“Milady Sorceress, your tea is ready.” She slapped me but I had been expecting it. My day was normally filled with slaps and punches. A good day meant I hadn’t been lashed or burned.

“You’re late boy. You better not have been drinking any of my special tea? For, it’s the only thing that will grant me any relief, from my daily pains and your stupidity!”

I could barely remember living some place that wasn’t filled with blows, lashes and harsh words. It had been five or six winters since I had come to this place. I think I am eight or nine years old now. Up until last year I hadn’t even had a name. She finally took me to the nearby village and in the village she had referred to me a James. It had startled me so much that I had nearly dropped the packages I had been carrying. But it immediately became “James do this,” and “James do that”, the entire time we were there. At least I had been fed better. I am fairly sure that the reason she had called me James was to increase her standing in the eyes of the villagers. A servant or slave named James made her look better than one called boy or rat. To her face they called her the Sorceress Lauren but I heard a few of them refer to her as the Swamp Witch when they thought she couldn’t hear. In regards to myself; the villagers had either pretended like I wasn’t there or had looked at me fearfully. I think they were afraid of offending Milady and bringing a curse down upon themselves or their families. On my second trip to Ester’s Village, I found out that she had bought me a little over six years ago, even though slavery was supposed to be illegal in the Gulf Kingdom.

The Sorceress liked to brag out loud to herself whenever she got the better of a deal, even if that deal was many years ago. Many times she did well in her transactions by making threats during the bargaining process. I think the only one that didn’t succumb to those tactics was the owner of the general store. She also seemed to have a long list of enemies that she would chortle over having made them regret crossing or offending her. There were times though when she would suddenly get very angry and curse certain names. I would normally have to stay out of sight when that happened or risk a terrible beating.

Drunken comments that I heard her make more than once led me to believe that she had somehow gotten me very cheaply and by under handed means.

There were days when she was very careful with her appearance and wore old but very rich and fancy looking clothing. Like when we went to village, she would bathe and dress nicely. But most times she dressed in just an old robe and her blood stained teeth would fill me with dread when they approached my wrists or neck.

The last two years had been filled with work. She had sent me out into the swamp time and time again to gather the plants, roots, animals and insects she needed for her potions, let alone those things she wanted to eat. Lately she had been taking far more of my blood and drinking a tea made from poppy leaves.

She has old spell books filled with tiny pictures, numbers and a few words. I’ve learned to understand most of the pictures, some of numbers and a few of the words. Most of the pictures show plants and roots, some show actions like boiling, drying or mixing.

“Boy, we’re running low on the roots and plants that I need to make swamp fever potions. You take out the pirogue and get me some but don’t you dare come back until you’ve got full bags. Do you hear me?”

I was a tad upset at her request. She hadn’t let me eat yet today, however I could probably manage to find something out in the swamp. My concern was that there were some big crocs hanging about our island and she had done nothing recently to chase them off. I knew better than to bring that to her attention it would just make her angry and she could easily cast a spell upon me that would leave me twisted up on the floor in agony. I put together a few tools and did as she told me. We had two boats and I took the smallest one. I poled the pirogue to the far side of where she and I normally looked for food and other things.

I already knew that we had pretty much picked over the rare roots and plants needed for potions nearby her keep. It was way past time to start searching in a new area. I had asked on one occasion why we didn’t do like the farmers do and try to raise our own rare plants. That earned me a whipping.

To fill up seven bags was going to take me more than one day, if I lived; I wonder if she knew that? But I had no choice; I had to stay out in the swamp. Worse yet it was already late morning and the first thing I had to do was set up a safe camp site for the night. I just wish I only had to worry about crocs, swamp cats, poisonous insects and snakes. There were worse things in Drake’s Swamp, like giant spiders and swamp dragons. Those few times when I was in town, I even heard people talking about the living dead.

I didn’t have much magic, I was pretty sure that the Sorceress sucked it out of me along with my blood whenever I built some back up. But I did have witch sight which I had learned to use almost constantly. Witch sight tells me things. I know what’s edible and what isn’t, I also know if there is anything alive nearby and what it might be, though in a swamp there is so much life that it’s hard to isolate things and identify exactly what I’m looking at.

