by Eric Vall
No one in the marketplace moved an inch as the rain pelted their faces, and everywhere I looked, I was met with stares that varied between shock, disbelief, and fear. Then I found Pindor in the crowd, and the kid was pale as a sheet while his lips hung slack like a guppy and dripped rain onto his Defender gear.
“Okay, so, we’re all aware of the situation,” I decided. “Moving on, I don’t exactly know how to approach the issue, but I do know my unborn child prevents Rekekis’ powers from being as almighty as they would be otherwise. That’s a silver lining! Also, I’m sure you all know I’m not gonna shrug this off, and I’m putting every ounce of my energy into continuing at full speed ahead regardless of any wrath of the gods issue. Our primary focus should still be the upcoming siege, and the developments there are all good news. Aside from the storms. So, yeah. Any questions?”
I didn’t expect to see hands being raised or anything, but the complete stillness of every dwarf, elf, ogre, mage, and merchant in the crowd was impressionable beyond explanation. If there wasn’t the constant rumble of thunder and pounding rain right now, I probably could have heard a pin drop on the other side of Falmount.
“Alright, carry on, then,” I muttered.
Then I ducked out of there as calmly as possible while Haragh followed along behind me, and when I risked a glance over my shoulder, the market was still occupied by drenched statues staring at the platform where I’d been.
Urn and Kurna hadn’t moved, either. They just stared right back at the crowd.
“Godsdamnit,” I sighed, and I rifled my hair back to a crazed disarray on my way to the lanes.
Haragh clapped me on the back. “Ye’ said what needed to be said.”
“Yeah, now we wait to see if I have any allies or mages left after this,” I muttered, but I stopped short just before I could trample a sodden Dorinick.
I could tell by the dwarven general’s glassy expression that he’d heard my speech, and I tried to gauge how he was processing things as I forced a casual tone.
“Hey, man. Glad to see you not sedated anymore. Hell of a party last night.”
“Aye,” Dorinick snorted as a grin twitched beneath his bushy beard. “Don’t know what to say about all this other business, but I just come to tell ye’ the catapults made it here. So, that’s good news.”
Chapter 14
I took my time climbing around in the train cars while I checked out the components for the three catapults, but this wasn’t for the sake of being thorough. I had no doubt Thrungrig and his crew would make sure every part was accounted for, I just really didn’t want to be standing around on the platform now that my residents and allies were leaving the market.
I’d seen them shuffling slowly through the muddy streets like I’d personally removed their brains for them, and if I was about to lose all my soldiers, I’d rather be told upfront than watch them all stare me down for potentially dooming them.
So, I nodded to Haragh and Dorinick as I triple-checked the three train cars filled with parts, but eventually, the dwarven general caught my sleeve and dragged me back out into the rain.
“It’s all here,” Dorinick sighed. “Trust me. Ye’ want us to get on with assembling them?”
“Not yet,” I muttered as I side-stepped my way behind Haragh’s huge frame. “Let’s keep everything loaded in the cars, and we’ll assemble the catapults when we start setting up in the forest. If we start setting up in the forest. That’ll be easier than rolling them for miles to get there.”
“Aye,” the general agreed. “We’ll leave the cars here at the station, then. I was sedated when that princess of yours stopped by the shop to get her weapons, though. If ye’ let me know next time she’s off with her army, I’ll stop over and dull those baby blades she asked for.”
“Thank you,” I said in earnest. “And Dorinick, I really, really appreciate you sticking around for this. I know this god stuff is a kind of alarming, but--”
“Hey,” the general snorted. “Ye’ think anything you get into surprises me these days?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Apparently not.”
“I will say this, though,” Dorinick continued. “If ye’ weren’t so damned set on collectin’ beautiful women, you wouldn’t be in half the trouble ye’ are. The dwarves know better. We collect riches. How many gods ye’ see smitin’ us?”
“None,” I chuckled.
“Ever seen me forced to dunk my hands into a blood vat?”
