Outside Pella, the Territories of Ilsylvania. Day 03.
Halzy was in the stables with Daisy, Alyx’s horse. His back was to Tyree as he brushed out her mane while softly cooing to her. Tyree stood there, watching the man in silence. There was definitely more to him than she’d always seen in any of the Guardians before today. For one thing, Guardians never told you of their thoughts, their lives, or anything at all. A quest would simply be posted where they could see it and they would do it. Guardians could be found in large groups or even solitary out in the wilds, still and stiff like statues father nature refused to weather.
Tyree wondered what their world was like. Was it some sort of haven such that they sought conflict in this world? Or was it a hellscape that they sought refuge from? What drove them to come here? Halzy said he’d had a family that he couldn’t even remember due to a disease that ate his memories. Was that the fate of all of his kind and this was their only escape?
Daisy looked up at Tyree and Halzy turned around. “Ah, I didn’t see you there.”
“You have a way with animals. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Daisy as calm as she is now around a stranger.”
“My family owned a few horses when I was a boy. Though these beasts you have would put our best to shame and we had the best the great state of Texas had to offer. I never focused on beast taming in this world, but it seems the skills from my world carry over. I take it you’re ready to go?”
“I am. We can take my wife’s horse. He’s strong enough to carry the two of us.” Tyree’s mind momentarily went to her own horse, Felt. Fortunately the young gelding hadn’t been with her when she had been attacked. He was safe in Araedi at her friends’ stables.
“I assume we want speed. These horses are impressive, but they won’t do if you want to be in and out before your family wakes.” There was that mischievous twinkle in Halzy’s eyes again as he made a blue whistle appear in his hands.
The whistle gave a sharp call and it was answered by a thunderous galloping outside the stables. Tyree hobbled outside the stables beside Halzy and saw a massive, eight-legged horse with a blue-grey coat coming up the pathway towards them. The horse was far, far larger than any Tyree had ever seen before.
Halzy heaved himself onto the saddle and reached out a hand to Tyree. With no effort at all, he pulled her up and into the seat behind him.
Tyree had to wrap her hands tight around Halzy to keep herself steady as the horse took off. Fortunately, as soon as the beast got up to speed, the ride smoothed out. Within no time at all, they were approaching the fort to the south west of the city’s gates.
Fort Pella had once been the seat of the combined human and serethi forces that sieged Araedi when the city had fallen under the control of a tyrant who threatened the young Castera at the time. In the five hundred years since then, the village of Pella had grown beside it and Pella became the site of the Cross-Borders Army’s most premier officer training school.
It had been decided at the time the Guardians had disappeared, the Army would have to play a more active role in the defense of Ilsylvania and her territories and as part of that decision, Tyree was promoted to Captain and given command of the 9th Forward Strike Battalion. She had selected Caleb and Shai as two of her lieutenants and part of her reason for coming to Pella was to train and select two more lieutenants to lead the other two companies under her battalion.
The 9th had strong ties to not only the Guardians, but Pella as well. This fort had been where the all-volunteer company had first been assembled nearly a hundred years ago to assist the Guardians in slaying the demon Azeban in the frigid north.
Tyree thought of Tarik, Caleb, Shai, and yes, even Koda. Those four had been the best friends Tyree could have asked for.
Halzy pulled up to Fort Pella’s gates where four soldiers eyed him wearily.
“Hail, Guardian. On the orders of General Neemo, we cannot let you through.” One of the guards said, holding up his hands.
Tyree limped down from the back of the six-legged horse with a hand from Halzy. “He is a friend of mine. He can go where I go.”
The guard turned to Tyree. “I’m sorry, who are you? No civilians allowed, either.”
The man’s rank insignia on his armor identified him as a sergeant.
“I am Captain Tyressa Pearce and you will—”
Halzy raised a placating hand. “It’s fine. I know what it’s like to follow orders. I’ll be at the inn in the center of the village. Send someone for me when you’re finished.”
“Very well,” Tyree nodded at Halzy. She turned back to the sergeant.
The sergeant stumbled back a step and saluted. “Captain. I apologize, I didn’t recognize you”
“None needed. Halzy’s right. You’re just following orders. Can you take me to the morgue?”
“Actually, we were supposed to notify the general of your arrival when you came around.”
Tyree frowned. “Notify or take me to him?”
“Notify, ma’am.”
“Then notify him that I can be found in the morgue. And you—” Tyree pointed to a private who had stifled a laugh. “You take me there.”
