Gaenor's Prophecy Book3: Inspired Dreams

By Jonathan Edward Feinstein

Gaenor, Artur and the rest of their party continue on south from Maxforn, just as the on-going war with the Empire of Vohnider begins to heat up. The southern kingdoms are well-versed in advanced technology, but will even their scientific expertise be enough to counter all the new weaponry being employed by their enemies?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Jun 23, 2018
• ISBN: 9781387903191

Book preview

Gaenor's Prophecy Book3: Inspired Dreams

Gaenor’s Prophecy – Book 3:

Inspired Dreams

by

Jonathan Edward Feinstein

Copyright © 2018 by Jonathan E. Feinstein

All Rights Reserved

No part of this publication may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher. For information regarding permission, write to Megafilk Press, Jonathan E. Feinstein, 923 Drift Road, Westport, MA 02790

Cover art:    IJN Ironclad Azuma at Yukosuka. The Azuma had an interesting history. She was an ironclad ship originally built as a commission for the Confederate States of America in secret at the L’Arman Yard in Bordeaux, France and dubbed the Sphinx to go along with its cover story as a commission for the Egyptian Navy. The sale to the CSA, however, was blocked and the ship was eventually sold to Denmark and christened the Copenhagen but was turned over to her original owners and rechristened CSS Stonewall. Stonewall arrived in Havana just as the US Civil War ended and was sold by her captain to Spain, who, in turn, sold her the USA. She was kept in storage and inspected and then eventually sold to the shogun of Japan, and in 1868 delivered to the Meji governement (who had deposed the shoguns by then) and named the Kotetsu (literally Ironclad) but later renamed Azuma following the Battle of Miyako Bay (where she was actually helmed by French naval experts). She was finally decommissioned and scrapped in 1888. This photo was digitally colorized Irootoko Jr.

ISBN:  978-1-387-90319-1

Stories by Jonathan Edward Feinstein

Gaenor’s Quest

The Red Light of Dawn

The Black Clouds of Noon

The Rainbow of Dusk

The Cold Clear Skies of Midnight

Gaenor’s Prophecy

Signs of Change

Corrected Visions

Inspired Dreams

A New World Revealed (Forthcoming)

The Maiyim Stories:

The Maiyim Tetralogy

World of Water

Men of the Earth

Island of Fire

Gods of the Air

Three Stories of Maiyim

  A Deadly Union

  An Interesting Title

  A Shattered Family

Ars Nova Magica (and related side stories)

The Maiyim Bourne

The Staff of Aritos

   A Promising Career

   A Fine Adventure

The Tears of Methis

   Freshman Orientation

The Book of Candle

   Dry Dock

Ars Scientiaque Magicae

Unexpected Reactions

Hypothetical Notions

Theoretical Bases

   Lift Off!

Required Components

Experimental Proofs

Desired Results

The Terralano Venture

Agree to Disagree

By the Light of the Silvery Moons

There Goes the Neighborhood

Tales of a Dyslexic Wizard

Spelling Disabled

Rede-ing Disabled (Forthcoming)

Down Time, Ltd.

Down Time

Taking Time

Time Out

Show Time!

Double Time

A Plethora of Deities

Downhill All the Way

In the Sky with Diamonds

The Seed

The Tree

Tempting the Fates

Teasing the Furies

Inspiring the Muses

Dancing with the Sphinx: Waltz

Dancing with the Sphinx: Tango

Dancing with the Sphinx: Foxtrot

Chasing Rainbows

The Care and Feeding of Your Elder God

The Wayfarers

A Land without Borders

A World without a Name

A Nation without Maps

A Country without Unity

A Continent without Form

An Ocean without Charts

An Empire without Order

An Island without a Shore

The Pirates of Pangaea

An Accidental Alliance

The Unscheduled Mission

A Planned Improvisation

The Forced Alternative

Other Stories

Elf Alert!

