She poured the priming powder into the vent herself. After one last look to make sure everything was ready, she walked across the field to join Elkan. “Your turn,” she told him.
He lit a short length of fuse from the lantern he held. “This works much better than the candle Master Noadiah had me use. We won’t have to be so careful not to let it blow out.”
“Good.” She gestured curtly for him to proceed. She wished he hadn’t reminded her of that other time she’d waited beside him while he floated fire to set off blasting powder. She didn’t need to think about the disaster that had followed because of Master Noadiah’s carelessness.
Meira had learned from her master’s mistake. She always took precautions in case something went wrong. This time there was no mine tunnel to collapse, but she wouldn’t let anyone near the weapon until she’d made sure every last grain of blasting powder had spent its strength in fire or otherwise been rendered harmless.
Elkan nodded to her and put his hand on Tobi’s head. The smoldering fuse floated across the field, borne on a wave of golden light nearly invisible in the bright summer morning.
Elkan paused when the fuse was a foot away from the weapon, looking to her for confirmation. “Guildmaster?”
They hadn’t yet carried out the formalities necessary to establish the Blasters’ Guild, but Elkan always acted as if it already existed. She gave him a grateful smile. “Do it.”
Elkan’s fingers tightened on Tobi’s head. The mountain cat’s eyes were fixed on the fuse and weapon as intently as the wizard’s. The fuse moved the last foot. Its glowing end touched the small pool of blasting powder in the vent. Sparks sputtered and spit, hissing.
For a breathless moment nothing happened. Then the familiar crack of the blasting powder struck her ears. The weapon lurched backward, spouting sparks and smoke. The dark dot of the ball streaked away too quickly for her eyes to follow.
Josiah let out a whoop. “It worked! Just like the Armada’s weapons!”
Elkan was grinning, equally pleased, if not as showy about it. Tension drained from Meira’s muscles. She held up a cautionary hand. “Take a look, please. Make sure all the blasting powder burned.”
A window popped open over Elkan’s hand. Its view swept from one end of the weapon to the other. Before Meira could ask, he put out his other hand and sent a tendril of gold light to illuminate the dark interior of the tube. She spotted a few patches of unburnt powder. Elkan obligingly swept them out of the tube and scattered them until the grains were too dispersed to set each other off.
“We’ll use wet mops when we don’t have a wizard at our disposal, like the Ramunnans do.” Meira gave the window a last searching look. “All right. It’s safe.”
Josiah raced toward where the ball had fallen, Sar cantering at his side. The rest of them walked more sedately to the weapon. Meira ran her hands over the iron, still warm from the fire that had filled it. It was smooth and sound beneath her hands, no cracks or distortions anywhere that she could feel.
A thread of warm golden light tingled on her face, and a breath of wind ruffled her hair. She glanced at Elkan in confusion, but he wasn’t touching Tobi. “What?”
He stared at the wisp of the Mother’s power. “No.” He swallowed and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, his voice was dull and his shoulders sagged. He pointed down the field. “Josiah found the ball. He’s showing us that it didn’t travel beyond range of the Mother’s power.” He called Tobi to his side and sent a tendril of light spooling toward his apprentice. “It’s a good hundred feet within our reach.” He raked a shaking hand through his hair. “Smash it, what did we do wrong? The whole point of building these things was so we could equal the Ramunnans’ range. We might as well not have bothered!”
Meira had never heard him sound so discouraged. She put a hand on his arm. “This was only one test. You can’t expect us to get everything right on the first try. We’ll experiment with how we aim it, with different amounts of powder and different sized balls. Maybe even with the composition of the blasting powder, although Master Noadiah spent years determining the most effective proportions. We’ll figure out what the problem is. It’s probably just a matter of honing our skills.”
He scrubbed at the back of his neck. “I know you will. But we did everything as closely as possible to how we saw the Ramunnans do it. We should have matched their results. Or at least gotten closer. This—” He waved in the direction of the fallen ball. “It’s not good enough. It’s nowhere near good enough.”
