The Canard Case (The Artifactor Series Book 4)

by Honor Raconteur

  Kenelm turned his head slightly to address her. “She wishes to know who you are.”

  “Relate these words exactly,” Sevana requested. “I am Sellion, daughter of the Fae. I am human, Artifactor Sevana Warren. I speak for both races.”

  Kenelm did not open his mouth and yet he faced the phoenix as if speaking. Sevana began to understand why Aran had said that she would not be able to hear or speak with anyone other than Kenelm. Dreamscape communications happened on a completely different level, one that she couldn’t even perceive.

  “She is Feng-Huang,” Kenelm related to her. “She hears you.”

  Meaning, they could finally start negotiating? Sevana phrased her words carefully. “You are aware that the volcano you lie in has become active?”

  Kenelm dutifully repeated this before responding, “She is aware.”

  “You are aware that if you twitch in your sleep, or let your power flow, the volcano reacts to this?”

  “She was not aware of this. Only that it was becoming more reactive.”

  “Your presence in the volcano is what is making it awaken prematurely,” Sevana explained.

  Kenelm’s head rose a notch in interest. “Feng-Huang says that she cannot do anything about this. In her sleeping state, she has very limited control over her own power or body.”

  “We are aware of this,” Sevana assured them both. “What we wish of you is that you keep as still as possible, limit your power as much as you can, until we can draw you out of the volcano.”

  Feng-Huang finally gave a noticeable reaction. The moment Kenelm had repeated those words, she flung her wings out, head rising in excitement.

  “She demands to know if you are sincere, if you truly wish to free her.”

  “It’s not a matter of wishing,” Sevana denied. “We have to free her. If we leave her where she is, the volcano will blow for sure, and then we’ll all be in a world of trouble.”

  The phoenix was very happy to hear this. So happy, in fact, that she lifted into the air and flew in a small, tight circle.

  The sight made Sevana smile a little, although she couldn’t blame the goddess for her excitement. In her shoes, Sevana would be just as ecstatic. “All we request of her is to be as still as possible, to limit her presence as much as she can, for a week or so. I promise we’ll get her out as soon as we can figure out how.”

  “She promises to do all that she can,” Kenelm relayed. “Also, she requests that I stay and keep her updated on a daily basis so that she knows what is happening. Her perceptions of the outside world are cut off.”

  It struck Sevana that actually, she needed Kenelm to stay in more ways than one. When it did come time to free the phoenix, they would need to coordinate with her, so that things didn’t spiral out of control. “I too request that you stay, Kenelm. At least until this problem is sorted.”

  Kenelm was a merchant at heart, or at least a greedy teenager, as he eyed both females shrewdly. “And what will you pay me for this?”

  Sevana had no idea, as she didn’t have the gold on hand to pay him anything. Fortunately, Feng-Huang responded before she could. Whatever price she named made Kenelm’s eyes light up and a rumbling purr, like a contented cat, rumbled out of his chest.

  “I take it she’ll pay you handsomely for your help,” Sevana drawled.

  “We have reached a bargain,” Kenelm agreed, tail flicking in a happy rhythm.

  Well, the phoenix was a goddess, and one reportedly over wealth and good luck. It would make sense she’d have the goods to pay for a dragon’s services. Sevana was perfectly willing to let her pay for some of the expenses. “Then, have we all reached an understanding?”

  “We have,” Kenelm assured her.

  “Then tell Feng-Huang I will relay progress through you.”

  Without a by-your-leave, Kenelm brought them both abruptly back into the real world. Sevana opened her eyes to find that she was still leaning against the dragon’s leathery side, with Aran leaning over her.

  “Nice trip?” he asked her with a knowing smile on his face.

  “That is the oddest thing I have ever done,” Sevana stated, head still spinning a little. “I don’t think I care to repeat it, either.”

  Aran offered her a hand up and she took it, regaining her feet. It was truly strange, but after being in Dreamscape, the real world looked a little different to her. Greener, more inviting, but also odd in some undefinable way.

