Sparo Rising: Hammer of Flatlash

By Erik Schubach

Sparo Rising is a spinoff series from the Techromancy Scrolls. Each book features a standalone story of a different side character from the Techromancy Scrolls that readers wished to hear more about. This third book centers around Laura Smith of Flatlash, and her rise to nobility.

Almost three thousand years after an extinction level event on Earth, mankind seeks to regain its former glory, in a new world where magic and technology collide.

Laura and her family, the most skilled blacksmiths in Flatlash, have had a better life than some of the other commoners in the Keep. Seeing few winters where food and heat were scarce. But she dreamed of more, thinking to reach beyond her station.

By happenstance she had been part of the Sparo contingent who, while stranded in New Cali, fought to free the people there from the Thief of Minds. And along the journey she saw potential in an area of the barren wasteland of the Uninhabitable Lands.

Daring to change her stars and write her own destiny, she petitions the Crown to grant her, a mere serf, lands in which to start a mine that would raise her to the rank of nobility, and start a revolution in mining in all the lands of Sparo, taking her place in this new age of heroes.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Erik Schubach
• Release date: Apr 15, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005917845

Erik Schubach

I got my start writing romance novels by accident. I have always been drawn to strong female characters in books, like Honor Harrington. And I also believe that there is a lack of LGBT characters in media. So one day I came up with a story idea that combines the two... two days later I completed the manuscript for Music of the Soul.My writing style may not be the most professional nor grammatically correct, but I never profess to be an English major, just a person that wants to share a story. I maintain that my primary language is sarcasm.Each of my books features strong likeable female characters that are flawed. I think that flaws and emotional or physical scars make us human and give us more character than simply conforming to some "social norm".I have also started a SciFi series, The Valkyrie Chronicles which features a Valkyrie, Kara, who was left behind on Earth five thousand years ago to help the Asgard race escape the onslaught of the Ragnarok horde. With the aid of a human, Kate, she holds the line in battle to herald the return of the Asgard!If you like magic, paranormal romance and witches, then my new series Fracture might tickle your fancy. In the first book Fracture: Divergence, Alex King must stop magic from destroying reality. The problem is that Alex must solve the case in parallel universes where in one Alex is male and female in the other.There is even a modern shapeshifter paranormal series, Drakon. Featuring a fiery Irish woman with a sharp wit and sharper temper who finds out she is a dragon of legend.

Book preview

Sparo Rising: Hammer of Flatlash

By Erik Schubach

Copyright © 2022 by Erik Schubach

Published by Erik Schubach on Smashwords

P.O. Box 523

Nine Mile Falls, WA 99026

Cover Photo © 2022 Nejron / FaeStock Depositphotos.com & ShutterStock.com licenses

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. This book contains material protected under International and Federal Copyright Laws and Treaties. Any unauthorized reprint or use of this material is prohibited. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system without express written permission from the author / publisher, except by a reviewer who wishes to quote brief passages in connection with a review written for inclusion in a magazine, newspaper, blog, or broadcast.

This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

FIRST EDITION

Chapter 1 – Boom

I ran along the platform of the support for the intermediate, twenty-five-foot friction wheel that drove the rag-and-chain pump, which started pumping water from the lower levels of the mine when another gondola of ore was pushed from the upper adit entrance to the mines. Gravity did the work, driving the cable-way as the gondola made its way eighty feet down to the first level of the ravine with a ton of raw ore.

The setup was a marvel which was sketched out by that amazing Bexington, Templar of Sparo. The very same man who designed the airships that plied the skies of the Realms now. The mines I frequented as first an apprentice then a journeyman blacksmith, all used horses, oxen, or men to turn the wheel to operate the mine pumps when a stream wasn't available to run a waterwheel like here.

He was provided with elevation sketches of the site and with barely a thought, devised the entire system that saved the backs of our men and women, and freed up our animals for other tasks around the mining outpost here in the Uninhabitable Lands.

The oddly scatterbrained genius remembered me from the ill-fated expedition to the burning lands of New Cali, the original home of Emily of Wexbury, the Queen of the Scrolls as all of Sparo affectionately calls her. Bexington was instrumental in freeing our Great Mother Laney from the fanatics who had taken over the lands down there in that oppressive heat.

When he heard I had petitioned King George and Great Mother Laney for land holdings outside the borders of the Realms, he wished to assist, saying, One ought not to forget our comrades at arms, and if there is anything else I can do, you've but to ask if it is in my power, Laura Smith of Flatlash.

