Master of Tomes

by Raconteur, Honor

  One man lifted a hand immediately. “Tomes, I’m the captain of the city’s magical squadron. We’ve been the front line of defense this entire time, and I have to say, I’m more than ready to go on the offensive.”

  “I like your attitude. Your name?”

  “Jacobs.”

  “Excellent, Captain Jacobs. Who else would you like to fight with?”

  “He’s not in this room—he’s in a non-magical combat unit. But the entire squadron is part dwarf, and I wouldn’t be on the wrong end of a dark alley with them, I’ll tell you that.”

  For a moment—a stunningly clear moment—she thought of Melchior. Of how strong the man had been, so capable of defending the rest of them as they battled one magical problem after another. Her eyes sought Shunlei’s, and he smiled nostalgically at her, understanding.

  “You’ve no need to convince me,” she told Captain Jacobs with a bittersweet smile. “In the first group of Tomes, the founding member was part dwarf. He was the staunchest fighter of them all.”

  Many people were surprised by this, murmuring to each other. Jacobs was among them, his brown eyes wide in his tanned face. But he looked vindicated, too, as if she had said something he’d been trying to get across to people.

  “Then you understand what I mean. If I have a choice about who I fight alongside, it’s them.”

  “Then call them. I’ll invite them myself, if you think that will go over better. I want only the best for this. We have to get in, build quickly, and get back out before disaster strikes. We don’t want to linger in an area where a seal has been newly formed. The upheaval of Kovel Below being shoved back under is akin to standing on top of an earthquake. We don’t want to be there when it happens.”

  Prince Cavanaugh cleared his throat beside her.

  “Tomes, that was one of our major questions. I didn’t think to clarify this with you earlier. When the seals are renewed, will our lost sections of the city just come back? You said they would mostly be restored, but I’m not sure what you mean by that.”

  “Hmm, it depends. The sections of Kovel Below that rose up and replaced Kovel Above will be shoved back into place, that’s true. The seals will force that to happen. But anything damaged in Kovel Above won’t magically fix itself. That’s the best way to explain it.”

  “Ah. Hence why you can make no promises.” Prince Cavanaugh blew out a resigned breath. “I suppose magic cannot fix all problems.”

  “It never can.” Mei Li shook her head, glad someone finally saw that. The world at large didn’t seem to. “But we can at least get ancient creatures and evils back into the past where they belong and make it safe to walk these streets again.”

  “I’m for that.”

  Mei Li met with her builders and got plans into place. They swore they’d pull all the building materials together that very night. While she did that, Shunlei organized a dragon work crew.

  It took longer than she expected to finish her meeting, and by the time she came out, she was starving and dead on her feet. Mei Li asked for directions, eventually found the tent she and Shunlei had been assigned, and made her way toward it, feet aching. Really, if she wasn’t so hungry, she’d just collapse face first on the bed.

  Reaching the tent, she lifted the flap and ducked inside—then paused right there, taking it all in.

  Her husband, who was made of light and all things sparkly, had not only set up their bed, but had retrieved dinner for both of them and set it on a folding table in the middle of the tent.

  “When did you even have time to do this?” she asked, beyond thankful she didn’t have to go back out and search for food in this madness.

  “Prince Pari’s retainer actually organized most of this, I just reaped the benefits.” Shunlei waved her to a chair. “Sit, sit, I know you’re tired. How did the meeting go?”

  “Well.” Mei Li sat and tried to not inhale a dinner roll in a single bite. She managed to slow down enough that it took three, instead.

  “You’ve worked out which materials you need?”

  She nodded. Wow, there was more than one roll. Excellent.

  “Will it be packed and ready by morning?”

  Mei Li made a noise of agreement and reached for the tea. Still warm. As she expected of her dragon husband.

  “How long do you think it will take to construct the pipes and the dock seals?”

  She held up a single finger.

