Branded Mage (22 page)

Andre knew he hated being called master and did it just to rile him up from time to time. It wasn’t that he didn’t like being treated as important
, it was just that he didn’t consider himself anywhere near a master of anything yet. He didn’t want to assume a title that he didn’t feel like he had rightly earned.

Andre laughed at him and waved him off
. Thad returned to his office where he began to slowly fill the glass orb with magic until it began to glow a bright red. He could have made the orb glow any color, but red just seemed to be the most appropriate and the easiest for him, and it was also his favorite color.

With the orb ready for its test
, Thad set it aside in a box that he had had made shortly after arriving. It could hold twenty of the orbs, each safely in their own little section lined with old blankets and tunics to help insure they didn’t rupture prematurely. Thad couldn’t even begin to imagine what would happen if a large group of the orbs all exploded in one confined area. Luckily the general understood his request and had even cleared a room in the command center vault for the orbs.

Sighing
out of sheer boredom of his current tasks, Thad picked up an arrow and began infusing its crystal arrowhead and wooden shaft with the needed enchantments. It was going to be a long day, but at least he had the test for the orb to look forward to.

CHAPTER XVII

Thad stood with General Foreman and a host of other officers
, including his friends Harmon and Eloen, waiting for the test to commence. A young volunteer stood with the magically altered orb, a fair distance away, waiting for the signal to launch it toward a large grouping of straw men wearing steel armor using a modified sling.

Though they had only been there a short time
, the wait grated on his nerves. Everything that could go wrong with the test ran through his mind. What if it didn’t go off as planned? What if the soldier missed and the orb flew toward them? What if it went off in the sling killing the soldier? Before he left, he was sure that nothing could go wrong. He had check and double checked the thickness of the orb. He had even stopped by and asked Todd what force he believed it would take to cause a crack deep enough to reach its inner core, but now his confidence was waning. He had to fight to keep himself from fidgeting as he watched the soldier place the orb in his sling.

It was a new form of torture
, watching the sling spin over the soldiers head with the orb inside. He could hear the whistle made from the leather as it cut through the air. Then the orb was launched. It flew at an arc far down the field were Thad had to squint to see it as it struck the straw dummies.

Thad’s heart stopped as the orb disappeared
, replaced by a flash of light and an ear shattering explosion that sounded as if lighting had stuck right next to them. Thad was too afraid to look at everyone and occupied his mind by surveying the damage the orb had caused. The straw dummies were destroyed beyond recognition, and it looked as if bits of armor had been thrown twenty yards or more. The soldier who had unleashed the orb lay on the ground, and for a brief moment, Thad was worried that he may have been injured. His fears were soon alleviated when the man got to his feet, he was unsteady and breathing heavily, but he appeared to be uninjured.

He felt a hard slap on the back that made him jump in surprise. His startled reaction
made the soldiers around him break out laughing. 

“Thaddeus my boy
, I am most impressed. When you first explained what you planned to do, I imagined something much less effective. I understand now why you insisted they be guarded to such an extent. If a large group of those went off in once place, I daresay we wouldn’t have a fort left to defend.” General Forman said, his face holding a little more awe than Thad had expected from the seasoned warrior.

“That’s the truth General. I can see why the queen sent you to us now. I must admit
, at first I figured you wouldn’t be of much use, but now I’m starting to feel sorry for the Ablaians. How many of these do you think you can prepare for us?” An older captain with a thick gray mustache and bald head said, giving Thad a hearty smile.

“I don’t know how many I will be able to prepare at the moment. Tomorrow blacksmith Andre will be making some plates for me so I can enchant them to charge the glass orbs with magic. I’m planning on making ten of them; each one will take about a day and a half before the orbs are full. As long as you keep putting new orbs on them, they will continue to make more. I will be adding a time sequence to the devices, so that they will quit working after a set period of time.”

Trent and the older captain who had been speaking nodded their heads in approval
, but a brash young lieutenant didn’t seem too pleased with his answer. “Why would you make them so they quit working? With a weapon like this at our disposal, we would never have to fear another Ablaian invasion.”

Thad
started to explain his reasoning, but General Foreman beat him to it. “Yes, with a weapon like this we could defend the fort from many attackers. We could most likely take over Abla, after we amassed enough ammunition. In fact, we could probably start our own empire with enough weapons of this kind, and that is the exact reason that it shouldn’t last. Today we know that our queen is a kind and gentle sort, but what of the future Jacob. Can you promise our young mage here that these will never be used for evil purposes? While I wouldn’t mind having one of these permanently at the fort, I can see Thaddeus’ reasons for not wanting something so dangerous to last forever.”

Thad had expected there to be some fuss about making a weapon that only worked for a short period of time. Even the orbs wouldn’t hold magic over an extended period. In less than a year after being made
, they would be so weak that the glass orb itself would cause more damage than the magic it held. He was glad that some of the officers understood his motives. He had learned one thing well from the lesson in the book of magic. The mages own creations were used against them during the Fae Wars, and that was something he didn’t want to repeat.

As the group made their way back toward the main area of the fort, Eloen jogged up beside him.
“Remind me not to make you mad when you’re holding one of those.” She said nudging him hard in the ribs with her elbow. “I have seen you do a lot of damage since I met you, but that is the first time I nearly wet myself. Seriously Thad, those scare the living hell out of me. All I have to say is I’m glad you’re on our side. I can’t imagine what war must have been like when there were thousands of mages running around.”

