Branded Mage (12 page)

As they rode past
, the farm people lined the street waving goodbye and shouting encouraging remarks. The whole thing had a very warm feeling. The kids who had met them when they arrived showed up, waving fiercely among the crowd trying to get noticed. Thad didn’t try to hide the smile that spread across his face. He had never seen such a show of love and support before, even if very little of it was meant for him.

The first day back on the road was slow. Only a few of the new troops had horses and those seemed to be the captains. He wasn’t sure why Eloen’s small band had horses
, but he was sure it was not the norm.

Many of the soldiers made their way to where he rode and talked to him. He wasn’t sure if he was a novelty
, or if they were so bored they were just trying to find anything to get their mind off the endless march forward. They told him of their homes and families. A few even asked him about his use of magic, though none of them asked him to display any and for that he was truly grateful. The last few days of overworking himself had taken its toll.

Unlike the previous days on the road
, they marched well past sunset before making camp. The only reason he could think of for this was because of the extra troops, they weren’t as weary of attack and wanted to make up time for the slowed pace.

As soon as they stopped for the night
, the army went into action. They methodically set up camp, placing him right in the middle near a large fire. Sentries and watch groups were selected before the first bedroll touched the ground.

After brushing down Apple
, he set up his sleeping area using a small lean-to one of the soldiers had given him to help keep off the worst of the weather. With everything ready for the night, he set off to find Eloen and her group.

It didn’t take long to find them
, as Eloen was sitting at a small fire cooking a score of small rabbits on a split. He called over to Alden who causally walked over to him to see what he wanted.

“I got the pack finished
as well as everyone’s swords. I wasn’t able to get even a quarter of the battle harnesses done, but I will continue to work on them.” Thad said barely above a whisper.

“Great, do you have them with you?” Alden asked looking around conspiringly.

Thad pulled the pack from his back and opened it up. Alden took him to where they had staked their horses and helped him unload the gear from the magical pack. As soon as they were finished, they headed back to the rest of the group. Alden went around telling them what he had been able to do.

Eloen
was absorbed in her cooking and never noticed the group huddling together. The hard part of the task, as far as Thad was concerned was finish. Now they just had to figure out how to give the pack to her.

After a long discussion
, they decided it would be best if Thad handed her the gift with everyone around him. That way he could explain how it worked. He wasn’t so sure of the plan and he feared that if he handed it to her, she would think it was primarily from him and not the group as a whole. When the food was done and Eloen had removed it from the fire, they advanced. Noticing them moving as a group, she raised her left eyebrow at them questioningly.

“What’s all this about?”
Eloen said, her tone slightly amused. 

Thad pulled the pack out from behind his back and held it out to her as if he were holding a live snake. “It’s a gift from
to you, from everyone.” He replied his voice shaky and unsure.

“A new pack
, it’s a little smaller than I normally carry but I’m sure I can find a use for it.”

Thad opened one of the sections for her and stuck his arm inside down to the shoulder. “It’s magical
. Each section can hold a large amount, and the weight disappears when it’s closed. It will also keep food fresher as time doesn’t pass the same way inside the bag.”

“Oh!” Eloen said
, taking the bag. She eagerly began filling it with things from around the camp. “Marvelous! I could carry my whole house in here, and it wouldn’t weigh more than a couple of clothes!” She looked around, her face beaming then went on to give everyone a friendly hug. “Thanks everyone.”

Thad was happy to accept Eloen’s invitation to dinner
, as the rest of the small army was eating some kind of murky grey stew with odd chunks of meat in it. Their usual fireside stories were replaced with displays of skills, as the warriors tried out their improved weapons.

Darryl showed off a bit more than the rest
, thoroughly enjoying his newly designed swords. During their conversations, Darryl had always complained that the weight of the swords tired him too quickly, but if they were made any lighter the steel would be too brittle. Thad had spent a little extra time trying out a new enchantment that would not really reduce the weight, but help momentum so less force was needed to swing the weapon. It had worked wonderfully, so he had added the same enchantment to his elongated sword. He had wanted to add it to the magic devouring sword, but to no avail, as any magical force applied to it was diverted and absorbed.

As the soldiers went through different routines
, pushing his enchantments to their limits by trying to see what all they could cut though, Eloen moved over to sit beside him. “You know every soldier here is going to want one of those swords and magically strengthened battle harnesses. I saw Ballard shoot an arrow at his with a crossbow and it barely marred the thing. It’s quite impressive, but I don’t think anyone will be happy if you work yourself to death before we reach Southpass.”

“I know I push myself a little too far sometimes, but I’m getting better at telling when to stop.” Thad said looking thoroughly abashed. “I just want everyone to have the best chance to survive as possible.”

Eloen placed a gentle hand on his back. “Don’t think me harsh for saying this, but we have thousands of soldiers at, or headed to Southpass, but only one mage. They are my best friends I have known them for years, but right now the best chance we all have at surviving is if you make it to Southpass to help hold off the Ablaian invasion.”

He felt something soft and light brush against his cheek. “I do appreciate everything you have done. Just…… don’t overdue it.” Eloen said placing both her hands firmly on either side of his head pulling him into a deep kiss. His faced blushed deeply as he could hear the other soldiers whistling and shouting our remarks toward him and Eloen.

Pulling back to catch his breath, Eloen gave him an enticing smile and a seductive wink. “Can’t do that with your little princess, now can you?”

