Pressure

Running was a good idea which immediately failed.

All three girls started toward the exit, and in perfect unison the clockwork soldiers moved in formation. In a second spears were barring their way; in three seconds the door was blocked by two entire ranks.

“Other way!” Morenna barked, turning and bolting toward the opposite end. They were farther from it, though, and the formation began moving to cut them off there, too. “Do not let them surround us!”

Ophia slid to a halt on a patch of her own ice, baring her teeth, and flung out both hands. Walls of ice sprang forth, rushing down both sides of the chamber to secure them a clear path to the door.

An instant too late.

Several mechanical soldiers were caught in the barriers and frozen rigid, but enough got in position that Ophia’s maneuver only trapped them in a narrow corridor with a squad of enemies leveling spears at the from its other end.

“Make a platform!” Morenna ordered, charging forward past her sisters. “Get Espa to a high point out of spear range and then melt the access!”

“On it!” Ophia was already at work creating a ramp up the side of one of the walls. “Espa, run and slide—just like when we used to play in the garden!”

Both girls got as much of a running start as they could, then fell to a crouch as they hit the base of the ramp, balancing and letting momentum carry them to the top, where they collided with another ice wall Ophia conjured to keep them from slipping off the edge.

Meanwhile, Morenna had vanished in the middle of her charge and reappeared behind the clockwork soldiers, and tore into their unguarded rear. She fought like a monster, using surgical stabs of her rapier to slip through weak points in the soldiers’ armor and mangle their joints, then lashing out with brute force whenever they tried to counter attack—kicking skillfully at their knees and ankles, slamming Blackwing’s handguard into their heads in iron-clad punches and then smashing them on the backswing with the heavy pommel. Any time they managed to get re-positioned to engage her, she simply disappeared and resumed hacking and stabbing and bludgeoning them from an unexpected angle.

None of it worked.

Morenna was faster, more skilled, more ferocious, but the things just wouldn’t go down. A sequence of vicious moves that would have slaughtered this many mortal men barely sufficed to keep the clockwork soldiers off-balance and unable to regroup.

Ophia had also not wasted any time, swiftly conjuring up an elevated platform of ice attached to the chamber wall. As soon as she and Espa were securely up, she set about erecting battlements of ice and turning the staircase she’d made to it into an unclimbable slide with a blast of fire.

“Oh, this makes everything so much better,” she crowed. “Finally I can get rid of the stuff after I conjure it! How’s she doing, sister?”

“I have never seen anyone fight like that,” Espa said, peering over the battlements at Morenna’s ongoing fight, “but somehow she still isn’t winning!”

Morenna had already gathered a collection of bruises and was bleeding from multiple points, but fought on undaunted. She flickered from place to place, harassing the machines from multiple angles while they constantly struggled to re-orient and face her. By pure luck, two of them managed to bring spears down onto Morenna; she was too close to be impaled on the points but their shafts barred her attempted counterattack.

Snarling, she rammed Blackwing’s point into one’s chin, popping its head entirely off, then hooked her foot behind the knee of another, forcing it to buckled forward, and slammed her forehead into its face.

Then, obviously, Morenna stumbled backward with a cry of pain, blinded and disoriented as the rest of the squad whirled on her.

“Morenna!” Ophia raised an ice spear from above, but before anything else could befall her, Morenna vanished from amid her enemies, appearing on the platform with them, clutching her ringing skull.

“Why would you do that?” Espa shouted in exasperation, even as she grabbed Morenna’s head in both hands, channeling her healing power into her sister. “What did you think would happen?!”

“Sorry,” Morenna mumbled, her pained expression clearing as her bruises and cuts faded away. “Muscle memory. I’m used to fighting people.”

“Well, I hope your muscles learn quickly!”

“Don’t worry, they do.”

“You are an absolute terror, sister, and I mean that as high praise,” said Ophia, peering down at the squad of soldiers. “Those fellows are noticeably the worse for wear.”

The clockwork soldiers had regrouped; finding no path up to the girls, they now stood in formation with spears raised. Most of them bore scratches from Morenna’s sword and several were venting steam from damaged joints; a few listed at odd angles on legs that no longer worked properly.

“And none of them are down,” Morenna growled.

“That’s just not fair,” Espa complained. “Look, that one’s head is off!”

“I see why everyone was so terrified of these,” Ophia mused. “They don’t seem to be the strongest fighters, but mere adequacy is deadly in soldiers that just won’t die.”

“And now we’re stuck,” said Espa, looking around. They were safe for the moment, but aside from the squad of clockwork soldiers caught in the narrow aisle between the ice walls, there were much larger groups of them isolated on the sides of the room. All waiting with mechanical patience, spears at the ready. “All right. We can’t seem to get out of here, but Morenna, you can get past them and to the exit.”

“What?” Morenna snapped. “Absolutely not, I am not abandoning you two down here! I will get you out of this, or I won’t get out myself!”

“Sister, that is very sweet,” Espa said with a gentle smile. “I am truly touched that you would care so much for us, especially after the way this family has neglected you. But what I meant was, you need to go get help.”

“I—ah. Right, obviously.” Morenna’s outrage faded beneath an embarrassed blush. “Sorry. I’m not used to thinking of other people as…helpful.”

“Wait,” Ophia said. “Morenna, don’t go. Think, girls. These things have been inert for centuries, they didn’t react to being knocked on and pelted with spells. What are the odds they would just randomly re-activate while we were down here? Someone did this. There is someone in this castle who somehow knows how to re-energize Machine Men technology, and wants the daughters of Khellvain dead. Someone human.”

“I mean, that seems likely,” said Espa, “but why…”

“Our true enemy is a person like us,” Ophia continued, “made of the same soft, vulnerable meat. Someone who would be dead instantly if Morenna sensed his presence. I’m confident in my own power, sisters, but I can be fought; I don’t know how I even could fight an enemy who can just appear behind me and put a blade through my heart at any second.”

Espa inhaled sharply. “That’s why mechanical soldiers. They’re overkill for most problems, but are a strong counter to a shadow mage.”

“Damn it, you’re right,” Morenna murmured. “If I leave you here, the Powers only know what you’ll have to face by the time I get back with reinforcements. Especially since no one in this castle listens to me. Maybe we can use this? If I disappear but remain close enough to sense you, I can ambush anyone who approaches.”

“Wait,” said Ophia. “Those things are spewing steam where you damaged them. That reminds me of something…”

She held up one hand, flames already limning her fingers. Ophia flowed into a smooth series of motions, twirling in graceful circles as the fire grew in strength and her sisters backed away as far as they could.

“Are you dancing?” Espa demanded incredulously.

“It helps me focus!”

“If you say so…”

Ophia’s dance came to an end right at the battlements of ice, where she flung her hand forward and emitted a concentrated blast of flame that kept raging for a long span of seconds. Morenna and Espa exchanged a wary look, edging over to the wall themselves to peek over.

Ophia was targeting a single mechanical soldier in the middle of the formation; it was shuffling awkwardly back and forth, hemmed in by its fellows, but seemingly unable to escape the raging torrent of fire. After only a few seconds, she had heated it to the point that the metal glowed a dull orange.

Finally, the flame dropped; Ophia was breathing heavily, but raised her other hand now and called up a floating spear of ice.

“Girls,” she said with a grin, “duck.”

She threw the spear, and an instant later, an explosion shook the entire room.