Armies of Nine, Book Three of The Adventures of Sarah Coppernick

by SJB Gilmour

  ‘You know, it’s weird,’ she told Jerrit conversationally. ‘I don’t think fire can hurt me any more.’ She quite casually reached inside the furnace as far as her arm would go. It was very hot, she realised that. She stared inside the blazing oven at her arm and hand. Instead of blistering and catching fire as any normal limb would have done, her arm remained clean and intact. As the heat increased, the silver within her remained solid and kept her skin, flesh and blood from any harm. Her arm gleamed in the bright light and heat from the furnace.

  Finally, when she knew her arm was white hot, she drew it out and looked at it. She could feel the heat of it certainly, but it was not painful. Instead, every molecule of silver within her was even more excited and eager to please her than before. She reached out with her left hand and carefully touched her right hand. She could feel the temperature and knew that had she been her former human self, she would have been horribly burned. Now, it just felt hot, but hardly painful. To cool herself down, she reached deep into one of the barrels of water by the forge. Her skin tingled and tightened as the water hissed and steamed on contact with it.

  She turned back to the stunned and gibbering Jeff. He was paying no attention to her or his surroundings. He was merely staring at his claws in wonder, muttering to himself. It was no use trying to include the old goblin in any sort of conversation.

  ‘Maybe we should chuck a bucket of water over him,’ she suggested to Jerrit.

  Jerrit grinned. ‘Perhaps I can do better than that,’ he replied. He grasped Jeff by the scruff of the neck and hauled the gibbering old goblin to the barrel of water. Then he most unceremoniously dumped him in it headfirst. Jeff gurgled and thrashed about, splashing a great amount of water about the place in the process, but finally he seemed to come to his senses. He blasted the walls of the barrel from within and a great splash of water crashed out onto the floor. When he had finished swearing, he glared at Jerrit, shivering.

  ‘What the bloody hell did you do that for?’ he demanded.

  ‘You weren’t making much sense, I’m afraid, old boy,’ Jerrit replied urbanely. ‘She gave you back your eyes. I’d have thought you’d be grateful.’

  Jeff spluttered at him for several moments. ‘You just don’t get it, do you?’ he grated. ‘Do you have any idea how much that hurt?’ Jeff let out another loud exclamation of pain and swore again. When he had run out of expletives, he glared at Mel. ‘If I’d known all it would take to get you to transform like that was to make you lose your temper, I’d have done it a month ago,’ he accused.

  ‘I didn’t know!’ Mel protested.

  Jerrit was eyeing her new wardrobe sceptically. ‘I’ve not mentioned your attire before Mistress because, quite frankly, all human clothing is odd. This appears a little more outlandish than most goblins will be ready for, I’m afraid. Can we not garb you in more suitable clothing now you’ve cooled down?’

  Melanie nodded glumly. She marched (well, it was hard not to march in that outfit!), back to the rack at one end of the room where her regular clothing was hanging. Almost reluctantly, she allowed her body to re-absorb her silver garb and dressed herself in her normal gear. The Star of Planes coin in the inside jacket pocket vibrated oddly for a moment and then was still.

  ‘Will this do?’ she asked Jerrit.

  The Emperor and Supreme Chancellor of The Mingus Consortium sighed. ‘It will have to.’

  ‘Good.’ Then, still grinning and with the gleaming ball of silver following her, she strode from the cave. She passed a stunned Vickix in the hall. The crazy old goblin woman muttered curses of rage at her, but Mel was in no mood to tolerate such behaviour any more.

  ‘What was that?’ Mel asked her in a hard but quiet tone. She knew that tone was even more effective than a furious bellow.

  Vickix glared at her and clamped her mouth shut.

  Mel nodded, her face set. ‘Didn’t think so.’ She kept walking and didn’t look back.

  Later that night, Mel was alone in her room. She was standing naked in front of a mirror. Despite the room being completely dark, which she was enjoying tremendously, she could see her reflection quite clearly. It hadn’t taken her long to discover just what her body could do. Again and again, she made all sorts of changes to herself. One minute, she was clothed in her silver armour. The next, she was nude again. After a few goes, she found she could do it without so much as a second thought. All the while the spinning orb of pure silver she had created only hours before, hovered above her like her own private satellite.

