The Nullification Engine (The Alchemancer: Book Two)

by Scott Marlowe

  Evan sat up straight as he screwed his face in annoyance.

  "Word is you patrollers are no slouch with the sword, so I imagine he must've been one hell of an opponent."

  Something in the dwarf's tone settled Evan down as he relaxed back into his chair. "He was. Or 'it' was, anyway."

  "It?"

  Evan took a long pull from his mug, draining it. He put the empty mug down and looked about for the barmaid. Once he had her attention, the act of raising his empty flagon was signal enough. No need to shout. He pushed his chair back a bit and settled in to wait. All the while the dwarf's gaze remained riveted on him.

  "Well?" Hirad finally said. "You going to stop squirming long enough to answer my question?"

  Evan rubbed at his chin. "Skeva."

  Hirad looked confused. "Skeva?"

  "Yes. 'It' was a ratman. A skeva."

  "You got whooped by a vermin?" the dwarf said, surprise turning to mirth very quickly as Hirad started chuckling.

  "This was no ordinary vermin."

  More laughter as a palm slapped the table. "I guess it ain't true what they say about you patrollers after all."

  "Dammit, man, I'm telling you this skeva was not like any I'd ever seen before. Damn thing fought like a stalker. It probably would have beaten you and your two friends combined."

  "Bah! I doubt that. My hammer's more than a match for any rat."

  The dwarf's words jolted an idea already formed in the back of Evan's mind. He made sure his next words conveyed a sense of challenge. "Care to test your boast?"

  Hirad raised a brow. "What do you mean, Kingsley?"

  "That depends. Are you and your friends for hire?"

  "Maybe. We don't work for free, though. You got the coin to hire three professional mercs?"

  "I've got the coin, though I don't suppose you'd want to help out of the kindness of your hearts?"

  "Ha! The only kindness our hearts know about is the kind which puts hard coin in our pockets. We're newly arrived here in Brighton, and while we've not taken work yet, we're keen to the idea. We've a mind to see this region's corners and crevices before we return home, so we'll need money eventually. Let's hear what you have in mind."

  "Perhaps your friends should join us?"

  Hirad agreed, and so he bellowed over at them. When everyone was seated, introductions were made.

  "This here's Kingsley, of the King's Patrol," Hirad said. "Yeah, I know. He says it's his real name. Anyway, my clan mates are Ardus Arkor and Kimlor Rusk."

  Both had the hard stares and blistered palms of veteran soldiers. Unlike Hirad, their beards hung loose. Ardus's was black, and Kimlor's, red.

  "Kingsley here wants to hire us," Hirad said. The other two nodded, both turning expectant faces to Evan to await further details. "And, he's agreed to cover our drinking bill as part of the deal."

  Evan's protest was drowned out by an immediate call for more drinks.

  "Now, patroller, tell us what you have in mind."

  Evan laid out his encounter with the single skeva warrior and, once the two newcomers had engaged in their own round of chuckling at Evan's expense, Evan jumped into what he wanted to do next.

  "Brighton is split into lower and upper sections. When Upper Brighton was built, it was constructed right on top of the old city. Part of the construction involved an extensive sewer system. I suspect that is where the skeva are lairing. The job is simple. Determine the most likely place for their lair and root the vermin out. Probably easier said than done, but at least we can give the city guard a head start and maybe even solve the problem for them."

  "You planning on bringing the guard in on this as well?" Kimlor asked.

  "I'd rather not. A smaller unit will have an easier time moving about undetected, so I'd like to keep it just the four of us. If this were an ordinary infestation, I'd say leave it to the local authorities. But if there's any more like that skeva warrior I encountered, I fear the guard may be in for a world of trouble. You are all dwarves, and so presumably well-versed in tunneling and such."

  Ardus grunted. "Not tunneling in sewers."

  "Yes, well, neither have I tracked very often in such a place. But I believe I can find the skeva's lair if you'll lend your underground know-how and, once there, your strength of arms." Evan paused, giving them a moment to consider his words. "Any questions?"

  Looks were exchanged, but no one spoke.

