Chapter 85 * Weaver’s Road *

“Are we really doing this?” Becky asked in a low voice as she watched Ashley and Salov quickly explain the situation to Harsale and Panson.

Jandor was to her left. “It looks like everyone’s in agreement. We have to try.”

Wayne was on Jandor’s other side, also staring at Ashley. “Is it possible?”

“I don’t know yet,” Becky admitted.

“Fifteen minutes,” Karmandrian said in a deadpan voice.

“Karman, we don’t need a timekeeper; we need a plan,” Alice snapped.

“You’re right.” Becky raised her voice. “Everyone, come on, we need to talk this out and we need to do it fast.”

The teens followed their three leaders to Salov’s large dining room table and instinctively sat in a similar formation to how they were when they met for A&A, with Jandor leaning over Becky’s chair from behind.

Salov, Lizzy, Franklin, Lori, Sherrilynn, and Mrs. Guardman all followed them into the dining room, taking positions along the outer wall, but the others hesitated.

Karmandrian turned to Honsmordin, panic still clear on his face. “Chief Pornabus, shouldn’t you be the one coming up with the plan?”

Honsmordin seemed to be considering this. His eyes locked with Franklin’s, and the librarian gave him a subtle nod. This was apparently all the reassurance he needed. “No, we need to trust the seal bearers. Besides, I’m curious to see her abilities in action,” he added vaguely.

With that, he entered the room and stood next to Franklin. Harsale, Panson, Alice, Pathos, and a reluctant Karmandrian followed his lead.

Jandor, Wayne, and Becky had been in muttered conference until that moment, then Becky addressed the group again. “Okay, the general idea is to keep Davron out of the city long enough for Ashley to try and summon the book, but we don’t know how long that will take.” She turned to Panson. “You said you had an army. How many and how skilled?”

“Right now, it’s about fifteen hundred, most of them warrior ranked,” Panson said. “Also, we’ve got a couple of mind mages.”

“But Davron’s forces are probably three or four times that, from what I saw,” Harsale added quickly.

Becky looked up at Jandor. “What do you think?”

Jandor shrugged. “A head-on battle? Not very long.”

Daniel spoke up at this. “It doesn’t have to be head-on. Weaver’s Road has a barrier, right? That should help us fight more strategically.”

Ace nodded in agreement. “He’s right; there’s a way to use the city’s barrier to our advantage. We can buy more time with the right strategy.”

“Alright, then the three of us can figure it out together.” Jandor nodded to Daniel with a knowing smile.

“Speaking of this barrier,” Becky said. “How strong is it? How long will it hold up against Davron’s army?”

Harsale frowned at this. “That’s the problem. The city barrier can usually be fortified so it’s strong enough to resist guardian level mentus, but right now, it’s far weaker than usual. This is the worst possible time for an attack. When I went to the core, I discovered that the restoration of the northeast district took a lot of energy to complete. It will take a couple of days for it to be back at full power.”

“And Tabatha’s a melder,” Ace added, “which means it probably won’t take her that long to manipulate the energy of a weakened barrier.”

Becky nodded at this. She knew there was one person in the group who understood cores intimately. “Ben, anything we can do about that?”

Ben was pondering the question even before she asked it. “If the core is low on mentus energy, it’s possible we could directly infuse it with more to keep the barrier up. The only problem is, we’d probably need a lot of mentus energy to make any difference. Where would we get enough people for that?”

“So, you just need a steady source of mentus energy?” Becky said, a grin spreading on her face. Finally, she had an advantage. She turned to Franklin to be sure. “That shouldn’t be a problem, right?”

Franklin thought for a moment, then nodded. “In theory, no, as long as you don’t expend faster than your recovery rate, you should be fine.”

“Right, then I think we’ve got a basic plan.” She stood. “Let’s go; we don’t have a lot of time left, so we’ll have to walk and talk.”

The look in her eyes was calculating, as if she were running a hundred scenarios in her mind all at once. Everyone at the table stood without question and headed for the door. Some of the others moved a bit slower, but Honsmordin, Franklin, and Mrs. Guardman all followed confidently after the teens, and this pushed the others to do the same.

“Harsale, can you lead us to where the core is?” Becky asked as they filed out of the house.

Harsale rushed to the front and headed to the nearest translift as Becky started to bark out orders at a rapid pace.

“Okay, Jandor, Ace, and Daniel, you’re going with Panson to organize the army. Take Alyson and Derrick too. Chief Pornabus, you said you and the guardians could help hold them off?”