The man was able to withstand the mind-warping ability of the Thief of Minds, the false goddess Eris and her Seekers, with his superior intellect, giving Great Mother Laney an opening to bring an end to the oppression of New Cali, shattering the land, and igniting the Chasm of Tears, forever burning in an unnatural black flame in honor of all who were lost to Eris and her fanatical group over the years.

I was with the diversionary group, giving Templar Bexington the time he needed while we fought the Seekers and all from New Cali who had their minds stolen by Eris. Nobody in Flatlash believes me when I tell them I stood back to back with the Harbinger of Wexbury herself in that battle, swinging my hammers while Templar Celeste took on all comers... the woman is a frighteningly skilled warrior, and I thank whatever gods there may be that she is on our side as I watched all fall before her.

I slid to a stop at the railing, looking down past the first level of the ravine into the gorge beyond that led out deeper into the barren wastelands of the Uninhabitable Lands. The other end was blocked by the landslides we created with blasting charges.

Charlie and Makayla were waving up at me and the others on the first level where the ore was sorted and routed to the staging area for shipping, some earmarked for our small onsite smelter that I hope to grow so we won't have to use Treth or Flatlash's smelters, them taking sixty percent of the revenues from the metals we exhume from the earth here.

They hopped on a wooden elevator platform and the men below started cranking the winches to raise them up and out of danger, Makayla spooling out fuse as they went. I grinned, taking one of my hammers from the loops on my belt and hooked it over the cable-way and leapt, sliding down to them below, my hammer sparking on the cable the whole way down, my muscles creaking, fingers flexing.

I'm no Ranger Verna of Wexbury, no woman alive has her muscle and sheer strength, but I have more than my share of my own muscle. I dropped the last five feet onto the leveled ground below with a thud, dust stirring at my feet, just as the platform arrived and the wooden boom arm pivoted them over to set down next to me.

Charlie and Makayla looked as excited as me as some of the miners clapped my shoulders. The excitement of the moment was catching as the murmurs of the other miners grew to a crescendo. The dark-haired woman cut the tough, gunpowder-infused fuse with a knife she produced from her boot then offered the end to me, her bronzed complexion glowing in enthusiasm. Boss?

I smirked, rolling my eyes. For the thousandth time, stop calling me that, Mike. And you and Charlie spearheaded this project so the honor is yours.

With a glance to the foreman, he nodded once, then started cranking the handle on the air horn. The warbling warning klaxon echoed through the ravine here at Outer Reach, signaling everyone to put on their heavy leather helmets and goggles, then cover their mouths with heavy scarves. I did the same as I opened my mouth wide two or three times until my ears popped as I prepped for what was to come.

I nodded to Mike, and she grinned like a loon as Charlie held the end of the fuse out for her. Fire in the hole! she boomed out, as she struck her flint and steel, causing sparks to fly, igniting the fuse that Charlie just dropped as the flame hissed and sparked quickly along its length.

Did you use enough powder? I asked as we all leaned over the edge to watch the fuse burn swiftly downward. I bit the inside on my cheek to stop from giving away the tease.

Mike was the outpost's Powder Warden. I'd swear she held a spark of fire elemental magic if I didn't know any better since she had an uncanny knack for feeling out the stone and knowing just the right amount of blasting powder to use for any situation. She could do precision blasts that would make the high-priced drilling machines used in the mines of Treth and Hell's Gate jealous.

The woman just put her hands on her hips, her brown eyes attempting to burn a hole in me. Do I tell you how to do your job, Boss?

I chuckled, causing her to narrow her eyes, seeing I was just messing with her. She playfully feigned exception to my words, cocking a hip, placing a fist on it, looking oh so good when she did so. Yes, Laura, I did. And without diverting her eyes from mine, she just pointed down and said, Boom.

The ravine shook and air pressure changed as the cliff face below blew out, stone shrapnel, black smoke, and flame accosting the opposite wall of the gorge as everyone covered their ears and moved back from the edge as a plume of smoke and dust rolled up over the ridge to blanket us.

Then there was a rush of water roaring below. I glanced down, grinning like a loon as I watched the water rushing out, going both directions until it hit the blocked-off section diverting the water to flow out into the barren land beyond.

She said a little too loudly, our ears ringing, Any questions?

And the cheering started.

Chapter 2 – Raid

Sitting in my office slash cottage closest to the upper adit mine entrance, with the celebration winding down this night, I looked over the production numbers and outtake reports which were going to have a huge increase now, once the lower drift tunnel is drained by tomorrow. We've only been able to mine the lower drift where the vein of copper was found, part of each day, as we can only run the rag and chain pump while we have ore to be lowered to the ravine's intermediate level.

