than wing their way home to the Rotunda after their direction of flight had been made clear, the birds would obediently return to the golden rail. Just as she had done many times before, Julia bowed her head.
“O sacred flame of the Vagaries, grant us the wisdom to perform this auspicium and to be guided by its decree,” she recited. “Allow your divine magic to drive the sacred birds skyward and show your humble craft servants which path is best. In our emperor’s name we ask for your guidance. In your name we offer our thanks and our continued servitude.”
With that, Julia raised her arms higher. Amid a quick flurry of white wings, the birds took to the sky.
As always, for several tense moments the birds circled overhead, giving no inkling as to their decree. Then they gathered to fly due north for a short distance before returning to their perch. As the birds landed one by one, from behind the protection of her veil Julia desperately blinked back her tears.
Northward, she thought, her heart breaking. The auspiciums are good and Vespasian will surely act. With Gracchus in attendance, was there ever any doubt?
Julia looked over to see that the lead cleric and the otherPon Q’tar members were beaming with delight. She couldn’t know whether Gracchus had secretly altered the birds’ direction of flight, nor did it matter. All that mattered now was that Vespasian would use his new powers for the first time, and the entire dynamic of the War of Attrition was about to change forever.
“The time has come, my liege,” Gracchus said to Vespasian. “Unleash one of your gifts and finish off Kagoya once and for all. Then we will take the gold fields. Soon we will walk the streets of Ryoto as our own.”
“Do you have a suggestion as to which gift should be summoned?” Vespasian asked.
“I do,” Gracchus answered simply. The lead cleric turned to look down upon the stricken city. “Much of Kagoya still stands,” he said. “I suggest that the same force of nature that began its destruction be allowed to finish the task.”
Vespasian nodded. After giving Persephone a somber look, he again turned his attention toward the beleaguered city. Following Gracchus’ training, he closed his eyes and raised his arms skyward.
At once Vespasian saw the many elaborate banned forestallment calculations whirling in his mind. Their computations were elegant, all-powerful. Selecting the one he wanted, he caused the others to vanish. As the chosen spell came to life for the first time, Vespasian opened his eyes.
Soon the eager Rustannicans could not believe their eyes. The clouds in the heavens were literally obeying Vespasian’s commands and combining into a single huge veil in the sky. As the clouds coalesced, thunder arose, its rumblings terrible, nearly deafening. The rising wind began to howl, and with it came bright lightning that streaked majestically across the sky. Everyone watched in awe as the lone cloud drifted directly over Kagoya, its immense size easily reaching from one end of the city to the other. Soon the cloud slowed, the city beneath it entirely unaware that it was about to be wiped from the face of the earth.
Closing his eyes again, Vespasian summoned the second half of the needed spell. At once the massive cloud began changing from milky white to a bright, raging red. Soon the red form in the sky glowed even brighter. Heat radiated from it, the torridness rising so quickly that it could be felt even by the Rustannican multitudes lining the hill. With another great crack of lightning the raging form split apart, showering down its contents. As Julia watched them fall onto Kagoya, her heart broke in two.
Vespasian’s terrible creation was raining liquid fire.
The orange-red fire fell not as flames, but as great molten gobs, like volcanic lava loosed from the sky. It did not start at one end of Kagoya and work its way toward the other, for that might have allowed the terrified Shashidans a chance to flee. Instead, the awful stuff fell upon the city as a whole, sparing no part of it.
As the gathered Rustannicans watched, Vespasian’s awesome creation immediately ignited every remaining building and flowed down each street, engulfing everyone and everything in its path. Soon it joined forces with the fires that were already raging in the city, turning Kagoya into a gigantic torrent of flame. When the craft’s terrible work was done, the fire vanished, leaving only dense smoke and the smell of burning flesh rising into the air. Nothing moved within the dead, blackened city. It seemed to everyone on the hillside that not only had Kagoya been destroyed, its very soul had been vaporized.
His task done, Vespasian lowered his arms. So exhausted that he could barely remain atop his stallion, he closed his eyes, drew a deep breath and gripped his saddle pommel. When he finally opened his eyes, the sight before him was awesome, unexpected.
Every living soul atop the hill and for as far as he could see into the night was on his or her knees before him, head bowed. Even thePon Q’tar had never witnessed such an amazing use of the craft and they too had taken postures of supplication before the wondrous demigod they had created.
Vespasian ordered everyone to rise. Thunderous victory cheers soon rose into the night, and the throngs of legionnaires banged their gladii against their shields in honor of the great emperor and craft wielder whom it was their privilege to serve. Victory wine flowed among the joyful troops.
Wending his way through the crowd, Benedik Pryam came to stand beside Gracchus. Looking down at the smoldering ruins of Kagoya, he smiled and handed the lead cleric a cup of wine.
“So it seems that you have finally realized your masterpiece of the craft after all,” he whispered. “I must admit that some of the more skepticalPon Q’tar members were starting to have their doubts. It is fortunate for all of us that Vespasian’s impending terrors reached out to his mind no later than they did. Otherwise we might have begun a campaign that we couldn’t finish.”
“I am as delighted as you,” Gracchus answered as he continued to grin and wave theatrically at the triumphant emperor. “Although we take a major step toward ultimate victory this night, do not think for one moment that the battle is won. If theJin’Sai has reached Shashida, our real fight may have only started. Either way, the War of Attrition is forever escalated.”
As Benedik watched the beloved emperor being joyfully pulled from his saddle and into the waiting arms of the legionnaires who so loved him, he smiled again.
“Tell me, Gracchus,” he whispered. “Now that you have created this wonder of the craft, did you leave the proper spells in place as we agreed? Can you in fact still control Vespasian? ThePon Q’tar has fears along those lines as well.”
“Of course,” Gracchus answered. “After all, when one creates such a monster as this, one must be sure that it is kept in a very strong cage.”
“And that cage remains in place?” Benedik asked.
“Yes,” Gracchus answered. “As we planned, his terrors were not in fact vanquished after the use of his first banned forestallment. Instead, they still lurk in his subconscious. But unlike before, they will no longer spring up of their own choosing. Should our creation become rebellious, I will order the terrors to revisit him. Only then will I tell him how and why.”
Turning to Benedik, Gracchus smiled.
“So you see, my friend, all is as it should be,” the lead cleric said. “Soon the Shashidan gold will be traveling home to Ellistium and we will be dining in the fabled gardens of the Kyuden Shimin.”
Smiling broadly, the two clerics linked arms and drank heartily of the rich victory wine.
CHAPTER XLIV
“JUST HOURS AGO, JULIA IDAEUS AGAIN SECRETLY COMMUNEDwith us,” Mashiro said sadly. “She was lucky to do so without detection, for it is a dangerous thing to accomplish while traveling with Vespasian’s armies. I’m sorry to report that her news is grave.” Before continuing, Mashiro paused and he looked down at his hands.
“Kagoya has been totally destroyed,” he announced. “It was not a large city, but it was a culturally important one. Worse, it was the last bastion between Vespasian and our gold mines. Julia watched the carnage as every Kagoyan civilian and every katsugai mosota posted to its defense was killed. Vespasian used one of his banned gifts to rain liquid fire down onto the city. After more than one hundred and fifty centuries, the Rustannicans have finally violated the Borderlands Treaty. What we have long feared has come to pass, and this war’s deadly ferocity has been forever heightened.”
Tristan looked at Mashiro as theChikara Inkai elder sadly wiped away tears. Although he and his fellow pilgrims were new to Shashida, they felt the pain as sharply as if a Eutracian city had been destroyed. For several
