Chapter 59 - That’s pretty disgusting, bloke.

Vilis Humano slain x37.

One thousand eight hundred and fifty Souls gathered.

I was crouched down near the last and largest camp of the giants that had been following me. I’d already killed the rest and was feeling pretty happy with the results. These bastards didn’t trouble my code at all and they were even more profitable than the vile-mammoths. I could see myself spending most of next winter hunting the cannibalistic monsters down while the tribe continued to grow in strength.

That assumed I’d get another year to prepare. Mortimer had most likely realised he had a competitor on his northern flank by now and would move in force once the summer campaign season came around.

Eleven of the giants were laid out in a circle, feet pointed into the centre like hands on a clock face. Some were stretched on their backs, others on their fronts and a couple had curled into a foetal position to keep their furs tight around their bodies. Even the ones wrapped around themselves like babies were longer than I would be stretched out on my back.

“For Aresk!” I called. Some of them started awake and began to get up. I cast Burning Skies. In an instant red clouds gathered hundred of feet above me and began to glow menacingly. A second later the first of the fireballs began to fall, building into a barrage that lasted for fifteen seconds and must have included nearly a hundred of the meteor-like attacks. The ground shook as the dirt and dust that managed to avoid incineration was flung out with each impact.

I had been braced to speed forwards and put down any of the giants quick enough to escape the area of effect but I ended up standing slack jawed and waving the smoke out of my face. I stood still, senses alert for any movement as I waited to be able to see what the hell I had just unleashed on the tundra.

Vilis Humano slain x11.

Five hundred and fifty Souls gathered.

Well shit. Synthesised spells were not to be taken lightly. In a daze I walked forward into the blasted landscape. A fifty metre squared area had been bombarded with fireballs that matched the spell enhancements on my projectile ability. It looked like a scene from the first world war after a heavy artillery barrage. I couldn’t even identify the remains of the giants. Perhaps that was a toe just at the edge of the devastation? Maybe it had been thrown clear early on so had managed to survive intact? On closer inspection it was just a weird rock. Nothing organic had survived at all.

I moved through the craters until I emerged from the smoke on the southern side of the Ur-Viles camp. Jesus. If I could do this, what the hell would Mortimer be capable of? If he had taken Fire as well… or Ice or god forbid Lightning… The sense of supreme power that had filled me faded away as I once again recalled that I was most likely the weakest of the six souls exiled from Earth. I couldn’t be sure that was true but I had to assume that was the case. If I went against them thinking I was the strongest it could be catastrophic.

Glimpse flew down and landed on my shoulder. I would really need to get some kind of padded cloth added to my clothes. Whether it was all the fist sized eyeballs he’d eaten in the last few hours or if his strength somehow scaled off my own, his talons bit sharply into my skin. Maybe I should put some bloody clothes on and stop running around the night like a naked murderhobo? Probably the latter.

The crow nuzzled my cheek then took to his wings to orbit above me. He hadn’t seen any more bands of giants following me but that didn’t mean there weren’t any and my latent paranoia must have infected his mind, causing him to double check our surroundings. I made a note to advise the guards at the mine to keep scouts out to the north.

I had more Souls than I’d hoped to gain on this little hunting trip and I was more than happy to head home. Exhaustion should be affecting me by now, the moons had set and the halo behind the clouds they’d cast had faded hours ago but I felt fine so far. I picked up my feet and ran back towards home.

As the light began to creep into the sky to the east I paused and pulled my clothes and some food out of a storage ring. Once dressed and no longer feeling hollow inside I resumed my easy lope, covering a couple of metres with each stride.

By noon I had entered the northern end of the pass and waved at the sentries up on top of the cliff walls as I passed them by. Indistinct calls echoed out in my wake, bouncing back and forth between the walls of the pass.

After exchanging arm clasps with the guards and telling them to spread the scouts out further to the north I made my way to the orange glow of the smelters and furnaces.

“Klip!” I called as I found him berating a hapless apprentice that I was pleased to discover was female. If he was already giving the ladies a shot that was the best I could hope for.

“Lord. You need to talk to that prick in town! He’s causing problems!” Klip began without a preamble. I held up both hands to stop what I suspected would be a string of invective against whomever this prick might be.

“Whoa there bloke! Who are you talking about?” I asked.

