The Line of Illeniel

by Michael G. Manning

  Angus sighed, “It’s not more labor I need. It’s a basic problem with the base, there’s no way we can finish this thing when you want it. The foundation isn’t sufficient, it won’t hold up till spring if we keep building on what’s there.”

  I was annoyed. Since his arrival I had heard a lot from Angus about what we ‘couldn’t’ do. He had the same perfectionist traits that had made my father a skilled blacksmith. But where Royce had been willing to consider what ‘might’ be possible, Angus seemed only to see what wasn’t possible. Of course I hadn’t given him any personal support since I had returned. Given the purely mundane resources currently at his disposal it might have been reasonable for him to despair of ever finishing the dam. In a sense his failure was my fault. Like everything else, I thought to myself.

  “I’ll come down and look at it. We can talk about it there,” I told him. Today would be as good as any to begin testing my new ideas for the dam. Maybe it would cheer the dour man up, but I doubted it.

  Hours later we stood looking up at the dam my father had started. It rose twenty feet now; the stones at its base were large, five foot by five. Above that they were smaller, a foot and a half on each side. Water spilled over in the center where a channel had been left near the top, to prevent the rising water from overwhelming what had already been built. The water behind it was already fifteen feet deep and stretched from one side of the narrow entrance to Shepherd’s Rest to the other.

  “I can’t keep building up,” Angus complained. “The foundation isn’t big enough to support it. If the water gets any deeper the water will start to seep through and undermine the foundation.”

  I was feeling contrary, “Why?”

  Angus sighed again, “The pressure, the deeper it gets the greater the pressure down at the bottom will be. And that mortar your father used isn’t right for building under water, its already starting to erode.”

  I bristled at the implication my father had made a mistake but I held my temper. “What if the water froze solid?” I asked him.

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can freeze the water behind the dam,” I stated.

  “It’ll expand and crack the stones. As soon as it melted the whole thing would start coming down,” he replied. The tone in his voice implied he was talking to a child.

  “It won’t melt,” I assured him.

  “More water will keep coming; it’ll still ruin what we’ve built.”

  “Then I’ll freeze that as well. Imagine this... I’ll turn what’s behind that wall into something like a glacier. As more water builds up I’ll freeze it as well. Then all you’ll need to build is a retaining wall, just enough to hold the fresh water at the top till I can freeze it as well,” I said.

  “I’d say that’s crazy talk. You can’t keep freezing it forever and as soon as it began to melt the whole damn thing would come down,” Angus waved his arms as he spoke, agitation clear in his body language.

  My temper snapped, “I don’t need it to last forever! I only need it to last long enough to kill a goddamn army in the spring. Don’t you get it Angus? That’s all I care about, killing as many damned people as possible!”

  His face blanched as I spoke, “If that thing fails while the men are up there it’ll kill people long before the army gets here.”

  “Then I’ll just be a murderer that much sooner,” I spat out. “Watch.” I walked to the wall and selected the biggest foundation stone, the one that stood in the center, blocking the old river bed. Using spells the same spells I had been repeating day after day on the iron bombs I created an enchantment to store energy within the stone. It had become such a habit it only took me a few minutes, despite the size of the stone. After that I modified the wards I used to store heat so they would draw heat from the water on the other side of the stone. I changed it slightly so it would work much more rapidly, then I released the spell to do its work.

  At first nothing happened, so I led Angus up onto the dam itself, so we could see the water behind the wall. It was hard to see, but ice was forming below the surface. “I want you to start building a new wall, outside this one. It doesn’t need to be strong, just enough to capture any water that leaks through. No more than a foot thick, build it up on the dry side using the foundation that juts beyond this dam.”

  “It won’t be strong enough to hold much,” he said rubbing his chin.

  “It doesn’t have to be. Just build it quickly; I need it as tall as the dam itself within a week, after that it will need to keep up with the rising water. I’ll keep freezing the water out there to prevent it from putting much pressure on your secondary wall,” I told him.

  In the end, he agreed, not that I gave him a choice. I spent the rest of the day enchanting the foundation stones, reasoning that they would be the best place to start. Plus they had the advantage of being the largest stones which meant they could hold more before exploding. Since they weren’t meant to be bombs I added a limiter to the heat absorption spell to stop it long before the stones were close to their limit. An explosion now would destroy any hope we had of completing the project before the spring.

  The week passed slowly as I worked to freeze the water behind the dam. To speed our trips back and forth I created a teleportation circle at the dam site, with a matching one back in Cameron Castle. I made a side trip one afternoon to do the same at Lancaster, in the duke’s own suite. I didn’t want to think about the fact that if I had done that sooner Marc might have been able to get back in time to save my father, but I felt the guilt anyway.

  Each morning I returned to the dam site. Once the largest stones within the dam were enchanted ice had formed out to a distance of more than forty feet beyond the dam itself. Water quickly began rising over the top and spilling across the center, cutting a channel in the ice there and threatening to washout the new retaining wall, to prevent that I got more ambitious. Moving up the smaller valley I found a massive boulder that was nearly submerged by the rising water. It was irregularly shaped, having formed long ago when the river had cut through the softer stone around it.

