After a pause for the holidays, we come now to the eighth chapter of Rage of the Old Gods, the first book of my epic science fantasy trilogy the World Spectrum. In the coming weeks, I will be posting the entire book for free on this blog. If you’re just joining us, you can get caught up with the previous chapters now.

Part two comes to a close as the full fury of the Old Gods is unleashed upon the defenders of Marlhem.

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Outside the walls of her home, the sound of a city in panic roared like a distant wind. Alarm bells rang, men and women shouted, and the streets echoed with the sound of running feet.

Inside, Leha sat on the thing she generously called a bed and inspected her armor. The suit of leather had been made specially for her short frame, and it was designed to not impair her flexibility or weigh her down. It covered her body from the neck down, excluding her hands and most of her feet. Over that, she wore her fur cloak.

Outside, a squad of soldiers charged by, shouting.

Leha held forth her hands. Her claws were still in their shortened, nocturnal state, and she regrew them. A makeshift window made from a chunk of broken glass allowed the morning sun to glint off their inky surfaces.

She stood and took a deep breath. Clearing her mind, she opened the door to her home and stepped into the turmoil of the streets.

All around, soldiers ran to take their positions, civilians ran for cover, and everyone shouted. A pair of Lost Ones from the Water’s Edge clan tore past her, followed by a shambling, white-furred member of Benefactor’s people.

Their time had run out. The Automatons had arrived.

Leha summoned the energy of Tyzu and took off for the south wall at a breathtaking speed. It had snowed in the night, and her feet kicked up puffs of white powder as she ran. Her legs became a blur beneath her; her hair blew out behind her; and her cloak cracked and fluttered. She darted through the chaos of people and buildings. Her enhanced reflexes and Tyzu’s wild energy allowed her to move through it with ease. Everyone around her seemed to be going in slow-motion.

It was still early, and the sky to the east glowed pink and orange. To the west, the clouds that had produced the night’s snow hovered still, and a few flakes still drifted onto the city.

Reaching the south wall, she found a stair and leapt. As she soared upward, she closed her eyes and felt the crisp air wash over her. In this weightlessness, it was easy to imagine she was flying, wings carrying her through the early morning air. At the last moment, she opened her eyes and let Sy’om’s placid energy flood over her. She landed softly on the upper stairs.

She climbed the remaining steps and took her position on the battlements.

Yeldar, Doga, and Natoma were already there, gazing out at the plain below. She joined them, her feet crunching in the thin coating of snow on the walls. Cool gusts of wind washed over them in a steady rhythm.

To the south, a line of dark shapes darkened the horizon.

The Automatons. The Old Gods.

A faint rumbling echoed towards them. Leha felt dread creep into her gut.

“Are the skirmishers ready?” she asked.

“Nearly,” Eranna said, stepping onto the battlement.

“They’d best hurry up,” Leha said.

As the dark shapes of the machines crept closer, the walls bustled with activity. Men and women of many nations and two worlds took up positions along the parapet, holding their crossbows and javelins at the ready. Thanks to Natoma’s people, many of the crossbows were loaded with anti-Automaton bolts – more than Leha had seen in some time. Still, many others made do without.

To Leha’s right, atop a tower, the sun glinted off of Drogin’s new feedback weapon, a large, silver-plated horseshoe connected to a complicated system of gears, pulleys, and blocks of lead.

Outside the walls, fighters scurried about the fortified Quadramaton ruin. Two former Automaton technicians loaded the trebuchet atop its back with a small cask of acid, and soldiers armed with crossbows scurried into place all over the outwork.

Farther out, squads of skirmishers moved forward, preparing to harry the enemy’s advance. Among them were what little remained of the cavalry of the human nations. For reasons Leha didn’t fully understand, the Automatons had given special attention towards destroying cavalry and any domestic horses. Seeing the handful of mounted squads dart across the plains, Leha thought it possible that the machines feared their speed. Horses were almost as fast as Automatons in a straight line, and they were more maneuverable.

The shouts of fighters and commanders rippled through the morning air, and the sun glinted off of javelin tips, chain mail, and the staffs of battle wizards. While Leha’s army made ready, the machines drew nearer. Leha enhanced her eyes, and she began to pick out details.

Automatons of every shape and design marched on the city: round-edged Eastenholder Automatons; human-like Urannan Automatons armed with gigantic swords, maces, and axes; tall, blocky Tor Automatons; beast-headed Karkaran machines with taloned hands; one of the original Tor Wizard-Automatons; towering Piran machines wielding staffs of iron; Quadramatons modified to function without their human crews; a pair of multi-legged, insect-like Urannan Sextamatons; and machine-built Wizard-Automatons constructed after the war began.

Many of the human-built Automatons had been modified with better armor or equipment or been upgraded into Wizard-Automatons. Some wore tall metal plates on their chests to protect their vulnerable necks.

Benefactor scuttled up the stairs, moving sideways, and stepped forward onto the battlement, his hooves clacking. We are ready, Leha. The wind ruffled his gray fur.

Leha closed her eyes and reached out with her mind, linking with the alien’s bright, curious mind. Through him, she linked to a network of other ice creatures, and then with the other commanders: Natoma, with her serene and ordered mind; Doga, with his fearful awe of the Old Gods; Eranna, stalwart and prepared; Yeldar, with his stony strength; even Drogin, with his dark and bitter thoughts. Leha felt tempted to peak deeper into those thoughts, to learn the source of his coldness, but she resisted.

Beyond them, her awareness extended farther, encompassing the skirmishers on the plain. She saw the plain through their eyes; she felt the earth shake beneath their feet.

She, along with the other leaders, sent them to face the machines, orchestrating their movements in a dance of raids and retreats.

