Guild Mage: Apprentice

To pass from the nearly-empty peace and distance of the ways between one part of the world and another, into the crowded bustle, noise, and heat of a market day was more of a shock than Liv had been expecting. It wasn't quite the jolt she'd experienced coming out at the Tomb of Celris, knowing that one had to be ready to fight the instant you arrived, but even that transition had eventually grown familiar.

In Freeport, the waystone had been walled off and guarded, to protect against assault: in Coral Bay, it had been placed where the sea met the land, and nearly constantly lapped by the warm waters. At Akela Kila, Liv found herself surrounded by a street market.

The smells struck her first, with her first inhalation: garlic frying in oil, and fish, and other things she couldn't put a name to right away, along with an entire palette of spices. Liv recognized pepper, cardamom, and tea, but in addition to the foods there was the sweet smoke of burning wood, the sour tang of human sweat in the heat, the manure of animals, and the slow rotting stench of garbage.

Immediately after came the colors. The dress of the people in the market was like nothing Liv had ever seen before – not the muted gray formal robes of the Eld, or the parkas of seal or caribou hide worn to venture out of Kelthelis into the snowy plain, and not even the skirts, cloaks, boots, doublets and breeches of Lucania. Strange, beautiful dresses of light cotton and silk, all dyed in brilliant shades of green, orange, red, blue, and purple, left the brown arms of the women bare from just above the elbow, save for gold bracelets and bangles at the wrists.

Garlands of fresh flowers decorated three statues that had been raised around the waystone. Liv easily recognized depictions of the trinity. To her left was Arvatis, with a disk of beaten gold affixed behind his head to represent the rising sun. The Vædic Lord of Dawn was adorned with white lilies, bowls of milk that had curdled in the heat, and even sacred peacock feathers, which the priest at Whitehill had imported only for special occasions, at great expense.

To her right, just far enough that she had to crane her neck, Liv saw Sitia, the Lady of Changes, holding a lightning bolt in her hand. Sea-shells and chunks of coral had been heaped at the statue's feat, and the garlands resting around her shoulders contained as many blue flowers as white.

Finally, directly across from where Liv had appeared on the waystone was Tamiris, Lord of Potential, carved from the same stone as the other gods. Purple begonias, lotus flowers, and lilies hung down over his chest, and he held a wooden staff in one hand, carved with sigils. Liv saw that coins had been thrown at the statue's feet, along with offerings of food, and recognized them as celebrations of the god's aid in not just magical matters, but the ability of any person to achieve success and prosperity.

"Liv?" Arjun said, touching her on the shoulder. She blinked, turned, and felt a flash of sympathy when she realized that, wearing the clothes of Coral Bay, her friend looked nearly as out of place in the market as she did.

"I'm alright," she said. "It's just – a lot." Liv attempted a smile. "Not bad. But very different." Even the voices were different: while she knew the tongue of Lendh ka Dakruim had descended from ancient Vædic, just as Lucanian had, over a thousand years of changes meant that she couldn't understand a single word she heard.

"Where do we go, Arjun?" Isabel asked, walking over to join them. The second-year student had been placed in charge of the group of journeymen by Archmagus Jurian because, aside from Liv, she had the most experience in surviving an eruption. Despite being dressed in a light dress for the heat of Coral Bay, Liv could see that Isabel's sun-tanned skin was already glistening with sweat. For her own comfort, Liv murmured an incantation under her breath, and chilled the fabric of her clothing to get a bit of relief.

"The ksatriyas will have sent someone to watch for our arrival, and take us up to the fort," Arjun said. "Here - follow me." He led the expedition – seven journeymen, an apprentice, Wren, Thora, and the disc of mana they'd loaded down with supplies – off the waystone and out into the streets of the market, where a cluster of obvious soldiers waited.

All of the men were dark haired, like Arjun, and darker of skin than Lucanians, as well. They were clad not in jack of plate, which Liv would have expected, but in old-fashioned chain mail, with the leader wearing a shirt of golden scales. Liv assumed that beneath the ornamental plating, the scales would be steel; gold, after all, was soft, and made for poor protection. Each warrior wore a curved sword, clearly meant for slashing rather than thrusting, at their hip, and had a round shield, twice as large as a buckler. Liv wondered whether they'd made the transition to crossbows, yet.

The officer at the front stepped forward, and exchanged words with Arjun in the local dialect. For once, Liv found herself without much to do, and enjoyed not being the center of attention. Instead, she gazed around at the market stalls, each beneath a brightly colored cotton awning, and pointed at a man serving up some sort of fried pastries.

"I want to try some of those," Liv told Wren and Thora, who'd both come up to stick close by her. Wren, she supposed, was taking her bodyguard duties seriously, but Thora just looked wide-eyed and frightened. Liv tried to be charitable and remember that the lady's maid had never been outside of Lucania before.

