The next two days went by quickly with Thad and the mages working on the glass orbs, the Katanga soldiers planting them, and the Rane forces building their siege weapons.
It was four days before the Rane forces attacked again. This time, they moved out early in the morning. Thad as well as many of the other mages stood about the camp, ready to defend it the best they could with their shields as the first hail of boulders flew toward the walls. All of the boulders except one from the first volley had been pushed off course.
Looking out across the field, Thad pulled five copper orbs with small crystals sticking from them from a pouch hidden inside his cloak. After checking each one, he found the one he was looking for. “Relouious da un.” As the last syllable left his lips, a great roar erupted from two of the siege weapons as well as the forest line from where the Rane army had been camped.
The blast had not only taken out two of the siege weapons that had hosted the trapped wood, but it had also killed a handful of soldiers and damaged another of the large weapons.
The Rane forces were in disarray for a short time, but when nothing else happened, they regrouped, and another volley of stone and pitch flew toward their walls. Thad and the other mages continued to battle against the flying stone, but with each new wave, the number of boulders that made it through continued to grow.
By the eighth volley, a rather large boulder broke through the northeastern edge of the wall. With signs of the wall weakening, the foot troops and bowmen began their march forward.
Thad waited patiently until the enemy soldiers were in range of the archers. The sound of twanging bowstrings filled the air as both the Farlan soldiers and Rane forces loosed arrows into the sky. A handful of mages who had been held in reserve raised their shields, knocking the enemy arrows from the sky. Thad waited until the arrows found their mark before releasing the enchantment on the next brass orb. Dozens of explosions, wind tunnels, and earth spikes, as well as numerous other spells, filled the area where the Rane army stood.
Thad watched the released magic wreak havoc upon the unfortunate souls in their path. Even the well-trained army panicked under the destruction they faced, but it didn’t take long for them to regroup. Many had been killed, but it was only a small fraction of their number, so they continued on. Once they reached the second set of hidden orbs, Thad released the next orb and watched once again as the spells tore through flesh and bone.
The second set of spells seemed to be too much for the advancing force, and they folded in on themselves and started to retreat as the Farlan bowmen continued their rain of death.
A cheer rose up from behind Thad as the Rane forces were pushed back. Thad wanted to let his voice join in the cries of joy, but he knew it was only a small reprieve. They had won the day, but many more days of bloodshed would follow. Thad wanted to believe that every day would end the same, but he knew better. Killian had pointed out that a tactic, once revealed, would not be as easily used again. The Rane army would no longer just be looking to guard their own camp but also the field, which they would have to march across.
Thad knew that he would run out of tricks far before Rane ran out of soldiers. Without a force of their own to match what they faced, any victory was a shallow one.
CHAPTER XIII
Thad stumbled back to his tent, exhausted. For three days straight, Rane had bombarded their walls and sent small forays against the fort. The day before, Rane had also received a large amount of reinforcements, doubling their previous size.
As Thad crawled under his sheets, his mind played through the events of the previous days. They had killed twenty soldiers to every one they lost, but Rane could afford the losses; they, on the other hand, could not.
How much longer could they hold out? If Rane pushed them hard, they would fall any day. They needed to seriously start getting ready for an evacuation. Those not needed should have left days ago. Bache keep out the slim hope that Rane would decide the losses were too great and leave the field of battle, but Thad knew better. Their attack on Farlan was not powered by greed but a fanatical desire to wipe all magic from the face of Kurt.
As Thad drifted off to sleep, he felt himself being pulled. Maria had gotten quite skilled in her use of dream magic. As he felt the pull, Thad once again felt the urge to study how she accomplished the feat.
As the darkness cleared, Thad found himself once again in the queen’s bedchambers. She had taken a liking to bringing him to her own quarters. As the days passed, she became less and less covert about her desires. Thad didn’t know if it was because death seemed to loom over him or because she had finally reached her limit, but he wished she would stop. He cared for Maria, but his heart was still raw and still grieved for the loss of Brianna.
