Clearing the Web

by Cary J Lenehan

Theodora

  32nd November

  I started making lightning wands before we even left for Darkreach. I don’t like it, but it is my best idea so far, and although it will take very many hits with them to kill or even hurt a dragon, at least with the saddle’s speed and manoeuvrability we might have that chance and their range should be enough to keep their users away from the breath of the dragon, I hope.

  I wish that we knew more about them. I could find little even in the libraries of Ardlark, except enough to give me hope that a dragon’s breath will not be able to reach the end of its tail or the tips of its wings.

  We have arrows as well, many of them enchanted, but they are just flea bites to the creature. We need to think of something better than just arrows and wands. My dusky love, my hardened battle mage, cried herself to sleep last night in despair at how many of our people could die if this is all we have. She thinks that she is failing our little village.

  Rani

  34th November

  Like my wife, all I can do is make wands. They are as powerful as I can manage, and, if I do not make them rechargeable, that is powerful indeed. One wand on its own will kill several elephants. Many people think that the red dragons are proof against fire, but I know better.

  At least we were able to confirm that much in Ardlark. They are flesh just like any other beast. There is just a lot more of that flesh on a dragon than there is on any other known creature. I cannot see how we can get enough people in the air with enough wands to kill it. We can hurt it, but that will not be enough. There has to be something else that we can do that will kill it. I just do not know what it is…yet.

  I keep coming back to a control spell, but even though I was born under the sign of the dragon, and so will have an advantage in that, what with the automatic resistance that dragons have to magic, the same sort of resistance that mages develop with time only far more so, I am just not powerful enough to do it in a battle unless the fight takes place directly over the village itself, and I can stand in the pentagram on the roof. I cannot even do it for a short time if I am away from there. I don’t think that anyone except my grandfather-in-law could. Unless I overdraw my account, I will have only half the needed mana even standing there. Even if I have Theodora’s supply of mana as well, I cannot do it.

  I keep trying to think of new things, but I know that Theo-dear is better at new spells than I am and she has had no ideas to help me. She is sticking to what she knows while she thinks and, seeing that she is not being distracted by making new flying saddles, she is at least making a new fully charged wand every two weeks.

  Each of them is a very powerful weapon, but even so I know, that unless we are amazingly lucky, or I come up with a better idea, more than a few of my people will die if this is all they have. She expressed this gloomy thought to Father Christopher one day when she needed someone to talk to.

  He beamed. “Before you go out to fight the beast,” he said, “everyone who is to fight must come and see me at the same time. I have been wondering what I could do for the battle, and you have just told me,” he paused and smiled broadly. “A good blessing can often work miracles. I will pray for the luck of those who will fight the beast to improve. I hope that God will find that this is in His favour.” Has he no sense of the irony of his words?

  Christopher

  2nd December

  On every clear day, the villagers practice wheeling around the sky with the saddles. Aziz has tried to adapt a game he had learnt from the Kharl, called by its unimaginative fans simply ‘ball’, into an aerial game to give them something to force them to become quicker at turns, but it wouldn’t work without a special flying ball, and no-one has time to make one of those. They end up playing child’s games of tag with each other. I wish that they wouldn’t.

  They may be child’s games, but we are being kept busy fixing injuries. Playing tag while mounted on fast moving objects travelling through the sky can often lead to more than bruises as people spin out of control from impacts. We have had several broken bones as well as lesser scrapes and cuts. Luckily none of the injuries anyone has received have been permanent, but it is just a matter of time.

  Rani

  I watch these games in the sky and try to work out who will be best to go into battle for us. We have ten saddles, and Theo-dear is not going to make any more for the time being. At present, we have five major fire wands and two of lightning, but that will soon increase.

  What will be our best tactics? The number of saddles sets our maximum limits. Do we keep working until each rider has one of each wand, or do we send our best out with two each? Did we use arrows as well? I can make far more arrows than I can wands, but the wands are likely to hit. How about martobulli or lances? Would they even be useful at the speeds they will be flying at?

  She looked at the riders playing in the sky. These people trust me. I am making life and death decisions for us—for the riders, and even for the village itself. We have to tackle the dragon well away from the village. That much is plain.

  The sheer size of the beast means that, in death, its fall will crush anything beneath it. Fighting over the village will mean that, even if it is killed, we could have victory and yet still be defeated as we lose all that we love beneath its fall. At all costs, we have to keep it away from our homes, and yet I still have to keep an option as a final defence.

  My wife and I have to be ready, if all else fails, to stand in the pentagram and use one last spell each, the strongest that we can muster, using every carat of overdrawn and stored mana so that the casting will probably lead to our own deaths. I can see no other option.

  That means that we cannot go out. Like a real general, I will be sending others out to die for me. However, unlike many real generals, I know and love these people, and I despair over having to make such a hard set of decisions.

  Which of those beautiful children down below just starting to take their first steps will end up with only one parent or with none at all? All four of the Khitan, including Bianca, want to go. I have no chance at all of stopping Astrid, even with a direct order, and both Basil and Ayesha will regard it as their duty.

