Fire Angels

Part 15 Part 2 Training the troops

The following morning he took me down to the training ground with him and within the first hour he had me flinging lumps of mud at his troop, while they attempted run towards me dodging them.

"That's right," he shouted standing beside me, "keep it fast and hard. It will be like that when they are under arrow fire."

Shad's whole heart and soul was bent on making these men into a fighting force. While I rained these small soft missiles down on the cringing troop, he ran along side them shouting encouragement and abuse, while almost by second nature fending off my missiles with his shield. He was a fine Captain, watchful, tough but always encouraging. I remembered how he had made me feel I could do things, when I was afraid in the forest. What a fine man he was. I could not think of anyone I admired more.

At break we sat under a tree together and drank cold ale.

"They have good heart," said Shad, "but they're raw as raw. I pray his Grace will not use them as front line troops."

"I would not be so sure of that," said a scar-faced veteran standing near by.

"Jacques," said Shad cheerfully, "Come and join us."

Very shortly there was a whole group of Shad's fellow captains sitting around us laughing and talking in good natured comradeship.

"Has no one ever thought of training troops in this way before," I asked.

"This is the standard way to train," said scar-faced Jacques, "but the army is short of mages. They are all training our mages to fight properly, so they say."

"Magic will be the most important thing in this campaign," said another dusty little man.

"All I know is that if the army were to divide into Morian and Gallian troops, ours would be far weaker," said Jacques. "Our troops are apprentices and farm boys and are getting little training and since our mages are training to fight in phalanx only with Gallian mages, once they are divided they will not be able to form a working Phalanx at all."

"What a hot head you are!" said another man easily. "In two weeks I wager you the Duke will be heading south and the need will never arise."

'So the thought of dividing the army had occurred to other people as well,' I thought.

"Do you think the Duke is fixing it so that the Morians are not strong enough to fight without the Gallians," I asked Shad as we walked back to the troop.

"It certainly looks so. We are not equals in this alliance."

"It sounds like some of the Southerners are keen to be going south without him."

"Aye, but I hope it will not come to that. If the intelligence speaks true, we have a tough battle ahead of us in the south. I think the Klementari feel that too."

For the next few days I helped Shad and his fellow captains give the troops a taste of what it was to be under fire and magical attack and in the rest periods when the men sat exhaustedly round rubbing mud off their faces, I experimented with seeing how many of them I could shield with magic.

During this time I met many of the other officers. Most of them were Morians and all of them seemed to feel that meeting me was a great thing. The admiration of these blunt, rough men touched me more than any of the smooth words spoken to me by those I had met in the White Tower. The thought of disappointing such men was horrible.

How I enjoyed myself. I felt calmly happy all the time I was using magic. There was no hint of my exhausting my powers. All I felt in the evenings was a pleasant tiredness.