That had necessitated adjusting the condensers, not the least because they would try to absorb her own mana if she set them up inside the dungeon’s confines. Sistina would have rather waited to set them up and tinkered a little more, trying to get more efficiency out of them, but Wenris’ information had confirmed that she no longer had time for that. She had to get more mana, and quickly. That meant taking risks.
Artificers favored steam reactions to generate mana because fire or heat was easy to conjure, and boiling water was easy to control. After a great deal of consideration, Sistina had been forced to admit they had a point, though she wasn’t going to give up on trying to find a better source of mana. As it was, she’d already set up a chamber where she heated water that was supplied to the palace baths and several bathhouses throughout the city, so she already had a ready-made area to use her condensers.
As they settled into place, Sistina held her non-existent breath and waited. As the first trickle of mana began to flow from the condensers, she relaxed. One by one, the devices began to send her that tiny, continuous flow of mana, and her sense of relief was palpable.
The alarm bells broke that sense of relief, and the dryad mentally cursed as she quickly moved to inhabit her body and figure out what had gone wrong this time! Hopefully it wasn’t something caused by the condensers.
Assembling his device was relatively straightforward. It should be, considering how many times Albert had checked his measurements and sanded the various parts down to ensure they would all fit perfectly. The base had been a pain to position, but at least it wouldn’t have to move until after he was done. Slotting in the aiming shaft had come next, at which point Albert had connected the long cable from the base down to the steam engine chuffing away below them. If the mana transference wires within the cables had broken, Albert would scream, since he’d tested the cables earlier that day.
Finally he’d installed the firing rod itself. The long rod had runes inset in gold along its fine steel length, until it ended in a carefully faceted quartz jewel, its surfaces etched with still more runes. Linda, Albert’s teacher, had always rolled her eyes at his tendency to make his devices in the shape of a staff or rod, muttering something about him wanting to compensate for something. He’d never understood her point, since when you were trying to focus power in a specific direction, a rod or stave was simply more efficient than any of the other devices he’d seen. Besides, he had it on good authority that he had nothing to compensate for.
With the staff atop the device, Albert thought it looked faintly sinister, almost like a scorpion about to strike. Even so, he wasn’t done, as he set up the iron tower shield he’d made just for experiments like this one. The shield was etched in runes to protect from impacts, extreme sounds, fire, acid, and every other consequence of an exploding artificing experiment that Albert had been able to come up with, and it was also designed to stand up on its own so he could hunker down behind it before activating any devices. As its scarred surface testified, the shield had likely saved him from a dozen near-fatal injuries since he’d built it.
“So, now what’re you going to do? I mean, it’s a ‘siegebreaker’ thing, right?” Darak asked, frowning. “Won’t it make a really big explosion or something?”
“Not exactly. I built this to focus the attack tightly… and it’s more meant to take out powerful individual targets to begin with. Shatter siege engines, kill giants, things like that. I was just planning to target a tree or something off in the fields, something that I could make sure wouldn’t have someone hiding behind it.” Albert replied, glancing over the wall nervously. “I don’t want to accidentally hit one of our own… oh, hells. I thought there weren’t going to be any army maneuvers today!”
In the distance Albert saw a loose formation of people on horseback and foot spilling from the tree-line a half-mile out, even as horns began to blow. He couldn’t make them out well from this distance, but it was going to play hell on his plans, especially since hauling his device up and assembling it had taken nearly half the day.
“Albert, I don’t think that’s the army on maneuvers. That looks an awful lot like a bunch of people running away from something,” Darak said grimly, shading his eyes as he squinted. “And… yep, that looks like a rear-guard.”
“What? But… oh, shit!” Albert gasped, flicking his monocle down and activating its vision-enhancement spells. The distance between him and the people near the trees suddenly seemed like it was only a hundred feet at most, and in an instant he saw the panic on the faces of the dusk elves fleeing the trees. Just behind them were armed and armored men and women, and it took the mage a moment to realize that both humans and elves were working together as a mass of orcs and humans surged after the retreating force. At that point the city’s bells began to sound the alarm, and he swallowed hard. “Oh, that looks bad.”
