Master Mage (16 page)

“I was never one for games,” Killian
replied, giving Thad a glare of annoyance. “Now what do you have in
mind?”

“Place the orbs in the open field,”
Thad replied dolefully.

“That is brilliant,” the warmaster said
after a brief moment of thought. “It would still be risky, but it
can be accomplished.”

“I will need more supplies. I can make
a half dozen more globes with what I have in stock,” Thad said
cheerfully. “I will have those ready by nightfall, and we can go
about our work.”

“Placing the orbs is such a great idea,
but I do not think it is such a good idea for you to join us this
time, my friend,” Killian said, patting Thad on the
shoulder.

“Why?” Thad asked, confused and a
little hurt.

“Anyone can place the orbs within the
ground, but you are the only one who can make the orbs,” Killian
replied consolingly. “You are needed for more than just a simple
soldier on the battlefield, and you would do well to remember
that.”

I like him. He talks sense.
Why do you always feel that you must do everything yourself? Didn’t
we just talk about this the other night? Do your part and let
others more suited to the task do theirs.

“I understand,” Thad replied both to
Killian and his staff. “I will retire back to my tent and work on
the orbs. If you can get me more supplies, it would be greatly
appreciated.”

“I will see to it,” Killian said with a
smile. “I am glad you are easy to deal with. Most young soldiers
feel the need to prove themselves in situations such as these, and
most of the time, it does not end well.”

“That is why we keep people with
graying hair around,” Thad replied with a light snicker.

Killian gave a hardy laugh. “I guess I
am getting a bit gray around the edges.”

Once he was back within the confines of
his own tent, Thad went straight to work. Thad knew that the men
Killian chose to plant the orbs would be careful, but Thad decided
to add in a second enchantment that would shield the orb until it
was needed to shatter.

With only a few supplies, it only took
a handful of hours before he was finished with his task. Picking up
one of the orbs that had started to glow dimly with the infused
magic, Thad let out a heavy sigh. He had only lived a fraction of
his life, and most of that time had been spent fighting in one form
or another. His magic had been geared toward killing and little
else. “Maybe the mages of the past had the better idea. Magic
should never be used as a weapon,” Thad said out loud to
himself.

The same could be said of
anything. Swords and arrows should never be used against others as
well, but they are. An axe used to fell trees is just a tool until
it is turned against another, and then it becomes a weapon. Magic
is like any other tool. It can be used for good or evil. The choice
lies with its wielder.

Thad conjured up a small ball of fire
in his hand. Fire was a simple thing. It loved to eat, and it would
eat anything that would give it life. It was a greedy beast and
would consume everything within its reach until it burned itself
out. Most mages had some skill with fire. Humans seemed to have a
very close relationship with the element. Thad let the fire float
toward the small bundle of sticks that lay in the center of his
tent. The air was warmer now, and the fire chased away what was
left of the lingering chill of winter.

Once the chill had left him, Thad left
his tent and headed toward Monique’s cottage. Since his arrival at
Digger’s Fort, Thad had kept his distance and even more so after
his last encounter with Jayden in the forest. No matter how hard he
tried, Jayden’s actions still unnerved him. He knew for the sake of
his friend that he would have to push aside his own distaste and
try to look beyond the beast to the man behind.

Thad stood nervously at the door,
trying to work up his courage to knock. Three times, Thad raised
his hand, and three times, he lowered it without touching the wood.
As he raised his hand for a fourth time, the door swung open, and a
slightly amused Monique stood behind it. “You do know that I can
see you from the window?” she said, her voice filled with laughter.
“Come in.”

As Thad followed Monique inside, he
noticed that she had put on a great deal of weight since he had
last seen her. Thad felt a great deal of joy well up inside him
quickly followed by a feeling of sadness. If things did not
improve, then the child would most likely be born without a father,
if it was allowed to live at all.

“I was wondering when you were going to
get around to visiting me,” Monique said harshly. “If I didn’t know
better, I would think you were deliberately trying to avoid
me.”

“I must admit it has been hard to visit
you … things have become … complicated,” Thad replied
sheepishly.

“That is no reason not to visit,”
Monique said, frowning. “When will the fighting start?” Monique
asked, her voice turning dour.

“I don’t know, but it won’t be long,”
Thad said, turning away from his friend. “The fighting will start
within a few days at the most.”

“Why can’t they leave us alone?”
Monique said, tears streaming down her face. Thad was amazed at the
quick change in her mood. It was almost as if he were talking to
two or three people at once. “We will win, won’t we?”

Thad searched for the words to comfort
his friend without outright lying to her. “We have to” were the
only words that he could force from his mouth.

“Are you hungry?” Monique asked, wiping
the tears from her face.

After a nice home-cooked meal, Thad
went back to his tent, where he found Avalanche sleeping. Thad
patted the creature on the head before slipping into his tent.
Avalanche was still a mystery to him. He had tried to use both the
elfin god’s gift as well as his magical earring to talk to her, but
both failed. He was sure Avalanche was alive, but it was sure she
was not a creature ruled by nature.

Inside his tent, Thad found more sacks
of glass, metal, and crystals. The few finished orbs had also
disappeared in his absence. Shaking his head slightly, Thad picked
up one of the crystals and began to work.

“Always working.” Thad heard a voice
behind him pulling him out of his self-induced trance.

“Little time for much else these days,
Roger,” Thad replied, turning toward his friend. “It is good to see
you, my friend.”

“Stop gawking about and tell us what
you need done,” Marcus said, hobbling around the younger man. “From
what we heard, there isn’t much time to be wasting.”