A Study in Ethnology

Off on a Tangent

Author’s Foreword

And so… here’s the other half of what I thought would be the middle book of a trilogy. As I pointed out in the foreword to Corrected Visions, I planned this series as a trilogy. Somewhat amusingly, to me in any case, I also planned the first series about Gaenor and Artur, Gaenor’s Quest, as a trilogy too. In both cases the middle of the story ran too long to fit into a single volume so I had to split them up. In the case of Gaenor’s quest, that middle section spilled over into the fourth and final book, although not by too much. This time, I had to expand the planned story a little to make sure what I ended up with was the right length.

Fortunately, I did have an extra title planned, just in case, but to tell the truth, when planning this series, I thought that if it looked like it was going to run to four volumes, I would use Inspired Dreams as the second title and make Corrected Visions the third. I just thought that seemed like a better progression. However, when I finished the first book, Signs of Change, it seemed to me that I would still only need three titles and so I chose to announce at the end of the book that Corrected Visions would be the next title. I supposed I still could have changed that but thought that I should be as good as my word.

However, while I still think the titles sound better in my original order, I think perhaps this title is more apt for what actually happens in this part of the story. So, maybe I got lucky?

This time the main action of the story picks up immediately after the events in Corrected Visions although I’m not exactly sure when the Prologue takes place. Probably sometime during the last chapter or two of Corrected Visions. Then again, I suppose it does not matter exactly since we do not hear of anything connected to those events until somewhat later. I could fall back on Relativity and say that Simultaneity is only relative to one’s frame of reference, but I doubt this is what Einstein had in mind as two events at different points in space. And if Gaenor pauses to contemplate that, she’ll probably just ask her colleague, Eliyama Nyima.

So rather than get any further confused, read on!

Jonathan Edward Feinstein

Westport, Mass.

May 23,2018

Prologue – Vohn’s Holy Precinct of Tindi

Another salvo of rockets streaked through the moonlit sky overhead with a noise that sounded like both a whistle and a hiss combined and multiplied. Ayame Nyima turned her head to watch where they went. A few seconds later, there was a ragged flash of light from the collection of explosions to her north. The flash was followed by the sound that sounded deceptively like a celebration. Back home, before the war, such a sound would have been one of happy times.

They’re relying heavily on those rockets tonight, Ayame commented to one of the men in her unit. He nodded and grunted his agreement.

Ayame had come a long way since the invasion of Corinia. She had been an artist and a professor of art at the University at Taopolis. Now she was a well-known and respected leader of the Resistance. She had no official rank but if she did, it would likely be that of general or field marshal. All the men and women under her called her, Ma’am, or Sir. There was no consensus yet whether the feminine title should be used or whether the more traditional masculine one should prevail despite her gender.

As far as anyone knew, she was the first female officer in any of the Far Southern nations although, by now, she was far from the only one. Anyone who could and was willing to fight the damned Holylanders was welcome in the Resistance and gender barriers were nonexistent, at least for the duration. No! she corrected her thoughts. Not Holylanders. Vohnidans.

Word had had arrived from their allies to the west and north. No one was referring to the Holy Empire of Vohn and the other six devils as a holy anything any longer, not even a holy terror. Instead they were being called Vohnider. It was the original name for those barbaric, pigsty kingdoms. In the distant past, they had been a single nation, although that had not lasted very long. Internal bickering had torn the realm apart at the death of her first and only king, leaving the hierarchy open for the priests to step in and take over.

Over the centuries, Vohnider, also known as the Holylands, The Seven Kingdoms, the Southlands and other names not generally used in polite conversation, had always been seen as technologically and culturally backwards by the rest of the world but the priests of Vohnider had invented gunpowder. It was their not-so-well-kept secret. Actually, the scientists of Corinia and Tindi had known how it was made but the military aspects of the substance had been overlooked.

