To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6

by John Buttrick

  With his scouts in place, and Find All focused inland, Daniel could see and know, even in the dark, what was happening ashore. Presently he was enjoying a bird’s eye view.

  “Maestro, have you sensed what is in the hotel Lavistra?” Carlos inquired.

  Through the eyes of Roana the gull, the only one of the flock that did not seem to mind flying at night, Daniel was seeing Joppa with its tall buildings, merchant firms, financial institutions, hotels, inns, private homes, eateries, clothing stores, and saloons; all painted white, with red shingles on every roof. Tall lamps along the cobblestone streets illuminated the ancient city in a soft flickering glow as he mentally soared with his scout high in the sky. Uniformed constables were patrolling on foot, enforcing the curfew, and were the only people out of doors.

  Along the waterfront were warehouses, shacks of varying sorts, markets, and the Fishermen’s Wharf. The fine dining establishment served fresh seafood to anyone with enough coins to pay for a meal and had a fishing boat right at its dock. Samuel had visited the city many months earlier when seeking verification of a willful alliance between the regional lord and the Serpent guild, and mentioned the exclusive eatery in his written report. To the right of it was the three-storied building of the port authority with a score of small sailboats at its dock. On down a little farther was the ruined navy base, its buildings made into rubble by trinitrotoluene-headed bolts, judging by the level of destruction. Tall masts belonging to ships that had been sunk at anchor stretched high up out of the waves like a forest of trees that had been stripped of their branches, although some of them still had crossbars upon which hung the tattered remnants of sails. In contrast, the commercial port on the other side of the harbor had numerous ships at its docks, including a fleet of fishing boats, and was one of the few places showing signs of human activity.

  The only freighters were the nine modified for war by the Demfilians. Eighteen heavy cruisers, ten frigates, twenty-three destroyers, and thirty Zunean dreadnaughts were at anchor along with as many Ecoppian light cruisers and troop carriers, none of which were ready to sail. He spotted a hundred Anacondas in slips along the pier, not counting the twenty daisy-wheeled boats that were patrolling the coastal waters, none of which came as a surprise. The area had been well scouted in advance.

  The air was muggy, but there was a nice breeze caressing his/her feathers as he encouraged Roana to bank to the left towards the huge eight-storied manor that boasted of seven gables. The palatial white dwelling, its golden roof-tiles appearing far less grand in the night, sprawled half way up a hill that allowed the owner to look down on the city. To the right of it was a stone fortress that held the ruler’s private guardsmen and served as a stronghold against invasion. Just below the estate were six hotels; Sunniland, Blackstone, Monarch, Nobles-All, Bonnem, and the Lavistra, where every suite had a balcony. The well-tended lawn in the front had thick bushes and all sorts of small shrubbery. It was the largest of the six luxurious lodging places and closest to the mansion of Lord Cyrus Van Joppa, the leader of the Taracopian rebels.

  Shifting focus from Roana to Find All revealed what had caught the attention of the bodyguard. Thousands of colors glowed from as many Aakacarns. They were occupying the rooms of the hotel that was twice the size of the Excursion. The subterranean levels were deeper than the above ground establishment was tall, which was how the hotel could accommodate so many guests. “No, Carlos, but I am sensing it now.” His earlier notion of the area being well scouted in advance certainly proved to be premature and not well founded.

  A teleportation circle of twenty Aakacarns appeared in the lowest level at about the time a circle of one hundred Accomplisheds suddenly arrived in the chamber right next to them. Farther to the right of that activity and two levels up, three Grand Circles vanished, while on the level just below that one appeared seven teleportation groups of fifty. It was a hub, an active staging area from which raids were launched. Daniel sensed hundreds of non-Aakacarns in the floors above ground and figured most of them were staff members of the hotel. He sensed the presence of approximately eight hundred Condemneds and five hundred Aakademneds on the second and third subterranean levels.

