Six Escape Attempts (Part 2)
The Six Escape Attempts (and Single Escape) of Anders
Mulit-Chapter, a bit long.
Rating: PG at max
Some implied pairings, but only Anders/Karl stands out. A few OC Wardens, who don't conflict with each other and don't play much role.
Ch. 2 - The Lake Attempt
4 Cloudreach, 9:16 Dragon
Anders didn’t remember what warm sand felt like on his feet. For some reason, this thought had been bothering him for nearly a week. Warm sand wasn’t that much different from cool sand - and he had very clear memories of cool sand and water, though it had been a while since he had felt them now - but warm sand sounded so very inviting, especially with another summer drawing on. The tower had not yet become stifling, but the air was slowly turning to a comfortable heat, enough that the mages had stopped wearing three of their robes at once to match the templars for warmth.
They had brought in a new apprentice last month. He was a scrawny kid without any particular talents as far as Anders or anyone else could tell, but a new apprentice was cause for excitement, if for no other reason than recent news of the world outside. The boy was from the south, a village almost at the edge of the Korcari Wilds, and his tales of trees and rocks and rivers from home had renewed Anders’ vigor for anything having to do with the outdoors. Young Jowan was happy to finally have friends - or at least that one Rivaini mage who bunked with him and hardly said a word to anyone. Anders would have been happy to take his place with Jowan’s old family.
He hadn’t been able to come up with another method of escaping the tower, even in the almost two years since he had last set foot outside alone. That templar recruit (Carroll, he later learned was his name) had been right in that there was always a templar outside by the boats. Unless he was really quiet and wanted to swim the long way across the lake (which didn’t seem like the best idea to someone whose longest swimming record was the bathtub) he didn’t pose much of a chance of slipping past the guard there. There would probably be another templar on the other side of the lake, working the boat over there, too.
And so Anders had to content himself with talking about the outside, and finding ways to open windows around the tower, and even standing at the main doors when the templars came in and out, just to get a peek at the weather while the templars gave him puzzled looks. He had also discovered snow. It hadn’t looked as cold as it felt, and it took him taking a handful and trying to bring it back to the apprentice quarters to realize that it was actually very finely shaved ice. He would have been able to keep that discovery to himself had Flora not gotten such a laugh about the wet spot on his robes. The knight commander had not been happy the next day when he found all the fourth floor windows open and snow all over the classrooms. The first enchanter, however, had laughed about it for hours.
But that had been months ago. Now all he had to look forward to was another day of training with Torrin. Torrin was working with three apprentices now, so Anders only saw him for a few hours at a time, which was perfectly fine by him. It gave him a lot more time to get the ash off his face and robes in between lessons, and also more time to himself. Still, it was probably time to get out of bed and start preparing for the day’s lesson. Anders rolled over to consider the benefits of another few minutes of daydreams when the door to the apprentice quarters slammed open.
“It shouldn’t be allowed! That’s all I’m saying. Mages aren’t meant to do such things. That’s why we even have magic - so we can hold up without this - this indignity!”
“Shut up, Flora,” came the usual chorus of voices that tended to follow Flora’s arrivals into the apprentice quarters.
“Not about this I won’t!” he snapped back, “And I’ve asked you to call me Finn. Finn!”
“Really, Flora, please? Some of us still got a few hours before we have to be up.” Niall groaned, his voice muffled by the pillow over his face.
“Oh you’re all hopeless! You’re all just willing to let the templars have their way with you, aren’t you? Perfectly happy to let them force their ‘well-meaning’ doctrines through and ruin your lives. Well not me. Not this time. I will stand up for my rights as a human being. I won’t let them force me. There has to be a loophole around this. There has to be!” Flora was shrieking by the time he finished his rant.
“Would you mind terribly telling what it is you’re talking about?” Eadric called from his bed, where he was hunched angrily over a book, “You know, so we can decide for ourselves whether it’s worth listening to you or not?”
Flora ground his teeth, and in a grand gesture of suppressed rage pointed at the door behind him, which still stood open.
“There is a notice on the door. It is meant for us, I can only assume, though it sounds like all mages will have to go through with this. I just can’t-“
“Flora! What are you on about?!”
