by Ben Marble
The Dragon’s Apprentice
Ben Marble
Copyright © 2019 Ben Marble
This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic or machine-driven, 3D Photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written permission from the author.
This book is dedicated to those who dream of inspiring others, and the teachers who work hard to do so.
Prologue
The sky was silent. Xander would still stop and listen at times for the emptiness overhead to be broken by the sound of a jet engine roaring or the crack of wings snapping overhead. Listening for wings was being cautious for one never knew what they would bring. Listening to the dull roar of engines was just a fantasy spurred on by rare moments that had almost faded.
He sniffed the air noting the smell of wet grass and some dust from the ground that had been stirred up. His nose itched slightly but the scent of dew seemed to calm down the urge to sneeze. The sun felt warm on his face causing him a moment's pleasure and he adjusted his dark sunglasses so they felt even upon his nose. For a moment, he shut his eyes and tried to remember the images of the planes that used to fly almost constantly in simpler times. When he opened his eyes only darkness greeted him.
Unlike some blind people, it made no difference to him if his eyes were open or closed. Open seemed more comfortable. Either way, he could not tell if it was light or dark outside. He had to wear the sunglasses. People grew uneasy when they could see his eyes staring straight ahead causing voices to crack or get a nervous vibrato underneath the normal tone. Most of all it drew attention to his difference. Xander did not like drawing attention to himself.
An electronic bell buzzed in the distance, and Xander rose to his feet. Lunch was over, and it was time to head back into class. It was now a game of numbers. He counted the steps of crunching gravel to the doorway. He opened the door started counting several more down the rough carpet before he turned right. His classroom was another set of counted steps. Xander’s desk was about eight more steps in at the back of the class. It seemed simple enough, but you had to allow for the fact that while he counted out each step Xander was constantly jostled and pushed by other students hurrying to class and not quite looking where they were going.
The noise was distracting too. Normally he could hear where people were as they stopped, talked, and moved. When the noise was a whole group of people trying to talk over the next, holding several different conversations it just became garbled noise. It was disorienting and every now and then he had to stop and concentrate on where he was in his counting and estimate if he had lost a few steps while being pushed back or having to move to the side.
It was not importance to him that no one stopped to say hi or greet him. There were no helping hands, or anyone interested in guiding him. He preferred it that way. Xander’s whole life was a fight for independence. When people first discovered you were blind, they either tried to politely ignore the disability or they went out of their way to help you. In his opinion, the reaction was a false attempt at a nicety. It did not take long for Xander to convince people that he was better left alone, and he had left more than a few hurt feelings in his wake. It proved that those people were just trying to feel better about themselves. Anyone who had truly cared to get to know him would have tried to get past his initial abruptness.
A quick stumble through a bunch of bodies squeezing through a door and Xander found his desk. He quickly reached into his bag and pulled out a book to read. One his advantages was he could face forward as if he was listening to the teacher, while his fingers danced over the brail of his book allowing him to escape the boredom of the lesson. If the teacher bothered asking him a question, he would be able to answer, biology was easy and he had already finished the course work weeks earlier. Now it was just a matter of passing time until he was able to go home. Not that it mattered, at home he would just hole himself up in his room and read some more.
The room was quiet, strangely so. As soon as he noticed Xander stopped reading and sharpened his ears, something was different.
A few muttered conversations near him failed to catch his interest. He could hear the teacher’s voice, but it was faint and muffled. Xander cocked his head to the side and concentrated. The teacher was on the other side of the door still and he could only make out the odd word or two and none made sense when strung together. There was another voice too, light and pretty with what he thought was an Irish accent. Silently he wondered what was important enough to keep the teacher from being up front and teaching right at the start of class. While he hadn’t bothered to learn teacher’s name, he had been prepared for the simple and prompt start of the lesson. He didn’t remember the teacher starting late once, and in the course of a few months, that consistency had been something he depended on in order to read or daydream. This was something that didn’t feel right.
The door creaked open and the students quieted down. Two sets of footsteps moved to the front of the class and Xander slipped his book back into his backpack. This might require his attention.
“Class, please welcome Miss Ember.” Silence greeted the teacher’s statement. “I won’t waste any of her time by giving a speech, so your time is now hers.”
“Please, just Ember.” The voice did have a definite Irish accent to it. Xander stiffened. It was a simple name that could be attached to a color or burning item, she was possibly one of them, a dragon. Disdain filled his mouth with bile, the lizards though they were so smart, yet they used naming conventions that were simple traits fantasy authors had given them for years in pages of literature. There was no originality to them at all.
“Now, I won’t take up too much of your time, I just need to give you all a quick look, and I’ll be on my way. If everyone would please line up at the front of the class, it would be much appreciated.” The Dragon's voice was bright but no-nonsense, and Ember’s footsteps put her in the front right corner of the class. Xander heard the noise of twenty-eight other students getting up and moving. He stayed in his seat.
