To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6

by John Buttrick

  The air within Daniel’s extended shield was getting thin. He cast the spell, Freshen Air, and breathed a sigh of relief. The thirty-seven Serpents were at the bottom of the hill and only about three hundred paces away from him. He wondered if they yet realized who was in the middle of the moat filled with fire they were creating around their target.

  Daniel smiled and stood up, staring beyond the flames that encircled him. It was so nice of them to be gathered in a tight group. He raised his diamond-bladed crescendo and sent Die Now, backed by fourteen lightning bolts of potential, in a broad enough beam to encompass all thirty-seven Aakacarns. His energy field flashed through their spells as if they were no more substantial than soap bubbles. The shields of the few Serpents who had thought to raise them winked out of existence, giving the casters a moment longer to live than their brethren. All of them flopped to the ground and probably died never knowing they had been marching straight toward a Seven-bolt Accomplished, otherwise they surely would have called for reinforcements.

  Daniel sheathed his crescendo and focused his attention on the ships in-the-making and those under repair. He raised his hands and ten beams of light shot out and within moments half a score of vessels that had been overhauled were nothing but sawdust. He started walking, stepping over sleeping men, and as he drew nearer to the work areas, beams of light shot from his fingers and thumbs. Ten more ships were reduced to dust and then he started on the new ones under construction. He watched as his energy struck the skeletal structures of the ships nearest him. One moment they were solid and the next they were flowing to the ground in piles. A huge dreadnaught that looked to be only days away from completion had racks and racks of bolt launchers similar to those used by the Demfilian freighters. Great, a new generation of warships that would be even deadlier, he thought while rubbing his hands together, and then spread them apart and released his spell. The great ship was quickly reduced to a large pile of wooden fibers. Well, that one won’t be a problem.

  He turned and went to work on the rest, not stopping until every ship and piece of lumber could be swept away by a strong breeze. “Better not forget the saws, planes, and other implements that are needed to fashion a wooden vessel,” he spoke softly and then turned those tools to dust.

  Looking around, he spotted all of the freshly woven canvasses and decided they had to go. He levitated and gathered them into the air, and as they were suspended, a jet of fire flowed from his hand, and in a flash of flame; the sail-clothes were incinerated. Ashes fluttered to the ground around him as he noted, the Gasian Shipwright Facility is no more. Well, almost. He had accomplished only a part of the mission assigned to his taskforce and so focused on the docks and piers. By the time he was finished, those structures were tiny particles of wood floating on the waves.

  Insects, horses, dogs, cats, rats, and people were asleep all around him and in the structures he chose not to destroy. Out on the water he watched the RiverDancer slice a frigate in half and then head for the last one as the vessel attempted to sail out of the harbor. A stream of fiery stones shot from the bow-gun and set the fleeing ship on fire. Uncle Arry must have decided to conserve his strength and use only one gem.

  The Equalizer blasted apart a modified freighter and had only seven more to go. The Pythons, minus two, had completely destroyed the cruisers and were well on their way to finishing off the destroyers. Daniel missed what happened to the other Python. He scanned beneath the waves and found the Aspire on the bottom with about half of its crew still inside and not moving. The rest were floating on the abundant amount planking and whatnot of the warships that had been blasted apart. The Bellamy was the only Python not going after the destroyers; it was plucking sailors from the water, a task Daniel approved of.

  Thousands of men from the warships were in the sea, swimming toward the shore, and a good number of them had made it to the beach. He allowed the people to come out of the water and then put them to sleep, rather than kill the survivors. These were not civilians and might someday be in future battles, but he respected their struggle to live, and decided to grant them the opportunity. As he stood sipping cool water from his canteen, more sailors washed up and got shakily to their feet while another fellow staggered out of the surf directly in front of him. A few seconds of potential focused outward put them all to sleep.

  Through the array he could hear Chas giving orders. “I need five mantas at Lema right now,” the Sentinel Commander said.

  “Affirmative,” Accomplished Jude Steel replied. “We will be there in a tenth of a mark.”

