The Wings of Mercury - Chapter 20

Sardinia

Medb was back in a dark room, the windows shuttered against the outside world, partially for secrecy but also to keep the noxious spell of fish and salt out of her nose. She’d never loved ships and tried to stay on dry land as much as possible, but she hadn’t realized her dislike of it would translate into docks as well.

Of course, she rarely spent much time at them, aside from getting to and from whatever ship she’d been forced to take. Now, not only had she been forced to spend a week stuck here, but she’d made arrangements to stay in a less than savory place far down from the Britannian mission, above a fishmonger’s warehouse.

The smell was putrid. It was also extremely busy, doing a very lively business. She knew that others in her profession would have frowned on such a thing, after all, how could you conduct secret meetings in a place with so many eyes. Ramirus, however, had given her very good advice when he’d started teaching her the intricacies of the trade.

“People see what they want to see and only really notice things that are out of place. So a quiet building, with no one around except for one room that had people coming and going would draw suspicion, but a place with strangers coming from all over the city to buy wares and both fishermen and passing traders stopping to sell meant that there were always people around, always going different directions, with so much happening that it would be hard to track where any one person was headed.

So her little rented room, through intermediaries renting it to use temporarily for managing a flow of workers into the harbor during the particularly busy shipping season, which this was, would gain little notice. She’d also made sure it was down a long hallway, around a corner from any open spaces, in a building where the layout meant no other doors were around the same corner, which meant no through traffic and nothing for people to notice if they had noticed the influx of people through her small room.

And people certainly influxed. She’d used a Britannian porter Llassar had befriended early on for the first stages of her plan, but that had just been to hire people more suitable for the work she needed to do, but couldn’t do in person. Unlike Llassar, who was the face of Britannia here, she wanted to leave her options open, based on what she found, which meant operating more in secret.

Speaking of more suitable people, a knock at the door told her one of those men had finally finished their latest task.

“Come,” she said, not getting up.

The door opened, issuing in a nondescript man that Medb knew was much more deadly than his plain exterior indicated. Which is exactly what she liked. Some people would go for the big brutes, a scar over one eye, speaking to a career of life or death situations, and those men had their places, but for her money they stood out too much. Men like Melsar were much better for most of the work she needed.

In front of Melsar was a nervous-looking man, suggesting her associate had found it necessary to prove his bona fides to. Good. She wanted this man nervous.

“Thank you, Melsar. Wait outside, would you?”

The beady-eyed man grunted an acknowledgment and closed the door, leaving Medb alone with her new guest. The smaller man’s eyes darted around the sparse room, his fingers fidgeting with the frayed edges of his tunic.

“What do you want with me?”

“What I want, Berith, is to have a little chat about your financial situation.”

“What financial situation? I don’t even know you, how do you know …”

“I actually know quite a bit about you, Berith. I know that you are single since your wife left you and ran to the mainland. I know that your brother stopped talking to you after you borrowed money from him and then failed to pay him back a year ago. And I know about the debts you were supposed to pay back with that money, but used for more gambling instead. Money you still owe Nurakes.”

“Did Nurakes send you? I told him …”

“I do not work for Nurakes, but I did have a nice conversation with him about your situation. He was very concerned about how far behind you were on paying him back, and I think considering fairly extreme tactics to get that money back. Lucky for you, I convinced him to sell me your debt instead.”

“What … Why would you do that? If you know I couldn’t pay?”

“Because I don’t want coin from you, Berith. I’m after something far more valuable than that.”

“What... what do you mean?”

“Information,” Medb said simply. “You give me what I want to know, and I’ll consider your debt paid in full.”

He looked surprised, probably trying to figure out what someone like him, a laborer and sometimes messenger, would not be the first person many would go to for information, which is why he also looked suspicious.

“What kind of information?”

“Information about your master, Nuraian.”

Another look of surprise. Whatever he had been expecting from Medb, that was clearly not it.

“Nuraian? He is just a businessman. What could you possibly want to know about him?”

“You are not so naive that you believe that, Berith. I think you know there is more to it than that. You are in his house. You see the people he has coming in and out of it. Nuraian has been quite involved in Sardinian politics recently, with all sorts of people around, talking to him. Lots of people from the cities, other farmers. I would like to know what he is so interested in, and I would like for you to tell me.”

“I... I only keep his house, do repairs. I do not know anything about his interests or business dealings.”

