“The ship is moving south, sir.”
Carvin nodded at the messenger, “Back to your positions, everyone. You know what we have to do, w. We hold until Puck’s re-enforcements arrive.”
A scattered round of shouts, and then the rebels erupted from their hiding places and raced back to the defensive positions facing inland. Carvin sprinted back to where he had arranged a lookout post to gaze down on the northern lake shore. Immediately he spotted the black-robed figures slipping through the trees towards where his men were leaping into their dugout positions. The battle would be coming soon, but now he needed his men to wait.
“Hold your fire,” Carvin muttered. He wanted the first volley to be effective, and his fighters needed to wait for the command. As the last of his fighters leapt into their shelters, he nodded to the goblin standing nearby. The goblin he picked as his messenger was heavy set and had wide shoulders and strong arms. He held a big rawhide drum and a pair of heavy sticks. Together they waited and watched. Slowly the Adherents slipped through the trees, until a group of several hundred were gathered on the edge of the forest. As their forces swelled, the Adherent officers decided they were ready and ordered the advance. Carvin watched as the black robes made their way closer with agonizing slowness. Finally, when he deemed the time right, he turned to the goblin and motioned to the drum.
“Now, sound the signal!” Carvin said to him. The Adherents were half way to the first positions and two hundred were ranged out in the open while more hesitated near the trees. He could see several officers shouting at the lead units to pull back, but he wanted those men out of the fight.
Boom Boom
The thunder of the goblin war drum echoed out over Palisade Head, and Carvin’s first line of defense raised their weapons and unleashed a volley at the Adherents. Immediately the afternoon was filled with shouts and eruptions. Miraculously the rebels unleashed their volley with perfect timing, and nearly two hundred and fifty bluish blasts of energy tore into the Adherents. The Adherents on the beach had no chance, and were knocked backwards almost to a man. Carvin had ordered his men to set their weapons to a heavy stun. He wanted the Adherents disabled and others trying to pull their fellows out of harm’s way. What better way to bring an army to disarray, then to leave them worrying about their fellows.
“Why aren’t we killing them?” the goblin asked again.
“Because they just lost a fourth of their force and those men will be down for hours,” Carvin said. “I have a plan for them that I worked out with Puck last night.” He waited another couple minutes while the chaos settled. The Adherents immediately sought cover and began returning fire, and the rebels slipped back into their cover and waited. “Play the signal again.”
The goblin grunted but picked up his heavy mallets and started pounding on the big drum, sending the rhythmic sound across the battlefield. Carvin watched as the newest members of Pucks forces started to work their skills across the bodies strewn between the opposing forces. At first the movement was slight and even Carvin was hard pressed to see what was happening.
Suddenly there was a chorus of shouts and musket blasts began to ring out in the trees where the Adherents were arranging their siege lines. Then he saw them sliding slowly from hidden spaces in the rocks. Vines and tree roots slithered out from the forest and from the trees on Palisade Head, each time the roots reached an Adherent, they grew around the unconscious men, trapping them. Spread out among his forward line was a dozen tree spirits and beings that could call on the very nature of the forest. They stayed hidden among the rocks and reached out to the trees and encouraged them to send their roots wide and shallow.
“I think that’ll keep the Adherents busy for a while,” Carvin said with a laugh.
The goblin grinned and picked up his drum, ready to follow the young human commander and send his messages echoing across the massive mountain of stone.
The afternoon passed slowly, and the Adherents made several probing attacks at the rebels. Carvin was happy they didn’t decide to press the attack immediately. So far he had hidden the true number of defenders. If the Adherents decided to press the attack heavily, they would soon realize they were facing a much smaller force than what they had been told. If that happened, the defense would fall apart much more quickly then they wanted.
* * * * *
Cain watched the coast slip by as the Goliath came up to full steam and surged south. He had sent the rest of the fleet south and ordered them to hold position a half a mile from Duluth. The Goliath was running half as fast as any other Ironship could move and he knew he would catch them at about the right time.
The evening passed uneventfully, and the next day they rejoined the fleet by midday. Cain spent the early part of the morning staring at his grand map, but the table was silent on what was happening at Palisade Head. This was not unusual if no maps were close by. The area would then remain dark. He finally gave up on finding out any more information on the events there and made his way out onto the upper deck. The Goliath and the rest of the fleet were arranged in a tight group just out from the harbors at Duluth. Here the harbor stretched several hundred yards into the lake, grand piles of granite piled into the water to create a break and make a shelter for the ore ships as they unloaded.
“Is everyone in place?” Cain asked. He glanced at the captain as he waited for the reply.
“Yes, sir,” the captain replied. “All the other commanders and ship captains reported in early this morning. We await your orders.”
“Get everyone on deck,” Cain ordered. “We will steam through the Divide the moment the Sunderer has done its work.” Carefully he pulled the covering off the controls to the strange device and carefully folded it off to the side.
