She leaned in closer. “Goodness. What did you do?”
“Hmm? Oh, these cases have a hatch that provides access to the internal circuits.”
“Circuits?”
“Indeed. See?” He pointed to a shiny surface, also covered in lines and strange characters, that was visible through the opened back. “Thin metal plates inscribed with magic symbols, like the one on the front, can also be placed within, and can be activated by the studs. The edge of the outside plate was damaged by the heat of the fire that scorched the device.” He picked up a tool, a thin rod at the end of which was attached a tiny, angled mirror. He stuck the tool in the hatch and turned it this way and that, murmuring to himself.
After a few minutes, he let out a little breath, almost sounding disappointed. “There are more circuits below that one, but they have magic linkages, and I spotted gears in there, too, for who knows what purpose. While I know a little of magi-mechanical devices, I’m not adept at them at all, so I’d best not attempt any further dismantling.”
Damn. Elizabeth frowned.
He set the tool down and blinked at her, eyes large from the magnifying lenses in his glasses. “I can say that whoever created this device didn’t want its purpose to be easily discernible.”
“Oh? Why do you say that?”
He looked back at the device. “The symbols used to inscribe magic circuits aren’t important in and of themselves, it is what they represent, what was enchanted into them while they were scribed, that matters. As such, you could use any symbols you wanted. An apple, a triangle, or even a rabbit.” He chuckled and smiled at her.
After closing the hatch on the back of the device, he lifted the work glasses up to the top of his head. “There are, of course, standard symbols used for the various foci, linkages, and such, and most people use them. But whoever created these circuits apparently did not want their purpose to be easily gleaned. I have never seen these symbols used before.”
Elizabeth sighed. “So you can’t determine its purpose, either.”
“Decoding circuits can be a very time-consuming process, much like decoding a message written in a cipher. Languages have certain characteristics, common phrases as an example, that can aid in breaking a weakly-coded message. Spells, which magic circuits can be considered physical manifestations of, often have similar characteristics. There are sometimes steps that must be followed in a particular order when weaving spells, for instance. Even so, it can take a great deal of time to decode them. In the case of these circuits, there are also magic linkages to contend with, as well as the mechanical aspects.”
He looked over the device admiringly, and then placed it back in the bag. He slid the leather sack to her. “What you likely need is a tinkerer.”
“A tinkerer?”
“A machinist.” He chuckled. “Though, their proper name is machine engineer. It is a specialization under Smith Craft.”
Feeling a little deflated, she took the bag. “Do you know of any in town?”
“Alas, like other specialists, many have left for better climes. Their services do not come cheap, you see, and these days, not as much money flows in Stronghold. There are a few remaining, to be sure, but they are likely expensive and, as they are all that remain, possibly very busy.”
“Of course they are.” Elizabeth glanced down at the bag.
Well, there were other lines of inquiry she could pursue for the moment. If those failed to lead to anything, she’d have to make a city-wide trek like this once again, but to tinkerers.
She smiled at him. “Thank you so much for your time.”
Chapter 4
Minday, Quartus 13, 1875.
Early Morning.
The goggles offered protection from the air rushing past, but Liara had to shield her eyes from the low sun. Bright rays shone forth from below and a bit to the left, where Suule lounged, fat and orange, just above the horizon. While the sun wasn’t directly ahead due to Mia’s southeast heading, it would be nice to have a kind of light filter on the riding goggles for times like this. The filtering mechanism would have to be something that was not always there, however. It wouldn’t be needed at night, for instance. But she could certainly use some sort of light screen now.
She squinted ahead with tired eyes.
Every time she came to visit Polandra, official reasons or not, the time difference played hells with her sleep routine. Waking up two hours earlier than she was used to made mornings painful, especially with bright sunlight stabbing at your eyes like little lances of glass.
Mia banked to the right, toward another uprising of warmer air.
Liara couldn’t see those air currents herself. All she could see was the odd, mostly treeless vista they flew over. Though it was unlike the lands she was used to, it was nevertheless beautiful here. And the hills and mountains ahead were a nice contrast to the nearly flat land behind and below. Bataan-Mok left her feeling a little odd, but the land here was gorgeous in it simplicity.
The occasional deep sound of her bond-mate’s powerful wing beats made her smile. It was beyond spectacular to be able to ride her beautiful companion. Truth be told, it hadn’t taken all that long for Mia to grow to sufficient size, but to Liara, it had been an eternity. Tearing through the sky with her beloved dragon could lift her out of any slump, much-too-early wake up nudge, or otherwise.
Liara leaned into the rushing air. Flying together is the best thing in all of history!
Mia’s grunting laugh pulsed through the saddle. That it is. Incidentally, the quarry should be in the large hills up ahead if the sketched map was accurate.
According to Cirtis, it had taken almost a week to locate and contact people who knew how to quarry marble. The stone hadn’t been used in quantity for decades, not since the last addition to Bataan-Mok had been completed, so what they had on hand had sufficed.
Earlier, when Liara had asked Polandra why they couldn’t have just used people from the guild who’d worked with the granite to build the Guildhall, she’d said that marble was a somewhat delicate stone that had to be handled differently. Thus, the local experts would be working at the quarry.