For the next hour – as the sun rose in the sky, and the snow blew away to the west – the skirmishers slowed the Automatons’ advance. They were too few and too weak to do real harm, but they let fly with their bolts and their spears, damaging and crippling the odd machine. The battlefield was too wide for Leha to control the energy levels throughout it all, but she did what she could. When her men attacked, she flooded them with Tyzu’s power and thus gave their missiles the power to pierce the machines’ armor – at least some of the time. When an Automaton would try to pursue them, she would bring it down to Sy’om’s level of energy.

Wizard-Automatons presented the greatest threat to the fighters on the plain. Battle wizards were too precious a commodity to waste, and most of them had stayed in Marlhem. The skirmishers had little defense against magic, save flight. With the help of the mental link, most of them managed to stay safe. But some did not, and by the time the order came to withdraw to the city, burning scars covered the fields, and the stink of burnt flesh wafted on the winter air.

The Automatons spread out into a crescent moon formation and moved to encircle the city. Leha’s people did what they could to stop them, but they could not hope to halt their advance. By two hours before noon, the Automatons had Marlhem fenced in.

A pause came in the fighting, and Benefactor’s people dissolved the link. Leha looked about. A dark ring of machines surrounded them in all directions. She cursed and agonized silently. While this tactic had not been entirely unexpected, she’d hoped they would be able to concentrate their forces on the south wall. If they had to defend all sides of the city, they would be spread dangerously thin.

Natoma began parceling out their soldiers.

* * *

Thunder.

The thunder of iron hands breaking into stone. The thunder of burning magical strikes smashing against wizard-summoned shields. The thunder of mechanical footfalls smashing into the earth. The thunder of collapsing towers and shattering parapets. It deafened Leha’s ears and rattled her bones.

An hour and a half before noon, the Automatons had attacked. With typical machine brutality, they had charged, leaving naught but their leader, the Machine King, in reserve. All around the walls of Marlhem, they tore into the walls and slaughtered the defenders. The screams of dying men and women provided a grim undertone to the louder cracks and smashes.

The sky above was clear, but the air in the city was choked with smoke, ash, and dust.

Leha’s mind thrummed as she coordinated with the other commanders scattered along the walls – it would be too much to link with every soldier – and did her best to funnel the right energies to the right areas. She had trouble concentrating on her own situation as she also lived the battle through the eyes of Natoma, Drogin, Doga, Eranna, Yeldar, and Benefactor.

To her right, a Karkaran Automaton tore chunks from the wall below the battlement, separating her from the tower where Drogin operated his new weapon. People screamed as the walkway collapsed beneath them. Anti-Automaton bolts had melted much of its boar-like face, giving it an even more nightmarish cast.

To her left, the gap in the south wall had been widened, and a force of human soldiers and battle wizards, connected by one of Benefactor’s people, fought desperately to fend off a pair of sword-wielding Urannan Automatons and two Tor machines.

A Wizard-Automaton, a machine-built one reminiscent of the Old God she had fought on Tyzu, emerged from the smoke. It raised its arm, and a bolt of magic burst forth. A pair of battle wizards on the walls erected a flickering shield, but the finger of energy twisted toward the tower, toward Drogin’s weapon. A high-pitched whine pierced the air, and a second beam of energy extended from Drogin’s machine to the Automaton. Leha quickly flooded the machine with Tyzu’s power, and the magic flared brighter.

The two beams whipped by each other in an oval of light that seared the eyes and raised the hair on the back of Leha’s neck. The Automaton erupted in green-white fire, and it crumpled into a heap of burning metal.

Leha wished they’d built more than one of those weapons.

A great screaming of metal drew her attention, and she saw a Piran Automaton topple the ruined Quadramaton with its staff, its defenders shouting and fighting. Its fall shook the walls and kicked up dust and snow.

The machine threw itself at the walls and raised it staff to strike. Leha felt Tyzu’s power rush through her; she grabbed a javelin from a fallen soldier, and leapt. She glided through the air like a fish through water – she had shed her cloak when the fighting began – and drove the javelin into the thin armor at the base of its neck.

Slowing the Automaton with Sy’om’s energy, she dug her the claws of her toes into its chest for purchase and commanded the venom glands in her fingers to produce acid. With a primal cry, she tore into the armor to either side of the javelin and gouged out a hole. She squinted against the acrid smoke her acid produced. Freed from the Automaton, her javelin plummeted, but she caught it hurled it at the Karkaran machine. Empowered by Tyzuan energy, the missile punched through the Automaton’s hand. Two of its fingers hung limply.

Leha wriggled inside the Piran machine’s frigid interior and wormed her way up its neck, tearing support bars free and sending them to clatter into its chest. The sound echoed uncannily in the dark innards of the machine.

As the neck began to collapse under the weight of the head, she reached a hand up into the space behind its eyes and attacked. Pieces of silver of quartz rained down on her as she destroyed the latticework of its mind.

The entire machine began to fall, and she scurried downwards. The collapse had shrunk the hole in its neck, but she kicked it wider and pulled herself out.

The moment she emerged into the hazy sunlight, the taloned hand of the Karkaran Automaton swung at her. She leapt.

Tyzu’s power carried her high into the air, the wind lashing at her. Up here, above the smoke, she could see far and wide. She could see the fires in the northeast corner of the city, where the mental link told her that Doga’s forces had been forced to retreat into the streets. Below her, she saw the sapphire eyes of the Karkaran Automaton glare at her, and next to it, the Piran machine falling in slow-motion.

She poured Tyzu’s power into the Piran Automaton, and it plummeted with sudden speed. Its arm flew out and struck the Karkaran machine in the chest, sending it crashing to the ground.

The earth rushed up to meet her. She plunged through a bank of hot smoke and barely had time to summon Sy’om’s energy to slow her descent.

Her feet settled in the debris before the wall. To her right, the Karkaran machine twitched feebly. It seemed to have been crippled by the fall.