  I had no way to estimate, but it had to weigh several hundred tons, at least. Working carefully I enchanted it and watched the ice begin forming around it. While I worked on freezing the river over the past few days I had had thoughts about how we would destroy the dam in the spring. The danger of storing so much energy in the stones had one welcome side-effect, it made for a simple method of destroying the dam come spring. I included a glass bead in my enchantment of several of the foundation stones, as well as with the enchantment of the large boulder. I was fairly sure that destroying them would cause a chain reaction.

  Winter passed slowly, with a growing sense of trepidation. I added another teleportation circle to the road near Arundel, so I could more easily check on that end of the valley. I also started regular patrols along the western end of the valley. Our plan would be for naught if the enemy came early and caught us unprepared.

  By midwinter I had produced more than two thousand of the iron-bombs, each with its own glass activator. Marc, in a moment of inspiration suggested we create a large wooden table, covered with a map of the valley. It took several weeks but once it was complete we added small depressions to it, marking the locations where the bombs would be. As each piece of iron was hidden along the road the glass stone to activate it was placed on the table at the spot the bomb was located.

  The change in our dam building strategy freed a lot of men up from laboring there. The smaller retaining wall was much easier to build. The temporary housing had already been completed as well, so I set the free men to digging a massive ditch. As they dug a massive earthen berm was created alongside it. We built a flimsy wooden palisade atop that. As defensive structures went, it was poorly made, but we had no time to build better. If things went as I hoped we wouldn’t have to defend it from very many attackers anyway. Pits were dug in the area behind the earthworks and filled with massive stone blocks before being reburied. I had run out of i
ron, but I had a plan that would require them to be there, should the worst befall us.

  Through it all my mother and Penny watched me carefully. I felt their eyes on me as I went about my tasks. Penny in particular had to be by my side nearly constantly. In her face I could see worry, she didn’t like the changes she was seeing. “When was the last time you smiled Mort?” she asked one day late in the winter.

  I considered the question seriously, “Hmm, probably the day my father died. Why?”

  “You’ve been quiet. You never smile, or talk... except to give instructions. You seem obsessed with the coming war,” she answered with a frown.

  “Obsession is a good thing when you’re planning a war. I don’t have time to be planning dances and parties,” I replied sarcastically.

  “It isn’t that exactly. You just seem unhappy, as if the world has gone dark. There’s a shadow in your heart and it makes me sad,” she said softly.

  “What am I to be happy about? I killed my own father Penelope, and soon I’ll kill a lot more people, including you. What part of that should give me joy?” I was gritting my teeth as I spoke.

  Penny flinched at my words but she didn’t give up. “You didn’t kill Royce, Mort. Stop blaming yourself, please.” As she spoke she put her hands on my shoulders, trying to rub the tension from them.

  I pulled away. “I did. I took them to Albamarl. I killed the king’s guards and started that damned fight. My pride insisted we take back what the king had stolen, and my pride refused to leave any of it behind. My own arrogance and self-confidence caused me to remove that shield from him, not knowing it was my own father. It was my anger that sent me back to kill the king’s men, and my weakness that forced him to bring me back...”

  She started to interrupt, “Mort listen that’s...”

  “No! You listen!” I shouted. “He walked out to snap me out of my shock. That’s why he was shot. And after we had returned I could do nothing for him... because of this gods cursed bond! I might have been able to save him then, but that choice was already made. In the end all I could do was help him die.” I started walking away. “Exactly which part of that wasn’t my fault?” I said coldly.

  “None of it dammit!” she shouted at my back. “Stop obsessing over it. We still have a few months left to us. Why spoil it blaming yourself for things you couldn’t control? Why waste your time thinking only of deaths we can’t prevent?”

  I whipped back and gave her an icy stare, “Prevent? I’m not trying to prevent any more deaths Penelope. Oh no! History conspires to make me a murderer... but that’s fine with me. I’ll kill more people this spring than anyone in history,” I said fiercely.

  “That’s not why you’re doing this,” she argued.

  “It is now! I plan to kill every... single... damned... soldier... that enters this damned valley! And when I’m done, I’ll make sure I’ve finished off any of the bastards that were lucky enough to survive, assuming I live that long,” I said finally. I left her then, an expression of shock on her face. I could hear her crying before I had gotten out of earshot. One more thing I’m guilty of, I thought to myself, but I couldn’t go back.

  ***

  I ran across Cyhan in the castle yard. Considering my conversation with Penny I was in no mood to be chatting, which normally wasn’t a problem where he was concerned, but something about his stance told me he had something to say. I stopped a few feet away and waited.

  “We need to talk about a few things,” he began.

  “I can tell,” I replied stoically.

  “You raided the king’s warehouses while you were in the capital,” he said, as if that were enough to tell me his thoughts.

  “I reclaimed my property. I’m sure the king will give me his thoughts on the matter when he gets around to it,” I answered bluntly. “Is that a problem?”

