Sevana grinned right back at him. “Are you volunteering?”
“I am. There’s a clan of them not far from here. I can probably go and come back within the day, if you let me borrow your skimmer.”
“Done and done.” Seeing that everyone else was only half-following, she explained, “He’s going to go and barter for a dragon’s help. The Fae are the only ones that the dragons actually listen to, so he’s the best one to go.”
“They listen to you too,” Aran objected, grin widening.
“Yes, sure they do, when I’m covered from head to toe with gold,” she shot back, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Speaking of, the price of getting their help is on you lot,” she pointed to the three deities, “so think of something suitable before he leaves. Aran, I need you to go sooner rather than later.”
“If I leave now, I won’t be back until tomorrow at noon, latest. The skimmer isn’t equipped for night travel, you know that.”
She did indeed. The skimmer was meant for quick trips and so didn’t have more than a compass on board. It didn’t have the complex navigational system on it needed for nightly navigation, not like Jumping Clouds. “Do you dare take the other one instead?”
“During a dragon’s hatching season?” he objected in true horror. “They’d slap me down before even questioning who I am.”
“That’s what I thought.” The skimmer was marginally safer as it didn’t shield him from sight and the dragons could clearly see who was coming. Even then, Aran would have to be careful in his approach and even more careful with his landing. “You’re sure you can arrive before nightfall?”
“If I leave within the next hour, yes.”
“Then it’s an overnight trip for you.”
Aran grimaced agreement. “Da-Chin, a portable breakfast and dinner for the trip would be very welcome.”
“We’ll prepare it for you,” the old man assured him and scrambled to his feet, his wife right behind him.
Sevana knew that Aran hadn’t meant right this second but she sensed that the couple was glad for an excuse to leave. Casually sitting with three gods had probably strained their elderly nerves to the breaking point.
“Speaking with Feng-Huang is only a temporary measure,” Cheng-Huang started, eyes narrowed in suspicion. “What do you propose for a permanent solution?”
She had been afraid that someone would ask her this question once she had everyone gathered. Her answer would start an argument, she just knew it, but there was no way to put off the inevitable forever. “I’ll say this first: there’s no way to stop the volcano.”
All three deities erupted at her. They yelled, they cursed, their words overlapping so that she couldn’t make heads or tails of them. Sevana wasn’t one to shy away from an argument, but she didn’t believe in trying to communicate at the top of her voice, either. Nothing good ever came from that. So she folded her arms over her chest and waited them out.
When she sat there, like a river stone, they started shaking fingers and fists at her.
Aran’s aura sparked and flared, heat rolling off of him in a visible wave. It was intense enough that Sevana, sitting next to him, felt scorched by it even though it did no damage to her. It shocked the deities into silence and they stared at him in agitation, worried that he would leap at them.
“Be still,” he commanded them in a quiet, firm tone. “Act like gods and not children.”
Sevana blew out a covert breath and eyed her friend sideways. Sometimes she forgot just how scary Aran could be when he had a mad-on. “Ahem. As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted, with the collective power that we have here, there is no possible way to stop the volcano. I do, however, have other ideas.”
“We are listening, Artifactor,” Da-Yu assured her, keeping a weather eye on Aran.
“I think it’s possible to contain it. I would like to explore the option, at least, of building a device that would blend your three powers and create a magical barrier to keep the volcano’s ash and lava from pouring out any further than this immediate area. We can’t stop it from exploding, but we can mitigate its effects.”
“Is that possible?” Da-Yu stared over her head toward the volcano. “When a volcano erupts, ash spreads for many miles in all directions. The lava is too hot to touch, and it turns water into acid, killing everything near it. Containing it will surely be the harder path to take.”
Sevana started shaking her head before he could get the full sentence out. “No, it’s easier. The problem that we’re facing is that the volcano is under a great deal of pressure. It’s almost unmeasurable. Trying to cap it off at the top will do no good whatsoever, and aside from drilling into the sides to try and drain it, there’s no way to relieve the pressure. Who wants the job of drilling into an active volcano and coaxing all of the magma out?”
The gods looked uneasily between each other but not one volunteered.
“See? No good solution on trying to stop it.”
“Perhaps your Fae brother can do so?” Da-Yu suggested with a sideways look at Aran.
“Perhaps, but I’m not convinced I can,” Aran responded with a troubled frown. “Speaking to the rock and tunneling through is one thing. It is the extreme heat of the magma that will cause me difficulties.”
And that was a problem that Sevana had not thought of a solution to. She would love it if Aran really could pull that off, but doing so would be extremely dangerous, and until she thought of a method that would lessen that danger, she wasn’t trying it. “It’s a possibility, but one fraught with problems. I’d rather find a different solution that doesn’t put him directly in harm’s way. What worries me is that this is a cinder cone type of volcano, and because of that, there’s a possibility that it won’t be limited to a single eruption if we leave it to its own devices.”
All of the color just drained out of Chi-Lin’s expression, making him look like a white ghost. “This is no time for jests, Artifactor.”
