One has to admit how smart the wizards that created the testing
grounds for Apprentices were. After hearing the stories that
surround the events, I realise now why so many did not pass
their tests to become Wizards. Simply getting to the places of
testing are a trial in themselves. I am glad Kai had people at
his back for those trips.
The forest abruptly opened into a large field with the
brick-and-mortar cabin alongside the road just ahead. In the
centre of the field stood an old, dead tree Sari thought large
enough to rival the grain silos in Alvassin. Gigantic roots
crawled away from the base of the greyed tree, as thick and wide
as the cabin itself. The group stopped, and as Sari swallowed,
Aliedar hitched up the leather strap of his quiver. “I think
we’ve found your testing area.”
“It’s not so bad,” Anara said as she walked past them and
towards the cabin. “It is the easiest of the tests, remember.
And it’ll only take the better part of a day to finish. Probably
less with your help. Now,” she said, calling back from the
barrier around the cabin, “I think it’s about time we ate.”
“She seems like she’s in a rush to get all this done, doesn’t
she?” Sari asked as they hurried to follow and the last sliver
of sun crept away through the forest on the opposite side of the
field.
“Can you blame her for wanting to get out of here?” Kai said.
“Not really,” Sari answered, casting another long look at the
massive tree before she followed the group inside the little
building. How could I blame her when it looks like the tree will
come alive and eat the cabin - and us - while we sleep?
“It’s built for two,” Anara said apologetically as Sari pushed
past Aliedar to look around. It was indeed small, with only two
rooms. The main room was well furnished for a cabin with a
cast-iron stove just inside and to the left of the front door,
some cupboards, a little counter with a chopping block and a
water barrel and a small table with two old chairs tucked
underneath. The other side of the room bore a large fireplace
stacked with wood and a pair of very overstuffed and comfortable
looking chairs, a thick rug covering the scratched floorboards
between them. The wall was filled with a very large - and full -
bookshelf, which bore books of every thickness and colour, some
in languages Sari did not recognise. She did recognise a few
storybooks, but most seemed to resemble the lesson book Kai
carried with him. Behind the stuffed chairs was a door opening
into a small room that looked overcrowded with two small beds
and a set of drawers.
“It’s not much, but it’s free,” Sari smiled.
“Free enough,” Aliedar said and jabbed his thumb at a shuttered
window, which would open onto a view of the tree.
“I like it!” Kai said and hurried over to the bookshelf. As he
began running his finger along the spines, Anara cleared her
throat.
“Food first. Kai, if you’d come with me we can unpack the bag.
Aliedar can go run up some water from the well, and Sari can go
see what’s good from the garden in the back and bring it in.”
They dispersed, and Sari searched through the cupboards until
she found a basket, and hurried outside. She had been right in
her ideas about the cabin - there were a few chickens poking
around, keeping their distance, and the garden was fenced in.
There wasn’t much as it was rarely tended and horribly infested
with weeds, but she pulled up a half-dozen big carrots,
unearthed a handful of little potatoes and plucked as many pea
pods off a vine as she could find. Making sure to close the
little gate behind her, she stuck her tongue out at Aliedar who
was still trying to bring enough water up in a bucket that had
obviously seen better days.
Inside, one of the two had started a fire in the stove and wiped
the dust away from the kitchen area. Kai was seated on one of
the stuffed chairs with one of the larger books from the shelf
propped open in his lap and a couple candles lit beside him for
light. He was fumbling with his fingers, trying to make some
strange gestures, and Anara stepped out of the bedroom to take
the basket from her. “Leave him be until supper. He needs to do
some studying.” She gave her head a little shake and lowered her
voice. After a moment she spoke. “He’s only eight, Sari.”
If Anara had not taken the basket from her, she would have
dropped it. “What?” she croaked, staring at him. “I thought he
was just really short!” When she looked up at Anara, her eyes
were very weary. “Geez. I didn’t know. Is it really that
dangerous for him to be in public?”
Anara nodded and looked as if she had so much more to say, but
Aliedar came in, knocking the door open with his foot to drag in
the half-filled old barrel that had been beside the stove.
“Did you know Kai’s only eight?” Sari asked him, still taken
aback.
“Really?” he raised an eyebrow and glanced at him. “I thought he
was just short. I see why you made us take that oath. It must be
pretty bad if the life of such a young child related to the
throne is in danger.”
Anara carefully set the basket down on the chopping block.
“That’s the thing,” she said quietly. “He isn’t in danger of
being killed.”
