The Radiant War

Chapter 13a

     The device looked a little like a crossbow, but much bigger. The limb was six feet across, made from many layers of seasoned yew and capable of holding an immense amount of energy as the cable was pulled back. It was mounted on a swivel so that it could be pointed in any direction, including up into the sky, and the mount itself was set on artillery wheels so that it could be pulled behind a horse like a cannon. The arms were pulled back by means of a winch which required two men to operate; two levers that operated a ratchet mechanism. Beside it sat a rack containing two dozen bolts, each three feet long and made from cylinders of steel half an inch across. Just behind the wickedly sharp points were holes like the eye of a needle where small pieces of oil-soaked rag could be tied in place with wire. Two of them already had pieces of oily rag in place, so that they only had to be placed on the guide rail and set alight before being fired.

     “What's its range?” asked King Leothan, staring at the weapon in fascination. Around him, the army base was almost empty, with almost everyone out defending the city. Essential work was being carried out by elderly veterans, grumbling at the injuries and ailments that kept them from the front line. Leothan’s attention was momentarily diverted by a one armed man raising the flag of Helberion from the pole that stood before the command building, on the other side of the wide, empty parade ground. The sight caused the King a sudden attack of anxiety that he controlled with an effort, and he returned his attention to the weapon.

     “About five hundred yards,” replied Sergeant Bollinger, the man who'd been put in charge of the project. He and his small platoon were the only young, healthy men left in the city, and they would be going out to join their fellows soon enough. “Its effective range against Radiants is probably much less, though. If they see a bolt coming they’ll probably be able to dodge out of its way by blasting gas out of their blowholes. To be sure of hitting one, you’d probably have to let it come a lot closer. Maybe within a hundred yards.”

     “That’s still too far away for them to be able to curse our men, though. Right?”

     “They've never cursed anyone from a distance greater than about fifty feet. That has to be their effective range. This weapon will force them to stay much further away than that.”

     The King stared up into the sky. He still couldn't get used to a sky that was completely empty of the creatures. Since the attack on the palace, not a single Radiant had returned to the city. Where are they? he wondered. What are they up to? There were Radiants out over the battlefields, of course, but that was still miles away. Everyone had been expecting them to return an masse to the city itself, to launch a major attack, killing and cursing thousands. The attack on Adams Hill had intensified the fear, and many people had left the city, going to live with relatives in the countryside.

     So far, though, the skies had remained clear. All the warnings and drills, telling people what to do in the event of a Radiant attack, had been for nothing, and the fear was gradually ebbing away as fear of the Carrowmen grew. They probably won't come now, thought the King. If they were going to, they would have done so by now. Why wait, though? Why give us the chance to prepare for them?

     “They still have their control of the weather and their ability to cause earthquakes,” he said, returning his gaze to the Sergeant.

     “We've never seen them cause an earthquake in the same place twice," the Sergeant replied. "Not even when it would have dealt us a heavy blow to have done so. It may be that they simply can't cause an earthquake in the same place twice.”

     “We can certainly hope so. How many of these devices have your people managed to build?”

     “Twenty so far, and we’ve got another twenty in production. After that, though... The problem is the yew wood. Yew is very slow growing and we don’t have very much old, seasoned wood in stock. Theoretically, you could use any hard wood. Maple, ash, oak... But none of them can create weapons with the same range and penetrating power.”