Wrath of the Risen God: Arcane Renaissance Book Three

by Tim Paulson

  "I understand. Please see what you can do for him," she asked.

  The weaselman nodded his head.

  "And make sure Giselle gets to Magenberg!"

  "Fix coughing illness, take girl to city... What else you want? Foot rub?" Piotr grumbled as he took Giselle away flanked by the two young Ganex officers. Giselle turned around. Looking back over her shoulder, eyes red.

  Mia sighed.

  She turned around to find Sylvie standing next to the tall black-clad witch hunter named Werner.

  "Are you ready?" Sylvie asked.

  Mia shrugged. "I think Marian and I will be fine. What sort of weapons do I have to choose from?"

  Werner crossed his arms. "It was tricky to find anything matching your description. The Ganex goliath corps still think of themselves as mounted knights. They prefer to carry axes and maces paired with a solid kite shield. When they use a single weapon it's two-handed and large."

  "I know... I've fought them," Mia replied.

  "However," Werner said, raising one finger. "I myself am partial to something similar to an estoc. I had a smith make several for my goliath. You're welcome to one."

  Mia was surprised. Given the rumors about her abilities, she'd been sure Werner would give her trouble. An estoc would be very similar to the long Miranese rapier she'd become accustomed to before.

  "There are no bucklers," Werner added. "I am sorry."

  "What do you use then?" she asked.

  "You wouldn't be interested," Werner replied.

  Mia tilted her head.

  Sylvie raised both her arms. "No, really. You wouldn't, it's foolish."

  "It works fine for me," Werner said.

  "What is it?" Mia asked.

  "He is a puritan fool who uses a whip!" Sylvie said, rolling her eyes.

  "How does that even work? Is it chain?" Mia asked.

  "No... thick braided rope, usually used for tying ships to a dock. I have a small steel hook at the end. It's far more useful than-"

  "It's stupid!" Sylvie said. "Un perte de temps totale."

  Werner narrowed his eyes. "We shall see," he replied. Then he looked to Mia. "Tell me... What gifts has the Devil bestowed upon you."

  There it was.

  "I admit this was done to me by a witch but I serve no dark creature, only myself," Mia said.

  "And Claus it would seem," Werner replied.

  "Claus earned my friendship and respect," Mia replied. "As have Sylvie and Greta. I fight here for them, not for your country, your emperor, or any church, especially one that would call me a witch when I fight to defend them."

  Werner waited. "You still haven't answered my question."

  Sylvie stepped between them. "Leave her be Werner, let's mount up. It's past midday, the enemy will be arriving soon."

  Mia held up a hand. "It's alright. He should know." She cleared her throat. "I have... some power that makes my body extremely strong, it heals quickly as well. If I am angry I can focus that feeling and set my sword alight with flame. It seems to work well against the sorcerer. That's how I hurt him before."

  "I see. Is that all?" Werner asked. His face was placid, he gave away nothing of his thoughts.

  "No. Recently I did something that allowed me to repel magic used against me. I don't know how it works... And... I can refill goliaths. The power they receive seems the same as the blue powder we used to use at Aeyrdfeld."

  "But that gives the blue eyes, yes?" Sylvie asked.

  Mia nodded.

  Sylvie shook her head. "No thank you.. that will have our own attacking me."

  "No healing of others?"

  Mia's eyebrows rose. "No... why do you ask?"

  "It is a common ability children touched by the dark one are said to possess. Also the ability to manifest one's desires."

  She shook her head.

  "I see. Well, If you are indeed our friend, I wish you Godspeed," Werner said. "However, if I suspect you serve the dark one. I will not hesitate to destroy you."

  "Likewise paisan," Mia said.

  She turned around to find Marian lounging on the ground with her head propped up by her hand. Giant stone fingers drummed against the mud, splashing brown in a twelve-foot circle.

  "Oh was all that boring?" Mia asked.

  Marian nodded emphatically.

  Sylvie whooped. "C’est fantastique!" she cried as her goliath, a Fenasian made chevalier, raised her to the entry port in its lower back. The other arm held a tall spear with a wide blade and a slightly curved cross guard below the head.