Snobbishness, Ayame mused. We just assumed that anything the barbarians came up with would be of no real interest. Instead, the scholars of Corinia had invented steam power and internal combustion engines and those had spread to Tindi and some of the nations on the western shore of the Gulf of Nimbre. For some reason motorcars had not caught on in Nundro but then they had their land yachts and ships, and some very reliable winds. They could move about faster than all but the newest motorcars.

Ayame pulled an old silver pocket watch out of her rough trousers. There were no true uniforms in the resistance, although those men who had served in the regular military before the war, mostly continued to wear theirs. The battle uniforms were functional garments and those who had been civilians had adopted similar clothing. Ayame had frequently envied the simplified fashions worn by men but now would have given anything for the luxury of wearing a dress for the first time in over a year.

She checked the watch and told her assistant, We have five minutes. Get the men ready.

Yes, sir, the man saluted and hurried down from rooftop they had been observing from.

Another small salvo of rockets streaked out from Center of Holy Research that stood roughly fifty miles south of the captured capital city, Chiring. This lot went southward, almost sixty degrees to the east of Ayame’s position and, by her estimate, about forty degrees west of the unit General Tsung was commanding.

They had planned this assault well, which was vital. Numerically the combined Corinian and Tindi units were vastly outnumbered by the Holy Guardsmen stationed in the research center. A few dozen men and women against over one thousand fully armed guardsmen, at least half of which had been regular troops in Tindi’s army before the war.

That last had depressed General Tsung. I thought our men were more loyal than that, he had confessed to Ayame when the reports had arrived.

They are, Ayame had responded. It looks like these men were mostly private soldiers who were captured early on and then told they were still serving their beloved Tindi even though now it is a part of the Holy Empire. Then again they might have been a part of Huang Hu’s army.

Huang Hu! Tsung had growled in response to the name. Hu had been in charge of the Northern Army of Tindi but now he was the Lieutenant Governor of Tindi. His treachery is why Chiring fell with almost no resistance. If I ever get my hands on him…

We’ll give him a fair trial before being allowed to kill himself in the public square, Ayame had finished for him. The notion of public suicide bothered her. It was not the Corinian way but the traitor in question was a Tind. Not sure you should allow him a weapon to do it with, though.

Tsung had smiled. That would make it more difficult. I wonder if he could manage to commit suicide before starving to death.

Ayame put that conversation out of her mind and rushed to join her unit. She only had ten men and two women with her tonight, and only three vehicles. She wished she had a cannon but between her and Tsung, they only had one of those weapons at hand. Tsung had won the coin toss, although he was not using the cannon yet either.

So far, their mission was to harass the Holy Guardsmen and drawn them from out of the research center. To do that they had to make the attacking force look larger than it was. Ayame had wanted to use rockets too but Tsung had a better use for their small cache of gunpowder. It would be wasted, however, if the guardsmen did not leave the center.

By the time Ayame reached ground level everyone else had gotten into the cars. The cars were ordinary, drop-roof models, not the armored sort that ought to be used here but for weapons, the Resistance had the latest matchlock musquettes; superior, by far, to the primitive fusees the Vohnidans were equipped with. The guns had been smuggled in by Mishandan and Firdani ships, so while small in number, they were well-armed.

Go! Ayame commanded. The cars sped away from the building Ayame’s people had been waiting in. It had been a school. Ayame had nearly wept for the first time in months when she caught sight of the childish drawings on the walls and the remains of past lessons on the black slate chalkboards. Now it was just one of a collection of buildings that stood in various states of damage where a small town had once been full of life.

The cars cleared the ghost town and started weaving their ways toward the research center. More rockets streaked toward them but rockets were unreliable against moving targets. Most overshot their targets and the rest flew too wide to make a difference.

Finally, three cannon shots boomed from the atop the walls of the research center but whoever had given the order to fire had done so too early and the shot – grapeshot Ayame could tell with an all-too practiced eye – fell far too short to do any damage beyond some light dents and one cracked windshield.

