To Be Victorious: The Maestro Chronicles Book 6

by John Buttrick

  After a brief pause he received the Conductor’s answer. “Maestro, the people who were in the room have conveyed out. You are free to cast your spell.”

  Daniel pictured the Chosen’s Sentinels, Sero, Carlos, David, and Silvia, in the huge room redesigned by Jerremy DeSuan, and quicker than Tarin Conn could drain the life from his next victim, they all arrived where they started from.

  Leah, Sam, Quala, and her team of one hundred appeared moments later toward the back and behind the benches. Darrell no doubt took his people back to the JMTF base at Lake Tomlin, but would be ready to join in the assault of Filia.

  Rather than descend the many levels to his office where people expected him to go, Daniel gained a visual from Wally the mouse who was in the air vent above one of the many wardrooms in the Health Department. All of the twenty compartments had patients, but there was room enough for him in the common area, so in the time it would take a dog to scratch a flea, he appeared in that space.

  He mentally removed his shields, but not the Da Capo on Find All, which was showing him the exact whereabouts of his Chief Aid. As he left the common area behind and made his way through the halls of the Health Department, he nodded to the Healers who greeted him and were offering assurances that Sherree would be rescued and all would be well. He appreciated the confidence they displayed and wished he felt the same way. Determination was driving him, not confidence.

  Beta Curran, whose long brown hair was pulled back ponytail-style, had two lightning bolts on the shoulders of her blue cloak that were larger than most Accomplisheds conjured, Daniel noted as she walked right into his path. “Accomplished Trenca is this way.”

  Her assumption of his purpose in being in the department had been correct, but the offer of guidance was unnecessary. Daniel knew exactly where Simon was, but allowed the Healer to lead him to the wardroom. Once in the room, he saw his sandy-haired friend asleep on a bed, and covered by a sheet, except for his head.

  “His right leg is missing from just above the knee,” Beta stated as if Daniel could not see the contours of his Chief Aid through the sheet and note the absence.

  She was trying to be helpful, so he made no mention of the slight while eyeing the room, and finding no bucket. “I see no substance, liquid or solid, in this room for Hunger to draw on. How does Conductor Obenport intend to replace the rest of his leg?”

  “With this,” Jennel said as she entered the compartment while carrying a bucket of sand. “I am perfectly capable of performing the procedure while you meet with the other Conductors who are assembling in the conference room. Thousands of people need the attention of my Healers and a large percentage of the wounded need limbs and other extremities to be replaced. I hope you do not mind if I attend to them rather than go to a meeting the purpose of which is well beyond my realm of expertize. Do not misunderstand me, I am deeply concerned about our First Lady, but have no idea how to rescue her from the clutches of Tarin Conn.”

  The workloads of the Healers and members of Aakadon’s Aloe Guild had to be tremendous after so many furious battles. Daniel understood her position. “Do what you do best, I will be in the conference room,” he replied, and then, against proper etiquette, conveyed right to his chair at the head of the table.

  Wilma Ryner, Sherree’s Chief Aid, was standing by the door beside Carlos. Sero was right behind Daniel’s chair. Sitting next to Chas was Ronn and Miriam, and with them was Marsha Obennen, an Accomplished whose yellow-gold hair was similar to Sherree’s, which made Daniel think of his wife being trapped in a shield made by Tarin Conn. Tim and Gina Dukane were also present along with Accomplished Karen Ducappus, who served on the Wager.

  Leah sat in the chair to Daniel’s left and the one on his right, normally used by Sherree, was unoccupied, again bring his mind back to his wife. All of the Conductors, with exception of Jennel Obenport, were in their customary seats. All eyes were on their Maestro and none of them seemed surprised at his abrupt arrival. Sero leaned close to his ear. “It is not my place to say, but I think you should consider a certain amount of trickery and misdirection, something like how you convinced Tarin Conn that he had succeeded in killing you and the First Lady.”

