Guild Mage: Apprentice

The next morning, after a quick meal, Liv and the rest of her team assembled in the corridor in front of the repaired fourth gate. A crew of labourers must have labored through the night, she realized, but a new portcullis was in place, and a set of stout doors hung on new hinges. Half a dozen armored guards stood watch there, but they must have been given orders, for they paid no more attention to Liv and her friends than they did to the stone beneath their feet.

Wren, Arjun and Isabel walked down with Liv. Thora, who it seemed had managed to make a few friends with the cooks and maids at the fortress, had packed each of them a canvas knapsack full of food, bandages, and whatever else she could scrounge up that might prove useful. Liv's was slung over one shoulder so that it rested on her back, beneath her cloak, and beneath all that was her leather armor, on top of a clean dress.

She'd left her wand with Thora, but the leather sheath at her hip wasn't empty. Elenda, still suffering the effects of mana sickness in the infirmary, had sent someone to deliver her driftwood wand to Liv.

Wren had her bow and a quiver full of fire arrows, taken from the ksatriya archers to replace her usual broadheads. The huntress wore her knives, a knapsack of her own, and carried as well several of the clay stoppered jars of oil that were used to light groups of corpses aflame.

Arjun had a new, reddish-brown wooden wand at his hip, in addition to his knapsack, which he'd repacked himself after a trip to the infirmary. He'd removed everything but the food, and then crammed in every sort of medical supply that he could fit, until the thing bulged out in all directions. When he saw Liv looking at the wand, he shrugged, and shifted his feet awkwardly.

"It was supposed to be a wedding present," he explained. "It was made from a neem tree. They're good for fighting infection and swelling. Chandrika left it behind when she went."

"I'm certain it will be useful," Liv said, and let the subject drop.

Isabel, in addition to the knapsack that Thora had packed, and the same manner of guild-ring that both Liv and Arjun wore on their own fingers, had borrowed one of the metal-ringed wooden clubs the Dakruiman soldiers often carried. She'd been up late into the night carving sigils into it using Hamon's pearl handled knife, and Liv had a few guesses on what the weapon might do, based on what she could make out of the inscriptions.

Finally, between the four of them they had three portable oil lanterns, made of tin, brass and glass. Arjun and Wren each carried one, and Isabel the last, and none had been lit yet. Liv didn't want to waste any oil while they could still see by the lights of the soldiers, and she worried that three lanterns wouldn't last them long enough, now that she'd seen how far down the abyss reached, and just how dark it was.

When Commander Jagan and his picked men arrived, they were accompanied by Vivek Sharma. Each of the three ksatriya was armed and armored, carrying shields and either flanged clubs or hammers. Like Liv and her companions, each had a packed knapsack on their backs, as well, and Jagan's two men each carried an unlit lantern.

"I do not approve of the general permitting this," Jagan said, with a scowl, as soon as they were within conversational distance.

"And yet, he has done so," Vivek said. "Good luck, children." He embraced Arjun, and then Liv. While his mouth was close to her ear, he whispered, "beware Jagan. His heart is clouded, and I fear what choices he may make." Once he'd released them both, and stepped away, he raised one hand and addressed the entire group. "May the blessings of the trinity be upon you, as you venture into the dark places of the world. Hold fast to each other, for only by relying on your companions will you emerge again into the light."

Liv wondered whether that was meant as a warning to Jagan; she wished that, if the man was so untrustworthy, the priest would have simply asked General Mishra to send someone else. She glanced to Isabel.

"Don't look at me," the second-year told her. "I may have been put in charge when we left, but this is your idea."

"Alright, then," Liv said, and turned to Jagan. "Can you ask the soldiers to open the gate, please?"

Commander Jagan nodded, then barked out a series of orders in Dakruiman. Without hesitation, the soldiers standing guard unbarred and opened the doors, allowing the party to proceed back out onto the landing. Liv turned back once, to see Vivek Sharma watching them go, and gave him a wave. Then, she turned toward the ancient stair, where she'd left a wall of ice only a day before.

The stone of the landing had been given a rushed cleaning: while there were no longer great chunks of bone or decaying flesh, no one had gone to the bother of scrubbing down the stones to remove the stains or scorch marks. Lit lanterns hung from iron sconces bolted into the stone, casting dim globes of light in the darkness. A score of archers lined the crenelated wall, and a temporary wooden barricade had been placed to fill the gap where Liv had absolutely broken through the stone.

They reached the remains of the ice wall quickly enough, and without trouble - which Liv took as evidence that the eruption had truly subsided. The mana around her no longer felt quite so chaotic, but it was still incredibly dense, saturating the air all around them. There was another group of ksatriya guarding the barricade at the top of the ancient stairs, and they saluted Commander Jagan when the group approached. After the exchange of a few words in Dakruiman, a section of barricade was swung aside, permitting Liv and her companions to pass.

