by Jaxon Reed
Darkstone flew up on a column of black smoke and headed toward the camp’s command center.
Oldstone stood on his floating slab, holding Deedles and watching Mita fight another army below.
Deedles nudged him, mentally, and he looked at her. She had noticed something he had not, somebody trying to get his attention. He looked up at the floating castle some distance away. Redstone waved at him. He waved back. Redstone wandered back inside, and Oldstone resumed his observation of Mita destroying the facsimile army.
Her every effort was hampered by the army’s wizard. She flew along a line of men and horses with her sword held out to one side, slashing and killing along the way. The wizard threw a great wall of dirt and stone at her, ripping it up from the ground. Mita crashed into it before she could avert course.
She flew back up in the air and cast a long series of energy bolts at the archer’s ranks, killing hundreds. The wizard responded with a series of exceptionally powerful lightning bolts, overwhelming her protective globe of energy and delivering an electric shock that knocked her out of the sky.
Oldstone heard her swear words drift up to the slab. He looked down at Deedles, who transmitted a thought to him.
“I agree. That wasn’t a very nice thing to say.”
Deedles eyes remained closed. She couldn’t see the battle, but she enjoyed Oldstone’s steady strokes across her back while she listened to the sounds below and sensed other things.
Mita decided to find the wizard, and flew toward the rear of the army, ignoring all the lances, pikes, and arrows sent her way.
Deedles sent an unspoken question to Oldstone.
“Yes, she’s making the same mistake as before. She’s getting too close to him without knowing exactly where he is. We’ll see if she’s learned anything from the spells you taught her.”
Mita cast a flurry of energy bolts at the supply wagons. They exploded, disintegrating and flying up in the air. The wizard cast a giant iron net above her again, and she fell to the ground under its weight. All the nearby soldiers ran for her, and piled on top.
A couple hundred men were on her, scrambling over one another to add their weight. At the bottom of the pile, Mita cast the Globe of Expulsion. A giant ball of light sent the men flying through air, scattering in all directions along with pieces of the net.
Mita rose up in the air triumphantly in a fighting stance, her black armor unscathed. She finally spied the wizard among the wagons. She pulled back her arm to cast a spell, but he shot a bolt of light from his staff before she could follow through.
She froze. Her breathing stopped. Even her eyes remained motionless.
The remaining soldiers cheered. The wizard facsimile walked out of his hiding place, and bowed toward Oldstone and Deedles on the floating slab. Then everything dissipated in clouds of black smoke. Supplies, carts, horses, men, and weapons evaporated and floated away.
Mita found she could move again and flew toward the slab.
Oldstone looked down at the cat and said, “Thank you. He is a crafty one, isn’t he? He’s the best facsimile of a wizard I’ve got, actually.
“No, he’s not based on any one person, although he is loosely modeled after the original Oldstone, whose position I inherited a long time ago.
“Yes, I spent considerable effort giving this facsimile broad skills and powers. I daresay he’d be a fair match against anyone on the council.
“No, I haven’t given him a name. You’re right, I need to think of one for him.”
Mita landed gently on the slab. The black armor pulled back from her face and hands.
“Oh, yes. I think she’ll get to that point eventually.”
“What point?”
“We were just talking about you. Deedles asked if I thought you’d ever beat the wizard in this simulation.”
Mita snorted in exasperation.
“Each time I think I’ve got him, he throws something new at me I’ve never seen before.”
“That’s the—”
“I know, I know. That’s the point of the exercise. What was that last spell he used on me? I couldn’t do anything.”
“That was a Spell of Immobilization. Now, admittedly, it takes a powerful wizard to be able to cast one large enough to encompass you and your Globe of Protection. But many on the Council have the ability, and you need to be prepared for it.”
“Alright. How do I fight it without moving?”
“You need to learn to cast a Spell of Ambulation about yourself, without using gestures. In fact, it’s a good idea to learn how to cast everything without gestures. It’s much more difficult to do, I know. Almost all magicians and even wizards use the same motions from when they learned the spells. But, if you can transcend the need, your combat abilities will be greatly enhanced.
“You’ll notice that Deedles taught you how to cast the Globe of Expulsion without using gestures.”
Mita nodded.
“That came in handy on the bottom of the pile.”
“Precisely. She taught you how to do it that way because cats don’t use hand gestures, for obvious reasons. I assure you, the wizard who developed the spell came up with corresponding hand movements for it. Had a human taught it to you, you would have learned them as well.
“We’ll practice on casting an ambulation spell on yourself without moving, so you can counteract any spells of paralysis placed on you during battle.”
Mita nodded with the new knowledge, determined to learn whatever was needed to defeat the frustrating facsimile. Then a thought crossed her mind.
“Master, why do I need to know how to defeat a wizard anyway? Won’t my battles mostly be against men? I know there’s a rogue wizard at the moment, but once he’s taken care of things will go back to normal, won’t they?”
“It’s a fair question.”
Oldstone handed her the cat. Deedles snuggled into her arms, and she took over stroking the cat’s back.
