The Magician's Apprentice (40 page)

Dakon nodded.
Because it reflects the grim reality of war. A shame it took that to make us question how we train our magicians.

Stara found she was pacing the room again and stopped. She clenched her fists and turned to Vora.

“How long am I going to be cooped up in here? It’s been two weeks! The only time I’ve seen my father was the night he entertained his guests. Why doesn’t he come to see me, or grant me a visit?”
Isn’t he at all interested in knowing how I am?
she wanted to add.
In spending time with me? In finding out if I felt anything – liking, hate, indifference – for my prospective husband?

Vora shrugged. “Master Sokara is very busy, from what I have heard among the slaves, mistress. A load of dyes sent to Elyne has disappeared. And the troubles the ichani are making in Kyralia have lost him some buyers in Elyne too.”

Stara stared at the slave woman. “Mother has lost goods and trade? Do you know how bad it is?”

“That is all I heard. Except that your father is trying to make deals here to make up for his loss there.”

“
His
loss?” Stara sniffed. “She does all the work in Elyne.” She began to pace the room again. “If only he would
talk
to me. Not knowing what is going on is driving me mad!” Stopping, she looked around the room and scowled. “I’m sick of these walls. If I can’t see him, I will go out. Is there a market in the city?” She stopped. “Of course there is. Even if I have no coin to spend, I can at least find out what I might buy in future. And I might learn more about the situation in Elyne.” She moved to the chest she knew Vora kept her capes in, and opened it.

“You can’t leave, mistress,” Vora said. “Not without his permission.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. I’m a grown woman, not a child.” Stara selected the least garish cape and swung it around her shoulders.

“That is not how things are here,” Vora told her. “You need guards and the protection of a male. I could ask Master Ikaro if—”

“No.” Stara cut her off. “Leave my brother out of this. I’ll take some slaves. And a covered wagon. If anyone asks, we can tell people my father is in it but doesn’t want to speak to anyone. Or my brother.” She knotted the ties of the cape and started towards the door. Vora hurried after her and she felt a tug. Cloth bunched up behind her back came loose and rustled down to her ankles. “Thank you,” she murmured to the woman. “And stop arguing with me. I’m going. We’re going. If something happens I’ll just . . .” She paused and finished silently, _zap them with magic. _”We’ll be fine, I promise. As Elyne traders like to say, all you need in life is confidence, knowledge and a lot of bluff.”

Ten minutes later she and Vora were in a covered wagon rolling out of the mansion and into the streets of the city, with four burly slave men as protectors and one as a driver.

“See?” Stara said. “Nobody stopped us.”

“This isn’t very fair on the slaves,” Vora told her disapprovingly. “They will be punished.”

“For obeying orders? Surely Father wouldn’t be that cruel.”

Vora’s eyebrows rose, but she said nothing.

Yet disappointment diminished Stara’s triumph at getting out of the mansion without opposition. She would rather her father had emerged to prevent her, so she could have asked him about trade and her mother. Sighing, she leaned back in the seat of the wagon and watched the high white walls move past.

Is all the city like this?
she wondered.
I don’t have many memories of Arvice. Maybe I never went out. I can’t imagine Mother wanting to be cooped up inside all the time. But I suppose that might have been part of the reason she hated it here. Maybe it wasn’t all to do with Father having to be mean to his slaves.

Maybe he had had to be mean to her, to make her comply with Sachakan ways. Stara felt her stomach sink. If that was so, he would probably be the same to her. And any man he chose to be her husband. She shuddered.
I have to find a way to avoid being married off. And then convince him I can work for him in some way.

She began to imagine herself finding him new customers at the market. It was highly unlikely, she knew, but the idea kept her entertained as they travelled. Then the scene outside the wagon changed so suddenly that it took her a moment to grasp what she was seeing.

The white walls fell away, and then they were crossing a wide avenue, giving her a view down avenues of perfectly shaped trees and beds of brightly coloured flowers to a grand building. Instantly she recognised the white curved walls and domes of the Imperial Palace from pictures and paintings – and perhaps even a twinge of memory.

