The Black Mage: Apprentice (33 page)

The original plan had been for the Combat
mentees to travel in packs of two: one fourth-year and one
second-year each, with Eve, Darren and their second-year mentee as
our sole grouping of three. We'd been instructed to carefully scout
the city limits and take out any solo Combat mentors that might be
foolish enough to enter the southern territory alone.

Unfortunately for us, the mentors had also
traveled in packs. Which was how, when we did cross paths,
Priscilla, Ella, Ray, and I lost our mentee partners as well as
their horses in a lightning-quick skirmish.

Now we were all separated, scattered across
the city, seeking the others we had lost track of before. I thought
I'd seen Ella take off east – the direction I'd been heading in -
but everything had happened so fast and I wasn't sure of anything
anymore. I'd been cut off from the others when the third-years had
caught up to me twenty minutes back. Theo and Merrick had refused
to give up chase and I'd spent most of my energy ducking and
dodging since.

There. I sprinted toward the doorway with the
telltale sign. The casting I'd been holding onto was starting to
give me a headache – I needed to end it now before I wasted any
more of my magic. I dropped my casting just as I tore open the door
to find Priscilla, two of Alex's Restoration mates, and Ruth
staring wide-eyed at the street behind me.

"You idiot!" Priscilla screeched. "You led
them right to us!" But before I could argue she had shoved her way
past me and cast out a large assault of flying daggers. One of the
mentor's own blade's caught her shoulder and the highborn swore
loudly.

I stumbled back after her, panting heavily,
and helped Priscilla's casting. One of the blades hit Theo's horse
and it reared, throwing off its rider.

Merrick tried to take on his cousin directly
but a large torrent of power knocked him off his feet before he had
the chance. Priscilla and I raced forward with our halberds and got
the two mentors to surrender before they could cast out anything
else.

As soon as the mentors had said the words
Priscilla and I went back into the safe house while a Restoration
mage came forward to escort the two out of the city. The woman bore
a red silk robe that proved she wasn't a part of battle in case any
of the others came across her while she escorted the surrendered
apprentices to the palace infirmary.

"Erik, do you have any more of that healing
balm? It looks like Ry needs some for her leg and I need you to see
to my shoulder."

My head swiveled to Priscilla. I couldn't
keep the surprise from showing on my face. Now that we were out of
danger she was still helping me.

"Don't look so surprised, lowborn, I'm not
about to let my disgust for you as a person keep me from trying to
secure a victory." Priscilla's tone was anything but kind.

Well,
that
at least made sense. She
wanted to win,
even
if it meant playing nice.

I took a steadying breath as the Restoration
apprentice treated the deep gash on my leg. It had happened when
I'd tried to save Phillipe, my second-year partner.
Much good it
had done me
. "How long have you been hiding out here? Have you
seen any of the others?"

Priscilla sniffed. "I got here a half hour
before you did. And no, I haven't been reckless enough to risk my
neck without backup. I have no idea where the others are."

"I think we should go find them." I helped
the apprentice finish wrapping my leg.

"Are you mad? You only just got here!"

"But what about Ray and Ella? What if they
didn't find each other like we did? We can't let the mentors pick
us off one by one! Like Eve said, we only have strength in numbers
when we are going up against the mentors!"

"We should wait for them to find us. How do
you know they aren't already together? Maybe they are with Darren
and Eve."

"Priscilla, don't be a coward."

"I helped
you
, didn't I?"

"Well, help me again. Help our whole
team."

"I am helping the team. I'm helping the ones
in here right now."

Ruth interrupted Priscilla. "You know Ry is
right. You two have to find the others. Eve's plan stated you were
only to use the safe houses if you were injured or alone. Once you
have help you need to go back out there and fight."

****

Priscilla kicked a pebble across the street,
sulking, as she studied the houses behind us. We were back-to-back
scouting as we made our way through the southern streets of Devon.
Both of us were looking for any of our teammates, another safe
house, or potential enemy mentors.

