~
Sawyer checked his weapons and all his gear one last time. He had on plate armor he took off a royal guardsman that was about his size and had a great shield made that held a small wand and morningstar on the inside of it. Across his back was a great axe and on his right hip was the sword the queen had made for him. Sawyer hadn’t spent any real time in what he had called home for the months he was there and instead went to get straps and other things custom made. His mage guard had been sent to Maduro after tearful goodbyes and Sawyer promised he would visit them if he made it back. Sawyer climbed into the carriage and prepared to leave, Phoebe had called on him a few times from what he heard but he was never there. The fact that he was leaving hours ahead of time meant she would miss him again as the trip got underway.
His mage guard stayed silent, Sawyer didn’t really want to get to know them and he was sure the feeling was mutual since they had not tried to talk to him either. Sawyer could tell they were angry that Sawyer refused to sleep in the fancy inns in the towns they had passed through and never stayed long enough for them to enjoy any woman. Sawyer changed horses often and he and the men slept in shifts inside the carriage, Sawyer took advantage of the moonlight and traveled as much as he possibly could until he reached the rear of the army at midday. Sawyer had taken to wearing his armor and climbed out of the carriage and walked over to a big red tent that had to belong to someone important.
“Where is your mage?” an old man said in a military uniform as he looked over Sawyer and his red clad Mage Guard.
“I am the Mage” Sawyer replied. “You General Goodnight?”
“Yes” the old man said. “We have steadily been pushed back and can only really defend. Our other two mages have barely escaped with their lives. The fat blond one is going to have his foot amputated and the other one is barely escaped with his life. It is hard to attack with their mages appearing in the worst place possible for us.”
“You tell me where you want an attack to happen and I will clear the area for you” Sawyer replied.
“Well the Dukes are protecting our flanks” the old man said as he pointed to a map. “Half of the Havenian army are embedded in the Sailian army and they are proving tough to fight. Montes is having the same problem so we are both just defending and waiting for the enemy to make a move.”
“Not any more” Sawyer replied. “Show me exactly where the nastiest fight is an I am going to clear that shit out right now. I hope you are not planning on any slaves because I am killing all I come across.”
“I like your emotion” General Goodnight said. “It is like you are taking it personal.”
“They killed my father” Sawyer replied. “It is personal and a mistake they will wish they can take back.”
“Well they have at least four mages here inbetween this pass” General Goodnight said. “Their army is just through this pass but the hills on both sides of the pass are heavily guarded. If you could just help us take either hill it would put pressure on the mages to abandon wherever they are entrenched at.”
“Well give me around a hundred heavily armored men and let's go” Sawyer replied. “They should worry about defending themselves first and attacking later.”
“There a has been a lull in battle” General Goodnight replied. “Neither side is attacking right now while we bury our dead.”
“Well then they will have a lot more of it” Sawyer replied. “At night whatever rules you are playing by will end, there will be no moon and I will take that hill on the left. By morning we will be the ones using that hill to attack their people on the other side.”
Sawyer went to sleep then and was awaken just as the sun had left the sky, he started his march then and knew the enemy saw him and his force marching out to the hill. The idiots gathered in large numbers on the side of the hill he was going up which was just what he wanted. Sawyer used his tendrils to search, there were two mages there of average power embedded in the troops. Unfortunately for them Tabitha had taught him a lot of powerful spells that drained magic in a hurry, he would use their power along with the men around them. As the sky darkened Sawyer used one of his favorite spells, scalding steam. He pulled deeply from the two mages and sent the white hot cloud forward while steadily increasing its power by draining the mages and the energy of the men around them. A few minutes later screams could be heard as Sawyer had all of his shield holders surround him while they slowly went up the mountain. Sawyer knew the cloud was deadly and soon came upon the first body that had tried to run away, the enemy was so entrenched that they couldn’t get out and retreat in a hurry. Sawyer could feel one of the mages died and cut his losses as he drained every last drop from the one that was running up the hill. The steam eventually caught him to but then started to dissipate without any magic holding it together.
“Alright my spell is finished” Sawyer said. “It is all rough and tumble from here but there are no mages up ahead. I can feel where the enemy are hiding at so don’t worry about being taken by surprise”.
Sawyer slowly went up the mountain as their armor started weighing them down. It was slow going and the group had to take many breaks as they killed everything they came across in an effort to cut a path up the hill. Unbeknownst to the men around him Sawyer used the spell that made his old rival refer to him as the mage of mages. Sawyer’s life magic could reanimate the dead to serve him or animate statues to use as golems. Currently every dead body that wasn’t too mangled was ahead of his group, sent there secretly doing the many rest breaks Sawyer’s group had. Sawyer was leeching off of his own men and those on the hill to power the spell and let his undead army fight its way through the dark. Sawyer knew the fighting was tougher at the top, when his things got to a certain point they just died. Sawyer got close to the spot and could see it was a group of twenty men who mostly likely knew what they were doing. Sawyer got close to the spot and had to use his magic for another steam spell, he felt the enemy line break but powering the spell took a lot out of him.