There isn’t a straight wall in the whole place
, she remembered her father saying.
You go around and round and it’s easy to get lost – which is the point. Anybody trying to invade would be utterly confused. The walls are very thick, but I’ve heard they’re hollow and defenders can unplug holes and attack intruders from inside.

Just as abruptly, the wagon reached the opposite road and the view of the palace was replaced by boring high walls again. Stara closed her eyes and held on to the memory of the palace for a moment, and the feeling of love and connection with her father. It faded slowly and was replaced by anxiety and sadness.

Perhaps if I had lived with him all my life things would be different. But then I wouldn’t have known my mother. Or enjoyed so many freedoms. Or learned magic.

The wagon turned and slowed to a stop, and as it did, muffled through the cloth walls of the canopy came the sound of voices mixed with the twitter and snort of animals combined with the clang and creak of metal and wood. Stara looked at Vora.

“The market?”

Vora nodded. “You should take two slaves, mistress.”

Wrinkles of worry and a shadow of fear in Vora’s eyes made her look even older than her years, Stara saw. “Should we go at all?” she asked.

The woman’s lips pressed together and her eyes flashed with annoyance and perhaps a little defiance. “Go back now, mistress? That would be a waste of a trip.”

Stara smiled and called out to the guards to open the flap.

Emerging, she saw that the market was surrounded by yet another high white wall. The entrance was a plain archway. Guards stood on either side, but their expressions were of boredom and they ignored Stara, Vora and the two slave guards passing through into the noise and bustle inside.

At once Stara noticed that there were other women there. Wearing capes, as she was, they were each accompanied by a man, though she saw one chaperon who was so young she’d have called him a boy if it weren’t for the spotty skin on his forehead. Reassured, she strolled slowly up and down the rows of permanent stalls, looking at the wares and the prices, and often seeing women and children huddled or working in the dim rear of each stall.

There were traders of many races here. Dark-skinned Lonmar in their drab clothes selling dried fruit and spices. Pale, tall Lans covered in skin drawings offering up all manner of things made of carved bone. Squat brown Vindo were most frequently seen, selling a range of wares from all around the region. A few Elynes were selling wines and the bitter drink Stara had gained a taste for, sumi.

There were no Kyralians, she noted. A few grey-skinned men wearing only short skirts of cloth were selling gemstones.

“Who are they?” she asked Vora.

“Duna,” Vora replied. “Tribesmen from the ash desert in the north.”

As she walked around the market, examining goods and fending off sellers with a polite smile and a shake of her head, she listened to the talk, moving closer if she saw two traders in conversation. She caught half-hearted curses aimed at the ichani who were disrupting trade with Kyralia. Some enthused about the opportunities that would come once Kyralia was conquered. Others worried that the ichani would then turn on the emperor and throw Sachaka into a war with itself.

Stara thought about the opinions of her father’s guests. They had argued that Sachaka had been heading for an internal battle already.

Trust my luck to end up in Sachaka at the wrong time.

As she and Vora turned a corner she saw a man glance at them, then give Vora a second look. His gaze immediately moved back to Stara and he smiled. She gave him a polite but distant nod, lowered her eyes and continued past.

She was amused to find her heart was beating a little faster, and not because she felt threatened.
What a handsome man! Really, if father chose him as a husband for me I’d have a hard time refusing.

After a moment she glanced over her shoulder. Vora tugged on her arm, but not before Stara saw that the man was still watching her.

“Stop it!” the woman muttered. “He’ll take it as an invitation.”

“An invitation for what?” Stara asked. Was there any way a woman could have a lover here in Sachaka? Probably not after marriage, but she wasn’t married yet…

“To talk to you,” Vora hissed. She pulled Stara round the next corner.

“Just talk? What’s wrong with that?”

Vora gave a short sigh of exasperation, her gaze flicking about at all the people. “I can’t tell you here, mistress. Until you learn who it is safe to talk to, you shouldn’t speak to anyone. You may end up conversing with one of your father’s enemies, or offending one of his allies.”

“How am I going to learn who it is safe to talk to, when I never meet anybody?”

