He was almost fifty yards away when Marko fired. Time seemed to slow again. Just like before, the soldier almost flew from his saddle and landed heavily against a pine tree. Then everything went still. No one was sure if more royal soldiers would come down the trail. Everyone was ready just in case.
After a few minutes, Marko saw Le Clerc leading the rest of the squad, moving slowly up the trail. “Alright. Let’s go check on the bodies,” said Laurence.
Marko and the others got up and walked down to the trail. He decided to check on the rider who had almost gotten away. He did not think that the soldier had survived, but if he had, he was in the best position to sneak away.
The soldier’s horse had kept riding, but it was easy to find the body. This soldier would never get up again. Marko’s arrow had hit the soldier squarely in the back. It was easy to tell by the increasing blood stain on the man’s tunic. He did not see the arrow in the man’s back. It probably fell out when the soldier hit the tree. Marko spent a few minutes looking around the area, but had no luck recovering his arrow. He did not even see any signs of the shaft or fletching.
Since when could I shoot with a bow? He was easily the worst shot amongst his friends. Ok, the few weeks of practice at the outpost helped, but he was still way behind the other Night Eagles in the squad.
Eventually he gave up and walked back to the rest of the squad. Le Clerc and Laurence were studying one of the royal soldiers his group had killed. As he approached, he realized it was the man he had shot first.
“I have never seen anything like it,” said Laurence. “That wound channel is too big to be from an arrow. Could two arrows have struck in the same place?”
“Possible, but not likely,” said Le Clerc. “Two arrows entering and exiting at the same place, with both of them passing completely through? I don’t think that’s what happened.”
Mital walked up to the pair holding a bloody arrow. “I found this one about sixty yards across the trail. I could not get the broadhead out of the trunk. Almost looked like it was shot at point blank range.”
Laurence took the arrow and looked at the colors of the fletching. Each Eagle built their own arrows. “Three red. Not mine.”
Le Clerc stared up at Marko, seemingly seeing him for the first time standing there. “Yours?”
“Ah, yes, sir. I was up the trail looking at the soldier I shot.”
“Let me see your bow,” said Le Clerc.
Le Clerc studied it for several moments and even tested its draw. He handed it back to Marko without comment.
“Ok, let’s get these bodies buried well away from the trail. My guess is that this was a scouting party. The royals never attack with just a fire team. Marko, you take care of the one you killed up the trail.”
Marko walked back to the first body as the rest of the squad began to pull bodies off the trail. He saw Mital gather up the remaining enemy mounts and lead them back up the ridge.
Chapter XXIX: Another Turn
He had never personally buried a body before. He knew that this man was the enemy of the Empire. Heck, he could have even been with the assault on Bakar. It still did not change the fact that this man had friends and family. Marko guessed he was in his early twenties. He would never know what it would be like to raise a family and enjoy grandkids. Now he was gone. Buried by the man who killed him in the middle of nowhere. Marko thought about saying a few words on the man’s behalf, but realized he had nothing to say about him.
Marko did not have a shovel so he found rocks to build a cairn. It took half a mark to find enough to finish the job. It would keep the predators away from the body, but it was nothing elaborate.
When he finished, Marko walked back to the rest of the squad. They had finished their burying detail and were getting ready to head back to camp. It was already dark by then and Marko was looking forward to a well deserved sleep, even if it was on a hard ground.
The Night Eagles were unusually quiet on the ride back to the shack. That suited Marko just fine. He realized that the tingling feeling never went away. Now it was even stronger. He wondered if all of the riding was pinching a nerve in his spine. He twisted his torso to the right to try to alleviate the pain when he noticed a silhouette in the woods. The shape suddenly crouched down.
“I think there is a priest to the right!” Marko yelled.
Le Clerc looked back at Marko and ordered. “Back to the shack, now!”
As soon as he finished, the sound of arrows releasing filled the night. Marko saw Mital go down with an arrow in her chest just as he felt a sharp pain in his right arm. He spurred his horse forward and flattened his body against his horse’s mane.
He heard screams to his left but did not even think about looking to see who was getting hit. All he could think about was moving faster away from those arrows. His horse seemed to have the same thing in mind as it began to outpace other Night Eagles. Soon the trail to the shack narrowed so that they could only ride single file. Marko stared at Le Clerc’s back as they eventually rode into the clearing in front of the shack.
The arrows had stopped but he knew it would not be long before the royals caught up to them. Marko was shocked to only see one other Eagle enter the clearing. Laurence was leaning over his horse with an arrow protruding from his side. Marko quickly ran over to Laurence and helped him off his horse. He laid him on his uninjured side and looked at his wound.
“There is nothing you can do for him now son.” Marko looked up and saw Le Clerc standing over him. “He has gone to the Maker. It is time for us to leave now.”