“Alright men” Sawyer said. “I have done my part, the rest is up to you. I don’t have much magic left and I have taken out two enemy mages while we have been here. You can draw you weapons and deal with this any way you see fit.”
Sawyer walked off the hill and wished Flynn was there, a mage of his level wouldn’t have fell to the steam unless surprised and would have just used his air magic to blow it back. But Sawyer would slowly whittle him down until his magic was almost gone and he would have had to flee. The walk to the bottom was not as hard as the walk up but Sawyer was still ready for bed when he started making his way towards camp.
“Who goes there?” said a voice in the dark. Sawyer used mage light so his face can be seen.
“Mage Sarlon” Sawyer replied as he was let through.
“You failed?” General Goodnight asked.
“I ran out of magic but two mages were killed and the men have only the top twenty percent to capture” Sawyer said as she started taking his armor off right there. No casualties on our side when I left, if you send more men you should be able to take it entirely before noon. I am going to bed now, good luck.”
“Where is your mage guard?” General Goodnight asked.
“On that hill somewhere probably trying to figure out how I just vanished” Sawyer replied. “It aint hard in the dark when you can feel where everyone else is.”
“Well then we are ready to go” General Goodnight said. “The fat mage with the two good legs is coming with me just in case.”
CHAPTER 9
Sawyer looked over the battlefield and could feel something was different, there were way too many mages around and all of them were probably mad their friends had been killed. Sawyer thought his number of mages killed was over ten now and the enemy had started to take notice. Sawyer raised his hand for the halt to be given as he stopped moving.
“What is it?” General Goodnight asked.
“There are too many mages down there” Sawyer replied. “Which mean the Duk
es are in prime position to actually start flanking. Can this ground we are on be defended?”
“Yes we have the high ground” General Goodnight said.
“Then while they have their toughest people here, Me and Mage Dominic will join Mage Tabitha and Mage Candace on the right flank with Duke Velarde, we might be able to end this thing if you can keep them right where they are.”
“I think we can if they are just waiting to capture you” General Goodnight said. “You have been playing havoc with their defenses and I have been exploiting them at every turn. It is easy to play a game when you have all the best pieces, when things start getting equal is when skill comes in. I’ll give you both the fastest horses we have and you can take Mage Reginald with you. He has a wooden peg for a foot now but as long as he stays on a horse he shouldn’t be any problem.”
Sawyer rode out with the two other mages and all the mage guard, they were complaining the entire time but happy the enemy was being driven back. The queen only wanted them out there for a month at a time since they had been losing people and Reginald’s time was almost up. It took two hours by horseback to reach Duke Velarde’s men, they were haggard looking but still alert as they recognized the mage guard and let the entire group inside. Sawyer spotted the High Mage talking to man who had to be Duke Velarde. He was old like Duke Treadwell and walked with a cane and he looked over Sawyer who climbed down from his horse.
“More mages?” Duke Velarde said looking at Dominic.
“The Royal Army has been pushing the enemy back more and more every day” Sawyer began. “Right now there are a lot of mages waiting to spring a trap for me, high level mages which mean there are none to be had over here. General Goodnight said he can hold his position for a day at least and you now have five mages at your disposal. I say let's end this war right now and blow away this force.”
“They have a strong wind mage out there” Tabitha said. “We have been playing cat and mouse and I am not sure which one of us is the cat.”
“I have killed ten mages so far” Sawyer replied.
“I have killed only two and Candace has gotten one” Tabitha replied. “I think they put fewer but higher level mages to protect the flanks.”
“Well there is none now” Sawyer replied. “Now are we going to attack or what?”
“You don’t control my forces” Duke Velarde snapped.
“And I can always go back to where I came from” Sawyer replied. “You are either taking this chance or you are not.”
“With these three Your Grace we can launch an offensive and at least take out that cavalry” Tabitha replied. “It is their main weapon and the reason we can't get around them. Every time we charge they attempt to flank us which makes us fall back. They already think we only have two mages and Reginald and Dominic can ride forward and make a nuisance of themselves. The enemy will send out their horses right into arguably the three most powerful mages in the kingdom.”
“This had better work” Duke Velarde said as he looked at a nearby guard and told everyone to get ready to move.
Duke Velarde’s men were ready to move in almost an hour and marched out while Dominic and Reginald rode in the front. After ten minutes of marching the army got close enough that magic started being fired from either Dominic or Reginald. Sawyer, Tabitha and Candace were spread along the far right side where they expected the enemy to attack. Just like Tabitha said, cavalry were mobilized and were trying to ride wide right then come slamming in to flank. Sawyer Could feel both the High Mage and Candace and waited on the enemy. As they were getting closer he cast steam using the other mages and watched in fascination as the horses rode into the white fog. Screams from both men and horse was heard as the middle of the charge collapsed, the men who made it through soon found themselves bombarded by arrows and another fog appeared in front of them. Sawyer was drawing deep on the charging cavalry now and kept the cloud moving. It was a rout as the riders started retreating, Sawyer glanced at the battle and could see Duke Velarde’s men were hammering the enemy. The enemy most likely thought the cavalry would keep Velarde from attacking too much. Now Velarde had no fear, the enemy using a good offense to cover up for a lack of defense was blowing up in their faces and soon the enemy were dropping their heavy gear and running away in an attempt to get away from the horde.