  Evan started to rise. "Shall I leave you gentlemen alone so you can discuss my proposal amongst yourselves?"

  Hirad shrugged. The sentiment was shared amongst his fellows.

  "No need, Kingsley," Hirad said. "We've made up our minds. Truth is we're low on coin and this little adventure of yours sounds interesting. So let's get to it. What kind of payment we talking about?"

  "Standard mercenary rate, paid by a Hall writ you can redeem from any credible money lender."

  "Standard rate plus twenty-five percent," Hirad said, countering. "Standard rate signs us up. The extra twenty-five percent gets us into the sewers."

  "Twenty-five? You lend new weight to the expression 'mad as a dwarf.' Ten, and no higher."

  They haggled some more, finally agreeing on a price.

  "One last stipulation, Kingsley," Hirad said. "When the job is done, I'll know your real name."

  "Again with the name? I've already told you—"

  "Yeah, yeah. Real name or no deal. Take it or leave it."

  "Why the interest? You wondering if there's a bounty on my head?"

  Hirad's eyes lit up. "Is there?"

  "Not that I know of."

  Hirad shrugged. "Just curious, is all."

  "Very well. But it'll be the same name I've already given you."

  "We'll see. So, since we're in agreement, what's our first move?"

  "First, we need information."

  Kimlor sat up. "You planning on capturing one of those skeva and beating the location of their lair out of it?" The dwarf made a show of cracking his knuckles. "If so, I'm your man."

  "Actually, I was thinking of paying the city records room a visit and taking a look at the sewer plans. Might help to know where we're going before we get down there."

  Hirad stood. It seemed a signal for everyone else to do likewise. "Good idea, Kingsley. I'll want to see those plans myself, so I'm coming with you. Meanwhile, you two see to our provisioning." Kimlor and Ardus both nodded. "We'll need enough for at least two days. Kingsley's paying, so make sure you get a receipt."

  Evan only shook his head.

  Hirad raised his mug. "To the mission."

  "To the mission," everyone else repeated.

  They clashed flagons together before drinking deeply. Each of their mugs was returned to the table empty.

  16. The Nullification Engine

  AARON STEPPED AROUND A TABLE piled high with Cyrus Melkor's books, scrolls, and papers, which had just arrived from the secret room in the city in the past half hour, to find Serena standing there, wincing.

  "Serena? What are you doing here? I told you it's not a good idea for you to get this close to the engine."

  They were in the palace's eastern wing, just beneath ground level, within the first chamber Lord Phillip had revealed to them. At Aaron's request, a work crew had cleared away the worst of the debris and arranged tables around the broken pillars and chunks of fallen stone. The tables were mostly bare but for a small assortment of laboratory paraphernalia, Melkor's books and such, and, on one table in particular, half a dozen plants, none of which looked very healthy.

  "It's all right," Serena said, wincing again. "I feel all right. But something... It's like before, just not as intense. The machine is stronger now, isn't it?"

  Aaron nodded. "The process has been accelerating." He took out his encorder and, waving the device over her, noticed an immediate difference from the last reading he'd taken. "This is...odd."

  "What's odd?"

  "Your energy level is off the chart."

  Serena's hand came out of her c
oat pocket. She had the Inferno in her hand. "Probably because of this."

  The arcane runes etched into the golden circlet were dull and lifeless, and while the enchanted ruby at its center sparkled from the lantern light, it gave off no heat.

  Serena held it out to him. "Here."

  Aaron grabbed a bronze container from a nearby table. "Put it in here."

  He carefully placed it onto one of the tables, far from anything flammable, just in case. Then he motioned Serena to one of the tables, where he'd several books open. "Take a look at this."

  One of the books was Cyrus Melkor's personal journal. He told her about his encounter with the skeva, the secret workshop, and what he'd found inside.

  "A skeva showed you to a secret laboratory?"

  "He said his name is Acharat. He's a sorcerer...or something. He strengthened the charm placed on the tooth. Then he took me to the room filled with all of this." He gestured at the piles of books and scrolls.

