Matthew’s eyes narrowed. “I did some calculating in that regard already. Even if the exterior dimensions were set at the maximum size I can manage, it would take billions of years for it to swallow something as large as Karen’s world.”
I nodded. “He told you about what would happen if you set the interior dimension too small, though.”
“A black hole,” said Matthew. “But the amount of matter it could absorb in any reasonable time frame would be too small. Once the FT was reversed, the tiny black hole would immediately evaporate.”
“I may have understated the effect. The term ‘evaporate’ may not be adequate,” offered the android.
“Explain,” said Matthew.
“A micro black hole would evaporate, but it would happen on an unimaginably short time scale. It would effectively produce an explosion.” Gary leaned over and picked up a small piece of slag iron from the dirt floor of the old smithy. “A black hole with this much mass would produce approximately 500 terajoules of energy, enough to destroy a large city.” Then he picked up a heavy copper ingot that hadn’t been used yet. “With this much mass, it would likely destroy much of Lothion.” Then he waved his hands around at the entire shop. “Take all the mass in this shop, and perhaps a little more, and it would devastate the world.
“That wouldn’t destroy ANSIS, however,” continued Gary. “It might destroy all life on a world. But if it were allowed to build longer, long enough to collect a thousand tons or more of mass, it would destroy my home world entirely, including ANSIS. Your Fool’s Tesseract could probably collect that much mass in the span of a few hours.”
Chapter 34
Matthew stared at the two of us. “You’re mad.”
I pursed my lips, then nodded. “Probably, but we won’t do anything as crazy as that. I hope.”
“You hope?!” exclaimed Matthew. “You won’t do it at all. You can’t craft the enchantment, and I’m not certain I want to do this.”
“You will,” I said calmly. In fact, I’m sure you already created a new one. I let my eyes linger on his metal hand for a moment, pondering the runes engraved on it. He probably has an enchantment to summon it right there. Plus, there’s always Conall, or Lynaralla. Though neither of them had demonstrated it yet, there was a high chance they both had the same Illeniel gift.
“Besides, that’s all hypothetical,” I said to allay his concerns. “First we destroy them here. Then we see about what’s going on in this other dimension that’s bleeding over into our own.”
“And if it’s overrun, the way Moira suggested?” asked Matthew.
Pushing him too far wouldn’t be wise. Better to let him draw his own conclusion. “What would you suggest?”
“Well—,” he muttered. “If it is overrun with ANSIS, it’s just an artificial dimension, right? One created by the She’Har to shield ours. If we’re going to destroy something, it would be better to test it there first.”
I nodded agreeably. “Then we see what their response is. If they withdraw, wonderful. They’ll still have a place to retreat to. If their remnants here decide to continue, then we’ll have to consider the more extreme option.”
“If it comes to that,” put in Gary nervously.
“Of course,” I agreed, but deep down, I didn’t believe ANSIS would bend under pressure. “For now we need only concern ourselves with the first step. Matthew, you and Gary, along with Moira and Gram, will go to Cantley. There, you—”
“Hold up,” protested Matthew. “I don’t need that many people.”
I shook my head. “You need Gary to pin down the location of the village. He can detect their shorter-range signals. You’ll need Moira to examine any Ungol that you find, to make certain they’re beyond help before you do anything final.”
“And Gram?” asked my son.
“To make sure nothing kills either of you. You and Moira both are a little reckless,” I finished.
Matt grunted. “Coming from you, that doesn’t mean much.”
That earned him a laugh, then I went on, “Meanwhile, I’ll go to where Lancaster used to be and turn it into a slag pit.”
“And who are you taking with you?” countered my son.
“No one,” I stated. “I can walk in unopposed, just as I did when I found Elaine. When I start, it won’t be safe for anyone near me.”
“That doesn’t make any sense—,” began Matthew.
“Too bad. I’m in charge,” I said, overriding his argument. “In case of reprisals, we’ll have Irene stay here with your mother. Conall can go and warn the Queen. He can help protect her as well.”
“What about George?”
“I didn’t expect you’d get a signal this soon. I already sent him to Gododdin on a separate matter,” I answered.
Matthew nodded, his face a mask as he thought through my last statement. “This is a surprise attack. How likely do you think it is that they’ll be able to manage a reprisal before we can get back?”
I glanced at Gary. After a second, the android spoke, “ANSIS has already made one attempt to infiltrate this place. Clearly they know its location. There’s a high probability they have other assets in place somewhere, but we have no way of knowing what or where.”
“Then maybe we should wait until we can make sure—”
“They grow by the day, by the minute,” I interrupted. “The sooner we strike, the better. If that flushes their hidden forces out into the open, then so much the better.”
Gary agreed, “This is true. How soon, though?”
“Now,” I told them.
***
Several hours later, I was walking down the road that let to what had once been Lancaster. Flying would have been much faster, but Matthew and Moira would need more time. Though they could take the World Road to Cantley, they’d have to fly on dragonback from there. Then they’d need to actually find their target. All in all, their mission was more complicated than mine.