“Do I look like I’m joking? There’s a volcanic chain in the far south that has a cinder cone volcano about the size of this one. It’s been erupting for the past ten years and it’s not showing any signs of slowing. Some of the volcanoes are monogenetic, with just one big eruption, but not all of them. Once this thing starts, it might carry on for several years without stopping.”
Cheng-Huang had his face buried in his hands and was muttering something that might have been curses under his breath. He was not speaking in a language Sevana recognized, and that was a shame, because she was suddenly very curious on this point. Men cursed the gods, but who did the gods take in vain? With one eye on him, she continued, “Now, with a little magic and divine help, I think we can make sure that this volcanic eruption is a single instance that will only last a few days, not years. That’s why I want to talk to your phoenix so badly. She’s the one that started up that volcano prematurely. I think she should take partial responsibility and make sure that it empties out in one go so we don’t have to go through this again.”
Da-Yu gave a firm nod. “I am in agreement with this. What are your other thoughts?”
“I’m not quite sure how, I need more numbers and measurements to make sure, but I’d like to use that lava. Perhaps we can control it so that it stays next to the isle? It will take time, perhaps decades, but eventually it will become livable land. This place is crowded; gaining more girth or length to the isle will only benefit you later.”
At this, Cheng-Huang unburied his face. “Use the volcano to build onto the isle. Now that is a splendid idea. It should have occurred to me earlier; after all, that was how this isle was originally created.”
That was usually the case with islands of any sort, actually, that they were the result of volcanic activity. Either that or the mainland lost a piece that started floating away into the sea.
“I think if we coordinate this right, getting all of the people, animals, sea creatures, the Unda and so forth to evacuate, then we can make this volcano work to our benefit.”
“We can’t use the ships anyway,” Da-Yu stated thoughtfully. “The water will be too acidic; it will eat straight through the hulls.”
“We need something like Jumping Clouds,” Sevana stated in aggravation, “but of course, mine can only hold six at a squeeze. It doesn’t have the right size for the task.”
“But surely we can build something on the same principle that would be large enough?” Cheng-Huang’s tone was not really a question, more like he was thinking aloud. “Is there a limit to how large it can be?”
Sevana nearly opened her mouth to say of course, but then bit it back as a thought struck. “Everything has limitations. If I created it, certainly, I wouldn’t be able to make one big enough. But if you, a deity, were to make it….” She trailed off suggestively.
“I am very inclined to do so,” Cheng-Huang answered, staring off into the distance with a calculating gleam in his eye. “Artifactor, after this, sit and speak with me. Tell me your design, and let us see if we can adapt it to my power to make this feasible.”
“I think it feasible already, I’m just not sure if we can make one giant ship to do the trick, or if we’ll have to split it into two.” Sevana felt relieved at this suggestion, as it hadn’t occurred to her, although it should have. Cheng-Huang was the builder after all. Of course he could create something like this. “But you’re right, that’s a problem to hash out between the two of us. We’ll talk about it more after this.”
“Let’s assume that the two of you can manage evacuation.” Aran cocked his head at her. “What then?”
Sevana picked up the thread of the conversation again. “The trick will be getting everything in place before this thing actually erupts. But gentlemen, mark me on this: I do not say we can do this without damage. There will be damage. I can’t do anything about that. How much damage, that is the question.”
Chi-Lin stared at her hard, an argument broiling in his eyes. “How much damage can you limit this to?”
“I need numbers to crunch,” she reiterated succinctly.
“That’s her way of saying she doesn’t know yet,” Aran translated helpfully.
Sevana stoutly ignored him. “There’s no way of knowing how much I can contain the ash until we can put together a working model. It might be limited to just around the volcano. It might be that we can’t do it that tightly, that it will spread to the entire isle, or just past it.”
“We called you here to prevent that,” Chi-Lin almost snarled out.
“You kidnapped a sleeping woman in the dead of night without thinking it through,” she snapped back. “And you did it at the twelfth hour! If you had summoned for me before this, giving me a few months instead of a few days to work with, I might have been able to give you a better option! As it stands, you’re going to have to make do with whatever plan I can throw together in the heat of the moment.”
“You blasphemous—!” Chi-Lin lunged for her, horns shining in a particularly menacing way.
Sevana tucked and rolled to the side in pure instinct, as she didn’t want her body anywhere near those horns. Her movements were almost superfluous. Aran reacted in the same moment she did, with greater speed, only he went forward instead of back. Dodging the horns, he grabbed Chi-Lin around the snout, just below the eyes, with an iron grip. When the unicorn tried to jerk free, his head didn’t budge an inch.
Aran stood like a mountain, impassive, unmovable, keeping his opponent firmly locked in place. He stayed like that for several seconds, proving his point, before asking calmly, “Have you regained your temper?”
Chi-Lin couldn’t speak or nod but his eyes conveyed a mulish agreement.
“Good. It is not wise to shoot the messenger. Especially when the messenger is a daughter of the Fae, yes?”
The tableau froze. Sevana, deeming it safe enough to resume her seat, did so and studied their faintly horrified expressions that were mixed with disbelief and a sort of trepidation, as if they had stuck their hands into a hole expecting treasure only to encounter a den of vipers instead.
