Chapter 2
The next day, the caravan broke camp and continued their journey south. Eril saw only glimpses of Carthic through the morning. At the lunch stop, he motioned for Eril to follow and walked a short distance from the caravan. Carthic looked around to make certain no one was nearby and then started right in.
“That was a pretty stupid stunt you pulled, Eril.”
Eril decided it was no good denying it.
“I know. It all happened so fast,” he said, staring at the ground. “Does everyone know?”
“No, some of the others might suspect, but when I heard what happened from one of the guards from another caravan, I knew it had to be you.
“How could you do something so stupid?”
“I know, I know. I’ve been asking myself the same question ever since last night. I hardly slept. I keep seeing his eyes when he died. I never meant for anything like that to happen. I feel terrible.”
“I see that lad, but it wasn’t all your fault. That man you fought was looking for a fight. You were just unlucky enough to fall for his bait.
“Do you have any idea who you killed?”
“No.” Eril could not meet Carthic’s gaze.
“He was a professional fighter, something like myself, though of a somewhat rougher class. He fought literally hundreds of men, and killed more than a few, and not always fairly. You did something of a service, in a way, killing him. Now tell me how it happened.”
Eril told the whole story, from happening upon the tavern, till he got back to his tent. After he finished, Carthic looked at the ground and nodded.
“So, you didn’t use any of your talent to beat him?” Carthic never used the word magic, when talking of Eril’s abilities.
“No, Carthic. I just used it to keep him from stabbing me in the back, and, I suppose, a bit to be able to see what he was really doing, to tell the feints from the real attacks. For me, that’s just like not fighting blindfolded. It just happens all the time.”
“So that’s how you do it? I always wondered how, almost from the beginning, I was never able to fake you out. It always annoyed me, thought I was getting old or something, now I know. I’m sure that must have been what gave you the edge on old Jilzer.”
“That was his name?”
“Yeah, I’ve seen him fight a few times myself, though he knew better than to mess with me.”
“I wish you hadn’t told me his name. Now I’ll never be able to forget it, it’d be easier not knowing.”
“Eril, his name doesn’t make a difference; he’s the first man you’ve killed.” Eril went to correct him, but Carthic spoke first.
“The first man you’ve killed with a sword. Seeing a man’s eyes as he dies is not an easy thing. Even if you know the man is evil, it doesn’t make it any easier, as you watch the light leave him. You’ve paid a high price for a small measure of knowledge, but what have you learned?”
“I think, that, every time I open my mouth, that I have to be sure that what I will say is worth my life, or the life of those around me.”
“Hmmm. I suppose you could say that is true enough, but there’s more to it than that.”
“What more?”
“You have to think before you act, and as far as you can, try to anticipate the consequences of your actions, and be willing to accept them. Now you can’t know the future and you can think too much, but you need to choose to act, not react.
“That was your mistake, you reacted to someone who goaded you into a position you didn’t want to be in. As long as you are reacting, that will put you in someone else’s power. It took me a long time to learn that lesson, but learn it I did, and that’s why I’m still alive today. If you want to survive, you had better learn it too.”
Eril hardly noticed as Carthic walked away. He was deep in thought, replaying the previous evening’s events in light of Carthic’s words. He vowed within himself that he would learn and start acting for himself that day.
That evening, and the next day, Eril did not practice with the guards, not wanting to face questions. As soon as he could, he went off by himself. The guards were a little upset, but Carthic smoothed things over, saying he just needed time alone.
During his time alone Eril was thinking. At first, he dwelt on the events of that night, trying to see how he could have done things differently. In time he realized several things that he could have done and would do differently if the occasion arose. He thought over the encounter with Boregond. He could have handled things differently, but could think of no way that would not have resulted in his killing Boregond.
All this caused him to reflect upon his life. He had lived his life reacting to those around him. Most of his life had been spent with people telling him what to do, and when. Now he knew he had to act responsibly. The Master would not be there to save him, and he truly did have many enemies. He vowed to choose more wisely.
Chapter 3
Two days later the caravan paused a day at a small town. Eril started to go off on his own when Carthic walked up to him.
“There’s a canyon about two miles off that has some rock formations the like of which you’ll never see again. Want to go see them?” He said cheerily.
“Sure,” Eril said without enthusiasm.
“You’ll be glad you went. Let’s ride. Your mount hasn’t had much exercise, and besides, it’s a gorgeous day.”
“OK,” Eril said, a little interested.
They rode off, letting the horses gallop for nearly a mile of the ride. When they arrived in the narrow canyon, where the rock looked as though they had been made of wax and then grown too close to a flame. The stone flowed and twisted crazily, and the colors of the stone ranged from gray to stark red. It was weirdly mesmerizing.
“This really is amazing,” Eril’s eyes roved the formations. “I’m glad we came.”
“It is beautiful, but that’s not why we’re here.”
Eril was puzzled, and it showed on his face.
