Metal Mage 4

by Eric Vall

  As I shoveled greasy meat from one platter to my own, I nudged Yaxin with my boot under the table to get his attention.

  “Is Krick the lord of Garioch?” I asked.

  Yaxin smiled with a mouthful of meat and shook his head. “No lords this far north,” he mumbled between bites. “Just men. Krick here built the tavern. So everyone just listens to him.”

  Haragh laughed and raised his glass. “My kind of town,” he toasted and drained the mug in a single gulp.

  “More ale!” Krick hollered over the noise of the tavern. Two men appeared from somewhere in the dim place, and they brought enough mugs with them to go around the whole table.

  Pindor’s eyes grew wide, his own mug only half empty, when the barkeep thunked a fresh one in front of him.

  I nudged the kid in the side. “Nope, that one’s mine,” I chuckled as I slid the fresh ale over to join my own frothing mug, and then I smiled fondly at the pair of them. “Hello ladies.”

  Cayla giggled, and her cheeks were a light pink beneath her bright eyes. “I’ll name that one Aurora, and that one Cayla.”

  The half-elf spit her own ale up in laughter. The pair made a gorgeously bubbly sight. It felt good to finally take my ladies to a good ol’ fashioned tavern for once. With a mug in each hand, I grinned and gave a slight bow before I dug in and did my best to leave room for the food.

  Full and flushed with good ale and good times, we joined in conversation for the next few hours with the six burly men who’d welcomed us. They told us of the logging troubles they’d been facing since the cold settled in. It seemed it had only been around for about a week. This was good to hear. It meant my suspicions about the origin of the strange air Shoshanne had mentioned were likely correct.

  Someone didn’t want me getting comfortable.

  Aurora listened closely, and then she shot a look my way that said she’d come to the same conclusion.

  “Came in from the north, froze the whole damn cliff overnight,” Krick grumbled. “Can’t get the carts through the pass.”

  I thought of offering to build their own rail system, but I knew I wouldn’t have the materials to spare, and the need to get through the mountains quickly was becoming urgent. From what the men said, the wind had been steadily building for days. I couldn’t risk getting us blown right off the ridge, locomotive and all.

  “Once we finish the rail to the capital in Orebane, I could come back down and help construct a local rail system for the loggers,” I offered.

  “You really think you’re gonna make it to the capital?” Krick snorted, but I nodded without hesitation, and the other man narrowed his eyes at my confidence. “What you want the dwarves for anyway?”

  I chose my words carefully. “The kingdom seeks alliance amongst the regions, starting with the dwarves and then, hopefully, the elves as well.”

  This got a hearty laugh.

  “Well, I can’t speak for the dwarves,” Krick chuckled, “but the elves would rather hang ye from the rafters, I’m sure.”

  I glanced to Aurora, but she didn’t seem bothered by the comparison. I could see her concerns were similar.

  “All the same, it’s gotta be done,” I assured him.

  He studied my face for a moment. Then he leaned forward. “Why?” he demanded.

  I swallowed. I didn’t want to cause alarm about the Master, since I couldn’t say for sure what was happening in our neighboring regions.

  Cayla cleared her throat, and her diplomatic tone called all attention to her.

  “Peace does not come with absolute division,” the princess explained. “The ties between man and the elves have been tenuous for too long. Good faith diplomacy serves no one. By connecting the trade routes directly between the regions, economic growth will grace everyone, providing a stable foundation for future dealings, should the need for joining forces arise.”

  The men nodded in silent agreement, and Krick chewed this over. “So the need has arisen,” he finally said, and he held the woman’s gaze beneath his wild grey eyebrows.

  “That remains to be seen,” she answered coolly. “The struggles of the north are not the most recent developments to impede the progress of the lands. Cedis and Illaria are working together to strengthen our allegiances to ensure things like what you’ve been experiencing don’t have such long standing ill effect on the hardworking people who fuel our nations.”