“I………” Thad’s words stuck in his mouth
, as if his jaw had been sewn shut. He had gotten so used to Eloen’s flirtatious nature and had completely forgotten their first meeting where she had stolen his first kiss.

Ruffling his hair
and leaving him there still stuttering, Eloen walked over to where Alden and Ballard sat chatting. Her hips swaying in a hypnotic fashion as she walked away.

“Our little captain has taken quite the liking to you.”

Thad jumped, startled by the unexpected voice. Turning around he found Darryl standing behind him with a large grin plastered on his face.

“She’s just teasing me. I think she would flirt with a rock if it could blush.” Thad said defensively.

Darryl let out a long deep laugh. “I don’t know if you’re that innocent, or that dense. Yea the captain likes to flirt, she loves the attention, but in the four years she’s been our captain, I haven’t seen her give anyone more than a peck on the cheek. Though, I don’t know why I’m telling you this. The rest of us have been taking bets as to how long it will take you to figure it out. As smart as you seemed I thought you would get it before we reached the duchess’s estate, but I guess brains don’t mean you understand everything.”

Thad felt more than a little insulted at what Darryl was saying
, but couldn’t come up with a suitable retort. They had all known Eloen far longer than he had, but he couldn’t tell if Darryl was trying to pull a fast one on him or not. He had seen the soldiers pull jokes on each other daily and had even found himself the target of a few.

“I think she’s just ha
ving a bit of fun at my expense. She’s almost ten years older than me and I’m nothing special.”

Darryl doubled over laughing
, his eyes watering slightly. A few times Thad was sure she might fall into the fire. “Ah! What it was like, to be that young. I don’t doubt she’s enjoying teasing you a bit more because of your nature, but that don’t mean it’s all a joke kiddo. Even if you say there is nothing special about you, you have to realize that for the lie it is. You’re the only mage to have existed for the past thousand years. If I could do half the things you could, I would be spending a lot more time with the ladies and less with theses oafs.”

Thad thought about what Darryl was saying. He was a mage
, but he didn’t think that made him any more attractive to females. He knew the princess had a crush on him, but he was sure she would grow out of it as she aged. Monique had been a little upset when she had caught him and Eloen before, but he figured it was just sisterly concern. Was he wrong?

Darryl slapped him heavily on the back
, still laughing. “I’ll leave you to your thoughts. Don’t strain yourself.”

In the academy there were very few
females’ slaves and the ones that were there, were kept isolated from the boys. Sure there had been the mothers who had taught them, but that was hardly the same as being around women that were his age.

Trying to figure out the
women in his life caused him more headaches than his magic ever had. Setting the problem aside, he just hoped as he grew older he would understand them better.

Wanting to escape his current dilemma
, he headed back to his own bedroll and picked up one of the battle harnesses and began to work. Magic was one thing that never changed on him. Once he figured out something, it stayed the same. It didn’t suddenly decided to change how it wanted to work.

The battle harnesses were simple pieces of metal covered in leather that were useful in stopping sword blows. Even without a gem he could triple their strength and durability
, but with a gem he could make them almost indestructible. Of course, that was only useful against preventing the cut. Whoever was in the armor would still feel the blow, he hadn’t been able to figure that out yet

Suddenly a thought hit
him; he had used a momentum aiding enchantment with Darryl’s sword to make them easier to swing. He hadn’t tested it, but in theory that should also add more force to the blows. If he could reverse the spell, it should be able to use an objects own momentum against it. It would be a low magic cost since most of the power would be coming from the object and not the spell.

L
ooking down at his pile of cat eye gems that he had brought with him, Thad let out a heavy sigh. His stack had grown much smaller. Almost a third of the gems had already been used. If he remembered right, they came from the western section of mines, down by Tremon. So he hoped when they reached the large trading town, he would be able to get more.

Before putting a spell on anything for personal use
, he needed to test it first. He couldn’t just run to town and pick something up so he had to make do with what he had. Searching through his pack, he found his extra set of boots. It wasn’t perfect, but he could always buy a new pair.

The first attempt went horribly wrong
. While the boot would stop and push back when it reached the ground, it also did the same in both directions. Thad was glad he hadn’t tried to run with the boot on. Most likely his leg would have been ripped from his body and flung a great distance.

He tried
again with the other boot. He added in a direction condition to the spell so it only faced away from the boots sole, not in three hundred and sixty degrees. It worked perfectly or close enough to perfect for him. If he swung his hand at it hard at a few inches his hand would suddenly stop and be pushed backward. The more force he put into the swing the harder the force that pushed back. When he threw it at and immovable object, such as the ground, the resulting negative force would cause the boot to move back, but at only at half the strength of the initial force. It wouldn’t stop anything moving slowly and he planned to add in a few other protective measures so if two of the battle harnesses met they wouldn’t act violently against each other’s enchantments. It would take a bit more tinkering, but he was sure he was onto something.

He worked late into the night
, using anything he could to help fine tune his new enchantment until it was ready to start being used on the equipment. He was in a working daze and he could feel his head starting to throb lightly. He figured there was still had an hour or two left in him before his headaches became a problem.

He was testing his fourth try when a sharp ringing enveloped his ears.
“I thought I told you to take it easy? Do I have to set a guard on you to make sure you don’t work?” Eloen’s voice was harsh and the look on her face clearly showed she was not pleased with him at the moment.

Trying to
calm her wrath, he held up a small metal piece, only slightly bigger than his head. “Try and hit it with a rock.”