The private stepped forward. “Right this way, ma’am.”
***
The morgue was buried under several exhaustingly long flights of stairs. The air grew colder the deeper they went and the plastered brick and mortar transitioned to carved stone that still bore the markings of its excavation. Tyree had to stop nearly every other flight to rest.
The private knocked on the heavy iron door at the bottom of the stairs, waited a beat for a response, and when none came, he hefted open the door.
Inside the morgue, three large woven sacks lay on three tables. Tyree walked over to them and studied them for a long moment.
A man clearing his throat startled Tyree and she turned to see a short, thin man with a thick mustache and thinning hair standing in the entryway to a side room.
“While I am a professional doctor, my usual patients don’t come here under their own power,” He glanced up at the bandages covering Tyree’s face. “You’re not one of mine growing restless, are you?”
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
Tyree smiled at the gallows humor. “No, definitely not.”
“Ah, good. I’ve had too many young people coming through my doors of late. My name is Merriweather. To whom do I owe the pleasure?”
“Captain Pearce. I believe those bags are my team?”
Merriweather shook his head. “Not unless they’ve started walking around on their own. No, I haven’t moved them from autopsy yet.”
A lump formed in Tyree’s throat as she asked her next question, “Can I see them?”
“I am sorry for your loss, Captain, but they did not die easily. I am not sure you want—”
“I need to.” Tyree pressed.
“Very well. Follow me.”
Merriweather led Tyree into the room he had come from. Tyree could see the outlines of her friends’ bodies under the canvas covering them.
Tyree nodded silently to Merriweather as he lifted the canvas back one by one. Both Tarik and Shai’s faces were locked in grimaces of pain. Caleb’s was wholly unrecognizable and she only knew it was him by what remained of the tattoo of the Sanguine Hawk on his right arm.
“I wasn’t expecting anyone else to see them before they were burned and buried. I’m sorry you had to see them this way.”
“No, I needed to. Thank you.” A cold fury had been stoked in Tyree’s chest. A fury at the senseless loss of the lives of three great people and warriors. A fury at the knowledge that their killers would never see justice. “Where are their tags?”
Merriweather led Tyree over to a cabinet and pulled out four wooden boxes, each one bearing the name of one of her squad mates, including Shai’s aid dog, Koda. She opened Tarik’s box and found a dress uniform neatly folded, complete with the badges and field promotions he had earned from his decades of service.
“They will be taken to Castera where they will be given to their surviving relatives,” Merriweather said.
Neither Tarik nor Shai had any surviving family. Tarik’s wife and daughter had died in childbirth and Shai had grown up within Castera’s orphanages. Tyree wasn’t sure about Caleb. All she knew was he had come up from Rielle with the dream of joining the Sanguine Hawks. Perhaps he had some family she could track down.
“Let me take them. As their surviving squad member, the task should fall to me.”
“I will have to get permission,” Merriweather replied apologetically.
“Please do.”
The door to the morgue opened and slammed shut. Merriweather went to look and Tyree followed behind him.
General Neemo stood just inside the room, behind him, Colonel Verne, who Tyree only knew by his rank insignia matched with the name in the file she’d been given.
“Captain, why didn’t you report to my office when you were ambulatory?” General Neemo asked.
“I had to see my team. I made sure someone let you know I was here,” Tyree answered a little weakly.
“You should have reported to me first. There are rules and procedures for a reason. As long as you’re here, let’s get you debriefed. I want to know everything.”
“I actually haven’t been cleared to return to service.”
A soldier who had been injured had to be cleared by their attending healer before returning to duty. Tyree’s attending happened to be Aliyah. Both Tyree and Neemo knew she couldn’t be compelled into staying without Aliyah’s permission.
“Then you should be in the infirmary. It would be in everyone’s best interests if you could write down anything of importance you might remember. Conversations, plans for more attacks… Lives could depend on what you know.”
“Then you should speak to the Guardian Halzy. I already told him everything I remember, and from what I gather, he might be able to fit the pieces together better than I could,” Tyree replied. Much of the other day was still a little hazy.
“I would rather hear your side from you. Now get off my base and get well, Captain.”
Neemo and Verne turned to leave, but Tyree stopped them.
“Why aren’t you allowing Halzy on base? From what I gather, he helped capture the person who murdered my squad, even if they can’t do much. He’s already pledged to help protect Pella should something happen again. Wouldn’t you want to take up his offer?”
