Techromancy Scrolls: Adept (30 page)

The Lord of Flatlash joined us around the little campfire we had set up in a little dip by a large stone, obscuring our location as much as we could. The Monolith rose behind us, blackening the sky like a looming specter.

Beth and Bowyn saw to his injured leg, resplinting the break, as he relayed his story. He was approached by the representatives of Far Reach, just before we had been, and traveled with fifteen knights and five archers, to begin talks about a new defense pact. “I am now happy that I convinced Camille to stay behind since matters of state bore her. What those... men... those rogues, did to our Lady Knights after killing the men is unconscionable.”

The man was seething in anger. “We arrived at Far Reach to find it overrun. Held by the rogue leader, Raneth. We retreated and ten Knights and our archers stayed on the bridge to cover our retreat.”

His eyes looked haunted. “As we crested the hills above the lake, we looked down to watch our men overwhelmed by more magic users than I have seen in one group. They killed the men and... did worse... to the women.”

He gritted his teeth. “As we continued our retreat, we were relieved to see an entire regiment coming down from Treth. I was elated we would get our revenge, until they attacked. It was a ruse. They had trapped us between Far Reach and Treth, which is now held by Poe's forces.”

He closed his eyes. “The last of my men held them off valiantly so I could escape. It felt like most of them were magic users so I cast an illusion of me riding to the east to escape while I rode west, to the Monolith.”

He locked eyes with Fredrick while I digested the fact that he had used magic. He said with a humorless chuckle, “Now I am glad you convince me and the rest of the keeps to hide the fact that the Dukes of the realms are Techromancers.”

Then I blanched at his implication as to what the enemy did to the women, and a new pang of pain hit my heart at the thought of Celeste and Verna facing them.

He murmured something that chilled me to the bone, “The combination of magics they were throwing... I think Raneth and Poe are Adepts.” Beth and Bex inhaled sharply.

The Duke of Flatlash shook it off, and finished with, “I rode hard into the night, like an idiot. My horse tripped up just over that rise and broke both of our legs. I had to put the poor beast out of its misery. I've almost thirty pounds of smoked horse jerky for your rations. I was going to lay low for a few days before trekking through the lowlands toward Flatlash.”

Then he looked around at us. “It looks as though you fared little better.” Then he looked at me and shooed Beth and Bowyn away to me. “Good lord people, take care of your squire. My leg is still going to be broken tomorrow. She needs all those burns looked at.” His eyes started dripping silver sparks then he smiled. “Ah, a Techno Knight ascendant.” Then he gave an apologetic look to me. “With virtually no magic potential.” I blushed.

As Bowyn and Beth cleaned a burn on the side of my face I didn't even realize I had, I was surprised when Duke Fredrick said, “None of us would be here if it weren't for that squire. When our Techno Knights fell at the bridge, she stood alone in front of the horde to protect them. She didn't hesitate, it was like she had no fear.”

I don't know what he was talking about, I had been scared shitless. Bowyn winked at me as he said, “Our Laney doesn't know how to run.”

Then Fredrick said with what sounded like pride to me, “She took a lightning strike from Raneth, then destroyed the bridge of Far Reach to slow the enemy. The rest of our men stayed behind to give us time to escape.”

Duke John looked shocked then looked a little closer at me, then said over his shoulder, “My condolences on the loss of your men.”

Fredrick gave him a dangerous toothy smile as he shook his head and responded, “Lady Celeste leads them.”

John's eyes flew wide and he almost whispered, “Celeste? The squire from the battle of York Keep?” My Lord nodded smugly and John whistled. “Then perhaps I should send my condolences to Raneth.” Damn it! I wish someone would tell me the truth about that battle!

He chuckled and shook his head as he looked at me. “Wexbury indeed produces some formidable squires. Even tiny ones.” I blushed, then winced as Beth placed a large bandage on the side of my head.

