Amelie: Wizards of White Haven

by Frances Howitt

  ‘I bring a warning,’ Sid began. ‘Something’s out in the forest; all the horses are spooked. We don’t have anyone on watch in that direction.’ Sid added.

  ‘It was probably a bear.’ The guardsmen seemed on the point of turning Sid away. Amelie snorted and stamped her foot, but the guardsmen seemed disinclined to listen. She drew breath and neighed as loudly as she could manage.

  ‘What the hell?’ Someone said peevishly from the tent behind them.

  Amelie immediately pushed the guard aside and stared intently at Lord Dirk sitting inside with a brandy and staring back at her.

  ‘You better have a good explanation for this, boy,’ Prince Casper warned, watching events.

  ‘Sir, this is the wizard’s horse. I think she’s trying to warn us there’s danger in the forest; perhaps even an ambush,’ Sid rattled off.

  ‘Fetch the damn wizard,’ Prince Casper growled to the guard. Most nearby tent doorways now had heads in them. He gestured, turned and strode back into his tent, the guards bringing the lad after him. In very short order his other troop commanders had arrived, woken by the horse’s clarion call. Jim was pushed into the tent and they turned to him.

  ‘Your horse is behaving extremely strangely,’ Prince Casper accused.

  Jim noticed the stable lad’s red face and Amelie’s agitated stance. ‘What happened?’ he asked the lad and struggled to make any sense of what he was saying. He turned to Amelie, who’d pushed her way partway through the tent doorway. She couldn’t speak so it was up to him to interpret.

  ‘There’s danger in the forest?’ He asked her directly and she nodded her head, making the officers mutter. ‘Man or animal?’ She flattened her ears and he rephrased so she could indicate Man. He glanced around at the commanders. ‘Perhaps you have specific questions?’ It was Lord Dirk who immediately spoke up; surprisingly he seemed to readily accept this strange development.

  Lord Dirk swiftly determined that men were approaching the picket lines. Doubtless an attack was being planned to catch the maximum number of their force sleeping. But as yet he had no idea whether the enemy were simply a scouting party or were in fact a larger divided force planning to attack from several sides.

  ‘Dirk, you seem to understand that weird beast. Go and check it out. Quietly,’ Prince Casper ordered and returned to his brandy.

  Lord Dirk strode from the tent, pulling Jim and the other commanders with him. He swiftly but quietly filled them in, warning the maximum number of men to spread the alert. He ruefully knew they’d become complacent recently, having conquered these lands without serious resistance to date. They hadn’t been keeping that close an eye on the possibility of Prince Casper’s enemies regrouping and possibly even retaliating.

  ‘I’m going to check out around the picket line. Carter can you get some scouts to check the other sides of the camp? Wizard, I need to borrow your horse,’ Lord Dirk said with a slight apology that he had already vaulted aboard and was leaving the wizard no choice.

  ‘Word of warning,’ Jim said swiftly. ‘Remember to be nice to her, or she’ll make sure you regret it.’

  Lord Dirk laughed because it was expected, but knew the wizard was being serious. He already had plenty of evidence that this was no ordinary horse, but he wasn’t certain she was animus. Some wizards had the ability to tinker with animals and they’d been known to train their mounts in unexpected ways. With Prince Casper so unreasonably set against animus people it was wiser to keep his suspicions to himself. Lord Dirk however found them useful and had several in his employ. He urged her swiftly to his own section of the camp and his personal troops. While his men quietly spread the word and armed themselves, he rapidly dressed properly in his quilted jacket topped with chain mail. He left the tent to find the black horse had been saddled and bridled ready for him. He didn’t miss the fact the horse mouthed and grated her teeth at the bit. He recalled the wizard hadn’t used one at all. He shrugged and made to mount anyway. She snapped her teeth, her ears flat to her head in anger, particularly at the man hanging on to the reins and therefore applying pressure to the bit.

  ‘Take the bit off the bridle,’ Lord Dirk ordered the man and ignored his protests that she was too wild. ‘She doesn’t like it and if you stop yanking on the bit she’ll settle down.’ The man slapped her on the nose instead and found himself abruptly sailing through the air on the end of a hoof.