She leaned against the wall and took a moment to breathe, inhaling the polluted air. Her mind buzzed with information from the other fronts of the battle. Doga’s people were attempting to halt their retreat and make a stand against their mechanical pursuers. On Marlhem’s western flank, Natoma was near to being overrun, but she was doing her best to hold on while the civilians behind her fled to the center of the city. Eranna’s left arm had been broken, and the Automatons were gaining the advantage at her position.

Leha drew herself back to her own surroundings. Judging from the screams to her left, the Automatons were close to breaking through at the gap in the wall. She turned to go to the aid of her people, when a titanic thud shook the earth beneath her.

She spun to face the open plain as a nightmare emerged from the smoke. It towered above the wall as an adult would tower over a child. Plates of silver formed jagged, glittering bracelets around its wrists, and its dark surface seemed to feed on the sunlight. Atop its head, above its blazing eyes, three prongs of iron attacked the sky.

Leha fought her terror as she beheld the lord of all Automatons.

She had known it had come with the machine army. She’d caught glimpses of it throughout the day, prowling behind the Automaton lines. But it had not joined the battle proper.

Now it had.

The Machine King glanced down at her, and her soft, brown eyes met the hard, azure gaze of the Automaton.

Leha gasped. Somewhere, deep inside that cold engine of hate, she saw something terribly, impossibly familiar. “No,” she breathed.

Somehow, this was the same machine she had fought on Tyzu, six months ago.

Her shock broadcasted itself across the mental link. Doga stumbled and narrowly avoided being struck by a piece of a wall hurled by an Automaton. Benefactor bleated and jerked his lower jaw back and forth in fear. Natoma winced and nearly threw off her aim as she fired a crossbow.

The Automaton Lord’s gaze bored through Leha’s mind. As it had six months previously, a cold and inhuman voice entered her thoughts. I remember you. Contained in those words was a malice that froze her heart.

It raised its fist, and a burst of green-white energy leapt forth to destroy her. Leha held her arms in front of her face and screamed.

At the last moment, the magic changed course, flew up and over the wall, and met Drogin’s machine. A second bolt of energy leapt from the weapon and completed the circuit with the Automaton Lord.

Feeling a surge of hope, Leha flooded the machine with Tyzu’s power. The energy loop blazed brighter, and she felt a surge of vindictive pleasure. She braced her feet, forced her eyes to acclimatize to the glare, and waited for the inevitable explosion to come, smiling fiercely.

But it didn’t come. The magic hissed and blazed and burned, but the machine held its ground. Leha’s smile faded, and her heart beat faster. Something’s wrong.

She looked up and saw Drogin’s weapon crackle and spark. It’s not going to work. Her heart raced, and adrenaline sang through her veins. She dug her claws into the bricks of the wall and scurried up as fast as her limbs would take her. She reached for Tyzu and felt a hot rush of power envelope her. Her limbs blurred, and she moved faster than she ever had before. Everything around her – the advancing machines, the few remaining human soldiers, the clouds of dust and smoke – seemed to slow down and almost freeze. She pushed the mental link from her mind, and focused all her attention on reaching her brother.

She vaulted onto the battlement and leapt for Drogin’s tower. She tore through the air, the wind shouting at her, and landed hard against the side of the tower. She dug in with her claws and scrabbled onto the summit of the tower. Drogin’s machine burned before her, and soldiers ran and screamed as it disintegrated. A piece of semi-molten lead ejected itself from the machine and shot past her head as she dove for her brother. He didn’t seem to have noticed her; his face was frozen into a mask of disbelief. She wrapped her arms around his waist and jumped from the tower, never breaking stride.

The weapon exploded.

Its death roar reverberated in her ears, and a wave of hot air smashed into her from behind, hurling her forward. Hot gravel and ash pelted her back as she soared over the streets. The blast lit up the southwestern quarter of the city.

Burning rubble fell around Leha and her dazed brother as they plummeted downward. Leha tried to slow their descent with Sy’om’s power, but the weapon’s destruction had thrown the energy currents into disarray, and she only achieved a partial deceleration.

Leha’s feet smacked into the snow, and pain shot through her legs. She cried out and tumbled, sending Drogin flying. Her brother’s wand clanged against a nearby wall, and he smacked into the snow with a grunt.

Leha clutched her legs and held back sobs. She didn’t seem to have broken anything, but she was in a great deal of pain.

Drogin came to his feet and stumbled over to his wand. Upon retrieving it, he turned around and gaped at the direction they’d come from. The pain in her legs had subsided somewhat, and Leha looked too. Her mouth hung open.

For millennia, “wrath of the Old Gods” had been a curse reserved for only the most dire of situations. Now, she knew why. Beyond the ruined townhouse they stood in the shadow of, through the pall of dark smoke, she saw that the tower had become nothing but a smoking crater in the walls. Bits of stone and mortar rained down still, and next to that ruin, the three-pronged crown of the Automaton Lord towered over the city streets. It had breached the walls, and now it tore through roofs and walls and soldiers as if they were nothing. Its magic flared, and new fires were birthed.

Leha felt Benefactor touch the edge of her thoughts. Leha, are you well?

A flash of magic tore through another building in the direction of the Machine King. We have to get out of here, she sent. Call everyone. We have to get to Tyzu.

She sensed him duck his head. Yes. I will do it.

Leha turned her eyes to her brother. “We need to get going. The city is lost; we’ve got to get to Tyzu.”

Drogin blinked. He seemed to come back to his senses. He nodded.

Gritting her teeth, she struggled against the pain and tried to stand. Without thinking, she extended an arm, inviting Drogin’s help.

He stared at her. “Do – do you need help?”

She clenched her jaw and glared at him. “No. I’m fine on my own.”

With great effort, she came to her feet and began to hobble toward the center of the city, toward the market and Tyzu. Every step sent sharp pains shooting up her legs, but the continuing cacophony of the Automaton Lord’s assault pressed her to hurry. She funneled Tyzu’s power into her legs, pushing them to move and heal faster.

