The Servants of the Storm E-Book

Jack Campbell

• Herausgeber: JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
• Kategorie: Für Kinder und Jugendliche
• Serie: The Pillars of Reality
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 571

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

A Storm that will wreck a world threatens Dematr. Only Mari, one of the Mechanics who control all technology through their Guild, has a chance to stop it. She and Mage Alain have survived numerous attempts to kill them and have gained many more followers, but the Storm of chaos, born of centuries of enslavement, grows ever closer. Mari leads an army now. She and Alain must fight together to bind back the Broken Kingdom and build a force strong enough to defeat the might of the Great Guilds. But the Storm has many Servants who seek to preserve or gain personal power or wealth, or fear the New Day that Mari seeks to bring to the world. And Mari knows that victory will mean nothing if the precious knowledge brought long ago to their world is destroyed. In order to save it, Alain and Mari will have to pierce through the heart of their enemies' power and confront once more a place of ancient nightmare.

Leseprobe

THE SERVANTS OF THE STORM

Copyright © 2016 by John G. Hemry

All rights reserved.

Published as an ebook in 2016 by JABberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.

Originally published as an Audible Original in July 2016.

Cover art by Dominick Saponaro.

ISBN 978-1-625671-38-7

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Acknowledgments

Also by Jack Campbell

To

my niece Candace

For S, as always

Chapter One

The war-weary city of Minut shone under the rays of the rising sun as Master Mechanic Mari of Caer Lyn rode to the top of a ridge that looked down a long slope toward the once-busy port. She wore the dark jacket of a Mechanic, even though that Guild had long since banished her. Mari’s horse shifted restlessly as a dozen cavalry troopers in blue uniforms with brightly shining cuirasses, sabers at their sides, and lances poised ready for use rode up next to her, one of them holding a staff from which flew the square banner of the new day, bright blue with a many-pointed golden star in the center.

A storm threatened the world of Dematr, a storm carrying winds of war, riot, and chaos, born of and fueled by the rage and frustrations of the people who had been forced to serve the wills of the Great Guilds for centuries. It was a storm which had begun in Tiae, breaking the kingdom into anarchy. Mari was determined to stop that storm, and she would counter it beginning here, in Tiae, where it had claimed its first victims.

She had scarcely quieted her mount when three more rode up, two of them cavalry in the dark green uniforms of Tiae, one of those carrying the banner of that kingdom, gold and green.

The third wore Mage robes. Despite the tension riding inside her, Mari smiled at the sight of him. “How does everything look? Are we ready to attack?”

Mage Alain of Ihris gave her a slight smile, which might have seemed a very restrained greeting in anyone but a Mage. From a Mage, trained to avoid any display of emotion, the gesture was almost flamboyant. “All is well. General Flyn is deploying your foot soldiers to the west, and Princess Sien is moving Tiae’s forces into position to the east. We here are already blocking the northern side of the city.”

Mari looked back down the slope at two hundred cavalry concealed behind the ridge and waiting for the order to advance. Waiting for her order. “We’ve come a very long way in six months, haven’t we, my Mage? I never expected that we’d be retaking Minut this quickly.”

A rattle of hooves announced the arrival of General Flyn and a small group of staff officers. “Your army is ready to advance, Lady,” he announced, saluting her with a flourish.

Her army. That still felt unreal. In the half-year since forging an alliance with the sole surviving member of the royal family of Tiae, Princess Sien, and setting up a base at Pacta Servanda to the south, thousands of volunteers had made their way individually and in small groups to join the forces of the daughter of Jules, she who was foretold as the one who would overthrow the Great Guilds which had enslaved the world of Dematr for all of its history. Some of those volunteers had been taught to use Mechanic tools to construct more and better devices than the Mechanics Guild had ever permitted. The rest had been eager to fight to free their world. Without the help of professionals like General Flyn, Mari never would have been able to mold them into an army.

An army that was already equipped with rifles of a sort never before seen in this world. There were less than two hundred of those rifles as of yet, but they gave Mari’s army a tremendous advantage in firepower in a world where the Mechanics Guild limited every other fighting force to only a few repeating rifles.

Mari raised her far-seers, grumbling under her breath as her horse shifted again, making it hard to focus on the waters just offshore of the city. This particular mare seemed to have an instinctive feel for when to move at just the wrong moments.

Her fleet was there, several large sailing ships also flying the banner of the New Day, blockading the port to keep any of the warlords trapped inside Minut from escaping by sea. Closer in, nearly twenty boats flying the flag of Tiae guarded against any escape attempt along the coast by the small-scale pirates who had infested the city in the decades since the Kingdom of Tiae had fallen into anarchy. “All we need to wait for now is whatever the Mages on their Rocs can tell us.”

From here, even through the far-seers the towers and spires of Minut appeared to be in decent shape, only a few truncated by the loss of their upper portions. Mari wondered how intact they really were. Different sections of the city bore the scars of old fires, burned-out buildings still trailing tears of soot from windows broken ten or twenty years ago. Other areas of Minut appeared to be disconcertingly untouched, but that was probably because the far-seers couldn’t spot the signs of neglect and decay from this distance.

The forbidden city of Marandur had died quickly and been left in total ruin. Minut had been dying slowly. But today would mark the beginning of its rebirth.

Hopefully the price of victory would not be high. Mari had suffered through another restless night the evening before, her nightmares haunted by the things she had already seen and had already survived. There had been too many deaths before this, but the knowledge that far, far more would die if she failed kept Mari striving to complete a task that she had not asked for but had to succeed at.

She lowered the far-seers as another small group rode up, led by a young woman who also wore green, but whose armor glowed golden in the sunlight. Instead of a helm she wore a gold circlet. Behind her rode a special guard carrying her banner, the flag of Tiae with the addition of a crown sewn from gold thread centered on it. “Good morning, Princess,” Mari said. “We should have Minut back under your control before nightfall.”

Sien smiled. “Tiae already owes you much, Lady Mari. I have heard from the agents who entered the city over the last week to prepare the way for us. They have been spreading word among those who still live in Minut that Tiae returns and that the days of the warlords are coming to an end.”