“Excuse me, lad, can you join the others please?” Ember’s voice was directed at him.
“I’m fine, thank you.” Trying to be civil burned Xander’s throat.
“Well, I’m afraid I need to have you join the others, it won’t take long I promise.”
“Are you a dragon?”
There was silence when he asked. He could almost hear the heads turning to regard Ember, like spinal discs scraping as the necks swiveled to see what the answer would be.
“I am. Now please to the front before I have to move you myself.”
“Then I decline, this is a wizard hunt, and with all due respect I’m blind so I wouldn’t be much of a candidate.” His words were polite but the acidic quality to them left no doubt to Xander’s opinion of Ember, or what was going on. Someone gasped in the crowd of students and a bitter grin moved Xander’s lips.
Ember’s footsteps approached his desk and Xander leaned back to face where she would be. He pulled the sunglasses off his face so there would be no mistaking the blankness of his vision. Ember’s breath was close enough that Xander knew she was only a couple steps away. He quirked an eyebrow and waited.
“What is your name then?”
Xander chose not to answer but kept facing Ember’s direction thinking that he would make her uncomfortable. He chuckled at the thought of making a dragon squirm.
“His name is Alexander Morgan
, Miss Ember,” The teacher’s voice was choked. It echoed the feeling of everyone else in the room. Nothing good came from irritating a dragon, and Xander was determined to get under Ember’s skin.
“It’s just Ember,” her voice was still light and pretty. There was no sense of frustration in it making Xander wonder what he would have to do. He wanted to get her to show everyone that she was nothing more than a giant monster playacting at being a normal person. He was thinking of a response when Ember’s hands grabbed his head and pulled it slightly towards her.
“Let me go,” he tried to pull her hands away but found them impossible to move. He could feel Ember’s breath on his face and gasped smelling cinnamon. Was the dragon chewing gum?
“Oh yes, you definitely have the talent. We will have to fix your eyes, but that is a minor problem.”
Xander struck out and felt his hand connect with Ember’s face, but it proved to have no more effect than trying to move her hands.
“I will not come with you.” He spat at her and tried unsuccessfully to pull her hands away.
He was released and found himself slumping back into his desk, Ember’s footsteps moving away to where the rest of the students were. The dragon seemed completely undaunted by what had just happened. Xander worked on regaining his composure as he listened to Ember go student by student, studying them. No one else seemed to gain her interest.
When he figured that her attention was elsewhere, and Xander knew there were only a few students left, he slid up from his desk and started to tiptoe towards the door. He inched slowly to make sure he didn’t bump a desk or trip. The last thing he needed was to make a commotion that would get Ember to look back over at him. It was time for escape.
Despite his hurry, the time seemed to sludge by and every shuffle seemed extra loud as he counted the steps to the door. His hand finally grasped the knob, and he slowly turned hoping that there would not be a click as the bolt detached from the wall. The door would not budge. That was strange, the knob had turned, and it was unlocked. His fingers traced their way around the door frame to see if there was something blocking the door. Nothing. Once again, he turned the knob and pulled knowing he was running out of time. Once again, the door refused to move.
“Not so simple is it?” Ember’s voice was right by Xander and he jumped in surprise. How had she approached without him hearing her? “I know you feel you are ready to go, but we have a few more classes to visit before we leave.”
“I told you, you are not taking me. I am going to go home. I will forget that you ever talked to me, and you can find yourself some undying fan to become a wizard for you. I am not interested.”
“Once again Alexander, it’s not that simple.”
“It’s Xander, and I think it is.”
“Which is why we are going to have to work hard to train you, now say goodbye to your friends,” The dragon said.
A quick yank on the door and it flew open. Xander had to get away; he rushed out into the hall and misjudging his steps and running straight into the wall. He found himself falling backward. Xander tried to catch himself with his hands and barely slowed himself enough to keep his head from bouncing off the floor. Dazed he tried to stand up and found strong hands pulling him to his feet.
“Now that was pointless. I guess we should do something so you don’t knock yourself silly.”
Confused Xander tried to push away when he felt Ember’s hands grip both sides of his head again. Her hot breath touched his face with that strange cinnamon smell again and he felt lifted to the edge of his toes. Xander threw a few pointless punches into Ember’s stomach, but she seemed not to notice.
Pain filled him, and he opened his mouth to scream but nothing came out. It was like hot coals had been put into his blood and they were spreading through his body. Every heartbeat spread the heat further, and his heart was racing. Xander's eyes bore the brunt of the fire. While everything else burned, they felt like shards of melting glass had been forced into them making Xander half expect his head to explode.
“Don’t struggle, it will be over quickly."
Xander felt the hands release him and he fell to the floor convulsing. He had heard once that if you felt enough pain you would pass out. He started praying for that release from the agony that was torching every cell in his body. Instead of finding sweet unconsciousness the pain started to subside and little ice crystals inside him started cooling the fires.
