Master Mage

by D. W. Jackson

  It was clear to see the disgust that Sae-Thae had for the cherubim without him putting them to words. It was understandable given that light and dark were too separate entities, but Thad had not expected such vehemence among the magical races.

  “Even their god loves to search out anything hidden,” Sae-Thae continued. “His favorite blessing is to allow its bearer to detect any untruth that might fall on his ears.”

  “That might be useful,” Thad replied without thinking.

  Sae-Thae gave Thad a harsh look. “There are many kinds of lies, my friend. Some lies are done purely out of the designs for evil, and some are given out of necessity. A number of mages have gone mad thanks to the god of light’s blessings. Some things are not meant to be known.”

  “Still, I believe many merchants would give their arms for such a gift,” Thad replied, not agreeing with his friend. How many times in his life would things have gone much better if only he knew that the people around him were being truthful? Then again, he could also see the mage’s point. He himself had things he wished to be left unknown and would not enjoy people prodding into his own secrets.

  Thad was not very strong with light magic. He could use it to some effect, but his strongest was that of earth and energy. “What is the attribute of those born of energy?” Thad asked, his curiosity aroused.

  “I thought that would be clear to you,” Sae-Thae said with a thin smile. “If I was asked by many, I would say stupidity. Energy is the most powerful of the magics. Anyone who has handled them knows that all too well, but it is also the most difficult to harness. Energy loves to jump around, moving from one thing to another. Whatever attracts it at the time is all that is within its focus. I have heard of an Alienear that spent its whole life looking for where the sun went when it set. I have also heard of one who spent but a breath’s moment on the birth of his only child. They do not think of much beyond what attracts them. That is why they mostly stayed within the plains.”

  “I think ‘stupid’ might be a little harsh,” Thad replied defensively. “I do not jump around from one thing to another.”

  “I forgot that you think everything you do out thoroughly before you rush into action,” Sae-Thae replied, his voice heavy with sarcasm. “Then again, ‘stupid’ might be a bit too straightforward a term. ‘Lacking forethought’ would be better in your situation.”

  “I don’t—” Thad started to say, but he was quickly cut off by his staff.

  Disagree all you would like, but there is much truth in his words. How many times have you been told to think ahead? To plan. And while you do on occasion, in the end, you act purely out of instinct, and more often than not, it turns foul for you in the end. Everyone else knows that you lack forethought when things get heated. No reason to look foolish in denying it.

  “I guess there are times that I do not fully think through my actions,” Thad replied reluctantly.

  “I doubt it is only sometimes, but it is better than all the time,” Sae-Thae replied with a dark laugh.

  Thad’s days were often spent with Sae-Thae as many of his other close friends had stayed back in the capital with the exception of Reeve. Crusher had wanted to come, but with the current state of his leg, it was impossible for him to keep up even with the slow pace of the army. Arianna had taken a stray hit during the last battle and had damaged one of her wings, and Avalanche was staying near the little Nadari’s side, refusing to let anyone unknown to her near the little sprite. Thad tried to think of any other friends, but everyone he had known besides Maria had taken their place upon the funeral pyre during the bloody war.

  Thad tried not to think about the losses, but when they passed what was left of Digger’s Fort, it was hard to hide the truth from himself any longer. Even though it had only been a short time since they had occupied the fort, it now looked like it was the remains of some long-lost civilization. The walls and buildings had been put to the torch, leaving only a blackened husk of what had once been the location of the first battles of the war.

  As they passed the fort and moved into the open plains that ran between the two countries, where the low hills turned into mountains, signifying the natural border between Rane and Farlan, a small band of soldiers moved out from the cover of the woods to the north. It was less than a hundred men and gave the Vathari little pause.

  “What is that?” Sae-Thae asked Thad as a white flag was raised high into the air where the small band of soldiers stood.

  “It is a banner used to signify a truce or surrender,” Thad replied.

