The Jade Mage: The Becoming: Volume 1 (38 page)

“Passed!?
Passed!?
” Jeth said. He sounded truly shocked. “You haven’t passed until you’ve either been riddled with knives, or Elizabeth is taken out. What did you think? That this was some kind of oral exam?” Jeth’s sarcasm was back. He was clearly enjoying this. “In order to pass, you have to incapacitate Elizabeth. I know it won’t be as rewarding for you as taking my eye was, but it’s your choice. You could always drop your guard and die. Wouldn’t that be
romantic
!” Jeth sneered.

Tartum didn’t bother replying. He couldn’t afford the distraction. Elizabeth had redoubled her efforts. Clearly what Jeth had just said was truth, otherwise why would Elizabeth be trying so hard to kill him. Tartum did not want to hurt Elizabeth, but at the same time, he really didn’t want to be killed by her either. He had not brought any of his spell components with him, so casting was out of the question, but in all fairness, he doubted he would be able to get a spell off even if he had them. He thought about using his old light trick with his staff to distract her long enough for him to get to her, but the resulting drain on his magic to do it would get at least four daggers stuck in him. If not more! Magic wasn’t going to help him here, anymore than it already was.

Tartum saw no other options. He either made his way towards Elizabeth, and took her out or dropped his guard and allowed himself to be perforated by her knives. Neither option really sat well with him, but judging by the velocity and amount of knives she was sending at him, her choice had been made.

Fine then
. He told himself,
If she’s going to try to kill me, then I might as well try to beat her. So much for loyality
. He thought.

With his mind made up, Tartum began to advance. His staff was still a blur of green all around him, deflecting Elizabeth’s knives as fast as she could throw them. He was about six paces away from her now, and the amount of time he had to react to her knives was almost negligable. He knew he had to make his move soon, or she was going to kill him. Tartum had a hard time believing that even Vaund’s magic could revive him from the amount of wounds that would be inflicted on him should he fail this test.

Pulling as much magical power into himself as he dared, Tartum knocked away three more blades and lunged at Elizabeth. He used the momentem of his staff to break one of her hands and then punched her in the face. The blow was half hearted and only proved to daze her. It wasn’t enough to finish her off, but it did stop the incessant volley of knives. She looked up at him, holding her shattered hand. A small trail of blood was beginning to flow out of her nose where Tartum had hit her. He felt miserable. The feeling of victory he had when he bested Jeth was no where to be found. He couldn’t even bare to look at her, he was so ashamed. Turning to look at Jeth, Tartum spoke.

“It’s over, you bastard.” He said.

Jeth looked amused. “Oh, is it? She’s not out yet, and I don’t think she’s given up. You have to knock her out, at the very least.” He said.

Tartum shook his head in disagreement. “No Jeth, I will not hurt her anymore. Her hand is broke, her face is bleeding, and she can no longer fight. It’s over. Say that I’ve passed!” He was annoyed with Jeth’s game and his power over him. He wanted this to be over already. He wanted to hold Elizabeth close and apologize for what he’d been forced to do.

Jeth just sat there looking amused. “Oh, I don’t know, recruit. I think in a moment I’ll be able to get you to knock her on her ass.” Jeth looked throughly amused, and Tartum’s patience was at its end. He began to advance on Jeth, when he felt a cold, piercing pain lance through his leg. Turning to figure out what had caused it, Tartum saw one of Elizabeth’s black steel knives buried handle deep in the back of his leg. Looking up, he saw Elizabeth had another knife out and was about to fling it at him.

Tartum didn’t even realise he was moving until it was too late. He threw his staff at Elizabeth, hitting her square in the chest with the blunt mushroom top. The hit knocked the wind out of her and caused her to drop her knife. In two steps Tartum was on her and grabbed her hair with his left hand. Jerking her head, he slammed his fist into her face. She was out before she hit the floor.

Tartum stood over her crumpled body, too stunned by what he had just done to move. He just looked at her ruined face, trying to understand what had just happened. Behind him, Jeth chuckled.

“You have passed, recruit! Vaund, clean them up and let Lizzy know to move on to the next phase of his training when she can see straight again.” Jeth said, laughing the whole time.

