people's minds.
'Yes, I'm coming! Why should a princess hold herself more dear than the freedom of our citizens? Why should I sit idle when a tyrant comes howling at our door?' The princess snatched off her pointed hat and raised it to the sound of soldiers' cheers. 'Democracy can't be made from an armchair, safe at home! Form up the citizen battalions! Bring freedom to the Blade kingdoms!
'I say the age of tyranny is done!'
The crowd roared and shook their weapons for their little princess. Climbing from her high summit, Miliana jammed a hand down through the haystack and ripped open a hidden hatch, then disappeared waist-deep into the straw.
'War-turtles… march!'
With a lurch, the haystack split apart. Bursting out into open view came a sinister war machine shaped like an inverted soup bowl, which rumbled slowly off across the plains. From her perch up at the top hatch of the revolving turret, Miliana waved a triumphant fist to the full-throated roar of the army.
Thirty haystacks erupted; angular, sinister, and sheathed with brilliant mirror tiles, Lorenzo's hideous inventions moved off to a jerky start. Lorenzo passed his father and his brother where they stood with the heavy cavalry and gave them a salute; shooing Tekoriikii off the port side hatch, the artist crawled into the depths of his mighty vehicle and swiftly disappeared.
Watching the formation of war-turtles depart, Lorenzo's father snorted disapproval through his beard.
'I still say it's no way to fight a war.' The old man slammed down his visor and grabbed Lorenzo's muscle- brained brother by the arm. 'Get mounted, boy! There'll be no end to this damned battle until we've staved in some heads in the old, traditional way…'
The senior Utrelli joined the ranks of his prince's heavy cavalry. The mighty cavalcade spurred off after the war machines as the Lomatran hills turned black with the sheer number of their enemies.
16
'My liege-they've summoned earth elementals!'
A staff officer turned his golden horse to Svarezi, proffering a spyglass. 'There… heading toward the center of the plain…'
Dust clouds had risen from the fields, helping to obscure the view. Svarezi bullied his hippogriff into standing still, then leveled the perspective glass and scowled down from on high. It took long moments for him to sift the confusing images into order in his mind.
The plain was dotted with giant shapes; juggernauts rolling with a smooth motion that told of wheels. Each object shone a painful silver in the morning light, almost hiding its inverted soup-bowl shape. Svarezi studied the twin wheel tracks the machines left behind in the dirt and slammed shut his telescope with a confident bang.
'War wagons.'
'My lord?'
'War wagons. A common enough ploy used by peasant armies fearful of cavalry.' Svarezi sat straight in his saddle with one fist proudly planted on his hip. 'An enclosed wagon, armored with timber and steel; the interior is filled with crossbowmen, archers… even light artillery.
'They're vulnerable to magic. We'll warp the wooden wheels-use fire spells to touch off their superstructures. Keep the combat troops back, and send in the sorcerers for their sport.'
Svarezi looked at his titanic army and for the first time let his face stir with pride.
'Bring up the Sun Cannon! We'll overturn their little carts, vaporize some of their infantry, then see their faces as we melt a hole clean through their city walls.'
The mercenary officers exchanged low, cruel smiles as far below, the great battle was finally joined.
'Target left! Left!' Miliana took her eye away from the padded periscope and crashed her pointy hat down across the gunner's head. 'There, stupid, rotate the damned turret or I'll wring your neck!'
The worst-tempered vehicle commander in the army cursed and drove her crew into obedience. Wrenching frantically at the traversing cog, the war-turtle's gunner swung the turret to the left and let his sights settle on a proud line of sorcerers readying lethal battle spells.
'I see them… I mean… target sighted!'
Miliana ferociously crammed her face against the viewing slot.
'All right-steady… steady… Shoot!'
The spring arms of the turtle's springal hammered wildly at her side; Miliana watched a cloud of heavy javelins soar out at the enemy, then all spin uselessly aside as one of the sorcerers made an easy gesture with one hand.
'Damn! He's got a spell up to protect him from normal missiles.' The girl watched her target with her face set in a snarl. 'Load abnormal missiles!' The gunner slammed a bundle of pre-blessed javelins into place. 'All right… open fire!'
The turret bucked as the springal hammered out its load. Seen dimly through a haze of dust, the Svarezi sorcerers whirled brokenly aside. Apprentices dropped their books, bells, and candles, and began to run, falling one by one as a flywheel catapult spurted darts from deep inside the turtle's bows.
Other war machines in line with Miliana were having similar success. The juggernauts rolled on, crunching corn stubble under their wheels. Miliana looked down from her high seat to where Lorenzo labored in the dark; the girl excitedly wiped her sweating brow and gave a smile.
'It's brilliant! The war-turtles are actually working!'
'Of course they're working.' Lorenzo prodded at a horse's neck and kept power surging through the hull. 'I told you they would, didn't I?'
Lorenzo's latest masterpieces were an engineering triumph; inverted bowls of dense ceramic formed the hulls, which were modeled on the bowls used for Lomatran baked beans. Inside the hulls, six huge horses shod in insulated ceramic shoes provided motive power. The vehicle was suspended above the ground by four wide-rimmed ceramic wheels, and trailed leather curtains to seal the hull against the earth.
Atop the horses rode a platform housing two crossbow-men, a flywheel-powered dart projector, and Lorenzo, the turtle's elected driver. In the revolving turret up above, Miliana, a loader, and a gunner dispensed mayhem like children flinging rocks at nests of bees. The double springal sent shudders through the whole machine as it flung loads of missiles out across the fields.
'Earth elemental at one hundred yards… Damn-it's overturned number seven!' Miliana swore as a wave of living soil flipped a war-turtle completely over on its side. 'Grab its attention! Load blessed ammunition!'
'Loaded!' The springal crew worked with admirable speed. 'I see it.'
'Shoot!'
Something made the war-turtle tingle as the great weapon fired. From his perch above the horses, Lorenzo looked up in alarm
'What was that?'
'Warp wood spell.' Miliana kept her eye glued to her periscopes. 'There's a bunch of druids to the left. Svarezi must have hired them in from Turmish. Good thing we used whalebone for the springals. Damn; missed the elemental! Fire again-quickly!'
The whole machine bucked as the catapult fired. Miliana clenched her fists with glee.
'Spitted him with half a dozen!' The girl looked down into the turtle's hull. 'Lorenzo-got your sword?'
'Why?'
The answer came as a great heave of the ground. The horses screamed, the whole framework groaned, and a great roaring head made out of soil erupted between the wheels. Lorenzo squealed like a frightened pig, whipped out his rapier, and jammed it in the earth elemental's brow. He jerked the power trigger and sent his last remaining electric charge crackling right between its eyes. The elemental crumbled like a sand castle in the wind, leaving Lorenzo to plaster himself across the back of a trembling horse.
High above, Miliana looked down with a frown.
