Deepforge (14 page)

“Oh, Jesus,” Bruno said. He finished reading and handed it to Delvin.

“Brendon? He’s a traitor?” Delvin said, incredulous.

“It’s not much of a stretch,” Teelena said.

They all agreed.

“Mister Cranksprocket, do you think you can repair it?” Grognor asked.

“I don’t know. I’ll have to look at it.”

“Take it and let me know. Make sure nobody sees you working on it, right?” Grognor asked.

“Of course.”

“Ok, listen up. How do these things…know…where they’re going?” Grognor asked.

Delvin explained, “They operate on a radio frequency and a tuned crystal array. For one bird there would be multiple  transmitters, depending on the number of recipients, and the receiver in the bird itself connected to the flight controls. The perpetual spring-weight power plant produces just enough power to run the receiver and the mechanics. Did it stop and fall as soon as you hit it?” He asked Eugene.

“Yea, just like I hit it in the heart…or whatever,” Eugene said.

“That’s a good sign. Hopefully you hit it in the actuator. If that’s the case, it’s an easy fix.”

“So, would that mean the…message senders would have some sort of transmitter on them?” Grognor asked.

“Yes, exactly. A low power transceiver, actually.”

“Wait, I don’t understand. Why wouldn’t they just use a radio to talk to each other?” Eugene asked.

“That would take more power for the great distances involved, and would be difficult to hide. These little transmitters could fit almost anywhere. A necklace, in the hilt of a sword. It could be disguised as a decorative crystal,” Delvin explained, “with just a slight adjustment, they could tell the bird to come in for a landing, or circle until it was clear. It’s a very clever design, actually.”

“What are you planning, Sire?” Bruno asked.

“I have an idea.” Grognor smiled.

Chapter 13

B
rendon began assembling his division for breakfast when he noticed his decorative ring was glowing. “I have to go water a bush. Get everyone ready to head out as soon as breakfast is cleaned up,” he ordered. He turned the jewel on his ring and looked up into the morning sky. The night dove was harmlessly circling. He sighed in relief and walked out into the forest alone. The bird followed him, and as soon as he turned the jewel to another position, the bird came in for a landing, lightly perching on his arm. He reached up and hit the ‘off’ switch. He waited for the spinning sounds to completely wind down inside and began folding the bird up into a more compact shape. He noticed it had a patch in the side. “Hmm, looks like you ran into some trouble.” He then opened the message compartment and pulled out a small scroll.

Brendon,

As you can see, our little friend here ran into some trouble. One of the natives nearly shot it down. No problem. That particular hunter will be hunting in the happy hunting grounds for all eternity. Thankfully, it was not a major injury.

Rest assured.
She
will get your message. I doubt
She
will agree with your assassination plan, but time will tell. For now, continue on your mission. Be prepared for a major dragon strike once you get into the rougher country, and by all means keep Grognor safe, for now.

In
Her
name,

Daemon

Brendon seemed confused, and looked at the scroll again, back and front.“Shit,” he said, and looked around suspiciously. He then put the bird into his backpack and returned to camp.

“…there was this huge…I wasn’t sure at the time what it was, kind of like that thing I showed you, coming across the bay,” Bruno told an epic story as they all sat for breakfast, the leaders congregated at the same table. “I learned it was called Cetus. I’ve also heard it referred to as a Kraken. Well, all the people started freaking out, as you can imagine. Andromeda was tied to the rocks screaming for her life. Poor girl. I can’t imagine how frightened she was. But, I wasn’t too concerned, ‘cause I knew the creature’s weakness. I had battled it before and neither of us had been able to harm each other. So, I thought about it logically.” He pointed to his head. “All that stuff I went through the weeks prior had prepared me. That’s when I pulled out the head of Medusa and basically pointed it at the creature.” He smiled and took a mouth of food.

“Well? Then what?” Grognor was on the edge of his seat.

“It turned to stone. I saved Aethiopia, released and married Andromeda, and the gods were upset with me. Well, some of them anyway, especially Poseidon.”

Everyone at the table applauded.

“So, there really
are
gods, then?” Teelena asked.

“Teelena, don’t you remember? They stepped in and stopped the battle with the humans a few weeks ago,” Grognor said.

Everyone looked at Grongor like he had lost his mind.

“What? No, that was the dragons, Husband. There were no gods.” She nudged him.