“Indeed,” Honsmordin nodded. “I’m sure we can help keep that army at bay for some time.”

“Good.” Becky then turned to the resident summoner. “Stephanie, you can help by bringing in animal reinforcements, right?”

“Possibly, but I’d need to get out of the city. I need to go somewhere my song can carry.”

“I don’t want you to go alone. Someone should be with you, just in case,” Becky said.

“I’ll keep an eye on the nature girly,” Lori offered.

“Thanks,” Becky nodded to Lori before continuing. “Mrs. Guardman, Terri, and Sherrilynn. You guys aren’t going to be fighting. You should be somewhere you can help anyone who gets injured or needs shelter in case things get out of hand.”

“The old Warrior Guild gym is the perfect place. I can take them there,” Salov offered. He gave Lizzy’s hand a squeeze as they both moved to join Mrs. Guardman and the others.

“Thanks,” Becky nodded to Salov with a smile. “Ashley’s right, you Stokenshires really are the best.”

“We can take this to Council Hall. That’s where the core access is,” Harsale said as they approached the intracity translift.

“All right, everyone else with me, and I’ll give out the rest of the assignments,” Becky called.

Part of the group entered the translift with Becky and Harsale while the rest waited for their turn to transport to other parts of the city.

Karmandrian moved to Honsmordin’s side. Of everyone in the group, he still looked the least certain of this haphazard, quickly thrown together plan.

“Sir, with all due respect, thousands of lives are at stake. Why are you letting her run this operation? She’s practically a child.”

Honsmordin smirked. “One could say the same of you,”

Karmandrian rolled his eyes, clearly frustrated. “But sir—”

“There are things you do not understand, young guardian, but I assure you, Fantasma has put his trust in the seal bearers and wants us to do the same. I have no doubt they know the stakes as well as we do and are acting accordingly. Besides, so far, I’ve seen nothing in her plan that I would not have done myself, given the circumstances, and I am certain she has more planned, maybe even something I could not have thought of.”

Karmandrian scoffed at this. “I find that hard to believe. She’s only been here a few days. At least Ace has been here for forty years and is highly skilled.”

“And yet notice that even Ace defers to her,” Honsmordin pointed out.

Karmandrian seemed to faulter at this, and he was quiet as they entered the translift with Panson’s group and transported to the translift nearest the northern wall, where hundreds of troops were already gathered.

“What am I missing then?” he finally asked Honsmordin. “You and Chief Stokenshire seem to know something about her that I don’t. Am I right?”

“Ah,” Honsmordin smiled knowingly. “Well, the truth is: that young lady has only begun to unlock the full breadth of her abilities, but if her performance just now was any indication, the seal has given her a boost to her already extraordinary gifts, and she’s taking full advantage of it. You see, Becky is a skillmaster, one who’s had her full potential unlocked by the Fantasma.”

Karmandrian stopped dead in his tracks, his mouth agape. It took several seconds for Honsmordin to realize this, and he backtrack to the stunned guardian.

“But…then that means…” Karmandrian spoke in barely a whisper.

“Come along, young guardian,” Honsmordin said dragging him forward. “As you keep reminding us, we’re low on time.”

***

“Time’s almost up.” Gamdon chimed.

Davron stood and stretched. “Well, I figured they wouldn’t make this easy.”

“I don’t even know why you bothered with this whole farce,” Tabatha said in a bored voice.

Davron gave her a curious look as he helped her onto her feet. “What do you mean?”

“Whether they give us Ashley or decide to fight, you were going to take over Weaver’s Road anyway. It’s one of the largest trading hubs in the world. It’d be foolish to walk away now.” Tabatha casually brushed grass from her white robe and adjusted the sheath at her hip, which held a short sword.

“While that may be true—and it’s a little unnerving how well you can read my mind—I still prefer to do things with the least amount of violence possible. If they turned over Ashley, then I’d know that I could easily coerce them to surrender to my rule. They are a town run by merchants after all; they tend to do what benefits them the most.”

“You forgot the Jandor factor,” Tabatha said. “He can get almost anyone to go against their better judgment. Look what happened in Cirinian.”

Davron was about to point out that Cirinian wouldn’t have even happened if she hadn’t sent the vengeful captain on a rampage, but he decided against it.

“It appears something is happening,” Gamdon pointed to the northern wall. The massive gate opened to reveal hundreds of armed troops. In addition, more people were lined up on the ramparts. It was clear that Weaver’s Road was gearing up for a battle.