  The only problem she found was that each time she changed, it seemed to generate enormous amounts of heat. No clothing would stand such temperatures. How was she going to create a fire-proof brace to hide the coin?

  She sat and thought about it for a while. Then she tried experimenting with creating silver mesh and fabric. It took a few goes, but she finally came up with a thick felt fabric that looked and felt more like leather than silver. She dressed it up with some tarnished silver studs and it looked very much like a standard Amazon wrist brace. Next, being careful to use gloves, she tucked the coin inside it and commanded the silver to encase it, completely hiding the enchanted half of The Star of Planes.

  ‘Done,’ she muttered to herself with a self-satisfied smirk. The faint, almost imperceptible vibrations of approaching footsteps tore her attention away from her handiwork. She immediately dressed herself again in her new clothes, complete with swords and looked through the door to the hallway outside. She could quite clearly see Jerrit walking purposefully towards her room. Just as he raised one claw to knock, Mel waved at the door and it swung open. Jerrit, of course, betrayed no surprise at this.

  Couldn’t the cursed goblin ever be surprised? Mel was disappointed.

  The goblin emperor paused briefly, and nodded at Mel. ‘Mistress,’ he said quite calmly, ‘I see you’re becoming accustomed to your new skills.’

  ‘See?’ Mel demanded. ‘How? It’s pitch black in here! How can you see anything?’

  Jerrit coughed delicately and nodded at her. ‘I’m afraid you are glowing slightly, Mistress, and parts of you are quite reflective. The light from the corridor behind us is plenty to let me see you quite clearly.’

  ‘Oh,’ she muttered, disappointed again.

  ‘It seems,’ Jerrit went on smoothly, ‘that Master Jeffreytix claims he has taught you all he can. After you retired, he told me quite vocally there is nothing more he can teach you about smithing since he feels you are now indeed a master of one metal at least, and as such, should be considered master of all metals. He requested I find something else for you to do before he sets about tutoring you in the field of alchemy.’

  Mel was surprised. All her anger and frustration seemed to drain away. Master, eh? ‘Well bugger me,’ she breathed. She thought for a moment. Are You in there My Lord? she asked silently.

  ‘Yes child?’ Apollo replied with an amused tone to His voice.

  Do I need to learn this alchemy stuff Jeff wants to teach me?

  ‘Nay child. The Time of Learning is nearing its end. You have some skills already in that arena you call necromancy. Refine those if you would learn more, however I would advise you to learn some skill with the armaments you can so readily summon.’

  How am I going to get this thing where it’s supposed to be? Mel asked her god, referring to the floating ball of silver above her. No answer came.

  Jerrit frowned. ‘I’ve heard of this term, Mistress. I assume you’re using it as an expletive?’

  ‘What?’ Embarrassed, Mel shook her head. ‘Never mind.’ She drew the blades from the scabbards at her thighs. ‘You know what I’d really like to do?’

  Now finally, Jerrit seemed a little nervous. ‘I’m sure you’re about to tell me,’ he said, eyeing the deft way she handled the blades.

  ‘Get Jax,’ Mel told him. ‘Making these things was easy, but what I really want to do is learn how to use ‘em.’

  Jerrit breathed a sigh of relief. ‘For a moment there, Mistress
—’

  ‘You thought I was gonna kill you?’

  Jerrit humphed. ‘Hardly. I was worried you’d try to, however. Are you sure you want Jax as your instructor in swordsgoblinship? I have far more skilled trainers than he.’

  Mel disagreed with this. ‘My dad told me once that those who can, do, while those who can’t, teach. I’m no dumbass. He might not be a good teacher, but he’s a bloody good fighter.’ She shrugged and sheathed the knives. ‘That’s enough for me.’ She grinned. ‘And I want to get in touch with my friends.’ She wasn’t about to let them know what she had discovered, but she felt a desperate need to tell Sarah what had happened. If she was truly The One of Silver and Sarah was The One of Gold, then her best friend might be able to do the same things she now could.

  Jerrit nodded but looked worried. ‘Discretely, may I suggest?’

  Mel glared at him. She thought for a moment then decided to lay her cards on the table. ‘Look,’ she told him bluntly. ‘If you want that thing,’ and she pointed to the floating ball of silver, ‘up there,’ and she waved out the window to the sky, ‘I’m going to need to work out how. I need to talk to my uncle, Benjamin McConnell. He’s the best spellweaver I know and the only one I trust.’

