Master of Tomes

by Raconteur, Honor

  Prince Pari perked up. “So, if we just unblock them, will it reverse all of this?”

  “It’s not that easy.” Mei Li sighed, shoulders slumping. “Deities below and above, I wish it was that easy. But the problem is, our seals are no longer here. They’re lost in the Below sections. We’ll have to remake the seals as we go. Finding what has blocked the source, and reversing it, that’s step one. But step two is where our job gets arduous. We will literally have to tackle each section of this city, battle whatever is there, and then remake the seal.”

  Seeing everyone look at each other in such a weary way, Mei Li tried to encourage them. “I know you’ve been battling these things for months already, but this time it’s different. You’re not just fighting things for long enough to get people out. You’re fighting to clear the area, and once you do, it’s done. That area is reclaimed. I know it’ll be piecemeal, but we can take Kovel back.”

  “We’d almost lost that hope, I think.” Prince Cavanaugh sighed and slumped a little in his chair. “No matter how hard we fought, we kept losing more and more ground.”

  It had to have been disheartening. In his shoes, Mei Li might well have given up entirely. She put a hand on his shoulder, trying to get every ounce of her sincerity across. “You bought me the time to handle everything else. Every second of it was precious, and I thank you for it.”

  “I’m just relieved you’re finally here.” He straightened in his chair and gave her a firm nod, like a soldier saluting a commander. “Your orders, Tomes. And I’ll help you as much as I can from my chair.”

  “You should be in a bed, convalescing,” Masajada informed him, exasperated beyond words.

  “Sounds boring,” he retorted, a cheerful smile on his face. “And I’m seeing this through to the end, even if it kills me. Surely there’s a way I can still fight, even though I’m like this.”

  “There is.”

  Mei Li wasn’t about to turn him down. He was stuck in that chair for another month at the least, but he was still the field commander down here. And he had more authority than she did in many ways.

  “I need your help organizing the troops and keeping people moving. Lady Masajada, I need you as well. We’re going to blend troops, dragons, and mages together. I have no idea how bad certain sections are, or what dangers people will face, and I’m relying on your knowledge and experience, here. I need you to counsel me.”

  Mei Li pointed to the coastline.

  “I need at least six mages here, and a complement of dragons and troops, all to help me investigate and fix whatever is wrong there. I have no idea how long this will take me. But while I’m working on that, organize the groups. The mages who came with me know the design of the seals, and one of them needs to be in each group. I also have another group of three mages and three dragons that should be catching up in the next day or so. They’ll be able to direct your people as well.”

  Masajada told Cavanaugh, “I’ll help you organize all of that. We need to put the mages together first, so they have time to learn this technique as well.”

  Good thinking. Mei Li approved.

  “Once I’ve got the problem sorted, then we start from the coastline and work our way in. It has to be done that way, as we’re reconnecting the power to each seal as we go.”

  Cavanaugh leaned forward to trace a finger along the map. “So, these four streets first, then branch in from there? Lady Mei Li, I have to tell you, those are some of the worst sections. The dangers are no joke.”

  Of course that was the case. Mei Li rubbed a hand over her mouth, already dreading going anywhere near that area. The coastline was the first thing settled, eons ago. It was the oldest section of the city by far, so its seal had no doubt been the first to fail.

  Shunlei’s arm came around her shoulder in support, squeezing gently. “It’ll be fine, my love. We’ll take the best fighters with us. If we plan well, we can face whatever is in there.”

  She leaned into that strength for just a moment. They had faced many, many problems together over the years. Nothing had beat them yet. And she had faith that this city wouldn’t break their streak.

  “We can do it,” she agreed, then groaned. “I’m just really not looking forward to it. I know we just arrived, but can we at least go in and look? I don’t even know how many mages to bring in or what the area looks like right now. It’s hard for me to make a plan.”

