Master Mage (22 page)

Thad left the tent and started grabbing
any man who looked as if he could handle another engagement, while
Reeve sent for three hundred of the elves. Even with the elves,
Thad knew the best he could hope for was around seven hundred
troops, and should the force be unfriendly, that wouldn’t be enough
to stop them, but maybe he could slow them down. Thad hated the
idea that they might have to fight on two fronts, but as Killian
had said many times, the enemy rarely lets you do what you
want.

As Thad waited for the rest of the
troops to muster, he pulled out a small map of Farlan and looked at
where he had marked the last known location of the new force. If
they moved at a steady pace and continued heading in their
direction, he should meet up with them sometime midafternoon the
next day. It wouldn’t leave much time for rest, but even a half a
day away from the battlefield was more than he had gotten
recently.

Grabbing one of the horses they had won
from the last fight, Thad mounted. He felt bad that he would ride
while the rest walked, but he had already expended most of his
energy earlier that day.

You are one of the
highest-ranked people here. Let them walk. It’s about time you
started acting like more than a stableboy.

“I don’t think I should ask more out of
the men than I am willing to give myself,” Thad replied, trying to
push Thuraman’s objections from his mind, but he was finding it
harder and harder with each passing day. The staff was getting
stronger, and he was consistently exhausting himself with the
countless battles.

Thad strapped his staff to the back of
his horse and gave it a long hard look. It wasn’t just that the
staff was getting strong. It was how it acted that bothered him.
His staff had said that it was another side of him. If that was
true, then it had to be the darker side. The staff seemed to hate
women and most everyone else, for that matter. It was
self-important and egotistical where Thad was concerned. It behaved
as if it believed itself to be the most important being in the
world and should be treated as such, even going so far as to nearly
kill a young lieutenant that had insulted him a few days back. That
had taken a lot of explaining, but as the days passed, Thad really
started considering leaving the weapon behind once the war was
over.

Do you really think you can
simply leave me behind? I can come to you anytime I wish, but even
if you did discard me, you wouldn’t for long. You would find
yourself in trouble and call on me just as you have done many times
before.

Thad once again tried to force Thuraman
from his mind but was unsuccessful, so he was forced to try and
ignore the staff’s insults. Before giving the order to move out,
Thad looked at the staff one last time and wondered once again if
it really talked to him or if he was simply losing his mind. No one
else had ever heard the staff, and even the dwarves had only heard
of a few rare cases where magical items had enough consciousness to
speak.

CHAPTER XVII

Thad had chosen a nice piece of flat
ground with a small hill on which to meet the new force. He had
stationed a hundred of the best elfin archers on top of the hill
and placed the rest in a half circle in front of them. His shields
had not completely recharged, and he feared that if the new force
was hostile, they would offer little cover.

The wait for the other force was worse
than the actual battle as nerves started to wear thin, and he
started to second-guess himself. He thought about sending out a
scout, but the land was fairly open, and anyone trying to approach
would easily be seen. Not to mention that if the other force had
changed direction, he had no clue as to which way to send the
scouts. His only choice was to wait.

As evening dawned, Thad got his first
glimpse of the rumored force. It was far larger than he had
anticipated, and they moved together with precision that was clear
even from a distance. The longer Thad watched, the more odd the
force began to look.

When Thad heard one of his men say that
it looked like a bunch of children marching toward them, Thad used
his magical eye to get a closer view. For certain, the force
marching toward them was shorter in stature than a normal man, but
Thad knew that was because they were not men at all but dwarves.
Thad continued to look until he found the face of one burly dwarf
he had come to miss. Seeing Crusher among the dwarves raised Thad’s
spirit as he called for his men to stand down.

It took over an hour for the dwarves to
reach their position even though when he had last looked, they were
only a few short miles away. Thad knew now why it had taken them so
long; their shorter stride reduced their speed
immeasurably.

Thad waited out in front of his army to
greet his old friend. It had been more than a season since he had
last seen the dwarf. “Crusher, I see you were finally able to find
some friends who can stand your stench,” Thad hollered when the
dwarves were not more than a dozen yards away.

“And I see ya found some yerself that
can deal with yer incessant whining,” Crusher replied
heartily.

Thad moved to greet his friend when a
dwarf he had never met before stepped in between the two. “I am
Betal Ironleg, master mage, and I am in charge of tha dwarven
forces,” the dwarf declared, almost asking for Thad to argue with
him, but he let it go, just happy to see the surly dwarves. “Is
this yer entire force, mage?” Betal asked, openly
hostile.

“No, but it is a good portion of it. We
have not fared well against Rane and the Brotherhood thus far,”
Thad replied honestly.

“Well then, show us ta the rest of yer
army.”

“They are a little more than a day’s
march from here,” Thad replied.

Thad had wanted to catch up with his
old friend, but Betal would have none of it and demanded that they
start toward Bailwood immediately.

You should bring that dwarf
down a few notches before I decide to.

“We need the dwarves, so for now, we
will have to play nice,” Thad told Thuraman, hoping the staff
didn’t do anything to the headstrong dwarf.

“Where did you get so many dwarves? I
thought the most I could hope for was a couple thousand troops,”
Thad asked curiously as they marched.

“Sent some dwarves ta carry messages ta
tha other dwarven villages we knew about. A few of ’em sent us some
soldiers ta aid ya, but not near enough for my liking,” Crusher
answered gruffly.

“Right now, I would take anything I
could get,” Thad said, nearly laughing.

“Is it that bad, lad?” Crusher asked,
giving him a concerned look.

“Yes,” Thad replied hesitantly. “Rane
has fielded more than forty thousand troops. We have been losing
ground every day and men that we cannot replace. Even your number
will only slow down our route. Did you happen to get word to
Sae-Thae?” Thad asked hopefully.