“Sulk is a fucking charlatan and a conman! My master would have used him for bellows work and nothing more!” So Sulk was here? That meant the Jagarnyn had come north.

“Who has been dealing with the new tribe?” I asked quickly. Please don’t say Kril, please don’t say Kril…

“Hatrikhan. He’s got them camped half an hour's ride south of Mondit,” he replied. “The man is a complete buffoon! He doesn’t even-”

“I’ll deal with it.” I cut him off firmly. “How is the horn project coming along?” I demanded roughly.

“This way, lord,” his eyes sparkled. I had needed a better way to issue battlefield commands than having Glimpse squawk at people and had fallen back on ancient techniques from Earth. Klip led me into one of the cave systems and pulled a wrapped package from where it leaned against a wall. As he removed the cloth wrapping a six foot long curve of grey steel was revealed. The top was carved into the shape of a horse's head, mouth open wide to transmit the sound. It flowed in fluted waves, narrowing down to the mouthpiece at the bottom which curled in the opposite direction to the horsehead. He passed it to me and I weighed it in my hands.

Stepping out of the cave I raised it to my pursed lips and blew deeply, eliciting an embarrassing farting sound that caused the workers nearby to glance over and smother their smiles.

“Not so easy!” laughed the smith as he took it from me. He put his own lips to the mouthpiece and a brassy shriek rang out to bounce between the walls of the canyon. The head of the horn was nearly ten feet above the ground when he held it up to blow. With some banners floating in the wind from the main tube it would make an excellent device for passing simple coded orders to units on the field. This time the workers scowled instead of smirking as they rubbed at their ears.

“Excellent! I’ll need a couple more. How long?” I asked.

“Don’t want much. Thousands of fucking stirrups, hundreds of coats of armour and helmets, same again in daggers and speartips. Tens of thousands of bloody arrowheads… and what does old Klip get? Just orders for more!” he grumbled. I wasn’t entirely sure how to react.

“What do you want?” I tried.

“More workers! And a fucking waterwheel like you promised!” he snapped back in an instant.

“I’ve offered you every worker who wants to learn your craft. How many have you accepted?” I asked as I glanced at the dozens of people working bellows and pounding metal around us.

“Most of the good ones,” he sighed and rubbed a soot covered hand across his brow leaving a darker line in the sweat. “I’ll need your support with Sulk, lord. He’s going to cause a stink when he gets let in here and sees what I’ve been up to.” Klip waved a hand across the proto-industry of the Pass.

“You’ll have it but why will he cause a problem?” I asked.

“He’s blessed by Velkit. If he doesn’t like it he’ll… I don’t want the god to drive me mad so soon! I know it’s coming but not yet!” he snapped.

“Surely Velkit would approve of all this industry and innovation? He seems to like that kind of thing?”

“When a priest winds his loincloth too tight he can shape the gods opinion of others. I don’t want to go mad yet!” His eyes flicked to a woman working the bellows for a fraction of a second but I caught the movement. So Klip had a paramour and he feared the inevitable fall into the madness all of his kind ended up suffering from arriving prematurely, simply because Sulk left him a bad review with the boss.

“I’m not sure I can intercede with Velkit, Aresk owns me-” I carefully hid the bitterness I felt at the words, “-but I’ll speak to Sulk. Maybe take him to see the waterwheel and explain how it will work.”

“It’s ready? Why the fuck am I still here? I need to see it first!” Klip barked. I raised an eyebrow but he didn’t back down, just glared at me from under his own bushy brows.

“It should be ready by now.” I glanced up and Glimpse wheeled away to the east to confirm if Kril had been on top of the project as I’d asked. “I’ll make sure you’re there when we go to inspect it. In the meantime… two more of those trumpets and as many helmets and arrowheads as you can churn out, please and thank you.”

He nodded his head reluctantly, it was almost a bow but not quite, and went back to his workers. His semi-sotto-voce grumbling swelled into barked orders and harsh critiques as he got near the smelters and forges, as a result the pace of work resumed its usual brusque rate.

The Jagarnyn were here and they’d brought Sulk. This was a bad time of year for the wagons on the steppe. The ground was partially frozen but the early spring melts made it muddy and treacherous. They’d have moved slowly through a morass of their own creation and wouldn’t have done so without a good reason. I needed to find out what had driven them north.

