by Dante King
“There!” she shouted with a smile. “That’s better!”
She restarted her flame barrage, the jets of fire slowing Morgon.
“How do I use this?” Ben asked.
“Easy—just imagine your hands are on fire. Then, when the flames are there, push them out!”
Ben realized that asking for instructions was likely not the best idea—Shrike had no doubt been using her powers for so long that they were second nature.
All the same, he stuck out his hands and focused. At first, nothing happened, but after a few moments of intense focus, he noticed something strange—his hands began to burn. It hurt a bit, feeling like he’d plunged his hands into pots of boiling water. The pain grew and grew, and soon his skin began to burn and char.
“It hurts like hell!” he shouted.
Shrike grinned. “That’s how you know it’s working!”
Then his skin ignited, orange spreading across like a flame held to paper. The pain was incredible, as if each nerve itself was burning.
“There!” Shrike exclaimed. “Now just push it out!”
Ben wasn’t sure what she meant by that, but he raised his flaming palms toward the soldier’s feet and forced the flame forward. To his amazement, twin jets of fire blasted out and hit the feet, the flames spreading and spreading until they engulfed the soldier to its mechanical knees. Shrike’s fire joined Ben’s, and soon the steel began to melt.
“What?” Morgon growled. “How?”
Ben ignored him, instead focusing on his fire and nothing else. The flames were mana-intensive, and he could feel his pool drain by the second.
But the flames did the job. Underneath the fire he saw the steel melting, forming puddles that spread and quickly hardened. The soldier creaked as it stepped forward, the joints straining against the steel melted onto the ground.
The soldier tripped and fell forward, collapsing into a pile. Ben and Shrike jumped out of the way in time, Ben turning his attention to the mangonels. With what mana he had left, he activated Drain and sucked their strength, one by one. Once they were totally siphoned, the monsterkin dropped and ceased firing their weapons.
The fight was over, Ben felt as if his body pulsed with strength, and he turned his attention to the soldier.
“Help!” Morgon shouted from underneath the debris. “Anyone out there want to lend a hand?”
Ben grunted, stepping over to the soldier and using his stolen strength to shove the soldier aside just enough for Morgon to crawl out from under it. Once he was free, the orc turned over to see the group gathered around him.
“Uh, any chance for a peaceful surrender?”
Chapter 11
“How are they?” Ben called over his shoulder to Shrike, who hadn’t wasted any time in hurrying over to the monsterkin that had, only moments before, been trying to kill them.
“Physically, they’re OK. But they’re… not all there. It’s like they’re in a coma or something.”
“Give ’em a few hours,” Morgon said. “The spell this place puts on people takes a little time to wear off. Old enchantments, you know?”
Ben wasn’t in the mood to hear Morgon say a word. His hand went for his scimitar, but when he tried to grasp the handle, he wrapped his fingers around nothing but air. He glanced over at one of the fallen siege soldiers, remembering that he’d left his scimitar underneath.
“Crash like that probably split that thing into shards,” Zito said. “I wouldn’t be too worried about it, lad—that was a cheap piece of crap! A fighter like you needs something better than a blade you scavenged from some monster. Here.” He took out his simple short sword and handed it to Ben. “Use this for what you’ve got in mind.”
Ben took the blade and was struck right away by how different it felt. Despite it being nothing more than a short sword no different than many he’d seen before, there was something better to it. It was well-balanced and felt substantial in his hand. More than that, the short length of the blade meant that it would be well-equipped for close-quarters combat in tight spots. He could already understand why a sword master like Zito had chosen such a blade.
But he put all of that out of his mind as he turned to Morgon. He raised the blade, rushing to the orc and placing it against the thick, green skin of his neck.
“Whoa!” Morgon shouted, his dark eyes going wide. “What’s the story, kid?
“I want to know who you are, what this place is, and why the hell you tried to kill me and my friends.”
“Why wouldn’t I try to kill you and your friends? This is my domain, and you broke into the place!”
“This is my domain,” Ben replied. “I’m Benzhameen, the Forgotten Ruler.”
Morgon appeared confused, as if he hadn’t quite understood what Ben had said. Then his expression became one of realization.
“Wait, you do kind of look like him. But it’s been years, and last I heard, he was lost for good.”
“Well, standing here in front of you should answer that. If you really want proof, I can show you to my tower in the south.”
His eyes flashed again. “You… you have the southern tower?”
“It’s mine,” Ben said, “and this is my army—part of it, anyway.”
Morgon raised a finger. “That’s… that’s Master Zito, the leader of the Luminous Blades!”
Zito chuckled. “Good to hear that my reputation precedes me, even in a place like this. And you’re the captain of the engineers, if my memory serves.”
Morgon stood up, saluting. “Morgon Steelbender—Captain of the Great Leader’s Siege and Sapper army!”
“Sit down,” Ben said, his blade still stuck out. “You still haven’t told me why you tried to kill me, and what you did with the monsterkin.”
“Them?” he asked. “Well, that’s simple. Before the Forgotten Ruler vanished, I was given strict orders to keep this factory in working order until your return. Then I was transformed into a spirit, only to be given flesh when the ruler finally returned.”