“Exercise!” Flora screamed. “They’re going to force us out into the wilderness to exercise! We’re all going to have to march out in little templar led lines to do push ups and sit ups and lap racing and swimming and oh-“ He crumpled to the floor, “turn me tranquil now so I won’t feel this pain!”
“Exercise?” Anders asked, suddenly interested in what Flora had to say for what may have been the first time since he’d met the boy. “You mean they’re going to take us outside to run around?”
“Don’t encourage him, Anderfels!” Niall cried as he rolled over to block out the sound more efficiently.
“They wouldn’t need to take us outside for that kind of thing, though,” Eadric said. “We can do all those things just as easily up in the Harrowing Chamber or something. There’s plenty of room up there.”
“Well, all I know is that the notice says we’re all to meet by the quartermaster’s station tomorrow morning and Ser Hadley is going to lead us to ‘Exercise Training’. It’s so humiliating. Surely people elsewhere do not have to put up with this kind of-“
“Flora! Please! If you want to take it up with someone, go do so now. Tell Hadley you’re sick or something. You’re good at that.” Niall whined.
Anders didn’t hear him. He hadn’t heard anything since the words “Exercise Training”. Ser Hadley was well known as a good-natured templar who would occasionally bring in sweets for the young mage children that he was fond of. If he was really leading outdoor exercise groups, then Anders might even be able to stay outside for a little while and just experience the air. He wouldn’t be free, or even alone, but he would be outside regularly and that was a pretty good compromise.
He got up in much better spirits that morning than he had anticipated.
-
Flora had been quite right. Anders was so happy the next morning, he even asked the scowling apprentice how he was feeling using his chosen name “Finn”. This did a little to improve the boy’s mood (Hadley had not believed he woe-filled tales of illness and allergy, and had insisted that Flora at least come outside and get some sun.) The knight commander as well as several senior enchanters were already waiting by the quartermaster’s table when the apprentices traipsed out in varying degrees of excitement and horror. Anders saw Torrin happily chatting with a disgruntled looking older mage, who seemed to be protesting that he needed no more of the outdoors than what managed to come through his study window each day. Anders had a sudden horrifying vision of himself and Flora many years in the future and hit his forehead against his palm several times quickly trying to destroy the image. The Rivaini apprentice gave him a curious look, which Anders pointedly ignored.
“Right, that’s the last of the apprentices, then,” Hadley called as he led the female apprentices through the double doors to the tower proper. “Are we expecting anyone else, First Enchanter?”
“I don’t believe so,” First Enchanter Irving replied. “Uldred is overseeing a Harrowing with the Knight Captain and fade mages. They’ll all be down after the Harrowing is complete. This is all for now.”
“Right then, if you are ready, Knight Commander, onward and outward!” Hadley said, grinning broadly. Knight Commander Greagoir had only been appointed to the position a month previously and looked torn between rage and illness at what he saw happening before him. Anders suddenly wanted to know exactly how Hadley had gotten this proposition past him. Knight Commander Greagoir seemed to be wondering the same thing.
Anders knew what sunlight was. He had seen it streaming through windows and lighting up rooms all his life. Sunlight was what separated say from night, easy reading from candlelight’s flickering instability, and a clear day form a musty one in the tower. It had never occurred to Anders, however, exactly how much sunlight was in the world when the world wasn’t primarily composed of stone walls. It was blinding. It was everywhere. Anders noticed for the first time that his own hair was much lighter than he had ever thought, and that Flora’s robes were really pink and not red, and that the Rivaini apprentice didn’t have quite as dark skin as he looked, and that little Jowan was essentially the color of parchment under his ink-black hair. He also saw that the light on their armor made the templars wearing it wince. And that some people turned yellow under the light and others turned pink. He also saw, for the first time, that the tower wasn’t black after all, but made of grey-white stone that shone yellow in the sun. He had never known it could look so inviting.
“Right, come over here, apprentices and form something of a line in front of me. Leave yourselves some room now. You want to be able to swing your arms and not hit anyone. NOT hit anyone, I said, there. We’re going to warm up a little first. This is a very important part of exercise so that you don’t hurt yourself later.”
