Coming to Power

by T J Marquis

  Despite the challenges, Dahm thought there was a chance at victory. Ironically, the Nulian’s inadvertent revealing of the Maw and its treasures had left Centrifuge much better armed. Nearly every marksman in the Wizardess’s army had been provided with cobalt rifles, a huge step above the bolt-actions they’d previously considered cutting edge technology. Moreover, the presence of Rae’s Throne gave the Enkannites air superiority - the huge old ship would be invaluable for swift transportation across the City, and for controlling the battle’s perimeter with direct fire if needed.

  Dahm felt confident he alone could wreak much havoc from atop the ramparts, as well as hold any choke point the battle might throw at him as things got messy. All he needed was his flanks covered. Still, he constantly had to ignore the fact that the Enkannites would be outnumbered at least ten to one.

  Rae came upon him summoning large rocks and boulders from the open ground below the wall. He was collecting them atop the wall, storing them in piles to be used as deadly ammunition.

  “What an excellent deterrent,” she said, observing his work. “Few would try to scale your part of the wall more than once.”

  “Your men will be able to hurl them down the talus as well,” he said. “Fortifications didn’t amount to much in Zhamann, considering our control of the terrain itself. I first learned about siege defense during my travels.”

  “We’re lucky to have you,” Rae smiled. Dahm smiled back. “Anyhow,” she cleared her throat and looked off toward the Keep. “I came to let you know the Anekans will arrive soon. Our lookouts caught sight of their barges following the western Road from the mountains.”

  “Barges?” Dahm asked in surprise. Jon had only demanded one. Then he chuckled to himself, remembering his new friend’s boldness before the Zansari.

  “Yes, four of them,” she said. “It seems they reconsidered their role in the fight to come. Better to have ‘lazy Enkannites’ as neighbors than emboldened Nulians I suppose.” She bit back any further sardonic remarks and blushed a bit. “I really am grateful though.”

  “You want me to come and meet them with you?” Dahm asked.

  “I was hoping you would,” Rae said.

  They ferried themselves in the Throne to the City’s west gate, where the Anekan delegation was just arriving. The four barges touched down on the Road just inside the gate, which had been opened in welcome at Rae’s behest.

  Zansar Tinok himself had come as a diplomat, and he disembarked the lead barge, with a modest retinue, to greet the Wizardess and Dam.

  “Welcome,” Rae said. “I must admit, your visit comes as a surprise.”

  Tinok gave the Wizardess a shallow bow and smiled infectiously. “It took some doing, my lady, but in the end, my colleagues proved unwilling to ignore my authority over our resources. Perhaps they’ll regret my appointment, but there's nothing for it now."

  "This gesture will not be forgotten, Zansar," Rae said, returning his bow. "Every hand on deck helps keep the ship sailing."

  "Four battalions, and all the transports we could spare," Tinok announced proudly. Then he regarded Dahm.

  "Your friend caused quite a stir," he said. "The voice of his followers played no small part in allowing me to bring aid."

  "His followers?" Dahm asked.

  Tinok raised his eyebrows. "I'd always wondered how legends start. Now I know. As impressive as Lord Jon's feats against the Nulians already were, you'd be amazed to hear how much they've already been inflated."

  Dahm wasn't surprised. Superstition was a dangerous thing. It tended to spread like wildfire. He didn't think Jon would be pleased to hear about his ‘followers’. Still, there was no argument against Centrifuge benefitting from the matter.

  The Anekans followed the Throne over the City walls and to the barracks within the Keep. All of Rae's soldiers gave them a raucous welcome, with shouts and sloppy salutes. The barges were loaded down with men and goods, and the Enkannites were particularly excited to see Anek's wheeled vehicles being unloaded. They were several dozen armored transports like that which the Zansari used, but painted in green and brown camouflage to match the hill country around Centrifuge. Each sported three pairs of large wheels with tall, thick tires suitable for travel off-road. Tinok had hoped they would aid the Enkannite scouts.

  It had been a few days since Jon had left, and while much had been done over the last weeks to prepare the City for siege, there was still a lot to do.