“Princess,” Flyn said respectfully, “did your agents confirm what we’ve heard of the warlords in the city?”

She nodded. “Yes, General. Three warlords, two of whom have used their fighting forces to hold large portions of Minut in thrall, and a third whose so-called army is little more than a large bandit gang. The remnants of Colonel Fer’s fighters have joined with one of the warlords.”

“I’m sorry we were unable to wipe out Fer’s group yesterday,” Flyn said. “But maybe the survivors who fled into Minut have stories to tell that will help unnerve the fighters there. And I can promise you that none of the warlords or their gangsters will escape from us this time.”

“Escape is what they seek,” Sien said. “We must offer it to them.”

The sharp edge in Sien’s tone hinted at the true nature of the “escape” that the warlords would see from the walls of Minut. Mari’s infantry was visible to the west, and Tiae’s reborn army, though still small, could be seen from the east. But here to the north the only forces visible from Minut would be Mari, her Mages, and the few cavalry with them at the top of the ridge. The warlords might wonder at such an elementary mistake, but with two real armies closing in on them they would head for the weak spot “inadvertently” left open for escape.

The country around Pacta Servanda had been pacified, but Tiae wouldn't be thought of as a kingdom again until a city like Minut once more belonged. And only such a victory would convince many of the people who had once belonged to the kingdom that it could be reborn after so many years of pain. Mari was still worried that the warlords and their supporters would dig in inside Minut, forcing a long and nasty fight that would further damage the already battered city and likely kill some of the surviving citizens. But both General Flyn and Princess Sien were confident that the warlords and their self-styled armies would not fight to the death as long as they saw a chance to run away. “They’re criminals out for power and loot,” Flyn had said contemptuously, “not soldiers fighting for a cause. They’ll be afraid as we close in, and desperate to get away.”

Mechanic Alli came riding up along with teams of horses pulling her two pride-and-joys, brand new artillery pieces bigger and better than anything the Mechanics Guild had ever allowed to be built. “Where do you want these, your daughterness?”

“Hi, Alli. Don’t call me that. Over there.”

“How about over there?” Alli suggested. “That will give me a better field of fire.”

“Fine. Go over there but set them up behind the crest of the ridge,” Mari ordered. “We don’t want the warlords to realize we have big guns at this spot until they’ve already left the city.”

A vast shadow swept overhead. Mari looked up to see a Mage Roc flying past, the huge bird moving with a grace that never failed to take her breath away. The engineer part of her knew that such a bird could not possibly fly, but the rest of her had decided not to worry about that. Mari could see Mage Alera and a man in a Mechanics jacket riding on the back of the Roc.

“Hey, Calu!” Alli yelled, waving.

“He’s more likely to hear you if you use a far-talker,” Mari said, bringing out her own. She paused to admire it, one of the products of the work shops that had been hastily built at Pacta Servanda in the last six months, using information from the banned technology texts and the labor of Mechanics who, like Mari, had left the Guild. Priority had been given of necessity to new rifles and Alli's new artillery, and the far-talkers required more complex electronic work. There were only about half a dozen of the new far-talkers completed so far, but they were smaller, lighter, and had better range than the Mechanics Guild models which had been deteriorating in quality for centuries. “I’m sorry we don’t have enough yet to give you one. Do you want to use mine?”

“Later. Thanks,” Alli said as she directed the positioning of the guns.

Alain pointed to the east and west, where two other Rocs glided high above Mari’s infantry and the army of Tiae. “They will warn if they see any attacks coming from unexpected directions.”

“Good, and Calu will tell us what’s going on in the city.” Mari keyed her far-talker. “Calu? You there?”

“I’m here,” he replied, sounding breathless. “This flying still takes some getting used to.”

“Just hold on tight. What can you see so far?”

“There is a bunch of people milling around on the docks, like they want to sail away but are afraid to with Tiae’s coastal guard waiting just offshore,” Calu said. “Most of the rest of the city looks deserted.”

“The people of Tiae will be in their homes,” Sien said. “Hiding from the battle they know is coming.”

“But there are a lot of folks inside the north gate,” Calu continued. “Looks like three separate groups of people with weapons. They’re just standing there along the wide street that leads to the gate.”

General Flyn nodded, smiling sardonically. “Their leaders are arguing over who gets to go second,” he said.

“Second?” Mari asked.

“Yes, Lady. Whoever’s soldiers lead the breakout attempt will take a lot of losses fighting through your forces. Whichever warlord comes last is likely to get caught by our pursuit. But the one who comes second will be able to use the sacrifices of those ahead and behind to protect themselves. I will confess to having been skeptical as to how much the Mage birds could help us, Lady, but this ability to see from above is remarkable when combined with your Mechanic far-talkers.”

“That’s what Alain and I kept finding out,” Mari said. “Combining what Mages and Mechanics can do produces some real advantages. Unfortunately,” she continued, “while seeing from above tells us what the enemy is doing, right now they’re not doing anything. We don’t want the warlords just standing around, giving them time to think and delaying our own assault.”

“How do we get them moving, General?” Princess Sien asked.

“We’re already offering them an apparently lightly held area here to the north,” Flyn said. “If that doesn’t lure them out, I don’t know what else could get them moving. They could argue all day. If we attack, they are just as likely to fall back into the city in a panic as to try to escape from it.”

“How about if we make it too hot where they are?” Alli asked. She gestured to her two new artillery pieces. “What if I drop some shells right behind them to encourage them to get their butts moving this way?”

“You can do that, Lady Mechanic?” Flyn asked. “Even though we can’t see them?”

“And they can’t see my guns, so they won’t know where the shots are coming from,” Alli replied. “Yeah. These guns are designed to allow long-range shots using a high arc. It’s not complicated. I know the muzzle velocity of my shells and I can figure how far I want them to go. That gives me a trajectory and an angle of elevation. The shells go up over the ridge and come down behind those city walls.” She held up a binder. “I had Apprentices back at Pacta Servanda work up range tables for these guns to simplify things. I’ll just have to interpolate some numbers. Who’s got the best map of Minut?”

Sien gestured to one of her escort, who brought a folded sheet of paper to Alli.