Stretching my legs I moved quickly back to Mondit. The palisade was guarded by dismounted lancers who threw me crossed arm salutes as I passed to which I nodded in reply. The atmosphere felt different to when I’d left. I was hardly the most observant when it came to reading the room, outside of an uncanny ability to avoid attention, but there was a taut sense to the air and the interactions I noticed as I hurried towards my tent seemed strained and uncomfortable. Something momentous had happened while I was away.

I arrived in the open space in the centre of the camp, the handful of prisoners who hadn’t moved into the caves of the pass were to the north and busy with carpentry and leatherwork. I ignored them as my eyes landed on Fayala, her coven behind her as she stared down at a short warrior I recognised even though he was facing away from me.

“King Jagapan!” I called as I made my way to Fayala and swept her into a hug. “How are you?” I asked quietly before I received the kiss she’d withheld before I went north. It was worth the wait.

“King Mond. You’ve brought a shower of shit down on the southlands!” Jagapan grumbled. As I put Fayala down and turned to him he levered his bronze eye out and wiped it on his sleeve then popped it in his mouth. After swishing it around for a couple of seconds he spat it out into his palm and shoved it back into the empty socket.

“That’s pretty disgusting, bloke. What’s caused you to come north during the melt?” I asked. “Shouldn’t I fight you again or something? I’m pretty sure this is a breach of etiquette!” He gave me a crooked smile and shook his head.

“I meant no offence, Mond. Things have turned ugly in the south. Bandaged men moving en masse supported by wizards like the one you killed in my camp.” So I hadn’t gotten away with that then. No matter. “Some tribes have joined Urkash and others have fled north. If they didn’t take one of those options they’re fucking dead and their women scattered. We don’t have magic to counter them,” He finished with his real eye glaring at me.

“Jagapan is interested in an alliance but he’s reluctant to bow his head to you,” Fayala added from my side. The other king growled deep in his throat but didn’t contradict her. “We’ve been working out the details for the last couple of days.”

“Yeah and the old bastard is trying to drive a hard bargain!” cackled Kril as he emerged from my tent. I gave him a suspicious look that earned a snaggle toothed grin in response.

“How is the project I left you in charge of coming along?” I demanded.

“Well enough. Tomorrow we’ll release the stoppers to drop the wheel and see how your little machine works.” His voice shifted and became serious. “It’s bad down south Mond. This lot aren’t the only ones who’ve fled north. If we hadn’t broken the Kopregyn there’d be a lot more slaves and fat cannibals on the steppes.”

“It’s that bad?” I asked the old man. He turned and spat to one side, thankfully away from my tent.

“It’s worse, Ray. Half a dozen tribes have bent the knee to Urkash, the rest are fucked or fleeing. We need to deal with it,” Kril said flatly. I looked at Jagapan who met my stare with his mismatched eyes.

I removed the storage rings I’d loaded with ivory and mammoth meat and flicked them to him. He snatched them out of the air and gave me a quizzical look.

“Twenty eight tusks as well as the meat and hides. Some of it’s in my own storage space so there’s a bit more to follow. Get the smokers lit and the tanners ready before you start pulling stuff out of them.” He cackled and scurred off towards the tanners.

“King Jagapan, you don’t need to bend your neck to me. All I would ask is that if I call, your warriors will ride to war with us under my command. And if you call we will do likewise. Does that seem fair?”

“No it fucking doesn’t!” called the voice of a certain blacksmith from somewhere in the crowd, making Jagapan flinch. The mob parted and the hunchbacked figure of Sulk shuffled through. “Who the fuck showed you how to make steel? Klip is a Velkit-damned moron. That milksop couldn’t make pig iron before! I should bloody know as I taught his master how to work the bellows! Not a chance that idiot could produce so much grey metal so fast on his own! What the hells have you been up to, you bloody savage!” Jagapan managed to roll both his real and his metal eye as the outburst went on.

“Sulk. I’m glad you decided to come north in the end. How’s Kayla?”

“I’m well, thank you, Lord. I’m intrigued about what has happened with Fayala and her friends. Perhaps I could join their little group?” Her warm voice was familiar and a pleasant shift from Sulk’s grating grunts. Sulk seemed to melt as it rang out across the crowd and all the fire went out of him. I grinned at the poor bastard as he shrank in on himself.