“See? I knew I could make you do it!” Jeth called out as he walked out of the combat room.

...

It had been three days since Tartum had seen Elizabeth. Vaund had healed her wounds, but she hadn’t regained consciousness. Savall had arrived in the middle of Vaund healing her, and for a moment, Tartum thought he might kill him. The look of anger on his face was brief but undeniable. Tartum was so ashamed, he couldn’t bring himself to make eye contact with Savall. After Vaund had done all he could for her, Savall carried her back to her room.

With Savall and Elizabeth gone, Vaund had turned his attention to Tartum. With the exception of the knife in his leg, he was unharmed physcially. Emotionally, well that was another story. Vaund told Tartum she would be alright and that she would understand. He told him that Elizabeth had been doing this for a long time and knew the risks that came with training, better than he did. Vaund made numerous, heart felt assurances. None of it helped. Tartum felt terrible. After Vaund healed his leg, Tartum went to his room. He stayed there with no one but Buddy as company. He only left to eat, and visit Elizabeth’s room. She hadn’t answered the door when he knocked, and Tartum figured Vaund had been wrong. He decided Elizabeth wanted nothing to do with him anymore. The thought numbed him to his core.

Tartum was studying his spellbook. It was all he currently had to do. Savall and Jeth were gone, Rashlarr wasn’t taking visitors, and Vaund had strangely disappeared. Other than some random guild members, Tartum was left to his own devices. He thought about leaving the compound and going into town. It would be nice go out and forage for some fresh spell components, but he had a bad feeling if he was found out, not only would he kicked out of the guild, but probably thrown back into the Null Box and left to die. Banishment he could deal with, death he could deal with, having his magic taken from him again, that was something no amount of freedom was worth.

He was absently petting Buddy while studying, when a change in Buddy’s mood broke his concentration. Elizabeth had shown him all the tricks she had taught Buddy, and one of the more useful ones was guard dog. With a command, Buddy was on alert and would only let either himself or Elizabeth past the door to his room. Anyone else that tried would get a seventy pound white hot ball of canine terror on their throat. It was immensely satisfing to have a dog like buddy watching over his room when he was away, and just as satisfying to have him watch his back while living in a place dedicated to stealth, stealing, and assassination.

Buddy jumped up, but instead of attacking, he got excited. Coming out of his trance took a moment and when his eyes finally focused, he saw Elizabeth standing in the doorway. She had a grin on her face that caused Tartum’s heart to race, and she was in her usual tight black leather outfit. She looked a little tired and was holding a ratty looking, worn, wooden box. Tartum jumped to his feet.

“Elizabeth! I’m so sorry! I didn’t want...” Tartum began. Elizabeth’s smile got bigger, and she held up a hand to stop him. Shaking her head, she spoke.

“I know, Sweetheart, I know. It’s ok. It was a part of the training, and it was as hard for me as it was for you.” As she said the last part, she gave him a wink. “Or are you still mad at me for putting my little, bity, knife in your leg. You did punch me, afterall!” She pouted.

Overcome with relief, Tartum was over to her in a second. Picking her up off the floor, Tartum kissed her with all the passion three days of guilt had stored up. They spent the next few hours making up for lost time.

CHAPTER 15

“So where have you been the past few days?” Tartum asked as they lay in bed together.

Elizabeth was playfully nipping at his neck. The feeling was pure bliss. She purred her answer to him. “What do you think, Sweetheart? All I do here is train recruits? I was on a mission. Just like you’ll go on when your training is complete. Which I’m really looking forward to. It’ll be nice to have some magical back up.”

Her statement brought a realization to Tartum that he had forgotten. He was so wrapped up in his training, and struggling to survive it, that he hadn’t thought about what he was going to be doing after it was all completed. “What can you tell me about the missions, babe?” Tartum asked.

Elizabeth giggled, “Nothing really. We go out, take what were sent to get, bring it back to a drop off location or just back to Savall. No two missions are alike, but they’re always exciting. In fact, look what I brought.” Elizabeth rolled out of bed and walked over to the box she had thrown on the table when their love making had started.

