Recruited Mage Page 12

  Then the woman helped me sit up and for the first time I could see the room properly as well as the woman and myself.

  Later in the afternoon a girl stuck her head around the door and said she was looking for the woman whose name I found out was Claire. I said I did not know and she disappeared off. Later she came back and sat by my bed. She said that she had been told to look after me for the rest of the day. After a few minutes I asked her name and she said it was Amelia.

  We talked for a short while about where I was from but I suddenly found myself waking up with her still there, still talking. I asked how long I was asleep and she just laughed because she had not noticed. I watched her laughing and smiled, she was really pretty and I realised that I fancied her long brown hair with matching brown eyes.

  Amelia spent the next few hours talking, only occasionally asking me questions. She explained that Claire was her mother who was doing this for a bit of money and she was helping her out. She knew all about what had happened to me, Claire must have told her, and she embarrassed me by saying she thought I was brave. I felt happy with her around and I stared at the ceiling, smiling. The next thing I knew I was waking up again in darkness. I called out for Amelia but she was not there. I realised that she must have left hours ago and it was the middle of the night. I drifted off to sleep disappointed and sad.

  I was woken the next day by angry shouting. Someone in the next room was shouting loudly and I could just make out the words.

  “He cannot go! His condition is horrendous, he could not even sit up without help yesterday, never mind fight!” shouted one man.

  “If he does not fight he is nothing but a hindrance to him and we will order him to be thrown out onto the street.” With a deep shock I realised that they were talking about me. The invasion is today! But I can’t go on it! I can’t even stand! After a lot of struggling I managed to sit up and see my chest. The bandages were still clean for once but it was still painful to move.

  “If he runs his stitches could split open and he would just die!” continued the first man.

  “I am sorry but it is General’s orders to take anyone who can walk. You can’t disobey orders.” said the second man, sadly. I heard footsteps coming then the door opened. The man who came through was tall and muscular but his face was in a sad grimace. “Up you get lad,” he said. “That or both of us will be flogged.” I knew I had no choice and I tenderly turned to the side of my bed and lowered my feet to the floor. As I stood pain erupted in my stomach and I quietly cried out. The man dumped a clean uniform in front of me and I carefully took off the simple tunic. I took up then new uniform and pulled it on. The shirt made me wince as it touched my chest. It was sore but the pain was not too bad.

  The uniform was too big for me and sagged in places. The Commander looked me over.

  “I am very sorry, it should be over by tomorrow, and then we will be able to think about the next step. Now follow me, I know it is early but if we leave now we should have taken the Islands by sunset and then all we have to do is mop up survivors.” Outside the sun was only just rising, I heard a bird singing as we walked but it was replaced almost instantly by the sound of an army going to war. Looking behind me I saw I had been on the far side of the compound. I could barely recognise the area, the mass of moving men and carts had overflowed from the road and spread out onto the surrounding hills. The only thing orderly about them seemed to be that they were all going in one direction, away from the city and in the direction of the lake. There was a cart in front of us, empty apart from a few blankets.

  “Just try to ignore the pain,” said the soldier as I struggled into the cart, only managing because of a few steps built into the side. I sat on the blankets, watching everyone go by. There were thousands of men, mostly marching in small groups but others were just walking in huge numbers. I watched one of the cartloads of food that was stuck in the mud.

  However we started off and almost instantly I was jolted sending jabs of pain through me. I instantly lay down which helped a lot but it was still painful and I had to grit my teeth for the journey that seemed to last for hours. The sun was inches of the horizon when we eventually stopped. I was already tired as it was a constant effort to reduce my pain as much as possible. When I sat up I saw that we had stopped on a long jetty with two boats on either side. Each one almost fifty metres long, one large slanted sail each. The boats were bulky and wide with flat bottoms know doubt for ramming up on the shore.

  As I climbed down the Assault Group marched up behind us. The Captain stood at their front as usual, the boy with the golden stripe behind him. When the Captain saw me his face went white with shock and worry and he ran over, as orderly as possible.

  “What are you doing here?” he asked.

  “I had to sir, order of the Generals’ apparently.” I said pointing to the man who had brought me.

  “Is this true?” The Captain commanded of the man.

  “Every word, the Generals said they needed every man that could walk in the assumption that if they could do that they could fight.” As the man said this Donal and Detarian ran towards me and I walked forward to meet them, wincing at every step. Donal and Detarian ran to embrace me, but I held out my hand just in time. That would hurt a lot.

  “You are alive!” yelled Donal happily and I grimaced.

  Just! I was tempted to say but Detarian beat me to it.

  “Samuel” said Detarian shocked. “You saved many of us Samuel, well done, you gained our respect many times over. You look bad, really bad. Why are you out here?”

  “Same reason as you.” I spat angrily. “We have to be, disobey orders and it is flogging or worse.”

  “But you can’t fight, look at you. You can hardly stay upright.”

  I shrugged sadly. “We will all be fine.” I said hopefully. “I heard someone say will have finished by night fall. It should be a walk over. Apparently there will be hundreds of ships mounted with catapults that will smash the city into submission before we even get to the walls.”