“What, then?” Sari asked in a harsh whisper, ducking her head
forward towards Anara.
Anara licked her lips and looked over at Kai, still waving his
fingers around. “He’s the first Wizard in the Niyan family in
over a generation. And the only one living.” Her face seemed to
darken, while across the little room Kai’s hat slid down over
his eyes, blocking his view of his hands.
“I see,” Aliedar said after a moment and shook his head sadly.
“What? So what if he’s a Wizard?” Sari asked, stepping a little
closer to the gathering.
Aliedar and Anara shared a knowing look and Anara cocked her
head slightly. “It might be best if you don’t know, Sari.”
“Fine,” Sari huffed, feeling hurt. “Fine, don’t tell me.”
“You wouldn’t want to know.” Anara said, lifting a hand up to
Sari’s shoulder and squeezing.
“You’re just saying that,” Sari pouted. “You just don’t think
I’m old enough to understand.”
Aliedar sighed. “I’m one hundred and forty three, and I don’t
even try to understand the politics of you humans.”
Anara separated herself from the two and had dug out a pitcher
and filled it before she dropped the vegetables into the bucket
and started washing them. “Sari, if you could chop these, I
think we can do a stew. And there should be an apple tree out
back Aliedar, we can make some glazed apples for a treat. I
think I saw some sugar.”
The thought of dessert brought them back to attention, and
dinner was promptly simmering on a large pot on the stove with
the apples sitting in a small tin pan beside it, ready to cook.
The kitchen table was ignored as there wasn’t enough room for
four, and Sari had cleaned up the little sitting area, placing a
couple pillows on the floor for her and Kai to sit on while
Aliedar checked the fletching on his arrows. Anara doled out
very generous portions, and even fetched seconds for those who
wanted them. Conversation was kept to a minimum as Kai kept a
book out even while he ate.
When the leftover stew was covered and put aside for the apples
to cook, Kai marked his page and slipped it back onto the shelf.
Anara smiled at him from where she and Sari were washing the
dishes. “So?”
“Well,” he said and pulled himself up into one of the chairs, “I
think I can make lightning now since I saw you and read about
it. It’s really hard. I’ve never used two elements together
before.”
Anara nodded and Sari took a plate from her to dry. “It isn’t
easy, but once you move onto things like Fire and Water and
Earth and Air together, it gets more difficult. Fire and Air
isn’t so hard, since you do keep yourself very aware of Air when
you create a fire. You have to suppress it so the fire doesn’t
rage, and even though suppression is different than controlling,
it’s still similar.”
“What would you use Air and Earth for?” Sari asked, placing the
dried plate atop a stack.
“Golems,” Aliedar answered grimly from the other stuffed chair.
Sari frowned, tapping her chin with the plate in her hands. “Gol-whats?”
“Golems,” Anara said. “The creatures that were used in the last
war that ravaged the other side of the continent. They were the
armies of the warring Wizards.”
Sari thought for a moment, waving the plate in her hand while
she did. “Oh, I remember. Big giant things with grey or brown
skin, right? Look sort of human, but are really tall and muscled
and have no faces? I saw a book with them in it once. They’re
banned now, aren’t they?”
“The Wizards lost control because they had too many and they
were what destroyed most of the world then,” Kai said from his
chair.
“The spells to wholly summon and create them were sealed in a
book by the Wizards before the final destruction, and the book
was lost in the devastation. It’s only myth now, but the book is
said to have all the magics in it that are forgotten now that
created the war.” Aliedar lifted his arms above his head and
stretched lazily. “I don’t know if it actually exists, but there
have been plenty of men and elves who set off to discover it,
never to come back.”
“I think it’s time for bed,” Anara offered as Sari closed the
cupboard on the last of the dishes. “I pulled out an extra set
of blankets and pillows. It’s between you and Kai who gets the
rug by the fire tonight, Sari. I’ll give up my bed after the
test, but until then, my bones are a lot older than yours. You
don’t mind pulling the chairs together, Aliedar?” He shook his
head.
The fight for the bed turned out to be a race for whoever could
get to it first. Sari won, waving at Kai as she hopped onto the
bed and sprawled herself out. When she pointed at the pile of
blankets and pillows, he threw one at her and dragged the rest
out into the main room.
The candles on the table were snuffed and the door to the stove
was opened to let off the last of the heat. Anara pulled the
door shut behind herself and Sari, and soon the little cabin was
settled and quietly asleep.