  “Did the phoenix agree?” he asked in concern.

  “She did,” Sevana responded. Taking in a breath, she tried to settle back into reality by giving herself a shake. It didn’t quite work, but she forged on regardless. “Now the real work begins.”

  Sevana and Aran came back to find Master had taken her spot, sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by books and her notes. He was not studying any of them, however, but was quickly sketching something out in one of his own notebooks, muttering numbers and elements to himself as he did so.

  Quite used to this sight, and knowing better than to interrupt, Sevana skirted around to his side and leaned over a shoulder to get a look at what he was doing. The design was similar to something she had seen before—not in real life, but in another drawing of Master’s. It looked like a pedestal, one designed for water to flow freely through its base, with smaller versions of it that magically connected. The top of the pedestal had three clear markers, defined by magic circles, and it was those designs that Master was refining in great detail. Aside from the spell invocation, the design was a perfect match for something that Master had built before.

  “Appleby’s flood ten years ago.”

  “Oh?” Master blinked up at her and gave her a quick grin. “You remember that story? Good, saves explanation.”

  Aran pointed to his own chest, head cocked in query. “I wasn’t there, so I can’t remember anything. What’s this about?”

  “I recognize the design,” Sevana explained. “He’s used something similar to this before to hold back the flood waters from destroying a city. It was something he’d barely had a day to concoct, so it wasn’t as refined looking as this is.”

  “And it’s not actually the same design,” Master confirmed, still steadily drawing. “I had to tweak it quite a bit to incorporate different inputs of magic, and to make it strong enough to withstand extreme heat. The original design didn’t have to do anything like that.”

  Even with the modifications she was seeing, there was one glaring hole in his design that Sevana saw. “Now where are you going to get the Dwarven stone in order to build this thing? We don’t have anything like that up here.”

  “Now why would I need Dwarven stone when I have a deity that builds things?” Master outright smirked at her.

  “Cheng-Huang?” Sevana pursed her lips together, saw what he was thinking, and let out an admiring whistle. “Neat way to solve that problem.”

  “Isn’t it? I admire my own cleverness.”

  Aran lifted a hand with a resigned sigh. “Still out of the loop, here.”

  “Sorry,” Master apologized with a chuckle. “You’re around so often these days, and have picked up so much from listening to us, that I forget sometimes you can’t understand everything we’re saying. The problem that we’ve faced from day one is how to incorporate the magic and divine power from everyone. It’s all radically different, after all, but we can’t leave one person out just because his magic power doesn’t jive with the others’. We don’t have that kind of luxury. Cheng-Huang’s power, out of all of them, was the most challenging to incorporate. His ability is more in building things, after all; his divine power doesn’t flow out smoothly.”

  At that point Aran caught on. “You’re going to have him build these pedestals?”

  “Precisely so. That way his magic is active and incorporated as we use them, flowing freely with everyone else’s power.”

  Aran gave him a judicious nod. “That is clever.”

  “Why thank you, Arandur, kind of you to say so.” M
aster gave another chuckle that was more like a cackle. “Now, how this works is, aside from Cheng-Huang’s stone, we’ll have the sea run through the pedestals and power some of them. These smaller pedestals? They work as boosters all the way around the shields, so that they feed and strengthen each other. Individually, they’d fall, but because they’ll be connected together, they’ll stand much firmer. The only downside to this is that I can’t include Arandur’s power. I’m having trouble just blending the three gods together; putting Fae magic in that mix will not help matters.”

  With that problem solved, Sevana did the math again in her head and frowned when she realized it didn’t quite cover the distance. “But still, the force of the explosion….”

  “It will not contain that, most likely.” Master lost his joviality and stared off into the distance. “Of course, it’s also very hard to calculate how much force we’re going to have to contain. There’s no way to really know how strong of an explosion we’re facing. All we can do is guess based upon other volcanoes.”

