The Third Apprentice Read Online Free PDF Page B

satiate his
curiosity, Zamna was willing to answer this one question. “I come from a land
far across the sea. It is known as La’kerta.”
    Taren raised his
eyebrows, hoping to find out more about the reptilian homeland. “So you’re La’kertan
then,” he said.
    “Yes, Ky’sallan,”
Zamna snapped, clearly agitated.
    Taren decided not
to press his companion any further. Perhaps as they traveled he would open up
more and allow Taren to know him better. For now, the mage pictured a land
crawling with reptiles, some of them on two legs, others on four. Did they
crawl out of the sea in some pre-larval stage like a salamander? Looking at his
companion’s scales, he decided he couldn’t be any type of amphibian. His skin
was too dry. Still, he wondered if he might have hatched from an egg. Keeping
his mouth tightly shut, he held back the question for a later time.
    The road stretched
on as they continued their march away from the city. The walls grew farther
away until nothing could be seen of Rixville. Farms came and went, and Taren
finally got a better look at the animals he had seen from a distance. They were
indeed cattle, as he had suspected earlier, and they came in a wide assortment
of colors. Some of them were solid, but the majority were dappled with a
multitude of hues. One in particular stood out to him, as it had a bright-green
head and brown and white splotches on its back. It reminded him of the ducks
that used to inhabit the small pond outside his dormitory window. This land was
a far cry from the Mage’s College grounds.
    One farm spread
wide enough that it nearly touched the road. Taren instantly recognized some of
the herbs growing in neat rows just behind a wooden fence. Straying from the
road, the mage dared to approach the fence.
    “I wouldn’t do
that,” Zamna warned. “ Those go for a lot of money, and the farmer won’t
take kindly to a thief, even a magical one.”
    Taren halted in his tracks. He had no wish to
antagonize anyone, but he regretted the scarcity of ingredients in this land.
“Why are there no wild plants in this region?”
    “Nothing grows wild anymore,” Zamna replied. “It’s
been that way for centuries. Every tree, every plant, every bit of food comes from
those farms. Eventually we’ll reach the woods, and you’ll see all the plants
you could desire.” His tone sounded almost bored.
    Stepping back onto the road, Taren resumed his
march. “I’ve brought quite a variety of potions, but it couldn’t hurt to
harvest more ingredients while I travel,” he stated. “You never know what we
might need.”
    “So that’s what’s weighing you down,” Zamna
remarked, pointing at Taren’s shoulder bag. “You brought more than you needed.
The first rule of the road is to travel light.”
    “There are a few more sewn into pockets in my
robe,” Taren said with a smile. Undoing a small toggle, he opened a flap on the
hip of his robe to reveal five small vials.
    “Let me guess,” Zamna said. “Those are the most
important.”
    Taren shrugged. “Depends on the situation. Some of
those will replenish my magical stores should I become depleted.”
    Wrinkling his brow, Zamna asked, “Don’t you
regenerate that naturally?”
    “No,” Taren replied. “Elves do, but we humans have
to rely on potions. We also have a harder time learning magic. For a time, I
wished I had been born an elf.” He laughed softly, remember his childhood
fantasy of being a tall, blond-haired elf.
    “How do they taste?” Zamna asked.
    “The potions? They’re not too bad. I craft my own,
and I usually add a drop of honey or fruit juice to contrast the bitterness.”
    “I don’t know how much of that we’ll be finding,”
Zamna remarked.
    They continued until sunset, when Zamna finally
suggested they take a rest. Taren was grateful for the opportunity to sit, and
his stomach had been rumbling for hours.
    “Is there anywhere to find cover?” Taren asked.
    “Cover from what?” Zamna