Master of Tomes

by Raconteur, Honor

  No Tomes had lost a battle yet. Mei Li absolutely refused to be the first, and she was glad to see that same determination in everyone else.

  She finished the last copy, handed it over to Alina, and felt for the first time that they really had a good chance of putting Kovel Below back into place before the year ended—and without losing half of her workforce in the process.

  Chen was right. The only way to eat this whale was one spoonful at a time.

  Hearing that Kovel was half-consumed by the monsters, tragedies, and legends of old was one thing. Seeing it with her own eyes was something entirely different. One look from the air, and Mei Li felt tears burn her eyes as she fought nausea. She’d rage, or cry, or throw up—but none of those reactions seemed enough in the face of this.

  Kovel was a city of nearly a million people. It had stood for eons, one of the oldest on the continent, built by sea-faring people in need of a harbor. It had grown steadily over the years, reaching in all possible directions, and was known not only for its trade, but for its beauty. The inhabitants of Kovel took great pride in their city and lovingly tended to it. Usually.

  Right now, that shining city beside the sea was half lost to darkness. Even from the air, Mei Li could clearly see this. It was like looking at a beautiful woman who was fighting a serious disease. Pockets of infection could be seen all over, cancerous, oozing pus and infecting the rest of the city in a methodical way. Some parts of the city were burning, other parts frozen over with icicles piercing up into the sky, still other parts were simply…not. So totally eclipsed by darkness that her eyes couldn’t penetrate it, couldn’t decipher what had once been there.

  If she had known how bad this had gotten…no. Even then, Mei Li’s priorities wouldn’t have changed. Sealing the other three problems had been quick and affected just as many people. But dear gods and magic, she wished she’d been able to get to Kovel faster. Seeing this, she wished, too, that the person writing the reports had been better at describing just how bad things were. Mei Li wouldn’t have suggested resting if she had suspected Kovel was even a little bit like this.

  Dolan let out a groan, his tone distressed. “Mei Li, this isn’t good.”

  “It’s horrific. Shun, set us down somewhere safe, I have to get feet on the ground.”

  “I see a red tent. I’ll aim for that.”

  The commanders in the field always stayed in a red tent to make it easy for all to find them. Mei Li would bet that was Prince Cavanaugh’s tent. He was no doubt convalescing, but surely someone there could point her to whoever was in charge at the moment.

  Shunlei found an open patch, a lot that stretched a good block in all directions. At first, Mei Li wondered at it—open ground in Kovel? The city known to build on top of itself? But then she realized that this was ground that had been cleared for them. The area was normally the fairgrounds, now cleared of all tents and stands, standing at the ready for dragons to land.

  She had no idea who’d had that foresight, but bless them for it.

  More focused on haste than anything else, Shunlei’s landing was a touch rougher than usual. Mei Li barely let him settle his feet on the ground before she opened the top and popped her head out.

  “TOMES!” a voice boomed out.

  She could not have heard that right. She knew that voice—Prince Pari sounded like that. But there was no way that he was here, on the other side of the continent. Her head snapped around, and she blinked, then blinked again, doubting her own eyes.

  Prince Pari was, indeed, standing right on the edge of the clearing, looking as big as life. His furs were tucked up high around his ears, a deep purple cloak swirling around his legs in the high wind. Sitting next to him in a wheeled chair was his brother, who was wrapped more in bandages than clothing. Prince Cavanaugh did not look like his warrior-self, to say the least. His dark brown hair was pulled away from his face, his beard thick and uncombed, and a blanket draped over the casted legs in front of him.

  But he was alive. And Mei Li had feared she wouldn’t see him like this, upright and breathing—not after hearing he was gravely injured.

  She waved a hand to both of them, a relieved smile on her face. Thank all deities, at least these two were alright. Mostly alright.

  Dolan leapt out ahead of her, stumbled a little because of stiff legs, then turned and helped her out. Mei Li was glad, as her thighs and hips were cramping and were not to be trusted to support her weight just then.