  “Of course,” he promised her. “I can round up some volunteers so we can at least do a fly-by and scout the area. When do you want to properly go in? Tomorrow morning?”

  “I think that’s best. It will take time to round everyone up and explain the plan, and we’re all tired after pushing so hard to get here. Tired people make mistakes, and in this place especially, we don’t have the luxury of mistakes.”

  “I agree with you. I’ll have people organized in the next hour.” He gave her another squeeze before releasing her and heading for the tent door.

  Mei Li called after him, “Shun? Make sure that one of those mages is either Dolan or one of the Wismer brothers. I have to be able to send messages back, just in case.”

  He gave her a nod of acknowledgement before ducking out.

  Mei Li turned back to the people around the table only to find everyone staring at her with bulging eyes. Ah. Right. Aside from Prince Pari, no one here knew she and Shunlei were married.

  The reactions never got old. But explaining everything was beginning to. Mei Li decided to keep it short and sweet. “We’re married.”

  “W-when…?” Prince Cavanaugh croaked.

  “Long story. I’ll tell you later, when we have the time to tell long stories.” Mei Li gestured toward the city around them. “Right now, more pressing matters. Like ancient dinosaurs roaming city streets. Lady Masajada, if I could have at least one of your mages to help me scout—”

  Masajada interrupted her. “I’ll go with you.”

  “Ah. Even better, thank you.”

  Proving that she was not slow on the uptake, Masajada said, “You believe the sea channels have been blocked.”

  “Well, you can’t cage the wind, so it has to be the sea.”

  “What can block it?”

  “Keep in mind, I’m remembering what Abe told me. This was a record I didn’t get to read. But from what he said, there are specific channels that connect directly into the seals. Think of them like irrigation channels, that’s basically how they function. The channels poured sea water into the seals, the seals then circulated the water through a fountain-type design that sat on top, and the motion pushed the water to the next seal. It’s supposed to be a self-sustaining system, with the power of the ocean keeping everything moving.

  “There are only a few possibilities for why they’ve stopped working. Either the channels have failed and crumbled through time—in which case we’ll have to rebuild them from scratch—or someone has very foolishly built over them and blocked all access from the sea. That’s why I wanted to ask Lady Liasa some questions. I’d like to know if there has been any recent construction along the coastline.”

  “I doubt she’d know,” Prince Cavanaugh said, head canted. “That’s the sort of detail work a city engineer would know. But Kovel is constantly building over old structures as they fail, and that part of the city is the oldest standing. It could be that someone saw a sea pipeline, didn’t realize its significance, and built right over it.”

  Mei Li could picture that very thing happening. All too vividly. It was part of the reason she wanted to scout the area today. If she couldn’t easily locate the sea channels, then she wouldn’t try to dig them back out again. It would be far easier and faster to just build new ones. But that also meant bringing in enough supplies and experts to build them.

  Decisions, decisions.

  Shunlei popped back in, although he stayed in the tent doorway. “Mei. We’re ready to go.”

  “Good. Lady Masajada, let’s take to the air. Shun, who did you grab?”

  “Dolan.�
��

  “Ah. Slight change of plans; Lady Masajada will fly with me, and we’ll station Dolan here so he can communicate with the Horvath princes.”

  Shunlei shrugged, agreeable. To him, it didn’t really matter who he flew about as long as Mei Li had the support she needed.

  They retreated to the field they’d landed in earlier. Mei Li saw six dragons ready to go, with mages already climbing into their carriers. Some of them she didn’t recognize, so she figured they must be mages from Kovel.

  It took a minute for her to inform everyone about their roles and what they should be looking for. Once that was done, she sent Dolan to the red tent. Then she climbed in with Lady Masajada, both of them getting comfortable in the narrow confines of the carrier.

  With a powerful uplift of wings, Shunlei thrust them into the sky.

  “A unique experience, being airborne with a dragon,” Lady Masajada managed, looking a bit pale. And maybe green around the gills.

  “Are you not good with heights?”