  Serena took it all in before she replied. "Weren't you worried he might...eat you? Because that's what skeva do, you know. I didn't even know there were any in Brighton. The authorities should be told."

  "If you think it best. But first, take a look at this."

  Aaron already had one of the books open to the desired schematic.

  "Cyrus Melkor designed and built the machine. He called it the Nullification Engine."

  Serena studied the schematic for a short while. She turned several pages, looking at those as well.

  "It's encrypted, so you won't be able to read the details."

  "I can see that."

  "But I've deciphered some of it. Melkor used different ciphers, some easier to break than others. His personal journal is mostly legible to me now. He was an elementalist, Serena. He designed the Nullification Engine as a weapon against the druids. But he didn't want to turn it on."

  Serena found a nearby stool and sat. She waited for Aaron to go on.

  "He designed it to nullify elemental energy. But it didn't work. Or maybe it worked too well. He found during early experimentation with prototypes that it drained more than just elemental energy. It drained all energy. He wanted to defend his cadre from the druids, but not at the expense of draining the energy from every living thing. But it was too late to stop development. He wrote if he didn't oversee the construction, then someone else would. They were going to finish building the engine no matter what."

  "Which it looks like they did. So why didn't they activate it?"

  "Probably the same reason they never got the chance to join the Four Elements into the Fifth. They ran out of time. The druids found them and put an end to their plans. If not for the trigger Erlek installed ten years ago, the machine never would have been activated at all. But, now... Remember the oscillating frequency Professor Willum showed us? The range has narrowed significantly. When it reaches a value of 1.618, the engine will have accumulated as much energy as it needs. When that happens, it will enter into a state Melkor called 'full nullitivity.'"

  "That doesn't sound good."

  "It isn't. When the machine reaches that state, it's going to fully activate." Aaron took a deep breath. "You aren't going to like this, but when that happens, it'll drain the life force from every living thing for miles around."

  Serena jumped off her stool. Woozy from the machine's effect, she had to catch herself on the table's edge to help balance herself. "Did you tell this to the chancellor?"

  "Yes."

  "And?"

  "He doesn't believe me. Or, at least, not enough to do anything about it. I told him we need to start evacuating the city, but he wouldn't listen. 'It'll start a panic,' he said. Maybe he'd take it more seriously if Lord Phillip was still alive, but he's not." Aaron shook his head. "I'm not sure what to do, Serena."

  "Don't worry about what you can't control, Aaron. Didn't Elsanar teach you that?"

  "Yes, of course."

  "Then start looking at the things you can control. Like deciphering more of this research. Surely in all of this there's some way to stop the machine. I guess just turning it off still isn't an option?"

  Aaron shook his head. "The reaction is beyond the point of no return. It's going to keep getting stronger. What you're feeling is just the beginning. You're hypersensitive to it, but soon people all over the city will start to feel the effects."

  "What else, then? There must be something we can do."

  Aaron flipped through the personal journal to a bookmarked page. "There is." He removed the bookmark—a piece of parchment—and handed it to Serena. "What do you make of this? It's a decrypted section of some of the text where Cyrus talks about how he doesn't want to activate the machine. I wrote down what I thought was important."

  Serena started to read through what Aaron had written. "He says he doesn't want the others to activate the engine." She read some more. "And that he's going to stop them." She looked up at Aaron. "You think he fought them?"

  "No. Something more subtle. Keep reading."

  Her gaze returned to the parchment. She read out loud, "The engine's sequence results in a diminishing variant until final activation is achieved. If the variant deviates, the resulting energy output becomes catastrophic." She paused. "So he was going to blow everyone up?"

  Aaron sighed. "No. Here, let me." He took the paper from her and read aloud, "An isotope of the intended catalytic material coupled with a disintended sequence will render the final reaction inert." He put the paper back into the book. "That's it."

  "What is 'it'?"

  The voice startled both of them. They turned and there stood Ensel Rhe.

  The eslar came around the table, making no sound at all as he glanced over the open books.

  "Master Rhe!" Aaron said, still fighting to overcome his surprise. "What are you doing here?"

