Chapter 21. THE FACTORY

  Over the next few weeks, I drilled the mages in the basic spells they would use most often. In the process, I myself became sharper, rediscovering forgotten spells from the past, and practicing my spell craft.

  I taught all of them some of what I knew of the arts of battle, defensive and otherwise. Every mage needed to learn and know important core spells and become so comfortable using them that the casting is second nature.

  Beyond that, we made sure each of us specialized.

  In addition to some core spells, each mage needed to command a set of spells that only they knew. I spent many afternoons working with Greer and honing his large-scale battle casting, and with Shade outlining the basics of both spell generation, which she picked up swiftly, and the creation of artifacts. Bend got an earful of additional instruction in strategy and leadership, both of which were emphases of The Way that would be incredibly powerful in their own right.

  Late one night after a long day of casting and drilling, Dirk, Bend, and I had moved into our outpost, and unrolled a map on the large table in the room. It was a detailed map of the city of Vale, and I studied it carefully. This was the first time I’d actually seen an accurate and carefully drawn map of the city itself.

  Though I’d been in the city now for many weeks, most of the time I sneaked into or out of the city, trying not to appear suspicious at least, and not seen at all at best. So, I hadn’t had much time to study the layout of Vale.

  On the map, the city sat protected in a cleft between two arms of the foothills below the Broken Mountains, its long, semi-circular wall protecting the city facing East. Outside the wall, the outer city and slums scattered out into the plains.

  Inside the wall, I saw four distinct keeps. The Prison Keep where I’d found Bend being held prisoner, was along the Northern wall of the city. Another Keep sat near the front gate on the eastern side of the city, just inside the wall. Two other Keeps spread out in the city forming a diamond shape between all four keeps. We suspected that one of the other keeps served as barracks for Vale’s army.

  The city itself formed a triangular shape with the outer wall forming the longest side of the triangle. Opposite the outer wall, to the West, at the highest point of the city up into the mountains, stood a short, imposing inner wall. No one inside the resistance knew what sat on the other side of this inner wall, but most of us speculated that, essentially, Uof situated himself beyond this wall.

  “My men have scoured the city for information,” Dirk said, as we traced the line of the inner wall on the map. “Based on rumor alone, not intelligence gleaned by our own eyes, we believe Uof sits in a fifth keep of his own further up the mountain. Based on soldiers we’ve overhead speaking in nearby pubs, we think there may be an army stationed up there, as well as another building, sometimes referred to as “The Factory,” beyond the inner wall. Our best guess is that this is where Uof crafts his steam-powered weapons.”

  “Okay, if this ‘Factory’ exists, then it’s the crux of Uof’s strength,” I replied, looking at the open space on the map where we suspected this building might be. “We will need to get eyes on it.”

  “Of course,” Dirk said. “We’ve heard about this factory for years, but no one has ever seen it. I set several of my men near the inner wall to watch these past few days, and we’ve seen a large number of Motorized, both mor organized soldiers and greasy thugs, moving in and out of the inner wall. All that we can deduce is that whatever is beyond the wall is heavily guarded.”

  I nodded. “But no one has seen beyond the wall with their own eyes?”

  “No one has ever gone beyond the inner wall and returned,” Dirk replied.

  “The mage who trained me went to scout beyond the inner wall,” Bend said, swallowing hard. “When he didn’t return, we suspected he’d been killed. Somehow, they learned about me and imprisoned me a few weeks later.”

  “He went over the inner wall by himself?” I asked.

  “Yes,” Bend said.

  “How do you know he’s dead?” I asked.

  “We never saw his body, if that’s what you mean,” Bend replied. “He simply never returned. We assumed the worst had happened.”

  I sat for a moment, staring hard at the map of the city. Vale was the place where The Motorized originally spawned and spread around the world with their vicious hate for The Way of the Mark. Every steam-powered weapon, machine, or tool came from this city, and yet, so far I’d seen no evidence of these hybrid weapons being manufactured in the city itself. Everything in Vale seemed pointed to a source for these hybrid weapons and tools beyond the mysterious inner wall.

  We’d been training and practicing for many weeks now, and I felt strongly it was time for us to make a more serious move. I took a deep breath, and met Dirk’s eyes.

  “I think it’s time,” I said, matter-of-factly. “We should mount a reconnaissance party to first, discover this factory and confirm it exists. Second, we can gather information and try to disable the factory if possible.”

  Dirk took a deep breath and looked at his son, he smiled grimly.

  I continued. “Until we know more, we are fighting in the dark. If we go together and scout carefully, we should be able to get in and out quickly. However, Bend, I will need you to stay behind.”

  “But Mage, I can help?—?“

  “Bend, if they surprise us, someone always needs to stay behind in order to preserve The Way. Someone must always pass along the knowledge.”

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  He paused for a moment, understanding the gravity of what I’d said, then nodded, “Okay, then,I can stay behind.”

  I nodded. “Then let’s gather the others and prepare our mission.”

  Two days later I led a small party up into the foothills as the morning sun crested the horizon in the East, and warmed us as we climbed.

  Briar, Greer, Ehren, and Willow came with me on this day. In addition, five of Dirk’s best soldiers joined us, making us a band of ten. I left Shade and Bend behind just in case the worst happened?—?at least Bend could continue training her and there would be something left of our fledgling restart of The Way of the Mark.

  Besides, there was much more work left to be done. Shade had other weapons and artifacts to install with a magical specialty, and Bend could continue to train on his own, growing in his skill and knowledge.

  Dirk outfitted each of us with crude leather armor and swords fashioned by his men or scavenged from the city, some of which Shade and I imbued with magical abilities or enhancements.

