Master Mage (2 page)

Horus’s statement grabbed the attention
of the other elders, who shot the younger man intense looks. Thad
was happy that Horus was supporting his call to war, but the mage
was a double-edged sword.

“I come again to beseech you again on
behalf of the Queendom of Farlan and Queen Maria,” Thad said
formally, bowing to the group. “As we have told you many times,
Rane is amassing an army with its intent clear. They wish to enter
Farlan and destroy the country as well as any magical creatures
that live here, including you. I ask that you aid us in defending
not only the queendom but the freedom of all present and future
mages.”

“What happens after the war?” Illias
asked, his voice heavy with contempt. “Once the other kingdoms see
us as a weapon for war, they will fall down on us like a hammer. We
will no longer just be hunted by the Brotherhood but all of Kurt.
Some will see us as a threat and seek to kill us, while others will
see us as nothing more than a weapon and seek to use us. Is that
what you wish to happen?”

“Of course I don’t want that to
happen,” Thad replied, keeping his voice calm. He had known what he
would say, and after many meetings with the elders, he had
predicted some of their responses and was ready for them. “What you
say is true. There will be people who fear us, and there will be
people who seek to use us. There have always been such people in
the world, and there always shall be. That doesn’t mean that we
shouldn’t fight when our lives are in danger.”

“Our lives will not be in danger unless
we step out onto the battlefield,” Thane said, his voice slightly
raised.

“Don’t fool yourself. Rane’s primary
objective isn’t Farlan. It is us and the elves. Their numbers
continue to grow, and we have no allies to call to our aid. Should
Farlan fall, then the first true Sanctuary mages we have had in
over a thousand years fall with it. Do you really want to spend the
rest of your lives hiding and running from the Brotherhood’s
assassins?”

“My brothers, why don’t we compromise,”
Alten said, sounding bored. “Let those who wish join the army, and
for those ill-suited to battle, let them help out in other ways. It
would be easy enough for us to prove that we are not simply weapons
of war. We have many skilled healers and craftsmen who could aid
the army in other ways than with spells meant to kill.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Jonas replied
hotly. “The second we put ourselves in the service of a king or
queen, the rest of the world will see us as a threat. We should
stay independent and neutral like the Mage’s Tower had been before
the Fae War.”

“Their neutrality helped them greatly,”
Horus said sarcastically. “We do not have the pleasure of being
neutral. We must act. As long as the Brotherhood is after our
lives, we must be willing to fight. If you are so keen to lie down
and die, then why in the nine hells did you come here in the first
place? You could have just as easily walked into the Brotherhood’s
waiting arms back when we were escaping to Farlan.”

“That was different, Horus,” Jonas said
defensively.

“How was it any different?” Horus
shouted, his face starting to turn red.

“At that time, our lives were in direct
danger. Now they are not,” Jonas replied, his voice rising as
well.

“I see. You’re nothing short of a
coward,” Horus said, putting his face only inches away from
Jonas’s. “Now that you have other people who will fight to keep you
safe, you are more than happy to sit by and reap the rewards of
their death. All the while, you urge others to do so as
well.”

Jonas’s face had turned a bright red,
and unable to hold himself back any longer, he threw a punch at the
younger man.

Horus had spent every morning training
for the coming war not only with his magic but with his body as
well. Sidestepping the poorly thrown punch, Horus grabbed the older
man by the collar and shoved him to the ground. “I am done with
this senselessness. There is a war coming, and I, for one, will not
sit idly by while others die to protect my freedoms.”

Thad was at a loss for words as Horus
stormed out of the building, and from the stunned silence in the
room, so were the rest of the elders. “I believe everything that
needed to be said has been,” Thad said before following Horus’s
example and leaving the hall.

Outside, Thad found Horus next to a
small tree, hitting it soundly with his fist. “Bunch … of … useless
… inept … cowardly … lumps of flesh!” Horus shouted loudly,
accenting each word with another punch to the defenseless
tree.

“Horus, if you keep that up, someone is
going to think you have lost your mind,” Thad said, coming up
behind the large man.

“Thaddeus, how can you put up with
them?” Horus asked, resting his head against the tree. “They have
always been a useless group, but now I can’t even stand to be in
the same room with them without being disgusted. How can they sleep
at night knowing that they are not only letting others die for them
but at the same time doing their best to hinder any chance most of
those men would have at survival?”

“They are just trying to keep as many
mages alive as possible,” Thad replied. “We both know that magical
aid will be needed if we are to have a chance at winning this war,
but they just can’t see it. Honestly, if we were not so badly
outnumbered, I would have to agree using mages for a war would only
bring further harm.”

“What good is worrying about what might
happen twenty years from now when the opposite means not having a
tomorrow? We need to fight with Farlan, not sit idly by and wait
for the Brotherhood to come slaughter us in our sleep,” Horus said,
his voice brimming with emotion. “I am sorry, Thaddeus. I didn’t
make things any easier for you, did I?”

“That you did not, but maybe you shook
some of them hard enough they might lighten up on their preaching,”
Thad replied comfortingly.

“Well, what’s done is done. Why don’t I
show you where I have the willing mages training? Not as many as I
wish have started, but it’s a start.”

CHAPTER II

Slightly over forty mages were lined
up, going through magic drills. Thad watched as those using fire
magic hurled fireballs at large boulders. The wind caster worked to
cut wooden planks from thirty yards away. It was obvious some
magical elements had the advantage on the battlefield, but if used
correctly, all of them could protect allies and devastate troops.
Thad could tell the main focus of the training was the use of
indirect magic for close combat.

Horus shook his head. “Not very
impressive, is it?” the mage asked and looked at the display of
magic before them.

It’s almost like they’re
scared of their own magic. I can feel their tentativeness as they
pull it in and mold it.

