I was hopeful at first. The tower was warm and seemed inviting but something seemed off too. The tower was silent, save for our footsteps on the tower steps as we climbed upstairs. He led me to the library, where a warm fire was glowing in the fireplace. The library was bigger by itself than any building I had ever been inside. There was a beautiful rug on the stone floor. There were long, wooden tables, polished to a shine. All the walls were made of shelves from floor to ceiling and every shelf was full of books.
The wizard sat in a high-backed chair facing the fire. "Come," he ordered without looking at me. I walked forward and stood, facing him. "What can you do?" he asked.
"Um. I don't know," I said. "I can run real good. Sometimes I help Mama cook. I carry firewood into the house when we have some."
"Allow me to rephrase," he said, holding the bridge of his nose. "What can you do that is of use?"
"I-I don't know." I was starting to shake. The tower was warm but there was no warmth in the Wizard's face or his tone.
"Can you read and write?" he asked.
"No," I answered.
Before I even realized what was happening, he reached out and hit me. My ear throbbed and I started crying even though I tried to hold back my tears. "No, Master," he corrected loudly. "You will address me as Master. I am Lord High Wizard Elric Shadowstorm and you are now my slave. You will show me the proper respect.
"Yes, Master," I said quickly. "Forgive me, Master."
He nodded approvingly. "Yes. She said you could learn. Maybe she was telling the truth. We shall see. Can you clean? Can you count? You are scrawny, so I doubt you are any good at manual labor."
"I know how to clean, Master," I said, "I ain't real good at numbers though."
"You are not very good at the common tongue either," he observed sourly. "I expect you to learn to speak properly, if you are to serve me for long."
"Yes, Master," I responded.
"The boy, Drinn, will teach you," Master Elric said firmly. "He can read enough to teach you the basics." The wizard rose from his seat and walked over to a shelf. He pulled a thin book out of the row, then walked over to his desk and picked up a few sheets of parchment and a small, black stick. He handed them to me. "Take these. The book is one that teaches beginning reading. I want you to use this charcoal and paper to practice your letters. In a week's time, I expect you to know your alphabet and be able to write it."
I didn't know what an alphabet was, but I nodded before quickly catching my mistake and saying, "Yes, Master."
"Good," he said. "Now go."
I bowed and walked out of the room. The door shut behind me and I looked around. I was in a hall. There were two rooms across from me but the doors were closed. There were stairs leading up and stairs leading down. I chose down. On the floor below, four children, who all appeared to be older than me, were standing by the wall. This floor had several rooms with doors, some open and some closed. There were two girls and two boys.
One of the girls stepped forward. "I'm Katya," she said quietly. "This is Sai," she said, pointing at the other girl, "And Drinn and Falcon," she finished, pointing at the boys in turn.
"I'm Karina," I said.
"We'll show you around," Katya said. "Upstairs is the library, as you saw. There are also a couple of guest rooms on that floor, for when Master Elric has company. Master's room is on the next floor up. We can never go there unless we are summoned. Above that is the attic and the ladder to the top of the tower. Master keeps experiments and things up there. We aren't really sure what though because we are never allowed there. This floor has more guest rooms but they are smaller, for less important guests. There is a storage room and a large sitting room for Master's guests." The other children led me down one flight of stairs to the next floor. There were six rooms on the floor. "We sleep in that room," Katya said, pointing to a room in the back. The other rooms are for the servants of Master's guests when they accompany their Lords to the tower. "The next floor down is the entrance hall, another sitting room, and closets for cloaks, hats, and the like. Below that is the kitchen, wine cellar, and larder."
Karina followed the other children into her new room. There were four thin bedrolls on the floor with small pillows and a couple of blankets. Falcon walked over to a small chest in the corner and pulled out another bedroll. He rolled it out in the corner and laid the blankets and pillow on top. "That one's yours," he said gruffly. He went over to one in the opposite corner and lay down, pulling his pillow over his head.
"We really should get to bed," said Katya. "Master usually rings early for us to start working." She lay down on the bedroll beside mine.
Drinn, Sai, and I followed suit. I covered myself with the two blankets. They were threadbare and thin. The mat beneath me was lumpy and did nothing to cushion the hard wood beneath me. I was so tired and scared that I couldn't even cry. I just stared at the moonlight on the wall until I fell asleep.
***
Over the next week, I worked hard with Drinn. He was a good teacher and I learned quickly. By the time I met with Master Elric again, I knew the alphabet of the common tongue, the sounds the letters made, and I was able to read simple words. He gave me a stack of books to work my way through. I spent many days in the library in the coming weeks. At first I did little else. I was lonely and afraid of failing, so I worked hard. My reading quickly improved. After a while, he gave me more parchment, along with a pen and ink for me to copy from the books and practice my writing. At first, my hand was shaky and my letters were crooked but this too improved.
At least once a tenday, Master would call me to meet with him and he would test me. If I made an error, he would hit me with the switch. Initially, I walked around with cuts and bruises all over. I kept practicing and my whippings became less frequent.
Eventually, Master said that I had made enough progress to start helping him with his research. He started teaching me the organizational system for the library so I could fetch him books and pick up after he was finished researching. Sometimes this meant I was awake into the early hours of the morning because I had to work when he did and he tended to keep unusual hours.
I also got to know more about the other children during this time. Drinn and Falcon were the oldest, at 13, and were a little withdrawn sometimes. Falcon had been in the tower the longest and he would not talk about the time before he was brought to Master Elric. He was prone to fits of anger but could be kind when he was in a pleasant mood. Sai was 12 but she had only been at the tower for a little over a year. They told me that things were not so bad, as long as we did what Master said. Falcon overheard that and his face turned stormy. He didn't correct them though.
For the most part, the other children seemed to have little use for me. The exception was Katya, who quickly became my best friend. She was 8 and had come to the tower around the same time as Sai. She usually served Master as a maid, so she and I had little time together during the day. We moved our mats so they were close together. We picked a spot that lit up with moonlight every night. One of the moons was always bright enough to see by. When all three moons were high and nearly full, our spot was so bright I could read by the light.
We lay together nearly every night, talking until we drifted to sleep. She told me of her life before she came to the tower. Unlike me, she missed her family. She told me they were kind and they loved her more than anything. Raiders attacked her village. She was one of few survivors, all of whom were sold into slavery. I never felt like talking about my family. Master wasn't much better but I had something in the tower that I had never had before - an escape.
Learning to read opened a new world for me. Master could be harsh and even cruel but, when he did not require my assistance, he encouraged me to read as much as possible. He told me it would increase my vocabulary and fluency. At first, I didn't know what that meant but I gradually learned more words, including these.
And so my life went for the first few months. My days were filled with the words from books and my nights were filled with the words from my friend.