“And being given flesh didn’t clue you in that something was going on?” Melody asked.
Morgon narrowed his eyes. “Hey, you spend the last God-knows-how-many years wandering this place like some kind of glorified janitor and tell me how with-it you are when you finally turn real again.”
Ben decided Morgon was no threat. He took the blade down and handed it back to Zito. If Morgon did get out of line, Ben could simply sap his strength and make him helpless.
“Tell me what this place is, what you did to the monsterkin,” Ben demanded.
“This place is the largest of your network of factories on the continent,” Morgon said. “An army’s no good if it’s nothing but archers and swordsmen, right? In these factories, I oversaw the construction of all the weapons of war for your armies—catapults, crossbows, trebuchets, I made them all!”
He continued, “My orders were to keep this place running for your return. Well, that’s kind of a hard gig when you’ve got no one to work the factory floor. The way I solved that was by tapping into the little magic I know to ensnare anyone who broke into this place under my spell. They’d lose their conscious mind, become brainless workers. They croak after a while, so it’s not sustainable.”
“Wait,” Shrike said, a tinge of panic in her voice. “You made them mindless slaves?”
“Only while the spell is active. Once you get them out of here and let them rest a little, they’ll be fine.”
Shrike let out a sigh of relief.
Morgon raised a big, green finger. “But you’d be stupid not to put them to work here when you’ve got this place up and running. They’ve got the muscle memory in their hands, after all.”
Now that Ben wasn’t fighting for his life, he noticed the strange way Morgon spoke. His accent, for some reason, sounded exactly like a Brooklyn one from back on Earth. He found himself wondering how different this new world was from his old one, exactly.
“Anyway,” Morgon said, “now that you’re finally
back, we can bring this place back up to its former glory. You should’ve seen it in its hay day—hundreds of workers all busting their asses to fill your army with the best siege equipment there is.”
Ben pointed to one of the fallen siege soldiers.
“That’s what this is?”
Morgon beamed. “You’re damn right. Call ’em siege soldiers. They’re like regular soldiers, but, well, made of steel. Get a hundred or so of those and you can take down any wall in front of you! Not to mention, stomp over any helpless idiots in your way. Imagine a whole squad of these things punching the stone walls of some fortress, the archers shooting arrows at them that don’t do a damn thing.” He chuckled, as if the idea were more amusing to him than anything else.
“So, you can get this place up and running again?” Ben asked. “How quickly?”
Morgon rubbed the back of his head with his hand. “Well, it’s not that simple. The little scenario I described was back at the peak of your power. To get a factory like this humming at one hundred percent, you’re going to need a whole supply chain bringing in resources. Not sure what things are looking like up top, but when I was running your old system, we got most of our iron from up north.”
“The same up north that’s currently under the control of The One Who Rules All,” Melody said.
“Not sure who that is,” Morgon said, “but if you’re going to be using this factory the way it ought to be, you’re going to need to have a steady flow of resources coming in. And that’s going to require manpower, goes without saying.”
“The monsterkin,” Ben said.
“Right,” Shrike added. “If we managed to somehow take out the owner of the other tower, that would give us access to both the resources of that region and my people to work with you—assuming you didn’t plan to put us all under some kind of spell to make us work in the factory until we dropped.”
“I mean, you could,” Morgon said. “You give the word, and I’ll make it so you’ve got an army of automatons to work the floor. It’d be a major boost to your productivity. Hell, could mean the difference between victory and defeat.”
Shrike turned her attention to Ben, anger flashing in her eyes. “Don’t tell me you’re considering this. Didn’t you tell me that you weren’t intending to keep my people in bondage? This… what he’s suggesting would be somehow worse.”
“I’m not considering it,” Ben said. “Anyone who works in the factory will do so of their own free will, and they’ll receive a fair wage.”
Relief washed over Shrike’s face. “Good. I hope when it comes time to actually follow through with this promise, you don’t go back on it.”
“That’s right,” Morgon said. “It’ll take some time to get this place up and running, but when we do, you’ll have the option to put that into place. We’ll revisit it then—easy to be Mr. Idealist now, but you might be singing a different tune when you’ve got fifty thousand soldiers bearing down on you, right?”
As far as Ben was concerned, the issue was settled. All that remained to be determined was the next step.
“We need to get them back to Moonbright,” Ben said, nodding toward the monsterkin. “Get them some rest so they can recover.”
“I don’t know what kind of plan you’ve got going on,” Morgon said, “but you should let me at that tower of yours. We might not have the whole factory to use, but I can set up a workshop down below like I used to have, come up with some useful toys for you to use on your little adventures. The tower’s got some great defenses that were installed by yours truly. Let me work on ‘em for a little bit, and I’ll turn that place into a fortress. Might be hard to do with just myself, but I can make it happen.”
Shrike knitted her brow.
“What is it?” Ben asked.
“You said that they know how to work, right?” Shrike asked, sweeping her hand toward the unconscious monsterkin.
“Uh, sure,” Morgon said. “Trained them good in the short time they were here.”