Alli and the soldier from Tiae spread out the map on the grass and crouched down to study it. “The north gate,” the soldier said, gesturing toward the actual gate and then tapping a place on the old map.

“This is accurate?” Alli asked. “That’s a nice wide street leading out to the gate.”

“Yes. For the movement of trade goods, and sometimes for parades,” the soldier added.

Mari thought that the soldier looked old enough to have taken part in some of those parades almost twenty years ago. She had noticed that the men and women flocking to the banner of Princess Sien to rebuild the army and the Kingdom of Tiae were often either older—veterans of the time before the Kingdom fell apart who wanted to recreate what had been lost—or younger than they should be, fired with idealism and the possibility that the long years of anarchy were finally ending. But the generation between the old and the young had been hit hard by the collapse of the Kingdom and the subsequent hardships, too often spending their own lives or health to give their children a chance.

“Can I have your far-talker now?” Alli asked Mari. She took it and knelt back by the map. “Hey, Calu darling, this is the reason for your happiness calling.”

“Hi, Alli,” Calu replied. “Is this a social call?”

“Business. Where exactly are those warlords’ fighters? Their front is near the northern gate, right? Where’s the rear?”

“Yes, the first group is just a little ways inside the gate. What’s left of the gate, anyway. Then the next two groups…counting from the gate there are two cross streets intersecting the big street they’re on. The rear is just past where the second cross street joins.”

“Here,” the Tiae soldier said, pointing.

Alli scowled at the map, then keyed the far-talker again. “I’ve got some concerns about the accuracy of the map outside the city, Calu. I don’t think the distance from the gate to where I am is right, so I’m going to aim the first round to drop well behind where those terrorists are. I want to make sure it doesn’t hit the front of the group and give them motivation to run the wrong way. There’s nobody else on that big street, right?”

“Right. It’s empty, except for trash and some piles of rubble.”

“Stand by, but don't fly between where I am and my target, and let me know where the shot lands.”

Alli made an adjustment to one of her guns, speaking to Mari as she did so. “We need better maps. For everywhere.”

“I’ll add it to the list,” Mari said. The list of things they needed right now seemed to grow every day by at least one item.

“I’m going to fire the first shot,” Alli told her gun crew. “Hold your horses!” she called out, then yanked the firing lanyard.

The crash of the shot startled even the cavalry horses, which had been trained to deal with loud noises, but the soldiers were holding their leads and none of them broke away.

The shell arced away into the sky, vanishing from sight.

After several moments, a muffled boom was heard from the direction of Minut.

“You nearly hit a building, Alli!” Calu called. “The shot hit on the east side of the street, just in front of a big building. And it was…two more intersecting streets back.”

“Two?” Alli studied the map. “We are closer than the map says. All right. Let me tweak something…stand by for another shot.”

The gun crew had already opened the breech, pulled out the shell casing, loaded another round, then closed the breech. Alli altered the angle of the gun a little, then yanked the firing lanyard again. Another crash, another pause, and another boom as the second shell hit.

“Pretty close to the middle of the street,” Calu reported. “And only half a block behind the rearmost warlord group. Almost perfect. How do you do that?”

“I’m brilliant. We’re going to fire two shots this time. Let me know where they fall.” Alli adjusted both guns, crossed her fingers, then made a chopping motion. The gunners fired, one only a moment after the other.

“Got them!” Calu said. “One was right behind them and the other hit the rear ranks.”

“I guess those goons are finding out how bad it feels to have someone bigger than they are beating on them,” Alli said. “Mari?”

“Hit them again,” Mari said, reluctance to give the order making her voice low.

“What?”

“Hit them again!”

Two more shots roared out, then two more.

“The group in the rear is pushing ahead!” Calu said. “You’re doing some real damage and they’re trying to get away!”

“Alli, let me see that far-talker.” Mari gazed toward the city as she called Calu. “Are any of the bad guys scattering into the side streets?”

“Um…yeah. Some are trying to. Whatever passes for officers in the warlord ranks are trying to beat them back into place.”

“Hold up, Alli! I don’t want to hit them so hard that they spread out through the city.”

Alli nodded, gesturing to her gun crews. “Hold fire, guys. Those scum have learned what we can do to them if they don’t move.”

“Mari?” Calu called. “I think…yeah, they’re starting. Everyone at once. They’re all coming out!”

The “armies” of the three warlords came charging out of the northern gate of Minut. Mari studied them through her far-seers despite the efforts of the mare to ruin her focus. The fighters in the first group wore an assortment of armor and carried a variety of spears, pikes, and pole-arms, but moved in a loose gaggle rather than a tight formation. Right behind them was a mixed group of mounted fighters and fighters on foot carrying swords and varied shields. The last group bore a wide assortment of arms and little in the way of armor, and unlike the first two was not even attempting to maintain any semblance of organization. “The last group is treading on the heels of the second, which is being slowed by the pace of the first group because of the heavy pikes some of them are carrying.”

General Flyn nodded. “They’re coming in our direction in hopes of breaking out. Just as we hoped. You know how to hold them, Lady. With your permission, I’ll rejoin the foot soldiers and get them moving. Princess, your dragoons and other forces can move at any time.”

“Tiae will advance,” Sien said, waving a goodbye to Mari and Alain before she and her escort took off in a thunder of hooves.

Mari looked back at her own cavalry, still hidden from sight of the city on the back slope of the hill. “Rifles dismount and take up position on the crest!”

“Stay with the princess of Tiae,” Alain directed some of his fellow Mages, who nodded once in acknowledgement and rode off after Sien. “Mage Asha, stay here for now.”

Asha nodded, her long blond hair flowing in the wind off the sea. In the morning light, her beauty looked unearthly. “I sense Mages in the city. The traces of them are faint.”

“Please let me know if they start moving,” Mari said, fighting down a shiver as she remembered the last assassination attempt against her—by a Mage using a concealment spell. Less than a month ago. If not for Alain’s ability to spot the Mage despite the spell, that attempt probably would have succeeded.