  Redoubts were being built within a few hundred yards of the four main gates, their walls stretching between buildings and out to the ramparts. Standing guards had been quadrupled at the old gatehouses since gremlin infiltration of the gates had been key to the enemy's success in the previous sacking of the City. Snipers were to be planted throughout various balconies and windows that had a good vantage on the gates and gatehouses.

  Apart from the internal preparations, there were still refugees trickling into the City from every direction. Anek’s barges would be invaluable in speeding up the remaining evacuations, but getting every last family safe and secure would still be a challenge.

  Days passed, and Dahm ran out of ways to prepare himself for the fight. He was left with only his willing hands and strong back to offer in service to others, and Rae's soldiers gladly accepted him. They had mixed eagerly with Anek's four battalions, so Centrifuge's forces when arrayed were a sea of red and black, peppered with blue.

  Naphte had asked to be assigned to scout duty, and nearly four weeks after Dahm and his friends had arrived in Centrifuge, he rode his zirah back into the City with word from the scout teams - the Nulian army was closing in.

  The sound of Nulian drummers arrived before the sight of them. How many miles out they were was hard to tell. They must have had a full battalion of drummers alone, and their signals rang out remarkably clear, echoing through the hills like the footsteps of titans.

  Dahm and Naphte watched from the ramparts as, rank by rank, the Nulian army fell into position across dozens of hills, just out of rifle range. Surely expecting Enkann to employ snipers, Nul’s officers remained safely under cover behind the hills, or else none of them had donned their colors.

  The tight sound of the Nulian drummers belied the army’s lack of discipline - once in position, most of the big, burly ogres went about the revelries they were accustomed to, and the gremlins could be seen scampering about to bother anyone and everyone near them. The various breeds of beastmen seemed subdued, most of them lounging in their little circles to eat and rest. Human slaves in their drab clothing looked the most organized, threading through the army’s ranks to serve food and drink and complete various other errands.

  The City’s lookouts had caught glimpses of the few hover barges in Nul's possession as they approached, but these too remained hidden among the hills. Dam’s eyes were not as sharp as Naphte’s, but he could see the telltale signs of the barges after the Anekan pointed them out. The huge army's supply train snaked out of sight to the southeast. Dahm was surprised to see motorized vehicles among the horse-drawn wagons.

  As for the defenders, the parapets were crowded with bodies, the City's forces stretched across miles of ramparts, prepared to shift in either direction to meet the enemy's advances. Not a few among them looked eager to let loose with the first volley of gunfire, but the order had not yet been given. Rae kept the Throne on station in full view of the battlefield, knowing the Nulians would curse the sight of the old ship.

  The Wizardess had expressed her concern to Dahm that it could be a very long siege, and despite the City's substantial size, it was not prepared with enough food and water to stay alive indefinitely. They needed to find some way to provoke the Nulian attack, without pushing them to engage their full might all at once. At least they didn't have to worry about the undermining of the walls - Rae had revealed that the City walls had foundations deep enough to render such a tactic infeasible.

  Several hours after the Nulian's front lines had settled in, a ripple of movement among the mass
of bodies revealed the commencement of their strategy.

  The Nulians had been brought to attention, and a squad of large ogres carrying tall, thick shields of iron broke ranks and strode boldly forward to within rifle range. Behind them a motorized transport hitched to a huge wagon wound its way through the ranks. Something large lay covered by a tarp in the wagon's bed.

  Enkannite snipers fired at the transport, but it was armored well enough to resist, and plates of iron had been riveted over its wheel wells. The wagon was brought into position in front of the City gate, and several gremlins emerged from the transport, shielded by the stout ogres. The gremlin engineers pulled back the tarp to reveal a massive cannon. It was aimed at the City gate.

  The gremlins huddled behind the siege blaster for cover, presumably getting it ready to fire. Dread sat heavy in Dam's gut, and he knew Rae would be biting her nails as well.

  Centrifuge had its own cannons, looking primitive in comparison, which had been set up in sets of three on the platforms where the ruined ancient ones had been mounted. The order came down to fire, and the cannons thundered with the deep boom of ignition.