A wet, glistening lump of ice, just about knee high, remained at the very top of the stairs, and each of them stepped over it in turn, beginning with Liv. She drew the wand Elenda had loaned her in her right hand, and raised the left to trail along the rough stone wall of the well.

It had been one thing to fly over the stairs, but, walking them, Liv was much more aware that there was no rail, wall or bannister on the pit-side. Instead, the steps simply dropped off into the endless darkness. She was not the only one who stuck to the outer wall, and they proceeded down in single file.

"Lantern," Liv called back, once the light from the barricade above began to fade. She heard Isabel murmur the spark charm, and then a new globe of light flickered into existence around them. "It would be nice to have Keri here," she commented. Not just for light: she remembered how his magic felt like the warm summer sun on her skin. That feeling would have been comforting in a place so utterly wrong.

"You trust him?" Wren asked. Liv reminded herself that the huntress had only met the Elden warrior once, and then very briefly, having remained behind for the trip north to Kelthelis.

"He had our back in and out of the Tomb of Celris," Arjun spoke up, before Liv could. "I talked with him a bit while we were building the funeral pyre, too. He seems a good man."

The mana around them was growing thicker with every step they took, and Liv focused on her breathing, doing her best to control the rate at which it entered her body. It wasn't more than she could handle, but for what felt like the hundredth time, she worried about her friends. When Elenda had gone over the edge into the Well of Bones, she hadn't hesitated. Why was she faltering now, when mana-sickness could be just as deadly? Did Arjun deserve her help less?

Liv knew that her father worried about teaching humans — even the guild — any more about magic than they already knew. The barons and the royal family had been hoarding words of power for the entire history of Lucania, that was true enough, and she was certain that kind of attitude had been the cause of a great deal of forgotten knowledge. What other people did wasn't her fault — but if Arjun or Elenda died of mana sickness, and she could have done something to prevent it, that would be her fault.

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"Focus on your breathing," she called back, making a decision. "Like they taught you in the introductory courses. Breathe in the mana slowly, and let it adjust to your body." She tried to remember what her father had told her, when he'd first taught her how to do this. "Breathe in until you can't anymore, as deep as you can, and hold it for a ten count. You want to give the mana an easier way into your body, so that it doesn't have to rip through your skin."

"What is this, Liv?" Isabel asked.

"Just do it," Liv ordered. "It will help."

There was no conversation for some time after that, and she could only hope it was because Arjun and Isabel were focusing on the breathing exercise.

"I can feel it," Arjun said, finally. "The breath moves it through the body evenly, doesn't it? Where did you learn this?"

"Did the Archmagus teach you this?" Isabel asked. "I mean, everyone knows you were Jurian's apprentice, even before you came to Coral Bay."

"I'd rather not talk about it any more," Liv said, after a moment. "And please don't spread this around. I'm doing this because I want you both to come out of this rift alive. Anyway, pay attention to what you're doing. Half a bell isn't enough time to master it, and if you get distracted you'll lose control."

That wasn't the only reason to focus, of course. Liv didn't know precisely how old the steps were, but 'ancient' seemed to be the appropriate word, and time had not been kind. Many of the steps were cracked or crumbling, damaged and worn away by the ragged feet of the horde which tramped up every time there was an eruption.

The first time a piece of stone broke under her boot, Liv couldn't help but cry out and clutch at the wall on her left side until her heart finally managed to slow. It was only once she'd managed to get control of herself that she realized Wren had the strap of her knapsack wrapped in her fist.

"Relax," the huntress said. "I'm not going to let you go over the edge. You know, you could have saved us all a good bit of time by just lowering us down on one of those magic platforms."

"Maybe," Liv said, and forced herself to set off down the stairs again. "But I'm not certain how far down the shaft actually goes. I couldn't see very much when I went after Elena. But I was able to fly down after her and catch, so it has to be pretty far. I think we'd all feel pretty stupid if I ran out of mana and we still hadn't reached the bottom."

"That's a terrifying thought," Isabel admitted.

The group of seven continued steadily down, and the flickering light of the oil lamp began to reveal strange things in the stone wall at the edge of the stairs. Liv recognized what she was seeing, from the brief glimpse she'd had when flying down to catch Elenda, but for the others it was the first time.

"Are those bones in the wall?" Isabel asked.

"I see the skeletons of birds," Wren told her. "Wild cats of some kind, snakes. All sorts of animals."

"Some of them are human," Arjun pointed out.

Liv grimaced, but as much as she hated touching the bones, and tried to avoid them, she still preferred to stay close to the wall, rather than the fall into darkness waiting on the other side of the stairs. Could she have conjured a bird of coherent mana to save herself if she fell? Probably. If there was enough time before she hit bottom. How far had they travelled, anyway?

