Chương 18: Nothing but Dust

The General was standing in the tent and glaring at the four mages.

"Why was I not informed of this extensive waste of resources on enchanting, when the tasks I gave you are not complete?" He was almost yelling as he demanded answers. Taverish just handed over a list of papers with a calm smile, "my apologies General, these were going to be delivered in the morning. We have now cleared out the backlog of enchanting tasks and I believe the last of the new message stones were delivered yesterday."

The General snatched up the papers, a list of responses detailing the completed enchanting tasks. He scanned them, then just tossed the paper in the fire.

"What about the resources used on this little adventure of yours? I have reports here of mages flying over one of the campsites. I can only imagine how much of my budget you have wasted learning how to make mages fly. And for what? Fun!?" He practically shouted the last word.

"Everything outside those lists," said Taverish, indicating the burning paper, "used tower resources. Nothing from the military budget. Quite within our previous orders. Also I would hardly consider the twenty mages that came back alive to be for 'fun', or a waste of anyone's resources." The General growled at him. He wouldn't quite come out and say that mages dying was the point of the occasional attacks on fortresses. Finally, he got a nasty look on his face and said, "fine.

The next attack will be conducted by the four of you. And whoever the enchanters involved in this little un-authorized escapade were." Taverish just nodded, "whatever you order General." The General stormed out. And the four of them sagged slightly.

"I hope that boy has some ideas already," muttered Elvera, "because I doubt the General will want to wait long. The king probably gave him a quota to meet by the end of the month."

"Actually," said Chadwick, stepping into the tent quietly, "I think I have it worked out already. It doesn't matter when he sends. However, there's a problem."

"Good lord boy, you look like you have been climbing trees," said Sloan, looking Chadwick up and down. Chadwick shook off some of the leaves still on him, "ah, yes. I may have been watching over the group tonight. Amazing how often people don't look up." The Dean shook his head, "I hear from Davids that you did a little more than watch."

"Was he the metal mage that came back with the plant mage?" Asked Chadwick, while shaking some pine needles out of his sleeve.

"That's the one. He said fifty warriors died around him in an instant," said the Dean.

"Thirty-eight warriors," said Chadwick automatically. All four in the room were staring at him. Chadwick had been peering down into his sock to find some offending piece of foliage. He looked back up at the silence.

"What? He was about to get overrun and the plant mage wasn't moving either. I was hardly going to leave them there just to avoid the General knowing someone else was involved," said Chadwick defensively. Elvera chuckled and said, "he thinks we are worried about the fact that he had to show his face. And not that he killed thirty-eight soldiers." Chadwick grinned a little sheepishly, "oh. Right. Would it help if I said they seemed really determined to kill the mages?"

The group were all shaking their heads in disbelief.

"I do believe someone said we should get used to you surprising us lad," said the Dean, then continued, "now, you mentioned a problem?" Chadwick nodded seriously, "it's going to trigger alarms. Probably loud ones." All four looked interested and they gathered around him to listen.

"I figured out how to get around everything that is internal to it. The problem is there is a link off to a power source somewhere, I'm guessing at the tower. Though it might be in the king's possession instead. Part of that link seems to constantly monitor for a signal. As soon as they get destroyed it will set off… something. I can't tell what it will be without examining the power source. I assume it will be dramatic," said Chadwick.

"Ok," said the Dean slowly, "so, we can do it. But there's a good chance some alarm triggers somewhere. And maybe some part of that will identify us?"

"That would make sense. The alarm wouldn't be much good unless they knew who triggered it. There is also one other issue. I found a compulsion built in that will make anyone who escapes become a target of those still wearing them, forcing them to try and stop you," responded Chadwick.

"Are you suggesting we will attack one another until we are all free?" Asked Taverish.

"If we spaced out the process, yes. I can likely break four at once, but any more than that and we are at risk. I'm suggesting we can only do this when all of us are away from here, where no other mages can see us. And we can't bring anyone else with us," said Chadwick grimly. The Dean frowned, "if any of us returned to the camp or the tower, we would be attacked on sight?"

"Exactly," said Chadwick.

"I'm not willing to flee and leave all my former students behind," said the Dean quietly. Taverish nodded his agreement. Elvera and Sloan didn't seem to have strong feelings either way.

"I won't ask you to abandon them, but maybe a strategic retreat?" Posed Chadwick. Taverish gave a short laugh, "fancy words for running away lad."

