Wizard's Blood [Part One]

by Bob Blink

  * * * *

  “They have what?” asked Jolan thinking he’d misunderstood Asari when he’d come to him with the news.

  “The rifles they are using have cartridges now. They aren’t using the same rifles as they had during the attacks before winter. Several of the new ones have been brought back to the command center in Perta from the encounters along the border. It’s the same everywhere. All the soldiers seem to have them. None of the older weapons have been seen.”

  “Did they send any description of what they look like?”

  “Buris was at the telegraph and got a good description. That’s why he sent me to tell you. They seem to use the same size bullets as the older rifles. They also have the same type of heavy barrels, but these rifles are designed in a way that multiple cartridges can be loaded into them at the same time, and reloading simply requires that a lever be cycled to eject the used cartridge and feed in a new one. They are very fast compared to ours. Not as powerful as ours, and probably not as accurate, but faster to load and shoot.”

  From the description Jolan knew what was being described, and knew they had been led astray. The rifles they had seen in the previous encounters had caused them, him actually, to believe Ale’ald was behind them in the arms race. Cheurt had realized that Jolan would be working against him, and had used the battles to let some of the percussion guns fall into the hands of Kimlelm and her allies. As Cheurt had hoped, Jolan had believed this was the best Ale’ald had, and would be the arms they faced when the war began. Instead, Ale’ald had been producing a far more advanced weapon all the time, and instead of being ahead of the game, Jolan knew their troops were barely even. At one point he’d considered trying to create a weapon that carried multiple rounds, but had decided there simply wasn’t time for such a development. Ale’ald had been able to skip the development phase because Cheurt, or one of his people, had simply brought the plans, and maybe even a complete rifle, from Earth for them to copy.

  “We need to meet with Major Wylan and make sure the word of this is spread to all of our troops. They are going in thinking they have superior firepower, and that simply isn’t the case after all.”

  “Buris went to talk with him when he sent me here,” Asari said. “Is there anything we can do?”

  Jolan shook his head. If there was, he didn’t know what. They would have to hope the Kimlelm fighters could make do with the rifles they now had. Nothing new would be coming from Angon for a long time. He remembered Wylan’s concern some months before that the attack had seemed out of place. He now knew it had been intended to plant a false impression as much as take out the defending forts. His thoughts would return to this conclusion in a few days when they learned that Ale’ald was mounting a multi-front attack, while Kimlelm had focused most of its energy on the southern border.

  * * * *

  Mojol was well aware of the weapons the Ale’ald forces were using. He’d been up against them every day since he’d arrived at the front lines, and actually had a bit of a stockpile of them himself. Every rifle they came across they collected, along with whatever ammunition they could find. There hadn’t been enough of the Angon rifles to equip every man in the army, so the confiscated rifles were being handed out to his own men. Even though they used different ammunition, they offered additional firepower as long as they could keep finding ammunition. For the last couple of days, Mojol and the Kimlelm troops had managed to hold their own, but just barely.

  At the moment, Mojol was looking through the brush across a wide meadow to where the enemy had settled in. The two forces had come upon each other accidentally, the Ale’ald army coming down the mountain through an open path through the trees, and Mojol and his forces patrolling along the lower ridges. The two groups had scurried for cover in the trees at either end of the meadow, and for the past hour had been exchanging periodic volleys of rifle fire with limited effect. The Ale’ald forces had at least one wizard with them because there was an occasional flash of bright fire or a beam of blue-white light that lashed across the opening to strike a careless soldier who let himself be seen. Each of the three men Mojol had seen struck had died horribly in a matter of minutes.

  Mojol was surprised the wizard was so effective at this range. From what he had been taught they were near the limits where a wizard could strike, so their adversary must be one of the level sixes they always worried about.

  “Have you located him yet?” Mojol asked the man next to him.

  “I think so. Actually, I think there are two of them. Beside the large rock next to the three trees almost straight across.”

  The man pointed as he was explaining and Mojol looked to see where the man was pointing. Mojol thought his man was correct. He could see someone dressed in the wizard’s clothes that so many of them liked. He must be pretty confident to allow himself to stand out. Most of them dressed just like the rest of the Ale’ald troops.

  He was about to explain what he wanted to do when Ale’ald chose to let loose with another volley. At this range their troops were firing for effect, but it was still unsettling. First were the sudden puffs of white smoke, followed by the arriving bullets and the distant cracks from the guns. The arriving bullets could be heard ripping through the leaves and shrubbery all around, with the frequent unnerving whine of ricochets as the bullets bounced off tree trunks and limbs. Sometimes there was the sudden puff of dust in the dirt in front of the trees when a round fell short, and then bounced off the dirt whinning into the trees where the men hid. The hail of lead sometimes ended with a meaty “thunk” as a bullet slammed into flesh, followed by a grunt as the man who’d been hit fell to the ground. Other times the bullet smashed a bone in an arm or leg, and the wounded man would collapse screaming in pain. Unlike the more familiar arrows, one couldn’t see the lead balls as they arrived, so the sudden shock of impact came as a surprise.