  I hadn’t blinked since the princess started speaking. She had a way with words, and I glanced at Krick to see if he was as enthralled by the level headed woman as I was.

  The glint in his eye told me that he was.

  “Well,” he grinned and raised his eighth glass of the evening in the woman’s honor, “I can drink to that.”

  Cayla raised her own and did me proud as she drained the last of her mug without a thought.

  Just as we began to rise from the long table at last, a rumbling came from a distance and caused the grizzly man’s face to return to its naturally furious lines.

  “The hell is that?” Krick demanded.

  Haragh chuckled. “That’d be our next shipment for the rail.”

  Krick shook his head and shoved the bench out from beneath him. He then called to the barkeep who’d kept our mugs filled throughout the evening.

  “Show ‘em their rooms,” he ordered, and the man nodded without question. “Plenty of beds up there.” He motioned to a dim stairwell behind the bar as he turned to lead the way back out of the tavern.

  I told the Ignis Mages, Jovion, and Zerla to get comfortable while we handled the tracks and ties. Then the rest of us followed in Krick’s steps. I could see how the town had just ended up listening to the man. He definitely had a commanding presence about him.

  From the gates beside the station, we could barely make out Bagnera and her three cars through the dusk, except for an orb of flames that shown from the front of the car. As she drew nearer, I saw a few pieces of glass reflected the light forward, and I couldn’t believe she’d designed her own headlight.

  She brought the carts to a practiced halt in the station and exited the rail car with a loud, “Hooo it’s colder than a witch’s tit out here!” The old mage’s grey hair had come unwound during her journey, and the wind whipped the white frizz at her temples all over the place. Still, her eyes were as bright as they always were, and her crooked smile was firmly in place.

  I laughed the second I saw the look on Krick’s face. “Bagnera, you’re making record time!” I congratulated her, and then I joined her in the wind and tucked the small woman under my arm.

  “Sure am,” she replied proudly. “It’s some sight, watching the whole kingdom fly by in this baby. That hill over there is a real zinger!”

  I couldn’t help but laugh at the sheer joy in her voice. The thought of Bagnera blazing through the forests made me want to give her a Bobbie of her own. I made a mental note to start production on hers right after King Temin’s was done. The biddy would no doubt be a force to be reckoned with.

  “And the headlight, that’s genius,” I admitted as I gestured to the orb of fire on the front of the car.

  “Whatever you call it, it ain’t mine,” Bagnera snorted. “Brought along a little sprite of a mage to keep me company. Once the night came in, we thought we’d give it a try. I wasn’t too keen on camping in the cold.”

  Haragh and the others began moving the tracks and ties from one cart to another, while I brought Bagnera to Cayla and Krick for introductions.

  “This is our number one engine driver,” I told the burly man, who had removed his hood. He stood an easy three feet above the Ignis Mage’s head, and she shielded her eyes to squint up for a clearer view.

  She smiled then. “That’s me.”

  Beneath the mess of Krick’s gray beard, I thought I could see a smile forming. The man chuckled, reached down to take the woman’s hand, and laid a kiss on the back of it. Still crouched at eye level, he said, “Pleasure’s mine, miss.”

  Bagnera giggled, blushed,
and slapped his furs lightly with her free hand. “Well that’s a fine thing. What a gentleman.”

  I didn’t know a woman her age could be so flattered, but I found it endearing.

  Krick laughed and rose to his natural height, and Cayla gave me an amused look from behind his broad shoulders.

  I cleared my throat. “Bagnera runs the rail from my mine just north of Serin. We’re forming a circuit from the north side once we’ve reached the capital, so she’ll likely be the one you do most of your business with.”

  The man raised a brow and grinned. “Well, that’d be a pleasure as well.”

  The biddy giggled and shook her head. “Oh you’re trouble, you are. Keep it up, and I’ll retire right here and now.”

  The man laughed heartily and stepped aside as he extended a giant arm toward the gates. “Allow me to get you a beer, miss.”

