Mageborn The Line of Illeniel, Michael Manning [best ebook reader for laptop txt] 📗

royal guard, old habits die hard. Anyway as far as I can see... you’re about to be one,” he answered without giving an inch. He was still standing at attention.

I sighed, “Fine, whatever... Joe, Rose Hightower is in the capital arranging supplies and recruiting for us. She needs to know what we’ve decided. We’ll need more workmen, lumber, stone masons, food, and... hell I don’t know what else. Get with my father he’ll have a better idea of some of the specific materials.”

“Cyhan I’ll want you to go with Joe. I can’t risk losing him on the road and the journey needs to be made as speedily as possible,” I said looking into the grim warrior’s eyes.

For a moment I thought he might argue, “Alright. Have Dorian work on the sword with her while I’m gone. She needs to keep up the training.” He nodded at Penny.

Last I looked to my father, “Dad...”

“I’ll be taking a horse out to look at the site for the dam,” he responded without waiting for me to finish.

I grinned at him, of course he knew his job better than I did, “Penny and I will ride with you. I need to see this myself.” The day was already half done so we wasted no more time.

Chapter 21

It was almost dusk by the time we reached the area where Shepherd’s Rest joined the main valley. I hadn’t been there in years but the place looked much as I remembered. The ground was rocky and littered with boulders near the river as it passed through and there was a good fifty yards on the southern side of the river before the hills rose up again. The northern edge of the river was nearly flush against a massive stone face where the mountains met it.

“That’s a lot of open ground to fill,” I commented.

“It could be worse,” Royce answered. “If it was easy everyone would be building dams.”

“How deep is the river here?” asked Penny.

“Not sure. Let me borrow that big stick of yours Mordecai,” my father said. I could only assume he was referring to my staff.

“No need,” I replied. “I can feel it. It’s about five feet deep at the middle and maybe two foot near the banks.”

“Damn useful talent,” my father remarked.

“I wonder how high it is,” I mused looking at the rock walls on the northern side. I walked closer and spotted some sage growing a few feet from the river. Never one to waste an opportunity I decided to take some back for my mother. She always needed extra seasonings for her cooking. I was embarrassed to discover I had forgotten my knife. “Hey Dad, do you have a knife on you?”

“I’ve got my pants on don’t I?” he snapped back. I should have seen that one coming. He grinned and handed the blade to me. “Can’t believe you forgot your knife. I thought I raised you better than that!”

I cut a large section off and tucked it away before handing the knife back. “It has to be over a hundred feet high on this side,” I said looking up again.

“Yeah but it’s only thirty or so on the other side,” Royce pointed. “We’ll have to extend the length once we get over that. Still, it looks promising.”

Penny gazed eastward into Shepherd’s rest, “The river doesn’t look big enough to fill that up in the time we have.”

“You’re forgetting the spring thaw. Once the mountains warm up the river will be swollen with snow-melt,” Royce reminded her. “It’s getting dark. I guess we’ll have to camp here tonight.”

“I can see in the dark,” I told them. “If you don’t mind riding a few more hours we can sleep in our beds. Besides, I want to be there when the visitors start arriving tomorrow.”

***

The next day moved slowly at first. I was anxious to see what help we could expect from the Lancasters. When I had last seen James he hadn’t yet decided what his response would be to the King’s call to arms. He had planned to meet with King Edward the day after we left and I was nervous about the outcome of that meeting.

Chances were high that he hadn’t returned yet from the capital, which meant that Genevieve would be forced into making decisions that could possibly go against his wishes. Either way it had the potential to become an awkward situation.

Since I had nothing else to do with my morning I decided to work on my new idea. Our planning session had highlighted the fact that we needed a way to force the enemy to avoid the road and march through the low part of the valley. We also would need a way to destroy our new dam when the time was right. I thought I had something that might achieve both goals.

Last year, during the battle against the cultists in Lancaster Castle I had used a spell I lovingly called a ‘flashbang’. I know... the name could use some work, but I had yet to find a better term for it. In short it involved creating a small focused point of energy that would flash outward, producing an intense light and a thunderous sound. It wouldn’t actually damage anything nearby, there wasn’t any explosive force involved, but it would blind and deafen anyone within a short distance of it.

Of course what I needed now would require explosive force as well. That would be easy enough, my command of Lycian was much better now. I could easily craft any number of variations on the spell, adding fire and a physical explosion would be simple, even if they did require more energy. The big problem was that I couldn’t possibly be everywhere I would need to be when the enemy arrived. Driving the enemy from the road would be done primarily at the western end of the road, while at the same time someone would have to be destroying the dam on the eastern end of the valley.