The Apprentice Read online

  When it came time to sup with the rest of the boys, Rowan left the bunk house and walked the familiar path to the dining hall, waiting just long enough so that most would be inside already but not so long that he would be the last to enter.

  He could tell by the smells hanging in the air that the cooks were cooking well that night. There was freshly cooked meat, an unusual delicacy for the young soldiers, and there would also be some leftover breads and cheeses from the castle kitchens, as there always was. Some of the food the boys were given was prepared for them, but much more of it came from the castle, the leftovers from the royal kitchen. It was the food which went unwanted and uneaten, but the boys could not complain. They ate often and they ate well.

  When he entered the mess hall, Rowan quickly grabbed a plate which he filled with food before joining his friends at a table near the warmth of the fire. He was greeted enthusiastically.

  "Where were you today, Rowan?”

  “Was the great Rowan slacking and avoiding work?"

  Rowan tensed and for a moment, he gave no reply. His absence had been noticed. He worried that he might have even been followed. If that was the case, then his gifts and his plan for Eliza would be ruined. But all of the boys laughed at his silence, taking it as a confession of guilt. Relieved that he had not been found out, Rowan tried to laugh along with the others. He endured several such taunts as they ate, but for them that was all that they were: taunts. Not truths.

  As Rowan ate his dinner, he noticed that Erik did not seem to be joining in the general mirth. He stared at Rowan from his seat down the table, a look that made Rowan uneasy.

  After dinner, Erik approached Rowan alone outside of the barracks.

  “Ho, Erik,” Rowan said in greeting.

  “Where were you today, Rowan?”

  “I was here for the most part,” Rowan said. It wasn’t entirely a lie, for he had been present at the training fields in the morning. Suddenly it occurred to Rowan that he had skipped his usual sparring session with Erik. “I must have missed you when I left. I was feeling off today and I chose to avoid our free practice time.”

  “I noticed. But you did not answer my question: where were you? I know you well by now, Rowan, you are as close as any brother could have been. You are not one to simply skip training without a reason.”

  Rowan tried to speak, to give some sort of explanation, but Erik silenced him.

  “Unless you plan to tell me the truth, don’t speak. I don’t know where you went and I doubt I could find out unless you wanted me to. Whatever your reasons, they are your own and they are important to you, but for your sake I hope that you were not doing anything that will get you, or anyone else, into trouble.”

  “You don’t have to worry about me, I can handle myself.”

  “I never said I was worried for your sake,” Erik said with the smallest hint of a smile. “Just remember that your absence does not go unnoticed, and everyone assumes that I will always know where you are and what you are up to.”

  “I’ll be more discreet next time.”

  “Next time?”

  “It’s nothing,” Rowan said quickly. He was stupid to have made such a slip of the tongue. Now he would have to be extremely cautious and it would only be that much harder to sneak away. He could only hope that Erik would either forget his statement or overlook it. Trying to further emphasize that he did not mean to sneak away again would only serve to make Erik suspicious.

  Before his friend could question him further, Rowan ended the conversation and hurried off. Behind him he could hear Erik shouting.

  “Make sure you don’t miss any more of our sparring sessions. If you do, I will find you and bring you back in a very painful manner!”

  Chapter 35

  It was late in the evening, on a day several months after the Revel, when Baird was approached by Darius.

  He sat alone in his quarters, thinking about troublesome issues that had arisen since his departure from Estoria and his return with Rowan. The head trainer had called on him earlier in the day but Baird had been preoccupied and had told him that they would meet later. Now night had fallen and Baird awaited the company of Darius, and his waiting was leading to dark thoughts.

  A knock sounded at the door and Darius let himself in. Baird frowned at the man’s blatant intrusion. It was custom to wait for an invitation to enter someone’s room. He would not normally have cared, he himself rarely bothered to wait, preferring to come and go as he wished. It allowed him the chance to catch people off guard. But lately he had been stressed and he was dealing with a sensitive issue that required privacy.

  Baird calmed himself, allowing his mind to become detached from anything he had previously been focused on and anything that might negatively affect his attitude. I was never this serious when I kept company with Rowan, he thought. I should see him when I am able.

  With his mind calmed and clear, Baird focused on the trainer waiting across the room.

  “What is it that you needed to speak with me about, Darius?”

  “I came to discuss your apprentice.”

  Baird raised his eyebrows and gave the trainer a questioning look. “Rowan? I was under the impression, Darius, that I had sent Rowan to you so that I would not have to supervise him on a daily basis. What has the boy done to get himself in trouble?”

  “Actually, this is not a disciplinary matter. Rowan has been going off on his own recently. He leaves the training grounds without permission and he refuses to account for himself. I had hoped that he might have spoken to you, or perhaps he was meeting you.”

  “No. It would make an interesting exercise, though.” Baird mused.

  Darius shook his head but Baird continued to think on the issue.

  “He does this regularly?”