“We are here, Eril, because I wanted to follow up on what you told me the other night, and I didn’t want anyone around to watch.”
“Huh?”
“You said that you use your talent all the time, but that you never really use it when you sword fight except to see better.”
“Yeah, so? Is there something wrong with that?”
“No, not at all. I want you to show me what you can do. You said you made Jilzer’s blade move so that he couldn’t stab you in the back. Could you do that to someone while they were fighting you?”
“Sure. Why?”
“Eril, you are already good enough to beat most men, except me, or someone like me. Could you stop me?”
“Sure, if I had to; but you’d probably be able to tell that I was using magic to do it.”
“Show me,” Carthic said as he pulled the practice swords off his horse. Eril had not even noticed that they were there. Carthic threw him a sword and then took up his stance.
“I’m going to come at you with everything this time, Eril, no holding back. I’ve hardly had to hold back lately, but I have still not been giving it everything. This time, you’ll either stop me, or you’ll be hurting.”
Eril did not lift his sword off the ground. He just stood looking at Carthic.
“I’m not joking, Eril. Put up your guard, or you’ll wish you had.”
Eril still did nothing.
Carthic let out a frustrated growl and lunged in at Eril. Eril did not move, but the tip of Carthic’s blade moved just to the right of Eril’s body, causing him to stumble.
Eril was motionless, except for his eyes.
Carthic recovered and tried several different attacks. All of them ended the same way. No matter what he did, his blade moved in an arc that would not let it touch Eril.
He gripped the sword with both hands and thrust it hard at Eril’s midsection. When the blade was about six inches away, it stopped, as if it had hit a stone wall. Carthic’s hands jammed up against the guard of the sword
and he dropped it, in pain.
“Owww! That hurt! Do you mean you could have been doing that to me from the beginning?”
“Yes, but that’s not all of it.”
“It’s not?”
“Pick up the sword again.”
Carthic bent and picked up the sword warily.
“Start an attack, any attack.”
Still suspicious, Carthic took his guard and began to attack. Before he was even a third of the way through the motion, the sword suddenly twisted out of his hand and flew straight up over his head.
When Carthic looked up, he saw the sword hanging in the air directly over his head, the point aimed straight at him. The color drained slowly from his weathered face, and he looked at Eril.
“I think I’ve seen all I need to see, Eril,” he said weakly. “You can put the sword down now. But I still have one question. Why didn’t you even put up your guard?”
“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking. I decided to do what you said. I chose how I would act, not the way you thought I should. If I had used just a little power along with my sword technique, you still would have been able to tell that I was cheating with magic. It might have taken a long time to convince you. This way, we get to the same place faster.
“Oh, and it could have been worse.”
As he said this, Eril disappeared.
Several seconds later, he reappeared next to Carthic, who stood in dumb silence the whole time.
“You are right, Eril, my boy. You are right. I had no idea, none, that you could do all that.
“Magic or no, Eril, you do learn fast. You are already starting to understand what it means to act. That’s good. Now let’s ride back, and you need to go back to practicing with the guards. You don’t know how much good you’ve been doing them, and they needn’t know what you can really do.”
Chapter 4
Floric
The caravan traveled two more days before leaving the edge of Lake Sharafleg and followed the Harliss river as it flowed south into the kingdom of Floric.
After three more days, they reached one of the major stops for the caravan, the summer trade festival at the ruins of the city of Kilkell.
Though the city had been destroyed in the Great War over one thousand years before, its location at the northern edge of Lake Shaharliss and proximity to three different kingdoms, Floric, Ardalan, and Chezney, made it one of the most popular trade fairs. It lasted for an entire month each year.
The fair was big enough to qualify as a city in its own right; the tents stretched for nearly two miles.
Eril had been making plans. He wanted to see if he could find another non-demon wizard to study with, or failing that, another arms maker he could work with. But most of all, he wanted to see people from other places and learn about them. Being with the caravan had already opened his eyes to how little he knew of the countries in Skryla. In Salaways there was hearsay, but seeing how other peoples really dressed and talked was very different.
The caravan was scheduled to stop at the fair for two weeks and then continue the last leg of its trip to the western ocean port-city of Shaharliss in Chezney. Eril was still unsure what he would do once the caravan reached its endpoint, but he figured that he could puzzle that out when he got there. Shaharliss was a sizable city, he should at least be able to find work there.
§ § §
Using the caravan’s camp as his base, Eril spent the first two days simply exploring the fair. He wanted to get an overall impression, but there was so much to see, vendors of every sort, performing acts, races and other competitions. Every corner he turned he saw new sights, new food, new clothes. The newness of everything was intoxicating.
One odd thing he noticed as he walked around the grounds was that every now and then, he would feel a twinge, as though an invisible hair had brushed against his face. At first, he thought it was a hair, but after not finding one and feeling it happen at several different places, he decided it warranted further investigation. When he focused, he thought he could see a subtle disturbance in the force lines, but it was too unclear.
