Brimstone and Lily (Legacy Stone Adventures) (43 page)

But my arm wouldn’t move. Try as I might, it was stuck. Frowning, I looked back at it. A silvery hand held my wrist. It flowed in a thick coil of metal rope along my arm and onto the sand, where it ended in an honest-to-goodness ship’s anchor.

“Dang it, Jasper Let me go!!” I hollered into the stiff wind.

“Okey-dokey!” he said in a cheery voice. The anchor melted away and I sprawled face-first onto the beach. Growling in rage, I tried to scramble up to my knees and throw the Stone again. This time a medieval knight’s armored gauntlet grew around my fist, enclosing the Stone. I pounded it against a big hunk of driftwood, but all I accomplished was to make kindling out of the log.

“Stop it!” I shrieked, my throat searing with the pain of it.

“You got it!” The steel glove vanished. His happy tone infuriated me more than his preventing my chucking the Stone. I grabbed it with my other hand. Once more I shot my arm out, almost dislocating it when a shiny ball-and-chain yanked my wrist down. Clutching my shoulder, I crumpled onto the sand, the dying edge of surf soaking one shirt sleeve and my hair. For a long while I just lay there, my whole worn-out little frame shaking from dry heaving sobs. When too tired to cry any more I turned my face away from the sea, panting from the effort and my misery. I blinked into the western sun until a wide metal hand shaded my eyes.

“No one asked me, neither,” Jasper said in a kinder, older, more refined voice. “One day, out of the blue, my Master sat me down and told me that I had to do a great service for all of mankind. I just laughed. What was he talking about? I was the new apprentice. Just there to sweep up, and get picked on by the older boy, the snotty blonde kid with the funny eyes--one blue and one green…both mean. The cruel kid. Thought he knew more than my Master. My mama and papa had bound me over just six months before, during an eclipse of both moons, saying my time a child had ended. Took me away from my brothers and sisters, my dog, my friends. Cried like a baby when they all waved goodbye. Cried for a straight week. All the while the older boy just sneered at me and punched me when the Master’s back had turned.

“Then that awful day came. The house shook as if being attacked with battering rams, except that no one was in sight around it. Just empty desert, like usual. Soon the western sky turned the color of a bruise, even though it was mid-morning and had been clear a second before. That mean older boy had disappeared. My Master took me into his chamber and told me my time had come. No preparation, no training, no warning. Just, ‘You will help save everyone.’ His long finger tapped my forehead. I remember the ring on it. Its stone is around your neck. Next thing I knew everything had turned funny colors and I felt like I’d fallen off the edge of the world, Morphageus in both hands. No more chamber, no more house. Just stars and planets all around. I felt sick to my stomach, dizzy, lost. While I watched the sword’s runes glowed like fire, then the whole sword did. It melted away, right into my hands, and vanished. Every bit of my body burned. It felt like I’d fallen into a volcano. When the pain stopped I had no body. I had no body! No arms, no legs. I couldn’t touch anything, couldn’t see, smell, hear, and taste…anything. But soon I did feel the power growing in me. Like I’d been thrust into every sun in the universe, into every river, into every mind that had ever been. I’d become a giant balloon, being filled with energy and knowledge, swelling bigger and bigger. If someone thought a thing, I thought it. If they discovered a thing, I learned of it. All books, all wisdom, all that humans could produce went into me. I could do anything, become anything…except that little boy again.

“I had been granted nearly all power there was. I just couldn’t live. Couldn’t take a true breath of air, or run in the woods, or jump into a creek. No family, friends, no school, no dog. I couldn’t skin my knee or eat a meal or sniff a campfire. All I had was knowledge and blackness. I floated, touching nothing…just waiting. For you.”

I sat up, feeling like I’d been kicked in the guts. Holding the rusty tin cup in front of me as if I could see the face Jasper had once had, I tried to smile but couldn’t.

“That’s about the worst thing I’ve ever heard tell of,” I whispered, hoarse from all the screaming and crying. “Now I’m really miserable. That’s supposed to make me feel better somehow?”

Jasper’s usual smarty-pants tone returned. “Hey, I’ve been stuck in here since Hector was a pup…literally. My social skills might need work.”

I smiled, even though it hurt. “Thanks, boyo.”

“Don’t thank me yet. The hard part hasn’t started yet.”

“I didn’t need to hear that. Can’t you fib a little and tell me everything’s gonna work out just fine?”

