All the Dust that Falls

Chapter 129: Wings of Liberty

Talia was clearly having a panic attack. She frantically pointed at Cliff, Trent and Mary picking up their pace at her screams. Luckily, they were not far behind. Maybe they could help calm her down. Totally unconcerned by the commotion, Cliff set the dog in her mouth down and squatted on her haunches, tongue lolling out the side of her mouth.

Tanu similarly didn’t seem to register Talia's reaction. That, or he was just too happy to be bothered by it. His face lit up seeing his mother, and he spoke for the first time that night. "Look ma! I got’s me sum frans!"

Unable to contain his excitement, he gave Cliff an appropriately large hug. Well, as appropriately large as a child the size of the dog’s snout could give. The canine seemed a little uncomfortable and let out a surprisingly high-pitched whine. She shoved her nose against his ear and licked the back of his head with a surprisingly long tongue.

The overly concerned woman ran over to the winch and started raising the portcullis. Her frantic movements were using much more effort than was efficient, and she was only moving the gate with 65 percent of her optimal energy expenditure. Stepping forward, Trent took pity on her and started helping her with the winch as Mary looked on with an open mouth.

It was kind of them to open the gate for us. I had been preparing to lift everyone over the gate myself, but that was much more effort than just waiting for them to let us through. Once the gate was a few feet off the ground, Talia left the work to Trent and ducked under, running to Tanu's side.

She caught the kid up in a large hug, lifting him up and away from Cliff. Tears streamed down her face, and she wasn't able to speak as she covered the kid's face with kisses. Tanu seemed less than pleased by the development and wriggled about, trying to escape the onslaught. Her grip was iron though, and the struggles were in vain.

The gate crept up enough that Cliff and I started moving the other dogs inside the castle walls. Once everyone was inside. Trent lowered the defenses back into place. His face was oddly still and stony. I wasn’t entirely sure why, to be honest. From the way he was staring at the dog and her puppies though, it was probably some amount of concern about them. Why though? I thought I would be the main one bothered about the potential mess they’d leave inside the castle.

As we started home, Cliff let out a small whine and looked back at the young boy. Tanu finally managed to free himself of his constraints enough to turn to the hesitating dog. "It's 'k girl, go'n"

Cliff let out a small woof as though it understood and picked up one of the dogs, running over to where a collection of trees stood near the courtyard. I looked at the rest of the pile and considered whether I should help her transport them. I decided they were safe enough now that we were inside though and left them for now. After a job well done, I followed the humans back into the castle proper.

—-

Arthur slammed his fist on the table. "YOU DIDN'T TELL ME?!"

Spittle spattered across the face of the mid-level officer in front of him. A long-suppressed cauldron of frustrations bubbled up from deep within his chest. Normally he wasn't one to lose his temper, but this was a blunder of epic proportions.

Ignoring protocol was sometimes necessary; he did understand that. But that was usually reserved for time-sensitive things or dangerous information. Even in such cases, protocol would just be modified or delayed slightly. And yet, when one of the high-level covert assets came in, not only was that not reported at all, through any channel, but the officer who had the asset in his custody detained and tortured her. It screamed of incompetence or even treason. It was utterly unforgivable.

"Well, she came in when you were busy. And the reports mentioned she might be under mind control." The fop responded, completely unfazed, as he brushed hair that was at least three times longer than regulation out of his eyes. These noble children supposedly were taught military from the cradle. In his thirty years of command, Arthur hadn't found that to be true at all, which was likely why the man had acted so out of his station.

"So… were you following orders?" Arthur asked in a dangerous tone as he glared over the table at the eejit.

Either unconcerned about repercussions or unaware of the mood, the man didn't catch on to the seriousness of the situation. "Well, not exactly I suppose. But acting with initiative." After a breath he added, "Sir."

Arthur barely restrained himself from shouting again. "You had a superior officer detained and tortured without authority or cause. Without orders. Without informing command or anyone else who should have been involved in that decision. You are not military police, and even if you were you wouldn’t have that kind of authority." Reaching across the table, he ripped the Lieutenant pin from the man's chest. Moving his attention to the guards, he motioned at the man. "Have this private thrown in the brig."

This got a reaction from the man, though it was more affront than anything else. "I had cause! She interacted with an enemy possibly capable of mind control. If she was under the influence, there’s no telling what a low-born peasant like her could be twisted to do!"

"You were in your authority to detain her until a superior could be fetched. Not reporting it, and especially the torture, makes this dereliction of duty and treason." Arthur said in an icy voice, now thoroughly in control of his temper. The men he had indicated stepped forward and grabbed the newly-demoted private’s elbows. As the realization sank in, the man’s face darkened into anger. They had to struggle to pull the former lieutenant from the room as he flailed about.

"My father will hear of this!" The man shouted, turning purple with indignation. Arthur ignored the all-too-familiar threat and went back to studying the map.

