Master Mage (31 page)

“I guess there are times that I do not
fully think through my actions,” Thad replied
reluctantly.

“I doubt it is only sometimes, but it
is better than all the time,” Sae-Thae replied with a dark
laugh.

Thad’s days were often spent with
Sae-Thae as many of his other close friends had stayed back in the
capital with the exception of Reeve. Crusher had wanted to come,
but with the current state of his leg, it was impossible for him to
keep up even with the slow pace of the army. Arianna had taken a
stray hit during the last battle and had damaged one of her wings,
and Avalanche was staying near the little Nadari’s side, refusing
to let anyone unknown to her near the little sprite. Thad tried to
think of any other friends, but everyone he had known besides Maria
had taken their place upon the funeral pyre during the bloody
war.

Thad tried not to think about the
losses, but when they passed what was left of Digger’s Fort, it was
hard to hide the truth from himself any longer. Even though it had
only been a short time since they had occupied the fort, it now
looked like it was the remains of some long-lost civilization. The
walls and buildings had been put to the torch, leaving only a
blackened husk of what had once been the location of the first
battles of the war.

As they passed the fort and moved into
the open plains that ran between the two countries, where the low
hills turned into mountains, signifying the natural border between
Rane and Farlan, a small band of soldiers moved out from the cover
of the woods to the north. It was less than a hundred men and gave
the Vathari little pause.

“What is that?” Sae-Thae asked Thad as
a white flag was raised high into the air where the small band of
soldiers stood.

“It is a banner used to signify a truce
or surrender,” Thad replied.

“Why would they surrender?” Sae-Thae
asked, sounding amused. “If they fight, they at least have a chance
to take a few men with them to their graves.”

“Wait, let me talk to them,” Thad said
quickly before Sae-Thae could order them men slaughtered. The
Vathari didn’t take prisoners. If they were once enemies, they
believed that they would be enemies again. Thad didn’t stay the
mage’s hand out of kindness, though. He knew that, in the end, the
men were dead, and nothing he could do would stop that. “I need to
know why they have stayed back and how far ahead the main army
is.”

“I see no problem in letting the men
live for a few moments longer,” Sae-Thae replied.

“I have a few questions for them
myself,” Killian added with a grim smile.

As Thad and Killian approached the
soldiers, the rest of the army stayed only a dozen yards behind
him. He had asked his friend to keep them back, but it seemed that
the mage had misunderstood his request, or he had simply chosen to
misunderstand. It was hard to tell what a Vathari was really
thinking.

“You are entering the sovereign land of
Rane,” one of the soldiers said shakily. “You must turn back, or
else you are declaring war upon our kingdom.”

“Really?” Thad said, biting back a
laugh. “I thought we were already at war with Rane. Did I miss
something, or didn’t you and many of the other armies of the west
just get pushed out of Farlan?”

“We requested that the queen of Farlan
turn over a band of murders that assaulted our capital. When she
refused, we had no recourse but to seek the man out. Had your queen
simply handed over the felons, then no Farlan blood would have been
spilled.”

“How far is it to the rest of your
army?” Killian asked, ignoring the man’s words. “We would dearly
like to catch them before they can reach fortification.”

“I cannot give you that information,
sir,” the soldier replied as heavy beads of sweat started to pour
down his face. “That would be treason,” he added in way of
explanation.

“So it would be,” Killian replied
before his sword leaped into his hand and cleaved the man’s head
from his shoulders. “How far behind the rest of your army are we?”
Killian asked, turning to the next soldier.

“The main army passed through about two
days back, sir,” the soldier said fearfully.

Bending down, Killian wiped his blade
dry on the dead man’s cloak. “Thank you for the
information.”

As soon as his sword was back in its
sheath, Killian lightly took Thad by the arm and escorted him back
to Sae-Thae. Thad saw the Vathari soldiers rush past and heard the
cries of alarm from the Rane soldiers as they were cut down but
pushed them from his mind. It was senseless slaughter and something
he didn’t agree with.

As the sun rose and they began their
preparations for camp, Thad could hear the soldiers joke about the
battle earlier and how the humans had tossed aside their weapons,
begging to be spared. Thad had always seen the Vathari as
different, but he had never known them to be so cold and callous.
They were a warrior race, born and bred for battle. As he closed
his eyes to sleep, Thad thanked the Vathari god that he had ordered
them to never take up arms against humans en masse.

No matter how he tried, the screams of
the dying men haunted Thad. After more than an hour lying abed, he
gave up the attempt at sleep and left his tent in search of
something to ease his mind. Though nearly all of the Vathari were
fast asleep, Thad found Killian and many of the Katanga still
awake.

“Master Thaddeus, it is good to see you
are still doing well,” Killian said as Thad approached where he and
three other warmasters sat. “I had figured after the events of the
day, you would have fallen fast asleep.”

“I tried, but I still find myself
bothered,” Thad admitted.

Killian gave Thad a wry smile that told
him that the warmaster understood. “When you have fought with as
many different armies as I have, you tend to see a lot of things.
Over time, my ability to push those things away has gotten better,
but that does not mean I do not find myself bothered by them late
at night. When the fighting is over, my dreams are haunted by more
than a few faces from my past. It is the curse of being a soldier.
These Vathari do not seem to be plagued by the same remorse,
though. Honestly, I would love to have a number of them to teach
our younger soldiers. They are the perfect soldier, and I don’t
mean with the way they handle a sword but how they can act on and
off the battlefield.”