I shook my head. “Never.”
“What about havin’ a nation full of stinkin’ elves ready to skin me alive?” the dwarf checked.
“Nope.”
“Uh-huh.” Dorinick nodded. “Take a lesson from the dwarves. Work more, fuck less.”
“I will,” I assured him.
Haragh smirked as the dwarven general headed down the tracks to unhitch the cars, and I shook my head in disbelief as I glanced at the half-ogre.
“He’s not wrong,” Haragh admitted.
“He’s not pissed, either,” I pointed out. “That’s the best reaction I’ll probably get out of this.”
“Don’t know about that,” the half-ogre said as he furrowed his brow, and he pointed over my shoulder.
“Defender Flynt,” a mage called out, and I turned to see a group of five Defenders with Raynor among them.
At first, I thought I was about to receive the news my town would be deserted by tonight, but the mages were all bright eyed and grinning as they swiped more rain away from their faces.
“We were discussing the nature of the god’s storm with Raynor,” a young Defender told me, “and we think we may have an idea of how to counter it at the siege.”
“You do?” I asked, and I couldn’t help looking completely caught off guard by this.
“Can’t do much to change the wrath of the gods,” Raynor rasped. “These storms won’t adhere to the same laws of nature. That’s why your soldiers spent their powers up faster at the ambushes.”
I furrowed my brow. “That makes sense. Then what do we do?”
“Approach them differently,” the Defender replied. “The Flumen Mages should focus on redirecting floods and forcing the water to absorb into the ground quicker, instead of trying to hold the rain itself off. The clouds are too complex for our magic to influence anyway.”
“And the Aer Mages shouldn’t be wasting their magic trying to change the direction of the god’s wind,” Raynor added. “They need to harness their own to push back against it. It’ll take a lot of power to manage it, mind, but if the storm’s a direct attack from Rekekis, you gotta get your mages working defensively against it, rather than connecting to it. Their magic will be more effective.”
“That’s… perfect,” I realized.
The Defenders nodded as they grinned in agreement, and I couldn’t believe how excited they looked at the prospect of taking on a god’s storm.
“It’s like you said,” a Defender added with a shrug. “Better to know what you’re up against than not, and now that we know it’s a god…”
“If you like, I can lead a few practices out at the fields today,” Raynor offered. “I’m not as advanced as some of these others, but we got this storm on us anyways, which is a good time to switch up the Defenders’ training. The fields are too much of a mess to do anything else with ‘em, and I figure getting the Aer and Flumen Mages started right away would be best.”
“Yes, do it,” I chuckled. “Thank you for taking the initiative. I’ll send for the Defenders at the Oculus to join you throughout the day. I have a rigging I can install along the walls at the fields as well. Most of the strikes seem to be taking place on my side of town, but the rigging will prevent the lightning from blasting the stonework apart if there are any strikes.”
“Sounds good,” the barkeep said with a nod, and the group split off to let the residents know about the new training regimen.
“See that?” Haragh muttered. “This is why I always listen to my woman. Taru’s never wrong. That w
oman has a way about her.”
“Yeah, she does,” I agreed as I watched the mages jog off into the storm. “They weren’t even mad. Did I imagine that? They looked--”
“As crazy as you,” the half-ogre snorted. “It’s a sickness, is what it is, but I guess it’s lucky ye’ got ‘em all looking for a hell of a fight these days. S’pose I’ll get on over to the Oculus and let them know.”
“Yeah, but only bring the Flumen and Aer Mages,” I decided. “The rest can continue their training in Serin, and any instructors they can spare would be a huge help so Raynor doesn’t have to take over everything.”
“Yes, sir,” the half-ogre sighed, and he trudged his way toward the stables as I scanned the lanes.
News of the barkeep’s advice was spreading rapidly amongst the mages, and the way everyone’s mood seemed to shift immediately left me gaping from the platform.
It wasn’t only my army who was surprising me, though.
