by Philip Blood
“Now there is something you don’t see every day,” I muttered. “Any suggestions?”
Myrka nodded, “We can render it to rubble.”
“Which would take a lot of juice,” I noted, though it was half a question.
Toji nodded, and said, “Yes, to animate something that large would take a lot of magic, and therefore, a lot of magic to undo.”
Hydan was watching the movement of the trees in the distance, and said, “And, there seem to be quite a few of them.”
“OK,” I said, “If we don’t want to fight them, then what is another alternative?”
Toji frowned but didn’t speak.
I looked at Hydan and saw him starting to smile slightly. “Oh crap, you’re coming up with some insane scheme, aren’t you?” I asked him. “We can’t have a bunch of monkeys surround us and hide us from the golems!”
“No, but we can have something else hide us!” Hydan exclaimed.
I sighed, “OK, I say, knowing I will regret this, what can we put around us?”
“A stone golem!” he replied pertly.
“You can make enough of them to hide us in the middle?” I asked, perplexed.
He shook his wet scaled head and said, “No, Nick, creating even one in a short period would be taxing, but we can travel in the belly of one of these existing beasts!”
“You want them to eat us!” I bellowed, and then looked sheepish as I lowered my voice, and added, “Don’t you think being chewed up by those stone teeth might dampen our spirits?”
“No, we will not let one eat us, I do not believe they have a digestive system, Nick. What we can do is create a cavity inside their body, get inside and let them take us where we want to go!”
I thought about that, “Kind of like the Trojan Horse.”
“You have been inside a stone horse?” he asked.
“No, a long time ago on Earth the Greek people built a wooden horse, and then hid some warriors inside so they could sneak into the city of Troy.”
“Ah, yes, I remember the story now; I believe it was done by some of House Dragon, assaulting one of the Argoth strongholds on Earth. Yes, it will be something like that, though we won’t have to wait for them to take our Trojan golem into the walls, it can just walk in on its own!”
“Don’t you think it will be noticed? Isn’t it supposed to patrol the forest, not go to the fortress?” I asked.
“It must return at times so those sigils can be replenished. Something like this, which is on the move, must use power over time. It makes sense that it would return to the fortress to reach a mage,” Toji explained.
“OK, then how do we get in one without first being crushed?” I posed.
Hydan nodded, “Good question.”
Toji said, “I think a diversion is in order, at which point Hydan can get behind it. I think the sigil controlling its moves is on the back of its head, where it is protected. You’ll have to figure out how to smash it, Hydan.”
Hydan started frowning but nodded.
Toji continued talking, “Once it stops, you can make your ‘cavity’, and then get inside and create a new sigil to control the golem.”
I smiled, and added, “At which point the rest of us get in, seal up the hole, and Bob’s your uncle!”
“I have no uncle named Bob,” Myrka clarified.
Hydan ignored her and replied with a wide grin, “That works for me,”
Toji then said, “I suggest you stay in the surf line while I will bring it to the water, this will keep you concealed until you attack.”
We waited an hour until the behemoth returned, or perhaps a different one arrived, I wasn’t sure. Then Toji simply came out of the surf and let the monster see him. It immediately lumbered toward Toji. Now, I say lumbered, which was what it looked like, but with legs that big, lumbering was faster than we could sprint.
Toji immediately turned and dove into the water, but he didn’t submerge, he started swimming out through the surf so the monster wouldn’t lose track of him and stop following. This was nearly Toji’s undoing. That monster kept coming, and the shallow water didn’t slow him down like it did Toji. He was on Toji in seconds. I saw my companion’s head turn and spot the large fist coming down toward him, meant to squash him into a jellyfish-like consistency.
Toji’s eyes widened and he dove under the water.
I didn’t know if he was hit or not, the beast’s fist hit the water, and made a massive splash. Then I saw Toji’s airborne body, twisting away in the large splash, but he didn’t look squashed, and he quickly went underwater when he hit the surface.