There were still far too few rifles to equip every soldier, but those of the cavalry who carried them dismounted, handing the reins of their mounts to other soldiers to hold, then scrambled up the slope to form a line along the top of the hill. By the standards of normal fighting, the line looked far too thin and too long to have any chance of holding against the oncoming warlords.

Alli and her gun crews had put their shoulders to the two artillery pieces and were rolling them the short distance remaining to the crest of the hill.

The line of rifles split, making room for Alli’s artillery near the center of the line. Mari saw her setting up the guns and ordering the barrels to be lowered so that they aimed directly at the oncoming fighters.

“We wait,” Alain murmured.

“I know,” Mari muttered in reply. “You don’t have to remind me. Let the warlords’ forces get far enough from the city that our own forces can cut off their retreat.” She heard signal trumpets to the west and started to raise her far-seers. Mari deliberately paused, smiled in triumph as the mare took the bait and prematurely moved a step, then got the far-seers to her eyes and looked across the battlefield. “General Flyn is moving his forces in against the left side of the warlords and has our dragoons galloping to the north gate.” From the east the sound of Tiae’s battle drums ordering the advance rolled like distant thunder. She swung her gaze to the right. “Here come the Tiae dragoons. Tiae’s infantry is also moving up.”

Mari put away the far–seers and picked up the far-talker again. “Calu, what can you see in the city? Are there any fighters left near the gate?”

“I can’t see any near the gate,” Calu said. “There are a few small groups along the wall. I can’t tell who they are. That’s it.”

“Say hi for me!” Alli called from where she was helping reset the artillery.

“Alli says hi, Calu,” Mari relayed. “Check out the rest of the city again.”

“You got it.”

Mari caught a glimpse of Mage Alera’s Roc soaring high above the wall, then banking to glide back over the city so that Calu could see what else was happening in Minut.

“I think soon,” Alain said.

Mari judged the distance to the increasingly disorganized mass of fighters headed for the apparent weak point in the forces surrounding them. Heading for where she was. The warlords could see the soldiers of Tiae closing in on one side and Mari’s soldiers closing in on the other and were trying to outrace their attackers. “Alli? What do you think?”

“Are the dragoons in place?”

“Yeah. They’ve reached the gate and are dismounting now.”

“Then I think it’s time for some more payback against these guys!”

Mari knew what was about to happen, and no matter how necessary it was, it still left her unhappy and with a sick feeling in her stomach. “Go ahead, Alli. Rifles, hold your fire until they’re closer!”

Alli sighted along each artillery piece, then pointed at the gunners. The big guns roared as one.

Mari could see the black dots of the shells flying toward the enemy and striking near the front of the group. Twin explosions tore apart earth and any fighters unfortunate enough to be close to where the shells struck.

The warlords pushed their fighters harder, the mass breaking into a run toward where Mari sat on her horse atop the hill. The thin line of soldiers near her must look far too weak to slow them down, let alone stop the surging forces.

Alli’s big guns fired again, tearing two more holes in the attacking group.

“Open fire!” Mari yelled at her rifles, feeling an excitement and an urge to inflict justice on those who had preyed on those weaker than they for so long that warred with her earlier reluctance.

About thirty rifles opened fire from along the top of the hill. Even the old Mechanics Guild repeating rifles would have had an impact on such a concentrated mass of targets with that many firing, but Mari’s forces were using A-1 semi-automatic model rifles newly made by Alli’s workshops. Alli swore that the “A” stood for Advanced, but everyone else claimed the “A” stood for Alli. The A-1 rifles could fire much faster and more accurately than the Guild weapons.

The front rows of warlord fighters fell as if they had run into a wall, the rifles wreaking terrible havoc on them. Under the hail of fire and with their path blocked by the bodies of their fallen, the gangs of fighters stumbled to a halt.

Alli’s guns fired again. Mari’s rifles paused as all of her soldiers ejected spent clips and loaded new ones.

The rifles on the hill fired another volley. The renewed barrage broke what little discipline the warlords’ fighters had. What was left of the first group fell back into the second group, while the third group pressed on into the packed mass of confusion and added to the chaos.

Mari heard the staccato rattle of rifle fire and saw General Flyn’s infantry firing into the side of the enemy mass with more than a hundred weapons. The disorganized mob lurched away from the new threat, only to meet volleys of crossbow bolts and a few rifle shots from Princess Sien’s soldiers.

Turning back, the remnants of the warlords’ fighters saw their retreat to the city blocked by two lines of dismounted dragoons.

Flayed by fire from all sides, the fighters compressed so tightly they could no longer move as the outer layer of the mob tried to flee inward and the inner layers tried to flee outwards.

Mari stared, appalled, as the battle turned into a slaughter.

She yanked out her far-talker. “General! General Flyn! What are you doing?”

“Winning the fight, Lady,” Flyn replied, his voice sounding grim.

“We’re not giving them any chance to surrender!”

“They know what will happen to them if they surrender, Lady,” Flyn said. “You’ve seen what they’ve done to their victims in the areas around Minut.”

“I don’t care what they did! We are not them! Give them a chance to surrender, General!”

A pause, then Flyn’s voice came again. “I understand, Lady.”

“Hold your fire!” Mari yelled to her rifles on the hill. “I said hold your fire!”

As the soldiers near her reluctantly ceased wiping out the enemy, Mari could hear the sound of shots from the infantry with Flyn also dwindling. Tiae’s forces were still firing crossbows, but the damage they did was minor compared to that caused by Mari’s army.

General Flyn’s voice carried across the battlefield. “We will accept surrenders. Drop your weapons and walk slowly toward us with your empty hands held high!”

About twenty fighters hastened to comply, stumbling toward the ranks of Flyn’s infantry.

Most of them were ridden down by their own comrades as the surviving mounted fighters charged out of the mob, heading straight for Flyn’s soldiers in a desperate escape attempt.

Mari felt a mix of anger at the fighters and resignation over their fate as Flyn’s troops opened fire again.

None of the mounted soldiers made it to Flyn’s lines before dying, and now the army of Tiae had reached one side of the mob of warlord fighters and was coldly working vengeance on those who had helped terrorize the kingdom.

Some of the survivors bolted toward Mari’s position, running in blind panic. She waved to her cavalry commander, resigned to the necessity of the next order. “Send your forces to finish them. Take prisoners if you can.”