  “Perhaps,” he said, pausing to consider his words. I had rarely seen him put so much effort into diplomacy. “My orders don’t pertain directly to acts of banditry. I’m here to make sure you and Penelope don’t forsake your bond. However, I am a servant of the king.”

  I mentally double checked my shield; things had the potential to go wrong quickly. “You seem to have a conflict of interest then. What do you propose to do?” I responded, giving him a hard stare.

  The older warrior did the last thing I expected, something I had rarely seen him do… he laughed. “You’ve grown a lot since I met you,” he said.

  The compliment did little to improve my mood and I was impatient to be done with the conversation. “I’ll make this easy for you. You can return to the king if you wish… or you can attempt to exact justice on his behalf right now. If you decide on the former I won’t stop you, if you try for the second I’ll have more blood on my hands. I’d much rather have your help with this war though… I’m not sure if we can afford to lose your assistance,” I responded. I kept my voice calm but I could feel the blood pounding in my temples. My anger was dangerously close to the surface now.

  Cyhan could probably sense my deadly intent, but if so he didn’t show it. “I have been thinking along similar lines. If I had decided to act against you we wouldn’t be having this conversation.” He made it a statement of fact, as if people discussed cold-blooded murder every day.

  “So you’re going to stay and help. Excellent… what was the point of this conversation then?” I started to walk around him but he put his hand on my shoulder. I looked at it and then met his gaze, the question in my eyes.

  “I just wanted to make sure we were clear about where we stand,” he continued. “I think you have a chance in this war, or I would have removed your head already. If you lose, the king’s justice will not matter; if you win your case with him will be between the two of you. I will abide by his decision at that point.” He removed his hand.

  I stared at him for a moment longer. “I think we understand each other perfectly then,” I replied before walking away. I could feel his eyes on my back until I had left the courtyard.

  ***

  My mother found me the next day. Miriam had always been a quiet woman, except when she was arguing with my father, which wasn’t often. She found me that day working in Royce’s smithy. I was trying to melt our remaining scraps of iron down, to cast a few more iron bombs.

  “I spoke with Penny this morning,” she began.

  I winced inwardly. I could see where this was headed. “Did she send you to talk some sense into me?” I asked.

  “No, but she told me how you feel about your father’s death,” she replied.

  “Surely you don’t think I’m wrong?”

  “I do. Your father made his own choices, the only thing he would have changed is how you feel about it now,” she answered.

  I grimaced. “I can’t help how I feel mother.”

  “Do you think your father would want you to feel this way?” she responded.

  “If he were here I would ask him, but he’s not,” I said. Anger and sadness were warring within me, but I held them back. Miriam was the one person I couldn’t lash out at.

  She walked up and put her hand on mine, forcing me to stop my work. “Look at me Mordecai.”

  I did. Her cheeks were wet. I started to say something but she put her finger on my lips, “Do you know why I’m crying?” she asked.

  “For Dad?”

  “No. He lived a good life. I’m weeping because now that he’s dead, my son seems to want nothing more than to die himself. I cry for the loss of your smile and the joy it always brought me.” A tear traced a lonely line down her cheek.

  I stared at her for a long moment and something broke loose within me. She held me as my own tears started again. An age passed while she held me, and I cried like a lost child, deep sobs wracking my chest. If anyone saw us standing there they were kind enough to pass on without interrupting.

  Chapter 32

  Spring came at last, bringing with it warmer days. The snow in the mountains began to slowly melt, swelling the Glenmae River
. I was forced to add more stones to keep it from overwhelming the dam. I began to hope the enemy would arrive soon, if they waited too long the river would overwhelm the retaining wall and the artificial glacier I had created. I smiled at the irony of that thought.

  My mood had improved, which was a great relief to Penelope, though I did have to do quite a bit of apologizing. It was worth it however, the making up did even more to cheer me up. I still held a dark seed of anger and grief within though. I kept it down, dark and deep, where even I was largely unaware of it. I focused my conscious mind on more pleasant matters, few as there were.

  Two weeks after spring had ‘officially’ begun the riders returned with word that scouts had been seen. The scouts were light cavalry men, riding in pairs to explore the valley and road. We left them alone; I had no plans to interfere with them unless they decided to go near where the dam was located. Fortunately they didn’t go that far, stopping ten miles into the valley before returning.

  The river at the end of the valley they were entering through was small; we were only allowing a small flow to pass from the dam downstream. I worried they might be suspicious at the low level of the river. Not being native to our valley I was taking a chance they would be ignorant of how powerful it normally became in the spring.

  I found Dorian the evening after the scouts had been spotted. “Are the men ready?” I asked him. It was a foolish question; we had done everything possible already. Still, I couldn’t help myself.

  “As ready as I could make them,” he answered. With the addition of the men from Albamarl, and those from Arundel we have over six hundred men able to fight. We would have been hard pressed to arm them all, but some of the crates we had stolen from the capital were loaded with weapons and light armor. I was certain the king was missing them by now; he had to be hard by, trying to arm his own men.