Recruited Mage Read online

  “Now that is powerful,” he said laughing, “and very easy. It took me years to learn to shoot with bows, but with this it is just point and fire,” he said as he picked up one of the crossbow and stared at it appreciatively.

  “You can shoot a bow?” asked Rador.

  “Yes of course I can!” Donal gloated. Before he could continue however, Tain handed a spring bow and a quiver of ten bolts to each of us. We lined up, picked our targets, and began to fire. I missed my first shot in that group. My next five shots were progressively better and I hit the edge of the target with each shot. However the last four bolts almost hit the centre. I had fired all ten in less than five and a half minutes. I waited until everyone else had finished then retrieved my bolts with the others. They were all buried very deep in the wood and it took us a long time to pull them out. This time before I fired I remembered what I had read in Master Morrin’s book about hunting; fire as you breathe out. I inhaled, stilled my body, and focused on the target. I watched as the sight moved up and down the target. As I fired, I exhaled out sharply. The bolt hit the target right in the centre. Yes! I heard Donal wolf-whistle again.

  “Shut up!” said Rador and I saw that all but one of his shots had missed and the last one only glanced the edge. Donal turned to Rador.

  “Hey! What would you know? One of your shots hit the target! he jeered.

  “Shut up!” Rador shouted.

  “Stop it!” Tain shouted. “You only met last night and still you manage to argue today before the sun is hardly over the horizon.” Donal shut up and stared down the looks of hate coming from Rador and now Oldross. I laughed and turned back to my shooting. The next nine hit around the first one. Tain congratulated me; “Well done Sam, the best shot I have seen, have a break.” I sat down, enjoying the luxury of doing nothing. Eventually everyone, still brimming on an argument, finished and collected their bolts. One by one for about half an hour everyone managed to hit the centre and got a rest.

  Tain stood up and turned to us. “It is time for a bit of breakfast. Then you have to go to the others for basic combat training.” We walked back to the shed where there was some bread and jam. We were ravenous after the training so we wolfed it down, barely pausing to chew.

  “Ok then” said Tain and we followed him out and across the compound. We reached a large marked area about one hundred metres across. There were about twenty training dummies arranged in the centre. As we stood around waiting, the men and the commanders appeared from the main building, most likely from a breakfast. They were at a brisk jog and quickly reached us and lined up in a long line of four ranks. Mr Tain gestured for us to join and we quickly fell into line at the back. A huge and scary Commander covered in silver plated armour stepped to the front and addressed us all.

  “This is the point where we divide the hard men from the soft men and then make the soft men become hard men. Now there are two types of fighting we are going to focus on; group fighting as we will battle in a line with your fellow soldiers, and single fighting on your own against enemies as you might in the madness of a siege with no friends around you.” He walked over to a few crates and opened them. Inside there were enough wooden swords for all of us. Also there were proper shields. “You will be using these but you will then move on to swords still in their shafts and finally blunted swords. Now you all should know that practice makes perfect so we are going to practice. We will do group training first so we will split you into two groups.” He then walked to the centre of our lines and beckoned each line to split. Now that we were split in to two groups we handed out wooden swords and the shields to each other. I noticed Donal was on my team. I took mine as quickly as I could. Mine was quite heavy and I had to use two hands to wield it properly but as I had to hold the shield as well I had trouble holding it up for more than a few minutes. We were told to go down to one end of the area and the other team went to the other end. A few of the big men started swinging their swords.

  This is going to hurt. At least they are smooth and blunt so it should only be a few bruises.

  You have a shield to defend yourself.

  Yeah but I can’t really use it well if this takes a while.

  “We better stay at the back.” I said to Donal and he smiled.

  “Well I am not staying at the front thanks. I do not want to be surrounded by huge men with no sympathy and large chunks of wood with which they can freely bash your head in with,” he said in a light-hearted way. “I want to wake up tomorrow still being able to walk.” We smiled at each other and walked quietly to the back.

  Wimp.

  Shut up you can’t get hurt.

