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The Adventures of an Apprentice - Simon - 11-24-2025
"Aidan, has anyone ever told you that you're crazy?"
I grunted as I pulled myself up the ledge and hoisted myself onto the landing before replying, "Hey, you weren't exactly opposed when I asked if you wanted to come along."
My cousin Kavon quickly followed me. “If I’d known I’d have to climb around on the outside of the palace for this, I would have thought twice.” He took a few deep breaths and looked around. “Do you know how much trouble I’ll get in if we get caught? After all, I’m supposed to take responsibility.” Although he’d never really minded spending time with me, he sometimes felt he had to set a good example for me, being 16 and three years older than both of us.
“We won’t get caught,” I replied. “I’ve done this many times, but you never knew, did you?”
"Well, we've sometimes wondered where you disappear to, so that explains a lot." Kavon turned around. "The view isn't bad."
We were standing on an old rocky outcrop that had originally been part of the defenses when the city was smaller. As the city of Toskel, initially just a small settlement of a few hundred inhabitants around the palace, grew, and better defenses were built in other, more strategically important locations, the window that had been there was bricked up as part of other palace projects. What remained was the small rocky outcrop where we now stood. I had discovered it one day when I was seven and soon found a way to climb up. I had sometimes used it as a place to retreat and think. At some point, for some reason, I decided to show it to Kavon. And so, one day, when we had some time during lunch (we usually ate together, as he worked close enough to the palace that we could meet, eat, and then return to our work within our allotted hour), I persuaded Kavon to come up.
“But still,” said Kavon, “we’d better go back. You need to get back to your apprenticeship with Master Grendan, and I need to get back to the workshop before Master Faltor starts wondering where I am.” Kavon was apprenticed to Master Faltor, one of the city’s carpenters (although Kavon was expected to be a journeyman by the end of the year), while I was apprenticed to Master Grendan, the palace archivist.
“Well,” I said, a little disappointed. When I began my apprenticeship with Master Grendan the day after my twelfth birthday, I knew my childhood (or at least most of it) was over, but that knowledge didn't make it any easier to accept. In many ways, Kavon wasn't the only one of us who was now expected to bear “responsibility” (as quite a few adults kept reminding me). We made it down quickly and headed back towards the palace entrance, where we split up and went about our respective tasks.
“Have you heard anything about the envoy who was here last week?” asked Kavon, referring to an envoy from the nation of Andares, Skronina’s eastern neighbor, who had come to meet King Quillan, the monarch of our kingdom of Skronina.
I shook my head in denial. "I only heard that they come from Andares' king and are here for some kind of meeting with King Quillan. Why, I don't know."
“It’s strange,” Kavon said. “It’s not that we got along badly with Andares, but it’s not that we got along well with them either. As far as I can remember, there were no formal diplomatic relations between Andares and Skronina.”
I nodded. I didn't pretend to understand all the intricacies of diplomacy. We soon reached the palace entrance and said goodbye with a "See you later!" and a wave. I greeted the two guards at the entrance, who waved back. By now, I knew most of the guards, who were stationed there on a rotating basis, well enough that we all recognized each other immediately.
I spotted my best friend, Camryn Hostler, and waved to him. He was an apprentice at one of the local inns and met his mother for lunch every day at the palace (since his mother worked there as a cook in the kitchen, and the inn where he worked was practically a stone's throw away). I regretted that I didn't have time to stop and talk to him, as I would have been late, but I called out, "See you tonight!"
“Correct!” he shouted back with his usual grin.
I went back to the palace archives and retrieved the catalog of a number of botanical books I had started that morning. They had been borrowed the previous week by some government official to solve a problem some farmers in the south were having. I had just finished when Master Grendan came in.
"Ah, Aidan, there you are," said Master Grendan. "We have an audience with the king in an hour."
"The... king?" I said in a squeaky voice after a few moments of shock, as had often been the case in recent months. I had dreamed of meeting the king, but I never thought it would actually happen!
“Yes,” said Master Grendan somewhat impatiently. “You must go home and wash yourself. Put on your best clothes. Go quickly! Come back when you are finished.”
I hurried home, my thoughts racing. I could understand that the king wanted someone like Master Grendan – after all, he was the chief archivist of the palace and a very important person (because not just anyone could hold the position of chief archivist) – but what could King Quillan possibly want with a 13-year-old who had only been training to be an archivist for barely a year?
When I got home, I practically burst through the front door. My mother, Darcie, who was in the kitchen, gave me a questioning look.
