Betrayal at Goliath Gate, page 34
part #2 of Arcane Renaissance Series
Mia could feel the goliath's stress rising. It wouldn't be long before the crimson veil powder would take over and turn her into a raging monster. An enemy like this would know just how to bait her in and cut her apart.
De Voulon cut in on their dance however with a well timed slash from her goliath's massive glaive, followed closely by a second. The blows forced Marian's adversary, another of the enemy Furies, to pause. Somehow, a strike in motion that had been meant for Marian's shield was redirected into a slash that perfectly cleaved both hands from De Voulon's goliath.
Mia could only watch in horror as the Fury then spun with incredible speed and grace, cutting his red painted enemy straight through the center. The Fenasian girl's goliath went dark and fell.
“No!” Mia yelled, her mind devising the perfect counter now that Marian had a bit of breathing room.
It began by whipping the remnants of her shield at the Fury, a tactic not meant to damage, only to confuse as she set up. It was frustrating that she hadn't a rapier or estoc. Even given the buckler her enemy carried in his left hand, Mia could have easily have outclassed his curved blade with a longer piercer.
That didn't mean it was impossible of course. Nothing was impossible.
Her enemy did just as she'd supposed. He used the buckler to smash the chunk of shield aside as he closed in to where he had the greatest advantage. She knew he would expect her to retreat, to try to maintain distance in order to use her arming sword as a piercing weapon like it was intended. However she too closed.
The enemy raced forward, his first slash already coming, aimed at her left shoulder for now, likely to be redirected at her head, which was where her sword went. She set her sword up entirely for defense. The blow was deflected effortlessly and Marian passing his guard without the slightest difficulty.
Mia saw through Marian's red veil eyes the moment he realized her plan. The fury's head jerked back in recognition and his left arm attempted to jam the buckler into the Valkyrie's face but it was already too late.
Marian had stepped into his instep while slightly below her enemy on the hill. This was a fact that would ordinarily have meant a terrible disadvantage in weapon combat. However when executing a throw, it was a great help. It also didn't hurt that the Fury, as a smaller medium chassis, weighed far less than Marian in her new heavy body.
In the matter of two seconds, the black checkered enemy goliath was lifted from its feet and thrown over Marian's right shoulder. It smashed to the ground on the hillside below.
“What the hell was that?” Claus asked.
“That... was payback,” Mia replied.
Marian agreed.
The fall had shattered the enemy goliath down the center, ripping steel plates and bending them like tin. A heavy might have survived the impact better but the Furies weren't built for resilience. It would not be getting up.
Most importantly, it bore the insignia and banners of a unit commander. This one had been their leader.
At Mia's beckoning Marian looked up. The enemy goliaths, despite having cut the Ganex down by half, were fleeing over the hill.
“They've broken,” Mia said. “The mercenaries are on the run.”
“Yes!” Claus replied.
Mia noticed a rustling feeling below her waist.
“Claus!” she snapped.
“What?” he asked. He truly sounded surprised.
Mia frowned. Harald?
“You need to run Mia!” Harald said, “Now!”
Chapter 25
“Glory is a word used by cowards to entice fools to die for nothing. We don't work for glory, we work for gold.”
-Yosef Hookhardt, founder of the Black Hammer mercenary company
Thira watched from above. Her claws scraped along the slate roof slats, catching just enough edge to remain where she was as long as she was completely motionless. She'd chosen the roof line along the left wall of the palace because the main gate faced to the south. That meant the sun would be directly behind and above her. This would make it impossible for the humans below to distinguish her from the other shadows along the top of the wall.
Unfortunately she could see storm clouds moving quickly in from the horizon. They threatened rain and perhaps lightning as well. She wouldn't want to be on the roof when they arrived.
Below in the great square courtyard that served as the marshaling area for the defense of the main palace gate, a gate so large and wide, it was commonly known as Goliath Gate, a formation of the king's palace guards stood at attention. Muskets were held at the ready as shining helmets reflected the waning glint of the sun from the rapidly darkening blue sky above.
Despite the strength of their formation and training, the guards shuffled nervously from one foot to the other. It was evidence that they too could hear the angry yells and chants of the crowd gathered outside the great gates. It was a crowd so large that it continued down the main palace avenue for as far as Thira's eyes could see.
Currently the portcullis with its grid-like iron bars was down, barring entry to the rowdy throngs. Thira thought it prudent. Let them chant and make their speeches to each other until they got hungry and tired and went home. The presence of the guards was not helping however. They emboldened the marchers, giving them a target for hurled insults and small rocks. It was like putting a pair of dogs who don't get along well in cages right next to each other. The situation was clearly a deliberate choice.
Though her eyesight in the day wasn't any more keen than the average human's, Thira was able to spot the two men and two young women dressed as maids, one of whom was extremely small, walking together as they took the long route around the far side of the courtyard. They moved deliberately toward where the goliath that operated the colossal main gates stood. Beside it was the eighty ton slab of steel that served to bar the gate in the event of an actual attack.
