Recruited Mage (3 page)

What are they doing?

I think I know
.

I jumped, I had forgotten about Diryn.
Ok? What’s happening?

Recruiting.

What do you mean?

I think they’re recruiting soldiers.

But why?

To fight, the Emperor has something big planned.

It can’t be! They are not allowed to just take people from their lives to fight?

Yes they can.

Then why are there boys going in? They’re just a few summers older than me, maybe sixteen summers.

Well, you need lots of boys to carry stuff li
ke arrows and even the new fireshot powder that is too light to have a man carry it.

So some boys are going to be taken from their families to help fight?

Yes.

What do I do?
I was getting scared.

Nothing, just wait, yo
u will not be chosen, too young.

The freezing weather was no
t good for standing in lines for two hours. My fingers were numb and my toes in my wool boots had passed beyond feeling cold. When we got near to the doors the tension started to rise. It was terrible seeing the faces of the men and the occasional boy maybe sixteen, which was two summers older than me, chosen to go through the doors. I could see the Bodyguard’s face; it was clear of all emotion. One man who was chosen tried to run but was thrown to the ground by some soldiers. Billy was not chosen and neither were any other people from the trip in front of me.

I couldn’t be chosen could I? I’m too young.
My turn came and I stepped forward. The Bodyguard looked at me and I looked cautiously back; his eyes were grey and emotionless.

Not me…
please not me!

He paused; he was taking longer on me. Then he frowned and looked to the soldiers around him. Then he cleared his throat.

He pointed to the door and my heart fell to my boots. As I stepped through, I looked back to see dismayed faces looking at me including Master Morrin who I think was starting to cry, he had been like a father to me.

But I'm too young!

Just inside the door was a large book and I soldier ordered me to sign my name in it, I did
so, as I always was told to sign:

Samuel Morrin

4 RecruIted

The hall was almost full
with over one hundred men. I was the youngest by at least two summers and definitely the smallest. The men were in straight lines parallel to the stage that the Town Baron gave his annual speech on and I got into the middle line. After a few more men came in we heard a cart come to the door and the Town Baron along with the Emperor’s Bodyguard were escorted to the stage by a group of soldiers. The Town Baron stepped forward and I shook with fear.

“I thank you all for volunteering to fight for the Emperor.” He said although his body language and tone disagreed as much as we did. “I am sorry for the delay of me getting here and I will now hand you over to our great recruiter and commander
, Ormond.” He stepped back and looked at his feet. He knew he could not hope for our return and he had seen the anger and desperation of the men around me.
This is it; I am lost to die in a stupid battle for more land.

“Welcome to the Emperor’s new army. You have no time to waste; training will officially start in Risina but you will have
had some training by then. When you arrive we will split you into the type of regiment you may become part off. Most of you will be footmen; those of you who hunt with a bow or have had experience with bows will become archers. The strongest of you may become the users of a weapon that uses fireshot powder; a Bombardier. You will now be taken to join others like you in Risina before you are all taken to the Rayne training camps.” Soldiers came in with swords drawn and they gestured for us to leave so we walked out. Outside there were cavalry waiting, I assumed ready to strike down anyone who ran. We were moved into a big group and we were started along the street surrounded with the cavalry. We saw people in windows but no one braved the streets. We walked right through to the gates and we were forced on. We walked through the farming fields to the forest and its dirt roads, then kept going.

Then I
realised that we were not going back, we were going straight away.
I can’t leave! This is not happening!

We took the road towar
ds Risina. I knew that it took one day on horseback but at least three on foot. The walk was hard with many struggling to keep up but no one was allowed to stop. As the days are shorter for winter it was getting dark quickly and it was almost was too dark to see so the cavalry lit torches. Finally Ormond called the line to a stop and sheets and spades were unloaded and handed to us. We set about making camp. We were all tired with sore feet so it took us ages. I helped dig a large fire pit then joined a few others to collect firewood. When others had finished their tasks they helped collect firewood as well so very soon we had a large pile of slightly damp firewood in the fire hole, which after many attempts became a blazing fire. We sat about wandering what to do when some of the cavalry who had stood watching us make camp came forward with a big pot, which we were told was full of soup. We boiled it over the fire and when eventually it was done, we were handed wooden bowls and spoons. The pot was taken off the fire and we lined up to get some of the soup spooned into our bowls. I sat with five boys who introduced themselves as Colter, Luther, Frewin and Nichol. We started eating at the same time and found that it was barely soup and more cloudy water; there were only the smallest scraps of meat and the only other solids were odd bits of carrot and some beans. Colter said he saw me at the snowball fight and Luther had seen me around the Guild. Frewin and Nichol, who they said were nineteen summers old, were sons to the men who brought the Guild’s supply carts. We were chatting when the cavalry approached again with leather bags that they handed to everyone and it was announced that those were our own travel bags that we carried personal items like our bowls in. We were lined up and counted before being allocated places under the tent sheets we put up. Finally we were each given a waterproof sheet of leather each to lay on and a blanket to cover ourselves with. The snow was melted around the fire and it was warm there but unlike in my camp last night we were away from the fire; that was were the fifty or so soldiers slept. Thanks to the spades, we had cleared most of the snow from where we were sleeping but it was still very cold.