  “Acknowledged,” Chas replied, clearly accepting the command could not be, “Right now.” Of the nine mantas from the Benhannon Naval Facility taking part in the campeign, those five were the closest to Lema, and even at four hundred spans per mark it would take time for them to be in position. The rays would be submerged, since flying into battle had not yet been authorized.

  It was Daniel’s turn to communicate. “Commander Herling, the Gasian shipwright facility is no more.”

  “Maestro, that is good news,” Chas replied.

  Having given his report, Daniel focused Find All on the north side of the river, at the navy base. The other three patrol-boats and their remaining twenty-four Pythons were battling hundreds of Fon Kayan warships, a quarter of the fleet that existed less than a mark ago. The loss of the six Ducaunan war-boats he would mourn later. Battles were being fought all across the sea and he wanted to check on the five rays Chas had ordered into action.

  He concentrated on Penney and through the eyes of the falcon, watched the five mantas surface and combine their power to create a tidal wave. The sixty cubits high wall of water capsized Anacondas and a number of larger sailing ships, flipping them over as if they were toys on a pond. All that wreckage was drawn into the swell and hurled at Port Lema. Wooden structures split apart, buildings collapsed, trees fell, and people disappeared when the curl of the towering wave came crashing down. The resulting flood travelled two spans in land to the hills before the receding waters began carrying much of the debris out to sea. Captain Van Etter and his patrol boats and Pythons double their efforts to destroy the Pennaten shipwrights at Port Byron.

  “Commander Herling, Taskforce D has defeated the Fon Kayan fleet that was in the sea off the coast of Lerinron,” Tim’s voice came through the array.

  “We are proceeding to the port,” Gina added to the announcement.

  “Acknowledged,” Chas replied.

  Daniel was tempted to add, “Last one to destroy a port is a hound pup,” but decided to keep the thought to himself. Such a statement would take away from the seriousness of the current campeign. People were dying, along the sea coat and in Ducanton, and it was no time for idle quips.

  A snap of displaced air brought Daniel’s attention to his surroundings. Sherree stood beside him and was surveying the damage. She turned to him while placing both hands on her hips. “It’s just like you to leave nothing for us to do,” she said and then jumped into his arms.

  They clung to each other for a short time and then held hands while staring out at the boats of the taskforce, which were the only vessels in sight. “Two Pythons went down. The men from the Wrath have been rescued, but less than half of the crew of the Aspire survived to be pulled from the sea. It became easier to destroy the frigates when the Serpents began teleporting away. Rather than send for help or unite to organize a better defense, they chose to abandon their allies. I don’t think we killed more than a few hundred Aakacarns,” She informed him. “The raids on Ducanton and Tara continue and more of our Accomplisheds have conveyed to the cities.”

  Daniel nodded his head. “Leah is confident our forces will prevail. Meanwhile, the chore here is complete. It is time to assist in the destruction of Port Basser. When that is done, the Bellamy can come back and Accomplished Wilshur should be able to retrieve the bodies from the Aspire.”

  “Let’s just hope there aren’t many more bodies to recover when this is over,” she replied an
d then cast the spell, Conveyance.

  Soon they were on the RiverDancer and standing right in front of the forecastle and facing Uncle Arry’s back. He turned at hearing the sound of displaced air. “This bow-gun works right good. Killed me some ships and Nephew, I think I’m up to killin some more,” he stated while clinging to the gun for support.

  Daniel removed the shield from fingertips to wrist, walked right up to Arry, touched his forehead, and then focused What Is This into him. The vat of life-force energy was nearly empty, so Daniel summoned the potential for Vitality and sent his own energy flooding into his uncle. The flow did not stop until the reservoir was filled to the brim. “Now you can get back to your chores.”

  Arry’s eyes widened and he smiled. “Much obliged to ya Dannal. Now, go back to spell-castin, I got to git ready for more killin,”

  Daniel nodded and went with Sherree through the hatch, which opened into the galley and mess. A quarter of the space had been partitioned off and taken up by a small kitchen, with the rest being used as a dining area with a small round table at the front and a large oblong table a few paces away. He and Sherree walked over to the narrow circular stairs to the far right. At that point they could go down the gangway to the lower decks or up to the bridge, and since his parents were up there, it was no tough decision.