They had to find the Ungol village and then determine whether to destroy it or attempt to liberate its inhabitants before destroying the area. Moira’s gifts would be particularly useful for that task.
My job was comparatively simple. Lancaster was gone. I could do my work without worrying about any loss of innocents, other than the trees and strange wildlife.
The moon was just a sliver in the sky, casting barely any usable light, but I didn’t need much. I didn’t have dragon-enhanced eyesight, since I had never bonded with any of the dragons, but a simple spell accomplished the same benefit. Magesight alone was more than enough to walk a country road at night, but by enhancing my eyesight I was able to enjoy the quiet scenery.
The land sloped gently downward toward the Glenmae River on my left, while the forest sat dark and brooding on my right as I advanced toward my destination. This was the same road my birth mother had once taken, trying to escape assassins with me in her arms. It was the same road where I had once killed thousands of Gododdin troops, before drowning their remnants in the valley.
It seemed fitting I would walk it as I headed toward my next act of carnage. At least this time I wouldn’t be killing human beings.
It was also beautiful. The land was a vast canvas of varying shades of grey as the grass rippled beneath the faint moonlight. Replete with silence, I walked through the night.
Sometime after midnight, I reached the edge of the primeval forest that had replaced Lancaster. Gone was the gentle land of my childhood, replaced by the oppressive presence of arboreal giants. It would take a few more hours to reach the center, but I had no doubts about what I would do there.
Danger was my companion now, and I knew from our first disastrous journey that magesight alone wouldn’t be enough to forewarn me of some of the perils in this place. Softly, I relaxed, letting myself fall gently into the state I called the ‘mind of the stone.’ My existence expanded slightly, the border between self and other becoming something that extended twenty yards beyond my quaint human body.
My emotions d
ied, replaced by a crystalline clarity, but while all within me was still, there was movement beyond. Things creeping, crawling, and flying, both beyond and inside me.
That wouldn’t do. Only one thing was allowed to move, the small bit of human flesh at my center. With that decision, I changed, and the sphere of influence that was now me became a malevolent being, inimical to anything that displayed motive force.
Insects were torn apart, worms smothered by the soil that was their home. Birds fell dead as the very air strangled them. Larger beasts were caught by vines and impaled by branches on trees that suddenly became animated.
I walked, and death walked with me.
The world changed around me, progressing in a single direction, as though I was merely a boat floating in a gentle current of indifferent violence. The earth hummed, and the sky vibrated, singing to me, whispering dreams of something greater, tempting me to join them, but I retained enough awareness to avoid that folly. Another voice sang with them, a deep counterpoint to the dazzling brilliance of the living earth, the empty call of the void.
It was a wonder I hadn’t noticed it when I was younger, for it seemed painfully evident to me now. It lay in the silence between sounds, the rest between heartbeats, the cold that hovered outside the warmth of living bodies. It was in the space between the tiniest particles of earth and air. And it knew me.
It begged for my attention, but I ignored it, training my awareness to stay with the voice of the earth and air. The void had seen me before, and if I let myself look back at it, it would take me again.
Yet still, I was tempted. If my desire was to kill anything that came within my sphere of influence, the void was far easier. Why crush, tear, and smother, when life could more simply be devoured?
And then I was there, in the center of it all, and I came to rest. I had encountered any number of massive creatures by then—and left them broken and mangled in my wake. Now that I was no longer moving, more of them came to me. Spiders, wolves, massive bears, and things I had no name for all came, and just as quickly died.
Deep beneath me the earth lay eager, waiting to be released, but it wasn’t time yet. I had to wait for the signal. What signal?
“A light,” I said tonelessly, reminding myself as I exercised an almost forgotten human throat.
There was something new in the darkness. Things that moved without life, constructions of metal that were more akin to the void than the earth. I had expected them, but this was when things would become dangerous. These things could destroy me from a distance.
Letting my body expand farther, I called to the earth and it answered, sending great slabs of stone upward to join me, building a huge mass of stone around the fragile flesh at my center. Almost as soon as it was done, parts of me disintegrated, collapsing under the assault of powerful hammer-blows. The enemy was bombarding me.
Within seconds, I knew I was far from safe, so I drew more stone, encasing myself in a small granite mountain. I was large enough now that I could heal almost any damage to my exterior as quickly as it could be done to me.
But there was a problem. I couldn’t see the sky. I need to see the light when it comes.
Before I could do anything about that, however, something ripped through the stone surrounding me, penetrating deeply. More attacks struck the same place, shattering the outer layer of my defense and driving ever closer to my vulnerable center. The damage was unrelenting. I had to grow larger, or eliminate the threat, otherwise I wouldn’t last long enough to see a signal.
They already know I’m here. No point in holding back.
With a sigh, I released my tenuous hold on humanity and reached down, deep into the earth. It had been waiting, like a hungry hound anxious for its master’s call. I changed. My viewpoint grew, and the world became simpler. My blood boiled beneath the cold crust of my skin, and I found joy in giving it release.