They got back on their horses and galloped down the trail they had come up earlier that day. After about five minutes, Le Clerc slowed down. “These horses have about had it. We need to walk them if they’re going to be of any use to us. We are going off trail from here on out. Follow me.”
Le Clerc took what appeared to be a random path through the woods. Every so often, he would kneel down on his knees with his hands pressed flat to the ground. Marko would see a blue light shimmer on Le Clerc’s hands and the light would slowly spread in a circle around them. He worried that the light would alert any royals lurking about. Marko constantly looked around him in all directions for any signs of that silhouette.
Just when Marko felt like he could not continue any longer, they reached a small cave. They tethered their horses and Le Clerc signaled Marko to wait while he went inside carrying a small shovel. Eventually Le Clerc signaled Marko to come inside.
The cave ceiling was low. Marko could not even stand upright in it. He noticed the remains of a fire and a mound of dirt in the back. He looked over at Le Clerc with a questioning glance. Le Clerc held up a silver chain with a fist on it and said, “Found him. It looks like Lieutenant Patnaud died a few days ago from his wounds. I could tell that he tried to heal himself, but that had never been one of his talents.”
“But how did you know he was inside here?” said Marko.
“Each Imperial Mage’s rank medallion is enchanted. We are trained to be sensitive enough to the enchantment in order to find or recover each other. I picked up a tingle when we started walking the horses.”
Tingle? Marko wondered if he had sensed something back on the trail.
“You’re wounded,” said Le Clec.
Marko had forgotten about the arrow that grazed his arm. “It’s nothing, sir.”
“Let me be the judge of that. Roll up your sleeve.”
Marko complied to expose a gash about five inches long.
Le Clerc grunted. “A wound like that is guaranteed to get infected. You could even lose it. Hold still.”
Marko saw the same blue light emanate from Le Clerc’s hands when he touched Marko’s arm. He saw small billows of smoke come off his wound. He thought the smoke had a red tinge to it. Then the wound seem to close on its own accord.
When he was finished, Le Clerc sat back down and sighed. “Go out and get me some rations from my horse. This was a draining day today.”
Marko
brought back some hard cheese, biscuits and Le Clerc’s water flask. He waited patiently as Le Clerc washed down his meal.
“Sir, what do we do now?”
“There must have been at least two full squads out there,” said Le Clerc. “I covered our tracks with magic and created an illusion of us heading towards the West. With any luck, those priests are miles away.”
“I was supposed to protect my people. How can I protect troops if I cannot see the enemy? This war is going to change. We’d better figure out how to change with it or we are done for. Thanks goodness you at least saw what was about to happen.”
“I thought priests could only obscure themselves from sight? I never saw any of the royals that shot at us.”
“That is what bothers me. We should not have lost that many Night Eagles to an ambush. If you had not spotted the man in the woods, I doubt you and I would be here now. That explains why Patnaud’s squad did not return. Remember I said, “priests”. I don’t think there were any rankers in that ambush. I think they were full squads of priests. This just makes it more important for us to return and report to the colonel. I need to get Comte Universite involved now.”
“The mage’s council? I did not think they got involved in military affairs, well at least not outside of training imperial mages.”
“They usually don’t. But, anything that threatens to turn the balance of power between Zandar and Kastav is worthy of their attention. If groups of priests are fighting together that tells me two things. One, that there is now a chain of command and a senior officer that are Church-run, and two, the Church is taking a much more active role in this war. The balance of power is shifting between the military command and the Church.”
“Now, I need sleep to restore my power. This is a type of sleep we never do in the field unless in an emergency as it leaves us exposed. When I am out, I will really be out. I may even look to you like I am dead. I am sorry to put this on you Marko, but I need you to pull watch duty all night long. Do you think you can handle it?”
“Ah, sure. What happens if I have to wake you?”
Le Clerc smiled and then yawned. “Just shake me, I mean really shake me.”
Chapter XXX: The Awakening
Marko had all night to think about the ambush and worry about the royals. He was still in shock about the deaths of the Night Eagles. These were supposed to be the elite fighters in the Emperor’s armies. If they could be shot down that easily, what chance would there be for him and the rest of the soldiers?
What was even worse, was that his friends would not get a proper burial. He hoped the royals gave Laurence and the rest of the team the dignity they deserved.
Marko looked over at the mound of dirt next to the side of the cave wall. He realized that there was another squad out there that had met the same fate. The royals seemed to be interested in this area, but why? There was no town out here. The only natural resource was timber, and there was plenty of it on the King’s side of the mountain.
Whatever they were after, it was important enough to have a group of priests permanently stationed out here. That meant that there were regular supply wagons going around the pass somehow. The imperial patrols should have spotted something by now if they were using the pass, even if by night.