  Jerrit looked surprised. ‘Uncle?’ he asked curiously. ‘I did not know you were related.’

  Mel grinned. ‘Like Sarah says, it’s a wolf thing. We’re pack-mates. He’s not her uncle either but he might as well be.’

  Jerrit considered this for a moment then shrugged. ‘Fair enough, I suppose. Perhaps the engineers at The Academy next door might be able to help—’

  Mel gave a scoffing snort. ‘You want me to be discrete? If any of those guys found out what’s going on, you’d have Mautallius here with an army of demons trying to kill me in about five minutes. That place leaks like a sieve. There are already enough rumours going on about me in this joint. Just figure out how I can get in touch with McConnell.’

  Jerrit seemed to agree. ‘The Moon Cult has been making demands to see you,’ he admitted. ‘I haven’t let them, of course. It sets a bad precedent for a ruler to bow to any religious group, ever. Always keep cult and state separate.’ His black eyes narrowed. ‘You might want to remember that.’

  ‘Why?’

  Jerrit’s eyes twinkled knowingly. ‘Well Master Smith, if it is your wish to learn the art of swordplay from Captain Jax, then I am sure it will be his pleasure to train you. I’ll also see into what forms of communication are at our disposal. I’ll make that top priority.’ He grinned even more wickedly. ‘And it will be my pleasure to inform The Smith of Ages of your choice of curriculum.’ He bowed his bald goblin head politely and left Mel wondering about the question he’d not answered.

  Sure enough, Captain Jax soon arrived at Mel’s door. Unlike Jerrit, who was quite used to Mel’s odd ability to sense his arrival, Jax was alarmed when she yanked the door open before he had the chance to knock. Still, he was a highly-trained and experienced soldier and it did not take him long to recover.

  He bowed quite formally. ‘Mistress,’ he said politely. ‘I’ve been advised of your new status as Master Smith and that now you wish to undertake some martial training.’ He tilted his head curiously.

  Mel nodded and produced her gleaming silver knives. ‘Can you teach me how to use these things?’

  Jax grinned, and for the first time, Mel realised that his grin was no longer horrible. In fact, she rather liked it when the seasoned soldier smiled.

  ‘Of course I can, Mistress,’ he promised. ‘When would you like to start?’

  ‘What’s wrong with now?’

  Chapter Fourteen

  And so Mel’s training in the use of swords and fighting-knives began. It was hard at first, but after a few weeks (years sooner than it would have taken other students of swordplay), she began to find it less and less of a challenge. Jax was still better than she, but she knew if she kept learning at the pace she had been, soon her skill would surpass his.

  ‘You’re holding back, Mistress,’ Jax accused her after one session.

  ‘I don’t want to hurt you,’ she replied. ‘I don’t really want to hurt anyone.’ Then she grinned at him with a look of pure mischief.

  Jax raised one eyebrow.

  ‘When I was training with Cromwell, we used animated corpses…’

  Jax seemed surprised. ‘You want to resurrect the dead just so you can kill them again?’

  Mel nodded. ‘Not just any corpses either.’ She grinned at him. ‘C’mon, let’s go.’

  Jax followed her wordlessly as she led him down through the caverns and tunnels towards Jeff’s cave. When they came to the fork that led either to Jeff’s cave or Exlam, she didn’t pause at all. She simply marched straight up to the two nunjuxu guarding the door.

  ‘C’mon, Captain Jax,’ she said over her shoulder. ‘Let’s go visit this Hall of Heroes of yours.’ She turned to the two nunjuxu at the ancient doors. ‘You gonna let me in or what?’

  One of the guardslins smiled. ‘We’ve been given orders to admit you,’ he admitted, ‘but the priests want—’

  Mel told him exactly what she thought of priests, which wasn’t very flattering at all. ‘Well I’m giving you orders not to tell anyone, not even your priests. They’ll find out sooner or later, but before I get that thing,’ and she waved at the floating orb of silver behind her, ‘up into your orbit, there are things I need to do. What’s it gonna be?’

  Both nunjuxu guardslins grinned and stepped aside to let her in. Their black eyes were alight.