With whoops of exultation almost two hundred cavalry charged over the crest, through the ranks of the dismounted soldiers with rifles, and toward the remnants of the warlords’ armies. The banner of the new day flew over the cavalry as they leveled their lances at what was left of their enemy.

“It is well they came out to fight,” Alain said. “It will make it much easier to take the city.”

Mari grimaced. “That was the idea. Minut has suffered enough. The people still living there don’t deserve to have their city made into a battleground.”

“You said you wanted to avoid anything like Marandur,” Alain reminded her.

“I know. And we’ve achieved that. I’m sorry I can’t be too comforted by knowing that. Let’s—”

“Hold on!” Calu shouted loudly enough for Mari to understand him without raising the far-talker close to her ear. “A Roc just appeared down there! In the plaza in front of the abandoned Mage Guild Hall!”

“A Dark Mage?” Mari said. “I didn’t know there were Dark Mages who created Rocs.”

“I sense the spell,” Mage Asha said, “but it does not have the taint of a Dark Mage.”

“There’s a Mage climbing on the Roc!” Calu continued. “There! It’s in the air and…north! It’s heading north!”

“Back toward safe territory,” Mari said. “And toward us.” She called out to the dismounted cavalry who were still with her. “There’s another Roc heading this way! Not a friendly one! Wait to open fire until we identify which Roc is the bad bird!”

“I see it,” Alain said, pointing toward a dark spot in the sky low over the city of Minut.

“It is climbing slowly,” Asha said. “Is it overburdened?”

Mari brought up her far-talker. “Calu, was there only the one Mage on the Roc?”

“Yeah. Just the one. We’re following it toward you. It’s moving really fast.”

Raising her far-seers, Mari tried to spot the oncoming Roc, only to have the perverse mare side-step a few times. “Somebody hold this horse!”

One of the cavalry grabbed the mare’s reins so that Mari could dismount and look again.

There it was. The Roc was pumping its wings rapidly, growing visibly larger as it grew closer.

“Mari,” Alli said, peering through her own far-seers, “that bird isn’t just heading north. And it isn’t trying to get much higher. It’s heading straight for us.”

All of the horses were shifting about nervously now, as if they could sense the approach of the giant raptor. The cavalry on the hill fought to control their mounts as Alain dismounted as well, and Alli and her gun crews went to help hold the horses in the teams that had brought their artillery pieces.

“Target the Roc in the lead!” Mari yelled to the cavalry with rifles who were still on the hill. “Make sure you do not fire on the Roc behind it, and if you can’t tell which bird is hostile, do not shoot!”

She realized she had very little ability to judge the motion of something moving as fast as that Roc. No one had experience dealing with that kind of thing. Mari looked down long enough to free her pistol from its holster and let off the safety. “Alain, see if you can hit it with your fire spell.”

When Mari looked up again, the enemy Roc had gotten much, much closer.

And it wasn’t just heading for the group.

Mari could tell that it was diving straight at her.

Chapter Two

She brought up her pistol, holding it in a two-handed grip, and fired several shots at the Roc. The bullets had no effect that Mari could see, and she suddenly realized that if she did somehow kill the giant bird its huge, dead carcass would still be heading straight for her at high speed. Alain must have realized the same thing as he turned to run toward her, skidding on the grass as he tried to place himself between her and danger.

Only one tactic made sense. “Scatter!” Mari yelled as loudly as she could.

The horses hadn’t waited for Mari’s command, either dragging at the soldiers trying to hold them or breaking free and running with snorts and squeals of fear. She lunged at a riderless stallion racing past and managed to grab on to the saddle, holding on one-handed for a few moments while the horse dragged her across the grass.

The Roc’s claws, seeking Mari, hit the stallion’s other flank, knocking the horse over. Mari lost her grip as the horse fell. One flailing hoof grazed her hip hard, but she rolled clear of the animal, still somehow holding onto her pistol. Mari looked upward to see if the Roc posed an immediate threat. Seeing it climbing and momentarily not able to attack, she jerked her gaze around in search of Alain.

He was on the ground only a short distance away and already getting to his feet. Alain came to stand by her, gazing upward at the Roc.

Some of the rifles were firing, but the rifle fire fell off as the enemy Roc rose higher from its attack, winging over to come around and strike again. Mari cast glances to each side, trying to decide which way to dodge.

Another Roc hit the enemy bird, coming in from above and to the side, screaming a raptor’s battle cry.

Spinning away from the blow, the enemy Roc righted itself in mid-air and pumped its wings, shrieking defiance as it swung in to battle its attacker.

A second Roc appeared, slamming into the enemy bird.

As she knelt on the grass Mari caught glimpses of a fourth Roc approaching. She stared at the three giant raptors striking at each other about two hundred lances above her, their screeches deafening as the birds battled with wing, claw, and beak. In the flurry of strikes and flying feathers, Mari could no longer tell which two of the Rocs were controlled by her Mages and which one was the enemy.

A giant, dislodged feather plummeted to earth near her, sticking quill first in the dirt like a cast spear.

The fourth Roc dove into the fight, catching the attacker by surprise. Its massive claws closed about the enemy Mage and plucked the rider from his or her seat, hurling the Mage away in a low arc.

Mari stared at the falling body, expecting the Mage’s arms and legs to flail helplessly. But the Mage stayed relaxed, accepting a fate that could not be altered.

Now unguided, the enemy Roc tried to climb away from its attackers, but Mari’s three hit and tore at it repeatedly, landing blows that staggered the bird until it, too, fell to earth, crashing with enough force to make the ground jump slightly.

Alli ran over to Mari as she shakily got to her feet. “Far-talker!” The instant Mari handed it over, Alli called frantically. “Calu! Answer me! Are you all right?”

“Yeah, I’m all right,” Calu said, though his voice sounded very wobbly. “I just held on as tightly as I could and hoped. Are you all right?”

“Yeah. We’re all right,” Alli said. “Are we all right? Yeah.”

Asha had somehow kept her seat on her panicky horse and was riding toward where the enemy Mage had fallen, her long knife in one hand.

