The Map Maker's Quest (16 page)

“The cannons are still firing,” Puck said trying to find good in the situation.

“Direct the crews to drop the shells on the first lines,” Tasker said to another messengers. “Maybe we can make them a little less eager to attack. And give time for our surprises to be launched.”

“If Jane and the others are still alive,” Puck muttered.

“They're alive!” Tasker shouted back at him. He refused to believe anything but success would come from the mission.

“How long until the giant gets here?” Puck asked curiously.

“I don't know,” Tasker replied in a normal voice. “He was too big for the mushroom circles or to use a map so he had to walk. We don't even know if he'll make it.” A roar of cannons, and this time the shells landed much closer. Once again a thick smoke began to spread across the battlefield. “That'll make them keep their heads down.”

Despite the hopeful prediction, the next Adherent attack came soon after. Once again the battle raged across the hillside. Puck and Tasker brought the rest of their reserves down to the center, as it was buckling. After another hour of fighting, the Adherents pulled back to the bottom of the hill and silence once again descended.

 

* * * * *

 

Jane and Flying Cloud rounded
the corner in the dungeon and skidded to a halt. Spread out in three directions before them were great hallways. The center one was filled with cold iron cages. Each one was locked shut. Dozens of figures looked up at them hopefully. As they entered a stunned silence descended across the main hall. Then the voice came from all about, pleading for help.

“Help us.”

“Save us!”

“Please!”

Jane walked to where another barred gate blocked them from entering and started trying keys.

“Here,” Jacob said. He motioned her to stand aside and two swings later the lock fell to the ground. They all entered the long chamber.

Jane walked to the first cage and looked inside to where the first voice had spoken to them. Nearly twenty men and women had been crammed into the area. They looked worn and tired. A young girl about twelve years old walked to the edge of the cage and looked up at her.

“Help us,” she said. “Please.”

“We will,” Jane said. She handed the keys to Jackie and then stepped back and called for silence as the volume began to grow. “Please, let me speak.” Slowly the silence returned as every one of the prisoners waited to see what she would say.

“Each and every one of you has a reason to hate Cain and his Temple,” she said loudly. Her voice carried well in the stone room and the silence was complete except for the sound of Flying Cloud searching for the right key. “We're not here alone. Thousands of fighters are dug into the hillside outside the city. They're fighting a desperate battle and are horribly outnumbered.”

There was a scattering of angry shouts as the prisoners started to emerge from the cages and gather around them.

“I was sent here to gather what help I could,” Jane continued.

“But they have those horrible guns,” someone shouted.

“We'll find what weapons we can,” Jane replied. Each time she spoke, the supporting shouts grew in volume.

“We're not trained to fight,” someone started to say but he was booed down.

From the back of the chamber an elderly elf emerged from the group and walked slowly to where she was standing.

“Lead us onward, girl,” he said quietly.

The rest of the prisoners seemed to respect the old elf immensely. Immediately all protests ceased.

“Who are you?” Jane asked curiously.

“I'm called Old One by those here,” the elf replied. “I think it is a good name.”

“Thank you for agreeing to help, Old One,” Jane said.

“What do you want us to do,” Old One asked.

“Finish freeing everyone here and start searching for weapons,” Jane said immediately. “We must be swift. The force arrayed against Tasker and the others is powerful.”

Someone took the keys from Flying Cloud and soon all of the cages in the middle hall were open. Jacob walked back to the passage on the right and, using his sword, began opening the dozens of individual rooms that filled the passage. The prisoners in these rooms were in worse shape than those in the center hall. Many had to be helped to their feet. Still Jacob went down the row until he had freed every one.

“We found another room of weapons,” Flying Cloud said. She waved to Jacob as they emerged from the dungeon wing. “It was mostly filled with muskets but they all work.”

“Good, arm everyone we can and show them how to work the loading mechanisms on the repeaters and muskets,” Jacob said. He looked over and started towards the last wing of the dungeon. Already a steady stream of former prisoners was starting to emerge.”

“Jane and Jackie are upstairs,” Flying Cloud said to him. “Carvin is up there also, helping to sort out who can fight and who needs to flee from the city.”

