The Magician’s Apprentice Read online

  When Narvelan’s plan to remove the children of Sachakan magicians and have them raised by Kyralian families was thwarted by Bolvin, Hanara’s master had become angry and paranoid. He’d refused to attend meetings for three months, only coming back when decisions began to be made in his absence.

  Things had gone downhill from there, with fighting between the magicians and appeals sent to the king. Finally, a week ago, a message had arrived from the king “retiring” Narvelan from his position. A day later, Narvelan had ordered Hanara to pack for a journey. They would be travelling on foot.

  Far ahead, Narvelan had stopped. Hanara guessed his master had reached the top of the hill. He trudged on, forcing his aching legs to carry him up. When he finally reached the crest, Narvelan was sitting, cross-legged, on the stony ground.

  “Put your pack down,” Narvelan said. “Have a drink. And some food.”

  Obeying, Hanara watched his master gazing about. The hill lay at the end of the plains, where the endmost roots of the mountains rippled the ground. They had come more than half the distance to the border, but probably only half the journey time if the slower travel rates on the steep roads nearer the mountains were taken into account.

  Are we going to Kyralia? Hanara wondered. Is Narvelan hoping to talk the king around? They weren’t headed for the pass, though. He looked at his master, but remained silent.

  Narvelan glanced at him. “You’re wondering where we’re going,” he stated.

  Hanara said nothing. He’d learned that asking questions was pointless when his master was in this mood. The man would hear the question he expected, not the one that Hanara voiced.

  “Ten years,” Narvelan said. “Ten years I’ve worked, every day and most nights, to keep this country in Kyralian control. Ten years I’ve strived to keep our ancient enemy weak, to prevent an invasion happening again.”

  He looked back towards Arvice, which was far beyond the horizon now. His eyes were afire with anger.

  “I could have gone home, married and had a family. But then, would I have enjoyed the peace and safety that everyone else has because of me? Without my work here, Sachaka would have recovered, grown powerful, then attacked us again. No. I had to sacrifice a normal life so that others would have one.

  “And did I get any thanks?” Narvelan stared at Hanara, then looked away. “No! Not once! And now they’re undoing everything I did! All my work, all my sacrifices, for nothing. They’re going to free the farm slaves. Let Sachakan magicians marry and breed more invaders. They’re going to let them come here,” he swept his arm out to indicate the area, “and start farming again. Letting this land grow wild was intended to reduce the food the Sachakans could grow, keeping their population small and manageable. It was to be an extra layer of protection between Kyralia and Sachaka. It was my great idea. My vision!”

  Hanara looked down at the local farmhouses and fields. Though they were supposed to be abandoned, he could see signs of cultivation and occupation. Narvelan’s vision had only led to bandits and ichani taking up residence. We’re lucky we haven’t been attacked, he thought, then pushed the thought away. Narvelan was powerful. He’d had several servants as source slaves. He was strong enough to fight off ichani, who had only one or two slaves to take from.

  “I don’t blame the king for retiring me,” Narvelan said, his voice laced with sadness and regret. Hanara looked at him in surprise. “I shouldn’t have stopped attending meetings. If I’d been reasonable, he’d have had no good reason to get rid of me.”

  He frowned. “They made me angry because they wanted to undermine the plans I’d worked on for so long. I didn’t realise that there was a way to make them happen anyway. A faster way. I hadn’t thought of it yet. If I’d thought of it earlier... maybe they’d have agreed with me. If what I planned hadn’t been so difficult.”

  Narvelan’s gaze was distant. He fell silent and stared towards Arvice for a long time. Brooding. Then abruptly his attention snapped back to his surroundings. He drew in a deep breath and sighed, then smiled and slowly turned to look at the plains, the hills, the mountains, and then the hill they were sitting on.

  “This is a good place. I don’t know how far its power will reach, but how far it does will have to be good enough.” He looked at Hanara.

  Hanara shrugged. Narvelan often said unfathomable things, especially when he was having one of these one-sided conversations. He watched as his master reached into his pack and dug around.

  “Where is it? I know it’s here somewhere. Ah!”

  He drew out his arm. His fist was clenched around something. Looking around, Narvelan fixed his gaze on a large, flat rock. It slid towards him, settling before his crossed legs. Then he picked up a smaller rock and hefted it, testing its weight.

  “That should do the trick.”

  He opened his fist and, with a musical clink, a bright, glittering object landed on the flat rock. Hanara felt his heart stop.

  It was the storestone. The one the Elynes had left with the Kyralians, in case they ever faced conflict with Sachakans again. Narvelan must have stolen it. The other magicians certainly wouldn’t have approved of his taking it.

  Narvelan looked up at Hanara, and a look of realisation crossed his face.

  “Oh. I’m sorry, Hanara. I hadn’t thought what to do about you. Guess we’re in this together.”

  Hanara opened his mouth to ask why.

