"So, Field Marshal, when can I expect my uncle's armies at my gates?" Phillip asked the question as if inquiring about the weather. His gaze hadn't moved from his guests, though there was no trace of a smile on his lips now.
Durant considered his answer with care. By rights, Lord Phillip needed little cause to have him arrested. This despite Durant's standing as the Lord of Easthedge. Further, the earl's suspicion alone was enough to have charges of treason brought against him. Durant had no intentions of allowing himself to fall under arrest. Nor did he relish the idea of having to fight his way free from the city. He chose a response which labeled him neither loyalist nor conspirator.
"Hopefully, sir, it will never come to that."
"Yet, I expect it will. Mountains, Field Marshal. You said it yourself. I know my uncle has coveted Rulana and with it the entire earldom for a long while now. I suspect he never got over Duke Brannigan invalidating his claim and bequeathing the lands to my father instead. But that was a long time ago. My uncle has lands of his own, with which he's done well. Has the trade relationship between Agratis and Rulana not benefited us both?"
The trade agreements were fair and generous to both sides. Fallmere shared in them also, and did just fine by most measures as well. But Lord Vuller, who had ruled Fallmere, was dead, with the power across Kettering unsettled further by the death of Lord Nicholas. Such voids, Durant had often found, prompted men to want to fill them. For some, it was as natural as waking up in the morning.
"The baronies of Kettering have always done well with each other as partners."
"Yet it is not enough for my uncle."
"It has never been my place to make such a judgment."
Phillip let out a long breath. He turned to face Durant. "Does your liege know what war will mean to the earldom?"
"Malcolm knows war. As you are aware, we have campaigned often against Kallendor and the Anolgans."
"But that is different. We are all one people here. All of Kettering and, on a larger scale, Seacea. A conflict between the baronies will mean brother killing brother and sister killing sister. Is this what my uncle wants?"
Durant shook his head. "I cannot say."
"Cannot or will not?"
The field marshal took a deep breath and let it out. "Allow me to speak plainly."
Phillip waited.
"Men like your uncle respect those with strength. It's one of the reasons he and your father never got along. I'll not speak ill of the dead, and never would I say a bad word about your father, but Nicholas never relished combat. Lucky for him he had his brother and Vuller to maintain the borders and fight his battles. But, Vuller is gone, and while Absalon to the north has no designs on Kettering at the moment, things never stay the same for long. The Chaos has people shaken. They need strong leadership, now more than ever."
"And you doubt I can provide such leadership?"
"I think it remains to be seen. Though you are untested as yet, I know you are not your father, Phillip. I saw that today. But Lord Malcolm? Though you are his nephew, he does not know you."
"What do you suggest then? Should I call on him?"
"Nothing of the kind. Do that and you'll prove exactly what Malcolm suspects: that you are weak. Rather, order him here."
"And provoke him?"
Durant shrugged. "If that is what it takes."
Phillip chewed his lip for a moment.
The pause prompted Durant to consider a different tack. "I leave on the morrow. If I may make a suggestion? Ensure I leave with a strong message for my liege. A very strong message. One which will make him think twice about ordering me to return with Agratis's army."
Phillip studied the other man. "You would so advise me, when I could very well soon be your enemy?"
"I advise you, milord, so we do not become enemies."
Phillip nodded. He thought a while, but then drew himself up and said, "Lord Durant, when you leave here, I want you to take this message to my uncle. I want you to request he rethink any strategy of his which involves marching his army against me. Tell him if he does, I will gladly meet him on the open field. But I will not be alone. At my back will be the full force of Rulana's army."
Durant was about to remind Phillip that Agratis's soldiery outnumbered Rulana's by a good three to one when Phillip went on.
"Also, tell him this. With Fallmere in disarray, many of its citizens have asked and received shelter here in Brighton. Amongst their number are most, if not all, of Lord Vuller's soldiers, who have joined Rulana's ranks. This, in effect, means it will be Agratis against the combined might of Rulana and Fallmere. Tell him if he wishes to test those odds, then I am ready and waiting."
Durant smiled. "Very good, sir. I shall pass the message on."
"Thank you. Now, if you will excuse me, I've a few more people to receive, and then it's on to my final appointment of the day."
Durant bowed as Lord Phillip departed. The field marshal wondered about the earl's appointment. He knew it concerned the thing Phillip had mentioned to the boy, but whatever it was hardly seemed worthy of note right now with so many other goings-on afoot. But Durant knew it had been a long day for the young earl, so he did not fault him his indulgence. He doubted Lord Malcolm would feel the same way, but then Lord Malcolm wasn't here. Not yet.
6. What Lies Beneath
"YOU KNEW MY FATHER AS a man of vision," Lord Phillip said.
The earl stood in a long, wide hallway with his back to a golden curtain. Facing him were Aaron, Serena, and a small gathering of hand-selected guests. Amongst them, at the back, was the eslar woman. Flanking the earl and standing at either side of the curtain were two stone-faced palace guards, halberds held before them. The hall itself was decorated with fine tapestries and an assortment of golden-framed paintings. Aaron noticed marks right where the curtain touched the wall where one such painting had hung. The curtain was not part of the usual décor.