His aide stepped forward and spoke in a low tone to avoid being overheard. "If it is treason, should I have gallows prepared for tomorrow?"

Arthur shook his head. "We can figure out what to do with the oaf later. Honestly can't say whether he made the wrong decision. If it was reported she might very well have been questioned anyway."

"Yes, but by experts instead of the amateurs who let her escape." The aide said. Arthur didn't really have anything else to say to that. The boy's father was already going to be an issue, and he didn't have time to figure this out now.

Focusing back down at the table, he counted all the markers again. Running through all the calculations one more time, the results came up the same. Tomorrow they would be ready. Enough troops and horses were back in shape, and the enemy forces were still thin, off conquering the surroundings.

Of course, he was wary of a trap just over the horizon. It was something a crafty leader could pull, and it would be even easier with the undead as hiding them or keeping them nearly undetectable was trivial with the right tactics. He had to trust in his watchers. They had counted very thoroughly, and there was no way for the columns leading away from the city to double back so quickly. At least, not in a way that would let them reinforce the besieging troops in less than an hour.

If nothing changed tomorrow, they would sally forth and score their second major victory in the campaign. But Arthur wouldn’t bet on it. Everything always changed.

—

I left my carpet a bit early the next morning. I wanted to go check on our new guests and see how they were settling in. A quick check on the castle inhabitants found nothing out of place. Stopping briefly in the kitchen, I headed outside. Once outside, I hovered over the rows of trees where I saw Cliff carrying the other dogs to.

In the shelter of some bushes, I soon found them. Cliff was lying on her side, and the other dogs were all docked on her, charging. Seeing my approach, she bared her teeth slightly, but it was also accompanied by a single thump of her tail. I figured that we were okay.

Approaching slowly, I pulled a slab of meat from my dustbin. It was only in there for a few minutes since I had grabbed it from the kitchen, but it glowed faintly in the predawn light for 0.75 seconds before fading. Huh, that was odd. I placed the meat on some grass near Cliff's head where she could reach. She stretched her neck out slightly and thoroughly inspected the gift with her nose. After she was satisfied, her tongue darted out a few times to lick the meat before she gripped a small bit with her front teeth and ripped a strip off.

Leaving her to her meal, I wandered off to a nearby clearing. There was training to do.

With only a second of preparation, I flung myself high into the air, nearly as high as the castle spires. Adjusting the thrusters, I flipped on my side and started to move in a circle, my top pointed toward the center. Faster and faster, I spun in tight circles until the scenery blurred in my sensors.

As quickly as I could, I halted my momentum, coming to a stop only a few yards from where I had first risen. Calculating the exact amount of thrust required for a maneuver wasn't hard once I got the right algorithms; it had just taken a few interactions and some trial and error to get all the calculations correct. As I practiced, I developed even better control over my mutations. I suppose a human would develop both the control and the knowledge to use them at the same time. That wasn't how I worked though. It gave me huge advantages in some areas but made it so that I would always feel a bit hamstrung without a lot of grinding my control higher.

Breaking from my hover, I entered freefall for a bit before leveling off and heading off in a random direction at full speed. This wasn't hard for me to maintain. As long as I had the energy, I would never need to stop. Of course, if I ever began to run low, I could just convert something in my dustbin. I had nearly endless amounts of dirt in there by now. It was an absolute last resort though. I might have to plan ahead and consume something more than what was stored, but that shouldn't be difficult with matter being literally everywhere.

As I sped out, I was soon soaring over the walls and a small strip of forest. The castle was situated at the end of a valley surrounded by towering, white-capped mountains on three sides. The fourth and final side had the road leading out. Today I flew to the back mountain.

My sensors didn't even come close to reaching it from where I was, so I was relying totally on my optical sensors, and the distance was only giving me more clarity. As I got closer, I started to see how tall they really were, and I started to climb in altitude as I neared it. By the time I reached the mountains, I had aimed for one of the gaps between peaks. I was easily 10,000 feet above the valley below. The air density was much lower this high up, and the drain on my battery increased noticeably.

Skimming over the snow by just a few feet, I continued to climb as I banked around the highest spire. As I reached the backside of the mountain, I noticed an unusual landing about halfway towards the peak.. Maybe it was a cave? It might be worth checking out later. But for now, sightseeing was enough. Coming here was doing wonders for my Thruster mutation training.

By the time I finished my revolution, I was nearly 17,000 feet above the castle, and I was really struggling to maintain my altitude. The low air pressure made flying way more difficult, from what I had observed. Honestly, I wasn't sure how natural these mountains were. They were barely a mile wide and almost three times as tall. The stone must be incredibly strong to withstand its own weight. Maybe this was where the castle got its incredible stone from?

As I finished my lap around the peak, I started to descend once more. I flew over the forest at incredible speeds, still having a long way down to go. As I approached the ground, I noticed a large mass of off-white shapes moving in the distance toward the castle. Could this be my humans with the fabled Sheep?