“After dinner is fine,” Cheng-Huang assured her. “I’ll work on the ship until then.”
Satisfied that things were well enough in motion, Sevana hopped back out of the ship and onto the dock, returning to her workroom. If she was very, very careful then she might be able to help make those miniature markers.
No, on second thought, maybe not.
When she returned to the workroom, Master already had twelve of the twenty-four miniature boosters crafted out of stone, with a main pedestal that was the size of his clenched fist. He greeted her with, “Where’s the vial of Arandur’s captured magic?”
So she was to play assistant and gopher to him. Sevana felt like she had returned to her student days, but even she had to admit that was the safest way for her to help right now. They didn’t have the time to do things over. With a long, resigned sigh, she fetched what was needed, handling elements with care and prepping them so that Master could apply them. They were a good team after working with each other for over a decade, and so the task went smoothly.
Raising her head, she worked her head back and forth on her shoulders, getting some of the kinks out and found Aran leaning inside the door frame. “How long have you been there?”
“A while. The two of you were so close to finishing I didn’t want to bother you.” He knelt and picked up one of the boosters. “They almost look like toys.”
Master wasn’t at all offended by this observation and laughed. “They’re about the right size for that, aren’t they?”
Peering at it closely, Aran studied it from top to bottom, flipping it in every direction. “How are you doing this? Scaling the magic down to match, I mean.”
“That’s the trickiest part,” Sevana said as she stretched her arms over her head. “Hence why we’ve been talking numbers most of the day. Some of the power we’re using in the design, like yours, we have to specially filter before using. Others we can only use a trace of it, just a fraction of the available power, to make it the right balance.” Sevana’s mouth screwed up to the side. “At least I hope it’s right.”
“It’s right, it’s right,” Master assured her with a casual wave of the hand. “Don’t worry so much, sweetling. What we need to worry about is whether the volcano’s power is scaled correctly and if our test will work.”
“I believe the volcano is correct,” Aran informed them. “I came to tell you that Cheng-Huang is ready when you are.”
“Really? Then let’s gather all of this up and go.” So saying, Master grabbed a handful of boosters and the pedestal, leaving the rest of them up to Sevana and Aran.
She could only grab three in each hand, but between them, they managed to grab everything they needed and headed for the rocky area of the beach. Cheng-Huang was not there waiting for them, but tinkering on his ship. There were no insults being hurled at the ship’s ancestors, which Sevana took for a good sign. The god noticed their approach and left the ship readily enough, a smile on his face.
“It’s working better?” Sevana asked.
“It will at least levitate now,” Cheng-Huang informed her with a relieved nod of acknowledgement. “Although the navigational systems are fighting me.”
“I’ll help you after this,” she promised. “Assuming this goes well.” Turning, she regarded the volcano and found that she had no complaints about how it looked, at least. It was an exact replica of the cinder cone standing behind her. Taking her box lens out of a pocket, she lifted it to her eye and studied it more closely. The power ratings seemed more or less on par as well, scaled down as they were. “An excellent model, Cheng-Huang.”
The god beamed at her. “I did my best. I’m not sure how accurate this will be, however, as no one is able to accurately determine how powerful the volcano truly is.”
That was the burning question.
“Still,” Master said as he sat his markers down, “I think you did a close enough job for this test to tell us what we need to know. And that’s all I can ask for. Sweetling, I’ll put the pedestal here, you space the markers out to the left, I’ll go right. Arandur, give me yours.”
Knowing what he wanted done, Sevana placed the boosters evenly out so that they formed a giant ring around the volcanic base, each marker in line of sight with its neighbor. Stepping back, she eyeballed it, then came back to make a few minor adjustments. “Are we connected, Master?”
Stepping back to the pedestal, Master touched a finger to it, putting just enough human magic in to make it power up. “We are. Cheng-Huang, if you will touch the pedestal with just a trace of power? The barest amount you can put in, please. Yes, that’s perfect, thank you.”
