Master Mage

by D. W. Jackson

  “You could have stepped in a littler earlier,” Killian said, sitting beside Thad on a small grassy hill overlooking the camp. “I was about to challenge your general to a duel.”

  “Blood days ahead,” Thad stated as he looked at the soldiers below him milling about. “How many of them do you think will live to see their homes and families again?”

  “Guilt, is it?” Killian asked, a hint of understanding in his voice. “Any man who must lead others onto the battlefield knows just what you are feeling. It is the curse we all must live with. I wish I could tell you that it would get better with time, but most often, that is not the case. I have known soldiers who, on their deathbed, decades after a war, lament about a battle that had left a bad taste in their mouth. We all must find our own way to deal with our guilt. That is one thing that neither I nor anyone else I know can help you with.”

  “Will the rest of your clan arrive before we meet with the Rane army?” Thad asked, trying to get his mind off his worries.

  “I have dispatched a rider to have them change direction so they can fight with us. I hope their warmasters will heed my request.”

  “I thought you were the warmaster?” Thad asked in confusion.

  Killian laughed and shook his head. “Most clans of the Katanga are less than a thousand strong. When we fought for Eloen, four different clans had gathered. During the course of the war, the other three warmasters fell, and in the end, their men stayed with me, though if time had passed, new warmasters would have been chosen. My guess was that at least five different clans are riding to aid us, though once here, we will decide who the grand warmaster is for the war. It is never good to have too many people trying to make decisions for the whole,” Killian explained. “For example, the large group you have gathered. Thankfully, most of them will heed to your orders, but if push comes to shove, they might disregard you and decide to pull their armies back.”

  “Let us hope it doesn’t come to that,” Thad said, looking back to the tent, where he could still hear the raised voices of the gathered generals.

  Thankfully, by sunrise the next day, the army was ready to march. They had never really set a permanent camp since Digger’s Fort as they always had to be ready to fall back at a moment’s notice.

  In the end, they had chosen a thousand soldiers to stay back and face the army of five thousand that the Rane soldiers had left behind to hold them. They had been ordered to dig in and hold their position until they were overrun or until they received new orders. Thad felt bad as he rode away from the camp, knowing that most the men left behind would not survive, but then again, the people riding with him didn’t have the best of chances either. The war was turning into nothing more than a series of funeral pyres.

  You should really stop moaning over each death. Will you go from home to home yourself, telling their families of their death? Even if you did, would they care? Most of the men were slaves to one noble family or another with little, if anything, to their name. You need to stop worrying about the dead and start worrying about those who still live, namely yourself.

  Thad ignored his staff’s words. No matter how true they rang, he still felt responsible for the war and the deaths that it had caused. Once everything was over, he would make sure that no one ever forgot what the men and other races had died and fought for. The dwarves, elves, humans, and maybe even the Katanga too fought for the same thing, the freedom to live.

  The Rane army had left early the day before, but they were moving slowly, and the Farlan army was already positioned ahead of them. Knowing it wasn’t a race to the capital, Thad was able to dismiss some of his fears, but many of them lingered in his mind.

  He knew that once they reached their destination, they would no longer be able to fall back easily. Every inch of ground they gave was that much closer the Rane army would come to winning the war. The mages and other magical races could continue to run and hide as they had for centuries, but it was not the same. Farlan was the first place where they had been welcomed openly, and Thad was not about to lose that or the home he had fought so hard for.

  That night, as they made camp, Thad could tell that tension was high among the soldiers. There was no mischief or drinking, and they all talked in hushed whispers as if afraid that if they spoke their fears too loudly, they would come true. It was an odd feeling seeing everyone so quiet. It reminded him of the night before Digger’s Fort fell.

  Thad found Jayden among the other troops that had come to serve under his direct command. They were a rough group and made up of the soldiers that didn’t seem to fit in with the other units. Dwarves, elves, and humans all worked together in his small force, just over four hundred strong.

  Now that the army was no longer breaking apart daily, even Tuck had joined his ranks. Reeve had offered to let the young elf continue working with him, but Tuck had been adamant about fighting alongside him. Thad was happy to have the elf counted as one of his men, but he hoped that it wouldn’t set back his training too much. Tuck had shown great skill for the assassination arts from what Reeve had told him.

  Avalanche and Arianna sat by the fire, surrounded by a large number of soldiers who had taken the duo up as the unofficial mascots of the unit. One of the men had even taken the time to sew a makeshift flag with the two presented on it. Thad never understood why the different units had a man carry a banner, but it seemed to boost the men’s morale, so he had left it alone.

  “Missing your wife?” Thad asked Jayden as he took a seat beside the burly man.

  “Yes, though I feel better knowing that she is out of harm’s way. I always slightly feared that the lines would break and that she and the child would be killed,” Jayden replied, sighing lightly.

  “I know that we may need the aid of some of the healers we sent away, but there is just too much danger in the coming battles. It is completely possible that our entire force will fall during the first battle.”

  “Don’t let the other men hear you saying that,” Jayden said quietly. “Most of them have agreed to fight next to you because you tend to bring most of them back alive. If they think you have lost hope, then their morale will fall faster than a boulder.”