Over time, they met up with soldiers, who formed a guard around them, and together their group fled through the streets, always just ahead of the wave of destruction that was the Automatons.

Leha’s mind turned back to that day, more than six months ago, when she had flown from Three Gates. The reek of smoke, the cries of the displaced, and the roar of battle were the same as they had been on that dark day.

But something was different. This time, no one was left behind. No one faced the terror alone. The ice creatures connected everyone into groups, and those groups functioned as one. If one of their number was wounded, the others would help them. The retreat’s chaos had an order.

In her mind, Leha saw Natoma carry Eranna’s wounded form on her back. She saw a crowd of Tor citizens work together to carry Benefactor; he would be too slow on his own. She saw Doga run all-out for the market, carrying a child with an injured head.

This time, no one would be left behind.

After what felt like an eternity of stumbling on her wounded legs, Leha made it to the market along with the rest of her group. Yeldar stood in the center, barking orders to the people that milled around him. Most of the city had already made the journey to Tyzu, and those that remained were being sent off in groups of dozens. Each time a group made the trip, a bright flash would illuminate the former market.

The Automatons approached. A ring of smoke, dust, and fire seemed to be closing in on the market.

Natoma, her face artfully dusted with ash, ran forward. “Nearly everyone is through. I ordered the wizards to alternate which Lost One village they send people to so things won’t become too crowded. I sent Doga and Eranna to the Watching Eye clan village; I assume that’s where you’ll want to be.”

Leha swayed on her aching legs, panting. “Thank you,” she gasped, wishing she could offer a better reward.

Natoma gestured to the cleared area around the jumping point. “Go. I’ll be right behind you.”

“Thank you,” Leha said again. She grabbed Drogin by the arm and dragged him towards the jumping point.

She, together with her brother and several others, took their positions. Natoma saluted her with one hand. The Urannan seemed unfazed by the ruination around her.

A battle wizard stepped forward. He raised his staff, Leha took a deep breath, and there was a flash.

———————

Enjoying the story so far? The next chapter will be posted soon, but if you can’t wait, you also have the opportunity buy the full ebook now!

We have now come to the seventh chapter of Rage of the Old Gods, the first book of my epic science fantasy trilogy the World Spectrum. In the coming weeks, I will be posting the entire book for free on this blog. If you’re just joining us, you can get caught up with the previous chapters now.

In this chapter, Yarnig presses into the frozen north and at last makes contact with the Northern Clans, a wild people separated from the rest of humanity since shortly after the Liberation. The Clanspeople are ancient enemies of Yarnig’s nation, but he finds they are not at all what he expected.

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Chapter seven: North

Snow. It seemed like the entire world was snow.

Yarnig and his people had been traversing the tundra for just over two days now, but it felt like they had been here forever. Yarnig could hardly remember what warmth was. Their universe had been reduced to wind, cold, and endless whiteness. White snow, white sky, white ice. White, white, white.

Erik held his staff forward, sensing the Clan magic and leading them slowly onward. The wizard believed they were getting closer, but he hadn’t been able to say how far away their goal was.

The wind did odd things with the snow, sculpting into abstract patterns, undulating waves, and endless hills and valleys. In places, much of it had been blown away, leaving the earth covered in but a thin sheet. In others, it had drifted so deep that the horses had to wade through it like a river. To Yarnig’s regret, they encountered more of the latter than the former.

Over time, he found that this land was not as lifeless as it seemed. Buried beneath the snow, he found various types of bushes, tall grass, and scrub. At night, they heard the eerie howls of wolves, and during the day, they would sometimes catch sight of vague shapes, herds, in the distance.

Harsh as it was, the land was alive.

The cold had begun to take its toll. The day before, one of the horses had died, and its rider now followed along on snowshoes. Taldin reported that frostbite had struck some of the men, and Yarnig felt himself become more exhausted by the minute. He had heard rumors that, when Leha had gone to Sy’om, she had nearly frozen to death. He was beginning to understand what that must have been like.

In his life in the royal court, Yarnig had learned to read people. Those beneath him, other than Erik and Taldin, didn’t generally speak to him, but he could see their fear in the way they carried themselves. He worried for them.

The previous night, the weather had taken a turn for the worse. The wind had picked up, and it had begun to snow. Based on what he had read of this land, Yarnig believed this to be a minor storm at best by the standards of the region, but there were southern regions of Tor Som that would have labeled it a blizzard. He had trouble seeing as far as the supply sleds they dragged behind them, and it was difficult to hear anything over the wind’s incessant roar.

He shivered in his cloak.

He thought he heard Erik say something. “What?” he shouted.

Erik pulled closer and shouted, “I think we’re getting close.”

The emperor grunted and looked ahead. Erik had been saying that all day. They continued forward, moving deeper into the colorless void.

Taldin held up a hand. “Does anyone else hear that?” he shouted.

The others drew to a halt. Yarnig tilted his head, listening.

“I don’t hear anything,” one of the soldiers said.

Yarnig leaned forward. He thought he could hear a low rumble. After a few moments, it grew louder. Something out there, separate from the wind, was producing a deep, steady noise. It reminded him of a fast-running river.

The sound increased in volume. Its soon drowned out the wind and horses’ tired huffing.

A dark shape appeared a few feet in front of Yarnig: a reindeer. Another appeared, and then another, and another.

A vast herd of reindeer, three abreast and at least ten deep, thundered past Yarnig’s company. Each was harnessed and connected to its neighbors. They pulled behind them what appeared to be a massive wooden sled as wide and tall as a large house and as long as one of the city blocks in Retgard. Windows had been spaced evenly along its length, and it had a thatched roof.

