The Map Maker's Quest

by Matthew J. Krengel

  “You’ll never succeed,” Jane shouted back. In her heart she knew they had been beaten and it made her nearly cry with frustration.

  “Oh, but I will,” Cain laughed.

  “Your army is almost wiped out,” Jane said back to him. “We will hunt you down no matter where you hide.”

  “Bah, this was but a small part of the soldiers at my command,” Cain replied. It was true the battles had cost him many of his troops but he could replace those. He waved his hand at the Ironships around the Goliath. They were already powering up, and great wafts of black smoke rolled out of the stacks. The smoke went up so thickly from the ships just north and east of the Goliath that it blocked the sky and the land beyond.

  “I will hunt you down,” Jane threatened. She stamped her foot and ground her teeth in impotent rage.

  Cain simply laughed at her and motioned to the captain of the Goliath. Immediately orders were relayed deep into the ship and the great steam-powered engines began to power up. “Go ahead and try. I will lock you in the deepest dungeon I can find and line the cell with cold iron. There you’ll starve to death as I hunt down your entire family and do the same to them.” Cain decided he was tired of trading barbs with the girl and turned away from the railing.

  Jane raised the repeater one last time, she worked the charging handle and noticed that the gun was fully charged again. She raised it to her shoulder.

  “Cain!” Jane shouted. She was about to pull the trigger when suddenly Eriunia was beside her with her longbow raised. The elf released the arrow and smiled grimly as the shaft flashed across the distance.

  Cain turned his head just in time to see the elf seemingly appear from nowhere and he tried to throw himself to the side. An elf with a bow was the most deadly thing known on his side of the Divide and he could not take the chance of being struck. Then a heavy weight struck his shoulder and he was spinning around.

  “You got him!” Jackie shouted excitedly.

  “I only wounded him,” Eriunia replied with a deep breath.

  They watched as the dwarf rolled over and was helped to his feet by several crew members.

  “Bring the ship around!” Cain shouted through gritted teeth. “I want that city leveled to the ground as far as our guns will reach.” Now it was personal and he was going to destroy the city as payment.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Goliath Versus Giant

  Jane shook her head as the Goliath started to turn broadside to the city. All along the sides of the ship, the gun ports opened. Dozens of cannon barrels pushed out of the side as the ship turned slowly and ominously towards Duluth.

  “I think we should run,” Jacob said slowly. It seemed to him they were all rooted to the spot, when the first cannon barked loudly he covered his ears with his hands and dropped to the ground. The shot went whizzing overhead. Moments later it smashed into the wooden board walk sending a great wave of debris everywhere.

  “I think you managed to really tick him off!” Carvin shouted. He struggled to hold to his feet but finally fell down beside Jackie. They clung to each other. The blasts that rolled out of the ship shook the entire river front.

  The ship had stopped firing and there was a scattering of shouts and screams from the Goliath. “What’s happening?” Jane crawled to where Jacob was and grabbed his arm. Suddenly there was an earth-shaking explosion, and Jane looked up in time to see an Ironship fly through the air and land in the lake on the far side of Canal Park. A great wave of water rose up as the ship shuddered and several explosions tore it apart.

  “What in the world?” Jacob muttered. All of a sudden the area was quiet, and clouds of thick smoke eddied about. The black smoke made it hard to see but the firing had definitely stopped.

  Then the ground shook again, and Jane looked up just in time to see a gigantic stone face emerge from the smoke and frown at her.

  “Is this the one?”

  Her ears rang from the force of the question, and she crawled backwards as fast as she could. It was then she heard Tasker’s voice.

  “No!” Tasker shouted. “Over on the metal ship.”

  Jane watched as the massive head turned away and looked to where the Goliath was pulling back from a huge form standing in the water. Slowly Jane stood and watched, her mouth hanging open as the smaller Ironships pulled back from the Goliath and worked frantically to bring their guns to bear. The Goliath steamed backwards and its front cannons barked loudly. One of the rounds sailed wide and took out a wall of the Depot while the other shot struck the giant in the chest and exploded in a fiery ball of pulverized rock.

  The others around her stood slowly and watched in awe as the massive ship and the huge stone giant with Tasker and Flying Cloud riding on his shoulders began to do battle. The ship was almost as long as the giant was tall and moved backwards at full speed with its two front cannon firing as fast as the crews could load them. The stone giant replied by grabbed an Ironshop from the water nearby and slowly tearing the ship in half. It used one of the halves as a shield to intercept the next two shots and then threw half of the torn wreck at the Goliath. The mass of iron flew through the air and landed near the Goliath and smacked the water next to the ship sending a twenty-foot wave rolling out. There was a great tearing of iron as second missile this one a massive rock torn from the lake bed struck the Goliath and then slipped off to the side and settled into the lake.

  The giant shuddered as a horrible round of cannon balls slammed into it as the other Ironships started to gain their bearings. Jane knew she had to do something, and she pulled her map from inside her jacket.

  “Are you sure you can do that with all that iron in one place?” Jacob asked her worriedly. He wanted to use his runner’s ring, but each time he tried the areas were the ships were located was dark and impenetrable. There was just too much cold iron for him to move through the Divide.

