Guild Mage: Apprentice-Chapter 128 - 127. Chandrika Tiwari

Liv was working her way up to 'my name is' in Dakruiman when General Mishra arrived with a freshly rested cohort of ksatriya to relieve the men who'd been guarding her wall of ice while it slowly melted. They were far enough underground, now, that like the mines beneath Bald Peak, these halls and stairwells maintained a nearly constant, cool temperature. The baking sun in the city around the fort would have demolished Liv's hasty fortification in half the time.

"When the runner made her report, I had difficulty believing it," the weathered old soldier said, coming to a halt at the bottom of the steps and looking down the hallway to the sweating ice. "I had been planning to try to get enough men rested to make a push, but you've taken back the gate by yourself."

"Thank you, Harjit," Liv said. "Dhanyavaad." She pronounced the word slowly and carefully, trying to make certain that it would stick in her mind. The language of Lendh ka Dakruim had drifted just as far from the dialect of the Eld, and the original Vædic, as Lucanian had. An idea occurred to her, and before she could forget it, Liv turned to Wren. "Remind me later," she requested. "I want to learn how to speak the tongue of Varuna."

Wren held Liv's gaze for a moment, then nodded. "We'll have to see if we can make that happen," she said. By common consent, neither of them indicated that Wren would be doing the teaching herself, or that her people lived across the ocean. There was no reason for General Mishra to know.

"This isn't my first eruption," Liv told the Dakruiman commander. "Third, actually."

"You aren't like the other students, are you?" Mishra asked her. He jerked his head toward the wall, and his soldiers quickly went about the business of rotating, without any further input from him. Liv had only the experience of watching Baron Henry interact with his knights and his guards, but she thought this was a sign of how well trained the ksatriyas must be, and the respect with which they viewed their commander.

"No, I'm not," Liv said.

"They could not match the kind of magic you used, when you first arrived," Mishra said. "I know. I watched them fight. Can any of them match you?"

"Probably not," Liv said, but Wren laughed.

"Definitely not," the huntress said. "Let's be honest about it."

"Why are you not in command, then?" the general asked.

"I'm only a first year student," Liv said. "The archmagus was concerned the others wouldn't listen to me."

Mishra grunted. "I can understand his reasoning. Can you do –" he waved a hand to indicate the gore-smeared, stinking floor and walls of the hallway – "this, again?"

"I need time to rest," Liv told him. "A chance to sleep, and a few meals would help. Or a big enough hunk of mana stone that I could draw from. I was thinking that tomorrow, or the day after, I would push out onto the landing."

"The day after," the general decided, without hesitation. "That gives me time to have my best men scheduled to work with you. I want you to focus on recovering your strength, between now and then, Kumari Livara. No more fighting for you."

Liv blinked. "Kumari?" she asked.

"The form of address for an unmarried woman," Arjun explained to her.

"If I presumed incorrectly, and you are already wed, you have my apologies," Mishra offered.

"No, you guessed right," Liv said. "I don't have plans to wed anyone, in the foreseeable future. I'll remember the form of address. I'm a bit surprised you know my name already, though."

"I make it my business to know the names of the people under my command, so much as I can," the general said. "Particularly those with valuable skills, or in positions of authority. Rest for the rest of today and tomorrow. My men can hold this wall. We will plan to retake the landing the day after. I will send a runner to let you and your people know when we have scheduled a council. Go."

"Thank you," Liv said, and accepted Wren's hand up. One of the soldiers, at a word in Dakruiman from Mishra, led them back up through the other gates and to the section of the fortress where they had been lodged. Arjun carried the assortment of rings and other jewelry along with them, since no member of the guild would be staying below.

When the door to their room had been opened, Isabel rolled out of bed, blinking wearily. "Liv? Arjun?" she looked around in confusion. "Is it next shift already? Why are the others still here?"

"I cleared the way down to the fourth gate," Liv said, making her way over to her own bed, where she could sit. "General Mishra sent us back up to rest. He says his soldiers can hold for now, and there's going to be a meeting to plan retaking the landing."

"You did what?" Wyman asked, looking up from where he seemed to be writing a letter.

"She crushed everything between the third and fourth gates into a pulp and pushed it out of the way," Wren said, unstringing her bow and leaning it in one corner of the room.

"But – how?" Hamon asked.

Brom laughed. "You've never seen her fight before, have you. Didn't you watch the first years fight it out, back during Harvest Season? The girl's a force of nature."

Isabel inhaled, then exhaled, closing her eyes for a moment before speaking again. "Next time, please tell me what you're planning to do," she requested. "I would have liked to have known in advance."