“Well, I’ll try. Here goes: we’ll find your ma, rescue Eddie, overthrow the big bad Merchantry, restore the world to its rightful balance, blah-blah-blah. Oh and we’ll make liver taste like chocolate.”

My eyebrows shot up. “You can do that?”

“Are you crazy? All the mages on earth couldn’t do that. But the rest of it…no problem.”

I screwed up my face and turned my head to one side. “I don’t know that I’m convinced.”

“Oh, one more thing. That gunboat’s only about a quarter-mile offshore. Sorry.”

Whipping my head around so hard it hurt, I saw that he was right. The Union ship had anchored so close to shore it must’ve scraped its keel on the bottom. Longboats with oars flailing brought dozens of hard-eyed, blue-coated men right toward the very spot I sat on, bayonets on their muskets glinting in the late afternoon sun. Jasper hung heavy in my hand. Looking back, I saw that I held a pair of lanterns.
Huh?

“Two if by sea,” he giggled.

Here we go.
I struggled to my feet and started running through the thick sand toward the trees. Morphageus became a bugle as I sprinted west, sounding the alarm I’d agreed to give Tyrell when the attack started. Two troopers on winged mounts rose into the sky with binoculars. They shouted down to their comrades, then drifted out of sight again. Behind me, a deep boom pounded the air as the ship sent a shell my way. It roared over my head as if Zeus had hurled a locomotive ashore. The thing knocked a hole through the trees and kept on going for a long while, but it didn’t explode.
Solid shot.They’ll bust up the trees a while, then send in case or shrapnel onto our heads.

Legs aching from fighting the sand, I slogged up the hill and into the woods, lungs on fire from the long slog up the beach. Behind me the first boat grounded. A dozen soldiers bounded over its sides, splashing into ankle-high water. The pelicans grumbled in their funny voices and waddled out of the way. Each bird looked like it had just fed. Their beak pouches hung heavy and wiggled with their unswallowed catch. None of the seagulls said hello to me, so I figured they weren’t Mabel’s crew, just ordinary sea birds. The Yankee infantry said hello, though, by firing at the spot where I’d ducked into the trees. Their bullets missed, since I’d dived straight into the trench on the crest of the low rise.
At least they’re human. Easier to fight, maybe. Dark magick can’t stay out on the water, usually. Boy, I sure hope Sha’ira can do what she says she can, and soon.

It looked to be about four o’clock, maybe a tad later. That seemed early, based on Tyrell’s setting-sun theory, but maybe their watches were off-kilter. Or maybe they wanted to pin us down so another attack could take us from the rear or flank. More likely, they just had no interest in coordinating with the Merchantry. We could be taking fire from ordinary Union soldiers looking to kill a few Rebs. Or they could be on one of the other sides in the Merchantry’s civil war, wanting to get me and the Stone for their own nasty purposes. All I knew was that .577 Minie balls thrummed overhead and just two of Tyrell’s troopers had made it into the trench yet.

“Woo!” Jasper yelled, like he danced at a wild party. “Now this is more like it!”

“Shush,” I told him, risking a quick look over the breastwork. “Folks gettin’ hurt ain’t supposed to be fun.”

“Some great warrior you turned out to be. Crush the forces of darkness, as long as you don’t bruise ‘em.”

“If I get my back to the wall and have no choice, that’s one thing. But I don’t want to make a habit of killin’.”

“One of these days I need to sit you down and explain just what ‘war’ means, girlie.”

“I know what it means. I had my lesson at Boatswain Swamp, thank you very much. Hush and let me think.”

The Federals were having as much trouble wading up the sandy hill as I had. Since none of the Rebs had started shooting yet, the soldiers took the time to get in line for their advance. Instead of skirmish order they came on shoulder-to-shoulder, presenting a row of angled bayonets like a chorus line of hornets. I counted around forty of them, in two rows. Almost four-to-one. They meant to use their numbers advantage to take our position in one quick rush. From where I sat that looked likely.

“Where is everybody?” I hollered. There were still only the three of us, one being the sergeant-major. “This is lookin’ to be a mighty short battle.”

“Trouble on the flank,” the grizzled trooper said, staring down the sights of his carbine, an Enfield with a sawn barrel. Not as accurate as a regular musket, but he could carry it on his horse. “Afraid it’s just us, missy.”

