“You heard all of that? That was weeks ago,” Anthony said. “Woke us up, it did. Well met.” Troga held out a fist to Su and
Gus.
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The two of them met his fist with serious expressions. “Thank you, Champion,” Gus said.
“Ah, just a guy with a voice in my head.”
“What was that, you ungrateful!” A large ox appeared above Tro- ga and hit him on the head with his cane.
“Hey! Don’t knock my head off, old man!”
“Who are you calling old man, you whippersnapper!”
Champion aura now firmly tarnished, Troga and his clan spir- its argued at one another as Anthony shook Su’s arm.
“Well, we’ll be relying on you and your people once again,” An- thony said.
193
“It would be our honor, Guardian Anthony,” Su said with a smile as Kagan’s clan spirit was dodging the large ox kin’s hands and batter- ing his helmet, criticizing his “dodging technique” and “lumbering efforts.”
***
The undead regiments of Guardians departed Shivernsin. The mages walked and then rode in the carriages, sleeping as the Guardians pulled them. Being undead, they didn’t need to sleep or eat.
They talked and caught up. They asked the mages about mem- bers of the supply train and the people they saw about Dena; they heard of how the land had changed. Groups would break off to deal with issues in the area. Banditry had started up from deserters in the army. There were creatures that had once been kept down by the peo- ple in the area; now with the strong men and women off to war, there was no one to keep them in check. Wild and wander- ing Drafeng and chaotic beasts and hidden doorways could be found across the land. They cleaned the land as they passed. On the morning of the sec- ond day, they looked down the final hill upon Port Frostfinger. It was a major port in the northern reaches, though if it were on the eastern or western side of the main conti-
nent or the isles, it would be called
a small fishing port.
Ships were moored out in the protected bay, flying the colors of the Island Alliance navy.
Claire led the Guardians, with Aila by her side. All of them ac- cepted Claire as their leader still. They knew the judgement that had come down on her and not many of them agreed with it. It was be- cause of her that they had a second chance at life, that they had been able to help the people of Dena once more.
Hearing what she had done from Damien, they disagreed with the previous leaders of the Guardians and followed her orders.
She might be a necromancer, but did it matter what one was?
Or was it their actions that needed to be weighed?
***
Admiral Raye was talking to one of the ship captains when the door to the tavern opened.
“Admiral Raye.” Claire walked into the tavern where they were meeting with the leader of the navy.
Admiral Raye bent the knee, as did the other officers within the room. “Your grace,” he said.
“You know that Tamarra is the high judge, right?” Claire sighed. “She might be, but you are the true weight behind all of the high judges.” Admiral Raye didn’t know all of the secrets of this land but Tamarra had shared the truth of the high judges—that although they were indeed picked by the other judges, there was one final person who needed to approve their position: the leader of the mysterious judges, the shadow judge. A
woman who had looked over the islands
for hundreds of years. Her name was Claire.
“Been a tiring job, keeping you lot in order! Now, come, Admi- ral Raye, we have work to be done. There are Guardians and mages eager to help the fight at Cheon. Also, how are the children—Dill and Persephine, right? Complicated name for a girl.”
Admiral Raye coughed slightly. He wasn’t expecting that some- one of her position would care or even know about his life. The name of his children—just how much did this woman know?, just amazing!
“They are both doing well, back on Epan with their mother. As for the ships, we have a slight issue. The port isn’t large enough
to take all of our ships, so we will need to use the smaller boats to move people from the shore to the ships that are moored offshore. It will take longer.”
“Well, why don’t we just go for a walk?” one of the Guardians with Claire asked. They wore armor but one could see their undead glowing eyes under their helm.
“That would work,” Claire agreed. “The Guardians will walk out to the ships, just make sure to have nets down the side for them to climb up.”
“Walk out to the ships? It is a sea out there,” Raye said. “We’re undead—don’t need air,” the Guardian said.
Raye swore that they were grinning. “Ah.” Raye didn’t know how to reply to such a statement.
“Well, let’s get a move on,” Claire said.
***
“Never done anything like this before,” Troga said.
The Guardians were lined up at the base of the lighthouse at the edge of the breakwater, the closest point to the moored ships.
Anthony grinned and ran forward. “You sneaky bastard!”
The Guardians charged after Anthony, picking up a lot of speed as they then hurled themselves off the cliffs and crashed into the sea below.
They sunk to the bottom. Some of the mages created lights in their hands to illuminate the muddy silt. They started to walk through the bottom of the sea.
They passed wrecks, rocks, and sea creatures that looked at the new intruders in alarm, flitting away in random directions.
After a few minutes of walking, they stopped and looked up at the faint shadows above.
