The Black Mage: Apprentice (24 page)

At his lady's command, the guard with short,
straw-colored hair rushed forward to take the unconscious girl from
my arms and hurry down the corridor. The other guard remained and
followed Lady Sybil and I down the winding hall to her
chambers.

Just as I began to enter the lady turned to
me and shook her head ever so slightly. "I would like to be alone
with my child. That is all." Her keen blue eyes watched me, and for
a moment I thought I saw a flicker of suspicion. Then she shut the
door, leaving me and the other guard outside her chamber.

"You'd best hide in the servants' quarters,
miss," the big man addressed me. His eyes held the same doubt as
his lady and my insides squirmed uncomfortably. "There is nothing
more you can do here."

I hastened a glance to my left and right – a
quick study to make sure no one else was watching. The man drew his
blade and I threw my power at him, letting the man hit the wall
with a loud thud and then crumble to the floor. I'd had a feeling
the casting I had used on the maid wouldn't have stopped a choking
man from attempting to cut me in half.

I quickly knelt and grabbed the large ring of
keys hanging from the guard's pocket. I thrust the key I had seen
him use just moments before into the door lock, clutching the
guard's sword in my other hand as I prepared for the lady's
defense. There was no way she could have missed the commotion.

I needn't have bothered. The others were
already there – weapons in hand - as the lady cowered and begged
them not to harm her child.

"I'll come with you willingly," she was
saying, "just don't hurt Tamora."

Mira was standing in front of the lady while
Cethan bound the baroness and placed a gag in her protesting mouth.
The lady was still fighting her restraints. I realized why when I
saw Andy was holding Tamora by the wrist uncomfortably.

"What do we do with the girl?" the mage asked
our leader. "Flint never told us there would be a child."

Mira shifted her cold yellow gaze to me.
"Silence the child, Ryiah. We'll take her with us. Andy, I need you
to help me cover the front until we meet Darren and Flint
outside."

I hesitated as Andy dragged the child
over.

"Are you sure we need to bring the girl?" I
swallowed over Tamora's cries. I couldn't imagine hurting such a
small, innocent child. "Surely we don't-"

"Are you questioning me, apprentice?"

I clutched the small girl by her shoulders –
they were frail and tiny, like a bird's. Her body trembled
violently against my hands. I couldn't bring myself to move.

A sharp, whistling noise – like a whip
lashing out into the air before us - and the child fell to the
ground. I gasped and looked to Mira in horror. The leader had just
cast the child unconscious. Tamora now had a small trickle of blood
flowing from the left side of her head.

I immediately picked the girl up in my arms,
silently loathing the woman who could be so heartless. "You didn't
need to do that." I couldn't stop myself.

"You did well getting us in, apprentice,"
Mira replied sharply, "but if you ever jeopardize a mission again I
will personally ensure you are thrown out of your apprenticeship
for insubordination."

And I thought Byron was as bad as it got.

****

Darren and Flint were waiting for us at the
end of the tunnel. They were keeping an eye out to make sure our
route was safe. The second the prince saw the limp child I was
carrying Darren's mouth formed a small, hard line. Flint looked
surprised but unperturbed.

Mira gave orders for Darren to take over at
the front. Cethan and I would stay at the middle of the pack with
our hostages. Flint, Mira, and Andy would guard the back.

We took off at a run.

And we ran. Every second, every breath seemed
to go on for hours as we made our retreat through an endless sea of
green and brown and white. Every once in awhile Flint would shout
out a landmark or a direction we missed, but for the most part the
only sound was the heavy panting of breath and the crunch of pine
needles beneath our boots.

Minutes into our escape Tamora awoke – but
before she could cry Andy slipped something into my hand. "We were
supposed to give it to the mother if she was difficult," she
whisper-panted, "but I have a mind she'll play nice so long as you
don't let Mira touch that child again."

I shot the mage a small smile and then held
the vial to the child's lips. "
Please
?"

