Труди Канаван - The Magician’s Apprentice

I could get to like this.

She almost protested when he let her go. They stared at each other for a moment, then both began to smile. Then Jayan’s smile faded again. He pushed himself up onto his elbows and looked down at his bloodied clothes, then grimaced and put a hand to his forehead.

“Dizzy,” he said.

“You’ll be faint and weak for a while,” she told him.

“We can’t stay here.”

“No,” she agreed, standing up. Looking round, she saw that the fire in the house nearby had almost burned itself out. “Let’s hide in there until morning. Nobody will bother entering because anything valuable will have been burned, and the walls might fall in. I can protect us with a shield.”

“Yes. This is the main road, after all. We can keep watch, and come out when someone we know passes by. It might take a while, but someone is sure to come along eventually. Where’s your bag?”

“I don’t know. It doesn’t matter, though. If I can make this healing work on non-magicians, I won’t need cures or tools any more.”

He nodded, then rose to his feet in stages, first sitting up, then rising into a squat, then leaning over, and finally straightening. As they started towards the house she felt a wave of tiredness and stumbled. Healing had taken more magic than she’d realised.

“Are you sure you’re all right?” Jayan asked.

“Yes. Just tired.”

“Well, wait until we get inside before you fall asleep, won’t you?”

She gave him a withering look, then let him lead her into the house.

CHAPTER 49

Anagging thirst dragged Jayan out of sleep. He opened his eyes and saw charred walls bathed in morning light. They looked no softer than the surface he was lying against. His body ached. There was a pressure on his arm. He looked down.

Tessia lay curled up against his side, asleep.

His heart lifted and suddenly the hardness of the wall and ground wasn’t so unbearable.

I should have waited until the war was over and we were safe , he thought. But she was there, too close to my mind, and I couldn’t hide how I felt.

Yet he couldn’t bring himself to regret anything.

She loves me. Despite all the stupid things I’ve said. Despite me pushing her away. He realised he hadn’t expected her to. That he’d thought that, when they returned to Imardin and he gathered the courage to let her know his feelings, she’d turn him away.

Maybe she would change her mind. When she was famous for discovering healing. When she grew older. She was still young. Seventeen or eighteen? He couldn’t remember. When he considered what he had been like at that age – constantly changing his mind – he couldn’t delude himself that she would never grow tired of him and find some other person to be interested in.

But she is not like me at that age. She fixes on something and remains true to it – like healing. Perhaps she will be the same with people. With me. And I wasn’t completely incapable of sticking to one thing back then. Nothing ever took away my interest in magic, or my loyalty to Dakon.

He reached for the bowl of water she had brought him last night, after disappearing into the burned house for a while, and drank deeply. The water tasted of smoke. He closed his eyes and let time slide past.

After a while something roused him. In the distance the sound of hoofbeats echoed. Several horses, coming closer. Jayan felt his heart skip a beat. He and Tessia had meant to take it in turns to sleep, the other watching for passing Kyralians, but they had both succumbed to exhaustion. He suspected the healing had used a lot of Tessia’s power. She had probably needed the sleep as much as he had.

The hoofbeats were growing rapidly louder.

As he shifted, intending to disturb Tessia as little as possible, her eyes flew open. She blinked at him, then frowned.

“Is that horses?”

Instantly awake, she pushed herself to her feet. Jayan rose and they both moved to the broken wall. Peering out, they saw twenty or so Kyralian magicians riding towards them. Jayan looked around, checking for signs that anybody might be watching. The road and nearby houses appeared deserted. He stepped out and waved an arm at the riders.

The magicians slowed to a stop. Jayan smiled as he recognised Lord Bolvin at the front, Lord Tarrakin beside him.

“Any chance of a ride?” he asked.

Bolvin grinned. “Magician Jayan, Apprentice Tessia, it is good to see you both survived. Dakon will be relieved. He came back last night but couldn’t find you.” He looked over his shoulder. “We’re heading to the edge of the city first. You’ll have to ride double.”

Two magicians came forward and Jayan and Tessia climbed up behind them.

Jayan looked around. “Has anyone seen Mikken?”

“He’s back with the army.”

Bolvin urged his horse into motion and the rest of the riders followed suit.

The city was quiet, but now and then Jayan noticed someone scurrying away down a side road. They passed the place where Jayan and Tessia had been separated from the army. Soon after, when walls no longer lined the road, and fields surrounded buildings, the group halted. Five of them, including Bolvin, separated from the rest, each accompanied by a servant and an apprentice and leading a riderless horse laden with baggage. Jayan caught enough of the conversation to understand that they were returning to Imardin. At first he assumed it was to deliver news of the victory, but then he realised that the news would already have reached Kyralia via the blood gem rings.

The thought sent a shiver of excitement down his back. I wish we were going with them. He realised he was tired of war. I want to be home, wherever that is now, with Tessia. I want to start a magicians’ guild and help Tessia develop magical healing.

As Bolvin and his companions rode into the distance, Lord Tarrakin turned his horse around.

“They’re on their own now,” he said. “The king said we should return as quickly as possible.”

The remaining magicians turned and headed back into the city. Soon they were riding through parts of Arvice Jayan hadn’t seen yet. He admired the tree-lined avenue leading up to the Imperial Palace. The palace was, surprisingly, undamaged. Servants came out to take the horses. Jayan dismounted, relieved to no longer be riding on the uncomfortable edge of the saddle.

Moving to Tessia’s side, he followed the magicians into the palace. Just like the Sachakan-built houses in Imardin, a corridor led to a large room for meeting and entertaining guests. But the corridor was wide enough to ride ten horses through, and the room was an enormous column-lined hall. Voices echoed inside.

“We can’t abolish slavery entirely,” a voice declared. “We must do it in stages. Start with personal servants. Leave the slaves that produce food and do the least pleasant work to last, or else Sachaka will starve while drowning in its own refuse.”

Narvelan , Jayan thought, a familiar chill running down his spine. Why doesn’t it surprise me that he wants to keep slavery going? Yet he couldn’t help agreeing with the magician. Freeing all slaves at once would cause chaos.

As Jayan neared the end of the room he saw that several magicians were sitting in a circle. The king wasn’t using the enormous gilt throne in the middle of the room, Jayan noted, though the chair he was sitting on was large and had a back and arms, while the rest were backless stools. Beyond them, other magicians were standing around the room, some listening to the discussion, others talking.

One of the magicians began to rise from his seat, then glanced at the king and sat down again. Dakon. Jayan smiled at his former master’s relieved expression.