  “Is that an hour or a day? Day? That makes the most sense; I remember these pipes vaguely from the last time, and they were massive. You could squeeze a house inside of them. Alright, a full day. How many seals along the docks?”

  Six fingers, although she had to put her fork down to hold them up.

  “Six, alright.” Shunlei regarded her with amusement. “Should I just let you eat first, and we can talk after your belly is full?”

  Mei Li nodded and made a heart out of both hands before diving back into the food.

  “Love you too,” he replied, chuckling.

  Mei Li looked over her work crew the next morning and felt cautiously optimistic. They were all professionals, people who had been in the construction trade for a good decade, at least. Many for even longer. They came with tools and a determination blazing on their faces.

  They were even awake, as was she. On her end, the awake part may have taken three cups of tea and a good thirty minutes of shuffling around. But she had achieved success.

  Maybe it was a sign that today would go well. Mei Li hoped so.

  Mixed in with her work crew of mages was a squadron of twelve soldiers, and the twenty-four dragons flying everyone in. The ship with the supplies was already sailing toward the other end of the docks.

  Mei Li just had one question to settle before they took off. She called Totherow and Haverty to her side, their breaths making white clouds in the chilly morning air. She stretched a map of the city out between her hands.

  “Alright, one more time. I’ve marked all the places where the seals should be or will need to be redone. Master Totherow, knowing the exact location now, where can we build the sea channels so they will connect to all six seals along the docks?”

  “All six, eh?” He tugged the knitted cap on his head a little further over his ears, and between his thick black beard and the cap, all that was really visible of his face were his eyes. “All six means destroying parts of the docks that we just finished building. There’s no way around that.”

  She held his eyes steadily, silently challenging any argument.

  “I’ll need to get creative with the city architects in order to solve that problem later,” he said with a grin. “I’m not about to argue with you, Tomes. If you say it has to be here, it has to be here. Commerce comes second in this situation, no question. We’ll need to go directly out from the seal and into the city, straight line. There’s no room to do anything else, and it will flow and function better that way.”

  Haverty gave a firm nod. “Then that’s what we’ll do. I have the dimensions of what we need to build. But Tomes, it’ll take a while for the mortar to set.”

  “No, it won’t,” she assured him. “That’s why I’m bringing five mages with me. We have spells to help hurry things along. Also spells for bracing things, if you need that.”

  “Do you? I’ve never seen a mage do that sort of work.”

  “It’s a different type of magic.” And far too complicated to explain without launching into a lecture, which they didn’t have time for. “But suffice it to say, I can help you in several ways. I’ll pitch in as I’m able. Let’s get there and get this done.”

  “I’m for that.” Totherow immediately turned and headed for Rone. “Lady Rone, I thank you in advance for the lift.”

  “You are more than welcome,” Rone replied, unfurling her purple wings a little in anticipation.

  Mei Li climbed into her carrying case, making room for Scott as he climbed in with her. All the dragons were carrying two people this morning, the short flight enabling them
to do so. Scott scooted in, and while there were dark circles under his eyes, he had a fierce grin on his face.

  “I’m really looking forward to getting this started,” he admitted to her as he tied his side of the flap tight. “Kovel has worried me for months now. It’s like a dark cloud hanging over my shoulder, and I’m ready to get rid of it. Thanks for picking me.”

  “You and your brother are amazingly quick studies, and that’s what I need this morning,” she explained with a smile. “I’ll be throwing a lot of construction-type spells at you, and you’ll have to learn them on the spot and implement them. Not everyone has the ability to do that.”

  “Is that why you brought Alina and Finn, too?”

  “That, and they already have experience with this. We’re doing something very similar to what we did with Zaffi.”

  “Ahh. And Dolan is here for communication?”

  “More to support our soldiers. He’s very battle-ready.”

  “I see. I suppose that works if we’re only working on two seals at a time.”

  “Don’t have much choice about that. Trying to do more spreads our protectors too thin. Better to get it bitten off in chunks, clear out an area, and gain a foothold.”