  The Commander walked in between our two teams. “For our first battle we will let you improvise; now the only two rules are anyone on the ground you can’t hit and no hitting anyone’s face. We will not tell you what to do but I will give you a hint; the most organised team will probably win. You will begin...” he said, his voice rising to a shout “…now!” Our team drew together and formed a sort of shield wall whilst the other team, led by a few very big men looked like they were preparing to charge. We tightened up the shield wall and made it wider.

  Yes! We could stop them with a shield wall.

  The opposite team suddenly started shouting loudly then suddenly they all rushed forward. We all stepped back and crouched down. We all tensed and shuffled back. The men leading the other team’s charge was at least six and a half feet tall and raised his wooden sword high above his head.

  I am so lucky I am not on the front row. “Step forward!” someone in my team suddenly shouted and we all stepped forward. The other team got closer and closer. “Again! Step forward!” The man shouted and we all stepped forward again. Now the other team was metres away and we had about a second. “And again!” We all stepped forward together straight into the charging men who were halted with a sickening jolt when they hit the shield wall. There was a crack as the big man at the front swung his sword at a shield and his sword fractured into splinters. There was a triumphant cry from our front row as the other team advanced and as more of the other team tried to penetrate the solid wall of shields. The big man only pushed a few men aside before the hitting swords and shields pushed him back. The rest of their team smashed into us and the line was slowly broken in to smaller skirmishes. We hung back; I was too scared to go forward. Then suddenly Donal stepped forward.

  “Let’s go!” he said and walked towards the middle of the fight.

  “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “It looks like good fun so I am joining in!” he said over his shoulder. He then ran up to one of the big men on the other team and jabbed him on the arm. I went forward to help him as the big man turned to fight Donal. The big man brought his sword down towards Donal with huge force but to my utter astonishment he stepped inside the sword blow and slammed his shield into the man’s soft underbelly, pushing him off balance. I took my chance and slammed into him at the same time as Donal, sending the big man sprawling on the ground. Donal and I grinned at each other, we had taken him down! We had no time to do anything else though as another man was turning to Donal and I jumped forward to parry the blow before it hit him. The blow jarred my wrist and I dropped my sword. I yelped in pain and jumped backwards into Donal, bringing my other hand up to support the shield. I raised my shield to block the next blow from the man but he changed its direction mid swing and it hit my jarred arm. My arm shook in pain and I almost dropped the shield as well. Then someone ran into my side and I fell on to the ground and the man who ran into me tripped over me. The man turned around to smash me but the voice of the commander rang out calling us to stop and we did. We were called around the commander so I tried to get up but landed on my bad arm. Then next time I tried to get up, I quickly scrambled to my feet and headed towards the group now around the commander. I retrieved my sword and joined at the back, straining to hear what was being said but I could not hear much. Tain quickly tapped me on the shoulder and beckoned me to one side.

/>   “Stay here, I am fetching the others.” He then went back to the group and got the others. “Ok, the first items have arrived early. A high official has come to see all goes well so look very smart and put down your swords and shields.” We put the weapons down and brushed the dirt of our uniforms. “We have already set up the area so all you have to do is the task. Now you have probably heard of Bombardiers, and what you are doing involves fireshot powder, which is what makes it fire. This means a big bang and a flash. Are you all ok with that?” We nodded and followed him through the compound. We reached the shed but he kept going right past it towards the far end of the compound where we hadn’t been to yet.

  “Where do you think we are going? I asked Donal.

  “I have no idea,” he said. “We could be going anywhere so don’t ask me.” We came to a palisade then passed through an open gate in it to the next area. We were all quite shocked as through the gate there was a large hole ten metres deep and fifty metres wide and long, which had obviously been dug about a year ago as there was grass at the bottom. There were about fifty chairs at the far end and sitting on them was a man in a fancy uniform surrounded by a group of men in thick leather aprons. As we walked around the hole I noticed that there was a small section of palisade in the middle. We were told to wait whilst the men in the aprons watched us and Tain talked to the man in uniform. Eventually Tain walked back towards us carrying a large bundle of what looked like string attached.

  “Now this is your first assessment,” he said before he was interrupted by Donal.

  “What? Assessment? For what and why?” Donal spluttered out.

