Apprentice (The Black Mage, #2)(16)

"Are you sure they won't just try to break your boulder?" Ruth, the second-year Alchemy apprentice Ella, Alex, and I had befriended last year, spoke up. "The mentors have to know your casting won't hold forever – especially against their own magic."

"Caine is not going to sit around and wait," Jayson groaned. The fourth-year was huddled in the back of the cave, clutching his bleeding side as two second-year Restoration mentees attempted to treat it. The pained expression he wore made me squirm. "Darren is right – he's going to have at least some of his mentors scouting the gulch."

"We've got to do something," another fourth-year, Darla of Alchemy, said. "Before that barrier breaks and they trap us. We might have stood a chance in chariots but there is no way twenty of us can take on so many of them now. The mentors only lost one Combat mage, and she was a third-year. If we come across the mentors they will win in a matter of seconds."

"I think we should pick them off one-by-one."

Everyone's eyes flew to me. It was the first time I had spoken.

I forced myself to continue, uncomfortably aware of the attention – although this time at least it was not from Byron's insult. "You say we can't win… But you are wrong. We might be able to if we limit how many can enter the gulch at one time. It's how the northern regiment won Battle of Daggan's Peak thirty years ago." I had read all about it in the history scrolls during my first year at the Academy. I'd even cited it during my oral exam in an effort to impress the judges at the end-of-year trials.

"Ryiah is right." Ray's eyes met mine. "I read the same thing: most of the regiment's knights and mages were engaged in a patrol further north so the remaining soldiers were left to fend for themselves. They should have lost against the Caltothian knights but they ended up hiding in one of the old mining tunnels and picked off the enemy one by one since the passage only fit two men at a time."

A couple mentees nodded in agreement, but most of them still looked apprehensive.

"The gulch isn't a tunnel," a fourth-year spoke up. "It's just a very narrow valley with sandstone walls – it can still fit several mentors at once-"

"Yes, but that is only the entrance we came from – and our magic is blocking it." Darren was talking again. "If Caine sends scouts they will be forced to come around the southern side. The gulch is narrower there, and with so many dead ends it would be hard for them to know which one to take. If we can separate their scouts we should be able to pick them off more easily – as far as I know they haven't ascended the butte yet which means they won't have overhead knowledge of which route to take."

The tight pressure that had been building in my chest was starting to fall away. I was right. My plan could work.

Could it?

"How do you want us to do this, Darren?" Eve was staring at the prince's shoulder. I'd barely noticed it before but now I could see a huge gash in his linen shirt. The light fabric had burn marks and the exposed flesh underneath was a nasty shade of pink. One of the mentors must have used fire. I continued to stare at the burn, horrified.

My stomach rolled uncomfortably.

"Are you going to be sick?" Ella nudged me.

I swallowed the bile back and prayed my face wasn't as pale as it felt. "I'll manage."

Darren cleared his throat. "I want Restoration to stay here. All of you do your best to heal the injured party and anyone else we send back. There is no purpose in you risking safety now... Alchemy, I want you to guard the front entrance where Eve and I cast the boulder. It will be safer than patrolling, and all of you should have some experience with the sword in case the mentors are able to break it before we return. Jayson will stay with you – he's too injured to help Combat but at the very least he can keep watch.

"The rest of us will pick off mentor scouts from the southern entrance. We'll stay together until we can get a better idea of whom Caine is sending… It's a long shot, but if we can eliminate at least some of the Combat mentors we might just stand a chance."

"But what about you, Darren? Shouldn't you stay behind with the healers for that burn?"

"You're our leader – if you get caught it's over!"

Darren ignored the others' questions and then sighed. "I need to go with my faction. I would make Jayson too if he could walk. We are only second-years: if we come up against a fifth-year scout I need to know that we are giving it our best effort."





****





I descended the steep butte carefully. I was all too conscious of how risky it was too climb loose sandstone… but if Darren had done it then so could I. Someone had to, and thanks to my reputation for scaling a cliff during Combat's orientation last year I'd been the first choice now that our leader was injured.

When I reached my last foothold I jumped, landing lightly in the shallow canyon stream below. The rest of my year was waiting for me at its bank. Their expressions ranged from apprehension to anxiety.

"How many did you see?"

"Four. They were together but it looked like they were separating at the fork. One of them was Ian. I think another was Priscilla's mentor Bryce. They were headed toward a dead end. The other two were fifth-years and they were following this stream that leads to straight to our camp… I didn't see anyone else following, but it was hard to see past that crag."