Grognor had been sure there were gods at the battle…but, now he was beginning to doubt the fading memory. Had he dreamed it?

“Yes, in fact my best friend, well actually my father-in-law now, is Thor of Asgard,” Bruno boasted.

“Oh, come on, now! You’re just telling stories.” Victoria scoffed.

“I assure you, General. It’s all true. In fact, if you look at the ancient prophesy of the Dragon King, you’ll see that gods will be playing a big part.”

“You really are something, Bruno. These stories have been amazing, especially the one about the devil and the space craft on that Cassandra world.” Delvin laughed and took a bite of food.
[1]

“Yea, that was heart wrenching. I lost my one true love that day,” Bruno said, thoughtfully looking out at the morning mist.

Brendon came and sat down with a plate full of food. He didn’t say anything, just began eating, glancing at each person.

“Brendon, do you have any war stories you’d like to tell?” Bruno asked.

He simply smiled and shook his head ‘no’.

“Well, I imagine some of our stories would be a bit more…personal. Seeing as we were enemies once, eh?” Grognor slapped Brendon on the shoulder.

Brendon forced a smiled and continued eating.

“Still, there were some epic battles. The battle for Little Hill for instance,” Victoria said. “I’ve never seen dwarves run away from a battle before.” She smiled at Grognor.

“None of us had experienced black power weapons before that day. At least, not in that way,” Grognor conceded.

“I heard about that. Sounded like a one sided battle,” Teelena said.

“Hardly,” Victoria explained. “They ran like little girls the first time we shot off an exploding cannonball, but they quickly turned the tides on us. Well,
he
did.” She motioned to Grognor.

“Yea, that was amazing, if I do say so myself,” Grognor chuckled.

“Why, what happened?” Bruno asked.

Victoria told the tale, “We had a line of cannons shooting off right into their ranks, but this guy right here.” She tugged on Grognor’s whiskers, grinning. “He didn’t care. He ran right through them, dodging the bullets and cannon balls. But, the most incredible thing I had ever seen…he actually deflected one of the cannon balls with his hammer! It exploded, sending him flying. But, that didn’t stop him, either!” She pointed at Grognor, grinning.

Teelena listened intently as she watched her husband begin to blush with embarrassment.

Victoria continued, “He actually got up and waited for the next round. Well my husband, rest his soul, decided it was time to take out the dwarven menace once and for all. He fired the cannon right at Grognor.”

Teelena gasped.

“I caught it,” Grognor boasted, now fully embarrassed.

“No shit?” Bruno said, grinning.

“Yep, he actually caught the cannon ball. Of course, it knocked him back a ways, but he got back up and…now, you’re not going to believe this…” Victoria paused for dramatic effect, and then mimed throwing. “He threw the cannon ball
back
at us, the fuse still burning! We couldn’t believe it. The ball exploded right above the powder cache, and it was like nothing you’ve ever seen. We ran for our lives!”

Grognor nodded. “From that point on, Little Hill was called ‘Little Table’, because of the blast. It blew the whole top of the hill flat, and nearly killed me. It took several months for me to recover. I still have scars.”

Everyone was impressed and applauded. All but Brendon.

“You were at that battle too, Brendon. I remember you down at the other side right in the middle of the hand combat,” Victoria said.

He nodded and said, “Yea, I remember. Pretty amazing.” He continued to eat, not showing any emotion, but glancing into each person’s eyes in turn, as if looking for something.

At that point, Eugene came to the table and sat down. His eyes locked on Brendon’s with nothing but disdain. Brendon caught Eugene’s eyes, and he glanced at his professionally crafted bow and quiver full of perfectly straight arrows. He stopped eating and stared back at Eugene. The two of them continued to stare at each other until Eugene finally broke the tension.

“Well, there was this one time,” Eugene started, turning his gaze from Brendon, “when my family and I were out hunting. We were surprised by a green dragon. None of us had ever seen a dragon before, at least, not a chromatic. We panicked a bit until my wife said, ‘that could feed the whole village for a week!’ So, it was decided.” He stopped and began eating.

“Go on.” Grognor said.

“Oh, well so we brought it down and butchered it. Not bad, a bit gamey.” Eugene smiled.

Victoria looked at him with disappointment in her eyes. “Seriously? You’ve got to be the worst story teller…ever!”

Everyone laughed except Brendon, who kept his eyes on the hunter.

