by Tom Larcombe
“Merlin,” Gunter said in a soft, urgent voice.
“Yes?”
“Is that a fire off in the distance? You'll need to come over here to see it, I can only see it through a narrow lane through the trees.”
Merlin walked over and looked.
“Yes, I think so. Is that important?”
“I was thinking that our route towards Berlin was too obvious. Didn't you say you thought Ave knew our plans?”
“She could easily have discovered them while I was her prisoner.”
“So, I'm thinking that she may have set people watching for us. You told me that wizards can detect when people use magic if they're looking for it, didn't you?”
“Yes I did.”
“So, if she has people keeping track of magic use, she may have set watchers along our path when we separated from the main army. She would have known where we were from your efforts at protecting the bridge. You used enough magic that you were exhausted, she would have noticed that. I doubt they'd set a guard in the center of the forest to look for an army, so that's either someone watching for a small group or someone hiding from the Germans. Either way, we should check it out.”
“Do we have the time?” Merlin asked.
“Better that we're late than we leave an enemy at our back. Especially if she's using wizards for her watchers.”
Merlin didn't even have to consider it, he didn't want to leave an enemy wizard the potential for a rear attack.
“You're right, we should check it out. How do you want to do this?”
“Well, I think surprise is out. Moving through this undergrowth makes so much noise that he'd hear us before we got in pistol range. Not even the animals that live here can move through it quietly.”
“How about bait? If he's looking for magic, I can do something he can't help but notice. You hide and wait for him to show up.”
“That would work if we wanted to kill him but how would we capture someone that way? Remember we want to ask some questions,” Gunter replied.
“What should we do then, walk right into his camp?”
Gunter stared at Merlin for a moment.
“It has the benefit of being unexpected. If we're intentionally loud and you change our uniforms to look like my original one we could pose as deserters from the front lines.”
“We're assuming it's a wizard. What if it isn't?” Merlin asked.
“If it isn't then they'll either be a deserter themselves or someone not associated with the army at all.”
Merlin sighed.
“You can't come up with anything better?” he asked.
“Not here in the forest in the middle of the night,” Gunter said
Merlin changed the appearance of Gunter's uniform, using as little magic as possible in case the watcher was a wizard and actively scanning the area. Anguis took care of Merlin's appearance. Then the two men started moving through the woods. Even trying to avoid the worst of the underbrush left them making plenty of noise.
“Remember, speak German,” Gunter said, in German.
“I will,” Merlin replied in the same language.
As they grew closer to the fire, they started to talk. In German, they spoke of the mad American tank drivers who decimated anyone in their way. They mentioned how lucky they were to get away from them and how they wouldn't be going anywhere near those tanks again. The small talk continued until they got close to the clearing.
“Be quiet!” Gunter said.
Merlin played his part and stopped speaking.
Gunter leveled his rifle at the clearing.
“Hello the camp,” he said.
There was no answer.
Merlin examined the clearing and saw a pack, lying on the ground. He switched to his Sight and saw the concealment shield in the middle of the clearing. A bit of extra effort revealed the single man it cloaked.
Merlin pretended not to have noticed the man.
“Look, someone left their gear,” he said, pointing. “Maybe there's something we can use in there.”
Gunter moved towards the pack. Merlin stopped at the edge of the clearing and pretended to scan the area, keeping the wizard in sight out of the corner of his eye.
The concealed wizard was watching Gunter. Merlin took advantage of that to edge closer to him. Gunter dumped the pack out on the ground and spoiled the whole charade.
“Merli... Merle, look at this,” Gunter said pointing to a wrist thick crystal shimmering with a bruised purple light.
Merlin acted quickly when he saw the concealed wizard's response. The concealed wizard grasped a second crystal and his lips moved as though he were speaking silently. Merlin recognized that as a crutch for a non-experienced wizard to cast a spell so he created a shield against magic, facing inwards and surrounding the German wizard.
Light flared as a bolt of lightning flew from the crystal in the wizard's hands, targeting Gunter. The bolt struck the shield and spread across its interior, trying to find a way to reach its intended target. When it had formed a half dome surrounding its caster, the bolt finally contacted the earth and grounded itself out.
The German wizard looked dazed. One of his eyebrows was singed and his uniform was blackened around the buttons and other metal portions. Merlin stepped forward and kicked the purple crystal out of the wizard's hands. The impact of Merlin's foot on the man's hand sent him in a half-spin that left him collapsed on the ground.
“Shit!” Gunter said, trembling. “I didn't even know he was there.”
“I was watching him watch you. I couldn't think of a way to let you know without informing him that he was visible to me,” Merlin replied.
“Well, if I needed a reminder that hunting wizards is a risk, that sufficed. Let's get him coherent and see what he has to say.”
Gunter jerked the wizard back into a sitting position. He covered the prisoner with his rifle and waited until the man seemed to snap back to himself.
“On your knees with your hands on your head,” Gunter barked in his command voice.
The prisoner complied, shakily.
“Explain this,” Gunter said pointing to the crystal from the pack.
“I collect crystals,” the prisoner said.