Neemo paused without turning around. “We have relied too heavily on the Guardians since their arrival over a hundred years ago. That was all fine and well when they were simple constructs, roaming the continent with no greater thought than to fight monsters. They aren’t the constructs we thought they were. That means Pella, and by extension, Ilsylvania, must not only distance ourselves from our reliance, but must have a way of defending ourselves from them as well.”
General Neemo had echoed the very same concerns Tyree had been building since the Guardians disappeared over a month ago. She had always felt that the average mage rank of the army, mere initiates, compared to the average adventurer rank, adept, needed to be raised. She and Tarik had discussed the very same thing only a day ago.
But Guardians went far beyond the ranks of the average person. Most mages could intuit the rank of another person or monster by feeling, generally only one who was at most a single rank above you. Tyree was the highest rank a mage could achieve, but she couldn’t tell how strong the Guardian Halzy was and there were many, many Guardians just like him.
If Guardians followed the same ranking system as man and monster, that meant he wasn’t simply a single theoretical rank above her own, but at least two. How could someone defend themselves from an entity that powerful?
“We are not completely helpless against the Guardians,” Neemo explained cryptically. “You lead the 9th Forward Strike, which was re-established with the duty to protect Ilsylvania against threats if the Guardians were truly gone as we’d feared. Though, since their return and change, we must also defend against a potential Guardian assault. Ilsylvania has tools for both potentialities. Come see what I mean.”
Tyree followed Neemo and Verne back up to the fort’s artillery room. They took it slow for her benefit, but he quickly rushed her in through a set of stone doors set past the magazine for the fort’s cannons.
They took a manually lowered elevator down to another room and Neemo paused outside two solid metal doors.
“What you’re about to see does not leave this room.” Neemo stood expectantly.
“Understood, General,” Tyree answered formally.
Neemo nodded and opened one door while Verne opened the other. Inside the expansive room were fifty metal crates, each labeling their contents as full of firestone. Twenty-five cannons, larger than any Tyree had ever seen, sat disassembled in between the crates.
Each cannon’s barrel was over twenty feet long with twenty inch bores. Heavy looking steel carriages with steel wheels sat beside each barrel. Armor with the telltale iridescence of enchantments lay beside each cannon and on the back wall lay several more crates with various weights labeled on them. The shot for the artillery, Tyree realized. Glancing back at the cannons, Tyree also realized they were enchanted as well.
“These are improved versions of the siege cannons used against Araedi some five hundred years ago,” Colonel Verne said. “Smaller unenchanted versions, stored in another location, were used to fight Azeban.”
Tyree had always wondered just what exactly had caused all the damage to Araedi’s many tall towers. She, like many, had assumed it was mages bombarding the city with spells.
Looking at the weapons, it made sense. Such large artillery would have a much further range than any mage. A range far enough to allow them to siege a city from miles away.
“There is an aspect to these weapons that I cannot share with you. Not until you’re better and cleared for duty. But these are what the original two lieutenants you were to train and pick were to be armed with. The smaller unenchanted ones with enchanted shot would actually see service, being deployed around each vulnerable village to protect against night spawns. But these are Ilsylvania’s ultimate defensive weapon.”
Tyree’s mind went back to the village she’d seen ravaged in its entirety days ago. Night spawns were powerful creatures. They could survive wounds that would kill normal beasts thanks to their mana-enhanced strength. If that village, Erenvelle, had had these, her guards might have been able to protect her and her people. But why keep them hidden down here?
“Because they were outlawed by our treaty with the Serethi following the end of their civil war.” Neemo answered. “These cannons, specifically their enchanted shot, very well might be able to punch through even their protective barriers and they knew it. In return, we got Castera.”
There was the catch. These things were large, heavy, and relatively immobile compared to a mage or an archer who could deliver attacks of similar power. She didn’t really see the cannons being effective against a goblin swarm.
“Why are you showing me them, instead of just the others?” Tyree asked.
“Because I figure you of all people would appreciate them. They’re terrible weapons from the days when our people feared this land and its monsters. These weapons might not be able to kill a Guardian for good, but they can mist them at least temporarily. And that’s the best thing we have against them.” Neemo stopped and must have seen Tyree’s horrified expression. His own expression showed only grim resolve. “Know that I don’t intend to use these, but I will fire every shot I have in this storehouse and more if it means protecting Ilsylvania and her people.”