She knew he was right, but she resented the accusing tone of his voice. “I did my best,” she said, trying to keep control of her temper. “I’m sorry if it didn’t meet your expectations.”
Instead of apologizing as she expected, he jerked away from her touch. “It won’t matter how hard we tried if the Ramunnans defeat us.”
The people around them were watching and listening curiously. Elkan waved them away, then beckoned Meira to follow as he strode several dozen feet toward where Josiah and Sar were plodding back. He dropped his voice. “Savir sent word from Guildmaster Hanion; I got the message this morning. The Ramunnans have finally figured out that most of Elathir’s population is missing. They’re thinking of sending out a reconnaissance force to figure out what’s going on. That means we’ve got only a little time left to get ready to fight. As soon as they discover we’re here they’ll attack us.”
She stared at him. “Will we be able to hold them off?”
“If they don’t take their weapons off the ships, maybe. We outnumber them more than three to one. But they’re trained and experienced and well-equipped, and we’re not.” He ticked off points on his fingers. “A lot of our fighters are only armed with farm tools, rakes and shovels and axes. The smiths have been turning out spikes and blades to mount on poles, but they’ve been too occupied with this weapon to make enough yet. We’ve got a good number of archers, but even working day and night our handful of fletchers haven’t made enough arrows for each of them to have a full quiver.”
His voice rose in pitch and volume. “And I’ve scoured every word Gurion Thricebound ever wrote ten times over, and I still know next to nothing about how to lead people into battle. Blast it, the Mother called me to heal and help and show truth, not slaughter people! But if I don’t, if I don’t come up with some way that farmers and herders can defeat professional soldiers, if I can’t figure out how to pervert the Mother’s power into a tool for destruction, if we’re not somehow able to kill more of them than they kill of us, then we lose Tevenar. We lose the Wizards’ Guild. A thousand years of the Mother working in the world, and it will all be for nothing if I fail.”
Meira reached for his hands. “Elkan, I know how hard this is for you. But you don’t have to bear it alone. We’re here to help, however you need us. I’m here.”
He yanked his hands away. “Then fix the blasted thing so it works like it’s supposed to! That’s what I need from you. That’s all I need from you.” He whirled and stalked across the field, back toward the weapon. Tobi loped at his side. He didn’t push his familiar away, but he didn’t reach to touch her, either.
Meira stared after him. She felt as if he’d slapped her in the face. Anger boiled up in her heart, and she welcomed it because it drowned out the pain. How dare he blame her for the weapon’s shortcoming? She, and the rest of the Blasters’ Guild, and the Smiths’ Guild, and especially Josiah, had worked incredibly hard. They’d accomplished nothing short of a miracle by producing a working copy of the Ramunnans’ weapon in so short a time. And he lost his temper because it wasn’t perfect?
She should take her people and go back to her mine. Why should she care whether Ramunna or Tevenar emerged from this conflict victorious? Either way, gold would always be in demand. She certainly didn’t need to waste any more of her life pining after a man who was so arrogant he thought the fate of the world rested in his hands.
Josiah hurried up, Sar at his heels. “What’s the matter?”
“Your master’s in a snit because his little toy can’t throw a ball far enough to suit him.” That wasn’t fair, but at the moment she didn’t much care.
“What do you think happened? We did everything right!” Josiah sounded nearly as discouraged as Elkan.
“Obviously we don’t understand everything we need to. What did you expect? We haven’t been working on this for two whole months yet! Why does nobody understand that it takes time and effort and lots and lots of trial and error to create something new? We’ve done amazing work. You tell Elkan he should be falling all over himself to thank us, not criticizing us.”
“Yes, but what are we missing?” Josiah screwed up his face. “I wish I could get a better look at one of the Ramunnans’ weapons. I wonder if Elkan will let me go to Elathir with the next messenger. It should be easy to stay hidden. I’d only need to get within a mile of an Armada ship. Then Sar and I could take a nice long time to study a weapon without people shooting them at us.”