A platform sat at the front of the sled, and several fur-bundled people huddled there, controlling the reindeer or gazing out at the Tors. Dozens of long, faintly glowing silver spars extended from its sides, and Yarnig realized that it was not a sled at all. Its flat, boat-like bottom glided a few feet above the snow.

He wondered if he might be hallucinating.

As the massive structure floated past, he noticed that a number of small, one-man dogsleds had begun to circle his party, and he felt fear worm its way into his heart. He swallowed.

The rumble had become even more deafening. The emperor glanced behind them and saw that another of the mobile structures had arrived. Moments later, a third appeared. The three structures ground to a halt, and the noise died out. The hovering structures formed a triangle, and the Tors found themselves penned in.

Dozens of Clanspeople leapt from the structures and surrounded Yarnig’s party. Each carried an arm-length iron hook resembling a crowbar. The way the Clanspeople held them showed that they were weapons.

As they took their positions, they shouted amongst each other in their native language. Clanstongue and the Tor language were closely related, but Yarnig couldn’t pick out enough words to glean what they were saying.

Yarnig heard his men’s swords hiss out of their sheaths.

A handful of figures stood by just beyond the circle of Clan warriors. These held staffs capped with hollow hexagons of silver. Yarnig assumed these were battle wizards.

He felt the fear within him grow. The bitter history between the Clans and the Tors flashed through his mind, and he hoped that he hadn’t just led his party to their deaths.

“Tors, surrender your weapons,” a Clanswoman warrior shouted, speaking Tor roughly.

Yarnig and Taldin’s eyes met. Yarnig nodded slightly. Taldin frowned but offered no argument. He instructed his men to hand over their swords. Many of the soldiers grimaced, and Erik gave up his staff with great reluctance. Yarnig too felt a moment of trepidation as he handed over his sword. He had had not been trained in combat, but the cold metal had been reassuring.

A man with flowing golden hair emerged from the crowd. His body movements were strong and quick, but his face was weathered, and his hair was streaked with gray, so it was difficult to determine his exact age. He wore neither hat nor hood, and he held a longer, more ornate version of the weapons wielded by the men around him. The iron of his weapon had been polished to a dull sheen, and it was equipped with a spiked hand guard near the center of its shaft.

Yarnig took this to be their leader.

“Name yourselves!” the Clan leader shouted. His voice was strong and clear, and he had very little accent.

Yarnig cleared his throat and faced the Clansman. At the last moment, he threw back his hood. “I am Yarnig Tor Lannis, emperor of Tor Som. I have come to parlay with your people.” He hoped he sounded strong and confident.

The broad-shouldered Clansman didn’t seem to know how to react. He simply stared at Yarnig.

After a moment, Yarnig said, “May I inquire as to who you are?”

The Clan leader found his voice. “My name is Brodar. This is the village of the Marg clan. I am its chieftain.”

Yarnig’s court training kicked in. He made a half-bow – a signal of respect between equals. “It is an honor.”

Brodar grimaced. “What is your scheme, Tor? Our people have been at war from the time of our meeting. You will never be welcome here.”

Despite the cold, Yarnig began to sweat. “I come without guile. I speak truth when I say that I seek friendship with your people.”

A gust of wind whipped through the gaps in the hovering buildings, and snow stuck in Yarnig’s hair.

“I request to be allowed into your home so that we may discuss this in a more comfortable setting,” Yarnig said.

Brodar gestured with his weapon half-heartedly, seeming more annoyed than threatening. “Why should we discuss it at all? You have nothing to offer me. Leave now, Tor, and I will not harm you.” He turned and made his way back through the crowd.

“Wait!” Yarnig called. He searched for the right words. “Our people were not always enemies! Thousands of years ago, our ancestors fought together against the Old Gods. I seek to renew that alliance.”

Brodar paused. He turned around and walked back through the crowd, his feet crunching in the snow. “Is this truly what you seek? Do you give me your word?”

Yarnig bowed his head solemnly, hope blossoming in his chest. “I give you my word.”

Brodar hesitated, then nodded curtly. “Though I have no reason to trust the word of a Tor, I will give you a chance. Select two of your people. You may meet with me.” He began to walk away.

“What about the rest of my party?” Yarnig asked, shouting over the wind.

“We will give them shelter. They will not be harmed unless they give us cause,” Brodar answered over his shoulder.

Yarnig selected Erik and Taldin to accompany him. Taldin threw him a questioning look. Yarnig responded by nodding.

The three dismounted, submitted themselves to be searched, and were led into one of the massive floating buildings.

* * *

Yarnig hadn’t been sure what to expect from the Northern Clans, but it hadn’t been roads, and it hadn’t been anything like the Marg village.

Erik chattered in hushed tones about the floating halls. He wondered if the hovering effect was created by constant effort on the part of the Clan wizards or if they used some mechanism for channeling energy without human intervention. Yarnig hardly listened. He thought about the level of logistical efficiency a mobile village would require. It boggled the mind.

A Clansman led them into one of the halls and down a narrow passageway that ran the length of the structure. In here, the air was pleasantly warm, and everything was made of wood. Doors had been spaced evenly along the length of the hallway, but none were open. Yarnig caught hints of voices beyond some of them. The hollow sound his feet made on the floor planks led him to believe that an open space lay beneath. Magical, smokeless lanterns lit the hallway.

He had a thousand questions about how the village operated, but he decided it would be better to keep silent.

The hallway ended in a broad chamber near the back of the structure. The room held no furniture, but a number of tapestries, hunting trophies, and weapons adorned the walls. A pair of doors stood at either end of the far wall, and a large tapestry depicting a man flanked by reindeer hung between them. Yarnig thought the man resembled Brodar.

Near the center of the room, between two columns, Brodar sat upon a cushion upholstered with reindeer hide. Just behind and to either side of him, an elderly man and woman sat upon identical cushions. Three more of the cushions had been arranged in a similar pattern before the chieftain.