“Yep. I bet you that less than half of them are going to reach the gates, and there are a lot of people down there. That’s gonna be ugly, and I don’t think anyone inside is going to be able to get to them in time.” Darak’s voice was grim, and Albert saw the man’s hand tighten on the wall.
“You’re probably right. No, you would be right. But…” Albert’s thoughts raced, and his enhanced vision fell on a boulder that the fleeing men and women were streaming around, a boulder at least thirty feet across. Suddenly he asked, “Darak, what happens when you hit a rock really, really hard?”
“What? Well, it tends to shatter,” the dwarf answered, looking confused as he glanced at Albert. “Why?”
“It explodes, right?” Albert asked, hoping he wasn’t making a mistake.
“That really depends, but sometimes, yeah. What’re you thinking, Albert?” Darak asked.
“I’m hoping that I’m not about to do something really, really stupid,” the artificer replied, rushing behind his device and pulling out his astrolabe to do quick calculations, hoping he’d be quick enough. As he began to orient the staff toward the boulder, Albert made a mental note to add a hand-crank for the job, to make it more precise and so he wouldn’t risk overshooting. As it was, he at least had a bolt to secure it in place so it wouldn’t rotate anymore. Getting the right angle took a moment more, and he added absently, “I’m also hoping that the Godhammer actually works!”
“The Godhammer? You named that the Godhammer?” Darak asked, his eyebrows rising, and Albert flushed.
“I… had to call it something, and was trying not to say it aloud. It just slipped out,” the artificer admitted after a moment, shaking his head and continuing. “But that doesn’t matter. Now… now I just need to hope this actually works. I’d get well away from it, Darak. As I said, this could go horribly wrong.”
“Whatever you say, Al. And I suppose I should say… I hope you’re right, and that it works. I hate seeing people being run down like dogs like that,” the dwarf replied, clapping Albert on the shoulder and then slowly jogging down the wall, to what the artificer hoped was a safe distance. While the dwarf moved, the artificer settled his cap into place, as well as his reinforced goggles to add secondary protection for his eyes.
Positioning himself behind the shield, Albert brought along the cable connected to the Godhammer’s activation array. Now that he’d spoken the name aloud, he couldn’t help but use it even mentally, and he grimaced, trying to distract himself by watching the events down below. The grim sight was certainly enough to make him pale again.
Adventurers were no strangers to violence, but by and large they were fighting monsters and undead, not other people. As he watched, an orc crushed the leg of a soldier who was protecting a fleeing woman, and as the man fell the huge creature laughed and brought its mace down on his head, even as a nearby human fired a crossbow into the woman’s back. Not every battle was as one-sided as that, but the defenders were trying to flee, and they looked far wearier than the attackers did. Albert’s hand clenched and he ground his teeth, muttering under his breath. “Sorvos, you bastard… how dare you get the Guild
embroiled in something as horrible as this?”
It was an agony, waiting long enough for the defenders to flee past the boulder, and for enough of their attackers to come up next to it. But finally they’d gotten far enough. Taking a breath, Albert muttered, “Well, this is a hell of a test. Shadan, by your perfect sigils I hope this works.”
Sending a thread of mana down the wire, Albert braced himself for whatever might come.
A soft whine surrounded the Godhammer, and for an instant Albert thought that he’d failed. Then the whine climbed to a higher and higher pitch, and with the whip-crack sound of shattering crystal it fired. A streamer of silver-white energy streaked across the valley faster than the eye could follow. It was quickly followed by a thunderous sound like lightning had crashed down inches from Albert, only dampened by the shield.
The blast of energy hit the rock, and Albert’s eyes went wide as it disintegrated in a blast of stone shrapnel that ripped into the enemy lines, shredding humans, orcs, and vegetation alike in a massive spray of death and destruction. As the explosion echoed back to him, Albert flinched as a secondary crack and sizzle came from the other side of his shield. Not daring to look just yet, he instead watched as the attackers came to a stop as those just behind their front lines disappeared in the spray of death. Seeing that he’d given the defenders a chance, Albert dared to look around his shield, and he cringed at the sight that awaited him.