“Obviously, we are going to face the rogue very soon now, and I want you to be as prepared as possible. It will take a concerted effort by all of us to defeat him.
“But the larger answer to your question is that a wizard, once committed to battle against you, will always be your most formidable foe. Therefore when you train, you should train to defeat a wizard, your greatest enemy. All lesser foes will then seem easy by comparison.
“And, in an even broader answer, who knows what the future may bring? Today one wizard has gone rogue from the council. Tomorrow, three or four may follow. A court mage may discover he is stronger than he knew, and decide to cause his king and queen problems that require your services. Perhaps another powerful dwarf wizard will trouble human lands again. Or, wizards from other lands may descend on ours with powerful armies.
“So yes, I hope your encounters with wizards on the battlefield are rare. But, when you do encounter one, you need to be prepared for him. You need to be prepared for anything, and figure out ways to defeat him regardless of what he throws against you.”
He paused, looking down at the purring Deedles cradled in her arms, then back up at the castle where he knew Redstone and Loadstone waited.
“Sadly, I think we’ve run out of time to train you much longer before your first real encounter with one.”
Chapter 13
Surprisingly few lives were lost in the deluge. Supplies and time were the greater casualties, Darkstone decided.
After assuring himself the commander and his captains had a firm grip on things, and reassuring them the roads were better just a half mile away, Darkstone flew back to Kathar on a long stream of fire and black smoke.
He landed at the royal ironworks inside the city walls. The workers tending the smithies ran in fear from the site of fire and smoke settling in the outer yard, the ragged wizard riding down on top of combustion from the sky.
The foreman had seen it before, though, and stepped forward to meet the wizard once he touched the ground.
“Are you finished with my metal men
, Jeskins?”
Jeskins bobbed his head and made an awkward half bow.
“Aye, Wizard. If you will follow me, I will show them to you.”
Darkstone trailed the foreman through a maze of huts and forges toward the back of the ironworks. They came to a section fenced off from the rest, with a tall double gate blocking the path. Jeskins pulled out a set of keys, selected one, unlocked the gates and pulled them open.
Inside the yard standing in rows, a hundred metal men stared blankly back at them. Giant broadswords dangled from their right hands.
“All finished, and all built to your specifications, Wizard. Each metal man is thirty paces tall, with fully articulated arms and legs and heads that swivel. Each is outfitted with a quality sword, ten paces in length. The torsos are hollow for storage, with doors in the back near the shoulders.”
Darkstone nodded, smiling. The metal men were indeed designed just as he had specified.
“Well done, Jeskins. Your request for payment to the royal treasury will be acknowledged and filled.”
Jeskins bobbed his head again, and smiled.
“Thankee kindly, Wizard. The boys and I were wondering how you were planning on moving them, now that they’re done and all.”
The wizard smiled back at the foreman.
“I’m not. They’ll move themselves.”
He began to dance, holding his hands high above his head. Jeskins backed away, giving him room. Darkstone cast a complicated Spell of Autonomous Ambulation, and several arcs of light spread out from his upraised arms to settle on the heads of the metal men. Light glowed from their eyes, which were little small windows in hollow, cylindrical skulls.
When he finished, all the metal men swiveled their heads and stared at him. He made a motion with his hands, and they began to walk, filing in order out the double gate.
The men who previously shied away from the wizard now cautiously peered out from their huts, watching in amazement as the metal men stomped through the ironworks. Many had spent time helping to forge and construct the giants, often wondering about the purpose for such a project.
The leading theory presumed they were statues of some sort, to be placed at strategic points throughout the realm. Few, if any, had guessed the wizard would ambulate them, although now it seemed obvious considering their articulated arms and legs.
They clanked by, stomping the ground with metallic precision, the great broadswords swinging in time with their strides.
One old ironsmith turned to the younger men at his forge and frowned in despair.
“Creator forgive us. We’ve made an army for Darkstone!”
The wizard flew up on a streak of black smoke to the head of the line, directing the metal men toward Market Square as they exited the ironworks.
People in the streets cried out in horror as the monstrosities approached. Horses spooked, tumping their carriages. Abandoned carts were smashed by metal feet as their owners ran away.
Soon the procession arrived at Market Square. People on the north side, where they made entrance, ran screaming in all directions.
Darkstone gestured with his hand, and the doors in the backs of their torsos fell open. He made another gesture, and foodstuff from the market streamed up and away from stalls, flying through the air toward the open doors and inside the chests of the metal men.
The merchants, who so recently had seen the depletion of their wares by the departing army, now found their food flying off into the hollow torsos of a hundred metal men.
Darkstone ignored their howls of protest, and directed the giants toward the city gates. They walked through Market Square, crunching stalls, tents, and tables beneath iron feet.
When they approached the gates, the guards looked up in surprise and bewilderment at the procession approaching them. Darkstone made another gesture with his hand and the gates flew open. People entering and leaving scrambled out of the way as the metal men marched out of the city. With another flourish of his hand, Darkstone made them march faster. They picked up their pace, and tromped in unison toward the distant crossroads.
