Dragonvein Book Five

by Brian D. Anderson

  On reaching the beach, David and Val stopped short. Just inside the barrier he could see a long row of ships wrapped around the island. Though the far side of the coast was out of vision, he guessed that the messenger had been correct in saying they were surrounded.

  The defenders were now getting ready to repel the intruders. Some of the younger dwarves were visibly trembling.

  “We can help,” said Val. “Right?”

  This would be the first time either of them had used their magic against a real enemy. David took a long breath. “Absolutely,” he told her. He sure as hell wasn’t about to allow this wondrous place to fall prey to the Empire. He spotted Fulmar off to his right and headed toward him.

  Fulmar grinned at his approach. If the anxiety was affecting him, he was well able to hide it. “Are you ready for a fight?” he asked.

  David nodded sharply. “Where should we be?”

  “Most of our people have rounded the island to where it’s easier for boats to land,” he replied. “I think it’s best that you stay here. We could certainly use a bit of that human magic your kind is so proud of.” He pointed to a low rise further down. “You should get a clean shot at those bastards from there.”

  Taking Val’s hand, David led her to where Fulmar had indicated. Then he noticed something. The enemy ships were no longer advancing. As he continued to stare, he saw them all gradually turning to the left in near perfect unison.

  “What the hell are they doing?” he muttered.

  A few dwarf rods fired. But even a ship with its side facing them was a difficult target at this range. The power of the rods had limits, and their effectiveness decreased significantly after a couple of hundred yards. David went over the offensive spells he knew in his mind. Only a few were powerful enough to handle something the size of these ships, and those that were would drain him significantly at a time when he might well be needing all of his strength. Whatever the enemy was up to, they clearly had a plan. They knew exactly where to stop to be safe from the dwarf weapons. It was unclear if they knew there were also two mages defending Borgen, but on the chance that they didn’t, he thought it best to keep that advantage as a surprise for the time being.

  From the corner of his eye he became aware of a bright flashing green light. Barely had he turned to look in its direction when a stream of magical energy burst forth from one of the ships. It struck the island just ahead of the dwarf lines. An instant later came an explosion that rocked him completely off his feet. Val fell heavily beside him.

  Dazed, he struggled to his knees and tried to gauge what had happened. The blast had left a crater more than thirty feet across and almost half as deep. Fireballs, together with molten hunks of earth and sand, were still raining down, some landing only a few yards away from where their location.

  Before he could get his bearings, a second loud boom sounded to his back, clearly telling him that the Imperial ships had more than one of these devastating weapons. He could only assume they were a much larger version of the hand-held rods, which did not bode well at all for their defense. Another blast from ahead then struck the shores, though this time the dwarves were more scattered and only a few became casualties. Val had managed to stand and, to his surprise, looked to be furious rather than afraid.

  With her eyes closed and her arms spread wide, she muttered an incantation barely audible over the numerous cries of the frightened defenders. Yet another blast struck, this one further down the beach, though still close enough to shake the ground fiercely.

  David spotted Fulmar racing toward them. His face was covered in dirt, and blood was spattered all over his clothes.

  “We need to get inside,” he shouted. “We have no way to fight against this.”

  Above the ship that had fired on them, a dark cloud was now forming. David immediately knew the spell Val was using – Martok had taught it to them both – though he had never experienced much success in creating one of any great power. Val, it appeared, had learned better. After only a few seconds, bolts of lightning began raining down on the ship, striking the mast and deck with rapid frequency.

  “That won’t stop them,” said Fulmar. “There’s too many.”

  As if to illustrate his words, another blast came, this time from a different ship, and then another. The island lurched, groaning loudly with the forced bending of steel. By now smoke was rising from the ship Val was assaulting. All the same, Fulmar was right. This would not be enough. David touched her arm, but she ignored him, instead willing the cloud to drift over to the next vessel. It was clear she would not be leaving without first putting up a stern fight.

  “Get down below,” David ordered Fulmar. “We’ll join you there in a minute.” At least, that was what he hoped. If the Imperials spotted them and turned any of the weapons in their direction, there would be nothing either of them could do. They would be killed instantly.

  As it was, the bombardment temporarily ceased. The reason for this soon became clear. Many of the ships began lowering landing craft into the water. All were filled to capacity with soldiers.

  By now, Val’s storm cloud was hovering above a second ship, still raining down its dazzling bolts of white death. Her lips were twisted into a snarl and her focus was absolute. Very quickly, this ship was smoking as well. But that was doing nothing to stave off the rapidly incoming tide of soldiers. A few streaks of fire leapt forth from the shore as some of the dwarves paused in their retreat long enough to strike back. But only a few of these found their target, certainly not enough to make anything of a difference.

  David touched Val’s arm again. “We have to go.”

  “They’re not taking this away from us,” she hissed back at him through gritted teeth.

  “My Lady,” interjected Fulmar. “It’s not likely they can breach the door. And if they do, we can stop them there. But you must come now.”

  David glanced again at the line of ships. The first one Val had attacked was fully in flames, and the second was close to matching it. Not that it mattered much. The mass of landing craft would be upon them in just a few minutes.