  “He disappears often enough, yes, but there is no schedule. His desertions follow no set pattern. I have tried depriving him of meals, forcing him to attend extra practice sessions, do extra work, and barred him from having free time. I even threatened to confiscate his sword. Nothing seems to make any difference. He will endure the punishments without so much as a word of protest. He waits until I can no longer watch him closely, and then he disappears again.”

  “And he refuses to tell you where he is going?” This did not sound like the apprentice Baird knew Rowan to be. The boy was independent, yes, but he had respect for authority and he would not be involved in anything dangerous or unlawful.

  “He gives me vague answers. He will tell me that he is practicing on his own or that he goes tracking. He will sometimes take his blade with him.”

  “Some men need their space. Rowan has never lived in a city, he is not used to the constant presence of people. Why do you not just follow him? Observe and see what he does.”

  “I have tried, but your apprentice knows how to walk through the woods unseen.”

  Baird laughed and Darius flushed with embarrassment. Rowan had grown up in the woods of the North. It made sense that his years of tracking and hunting wild game, learning how to move silently, would have given him the ability to elude a tail. Rowan probably felt at home in the kingswood. The boy likely knew that he was being watched and made sure to avoid leaving any trail.

  “I still do not see why it matters that Rowan seeks solitude in the kingswood,” Baird said, though he did not believe that Rowan was sneaking off just to seek solitude. He would not bring punishments upon himself without reason.

  Unless he is simply seeking the attention of an ever absent master.

  Baird shook the thought from his head, but it still worried at the back of his mind. Was it possible that Rowan might be acting out to seek his attention? He had been far removed from the boy’s life for some time now, but his absence was not by choice, the boy must know that.

  “You sent Rowan to me to ensure that he received a soldier’s education. I have been charged with training him and seeing that he becomes fit to be a soldier that serves our king and our country. Perhaps his absence is i
nnocent, a means for him to find solitude and nothing more. But perhaps it is something more. He is just a boy, true, and he has great potential. But whether his absences are innocent or not, I cannot have a soldier who is unaccounted for.

  “I begin to believe that he will not learn to obey orders without question. That he does not respect the need for order and authority and the purpose of our codes and rules and laws. As your apprentice, Rowan’s position is unique, but I cannot have absent soldiers who disobey my commands. It undermines my authority and to speak freely, it does not help the boy’s reputation. He comes from far in the North, a different land, and he himself is different. Understand that I do not speak from personal bias, but many others would question his loyalties. He may be your apprentice, but he is lowborn and he is not well known.”

  “And you come to me because I am his master?”

  “Among other reasons, yes, that is why I chose to come to you with this problem.”

  Baird was silent for a moment. He doubted that Rowan would be involved in anything dangerous, but it was always a possibility. The boy could be unpredictable and had a way of finding trouble. And there was also that nagging thought at the back of his conscience, the one that urged him to pay more attention to the boy. It is not my choice to ignore him, Baird thought. There have been matters of importance, and Rowan is not the only charge I am responsible for. He is capable of handling himself.

  “I will look into the matter,” Baird eventually responded. He ought to check on his apprentice, and he was curious as to what the boy meant by sneaking off.

  * * *

  True to his word, Baird did look into the matter. He decided that he would track Rowan himself, and he waited several days before the opportunity arose. He kept a close watch on the barracks and late one afternoon he caught Rowan heading off in the direction of the kingswood, Tenro buckled at his waist.

  Baird waited for Rowan to pass beyond the tree line before he moved to follow. It was important to remain far enough behind that he went unseen and unheard, yet not so far back that he lost track of the boy. Baird picked up Rowan’s trail easily enough at first, surprised at how quickly he travelled. The trail was subtle and though Baird hurried to keep up, he quickly fell behind. It was difficult for a man of his size to move quietly through the woods, especially if he was in a hurry.

  Frustrated, he changed tactics and began moving slower and paying close attention to the trail as he tracked his apprentice. Rowan is far too good at this. I am going to have to work hard to follow him. Three times Baird was forced to double back and start again because the trail went cold. No doubt Rowan had doubled back in order to make several false trails. Suddenly he felt a tinge of guilt for mocking Darius for not being able to track Rowan. The boy clearly knew how to avoid being followed. At one point, Baird was fairly certain that Rowan had walked along a stream that covered his path, exited to create a false trail, and then doubled back to use an overhanging branch in order to climb across to the other side and begin again a good distance away from the stream. If not for a small damp spot that had been left on a tree, Baird would have had to give up the search. But he continued until he heard voices.

  Without a sound, Baird approached the voices and found a hidden vantage point away from the path he had just followed.

  “This is boring. Why can’t we spar together?"

  “Because it is important to allow your body to learn the correct motions before developing bad habits. You are getting much better, but you still require practice with your weak hand.”

  “That’s no fun. I am clumsy with my other hand, and I see no reason to switch. Why can’t I use my strong hand?”

  “Because you are already well learned with your right hand. You are too good.”

  Baird could hear the patronizing grin in the tone of Rowan’s voice. He peered into a small clearing and saw that Rowan was in the company of Eliza. His apprentice stood alongside the princess, who held a wooden sword. Rowan held a stick that served as his own make-shift weapon. Rowan’s own Tenro lay across the clearing.

