Chapter 122

The second day, although we weren’t really following any diurnal pattern, began as the first, although our allies were conspicuous in their presence as they watched patiently from the start of the ramp. Maurice and Chinc’lithss had their people working on the toxin and had come up with a formula that gave some immunity to its effects, though was not able to help those already with it too far into their systems. Still, it would allow a victim to stop the spread and get to the medic Mages before it became too widespread. The Drow were pinning their hopes on a massive Null area in front of their walls to stop us, though Morgana had already requested aid from an American SeaBee (construction battalion) company to manually push and form the rocks we were using to form the base of the ramp with their bulldozers as various trucks from quarry companies brought their loads up to disgorge their contents at the top.

The Drow were now clearly exiting from a hidden sally port and attempting to snipe at and sabotage our works. We were now using a much larger form of the energy field that disrupted their cloaking technique, still, they were adept at hiding in plain sight and we had to be careful. This was, of course, very dangerous for them as the Mage armour that we’d equipped all our allies, save the Maraú-Uxuí and Veda who used their own armour was far superior to that of the Drow and resistant to all but the most deadly of strikes, and such an attack was punished with deadly force by Marja’s wolves causing even more Drow casualties. Outside of the lit zone the Nosferatu patrolled and if the Drow thought they were the perfect assassins, they soon found that they’d met their match as a silent but deadly game of cat and mouse developed between them and Nell’s Kyresi. Of the Daoine Sidhe, there was no further sign, their casualties had wiped out most of their fighting ranks and only the political hangers on of Oonagh’s court remained in any great numbers and we suspected they were getting desperate as they’d never expected to be trapped like this.

Outside of the cavern, Jacob and Adok along with several Seers were patrolling the various valleys, looking for attempts to break out of our cordon and the Seers had collapsed several tunnels leading to the outside world where the far finer senses of the wolves had detected unusual vibrations. The Seers, with Jacob’s permission, were examining just how the wolves did it as it wasn’t something that Mages could detect until the wolves directed them to it and seemed to be magically linked to the wolves normal heightened senses, a sort of sixth sense on steroids, so to speak.

Our stricken casualties were transported to Kurukshetra and hence to Loegria, where the Loegrians were also looking at the toxin as well as a sample of the anti-toxin developed by the Veda and Maraú-Uxuí. They were attempting to synthesise a better more reactive version which sought out and neutralised the toxin assisted by Rowenna’s medic Mages who were adding the magical neutralising principles to the results. It looked promising, but the Loegrians admitted it was slow going as they’d never seen anything like it and had informed Rowenna that the alien DNA was incredibly pervasive and robust to most treatments and those it was susceptible to were often far more deadly to the victim.

Arch was throwing himself into the work, I believe like myself to keep his mind off the potential loss of a partner. If we gave ourselves time to dwell it became a path of ever decreasing circles and difficult to rouse ourselves out of. In this we were helped by our teams as they had us helping the Sea Bees to push rocks and earth over the edge of the ramp to help form the extending base above the Null field and so keep our progress slow and steady as we relentlessly approached the walls of Myrkálfar.

Morgana herself was busy with the Bureau heads and our allies; she was concerned that the Daoine Sidhe had managed to conceal their far greater numbers from us, though believed we now had them on the ropes. Still, she did not want any more surprises as every estimate we had on Daoine Sidhe and Drow numbers seemed to be an underestimate.

Truck after truck drove up the ramp to spin around at the top and disgorge their contents from various quarries and open cast mines, the drivers being fooled into thinking this was a normal operation as the various bulldozers and workers of the SeaBees compressed the top layer to ensure it could not crumble, often pouring concrete in to stabilise it.

It soon became apparent that the Drow were now biding their time and thinking through how best to cope with our advance. Their use of a fixed massive underground fortress had now become a liability to them, particularly as we had them boxed in and unable to flee. Roxanne herself had a betting pool going as to whether they would (and when) make one more attempt at parlay, if only to remove their non-combatants (assuming they had any). Morgana had shrugged and stated she intended to hand any over to Talshish for transport to Tír na nÓg and the care of Verenestra, something she hoped would demoralise them even further.

Turns out Roxanne was right, about a parlay that is, as a group of four Drow exited a known sally port and approached our lines.

Morgana as ever chose Arch, Roxanne and myself to accompany her but added Talshish as well to gain further insight as to what the Drow might be thinking as we met the Drow halfway between the lines, out of range (mostly) of the accuracy of the ranged weapons both sides could bring into play.

“I believe we underestimated your resolve,” the male Drow who appeared to be some form of leader stated to us.

“Quite common for Fae,” Morgana replied.

“We wish to reach an ... accommodation with you, before more lives are spent,” he went on.

“Go on, I’m listening.”

“If we were to expel Queen Oonagh and her followers, withdrawing her guest status, would that be enough to end your persecution of the Dökkálfar?” he asked.

“No, had you offered this before trying to drive us away, it would, but now we are owed a blood price,” Morgana replied.

“A blood price?”

“Fifty-two of my people dead, for no other reason than your stupid hubris,” she stated.

“We have the right to defend ourselves,” the female Drow retorted.

