Waking Olympus (The Singers of the Dark Book 1) (2 page)

Master Samuel sometimes visited but he had never come this early before. There was usually a period of grace after the apprentice had left mentoring and before beginning work on a small project, under the watchful eye of a Major. He had expected to have a month off. He guessed the visit was social and was very glad to see his teacher so soon, there were so many things to talk about.

“Master Samuel. How are you? What brings you out here?”

“Hello, Mikel. I am fine. How are you young
Wizard
?” He smiled as he emphasized that last word with his resonant voice.

“But I’m not …”

“Pah! The apprenticeship is a formality, you've already turned in work that would have earned your medallion, several times over I think, and just call me Samuel from now on, you know those formalities get in the way.” He grinned.

“I'm going out today with some friends. But I've got so many things to talk to you about. Theory and some experiments. I have had some great ideas …”

Samuel interrupted him, “Sorry Mikel, it will have to wait. I'm sure they are good ideas and normally I would like to hear them, however I have come on official business." He stood up as if to impress on the boy the seriousness of the message. "I have come to bring you to a meeting with the Council. They have some urgent things to discuss with you."

He saw the worried look on Mikel’s face. The lad probably thought they were going to take away his advancement and bust him down to year one or even kick him out of the College.

“Don’t worry, they just have an important task they would like you to do. We must go to the Center Main Hall by eleven this morning. If you do this well, and I have no doubt you will, then I think they will promote you directly to Wizard. And I don't think it is urgent enough for you to miss breakfast.” He smiled reassuringly.

They sat and talked, shared some roasted shellfish that Mikel had cooked. He wanted to talk about ideas, theories, technological applications, and friends, but there was no time. Samuel looked up at the sun. "Ah, Mellis is getting a bit high must be almost nine. We have to get going."

Mikel didn’t have a clock, well he did make an improved water clock but lost interest after he saw some of the newer clockwork mechanisms. Some of the Wizards were using them to do computations, that possibility fascinated him, next to that the water clock looked uninspiring. About nine? The position of the sun seemed about right.

They took the northwest track, over grassy hills not yet rehabilitated into forest, met with Dmytri, and told him about the change of plans, then they headed for town.

Lind is the largest island of the Farrel Archipelago. The other islands stretch out to the northwest with decreasing size. The geology is a bit odd since the island chain is not volcanic and appears to be made of continental rocks. The archipelago itself is thought to be the remains of a small sunken continent that was subjected to sea level change. The surrounding seas seem to support that idea, they are shallow and a rich source of fish. Dried fish was in the hard early years of the islands a vital food source and export. These days manufactured goods tended to get most of the interest but fishing is still important.

The islands are mostly covered by rainforest with the main island of Lind suffering extensive deforestation in the past, which only now was being corrected. There are farms and settlements on all of the major islands with certain islands specializing in produce and manufacture. Lind itself has the Center and the Larc.
 

The Center is the administrative, political and academic capital of Lind. The Larc, to those who dig deeper, is the Lind Advanced Research Center, and that is about all that anyone will admit to knowing about it. The name 'Lind' is often used synonymously with the political entity, the Center, though usually it refers to all of the inhabited islands of the archipelago. Many people tend to use Center and Lind interchangeably, even locals do it, adding to the confusion.

To the west lie the islands of Gowss, Laplas and Newton, with other much smaller islands named Alpha, Beta and so on. Beyond Epsilon Island is the Unknown Sea, believed impassable.

This was Mikel's Unofficial Lind Tourist Guide; unofficial because he would get into enormous trouble if he mentioned the Larc in any document, so it existed solely in his head.
 

Mikel knew all this having absorbed it at a ferocious speed since he had come to the island as a frightened, heartbroken orphan. He had been to Gowss and Laplas but they didn't count for seagoing experience, the water was shallow and usually calm. There were some islands that were off limits. You needed special permission to go to Newton but he didn't know why.

When they finally reached the Hall he saw an ancient building constructed out of a strange gray stone. He had seen it so many times since he came to his new home yet it had never lost its mystery. Rescued from slavers, he had been so very lucky; sometimes he had flashes from those times before, sad and painful memories that he could never quite hold onto, like a dream that offends our sense of 'real' so much that we banish it.

He had never set foot inside the Main Hall, the tough guards on the outside were the reason for that, though now they didn't seem as big or tough as they once did; especially when you knew them by their first names. Still, it was such a strange building, even after all the times he had seen it from the outside, and it was old, you could see that it was crumbling in places yet it remained sturdy.

Samuel and Mikel stood before the building while Mikel built up his nerve.

"Mikel, I cannot come in with you. You must go alone. Chin up. I will talk to you after." Samuel left, walking slowly down the road, every step making Mikel feel more alone.

He approached the nearest of the two uniformed guards who were seated under a shaded canopy, a slight breeze blowing the faded blue tassels, rippling sine waves traveling along the canopy edge enticing him into a comforting world of mathematics.

“Apprentice Mikel Peres to see the Council”. He almost stuttered, he had never met anyone from the Council.

The guard was an old friend, Nils, a kindly aging fellow who always radiated good cheer, though he tried to act stern, it was probably the reason he was selected for the job. He wore a very uninspiring blue uniform and hat with ragged gold trim, he looked Mikel up and down from his chair as if he had never seen him before.

“All right, Mikel. Wil can escort you inside. None of your usual shenanigans either, this is one place where curiosity really will kill the cat. Understand?”

Wil was always cheerful enough, but Mikel could never get away with anything with him. He had eyes like a hawk and seemed to sense the mischief in the students before they knew it themselves.

The guards had known him since he was a youngster, flitting through the wide, dusty, sun-drenched mostly empty streets when he had finished his day in the college. Always on the way to some adventure; usually ending up getting back to the dorms late.
 

