Master Mage (10 page)

Thad was led to a simple-looking tent
near the far edge of the camp. “Killian, you have a visitor!” the
mercenary behind Thad yelled once they stopped outside of the
unremarkable tent.

The older warrior who had talked to the
queen steeped out from the tent. Thad had never taken much note of
the man, but “warrior” didn’t seem to describe him fully. His dark
brown hair was cut short, and Thad could see where numerous scars
peeked through his hair. Earlier, the man’s shirt and mail had been
worn, but now his chest was bare, showing off his well-defined
muscles that, while big, were not so large they would impede his
movement.

“Thad, what brings you to my tent?”
Killian asked, grasping Thad’s hand and giving it a hardy
shake.

“I just wanted to talk for a bit,” Thad
replied, returning the man’s handshake. “What I would really like
to know is why you would fight for us. Rane would be able to offer
far more than we ever could.”

Killian’s face took on a sour look. “We
have fought in countless wars, but never on the side of the
Brotherhood.”

“Why?” Thad asked, confused at the
mercenary’s statement and the vehemence behind it.

“Not out of any moral regard concerning
their view on mages, though we have a few of your lot in our ranks.
Long ago, before Rane was the size it is now, we used to border its
eastern edge. Our people were a simple lot and had kept separate
from the other kingdoms once the empire began to fall. When the
Brotherhood took over Rane, they wanted to place an outpost within
our kingdom. We consented, but the first time we learned one of our
people had been killed, we tracked the merchants and guards who had
perpetrated the act and burned them alive. As you can guess, Rane
was not very happy and made a formal complaint. They demanded that
any future problems with the merchants should be left for the guild
to handle themselves, so we banished all from Rane from entering
our borders. While we were not a large country, we covered the best
trade routes east, so Rane marched in force and slaughtered man,
woman, and child. Those of us who lived were scattered to the four
winds and became nomads.”

“That is some tale,” Thad said, shaking
his head. “Haven’t you thought of marching your army back to Rane
and reclaiming your homeland?”

“We have, though in the end, we would
lose. If every clan of the Katanga gathered, there would still be
less than eight thousand of us. While a large number, we would
still fall short for an offensive battle,” Killian replied, his
tone harsh and unforgiving. “Should your queen have offered us only
a single gold coin, we would have fought. It is a rare chance to
get to kill the soldiers of Rane.”

“That is good to hear,” Thad said,
relief flooding though his body. “You said you have fought in many
wars?”

“Yes, more than I can recall,” Killian
answered honestly.

“Would you mind sharing some of your
experience with me? Farlan has been at relative peace for far too
long, with the exception of our little disputes with our Ablaian
neighbors. In those fights, we always occupied a heavily defendable
position, but—”

“Now you are caught in the open with
your trousers around your ankles,” the soldier replied with a
chuckle. “Come have a seat, and we shall talk. It is good to know
that you are not a complete fool. Many a time, I have been forced
to fight beside men who had no more brains than could fit in a
raindrop.”

Killian called over many of his other
fellow warriors, and the night quickly passed as they talked about
battles past. Thad was amazed at the sheer number of battles some
of the men had fought in. He didn’t know there had been that many
wars in Kurt in the past fifty years.

Well after the moon was full in the
sky, Thad ambled back to the palace and his own quarters. It had
been an enlightening night, but also a very tiring one. He had much
to do, and time was quickly starting to run out. The Katanga
mercenaries had numerous ideas on how to best fight against the
Rane forces, and most of them, while simple, had never crossed his
mind.

As soon as he was back in his room,
Thad went straight to his desk and starting penning a note for the
officers at the eastern fort.

In a few weeks, once the
bulk of the inland snows have cleared, I will bring a large
detachment of reinforcements. Until that time, there is much for
you to prepare. I request that you make sharpened stakes no more
than a foot long and bury them under the ground around the fort,
starting at three hundred yards out and past. I will also need
trenches dug outside of the walls behind the first row of small
stakes on the inward slope of the trenches. Place four-foot-long
stakes, leave a space of ten yards back, and continue making
trenches with the long stakes.

Thad continued to write various other
suggestions long into the night before the weariness of the day
forced him to his bed. As he lay down to sleep that night, the
dread that had hung over him seemed lighter. They still were no
match for the Rane army, but Thad was beginning to see a ray of
hope shining through the dark clouds hanging on the
horizon.

As the days continued to pass, the
amount of work Thad had decreased, and he found himself with more
time to train. He focused not only on his physical and magical
powers but the gifts bestowed on him by the gods as well. Thad had
a good grasp of his shadow walking, but he still made sure to take
a few steps through the darkness each night as he walked back to
his quarters. During the day, he would run while turning various
parts of his skin to stone. Not only did this help with his control
over the unusual ability, but it made him much heavier and forced
his legs to work harder.

When he was forced to take a break,
which was more often than he would have liked, Thad tried his best
to use the gift from the elfin god and talk to the few plants and
trees alive during the winter months, but all they seemed
interested in was when the warmer weather was coming. The animals
were much easier to talk to, though he found that he tended to
continue to talk in neighs or barks for a few moments after taking
with one, much to the amusement of his friends.

Thad had continued to push himself, but
he found that throughout winter, the amount of magic he could use
had not changed. As the snows started to melt, Thad increased his
pace, forcing himself to train long into each night. He did not
focus on grand magic such as the stone pillars but on simple spells
that could be used quickly and in quick succession of each other.
One massive spell that did a great deal of damage to the attacking
force wasn’t bad, but it left little room for error and left him
weak. What he needed was an array of spells that could be used
depending on the circumstances.