  The Ignis Mage didn’t skip a beat before she abandoned her place beneath my arm, and I watched them go with Cayla at my side.

  “I don’t want to know what that’s about,” I chuckled.

  “You gonna stand there yapping,” Haragh hollered above the wind, “or are you gonna use some of that magic of yours to lend a hand? Seems the wind’s kicked up a notch since we’ve been here.”

  He wasn’t wrong.

  I drew my magic to the surface, letting it surge through my limbs, and had the tracks moved within minutes. Drenched in sweat, I looked up to the frozen cliff while the others made their way back to the tavern. The face of the cliff disappeared into the black night, and it was ominous and glistening in the firelight of the town below.

  I rubbed the back of my neck while I considered the feat we would be attempting by sunrise.

  “Aye,” Haragh said as he joined me and followed my eyes. “That’s the mountain ass you’re so sure you’re gonna kick.”

  It looked like I had my work cut out for me.

  The next morning, I woke up tangled in the sheets between Aurora and Cayla, long before the sun had risen. Knowing how far north we’d come, I knew this would be around the time the sun rose in Serin.

  It took every inch of will power to leave the bed, and in the end, I failed. Cayla’s supple breasts lay exposed and taut in the cold air of the tavern room, and I was powerless to resist them. I rolled and flicked my tongue gently along the peak of her nipples. Then I drew them into my mouth and slid my hand between her legs until her sleepy limbs began to writhe.

  If I was gonna scale a cliff today, I’d be damn sure I had no regrets.

  I drew her porcelain arms above her head and pinned them there with one hand as I forced her legs apart with my own.

  Aurora purred and snuggled herself alongside her playful companion. Then she ran her fingers from the princess’ naval to her nipples as she nibbled on Cayla’s ear.

  “You first,” the half-elf whispered.

  Cayla moaned, and I wasted no time driving the full length of my cock into her. Her shriek broke the silence of the tavern as she grinded up to meet my thrust.

  Aurora giggled and clasped a hand firmly over the princesses lips.

  Then the three of us celebrated the morning with soft moans.

  Chapter 9

  A few hours after Cayla, Aurora, and I finished our love making and had breakfast with the crew, the group went back to work again.

  A cliff loomed above us in the early blue light. We all stood at its base, some two hundred feet from the walls of Garioch. The four Ignis Mages walked together as they studied the thick sheets of ice on its face, as well as the heavy blockage which had built up at the entrance to the pass, but Haragh didn’t look too confident.

  “One crack, and we’re flattened,” the half-ogre reminded me for the third time.

  “Have a little faith,” I returned. I was the only one who had exited the gate with firm confidence that morning. It was probably the extra hour I’d spent between the two insatiable women that continued to bolster me, but I couldn’t help feeling this day was going to go my way.

  It didn’t have any other choice.

  Aurora led her mages back to where the rest of us stood. She looked tense, but confident. “Well, it’s thicker than it was last night, but if we work from four points and move together cyclically, I think we can do it,” she told me.

  I grinned. “Good enough for me.”

  The tradesmen and the other Terra Mages found a place well out of the fall zone while the women got to work. Their blazes were bright white with searing heat, and the flames arced high up to the top of the cliff. Ice melt trickled down at first, then began to roll down like waterfalls.

  I heard a crack and was about to raise the alarm, when Aurora swiftly flipped and melted the portion of ice down in a matter of seconds. From there, it was a race with the wall of ice. All three mages aimed their flames with precision and moved cyclically in large circles as Aurora had instructed. Each crack was met with immediate flame, but several sheets loosened and crashed to the ground here and there. The mages maneuvered themselves carefully, and as the final massive sheet began to loosen itself from the opening of the pass, Aurora called to the others to run and allowed it to crash and shatter to the ground. With a rush of air, the mouth of the pass that Durigh had assured us would be or safest course up the cliff was revealed.

  Pindor and the others whooped and congratulated the four women, who leaned on one another as they caught their breath.