A shimmering barrier lit up and covered the volcano like a dome. Sevana reached over and gave an experimental tap to it with her fist, and it rang hollowly but held firm. “Well, it’s not fragile enough to shatter under light pressure. Maybe we got the ratios right.”
“I told you we did,” Master said with some exasperation. “Don’t you trust my math?”
“Master, I can’t read that chicken scratch you call handwriting well enough to figure out if they’re even supposed to be numbers,” she retorted.
That made Aran laugh, as he had the same problem.
Master gave them both the stink eye and straightened his jacket with a jerk, along with his dignity.
Cheng-Huang came to his rescue and inquired, “Shall I let the volcano explode now?”
“Yes, please do,” Master responded, and gave Sevana another sniff before properly turning his attention to the experiment.
To Sevana’s magical eye, she couldn’t quite follow everything that Cheng-Hunag was doing power-wise, but she was able to get the gist of it. He was combining rock and a mortar-like steam in a compact version that contained the same sort of pressure as a volcano. From the top of the mini-volcano, there was a rumbling sound, a great cloud of ash and steam, and then hot rocks glowing red spewed upwards like fireworks. It was actually rather pretty to watch. As a builder, Cheng-Huang naturally could do forging as well, and the sparks were reminiscent of a forge at work. Sevana was tempted to just enjoy the show but it was her job to make sure the shield was holding, so she watched it with an eagle’s eye.
At first nothing looked out of place. The ash and lava were well contained by the barrier, although it got difficult to see anything after a minute, as the ash obscured everything. It became this dense fog of grey that was impossible to see through. Perhaps because of that, Sevana missed the first hairline fracture that developed in the shield until it split open with a sharp, cracking noise.
“Shut it down!” she ordered sharply.
Cheng-Huang promptly did so but it was a little too late by that point. The pressure was enough to make the shield crack like an egg, and it exploded into a fine shimmer of dust motes that quickly dissipated.
Swearing, Sevana skipped back several steps to avoid getting a face full of ash or lava all over her boots. While this might be a mockup, the elements of it were real enough, and she didn’t want to be near even a mini-volcano. It was just as well she did, as the lava was quick to pour out, heading for the water’s edge where she had been standing.
“I think,” Master said faintly, “we’ll need to make some adjustments.”
They tweaked and adjusted and modified through most of the night, but the answer came down to this: they just didn’t have the power. They could contain part of the volcanic explosion, but not all of it, and there was little getting around that.
In the pre-dawn hours, Master threw his journal down and glared at it, as if it were entirely the fault of magic itself for not cooperating as he wanted it to. “We’re going to have to devise some way of either draining the volcano before it can explode, or we’ll have to make two separate shields. One for the ash, one for the lava itself.”
“We’re going to have to bring others in if we’re making a separate barrier for the ash.” Sevana lay flat on her back, wishing she had a cold cloth for her eyes, or that she could just sleep for a few hours. Actua
lly, sleep was preferable. “I think our young dragon friend would be willing to help. He’s been remarkably amiable about helping, actually.”
“We’d have to devise a completely different shield to incorporate dragon’s breath—” Master started out, sounding grumpy and tired.
“No, not really, I have used it before in a barrier. I’d have to modify my design a little to make it more powerful, but the basics of it are already designed.”
“Oh? But it will take more than just a dragon.”
“That’s the problem,” Sevana agreed sourly. “Aran, I might need to call in favors. Not now, obviously, but we might need to do that.”
“I think considering how far-reaching the effects are, you’ll have plenty of people willing to come to your aid,” Aran assured them both. “I think most are waiting to hear if you wish for their help.”
“It’s who to call, that’s the question.” Sevana paused and slowly sat up as a thought occurred. “No, before that, let’s try something. Master, most volcanoes have underwater vents as well, correct?”