“How are you?” Maria’s voice asked from behind Thad.
“We are hard-pressed, and I believe the fort will fall within a few days. We cannot last without reinforcements,” Thad replied without turning around.
“I don’t think I asked how the army was doing but how you were,” Maria said, turning Thad around, forcing him to face her. She wore a light green silk dress that made her flaming red hair stick out more than usual.
“At the moment, me and the army might as well be the same thing, my queen,” Thad answered, turning his face from hers.
Thad felt the hard slap across his face. “Stop. Don’t treat me as some lofty queen that you serve only out of fealty. You are my friend first and foremost, Thaddeus Torin.”
Thad reached up and rubbed his stinging cheek. “Can we wait to do this until after the war?” Thad asked, his anger starting to rise.
“You think I should wait until I receive news that your body lies cold upon the battlefield!” Maria screamed. “I have waited long enough. I will not waste what little time I know to be left.”
“Don’t put me in the ground yet,” Thad replied, pulling away from her. “I have survived against all odds before, and I shall do so again.”
Thad felt tiny hands grip his tunic and pull him to his knees so he was forced to look the young queen in the eyes. “I love you,” Maria said, tears streaming down her face.
“I am not ready to give my heart to you yet,” Thad pleaded.
“I know you still mourn her death. I have waited, but I fear time for such things has passed. Please do not make me stand before your grave alone, never knowing how you truly felt.”
Thad leaned over and gave Maria a slight peck, his lips only briefly touching the queen’s. “I do love you, but I still need time.”
Thad glimpsed a small smile spread on Maria face as the darkness folded in around him. Thad didn’t try to fight as he was pulled away, gracious that the dream had finally come to an end. Before he woke, Thad once again thought of Brianna and apologized for his weakness. No matter how hard he tried, the little queen had burrowed into his thoughts, and he could no longer deny his feelings toward her.
As soon as he woke, Thad made his way straight toward General Bache’s cabin. Thad found the general in his office, looking as if he had not slept in days. “Master Thad, to what do I owe the pleasure of your company?”
“We need to start planning to abandon Digger’s Fort,” Thad stated plainly.
“I don’t think it has come to that just yet. We can hold out for a few more—”
“If we wait much longer, then there will be no time to escape when we need to,” Thad said, cutting off the general’s words. “We need to start pulling back troops and rigging the tunnels to be collapsed when the last of our men reach safety.”
“I will start moving out the nonessentials from the fort. The bowmen and a large contingent of soldiers will have to remain to keep the Rane forces believing that we are still within the walls. As for the rest, I have no idea how to close the tunnels once we pass through them.”
“Leave the tunnels to me,” Thad replied. “I have an idea of how to make sure no one can follow us after we decide to close them.”
“If that is all, I have much
to do, Master Thad,” Bache said, dismissing Thad.
As Thad turned back toward the door, he heard a loud horn sound in the distance, signaling that the Rane army was positioning for another attack. Forgetting decorum, Thad rushed out the door and moved as quickly as possible toward the eastern wall.
As he reached the nearest tower, Thad called on his magic, lifting himself into the air and onto the upper platform.
Looking out across the field, Thad saw more than five thousand men marching toward them. First, the siege weapons started their rain of rocks, forcing Thad and the other mages to expend their magical energy to push them aside. Three volleys of rocks rained down on them before the sky was filled with arrows from both sides.
Thad tried to block the arrows as best he could, but they had come too quickly, and more than a score of soldiers fell from their sting. Behind him, the Farlan catapult answered back, flinging dozens of fiery magical orbs at the enemy. Great gusts of fire rose up from a dozen different places, and anyone near was engulfed, their lifeless bodies falling to the ground, charred black.