"Nevermind the food," one of the second-year girls commented. "I want one of those beautiful dresses. Do you think they take Lucanian coins?"

Liv searched her memory, trying to recall the girl's name. She had pale, delicate skin, hair the color of fresh honey, and eyes like the northern sea at Freeport. "Elenda, isn't it?" she asked, after a moment.

The girl nodded. "Elenda Fisher," she confirmed. "I watched your duels at the beginning of the year," she commented. "I'm glad I never had to fight you, Brodbeck."

"Alright, listen up!" Isabel called, from where she was standing next to the soldiers and Arjun. "Commander Ishan here was sent by the Amir of the fort to fetch us. He'd brought baggage handlers, as I understand it, to see to our things and to give us a ride up. Come along, and bring your things."

"I can take whatever trunks you have," Liv offered to the other students, and created a new disk of coherent mana, which she levitated using her wand to focus her intent. Thora and Wren hoisted their own baggage up, followed by Elendra, Brom, and the other three journeymen. Liv felt a bit guilty for not knowing all of their names, but resolved to fix that as soon as she could.

They followed Commander Ishan and his men - he was the one wearing the gold-covered scales, Liv noted - to where a smaller group of soldiers watched over the entire unit's horses. Next to the animals waiting for the students and their luggage, however, the eastern cavalry was easy to overlook.

"Hastim!" Liv exclaimed, unable to keep a grin from her face.

Unlike the shaggy herds of the north, the hastim of Lendh ka Dakruim were hairless, and their wrinkled gray skin had been painted in bright colors – pink, blue, and yellow, not only on the forehead, but down the trunk as well. They wore riding blankets, bells and other ornaments, and their high backs were capped with great, canopied seats of wood, too large to be given the name 'saddle.' Liv guessed that two or perhaps even three people could ride comfortably, once they'd managed to clamber up.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

"You know hastim?" one of the animal tenders asked, approaching Liv with a broad grin on his face. His Lucanian was broken, but understandable - certainly better than any attempt Liv would make at the local dialect.

"We have them up north," she said. "But with a lot of hair. Shaggy." She did her best to indicate with her hands, pointing to her own hair, and then to the beautiful animals awaiting them.

"Good, good," the man said. He pressed his hand to his chest. "Rajesh."

"Liv," she answered, pressing her own hand to the neckline of her dress. While they'd been talking, soldiers had taken possession of their trunks, lifting them off the platform Liv had created of shining blue mana, and distributing them either among their horses, or on the hastim's backs.

At the command of the handlers, each one of the hastim – there were four, Liv counted - layed down in the dust so that the passengers could climb aboard. Rajesh gave her a hand up, and she was joined by both Wren and Thora. Arjun, Liv saw, was riding with Isabel, and seemed to already be explaining various sights around the market, from the way he was gesturing with his hands.

The hastis lurched to his feet, and Liv grabbed onto the wooden saddle so that she wouldn't tumble out and down to the ground. Then, they were off. The great beasts walked slowly, but the canopies affixed to the wooden saddles kept the worst of the hot sun off, and being high above the crowded streets provided a wonderful view as they passed out of the market, and made their way toward a great hill at the center of the city.

For they were in a city – there was no mistaking that. Whatever Liv had expected, the neighborhoods surrounding Akela Kila were just as extensive and full of life as those at Freeport or Coral Bay. They were clearly not on any coast, but Liv could see a river in the distance, large enough to make the Aspen River, at Whitehill, look like a mountain stream. The houses and stores looked strange to her, being constructed of stone, mud or clay, depending on the wealth of the district. As they continued up toward the great, upthrust hill at the center of the city, mud and clay gave way to sandstone, limestone, and even marble.

Atop the hill, picked out against the hot and hazy sky, was a great fortress of warmly colored rock. Shades of tan, brown, rust-red and orange all gave Akela Kila the appearance of having grown from the rock of the hill, rather than having been built. Liv did not have much opportunity of examining the castle, however, before she was distracted by a feeling from beneath the road.

"There's a shoal beneath our feet," Liv said, leaning over to make certain Wren could hear her.

The huntress frowned. "Does it feel like an eruption, or is it quiet? I can't feel anything, so I've only got your word to go on."

"Let me see what I can tell." Liv closed her eyes, and concentrated on her breathing, doing her best to ignore the jostling sway of the saddle as the hastim proceeded in a line up the road. She let herself feel the mana around her, the places where it was thick or thin, but most of all what was happening beneath the hill.

