seymoure

In the Castle of Shazaz

Unknown to the brotherhood, they were already lagging at the heels of the local minds, seeking progress to make use most of the devastating power of the Cannonette.

Borodin had gathered Smiths from every small hamlet and village in the kingdom and brings them to the largest mill in the capital city of Terique. There they would forge myriad incarnations of the death-dealing invention. By the end of this phase of the moon enough of the hand held cannons would have been fabricated to equip the King’s massive army.

His legion had been formed to trample all his foes under their booted heels. Now neither friend nor foe could stand before them. Some might kneel, others would lie down, but none would stand.

Rumor was that this industry would have accelerated but for the king’s wizard, Thwan-Tang, who had done all in his power to embog, to curtail the process. That power, which was known to be like a cyclone when called upon, had to be kept shielded from the king, who caught a dream glimpse of this project as being the threshold for his conquest of his region, then the continent and finally all the space upon which men walked.

The mage had fought a campaign of words before the first Blacksmith was brought to the castle. Everything that words could do had been attempted.

The Sorcerer had tried to explain that any weapon that took minutes to re-arm after firing was next to useless in a pitched battle.

The king countered that the first volley would be so devastating that reloading didn’t matter.

He also thought that his force would employ peasants who would do nothing but constantly ready the guns for shooting, leaving the military to fight with sabers and shoot the full scale cannons until they could be re-equipped with their cannonettes for a second shot.

However adamant the Wizard had been, the King had been moreso. The Magician fought his battle alone, while the king was assisted by an army around him.

Whatever argument the sorcerer made the king’s sons and advisors (as they had been instructed) found a way to counter every objection.

The truth was that the Wizard, who was older than anyone could ever know, was afraid of being displaced from his position at a time when it might be very hard to find a new one. The old man had been at the king’s father’s side when he had been crowned as a child.

Thwan-Tang was not a sham, not by any means. Among his king he was respected as an elder and one who should be mimicked.

But, like many who didn’t have to continue to grow and improve, he was not as powerful a user of the dark arts as he had always given the impression of being. Most of the things he had ever been called upon to do were easily done and only by adding flourishes of his own had they been made to seem amazing.

That is why, when his crystal ball called to him across the room, he quickly rushed to see what new danger threatened.

A young Sorceress was approaching. She was possessed of a natural talent the likes of which he had rarely come to see.

He knew this to be fortuitous, but had to decide howso.

He could make her into an adversary, someone who must be turned away in a way that those little guns would never be able to.

Or could he make her into a secret ally? Could she be enlisted into his cause? She did not travel alone. He knew nothing of the ugly, small or other fighting men who walked with her.

Such a group could lay waste to the factory and destroy all the cannonettes already constructed. They could be allowed to steal the original stolen gun from which the others had been fashioned.

That second seemed the better and more certain path. But he must be sure to find a way that he could never be blamed for their success.

If he conjured up a creature to attack the far villages and be sure he would be dispatched to stop the beast

A smile crept across his face like a shadow at dusk.

He would send one of his most trusted assistants to bring his new compatriots. They would be brought by the secret passage into his apartments and he would set out his plan for them.

While they were coming he would have to begin the creation of the threat that would call him away.

He then did something the old man hadn’t done in ages. He giggled.