The Clan guide departed, his footsteps echoing up the corridor, and Yarnig’s group came forward to sit on the cushions. Yarnig took the center one, finding it surprisingly comfortable. He loosened his cloak. It felt good to be out of the wind.

“Welcome to my home,” the chieftain said, though there was nothing welcoming in his tone.

Yarnig took a deep breath and met Brodar’s steely stare. “Allow me to introduce my companions. This is Taldin, the captain of my guard, and Erik, my battle wizard.”

Taldin bowed, and Erik followed suit.

Brodar gestured to the man beside him. “This is my father, Tergor.” The old man bowed his white-haired head. He looked as if he had once been a man as imposing as his son. “And this is my mother, Eskwel,” he said, gesturing to his left. Eskwel was stocky, and her iron gray hair was bound in two braids.

“Your parents?” Erik said.

Yarnig fixed him with a disapproving glare.

“Who better to advise me?” Brodar said.

“I apologize for my man, chieftain,” Yarnig said. “He meant no disrespect.”

Brodar shrugged it off.

A servant appeared, bearing a tray with six ceramic cups upon it. The servant passed out the cups to the two leaders and their companions and departed without a word.

Yarnig held up his cup. It felt warm and contained a thick, off-white liquid. “What is this?” he asked politely.

“Ulu. The milk and blood of reindeer, mixed with honey,” Brodar said. He took a deep draft from his cup.

Yarnig took a hesitant sip, and his men did the same a moment later. The ulu tasted sweet, and it helped to chase away the cold he had suffered through for the past few days. He didn’t think that Brodar would try to poison him. Everything he had read about the Northern Clans led him to believe that, if the chieftain wanted to kill him, he would simply gut him with one of those metal hooks.

After he swallowed, he remembered how wrong his books had been about so many other aspects of the Clans.

Brodar put aside his drink. “Allow me to be clear, Tor. I allow you here because I am curious. I treat you with respect and hospitality because I pride myself on being an honorable and decent man. If you give me reason to, I will immediately end my display of kindness. If you attempt to harm me or any of my people, none of your group will leave this place alive.”

Yarnig swallowed. “Understood.”

“Now, tell me why you have come here, Leader of Tors.”

Yarnig resisted the urge to clear his throat again, remembering how his father had admonished him for that habit. “In the lands south of here, the Automatons have risen up against their masters. They seek – ”

Brodar held up a hand. “I am aware of this. My people are isolated, but we are not completely cut off from the outside world.”

Yarnig maintained his composure by sheer strength of will. Pushing down his embarrassment, he searched for the right thing to say.

He took a deep breath. “Do you also know that they are the Old Gods reborn?”

Brodar’s eyebrows raised. “What?”

His parents’ eyes widened, and Tergor whispered a quick stream of words in his ear. Apparently, his parents understood Yarnig’s language.

“It is difficult to believe, I know,” Yarnig said, trying to keep his pulse slow. “I didn’t believe it myself at first. Allow me to explain.”

“Please, do,” Brodar said icily.

Yarnig hoped the chieftain’s doubt would not be their downfall. He took a gulp of ulu. The sweet brew helped to calm him, and if it was poisoned, he was probably already doomed. “In the south, our armies are led by an Eastenholder woman. Her name is Leha. Six months ago, she discovered a weakness in the Old Gods’ seal, and she traveled to the other worlds. Her adventures were too many for me to describe quickly, but what is important is that, when she went to Tyzu, she was forced to do battle with an Old God. It had been trapped on that world when the seal was put in place. When she reached its lair, she discovered that it was an Automaton.”

Yarnig couldn’t read Brodar’s expression. He continued. “We cannot say for sure, but we believe that Wizard Vorren, rather than inventing the Automatons, discovered the decayed wreck of an Old God and, not knowing what it was, reverse-engineered it, then claimed it as his own creation. It is believed that the machines have been biding their time for thousands of years, waiting for the moment when they would be strong enough to overthrow us and return to power.”

The chieftain seemed to still be listening.

Yarnig pressed on. “My own nation is partly to blame for this. The Tor Vargis, another royal family, ordered the creation of a new model of Automaton. These could wield magic as well as any battle wizard – better, in fact. They then used the new machines to invade Eastenhold. The devastation of their war, and the new powers they granted the Automatons, were most likely the cause of the machines’ revolt. It is perhaps the darkest chapter in my people’s history.”

Brodar sat in silence, working his jaw back and forth. His parents whispered into his ears.

“I do not know whether I believe you or not. History tells me not to trust you, but, as my mother pointed out, if you wanted to deceive me, you would have created a far more believable lie.”

Yarnig sipped his ulu. It left a faint metallic aftertaste. “I assure you, I speak the truth.”

“He does, chieftain,” Erik added.

Yarnig shot his friend another glare. Taldin rolled his eyes.

A strong blast of wind rattled the windows.

“There is something I don’t understand,” Brodar said.

“Yes?” Yarnig said, putting on a mask of helpfulness.

Brodar placed his elbows on his knees and leaned forward. “You said that your armies are led by an Eastenholder woman. I know of the history between your two nations. It is nearly as bloody as the conflicts between our peoples. Why would you entrust your safety to her?”

“Leha is a remarkable woman. The Automatons rose up while our army attacked Heart, the Eastenholder capitol. The Battle of Heart became one of the most devastating conflicts since the Liberation.

“Leha came into that chaos from Tyzu, having been greatly changed by the people there, the Lost Ones. She took charge of the defense and united the warring armies of Tor Som and Eastenhold. In less than a day, she brought humanity to victory.

“Afterward, she went north, to Tor Som, and gathered together all she encountered into a great host. It is not the forces of Tor Som, but the forces of humanity that she commands. Even the armies of Sy’om and Tyzu flock to her call to arms.”