"In this case I think it applies. The plan requires that you throw me to the wolves as the enchanter to blame for the belts. It has to be just the five of us sent to assault a fortress," said Chadwick.

"Shouldn't be too hard of a sell," said Taverish, "we had an enchanting backlog until you arrived. Even if the other enchanters did help, you are the reason for the belts. If I phrase it correctly, the General should leave them out of it. Hopefully without asking any further questions."

"Ok good. If you can't convince him to just send us five, warn me through this message stone," said Chadwick. Tossing a stone to Taverish. Then he turned to Elvera and said, "I have something I need from you as well, do you have a copy of Wrigley's Curses here?" Elvera nodded slowly.

"What I need you to do is find the section on the rapid aging curse. Then you are going to accost the General tomorrow and act hysterical. Wave that page at him and claim that if there is a shaman there who can use it, it's far worse on older and more powerful mages. That you would have no defense and the General will be sending you to your death. Make sure to use the words, 'if I get hit with one of those, I'll be lucky if I even leave behind any dust' when you do," said Chadwick.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

"What on earth are you planning lad?" Asked Elvera.

"We are going to fake our deaths," said Chadwick. The four mages were summoned to the General's command tent the next morning. He demanded answers out of them and used the enforced truth-telling aspect of the necklaces extensively. Thankfully, none of the plans got exposed because he just didn't know the right questions to ask. They dutifully threw Chadwick under the cart as the sole enchanter to blame for the belts and the General seems perfectly happy with just him being included on the next fortress assault.

Not so much as a mention of any of the other enchanters. The General gave them two days to get their affairs in order and ensure their duties as commanders were handed over to other mages. Just in case. Then, with specific instructions not to bring belts, or any other similar devices that would remove them from the battle, they were sent away. The General did try to have them bring Chadwick to be questioned as well, but they were all able to truthfully answer that they didn't know where he was.

He had only mentioned needing to work on some other enchantments and would be somewhere amongst the tents. Also that he would be back before the two days were up. While the General didn't like it, he seemed satisfied that they were all convinced Chadwick would be available to report in before they left. Chadwick meanwhile, was raiding supply tents all over the camp. Hundreds of pounds of food disappearing into his spatial bag. Along with piles of tents and warm clothing.

Everything a large group of people would need to disappear into the wilderness. An enchantment with the ability to redirect attention away from him was working overtime as he cut holes into tents and snuck past quartermasters. Some piles of supplies that the four mages decided they would need were also placed into one of the back rooms of the command tent and Chadwick scooped those up while none of them were around to see him.

By not letting them see him until the final day, they couldn't possibly give up his whereabouts while under compulsion. On the final day, Elvera gave a fabulous screeching performance about her impending death until the General ordered her to not talk to him again until they would be sent for their mission that night. Chadwick witnessed this from a tent a few rows over and nodded with satisfaction. Even he had believed Elvera's performance.

The night of the attack came quickly and Chadwick made sure to appear with the group of four mages as they made their way to the General for their final orders. They made their way into the command tent, then the General chased out all his attendants and other officers. He pulled his own necklace out with a large golden disc on it and spoke quietly to the group, "your orders are simple. Attack the nearest fortress and do as much damage to it, or any Siyene, you see.

Continue until either the fortress has no one left alive in it, or you die. If you somehow defeat everyone in that fortress, go to the next nearest fortress and repeat, until you do die. Make no attempt to alert anyone about the content of these orders. Leave and begin your orders now." All five of them felt the compulsion land on them and they all spun about and left. As they walked, Chadwick had to push back a little on the compulsion to get out the words, "that changes my plan slightly.

I was going to come back as the only survivor and slowly bring groups out to you. We go with plan B. Which I'll explain when I can." They all marched straight out of the camp, no soldier getting in their way as they went through the gate and directly towards the closest fort. Which happened to be the biggest one. Chadwick could feel eyes watching them as they marched in a straight line through the forest. He could tell they weren't close enough to listen..

"Put on a good show when we get there. We are being watched. Sloan, focus on building walls. Dean on deflecting. Elvera and Taverish on offense. I will be setting up plan B," said Chadwick quietly. Most could barely nod, the compulsion driving them towards their task. Little room for anything else. It was almost an hour of forced marching to reach the fort and the group immediately started attacking as soon as they could see it. Chadwick darted around, placing items on the ground.