  The presence of so many Serpents in one place was disturbing to say the least, it certainly came as an unpleasant surprise, and was impossible to ignore. While the other Atlantan Guild forces would shortly be attacking in accordance with Talmon’s plan, the main attraction for the diversion, Daniel had decided, was to be the raid on the rebel leaders, seeing as where to personally strike had been left up to him. Even though the location was not mentioned in the plan proposed by Aakadon, it was on the southern coast of the continent, and would definitely draw attention away from an attack on Ecoplis.

  He had hoped to capture Van Joppa and some of his supporters. Done quickly enough, members of the raiding party could have conveyed the prisoners to Shantear before the Serpent Guild could send in the Grand Circles. After that the plan was to focus on fending off enemy Accomplisheds and sinking ships until Chas called a halt, which would be when the diversion from Ecoplis was no longer necessary. Obviously that plan was ruined by the discovery, at least partly.

  Did the Serpents know about the coming assault or were events simply swirling in favor of evil’s Chosen Vessel? Either way, the problem had to be dealt with and left Daniel with another question. “Elias, Port Joppa seems to be a major Nest of the Serpent Guild, why do we know nothing about this?” Information gathering was the responsibility of the department of which he was an agent.

  The pilot swallowed, perhaps nervous over the serious lapse. “To my knowledge, none of our Accomplisheds have set foot in Joppa since Conductor Cresh did so months ago. We have been using animals as scouts. I have felines in the city and through their eyes have seen Serpents walking the streets, but those Aakacarns came and went, and I witnessed some go into the Lavistra. I suspect most of the enemy spell-casters have teleported directly into the hotel. Our scouts do not have the ability to sense that kind of activity,” stating the limitations of animal scouts to the Accomplished who composed the spell was unnecessary, but Daniel chose not to mention it and simply allowed the man to continue with the explanation, “and so that is why we missed it. On hindsight, I should have used a visual and conveyed into the city long enough to use Find All, that extra precaution would have revealed the Nest.”

  He gave a legitimate reason, not an excuse, and clearly took responsibility for the failure, even though the fault was not his alone. Yet, the reality had not been changed by his response. Daniel had to deal with what was, no matter the reason. “No use in lingering over the feathers after the fox has made off with the chicken. We will be more vigilant in the future and get on with our chores.”

  “Surely you are not thinking of going through with this,” Carlos blurted, “not with thousands of Serpents already here.” Doing so would certainly make the job much harder, Daniel knew.

  “Our Maestro is not going to do that,” Lou commented from the tail. His tone was one of confidence and certainty. He had not spent much time around the leader of his guild.

  Sero, who had, glanced up at Daniel and took a deep breath before answering, “Oh, yes he is,” then closed his eyes and shook his head.

  He need not have looked so worried. Daniel had better sense than to go ahead with the raid, as planned. “Samuel,” he sent through the array along with numerous feelings he could not fully suppress, irritation and disappointment among them. Fatigue was rearing its ugly head and influencing his reactions.

  “Maestro, why am I picking up a wild assortment of negative emotions accompanying just the use of my name?” the ISIG Conductor replied, cautiously.

  “Because the hotel Lavistra is a major Nest of the Serpent Guild, home to five thousand Aakacarns, give or take a few hundred. There could be a lot more but I cannot tell because the exact number keeps changing as I stand here.”

  Dead quiet came through the link but if the feelings transmitted had been put into words,
they probably would not be the kind used in polite company. Finally, his response came. “That is my fault. I apologize for failing to discover the blighted Nest. I have not been to the city since before the war started and all I found at the time were a score of Serpents in the mansion,” Sam sent along with a sense of failure, he truly was sorry for the lapse. “I suppose this communication is to let me know the little raid you and I planned is off.”

  What Daniel had in mind was truly dangerous, especially given the new facts, but that sort of thing never stopped him in the past, and he reckoned it would not stop him in the future. “Correction, the timing and the conveyance points are what we will change,” he sent through the mental link and spoke out loud so the folks sitting around him could hear.

