by James Somers
Laish and Brody, as the most powerful Superomancers, were busy in an attempt to transform the water in the moat. If a more suitable substance could stop the automatons under Gladstone’s command then we would need it. Cannonballs alone, likely, would not stop them.
As defenses along the wall were completed, I watched as Brody and Laish combined their efforts. This was a lot of water to work with. However, in moments the change could be seen. The liquid had become thick and black. Water had been transformed to tar.
I noticed then that Adolf had grown tense beside me, the look on his face betraying ill temper. He was looking back down into the courtyard. There, near the Shade King, stood Liam Shade. He was surveying matters with his father and had not noticed me or Adolf—yet.
“Don’t worry about him,” I said. “You’re a hero today.”
He laughed at that and turned back with me to look out beyond the second defensive wall beyond the moat. Gladstone’s army still had not noticed anything peculiar going on here at the Tower complex. Perhaps they had noticed soldiers but had assumed that we were only those stationed at the Tower already. If so, they were about to get a big surprise.
The Shade King appeared upon our wall again. This time, Connic and Liam were with him. He looked to his gun crews and then stepped near Brody to consult with him. Connic stood with the king. Liam remained where he had materialized, staring at me and Adolf. His mouth became a grim line. Obviously, he couldn’t believe that Adolf and I, his two rivals, were standing here together.
I could see that he was weighing his options. Had we not been on the edge of battle, Liam would have no doubt ran crying to his father like an infant with a scraped knee. Instead, he stewed quietly, perhaps knowing that to interfere with his father at this juncture would bring him more trouble than he could afford.
Still, his glare promised us that this matter was not over with in the least. He intended to have his vengeance. Adolf was the target of his malice, but again, I found myself guilty and condemned by association.
Orders were being given. Brody was calling to Redclaw and Laish. “When the king begins his artillery assault, matters will progress very quickly. Undoubtedly, Black is here. He will come against us first in order to break down our wards. We don’t know much about the automatons, but they are our main target for now. We can do nothing to Black, at any rate, and Sadie and I have Malak-esh.”
He looked at Sadie, still standing beside me. “Do not make any attempt to engage Black unless I fall in battle,” he said sternly.
She started to protest, but his look warned her off. Sadie nodded instead. “Yes, father.”
He smiled at us then. “Don’t fret. I don’t plan on dying. However, if something happens to me, then the duty of destroying Black’s mortal host must fall to you.”
“What about your sword, father, if something should happen?” Sadie asked.
Brody grinned mischievously. “Not to worry. I’ve already settled the matter through a recent blood bond. If I fail, then the sword will go to my chosen successor.”
I glanced sidelong at Sadie then looked to Brody again. I knew exactly what he meant. I was the one he had made the blood bond with. This was the means by which he had constructed the portal bypassing the barrier around Ireland. And it was, apparently, the same means by which he had decided the fate of his sword Malak-esh.
“Are we ready?” the king asked.
Brody surveyed our situation here on the wall and below in the courtyard, nodding finally with satisfaction. “As ready as we will ever be, Your Majesty.”
Shade smiled fiercely, raising his sword. His gunnery crews were ready and waiting. They had already set their targets among the automatons over on the staging ground. There had still been no sign of Gladstone, or Black. But there was no time to delay.
The king dropped his sword, shouting, “Fire at will!”
Surprise
Black stood upon the pavement overseeing the automatons under his power and guidance. He was exerting himself with the attempt, despite the energy lent to him by the cherubim. He could not get his thoughts beyond the matter of Lucifer. What, if anything, had transpired between them. The cherubim were feeding him power, but their thoughts were still closed to him.
Gladstone had yet to arrive. He intended that the prime minister see his army off on their way to battle. It was important to have things legitimized as far as the humans were concerned. The metal giants did not have so much as a single thought in their heads, except as Black directed them.
Suddenly, a cacophony of thunder erupted not far away. The sky, however, was clear. Black looked toward the direction of the Tower of London. There, a great many white puffs of discharged powder were found upon the wall. Cannons lined up across the battlements had fired—upon them.
They were under attack, apparently by their own people. But surely that couldn’t be the case. Black’s gaze narrowed. He saw, even from this distance, who was upon that wall. Brody West and the Shade King had somehow managed to escape his impenetrable barrier around Ireland. How, he could not guess at the moment. Yet, he felt that Lucifer must have had something to do with it.
Cannonballs came fast and furious, a barrage that slammed into the first hundred automatons in his carefully organized line. These were also the nearest to the western wall of the Tower of London. The men, who had been standing at attention in anticipation of Gladstone’s arrival—where was that fool?—had turned to see what the commotion was. The cacophony of metal on metal, as cannon fire hit the automatons, threw the soldiers into instant confusion.
This was England. They had set their forces in array on the home shore. Who in the world could possibly be firing upon them now with their own cannons?