Sloan seemed to struggle to force himself to build walls instead of just launching rocks. Chadwick reminded him, "you can more easily fulfill your task by building the walls to attack from," and the compulsion seemed to ease off and let him create defenses. The viewpoint that you were fulfilling the task seemed to be the main driving thing. The fortress in front of them had massive metal doors and walls that were a good twenty feet taller than the other fortress Chadwick had seen get assaulted.

Though, this was also four mages in a class of their own. Taverish was launching massive balls of lava at the metal gates and already starting to buckle them. Elvera's lightning was raking the top of the wall whenever someone came into view. Just those two were lighting up the night sky. The Dean couldn't do much to directly assault walls, but his air magic was able to reach in and pluck Siyene out of hiding. Bringing them to where Elvera could hit them.

Sloan raised defenses around them and then began hurling rocks at the gate. With the defenses in place, partially cutting off the view. Chadwick fought against the compulsion as he raced around the small defensive structure, placing various items on the floor. They continued bombarding the fortress, until a horn sounded inside and the battered metal gates were forced open. A group of over one hundred Siyene warriors riding giant lizards came charging out.

The four mages redirected their attacks towards the incoming warriors. Shamans were launching counter-attacks to knock their projectiles out of the air. Shields popped up to stop Evlera's lightning that was crashing down. Several of the approaching Siyene still died because of the sheer ferocity of the attacks coming at them. The counter attacks by the shamans being unable to keep up. Then a large group of shamans followed out behind the troops and then things started to turn badly for the four.

The group of shamans pooled behind a single older man who was at the front and then he slammed his staff on the ground and an enormous bird made of shadows appeared and flew towards the group. Even in the dark night, the bird's silhouette showed clearly with each flash of Elvera's lightning. Seeing the perfect moment, hidden by the giant bird made of shadow, Chadwick reached out with his power, breathed deeply and then broke the enchantments on the four necklaces.

It required diving deep into the structure of the necklaces and breaking eight different pathways at the same time. Even the slightest delay between them and it would be lethal. Breaking 32 individual pathways at the same time was no worse than splitting his attention for a 32-point enchantment. But doing so on four moving necklaces in the middle of combat added another layer of difficulty.

When the power broke, the four seemed blissfully relieved for a moment, pausing their attacks and ducking behind the walls, then saw the bird coming towards them and looked panicked. Chadwick had to take a moment to overcome the compulsion from his own necklace, since it was trying to get him to attack the four freed mages. Once he mastered it, he triggered the enchantments he had been placing around their defensive structure. And the ones on the belts he had given to the four mages to wear under their outfits.

Triggered his own belt. And broke his own necklace. All at once, the giant bird made of shadows struck their structure. A huge cloud of dust burst into the air. And an explosion ripped out from their location. Flattening trees and knocking down all the approaching soldiers. When everything settled, there was nothing left of the fortification. No stone walls. No bodies. Just dust. A bell started frantically dinging in the General's personal quarters, he rushed in, silenced and checked the message stone.

It had five names on it, along with times and locations.

"Surely not," said the General to himself, "I left them no room for them to do anything else." He stared at the message for a while and decided not to act until his observers returned. He had only seen this alert go off once, when a mage attacking a fort had been hit directly in the necklace by a Siyene shaman. The mage in question had also lost his head. The necklace had registered as being destroyed before the man had died. However brief the delay was. He considered the idea for a moment.

It's possible an attack destroyed them before the mages themselves died. But it would have to be an enormous attack that hit them all at basically the same time. He paced for over an hour before his chief observer announced himself and slid into the General's tent.

"What did you see?" Demanded the General.

"All went as expected up to the end. The five marched straight there and began assaulting the fort. Though, slightly unusual was that Sloan built defenses before attacking. Nevertheless, he did attack once the walls were made. Troops sallied forth. They traded attacks for a short while. Something changed when the Chief Shaman came out and launched a giant curse, bigger than this tent. It demolished the entire defensive structure and nothing was left," reported the observer.

"Bodies?" Asked the General.

"Didn't see any. The entire stone structure was reduced to dust. Not very surprised at a lack of bodies if it did that to stone," answered the observer.

"Hmm," began the General, looking at the message with four identical times for the older mages and a slight delay before the enchanter's necklace had broken, "I don't like not seeing the corpses. Send out a few mage patrols with orders to clean up any loose ends, just in case."