“They fight the war as they see fit and we fight the war as our Maestro sees fit,” said Carlos. He tended to see things in practicalities and absolutes. “If they can ever manage to get beyond their oversized egos and seek his advice, weak points in their defensive perimeter could be pointed out and either reduced or eliminated.” His loyalty to the Accomplished who restored him from Condemnation was one of those absolutes.
He also made a good point.
A small part of Daniel wanted to inform the leaders of Aakadon about the vulnerability and yet the greater part of him did not want to share information that could be used against him or members of his guild. He was quite familiar with that sort of thing, seeing as he had modified spells taught to him by Tarin Conn in a recruitment attempt, and then used them against the Serpent Guild.
The Mighty Hirus is a major waterway, used by both the Atlantan Guild and Accomplisheds of Aakadon, and my people’s ability to use the river without being detected is too good of an advantage to give up.
While keeping the fact in mind, he vowed to maintain an open mind on the subject, especially since cooperation between the two groups was essential in order to be victorious.
“I hope that day will come and soon,” Daniel responded to the bodyguard while maneuvering the manta under a waterwheel boat that was heading east and matching its speed, which was steadily increasing. In a short amount of time they were moving at sixty SPMs and away from Aakadon.
“You joined us to a convoy,” Carlos noted, apparently feeling the need to state the obvious.
Daniel nodded and since Tim was staring at him with eyebrows raised questioningly, decided to add a verbal response. “The harmonics given off by the CAPU should be masked by the Ripple Effect of the spell turning those broad paddles on the riverboat.”
“Great idea,” Simon blurted. “We can travel at a decent speed without being detected.”
That was the reasoning for the decision, but this time Daniel responded with a single nod of his head.
“More of those boats are forming up behind us,” Sero pointed out. “I am sensing scores of Accomplisheds aboard each of those vessels.”
“They must be on their way to reinforce the Cenkataaran legions,” Tim speculated, and was likely correct.
The Accomplisheds of Aakadon did not possess any teleportation spells. Tarin Conn composed a Melody that required six bolts of potential; hence the traveling circles used by Aakacarns with lesser potential, and had taught it to Daniel, who modified it by adding enough lines in harmony that the new Symphonic version only needed one bolt. Consequently, the Serpents and the members of the Atlantan Guild could teleport to anywhere they had been to before, while the Accomplisheds of Aakadon were restricted to traveling by foot, wagon, horse, or boat. Every guild had specialized spells known only to its members, and that was a tradition Daniel had no intention of changing, which was why his members used batons rather than instruments as crescendos when choosing to amplify their spells.
“According to Samuel’s latest report,” Daniel began to explain while watching the many species of fish parting ways to the right, left, and below the manta. The creatures did not seem to want to place themselves between the top of the ray and the bottom of the riverboat. Their survival instincts were serving them well. “Zunean forces have control of the Cenkataaran northern border to approximately a hundred spans inward and all of the East coast. Ecoppian Marines occupy all of the coastal cities. The Royal Cenkataaran Legions have control of the western part of the realm and much of the southern, but their hold is slipping even with the assistance of Aakadon.”
Daniel noted the number of vessels to the rear of Manta One had increased to fifteen, placing him and his crew roughly in the middle of a convoy consisting of thirty-five riverboats. He was grateful none of the Captains seemed to be aware of the giant ray traveling with them.
“Conductor Cresh’s Eagle Eyes have given us a huge advantage,” Simon commented. “That network of ordinary people who report what they see to him lets us know what the enemy is doing.”
The explanation must have been for Tim’s benefit seeing as everyone else aboard already knew about the network of informers, although not their names or locations.
Daniel knew most of Sam’s Eagle Eyes were in the kingdom of Ducaun but the resourceful Conductor of the ISIG had made headway into a number of other kingdoms before the covert war broke out in the open and the sides at that point became clearly defined. After that recruitment had become difficult and chancy.
Silence prevailed for quite a while as the manta cruised stealthily beneath the convoy. Perhaps everyone was contemplating the seriousness of their situation, Daniel certainly was.
Half way through Cenkataar the silent meditations were interrupted. “Maestro,” Carlos called out in a clear no nonsense tone, meaning the words to follow needed to be taken seriously. “I have focused my scan one eighth of a radius forward and ahead twenty-five spans. I sense a blockade of Anacondas, eighty of them, and hundreds of Aakacarns on the north bank of the Hirus. In less than half a mark, we are going to be in the middle of a battle.”
“Simon, come forward. Tim, take his chair,” Daniel gave the command, figuring it would be better to make the switch immediately rather than wait until they were actually being assaulted.
Even though Sero commanded sixteen times the power of the sandy-haired Chief Aid, the Battencayan-born Accomplished had more experience and also possessed a tricky and rather sly style of spell-casting. Sero was a powerhouse but Simon could be a sharp and deadly poke in the eye, right into the brain of his opponent.
