Read Online Recruited Mage by David Fredric - Free Book Online Page A

went to him.
    “I just wanted to say good luck and try your best. You are well suited for this role and you should do very well. Now go and maybe I will see you all sometime. Ok?” He smiled sadly and showed us out of the Door. As we walked off we waved him goodbye then continued out to where the men were waiting. They called us to them, then we walked out of the compound to where three wagons were waiting. They were four-wheeled with roofs. There was a man waiting by the carts, tending to the horses; he looked up when he heard us, smiled and walked over, still looking at us.
    “So they alright? Good!” The men nodded to him. “Ok the horses are ready so let’s go.” Then the man turned to us and smiled. “My name is Gannon you’re in the back wagon, come on bring your bags.” We followed Gannon to the back cart. The wagon had a material roof strung over a thin skeleton of metal. There was no sheet at the back as that was where you got in. We dropped our bags in then climbed up into the back . Gannon to our surprise climbed in beside us. We heard a man get onto the front and we were off. We sat in silence for the first few minutes then Gannon started talking. “Well done you lot. It is quite an important job you’re doing and you will crush the enemies of the Emperor. The main part of the test was if you could stand the fireshot powder as most boys get scared out of their minds and that is no use, you boys however managed to take it in exceptionally well. Fireshot powder is quite expensive so it was a bit of a waste even though it was necessary.” We looked at Gannon, listening to what he was saying. “You will be doing an awful lot in training, and there is even thought of a show in the Grand Coliseum. I doubt many of you have been there before?” We all shook our heads, which I presumed meant that the others, like me had never been to the Capital. Gannon continued. “Well the Grand Coliseum is a huge open amphitheatre. There are huge gates for competitors to enter the arena which is two hundred metres across and the seats can sit eighty thousand people! Some of the new Engineers, well, you lot will apparently fight beasts “from another land” to show off your fighting skill. Now I can’t wait to see what they put in front of you lot but I can tell it will be amazing. Did you know I once saw men fight a Scarab! Do you know how utterly terrifying they are? They are like giant leaches but with legs. They apparently burrow underground and to eat they feed on whole herds of cows, I wander how they capture them?” The man paused for a moment, then continued. “It will take us only a few days to reach Rayne and there is nothing we need to do until then, although we could do some theory if you are interested. During the journey you can just relax all day long and also sleep. You lot must be so tired after all you have been through. You probably have not had a rest in the three, four or however many days since you were recruited. Tough luck on being chosen but you will get lots of glory on your return.” Gannon stopped talking and watched us weirdly for an hour before he eventually fell asleep. After a few more minutes we assured ourselves it was safe to talk.
    “We are invading The Free Islands?” Donal said. “Well I su ppose they should really as they are quite powerful. But haven’t there been about five invasions already?” I had barely heard about The Free Islands.
    Rador replied, “yes but they all failed. Every I sland is heavily fortified and every invasion has failed to take any of the fortified Islands of which there are about twenty. All they have taken are a few scrap Islands where all the captured trade ships are taken to be sold or broken down for materials.” Rador finished this with sigh, “no army could do it.”
    “But why?” Donal was now intrigued. “Surely they could be taken? Starved if not.”
    Rador shook his head. “The cities are said to have huge fish pens withi n the