  “I have to try,” Jane responded. She rolled out her map and dove headlong into it, searching for the area around the harbor. On the edge of her map, she drew in a whirlpool near where five of the Ironships were clustered together readying their cannons for another round. She drew and redrew the whirlpool as the cold iron started to drain the power from her creation.

  The ocean battle had brought the land battles to a halt as the two huge behemoths faced off and battered at each other with wild abandon. The giant was iron and stone, and the parts of him that were iron withstood the cannon fire easily but the stone was slowly crumbling under the shots. Jacob looked north and watched as Jane’s whirlpool finally took hold in the lake water, and five of the Ironships were drawn into its depths and smashed against each other and the bottom of the lake. All five of them vanished. Then the whirlpool broke up, and water rushed back into the massive vortex.

  The water was churning so violently now that as the rest of the Ironships continued to fire, most of their shots went wild. However the Goliath was an island of power amidst the crashing water and violent explosions. Just too much cold iron concentrated into one place.

  “I don’t think the giant’s going to win,” Jackie groaned. Then the impossible seemed to happen. The giant reached down into the water and pulled a massive boulder from the lake bed. Two more shots barked out of the Goliath’s cannon but both slammed into the granite boulder and crumbled it to dust. Slowly the ship-sized rock rose into the air. In Jackie’s mind time seemed to slow. There was a chorus of panicked shouts from the Goliath’s deck as hundreds of tons of stone started flying through the air.

  Jane watched with her mouth wide open, she focused on her map again and watched as the tiny figures of Adherents threw themselves from the deck into the water. Then she spotted Cain standing at the back of the ship. From her map surface she saw something odd happen that she could not explain. Cain opened the book and looked at the first page. Suddenly a look of pure rage and evil covered his face and he threw the
book down. As she watched, he raised his hand and slammed something on the deck. A moment later he vanished from the ship and was gone from her map.

  Jane emerged from her map just as the stone struck the Goliath and sheared off the entire bow of the ship. The stone smashed the Sunderer and released a blast of energy that caught every one of the remaining Ironships in its force and each one of them vanished. Jane didn’t know if they had returned to the other side of the Divide or simply ceased to exist. The water of Lake Superior rushed in to fill the void left by the vanishing ships and immediately calmed.

  Suddenly the world was quiet. Jane looked at Jacob and then whooped loudly, breaking the silence. All that remained was the massive giant standing silently looking out across the water.

  “We won!” Jackie screamed happily. She threw herself into Carvin’s arms and covered his face with kisses.

  Jacob spun Jane around and around until they fell to the ground laughing. There were shouts of greeting as the giant finally turned and lowered Flying Cloud and Tasker to the ground. They were both covered in dust and chips of stone but were unharmed. Tasker complained for weeks after the battle that his hearing would never be the same.

  “Tasker, where have you been?” Jane asked when she finally got back to her feet.

  “I took Flying Cloud and we went north to wake the Sleeping Giant,” Tasker said. He pointed back to the silent giant who stood waiting in the water. “We promised to get him back to our side so he can search for his kin.”

  Flying Cloud walked to where Jacob was clinging to Jane and looked at them both as understanding filled her eyes.

  “Jane,” Flying Cloud nodded. Then she smiled and gave her a hug.

  Jacob stepped back as they hugged, and he saw Flying Cloud whisper something in Jane’s ear. Jane nodded but didn’t say anything back. Then they both laughed and hugged each other again and he wondered what Flying Cloud had said to her.

  “We won,” Jackie said again and the rebels around them cheered loudly.

  “Not so fast,” Jane interjected. Her mind was troubled at what she had seen reflected on her map.

  “What?” Jacob said. “Cain was on that ship. There is no way he could have escaped that blast.”

  “He was not on the ship,” Tasker broke in. “I would have felt if he died. Somehow he escaped.”

  “I saw it happen,” Jane agreed. “He smashed something on the deck just before the boulder struck the ship and vanished from my map.”

  “We need to gather everyone and get back to our side of the Divide,” Tasker said. “We have the Adherents on the ropes. It’s time to finish them off and remove their presence from the New World.”

  There was a scramble of activity as the rebels gathered their gear and raced back to the open portal. Eriunia, Carvin, Jackie, and Flying Cloud ran with the milling mass of rebels. There were a few scattered shots from Adherents missed on the first sweep through the city but soon they were standing before the stable portal.

  “Grab everything you can that’s from our side,” Eriunia ordered. She knew the events of the last few days could not be undone or covered up, but they could leave as few clues as possible. The unconscious and dead Adherents were gathered and hauled through the portal while others searched the ground around Enger Tower and the portal for lost weapons.

  “You should go join Jane while I oversee the cleanup,” Eriunia said to Carvin and Jackie. “Go find Puck and the others and lay down your plans. Cain may be stumbling right now, but if you give him time he’ll recover and come back stronger.”

  Jackie and Carvin nodded. Together they stepped through the portal and vanished. Flying Cloud gave Eriunia a quick hug and then walked through the portal after them. Eriunia was wondering what to do about the massive stone giant but the moment he approached the portal it pulsed and grew to match his size. A moment later he was gone and then the portal was back to normal size.

