Steelforged Legacy 2 - Chapter 16

Chapter 16

“Well, this isn’t going to fucking plan,” Casey growled as he crouched lower in the bushes. Magnus huffed in agreement from beside him, the big elk blending in eerily well with the bushes except for where his tack and saddle made him stand out by having a uniform color.

Going to have to see about dyeing the leather to make it blend in better. Would hate for that to get in his way.

Sorry Casey, I didn’t think they’d be this aggressive already, otherwise I’d have recommended we keep moving and consolidated later, Maude sighed as another rippling crack of wind-stretched canvas passed overhead.

Distantly, they could hear shouts from the direction of the river. Though he couldn’t understand what was being said, Casey could tell someone was upset. At least there hadn’t been sounds of anyone fighting.

“You had no way of knowing that they’d be this close either, Maude,” Casey hissed, peering up between the thin branches of the birch tree that hung over them. “I should have guessed someone would be nearby from the patrols that were going back and forth on the other side of the river.”

They’d barely made it half a mile from the river when Magnus had halted his happy trot and turned to herd Casey into the brush with his spreading rack of horns.

He hadn’t questioned the animal’s urging, and just did as the creature directed. Casey was glad that he’d paid attention to Magnus in this, as moments later several of the flying longships had swept overhead, headed towards the river.

Casey had been unable to get a look at their sails to figure out which clan they belonged to, but given that they’d come from the east—deeper into the Oak Horde territory—then he had a decent guess of who they were with.

They’d been just about to break cover when another airship had passed overhead, coming from the north this time, and Casey had hunkered down into the bushes further, pulling the hood of his cloak up higher to cover his face while he waited and listened.

We need to find a place to shelter. If we can get back to the road, it’ll be far less suspicious if the drengr on those ships find us. But moving will make us easier to spot. 

Casey couldn’t find fault with Maude’s statement. He’d been using his small baldrsteinn to light his way, as the trees were thick enough overhead that it made walking difficult. As soon as Magnus had urged him into the brush, though, he’d wrapped the glowing rock in his cloak.

Another rushing noise came from the direction of the river, drawing Casey’s eyes in that direction. He couldn’t see very well through the trees, but he was still close enough that he saw the lit shape of yet another airship cruising roughly in his direction, but this one was coming from the far side of the river.

“Bronze Fist,” Casey muttered, catching the sail briefly illuminated through the branches.

Apparently, the Oak Horde drengr also saw the ship because horn calls sounded a moment later and the shouting by the river ceased before picking up to an even higher volume.

“Should we move while they aren’t paying attention?” Casey muttered questioningly, running his thumb over the hilt of Maude’s seax form. When no answer was forthcoming, he mentally reached out to the spirit woman.

Maude?

What? Oh, sorry Casey. I thought I had this star metal tamed, but it’s fighting me again. I think I have it under control now, Maude’s mental voice was distracted as she answered him.

Casey knew that Maude wouldn’t have ignored him if it wasn’t something important, so he let it go and instead focused on what to do next.

The shouting from the riverbank was getting louder, and he could hear several men crashing through the brush now even as the well-lit airship came to a stop out over the water.

They are going to find my camp soon. We need to move… Casey thought as those moving into the woods from the riverbank got louder and louder. I have a feeling that a clash is going to happen between the Oak Horde and the Bronze Fist over this. They weren’t good neighbors to begin with, so if one of the Bronze Fist decides to start something, it’ll escalate. Do I wait for that fight to break out to move? Or start sneaking now?

Casey turned his attention to Magnus, wanting to check on the Gladewalker Elk to see if Magnus was tense or not. The elk was sitting without moving, for all the world looking like a particularly bent piece of shrubbery with how still he was. Only the faint glimmering of moonlight on the animal’s enormous eyes revealed his presence.

“Magnus?” Casey asked the animal, and Magnus twitched a single ear, angling the hanging appendage towards Casey questioningly. “Can you get us away from here without being caught?”

The elk grumbled deep in his throat and shifted slightly, his eyes darting towards the increasing sounds of argument by the river before turning towards Casey again. The noise was quiet, barely enough that Casey could hear it, but he got the distinct impression of uncertainty from the elk.

“I know, buddy. We waited too long to get moving. Just gotta make the best of it now, though,” Casey whispered, getting a slight nod from the elk.