  When David had arrived on Borgen, he would not have understood her reasons for such utter determination. But now he did. He had found a home here; at long last he had discovered a place where he truly belonged. Here he was valued even more so than he had been at MIT. His confidence and self-esteem had returned, and it was clear that Val felt the same way. He scolded himself for not realizing this sooner. On Borgen she was respected as a mage and also praised for her mind. How much respect and praise had she received on Earth? Almost none, was his guess.

  David stood beside her, focusing his mind and allowing his rage to swell. But before he could form a spell of his own, with a succession of mighty whooshing sounds, the water beneath the landing boats suddenly began to heave and erupt. It was as if an invisible storm had stirred just that particular part of the sea to mighty anger.

  At first, he thought it had been Val, even though magic on such a scale was well beyond her ability. A moment later, he caught sight of a head and then a fin popping up from the water.

  “Sirean!” shouted Fulmar. “They’ve come to fight with us.”

  Such was the sea’s frenzied tempest it took only a few seconds for all of the landing boats to begin capsizing. The tumbling men flailed about wildly, most of them attempting to rip away the heavy armor that was sure to drown them. Not that this would have helped much had any succeeded. The sirean were on them the instant they were in the water, dragging every last man down into the depths.

  David could not restrain himself from letting out an elated cheer. But his joy was short-lived. A stream of energy rocked the island as a renewed blast from the weapon struck the shore directly ahead. This was followed almost immediately by an equally violent blast from behind them.

  “The sirean won’t be able to do anything to the big ships,” Fulmar pointed out. “Eventually they will pound us to dust.”

  David considered this for a moment a
nd then grabbed Val’s arm. “No, they won’t.”

  She allowed him to lead her away, though the fire in her expression said that her fury was far from spent.

  “If you let me,” she said. “I can sink them all.”

  “I won’t risk you getting hurt,” David told her. “One direct shot from that weapon and it’s all over.” He looked back to give her a wink. “Don’t worry. I know what to do.”

  This was only partly true. Yes, he did have an idea, but there was no guarantee it would actually work. And worse than that, it might even possibly kill them all. But at this point he could see no other options. As soon as they were inside, he named off a list of dwarves he wanted to assist him, along with all the tools he thought he might need.

  “Have them meet me below power the station,” he instructed. “And hurry.”

  Without protest, Fulmar raced off to do his bidding.

  Still leading Val by the hand, David wound his way down into the heart of Borgen until they reached the room where the bulk of his recent research had taken place. Papers and diagrams were scattered everywhere about the floor and on the tables. Furiously, he began writing, pausing only to place notes on various valves and knobs. Soon the dwarves he’d requested began arriving. Fulmar and Hanvir were the last to appear, the latter liberally covered in sand and blood.

  “What do you intend to do?” the dwarf leader demanded.

  Deep thuds resounded as the Imperial ships continued their bombardment.

  “What do you think?” David responded. “We need to escape. It’s our only chance.”

  Realization washed over him. “You…can you do this?”

  David shrugged. “I really don’t know. I think so.”

  Hanvir looked as if he was on the point of protesting when the floor tilted sharply from yet another assault. It shifted erratically to and fro several times before finally settling.

  “Then do it,” the dwarf said.

  With a sharp wave of his arm, David gathered the others to him. After giving each one their assignment, he borrowed a sending rob from Fulmar and headed two levels up to a much smaller room. Here, the rear wall was covered with innumerable small screens, below which was a long panel with dozens of buttons and levers, each one designated by an ancient dwarf symbol. In the center of the room was a solitary steel chair.

  After a few seconds of examining the panel, he removed a scrap of paper from his pocket and studied it for a time. He then began touching the panel’s buttons in what he hoped was the correct sequence. After the third button was pressed, the screens all lit up together. Many were obscured by what appeared to be earth and sand – cameras buried by the devastating barrage on the shore, was his guess. Others displayed dwarf numbers and letters. Though he couldn’t decipher what these meant, that was not important now. It was the screen in the top left corner that he was focusing all his attention on. A set of six concentric circles expanded to the screen’s outer edge, with a mass of tiny dots moving slowly counter clockwise within the third circle.

  “That looks like a radar,” remarked Val.

  David smiled over to her. “It is.” He pointed to the dots. “Those are the Imperial ships.”

  After checking the panel one more time, he used the sending rod to call Fulmar, telling him to begin.

  He then turned to Val. “Cross your fingers,” he said.

  She took his hand and moved in close. Borgen continued to rumble as more blasts struck its shore, prompting David to pray that the sand and soil accumulated over thousands of years would give it enough protection to endure. He listened carefully for any slight sound that the engines were running, or that the island’s anchors had been released. After nearly ten minutes, there was still no hint of either.

  He frowned heavily. “Something is…”

  A thunderous boom, ten times louder and more violent than anything from the enemy assault, rocked the whole of Borgen. They were both thrown from their feet and sent sliding across the room until hitting the wall nearest the door. For a terrifying second, David thought there had been an explosion in the engine room. But after a few moments, he heard a low droning hum. Placing his hand on the floor, he felt the slightest of vibrations.