"I hope you know what you are doing."

I didn't respond. All of my senses were
focused on the path in front of me. If we came across a pack of
mentors we needed to spot them before they us. We could not afford
to get caught off-guard. Again.

"Don't think that I didn't know you were
trying to steal Darren away from me in Port Langli."

That
caught my attention. It took all
my effort not to divert focus as I said quickly, "Priscilla, now is
not the time."

"But it's the only time I don't have to worry
about running into you with your pack of friends. So, yes, now
is
the time."

I felt my face start to heat up. My blood was
racing and I knew it had nothing to do with the stagnant landscape
in front of me. I forced myself to swallow. "It was a mistake - I
thought he loved me." It hurt to say the words aloud. Especially
because if I said much more I knew the pain would come flooding
back, and I'd be powerless to stop it. No matter what I said or how
I acted, I still loved him. It was a disease I was fighting to
cure.

"Let me let you in on a little secret,
lowborn: he doesn't love me either."

I stumbled and barely had time to catch
myself.

"He never has. Probably never will. But
that's the way of the Crown and you of all people should know
better than to try and change him. If you want proof, just look to
Shina – excuse me,
Princess Shinako
- the next time the two
of them are together." Priscilla sounded bitter.

"What are you talking about?"

"People like Darren place power – and wealth
- above all else. If Blayne hadn't secured that princess Darren
would have done so himself. It doesn't take a fool to see what
he
's after."

"You don't love him?"

Priscilla laughed. "Love Darren? Of course
not. Love is for fools not smart enough to see the path in front of
them. That's the difference between you and I, Ryiah. I see the
truth and accept Darren for what he is. You just see what you want
to see. It's why I will wear the crown and bear his children while
you are left wondering why you were never good enough."

I wanted to turn around and tackle her to the
ground. She was deliberately using this mock battle to bait me. The
highborn knew I wouldn't dare attack her while we were being
observed by an audience. "I don't believe you. You wouldn't be
jealous of Shina - you wouldn't have spent every moment you could
tormenting me - unless you saw something you were afraid of."

Priscilla laughed scornfully. "Even if I was
doubtful for a second or two, it's obvious the prince has moved on
from whatever tryst the two of you shared on that mission. Why else
would he have moved up our wedding date?"

I felt as if the ground had slipped right out
from under me. "W-what?"

"That's right. The night of the ascension
ceremony – right after you made that whole scene with the platter -
the king announced the new date. You had already left the ballroom
by then, of course, but then again it is your nature to rise to
dramatics anytime something is not going your way. Like the pig's
blood. Really, Ryiah, it was a harmless hazing and you-"

"
Stop talking, Priscilla!
"

"What are you-"

I turned around and slammed my palm over
Priscilla's mouth and dragged her to the side of the closest
building to our left. Not one moment later a cluster of mentors
appeared, one of them wearing a black armband. It was Ian.

Priscilla stopped trying to claw my hand and
let out a low gasp, pointing at the green-eyed fifth-year. I
nodded. Now we knew who was commanding the mentor's team.

We stayed in hiding until the patrol had
passed and then we looked to one another.

"We should follow them," I said before she
could speak. "We should try to pick them off one at a time."

"We can't be heroes - we need to find the
others first."

The two of us stared at each other
stubbornly.

"Fine. How about we continue to follow them
and look for the others at the same time? It's possible they know
where the rest of our team is and are heading in that direction
anyway."

She sighed, "Fine. But don't do anything
reckless, Ryiah; we all know you have a reputation."

I glared at her. "Let's go. If you waste any
more time insulting me we will lose sight of them!"

The two of us took off in the same direction
as Ian and his two accomplices. We trailed stealthily behind, using
the tracking skills the Ishir regiment had taught us during our
desert stay.

We had gone on for about twenty minutes when
we caught sight of another safe house.