Magnus shifted and glanced over his shoulder at the saddle, which sat across his broad back before looking towards Casey speculatively.

No, good Magnus. While you could carry Casey, it would interfere too much with your abilities. You are not strong enough yet. But soon. Maude cut in, clearly having been doing better to listen to them now.

A flicker of movement in the trees ahead of him, further upstream of the river, made Casey pause and turn his gaze that way. It had also caught Magnus’ attention, as the elk snapped his head toward that direction, the fastest movement the elk had made yet.

Another shadow in the night slipped over the tops of the trees. The pale hull of another of the flying longships edging over the trees at a sedate pace. Casey couldn’t tell who it belonged to, as the ship had its sails furled and was drifting slowly while keeping close to the branches of the tree canopy.

What are they playing at? Maude said just barely above a whisper in his mind, clearly watching the ship as well.

After another moment, the ship came to a stop and a half-dozen ropes were tossed over the side of the ship to fall into the trees below. Moments later, men and women began to pour over the sides of the longship, riding the ropes down to the ground in a blaze of motion.

They landed slightly ahead of Casey’s hiding spot and closer to the river, quickly scrambling out of the way of those to come after them while readying weapons.

The shadows beneath the boughs of the trees were too thick for Casey to make out more than just the barest hints of the people as they spread out to allow the others to finish coming down from the ship. Once the last made it to the ground, the crew remaining on the longship rapidly hauled the ropes up, and the airship cruised away, angling back towards the river.

“All right, gather up you lot,” growled a male voice from the group. “The clan leaders want whatever caused that flash of light and explosion. If these oaken whores are going to stand in our way again, then we will make sure they regret it.”

“Good, I want to get even with these dogs for that disaster of a raid earlier in the week,” snarled another man, and one of the shadows gestured violently. “Let’s get them from behind and make the bastards bleed.”

A growl of assent came from the rest of the group, and Casey had to fight the bile rising in his throat. He knew now that this was an ambushing group that was intent on hitting the others from behind.

While he had no love for the Bronze Fist drengr after the last few weeks, he’d only had pleasant enough dealings with the warriors from the Oaken Horde. That made his choice clear for who he would support if it came to it.

But what can one man do against a dozen or more? Casey thought as the ambushing group shoved at each other and cracked several crude jokes before the gruff elder broke in and redirected their aggression.

“Treasure first. If we can secure whatever it was that the gods sent from above, then that will be a victory in and of itself. Any thralls we can take will make it sweeter, but first and foremost we need that treasure. It will go a long way to appeasing the clan heads since we have seen no sign of the young master yet. After that failed raid, we badly need a win. Make sure not to kill any of the pretty ones, too. A gift of a pretty thrall will go even further to defray their anger.”

Bastards, Maude snarled in his mind. They would treat—ugh! Her mental rant devolved into wordless mutterings and promises of vengeance she would visit upon the men ahead of them.

What can we do, Maude? Casey sent her urgently as the group began to get themselves organized.

The shouting from by the river was rising into fever pitch and Casey could make out enough to understand that the Oak Horde drengr were telling the Bronze Fist to piss off. The men who’d been searching the underbrush near the river had turned back at least, so that meant the only others in the woods with him right now were the group ahead of him.

I don’t want to let them just ambush the Oak Horde, Maude growled. I had a low opinion of these bacrauts before, but now I just want to watch a few of them bleed out from somewhere sensitive. 

Casey could feel Maude getting angrier by the second. Apparently, even the implication of sexual abuse of the thralls was enough to set her off. It was a mutual feeling as far as Casey was concerned. He couldn’t stand people who did things like that.

But how? Casey sent back to her, and Maude was silent for the moment as she considered.

The group of Bronze Fist drengr were moving already and Casey did his best to not shift nervously while watching them approach.

The thicket of branches that he and Magnus were hiding in clumped tight to the base of a birch tree, and he wouldn’t have even known that it was possible to enter without the elk showing him the narrow break in the bushes.

As the enemy got closer, Casey was able to pick out more details. The majority of the drengr present were male, but there were three hard-faced women amongst them as well that didn’t look at all upset about what they had just been planning.

Casey felt Magnus shift slightly, leaning into him just enough that Casey realized his right leg had been bouncing slowly with nerves, and he frowned. Keeping his movements slow, he buried his left hand in the elk’s mane and gave it a slow scratch in thanks.