Everyone shuffled around, trying not to get too far away from Hadley. Flora stood as far away as possible from the templar, and behind an older apprentice named Karl, who was big enough to shield him from Hadley’s view. Anders could sense the other templars trying to find a way to circle the apprentices to make sure that none of them tried to make a sudden break for the water, but they couldn’t manage it without a few standing in the shallow water of the lake. One fell over with a lot of splashing and cursing. No one helped him up.
“Alright, everyone, now hold your arms out to your sides like this. That’s good, very good. You there, in the back. I can see you, you know. Join in! This will be fun, I promise.” There was a lot of sniggering as Flora raised his arms like he was preparing himself for crucifixion. “Now, I want you to make little circles with your arms, like this. It won’t be hard for a while, but soon you’re going to feel a strain up your arms and back. Keep them straight! Keep making those circles! Circles for the circle!”
This went on for over an hour. It was worth it, Anders thought, to be outside, but Ser Hadley quickly became the most annoying person that Anders had ever met. He spoke like he was trying to train nugs, and if you weren’t doing something correctly, he would not hesitate to point it out to you by shouting, or worse clanking over to where you stood to correct your positioning. It was no better for those who did well, especially the Rivaini apprentice, who was called out for “Excellent work!” several times, and flushed darkly every time he was pointed out. A few of the senior enchanters joined in from time to time, more, Anders thought, because the First Enchanter was prodding them in the back to set a good example than from any real desire to join in. It was hard not to laugh when Senior Enchanter Sweeney was forced to “swing his body like a windmill” with Irving prodding his back. Hadley was nowhere near done when Knight Commander Greagoir decided he had had quite enough.
“Come now, everyone. It’s time to go back inside. The kitchens will have lunch ready in an hour and I’m certain everyone wants to clean up a little. Let’s go. Now, Hadley. Everyone inside.”
Anders was almost not disappointed to leave the exercise training behind. Flora looked like he could have kissed Greagoir full on the mouth. Anders had to hit his head again to clear that thought.
-
What the notice hadn’t mentioned was that the Exercise Training program was to be a weekly endeavor. Flora burst into tears when he found out, and the excitement level in general was much lower than it had been the previous week, after most people discovered that the hour of work had left them rather sore the next day. It was a much more morose group that went outside with Hadley the next week. The templar’s spirits were not hampered. Although half of the senior enchanters had deigned not to return for further exercise, all of the other mages were nudged, prodded or pushed outdoors by the first enchanter, and then made to follow along in the exercises while surrounded by templars, who Hadley soon forced to participate as well.
Hadley was better the second week, though, as only the first twenty minutes were devoted to the ridiculous warm-ups and the rest of the time was spent playing a game called “Capture the Flag”. The rules were simple enough - the mages were divided into enchanters and apprentices, and each team was given a piece of cloth to hide and protect from the other team, while a line of templars stood between them. The goal was to find the other team’s cloth and bring it back. Anders took his team’s cloth and stuffed it down Ser Carroll’s armor without anyone being the wiser. The apprentices won that round.
The next week was met with more enthusiasm from the apprentices, but even fewer senior enchanters. Uldred was forced to attend for the first time, and the apprentices watched in delight as Irving pushed him to the front and made him participate in every warm-up that Hadley had them do. Hadley, who was the only one who could see Uldred’s face, must have seen the rage there as the warm up period was much shorter and more rushed than before.
It wasn’t until four weeks in however, that Hadley started teaching them to swim. He had somehow set up a small, enclosed area in the lake that only had an entrance and exit at the tower side. Here, he took off the bulk of his armor, and after having just the male apprentices strip down to their smallclothes, took them into the shallow end and began teaching them the basics of dog paddling. Anders was a natural. The water was cool on his skin and he quickly found that the more he followed Hadley’s instructions, the less attention Hadley paid to him. The templar was easily distracted by Jowan (who kept sinking) and Flora (who kept getting pushed in.) And the more Anders practiced, the better he got. And the better he got, the further out he could go, until he spent most of the swimming lessons on his own at the furthest edge of the swimming area.