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Stin rounded the corner out of the stable door, and pulled Horse to a stop. He flipped a copper to the dung shoveler, a strapping brown-haired boy who snatched it out of the air.
“Can you tell me which way’s the exit to Sapphire?”
The boy pointed down the street.
“All entrances ’cept the Hidden Forest one are thataways. Signs will show you which one to take.”
Stin nodded his thanks, snapped the reins and pulled them in the direction the boy pointed. Horse started down the street at a brisk trot.
He heard his name called out, and pulled the reins to bring Horse to a stop. Bellasondra ran over to him.
“There you are! I was looking all over for you. Are you going to donate Horse and the wagon for the battle?”
Several remarks raced through Stin’s mind at once, from a witty retort to an impassioned plea for her to join him on the road to Sapphire.
Before he could say anything, Greystone rounded the corner followed by the dwarves.
“There you are, Master Stin! I see you have your horse and cart. We were just coming to look for you to discuss this very thing.”
Stin tensed. How could the wizard know he was leaving? Would they take his cart and force him to walk away instead of ride?
He opened his mouth to protest, but before he could say anything Greystone continued.
“Prince Dudge here has the need for utmost speed in returning to Ore Stad. I fear it’s a two day walk for him. He can’t ride a horse, either, at least not one of ours. However, a cart fits the bill perfectly!”
Dudge approached Stin, looking up at him from a sharper angle than the humans.
“I ha’ three gold t’ give ye. Th’ Norweg Royal Treasury will pay three more fer th’ use o’ yer horse an’ cart, along with th’ oats. I’ll give that t’ ye when I return.”
Stin’s mouth dropped open. Three gold now, three later. The sum staggered his imagination. Six gold for an old broken down horse and cart . . .
Horse looked back at him and snorted, as if asking, “Why the wait?”
Stin looked back at Horse and thought a moment.
“Your Highness, old Horse here is, well he’s not fit for heavy travel anymore. Perhaps if he were twenty years younger he could make a speedy trip, but I fear he’s seen his better days.”
“Oh, I can take care of that,” Greystone said.
He made a flourish with his hands and Horse disappeared in a cloud of white smoke. When it drifted up and away, Horse stood transformed into a large, gray, muscular warhorse. The cart, too, seemed newer and nicer, better built and sporting new wheels and light gray paint.
Horse looked back at Stin and snorted again, this time much louder. Stin pulled his jaw shut. The eyes were the same. Inside, he must still be Horse, Stin thought. But the outside looked completely new. He looked much closer to being worth six gold, Stin thought.
“I, uh, I suppose he is yours for the nonce, Highness.”
He climbed down from the driver’s seat. Bellasondra quickly ran up and hugged him.
“That is so noble of you, Stin! This is the best contribution you could make!”
Dudge reached into his purse and pulled out three gold coins. As Stin took them, the prince jumped back. All three of the dwarves looked at Stin warily, watching his every move.
Stin and Bellasondra exchanged glances. He shrugged.
Satisfied he would lose no more coins, Prince Dudge passed Stin by a wide berth and climbed up into the driver’s seat of the transformed cart. He took the reins, and Horse reared up on his back legs with a loud whinny.
Dudge snapped the reins and yelled, “Hah!”
Horse bolted down the street, carrying Dudge and the cart with him.
The metal men caught up with the main army at their next camping spot down from the crossroads. The way had dried out quickly enough past the
storm’s perimeter, but it still had taken the army most of the day’s remainder to pack up and move through the muck.
A few scant miles later the commander had called a halt as dusk settled, and the soldiers reestablished a camp on the side of the road.
Everyone roused during the first watch when the sound of loud metal clanking reached them. No one had ever heard anything quite like it, and nobody knew what to expect. Everyone grabbed a weapon and scrambled into battle formation.
Darkstone flew in on flames and black smoke. He landed at the commander’s tent and conferred with him briefly. The commander ordered his men to stand down.
Soon the encampment was surrounded by the giants, their forms dim in the gloom. Nobody slept well that night. Nobody left the camp, either. If any had thought about deserting, they set such notions aside.
In the morning, the soldiers woke to find a hundred metal men surrounding their camp and facing outward, like sentries. Darkstone flew up on a column of fire and black smoke, and made a motion with his hand. The doors on the metal torsos flew open, and all the foodstuff stolen from Market Square sailed out and toward the supply wagons. The army was now replenished; all that was lost from the wizard storm had been replaced.
After breakfast, the soldiers moved to break camp. Darkstone sent the metal men ahead. Soon the army followed them down the road, at a wary distance.
Hidden within the woods near the Emerald border, Loadstone and Redstone watched the army progress toward their position.
Redstone held a scrying window open as a distant hawk soared above the line of metal men clanking in a line down the road. He waved his hand, and the view in the window changed, offering a closer look.
“Monstrosities!”
“Aye. I wonder what your rainfall would do to ’em, Loadstone. Make ’em rust?”
“I fear we’ve lost that element of surprise. Look, the rogue accompanies them.”
Redstone nodded. There would be little use in starting up another storm.
