AUTHORS NOTES

150k WORDS! Woot!

TrimusicaDrag00n90: Thank you SO SO much for the follow and favourite!

Archer1eye: Oooh... theory :) That would make an interesting twist, wouldn't it? But no... it's not 'the creator'. I'm glad that I've left you with the impression that Sharein is very 'pure'. She is incredibly naive and innocent, although some of that may change this chapter... just a little. Don't forget her 'download' from Tenebrae though, that may have affected her in ways she doesn't quite realise just yet. Ooh, that's an interesting idea for the other miners, I was just going to go with 'delicacy for a feast' :S
I'll never ever kill off a main character out of spite, if someone does die it will be to advance the story :)

Slyksylva: No. He suspects much and *may* have some esoteric knowledge, but isn't quite sure what it is that he knows.

Havok22: Thank you so much for the review! Haha! I definitely want to throw in some drow later in the story, but it will be much later. Shard would (or will?) be entirely ruthless. Entirely ruthless.

Chapter 64

22nd Day of Middle Spring 768 n.c

We woke up at some time after sunrise by the movements of the headman and his family. They were kind enough to heat up the stew again and give us each a bowl for breakfast. We were just preparing to leave when the thundering of horses drew out attention back to the east. Around a hill appeared a robed person on horseback, followed rapidly by about fifty soldiers also on horses. The blue robed man had short brown hair and was gripping his staff in one hand, Malkarov immediately recognised him and held up his own staff in greeting. The soldiers that followed behind all wore chainmail armour, appeared to have shields strapped to their backs and carried spears. The chainmail was covered on their chests by a surcoat, the same colour blue as the wizard wore, with a yellow horse rearing up on its hind legs printed clearly on their centre. Each soldier wore a conical helm, with a wide strip of metal coming down to cover their noses.

"Andrian!" Malkarov cried out, "greetings on this day!"

"Malkarov!" The other man called back in greeting, "my greetings to you also! I should have known that you would be stirring up all this trouble!"

"Not I, my friend!" Malkarov declared with a laugh, "I was but an innocent traveller passing by!"

The arriving wizard instructed the soldiers to dismount and sort out their horses in a nearby flat and grassy area. One young soldier scurried forward to take the wizard's horse for him.

The new wizard appeared to be slightly younger than Malkarov, with little grey in his hair and was clean shaven, with only a slight stubble visible. He appeared to be a smiling, happy and guileless person.

"I had heard that you had picked up a new apprentice Malkarov," Andrian stated, "but nobody told me that she was such a fetching lass!"

I blushed a little at the compliment and was ready to deny it when he bowed low and snatched up my hand, "Andrian, wizard of Iskar," he declared, "at your service."

I was a bit unsure of the proper reply, if this was the proper etiquette then Malkarov had missed something in my lessons.

"Sharein Askilain, apprentice of Malkarov," I replied simply.

"When you have finished learning from Malkarov," he told me, "you must come to Iskar and study under me."

The way he said this sounded strange, suggestive even. I quickly re-evaluated my original opinion of him, he did not seem guileless at all. His shiny exterior seemed designed and polished to camouflage an oily tainted interior. I felt embarrassed and embarrassed for him. I knew what he was suggesting, what he was trying to say. But did he just not realise that you don't say things like that? Something about him was rubbing me entirely the wrong way and I wanted nothing more than to get up on Aloise horse and ride away.

Malkarov seemed to have realised this as well, for he sent me to get the horses ready while he informed Andrian of the situation.

I shuddered when I heard the new wizard ask Malkarov if I was, "a screamer." Bile rose in my throat and I forced myself to continue walking forward as if I hadn't heard him. I hoped desperately that Malkarov didn't affirm the question, I wouldn't be able to look either of them in the face again. Anger followed the disgust and I didn't even resist the temptation but instead followed instinct. I whispered a prayer to Tenebrae and directed my curse at the offensive wizard. Bless was a prayer that would give a person courage and confidence, bracing their hearts against fear and protect against doubt. The prayer that I cast onto him was the direct opposite of that; Bane introduced doubt, hindered courage and confidence. Despite my revenge, I didn't relax even when I got out of sight or when I finished preparing our horses. It wasn't until we were a good league away that the tense feeling left my body.

Until Malkarov apologised to me.

"Why are you saying sorry?" I asked him in response, "you weren't the one that said those things."

"No," he said, looking guilty and sad, "I didn't. But I didn't say anything against him either. We were at the guild together, studying under our masters. Nobody in the guild knows of my… attractions and so I have always been forced to keep that part of myself hidden away. The best way to do this is to be 'one of the men', which unfortunately involves treating women as conquests. If I didn't do that, then they would question why… and I'm afraid to say that at the time I was ashamed of who I was, who I am. Some wizards, like Andrian, take on a couple of apprentices at a time. The male apprentices usually last all the way through to become wizards. The young, attractive, female apprentices are often sent back to their parents after their first or second year. Everyone knows what's going on there, but nothing can be said or done about it. A master wizard is their own authority when it comes to appointing apprentices and how they treat them."