As summer really set in, swimming became the predominant activity for exercise, and many templars joined in when they could, reveling in the chance to lose their armor and wade in the cold lake water. Anders had a very unpleasant experience when once he grabbed the foot of a boy who, from underwater looked like Flora, but turned out to be a jumpy templar recruit who squealed and fled the shallow end so quickly that he knocked Hadley and Jowan headfirst into the water. Still, the templars were distracted enough (or perhaps the recruit was always like this?) that they paid no attention to what had caused his terror. Anders swam back to the deep end.
-
When Kingsway rolled around and summer began to recede, Hadley announced that the Exercise sessions would continue outside as long as the weather permitted (they were to be moved to a large, empty classroom on the fourth floor for the winter), but that the next lesson would be the last one for swimming until the following year. Most apprentices were ready to be done with the sport in any case, but Anders was heartbroken. Swimming was his one guarantee of alone-time, where neither mage nor templar had reason or excuse to watch him. He never was in danger of drowning, nor was there any way for him to escape the enclosure without running headlong into a templar. Plus the other apprentices (Flora had yet to put his head underwater, even after four months) provided an excellent distraction. Freedom was slipping away again. Even the sunlight somehow was looking less bright as the year wore on. Anders wasn’t ready to let that happen yet.
The next week, it rained on Exercise Day. The apprentices had their first taste of indoor exercise earlier than they were expecting, and it wasn’t at all the same to Anders. They ran laps and the boys were taught to box a little while the girls were set to tossing large leather balls back and forth. It was confining. It was impossible to get away from everyone. The stench of bodies and sweat filled the already musty classroom in minutes and made everyone feel much more disgusting than usual. For the first time, Anders agreed with Flora that he never wanted to have to do that again.
The good weather briefly returned the following week, though Hadley insisted that it was too cold to swim, and they were set to playing Capture the Flag again. Most of the time, this game turned into “Capture the Mage”, as the flag would be given to the fastest runner on each team (or else tied to Flora’s robes) and then everyone would chase the mages in question. Anders, being neither the fastest, nor on Flora’s team today, ran around halfheartedly with the others, while he tried not to get distracted by the lake around him. Just one more swim. Just one more taste of Freedom. He could be happy with that. Just an hour to himself in the water. One of the mages, a small elven girl, tripped and fell flat into Ser Hadley’s chest, knocking them both over into the shallow water with a clatter of armor. The templars looked around curiously to see what had caused the sound, then ran over to help Hadley to his feet.
“Not a problem. I can get it on my own, thank you. The armor isn’t that heavy, even when it’s wet. Keep playing, everyone. We’ve only got fifteen minutes left before the Knight Commander wants everyone back inside.”
And then it hit him, and he wondered why it hadn’t before. There was the lake, right there, the full lake, not the little enclosure that Hadley had set up. And the templars had broken ranks. Keep playing, Hadley said, but no one was paying much attention to the game except the young apprentices, who were running every which way. Andres ran, too. He ran right at the lake, nearly knocking a scrawny templar recruit over in his haste, and didn’t stop until he could jump in.
The splash he made seemed louder than it should have been, but he didn’t stop to look back or listen. He had been practicing swimming laps and treading water all summer, admittedly in his small clothes and not his robes, but it didn’t make much difference. Adrenaline fueled his limbs and soon he couldn’t even hear the shouting behind him. The templars (whom he’d half expected to catch him immediately) didn’t seem to be following. Maybe they weren’t even able to for some reason. Had anyone followed him - mage or templar? Surely even if the templars couldn’t jump in - they were wearing their heavy armor, after all, maybe that was why they hadn’t followed - they would send someone after him. Could Torrin swim? Would he jump after his apprentice even if he could? Maybe that huge splash had been someone diving in with him. Or maybe splashes were always that big when you got a running start. Hadley didn’t allow running starts. Keres had tried once, and made the largest splash he could before Hadley could stop him. A soaking Knight Commander had stormed away from the pool that day. The delight Anders took in that memory spurred on his strokes again.
The sun was beginning to set before he reached the other side of the lake. He had, on the spur of the moment, decided to swim away from the Lake Calenhad docks. Although this left him completely lost when he finally crawled onto the beach, it gave assurance that the boats would have a harder time finding him. The Imperial Highway was supposed to come to an important crossroads near the lake. Maybe if he just walked in a straight line, he would find it soon.
And then… well, the templars always claimed they could hunt any apostate they wanted to catch. Let them try.