  Werner said nothing as he climbed the rope ladder to his own heavy goliath, a massive Ganex Albtraum with eight chest-mounted cannons. Mia noticed that even though it did in fact carry a coiled length of rope in its left hand, the goliath's knuckles were reinforced with steel and spikes. It seemed Werner liked to have options.

  Marian stood, holding out a palm into which Mia stepped. As she was raised to the lower back of the Valkyrie her eyes looked out on the rows of goliaths, painted in Ganex red, many with drifts of snow on their heads and shoulders.

  The enemy was coming.

  Soon.

  Chapter 22

  "A privateer's only as good as his name. Terrible Ted is nowhere near as threatening as Captain Blondbeard."

  -Printess Juliette Bauwhuis, 1603

  The sound of waves splashing against the wooden hull of the ship, the cries of gulls in the distance, the smell of the salt of the sea. Thira hated it all. Every blessed bit. But even worse than all that, was looking back behind the Scarosian Queen to see two merchant ships, on either side. One was of Arden make like Robert's, the other Calacian.

  "Looking out on your two suitors are you?" Robert asked.

  Thira growled.

  "I can see you're quite taken with them. No surprise... they are massively handsome. That one with the blond... what is that, a mane? He's got an impressive potbelly. Truly," Robert said.

  "Please... shut up."

  "And the other one... He's been strutting across the bow of his ship all morning. I think he is waiting for you to signal him... with your ass-"

  She slammed a fist into his stomach.

  Robert gasped. "-ets," he finished.

  "Why did they have to come?" she asked, knowing exactly why but preferring for the moment to pretend that she did not.

  Robert was still gasping. "They must... be in love."

  Thira grimaced. "There is only one kind of love among my people," she replied. "And it is not what you mean."

  "How... do you know what I mean?" he asked her, raising an eyebrow. "Cemu!"

  "Aye, captain!" the man replied.

  "My rum."

  "Here captain," Cemu replied, placing a flagon in Robert's hand.

  "Any sightings?" Robert asked.

  "No captain, crow's eyes are peeled."

  "Well keep them that way, rotate as often as you need to. I want eyes on the horizon at all times."

  "Aye, captain."

  Robert turned to Thira. "We can spot them any time now."

  "How? It took us nearly a week to get from Valendam to Dridar and we only set sail this morning," she asked.

  Robert held up a finger. "Ah... that is because we had to sail far out of our way to look like we were heading to Arden, which didn't really help us anyway. If we'd sailed directly to Dridar it would have been two days at most. With fair winds, sometimes one."

  "Ah,” she said. “Still, we've only been going for half a day."

  "First the distance is less, slightly. Second, the blockade will be set quite a ways out from the Ganex coast, at least the picket ships will be.”

  "Hmm," she said, conceding the point in her mind. "Really though... the leothans can't possibly hope to demonstrate their combat ability with merchant ships! I thought you needed guns to do combat in ships," Thira said.

  Robert took a long pull on his rum. "A common misconception Thira my dear. There are as many ways to do battle on the sea as there are on land. However, most captai
ns think only about the broadside. And why not? It's very efficient. Combat is over quickly. Sailors go home, get drunk, and tell spouses and whores how many ships they’ve sunk."

  "I take it you plan on another way."

  Robert smiled wanly. "We have to. You see all those barges out there," he said, indicating the wide slow ships to their rear. Inside the belly of each was a goliath, serving as the ballast for the ship, far better than the load of rocks unladen vessels used instead.

  "I do," Thira replied. Wilhelm was on one of those ships. She was still angry but found herself wishing she'd gone with him. She could have asked him about the queen and what he'd said to her. Perhaps...

  "Oh stop it," Robert said.

  "What?"

  "I see your eyes over there. It's foolish to be on one of the barges. The fleet needs you here. If we get boarded... well... I worry about that a lot less with you here. This is where you can protect the barges best. If we don't keep the blockade ships away, those barges won't make it to Wasserburg."