Mari winced as she stood with Alain’s help.

“The Roc hurt you?” Alain said, for once having no trouble putting emotion into his words.

“No,” Mari said, gritting her teeth as she tested her weight on both legs. “I got kicked by a horse.”

“Welcome to the cavalry,” a healer in uniform said, running up to her. “You’ve just endured the traditional initiation.”

Mari grunted with pain as the healer pulled down one side of her trousers far enough to check the spot on her hip, probing carefully with his fingers. “Nothing is broken, Lady, but you’ll have a very impressive bruise there and walking will be a bit painful for a while.”

“Thanks,” Mari said. “Go see if anyone was hurt worse than I was.”

“I could not strike it with fire,” Alain said as the healer went off to check others who might be injured. Alain’s words, usually clear and precise, came out like a fumbling apology. “It moved too fast. My fire always fell behind it.”

“We’ll have to practice that,” Mari said. “None of us expected that Roc to move that fast when it came at us.”

“But I could not—”

“Alain, it’s all right.” Mari spread her hands slightly and tried to smile. “I’m all right. You can’t do miracles.”

“If you need a miracle, then I must,” Alain said.

She could tell that he meant it with all of his heart, which both warmed and scared her at the thought of what risks he might run. “I need you. Don’t forget that.”

Alli gave Mari back the far-talker, then shook her head, wincing as she rubbed one arm. “Remind me not to wrap reins around my hand again. We’ve gotten these horses used to the sound of guns, but not to the presence of Rocs. We ought to fix that.”

“I’ll add it to the list.”

Shouts sounded. “Lady Mari! Are you all right?”

Mari sighed heavily. “Somebody get me another horse. I’m going to have to mount up so everyone can see that I’m not hurt. Much.”

She had just struggled back into the saddle with Alain’s help, raising one arm to wave reassuringly to her soldiers, when Asha returned. “The Mage is dead,” Asha said.

“Was he dead when you got there?” Mari asked, settling herself and wishing that riding wasn’t so hard on her thighs and butt.

“Yes. He was not a Dark Mage, who would have revealed fear. His face showed nothing.” Asha’s impassive voice left no hint of whether she was praising the dead Mage or just reporting what she had seen.

“There are other Mages in the city,” Alain said, looking toward Minut.

Mage Asha nodded. “I sense them, too. They wait. We will find them. Stay with Elder Mari, Mage Alain.”

“I’m twenty years old,” Mari grumbled as she watched Asha and the other Mages ride off. “I wish the Mages wouldn’t call me Elder.”

“It is a mark of their respect for you,” Alain said.

“Then they can call me Master Mechanic!”

“Mages do not consider Mechanic titles to be marks of respect,” Alain said.

“I’m looking for agreement, not explanations,” Mari told him.

General Flyn called, sparing Alain the need to reply. “Lady? That was quite a show above the hill! You are all right?”

“Yes, General,” Mari said. “You can assure our soldiers that I am fine. Almost fine, anyway.”

“In that case, I recommend that we enter the city as soon as possible before anyone who might oppose us inside Minut has time to prepare.”

“Let’s do that,” Mari said. “Princess Sien? Are the forces of Tiae ready to enter Minut?”

“We are,” Sien replied. Six months ago, non-Mechanics were not supposed to even know that far-talkers existed, let alone how to use one. But Mari had made a point of providing Flyn and Sien with two of the few new far-talkers available at the moment. Some of the Mechanics following her had been scandalized, but most had simply accepted it as part of the rebellion against the strict rules by which the Senior Mechanics had run both the Mechanics Guild and the world of Dematr. And it made coordinating actions on the battlefield a lot easier. “We shall enter the east gate as agreed upon,” the princess added.

“My infantry will enter the west gate,” Mari said, “and I’ll lead my cavalry into the north gate. Princess, General, be advised that some of my Mages are already entering the city in search of enemy Mages. Look for my armbands to know if the Mage is friendly.”

Mari waved to the cavalry remaining with her. “Mount up!”

Alain had found another horse and climbed into the saddle, his lack of expression betraying how upset he was. Mari had noticed that when Alain was really unhappy he reverted to his Mage training to reveal no emotions. He brought his horse next to hers, clearly determined not to let any other danger threaten Mari.

Knowing that no words of hers would comfort him, she called to Alli. “We’re heading into the city. Hold here with the big guns.”

Her cavalry formed up around her, and Mari and Alain started down the slope in a rattle of harness and nervous snorts from the horses.

Directly before them lay the bodies of those who had helped three warlords terrorize the city of Minut. Mari looked away, but she couldn’t avoid smelling the tang of blood that filled the air. She took deep breaths through her mouth, trying to block out the smell and the cries of the badly hurt and dying. Memories assailed her, of other fights and others hurt and killed, of moments when death had felt very close to her and Alain. Such things no longer frightened her, she told herself. The daughter of Jules could not afford to feel or show fear.

A small force of soldiers from Tiae was wading through the mounds of fallen, making sure that every one of them was dead. Mari was pleased to see that General Flyn had also sent out a force, this one finding wounded enemy fighters and taking them prisoner instead of finishing them off. As her force rode toward the north gate, the cavalry sent out earlier returned to swell the numbers of soldiers around her. How had she gone from being a Mechanic to this?

A Roc landed heavily between Mari’s cavalry and the city, a man in a Mechanics jacket almost falling off on his way to the ground before the Mage left her mount with considerably more grace. Calu came jogging to meet Mari and Alain while Mage Alera held her Roc. “I don’t know whether that was the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced or the most fun I’ve ever had,” Calu gasped when they met. “But I don’t want to do it again right away.”

“Was Mage Alera’s Roc hurt in the fight?” Mari asked.

“Not much. She said he used up a lot of power, though, and needs to sleep.” He nodded back toward the Roc, catching his breath. “That’s what Mage Alera calls it now when Swift goes away.”

Mari saw the Roc disappear into a shower of dust that also vanished, leaving Mage Alera standing alone.

“Do you need me to go up on another one of the Rocs?” Calu asked, sounding willing but not particularly enthusiastic.

