Hammer Out A Future (Cart-Dragger Saga Book 1) Page 16

  He stood looking indecisive for a second, then finally engaged, slashing rapidly at her. His demeanor, so calm before, changed. "You stupid cow! How dare you make me flee! How dare you be better than me!"

  She stared in surprise while parrying the blows. "What?"

  "I'm the heir of the world! I'm not supposed to lose to anybody! I should be better than you all!" He sliced her painfully over the collarbone.

  "You think you have a right to be outraged at me?" Slipping past a thrust, she stepped in and hit him with a punch that knocked him back. He stayed at a distance again, danced around her striking from the very edge of his reach. She defended his probing jabs and cuts without much difficulty, but with so much space between them he also easily anticipated and avoided her attacks. She tried repeatedly to rush in, but he kept his distance well with his movement and she couldn't get him where she wanted. What was he doing, fighting like he tried to drag out the duel? Was he trying to frustrate her into making a disastrous mistake? She would hardly let that happen. She too adopted a more patient approach, watching him carefully as he circled in hopes that she could find an opportunity to catch him with a devastating counter.

  He grinned, the reason for which she didn't quite understand. Was he relishing the thrill of the battle, or did he have a trick up his sleeve?

  #

  Lars and his companions stood in an awkward standstill with the guards, neither side knowing what to do. "Let's get them, boss!" one of the guards said. "If we don't, the big boss might be displeased when he gets back."

  Another replied, "I don't know. These guys look pretty tough, except for the kid with glasses."

  "Kid?" Scott grumbled. "I'm almost twenty-eight. And how do I not look tough, just because I have glasses?"

  "You don't look tough with your glasses off either," Ruth said.

  The barrel-chested man they addressed as "boss" looked in the direction where Cart-Dragger and Maximilian had gone. "Maybe we should wait to see which of them comes back. If that barbarian girl gets here and sees us attacking her friends, we're dead!"

  "Barbarian? She's a duchess..." Lars pointed out.

  A cracking sound came from the building Maximilian had stood on, and they all turned their eyes to it. Seconds later, something big made of metal broke out through the front. It was a machine, like a giant drill attached to what resembled an armored carriage the size of a house. The thing looked old and rusted, but like an ancient monster awakened from eons past still imposing. "An imperial digger?" Scott said. "I guess in addition to being where they extracted the metal, that building must also be where they keep their transport."

  Allen stared. "They got an old thing like that running again?"

  "Or, they had it operational all along and just didn't want to show their hand yet."

  "We're saved!" The boss sounded giddy, smiling from ear to ear. "Now we can escape and just claim we were no match for them!" He and the rest of the guards ran for the vehicle. Before they could get close, the digger angled downward and started to burrow into the ground, the spray of pebbles from around its drill driving them back.

  "Hey, that's not right!" a man whined. "Stop, let us on, don't leave us behind like this!"

  "They're brave guards," Allen said.

  Lars smirked. "I'd guess they aren't particularly loyal imperial followers. But what should we do? The transmium is probably on that machine, and they're getting away."

  Scott replied, "We have to disable it!"

  "But how do we do that?" They all shot or threw their ranged weapons at it. The projectiles bounced off with no effect at all on the metal juggernaut. "Now what?"

  "It must have some weak spots," Ruth suggested. Before they could locate any, the drill head disappeared beneath the earth and the rest quickly followed.

  They ran to the hole. "Crap!" Lars said. "Where did it go, I can't see it."

  Debris had already filled in the passage it dug. Scott shook his head. "Imperial diggers collapse the tunnels they make behind them. It's gone."

  "Well, Cart-Dragger's not going to like this." The guards stood there nervously. Before any more words could be exchanged, the hammer-wielding girl in question arrived. She bore fewer wounds than Lars might have expected after a big fight, but wore a flustered expression. "So what happened to Maximilian, did you get him?"

