A Soldier's Life - 444 -

Chapter 444:

The first item on my list was on the eleventh floor in store room E2. The hallways were well marked with signs, and I might have explored several of the storerooms in Sanctuary, but I hadn’t visited this one. The door had a heavy bar across it, and the steel hinges were heavily greased to protect from the salt air. The bar was a bit stubborn, but eventually I managed to free it and open the warehouse.

The door had tightly sealed the room beyond, and stale air greeted me. With my aether sight, I could see everything clearly enough, but I still took time to infuse the glowstones in the walls to light the entire chamber. The long, narrow room smelled of oil preservative with a hint of wood. Three shelves on each side of the room hung medium crossbows on hooks underneath them. None of them had draw cords; those were in barrels of alchemical preservative by the door where I stood.

The crossbow was a weapon for unskilled marksmen and was much slower to fire than a bow. I don’t think I saw three Sentinels in all of Sanctuary wielding this ranged weapon during my time there. However, I understood why Castilian Jalorien wanted these brought to the plateau. It was to defend against flying creatures and probably to provide the roughly hundred teenagers with a ranged weapon. I assumed it was better to put a weapon in their hands rather than risk letting them be killed without putting up a fight. Every child was trained in combat, but would be overwhelmed by the stronger two-hundred-pound Nashasari warriors in melee.

I was supposed to bring one hundred and fifty crossbows and two barrels of draw cords to the plateau. A quick count told me there were 300 crossbows in this storeroom, 150 on each side, making it easy to keep track. It didn’t take me long to move everything to my space and check the second item on my list, the bolts for these weapons.

The room was on this floor, and the Castilian wanted twelve hundred quarrels. The door to storeroom S3 was easier to open, and the faint smell of adhesive, wood, and metal greeted me upon entering. This room was more square than the crossbow room, with seven rows of shelves dividing the room. There were some footprints in a thin layer of dust on the floor as I walked around the room exploring while charging the glowstones.

The shelves held neat bundles of thick quarrels in two sizes, one for the medium crossbow I had collected and one for a heavy crossbow. Each quarrel had a fragile layer of wax to keep it preserved. I was guessing some of these bolts were hundreds of years old. Crossbow ammunition was not the only thing in the room. Unused target dummies layered in dust lined the back wall, and sets of fletcher tools were oiled and stored in dry, cracked leather bags. There were enough bolts here to defend a city.

I collected fifty bundles of twenty-five bolts and moved them to my space, secured the room, and climbed the stairs. I took one of the rarely used stairs to reach the plateau, but still passed half a dozen Sentinels rushing about their preparation.

I observed a few dozen seagulls flying above the plateau. I couldn’t recall seeing any seabirds before, and I guessed they came on the Brotherhood ships and might be being used by mages spying on us. Their cries were annoying, and I thought about using some of the bolts to get some target practice. “Put what you got in the drying shack,” Jalorien yelled when he saw me walking across the plateau. I acknowledged him and went to the building that was primarily used to dry seaweed.

After unloading my cargo, I paused to talk with the High Sentinel. He was in his council chambers with four others, in deep discussion over the map. “Yes, Seeker Eryk,” the High Sentinel said without looking up.

I had hoped to find him to talk privately, but came up with a reason for seeking him out. “Where will I be stationed if there is an attack?”

Fenlorian looked up from his maps. “On the plateau. You will be under the command of Jalorien. Since Evie will be on the plateau, I thought that is where you would want to be.” I was slightly shocked I wouldn’t be part of the first line of defense, but nodded. Fenlorian straightened. “Evie will be marked tonight. All the children who have not will be.”

“Why now? Isn’t it too early?” I asked, but suspected the reason.

“We have only three artificers who can inscribe the runes on bones. With the outcome of the attack—not guaranteed, I want them to have all the defenses we can provide.” He assessed me before continuing. “We were discussing the merits of destroying the contents of the storerooms or placing defensive wards on them. Your thoughts?”

“Destroy them? There are hundreds of storerooms,” I said, confused.

“Indeed. There are enough weapons, armor, potions, artifacts, and supplies to equip an army of sixty thousand. Everything has been forged and preserved by master craftsmen,” Fenlorian said with some sorrow at what would be lost.

Torandir interrupted. “Sixty-seven thousand, High Sentinel.”  

A crease of irritation appeared on Fenlorian’s face, but he acknowledged the fire mage. “Yes, friend. This was to be the last bastion against the undead if the continents fell. Many of the weapons are useless to the undead, but to the Nashasari, they could be used to create an instant army to threaten a continent,” Fenlorian said regretfully.

I thought about what I would do. I would destroy the potions and artifacts, but using them in the defense was smarter until you knew all was lost. “It would take too long to destroy them. I would focus on defenses and ward the rooms with dangerous traps. Maybe those traps could be what is needed to turn the tide of battle,” I said thoughtfully.