“Don't give me that,” Gunter said, “Crystals with an inner purple glow aren't natural. They're storage reservoirs of death magic from what I've been told. I know you're a wizard, I just saw you try to attack me with a spell. Now, why are you here and who supplied the crystals?”
The prisoner laughed.
“You're mad. Everyone knows that wizards don't exist.”
Merlin stepped into the prisoner's line of sight, his finger blazing with a white-blue bar of cutting flame.
“I guess I must be mad also then,” he said. “But let's see if you are as well. If wizards don't exist then this flame cutter won't harm you at all if I press it against your finger, will it?”
Merlin stepped closer to the prisoner.
“You can't do that,” the prisoner screamed. “Torture is against the Geneva convention!”
“But I'm a madman, remember? Besides you aren't a prisoner of war yet, we don't even have your name.”
Merlin stepped closer, holding the bar of flame at the prisoner's eye level. The prisoner swallowed nervously.
“My name is Schmidt, Heinrich. I am an under-wizard with the SS.”
“Isn't there something else you should tell us also?” Merlin asked, stopping his advance and letting the cutting flame dissipate.
“I don't have my serial number memorized. It's in my journal in the pack.”
The prisoner glanced over at the contents of his pack.
“In the pile of items that were in my pack anyhow,” he said.
Gunter turned and started poking through the pile with his foot. Merlin stayed where he was and Heinrich relaxed. The prisoner's hands slipped down to the back of his neck when he realized Merlin wasn't advancing any more.
Merlin kept one eye on the prisoner and watched Gu
nter with the other.
“See Gunter, I told you the hunt would help my concentration. No blood lust this time, I used my spells instead.”
Gunter slung his rifle, bent over, and came up with a small book. Merlin stepped towards him, interested in seeing what the journal contained. Gunter turned back towards Merlin and a look of panic crossed his face.
“Merlin, shoot him!” he cried, once more using his command voice.
Gunter struggled to get his rifle into play but he'd slung it over his back when he was picking up the journal.
Merlin responded as Gunter had shown him on the firing range. His hand dipped and tore the pistol from its holster. He spun and dropped into a crouch to steady his aim. The pistol came up as an extension of his arm and he fired twice. Once into Heinrich's chest and second time into his forehead, just above the bridge of the nose.
Heinrich fell backwards when he was shot, his body off balance from his position. A small object flew from Heinrich's hand as he fell. Merlin blinked before he realized what he'd done.
“Gunter, you had me shoot a prisoner?”
“No, I had you shoot a combatant,” Gunter said.
He walked over to the object that fell from Heinrich's hand and picked it up. He examined it for a moment.
“Walther PPK, nasty little weapon. Doesn't use the best of rounds but it's incredibly concealable. Looks like he had his strapped onto the top of his back where he could get to it with his hands behind his neck.”
He leaned over and looked at the back of the corpse's neck.
“Or not, he has an empty holster on his belt but nothing on his neck,” Gunter said.
“He probably levitated it from the holster to his hand. It's small enough that it wouldn't be all that obvious in this lighting,” Merlin replied.
Gunter ejected the round in the chamber of the pistol and then its magazine. He handed it to Merlin.
“See for yourself,” Gunter said, “It's still deadly if you know how to use it, so I reacted. You did everything just right or you might have a hole in you now.”
“After all the talk about me using spells instead of guns or hand to hand, you tell me to shoot someone? I could have shielded myself and subdued him. Even if I hadn't, Anguis would've protected me.”
Merlin wasn't sure due to the orange light of the fire but he thought Gunter blushed.
“I... uh... Sorry?” Gunter said.
I'm as much to blame as Gunter is, Merlin thought. I need to let him know I'm aware of that and that it wasn't his fault.
“Let's look at the journal. We probably wouldn't have gotten much information from him anyhow. Thank you for the warning. I was paying attention to you instead of him. I don't know what I was thinking. It's probably more my fault than yours.”
Gunter opened the journal and started looking through the pages.
“You wouldn't really have used that flame on him, would you?” he asked.
“No,” Merlin said, “but he didn't know that.”
Gunter scanned the journal, slowing when he reached the later entries.
“He appears to have made his entries with abbreviations. If I'm reading them correctly, he was sent out with nine other wizards to guard the approaches to Berlin from the area near Magdeburg. They were told to keep an eye out for strong magic and report in if they spotted it,” Gunter said.
“I see he wasn't lying either, wasn't that his serial number right inside the front cover?” Merlin asked.
“Plus his name and date of commission, which was only a month or so back.”
“Well, at least we know that there are other wizards out here searching for us. I'll refrain from using strong magic unless necessary. That should leave them with no target.”
Gunter used his foot to nudge the purple crystal from the pack over near the one they'd removed from the wizard's body.
“What do you want to do with these?” he asked.
“I'd like to just destroy them but if the energy in them isn't used then the spirits intermingled with it will linger and have the potential to cause problems. So, I'll need to use the energy if those spirits are to be freed. I'll probably tie a spell of concealment to the body and leave the crystals fueling it. They'll run out in a few days and that should take care of that.”