  Mojol had ordered the men to stop firing back in response to the periodic “attacks” since most of the ammunition would be wasted. He was concerned that the Ale’ald commander knew something he didn’t, and felt free to waste ammunition. Mojol suspected there were more enemy troops in the area, and that his adversary was stalling waiting for reinforcements to give him an overwhelming advantage. That meant he needed to take some action to resolve this standoff as soon as possible.

  “Tell Locar to take one other and slip over to that rise. I think he can get a shot from there.”

  Locar was one of his best snipers and Mojol had already given him a couple of the precious cuprum covered slugs. If he could take out the wizards, then they might be able to mount a charge and route the bastards across the way. He had seen the size of their force and knew they out numbered the enemy, but charging across that field would be an invitation to their wizard to lay down waves of wizard-fire totally destroying any chance they had.

  Mojol watched the two men slip away into the trees. Now it was simply a matter of waiting.

  Locar’s shot was taken from a little over one hundred yards out, and the cuprum projectile passed through the wizard’s protective shield and killed him instantly. Ale’ald now had one less level six wizard. Unfortunately the white smoke and the crack from the rifle gave away the sniper’s position, and the remaining level five wizard responded quickly, sending a blast of white fire that engulfed the position and everything for ten yards around it into intense flame.

  Although Locar was killed instantly, his fellow sniper had been sent off to another position a bit further away. They had both seen the wizard’s typical response to gunfire before, and they knew how much separation was needed to protect the second man from an attack. Usually the attack came from a sniper missing the shot, but this time Locar died because of the second wizard being right next to the man he’d killed. Fortunately, Locar had been smart enough to give his backup the second cuprum bullet, with orders to fire at the wizard immediately if Locar missed. At almost the same time the surviving wizard unleashed his fire, a bullet slipped through his shields and he died as
well. That ended the wizard support for the company Mojol was facing. Ale’ald was now engaged in a full scale war, and their resources were being stretched. It was surprising that two wizards had been part of this one small group, another reason Mojol suspected more troops were in the area. Seeing the second wizard fall, Mojol gave the signal to charge, and headed across the field leading his troops into battle.

  * * * *

  The Captain looked at his scout in disbelief. He and his men had crossed the river at Chuk into Kimlelm two days ago. They had made the long march through the new tunnel that connected Angon and Seret almost a month ago, then hiked all the way across southwestern Seret along the mountains, passing through Honlt almost two weeks ago. Now that they were in Kimlelm, they had expected to turn mostly east and head for Perta where they would report to the Kimlelm central command for assignment against the expected invasion by Ale’ald. No one in the troop had been aware that the war had already started, and would have been surprised to learn the bridge they had used to cross the river at Chuk no longer existed.

  “Ale’ald troops. Here in the back country? You’re certain?”

  The scout nodded, knowing that he was bringing unexpected news.

  “A great many, sir,” he replied. “We came up on a rise and they were camped out in the field below. I’d guess more than ten thousand; a division or more. They have patrols out and it appears they are intent on moving this way before too long.”

  The Captain referred to the map he’d been given when he took charge of the expedition. The men had returned from the southwest, a bit off the track they were following, but they’d been told to swing wide and check out the area carefully.

  “Did you check on Jom? It’s supposed to be back that way a day’s ride or so.”

  “No sir. From what we could tell the whole area is infested with them. We thought it best to report to you rather than take any chances going deeper into their territory. If there’s a town back that way, I’d have to guess they are now under Ale’ald control.”

  The captain had a full regiment under his command, almost five thousand well trained men, all equipped with the new rifle that was supposed to be far better than the version they’d found the Ale’ald troops were using last fall. It might be a worthy battle to chase the Dragonspawn back where they came from. Still, he was severely outnumbered according to his scouts, and that was without a complete scouting of the area, so there could be even more enemy hiding as yet unfound. Reluctantly, he decided his orders were to continue on to Perta. He should do so with all dispatch and report this disturbing discovery to the command there. He was willing to bet they didn’t know the enemy was sneaking in the back door.

  As he made a decision he realized another of his scouts was hurrying his way, coming back from the direction his command was headed. This scout also reported the presence of enemy troops, this time only several hundred, and on a direct line to where they needed to go. This time the decision was easy.

  “Tell the forward companies to prepare to attack,” the Captain told his aide. Turning back to the scout he asked, “tell me about the area where you found them.”

  Despite being surprised by the very effective rifles his enemy had in contrast to what he’d been told to expect, the Captain was very pleased with how the battle had gone. He’d lost ten men, with another twenty wounded, but because of surprise and vastly superior numbers of troops he’d wiped out the opposing forces. He’d had the men collect the weapons and ammunition from the fallen and load them on several of the supply wagons. He had wagons to spare after consuming the supplies they’d carried on the long walk to get here. Five thousand men consume a lot of food, another reason to press on to Perta where he could re-supply and get his proper orders. He could also pass along the news he now realized might be critical to the direction of the war.