“No, it’s not,” Thad replied, looking
around. “Have none of them ever used their magic
before?”

“Everyone here has used their magic,
just not against other humans. In Sanctuary, people with magical
abilities only left when it was needed. Even on the occasion a new
mage was found, in most cases, only the nonmagical people went to
retrieve them. It reduced the chances of the Brotherhood finding
us, but I fear it might be crippling us now.”

“Would you mind forming them up so that
I could share a few words with them?” Thad asked, his mind deep in
thought. The “battle mages” were of all ages, ranging from the
midteens to early fifties, none of whom seemed to truly understand
what would be required of them.

Horus called for all the training to
stop. In a matter of moments, everything ceased, and the small
group of mages stood silently in front of Thad. Some of them were
smiling, while others had grim looks plastered on their faces,
showing that they at least understood the gravity of what was
coming.

What you’re planning is
reckless. Too many things could go wrong, and with your history,
they most likely will.

“I need three of your best fighters to
help me for a moment,” Thad said, ignoring Thuraman’s warnings.
Thad waited until three mages were selected from the group. When
the three men stood in front of him, he studied them appraisingly,
not only with his normal vision but with his mage sight as well. “I
want you three to attack me with everything you have,” Thad said,
placing his staff defensively in front of him.

The three mages looked at Horus
worriedly. When the large elder nodded, they turned back and
steeled their faces. The first two threw weak fireballs that hit
Thad’s shield so lightly it didn’t even flicker. The third mage
attacked from below using one of Thad’s own spells against him. As
the spike started to jut up below him, Thad was simply lifted into
the air.

The three mages continued to attack.
Thanks to their slow rate of gathering and molding magical
energies, Thad was easily able to tell what kind of magic they were
going to hurl at him. The mages tired long before Thad had to tap
into his own magical reserves, only needing to rely on his staff
for protection. When the first mage staggered as his spell broke
apart on him, Thad decided it was time to end the
charade.

Thad quickly pulled in the magical
energy and focused it into his palm. Three pulsing light blue orbs
of pure energy shot forward, striking the three mages soundly in
the chest. The spell had been weak with only enough strength to
singe the hair of his opponents, but he hoped it carried his
message.

“All of you need a great deal of
practice!” Thad shouted loudly, turning back toward the rest of the
group. “When fighting, you need to focus not only on attacking but
defense as well. You will need to be fast and accurate with your
attacks. They will also have to carry enough strength to kill or at
least wound your enemies. This will take not only training but
strength of will. Remember this as you continue to train and maybe
after the first day of a real battle, and you might still be
breathing.”

Don’t you think that might
be a little harsh? The first time you used magic in a fight, you
didn’t do it so well either.

“You are right. I bumbled, and had I
not been lucky, I would have died in the back allies of Farlan, but
even then, I was not as ill-equipped as these men,” Thad replied to
his staff mentally.

Thad stayed and watched as the mages
continued to practice. Every so often, one of the mages would ask
for his advice. It wasn’t until Thad’s third mock battle that other
mages began to pair up and try their spells out. Thad knew that it
was a dangerous way to train, but it was also the most
effective.

That night, as he rode back the palace,
Thad didn’t feel good about his actions. He had been overbearing,
insulting, and downright mean to many of the mages. He told himself
it was needed, but that didn’t make the weight that bore down on
his conscience any lighter. How many times had he read about
tyrants who used the same excuse to perform the most evil of deeds?
For the greater good—was it truly?

I think that as long as you
can still ask yourself that question, then you haven’t gone too
far. Now if you start killing soldiers who don’t please you, I
might start to doubt your sanity
, Thuraman
said lightly.

Once he was back on palace grounds,
Thad wanted nothing more than to crawl underneath his covers and
sleep, but he still had other duties. Thad walked slowly through
the palace grounds toward the far corner, where a small tower
stretched toward the sky. Years ago, when the tower had been
started, Thad had thought that his struggles were at an end.
Maria’s mother, the queen at the time, had released him from the
dungeon, and he had been given free rein to go where he pleased.
She had offered to build the tower as a way to apologize for his
treatment, but Thad had always figured it was also so that she
could keep a close eye on him while he worked. Back then, it
mattered little to him, but that was before the war at Southpass,
when he still held only the last sliver of his
innocence.

Inside the tower, Thad found Marcus, a
cantankerous old mage with a sharp tongue and even sharper wit, as
well as his younger apprentice, Roger, hard at work enchanting.
Thad didn’t care much for Marcus, but he respected the older mage.
Roger, on the other hand, had become as close to Thad as a brother
in the short time they had known each other.

“Thad,” Roger said happily when he
looked up from his current project. “I would ask how your meeting
with the elders went, but the look on your face tells it
all.”

“I told you those worthless dung heaps
ain’t good fer nothing outside of heating a cold room with their
hot air,” Marcus said gruffly.

“I should have listened to you,
Marcus,” Thad replied, laughing. “I guess it was just something I
had to learn on my own.”

“Dang kids never listen to wisdom,”
Marcus spat. “Tell ’em not to jump into the water during winter,
they don’t listen. When they come down with the chills, they come
crying, though. What’s the point of having someone around who knows
better if you don’t wanna listen to them?” the old man grumbled as
he went back to work on the steel ring in front of him.

Every night, when he had free time,
Thad joined Marcus and Roger to work on enchanted items for the
upcoming war. The main priority was shield rings. Unlike the rings
he had made in the past, the new rings activated when any piece of
fast-moving steel or wood came within two inches of the wearer and
turned off once the item was removed. That made the ring not only
last longer, but it also meant that it didn’t have to be
consciously activated. Thad had made countless rings and found the
work boring, but that made it no less important.