  Daniel had been planning on leaving it up to Chas to provide the tricks involved, and so focused on the Sentinel Commander, although what the assistant had suggested planted a seed of thought that began to take root. For the moment Daniel had another concern. “Before Commander Herling shares his plan of action, I would like to know why my parents and the two Admirals of my fleet are here.”

  He had no intention of allowing them to fight on the slopes of Filia where four more non-Aakacarns were unlikely to make much of a difference.

  His father looked him in the eyes. “We love Sherree and intend to take part in her rescue.”

  His mother had the determined set in her eyes he had seen most of his life, indicating she had made up her mind and would not be budged. “Son, we are coming.”

  “And so are we,” Tim stated with the same type of mountaineer determination. Gina gave a firm nod to show her agreement.

  Daniel thought about the matter for a few moments and then made a decision. “You can participate if I am aboard the Wager and Leah is aboard the RiverDancer.” His parents and two friends would be much safer aboard the patrol-boats than as part of a group on land.

  The First Accomplished was staring at him, but it was Gina who responded. “That sounds like a fine arrangement, but how are we going to get our patrol-boats to a mountain that is at least a hundred spans inland and has the highest elevation on the continent?”

  “I will obtain a visual from Rifeq, my condor, and Leah will do the same using one of her surviving scouts. Both of us are capable of conveying a patrol-boat. By the way, there is a reason Tarin Conn and Vance Cummin ordered the creatures within their Nests killed and only ospreys on the outside,” Daniel explained.

  “Is it because they did not know your spells can control other birds?” Daria guessed wrongly.

  Leah shook her head. “No, I suspect it is because the Dark Maestro wants us to come to him and die.” She had the right idea.

  Jeremiah Lassiter nodded his head. “I have no doubt the insides of Mount Filia are being changed even as we speak. If we convey to the last locations provided by our dead scouts, we will in all probability arrive in solid stone.” His thinking matched that of Daniel.

  “That is the reason I have planned a surface assault. Conductor Treena has assured me her Seekers can provide the necessary visuals for the Pondhoppers. They will be conveying to the lake. The addition of two Wager-class patrol-boats meshes well with what she and I have in mind, although I expected, Maestro, you would be among the Accomplisheds assaulting the slopes.”

  “I will be doing that, be assured,” Daniel replied, “which is way I will convey off the Wager and leave the vessel to blow up however many sky-cruisers get within the line of sight.”

  “That we will,” both Tim and Gina guaranteed him.

  “I will convey from the RiverDancer,” Leah said, “and join the hunt for Sherree.” To which Daniel approved.

  Jeremiah Lassiter conjured a three dimensional image of Mount Filia with its peak, two large snow-filled crevices, and the surrounding region. The known entrances glowed, but he provided no interior images. “I have eagles providing me real time visuals. As you can see, the sky is filled with cruisers and many more could be floating up there invisibly. I am sure they possess the new shield spells composed by their dark master and therefore none of them will be easily brought down.”

  Chas began giving the details of his plan and Daniel listened while the seed planted earlier by Sero sprouted and grew. Tarin Conn thought he killed his rival because Sherree had the idea of creating doubles made of solidified air. She made hers and Daniel had made his, so each construct actually was made of the conjurer’s life-force and that was what the ancient Aakasear targeted and then sensed vanish under his assault.

  Daniel had no doubt the
moment his presence was sensed on Filia; at least nine hundred times the power of a One-bolt Accomplished would be directed at him, and that was only thirty bolts of potential. He understood how making a life-like statue of himself on the slope of the mountain would be a tricky misdirection, but knew it would only work once, and had a glaring flaw; it could not move. The Melody for solidifying air and shaping it into whatever form the caster desired did not allow for animating the object. A rope of air can be manipulated and a blade or lance of air could be formed and then sent at a target, but that was the extent. He could not very well hurl a statue at Tarin Conn or wrap it around him.

  Daniel shifted his gaze from Chas to his mother. “If you don’t like the tune being played, write one of your own,” she had told him recently.