She turned to Ben. “Then have them go back to the tower. Take my cousin and the rest and let them work with Morgon.”
“What?” Ben asked. “Don’t you want them in Moonbright?”
She shook her head. “I trust that you’re determined to win, but there’s no guarantee that will happen. If I send them to your tower, at the very least they’ll be free.”
“We could do the same for you, right, fire girl? Tell that Hullbeck jackass that you died here in the ruins,” Zito said.
“No. I’m not going to turn my back on my people. I’ll go back with you and do whatever it takes to remove Hullbeck and free them.”
Ben said nothing, but deep down he admired her determination.
“Well, there’s still the matter of getting them back to the tower,” he mumbled.
Morgon flashed a big grin. “I’ve got the solution to that little problem.”
Without another word, he rushed out of the room, leaving everyone confused. Minutes later, a huge door opened in the side of the warehouse, lights flashing all around it. A huge siege soldier, twice as big as the others, emerged from the darkness. He walked the machine over, stepping around the fallen soldiers. Once there, the front compartment opened to reveal Morgon inside at the controls, leather cap on his head and goggles on his face.
“Pretty impressive, huh? This is Samantha, my pet project for the last hundred years or so. Don’t ask why I call it that—personal reasons. Now, watch this.” He turned the soldier around, another compartment in the back opening. Then he turned back around. “Extra storage in the back. Might not get the comfiest ride in the world, but it’ll get them where they need to go. How about you guys load them up, and I’ll get on the way?”
“You know where the tower is?” Ben asked.
“Sure do—unless you managed to move it to a different spot. But I’m guessing it’ll be big enough to see regardless. I’ll take the long way so I avoid anyone on the road I might not want to see.”
Ben and his party loaded the still-unconscious monsterkin into the back of the siege soldier. When they were inside, Morgon closed the door and left it open a crack for circulation. Then he pressed another button, the far door of the warehouse opening.
“Come on!” Morgon said, his voice coming through a speaker system in the soldier.
They made their way out, the night having long fallen.
“See you back at the tower, boss!” Morgon said. “Let me do my thing, and we’ll have a hell of an army before you know it!”
With that, he turned and left, the siege soldier disappearing in the far darkness.
“We need to get back,” Shrike said. “Tell Hullbeck what happened and figure out our next step.”
Ben nodded. “For now, we rest. This place is a decent shelter, and we’re going to need all the energy and rest we can get before we head back to Moonbright.”
“That’s right!” Zito said. “The fewer nights we have to spend in that hellhole, the better! Ah, no offense.”
“None taken,” Shrike replied. “Moonbright used to be one of the most beautiful towns on the river. What Hullbeck has done to it in such a short amount of time is… unforgivable.”
“We’ll make it pretty again,” Imogen said, placing her small hand on Shrike’s shoulder.
Shrike nodded, but Ben saw that there was still sadness in her eyes.
They made a small camp in the warehouse, building a fire and eating the last of their food. The place was hardly comfortable, but at least it was safe from the elements and any Black Army soldiers that might be passing by.
The group awoke to another dreary day, the sky gray and the air moist. Ben and his group packed up what remained of their gear and left the ruins. As they departed, Ben glanced back at the place with satisfaction, knowing he’d found another master and come just a bit closer to restoring his army.
But there was still the matter of uncovering the mystery of the other tower.
They took the main road along the river back tow
ard Moonbright. This route allowed Ben to see the extent of what had taken place in the region under the control of The One Who Rules All and his Black Army. The towns had been totally subjugated, the monsterkin working as slaves in farms and in the river and in the small mines here and there. Most of the control was executed by the Black Army, but like in Moonbright there was no shortage of monsterkin willing to enslave their own kind.
Along the road Ben and his party encountered several convoys of monsterkin in chains, soldiers of the Black Army on both of their sides to hurry them along.
“Many of them are being taken from one town to another,” Shrike said. “The One Who Rules All doesn’t care about family or connections or anything like that. He sees us as a pool of labor to move around where he needs. But some of these monsterkin are being taken to the tower. Once that happens… it’s unlikely we’ll ever see them again.”
The sight enraged Ben, made him want nothing more than to climb to the top of the northern tower and personally slay whoever resided there, to make them pay for what they’d done.
Ben put those desires aside, knowing they would have to wait to be fulfilled. He ventured with the rest of his group, and after a few hours they were back in the region of Moonbright. The same monsterkin on horseback that had greeted them before came out and led them into the village, back to Hullbeck’s headquarters.
Soon they were in the great meeting hall, the boarkin Hullbeck seated at his table, his hooved feet up upon it, a bottle of wine in his hand and a huge turkey leg in the other. As the group entered, he took big bites out of the meat, chewed it noisily, then washed it down with a pull of wine. Every now and then he’d wipe the grease from his mouth with the back of his hand.
“About damn time you all showed up,” Hullbeck said as he sat up, plopping his feet on the floor and tossing the meat onto a nearby plate. “Where the hell are the rest of the monsterkin? Where’s your cousin?”
Shrike stepped forward, sadness in her eyes. “She… she didn’t make it. Neither did any of the rest of the monsterkin who went into the ruins.”