  “I will keep that in mind,” Thad replied. “Don’t stay up too late. We have another full day of marching ahead of us if we are to stay ahead of Rane,” Thad said, getting up and retiring to his own bedroll.

  As he slept, Thad felt the darkness begin to pull him down once again. He tried to fight against it, having no desire to talk with the queen given his present mood, but it was a wasted effort. As the darkness cleared, Thad found himself in his own chambers. Thad looked around and found that everything was still in the places he had left them. It felt odd as he surveyed the room. It was as if the past weeks of battle had been nothing but a dream. Thad found Maria sitting comfortably on his bed, her face torn between curiosity and anger.

  “I have not heard a scrap of news from you or any of my generals in quite some time,” Maria accused.

  “Things have changed and not for the better,” Thad replied hesitantly. “Rane has split their forces, and they are en route to the capital. We have moved ahead of them, but it seems the time for playing has come to an end.”

  “Then it seems like it is time for you to come back to the palace,” Maria said, jumping to her feet. “There is no reason that you must be present on the battlefield. Should the army fail, we will need you here to help protect the city.”

  “As much as I would like at least one more night in the comfort of my own bed, I don’t think that would be wise,” Thad replied, giving the queen a sad smile. “Many of the soldiers and other leaders are looking to me, and sometimes it is only my word that will make them agree on a single course. If I were to abandon the army now, there is no telling how long they would hold together as a united force.”

  “Why does it have to be you?” Maria said, weeping. “You are not some hero from legend. You are not so strong that you can topple mountains with your magic nor are y
ou such a skilled swordsman that you can best a hundred men single-handedly. There are dozens of people who are better suited for leading the charge than you are. So why does it have to be you?”

  Thad felt his heart go out to Maria as she wept. “I don’t know why it has to be, just that it does. The magical races have gathered around me, and you are the one that put me in charge of the war so your generals will at least heed my words.”

  “But I didn’t think that would mean you would spend all your time in battle,” Maria said, cutting him off. “Most generals watch the battle from a distance as their men do the fighting.”

  “I cannot do that, Maria,” Thad replied, his own eyes starting to tear up as the pressure from the war was let loose. “I have watched countless men die on my orders, and it has nearly broken me. If I had to watch it from afar knowing that I might have at least saved one more with my own blade, I would have long since lost what little hold I have left on my sanity.”

  The darkness started to surround Thad once again as Maria lost control of her own powers. Unlike many times before, it was not a slow release but more as if he had been kicked out of her dream, leaving him reeling in the recesses of his own mind.

  Thad jumped up, awake, his head splitting from the hasty departure from Maria’s dream world. As he held his head, cupped in his hands, Thad reminded himself not to upset the queen next time she called upon him. He had often heard that making a woman mad was seldom worth the headache, but this was going a bit too far.

  Thad had hoped that his head would stop pounding after a few hours, but it persisted throughout the day. The sound of his horse’s hooves and the noise of the many boots slapping against the ground each rang through his mind like a dagger. To make matters worse, there wasn’t even a cloud in the sky to hold back the rays of the sun that seemed to bore directly into his brain like little arrows.

  “You don’t look so well,” Arianna said in her high-pitched voice, making Thad flinch. “You remind me of the dwarves when they drink too much. Did you drink last night? I heard that if you drink more, it will help. It’s odd that it helps if you drink more when the drink is what causes the pain. Do you want me to find one of the dwarves and see if they have anything to drink?” the little childlike fairy said, flying right next to Thad.

  “Quiet, please,” Thad pleaded. “All I need is quiet.”

  “Oh, is that all you need? I know something that can make everything quiet. We used to use it on people to make them think they had gone deaf,” Arianna said, waving her hand in Thad’s direction, then suddenly, everything went silent.

  Thad tried to say something, but his words never reached his ears. Nodding his head in thanks toward Arianna, Thad smiled slightly as a great deal of his pain seemed to disappear.

  The Farlan army marched late into the night, almost until sunrise the next morning, before making camp. Bache seemed to want to get to their destination in haste. Thad didn’t know if the man wanted more time to prepare or if he feared the Rane army had somehow overtaken them, but he was glad once they finally bedded down for the night.

  Shortly after he lay down, Arianna’s spell started to fade, and the noise around him came crashing in like waves to a shore. His head felt much better, but the breaking of the silence had come as a surprise, making the mage jump up out of his bedroll and garner more than a few uneasy stares. Laughing about his own actions, Thad returned to his covers and tried to sleep, though his ears still picked up the talk of the nearby soldiers.

  Many of the men were talking about family and what they were going to do once the war ended. Thad couldn’t help but to smile as he heard some of the more outlandish desires the men held.

  After listening to the men talking about their dreams, Thad started wondering about his own. What would he do if he survived the war and Farlan won? He had once thought about opening a school for magic like what had once stood before the Fae War. It still seemed like a good idea, and now that he had found other mages, it was a task that he might not have to take on alone.

