The Laws Of Elios (Book 2) (35 page)

“You expect me to believe that every soldier in Infin is on the road to invade Luion,” taunted Shane.  “I find that a little hard to believe.”

“Believe what you want,” the Allyant spat.  “The only soldiers that remain are those that I left behind to delay you while I destroyed your magically enhanced watercraft.  Without your artifacts the Luion Navy will be at the bottom of the ocean, sunk by my armada and the lumen weapons that I have enhanced them with by day’s end tomorrow.”

Shane looked at the Allyant and then at
Ari and Shew.  “Did he just tell us his whole plan?”  Turning to the Allyant he asked, “Did I misunderstand something or did you just tell me your entire plan?”

Ari shrugged, “I think he did.”

Shew nodded. “It sure sounded like it to me.”

Turning back to the Allyant
, Shane sighed.  “I feel sorry for you.  With all of your planning and all of you scheming you forgot the most important thing.”

“I have forgotten nothing.  Your overconfidence is nothing more than a bluff,” retorted the Allyant.

“If you say so; not to worry you though, but I have a guy named Stafford on my team and everything you are doing, he saw it coming.  See you tomorrow at the border.”  With a thought Shane sealed off the contact that the Allyant had with its host and slowly bled off the stolen lumen. When the host lumen was finally removed along with the residue all that remained was a corpse brought down by the magical abuse of the Allyant.

~~~~~

The sun was beginning to rise in the east by the time the civilians had been released to find their way home.  When all was said and done there were only four hundred regular soldiers left.  Captain D’roe insisted that he stay behind and use the military to help stabilize the civilians and maintain order in Jehhet.  He was given a comm so that he could contact them if he needed any magical assistance.

Ren embraced his younger but not littler brother
, patting him loudly and firmly on the back.  “You sure you want to go with them?” he asked with sincerity as they pulled apart. “These guys are heading straight into a battle and not just swords and knives.  From the sound of it there is going to be magic that hasn’t been seen in over thousands of years.  It’s going to worse than fishing giant hull fish in a typhoon.”

“
No I need to go,” Junior said with conviction. “This has been the most fun I’ve had since my last brawl at the ox,” the younger brother joked, “and the guy leading us is the guy that beat me at arm wrestling.”  Suddenly serious Junior added, “Don’t worry too much, I’ll be okay.  As far as the magical stuff, Shane has my back; he proudly showed off his rings.  Besides I’m going with Shew to help the navy guys out against the Infin Armada.”

The two brothers parted and Shane opened a portal out from the shield to let the last of the soldiers out.  He had decided to leave the shield up as it was more lumen
than he could absorb to reclaim it and at the moment he didn’t want to just let it go in case he ran low in the upcoming battle.  Using fire glyphs they burned the last of the wrist bands; the smoke causing a haze in the early morning light. With just Shane, Ari, Shew, and Junior remaining they went into the still standing command tent and began to plan.

   Pechor viewed the screens from the cockpit of the lumen filled star blade.  They showed him that the craft was at ninety percent fuel.  Too late he realized he had used nearly five percent senselessly blasting the magical ship that the lumen mage had constructed – but it had been so cathartic; teaching that insignificant back world mage that he was nothing compared to the might of the Allyant.  Besides he would be moving every ship in the Infin Navy to destroy Lu Y Onton harbor in the morning.  Even still, the star blade had used far more power operating within the gravity well of the planet than it did traveling faster than the speed of light between stars; he would need to siphon more lumen after he captured Luion. 

H
e landed the craft near the border near the Infin side of the magical barrier.  All he needed to do is put a breach in it and he would march his army into Luion and begin distributing wristbands and fully fuel the ship and the rest would go into him.  His Army had been marching all night.  He had only a couple of days until the Elios ceremony.  He needed to capture the star seeds before the Elios sealing magic could occur if he were to still have any possibility of capturing the star seeds. 

His thoughts continued to trouble him
and it angered him that he had not been able to keep the Infin kings memories longer; one of the side effects of a lengthy hosting was the eventual loss of the host’s original memories.  While he could still vaguely recall Stafford, the memories of the king were mostly faded.  That Stafford was still alive piqued a cautious feeling but failed to cause any resurgence in the memories of the former king of Infin.  The only memories of the former king that remained were now so faint that he could only recall the name and a feeling of dread regarding the former assassin.  A thought that
did
keep surfacing, and was definitely far more troublesome and a risk to his plans, was that of the unknown lumen mage.  He was still reeling from the evening dialogue with the lumen mage and now he was worried even more so at the way the Lumen Mage that had so easily contained his lumen slave.  The slave had had the lumen of nearly one hundred men and he had been stopped without the lumen mage even blinking.

His
super soldiers, as he had called them, were all used up.  Those that had been destroyed at the camp across the river outside of Jehhet had been his last. Pechor had used all of his current seeds and he had not taken the time to make more.  His paranoia was increasing the closer he got to the completion of his plans; every noise and shadow caused him a jolt apprehension, to the point that he only felt safe within the confines of the starblade. 

The body of the former king of Infin was the
most powerful slave that he had ever had host him.  He would wear it until it was ready to die of old age; to host a body of Elios decent even if it was a half breed of the non-potent Luion, was a sign that Pechor was meant to be an Allyant Great One.  Due to its large capacity and natural ability to produce lumen it was perfect for his needs. 

The one item that still needed his attention was the
slave Nuekirk.  He needed to find a way to activate the ring so that he could discover the location of the ceremony.  Distressed as he was about the destruction of the Elios artifact activator at the king’s facility, he knew that there was another. It was in the building of the former Thoreau artifact manufactures building.  He had caused all of the employees of all of the artifact makers to be moved to the king’s facilities and be dedicated to making the nearly one million wrist bands that he had needed for his army; he had left that device behind as it was un-needed.  Now it was needed. 

With over a day before the Infin army would reach the border he closed his eyes and guided his host with the ring back to Jehhet to energize the ring.