Two.
Mulit-Chapter, a bit long.
Rating: PG at max
Some implied pairings, but only Anders/Karl stands out. A few OC Wardens, who don't conflict with each other and don't play much role.
Ch. 2 - The Lake Attempt
4 Cloudreach, 9:16 Dragon
Anders didn’t remember what warm sand felt like on his feet. For some reason, this thought had been bothering him for nearly a week. Warm sand wasn’t that much different from cool sand - and he had very clear memories of cool sand and water, though it had been a while since he had felt them now - but warm sand sounded so very inviting, especially with another summer drawing on. The tower had not yet become stifling, but the air was slowly turning to a comfortable heat, enough that the mages had stopped wearing three of their robes at once to match the templars for warmth.
They had brought in a new apprentice last month. He was a scrawny kid without any particular talents as far as Anders or anyone else could tell, but a new apprentice was cause for excitement, if for no other reason than recent news of the world outside. The boy was from the south, a village almost at the edge of the Korcari Wilds, and his tales of trees and rocks and rivers from home had renewed Anders’ vigor for anything having to do with the outdoors. Young Jowan was happy to finally have friends - or at least that one Rivaini mage who bunked with him and hardly said a word to anyone. Anders would have been happy to take his place with Jowan’s old family.
He hadn’t been able to come up with another method of escaping the tower, even in the almost two years since he had last set foot outside alone. That templar recruit (Carroll, he later learned was his name) had been right in that there was always a templar outside by the boats. Unless he was really quiet and wanted to swim the long way across the lake (which didn’t seem like the best idea to someone whose longest swimming record was the bathtub) he didn’t pose much of a chance of slipping past the guard there. There would probably be another templar on the other side of the lake, working the boat over there, too.
And so Anders had to content himself with talking about the outside, and finding ways to open windows around the tower, and even standing at the main doors when the templars came in and out, just to get a peek at the weather while the templars gave him puzzled looks. He had also discovered snow. It hadn’t looked as cold as it felt, and it took him taking a handful and trying to bring it back to the apprentice quarters to realize that it was actually very finely shaved ice. He would have been able to keep that discovery to himself had Flora not gotten such a laugh about the wet spot on his robes. The knight commander had not been happy the next day when he found all the fourth floor windows open and snow all over the classrooms. The first enchanter, however, had laughed about it for hours.
But that had been months ago. Now all he had to look forward to was another day of training with Torrin. Torrin was working with three apprentices now, so Anders only saw him for a few hours at a time, which was perfectly fine by him. It gave him a lot more time to get the ash off his face and robes in between lessons, and also more time to himself. Still, it was probably time to get out of bed and start preparing for the day’s lesson. Anders rolled over to consider the benefits of another few minutes of daydreams when the door to the apprentice quarters slammed open.
“It shouldn’t be allowed! That’s all I’m saying. Mages aren’t meant to do such things. That’s why we even have magic - so we can hold up without this - this indignity!”
“Shut up, Flora,” came the usual chorus of voices that tended to follow Flora’s arrivals into the apprentice quarters.
“Not about this I won’t!” he snapped back, “And I’ve asked you to call me Finn. Finn!”
“Really, Flora, please? Some of us still got a few hours before we have to be up.” Niall groaned, his voice muffled by the pillow over his face.
“Oh you’re all hopeless! You’re all just willing to let the templars have their way with you, aren’t you? Perfectly happy to let them force their ‘well-meaning’ doctrines through and ruin your lives. Well not me. Not this time. I will stand up for my rights as a human being. I won’t let them force me. There has to be a loophole around this. There has to be!” Flora was shrieking by the time he finished his rant.
“Would you mind terribly telling what it is you’re talking about?” Eadric called from his bed, where he was hunched angrily over a book, “You know, so we can decide for ourselves whether it’s worth listening to you or not?”
Flora ground his teeth, and in a grand gesture of suppressed rage pointed at the door behind him, which still stood open.
“There is a notice on the door. It is meant for us, I can only assume, though it sounds like all mages will have to go through with this. I just can’t-“
“Flora! What are you on about?!”
