“Hey, Cole,” the skinny boy said. “Look at me.” Cole broke his stare and turned to his friend. “Let’s show them, OK?”
They had to physically turn the boy back around.
“Give me my helmet!” Cole shouted.
Someone tossed a lumpy and lopsided black helmet from the wagon and Cole fumbled it. He picked it up, cleaned some of the mud away, and slipped it over his head. Some of the glop dripped onto his armor.
Hanif folded his arms across his chest, unconvinced.
“Tarkon!” Cole gave a muffled shout after dropping the helmet’s faceplate.
“Everyone stand back!” Vinnie ordered. Tarkon, without hesitation, took two paces forward, drew his pistol, and shot Cole in the chest.
“Shit!” Astrid shouted. She was rarely startled, but watching Tarkon shoot a boy was about at her limit. “What the fuck did you just do?” He had fired at point-blank range.
“They are Forge,” Tarkon exclaimed proudly. He folded his arms across his chest and glared at everyone fiercely.
“They are kids,” Astrid exclaimed.
Cole stepped forward through a cloud of smoke, completely unharmed. He took off his helmet, threw it on the ground, and shouted, “Yeah!” Everyone was too shocked to restrain him.
“Can your fucking chest piece do that, you seeping sweaty douchebag? They brought me here to make this armor for you, but maybe you can just go fuck yourself instead.”
Hanif, breathing heavily with restrained anger, dismounted slowly. Astrid kept a close eye on him as he slowly walked up to Cole. He stood before the heavily-armored boy and looked down at his chubby freckled face, which was red with anger.
“First charge!” Hanif shouted. Cole didn't flinch. Astrid held her breath. “Help me remove my armor.”
Cole sneered and panted with rage. Hanif continued as the first charge helped him remove his chest piece. “If you will accept my apology,” Hanif said. “I would like to know if you will make me armor like yours.”
“Ain’t no armor like mine,” Cole said, lips twisting. “I’m wearing the first suit of armor I ever made.”
“Cole…” the skinny boy warned.
Cole trembled as he reined in his anger. “But I will make you excellent armor. Not because I like you, but because my teacher Vinnie asked me to.”
“Like?” Hanif smiled for the first time. “We don’t have to like each other. We just need respect. You’ve earned my respect. Perhaps I will earn yours.”
Cole seemed taken aback, but he smiled in return when Hanif leaned down and said, “And that is the last time you will speak to me that way.”
“We’ll see,” Cole huffed.
Astrid was relieved when Hanif chuckled and shook the boy’s hand.
With the drama subsided, Vinnie introduced Elise and Jakub.
“They’re all associate armorers in the Dregs?” Astrid asked after taking Vinnie aside. “These positions are news to me.”
Vinnie cleared his throat. “Well, I was hoping you’d approve.”
Catching on, Astrid continued, “And you needed to give them something more than promises to get them invested in our cause.”
Vinnie just smiled and tapped the side of his nose. “They are really something special. All the cave people are. I have so much to tell you.”
While they talked, Hanif was being swarmed over by four young woods people with tape measures and notepads. They measured his arms, legs, chest, and waist. One of them had him bend down so she could measure his head and the distance between his eyes.
The young cave dwellers pored over the set of drawings created on the fly. They huddled together intensely for a few minutes, then pulled a canvas tarp from a wagon loaded with what looked like black sand.
“What in the world…” Mika exclaimed.
To his credit Hanif seemed amused by it all, but that amusement quickly turned to complete amazement when Jakub, Cole, and Elise stood in a circle, joined hands, and closed their eyes.
A black vortex of dust rose from the wagon and hissed through the air. Streamers of dust coalesced and wandered their way down to the ground. The streamers moved back and forth seemingly at random, but the strange dance soon gave form to plates of matte-black armor.
The process was complete in under ten minutes. Hanif and Mika stood there unblinkingly rooted to the spot.
