Free Apprentice by Eric Guindon

her, he was smitten. She was slight and had long brown hair that defied any attempt at being tied together. Her eyes were large and brown and when he looked at them, they looked back with a brief smile as she poured ale for him and the other young men. She disappeared again as quickly as she had come and Benen was sorry to see her go.
    “You like our Glenda, eh?” the other boys teased Benen. He decided he needed to get a handle on who his company were.
    “I’m Benen, my master is a travelling scribe and I hope to one day be the same,” he and Orafin had worked out the cover story together, deciding it fit well.
    Introductions followed from the others. The tall blonde man of twenty was Eggan; the short boy with the big ears was Tunney; the one missing the fingers was Fillen; last but not least was the outgoing boy who had originally called Benen over, his name was Ward.
    The boys encouraged Benen to flirt with Glenda, telling him to grope at her when she came near to refill their glasses, but Benen couldn’t possibly be so forward and scowled when the other boys demonstrated for him how to do it. This chilled things for a while and Benen regretted it. To make things up, he offered to pay for the rounds, producing his silver coin. The boys all looked at it in awe.
    “It pays well then to be an apprentice scribe,” Ward commented.
    “Not so well, this is a lot of my savings,” Benen said, trying to deflect attention from the money. Glenda brought him back his change for the piece, it was more change than he had expected; it seemed ale was inexpensive in this small village.
    In an attempt to change the subject Benen asked after the peddler.
    “No one really knows. I don’t think he tried to sell any wares here; he doesn’t speak Estren,” Tunney said.
    Benen paid for two more rounds, barely denting the change he had gotten back from the silver coin and then it was time for the inn to close to the public. By then the older men had already retired and only Benen, the younger men, and the peddler’s party remained in the tap room. The younger men ordered one more round to go and invited Benen to come with them, to drink in Eggan’s da’s barn. When Glenda refilled Benen’s mug for this final round, she slipped him a note discreetly. He unfolded it under the table and snuck a glance at it when he found a moment where no one was looking at him. It had four round circles on it. The circles were covered by a big X. Benen didn’t know what to make of it, he put it away. He was disappointed it wasn’t a note asking him to meet Glenda somewhere in the village for a tryst and the strange pictures just confused him.
    He left the inn with his new friends and walked into the night trying to sing along to the song the other four evidently knew by heart. He was a little bit drunk and was overall happy with his evening. Orafin, in the bag slung across Benen’s middle was restive and Benen took this to mean that maybe it was time to be leaving and returning to the tower before the wizard took off again or missed him. But he was having such fun he didn’t want to go just yet. He figured a little while longer wouldn’t hurt.
    The group walked a little way out of the village proper, singing the while. Once out of sight from anyone in the village, Ward pushed Benen over, making him fall to the ground. Confused, Benen didn’t have a chance to figure out what had happened before feet started pounding into his side. He covered his head with his arms and tried to curl up into a ball with Orafin in the middle.
    The beating didn’t last long, for which Benen was thankful. The kicks stopped soon after they began, with Tunney saying that should be enough. Someone, Ward, Benen thought, reached down and grabbed his purse of coins.
    “We’ll drink to you for a week or two, Benen, thanks,” said Ward with a laugh. Then he turned to go and Benen saw him stop cold. Standing in the way of their route back to the village was the foreigner