I finally came to a good size piece of ground after I had been poling my flat-bottomed craft for over three hours. I had to make my camp off the ground but swamp trees held dangers of their own, like tree cats, poisonous plants, strangle vines, venomous insects and snakes. I used my sight to pick out a tree that seemed to have fewer dangers than the others. First I cleared the tree of as many inhabitants as I could find. I then used a small saw and a machete to build myself a small platform between two large branches. I had been gathering edible plants, frogs, snakes and turtles throughout my journey and while working. I had stuffed them into my sacks for latter. I pulled my pirogue up into a tree using a fresh killed strangle vine, which was still flexible. I carried my two clay pots up to my temporary home. The next thing to be hauled up was a large flat thin stone that I found over a month ago.

Now it was time to start gathering reeds and fire wood. I needed wood for cooking, torches and to light a fire during the night if needed. The tree was full of long dead strangle vines that I could use to make the torches and this particular kind of tree produced plenty of good sap that was ideal for soaking those torch heads. The sap would make the torches last longer and burn brighter. I just wish that I had more than two pots for my camp.

It had taken me three hours to make my crude shelter up in that mighty tree. My most urgent demand was for wood and I started gathering that first but I had some luck and also found a big old turtle shell which I could later use to hold the tree sap for making my torches. I spent my first hour gathering and cutting wood; then I spent the next two, gathering reeds to make a roof for my small shelter and for making baskets. When I felt I only had a little more than an hour of light left I stopped my gathering and using fresh killed strangle vines for ropes I hauled my gathered materials up into the tree. Earlier I had setup my cooking pot to collect some sap from a wound that I had made in the tree’s trunk. I was pleased to see that I had almost half a pot of the gooey fluid. I swapped out the old turtle shell for my pot. I needed to use the pot to make my dinner. I quickly wrapped four sticks with old dry vines and set their heads to soaking in the turtle shell. Using less than half of my gathered reeds I built a roof for my shelter.

It was starting to get dark now and I needed to make a fire quickly, so I could cook my dinner and also to let me see in the darkness, of the night. I loaded my big old clay pot, the one with the holes in it, with small pieces of fire wood, poured a little of a fire starter potion on the wood and finally ignited it with a sprinkle of sparking dust. My fire pot was set up on my flat stone which should hopefully prevent the floor from charring and burning. I had used Milady’s gathering bags to hold my food. I decided to cook the three snakes first, they weren’t very big and on top of that they were venomous so leaving them alive and close to me while I slept was a bad idea; besides that I liked snake.

Fire roasted snake meat filled the aching hole in my gut. I cleaned my cooking pot of the sap residue as best I could and put in some water from my water bags. I would let the hot water remove the rest of the sap. While that was going on I split and cleaned the two small turtles I had caught. When the pot was clean as I could make it, I set to making turtle soup to which I added some plants and tubers. It would be my meal for tonight and my breakfast tomorrow morning. I pulled out the first four torches and set them to drying on the flat stone and next to my fire pot. I wrapped five more torches and set them to soaking, after that I turned to making reed baskets for my gathering that would begin tomorrow.

The insects were starting to get really fierce. Milady had long since loaded me up with all manner of potions that made me immune to the diseases and some toxins that the local insects and snakes carried. She hadn’t done that out of the kindness of her heart, she just didn’t want to lose her investment in a slave. While I was long since inured to the insect bites I was starting to spit them out of my mouth, so I threw certain plants and flowers into my fire pot. This produced a noxious smoke that repelled the insects and even most snakes. I didn’t like it either but I could get used to it. Hopefully the smoke would penetrate my shelter and even my own body to repel the biters for a full day.

My baskets weren’t the best, since I was largely self taught. I had learned by watching others do it, on my infrequent trips into Ester’s village. Basket weaving had seemed like such a useful skill that I had diligently worked at improving my own mastery of the subject. I was now able to make ugly baskets that didn’t immediately fall apart and could actually hold things.

