The Fuller's Apprentice (The Chronicles of Tevenar Book 1) (50 page)

Josiah nodded, guilty. He hadn’t thought how much trouble it would be for Elkan to find him a new master when he wasn’t even sure which craft he wanted to join.

After he changed into dry clothes, Josiah joined Elkan for the evening meal. He kept the table entertained with descriptions of his day’s exploits. Everyone congratulated him on his brother’s betrothal. Elkan didn’t speak of what he’d discussed with Dabiel, and for once Josiah knew better than to question him.

Sar was uneasy. He kept twitching his ears and stamping. After the meal, he went to a window and waited. Elkan joined him. “Are you sure?”

Sar snorted in reply. Elkan unfastened the shutters and cracked one open, letting in a gust of wind and a spatter of rain. People yelled in good-natured annoyance for him to close it, but Sar stuck his head out the window and sniffed the air for a long time.

Eventually he pulled his head in and exchanged a look with Elkan. Elkan closed the shutter and went over to where Dabiel chatted with a cluster of wizards by the hearth. “Sar smells more rain coming. It could last all night, he says.”

“He’s not the only one concerned. All the animals with weather sense are reporting the same. With the river so high already…” She frowned. “I’ll notify the watchers to keep abreast of the situation through the night. If it looks bad, we can try cloud herding. Don’t be surprised if I send for you before morning.”

* * *

When Josiah woke it was still the middle of the night, but the sound of muffled shouts and feet running down the corridors mixed with the howl of wind and occasional rumbles of thunder from outside. He pulled on his clothes and went to find Elkan.

“Go back to bed,” Elkan told him as he and Sar hurried toward the main hall. “There’s nothing you can do. A few streets are flooded, but nothing too bad, yet. A bunch of us are going up on the roof to try and move some of this rain out over the ocean.” He headed for a cluster of wizards and familiars waiting at the far side of the hall near a flight of stairs.

Josiah tagged after him. “Please, let me come with you. I’ve never seen you work with the weather before.”

Elkan glanced around as more wizards and familiars hurried up. “There won’t be much to see. We’ll just be pushing big masses of air around. One wizard alone can’t do much, but enough of us together can sometimes make a difference.” He sighed and shook his head at Josiah’s pleading look. “Come along then. You can run messages for us if it’s needed.”

An older man with a seagull perched on his shoulder led the way up. The stairs were wide and shallow enough to allow even the largest hoofed animals to navigate them. They climbed up several flights and emerged onto the roof.

The area was broad and flat, with waist high walls around the edge. The wind whipped rain into Josiah’s face; he pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. He splashed through shallow puddles behind Elkan and Sar to the railing. It was too dark to see much, just the shadowy rooftops of the city. A square opening at the base of the wall by his feet channeled a stream of water into a spout. It arced off the roof and fell to the ground far below.

The wizards and familiars ranged themselves along the edge of the roof. Elkan put his hand on Sar’s back and waited. The leader tossed the gull into the sky; it winged off, a pale dot quickly lost in the clouds. He shouted directions. A diffuse gold glow erupted from Elkan’s hand and rose to join the light cast by the other wizards. The air above them became a vast glimmering haze, gilding the bases of the clouds.

It didn’t look like much was happening. The black clouds above slowly drifted east, but more came behind and took their places. Several times a few stars appeared and the rain let up for a while, then started again as new clouds floated in.

Josiah was miserable, drenched, freezing, and bored, but he stuck by Elkan for a full hour until a hoarse shout from the leader indicated a break. Elkan lowered his arm, rubbing wearily at his shoulder. “Josiah, go tell Master Dabiel we’re not accomplishing much. Even if we manage to clear the city, Sar says the rain goes far upstream. We’ll keep trying. Maybe when the sun rises the storm will break up.”

Josiah was guiltily glad to escape the dismal roof. Elkan must have seen his relief. “You don’t have to come back up. Dry off and go back to bed. Or see if any of the other apprentices are awake. You can help with whatever they’re doing.”

He ran downstairs and reported as ordered. Several other wizards stood with Dabiel around her desk, scowling at a map of the city. She nodded distracted acknowledgment and went back to discussing plans and precautions.