I was shocked. Behaviour like that was just… unheard of to me. Was that really the way the world worked? That those in power just took what they wanted, with nobody allowed to gainsay? Nothing like that would be allowed to happen in Easthaven, but was my home the anomaly? Was this the nature of larger cities, or was it just because they were different places? Did Easthaven have something that made it different? Better?

"You're shocked?" Malkarov asked me and I nodded unnecessarily.

"I've been meaning to talk to you about things before we reached Castlemere anyway, but I had hoped that your introduction to the world was not so… dramatic," Malkarov said, "out of all of the places I have ever visited, nothing compares to the District of Eastholm. Things there are… innocent. I don't think that there is anything truly evil in Easthaven; Sunhaven as well, to a slightly lesser degree. Elsewhere though, things are not so nice. Be careful in Castlemere, keep your eyes open and use your head."

He spent the rest of the morning telling me about the different places he had visited and the differences between them.

We crossed the bridge into Castlemere's territory fairly early and the entirety of the land as far as we could see had been made farmland. Farmhouses could be seen as far as the eye could see and laneways split off from the main road at regular intervals. Traffic on the road had increased dramatically as well. We had occasionally passed wagons and caravans on the journey from Easthaven and sometimes overtook an especially slow moving merchant caravan once or twice but in the Capital Territory we were forced to wait for others to go past us heading away before we could overtake a slow farmer. Other roads joined ours as well, from other Baronies. Where these roads joined were placed signs indicating where the roads headed, posts with painted wooden boards at the top. The road on the other side of the bridge had improved as well; instead of hard packed dirt and mud the road there was made of cobblestones, cemented into place.

We first saw Castlemere from the top of a hill, rising up in front of us as we crested. It was a magnificent city and castle, huge concentric circular walls protected the city itself and at its heart was a huge imposing castle rising above even the outer walls. Each city wall was interrupted by pennant topped towers, imposing columns that extended even higher than the wall on which they were situated. We could make out cobblestone roads leading into two entrances into the outer wall and Malkarov informed me that there were another two entrances on the other side that we could not see.

"Do you mind if I call Shard?" I asked Malkarov, "I'd like her to see this."

Malkarov looked around to ensure that nobody was watching before he nodded. I sent out my mental call and felt her presence, and body appear behind me astride Aloise horse.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, "how pretty! What an impressive sight!"

"I'm glad you like it love," I said to her, twisting around to give her a kiss.

We continued riding towards the city, I loved feeling Shard's hands wrapped around my waist and her movements behind me, her whispered breath behind my ear and the coolness of her touch. Malkarov talked to us both; explaining different things about the city until, when we finally arrived I felt like I had already been there. There was a line of carts and caravans at the entrance to the city, with armoured guards holding poles tipped with wicked looking blades questioning everyone who passed through.

When we reached the front of the line, one of the guards asked Malkarov gruffly, "name and business?"

Malkarov replied in a polite but firm tone, "Malkarov, wizard of Easthaven, his apprentice Sharein of Easthaven and her companion Shard of Easthaven. We are here to brief the Chief War Wizard."

The guards, all of them, immediately stood up straight and raised their hands to their foreheads in a salute.

"Welcome to Castlemere, Wizard Malkarov!" Announced the guard we had been talking to.

With that, we were ushered through into the largest mass of people I had ever seen! There were people everywhere! Shouting and general noise was almost deafening, people were haggling over goods or were having shouted conversations with their neighbours. We rode slowly down the road, which was fairly wide but still felt crowded by the two or three story stone buildings that towered over each side. The ground floors were often shops of one sort or another with living quarters up above. The road curved slightly to the right and we soon came upon the second set of walls and another gate with guards. These ones weren't taking as much of a keen interest in the people passing through as the ones at the outer gate, merely giving everyone a cursory glance.

The 'Outer Ring', Malkarov explained, contained most of the shops, warehouses and business'. The 'Middle Ring' we had just entered contained most of the private residences, with some shops and business'. Inns in the Outer Ring, he explained were often of a poorer quality than those in the Middle Ring. The Inner Ring contained The Mages Guild to the west, The College of Mithras to the East, The Warriors Guild and Barracks (where the Kingdom's soldiers were trained and housed) to the South and the Nobles estates to the North. These four distinct areas wrapped around the main castle, separated by the four roads into Castlemere. To the south of the castle, where the roads converged, was the castle's gatehouse. Everything was built with stone for at least the bottom two stories. Often the third story of a building was wooden or a wattle and daub construction. Every so often we would see buildings where all three stories were stone. These buildings had stone blocks that seemed almost perfectly smooth. Malkarov explained that they would have hired a wizard with an Earth seeming to mould the blocks of stone. Once moulded, they would fit together perfectly allowing a stable building to be constructed that high.

The crowds in the Middle Ring were a bit thinner and the people seemed to be a little better dressed and less dirty. The guards protecting the Inner Ring gatehouse paid a lot more attention than those protecting the Middle Ring. These ones took note of our dress and gave Malkarov a salute as he passed by. The Inner Ring was much less crowded and much more bland. The people there were wearing much finer clothes, wizarding robes or priests robes. We took note of a group of four soldiers wearing yellow surcoats emblazoned with a sun symbol.