That night I made seven baskets, fourteen torches and cooked frog legs for my midday meal tomorrow. I slept huddled up on four of my canvas gather bags which I had stuffed earlier with swamp grasses. My blanket and the fire pot kept me reasonably warm throughout the night. As is normal for Drake’s swamp, the morning began with a light rain. I finished the soup for my breakfast. While it was far more dangerous out here in the swamp, especially living in such a crude shelter, I was eating much better than I usually did and I my stomach thoroughly enjoyed the experience.

I spent the next two days filling my seven baskets. I was nearly killed several times by spiders, snakes, strangler vines and crocs but that’s normal for this place. Once, a nest of six large gray spiders, with centers larger than my head, came swarming out of a pit trap after me. It scared me so badly that I pissed myself. That kind of spider has an extremely painful bite and while I do have some immunity to it, too many of their bites can still render me paralyzed. Several times during the nights up in my tree, I could see the eyes of swamp cats watching me and hear their terrible screams.

This was my first time that I had been sent out for so long with orders to only come back when my bags were filled. In the past I had only stayed out when I was unable to make it back to the Sorceress’s Keep, before dusk.

She calls it a keep but it’s actually an old stone ruin built on top of one of the highest spots in the swamp. The building has three floors, four rooms on the first floor, two on the second and a single room at the top. The Witch told me one time that it was shaped like a small step pyramid. It was built of large heavy stone blocks that would even stop a swamp dragon. The roof is very strong and made of a layered arrangement of large flat stones supported by stone arches. The upstairs levels are hardly ever used anymore because of the rotten interior wooden floors.

It was the morning of my fourth day away from my Milady and it was time to return. My baskets were full and if I didn’t return soon she was sure to send some spell or curse after me and take her revenge. I had eaten better during the past few days than at any other time during my life. When I made it back to Milady’s island, I found that several large crocs had made it past her inner wards, which had never happened before to my knowledge. I was scared, she was probably furious that I had been gone for so long. I imagined that she might suck me dry of both blood and magic as soon as she set eyes on me. Living as I had been for the last few days and eating my fill, had let my internal magical energy recover faster than normal. I surely had enough in me right now to bring out Milady’s hunger. My knees were shaking in fear.

Nervously, I entered the keep carrying two baskets filled with roots. I dropped them off and made four more trips emptying the small boat. But strangely, Milady never appeared and she never called out for me either. I searched the building looking for her but she wasn’t inside of it. I already knew that the other boat was still here, so she must be somewhere on this very small island. I searched it but I couldn’t find her. Though, I did discover five very large crocs and a host of smaller ones. I began to hope that the huge reptiles might have made a meal out of her. Crocs can move surprisingly fast and are ambush hunters on land. Plus, she had been drinking a lot of her tea as of late. If she had let the wards fail completely and then forgot to use her witch sight, a crocodile might have indeed been able to surprise her. For the next two weeks I did my normal chores, just in case she came back. Though, I did sneak more frequent looks at her spell and potion books. I also ate much better food, all of which I gathered myself.

Two weeks later I had to assume that she wasn’t coming back, so I decided to try and make the fever potions that I knew that the villagers needed. I already had experience in preparing all of the raw ingredients; she had been making me do that for years. But I had never made a finished potion before because she had never left me enough magic to attempt it. However with my witch sight I had watched her work and I thought I knew how to make them.

She already had a crate of small clay jugs to hold the potions and I had long since whittled wooden corks for them. I decided to only try small batches at first. I brought out her potion book. I could only really understand the pictures but it helped me to do things in the right order. It took me three days of trying until I made a potion that looked right to my sight and tasted like I remembered. I spent the next week making more of the magical fever medicine. The hardest parts were harvesting and preparing the ingredients and I had already done that.

I loaded up the big flat bottomed boat early the next morning and started poling for the village. I probably wouldn’t get there until dark.

Just before dusk I arrived, tired and hungry. I called out as I approached the village dock. There are bad things in the swamp and some of them are human or once had been human according to the tales.

“Hello, the town. It’s me, James. Milady Sorceress Lauren sent me to you with her fever potions and to pick up supplies.” I had to call that out two more times before I heard an answer back.