  He smiled at her and she gave him a nod of what was probably meant to be encouragement, because she could not know what he had been thinking, could she? He learned long ago not to be too sure of what Miriam Benhannon did and did not know.

  “Manta rays will swoop in from the air while the Pondhoppers and patrol-boats also deal with the threats from the sky,” Chas was saying.

  Daniel considered the Melody he had composed for the shaping of solidified air. What he wanted was not a simple image, but an animation he could control. As he pondered the need a new Melody began to take shape in his soul. The construct not only needed to move, he needed the thing to respond to its immediate surroundings and he would need to be able to cast a simple, but effective, spell through it. Nothing of the sort had ever been done before, but that did not stop his imagination from taking off with the thoughts, and working them into a completed Melody with a four-part harmony that included notes from Find All, Die Now, Personal Shield, and Give Me A Holler. He titled the Symphonic, Puppet.

  “Something has certainly lit a fire in your eyes,” Leah commented in a quiet voice. She probably did not want to interrupt the Sentinel Commander.

  “Sero and my mother have inspired a new spell, the sole purpose of which is trickery and misdirection,” Daniel spoke louder than he intended.

  “What have I inspired?” His mother asked from across the table.

  “This, the product of a tune I composed because the original was not to my liking,” Daniel replied and then cast the spell. With a snap crack of displaced air, his double appeared on the table beside the image of Filia.

  He dedicated a compartment in his mind to contain the essence of the construct and focused on that. Everything within a one hundred-stride radius of Daniel-2 came into his awareness. With a thought he caused the construct to hop off the table and begin a trip around the room, passing one person after the other. “I can sense all of you, and as you can hear, I can speak through its mouth.”

  “I just cast Find All and because this thing is shielded I cannot sense that it is only a construct of solidified air, but since you restored me from Condemnation, I know the real you is still in the chair,” Sandra said, and the others who had been restored to humanity nodded their heads in agreement.

  “True,” Daniel admitted, “but none of the Serpents, not even Tarin Conn, will be able to sense the difference.”

  Sero smiled; evidently pleased his suggestion had borne fruit.

  “You have solved my biggest concern with this plan,” Chas stated. “The trap laid by Tarin Conn is set for you specifically and nothing I have come up with is going to change that fact. Your new composition will give the Dark Maestro at least two targets.”

  Daniel thought about the information coming to him from the construct. He reckoned it might be possible to control more than one, but it would mean multitasking on a level he had never tried before. “With the spell, Puppet, I can create and control up to seven, any more than that would distract me. What I can make each one of them do will be limited, depending a good deal on my personal situation at the moment, but I only need them to be distractions.”

  “Eight of you on the battle field, I like that,” Samuel stated. “The Serpents will figure out the ruse quickly but will still not know which is the real you and therefore will have to attack all of them while being attacked by us.”

  “That is the idea,” Daniel said, knowing there was no guarantee the Serpents would not figure out a way to make a distinction.

  Chas finalized the plan, and then Daria notified Darrell Logan and Lena Beyers of the Joint Mission Task Force assignments. The Mantas from Starling Cove were launched and hopefully would reach the area of Filia by the time the attack force was in position to strike. Daniel, Sero, Carlos, David, and Silvia were conveyed to the bridge of the Wager by Karen Ducappus.

  The Ducaunan-born Aakacarn had the best visual of the vessel. Carlos did not seem distressed at not being granted the opportunity to cast the spell, seeing as he likely did not have a creature on board the Wager, and she certainly did. The fact that she had three lightning bolts of potential at her command pleased Daniel, making him confident the patrol-boat would be able to hold its own against the sky-cruisers after he conveyed to the mountain. Every person in the crew was important, but loosing Tim or Gina would affect him more deeply, he had to admit, as would the deaths of David and Silvia. His parents were just as safe on the RiverDancer with a Two-bolt on board with them. The Teki couple was not pleased when he told them they would be staying aboard the Wager, but he did not give in, not even when Silvia flashed her dimples, and then tried her put-upon older sister routine.