  Her disappointed look made her answer expected. "No. When I heard the noise from here, he told me I had a choice between killing him and saving my friends. Even though I really wanted to finish him, I had to put you guys first. But it seems like I arrived too late, and you managed to handle things without me."

  "We... weren't in any danger," Scott said hesitantly. "They just took the metal and left."

  Her face grew more dejected. "So he played me like a fool."

  A period of silence passed. "At least we stopped them from getting all the transmium they needed," Lars said in a lame attempt to console her.

  The leader of the guards coughed. "I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but I heard yesterday they were nearing the end of the operation. Supposedly they already had enough in all likelihood, and were only getting a little extra in case of unforeseen circumstances."

  "What are these imperial scum doing still here?" Cart-Dragger snapped, waving her hammer menacingly. "I should slaughter you!"

  A man raised shaking hands in supplication. "We were just h-hired for this job for good pay, we don't c-care about the empire either way!"

  Ruth touched Cart-Dragger's forearm and gently pushed the hammer down. "They're probably telling the truth. The driver of the transport vehicle didn't give a shit about them, and they did volunteer information. We should let them go, you don't need their blood on your hands."

  "Maybe she really was having a bad day when she kneed you in the balls," Lars said to Allen, "'Ruthless' nickname aside."

  "Alright, fine, go!" Cart-Dragger yelled at the guards. They hurried off, and she addressed the watching miners. "And the rest of you, too."

  "We haven't even gotten paid..." one grime-covered man said sheepishly.

  "What are looking at me like that for? I didn't bring enough money for that." She punched the nearby signpost, making it wobble, and the miners dispersed. Lars thought it was a tactic to scare them, at least until she screamed, "Gah, fuck fuck fuck fuck!"

  "What wrong with her?" Allen asked.

  "Why can't I... do anything?" she whispered in a broken voice, resting her forehead against the post while tears streamed down her face. "I win the battles, yet I'm losing the war... at this rate, all Maximilian likely needs is the absorption nodes, and how are we supposed to know where he'll go for those? I'm so sorry, Jen! No matter how hard I try, it doesn't seem like I can do anything for you."

  "You're still blaming yourself for her death?" Ruth said softly. "You shouldn't be so hard on yourself. Sure, maybe you could have done things differently which would have resulted in a better outcome. But no one can make perfect choices all the time. No matter how strong you are, you're human, and humans make mistakes—and are forgiven for them. I'm sure Jen has forgiven you, and wouldn't want you to still be tearing yourself up over it... right? So you should forgive yourself too, for her sake."

  She sniffed. "I suppose. But if we don't stop Maximilian, it won't matter who forgives who. With the God Soldiers back under his control, nothing will be able to stand against him, and we have no idea what part of the ocean..."

  "Can't we track him to find out where he's going next?"

  They went to where Cart-Dragger had last seen him, but though both she and the mercenaries had solid tracking skills they could find not even the hint of a trail. "He must have just used magic to hide it somehow," she said despairingly. She stared down at the ground, as if imagining she sank into it.

  Lars tapped her shoulder. "Wait, I remember Scott mentioning the Rings of Rulership had a core—they would need to get that to make it work too, right? What's the core made of?"

  Scott shook his head. "I don't know. The
re were a number of rumors, but I can't say which if any made more sense than the others."

  "The rings are unbelievably huge," Ruth reminded them, "yet there's a whole lot of empty space in the middle which you'd think could have been saved with a more compact design. You think maybe instead of it being unnecessary extravagance, something might have gone there?"

  Allen caught on. "Are you saying whatever was the core was gigantic?"

  "That's my theory, yes."

  Scott said, "The Rings is hundreds of feet in diameter, and the hollow interior makes up most of it. What could be so big as to require that much space? There was speculation a King Elemental was used to power it, but they were all deployed as weapons so-"

  "Actually, no." Ruth smiled. "While the King Elemental of Earth Behemoth was said to be a weapon in our arsenal, to my knowledge it was never seen on the battlefield. So perhaps it was kept within the Rings, serving as its core."

