"Yes Sir, I'll send them straight away with escorts." I nodded.
I went underground to the Hinterland's cattle herd. I reached up through the ground and touched two cattle they calmed. I took them under; they didn't move or make a sound. I delivered them to the cooks.
"How many to feed everyone fresh beef?" He looked at the cattle.
"One more will do, two would be better." I brought him two more.
I took advantage of the situation and expand my herd. I took two young bulls and thirty cows to my lands where my horses were. I'd let them build a herd there. I'd add more cows later.
The Sergeant Major found me later, "you were right, sir. Supplies are short prices are high."
"Give me a list of things we are short on." He smiled and handed me a list.
I chuckled, taking the list. "I'll see what I can do." I read the list. It was the standard list of needs. Beans, flour, salt, pork, beef, etc. I went back to the enemy's supply wagons and found what we needed. By late afternoon I had filled his list.
The three of us ate together. "I see by our meal of beef you're up to your old tricks." The Prince said.
"Those poor cows were lost and needed a home. The one you need to question is the cook. Those cows were fine when I left them." We smiled as we enjoyed our meal.
"So we rest and fatten up for three days. With scouts out," I said.
"That's the way I see it. We'll let the Crown Prince explain his own actions."
I introduce Maddie to Mare; they took to each other right away. With that settled Maddie rode Mare, I rode Queen. We rode a little each day to pass the time. I kept the companies in beef and added another hundred to my herd.
The Hinterland army was on the move and would probably reach Vigil Castle a day before the King could, even if he marched straight through. I flew under to the enemy camp but as I approached; it became harder for me to move through the earth. If I went deeper, I could move freely but close to the surface was harder.
It was only that way around the King's area. I realized they had brought in a mage to counter my moves against the King. I could have forced my way through, but there was no need. I'd let him think he had shut me out, and maybe he had, he seemed a powerful mage. No need to challenge him now. I'd bide my time.
✽✽✽
We sat down with Prince Kade at Breakfast. "I was checking on our friends last night. They have brought in a mage of their own to counter my effects on them."
He stopped eating and looked at me. "More powerful than you?"
"At least as powerful, but I don't know, I didn't push it. I let him think he had stopped me. I'll go back and challenge him later."
"That will make things more interesting." I nodded my head and continued eating.
He thought a moment. "Can you build a stone road from here to the King to speed his arrival?"
"I can, but it won't get done fast."
"Do it, once you get to him, start heading toward Vigil Castle with it."
I nodded, "I'd better get started." I dropped into the earth and flew under to Mid-brook. I fixed in my mind what I wanted and started raising a road. I moved along making the road as I went. I was moving and making it at about the speed that a fast man could run.
I stopped a half mile short of the king and his army. I fast traveled back to Mid-Brook and started the road toward Vigil Castle. When I made it to Vigil Castle, I fast-travelled back to the overnight fort. I slept in the earth for a while to restore my strength.
I came up at dinnertime and ate. "You look tired." Maddie said.
"A little, that was a lot of road, but it's complete."
"Eat, them go rest."
I nodded, "After I've rested, I'm going back to see how strong the enemy mage is."
"Is that wise?"
"We need to know." She nodded I sank down deep into the earth and went into a sound deep sleep.
✽✽✽
When I awoke, I was rested and felt great, I was hungry though. I headed up to get something to eat, maybe Maddie or Kade would be ready to eat. I headed for the Command Wagon; the King was there as was Kade and Maddie. Not good, when I went to sleep the King was two days march from Mid-Brook. I must have slept those two days. No help for it, I'll tell them building that much at one time exhausted me. I didn't want to burst from the ground, so I started around back.
"You were supposed to control him," the King said. That stopped me.
"I had him under control until Luke showed up playing god." Maddie answered.
"I'll take care of Luke later. What I need to know is, where Ghost is now. I need him to fight this war. I only brought ten thousand men, because Ghost was going to do all the fighting for us."
