::Chapter Ten::
They were no longer invisible; Cerin was too exhausted from her earlier efforts to hide the entire ship. They were no longer silent; Elam had finally passed out, but he'd held out long enough to be conscious as Afura bandaged his wounds.
But there were still three Muldoon Priestesses on that cutter, and they were as deadly as ever. The group sped across the treetops so fast that almost hurt to stay on deck. Afura was putting all her energy into propelling them forward by an incredible gale as she helmed the ship, so that they caught up to the Bugrom troops rather rapidly.
Or at least, they should have.
Dammit! Where'd they go? Shayla yelled over the wind.
Maybe the Phantom Tribe is still hiding them? Qawoor replied. Then she pointed out ahead.
The city-state of Laidae, the largest single expanse of populated land in all of El Hazard, was just visible near the horizon. It's towers weren't quite as tall as those in Roshtaria, but surrounding the city proper were endless rows of houses and apartments, and outside of them was an almost unbroken stretch of farmland, with a smaller tributary to the River of God running right through the middle of it all.
The cutter was sweeping up from the southeast, and the city was growing larger with every passing heartbeat. Then, the disturbance of the Bugrom troops moving though the forest became visible at last.
Shayla cried out. Ha ha! Gotchya!
****
Jinnai's heart was pounding with the usual pre-battle excitement. He was sitting atop his own army, a band of loyal fighters that lived to serve his every whim, and the sheer power of it electrified him.
Go! Onward my devoted soldiers! The time for revenge is finally here! We are invincible! We will crush everything that stands in our path to victory, and conquest! Prepare yourselves to destroy the Alliance! There- uh?
Jinnai halted his rantings. There was a faint sound coming from behind them, just barely audible over the noise of his troops. But it grew louder, and louder, and his heart froze momentarily as Jinnai recognized what sounded for all the world like a jet engine overtaking them.
****
Even Afura was grinning in triumph, but then she noticed something that wiped that grin away.
Oh no, the Laidaean Army is massing! They're taking up defensive positions outside the farmlands!
Shayla asked. Isn't that a good thing?
Afura risked turning around quickly to yell back. Not if their troops are in our line of fire!
They were passing over the Bugrom now, approaching the edge of the forest. Just up ahead it was obvious that the Laidaeans had spotted the oncoming army, and a small number of troops were positioning themselves on the outskirts of their territory. Army cutters and larger sailships were beginning to swarm out from the city, towing what looked like tremendous cannons behind them.
Afura said, then leaned forward as though to hurry the cutter on even faster.
Suddenly, Qawoor rushed up to Afura and grabbed her shoulders. Afura! Set me down over there! I can do it! She pointed towards the river.
****
It was obviously Roshtarian, Jinnai could make out that much, but it passed straight over them without slowing down for a second. He breathed a small sigh of relief that they weren't going to have to deal with those damned harpies again, then he caught sight of the edge of the forest, with the borders of his next conquest just visible through the tree trunks. His lips parted in a predatory grin.
****
Afura brought the cutter back down to earth on the top of a small ledge that overlooked the river. Are you certain about this? she asked Qawoor as the younger priestess climbed over the side of the deck.
Of course. Don't worry, Miss Afura, I know what I'm doing. She smiled and winked, then hopped off the short ladder onto the ground.
Immediately she ran up to the tip of the ledge, and spread her hands out before her like a fan. The Lamp of Water flashed brilliantly, and a soft blue glow began to suffuse the air around Qawoor. A deep, humming resonance was building up, echoing through the small ravine and growing in strength with the energy the priestess was channeling. After a few seconds the river began to swell and soon was overflowing it's banks as it took on the same blue radiance, and Qawoor let out a reverberating and turned her palms upwards.
An incredible column of water, fifty, one hundred, two hundred feet across rose from the once tiny river, and it climbed into the air with terrifying speed.
The last of the Bugrom had just made it out of the forest and into the clearing, and they were already recieving some light cannon fire from the defences that the Liadaean Army had emplaced. Small explosions threw up mounds of dirt around Jinnai at the rear and center of his impressive formation, but they hardly made a dent in the tide of blue-shelled troops that were pouring over the landscape like giant ants.