There was a rush of activity on the ship as Cain leaned over his control panel and began turning a big wheel on the side of the panel. Deep below him, in the depths of the mighty ship, a series of pipes opened and steam started hissing up into them. Those lines led from the engines all the way up to the gathering device built into the Sunderer.
Cain watched as his men pulled back the covering that hid the device from view. When the tarps were finally removed, the machine gleamed in the late-morning sun. A great disc of cold iron wrapped around until it formed a perfect circle. That was not the beauty of the Sunderer. The real power lay inside the cold iron sheathing.
That was his gift, Cain thought. Alchemy was his specialty, the changing of one element to another by the mixing of various elements and minerals. It had all happened quite by accident about four years ago. Working in his lab deep under the ground near his palace on Manitoulin Island, a bit of gold dust slipped into a boiling mixture of ground diamonds and a dozen other rare and costly items. There was a steam line feeding heat into the mixture and suddenly he noticed a slight glow. The glow was an indication that the mixture was pulling power from the magnetic lines around the earth.
How amazing, he thought, that the humans on the other side of the Divide had never figured out that simple concept. Then he’d noticed a weakening of the Divide. It showed up on his map table as a circle of silver, barely visible but still there. There and then his grand idea struck him and Cain had chuckled. The idea had nearly bankrupted him, obtaining the amount of the mixture he needed had nearly destroyed the treasure he had taken from his domain.
“It’s working, sir.”
Cain looked up and pulled his mind back from memory, “Get ready to move.” Cain signaled the captain of the Goliath. The cold iron sheath only covered the disc on the part facing back towards the ship, the outer section was open. From the open area a silvery light shot out a hundred yards before coming to a sudden halt against a wall of darkness that appeared from out of nowhere.
“There it is,” Cain shouted. The noise was building as the magic of the ancient Map Makers, Runners, and Architects fought against his device. The darkness surge
d once and then began to fade like a runner who had given all in a long race and found he was coming up short of the finish line.
“It’s opening.” Someone on the deck shouted, and a rousing cheer swelled from the gathered Adherents. These were men handpicked from the ranks of his soldiers, those without families and no honor except to whoever offered them places to pillage. It was a mixed and motley collection, humans from the old world, a few dwarves and elves cast off from their societies for horrible crimes, a couple score goblins and orcs who refused to abide by Puck’s rules. A good number of northmen, violent and ready to destroy anything that stood in their path and even a few non-humanoids mixed into the gathering. This was his hammer, the force he held in reserve to spread fear and terror to anyone who dared oppose him. They were loyal to him because of the things he gave them, and as long as the coin continued to flow, they would carry out his bidding without question.
“Full steam ahead,” Cain shouted over the bubble of voices. “And I want every cannon firing the moment we have targets. Let chaos reign, and we will let this side of the Divide tremble at our power!” There was a rousing shout. “And above all, you have my permission to loot the city. It’s all yours, boys. Have fun!”
The gap in the Divide widened and shook for a moment as they started towards it. Then it stabilized. A great circle nearly five hundred feet around, a disc of darkness was held back by the silvery light. Closer and closer it grew as they picked up speed and finally the great ship pushed into the remains of the Divide and smashed through it.
Chapter Nine
Heart of the Lake
Cain blinked as they emerged from the darkness of the Divide. Spread out before him was the modern city of Duluth. He had not seen it from this side before, and he suddenly realized his search might take longer than he thought it would. Unless his spies managed to get more information for him, he would need more time. He had checked his table map and managed to locate Jane and her sister. They were heading to Duluth from the north, so he would concentrate his search there. They held clues to the whereabouts of the book, and he would find them and then sit back and watch from afar. When they held the book, he would make his move.
“Sir, we are in range!”
“Open fire,” Cain said calmly. He scanned the shore until his eyes fell on the great steel ship that gleamed in the morning sun. It had the look of a vessel of war, and he pointed to it. “Concentrate your fire on the ships first. I want them helpless before us.” The Goliath steamed closer as the four cannon mounted on the front of the ship barked loudly. Three of the shots missed and impacted the docks around the target vessel. As the shots struck, they exploded and sent great fountains of debris and smashed wood planks into the air. The forth shot struck the rear of the ship and tore through the plating. A second later the charges inside the cannon ball went off ,and the ship shuddered violently. Smoke and fire erupted from the impact site.
“Nice shot,” Cain laughed.
Then the Goliath swung sideways, and all of the cannon mounted to the side railing began to fire in rapid succession. This was going to be a very bad day for the city of Duluth. All around the Goliath the smaller Ironships of Cain’s fleet followed suit of their much bigger cousin. Round after round tore into the downtown. Somewhere from the city sirens began to wail.
* * * * *
“Sir, we have all of the men on shore.”
Cain turned and looked at him, “Fine, go herd the people out of the city. Push them over the top of the hill and establish a perimeter on top of the hill while we search the city.”
“Yes, sir.”
The Adherent seemed unsure, so Cain looked at him and motioned for him to continue.
“We don’t have enough men to cover the entire hilltop.”