  With the help of Astrid, Tabitha is getting as bad as her teacher is, but she has no child, while on the other hand Goditha will want to defend her Parminder and their Melissa. At least I can argue that an earth mage is not the best to be fighting in the air.

  The priests have to stay behind from the fight, but they will want to be nearby, and they have to have someone who can use the carpet to take them to try and save anyone who falls in the battle. My Princess and I will be too distracted to do that.

  Why is it my dharma to be born a Battle Mage? Everyone knows that I am, and they automatically trust me to make the decisions in battle and they will do what I ask. Couldn’t someone else have this task? I know what Father Christopher will say about that if I ask him. He has said it often enough in his sermons.

  Damn the man, I can now think in his theology better than I can in my own. Parminder did it before marrying. Maybe I should convert as well. No, I cannot bring myself to do that. I have to try and keep some tiny part of myself true to my upbringing, and pray that Kartikeya, God of Battles, takes this into account.

  Parminder

  5th December

  All winter I have been practicing with my listening to animals. I prayed to Saint Francis for aid, and I am finally starting to be able to use some range in my communicating with them. Most importantly, I am starting to get the horses and the cats to answer when I talk to them. Their talk is simple, they are, after all, only animals, and it is usually directed to their wants and needs.

  I am often followed by the cats whenever they are hungry, which is much of the time. They now realise that I am a human they can actually tell what they want, and they are not backward in saying what it is. It is ideal, from their point of view.

  I can usually bri
be them to do things that I want them to do as well, not that there is much that I want from the cats. Although, by getting them to change where they sleep, we now have fewer mice annoying us Mice.

  My skill does make it easier for me to handle the horses, and I am learning to see using their eyes and other senses at greater and greater ranges. I can keep track of anything that happens in the village if there is a cat or a horse nearby. Sometimes that is embarrassing if I do not shut it off.

  Sometimes I enjoy being away from the cats. Riding through the sky over the hills on a patrol, and learning the area is ideal. Wait, what is that? She stopped her saddle and flew back and followed the thoughts.

  There is another animal that I can contact. I need to concentrate, not call after the others. Astrid and Anahita will notice soon enough and come back for me. I need to land, here in the snow. It is deep and up to my waist. Perhaps I should have stayed on the saddle. There is a cave buried here, almost hidden under an ice overhang. The thoughts come from there.

  “What are you up to?” asked Astrid. She hovers alongside me. Parminder held her finger to her lips and moved away from the saddles so that she could peer into the cave.

  She smiled and turned. It is marvellous. “I cannot see anything in there, but she just gave birth.” The other two have a puzzled look on their faces. “There is no danger. I would sense that, but now I know that I can hear bears as well. The mother bear is asleep, but she has only just had cubs. I can hear them.”

  She hopped back on her saddle and re-joined her patrol. I will come back here as soon as I can to try and get through the sleepy thoughts and talk with the cubs.

  Parminder

  8th December

  I am having more and more success each time I visit the bears. A parrot? I wonder…on a saddle I can fly as fast as the birds. I wonder if I can…

  Bird after bird. I will keep trying.

  Goditha

  12th December

  My little one has found success at last with a bird, and a good one as well. I suppose that I should get the Princesses to look up. She waved at the mages walking towards the mine and pointed up. Eventually they notice. Now they see my Parminder riding on her saddle with an eagle perched on the front of it.

  Norbert

  15th December

  It has taken me a while, and two tries, to get this right. Never have I cast anything so large before. I have used almost all the bronze that Carausius brought in, but we now have this huge bronze gong to signal to all in the valley if we need to be alert.

  He stood back to admire his handiwork hanging on top of the Hall of Mice for whoever is on watch to use.

  Harald, Goditha and I have done a good job. The frame is fastened strongly into the rock of the wall itself. It is tied firmly to the four corners of the iron frame that it is hanging from, but, with the strong breeze that is blowing, I can hear the gong humming softly to itself. Beside it we have this huge padded hammer of timber and leather that will have to be used with both hands to beat it with. Now to test it.

  It works better than I thought it would. A good strike can be heard in all of the houses and even, faintly, in the mine. It was marvellous to hear it echoing its way up the valley until its noise was finally drowned by the falls. It can be heard clearly at the watch point and in almost all of the areas that people will most likely be hunting in.

  We can now tell the whole village when something is happening. One stroke meant ‘gather,’ two meant ‘danger’ and three meant…well, for now anything more than two means that the dragon is upon us. Just time for you to kiss your lover and say goodbye was how Astrid put it.

  Ayesha

  16th December

  I think that Astrid has the right idea. We may be friendly with Darkreach, but they do not need to know every time that we fly out and Forest Watch can, I am sure, see our valley. We should keep wearing our rings and amulets when we are out on patrol on the saddles. Invisible we can soar high over the whole area and do so unseen by others.