  Shunlei lifted off with a very powerful upthrust of wings. He barely got any sort of wind beneath him before he banked and descended once more. It was a very, very short flight, barely five minutes. But it was far safer flying that distance than trying to go through the outskirts of the city. And there really weren’t enough ships to spare; they’d barely found one for the supplies. Mei Li was just as happy to fly.

  The dragons landed on the open docks. Mei Li flipped her way out of the container, got a good look at what she was marching into, and reconsidered the whole thing.

  Madness.

  That was all it was. Some of the chaos was barely visible in the distance, while other parts lurked along the edges of the docks. It was the strangest mix of timelines she’d ever seen. Deinos ran the streets, clearly visible; golems half-amassed from buildings and beams shuffled along; ghosts ambled in all directions; and other things she couldn’t readily put a name to waited in the shadows.

  The docks were large, heaven knew—they could take in fifty ships at any given time—but they were not large enough to handle all of that.

  “There are days,” she said with a groan, eyes closed fatalistically, “that I really don’t like my job.”

  Shunlei turned his head to look at her, mischief clear on his dragon face. “I can burn the area clear before we start?”

  “I very stupidly promised Lady Liasa that I wouldn’t destroy more of the city than absolutely necessary.” Mei Li considered for a moment before tacking on, “Save that for Plan B. I’d rather destroy a few buildings than lose lives over here. Alright, looks like everyone has landed. Let’s start the demolition.”

  Captain Jacobs was on the dock across from her, and he cupped a hand around his mouth to shout, “Tomes, I assume we’re starting at the top and working our way down?”

  She cupped her hands around her own mouth to shout back, “CORRECT! PROTECT EACH SECTION! DON’T TRY TO TACKLE IT ALL AT ONCE!”

  He waved a hand to acknowledge her, then jogged ahead, giving orders as he went.

  Trusting him to watch all of their backs, she focused on getting to the right spot.

  Shunlei stayed in dragon form; all the dragons did. Tengfei bounced along with the soldiers, very keen on battling ancient evils. Mostly so he’d have a good story to tell afterward. But he was one of the fastest, strongest fighters, so Mei Li was inclined to think he’d be good help.

  Even as fast as she moved, she didn’t beat her construction crew. Haverty’s people were already measuring things out, one of them carrying a chalk line spool, and they had the wood marked for cutting in a trice. Mei Li was rather in awe of their speed.

  There wasn’t much she could do here, not until they started laying stones and getting mortar mixed, which would take more than a minute. The ship was even now at the dock, anchored in, but they still had to unload everything.

  Although Bai was having fun showing off his strength by lifting out whole pallets of stone at a time. Show-off.

  Mei Li found Vaow, as there was something they could be actively doing while Haverty’s crew got started. “Miss Vaow! Let’s go hunt down that seal, shall we?”

  Vaow looked up, then gave her a nod. “I’d like to know what state it’s in, what repairs we need to do. No sense in having the sea channel up and running if the seal isn’t working. But is it safe to go in?”

  “The seal shouldn’t be far, just along this first street.” Mei Li turned to evaluate the area. And grimaced. “Which, granted, seems like an incredible distance at the moment.”

  The street along the docks was in chaos, everything and anything battling it out on the cobblestone. There was more blood on the street than sea spray at the moment, and the situation wasn’t really improving.

  Their battle team was fighting it out with what seemed to be a collection of golems—short, wiry, and more scaley than anything. Wild magic gone awry, that was what seemed to have formed them. They were proving difficult to fight, as they were almost immune to pain, and fast. Golems were worse than cats with their speed.

  And, of course, they were fighting right in the area where Mei Li needed to go.

  “Shun,” she said, pointing to the fight in progress, “I hate to say this, but I think they’re dancing all over the seal.”

  “Of course they are.” He sighed gustily, the air nicely warm for a moment. “Right. You stay right here; I’ll take care of this.”