  “Look, all will be explained; there was a change of plan that I will tell you about later. For now you have to do this. The man said there was no time for a full brief and this is all he told me; this is an explosive. It contains a large jar of fireshot powder and this.” He pointed to the string that had came from the bag. “This is a fuse.” We all looked at each other confused at what he meant. “A fuse is a special string that burns slowly along its length until it reaches the fireshot powder then it explodes it. You have to explode that bit of wall,” he pointed at the section of palisade. “As it explodes you will hide behind that barricade, which should shield you.” He then pointed to a small pile of wooden items. “You will use this to light it.” He pulled out a small stick with something black on the end. “When you strike it on this it will light.” He passed a block of something and the stick thing to Donal. Next he handed the explosive to Oldross, and said “call them a fire and block, now take the explosive and place it at the base of the wall, then unravel the fuse and bring the lose end back behind the barricade and light it. Now go, the quicker the better! Run!” We obeyed and climbed into the hole, helping each other down. We ran to the section of Palisade and placed the explosive next to it. Then we quickly unravelled the fuse and brought the lose end of the fuse to the barricade. When we all were hunched down behind the barricade Donal struck the stick on the block and the end of the stick caught fire brightly. Donal then touched the fuse with the stick, sparks erupted from the fuse and the string started to burn, leaving no trace of the fuse behind. We were shaking with nerves; none of us had seen an explosion before. We peeped around the barricade, watching the fuse burn up towards the explosive.

  Put your fingers in your ears this is going to be loud.

  I quickly put my fingers in my ears and told the rest to do so. It was just in time before there was a huge bang and the ground shook. Earth was thrown past the barricade and high in the air. We all jumped in shock and my ears started ringing. There was a lot of acrid smoke burned my throat as the sound pierced my ears.

  What could do that? I can’t stand this! I peered around the barricade; there was a small hole where we had put the bomb but the palisade had gone. Then I realised that the palisade was all over the ground in the form of hundreds of splinters. I stood from beside the barricade and walked to the small hole in the ground. Donal, Oldross, and Rador joined me. We started coughing in the smoke and all that was said in the next minute was “Wow!” Suddenly Tain shouted for us to run to him and we did. Donal who was holding the burning stick, that seemed to have not got any smaller whilst it had been lit, put it out by sticking it in a puddle. The men were walking around the hole toward the gate. We helped each other out of the hole and presented ourselves in front of Tain who seemed a bit pleased.

  “Good.” He said. “Now that they have seen what you are like they would like to see you lot doing something else. They want you to climb the main building to the top.” We looked at him to see if he was joking but he was not.

  “Are you serious?” asked Rador and Tain nodded.

  “You will have to work together,” said Tain, “or you probably won’t be able to do it. They are going to watch so try and do well. Now let us follow out.” We went around the hole to the gate, the men had already disappeared. As we were walking I started to think about what Tain had said.

  What could he mean about an assessment and a change of plan? What is going to happen?

  There was no time to ponder as we were already by the building. Now was the only time I had really looked at the building. In some places it was just the ground floor with a roof but the rest had another floor. Where the men were standing it was just the ground floor but after about ten metres another floor rose and on top of that was a small flagpole with the Emperor’s emblem on. “You all have to touch the flag pole.” Tain finished.

  This is madness!

  Why? We looked at each other making sure we each had heard right.

  Why? But we must not question their orders; who knows what the punishments will be? I could tell by each of our expressions all four of us where thinking the same thing.

  One of the men shouted “Go!” and we ran to the nearest wall. Donal had an idea and he told us to lift him onto our shoulders. We did and he managed to get on to the thatch from the position. Then he shouted for us to lift up Oldross and Rador and I lifted him up by supporting his feet. He found it very hard to balance and I almost dropped him a few times, but eventually Donal grabbed him and pulled him up. Next I lifted Rador a bit until he was grabbed by the other two and pulled on to the roof. Then I used a nook in the wall to balance on and stretched out my hands to the others who took my hands. Together they managed to pull me up onto the roof. Once we were all up we stood and walked carefully to the next wall. We tried the same again but it was much harder as the thatch was slippery and wet from the rain. It took us a few minutes before it was my turn to jump up to them. They caught me but were almost pulled off as they pulled me up. When we were all up we walked to the flagpole. There was a small trap door on the roof, which was most likely for accessing the flagpole. We all turned to the men on the ground and purposefully showed them as we touched the flag pole so there would be no doubts if we touched it or not. It even looked like the men were impressed. Then we had the task of getting down, which was harder than we thought it would be. We had to lower each other one by one onto the slippery thatch and then onto the ground. We were all panting by the time we got to the bottom. We looked awkwardly at the men around us. I dared to think they were impressed but then I looked over at Tain and saw that he looked a bit sad.