  Lord Dirk snorted in disgust and eyed her. Her ears were pricked at him, waiting to see what he would do. An ear flicked back and her haunches shifted warningly at the man she’d deposited on the ground, dissuading him from approaching. Lord Dirk went up to her swiftly and calmly unbuckled the bit, reattaching the reins to a tightened noseband instead.

  ‘So, little lady, show me where these baddies are.’ Lord Dirk said in her ear, slightly facetiously. He mounted and she immediately moved off, wending her way through the camp to the Southern perimeter. There she paused, her head up, her nostrils flared and her ears pricked. Surprisingly, she turned aside from where she’d been looking and was soon cantering along the perimeter as though she was simply doing a circuit. He was aware that people were watching their progress curiously. He wondered if he was right to leave their progress to a horse. Abruptly he realised she had not turned to continue the circuit but was heading straight for a large log that served to block a trail into the forest. He just had time to grab hold before she leaped it into the forest. The path they took was mainly clear of low branches, but he had to keep close attention to avoid being swept off. When they came across a side trail she paused and scanned the earth long enough for him to dismount and see for himself that there were fresh footprints. He mounted with renewed impetus and let her superior night vision follow the tracks that were circling towards their camp.

  Eventually, she slowed and then stopped. He dismounted and crept forward through the undergrowth. There, hidden in the dark was about a battalion of darkly dressed well armed men, watching the fire-lit camp visible through the trees. Looking back at the camp he knew there was far more activity than would be normal at this hour. That obvious alertness had probably stopped this party from trying what no longer seemed to be a surprise attack. From their numbers and equipment he doubted they were here just gathering reconnaissance. Either way it wasn’t good that they had so nearly been caught napping. He crept back to the horse and let her take them back the way they’d come.

  The captains and commanders had much information to chew over on Lord Dirk’s return combined with the reports from the other scouts. Jim sat at the edge of the discussions listening. He was aware Lord Dirk had eyed him before making his report. That report had not mentioned the depth of Amelie’s involvement or help. Lord Dirk allowed the assemblage to believe it was down to his personal scouting skill that he’d found a large contingent of the enemy in the forest. The other scouts had located another battalion on the other side too.

  As soon as the meeting started breaking up Jim slipped out to the horse lines. Amelie however was not alone. Sid the groom was sponging her down, while another groom was on her other side. They worked swiftly but very thoroughly, following the sponging with a dry off cloth. It all seemed a little unnecessary but Jim suspected they’d been instructed to take their time, giving them an excuse to linger and thus keep watch. Certainly Amelie was keeping her eyes open, although she stood quietly and was circumspect about it. A couple of well armed soldiers arrived, sauntering as though on a normal perimeter sweep but they were very much on the lookout. The two grooms visibly breathed more easily at this trained and armed backup. Jim decided there was little he could do or say, so he returned to his tent to spend what remained of the night in sleep.

  5

  The Battle

  Battle arrived the following dawn. Scouts announced the enemy was gathering in the next valley. Their backup support wagons and personnel were digging in behind them. Officers and Sergeants shouted orders and Jim watched the camp burst into action. Squires helped the few knights into their
armour whilst ordinary soldiers hastily buckled on whatever served as protection, whether they were fortunate enough to have chain mail or had to make do with boiled leather jerkins.

  Travel ration type food was swiftly prepared and wrapped; everyone seemed to have a job and was leaping to it. Jim quietly collected his pack together. Perhaps the opportunity to slip away would present itself.

  Amelie, along with all the other horses in the string had been saddled, Jim was happy to note. He picked up a brush and began grooming her since he was being watched. However it rather looked as though his idea of disappearing on the eve of battle with Amelie had been anticipated. A pair of burly and heavily armed soldiers appeared. One took Amelie’s reins and unhitched another couple of horses as well.

  ‘You’re to come with us,’ he announced to Jim and with his colleague standing ready to enforce the order should the wizard prove unwilling, led the way.

  Jim shared a very brief glance with Amelie and mounted swiftly; at least on her back they could make the most of whatever opportunity presented itself. The soldiers frowned but Jim quietly allowed himself to be led. He soon realized they were not heading back to the central command area but to one of the side encampments within the sprawling army.