The days passed quickly, and soon, Thad
once again found himself in the war room. Unlike last time, the war
was not just looming on the distant horizon. It was nearly upon
them.

“Renalia has declared that the end of
winter is upon us. She has read the magical flow of the winds and
believes that the last of the snow has fallen,” Horus said, his
brow furrowed, showing off thick worry lines Thad didn’t notice on
the older man months before.

“Are you sure she is correct? I don’t
know much about magic, but I don’t want to start getting the men up
in arms over speculation,” General Foreman said, his tone stern,
but not forceful. “The mental fatigue of the soldiers could destroy
them as easily as a sword thrust.”

“As far as I know, old Renalia hasn’t
been wrong. Not for as long as I have lived anyway,” Horus replied
steadfastly.

“That is good enough for me,” Maria
stated, hailing all end to the discussion. “What do we do
now?”

“If the Rane forces are only now held
back by a few warm days to clear the passes, then we need to move
the Katanga forces and the mages to Digger’s Fort,” General Foreman
replied.

“Digger’s Fort? Since when has it been
called that?” Thad asked, slightly confused.

“The locals from County Elisee that
were hired to help with the digging you requested started calling
it that. It didn’t take long before the soldiers adopted the name,
and now it has kind of stuck,” Foreman replied, giving Thad a sly
wink.

“Are you sure we should move all the
forces? Wouldn’t it be best to keep a few back at the capital in
case the Rane army gets past the forces at Digger’s Fort?” Duchess
Alysia asked.

“Honestly, Duchess, if the Rane forces
make it past our forces at Digger’s Fort, then any small forces we
might hold back wouldn’t stand much of a chance,” Ferula stated.
“This is an all-or-nothing gamble. Either we can hold them at
Digger’s Fort, or all of Farlan will fall with it.”

“I have been working on measures to
help protect the capital should their forces reach this far,” Thad
said, earning everyone’s attention.

“Go ahead, Thad. We are listening,”
Maria urged him.

Thad took out a long rolled piece of
parchment and laid it on the table. “The walls of the city are thin
and mostly for decoration, but I have made adjustments that would
use that to our advantage. If, at any time, the Rane forces
surround the city, you simply need to smash this globe,” Thad said,
handing a small red glass orb to the queen.

“What does it do?” Maria asked, picking
up the small glass orb.

“When it is smashed, many of the stones
of the wall will launch themselves out with great force. It won’t
stop a large army but should at least make them a little more
cautious afterward.”

“When did you find the time to set up
such an elaborate trap?” Horus asked, laughing.

“It gave me something to do when I was
taking a break during my runs,” Thad replied, shrugging his
shoulders.

“How fast will your troops be ready to
move out, Killian?” Maria asked the Katanga elder, not hiding her
contempt for the man. Thad had wished that the two would have made
some form of effort to get along, but it was a wasted
dream.

“We will be ready to march at first
light, Your Majesty. We would have marched sooner but for your
notion that you didn’t want the Rane forces to know that you had
reinforcements too early.”

“Then tomorrow it is,” Maria replied,
standing from her seat. “We are adjourned until such time as it is
needed that we meet again.”

Thad left the small room along with
everyone else. He had been expecting Maria to hold him back and was
pleasantly surprised when she had not. Ever since Thad had stated
his intention of heading to the battlefield, Maria had been firmly
against it. When her pleas had not been heard, she had tried
ordering him to stay, but she had been met with little success. In
a way, the cause of the war was firmly on his shoulders, and he
would not leave others to fight his battles while he stood back and
watched. She had taken every chance to try and change his mind, but
it had been futile. Then suddenly, she had stopped, and that
bothered Thad. It just didn’t fit with her normal attitude. She was
not one that easily gave up on what she wanted.

Thad headed straight for his chambers
to finish the last of his preparations. Most everything he needed
had been packed and ready for a fortnight. The only thing that he
really had left was to gather the last of his
possessions.

Entering his room, Thad
looked over at the large travel sack. He had thought it lost when
he had been thrown from the
Rose
Runner
, but Crusher had
seen fit to return it to him after they had met up in Farlan. There
had been a few things in his pack that he would have missed, but it
was the nature of the pack that made itself invaluable. The pack
had been painstakingly made over a great length of time to hold far
more than something ten times its size.

Opening up the largest section of the
pack, Thad started filling it with his clothes. Maria had given
Thad more clothes than he had known what to do with, most of them
with an abundance of lace and frill. While he was happy his friend
had seen fit to grace him with so many gifts, they were a little
flippant for his taste.

Putting aside most of the
clothes, he chose only the most plain to bring with him. When he
got to the leather britches, he paused,
letting
his hand run over the smooth
dark leather. While most of the blouses Maria had gotten him had
been left unused, the britches had been another matter. They had
been made of lambskin and were softer and far suppler than anything
he had owned before.

Sighing, Thad chose two of the best
pairs of the lambskin britches to take along, leaving the rest
aside for stronger and less comfortable apparel. He enjoyed the
feel of the lighter material on his skin, but he knew that comfort
only went so far on the battlefield, and while the thicker leather
might not be much more protection, he would take anything he could
get.

After everything was packed, Thad
walked over to check the last of his gear. Thad bent down and
picked up the sword he had made during his stay with the dwarves.
The sword had the length of a standard broadsword, but he had added
a small curve to it, modeled after the much shorter Vathari blades.
The hilt was steel lined in gold with a crescent moon that sparkled
with the shine of small gems. The blade had taken him nearly a year
to finish, but it was well worth the effort. Not only was it as
sharp as a razor, but it would release flashes of energy, though
Thad had yet been unable to make the sword spark on
command.