“Exercise!” Flora screamed. “They’re going to force us out into the wilderness to exercise! We’re all going to have to march out in little templar led lines to do push ups and sit ups and lap racing and swimming and oh-“ He crumpled to the floor, “turn me tranquil now so I won’t feel this pain!”
“Exercise?” Anders asked, suddenly interested in what Flora had to say for what may have been the first time since he’d met the boy. “You mean they’re going to take us outside to run around?”
“Don’t encourage him, Anderfels!” Niall cried as he rolled over to block out the sound more efficiently.
“They wouldn’t need to take us outside for that kind of thing, though,” Eadric said. “We can do all those things just as easily up in the Harrowing Chamber or something. There’s plenty of room up there.”
“Well, all I know is that the notice says we’re all to meet by the quartermaster’s station tomorrow morning and Ser Hadley is going to lead us to ‘Exercise Training’. It’s so humiliating. Surely people elsewhere do not have to put up with this kind of-“
“Flora! Please! If you want to take it up with someone, go do so now. Tell Hadley you’re sick or something. You’re good at that.” Niall whined.
Anders didn’t hear him. He hadn’t heard anything since the words “Exercise Training”. Ser Hadley was well known as a good-natured templar who would occasionally bring in sweets for the young mage children that he was fond of. If he was really leading outdoor exercise groups, then Anders might even be able to stay outside for a little while and just experience the air. He wouldn’t be free, or even alone, but he would be outside regularly and that was a pretty good compromise.
He got up in much better spirits that morning than he had anticipated.
-
Flora had been quite right. Anders was so happy the next morning, he even asked the scowling apprentice how he was feeling using his chosen name “Finn”. This did a little to improve the boy’s mood (Hadley had not believed he woe-filled tales of illness and allergy, and had insisted that Flora at least come outside and get some sun.) The knight commander as well as several senior enchanters were already waiting by the quartermaster’s table when the apprentices traipsed out in varying degrees of excitement and horror. Anders saw Torrin happily chatting with a disgruntled looking older mage, who seemed to be protesting that he needed no more of the outdoors than what managed to come through his study window each day. Anders had a sudden horrifying vision of himself and Flora many years in the future and hit his forehead against his palm several times quickly trying to destroy the image. The Rivaini apprentice gave him a curious look, which Anders pointedly ignored.
“Right, that’s the last of the apprentices, then,” Hadley called as he led the female apprentices through the double doors to the tower proper. “Are we expecting anyone else, First Enchanter?”
“I don’t believe so,” First Enchanter Irving replied. “Uldred is overseeing a Harrowing with the Knight Captain and fade mages. They’ll all be down after the Harrowing is complete. This is all for now.”
“Right then, if you are ready, Knight Commander, onward and outward!” Hadley said, grinning broadly. Knight Commander Greagoir had only been appointed to the position a month previously and looked torn between rage and illness at what he saw happening before him. Anders suddenly wanted to know exactly how Hadley had gotten this proposition past him. Knight Commander Greagoir seemed to be wondering the same thing.
Anders knew what sunlight was. He had seen it streaming through windows and lighting up rooms all his life. Sunlight was what separated say from night, easy reading from candlelight’s flickering instability, and a clear day form a musty one in the tower. It had never occurred to Anders, however, exactly how much sunlight was in the world when the world wasn’t primarily composed of stone walls. It was blinding. It was everywhere. Anders noticed for the first time that his own hair was much lighter than he had ever thought, and that Flora’s robes were really pink and not red, and that the Rivaini apprentice didn’t have quite as dark skin as he looked, and that little Jowan was essentially the color of parchment under his ink-black hair. He also saw that the light on their armor made the templars wearing it wince. And that some people turned yellow under the light and others turned pink. He also saw, for the first time, that the tower wasn’t black after all, but made of grey-white stone that shone yellow in the sun. He had never known it could look so inviting.
“Right, come over here, apprentices and form something of a line in front of me. Leave yourselves some room now. You want to be able to swing your arms and not hit anyone. NOT hit anyone, I said, there. We’re going to warm up a little first. This is a very important part of exercise so that you don’t hurt yourself later.”