Toji immediately headed for the bottom on landing.
The golem turned, looking for its prey, and I noticed Hydan had attached himself to its back like some kind of remora fish. He was currently just clinging to the monster. Once the thing stopped spinning around, having lost sight of Toji, it eventually turned and lumbered toward shore.
That gave Hydan a chance to let loose of one hand hold. He reached back with one arm and a large hammer appeared, and then he smashed it forward, and above his head, into the sigil carved at the neck area of the Golem.
The moment it struck the beast paused, and then tried to reach back to grab Hydan.
Hydan slammed his hammer into the sigil again, harder.
The stone golem started moving in a jerky way, still trying to reach back and get to Hydan, which made the monster look kind of like a crab trying to reach back with its claws.
Hydan slammed the hammer home in the petroglyph sigil one more time, and enough of the stone carving chipped off this time, and the golem froze in position.
A hole appeared in its back, and Hydan slipped inside. We all started heading for it. Once we got there Hydan called out, “Give me a moment, I’m making a new petroglyph, and then I have to power the sigil.”
After a few minutes, Hydan stuck his grinning head out the hole in the back of the golem, “Care for a ride?”
We all climbed in. It was a tight squeeze, but we manage to fit and then Toji sealed the opening. Hydan was standing toward the front, with his head up in an opening he had made in the beast’s neck, below its chin. There was a new rectangular petroglyph carved into the stone in front of him. Hydan was using this hole to watch where we were going and guide the creature.
Soon we were underway, rocking back and forth in our little stone cocoon as the golem smashed his way through the forest, and whatever nasty traps Morgain had created.
As we waited to arrive at Morgain’s fortress, I went over the next part of the plan, as laid out by my mother. We were to work our way to the center of the fortress, that’s where she believed Morgain would have placed the StarWard.
These were a magical construct which prevented the creation of a Traveling Star, in essence blocking a mage from using one to travel to or from an area. The area of effect would be in a globe around the StarWard, so it made sense that it would be located near the center of the fortress so that it gave equal protection in all directions.
The radius it could block had to do with the amount of power initially used in the creation. The larger it was, the more area it protected. However, there was a side effect, the larger it was, the faster it used up the power the mage put in to create it. This meant a larger area StarWard would have to have the power replenished regularly, and that also meant it had to be accessible.
Our goal was to reach the StarWard and take it down, and then we could proceed to release my father, the Archimage of Abal, and with his help, find and free Ziny. Morgain wouldn’t want my father to be rescued, so it made sense that the Archimage would be somewhere well protected. Finnabair had guessed his prison would be somewhere near Morgain’s personal apartments, in some kind of protected location.
Of course, the plan was for the counter attacks at Ivory Castle and Ouroboros to draw Morgain and Medrod away, so we shouldn’t have to deal with either of them at this stage, just their automated defenses, or any necromages they had left here as guards. In fact, the two leade
rs should already be gone by now, since the attacks would have started a few hours ago.
“Hey, Hydan,” I called up to our golem driver.
Hydan didn’t look down, but he said, “Yes, Nick?”
“Are we getting close to Morgain’s crib?”
Myrka scowled at me, “I am positive the Island Witch is an adult.”
I ignored her and waited for Hydan.
“If you mean her fortress, it is about a half mile ahead now… uh oh.”
“I don’t want to hear any ‘uh ohs’! What is the issue?” I demanded.
“Well, there is some kind of platform to the side of the main gates, and I’m thinking this is where they recharge the golems.”
“What, they don’t go inside?”
Hydan answered, “No, they must stop outside.”
“Go in any way!” I stated.
Hydan replied apologetically, “I’m afraid that’s not really possible, you see, the gate isn’t big enough for us to fit through.”
“Crap on a stick, we’ll be sitting ducks if we eject right beneath that wall!”
To which Hydan said, “What are ducks?”
“They are a kind of flying waterfowl, which quacks.”
