Chapter 24
Chessina and I walked into the nearby woods so I could hear Silavara properly.
“Castamir! Oh, I can sense you properly now,” she used the whispering winds spell.
“Tell me, dear sister, only we have a vicious storm coming here and the wind is whispering like a dragon farts,” I said.
“I promised I would officiate at Meghimira’s birthing, and Silvana tells me it is getting on for time,” said Silavara.
“I’ll open a gate and be with you presently,” I said.
“I’ll come to the Tower,” she replied.
Fifteen minutes later we were on the rug of travel.
“Just like old times,” said Chessina, happily. “Are we going to pop in and see the elves as well?”
“As we have the ley-line travel, yes,” I said. “But not until I’ve kept Alvarek and Alvarush company during the birth.”
“Well, at least you can’t get drunk with a little boy along,” said Chessina. “I’m glad you had no intention of abandoning Alvarek’s son.”
“Certainly not,” I said. “He will be worrying about his mother, too.”
The foul weather did not, at this time, extend north, and we sped along the ley line to the Dwarven capital. Here we were met by a contingent of Griffon Guard, who gave us an escort in to land.
We were greeted enthusiastically by a very young dwarf, and his very young griffon. I managed to read from his beard that his family had joined their house with one of their vassals and had two more, which was as far as I got.
“Towermaster! Guardian of the Circle! Lady Chessina! What an honour it is for us all to see you to celebrate the birth of a daughter to one of our own!” he said. “I’m the new captain of Alvarek’s company, and we are all envious of him for his friendship with you. Is it true you slew a dragon alone?”
“Essentially, yes, though I had two companions,” I said. “It’s under preservation until the weather allows me to harvest it; I was hoping to send the meat as a gift to King Thorogar.”
“That would be a kingly gift!” said the young warrior. “My apologies; my name is Thorosik.”
“I’m not very good at reading beards, but am I right in thinking you are a cadet branch of the King’s clan?” I asked.
“Oh, very well done, Towermaster! You must be better than most outsiders. My father says that even Harnon never got the hang of it.”
I laughed.
“Alvarush gave me a rapid lesson when we were last here.”
“Oh, he is plainly an excellent scholar to impart so much,” said Thorosik.
I did not mention that I had copied and taken Alvarush’s school essay on the matter.
Soon we were in Alvarek’s quarters, and I was being hugged tightly enough to worry about my ribs.
“Air, my friend, air!” I gasped, and he let me go.
Silavara and Chessina threw the three of us out of being anywhere near Meghimira, and I found I had to recount the story of the dragon, which had been mentioned in dispatches by Sigeralv, when I filed claim on it. I reiterated my desire to send meat to the king, and Alvarek was certain he would be very happy.
He and Alvarush then taught me to play Dwarven chess, a game the dwarves insist they invented, which is much like any other kind of chess save that there is a king and a champion – or a queen and a champion in sets for women to play with – two griffon riders, two forgemasters taking the place of the priests, and two Halberdiers rather than two castles. The warriors, not pawns, are of two types, axemen and pikemen and pikemen may take over two squares. It is considered a skill in itself to decide how to set up your pikemen and axemen.
Finally, Alvarush fell asleep, and we put him to bed.
“I want to talk to someone about the gas in your gas-bag ships,” I said. “I think I know a way to make them safer.”
Alvarek practically dragged me to what they called ‘hangars’ where they were building ships, and to the chief designer, an elderly dwarf whose beard showed signs of being singed, and was divided off to be fastened behind his neck more for convenience, I thought, than to denote anything but dedication to duty.
He looked at me sceptically.
“And what do you know of our inventions?” he asked.
“I know it must use hydrogen gas to float, unless you have a source of helium,” I said.
“Helium?” he asked.
“It’s still lighter than air, but heavier than hydrogen, but it doesn’t burn,” I said.
“Where can we get some?” he asked.
“I don’t know where any occurs naturally, but I believe I could set up a ritual gate through which you could send hydrogen to turn it into helium,” I said.
“How soon can you make this?” he asked.
“As soon as I can gain the use of Thebroval to help me forge the pipe or gate through which to pass the gas,” I said. “You could make the gas in the usual way of pouring acid on iron filings, and then pump it down the pipe to store more safely.”
The chief engineer seized my arm and we set off at a run to get Thebroval up.
He listened.
“What do you need?” he asked.
“I need a brass tube which will fit the nozzle fittings of the filling pipes and a brass ritual circle with these runes on it,” I said, getting out the sketch I had been making in my spare time [don’t laugh, I do have some] for this purpose.
He examined it in silence.
“Why do you have a grounding rune and a grounding rod?” he asked.
“The process will create a great deal of excess energy which must be vented or the thing will explode,” I explained.
“Make it a draining rune, and we can attach power crystals to it and power them up to drive the thing,” said Thebroval.
“If that’s possible, then that’s a far more elegant solution than just grounding it like lightning,” I said.
“Nothing to stop any excess as well going into heating the caverns, but we’ll see how much is produced,” he said.
“You’re using your word quota up again,” I teased.
“Cheeky whelp! Can it be used to power the item?”
“I don’t know,” I confessed. “I was a little nervous of making it a closed system. I was thinking more about power being put into the runes to get it going with each batch.”
