"Be quick," Warrior whispered as they quickly walked along the shadow of the castle wall.
Tad nodded. Looking up and down the street, making sure no one saw them, he placed his hands on the castle wall and took a deep breath. Closing his eyes, he concentrated on making the wall insubstantial. Breathing in and out, rhythmically, he put all his strength into his hands and concentration. Sweat lined his brow as his hands started to sink into the stone wall. Warrior watched quietly as slowly, the hands of the human disappeared in the stones of the wall.
Tad concentrated on making the stone wall air, even though it would still look like a wall. In his mind, he saw both himself and Warrior walking through the stone wall and into the castle courtyard. His fingertips felt the stone of the wall, but soon, they felt nothing but air, and his arms were pushed further into the wall. Pretty soon, he didn't feel any stone at all, and he knew he was done.
"Alright," Tad panted, pulling his arms out of the wall. "I'm done."
Warrior nodded and walked through the area of the wall where Tad's arms had disappeared into. Walking through it, he found himself in the open courtyard. The horse quickly ran for shelter, hiding himself. Even though it was still early in the day, one would never know who would be looking out of their bedroom windows. He watched the part of the wall he had come from, waiting for Tad to walk through.
As he waited, he scanned the surrounding area, making sure no one was around. Tad finally appeared through the wall. Warrior watched as the boy turned around and returned the wall to its former state, making its molecules stronger, and more closer together.
Tad turned to find Warrior, spotting him, he ran for the hiding spot.
"So how do we get inside?" Warrior asked the magician boy.
"How else?" Tad replied with a mishcevious smile.
"You look too exhausted to be using magic."
"Looks can be deceiving," Tad said.
He looked around the courtyard, seeing nobody, he cast a spell that disguised himself to look like a stable boy and Warrior to look like an honored knight's mount. He took Warrior's reigns and led him out of the hiding place and into plain view. The sun shone on them like a spotlight, lighting up the whole area. People began streaming out of the many caslte doors, maids, kitchen boys, stable boys, kitchen girls, squires, all talking about the day, their chores, their eagerness for the war, even the taste of breakfast. Tad kept his head down, in case the spell wasn't working correctly, and ignored everybody as he led the horse east, to the stables.
Once inside, the smell of manure, hay, and oats were so strong that Tad thought he was being attacked by scents. Shaking the idea out of his head, he led Warrior to an empty stal at the end of the one of the rows, but he also made sure that the horse was near a door. Tad grabbed a bucket of oats and began pouring them into Warrior's food tray.
"Enjoy your breakfast," Tad said and walked out of the stable.
Outside, Tad looked for the nearest kitchen door to disappear into. Walking along, he recognized the voices he heard and remembered the faces he saw. He had to fight an urge to talk to them. Finding a door, he opened it and walked inside, again, being attacked by strong odors. He filled his nose with scents of mutton, coffee, buns, tea, soups, fighting another urge to eat breakfast, and quickly walked across the busy kitchen to the door on the other side. Tad opened the wooden door, and grimaced as the rusty hinges squeaked loudly. He looked around and to his surprise, no one looked up at the noise. Tad quickly walked inside the stairway and closed the door behind him.
The stairway was a secret, servant's stairway to the throne room, so there were no windows. The only light came from the flickering flames of torches that hung on the walls lighted the stone steps. Tad quickly ran up the stairs, hoping that no one would be in or coming into the stairway. After some fifty steps or so, he wished that he had counted the number of steps there were when he had the chance some years ago. Shaking his head, he continued his ascend.
Tad stopped a few steps before the door. The door was behind the throne, so it would be easy to eavesdrop, except that it was filled with magical traps. The magi stood there, allowing his eyes to adjust to the flickering lights of the torches and the to the colors of the magical traps.
He saw the glowing white lights of the air traps, which tossed a person who doesn't belong back from the door. He saw the red lights of the ground traps that held the intruder in place, making him unable to move his feet. He saw the green lights of the magic bells that rang in the ears of every magician and magi in the castle. Studying the criss crossing of the lights, Tad sighed and gave a gentle wave with his hand. The magical traps moved aside, allowing just enough room for Tad to walk up to the door.
Walking up to the door, he recognize two voices that were talking on the other side. One was the King's and the other voice belonged to Zack.
"How has the recruitment gone," the King asked.
"It seems that every man of good health and age has signed, except for one, Your Majesty," Zack answered.
"Never mind that man for now. Do we have a big enough army to fight the war?"
"Yes, Your Majesty. They will be in the city for training within a week," Zack said.
"Good."
Tad reached his hand out to the door, and pushed it open.