  Baird wanted to groan. Leave it to his apprentice to be sneaking away with the princess, and defying the king’s orders in the process. No doubt Eliza had had a hand in this. She was a rebellious little hellion and this was exactly like her.

  “Liar. I hardly ever hurt you and I know that you are always going easy on me.”

  Rowan flashed a grin that Baird had seen many times before. His apprentice made the same face whenever he managed to hurt or mark his master. Yet it was something else entirely when aimed towards a woman. “You need to be able to fight with either hand. Failing that, you should at least be able to hold a blade with a single hand,” Rowan said. “Think of what would happen if someone were to hurt your right hand?”

  “That would never happen. No one would do that.”

  “Really? What if I accidentally struck you too hard?”

  “That’s different. That would be an accident. Not your fault. And you are too skilled to make a mistake like that.”

  Another grin.

  “Besides, even if that happened, the healers would make it better.”

  Rowan sighed in frustration. Baird could tell that he was trying to make a point and Eliza was not understanding or not cooperating. Baird knew that feeling.

  “Alright, then how about this.” The expression on Rowan’s face darkened and he stared at Eliza with an intensity reserved for someone he truly intended to duel. “What would happen if I decided that I wanted to hurt you? You said something rude or made some passing remark that I took poorly. Perhaps I just decided that you are annoying and I don’t like you anymore.”

  Baird tensed when Rowan raised his stick. It was not a blade, but Rowan was skilled and he could easily crack bones. Baird worried for a brief moment before he chose to remain hidden. He trusted that Rowan was not a fool and would not harm young Princess Eliza.

  Eliza, for her part, had not shied away. She stared at Rowan fiercely and held her wooden blade. They stood still for a moment before Rowan lowered his arm.

  “You still assume that no one would do you any harm because you are a princess. Your royal blood protects you. But you are wrong. What protects you are the many guards loyal to the crown and the knowledge of what happens to those who attack or harm the royal family. When those things are taken away, you are left with only your own power. And you are not skilled enough to prevent anyone from harming you. If you ever have to actually use a sword, it will not be for play. If you lose a hand, you lose a head.”

  There was silence. Baird was surprised by the truth of Rowan’s words. They were the thoughts that he himself often had. It was why he had forced King Alden to learn how to use a blade.

  “Fine.” Eliza sighed. “I’ll use my other hand. But only if you agree to spar with me. Practice is boring, doubly-so if I have to use my left hand.”

  Rowan considered before he spoke. “Alright. We can spar together with our left hands. But we will go slowly so we don’t make mistakes.”

  “No. I want you to be serious. You always go easy on me and it’s no fun that way.”

  “Well I can’t very well fight you seriously. What if you got hurt?”

  “I don’t care if I get a few bruises,” Eliza huffed. Baird cringed

  “You might not care, Eliza. But you are a princess, and it would not do for you to bear marks and bruises. People would notice, they would worry. Besides, I do not want to hurt you.”

  “It sounds very much like you are calling me weak.” Eliza said. “I am the princess and I will have you know that there is punishment for criticizing me.”

  Eliza took a swing at Rowan, a swing that hit only air as Rowan dodged the blow nimbly. The two began to fight playfully, each using their non-dominant hand to guide and hold their makeshift blades.

  Baird watched them, struck by the bond that they shared. Eliza had never been the type of girl to excel at physical exercise, and she was a terrible student. It occurred to him that th
ey must have met many times for Eliza to display such proficiency.

  The longer he observed, the more uncomfortable Baird became.

  Finally, Rowan seemed to become aware of the time and he ended the lesson. Baird watched as the two discussed another meeting and then bade each other goodbye. He waited until both had left and his apprentice was well away before he stood up and stretched his legs, revealing his presence to anyone who cared to observe.

  How had it happened? Baird suspected he would never find out. The princess would never have taken such an interest in Rowan before. She had resented the boy too much because of his apprenticeship.

  Baird drew a long breath and thought on the problem he faced.

  These meetings were innocent enough for the moment. He thought about allowing them to continue and trying to watching over them on occasion, but he had neither the time nor the energy to watch over these children. His mind was made up. He already had difficulty with Eliza, whom he had taken to watching over much more carefully than he had in the past. He had to ensure that the bond which developed between Rowan and Eliza never became anything more than one of friendship and fealty. In a different time, given guidance and supervision, such a relationship would have been the ideal way to foster loyalty and fealty. Baird had been fostered with Alden as a boy. It was an old tradition. A sense of kinship would allow a man to act with unquestioning loyalty. A man would die for a friend. But this was not the time for such a thing, especially not with a princess. It was dangerous.

  More importantly, he could not allow Eliza to roam around without a guard. A threat was looming and the royal family might no longer be safe within the walls of their own castle. Baird had to end these secret meetings.

  It may sadden them both, but it will be for the best, Baird thought. And perhaps I can find a way to fill the empty hours.

  Chapter 36