  “But we’ll make a batch of small versions of this to try on our scaled volcano?” Sevana verified. “Just to see how it will play out?”

  “I think that prudent, don’t you? Too many times the numbers make perfect sense on paper only to work out completely different in real life. We cannot afford any mishaps here. I should have enough to-scale pedestals ready to go by the morning, enough to run a quick test on, and then we can adjust from there.”

  “Seems like a viable plan to me,” Aran admitted. “But are you sure you don’t need my magic?”

  “There’s a reason why I’m not fretting much on somehow working your magic in. I might need it for a backup plan, or in a separate shield, to help cover the distance.”

  “Ah, I see. Then just tell me where you need my help.”

  “I will,” Master assured him. Shaking his head, he shelved that problem for a moment and asked, “How did the talk with our phoenix go?”

  “Well,” Aran responded, dropping a tad too heavily into a chair. He was more exhausted than he was letting on, and Sevana gave him an hour before he finally admitted that and settled for a nap somewhere. “Our dragon ambassador had to bring Sevana into Dreamscape with him—”

  Master’s eyebrows shot into his hairline. “Really, sweetling? I’ve done that before. It’s subtly unnerving.”

  “That’s exactly what it is,” she agreed sourly. “I’m not doing it again, either.”

  “Funny, I said exactly the same thing after my first experience. So far it has remained my last, and I’m quite glad of that. But the phoenix has agreed to cooperate, then? Good, good. I’m relieved to hear it.”

  “I’m not sure how much good her cooperation is going to do,” Sevana sighed, “as her simple presence in there is causing all sorts of problems, but at least this way we’re not living in fear that having her turn over in her sleep will set the volcano off. Now, what to do next? Speak with Cheng-Huang?”

  “Precisely,” Master agreed, already returning to his drawings. “Now that we have rough estimates of what the volcano’s force will be, we need him to set up a version for us. I think a 1:100 ratio would be best.”

  He wanted an eight foot miniature volcano to work off of, eh? Sevana thought about it and realized that was likely the best way to scale down. Any smaller than that, and the magical scaling became hideously complex. “I’ll inform him. And find a safe place to conduct the test. There’s not a lot of free land here.”

  “I did notice that on the way in. Go and report back, these won’t take me too long to make.”

  They likely wouldn’t. In fact, he’d probably be done by dinner. With that estimate in mind, she turned smartly about and headed out the door. Aran, of course, was on her heels, but she had a different task for him. “Check in with Da-Chin, would you? Make sure that the evacuation plans for the village is going smoothly. I haven’t had time to follow up with him about it.”

  “Why don’t you?” Aran asked, a trifle reluctantly.

  “Because the man’s a little scared of me and likely won’t tell me the truth if there are problems,” she responded promptly and with a good dose of exasperation. Aran’s normal level of protectiveness had reached an all new high since her kidnapping. If she didn’t kick him out of this mood of his soon, she was likely to murder him herself. “Go on.”

  He didn’t like it, but apparently realized that staying meant his execution, as he took himself off toward the village proper.

  Sevana heaved out a breath. With the proper amount of thumbscrews and a judicious amount of lye, she would admit that she was fond of her Fae friend. But that didn’t mean she could stand being constantly shadowed by him like this. Sevana was not a people person; she needed time alone for at least a portion of the day. Aran usually understood that and gave her space, but this place set him on edge.

  Shaking her head, she set him aside and went for the docks. There she found Cheng-Huang, laboring over the flying ship that they had designed. Sevana was pleased to see that the physical body of it was complete, if a little rough around the corners. There wasn’t even a trace of stain or paint to be found, just roughhewn wood. Cheng-Huang stood in the prow of the ship, and if tone was anything to go by, cursing the ship’s ancestry soundly. “Trouble?”

  He looked up and for the first time in a long while seemed happy to see her. “Artifactor. Excellent timing, I was thinking I needed to call you. The ship meets the specifications well enough, but I can’t seem to get it airborne. At all.”