 Priscilla raced ahead to see who was
inside while I kept a lookout nearby, hidden behind some brush. A
minute later she emerged with Ella. I breathed a sigh of relief:
Ella was still okay and I could see Alex and another Alchemy mentee
inside.

Ella followed Priscilla to my hiding spot.
She wore a funny expression. Probably at the idea of Priscilla and
I as partners.

The three of us continued tracking the
mentors to an armory on the northern side of the city. We had just
set up watch a quarter of a mile away when a loud crash sounded
behind us.

Before I even had the chance to cast up any
sort of defense, Ella and Priscilla were sent sprawling into the
wall behind me. I whirled around to see Bryce and Loren
smiling.

"Surrender?"

Ella and Priscilla attempted to stand. Bryce
cast out two swords at their throat and Loren pressed his poleaxe
against mine. "Don't try anything," Loren warned, "I don't want to
hurt you if I don't have to."

"Bryce," Priscilla's voice was sickly sweet.
Ella made a gagging sound but our teammate continued. "Please, let
us go, or, at least, me. You can trust me. You
know
me."

The mentor laughed shortly, not swayed by the
friendly tone of his highborn friend. "You are such a liar,
Priscilla. The second I let you go you'll free these two lowborns
to impress your betrothed." He cleared his throat. "Surrender now.
Say the words, or this will get a whole lot worse."

Ella's eyes shot to me and I swallowed. I
could see her question:
would I pain cast to try and set us
free?
Loren's blade was close. If I could press into it…

"Don't even think about it, Ryiah. We've been
following you three since that safe house you pulled Ella out of,"
Loren said quickly. "If you do, our first order of business after
we take out the three of you will be to get your brother and his
friends. We won't give them an option, we'll just let them burn.
Wonder how long it'll take the Restoration mages to treat Alex in
the infirmary afterward?"

My stomach clenched. I knew Loren was a
friend but in that moment I hated him for playing my twin against
me. I opened my lips to speak.

A huge flare of light and a loud boom. The
ground shook.

A rush of thick gas flooded the air around
me.

I couldn't see anything as I choked back my
breath. I could hear crying and someone shouting but everything was
hazy. A second later I lost control of my balance.

As I fell, I wondered absentmindedly which
Combat apprentice – mentee or mentor - had cast enough magic to
make the rest of us weak enough to lose track of our limbs.

Two sets of arms gripped mine and pulled me
up, running and dragging me out of the fog. I followed as best I
could but I wasn't much help. At some point I must have lost track
of consciousness because the next thing I knew, cold water was
being splashed into my face.

I spit out a mouth full of water,
sputtering.

My vision cleared and I saw Darren and Ray
clutching a bucket with Eve leaning against a bed frame shortly
behind them. We were in another safe house - only this one didn't
have a Restoration or Alchemy apprentice in sight. Ray saw the
question in my eyes and said, "They were caught," by way of
explanation.

"Where are we?"

"Just south of Ian's hideout."

"Why did you only rescue me?" Because that's
what this was, I realized, a rescue.

"Because you are the most powerful one and we
only had time to save one of you." Darren didn't look at me as he
said it.

"I would have helped if I could but we were
too afraid of being ambushed. I had to stay here," Eve told me.
"The mentors have been systematically combing the south. We've had
to change hideouts three times and there are always more nearby. It
was too risky to reveal my location."

I was lying awkwardly on a bed. I forced
myself to try and sit up. It was surprisingly easy.

Eve noticed my expression.

"We gave you one of the Alchemy mentees'
special drafts." She pointed to the empty vial beside me. "I had
the girl make two in case we needed to get away in a hurry by using
that gas. Hopefully we don't have to use the other."

"What's our plan?"

"You are going to distract Ian's guards while
the rest of us ambush his hideout." She said the words
matter-of-factly. Like it wasn't a big deal that our entire plan
hinged on my performance.

I stared at her. "But the guards are Lynn and
Morgan! They are both fifth-years, Eve. If they only see me, they
are going to suspect a trap. They will know I'd never be foolish
enough to attack them alone."