  “Thank you, hubby.” She smiled as he stalked forward, tail lashing in irritation. “Such a reliable husband he is. Truly excellent at pest control.”

  Vaow gave her an odd look, brows quirked up in question. “I’ve heard you two are married. But you’re truly married?”

  “We are, yes.”

  “Interesting. I’d love to hear your story, once this madness is over.”

  Mei Li gave her a quick smile. “You’re not the only one. I’ll be happy to tell you, maybe over a nice, relaxing dinner.”

  “We’ll deserve a relaxing dinner after this.”

  Mei Li groaned. “Preach it. Oh, there he goes.”

  Shunlei was entirely out of patience this morning. That was obvious in how he handled the matter. He stepped between soldiers and golems, protecting the humans, then promptly unleashed dragon fire on the golems. It was hot enough that the golems began melting on the spot. Not content to only use this method, he then whipped about in a sprightly manner, using his tail to knock them straight into the ocean nearby.

  When hot rock met cold sea water, the golems were destroyed instantly, cracking apart.

  “Truly excellent at pest control,” Mei Li repeated happily.

  Vaow’s eyes were bulging out of her face. “Great gods, he knew precisely what to do. How many golems has he fought?”

  “Probably too many to count. Shunlei’s forgotten more fighting techniques than anyone else living knows. I’ll bet my right pinky on that. Anyway, the area is clear, let’s get in there—and hope the golems didn’t destroy what was left of the seal, assuming it’s still there.”

  On the one hand, Mei Li wanted to have hope the seal was still there.

  But on the other hand, stone golems.

  And Kovel Below.

  And whatever had happened during the renovation of the docks.

  Frankly, she had better odds of being able to wake up tomorrow with the ability to fly.

  Shunlei came back for her, escorting them both every step of the way. He didn’t take anything for granted here, and she couldn’t blame him. Mei Li certainly didn’t. Kovel Below didn’t promise safety, not even for a second.

  The stench of sulfur was strong where the stone golems had once stood. Mei Li’s nose wrinkled up at the smell of rotten eggs, nose hairs curling up and dying. Geh, she wouldn’t be able to face eggs for a while.
>
  But that was the least of her concerns. As she looked around the area, she kept searching for some sign of a fountain, or at least of the seal carved into the ground. Formed of copper to keep it from rusting, it would be unmistakable even at a distance. Even well oxidized, the green-blue metal should be highly visible in the grey cobblestone of the street.

  Only, it wasn’t.

  She went all around the area several times, hoping that maybe it was somehow still there. It would be easier to repair it than to start from scratch. But no such luck. She finally stopped, hands on hips, frustrated.

  “Not here,” Shunlei observed. “I’ve got a higher vantage point than you and I have to say, I don’t see a single copper anything on this street.”

  Mei Li groaned, head flopping forward. “Great. That’s just great. So, we’ll have to re-do all six seals?”

  “Looks that way. I wonder if they were removed during the renovation of the street?”

  “It’s either that or Kovel Below shifted everything so much that they’re now in an entirely different place. Either way, it doesn’t change the outcome. We’ll have to build them from scratch.”

  Consoling her, he offered, “At least that way you know they’re done right?”

  “There is that.” Mei Li blew out a breath and turned back, looking for Vaow. “Miss Vaow! Get your crew to bring copper and stone, let’s build some seals!”

  She was a stone’s throw away, peering intently at the ground, but at that, looked up. “Is it really gone?”

  “All of them appear to be, yes.”

  “Well, that’s just great.” Vaow threw her hands up in disgust. “All of them? I don’t know who approved the renovations, but when I get my hands on them, I’m going to wring every single neck.”

  Mei Li had the feeling more than a few of them shared that opinion. If those committee members were smart, they’d change their names and immigrate to another country now. They wouldn’t stand much of a chance in this city once Kovel was back to rights. People would be looking for the ones responsible in short order.