  Lord Dirk strode from a faded blue and white striped tent. A blue pennon fluttered at the central mast with a black prancing horse emblem. He wore brightly polished but slightly dented armour and a blue cloak with the black horse insignia on the back. His helmet had an extravagant blue horsehair plume too. Jim noticed the men under Lord Dirk’s command also wore something blue. He was clearly a noble of some standing and had seen action.

  ‘Going somewhere were you?’ Lord Dirk asked with a small knowing grin.

  ‘This isn’t my fight,’ Jim answered coolly. ‘And as you know, I have no armour or weapons to defend myself.’

  Lord Dirk assessed the readiness of his men with a swift glance, barked a few more orders and then with a sharp glance ordered Jim into the tent.

  ‘Perhaps your lack is because you don’t need them,’ Lord Dirk suggested. ‘For someone with the title of Wizard you give a remarkably good impression of being ordinary and helpless. You must see that something in your story doesn’t ring true.’

  Jim shrugged, ‘I only ever claimed to be a Journeyman Wizard, not a full rank Wizard. I have many years of training ahead of me yet before I earn the skills and rank of a full Wizard. However I am sensitive to those with some magic. My job has been to identify children with magical ability so they can join our guild. I can even detect a latent ability like your own,’ Jim added. Lord Dirk was momentarily distracted, and then shrugged that unexpected barb off, but Jim could see he would seek the truth and answers before he could actually dismiss it.

  ‘Time is pressing,’ Lord Dirk said. ‘What help can you give us? Your horse at least has some useful skills and doesn’t appear to need your guidance in using them. So I repeat, give me a reason to consider you anything other than a nuisance I can do without.’

  ‘I can gather information for you, but I’ll need special help to do so.’ Jim said swiftly, bowing to the inevitable.

  ‘What do you mean exactly?’

  ‘Well, you may have some people here with magical ability. I can draw on them, assuming we can find anyone with sufficient strength in their ability to be worth using. I can use them to see what the enemy are doing. That would be helpful I imagine?’

  ‘Well, yes of course, but what would you need?’ Lord Dirk was rather uncertain in the face of this strange proposal.

  ‘Just let me see your people, men and women, including non combatants and I’ll see if I can find anyone I can use. I’ll need a silver or shiny metal bowl filled with water too,’ Jim instructed. He didn’t realise his tone and manner was suddenly more authoritative and crisply decisive. He followed Lord Dirk out and suggested in an undertone, ‘I suggest you don’t mention what we’re looking for. They don’t need to be lined up or stop what they’re doing as long as I can get round everyone.’ So, under the guise of personally checking on the state of readiness of his own troops, the pair of them, together with a couple of bodyguards, patrolled all the areas under Lord Dirk’s command.

  Lord Dirk watched the wizard closely. Jim almost acted as though he could smell out particular people. He would bypass an entire squadron without needing to get close and instead veer arrow straight for a particular person. Jim selected 3 people and Lord Dirk ordered them to his tent. On looking at their profiles he became aware of a pattern; even though they ranged from decorated warrior to stable hand to camp whore, all were considered to have, in some way, luck on their side. Space was cleared in the tent and the silver basin was arranged on a small table, filled with water and then the three people were urged to sit in specific positions around it, with Jim and Lord Dirk also in the circle.

  ‘Should I move up or is there someone else to come?’ Lord Dirk asked noticing a gap in the circle. Jim moved to make the space less obvious, as though it was irrelevant. Lord Dirk didn’t need to know Jim was used to a teacher coming in to take over leading a meld and he’d left a space automatically.