The two exchanged seats without comment and Sero did not question the order. Daniel counted the minutes until the blockade came within his self-imposed five-span radius. He sensed the leading boats of the convoy preparing to engage the Anacondas, but had no idea if those Accomplisheds in the riverboats knew of the hundreds of Serpents lying in wait on the north bank. The tracking spells of the Eagles were not the same as Find All, not nearly as good, and that was the truth even if it did seem boastful to think so.
He could feel the tension building in those around him, not born of fear, rather anticipation. They were eager to attack the Serpents, as was he, and yet that was not the chore at hand. The blockade was certainly no barrier to the manta, which could pass right under the line of war-boats with ease.
Should he aide the Accomplisheds of Aakadon even though they were not his allies?
As the Chosen Vessel, one of three choices had to be made and soon. Watch, walk away, or lend a hand, those were the options open to him, and time was slipping by.
“What do we do?” Simon asked.
“Keep going, stay out of the fight, and stick to our own chores,” Daniel replied, making up his mind.
He never before chose to walk away from lending a hand when disaster was about to befall someone, but it was not his fight, and so moving on seemed to be the correct thing to do, given the secretive nature of the current mission.
Spells slammed into the convoy from the north bank, spheroids containing trinitrotoluene flew from the Anacondas, and he began to wonder if he could actually make himself stick to the decision. His pondering was interrupted when a spheroid missed the riverboat up ahead, plunged into the water, and detonated under the manta.
Chapter Two: To Fight or Not To Fight
The concussive force of the exploding spheroid shoved the ray up hard against the hull of the riverboat it had been pacing, sending iron shards darting into anything unshielded, and causing Daniel to bite his tongue.
Sun blight it all!
Warm blood leaked from the corners of his mouth and down both sides of his chin while the Ripple Effects of hundreds of spells being cast in close proximity of one another pulsed heavily from up above. The surface battle was on in full, not that he cared after his decision had been made, an attitude he might actually convince himself of, if he tried hard enough.
The manta’s shield had drawn a little extra en
ergy from him for the simple reason the attack had not been Aakacarn in nature. Even so, the draw was not enough to cause physiological harm and had protected the underwater vehicle the way the spell was designed to do. Manta One was undamaged and he had no complaints, at least not about the cost in potential, he could have done without biting his tongue. Ignoring the pain, he swallowed reflexively, and a piece of meat went down his throat along with a fair amount of blood.
No time to worry about that, thinking too much about it might make him sick up.
He cast a quick healing spell, pain was replaced by a tingling sensation, and soon his tongue was restored. Sero’s eyes seemed to be glued to his viewer and none of the other crew members were in a position to see blood gushing from their leader’s mouth and all over his shirt and parts of his cloak. He simultaneously cast a pair of harmonized Melodies to clean his face and silks, and then pushed the control stick slightly forward and down, moving the ray away from the surface vessel which had come to a stop along with the rest of the convoy, which meant their wheels were turning backwards in order to maintain the fixed position. He was concerned about possible damage to the boat and also wanted to see what was happening.
The panoramic view showed hundreds of aquatic creatures floating up to the surface, some shredded by the shards and others killed by the misfortune of being in the vicinity of the concussive force created by the underwater detonation.
The manta had shielded the riverboat from the blast and iron shards, but not from the results of the collision. Water was flowing into a huge crack in the keel and would shortly pull the boat beneath the waves. The crew and passengers likely did not know what hit them, possibly figuring the impact and damage had been a result of the powerful explosive device alone.
Before he could give the order, Simon, hands gripping the crescendos, poured energy forth in twin beams of light that hit the hull and caused the entire underside of the vessel to glow. In moments the keel fluxed and snapped back to whole, leaving no sign it had ever been damaged. Ordinary light would have been refracted, but life-force energy always flowed where it was focused. The beams went exactly where his mind intended for them to go.
Apparently, being the creator of the first water-wheel boat made the repairing of another easy for him. The reparation did not count as taking part in the battle so the action taken, strictly speaking, had not been against orders. Even so, the Accomplisheds aboard that vessel might not have known what had caused the damage, but they certainly would know they were not the ones’ who fixed it, and that meant lingering in the same spot would not be prudent.
“Nice work,” Daniel commented while swimming the manta farther downriver and taking a sip from the golden canteen that had been attached to his belt.
He swished the water around in his mouth to clear away any remnants of blood and then swallowed. There was no place to spit unless he got up and went over to the small privy on the left side of the crew compartment. The door, to a room so tiny one could only back up while bending down in order to sit on the commode, due to the contoured shape of the manta, was currently obscured by the projected underwater view showing whole skeletons, bloody hands, arms, legs, and bits of silk-shrouded body parts floating towards the bottom. Daniel closed his eyes, only for a few moments, in order to steel himself from the emotions building within, urging him to take aggressive action, and then, successful in fortifying his resolve, proceeded to drink his canteen half empty.
The Chief Aid smiled and nodded acknowledgment, but there was no joy in his expression, doubtless because of the view. After taking a sip from his standard issue spelled-silver canteen, which never oxidized or needed polishing, he continued to stare out the observation window, the muscles in his face tightening, and turning his features grim.