  An impressive volley of cannonballs converged on the transport below, smashing mercilessly into its cab, likely killing the driver. A few of the cannonballs barreled into the shields of the ogres providing escort, bowling them over, killing a few. Astoundingly, one of the ogres whose shield was struck held his ground, though his shield was ruined by the impact, and his arm must have been shattered. He fled back beyond the forward ranks.

  The Enkannite cannoneers reloaded and fired again, at the huge cannon itself this time. Their missiles came within feet of impact, and a bubble of green light flared to life around the siege blaster, deflecting cannonballs in multiple directions. A few careened upward and came crashing down into the Nulian front lines with deadly force. Others blew apart, spraying those nearby with shrapnel. A few unlucky gremlins had the misfortune of being caught straddling the edge of the light shield, and were cut into pieces as it activated. Their comrades quickly adjusted their formation.

  "They've warded it somehow!" Dahm cried out, startling Naphte next to him. Whether with magic or technology, he didn't know.

  More Enkannite volleys followed, to no avail. The gremlins working close to the cannon were protected by its ethereal shield.

  At last the Nulian cannon fired at the gate, and the entirety of the battlefield gasped at the spectacle. The air between the siege blaster and the gate began to shimmer with heat, and a purple glow gathered in the opening of the cannon's long barrel. Dahm could feel the heat from dozens of yards away, like that of a bonfire lit below. A blast of purple fire burst forth, and a second cry of shock went up as the City gate flared with amber light, fire splashing across it like liquid. The ramparts shook with the absorbed impact, a vibration that coursed along the wall and petered out slowly.

  "The gate's enchanted too!" came cries from among the defenders. Naphte himself cried out in surprise. Men and women cheered.

  There was no small stirring among the Nulian cannoneers as they traded harsh bellows with each other and gestured rudely toward the City gate. They seemed to come to an agreement and went about fiddling with the siege blaster. After perhaps five minutes the blaster fired again, and the gate flashed amber once more, with a barely perceptible reddening of its hue. Another vibration traveled along the ramparts. The Nulians made no further adjustments to their weapon.

  The enemy cannoneers flashed a signal toward the main body of the army, and stirrings could be seen deep within the ranks.

  After several volleys from atop the wall showed no cumulative effect on the blaster’s shield, the Enkannites were ordered to hold their fire for the time being. At least the massive gun would be difficult to retrieve, now that its transport had been wrecked.

  Enkannite officers milled around along the parapet, brainstorming tactics to use against this threat. Every time a purple blast hit the gate, its shield flared a little darker.

  Dahm had his own thoughts. Since the siege blaster sat too far away for him to try and tip it over with a projection of summoned stone, he had to put his wits to work. Something had brought to mind one of the most mundane aspects of his many travels - putting out a campfire from a previous night. He’d always been careful to smother the embers with dirt, for the trees of the forest were a precious resource on Zhamann, and not to be wasted. He didn’t think he could rouse enough dirt to smother the blasts at the gate, but perhaps he could dampen them some.

  It was a long reach down to the ground, to have to apply his power so broadly, but the dry dirt of the hard-packed road southward stirred at the urgings of his hands, and spun up into a whirlwind that covered the breadth of the gate. Dahm heard murmurings from the men and women nearby, but he had little concentration to spare for their amazement.

  Another blast crackled through the air, too bright to focus on, but when the purple fire his Dam’s cloud of earth, it was dimmed. The dust and dirt flew apart, denser clumps forming streams of lava that splashed onto the ground and immediately began to cool. The weakened blast hit the gate, whose shield flashed a brighter amber than before. The Enkannite defenders cheered, but Dahm didn’t encourage them. He didn’t know how long he could keep it up.

  Naphte encouraged him from nearby.

  Movement continued to draw Dam’s eye toward the deeper ranks of the Nulian force. Now that the siege had been established and the gate was under fire, the endless army was filling in space on its right flank, shuffling bodies and equipment around the eastward curve of the City. As the wicked siege blaster pounded out its slow rhythm upon the City gate, and Dahm raised new clouds of dust to weaken it, the enemy continued to extend the breadth of its siege. This maneuver had to be slowed. Rae might not be able to hold back her Throne for much longer, as invaluable as it was as transport within the vast City.

