Inexperienced Mage (Reawakening Saga) (14 page)

"I like the idea of making the laws more equal but I have to admit that some of the things I've heard about have me a bit worried." Thad knew that it was a risk to say such things, especially surrounded as he was, but if he just idly sat it would take too long.

Everit gave him an understanding look. “I thought the same thing but as Formir says you need drastic measures to make drastic changes. Formir supposed to have some big news for us tonight before you make any rash decisions why not hear what he has to say.”

“Sounds fair to me, what do I do until then?”

“Take a walk around, meet some of the other guys, and get to know them.” Everit said scraping the last of his food from his bowl.

Getting to know the others was the last thing he wanted to do, all it would do is make his job harder in the end. Many of these people had just had a hard life, and their actions were a result of the faulted government system, while he could sympathize with the cause he had to remind himself of their actions. If they had simply been targeting taxes, or the peerage he would join with them, but they made no distinction on
who they hurt, as long as it furthered their goals. He was positive had he refused their offer the night before they would have tried to kill him, if he allowed them to continue even if they won Farlan would only be trading a neglectful regime for a cruel one. Either way the current government was to blame for the current situation. While the laws didn’t condone the current treatment of men it didn’t prohibit it either.

Farlan had been bu
ilt around a simple idea. The Fae Wars had dragged on for over a hundred years after Emperor Tremon died, his heir had taken up his quest and his heir after him. Emperor Tremon the fourth was young when he took the throne and while not married had many mistress’s when he was killed many supposed heirs came forth fighting over the imperial throne. A massive and bloody civil war followed and the once great empire collapsed. Lady Farlan a Countess spoke of creating her own country on her land where the crown would be passed down among the female line, while someone could question who had sown the seed no one could question who had carried it. With the civil war fresh in their minds people flocked to the Farlan, and the Queendom was established. The Queendom prospered but after a few generations all peerage tittles were passed down among the female line, a few generations after that all property was done so as well, and after that men lost the ability to own property. What had begun as a brilliant idea had been taken too far and now threated to cause the very civil war it had wanted to stop.

For a long time Thad sat staring at the ground wondering what was the best thing to do. Maybe he could talk to this Formir and talk him into taking a better approach, he wouldn’t know unless he tried. His mind heavy he went back to his camp and brushed spot down, trying to ease the uncomfortable knot that had fo
rmed in the pit of his stomach.

As the sun began to hand low on the horizon the commotion started and people began making their way to stand around the large tent in the middle of the camp. Thad followed the group pushing his way as close to the front as he could.

Formir stood in the center of the commotion with two well-dressed men on each side. He
was very tall and had a graceful build his clothes were
dignified but plain of black and gray; his hooded brown eyes looked like two patches of dried blood, his thick, straight, obsidian hair was tied behind his head in a utilitarian style giving Thad the overall impression of a snake.

Formir held up his hand and the throng of men quieted. “My fellow revolutionaries
I have some bad news for you. The queen has ordered five hundred of her soldiers up from Southpass Fort to kill us.” The men around him burst into shouts of anger and profanity, Formir waited for a bit then signaled for them to quiet. “With our present number we could most likely win but at too heavy a cost, what we need is a more defensible base that will force them to take notice of us, if we can make our plight know others will join us. Almost half of the queens army is made up of slaves and the rest are no better than slaves living only off the queen’s good graces, if given the chance many of them will defect to our side.” The crowd erupted in cheers, Formir waited a bit before quieting them down again. “These two men are from the kingdom of Abla and they have pledged to help in our plight. If we can force the queen to move enough of her troops from Southpass then they will march in force, and together we will force the queen to listen to our demands. To the south of here is Avael where everything we need is available, so get some sleep for tomorrow we march and by nightfall Avael will be ours.”

Thad’s heart almost stopped in his chest Avael, They were going to attack Avael. As the speech wound down people excitedly went back to their own camping areas and soon Thad was left alone with his thoughts. He watched as
Formir and the two men from Alba went back into the large tent. The sun still stood above the edge of the trees casting an orange glow over the tops of the trees. He had to act quickly before it got too dark out he would never survive the night magic or no.

Looking around everyone else was so busy celebrating he doubted anyone would notice him, he still cast the glamor to help people ignore him. Thad cautiously moved around to the back of the tent, using his dagger he cut a small slit and peeked into the tent. Formir and his two friends were sitting in fancy wooden chairs. Their voices were too soft to hear so he cut a large enough slit in the tent to crawl though. Once he was inside he made his way over to the bed, leaning against the headboard he waited for his chance.

“Soon the queen will have no choice but to weaken her army standing at Southpass and we can take this country for our own.” Formir said greedily.

“Yes and the King will remember you fondly for your support
is this my lord.” One of the Ablain’s said reassuringly.

"Remember the deal, you are to completely break the people here so that no one can rise up to challenge his Majesty, we do not want to have to deal with a rebellion, the kingdom cannot afford it." The other Ablain said so smugly Thad could almost see the smirk on his face.

Thad cursed under his breath it made perfect sense, Abla had been attacking Farlan every decade or so ever since they were founded. While they were also located on the ocean their waterfront was littered with coral reefs making it dangerous for ships to navigate, and inland their soil was rocky, and mountainous, so while they had one of the best sources for metal everything else had to be brought in from the outside, and Farlan made a huge profit off their warlike neighbors.