“Calu, if I sent you up again right away Alli would kill me,” Mari said. “She’s back there with the guns. Why don’t you go join her so I can use your far-talker to let her know if we need her guns again while we’re taking the city?” That had been an easy call to make since Mari could see the other two Rocs coming in to land as well. For the moment, her ability to see things from high above had run out of Mage power.

Calu continued through the ranks of advancing cavalry, heading for the hill where Alli’s artillery sat silently menacing the city. Mari tried to use her far-seers again to catch sight of her infantry approaching the west gate and the soldiers of Tiae nearing the gate to the east, but the jolting of her mount’s progress kept throwing off her attempts. And of course the mostly intact walls of the city kept her from seeing what new developments might await her army and the army of Tiae inside Minut. “Alain, I am really glad that you’re beside me right now.”

* * * *

Mage Alain of Ihris was very upset. He did his best to deny the emotion, to block it out, as he had been taught when an acolyte. Certainly no one watching him, except another Mage, would have guessed how unhappy he was. He knew that anger served only to distract and to weaken him, and would only aid his and Mari’s enemies.

But he could not stop being angry with himself for having failed to protect Mari from the Roc’s attack.

It was not until Mage Alera’s Roc landed in front of them that Alain jerked himself out of his anger enough to realize how much it had distracted him. He had not even been aware that Alera was coming close.

And they were about to enter a city where threats to Mari might lie along every street and around ever corner, while he focused on a danger that no longer existed.

Some of the things the Mage elders had taught him had been false, but they had surely been right about the danger of selfish emotions like anger. He had no trouble recalling the brutal methods used to teach him to master and ultimately deny his anger, and now Alain used that experience to prepare himself for the task that lay ahead.

He breathed deeply as he banished his negative feelings to a place where he could no longer sense them. Alain glanced at Mari to see if she had noticed his self-absorption. Mari’s feelings always lay so close to the surface, so easy to read, yet she retained depths he was still trying to grasp. At this moment, though, she was so distressed by the battle’s casualties that it had driven many other concerns from her mind.

But as the column approached the north gate of Minut, Mari looked over at Alain, the question in her eyes easy to see.

“My foresight does not warn of danger,” Alain said. “But that does not mean danger does not exist.”

“We can hope,” Mari said.

The north gate of Minut showed the scars of decades of war and neglect. One side of the great gate was wedged open. The other side had fallen to lie askew over piles of rubble where one of the former guard towers had been destroyed years before.

The commander of the cavalry called out orders, and forty soldiers urged their mounts forward.

Mari looked at them, surprised. “Why are they going in first? I should be leading this.”

“This is still the front, Lady,” Colonel Tecu assured her. “You will be leading the advance from the front. Just not as far in front.”

“That is not right,” Mari said. “I should not face any less risk than anyone else.”

The colonel, who looked to Alain as if he would rather be leading a charge against a solid wall of pikes than trying to out-argue Lady Mari, hesitated in his reply.

Which gave Alain time to speak. “Colonel, where will you ride?”

“Next to the Lady,” Colonel Tecu said.

“Behind those forty cavalry?”

“Yes, Sir Mage.”

“Why are you not in the front rank?”

Tecu’s face hardened. “If there is any question regarding my courage—”

“No,” Alain said, realizing that this was one of the things commons and Mechanics could interpret as criticism. “There is no question of your courage. What I ask is, is there a reason why the commander rides a little farther back?”

The colonel relaxed and nodded. “I understand your question now. Forgive me, Sir Mage, for misinterpreting it. Yes, there is a reason. I need to be far enough forward to lead my soldiers, but far enough back that I can see what is happening and give the necessary orders to those both ahead and behind. If I am in the very front rank, I will be fully engaged with whatever is happening to those soldiers.”

“It is your responsibility as commander of the force,” Alain said.

Mari gave Alain a sour look. “All right, Sir Mage. I get it. We’ll ride with the colonel.”

“Your courage is unquestioned, Lady,” Colonel Tecu hastened to assure her. “Everyone knows that you have personally faced and defeated dragons and trolls. And now a Roc as well.”

“I’ve had some help,” Mari said. “A lot of help. I don’t want to expose those cavalry in the lead to risks that I am not sharing.”

“You are here with us, Lady, and I think those cavalry would rather have you alive than in the front rank with them.”

The first forty mounted soldiers having entered the gate, Mari, Alain, and Colonel Tecu rode after them, accompanied by the cavalry bearing both the standard of the new day and the banner of Tiae. They were followed by the remaining nearly one hundred and sixty cavalry.

Alain studied the pavement inside the gate, an act which he did without thinking. The paving stones of the street bore no resemblance to the fitted stone blocks on which his foresight months ago had shown Mari lying at some point in the future, her jacket wet with blood and herself apparently near death. That did not mean that Mari was safe here. It only meant that one particular future would not occur here. There were plenty of other future events which could take place at any time, any one of which might result in Mari’s death before she reached whatever place contained those particular stone blocks.

The wide boulevard that stretched from the north gate of Minut was eerily deserted. Ahead, Alain could see a scattering of bodies and shattered paving where Mechanic Alli’s shells had struck. Piles of trash, debris, and garbage lined the street, some obviously having been slowly decaying for more than a decade and others more recent. The heaps of junk narrowed the broad street, in places forcing the leading cavalry to ride only three soldiers abreast.

The buildings lining this once-grand thoroughfare had been majestic as well: multi-storied structures featuring the curves and arches favored in the southern cities, their facades of carved stone and hardwood doors now pocked with decay and damage. There did not appear to be a single intact window remaining, just shards of glass clinging precariously to the remnants of frames. In some cases the broken windows had been boarded up, but in many places the vacant windows gave free access to the dark interiors. Weeds and grass sprouted from between paving stones and anywhere else dirt had managed to accumulate, and small yards and gardens had degenerated into tiny, overgrown tangles of jungle.

Alain caught an occasional glimpse of a rat darting from cover to cover. He did not see any cats or dogs, and suspected that any such had long since become victims of Minut’s lack of regular food supplies from the outside.