She looked back at her group, and then up, trying to make out anything beyond the bubble of lantern light, but it was to no effect. Commander Jagan and his soldiers had been silent, the entire descent. Liv doubted the two ksatriya he's brought spoke Lucanian, but on Jagan's part it was a deliberate choice. All three of them simply followed along at the rear of the party, given the impression they were remaining apart from the four who'd come from Coral Bay.

Perhaps it was Liv's distraction that caused her to miss the motion when it came; or perhaps it would have been so much of a surprise, no matter what, that it would have made no difference. The first thing she was aware of was a shout from Arjun, then a scream from Isabel, and finally the cold, hard feeling of something grabbing at her calf.

All of that practice with Wren must have been good for something, because now when she needed it, a blade of adamant ice came immediately and silently to Liv's left hand, without so much as a whispered incantation. She swiped down at the skeletal arm that reached out of the wall, and sliced through the bony wrist, separating the clutching hand from the rest of the corpse.

All along their route of march, hands erupted from the wall, spraying dirt, chips of stone, and clods of clay in every direction. Even the soldiers at the rear shouted in surprise before laying about with their clubs and hammers, shattering bone with every swing.

Liv caught sight of Wren dancing back from the wall, perhaps the only one among them who'd avoided being caught. Isabel swung with her borrowed club, smashing through an arm on the second blow, while Arjun spoke an incantation that shattered the bones in his immediate vicinity.

"Keep moving!" Liv called back. They couldn't remain within reach of the arms, or someone was going to end up losing their balance and falling. With audible pops and more sprays of dirt, skulls came out of the wall, snapping their yellowed teeth at her as she hurried past.

She was clambering down as fast as she could, right at the edge of the light from Isabel's lantern, when the next step simply wasn't there. Liv skidded to a halt, pinwheeling her arms in a desperate attempt not to fall, then found herself yanked backwards by Wren.

"Don't stop!" Commander Jagan called from the rear of the party.

"There's a gap in the stairs!" Wren shouted back, while Liv caught her breath.

"Not entirely," she pointed out. "Some of it's still there, close to the wall. That must be how the hordes get up." Rather than a broad staircase, ten feet or more wide, most of this section had collapsed, leaving only perhaps two feet of crumbling steps behind, right up against the outer wall. They would have to press right up to the stone in order to get by — past an entire stretch of clutching hands and snapping skulls.

"Jagan," Liv shouted. "Take your men through first, and have them break everything off the wall! We'll follow."

"No!" The commander shouted in return. "We're not here to die for you, Lucanian! Make your own way. If you can't pass, turn back."

"Blood and shadows," Liv cursed. "Isabel, bring that club up!"

Wren shuffled on the steps next to Liv, exchanging places with the second-year journeyman.

"You want me to go first?" Isabel asked, panting.

Liv nodded. "And I'll stay right behind you," she said, raising her sword of ice so that the other girl could see it. "Arjun," she ordered, "be ready to put a mana-shield between us and the edge, if you see us falling. Understood?"

"I'll keep you on the stairs," Arjun promised. Liv swallowed. Could she clear this entire section on her own? Probably. In fact, if she'd been able to see just how far this damaged section of stairs went, she would have been able to just use Cel to make a temporary replacement. Actually, ice might be a bad idea - Aluth might have been better. Still, she was hesitant to use more mana than she had to. Getting down to the bottom of the Well, dealing with whatever they found at the bottom, and then making their way back up — this was going to be a test of endurance.

"Go!" Liv shouted, and Isabel practically charged the wall, smashing everything in reach with her club. Splinters of bone flew in every direction, leaving nothing but broken, twitching pieces of corpses jutting out from the wall.

Liv followed in Isabel's wake, slicing at anything that burst out of the wall behind her. She took an arm off at the elbow, before the corpse's hand could shove Isabel off into the darkness, then crushed a gnawing, biting skull with the pommel of the frozen sword.

"I can see the end!" Isabel cried out, smashing another corpse-head. She rushed down the stairs, and in the moving light of the lantern in her other hand, Liv could see that the damaged section of stairs ended. The second year crushed another arm, then leapt for the undamaged stairs.

As Isabel was in midair, another arm burst from the wall and hit her, knocking her off course. Liv reached out to grab her before she even realized that she still had Elenda's wand in her off hand, but she was too slow.

A pane of blue mana, veined with gold, appeared at Arjun's invocation, and Isabel practically bounced off it, landing on the undamaged stretch of stairs and rolling down them. The glass of her oil lantern broke, spilling flame down the steps, and Isabel scrambled back away from the fire, shaking.

Liv followed her more carefully, cutting away every corpse-arm that threatened from the wall, and then stepped around the spilled, burning oil. "Be careful!" she called back, and then got herself out of the way.

As if realizing they'd missed their best chance, the grasping corpses did not pursue the party beyond the damaged section of stairs. Safe for the moment, Liv rounded on Commander Jagan.

"Are you here to help us, or not?" she demanded.