Everyone shuffled around, trying not to get too far away from Hadley. Flora stood as far away as possible from the templar, and behind an older apprentice named Karl, who was big enough to shield him from Hadley’s view. Anders could sense the other templars trying to find a way to circle the apprentices to make sure that none of them tried to make a sudden break for the water, but they couldn’t manage it without a few standing in the shallow water of the lake. One fell over with a lot of splashing and cursing. No one helped him up.
“Alright, everyone, now hold your arms out to your sides like this. That’s good, very good. You there, in the back. I can see you, you know. Join in! This will be fun, I promise.” There was a lot of sniggering as Flora raised his arms like he was preparing himself for crucifixion. “Now, I want you to make little circles with your arms, like this. It won’t be hard for a while, but soon you’re going to feel a strain up your arms and back. Keep them straight! Keep making those circles! Circles for the circle!”
This went on for over an hour. It was worth it, Anders thought, to be outside, but Ser Hadley quickly became the most annoying person that Anders had ever met. He spoke like he was trying to train nugs, and if you weren’t doing something correctly, he would not hesitate to point it out to you by shouting, or worse clanking over to where you stood to correct your positioning. It was no better for those who did well, especially the Rivaini apprentice, who was called out for “Excellent work!” several times, and flushed darkly every time he was pointed out. A few of the senior enchanters joined in from time to time, more, Anders thought, because the First Enchanter was prodding them in the back to set a good example than from any real desire to join in. It was hard not to laugh when Senior Enchanter Sweeney was forced to “swing his body like a windmill” with Irving prodding his back. Hadley was nowhere near done when Knight Commander Greagoir decided he had had quite enough.
“Come now, everyone. It’s time to go back inside. The kitchens will have lunch ready in an hour and I’m certain everyone wants to clean up a little. Let’s go. Now, Hadley. Everyone inside.”
Anders was almost not disappointed to leave the exercise training behind. Flora looked like he could have kissed Greagoir full on the mouth. Anders had to hit his head again to clear that thought.
-
What the notice hadn’t mentioned was that the Exercise Training program was to be a weekly endeavor. Flora burst into tears when he found out, and the excitement level in general was much lower than it had been the previous week, after most people discovered that the hour of work had left them rather sore the next day. It was a much more morose group that went outside with Hadley the next week. The templar’s spirits were not hampered. Although half of the senior enchanters had deigned not to return for further exercise, all of the other mages were nudged, prodded or pushed outdoors by the first enchanter, and then made to follow along in the exercises while surrounded by templars, who Hadley soon forced to participate as well.
Hadley was better the second week, though, as only the first twenty minutes were devoted to the ridiculous warm-ups and the rest of the time was spent playing a game called “Capture the Flag”. The rules were simple enough - the mages were divided into enchanters and apprentices, and each team was given a piece of cloth to hide and protect from the other team, while a line of templars stood between them. The goal was to find the other team’s cloth and bring it back. Anders took his team’s cloth and stuffed it down Ser Carroll’s armor without anyone being the wiser. The apprentices won that round.
The next week was met with more enthusiasm from the apprentices, but even fewer senior enchanters. Uldred was forced to attend for the first time, and the apprentices watched in delight as Irving pushed him to the front and made him participate in every warm-up that Hadley had them do. Hadley, who was the only one who could see Uldred’s face, must have seen the rage there as the warm up period was much shorter and more rushed than before.
It wasn’t until four weeks in however, that Hadley started teaching them to swim. He had somehow set up a small, enclosed area in the lake that only had an entrance and exit at the tower side. Here, he took off the bulk of his armor, and after having just the male apprentices strip down to their smallclothes, took them into the shallow end and began teaching them the basics of dog paddling. Anders was a natural. The water was cool on his skin and he quickly found that the more he followed Hadley’s instructions, the less attention Hadley paid to him. The templar was easily distracted by Jowan (who kept sinking) and Flora (who kept getting pushed in.) And the more Anders practiced, the better he got. And the better he got, the further out he could go, until he spent most of the swimming lessons on his own at the furthest edge of the swimming area.
As summer really set in, swimming became the predominant activity for exercise, and many templars joined in when they could, reveling in the chance to lose their armor and wade in the cold lake water. Anders had a very unpleasant experience when once he grabbed the foot of a boy who, from underwater looked like Flora, but turned out to be a jumpy templar recruit who squealed and fled the shallow end so quickly that he knocked Hadley and Jowan headfirst into the water. Still, the templars were distracted enough (or perhaps the recruit was always like this?) that they paid no attention to what had caused his terror. Anders swam back to the deep end.