The mages cast new spells; magical circles appeared on the sea floor. They stepped onto these magical circles and then shot up- ward, leaving a trail of bubbles behind as they rose.
Dozens of Guardians appeared among the ships. They grabbed onto the rope ladders that were down over the side. They climbed up the side of the ships, the crews of the ships looking at them in appre- hension.
They poured out water and a few had fish or other creatures in their armor, good times!
Anthony called up Penelope to heat his armor up. Steam rose from him and he dried off in quick order.
“Couldn’t you have just flown over?” Troga took off his boot and poured out the water.
“Well, yeah, I could’ve but come on—walking on the bottom of the sea, that’s pretty cool!”
“Yeah, it is, isn’t it? Look at the sailors—damn well near peed their pants!” Troga snorted.
***
With the Guardians able to board the ships that were moored, the loading process was a lot faster.
Admiral Raye had the mages loaded up and the supplies that the supply train had brought with them.
The ships rotated out and moved away from the port as more ships came in to take people aboard.
Some of the mages worked together, creating ice bridges to the ships and boarding them in quick order. In just a morning, the en- tire fleet was loaded up.
“Well, I guess that we should get a move on.” “Yes, Ad- miral,” Captain Devra said.
The signal officer had the colors ready. They were hoisted high and the two fleets started to unfurl their sails. The wind caught the
sheet and they started to move away from Port Frostfinger, to trace the shore eastward as they headed for Cheon.
The fleets got organized and into their formations as they left.
Admiral Raye looked over the ships all under his command. He could see the blue eyes of the Guardians and feel the thick mana aboard with so many mages from different races.
“Time we cleared Cheon once and for all.”
***
“Huh?” General Mora turned to the scout who had rushed into the room.
“The Drafeng—they abandoned their forward camp and then retreated. We looked at the other camps that they made in the area but there was no sign of them in those camps either.”
; “Where are they? Send up the alarm. Have all of the fortresses report in. Have them all scan their areas. The Drafeng might be try- ing to sneak through us and hit our supply lines again.”
The orders went out and Mora felt tense. The Drafeng were smart but they weren’t unpredictable. With them abandoning their positions after they had been defending for so long...
What has changed? Is it because of the fleet that is on its way? They could go back through the doorways and then emerge from an- other point.
“Guardian! Talk to the Guardians at Cresmond Peak and the Northern Basin. I want to know what the situation is there.”
The Guardian nodded and created a Guardian Flame, talking to the other positions as another messenger stepped forward to be rec- ognized.
“Speak.”
“The Drafeng are not among our fortresses. It looks like they re- ally did retreat.”
“Contact the other generals,” she snapped to another Guardian. The first Guardian waved the flame off their hand, get- ting her at-
tention.
“The Northern Basin—there haven’t been any major changes since the last report. Cresmond Peak—the Drafeng have taken on a defensive posture and are holding the peak while the United Army is looking to complete their spell.”
“What is their plan?” Mora looked at the map in front of her.
Looking at it didn’t give her anymore clues.
“I have the other generals,” the second Guardian said. Mora nodded to the Guardian and they threw out their hand.
The four other generals on Cheon appeared in front of her.
“I have learned that the Drafeng have retreated from the front lines. I had the different fortresses check to see if the Drafeng are in there. It appears that they aren’t.”
“So, where did they go?” Sun Tao asked. “To the rear?” Axion asked.
“It certainly looks that way,” Mora said.
“Why would they suddenly retreat? Don’t they have a number of camps that they can retreat to?” Nagithar asked.
“We still don’t know what their camp looks like or what is go- ing on there,” Axion said.
They all fell silent before Kolvar cleared his throat. Everyone fo- cused on the elf.
“Well, we have two options. One, we push forward. Two, we hold our position. I vote for the second. The Drafeng are acting against how they have before. They have made traps for us in the past to fall into.”
“Push out the scouts in the area. See if we can see where they went. Push up to their camp if we can. I want to know what is hap- pening there. Send messages to Tamarra to let her know about the situation and alert the other forces of Dena,” Axion said.
The meeting quickly came to an end as scouts headed out from the different fortresses and headed into the rocky hills and crags that covered Cheon.
***
Khurok stepped onto the large crystal structure. There were three such platforms. They were covered in conversion towers. Only a few of them were functioning; the power in the area wasn’t dense enough for them to all work. There were fighting pits for the chaot- ic beasts to challenge one another and new Drafeng to emerge vic- torious from. There were also warrens and tunnels built into the crystal platform for the Drafeng to stay in.
He looked at the beam towers. The towers extended up into the air. Each of them floated a crystal filled with chaotic power. They had taken the work of elites to create the different protective beams. With them, they could use the chaotic power of the har- vester to de- fend the conversion towers and the harvester, or they could be used to attack the enemy.
