By the time Bert woke up the following day, the Waystation was surrounded. House Jura had apparently wanted to make a point. The lines of men in armor, armored knights on horseback, leather-clad archers, and robed mages stood at a distance from the Waystation, encircling it but not attacking. At least not yet.

Eckhart was standing on the parapet over one of the Gates, facing the largest collection of armored knights. He glared across the field at them and fumed.

“Morning,” Bert said as he leaned down next to him. “I see we have onlookers.”

“Bastards are going to kill us all just to make a point!” He shook his head, “What can the Fae think of us?”

“It’s not exactly a surprise,” Bert shrugged. “If it helps, we generally have found the people here more welcoming than the last lands we passed through.”

“Really?” Eckhart asked.

“Yeah, we had to flatten a small town just to get away at one point.” He laughed as Eckhart paled. “Relax, no one was hurt. They were all outside the town when it happened.”

“All of them?” Eckhart asked doubtfully.

“Yeah, they wanted everyone for the lynch mob, I guess.” Bert shrugged.

“Who were they lynching?” Eckhart stared at him.

“Us,” Bert grinned. “Better get these tents and stuff packed up.”

“You’re leaving?” Bruno said, his voice booming in the early morning air.

“We’re leaving,” Bert said. “They want to play games; I want to keep these people safe.”

“Where can we go?” Eckhart wondered aloud.

“The only shelter near here is the Broken Place,” May said, her voice quavering.

“And that is?” Bert asked.

“A city of the undead,” Bruno rumbled. “Infested, it is.”

“Sounds perfect!” Bert grinned.

The others simply shook their heads and headed off to pack up the camp.

It took almost three hours to pack up the camp, and everyone was nervous. Bert had his people at each gate as they packed up, waiting for the army to attack.

They simply watched and jeered as the refugees worked to pack their things away. In the end, there was barely enough space for everyone. They were packed into every room of the Bear’s Fall, the restaurant, and even a good number in the Barn. Over a hundred people in all.

Bert didn’t want any of them outside, just in case the army attacked as they left.

They waited until everything was on board and packed away before filling in the bit of trench just in front of them enough to drive over.

As the enormous treads began to turn, it happened.

A single arrow flew from the lines of the army.

Bud fired back from atop the Gatehouse, the arrow slamming into the errant archer’s throat.

Bert stood in the Control Tower and merged his Mana Tide with that of the Waystation. The vast, ocean-like tides of the Waystation added to his own as he summoned glowing turn runes in a five-pointed star shape above the walls of the Waystation and Trailor One.

Arrows and Spells began to fly freely as he poured more and more mana into the Runes. Arrows still thunked into the wooden walls and bounced off the stones of the Waystation, but most were shot off in random directions.

The spells were worse; they pushed against the runes, trying to overcome them. Most of the spells simply failed, small explosions as their mana exploded. Several rebounded completely, flying back into the lines of house Jura, setting whole sections on fire, or worse.

Other spells aimed ahead of the vehicle, turning the ground into sheets of mud, fire, or ice. None of it slowed the waystation as the Sky Ship Steel treads rolled merrily over or through it all.

An Earth mage of some form summoned a wall of thick stone ahead of the Waystation and then passed out as they tried to hold it together as the giant mandibles tore it to pieces.

Bud and the orcs patrolled the walls as they went, protected by the runes from the majority of the harm. A couple of them took arrows in the arm or leg, but nothing major. Eckhart moved back and forth, healing them up as needed.

The attacks became more and more sporadic as they approached the lines.

“What do I do if they don’t move?” Bell asked eagerly.

“Run 'em over,” Bert shrugged. “They attacked us, so they are fair game.”

The army moved, of course. It takes a lot of fear for a man to stand in front of a tank tread larger than he is and not move. It takes even more for the guy on either side of him to do the same.

And, of course, as soon as the first one runs…

The area ahead of them had been clear for a few hours when they ran into problems again. The army was still following but at a distance.

Something had turned the area ahead of them into a bog. Bert looked down on it and huffed in frustration.

A long, wide area of land had been turned into a bog, and he couldn’t see any clear way around it. What was worse was they had no idea how deep it was. If it was deep enough, it might slow them down.

“Go slow and careful,” Bert muttered to Bell as she eased the tracks onto the bogland. “It doesn’t seem too deep.”

And it wasn’t, at first. The further in they got, the deeper it got. The last treads on Trailor One had just started to enter the bog when the front tracks disappeared suddenly. The Waystation lurched forward, sending them all tumbling to the floor.

“Now!” A voice yelled. Bert distantly recognized it as Ben-atal’s voice as Bell warned him the ground had set solid around the tracks.

He stalked towards the platform before Bell called him back.

“Oi! You always get to go play while I drive; it’s my turn.” She demanded.

“Okay,” Bert shrugged.

“I can go?” She seemed surprised.

“Have fun,” Bert grinned. “I should stay here and keep the runes running anyway.”

“Yay!” She grinned as she flew onto the platform, disappearing from sight as it dropped into the tower.