Cole picked up the chest piece and held it out for the others to check, and each armorer inspected it for defects. They nodded their heads in turn, and Cole brought it over to Hanif.
The Mover stood there shaking his head. His mouth opened several times to emit words, but failed. Finally he dropped to one knee and bowed his head. When he lifted it again, he reached out both arms and took the chest piece.
“I am truly humbled,” Hanif confessed. “I can never apologize deeply enough for the words I used.”
Cole looked equally humbled. “Well,” he said, scratching his head. “I hope this keeps you safe enough to kick the living shit out of anyone who stands against us.”
Astrid grinned her face sore that Cole had used the word “us.”
“And with that,” Vinnie boomed out in a theatrical voice. “Our capable armorers and craftspeople will set themselves to the task.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The Expedition
They moved past the last checkpoint about a mile from the Wards. The toll road followed the river, which was swollen with the early spring thaw. Here and there piles of tenacious snow stood in defiance of the new season, where the shade of trees let it survive.
Astrid rode along under a clear blue sky with the army marching behind. Mika had wisely ordered a constant pattern of relay scouts, who ran up the road ahead and back the way they came to make sure the enemy wasn’t around.
Ten miles into their journey they discovered why the forward troops had stopped sending messages. A pile of broken bodies lay in a heap at the side of the road along with several broken wagons.
Vinnie jumped down off his draft horse and ran over to the carnage. Astrid joined him.
“They’re blown apart,” Astrid exclaimed. The bodies looked much like the shattered wood of the wagon.
“And these tracks,” Vinnie pointed out. “They are very strange. There are no hoof prints between them.”
“Pushed by men?” Astrid wondered. There were certainly enough boot prints around for that.
“Why would people be pulling a wagon?” Vinnie asked. Astrid shrugged. “The tracks are very wide,” Vinnie observed.
The scientist mage removed a ruler from his coat and walked around studying the ground. “Aha!” he finally exclaimed, as he squatted down to measure a footprint. Then he found another and measured it.
“What the hell is he doing?” Mika asked. “Measuring mud?”
“The troops are lightly armored,” Vinnie declared to answer the question. “I can tell by how far their feet sink into the mud.”
“So?” Mika shot back in exasperation.
“So, my dear Mika,” Vinnie sniffed. “It means they were not carrying weapons when they left their vehicle. It also means that the vehicle in question may be armed, or that they can fire from inside of it.”
Astrid followed the wide wheel tracks with her eyes. They turned away from the river and disappeared beyond a bend in a road through the forest.
“That’s the road to Keep 28,” Mika explained. “I bet that’s where they’re heading.”
The industrious armorers used the time to measure more regular soldiers for armor. They had fitted more than half the army, but they were only able to make a few chest plates as they rode along. Armor for limbs would have to come later.
“Ah, excuse me, Teacher,” a reedy voice asked. Elise tugged on Vinnie’s sleeve to get his attention.
Vinnie smiled at her. “What is it, dear?” he asked.
“The stitchers came up with an idea. They made some calculations and figured out we can make a bunch of armor in two different sizes and it will fit m
ost of the soldiers and fighters. They won’t be perfect like the others, but it will protect them.”
The girl looked very tired. Astrid marveled at the amount of magical energy they had used already.
“That is an excellent idea,” Vinnie said. “Make it happen.”
Elise made her way back to the armorer wagons with a smile on her face.
“Teacher?” Astrid grinned.
“Yes.” Vinnie beamed. “They’ve started calling me that. Even Yulia.”
“Who’s Yulia?”
“Someone you really need to meet. The finest natural magician I’ve ever met. Extremely powerful.”
“Why isn’t she here?” Astrid wondered.
“Well,” Vinnie pinched his beard. “She is quite unique. Let’s just say her gifts come with certain aspects that don’t make her suitable for the job we need to do.”