"Inquisitors of Light," Malkarov pointed out.

I looked behind me at Shard worriedly, but she merely smiled and whispered, "they won't be able to see me at the moment."

I held my breath when they walked past and one looked suspiciously past me, almost as if he could see Shard. He shrugged and continued on however and I continued to breath normally.

There weren't any shops or buildings to be seen, just large stone walls on either side. Looking forward I could see the walls of the castle and the main gatehouse. The stone walls on either side of us were for the two different compounds.

Malkarov explained that the compound to our left was the Fighters Guild and Barracks and I guessed aloud that the one to our right was the College of Mithras. The main entrance to the Fighters Guild compound was opposite the gatehouse on it's northern wall, while the entrance to the College was on it western wall. We reached the castle gatehouse, where another road converged from our right and together the road continued to the left. Looking right, I could see the entrance to the College where there were less people dressed like soldiers or wizards and more dressed as priests and nobles. We continued left, past the entrance to the Fighters Guild and Barracks. Their main double doors were open and as we passed I saw into a large courtyard where men and women were fighting each other with practice weapons, or firing arrows into targets with bows or crossbows. Past the Fighters Guild the road split again and we took the right hand path between the walls of the Mages Guild and the castle wall.

"Here we are!" Malkarov announced when we reached the Mages Guild's open double doors.

Inside the compound was beautiful. We entered into a wonderful garden. To our right stood a large tower stretching high up into the sky. A long rectangular building stretched out from it's bottom three stories. To our left was a long thin building that we immediately headed towards, which proved to be stables. Directly in front of the doors was another large three story building that Malkarov named 'The Library' and to the south was an extremely large four story building that housed accommodation. Malkarov explained that the tower held the Mages Guild council and great hall, while it's rectangular building held individual rooms for wizards to teach, experiment or practice in. Most spaces between buildings held gardens however, with paths twisting all throughout, small fountains and pools of water were interspersed among the trees and plants. Wizards sat on stone benches in the shade of trees reading, talking or debating. We passed two older wizards with long white beards on the way to the stable who were arguing over whether Werriska the Red or the Grand-Master Wizard was the stronger.

"Werriska," Malkarov said to them as he passed, with his cheeky smile, "but don't tell the Grand-Master that I said that."

The older (or at least the one with the longer beard) of the two started to turn around in anger, finger raised, until he saw who it was that had interrupted his argument.

"Malky!" He shouted, anger dissolved.

I snorted trying to hold in my laughter.

Shard didn't even try to hold hers in.

Malkarov turned to us with a look of betrayal and defeat, "don't you dare ever call me that, and I'll stop teaching you anything at all if you even breath it at Alladrial!"

"What are you doing here my lad?" The older wizard asked, "one of these two lasses must be your new apprentice, but surely you haven't had her long enough to be presented yet. Why, I only heard that you had started teaching her last tenday."

I watched the younger of the two beat a hasty retreat as soon as he noticed that the old wizard was completely distracted and smiled at the older people's antics.

"Sharein," Malkarov said and I dismounted to give the older wizard a curtsey, or as much of one as I could do in trousers, "this is the Wizard Yensa, Master Enchanter."

"It's a pleasure lass," the wizard said, bowing low so that his beard began to pile up on the ground, "hopefully you will share our affinity, but we shall see."

"The other is Shard, Sharein's companion on this journey," Malkarov continued and Shard sprung down with a grace that I envied to curtsey to the enchanter.

"A pleasure indeed," the wizard said to greet Shard.

"I've been called to brief the Chief War Wizard," Malkarov explained.

"Been getting yourself into mischief again?" Yensa asked.

Malkarov laughed, "No, this likely results from old mischief."

"You must come to visit me tonight, after supper, if you aren't busy," Yensa demanded.

"Of course," Malkarov deferred, "I've brought my notebooks and I would value your input on a couple of schemes."

"Excellent!" Declared the older wizard with an excitement and clapping of hands the belied his age, "I'll make sure to have a pot of chi on."

Yensa excused himself, telling us once again that it was a pleasure to meet us and we proceeded to hand our horses over to a couple of stablehands. Malkarov directed us towards the accommodation building, where we first paid a visit to a young clerk in a small office immediately upon entry. Malkarov signed a book and requested two adjacent rooms, the clerk filled out some forms and handed us two keys. The three of us trooped up to the third floor of the building via a set of stairs and Malkarov directed us to two oaken doors. Each door had a number painted on it, Malkarov handed me a key and pointed at the one with 304. There was a latch on the outside of the door, padlocked.

"You unlock the padlock from the outside and then use it to secure the door on the inside," he explained, "of course you needn't actually lock it on the inside, merely slip it through the latch."

I frowned, "what's stopping someone from putting something through the latch while I was inside?"

"Nothing," he replied with a laugh, "except the knowledge that they might do it to you in return?"

I unlocked my lock and together Shard and I entered our temporary accommodation.