Henry clenched his teeth against the pain and blinked his eyes rapidly in a vain attempt to keep the sweat rolling down his forehead out of them. His lungs burned as he tried to pull oxygen into his air-starved body, but nothing he tried seemed to ease his discomfort nor put an end to his suffering. He knew that there was only one thing he could do to stop this torture, but he wasn't quite stretched to his limit just yet.
"Let go!" Cedric commanded, his voice distorted by the stone and earth that separated them. Henry shook his head stubbornly, refusing to give up when he'd finally managed to transmute a large section of earth into a huge pane of bubbled glass, and he watched as his tutor threw his hands into the air in disgust. He just needed to smooth the glass a little more to get the bubbles out, and then Henry could consider this latest challenge accomplished. That fact that Cedric wanted him to quit was just another example of how the journeyman was working against him, trying to hold him back and prevent him from becoming the saviour he was meant to be. Such things had become more and more common the closer Henry got to his fifth year anniversary as an apprentice mage.
Closing his eyes for just a moment, the young prince tried to find a previously untapped reservoir of magical strength, but there was nothing left. With a horrendous crack, the glass shattered and fell in on itself, the vacated space rapidly filling with earth from either side. The noise was nearly deafening, and Henry clapped his hands over his ears in an effort to reduce the sound that stabbed into his suddenly aching head.
When the rumbling of moving dirt stopped and the dust finally settled, Henry opened eyes knowing that the disapproving face of Cedric awaited him. Light stabbed into his overly sensitive eyes, and he groaned before he could stop himself.
"Given yourself a reaction headache, have you?" Cedric's unpitying voice echoed through the room, far too loud. "Well, it serves you right. What were you thinking, trying a section so large?"
Henry shook his head. "I don't know."
"Liar!" Cedric spat, infuriated. "You decided to try to impress Master Rylan, endangering yourself and me! You are the heir to the throne, and should know better than to take risks like that! Magic is dangerous, and you can't just jump ahead to bigger spells and greater consequences without learning all the steps in between!"
Henry looked up, meeting the older boy's glare with one of his own. "How do you know that I'm not up to the challenge?" he demanded. "You tell me that you want to help me, you tell me that I have to challenge myself, but you've been holding me back!"
"Holding you back? You little brat! Without me and what I've taught you, you wouldn't even-"
"Cedric!" boomed Master Rylan, interrupting the journeyman's tirade. "I believe you have somewhere to be right now."
Cedric snapped his mouth shut, spun on his heel and stalked from the large workroom without another word. He didn't so much as glance back at them, his spine straight and his body language radiating fury. Henry watched him leave with a small smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. The journeyman deserved to be put in his place like that.
"That was a very reckless thing to do, your Highness. You must be more careful."
Henry turned his attention to his master, affecting the posture and attitude of a properly chastised student. Keeping his eyes on the master mage's boots, he rolled his shoulders forward and curled in on himself a little.
"I'm sorry, Master Rylan," he apologized. "Cedric is right; I did want to impress you. I know that my five year apprenticeship is nearly at an end, and I wanted to be sure that you were proud of me. What better way to demonstrate everything I've learned from you than by performing such a complicated spell?"
Master Rylan chuckled and his put hand on Henry's shoulder. "I know that you're a good student, my boy," he assured him. "You don't have to go around getting yourself killed to show me that!"
Henry blushed, showing his embarrassment, and Rylan ruffled his hair.
"Come along, your Highness. You'll need a good meal, a bath and then a good night's sleep if you're going to take your journeyman's test tomorrow."
"Tomorrow?"
Henry could hardly believe his good luck. Finally, after three months of hard work under the watchful eye of Cedric, he would be free of the early mornings, the extra practice and the stupid challenges that were meaningless when it came to actually advancing his skills. He had no idea why he'd ever admired the older boy, knowing now that Cedric was too cautious with his instruction. Henry remembered clearly the journeyman's words a few weeks ago when he'd stated his belief that Henry would not live up to his destiny. How was he supposed to save his kingdom if people like Cedric were trying to hold him back from achieving the greatness he was born for?
Henry let the master mage steer him away from the dining hall and toward the kitchen. He watched as Rylan got a covered basket full of warm dinner and a few extra sweets, and he smiled when the man passed him the food and left him in his room a short while later. Full of excitement for the pending test and wondering what it would be like, Henry ate as much of the food as he could and then crawled into bed. Blowing out the candle beside the headboard, he fell immediately into dreams of triumphant parades through streets full of citizens chanting his name. Tomorrow, he'd be one step closer to being the hero he'd been born to become.