The front lines of his troops were suffering a bit more at the hands of the enemy divisons, but the Bugrom were moving so fast that the poor humans didn't have a chance to adjust their defensive lines before they were broken in quick succesion and eliminated.
Bright flares exploded overhead, bathing the field of battle with an eery pinkish glow. The opposition Army was falling back in chaos, and Jinnai was just about to exhult in the triumph of his nighttime surpise attack when something huge and unnatural appeared a few miles to his left. A bright blue light was shining up from the river like a spotlight, and then, to Jinnai's absolute terror, a wave of terrific proportions rose up, and began to spread itself over his troops.
Cerin had cracked her eyes open wearily to see why they had stopped, but now they grew wide in amazement as she and the other priestesses watched what Qawoor was doing. As though it were no more difficult to control than a garden hose, the water priestess turned and pointed in the direction of the Bugrom hordes. The wave spread out over the valley, blotting out the stars and drowning all other noises despite the proximity of the battle, and then, in an earth-rending crash, came back down on the other end of the battle field.
****
Jinnai had wasted precious seconds, he knew, staring at the impossible wave of water that was sure to bring his death. But he managed to sound the retreat, albeit in a most un-dignified high-pitched screech, and his Bugrom obeyed immediately and began to turn back to the forest.
He also knew that it was too late for most of them. Being in the rearguard, he and a handful of others made it far enough into the woods to save themselves. What happened to the others was almost indescribable.
****
The wave now encompassed the body of the Bugrom troops like a canopy, and where it touched the ground the waters began to sweep them across the clearing and towards the river. Huge disembodied fists formed among the waves, gathering up the Bugrom that clung desperately to the ground. The sweep continued until it reached the river's swelled banks, then began to gather itself into a wall again, this one containing the hundreds upon hundreds of wretched Bugrom that were clawing desperately at the water, trying to break themselves free.
All the way across the ground the wave was laying waste to the land, uprooting trees and flooding valleys. What few farms were out this far had been abandoned when the Laidaean government had first sounded the invasion alarm, but the head of the Army's troop formations were swept up into the wave as well.
For what seemed like hours the waters beat along the land, until the flow was shut off from the river and the last of the waves gathered in what few stragglers were left. All the time the wave on the river that contained the troops was growing ever longer, until it seemed to stretch beyond the horizon back south towards the River of God. Finally, the water ceased flowing over the clearing, and Qawoor lifted herself upon a small wave of her own, and moved to the end of the wave.
She pushed her hands forward, and the wave began to move down the river, slowly at first, then with mounting speed. Laidae, being just slightly to the north and far to the west of Caldan, was situated not fifty miles from the River of God. Thus, even as fast as she could move them, it took nearly fourty minutes for Qawoor to reach the River.
Afura followed her closely in the cutter, and several times nearly picked her up as the strain of this incredible effort began to take it's toll. Here and there, the wave lost cohesion enough to deposit a few drowned Bugrom along the banks of the river, and the wave began to sag dangerously as it passed through a fishing town that hugged the coast between the tributary and the River of God.
Qawoor managed to get the wave out beyond the tides around the coast, and several miles into the River before she was forced to let go completely. When she did the wave collapsed, and so did she, crashing uncontrolled and unconscious into the waters.
Afura yelled. Shayla, take the controls, quick! Shayla rushed for the seat that Afura lept out of, and as Shayla brought the cutter around in a curve Afura backflipped up into the air and swept down to the water's surface.
She managed to grab Qawoor before the girl sank, and floated softly back up to the cutter.
Is she okay? Shayla asked with more than the usual note of apprehension in her voice.
Afura set Qawoor down on the deck and began to remove her sopping wet clothes. She'll be allright, she's just unconscious. Go get some dry clothes from her locker, and start a small fire down there as well - we can't let her catch hypothermia.
Shayla nodded and got to work, and Cerin staggered across the deck and knelt down next to Qawoor.
They weren't kidding, where they? Cerin asked.
Afura said, confused.
The Seminary, Cerin explained, when they told us that she would be the most powerful of the priestesses someday. Looks like someone stole your thunder, dear. Those last words might have been an insult but for the smile that crossed Cerin's lips as she said them, and Afura found herself agreeing with her companion for the first time that she could remember.