Bert lay back into his chair, fully dropping into the tides as he prepared to defend the Waystation.

=============

Bell and her Multi-Bells charged out of the Tower as soon as the platform stopped.

“Bud!” She called. “Keep the kids on the walls!”

“Yes, Bell!” He called back.

She started to summon her knives as the sound of hoofbeats approached. Her Multi-Bells pouted about not having knives of their own, but she just laughed and told them to get ready.

“With me!” She commanded and set out, flying over the gate with the others in formation.

The riders were almost at the drawbridge, large grappling hooks in hand, as she cleared the gateway and attacked.

Thirteen giggling pixies descended on the riders in a storm of blades and spells. Blood fountained around her as the horses reared in terror.

Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

One of the riders tried to run, but a knife that hummed as it cut through the air sliced clean through his armor and out the front of his chest. He fell limply from the saddle.

Spells began to rain down around her squadron of pixies, but the advantage of being a pixie was being tiny, fast, and hard to hit.

Fireballs flew from the pixies in retaliation as she wove back and forth. A couple of the Multi-Bells fell, disappearing before they hit the ground, and then she was back behind the walls.

There were a lot of mages out there.

“Footmen incoming!” Bud called. He Jumped from the gatehouse, landing next to her. “A lot of them.

“Get ready, “ She waved up at the tower, “I’ve been waiting for this.” She sent a message to Way Way and planted herself in view of the gateway.

Bud was a hell of an archer, Bell thought as his arms seemed to blur, arrows cutting down row after row of the footmen as they approached the drawbridge.

She laughed at them as they cowered behind their shields. On each side of the Gateway, her Multi-Bells waited.

The order to charge was given, and the lines moved toward them at a run,

Bell waited, smiling and waving at them.

The ground gave way as they hit the top of the ramp, a pit trap. She giggled at the screams as the survivors were pushed further onto the spikes as the ranks behind them pushed forward. Stepping on their dead friends, the soldiers charged on.

The second line of traps triggered long thin needles of steel fired from walls, floor, and ceiling. The men caught in it were torn apart as those behind them were pushed onwards by the oblivious men behind them.

The third line of traps was worse; large spikes shot out of the ground, impaling the front row and creating a wall as the ranks behind found themselves dowsed in a burning acid that one of Scruff’s plants produced in massive quantities.

Bell rolled on the floor, pointing and laughing as the men fought to free themselves.

Bud had been driven back by archers and mages, falling back to take a position by the door of the Bear’s Fall.

The footmen fell back, letting through a trio of mages that projected a glowing shield before them. The footmen formed up behind the mages and crept forward.

The shield was strong, blocking two lines of traps and clearing the gatehouse as they marched confidently forward.

The waiting Multi-Bells launched jets of flame from both hands as soon as the shield passed them.

The mages barely had time to scream before they were burned alive. The shield lasted just long enough to turn the flames back onto the assembled footmen. Bell noticed they got plenty of time to scream as they flailed and burned in the entryway.

Bell beamed, the flames reflected in her eyes as they died.

When the screams died away, she heard more coming from the back of the Waystation and flew over.

They had climbed Trailor One while the footmen distracted her.

She could almost be angry.

Almost.

The poor bastards had walked directly into the area still claimed by Scruffs plants. Many of them still stood, frozen in place, screaming in pain as the plants wound up through their bodies before bursting out of their eyes, noses, ears, and mouths.

Even Bell, who would be the first to admit she enjoyed a little killing, looked away from some of the things happening back there.

Getting a little higher as she heard more hoofbeats, Bell saw a long, thin line of cavalry charging the drawbridge. Growling, she set the Multi-Bells to bombard the line with fireballs.

More and more came on, even as the leaders began to fall, burned, or on fire.

“Cheat!” Bell swore as she scrambled to come up with a plan.

She was still thinking as the first horses charged up the drawbridge and straight into a line of long steel poles that angled up from the ground.

The cavalry slammed into it, too tightly packed to turn aside.

The spikes drove through horse and rider alike. The screams were deafening. It was horrible hearing the animals scream, and Bell blanched before laughing. The dead bodies of the men were flowing into the horses, healing them.

Bell grinned.

She really loved having a Caretaker she could rely on.

Bell was getting tired. She was so tired she had lost count of how many people she had killed. That had never happened to her before. The damnable House Jura just kept coming. How many people did they have to waste?

She sighed as Bud called another attack incoming.

This was in danger of starting to get boring.

She peered over the parapet of the gatehouse, seeing a charging force of ten mages flying in close formation as they zoomed along the ground.

This was new.

Up until now, the majority of the mages had kept back. They had driven off waves of cavalry, footmen, archers, and even a small wave of assassins.

The assassins had even gotten inside the Waystation. Of course, as soon as they started to move over the Waystation, they were sucked into the ground. She could feel a couple of them still alive as they struggled, buried deep beneath the Barn.

The mages came into land on the Drawbridge, setting up complex spells as the outer ones formed a shield around them.

Bell and her copies rained fireballs on them, to no avail.

The shield held.

The Drawbridge slammed slut; the mages sent flying into the traps.