  “Why would they surrender?” Sae-Thae asked, sounding amused. “If they fight, they at least have a chance to take a few men with them to their graves.”

  “Wait, let me talk to them,” Thad said quickly before Sae-Thae could order them men slaughtered. The Vathari didn’t take prisoners. If they were once enemies, they believed that they would be enemies again. Thad didn’t stay the mage’s hand out of kindness, though. He knew that, in the end, the men were dead, and nothing he could do would stop that. “I need to know why they have stayed back and how far ahead the main army is.”

  “I see no problem in letting the men live for a few moments longer,” Sae-Thae replied.

  “I have a few questions for them myself,” Killian added with a grim smile.

  As Thad and Killian approached the soldiers, the rest of the army stayed only a dozen yards behind him. He had asked his friend to keep them back, but it seemed that the mage had misunderstood his request, or he had simply chosen to misunderstand. It was hard to tell what a Vathari was really thinking.

  “You are entering the sovereign land of Rane,” one of the soldiers said shakily. “You must turn back, or else you are declaring war upon our kingdom.”

  “Really?” Thad said, biting back a laugh. “I thought we were already at war with Rane. Did I miss something, or didn’t you and many of the other armies of the west just get pushed out of Farlan?”

  “We requested that the queen of Farlan turn over a band of murders that assaulted our capital. When she refused, we had no recourse but to seek the man out. Had your queen simply handed over the felons, then no Farlan blood would have been spilled.”

  “How far is it to the rest of your army?” Killian asked, ignoring the man’s words. “We would dearly like to catch them before they can reach fortification.”

  “I cannot give you that information, sir,” the soldier replied as heavy beads of sweat started to pour down his face. “That would be treason,” he added in way of explanation.

  “So it would be,” Killian replied before his sword leaped into his hand and cleaved the man’s head from his shoulders. “How far behind the rest of your army are we?” Killian asked, turning to the next soldier.

  “The main army passed through about two days back, sir,” the soldier said fearfully.

  Bending down, Killian wiped his blade dry on the dead man’s cloak. “Thank you for the information.”

  As soon as his sword was back in its sheath, Killian lightly took Thad by the arm and escorted him back to Sae-Thae. Thad saw the Vathari soldiers rush past and heard the cries of alarm from the Rane soldiers as they were cut down but pushed them from his mind. It was senseless slaughter and something he didn’t agree with.

  As the sun rose and they began their preparations for camp, Thad could hear the soldiers joke about the battle earlier and how the humans had tossed aside their weapons, begging to be spared. Thad had always seen the Vathari as different, but he had never known them to be so cold and callous. They were a warrior race, born and bred for battle. As he closed his eyes to sleep, Thad thanked the Vathari god that he had ordered them to never take up arms against humans en masse.

  No matter how he tried, the screams of the dying men haunted Thad. After more than an hour lying abed, he gave up the attempt at sleep and left his tent in search of something to ease his mind. Though nearly all of the Vathari were fast asleep, Thad found Killian and many of the Katanga still awake.

  “Ma
ster Thaddeus, it is good to see you are still doing well,” Killian said as Thad approached where he and three other warmasters sat. “I had figured after the events of the day, you would have fallen fast asleep.”

  “I tried, but I still find myself bothered,” Thad admitted.

  Killian gave Thad a wry smile that told him that the warmaster understood. “When you have fought with as many different armies as I have, you tend to see a lot of things. Over time, my ability to push those things away has gotten better, but that does not mean I do not find myself bothered by them late at night. When the fighting is over, my dreams are haunted by more than a few faces from my past. It is the curse of being a soldier. These Vathari do not seem to be plagued by the same remorse, though. Honestly, I would love to have a number of them to teach our younger soldiers. They are the perfect soldier, and I don’t mean with the way they handle a sword but how they can act on and off the battlefield.”

  “They murdered those soldiers. I knew it was going to happen, but I just … ,” Thad tried to explain, his hands shaking slightly. “I have killed unarmed men before, but it had been different,” Thad struggled to explain, his words sounding hollow even to his own ears.