“Come now, Berith. We both know your position gives you far more access than most. You are around, you see who comes and goes. You are exactly who I am looking for. I know about his normal business interests, what I want to hear about is unusual people that have started to come by his home over the last six months or so. The types of people you do not remember seeing before then.”

Berith blanched, shaking his head vigorously. “No, I cannot... I will not betray my master’s trust. He would have my head!”

“And what do you think I will do, Berith. That was a lot of money I paid to Nurakes for your debts. Do you think it is only your head I will take? Should I call my man back in here and give you a taste of what you could lose?”

He did not say anything right away, just looked from her to the door and back again.

“No,” he finally said sheepishly.

“Then tell me what I want to hear. Has there been anything unusual happening at your master’s house recently? Something out of the ordinary, more visitors than normal, or visitors that perhaps stood out a little?”

“Yes, there has been an increase in shipments. A lot of wagons coming in full and leaving full, although always covered. Sometimes dozens in a day, although we are not allowed to go near the area those goods are being delivered to and held.”

“What about the people bringing those in? Were they foreigners?”

“Yes,” he said, clearly a little surprised at her guess.

“Greeks? Egyptians? Maybe more unusual styles from further east?”

“No,” he said, confused now rather than surprised. “Mostly Britons speaking Latin, which I do not know well, so I couldn’t really make out what they were saying. If I had to guess, though, I’d say they were Romans from their dress.”

Medb kept her face neutral. That it was a surprise to her as much as her earlier questions was a surprise to him was not something he needed to know. Details like that were best left unspoken.

“I see. And you have no idea what they were bringing?”

“No, but it seemed important.”

Medb studied him for a moment, considering whether to push him further. It would be useful for him to sneak into the area where the goods were held, perhaps get a peek inside of them. She almost instantly discarded that idea. He was much too jittery to be given anything more strenuous. He would almost certainly be caught easily, and she needed more time before she did anything to alert Nurakes that she was looking into him.

Better to leave things as they were. Just knowing the men were Britons was enough to give her a place to start looking.

“Thank you for your help, Berith. You are to keep this meeting to yourself,” she said, making sure he saw the look in her eyes and took her very seriously. “Not a word about talking to me. To anyone. Unless, of course, you want a visit by my man.”

Berith nodded vigorously, eyes going back to the door again. “No, my lady. I mean yes. I mean, I won’t say anything. I swear it. But... my debt...?”

“If the information you’ve given me is accurate, and if you keep your mouth closed, your debt will be settled. But cross me, Berith, and you’ll wish Nurakes was the one you had to worry about.”

“I won’t.”

Medb dismissed him with a wave, watching as he scurried out of the room, leaving her alone with her thoughts. Romans in Sardinia.

That was interesting.

***

North of Port Vikhavn

Li Shu crept through the dense jungle, his cotton tunic clinging to his sweat-soaked skin. He hated this place. It was hot and wet, the air feeling like porridge around him, his nostrils filled with the smell of decayed vegetation mixed with salt water.

It was foul.

He had been happy to finally be allowed off the ship the officials had crammed so many of them into. They weren’t sailors and Li had never even been on a ship before a few months ago, when they sailed him what seemed like around the entire world. He had been forced to hide below decks while the ships were being ripped apart by cannon shells and men sent to the bottom of the sea, drowning.

Now he was not so sure the ships were all that bad. Insects kept biting him, tearing at his skin. Worse, they were lost. He knew it. They had changed direction multiple times so far and he could swear they had even gone backward a few times, although it was very hard to tell. The jungle was very thick and he couldn’t even really see the moon or stars, with what light they did cast becoming scattered, creating shadows everywhere.

They had stopped again with their leader, who was in the rear as was befitting his station, talking with several of his senior men. They were arguing, each pointing in one direction or another. Li didn’t like being in this small clearing. It made him feel exposed.

“We’ve been wandering for hours,” Wang Wei, a man standing a few steps from him, said. “He’s lost again.”

“Quiet,” someone hissed. “He’ll hear you.”

“I don’t care. We should run back to the beach and leave this cursed place.”

“And face execution? No thank you.”

“Silence in the ranks! The next man who speaks dies where he stands,” the commander said, his voice a little louder than Li would have liked.

They all fell silent, but Wang wasn’t wrong. They were nowhere near the cursed westerner fort. A rustle in the underbrush caught Li Shu’s attention. He raised his musket instinctively, but couldn’t pinpoint the source of the noise. Several other men followed suit, although he was pretty sure they were mimicking him.