When I stopped at the dwarven shop to get supplies for more lightning rods, the dwarves just snorted and shook their heads at me, and I could tell they were of the same mind as Dorinick. A few of them offered me advice on the many hobbies I could pick up besides getting gods’ sisters pregnant, and I nodded in agreement when they reminded me of the inventions I’d come up with that brought no one’s wrath down upon me. Overall, they seemed to think I needed to find more work to do, and even though I was busy as hell these days, I could see their point.
Maybe it would be more ideal to stay up building at night instead of chaining down spectras and ordering them to call me master, but then again… maybe not.
To each his own.
The elves I passed on my way to the fields grinned as they met my gaze, though, and something about the deadly glint in their serpentine eyes made me wonder if they were actually impressed with all this. They strolled through Rekekis’ storm like the fact they were still alive proved their superiority, and when a few of them chuckled and pointed to the jagged lightning sprawling overhead, I decided there were definitely some positive aspects to the elven view of things.
Then Grot found me rigging aluminum cables on the walls surrounding the fields, and he caught me in a painful headlock as he chuckled with pride.
“Never known a man to fly dragons and smite the gods himself,” Grot chortled. “Ye’ got balls, Flynt!”
“Thanks,” I wheezed against his bulbous belly. “That’s one way to look at it.”
“Ogres know how it is,” Grot assured me as he released his hold. “Keeka’s da was the ruler of Jagruel before me. The day she joined my pride, he sent half the region to my lair.”
“What did you do?” I asked.
“Mauled ‘em,” the ogre growled. “The hell else ye’ gonna do? Keeka’s mine. Fuck anyone who’s got somethin’ to say about it.”
Then the ogre ruler clapped me so hard on the back that I slipped into the mud, and while he chuckled his way toward the northern woods, his women bowed in respect to me as they followed after him.
I had a confused smile on my face as I installed eighty lightning rods around the training fields as quickly as I could without getting struck, and then I stuck around to help Raynor with training the mages who’d already arrived. The barkeep focused on circuits to harness winds separate from the ones howling around us, and I read through the soil to help the Flumen Mages figure out what approaches were working to move the flood to the lower layers of the soil.
By the time the instructors from the Oculus arrived to take over, half our mages were grinning as they managed to fend off small portions of the storm at a time, and I was standing around watching them stubbornly continue in the pouring rain when Kurna came up behind me.
“We just received a raven from House Quyn,” the brawny mage said as he handed me a sodden letter. “Dragir’s got a few AR-15s for you, and all those 1911s you ordered for Cayla’s army are finished. The rockets should be done by tomorrow morning, too.”
“Great, I’ll send a dragon to pick up the shipment once Shoshanne’s back from the Oculus,” I replied. “The catapults are ready to go, and our Defenders should be returning from the south by tonight, so let’s make sure their housing is squared away. The AR-15s Dragir finished up are for you and the other generals, though. I’ll have Cayla give you a demonstration as soon as they arrive, but I want you focusing on getting used to firing them until we move out.”
Kurna’s eyes flashed with lightning as they widened, and I could tell by his lethal grin that I’d just made his day.
“Yes, sir,” the brawny mage chuckled. “I’ve been wondering when you were gonna let me get my hands on those rifles.”
“Well, the time’s finally come,” I told the man. “Aside from all this, we’ll have to update the incoming Defenders on this mess when they get here, too, but make sure they stay on track with training. They’ll be behind the other mages in terms of our newer tactics, but if we can get them as caught up as possible, that’d be great.”
“They’ll have plenty of experience in the field, at least,” Kurna pointed out.
“I’m counting on that to help make up the difference,” I agreed. “For now, though, I want every Aer and Flumen Mage we’ve got focusing on how to approach these storms.”
“Yes, sir,” Kurna said with a broad grin. “I’ll make sure they know you’ve been gathering more enemies for yourself these days.”
“Thanks,” I chuckled. “By the way, I heard you finally sealed the deal with the spice lady last night. I’m proud of you.”