There was nothing Black could do for the chaos among the men, except to direct the attention of their commanding officers. “There, upon the Tower wall!” he cried. “Our enemy has ambushed us! Attack!”
At the very least, their commanders began to organize some sort of effort at sending men toward the wall in response. As yet, they were still too far for rifles to be effective. But a charge was hastily organized and the men were off toward the Descendants and the Tower of London.
Two of the automatons had been hit severely. Shrapnel rained down as the giants began to turn toward their attackers under Black’s direction. One toppled over as several cannon shots hit it simultaneously in the head, shoulder and knee. Two more giants went down nearly at the same moment.
Black released the downed machines. He had too many others to deal with at the moment. These began to trek across the parade ground, trampling British soldiers caught under foot in some cases. Black did not care. They had best get out of his way, or suffer the consequences of their stupidity.
Shots continued to come at them from the Tower wall. With some fifty cannons sending munitions at them, the Shade King and West could keep up an unceasing barrage upon his forces. Black urged on his automatons. They took huge steps, covering large distances at speed.
The soldiers quickly got the point to stay out of the path of the metal giants. They took the side road leading along the waterfront in order to assault the main gate of the Tower complex. The only problem now was to get the hulking brutes to not clamor over one another. Instead they were bunched together, providing a huge target for the cannon crews upon the wall. Still, it couldn’t be helped. He had begun with three hundred automatons and very few had fallen so far. Even if he lost half in this short trek to the wall, he would still have more than enough to break down the Shade King’s defenses and destroy his army.
In moments, Black had a strong line of nearly a dozen metal giants coming against the outer wall of the fortification. Beyond this wall, his brutes would be forced to wade the moat and then come against the inner wall where Shade and West had their cannons established. While the lines of automatons further back were still under heavy fire, these first were already sheltered by the outer wall.
He decided to send one of the automatons to
ward the road, following the soldiers to the main gate. He could use this lone giant to help break down the gate and allow the soldiers through in order to storm the courtyard and any Descendants assembled there. They might think themselves safe behind these walls, but they would soon learn otherwise.
I stood behind the ramparts at the inner western wall of the Tower of London as fifty of the Shade King’s cannons blazed, pummeling the metal giants closest to our position. As anticipated, Gladstone’s army had reacted quickly following the initial volley. Still, the automatons were taking heavy damage in places and several had been knocked down. Fortunately, the giants had been lined up in a close formation. When one went down, it tumbled into its near fellows sometimes knocking them down as well.
The British soldiers had, by now, found their resolve and were headed en masse by road toward the main gate. Redclaw had already gone down to coordinate our defense at the courtyard. Lycan warriors, elves, trolls and the Shade King’s Leprechauns all awaited the human soldiers if they breached the gate.
Turning back to look at the automatons, with Adolf and Sadie at my side on the wall, I found that at least one line of the metal soldiers had gotten to the outer wall already. They began to pound away like a team of sledgehammers. I could feel the tremendous vibrations traveling through the wall even where we were standing. Several started to climb over the wall, forcing Brian Shade to order some of his cannon crews to take aim and fire upon them.
The lifeless metal hulks made good progress with their climbing. However as the first few came over the top and dropped down, they immediately landed in the quagmire of black tar that Laish and Brody had prepared in the moat. They began to sink slowly at first, but faster as another automaton crested the wall and dropped down on top of the these.
Cannon crews continued to fire at will, leaving the brutes in the tar to their fate while focusing on those yet to reach the outer wall. There were so many that it was hard not to hit something. Many more fell, but not enough. Their attack kept coming relentlessly. Even as some were destroyed, others took their place from behind, stepping over the giant metal corpses to have their turn at us.
Brody turned to Sadie, Adolf and me then. “I want you all to go down to the courtyard. Do whatever Redclaw says. They’ll soon breach that main gate. One of the automatons has gone to help the British soldiers.”
We nodded collectively and then set off, leaping from the wall to the ground below without difficulty. Making our way into the thousands of assembled warriors, we would have had difficulty even getting to Redclaw at the gate had Sadie not produced a portal. We passed through, coming out just inside the gate where Redclaw was busy with a team of two dozen trolls.
“We came to help,” I offered to Redclaw.
He smiled, baring his large predatory teeth. “Good. I want you three to remain here just inside the gate. Be ready if they breach. I’m taking my troll warriors outside to do what damage we can before they make it through.”
Redclaw became invisible then. His twenty four warriors did likewise. We heard them moving toward the wall, and then they were gone.
Redclaw and his team left the courtyard, climbing invisible over the wall toward the soldiers massing at the gate. Already, they had begun to pound at it. The automaton they had with them was very near to knocking the reinforced gate in.
Trolls, despite their bulky frames, were excellent climbers. No one would have suspected, unless they were well acquainted with troll characteristics, but it was true nonetheless. They made their way to the top of the wall, overlooking the soldiers below, yet standing very nearly face to face with the giant metal man.
