Master Mage (27 page)

“I don’t know if I should take that as
a comfort or not,” Thad replied honestly. “I don’t want to lose
this war, but it is hard to see us winning this fight as badly
outnumbered as we are.”

“Don’t give in too soon,” Reeve said.
“There is always hope in battle. All you need is for one small
thing to turn to your favor.”

“And what would that one small thing
be?” Thad asked incredulously.

“Luck,” Reeve answered back with a
smile. “The smallest yet most powerful force in the word is
luck.”

“I prefer to believe in more tangible
objects than luck or destiny. Ten thousand more swords would suit
me much better than a dash of luck,” Thad answered back.

Reeve gave one of his haunting laughs.
“Another ten thousand soldiers arriving would be a kind of luck,
wouldn’t you say?” Reeve replied, giving Thad a sly wink. “I think
you take things too seriously sometimes and not seriously enough
for others. I think believing in something outside of what you know
to be true might be good for you.”

“If believe in it or not, it could
still turn my way,” Thad said, turning back to look at the large
force amassing outside the walls of the city. “We will find out
soon enough if luck, as you say it, will be on our side. This next
fight will be the last one, win or lose.”

CHAPTER XXI

It wasn’t until four days after their
arrival at the capital that Rane had finally decided to attack. To
Thad, it was almost a replay of the first time they had attacked
Digger’s Fort. Just as before, it started with Rane’s slow march to
get their siege weapons within striking distance of the
walls.

Less than half of the enemy’s siege
weapons worked as expected thanks to Reeve and his men, but they
had had built plenty to spare. It was amazing what the elves and
dwarves had been able to do in their short time. Every hundred
yards, a new tree had sprouted and now housed no less than two
elves. The wall had nearly tripled in thickness thanks to the
dwarves. The boulders that rained down hit the stone but did little
damage. As Thad watched the bombardment, he started to believe in
Reeve and his idea of luck.

In retaliation, Farlan’s four siege
weapons began to fire. They didn’t have a ready access to boulders
as the Rane army, being locked within the confines of the town, so
they used whatever they could find, and that included parts of
houses, even if they had to be torn down.

Even though their bombardment seemed to
have little effect, the Rane army continued their march toward the
walls. Thad knew that they had few men to guard the wall against
the massive wave of soldiers that was coming, but he still hoped
for a victory. It would be the first time they had one at such
odds. At the moment, three to one didn’t seem too badly against
their favor.

As the soldiers neared the walls, the
elves and other archers held their shots, only having a handful of
arrows each. It wasn’t until the first hands touched the walls that
men began to fall with fletching sticking from their chests. Thad
had the urge to add his magic to the mix, but under Killian’s
advisement, he and the other mages were to hold their spells until
the situation seemed dire.

Thad kept watch, waiting for where he
might be of the best use, when a large boulder shot from an enemy
catapult came crashing in. Normally, Thad would have been watching
the skies in order to push the large rocks from the sky, but today,
he had other duties. As the rock struck, Thad’s shield rings
deflected most of the damage, and though he was thrown into a
nearby house, he sustained little damage.

That was brilliant. You
would think after months of battle, you would remember to keep your
eyes peeled for such things.

Thad wanted to answer back, but little
came to mind as he brought himself to his feet. A slight cracking
nose came from his hands, and looking down, Thad could see that the
gems on his rings were begging to crack and break as if struck by a
hammer. Acting quickly, Thad tore the rings from his fingers and
tossed them away.

After waiting a few moments, Thad
breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that none of the rings bore
enough power left to do any real damage. Looking down now at his
mostly bare hands, Thad felt naked. Thus far into the battle, his
rings had pushed aside all blows and kept him from harm from all
but the soldiers bearing the white swords, and those seemed few in
number.

You have other gifts that
you can employ.

“I don’t fancy having my arm or entire
body turned to stone should I make a mistake,” Thad replied to
Thuraman weakly. He had practiced with the use of the stone skin,
but he knew that once in battle, it would be much more difficult to
employ. Was it better to die from a sword stroke or to live the
rest of your days as a living statue? Thad asked to
himself.

His mind wandering, Thad almost didn’t
notice the soldier who had scaled the wall and was now heading into
the city proper. Moving quickly, he cut the man off. He was a
brutish-looking sort who looked as if he had not shaved or bathed
in a season. The soldier was menacing enough, but with the large
double-bladed war axe, he seemed almost ill-omened considering Thad
had just lost his magical shielding.

Short of fleet of foot, Thad moved
around the larger soldier, keeping just out of striking range,
wanting no part in testing the axe’s blade.

The soldier, no stranger to battle,
stopped in his tracks and gave Thad a warning glance. Reaching into
his belt, the large man produced a large dagger that would seem
like a sword in some men’s hands and threw it in Thad’s
direction.

Thad lunged to the side, tucking his
arms and rolling back to his feet. Reaching up, Thad ran his
fingers across his shoulder where the dagger had drawn a small line
of blood. Smiling back at the soldier who was now advancing on him,
Thad pulled a small metal orb from one of his pouches and launched
it at the man. Laughing, the brutish warrior moved to knock the
stone from the sky.

When Thad released the enchantment on
the metal slug, he could see the man’s eyes contort into pain and
confusion as his arm bent backward, slapping him in the face and
throwing him to the ground.

Thad was amazed when the large man
returned to his feet. It seemed as though his hand had deflected
the stone enough that it had not done any fatal damage. His arm
hanging uselessly at his side and his nose bleeding profusely, the
large warrior gave a painful grimace as he hoisted his axe in one
hand and ran toward Thad.