-
When Kingsway rolled around and summer began to recede, Hadley announced that the Exercise sessions would continue outside as long as the weather permitted (they were to be moved to a large, empty classroom on the fourth floor for the winter), but that the next lesson would be the last one for swimming until the following year. Most apprentices were ready to be done with the sport in any case, but Anders was heartbroken. Swimming was his one guarantee of alone-time, where neither mage nor templar had reason or excuse to watch him. He never was in danger of drowning, nor was there any way for him to escape the enclosure without running headlong into a templar. Plus the other apprentices (Flora had yet to put his head underwater, even after four months) provided an excellent distraction. Freedom was slipping away again. Even the sunlight somehow was looking less bright as the year wore on. Anders wasn’t ready to let that happen yet.
The next week, it rained on Exercise Day. The apprentices had their first taste of indoor exercise earlier than they were expecting, and it wasn’t at all the same to Anders. They ran laps and the boys were taught to box a little while the girls were set to tossing large leather balls back and forth. It was confining. It was impossible to get away from everyone. The stench of bodies and sweat filled the already musty classroom in minutes and made everyone feel much more disgusting than usual. For the first time, Anders agreed with Flora that he never wanted to have to do that again.
The good weather briefly returned the following week, though Hadley insisted that it was too cold to swim, and they were set to playing Capture the Flag again. Most of the time, this game turned into “Capture the Mage”, as the flag would be given to the fastest runner on each team (or else tied to Flora’s robes) and then everyone would chase the mages in question. Anders, being neither the fastest, nor on Flora’s team today, ran around halfheartedly with the others, while he tried not to get distracted by the lake around him. Just one more swim. Just one more taste of Freedom. He could be happy with that. Just an hour to himself in the water. One of the mages, a small elven girl, tripped and fell flat into Ser Hadley’s chest, knocking them both over into the shallow water with a clatter of armor. The templars looked around curiously to see what had caused the sound, then ran over to help Hadley to his feet.
“Not a problem. I can get it on my own, thank you. The armor isn’t that heavy, even when it’s wet. Keep playing, everyone. We’ve only got fifteen minutes left before the Knight Commander wants everyone back inside.”
And then it hit him, and he wondered why it hadn’t before. There was the lake, right there, the full lake, not the little enclosure that Hadley had set up. And the templars had broken ranks. Keep playing, Hadley said, but no one was paying much attention to the game except the young apprentices, who were running every which way. Andres ran, too. He ran right at the lake, nearly knocking a scrawny templar recruit over in his haste, and didn’t stop until he could jump in.
The splash he made seemed louder than it should have been, but he didn’t stop to look back or listen. He had been practicing swimming laps and treading water all summer, admittedly in his small clothes and not his robes, but it didn’t make much difference. Adrenaline fueled his limbs and soon he couldn’t even hear the shouting behind him. The templars (whom he’d half expected to catch him immediately) didn’t seem to be following. Maybe they weren’t even able to for some reason. Had anyone followed him - mage or templar? Surely even if the templars couldn’t jump in - they were wearing their heavy armor, after all, maybe that was why they hadn’t followed - they would send someone after him. Could Torrin swim? Would he jump after his apprentice even if he could? Maybe that huge splash had been someone diving in with him. Or maybe splashes were always that big when you got a running start. Hadley didn’t allow running starts. Keres had tried once, and made the largest splash he could before Hadley could stop him. A soaking Knight Commander had stormed away from the pool that day. The delight Anders took in that memory spurred on his strokes again.
The sun was beginning to set before he reached the other side of the lake. He had, on the spur of the moment, decided to swim away from the Lake Calenhad docks. Although this left him completely lost when he finally crawled onto the beach, it gave assurance that the boats would have a harder time finding him. The Imperial Highway was supposed to come to an important crossroads near the lake. Maybe if he just walked in a straight line, he would find it soon.
And then… well, the templars always claimed they could hunt any apostate they wanted to catch. Let them try.
Two.