“Watch the south more heavily,” Cain instructed. He needed Jane to get back into the city. “Once the group at Palisade Head is finished, we’ll bring them across. At least, if it takes us that long.” The man nodded and jogged back to where the landing plank would take him back to the shore.
Once his men were gone and only a light watch remained, Cain turned back to his cabin. The chaos was starting, now he needed to gain a step on Jane in the search for the book. It would take time to find her map and careful listening to gleam what information he could. He also wanted to see what Tasker was doing. He knew the former master of the Temple was heading north but to what ends?
* * * * *
Tasker stopped the moment he was out of sight and looked over into the brush, “You can come out, Flying Cloud.” In one ear he could hear the others walking off to the south and talking about something called a motorcycle, but he dismissed the conversation. He had an idea that he needed to pursue, and he could use the help of the hidden girl to accomplish it.
“How did you know I was here?” Flying Cloud asked. She stepped out of the underbrush and smoothed her dress. She was amazed the small dwarf had managed to detect her presence. She felt at home in the forests already.
“Your anchor was set to my map,” Tasker pointed out. “I knew it was an old anchor I had not used in a while and when it vanished I figured it would turn up again.”
“I’m sorry,” Flying Cloud apologized. She wondered if the dwarf would be mad but instead he smiled and motioned for her to sit down. “I just wanted to see Jacob again.” She sat down and folded her legs to the side. Her dress was freshly cleaned, and she had made an effort to brush her hair and fix the strings of beads woven into it. “Are you going to send me back?”
“No,” Tasker said thoughtfully. “I have need of your skills. Do you remember the legend of the Sleeping Giant?” The legend was older than those on this side of the Divide believed and it was based in reality. “Those trapped on this side have a legend that the sleeping giant guards a wealthy silver mine. This is true. I read a first-hand account of someone who visited the Ojibwa tribe and traded for their silver. It was perfectly pure, something almost unheard of in nature. Then several hundred years ago an earthquake struck the area, and the mine was flooded.” Tasker paused a moment. “The mine exists but even more importantly so does the giant.”
“But wouldn’t the giant be trapped on our side?” Flying Cloud asked.
“I don’t think so,” Tasker said. “He has been sleeping since before the great flood, since the days recorded in the earliest history. I believe those who placed the Divide thought he was a part of the landscape.”
“You mean to wake it?” Flying Cloud in disbelief. “Is such a thing even possible?”
“Yes,” Tasker replied. “With your help it is.”
“But why?” Flying Cloud pressed for an answer.
“We have to stop the Iron Goliath,” Tasker said. “The sleeping giant is the only creature I know powerful enough to stop that ship.”
Tasker led her through the forest for almost an hour before they reached the nearest mushroom circle. When they arrived, he stopped and looked around. The forest was quiet. It always seemed the closer one came to magical places on this side of the divide the more even the animals avoided the places.
“They’re shrinking, you know,” Tasker said. He pointed to the mushroom circle and shook his head. “The humans on this side never see them. They build on top of them or dig them up or plow them under without knowing, but that destroys the magic.”
“Sad,” Flying Cloud said. She looked at the circle for a moment and then shrugged. They did not have time to spare sorrowing about things they could not change. “We should keep moving, Tasker.”
“We will come out near the town of Beaver Bay,” Tasker said as he stepped up to the mushroom circle. “At least on this side the town still exists. On our side, Cain’s burned the village to the ground. All that exists is a few ruined cottages and the remnant of the stone piers.”
The lights of the mushroom circle flared to life, and Tasker kept a fi
rm grip on Flying Cloud until they arrived on the far side of the passage. It was a risky thing to travel the pathways beneath the earth without an experienced guide. Many people had lost their lives wandering the passages deeper in the earth that came out in dark places.
They emerged on the unnamed side of rough hill part of the Sawtooth mountains. Below them and in the distance the blue waters of Lake Superior filled the horizon and a line of storm clouds marched off into the distance. Below them lay the small village of Beaver Bay and a shop there that held what Tasker was seeking.
“How will we awaken him?” Flying Cloud asked.
“Have you heard of the Heart of the Lake?” Tasker asked her.
“No,” Flying Cloud replied.
“It’s a stone,” Tasker explained. They found a road that led towards the highway. When they reached Highway 61, they started walking down the edge of the blacktop. Every so often a car would speed by them but Tasker ignored them. He wanted to avoid any contact with people. “Many years ago a stone collector walked the beaches, looking for what the people here call Lake Superior agates.” Another car sped by them. This time the person honked at them, and someone whistled at Flying Cloud from the window. Tasker pulled Flying Cloud off the road a little further, he didn’t want any trouble with the locals, not right now. “He found one on the beach that day, a stone of tremendous beauty and size, nearly this size.” Tasker held up his hands to show her the size.
Flying Cloud whistled. The agates of Lake Superior were much sought after by her people, and they held powerful healing qualities. However, since leaving the forests and retreating to the deep caves, they had not found many.
The Map Maker's Quest Page 8