This wasn’t entirely true. Many had refused to join her army. Some of the people she had encountered on her journey had chosen to stay where they were; others had chosen flight over fighting. Many Tors had been unable to accept the leadership of an Eastenholder and fled into the wilderness.

Brodar frowned in thought. “What you say is almost beyond belief, but if this is an attempt at deception, it is a poor one. And the fact that you risked yourself by coming here speaks to your sincerity.”

He shook his head. “I do not wish to believe you, Tor. But I cannot see the gain in trying to trick my people when your own face extinction. And some among the Clans have already wondered what the machines will do once they have wiped you southerners from existence. Some say we should face the problem proactively…”

Yarnig leaned forward hopefully.

“I must consult with my people,” Brodar said. He said something to Eskwel in Clanstongue, and she produced two thin metal rods from a pocket. She struck them together, producing a high, clear note. Yarnig heard footsteps in the hall behind them.

“You will wait outside.”

Yarnig worried that Brodar meant outside the hall, but instead, he, Erik, and Taldin were brought to a small room elsewhere in the hall. They waited there for almost an hour, Erik chattering nervously, before Brodar called them back.

Yarnig had the impression others had joined Brodar’s council, but by the time his group returned, it was just Brodar, Eskwel, and Tergor again.

“If I agree to help you, what would you have me do?” Brodar said when Yarnig’s group had taken their seats.

Yarnig reassembled his calm mask. “During the Liberation, all of humanity fought together. If we are to defeat the machines again, we must do so as a race united.” He straightened. “I would have you commit as many fighting bodies and as much of your resources as you can spare to the war effort. I would have you aid me in convincing your entire nation to help fight the Automaton threat.”

Brodar said nothing. His face showed that he was considering what Yarnig had said. The only sound was the howling wind outside.

“Do you know that, if you want to enlist the help of all the Clans, your request will have to be approved by the Althing?” the chieftain said, breaking his silence.

“The Althing?” Yarnig said.

“The annual meeting of the Clans. The chieftains meet then to vote on issues that affect our nation as a whole.”

“When is the next Althing?” Yarnig asked.

“The Althing is traditionally held midway between the spring equinox and the summer solstice. But because this is a matter of such grave importance, I can call an emergency one much sooner. It would still take at least a month for the Clans to assemble.”

Yarnig’s heart fell. “What about you? Can we count on the aid of the Marg clan?”

Brodar set his jaw. “I have not reached a decision. I must think. One of my people will show you to where your companions are staying. You will be given food and shelter until I reach my decision,” Brodar said.

Eskwel again struck the metal rods together again, and Yarnig heard servants approach.

Yarnig stood, trying to hope for the best. At the very least, it didn’t look as if the Clanspeople would try to harm him or his group.

That was a good sign.

* * *

While the machines built new warriors and upgraded themselves into ever more deadly forms, the people in Marlhem made their own preparations for battle.

All across the city, day in and day out, smiths and craftspeople churned out weapons, their fires smoking and their hammers ringing against their anvils. Requests were sent to other cities for the wood to make crossbows and spear shafts. Armor was produced from metal, leather, and whatever else was available. The neighboring cities of Kerhem and Yotgard shipped in whatever reinforcements they could, but there was always the chance that the Automatons would attack them instead of Marlhem, and Leha and the other leaders didn’t want to risk putting all their eggs in one basket.

The remains of destroyed Automatons were stripped down for their metals, and the ruins of the city were scavenged for whatever could be found within them. Leha and her people had fought many victories over the Automatons, but none had been easy, and all had been costly. A simple lack of resources threatened them nearly as much as the Automatons did.

The more experienced soldiers combed the city for new recruits, arming and training whomever they could find. Each morning, Leha heard their shouts and marching songs drift from the drilling fields.

When the Lost One clans had sent their armies to Barria, they had also dispatched a number of wizards. Lost One wizards had never been trained to use silver, but their Barrian counterparts had equipped them with staffs and wands, and they worked continuously to master new spells and abilities.

The entire city thrummed with activity. Everyone had a role to play. Leha sometimes wondered how things could be so organized. Back in Three Gates, she had only had to run her own shop, and she had been merely competent, at best, at that. Just the thought of the responsibility of readying an entire city to defend against an army of Automatons made her mind reel.

The odd thing was, though she was the one in charge of things, she had very little to do in the work of preparing. She worked on the broader plans, but Eranna, Natoma, and the others handled all the details. It seemed unfair that she received all the credit for work done by other people. It made her wonder if the heroes in her histories deserved all of the credit they received.

Every day and night, the threat of attack hung over the city. The machines could arrive at any moment, and the knowledge of this brooded in the back of everyone’s minds. While they weren’t known for agility, Automatons could move very fast in a straight line, and once the scouts spotted them, there would be only minutes to prepare.

A few days after the arrival of the Urannans, an abandoned building had collapsed. Hearing the echoes of its crumbling, a number of people had thought the Automatons were attacking, and they’d caused a panic. Men, women, and children had run through the streets, screaming. Some had tried to flee the city. Two-dozen new recruits had lost their nerve and tried to desert. The chaos had continued for half an hour before Leha, with Natoma’s help, became organized enough to get Benefactor’s people to broadcast the knowledge that there was no cause for concern.

Not a good sign.

Their tactical situation was no cause for joy, either. The walls of the city had been punctured at numerous points, and nothing they could plug them with would provide any resistance to an Automaton. The intact portions of wall would barely slow them.

Leha had gathered well over twenty thousand fighters from Heart, South Tower, Karkar, Tor Som, and Tyzu over the past six months, but many of those had been wounded or killed in the journey north and in various battles with the Automatons, and many others had been sent to reinforce the neighboring cities or perform other tasks, so the number available to defend Marlhem was closer to ten thousand. On top of that, the majority of them were suffering from fatigue or low morale, and others were green troops with little training and less experience.