  Then Narvelan’s arm rose and fell. The rock hit the store-stone. A crack appeared. Hanara had a moment to wonder why the crack was blindingly white.

  Then all sensation and thought ceased.

  The path was narrow and steep. It twisted and turned around the precipitous side of the mountain, climbing and descending in order to pass enormous boulders, or wide cracks in the ground. Hunters had advised Jayan and Prinan that the way was too difficult for horses, and though they wished they could declare it unpassable for humans, the truth was it was merely hard work.

  Jayan sent healing magic to his legs and felt the ache fade. He’d needed to do this less and less often over the last few days. I might actually be getting fitter, he mused. Looking back, he saw that the dust that covered Prinan’s clothes, skin and hair was only broken by darker patches of sweat under his arms and on his chest and back. And I look just as bad, he mused. I doubt anybody at the Guild would recognise us, and if they did they’d gain much amusement.

  Prinan looked up and grinned. “I wish Tessia could see you now. She’d have a good laugh.”

  “I’m sure she would,” Jayan agreed. He felt a pang of affection for her, followed by an equally strong pang of anxiety. She’ll be fine, he told himself yet again. She’s still the best healer in the Guild. Of all the women in Kyralia – or the world – she has the best chance of surviving birthing a baby.

  But she’d not had a child before.

  Yes, but she’s assisted in the birth of plenty. She knows what to expect.

  Maybe they’d waited too long.

  But there had been so much work to do first. Developing healing and teaching it to others. Getting the Guild established and sorting out all the problems. And magicians certainly have a talent for creating problems...

  The path rose and turned round a ridge before him. To stop yet another endless argument in his head, he set his mind on navigating it. He scrambled up, grasping at protruding rocks for extra leverage. His calves protested. His thighs strained. Then at last he’d reached the top. He sat on the ground, gasping for breath. Then he looked up and felt his entire body go rigid with cold.

  For many heartbeats, all he could do was stare.

  What had been green, fertile land ten years ago was now a blackened, scoured desert. From the foot of the mountains to the horizon stretched nothing but bare, blasted earth. His skin prickled as he realised he could make out lines radiating from somewhere to the north. Lines that were made up of gouges in the land, or the flattened trunks of trees. He barely registered the sound of Prinan reaching the top of the ridge and stoppin
g beside him.

  “Ah,” Prinan said. “The wasteland. No matter how many times I see it, I can’t get used to the sight.”

  “I can see why.” Jayan glanced up at the magician. “The magicians who investigated still think it was the storestone?”

  “We know of nothing else that might have caused so much destruction.”

  “And Narvelan did it?”

  “He disappeared a few days before, the same time the stone was stolen. And he’d been trying to convince us that we should weaken Sachaka by spoiling the land.”

  “But we’ll never know for sure if that was what happened.”

  “No.” Prinan sighed. “And the last chance of working out how to make storestones is gone.”

  Jayan drew in a deep breath, then rose. “Well, if that’s what storestones can do, maybe it’s better that nobody found out.”

  Prinan shook his head in disagreement, but did not argue. “So, do you think we need to build another fort here?”

  Turning to look back down the path, Jayan considered. “I will have to think about it. This pass is by no means easy or fast to traverse. The fort in the main pass will only ever slow the advance of an army, not block it. If we cause a few land slips and carve away the path in a few places, this pass may not need anything more than watching.”

  Prinan frowned, then nodded. “I suppose you are right. Though Father will feel we are being foolishly neglectful not building a big stone fort to block the way.”

  “I understand,” Jayan assured him. “But surely if he has seen this,” Jayan waved a hand at the wasteland below, “he knows there is little chance of another invasion from Sachaka.”

  Prinan nodded. “Narvelan may have been mad, but I suspect he was correct in his belief that destroying the Sachakans’ land would weaken the people. What Father fears is retribution. It would only take a few Sachakan magicans to cause havoc in Kyralia.”

  “Then I will recommend we post a watcher on the Kyralian side.”

  “I guess that’s the best we can do,” Prinan said. He sighed, then looked over his shoulder. “And there’s not much point us continuing on into Sachaka. Shall we head back?”

  Jayan smiled and nodded. “Yes.” Back to Tessia. Back to await the birth of our son. Then he grimaced. And back to the never-ending work and arguments of the Magicians’ Guild.