Marko’s mind drifted to the tingling feeling he had experienced right before the attack. He was almost certain that it was some sensitivity he had to magic. The tingling came on well before he saw the priest in the woods. Perhaps he could use it in the future to his advantage. It would give him far earlier warning than relying upon his sight. That of course only helped if magic was actually being used. He had no advantage against an old-fashioned ambush.
Marko came out of this daydream when he heard a low growl. That’s no royal soldier. He knew that sound. He had heard it when the travelling circus came to Bakar last year. The main attraction was a huge grizzly bear that they transported in a large, iron cage.
He heard a sniff and then saw the nose of a huge bear followed by a paw enter the cave. Where was his sword? Of all the times to misplace it! Maybe if he sat completely still, it would go away.
The giant grizzly’s eye locked onto Marko’s. The bear showed its canines and started to growl.
I am not going to die in this cave! I am not going to let Le Clerc down!
Marko felt the familiar heat build in this stomach. He knew what he needed to do. He pointed his right hand towards the bear and willed the heat towards it. Whoosh! A large cone of fire left his hand and struck the bear in the face. The bear gave a cry of agony, its fur igniting. Within a moment, its entire body was on fire. It turned around slowly and tried to run away. It took about five steps and fell to the ground.
Marko began to shiver. It had all happened in a few seconds. He and Le Clerc were almost killed because of his incompetence. Now he had a scorched grizzly bear outside the cave. How was he going to explain that one away?
“Actually, using magic is the quickest way of waking someone up from a mage restoration sleep.”
Marko froze. He turned around slowly and saw that Le Clerc was awake and propped up on his elbow. “Ah, what was that sir?”
Le Clerc chuckled. “No point in trying to hide it. I woke up with a feeling of a massive amount of magic in the air and seeing a bear lit up like a torch trying to run away. Oh, and by the way, there is a blue light surrounding you. Care to explain that?”
Marko dropped his head. “I am sorry sir. I tried to hide it. This is only the second time I created fire. My sword was out of reach. It was the only thing I could think of. Does this mean I go to prison?”
“Prison, why would you say that?”
“Well, the Emperor punishes anyone for using magic outside the guild.”
“Yes, that is true. But first I would say you stumbled across magic more than used it. Secondly, you did it under the supervision of a Guild member. The fact that I was unconscious doesn’t need to be disclosed.”
Le Clerc looked at Marko closely. “The caravan to Sibenik. There were two royals that were burnt. The report said that they had stumbled into a fire. Was it you?”
“Ah, yes. That time it just sort of came up. One of them kicked me and it hurt like crazy…”
“Unfortunately, that is often how a mage first manifests his magic. More than one mage’s career began with an unintentional death. Just be thankful it was a royal and not some school bully. And…don’t try to use magic again unless your life is on the line. That is, not until you are trained to use it safely.”
“Yes, sir.”
Le Clerc considered Marko for a moment. “The two soldiers you killed with arrows. Did you feel anything unusual when you fired the arrows?”
“When the soldiers passed, I thought about the attack on my village. It made me angry. By the time they came riding back, I was really focused. It seemed easy to shoot them wherever I wanted.”
“Did time seem to slow before and after you shot your arrows?”
“I am not sure about before, but it seemed like I was actually riding the arrows until they hit each soldier.” Marko looked at Le Clerc for signs that he was angry.
Instead, Marko’s explanation seemed to satisfy Le Clerc. “Well, I don’t sense any other magic nearby, so I think your little fireworks display went unnoticed. By the way, do you feel any sort of tingling?”
“Yes - I mean, no. I did feel it earlier in the day when we were attacked, but nothing now.”
“As I suspect you already figured out, all mages are sensitive to the active use of magic. Some more than others. Well, I think I got enough sleep to at least be a bit useful. Try to get some sleep. If you need to launch a fire missile tomorrow, you will need some rest.”
Chapter XXXI: The Escape
The next morning Marko awoke at dawn. He felt worlds better than he had last night. Now all they had to do was to get back to Sibenik with a bunch of royals on their heels. Le Clerc told him it was still too risky to start a fire. Instead, they broke their fast
on dried beef Marko had inadvertently left in his saddle bag and water from a nearby stream.
Marko thought about his conversation with the man the night before. Now his ability to use magic was out in the open and to a mage no less. In a way, it was a weight off his shoulders. Le Clerc was a mage and did not seem upset. Maybe he would not get into trouble.
They ate in quiet for several minutes before Le Clerc cleared this throat. “I had to make a tough decision last night, Marko. We just got decimated by a new threat from our enemy. With only the two of us, we do not have the numbers to fight these priests. Our duty is to report back to Sibenik. At the same time, what do I say? In reality, we know very little. The army now has groups of priests working together to ambush soldiers. Ok, that is important. The real question is why? Only here or in other places too? What is so special about this place? It has no military significance other than a potential new path through the Umag.”
The Reluctant Mage: Book One in the Zandar Series Page 17