Daniel noticed Tim refilling the canteens of Simon, Sero, and Carlos. Spell-casting was thirsty work, taking its toll from the body in the form of moisture, which could kill an unwary spell-caster. The toll had brought Daniel to the brink of death on more than one occasion, and way too close at the Battle of Shantear, but that was a distant thought while he eyed what was happening above. He could feel his blood pressure rising.
The rippling view of the surface showed lightning bolts and balls of fire lighting up the bottoms of storm clouds in the night sky. The surface glowed with bright flashes and flickering light that flew from Accomplisheds of the Sun Guild aboard the lead boats into the Serpents on the north bank of the river, blasting craters and burning about a tenth of the enemy Aakacarns to smoldering ashes. Solidified blades of air, corrosive streaks of light, and narrowly focused sonic blasts shot back from the rival Aakacarns with equal ferocity, splintering railings, and scorching the forecastles of the three riverboats that were ahead of the ray.
The assault was no less brutal on the Accomplisheds standing on those decks. Body parts were sliced off by the blades, silks and flesh melted away in the corrosive light, leaving skeletons, and some of the cloaked figures burst apart when struck by those sonic beams. Gruesome bits of human remains fell into the Hirus, some drifting along with the current and others directly towards the bottom.
Beams of light projecting from Accomplisheds of the Eagle Guild aboard four riverboats that were directly behind the manta, formed into gigantic, wickedly sharp, beaks. Those spells then tore into the ground beneath a group of Serpents that were too close to the bank, causing half of them to fall into the river.
Too bad the Beak Strikes to the ground only served to displace the opponents rather than eliminate them.
The enemy spell-casters were good at coordinating between defense and offense with pairs of Accomplisheds working together, one going on the attack and then the other raising a shield to protect against a counter strike. That, however, was no protection from having the ground gouged from beneath their feet.
Daniel’s resolve to slip under the battle without taking part was beginning to waver.
Partnered defense and offense was a tried and true tactic for both sides, given the limitations of their shields spells, but it did not protect the riverboats from the Anacondas that were stretched across the Hirus and raining spheroids upon them. The explosive orbs were difficult to see and that was with the help of Osprey Vision. The receivers of the barrage had to depend on the illuminations given off by the many spells being cast, which made countering the assault extremely difficult, seeing as they only had a few moments to identify and thwart the threat.
Not very many spheroids were being blocked, anyone unshielded paid the price, and so did the vessels beneath their feet. Men and women wearing the red on black silks of Aakadon fell into the river as their boats blew apart. The shielded Aakacarns were thrown up into the air and splashing into the river, those were the lucky ones. Most of the unfortunate souls had been unshielded and were peppered with iron shards and leaking their lifeblood into the Hirus. A female of the Zephyr Guild, going by the letter Z on her medallion, floated by, silks shredded, legless, and dead.
Daniel did not know there were any members of Terroll’s former guild on the vessels above. The Four-bolt Aakacarn had taken Daniel from being an ignorant Potential and educated him to the level of Accomplished, and in spite of recent differences, there was still a sense of gratitude for the teaching. Daniel felt adrenalin seeping into his muscles, tightening his grip on the control stick, firing up his indignation, and all of it battered at his determination to stay out of the conflict; until he could stand no more.
I must take part!
The new determination came as what was left of the two riverboats that had been in the front of the convoy slipped beneath the waves, soon to be on the bottom of the river. “Take out as many Serpents as you can while I move us to the front. There will be nothing left of this convoy if we don’t remove those Anacondas,” Daniel gave the order. His pulse was racing faster than one of Tim’s drum rolls
Twin beams of light, unhampered by the shield spell Daniel had composed which protected them while allowing potential from ins
ide to be focused outward, shot from the forward crescendos and each struck an Accomplisheds of the Serpent Guild swimming toward the bank. Algae instantly formed on their silver on black silks and quickly over their flesh. Both of them stopped swimming and grabbed at their faces as the green mass began forming in their eyes, their nostrils, and finally their lungs, judging by the way all struggling ceased. Those algae-filled eyes never closed, nor would either Accomplished ever draw another breath.
“That’s one way to do it,” Tim commented. “I can’t say your Chief Aid doesn’t have style.”
As he was speaking, the whip-like tail of the manta snapped forward, sending a beam of light that struck another enemy Aakacarn, creating a hole in the Serpent’s chest big enough to put a fist through. Daniel only caught a glimpse of the look of surprise on the man’s face as Manta One shot forward. Carlos was not an imaginative fellow but he certainly did get the job done.
Amid the hundred or so bodies in the river was a score or more Accomplisheds of Aakadon who were injured but very much alive. A Serpent on the bank focused a lightning bolt into the water near them and half of the survivors instantly died by electrocution and the rest were stunned. Unfortunately, Tarin Conn had composed his own Melodies for lightning bolts to match those of the Suns, and taught it to his Serpents. The result was clearly evident.
Manta One would be close in a matter of moments so it was possible to save at least some of the stunned Aakacarns. Daniel was about to give the orders when beams of light came down from the riverboat that was up and to the right of the ray. Each beam touched and enveloped a stunned Accomplished and then began lifting the person up toward the relative safety of the surface vessel.
To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6 Page 4