John tugged on one end of his mustache and nodded toward the signal fires heading north. “Well, they know we are here now. We should move to the shelter I found on the rise there. It is defensible, and they won't be expecting three and a half Techromancers.”

I uttered a “Hey!” And the big man laughed heartily in mirth and I couldn't help but grin. Why did everyone pick on my size? I almost screamed when Bowyn poured water over my right hand to clean the burns.

John said, “We have twelve hours or so to fortify or run. Unless Poe was already on the move and at your backs.” I thought of the signal fires earlier in the day, I could see the rest of our group thinking the same thing.

After my hand, arm, leg, and face were bandaged, we broke up camp and followed Lord John up the rise to an earthen mound. Near the stinking carcass of a horse, a crevice was worn into the soil by water runoff and there seemed to be a tunnel beyond. We gave the horses long tethers so they could graze and then slipped through the crevice and into an almost perfectly rounded corridor. It looked metallic and tasted of iron, but it wasn't rusted, it had some sort of coating that tasted like zinc to me on it. That was interesting.

Beth cleared her throat. “Would you all care to wait for those of us who can't see in the dark?” I looked around and the lords and lady had blazing sparks trailing from their eyes. Lucia couldn't suppress the chuckle the rest of us valiantly held back as we watched the musclebound knight looking around sightlessly.

A moment later, we all covered our eyes when a brilliant light burst out from Bex's hand. He held a little box with an incandescent bulb in it with a mirror behind it. Thin wires ran from it into one of his belt pouches. He grinned cheekily and said, “I call it a portable electric torch. Or PET.”

Brenda slapped the back of his head even though she looked impressed with her beau and grabbed it. “Give me that.” He kept at her side as she joined us at the front. Well, he had to as the wires weren't that long, and she wasn't waiting for him.

Duke John nodded appreciatively at the gadget. It started dimming and Bex grabbed a little handle sticking out of the pouch and cranked it a few times. The light flared back up. I would have been intrigued, if that is, we weren't being hunted at the time.

There were the embers of a little fire with a bedroll and some supplies in the center of the space, which was about twenty feet across. At the end of the tunnel, there was a heavy metal door inset in one of those artificial stone walls. I chanced asking, “What is behind the door?”

He shrugged and said, “I cannot get it open, I was able to reverse the rust and oxidation, but it is locked from the inside somehow.”

Fredrick said, “Laney.”

I stepped up to the door and Duke John stated in a tone not meant to insult, “If I couldn't open it, what can a girl with only a spark of power do?”

I brushed the door to uncover badly faded letters. I read aloud, “Powerplant three.” I looked back at Lord John, then raised my hand. Various unsecured weapons from my group and some of the metal items and tools from Lord John's supplies flew to me and started orbiting in a deadly halo. Everyone stood back. Then I reached out with my power. I could feel the locks, they were more complex than a simple sliding bolt, no wonder the Duke had trouble. I forced the mechanism to turn, breaking a half dozen tiny pins in it, then I tugged at the bolt and it slid away with a clank. Then I released my power and the metal objects rained to the ground around me. Everyone retrieved their weapons.

John whispered, “Telekinesis?” Then looked at Frederick accusingly. “How?”

My Lord just grinned and said with a shrug, “We're Wexbury.” Then added with a smile, “And Laney holds the least of our magic potential as you have said.” I bit the inside of my cheek so I wouldn't smile. Fredrick was misleading him on purpose. But I understood he didn't with anyone to know I was an Adept.

Bowyn stepped up to the door and tried pulling it, it started to budge. Beth grabbed on too and they pulled hard, with a groan of protesting metal the door suddenly pulled open and there was a woosh as air was sucked through the crevice and through the tunnel and through the door.

John said, “It was hermetically sealed. Whatever is inside might be preserved.” Bowyn grabbed the PET, and the Knights went first, dragging Bex along by the wires of the pack. Then the Dukes and Duchess went in, followed by the rest of us. The air tasted stale. I could see clearly without the light.