"Aidan, what's wrong?" she asked. "You haven't gotten into any trouble, have you?"
"No, Ma!" I called over my shoulder as I walked into my small bedroom. "Master Grendan says we're meeting the King in less than an hour, and I need to get ready."
"The king? Aidan, are you kidding me?"
"Mom!" I cried desperately and began to gather the necessary clothes. "I wouldn't joke about something like that!"
“I don’t mean to be rude or say I don’t believe you,” my mother cried, “but why would King Quillan ask for you?”
"I have no idea," I said. "Master Grendan didn't say."
I gathered my clothes and rushed into the bathroom. I wouldn't have time to heat the water for a bath, but I didn't mind. Summer was drawing to a close, but the weather was warm enough that a cool bath wouldn't be bad. I ran the tub (our house was in an area with indoor toilets, since my father had a good job as a mid-level civil servant), undressed, and climbed in. I grabbed the bar of soap, scrubbed myself vigorously, then submerged my head and rubbed my hair hard.
As I got out of the water, I opened the plug at the bottom of the tub so the water could drain out. I stepped onto the mat, grabbed a towel, and quickly started drying myself. I nearly jumped out of my skin when the door opened, but it turned out to be just my ten-year-old brother, Rhys.
“You’re going to meet the king?!” Rhys exclaimed excitedly.
“Yeah,” I said, rolling my eyes. Rhys wasn’t so bad for a little brother, but sometimes he could be really annoying! “Hey, Rhys, come in or go out. Don’t just stand there and let everyone stare.”
"Oh, excuse me," said Rhys, going into the bathroom and closing the door. "Still, is it true? You will see the king?"
“Yes,” I said, vigorously rubbing my hair with the towel before dropping it, grabbing my underwear, and pulling it on. While I would have felt quite uncomfortable getting dressed in front of most people, for some reason I’d never really minded being naked in front of Rhys (or him naked in front of me, if he had a reason to undress around me), even after a few comments about his jealousy of my pubic hair. “And before you ask: No, I don’t think I could take you with me.”
“Ohhhh,” said Rhys, who wanted to meet the king even more than I did. One of his greatest fantasies was to be a great knight whom the king personally sent out on all sorts of heroic deeds.
"Look, the king probably doesn't even want to see me personally. I'm probably only going so that Master Grendan can ask someone to take notes or something like that."
"But can't I just go along anyway? I'll be completely quiet and stay out of the way. They won't even notice I'm there!"
"I'm sorry, little brother, I don't think that's going to work. Listen, I'll remember how it goes, and I'll tell you tonight when I get back, okay?" I said, pulling on the last of my clothes.
“Okay,” said Rhys, still sounding disappointed.
I slipped on the badge that identified me as an archivist's apprentice (everyone who worked here wore a badge indicating their profession and position within that profession) and combed my somewhat unruly, dark blond hair in front of the mirror (made of highly polished metal, because even my family didn't earn enough money to afford one of those rather rare—and quite expensive—glass mirrors worn only by the wealthy and the nobility). My brown eyes stared back at me. I was already 5'6" and considered myself rather thin, especially compared to people like Kavon.
But I knew I couldn't stand there staring at myself all day, so I grabbed the clothes I had been wearing, threw them in the laundry basket, and set off.
"Don't forget – you have to tell me everything!", Rhys shouted from the front door.
"I will!" I shouted back over my shoulder.
I hurried almost the entire way to the archives, but slowed my pace just before arriving to catch my breath. When I got back to the palace archives, Master Grendan was waiting there, dressed in his finest clothes.
"Good," said Master Grendan. "You're back, and you have a few more minutes. But let's go now. It's better to be there a few minutes early, especially if you have an audience with the king."
As we approached the inner sanctuary of the palace, I kept asking myself why I had been taken along. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer.
I swallowed hard and took a deep breath. "Master, I've been wondering about something..."
"And what could that be, young apprentice?" asked Master Grendan.
"It's just... why am I coming along? I'm just an apprentice."
Master Grendan was silent for a moment, and just as I feared I had overstepped my bounds, he spoke up. “I must confess, I don’t really know myself. I was summoned to a meeting at two o’clock this morning in the King’s office. I was to bring someone from the archives who would be expendable for an indefinite period, who could read and write sufficiently, and who was able to withstand the rigors of long-distance travel. Admittedly, the only one who met all the requirements and was available on such short notice was you.”