by Zack Finley
“I’m working with Ellte to document our horticultural practices,” says Perga. “We will know crop yield, timing and nutritional value with every crop.”
I thanked them all and decided I was happy Ellte and Maude were working well together. I could barely make myself pay attention, even knowing that food was the key to our survival.
I had a few beers in the tavern with my fellow Duchy citizens, then called it a night.
Argon sent me a warm hug, but I missed the reality of her presence. Despite my empty bed, I drifted off to sleep.
I got a wakeup call from the com hub just before dawn. I left the Keep to resume my balloon flight, but only after confirming Argon was leaving Pirate City to get some sleep.
I expected about two hours of flight to go. If I didn’t spot a suitable drop site on my flight path soon, I’d start zig-zagging to find one.
My partners gathered construction and farming tools, and a stockpile of seeds for our captives use. Depending on how many people we were relocating, they planned to transport a small herd of jarma and crates of emergency food supplies. The supplies would be guarded by a strong ward pole. This was more generous than I was feeling.
About an hour into my flight, I heard the sound of water tumbling over rocks. After so many hours of just floating through space, I was ready to get this over with.
Trees, check; water, check; some flat land, check. It looked like a good spot when I coasted my balloon in for a landing. A quick look around and I declared success, posting the ‘port site.
I intended to ride the air currents for a few more hours, getting a ‘port location at the spine and if possible across the spine.
The tall mountains of the spine suddenly came into full view. I swear I only looked down for a moment.
I needed to gain a lot of elevation to make it over a mountain range that high. Before I did that, I wanted a ‘port location in the foothills and then at the base of the first mountain.
This would probably require a bit of levitation to gain altitude fast enough.
I had actually hoped to spot one of the god’s world gates. No such luck. My mind-reading app was blank, as usual.
I looked hard for any hint of a road or man-made path. A few jagged animal tracks but nothing else. I wondered about what animals lived along the spine, but nothing came to mind.
I got several good teleport locations, before increasing my buoyancy. I began to rise but not as fast as I needed. It took going to nearly full levitation did my balloon climbed high enough. The wind speed was faster, and the turbulence sent my balloon darting here and there.
The altitude was making it hard to breathe, so I added a force shield around my head with an air boost. I eased off the levitation, and the balloon didn’t sink as I’d feared. The turbulence was still bad, but it wasn’t getting worse. I took that as a good sign.
There was snow on the peaks and signs of glaciation. It was hard to see with so much driving snow. It was getting quite cold, and I added a warming spell. Fearing the buoyancy of my balloon was compromised by the thin air, I used levitation to reduce my weight. It was getting harder and harder to tell up from down as I was buffeted from all directions.
I prepared to ‘port away if conditions deteriorated much further.
The snow stopped as abruptly as it began and I was a lot higher above the mountain tops than I had imagined. The snow was still swirling below me, but I was above the clouds. Several peaks were visible below me, poking out from the clouds covering their bases.
I was riding the Jaloan jet stream. I also suspected the air was so thin, only levitation was keeping me aloft. The jet stream moved a lot faster than the surface winds.
Only after the last of the mountains passed beneath me did I slowly cut back on my levitation. There was a lot of turbulence when I dropped out of the jet stream. I then allowed my elevation to stabilize without levitation. I descended another few hundred feet before I regained full control of my balloon. I cautiously removed my force air mask and dropped the fire magic.
The snow and ice on the balloon cover and netting began melting. I started looking below for a landing place. It was time to prepare for tonight’s attack.
I collapsed the force fields and folded my wet sail and netting into a small package. I removed the water from it and ‘ported to the Keep. I dropped my “balloon” in our suite and crawled into bed with Argon for a nap.
Showtime.
Time for us to see if the plan worked. We knew there would be glitches and unexpected problems. I just hoped we had sufficient depth to handle it.
Argon and I dressed for battle without saying much. Sunset was still a few hours away. We had a command team meeting in the tunnel complex under the Pirate City manors in a few minutes. Three initial breaching teams were set. Argon and I had one, Jorvik and his armorers the second, and Cleon and his guard the third. Fast reaction teams were prepared to come in after the initial breach depending on the need.
Jorvik’s ward breakers were standing by to handle the warded rooms highlighted by our early reconnaissance. We had a pretty solid count of everyone in the 20 manor houses, including mages, based on nearly two days of observations. It was nearly information overload.
I was under no delusions. We needed a few lucky breaks to maintain the operational surprise needed to avoid casualties. If our enemies learned they were under attack before we struck, we would have casualties.
We started off the battle with a serious tactical advantage. We had surprise, communications, and better weapons on our side. The pirates didn’t know they were at war. If we failed to deliver a knockout blow early, they could overwhelm us within days. We could not win a house-to-house fight. If that happened, we would have to withdraw.
There was a lot of purposeful energy in the tunnels under north Pirate City. When Argon and I ‘ported in at the designated arrival site we were directed to our assembly area.