“If marble’s so delicate,” Liara had mumbled, “why’d they use it to build the city? Seems a little self-defeating.”
Polandra chuckled. “Well, it wasn’t used for the bulk of it, just for decorative purposes here and there because it’s pretty.”
Liara scoffed. “Pretty.”
“Don’t discount that attribute. Prettiness has value, too.”
Liara’s cheeks warmed with the way Polandra looked at her while saying that.
“Be careful out there.” After a hug, Polandra had left them in the square to head off for morning meetings.
Like the rest of the place, Dragon Square, what they were now calling the former Daelon’s Plaza, made extensive use of the pretty but apparently delicate stone. In order to maintain Bataan-Mok’s aesthetic, the soon to be built housing for dragonlinked and dragons would also make use of it, too.
There had been a number of accidents at Bataan-Mok, at nearby villages, and at the quarry the last couple of months. Her task was discovering whether the ones at the quarry had all truly been accidents. If not, someone was a murderer.
That must be it.
Liara looked ahead and nodded. Yes.
The quarry sat in a very hilly area just on the other side of a mountain range. As Mia hovered over the edge of it, the sound of hammers, shouted instructions, and grunts and curses came from the men and women working all around the place. The quarry bore a strong resemblance to the Guildhall. Well, before it had been turned into the Guildhall, anyway. A lot remained like this, however. Marble was a different color, though. The mostly white stone, some with dark gray streaks or veins, was exposed in enormous faces.
Several surrounding hills had portions missing, and a large, nearly flat expanse was likely all that remained of a hill that had been completely quarried. About half of another hill was gone. Ledges and enormous
walls of stone lined what was left of it, where gigantic sections of marble had been cut away. In some areas, quarriers had chased after a particular color or pattern, carving short canyons deeper into hills. All the exposed stone had a geometric, angular quality to it. The look was strangely attractive.
Nearly rhythmic sounds drew her attention. A group of people were working below on a ledge. Peering through binocs, Liara spotted what looked like maybe a dozen little stakes protruding from the top of the ledge, about ten feet back from the face. Three people took turns walking along the line of stakes. Each stake got a strike from a sledgehammer, before the worker moved to the next one. As they continued striking the stakes, Liara heard—and felt!—a deep, booming crack.
An enormous face of stone, what used to be the front of the ledge, fell away several feet before slowing and hovering in mid-air, shedding dirt and debris. The gigantic sheet of marble, perhaps fifty feet wide, fifty feet tall, and ten feet thick, levitated at an angle near the face it had formerly been a part of. Cheers broke out from the people on the now much shorter ledge and from three people she hadn’t noticed before, standing on the ground well back from the floating wall of stone.
One person down there wasn’t cheering. Instead, she stared at the stone with an intense look of concentration. The slab started to slowly rotate, continuing the fall it had been taking, but at a much more leisurely pace. Once the enormous piece of marble was horizontal, it began floating toward a central area, the flat expanse that used to be a hill, where more people waited.
We should get to the office. Flying and gliding is not too tiring, but hovering is.
With not quite two weeks since they could fly together, Mia didn’t have much stamina for carrying Liara on her back and needed time to recover each time she did.
A pulse of shame went through Liara for having forgotten that. She reached down and patted her bond-mate’s neck. Gods, I’m sorry, love. I got distracted. Let’s land by those buildings near the road leading in. One of those must be the office.
With an affirmative bark, Mia banked down to land.
Liara hopped to the ground. Rest here, and if anyone bothers you, let me know.
I will. Gaze serene, Mia curled up to wait, chin on her forepaws.
Liara smiled and headed for the smaller of the two buildings. It had the look of an office.
“Accidents aren’t out of the ordinary,” Master Ghelt said. The man, a stonemason, was in charge of the quarry. He wasn’t happy. “But this many in this short a time is highly suspicious, the last accident, especially. Every part of those wagons is enchanted for strength.”
He frowned. “Right now, we’re shipping small blocks of marble. The wagons carry twelve of them, each two feet square. They are arranged two blocks side by side, three blocks front to back, in two tiers. That much marble is very heavy, yes, but the wagons—including the axles and wheels—are enchanted to handle the load. With that accident and all the others, something must be amiss.”
Liara nodded. “Guildmaster Millinith agrees. I’ve been tasked by her to investigate.” She spotted a map of the surrounding area on the wall and pointed to it. “Can you show me where the recent accident occurred?”
“Of course.” He ran his finger along the sheet of paper and then tapped it. “The accident was here.”
Liara focused on the map. Can you see where we need to go?
I do. It does not seem far.
Good. I’ll be out shortly.
She turned to Master Ghelt. “While I examine the site, could you put together a list of the drivers of the wagons that had accidents? Also, I’d like a list of people who performed any kind of maintenance on the wagons or who had access to them. I’d like to go over those lists when I return, and I may need to speak to the people on them at some point.”
“Of course.”
“I’ll be back as soon as I can.”
Liara opened the door and stepped outside.
“Take your damned eyes off the dragon and get back to work!”
