The
first of the Free Cities of the Fackablest had not been like this. It lay at
the very headwaters of the Dicean River on the edge of the tundra, amidst
scattered pines only as high as one’s own waist. We would follow the river
south and west along the foothills of the Gidwinn Mountains. And we would pass
into the Fackablest, the vast coniferous forest that covered two thirds of the
northern half of the continent in nearly unbroken wilderness. Our targets were
the Free Cities, those experimental settlements of the reforming Faiths that had
at first consisted solely of stone and timber and had only been sustained by river
trade and lush, machine-laden soil brought up from Nogilia . There hadn’t even
been any Temples in those places, only markets and shipping docks, places of
exchange.
But
the first of them we came to had been rebuilt by Augers. The black walls made
by the nightwind around it stood ten paces high and thick, pricked by towers
half as high again and concealing all but the roofs of the barracks and
warehouses and the tops of the billowing clouds of dark machines roiling
inside.
“Deploy!”
Jerem Cozak had shouted, in that voice the warlord used only for command. I had
been near enough to hear the gruff tones of it. And I always would be. He had
taken personal command over the mastodons. He still rode the matriarch, and I
still rode second-in-the-line. I was going to be near enough for everything.
Marcus
had lead the infantry to the fore, in squares with great spaces between them. The
aisles would allow our mastodons to pass. Directly behind us, Julius led the
great golden disks of the artillery, shining in the sun. We all advanced
together, and the world turned beautiful again.
Jerem
Cozak had called the halt three hundred paces outside the city. We were just
even with the front ranks of the infantry, the disks just behind us. You can’t
imagine the space ten thousand soldiers must occupy. My mastodon stood with a
group of only one hundred of its kind, and I felt we could not be stopped. All
the universe stood still.
Then
Julius has spoken, and three hundred artillery fired at once. Ten suns arched
over my shoulders, and joined thirty times that many soaring toward the wall.
There came a hiss louder than any roar I had ever head, and I understood that
my lightspear must utilize the same energy. I blinked at the brilliance. I’ll
never know how the first barrage went, because I did not see it. I was watching
the Augers that poured out from some gate in the south wall, and ran in our
direction.
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