Everyone was nervous and on edge.

“I saw something in the trees,” a man said, pointing off to the right.

“It’s an animal, you idiot. Be silent,” the commander said, before going back to his argument.

It probably was an animal. They had nearly opened fire several times already, mistaking wildlife for the enemy. They all knew they had to be quiet. Firing a rifle would certainly let the enemy know they were there, but it had been very close at times. There were animals everywhere it seemed, and they all sounded like an army sneaking up to kill them.

And then the night erupted into chaos. It took a second for Li’s brain to register what was happening as tongues of fire leapt out of the jungle all around them, as if they’d angered a nest of dragons, who spewed their displeasure.

It wasn’t dragons, though. It was firearms of some kind, and they came from all around them. Bullets ripped into the tightly packed men, sending some of his comrades crumpling to the ground.

“Ambush!” someone screamed.

“Form a line! Return fire!” the commander shrieked.

It took a moment for the under-commanders to shake their men out of the absolute shock they were in and get them moving into formation. Li scrambled to obey, his fingers fumbling with his weapon as he tried to align himself with the others. The air was already clogged with the acrid smoke from the weapons firing at them, the hazy fog making the jungle even darker, which Li hadn’t thought possible.

“Fire!” the under commander shouted.

Li and the other men in line let loose a thundering volley into the darkness in front of them. There was no musket fire from in front, but it continued to come in from the sides in sporadic shots.

“Did we hit anyone?” Wang Wei asked.

As if in answer, tongues of flame leapt out of the forest in front of them again, proving that at least some of the attackers in that direction were still alive. The man beside him crumpled, clutching his chest.

“Again!” the commander bellowed. “Fire another volley!”

Li finished reloading and lifted his rifle. He didn’t even wait for the others, just firing into the darkness. A few of his comrades did the same while others just stood there in shock, not even having reloaded yet. If the first volley had been ineffective, this one was almost certainly not going to stop the assault.

Li started to reload again.

Instead of more fire, however, the jungle suddenly came alive. Dark figures erupted from the undergrowth, brandishing wicked-looking spears and blades. Li lifted his rifle as several ran for him, but he was panicking. He squeezed the trigger hard, jerking the weapon up, the shot going wild.

“Demons!” someone screamed. “We’re surrounded by demons!”

Panic spread through their ranks. Li Shu watched in horror as his comrades fumbled with their weapons, unable to reload fast enough to meet this new threat.

A man was charging right at Li, and there was no time to reload again. He barely managed to bring his rifle up in time to deflect a vicious downward slash of the blade in the man’s hand. The impact jarred his arms, nearly causing him to drop his rifle. Acting on instinct, more from learning to use a staff and spear as a child and young man than from the incredibly short training they’d been given on how to use the rifles, Li swung out with the butt of the rifle, catching his assailant in the jaw.

The man staggered back, momentarily stunned. Li Shu seized his chance. With a desperate cry, he lunged forward, driving his bayonet deep into his attacker’s chest. The man’s eyes widened in shock, then glazed over as he slumped to the ground.

All around him, men began to fall as the entire group began to come apart, any sense of cohesion gone. And then they lost the commander.

Li turned to see what the orders were when a spear came out of seemingly nowhere and embedded itself into the man’s chest, impaling him. The man had the nerve to look surprised as he died, as if he hadn’t led them straight into this trap.

With his death, all semblance of order evaporated instantly. Men scattered in all directions, running for their lives.

“Back to the boats!” someone shouted.

It was as good of a plan as Li had heard, except he wasn’t even sure which direction the boats were in. He began to run.

He passed a small group huddled behind a fallen log on the edge of the clearing, desperately trying to mount a final stand. Li ignored them. They were doomed. The only way to survive was to get away, and any thought of helping his compatriots was overwhelmed by his desire to live. He plunged into the undergrowth, branches whipping at his face as he ran blindly.

He could hear the men predictably dying behind him. The sounds spurred him on to greater speed as he put as much distance between himself and the carnage as possible. The sounds of terror and death began to fade, but Li didn’t stop running.

At least, not until his foot caught on an unseen root, sending him sprawling. Li scrambled to his feet, mud and rotting vegetation clinging to his clothes.

He stood there for a moment, the jungle suddenly silent around him. He had no idea which way he’d run away from the fight or which way he should go now. He didn’t want to just run back into that carnage, and he didn’t want to be lost in the jungle forever.