  With the thoughts of what might lie in the future roaming through his mind, Thad drifted off into the first peaceful sleep he had since the beginning of the war.

  CHAPTER XIX

  Thad stood beside Killian as they awaited the arrival of the Katanga reinforcements. Unlike the dwarves or elves, the Katanga didn’t have a uniform. The only way to tell who they were was by the red cloth that each wore, though where they were located varied. Killian had once explained to Thad that the location of the cloth had great meaning to the Katanga.

  The mercenary army stopped a few yards away from their camp. Three older warriors separated themselves from the others and walked toward them. Thad guessed that the men must have been the prospective warmasters of their clans and had come to talk to either himself or Killian about the war.

  “Warmaster Killian, it took us far longer to gather enough men than expected. I hope our delay has not caused undue trouble for you and your patrons,” one of the men said, holding out his hand toward Killian.

  “It has been a bloody battle, Warmaster Yardol, and your swords would have greatly aided us, but battle is never without its problems. I am just glad that you and yours have come to our call,” Killian replied, taking the other man’s offered hand.

  “Do you really think that if all goes well, they will aid us in recovering our own lands?” a second warmaster asked.

  Killian gave the man who had spoken a withering glare. “That is for another time. First, we must win the war that is in front of us. None of us have any love for Rane, and it is high time we showed them what a Katanga blade can do.”

  “Right you are, my friend,” Yardol replied with a hearty grin. “Since you have been in the thick of this war, we will continue to let you represent us. That is, unless you think another might be better suited for the task.”

  “As you have said, I have been here and know the others well. I think it would be a wise choice to let me continue speaking on our behalf in this matter,” Killian said with a hint of relief echoing in his voice. “Let me present you to Master Torin, the mage who has been appointed by this land’s queen to lead the battle. He is a bit young and makes the normal mistakes of the young, but he has proven himself a quick learner and not too terribly daft to the ways of combat.”

  “So this is the mage that all the fuss was about. It had been a long time since anyone had dared to stand up against the Brotherhood. A bit foolish in its execution, but you can’t deny the boy has some guts in him,” Yardol said, offering his hand to Thad.

  “I have been in awe of the Katanga forces since I have first seen them in action. I am glad to have more of your skilled warriors with us in battle. We will need them in the coming days,” Thad said, trying not to embarrass himself.

  Thad and Killian introduced the other warmasters to the rest of the military council. It was a bit tense when the mercenaries met with the dwarves as Ironleg didn’t seem to like them much and had no trouble letting it be known. He had heard the dwarf say more than once that men who fight for money weren’t to be trusted.

  Thad could understand the dwarf’s feelings, but when they were in need of the mercenaries’ swords was not the time to voice them. Luckily for Thad, the stubborn dwarf held his tongue for the most part, though Thad was sure that was more of Crusher’s doing as his friend was never far away from the dwarven general.

  Though Thad didn’t like Ironleg, he had to admit the dwarf was a competent leader on the battlefield. In the few encounters they had since his arrival, the dwarf had been keeping the Rane army at bay, and he was sure he would continue to do so.

  While the others talked, Thad found himself staring at the map lying on the table. It had little pins showing where each battle had taken place. It was easy to see how much ground they had lost and how little was left before Rane would be right on the doorstep of the palace.

  Thad and everyone knew that the Rane army was close and that not long after the sun rose the following day, the
largest battle since the start of the war would commence. Thad and his small band would be situated on the northern eastern edge of the combined forces, where Killian suspected the enemy’s light cavalry to be. Thad’s job was simple, keep the horsemen from circling around behind them. It was simple but would not be easily accomplished.

  It didn’t take long for the meeting to conclude as Killian had already designed the battle plan with the Katanga reinforcements in mind. Everyone had a task, and if one failed, it would be almost certain the rest of them would follow. Outnumbered as they were, there was no place for mistakes. Killian had drilled that fact into everyone’s mind for the past few days, and he seemed to stress it even more as the battle drew near.

  With the war council over, Thad made his way back to his own unit’s camping position. They might have been an odd paring of individuals, but Thad had grown accustomed to their antics. As he approached the row of tents, Thad heard Jayden playing a lively tune on his flute. It had become a habit of the large man to play the flute for most of the night before a battle. He had said it calmed his nerves, and Thad had to agree. The music might have been simple, and had Jayden not been an internal magic user, Thad would have sworn the musical notes had magic intertwined with them.

  Thad took a place around the large campfire. It had been the first one they had in weeks as they didn’t want to draw attention. Now Killian insisted they let their enemy know where they were. They had attacked constantly, never giving the Rane army a night without Reeve doing his work and Killian hoping that more than a few of their soldiers would be too envious to sleep well. Having a few tired soldiers in their army would not be a huge advantage, but Killian wanted every advantage that he could get, no matter how small.

  “Gallian, sing us a song to go with Jayden’s music,” one of them hollered out. Gallian was a young man who had been sold to the Farlan army when he was just a kid, much the same way Thad had been. More than once, Thad had heard the man sing and thought that he would be much more useful in one of the traveling performing groups than in the army.