Then there was a bright flash of light and the thunder of another explosion at the base of the wall of the research center. Tsung’s miners had set that one up using a new Barian explosive called Trinitrotoluene or TNT. The Barians had developed it for mining and it had found instant use in Baria, Nimbria and Drombra but this was the first military use of the stuff and it had worked quite well, indeed.

Visible in the moonlight, a large section of the wall collapsed with a cloud of dust as its harbinger, and then a fleet of armored vehicles burst through the dust cloud and headed for Ayame’s unit.

Retreat, Ayame told her driver. It’s about time they took us seriously enough to follow. One of the armored vehicles fired a cannon with an explosive shell. The shell landed short but the shock wave shook Ayame’s motorcars. Before she could comment on that, however, another cannon was fired, this time from the one armored lorry under General Tsung’s command. It, too, had an explosive shell and it landed perfectly amidst the Vohnidan unit. Four of the enemy vehicles were disabled when they went tumbling in the blast and several others were damaged. Had they been using normal wheels, they, too, might have been disabled but these traveled on the steel tracks that allowed them to cover any reasonable terrain. Ayame’s cars shot ahead and then had to slow down and, finally, turn back to take a volley of shots at the Vohnidans before the Vohnidans would take up the chase again.

Tsung’s motorcars and lorries took one more set of shots at the Vohnidans and then joined Ayame’s unit as they stayed just out of reach of the Vohnidan guns. It took another fifteen nervous minutes before they arrived at their carefully chosen ambush, an abandoned city that still showed up on Ayame’s map as Li Sin. She would have preferred leading them into a canyon or beside a steep cliff but while Tindi boasted long rolling hills, cliffs and canyons were not to be found. Instead, this city had been built of brick and mortar. Some of the buildings were five stories tall. That would have to do.

The Resistance fighters raced through the business district of the city and as soon as they were clear, a set of coordinated explosions brought two blocks full of buildings crashing down on the Vohnidans. Ayame’s cars drove several blocks around the destroyed buildings, while Tsung’s force turned back to face the surviving Vohnidans head-on. The only survivors were the Tindi crews of two armored vehicles who had trailed behind the main force of the Vohnidans and Ayame’s people took them captive with only a few shots fired. It was obviously they had been looking for a chance to defect.

Even more amazing, none of the Corinians had been killed, although two had been wounded. They were being patched up by the time Tsung and his people arrived. That was very well-executed, Tsung told Ayame. I stand in awe of your tactical genius.

I think we got lucky, Ayame shook her head.

Luck on the battle field is something a good soldier makes for himself, Tsung quoted an ancient general. The plan was yours and it worked perfectly. I must admit that it was not what I would have done.

Doing it this way just seemed right, Ayame told him. She had explained before that her choices were more from her sense of aesthetics than by experience. It’s like when painting you know what colors and shadings to use.

Remind me to require all my officers take art classes then, Tsung laughed, and we managed to capture two of their odd steel-track lorries. They should come in handy.

This is not over, you know, Ayame reminded him. We still need to go back to the research center and rescue the scientists within and we only have another hour and a half before dawn. The sky will be getting light soon.

Then it is time to move out, Tsung told her.

The final assault on the Center of Holy Research turned out to be an anticlimax. After several shots had been fired, the Vohnidan Holy Guardsmen abandoned their posts and were last seen running on foot back toward Chiring. The surviving Tindi soldiers who had joined the Vohnidan army surrendered to a man and sent representatives to General Tsung to sue for amnesty and the opportunity to serve Tindi from within the Resistance.

There are only a little over two dozen of them, Tsung reported to Ayame when they met again an hour before Noon, and it seems your appraisal of why they served with the Vohnidans may have been accurate. Just good soldiers doing their job for what seemed the legitimate government. I won’t leave them together though. I’ll have to have them spread about and be left on probation until they prove themselves but I believe them when they say Hu ordered them to work with the Vohnidans. Just one more charge against that… he paused, realizing he was about to swear in front of a lady.

Go ahead, General, Ayame chuckled. I assure you I know all the curse words in both Corinian and Tindi.