~~~~~

Shew and Junior ported a
board the INS Armstrong.  A newly dedicated scout and command vessel that Lance and John from Shane’s lab had just installed with Shane’s latest navigation and location artifacts as well as propulsion system.  The Captain on board recognized Shew, but the giant next to him was unexpected.  Shew had opened a Comm to Admiral Cyrado and his staff telling them that the entire Infin Armada was coming and that any ships not equipped with either stealth, magical propulsion, or both should head back to the mouth of the harbor and be set up as a blockade.  The rest needed to come and be decoys and rescue vessels if needed while the Armstrong would take the task of sinking ships.

Shew took command of the viewer and using Shane’s instructions he tied the targeting of the ships viewer into his portal
device.  Addressing the captain he said, “No need to get us close just keep us moving in case they have the same magical blasters that their flying vessel had the other night.  I need at least three of your guys picking targets.  As soon as you have one say acquired.  I’ll say next when I’m ready for another.  You three,” he said to the sailors manning the viewer.  “Just keep rotating; next to next to next.  Got it? Start with the closest enemy ships first then we will work our way back in case they don’t retreat.  Junior once I have the target locked in the viewer you tell me if I need to move bow or aft, port or starboard.  If it’s a small vessel I’m just going to split it in half like we did with that artifact in Jehhet… if its larger we will open a hole inside the hold and flood it.  Got it?”  At the nods from all the crew in the navigation section Shew smiled, “Let’s go get em.” 

“Target acquired,” spoke a clear loud voice of the first in the nav line.

“Ok Junior, I’m locked see the red line?  Where is the best place to chop it in two?”

“Two cubits Aft,” the large fisherman said.  I know that craft and if you cut it there everything sinks.”

Shew tapped the activation glyph and silently through the viewer the enemy ship separated.  Within moments both ends slipped beneath the surface of the water.  A loud cheer went up from the nav crew.  “Don’t get too excited,” Cautioned the old spy.  That’s only one down and about four hundred to go.  Next!”

~~~~~

Shane and Ari arrived at the capitol in Lu Y Onton and were met immediately by Roger and General D’Mere.  “Sorry for the short notice,” Ari greeted the each of the men with a brisk handshake.  “We need to move all soldiers to the border at or near the L’raine Bridge where it enters into west Lu Y Onton.  The Infin army is headed this way.  Allion’s troops are marching at a rate that will be here by tomorrow afternoon at the latest, more than likely in the morning.

The sun was mid-
way across the sky by the time Shane and Ari had briefed the general on the last day and a half.  The General of the Luion Army stood and watched the southern side of the boarder across the L’raine River pondering their briefing as it was received.  With quick resolve he was soon coordinating with his officers and soldiers were swiftly at work setting up camp; setting up the different mess facilities readying weapons and setting up temporary quartering.

“
No sense waiting around,” muttered Shane impatiently.  “I’m going to increase the height of the shield wall and anchor it deeper.  With a little luck it will slow them down long enough so that we can neutralize the wristbands and get them to surrender.  Is it alright if I use your pavilion, General?”

“Anything you need,” nodded the general.
Turning to his aide standing nearby he directed him to get a detail of men together to give Shane whatever he needed.

“While Shane does that,” commented Ari I’m going to get with Roger and see what we can do, magically, to slow them down and track them.  General if you would come with me to your command tent so that I can make some changes to the
artifacts that we gave you.  Also we need to get Lance and John and professor Wetz from the lab on the comm.  We are going to need all the help we can get and they are the only glyph mages that know what we have given you.  I also need to check in with Shew and see how things are going with that armada.”

Shane walked to a large
canvas tent that was open on the lee side facing away from the slight but chilly northern breeze.  Several portable chairs and tabled had been set up inside and in the corner was a small unlit wood stove.  So far the winter had been mild but it was likely to change any day as the wet season was due to start.  Shane sat and closed his eyes. 

Slowly h
e let his thoughts race out through and past the crowds of soldiers and to the other side of the large slow moving L’raine River.  About a half a milo beyond the southern shore of the Infin side he could feel the energy and see the lumen that made up the protective wall that blocked the Allyant soul lumen.  With his mind he spanned the nearly two thousand miles from east to west along the entirety of the magical wall.  Using a mental portal he reached out to each of the twenty plus individual towers spaced one hundred milos apart and began adjusting heights and depths of each massive obelisk.  Presently they were just under twenty cubits deep and twenty cubits tall.  Carefully he began to increase the depth of each obelisk by a factor of five.  At the half way point while lowering one of the subterranean pillars near the center of the continent near the head-waters of the L’raine River where the mountains began, he noticed or felt a new source of energy.  As he studied it, it appeared to be a fluid of immense heat. Reaching out with his lumen site he saw fractures in the ground that spread like tendrils the closer to the surface they reached.  He followed them back into the depths of the ground and like branches of a tree they made their way to a large trunk that grew larger the deeper it went until it blended with the molten core of Eliom.

Shane
reached out to his instructor and began to study the significance of what he had discovered.

After learning about the properties of volcanoes and fault
lines; just skimming over the side effects of what could happen if they were changed - he began looking into converting the tremendous heat into energy.  The instructor showed numerous methods available. After reviewing he decided the simplest method would be to use dissimilar metals to generate a form of energy that he could convert using glyphs to increase power to the shielding that he had initially built into the wall.   To reach the heat he sunk the bottom half of his obelisk like a giant tap root into the magma below the earth.  Starting back at the beginning he repeated the process for all of the obelisks.  Shane couldn’t help but notice that the fissures and tendrils seemed to follow a line along the entire border and out into the ocean on both coasts.
It must be the fault lines that the instructor had mentioned
, he thought.