****
Jinnai slammed his fist down so hard on the blotter that Groucho flinched backwards from him, and Jinnai didn't seem to notice the small trickle of blood coming from his knuckles.
HOW? How could those damnable harpies know just where we'd be?! An entire division of my best troops washed away like drowning rats! My plan was perfect! Damn, why does my hand hurt so much?
Jinnai finally sat down and started to suck on his knuckles to stop the bleeding. There were still plenty of options open to him, since no decent military conqueror would create a strategy that depended on everything going right, but the loss of troops had hurt his offensive power considerably.
That was unfortunate, wasn't it? Nahato asked from the shadows behind him.
GHA! Will you STOP doing that? You're going to give me a heart attack. Jinnai spun around angrily, and the pesky teenager emerged from a dimly lit corner into the light.
Nahato smiled. I'm afraid that the priestesses were attempting to uncover something that we had... hidden in the forest. They did not know about your attack until you ran right into them. You should have come up closer to the farms.
Jinnai's lip curled. I shouldn't have expected any better from the likes of your puny intellect. What good would it have done me to have my tunnels discovered before I could use them? I had to dig above ground far enough away that no one would run into them by accident.
Listen to me, said Nahato, as though he hadn't been spoken to at all, it is in both our interests that Laidae be destroyed. Not taken over; destroyed. They will not be expecting you to attack the same place twice.
Yeah, you know why? Jinnai snapped. Because only a complete idiot would do that! They'll have all sorts of extra defences built up around that place, if only to ease the minds of their rotten little subjects. It'd be suicidal, unless I drew more troops from our other positions, which I won't do because it would weaken us too much! Now go home and play you Nintendo, kid, the grown ups have a war to run.
If you had any intelligence at all, continued Nahato calmly, although it was getting harder to keep his hand away from the knife at his belt, you'd have found out that they haven't added any new equipment to their defences. In fact, their citizens demanded that their outer defences be fortified no matter what the cost, so they've actually spread their troops out instead of concentrating them in one or two locations. Furthermore- here he couldn't quite keep the condescension out of his voice -because we wish to see Laidae destroyed as well, we will keep you concealed and provide air support for the attack. Our spies have determined that there are no other priestesses in the area, so the danger to your troops will be minimal.
Jinnai was fuming so much that he didn't notice that Nahato was speaking in absolutes. He glanced at the map again; Laidae was the biggest supplier of agricultural goods to the Alliance troops in the southern regions, and burning the farms would put a real crimp in their ability to keep those troops supplied. Besides, Jinnai had no compunction against making a tactical withdrawal, but it would be good for his troops to smash the target that had escaped them, however great the fluke of their defeat had been.
After a few minutes of contemplation, Jinnai had regained his composure. Allright, I hate to admit it, but you have a point. But I am still in command of this operation, and once we're in battle I expect you to obey my every order, understand?
Nahato nodded. He'd gotten everything he needed, so without another word he vanished again, and Jinnai was left to ponder the map in front of him. If this attack succeeded, then it would hurt the Alliance a great deal. But he couldn't shake the feeling that despite all the precautions he had been taking, his destiny was falling further and further into the hands of the Phantom Tribe.
He called for another cup of tea, and as soon as Groucho had brought it to him he began to labor furiously over his plans.
****
Well? What progress?
The scientist Welir bowed at Nahato's approach, then turned to regard a floating display panel.
We have isolated the frequency of the power that this cannon requires for normal operation. As soon as the conversion matrix is complete, we will be able to use a standard fusion battery to provide the energy.
Nahato smiled. And what about the weapon itself?
Welir touched a few controls on his panel, and a new set of calculations appeared. It appears to focus it's energy through some crystalline structure that our sensors are having difficulty analyzing. It seems to be offworld in origin.
Nahato's smile disappeard.
Meaning that we will not be able to reproduce it's effects until we can discover how to manufacture a similar structure. We are of course working as hard as we can, but without complete data, I'm afraid it may be some time before we will be able to build our own from scratch.
I see. You've done well here, Welir. Inform me when the weapon will be ready to test.