  He and his wife climbed the spiral steps and passed through the map-room, which had a sheet of what appeared to be glass, so as not to block the view to stern, but was harder than steel, separating it from the bridge. Sero, Carlos, David, and Silvia stood to the left near the cushioned bench that started near the entrance, followed the internal perimeter of the bridge, and ended not far from where it began. Four large windows provided an unobstructed view in every direction. Ronn and Miriam were standing next to Duncan Hawk.

  “You all did a great job, but the mission is not complete. We are going to reunite with the rest of our taskforce and finish off the Fon Kayan fleet,” Daniel spoke out loud to the folks on the bridge and through the array to the captains of the other vessels.

  His father nodded agreement, his mother gave a nod and a smile of encouragement, and then Duncan said, “It will be as you say, Sir Daniel.” The Lieutenant Commander’s reply was echoed through the array by each of the captains.

  They were speeding through the waves and since the other battle was only a short distance away, the patrol-boats and Pythons were engaging enemy warships almost immediately. The RiverDancer’s crew shot streams of flaming pebbles and lances of light from the arrow slits while Uncle Arry sent harpoons of light and Jobidiah Fwent sent stones of flame. Three dreadnaughts fell under the barrage with their sails aflame, masts splitting, and hulls splintering apart.

  After Sherree, Sero, Carlos, David, and Silvia took up their former positions on top of the bridge, Daniel joined them. Memories of the Battle of Bashierwood and the twister he had summoned while on the roof of the Polkat came to mind. At the time he wielded six bolts of potential and had tried to maintain the spell without the use of his guitarn, which was in its case and strapped to Sprinter’s saddle. It was a good spell, killed a lot of Yetis, but he had been unable to sustain it for long. This time he had a potential amplifier to hand, so allowed the Symphonic to play in his mind, and focused the potential through his diamond-bladed knife. Off the port bow, a twister sprang into being and he willed it to touch down on the water. The resulting waterspout moved in accordance with his mind, directly at the enemy ships.

  At the same time, Sero sent a lightning bolt at a nearby cruiser and blasted a chard hole in the stern of the vessel, filling the warship with water. Carlos sent beams of light that neatly punched holes in the hulls of a pair of dreadnaughts and a heavy cruiser. David aimed his daggerlance and sent lances of light at a destroyer, while Silvia sent a stream of flaming pebbles from her crossbow at the sails of the cruiser that was about forty degrees off the starboard bow. Uncle Arry punched holes below the waterline of the burning vessel and in a short time the fires were extinguished as the warship sank into the sea.

  Seeing as his taskforce was doing an excellent job of eliminating what was left of the Fon Kayan navy, Daniel decided to steer his tornado at the docks and piers. The water-filled funnel slammed into the planks and poles, tearing them apart. His water-whirl touched ships, ripping planking asunder and shredding sails. The vessels that had been tied to the docks ceased to exist. Stores of trinitrotoluene exploded and the iron shards were drawn up into the already deadly spout, which was on the verge of taking out the launchers. Most of the marines had the good sense to run away before the destruction, but the ones not smart enough to flee after seeing what had been done to the ships and docks, died. He ended the spell and the vortex collapsed, depositing a huge wet pile of twisted wreckage and unidentifiable bits of human remains onto the beach.

  “Anyone who does not want to convey over to the base and participate in its destruction should go below right now,” Daniel warned his companions.

  Unsurprisingly, no one moved so he concentrated on Glimmer, who was soaring above the base. He/she located the perfect spot in the area of the command building and with the visual firmly in mind, Daniel summoned the potential and conveyed along with his companions to the desired position.