“Waterfowl which quacks! How delightful! However, I do not wish to sit like a duck beneath those walls, no doubt there are several mages or necromages, there to recharge these golems.”
“Right,” I noted, thinking hard.
After a moment Hydan spoke conversationally, “Not to hurry you, but what would you like to do? We are nearly there.”
"And we absolutely cannot fit through the gate?” I demanded.
“No, but if you don’t mind a ruckus, I might be able to get past the walls and into the inner courtyard, but no promises. However, we have arrived, so a decision is needed.”
“Do it,” I said, since I had no other plan in mind, and time was up.
That’s when I felt the golem picking up speed. This was extremely jarring inside the small stone hole, and we started bouncing around and into each other. Hydan was holding onto two stone handles he must have imagined, so he could stay in place, damn him.
Then we were thrown to the floor as the golem took a mighty leap, which was followed very quickly by us slamming into something solid. This threw all of us against the front curve of our small round hole.
“We’re getting pretty bruised down here!” I called to Hydan.
To that Hydan replied, “Here, these should be soft.” Almost instantly we were waist deep in plucked white chicken feathers.
Outside we heard, and could feel, massive impacts of stone against stone.
We were jostled around, which threw up chicken feathers into the air. I sneezed and then yelled, “Sweet mother of god, what ARE you doing!”
“Climbing the wall; which requires a lot of hand and foot hold making by gouging our way up!” Hydan called back in a beaming voice of amusement.
I spit out a feather, ready to yell something back when I heard Hydan exclaimed.
“Oh no!”
“What!” I bellowed, getting a mouthful of feathers for my trouble.
That’s when the tar hit us, poured from the top of the wall. It was there to pour on ladder bearers or attackers with a battering ram, but in this case, they used it to try to stop the stone golem which was climbing up the massive wall.
Fortunately, they had not been expecting an attack, since there was no army, so the tar was only heated enough to stay pliable. It hit our golem and managed to splash in through the hole which Hydan had created to watch out the golem’s head.
Now we all had tar stuck to our bodies, and white feathers glued to us by the tar.
Then we crested over the top of the wall. I knew this because I was tossed like cement in one of those barrel mixers, except instead of stone, water, cement, and sand, I was being tumbled with, Toji, Myrka, tar, and feathers. Then I felt the golem leap, and we must have been falling down the other side of the wall.
The golem’s feet hit the ground with jarring force, and even Hydan fell back into the pile of tar and feathers with the rest of us.
The impact broke our golem, and cracked open our cocoon, and all four of us tumbled out onto the courtyard of Morgain’s fortress, covered head to toe in tar and feathers.
“We’re in!” Hydan exclaimed jubilantly.
I took a swing in his direction, but missed, there were too many feathers in my eyes for me to get an accurate punch at that grinning bastard.
Chapter Seventeen
We’re off to the witch
We may never never never come home
But the magic that we’ll feel is worth a lifetime.
-Dio
Toji yelled, “Run for the doors, we’re too exposed out here!”
So, without time to do anything about our current state of tar and feathers, me and my other three white and black crusaders for justice ran toward the doors ahead of us, streaming little white feathers in a cloud behind us. I think that must have saved us because no one on the walls thought to use any kind of magic to stop us at that point, I think they were all dumbfounded by the hatching of four human shaped chickens from the belly of a stone golem.
We ran through the open doors into the entry hall. Two guards stationed here tried to use their weapons on the strange apparitions suddenly sullying the clean area, but Hydan waved a hand and two chickens were suddenly adding more feathers to the mix.
“Which way?” Hydan called to me.
I pointed ahead, down the main wide hallway, and we all dashed on, leaving the two chicken guards running around on their spindly legs.
As we ran Hydan suddenly shed his feathers and tar, and was now dressed in a uniform just like the two guards we had just seen, prior to their chicken transformation.
Toji and Myrka followed his lead a moment later, but I was still outfitted in my tar and feather ensemble.
