Tak

The Wizard's Apprentice - Part 2

     Even through the fog of the hypnosis spell and the tragedy of what had just befallen him, Tak was overwhelmed with wonder at the glorious spectacle. He wanted to cry out in delight, and he also wanted to scream in horror and loss. He felt torn apart, not knowing which emotion he was supposed to be feeling and not allowed to experience either. It was too much for his young mind. Too much had happened too quickly, and his consciousness retreated into the comforting security of oblivion.

     He was still securely in the saddle when awareness returned, so he couldn't have been asleep or he'd have fallen out. More likely he'd just let the trance state take complete possession of him. Now, though, as his consciousness began to fight back, he became aware enough of his surroundings to see that they were flying over rough, hilly terrain, and that a desolate range of mountains was looming before them. Was this the Great Northern Range, the mist shrouded peaks of which were visible from their cabin? From where their cabin had been, he corrected himself. There would be nothing left but smoking ashes and charred timbers by now. He wanted to feel grief or shock as he contemplated the destruction of the only home he'd ever known. Anger even. At the very least he should be feeling a bit sad. The hypnosis spell still had too strong a hold on him, though, and perhaps that was a mercy.

     Not all the hypnosis spells in the world could stop him being curious, though. Curiosity was too much a fundamental part of him, and he wanted to know where he was. A glance at the yellow sun told him they were travelling east, continuing in the direction in which his family had been fleeing, so it couldn't be the Great Northern Range he was seeing. Maybe it was the Great Eastern Range, which was continuous with it, the two ranges forming two sides of the box that contained the human race, along with the Iron Coast to the south and the great forest of Medisylvestria to the west.

     The Great Eastern Range contained the highest mountains on the island continent of Garon, but it was also threaded by several wide passes allowing easy passage through it. Beyond was the lands of the Kelns. A race of almost-humans with shaggy ginger hair covering their whole bodies with whom the human kingdoms fought numerous wars before finally assimilating them through interbreeding. Tak knew nothing of this at the time, though. All he knew was that he was in a totally unfamiliar land, far away from everything he knew or had even heard of, and that he was totally dependent on the grey bearded man for his survival.

     He thought they were going to enter the mountains as the land continued to rise beneath them, and he found himself wondering what fearsome monsters lived in them. Perhaps the grey wizard intended to sell him to cannibal beast men or trade him for some treasure the wizard desired. He was unable to feel the fear and loneliness he would normally have been experiencing, but the spell couldn't stop him feeling a great and terrible emptiness. The absence of all his normal emotions, as if he was a gourd whose soft inner flesh had been scraped out. His small hands tightened on the edge of his saddle until it hurt his fingertips. That was good. At least he was feeling something.

     Then the eagles banked to the left and began to angle downwards and he saw a castle perched on the side of a craggy hillside overlooking a long, narrow valley. A narrow road led to it, hugging the hillside. It was just barely wide enough for a coach and horses if the driver was brave or foolish enough to take the risk, and beside it loomed a perilous drop. An almost sheer cliff down to the valley floor where a river foamed across a jumble of rounded boulders.

     The road led to a partially ruined gatehouse in the wall surrounding the castle grounds. The gates had long since vanished, leaving no apparent obstacle to a large courtyard surrounded by wooden huts and stables. Other courtyards were contained further back from the main outer wall, separated by almost vertical rock faces and curtain walls, rising back and upwards to the main keep itself which was built of black stone and rose in towers and battlements.