Thad explained what he was doing with
the orbs. Once he was finished, Marcus laughed. “Using raw magic
like that seems a waste,” he said, sounding astounded. “Nearly two
hundred years ago, when I was still a lad, a bunch of the younger
kids did much the same thing, but they would place spells inside
the glass. Once the glass broke, the spells would be
unleashed.”

“I never even thought about it,” Thad
replied, shocked at the simplicity of the idea. Glass shared a lot
of the same properties as crystals, but it couldn’t hold an
inscribed enchantment, though it could hold magic at bay. Unlike
the white swords, it didn’t absorb the magic. It simply didn’t let
it pass. Thad had tried to break glass before with a direct spell,
but it always reflected from its surface. That was how the original
idea had come about. “What spells do you think would have the best
effect?” Thad asked the more knowledgeable enchanter.

“You have a large amount of glass … ,”
Marcus began to say but stopped. “Why are you placing gems in
them?”

“So that I can break the glass shells
when needed,” Thad replied, showing the older man a metal orb
encrusted with small crystals. “Once I release the enchantment on
this, all the crystals linked to it will break.”

“I see,” Marcus said approvingly. “As I
was going to say, you don’t have to be an enchanter to place a
spell within a glass orb. Orbs were often used within Sanctuary to
hold spells for sale.”

“You are suggesting that we gather as
many mages as possible who can cast offensive spells to place
within the orbs?” Thad asked the older mage.

“Yes, it would be much easier than we
three doing everything ourselves. Once the orbs are ready, we can
pass them along to other mages to place the spells
within.”

“Roger, can you find Horus and have him
gather the mages that would be of the most use?” Thad asked his
young friend.

Without answering, Roger darted out of
the room. Thad liked the younger man, but he was always a little
too rushed. It was a good quality, but he often left before Thad
had explained everything.

The next two days went by quickly with
Thad and the mages working on the glass orbs, the Katanga soldiers
planting them, and the Rane forces building their siege
weapons.

It was four days before the Rane forces
attacked again. This time, they moved out early in the morning.
Thad as well as many of the other mages stood about the camp, ready
to defend it the best they could with their shields as the first
hail of boulders flew toward the walls. All of the boulders except
one from the first volley had been pushed off course.

Looking out across the field, Thad
pulled five copper orbs with small crystals sticking from them from
a pouch hidden inside his cloak. After checking each one, he found
the one he was looking for. “Relouious da un.” As the last syllable
left his lips, a great roar erupted from two of the siege weapons
as well as the forest line from where the Rane army had been
camped.

The blast had not only taken out two of
the siege weapons that had hosted the trapped wood, but it had also
killed a handful of soldiers and damaged another of the large
weapons.

The Rane forces were in disarray for a
short time, but when nothing else happened, they regrouped, and
another volley of stone and pitch flew toward their walls. Thad and
the other mages continued to battle against the flying stone, but
with each new wave, the number of boulders that made it through
continued to grow.

By the eighth volley, a rather large
boulder broke through the northeastern edge of the wall. With signs
of the wall weakening, the foot troops and bowmen began their march
forward.

Thad waited patiently until the enemy
soldiers were in range of the archers. The sound of twanging
bowstrings filled the air as both the Farlan soldiers and Rane
forces loosed arrows into the sky. A handful of mages who had been
held in reserve raised their shields, knocking the enemy arrows
from the sky. Thad waited until the arrows found their mark before
releasing the enchantment on the next brass orb. Dozens of
explosions, wind tunnels, and earth spikes, as well as numerous
other spells, filled the area where the Rane army stood.

Thad watched the released magic wreak
havoc upon the unfortunate souls in their path. Even the
well-trained army panicked under the destruction they faced, but it
didn’t take long for them to regroup. Many had been killed, but it
was only a small fraction of their number, so they continued on.
Once they reached the second set of hidden orbs, Thad released the
next orb and watched once again as the spells tore through flesh
and bone.

The second set of spells seemed to be
too much for the advancing force, and they folded in on themselves
and started to retreat as the Farlan bowmen continued their rain of
death.

A cheer rose up from behind Thad as the
Rane forces were pushed back. Thad wanted to let his voice join in
the cries of joy, but he knew it was only a small reprieve. They
had won the day, but many more days of bloodshed would follow. Thad
wanted to believe that every day would end the same, but he knew
better. Killian had pointed out that a tactic, once revealed, would
not be as easily used again. The Rane army would no longer just be
looking to guard their own camp but also the field, which they
would have to march across.

Thad knew that he would run out of
tricks far before Rane ran out of soldiers. Without a force of
their own to match what they faced, any victory was a shallow
one.

CHAPTER XIII

Thad stumbled back to his tent,
exhausted. For three days straight, Rane had bombarded their walls
and sent small forays against the fort. The day before, Rane had
also received a large amount of reinforcements, doubling their
previous size.

As Thad crawled under his sheets, his
mind played through the events of the previous days. They had
killed twenty soldiers to every one they lost, but Rane could
afford the losses; they, on the other hand, could not.

How much longer could they hold out? If
Rane pushed them hard, they would fall any day. They needed to
seriously start getting ready for an evacuation. Those not needed
should have left days ago. Bache keep out the slim hope that Rane
would decide the losses were too great and leave the field of
battle, but Thad knew better. Their attack on Farlan was not
powered by greed but a fanatical desire to wipe all magic from the
face of Kurt.

As Thad drifted off to sleep, he felt
himself being pulled. Maria had gotten quite skilled in her use of
dream magic. As he felt the pull, Thad once again felt the urge to
study how she accomplished the feat.