“They do.” Master was a little slow to cotton onto her meaning. Likely because he’d been awake and thinking for nearly twenty-four hours. “Underwater would be cooler.”
“Automatically so,” she agreed.
Aran got that expression on his face that suggested he was trying to be patient. “What are you two scheming now?”
“We talked earlier, about possibly venting the volcano from the outside, draining it before it could explode,” Sevana explained rapidly, words nearly tripping over each other. “But I dismissed it because even a Fae can’t approach a volcano carelessly, it’s just too hot once you get anywhere near the magma. But if you can do it from the ocean floor, it might be cool enough for you.”
Aran looked at her steadily. “The Fae ability to speak to elements will let me tunnel through rock, true, but I’m not sure if I can do what you’re suggesting.”
“I’m not either,” Sevana admitted with a shrug. “But can you try? It’ll help us tremendously if you can manage it.”
He stared thoughtfully at the ground for a long moment. “I can try. At least, I’ll contact the Unda and have them show me around, see if this is possible.”
“That’s all we ask,” Master assured him.
With a hand on his knee, Aran pushed himself up to his feet. “I’ll be back in a few hours, then, and tell you the verdict.”
“Wait, rest first,” Master protested. “You’ve been up as long as we have.”
Aran shook his head in gentle disagreement. “The Unda are nocturnal. I have a better chance of getting someone’s attention right now, before they retire.”
Oh, right, they were. Sevana had forgotten that.
“Sleep,” Aran urged as he slid his feet back into his boots, getting ready to head out. “I won’t be back anytime soon.”
That was likely true. Sevana pulled a pillow and blanket to her, from where they had been folded up in the corner, and snuggled into them. She was barely under the blanket when she was fast asleep.
Sevana was up, breakfast (lunch?) consumed, bathed and dressed, and there was still no sign of Aran. Depending on the answer he brought back, the next step would radically change, so Sevana wasn’t sure what to work on. It left her with nothing but the flying ship puzzle to sort out, and she couldn’t do that until Cheng-Huang returned from wherever he had disappeared to.
Bored and twitchy, she sat at the table and sketched out a miniature shield that could be attached to the ship. Just in case the ash caught up, she wanted it protected. It was a simple design, so it wouldn’t take more than an hour to install it. The navigational system, that was going to be the real challenge to work out.
Just after noon, Aran returned. “Good news,” Aran informed them as he ducked into the workroom. “I found the vent you told me to look for. Or I should say the Unda already knew where it was and showed me.”
Sevana perked up, excited to hear this, until she saw the look on his face. “You say good news but your face says bad news.”
He gave her a sour smile that was mostly a grimace. “The bad news is there’s no way for me to really approach it. Even underwater, the area is scorching hot. It nearly stripped the skin right off of me.”
“That would be problematic,” Master agreed drolly. “No way for you to create a lava tube underground, then.”
Aran shook his head remorsefully. “I can talk to the stones next to me, of course, and start a tube, but I can’t get deep enough in to continue it all the way to the center of the volcano. It’s just too hot. Even for a Fae, it’s too hot. We have some control of heat, of course, but that much heat? From every angle, at that intensity? I can’t shield myself against it for long.”
“That plan’s a bust, then.” Master didn’t sound surprised by this, which meant he had been half-expecting this answer.
“Wait, the Unda helped? I assumed they were some distance away. Are they nearby?”
“Quite so. They are, say, about an hour’s walk from here if one could walk along the top of the water.”
An hour’s walk? That was about twice the distance it would take for her to get to Milby, if she were leaving from Big. Hardly any distance at all. No wonder he had made sure to contact them! “I hadn’t realized they were that close.”
“Neither had I. That’s good to know.” Master’s brows wrinkled into a frown. “I had a thought this morning as I woke up. I have a colleague that worked with me on a similar problem, on a chain of volcanoes in Sa Kao. He’s more of an expert on this situation than I am, or at least more experienced.”