Tartum loved to look at her naked body. The grace she moved with, the sway, the way her curves and muscles all moved together. She was the embodiment of lust and desire. She was an angel,
his
angel. He had never been so in love his entire life. Picking up the box, she turned and saw him looking at her. Her grin got bigger, and she put her hand on her hip. “What are you looking at, pervert?!” she teased.

Sauntering over to him, she jumped back under the covers and favored him with a quick kiss. Then pushing away his probing hands, she presented him with the box. There wasn’t anything interesting about it. It was old and poorly made. The wood was beat up and there were cracks and chunks missing from it. The only significant thing about the box was the brass lock on the front of it. It was heavily scratched and dented. It looked like someone had tried, numerous times, to open it and failed. Tartum shook the box but heard nothing inside. Confused, he looked at Elizabeth.

“What am I supposed to do with this?” he asked.

Elizabeth playfully thumped him on the head. “You casters never see past your own nose. You’re going to learn how to pick the lock, sweetie!” with that, she slipped out of bed and started putting her clothes back on. Intrigued, Tartum got himself up and put on his clothes. Never in his life had the thought occurred to him to learn how to pick locks. Now that the option was available, he found himself very excited at the prospect.

The task was simple. Use the lock picks to open the box. It was as simple as that. Elizabeth had explained that in order to pick a lock, you had to insert the tool that looked like a pick into the top of the keyhole and then insert a thicker tool that looked like a file into the bottom. The pick tool was used to adjust the weighted tumblers inside the lock until you felt them shift into place. Once all the tumblers were in place you used the file tool to turn the lock while holding the tumblers in place with the pick tool. If you did everything correctly, the lock would open quick and smooth. If you failed to do it correctly, or moved to hastily, the picks could get caught and break off inside the lock. This would destroy the lock and any hope you had of getting inside it.

Tartum watched Elizabeth intently. She put in the pick and file tool and unlocked the box within seconds. Then, just as quickly, she would relock the box and shoot him one of her gorgeous grins. After three or four demonstrations, Elizabeth handed the tools to him. “Your turn, Sweetie!” she said.

Tartum was thrilled. It looked so easy! Inserting the pick and file into the lock Tartum began to feel his way around. He was able to discern that there were three tumblers inside; he was also able to get them to shift into place relatively easy. It took him a few tries to get the hang of turning the pick and file tools simultaneously, but once he did it became second nature. After about five minutes of tinkering with the lock Tartum heard a satisfying
“click”
and the box opened. Now it was Tartum’s turn to shoot Elizabeth a grin. When he turned to look at her, he found her looking at him with her mouth hanging open; a bewildered look of amazement in her eyes.

“Tartum...Sweetie...” she started, “Have you ever done this before?” she gave him an accusatory look.

Tartum was a little put off by her question. “Um, no. Why? Did I do it wrong?” Tartum was very confused by her reaction.

Elizabeth still looked confused and took the lock pick tools from Tartum. Inserting them back into the lock, she relocked the box, then thrust the tools back into Tartum’s hands. “Do it again. Let’s see if you’re really that good or if it was luck.” Elizabeth challenged him.

Still confused but eager to try his hand at this new skill again, Tartum reinserted the tools and after about a minute, he was able to unlock the box. Just to add insult to injury, he quickly relocked and unlocked the box. With a smile, Tartum held up his tools. “Anything else around here you need me to unlock, babe?”

Elizabeth just stood there and smiled. Favoring Tartum with a quick kiss Elizabeth said; “Sweetheart, I do believe you are a natural!”

Over the next few days, Elizabeth brought numerous boxes to Tartum. Each box was significantly more difficult to unlock. Each had more tumblers than the next, or the tumblers were harder to shift into place due to age or grime. Elizabeth even tried distracting him by slapping him on the butt or screaming at a particularly crucial moment. None of it swayed him, however, and after a few minutes with each lock, Tartum mastered it. Elizabeth had never been more impressed with a recruit. As such, she rewarded Tartum’s skill each night. He was enjoying this training immensely. After a few days of lock picking and debauchery, Elizabeth showed up to his room with a green box and Vaund. Tartum was immediately on edge.