  We planned to infiltrate the area beyond the inner wall by approaching carefully from the southern slopes of the foothills. Our goal was primarily to gather intelligence: first, we needed to see what we could see of this Factory from the southern foothills—ideally without compromising our positions or making ourselves known at all.

  Then, depending on the defenses we encountered, I hoped to get inside. If we returned with more information about The Motorized and this mysterious Factory, and no one was injured or killed, in my mind, this mission would be a success.

  The ten of us left our desert outpost early the previous morning and circled around to the southern foothills. All day we climbed into the foothills far to the south of Vale, and then spent a cold night sleeping on the hard ground, deep in the dead forest. We woke early before the sunrise, heading up into the mountains even higher, and slowly, we started moving northwest toward Vale, toward the inner wall.

  Though we approached from South of the city, we kept our eyes on the pinnacle of Vale, the westernmost keep at the highest point of the city, and as we got closer, I slowed the group down considerably. We hiked through foothills full of broken scree and loose shale rocks, making the hike treacherous and slippery.

  As I pushed our party up higher into the mountains, the way grew steeper and we each grabbed onto bare dead trees to keep ourselves from falling back. The skittering of the rocks made it harder to disguise our approach, so we slowed down even more, careful not to make too much noise.

  By the afternoon of the second day, the smell of the air changed. We caught wind of an oily scent on the air which began to mix with the normal smells of the foothills around us, and of Vale nearby. It wasn’t much longer, when we heard the sounds of machine work clanging gently off the slopes of the mountain.

  Twice we passed by cave-like vents in the ground that discharged an oily, bubbling liquid, and occasional bursts of steam. We spent a second cold night in a small cave hidden from view with the pungent chemical smells of The Motorized in the air all around us.

  We spent the next morning hiking slowly upward, with the smells and sounds growing all around us, so much so, it felt like an army of machines were all around us. Our small band of fighters were on high alert as they hiked even higher.

  I crested a rise at the head of the group and suddenly found myself standing on a cliff overlooking a deep valley. The Valley itself sat far out of sight of Vale, miles above the inner wall where the city ended. Behind the valley, a cliff of sheer rock sprang up launching into the clouds. Cliffs ringed the valley on three sides and the mountain hemmed in the valley on the western side, making the area a naturally hidden position far above Vale, so far that the sounds and smells wouldn’t reach the city.

  I immediately came into a crouch behind some dead standing brush and motioned for the rest to do the same. Despite our many weeks of training and recovery, my side already ached with a dull pain, the wound seemingly aggravated by two long days of hiking, and sleeping on the cold, hard ground for two nights. I wasn’t as young as I used to be, and I suppose I didn’t heal like I once did.

  Absently, as I took in our surroundings, I thought that I should have crafted myself a healing ring like the legendary Aiden. Oh well, it was a bit too late for that now.

  I studied the valley before me. Closest to us, four main buildings stood in the middle of the valley, one of which was much larger than the rest and appeared to be the source for the oily smell and the sounds of machine work.

  The mages behind me were already calling it, “The Factory.” Near The Factory, a large wooden tower stood, topped by a winch and pulley system, probably used for hauling major equipment around the valley floor. A fleet of small steam-powered cycles sat near a third building, around which perhaps a dozen men gathered, smoking their pipes and talking. I guessed that perhaps this lower building was a barracks or station house for Motorized soldiers. Several men rode their cycles around the valley, some riding back toward Vale while another rode toward the fourth building at the back of the valley.

  At the highest point on the valley floor, backed up to the cliff face and towering above the other three buildings sat an imposing stone Castle, standing by itself and looming larger than even the four large keeps inside the city. Could this be the seat of Uof himself? His home? The castle looked well protected, sitting inside a high stone wall the height of several men.

  All four buildings sat deep within the valley, far beyond the view of the inner wall, which was some ways down the mountain and out of sight from our position. As I watched the valley below us, I heard what sounded like footsteps coming from our right: a branch cracked.

  Every one of us hit the ground, and I quickly motioned for silence.

  Someone was coming.

  I drew out a small gemstone and palmed it gently. The head of my staff already held a significant amount of matter ready for use. I strained my eyes to look through the trees to our right and along a bluff. Through the dead and bare branches of the trees toward the North, I saw movement and heard voices.

  I motioned to the others to stay put and slipped forward quietly. I kept close to the ground and gritted my teeth as I felt pain in my side. I crawled forward despite the pain, moving behind the thick, bare branches of a pine tree and saw two pairs of boots belonging to two Vale soldiers standing only a few yards away.

  Quickly, I drained the gemstone of its matter and began to weave a quick spell to make it ready for casting. Then I waited.

  The soldiers began to walk again, closing in on my position. As they neared, I could make them out a little more clearly. Both men wore dark-stained leather, and each carried a hybrid, steam-powered weapon of some kind. It must have been a low-intensity beat, patrolling above these cliffs, and certainly, they’d not seen us as they seemed relaxed and quite talkative.

  When they were only steps from my position, I finished the weave and triggered a spell. A cloud of smoke appeared in front of both men, stopping them immediately as they sought to investigate the source. But before they could raise an alarm, both of them dropped to the ground heavily.

  I stood up and waved the others forward as the smoke dissipated.

  “Tie them up and gag them,” I said quietly. “We can’t afford to have them coming up behind us. Take their weapons too, we can study them later.”

  Greer and one of Dirk’s men, known as Rafe, drew thick rope from one of their packs and began to tie up the hands and feet of soldiers, gagging them securely so they could make no sound when they awoke.

  “What spell did you use?” Ehren asked, whispering.

  “It was a cloud of chemicals that will put any man to sleep for a few hours,” I replied with a wink.

  “With you on our side, getting in may not be that hard,” Ehren replied, looking down at The Factory.

  “It’s not the getting in that I’m worried about,” I said, looking back at Ehren.

  “It’s the getting back out.”