  He glanced at the Seer and wondered, did she really think I could be so easily manipulated?

  Other women’s dimples meant nothing to him. Sherree held his heart and it was her face that filled his thoughts, especially with her in danger.

  Tim quickly took the position where he normally stood to look out the large forward window, which was angled back forty-five degrees to deflect the wind. Gina walked up to Daniel and put her arms around him. “We will rescue Sherree,” she assured him and then ended the warm embrace. She reached inside her blouse, no doubt to turn the amulet around, and said, “You better activate your shield too.”

  She remembered the Tannakonna tradition, but had not hugged him so tightly since right after he healed her of the severe burns she suffered when the Polkat had been struck by a huge fireball. Clearly, the hug meant more than a wish for a happy hunt, she knew he could barely stand the thought of Sherree being in the hands of Tarin Conn or, perhaps, she figured this was the confrontation that would decide the fate for everyone. Maybe the hug meant all of that or she was just hugging a longtime friend and he was reading too much into it. She walked over and stood beside Tim.

  Daniel appreciated the gesture however she meant it. She was correct, it was time to prepare. He began performing the spells to be used in the coming battle, added Da Capos and then summoned the twin shields that had helped him survive and prevail in the duel with Vance Cummin.

  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. Karen Ducappus took a seat on the bench toward the bow. Four large windows provided an unobstructed view in every direction.

  The forward view was of the bungalow, back around behind of which was the vast green forest, and in front of which was the dock of the Benhannon Naval Facility. Both structures, being made of solid stone, had held up well when the hurricane caused the river to overflow and flood the area. The RiverDancer was in its slot and Daniel sensed the presence of his parents, their crew, and Leah. The other patrol-boats were out on the river and in the Taltin Sea.

  Lieutenant Scott Beckencloth, of Fon Kayan birth, saluted the Admirals and Daniel. Ensign Renee Dotavelo, slim and dark-haired, stood to the left near the cushioned bench. A gold stand to the right of the wheel had three huge gemstones set within and two of them were the amulet part of the CAPUs. The emerald provided forward speed, the amber reverse, and the sapphire contained the spell, Spout a Leak, to empty the bilge water, just as Daniel intended when he
made them.

  Warren Senkonnan, from the region of Mount Tirana, sat in a chair in front of the gemstand with his hand near the emerald while waiting for the order to drive the boat. Standing to his left, gripping the broad white wheel, was Zoee Ducaper, who had been born on a farm in northern Ducaun. Behind her was a stool, should she choose to sit, and to her left stood a binnacle, a gold stand housing the large compass, which had been added to the Wager-class boats at the suggestion of Saul Tarpon. Three additional stools were formed from the deck beside the binnacle, one for the Lieutenant and the others for the Admirals.

  “Boat Driver, rear CAPU,” Gina called out, while staring straight ahead.

  Warren brought his hand down on the amber gem and the Wager slowly backed out of its slip. When the boat reached the center of the lake the Admiral called out, “All stop. Sir Daniel,” she was being formal, “the rest is up to you.”

  Daniel focused his mind on Rifeq. With the eyes of the condor, he could see past the green lanced-shaped leaves of the tree and out over the lake. Sky-cruisers were patrolling the azure blue above the mountain and he could see yetis streaming out of the one opening that was within view, he knew of three more on the slope of the far side and one where the sacrifices used to be kept before Tarin Conn switched to consuming the life-forces of humans.

  Daniel/Rifeq focused on the lake, had a perfect visual, and all he needed was for Chas to let him know when everyone else was ready. Ten years later, more like half a mark, but it had seemed much longer, the words he had been waiting for entered his head through the array, “All units, attack!”

  Daniel released the potential for the spell, the blackness of between here and there enveloped the patrol-boat, and in less time than it would take Jerrian Tobermin to clear his nose, they arrived on the lake south of Filia.

  Pondhoppers appeared in the water of the lake and back around beyond direct sight, which was also where the RiverDancer would be appearing among the fleet of smaller swift-boats.