So that
is
their plan. Attack from two directions at once. There must be bushels of ‘em on the north side if Tyrell can’t spare more than three of us to hold off close to half a company. Good thing we’re in the woods. I doubt they know we’re here. When we pull out they might not even realize they’ve taken our position.

“Can’t stay here,” I hissed. The Yankees were so close now they’d be able to hear me if I raised my voice. “We need to get out now and go help Tyrell.”

“Welcome to the Army of Northern Virginia, Miss Verity,” he chuckled, pulling his hammer back to full-cock. “Never enough men, never enough powder, never enough food, never enough time. All we have plenty of is graves.” Two more enormous cannonballs landed nearby as he spoke.

“This is stupid! We’ll be dead for nothin’. They’re takin’ these rifle pits either way, so we might as well pull back and live to fight ‘em over there.”

“My orders are to hold at all costs, and that’s just what I’m gonna do. You want to skedaddle, go right ahead, little girl.”

Men! Great glory-huntin’ boneheads.
I wanted to use my Stone-strength to pick him up and hurl him across the clearing. In fact, I was well on my way to going through with it when I saw the most wonderful sight. That silly goofy flock of brown pelicans took flight as if a command had been given. They got on line just like the soldiers, not ten feet above the sand, and flapped toward them from behind. Their beaks opened to reveal that their pouches weren’t full of fish after all. Each bird carried three huge rats in its mouth. All at once, as if firing a volley, they dropped the angry rodents onto the Union troops.

And riding atop the lead pelican was Ernie, wearing a black pirate scarf on his noggin.

33/ Wats!

“Juwius Mawcus Gwaccus,” he announced, nose high in the air. “Weader of the Woyal Mawines of the Eweventh Woman Wegion, wepwesenting the Penewope’s Kiss.”

I guess it doesn’t matter how tough a veteran you are, or how many brutal battles you’ve been through. When a couple of big old ship rats land on you and start to chew up the vitals, you squeal like a little girl.

That’s what happened to the disciplined lines of Federal infantry. Focused as they were on the enemy to their front, they never gave any thought to their upper flank. The bone-shaking noise of their own ship’s guns drowned out any sound the heavy birds made as they approached. And the sun lay to their front, throwing all telltale shadows behind them. With no warning huge gray-brown rodents plopped down on the unsuspecting men. In seconds that grim formation became a frantic writhing mass of screams. Some slapped at the rats as they felt them land on their kepis or their shoulders. Others dropped and rolled to knock them off. All of them let go of their muskets, slicing the air with high-pitched shrieks as terrible teeth gnawed at their eyes, their lips, their throats. Those of us who’ve lived on farms and in cities know how strong rats’ teeth are. I’ve seen them chew through steel cable myself. Human flesh proved to be no obstacle.

In less than a minute the charge had turned into a rout. All the sturdy soldiers dashed back to their longboats, leaving a trail of blood and equipment behind them. Caps, muskets, cartridge boxes, canteens. It looked like Hansel and Gretel had run out of breadcrumbs. Sergeants screamed threats and insults at their men, but they might as well have been yelling at the moon. They all clambered back onto the boats and stayed there. Those who still had their Springfields made a half-hearted move to fire at the rats. All they accomplished was to waste a few Minie balls into the sand. Their whiskered enemies thumbed their noses at the soldiers and even waved their furry bottoms at them. Just to add to the rout, the pelicans plummeted in out of the sun. The momentum of their heavy bodies in a shallow dive bowled men over like ninepins. Some of the Federals flew over the sides of their boats and flopped into the surf. My witched ears heard giggles from the rats and hearty guffaws from the birds.

My animal reinforcements made their way up to me where I knelt in the rifle pit. Both of the Rebs neared apoplexy, they laughed so hard. Tears ran down my face for the same reason. From the sounds inside my head Jasper must’ve thought it pretty funny, too. The pelicans arrived first, letting the rats skitter up the hill on their own. Almost twenty of the comical sea birds landed on the lip of the trench, lining up as proud as if they were Robert E. Lee’s personal guard.
Boy, if Lee ever hears of this poor old McClellan will be dodgin’ vermin the rest of the war.
Ernie, knitting needle spear in one little paw, stood up to his full four inches on the head of his transport and howled like a coyote.

“Aroo! Fear us, for we are the mighty Pitcairn’s Flyin’ Squadron!”