Never mind, Tsung replied at last. At the moment, I am more concerned with all they have told us. This is not like the center that was destroyed in the north. They were not working with radioactive substances here.

That’s a mercy, Ayame responded.

Not really, Tsung shook his head. No one seems to know where that new mustard gas was invented but they have been experimenting with it here. The only mercy is that, by chance, we attacked from the windward direction tonight so they could not use it on us without killing themselves.

So, they are making it more effective? Ayame asked.

Not directly but they have found a way to install the poisonous gas in exploding shells their cannons can fire. Worse, the first shipment of those shells went north just last week.

We shall have to get word to our allies then, Ayame told him.

Yes, Tsung nodded, and we must also see to the care of the captive scientists. They are not dying from radiation sickness like most of those who made it to Mishanda, but, instead are having trouble breathing. Apparently tests of the gas weapons have been on the men and women being forced to develop them.

Remind me to make sure the demon priests of Vohnider all get to breathe that same gas when this is over, Ayame growled. For now, though, we cannot waste time. We must tell our allies.

We both need sleep, Tsung told her, but first, you and I will compose a report on all we have found out tonight. As soon as it is done we will send copies to all reliable message drops.

I think we should send a gas shell or two with the report, Ayame suggested, assuming we have any.

We do, Tsung nodded. I shall see it is done.

Part 1 – Drombra

One

Gaenor found herself slipping happily back into the work habits she had developed years ago when she and her husband, Arturus Cornellian Marno – who in Mishanda simply went by the name Artur - spent so much time on the road looking for fellow adepts. She woke up, usually before the rest of her party, to write in her journal while enjoying an early cup of tea and maybe some toast. Next, she would spend some time talking to her fellow travelers or reading for a bit. Then, as she found moments here and there, she would write letters to personal friends and academic colleagues. Later in the evening, she would return to her journals before going to sleep.

The journals were far from personal diaries. Instead she filled them with magical theory, new spells, and a vast number of new ideas she wanted to look into as well her observations of the people she met while travelling and the places she saw. She also spent a lot of time writing down her observations about how the war between Vohnider and the rest of the World was going.

Having recently gained some experience with the sorts of magic the priests of Vohnider used, she had taken careful notes and, this morning, she was looking for ways to neutralize it. It was early yet and of the rest of her party, only the female Temi warrior, Casia of the Dectar Clan, was awake. Gaenor was not sure if Casia had been assigned to act as her honor guard or if the young woman had just chosen to fill the job on her own. Certainly, she was not only there to guard Gaenor’s honor. It was obvious, to Gaenor at least, that Casia felt a romantic attraction to her and Artur’s other guard, Leracian of the Ridec Clan and Gaenor believed that following Leracian was Casia’s main reason for being with them but Casia also took her duty as honor guard seriously and was almost always awake and on station in her bright red battle togs when Gaenor was out of bed.

For now, that station was on the opposite side of the booth where Gaenor was sitting in the dining car of the train they rode southward through Maxforn. The car rocked back and forth and the wheels clicked and clacked as they rolled from one track section to the next. Their first hour or two on any train, the sound and motion was hard to ignore but just as she adapted quickly to an ocean voyage, soon the sounds and feelings aboard the train faded into the background of her consciousness.

Just then, two short women with slightly pointed ears entered the dining car. One was Mnierri Kashantu, Gaenor’s apprentice from the island of Ichtar and the other was Cornellya Vasylya, Artur’s goddaughter, who had spent most of her life in the middle of the Parch. Both women were Vierri, elf-like hominins who were born naturally able to use magic. Humans had to be specially initiated to the magical arts and sciences through a very complex and difficult spell but for the Vierri, that was just something they always had. However, both Vierri were looking decidedly green this morning and Gaenor remembered they were both very susceptible to motion sickness.

Mnierri stumbled her way to Gaenor’s booth but Cornellya stopped a waitress and ordered, Two large cups of ginger tea, please, before following Mnierri to the table where Gaenor was already stacking up some of her paperwork to give them some room.