  “Yeah, but you forgot about everything else!” said Donal. “Sea monsters, huge walls, a bit of magic are just a few...”

  “Everyone on board, we are leaving now!” shouted a man from on board one of the ships. The Captain walked over to me and glanced meaningfully at Donal and Detarian who quickly left to go on board.

  “I cannot arrange for you not to come but I have made it possible for you to stay on the boat until it is safer, Ok?” I nodded sadly and climbed slowly onto the nearest boat after Donal and Detarian. As I staggered on board I felt a new sharp pain in my stomach and sat down quickly on the nearest bench, one of about twenty along the boat. Donal and Detarian, who had walked on, saw me, and doubled back to sit next to me.

  Underneath the bench were our weapons, a crossbow, a short sword, and a shield. For the crossbow there were two types of arrows, most of them were tipped with the normal sharp metal, but we were given a single different one. They were normal apart from the tip, which was a small and short jar, no bigger than my thumb.

  “That is a refined fireshot.” said Donal. “We used them yesterday. They can easily blow a hole in a thick shield, never mind a body.” He said the last words grimly and we all sat in silence. When the rest of our half of the Assault Group was on board, the sail was rolled down. The moment we were drifting away from the jetty the boat started rocking ever so slightly. I had only been on a boat once before on a river and this was a new experience. I walked as carefully as I could to the front of the boat. I looked out to the sides of the boat and for the first time I concentrated on the sea.

  The see stretched out to the front as far as I could see. I never realised how close the camp had been to the sea. I was mesmerised by the waves as they rolled in towards the boat. We were only just leaving the jetties behind us. I realised I had not looked around much when I was on the shore and I looked past the back of the bout to see a line of jetties almost a mile wide. Pouring off them were many, many boats. All aroun
d our boat there were already what looked like hundreds of others. Some were bigger and some were smaller. There were long, thin boats, tall, wide boats and many more. The larger boats where different from the others; they had entire floors. Each one had holes in and each of the holes was filled with the end of a long metal tube, which I recognised as the Bombardier. I stared at the Bombardier and the other ships to try and stop me from feeling sick. Then the water became more and more choppy and I was terrifyingly reminded that this the only thing between me and a watery grave, about mile underwater, and it did not please me.

  I ended up lying on the deck as it heaved beneath me again and again. There were big waves but it was nowhere near a storm. You will be fine!

  Hey! Stop surprising me! I yelled silently.

  Well how else am I meant to talk to you, there is no way to give you warning.

  The rest of the morning went too fast, way too fast for me to like it. The early afternoon went too slowly. Nearly every movement making my jump as I lay on a fetched blanket. My blood was pounding and I was sweating a cold sweat, every muscle screaming at me to run but I knew I could not. Not stuck in a boat.

  The sun was halfway to the horizon when suddenly someone, spotted the Islands in the distance.

  14 The invasion

  “There they are!” shouted someone at the front of the boat and everyone leapt to their feet straining to look. I struggled upright and looked toward the front of the boat. I could not see anything from my position except everyone in my way. One boy suddenly started crying in fear. There was no cheering or anything.

  Why should there be?

  Not even talking or whispering.

  It is here. Our first time in the line of fire. Huge chance of death. Are we ready? I am not! We shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here!

  A horn was blasted on a nearby ship and flags were raised on almost every ship. A man walked to our mast where a flag was already flapping. The flag of the Engineers. Everyone ran back to their seats and started buckling on their gear. I did the same, struggling against the pain to stand and stumble over to the bench. I tried to attach my gear like everyone else but I could not put it on, and there was pressure on my rope belt as it went around my wounds. I ended up strapping my short sword to the back of my shoulder so that the handle was next to my head, ready for me to grab when, If I needed it. I could not put the crossbow strap on either and so I ended up just leaving it on my lap.

  All around on the hundreds of boats around and in front of us a bustle of activity was going on. Bombards where be being taken away from the holes to I assumed be loaded. Catapults where being wound down and loaded with anything from rocks to huge jars of what I guessed was oil, ready to be lit. I realised we were near the front of the fleet. All the boats at the front where transport ships like ours, filled with men and boys. As I looked around I saw there were more ships containing boys like us than I thought.

  Maybe we make the holes in the walls for the army to follow.

  As I looked around I saw that I was probably right, the boats behind the front boats were nearly all men and they were better armed and armoured than us.

  So we have one purpose, breach the walls.

  Everyone I looked at looked scared; their faces ashen, breathing quickly. A few were trembling, their eyes closed as if praying. I could hold it back no more and broke into a cold sweat, feeling dizzy.

  We sailed ever closer to the Islands, the wind going in the right direction. As we neared the tops of the Islands became visible over the front of the boat. In minutes I could see the fortresses rising of them. Circle upon circle of walls leading to a huge keep at the centre of the island. The biggest Island was like a mountain, rising hundreds of metres into the air, nearly the whole island a fortress. The Islands slipped nearer and nearer, starting to tower over us. There was shouting on the other boats, all of them. War cries and chants that echoed over the water to our boat. We were heading for the mountain Island. The most heavily defended.

