
“What weapons have you learned to use?”
“Sword, knife, bow, spear, ax, and throwing star.” Not bad.
“In what way do you use the knife?”
“Throwing, cutting, stabbing, slicing. Firewood if needed.” He grinned at the last. “Though throwing-knives aren’t any good for that.”
“Favorite weapon?”
“Anything airborne.”
“Show me.” They both moved away from the fire, and Osapi brought out a knife. It was without real handle. An elegant, flat piece of metal with edges on one of the halves and possible to hold on to at the other end. He took aim.
“Wait!” she stopped him. “What do you aim at? Mark it out for me.” He gave her a stare and walked across the camp to a tree and pointed.
“Where on the tree?” He bit his lip.
“I’m not that good.”
“Point it out” she demanded, and he fastened a leaf in the bark with his knife at eye level. He returned to his original spot at the same time as Jadoog returned.
“Your water is getting hot-” Osapi began, but Avia interrupted him.
“Focus!”
“Yes, Master.”
“I’m not. Not yet. Now focus and show me what you can do.” She saw him take a deep breath and the shoulders sank with the exhale. He raised his hand, and with one quick move the knife was airborne and hit the tree.
The blade had not hit the leaf in the bark, but it was close enough to impress her. “Do it again.” He brought out a second knife of the same kind and repeated the maneuver. Close to the mark again. She took her bow and quiver and held them out to him. He took them and one after another and put three arrows in a tight group on the leaf.
“Alright, get your knife and my arrows back. It’s time for us to break camp and move on.”
“Wait” Jadoog protested. “What about my tea?”
“What?” He took the pot with now boiling water and put some herbs in it.
“Is that something magic?” Putt asked. Jadoog shook his head.
“Just tea.” Off their looks, he must have concluded that neither one of them knew what tea was. “I’ll show you.” After a while, he poured his brew into their cups. Just a little, since he had made it all to himself from the beginning and it was not enough for four. Avia sniffed on it and found it rather pleasant. When it had cooled a bit, she tasted, and the bitterness stung her tongue as the warmth spread through her body. She nodded to Jadoog.
“We’d better start boiling the water earlier tomorrow.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Tests
They walked the whole day and made camp late. Avia needed to hunt and left the other three to arrange a fire and get water. The day had worked out better than she had hoped. There had been some quiet talk but no singing, whistling or endless chatting. Not that she minded happy people, but she did care to have her peace disrupted. Now she was in company with three people she was not likely to get rid of soon, and if any of them had been annoying, she would have panicked. If there was something she needed to survive mentally, it was solitude. That was a hard thing to get in a company, but doable if everyone involved had about the same idea of how to spend a day. Against all odds, it seemed like the group was a functional unit when it came to this aspect. She shot two rabbits and returned to the camp. When they ate Jadoog brought up a question:
“Where are we going?”
“I aim for the wizard’s school” Avia replied.
“And we’re going in the right direction?”
“Yes.” She knew that much. She was not sure of the exact location. But it would take weeks to get there and plenty of time to ask for directions. Did he not know the way?
“But now you’ve got me” Jadoog countered. He had not taken on Putt as his apprentice yet, Avia pointed out, and there was within reason to walk in that direction just in case.
“Well…” Jadoog lingered on the words. “Let’s say the wizard’s school is a myth and I cannot test your grandson if we’re walking the whole day.”
“What do you mean the school is a myth?” Putt yelped.
“That there is no wizard’s school. It’s something invented by people who want to be wizards but never got a master. Real wizards have all had a master. It works in the same way as for warriors.” He pulled up his sleeve and showed them a circular brand with an eight-pointed star inside. Avia had never seen such a marking before, and her mother had certainly not had one. The warrior’s brand was known. It was no secret. If the wizards had one, why not let it be known so they could be used to identify real wizards from the false?
“Why should I believe you?”
“You don’t have to. If Putt here lives up to the demands of a future wizard, the problem is solved.”
“And if he doesn’t?”
“Well, then I suppose you’ve to decide if you believe me or not. The point is, as long as we spend the whole day walking, we’re not getting any closer to anywhere. I need a few days staying put, or we’ll never find out if your grandson is suitable material or not.” Why could he not just say so instead of mixing in a story about the wizard’s school being none-existing? And flash with that brand? To embarrass her? Or to impress? Or just because he did not think about what a mess he caused when he spoke so unfocused?
“Fine. We stay here as long as you need” Avia concluded.
The next day Avia tried to keep an eye on what Jadoog and Putt were doing, but it did not take long before both the wizard and her grandson were annoyed by her supervision and disappeared into the forest to be on their own. Osapi was happy about it because then he could finally have her full attention and show her what he could do. As she had suspected already the first time they met, when he came to assassinate them, he was not skilled in survival, only things you could parade with. He could use a knife, bow and arrow and a sword without a problem as long as nothing unexpected occurred. If he had been an artist on a stage showing off his skills without an opponent fighting for his life he would have done well. She watched him hunt for dinner, and he did a miserable job since the prey tended to move. When he had come upon a deer for the fourth time Avia whispered to Osapi:
“Look at its pose, where it’ll be heading when it runs. And it will run, so take aim where it will be a second after your arrow has left the bow.” He took aim and fired. Osapi moaned as he once again missed his target. Avia grabbed the bow and pulled an arrow out of the quiver and nailed the doe. He helped her to carry the deer back to camp, gut it and prepare the meat with a miserable face. Avia saw this and knew what was in his heart before he dared to speak it aloud.
“I missed my chance to become your apprentice today, didn’t I” he sighed.
“No, you didn’t.” He glanced at her, hope in his eyes, but not following her line of thought. “You’ve been trained to reach specific goals, to hit the mark, to be measured with accuracy. Out here…” she pointed at the meat over the fire “it’s a matter if you get something to eat or not.” These things he had figured out already, she knew that. Yet he sat silent, waiting without showing impatience. Yet another feature she liked about him. It probably was not a natural element in his character but something he had learned by conscious practice.
“What you showed me today is your willingness and ability to learn” she explained. “I know you’re able to hit a deer with your arrow even if it’s running at full speed. The question was if you were capable of understanding how to get there. To know where to aim comes with practice, but if you weren’t able to imagine where the target would be, this would be goodbye between us.” Avia felt Osapi fought to conceal his excitement. She fell silent deliberately, just to tease him. He could not keep his question unspoken for long:
“Will you take me on as your apprentice?” he burst and watched her with anxious eyes. Would she? She liked the young man. Not only did he listen to her, showed respect, and could stay silent, he also had a sense of humor she actually admired. She nodded.
“Yes. I will.”
“Wow!” he breathed. “Thank you.”
“And we need to get you a bow of your own” she added.
That morning Jadoog had tested Putt’s ability to keep focus. Putt had soon felt desperate because he failed over and over. He was grateful when Jadoog had understood the reason for this and left the camp and his grandmother’s guarding eyes. Out in the woods, it was easier. Putt could watch a flower with ease for as long as needed without losing in concentration. Actually, he enjoyed getting the time to study every petal, the stamen, and the stem. He considered what kind of insects it attracted, how its seeds were spread, what it would look like when it withered. The subjects one single flower generated were endless.
Caged Warrior (The Warrior and the Wizard Book 1) Page 11