Thad understood what she was saying
, and a part of him could start to see why the emperor had gone after the mages with such vehemence. He was still new to magic and most of his efforts were trial and error. Back then, they had mages who could pass down their knowledge to the next generation, constantly building on their skills. If he could do so much damage while learning everything on his own, what havoc could the mages of the forgotten past been able to do?

The sun was already
setting so instead of heading back to his office, Thad walked back to the command center with Trent. He was glad the day was over. He had worked himself with hardly any breaks since the shipment of good had come in earlier that day. He was surprised that he was able to work for such a long period of time. The constant strain would show sooner or later, but the fact it hadn’t yet meant that he had grown much stronger over the passing year. Using direct magic still tried him fairly fast, but enchanting seemed to take a smaller toll on his body and mind with every passing day. Maybe it was because with enchanting, you were slowly building the magical force that would be employed by the combined effort of the core and body instead of hastily building it and directing its force with your own. He wasn’t quite sure, but he wished he had someone with knowledge of such things.     

           Back in his room
, Thad checked his sending box as he did every day to see if the princess had sent another letter. It was bare, but Thad wasn’t disheartened. It had just been used a few days prior when the princess had told him about the meeting that the king of Rane had set up with her to discuss the impact of the new laws on their merchants.

Pulling out a sheet of parchment
, Thad quickly wrote a letter telling Maria of the arrival of the shipment of supplies as well as the result of his test. He also wrote of Todd and everything else that had happened to him in the past few days. The letter wasn’t overly long, it only took up half the page but he figured it was enough information unless he wanted to bore her with what he had eaten for his midday meal.

Folding the parchment neatly
, he placed it inside the sending box before laying down on his bed. Closing his eyes, Thad tried to plan out what he would do when he awoke. He got as far as an early morning run before he drifted off into a deep sleep.

Thad woke early the next morning
, feeling thoroughly rested. Leaving his room, he found his two guards waiting for him. Their own eyes were still sluggish from lack of sleep. He felt bad making them exercise before the sun came up, but he knew that if he didn’t force himself to exercise, then he would fall back into the pattern of spending countless days without moving.

He didn’t take a fast
pace, just a slow run around the Fort. After seeing his guards lagging behind, he switched to shorter circuits around the training area so they could watch him from a fixed position. He decided to stop when the rest of the guards started showing up for morning sparing practice. He estimated he had run about three miles, he wasn’t breathing hard but he hadn’t really pushed himself either.

Eloen and her group were some of the first ones to the training arena. They had a running completion going with the other squads. Eloen had drafted Thad into her group
, and they were currently ranked second among all the units. Captain Bower and his men had held an iron hold on first for the past week. Unlike Eloen’s group, his were all older seasoned soldiers who had all seen countless battles. A lot of the soldiers had nicknamed the group the silver soldiers making light of their age, but there was no denying their skill at arms.

As per the rules
, they would each have a match, half with the team higher than them and half with the team lower. Even though he was skilled, Thad was far from the best in the group, so he was always placed fighting against the weaker team. He had lost more often than not, but he could tell his skills with the sword were growing every day.

T
he first five matches against Bower’s platoon commenced. Thad and Lucas warmed up preparing for their fights. Lucas was a few years older than Thad and had joined Eloen’s unit shortly after he had been placed in the duchess’s army. Like Thad, Lucas was also a slave from the academy. He was good with his blade, but he lacked patience and would often resort to a risky move in order to finish a fight rather than wait for an opening to present itself. Sometimes it worked, but more often than not, Lucas found himself on the receiving end of the wooden practice blades.

After they warmed up
, the two sat and watched the remaining battles waiting for their turn. They lost terribly against Bower, with only Ballard securing a win. Their next set of fights would be against the third ranked squad that belonged to the snarky lieutenant that had been at the weapons demonstration the night before.

Darryl was up against their top man and scored an easy win
, quickly dispatching the man with blurring movements from his double blades. Thad felt slightly bad for his opponent; if one wasn’t used to fighting against a skilled dual wielder, it was easy to be overwhelmed.

The next two fights passed by much more slowly with one win for each team. That put them at two to one against their opponents. Thad
stepped apprehensively to the field, knowing that if he won, he would secure their spot as number two for another day. He was surprised when the lieutenant was the one who stepped onto the field as his challenger.

“Let’s see if the mage is half as good with his sword as he is with his little parlor tricks.” The lieutenant said as he took up a fighting stance.

Thad refused to respond to the man’s taunt, instead he readied himself. He placed his lead foot slightly to rear, in a defensive position. The lieutenant attacked with vigor, but each blow was parried by Thad, who was slowly moving in a routine pattern forcing the lieutenant to readjust after every few attacks. Thad was conserving his energy while, at the same time, forcing the lieutenant to expend his. It was the oldest trick in the book, but his opponent was so obsessed with beating him, he hadn’t noticed that Thad had yet to launch a single attack.

He could see that the lieutenant was tiring quickly as he started sweating profusely the front of his tunic growin
g darker every second. His attacks were also coming less frequently and with reduced force. It was almost time for him to make his move. Waiting paid off as the lieutenant made a sloppy, slow overhead chop. Thad quickly moved into action, letting his sword travel up the side of the man’s blade until it reached the guard. He snapped it hard to the left, pushing the sword wide and forcing his opponent off balance.

Thad could have easily made a winning blow in the time it would take the
lieutenant to regain his stance, but he wanted more. He wasn’t usually the vindictive type, but everything about the young officer seemed to rub him the wrong way. Even the way the man moved seemed to be so self-important, it made him want to slap the swagger out of his step.