  Through Find All, Daniel, and anyone else who was casting the spell, could easily identify everything, objects and species, in and on the base. Tens of thousands of people were in the twenty buildings. Carlos aimed his baton up at the third floor of a seven-storied structure with the letters, HQ, above the entrance, and sent a broad beam of light, killing a group of men who were sitting at a conference table on the third floor. It was possible he eliminated most of the Fon Kayan naval high command.

  Squads of men finally took notice of the arrival of enemy Aakacarns and were running with cutlasses unsheathed. The bold soldiers came to a stop at what they probably thought was a safe distance, and then sent blades of air slamming into the forward shield Sero sent forth to absorb the energy.

  At the same time, Captain Isly announced the completion of his mission to destroy the fleet at Creana and the base, and Saul Tarpon reported the loss of a Wager-class patrol-boat and six Pythons. The Shears was destroyed by an overwhelming number of Serpents that had been unexpectedly aboard the Anacondas. “Mantas two-four-nine, two-four-seven, and two-four-one, get into the waters off Port Sharon and assist Taskforce C.”

  “We are on our way,” Accomplished Elias Flinn replied. Daniel hoped the mantas would add enough strength to achieve victory over the Serpents embedded within the Battencayan ships.

  Sherree radiated energy outward and every man armed with a cutlass fell to the ground and would be asleep for a day or two, along with whoever else was in the command building behind her. A hundred marines wielding quarterstaffs came running from the east and were blasted full of holes by lances of light sent by Silvia and David. Shards of solidified air came from men hiding behind buildings and other objects big enough to provide shelter. Every fighting man, thousands of them, had exited the dormitories and seemed bent on attacking Daniel and his companions with the spell-powered quarterstaffs. Sero’s shield blocked those shards and Daniel decided to take advantage of the opportunity and step closer to the first structure to be eliminated.

  It was at that moment Samuel’s voice came into his head through the array. “Maestro, Cana is under attack. The original residents and the families of our Sentinels are being evacuated. Two Grand Circles are in the area and there are not many structures still standing. Accomplisheds from the Benhannon Northland Holding have conveyed over a thousand Sentinels into the battle and they and teams from the ISIG are providing cover as the families are being sent to safety. Daniel, the Chosen’s Sentinels are being injured and killed at a rate I have not seen before. Enemy Accomplisheds are targeting the hands, nostrils, and ears exclusively.”

  Daniel fervently wished he could be in multiple places at once. The attack raised questions in his mind like, how did the Serpents even learn about Cana?
The Serpents had clearly learned about the shield amulets and their limitations, but how? “Sam, it sounds like we have a spy somewhere. You are going to have to sniff out him or her or however many people may be involved, but that will have to wait,” he replied as his companions fought the Fon Kayans. “Once the evacuation is complete, all of our forces are to pull out. The land will still be there and buildings can be rebuilt. If the Serpents stay after we leave and attempt to establish a base, I will personally lead the force that will blast them off the face of Atlantan.”

  An eagerness to carry on flowed through the link along with the words, “It will be as you say, Maestro, and I will be with you as a part of that force,” Sam replied and then ended the connection.

  Daniel shoved the report and all of the emotions threatening to cause him to lose focus into one of those compartments in his mind. He took a deep breath and placed his unshielded hand on the outer wall of the command building and summoned the potential for the spell, Fashioning. The Symphonic allowed him to see into the structure and then reshapes it. He became aware of every nook and cranny and then caused all five floors of the structure to flow down and form into a thick slab. Hundreds of sleeping men and women along with the officers Carlos had killed were on top of the slab, a difficult feat to manage while reshaping the solid materials around them.

  The chore was not complete so Daniel bent down and touched the ground, sending the spell down into the bedrock, over to the dormitories, and then opened large sinkholes beneath the structures. With a loud crash, entire buildings sank below the surface. After a few moments, he caused the ground to close up over them.

  As he stood up, Carlos let loose a spell that hit the armory and blasted it to pieces. Sherree put the rest of the soldiers and marines to sleep and Sero dropped the storage buildings into sinkholes. “Port Basser no longer exists,” the assistant announced, and it was true.