Through the fiery rain of death, the Rane army pushed forward until they reached the pike-filled trenches. As they slowed down, the Farlan archers picked them off by the score, but still, they came. Thad pulled out his last enchanted brass orb and released it. A loud burst of magical energy exploded from the ground only a few yards away from the fort’s walls, sending men high into the air, a few even falling down into the inner walls of the fort.
Turning away from the carnage, Thad fought back the urge to purge his stomach of his latest meal. No matter how many times he had seen it, watching such death turned his stomach even more so when it was wrought by his hand.
Looking back at the carnage, Thad noticed that the Rane forces had once again begun to pull back. Heaving a sigh of relief, Thad looked around at the many bodies that lay dead or dying on their side of the wall. Each attack left more and more dead with no one to take their place. At one time, they had a combined force of over four thousand. Now that number had dwindled to less than three.
His powers exhausted, Thad was forced to climb down the ladder. Halfway down to the ground, Thad’s hand touched something wet, and he lost his grip. Thad hit the ground hard, knocking the air from the chest. Sitting up, Thad looked at his hand as if it had betrayed him when he noticed that it was covered in blood. Quickly checking himself and finding no wound, he looked around. It didn’t take long for Thad to notice that the crimson liquid dripped from the second platform of the tower.
“Are you OK, Thaddeus?” Thad heard Killian say from behind him.
“Just took a bit of a fall,” Thad replied, getting to his feet.
“You look like you haven’t had a good sleep in days,” Killian said, offering his arm to help steady the mage. “Won’t do anyone any good if you drop dead from exhaustion.”
“It’s not like the enemy is giving many opportunities to rest,” Thad replied, taking the warmaster’s offered arm. “I have also been working on anther plan along with Roger and Marcus for when we have to leave the fort behind,” Thad added in a way of explanation for his haggard look.
“I am not as kind as your other friends. If I think your lack of sleep may jeopardize the war, I will make you sleep, even if I have to give you a couple of lumps on the head. So if you don’t fancy a headache, you better find your way to a bed,” Killian said without a hint of sarcasm.
I don’t think he’s joking. You really should get some sleep. It’s easy for me to tell how gaunt your mind is.
“I don’t want to, but it seems I am left with little choice in the matter,” Thad said out loud, hoping to quell both Killian’s and Thuraman’s objections. He might have not liked it, but even he had to agree that he had once again pushed himself too far. He had promised himself not to do that anymore, but he always found a reason.
There is always going to be a reason if you look hard enough for it. Soldiers die. It’s part of their job. Stop trying to save every life and start worrying about your own for once.
“That is how evil men act,” Thad replied to his staff.
Then be an evil man if that’s what it takes. Believe it or not, there are people that need you, and I am one of them. What am I supposed to do if you die? Wait around for a few hundred years until someone comes along that I can form a link with?
“I will not sacrifice other people just so you have someone to talk to,” Thad replied angrily, forcing the connection between the two to the far edges of his mind. He could still hear a faint murmuring of Thuraman’s objections but paid them little heed.
As soon as Thad entered his tent, he went straight to his bedroll. He had only woken a few hours prior, but he had only been sleeping for short spans at a time. What he needed was a good long rest, but he doubted the Rane army would afford him that luxury.
Much to Thad’s surprise, when Thad woke, he found early morning light streaming into his tent. He had slept for far longer than he had thought possible and for far longer than he had wanted. Scrambling to his feet, Thad darted out of his tent.
As soon as he was outside, Thad noticed that the soldiers were moving more bodies away from the wall and piling them on a new pyre to be burned.
“What has happened?” Thad asked, grabbing the first soldier he came across.
“The Rane forces did a number on us, my lord. We were able to push them off, but half the eastern wall is nothing but splinters and kindling.”
“Thank you,” Thad replied, letting go of the man’s arm and rushing off toward the eastern wall.
As he neared the wall, it was easy to tell what the soldier had been talking about. Almost the entire wall had been torn apart from bombardment with only small sections left standing.
