mountain.
Behind the gate lay a level, open field. To either hand were what had been gardens and orchards. The magic was gone.
The ascendant said, “I don’t remember much. First time round I was a prisoner. What I saw was less colorful than this. Last time, I was too crazy to notice much. The Aelen Kofer will have to guide us.”
Heris stared off to their left, at the bones of an orchard, recalling that it had been sacred to one of the Old Goddesses. The remains of the apple trees were covered with scale and fungi.
Did that bode ill for the larger mission? The gods had depended on that fruit for their immortality. But it looked like the orchard depended on the gods in turn. “Did all that die since you were here?”
The ascendant responded, “I don’t know. Maybe.”
“Double Great, this might not be as dangerous as I feared. But let’s take every precaution anyway.”
The old man looked puzzled.
The bulk of the Great Sky Fortress reared ahead, climbing far higher. There was no color in it. Sunlight fell upon it and died.
Heris continued to quiz the ascendant. Who continued to insist, “I was just a prisoner here. I don’t know anything.”
She glanced at Iron Eyes. The dwarf lord shrugged, said, “It’s been a long time. We weren’t invited in much once the place was finished.”
So she snapped at the ascendant, “Parts of you lived here. All of you knew enough to turn the place inside out.”
The ascendant went rigid. Then he began to swell.
And Heris could not hold her tongue.
“Yeah. Go ahead. Get all huffy and pissed off. Turn into something uglier than you already are. That’ll be real productive.” She turned her back. “Double Great, this whole expedition is about to turn sour. We’re just plain not ready, except maybe for Asgrimmur. He’s all set to tremble and shake if the Old Ones won’t cooperate.”
Though she was not behaving well the old man seemed more pleased than troubled. “You keep making the point. I heard it. Now say something useful.”
“We need to make sure there’s no way they can get out without them doing what we want. Meaning all the damned doors better be locked before we open the way. Meaning we have to use up all of whatever magic still exists here. Meaning we have to send the Aelen Kofer home so the Old Ones can’t bully them into engineering their escape into the middle world. I might even borrow some of Gisors’s toys in case we have to enforce an attitude adjustment.”
Februaren grinned. “Darling girl! I think we’ve found our Twelfth Unknown. Clever, that. And I do see your point. Gentlemen. My student has, again, made a powerful argument. We dare leave nothing to chance. We won’t be conjuring everynight demons.”
Eyeing Heris, Ferris Renfrow observed, “The overconfident sorcerer has become a clich?. There’s a reason things become clich?s.”
Heris showed him a thin smile. Remarkable. She said, “Iron Eyes. We can adjust to this. With Aelen Kofer help. Come talk to me.” She headed back toward the rainbow bridge.
Cloven Februaren watched. He glowed with pride. He muttered, “She’s coming along just fine.” Then, “Boys, how about we explore this dump while we’re waiting?” 34. Commander of the Righteous: Raiders and Invaders The move into the Eastern Empire by the Commander of the Righteous was a complete surprise. The immediate reaction to the news, everywhere, was that people up there on the frontier were in error and unduly alarmist.
Hagan Brokke and Clej Sedlakova led mounted infantry in swift dashes to isolate the Krulik and Sneigon works. Carava de Bos and Rivademar Vircondelet got the opportunity to demonstrate that Titus Consent’s faith in them was not misplaced. They roamed the wilderness around the establishment, romancing the locals, then the mercenaries protecting the manufactory.
The Commander of the Righteous reached the sprawl of smelters, foundries, timber ricks, and charcoal kilns five days after launching the incursion. There was no resistance.
Carava de Bos brought out the managers. Hecht had spoken to some of the same men after the destruction of their Brothen enterprise. They had pledged to restrict sales of their product to the Patriarchal forces.
Hecht ignored their pleas. “De Bos. Do you have an inventory?”
“I don’t have enough fingers, sir.”
“What?”
“Sorry, sir. A poor joke. It’s incomplete. There’s so much firepowder we may not be able to haul it all away. That could be true for the weapons, too. I’ve found nearly sixty finished pieces already. They’d just started to make deliveries.”
“Then we got here in time.”
“We did, sir. Shall we start pulling things down?”
“Yes. And don’t waste time. Sooner or later someone from the Eastern Empire will decide that something has to be done.”
Hecht spent hours touring, inspecting, and being amazed. Krulik and Sneigon had performed prodigies here.
Locals helped with the demolition. Hecht let them take whatever they wanted, excepting only weapons, firepowder, and the belongings of guards who had stood with the raiders. Everyone else would be bare naked but alive when the Righteous left.
Titus Consent chose not to show himself. He needed fashion no more enmities amongst the Devedians. Instead, he headed downriver to Liume to hire coasters. Hecht wanted to get his plunder into Imperial territory as fast as possible. The nearest friendly country lay across the Vieran Sea.
Clej Sedlakova approached Hecht the second afternoon. “What’ll we do with all these Deves, boss?”
“You don’t think we should just leave them naked in the rain?”
Head shake.
“Why not?”
“They’ll just start over. Maybe here, maybe somewhere else. But right now they figure you’re gonna kill them so they can’t.”
“And you think they’ve got the right idea?”
“Just don’t ask me to do it. I’m not that hard.”
“Be a serious waste of talent and knowledge. Let’s take them with us. We can lock them up in Hochwasser. They can pursue their trade in service to the Empire.”
“Make slaves of them?”
“Forced labor. My father would find that delicious.”
Sedlakova showed confusion. “Sir?”
“Nothing. Identify the most valuable people. Have Vircondelet take them away as soon as he can.”
“Yes, sir.” Sedlakova’s relief was obvious.
Why had the man not believed that they would be left naked and starving?
Hecht reflected briefly on the legacy left him by Redfearn Bechter. Had there been more to that than just Grade Drocker’s journal? If so, he could not figure it out. And Drocker had not been the sort to indulge himself with deep puzzles and riddles.
The Empress, accompanied by fewer than a hundred companions and guards, arrived as Sedlakova went to deal with the prisoners. She did not look comfortable. Hecht thought she was sick and putting on a bold face. He ran to greet her, stifling the protests she was sure to have heard a hundred times, already. She was here. He would have to pretend to be pleased.
Katrin made no effort not to be noticed. “I want Monestacheus Deleanu to know that this was my adventure, not a rogue action by my Commander of the Righteous. God’s enemies cannot be allowed to arm themselves with these horrible weapons.”
Then greed flashed. Her thinking included the savings this meant for the Imperial treasury.
The presence of the Empress only added to the chaos.
