We Three Mages (Editing)

Chapter Thirty Six: Failure

The moonlight guided them as Ross carefully showed them the way she had just come from. The trek was quiet and everyone had thoughts bursting through their heads, some of which were shared.

How large do you think it is? Mari asked her friends.

It shouldn’t be too large otherwise Ross wouldn't have told us. Jared concluded.

Not necessarily. Maybe she just got a glimpse of a patrol or some flags. Nadia thought.

But then why lead us towards them? The Mages of Legend had linked Calvin’s and Devin’s minds with their telepathy. While the two weren’t able to project their thoughts like the other three, their minds could still be read.

Because we can handle it, Jared planted inside Calvin’s mind. It’s why we were chosen.

I don’t know, we’ve only just begun to understand the Legend. Nadia added her concern.

We’ll find out when we get there. Mari thought to all to get the conversation to end before it got ugly.  Devin had only quietly listened because he felt indifferent on the subject. If they attacked, they’d probably leave him behind to stand watch and if they retreated he’d have no say in the matter. Either way, he wouldn’t be allowed to fight alongside his friends so it didn’t matter to him, despite it being the enemy’s encampment.

“We’ve arrived.” Ross gestured for all to stop and get down low. “Top of the hill you’ll be able to see it.” She slowly moved her way up and one by one the others followed.

Devin gaped wide eyed at the hundreds of tents just a few hundred yards away from him.

“We can’t fight that!” He turned to his friends. “There’s way too many for the six of us!”

“How many do you think?” Jared asked Nadia.

“R-Roughly? Two-Two thousand I suppose.” Nadia did the quick math in her head.

“Two thousand?” Devin shuttered at the numbers.

“Realistically speaking, we’d only need to take out two thirds of the troops to get them retreat.” Mari suggested.

“We should inform the Army! Have them go in and we could just back them up or something.” Devin pleaded. “You’re talking about thirteen hundred people we’d need to…to…” He couldn’t say it.

“Kill?” Jared did it for him. “But how many do you suppose they’ve killed of us? Or how many they plan to?”

“But…” Devin couldn’t bear the thought of taking another’s life.

“I agree with Mr. Winters,” Ross finally said something. “We should fall back and send a sighting report to the Army and let them take care of this.”

“Like they’ll act on it! How many of those do you think those boneheads get per day? It’ll be far too late before they decide to check this out.” Jared argued. “I say we go in and take care of this. Let those damn Demintreans know that the Mages of Legend are back and prepared to fight for the safety of Trajare.”

“I agree with Jared, they think they have this in the bag. I say we show them different.” Calvin spoke up. Mari and Nadia nodded in agreement. Devin just shrank back.

“We’ll str-strike at dawn.” Nadia explained.

And so, they plotted and waited.

At the very first signs of daybreak, The Mages of Legend donned their robes and they commenced their attack.