Fenlorian nodded, but Torandir’s jaw tightened. He clearly thought the Brotherhood was too much of a threat to risk giving them the supplies. “We could collapse Sanctuary into the sea,” Torandir said.

“That would take weeks to prepare, and the soulless are boarding the ships as we speak,” Fenlorian said.

A cold chill went up my spine. “How long until?” I asked numbly.

“Tomorrow at the earliest. We will have at least half a day’s warning,” the High Sentinel said.

“What about the gulls over Sanctuary? Are they spying on our preparations?” I asked.

“The plateau is disguised from above with an illusion array. It wouldn’t matter as the true preparations are in the lower parts of Sanctuary. The serpent men are probably just watching to make sure we do not attempt to escape. I have cancelled orders to repair the Mourning Glory. It cannot outrun them and would weaken our defenses,” Fenlorian said regretfully. A silence of inevitability hung between us. “Bring Evie to Lepidus at sunset.”

I made one more trip to a storeroom for body shields before I found Blaze in the fletcher workshop. He was laughing at something one of the elf fletchers had said. The mood among the four elven fletchers and Blaze seemed jovial in the face of impending doom. “Eryk, do you require me for something?” Blaze asked after the laughter died down.

“Evie is going to be inscribed at sunset, and I was going to make us dinner,” I explained. I had wanted to tell him that we only had a day before the attack, but it would spoil the mood in the shop.

“It is an unpleasant experience,” Blaze conceded, having gone through it himself. “I will be there to support her, but will work through dinner. Some of the children already brought us a meal.” He nodded toward some empty wooden bowls.

“Blaze, you are assigned to the plateau for the defense,” I said before departing.

“I am aware,” he said, and a slight smile formed. “I have been awarded an artifact bow that I cannot wait to show you tonight.” I nodded at his excitement and went to find Evie.

Evie was trudging up the steps with a wooden backpack that was chirping. When she saw me, she sat heavily on the steps. “I don’t think I can take another step,” she whined. “My legs are rubber even though we have been drinking stamina potions. An elf boy with a clucking cargo appeared on the landing below us and looked up the stairs in dread. He gradually started taking one step at a time, and I waited till he passed us before taking Evie’s burden.

“It is time for dinner. Lead the way and show me where to drop it off,” I said cheerfully. I only gave her a lesser healing potion when we reached our dormitory.

An hour later, I was making Evie some caramelized walnut and blueberry pancakes for dinner. “You are going to be inscribed tonight,” I said as she started on the second pancake.

With a full mouth, she responded. “I know. After it is done, we can leave Sanctuary.”

I didn’t know how to break it to her that there was a chance we would not survive the combined forces of the Nashasari and undead. “Yes. We can leave as soon as Benito and Lesna return,” I said instead. Blaze returned as Evie finished her third pancake.

The night was beautiful on the plateau. The sky was clear, dotted with millions of stars. Neptune’s Tear was not visible on this side of the world. A warm breeze gently blew from the west. We escorted Evie to the only infirmary on the plateau. Two young elves waited outside nervously. Evie knew both of them and whispered with them about their upcoming shared experience. Being marked was a rite of passage for the youth of Sanctuary, providing them with ultimate protection against the undead. I didn’t understand much about the process, but they needed to have grown enough so that their skulls would not grow and distort the runes.

While the children were talking, I stealthily snuck two essences into my mouth, the first was the major shaping essence from the mimic, followed by a minor coordination essence. I handed Blaze one of the coordination essences as well, and he nodded in gratitude. “Do you know when it is going to happen?” he asked after bathing in the ecstasy of the essence.

“Likely in the next day,” I said in a whisper.

“That soon? We thought it would take them a few days to get their legs after sailing so far,” Blaze said. He handed me his unstrung bow with a smile of pride. I took it to examine it.

The bow was made of thin layers of wood and bone, similar to a legionnaire bow, but its size was closer to a long bow. The outer layers were both a dark wood, giving it an ebony finish. I could feel it react slightly to my aether when I probed it, but the runes were hidden between the layers. “What does it do?”

“It is actually quite remarkable. I still can't believe it when I tested it!” he said, praising the bow and grinning wildly. I looked at him, not in the mood for guessing games. He sighed. “I don’t really understand the magic, but I trickle aether into the bow when it is drawn, and something coats the arrow. The arrow can briefly ignore air and the pull of the ground when it is released! The draw weight is heavy, but I still shouldn’t be able to put an arrow through a range target—but I did!”

“That is amazing,” I praised. The magic apparently allowed an arrow to ignore gravity and air resistance for a short time on release.