The base was smoking, with several glowing holes in the steel, the shaft was sagging, and metal had turned molten along the rod’s length, turning it into an unstable mess while the crystal had exploded. He blinked at it, and cringed again as part of the rod bent under its own weight, snapping off and falling to the ground with a crash.
Darak came over more cautiously, looking at the wreckage of the Godhammer for a long moment. Finally he spoke. “Damned impressive, Al. At least it didn’t explode, right?”
“Yeah…” Albert murmured, then paused and looked out at the battlefield and sighed. “Problem is, based on what I just saw, the Guild won’t ever let me build a functional one. It’d utterly wreck warfare.”
The dwarf laughed and shook his head, grinning. “You’re probably right, Al. Hard to blame them, though.”
“Fair enough,” the artificer admitted, shaking his head and sighing. “A gold to help me clean all this up?”
“Sounds fair,” Darak agreed, but took a step back, adding, “Just as soon as the metal cools.”
“That sounds like a good idea,” Albert agreed, then stepped toward the wall, nodding at the people who were rushing toward the gate, and the reinforcements going to their aid. “Wonder who they are, though?”
Chapter 40
The gates of Beacon were an imposing, oddly welcome sight for Colonel Gross as he glanced up at the murder holes and arrow slits in the passage through the gatehouse. Stepping into the afternoon sunlight on the other side he relaxed still more, letting out a breath of relief.
“Steve, I’m glad to see you made it!” The exclamation almost made the Colonel jump, as the voice was only barely familiar, and he quickly turned to see a one-eyed man approaching, a dusk elf at his side.
“So am I, Slaid. I almost didn’t recognize your voice,” Colonel Gross replied, relaxing and offering his hand, which Slaid shook, grinning as Steve nodded at his companion. “Who’s your friend?”
“I’m not surprised, it has been nearly a decade, though I imagine my eyepatch makes me a bit distinctive,” Slaid replied with a chuckle, smiling as he nodded at his companion, introducing her. “Steve, this is Captain Vendis Cascade, my partner in crime for the last few weeks, and fellow headache for Kelvanis. Vendis, this is Colonel Steve Gross, I think I mentioned what he’s been up to before.”
“A pleasure to meet you, Captain Cascade,” Colonel Gross replied, smiling at the woman as she offered her hand and he shook it.
“And you, Colonel. Please, just call me Vendis,” the woman replied with a smile. “It looks like you had a bit of excitement out there.”
“That’s a mild way to put it,” the Colonel replied, his smile fading. “We came damn close to disaster out there.”
“What happened, anyway? I heard that you and a couple of short companies from Sifaren were escorting another group of slaves. That seemed to be a rather big group of pursuers to come after you.” Slaid asked, nodding at the soldiers, a frown on his face as he added, “It looks like you lost a fair number of people, too.”
“I did. Somehow the scouts missed that Kelvanis dispatched a large contingent of Westgate’s garrison and their reserves toward Beacon,” Colonel Gross replied, his voice grim. “I ran headlong into their scouts. I don’t know where they pulled the full numbers from, Slaid, but there’s about twenty thousand of the bastards on their way here. I lost a good hundred men and women that I know of on the way, and I would’ve lost more if it hadn’t been for the timely assistance from the city. A lot more, in fact. What the hell even was that thing?”
“Gods damn it, they sent that many people here? That’s going to make the next few days interesting,” Slaid muttered, frowning and nodding at a man off to the side. “As for that attack, it was an experiment by the head of the Adventuring Guild. Albert! What the hell was that attack you used?”
“It was an experimental weapon that promptly melted after a single shot. I think I can salvage most of the materials, but I just lost close to two weeks’ worth of labor and might’ve lost about fifty gold worth of materials,” Albert replied sharply, glowering. “I’m not sure I have the metals on hand to rebuild it, even if I wanted to, so don’t even think about trying to steal it.”
“That wasn’t what we wanted to ask about, Guildmaster. We were more curious about what it was, and I think Colonel Gross wanted to thank you for the timely support,” Vendis interjected, looking amused at the man’s grumbling.