  It is a pity that we still have to fly through the gate. The mage Princesses have established, by carefully climbing higher on the carpet and waiting to feel a sense of magic, that there is a field of some sort over the valley. They may not have established just what it does, but it is there.

  All of the birds can pass through it easily. What it will do to people we still don’t know, and it is not a good time to find out. We actually have the two shields now. The smaller holds just the valley, except for the path over the falls and the entrance gap, but outside it is the one that Theodora put in place to hide what we do. At least we don’t need to worry about it, as it extends much further up into the meadows and along the Mousehole road in both directions.

  Chapter LIII

  Verily

  18th December

  It is a lovely morning to be on watch. She blew and watched her breath stream away in the light breeze. The gate buzzer…who is on outside watch? “Theodule…is everything fine?”

  “Yes, it is Astrid,” said the priest. “She is back early and has not stopped to say why.” Curious, where is she then?

  “Try and show no reaction,” said Astrid’s voice from behind her. Damn. I gave a small jump. “I need to have Rani up here fast. We are being watched.”

  Verily raised the talker and summoned Rani. “On the hillside above the mine, but outside the inner shield, there is a man. He must have come in at night and has hidden himself well. I only saw him when I was directly above him. What do you want to do?”

  “You have not seen him before?” asked Rani.

  “No,” said Astrid. “I flew close and he grew nervous. He must have felt my presence. He is a Christian of some sort. He has a black crucifix embroidered into his leather jacket, but he also has some sort of bent stick there as well. He…”

  Oh, double damn. “A bent stick, could it be a flail?”

  I cannot see her, but that pause means that she is thinking. “Yes, that would make sense,” she finally replied. “What does that mean?”

  “He is from the Brotherhood, and not just one of their slavers who is lost either. He is one of the cursed Flails of God, one of their Holy Enquirers. They are the hard men who enforce their rules. They have no pity and no humour. I can remember very little of my past outside really, but I can remember being made to be very afraid of them as a child. I think that most of the people are afraid of them. Why would he be here?”

  “I was about to ask the same,” said Rani. “The only way that we can find out is to capture him and bring him here. Astrid, go below and dismount where he cannot see the saddle. Get Ayesha and Basil as backup, and meet me where you leave your saddle. I will get the carpet and meet you there. Astrid…Astrid? Damn, I wish that she would remember just for once that we cannot see her when she simply nods.”

  Rani

  I have the carpet, and there is Astrid’s saddle visible on the other side of the courtyard and out of sight from a watcher, but there is no sign of Astrid. I can try and look casual, but I feel as if I am walking naked through the University.

  Rani carried the carpet across to where the saddle was out of sight and unrolled it. Parminder came past with Melissa riding on her hip and giving a quizzical glance. “Keep going and don’t look at me. We are being watched and they may see you and get curious.” Why is it taking so long for Basil to appear?

  Basil is dressed and armed, and has several small ropes and one of the small sets of shackles that he purchased in Darkreach on his belt. If I look carefully, he is holding someone’s hand. He sat on the carpet. “We are all here,” he said. “I have hold of Astrid and she has hold of Ayesha…I think.”

  “I do,” said Astrid’s voice.

  “Right then. We are using the carpet because we will need to bring him back. Astrid, is there anywhere near him where we can land without him seeing us?”

 
There was a long pause. “Sorry, I nodded…I think so,” said Astrid’s voice.

  “Then this is what we will do. Ayesha will take the saddle here and follow us. Astrid will direct me, and we will land where she says. Once we are there we will work out if Ayesha needs to go alone on the saddle, or if we can put down close enough and she and Basil can go. Ayesha, we need to arrest him, not kill him.”

  What might be a hand just squeezed my shoulder. It is disconcerting. Mages have a chance of seeing many invisible things, but Ayesha’s charm seems to be far better than the usual run of these things, and even Astrid’s far weaker one is hard to see through most of the time.

  “Basil, that is why you are here, you are to secure him and make sure that he cannot kill himself. I know a little of them. He must be one of their scouts, as well as an Inquisitor, and he will kill himself rather than give us any information if that is what he has been instructed. Can you do that?”

  “I thought that might be why you wanted me,” said Basil. “I have a gag here. That one from the woman bandit, it was meant for something else, but it will also stop him biting his tongue. I can secure the rest of him easily, but I think that I had better get a priest, just in case.”

  As if on cue, Father Christopher came out of his house. Basil called him over and he was added to the carpet. When the purpose of the trip was explained, he insisted on going to get some supplies and went into the birthing area.

  It is now becoming more than a birthing area. It is now more fully a proper chapel and also the place where the priests and others do most of their healing and medical work, and where we have the supplies. He needs supplies. He came back in a few minutes with a bag and a pouch. “Ready,” he said.

  Rani looked around. Everyone is still in place; at least I presume Astrid is. Basil seems to be having some problems with an invisible hand and that is usually a sign that Astrid is nearby. She took off, waved to Verily on the roof and they headed for the gate.