We checked in with an earnest young member of the Duchy Guard with a slate. We were early. I hadn’t been in the tunnels before and wanted to see what we had. Argon who spend much of last night here preferred to spend her time chatting with Inoa.
Each manor had a designated entry point. Jorvik’s ward breakers had created at least a four-foot diameter breach in each floor ward. Once we banished the stone within the breach, we were committed. The first people through would likely levitate, but each hole had a ladder ready for any follow up forces. Someone had marked the tunnel wall of each approach with the number of expected residents, the number of mages, and if there were any warded rooms. The assigned entry team was also listed on the wall.
While we hoped to free the slaves and question the mages, if we lost the element of surprise, we would displace the oxygen with nitrogen. It only took one or two breaths to bring on unconsciousness and about five minutes to kill. If we couldn’t safely open a warded room, Argon or I would displace the oxygen remotely.
By the time I checked on each of the 20 entry points and returned to the assembly area, the tunnels were crowded.
Cleon waved when he spotted me. I edged through the crowd to get to him. He was talking with Jorvik and Erik.
“See anything that we’ve missed,” Cleon asked.
“Do we know how many slaves in each manor?” I asked.
“Every manor has three of four members of a family, and the rest are slaves, as best we can tell,” said Cleon. “The slaves aren’t like those we recruited from Augun, though. Most were pirates. Even the sex slaves. They either got injured, lost a bet, or got into debt—usually over gambling. I wouldn’t risk any of my men to save any of them.”
“What about the mages?” I asked.
“No one has tried to read them. Inoa didn’t want to risk it. Only two are manor owners, we learned that from their slaves. Ten more mages live in the manors. They are employed by the manor owners. We think the manor owners are the top merchants in Pirate City. Six have suites of warded rooms. They are held in high regard by the merchants. The
other four are juniors or apprentices. Each of them has a warded room they stay in. We don’t know if any mages actually sleep in their rooms, for all we know they ‘port in and out. I know you noticed a lot more mages in north Pirate City, but they aren’t living in the manors,” Cleon said.
“How many manors have no warded rooms and no mages?” I asked.
“Ten,” was the prompt response.
“Okay, as soon as we are sure they are snug in bed, we’ll displace their oxygen. That will allow the three teams to concentrate on our more difficult manors,” I said. From the way, Cleon relaxed I could tell he was pleased with my decision. “We’ll leave their wards intact and their doors locked. Do they have anything we might want?”
“Not anything worth going in there for,” said Cleon.
“Should we remove the oxygen from the mage manors?” I asked. “If we break through their wards in time to save them, then we take them into custody. If not, they weren’t going to live anyway.”
“Let’s talk it over with Jorvik and Argon,” Cleon suggested. “I know we really want to capture some of those mages to find a link to the dark sect.”
Cleon briefed Jorvik and Argon on the revised plan to gas 10 of the manor houses. I must have been the only one hoping to capture rather than kill because they were very much in agreement.
Argon said, “Why not gas them all. We’ll try to get to the mages as soon as possible, but if we miss a few, nothing is really lost.”
“Loma added the force air shield spell as an option to the Duchy Guard’s belt, so they will be fine,” Cleon said.
“That can be our fallback position, but only after we have some mages in custody,” I said. “I’m concerned we may not even have a mage in some of those manors. They may be sleeping elsewhere. I definitely want to make their quarters a death trap should they decide to return.”
I was assigned to monitor one of the mage merchant’s homes. Cleon was right, the servants might be slaves, but they were not innocent.
The servants liked their lives and had no interest in freedom or returning to their former lives. They had a strong tie to their master, which I assumed might be part of a magical geas. They would alert their master if we attempted to free them.
They didn’t know if their master was at home. They had prepared the requested meal and would take it to his quarters when he summoned them. Some nights he never summoned them, and they assumed he had business elsewhere. No member of staff was allowed into his suite unless they were specifically invited. His chamberlain and valet were the two most likely to be invited. One of the maids cleaned, but only when the mage was away on business.
Occasionally a young woman was brought into the home for the mage’s personal use. The servants washed, groomed, and fed her, but she was off limits to all manor personnel.
If the servants were lucky, she was still alive when the mage was done with her. Sometimes that was not the case.
I now understood why Cleon wanted to kill them all. Learning where these young women came from was on my list of questions for the mage. If he showed up for his own funeral.
Argon was studying the other mage dwelling. His servants had the same unnatural love for their captive, but they weren’t mistreated either. If this guy engaged in loathsome sexual behaviors, he did them away from the manor. He had a similar arrangement to the first mage. He was secretive about his plans. When he was home, he called for his meals. If he didn’t call, the servants assumed he was away.
We agreed the only chance we had to catch them was to flood the entire manor with nitrogen when they called for their meals. And then hope we got to the mages before they died.
We set two mind mages to “listen” at the mage manors with orders to call if they “heard” anything significant.