The sun seeped through the window shutters far too soon for him,
and Kai groaned and sat up as Anara threw them open at the
window that overlooked the tree. She frowned at it for a while,
seeing it through the dim fog of her own memory. As Sari stepped
out of the bedroom in an overlarge shirt she had found in the
drawers, Anara placed her hands on her hips and turned to look
at her. “I think you’ll go tomorrow. Give you a day to relax,
and a day for Kai to practise. I need to put together some food
to take with us, too, and it’ll take a while to cook the bread.
If I remember how,” she added quietly.
“I’ll go find some eggs,” Kai offered and folded his blankets
before padding outside in bare feet.
Sari frowned after him, then hurried to follow. “I bet he’s
never even seen a chicken before, much less taken eggs from
one.”
Anara watched them go, then pulled the smile from her face when
Aliedar looked at her. “Do you know how to cook travel bread?”
When he shrugged and stretched in his chair, she sighed and
rolled up the wide sleeves to her shirt. “Well, then I guess
I’ll bake it before it rises properly. And if it’s no good, then
it’s no good.”
“Why not try looking at a book? There’s one up there that says
Recipes,” he said, pointing.
She paused in sifting through an old tin of flour and turned
around. “Because that would be the obvious thing to do, and I’m
too dim to think of the obvious.” She followed his finger to the
bookshelf and the book, pulling it down from the shelf and
flipping it open to the index. “Unleavened bread?” she asked.
“You’re the cook,” he replied.
“Supposedly,” she said, allowing herself a quick grin. She
pulled her gloves off and tucked them into her belt, and dipped
her hands into the water barrel to give them a quick wash, then
dried them by patting her hands against her pants. When Aliedar
looked at her again she gave him a small wave, hands liberally
covered in flour.
When Kai and Sari returned, Anara had laid out the unleavened
bread with a cheesecloth covering it, and was working on a loaf
of normal bread. Sari set to cooking the eggs on top of the
stove in the little tin pan they’d used the night before, and
Kai returned to his books. Breakfast was eaten quickly and
Aliedar disappeared outside to see about finding some good wood
for a few more arrows. Sari followed, mentioning something about
stretching.
Kai watched them with a look of longing, but quickly subsided
into reading through the books Anara had selected from the
shelves and placed before him. When she had finished with the
bread, leaving it sitting out on the windowsill to tempt them
all, she washed the flour from her hands, pulled her gloves back
on and quietly ducked outside.
Sari was sitting in the grass amidst a group of chickens with
one leg curled under her and the other lifted straight up with
her knee to her ear. She laughed at Anara’s pained expression
and dropped her leg to easily lean forward and wrap her hands
around the ball of her foot. “I bet you could do that, too,” she
said. “Twenty years ago.”
“I suppose I could,” Anara answered, carefully settling in front
of her with her legs crossed. “But I wouldn’t want to be that
young again, no matter how flexible I would be.” She shared a
smile with the girl and cast a look around for Aliedar. She
spotted him in the boughs of a tree at the edge of the border,
pulling off branches and tossing them down to a pile below.
He stopped when she called his name and said, “bring those here,
would you?”
He obliged, hopping down to land just beside his pile and sweep
it up into his arms. When he sat, he sat a little apart from
them and pushed his trimmings towards her. “I’ll only get three
or four viable shafts from those. I need more.”
When she lifted one and tilted her head, a light came to her
eyes. “Sari, bring Kai out here, please. Tell him to leave his
books.” Sari nodded and bounded to her feet, though she danced
hesitantly from foot to foot for a moment before hurrying off
around the cabin.
When Sari and Kai settled beside them again, Anara picked up a
branch from the pile. “Explain why most of these won’t turn out
properly, Aliedar.” Kai blinked, legs crossed under him and
hands pressed into his ankles. He leaned forward to look at
them.
Aliedar plucked one up himself and bent it slightly. “I make my
arrows from cedar, and, honestly, out here, without the proper
tools, I won’t be able to shave all of these into round shafts.
There are faults in the wood. Knots, holes, weak points. If I
nick one with a knife, it could ruin the entire thing.”
Anara nodded to herself, as if it were the answer she was
looking for. She took the one from Aliedar’s hand as well as
half the pile and set it down in front of Sari. Then, she
slipped the knife from her belt and passed it to Aliedar. “If
you two would strip off the bits and pieces, I think Kai and I
can shape the shafts.”
“How?” Kai asked, eyeing a branch as Sari took her knife and
began trimming it.