Eugene didn’t understand what was so funny.

Teelena calmed herself and said, “Ok, so, we want to know exactly how you brought it down.”

“Oh, we shot it down.”

Grognor palmed his face, laughing. Victoria rolled her eyes and shook her head. Bruno laughed out loud, as did most everyone else.

Brendon spoke up, “You shot down a dragon while in flight?”

Eugene turned to look at him. “That’s right. Like I’ve said before, all the Naw-nee people are expert marksmen. Shooting down a dragon in flight is relatively easy, if you know where to aim. In fact, I’ve personally brought down many a large bird while in flight. Birds are easy. Just aim for the head, so the breast meat is not spoiled by the shot.”

The table remained totally silent as the others watched the exchange.

“Well, that’s very impressive,” Brendon said, dryly. He excused himself from the table.

Everyone at the table watched as Brendon walked over to his division and continued to eat.

“He knows,” Eugene said.

Grognor glanced at Victoria and back to Eugene. He quickly shook his head ‘no’, but it was too late.

“Knows what?” Victoria asked as she continued to eat.

Everyone remained silent.

Victoria looked up at everyone, suddenly suspicious. “Knows…
what?
” she asked again.

Everyone else shared a glance of panic, not knowing what to do next. Eugene expressed his shame for having said anything. He cast his gaze down.

“Knows…
what?
” Victoria asked again, now highly suspicions. She put down her fork and glared at everyone. “What’s going on? Why’s Brendon acting so strange? Knows
what?
”

Grognor knew there was no way to explain this one away. He sighed in frustration and produced the scroll. As he held it in his hand, he urged, “Now Victoria, there’s something going on here, and we need to know you won’t over react.”

She stared at the Emperor, coldly. “What the hell are you talking about?”

The tension at the table rose quickly as everyone watched the exchange.

Grognor handed the scroll to Victoria. “Eugene shot down a stealth night dove mechanical bird last night, one that Brendon had released. This is what was in its message compartment. We repaired it and sent back a response so he would think it got through, but,” he paused and looked around at the faces, “we must have gotten it wrong, ‘cause he obviously knows he’s been discovered.”

Victoria read the note. As she did, her fair skinned face began to grow red. She very calmly rolled the scroll back up, handed it to Grognor, and got up from the table. She didn’t say a word.

“Oh, shit,” Bruno said.

“Victoria, don’t!” Grognor said.

Victoria ignored him and unsheathed her sword. She very calmly walked toward Brendon.

“Oh, shit!” Bruno said again as he jumped up from the table with everyone else. They ran toward Victoria.

Grognor yelled at her, “General Victoria! I command you to stand down immediately!”

Victoria stopped in her tracks, the sword still in her hand. Brendon saw her and heard Grognor yell. He knew the jig was up. He dropped his plate and unsheathed his own sword. All of his division also stood up, weapons in hand.

“Ah, hell!” Bruno said.

The entire encampment stopped what they were doing to watch the unknown drama unfold.

“You low-down, worthless piece of shit. You
will
face me!” Victoria yelled at Brendon.

Grognor yelled as he quickly moved to her, “General Victoria! I said
stand down!
”

Victoria glanced back at Grognor, and reluctantly sheathed her sword and stepped back. Her fury was peaking. “I stand down, but only because the Emperor has ordered it so…you son-of-a whore Brendon!”

All of Brendon’s division walked with him as he moved toward Victoria.
              Victoria’s division was immediately on alert, and stood with their weapons ready, not knowing what the issue was.

Teelena looked up at Bruno. “Can’t we stop this?”

“No, I don’t think so. The cat’s outta the bag, now.”

Teelena looked up at him in confusion, not recognizing the phrase. “Well, it’s just as well. I’d rather see him dead, anyway.”

Grognor walked in front of Victoria as she glared at Brendon. “We’ll deal with it, just step back.”

Brendon jumped and slashed at Grognor, hitting him square in his back. Grognor went down in a heap.

Victoria screamed and unsheathed her sword just as Brendon spun around for another attack. The swords met in mid-air with a loud ‘clang’, and remained as the two warriors faced each other.

“Traitor! You’ll taste my blade for this!” Victoria screamed.

Teelena screamed and grabbed her hammer, running at the two in engaged in battle.

All at once, twenty of Brendon’s division roared forward, ready to battle.