“The only downside is I cannot use runic arrows in the bow. It cannot affect runic items and might damage the bow if I tried,” Blaze revealed. I nodded and handed him back the bow. With a heavy draw weight and no air resistance, arrows would be incredibly deadly from this weapon. The best part was it didn’t look like a runic weapon—just a long composite material bow.

The door opened to reveal a brightly lit room beyond. Lepidus had bleached his old mask, and it was now bone white like the one destroyed in the dungeon. Lepidus’ form was outlined in the doorway, as his head scanned the three assembled children before settling on me. “Necromancer Evie, enter.” I took a step to enter with her. “There is no need for your presence,” Lepidus said.

“Evie is under my protection. I will watch over her while she is under your knife,” I said in challenge.

Lepidus looked like he was going to protest, but backed down, moving aside. “So be it.”

“Drink this,” he handed Evie a dark blue potion. “It will numb your nerves and will immobilize you, so I do not make a mistake. It will feel like a mouse is chewing your skull while I work, but there is no need to panic,” Lepidus said with surprisingly good bedside manner.

“We will be here the entire time,” Blaze said reassuringly, and I nodded in support.

Evie climbed up the table, shaking slightly as she drank the potion. The effect was immediate, and Blaze and I positioned her so her head was at the end, facing Lepidus. Blaze moved over Evie so he could see her the entire time and took her hand. “Can she hear us?” I asked.

“She can,” Lepidus said, reaching for a scalpel.

“I will talk the entire time, Evie, just focus on Blaze,” I said. I wanted to watch Lepidus work and record the runes he was using for these inscriptions. I had a library in the dreamscape, and if I needed to, I could figure out precisely what they would do and if there was any subterfuge going on with them.

Lepidus looked annoyed that I was standing over him, but I was not moving. It was slightly revolting to watch him work. He cut around the hairline, and peeled off the scalp. He then clamped Evie’s head in place, and I was surprised how little blood there was, but I guessed it was another effect of the potion.

Lepidus cleaned the skull and quickly started marking to outline the runes. When he got to the inscription process, the stylus appeared to grind bone and leave behind a thin line of mithril. It was a complex pattern, and the only thing I could discern was that there were four distinct patterns in the work. It took him almost three hours to trace the fine lines. I talked the entire time while Lepidus worked so that Evie could hear my voice. For some reason, I focused on my time with Konstantin and his training methods in the company and Hounds. Blaze even got a few chuckles and confirmed my tales were true.

“I am done,” Lepidus announced, pouring a potion into the scalp and folding it back up. He stretched it so the skin on the forehead connected and healed together. The fine line vanished, and just some dried blood covered her face. “You can carry her to her bed. She should rest for a day as she will have a headache.”

“Thank you,” I said to Lepidus. He tilted his head in surprise, but this was one of the reasons why we had to come here. I set Evie in the bed and took the chair next to her. She was already twitching when I drifted off to sleep myself.

Blaze agreed to watch Evie the next day, but my contribution was too valuable for me to remain idle. I made three trips, bringing up armor, shields, and an assortment of weapons. I found a few hours to enter the repository and search the section on the Brotherhood of Mitzra. There were several voids on the shelves, and I guessed others had the same thought to research. I wasn’t going to be tracking down the missing books, but I took time to page through fifteen books before continuing with my tasks.

I was constantly on alert, waiting for the bells to sound and alert the Sentinels that we were being attacked, but they never came during the day. They were slaughtering a lot of animals, and the Sentinels were having feasts throughout Sanctuary. I took advantage as well, and I stuffed some fresh chicken breast with mushrooms, cheese, and garlic. I coated it in an egg and flour and fried it in butter.

Evie still had a migraine, but it didn’t stop her from consuming two portions. “Can we use the dreamscape amulet tonight?” She asked hopefully, satisfied.

I looked to Blaze and nodded. “Blaze can watch over us and bring us out if there is a—problem.”

Evie rolled her eyes. “I know we are going to be attacked and a lot of people are going to die.”

Evie joined me in the dreamscape. “There is no need to train. Instead, you can study whatever you wish…” I said, indicating the shelves. I was going to be absorbed in reading about the Brotherhood of Mitzra. Knowing your enemy was the doctrine of both the Hounds and Sentinels. I used the dreamscape to make a useful compiled tome of the fifteen books I manifested. I was not looking forward to the migraine it caused when I exited.

I started reading the text and didn’t watch Evie as she wandered the shelves looking for a book to read. She eventually found something, manifested a bigger and more plush chair than mine to read it. She whistled, and Oscar jumped from my lap and up into hers. I let it be and focused on studying…

I blinked, my head splitting with a headache from bringing too much new knowledge into the dreamscape. The warning bells were sounding outside. Blaze was pulling on his boots and tossed me the dreamscape amulet he had ripped from our grasp. “The nightwatch has spotted sails,” he said heavily. I nodded and started to pull on my boots.

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