"You'll be at the meeting, I'm sure," Liv said. For a moment, she considered telling Isabel what she planned to do once the landing was clear. Liv had no objection to the second year, and she'd done a decent job making decisions since their arrival, but she worried that it would only start an argument about going down into the depths of the well. It was an argument she would prefer to delay as long as possible.

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It turned out that waiting around while she knew there was an active eruption beneath her feet was nearly impossible for Liv to do calmly. Time, rest, and mana-enriched food would see to her devastated mana stores, and General Mishra must have been planning to give the group enough time to recharge their guild rings, pearls, and other mana-storing devices, as well.

But she couldn't just sit around in a barracks all day.

Arjun had something to do, at least: he was welcome in the infirmary, not only as a healer, but among his own people. Unlike Liv, he spoke the language, knew the customs, and quickly learned his way around the fortress.

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Liv tried to use her time effectively. While there were places in the fortress the visiting mages weren't permitted to enter, any guard on duty seemed happy enough to lead her up to the battlements, where she and Wren could get out of the still, oppressive heat that soaked into the upper levels of Akela Kila. The open air wasn't any cooler, but at least there was a breeze that carried the strange scents of the city up to the top of the hill, and that was a slight relief.

When she woke in the morning, Liv's body and sheets were both drenched in sweat. She dreamed of the cold mountain streams that fed down into the Aspen River, scattered across the valley like treasures fallen from a ripped purse. She used small amounts of mana to cool her clothing, but the relief never lasted long.

Once she had a chance to check the barracks bath chambers, she found the rooms divided between men and women. There were sitting garderobes attached to copper pipes, and a great bathing chamber of tightly fitted and plastered sandstone bricks. Screens of carved wood had been set up, not only to section off changing areas, but to divide the pool in half, with the male soldiers using one side and the women the other. Liv found the water tepid, rather than either cool or hot, and guessed that the bath was filled by rooftop cisterns and tanks that would collect rain, in the same manner as those in Lucania.

Unfortunately, the pipes were not enchanted. Whether the Most Worshipful Society of Pipes and Waters hadn't yet offered their pipes to the people of Lendh ka Dakruim, or General Mishra simply hadn't seen the expense as worthwhile, Liv didn't know. The lack made her long for either the steaming sulfur springs beneath Castle Whitehill, to make the air feel cool by comparison, or, better yet, water from one of those mountain streams. It did not take Liv long to decide that she was not made for this kind of heat.

The food was just as hot as the air, and the odor of the strong spices the Dakruimans put in every dish did her the favor of masking the scent of sweating bodies. Liv found herself consuming great quantities of dahi, the slightly sour curd served with many meals, as a means of relieving the burning in her mouth.

Besides seeking relief from the heat, or ensuring that all their pearls and pieces of mana stone were full to the brim with mana, Liv practiced the Dakruiman language every chance she got. When she was with Arjun, she pestered him: when he was otherwise occupied with tending the wounded, she bothered any soldier she could find.

It was with one of these sessions, on the battlements of the fortress, that Liv was engaged while the sun was making its descent during the night before the planned push to reclaim the landing above the well. The heat of the day was just beginning to fade, and Liv, Arjun, and Isabel had been invited to attend a late meal with the general and his staff, to review the final plans for the assault. With just under a bell before it was time to descend back down into the fortress, Liv was trying to master the small puff of air required to pronounce several of the consonants correctly.

"No, no," Arjun said, shaking his head, though he continued to smile. "Try it again."

"I'm never going to learn enough of this in time to matter," Isabel complained.

"You don't know how long we're going to be here," Liv insisted. "And they may split us up to help with the other two eruptions. We can't count on Arjun being with us all the time."

Isabel groaned. "Fine." Before she could make her next attempt, however, they were interrupted by a woman's voice, calling from further down the wall.

"Arjun Iyuz!"

Liv turned, caught sight of what was coming their way, and blinked in surprise. Rather than a soldier, or one of the healers that she'd begun to recognise, an elegant young woman in luxurious silk, deep red in color, and ornaments of silver, stalked toward them like a mountain wildcat. Her words tumbled out so quickly and so stridently that Liv could hardly catch any at all, despite a few days' tutoring. Still, the general tone was not difficult to interpret.

Arjun leaped to his feet, eyes wide, and attempted to respond in Dakruiman, though he seemed hardly able to get a word in edgewise. As he tried to calm the young woman, her guards - men armored in a more ornate manner than the average ksatriya stationed at the fortress - hurried to catch up to her, evidently having been left behind.

The young woman's elegant hand waved in the general direction of Liv, Isabel, and Wren, and Liv could guess at the question that had been asked.