“Come into the dock boy. Your mistress is late and we’ve got sick people already.”

I explained or rather I made up a hopefully believable lie. “Some magical business had delayed her in making your potions. She is still working on that other business even now or she would have come herself instead of sending me alone. But I must hurry quickly back, with her magic she already knows that I have made it here. She always knows exactly where I am. I’ve been marked by her and if I do not return in two or three days at most she will call a death curse upon me.”

“You have my sympathy boy. I don’t know if your parents ever dreamed of the hard life you would be living when they sold you to her as an apprentice.”

I poled silently to the dock because the man’s words had shocked me. I had never known that my own parents had sold me or even suspected that they might still be alive and nearby. I decided to just keep quiet. It was my goal to take over for the Swamp Witch. I had only a little of her knowledge but I was a harder worker. I had hopes that with her books I might figure out how to do enough to get by. I thought I already knew how to create most of the potions that she sold and I think I can make some of her wards as well. But if the villagers find out that she’s gone then someone might just risk coming out to loot the keep or attempt to claim me as their slave. I had had enough of being a slave!

I was using reed baskets to transport the small potion jugs. The clay bottles were cushioned with swamp grass which was more than the Witch had ever done. It made it easier to move the jugs and prevented breakage as well.

“How much are the jugs boy?” The man asking me was Mack Phelps, the owner of the village general store.

“She was so busy and angry that she didn’t even tell me if she was changing the price this time. So I think it has to be the same as before which was two silvers a jug. Did she say anything to you about raising the price last time? Because if she did and I don’t get the additional coin then I’ll be getting a whipping when I return if she doesn’t just feed me to the crocs.” I put a note of fear into my voice.

“No James, don’t you be worried. She mentioned the possibility and I told her that if she raised her prices anymore then I would start looking elsewhere. I know that her potions are cheaper than anything from a real mage but hers aren’t nearly as good. Sometimes it takes twice as much of the Witch’s concoctions to get the job done, as compared to a magic elixir from a real mage. How many jugs have your brought me?”

“There are nine baskets and six jugs per basket. I think you’ll find this batch, of potions, are better than what Milady usually brings you. The ingredients were freshly gathered and from new areas in the swamp too, so they seem to be extra potent. I would be surprised if you have to double dose someone, in order to cure or to protect them from the fever this year.”

“I hope you’re right. Help me carry them to my cart and I’ll pay you the money that I owe. Do you know what the Witch wants you to buy from my store while you’re here?”

“Yes sir, I’ll be making those purchases tomorrow and the day after that, I’ll be heading back to her island. Normally, I’d stay in the inn with her but I don’t think she would want me to be spending any of her money like that. At least she didn’t tell me that I could. Do you know of a barn or something I could sleep in?”

Mister Phelps looked at me for a long time. “Yeah, I figure she wouldn’t like you spending any coin on yourself. If you don’t mind bugs, I’ve got a shed that is half empty. You can stay there for two nights, since you brought in these potions and will be buying things from me tomorrow.”

“I’m much obliged Mister Phelps. I’ve got enough scars on my back and I don’t need another whipping which will add to them.” I gathered my bedroll and two sacks filled with my belongings and food. I then followed the man back to his store and home. He pointed out the outhouse and well; then he showed me to the shed. I washed up with a bucket of water and ate a meal. My food didn’t need any cooking, so I didn’t use any of Mack’s firewood.

The next morning I made the normal purchases for the keep except I only bought half as much whiskey. I told Mister Phelps that the Sorceress now had a concoction of her own that she liked to drink just as much as whiskey. He didn’t seem to care.

