“He’s augmenting his soldiers with magic,” I admitted with a shrug.
“Beautiful…” Shad beamed at her with a hopeful smile. “Can you upgrade me too?”
“You’re a better strategist than he is,” she pointed out ruthlessly. “Think of this as a challenge, and formulate a brilliant plan to overcome it.”
Sulking, he focused back on his soldiers, muttering darkly under his breath, but all the more determined to win.
The battle raged on. Little archers were shooting down the cavalry and infantry, the infantry was taking out the archers, and the spearmen were taking down the cavalry. It was remarkably realistic despite having three inch tall warriors. There were even battle cries and shouted orders—from the three men and one small boy controlling them. I noted with amusement that even though they were taking things rather easy on Tom, the same was not true of the combat between the three friends. They were shockingly ruthless, actually. Shad was whispering secret commands to some of his infantry soldiers and turning them into assassins to take out key officers. Xiaolang was forming his infantrymen into close, tight blocks and using them to plow through any cavalry that got near him, like a large boulder in a stream. Eagle was waiting until Xiaolang and Shad were fully engaged with each other, before pouncing on them from the rear with a surprise attack.
I don’t know how much time it took, but the battle finally wound down, with Xiaolang emerging as the clear victor. Tom came in a close second, as the other two had drawn the focus of Xiaolang’s superior tactics.
“I must be rusty,” Shad moaned theatrically, shaking his head. “I can’t believe I lost so badly.”
“Nonsense, Shad,” Xiaolang retorted with the self-satisfied grin of a victor. “We were just following the rules.”
“What rules?” he demanded, with an air of suspicion in his voice.
Xiaolang drew himself up into a decidedly noble pose. “Rule number one: I always win.”
“And rule number two,” Shad added, with a hand full of moss tossed in his direction, “you always lose.”
Tom started cheering at this point, clapping his hands and laughing with delight. I think we’re corrupting the kid. Laughing in spite of myself, I ventured to inquire, “Is there a rule number three?”
“Always be on guard,” Xiaolang responded promptly.
“How about a rule number four?” Jarod inquired.
I twisted around in surprise, not realizing that he had come up and was standing behind me. How long had he been there?
“Rule number four…” Eagle mused. “What would be a good fourth?”
“Always eat dessert first!” Tom volunteered enthusiastically.
“That’s a great one,” Shad concurred.
I eyed them both and had to wonder just who was supposed to be the child. With Shad it was sometimes hard to tell. I couldn’t help but ask, “So, what does that make rule five?’”
“The rules always change.” Shad shot me a lopsided impish leer.
Eagle raised his hand. “I second that. All in favor say aye! Yup, that’s clearly a majority vote. Chatta, what are you doing?”
I had to twist in the other direction to see past Xiaolang. Chatta had a small pad of paper in one hand, a quill in the other and she was writing quickly. Glancing up she said defensively, “I’m writing down the rules. These are way too entertaining to forget. What’s rule six?” she asked with eager anticipation, ready to jot it down.
There was a pause as people started thinking.
“While we’re all pondering this profound question,” Jarod drawled, “do you mind if we played again for inspiration? I want to join in this time.”
“I suppose this means that I’ll be creating more soldiers…” Chatta acted as if she was being put upon, but her eyes relayed just the opposite message, and were sparkling with amusement.
In the spirit of things I added, “And I suppose I need to make another hill and castle for you, Jarod?”
“Why, yes, thank you!” he exclaimed to us in mock-innocent delight.
Uh-huh. I started forming a new hill and castle…and then on spur of the moment made another set for me. Only mine was a lot larger and fancier. It had more towers and battlements, with an inner courtyard.
“Ooh, that’s spiffy,” Shad observed, leaning forward eagerly to observe my handiwork. “Can I have that one?”
“No, that’s mine,” I corrected. “Chatta, can I have some troops too?”
She hung her head this time, slowly shaking it from side to side. “I knew you’d join in eventually. This game is getting pretty popular all of a sudden.”
“I wonder if you could market this game?” Shield asked in a rhetorical tone. “Do they have animated toys?”
“Well, yes,” Chatta answered absently as she started conjuring more soldiers. This time she was making them in different colors, probably so we could tell them apart from the first batch of soldiers. “They’re rather pricey, however. Only the very rich can afford them. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen moving toy soldiers before.”
Eagle looked at everything as we set up our soldiers and said, “I think you could make some serious money just making the soldiers. This is a lot of fun.”
He had a point.
“So that’s how you do it!” Tom suddenly exclaimed. His eyes were glued on Chatta, watching her every move intently. “Can I try?”
She looked at his eager face thoughtfully for a moment before nodding. “Alright then, come on and give it a try.”
I wasn’t sure this was such a good idea, but didn’t protest. Chatta was the expert on Wizard’s magic, not me, and it was reasonable to trust her judgment. Under her patient tutelage, Tom learned how to craft a soldier and make it move. His efforts were clearly not as well formed as hers, but it was impressive that he managed to do it at all.
Beaming, and clearly proud of himself, he ran back to join us. As soon as he was settled we all launched out our soldiers against each other. It quickly became a chaotic mess. I could barely tell my men apart from everyone else’s.
“Tom, stop changing your archers into infantry!” Jarod complained. “That’s cheating!”
I glanced down sharply and realized Jarod was right, Tom had just used what he learned from Chatta to change his men into what he needed at the moment. His new strategy would clearly have a profound effect on the outcome of the upcoming battles.
“Now can we have some upgrades?” Shad implored Chatta.
I shook my head, a smile tugging at my mouth. Now this was going to be an interesting game.
Afterward
I hope that you’ve enjoyed this collection of short stories. I never thought there would be a Compendium of any sorts for this series, but now that it’s out I’m quite pleased I had a chance to share some of the “nonessential” parts of the story. If it whiled away a few hours and left you with a smile on your face, then it was well worth the effort on my part to release it.
Please look forward to the end of the series, Balancer, which will be released this Fall 2012.
Advent Mage Compendium (Advent Mage Cycle Book 5) Page 8