Tamora met my eyes, not quite understanding
but seeming to trust the pleading tone of my voice. The girl
swallowed the potion and then fell to sleep in my arms
immediately.

Thank the gods for Alchemy.

Returning focus to the
rocky trail in front of me, I sped up to catch up with Cethan. The
man was lumbering through the forest like it was nothing, even
though the lady he was carrying was easily five times the weight of
her child.

"You can't be mortal," I wheezed.

The corner of the mage's lip twitched – but
that was it. Cethan was too in control of his emotions to chuckle
or laugh. I took it in stride anyway. He didn't smile for
anything.

After three hours of running, climbing, and
small bursts of hiding we reached the camp we had left behind the
night before. All of our stuff was still hidden deep under brush
and the others quickly set to work locating our sleeping rolls and
the rest of the supplies, including a much more comfortable change
of clothes (it hadn't been easy running in a full skirt but
thankfully I'd had on my most comfortable boots beneath).

Cethan and Andy took charge of our hostages.
Lady Sybil refused to speak except to ask for her daughter. Her
eyes were red – undoubtedly from crying - and she had dark welts
across her cheeks from where the gag had been placed too tight. I
could see that her wrists had been rubbed raw from constant
jostling during the escape, and yet despite her obvious suffering
the woman remained strong. Her keen blue eyes unfazed.

Flint set out our supper: cold jerky and two
fresh loaves he'd managed to steal during the hour he'd been
patrolling the tunnel's exit. Everyone exhaled loudly at the scent
of fresh bread. At sea we'd been living on almost nothing but
overly salted meats, barely preserved vegetables, and
very
stale baker's rolls that Andy had referred to as "rocks."

I watched Lady Sybil cradle her sleeping
child - Andy had explained to the baroness that Tamora would be out
for two days with the dose we had given her - and swallowed hard.
The lady refused to eat. It was hard to imagine a woman like that –
one that was brushing the strands of hair out of her daughter's
eyes and adjusting the pale silk ribbon on the waist of her dress -
was responsible for the rebel attacks in the desert. What was so
important about this woman? She was only a baroness with no
relation to the monarchy in Caltoth. She wasn't even a mage.

Darren took a seat on the other edge of the
log Andy and I were sitting on. In his hands he was rotating a bit
of his bread over and over again, watching Lady Sybil with an
unreadable expression. I didn't say anything but I knew
instinctively he was wondering the same thing I was. I knew he
carried the weight of Caine's death on his shoulders, and I could
see him trying to figure out the baroness's role in all of this. We
weren't allowed to question the prisoner - Mira had made that very
clear on our first day out at sea - but that didn't stop us from
wondering.

Somehow my hand found a way to his, almost
unconsciously. Darren looked up, startled, and I gave it a small
squeeze. We had succeeded so far in our mission. Soon, eventually,
this woman put an end to his guilt. We had accomplished a very
important thing for our country… even if we didn't know what is was
yet.

The prince cracked the barest of a smile and
then his eyes fell to our interlocked fingers. My heartbeat
stilled. I knew I had overstepped my bounds - that I should let go
before it became more than a friendly reassurance - but then I saw
his expression: not anger, not longing – grief, the same look he
had worn during the funeral pyres in Red Desert.

Darren wasn't thinking about me. He was
thinking about all the lives we had lost in the rebel attacks.

"It wasn't your fault," I whispered.

The non-heir didn't say anything. The only
indication he had heard me was the tightening of his hand.

Just tonight, I decided, I would let it
remain.

****

We had been traveling all day with relatively
no rest. Our pace was slower than the day before, but not by much.
Mira was convinced the Caltothians would be flooding the forest at
any moment.

We had just settled into to a quick break to
finish off the remains of our water when the low crunch of leaves
alerted me of approaching enemies.

"Cast now!"

My warning came just in time - the rest of
the group threw out a barrier. Arrows began to rain down from
above, hitting the magicked barrier and then falling harmlessly to
its side.