Walking down the short run of stairs from the office, Liara glanced in the direction of the shout and saw a woman glaring at nearby workers.
Temper, temper, Liara thought.
People hurried off or turned back to their work.
The woman watched as Liara mounted up and as Mia lifted them into the sky.
With a last look down at the woman, Liara patted Mia’s neck. Let’s see what we can find out.
Mia barked and headed northwest.
They could have followed the road, Liara supposed, as it twisted and meandered between hills and along the curves of the mountainside, but she was in a hurry, and, too, roads were for people stuck on the ground. The two of them, however, were under no such mundane constraints. Mia’s sense of direction, a constant wonder to Liara, made it a simple task to fly directly there.
They arrived at the accident site less than a quarter-hour later. At this location, the road hugged the side of the mountain. Beyond the right edge of the road was a steep drop-off that ended perhaps seventy feet below. The remains of the wagons were visible at the bottom amid the blocks of marble.
Liara frowned. That was a lot of quarried stone to just abandon.
When Mia took them down to the wreckage, Liara’s question as to why the marble hadn’t been recovered was answered. The blocks were broken and cracked and some had even shattered, all damaged by the long tumble. Apparently marble was a delicate stone.
While Mia nosed about, Liara began examining the wagons. They’d actually suffered much less damage than she would have thought, what with all the tumbling marble. That strength enchantment wasn’t just talk.
Hmm, if I’m looking at the wagon properly, then this is the right side. She frowned. Most of both wheels are missing. According to the report, the other driver said that one of the right wheels failed on the wagon in front of him, ‘fairly exploding,’ then the other right wheel failed and the wagon tilted over. Shortly after, the same thing started to happen on his wagon. He was able to leap off in time, having seen what befell the first wagon.
Smart.
Indeed. She rubbed her lip with a finger. I’m guessing that when the first wheel failed and tilted the wagon a bit, the other right wheel suddenly had to support more weight. That caused it to fail as well. She glanced at the other side of the wagon. The left wheels are still attached. The naves, the hubs of those that failed, are still on the axles here, but the rest must be around somewhere.
I found one.
Liara eyed Mia’s discovery, lips curved in a grimace. It was a wheel alright, but only a few of the wooden felloes and spokes remained within the warped metal tire. The wheels used on these wagons were enormous hoop wheels, so when a spoke failed, the pressure the wide metal tire exerted on the entire thing could cause many of the other spokes to fail at once, thus the ‘exploding’ description from that driver made some sense. Luckily, there was something left to examine.
She squatted down and reached for the warped wheel. When she grabbed a spoke to see if she could pull it free of the felloe, it instead broke off in her gloved hand, leaving her holding half of what had remained.
“What in the world?”
Mia ambled over. What is it?
Something is wrong with the wood of this spoke. It should not have broken like this. She gripped the short length of wood in both hands and, twisting as if wringing cloth, was able to break off bits of wood. No wonder the wheels failed. This wood is bad.
Mia leaned down and sniffed. It smells sharp and of fruit. Like that fizzy wine you favor, but different.
Champagne?
It also has a faint green tint. Mia turned to the wagons. The other wheels, the ones still attached, do not have this tint to them.
Liara drew her brows together. The spokes still on this wheel, are they completely tinted green?
Only parts of some wooden ribs have green to them.
Liara grabbed onto the remains of the spoke she’d grabbed and twisted and
pulled, removing as much wood as she could tear away. All that I was able to remove, was that the part that was tinted green?
It was.
Liara grunted. Someone put something on the spokes to weaken them! Grab this wheel. We’re taking it with us.
Back at the quarry, she had Mia set the large wheel on the ground after landing.
Liara jumped down. I’ll be right back.
She walked up the stairs and into the office. “Master Ghelt, could you come with me? We found something at the accident site.”
“You did?” He stood and followed her outside.
Gaze on the warped wheel, he said, “Is that one of the wagon wheels?”
Liara glanced at Mia. Does he feel guilty at all?
He is only confused.
Good. Turning to Master Ghelt, Liara said, “It is. This wheel and three others were all tampered with.”
“Tampered with?”
“And only the right wheels of the wagons, at that. I would guess that on the trip back to Bataan-Mok, the right side of the road is the side with the most drop-offs?”
“That’s correct.” He frowned. “Someone planned to have the wagons fall off the roads?”
“It would appear so. Mia detected some kind of stain on the right wheels of the wagons.” Liara squatted. “And look at this.” She broke off a piece of a spoke and stood, holding out the short section of it in her gloved palm. “The wood is so fragile I can break it with my hand.”
“I don’t understand.” Master Ghelt stared at the warped wheel. “If the wood was that bad, how were we even able to load the marble onto the wagons?”
“The accident was a week or so ago, yes?”
“It was.”
“Whatever the wheels were tainted with, it must do its work slowly. My guess is that the wood wasn’t this far gone when the accident happened.”
“You said Mia noticed this? Your dragon?”
“Well, I discovered that the wood was compromised, but she noticed the discoloration and smell.”
“Discoloration?” He glanced back at the wheel. “I don’t see anything.”
Of Gods, Trees, and a Sapling: Dragonlinked Chronicles Volume 4 Page 13