Seeing a number of soldiers moving timber in an attempt to repair the worst of the damage, Thad rushed over to help. As more soldiers arrived to help reinforce the wall, Thad moved back, deciding he had more important things to attend to.
Thad found Killian outside his tent, cleaning the blood from his armor. “Killian, has Bache started evacuating yet?” Thad asked as soon as he neared the old warmaster.
“Yes, late last night, he started getting all the civilians out through the tunnels. It’s a slow process, and we will need to hold the fort for another day at least before the last of us may leave,” Killian replied, wringing the blood from the rag he held in his hands. “I would suggest you be among the first to leave, but I doubt you would heed me.”
“I cannot in good conscience leave while others still fight,” Thad said, his voice full of steel.
Killian dropped the rag and gave Thad a stern look. “I can appreciate the feeling behind your resolve, but it is misplaced. I will not argue with you staying for a time, but when I say it is time for you to leave, I don’t want to hear different from your mouth.”
“Why does it matter if I live or die?” Thad asked with fire in his voice.
Killian stood up and quickly covered the ground between him and Thad. The old warrior grabbed the younger man and yanked him close, nearly picking him off the ground. “Your queen gave us the mission to try and win a war, not just fight a battle. From what I have heard, all our reinforcements have come at your call, and I will not risk them turning around and leaving if you are not there to greet them. Now stop with your self-sacrificing death wish and start thinking about what will happen after you’re gone.”
“Yes, sir” were the only words that Thad could force from his throat. He had spent many hours with the old warmaster, but he had never seen the man so adamant before and hoped to never see it again.
As soon as Killian loosened his grip, Thad quickly made his way to where Roger and Marcus worked. The two men along with a handful of mages had taken over a small corner of one of the barracks, replacing the cots with makeshift tables.
“How many more have you been able to finish?” Thad asked as soon as he was through the door.
“Two dozen, but we’re running out of glass. I
f we don’t get more supplies, we will be finished within the hour,” Marcus said, waving his hand lazily at the small row of glass orbs lining the wall.
“I don’t think we have time to worry about making more at the moment. The wall is falling, and I doubt we will be able to hold them at bay for much longer,” Thad said, gathering up the finished orbs. “You and Roger need to take the western tunnels to the Emeriss estate.”
“That bad, is it?” Marcus said, giving Thad a withered glare.
“I’m afraid so,” Thad replied.
Giving Thad one final look, the older mage set down the orb he was working on and started gathering his belongings. The elder mage stopped after a few moments and looked to his younger apprentice, who was still hard at work. “Did you hear him, fool?” Marcus said, slapping Roger on the back of the head. “It’s time for us to go.”
“I just thought … ,” Roger began to say before Marcus gave him a scathing glare, cutting off any further arguments.
“I wish I could see you two off, but I still have much left to do before the next attack,” Thad said, carefully handing the bag of orbs over his shoulder.
“We will see each other again,” Marcus replied, giving Thad a sly wink.
After leaving the barracks, Thad started making his way through the fort, placing the orbs sporadically in the ground. He had placed more than fifty of them around the camp in the past days, most of them around the entrances of the tunnels. It wasn’t perfect, but it should slow down the Rane army and keep them from following behind them. Once his bag was empty, Thad discarded it upon the ground and headed back to his tent.
It was an odd feeling as Thad started placing all his belongings within his pack. The last thing to go was the tent itself. If he was lucky enough to have another night within the confines of the camp, he would have to do with the barracks or the ground. He wasn’t going to risk having to leave them behind.
As soon as the tent was safely put away, Thad looked around and noticed that many of the Katanga had already taken down their tents as well. It was the final realization that they had lost the fort. The elfin army was still a few days away at best, and even with their numbers, they would still be greatly outnumbered, and Rane hadn’t even committed all the troops that the initial reports had indicated they had available.
Master Mage Page 12