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Arjun took a deep breath. When he responded, he spoke each of their names, in turn, and then switched to Lucanian. "My friends," he said, "I would like to introduce you to Chandrika Tiwari." He paused, and then, with a clear effort, told them: 'My betrothed."

Liv stood up from where she'd been leaning against the crenellations atop the parapet. "Namaste, Kumari Tiwari," she said. "I'm glad to meet you." She was close enough to smell the layered scents of spice, aromatic wood, and flowers that surrounded the young woman in a haze.

Chandrika began to respond in Dakruiman, but Arjun interrupted her.

"Lucanian, please," he said. "I know that you speak the language well."

"As you wish," the young woman said, switching tongues smoothly, though Liv noticed that she did have a thicker accent than Arjun did. Of course, he'd spent over four months immersed in Lucanian, speaking it every day at Coral Bay. "I hope that none of these milk-pale girls are the reason you haven't come home to me."

"These are my friends," Arjun attempted, but Liv could see him practically withering under the other woman's anger.

"His friends and his classmates," Liv said, stepping in to help him. "Nothing more." There was something in Chandrika Tiwari's tone and attitude that reminded her of how Mirabel and Griselda had treated her, all those years ago at Whitehill, and she didn't like it. "In fact, the entire time I've known Arjun, I haven't seen him show the slightest bit of interest in any woman." She glanced over to Arjun, thinking back to their conversation about Tephania, but he didn't seem inclined to open up at the moment.

"That is good to hear, I suppose," Chandrika said, after a moment. "Still, you should have contacted your parents, or mine, so that we knew you were coming home. We had to learn it by a letter from one of the healers here at the fortress. And after you ran off! You embarrassed me, Arjun."

"In all fairness, none of us knew we were coming here until just a few days before we left Coral Bay," Isabel broke in. When Chandrika rounded on her, Liv could tell their erstwhile commander immediately regretted speaking up, but she gamely continued on anyway. "Archmagus Jurian received a request for aid from General Mishra, and he decided that Arjun should go as our guide and translator."

"If you had no warning, I suppose we can forgive that," Chandrika allowed. "But I still don't understand why you left in the first place, Arjun. We could have been married by now."

"I told you," Arjun said, looking away. "I wanted to learn more about magic – and not just healing."

"Arjun's an apprentice of the mages' guild, now," Liv cut in. "He's imprinted a third word. It's quite an accomplishment." She hated to see how her friend's first instinct was to cower away from this girl, as if he was admitting defeat before he'd even begun to fight.

"Two words have served our jati for a thousand years," Chandrika proclaimed, with a sniff. "I hardly see the benefit in rejecting tradition."

"Aluth is useful, though," Arjun said, brightening. "The guild uses it to help prevent mana-sickness, Chandri! I think we could learn a lot from them, in that respect. If you come down to the infirmary with me later, I can show you."

"However," Liv said, "we have a meeting with General Mishra, first, so you'll have to excuse us, Kumari Tiwari. Arjun, let's go freshen up before we eat."

"Excellent. I will accompany Arjun to dinner, of course," Chandrika said, catching the boy's arm in her own as if he might throw himself off the walls of the fortress and escape. "Senapati Mishra has worked with my father on several occasions, and I am certain he will be honored to receive me. Arjun, I've brought proper clothing for you, and it should be unpacked by now. Come along."

Liv, Isabel and Wren watched as the bodyguards closed in around their friend and his wife-to-be, escorting them toward the stairs which led down from the parapets into the fortress.

"That poor boy," Wren said, watching them go. "Wedding her will be the last decision he ever makes."

"I don't know," Isabel commented. "Some boys need that, I think. He's always been a bit hesitant, hasn't he? For all we know, he'll be happier deferring to someone more confident."

"No," Liv said, "he won't." She sighed, and thought back to her conversation with him at Coral Bay. "Marriages are arranged by matchmakers here," she explained to the other women. "He told me a little bit about it. When I asked him about his betrothed, he said something like, 'she's a perfectly nice girl.' I'm fairly certain he was just being polite."

And then, of course, there was the remainder of what Arjun had told her. I never really understood it, he'd said. Sexual attraction. He'd even told her that Chandrika had kissed him once, and he'd felt – nothing.

Now that she'd seen the girl, Liv had a difficult time believing that. However domineering she might be, Chandrika Tiwari was gorgeous. She was confident that just about every boy at Coral Bay would have fallen all over themselves to court her, if Chandrika had come to attend the college instead of Arjun. She probably could have walked away married to the heir to a duchy, if she wanted.

"Let's get down to dinner," Liv said.

"Oh yes," Wren agreed. "This is going to be interesting. Five coppers says he doesn't grow a spine before we leave."