"I don't know, we have not seen him for two days. The last he said was the Hinterlanders had a powerful mage with them now. He needed to see how powerful he was. Nothing since then."
The King looked at Kade, "Did he say anything to you?"
Kade was staring at them, "what have you done? Did you marry Ghost to control him? You weren't in love with him? This was all about you wasn't it Maddie?"
"We did what we had to do," the King answered. "There has not been a mage in our Kingdom for generations. We needed to tie him to us. Think of all the things he can do for us."
"Yes, it was about me, all I had waiting for me was swampland, or some Fat old man for a husband. Ghost was an opportunity to change that. With him I could make the Southern District into a Garden of Eden. Marriage for us is not for love, it's for power, wealth or alliances. You have to make the best deal you can. Well, I did. He'll do what we want him to father, I promise. Or I'll make his life a living hell."
When she said I saw the "Grandmother" that betrayed me for a small purse of money. She had said I was too trusting, I guess she was right.
"He was doing all that we asked out of friendship and mutual benefit. Why go through all this manipulation and betrayal?" Prince Kade asked.
"We could not risk losing him to someone else, or some other Kingdom. We had to secure him with a marriage." The King answered.
"You do not know what you have done. You are not dealing with some weak-minded courtier."
"I will bring him to heel." Maddie said.
"When he finds out you've betrayed his trust, you'll be lucky if he doesn't kill the bunch of you."
"He would never dare such a thing." Maddie said.
Kade laughed. "You really do not understand who you are dealing with. Let me enlighten you to some facts about Ghost. Ghost, which is his real name by the way. Was a thief in the Criminal Guild. They wanted him to kill me to get out of some trouble he was in with them over a theft or share of a theft. Before he killed me, he found out they betrayed him. They double crossed him and were going to kill him and me. Do you know what he did? He killed them. Not just the ones who masterminded the betrayal. He killed them all, everyone in that Guild House."
"When they tried to kill me, he saved me and killing all of them, the eight they sent after me, anyway. Sir Edwin offered him friendship, and a new life away from the Guilds. Ghost accepted his offer of friendship. When they attacked Sir Edwin's house, killing Sir Edwin. He killed them, all of them. Then everyone in the Assassins' Guild house, every assassin in there. I told you he had killed fifty of them, I was telling you the truth. There is no more Assassins' Guild in the capital, because he wiped them out."
"When he found out who had betrayed him, which was the Top-man in the Criminal Guild House, he killed all of them. Everyone in the Guild House. All of them. Are you seeing a pattern here? He told you he did not like to kill, but he was good at it. Well sister mine, I can guarantee he is good at it. If he wants to kill you, you are dead. And with his powers there is nothing anyone can do to stop him."
"I’ll tell you Ghost is not a fighter, though he is good at it. He is not a warrior. He is a killer. What's the difference you may wonder? A warrior or fighter will fight you straight on, kind of even odds. A killer just kills, efficiently, quickly, an
yway he can, and moves on. That is what your conniving ways have bought you. You'll be lucky if you live to be married to a fat old man."
Neither one spoke, stunned to silence. The Prince shook his head.
"Surely he will listen to reason." Maddie said.
"Reason is what you should have used before you went ahead with this farce of a marriage."
"He will lose his lands, his titles, his wealth," the King said.
"Father, he's a mage, he can make his own lands, and he does not care about tittles. Which he proved when he gave them up to be the Princess' Consort. As for wealth, do you know where he keeps his wealth? In my Vaults, for me to use as my own. He doesn't care about those things. He's a thief he can always get more."
"If Ghost is dead, I will mourn the loss of a true friend. You should rejoice that you outlived him. But then you have to worry about a twenty-five-thousand-man army to fight with fifteen thousand men. If he's not dead, and he finds out that you've betrayed him... You won't have to worry about fighting that army. That problem will fall to someone else."
Kade stood up and bowed, "Sire," and stepped out the door.