"His guidance and foresight were an inspiration which would have led us into a new age had he not been taken from us. Even in death, though, my father gives back to his city, for the same catastrophe which took his and my mother's lives, also brought to light that which I am about to show you." He paused. "Past this barrier lies the wing used solely by Kettering's royal family. It is the place where my mother and father died. I ask you to remember this as we enter."
A murmur of assent went all around.
"Also, I must issue a warning. You are to tell no one about what you see here today. Not friends, associates, family, or anyone else. What lies beyond this curtain is a matter of state security. In truth, we do not fully understand what we are dealing with yet." Phillip's gaze went to Aaron. "I hope that soon our confusion will be set aside, though, so we can share our knowledge with the wider world."
Aaron met Phillip's stare without acknowledgement.
"Now," the earl said, "it is written that life can come from death. This is something my father believed in. It is something I have come to believe in as well, especially as I have seen with my own eyes this very phenomenon. Beyond lies something marvelous. For now, I will simply call it a machine, though you will see right away that it is much more. My researchers and historians have taken to calling it the Incandescent Engine, for reasons I think you will understand when you see it. They tell me that before events of a week ago, the engine had not been seen in over three or four hundred years. Why it was built and who built it remain mysteries. You, gentlemen and ladies, will be the very first of the gentry to see this wondrous device. I hope you walk away as awestruck and excited as I was the very first time I saw it."
Lord Phillip gestured at the guards to draw back the curtain. The earl went first. Aaron, who was the closest, walked through behind him, with Serena and the rest following. The hall went on for a bit longer, but then opened into a large circular chamber distinguished most prominently by the great, gaping hole at its center. Looking up, Aaron saw rays of moonlight and the night's twinkling stars, for the room's ceiling was gone
as well.
Aaron walked to the hole's edge. A scattering of torches revealed a great space filled with debris and broken columns. "Was this space used for something?"
Lord Phillip answered. "No one knew it was even here. Those broken columns you see used to hold this room up. The Chaos unsettled everything, though, and left behind the condition you see before you. If you look closely, you'll see the layers of several foundations."
No one else spoke as they each made their own inspection of the damage. There wasn't much floor left to wander about, so no one went far. Aaron did spy a newly constructed wooden stair leading down to the exposed chamber. More palace guards stood at the stair's bottom.
"Come," Phillip said, "there's more down there than just an empty room."
Once more, the earl took the lead, taking them down the stairs. At the bottom, they saw debris had been cleared so that a rough path led to an opening in the wall. Jagged and rough, the opening was lit from within by hung lanterns. Right next to it, a table was stacked high with long coats and boots. Phillip stopped at the table.
"It will become increasingly colder as we descend," he said. "Please, each of you take a coat and a pair of boots. The boots, especially. The footing isn't as sure as one would like in places."
They all did as requested. Aaron and Serena were the first to put theirs on and go to the opening. Aaron saw lights at regular intervals down a very long, descending passage.
"What do you suppose is making that sound?" Serena asked.
He heard it too. It came and went, but sounded like a gust of wind, rising, but then fading a second later until they both heard it once more.
The earl, who'd overheard her question, said, "Why don't you go find out? The sooner you see what's down there, the better. The rest of us will follow shortly."
Aaron didn't need a second prompting. Neither did Serena.
The tunnel's floor and walls were rough and uneven, but a line of lanterns strung up along one side highlighted the worst of it. The passage narrowed, turned, and led them deeper underground all at once. Stairs, rough-hewn and steep, took them even deeper. As Lord Phillip had indicated, it grew increasingly colder, to the point where they both felt compelled to pull their long coats tighter. They saw no one else, but with no other passages intersecting the tunnel and the lanterns' steady light to guide them, they'd no cause for distress. All the while, the sound, still echoing at regular intervals, grew louder the farther they went. Another turn and the floor leveled out. The passage kept going, but there was something new: a golden glow, intensifying in brightness in time with the intermittent noise. Its glow lit their final few steps, as they left the passage and entered into the largest chamber Aaron had ever seen. A few steps in was as far as they went, though, for beyond was a great, gaping void stretching as far as the eye could see. Up, across, and down, all was dark emptiness but for the chamber's very center, for right there in the middle, hovering in mid-air, was Lord Phillip's Incandescent Engine.
Serena sucked in a breath at the sight of it. Aaron too, though where he let his out in a steady exhale, Serena hung on to hers, not breathing at all.
"It's really, really big," Aaron said, his mind struggling to take in just how big. Six stories high, he estimated. Half that distance across, though it was irregularly shaped at best, so assigning fixed dimensions was difficult. Aaron counted three sections, each with its own platform. There seemed distinctive construction at each, but his current distance prohibited any specific determination with regard to purpose or function. The machine's centerpiece, a thick, vertical cylinder of golden, pulsating brilliance extending across all three sections, was surrounded by a latticework of brass nodules, pipes, and coils. Exhaust pipes, positioned irregularly amongst the brass work and numbering at least two or three dozen, emitted smoke neither gray nor black as one might expect, but something closer to mustard yellow. The irregular noise they'd heard all the way down came from the very bottom of the cylindrical superstructure, where four metallic arms or blades spun round and round. Their reach extended across the room's entire diameter. As each passed by, it was with such force Aaron and Serena felt a great gust of air. The oddest, perhaps most impressive feature, Aaron thought, was that the machine really did hover, for he saw no cables or supports keeping it aloft.
