Branded Mage (20 page)

Taking a deep breath
, Thad steeled his stomach and headed back in the dank room. He carefully picked up the rotten blankets and quickly shoved them in the sacks.  It didn’t take long, but even after all the trash had been taken out, the stink still hung heavy in the air. Thad wished he had some of the air cleaning fungus from the capitals sewers.

Remembering the sewers
, Thad thought of an idea and sent out his magical sight into the room. The parts in the air and ground that carried the scent were hard to find because they were so small, but after a few moments he was able to isolate and destroy them. He knew that he was taxing himself a little more than he should have, but he seldom had self-control when a new idea hit him.

In less than half an hour
, the room smelled as if it had been aired out thoroughly with only a slight hint of the stench still remaining. He was happy with his success even though his head now hurt and his tunic had a nice ring of sweat around the neck.

With the room now cleaned
, he took stock of everything that was left. The desk looked to be in good repair though it was a tad simple, barely any more than four legs with a rough top. It would work. It wasn’t like he really needed much; just a place to set the items while he worked was worlds better than what he had been doing. The chair was far more comfortable than it looked, though it had a large amount of stains that Thad wasn’t convinced were from age.

With his new office cleaned
, Thad inspected the armor room first. The walls were lined with battle vestments of all kinds, from simple leather to steel breastplates. Thad had never seen a Farlan soldier wearing full armor before. While it added more protection, it also slowed down movement, and tired you out much faster.  He was sure that in a siege, they would be of little use on the battlements, so he left them alone. Instead, he grabbed half a dozen leather battle harnesses and headed back to his office to stack them on his desk. After a dozen or so similar trips, he had a few large stacks of armor to begin working on.

With more than enough armor to keep him busy
, he decided to check out the weapons room. It was easily twice the size of the other room, the walls lined with racks of every type of weapon Thad had ever heard of, and some he hadn’t. He knew at some point, he would have to enchant the swords and shields of the soldiers, but from what he had learned from the general, the arrows should be his priority for the moment.

He found the arrows wrapped in large bundles in the northern section of the room. There were thousands of them
, both arrows for bows and bolts for crossbows. Grabbing a bundle of each, he went back to his office to start on an idea that he and another soldier had discussed during the march to Southpass.

Se
tting down his load, Thad removed the thin cord that held the arrows together, causing them to spill haphazardly across the floor. He picked one up and inspected where the arrowhead and shaft met. The arrowhead was of iron and the shaft was made from a hazel shoot. Even though it was not really wood, it looked like it would still hold an enchantment.

The plan was
simple; replace the metal arrowhead with one mace of crystal that was enchanted to be extremely sharp as well as to increase the speed of the arrow. The one thing he planned to do different from his normal weapon enchantments was to leave off the spell that strengthened them. That way if the arrowhead met with something hard and could not pierce through, it would break and the sudden release of magical energy would cause an explosion albeit a minor one.

He still had a few crystals from when he had bought a large order of them
, before switching over to using the cat eye gems. However, only one of them was large enough to make an arrowhead, and it still needed to be cut down. He could do it with magic, but that would have to wait until later. He had already pushed his strength to the limit and needed at least a few hours to recuperate.

Tired and sweating
, despite the cold temperature, Thad made his way to the mess hall. As he approached the building, he could see that a line had formed outside one of the doors, letting only a certain number of soldiers in at a time. It made sense to Thad, there had to be a limited amount of space, and he doubted that even a quarter of the troops stationed at the fort could fit in the building at a single time.

After a short wait
, Thad found himself at the front of the line where a large cistern had been placed so that soldiers could wash their hands before eating. He had seen similar things in the palace for the bathing, large cisterns were built to allow the water to be heated before being channeled to the bathing house for use. It took a fair amount of manpower to keep the cisterns full and few could afford such luxury, but Thad guessed with the soldiers it was a little different.

Inside
, everyone was shoulder to shoulder with very little room to move freely. The meal didn’t look too bad, even if it was a little plain. Some kind of steak with mashed tubers smothered in gravy with dry biscuits. It wasn’t a meal to celebrate, but it would stop his stomachs grumbling. For a moment, he missed the palace and its rich and diverse food. Not to mention the fact that the cooks always had something ready for him to eat during the night in case he happened to be working late.

Thinking of the palace
, Thad cursed himself. He had promised the princess he would write her as soon as he arrived and send the note through the sending box. Rushing off to do it now wouldn’t accomplish much; he would just have to see to that as soon as he finished eating.

His hunger
satisfied, Thad headed straight for the command center. He causally greeted Trent before entering and continuing to his room. He found his travel sack and began empting its contents until he found what he was looking for. The sending boxes had been one of his greatest ideas as far as he was concerned and, he didn’t know how he had forgotten about it or his promise to the princess.

Opening the box
, he found a neatly folded letter inside. He knew he should have checked the box more often, but with everything happening around him, it had skipped his mind. Opening the letter he slowly began to read it to himself.

Dear Thaddeus
,

              I have just heard that you have come under attack south of the Calisaren duchy. We have only received the barest of information and while we heard that you were in good health, you had sustained some form of injury. I know that the plan was for you to inform me of your arrival at Southpass, but I hope you have received this and will ease my worried mind.