It took me a few more seconds, and then I had it as well.
Hydan grinned at me, and said, “Good show, now where?”
“Just keep taking passages which seem to lead toward the center.”
He nodded, and we all slowed to a walk. It wouldn’t do to be running if we were trying to blend in as some of Morgain’s guards.
Soon we passed several squads of men, marching toward the front, no doubt to go see what the commotion was about in the courtyard. One was an officer, and as soon as he was out of sight, Hydan’s uniform changed to match his markings.
Hydan finally stopped two men and barked, “You there, where is the commander?”
The man gaped at him for a moment but then noticed his officer’s uniform, and said, “I think she left the fortress earlier!”
“Where did she leave from?” Hydan demanded.
He looked at Hydan in a dumbfounded way, and then said, “She flew out on a Delcron!”
I had no idea what that was, but Hydan seemed to know, or pretended to know, so he said, “We were ordered to guard the StarWard if she is away, but I haven’t been there before. You will take us there immediately! Is it far?”
“No, it’s not far, but…”
“No ‘butts’, this is about feet, so get yours moving! This is top priority! Lead on, soldier, and hurry or your next duty will be polishing the gonads of a stone golem!”
The guard swallowed, and then headed off in a hurry, and we trotted along after him like good soldiers.
He took us down a few hallways, and when we made another turn I could see a large iron bound door ahead, which was currently closed. There were two guards stationed outside. As we got a little closer I noticed the cloudy eyes and whispered to Hydan, “Necromages!”
Hydan immediately stopped and spoke to our guide, “That will be all, don’t you have some duty which we took you away from? Well, get going before you are reprimanded by your commander!”
The guard dashed off, double timing it away, and quite happy to be rid of the strange officer.
Hydan spoke softly to us, “Wa
lk normally, I will distract them. Myrka, take the one on the right, Toji, can you deal with the necromage on the left?”
Toji nodded. No one even asked Myrka if she was ready.
Hydan turned his back to block the necromage’s view, and then produced a short spear suddenly, and handed it to me.
At which point Hydan bellowed, “Ouch, confound it, soldier, watch where you poke your spear!” He then grasped at his left eye, his wrist blocking his Glyph and hurried toward the guards, we followed at a slower pace. Blue saeran blood ran down his cheek, produced, no doubt, by Hydan.
“Hey, are you mages? That idiot just stabbed me with his spear; can you do anything to help?”
He was nearly upon them now, and one of the necromages stepped forward, “You cannot be here, move along, soldier!”
“But my eye!” Hydan bellowed, stepping past the necromage so he had to turn, putting his back to our approach. The other necromage was also watching Hydan closely.
“We are not healers, now move away from this door!” the necromage snarled, and lifted a hand to do, well, I don’t know what, because that’s when Toji and Myrka accelerated the last ten feet and attacked.
Their surprise was complete, and the necromages didn’t even pull weapons, they tried to do some kind of magic against their attackers, but the attack went off of Toji’s and Myrka’s subconscious protections. Then their daggers took both of the necromages out of the picture.
Hydan stepped up to the doors and tried to pull them open, “Locked,” he said, unnecessarily.
Then he stepped back and studied the door for a moment before saying, “This door is warded against mage entry.”
“Can you break it?” Toji asked.
Hydan nodded and concentrated, and suddenly the doors blasted inwards, flying off their hinges and tumbling into the round chamber beyond.
Toji raised a fin eyebrow and said, “Was that entirely necessary?”
“Not at all, but it felt very good!” Hydan exclaimed, striding into the round chamber, which had a dome roof above, like Richard the Lionheart come home from the crusades.
Rotating in the center of the room was a three-dimensional, five-pointed star. It was about ten feet tall and translucent. It glowed with golden power, and there was almost a hum in the room, more felt by my senses than by my ears. It was spinning very slowly around, hovering about a foot off the stone floor.
