Amelia fumbled with the lock on the tower door, while Iris and Marta were still in the wagon, which rumbled, because Amelia had left the engine running. Iris had her eyes closed, once more scrying.
“Move faster, Amelia!” Iris shouted, “Denholm is still alive, angrier than ever and Krauss is with her!”
Amelia finished the combination and yanked the lock free, tossing it aside. She didn’t bother to push the doors open and instead ran back to the wagon, getting in the driver’s seat. She rolled the vehicle toward the doors in reverse, until it made contact, before gunning the accelerator, to push them open.
Once they were inside, Amelia carefully rolled the wagon on the ramp leading to the lowest cargo bay of Starwitch, then shut the engine off.
Amelia ordered, “Iris, get Marta out, while I hook the wagon to the winch!”
“Got it!” Iris opened her eyes, got out, shut her door, then moved to the back, where she opened Marta’s door and grunted to haul their sister out, growling, “Crap, she’s heavy!”
Marta was, after all, built like a lumberjack, something she’d inherited from their father. After several seconds hard work, Marta slipped free of the seat and the two of them landed as a heap to one side of the ramp!
Meanwhile, Amelia had connected the dangling chain with the hook to a loop hidden under the armor at the rear end of the wagon, followed by standing to one side of the open hatch. She reached inside and flipped a lever upward, bringing a distant, small steam engine to life. It took only about a minute, but the wagon was rolled upward, along the track designed for its tires, until it was fully inside, hanging vertically, though she had to slam the back door shut as it passed. With the wagon safely stowed, Amelia turned the lever for the winch to the off position and locked it in place with a pin that dangled from it by a little chain.
Hopping off the ramp, Amelia tried to lift the panel for sealing the cargo bay, but found it too heavy, calling out, “I need a hand!”
Iris had been trying to roll Marta off her body, but the tall and muscular woman was too heavy!
“I’m stuck!” The voice of Iris was full of anxiety, “How are we going to get her up the stairs?”
Amelia ran over and between the two of them, Marta was rolled off of Iris.
Amelia looked down at her oldest sister’s face and raised her hand for a full-strength slap, saying, “We don’t have time for more delays! Wake up!”
Iris cringed as Amelia’s open palm connected with Marta’s cheek, leaving a red welt, but it was enough!
Marta groaned to wakefulness, though she looked incredibly groggy, confused and somewhat angry as she demanded, “What was that for?”
“No sleeping until we’re in orbit, Corporal Blackwell!” Amelia ordered, mimicking a military voice of command.
Marta nodded, “Understood.”
She got to her feet and the three sisters lifted the cargo bay hatch, covering the war wagon with it. When the hatch was in place, it sealed itself and became seamless, a little enchantment Amelia had used to ensure the cargo bay didn’t leak atmosphere and would remain hidden.
They ran up the stairs, until they reached the entry bridge, which was a wide wooden plank that went between the stairs and the main hatch of Starwitch. After they crossed inside, Amelia pushed the bridge out.
The entry bay included a pair of seats that were mounted along the wall they stood upon, which included straps and very minimal cushions, similar to the pilot’s seat in the witchpit, because the launch was going to be a rough ride that no cushion could help with. To one side of the open hatch was a door set on hinges, which included rubber gaskets for both the outer and inner hull, on top of the enchantments to seal them both.
Amelia and Marta pushed the door closed, while Iris climbed the ladder, to reach the witchpit. Once the door was closed, Marta laid down on one of the seats, with her feet up in the air, and promptly fell asleep.
Amelia grumbled, but belted her sister into then seat, then headed down the ladder.
She passed the crew quarters, then the workshop, and finally reached the lowest room, which held the spell-core.
“I’m in position!” Amelia shouted as she laid a hand on the spell-core, “I’m cutting the tower seals in three…two…one…mark!”
It hadn’t been visible from the inside of the tower, but each plate that kept the two halves together included a hidden cup that held a mixture of powdered rust and aluminum filings that had been mixed with a binding agent, to prevent wind blowing through the cracks from dispersing them.
Each cup of thermite heated up and burst into furious flames that produced incredible heat, which had been started with a very simple spell Amelia could have pulled off without the spell-core, though she would have been forced to make contact with each plate, in turn, something they didn’t have time for. The thermite reaction produced so much heat, it melted through the steel plates, cutting the tower in two.
As designed, the half of the tower facing away from the house began tipping, because the foundation stones a few inches beneath the soil were slanted, leaving it unable to stand without the other half! Granite blocks separated from their mortar mid-fall, crashing into the ground ahead of the main bulk, which struck the outer wall of the property, further breaking it up, before it all slammed into the ground, causing a quake!
“Casting repulsion spell!” Amelia shouted, once again using the spell-core to exceed her natural magical limits.