Knowing that he might as well get used
to the feeling, Thad let his left arm from the elbow down turn to
stone. It was always an odd feeling when the gods’ magic invaded
his body. It was always cold, as if he had been doused in the water
of a winter spring.

The soldier seemed to be slowed little
with the loss of his arm, his axe screaming in toward Thad with
quick succession. Thad blocked the first strike with his sword, and
his arm went numb from the strong blow. Dodging the second, Thad
moved cautiously, trying to stay out of the path of the
berserker.

Thad waited for his chance, and he saw
it when the warrior hoisted the axe above his head from a downward
strike. Acting quickly, Thad pouched forward, raising his left arm
above his head as he dashed forward with his sword aimed for the
man’s heart.

Thad felt as the haft of the axe struck
his stone arm. Though it did no damage, it still sent a jarring
feeling throughout his entire body. It did little to steer him from
his path, and his sword soon found flesh as it buried deep within
the man’s chest. Thad tried to pull his sword free as the soldier
tumbled backward, but it was stuck fast.

Thad nimbly jumped backward as his
sword was pulled from his hand. Thad waited to see if the soldier
would stir, knowing that many soldiers would fight on even with
wounds that should carry them to the gods. When it was clear that
the soldier would not stir, Thad retried his blade and returned to
his post atop the wall.

The rest of the battle went well with
only a handful making it over the wall and into the city, where
Reeve and his men were forced to hunt them down. As the sun began
its descent, the Rane forces retreated, leaving Farlan to count
their losses.

From the outside, it would look like
Farlan had won the day, and they had, but it had been a costly
victory. They had killed the Rane soldiers at a rate of four to
one, and the massive force that had once numbered over forty
thousand troops had been reduced to a few thousand weary and tired
men, most of whom were wounded.

Farlan, though, was not faring much
better. Their few numbers had been reduced, leaving them with less
than a thousand to man the large wall around the city. They had
fought hard, but many soldiers had still fallen to either blade or
stone. Tuck, who had snuck out from the eyes of the healers,
numbered among the dead.

When Thad had learned that Crusher had
also been taken to the healers’ tents, he ran toward them at all
haste.

“I don’t need yer bloody foul-tastin’
tonics,” Thad heard Crusher’s voice echo as he entered the small
tent that had been set up outside of the palace for the healers.
The queen had offered for them to use one of the larger dining
halls, but as large as it was, it couldn’t hold the number that had
needed care.

Thad found Crusher sitting on a cot
with his leg and head bandaged heavily. Though looking in a sour
mood, the dwarf looked as if he would survive his injuries. “Find
yourself on the wrong side of a sword?” Thad asked, trying to hold
back a laugh as Crusher continued to try and refuse the nurses’
care.

“Aye, our friend in that blasted
armor,” Crusher replied scornfully. “Me hammer nor me axe made a
dent in that thing’s metal hide. If it weren’t for your rock mutt
and that little fairy, I wouldn’t have been able to get my hide out
of there. I gotta say that little flying pain might like to yank on
my short hairs, but she comes in handy in a fight. ”

“Are they all right?” Thad asked
worriedly.

“Aye, they fared a lot better than I
did, that’s fer sure. That queen of yers has ’em up in the palace.
She’s taken a shine to the little one. I think she has her pulling
pranks on some of her more troublesome nobles just fer a few
laughs.”

After assuring himself that his friend
was going to make it through the night, Thad made sure to check on
the others. It was painstaking to walk through the camp and see the
faces of the soldiers and their loved ones. In the other battles,
families had been away from the battlefront. Now many of them were
close at hand. The cries from the grieving families were nearly
enough to make him want to cut his ears from his head.

“Sir, Master Killian is looking for
you,” a young page said, rushing out to greet him as soon as he
neared the palace.

Thad had suspected the warmaster would
wish to see him. It was a dire situation, and the warrior had lost
nearly his entire force. As he walked toward the war room, Thad
thought about Killian and his people. They had come to help on the
promise of gold, but he would have thought that they would have
left once the battle had turned toward ill tidings. They had not
and instead had placed themselves on the forefront of the battle
lines. They had earned well any reward Farlan could offer, though
not many were left to claim it should they win.

Thad found the warmaster in his normal
routine of tracing lines over a map of the city. “You needed me?”
Thad asked, rousing the soldier from his internal
thoughts.

“Thaddeus, it is good to see you made
it through the battle. I heard reports that you took a ride on a
boulder,” the warmaster said, looking Thad over
carefully.

“That I did,” Thad replied, smiling.
“It wasn’t a very pleasant ride and one I wouldn’t suggest for
others.”

“Indeed,” Killian added, shaking his
head with a brief smile, breaking his normally stern demeanor. “The
reason I called you is that we have received word that two other
Katanga forces are moving to aid us, though they are still four
days out. They are not an impressive number, but it will help to
bolster our strength. The bad news is that the messenger also
reported that he passed near a large force carrying the banners of
King Tuorman and King Lianster only two days out.”

Thad slumped into a chair. They had won
the day, and it was begging to look as if they might even hold the
Rane forces at bay, but not if they received reinforcements. “Can
we win?” Thad asked, sure of the answer before it left his
lips.

“Unless you can conjure up another ten
thousand troops with your magic, I don’t think we will last past
the first attack. The strengthened walls seem to hold against the
siege engines, but we don’t have the men to man the walls against
their soldiers.”

The news fell hard on Thad. They had
lost. In two days, the Rane army would march on the city and burn
it to the ground. There was some hope they would spare the normal
citizens, but Thad doubted it. It was common practice to raze the
entirety of a defending city to the ground once it was seized. It
was to make the rest of the country take a second thought against
any thought of resistance in the future.