A Shadow Mage is Never Disarmed

The City Crusher drew back its drill arm, then thrust it forward—at the wall.

Morenna aborted her charge, backpedaling as the gigantic drill slammed into the stone; chunks ranging from pebbles to boulders began to tumble free, and in some cases went flying.

“What is it doing now?” she demanded.

“I think it’s trying to get away from us?” Espa said uncertainly.

“Hah!” Rakkan crowed. “Well, at least now we can say we scared off a City Crusher, whatever else happens.”

“A thing like that doesn’t feel fear,” said Vanerra. “It only has instructions it follows. The Machine Men must have designed it to retreat if it’s damaged and vulnerable. I imagine a clockwork that size is expensive to replace.”

Morenna watched a boulder crash to the floor, then glanced back at the sound of a smaller piece of rock impacting the rear of the cavern. “How good are you three at intercepting falling boulders?”

“You surely don’t think we’ve ever practiced that,” said Espa.

“Yeah, well, looks like we’re about to,” said Rakkan. “Morenna, I’m gonna trust your shadow senses and teleportation to keep you safe, but those three are sitting ducks.”

“Wait,” said Morenna. “I don’t suppose you guys have any idea…where we are, relative to the castle or anything else?”

They stared at her, uncomprehending.

“What I mean is…what’s on the other side of that wall?”

“Um,” Espa squeaked. “Maybe…hopefully another cavern? Because…if we’re not too deep… Kourvald surrounds the plateau on three sides.”

“I’ll be right back,” said Morenna. “Keep them safe.”

She drew on her magic and flashed through the intervening space, coming to stand atop the City Crusher, at its very forward edge. This close, the noise of the drill was overwhelming, and she immediately had to dodge a flying chunk of rock. Worse, the vibrations it was causing were confusing as she tried to focus her senses on her surroundings.

It was enough to get a sense, though—of the huge space opening up past the colossally thick wall of rock before her, and the much more regular shapes beyond.

Two more of the City Crusher’s arms were already rising up to sweep her off; Morenna teleported back to the others without waiting for them to hit.

“We have a new problem,” she announced. “It looks like we’re a bit below ground level here, but not so deep it can’t climb out once there’s a big enough gap—and at the rate it’s going, that drill will be through in minutes. Just beyond that wall is a wide open space with a flat floor that I think is the city’s main plaza.”

“Oh, Powers of Mercy,” Espa whispered. “There’s a festival going on, half the city will be there…”

“Any notion how much longer they’ll be at it?” Rakkan asked, looking back at their other three siblings. Aldan was channeling light into the object in the center of them at such intensity they could see nothing but the glow; Ophia and Uthien were both squinting in concentration.

“I don’t even know what they’re doing,” Morenna said, “so I’m afraid to interrupt them. If they have to start over it’ll just take longer. I know we’re supposed to be keeping it off them, but this is now bigger than the seven of us. We cannot let that thing into Kourvald. It’s called a City Crusher for a reason.”

“Right, well…” Rakkan shrugged helplessly. “I mean, we were planning to kill it anyway, right? Do you have a better idea than to wait for Aldan and the others to finish…whatever they’re doing? Because I’ve got—hold on.”

He suddenly darted forward and then launched himself straight into the air. The huge chunk of rock that had been tumbling overhead struck him and shattered; the others had to dodge debris, but at least the bounder was no longer arcing toward Aldan, Uthien, and Ophia.

“Good hit, Rakkan,” said Morenna as soon as he rejoined them, looking no worse for the impact. “To answer your question, no, I don’t have a better idea—just a bad one. Protect those three from rocks, I’m going to try to slow it down.”

* * *

First, she stuck with what she knew best.

Morenna materialized upon the drill arm, just below the joint halfway between the body and the drill. The noise was downright painful to her ears this close, and the whole thing vibrated almost too hard to keep her footing, but she attacked without hesitation.

Such a huge joint exposed large gaps, through which the mechanisms of the joint itself were visible, and Morenna immediately thrust both her blades into the machinery.

She succeeded in making it pause its drilling, flexing and moving the arm in response to the obstruction.

The rapier blade snapped off just beyond the hilt; the gladius was ripped from her grasp, and she had to watch it being pulled into the crunching mechanism, the tempered steel mangled into scrap as it was devoured.

Then the drill went back to work. Sacrificing her weapons had bought only seconds.

But that didn’t make her helpless. Vanerra had been right; this was a different situation, and she was not too pressed to think. A shadow mage in possession of her wits was never disarmed.

The pincers were coming up to remove her, but Morenna was already gone, shifting to stand atop the Crusher’s central bulk. All around her, now, were pieces of fallen stone caused by the ongoing drilling. Many were larger or heavier than her own body, putting them beyond the use of her magic, but there were plenty she could work with.

Flexing nothing but her mind, Morenna began snatching up rocks and jamming them into every arm joint.

Machinery that could pulverize steel obviously ground stone to gravel and dust without effort… Which left the workings full of gravel and dust.

Morenna danced across the City Crusher, jumping from arm to arm, and back and forth across its central body, effortlessly evading its efforts to grab her. Its increasingly clumsy efforts; after just a few minutes of this, its motions started to get noticeably slower. The grasping arms trembled with effort, losing precision by the second, and several of the joints began emitting smoke and occasional fountains of sparks.

If only she’d had so much loose stone to work with before! She and Uthien could have shut it down before it ever started drilling.

But the drilling had started, and even now, it wasn’t stopping. The drill kept slipping, jerking sideways as the Crusher progressively lost the ability to aim, but it did not cease its attacks upon the walls. It had already gouged a gigantic rent in the stone, providing Morenna plenty of loose rock to work with, but also bringing it closer to—

The entire machine lurched forward as the drill broke through. Morenna was flung loose from the drill arm, teleporting mid-fall to land atop with Crusher’s hull in a crouch…and now, sunlight was beaming in upon her, through the gap.

The rest of the arms ground audibly as they shifted forward, grasping the edge of the opening and tearing it wider.

Even over all the noise, she could now hear screams from outside as the City Crusher’s treads activated, pushing the gigantic machine up and smashing bodily through the remains of the cavern wall, into Kourvald.