  Then one of the men, wearing a blue cloak, stepped forward. “Well done, you have impressed us so I, Commander Beasley, graduate you to Advanced Training” he said.

  What? But we have only spent one day training? Rador, Oldross, and Donal looked confused and I assumed I looked the same.

  “If you are wandering why, it is because the Emperor has commanded that before we invade the Southern Kingdoms we will clear The Free Islands. The Engineers are to play a major part in the upcoming attacks so we must advance training immediately. Now go and get your kit, we are about to leave.” We paused, not really understanding what he meant and we looked expectantly at Tain who nodded at us. We took that to mean we had to go, so we walked toward the building.

  “You think they are se
rious?” Donal whispered once we were out of hearing range.

  “Well they must be,” Rador whispered back.

  They have to be. Diryn?

  Yes they must be. Just do what they say and everything will be all right.

  I heard someone behind us and we turned to see Tain coming after us. We kept walking until we reached the bedroom. We climbed up to our beds and packed all our kit into the travel bags that I noticed the others had as well. Tain had come in behind us and when we had packed our bags we went to him.

  “I just wanted to say good luck and try your best. You are well suited for this role and you should do very well. Now go and maybe I will see you all sometime. Ok?” He smiled sadly and showed us out of the Door. As we walked off we waved him goodbye then continued out to where the men were waiting. They called us to them, then we walked out of the compound to where three wagons were waiting. They were four-wheeled with roofs. There was a man waiting by the carts, tending to the horses; he looked up when he heard us, smiled and walked over, still looking at us.

  “So they alright? Good!” The men nodded to him. “Ok the horses are ready so let’s go.” Then the man turned to us and smiled. “My name is Gannon you’re in the back wagon, come on bring your bags.” We followed Gannon to the back cart. The wagon had a material roof strung over a thin skeleton of metal. There was no sheet at the back as that was where you got in. We dropped our bags in then climbed up into the back. Gannon to our surprise climbed in beside us. We heard a man get onto the front and we were off. We sat in silence for the first few minutes then Gannon started talking. “Well done you lot. It is quite an important job you’re doing and you will crush the enemies of the Emperor. The main part of the test was if you could stand the fireshot powder as most boys get scared out of their minds and that is no use, you boys however managed to take it in exceptionally well. Fireshot powder is quite expensive so it was a bit of a waste even though it was necessary.” We looked at Gannon, listening to what he was saying. “You will be doing an awful lot in training, and there is even thought of a show in the Grand Coliseum. I doubt many of you have been there before?” We all shook our heads, which I presumed meant that the others, like me had never been to the Capital. Gannon continued. “Well the Grand Coliseum is a huge open amphitheatre. There are huge gates for competitors to enter the arena which is two hundred metres across and the seats can sit eighty thousand people! Some of the new Engineers, well, you lot will apparently fight beasts “from another land” to show off your fighting skill. Now I can’t wait to see what they put in front of you lot but I can tell it will be amazing. Did you know I once saw men fight a Scarab! Do you know how utterly terrifying they are? They are like giant leaches but with legs. They apparently burrow underground and to eat they feed on whole herds of cows, I wander how they capture them?” The man paused for a moment, then continued. “It will take us only a few days to reach Rayne and there is nothing we need to do until then, although we could do some theory if you are interested. During the journey you can just relax all day long and also sleep. You lot must be so tired after all you have been through. You probably have not had a rest in the three, four or however many days since you were recruited. Tough luck on being chosen but you will get lots of glory on your return.” Gannon stopped talking and watched us weirdly for an hour before he eventually fell asleep. After a few more minutes we assured ourselves it was safe to talk.