Kurna abruptly glowered. “Really? You’re gonna be a showoff about this, too?”
“What?” I laughed. “I was just congratulating you!”
“Oh, sure,” the brawny mage snorted. “Tell us you got an immortal pregnant, and then pat me on the head about my spice lady. I’ll have you know, I don’t need to piss off any gods to feel good about this. I am proud of myself. Mortal women are fantastic.”
“They are, and you should be proud,” I agreed. “I’m not showing off, I just think it’s awesome you finally--”
Kurna waved me away as he stalked back toward the pub, and I threw my arms up as I turned in the opposite direction.
At least my generals weren’t running for the hills, though, and I found myself in an infinitely better frame of mind on my way home than I had been when I left it. Against all reason, my town and allies were dedicated to our fight regardless of any immortal dilemmas, and their loyalty made it easier to stay focused on my initial plans for the upcoming siege.
Not to mention, my five heirs were becoming more epic by the day, and even though I still had hundreds of unanswered questions, a few things were clear.
By this time next year, I’d be the father of a Lux Mage, a future god, and some potentially feral fledglings, but it was still fucking good to be a baron.
So, I sloshed down the muddy lane while I watched bolts of purple lightning jet toward my mansion, and I greeted my water spawn and their water spawn on my way to the door. When I got inside, I could hear my women talking Nulena’s ear off in the training hall, and they interrupted each other while they asked her about her powers, the worlds she’d visited, and her relationship with Chaos. The conversation was probably the strangest one I’d ever heard taking place in my home, but I decided not to join them since it seemed to be working well to keep them all from worrying too much.
Then I unsealed the entrance to my shop before I lit the torches inside, and I was glad to see the water had drained out by now. Only my sketches were ruined from the storm, so I worked on returning everything that had washed to the floor back to their shelves, and then I summoned the miniature magazines and pellet-sized bullets back to the worktable. Stan and Solana flew in to join me while I straightened up the last few fallen daggers, and when I dropped onto my stool, the two metal figures looked eager to get back to work.
“Hey, guys,” I sighed. “Sorry everything’s gotten a bit off track, but you wouldn’t believe the day I’ve had
. Wait until you hear what I found out after the storm hit--”
Stan waved to interrupt me, and he and his dragon made a brief charade that clearly showed a god chasing after me and a murdery woman patting her belly.
“Oh,” I muttered. “So, you heard about all this?”
Stan nodded, but when he motioned for me to get going on his mini magazines, I furrowed my brow.
“Hold up,” I snorted. “You’re not even surprised?”
The little metal man shrugged again, and he pointed at me like this was enough of an explanation.
“Hey, everything I do is in direct response to the crazy shit going on around me,” I informed Stan. “I don’t just skip off to start my own crazy shit. I’m not that guy.”
I plucked his miniature rifle off the table as I said this, and when Stan rolled over to point and laugh, I decided to let the topic rest for now. Then I summoned his skeletal dragon over to me so I could form the proper magazine mounts for Stan’s silent but deadly arsenal.
“You’re entitled to your opinions,” I muttered. “Why don’t we move on to planning your mission?”
Stan raised his hand up to his ear, and I rolled my eyes.
“Yes, the mission that involves sending a little metal man to save the day on his little dragon steed,” I sighed. “Again, direct response to the crazy impenetrable fortress dilemma. Now, can we be professional about this?”
The metal man nodded as he tried to rein it in, and I began replicating the magazine mounts I’d used for my Boms, but on a super tiny scale that could line each of Solana’s ribs.
“First thing’s first,” I began. “When I head out to instill our own silencing runes in the forest, I’m going to see what I can do about locating portals closer to the Master’s headquarters. That way, you’re not going in there too long before we’re all situated. We don’t want anyone noticing you’re breaking through his defenses if we’re not prepared to give the Master everything we’ve got. So, once we locate a good starting point out there, phase one is sending you behind enemy lines.”
Stan nodded as he patted his AR-15.