Jacob went back up the steps and joined the growing crowd in the main entrance. The freed prisoners were ransacking the upstairs of the prison building, and Jacob decided the group was a motley crowd. At least two dozen elves were present and waiting silently with grim faces. A couple of dozen fairies flitted around the room chatting excitedly to anyone who would listen while Bella tried to get them to slow down and listen to her. Humans and dwarves and a large numbers of goblins were present, as well as a few races Jacob was not sure about waiting for Jane to give the order.

“Look, as soon as we open the door, we're vulnerable,” Jane called. “Those who are fighting will follow us to the western wall, the rest of you make for the tunnel and find a place in the forest to hide.”

“Are we ready?” Jackie asked finally. The sun was beginning to dip in the sky. In a few hours they would run out of light.

“Let's move,” Carvin said. “If anyone gets left behind now, it's their own fault.”

Jane agreed, and they all headed towards the main entrance. Carvin and Jacob threw the locking bar off the door and pushed the doors open. The palace grounds were still empty, and Jane motioned everyone to move.

“Go,” Jane shouted. “Carvin and Jackie will lead you to the western wall.”

“Where are you going?” Carvin asked. He grabbed Jackie's hand, and they took a step towards where the small force of freed prisoners was throwing open the main gate.

“To deal with a certain leader of the Temple,” Jane said, determined.

“We should go with you,” Jackie replied. She was torn between wanting to go help Tasker and making sure her sister remained safe.

“No,” Jane insisted. “These people need a leader and Carvin is it. You go and support Tasker, take out the cannons on the wall and fire on the Adherents. Jacob, Flying Cloud, Bella, and I will deal with Cain. We will end this here and now.”

 

Chapter Sixteen

Cain's Downfall

C
arvin and Jackie started to argue, but Jane's face was set in stone, and so they stopped and hurried to where the others were gathered. The gate of the castle was closed and a single frightened Adherent was being held by a few grim-looking men.

“What do we do with him? He gave up the instant he saw us coming.”

“Kill him,” someone shouted from the back of the group and Carvin held up his hands, calling for calm.

Carvin looked over at the man and scowled. “Tie him up and lock him in a closet. I won't start the whole-sale slaughter of those who surrender.” There was an angry round of muttering from those gathered. “We're better than they are!” Carvin shouted. “Those who try to fight us, I leave you to do what you will. Those who surrender or offer to join us, will be welcomed to our ranks. I don't think Cain's grip on this city is as strong as he thinks it is. The thought of breaking free from his grip will bring many to our side.”

Jackie's heart was bursting with pride as she watched Carvin take control of the mob and begin molding them into a force. Not only that, but he refused to let vengeance and anger rule him even in the face of the horrible events of the last few weeks.

“There is a small cache of weapons in here,” a voice called out.

Carvin hurried over to the thick-walled gate house and entered the dim interior. The single guard was tied securely and lay back in the corner of the room with wide frightened eyes. A small room off the gate house was only about five feet square, but it held four racks, each with ten weapons.

“Pass them out, and let's keep moving,” Carvin ordered. He already carried one of the repeaters, so he grabbed another one and handed it to Jackie. The rest of the weapons were quickly passed to those waiting outside and then the gatehouse was left behind. The city was unusually quiet. Carvin saw very few people through the first ten blocks. Those people they spotted took one look at the angry mob and fled as fast as they could run. Doors were slammed, and frightened faces glanced out of windows as they passed by.

“Patrol,” Carvin muttered. He motioned those behind him to wait, but the sheer amount of noise they were making was nearly impossible to hide. Instead Carvin and Jackie stepped around the corner of the building and leveled their weapons. The five Adherents skidded to a halt about fifteen steps away, “Yield!”

The men of the patrol stared at him incredulously, “We outnumber you five to two. Yield or die.” The leader of the patrol shouted back, suddenly his voice trailed off as the rest of Carvin's force flooded around the corner. Within a minute the patrol was surrounded on three sides by almost three hundred grim faces.

Slowly the five laid their weapons on the ground. A few minutes later they were securely tied up and tossed into an alley. The sounds of the fighting outside the city grew louder, and as Carvin rounded the last corner he came into view of the outer wall. It was a massively thick creation of stone and cold iron but it still had a refined look to the finish. Mounted atop the wall, he could see five cannons around the outer gate. As he started down the street, the cannons roared, and the crews working them started reloading.

“Should we try and sneak up on them?” Jackie asked. She was jogging beside him, and they were still about a hundred yards from the emplacements.