  * * * *

  “It sounds like we have been holding our own despite the surprises,” said Chancellor Vaen.

  “I’m hardly an expert,” replied Jolan. He’d come to talk with Chancellor Vaen at her request. We have more troops, and a few surprises for them as well.

  “The balloons have helped then?”

  “The grenades have also been quite effective. The hot air balloons have had a marginal impact. With the air to ground telegraph that runs along the tether wire, the observers can pass a lot of information as to what they are seeing, as well as receive direction from the ground. Unfortunately they have to be restricted to staying well behind our own lines and rely on altitude to obtain their view. Even then, the balloons often reveal a bullet hole or two when they are checked after descent.”

  “Opposing wizards are a problem?”

  “Of course, with every aspect of the war. In one of the early battles the balloon was allowed to drift on the tether across the enemy line. It was high enough they were safe from enemy fire, except for a few holes that would have needed patching, except one of the wizards was able to hit it with one of his beams and that ended the over flight. We lost the balloon and both men in a ball of fire.”

  “The King is concerned that Ale’ald might come up with more surprises like the guns they came up with. Do you have any ideas what they might be working on?”

  “I wouldn’t be surprised if the poison gas we heard rumors about makes an appearance at some point. It’s tricky to work with, and maybe they have dropped that effort, but it has the potential to wipe out thousands with a single release. With access to the libraries of Earth, they can bring back detailed instructions on how to build any one of thousands of the older weapons from Earth. Things I’ve never heard of. They could have almost anything.”

  “And you haven’t any more ideas?”

  “The best thing I can think of is variations of the bomb I made in the park, but that would require active mage participation and I’ve been told not to pursue it.”

  Maybe if Ale’ald starts crossing Angon’s borders the attitude will change, but for now I can’t see the attitude that has taken years to establish changing quickly. Your bomb is as destructive as some of the old magic.”

  “Then the only thing I can see is to somehow capture and hold the Nexus and deny Chuert, and therefore Ale’ald, access to Earth.”

  “The Nexus is now effectively behind enemy lines. I’m sure it is well protected and that we will have no chance of getting a force anywhere near it. But I’ll pass the word on to the King. In the meantime, could you continue to think about other possibilities?”

  “I’ll do my best,” Jolan replied, but he knew he was running out of ideas.

  Chapter 81

  Now that spring had arrived, the attacks continued every day. Ale’ald had moved well into western Kimlelm by the time a proper deployment of men could be organized, and they had been successful at holding the ground they had already taken. The land was being systematically stripped of anything that could be used for food to support the local troops and those holding the passes up in Trailways. The border along southern Kimlelm was holding thus far, but only because the forces opposing the Ale’ald advance were far more numerous and determined than those of the enemy. Half a dozen wizards had been reported killed in the past three weeks and that had helped hold the line. Wizards were key to the war, something everyone had known, but a fact that was made very clear in many of the battles where the wizards turned a supposed victory into defeat for the defending forces. No one knew for sure how many wizards Ale’ald had available, but estimates suggested that they might have as many as thirty level sixes, and well over a hundred level fives.

  Among the bad news forwarded to Cobalo was a brief note that Prince Mojol was missing. He had been involved in a major battle the previous day, and had gone out with one of his snipers to try and bring down a particularly annoying wizard who had been raking the field all afternoon with waves of wizard-fire and accurately placed energy-beams. When the battle concluded in a draw and both sides withdrew, Mojol didn’t return. A careful search among the dead was made, but neither he nor
his fellow sniper were located. It was assumed that he had been captured, but even that couldn’t be verified.

  The leaders of Angon and Seret privately voiced the opinion that Kimlelm would fall before the end of summer, and started planning accordingly. The temporary leader of Seret had the full backing of the people, and any plans for an election were put on hold until the war was over. Instead the full energy of the nation was being thrown into preparations for an eventual assault along the long, virtually undefended border with Kimlelm. The rushing waters of the Lasayss River would slow the enemy army when the time came, but it wouldn’t stop them.

  The people and leaders of Angon were still confident the war wouldn’t reach their shores, but continued to build up stocks of weapons and other supplies, and continued to supply Seret and Kimlelm with as much as possible. Better the war be fought on someone else’s doorstep, and if throwing weapons and material that way would keep the war distant, the leaders in Cobalo were happy to continue as they had been.

  * * * *

  Today was the first day of the planting season in Angon, and it was a day of festival. In deference to the war and the suffering their neighbors were experiencing, the festivities had been significantly reduced in scale, but for the people this day was a tradition that couldn’t be completely ignored. As usual the King, Chancellor Vaen as the head representative for the mages, and the head of the state church came together in central Cobalo for the dedication. The large gathering area, which could hold more than one hundred thousand people was always used for this festival, and while the usual parade and the hundreds of colorful carts and stalls with foods of every description were missing this year, the people were still gathering in large numbers. Many came only for the festival, but others hoped to hear a bit more about the status of the war directly from their leaders.