  An order went up among the Enkannite cannoneers, and along the wall a volley was loosed into the enemy’s forward ranks. Bodies blew apart among clumps of dirt and rock, and the Nulian lines broke, fell back, and formed rank again. Gradually this artillery fire pushed their lines back, while the blaster emplacement remained static, its operators separated further and further from their comrades.

  Night fell, attackers and defenders trading fire incessantly. Dahm was forced to take some rest down off the wall, and he grimaced each time he heard the gate struck. But it held, and he tried to get some sleep.

  Under cover of darkness, the Nulians continued to maneuver, stretching east along the City’s perimeter. Though not visible, the sounds of the army in the night were unmistakable. At one point, the blaster at the gate went silent for a longer period than usual, and its gremlin operators fiddled with it by torchlight. Were they reloading it?

  In the dead of night, Dahm returned to the parapet amid changes in duty on Centrifuge’s great wall. Naphte had taken his relief as well, and come back a handful of minutes before. Shortly a commotion arose among the enemy ranks perhaps a quarter mile down the line. There was furious yelling and clanging in the dark, the deep, harsh voices of ogres ringing out in tones of dissent. Then came a long silence followed by a wet, repeated popping sound, and all at once arcs of purple energy erupted into the night, briefly illuminating the enemy troops as fire splashed on and among them. Nulians wailed in pain, flailing and fleeing aimlessly as the hungry purple fire sated itself on their flesh.

  “Misfire!” the message spread among the defenders.

  “Another siege blaster!” Naphte gasped.

  When the dark reclaimed the night, ogre voices issued fresh orders and the sounds of work resumed. An hour passed, and the second blaster opened fire upon the City wall, the immense projectile like a star fallen to earth.

  No shield ignited as the wall absorbed the hit, but a dull shimmer could be seen around the impact point, and the purple blast seemed to cause little more than a shallow dent in the great wall’s long talus. Still, it was damage, and murmurs of fear spread among the de
fenders.

  Over the course of the night, both blaster positions were doubled up, and three more siege cannons placed further down the line. Dam’s makeshift defense against the volleys of purple fire proved ineffective against multiple blasters. It became clear that at some point, if these blasters could not be disabled, the unthinkable would occur - the wall or the gate would be breached.

  Dahm watched the morning sky as Rae, surely reluctantly, piloted the Throne closer to the ramparts. The Nulians had no simple way to aim the siege blasters upward, for clearly this was not their intended use, but squads of ogres proved strong enough for the task. Those who were killed by Enkannite gunfire were quickly replaced, and the blasters were activated to fire upon the Throne.

  Ship and blaster traded blows, the Throne raining down lances of light while absorbing enemy fire with its own shields. The enemy was wily, though, and managed to destroy one of the ship’s cannons before Rae could deplete any of the blasters’ shields. The Throne retreated and the blasters were aimed at various points along the wall. As impressive as the ship looked, Dahm began to think the Throne was perhaps no more than a lightly armed luxury vessel. He wondered if the ancient Enkannites had ever had greater warships than this, and wished there was one at hand.

  Naphte said he’d heard the Enkannite officers cobbling together a crazy plan early that morning, and now came their chance to use it, as the cannons at the City gate went silent. Now Dahm could see that indeed the blasters had to be reloaded periodically, for their operators were scrambling up onto them to open hatches and insert large pellets of solid material, apparently some kind of fuel. It was impossible to know whether the ammunition would run out before the gate was breached, so this opportunity to attack could not be wasted, and the defenders had everything in place.

  Ramps had been built during the night to create a path up over the wall’s parapets and down onto the talus. All of Anek’s gifted transports had been hoisted up on top of the ramparts and put in position, and now their engines were fired up. Anekan drivers had been requested, since steering down the slick metal talus would require great skill, and they would naturally be more familiar with the vehicles. Naphte volunteered to go on the dangerous excursion and was hastily loaded up into an armored transport.