“I will tell you the names and families.” Vora frowned and glanced over her shoulder. As she did so, the handsome man stepped out of a stall a few steps ahead of them. He turned and smiled as he saw Stara again. “There is much for you to learn. We will get to—.”

“Forgive me, but would you be the daughter of Ashaki Sokara?”

Stara smiled and nodded. “I am.”

“Then I am honoured to meet you,” the man said. “I am Ashaki Kachiro. My house is next to yours, on the southern side.”

“Oh, you are our neighbour, then.” She glanced at Vora, who was keeping her eyes to the ground. “I am Stara – and honoured to meet you, too, Ashaki Kachiro.”

“I see you have not bought anything,” Kachiro said. “Does nothing here please you?”

“I am merely looking to see what is available. It is interesting to note the products that are hard to find in Capia but plentiful here, and the opposite, as well as the differences in prices.” As she stepped up to a stall he moved aside to let her past, then fell into step beside her. She was amused to find herself flattered by this. _I’m getting more attention from him these last few moments than I’ve had from my father since arriving. _”Clearly some wares are too prone to spoiling to be a viable market item, but there are some trinkets here I think would sell well in Capia.”

“You have an interest in trade, then?”

“Yes. My mother taught me to help her with the Elyne end of Father’s trade.”

She was sure that did not give away too much. She had kept her and her mother’s involvement vague. If Sachakan men did not like dealing with women, saying that her mother ran part of her father’s business might humiliate him and turn customers off.

“Can I ask which trinkets you believe would sell?”

She smiled. “You can ask, but I would be a fool to answer.”

He chuckled. “I can tell you are no fool.”

Feeling a tug on her arm, she sobered. To completely ignore Vora’s warnings would be foolish, too.

“It is lovely to meet you, Ashaki Kachiro; but I must return home now. I hope we will meet again in future.”

He nodded, looking thoughtful. As she began to turn away, he took a small step towards her.

“I, too, am about to leave. Since we are neighbours …I invite you to return with me, in my wagon. It is safer for a woman to travel with company – even in the city – and I would hate to see you come to harm.”

Stara hesitated. Was it safer to refuse or accept? Would it be rude to turn him down? The chat had been nice, but she wasn’t so susceptible to a good-looking and charming man that she’d jump into his wagon at the first invitation. She glanced at Vora. To her surprise, the woman looked undecided. Then Vora gave a small nod followed by a warning look. Stara turned back to Kachiro.

“May my slave travel with me?”

“Of course. And I am sure you will want your wagon to follow.”

“Then I accept, Ashaki Kachiro.”

The conversation remained reassuringly comfortable as they strolled out of the market, gave their orders and then settled into his wagon. He was flatteringly interested in her life in Elyne and appeared impressed by her knowledge of trade, and wasn’t coy about his own life and business. She had learned a little about yellowseed crops and the uses for the oil by the time they arrived at the door to her father’s mansion.

He stopped there, however, and politely escorted her and Vora to their wagon before continuing on to his own house. As the slaves drove them through the gates Stara gave Vora a questioning look.

“So. Why didn’t he come inside?”

Vora brow was wrinkled, but she looked only a little worried. “Ashaki Sokara doesn’t like him much, mistress. I don’t know why. He’s not an enemy or an ally.” Her lips thinned. “Expect him to be displeased, though.”

“What’s he likely to do? Stop me leaving again?”

“Probably, but he would have anyway.”

Stara considered that, and how she might convince her father otherwise, as they climbed out and entered the mansion. Had she learned anything from Kachiro that might be of interest to him? She didn’t think so. Unless he needed to know about yellowseed.

As they neared her rooms she found she was pleasantly tired and looking forward to relaxing for the afternoon.

“That was just what I needed,” she told Vora. “A change of surroundings, some fresh air, and—” She stopped as she realised someone was standing in her room. Her father. His face was dark with anger.

“
Where have you been?
”

She paused before answering, registering the fury in his voice but catching herself before she could flinch.
I am a twenty-five-year-old woman, not a child
, she reminded herself.

“To the market, Father,” she told him. “But there’s no need to fuss. I didn’t buy anything.”