Master Mage (32 page)

“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.

You survived. You can do
nothing about the dead, so why do you bother thinking about
them?

“You can be heartless, my friend,” Thad
replied to Thuraman as he slumped down on his bedroll.

Heartless, I would imagine
so as I was born without one. I see the world clearly without the
bothersome burden of worry that you seem to carry. Everything is
made of magic, and through it, I can see those that you wish to
save. Most of them are not worth your pity. Humans kill each other
by the dozen, war or not.

“I do not think I can ever agree with
you on that point, Thuraman,” Thad said, laying the staff
aside.

That is where you are wrong.
You do agree with me. Deep down in that so-called heart of yours,
you do agree, and you know that I speak the truth. Cry if you wish,
but we both know that it will do little good in the end. Finish the
war, and the deaths will come to an end. That is your only
option.

Thad remained quiet, though he knew
that Thuraman was right. The war had to end, and for that to
happen, the Brotherhood and Rane had to fall. There were a lot of
wrongs that would be done in the end by both sides, and no matter
what light he would place on those actions, in his heart, he knew
they were wrong but still had to happen. After everything was done,
Thad didn’t hope that he would sleep peacefully at night, just that
his kids and their kids would have that privilege.

The closer they drew to the Rane
capital, the more they were harassed by small bands of put-together
soldiers. Thad didn’t know what Rane thought the small attacks
would do. It was like an ant trying to bring down a mountain one
pebble at a time.

At first, each new death hounded Thad,
but now with the capital sitting in the distance, his fears and
pains had been quelled. The war was almost at its end. All that was
left was the taking of the merchant guild and the Rane palace.
Thankfully, both buildings resided close to each other, and though
large, the city had few real defenses. The only real threat were
the few thousand troops that had reached the city before them, but
they were only a portion of their number and had been marched
hard.

Thad had expected a few days of rest
and preparations, but Killian and the other generals had other
plans. As soon as the sun set that very day, they were going to
flood the capital with soldiers and lay waste to any who dared
raise a sword against them. The Vathari wanted to slaughter
everything within the walls of the city, but even Killian objected
to such a notion. In the end, they had come to an agreement that
any who displayed hostility could be killed, but the rest would be
left in peace.

Thad took some solace in those words as
he waited for nightfall, his body too eager to find any sleep. From
his vantage point, Thad could see into the city. Many buildings
near the market and rich district still lay in ruins from his
escape nearly a year before. The people moved around anxiously, and
the guards rushed about their bodies, laden with fear of the coming
horde.

Thad had been in the same situation not
long before, though he was on the side of the defenders. Well
outnumbered and knowing only death awaited them had brought a
certain calm to the Farlan forces, but Rane seemed to be handling
it differently. There was a lot of movement in the market district,
and Killian had a good portion of their forces moved around to the
north and west so that none could escape before their
attack.

Thad wanted to argue to let any who
wished to leave the city to do so, but he knew why they must be
held at bay. If the Brotherhood generals escaped, they could help
reestablish the order outside of their reach. The one order Thad
had no problem in making was that any found in the possession of
the fox emblem would be killed, soldier or not. There was too big
of a risk in letting any of their kind live.

With only hours left before the final
assault, Thad made his way to the center of the camp, where Killian
and the other generals had set up camp. Thad had expected to see
the older warmaster sifting through maps but instead found him
sitting idly on the ground, sharpening his sword.

“Everything ready?” Thad asked, taking
a seat next to the warmaster.

Killian gave him a sideways glance as
he drew the blade across the sharpening stone. “Not much to get
ready. Each group has been given their orders on where to focus
their attacks. The only thing left to do now is to wait for
nightfall,” Killian said, looking up into the sky. “This is the
largest attack I have ever led that will strike in the night. It is
always good to fight when one has the most advantages, but fighting
by moonlight can be dangerous, yet also beautiful in its own
way.”

“I don’t think I ever heard of a battle
being beautiful,” Thad replied, skeptical.

“It is all in how you choose to view
it,” Killian replied, lifting his blade up so that he could inspect
the blade in the waning light. “Blood when viewed in the right
moonlight will glisten black. Enough blood and it will look like a
sparkling river.”

“I guess one must find beauty where
they may,” Thad replied, his stomach churning slightly at the
thought of finding the sight of blood beautiful.