He had deliberately avoided wearing any of his rings, trying to expand his zdrell senses without the artificial advantage that they gave. Now he put on his power ring.
As soon as he did, he could immediately see the unusual force line, it was dissimilar to any other he had seen. Instead of following a flow or natural pattern like other lines, it weaved in and around objects as though a child with a huge ball of string had tied one end to a tree and then run wildly through the fairgrounds.
Eril seized on this image and tried following the force line. Soon he realized that there was not one line, but several, all of them stretching between knee and head level above the ground. After hours tracing them, he began to see their pattern, they were laid out like an enormous spider web, covering the entire fair.
Near the center of the fair, a number of the lines came together at an unmarked tent. Next to the tent was the largest guard station Eril had seen at the fair.
The guards were there to maintain order, keep thefts down and ensure fair trading. Eril had been impressed with the orderliness of the fair, considering the small number of guards for so many people. As he watched, a boy ducked out of the unmarked tent and saying something to the guards, left with a contingent following him.
Eril was very curious. He considered just going up to the tent and looking inside, but considering the guards, he thought it better to be prudent. He considered his options.
Ever since he had put on the power ring, he had avoided touching the unusual force lines. No one else seemed to notice, walking through them on a regular basis, nor did their passage influence the lines. He appeared to be the only one who could, in any way, perceive them.
He walked over to the nearest line leading into the tent and reached out and touched it. He was careful not to put his hand through it, but only touch it. As soon as he did, his zdrell senses felt drawn along it. Suddenly, he saw a surprised face, gazing back at him, he flinched back his hand and the face vanished.
He was still trying to make sense out of what had just happened when an older man came out of the tent, his was the face Eril had just seen. The man looked around and seeing Eril walked over rapidly, and said, “Who are you? And how did you just do that?”
Chapter 5
Floric, Trading Fair
Eril wanted to run away, but knew better. Sheepishly he answered. “I am called Eril. As to how I did that, I am not entirely sure. I still don’t know what those force lines are, exactly,” he said, looking down and scuffing his feet on the ground.
“You can see them?”
“Yes, but it wasn’t easy to do at first.”
The man turned red in the face as if he was choking on something. His mouth moved, but no sound came out. He took a deep breath.
“You, you can really see them?” he said in wonder.
Eril nodded.
The man shook his head in bewilderment and said, “Who are you? No wait, better you say nothing here. Come with me.” He turned and moved towards the unmarked tent.
Eril hesitated. The man looked back and gestured emphatically.
“Don’t worry. You are not in any kind of trouble, boy. Come on!”
Eril wasn’t sure if he was acting or reacting at this point, but hopefully, he would get some answers. He followed, ready to defend himself if need be.
The tent was quite different inside. Outside it was plain and non-descript. Inside it was quite luxurious, the entire floor was covered in colorful thick rugs piled with cushions. There was a table loaded with food and drink, as well as an expensive looking cot next to several large finely carved wooden cases. The material of the tent was thick, little natural light penetrated inside. What little light there was came from three small oil lamps hanging suspended from the ceiling.
Eril’s eyes adjusted to the dim interior, as he took in the fine furnishings, and he realized that there was another source of illumination;
the unusual lines of force. He had been mistaken earlier in thinking only a few of them converged on this tent, there were easily a dozen. They all came together at a spot above a large central pile of cushions.
The man quietly observed Eril and took note as he gazed at the gathering point of the lines. The man nodded his head.
“You really do see them. After all these years I had given up hope that anyone else would.”
Eril did not know what to say. The man saw his bewilderment.
“I should introduce myself, I am called Gordal. I am the wizard in charge of seeing that this fair remains safe and orderly.” He flourished his hand.
Eril was confused.
“I see you still have not divined the purpose of my web,” he said, lifting an eyebrow.
“No, sir, I haven’t.”
“Then let me explain, Eril. As you have seen, my lines of magic allow me to see other places. When I sit here”—he gestured at the pile of cushions—“I am able, through my magic threads, to see what goes on in nearly the entire fair, almost simultaneously.
“I have become quite adept at noting disturbances in the crowds before they get out of hand, I then notify the guards, and they in turn take care of the problem. Likewise, should a servant need to report to me, if they stand in a thread not only can I perceive them, but they in turn can hear me. But, never before today has anyone been able to see me, nor perceive my threads.”
Eril listened. Gordal’s explanation made sense. He could see how the pattern of “threads” as Gordal called them would allow him to see everywhere at once. He just did not know if it was wise to tell this man who or what he was.
After several uncomfortable moments, Gordal continued.
“I’m sure this all is something of a shock to you, but imagine my surprise, I have encountered no one in the one-hundred-and-twenty years since I left my master who could see my threads. How is it that you can do it? You are a wizard, no doubt.”
“I’m a journeyman wizard, and I have some small skills in zdrell. It allows me to see all the force lines, if I concentrate, not just the ‘threads’ you have created.”
The Journeyman for Zdrell Page 2