  He ignored the gasp that came from Lou and the groan that came from Carlos, and focused on the gems in the array belonging to Joel Glader of Manta Two, Accomplished Jessica Wheeler, who served aboard the Rover, and Accomplished Brent Lyamon, serving on the Urchin, bringing them into the conversation. “New plan, the Rover is to attack the mansion and go after Lord Van Joppa, his family, and associates. Mantas One and Two, along with the Urchin, will concentrate on sinking the warships in the harbor, with a strong focus on eliminating the Anacondas. But before all of that, Carlos, Sero, and I will attack the nest with the aid of Conductor Cresh and his team.”

  “We have a full mark and a half before Chas Herling signals the attack on the coasts of Aczencopa, Cenkataar, and in the sea,” Samuel evidently felt the need to share the fact as if his Maestro was unaware of the time or the schedule of events.

  “Yes, Conductor, I know. You can inform the Sentinel Commander that we will begin earlier than scheduled. A quarter of a mark after we attack here would be a good time for him to give the order. I want our attack to be a surprise and that might not happen if his command comes first.”

  “Maestro, Captain Van Kestral is in favor of the new plan. He and everyone aboard the Rover are eager to go after Van Joppa,” Jessica sent through the array.

  Daniel had wanted to seize the rebellious lord personally, but it was the nest that demanded his attention, and so it seemed best to give the honor of capturing the rebel leader to someone else. “I was sure Lyle would be on board with the change. Sam, if we take out this nesting place, we will strike a mighty blow against the Serpents, and save countless lives. Think of this as fifty or so Grand Circles you won’t have to chase down in the future.”

  He quickly gave the ISIG Conductor a revised plan, which was received with a strong sense of frustration, followed by resignation, and finally acceptance. “For the record, I would rather chase down all of those teleportation circles than risk your life. That being said, I know I have about as much chance of talking you out of this as I had back when you decided to rescue Sherree from Serin Gell when it was just you and me. Like then, my only option is to follow the Chosen Vessel or stand aside and watch.”

  “Yep,” Daniel sent back. The former Fledgling of the Eagle Guild had summed up the situation well, although had given in easier than expected. It only took a little wrangling over what spell should be used after reaching the hotel.

  “On behalf of the crew of Manta Two, I say, we are ready when you are,” Joel responded with an emotional tone similar to that of Samuel, except the pilot of the other ray had a strong sense of confidence. He was ready to do his part.

  “He’s right,” added Sorel Benrider, the seventh son of a seventh son, who had joined the Atlantan Guild at the same time as Buck Duadams. Sorel was from the Department of Communications and was likely sitting right beside Joel and rarely allowed anyone to speak on his behalf when he was perfectly capable of doing so himself. His grand array had more gemstones than that of his Maestro and kept him in touch with hundreds of people within the guild.

  “Captain Sernim says he is ready,” Brent relayed the message from the bridge of the Urchin.

  Daniel was not surprised Oman Sermin, a former Lieutenant of the Taracopian navy, whose ship from that time currently sat on the sandy bottom of the bay, was ready to attack the people responsible for putting it there.

  Zera turned to face him from her seat at the forward crescendos. “We will do our part, but you better not die or the First Lady will be extremely put out with you.” Her lips twitched into a smile at mentioning Sherree’s reaction. The statement had to be an attempt to infuse a little caution in her Maestro. After all, it would take precise timing and a certain amount of luck to assault such a large Nest of Serpents successfully.

  Daniel knew full well his wife would not approve of what he was about to do, or Leah, but the stage was set, and he was ready to perform. “In that case I will make every effort to survive.” Rarely, since he cast his first spell, did the odds of success favor him, and so he did not allow superior numbers alone to sway his decisions.

  Roana circled above the hotel and he used her eyes to obtain the visual for Conveyance. Summoning the potential, he pictured Carlos and Sero standing with him, crescendos in hand, in the bushes to the left of the front entrance. Quicker than Becka the porpoise could eject water from her blow hole they arrived behind the leafy branches.

