Mighty Hammer Down (51 page)

"The Bhoors will not care. They don’t
believe in Arius. But I am hoping that when the Medorans see me
they will be filled with some kind of mystical inspiration to help
us defeat an army that is many times larger than our
own."

Chapter 34

The cool blue light of dawn was
already chasing the shadows away when Tannis finally came out of
his tent. He had been awake for several hours, bent over maps and
meeting with Commanders and other officers to plan for the battle
ahead of them. Scouts had finally returned from beyond Burnhamheade
where the Bhoors made camp, and the news was not what he wanted to
hear. They had confirmed that the force was much larger than the
Medoran Legions, and they appeared to be ready to move.

Although it was not natural for him to
think it, he had doubts about this war. He prayed to the gods that
his men could not sense his uncertainty, but he knew that the
Commanders would probably notice it. As far as he could tell, the
entire Vindyri army had been annihilated. None of the scouts had
seen a single Vindyri soldier since they entered the land, and that
was especially troubling to him. It felt like the cold silence
before a terrible storm. As he stared off to the clear skies in the
east, a familiar voice came to his ears.

"It’s coming soon, isn’t
it?"

Tannis turned to Commander Soterus.
"Probably today or tomorrow. Neither army can wait much longer. Our
supplies will run out before long. When did you get
here?"

Commander Soterus cleared his throat.
"We only just arrived. We were camped not far from here to the
south. I’m sure the scouts have told you why we didn’t attack the
Bhoors."

"Yes. They can’t even give me an
estimate of the number of troops. You did the right thing. If you
had attacked them I would be short about 40,000 men. Besides, that
would have ruined the surprise attack."

"Do you think they know we are here
now? I am almost certain that they didn’t detect my forces, but
yours is a lot harder to hide."

"Yes, I think they know we are here.
That’s why I said I think the attack is coming soon. They have to
be watching and like you said there is nowhere to hide."

"Have you considered attacking them
first General?"

"Of course I have. We will be moving
within the hour. If they don’t attack us first, we’ll attack
them."

Soterus cleared his throat again.
"General, why have you come in from the northwest? Why did you not
take a more direct route when you got close enough to
Burnhamheade?"

Tannis sighed and cracked his neck. "I
did something foolish I’m afraid. I came this way because I
honestly believed that the gods were telling me through dreams to
head north. Looking back on it, it was probably a serious mistake.
I could have been in the capital three or four days ago if I had
not paid those dreams any attention."

"Well perhaps this will fool the
Bhoors into thinking you are less intelligent than you really are.
It’s always good for your enemy to underestimate you. There is a
bright side to every problem."

"If all of my soldiers are
slaughtered, I will find it hard to see the bright side of
that."

"So it is true," Soterus said as he
clasped his hands behind his back. "We were wondering if we had all
gone mad. You seem to be skeptical of our abilities."

"No my friend, that is not it at all.
I do not doubt the Medorans; not their swords or their hearts. What
bothers me is the enemy. It does not matter how hard we fight or
what we believe in, what matters is who wins the war. No one is
going to care what we thought if we all die."

"I admit that I have a bad feeling
about this too, General. Perhaps we should head back to
Medora?"

"No. We are charged with the duty of
protecting our people. We will not run. We do not have that option
as leaders of men. We must fight and win at all cost," Tannis said
as he turned away and went to find his horse.

"Then can I at least get you to put
some armor on this time?" Soterus yelled at his back.

"No."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Uritus looked out the tiny window as
the sun struggled to rise above the mountains. It was remarkably
easy for him to find the Black Mages in Vindyrion; but wearing
black robes out in the open made him easy to spot. Almost as soon
as he descended the steps at the temple, a man claiming to be a
Black Mage hurried him to his nearby home. The man was poor, but he
still found food to feed his new Medoran friend. They stayed up all
night talking and when the man was convinced that Uritus was indeed
a Black Mage from Medora, he went to get a few more Mages. None
wore any robes but Uritus, but he kept the hood down.

He turned to the four men sitting at a
round table. "So you have no defense against these Silver
Mages?"

A heavy man with a thick blonde
moustache answered. "No, they have somehow learned to use real
magic. It all happened about 15 years ago, when I was just becoming
a man. I don’t know how they learned to use such powers, but we
have not had any luck learning any magic ourselves."

"It was much the same in Medora until
recently. I have learned to control magic, and most of my Mages
there have been taught. If we had more time I would show you some
things to start, but that will have to wait."

The man tapped his meaty hand on the
wooden table. "Do the Mages in Medora walk the streets wearing
their robes?"

"Of course we do. The people are
afraid of us but they are too stupid to do anything about our
presence. Why?"

"Well Medoran, as you can see we are
not even wearing our robes now. We never wear them unless we are in
the middle of a ceremony. It’s too dangerous to walk around here
with them on. I am surprised that you have not already been
attacked."

Uritus chuckled. "Attacked? By
who?"

"The Silver Mages. Haven’t you been
paying attention?"

"My friend, I assure you that no one
can harm me. I fear nothing."

"How can you be sure that the Silver
Mages cannot harm you? You can’t be sure of the strength of their
power."

"I am sure because these robes are not
the normal robes of the Red Master Mage. They are the robes of
Inshae."

All of the men let out a laugh,
thinking he was joking. The one with the moustache drummed his
hands on the table to express his amusement. "Is that right
Medoran? Where did you find them?"

"In the city of Brinn."

Another man spoke up. "We are not
stupid Medoran. Don’t take us for fools."

"I did not make any accusations
regarding your stupidity, Vindyri. These are in fact the sacred
robes of our god. I have spoken with him as well. Would you like to
laugh about that too?"

