Spear of Destiny James Baldwin (free romance novels .TXT) 📖

unavailable.” Count Lanz gestured dismissively. “Your own Steward, Istvan Arshak, filed a Leave of Absence due to your being engaged in mass combat operations.”

“Legit.” I scratched the side of my nose. “Well, Your Majesty, I guess the only question now is what role you want us to play. You summoned us for a reason.”

“Yes. The Warsinger.” Ignas sat back in his chair, one leg crossed over the other knee. “I need a report.”

“Well, we found her. Withering Rose was sleeping in Dakhdir. She was still in good condition, worked just fine until it ran out of mana.” Suri replied. “And after it fell over from lack of fuel, Baldr Hyland showed up to personally ruin our day.”

General Kovacs straightened. So did Ebisa and the Admiral.

“Implying…?” Ignas gestured to her.

“Withering Rose is a wreck.” Suri’s expression turned stormy. “Ororgael called some super-beam magic from the sky and cored out part of the Warsinger. The pieces of it are lying all over the Bashir Desert.”

“Pieces? Khors’ hammer, that is not good news.” Ignas’ brow furrowed. “If it was so easily destroyed, perhaps the machines’ power was overstated?”

“No, it’s not. At full operational capacity, the Warsinger is incredible. We all saw Suri unleash some kind of energy weapon that killed eight or nine sandworms in one strike,” Rin said. “A three-thousand-year-old machine, with less than 2% fuel and less than 5% integrity, and it shredded those sandworms like they were nothing. It was... awe-inspiring.”

Suri pressed her lips together in a tight, stubborn line.

“That is... there is no weapon on Archemi capable of such an act.” Ignas looked to his officers, who looked almost as awed as he did. “Stunning. If we get the pieces, can it be fixed?”

Rin nodded eagerly. “We—and by that, I mean, me and Lord Soma and the Engineers College of Litvy—need more information on how they’re constructed. He’s been trying to reverse-engineer the prototype Warsinger we captured, but has had no success so far. The construction and magical encoding is just so alien compared to current artificing. But if we could figure this out, then the possibilities are endless. We could create airship or ground weapons that make use of their technology, for example, or rediscover principles of metallurgy lost in time.”

“Indeed. If this Warsinger is capable of such power, we must have it,” Ignas said. “That is what I ask of you all now.”

“Ororgael has part of it, we think,” I said. “But...”

“Hey, before you keep going, don’t say anything more about what happened to W.R.” A text PM from Rin popped up in my HUD, narrated aloud when I noticed it. “I have an idea.”

“But?” Ignas quirked an eyebrow.

“But we can replace the part,” I said quickly. “So it shouldn’t be an issue.”

“Excellent. Know that you have our full support.” Ignas bowed from the neck. “Let me issue you some added incentive.”

[You have a new Quest: Bounty—The Warsingers]

I opened the quest and let Navigail read it aloud.

  New Bounty: The Warsingers

Ignas Corvinus II, the Volod of Vlachia, is offering a substantial bounty for the safe return of the Warsingers to Vlachian soil. Complete this bounty by salvaging the Warsingers or their key components and returning them to Vlachia.

Rewards: 20,000 olbia and 5000 EXP per Warsinger.

I whistled. “Damn, man... thanks.”

“This is the maximum bounty the system allows me to offer,” Ignas said. “That alone should tell you how important I consider the retrieval of these artifacts to be. Hyland is fielding soldier-piloted versions of these machines, and it’s a matter of time before he improves this technology and normal infantry becomes obsolete. We need to outpace his advancements.”

Lanz’s eyes flicked to Ignas. “Infantry? Obsolete? With all respect, Your Majesty, that seems a bit extreme.”

Ignas shook his head. “I fear it is not.”

“There’s always a need for boots on the ground, but yeah. It’s a risk.” I cast one final look down at the map, making sure I had a copy of it in my HUD. “We’ll see what we can do. To be honest, though, we probably need a fleet ourselves. A Stranged Sandworm is guarding the Warsinger. The damn thing is Level 120.”

“You’ve pulled off two military miracles in the time I’ve known you. With Rin at your side, I believe you will find a way to defeat it and claim Lady Suri’s birthright.” Ignas watched us as Rin got to her feet. “But no matter what, the four of you must get that Warsinger and keep it out of Hyland’s hands. The Gods shudder to think what this Architect could do with such power in his possession.”

Chapter 31

Once we were outside the War Room, it felt like a dark cloud lifted from over our heads. Rin took a deep breath. Suri rubbed her face.

“I think you’re onto something,” Suri said. “What Lucien and Ororgael are doing just doesn’t sit right.”

“Yeah. My jimmies are definitely rustled,” I said. “But we either don’t have enough wealth or renown to convince Ignas’ officers more than we already have right now. I’m not sure that Lanz is really on Team Ignas.”

Suri glanced at the door and switched to our group PM. “No?”

“He was tight with Andrik,” I replied, on the same channel. “And he seemed pretty bent on trying to minimize how smart Ororgael really is.”

“I noticed that, too,” Rin said. “What can we do?”

“You can speak to Ebisa,” I replied. “Maybe see if she has time to look into Lanz’s connections, and see whether he’s connected to Ororgael in some way. I don’t want to single him out, but something was off about his attitude.”

“Okay. I’ll ask her when we have some time together.” Rin rocked between her heels and toes, looking up at the ceiling. “So anyway, the reason I stopped you from telling Ignas what happened to Withering