The Chronicles of Brendan Earle, Apprentice Mage.

Going Behind the Lines

Ali

Senior Ferguson called us to his room for a briefing late in the evening. There were Becks, Dara, Maria and Daisy, along with Nick, Phil, Parsa and me. He told us that we were going out for a mission behind Maldon’s lines to interrupt his supply wagons and stuff. I’m lying if I say we were gob smacked; we were much more than that.

He’d maps out and showed us the area we’d be working. We looked at the roads that the supplies were coming up, and he pointed out all the ones that were being used, even though we were only going to hit one of them. He said that other groups would hit the other roads, but that, for reasons of opsec (operational security that is), we weren’t going to know who and shouldn’t try to find out. Similarly, we weren’t to tell anyone what we were at.

 “What you or others don’t know, you can’t tell, even if they tear your fingernails out. Try not to get into situations where people will try to tear out your fingernails though, as they’re unlikely to believe that you don’t know anything and are liable to get imaginative.”

He showed us a talking book he’d prepared that he said had all of his briefing in it and got us first to touch it while he introduced us to it. If anyone else tried to lift it afterwards, he told us, it’d blow itself, them, and a half a football field a good kick into the air.

Then he took us through what was in it. We had info on the area and the probable teams of drivers and guards that the supply trains would have. Mostly, we could guess, it would be Sileni to drive the pack beasts and Pheres as minders for them.

He told us what kind of equipment we’d be taking with us. Since we were going out for a week, it was a lot, and we were all a bit puzzled how to get it there. When he said we’d have to tab it in ourselves we had to ask him what he meant. Even when he told us, we still didn’t get it.

We’d need to fly, and Mages don’t carry more than a stave strapped on when they fly with cloaks – you can’t fit a bag on your back on top of a cloak y’see. He told us that it was sorted though, and that it was necessary. We couldn’t get draft beasts or runners to where we were going, not in the time we needed to be there and not for certain.

Then he told us what our mission was. He repeated it twice, so that we wouldn’t forget it, and he stressed that we shouldn’t go beyond it. As much as we wanted to hurt Maldon, we didn’t want a whole crowd of others, including the Sileni and Pheres, going mardy on us (which is liable to happen with folk if you start killing their relatives), ‘cos there was still a chance we could get ‘em on our side.

After that, we went through a load of stuff on how we were to do it. It were amazing, but a bit too quick. He knew that, mind, and reminded us that we could check everything in the book, and should, to make sure we knew what we were about once we got on site.

The briefing finished with him going over what he called ‘actions on’. That were what we were to do if certain things happened. What got me particularly were how much he’d thought out already. Like, everything he said were obvious once he’d said it, but later we all reckoned we’d not of thought of ‘em.

At the end of the briefing, he told everyone that I were in charge and Becks were what he called 2ic. He said the rest could try highest up the wall if they wanted more organization.

Then we went out to kit up. We were a lot more worried about carrying everything after we’d seen it even than we’d been before. We had these rucksacks that we had to wear on our fronts instead of our backs, ‘cos of the cloaks. Most of it were food and pots and pans, but there were house seeds and bedding seeds and crystals and stuff. For all it looked a lot, we didn’t have much of anything really, and I was wishing we could take more, though I’d no idea how we’d shift it.

Phil suggested we go off the roof to get take off. None of us liked the idea much, but no one could think how else we could get up to speed – we couldn’t do it from a standing start and the rucksacks made it too awkward to run. We all started climbing the stairs. My mate Carl passed us and asked what we were about. I waved the book at him, which had NEED TO KNOW written big on the front. A face formed on the cover and it spoke in Senior Ferguson’s voice. “You don’t,” it said, “So just mind your own business.”

We got to the roof and everyone else manifested their familiars as owls to help guide them flying. I didn’t need it, of course. Then Senior Ferguson wished us well and told us to be safe.

“If you’re not, I’ve got dibs on any of your things that look shiny.”

Not really funny, but we all laughed. Then I said, “OK, let’s do it.” I turned around and took a header off the roof with my cloak spread wide. There were one horrible moment before it caught and I swooped up and could start flying. The others all jumped off after me, and we made a sort of formation and headed to the west. Phil were on one side of me and Becks on the other.

“So what is it then?” asked Phil. “Are we the SAS now?”

“Nah,” Becks told him. “We’re the dog’s bollocks.”

Everyone laughed, but we all reckoned she were right, I could feel it. You can’t swagger when you fly, but we would’ve if we could’ve.