  “Master Thaddeus, I would suggest you push it from your thoughts, though I know that will be near impossible. Just try to keep it in perspective. We are at war, and during war, keeping prisoners takes men and food, and most importantly, it takes time, and that is something we don’t have. Just be glad that it was not women and children that we faced today,” one of the older warmasters said.

  “Women and children. Why in the abyss would anyone have the need to kill women and children?” Thad asked, his voice turning to horror at the thought of such an act.

  “Many things happen during war,” Killian said, his face turning dark. “We all have our regrets. It would be best if you didn’t probe too deeply into the hearts of some men. You may not like what you find.”

  Thad was instantly reminded of Sae-Thae and his hate of the cherubim. At the time, he had been skeptical about the Vathari’s hate of the race, but now he was beginning to understand how a person could go mad at knowing everything that people kept hidden. There were indeed some things that were better left in the dark.

  “What do you think we will find once we reach the capital?” Killian asked, quickly changing the subject.

  “More soldiers, though I doubt that Rane has many more to call on. They exhausted their armies over the past years, taking control of Farlan. When they were forced to retreat to protect their own borders, they lost even ore. In this last war, they were even forced to call on aid from anyone who would heed them. I think the war will be over much too fast for the Vathari, but scarcely fast enough for my own desires.” Thad’s words were pointed and to the fact, and the nodding heads let him know that the warmasters seemed to agree with his assessment.

  It was long past midday before Thad finally found his rest. It was hard to sleep under the hot sun, and beads of sweat readily poured down his body, drying so fast that they left small white patches in his clothes from the salt. Though sticky and uncomfortable, Thad found it much easier to sleep than he had earlier when his consciousness had still been raw from what had transpired earlier that night.

  As he slept, Thad found himself being pulled into the murky darkness and knew that Maria was calling him. At first, he had found the dream visits interesting, but now they were becoming tedious and sometimes aggravating. Maria took little care for whether he wished to be called upon or not. During the day, when he was at the palace, he could deny a request for a visit, and she normally acceded to his request, but there was no such option during his dreams. He didn’t believe the queen did it out of spite or hatefulness. He believed that she didn’t give it much thought. She wanted to see him, and she was used to getting what she wanted without fear of reprisal.

  As the darkness cleared, Thad found himself in his own chambers with the queen sitting idly on the corner of his bed, wearing a thin dark blue gown laced in an even darker green. “I was not in the mood for a visit,” Thad said angrily.

  Maria looked shocked at the open reprisal but quickly calmed herself. “It is hard to know when you are and are not in the mood for a visit. If you wish, I can let you go back to whatever dream you were finding more interesting,” she said, the hurt evident in her voice.

  “No, you have called, and I am already here,” Thad replied apologetically. “It has just been a hard day … things … have come about that left a bad taste in my mouth.”

  “Nothing too stressing, I hope,” Maria said, coming to his side and laying a comforting hand on his arm. “You could always return to the palace. I am sure that the soldiers can win the war without your presence,” Maria added hopefully.

  “With the force they control, I am sure they could win without half the number present, but it was my decision, so I need to see it through to the end. You don’t have to worry. I am scarcely in any danger,” Thad said, hoping to quell the line of thought. Maria had persistently tried to keep him from leaving the place, even going so far as to break down into tears. Thad had almost been swayed, but he had stood strong in his convictions. As soon as she learned crying wouldn’t work, her tears quickly dried up, leaving Thad feeling as if he had been tricked. He had been told women could be more dangerous than any armed soldier, but it was only during those times that he had started to see the truth in those words. “You can lose your life to a sword, but only a woman can take your soul.” Thad muttered one of Killian’s sayings under his breath.

  “What was that?” Maria said, giving him a scathing glare.