Not wanting to waste any more of the waning daylight Thad went on the move paralyzing all three of the men before stepping out of his concealment. His stomach tightened in knots as he moved toward the two men from Abla. The reckless group of misplaced revolutionaries were dangerous in their own right but coupled with plots outside the
Queendom were even worse. Thad had to keep himself from vomiting as he cut the first man's throat, the second mans was easier, but it still felt wrong killing someone as they simply sat their helplessly. He finally turned to Formir who eyes shook with fear he placed the dagger to the man's throat. "I'm sorry, but I can't let you simply murder any more innocent people, if only you had went about this a different way."

Thad went out the cut he had made in the back of the tent, and moved back down to where Spot grazed. It only took a few moments to have Spot saddled and ready to ride but her knew that the men around him would still most likely attack Avael in the morning even with their leader dead. He had to slow them down so he mounted Spot raised his staff high above his head. Billowing balls of flame began to rain from the sky consuming the main tent as well as anything else they touched. The stench of burnt flesh filled his nose, as the dying screams of hundreds reached his ears, causing his focus to waver and finally collapse as he leaned over the side of his horse to expel the contents of his stomach.

Wiping
his mouth off with his sleeve he noticed that people were pointing and yelling at him. Figuring it was time to take his leave he turned his horse about and headed into the forest, as soon as he crossed into the woods he felt a stabbing pain in his back. Instinctively his reached behind himself with his right hand feeling a feathered shaft he silently cursed himself for being too stupid to erect his shield.

He had to move slowly through the forest and he dare not make his way onto the main road. His mind was starting to get fuzzy, and his hand started to shake, he knew he was losing too much blood; if he didn’t make it to a healer soon he wouldn’t live to see the sun rise. His spirits rose slightly as the faint light from the town started to show through the trees. He was hurting too much to use his illusionary disguise he could only hope that the news he brought would be enough to secure him treatment.

He heard shouting and yelling as he made his way into town, and strong hands pulled him from his horse. He could hear voices but he couldn’t make out their meaning, but as strongly as he could he kept repeating his warning. “Bandits coming in morning thousands of them.” He kept repeating his saying over and over until his eyes rolled back into his head and total blackness took him.

CHAPTER VII

The sky was still dark outside the window when he awoke, pain stabbed through his body as he tried to sit up. A middle aged woman gently pushed him back down, “You had a rough night, you need to lay still for a bit, move around too much and you’re going to rip the stitches in your back. You’re lucky you know the arrow didn’t go very deep and I was able to get it out whole.”

"You don't understand the bandits are coming, I killed their leader but they're sure to still come." Thad said gasping.

The woman gave him a concerned look. "Yes, you were mumbling about the bandits for quite some time, the guard has made preparations, in case of attack the town won't easily fall so relax, your sister has been frantic since we brought you in, your other sister left a few days ago hopefully she fares better on the road then you did."

The woman steeped out the door and called for Shariel. “Now child your brother is still sick so don’t be jumping on him, understood?”

Shariel nodded her head
silently and walked over and sat beside his bed. Her eyes were puffy and swollen and she looked as if she hadn’t sleep in days. He wanted to reassure her he was ok but the words wouldn’t come to him, so he just placed his hand on her head. She instantly began crying again as she pulled his arm down holding it tightly.

A sour looking young lady wearing combat leathers along with the innkeeper and
Melanie came to the door knocking slightly. “Shariel why don’t you go play with Melanie a bit, and let your brother get some sleep I promise you he’s safe here.” Shariel didn’t move until Melanie ran over to her and led her from the room by her arm. “Your sister cares deeply for you, she has been crying most the night,” she said sitting a pitcher of water on the table, “This is captain Eloen she wants to talk to you.”

The innkeeper shut the door on her way out leaving him alone with the young captain. The young lady cut a beautiful and commanding figure; with her chestnut colored hair that was cropped short and her narrow brown eyes looked like twin drops of chocolate, her outfit fit tight against her body showing off luscious curves, and soft cream-colored skin. "I am here for one thing information, why were you at the bandit camp, I need to know about their numbers, weapons, and training."

Thad painfully pushed himself up then rearranged the pillows to allow him to sit up more comfortably. “Our parents were killed at their farm outside of Shiel, my sisters came here for safety and I went after the bandits. I met up with them outside of town and killed one of them then was given the choice to either go with them or be left dead on the road, so I went with them. Once at their camp I was shocked by the sheer number of them, there was around a thousand, all led by one man. I don’t have an answer for you about weapons and training I was only there a short time. Last night the leader gave a speech outlining his plan to attack this town, for fear of my sisters I snuck into his tent and killed him then sat fire to the tents and ran. I took an arrow as I was leaving and the rest you know.”

“We saw a large amount of smoke from the forest, we had thought the bandits had raided another caravan, it is nice to hear it was them getting theirs for a change. The amount is quite a bit more than we thought, are you sure it was a thousand, not one hundred.” Her voice while calm carried a condescending tone.

His patience was quickly wearing thin. "Listen I'm not some dullard that can't count past the number of fingers and toes he has. And if you put my family in danger because you're to self-important to listen to a man you won't have to worry what the bandits will do to you because I'll kill you before they can get to you."

Eloen reached down and grabbed his nightshirt and pulled him toward her then gave him a rough kiss. Her lips were soft and she smelled of leather, and vanilla. "Don't you worry we're already putting up a makeshift wall with the logs, everyone in town is working, if they attack they may overrun us but they won't do it easily." Eloen trailed her hand up to his cheek then giving it a light slap she smiled and left him alone with his thoughts.

The day passed quickly with Thad drifting off to sleep off and on, Shariel brought his meals to him, but never said anything to him. Her face was always between a sad and betrayed look, he could understand it somewhat he had promised her he would be ok, but had rode back into town near death. Though they had only known each other for a short time Shariel had lost everything and was looking for anything to hold onto to keep her from drowning in her own sorrow.