  "And how will we do that with only thirteen ships?" she asked.

  Robert frowned, "I thought we had fourteen."

  "I'm counting the leothan merchant ships as half."

  Robert laughed. "That's funny... but you're wrong. They're here because I asked them to come... and because I mentioned you were with us."

  Thira's eyes widened. "You ass!"

  Robert winked at her.

  "Why bring them along? They haven't any guns right?"

  "Oh yes.. they have pop guns," Robert said, grinning.

  Thira's ears went flat. "They told you I said that?"

  He nodded. "Aye. The truly useful thing about them is that they have large holds. They're also fast, which isn't bad either."

  "So? What are they going to do? Sell Fenasian lingerie to the republican crews?"

  Robert looked surprised. "Was... was that a joke... from Thira?"

  She frowned. "Shut up."

  "Anyway, my plan... dear lion lass is to-"

  "Excuse me," said a stern voice.

  Robert stopped mid-sentence. He looked like he'd been slapped.

  "Good sir. Wouldst thou tell me, precisely why thou hast turned thy ship, once again, away from fair Ardenton?"

  Robert's eyes looked like they might just pop right out of his skull as he turned around.

  It was the Marlinists, all of them. The tall leader stood in front like the point of a fire-blackened spear.

  “Cemu!” Robert bellowed. “Why didn't you tell me the puritans were still here!”

  “Oh, right... Captain, the Marlinists are still aboard!” Cemu called from his current station at the mainmast, monitoring the exchange of crew into and out of the ship's crows nest.

  Robert made a very frustrated face.

  “I thought for sure... you'd take up another berth in Pyrolia,” he said to the man.

  The older man responded with a deeply troubled frown. “But then we wouldst be broken in our covenant.” He pointed a long finger at Robert's chest. “Thou gave thy word to transport us to Ardenton.”

  Robert rubbed his face, “Look... I'm sorry. I'm kind of in the middle of something right now. I can't be diverting my ship for your little pleasure cruise.”

  The older witch hunter's brow creased with disdain. “I'm deeply sorry good sir but I cannot hear any more of your foul devil's tongue. You will turn this ship around. Immediately.”

  Robert's eyes widened. “What? Can you even see what's happening here?”

  The man looked around. “I see many ships. None of that has any bearing on the promise you made.”

  “Yes, it does!” Robert yelled at him. “I'm part of an important fleet. I'm leading the bloody thing! This whole operation hinges on my participation!”

  Thira realized he was right... That was disconcerting.

  The witch hunter crossed his arms. “This conversation is pointless... Boys... We'll be commandeering this man's ship in the name of God.”

  Four young men spread out to either side of their leader, brandishing weapons of various flavors. There were studded cudgels, long knives, even a veil sword with a faint blue glow to it. That was odd because the wielder of the sword smelled familiar.

  “One word from me and my leothan shipmate here will throw you all over the side!” Robert said, trying to back off enough to get room to draw the pistols inside his coat. The group of boys weren't letting him, however.

  Thira approached the one with the veil sword.

  “Stay back leothan!” a voice said from beneath a dark hood.

  Thira was close enough now, close enough for the combination of his smell, and the voice... so very like his father's.

  “Liam?” Thira asked.

  The older man's head turned sharply. “Liam? Does this beastie know you?”

  Liam pulled his hood back. His eyes were filled with dismay.

  “Thira?” he asked, his sword dropping.

  “Liam... We have need to secure our passage to Ardenton or you'll never make it to the Malleus School in Cadenburough in time for the second quarter.”

  Liam looked torn. He wanted to obey the older man, Thira could see that, but he also wanted to ask things of her.

  “Wait wait!” Robert said. “These lads are to become witch hunters?”

  The old man raised an eyebrow. “They are. What business is it of yours?”

  “Well...” Robert said, looking out over the water. “Only that the purpose of this very voyage is to fight a witch... an extremely powerful one.”

  The boys to Robert's right and left looked back to their mentor. Thira could see that Robert had piqued their curiosity.