He was lost. In the darkness, every direction looked the same. The launches, their only hope of escape, could be anywhere.

A twig snapped nearby. Li spun, bringing his rifle up. His eyes darted wildly, not that it helped. The jungle was inky black, and anything more than a step away from him was lost in the void.

Another crack, closer this time. He whirled, weapon at the ready. And then he saw the eyes. The only thing he could make out in the jungle. Two white, human eyes right next to him. And then the smile, the white teeth showing in the darkness.

What Li didn’t see was the blade crashing down until it bit deep into his skull, ending any further thoughts or fears.

***

Outside Factorium

It was unusual to be in a carriage again. She had grown so used to the jostling experience that she thought she didn’t really even notice how uncomfortable it was, but she had only really traveled by train or boat for years now. While Ky complained that those could be more stable experiences, and she had almost started taking that same attitude every time the train jostled or shifted.

Being in one of these again, however, pulled over a rough, uneven dirt track that shouldn’t be actually called a road, made her want to take back every one of those thoughts. Twice the wagon hand shifted so precariously that she had sworn it was going to topple on its side and once she had banged her head good enough that she could feel a knot forming.

Hortensius, however, had said this was the most important demonstration he had given in years and that it was critical for her to be there to okay the final steps of the fuse project so he could start producing new shells and get them to the front before the winter set in.

So in the carriage she went.

Thankfully the ride from the Factorium station to the testing grounds was not a long one. As the carriage pulled to a stop she could see a gun set up on a concrete slab in the middle of the field, with protective concrete buildings behind it and a big open field in front of it.

Hortensius and a small army of assistants were gathered around the howitzer, but the manufacturer turned and hurried over as soon as he saw her, intercepting her by the concrete observation bunkers.

“Your Majesty! Thank you for coming to witness our final demonstration,” Hortensius, out of breath but still bowing. “I believe you’re going to be quite impressed with what we have to show you.”

“I’m certain I will,” Lucilla said, smiling at her old friend.

“While I believe this should be safe, I think it best if everyone use the bunkers today. Our last test had some … explosive results on the test platform and I’d hate to see anyone injured by our work. Or at least any of our people injured.”

There was an odd sound to his voice and Lucilla wondered if it ever bothered him, working on weapons designed to kill people. He was a true Roman and she knew how seriously he took his part in protecting the empire, but he was also one of the most gentle souls she had ever met, and that he would not hurt a fly.

It, in turn, made her sad, the things the world made of them.

She allowed him to usher her and her guards into the bunker, while he returned to the gun and spent a few minutes making last checks, before he and his assistants all came to the bunkers themselves, with Hortensius joining her in the central bunker.

One poor soul was much closer, in a small trench, with a long pull rope that ran to the gun, to set it off.

“It looks like we’re all set,” Hortensius said as he entered the bunker. “This first shot will be of the impact fuse. If it works properly, it will explode when it hits the ground, both creating a destructive blast that is capable of blasting away fortifications or other obstacles, as well as people, of course. The shell casing itself actually rips to pieces as it explodes, each of which becomes as deadly as bullets. Jagged and sharp, the explosion expels those pieces at a high rate of speed, increasing its impact and affecting uncovered targets well away from the blast radius.”

“Ohh,” Lucilla said.

That was not in Ky’s instructions, which had mostly been technical focusing on just how to build it. She had understood those and the purpose of having it explode, since a hard shell would generally only injure those impacted by it and maybe people a few steps away as it sent up dirt and debris, but that was it. From what she had read, an explosion would have a chance to affect everyone in a radius around the explosion. It had not occurred to her that the metal casing of the shell would also become weapons itself, but giving it some thought, it made sense.

“I’m looking forward to seeing it in action,” Lucilla added.

“Yes. Yes. These glasses have been set to give you a better view of the impact area,” he said, pointing to several brass spy glasses fixed into one viewing slit.

Lucilla moved up to one and peered through it. Another invention that she didn’t use much, but found fascinating every time she did, as it brought the pock-marked landscape close enough she felt like she could reach out and touch it. It also helped that the ground had been chosen well, with the bunkers on a slight rise behind the firing platform, making the testing grounds themselves visible with no obstructions.

“Yes. This is excellent.”

“Good,” Hortensius said before leaning up to the small viewing slit and yelling out to the man in the trench. “Fire at will, please, Bodvoc.”