  “I’ve never been this far off the ground before.”

  Ah. So, she hadn’t known about this weakness. “Should we set you back down?”

  Masajada quickly shook her head. “No. I must see this through. And I know the area you’re flying into best.”

  “Alright.” The woman had guts, Mei Li had to give her that. No wonder Prince Cavanaugh had fallen for her. “I promise this is a short flight. If we can’t easily see the sea channels from the air, then odds are they’ve either been destroyed or built over.”

  “You can really see them from the air?”

  “Shunlei will fly in close for me.” Mei Li gestured to the dragons lifting into the air around them. “Hence, them. Just in case we get attacked.”

  “Ah.” Masajada sat on that for a second. “What do these sea channels look like?”

  “They’re very large, the size of a house, and cylindrical. They sit just on top of the waves and funnel directly into a spot next to the docks.”

  Masajada eyed her sideways. “The docks were recently renovated and expanded to accommodate more shipping. I don’t have any memory of what you’re describing.”

  Well. That was encouraging.

  The fly-by turned out to be useless. The renovations of the docks were so extensive Mei Li couldn’t see even a hint of the pipes. She would need to bring in a demolition crew to unearth them, assuming the pipes had just been built over and not removed completely. A thick coating of ice on everything obscured things even more.

  Mei Li had many words to say about this. None of them were clean.

  They were airborne and back down within the hour. Mei Li landed, growling out cuss words as she moved, only stopping long enough to give Masajada a hand out.

  The mage eyed her. “You are extremely unhappy. Will the construction complicate things that much?”

  “Yes. This just made our job ten times harder. I don’t know who authorized that construction, but I want their head on a pike by sunset. They literally destroyed their city because they didn’t do their homework.”

  “I believe the decision was made by a committee.”

  Mei Li lifted both hands and eyes to the heavens in prayer. “Committee. Great dark magic, of course it was a committee decision.”

  Shunlei shook his wings out before shifting back to human form. “You know, I can’t think of a single good decision to ever come out of a committee?”

  “That’s saying something, coming from you.” Mei Li wanted to keep cussing, she really did, as she was that mad about the situation. But being mad wouldn’t fix anything, it never did. And she had to focus on fixing things, first. She’d string up those idiots by their toes later.

  They were quickly losing daylight. These winter days were so short, and they didn’t have much time. Mei Li estimated another hour before sunset, so there wasn’t time to do anything except plan for tomorrow and then rest. And she needed the rest. Thinking of the task ahead was exhausting.

  When she returned to the red tent, she found it filled to the brim with people. The tent was massive, no question, large enough that a cloth divider hung between the meeting space and sleeping quarters. Prince Cavanaugh had moved to the bed, where he sat propped up on a mound of pillows, giving at least twenty people the space to squeeze in, although it was standing room only.

  As she reached the door, she could hear him clearly, even if she could barely see him over people’s shoulders.

  “—waiting on Lady Mei Li of Tomes to return and give us clear directions. But are you all clear on your sections and how many mages, soldiers, and dragons must be in your group?”

  There were sounds of assent throughout.

  “Good. Are there any questions?”

  “When do we start in the morning, and which groups will go first?” asked a woman’s strong, carrying voice.

  “I’d like you to start just after breakfast,” Mei Li answered. “And for the first groups, I need two that are good at construction, four that are battle-ready.”

  People turned to look at her, realized who had answered, and shuffled to the side to give her room to enter. Mei Li gave them all a quick smile of thanks before she slipped through, turning sideways to do so. There really wasn’t much space to be had in here.

  Once she reached the prince’s side, there was a touch more breathing room, so she turned and addressed the group from there.

  “Everyone, first, thank you. I know this has been arduous—horrific, even. But I promise you the end is in sight. I estimate it will take three months to get Kovel back to rights. We’ll have to do this in stages, and it won’t be easy, but it’s doable.”