“We keep moving,” Carvin replied. “Just run for all your worth. Hopefully, we're on top of them before they realize what's happening.” He went from a jog to a run. About fifty yards from the wall, he started sprinting as fast as he could. Behind him the rebel force broke into a sprint and shouted a tremendous battle cry that shook the street. The men working the cannons never turned. Later Carvin would understand why. Those operating the cannon had bits of cotton or wax covering their ears and could not hear a single thing. The few men directing the firing did so with hand signals. The cannon positions were overrun immediately.

“Send groups in both directions along the wall,” Carvin ordered. He sent fifty fighters in each direction with orders to overrun the walls and create positions to defend them. Then he turned to the outer wall and stared in horror. The Adherents were pushing hard on the second line of defenses and had nearly broken the rebels holding them. As he watched, the short forms of Tasker and Puck charged down the hillside leading about four hundred more soldiers. Once more the Adherent army was thrown back to the bottom of the hill.

“Drop the cannon aim until it is in line with the bottom of the hill,” Carvin ordered. This was something he had trained for extensively while on the Isle of Lakes, and he quickly did the calculations in his mind. “Lower the barrel four inches,” Carvin ordered. He showed the fighters around him how to move the elevation. Carvin grabbed a couple of bits of cloth from a nearby piece of material and handed them to Jackie.

“You're going to want this,” Carvin said to her. He jammed two more pieces in his own ears and motioned to the rest of the prisoners. “Eight men per cannon. The rest of you spread out along the wall and shoot anything that moves.”

The former prisoners smiled broadly and immediately spread out along the walls. The Adherents had placed their reserves within firing distance of the walls. Almost immediately the force on top of the walls start shooting, and the chaos was a grand thing to watch. Carvin would find out later that relatively few Adherents were knocked unconscious or killed by his force, but the chaos they caused was worth more than anything else.

“Powder goes in first,” Carvin said. He grabbed a bag of powder from the nearby magazine and slid it home in the cannon. After it was securely tapped into place he motioned to another man to help him load the cannon ball. They carefully got it into the barrel. After a few more adjustments Carvin placed the primer and fuse into the back of the cannon and motioned his men clear. A torch waited nearby, and he grabbed it and held it to the fuse. A moment later the cannon roared, and they all watched with bated breath. The cannon ball whistled through the air and slammed home into the Adherents packed along the bottom of the hillside.

“Perfect shot,” Jackie said. Still she felt horrible as she watched the massive explosion of dirt and stone that sent Adherents flying and rolling in all directions. The next hour was filled with chaos and confusion for the Adherent forces. They were caught in the open ground between the smaller force holding the walls and the larger force attacking downhill.

Carvin watched as Tasker took full advantage of the confusion and pushed his forces down the hill until they had regained the defensive line at the base of the hill. From there the Adherent army was caught in the open and took horrible losses as they fled north.

“We're going to lose them,” Jackie said. The Adherents were out of range to the north, and she guessed they had lost two-thirds of their numbers. Still, these were well-disciplined soldiers, and they stopped running the moment they were out of range and began to dig into their own defensive positions.

“No, we're not,” Carvin said suddenly. A great smile covered his face as he pointed to the south, “Look who's coming to join the fight.”

A flash of red and a shadow on the ground and suddenly the great scaled body of Yardarva flashed by the walls. The dragon circled the Adherents once, blasting great gouts of fire against their flanks. Still the Adherents tried to rally and volley after volley of energy shots rose into the air and forced the mighty dragon to pull back to where Tasker and his force watched.

Then the ground began to shake, and the last member of their force walked slowly into view. Jackie cheered wildly and grabbed Carvin. Together they spun in a circle and danced when the stone giant walked by their position on the wall. This last addition to the battle was simply too much for the Adherents. An audible groan rose up from their positions, and immediately the flanks of the army began to flee. At first, in small groups and in random directions, they ran northwards as fast as they could. Many of them threw down their muskets and repeaters as they ran. Entire groups tore their black robes off and threw themselves on the ground as they surrendered.

“We did it,” Jackie said. She stood next to Carvin holding his hand and watching as the rebel force flooded off the hill and began taking the prisoners into custody.

“Yes, we did,” Carvin replied. He put his arm around her and sighed, for the first time in many years he was truly happy. He didn't know how long the moment would last so he closed his eyes and savored it. Then a moment later the peace was gone, and thoughts of Jane and Jacob rushed back to him.