“Air and Fire, I think will be best. If there are any bad
branches to start with, you two, please pass them to Kai. He’ll
need to test out the strength of each element until he can
create a blade that will properly shape them. Can you pass him
one of your arrows so he knows the diameter?”
Aliedar slipped one out of his quiver and she held it up to him,
turning it at different angles until he nodded and she set it
aside between her and Kai, then leaned forward to take his hands
and mould them so that his left hand sat open beneath his right,
which was loosely curled, as if he were holding the handle to
something. “Now, you saw the width of the arrows? Make a little
circle with Air and Fire that size. You know how to make a blade
with air I hope, as it was in your books. So make it a circle,
with a slight weave of fire in the tip to cure the wood and make
the cutting smooth.”
“Oh, I get it,” Sari said as she trimmed. “Sort of make a hole,
stuff the branches through it, and the arrow shaft comes out the
other end, all nice and round, right?” Anara nodded. “Sounds
hard.”
“It is,” Kai sniffed, tongue poking out the side of his mouth as
his fingers twitched around the invisible circle. Anara
corrected a few finger positions as he went, until finally, she
lifted one of the bad branches and as Sari and Aliedar shared
bemused glances, she carefully fed the branch through the circle
they could not see. Bark began to peel back, revealing soft
wood. It curled up on itself to reveal a smooth, round shaft.
Curls and pieces flecked off and landed in a growing pile
beneath Kai’s hands. When three bad branches went thorough, and
all came out nicely rounded but too short to be used as shafts,
Anara began feeding through the readied ones.
It was past noon when they finished, leaving Sari complaining of
stiff legs and Kai’s eyes drooping with each effort of every
shaft as they finished. Anara smiled at him when he opened his
fingers slowly and looked at Aliedar, who gave a brusque nod and
swept them up in his arms to move off to the edge of the barrier
and begin his own work on them.
“I’ll go heat the stew,” Sari said, jumping to her feet. She
landed on one foot, the other bending oddly under her. She
straightened and banged it against the ground in an effort to
get the blood flowing properly. “Ow,” she said wryly, and
hobbled back around to the front of the cabin.
“Tired?” Anara asked, pressing a gloved hand to Kai’s knee.
“Mm,” he nodded, taking her proffered hands and slowly standing
with her.
“Eat and sleep for a while, I’ll wake you before supper so you
can read a little, then have a bath afterwards. Bed early
tonight, though. So you can’t sleep too much.” He made a small
noise again as she led him inside and to one of the stuffed
chairs. Placing a hand on Sari’s shoulder as she stood over the
stove, she whispered, “Make sure he eats at least half a bowl,
even if you have to poke him awake. Then let him sleep. Bring
the pot outside after, and the rest of us will eat before we
wash it and the laundry.”
Sari pulled a face as she stirred, but she agreed and Anara
gathered things strewn about and hurried outside, shutting the
door carefully behind her.
Beckoning Aliedar over, Anara considered the supplies leaned
against the back of the house. Various boxes filled with dry
seeds, tools, spare shingles and stone, even one with a few
weapons. There was a large barrel with the lid missing, in which
various farm tools stood, leaning against the side of the cabin.
“Help me empty the barrel, would you?” She asked, grabbing a
handful of tools and lifting them out.
“What for?” He asked warily as he moved towards the barrel and
reached for a rake.
She sent him a look as flat as her voice as she leaned the tools
against the wall of the cabin. “I’m going to wash laundry in
it.”
“Do elves ever need to do laundry? Or only if they get dirt or
blood on their clothes?” Sari asked, stepping carefully around
the back of the house with the pot in her hands and bowls and
spoons balanced on the lid.
“It’s in all animal and people’s physiology to perspire in some
way,” he said dryly as she took the lid off the pot of stew and
doled out bowls. “We just don’t do it as profusely as humans.”
“Were those real words?” She asked, holding a bowl out to Anara.
“Mm-hmm,” the woman replied after a spoonful of stew.
Sari sniffed as she closed the lid. “Talk simpler, then. I
didn’t get the same uppity lessons you all got. I just learned
how to steal things.”
“For which, I’m sure, we’ll all be eternally grateful,” Anara
intoned and bowed her head.
“You’re being mean,” Sari said, sinking down to sit on the grass
beside her and eat.
Anara smiled over her bowl. “Actually, I’m being honest. It’s
better to have a thief on your side than against you, isn’t it?”
“I guess,” Sari said around a mouthful, though she turned to
watch the chickens roaming around them at a distance.