“I doubt the problem is anything that can be easily seen. Probably we just need to do a large number of tests and refine our processes. And I’m not convinced that having a shorter range will prove that much of a disadvantage. We’re still going to be hurling big chunks of iron at them.”
“True. But this shot only went about eight hundred feet, while theirs were going twelve hundred at least. There’s got to be something we’re doing wrong to make that big a difference.” Josiah chewed on a knuckle while he stared into the distance. “Do you think it’s the powder?”
Meira greatly feared it was. “It seems the most likely culprit. There’s no way to know for sure if we’re using the same ingredients. Maybe Master Noadiah missed something. Or maybe there’s some substance in Ramunna we don’t have here that makes theirs stronger.”
Josiah looked thoughtful. “If we had a sample of their powder, we could test it.”
“How? I wouldn’t be able to tell what they put into it just by looking.”
“I bet if we looked at them both through Professor Gevan’s enlarging glass we could see whether they were the same.”
“That doesn’t help much, considering you didn’t bring one with you.”
“And nobody here knows how to grind lenses like he uses. Although maybe if I described what I wanted to a glassblower…” Josiah looked pensive for a moment, then shook his head. “That would take too long.”
“It doesn’t matter, anyway. There’s no way to get any of their powder.”
“I could sneak onto a Ramunnan ship and steal some.” Josiah looked toward the road that led to Elathir, the faraway look in his eyes that he got when he was puzzling out a solution to a complex problem. “It wouldn’t be that hard.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. Elkan would never let you. I doubt he’ll let you go to Elathir at all. Not with—” She broke off. Elkan had told her about Savir’s message in confidence. If news that the Ramunnans might soon be coming got out before he was ready to announce it, people might panic and rush into hasty, foolish actions. She wouldn’t betray his secret just because she was angry with him.
“With what?” Josiah’s brow furrowed.
“I can’t say. You’ll have to ask him.” She sighed and squared her shoulders. “Come on. Let’s look over the weapon one more time and think about improvements. Tenorran said the longer the tube, the better the range. Maybe we can have the smiths make us a longer one.”
“That will take weeks.”
“Unless you come up with a better idea, it’s all we can do.” She set off across the field. Josiah didn’t follow, but she ignored him. He was still very young; it shouldn’t surprise her if it took him a while to absorb the disappointment of their first effort and find the resolve to keep trying. It was hard enough for her to find that resolve, even with her much greater experience.
* * *
Josiah waited until Meira was a dozen yards away. Sar, open up a window and let me see what Elkan told her.
No. It was a private conversation. Your curiosity isn’t sufficient cause to eavesdrop.
But I think he told her something about the war. Something that’s happened, or is about to happen.
Then ask Elkan. If he won’t tell you, he has a good reason.
Josiah ground his teeth. Sometimes having to work through your familiar instead of controlling the Mother’s power directly was a huge annoyance. Sure, the Law said you weren’t supposed to use windows without a legitimate reason, but really, would it hurt just to take a peek? If he’d moved a little faster he would have been able to hear what Elkan had said. Before he started practically yelling at the end, there. That had been hard to miss.
Josiah had confidence in his master’s ability to lead them, even if Elkan didn’t. He’d get over his doubts eventually, like he always did, and rise to the occasion. But he was going to be prickly and hard to deal with for a while first.
Sure enough, when he found Elkan waiting in line for the midday meal and made his request, Elkan scowled. “Absolutely not.”
“But master, I’m sure if I could study one of their weapons for a while, I’d figure out what we’re doing wrong. You know how crazy everything was during the battle. Neither one of us had time to get more than a quick glance. And I’m more familiar with how everything works now. I’ll be able to understand what I’m seeing.”
Elkan sighed. “I’m not saying you’re wrong. But it’s too dangerous.”
