21 Cold Weapons

On the fourth day of the route check they finally hit gold. Sitting at the table Isabella observed quietly as Lissa went through the routine.

"Your route is uneventful." Lissa said nodding. that Guardsman took his metal dagger back gratefully and returned to the ranks.

"Next" Isabella said, and another Old city guard approached the table, placing an old sword handle on the table before him.

Lissa placed her hand over the handle and stared at the guard eyes widening. The guard began to sweat immediately. Lissa turned to Isabella and said with urgency.

"Cancel ALL the other routes! We'll need everyone's help, and Wendy back from the wall! The demons will breach the Old City wall on his route, and send in demonic hybrids to harass the city!"

"What!?!" Isabella said shocked, "But how would demonic beasts get to that side of the wall???"

Lissa shrugged, "I don't know that part, but if we set things up as an ambush we won't have any casualties."

*******************

Eagle Face had decided to be selfish. He never mentioned the demon attack in his daily report sent to the Old city down below. He spent the day trying to stack reasons why Wendy MUST stay at the wall. This young witch was just too valuable to allow anyone else to have her. One part of Eagle thought maybe he was in the wrong, but after Wendy brought a dead guardsman back to life, even the other garrison members were Insanely protective and dedicated to Wendy.

The shock waves from yesterday were still resounding through the ranks.

And Redwood... he demanded to be Wendy's personal guard. That fellow would sacrifice everything to protect her. Each day, Eagle thought she couldn't possibly surprise him anymore, she continued to do so.

Because of the demon attack, as soon as she awoke again she reformed the armor that all the garrison members wore. Before the uniforms were focused on helping them stay warm rather then armoring them. Now they all had white uniforms that she said blended into the snow from above. The armor was many times lighter then steel but much stronger, including helmets that she said might not save them from the force of a blow ... but would protect the head so she could bring them back even if they were beheaded. He shook his head at that, Eagle never thought moral could be so high. The garrison soldiers felt invincible now.

Eagle looked down at the new rifle on the table before him. Wendy called it a "semi-machine gun." It could fire the same large caliber bullets as the HMG's but with a special spring on the guns back end to cushion the force. It also had three settings; one for single shots, one that would fire four rounds each time the trigger was pulled, and finally a setting that would make this rifle fire all bullets in the holder. Incidentally the holder carried around 20 bullets and sat on the side of the rifle. She also designed a belt that could hold up to four extra holders. This all came from her experimentation with the guns, and her fascination with springs and gears...

A knock came at the door and it opened as a garrison member from the Old city came in with one of the resident guards. He couldn't help but grin at the Old city garrison soldier who looked slightly confused at the new white uniforms. However seeing Eagle Face in his normal uniform, brought him back to his mission.

"Sir! orders from Isabella in the Old city, we need Wendy to return to help with a demonic beast attack that will happen tonight!"

Several emotions played across Eagles face in the next moments.

"What? HOW? None of the demonic beasts have passed our checkpoint! Eagle said incredulously.

"This... we don't know either but... its a prediction from lady Lissa." the soldier said.

"Who?" Eagle said for a moment," Oh the other girl who came along when Wendy arrived."

Finally Eagle seemed resigned,

"Fine then!" he said sounding resentful. He turned to the white uniformed guard.

"Select 14 of our best men to go with her." After pausing a moment he added, Send ammo for 2 HMG and let Wendy know about it. The guard in white saluted and rushed away.

The old city guard seemed shocked,

"But sir! don't you need all 4 HMG here on the Wall?"

Eagle grinned, "I didn't say we'd be sending an Hmg...You'll understand soon."

Down in the ammo area, Scott, Redwood, Hemet, and Nashu all sat like amazed disciples watching Wendy as she wrote on the wall with a charcoal quill she had made. Not quite a quill but it had an outside that kept the hands free of charcoal dust from the charcoal she was writing with on the wall.

The wall was now covered with diagrams of rifles, and bullets, gears, and springs. A few sentences next to each one of the drawings asked a question, or proclaimed a theory.

The boxes of ammunition had been moved to the center of the room to allow more 'wall space' for her to draw on. Actually most of the ammunition had been moved to a different room.

A few prototypes of weapons sat on the ground as well.

As this storage area didn't have a door, a guard knocked on the door frame.

Everyone looked up to see an Old city garrison member standing next to the white armored soldier.

He stared around at this ammunition room filled with several different versions of guns scattered around on the ground.

Wendy nodded to the guard in white and turned to the Old City garrison member.

"Have you come for new armor? I'll fix that for you right away!"

Stepping forward she raised her hand before he could say anything. His heavy woolen clothing changed into white armor over some strange material that was warm and cushioning. Staring at his new armor, he barely noticed her taking her hands and doing something to his hat. Unlike the rest of the armor he felt a heavier weight on his head and reached up expecting a soft hat found a hard surface, not metal but more like a pots consistency.

The bewildered guard simply passed his message because, he didn't know what else to say. "Lady Isabella, and Lady Lissa need your help defending the old city tonight!"

Wendy sent a surprised and worried look to the soldier standing behind him.

The white uniformed guard nodded and spoke, "The wagon is prepared, are you ready?"

Wendy looked around in a flurry then said, "Scott, Redwood bring the cannon. Hemet, Nashu grab some star clusters!"

The four sitting soldiers jumped to action as if they had been commanded by Eagle himself. The first two picked up a long thick device that resembled a machine gun but thicker. and the other two picked up a crate each of some round objects.

They hurried to the middle courtyard and found the inner wall open and waiting with a horse and carriage loaded with troops. Wendy and the Old city garrison member took the front bench with the driver. The other men loaded into the back of the carriage with their loads, then the inner door began to close.