~~~~~

The afternoon sun was bright but the winter sky of the northern ocean claimed all warmth and exchanged it for a bitter wind.  The sea was beginning to swell and grow teeth in the form of white caps as it began to throw the Armstrong up and down the peaks and valleys of the wind driven waves.

“How many ships have we sunk so far,” Mister Shew, asked the Captain of the Armstrong as he steadied himself with the increasing roll of the ship.

Shew didn’t look up from his viewer, instead he spoke to Junior.  “This one is a bit large to cut in half; we’re going to have to fill it up.  Where’s the best spot, Junior?”

“Can you open portals in these three holds,” the large man replied as he pointed near the water line on the image of the ship at locations near the bow, the stern and amidships.

“That I can,” commented Shew and he tapped a series of glyphs.  The image of the larger ship visibly lowered in the water with increasing rapidity; with a sudden rush of air escaping from the open hatches and portholes the boat disappeared beneath the waves as the crew hastily swam to the barely deployed life boats.  Turning to the patiently waiting Captain Shew smiled his best apologetic smile and answered.  “We have just sunk number one hundred and thirty six.  By my count that leaves us with about three hundred and forty to go; give or take a handful.  All of those destroyed so far have been those that were the closest to Luion waters.  It looks like we don’t have anything closer than three to four hundred milos so we have some breathing room.”  Turning to one of the sailors manning the viewer he said,” Jerome, Any sign of anyone turning around?”

“No sir,” the sailor replied alertly.

“Alright, Junior, this is taking too long.  Now that we have some a little time, let’s see if we can pick up the pace.  “I’m feeling like we may not have to kill all these sorry bastards if we can disable them.  The sea is getting a little rough this afternoon let’s start with filling up their bilges and lower them into the water a bit; not enough to sink them but enough to make them wallow a bit - maybe they’ll reconsider continuing north.  Hopefully the combination of the high seas and taking on water they will turn back for Jehhet.”

Turning to the large fisherman Shew continued
, “As we pick up the pace and I need you to show me where to flood these next two hundred boats.  I’m going to open a bunch of small portals at once in the next two hundred targets.  My hope is to flood them faster than they can pump.  Most of them can make it to Cliffs Port before they sink if they react fast enough.  If they continue on toward Luion,” Shew shrugged, “then they’re digging their own graves.  You boys ready?”  The three sailors at the nav viewer acknowledged with a round of yes sir.  “Okay I’m going to be calling out ‘Next’ fairly quickly so get me targets as fast as you can.”  The ship lurched into an unexpected wave, the sailors held on to a convenient rail as Shew fell forward just short of knocking his head against the wall.  He felt Junior’s large hand grip his upper arm preventing him from colliding with the captain.  “Captain,” Shew said as he regained his footing, “see if you can get Admiral Cyrado on the comm and get one of the glyph mages here.  We need to see if they can get us above and out of these waves.”