I spent the following afternoon hanging about town trying to learn more about math and reading. I would pester anyone that even displayed a little bit knowledge. I needed to learn so that I could read and better understand the Witch’s books. The way I normally did math was to break things up into tens and using my fingers or pebbles I would count them up. Some little boys who were years younger than me showed me how to count up to one hundred and a little girl taught me a song for the alphabet. I gave them some smoked sausage made from swamp pig in trade. The little girl even taught me how to read four words and wrote them down for me on a hunk of old hide with a piece of charcoal, along with the alphabet letters in the same order as the song. I probably drove people crazy singing that alphabet song and counting out loud to a hundred. I even pestered Mister Phelps some more and he got so tired of it that he gave me a little book about learning how to read. It only had a dozen pages in it but he said that since I now knew the alphabet, that by using my new book I could learn how to sound words out. Diane, his older daughter, spent a few minutes with me and showed me how to do that for some of the words in the book. I promised to bring back the book or to give him something in trade for it when I returned. He said that the book was only worth a single silver coin since it was so old and only had a dozen pages.

The next morning he let me use his cart to take all of my purchases to my boat and I left for home. When I got back I found even more crocs on the island, it was starting to get really dangerous. It was time to redo the wards. I got out her book on wards and brought in some of her ward signs to compare them to the pictures in the book. Her signs didn’t even have a spark of magic left in them. I decided to saw some new wooden rounds to use as sign boards. For some reason the idea of using my magic to refresh the Witch’s magic made my guts twist up, I wanted to start afresh.

I carved that first ward very carefully. Using a special mixture that contained a drop of my own blood, I painted in the carved tracks in the wood and attempted to push my magic into the ward. Fifteen days later I had my first success and I was pooped. The Crocs were right at the front door by that time, so I hung the wooden round there to start. The crocs didn’t run away but they did move off at a steady walk. The next day I was still tired so I was only able to do one more ward which I put on the back door.

Wards are tricky; there are some creatures that are dangerous and some that you need, so the wards have to be selective. Though, the ward for crocs was supposed to work at least a little bit against swamp dragons. The next day I did two wards which I hung on the other sides of the house. My thinking was that I would slowly put out more wards and chase all of the bad beasts off of my island. I couldn’t just put them on the edges of the island to start because if I did that I would trap a lot of those animals here with me and I didn’t want that. Once I had my first four croc wards out then I did four for spiders. I was able to do all four in one day and it sure as hell scared me when I say so many of those big old spiders running off. I knew life had been out there in the trees but since I wasn’t getting too close I hadn’t bothered to use my witch sight and find out exactly what was out there. I still needed to create wards against cats, snakes, mosquitoes, flies, ticks, and dragons. I wanted to keep swamp pigs, turtles, frogs and fish, ants and bees. It was good thing that I needed only a drop of my blood for each ward.

To push the creatures away took four wards to go around the keep but I needed wards for each kind of creature I wanted gone. The next layer or middle ring would take eight rounds but again I needed eight of each type. The final border at the island’s edge would need sixteen wooden signs for each creature. So I needed a lot of signs and I could only count up to a hundred. It turned out to be over two, one hundred counts plus twenty four rounds that I had to make. On my fall trip to town I’m going to buy or order a new saw.

Milady had only an inner and outer shield of wards but I thought that three layers should offer me far more protection. It took me a month to put up all the wards and I would have to refresh them every two to six months. At least that’s what I saw the Witch do.

Once I had my wards up, then my days became more regular. During the mornings, I gathered food. In the afternoon, I worked on fixing up the keep and after dinner I would study. I found that Lauren had more books hidden away but they were mainly about other things like farming or pottery rather than magic. Most of the books were labeled as being from the Royal University.

I transplanted some small orange and lemon trees that I had found on other nearby islands. Half of them died but half lived, so I considered it a win. I thought if the fruit trees were close by then I could watch the trees and protect them and their fruit from harm. I was eating better but I was working hard too, fixing up the keep and putting in my new garden. Maybe I should buy some chickens?

There was a different potion that the village bought, in the fall to prepare themselves for the winter, but they only wanted twenty of them. I had a new ward that I had just put in the area immediately around the house and it was a ward against men, I had found it in a book. So far my wards seemed to be retaining their magic better than the Witch’s. I wondered if that was because I had started with new wooden signs.

I left mid-fall for the village. I called again when I approached the dock. Mack wasn’t there this time, so I just carried three baskets filled with all of his order. It was heavier than I thought; I stumbled and nearly dropped them before arriving at the store.

“Hello Mister Phelps. I’ve got your potions for you.”

