They were preparing to shoot it, but Katie shook her head. “Let me do it. I could use the practice.” She took the crossbow and examined it quickly. It was a standard crossbow, but the draw on it was a little too much for her to be comfortable with. She used her shadows to ready the weapon and then took aim. She wasn’t normally one to use a crossbow in a fight, but her master had insisted she learn since a crossbow could pierce through non-magically reinforced armour fairly easily. “You want me to aim for the cloth, right?”
The rat squeaked his reply, and Katie fired.
The bolt thudded into the dummy – and then punched right through it. Katie tilted her head to one side. Was that supposed to happen? If that had been her, she would now be sporting a very large hole in her chest. One of the rats darted forward and then scampered back with the cloth. Katie’s eyes widened. It hadn’t been pierced. In fact, it was wrapped tightly around the tip of the crossbow bolt.
“Incredible.” Katie pursed her lips. “It didn’t stop the bolt, but the bolt wasn’t able to tear it, which means it should be able to stand up to a knife or even a sword. On its own, it might not stop someone from getting hurt, but if you layered it over something like metal plate or chainmail…”
The rats squeaked excitedly amongst themselves and rubbed their paws together in glee.
“Good work,” Katie said. “Weren’t you working on some kind of force-absorbing material before? If you could combine that with this cloth and put it in between plates of metal, you’d have really great armour, even if it would be a bit bulky.” She grinned. “Keep working on it.”
The rats squeaked again.
“There’s more?”
The rats reattached the cloth to the remains of the dummy and began to pelt it with vials of fluid. In a mater of moments, the dummy caught fire and began to dissolve. Katie winced. They’d used a combination of something flammable and something acidic, but the cloth was still intact.
“Wow. We need to make more of this. Even if we don’t use it for armour, it would still be perfect for gloves since it’s tear-resistant and can stand up to fire and acid. How do you make it?”
Their explanation was long and detailed. The rats knew she had a quick, agile mind, and Katie usually wanted to know as much as possible. The main issue was that producing the cloth they’d used for the demonstration had taken almost a month. She had no doubt they’d be able to hasten the manufacturing process, but by how much? In any case, this cloth was definitely worth investing in.
“Good work.” Katie patted each of the rats on the head and offered them a small token of thanks: little badges that they could attach to the pink jackets she’d made for them, which would show how many of their projects had received her and her master’s approval. “We’ll definitely give you access to more resources, but you should also talk to my master. He knows a lot about alchemy, and he also knows a lot of tailors. He, or the people he knows, might know of some ways to speed things up although even small amounts of that cloth would be useful. We could make gloves, pouches, or even just attach patches of it to existing clothing or armour to make them more durable.”
Katie turned as the rats began to tidy up the remnants of their demonstration. “Who’s next?”
Instead of staying in the courtyard, the rats directed her to the walls. There was a cannon of some sort up there, but they weren’t going to fire it from the walls. Instead, they would be taking it to the testing area used by the demolition rats. The rats used some zombie wyverns to transport the cannon and themselves while Katie flew there on wings of shadow. This group of rats was not made up of demolition rats. Instead, they were rats that specialised in developing projectile weapons, such as ballistae, catapults, and magical cannons.
Once they had landed amidst the barren, blasted area that the demolition rats used to test their inventions – her master dropped by once a week to fix it with his magic – Katie studied the cannon intently. She was familiar with magical cannons. The castle had some ready to deploy if they were ever attacked, but this looked more like a conventional cannon, like the ones the dwarves were famous for using. Those cannons didn’t use runes and seals to mimic the effects of different kinds of magic. Instead, black powder or other explosives were used to propel a projectile, often a lump of metal, at a target. Despite having several advantages over catapults and ballistae, such cannons seldom saw use over magical cannons, which tended to be more powerful, more accurate, and have longer range. The magical defences used in most fortifications also tended to do better against conventional cannons than magical ones, which meant conventional cannons were mainly used defensively.