We stage all the ore in carts for the gondola at the end of each workday and send them down at five-minute intervals the following day. The water levels lower enough by midday to chase that most precious of metals in the world. It was fortuitous to happen upon the vein as we excavated our main product, the iron-rich ore for smelting.

By using this gravity-powered system to drive the pumps, we did not need to ship in extra feed, and drinkable water for more teams of animals to drive it. The trade-off, only being able to mine the lower level part-time was the cheaper alternative to shipping even more supplies monthly from the realm of Far Reach.

I was about to commission a large electric motor from the Techromancers in Wexbury, where the most efficient motors are produced, and a large magic spark vessel to power it, or maybe a wind turbine, but my people told me to hold off.

It was Charlie, our drift planner, whose sketches and estimates of the locations of the shafts and drifts of the mine with the geology of the site, that had him postulating to Mike, the possibility of cutting a deeper shaft, then a diversionary drift, creating a lower adit in the gorge to naturally drain the entire mine system. But it would take fineness and precision blasting to not bring the whole house of cards down.

I know, I know, black powder blasting is a waste of resources in our world where everything is scarce, especially when there are other methods of drilling and mining, but there are none as efficient nor cost-effective. Even so, we use our supply of powder as economically as we can, especially since the Crown now monitors all black powder production and oversees its distribution since it is what is used in those projectile gun weapons that Avalon used in the war against our people and the people of the Outlands before they became realms of Sparo themselves.

Developing gun weapons like those have been outlawed and there are harsh penalties for anyone caught doing so, up to and including a death sentence since, if it weren't for the magic users of the realms, Sparo would have fallen to the war machines of Avalon just as the Outlands had.

Makayla of course saw Charlie's plan as a challenge. And here, just six months later, using two of our five mining gangs, and we have the lower Adit. There isn't a Powder Warden in the Lower Ten that can match Mike's skill except for the man who trained her, Rajit of Hell's Gate. And Treth is still up in arms at her leaving their mines to join in what people were calling Smith's Folly... right up until we started posting profit on the boards.

Then the cherry on top wound up being when, after chasing some small veins of gold and silver which petered out quickly last year, we stumbled upon some sulfates that were an indicator that excited us all. Just two days after the first indicators, our miners found a malachite vein! Now suddenly every market and concern has been pounding down our doors to try to partner with us now that we have the first new copper vein found in the past forty years.

Funny how our little Outer Reach went from a snide joke to all in the mining industry into one of the most important mines in Sparo... well outside of Sparo as it were. And Great Mother Laney had had faith in this endeavor all along, funding us these past six years as my silent partner.

I sent word last week to the Great Mother, that we were about to make the breakthrough, when a Highland Knight patrol rode past on the new Ring spoke that extends from the Lower Ten, down to New Cali. King George has been spearheading the expansion of the Ring to all the new Realms outside of the Lower Ten now that he has more time with the Great Mother being the prime Ruler for ten years once his turn in our dual ruled society elapsed. Now it is the Mountain Gypsies of Sparo who see after our two peoples becoming one.

The Ring is a Crown decreed cobbled road that connects Highland across the Gap and the realms of the Lower Ten, and now, it connects all realms, with a spoke only a year or two out from completion to the frozen Protectorate of Avalon which Sparo occupies after the great war of Avalon to free all the people of the Outlands.

And Outer Reach, just happens to be along the New Cali spoke... coincidence? I suspect both our rulers' fingers in that one... and it makes transport of our ore that much easier. An auto-wagon railed trolly system is in the works, as well, that will allow mass transport that will be a game-changer for all. They are modeling it after a system seen in Avalon. They already completed the rail to the Westlands and Arcadia, the New Cali segment will take much longer to complete due to the extreme distance that scorching Realm is to the south.

I looked at our outtake report, at how the numbers that had been steadily growing for quite some time had plateaued. We could only send out so many wagons a week, then stockpile ore to wait for the second group of wagons on their return trip, burdened down with supplies for our mining camp instead of ore. It was a game of diminishing returns to find the proper balance, since more oxen or horse teams and more men to man the wagons, meant more feed, water, and food required.

Tsking at myself while I absently tapped my chin as I wished for one of the projects in the works to be completed which could change the entire game so that we could make Outer Reach the powerhouse I knew she could be.

Whether it was the bigger onsite smelting plant, the auto-wagon rail transport, or whatever project the Great Mother herself has dreamed up and commissioned that she is being so secretive about which she assures me will revolutionize the entire process, I just longed for one to finish like a fish in