They were miles away from the nearest occupied settlement, and the plains offered no hiding places. If the machines breached the defenses, it would quickly become a slaughter in the streets. There was nowhere for people to run. Leha would have liked to evacuate the majority of the civilians to Tyzu or one of the neighboring cities, but most people didn’t want to abandon their homes.

Drogin continued his work on new weapons to use against the machines, but even if they worked, it would take a long time to produce large quantities of them, and Leha didn’t think they’d make the difference.

As always, it all came down to Leha and her abilities. She could command powers that no one else could, and that the machines could not adapt to. It was all on her, a shopkeeper from Three Gates with no military training beyond an armload of history books and adventure novels.

However, this time, they did have one other advantage: Natoma. In the two weeks since her arrival, she had proven herself to be a capable leader with an impressive understanding of tactics, logistics, and command. Up until now, their main sources of military knowledge had been Eranna, who had little command experience; Doga, who was accustomed to fighting nothing better organized than marauding bands of Stassai; and Yeldar, who was unused to working on a large scale. It hadn’t taken long for the Urannan captain to improve everything from their food rationing to their command structure.

She also proved to be a good influence on the cadets. Her calm, confident demeanor helped to put them at ease, and she had the leadership experience to drill them into shape.

People all across the city came to defer to her leadership, and she became nearly as prominent a figure as Leha.

Leha, too, found herself admiring Natoma. Unlike herself, she knew how to lead and how to cope with situations like the one they now faced.

Every day, Natoma would go down to the old market square – a place that had been built upon a jumping point to Tyzu and was now used as Marlhem’s link to that world – choose an out of the way spot, and spend a half-hour practicing a series of exercises to improve her swordsmanship. She would stand among the crates of fruit and the comings and goings of Lost Ones, her armor gleaming dully in the shadows of the buildings around her, her single-edged sword shining like light incarnate as it caught the sun, and glide through the forms and postures.

Sometimes, she would attract an audience. The Lost Ones in particular seemed impressed with her skill. Whenever she had the chance, Leha would come to observe. Natoma moved with a natural grace and agility that seemed almost superhuman. She could be as slow and languid as a cat one moment, and then flash into a blindingly quick strike the next. Every little twitch seemed planned and coordinated. If her hair became disheveled while she exercised, it somehow seemed intentional and artistic. Even her sweat seemed carefully coordinated to bead and shine so that it would enhance her image of elegant strength. And it all seemed to be effortless.

Leha could move like that too, easily. But her abilities had come from the mutations the Lost Ones had given her. She had willed her muscles into a state of near perfection over just a few days, and she had done so with little effort. Natoma’s grace came from hard work and years of training. She had earned it.

Natoma didn’t talk about her time in Uranna much, and when she did, she mostly spoke about her early years there. On the rare occasions when she discussed the nation’s fall, Leha again got the impression that this was a pain from years ago, a pain that Natoma had managed to put behind her. The grief in her eyes seemed distant somehow.

Natoma’s Eastenholder improved rabidly, and the need for Lahune’s translation evaporated. She still couldn’t speak the Tor language, but most people in the city had learned fluent Eastenholder by having the understanding fed into their minds by Benefactor’s people, and she was able to get by.

Once he stopped acting as translator, Leha saw little of Lahune. Drogin had told her of his vocation as priest – his knowledge of languages apparently stemmed from his order’s belief that spoken language, as something uniquely human, was something to be celebrated. She’d never been able to decide what she thought about the cult of Aya, but he seemed harmless, so she decided not to worry. Sometimes, she saw him conversing with Doga. The Urannan and the Lost One seemed to have discovered some common ground.

Sixteen days after the arrival of the Urannans, Natoma and Leha leaned against a building in the market square. It had been a quiet morning, and Leha had stayed after watching Natoma’s exercises.

They stood in the shade created by a three-story building and a stack of crates. People buzzed through the square near them, but none of them noticed the two women. Nearby, a flock of pigeons murmured to each other. The morning was cool, but the sun helped to warm the air.

They discussed the Automatons, going over various scenarios for the impending attack and the defense of the city. They had said it all before, but they said it again. Going over the practicalities helped Leha to forget the odds they faced.

Eventually, they ran out of things to repeat, and the conversation died off.

Leha gazed into the bright sky and tried to work up the energy to return to work.

“May I ask you something?” Natoma said. Her voice still carried an accent.

Leha turned her head to face her. “Go ahead.”

Natoma searched for the words. “I don’t understand why you are the only person who can channel the powers of the other worlds. What I mean is: why haven’t more people been given your abilities? My understanding of the memories you showed me is that you and the Lost Ones are all capable of transforming others the way you were transformed. It seems that it would be much easier for you, and everyone else, if there were many with your abilities.”

Leha became acutely aware of the claws on her feet digging into the snow, of the inch long spikes extending from her fingers, and of her deep blue pupils. She broke into a sweat despite the cold, but there was nothing of accusation in Natoma’s serene, porcelain-skinned face. Leha took a breath and decided to be honest.

“What I tell Drogin is that it’s too risky to the subjects. And that’s true; the ability to control our bodies, and the chemicals they produce, is very much an intuitive thing. There’s no guarantee anyone would be able to exactly replicate the toxin that transformed me. And there are any number of factors that could have played in a role in what happened to me. We don’t know.”

She stared at the ground. “But there’s more. These new abilities have given me a great deal of power. You’re a skilled fighter, but I could spill your blood on the stones before your sword grazed my cloak. I’ve fought Wizard-Automatons and lived. I don’t know if I trust anyone else with that kind of power. I’m not sure I trust myself with that kind of power, but it’s too late for that. What if I created another like me, and they betrayed us and sided with the Automatons? What would brawls, and fights, and wars be like if people’s very bodies are weapons?”

She shook her head. “There’s too much uncertainty.”

People fluttered through the square.

“I understand,” Natoma said.

Leha looked at her, and smiled.

———————

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