“Then he’d be the person to call, wouldn’t he?” Aran asked as he more or less collapsed into a sitting position on the ground.
“The problem is he’s notoriously difficult to get ahold of. It’ll likely take me a day or two before I can reach him. I think we have the time for that, or least I hope we do, as he’s likely the person to have an answer to our riddle.” Master nodded to himself, decided. “I’ll try contacting him through the day. In the meantime, I feel that creating our barrier for the lava should still be done. At the very least, we can protect the village and the sea from being destroyed by lava, if it does explode. The ash is hazardous, but we can deal with it separately. Protecting this area from lava is the first priority.”
Sevana could agree with that. “In that case…markers?”
“Markers,” Master agreed equably. This time he explained to Aran without a prompt, “Someone needs to go out and mark where all of the pedestals and boosters need to be placed. It’ll take quite a bit of calculation and experimentation to get the optimum placement figured out, best it’s done in advance.”
“I’ll do that, if you want to start on the build,” Sevana offered. It was a task that didn’t require much in the way of magic, if any, which was best for her at the moment. They really had to sort through a solution to her magic imbalance soon. “Although, really, should we be doing this before we figure out a solution to the ash?”
“Probably not.” Master’s mouth screwed up to the side in aggravation. “But no good solution comes to mind right off-hand.”
Unfortunately. Sevana didn’t have a good idea on how to circumvent the problem either.
“Let’s focus on protecting everything we can first,” Master encouraged, “have that in place, so that if an emergency crops up we can at least mitigate the damage.”
It was logical and Sevana could find no fault with it. “I’ll try to put the main pedestal within close reach of the village, so we’re not frantically running if something does happen.”
“Wise of you,” Master agreed drolly. “And my aging knees appreciate it.”
Sevana normally would have immediately set to it, but one look at Aran told her that he was set on going with her, and he didn’t have the energy for that. “I’ll need time to gather up all of the tools and things I’ll need to set markers. Aran, take a nap while I do that.”
He opened his mo
uth on an automatic protest.
Flinging up a hand to stop him, she said, “It’ll take me at least an hour to gather everything I need, it’s not something you can help with, and you’re dead on your feet. Catch some sleep so that you have the energy to actually be useful later.”
“Hard to argue with that,” he responded with a shrug. “Alright, fine.”
Sevana might have taken longer than an hour to gather up what she needed. It was because Master’s tools and hers were so disorganized in this tight space, was all. Things were harder to find. And she might have taken a half hour to design something that was more non-magical in nature to mark the land with. Also, they would be out for several hours, right? They might skip dinner altogether. So she packed snacks, just in case. So, all told, it was more like two hours before she was ready to go.
She let Aran sleep until the last possible moment, and he was still a little groggy as they walked out of the village, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. Bad nap, eh? Aran normally sprang awake as if he had been pretending to sleep and was ready to open his eyes at a moment’s notice. But even he was not immune to the grogginess that followed after a bad nap. Still, she knew better than to suggest he stay and get more sleep. He wouldn’t hear of it. Prior experience had taught her that. Also, she had a feeling that she’d need him. Part of these boosters would need to be placed on the sea floor itself. Sevana didn’t have a single device that would let her walk about under the water that didn’t require a constant draw on her magical core. Which meant at the moment, she couldn’t use any of them.
Not to mention she didn’t have any of them here to begin with.
In the time that she’d known him, Sevana had never seen Aran really interact around a large body of water, so she wasn’t sure what he’d be able to do. But she was fully confident that he would be able to do something. The man was nothing if not resourceful.
Starting at the base of the volcano, she worked her way steadily around. After making multiple trips around this thing, she knew more or less where the boosters should be placed, so it wasn’t like she had to go back and forth willy-nilly. Fortunately, for her calves’ sake. All of this hiking about had already given her sore muscles.
The Canard Case (The Artifactor Series Book 4) Page 12