A huge left hand was clamped onto the top of the wall, using it for leverage and stability as the automaton hunched down to slam its other iron fist into the heavy wood of the gate. Each of Redclaw’s troll band had carried several grenades with them. These they now tossed into the crowd of soldiers below and then ducked down behind the stone fortifications. Chaos ensued.
Grenades exploded all throughout the crowd, tossing quite a few wounded or dying into the Tower moat which waited to either side of the huge drawbridge where the men were congregated. The automaton had actually taken a place standing partially in the moat, to the side, where it could swing its massive arm and smash its fist against the gate.
Shots rang out as the soldiers responded. They fired at the top of the wall, but they couldn’t see anyone. Redclaw and the other trolls waited until the soldiers gave up this fruitless tactic. Then they launched themselves over the wall, landing among the frantic chaos below.
They remained invisible, shoving soldiers into the moat left and right, picking men up bodily and hurling them away from the bridge. Here at the front gate, the water in the moat had not been transformed into tar but remained as it was. At the moment, the soldiers had no idea what was happening. Many were disoriented from the blasts. Others simply could not see their invisible attackers.
Confusion reigned at the moment among the British soldiers, but the automaton was still battering the gate. It wouldn’t be much longer before it got through. Redclaw knew that he must act quickly. Removing three grenades from the brace across his chest, he leaped onto the metal giants leg, climbing up across the torso. The automaton paid him no mind. It only knew what could be seen through its optics anyway.
Continuing his climb, he reached the arm that the brute was using to pound the gate. Arming the three grenades, he waited as the arm withdrew from the gate again, creating a gap in the mechanism at the shoulder. He quickly wedged all three into the works at the same time and leaped away. A moment later, the grenades exploded together, shattering the automaton’s shoulder. The arm now dangled uselessly at its side.
Redclaw returned to the fray with the British soldiers. With this particular automaton out of commission, they might hold the line here much longer. He remained invisible, grabbing up another two soldiers and hurling them into the water with their fellows.
Interference
Brody and Brian Shade stood on the wall as the king’s gunnery crews maintained their assault upon the metal automatons. They had shifted their targets by now, while the giants were coming over the wall instead of making any attempt to knock it down. Already, a dozen of the man-like machines had stumbled into the moat and become bogged down in the tar. But the others kept coming relentlessly after, now stepping upon the mired machines in order to make it across.
Malak-esh appeared in Brody’s hand, an extension bubble forming around his body.
“They’ll be over the wall in seconds,” the king said to Brody.
“We’ll just have to do the best we can. At least your cannons did a great deal of damage while they could.”
The king called through a speaking trumpet to his cannon crews. “Retreat! Retreat!”
The Leprechaun warriors turned from their stations as the first metal giant reached for the top of the inner wall. Its huge hand came crashing down upon some of the cannons, raking back and forth to disrupt the attack. However, the Leprechaun gunners were already leaping from the wall to the courtyard below.
Brody ran toward the automaton with Malak-esh lit up with the brilliance of the sun upon the mercurial blade. He hurled lightning from his extension, but the brute remained unfazed by the attack. He crossed the wall, slashing at the metal hands that came up seeking purchase.
The sword cut through the metal easily, but with many automatons now scaling the wall, his efforts would not be enough. As the first two clamored over the top, Brody attempted to push against them. He used the maneuvers that Helios had taught him long ago, using the skills that movers had once used to carry massive sandstone blocks by sheer force of will in Tidus.
Malak-esh returned to the dimensional pocket where he kept it. He threw his hands toward one of the metal giants. A wave of force smashed into the upper chest and head region of the automaton. Its grip on the wall slipped as the giant was knocked backward from the wall, crashing into another making its way forward. Bot
h giants went down into the moat where tar-covered machines struggled uselessly to be free.
Finding success, Brody came before another, blasting it in similar fashion. Again the hulking brute was thrown from the wall, slowing the progress of those coming from behind. He used this tactic again and again each time automatons came upon the wall. Meanwhile many Descendants on the courtyard below were moving into the White Tower in the center of the complex. Others prepared to fight against the metal giants when Brody could no longer stop them.
And then, matters became worse—much worse.
Brody recognized the man immediately. After all, he and his wife, along with Tom and Charlotte, had entrusted this person with the training of their children for many years. Ishbe stood upon the outer wall, meaning that Black was standing upon that wall.
The automatons grew still. Was Black controlling them then? Brody had no way to be sure. But he could hazard a guess. “I wouldn’t have thought you had the power to control all of these machines,” Brody called from the inner wall.
Black smiled. “You don’t realize what I have the power to do.”
No denial that he was the source of animation behind these metal giants. Brody knew then his guess had been correct. Black, almost certainly in concert with the cherubim, was pulling the strings of these metal marionettes.
Malak-esh came back to Brody’s hand from the ether. He held it defensively now, staring down Black across the moat now filled with the angel’s engines of war.