The Apprentice (16 page)

Worries
flashed through Rowan’s mind as Baird led him out of the building and across
the grounds to the castle entrance.

They
entered through a pair of heavy doors and Rowan let Baird guide him through the
hallways. The magnificence of the castle distracted Rowan, and he almost fell
behind several times. He kept stopping to stare. Many of the large corridors
were lined with hangings and tapestries, all brightly colored. At one point,
Rowan was certain that he glimpsed an entire room filled with nothing but
books, but then Baird called his name and he had to hurry to keep up, otherwise
he chanced getting lost.

They
made their way through the hallways, occasionally passing others. Most people
they encountered acknowledged Baird with a bow or a greeting, but Baird never
stopped long enough for anyone to speak with him. Many glanced at Rowan
curiously.

Rowan
followed his master around a corner and found the setting instantly changed.
The hallway widened and became grander. The walls were lined with pillars, in
between which were long banners of blue and silver. The floor had an intricate
red carpet that was laced with gold thread along the edges that formed a
pattern. It ran down the middle of the hallway and stretched all the way to the
end where a large pair of ornate double doors were framed on either side by
banners displaying a golden emblem and a pair of guards standing watch. The
entire hallway was lined by sconces filled with unlit torches.

Rowan glanced
sideways at one of the large banners as he walked past. It was a dark blue with
a silver line running just along the inside edge of the border. The center
displayed a silver shield that overlapped two crossed swords. On the shield was
a curved cross with a circle behind it.

They
approached the doors at the end of the hallway and the guards eyed them with
interest.

“I am
here to speak with the king. The boy is with me,” Baird said to the guards as
they approached. It seemed that he was known to them, but the pair had been
eyeing Rowan with uncertainty and curiosity.

One of
the men stepped up to the doors and knocked loudly, almost banging. He waited a
moment, then pushed the doors open and stood aside to allow entrance.

Rowan
followed Baird, walking through the doors and into a great hall. The size and
scale of the chamber awed Rowan. To say the room was large was an injustice.
His old house could have easily fit inside this single room with space to
spare. The ceiling far above was high enough to give the impression that it
stretched upwards and into the sky.

Rowan
looked about in wonder, his gaze eventually drawn to the far side of the room,
where a raised throne sat upon a dais. The throne was occupied by a man richly
dressed and wearing a golden crown upon his brow. Rowan immediately knew him to
be the king.

Surrounding
the king were several men conversing in loud tones. At the sound of the doors
the men halted their conversation, their attention drawn towards the
disturbance. Towards Baird and Rowan.

“Greetings,
Your Majesty.” Baird bowed at the waist and Rowan did his best to mimic him.
The action was simple and short, but he had to resist watching his master to
make sure that he bowed deeply enough and did not rise too early.

A moment
of silence followed until the king spoke.

“Baird,
you have returned!” The king rose from his seat. Rowan studied the man as he
descended the stairs from the throne. The king was not quite what Rowan had
expected, though it was not necessarily a bad difference.

Rowan
had expected the king of Atlea to be something great, something transcendent.
The man who approached them was just that—a man. He was average in height and
he wore fine clothing. He seemed overly animated and lacked the imposing
presence that Baird had. He held himself with poise and looked regal, but he
did not seem to have the strength that Rowan would have expected.

Rowan
thought that in contrast to Baird, the king seemed weaker and less commanding.

“Welcome,”
the king said as he reached the bottom of the stairs. He immediately began to
cross the room, ignoring the other men present.

“Greetings,
King Alden,” Baird said with another bow. Unsure of his place and wondering
what he should do, Rowan kept silent and followed Baird’s example by bowing.

“Come
now, Baird. There is no need for such formalities.”

“Majesty?”
Baird gave the king a pointed stare and then glanced in the direction of the
three men still standing across the room, looking very annoyed.

Two of
them wore brightly colored clothing. Their expressions indicated that they took
offense to being ignored, and both seemed to struggle against protesting. The
larger of the two was turning red in the face.

The
third man drew Rowan’s gaze. Unlike the others, he was not dressed in colorful
fineries. His clothing was fine, but it was meant to be practical rather than
showy. He wore a sword at his waist and a short cape was clasped to his
shoulders. While the other two men seemed indignant at being ignored, he
appeared surprised. The expression quickly left his face as he stared across
the room at Baird with a look of malice. Unlike the others, he seemed bothered
by Baird’s presence rather than the king’s inattention.

“Ah,
yes,” King Alden said quietly. Then, in a much louder voice, he said, “You
three may leave us. I have important matters to discuss.”

“Your
Majesty,” the one man protested, “surely you can attend to such matters
after
we have finished our own business.”

“No. I
was beginning to tire of those affairs anyways. They can wait until later. At
the moment, I wish to speak with Baird. He has just returned from his trip
abroad and I am most anxious to hear the news concerning his travels.”

“But
Your Majesty, if Baird’s news is indeed important then surely I, at least,
should hear of it as well.”

“Gannon,
I wish to speak with Baird alone.” The king's tone cautioned Gannon against
overstepping his position. His voice was hard and in his face Rowan saw the
strength and will that he had expected of a ruler.

Annoyance
flashed across Gannon’s face, but the expression was gone as quickly as it had
come, replaced by a false calm. The man—Gannon—seemed as though he might
protest, but instead bowed and said, “As you wish.” He spun around and left the
room, following the other two men who had already gone.