Davron looked down at his wife. “Are you sure you want to be a part of this? There is a high chance we will end up killing them. I will not hold back.”

Tabatha was about to answer but was distracted by an image appearing in the sky above the city.

The semi-transparent figure of Harsale, clad in a white robe with a silver belt, began to speak.

“Citizens of Weaver’s Road. I am Nicholas Harsale, Chairman of the Merchant Council. As you all no doubt saw, our city is being threatened by an army of monsters led by a man calling himself Lord Davron. He has made what appears to be a simple request: hand over the individual named Ashley Summerson and the item she’s taken, and he will leave our town in peace.

“Davron has proven that he’s powerful, and his army a force to be reckoned with. Faced with this, turning over one person to protect the lives of the thousands in this city is a fair trade. I do not think any merchant would disagree. However, I will not do this. Even now, volunteer fighters our gathering at our northern wall with the intent to repel this threat to our borders.

“I have not come to this conclusion by consultation with the council, as would be customary. I am unilaterally making this decision on my own and intend to face the consequences of this action. So, I feel it is only fitting that I explain why I’ve chosen to put the lives of over twenty thousand people in jeopardy for the sake of one girl. The answer is simple: it is because Ashley Summerson is the Daughter of the Sun.”

The image shifted to show Ashley, who was also wearing a white robe and holding the pulsing Sun Stone in her hands in front of her. She looked nervous but determined.

“Hello everyone, I’m Ashley Summerson and I’m the Daughter of the Sun. I’m sorry that this is happening. I don’t want anyone to be in danger because of me, especially because everyone I’ve met here has been so nice and helpful. I’m grateful to the people that are fighting Davron and his monsters, but they aren’t the only ones. My friends are here with me, and they can kill the creatures of the Book of War because they’re the descendants of the Twelve Warriors. I promise that we’ll do everything in our power to protect this town, and then we’ll defeat Davron and the Book of War.”

As Ashley’s image faded there was a rousing cheer from the soldiers at the gate. The noise reverberated throughout the plains.

Tabatha’s face was a mask of shock. “She’s going to get them all killed.”

Gamdon gave her a confused look. “What do you mean?”

“Don’t you see,” Tabatha said heatedly. “It’s not Jandor we need to worry about; it’s her.”

“She’s right,” Davron said. “Now that she’s made herself public, people will use the Daughter of the Sun as a rallying point. They’ll just keep fighting until there’s nothing left but ashes.”

“That idiot girl,” Tabatha screamed, letting out all her pent-up frustration. “She has no idea what she’s done. She’s going to get all these people killed just because she wants to play at being Daughter of the Sun. Fine, if she wants a fight, I’ll give it to her.” Tabatha stormed forward. “I’m going to start working on the barrier; have all the mandants and as many monsters as possible start weakening it, or this will take forever.”

“One thing troubles me,” Gamdon said quietly as Tabatha marched off. “She said that her friends had the ability to kill the creatures of the Book of War, but Lady Ellonous destroyed the seal. We saw for ourselves that they no longer had the mark.”

“They’re bluffing,” Davron said. “Trying to give the people false hope.”

Before Tabatha could get to the glowing blue aura that protected the town, a bolt of lightning struck the ground right in her path. Even though it missed her by several feet, it still caused her to topple backward from the force of the strike. Fire sprung up from the ground where the lightning hit.

Immediately after that, five more bolts of lightning came crashing down, this time into the hoard of monsters behind Davron. There were screams from some of the soldiers, even though none of them were hit directly, some were close to the creatures that were. Gamdon turned to see one bolt that struck close to him and Davron obliterate a deathclaw.

In a sudden premonition he realized too late what would happen next. “Sir!” was all he could shout before a seventh lightning bolt cane down directly above them.

Davron, however, instinctively raised his mind mage scepter and the blue crystal at its tip absorbed the lightning strike.

The quickener was in awe, both at the sudden lightning strikes and Davron’s ability to suppress the one aimed at him. “What in Alaman’s name…”

Tabatha scrambled to her feet, her rage now a palpable aura. “Alyson…”

***

“I think that got their attention,” Alyson said with a satisfied huff. “I’m at my limit, at least for now. I couldn’t get Davron though. You were right, that book must be making him stronger somehow. I thought I could at least knock him out, but I guess it won’t be that easy.”