The Tidal Rift at Coral Bay had been almost undetectable, until Karis, the Antrian war-machine, had ripped open the doorway which led into the Vædic ruins beneath. Liv wondered if there was a similar effect here, because she would have expected mana from a rift - even one deep underground - to have leaked out across the entire city. There was a reason that settlements generally gave rifts a bit of room - even at Coral Bay, the rift itself had been located out in the bay, past three sandbars, not on land.

Yet here, an entire city had been built with a rift at the very center. It would explain why the waystone was healthy and active, except for the fact that upon arrival, Liv had not detected the presence of a shoal. That meant that, like the waystone at Whitehill, this one should not have been receiving enough mana to keep it functioning, without infusions from mages.

Liv opened her eyes again, and scanned the hill that stretched out above, beneath, and to either side of them. Aside from the road leading up, and the fortress at the top, there was nothing built on the steep slopes. At first, she'd thought that might have been for military reasons, but now she wasn't so certain.

"There's definitely a rift down there," Liv repeated. "And it's erupted. Recently - the mana is still unsettled."

"Is it safe?" Thora asked, leaning forward from the back seat of the saddle.

"A rift is never entirely safe," Liv told her. "And we know what we're here for - they wouldn't have called for help if they didn't need it. But it also doesn't seem like the city came under attack recently. I don't see any buildings that have burnt or collapsed, people aren't walking around wearing bandages. No one's hauling off the corpses of mana-beasts."

"We'll just have to see when we get up there, then," Wren said, settling back on the seat next to Liv. "At least we're somewhere that's properly warm, not like that wasteland you live in up north."

Liv couldn't be quite so relaxed. It seemed obvious there was more going on here than Archmagus Jurian had told them, and she wondered whether he'd know what Akela Kila was like. He'd been to Varuna, in his youth - did that mean he'd once visited Lendh ka Dakruim, as well? Was that how he had contacts here who'd known how to reach out and ask the guild for help?

She had little to do but let her thoughts swirl around in circles, until the procession finally reached the gate of the fortress. Soldiers on the walls called out to Commander Ishan and his escort, and they called back. The gates opened, and the hastim walked into a great courtyard, where, at the command of their handlers, they settled down onto the ground, allowing Liv and the others to disembark. Ishan's men began to unload their trunks and bags, but he motioned for them to follow him.

"The Amir is waiting for us inside the fortress," Arjun translated, as they all hurried to keep up. "Commander Ishan says that he wants to speak to us right away."

Liv strode up next to her friend; now that they weren't riding separate animals, she could finally pick his brain. "Did you know this place is built on top of a rift?" she asked him.

Arjun frowned. "It is an unclean thing," he said. "Not polite to speak of in open company, but yes. I do not wish to insult the Amir, but if you have questions after we speak to him, I can answer. I hadn't realized this was one of the rifts to erupt; I thought we would come here and be sent somewhere else."

"Just tell me how bad this one is," Liv asked him.

"Bad," Arjun said. "Very bad."

Commander Ishan led them into a great council chamber, with a large table in the middle of the room on which a map of Lendh ka Dakruim had been spread. Liv recognized the mountains to the west and north, and the pass into Lucania which was guarded by House Sherard. To the south and east, the ocean.

There were servants along the walls, with jugs of wine, pots of tea, and trays of food. Half a dozen officers, all wearing armor, surrounded one side of the table, opposite the door to the chamber, and at their center stood a man with a thick, dark mustache, a small, pointed beard, and the kind of craggy, lined face that spoke of long experience.

"Good," he said, his accent not noticeably thicker than Arjun's. "We are pleased to welcome assistance from the Watchful Guild of Magim. Welcome to Akela Kila. I am Tej Mishra, Amir – what you might call a general, or governor – of this fortress."

Isabel curtsied; Liv and the other girls followed suit, while the boys offered bows. When the second year had straightened again, she introduced herself. "Journeyman Isabel Tanner, and this is my second, Journeyman Liv Brodbeck." Liv inclined her head, but she noticed some of the officers were murmuring quietly.

"What are they saying?" she whispered to Arjun.

"Some of the men are complaining that the guild only sent seven," he responded.

General Mishra made a chopping motion with his hand, spoke harshly to his men, and then turned back to the journeymen. "I wish I could offer you a meal and a night's rest to refresh yourselves," he said. "But I must press you into service immediately. Three rifts erupted, all at the same time, and it has spread my men very thin. I cannot send reinforcements to the other rifts until we have contained the threat to the city."

"The rift beneath us," Liv said, before she could think better of it.

"Indeed," Mishra confirmed, looking her in the eye. "Long ago, Akela Kila was built atop this rift to contain it, to prevent anything from escaping. Not once have we failed to do so, and I do not intend this eruption should be any different."

"What sorts of beasts can we expect?" Brom asked.

"No beasts," General Mishra said, shaking his head. "You stand above the Well of Bones, magim. What rises from beneath us, is the dead."