Josiah changed into dry clothes. He found Braon and a few other apprentices mopping up wet patches where water had been blown or tracked onto the smooth marble floor, creating slick hazardous areas. Josiah grabbed a mop and joined them. It was endlessly frustrating, for as soon as they finished a spot, someone would go in or out, or open a window to check the weather, and they had to start over again.

It was still dark enough to require lamps in the dining hall when they broke for breakfast. Elkan ate ravenously, and Sar consumed an unlikely quantity of hay in a very short time. “We’re making progress. There’s some clear air to the north we should be able to bring down.” He and the other wizards hurried back to the roof as soon as they finished.

But by midmorning, his hopeful forecast proved overly optimistic. Reports from the roof indicated a thick new line of storm clouds had formed to the north and west, far enough away that the wizards couldn’t reach them. Dabiel ordered them to cease their efforts.

The Guildmaster moved to a table set up in the center of the big main room, spread with many detailed city maps. Buttons hulked at her side. She called an assembly of all the Hall’s wizards; they clustered, grim and weary, to hear her words.

She looked around at them. “We’re not going to be able to stop the flooding, so we need to help the watchers evacuate the lowest areas. They’ve begun moving people to the higher parts of the city already. I want you to split up, each taking a section. Let the watchers handle what they can; save your energy for times when the Mother’s power is necessary. There will be plenty of those. Be careful out there; we need all of you back safe when this is over. Now, listen for your assignments. Avna, I want you and Blackie to take Tanner’s Row. Riron, take Dancer across the bridge and cover the west waterfront. Hedia and Blaze, go down to the dam; there’s been reports of problems there. Zerma…”

Josiah listened to the endless string of names and locations. Finally Dabiel got to the name he was waiting for. “…take Market Square. Elkan, you and Sar cover the east warehouse district and Prison Point. Gitzan and Amba…”

The crowd rapidly dispersed. Josiah ran after Elkan. “I’m coming with you.”

“Josiah, it’s not safe.” Elkan pushed his wet hair back from his face.

“Other apprentices are going with their masters.” Braon was on his way out the door, trailing a woman with a wolf at her side.

Elkan looked where Josiah pointed and sighed. “All right. But don’t think you’re bringing Tobi. She’d just get in the way.”

“She’s asleep in my room,” Josiah assured him. He’d wrung out his cloak, but it was still damp. He wrapped it close anyway and followed Elkan and Sar into the stormy streets.

Their assigned sector was down by the river, where large storage buildings lined the banks. The Watch was busy clearing people from the flooding areas. The river had risen out of its banks, and the lowest warehouses were several feet deep in water.

Elkan’s work began immediately. No sooner had he and Sar healed a man who’d stepped in a submerged pothole and twisted an ankle, than a watcher called them over to rescue a boy swept into the river by the current. Golden light surrounded the boy and pulled him to shore. Elkan hovered as water poured from his mouth and he gasped for air. Only after his initial ragged breaths smoothed out did Elkan surrender him to a watcher.

Another watcher ran up, requesting his help dislodging a stubborn trader. The woman was hurriedly loading her stored goods onto a wagon. The water was halfway up the wagon’s wheels and above her knees as she waded back and forth, but she resisted bitterly until Elkan summoned all the authority he could muster and ordered her out. She kept up a stream of complaints, bemoaning the money she would lose, as she flicked the horse’s reins and drove away.

The rain continued and the water rose higher. Josiah did what he could to help. Once they rescued a family trapped in their apartment over their candle shop. Josiah bore a toddler on each hip through waist deep water, while Elkan, Sar, and the mother and father carried the rest of their nine children. Another time he was the first to spot a hand waving from a tree where a woman had taken refuge from the rising water.

They labored past midday, with no thought of stopping for a meal. Josiah began to keep a sharp eye on Elkan. He was approaching the limits of his strength, stumbling at times, each exercise of the Mother’s power kept more efficient and clipped. Sar’s head hung and his ears drooped.

“You’ve got to take a break!” Josiah yelled at him over the rush of the river, after Elkan finished healing a watcher gashed by a floating chunk of debris. Elkan nodded grimly, and they waded toward land the water had not yet reached.

