Rune mage

Chapter 64: old friends

Fredrick smiled and shook his head. Then he pulled me into his grasp.

"Logan," he said with a voice entirely too emotional for a commander, "did you just demolish an army, leaving us nothing?"

I had tears running down my face, and I didn't care. "Yes, I did. Certainly my men warned you?"

I looked past Fredric and saw them as they studied the names in the stones. They cried as well.

"It was hard to imagine," Fredric said. He stepped away and looked to the men behind me. I knew the moment he spotted Jess and the boys, peering around a corner.

"What army regulation is this? Keeping a woman..with child...and...are these children all mages?" He laughed.

He wasn't angry, even though his underling was.
We all ignored the underlying.

He grew louder in his protests.

I ignored the angered underling and shrugged, "we survive the way we can." I gestured to my student mages, silently bidding them to step closer. "Levi, a stone mage and my first student. Red, a fire mage and my second student, and..."

"I told you he'd forget your name!" Jess said in the background.

I shook my head and chuckled. "Isabella, my water mage student."

"No air mage?" Fredric teased.

I shrugged, "she opted not to stay."

Fredric reached back and pulled the woman who stayed behind him into view. She looked familiar but not.

I was surprised to find another rune mage.

One that had been touched by my magic, still wore my runes. I didn't know any rune mages that were women...

"This is Luna," Fredric said.

Luna's eyes met mine and suddenly I understood. When Lu had cried knowing illusions were possible, this was what he had wanted.

"It is..." my voice cracked with emotion, "my pleasure to see you well, Luna. Well met."

Fredric laughed. For a fire mage he had really learned to laugh. I would ask him, how he had found laughter in a war. He said, "Will you release the rest of my men, so that we can form our camp? I do not intend for all of us to overfill your fort."

"Those that are frozen have harm to me and mine upon their hearts. As a favor to you I will not kill them where they stand."

I placed a hand upon the fort, "can I go meet my men, fort, or are you being difficult today?"

The fort released me for the first time in so long my legs almost went weak. I stood blinking away tears, my mind stupidly blank.

"The runes coating this mountain," Luna said to Fredric, "I doubt he can ever leave this place. The king will have to come here if he wants to meet the legend."

I turned. "Legend?"

It was Whistler...I couldn't remember when I had seen him last...who replied, "sir, you sent us out into this world with runes that glow- they glow sir. I assume when things get bad for you. We couldn't hide our marks. So we told everyone until we found someone who would listen."

"They glow?" I asked, confused.

Fredric laughed again. "Logan, let us gather with your men, and set the others to rights. Leave the ones that are stuck."

The army men were already circling up and setting up tents.

My fort wasn't sure how to feel about all these people on our land, but I was overjoyed. I hugged Blade and Fletcher and gave Whistler an overly enthusiastic and emotional kiss to his head.

I didn't ask if they had seen the others that had left. I had known when my runes had vanished from among the living.

Levi had placed some stones down for me one day, when I was thrown off guard by the sudden loss of Boots. I couldn't leave the fort but with help we made stones for those I knew were gone. Not stones as large as the others, but there all the same.

I was slow to enter the fort, but that's where Fredric went, and Luna.

"Don't feed the fort your magic Luna!" I shouted, stopping her from reaching out to a wall.

She startled and then smiled. "It all but hums."

I laughed and stepped inside. I found Fredric speaking with Archer and the healer.

"Do you want a tour?" I asked Fredric.

He shook his head. "First show me the enemy, there are likely bodies to see to and I can organize my men properly to help you deal with them."

We all shared a silent look but said nothing.

Fredric didn't comment on my fingers trailing the walls as we went up and up and up to the top of the battlement. He didn't say anything about runes coating every surface, some glowing as I passed.

When he looked out towards where the enemy army should have been...

And saw nothing...

He swore.

"Damn."

Luna whistled. "There is nothing."

I squinted. "Might be some horses in the valley. And not everyone stayed. Anyone who flees is usually spared."

"I heard the screams, or I would never believe there was an army here." Fredric said. "When we heard there was an army headed this way, assuming you had lost most of your men by now, we hurried here. We weren't needed, but I am glad we came."

The fort triggered some illusions of soldiers walking the ground below, followed by fighting, complete with sounds.

And then our lost sergeant called for everyone to return to their stations.

And images of all of our men, the way they looked before the first battle had taken even one man, flickered into shape. It should not have been possible. I hadn't placed illusion runes down that first two weeks.

They faded and a song of peace flowed over the fort.

"Damn," whispered Fredric again.

The men who had returned had stood in their stations, so that when the illusions ended, the difference between where we started and where we were was stark.

"How does the war even continue, with you as a commander?" I asked him.

He chuckled. "As it goes, it goes well. I suspect we will see peace in our lifetime."

I stared at him, struck stupid by the very idea.

"Come, Logan," Fredric said.

He walked down the stairs, running his own fingers along the walls where mine had so many times trailed.