CHAPTER 18 - TOWER BATTLE (Part 2)

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We hurried to the top of the tower. It was windy up here, and the view was breathtaking. To one side was the mountain, with Wyrm Heights near enough to see the nests. On the other side was the keep, the Lord's House far below us.

Ulaataq knelt beside a strange box of copper and black metal emitting a soft, purring sound.

'The generator,' he said. 'I have to open it on both sides and move the windings from left to right. Then instead of collecting and storing raw mana, it will pump all it had gathered already back into the air. Slow or fast, you can decide that later. One thing, though – once I start, the shield around the keep will go down. The compressed mana inside the generator will begin to expand and I'll have only a short while to finish before it blows us all into the multiverse. It's a matter of minutes, so I must be undisturbed while I work.' He stared up impassively. 'Got that?'

I took a deep breath. 'Do it.'

The Thali boy took a thin, flat-tipped rod from his tunic and inserted it into the generator thing. It made a strange noise and died.

Around us, the vague shimmer of the shield disappeared.

'... you there?' Amaj's voice shouted. 'Eskandar, come in!'

'I'm here,' I said. 'The thing is down and the shield with it.'

'Phew, it took so long you had me worried,' he said. 'I passed it on; we're coming in.'

Moments later, black specks came running past the gates.

'We're inside!' Amaj shouted. 'By the Mountains, we're inside!'

I didn't say anything. All at once I felt strange, disconnected, as if I'd been here before; done this before. Those little dots on the ground, weren't they the monk attackers? I was supposed to blast them, wasn't I? I stretched out my arms, but then shook my head. No, that was Kambish, not me. My grandfather Kambish, who had stood here so often. I thought of him staring around, drinking in the view of the wyrms' nesting place and the mountains. I heard him send out a call, but the wyrms on the Heights didn't respond and he sighed.

My little wyrmling peered from the pocket of my coat and chirped.

'I know, I'm not Kambish,' I thought. 'I'm daydreaming.'

The wyrmling fluted. 'Strange thoughts; Lothi-Mo not understand. You Eskandar.'

Her thoughts had an anxious echo and I grinned. 'I'm sorry, little one.' I stroked her head with my thumb. Then I saw both Kellani and Naudin watching me.

'It's this place,' I said apologetically. 'Somehow it got me. It'll pass.'

'It had better,' Kellani said. 'We're fighting a battle, remember?'

Amaj's jubilant voice burst in on us, reporting success.

'We won! Oh God of the Mountains, we won! Kalbakar is ours again. Come down and celebrate, all of you!'

Kellani grinned. 'He sounds happy.'

I looked down at Ulaataq. The boy had the generator open and pulled its intestines out. 'That's the windings,' he said. 'Nearly a mile of the best copper wire.' He sweated, but his hands were rock steady. 'Another two minutes.'

I sighed. 'Good. Then we are almost finished.' I turned and saw something big and dark materialize behind us.

'CAUGHT! The trap has closed, the mice are doomed.' A massive figure, eight feet tall and clad in golden armor, had appeared on the tower roof. I reeled as a mighty voice battered my ears.

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