Bell blinked before starting to laugh.

By nightfall, Bell was tired, bored, and irritable. She rode the platform to the top of the tower and looked around the outskirts of the Waystation.

There were very few troops left.

“Your turn,” She sighed, slumping into her chair.

“You sure?” Bert grinned at her. “I don’t want to steal your fun.”

“What fun?” She grumped. “They just keep coming and getting killed.”

“Okay, I’ll mop up the rest.” Bert hopped onto the platform and rode it down to the ground.

Bell blinked blearily as she stared out the window. She was asleep before Bert even reached the ground floor.

=============

Bert leaned on the parapet over the gatehouse with Bud as Slothy drank from the water around the tower.

There had not been an attack in the last hour or so.

“I hope we can get out of here soon,” Bud said. “I don’t like being stuck in one place.”

“Same here,” Bert said. “I kind of got used to moving around.”

“How are you doing?” Bud asked. “About your wife, I mean.”

“Okay,” Bert nodded to his friend. “I miss her, but…” He shrugged. “You can’t force someone to be with you.”

“I know, I’m still sorry.” Bud placed a comforting hand on Bert’s shoulder.

“Thanks, Bud.” Bert smiled at him. “Seeing her helped in a way. I know she’s out there, having a blast.”

“Here they come again!” A Multi-Bell called from her spot on top of the Barn.

Bert and Bud sighed and looked out over the plains. The early morning sun showed a V formation of riders approaching.

Bud cracked his neck and reached for an arrow before pausing. “White flag?” He asked Bert.

“Means they want to talk,” Bert said. “Probably a trap.”

“Kill them anyway?” Bud offered, nocking an arrow.

“Naah, let’s see what they want.” Bert chuckled. He closed his eyes and raised the drawbridge again, just to be safe.

The riders came to a stop before the Waystation’s gate. A man in silver armor and the largest white plumes Bert had ever seen strode forward and bowed.

“Lord Caretaker. I am Raster, Headman of House Jura. I offer my apologies for this misunderstanding.”

“Misunderstanding?” Bert asked mildly. “Oh, you mean the repeated attacks on the Fae?”

“My junior man was overconfident, it seems,” Raster said. “He failed to inform me of the pertinent details of who he was attacking… and why.”

Raster gestured, and Ben-atal’s head was held up for Bert to see. Just the head; the rest of him was not included.

“And now?” Bert asked in that same steady voice.

“House Jura would agree to your terms of Neutrality,” Raster said. “We offer this to compensate you for your losses.” A large chest was placed on the ground. Raster kicked it open, revealing gold and gems in abundance.

“What losses?” Bud asked.

“The loss of life,” Raster said, peering through the rising sun at the skeletal archer.

“We lost no one,” Bert laughed. “All you have done is wasted our time.”

He could swear the headman paled at that. “Give the money to the families of the men whose lives you’ve wasted in this attack.”

“You don’t want money?” Raster asked. “Then how do we have peace?”

“Well, step one… you and yours fuck off and leave us alone. Step two, make sure every one of your men does the same from now on.”

“At least allow our mages to free this vehicle from the ground!” Raster offered.

Bert frowned and concentrated. The Waystation had been working on the ground for most of the night once the attacks started to slow down. A wide stretch of earth between the treads as well as all the ground actually touching them, was now under its control.

The Waystation rose from the ground in a smooth movement, coming to rest a little below ground level as the earth flowed into the gap and firmed.

Bert opened his eyes.

“We could have left at any time; I just stayed to get this sorted out.” Bert lied. “Good day, House Jura.” He locked eyes with the Headman as the Waystation started to roll forward slowly.

The Jura forces fell behind them as Bert turned away.

“We could have left at any time?” Bud asked doubtfully.

“Of course not,” Bert grinned. “But that story is gonna get around.” He ran a hand over his face. “They still watching?”

“No, they have ridden off,” Bud said, his eyes scanning the horizon.

“Thank fuck!” Bert ran for the tower. He had been driving blind since he couldn’t see anything.

That night they set a watch and had everyone outside for a meal. It let everyone stretch their legs a little and get some fresh air. The mood was jubilant again. It seemed like it took a lot to get the people of this area down.

Bert was finding he liked them more and more.

“So, we head for the Broken Place?” Eckhart asked.

Bruno and May both nodded. They were a curious couple. Bruno was a giant of a man with long blond hair and a ready smile, while his wife May was short with dark hair and a permanently severe expression.

They turned to another pair that had joined them for dinner. They apparently represented the people of House Omis. Louis and Brenda could have been twins. They both had brown hair and eyes, were the exact same build and height, and even had similar features. Bert had asked Bruno about it, but the man just shook his head and said that with House Omis, you never asked.

The pair nodded, and it was decided again.

Bert had wanted to check that people still wanted to go considering all Houses had now agreed. No one trusted their own houses, let alone the others.

So the Waystation would head for the Broken Place.

“So are you two brother and sister or what?” Bell piped up in the silence.

“Fuck sake, Bell!” Bert groaned as Bruno bellowed a laugh.