  His personal shield prevented him from feeling the night breeze, but not from hearing the ocean waves washing ashore, or from smelling the saltwater along with the other scents, pleasant and foul, associated with a port city. The residence on the hillside was in a direct line of sight from the bay, and in a position meant to impress anyone approaching the harbor. Van Joppa clearly enjoyed being on display, demonstrating a vanity that Daniel intended to exploit. The pretentious lord had built the stately home after his father died and then moved from the fortress where his family had lived for generations.

  Not a soul stood on the flagstones at the entrance of the hotel or near what used to be twin glass doors that were presently covered by wooden boards. The frequent harmonic waves given off by spell-battles likely made keeping glass in the frames problematic. Daniel figured the craftsmen could hardly make new sheets before powerful ripples would shatter them, and on the rare times they succeeded, actually shipping panes and having them arrive intact was near impossible. The situation was not unique to Taracopa.

  “The path is clear and I am ready when you are,” Carlos whispered after moving aside a thin branch to better see the grand entranceway. The gesture was needless, especially since Find All was showing his Maestro everyone in the building, including the two non-Aakacarn men who were on the first floor and not far from the doors. The bodyguard could sense the same thing through his own spell.

  If not for the presence of the non-Aakacarns, who were likely to be innocent civilians tending to their jobs, and the cursed people on the second and third lower levels, Daniel would have shifted the entire hotel to the bottom of the Eastern Ocean, and been done with the chore. It could not have been harder than conveying an entire airship base.

  Even though bringing about the deaths of everyone was the neatest and safest way, for him and his fellow raiders, the idea of killing indiscriminately bothered him more than a little, although that had been part of the new plan and something Sam had insisted upon. Daniel’s conscience bothered him, demanding he come up with an alternative and then, quick as sigh, it came to him what to do.

  “When I focus my potential, Carlos, you focus your spell on the second and third lower levels of this hotel, and Sero, you kill everyone below that,” Daniel spoke softly while summoning life-force energy.

  “This could get messy,” he thought and focused Sleep Time. The energy radiated from him, toward the other hotels and moments later enveloped them. His blue light passed through walls as if they did not exist and cast no shadows.

  Not a soul was left awake in the lodgings as he willed the spell down into the city and along every street. Constables slumped to the ground at the corners where they had been keeping vigil and in the alleyways. The vast majority of the people he sensed through Find All, upwards of eighty-five thousand, were already asleep but
the casting insured they would not awaken anytime soon. His spell passed through houses and shops, inns and stables, indiscriminately subduing the population. Horses, dogs, cats, and a wide assortment of rodents fell asleep along with insects and spiders, no living thing escaped the influence of his spell. Every creature from where he stood in the bushes on down to the warehouses along the waterfront was sleeping by the time he brought his attention back to the Lavistra, the upper portion of which had also been the recipient of his casting. A series of gongs rang out from the hotel with spell-amplified notes that resounded off the hills and echoed in the streets of the city

  Over a thousand people inside the upper floors of the lodging were asleep, so those Aakacarns were out of the fight, which left more than half still awake and scrambling around like angry bees around a hive. Sero was focusing Die Now at everything below the third level and had succeeded in killing perhaps a thousand Aakacarns; the rest had formed circles and had their shields up. Carlos put to sleep everyone on the second and third levels with the idea of later transporting them to Shantear where his Maestro would eventually get around to restoring them to humanity.

  An awful lot of Serpents between the first lower level and on the upper floors had been quick to form circles and put up shields, rendering Daniel’s sleep spell pointless to continue. The surprise was over and it was time to add a Da Capo, put the Symphonic out of his mind for a little while, place his hands over his ears, and let those who were still awake know who had come to call. “I am Daniel Benhannon and I have come to remove this nest of Serpents,” he announced in a spell-enhanced voice that was louder than the gongs and carried all the way out to where the patrol-boats had been waiting for their signal.

  Scores of teleportation circles vanished from inside the hotel and appeared moments later near the front entrance, surrounding him and his small team. Perhaps I underestimated the speed of their response, he thought as more than sixty spells, each in concert with twenty Aakacarns, were suddenly being focused at him, Carlos, and Sero.