Ace gave an impressed whistle. “Still, seven lightning bolts, I could barely manage one. I’m surprised you aimed so close to Tabatha though. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were trying to kill her,” he added with a hesitant chuckle.

“I’m not some environ rube,” Alyson said with a click of her tongue. “If I wanted her dead…she’d be dead.”

Ace wondered how serious she was but decided not to ask. He didn’t know how lightning would affect a melder, but he suspected that the weather master knew that it couldn’t kill Tabatha.

“Okay, well it’s my turn.” He focused on the small fire that was still burning just in front of Tabatha, who was quickly scrambling to her feet. “Mittius Maximus Fire!”

Immediately the tiny flames shot up into a massive blaze twenty feet high and a hundred yards wide, blocking the army from reaching the barrier. It then started to arc around the entire enemy force until they were almost completely surrounded.

“That should hold them for a while.” Pathos said.

Ace shrugged. “It’ll buy us a couple of minutes at most, but it’ll at least give Jandor and Panson more time to organize the troops based on the plan we came up with, and hopefully Becky’s already at the core.”

“That was quite the speech to rally the troops,” Honsmordin said as he approached the small group. “I just received a mentus communication from Harsale. Apparently, it was the young skillmaster’s idea.”

“Sounds like something she’d come up with.” Ace smirked.

“You can head down to join the fighters. I’ll be able to manage up here with the other mind mages and Daniel,” Honsmordin offered.

Ace, Alyson, Alice, Pathos, and Karmandrian headed down the stone stairs to where the Weaver’s Road volunteers were being prepped by Jandor and Panson.

“So did everyone know Becky was a skillmaster?” Karmandrian asked suddenly. “Was I the only one in the dark? They’re almost as rare as melders.”

“I suspected, but it was Chief Pornabus who confirmed it,” Ace said.

“Doesn’t that mean she has unlimited adimus energy,” Alyson asked.

“Not exactly,” Pathos corrected. “Skillmasters recover adimus energy so quickly that it’s like its unlimited, and their upper boundary is pretty high, Becky’s even more because of the Fantasmal Signature.”

“But that’s not all,” Ace said as they reached the bottom of the stairs. “Skillmasters have the ability to learn almost any adimus skill, and their active learning memory is much higher, but because of how their brains are wired, there’s no downside, except they can’t become mind mages or guardians. And it's not just adimus abilities, it’s everything. They can absorb information like a sponge and process it like a computer.”

“That explains so much,” Alyson chuckled.

As they joined the group of soldiers, she stretched out her arm and flexed her fingers. In an instant, the mist blade appeared.

“Still, if her whole plan is to just stall—” Karmandrian said skeptically.

“I doubt that’s all,” Ace said, cutting the guardian off. “Well obviously the main goal is to stall so Ashley has enough time to get the book, but I’m sure there’s more to it than that. Becky’s more resourceful than you think.”

***

“You did good, Ashley; I think that will really help,” Becky said after Sharanel deactivated her staff.

Becky’s group was standing on the roof of Council Hall. Sharanel was able to tune her staff in exactly the same way that Gamdon had done to project an image into the sky for the entire town to see.

“You think so? I was really nervous.” Ashley shrugged out of the white robe, which Franklin dutifully took from her.

“You were sincere, which is what everyone wants,” Franklin said.

“It definitely motivated the people who are fighting,” Harsale added. “I just heard from Chief Pornabus, and the troops at the wall cheered you.”

Ashley gave a small smile at this. Though she still didn’t fully understand the significance of what she did, she trusted Becky.

“The important part comes next,” Becky said. “We’ll do everything we can to stall for time until you’re ready.”

Ashley nodded, though it was clear she was nervous. “What if it doesn’t work though?”

Becky sighed. “If that happens then—"

The door that led back into Council Hall flew open with a loud bang. Ben and Bernie stumbled out onto the roof, both of them were panting as if they’d run a marathon. “We’re…ready…for you.” Bernie said between gasps for air.

Becky gave them a confused look. “What’s up with you two?”

“It’s hundreds of stairs down to the core,” Ben complained. “Why don’t you people have a translift to it?”

Harsale chuckled at this. “We should go then.”

Becky nodded before turning to Wayne. “Can you take care of the rest?”

“You got it,” Wayne said.

The two shared a knowing look before Becky disappeared into the building behind Harsale, Ben, and Bernie.

Wayne turned his attention to the rest of the group still on the roof. “Okay, Amber, I’m counting on you to give us an early warning if anyone’s coming here.”

