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the most practical approach.
Portals had their dangers, too. Sometimes people disappeared. That had
happened too often during the western war. The wizard Varthlokkur had learned
to tamper with the transfer stream.
Shih-ka i shuddered.
Easy, he told himself. It s just weariness working on your nerves.
Nerves were not the whole problem. He was apprehensive about that stone
thing. Caution was indicated. It was a complete unknown.
Tasi-feng greeted him. What s happening out there, Lord?
We found the center of it. Giant artifact shaped like an animal. Looks like
it was carved from a mountain. I sent Hsu Shen to take a closer look. Are the
ballistae ready?
They re waiting, Lord. I inspected them myself. The Candidates did a good
job. Every shaft was properly impressed and ranged. All we need is someone to
target up front.
I ll do that. How many shafts?
Twelve were all we had, Lord. Six in the trough, six standing by.
Should be adequate. The damned thing will look like the moths have been
after it before we re done. Let s look them over.
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The ballista battery waited in a field outside the fortress. At first glance
the engines looked like common siege equipment. The frames, troughs, and
cranks were of standard imperial design. The specialized pieces were the bows
and strings. Those had been prepared in a thaumaturgical arsenal hidden deep
in the heart of Shinsan. Not even Lord Ssu-ma knew its location.
The shafts, too, had come out of that arsenal. They were of a very dark,
hard, and heavy material. Inlaid into them were traceries of silver, gold, and
a dull greyish metal. The heads were crystals in spearhead shape. They glowed
with a fierce inner fire.
Shih-ka i thumbed one, asked, Ever wonder what one of these costs?
A small fortune, Tasi-feng guessed.
I m sure. Crank one back. And set me a portal here so I can jump back and
forth.
I arranged a portal earlier, Lord. Over here. I thought you d want to range
them yourself.
Shih-ka i scowled. Lord Lun-yu was too damned efficient. Or he himself was
too predictable. First three at two-minute intervals. I ll come back if I
want more. He surveyed the crews. Candidates all. Ordinary soldiers were not
permitted to operate specialized equipment. It became dangerous in the hands
of the untrained.
You. Go ahead and shoot.
A ballista string whipped forward. There was a tremendous crack. A shaft
hurtled into the air, a quicksilver sliver slicing into the distance. It did
not follow a normal, gravity-defeated arc. It was still climbing when last it
caught the sun.
Two-minute intervals, Shih-ka i reminded. He entered the ready portal. Pan
ku followed as soon as the portal permitted.
A minute later Shih-ka i topped the dusty dune in the far desert. He faced
westward, waiting for a silver sparkle to appear over the mountains. Hsu Shen
run into anything yet? he asked.
No, Lord. He s halfway there.
Signal him to take a position where we can see him, then to wait. I don t
want him too close to target. Ah. Here it comes.
He sealed his eyes, reached with Tervola-trained senses, touched the hurtling
shaft. Another part of his mind found the stone thing. He etched a mental line
from spear to target. Coming down, men. Shield your eyes.
The shaft hurtled toward the earth. Impact! Light-balls swarmed the touchdown
point like a hundred round lightning flashes blasting away in rapid
succession.
Shih-ka i opened his eyes. I ll be damned, he murmured. He had missed by
two hundred yards.
Roaring, rising heat sucked up dust from hundreds of feet around the impact
point. A pool fifty feet in diameter bubbled and splashed like overheated
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water. Warm your hands around that, Shih-ka i said. But his cockiness had
fled.
He had missed. That could be no accident. He faced west again, watching for
the next flash of silver.
He concentrated harder this time. He retained control till the moment of
impact. And this time he felt the will resisting his own.
He opened his eyes. Another miss! But this time the first great upwelling
of molten earth splashed the flank of the stone thing. He had brought the
weapon in close.
More power on the impression? he asked the other Tervola.
One of the oldest, exiled by Lord Kuo, replied, No, Lord. Range and
impression felt perfect. It s the targeting. Something is resisting.
Then I didn t imagine that.
No, Lord. I suggest we all target the next one.
Absolutely, Shih-ka i said. I want to see what happens when we get a
direct hit.
It s coming, Lord.
Shih-ka i felt for the shaft and found it. He drew his targeting line. His
brethren came in. They made of the line a tube from which the missile could
not escape.
The missile hurtled down. The will trying to shunt it aside failed. It
struck. Shih-ka i opened his eyes.
Gouts of molten rock had blown out of the stone thing s haunch. Dead on, he
crowed. Dead on. Now we wait.
They did not wait long.
Is that someone standing on its head? Shih-ka i asked. He squinted, could
not be sure. His eyes weren t what they had been.
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