  Val was already on her feet and offering him a hand. “It worked!”

  David allowed himself to be helped up. A pain on the back of his head where it had struck the hard metal floor promised a sizable lump. His excitement quickly pushed such minor worries away. It had worked. Or to be more exact, it had thus far. The almost imperceptible swaying motion told him that Borgen was no longer secured to the sea floor. He looked back at his notes.

  “Here we go. It’s all or nothing,” he muttered.

  After touching a blue button on the panel, he eased a silver slide upward just about an inch. In response, with a hum of power, a small metal pedestal began rising from the floor just in front of the metal chair. This was unexpected. He must have worked it out wrong.

  Crossing over to the chair, he settled down onto it as quickly as possible. At the top of the pedestal, a transparent panel with a glass-like quality was tilted back to display a series of lights, each one depicting a dwarven symbol. Barely had recognition of this registered when David was thrown hard back into the chair as the engines suddenly engaged and the island lurched forward. He glanced over at Val, who had been forced to grip hold of the front panel to remain standing.

  “I need your help,” he called over to her as the motion settled down.

  Once she had joined him, David glanced at the radar screen. Borgen was certainly moving, but in what direction he couldn’t tell.

  “What do these symbols say?” he asked, indicating the panel in front of him.

  Val looked confused. “I…I don’t know.”

  He gave her hand a reassuring squeeze. “Sure you do. Just calm down and think.”

  Shutting her eyes, she blew out a long breath. Now more composed, she studied the panel for considerably longer than a minute. Her jaw clenched tight as tiny beads of sweat formed on her brow. Finally, she spread her hands and shook her head.

  “I’m not sure,” she said. “Some of them are numbers. Others just don’t make any sense at all.”

  David leaned over to look her in the eye. “I believe in you. Please try again.”

  She gave a weak smile and resumed her examination. “You see this one?” she said after a few moments, pointing to a blue button in the top right corner. “It says physical.” Her finger drifted across to the opposite corner. “And this one here says instinct. I mean…what the hell?”

  David considered this. Physical? Instinct? What did those words have to do with…

  Then it came to him. He touched the blue button and the panel moved forward to make room for a set of controls nearly identical to those they had seen on the dwarf boats.

  David threw out his arms and grabbed Val, kissing her with utter joy. “Physical! You’re a genius. Manual. As in manual controls. The other one must be like an automatic pilot.”

  He looked up at the radar. The enemy ships had broken their formation in response to Borgen’s unexpected movement and were positioning themselves on either side. The attacks from their weapons were still coming, but he intended to remedy that very quickly. Holding his breath, he pushed the silver lever. The humming of the engines increased and he could feel the sharp pull of acceleration. A black dial seemed to be what controlled direction. While looking at the radar, he turned the dial slightly to the right. After a few seconds the dots on the right grew closer to the center. A broad smile was now plastered on his face.

  The door flew open and Fulmar burst inside, panting and wheezing. “You…you did it.”

  David took hold of Val’s hand and kissed it. “I had help.” He looked back at the old dwarf. “How is everything down below?”

  “Nothing exploded, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “I’ll take that for now,” David said. Turning his attention back to the controls, he eased the accelerat
or forward another inch.

  Keeping his eyes fixed on the screen, he continued to move it forward until it was clear that he was outpacing the Imperial ships. Several minutes passed, mostly in silence, the only sounds being the hum of the engine and the slowly diminishing thuds of the enemy strikes. Soon the attacks ceased altogether.

  David smiled up at Val. “You feel like driving for a bit?”

  After hesitating for only a moment, she nodded. David stood up and cupped her face in his hands. There was no need for words when their eyes met. Each wore a knowing smile. Val settled into the chair, back straight and looking far more confident than David could recall ever having seen her.

  After giving her a final loving gaze, he exited the room with Fulmar following close behind, and headed down to where the dwarves were still gathered. From everything he could tell, all was functioning as it should be – though admittedly there was much of which he was still unsure.

  “It would appear you have achieved what we could not,” Hanvir told him. “I thank you.”

  David felt pride swelling in his chest. This was truly his crowning achievement. “I had a lot of help,” he said, doing his best to sound modest. “But before we start celebrating too much, we should check on how much damage has been done outside.”

  “Agreed,” replied Hanvir.

  Many of the dwarves they passed along the way still looked confused and frightened. Aside from those directly involved, no one yet knew that Borgen was now mobile. Hanvir paused frequently to give reassuring words, which went a long way to easing their fears.

  Upon exiting the facility, the stench of burning wood instantly caught David’s nostrils. After taking no more than a few steps, several devastated areas could already be seen. Thankfully though, it could have been a lot worse. As he had been hoping, the thick layer of sand and earth accumulated by Borgen over thousands of years had absorbed much of the impact. Some of the craters did actually go deep enough to expose the outer hull, but after more than two hours of careful examination, they could find no sign of any significant damage.