“Let's get back to the castle and find Jane,” Jackie insisted. Suddenly a huge explosion of power seemed about to pull asunder the Divide itself. A great wall of darkness rose into the air and flickered for a moment. Then it slowly receded, and the world grew calm again.

“I'm sure she's fine,” Carvin said quietly to Jackie. He put his arm around her again. Together they walked from the city walls. With a popping sound, Tasker and Puck appeared atop the walls and joined them.

“Where's Jane?” Tasker asked.

“She and the others went after Cain,” Jackie said.

“The fools,” Tasker blustered. “They should have waited for me.”

“What happened just now?” Jackie asked.

“I don't know, but it felt like someone tried to destroy the Divide and failed,” Tasker said.

The four of them hurried back towards the castle not knowing what they would find, but each harboring fears of what had happened.

 

* * * * *

 

Jane and Jacob led Flying
Cloud and Bella towards the castle. Jane glanced back and watched for a moment as Jackie and the others cleared the gate, but then she turned back to the task at hand. Cain was likely inside the castle somewhere, and she wanted to stop him at all cost. The front gates of the castle were unguarded. That fact made her a little nervous. The castle itself was built of almost white colored granite, and the walls were polished until they gleamed.

“See anything?” Jacob whispered. He was standing directly behind Jane next to the main gate of the castle, and all was silent. Bella was crouched on his shoulder, and she tapped his ear.

“Put me down,” Bella said. “I can go scout much easier then you can.”

Jacob let her down carefully on the ground, “Be careful, Bella.”

“I will,” Bella responded. She waved her hand at them and then slipped through the crack in the door and was gone.

They waited for ten minutes according to Jacob's watch. Just when he was about to kick the door open and run in screaming a battle cry, Bella returned.

“What did you see?” Jane asked.

“Cain is in the throne room,” Bella said breathlessly. “He has four guards with him, all armed with those repeating guns. Cain has some sort of great machine set up in the middle of the throne room, and he's talking to himself and working on it.”

“Odd,” Jane muttered. “His army is locked in a battle just outside his own city and he ignores what's happening.”

“Maybe, he's truly gone insane,” Flying Cloud said. She crouched alongside the door across from them and shrugged.

“I don't know if he was ever sane to begin with,” Jane said. “Well, let's go inside and see what we find.”

She nudged the door open slowly and stepped into the front entrance of the castle. The grand entry was filled with banners hanging from the walls sporting the Adherent symbol. A few torches added a bit of light to what entered the room naturally, and Jane looked both directions. The halls were empty. The only thing she could see was the occasional movement of the banners in the wind.

“Over there,” Bella whispered. She pointed to a grand set of doors slightly ajar across the great hall from them. “They are all inside.”

They crossed the entrance room as quietly as a quartet of mice, and Jacob glanced through the doors to the throne room. Stationed along the wall near them were four Adherents in black robes but they were all facing into the room. None of them saw him and so he stepped back and adjusted his view. In the middle of the throne room was a massive machine that kind of reminded him of the device that had opened the gate through the Divide.

On the floor all around the room were hundreds if not thousands of books. Many with pages ripped out and scattered across the polished tiles.

“The guards are clustered off to the left of the door,” Jacob whispered. He motioned for Jane and Flying Cloud to use their repeaters. “Might as well stun them.”

Jane and Flying Cloud checked the settings on their weapons and then slowly pushed the door open until they had a clear view of the guards. One of them men turned and looked at the door just as the two girls stepped into the opening and pulled the triggers. Jane let four blasts leave her gun before she let off on the trigger. Flying Cloud held hers down for a moment later, and soon all four men lay on the floor twitching.

“Give it up, Cain,” Jane shouted. She ducked as a smaller blast of energy flew by them and splattered against the wall. “You're done. Your army is finished and you can't hope to stay in power.”

“Bah, girl,” Cain retorted. He was standing next to a control panel making connections with one hand while the other hand held a pistol aimed at the door. “What do you know of power.I've seen things you can't comprehend. I'm doing things that will shape the future of both our worlds for a millennium into the future. You have not defeated me. My dynasty will last a thousand years.”

Jane stared at Cain in amazement. Bits of spittle flew from his mouth as he screamed and shouted. She ducked as he triggered the pistol again, but the energy ball was weak, and she knew the charge in his gun was failing.

“Charge him, Jacob,” Jane urged. “Use your shield, his gun's almost dead.”