The man gave a wave and yanked the line. Lucilla had been prepared for it, and yet the boom of the cannon took her by surprise. She stared intently through the looking glass as the shell arced through the air and came plummeting back to the earth. When it hit, there was an impressive plume of fire, followed by a booming sound and then a shaking of the very ground they stood on. When the smoke from the shell cleared, a large hole was cut into the ground.

It was an impressive display.

“My goodness.”

“Yes, the destructive force is something,” Hortensius said.

“It’s all thanks to you and the consul. That last change you gave us was quite impressive, especially using the initial shock of being fired by the cannon to activate the fuse without the need for the extensive safety system we had been building into them.”

“What about on different terrain? Say if there’s dense vegetation that cushions its fall. Will the shell still go off?”

“Yes. We’ve tested it against a variety of surfaces and found that it will detonate reliably on impact with any solid surface, be it fortifications, rocky ground, or even dense vegetation.”

“You’ve done exceptional work, Hortensius. I’m proud of what you’ve accomplished here.”

“Thank you, Your Majesty. But we’re not done yet. If you’ll allow me, I’d like to show you that surprise I mentioned earlier.”

“A surprise?” Lucilla asked.

That was unusual. Hortensius was a brilliant man, but everything that had been invented had come from Ky, usually through her. It was a surprise sometimes what the end result actually looked like, and Lucilla didn’t always completely understand what the diagrams and instructions were telling Hortensius, but she still had some basic idea of what the result was going to be.

So an actual surprise would be... well, a surprise.

“You’ll see in a moment, Your Majesty. I think you’ll find this quite impressive.”

The crew finished their preparations and retreated to the safety of the bunkers. Once more, the lone figure in the trench pulled the firing cord. As with the last time, she looked into the spyglass trained down field as the shell arched high into the sky, expecting it to come crashing back to the earth, as it had the last time.

However, just as it reached its apex, something unexpected occurred. The shell suddenly erupted in a brilliant flash, far above the target area.

Lucilla blinked in surprise, momentarily stepping back from the spyglass, thinking something had gone wrong. “What in the world...?”

Hortensius, who was smiling, waved her back to look as a second shell was loaded and fired.

“That is what is supposed to happen, but you missed the most important part. Watch all the way through this time, your majesty.”

Again the shell arched high in the sky, and again it exploded well before it ever touched the ground. This time she continued watching as, across a wide swath of land, puffs of dust began to spring up, very dense in a circle more or less under the shell but spreading out for quite some distance as something peppered the ground.

Stepping back again, Lucilla said, “Alright, I’m thoroughly impressed. Now, explain what I just saw.”

Hortensius nodded eagerly. “This, Your Majesty, is what we’re calling an airburst shell. The impacts you saw were from hundreds of projectiles in the shell which are launched out when it explodes, raining down on targets below it, followed by fragments of the shell, afterward, of course. While this would cause little damage to a structure as such, it would be highly effective against infantry hiding behind a barrier or men caught in an open field. More so than the standard explosive shell. What happens is when the howitzer fires, the recoil triggers a ruggedized spring mechanism inside the shell. This mechanism sets a simple, reliable timing system in motion. As the shell travels, the spring slowly unwinds, moving a reinforced metal disc that controls the delay. Once the preset time is reached, the mechanism releases a pin that strikes a percussion cap, which then ignites the explosive charge, causing the shell to detonate, which expels the shot that fills the front of the shell downward.”

“And this happens while the shell is still in the air? Can you control when it explodes?”

“Yes. This starts when the shell is going and, ideally, the timing is right so it explodes before it hits the ground, since the gunpowder load is much smaller in this shell to make room for the shot. The gunner sets the timing in the number of seconds between firing and explosion, which loosens or tightens the spring mechanism so it goes off sooner or later, depending on the setting. They will need some training to understand timing, but it is possible to work out with some fairly straightforward math.”

“Do we need new guns to fire these?”

“No, that’s the best part. These will work in our existing howitzers, and even our straight firing artillery, although impact and detonation will become more unpredictable than in arching style artillery.”

“This is truly remarkable work, Hortensius,” she said. “I want both types of shells put into production immediately. How soon can we get them to our forces on the front lines?”

“Soon. We’re almost done getting the production lines set up and have already begun stocking the raw materials to speed up how long it takes to get started. We wanted to get your approval first, however.”

“Consider it given. I want these shipped to the front as quickly as possible. The sooner the Legions have these, the better.”