I brought it up from the depths, letting it spill across the land, swallowing the insignificant metal parasites that had been pelting me. The ground—no, I rose up, hot and molten, and everything burned, melted, or turned to ash.
The fire, my anger, grew ever larger, expanding like ripples on a pond, consuming everything around it. Hotter I burned and farther I spread. The forest was gone, and I began to devour the land beyond that, but as I grew I felt my anger, and my will, begin to cool. My awareness was fading, my anger melting away. Why had I come?
And then I saw it. The sky flashed, a brilliant light in the distance that illuminated the world briefly. The signal.
Somehow, I knew what it meant. It was over. I had to return. Slowly, painfully, I forced myself to contract, to become small once more. It wasn’t easy, but I knew what I needed to be. I had been it before; I would be it again. Flesh forgets, but the stone remembers. Even if the stone must become flesh.
Eventually I found myself standing high above the Glenmae Valley, a mountain of burning rock beneath my feet. I had protected myself from the heat, though I couldn’t remember doing so. The sky was beginning to brighten in the east, the first sign of dawn approaching, and I had no idea how long I had been standing there.
I felt heavy, as though my arms and legs were bound with iron weights. I was tired. Surrounded by burning clouds of smoke and ash, I descended, using magic to assist when there was no good footing to be found.
After a while a thought occurred to me. This is stupid, I should be flying. And so I did, grasping the air with my will and letting it send me in the direction I needed to go. Home.
Chapter 35
Penny wasn’t happy.
Actually, that was an understatement. She had been in a good mood earlier, but that had been shattered when Mort had showed up late for dinner and begun issuing orders with the frenetic passion of a madman. Or as I like to think of it, the frenetic passion of my husband.
He had always been like this. It was like being married to two different men. One calm, quiet, somewhat lazy, and introspective to the point of being almost melancholic. The other was the demon that had shown up tonight. Mordecai could dither, debate, and ponder for ages, but when he made his mind up on something, he turned into an altogether different creature.
The quiet philosopher had vanished, and the frenzied madman had appeared. Worse, this time it wasn’t just the usual one, the madman who locked himself in his workshop for days on end, pursuing strange projects. No, this one was telling everyone to prepare for war.
He had issued orders like a battlefield commander, with no patience for debate or dissension. She had put up with such from him in the past, but usually it had been at times when it seemed warranted. Today there had been no warning, no foreshadowing, no anticipation of chaos or disaster. They had had some shocks recently, including the unexpected attack by the Ungol, but Penny hadn’t expected to be rushing about tonight, preparing for unseen enemies.
No. She had expected a warm cup of tea, some conversation, and some snuggling with Humphrey.
As if he could read her mind, the half-grown puppy beside her began barking again. Humphrey had picked up on the excitement immediately, and he had been dashing about and occasionally jumping, tongue out, ever since Mort had destroyed the evening’s peace.
“Hush!” she snapped at the dog. Humphrey yelped and then ran to jump around Alyssa, still hoping to be included in whatever game all the humans were up to.
Frowning, Penny scratched ineffectively at her stump. She was clad once more in a heavy gambeson with her enchanted mail over it. Both had been mended and altered to eliminate the unnecessary left sleeve, but it still itched. Her only solace was that she’d had it washed before being altered, so for once the smell wasn’t as bad as usual.
Unfortunately, the new armor that Mordecai had been talking about for the past week still wasn’t ready, and neither was the arm he had been crafting. It was supposed to be a surprise, but she hadn’t had much trouble figuring it out. Clever as he was, Mort was an open book to her.
“Shouldn’t we be staying here?” a
sked Alyssa, for perhaps the second time. “It’s probably safer.”
“This place is no longer a secret, as you well know,” answered Penny harshly, causing Alyssa to lower her eyes.
Less than a year ago, the younger woman had led enemies to their hidden mountain home to kidnap Irene. She had been largely vindicated of her crime, but her service to the Illeniel family was part of the punishment that had been handed down to her. Penny liked the girl, and ordinarily she wouldn’t have snapped at her, but the stress was making her feel waspish.
She didn’t apologize, but she softened her tone for the next remark. “Besides, Irene is the only wizard left, and she needs to be in the keep in order to operate the castle defenses if there really is an attack. If my daughter is there, then I will be there.”
Less than an hour later, they were ensconced in the family quarters within the keep, a place they almost never really slept. Lady Rose and Elise were with them, seeming determined to keep some sort of all-night vigil.
The castle guard had been notified and at least half the men were on duty, patrolling the walls and taking defensive stations throughout the castle. The town gates were closed, as was the castle gate. Even the portcullis had been lowered.
Rose looked at her over the rim of her latest cup of tea. “Do you really intend to wear that all night, dear?”
She was referring to Penny’s mail, of course. Mort’s mother answered before she could respond herself. “Of course she does!” said Meredith supportively. “My daughter takes her duty very seriously.”
Meredith, being a commoner by birth and upbringing, had very different views on the matter than Lady Rose. As mothers-in-law went, Penny couldn’t say she always agreed with Meredith either, but the woman was always in her corner, right or wrong.