They took shelter under a building’s overhanging eaves, perching on some barrels. Elkan sat panting for a while, then pulled out one of the bags of nuts and dried fruit the Mother’s Hall kitchen had passed out to all the wizards. “Here, share some, there’s plenty.” Josiah accepted a few pieces, but made sure Elkan ate the bulk of it. He spotted a broken branch and dragged it over for Sar, who nibbled at the leaves. After the rest and food, wizard and familiar both looked a little refreshed. Though not much, Josiah thought critically. He wondered if all the people were out of their section yet. How would they know when they’d done everything they could and were free to return to the Mother’s Hall? At least the rain had slowed to a drizzle, though from the look of the black clouds to the west it was still pouring over there.

Elkan pushed himself to his feet. “Let’s head downstream.” He pushed his dripping hair out of his face, but it flopped right back. He ignored it. “Sar, you holding up?”

The donkey made no visible response, but plodded in the indicated direction. Elkan and Josiah followed.

Ahead, the flood submerged a dip in the street. A watcher struggled toward them through water up to his knees. Spotting them, he waved frantically and redoubled his pace, splashing out onto the dry section. “There you are! We’ve been looking all over for you.”

Elkan hurried to the man’s side. “What’s wrong?”

He reached for the man’s arm, where a shallow scrape showed red, but the watcher pushed his hand aside. “Never mind that. You’ve got to come now. It’s Prison Point!” He seized Elkan’s arm and dragged him, gasping an explanation as he went. “We were telling people to stay there, it’s pretty high, but then a huge rush of water came down Mill Brook and washed out the road. Something happened upstream, we think maybe the dam broke. The whole point’s cut off, and water’s tearing up the ground. A couple of buildings have fallen into the river and more are going. We’ve got to get them out. There’s at least a hundred and fifty people over there.”

Grim, Elkan slogged after the man, Sar and Josiah close behind. They floundered through pools of hip-deep water, then across dry patches alternating with ankle-deep spots. They came to a stretch of road that was built up higher than the surrounding land and hurried along it. Ahead, Josiah heard a deep roar.

A cluster of watchers stood in the road. They reached the spot, and Josiah gaped in horrified awe. A thirty-foot section of road was gone. Water poured through the gap. Mill Brook, which normally dipped sharply south, had carved itself a shorter path to the river. Now it split into two streams. The larger still bent around the point, tearing away great chunks of dirt and rock as it passed, but a significant portion flowed through the breach in the road and across the narrow neck of the point, cutting it off from the surrounding land.

A crowd of people huddled at the edge of what had become an island. As Josiah watched, a building next to the brook trembled and collapsed into the foaming water. People screamed, pushing and shoving to get as far as they could from the destruction.

A watcher pointed. “Some of us tried to make it across, but we had to turn back. It’s just too deep, and the current’s too strong.”

Elkan peered out over the water. “Are there any watchers over there?”

“The ones from the prison. They’ll have to bring the prisoners out, too; it looks like the building might go before long.”

Josiah’s stomach clenched. Nirel and Gan were trapped in there!

Debris swept past their feet. Across the torrent, a tree toppled with majestic deliberation and glided away, its roots clawing the grey sky.

The watcher turned from a hurried consultation with his fellows. “Can you help?

Elkan looked over at the trapped people and down at the water. He put his hand on Sar’s back. “We’ll do what we can. Let’s get to work.”

Josiah studied the situation, trying to think what Elkan should do. “Can you block off the water? There, at the break in the road?” The water pouring through was powerful, but the gap wasn’t that big. If Elkan could stop it, that should let the area between the road and river drain enough for people to get across.

Elkan ran a hand through his hair. “If we weren’t so drained already, we could. But it’s far beyond what strength we have left. We’ll have to make do some other way.”

He went out to the furthest jagged point of the road. Sar pressed closed to his side. He cupped his hands to his mouth and shouted. “Jump in and swim!” He pointed where the water spread out and slowed before it reached the main body of the Tarath. Watchers hurried down and lined the edge of the water. “A few at a time! We’ll guide you!”

Some among the milling crowd heard him. There were a few moments of confusion and argument, but eventually one figure jumped in the water. Light poured from Elkan’s hand and surrounded the swimmer, preventing him from being swept downstream. He reached the near shore and struggled out, dripping, grabbing the hands of the waiting watchers. He turned and shouted to those on the island, before a watcher guided him off toward safety.