Astrid cocked her head. “I see.” She sighed, then looked at the young teens who were busy making lifesaving devices for warriors. “Which brings me to a concern I’ve had since you showed up. I’m not comfortable having them here. They’re too young. If anything should happen to them—”
Vinnie shushed her and checked to make sure none of the youngsters could overhear him. “That was a big fight, Astrid. They’re here because they insisted and wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
“You’re the adult,” Astrid jabbed. “It’s your job to say no.”
“Believe me, I tried. You don’t know these kids. Turns out the woods people are more stubborn when they’re young.”
“Do you think we can send them back now?”
Vinnie just grimaced and shook his head. “Not a chance. I think we need to let them do this. In a very real sense, they’ve been fighting their whole lives. This is their fight as much as it is ours. Maybe more so.”
“I wish I could argue with you, Vinnie,” Astrid confessed with regret.
“I’m sorry my superior logic burdens you at times,” Vinnie replied with a smirk.
“Asshole.” She punched him in the shoulder.
What sounded like a thousand cracking tree limbs made everyone freeze.
“What the hell was that?” Mika shouted.
The sound came again, then again. A shifting wind brought faint shouts.
“This is it!” Astrid bellowed. “Form up!”
“We should split the force,” Vinnie suggested. “Leave half here to defend while the other half goes in.”
Astrid agreed immediately. She left a few of Vinnie’s woods people behind with their magic firearms and left Hanif in charge of the reserve force. She was glad to see him accept the directive without objection.
“I will do my duty,” Hanif replied.
She could tell he wasn’t happy, but he knew it was an important job.
“Before we go, Vinnie, I’m going to school your students,” Astrid said as the excursion group assembled.
Vinnie nodded his head, and Astrid marched over to the youngsters. They stared back with hard eyes. When she had their attention, she began.
“I need you all to listen to me. Your teacher told me you demanded the right to be here, And I’m glad you are. Your work will save many lives, and you’re now an indispensable part of this army. So, congratulations. But the fact remains that you are children.” Cole opened his mouth to say something, but Astrid’s stare stopped him cold. “You’re very nearly adults, but not quite. My job is to keep you safe. I will die before I let harm come to you, so you better follow orders because I’m not into dying. Are we clear?”
She gave them no chance to respond as she turned and quickly selected thirty soldiers from the Dregs and ordered them to stand guard. “You keep them safe. You retreat if you have to.”
“I’m on it, Astrid,” a female archer said. Her teammates agreed.
“We can make armor for you while you’re guarding us,” Elise offered.
“But only if it doesn’t distract them, understand?” Astrid clarified.
Elise nodded. Astrid made sure she locked eyes with each one of them. She spent an extra few seconds staring Cole down. The defiance she found in those eyes worried her for its unreasoning intensity.
Mika sidled up to Astrid once she’d returned to the column. “Nice bluff.”
“How did you know?” Astrid wondered.
“I raised two teenagers,” Mika replied. “You handled that perfectly. Didn’t give them a chance to realize they have other choices.”
“I had no idea you were a mother,” Astrid replied.
“You’re full of surprises yourself.”
“How are we doing this?” Tarkon demanded as the principals assembled.
Moxy stood with her claws extended. Vinnie stood a bit apart from the semicircle circle formed by Astrid, Hanif, and Mika. The rest of the soldiers readied their equipment between expectant glances at the leaders.
“We go in strong. Moxy, do your thing,”
The pixie shimmered, then her armor dropped to the ground. She darted through the trees.
“That’s the second time today I’ve had trouble believing what I’m seeing,” Hanif declared.
“You get used to it,” Tarkon said with a smile.
“Mika and I will take point. I want Vinnie and his troops behind me. Tarkon, you take rear guard.”
They moved out on foot as a single column, weapons ready. Keeping the mages up front gave their formation the greatest lethal potential going in. Astrid was betting heavily that they were walking into something rather than being followed.
“How far?” Astrid asked in a low voice.
“Half a mile,” Mika responded.
A blurred form slammed to the ground in front of them. Several soldiers drew weapons that looked just like Tarkon’s pistols and nearly fired before Astrid told them to hold.