Someone groaned to my right and I saw Andy
had not been so lucky. One of the enemy's missiles had got to her
before the casting. I started forward to help but Cethan grabbed my
arm and pointed to Tamora, grunting. Our first responsibility was
to the mission, not a comrade. Still, I hesitated a moment longer
until I saw Darren approach Andy.

Mira shouted for us to run – that she,
Darren, and Andy would hold the Caltothians off as long as they
could. When it was safe they would follow -
if
they could.
"Remain with the ship as long as you can,"
she shouted,
"but if the enemy arrives you must leave us behind. The fate of
Jerar depends on this mission!"

So I ran.

The sun was already setting. Bright shards of
light were shooting through the trees and blinding me as I followed
Cethan and Flint along the trail. I could hear the shouts, the
pounding of footsteps, the whistle of things cutting across the
air, but I ignored it all and focused only on the girl in my arms
and Flint's breathless direction.

We must have run for an hour before the
sounds of fighting finally subsided from hearing. It made me
anxious, scared for the others.
How was Andy faring with her
injured arm? Where was Darren? What would happen if our leader,
Mira, was dead?

Cethan, Flint, and I slowed down our progress
to double check the landmarks nearest.

There was a snap in the brush behind us and I
swung around ready to cast-

It was only a deer.

Cethan grabbed my arm and we continued our
trek, more careful not to leave a trace now that we were close to
the ship. Flint followed behind, scattering needles and dirt over
our path so that it wouldn't be quite so obvious which direction we
had taken.

Finally, after forty more minutes of cautious
hiking we located our ship. I handed Tamora over to Flint and he
and Cethan loaded the small paddleboat with the two hostages and
our supplies and then paddled out to our ship anchored deep in the
waters a quarter mile beyond the shore. I stood guard at the beach,
scanning the tree line beyond it for any sign of an enemy – or the
others - approaching.

After the first half hour of waiting Cethan
returned. Flint had chosen to remain on the ship with our prisoners
but Cethan, like me, was concerned for the others. I knew he and
Andy were close and had served many missions together, and while he
didn't say it, I was pretty sure he cared for our harsh leader as
well.

"You can search the woods, if you like," the
man told me quietly after the first hour had passed. It was too
dark to see anything past the rocky beach now. Both of us were
growing anxious as the minutes wore on, and when I glanced up at
the large man I detected fear in his gaze. Mira would have wanted
us both to guard the ship but it was evident the man's thoughts
mirrored my own. He cleared his throat, "I'll stay here in case
anyone…"

A small glow of dim orange light cut its way
along the shadows and I saw two dim figures limp slowly onto the
open beach. Cethan and I watched warily, ready to cast at a
moment's notice. My heart was choking my lungs, the pound of blood
so heavy and frequent I couldn't hear anything over my racing
pulse.
Please
, I begged,
please be the others
.

As the figures drew closer, Andy and Mira's
faces materialized in the darkness.

Cethan let out a long, ragged breath. The big
man ran forward to help Mira, while I went to Andy and half-carried
her to the paddleboat Cethan had left in the sand. The green-eyed
mage was barely holding on – her knees seemed to give out the
moment I set her down. Her face was streaked with sweat and dried
blood.

A moment later Cethan placed Mira down beside
her. Then the two of us glanced back to the tree line.
Where was
Darren?

"Did the prince make it back before us?" Andy
croaked.

My heartbeat froze and my hands dropped the
oars I'd been about to hand to Cethan.

Andy swore as she realized my reaction.

"I'm going to find him."

Mira's stern gaze met my own defiant one. "We
will wait for him, apprentice. You must remain on the beach. The
prince knows where to find us and I need you here to serve as a
look out, not a hero."

"What if Darren's lost?" I blurted out
angrily. "What if he's injured and can't make it back on his
own?"

The woman glowered. "Believe me when I say it
would be a tragedy I'd take to heart. But it is unwise to-"

"He's a prince! I thought you served the
Crown!"

"He's not the heir," Mira cut me off shortly,
"therefore, Darren is expendable in certain situations. The mission
we serve right now is one of those."