The hull of Starwitch briefly became charged with a gravity-manipulation effect, which caused gravity outside the ship to point away from it. The sudden change in force was too much for most of the tower, which had been literally designed to come apart under the strain. Granite blocks broke free of their mortar and flew toward the house before exiting the area of altered gravity, allowing them to drop to the ground without harming anyone. The only part of the tower that remained was a thin, structural gantry that was reinforced with steel, which went halfway up Starwitch.
The end result was that the rocket had the support it needed to avoid falling for the time being, while everything else had been harmlessly thrust aside.
Amelia climbed the ladder until she was back in the entry bay, which took far longer than she would have liked. She laid in her seat and buckled herself in.
“Ready for launch!” She shouted, “Just remember to keep our speed low, until we’re at least two-thousand feet up, or we might kill the servants!”
Iris nodded and checked the scrying crystals, to ensure no one was nearby. She knew Denholm and Krauss were on the way, but wasn’t sure how fast they could move with only one broom.
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Acting with great care, Iris adjusted the throttle lever to a particular notch Amelia had placed on it, causing four distant steam engines driving pumps to activate.
Water flowed from the huge water tanks between the living spaces and the lower cargo bay, flowing into four pipes that ran under the outer hull plating of half the vessel, each of which contained many thousands of little plates marked with the runes for ‘metal’, ‘heat’, ‘water’ and ‘steam’, which caused the water to vaporize on contact, incidentally producing increased pressure. As the steam rolled through the pipes with great energy, they passed many identical plates that continued to increase the temperature and pressure, until it sprayed out the four metal nozzles at the base of the vessel!
The entire vessel shuddered and suddenly lurched upward! At the same time, the support gantry broke away as sacrificial bolts snapped and tensioned cables attached to them were released, causing the base of the structure to lose all rigidity, while the force of the superheated steam blowing out of Starwitch forced the whole thing to fall away, as if mounted on a hinge!
Denholm and Krauss rose over the mansion and looked on the most bizarre sight: a gleaming tower of metal was rising through the air on a column of superheated steam!
“What the-” Krauss strung several curse words together like a sailor, “am I seeing?”
“An escape attempt!” Denholm growled and extended a hand as she concentrated to speak an incantation consisting of ‘gravity’, ‘crush’ and ‘metal’, but when nothing happened, Denholm growled, “I don’t know how, but they’ve protected it from my magic! Give your own a go!”
Krauss raised her own hand, trying ‘blood’, ‘kill’ and ‘witch’, but nothing happened.
Unable to sense the blood of the Blackwell sisters, Krauss grumbled, “I got nothing.”
They both watched for a time as the tower rocketed into the sky, picking up velocity.
Denholm brought the stick down on the roof of the house and they got off it.
She looked at her subordinate and demanded, “How much do you weigh?”
“One-sixty! Why?”
Denholm muttered the magic words for ‘gravity’, ‘throw’, ‘witch’, then linked the last word to ‘fly’.
Hearing the words, Krauss objected, “No, don’t!”
Krauss screamed as she rose through the air, gaining velocity faster than the flying tower!
“Better you than me.” Denholm chuckled and watched as she produced a small telescope from a pocket, that she might maintain control of the spell she’d just attached to her subordinate. After all, it wouldn’t be good to deprive the King of such a useful assassin by flinging her out of the atmosphere.
Iris somewhat relaxed, feeling as if they’d finally escaped, but prudence caused her to check the rear-view crystal, just in case. She was horrified to see the face of Krauss, who was rising faster than they were!
“We got trouble!” Iris shouted, ” ‘Killer’ Krauss is hot on our tail!”
Despite the danger, Amelia unbuckled herself, then shouted, “Ease off on the engines a little, while I get to the spell-core!”
“Okay!” Iris shouted and the G-forces lessened.
Amelia still felt extra heavy, because they were still accelerating, but she was able to lower herself down the ladder.
Having arrived, she shouted, “How high are we?”
“Coming up on two-thousand!” Iris shouted back!
Amelia laid on the wall that served as floor and laid a hand on the spell-core, concentrating on a scrying spell. She’d never been able to scry more than a few inches, though she’d been able to see extremely fine detail when she did so, despite how exhausted it made her, but with the aid of the spell-core, she was able to project her mind outside.
As advertised, Krauss was following them, though Amelia wasn’t sure how. Witches normally used brooms to fly, but the crazy witch was shooting through the air like a lead ball from a spring-gonne, but it was clear she was still accelerating!
Amelia set her mind on manipulating the air, turning it into invisible projectiles, because Krauss couldn’t possibly dodge what she couldn’t see.
Krauss was hit by an incredible blast of air, which felt like a punch to the face, followed by several more, coming in a flurry that struck from all angles, pummeling her face, shoulders, chest and gut! Blood and acid sprayed from her mouth as a particularly good strike ruptured her stomach!
