The Dragon Nimbus Novels: Volume II

numerous inappropriate lovers—they got younger as she aged—and voiced her volatile opinions quite loudly,” the queen chuckled.
    “That sounds like our Old Bertha,” Powwell said from the doorway. “A cranky and willful old lady who worked at her own convenience and no one else’s.” For the first time since leaving Kalen behind, he showed some levity.
    “How old are your machines?” Maarie Kaathliin turned to Yaala with a new animation.
    “Very old. Older than any records. Legends claim the machines go back to the time of the Stargods,” Yaala replied.
    “Impossible. The three O’Hara brothers established the covenant that protected Kardia Hodos from intrusion by any but a few carefully selected representatives of the family. They forbade technology powered by anything but water, air, or fire. They didn’t let you have the wheel and isolated reading skills to a very few.”
    “But that doesn’t answer our questions, Your Grace,” Nimbulan tried to bring the subject back to his present concerns. “We have to stop this invasion and the conspiracies you have uncovered in my absence.”
    “You must destroy the machines!” Maarie Kaathliin urged Yaala. “They contain the seeds of the plague. I pray that no other machines powered by fossil fuels exist. The tainted air that comes from them will lie dormant for centuries waiting for the right mix of pollution and sunlight variance to grow and breed.”
    “The machines are already dead,” Powwell volunteered. “I killed them to give us time to escape.” He turned away and muttered under his breath, “Unless the wraith fixes them.”
    The queen breathed easier. Obviously she hadn’t heard the last comment. “Then the generators must stay dead, and isolated. We can never allow technology to taint your air as it has my home’s.”
    “That still doesn’t tell me what we can do about the invasion. We haven’t time to gather an army and march it to meet King Lorriin.” Nimbulan clenched his hand, longing for his staff to help him think. But Powwell had used it to kill the machine. He needed another.
    “We need a wall to keep them out. Just like the Kaalipha used the walls of the crater to keep out strangers,” Scarface said, his face brightened with ideas. “Powwell had the right idea when he blocked Moncriith’s attack with a wall. We need a wall. A magic wall.”

Chapter 38
     
    “D o you know how much magic would be needed for such a feat?” Nimbulan stared at Scarface, gape-mouthed. It could work. They’d need a very large focus to concentrate the minds and talents of every member of the Commune—masters, journeymen, and apprentices combined. Something like a magician’s staff.
    His old staff had been shaped by his magic, finely tuned over many years to work with him. A staff was too individual. For the combined might of the Commune they needed something else, something common to them all.
    “A temporary wall at the passes . . .” Scarface shrugged.
    “That will only work at the passes we know Lorriin’s using this time, ” Quinnault said. He didn’t pace as he usually did when he thought. The new queen seemed to quiet his restless energy. “King Lorriin will just find different entries and port cities. He’s desperate for arable farm land and men to work it. A lot of Kardia Hodos is. A drought rages into its third year across the northern continents. Lorriin can’t buy food there, and he has some strange belief that SeLenicca can’t be worked.”
    “You’re saying we need a magical wall all around Coronnan?” Scarface whistled his amazement at the audacity of the proposal.
    “Except for the Bay,” Nimbulan corrected. “The mudflats and your new port city will give us protection there. A massive chain across the port of Baria and towers with armaments on either side of the entrance will protect that harbor by mundane means. Most of the north coast is crumbling clay cliffs, impossible for heavily armed men to climb. So that will reduce the size of the spell by one coastline.” He began to pace, his mind working furiously—as Quinnault used to do. He needed a focus. A big focus.
    (A focus made of glass.)
    Yes! He paused, looking up at the ceiling as if the idea had come from there. Why glass? What properties did glass have that existed in no other compound?
    Clarity. Glass magnified and enhanced the vision. Made from all four elements, glass gave the magician access to the power of any one or all of Kardia, Air,