“Clear a path for the cavalry” John said as he noticed no one other than Tenkay had any rank. Men sprang into action and started moving broken tables, chairs and torn apart wagons to open a small space. Commander Steele, the man the Senior Commander put in charge of the force came through first and nodded at John then looked around.
“Who is in charge here?” Steele said loudly.
“I-I am” Lieutenant Tenkay said as he stopped hiding and walked out. “I am the only remaining officer here, the rest were killed”.
“Lieutenant Tenkay?” Steele said looking the man over. “Where are your lieutenant bars?”
“I ripped them off” Lieutenant Tenkay said clutching his collar where his rank was normally worn. “The barbarians were targeting anyone in stripes or had rank, they killed the Commander and Faver along with him. It would have been suicide to keep them on”.
“So you hid while your men fought with no direction” Steele said as he fixed Tenkay with a glare.
“I am still here and the garrison did not fall into enemy hands” Tenkay said puffing out his chest. “I should get a medal for this, you call it hiding, I call it smarts”.
“How many from your platoon remain?” Steele asked. “It can't be any more than 30 men here total”.
“This Corporal is from my platoon” Tenkay said quickly. “I uh, I sent him out for help. Isn’t that right Corporal? I mean if you had just left without proper orders that would be post abandonment”.
“It was like he said” John said gritting his teeth.
“See Sir?” Tenkay said looking around the garrison. “I was the only leader who was smart enough to stay alive and protect the garrison. I am going to make up my report and tell the Senior Commander of all my gallant deeds, in fact I should get on that right away. I assume the Senior Commander is probably in route as we speak”.
John could tell Steele thought poorly of Tenkay and John didn’t blame him. Abandonment of post was a serious crime no matter the outcome so John had to back his play. Tenkay walked around shouting orders to weary men trying to show off for the cavalry. John helped stack the dead, they would be wrapped in linen and returned quickly to their families or buried in the Royal Army Cemetery next to the rest of the men and women who had died in action protecting the kingdom. The enemy dead were all gathered up dumped into a giant pit then set on fire. The smell of cooking meat was sickening and the fire burned long into the night. No one really had gotten any sleep, Commander Steele had ordered the walls be reinforced and any damage be repaired as best as possible. 25 men survived the attack, over 1000 barbarians lay dead but the Lost Legion couldn’t count this as a win John thought. This post needed to either be filled back up or abandoned. Even with 500 men the place was too far away from help, other garrisons needed to be built. Sleep was finally done in one hour shifts, it was rough but no one complained. When the rest of the forces were finally spotted a cheer went up, more for the ability to sleep instead of being saved. Steele gave everyone other than Lieutenant Tenkay permission to sleep, John was overjoyed and slept directly where he was at, in the muddy earth surrounded by other tired men.
When John woke and looked around, he and the tired men with him looked horrible. Dirt was all over their clothes and faces and John wished he would have slept in his shield. But John was too tired to do any of that and began looking around for food. He had slept through the night and it looked to be around noon, maybe if it had rained again he would have woken up sooner. The buildings around him were torn down for materials or burned by the barbarians. John stood up and walked over to where the kitchen used to be, the garrison was packed with men who made a loud ruckus with the rebuilding they were doing. The kitchen was no longer there but baskets of jerky and hard biscuits were there, John helped himself and looked for a place to sit down.
“Corporal Thunder” John heard his name called coming from somewhere behind him. John turned around to see Tenkay walking towards him clad in commander rank. “I think we need to have a talk about your insubordination”.
“What are you talking about?” John said purposely leaving out his title. He had known the man less than four days and already hated him.
“Show some respect to your better Corporal” Tenkay said as he turned up his nose. “I am the commander here now, the Lost Legion is mine. Things are going to be done differently now and you are a part of my plans. I didn’t know you were a mage, let alone a flying mage. I never gave you instructions to ride out with the cavalry but I covered for you”.
“You did that for your own benefit, don’t act like you did me any favors” John replied as he crossed his arms.
“No matter, you still disobeyed me” Tenkay said as he started walking around John. “I am the youngest man ever to hold the rank of Commander, my nearest rival lay wrapped in linen and on his way back to his family. I will make senior commander in due time, if you want to ride on my coattails you better get your act together. As the son of the Archmage, I am sure you are an educated man although your birth is nowhere near as great as mine or other nobles”.
“I don’t care about your coattails” John replied. “I can make my own way in the army until I have had enough. I could have just paid for a commission and became a lieutenant, you have nothing you can offer me”.
“Is that so?” Tenkay replied. “I can make your life quite hard here, you still belong to the Lost Legion for now”.
“Go ahead and do it then” John replied. “I am not groveling to you”.
“Fail to use my title again and I shall have you tossed in the brig” Tenkay said facing John.
“Yes Sir” John replied. “Is there anything else you needed Sir? I assume after telling everyone it was your idea you are not going to turn me in for leaving”.