  Dragons landed all around them, and mages unloaded from carriers. Mei Li dodged around them, jogging as fast as she could in the trampled snow of the field. “Your highness, greetings! I didn’t expect you here.”

  Prince Pari greeted her with outstretched arms, clasping her forearm in a warrior’s grip.

  “Well met, Tomes. I received word my brother was injured, and a dragon kindly offered to fly me down. I took advantage of the offer and made my way directly here. I only just landed this morning, in fact. I barely beat you here.”

  Mei Li was glad for it. Surely Prince Cavanaugh would rest better having his brother at his side. “I’m so glad. I need all the help I can get on this one. Prince Cavanaugh, how are you?”

  Despite his horrific injuries, the Warrior-Prince of Horvath grinned at her.

  “Very disappointed I’m not able to join in on the real fight. But let me tell you, you won’t believe what got me in the end. It was a flock of these strange lizards. But they were upright on two legs, with shorter front legs, and the most vicious teeth! They were like lightning, they were so fast, and I could barely fend one off before another one was on me.”

  Mei Li felt her mouth go dry. “By any chance…did they stand on two large hind feet, smaller arms in the front, big head? Red skinned, as big as a large man would be?”

  He grew even more excited. “Do you know what they were?”

  “Deinos.” She said the word as if announcing the world was going to end. She rather felt like it might.

  Just how far back in history did Kovel Below go? No, wait, she didn’t really want the answer to that question.

  “It’s a prehistoric creature, dating back further than humanity. The dragons are the only ones who would remember them.”

  “Only vaguely,” Shunlei remarked at her shoulder. “My broodmother used them to teach us how to hunt. They had surprisingly good meat, if you could catch them. Prince Cavanaugh, you’re looking remarkably spry for a man supposedly on death’s door.”

  This amused him; the wide smile was visible even past the beard.

  “I’m fortunate to have three very talented mage healers who were handy when I was injured. They assure me I’ll live, and wield a sword again, although I won’t be doing it for this battle, I’m afraid.”

  “Speaking of, I need to know the exact situation as it stands now so I’ll know how to divvy up the work.”

  Both men blinked at her.

  “You know what to do here?” Prince Pari asked hopefully.

  “I do. I’m not sure if I have enough people for it, so that’s one of the things we need to discuss.”

  “Let’s go into my brother’s tent,” Prince Pari suggested. “It’s too cold out here for him, anyway. And he has all of the reports and a map of the city marked with the problem spots. Best place to plan. I’ve got people in charge of settling your party; you don’t need to worry about them.”

  That sounded perfect to Mei Li. She really did not have the patience to settle in before getting answers.

  Shunlei handed their bags over to Rone with a request to handle the luggage while they caught up with the princes.

  Prince Pari pushed his brother’s chair himself, letting a retainer walk by Prince Cavanaugh’s side. Mei Li chose to keep pace with them so she could pepper them with questions.

  “From the air, it looked as if half the city was lost, is that correct?”

  “We’ve evacuated another third of the city, at least. Lady Liasa split duties with us, as she was overrun with work and barely sleepi
ng. She’s handling the evacuations while we’re handling the conflict itself. She did leave strict orders that we were to notify her when you came in.” Prince Cavanaugh gestured with his good hand. “But if she can’t spot a flight of dragons flying overhead, I don’t know how to help her.”

  Mei Li snorted.

  “Truly. We were a rather obvious show in this clear sky. Alright, we’ll let her catch up to me in her own time. We’ve got enough on our plates. The last report I had in Horvath suggested it was bad, but not like this.”

  “Things spiraled out of control almost overnight,” Prince Cavanaugh admitted sourly. “It certainly felt that way to me. I woke up to alarm bells going off, dove into combat gear, and headed out into the fray. Those…what did you call them, again?”

  “Deinos.”

  “Those deino things were hunting in the streets. We couldn’t block the streets or evacuate the city fast enough. We lost a good twenty people.”

