The Apprentice (37 page)

“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 innocent, 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 they 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.