  "The living core of a King Elemental doubling as the Rings' core... interesting theory."

  "But if they used the Rings to control the God Soldiers, how did they get a King Elemental to be its core before then?"

  "They might have found a way to control or subdue a single elemental first," Lars said, "before making the big breakthrough."

  Hope shone anew in Cart-Dragger's eyes. "So which King Elemental are they likely to seek out now?"

  "The King Elemental of Air Zephyr was killed during the cataclysm, and you slew Leviathan. So the only ones left are those of Earth and Fire."

  "Behemoth seems like it might be easier to control, so maybe they'll try to use it again. Does anyone know where to find it?"

  He thought about it. "We found the King Elemental of Water in an especially watery place, right? So maybe we would find the one of Earth in a... um, earthy place?"

  "What would qualify as an earthy place?" Ruth asked.

  They discussed it for a while, suggesting places such as mountains and valleys before Scott suggested, "Speaking of valleys, what about the Primordial Rift, the great split in the earth where one can see into its depths? That might be 'closer to the earth' than anywhere else."

  "Sounds worth checking out," Cart-Dragger said. "How far is it?"

  He pulled out a map and looked. His expression grew doubtful. "The problem is it'll take us more than a month to get there. With that vehicle they have, it seems unlikely we can make it in time to stop them."

  "And if I quicken my pace, you guys won't be able to keep up. Although I probably couldn't even beat that tireless machine there..."

  "Maybe they'll go for the absorption nodes first," Lars said, "and that will give us time to get there first and protect Behemoth."

  Ruth chuckled. "That last bit sounds so weird to say."

  "Well, we might not end up protecting it if it attacks us like Leviathan did," Cart-Dragger replied. "Damn, it's going to take so long... but I guess we don't have any better idea what to do, so let's just go."

  #

  They started for the Primordial Rift, Cart-Dragger quieter than usual as she thought about how much of her life she was losing running around from place to place. She wasn't sure she wanted to walk so much anymore, but knew she must to do the best she could for her country and the world. Maybe she could procure the digging machine from Maximilian after they defeated him and use it to travel. Then again, they would probably find a better use for it than just being her personal transport.

  "I didn't win my hammer from a demon seeking to challenge God," she said during a lull in her companions' conversation. "Me and Jen just made that up when we were young, and stuck with it because it made a good story."

  "How did you actually get it?" Lars asked.

  "I bought it from a weaponsmith obsessed with improving his family's bloodline. He created it in hopes that whoever proved capable of wielding it would be one of the biggest and strongest warriors alive, who he would try and get to marry his daughter. Of course, then I came along and I couldn't really marry her. I wonder if he ever made another one after that."

  "That's a pretty good story too. Although the fake one is more mythic. You're no myth, though."

  "Sometimes I wonder if somebody else could have done better with the strength I was gifted with. There were leaders in the old world who were more successful than me, at a younger age than I am."

  "It's pointless speculating about who would do what with someone else's talents. Since you can't separate them into their parts, you have to take a person as a whole. You're a great person the way you are, and just what the world needs right now."

  "Lars makes some fine points," Ruth said. "I don't have much to add other than that I agree."

  Cart-Dragger bowed her head, feeling humbled by their praise. "Thanks. I'll keep doing my best to live up to your high regard of me."

  They hadn't gone far from the mining camp before a colossal figure came into view slightly off the road. It was a hulking biped about two hundred feet tall, looking like a demon with horns and red metallic skin which glowed in spots as from heat under it. "What is that?" Allen asked in awe. "Did the imperials send it after us?"

  Lars eyed it nervously. "It doesn't notice us yet. Maybe we should give it a wide berth."

  To everyone except Scott's shock, Cart-Dragger turned directly towards it. "What are you doing?!" Ruth asked. "Don't tell me you want to indulge your pride by challenging that titan even now. You're going to get us all killed!" She seemed to remember hearing about Cart-Dragger's fight with Leviathan. "Or at least, waste a bunch of time and get yourself unnecessarily injured."

