Chapter 55


    Part 11


    “What are youughing about?” Helemia teased. “You’ve been legally adopted by Kragorram and


    Povon, so you’re a prince of Serminaki Draconia through your father, and a prince regent of Serminak


    through your mother. But you can’t call me Your Highness because our positions aren’t hereditary, and


    you can’t say I’m the princess of anything because I’m not the ruling monarch, the way Alilia is The


    Princess of The People of Life. I’m just a princess of Hilia. Our titles are just a courtesy, and we only


    get to use them as long as our parents still rule.”


    “Wouldn’t you inherit the rule of Hilia?” Karzog asked.


    “We’d inherit all thend, and all the buildings and stuff in Hilia, and our house here, because our


    parents bought it outright with their own money and with contributions, none of which came from taxes.


    But we wouldn’t inherit their political rule unless they explicitly say so, and designate one of us as their


    heir. I doubt they’ll do that, they’ll probably do the elven thing and let the people decide who’ll rule after


    they’re gone. I think they’d even step down if the citizens demanded it, but that’s about as probable as


    the sky turning pink.”


    “Still, it’s a fine thing, I think.” Karzog grinned. “I’ve never thought of myself as a prince before.”


    “We’ve gotten distracted.” Reggie pointed out. “As I was going to say, now that they’ve built all the


    shelters and emcements, I’d bet that the next time they have war games they’ll have a full


    Quewanak will do it by surprise too, probably in the middle of the night, instead of at their regr


    training time. He might even do it tonight just to surprise the four of us, since he already knows that


    we’re nning on joining the exercises. The grownups will probably put us in as reserves and


    observers, so if we pick the right moment, we can give everyone a good surprise.


    “First we have to familiarize ourselves with all the exercises they’ve had before. In order to keep the


    training advancing, Quewanak and Ria always have their demonse up with a way to counter


    whatever the grownups do. Usually a spell or a tactic only works one to three times before ‘the demons’


    figure out how to counter it, so we need to know everything they’ve learned to counter already, and


    n some stuff they haven’t seen before. And we only have an hour till suppertime.


    “Here’s the Reading I got from Father about itst night.”


    Their verbal conversation ended as the four of them were Linked by the twins.


    Surprisingly, the demons that Quewanak simted for themunity exercises were distinct from the


    ones that Ria simted for their family training every evening, and they used different methods, even


    though Ria assisted Quewanak with therger exercises.


    In the early stages of the war games, the demons had attacked by flight, giving themunity plenty of


    warning when they were detected approaching over the horizon. Later they came up out of the sea at


    the perimeter of the archipgo, then from the channels in the heart of the inds. Then they’d


    appeared through Gates that appeared at the periphery of themunity, andtely they''d been


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    Translocating into the heart of themunity in packs.


    In the beginning, the demons had been vulnerable to the warcraft that had been developed in the War


    of The Founding of The Just Alliance six years previously, or eight weeks previously in real time. Most


    effective was Alilia’s Circle, a spell based on Karbak’s Needle, which allowed the caster to concentrate


    an incredible amount of Force onto an area no wider than a human hair, and prate the Shielding,


    armor, and skull of an enemy. Mark had improved and automated that spell, and Alilia had added the


    innovation of having the needle of Force curve into a tiny circle and spin around a bit after it reached


    the enemy’s brain. Automated versions of the spell could be cast by the thousands, and it was very


    efficient in its use of power, but the demons had eventually found a way to harden their Shields enough


    to block it. That brought the contest back to more conventional methods; overwhelming the enemy’s


    Shields with massive and concentrated power, devising new spells that used different kinds of energy


    from what they’d used against the demons previously, and physical attacks including fire, muscle-


    powered weapons with magical enhancements, and Movement-driven weapons that varied from darts


    to boulders.


    The demons also developed new techniques, and theirtest was the ability to cast Demonfire in a very


    fast, very narrow stream for almost two kilometers. It’s properties not only caused burns that were


    almost impossible to heal and whose pain didn’t fade when they were healed, it also burned hot


    enough and long enough to set fire to almost anything mmable, and it was very difficult to extinguish.


    When the demons had attacked over the horizon, themunity had built defensive emcements in


    the tops of mountains near the periphery of Hiliani. These were hollows in the rock with no physical


    entrances, equipped with Translocation tes, dense Shielding, permanent Viewing spells on the walls


    to allow those within to see out with any chosen level of magnification, and an arsenal of automated


    defensive and attacking spells. They were stocked with food, water, weapons, items with pre-cast


    spells in them, and charged power batteries. The batteries were usually diamond, because more power


    could be stored in a given weight of diamond than in an equal weight of any other material, and they


    had many of them avable since the twins had announced the location of their find. Hidden in the rock


    on the surface were various kinds of artillery weapons and spells. As the demons’ attacks had begun


    from ces closer and closer to themunity, further emcements had been built all over the


    inds, along with shelters that had been excavated deep beneath the surface in the stone of the


    inds, also with no physical entrances.


    There were alsoworks of two-way Wards cast all over the inds, constantly charging but not


    activated until they were needed. If the demons attacked from without, they wereyered defenses,


    and if the demons Translocated within them before they were activated, they were containment and


    traps.


    The Reading gave the four youngsters a lot to think about, but they still took the time to make some


    basic ns and review some spells before they went home for supper.


    Just less than four hours after midnight that night, a huge vering demon appeared in their bedroom


    with a blood-chilling scream and a stomach-turning stench, and raised its club to strike down at them


    on the bed. The three children screamed even as they struck at it with psionics and spells, but they


    were Translocated out by Mark before they could see the results of their counter-attack.


    They appeared in a cavern in ck rock shaped like a low dome with a t floor, over forty-six meters


    wide and fifteen meters high in the center. It obviously served as both themunity’s main shelter


    and theirmand center. Around them among rows of simple beds were the vige’s other children,


    and the adult nonbatants who were mostly older human women. Around the perimeter of the


    cavern were full silos of food, huge barrels of water, and pens for their animals, which had been


    Translocated in by Povon and Equemev along with the children. In the center of the room beneath a


    bright cone of light was an oval table over seven meters long with a scale model of the Hiliani


    archipgo on it. Around the table were their parents, Yazadril, Povon, and Equemev, who were


    obviously themand group this time.


    Everyone was still in their nightclothes, but over the next second the adults present donned arms and


    armor by Translocating it onto their bodies. All around them the other children were screaming and


    crying, and Sana and the other women immediately set to calming them and checking them for injuries.


    The twins and Valentia calmed themselves in a moment and Linked with Karzog, who was eighteen


    meters away on the far side of the situation table. They immediately moved as surreptitiously as


    possible as close to the table as they could get without bothering the adults. As they did so, they


    passed through a spell that blocked the sounds and spells at the table from the surrounding non-


    Meanwhile, Yazadril had called out; “I havemand!” and cast on the table, even as Mark yelled;


    “Quewanak, is this a drill?!!”


    “Not now, I’m busy.” was Quewanak’s hurried psionic reply, which they heard as Yazadril’s spell on the


    table became active.