She barely managed to mutter the magic words for ‘blood’ and ‘armor’ as still more invisible blows connected! Magic swirled through her body as blood rushed to the surface of her skin, before erupting into the air from many wounds, to join that which her opponent had spilled! The blood formed a thin shell around her body, blocking further strikes, while she muttered two more words of power: ‘blood’ and ‘heal’. Her injuries lessened and with the shell around her body, the air friction that had been causing her trouble became a non-issue. The shell wavered with each of her opponent’s strikes, but it held.
Raising both hands for additional control, Krauss screamed and concentrated to turn her own blood into high-velocity projectiles, an idea she’d gotten from Private Blackwell’s weaponry demonstration, but Krauss applied a little creativity, producing a veritable hail of thousands of blood-bullets!
Amelia stared with terror at the crazy way Krauss used her own blood as a weapon and refocused her existing air-manipulation spell into a defensive barrier! Most of the blood-bullets were deflected, but a few struck Starwitch, resulting in a shudder going through the hull!
“How high?” Amelia screamed as she concentrated to defend them from the rapid-fire barrage!
Iris shouted back, “Twenty-five-hundred!”
“Close enough! Go full-throttle!”
“Are you strapped in?” Iris shouted back.
“No, but do it anyway!”
There was a sudden lurch as Starwitch went from about one-third throttle, all the way to maximum! Amelia struggled to keep her hand on the spell-core, despite the fact her arm felt like it had become pure lead!
Krauss was hit by a sudden blast of air as the steam pouring from the gleaming tower increased in volume and the intensity of the sound rose sharply, to the point of making her ears bleed, despite the protective shell surrounding her! Krauss screamed and covered her ears, but it was too much!
As her concentration wavered, one final blast of air punched through her barrier and struck her in the side of the skull, whipping her head to the left! Krauss went limp in the air like a rag-doll, because she was unconscious!
Denholm cursed, then growled, “You had one job Krauss, but you couldn’t even do that! You disgust me.”
With a flick of the wrist, Denholm adjusted the flight of her subordinate, to take her away from the flying tower and back toward the ground. She safely lowered the woman to the grass of the house’s back yard, then mounted the broomstick.
If she couldn’t kill the sisters, then it was time to find Private Blackwell’s assistant, for the sake of some answers.
As she rose, she scanned the horizon, eventually spotting an old style of wagon, which had been converted to use tires and suspiciously used no horse. Denholm smiled wickedly and zipped toward it.
After ten minutes, she lightly set down on the roof of the combination of wagon and house, peering down at Mr. Dawkin Icebrow, who was yawning as he drove. He held onto a little wheel that directed the wagon, while he manipulated a pedal set into the floor of the driver’s area, which might have been the throttle.
“You can stop this carriage or I’ll rip your head clean off!” Denholm growled.
Mr. Icebrow looked up with terror, but quickly obeyed, first taking his foot off the pedal, while he pulled a handle to engage the brakes.
Denholm climbed down, beside the young man, grabbed his jacket and growled in his face, “Why are you off to in such a hurry?”
“I ju-just want to leave Du-Dugaria!” The fellow stammered.
Denholm leaned closer as her eyes glowed, “Really? Why?”
As the man squirmed, it became apparent that some papers had been stuffed into an inside pocket of his jacket, because they stuck up as he shied away.
Denholm pulled them free and let the man go, supremely confident she could recapture him, if required. The driver’s seat was a little small for two and she wanted more room to unfold the papers, so she climbed down. Unsurprisingly, the young man immediately got the wagon moving again, leaving Denholm behind.
She unfolded the papers, realizing it was all one, big sheet, which showed the shape of a very familiar tower that came to an arrowhead-like peak at the tip. It was depicted in meticulous detail, with side diagrams of every major part. The plans were easy to understand and rather perfect in their detail, a master work of both art and engineering.
Denholm smiled wickedly, content that someday she would catch the traitors, wherever they ran and no matter how high they might fly. She’d always been powerful enough to reach the sky on her own, but Denholm had only lacked a vessel to carry herself to the stars. However, with the plans for this ‘Starwitch’ vessel in hand, it would only be a matter of time and resources, both of which she was sure His Highness would authorize.
Luckily for Dawkin, Denholm got so wrapped up in examining the plans that she totally forgot about him, allowing him enough time to reach the next town, where he covered the wagon with a canvas tarp, to make it look more like a heavy load of junk. He also attached the hitch that had been used to haul the war wagon, then bought a horse to haul it with, at least until he was out of the country.
At every turn, he pretended to be a common junk peddler, buying and selling bits of scrap as he traveled, a rather effective disguise. The ruse added three weeks to his journey, but that price was well-worth paying to stay out of Denholm’s hands.