“They
give me such a headache,” the king said when the room had emptied. He spoke
less formally than before. “All day long they do nothing but quarrel, debating
this and that, never giving me any peace. Especially Gannon. He has become even
more difficult during your absence.” He paused, still facing away.

“I am
glad that you have returned, Baird. I can trust you to help me handle the more
tedious affairs of state. Now tell me, what news do you bring?”

The king
turned back around and suddenly seemed to notice Rowan for the first time.
Rowan shifted under the gaze of the king.

“Who
would this be?” the king asked.

“This
boy convinced me to adopt him as my apprentice. His name is Rowan.” Baird
introduced Rowan with a gesture.

“Fascinating.”
The king now eyed Rowan with even more curiosity than he had before. “It is
hard to believe that you of all people have taken on an apprentice. You've
always rejected the idea. Remember that one lord and his son—what was his name?
I honestly thought that lord would have offered you his lady wife just to have
you accept his son. And that was not the best offer that you have turned down.

“Yet now
you return with an apprentice who does not appear to have come from a noble
house and who you seem fond of. My goodness, you
have
been gone for a long
time. I never would have thought that you would take on a pupil, Baird.”

The king
turned to address Rowan. “You must be a very interesting young man if Baird was
willing to accept you as his pupil. I would very much enjoy hearing about how
you two met, but unfortunately, the present is not the time for that. There are
more pressing issues to deal with.”

The king
was about to say something more when the chamber doors were thrown open behind
them, admitting into the room a beautiful young girl. She wore a fine dress
that trailed behind her as she strode inside. She was closely followed by the
guards who had been outside of the doors, but the king waved them away with a
simple gesture.

The
girl’s eyes locked on the three of them and she quickly crossed the room,
golden curls bouncing as she hurried.

“Baird!”
The girl’s voice carried loudly with her displeasure. Baird flinched, something
Rowan had never seen. For the briefest of moments, Rowan thought he saw a look
of fear on his master’s face, but it was replaced by a look of annoyed
resignation.

Baird
cursed. “How does she do it? I swear that she is more informed than she has any
right to be.”

At this,
the king chuckled with amusement.

“It
would appear that my daughter has found us more quickly than you expected.”

The
girl—Princess Eliza—stormed towards them. “Baird! Why was I not informed that
you had returned? Did you not wish to see me? I would almost think that you
were hiding something. That you wished to avoid me. I should have been the
first to know that you were back. Did you know that there were some who thought
that you might be dead? I. Was. Worried!” She punctuated every word by stomping
her foot and poking Baird in the chest.

“I was
busy,” Baird said gruffly, stepping out of her reach.

“That’s
a lie! What could possibly be so important that it could keep you from
announcing your return?”

Unfortunately,
it was at that moment that she chose to notice Rowan.

“Who is
this?” the princess demanded. “Leave us, servant.”

Rowan
flushed, and then he got angry. How dare she treat him this way. She may be a
princess, but that gave her no right to act as she did. Baird had taken him on
as his apprentice and he deserved to be treated with some respect.

“You—”
Just as he spoke out, Baird interrupted him.

“Be
respectful, Eliza. Rowan is no servant, and you should not treat him like one.
And even if he were, you must learn to be more respectful and appreciative of
those who make your life easier.”

“Well,
if he is not a servant, then what is he?”

“While
he was away, Baird decided to take on an apprentice. He has taken our young
master Rowan here under his wing,” King Alden stated. He seemed very amused by
the situation. The princess, however, did not like this unexpected development.

“WHAT!”

The
princess shrieked. She turned the full force of her outburst on Baird, who
stood silent and calm, waiting for her to calm down. “How could you just take
on an apprentice? That is a formal procedure and there are rules and
regulations that need to be followed.”

“Now,
Eliza—,” Baird said, trying to calm her, but she would have none of it.

“No. No
one approved of this apprenticeship so it is invalid and unlawful. How could
you just take on an apprentice while you were away, Baird?”

She
turned and glared at Rowan, who returned the gaze equally.

“Eliza,
Baird made his decision, as is his right, and it is not your place to question
it. I approve of his apprentice and I expect you to acknowledge the boy as
well,” the king said. “In fact, I think it would be very kind if you would
escort young Rowan around the castle and show him the grounds. I am sure that
he is anxious to explore and it will give you both the chance to speak.”

Both
Rowan and Eliza began to protest, but the king silenced them with a wave of his
hand.

“Baird
has been gone for a long time and there are many matters that we must discuss
in private,” the king said. He turned to the princess and looked her directly
in the eyes. “Elizabeth, I expect you to escort Rowan around in a manner
fitting of a royal hostess.”

In a
voice so soft that Rowan could barely hear, the king added, “And please, do try
to be civil.”

“Fine. I
will take him to the gardens and show him around
our
castle,” the
princess said, making sure that Rowan knew he was a guest. Rowan looked to
Baird to see if he might be able to stay, or at the very least go off on his
own, but his master just gave him a look of sympathy.

“Come,”
Eliza said, looping her arm through Rowan’s and pulling him away. With any
other girl at any other time, Rowan would have been pleased by the gesture. If
not for the hostility between them at the moment, Rowan would likely have
tripped with nerves. As it was, he stumbled and nearly tripped because the
princess tugged at his arm with a surprising strength. He glanced back over his
shoulder longingly but he could not free his arm from the princess’ and he was
forced to allow her to lead him from the room as he watched Baird and King
Alden walk away, already deeply involved in a conversation that Rowan wished he
could be a part of.