Serena grabbed Aaron's arm to get his attention as she pointed at something. "Look!"
He'd been so entranced with the machine he'd not noticed the long catwalk spanning the distance between their ledge and the machine. It seemed the only way to reach it.
"How is this possible?" Aaron asked, not expecting an answer as his attention went back to the hovering monstrosity.
"Sorcery," Serena said. She closed her eyes, deep in concentration for a moment. "It's strong here. Very strong."
Aaron didn't doubt that. But more than just magic was at work here. The machine was mechanical. It hadn't been conjured out of thin air. Someone had designed and built it.
Behind them, they heard the earl's voice, faint but getting closer.
"Do we wait or cross?" Aaron asked.
"You have to ask?"
She was just as excited.
Though they'd plenty of room to walk side-by-side along the ledge, they felt better sidling over to the catwalk single-file. No rope bridge, but a metal walkway with thin handrails and a grated floor, Aaron hesitated to go beyond a few steps despite it feeling solid beneath his feet.
"Don't worry," Serena said. "If it falls apart while you're crossing, I'll float you back to the ledge."
Aaron looked at her from over one shoulder. "Have you ever done that before?"
"No, but how hard can it be?"
Aaron shook his head and let out an exasperated breath. "Maybe we should wait for the earl. How do we even know this is safe?"
"I bet we can ask that fellow over there."
The person must have come around the machine's other side, for he wasn't there a little while ago. He stood upon the middle platform with his back to them. Others were present now, too. Five in all, each of them studying what Aaron thought might be an instrument panel right at the machine's core. These must be Lord Phillip's team of researchers, for there was Professor Othini right at their center. None of them had noticed Aaron and Serena's presence yet.
Aaron grasped the handrails tighter and started walking. He felt the vibration and whoosh of air with every turn of the machine's arms, but except for a slight undulation, it remained sturdy enough.
"Just don't look down," Serena said from right behind him. She hadn't waited at all to start her own crossing.
A glance back showed her using the same white-knuckled grip on the rails.
"Not that there's anything to see," she said, ignoring her own advice as she stuck her head over the rail to look straight down. "Pretty dark down there."
He was content to take her word for it. About a quarter of the way across, Aaron stopped to perform a cursory examination of the arm just now passing beneath them. He made it a point to not look past it at the deep dark. Of an unknown metal, its colors were a combination of brass and silver, decorated with unique patterns of inlaid crystal. It had the curve of a scimitar, with a width thick enough Aaron wondered at the componentry housed within. But instead of a point at its end, the arm was belled, and the concentration of crystal at its greatest there. The next arm looked the same, except instead of crystal, this arm's patterns were formed of red gemstones.
"Those aren't...?" Aaron asked.
"I think they are," Serena said.
Rubies.
"The first wasn't crystal, was it? Those were diamonds."
"Which means the next should be sapphires," she said.
The arm swung around, and it was confirmed. Blue, multifaceted. Sapphires.
Diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and the fourth... The last arm passed beneath them. Topazes. Together, the stones represented each of the four elements.
"Hello!"
Both Aaron and Serena looked up, back the wa
y they'd come. The earl had entered the chamber now, with those accompanying him just getting their first awe-inspiring look. But none of them had been the one to call out.
"I say, hello there!"
Machine-side, one of the researchers, whom Aaron saw wore a dark lab coat, had a hand raised in greeting. His other was stuffed into one of his coat pockets. He stood right at the other end of the catwalk, obviously waiting for their arrival. After what seemed an eternity to Aaron, they completed their crossing. As soon as Aaron stepped onto the machine's platform, which was metal grating just like the catwalk, he started to breathe a sigh of relief. But then he remembered the machine hovered in midair, and therefore provided no more solid footing than the walkway. He groaned, especially when he saw the circumference of the circular platform had no safety railing. He at least found some reassurance in the fact that the platform was level and the machine, overall, steady.
"I am Professor Willum. Who are you?"
Aaron shook off his trepidation. "Aaron. And this is Serena."
"Hello," Serena said.
"Hello," the man said back, smiling as he looked from one to the other. He didn't look as if he meant to say anything else.
"Aren't you going to ask us why we're here?" Serena asked.
"Oh! I suppose I could. Or should." He scratched at his gray-speckled hair. "I just assumed you were with the earl. It appears he's coming along right now."
Phillip and the others were just beginning to traverse the catwalk. It looked as if it was going to take some convincing to get most of them across, though. Only the eslar woman seemed unaffected, as she was already halfway across. She stopped to inspect the swinging arms just as he and Serena had done. On the platform, Professor Othini, from the Sanguine Chamber, glanced their way. But he never stopped his discussion with the others and soon his attention wasn't on Aaron and Serena at all.
The Nullification Engine (The Alchemancer: Book Two) Page 11