“Leave it with me,” said Thebroval. “Umbramil and I will work it out. The king will make you an honourary dwarf for this, if it works.”
“That would be an honour I had not looked for,” I stammered.
He patted me on the back.
“Go and let that fevered brain of yours have some sleep,” he said.
Alvarek and I went back to Alvarek’s quarters, just in time to look innocent of having been wandering about the caverns as Silavara brought out a small, red bundle.
“Your daughter, Plane-Cleaver,” she said, formally.
Alvarek took the baby, with an awed expression.
“Welcome, Meghavara,” he said. “My wife and I already discussed this, and we wished to add a part of your name to hers; if you are willing.”
“I am honoured,” said Silavara.
We all slept in.
Thebroval turned up shortly after we had eaten an unspecified first meal of the day, some time in the afternoon.
“The prototype works,” he said.
“Prototype of what?” asked Chessina, suspiciously.
“A device to make the Dwarven gasbag ships safer,” I said. “Nothing much.”
“A piece of magic of great sophistication and with many implications, and which will save lives,” said Thebroval. “Drop in over the summer, and we’ll have it fully up and working.”
“Excellent,” I said, beaming like a loon.
“We will be talking about this later,” said Chessina. “So I know that you haven’t been putting us in danger of being blown up.”
“Oh! Not at all,” I said. “It was a purely theoretical project until now.”
She looked at me suspiciously, but let it be.
Unlike Harmon’s sister, my wife believes me.
We had a big party to celebrate the baby’s birth, of course.
I noted representatives of some quite powerful clans there, which worried me a little, and I spoke to Alvarek about it.
“It’s quite heady,” said Alvarek. “I am receiving overtures of alliances from a lot of people, basically because of my friendship with you.”
“Me?” I said, startled.
“You impressed a lot of people last time you were here, not least by stopping the war and demonic intervention dead,” said Alvarek. “A lot of people want to be in the good with the Towermaster. Well, apart from the Veshol clan, but then, nobody trusts them.”
“Can they have been touched by demonic interference?” I wondered, out loud.
“I doubt it,” said Alvarek. “But they did have a lot of ties to Elven trade, so I wouldn’t put it past the elves to have tried some destabilisation through flattering them. Of course, it’s more likely that they’re just plain nasty on their own.”
I laughed.
One must not see demons in everything, or I would become as crazy as… oh, what was his name… Corel, when he thought his baby daughter was a demon.
“I think we are shut of the demon menace for a while, at least,” I said.
Alvarek grunted.
“You’ll need to either destroy every vestige of any part of the names of those who have been trouble, which is going to be virtually impossible without getting hold of the personal diaries of everyone even peripherally involved in demonology, or you’re going to have to deal with them on the Abyss,” he said. “And hark at me discussing that as if it were a stroll to the mines. But you are powerful, Castamir, and I am sure you will manage.”
“I was rather coming to the same conclusion,” I said. “That we were going to have to go visiting and deal with Fishface and his minions on their own territory.”
“Oh, well, rather you than me,” said Alvarek.
“Oh, you wouldn’t be willing to go as a good man in a fight?” I asked.
His face was a study.
Part of him yearned for the glory of the fight; the rest of him remembered that he was a family man.
I patted him on the arm.
“I would never ask it of you, my friend,” I said. “Besides, we are hoping to sneak in incognito, and do a bit of quiet assassination, but a dwarf would stand out, where a human could take a demonic disguise.”
“I think I’m more relieved than disappointed, but I feel I ought to be more disappointed than relieved,” he sighed.
“Meghimira would prefer you to be relieved; and Meghavara needs her daddy,” I said.
He got that soppy grin new fathers seem to wear.
I did get summoned to see the king; or rather, the three of us were invited to take refreshments with the royal family.
“No big crisis, this time, Towermaster?” boomed King Thorogar.
“No, just a promise fulfilled, that Silavara would officiate at the birth of Alvarek’s daughter,” I said. “And an idea I passed on to your builders of sky ships.”
“Yes, I heard about that,” said Thorogar. “If it works, you’ll have to become an honourary dwarf, you know! And of course, that will make it safe to use as a merchant vessel, and you will have to have shares in the building of such.”
“Oh, that’s not nec…” I got that far before Chessina silenced me, beamed, and bowed her head to the king.
“Castamir means he would be delighted to accept your flattering offer, your majesty,” she said.
She lifted the spell, so I could smile, and agree.
“Chessina takes care of all my finances,” I said. “She is so much better at it than I am.”
“There must be financial reward for such an amazing invention,” said the king. “Either shares in our mercantile endeavours with it, or royalty payments.”
“Take the shares,” hissed Chessina.
“I would be most happy to take the shares,” I said, obediently.
“No wonder your wife gets on so well with my daughter-in-law; she would make an excellent dwarf,” said Thorogar.
“And Chessina’s advice to me has been very helpful, Father-King,” said Princess Neveslava. “I have been obeying Gnevara to the letter, and it has caused her to lose face several times; and now she has been replaced as my supervisor and trainer, and her cousin, Gnevina is much more convivial, and has taught me a lot.”
Chessina squealed with delight, and hugged her.
We stayed one more night, and then moved on to the Elven city, on that amazingly fast ley line.
No comments:
Post a Comment