  "I will tell you in a moment. First, finish your explanation."

  "Cyrus... You won't know who he is unless you've been listening the whole time. Have you? I mean, it's all right if you have. But, maybe I..."

  The eslar's stark white eyes narrowed.

  "I'll just keep going from where I left off. Melkor built a failsafe into the engine. A way for it to run to completion, but without any of the nullification effects. He probably meant to alter the machine's disposition without anyone the wiser. That way the other elementalists would just think it didn't work, never knowing he'd sabotaged his own device."

  "Have you shown him the filament?" Ensel Rhe asked Serena.

  "Not yet," she said as she fumbled at a coat pocket. "Master Rhe asked me to bring this to you."

  Aaron took the metal filament from her. "It's heavy." He put it on the table and immediately measured its dimensions. "3.24 inches long, 1.28 wide at each end." He took the remainder of the measurements in silence, storing them away in his mind.

  "Have you ever seen the like?" Ensel Rhe asked. "Or anything similar?"

  Aaron shook his head. "It looks like a reactant metal. But, no, I've never seen the like, except there's something about the shape. I just don't believe... Where did this come from?"

  "Have you met Ingrid Kane?" Ensel Rhe asked.

  Aaron nodded.

  "Master Rhe stole it from her," Serena said.

  "You did? Why?"

  "Tell me what you do not believe," Ensel Rhe said.

  "See how it's belled at each end and narrower in the middle? The dimensions are precisely correct as well." He looked from Serena to Ensel Rhe. "The engine has a catalytic chamber at the top platform. Inside is a slot shaped exactly like this."

  No one said anything right away.

  "You're sure you took this from Ingrid Kane?" Serena asked.

  "From her very room."

  Aaron sat down. "But that means she knew about the machine. Not just a little, but enough to know the exact dimensional requirements of the catalyst material. She couldn't have known that unless she'd been here before or..."

  Serena finished his thought. "Knew someone who had. She was working with
Erlek, wasn't she?"

  "I just can't believe... She's been helping me with the engine. She even helped decode some of Cyrus's research."

  "She is not what she seems," Ensel Rhe said. "She intends to introduce the filament to the machine. She can be here for no other purpose."

  "But why? To what end?" Serena asked. "Aaron, what's this catalytic chamber you mentioned?"

  "It's next to the activation mechanism Erlek installed. Inside is a crystal with a slot shaped exactly like this piece of metal. The chamber isn't active right now. I think the elementalists—"

  "Elementalists?" Ensel Rhe asked.

  "Yes, they built the engine. Catalytic chambers are calibrated with very specific settings and require very specific reactants. But I've no idea what catalytic material they intended to use in the chamber." Aaron held Ingrid's metal up. "Maybe this is it."

  "No," Ensel Rhe said. "Under no circumstances are you or anyone else to place that substance into this chamber. Do you understand me?"

  Aaron nodded. He returned the filament to the table.

  "She comes here sometimes?"

  Aaron nodded again.

  "Then keep it hidden from her. Do not let her know you have it. Your very life may depend upon it. Ingrid has never been the forgiving sort."

  "How do you know that?" Aaron asked. "What did she do to you? I mean, did she have something to do with—"

  "That does not matter."

  "Then why not keep the metal yourself? Take it from the city and hide it somewhere. Or, I could try melting it down."

  Serena was about to say something, but the eslar spoke first.

  "No. Do nothing other than study it. Try to determine its composition and purpose. I must know what game she is playing."

  Serena folded her arms across her chest. "I don't think you can melt it down."

  Quizzical stares were cast her way.

  "When I retrieved the Inferno, the filament did something. I think—I know—I was about to lose control again, except for some reason I touched the metal and it became part of the invocation. It helped me, because as soon as I touched it, I had complete control."

  "That's interesting," Aaron said, tapping the metal.

  "Perhaps Ingrid intends to use it to control the machine in some way," Ensel Rhe said. "I suggest you focus your attention on that possibility. When I return, I expect to hear everything about it."