  GLOSSARY

  ANIMALS

  aga moths – pests that eat clothing

  anyi – sea mammals with short spines

  ceryni – small rodent

  enka – horned domestic animal, bred for meat

  eyoma – sea leeches

  faren – general term for arachnids

  gorin – large domestic animal used for food and to haul boats and wagons

  harrel – small domestic animal bred for meat

  inava – insect believed to bestow good luck

  limek – wild predatory dog

  mullook – wild nocturnal bird

  quannea – rare shells

  rassook – domestic bird used for meat and feathers

  ravi – rodent, larger than ceryni

  reber – domestic animal, bred for wool and meat

  sapfly – woodland insect

  sevli – poisonous lizard

  squimp – squirrel-like creature that steals food

  yeel – small domesticated breed of limek used for tracking

  zill – small, intelligent mammal sometimes kept as a pet

  PLANTS/FOOD

  anivope vine – plant sensitive to mental projection

  bellspice – spice grown in Sachaka

  bol – (also means “river scum’) strong liquor made from tugors

  brasi – green leafy vegetable with small buds

  briskbark – bark with decongestant properties

  cabbas – hollow, bell-shaped vegetable

  chebol sauce – rich meat sauce made from bol

  cone cakes – bite-sized cakes

  creamflower – flower used as a soporific

  crots – large, purple beans

  curem – smooth, nutty spice

  curren – coarse grain with robust flavour

  dall – long fruit with tart orange, seedy flesh

  dunda – root chewed as a stimulating drug

  gan-gan – flowering bush from Lan

  husroot – herb used for cleansing wounds

  iker – stimulating drug, reputed to have aphrodisiac properties

  jerras – long yellow beans

  kreppa – foul-smelling medicinal herb

  marin – red citrus fruit

  monyo – bulb

  myk – mind-affecting drug

  nalar – pungent root

  nemmin – sleep-inducing drug

  nightwood – hardwood timber

  pachi – crisp, sweet fruit

  papea – pepper-like spice

  piorres – small, bell-shaped fruit,

  raka/suka – stimulating drink made from roasted beans, originally from Sachaka

  shem – edible reed-like plant

  sumi – bitter drink

  sweetdrops – candies

  telk – seed from which an oil is extracted

  tenn – grain that can be cooked as is, broken into small pieces, or ground to make a flour

  tiro – edible nuts

  tugor – parsnip-like root

  ukkas – carnivorous plants

  vare – berries from which most wine is produced

  whitewater – pure spirits made from tugors

  yellowseed – crop grown in Sachaka

  CLOTHING AND WEAPONRY

  incal – square symbol, not unlike a family shield, sewn onto sleeve or cuff

  quan – tiny disc-shaped beads made of shell

  undershift – Kyralian women’s undergarment

  vyer – stringed instrument from Elyne

  COUNTRIES/PEOPLES IN THE REGION

  Duna – tribes who live in volcanic desert north of Sachaka

  Elyne – neighbour to Kyralia and Sachaka and once ruled by Sachaka

  Kyralia – neighbour to Elyne and Sachaka and once ruled by Sachaka

  Lan – a mountainous land peopled by warrior tribes

  Lonmar – a desert land home to the strict Mahga religion

  Sachaka – home of the once great Sachakan Empire, where all but the most powerful are slaves

  Vin – an island nation known for their seamanship

  TITLES/POSITIONS

  Apprentice – Kyralian magician under training, and who has not been taught higher magic yet

  Ashaki – Sachakan landowner

  Ichani – Sachakan free man or woman who has been declared outcast

  Lady – wife of a Kyralian landowner

  Lord – Kyralian landowner, either of a ley or a city House, or their heir

  Magician – Kyralian higher magician (“Lord” used instead if magician is a landowner)

  Master – free Sachakan Village/Town Master – commoner in charge of a rural community (answers to the ley’s lord)

  OTHER TERMS

  the approach – main corridor to the master’s room in Sachakan houses

  blood gem – artificial gemstone that allows maker to hear the thoughts of wearer

  earthblood – term the Duna tribes use for lava

  kyrima – a game played by magicians to teach and practise strategic skills in battle

  master’s room – main room in Sachakan houses for greeting guests

  slavehouse – part of Sachakan homes where the slaves live and work

  slavespot – sexually transmitted disease

  storestone – gemstone that can store magic

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  The first half of this book was written during a very stressful and frustrating year, then the second half, rewrites and polishing in a tight six months. So I would like to thank Darren Nash and the team at Orbit for their understanding and patience, and Darren and Tim’s sympathetic ears when I poured out the whole
house-extension saga on their visit to Melbourne.

  I also want to thank Fran Bryson, my agent, and her assistant, Liz Kemp, for their support and great work, and the agents all over the world who bring my books to readers who speak languages other than my own. Another thank you also goes to Phillip Berrie, who I hired to do a professional consistency check on the manuscript, that was well worth the investment.

  Thanks to my partner, Paul, who read the book, chapter by chapter, over the course of a year and a bit and kept encouraging me to write more, even though he was as demoralized over the house saga as I.

  And to my friends and family, who provided valuable feedback on part or all of the book: Mum and Dad, Donna Hanson, Fiona McLennan and Kylie Seluka.

  Lastly, but always most fondly, thank you to all the readers of my books who have sent lovely emails, left enthusiastic messages on my website’s guestbook, recommended or given my books to friends and family. You make my day.

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