The cannon the rats had built dwarfed – she giggled at the unintentional pun – the ones she’d seen the dwarves use. It also had a few unusual additions, such as crystals slotted into several sockets along the barrel of the cannon.
“Are you going to fire it?” she asked.
The rat in charge nodded eagerly and issued commands to the zombie who had come along. The zombie ogre loaded a large package into the cannon followed by a metal sphere, and the rats urged Katie to put earmuffs over her ears and brace herself. The resulting blast was deafeningly loud, even through the earmuffs, and the shock of it cracked the ground underneath the cannon. She strained to follow the projectile as it arced up into the air and vanished into the distance. She raised one hand to her face to shield it from the sun as she tried to figure out where the projectile had –
BOOM.
More than a mile away, a column of smoke and flame ripped upward. A sound like thunder followed a moment later, and Katie’s jaw dropped. “Explain,” she ordered as the rats exchanged smug grins and congratulations amongst themselves. “What did I just see?”
Katie wasn’t an expert in cannon manufacture by any means, but she knew enough to follow the general gist of the explanation. The cannon was cast out of an exotic alloy the rats had been working on for years. Access to the castle’s resources and some of the research her master had done when making his shovels had allowed them to finally get the alloy right. The alloy wasn’t as durable as legendary metals like adamant, but it had two important properties. First of all, the alloy spread damage equally along its volume, so the forces applied to one part of the barrel would be spread equally throughout the cannon. Second, with the right runes and seals, the alloy could channel the forces it was subjected to into the crystals along the barrel. As a result, the cannon had far greater range than other cannons since it could use much more powerful explosives to propel projectiles without blowing itself apart. The only downside was that the crystals were fairly expensive. They were a special kind of magical crystal, and they had to be replaced regularly since they shattered after absorbing a certain amount of force or damage.
As for the projectile, Katie was impressed. It consisted of a metal shell that was protected by magic during the firing process. Inside it were explosives that were designed to trigger when the projectile struck a hard surface like the ground or the walls of a fortress. The rats swiftly explained that although they had used explosives in the first projectile to make a good first impression, they could also shoot other types of projectiles. The most fearsome of these was a projectile filled with small bits of metal and just enough explosives to create a deadly hail of debris upon impact. Katie shivered as she imagined what that would do to tightly packed ranks of infantry or even unsuspecting cavalry. They’d be shredded.
“What do you want to do with this?” Katie asked. “And make sure you keep all of the plans and details of this secret from outsiders. We don’t want the wrong people to get their hands on this.
The rats launched into an enthusiastic rendition of their plans, complete with moving re-enactments of the carnage they could wreak upon their enemies. In short, the rats wanted to build multiple cannons like this one for the castle. They could rain death and destruction down on anyone foolish enough to attack them at a range that would make retaliating virtually impossible for most mages and projectile
weapons. Sure, someone like Avraniel would be able to fire back, but Avraniel was monstrously powerful. And speaking of Avraniel, Katie could scarcely imagine what a cannon like this would be capable of if they somehow managed to build a version of it that could stand up to the elf’s magic. It was the stuff of nightmares.
Katie would definitely have to speak to her master about this. These cannons were the perfect complement to an army of zombies. The most common way of beating back an army of zombies was to close ranks and use heavy infantry, archers, and pikemen in conjunction with the occasional cavalry charge and magical bombardment. These cannons would force an army to spread out and break formation, which should make it much easier to overwhelm it with zombies.
“Excellent.” Katie rubbed her chin thoughtfully. “But I can sense minute cracks in the metal of the barrel with my shadows, and several of the crystals already look like they need replacing from just that one shot.”
The rats agreed, but this was still a prototype. They were likely several models away from a stable and affordable production model, and it would take them years to get there. This wasn’t a short-term project – the leader of these rats estimated it could take as long as a decade to work all of the kinks out. They had already wildly exceeded their budget, so they needed her personal approval if they wanted access to any more resources.