Argon and I took our turns listening at two other manors with mage quarters. By now households were shifting to nighttime operations. The mages in the houses we were monitoring were not friendly with anyone in the household, including the merchant. No one was allowed in the mage suites, even to clean. The mages only ate at the manor when requested by the merchant.
As soon as the merchants and their wives settled in for the night, we’d break in, stun everyone and attempt to break through the mage wards to see if he was there.
Argon and I reluctantly agreed to split up. We were the only ones who knew the oxygen removal spell. None of the other battlemages had air magic.
I broke through the floor of the first manor and levitated into the room. It only took a small effort to move the corner of a rug out of the way. I was immediately followed by two mage ward crackers and two Duchy guards with stun guns. The ground floor had the kitchen and servant’s quarters. The mage suite of rooms was on the second floor, and the merchant and his wife, the valet, and maid had rooms on the top floor. The guard stunned all the servants on the first floor, without causing any unexpected noises. I noticed the guns now had light and heavy settings, they were using the light settings. I was pleased to note the light setting left those stunned with more natural mental signatures.
I had to get close to the warded suite to remove the oxygen from it. I’d let the ward breakers determine that the mage wasn’t at home. I floated up to the third floor, stunning the merchant and his wife, valet and ladies’ maid. I sent the team back into the tunnel. I swapped the oxygen in the room for nitrogen in the warded suite and then expanded the spell to include the whole house. I ‘ported to the tunnel under the house. I reached up and conjured stone matching that around it.
Argon was already moving into her house. I wished her well and went to the next manor. We were lucky with this one. I alerted Inoa we had a mage present. We’d already stunned the servants and merchant. I zapped the mage with a stun and broke through the walls. My guard had him in mage cuffs within seconds. They hauled him down into the tunnel.
I gathered all the items with a magical essence into a rucksack. I warned everyone on the team to vacate the manor and replaced all the oxygen with nitrogen. I ‘ported into the tunnel below and covered the hole with stone. I sent the rucksack off to wherever Loma was.
Argon had also nabbed a mage. She was preparing to enter one of the manors with two mages.
I was moving to another manor when I got a message that one of our merchant mages had just called for dinner. I ‘ported to the entrance.
“He just called for his valet and for dinner, your grace,” the mage on watch told me. “The valet is on his way to the suite now.” I used my mind-reading app to choose the moment the suite door opened for the valet to swap out the oxygen throughout the entire home. While I cast the spell, the ward breakers were right beside me, ready to enter the manor and roust out the mage. It took two breaths for everyone in the manor I could read to collapse. I then banished the entry hole and levitated through with my ward breakers on my heels.
The door to the warded suite was still open, and the deadly atmosphere had overwhelmed the mage and valet. We cuffed the mage and someone ‘ported him to wherever Inoa was gathering the mage captives. There was a warded room within the suite that my ward breakers made a beeline for. I left them to it while I scoured the suite for interesting magical items.
The mage had top-end magical appliances. I only gathered a few magical trinkets before the ward breakers announced it was safe to enter the mage’s bedroom. I sent them off to prepare for the next entry.
The bedroom had several locked caskets which I stuffed into the sacks without attempting to open them. The was a display case for wands. I left the case but took the wands. Several orbs oozed magic, and they went into the sack. As I made my final look around the room, I realized the room wasn’t as long as it should be.
Shoving the heavy furniture aside blocking the interior wall, I then banished a section of stone from the wall. There was a hidden chamber containing some type of altar. It was coated in a thick layer of dried blood. Not knowing what I had I called for Inoa. I warned her to bring her air mask.
“Well, we
ll, well,” said Inoa after taking a moment to study my find. I noticed she took great pains not to touch anything.
“What is it?” I asked.
“It is a demon altar,” she replied. “Although this is the first one I’ve ever actually seen.”
“What does it do?” I asked.
“From my reading, it allows someone from Jaloa to communicate with the demons on another plane, even when the world gates aren’t aligned,” Inoa said. “Although that is based on questioning those who were found near one of these, not information from anyone who built or used one. There are some who think if the demon is strong enough it can cross over and live a partial life inside the body of the mage.”
“Do not touch anything, leave everything as it is. I must take more precautions with the mage you captured, mage cuffs may not be sufficient,” with that Inoa ‘ported away.
I restored the wall to keep anyone from stumbling on the altar and left the manor.
One by one the manors fell. We missed two mages but left a deadly atmosphere for them if they ‘ported into their rooms.
The change in strategy had us done with the manors much earlier than anticipated, so we moved on the guard barracks as soon as we could mobilize.
We stunned the entire barracks without an alarm being raised.
Gera and his crew launched the attack on the pirate ship, catching them asleep. While I would have been fine dropping the pirates overboard, Gera was making plans to dump them on shore instead.
As the sun rose, we braced for discovery.
Oddly, as long as we stunned the guards as they returned to the barracks, no one noticed their absence. Observers monitoring the manors reported that day workers were still waiting to be admitted to the buildings. Some delay was normal, but as long as no one inside opened the doors, those posted outside would stay there.