"Where are you going?"
He stopped and looked back. "To my company, Sire, we have a war to prepare for. If I lead them well enough some of us may survive." He turned and walked away.
The King and the Princess sat in silence. "What are we going to do?" she asked
"If Ghost comes back, act normal, we need him to win this war. After that, we'll try to reason with him. Make him see we did it for the betterment of the kingdom."
"And if that doesn't work?"
"Kill him before he kills us."
"What if he is already dead?"
"Then my daughter, you'd better practice your Hinterlandish for your new husband."
The King walked out of the Command Wagon.
Maddie slammed the door screaming.
Chapter twenty-three
I lay there in the earth for a while thinking, or rather not thinking. I decided I would not kill them, but I would not help them either. I went over to Maddie's armor and weapons. I removed the runes from them, returning them to their weaker state.
I found Mare and took her down into a vault. She stayed perfectly calm. I brought her armor down along with some hay. I went to Queen and found her armor and removed the runes from it. I left Queen for now. Taking her would be a giveaway I was still alive.
I flew under to Vigil Castle and retrieved my ten chests of gold. I brought them back to the vault. I took out my backpack and opened it. I had to rearrange a few things before I could stack the ten chests on the groundsheet, but I got them on it. I closed and folded the backpack up and put it back in my pouch.
If the King's army left now, it would take them two days to reach Vigil Castle. So I had at least two days to plan and take care of things before any fighting would start.
As far as I was concerned, the King, Maddie, and the Crown Prince were on their own. They made this pot of soup, let them eat it. On the other hand, Prince Kade, Duke Mathew and his family, and the Black Stag Company I cared about.
My top problem, at the moment, was their Mage. I didn't know how strong he was and where his King may have him attack. If he attacks the Castle, and if I was their King, that is what I'd have my Mage do. In which case he has to go. If he gets a chance to kill me, he'll take it. So, he's got to go.
If he was a normal person, I'd just pull him under, but he's not. I have to distract him to kill him before he kills me. Stone dogs to distract, steel through his throat, then under. Or take his head, that will be the end that. I wonder if he would talk, maybe make a deal. I wouldn't. So there's that. Ok, he's definitely got to go.
✽✽✽
I checked my armor, weapons, face guard looked in place. There could be no mistakes, a mistake could very well mean my death. I'd like to avoid that event for as long as possible.
I flew under to the rear of the enemy army and started moving toward the Mage. As soon as I began sensing a push back, I stopped. I backed away and found an empty tent and came up inside of it.
I took on the guise of one of their common soldiers. I came out of the tent and started walking toward the Mage's area. I didn't feel any resistance, but I wasn't taking anything for granted.
I sat down and leaned against a wagon wheel like many other soldiers were doing. I concentrated. I readied twenty large stone dogs. Ten to cause chaos in the area and ten to attack the Mage directly. I rose and walked toward the Mage's tent. When I was halfway to his tent, I raised the dogs and turned them loose.
When the dogs started barking and attacking people, I ran shouting like everyone else. I made it to the Mage's tent when he came out and the dogs attacked. He was holding his own lightning bolts were striking the stone dogs keeping them back. He stepped past me chanting and casting lightning bolts.
Time slowed for me, as I drew my sword, my runes glowed. My sword blade rushed to separate his head from his body. He must have sensed something and started to look back. It was too late my sword took his head off smooth at his shoulders.
I pulled the Mage's head and body under. Several lightning bolts immediately hit me, my lighting ring held them off, mostly. I struggled to stay conscious. I concentrated on the dying Mage, *teach me.*
His conscious knew he was dying. He fought me to keep me from taking his knowledge. We shrugged, but he was losing, and finally succumb to me. The power of his mind and his knowledge jolted me. It was overwhelming, and I almost blacked out.
