Tak

The Wizard's Apprentice - Part 2

     Once, Tak later learned, it had been a mighty fortress. Home to hundreds of battle hardened soldiers, defending the valley that had once led all the way through the mountains to the land of the Kelns, but even younger Tak's untrained eye could see that it had been deserted, or almost deserted, for a long time. The outer wall had fallen into ruin in many places, and there were fair sized trees growing in the courtyards. Also, the road had become overgrown and was partially blocked by falls of rubble from further up the mountain slope. A pair of wheelruts could still be seen, though. In places going fearfully close to the edge. Someone still came and went now and then, in a wagon.

     This indication of continued occupancy was heightened by a feeling that grew in the boy's heart as they approached, carefully threading their way between the rusty steel dragonwires strung between the tall metal pylons that surrounded it. It was the feeling that there was still something living here. Something dark and dangerous with eyes that never closed. A little fear began to filter in through the hypnotic fog. He didn't want to be here. He wanted to leave, to go as far away as possible, but he had no choice in the matter. He was owned by the grey wizard now, as surely and completely as the clothes on his back.

     The eagles landed in the courtyard, screeching to announce their arrival, but Tak remained docilely in his saddle until Molos Gomm came over to help him down. Meanwhile, a man in the crisp black and white uniform of a houseman was emerging from the central keep and striding towards them in an unhurried manner, his clean shaven face expressionless as he kept his gaze straight ahead of him.

     "Welcome back, Sir," he said, bowing slightly. He began undoing the straps of the wizard's saddle while the giant bird glared at him as if it might be about to bite his head off.

     "Thank you, Trobo," said the wizard, holding Tak's hand again. "May I present master Tak Eweela, my new apprentice. A young man of great potential and a valuable new addition to our household."

     Trobo bowed to the boy. "Welcome to Castle Nagra, young master."

     I never told him my name, thought Tak. If he hadn't known before that the grey man had arranged the sholog incursion and the killing of his family, then he surely did now. He contemplated this as he might have contemplated the rotting and decayed structure of the wooden buildings huddled under what was left of the curtain wall, a bare fact of little or no emotional importance, but if Trobo had looked deep into his eyes he would have seen the terrible pain buried deep down inside. The boy's soul screaming in its dark dungeon. Trobo never looked him straight in the eye, though. Then or ever.

     The houseman lifted the saddle from the bird's back, whereupon the giant eagle struggled back into the air and flew towards the mountains that were its home. The grey man must have some way of summoning them when he needs them, thought Tak, interested despite everything.

     Trobo lowered the saddle carefully to the ground and strolled over to Tak's eagle. "When you're finished here," said the wizard, "run a bath for me and our new arrival. We both need to get cleaned up before I can show young Tak his new home."

     The houseman acknowledged the command with a nod and the wizard dropped a too friendly arm around the boy's shoulders as he led the unprotesting lad towards the keep.

     Tak was used to communal bathing. He'd spent many happy hours splashing in the river with other members of his family and occasionally with folks they knew from neighbouring homesteads, helping to scrape the grime and dirt from their hairy backs and wincing with a pleasant sort of pain as the same was done for him. He consequently had very little concept of personal modesty, but it took every bit of control imposed on him by the hypnosis spell to make him sit still and endure the bath he shared with Molos Gomm.

     The hot water was a pleasant surprise, there was no denying that, and the soap was a luxury beyond anything he'd imagined possible. If it had been his father in the bath with him, the two of them almost in each others' laps as they faced each other in the cramped metal tub, he might almost have thought he'd died and gone to heaven, but the touch of the old wizard's hands as he rubbed the lather slowly and sensuously into his skin made him want to cringe in revulsion.

     The next thing he remembered clearly was the old wizard dressing in clean robes and leaving for his own chambers, leaving Trobo to oversee the boy. The houseman had discarded Tak's own clothes, which the forest had reduced to little more than rags, and showed him the robe he'd picked out for him. Apart from a pair of sandals and the occasional pair of gloves, it would be the only thing he'd ever wear until his apprenticeship ended. The light, cottony material felt strange against his skin. He'd never before in his life been completely clean, and his skin felt unusually soft and smooth. It was an undeniably pleasant sensation, and that somehow made it all the worse as he began to get his first dim impression of what lay in store for him.

     When he'd finished combing his still damp, shoulder length hair, Trobo took him on a tour of those parts of the castle that were open to him. They visited Molos Gomm's bedchamber first. A large, luxuriously decorated room on the second floor that seemed to be all furs and silks everywhere he looked. The bed was a magnificent four poster with red velvet curtains sewn with gold, and a great window gave a spectacular view of the valley below. That valley was the only way that the castle could be approached on foot since a great wizard's battle had caused a massive rockfall that had blocked the valley to the east a hundred years before.

     "Where do I sleep?" Tak asked, wondering whether his own room would be as luxurious as this.

     "You will share the master's bed," Trobo replied. "This is where you will always be from sunset to sunrise unless the master says otherwise."

     Tak nodded obediently. He'd shared a bed with his sister for most of his life, his own bedroom having been only a recent addition to their cabin, and he'd occasionally slept alongside the children of neighbouring homesteads when he or they were visiting. His parents were the only adults whose bed he'd shared, but the idea of sharing with the old wizard caused him only mild distaste. He just hoped he didn't snore. What had happened in the bath tried to edge back into his mind, and the part of him that was still free, deep down inside, screamed in horrified protest, but the control he was under prevented him from showing any outward sign. As far as any observer could have told, this was a perfectly natural and acceptable thing he was being asked to do.

     They left the bedchamber and Trobo led him up a flight of badly worn stone steps barely wider than his shoulders. The room they found themselves in occupied the entire floor of this wing of the keep, although it was divided into smaller areas by tables and bookshelves. One corner served as a library, and as well as several hundred ordinary leather bound volumes there were half a dozen magnificent looking tomes standing on individual pedestals. One of them was very old, almost falling to pieces, and was protected by a tall dome of glass.

     Despite the spell induced trance that still held him firmly in its grip, Tak found himself experiencing wonder and excitement. Books! He remembered the two he'd owned, destroyed in the burning of their cabin, the terrible sense of loss he'd experienced when he realised he'd never read them again, but here were hundreds of books! More than he would ever be able to read in a lifetime! The emotionless mask of his face began to show the first trace of a smile.