  “Easy … ” Aurora breathed out and chuckled as Bagnera huffed at her side.

  “We better get going before this wind ices over any of the run off,” I instructed. Then I signaled the Terra Mages to go with Haragh to the cliff while the rest of us returned to the train. Before we could bid farewell to Bagnera, we needed to thaw the train out as well.

  A thick layer of ice had crusted over the metal during the night, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as the cliff. The Ignis Mages were careful to find the right temperature with their magic so the metal wouldn’t warp under their heat, and soon the locomotive and cars were shiny and dripping in the early morning.

  “I’ll leave my little night light with you,” the Ignis Mage said. “Her name’s Deli. Looks like you’re gonna need her.”

  “Thank you, and send a few more up from the mines near Cedis when you pass through, would you?” I didn’t want to overtax my only three Ignis Mages, but I could tell we were in for a frigid haul through these mountains.

  We got the train going and laid the last few tracks leading to the pass. Haragh and the Terra Mages had already carved a sizable path by chipping away at the existent ridge, and we all climbed aboard to begin the journey into the mountains.

  The path that Durigh and Yaxin guided us along was exactly as they’d described it: precarious and barely wide enough. The Terra Mages were already sweating with the effort to force the edge of the cliff back by several feet. Haragh skillfully led them and assigned an altitude to each, so that Jovion shaped the upper cliff edge, Zerla the portion below that, and Pindor the next. The half-ogre took the bottom section and used his expert eye to create enough room on the path for the train to safely pass, while also leveling the substrate.

  It was slow work because they had to disperse their efforts instead of combining them, but with a gentle grade taking us upward into the range, the need to monitor as many areas would decrease as we gained altitude. After an hour, Jovion was able to join a circuit with Zerla as we closed the gap between ourselves and the top of the cliff by several hundred feet.

  The wind howled and bit at our drenched backs and faces, but Shoshanne must have noticed the trouble, because she scooted closer toward us on her back end and worked to counteract the current of icy air.

  I smiled at her to show my thanks and continued to lay the tracks while the unnerving sound of the cliff that shifted above me rumbled in my ears. The path shook beneath the train, and it sounded like a rockslide as it echoed through the ravine to our left. The chaos of the blaring engine combined with the angry cliff kicked my adrenaline up a notc
h. I hardly even noticed the weight of the tracks and ties anymore since everything around me was a grating and unstable whirlwind. I occasionally checked the state of the Terra Mages around me, to be sure they weren’t about to give out. They looked worn thin, but they were still going full speed ahead.

  Then the wheels began to slip. The high-traction modifications I’d made had held up fine so far, but the screech of the steel as it started to slide was unmistakable. It came and went, but after I strained my ear for several minutes, I was sure I’d heard it.

  Pindor and Haragh seemed to hear it as well, and they sent worried glances over their shoulders enough times that I knew something wasn’t right. I laid the few tracks I already held with my magic, but I signaled for Aurora to cut the engine and sent Pindor to pull the braking lever. The train shuddered to a full stop and slid back a good few inches before the brakes finally caught.

  The silence fell on us like a ton of bricks after the ruckus of our ascent, and the hollow sound of the wind in the pass made the precarious stop even more unnerving. No one moved, and I could tell they were all holding their breath.

  “What’s up?” Aurora asked, and she carefully came forward as she kept her back flush against the inner wall of the train.

  “The wheels are slipping,” I admitted, and Haragh gave a curt nod of agreement.

  “But the new wheels you made,” the half-elf said with a frown, “they can hold out, yeah?”

  I shrugged. “They should but …”

  “But they’re not,” Haragh finished for me. “I heard ‘em.”

  I scratched my beard as I ran over the designs in my head once more. I knew the wheels had been formed properly, and the Terra Mages had kept the grade at a manageable incline, even for the size of the train. Still, I was certain I’d heard the sound of the wheels slipping, at least a few times. They were losing traction somewhere.