Killian gave an odd laugh as he slid
his sword back in the scabbard that was strapped to his side. “As I
have said, there are two stories that we tell. One set for people
we meet and one for other soldiers. I think it is time that you
heard one of those stories.”

“A long time ago, when I was still a
young man with my first unit, I had the habit of taking souvenirs
from those I had killed in battle,” Killian said, unabashed. “My
warmaster had told me that taking from the dead what you do not
need can only lead to trouble, but I did not heed his advice. One
day after a long battle, I was searching the bodies of those I had
killed for trinkets to honor the battle in my memories. When I
turned over a soldier that I thought dead …” Killian paused and
raised up his tunic and chain mail, showing a deep scar that ran
across his chest. “He had not been as dead as I had thought. His
dagger cut deep, and I quickly collapsed due to the loss of blood.
When I awoke, my warmaster was beside me. I can still remember his
words: ‘Now that is a memento that you can take from this battle
and hopefully learn from it.’”

Thad waited, and when it was clear that
the warmaster was done with his story, he thought it over quietly.
But aside from the main point of the story, Thad couldn’t see why
the warmaster had told it. “I don’t get it,” Thad said honestly
once the silence had settled.

“You’re not supposed to get it,”
Killian replied, laughing. “There is no real point to the story
except to entertain and to show our own foolishness. All soldiers
have a similar story about their first days in combat. We tell
these stories to make the others laugh. The reason we don’t tell
them to others is that, just like you, there is seldom laughter
because they don’t understand the humor that we do.” Killian pulled
an apple from his pack and threw it at Thad. “Now it is your turn
to tell a story. Pick one that you would find funny that you do not
think others would, such as that queen of yours.”

Thad took a bite of the apple and
thought as he chewed it slowly. “It was during my first years at
the academy. I was still young, not even ten yet, and I was having
my first lesson with the sword. My instructor was an older boy who
was headed for the sale block the following auction. He had told me
how to hold my sword and how to fight, and as the day went on, he
kept telling me how good I was doing. Later that night, I brought
out my practice sword and was showing off to my other classmates. I
lost hold of my grip, and the sword flew from my hand into the air,
striking one of the nearby mothers. The mother walked over and
handed me back the sword and said, ‘I see that you forgot how to
clean your weapons. Now you can clean the entire building along
with your friends.’”

Only a moment after Thad had finished
his story did Killian break into deep laughter. “Now that is a good
story. Something very similar happened to one of the boys I trained
with. He was an exceptional swordsman but hated cleaning his
weapon. One day, he tried to pull it from his scabbard, but it was
so rusted it wouldn’t budge. Our master had him clearing every
weapon in storage for weeks, along with my help for not advising my
battle buddy.”

Thad and Killian continued to trade
stories. The more of Killian’s stories Thad heard, the more he
began to find the humor in them. It was not about something funny,
but something he could understand. He was not laughing at Killian
but himself and his own experiences that were similar.

As the sun dropped below the horizon
and the stars painted the night sky, Killian and the other generals
sent out the signal to prepare for battle. Thad had expected that
they would march silently, but the Vathari wanted their enemies to
know they were coming. To them, the night was their last real
battle before they returned to their holes below the
ground.

Thad took his place with Killian and
Sae-Thae. Their force was responsible for the palace. Thad had
wanted to go against the merchant guild, but Killian had argued
that he would serve best fighting away from where any of the white
swordsmen might be present. Thad reluctantly agreed, though he
still wanted to finish what he had started a year
before.

I can’t wait for this to be
over and you can get back to a safer life. Maybe we can do some
traveling and find some of the other races. I am interested in
meeting that dragon again.

“I doubt that when the war is over, I
will have time for much adventuring,” Thad replied as he
straightened his sword on his hip. “I plan to return to Farlan and
start planning to build a school for mages as well as a place for
the magical races. It is past time that magic was seen as
commonplace in our world again.”

Farlan? Don’t tell me you
plan to run back to that pompous little queen? I don’t see why you
want to be around such women or any women at all. They are nothing
but trouble.

“What is life without a bit of
trouble?” Thad replied, pushing Thuraman and his objections from
his mind. It was obvious that the staff had taken a keen disliking
to any female, and now was not the time for such
distractions.