Maude broke her silence just as the group split to go around Casey’s hiding place.

I have an idea, but we will need to be quick about this. Magnus, we will need you to guide us in the dark as soon as he springs his trap. Can you be our eyes?

Magnus dipped his head slowly in a nod. Casey took a moment to appreciate the fact that the animal was intelligent enough to know to be silent in a tense moment like this. Something that he could definitely appreciate.

Casey, since you have reached your third Step you should be able to create a new technique. You remember how you developed your first one?

Vaguely, Casey thought towards his partner as the first third of the enemy group finished passing them. Fighting the Fomori, I needed to protect myself and just pushed qi out of my body to form a barrier.

Yes. That led into a technique I was familiar with from time spent with my uncle. Skin of the Iron Bear was something that he taught to me when I could finally explain what sort of Legacy was forming for me. This is something similar, but from a different source.

Casey wanted to ask which uncle in particular it was that had taught Maude that technique, but he held back for now. Knowing which of the Aesir or Vanir it was that taught her wasn’t important at the moment, what was important was focusing.

This is not one that I was taught to use, but instead a technique that I observed through the memories of my new body’s creation. You remember the visions you had when accepting your fragment of Legacy?

How could I forget? The glories and sins of worked metal as well as its formation back within the time of antiquity made for one hell of a trip. Casey watched as the man he believed to be the leader of the group of ambushers ambled past, making a note of the ritualistic scars on the man’s cheeks now that he was closer. The outline was all he had to go on, but he was fairly certain this was him.

Remember the forge. The song of the hammer and the anvil, Maude urged, and Casey let his eyes drift closed to cast his memory back.

Ever since ascending onto the Drengr’s Road, Casey had noted several things about his body had changed. His endurance, strength, and dexterity had all increased overall, while his mind and memory were sharper as well. So retrieving the memory of that vision was the matter of only a moment of work.

I have it, he sent to Maude as he sunk into the vision of the forge and the industrious work of the pair of brothers as they moved back and forth from anvils made of different types of metal and the large stone forge roared behind them, sending washes of heat and light outwards.

Look at the forge itself. You should feel it pull on you now, as your Soulforge has been lit and burns. Watch how it works.

Casey turned his attention to the massive stone construct in his mind and saw the glowing bed of coals that was easily large enough he could lay down in it. Flames leaped and danced amongst the glowing embers as he observed.

The shorter of the two already small beings hurried back to the forge with a half-formed sword blade held in a set of tongs. Casey watched as the figure laid the blade over the coals delicately before turning and stepping around the side of the large construct to where an object hung that looked like an accordion made of leather and wood.

Giving the object a pump, the short man grumbled to himself before pulling it up and inspecting it.

In the process, the smith pulled the object free of a pipe that led into the construction of the forge at a downward angle. Clearly, something was wrong with it, as the smith tossed the item aside and eyeballed the pipe for a moment.

Glancing at his brother, the bearded smith’s eyes crinkled to display a smile before leaning forward to put the pipe to his lips. Casey watched as he inhaled through his nostrils and waited for his brother to pass by the forge before he bellowed out a roar into the pipe, blowing all the air in his stout lungs with it.

This resulted in a gout of flames erupting from the coals as they rapidly burned hotter and hotter, the bearded smith’s lungs replacing what Casey only now realized was a bellows, used to pump air into the fire to boost its heat.

The other brother’s reaction was immediate, jumping away from the forge in surprise before yelling profanity at his laughing brother while swatting at his scorched beard. The action had sent fire and heat rolling out of the forge, along with a roar that Casey imagined would have made a dragon proud.

This action had also left the formerly dull-red sword glowing a brilliant yellow-white in color, having rapidly heated in the increased flames and heat.

Do you feel it, Casey? The roar of the bellows driving heat to the forge? It feeds power to the forge itself, which then is transferred to the metal that lies within. We don’t need heat at the moment, but we need air and the sound that rides the air.

Maude’s coaching was unnecessary, but Casey let her soft words in his mind flow through him. He could see what she was intending without an issue and smirked at it. Opening his eyes, he noted that the group of drengr were past him.

Darting a glance to Magnus, he found the elk watching him curiously, his head cocked so that he could keep one eye on those going by and one eye on Casey.