“The Sorceress is still busy?” He gave me a perplexed looked.

“She’s still a little busier than normal but I think since I was able to handle things the last time, she decided to just send me out again.” I shrugged my shoulders and then lowered my voice, like I was trying to keep a secret. “She is kind of lazy and doesn’t like leaving the keep. Were the fever potions I brought last time, okay?”

“Yes, just like you said, they seemed to work much better than what she regularly sells me. Those fresh ingredients really seemed to make a huge difference.”

“She’s sending me out on my own now, to harvest the potion ingredients. I’ll make sure that they are just as fresh next year. Mister Phelps, I owe you for that book and for letting me stay those two nights in your shed. She’s finally letting me do a little magic of my own now, even though I’ve been watching her for years. I just can’t use any of her jugs and ingredients. I found some clay and fired my own flasks. I made four potions to repay you and for my next two nights sleeping in your shed. My mistress only knows about one flask though; I had her check it to make sure I was doing things right. I made four because I didn’t think that one potion wasn’t enough to repay you.” I am such a liar but I need the village to believe that she is still alive and will get angry if her property, namely me, is stolen.

“Are you sure your potions are safe, James?”

“Yes sir, I’ve been helping Milady for years. I do all the preparation work and she was doing only the final mixing and magic work. Now I’m even helping her with the final stages. If you want I’ll take a dose from one of my flasks. Though I’ve taken so many test drinks lately; that it’ll just go to waste on me.”

“If you don’t mind, I need you to do exactly that. I’ve got to protect my customers and make sure that I’m not giving them anything that will make them ill.”

“Okay, no problem. If you got a mug, I’ll measure out one dose. I don’t want to waste more than a single dose by drinking it directly from the flask.” My flasks were pretty crude and one was much larger than the others so I poured from that bottle. Each flask should contain five doses this particular flask probably held seven. This potion was a “don’t get sick medicine” or health concoction for the winter. It made your body work better so you were less likely to get ill and weak during the cold and damp season here.

I drank my dose and Mister Phelps surprised me by drinking one too. “James, my shed is full up with fire wood but if your four potions are just as good as the Sorceress’s, then their value is eight silver coins. But since you are only her apprentice let us say that they are only worth one silver per flask. One potion easily clears your debt to me. Another flask will get you a room and meals at the inn. I’ll take care of arranging that for you. That leaves you with a credit of two silvers here in my shop. So if you find anything you want to buy, you’ve got some money to do it now.”

“Thank you Mister Phelps, that is very kind of you. I’ll do my shopping tomorrow. But if you have any old books on reading, writing or simple math, I would really like to see them.”

“I might have an old math book. I’ll have to check. I’ll walk you to the inn and get you your room for the next two nights.”

“Thank you, sir.”

Mack did just that and I put my things in my room. I had time before dinner so I ran to the blacksmith’s job and caught him just as he was closing up. He had a saw, a machete and some wood carving tools that he could have ready for me the morning of my departure. He actually seemed to be anxious for the sale. The saw would cost twenty silvers, the machete would be eight and the two carving tools would be a silver coin for each one. I really needed a new machete and the one he showed me would be far superior to what I had now. Of course I told him that the Sorceress wanted those items and not me, since she was paying for them.

I pestered people again the next day trying to learn the spelling of some new words. While I might speak very properly because of brutal instruction from my former mistress, she never had any desire to teach me how to read or write.

Mack not only had a math book for me but a something called a dictionary. He said that by using that book I could learn all kinds of new words. His daughter showed me how to use it. The only problem was that the books were more than the two silvers that I had on account with him. He said that both the books; were each worth at least twenty silvers. I don’t know why but he decided to sell me the books on credit. He also told me that if I ever wanted to sell them back to him that he would buy them, so long as they were still in good shape.

The morning of my departure I saw him while picking up my purchases. He told me that my potion seemed to be working and he felt better than ever that morning. I got my tools from the blacksmith and departed for home. I really liked my new machete. I told the blacksmith that my mistress had an interest in purchasing at least one boar spear and perhaps a crossbow next spring.