Thira watched as Robert and Wilhelm, dressed as guards, approached the cart of veil powder cubes that had been set aside for the gate goliath's afternoon feeding. Next to it was an even more volatile stockpile of barrels full of loose veil powder. The powder wasn't the target however. Robert was to wheel the cart back toward the other side of the courtyard.
Any minute now.
Though he spent a few minutes staring in the direction of the back side of one of the female guards, eventually, the younger, man split off and wandered to the cart. The figure then began wheeling the feed cubes across the courtyard's packed dirt and gravel. The stable attendant with his soiled tan uniform was too busy chatting with one of the other guards to notice the goliath's lunch was being taken away.
The goliath noticed however.
Thira watched the stone monster's head turn as two glowing blue eyes focused directly on the retreating cube cart. The single stomp that followed, from a foot the size of a four horse carriage, startled all the guards in the courtyard.
All heads turned toward the fretting goliath who was pointing an accusing finger at the lunch cart which was now halfway across the courtyard. All eyes then turned back to the cart but the man who'd moved it had already blended into the crowd.
In all the commotion no one noticed as the other man, larger and slower moving, with a conspicuous scar and eye patch, slipped along with the two girls through the metal door to the left of the gate. Thira had been told that entrance led to the forward gatehouse and its associated rooms.
So thick and high were the palace's goliath built walls that many exorbitant rooms could be accommodated within with negligible impact to the structural integrity. The king had explained this to her once, a long while ago, when she'd asked why they had a dining hall in the fore wall. 'To save time feeding returning men, that's why. And because there's so much damned space,' he'd replied.
The goliath stomped once more, with greater fury at his moved lunch. Thira used the momentary distraction to execute her part of the plan. She clambered along the roof edge until she came to the window on the wall that the king had pointed out to her earlier.
Once she made the climb down, not easy even with her claws, she found that there were actually several such windows arrayed together. They looked quite different up close than they had from afar. Thira found she was unsure as to which to choose.
Unfortunately, there was little time for fooling about. Now that she was moving, she could easily be seen by soldiers below. So she picked one and forced her way in.
Thira arrived in a storage room. There were piles of different lengths of rope, pulleys and winches. Many of them were quite large, maybe spare parts for the portcullis mechanism. That was not good. She was supposed to have arrived in a weapons storage room full of muskets, swords, and veil powder.
Thira had two choices now. She could crawl back out the window and risk being seen or try to find her way to the correct room from the inside. She chose the latter.
Luckily there weren't many humans walking about the halls on the level she'd entered. A few could be heard to the left of her storage room but none to her right. As her objective was to remain undiscovered and reconnect with the king and his dubious retinue consisting of the pirate and two children, she chose right. Thira opened the door as quietly as she could and padded down the hall, brandishing the old mother's golden curved sword.
When she came to a stair she had to decide whether to go up or down. Thira wished she remembered which floor the king had said the small arms were stored. The sign only stated the floor. It gave no other useful information. This was likely to be the case on every floor, so unless she knew which floor to go to, and she did not, she was out of luck.
Thira grumbled to herself. This was precisely why she'd argued against splitting from the group. Her people didn't work this way, they weren't individual hunters, they acted as part of a pride, and she was no different. She ought to be beside Wilhelm, slaying those foolish enough to oppose his will, not lost and alone in the bowels of the fore gate.
The sound of men ascending the stairs forced her into action. Thira ducked into a room she'd presumed was empty because the only noise from within had been reminiscent of a machine. Instead what she found was a lanky human man who smelled strongly of spirits snoring loudly as he lay draped awkwardly over a chair.
The door then opened behind her and she wheeled around with the sword. It was a good thing she looked before she attacked as it was Wilhelm, both of the girls, and Robert, who she smelled before she saw.
“You found the armory. Great work Thira.” the king said, clapping a hand on her shoulder.
She looked back at the snoring man as the king stepped past her into the room followed by a smirking Robert. The room was indeed filled with barrels of veil powder. Muskets, pistols, and swords lined the walls.
“You had no idea this was the right room, did you?” Robert remarked snidely.
“I... no,” she admitted.
The talking caused an interruption in the smooth grinding of the snoring man who awakened, startled. For the first time Thira saw his face and the eye patch he wore over one eye, the wrong one, that was supposed to make him look just like the king. Other than the incorrect placement of the patch, the man was in other ways quite similar. He had the king's tall frame, jutting jaw, and a thin gray beard, though the last had clearly been pasted to his face. He was even wearing clothing she was quite sure had come from the king's own closet, a bright white military uniform with golden trim that Wilhelm wore only on special occasions.
“Sorry, sorry... just closing my eyes for a moment!” the man explained.
“Aren't you Richard Trentsworth?” Robert asked the man.
The man's eyes widened and he held up his hands as if afraid of being arrested. “Please gentlemen. I'm sure we can come to some kind of amicable arrangement,” Trentsworth said.
“I'm not sure that's possible,” the king replied, folding his arms. "I was sure that whatever plan had been concocted, Michel stage it here in the fore gate. Clearly I was correct. I just expected to find... bombs or assassins, not this."