Amber sat with her legs dangling off the side of the five-story building. “Sure thing, big brother,” she said lazily.

Ashley sniggered at this, but Wayne ignored them both.

“Henry, Sharanel, you guys said you have some sort of special thing with your staffs that you can quicken to each other no matter what, right? I need one of you to stay here, and the other to come inside with me and Ash. That way if Amber senses something, you can let us know.”

Henry turned to Sharanel. “You should stay. I still haven’t figured out that translift quartz feature yet.”

“Such a newbie rube,” Sharanel teased. “Fine, I’ll do all the hard work, I guess.”

“Yeah, yeah Chief, don’t get full of yourself.” Henry said before turning to Wayne. “Where are we going?”

“I have to protect Ash until she’s ready, so I’m going to barricade us someplace so that she’s as safe as possible.”

“Sounds fun,” Henry quipped.

“I’m glad you all are so laid back about this,” Wayne said with a resigned shake of the head.

“I’m really scared actually,” Ashley admitted. “I wish everything wasn’t all on me.”

Wayne took her hand. “Don’t worry, we’re in this together.”

“And I shall assist as well,” Franklin added.

Ashley nodded. “Well, I have my best friend and a Stokenshire; so far, that combination hasn’t failed.”

With renewed confidence, Ashley left the roof with Wayne and Franklin.

***

“Looks like they’ve got that whole army distracted up north,” Lori said. “So, we’re good to go. I’ll jump down first, and then you go. I can catch ya.”

Stephanie eyed the half-elf curiously but before she could say anything, Lori jumped from the western ramparts to the valley below just outside of Weaver’s Road. Despite the nearly three-story drop, she landed, cat-like, on the ground.

“Oi, girly, come on; I gotcha,” she called, but Stephanie was already on her way down and before Lori could react, the summoner landed gracefully beside her.

“Ah, the summoner’s got some skill,” Lori said impressed. “I wouldn’t have guessed it.”

“Summoner mentus allows us to borrow reflexes, senses, and other skills from the animals we have high affinity with. I get agility, speed, and dexterity because of my affinity with wolves and wildcats.”

“Ah, for my mate Sarah, it’s birds, so it’s a whole different skill set: mostly keen eyes and ears,” Lori said. “So, where we off to then?”

“Let’s head to the Midlothiac Forest. If I can get into a tall enough tree, I may be able to summon from both the woods and the Gibano mountains.”

“All right mate, think ya can keep up with my top speed?”

Stephanie smirked. “Can you keep up with mine?”

She closed her eyes momentarily, focusing her mentus, then she took off running northwest. Not to be outdone, Lori was right behind her, and the two were little more than blurs in the night under the light of the yellow and red moons.

***

“How did they do it?” Tabatha barked at no one in particular. “I destroyed the seal. How are they still able to kill our creatures?” She stomped around angrily in front of Gamdon and Davron, both of whom were focused on the raging fire in front of them.

“This is just a delay tactic,” Davron concluded. “They’re stalling for time. They must know this won’t hold us for long.”

“If they’re stalling, then what’s their ultimate plan?” Gamdon asked.

Davron frowned as realization dawned. “It’s the Sun Stone. They must know how to use it to stop the Book of War. That’s probably how they’re able to kill the creatures again too. It has to be the Sun Stone.”

This seemed to get Tabatha’s attention. “You’re right. Ashley probably needs time to do whatever it is she’s doing. That transport drained a lot of her energy. This might be even bigger which means we still have time to stop her.”

“But how will we even find her?” Gamdon asked. “She could be anywhere in the city.”

“I can find her,” Tabatha said darkly. “That stone’s energy is similar to how the seal was. I can feel it, even from this distance.”

“But are you really going to be able to go against her?” Davron asked skeptically. “You’re the same person who asked me to be kind to that Guardman woman.”

“That was different,” Tabatha insisted. “Mrs. Guardman isn’t a part of this, and I didn’t want her to be hurt.”

Davron looked unconvinced. “I know you care about them. It’s why you’ve been working so hard to help them get home.”

“Yes, I wanted to help the others,” Tabatha relented. “I was just trying to get them to go home and not get involved, but now, they’ve made their choice…Ashley’s made her choice. So, I have to make mine.” Her eyes seemed to grow dark and cold as she turned back to the city. “I won’t let them get in your way. It’s my fault this has gotten this far, so if it means I have to hurt them, or even kill them…I’m ready to do it.”