  "Oh come on, it'll be fine," she said as her spirits rose. "We're not going to fight."

  "Are you sure? That monster looks downright frightful. Is it a King Elemental?"

  She dragged her cart before the titan, who gazed down at her. "Abaddon! What are you doing here?"

  "God Crusher," a voice like a great fire crackled from its horselike snout. "The volcano stirs again. Its warmth attracts me."

  "I suppose that makes sense."

  Lars blinked in disbelief. "You two know each other? Also, God Crusher?"

  She took on a huge grin. "Of course! This is my friend, the King Elemental of Fire Abaddon. We fought a couple times before, but in the end I learned he wasn't so bad and decided to spare him, and we became drinking buddies. As for the nickname, we met before 'Cart-Dragger' caught on. So I had my old one."

  "I notice the dents in his hide now. I assume you made some of them? What the hell does he drink to get drunk?"

  "It was a figure of speech."

  Allen asked, "So when you answered maybe once to being asked if you ever lost a fight, was it to him?"

  She nodded bashfully. "Yeah, I lost the first round when he knocked me into a mountain and it fell on me. I won the rematch after digging myself out though, naturally."

  "Yeah, 'naturally,'" Ruth muttered.

  Abaddon bent, extended a finger more than twice as long as Cart-Dragger's whole body and lightly touched her. "God Crusher, you have new scars. Have you stories to tell of mighty battles in which you earned them?"

  "I have some stories. I fought your watery cousin Leviathan, two of the empire's Four Virtues, and then there's my archenemy, Maximilian Rouge... but I'm in a bit of a hurry to be stopping to share tales." She smiled. "If you want to hear them, I have a favor to ask you."

  "Am I wrong to have a bad feeling about this?" Allen asked Scott.

  "Don't worry, Willow won't put us in undue danger." But he still sounded somewhat anxious, not that she blamed him. Despite being able to fight them, the sheer scale of the King Elementals was a tad intimidating even to her. She just didn't let it show.

  "If you can help us get to Behemoth before Maximilian and his cronies do," she said, "I'll tell you about my battles on the way."

  It took a few moments for what she was proposing to sink in for the others. Allen gaped. "What, you want us to ride on that?!"

  "What's wrong? He walks a lot faster with his long strides t
han we can."

  "Where exactly are we going to ride on him?" Ruth asked.

  "There are plenty of places. Look how big he is. We can ride on his shoulders, or his head, or he can hold us in his hand."

  "Probably not the last. I'm afraid he might accidentally crush me with the slightest lapse. And he looks like a walking volcano, too..."

  "I'm a bit scared of heights," Scott said.

  Cart-Dragger pushed his arm. "It doesn't stop you from being an engineer working on tall projects."

  "Most of those projects don't walk."

  "We don't have a better option. If we don't get there as fast as possible, Maximilian might get control of all the God Soldiers including Abaddon and then we'll have a much bigger problem than you being scared."

  "I guess I can suck it up and handle it."

  "Wait, isn't he hot to the touch?" Lars asked. "Looks like it."

  "Looks like it, but not really." Cart-Dragger hugged Abaddon's fingertip to demonstrate. "As long as we don't sit on the glowy parts, it'll just be warm like a rock in the desert sun."

  "Like a rock in the desert sun," he repeated dubiously.

  "Geez guys, man up, don't be wimps!" She glanced at Ruth. "Woman up, in your case."

  Ruth sighed. "I suppose we can put our bedrolls on top of where we sit to help with the heat."

  "See, that's the spirit! If she can deal, so can the rest of you."

  "I'm not sure I can deal yet. But we could at least give it a try."

  Scott agreed, "Yeah, let's try. We've come too far to let the empire have the world again over being afraid to ride a giant fire demon." Reluctantly, Lars and Allen nodded.