The nex
t morning we were woken by a loud horn and the shouts of soldiers ordering us up. I was freezing and stiff and I couldn't stand up before the soldiers who were getting us up reached me, and I was dragged out of my tent and pulled upright. As I staggered to the lines that were forming I heard one of them say that I looked a bit young and shouldn't be here.

Why am I here anyway? Does Ormond expect me to wear
armour and fight? Well maybe not fight but to carry their arrows or something similar until I am lame?

Ormond shouted to us
. "From now on there will be no hesitation or questioning of our orders; you will carry them out immediately", before gesturing an area ringed in posts, about two hundred metres long. "Now is time for your very first exercise; you will play a contact game. The aim is to get to the other side of this area without being tackled to the ground by the others in the middle. If you are tackled by anyone you will join those in the middle. You then run back to the first side against the larger group and that counts as one go. If anyone is not caught after three goes, then whoever is in the middle gets no lunch.” A few men were grouped together and the rest of us lined up along the short side of the area.

Only two hundred met
res to go.

The first go at least should be easy, there are will be too many people too catch.

Ormond shouted “go!” and we all set off running towards the far side. The men in the middle tried to go for the slow men who were lagging behind but some of them stopped and went for the boys who were mostly more nimble and so they would not catch any of them. We got to the other side to find only four men had been caught and my hopes were high for the run back, but one of the middle men called all the rest in and said something quietly to them. When they spread out again they stayed more in groups and when we ran they joined together and took on us one at a time really efficiently and their ranks were swelled by at least twenty more. I moved to the middle for the next as everyone else was moving to the sides to avoid the groups. I ran and two big men went for me, I dodged them easily but they ran after me and almost caught me, I had to dive for the far side but I made it. By now there was only one third of us left. We grouped together and started running, just as the middlemen reached us we split. I got away and dodged many men as they dived for me. A few others were not so lucky and were smashed to the ground. I escaped and made it to the end. I was breathing heavily and my heart was pounding.
Just there and back.
There were ten of us left and we were ridiculously outnumbered. We ran forward against the crowd, we had no way of getting through so we split to the sides and arched around the side of them. We were a lot faster than them but one after another, within seconds, we were taken down. There was one man between me and end. H e was huge and I had nowhere to go.

Down?

In a heartbeat I knew what he meant and dived under him and rolled over before jumping back up. Many hands grabbed for me and someone almost sent me sprawling but I made it. I realised I was the last one standing. There was no chance I could get through about one hundred men and boys. They spread out and spanned the entire width of the area with an impassable wall. I ran forward, only to try and get to someone smaller so it wouldn’t hurt so much. As I got closer however some men broke off from the line to charge at me, I dodged them easily but the line was still impassable. All I could do was charge for a gap. I reached the gap and for a moment I thought I was through, but someone grabbed my ankle and as I fell I was crushed by at least four people. The ground was frozen solid and my legs hurt, I had twisted my wrist in the fall and it hurt badly when I moved it. I sat on the ground holding my wrist and Ormond walked into the area. Everyone was grouped together and I got up, fearing punishment.