“The Senior Commander wants you” Tenkay said pointing at a building. “I don’t know what he wants but you would be wise not to contradict me”.
“Yes Sir” John replied as he made his way over to the building that he thought used to be the quartermaster. John walked inside and saw Steele sitting down at a desk. Steele dropped his pen and stood up as John came closer.
“Corporal Thunder” Steele said as he walked around the table. “The SC wants to see you, but before you go in we need to have a little chat. You are not in trouble or anything, I just want to see where your mind is at”.
“Okay sir” John said unsure.
“I don’t need you to remark one way or another for the first part” Steele began. “I think you was sent on a fool’s mission to map out an unimportant area in the barbarian lands. It really wasn’t needed since the crown never planned to colonize but you did so anyway under direction from that fool outside sticking his chest out like a peacock. You used your magic to get out of there alive and when the enemy attacked you were looking for any task that would not put you under the command of that man outside. If you were running you could have left and no one would know if you had been killed or not. That fool out there most likely hid since I doubt he can fight or is much of a leader and survived by being a coward. The reports he submitted was full of heroics that no one could cast doubt on, most of the men were busy fighting for their lives and don’t remember much. Someone the rank of Commander needs to be in charge of this legion and since no one is stupid enough to want the position, especially not since the former commander left the position open in the worst way possible, Tenkay got a battlefield promotion. When you go speak to the SC he is going to offer you the position of lieutenant in the Lost Legion, it is a great honor and your pay will go up by double. The SC has never had a mage in his command so it is likely he will put you somewhere in some kind of role, it doesn’t hurt that you are the archmage’s son. I am sure if you take the lieutenant position you will stay under Tenkay who will take most of the credit for anything you do. I am offering you a different choice, my replacement will be here within the week. I am leaving the army, I have accepted a new post of Knight Commander. I was hand-picked for this position and wa
s given the option of taking five people with me, I want you to be one of them”.
“Knight Commander?” John said confused. The only knights he had heard of were the Dragon Knights of Downey, they rode great flying beast that hated the climate of Kirby. John doubted the kingdom had somehow gotten ahold of the animals, even if they did John was sure his father would want to know more about them before they were just handed out to anyone.
“The Queen wants a new group of people to speak with her voice across the land” Steele began. “Knights would be dispatched to deal with disputes across the land that nobles need help with or ignore. Knights would speak with the voice of the Queen and could administer justice on the spot. Of course in the case of high ranking nobles more would have to be done but you get the idea. I am not sure how I will weed out corruption but I do know I need good fighters to start off with. I think anyone who would forgo being a mage and enlist in the army as common infantry instead of getting a commission is a good candidate”.
“I left mage school because I was the weakest one there” John replied thinking about how many duels he had lost.
“You faced down the barbarian horde and lived” Steele replied. “If you accept any position other than what you have it will be hard to bring you with me, Lieutenants are tough to replace. A common corporal will be easy though, any commander could promote through the ranks. Here is where you tell me if you are interested or not”.
“Why me?” John asked.
“The Knights will not be as well paid as the mages” Steele replied. “In fact their pay will only be a silver coin a week, not a lot of money compared to what people in the army or standard mages make. You seem like you are not in it for the money, I think you will be perfect”.
“Is there anyway to get a pay raise?” John asked.
“No” Steele replied quickly. “I need people who don’t care about the pay, all your expenses when on duty will be paid for by the crown. Other than that your home which will be modest, along with a food stipend which will also be paid for by the crown”.
“What will be the difference between that and what I am doing right now?” John said as he gestured around him.
“The training for one” Steele replied. “I have a year to build an elite force, I will bring in different masters to teach the knights the finer points of combat. Your armor will be top of the line as will everything else. The Knights will not be something just anyone can join, they will be hand-picked from many places. I warn you the first part will be tough, we will train in remote places and you cannot tell your family anything about it, other than you are in training to become a knight. You wont have any contact with anyone for about a year. I promise you though, if you can complete training you will come out a better man.
CHAPTER 6
“Not too shabby mage” Steele said as he pinned a medallion on John’s chest. “Fifth out of thirty is nothing to hang your head at. And you did it all without depending on magic, with it you will be a hard fight for any idiot who dares challenge you. What are your plans?”
“Well it is my 19th birthday today” John said as he swelled with pride. “I haven’t seen or heard from my family in almost a year and a half. I am going to see them and find out how everyone is doing, maybe catch up on everything that has happened in the kingdom since we have been away”.
“Well congratulations mage, I knew I picked the right man for the job” Steele said as he walked towards the next man in line.
