Tak

The War Wizard - Part 8

     Tak walked through the knee high grass to the right flank, weaving his way through nervously excited soldiers, and when he arrived he looked around for someone to report to.

     He saw an important looking man in gold trimmed armour covered with banners and pennants sprouting from his back and shoulders, the largest of which sported the emblem of a bat winged skull under crossed swords.  He was easily the most splendidly uniformed man on the field and he carried an air of authority that drew Tak to him, certain that this was the man he wanted.

     "Excuse me, Sir," he said, staring up at the towering giant of a man, easily six and a half feet tall and massively muscled under his armour. "My name is Tak Eweela. I'm a wizard."

     The man turned and looked down at him. "A wizard, eh? This your first battle?"

     "Yes, Sir,"

     The giant gave a great booming laugh. "Never been called sir before by a wizard! Arrogant lot, usually. Act like they're better than the rest of us. I've got orders regarding you. The Ginger Prince wants to make a man of you. You're to spearhead the attack. Use your magic to open a hole in the enemy line. Once that's done, your part is over. Just hang back and stay out of trouble. Understand?"

     "Yes, sir," replied Tak anxiously. This wasn't like Barl had said. This sounded dangerous, and wizards couldn't wear armour, it interfered with their spellcasting. He remembered the Cyclone spell, but his every instinct warned him to hold that in reserve in case he met an enemy wizard. That meant he'd be facing enemy bowmen with nothing but a simple Shield spell between him and the battle, a spell that would protect him from attacks from directly in front but did little to protect his sides, and the enemy lines were broad.

     A suspicion of the truth began to dawn on him, that Gal-Gowan was trying to get him killed. He cursed all the time he'd wasted trying to learn animal alteration spells. He should have been spending every moment learning war spells! What a fool he'd been! And now he was about to go into battle with only those spells he'd bothered to learn to disguise his obsessive interest in his animal experiments. He deserved to die!

     Some of the men were staring at him curiously, and he overheard some of their muttered comments. "A wizard! Good luck for us!"

     "He doesn't look like much of a wizard. Look at him trembling in his boots."

     "Ssh! He'll hear you!"

     Tak grinned despite the dire situation he was in. The idea that he might punish someone for a disparaging comment by using up some of his meagre supply of war magic! Were there wizards who would actually do that? He remembered Cuthbert lecturing him on the importance of maintaining the respect of the mundanes. Was this what he'd meant? He knew that the people of Aldervale hated wizards, but he'd supposed that was just because of Molos Gomm and the bad way he'd treated them, but maybe everyone everywhere hated wizards. But no, that soldier just now had said wizards were lucky in battle, unless that was just because everyone in the other army would be aiming their arrows at him.

     He sighed. Life had been so simple as a peasant homesteader. Fairly popular with his neighbours, hated by no-one... Maybe when Khalkedon was dead he could go back to that life, as his father had left the army to become a farmer. Forget all about wizardry and spells, and libraries and books and his endlessly fascinating experiments on animals... No, he couldn't give all that up. He was now a wizard, for better or worse. Until the day he died, which was looking increasingly as though it would be that very day...

     "Ready!" cried the splendidly bannered officer, and all talking stopped as the soldiers gripped their shields and weapons and faced the enemy across the field. The officer beckoned to Tak, and the wizard walked, trembling, to his side. "I know that a wizard can't cast spells while charging, so we're going to stand and wait for them to come to us. They'll try to outflank us, over there." He pointed to the trailing edge of the line, where it curved around to provide a defence to the east. "Ignore that, however, and keep your attention firmly to the front. When their line reaches ours, blast a hole in it, as wide as you can. Understand?"