Rough night? Gaenor asked.

No worse than usual, Mnierri told her.

We ran out of ginger biscuits, Cornellya explained. Ginger was one of the foods both Vierri had discovered could help protect them from the worse effects of motion sickness. Lime juice helped too but ginger-laced cookies were easier to carry with them. We were supposed to buy more before leaving Teliodena but somebody forgot, she concluded with a meaningful glance at Mnierri.

I thought you had bought some, Mnierri retorted. They were on your list of things to get too and you actually went shopping before we left.

Well, good thing I remembered the Drombrans like ginger in their tea, Cornellya shot back.

Ladies, Gaenor began with an edge in her voice, It’s too early in the morning to subject our fellow travelers to this. Casia glanced around the dining car and noted that, aside from the staff, there was no one else in here at the moment but she said nothing. Outside, the sky was getting quite light and others would be here soon. Fortunately, neither Vari chose to argue the point. You’ll have some ginger in a minute or two and perhaps, in the future, neither of you will forget, hmm?

You sound like Artur, Mnierri observed with a smile that came out in spite of her queasiness.

I was trying to, Gaenor confessed. He has a way of pitching his voice just right that makes him sound like the only adult in the room and I have noticed it generally brings such squabbles to a halt when he uses it.

Probably picked that up while he was in the army, Casia added. Decurions and centurions tend to brow beat the private soldiers when they get out of line but Senator Arturus was an officer. They act like everyone’s displeased father. It does seem to work for him, even when dealings with kings and other leaders.

The tea arrived and both Mnierri and Cornellya reached for the fragrant beverage and started drinking. Hold on there, Gaenor cautioned. You’ll scald your throats like that. Then she noticed the waitress waiting patiently to get paid and realized that neither vari had thought to bring her purse with her. Gaenor slipped the waitress a few coins and ordered a fresh pot of tea for herself and Casia. Casia added four pastries to the order before the waitress rushed off to comply.

Any new discoveries this morning? Mnierri asked, glancing at Gaenor’s notes.

Not really, Gaenor admitted. I’m still analyzing what we know of Vohnidan magic. At first, I thought they might have learned a few new tricks the rest of us hadn’t but while I may not be acquainted with all their techniques, I’m starting to wonder if they have discovered anything basic that the adepts of the northeast have not known for centuries. It all seems so primitive.

Primitive but effective, Mnierri pointed out.

Primitive magic is nothing to underestimate, Gaenor told her. A clever mind can make almost anything an effective tool but the bases of their spells are simple, at least so far as I can tell. I got to interview the former governor of Nider once he had recovered from the Vohnine Leracian injected into him. A lot of his arrogance got knocked out of him and I think he was afraid I might subject him to torture.

He would have if the situation were reversed, Casia pointed out.

But I would not, Gaenor replied. However, I was willing to take advantage of the opportunity. It’s possible he was hiding something from me. Perhaps he was only giving me the sort of information he might have taught to new students but I have to admit that what he said seems to match what we have observed. I think the study of magic must have stagnated in Vohnider and they have applied what little ingenuity they have allowed to be put into the art of warfare instead. They have made great advancements in the applications of gunpowder and have also exploited the engineers and scientists they captured from the Far South.

But they did not advance their war technology on their own, Casia pointed out. The average Vohnidan probably still cannot construct a weapon more complicated than a bow and arrow, or a catapult.

The bow I will grant you, Gaenor agreed, but a catapult? I suspect only their elite military men have been allowed that knowledge. However, they aren’t using catapults any longer. Not since they started using their cannons and fusees and, horrible as they are, those are more complicated than a catapult.

You only say that, my chief, Casia argued back as the fresh tea and pastry arrived, "because you have never tried to build a catapult. I assure you that a well-made trebuchet or ballista can be very complex, especially compared to a sword or a mace. I will grant, however, that a cannon can be far