  The old witch hunter was more skeptical. “Why dost thou think I'd trust thee after all the troubles so far? Hmm?”

  “Just look at this fleet!” Robert said, pointing around them. “We're headed dead for the Republican blockade. Look at those barges... twenty-six of them. Those have goliaths to help defend Magenberg. Think about it! Magenberg! What could possibly threaten the walls of Magenberg but an incredibly powerful sorcerer?”

  “It makes sense!” said the boy to Robert's right, a dull-looking one with a lumpy nose from being broken more than once.

  “We did hear rumors about witches in Valendam... that's why we left isn't it?”

  The old man shook his head. “I'm sorry. I've heard enough-”

  “Wait...” Liam said, sheathing his sword. “I know there are witches in Faustland. I know the Veil Company works with them. It only makes sense that this war has something to do with it.”

  The old man looked at him. “How dost thou know this?”

  Liam sighed. “I... I haven't wanted to tell you. You're such good godly folk. I didn't want to spoil everything.”

  “Out with it boy,” replied the old man.

  Liam looked at his feet. “My mother is a witch.”

  “Impossible!” cried one of the boys, the one with bright red hair and sharp blue eyes.

  “Witches can't have children! It's the first thing they teach us. It's right in the good book!” said another.

  “I know!” Liam said, throwing up his hands. “She can't be my real mother... but she posed as her, for my whole life, deceiving me like Satan himself. I hate her!”

  The old man seemed to be considering. A hand had moved to his bearded chin.

  Thira just stood there, feeling a bit of a fool. She wanted to say something to Liam but what was there to say? Wilhelm had known there was something odd about the baroness. He'd mentioned it several times. The woman always seemed to visit after he'd been injured severely and he'd always had a miraculous recovery. It was clear there was a connection, Thira wasn't blind to it either, but she hadn't wanted to say anything. The effect had been good, or so she thought. That may have been a mistake.

  “I'm sorry Liam,” Thira said.

  He looked to her, hurt.

  “I knew there was something off about her. She smelled wrong. It wasn't as bad as the queen's rose perfum
e... but I knew.”

  The old man looked at her. “Your kind can smell them?”

  She nodded. “It's not something we discuss with humans, but yes.”

  The old man pointed at her. “Leothan females are forbidden to lie.”

  “It's not that we are forbidden. It's more that we don't see the point to it,” Thira said glancing back at the two merchant ships following close behind. “The lying is done by our men.”

  “Then tell me, is this indeed a flotilla sent to fight a lord of witches as this man contends?”

  Thira nodded. “It is. If we make it through the blockade, the goliaths out there will fight against those created by the creature.”

  “If they destroy Magenberg there is no stopping them,” Robert said. “Arden will not be untouched for long.”

  The old man let out a long sigh. “So be it. We will not hamper this voyage.”

  “And when we're done... I promise to take you all to-”

  The old man held up a hand. “No!” he replied. “I'll find another ship. I've had quite enough.”

  Robert shrugged.

  Liam approached Thira. “Where is Uncle Wilhelm?” he asked.

  Thira smiled at him. “He was worried about you,” she said, placing a hand on the boy's broad shoulders. “But.. you might not recognize him.”

  Liam frowned. “Why?”

  “Because of an obnoxious little doll,” she replied.

  “Was it called Harald?” Liam asked.

  Thira's eyebrows rose. “You know it?”

  Liam nodded. “He blinded my brother-in-law.”

  “Ah, so mistakes aren't uncommon. Lovely.”

  “But Wilhelm is alive?” Liam asked.

  “He is, he's alive and... “ she leaned in, lowering her voice “Actually his body is twenty-five now.”

  Liam's eyes widened. “Really?”

  “He'd love to see you I'm sure. You were his favorite nephew, by far.”

  “I've always enjoyed time with him. The hunting, the shooting. Why many times when I was young, father and I...” Liam's expression darkened. “I... I've done... unfortunate things.”

  “I'm sure you had your reasons. Wilhelm will understand,” she said.

  “A little family reunion is it? I don't quite see the resemblance myself,” Robert said, butting in.