Lunch was eaten with little more conversation, and Aliedar
disappeared much to Sari’s chagrin right afterward, leaving her
and Anara to wash the dishes and then refill the barrel to scrub
the laundry with a bar of soap Anara had dredged out of one of
the crates alongside the cabin.
The afternoon was late when they hung the last bit of clothes on
the line and Anara shooed Sari inside to wake Kai so he could do
some reading. When she returned, Anara held out the bar of soap.
Sari blinked at it and took it carefully. “I thought we were
done?”
“The clothes are washed, but you aren’t,” she said. “There’s a
spring in the back behind some bushes, come with me and I’ll
heat it.”
Sari followed, tossing the bar between her hands as she walked.
“A dirty thief is a thief soon caught, you know. If they can
smell you, they know you’re there.”
“A good lesson,” Anara agreed. “The cleaner person also lives
longer, as there’s less risk of disease. One of the more obvious
tips Wizards learn and the common folk are too poor to take up
on.” And she pulled back a handful of branches to reveal a small
pool very similar to the one they had left two days behind. It
sat about three feet deep and was almost perfectly round. The
water was very clear and the walls and floor of the pool were
very thickly pressed dirt. Grass grew right up to the lip of the
pool, and she watched Sari smile at it. A thin stream of bubbles
rose from a crack in the bottom.
“It’s almost nicer than a real bathtub,” she said. “So you’ll
really heat it?”
“That I will,” she smiled back. “And keep it nice and hot while
we wash up.”
“We?” Sari asked, drawing in on herself slightly.
Anara nodded and ignored her reaction. “We need to start cooking
soon, and I’d rather not keep Kai waiting. I’m sure you have no
problem?”
Sari watched as Anara kicked her boots off and pulled off her
belt. “I guess,” she said after a moment.
“Well, hop in, then, the water should be warm.” And to prove her
point, she gripped the bottom of her shirt and tugged it off,
hiding her face a moment as Sari gasped.
“You, wh... what are all those?!”
Anara sighed as she dropped the shirt beside her belt and boots,
and then dropped her pants, making Sari mewl in sympathy. She
pulled her gloves off and took the bar in her right hand before
stepping into the pool. “Coming?” she asked.
Sari nodded slowly and quickly stripped, sliding in to cover her
chest with her arms and stare openly at the other woman. “What
are they?” she asked again.
“Tattoos,” Anara answered, scrubbing her hair with the soap.
“They’re what a Wizard uses to gain more control over certain
spells.”
“But,” she said with a weak voice, hands clamping around her
breasts as she winced at the marks covering Anara’s, “didn’t it
hurt?”
Leaning over to rinse her hair, she laughed. “More than you can
imagine, Sari. But it also makes me a stronger Wizard. Could you
get my back?”
Sari took the soap and very gently applied it to Anara’s back,
wincing when the Wizard laughed. “They don’t hurt anymore. Most
of the ones on my back were applied when I was around twenty.
Now, should I do yours?” She didn’t wait, and instead turned and
plucked the soap from her hand. And blanched when Sari slowly
turned her back to her. “Sari...? What is this?”
The girl craned her neck around to look at her. “Um,” she
whispered, “it’s been there since I was little. It’s always been
there, like a birthmark.”
Anara very nearly dropped the soap and had to fumble with it to
hold on. “A birthmark that is as black as ink and shaped like a
dragon?” And indeed it was, with a pointed head resting at the
base of the girl’s neck, large mouth open and silhouetted teeth
long and sharp. Down past its neck flowed a large black mass of
torso with large bat-like black wings spread across the entirety
of her back, and a long tail curling down to Sari’s tailbone. It
left the soap in Anara’s hands shaking. “Who would do that?
Tattoo an infant like this?”
Sari shrugged and the tips of the wings moved with her
shoulders. “I dunno. I never knew my parents since I’m in the
Thieves Guild. It doesn’t hurt and it doesn’t do anything, so
it’s not a big deal.”
“I suppose,” Anara said, resigned and glancing at her own body,
leaving her nothing but to gingerly wash Sari’s back.
She was still shaking her head when they dressed and she removed
her heating spell from the water, leaving it to sit while they
returned to the cabin. Anara cast Sari another look as she
checked the clothes hanging on the line and finally shrugged.
“We all have our oddities,” she said to herself, and went inside
to start cooking.
Any questions, comments or concerns can
be directed to Sam Lytle at
lytle.sam@gmail.com .
Story and characters copyright Sam Lytle 2001-2008. Photographs taken by
Sam, family members and friends and used with permission.