  ‘Sir, I need you to keep your eyes on the water. Hopefully we should be able to give you an image of what the enemy is up to at this moment.’ Jim then stared into the eyes of each person present in turn, linking these strangers’ mental signatures to his own mind. He felt his own strength augmented by each addition but it was far from the awesome strength on tap when he’d been in melds back at Beaufort’s Academy. But he made the attempt to fly regardless. It wasn’t enough. His mind groped for more strength to tap. On the mental plane each aura glowed differently, and with varying intensity. He was aware of Lord Dirk closest, he was stronger than two of the others in the group, but all were feeble embers in comparison to the almost incandescent sun just outside the tent; Amelie. He brushed her mind hopefully and with much reservation she allowed the link. He discovered that her mind was well barricaded against intrusion into her memories and true core, which was surprising to find in an animus. The strength of her ability was far greater than he’d thought possible in an animus too. He immediately withdrew his impolite curiosity to get back to the matter in hand, shielding her presence from the others as he did so. He linked with Lord Dirk and suddenly they were flying like a bird, straight and true over the landscape, headed for the enemy. Jim took care of the meld and allowed Lord Dirk to direct the course of their flight where he would. Soon, details of the enemy’s numbers and tactical arrangements revealed themselves. Jim felt Lord Dirk over-ridden at one point by the meld to arrow in on a point in the forest. Lord Dirk’s protest died as he saw what had been spotted, a large contingent of men setting up an ambush on the flank. Jim drew them back swiftly to the tent and their bodies.

  They were all reeling from the experience and the unexpectedly severe physical sap on their strength. But it had been worth it.

  ‘Well done everyone,’ Jim said as they blinked back to themselves. ‘I suggest you all eat something right away, it’ll help restore your energy levels.’ He watched Lord Dirk rush off to advise Prince Casper so he turned his attention to Amelie. She stood looking at him through the open tent flap, her head down wearily.

  ‘She looks like I feel,’ the young stable lad commented by Jim’s side. He glanced at the others. ‘I didn’t think it was going to work at first, not until that powerful female presence joined us.’

  Jim eyed him; the lad had his eyes on Amelie. He’d been the strongest talent. ‘What’s your name?’

  ‘Corey, Mr Wizard Sir.’

  ‘Call me Jim, Corey, and well done by the way. You’ve got quite a strong talent you know. Now, why don’t you get us all something to eat? I’ve no doubt we’ll have to do this again and we need to be ready.’

  ‘I’m glad you’re a strong talent.’ Jim whispered going to Amelie’s side and watching Corey hurry off. ‘I guessed you probably were, to be able to accomplish the flawless transformations you’ve done. With the fe
eble strength talent these others were able to provide, we nearly didn’t manage the aerial search. We’ll have to watch for Corey, he may be perceptive enough to guess not only that you’re the strength behind the merge, but also that you’re not a horse at all. This could be dangerous. I don’t know how they view someone like you in this part of the world.’

  Amelie snorted softly then turned her attention to eagerly cropping the grass in her immediate vicinity. Grass was not particularly fulfilling as a fuel for her metabolism but her body needed something now and this was an immediate food source. Jim moved back inside the tent doorway and into the shadows from where he could keep watch without it being too obvious. He cursed that there were too many guards on duty in the immediate vicinity to slip away. As expected, Lord Dirk returned quickly with Prince Casper and several of the other nobles in tow.

  ‘Again, Wizard; show us their new positions,’ Lord Dirk commanded.

  ‘Very well,’ Jim said quietly. ‘Position yourselves so you can see the water in the bowl and watch.’ He gathered his assistants. Feeble though they’d proved themselves, they did at least help spread the load and help him disguise the true source of his strength; Amelie. The meld was easier this time because they all now knew what to expect, but equally, the first meld had taken much of the strength from their already weak talents.

  On their return trip back to themselves, someone changed how the people and creatures they overflew appeared. Amelie had overridden the first meld, her animus eyesight particularly sharp. Only she had the magical strength to make this new alteration. Each human registered a pale yellow aura that strangely seemed to vary in colour intensity. Jim decided this, although helpful in picking people out of camouflaging vegetation, might be dangerous. Once they were back over their troops he speeded up the ride back so it blurred a little and left little time for looking at detail. Those in the tent would have had only a fleeting view that they themselves had stronger colouration, with Jim being darker by far, verging on a deep orange. What he was really trying to blur from the others was the fact that there were six strongly coloured shapes here not five. Amelie was certainly not the same colour as the other horses beside her. She wasn't yellow like ordinary people either but verged on a deep orangey red. But more worrying still was the glimpse of someone else with a similar, but not as dense, colouration near the enemy ambush position in the forest.