Fly Away, Part IV
Roshil didn’t sleep that night. As soon as curfew ended, she went straight to the forge. She let herself into Master Grund’s office and waited there for him. She didn’t care if she got into more trouble.
When Master Grund got there, he looked at her with faked confusion.
“Strange. I thought I locked that door, and I don’t remember you having a key.”
She put the bracelets on his desk. Then she told him what she’d done.
When she’d finished, there was silence. Gut wrenching silence. She still felt sick. She’d lost her best friend, and in all likelihood, she was about to lose her apprenticeship.
“Do you feel small right now?” Master Grund’s voice was level, calm, but carefully so. She’d almost have preferred yelling.
Roshil nodded.
“Foolish? Insignificant?”
Again, she nodded, trying and failing to stop her tears. She could almost feel the wings on her back carrying her away.
“Then I suppose I don’t need to yell at you. To lecture you about what you did. Despite my explicit orders to the contrary. To explain why it was stupid of you to not only break the rules of the castle, but to disobey me.”
“Is my apprenticeship over?”
Master Grund didn’t say anything. He glared at her, making her feel even more small and foolish than she already did. She wanted to beg for forgiveness, but it wouldn’t do her any good. She’d hurt Aonva while disobeying Master Grund. Two of the most important people in her life, and the others would be disappointed in her.
“No. But I’m revoking your free reign privileges.”
“My what?”
“Didn’t know about free reign privileges? Without them, it’s a bit like being grounded. You no longer have free time. You will do what I say when I say it. You are not to use the furnaces unsupervised. You will go right from your room to the places I say. You will not dawdle. You will allow yourself to be supervised by myself or another master at all times. Is that understood?”
“Yes, Master Grund.”
“If you need the library, the librarian will watch you. If you need the bathroom, someone will walk with you. If you want to go to temple, Master Moudren or one of her people — not Apprentice Sirshi — will keep you under supervision. You will stay in class until I come to fetch you. Getting the idea?”
“Yes, Master Grund.”
She kept her head bowed. She was glad for it; she didn’t want to see his face. The silence he let reign over them was unbearable.
“Do you know how apprentices are chosen?”
“I applied, then… um… not really, Master Grund.”
“The family applies, choosing a specific specialization, by the child’s 12th birthday. The officer for that specialization reviews the application and meets with the applicant, more than once if necessary. If the child is deemed acceptable — if the officer believes that they are capable of living in service of the court — then the council votes on it. In most cases, that’s a formality. The council rarely votes against an applicant, but sometimes, there’s a problem. Sometimes, the council ends up split. In rare cases, His Majesty has to break a tie among the officers.”
Roshil had a sense of where this was going, but she didn’t dare interrupt.
“Three of us in favor, three of us against. That was your situation. I argued in favor of letting you in. I stuck my neck out for you, I fought for you, and this…” He stopped talking for a moment when his voice rose. “His Majesty gave you his trust. This court gave you its trust. I gave you my trust. And you repaid that trust by enchanting another apprentice. Now, you’re out of favors. I will not defend you again against anyone in this court. So if you slip up again, then your apprenticeship will be over. And that’s the way it’s going to be until I feel you’ve been redeemed. Understood?”
“Yes, Master Grund.”
Roshil’s voice was barely a whisper. She felt nothing except shame.
“What was that?”
“Yes, Master Grund!” She jumped to attention and faced him.
“Good.” He held out his hand. “Lock picks.”
She reached into one of her pouches, took out the lock pick set, and handed it to him. He stowed them in a pouch of his own, then held out his hand again.
“Identification orb.”
She pulled out the small bauble from another pouch and handed it to him.
He took out his own orb and held it to hers. He muttered something she couldn’t hear, then handed it back to her.
“This will notify me if you’re ever away from a master. When that happens, you have exactly ten seconds to fix that before I arrive and drag you out of this castle. This applies to everywhere within the court that isn’t your room. Do you understand?”
“Yes, Master Grund.”
“If you ever feel that this punishment is too harsh, if you ever feel that you aren’t cut out to serve the court and every single living thing in it, if you feel that you can’t put aside your own wants for the good of the people, then you know how to leave. But until then, get back to work.”
Master Grund pointed to the door, and she walked through it. The forge looked different now. It wasn’t her haven of safety, her wonderland of possibilities. It was her prison. She was chained to it. But when she thought of Aonva, she knew she deserved this. She’d hurt her best friend, all because she thought she was losing her friends. Now she really had lost her friends, and it was all her fault. Whatever punishment she got, she’d earned it.
No one will ever love you.
The dragon had been right. No matter how hard Roshil tried, no one would love her, and there was nothing she could do about it.
“Next lesson,” Master Grund said, holding up the bracelets. “Safely disposing of enchanted items. It’s not safe to melt them down, because we don’t know what idiot enchanted them, nor what side effects they might produce that said idiot didn’t think about when she enchanted them. So first, you have to remove the enchantment. Pay attention.”
And for once she did.