Mother is working hard to get the other nobles to accept her new decrees over the treatment of free men
.It hasn’t been easy, and more than a few are causing endless trouble for her, but most of them have come around. The threat of an Ablaian invasion coupled with civil rebellion is helping the cause more than one would think.

Mother has even
gone so far as to create a group of knights who are made exclusively of slaves. Their job is to make sure the laws governing the treatment of men and slaves are upheld. Their captain, one of mother’s former guards has been very enthusiastic about his new post.

I guess I have rambled on long enough for the time being
. I will eagerly await your response. Safe travels and speedy return, your friend Maria

 
    Thad read the letter three times making sure he didn’t miss anything of importance. He didn’t know why he didn’t think of conversing with the princess more. It wasn’t like he could send a letter every day. The sending box had its limits and could be used only every few days because of the massive draw on magical energies it used. Though it also had its advantages, the size of the boxes only changed the draw slightly; it was the initial connection that caused most of the drain, so you could make the boxes from small to large without a large change in effect.

Looking around his room
, he noticed he didn’t have anything to write on or to write with. He had seen many different ink bottles on Trent’s desk and wondered if the old man would be willing to part with a few.

Thad found the general sitting in front of his fireplace drinking something from a heavy ceramic cup that steamed in the chill air. “Trent, I find myself in the need of some writing materials. Do you think it would be possible to get some?”

“Sure
, there is plenty of parchment in the top of the drawer, and the quills are in the center section. You may take any of the inks you think you will need; I have plenty more back in storage. The quills and parchment aren’t of the best quality, but they serve their purpose.” Trent said, waving his hand dismissively toward the desk.

Thad grabbed a handful of parchment as well as a bottle of dark black ink and two quills that looked as if they were still in decent condition. He thought about grabbing a bottle of red ink as well
, but decided against it. It would come in handy if he was planning out future enchantments, but right now he had his hands full with the simple ones he had already performed hundreds of times.

Thad se
t the writing materials down on his desk and pulled his chair up. He put the pen to the parchment, but nothing would come to mind. What should he tell her? He had never written a letter to anyone before other than the short notes he had sent the princess back when he lived in the sewers of the capital.

Maria
,

I am sorry
that I have neglected checking the sending box and have not contacted you sooner. The trip to Southpass has been entertaining to say the least and we did run into a bit of trouble on the road. I was not injured in the engagement; the only trauma I sustained was caused by my own hubris.

We have made it to Southpass and I am currently working on enhancing the defenses. I am running low on supplies
, but general Forman has sent a soldier into town to requisition the needed supplies and personnel needed. Hopefully by time the Ablaians attack, I will have this place completely prepared; however, it looks like an impossible task at the moment, as there are thousands of soldiers to equip and only one of me.

I shall write you another report in a few days
, when the sending box has had time to recharge. As for now, I hope you and your mother fare well in your endeavors to quell the current rebellion.

CHAPTER XVI

Thad waited anxiously as the wagon was unloaded and the supplies were moved to his. They had brought far more than he thought he could ever use. Sacks upon sacks of cat eye gems as well and a huge amount of uncut crystals, some of which were nearly the size of a man, were moved from the back of the wagon. They had been unable to find a master glass blower was willing to shut down their shop and make the trip, even for a short time, but they had been allowed the use of two apprentices that were of little use during the slower season.

Thad met with the two apprentices
while he waited for his materials to be completely unloaded. One was a male and the other female, both were still in their mid to late teens. They only wore cheap wool clothing bundled tight around them to help stave off the cold.

“Hello
, I am Thaddeus Torin, the mage you will be working with. What I need isn’t very difficult, I will need glass globes that are strong enough to withstand a bit of handling.” Thad said holding out his hand.

The young man took his hand quickly
, but the young lady looked at him as if he was a leper. “I was told we would be assisting a great mage, but I didn’t expect to find that this so called mage was nothing but a poorly bred boy.”

“You are more than welcome to return Tremon if that is your wish.” Eloen said
, coming up behind Thad putting her arm protectively around his shoulders.

“Fine, when can your
men start the trip back?” The young girl asked spitefully.

“You
have misunderstood something miss. The guard will not be headed back to town until the next time we are in need of supplies. It appears that you will have to make the walk on your own.”

The young lady looked horrified as a group of soldiers removed her from the compound. Thad thought that it was a little harsh
, but Eloen would hear none of his complaints. “She agreed to the conditions freely. If she can’t honor the agreement, then were not going to waste the manpower to see her back to town. The snow is starting to melt and when the Ablaians attack, we will never every man available.”

In his
office, Thad grabbed a handful of gems of varying sizes from one of the sacks. He would have a lot of heavy work in the days ahead of him. He had already finished the preparations on the gate itself as well as about ten percent of the wall while he waited. The general mainly wanted him to make as many of the magical arrows as he could. The demonstration he had performed for the army had been a huge success. The arrows had gone through one of the reinforced shields before breaking and blowing a hole through the steel armor behind it.

The enchantment itself wasn’t hard to do. The hard part was cutting the gems to the size and shape of an arrowhead. Luckily Andre
, the blacksmith, had agreed to help on that end and had the crystals moved to his workshop, which he was now sharing with the apprentice glassblower.