I told the dogs to run away causing trouble then go back to earth. When my mind started clearing, I searched his body and took every artifact he had. I left his naked husk of a body there. I needed healing from the lightning bolts; even with my ring, they had burned me severely. I pulled down a few bodies the dogs had killed and used them to heal myself.
When I could, I assumed his likeness and went up just outside his pavilion. No one would even look at me. I stepped inside the pavilion. The inside was much larger than the outside. My new knowledge of magic called it a dimensional pocket. Much like my backpack, and pouch. I closed the flaps on the pavilion and once closed it was like locking a door. The only way in was to use the door, you could not come through the sides. No one would bother me, everyone had feared the Mage. I raised two large stone dogs to guard me, just in case.
I walked around examining my new home. It felt odd; I knew what everything was, even though this was my first time seeing it. The Pavilion had four rooms. A main room where the Mage would meet people was also the dining room with a table and chairs. There was an office, with a desk, chair, and all his working, and account books.
There was a bedchamber with a big bed, clothes cabinets, and dressers. The fourth room was a storage room. I had to look twice, what appeared to be a short hall or closet was a stairway. A set of stairs going down, and a set going up.
Downstairs was storage, a dungeon, and stables. The wall or curtain opened at the stable's end. The upstairs was a library, with maps and works of art on the walls. Sir Edwin would have loved this. The Mage must have spent a lot of time on the road. I remembered, strangely enough not my memories, that he was a travelling Mage. Taking on work as he travelled.
I went back downstairs and opened the wall curtain. I fast-travelled to Mare and brought her to the stable. When I put her into a stall, hay, oats, and water filled the troughs. I had to go back and get her armor. When I returned, I closed and sealed the curtain wall.
I looked around for a vault. I felt sure there had to be one, he had everything else. I found it in his, now my, bed chambers along with a privy and a bath with hot running water. Well, if you had to be on the road, you might as well be comfortable.
I went to the dining room table and sat at its head. Foods appeared on the table. Hot, freshly cooked foods. I had not realized how hungry I was until I saw the food. Judging by what I was seeing, the Mage seemed to eat good food, and drink good wine.
I knew this camp would
move in the morning. I needed to be gone by then. How to do it was the question. I then realized I needed to use the Staff of Power to pack up, or should I say close down the pavilion. Or did I really have to? Why couldn't I just sink the whole thing into the earth? Then let them leave, I'd leave when I got ready.
Nothing came to mind telling me I couldn't do it. It would either work or wouldn't. I concentrated, which I found both easier, and harder. Easier because I understood more. Harder because I was tired from absorbing the Mages knowledge, and experiences.
I went to the office the Staff of Power was behind the desk in its stand. It was a rich colored wooden staff with a silver blue stone within twisted wood at the top. It was at the same time both plain, yet beautiful. I drew it from its stand. I concentrated on what I wanted to do.
I sank the pavilion down into the earth. I was sure nobody cared and if they did, so what. I placed the Staff of Power back in its stand and went to the bedchambers. One of the stone dogs followed me. I took a hot bath and went to bed. I fell into a deep restful sleep.
✽✽✽
When I woke up, I realized I had slept eighteen hours. And since the pavilion had been in the earth, my strength was restored, and I was totally healed. I seemed to have completed the Mage's information assimilation. It was dinnertime; I had to get going. I had things to do. I reached for my clothes and stopped. they had been washed and folded. I shrugged my shoulders, "magic."
I got dressed, ate, and went to find the enemy army that had moved. I went out through the front door and sealed it behind me. I left the dogs inside on guard.
I flew under to the Hinterland Kings pavilion. I smiled; his pavilion was rather plain compared to mine. They were discussing battle plans.
"The Mage, when he returns," the King was saying, "will open the Castle's gate and freeze it open. When that happens, our center force will rush their defensive line in front of the gate. Everyone else will follow, they will break through and capture the Castle. When the middle splits, the remaining forces will turn left and right and roll-up the defensive lines."
Hand Made Mage Page 19
