Master Mage (15 page)

They found General Bache in his office,
studying maps of the surrounding areas and mumbling to himself.
“You know that once you start taking to yourself, it bodes ill for
the rest of us?” Thad said with a hint of laughter.

“Thad,” Bache said, looking up from his
map, his eyes widening slightly when they settled on Parson. There
had been elves within the fort for some time now, but Thad was not
sure if the general had yet to meet one of the golden giants. “What
brings you to my door?”

“News, General, and not all good,” Thad
said, wincing slightly.

“Then let us start with the bad. I find
that it is much easier to overlook what has gone wrong after you
learn about what has gone right,” the general said, taking a seat
in his large cushioned chair.

“The elves have been delayed. They will
most likely not arrive for another fifteen days at the earliest,”
Thad said, keeping his tone serious. “But we have delayed the Rane
forces by disabling their siege weapons. We will do so again
tonight, but in the morning, Killian expects them to try and
attack. Once they find out their siege weapons are useless, they
will increase their guard, making further forays into the enemy
camp too dangerous.”

“I think there are more ill tidings
than good there, lad,” Bache said, rubbing his temples. “I doubt we
will be able to hold out long without reinforcements once Rane
decides to fully commit their forces. That means we will have to be
ready to evacuate when the time comes. The task of choosing a rear
guard is never an easy one. Picking those that are sure to die,”
Bache added solemnly.

“You can add me to the list of rear
guard,” Thad said, his voice rife with determination. “I am the
reason for this war, and I cannot in good conscience stand by while
others die in my name.”

“That is a good sense of honor you
have, young man, but I am afraid it is misplaced. Should I even
desire to place you on the rear guard, it would be
foolishness.”

“What do you mean?” Thad asked,
confused.

“The elves, dwarves, and other mythical
creatures I have only heard about in tales that might be joining us
have not come in defense of Farlan. They have come to your call,
not ours,” Bache said, pointing his finger at Thad. “We need you
not for your magic but for what you stand for among the other
races. As much as you might lament it, you are a symbol, one that
is much more useful to us alive.”

“He is right, my friend,” Parson said,
placing his hand reassuringly on Thad’s shoulder. “Without your
call, I do not think the elves would have joined in the fight. The
friends you had made during your short stay in our land were what
brought us out of hiding, and I am sure that the other races feel
much the same way.”

Thad didn’t say anything, but he was
not sure of the truth of their words. If the magical races were
only fighting because of his call, then their deaths would also be
on his head. Shaking off the morose thoughts, Thad parted from his
friend and headed back to his tent to continue his work. If he
could lessen the deaths, even by one soul, it would be worth the
effort.

That is the same thinking
that has gotten you into trouble before. I would suggest you not
try to carry the weight of the whole world upon your shoulders and
instead try to worry about your own fate from time to time. I
believe if you did that, all of us would be better off.

“You are right. Thank you for reminding
me,” Thad replied to Thuraman.

I am surprised you are
willing to listen to me for once. I had suspected that you would
come back with some altruistic statement and ignore my
warnings.

“What is the point of having friends,
even magical ones, if you don’t listen to their advice from time to
time?” Thad said, his voice sounding slightly relieved. “I have
given up on solving all the problems facing the world alone. You
just happened to remind me of that resolve.”

As soon as Thad was back in his tent,
he checked the progress of the orbs he had already finished. Once
he was sure everything was working correctly, he prepared one more
before bedding down for some much-needed rest. As he closed his
eyes, he couldn’t dismiss the feeling that he should be working,
but he didn’t manage to fight it long enough for his weariness to
overtake him.

Shortly after nightfall, Thad was once
again shaken awake by Killian. “Are you ready?” the warmaster
asked, giving Thad a concerned look.

Thad pointed to the number of glass
orbs that lined the walls of his tent. “It was all I could finish
without exhausting myself to the point of uselessness,” Thad
replied, wiping the sleep from his eyes.

“It will have to do, then,” Killian
said, gathering up the small orbs carefully.

Once everything was packed, Thad and
Killian made their way to the entrance to the tunnels, where the
others waited.

The night progressed much the same way
the previous one had with the exception that there were a few more
guards roaming the enemy compound. Thad found four new catapults
awaiting him along with a large arbalest. Already tired from
working all day, Thad had to push himself to weaken the wood in the
right places without causing the wood to simply break while he
stood there. Once his task was finished, he walked around the siege
weapons, placing a number of his glass orbs below the
ground.

As he placed the fourth orb into the
ground, Thad heard the sound of alarm from the eastern side of the
camp. Cursing, Thad quickly finished what he was doing and darted
with the others for the protective wood line.

Just before they reached the first line
of trees, they stumbled over one of the sentries, who was just as
shocked as they were at their meeting. Acting quickly, one of the
Katanga soldiers quickly dispatched the man, and they were once
again running at full speed.

After a few moments, Thad remembered
the rest of his task and called for the others to halt. “We have to
go back and place the rest of the orbs in the trees,” Thad said,
his voice shaking slightly. The others looked around, their faces
unconvinced, but followed him without complaint.

The dead sentry still lay where they
had left him, and no one seemed to notice his absence as most of
the army was headed toward the other end of the camp. Moving
quickly, the Katanga soldiers picked up the dead man and carried
him farther into the woods as Thad started placing his orbs within
the trees.