“We’ll have to discuss this in more detail since you’re asking for a lot of money.” Katie frowned. “I’ll see if I can set up a meeting with my master some time next week. You’ll need to present a more detailed plan as well as provide estimates of the various costs. We’ve made a lot of money on our recent missions and our other investments are generally doing well, but we have a lot of things going on now. We still have to finish renovating and repairing the castle, and we also have to consider other projects too, not just the ones you guys are doing but also the ones my master and I are doing.”
The rats nodded earnestly and promised to have something ready for the meeting. Katie was sure they’d expected something like this. Given their limited resources, she and her master had to balance long-term benefits against short-term gain. Too much focus on the former would not necessarily be wise with war against the Eternal Empire on the horizon. On the other hand, focusing too much on the latter was not exactly a recipe for long-term success.
“One more thing,” Katie said. “Don’t let Avraniel or Spot find out about this. If they do, they might start testing it, and who knows what’ll happen then?”
The next group’s display took place in the castle, not in the courtyard, but in one of the many chambers hidden away from prying eyes. This was something she’d been looking forward to for some time. She had asked the rats to… acquire things for her. Chief amongst her requests were books, scrolls, and tablets from the ancient days. The castle had one of the most impressive collections in the world, and Katie was always on the lookout for more. She’d devoted considerable time and effort to tracking down some of the most important ancient texts, and although she hadn’t managed to find any of them, not complete, anyway, there had been whispers and rumours of fragments here, shards there, and pages over there. Stealing those would have been almost impossible, even for the rats, since they were heavily guarded. But could they be copied? She was certain the rats could accomplish that, and a copy was almost as good as an original although the part of her that loved collecting things bristled at the thought of relying on copies.
She’d been right. The rats she was with had managed to sneak into a fortress containing pages from an extremely rare ancient book. They hadn’t been able to copy it at first, but they’d kept a close eye on everyone in the fortress. They couldn’t get into the room containing the pages, but the ruler of the fortress had made copies of those pages because he was afraid of damaging the originals through constant perusal. Those copies were not as heavily guarded, and the rats were exceedingly sneaky. It helped that the fortress had something of a rodent problem, and the ninja rats had ensured it stayed that way by intimidating all of the fortress’s cats. After a fortnight of observation, they managed to sneak into the room with the copied pages and copy all of them.
Katie pored over the copies the rats had made, her smile almost too big to fit on her face. This was good work. No, this was absolutely fantastic work. She scratched each of the rats behind their ears and gave each of them a small bandanna with the castle’s coat of arms on it. It was a sign of recognition, so the other rats would know they’d completed an especially difficult mission for her.
“Fantastic work.” Katie sighed. “It’s a pity that I can’t read these that well – the dialect seems to be an older variant of a language I do know – but I’m sure I’ll be able to translate them in a week or two at the most. If I’m lucky, we might even have a dictionary for this language in the library.” She considered the problem for a moment longer before realising she’d overlooked what could be a very simple solution. “The language this was written in was supposed to have been widely used by vampires during the ancient days. If that’s true, then there’s a chance Amanda might be able to read it.” One of the rats snickered, and Katie giggled. “You might have a point there. She might be old enough to actually know the people who wrote this.” She paused and patted the rat on the head. “But don’t say that to her. I don’t think she’d take it well.”
* * *
Her weekend meetings with the ninja rats were about more than merely keeping an eye on them. They were also an important opportunity to socialise. The rats had an extremely strong sense of clan and community. It was how they had survived such adverse conditions for so long. Katie had a hard time picturing it, but the rats had told her they’d been wandering for generations. Oh, they’d stayed in some reasonably comfortable places from time to time, but they’d only ever been guests or employees. They’d always known that once they’d finished a job, they’d have to move on. Some of their previous employers had been more than willing to take in some of them, but no one had been willing to offer the entire clan shelter for an extended period of time. Yet the rats would never forsake their clansmen, so they had continued to wander, searching for the place their prophecies had spoken of. The castle was the first place the clan could call home in a long, long time. As one of the two most important people in the castle – and the one they’d pledged their loyalty to – it was only natural for Katie to spend time with them. It made her wonder what had happened to their original master. Given the rats’ unflinching loyalty and unshakable determination, something terrible must have happened.