“Strange, you shouldn’t feel much if any pain from a simple healing. Maybe I should have waited.”
He was sure more had been said, but Xander had been in too much pain to register it. Now as he started to feel less and less like screaming sounds and smells came back to him. The rough carpet was uncomfortable under his shoulder; he laughed a little inside at that. The dragon had just tried to fry him from the inside and carpet made him uncomfortable. There was still a lingering scent of cinnamon, but he was sure Ember was standing too far away for him to smell her. Uncomfortable shuffling and coughs let him know the class had watched the whole thing. He was furious instead of embarrassed. After all these months of making sure that he wasn’t looked at as being dependent, they had now seen him completely helpless. It was all because of Ember.
“Stand up and open your eyes.” There was an insistent tone to Ember’s voice that made him want to lie there and throw out some words that would let her know exactly how he felt about her now. That would be another sign of weakness so instead, Xander pulled himself to his feet.
His eyes opened, and everything was forgotten for a moment. Xander could see for the first time in years. Several strange faces stared at him, some in fear others in awe. Everything looked wrong. He remembered in dreams what the world used to look like but for some reason, strange details distracted him. The wear on an eraser, the way a girl in the front had uneven braids. The world seemed sharp, was the only way to explain it.
“What did you do to me?” Xander asked.
“Like you said, I can hardly train a blind child to be a wizard.” There was a pause. “Interesting, I wonder if we can fix you.” His eyes locked on Ember for the first time and a shock went through him. The dragon who had just manhandled him was just over five feet tall and maybe weighed a hundred pounds when wet. Reddish blonde hair was neatly pulled back into a bun behind a delicate face. The eyes were a crystalline blue and sharply focused on him, almost with a worried look to them.
“Fix me? What is there left to fix?” Xander looked back at the class and several kids jumped back as if afraid of him. He stepped forward and found his feet were unsteady.
“Well, you see, I have only had to heal other dragons before. So, I couldn’t have known this would happen.” Ember put what he assumed was supposed to be a calming hand on his shoulder. Eyes darting around Xander tried to find what was wrong. The window in the classroom’s door suddenly caught his attention. His reflection was right there staring back at him, frightened. At first, nothing seemed wrong; the kid staring back looked like he could have been one of the many twelve-year-olds in the school. Then Xander saw his eyes, the reptilian slitted green eyes that could only have belonged to a dragon.
✽ ✽ ✽
Ember looked at the boy slumped into the back seat of her car. It was disturbing how her magic had gone wrong, a simple mistake that would cause more than a little trouble. Magic was about responsibility and from the moment a dragon was hatched the biggest lesson was to think through your actions before you take them. Actions that weren’t thought through led to unforeseen consequences. Unforeseen consequences led to chaos, chaos must be fought in every from.
Humans seemed to be the perfect agents of chaos. They were inconsistent, always changing, and fluttering from one thought to another. Before the dragons had re-emerged to take their proper place keeping order there had been chaos everywhere. Humans warred with humans, poverty, starvation, disease, and pollution had been rampant all over the globe, and in a few weeks, the dragons had replaced most of it with proper order and
peace.
Hospitals now had access to magic that helped cure serious diseases and injuries. Technology mixed with magic had fixed pollution and helped feed and distribute food to all. Deserts that grew little now had areas where people could grow and feed their populations. The kingdoms, or countries as people now thought of them, still had their disputes, but war was forbidden. It had taken one quick demonstration to put that point across. Some little country she couldn't remember the name of had been leveled, but that was a small price for obedience. Ember hadn’t been personally involved but she had heard the stories.
The boy shifted on the leather and Ember looked into the rear-view mirror. His eyes seemed to be dancing along taking everything in. He appeared frightened. It was all wrong. From the moment she had walked into the classroom she had felt his potential. Energy clung to him with an intensity that should have drawn attention before this. The fact his eyes had never been healed was strange as it was a malady that would normally have been cured quickly with some simple magic. Of course, as she had proved even a simple spell could go wrong. Ember’s healing experience had been limited and she had not thought to make human eyes. Now she was not sure that her mistake could be fixed. She should never have had to fix him. What kind of parent lets a child go blind? It might have to be a subject taken up by human authorities.
Well, it did not matter. She would be taking their child and they were not likely to see him unless they went out of their way. In her experience, most parents would not. Oh, there were visits on rare occasions but only a couple students had parents that had moved close enough to see their child after the dragons took them. If this child, Alexander, she had to start thinking of him by his name, if his parents didn’t cure his eyes she doubted he would see them again.
The human that drove the car for her mumbled something and she had to play the words back in her mind to realize he had told her that they had reached their destination. She opened the door and turned to let Alexander out only to realize he had been quicker than her. Already on his way up the walk he had his sunglasses on and was using his strange stick to tap the ground before him. She wondered why he would do this when he had perfectly good eyes. Ember started forward, then stopped as she realized the child had already started lifting a couple of bags that she had not noticed lying in front of the door.