Letting the elfin god’s magic enter his
body, Thad sent his thoughts out to the trees as he worked. The
trees mostly thought of the joy of the coming summer, and Thad
found it peaceful as their words reverberated within his mind.
Forcing himself to focus, Thad asked for them to relax and not
fight against his intrusion, and to his amazement, they agreed.
With the trees’ aid, Thad was able to finish placing the orbs in a
matter of moments, much to the relief of his companions.

Thad waited while the Katanga disposed
of the sentry deep in the woods, away from where they had planted
the orbs and even farther away from any tunnel entrance. As he
watched the soldiers work, Thad was once again amazed by them. He
would have never thought to move the body, let alone move it so far
away. The longer he watched, the more the decision made sense to
him. How was it that something so simple could escape his
mind?

You were reacting and not
thinking. You need to learn to calm down more when things are going
on around you instead of acting blindly. Had Killian and his men
not had everyone searching the eastern portion of the camp,
everything might have gone completely different.

With their task finished, they returned
to wait on within the tunnel. Unlike the night before, it was
Killian who was waiting for them. The nervous smile on Killian’s
face showed his worry at their late arrival. “How did the night
find you?” he asked as soon as they neared.

“The night has found us well,” Thad
replied, the blood still pumping furiously through his body, making
his voice shaky. “How has the night found you?”

“Well enough and better than the night
before,” Killian replied, nearly laughing. “Now let us be off so
that we may rest before our friends decide to start their attack. I
am eager to see their reactions when they try to use their siege
weapons.”

“I must agree with you, my friend,”
Thad agreed, laughing weakly. “If they should start without me,
please wake me from my slumber. After all the work I have put
forth, I would love to witness the outcome.”

The trip through the tunnel back to
Digger’s Fort seemed to last only a heartbeat. It had been a
stressful and tiring night, and no sooner than he had laid his head
upon the ground did Thad find himself asleep.

CHAPTER XII

As the sun rose, Thad found himself
standing in one of the towers surrounding the fort. Thad wasn’t the
only person to desire to watch the Rane army. Most of the Farlan
forces had climbed upon the battlements. Everyone was waiting on
the same thing, the expected attack. Thad had thought the Rane army
would start as soon as day broke, but so far, there seemed to be
little movement from the other side.

As midday approached, many of the
Farlan soldiers had lost interest and wandered off to perform other
duties. Thad had started to believe that Killian might have been
wrong about the attack. As Thad thought about leaving the tower, he
spied movement along the enemy lines.

The tents along the western front were
moved, allowing the siege weapons to be moved forward. Thad cursed
as he watched the large weapons move forward. He had planted the
exploding globes not anticipating the Rane forces to move them.
Thinking about it now, it was obvious that Rane would have to move
them. If they had been close enough to attack, then their own siege
weapons would have already come into play.

As he watched the Rane forces form up
and march across the open field, an idea occurred to Thad. He
didn’t have to enter the camp to place more of the orbs on the open
field, where the army would have to cross to reach the fort. Thad
had the urge to find Killian and explain his plans, but he forced
the thought aside. Talking to Killian would wait; the Rane army
would not. He was sure that none of the siege weapons he had
tampered with would work, but there was still the chance that more
had been constructed during the morning hours before the
attack.

It took a great deal of time for the
army to move any distance with the slow-moving and ungainly siege
weapons. The time passed agonizingly slowly as Thad waited for the
first sign of attack.

Thad used his magic to allow him to
watch the siege engineers closely as if they were no more than a
few feet away. Thad watched as the large stones were loaded by a
group of more than a dozen men using a thick rope net. Thad could
see the beads of sweat on the men’s faces as they strained against
their heavy burden.

Once all the stones were loaded, a
signal was given with a large dark red flag. Thad watched as the
arms of the siege weapons snapped and shattered under the weight of
trying to throw their heavy burden. One unlucky man who had been
standing to the side of one of the ballistae was crushed beneath
one of the stones.

Cries of alarm rose up from the
opposing force as their siege weapons failed, and a roar of triumph
rose from the Farlan forces—so loud Thad swore he would go
deaf.

Thad half expected the Rane army to
commence with their attack, even with the loss of their siege
weapons, but just as Killian predicted, they retired from the field
once they were sure the weapons were unsalvageable.

As the Rane forces quit the field, Thad
breathed a sigh of relief. He knew that the reprieve would only
last a few days at most, but every day that the army was held at
bay was another day that something could happen to change the tide
of battle to their favor.

With the Rane army leaving the field,
Thad decided it was time for him to find Killian and discuss what
they should do next. The few orbs placed in the wood and ground
might slow down the Rane forces a bit, but it was a feeble effort
at best. More had to be done; otherwise, they would fall well
before any reinforcements could arrive.

Thad found the warmaster in his tent
along with a few of his more trusted warriors. “Master Thaddeus,
what brings my tent the honor of your presence?”

“I had an idea about how we should move
forward,” Thad replied excitedly.

“That is interesting,” Killian said
curiously. “What have you got up your sleeve this time?”

“We could place more of the exploding
orbs,” Thad said, his voice still brimming with
excitement.

“We have talked about this, Thaddeus,”
Killian said doubtfully. “It would be too risky for us to try and
enter their camp. They will be ready for us not just on their
borders but especially surrounding their siege weapons. They will
not afford us a second chance.”

“I don’t mean to place them in the
midst of their camp,” Thad replied mysteriously and waited for
Killian to respond. When it was clear the warmaster was not going
to take his bait, Thad let out a heavy sigh. “You could have let me
enjoy my fun?”