“They murdered those soldiers. I knew
it was going to happen, but I just … ,” Thad tried to explain, his
hands shaking slightly. “I have killed unarmed men before, but it
had been different,” Thad struggled to explain, his words sounding
hollow even to his own ears.

“Master Thaddeus, I would suggest you
push it from your thoughts, though I know that will be near
impossible. Just try to keep it in perspective. We are at war, and
during war, keeping prisoners takes men and food, and most
importantly, it takes time, and that is something we don’t have.
Just be glad that it was not women and children that we faced
today,” one of the older warmasters said.

“Women and children. Why in the abyss
would anyone have the need to kill women and children?” Thad asked,
his voice turning to horror at the thought of such an
act.

“Many things happen during war,”
Killian said, his face turning dark. “We all have our regrets. It
would be best if you didn’t probe too deeply into the hearts of
some men. You may not like what you find.”

Thad was instantly reminded of Sae-Thae
and his hate of the cherubim. At the time, he had been skeptical
about the Vathari’s hate of the race, but now he was beginning to
understand how a person could go mad at knowing everything that
people kept hidden. There were indeed some things that were better
left in the dark.

“What do you think we will find once we
reach the capital?” Killian asked, quickly changing the
subject.

“More soldiers, though I doubt that
Rane has many more to call on. They exhausted their armies over the
past years, taking control of Farlan. When they were forced to
retreat to protect their own borders, they lost even ore. In this
last war, they were even forced to call on aid from anyone who
would heed them. I think the war will be over much too fast for the
Vathari, but scarcely fast enough for my own desires.” Thad’s words
were pointed and to the fact, and the nodding heads let him know
that the warmasters seemed to agree with his assessment.

It was long past midday before Thad
finally found his rest. It was hard to sleep under the hot sun, and
beads of sweat readily poured down his body, drying so fast that
they left small white patches in his clothes from the salt. Though
sticky and uncomfortable, Thad found it much easier to sleep than
he had earlier when his consciousness had still been raw from what
had transpired earlier that night.

As he slept, Thad found himself being
pulled into the murky darkness and knew that Maria was calling him.
At first, he had found the dream visits interesting, but now they
were becoming tedious and sometimes aggravating. Maria took little
care for whether he wished to be called upon or not. During the
day, when he was at the palace, he could deny a request for a
visit, and she normally acceded to his request, but there was no
such option during his dreams. He didn’t believe the queen did it
out of spite or hatefulness. He believed that she didn’t give it
much thought. She wanted to see him, and she was used to getting
what she wanted without fear of reprisal.

As the darkness cleared, Thad found
himself in his own chambers with the queen sitting idly on the
corner of his bed, wearing a thin dark blue gown laced in an even
darker green. “I was not in the mood for a visit,” Thad said
angrily.

Maria looked shocked at the open
reprisal but quickly calmed herself. “It is hard to know when you
are and are not in the mood for a visit. If you wish, I can let you
go back to whatever dream you were finding more interesting,” she
said, the hurt evident in her voice.

“No, you have called, and I am already
here,” Thad replied apologetically. “It has just been a hard day …
things … have come about that left a bad taste in my
mouth.”

“Nothing too stressing, I hope,” Maria
said, coming to his side and laying a comforting hand on his arm.
“You could always return to the palace. I am sure that the soldiers
can win the war without your presence,” Maria added
hopefully.

“With the force they control, I am sure
they could win without half the number present, but it was my
decision, so I need to see it through to the end. You don’t have to
worry. I am scarcely in any danger,” Thad said, hoping to quell the
line of thought. Maria had persistently tried to keep him from
leaving the place, even going so far as to break down into tears.
Thad had almost been swayed, but he had stood strong in his
convictions. As soon as she learned crying wouldn’t work, her tears
quickly dried up, leaving Thad feeling as if he had been tricked.
He had been told women could be more dangerous than any armed
soldier, but it was only during those times that he had started to
see the truth in those words. “You can lose your life to a sword,
but only a woman can take your soul.” Thad muttered one of
Killian’s sayings under his breath.

“What was that?” Maria said, giving him
a scathing glare.

“Nothing, just thinking about how nice
you look tonight,” Thad replied hastily. He had acted the fool more
times than he could count, but he had not lost his senses enough to
let her know what was really going through his mind.

CHAPTER XXV

After the small skirmish at the border,
they had been able to travel within the borders of Rane completely
unmolested. Thad was happy about the scarcity of battles, but his
Vathari friends were not. As each day passed, Thad could see their
restlessness building, and Thad hoped for everyone’s sake that at
least some form of token resistance would soon show; otherwise,
there was no telling what might transpire. Sae-Thae had told him
that more than one Vathari settlement had come a long way for the
expected war, and it was all too possible that a small war could be
brewing between any two of them now.

Their fifth day traveling through Rane,
they came across a good-sized town. It was deep into the night when
they passed by the town, and though Thad didn’t expect much
movement within the streets, he had expected to see some life
showing within. But there was none; not even a single lantern-lit
window adorned the ghost town.

As the sun began to break, they settled
down for their rest. Tad still found it hard to march in the dark
and even harder to adjust his sleeping patterns, though it was not
as if they had been set in stone to begin with. In the past few
months, he had taken what sleep had been afforded him, but he could
still scarcely remember a time he had slept at the onset of the
day.

A loud noise roused Thad from sleep.
Stumbling out of his tent with sword in hand, Thad looked around
for the cause of the commotion. Half asleep, Thad almost didn’t
notice the sword that darted to his chest. As the sword skipped off
his stone chest, Thad spun around and buried his blade deep into
his attacker. Kicking the body off, Thad turned to see a Vathari
warrior smiling at him.