  Shunlei groaned, rubbing a hand over his face. “I can imagine the devastation. They are notoriously quick and would excel in hunting in this kind of environment.”

  “As we found out. Anyway, I’m fighting those things, lose the fight, wake up with three mages trying to keep my blood in my body. It was a rough time, I tell you. But once I was awake, they only had worse news to tell me. While I napped, we’d lost a whole other section of the city, from Market Street straight down to the wharf.”

  He paused before admitting darkly, “I was afraid to sleep for a while, there. Afraid of what I’d hear when I woke up again. If I woke up again in this world and not in Kovel Below.”

  Mei Li winced. The fear was understandable, considering what he’d been living through for the past several months.

  The road between the tents here was close together, indeed, barely wide enough for a single cart to squeeze through. Which made sense; space was at a premium here.

  No one could really recognize Mei Li at a glance. There was nothing remarkable about her appearance that would make her stand out in a crowd. But Shunlei, of course, was one of very few black dragons. And only one of those was known for helping the world with its many problems.

  As they walked through the pitched tents, passing the soldiers, city guardsmen, and mages who had come together to help Kovel, people took notice of the man with black skin and hair. They noticed, and whispers followed in his wake.

  “That’s the Master of All Dragons, isn’t it?”

  “That’s him, I’ve seen him before.”

  “If he’s here, then is the Tomes here?”

  “That’s her, I think, the woman he’s following.”

  “Gods above and below, the Tomes is finally here! She must be if he is!”

  Shunlei, of course, heard every word and chuckled. “Well, they’re not wrong. You are, indeed, here.”

  “No, they’re not wrong.” Mei Li gave him a warm smile over her shoulder. It was nice to know the world had figured it out. Wherever the Master of All Dragons was, a Tomes would likely be there, too.

  And she was beyond thankful that was the case. That Shunlei had always been such a staunch supporter of the group they had created together. The world might not have survived without his unwavering support.

  “There will be much celebrating tonight, knowing you’ve come.” Prince Pari grinned from ear to ear. “I certainly will be. But let’s get things organized first. Our enemy isn’t going to wait for us to gather our loins or sharpen our weapons.”

  “No, it never does,” Mei Li remarked. “Prince Cavanaugh, I have to assume that while you were handling the ground fighting, someone coordinated the effort of the mages. Who might that be?”

  “Ah, that’s Masajada. Wickedly smart woman, that one. I’m going to try and court her once this mess is done.”

  Mei Li blinked down at him in surprise. Come again? “I’m sorry?”

  He was sober as a church mouse as he explained, “When you meet a woman that smart, that competent, that fearless, there’s only one thing to do: marry her. I’ve seen that woman stare into the abyss. And the abyss blinked first. She’s stolen my breath and heart away.”

  Well. Mei Li hadn’t expected that. She was very glad to hear someone with nerves of steel and intelligence had coordinated things here, no doubt about that. She must be impressive indeed if the Warrior-Prince of Horvath was declaring his undying love for her. Mei Li suddenly couldn’t wait to meet her.

  “Can you call for her?”

  “No need.”

  Mei Li looked up, automatically tracking the low alto voice. A woman in pure black walked toward them, her stride like that of a soldier walking into battle. Hers was a severe look, skin naturally pale as cream, hair midnight black and trailing over one shoulder, eyes so pale as to be translucent.

  This was the woman who had stolen Prince Cavanaugh’s heart? It actually made sense. Certainly, she would never be cowed by him and could more than keep up with him in battle. Warrior spouses.

  Oh my. If this did happen, the world might well tilt on its axis.

  “Tomes, I assume.” Masajada looked her over from head to toe, her expression unreadable. “And the Master of All Dragons. Zaffi and Odom?”

  “Zaffi is resealed,” Mei Li answered levelly. “Odom, defeated.”

  She’d expected the first, but not the second, and canted her head in surprise. “You defeated him? How astonishing. Well, then you might have the savvy and power to do something about this insane situation we’re in.”

  “I’m not going to rest until Kovel is back to rights. I have a plan, Mage Masajada. Will you join us for the meeting and hear it?”

