Free Wielder: Apprentice: Book 1 of Lady Shey's Story (The Wielder Cycle) by Mark E Tyson Page A

tomes was titled Rune Magic of the Dragons . Toborne’s face contorted as she looked at the book.
    “What are you doing? What are you looking at?” He glanced behind him, still concentrating on the stream of knowledge all the while. “Ah, dragon magic. It was a gift, but I have never been able to read it. No wielder can read it.” He dropped the stream. Sheyna collapsed to her knees with her head in her hands.
    The words flowed from her mouth without a forethought. “I knew you were mad, but I never expected you to be this mad. You hurt me!”
    Toborne did not seem to be wounded or upset by her words. “Would you have it your way, then? I could train you for a hundred seasons or so, or I could do it this way and have you an adept by Summerwills Day.”
    “People don’t live a hundred seasons.”
    “Ha, you do now. Wielders age differently. You will appear to be about thirty or thirty-five seasons by the time you are a master wielder, and you will appear that age for hundreds of seasons, aging so slowly as to be imperceptible. It is the way of essence.”
    Sheyna felt a sharp pain throb at her temples, and she clasped her head in her hands again. The pain was almost unbearable. She opened her straining eyes to see figures and text swirling before her eyes. Toborne sat back at the center table, smirking at her.
    “What’s happening?” Sheyna became confused.
    “Looks like the knowledge is taking hold. This is my favorite part.” He released a bubble that expanded into every corner of the room.
    “What was that for?” Sheyna asked.
    “It was for your screams, dear. I can’t have the whole of the tower rushing here when you scream.”
    Sheyna went one step beyond livid. Instinctively she outstretched her arm to the dragon book and willed it to her without bothering to draw in essence. It flew off the shelf and into her hand. Toborne, who was leaning back in his chair, sat forward, watching Sheyna intently. She could tell he was as surprised as she was. Sheyna flung open the book and released essence from somewhere inside her she didn’t know she had stored up. The runes leaped from the page in a constant stream and penetrated directly through her eyes. Now she let out a blood-curdling scream.
    “What are you doing, you fool? You can’t cast that spell so soon after! It will kill you,” Toborne bellowed.
    He tried to do something, but Sheyna willed him to stay seated. He was stuck to his chair. The runes floated around her, through her, and she began to gain the knowledge to understand them. The pain in her head was almost unbearable, but she powered though it anyway. When it was done and she had absorbed the entire book, all she could see was crimson, and she imagined her sapphire blue eyes were now ruby red, and by the look on Toborne’s face, they were.
    “You can’t do that! I didn’t teach you the spell. How could you possibly know how to absorb the knowledge?”
    “I don’t like being forced against my will,” she said. With a flick of her wrist, Toborne was sailing backward through the air. He smashed into the bookshelf, causing all the books to tumble down on top of him.
    “Dragon magic!” Toborne exclaimed. “You can learn the magic of dragons!” He jumped up from his prone position. “By the gods, you’re the one I have been searching for.”
    Sheyna calmed herself. “What are you saying?”
    Toborne abruptly went stoic. “I am saying you are special. I have made the correct choice for an apprentice.” He went to her. “Forgive me, I will not use such methods on you again unless you consent. Forgive me, my apprentice.”
    “You said you have been searching for me. What did you mean by that? Are you the one sending people to seek me out, to hunt for me?”
    “No, nothing so dramatic. I simply meant as an apprentice. I have been searching for someone like you to apprentice.”
    Sheyna was sure he was lying to her. “I don’t want to be your apprentice anymore. Something about you