  I heard bells ringing in the distance, from the Islands of course. They must be ringing every bell they have. Calling their men, women and children to fight us, to ready defences and weapons to kill us with.

  The Islands neared to just two kilometres away and everyone readied.

  Just three or so minutes left.

  I looked beside me to Donal and Detarian.

  I don’t remember them being friends. I thought then rebuked myself. Thinking about that now? How could I? We could all be dead in a minute.

  Donal looked like he was crying and Detarian was trying to comfort him.

  “Ok for you!” Donal blurted out at Detarian. “You have been training for months. We have only for a week. You know what you are doing!” Then Donal glanced at me. “But what can I do to complain.” he said and then looked up at me, staring me in the eye. “You almost died four days ago! You can barely walk!” Then Donal looked back to the front of the boat where the Captain was now standing. I saw the boy with the golden stripe on his waistcoat on the other boat with the rest of our Assault Group doing the same.

  “Ready now all of you!” shouted the Captain and we all stood. The captain looked straight at me and shook his head. I sat again slowly. But I can’t just sit here and do nothing. “Today we fight for the Emperor!” Everyone gave a shout “For the emperor!” in response. “Good luck all of you and…”

  A huge sound like a massive gong rang out from the mountain Island that we were less than a mile away from, cutting out sound of the Captain’s voice. The sound of the gong stopped and everyone went silent. Then out by the Islands the water started rippling in many different places.

  Then the water nearest the Island shifted. Out of the water reared a head at least half the size of our boat. My blood went cold again and everyone gasped in horror; it was the head of a giant serpent, no doubt hundreds of metres long. It swung it’s head towards out fleet and with a gigantic splash it’s head disappeared into the water.

  “It’s coming!” someone shouted and the fleet spurred into action. Suddenly over the side of the boat I saw a huge shadow pass in the murky water. Then I looked back towards the island and all the ripples we had seen were racing towards the fleet. I looked in horror as fins and the tops of huge creatures became visible in the water. Suddenly faint screams filled the air behind us and we all turned and stared in fascinated horror as one of the multi-levelled ship was suddenly over shadowed by the head and part of the body of the serpent. One of the bombards fired point blank at fifteen-metre thick body and the metal ball ripped into it. Other bombards fired as well, ripping chunks out of the sea monster. The serpent screamed an unearthly scream and fell forward onto the boat. The head went straight through the hull splitting the boat in two.

  Suddenly screams erupted from other places in the fleet; sea monsters where attacking other boats. There were huge monsters that looked like squid but where ten metres long. There were smaller serpents, tens of metres long, and huge shark like creatures that where simply biting boats open. The screaming was horrific and I saw people being ripped in half and devoured, their blood splattering on the decks of the ships.

  However the crews stated fighting back; firing arrow after arrow, bolt after bolt into the creatures. We were killing them by the dozen. We kept going towards the Island, leaving wreckage and dead sea monsters behind us.

  The shore slipped nearer and nearer and our catapults fired. What must have been almost three hundred shots arched through the air in a graceful but deadly arc at the Island. The most beautiful ones where the pots of flaming oil, brightly flashing across the sky. The chunks of stone smashed into the walls and mountainsides, smashing holes into them. The pots of oil shattered into brilliant fireballs, engulfing towers and houses.

  Then the Islanders fired back in a terrifying hail of stone and pots of oil similar to ours. We watched in horror as the shots flew towards us. They hit all around the fleet, smashing boats in two and setting others aflame. Where the shots missed great plumes o
f water rose up before crashing down on boats. Our catapults fired back again and again but so did theirs, more and more boats where hit. We screamed in terror as a shot came towards us. It flew over the water straight at us and we all ducked, expecting death at any moment.

  A huge plume of water rose just next to our boat, showering it with water. I was soaking in an instant. Up ahead I could see that was not all. The walls where lined with archers and the shore was covered in wreckage. We sailed forward closer and closer. Everyone was on full alert, sweat steaming down our faces. Some of us were crying others just waiting in grim silence.

  In seconds we were less than one hundred metres from the shore from which there was a good one hundred metre stretch of gravel and stone, littered with huge boulders and rubble.

  Then ballistae all along the walls fired. The two-metre long arrows sped over the beach and shallow water in a second, some of them aimed at us. One hit the sail ripping it almost in half. Two more smashed into the deck, miraculously missing everyone. The shore came closer and closer and we pulled out our shields, holding them above our heads. Then a huge rock smashed into our boat.

  Our boat snapped right in two and splinters flew everywhere. The ends of the boats tipped up and we fell into the water. All this happened in a second and I barely reacted at all before I was flung in to the water.

  The water was deathly cold and the impact jarred my stomach. OI screamed in pain underwater, my air pouring out of my lungs. I surfaced yelling, the pain was excruciating and I thrashed about in the water. Suddenly hands grabbed me and I was dragged through the water to the beach, the stones smashing into the wounds on my back. In a few second my mind cleared and the pain became bearable. We were crouched behind a huge rock, and all around us was madness. There where arrows flying past us into the water or smashing into the rock. My saviours where Donal and Detarian, somehow still live and together. More arrows whizzed past, peppering the water.