“Is this about Hemmersten?” the man asked, mentioning one of the richer communities along Faustland's southern coast. “I was told everything would be taken care of,” he blathered. “I absolutely did not know the woman was the mayor's wife. Truly I did not.”
“You're not helping yourself sir,” Wilhelm grumbled.
“But but... the magistrate said all would be forgiven if I just did this one performance.”
The king turned to Robert. “You know this man?”
“I believe so, yes. He played... the king actually, in a play at the dockside theater in Valendam a few years ago. I think the play was 'The Travesty of an Enlightened Pig.' or something similar. He was terrible, came out on stage obviously drunk, and proceeded to stumble and mumble until he finally threw up all over a patron's gown.”
“The production was called 'The Travesty of an Enlightened Swine',” retorted the actor. “And I'll have you know there was no way I could have known Millard Di Capriollo would fall ill. A woman left me that day and I'd decided the best way to deal with it, as any man would, was to be falling down drunk the whole day. It's a wonder I remember anything at all. Not my best work, I'm aware.”
“Truly a professional,” Robert said.
“Is that the play where God turns me into a pig because I'm so greedy for taxes?” asked the king, stroking his chin.
“And then at the end you're slaughtered and fed to the poor. Yes that's the one! God I laughed myself sick at that part,” Robert mused, perhaps too enthusiastically.
All of the blood had drained from the face of the inebriated actor, except for his nose and cheeks of course, giving him a comical made up look. He pointed at the king with a hand that shook like an oak leaf in a strong wind.
“This man is actually Wilhelm Casimir! But... but... they said you were incacimated... er I mean incapacitated!”
“Did they now? Tell me actor,” Wilhelm asked, leaning forward. “Who precisely is 'They'?”
* * *
Marian thrust her sword forward and the Valkyrie joined the remaining Ganex as they crested the hill, pursuing the fleeing Willen goliaths. Several of the Ganex goliaths fired their remaining cannons but the morning sun was still low on the horizon, making it hard to line up shots in the glare.
They'd won the day, for the second time, somehow. The cost had been high however, as a cursory glance over the field showed. Almost half of the red Imperial goliaths had been destroyed or disabled. The mercenaries really had put up an incredible fight. Mia could only see nine or so fallen from the other side and most of those were painted blue, so formerly Halett property. That made the fight almost two to one for the enemy. Their symbol had been a black hammer striking a shield. Mia would remember them.
“Are you even listing to me?” Harald's voice called from her belt.
“What are you saying Harald?” Mia asked.
“What the hell is at your waist?” Claus shrieked. “It's talking... aaaaand it's touching at me!”
“I said run! The power... I can feel it!” Harald replied.
“What is in here?! Mia tell me!” Claus asked.
To her goliath's left Mia, through the left ventilation tube, heard an incredible cracking sound. Marian's head swiveled to the side. The first Ganex goliath to crest the hill, holding the remains of a chopped long spear, had exploded into a mass of tumbling rock fragments. Hunks of rock and twisted steel cascaded to the ground below, embedding in the dirt of the hilltop. Two legs were all that remained intact but they too slowly tipped until they fell down the hill.
“What the hell was that?” Claus asked. “Mia!”
“I don't know!” Mia shouted.
There was a second thunder crack. Another Ganex goliath exploded just behind the first. It dropped its glowing red halberd to the ground and toppled.
“Harald what's happening?” she asked.
“Oh my God! It's a talking doll!” Claus said. “Oh... why? Why is this happening to me?”
“I told you. You have to run. That is the work of a sorcerer, a powerful one,” Harald replied as his yarn body slid down Mia's leg, an uncomfortable feeling.
“Claus, shut up. The doll is with me. Harald, can you defeat him?” Mia asked.
“A bewitched doll... I...” Claus sighed. “I should have stayed home from this campaign... Mother warned me and I just... I just knew better.”
“He has a lot of power. I have very little. He must be unbound. He can do anything!” Harald said. “I would have no chance against him, I'm sorry.”
Outside, Marian watched as yet another goliath, to her right this time, spontaneously blew apart. Mia could feel her goliath's alarm rising. The crimson rage was calling.
The twelve remaining Ganex goliaths had fully crested the hill now, including Marian. Mia could see their enemy. There was a group of people not far away. One man stood over two shackled forms. He was flanked by a hulking form twice as large as he was, a kind of stone thing. It was vaguely shaped like a man. Mia presumed this was what had once been Aaron.
However the true threat stood atop a perfect pillar of stone. One man, wearing white robes fringed with red that fluttered in the wind. He had a smooth white face with shining swirls of gold, just as the Ganex had described. Each time he reached out his hand and made a fist, a goliath would explode.
Mia had Marian point her sword at the sorcerer. He had to be stopped, no matter the cost.
“So you can't fight his magic, what can you do?” Mia asked him.
Another Ganex goliath was demolished, then another. They were falling too quickly, they would never make it.
“And quickly, he's killing us,” she said.
“I don't know! I suppose, if you could get me to Christine, perhaps together...” Harald said.
