The Glyph of Truth

The Siege

They reached the iron fence of the munitions factory before the golems did. A group of burly men stood near the double gates.

"Close the gates!" Demijohn shouted as they rushed into the yard. "Close the gates at once!"

"He is with me!" Wade cried out, running towards them.

The men obeyed. They slammed the gates shut, bolted them and secured them with chains and a padlock.

"What's happening?" gasped Wade.

"The golems are running wild, just like we feared!" Dame Ludmilla replied. "They are killing anyone who gets in their way!"

"Will the fence hold?" Wade asked.

"Certainly not," Harcourt replied. "We need to build a barricade to slow them down. Bring the heaviest stuff you have, iron pigs, gun barrels, wagons, work benches. Arm your men with hammers and pickaxes. And cannons. We need cannons."

"Cannons?"

"You cannot stop a golem with a sword, or a rifle, but a cannonball will destroy it as certainly as it will destroy a man."

"You heard the man"! Wade said.

His men fanned out, hurrying toward the various buildings that surrounded the yard on three sides. Soon, men and golems bearing heavy loads approached. Apparently the factory's golems had been instructed to follow at least some orders given by the workers or their foremen.

"Not the golems, you fools!" Harcourt cried out. "Get them back inside! Take them to the deepest cellar you can find, and don't let them out for mercy's sake. They must not see the Glyph!"

Demijohn and Valdez joined the workers building the barricade to buttress the wrought-iron fence. Wade and Harcourt supervised them.

"What can I do?" Dame Ludmilla asked.

"Find another way out of here," Harcourt said. "We won't be able to hold them back forever."

She nodded. "Don't let yourself be killed while I'm gone, Harry."

"I won't," he promised.

Groups of workers, who had come to support the strike, approached the fence. They were joined by people fleeing from the rampaging golems, begging for help. The men in the factory yard helped them climb over the fence. Some of the smaller children were able to squeeze through the bars. One man brought a sturdy wooden ladder and propped it against the fence. The golems would be too heavy to scale it.

Although the factory produced at least a dozen cannons every week, only two were fully operational at this time. They were wheeled into position in the yard. Several men began stacking cannon balls into pyramids next to the cannons. Others brought small kegs of gunpowder. Harcourt realized that they had hundreds of cannonballs, but only enough powder to fire a handful of shots.

Before the men had finished loading the cannons, three golems bearing the Glyph of Truth on their chests approached the fence. Several workers shot at them, but as Harcourt had predicted, the bullets just bounced off their stone skin doing hardly any damage.

One of the golems grabbed the iron bars of the fence and began pulling it down. Metal screeched. Workers armed with hammers, pickaxes and improvised clubs struck at the golem's hands and fingers, merely knapping off dust and flakes of stone. Finally, Demijohn, driving a sledge hammer with all of his strength and skill, dealt the golem a blow that shattered its hand.

The three golems retreated several steps, maybe waiting for reinforcements.

A man came running from the direction of the wharves. He climbed over the fence. The golems ignored him. "The river is on fire!" he cried.