Inside the building it was dark as night despite it being lit by the most sophisticated lamp technology and perhaps more. He thought he had made out some devices using the new gas lighting; he so wanted to investigate but he had to behave himself here. Wil handed him over to a new guard who he did not know.
 

“Follow me.” The guard said in an unfamiliar deep voice.
 

His eyes weren’t given time to adapt, he had to follow immediately.

“Why didn’t they angle more external light inwards?” he said to no-one in particular. He knew his guide would not answer. He was just analyzing to distract himself.

He thought if they had shafts that could let in light they wouldn’t have to light it artificially, or at least as much. Master Torrens had built perfect mirrors years ago so the technology wasn’t new, only expensive. They would only work at certain times of the day so that wouldn’t solve the problem. Then he remembered when he and Alice found an outcrop of mica and played with it. He thought if he could insert small flakes of it into a paint then he could paint a tunnel to conduct light which would bounce off the reflecting mica flakes. That got him thinking.
 
A light pipe? That would have interesting properties and uses. What would it look like with mirrors? What would be its limitations? How small could it be? Could it be a solid rod of glass using total internal reflection? He took every opportunity to glimpse down side corridors hoping to catch a glimpse of one of the rumored miracles, he didn't see any of the experimental electric lighting that some whispered about, so perhaps it was still in R & D at the Larc.

Walking down the dim halls he still felt an irrational desire to explore. Who knew what lay in some of the dark corners of this place. But he was being led now by one of the guards from just inside the door. The guide wasn’t day-blinded and therefore had a great deal of control over Mikel and where he went. By the time his eyes had adjusted he had entered into a somewhat semi-circular room with tiers of seating. Like the contoured maps Master Marnath had devised, he vividly remembered her presentation of them. Here the contours formed a half of a descending cone narrowing to where a speaker dais stood. Once there had been attachments for seating through the room, but now it was just rock and cushions. The place had been designed for acoustical reasons, he looked about to see how echoing in the chamber was being controlled. Above natural lighting came in through a bank of windows which seemed to use the latest in glass technology.

“Young Wizard! Come and sit.”

“I’m not …” He started to say.

Mikel turned in the direction of the voice and saw a gray haired man standing by the dais. His voice had sounded far more powerful than he looked. The room was almost empty except for about a dozen men and women seated in the front row. Then he saw the purple cloaks clearly. Elder Wizards.

They patiently waited while he walked the short distance to a chair placed before them. Sitting down he was now face to face with the Elder Wizards. Close up their robes didn't seem quite so fancy, and they didn't seem quite so lordly, but they did have control over his future so they deserved respect.

Master Sorgi was the one who had spoken and Mikel knew that Sorgi did not like sitting, he thought better when walking. It was common knowledge that in public ceremonies Master Sorgi would not stay seated. But he was the Master Wizard, not just
a
Master but
the
Master, so no one was about to tell him to sit down. Meeting the Master Wizard was like meeting Zeus.

Why was he of all people talking to Mikel?

“Apprentice Mikel Peres. I know this is not normal procedure. I beg your indulgence. Although you are not scheduled to begin your work as an apprentice until a full-month has elapsed an urgent matter has come up. Unfortunately, we need your services immediately. However, to make up for that, upon successful completion of this task you will be advanced to Wizard ranking. We will also arrange for an extended period of supported research after your mission as compensation.”

“I serve the Truth and the Way,” he responded, mostly by instinct.

“Yes, yes. We know that.” The Master said. “No need for those first year platitudes now.” He said, annoyed.

“Right now we need your perceptive and insightful view of things. We need you to be a seemingly casual observer, you have a knack for seeing things others don’t. We need that. Ah, I’m getting ahead of myself. You know the Traders of the Plains? The plains that stretch east from Bethor into unknown territory in the east of Arva?"

“Yes, I know of them, but not really much about either the Traders or the Plains.”
 

“Exactly our situation. We have only ancient records of them. The Traders could be valuable — trading partners, we often have occasional contact with them but we don't have any substantial information. We need some preliminary information before we send a trade mission. I have a contact name amongst the Traders, it is a simple task though we need someone guileless who won't be thought of as a threat. We want background information about their culture and trade routes, be careful, we don't want to upset them. There has been a fair amount of foolish mistrust by both sides in the past that we are only now overcoming. Do as they ask and it should be trivial.”

“Now, about your primary goal, which must remain secret. We have lost two of our agents in Bethor during the last month. We have no idea what has happened to them or why. We don’t want you to be an agent, you are simply to listen to rumors and ask about anything interesting you come across. Naturally, if you find anything of personal interest record it and bring it back as well for our archives. We are hoping that as an apprentice no one will consider you worth troubling. Finding information about the Plains is your cover story but still important. Finding out about what is happening in Bethor is critical. Just be eyes and ears and report back.”

Mikel thought about it for a moment. “My inexperience probably counts against me since I am not familiar with the customs of the Traders, or even Bethor.”

“True. But we don't want a seasoned traveller, we want someone who can see the situation in Bethor without bias. We also want you to evaluate what you hear around Bethor and to try and verify it, as a mere Apprentice people will understand your curiosity and incessant questions. Someone older and more seasoned will look like a spy.”

That spoilt any sense of adventure he might have had. He hadn’t considered that possibility.
 

“What kind of
information
do you want me to gather?” He was getting worried that this entire venture seemed ad hoc. No planning. So unlike the Wizards. Was he being chosen because he was so expendable?

"As I said, just
eyes and ears
. Report what you see and hear. The cover mission, your meeting with the Traders about trade routes, is less important but is also required, we need that information. We have a contact who can quickly supply you with that information. Do you agree to this? Once committed you cannot back out."