“Damn, you folks are fast,” Astrid observed with more than a little respect.
“A lifetime on the run,” one of the Dregs said as she holstered her pistol again.
Astrid tossed Moxy her armor. Several people chuckled at the sight of a suit of leather armor hovering and dancing in the air.
“Keep’s up ahead, across a field. It’s burning, and looks like it’s abandoned. I didn’t cross the field. Don’t smell anyone nearby.”
“Smell?” Hanif cocked his head.
“It’s a thing she does,” Astrid replied, shrugging.
They proceeded down the road at a jog, then spread out into a wedge formation as they approached the keep.
Black smoke rose up above the keep walls and bodies were strewn around the broken gate, which hung from its top hinges.
With a nod to Moxy, Astrid sent her on another quick run. Even with her armor on, the pixie was hard to see.
“Hold here,” Astrid ordered. They stopped about a hundred feet from the keep.
Several minutes felt like an hour, but Moxy finally appeared on the top of the wall near the gate. She waved them forward, signaling that the place was clear.
“Astrid,” Vinnie said as they passed through the broken gate and into the courtyard. “Still no hoofprints and I’m only seeing footprints inside the keep.”
Astrid ordered two groups to look for survivors. The courtyard carried the silence of death. The place should have been busy with commerce and all the daily activities that helped it run.
“How many, you think?” Tarkon asked.
“Looks to be about fifty fighters,” Vinnie guessed. He pointed to a circular patch of muddy ground. “A picture emerges. It’s some kind of self-propelled wagon. It rolls in, troops jump out, kill, then jump back in.” He pointed again to those strange wide wheel tracks that led from the circle through the yard of the keep and out through another broken gate. “Then they move on.”
“Fifty fighters took out a whole keep!” Mika said and shook her head.
“More than one,” Vinnie reminded her. “Keep 37 also. We don’t know how many more.”
“How do we stop this thing?” Astrid demanded.
&n
bsp; “I can’t answer that until I see the thing,” Vinnie answered.
“What’s that?” Tarkon asked, lifting his head to look around.
“I hear it too,” Mika replied.
A mechanical clatter echoed off the stone walls.
Moxy took off without prompting and scaled the rough stone walls, her claws gouging off chips as she went. She turned in a circle until she saw what was coming.
Moxy scrambled back down the wall and ran back up to them. “Just like Vinnie said, it’s a wagon without horses. It’s about halfway across the field already and coming this way.” She pointed to the gate opposite the one they’d entered.
“Doubling back?” Mika wondered. “Do you think they know we’re here?”
“I didn’t see any scouts or evidence of scouts,” Moxy replied.
“That displays a lot of confidence,” Mika replied.
The groups Astrid sent out to search came back and reported everyone was dead. The armory had been emptied, along with tool lockers and anything metal.
“They robbed the place,” a Dreg reported, “but they left the food stores.”
“We need to assume they know we’re here,” Astrid thought aloud. She looked around the courtyard. There was no cover. The gates were useless, even if they could close them.
Shit, Astrid thought. This doesn’t look good.
“Everyone, put your backs against that wall. They’ll be coming through that gate. When they’re in, we’ll surround them and open fire.”
“Pistol corps!” Vinnie shouted. “Check your ammunition and add your magazines.”
“Magazines?” Astrid wondered out loud.
Tarkon grinned in reply. “Vinnie improved the design of my signature weapon. It fires more than one shot now.”
“Twenty projectiles, to be precise,” Vinnie added proudly. “Most of them have enough magical strength to fire all twenty.”
“You can tell me more about that later,” Astrid said. “Right now, take your positions.”
She didn’t like this plan at all, but it was all she had.
The pistol corps drew short tubes from their belts and clipped them to the sides of their weapons. The tubes poked out at an odd angle, up and away from the shooter.
Knight's Justice_Age Of Magic_A Kurtherian Gambit Series Page 20