If John were alone he would have burst out into tears from his accomplishments during the training. While he wasn’t the top person in many disciplines, he was near the top. His body had put on muscle he didn’t even know it had and his reflexes were also good. His sword work could use improving but he was far from a pushover, in another three years he could be a master blade. For now he was happy with the different training he had received, John now knew the law in its entirety as well as acceptable punishments. He would primarily be stationed in the furthest reaches of the kingdom, near the border with Downey to ensure the small towns located in that area were in accordance with the Queen’s wishes. John waited as Steele went down the line individually congratulating each man, even the last in class should be more than proud. They started out with 238 men, some fell behind during sword training and was dismissed but the vast majority did not have what it took to learn all of the laws of the land. Thirty men could now say they were better than most, they would be given the job of protecting the kingdom from itself and refilling their own ranks. Steele gave them the right to pick one person from the population to join the ranks of the knights, the next class was already filled up so whoever their pick was would have to wait a year. During that time they would become squires and follow the Knight until the next class was ready. Steele also let it be known that one month a year knights were expected to come back and test their skills. Those who failed would be brought back in for training or dismissed. John didn’t care, he doubted he would ever let himself get out of shape again and loved studying.
“Knights!” Steele shouted as each man went to attention. “The hard part is over, the only thing left will be to go the capital and be recognized by the Queen herself. From there you will receive all of your real gear along with a two-week vacation, now let's get ready to move out, you are dismissed”.
John like most of the Knights did not have any real belongings here, everything was stripped from them and sent back with their families. The things that he trained with would be left here for the next group, the only thing he really owned at the place would be his training uniforms. Packing would be a breeze, the fact John didn’t have much to carry would make the trip quick.
“Knight Commander” John said running up and coming to the position of attention.
“What is it Knight?” Steele replied.
“Request permission to travel to the capital on my own” John said quickly.
“We are in a mountainous fortress miles away from anyone and almost anything” Steele replied. “How do you plan on leaving this place?”
“I am a mage Knight Commander” John replied.
“So you are ready to embrace that now?” Steele said with his eyebrow raised. “I haven’t seen you perform magic in quite a while”.
“I have, just not openly” John replied.
“You have a week to reach the palace” Steele replied. “Me and the rest will be riding hard with our horses, I plan on leaving now and we should get there with a day to spare. Do you know Dyson well?”
“I grew up in the city Knight Commander” John replied.
“Well then in the poorer part of town you should find new stone buildings” Steele began. “The outer wall has been expanded and we will all have small two room homes there. You should find exactly 100 buildings there, we will never expand past this number to keep the group exclusive. In the future there will be 69 more knights, this number was given to us by the prince who apparently has taken a liking to us as his pet project”.
“Which prince?” John asked.
“The non-magical one” Steele replied.
“Prince Jordan” John said as he took a deep breath.
“You know the man?” Steele asked.
“I have met him many times, he and the Crown Prince do not get along” John replied. “He thinks mages have too much power in the kingdom, this makes perfect sense that he would have taken a liking to us. No mage in their right mind would apply to become a knight, I do not think many would make it through the selection process. Truth be told, the only reason I made it through was because I had just gotten out of army recruit training and was in decent shape. I think politics are going to play a good part in our future”.
“Not really” Steele replied. “We are speaking with the Queen’s authority, even when the Crown Prince ascends to the throne, he will be hard pressed to find a mage that knows the laws better than we do. Still this is going to be interesting, I’ll see you in Dyson”.
John nodded and conjured a horse u
nderneath him, he made it a smaller horse like the palfreys they were trained on. Palfreys were a lighter-weight horse with a smooth gait that could amble, they were the preferred horse and were suitable for riding over long distances. They would all receive Destriers when they arrived at the palace, huge fearsome horses that were bred for war. John would accept his but wondered what he would do with the animal, his magic was more than enough to move him around. John took off, he was comfortable with his horse a foot or so off the ground and made his way off of the mountain. He had taken the path many times during training and knew every turn by heart, his fake mount moved through each turn and John knew he had taken at least two hours off his time by his rate of speed. He had no reason to fear about his horse stepping into a hole or being flung so he went as fast as possible, when he reached the open plain he really sped up. The ground flew by underneath him at a frightening rate, this was the fastest John had ever gone before and his magic while steadily decreasing, did so at a slow rate. John slowed down after a couple of hours, he only had about ten percent of his aura remaining and had no need to drain more. John found an acceptable speed to travel then dropped the color from his mount, his aura began to fill up even as he traveled and he smiled. A horse was good but what he needed was a fine chair, John stopped and changed the horse into one. It could use more comfort he thought, it felt just like a shield. Shields were hard and weightless in their natural state, if he had a soft cushion with him he would not have to worry about any of it. John stopped once it had gotten dark and did not bother with stopping in town. His medallion identified him as an agent of the Queen so he would be fed and housed for free. Many merchants would love for him to do so since the crown always paid good and would often mandate that its agents stay at particularly friendly establishments. John though had other plans, he could really stretch what he could do with his magic.
The Knight Mage Page 5