  “Bella?” Eriunia said when the area was quiet. All of the rebel soldiers were gone. Other than some curls of smoke and the general carnage, the area was quiet.

  “Yes,” Bella replied. She was using her magic to remain hidden but the elf had sensed her when she approached the portal.

  “What did you do with it?” Eriunia asked. “The book.”

  “How did you know?” Bella asked.

  “I am more in tune with my surroundings then the others,” Eriunia said with a smile. “Elves were created as a guard against evil spirits, we hunt down the invisible and we track those other mortals cannot.”

  “I hid it again,” Bella admitted. “This time without clues to lead to it. I don’t think anyone will find it again, at least not for a long time.”

  “Are you sure it’s safe?” Eriunia asked one last time. She reached out her hand to the fairy and picked her up, carefully she raised the tiny being up to her shoulder and turned to the portal.

  “Oh, yes,” Bella said with a big smile. “It can only be found when a map maker and an architect work together. How many years has it been since the last architect was born?”

  “Hundreds,” Eriunia replied. “At least to our knowledge. They may have been born but to be recognized and trained is another matter. The gift is not as rare as you think and it still exists, however there are none who will recognize it. I suppose that makes the book safe for now.”

  Eriunia turned and stepped into the portal and pushed her way through the darkness of the Divide. A moment later she and Bella were standing under the sunlight on their side of the Divide and the dark smoke that had hung over Duluth for years was slowly lifting. Down in the city, voices were singing and cheers rose from almost every building.

  Jane, Jacob, and Tasker were already there, waiting for the rest of the group as they flooded through the portal. Once Eriunia and Bella returned, Tasker reached down and flipped off the small golden version of the Sunderer.

  “I never thought anyone would find this,” Tasker muttered. “I should have hidden it better.” He looked at Eriunia and smirked, “But I suppose you would have tracked it down, even if I placed it in the deepest of our ancient Delveholds.”

  “Yes, I would have,” Eriunia replied. “Even if I had to visit the greatest of the Dwarven cities Carnhagost and the golden walled city.”

  Tasker looked at her and smiled, only someone who had visited the city would have known about the golden walls and been able to name the city. This made him wonder just how secure the dwarves were in their deepest halls.

  “It is all right, Tasker,” Eriunia said. “I would never reveal your secrets to the other races. After all, the elves have many secrets also that we do not want the dwarves trying to learn.”

  Tasker picked up the device and tucked it carefully into his pack, “I will return this tonight. For now we must join the celebration, it is a great day for the people living here and in every community around Lake Superior.” Tasker’s voice grew in volume as the rebels quieted and listened to him. He jumped up onto a nearby boulder and waved his hands for silence. “We have won a great victory! Cain’s fleet is scattered and his forces in complete disarray. He has lost a large portion of his army and we will not let this opportunity go to waste. I believe that he has retreated to his fortress on Manitoulin Island. It’s there we will go next. No longer will we hide in the shadows. The people of the lakes will charter a new course, and we will never turn our faces while our friends and neighbors are dragged from their homes. We will never again be forced to wear markers that set us apart.” Cain held up one of the yellow markers torn from a shirt and then threw it down and ground it under his foot. “We will help our neighbors and defend those weaker than us.” He paused while a tremendous cheer shook the hillside. “We will bring those who carried out these atrocities against our fellows to justice, true justice.”

  Tasker jumped down and walked to where Jane and Jacob were standing as the cr
owd cheered again. All around them the rebels started to break up unto smaller groups and bon fires were lit across the grassy meadows. The storehouses held by the Adherents near the docks were opened, and food flowed to the cooking fires. A hundred different musical instruments were brought and dusted off from a like number of hiding places.

  “I think this party is just getting started,” Jane laughed. She and Jacob strode hand in hand through the crowds smiling and waving to everyone they recognized. The mixing of beings was complete around the fires. Puck’s goblins laughed and told jokes to humans, dwarves, and a few elves who had survived. Here and there the massive form of a minotaur stood head and shoulders above the rest. There were even a few fairies that appeared from the woods and immediately joined in the festivities.

  “I think the crowd is still growing,” Jackie said. She and Carvin were sitting on a log about half way up the hill. Across the fire from them Jane and Jacob leaned on a boulder. They were all looking out across the city and it seemed true, as the sun began to set, the crowds seemed to have tripled in size. Puck’s goblins were everywhere hooting and laughing. Bella was surrounded by at least a hundred fairies now and they treated her like a queen.

  Eriunia had gathered a host of almost two hundred elves, and they sat quietly watching the festivities, smiling at those who approached them. She was talking to each of them and seemed to be laying plans for something.

  Jane could see the massive form of the giant sitting quietly just north of the city and he seemed to be waiting patiently.

  “What of him?” Jane asked Tasker when the dwarf walked over to the fire.

  “He’s seeking his family,” Tasker replied. “Stone giants can sense others through the earth.” He stopped for a moment and then shook his head, “I don’t know if any of his kin survived in this area.”

  “What happened to them?” Jackie asked curiously.