“Oh, right. Sorry about that, I just… I’ve had a few too many pointed comments so far,” the Guildmaster apologized, and smiled at Steve. “Hello, Colonel, and I’m glad I could help.”
“It’s good to meet you, Guildmaster. You have my deepest thanks, as they were gaining on us far more quickly than I’m comfortable thinking about,” Colonel Gross told the taller man. “I’m glad you had your weapon working at the time.”
“You’re lucky, honestly. I’d just finished setting it up for a test-firing when you all burst out of the forest, and I just aimed at a big boulder and hoped it’d work,” Albert replied with a soft laugh. “We’re lucky it even fired, to be frank.”
“I can fully agree there,” Colonel Gross said fervently, shaking his head. He hadn’t realized that the weapon hadn’t been guaranteed to work, which made the intervention even more fortunate.
“Steve, what’s with the ladies over there? The ones under guard?” Slaid asked, nodding toward a cluster of soldiers gathered around a pair of women, and Steve’s smile faded.
“That would be Arise and Iris Ennarra, until recently of Galthor. According to the Baron, Arise was blackmailed into being a spy for Kelvanis with her sister’s safety. When I rebelled, I happened to rescue Iris in the process. Still, though Arise turned on her handlers, she was exiled and she requested to be sent here,” he explained, his voice growing grim as he continued. “She admitted to having reported the movements of Princess Phynis after Farren Galthor passed along the information to her, so I was asked to keep her under guard and to allow the Queen to decide what to do with her.”
“She’s the one behind that raid? I ought to kill her right now!” Vendis’ eyes flashed with sudden anger to Colonel Gross’ surprise, her hand going to her sword.
“Vendis, stop. If anyone is going to make a decision, it should be Phynis herself, not you,” Slaid interjected, taking a careful step between Vendis and Arise. His gaze was calm as he continued. “Some people are willing to do almost anything for family. Just look at what Lady Diane was willing to do. I’d say to let Her Majesty decide for herself.”
The tension between
the two was palpable for a moment, until finally Vendis relaxed her grip and let out a slow breath. Her voice was still angry, but she nodded. “Fine. I just… do you have any idea what they did to Phynis’ guards?”
“No, I don’t,” Slaid replied calmly, nodding to Colonel Gross. Albert was also hovering nearby, seeming curious.
“They threw them to the orc garrison of Grayhold for three days. I’m not sure if they were fortunate that none of them were killed,” Vendis replied flatly, and at the explanation, all of the men present blanched, while she continued. “I didn’t see it, of course, but I heard a few descriptions, and my healers dealt with some of the aftereffects. Suffice to say that I bear a bit of a grudge toward anyone involved in that.”
“R-right. Why don’t we see about getting people quartered, then contact Her Majesty? I’d really rather not delay, when we have a situation like that ahead of us,” Colonel Gross asked, swallowing hard. He’d heard a few rumors about things like that, but he’d thought they were just rumors, not true. He found it hard to blame Vendis for her anger.
“Yes, we should. I want to see what Her Majesty decides. Though I suspect she’ll be far more forgiving than I’d be,” Vendis growled, and stalked off without another word.
Slaid smiled, then gestured for Steve to follow as he accompanied her.
“Welcome to Beacon, Colonel Gross. I’m sorry to hear about your losses, but I’m far happier that you managed to make the journey before that descended on us,” Phynis told the man, smiling thinly and nodding toward the army swarming around the city.
The enemy army was enormous, though it looked more like a swarm of ants from the distance they were watching from. Phynis couldn’t help but worry as she watched it approach. Twenty thousand soldiers were far more than she was comfortable with facing, even with fortifications. Beacon’s defenses could doubtlessly hold them off, but she only had about two hundred golems and five thousand defenders of her own. If it weren’t for the enchantments that Sistina had woven through the city’s structure, Phynis would have been even less confident about their ability to defend against Kelvanis’ siege.
Halls of Power (Ancient Dreams Book 3) Page 30
