Skye is the Limit by Phenomenal Pen (detective books to read TXT) 📗

The Dreamwalkers nodded slowly and uncertainly.

With this partial agreement, Mage turned his face upwards and started mumbling the same incantation of nāwihts and āns. He slipped both hands inside the wide sleeves of his robe and, when he looked straight again and revealed them, he held four pieces of toadstools, two in each hand.

“Through my Godseye,” Mage said, “I can see that Fairy’s vitals are faint but holding. I fear not for long though. Your mission, Dreamwalkers, is to rescue your companion from the clutches of the evil Orc Mother. Do not let Fairy die cold and alone in the dark pits of the Nest.”

Turning to the shaman queen, Mage said: “Nethril, promise me that you will cast a healing spell on Fairy as soon as you get the chance.”

Nethril nodded grimly and Mage raised both his hands to offer the magic toadstools.

Man-At-Arms walked on his knees to receive the objects, made a slight bow because of his Asian roots and proceeded to pass the toadstools around. The toadstools were literally made of code like what the Dream-maker said and appeared to flicker like bad TV reception.

When Bear Tooth accidentally pressed something with his fat hairy fingers, the cap of his toadstool whirred and upended itself, turning into a portable satellite dish. But instead of being metallic, the dish resembled the fin-like ear of an Orc, from the bones to the membranes. The biggest difference of course was that it was circular and an Orc ear was only one half of it.

When all the Dreamwalkers turned to look at the Dream-maker again, Mage’s head hung limp like that of a robot that had just been turned off. There was a soft hum as the consciousness of Mage reoccupied the vacated avatar. He pulled his hood back over his head, signaling that the transference had been completed.

****

“You have only ever encountered one specimen of Orc,” Mage explained. “A drone type, an operator of the Nidhoggr. In the Nest, the numerically superior type is slave Orcs. They have learned to harness the power of steam, to operate gears, pistons and valves and to draw pressure from the steam vents.”

“So they’re steampunk Orcs?” Bear Tooth said. “Awesome.”

“The technology is not yet at its prime,” Mage continued. “But they are able to produce siege engines such as self-propelled Earth-piercers, battering rams, scorpions, ballistas and even a few prototypes of handheld cannons.”

“Oh,” Bear Tooth said, taking back his first comment.

“All the designs come from the Orc Mother, who is the brain that does all the thinking for them. Nevertheless, you can rest assured that there is a minimal possibility of conflict using ballistics technology. Moreover, I wish to share with you a recent discovery I have made. If we overlay the map we acquired from Hordo with a geological map…”       

The map they had purchased was spread out on the floor on top of the séance circle. Like someone playing cat’s cradle, Mage manipulated an AR subterranean map then pushed it down over the map from Hordo. The AR map appeared to seep into the parchment.

“… we find that the Fiery Caverns has been built on top of potentially eruptible magma. In a word, an emergent volcano lies underneath it. I hereby propose that, once we have distributed the hacking devices, we proceed to the machine room and turn off all the valves, effectively sealing the pressure under the cave system.”

“So, it’ll be like popping a bottle of champagne,” the Count said, using the French pronunciation. “Is that the effect you’re going for?”

“Indeed. In Orc society, caste is paramount. The earth, heat and ashes are for the slaves. The Ice Throne and the pure mineral waters are reserved for the queen and the princesses, who are in effect her handmaidens. The Ice Throne offers the perfect location to release all of the overburden pressure.”    

“That sounds really great,” the Count said, “but it’s plain overkill too. I mean, why don’t we just stun them with the hack, sneak in and spirit Fairy away from under their noses?”

His original expression had been à la barbe de qn, which literally translated to “beard” and not “nose”, but because of Mage’s instant translation, the words flowed seamlessly.

“That plan has a certain merit, Count, except that you are overlooking one crucial thing. The hack would have an effect on all the Orcs with the exception of the Orc Mother. It would be an understatement to say that she will be infuriated once she discovers what we intend to do. Incidentally, the Orc Mother is thirty-five feet tall.”

The Dreamwalkers looked at each other bug-eyed.

“This is crazy,” Nethril said. “How do we know the magma’s going to erupt like we want it to?”

“There is no need to doubt the efficacy of this plan,” Mage reassured them. “It will proceed like clockwork.”

“Oh yeah? How are you so sure?” the Count asked.

“Because, once more, all of you are overlooking the fact that we are within SKYE. In this world, it is the thought that counts.”