After the crash of Mechanic weaponry and the clash of metal on metal as soldiers fought hand-to-hand and sword-against-shield, the silence in the city felt oppressive. All Alain could hear was the jingling of harness, the clop of horseshoes on the pavement, and the blowing of the horses. The cavalry rode slowly, each soldier searching the buildings beside and ahead for any signs of trouble.

Alain heightened his sense of Mari riding next to him, hoping that would help trigger his foresight to warn of any danger to her.

A low call of warning came from the front rank of cavalry. Alain saw men and women coming out from the ground floors and down the entry stairs of some of the buildings ahead. No weapons were visible, and none of them wore any armor. Alain gained an impression of weathered dignity, as if the men and women were rocks which had been worn by hardship but still endured.

They stood at the edge of the street, amid the piles of rubbish, watching silently as the cavalry approached.

Alain swept his gaze over them, then across the buildings to either side, aware that most of the cavalry had fixed their attention on the people ahead.

He spotted a small movement in a second-story window.

A blotch of blackness appeared over that window, his foresight finally offering some warning of danger.

He knew the distance to that window would make for a long crossbow shot. But Mechanic weapons could hit an individual target at such a range. And his foresight said the danger existed now.

Alain lunged toward Mari and pulled her down with him as they both fell from their horses, the boom of a Mechanic weapon filling the street. Their startled mounts danced away as a soldier in the ranks behind them cried out and was knocked from his saddle as the bullet intended for Mari instead struck him.

Getting back on one knee, ignoring the horses plunging around him, Alain held out one hand and focused on creating the illusion of immense heat above it. He built it as strong as he could in a very short time, then imagined the heat not above his hand but in that window, where the end of the Mechanic weapon had once again appeared, pointing toward Mari.

Stone cracked and wood charred black in that window.

Alain heard a muffled cry and the weapon disappeared from view.

Colonel Tecu shouted orders, sending a dozen cavalry galloping ahead to dismount at the door to the building and charge inside, weapons at ready.

Alain, breathing heavily from the sudden exertion, helped Mari to her feet.

“Did you get him?” she asked, deadly calm in the way Mari could become in an emergency.

“I believe so.”

Some of the nearby cavalry had caught Mari’s horse. Now they held it while she swung back into the saddle of the nervous mare. Alain heard relieved calls as the rest of the cavalry caught sight of Mari unharmed.

The soldiers sent into the building reappeared, one carrying a Mechanics Guild rifle and the others supporting a man with blackened clothing and hands who hung unresisting between them. “Is he dead?” Colonel Tecu called furiously.

“No, sir! Not yet, anyway! Passed out from pain or shock or both, we think!”

The cavalry column rode forward to meet the returning soldiers, who held their prisoner up for Mari to see. “A killer hired by the Mechanics Guild,” Colonel Tecu commented.

Mari stared at the man’s face. “No. He’s not wearing the jacket, but he’s a Mechanic. I saw him once, several years ago. He was part of a team who came to my Guild Hall and took away a Mechanic who had been too vocal a critic of the Guild leadership. He’s one of the Mechanic assassins.”

“We can finish him now, Lady!” one of the captors cried.

“No,” Mari said. “We’re not warlords. We don’t murder the helpless. See if our healers can help him. Maybe he’ll provide us with some worthwhile information.”

She turned to Alain. “You saved my butt again, Alain. And you’ve been smart enough not to say ‘I told you so’ about me riding farther back.”

“You have taught me much,” Alain said. “He may not be the only assassin in this city.”

“I know. Stay close.”

Only then did Alain notice that the people who had come out into the street earlier had not moved. Even across the small distance between them Alain could see the fear in their faces, but they stood frozen in place.

Colonel Tecu had noticed as well. “Odd that they didn’t run when the fighting started. Of course if they had, we would have thought they had known about the assassin going after the Lady.”

Alain finally understood. “They have learned to stay still when confronted with danger. Running creates an impression of guilt, and for wolves or humans of wolfish mind a fleeing prey creates an incentive to chase and kill.”

Tecu nodded slowly, his eyes on Alain. “I understand, Sir Mage. After so many years under the thumb of warlords and their arbitrary dealing of death and injury, these people have learned not to attract the wrong kind of attention. Like helpless animals, they simply freeze in place and hope the predators will pass them by.”

“It is not right that people live in such fear,” Alain said, his words coming out slowly as the idea crystallized in his mind.

“You figured that out for yourself?” Mari asked. “Good work, my Mage.”

“I have had a good teacher in what is right,” Alain said, feeling pleased that he had managed to work out the idea without asking Mari.

The cavalry column began moving again, except for those soldiers riding back toward the north gate as they took their wounded comrade and the Mechanic assassin back to the healers.

As the column came even with the people on the road, Mari called a halt. “We have come to bring Minut back into the Kingdom of Tiae,” she told them. “Tiae’s Princess Sien is leading the reborn army of Tiae into the west gate of Minut as we speak.” The people gazed back at her wordlessly. “Don’t you have anything to say?”

“Who are you?” one of the watching people finally asked.

Colonel Tecu replied, his voice carrying down the street. “This is Lady Mari, the daughter of Jules, come to free the world at last, and that is her banner that flies alongside the banner of Tiae!”

The cavalry cheered, and the faces of the men and women in the street took on expressions of disbelief and wonder. “Who will rule Minut now?” one cried.

“Princess Sien!” Mari called back. “Your princess rules Tiae, and today she once again extends her protection over the people and city of Minut!”

Alain could see that they did not believe Mari. But after Mari ordered the column back into motion, the people watched the rest of the cavalry pass and then followed, their numbers growing as more men, women, and children came out of hiding.

Up ahead, a large group of people pointed to a building. Colonel Tecu sent another detachment galloping ahead. “They say there are bandits in there!” the officer called back. “About a dozen!”

“Tell the bandits they can surrender or die! Make sure they know we have a Mage with us!”

The rest of the cavalry had nearly caught up when the reply came in the form of a prolonged burst of obscenity that Alain could easily hear.

“Let’s go in,” a lieutenant urged.

“Let’s not waste lives,” Mari said. “Alain, can you get them out?”

“I will have to leave you….”

“I won’t go anywhere until you get back.”