First Apprentice

Chapter 5 Part 3

In answer, I released my magic. Black flames swept across the clearing, dispelling all his illusions except one. There were still two Joels. My flames coiled around me as an ice staff formed in my right hand, fire boiling within the core. It wouldn't withstand a solid hit, but it didn't need to. Aes weapons burn on contact. Some explode.

Joel slipped into a more defensive stance, prodding me with his magic while he remained out of reach. His tactic showed his experience fighting Dracon. He probably knew how they fought better than I did, but the Aes was just a diversion.

My power seeped into the earth. By etching runes into the bedrock, I crafted a ward. It was a standard ward the Dracon employed around their encampments - a protection against Marstow illusions - with a few personal touches. "What are you waiting for?" I asked, smirking as the final rune settled into place.

Another prod. I let his magic slip past my defenses. The illusion took hold. A hand grabbed my wrist. The thread I'd left linked to my seal snapped. All his illusions shattered. Taking advantage of his shock, I slipped into my wraith, gliding across the clearing, then solidified again. "Something wrong?" I asked sweetly.

He chuckled. "You are a tricky one, aren't you? As expected of someone raised by the Great Manipulator and Endellion-dae the Bloody."

I stiffened. "Don't call her that."

"My sword ended the war she started. I can call her whatever I want." He sprang towards me.

I lost track of time. Minutes or hours, I didn't know. Then water seeped into my scalp. Freshly-fallen snow and cedarwood followed by the most delicious magic. Fangs brushed against my neck. He gently wiped the mud off my cheek and paused. His fingertips lingered on my face, a brief caress. I blinked and he was gone.

Panting, he flopped down on the ground beside me and leaned back on his elbows. "Among the Seven, an apprentice is a hand-picked replacement, not a student. Typically, they aren't as versatile and spend part of their apprenticeship mastering whatever skills they lack. An apprentice is second only to the Seven, but there is one exception." He pointed to my left wrist. "Say you were an apprentice. A gate's attacked. You're ordered to defend it. Terry and I aren't there, but the other Seven are. Who is in command?"

"Natalie?" I guessed. Although Natalie, the current Third, was the eldest member, the Seven's numbers indicated their job, not their power or authority. For instance, first defended headquarters and acted as interim chief if the sitting chief was indisposed or dead. Fourth patrolled the anchor points with the fifth supporting him.

"Wrong. When a gate is attacked, the highest rated sealer has command. Your rating, not ranking. Natalie rates a twenty-four because even though she carries a marking she can't summon alone. Same for Simon. At best, they can summon an undamaged keystone if they work together, but a wounded one under attack at the anchor point? Never. The highest rated sealer holds the Summoner's Well. Always. Because the first task is repairing the gate."

"If you can't summon it, you can't heal it," I whispered.

He nodded. "A master sealer is a twenty-seven, meaning if a gate were attacked you would outrank everyone on the scene save myself and Terry. Of course," he said with a roguish smirk, "this only applies if you're a sealer, not an academy student."

"No offense, but I'm really not interested."

"Even if joining us emancipates you? It's an old law last used when Haydn-dae found a ten-year-old boy hiding in a cave, half frozen. The new Marstow Chief betrothed me to his daughter with a submission clause in the contract." He smirked fondly at the memory. "When my clan demanded Hadyn turn me over, he declared me his apprentice. Haydn never liked being ordered around. I believe Rainer passed it for Selim, who was his apprentice before Rainer's death. I don't know all the details. I don't even remember what it's called, but I do know how it works. Once one of the Seven accepts you as an apprentice, you are an adult. Age no longer matters.

His tone softened. "Alternatively, Mitchel will send you to the academy. Rather than live in the dorms, you will board with Simon and Emilee - a common provision for orphaned daes. They're good people, worth knowing in my opinion. They've also overseen seventeen transformations to date, both with and without suppression seals. A nomination from me means you will skip the academy entrance exams, but that's not why I'm here. Mitchel wants me to claim you as a lost Marstow and secure Isadora-dae's compliance or at least talk her out of examining you too closely.

"At the academy, you will be watched, your movements limited, and research and summons non-existent. If you think suppressing your magic hurts now, imagine what it will feel like after not releasing it for two weeks. I give you less than a month before you seek a mate to survive. When he can't handle your excess magic, you'll break your existing family bonds and try to integrate yourself into a larger family in the hope they can handle what your body can't. Afterward, you will be angry, resentful, and have enough power to level a mountain with a thought. You will turn on everyone who took away your choices. They will either kneel or die. I doubt you'll care which. Mitchel's plan ends with our deaths, but once you're enrolled in the academy I can't stop it.

"When the Dracon imprisoned Endellion and forced her to do their bidding, she brought the gates down on all our heads. I was born during that war. My sword finished it. You call us hypocrites and fools. The strongest dae rules, and you are the strongest born in five thousand years. If you don't like how we handle the gates, change it. The Border Guard is yours by right, but we will not just kneel. If you want to protect the Central Keystone and the Dracon Gate and keep Endellion and Mitchel out of prison, you'll have to claim it with swords and claws. You'll have to use every dirty trick Mitchel taught you and some even he never considered. You're almost there, but not yet. Under Mitchel's plan you may destroy us all first, which means we need to get you out from under Mitchel."

"How?" I asked.

"An apprenticeship. Not with me," he said quickly. "You don't want a mate. I understand that, but our magic reacts to each other. I don't know how you feel, but I feel more comfortable around you than I've ever felt with anyone. I patrol the anchor points. As my apprentice, we would live in close proximity. Seal together, eat together, and in time sleep together. Odds are we would mate permanently, not just sex. Our magic and instincts would demand it. An apprenticeship under Terry."

Terry, whose last apprentice died five centuries ago, the man Grandfather described as 'difficult', the interim chief who allowed the Dracon to torture their gate on his watch. My indecision must have shown on my face because Joel reached over and squeezed my fingers. "Take a few days and think about it. David's too injured for summoning; Mitchel's too old. They can't send the paperwork without help. Manfred won't and I'm on vacation."