  The man directly in front of her asked urgently, “But the city will be restored to what it was?”

  “Some construction will need to be done,” Mei Li warned him. “The parts of Kovel Above that dropped into Below may well be destroyed in the process of restoring Above. Such was the case the last time this happened. But we’ll at least be able to safely rebuild.”

  He didn’t look entirely relieved but nodded firmly. “I’ll take that. What do we do, Tomes?”

  “First, let me explain what went wrong. It’s imperative that you understand. The sealing on this city is laid out in a grid pattern. You’ve all seen the circular emblems on the streets, the ones that were often in the seawater fountains?”

  She waited for nods, people murmuring yes.

  “Those were your seals. Some fool committee cut off the sea water that was being piped to those seals, and when that happened, the seals failed. They had no power to run on.”

  A hand shot up. “Tomes, can we reverse that?”

  “Sadly, no. I just flew over the docks to see if that would be possible, and the pipes were so thoroughly lost during the dock renovations that there’s no possible way to restore them. I don’t think they’re even there anymore.

  “The seals in this city run by ocean water and wind. Both are imperative because of the seals’ design and the power necessary to keep Kovel Below in check.

  “So, I don’t ask this lightly: Who is the best at construction spells? Who is the most battle-ready? We need volunteers with both skill sets if we are to build new sea channels from scratch.”

  People looked at each other, silently conferring, before someone in the middle of the tent piped up. “Tomes, I’m Haverty. I’ve run a magical restoration and construction business in this city for twenty years.”

  “You, sir, have precisely the skill set I need. Will you head the construction of the channels?”

  “I will. Can’t say it will be a pleasure, but I’m motivated to make it happen. Can I recommend bringing in Totherow? He’s been overseeing city infrastructure for the past decade. Man knows this city better than anyone standing in this tent.”

  And this was why Mei Li liked calling on local mages—they knew all the right people.

  “I insist you do, sir. We’ll need him. Who else would you like to work with?”

  Haverty didn’t
answer her directly but instead called over, “Vaow, help me out?”

  A large woman sighed, but her head stayed high. “I’m not sure if I’m the most qualified for this. Tomes, my company specializes in building fountains, rain collectors, and gravel drains. We don’t do things on this kind of scale.”

  Mei Li beamed at her.

  “No, but you’re also precisely who I need. Putting in the sea channels is only half the job. The seals along the docks were destroyed during the renovations. I need to reinstate them, and each one must have a fountain built over it and tied into the channels. Isn’t that what you do?”

  “Oh. I guess it is.” Vaow gave her a smile in return. “Well, if that’s the case, we’ll do it. My company has a crew of twelve.”

  “Bring them all. Haverty, how many in your company?”

  “Twenty-six, normally, but four of my people are recovering from injuries. The other twenty-two may or may not be keen to do this, but I think they’ll help if they can.”

  “Ask them all. Turn absolutely no one away. Assure them that we’ll do our utmost to protect all of you while you’re working. What materials do you need?”

  “We’ve got a warehouse on the outskirts of town that makes dry-mix cement, but…” Haverty exchanged a look with Vaow. “From what she’s asking, we’ll need to bring in a lot of it. Can we do it by ship?”

  “We can, part of the way, but the docks are out of commission.” Vaow frowned, rubbing at her chin in thought. “I’m not sure how to bridge the gap.”

  “The dragons will ferry it to you,” Shunlei promised, confident in his answer. “Even if we have to fly it to you. We’ll tie it up in sacks, so it will be easy to grasp and fly over.”

  “Oh.” Vaow gave him a smile and an awkward bob of her head. “Thank you. That’ll do it, I think. If we give the order tonight, we can have people packing it overnight, have it ready by daybreak.”

  A good thought, and Mei Li was happy her experts were thinking things through. “Let’s do it. I’ll sit down with you after this and we’ll work out dimensions, measurements, all of that. For now, I need battle-ready teams.”