  “Nothing, just thinking about how nice you look tonight,” Thad replied hastily. He had acted the fool more times than he could count, but he had not lost his senses enough to let her know what was really going through his mind.

  CHAPTER XXV

  After the small skirmish at the border, they had been able to travel within the borders of Rane completely unmolested. Thad was happy about the scarcity of battles, but his Vathari friends were not. As each day passed, Thad could see their restlessness building, and Thad hoped for everyone’s sake that at least some form of token resistance would soon show; otherwise, there was no telling what might transpire. Sae-Thae had told him that more than one Vathari settlement had come a long way for the expected war, and it was all too possible that a small war could be brewing between any two of them now.

  Their fifth day traveling through Rane, they came across a good-sized town. It was deep into the night when they passed by the town, and though Thad didn’t expect much movement within the streets, he had expected to see some life showing within. But there was none; not even a single lantern-lit window adorned the ghost town.

  As the sun began to break, they settled down for their rest. Tad still found it hard to march in the dark and even harder to adjust his sleeping patterns, though it was not as if they had been set in stone to begin with. In the past few months, he had taken what sleep had been afforded him, but he could still scarcely remember a time he had slept at the onset of the day.

  A loud noise roused Thad from sleep. Stumbling out of his tent with sword in hand, Thad looked around for the cause of the commotion. Half asleep, Thad almost didn’t notice the sword that darted to his chest. As the sword skipped off his stone chest, Thad spun around and buried his blade deep into his attacker. Kicking the body off, Thad turned to see a Vathari warrior smiling at him.

  “I apologize about that, master mage. We had not intended to include you in the fun,” the Vathari said, laughing.

  Thad nodded to the warrior and pushed passed, looking for Sae-Thae. He found the mage sitting back high on a hill, watching the battle below. “What in the abyss is going on down there?” Thad asked, his head still fuzzy from the abrupt end to his sleep.

  “Thaddeus, we had not planned to wake you,” Sae-Thae replied, smiling. “A small band of warriors have been tailing us for some time, and today, they have finally attacked.”

/>   “Why didn’t you tell me?” Thad asked, confused.

  “I didn’t want to bother you. The men have been on edge waiting for them to attack. They were hungry, but it seems they are playing with their food. The battle should have been over shortly after it started. I hope you do not hold it against them too badly.”

  Turning around, Thad looked back to the battlefield, where he could see a small portion of the Vathari warriors engaging with the attackers below. Just as Sae-Thae had said, the Vathari were playing with the attackers. One Vathari would fight for a time, then switch with another until the attacker had no strength left; then the fight ended.

  Thad could see hundreds of bodies littering the ground, and though only a handful belonged to his men, it still pained him. Rane was no longer the invaders they were, and from the looks of the fighters below, the small army had been made up of mostly farmers. Thad had no qualms about killing trained soldiers, but men just trying to protect their homeland were something different.

  Trying to shake the heavy feeling that hung over him, Thad returned to his tent. No matter what others said, the deaths of those men were on his hands, even if he had not been the one to hold the blade that ended their lives. For the first time, he wished that he had heeded the queen’s demands and let Sae-Thae and Killian lead the invasion. How many years of sleep will he lose to the faces that he saw tonight. Killian had called it the curse of a soldier, but he was starting to think it was the curse of a tyrant.

  Would you stop whining? Yes, men are going to die. Do you think that every person who fell into the trap you laid back in the Rane capital when you made your escape was a soldier? You destroyed a large portion of the town, and I would bet a large number of innocents were among the dead. People die in war, some from the blade and some from starvation in the aftermath. If you want to lament every one of their deaths, you will drive yourself insane.

  Thad’s heart dropped. He had never given much thought to his escape from the Rane prison. At the time, he had been so fuelled by rage that he didn’t give it much thought as he placed his enchanted orbs around the city. Thuraman was right—he had collapsed the very streets of the city on that day. More than just soldiers were walking among them when they fell. “What did I do?” Thad whispered to himself.