CHAPTER 42, Dragon's Revenge

He heated and pounded the iron into a sheet ready to wrap around a clay mold. She matched the blacksmith’s actions to the words on the reader she had stolen from Kim. At the very end of Konner’s notes she saw a reference to purifying the coal until the smoke billowed nearly clear. Otherwise the fire couldn’t raise enough heat to burn impurities out of the iron. The resulting metal would be too brittle to withstand ordinary stresses.

The smoke from the forge looked oily and yellow.

How much stress would the pipe undergo in channeling the omniscium?

The secret smile on the blacksmith’s face told Kat that he knew he forged an inferior product. Why did Amanda let him get away with it?

Did she even know?

Amanda hovered around the forge, urging the smith to hurry. Her own impatience doomed her pet project before it fully started.

“Wonderful day, love,” Geralds said, snaking his arms about Kat’s waist.

She started within his embrace. She’d been so intent upon the forge, she hadn’t noticed his approach. A dangerous lapse, considering her plans.

“Jumpy today, aren’t you, love.” Geralds tightened his grip on her, pulling her back against his chest. He nuzzled her hair.

Kat resisted the urge to slam her elbow into his gut. She had to make him believe she agreed with Amanda about the slavery and the exploitation of all the planet’s resources, including people.

“Amanda, I’m not certain iron will work. It’s so impure. Copper or bronze, now . . .”

“No!” Amanda screeched.

Everyone at the forge froze in place.

Amanda looked around, wild-eyed, fists clenched, and shoulders hunched.

Then quite suddenly her posture softened, a bit of the old, logical, and reasonable captain peeked through her expression. “Believe me, Kat, I know that iron is the only metal that is proper. Trust me. All will work out in the end.”

“Something feels wrong.”

“Don’t you want to provide the GTE with the means to destroy the Kree? Have you switched loyalties since you found your outlaw family, Kat?”

“No. I still respect the GTE. I want them to win the war with the Kree. But I’m not certain this is the way.”

“The Kree must be destroyed!” Amanda’s eyes turned black and she nearly tore her hair in desperation. “The Kree cannot be allowed to prevail. They must be destroyed once and for all.”

As all dragons must be destroyed.

Kat wasn’t sure whether she truly heard that last statement or not. She needed to stop this mining operation until she had a chance to think it through, maybe consult Irisey or one of the other dragons. Gentian would know if he hadn’t disappeared again.

She made to close the reader and back away from the project.

“Let me see that.” Geralds grabbed the reader away from her. “The smith is doing it wrong,” he said quietly.

“Careful,” Kat warned him. “I’m not sure we should . . .”

“Kat, I need the money from the omniscium. I need to buy the safety of my wife and son from Melinda Fortesque.”

Kat raised her eyebrows at him. He truly did look desperate.

He stared at her long and hard for a moment, then his posture slackened a bit as he finally relented. “Melinda Fortesque held my pregnant wife hostage with a needle pistol at her head until I agreed to do . . . some very bad things for her. Then she held exposure of those deeds over my head for sixteen years.” He gulped, keeping silent a moment as he mastered the strong emotions playing across his face.

Then he straightened out of his loop of bad memories. “Money is the only thing that Melinda understands. But with money I can hide my wife and son so that she can never find them, or me again.”

“There has to be another way . . .”

“No. There isn’t. Captain Leonard, I’d like to try my hand at pounding the iron.” He held the reader out to Amanda. “Someone other than one lone blacksmith, who just happens to be a slave with no vested interest in the project, needs to know how to do this.”

Amanda calculated something in her head while she looked Geralds up and down.

“You may proceed.”

Geralds spoke slowly and distinctly to the smith. Either he had figured out that the local dialect was a lingering drawl, or he thought the man stupid. Then Geralds pulled the heavy hammer out of the man’s hands.

The smith backed off, hands at his sides. He still had that secret smile on his face.

Kat was willing to bet Geralds’ first or second blow would shatter the iron. Blame for the disaster would fall on the Sam Eyeam’s shoulders and not the slave’s.

But Geralds consulted the reader and dumped a half bucket of water onto the greasy looking coals.

“What are you doing to my fire!” Amanda demanded.

“Purifying the coal so that it will burn hotter,” Kat explained.

“Help him,” Amanda commanded.

Kat backed up, unwilling to assist in this project that felt more and more wrong with each consideration.

A Marine leveled a stunner at Kat.

She shrugged and worked the bellows under the coals. The smoke billowed up dark and oily. Another dose of water and air cleared the forge of the stench of burning salt. One more dose made the smoke clear and white. The coals glowed green, just like every other fire on the planet.

Konner’s notes had said the copper sulfate wouldn’t hurt the forging, just the salt and other minerals found in sea coal.

“I need to reheat the iron before pounding it again,” Geralds said.

The smith scowled and backed away. “Might as well start over with new slag,” he said in his rough accent.

“That will take too long. We have to get these pipes made,” Amanda ordered. She paced around and around the forge, wringing her hands.

The old Amanda, before Konner O’Hara sabotaged Jupiter, before Amanda went insane and became vulnerable to the ravaging spirit of Hanassa, never reacted so nervously.

Geralds gestured the smith to reheat the metal.

Reluctantly, the big man grabbed the flattened iron with a pair of tongs and thrust the piece into the fire.

Kat kept working the bellows, keeping the fire hotter than before.

Amanda continued to pace and shout and speak nonsense words to the sky.

Kat owed this Amanda no loyalty.

Hanassa, what do you want of us? She projected her thoughts outward, wondering who, if anyone, she would contact.

Amanda jerked her head up and stopped pacing. She looked all around her, eyes narrowed.

Who dares speak? a thick masculine voice hissed back at Kat. She fought to keep her body and expression passive.

Another dragon, Kat replied. She averted her eyes from Amanda, pretending only to monitor the fire. One who wishes to see an end to your tyranny.

The iron glowed white hot now. The smith removed it from the coals and began pounding and folding it again. This time the iron looked brighter, resisted the hammer more. This time it would make a good length of pipe.

“I will see all of the dragons dead before I let you harm me. I will rule you all,” Hanassa/Amanda said aloud and projected telepathically.

Watch your back, Hanassa. Your death comes from behind, above, below, and face on. You will give up this mad plan or die.

Never! I am immortal!

“We’ll see about that,” Kat muttered.

“Captain!” Sergeant Kent Brewster ran toward the forge from the center of the village. He’d retreated to playing with the comms rather than come under Amanda’s too close scrutiny. “Captain, a ship has answered our distress signal. A ship, Captain. We’re going to be rescued,” the sergeant crowed. He did a little victory dance.

“Get that pipe ready. We’ve got some mining to do before the ship arrives,” Amanda snarled. “I don’t want anyone but me claiming the rights to the omniscium.”

“We share the profits,” Geralds insisted. He approached Amanda with clenched fists. “You promised, Captain.”

“Lock this man up,” she ordered the Marines that always hovered around her. “No one gets the omniscium but me. Kill the newcomers when they land and take possession of their ship.”