"Look, we don’t mean to be offensive,
but there are no robes. There are no artifacts of the gods; they’re
just a myth."

"I find it hard to believe that you
gentlemen lack any sort of faith. Why on earth would you become a
Mage if you do not believe in the things we teach?"

The heavy man leaned back in his
chair. "We are Black Mages because we feel that the ideals of the
sect are more in line with what we believe. We could have become
Silver Mages and been granted power and safety, but they believe
things that we don’t. We are two groups sharing many traits, but we
are divided by our beliefs."

Uritus stroked his chin. "And what
exactly do the Black Mages here in Vindyrion believe in that the
Silver ones don’t?"

"We believe in absolute equality. No
man in this nation is any greater than the rest. We must all rise
up and succeed together, not as individuals."

"Then the Mages in Vindyrion are more
like the Medoran Mages than I was beginning to think. I hold those
same beliefs, although I do not have the reckless irreverence for
our god that you seem to have. I applaud your vision, but if you
were under my control you would be punished for your insolence
toward Inshae."

"But we have done nothing to suggest
that we do not respect Inshae. You have no evidence of that
whatsoever."

"You laughed when I told
you about the robes. You claim that the old books tell lies. While
it is true that The
Book of Oderion
was largely made up by Mages countless years ago,
the true information was still handed down to you and you mock it.
I found a copy of the original
Book of
Oderion
, and it told me where to find the
sword of Arius. Another book tells me where the rest of the
artifacts are located, and that is how I found these robes. My
Mages are back in Medora now, faithfully translating that text and
finding other artifacts and items of magic."

One of the men frowned and threaded
his fingers together. "You claim that you have found more
artifacts? How many?"

"So far we have found the robes of
Inshae, and the sword and armor of Arius. We killed the god of war
in a ritual and attempted to put a puppet god in his place, but
things did not go as planned. He escaped before we could
finish."

The man grinned. "You have to
understand how ridiculous all of this sounds to us, Medoran. How
can you expect us to believe all of that?"

"I don’t expect you to believe
anything. But if you see a Medoran with a golden sword, kill him.
However, if the Medoran has blue eyes, leave him alone. I sent one
of my men to retrieve the sword. Hopefully he has it by now. That
man also wears the armor of Arius."

"And would we be able to kill this god
you created?"

"I have discussed this with Inshae. We
believe that he does have some power, but he is not really a god.
It is likely that he will age and die normally, and he should be
able to be killed."

The heavy man pulled at his moustache.
"If this is all true, we have reason to fear this man who is now a
god. As far as I know, nothing like this has ever happened. It
should be our main priority to find him and kill him."

"You are correct, Vindyri. Nothing
like this has ever happened. Inshae has sent me here personally to
ensure that the matter is taken care of. As I already mentioned, I
have another one of my Mages hunting him down as well. We must kill
Rommus Tirinius, and we must find his father Tannis, and kill him
too."

"Tannis Tirinius. Yes I know that
name. He is the General of the Medoran army; or at least he was
many years ago. He is not well-liked here in Vindyrion. Many of our
fathers and sons died by his hand and the hands of his
soldiers."

"I am aware of that. We are fortunate
that the Vindyri think of him as an enemy. If we’re lucky one of
them will find a way to cut his belly open and spill his entrails.
I don’t really care how he dies, as long as it happens soon. Inshae
demands his blood, for until all of those in the Tirinius bloodline
are dead, the balance of power cannot be shifted to the gods of
darkness."

"What do you mean? How can killing
these men shift any power among the gods?"

Uritus sighed. "It is not easy to
explain. The gods need bloodlines here in this world in order to
maintain some kind of connection to this realm. This is also the
reason for the artifacts. Without this connection there would be no
gods as far as we knew, and if there were no gods, there would be
no creation. We would not exist without this link between
worlds.

"Our goal as loyal followers of Inshae
is to eliminate the other gods and grant him supreme rule. As I
have said, I have discovered how to kill a god, and it is my
intention to kill all of them but Inshae. That is my purpose. That
is why I am here in Vindyrion."

The men were shocked and stared at him
with wide eyes. "How can you say such things when the eyes and ears
of the gods are in every shadow?"

Uritus laughed. "My fellow Mages, the
gods are not listening. Have they answered your prayers? Have they
given you the success and protection from harm that you desire? Did
they keep your fathers and sons safe when they went off to war with
Medora? The sad fact is that man is responsible for these things.
Man must protect himself. Man must find his own path for success.
But this is only a simplistic explanation for our duties. Most of
mankind is foolish and cannot take care of themselves. It is our
duty to provide these lesser men with a system of rule that ensures
that their efforts are combined with the efforts of others. A man
is weak, but men are strong. A single brick does not a city
make."

The heavy man crossed his arms and
stared down his nose at Uritus. "You dare say that we lack respect
for Inshae, and you sit there and tell us that the gods do not
listen to our prayers? Just who do you think you are?"

"I am a man who understands that is it
not man’s duty to ask of the gods; it is the duty of the gods to
command man."

"You seem very confident, Medoran. I
do not know much about what the gods want from us, but I do
understand your words. You are beaming with strength and integrity,
and I am beginning to feel like you are a man we could all follow.
Your view of the world is nearly identical to ours, and we fight
for the same cause. We have remained in the shadows as we helped to
shift this nation into its current state. We have done much to
advance our cause, but the people still hate us, even though we are
doing things for their benefit. We dream of the day when we can
walk among them as friends and saviors, and when they can
understand that we helped to bring such unified success to
Vindyrion."