The Dragon Chase: A Tale of the Everburning City

Chapter 7: Amelian

From a distance, it was easy to fool yourself into disbelieving the sheer immensity of a Golem. Seeing a human-shaped figure, the mind wished to see a human-sized figure, and Amelian's imagination was still trying to oblige.

The monstrous figure towered over the wall, standing head, shoulders, and chest above the battlements. From shoulder to massive shoulder lay a half-minute walk, and the arms were almost as thick as a small home.

Even from hundreds of yards off, in the now dubious safety of the fortified tower, Amelian could see the granite warp as if it were just about to melt. Fire poured from the crevices between the immense slabs of stone, and grey vines entwined the largest pieces of rock, mostly around the shoulders.

From its eyes, bright yellow flames poured in rivulets down the front of the creature's head, dripping occasionally down the immense plain of rock that made up its chest.

"Yeah, about that big," Valen muttered to himself, from beside her. Everyone in her small detail of soldiers had made it into the tower before the Golem arrived at the wall, and were standing by at the controls. None of them, especially the mechanic Madeline Soren, looked like they wanted to stay.

"How?" Madeline muttered, staring through one of the open windows.

"We run like hell, and torch the land behind us," Valen insisted, loudly. Amelain smiled a little, at the reminder of their duty. Mia and Reese straightened as the old soldier spoke, but the Mechanic still looked ready to bolt.

Not that Amelian blamed her. She struggled to avoid thinking of excuses to leave. Any small mechanical failure, or the fraying nerves of her troops, and part of her would scream to order them out, to the next wall. To the safety and comfort of more soldiers, firepower, and someone else giving orders.

"Madeline, one more time. What exactly do we need to do?" Amelian asked, for the fourth time since they arrived.

Madeline pointed to a chair-sized wheel in the centre of the room. "Once you close off that valve, the fire is cut off for our section of the wall. The wheel like this one in the other room over there," and here, she pointed to a small door that leads to another control room, "will cut off everything on the north side of this tower. Once the valve is shut, this lever," and here, she pointed to a large metal lever with a leather grip, "will open the lower exhaust valves along the connecting wall, which should be enough to set all the farmland in this district on fire."

She had recited her speech word-for-word three times, and Amelian could now recite it along with her. Reese could probably dictate it back to her, and Valen might have written the evacuation protocols the mechanic was recalling. Her squad did not need the reminder, but the distraction helped to keep them from staring out the window.

"Sorry, ma'am," Reese asked Madelaine. Amelian smirked, since the two of them were likely less than two years apart, and being called ma'am at Madelaine's age was usually taken poorly. "But why didn't we just shut down the pipes at the watchtowers?"

"It's a safety precaution," Madeleine said simply, and curtly. "The caps at the watchtowers aren't meant to handle the entire flow for any length of time. Combine that with cutting off the flow to the other side, and the pipe could burst at any point."

Amelian perked up at the explanation and glanced at Valen, who seemed to be listening with renewed interest.

"Would they burst from any form of applied force?" Amelian asked.

As she spoke, the Golem's rhythmic stride changed abruptly, as it stopped in front of the wall. Half a mile away, the immense fortifications of the Last Wall now seemed small, and paper-thin.

"It would have to be a lot of force," Madeleine insisted.

"I don't think that's our problem," Valen noted, as he gestured outside.

Amelian moved to find a vantage point to watch, through the windows, as the Golem pulled its immense arm back and raised its fist into the air. Grinding stone screeched into the night as a fist the size of a home was swung with the force of a hundred cannons and hurled into the wall.

It was not a noise they heard, but a force. The concussive shock reached them before they could make sense of what they heard, punching through the air hard enough to make Amelian stagger, even half a mile away. The shriek of shattering stone followed the blow, as the entire wall bent at the spot where the golem struck.

"Burn me!" Reese hissed, under his breath.

"That wall is reinforced with steel bars. Eight inches in diameter, poured as a liquid into holes burrowed into the stone, so that there's no way to separate the two. The wall itself is sixty feet thick at the base. It would take a dozen Valkyries a half-hour to do that much damage," Madelaine said, more to herself, as she stared disbelieving at the long cracks now running through the stone.

"I'd give the entire wall that long, at most," Reese replied. He shook his head and asked, "How the hell do we stop that?"

Valen rounded on Reese and slapped him on the back of his head. "We don't," the old sergeant answered, emphasising 'we'. "Our duty is simple. Do you remember it?"

Reese nodded quickly. "Run like hell, and torch the land behind us."

"Good," Valen replied, turning to Amelian.

She had only barely been listening to her soldiers. Her thoughts lingered on her earlier conversation, and her sight was locked on the Golem in the distance.

She turned to Madeleine, and asked, "Would that be enough force to rupture a stressed pipe?" She pointed outside, towards the Golem, for emphasis.

Madeleine thought for a moment before her eyes widened and she looked back at Amelian as if she had gone mad. "Ma'am, that's insane. Absolutely insane. There's no way we could know if it would work. You could get killed trying it."

"If I did try, would this location be in danger?"

"No. The seal at this point also helps regulate the pipe temperatures," Madeleine said.

"I like it," Valen said, stepping to the door. "It's crazy, but the kind of crazy that costs nothing to try. I'll head out now. Skirting the fields in a straight line to the first watchtower should keep me clear of falling pieces of the wall."

"No, Sergeant. Officer's prerogative. I want you to remain with Mia and wait for my signal," Amelian insisted as she dropped her provisions and some of her extra ammunition on the small desk in front of the controls. "Reese, take Madeleine and make for the next wall. A cable car is set a half-mile along the causeway. Remember to send it back for us."

Mia and Reese both saluted, and, after a moment so did Valen. "Ma'am, remember that this isn't a suicide mission," Valen Redgrave insisted. "The coming days may call for one, but we expect you to live through this."

"I'll do my damnedest," Amelian found herself replying, as she saluted in return. She turned away from them and fought her shaking hand as she set it against the door.

She pushed it open and stepped out into the night, just as the Golem's immense fist struck the wall again. The deafening cacophony nearly brought her to her knees, and she hissed a curse under her breath as she shut the door behind her.

"That's it, you big bastard. Keep it up," she said to it, quietly. She stated down the long stairwell that led to the farmland below, as slowly as her hammering heart would let her.

Halfway down, she looked back up at it, and added, "Just wait until I hit back."