“D-daughter?” Da-Yu repeated, voice climbing.
Aran regarded them for a moment and she could just see it, when it clicked that they had not known until this moment her true connection to the Fae. Then an unholy, evil grin lit up his face although his tone remained innocent. “Yes, daughter. Sellion, as we call her. You knew this.”
Cheng-Huang, if he had anyone to pray to, would have been on his knees in that moment. His words sounded strangled. “We did not.”
“Is that so? We wondered at your actions. Aranhil was especially distraught to find her missing, and was ready to order the Fae nation to search for her, when I found her.”
The gods understood that ‘distraught’ meant ‘infuriated’ and the mental images that accompanied the idea of an enraged Fae King made Da-Yu look faint.
Aran continued, still in that calm, unhurried tone as if he were discussing nothing of specific importance. “I have of course informed him that she is safe. He is currently standing by until he hears from her.”
It was hard to keep a straight face while laughing maniacally on the inside, but Sevana managed it beautifully. The way that Aran phrased all of this was perfectly executed. It looked reassuring on the outside, but the three of them heard it as a threat, and they were clear that if they upset her too much, she could tattle on them. What the consequences would be, they didn’t know. Aran was smart to not detail it in any way.
What a person imagined was always so much worse than reality.
Clearing her throat, Sevana gave them a cheerful smile. “Well, now that everyone’s caught up, we need to get into motion. Aran, go talk to a dragon for me. As for you, gentlemen, go find him some nice gold to pay the dragon. After that, find me. I have tests that I need to run.”
People scattered in their various directions, all but Cheng-Huang who moved in closer to her. “The ship?”
“Yes, let’s get you started on that first. I can’t give you the scale of the volcano model yet until Master arrives anyway. He has part of the information I need to predict with.” Sevana grabbed a pencil and notebook from her bag and laid it out on the floor between them. In quick strokes, she sketched out the design. “Here, this is the basic structure. I based it on barges, as they are very stout and sound, hard to tip over. You can change the design if you wish—”
Cheng-Huang shook his head. “We don’t have time for me to come up with a different design and experiment with it until it’s correct. I’ll use your template for this.”
“We’re going to be doing a little experimenting anyway,” Sevana warned him, although she took his point well. “I don’t know how we’re going to adapt the power and navigation systems over so that they’ll work with your power, and I don’t have the elements here that I used for Jumping Clouds.”
“I understand and expected as much.”
At least she had one god that seemed to be logical and levelheaded about such matters. Sevana blew out a secret breath and went back to sketching things out. “I know that you don’t know about how human magic works, but I’ll write all of this out anyway. Between the two of us, we can figure out how to adapt it. Let’s start with the basic structure first. If we’re to transport both humans and animals, how big does it need to be?”
“The size of a junk ship, I would think,” Cheng-Huang offered slowly.
Sevana had some experience with this type of ship. Junk ships varied in size, and they were employed for cargo as much as for passengers, but it gave her a good idea of what he was envisioning. “In that case….” She fell to scratching out calculations off to the side of her drawings, figuring out dimensions and such. Cheng-Huang tilted his head to
be able to read what she was writing, either making humming noises as he followed along, or broaching ideas as he thought of them.
Within a few hours, they had a working idea of what needed to happen, and Cheng-Huang nodded in satisfaction. “I’ll start building this immediately. It will likely take me a few days, however. When I start on the power and navigation systems, I’ll need you to supervise. I don’t wish to take up needless time tinkering.”
An opinion she agreed with wholeheartedly. “Tell me when you’re ready for me. In the meantime, I’ll work with Da-Chin to devise a quick evacuation plan for the village as a whole. The new ship will be useless if we can’t get them there quickly enough.”
“I quite agree. I leave that to you, Artifactor.”
Master arrived like a storm blowing in. His land carriage could not traverse the sea channel, so he’d been forced to hire a boat to get him across. But he did so with such dramatic and magical flare that his normal mode of transportation still seemed fantastical to the villagers. One of the faster runners, a boy of about ten, came to fetch Sevana as she checked all of her readings near the volcano’s base. He was so frantic she only understood that Master had arrived but everything else was garbled as his words ran into each other.
Since she only had one more thing to check, she did so, which made the boy nearly dance in place with impatience. Only with her numbers recorded did she finally turn and head back into the village. Not at a dead run like her escort wanted, but at a steady lope. Sevana made it almost to the first row of houses when Master spotted her. For an old man, he moved like lightning, catching her up in a bear hug that threatened the soundness of her ribs.
Sevana put up with the hug, and only to herself admitted that she was relieved he had finally arrived. With him here, the chances of them saving the isle from complete destruction just increased by thirty percent. “Master. I need to breathe.”
He put her down like Aran had, only a few inches away, and he kept his hands on her shoulders. “Sweetling. This disappearing act of yours is bad for an old man’s heart. Kindly stop doing it.”
The Canard Case (The Artifactor Series Book 4) Page 8