“Why? I’d only have to get within a mile.” If his master was this opposed to a simple bit of spying from a distance, Josiah wasn’t about to bring up the idea of sneaking aboard a ship. “Sar and I could go with the next messenger and meet up with Savir and Music. They could help us find a good place to open a window. I’m sure they know what’s safe and what isn’t by now.”
“You’re needed at the blasting powder mill.”
“Not any more. It’s working pretty well. We ground three pounds of powder yesterday that Meira said is as good as anything she can make by hand. Mostly what we’re doing is making minor adjustments. Meira and Master Rada can do that without my help.”
“Perhaps. But I still won’t let you go to Elathir.” Elkan glanced around. The other people in line were chatting with each other, paying no attention to the two wizards. “Please don’t repeat this to anyone until I make it public. I received a message from Savir this morning. Master Hanion says the Ramunnans are discussing whether to send out a large force to scour the countryside looking for the people who’re missing from Elathir. He thinks they’ll decide to do it soon. It won’t take them long to find us and realize we tricked them. After that it will probably be a matter of days, weeks at the most, before they launch a major attack.”
“But that makes it even more important for us to figure out how to make our weapon match theirs.”
“In my next message to Savir I’ll ask him to take a look at one of the weapons. He can send us word of anything he finds.”
“But he doesn’t know what to look for!”
“Neither do you.”
Josiah sputtered for a moment. “But—but—I’ll know it when I see it! It’s got to be me. Or Meira, but she’d have to work with Savir or some other wizard. And she’s needed here more than I am. You’ve got to send me! No other wizard knows as much about the weapons as I do.”
“No.”
And no matter how much Josiah argued, nothing he said changed Elkan’s mind.
After they finished eating, Elkan and Tobi headed to the Mother’s Hall to help with an influx of people needing healing. Josiah hoped an afternoon spent using the Mother’s power for its true purpose would help his master’s mood. He wished he could join them. Instead he and Sar walked upriver to the former fulling mill.
It still gave him a thrill every time he walked in and saw the machinery that had once existed only in his mind, real and working just as he’d imagined. Well, almost as he’d imagined. Getting everything to work together had proven surprisingly difficult. The process of grinding an
d mixing the powder was a lot more complex than fulling cloth or grinding grain. All the different steps of the process had to be timed exactly right. Several sections of his design had turned out to be extremely finicky. If one little part got slightly out of alignment, it threw off three or four more, which in turn interfered with others. He’d managed to stabilize a couple of the worst areas, but it still seemed like they spent three or four hours fixing problems for every quarter hour the mill actually ran.
His face lit up as he spotted Ledah talking to Meira. “There you are!” he exclaimed, hurrying up. “I looked for you in the plaza, but I didn’t see you.”
“Master Fira insisted I help her finish a big order before she let me go. She thinks I should eat at home more often and leave the food in the plaza for those with no kitchens to cook in.”
“There’s always plenty.” Josiah examined the basket she held. “This looks perfect.”
“I finally figured out how to reinforce the corners so they don’t get pushed out of shape.”
It hadn’t taken long to figure out they’d need square sieves instead of the round ones they’d tried first, but Ledah had struggled to produce squares both large and rigid enough. Josiah thought this one looked like it would do the trick.
“Let’s get it installed and see if it works the way we want. If it does, you can start making the rest to the same design.”
He enjoyed working with Ledah, even if they couldn’t do much with so many people watching. Over the past month they’d managed to get a little privacy two or three times a week. They’d spent most of it kissing. Josiah wasn’t complaining, but he was getting the feeling Ledah didn’t actually like talking with him. She’d listen politely enough when he told her about the mill or his shifts in the Hall or the progress on the weapon, but she didn’t make any comments or contribute any insights. And whenever he asked about her work with Master Fira she’d only give him a brief description before snuggling close and distracting him with more immediately rewarding interactions.
The Wizards' War Page 30