The Sports Captain's Tale полностью

“You know what is at stake,” Sergeant Wills said. “The winner of this match will go on to the big championship games. The winning captain will become the next Captain-General. I suggest” – his tone made it clear it was an order – “that you remember two things. First, certain advantages you have here will not be present in the championship games and relying on them to win this match will cost you during the championship. Second, if you demonstrate good sportsmanship, you will find it much easier to gain respect if you win the prize. The days in which a Captain-General had complete, and unquestioned, authority are over. If you twist the rules to your advantage, you’ll be seen as a cheat even if what you do isn’t technically cheating. You will find it much harder to assert authority over the other sporty students.”

He paused, allowing his words to sink in. I kept my face expressionless. He had a point. The tactics I planned to use probably wouldn’t work in the championship. And we might be seen as cheats … I shrugged. It didn’t matter who won, as long as Blair was swept off the field. I glanced at him and smiled. He shot me a look that suggested he’d be throwing punches if the sergeant wasn’t right in front of him.

“Go to your bases,” the sergeant ordered. “When the bell rings … may the best team win.”

I stood and led my team out of the bunker, feeling eyes boring into my back. Sarah and David hadn’t tried to bribe me – or anyone else, as far as I knew – but they wouldn’t assume I was a silly captain in charge of a team of incompetent halfwits. They knew to take us seriously now. I briefly considered a plan that would have allowed us to get ahead without coming across as a real threat, only to dismiss it as a concept so foolish it didn’t work on paper, let alone the real world. Too many things could and would go wrong for the plan to be even remotely workable.

“You know what to do,” I said, once we were in the base. I’d done my best to reason out what the other teams would do, in response to our victory. Blair would find it hard to keep half his team in the rear – I didn’t know if it was true of Sarah and David, though I suspected it was – and that meant they’d counter by attacking our base at once. It was what I’d do if I thought my opponents were using entanglement charms. “Are you ready?”

I allowed my eyes to drift from face to face. Jerry, Mark and James looked eager. Bill and Karen looked a little more worried. Mildred seemed unconcerned … I suspected she was reluctant to invest too much heart in the game, or anything else. I grinned at them, wishing I could put my feelings into words. No one had bet on us, when we’d started. Everyone had assumed we were going to lose very badly. But now … we had a chance. They’d remember us even if we lost our final match.

“Mildred,” I said. “Are the spells ready?”

“Yeah.” Mildred looked nervous. “I don’t know if they’ll fool anyone …”

“They just have to last long enough for us to get into position,” I said, as I started to run through the first set of anti-tracking spells. Blair would expect us to stay in position … I just hoped he didn’t have time to torture us as well as take us out. “And then we can blindside him.”

The bell rang. “We need to move. Now.”

I led the way outside, cold damp air slapping me in the face. It had rained last night and the ground was even muddier than usual, to the point half the field might have turned into a bog. I glanced around quickly, then led the way east. It was risky – if we accidentally crossed the line, or got blown over it, it would count as us leaving the field – but it would give us our best chance of setting up spells ahead of time. I’d sooner have done it in the base, but the others would attack our base as quickly as possible. They’d have no choice.

But that does raise the issue of trapping us, I reflected, wryly. Does it count as pinning us down if we can use entanglement spells to work magic outside the fort?

I put the thought aside as Mildred performed the summoning spell. There was a long pause – for a terrible moment, I thought the plan was going to fail before it had even begun – then a handful of foxes darted out of the undergrowth and charged towards us. Karen snapped out a compulsion charm, holding them in place as Mildred went on to the next part of the plan. It wasn’t hard to control animals, save for creatures of magic. They tended to attack anyone who tried to control them.

“Poor creatures,” Karen muttered. “They’re really quite cute.”