“Ah, yer Vathari friend,” Crusher said
lightly. “Don’t rightly know to tell ya the truth. We sent a
message with one of tha little buggers we caught near our mines but
can’t say if it got back ta yer friend or not. Tha same thing with
the bleeding dragon. Dang squirrely lot they are. Can never tell
what they’re gonna do when ya wake them. Roasted two of me kin as
soon as his eyes opened. He let the rest go after hearing our
message but can’t rightly say if he will be joining us. Figure if
he wanted ta, he’d already be about.”

“I hope someone comes. Otherwise, we
won’t last until the first of summer,” Thad said dourly.

Thad and Crusher continued to talk well
until nightfall when Betal called the formation to a halt to make
camp. After the sun had gone down, Thad had started to believe the
dwarf would have them march straight through the night until they
reached Bailwood.

As they set up camp, the dwarf general
was as commanding as ever, commanding Thad and his men about as if
they were his own. More than once, Thad had to calm his soldiers,
especially the elves, who the dwarf seemed to have a disconcerting
amount of contempt for.

After calming all the fires the dwarf
had started, Thad sought out Crusher once again and found his
friend setting up his own bedroll at the edge of the camp. “You
might wish to talk with Ironleg. If he keeps pushing all my men
like this, he might just find himself a head shorter,” Thad said,
barely holding his temper.

Crusher gave Thad a serious look and
shook his head. “Might do the lout a bit of good. Not like he uses
his head for more than a place for his helmet.”

“I am serious, Crusher. I already had
to stay a few blades tonight,” Thad said seriously.

“All right, I’ll have a talk with tha
fool, but ya might want ta keep the other idea on tha table. Betal
has always been a hard one to deal with. I think it’s because his
ma named him after a bug.”

The next morning, Thad noticed that
Betal had a great deal more bruises than he had last time he had
seen him. “I see you had a talk with your dwarven general,” Thad
said humorously.

“And a nice long talk at that,” Crusher
replied, accenting his words with a sly wink. “Takes some doing,
but if ya have a way with yer words, ya can get through ta
anyone.”

“You mean a way with your fists,” Thad
corrected his friend.

Crusher laughed again. “Don’t you know
it’s a fine art ta talk with yer hands, and I got awfully good at
it when me throat was crushed.”

Thad couldn’t help but to laugh. It was
true that when he and the dwarf had first, met he couldn’t say a
word thanks to the damage done to his throat. The two had learned
to talk by using their hands and gestures. There were even a few
times Thad could simply understand what the dwarf was thinking by
the look on his face.

“Well, I am glad you had a talk with
him,” Thad said honestly, giving his friend a thankful look.
“Farlan really needs all the swords or axes it can get, even if
they are in the hands of someone without the manners the gods gave
to a rat.”

“I see ya been working on yer insults.
Keep it up, and we’ll make a dwarf out of ya yet.”

“The gods forbid,” Thad replied,
feigning injury.

“I know one that wouldn’t mind a bit,”
Crusher said, laughing.

That night, as Thad lay down to sleep,
he started to believe they might have a chance to win the war. It
was still a small chance, but it was there. If the Katanga arrived
as well as the Vathari, then they could push back the Rane army,
though it would still be a hard battle.

That night, as Thad slept, he found
himself once again being pulled into the black murkiness of the
queen’s dream world. It was always an odd sensation when he visited
her dreams or, more accurately, when she forced him to visit them.
It was almost as if he was being pulled awake. Everything felt
surreal, but even so, sometimes Thad was unsure if what he was
seeing was truly her or his own dreams. It made things very awkward
at times.

Thad breathed a sigh of relief when he
found himself in the queen’s study instead of her bedchambers. It
was always slightly more stressful for him when he found himself in
her personal quarters. “I received news that another army had
appeared. Have you heard anything about them as of yet?” Maria
asked, her face lined with worry.

Thad tried to put on a dour expression,
but he couldn’t help for a smile to creep on his face. “Crusher has
returned with a sizable contingent of dwarven warriors,” Thad
replied, giving up his failed ruse.

Maria jumped up and clapped her hands
together, reminding him of when she had been a child. She had been
so full of life back then and sought anything of interest. Now she
seemed colder and seldom seemed to smile, much like her mother had
been.

Catching herself, Maria stopped and
smoothed her dress. “That is great news,” she said, trying to
regain her composure. “Will they be able to make a great difference
in the battle?” she continued after she had calmed down
considerably.

“They will almost double our current
number, but we are still outnumbered more than four to one,” Thad
said in reply. “But with their strength, we stand a greater chance
of holding out until others can arrive.”

“Did they bring news of your other
friends?” Maria asked, her face lit up like a child waiting on a
gift. So caught up with how she was acting, Thad didn’t notice that
he had stretched out his hand to touch the queen’s cheek until he
felt her cover his hand with her own.

“No, but I still have hopes that
Sae-Thae will come to our aid,” Thad replied, pulling his hand
back.

Maria gave him a soft glare as if
slightly reprimanding him for removing his hand. “I hope you are
right,” she said warmly. “This war needs to end soon so that
I—we—can move on to more important battles.”

“You have another war planned?” Thad
asked, shocked at the queen’s bold statement. Hadn’t she seen
enough of war these past few years?

“Oh yes, but the one I am planning does
not require the use of swords, though if you are not prepared,
there might be a bit of blood spilled,” she replied, almost
laughing.

Thad’s eyes widened as he caught the
meaning of her words. “I wish you well in your personal war, but I
think you may find it far harder a battle than you have ever faced
before,” Thad said, trying to sound as haughty as
possible.