  “I hope your plan includes more help coming because my people are exhausted and insufficient for this.”

  Mei Li nodded. “I brought a party of eight mages, including myself, and nine dragons. Three more mages and dragons are right behind us, and a thunder of dragons is inbound from Dragon’s Peak.”

  Masajada’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully. “That’ll certainly help. I’ll join you for that meeting, Tomes, but tell me this first: How long do you expect it will take to put Kovel to rights?”

  “I can’t give you an exact answer until I’ve spoken with everyone about possible solutions. But optimistically, three months?”

  Prince Cavanaugh spluttered. “Wait, wait, we’ve been fighting Kovel Below for three months! And we have to fight it for another three?!”

  “You’ve been losing ground for three months,” Mei Li pointed out mercilessly. “I’ll be gaining territory back.”

  His expression turned shrewd. “You really think you can just reverse the tide?”

  Mei Li’s smirk was confident and sassy. “You called for an expert, didn’t you?”

  His eyes widened before he laughed with unfettered delight. It rang of relief to her ears. “Lady Mei, if my heart wasn’t already taken, you’d have stolen it just now. I’m a blessed man to be surrounded by so many formidable women.”

  “You are, indeed. Let’s get out of this wind. The sooner we start, the sooner we can take this city back.”

  Masajada was pulling no punches. With an authoritative finger, she pointed to the map pinned to the table, looking Mei Li squarely in the eye. “How do you plan to deal with this?”

  Mei Li didn’t just address her, but the two princes, as well. “Shouldn’t we wait for Liasa of Kovel to join us?”

  “She’s impossible to track down quickly,” Prince Cavanaugh explained. “The woman’s running around like a chicken with its head cut off. If she doesn’t show up soon on her own, I’ll write up a note and summon her. Don’t worry about it.”

  That was fair. “Alright, then let’s focus on the plan. Frankly, I’m going to do this in pieces. This is a whale of a problem, and we all know how to eat a whale.”

  “One bite at a time,” Prince Pari said thoughtfully as he stared at the map. “But how…?”

  “The thing is, when Kovel Below popped up the first time, the Tomes of that generation did a very thorough job
of putting it back into place. And his method of fixing it is still within this city.”

  Masajada was quick to object. “But his fix no longer works! The seals failed; that’s why we’re in this situation.”

  Cavanaugh’s head swung around to look at her. “You said that before, that the seals in the city had failed. I’m still not quite sure what you mean by that.”

  “To fix Kovel, the Tomes created a series of seals throughout the city that kept Kovel Below separate,” Masajada quickly explained. “But the seals have obviously failed, hence why we’re in this situation. We can’t rely on those.”

  “They didn’t fail,” Mei Li said patiently. “They lost connection.”

  Masajada frowned at her. “How can you possibly know that if you’ve only been here five minutes?”

  “Because it’s the only thing that makes sense.” Mei Li spread her hands in an open shrug. “This isn’t like Evocation, Lady Masajada. Wu Xing works on entirely different principles. As long as the seal itself hasn’t been destroyed, as long as its power source is still connected, then it works. It always works. There’s no pass/fail here. If the seal has failed, then either it has lost power for some reason, or someone has stupidly destroyed multiple seals.”

  “It would take more than one seal being destroyed?”

  “Oh, yes. In this case, at least a hundred for us to have lost a whole city.” Mei Li picked up a pencil and started putting circles down on the map. Everyone leaned in to watch.

  “There’s a grid of seals throughout the city. I’m sure you know what I mean. The flat fountains dotting the streets? Those. It was designed in such a way that even if one of them was destroyed or covered up, the four on all sides of it would take the load. There’s a great deal of overlap in this system. If we have this many seals failing, then it has to be an issue with the power source.

  “Now, in this case, the seals are fueled by water and wind—specifically the coastal wind coming in, and the power of the ocean. I’ve a bad feeling that someone has built over—or blocked—the channels that fueled all of the seals.”