None of the rats had ever revealed what had happened, but Cezanne had hinted at it once. The greatest kindness the rats’ had ever known had also been the greatest cruelty they’d ever had to endure. His comment hadn’t made much sense to her, but Old Man had given her a sad smile when she’d asked him about it. He suspected that whomever the rats had once served, they had ordered the rats to flee and survive rather than perish in the face of overwhelming odds. Yet from the anguish that had been on Cezanne’s face it was clear that many of the rats would have preferred to perish alongside their master than live on without them. If Katie had her way, the rats would never have to make that choice again. The castle was not only her home and her master’s home but also their home, and Katie had no intention of ever abandoning it.
The younger rats were especially eager to talk to her. Like her, they were curious and wanted to learn as much about the world as possible. It fell to the older rats to temper their enthusiasm. None of them had shown any signs of being a necromancer, but some of them had shown talent in areas related to necromancy, such as anatomy, sewing, and even composite zombie design.
There were even rats that had been born at the castle. They were the youngest of all, and they had no memory of the harsh life the clan had endured travelling from one job to another with no safe haven. The castle was the only home they’d ever known, and Katie and her master were the only ones they’d ever served. Whenever a new rat was born, the proud pa
rents would usually come to Katie to present their offspring, eager for her to provide a blessing of some sort. Katie wasn’t a cleric, so she wasn’t sure what she was supposed to do, but her master had told her to humour them. Rembrandt had said the same thing when she’d asked him. Thus Katie dutifully patted each newborn on the head while murmuring some words of advice. It was odd, but she was a necromancer. Odd was what she did.
Cezanne claimed to be several decades old, and she’d kept a close eye on the rats she saw regularly. A normal rat might live a couple of years, but the ninja rats clearly lived far longer than that. The rats had been at the castle for a while now, but she had yet to notice any obvious signs of ageing amongst them although the newborns matured with incredible swiftness. Rembrandt claimed that they usually lived between twenty to thirty years, with more powerful rats living longer. She had no reason to doubt his words, and he hadn’t changed in the time she’d known him. However, their increased longevity seemed to be balanced by them reproducing much more slowly and less frequently than normal rats. Had they reproduced with the same swiftness as normal rats, the castle would already have been completely overrun.
Socialising with the rats also gave her a chance to discretely take reports from the various rats that were spying on people or places. They delivered reports to her master too – he was still the ruler of the castle, and they respected his expertise and experience – but he had insisted she listen to their reports too, as well as share her conclusions with him. Making zombies and crushing her enemies was all well and good, but many battles could be won simply through having better information, logistics, and resource management. As her master had once said, it was always easier and less expensive to win a battle without actually having to fight one.
It was why necromancers were so handy to have around during a war. Sure, creating zombies out of the enemy’s dead was terrifying, but zombies took almost nothing in terms of resources to maintain, and every enemy they killed only added to their numbers, which made winning a war of attrition against a necromancer virtually impossible. Sure, zombies needed weapons and armour to reach their full potential, but they didn’t need food or even shelter unless conditions were truly dire. Regular zombies made poor spies and scouts, but zombie crows and other zombie animals could handle those roles. Katie had to get used to dealing with living people since the living tended to be much better at spying and infiltration, and correct information was critical to success. The rats were fiercely loyal to her, so using their reports to hone her analytical thinking was good practice. One day, she might have to rely on the reports of those less loyal or less skilled than the ninja rats.
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