In the middle of each of the harvesters, there were small crystal mounds. These had conversion towers sticking out of them and the greatest number of the beam weapons.
Khurok stepped into the control mountain. He went to the top of the mountain, the Drafeng and the chaotic beasts moving out of his way.
He transformed into his close combat form without weapons in his hands and he looked at the command crew of the large har- vester. “Aeran?” Khurok looked to the master creator who had de-
signed the platforms years ago but had been unable to create it as there was a lack of power on their home planet. He could only make smaller models with the limited power he was rationed. Here in Dena, he had as much power as he could ask for, turning his model
into a func- tioning weapon of war.
“We are ready, Leader.” Aeran bowed his head.
“If this succeeds, then you will have made a great contribution to the race and our continued survival.”
Aeran bowed his head deeper this time, touched with emotion. “It is time that we took the offensive from these Dena people.
Raise the harvesters!”
Aeran turned to the Drafeng who he had trained and raised to build the harvester and control it.
A harvester ahead of them started to shake. The ground started to rumble; pieces of crystal were dislodged from the ceiling as the harvester struggled against the ground.
Then it started to rise up. Rocks started to fall from it as its large underside was revealed. Everything shook. Others were pan- icking but Khurok stood steady, looking at the harvester as it reached high- er into the sky. One meter...five...ten. The ground stopped shaking as it reached thirty meters into the air. At the bot- tom of the harvester, a mass of crystals was revealed.
It rose up higher, one hundred meters in the air, and held steady. Aeran was talking with the sound crystals.
After a few minutes, Aeran turned to Khurok. “The first har- vester confirms everything is okay.”
“Good. Have it lower to the ground and take on Enya’s force and the remaining queens and Drafeng. Have the second harvester raise up with all of its Drafeng aboard,” Khurok said.
“Yes, Leader.”
Each of these tests made sure that the harvesters were function- al, that they could work with people aboard them. Once they had that, then they would strike out. It would only be a matter of time till the enemy found out what they were doing.
Their scouts are already moving toward us at great speed.
The second harvester raised up from the ground as crystal ramps rolled down from the first. The Drafeng who were waiting for it quickly boarded. The queens, with their queens guard, headed into the conversion towers. The chaotic beasts pushed into the pits, and the Drafeng took up places in the crystal and control mounds.
The second test was completed. “Raise us, Aeran,” Khurok said.
The harvester shook once again, more violent than when the other harvesters were rising up into the air.
The ground at the edge of the platform shifted and cracked as they rose higher into the air. Khurok could see farther as he looked around the control mound and out of the clear crystal.
“We leave for Cresmond Peak immediately,” Khurok said.
***
Mora was listening to the reports from the scouts when one messen- ger ran up with a message orb.
They were rare and powerful magic used to record scenes and send them over limited distances. They were great tools for scouts, but due to the cost to make them, they were rarely used.
She injected power into the orb and a scene appeared above it.
She was looking at crystal mountains.
No, they’re moving.
The crystal mountains rose over the surrounding hills and moved forward. They passed the scout. Three massive crystal cre- ations passed the mountains, making the scout fall into shadow as they cov- ered the sun. They headed out over Cheon.
Seeing familiar sights, Mora ran out of the command center and grabbed a telescope. She looked out and checked the sky. Her hands trembled as she saw the floating and moving platforms with her own eyes.
“Get me Tamarra! Get me the other generals!”
***
“What?” Anthony asked as he listened to the small purple flame gnome, General Axion, who was on Cheon.
“I can’t believe it, either. I had no idea that they
were making something on this kind of scale,” Axion said.
“Well, how can we deal with floating islands that are heading to the southeast?” Admiral Raye asked.
“We intercept them.” Claire studied a map, using tools to check something. “It is clear that their destination is Cresmond Peak. If we can just intercept them before that, we should be in with a chance.”
“In with a chance?” Admiral Raye asked. “We are a wa- terborne navy,” Anthony said.
“You think that is going to stop us? We have how many mages and Guardians on these ships? Shouldn’t that be enough for us to lift these ships a little higher and make them go a little faster?”
“What are you talking about?” Raye asked.
“We carve enchantments into the ships. We make them fly. We then intercept these islands and we hit the hell out of them with can- non fire. Now, dealing with them, that’s going to be a bit hard- er. I have an idea, but it’s ballsy, even by Anthony’s standards.”
“Agreed!”
“You haven’t heard it yet, Anthony.” Claire turned to him. “Yeah, but you just said ballsy plan. Anything you say is ballsy
sounds like fun!”
Claire rubbed her temples, trying to regain her strength. “What is your plan?” Axion asked.
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