“By striking first?” I asked.

“You struck the first blow!”

“Five of yours were commanded to strike us down by an ‘underling’. They paid the usual price of attacking Mages unprovoked,” I replied with a shrug of my shoulders. “Three are still alive, if somewhat impotent.”

“You are giving shelter to an enemy of the free Earths, simply sending her on her way will no longer suffice to hold back our anger. Now hand her over before we complete the ramp and come in to take her,” Morgana stated.

“We will make you pay if you try!” the female retorted.

“I’ve no doubt you’ll try, in a similar manner as using the Daoine Sidhe and their steeds as a living shield must have appealed to your cowardice,” Morgana said disdainfully.

“We are no cowards!” she stormed and lunged towards Morgana only to be sent flying back by a stunning pivoting kick by Morgana, leaving her sprawled and winded on the ground.

“Not terribly smart either,” Morgana stated calmly as the badly winded Drow struggled to rise.

“You are speaking to the ‘monkeys’ as one of your sayings alludes too,” Talshish spoke for the first time. “These two silent ones are the leaders here.”

“Did wonder,” Morgana admitted.

“They are using a standard Fae approach where the underlings negotiate, they merely observe,” Talshish added.

“Doesn’t work like that with humanity ... or Mages. If anyone’s making a negotiated decision, it’s going to be me as I’m the one who gets it in the neck if it turns bad,” Morgana replied.

“My Queen also believes this to be so, though delegates negotiating authority to lower orders,” Talshish noted.

“I do that for Simon. I also pass authority down to the Bureau heads, but if Simon were here, he’d be the one talking,” Morgana shrugged, completely blanking the waiting Drow.

The female Drow was now on her feet looking extremely angry, but also embarrassed I suspected, though it was almost impossible to tell with their skin tones.

“I apologise for my associates intemperate actions,” the male Drow stated looking completely unapologetic.

“Children will be children,” Morgana replied airily. “Now are you prepared to hand Oonagh over?”

“Were it in my power, or that of my people I would, however the laws of my people constrain us to protect any with guest status,” he replied.

“Then we will meet again to discuss your people’s fate, assuming you survive our coming assault,” Morgana stated, before leading us away.

“Cracks are showing,” I murmured.

“Indeed John. I’d expect one more attack, possibly an act of desperation on their part before we reach the wall,” Morgana nodded.

“Closer we are to the walls the more likely,” Arch agreed.

“Our vigilance is at its peak, but ensure complacency doesn’t creep in,” Morgana ordered, sending us on our way as she went to brief the allies.

They did attack again, several hundred Drow scrambling up the slope of the ramp to try to get at the people extending it. Many however falling to rocks dropped onto them from above and causing them to be exposed to accurate sniping fire. The biggest surprise though were several score Drow launching themselves from the top of their fortress on kites to glide over and drop directly onto the Seer group.

If they thought the Seers would be an easy target, they were sadly mistaken. Four of the five Seers in Simone’s team proved to be utterly deadly using twin rapiers, keeping the Drow at bay as well as taking the occasional one down if they got a little careless. My team were charging up the slope from where we’d been caught by surprise and were now attacking the Drow in an effort to get to the Seers before the sheer numbers of the Drow could overwhelm them. The SeaBees had pulled their dozers into a barrier and were using their bayonets to keep the Drow at bay, though the Drow weren’t that interested in them, trying to seek out Mages and Seers whom they rightly believed were far more dangerous to them.

The pattern and tactics that we’d developed to deal with them worked well. Two Mages would hold them back with our blades whilst the others would Null up a bullet (took about twenty seconds) chamber it and fire. The Drow were also using a similar tactic with a crossbow wielder though fortunately the anti-toxin as well as the armour we wore made it far more difficult for them. They’d also given up that tactic on the Seers who could move their blades fast enough to intercept any bolt they could fire.

You could see the Drow getting more and more desperate as they struggled to cope with our counter-attack. These were not the cold hard assassins of the previous attack, but I suspected trainees of some sort. Still they fought bravely and with élan until the Drow attempting to climb the slope finally were forced back in retreat.

Finally a female Drow just threw her stiletto down before me and placed herself kneeling on the ground, just before I made the killing stroke, stark fear evident in her eyes. This was the signal for others to do the same and only the fanatics were left standing to be easily despatched.

“Please remove all weapons,” I stated to the surrendered Drow. “You will then be scanned by the Seers, should any of you still be bearing a weapon, it will go badly for you.”

At this point a weary, but alert Simone and Dorry came down to stand next to me as the Drow divested themselves of an unfeasible amount of concealed blades and various assassination tools.

“I think we’re finally getting to them,” Simone stated watching the Drow.

“Last throw of the dice,” I replied. “I suspect what’s left of their elite are waiting for us inside where the shoe will be on the other foot.”

“Seems likely,” Simone replied, whilst Dorry and journeyman Mage Pierre seemed to be in a competition of darting glances at each other, quickly looking away when the other looked.

“Oh my,” I chuckled.

“Yes, she’s got it bad, but needs to sort out her feelings over her past with Olmer. Pierre also thinks she’s out of reach, silly man.” Simone replied quietly.