“What was that spell?” Candace asked.
“None of your damn business” Sawyer replied. “I don’t answer to you.”
“Well I want to know it too” Tabitha said.
“Scalding steam” Sawyer replied. “Water, fire and wind magic. Unblockable by a standard shield and effective on anything breathing.”
“Well Sale is about to have a fight on two fronts and they have all of their mages in one place” Tabitha replied. “We have been trying to break through here for the last week or so, the only reason the enemy was falling back was because their main force was in constant fear of getting overran and now I know why. With the mages helping Treadwell we can be seven mages strong, Andrew and Claudia are there and we can exploit this mismatch”.
“I just want to leave this place” Candace said. “I want to go home and be held by someone who wants Candace and not the mage in Maduro.”
“You can do that later” Tabitha replied. “Finding a man isn’t hard outside of Maduro, now let's focus on getting the enemy. We will send Reginald to get the other two mages since he is the one with the bad foot.”
Sawyer marched with the Duke’s forces four about five hours, they constantly harassed the fleeing enemy which made the fight more lopsided. When Sawyer caught up to the main body of the enemy they were already in full retreat, they decided instead of waiting to get slaughtered to instead just pull all the back and try again. Duke Velarde kept the pressure on though and shadowed them as the main army continued to rush forward, Sawyer thought the entire day and most of the night was spent running the retreating army out of Perdomo. The other part of the invading army had to withdraw as well, if they didn’t then the main body could swing around and sandwich the invaders and destroy them entirely. It was the sleepiest Sawyer had ever been, armor was tossed and he ended up only keeping his sword and staff as the order was given to chase the enemy until everyone was too tired to continue. It was the next morning before a halt was called, men were so tired they were falling out of their saddles. Almost all of the supplies were in the rear, most just slept on the ground they stopped at and didn’t care it was muddy and covered in dirt. Sawyer thought he had slept a few hours, the sun was real high in the sky and he was groggy as the fight started back up. The other mages refused to continue with such a pace, Sawyer was impressed they made it as far as they did when he joined back up with Duke Velarde and continued flanking. The next few days were spent like this, the enemy found the pace impossible and a great number of people were captured, they gave up so they could sleep not knowing slavery definitely awaited them.
“You have done well Mage” Duke Velarde said as he looked at Sawyer. “You have ridden extremely hard and if reports are to be believed you have killed more men and hunted more mages than even the so called high mage. You should be the High Mage and get rid of the woman that currently occupies the spot. There is too much female leadership in Perdomo already and where are they at when the price of failure is blood? I’ll tell you, they fell back claiming to be tired.”
“Many of your men did as well” Sawyer replied. “These are the people responsible for killing my family, my hatred will fuel me until they are all killed.”
“We should talk” Duke Velarde replied. “Especially since your mage guard cannot keep up, you know they spy on you for the Queen don’t you? Be wary of them, they are her puppets. When I heard you almost killed one of them some time back I thought it was some of the sweetest music I have ever heard.”
“This sounds a lot like treason and I have been on her bad side before” Sawyer replied. “It is not somewhere I want to be again.”
“The whores?” Duke Velarde asked.
“You know?” Sawyer replied.
“Who with any kind of power doesn’t know” Duke Velarde replied. “Whores talk a lot when coin is in their faces and have offered me the same treatment for anyone of my mages. Talk was that you are a man that preferred other men and the Queen thought it was a waste. Me and her are in agreement, any man that doesn’t like the feel of a soft woman is a waste.”
“Is that the story?” Sawyer asked.
“By the looks of you it is hard to tell if it is the truth or not” Duke Velarde replied. “It does explain why a bunch of whores were sent to guard you.”
“I’ll keep my business private” Sawyer replied.
“Well I aim to fight for you to become the High Mage” Duke Velarde replied. “There should be a male somewhere in the hierarchy and perhaps you will be able to get into that Maduro place. The Queen has forbidden most of her nobles from going to the city and I know a great amount of our wealth is spent there. It has been hard finding criminals who were there to talk about it, I have bought bits of information but once an informant is identified they tend to disappear. When they reappear it is years later and they are very reluctant to talk, I know they are under some secrecy agreement and whenever it is broken they are sent for very hard labor.”
“Why do you care about Maduro?” Sawyer asked.
“A city with no male oversight is an abomination” Duke Velarde said in disgust. “I run some of the best brothels in Perdomo filled with the freshest flowers I can find. I have a woman for every man’s needs, I have them as young as twelve and as old as twenty three.”
“You don’t think a twenty four year old woman is attractive?” Sawyer asked.
“Pit no boy, who would?” Duke Velarde replied a little shocked. “By that time they have taken so many cocks the thrill of it is gone for many. All men like to be her first or at least the first few. On some girls I even measure how big of a cock they have ever had while working for me just so I can guarantee some of my customers are the biggest a woman has ever had. The services I offer should be in that city, prison or not and it needs male oversight. Maybe the Queen was right and you needed those whores, you may need another dose until you find your manhood and get with the rest of us.”
The Mage of Mages 2 Page 16