  Sevana frowned. “Help me on.”

  Cheng-Huang extended a hand and helped balance her as she clambered on board. Sevana promptly bent over the navigational display, but of course the top didn’t tell her much. All of the instruments that she had drawn out were beautifully captured in crystal, hardwood, and copper. He had duplicated everything exactly and was sensible enough to not add any embellishment. Satisfied with his workmanship, Sevana ducked and twisted so that she was underneath where she could see the spell insignias.

  The problem was obvious at a glance.

  “Your levitation spell’s not activating,” she announced with some perplexity. Tracing the insignia, she found that she couldn’t follow it fully, as parts of it were written in his native tongue. Sevana had so far been fortunate that everyone knew trader’s tongue and so could speak to her in that language. But this was beyond her. “I can’t read what you’ve done here. Break this down for me, what did you put into the spell?”

  “My own power, of course.”

  Sevana waited for him to elaborate. When he didn’t, she twisted so that she could meet his eyes all while keeping her back on the deck. “Is that it?”

  “That is all that is needed, surely,” he protested, perplexed and frustrated.

  Obviously not. “Cheng-Huang, as a deity, you automatically can fly?”

  “Of course.”

  “So you think that because you can fly, anything you make and imbue with your power can as well?”

  “Of course,” he repeated, patience snapping.

  “Then your bridges and buildings must be hazardous to walk on,” she quipped dryly. “Seeing as they like to randomly fly about.”

  He opened his mouth on a hot retort, froze when her meaning penetrated, and growled wordlessly.

  “I do not think your power or spells are as sentient as you believe them to be,” she continued, returning to her original position so she could study the spells better. “They don’t have the ability to realize what you intend, just what they are designed to do.”

  “I copied what you told me to do,” he said in a near whine.

  “Yes, but I didn’t tell you what to do with your power. I didn’t think that just building power was the only one you had, so I expected to see a different type mixed in here.” Struck by a thought, she twisted to see out again. “How is it that you can fly, anyway, if it’s not tied into your power?”

  “It is a special prerogative given to us when we ascend immo
rtality.”

  “So it’s tied into your physical makeup, not something linked to your power.”

  “That is correct.” When he said it, Cheng-Huang growled again, sounding like a wounded bear. “I should have realized. Of course it wouldn’t work.”

  The nice thing about Cheng-Huang was that unlike the other gods, he was quick on the uptake. At least with him, Sevana was saved from tedious explanations. “In my design, I have the main levitation spell powered by dragon’s breath.”

  Cheng-Huang’s attention snapped to her. “Is that so.”

  Knowing very well what he was plotting, Sevana suggested, “Bring lots of gold, something he can wear. Young dragons are very bribable, and this one will be more inclined to barter because he’s stuck here waiting anyway.”

  “I’ll go speak with him today,” Cheng-Huang swore. “Is dragon’s breath all you use?”

  “Heavens no, I have two other magicks in the mix as well. Captured sunlight and of course my own human power plays a small part. But in this case, the ship is much too large, captured sunlight will not be enough to make it move. I think it’s going to be your power that will propel it forward. But obviously you don’t have the right type of magic for levitation, so we’ll have to play with ratios of dragon’s breath, captured sunlight, and your own power to find that magical happy spot.”

  Cheng-Huang extended a hand, which she took, regaining her feet. “Before you go, we’d like to run that scaled experiment. Can you find a spot somewhere to build our miniature volcano with? We’re doing a 1:100 ratio.”

  “I already have an area in mind,” Cheng-Huang admitted to her absently. “Just there.”

  Sevana followed his pointing finger and gave an approving nod. It was on the rockiest part of the beach, far away from both docks and village, so that if something went wrong, the damage would be minimal. “That looks fine. I’ll notify Master and we’ll meet you back here after dinner. It’ll take that long before we have all of the pieces ready to test with.”