It was like a surreal time capsule. The room was huge, and when I say huge, I mean cavernously huge. I realized the rise we climbed was actually just eons of dirt covering the structure. It looked like it had just been constructed. Everything had only a fine layer of dust on it, which probably settled eons ago before the door was sealed with corrosion.

There was a yellow railing that we all stood by to look down upon what looked like six mammoth electric motors embedded in the floor. Each was ten or twenty times the size of my old cottage. “Oh my lord.” Someone whispered I'm not sure who, maybe it was me. I was in awe.

Bex said, “Look at this.” We all turned and there were huge diagrams on the walls. They were scrolls as big as tapestries. It had a picture above the diagrams that had a structure that looked eerily similar to the monolith. I read the huge lettering, “Grand cow... coo... no... Coulee Hydroelectric Dam” The monolith was simply a dam for irrigation!? What did hydroelectric mean?

Bex was shaking his head with excitement. “No, here.” He stabbed his finger at one of the diagrams that was labeled 'Powerplant #3'. We all looked at it. And then down to those enormous motors. Then back at the diagram. It was almost comical, we were like a group of lemmings.

I whispered, “No way.” As I pointed at the pictures that were painted so precisely. They must have had amazing artisans paint them. It showed tubes filled with water. I didn't understand most of the labels, but they went down through the dam to one of those motors, they had labeled 'Turbine'. The water turned the motors? Then they were not motors they were generators!

I didn't understand the text above the turbine, but Bex whistled and said, “My god. Eight hundred and five megawatts each? Just one could power all the keeps in the Lands of Sparo with the capacity to spare!”

I blinked at that as the Dukes studied the diagrams, nodding in appreciation. Then I had a sudden thought and again felt so very tiny. I had laughed with everyone else at the Techromancer that suggested that the Wizards of the Before Times had used rivers to create power. I murmured, “He was right.”

Fredrick knew what I was saying and said, “Indeed. I think Wexbury owes the man an apology.” I nodded absently, looking at this diagram it was obvious. It was exactly like the windmills, only it used water to turn the generator instead. They just isolated the water from the electricity generated. Common theory was that water and electricity don't mix. I was already envisioning a dam on the Hawktail, lighting up our whole realm with free power. I almost laughed.

Bowyn snapped us all out of it. “We need to see if there is anything here we can use to defend with. We can leave this to the scholars if we survive.” We all agreed and we split up after making torches for those who needed them. Beth stood guard at the door as we all explored the cavernous space.

There were plenty of tools to use like clubs, but we had swords. I went into a couple rooms and chuckled. I actually knew what they were. Indoor outhouses like Celeste had in our quarters, complete with sleek looking auto-pots. I looked at the signs on the metal doors. 'Men' and 'Women.' Nothing in there to use as a weapon.

I wound up walking to one of the generators out of pure curiosity. It simply dwarfed me. I reached out with my power. I could feel the shaft bound by something. Then I realized it was the lubrication for the bearings that had decayed. It must have been organic based, like the grease we used. Even if we got it turning, something this size, the weight of it and metal on metal would weld the bearings to the shaft in just a few minutes without lubrication.

I gave one last mental push as hard as I could, and there were a screeching sound and the shaft actually turned half way. I felt enormous amounts of static in the air and it subsided just as quickly as it came when the generator stopped turning.

Lord John was by my side quickly. I blushed in embarrassment and said, “Sorry. I was curious... it still works. Did you feel the power buildup just from that minuscule amount of rotation?”

He shook his head slowly at me. “You could feel it? Electricity, and metal manipulation? I have only ever heard of one other with an amber energy signature.” I didn't know what to say, it almost sounded like an accusation.

Lucia actually came to my rescue. “No our Laney is only electric sensitive.”

Duke John narrowed his eyes. “But the whirlwind of metal around her, and manipulating the locks on the door. I just command the water elements, but I could probably push the generator shaft with raw energy if I concentrated hard, but she has but a tiny spark of power.”