Moving slowly, Casey took his hand off of Maude’s hilt, raised it and the hand that had been buried in Magnus’ mane, and covered the elk’s ears. The animal’s eye widened slightly, but it didn’t protest.

With Magnus’ ear covered, Casey turned to look over the animal’s shoulder towards the drengr who were now a good hundred feet past his hiding spot.

Be ready to run and guide us, good Magnus, Maude said for him, knowing the elk could hear her speak as well as Casey could.

He made a note to ask her about that, as it seemed like there were far too many people who could actually hear and recognize her for what she was when he’d initially been under the impression that only he would have been able to hear her.

The elk nodded in understanding.

Casey drew in a breath, starting through his nose and focusing on pulling as much air into himself as possible in a steady and long stream. Turning his focus inwards to his center, he found the whirling pool of qi and his Soulforge hanging above it. The spinning sphere of white-gold fire flared higher, as if it could tell he was about to put it to use.

This will hurt, Casey. You haven’t forged your lungs yet, but you can handle it. No lasting harm will come of it. In fact, this will be the first step to forging your body. Maude’s voice took on an amused tone now. Most start by tempering and forging their skin and work their way inwards, but folded steel is mighty, and starting from within won’t hurt anything permanently. Go, let the bellows of your Soulforge speak and give warning.

Casey’s lungs were packed with air, the act of inhaling had drawn in threads of qi from his surroundings like they always had, and he watched those threads wend towards his qi pool, but rather than falling into the whirling mass of liquid light, they instead flowed into his Soulforge.

The flaring sphere grew brighter and a cable of braided qi emerged from its bottom, falling into the pool below the Soulforge. It took only moments before all the qi his breath had drawn in was processed and vanished beneath the surface of his pool.

Just as he had instinctively recognized the construct for what it was, Casey knew what the next step was. Reaching into his qi pool, he grasped at it and drew forth a strand of qi, which he urged upwards into the bottom of the Soulforge.

“Bellow’s Roar,” Casey said quietly, speaking directly to the Soulforge. The flaring construct of qi accepted his command without hesitation. Its spinning picked up speed before the strand of qi flew from one side to strike the wall of Casey’s center with a bang.

Casey felt a surge of pain in his chest and he nearly choked on his lungful of air, but he bore the ache as he felt the qi burrowing through his channels to find its way directly into his lungs.

As soon as the cable of qi reached his lungs, it began to fray and spread out, turning from cable into a bristling wire brush and began to scour and scrape at his lungs.

Casey felt things begin to break free inside his lungs, small contaminates that he knew were the impurities within his body. Impurities that came from breathing smoky or unclean air, and would slowly build up to cause problems for him. But the qi was relentless and scrubbed them free within seconds before sinking into his lungs and empowering them. He knew that the process was incomplete, but he had what he needed now.

“OAKEN HORDE! ENEMY AT THE REAR!”

Casey’s bellow blasted leaves from the trees in a cone outwards from his mouth that extended a good thirty feet away. Weaker branches snapped and flew away from him, along with the storm of both new and old leaves.

The sound thundered through the forest in a way that reminded Casey of the boom of thunder from that catastrophic storm he’d been so near to.

Casey’s ears popped in the wake of the sound, his head rang, and vision blurred for a moment before his body recovered. He found it hard to inhale, his lungs feeling like they had exerted so much force in the moment that they had collapsed. His throat was raw and ached, and his tongue was numb from the passage of the violent waves of sound.

“What?! Ambushers! Get them!” Casey heard the tinny shout of someone from the riverbank, and knew that he’d done what he could to alert the Oaken Horde.

Now he had to flee. If he remained, he was sure that the Bronze Fist drengr would find and kill him for spoiling their ambush. Hiding wasn’t an option, as the shout had stripped away nearly a third of his cover in the wake of the roar. Fighting would only lead to him being overwhelmed by their numbers at this time, and awkward questions from the Oaken Horde should he survive.

“Who was that?! Find him!” shouted a voice far closer than the riverbank.

Magnus didn’t need any urging, diving forward out of the brush with a snort and a bugle of his own. While it didn’t match Casey’s qi-infused shout, it sent a flurry of concerned shouts through the ambushers.

Pushing himself to his feet, Casey chased after the elk as the sounds of clashing steel echoed from behind him, signaling the beginning of the fight.