“Congratulations o
n your first go. You especially” said Ormond, pointing at me before turning to everyone else. “He almost beat you
all
.” Everyone looked shifty and couldn’t look him in the face. “Now pack up and we will go on again.” We started walking toward the tents. “Faster!” shouted Ormond and we broke into a jog. I tripped and grazed my knees on the frozen ground. I rolled up my new sheets and stuffed them into my bag before taking down my tent cover and packing that up too. My bag now had my tent sheets, two sleeping sheets, a bowl, and a spoon and was rather heavy. I shouldered my pack and joined the line on the road. In minutes we were walking onward toward Risina. Soon we were walking up hill and I was struggling to keep up. Over the two hours we that we walked that morning I slowly slipped to the back. We rested for lunch at the top of the biggest hill around which rose treeless above the woods and provided a view for miles in every direction. I was sure I could see Almon in the distance behind us. Lunch was large slice of tasty but dry bread. I recognised a small mark on the bread. It was a circle with a line through it, the mark of Almon’s Bakery. On the far side of the hill I could just see Risina in the distance, still at least far enough away to take the rest of the day, tomorrow
and
the day after. My legs were sore from the hill and almost gave way as I stood up with my bag. I got a few sympathetic looks but as I expected no one came to help. We were re-formed into a line two thick and continued on down the road. I slowly got used to the bag on my back and the pain in my legs reduced into dull throb, but the strap was rubbing away at my shoulders forming painful blisters that made me wince after every step. Snow was turning to ice and everyone fell at some point whilst waking. I had grazed my knees raw by the end and I had huge scratches from the pebbles that were stuck in the ice and didn’t move when I fell on them. That night after we made camp we did marching practice. Anyone who got it wrong had nothing to eat. Not that they missed much as I was convinced it was the same soup as yesterday but with added water and less to actually eat. At least I did not go to bed that night hungry like some others. I was really sore the next morning and struggled to get to the roll call and I got a nasty surprise when I was grabbed and thrown into a large tub of barely melted snow to wash. The water was so cold I almost passed out before being dragged back out for the next man. I found it very unfair as I was first in but I had the pleasure of watching everyone else have their turn whilst I enjoyed the warmth of a fire that the soldiers had kept alight from last night. The cold had, as well as making me less stinky, drawn blood to my arms and legs, which were now very warm. I also thought that it lessened the pain from the walking. I packed my bag before everyone else so I could spend the longest possible time in front of the fire before we put it out with snow and left. Slowly the road started widening out and we stopped when our road joined another from a town, which according to the signs was called Atwell. I had never been there but it was on one of Risina’s maps I had looked at on my first and only so far trip to Risina last winter. After eating the rest of the bread for lunch I was lined up with a man who introduced himself quickly as Eben, before we had to practice marching which took up a lot of concentration. After about half an hour of being shouted at and threatened, the entire line was almost in time and looked very good. I admit I even felt a tiny bit of pride, being part of the group. I am not saying that I was happy to be there in any way, but I felt a little hope at being something more than a servant. I found marching very hard, as I was the smallest in the hundred or so men, so I had to step further than everyone to get the same speed as everyone else. Tonight was to be our last night before we reached Risina and I was relieved we were so close. The marching stopped and we started walking but despite my best efforts I could not keep up and fell behind after only an hour and a half. As we were walking in line this was not missed by Ormond and his men, one of whom threatened me with a large stick. When I still could not keep up, he went to hit me with this stick, but his horse slipped and he hit me on the head.

I opened my eyes and saw a
cavalryman looking down at me.

“I am sorry you got knocked out
, but keep up," he said. "You can rest on our spare horse,” He pointed to a horse next to him and gestured for me to get up.

I stared at him for a few seconds.
He is responsible for this but I suppose disobeying will make it all worse.

I stood slowly; my head was throbbing very painfully. I put my right hand to my head and it came away blo
ody but it did not seem to be too an bad injury. I had ridden a horse a few times before and so I quickly mounted. The cavalryman also mounted and turned his horse, which was a pony, next to mine.

Now I am mo
unted he can't get me so easily. I could even probably out run his horse.

The
cavalryman seemed to read my mind. "There is no point trying to run, it will only be a death sentence. You have nowhere to go, you would just be caught." I silently agreed that it was pointless to resist. "A public execution in front of all who you have spent the last few days with.” We rode in silence for a while. “You cannot stand a chance in anything we can think of. You did do well in the game we put on though, you almost won. Very commendable for a small child like you.” He said nothing else for the entire trot back to our lines. I was told to dismount and join the line. As I walked alongside the soldiers on their horses, one of them might have given me a pitying glance but I couldn’t be sure. Making camp that night was hard work but we were given a long rest after. I was just lying down when I was interrupted;