To impress his guest, Captain-General Kyblannos fired off the entire big siege battery, six giant bombards lugged all the way from Tarr-Harphax and four of Kalvan's thirty-two pound brass guns from Ardros Field and Tarr-Sashta. The resulting whumph shook the valley like one of Endrath's earthquakes. Even the Holy Investigator was impressed by the cloud of gray smoke and noise, although not so impressed with the results. The smaller iron cannonballs just bounced off the stone outerworks of the castle, and slammed back down into the defensive breastworks.
One spectacular ricochet bounced back from the wall and into a clump of sentries and guards, sending body parts flying, killing half a dozen men and wounding even more.
Kyblannos shook his head in dismay. If that continued, he'd have the Grand Host's own sentries storming his batteries before long!
The huge granite balls smashed into the outer wall of Tarr-Hostigos and exploded into thousands of deadly fragments that didn't appear to do much damage to the breach, but would have been devastating to any Hostigi standing nearby-had there been any quite that foolish.
Roxthar gave Kyblannos one of his 'there'd better be a good explanation for this' looks, which made his skin crawl. "Your Holiness, the walls of Hostigos are not only strong, but thick as well-almost the twice the height of a man at the base. Our guns are penalized by having to shoot uphill against Endrath's grasp."
Roxthar frowned at the mention of the god of the earth and Kyblannos wondered if it was now heresy just to speak of any god other than Styphon. How was a simple soldier supposed to do his job with priests and Arch-priests underfoot? And why did Galzar continue to let this Styphoni foolishness continue?
"See that big crack there next to the watchtower?" Kyblannos asked, using his finger to point out the fissure in the outerworks. "That's the breach that we're trying to open up for tomorrow's sortie. And, over there, the facing is splintered and beginning to crumble. We are making progress, but it is slow. Magal, our biggest siege gun, can hurl a stone ball the weight of two men!"
Roxthar didn't appear impressed. He was watching the men swabbing out the barrels of the big siege guns. "How long before you shoot again?"
A band of litter carriers and priests of Galzar pushed past them, running to where the cannonball had struck the sentries.
"Half a candle." Sometimes it took longer, but with Investigator Roxthar watching over their shoulders the artillerymen were working like madmen.
"A half candle! No wonder there is so little progress. I command you to shoot every quarter candle."
Kyblannos shook his head. "It can't be done. First, we have to cool off the gun barrels, or the fireseed will explode while we load it. There are no wells nearby so the water has to be carried by cart in barrels from the Hostigos springs. Then we have to clean the fireseed fouling from the inside of the gun barrels."
"I want to see how this is done." Roxthar demanded.
Kyblannos paused to wipe the sweat from his brow. "Follow me." He led the Investigator and his party of Temple Guardsmen to one of the big siege bombards. Roxthar waited impatiently while the barrel was swabbed, which was slow work since every time the pole-mounted swabs went into the barrel a cloud of steam erupted, forcing the swabbers to jump back from the gun or face scalding steam. At long last the barrel was cool, the touchhole plugged and the breech was opened.
"Why is that plug put into the base of the gun?" Roxthar asked.
This was safe territory and Kyblannos' usual confidence reasserted itself. "See those braziers, we use those to light the wires that fire off the guns. If a spark should enter the touchhole before we're ready, the fireseed would explode-killing anyone nearby."
One of the artillerymen took a large ladle of fireseed and placed it into the breech. Once the breech was closed, a rammer placed a wooden disc into the barrel and used his ramrod to push it tightly against the fireseed inside the breech. "The fireseed explodes with more force if we use a disc." He was careful not to mention that this was another of Kalvan's innovations; previously they had used cloth or other wadding; the fireseed discs worked much better.
Next a lift was brought over to raise the huge stone cannonball and place it into the bombard's barrel. The ball was nested inside a net of ropes and pulled up by winches and pulleys. A winch party of several artillerymen lifted the ball and positioned it over the barrel. At a signal from Kyblannos the granite ball was dropped from the net into the bombard where it fell with a resounding thud against the disc.
One of the rammers used his ramrod to insure the ball had positioned itself tightly against the wooden disc. Some powder was poured into the touchhole and everyone moved back except the Investigator.
"I want to set off the gun."
Kyblannos knew he was on slippery ground, but this was his bailiwick and no one-Holy Investigator or not-was going to tell him how to do his work.
"No, Your Holiness. It is a job for well-trained artillerymen. They are trained to know how and where to move after they light the fireseed. Please step back, this is dangerous! You can watch from here."
Roxthar slowly moved away from the guns, with obvious displeasure; the Investigator was used to giving orders, not taking them.
There was a quarter of a candle wait while the rest of the guns were loaded and ready to fire.
"Fire in the hole!" yelled Kyblannos, who was so focused that he lost sight of the Investigator.
An artilleryman took a red-hot piece of wire off the brazier, where he'd set it moments before, and jammed it into the touchhole. There was a bright flash and then the ground shook as the fireseed inside the breech exploded, shooting out the huge stone ball. Roxthar jumped back two rods after the flash singed his robe.
The other guns began to go off-and suddenly the very earth rocked from a tremendous explosion, knocking Kyblannos right off his feet and on top of Roxthar.
Moments later a hat-sized piece of gun barrel flew right over the very place they had been standing-clearly the Investigator was under Styphon's hand!
"What was that?" Roxthar exclaimed, pushing Kyblannos off as though he were tainted by heresy.
Kyblannos, who could just barely hear, wobbled to his feet. He pointed to one of the big siege bombards, which had up-ended; its breech split. Half a dozen broken artillerymen lay strewn over the hard ground. One rammer whose tunic had been burned off his body was wandering around with his mouth open in an O and his hands over his ears. Miraculously, there wasn't a single cut or burn on his naked torso.
"The Daemon Kalvan's work!" Roxthar shouted.
Or so Kyblannos thought, since everything sounded like it was at the bottom of a deep well. He made his way over to the up-ended bombard. Fortunately, the fireseed barrel was set a ways back from the gun and was still intact. If it had gone off, the damage would have been much greater. He checked the proof stamp at the bottom of the barrel-it was the keystone of Hos-Hostigos. He motioned Roxthar over, saying, "It was the Daemon's work! Someone must have mixed this confiscated barrel of Hostigi fireseed up with Styphon's fireseed."
"I don't understand."
"The Hostigos fireseed has twice the blast effect of Styphon's fireseed."
"Are you saying it is better?"
"I'm not saying anything, just reporting what I know with these ears and eyes, Your Holiness. I know guns and fireseed like you know heretics, and Hostigi fireseed is twice as powerful as the Temple's fireseed."
"I had given orders that Styphon's new fireseed was to be shipped from Balph."
"It was, Your Holiness. However, there wasn't enough for both the Grand Host's firearms and the siege guns. So we were given the old fireseed. Somehow a barrel of Hostigi fireseed got mixed up with our magazine."
"Treachery!"
"No, just carelessness." He pointed to the unmoving artillerymen. "Someone in this gun crew didn't check the proof mark so I lost a crew and one of my guns. They lost their lives and Tarr-Hostigos just gained more time."
His ears were clearing enough that he could hear the grinding of Roxthar s teeth.