  As Mel marched through, she glanced over her shoulder at Jax. ‘How many of your heroes are down here?’ she asked him.

  ‘Several hundred, Mistress.’

  ‘Hmm.’ She kept walking down the dark corridor. It was bare, save for tall single candles placed every ten metres or so. The tiny flames gave off just enough light for anyone using the corridor to see the floor and walls, but not much else. At the end of the corridor, they came to another great stone door. Mel gave it a shove and it swung open with a loud grating noise. Beyond the door was a huge cavern, very similar in shape to the one Jeff used as his smithy, only this one was spotlessly tidy.

  There were no desks or seats or furnishings of any kind on the floor. It was simply one enormous stadium of a room. The walls however, were not bare. Sunk into the walls at even intervals all around the cave were ornate silver sarcophagi that, to Mel’s eyes, glowed brightly.

  Through the hundreds of sarcophagi covers, Mel could see the corpses within, most fully armed and dressed in their battle armour. Some were obviously minus limbs or even heads, but it was clear every step had been taken to bury the fallen warriors with all that could be found of them and their accoutrements.

  ‘Exlam,’ Jax breathed respectfully. ‘The Hall of Heroes.’ He glanced at Mel nervously. ‘Just what are you intending?’

  ‘Only the greatest of your warriors who ever lived were buried here, right?’

  Jax nodded.

  ‘And you don’t have any gods any more, right? Their souls are just out there, wandering about?’

  ‘I suppose,’ Jax replied with a shrug. ‘Before the apocalypse, we had gods. I imagine the souls of those heroes interred before that time were taken to The Heavens. As for afterwards…’ He waved one claw back and forth. ‘I’m afraid I’m not a necromancer, Mistress. All I know is that they were buried as they fell.’

  ‘Well I am a necromancer,’ Mel replied. She marched to the nearest sarcophagus and yanked open the lid. There, dried and shrivelled inside rent and tarnished armour, was the corpse of a goblin captain.

  ‘Gimme a hand, will you?’ Mel asked Jax.

  Together, the young girl and the veteran then proceeded to break several Jilde laws by desecrating the tomb. They hauled the fully-armed corpse out onto the floor and laid it out.

  Mel eyed the elaborate coffin. Most of it was wrought silver. She held out her hand and willed a few grams of the stuff from inside the lid to break free and dr
ift towards her. Jax watched, awed as she absorbed the silver into her palm. Then, calmly and deliberately, Mel stood over the armed corpse, drew one of her knives and cut a small but deep gash into her forearm. Black blood immediately began to flow from the wound. Mel made sure to allow drops of the blood to fall all over the corpse and his weapons and armour. Soon, there was not a single piece of the dead body or its weapons or armour that did not have at least a few drops of her blood on it.

  ‘That’ll do,’ Mel muttered to herself with a self-satisfied grin. ‘Santicularus!’ Her wound healed itself and she turned to Jax. ‘You’d better stand back.’

  Jax obeyed as he watched his young charge absorb of all her silver weapons and garb, to stand naked beside the corpse. His eyes widened in alarm as she began chanting a necromantic rite. A burning nonagram lit up on the floor around Mel and the corpse.

  Mel was surprised at just how easy it was. The armour and remains of the goblin, carried with them the trail of where the body had been taken since it fell in battle. All she had to do was trace it back. This one had died in a pitched battle against fearsome odds on the other side of the planet.

  Without leaving Exlam physically, Mel concentrated, and in her mind was able to travel to the exact spot the goblin had died. There she found his soul, still drifting, anguished and helpless as it had for several decades.

  Mel didn’t bother with any special spells. She simply waved at the spirit. ‘If I bring you back, will you follow me?’

  The ghost nodded at her, a desperate hope in his eyes. ‘I have heard of you, Nightsmith. Restore me to life and that life will be yours forever!’

  ‘You know I can’t give you back a living body, don’t you? You’ll be a mummy — kind of.’

  ‘Kind of?’

  ‘I’ve given you, your weapons and your armour my blood. It’ll be alive… Un-killable.’

  The ghost blinked at her. ‘Un-killable?’

  Mel shrugged. ‘Well, I’m using my blood to do it, so as long as I’m alive, you will be I guess. I’ve got a feeling I’m going to be around for a pretty long time.’