Tak

The Wizard's Apprentice - Part 5

     A few months later, a group of horsemen arrived at the castle.

     It wasn't the first time Castle Nagra had had visitors since Tak's arrival. Usually, though, they only came in ones or twos. They were invariably soldiers of Domandropolis, the city that controlled this part of the world, including the Borderlands in which Tak had spent his childhood. Usually, Molos Gomm waited in his audience chamber while Trobo showed them in, and they talked about matters of which Tak could learn nothing no matter what carefully chosen questions he asked the grey wizard after their departure, which might be the next morning or a week later.

     He was forbidden to speak to the visitors themselves, so he had nothing to go on but the occasional sighting as they passed each other in the corridors. They always seemed to be high ranking officers, so far as he could tell, and they always seemed a little fearful, no matter how hard they tried to conceal it. Understandable when in the presence of a wizard in those days.

     Only once had any of them appeared to notice him. The visitors that time had been a pair of battle scarred giants with manes of black hair and bushy beards. They had glanced at him from the other end of the west passage as they were returning to their guest rooms and their eyes had met briefly. Tak had scurried away, remembering his master's command that he have no contact with them, but the acoustics of the castle had sent their voices echoing after him. "I see he still likes them blonde. And such pretty eyes."

     "It's not his eyes he'll be most interested in," the other had said, and then they had laughed until the sound was cut off by the closing of a heavy oaken door. The exchange had brought tears of shame to the boy's eyes. Shame he thought he'd put behind him years ago.

     Ever since then he had always hidden away when visitors came, fearful of their scorn and disgust, and only risked a glance when he could be sure of not being seen in return, driven by his insatiable curiosity. He longed to know who these people were and why they were here. He wished he could overhear their conversation with his master, but so great was his fear at being discovered that he never dared to try. When he heard the clatter of many hooves, though, not just one or two riders but many, he couldn't help running up the slippery stone stairs to one of the observation towers and peering out through one of the narrow windows.

      There were seven riders. Seven! There hadn't been so many people in the castle in all the time Tak had been there. Six of them were soldiers, similar in appearance to others who had visited before, and in fact he recognised one of them from a previous visit, but the seventh...

     The seventh was obviously the leader of the group. The soldiers hung back behind him as they dismounted and allowed him to lead the way, striding to the watch gate from which Trobo had emerged to greet them. He wore a striking crimson robe trimmed with silver and sewn with dragons up the sleeves and across his broad back. He wore a pair of the tallest, most ludicrously laced black leather boots Tak had ever seen and jeweled rings sparkled on his fingers. He had fiery red hair that curled around his face in bright ringlets and fell in bouncing coils around his shoulders, and a neatly trimmed beard adorned his outthrust chin.

     He strode like a King, as if he expected the walls and towers of the castle themselves to bow down to him, and indeed Trobo did bow when he was within a few yards of the princely newcomer. The red haired nobleman (if that was what he was, but how could he have been anything else?) looked down his long and elegant nose at the houseman as if he was something he'd almost stepped in, then spoke a few words that the wind whipped away before they could reach Tak's ears. Trobo spoke a few words in reply, still bowing. Then he indicated the door and allowed the nobleman to precede him to it. The six soldiers, meanwhile, led the horses to a corner of the courtyard that had been outfitted as a makeshift stable and began unsaddling them.