Merlin matched deed to word and in a few minutes the body faded from view. The crystals were also concealing themselves, just in case someone came to check on the area. Gunter and Merlin headed back for where they left the Welsh wizards. When they arrived they found the wizards all asleep except for Rhys, who was standing watch.
“The repairs took longer than expected, so we decided to camp here since you'd set the illusion,” Rhys said.
“I think that was a good idea,” Merlin said. “I don't know if we'll get a chance to sleep again before we reach Berlin. I imagine as we get closer there will be more defenders and no chance to rest.”
“I'll make a soldier of you yet Merlin,” Gunter said with a grin. “Always take any chance to eat, sleep, or relieve yourself because you don't know when the next chance will present itself.”
Gunter settled in to sleep while Merlin spoke with Rhys. Rhys said that he would be relieved in another hour. Merlin asked if Rhys needed anything and when the answer was negative, he settled in to sleep himself.
* * *
Chapter 13
Merlin woke shortly past dawn, feeling only a little rested from his sleep.
At least I'm not itching, he thought, or wanting to tear into things with my hands and teeth.
The Welsh wizards quickly got themselves ready to move. The cold water and rations they ate weren't very appetizing but they didn't want to take any more time than necessary before moving out.
“Next stop, Berlin!” Trystan said optimistically as he climbed into the tank.
Gunter shook his head.
“At least someone got enough sleep to be cheerful,” he said.
Merlin nodded his agreement.
They climbed onto the deck of the tank and secured their gear out of the way. The tank roared to life and moved back towards the road. Merlin slid his locator crystal out and checked it before tucking it away again.
Good, it still shows her in the general direction of Berlin, he thought.
The tank moved along at a good clip, slowing only where the road was damaged or rough. After a few miles they came to a low hill. A look over the top showed that it was the first in a series of similar hills, each slightly higher than the last.
Ollie slowed due to the incline. When they crested the hill and started down the other side, the tank sped up. For a moment Merlin thought the whistle he heard was from the tank's engine, then he recognized the sound.
“Incoming!” Merlin screamed.
He remembered his discussion about the tank crew's methods and threw up a shield. It was large enough to protect the entire tank and everyone on the deck. He used both Nimue's power-saving idea that the shield not form and use up his energy until the shell impacted a lighter trigger-shield and the tanker crew's practice of anchoring the shield to the tank.
The shield flared into view for a moment, accompanied by a dull thud and a side to side rocking of the tank. On the left, the verge of the road disappeared in a shower of dirt and stone, leaving a crater behind. The explosion left Merlin's ears ringing and he choked for a moment as he inhaled dust and dirt.
Ollie slowed and when he came to a stop, began to reverse. The crew got the tank back over the crest of the hill but not before another two shells impacted on Merlin's shield. Once Ollie stopped, the Welsh wizards on top of the tank scrambled off the deck. Merlin and Gunter followed suit when the turret began to rotate.
Rhys and Iestynn low-crawled towards the top of the hill, well off the road. Sionn took cover and his face went slack. Morgen kept an eye on the surrounding area, looking for any hostiles on this side of the hill.
The tank's main gun fired twice as Merlin and Gunter moved farther away.
“Well, I
don't think we can be of much use right now,” Gunter said.
Despite his words he unslung his rifle, checked his magazine and chambered a round.
“Keep an eye out Gunter, I'm going to help pinpoint some targets,” Merlin said.
{Trystan...} Merlin sent.
{Kind of busy.}
{How about I find you some targets. Anyone viewing the other side of the hill, trying to pinpoint locations?}
{Yes, Sionn is. How are you going to find them?}
{Illusion. Watch for the flashes when they fire. I'll get them to fire as much as I can so you can locate them.}
Merlin looked at the Cromwell tank and constructed the illusion in his mind. He added in the mind-numbing roar he'd experienced over the last few days. He also added in the slow and fire en masse tactics he'd witnessed on the way to the Elbe, and the lance of flame he'd just seen from the main gun. Then he multiplied the image times five. Moments later five Cromwell tanks, nearly identical to Ollie, went charging up the hill and over the crest.
Merlin sent his awareness behind them so he could make them react realistically. As soon as they crested, the first illusory tank was fired on. When the shell struck, Merlin added a thick black smoke to the image of that tank. The other four spread out to go around the first. They slowed and fired towards where Merlin had spotted a flash just before his first tank was hit.
Moments after the illusory tanks fired, Ollie's main gun roared again. A jet of flame shot from where the last enemy shells had come from and the four illusory tanks continued down into the narrow valley between the hills. When the tanks were halfway down the hill, three flame lances showed on the opposite hillside.
Merlin viewed the fall of the shells and caused one of his illusions to throw its track. That tank was stuck but still had its weapons available. The other three slowed to fire en masse at the area where one of the flame lances had shown and the fourth, stopped, tank targeted a different area.
Ollie's gun fired again and this time two different areas went up in flames. Merlin traced the source of the second explosion back to Iestynn, lying in cover where he could just barely see over the hill. Rhys was next to him and Merlin Saw that his awareness was in the sky, trying to pinpoint targets.