The Machine God

Chapter 279

Gathering of the Sky

A couple of days after Droney had declared itself the world’s first drone supervillain, Alexander descended through the clouds and into the valley below.

The grasslands rolled beneath him, with hills rising and falling in every direction. The air was warmer than the mountains. It carried the scent of wild grass and damp earth, and the wind tugged at his hair as he dropped below the cloud cover and leveled off.

He swept his senses outward. Electrokinesis pulsed in a wide arc, searching for the unmistakable bioelectrical signature of a Tier 2 among hundreds of smaller ones.

And found nothing.

Alexander frowned. He adjusted course toward where the camp had been, pushing further with Metallokinesis. Searching for the knives, the spears, the iron cooking pots, the steel axe the woman had been sharpening on a rock.

Nothing there either.

He dropped lower, skimming the hilltops until the valley opened up below and the site came into view, confirming what he already knew.

They were gone.

Alexander slowed to a stop and hovered above the clearing. The grass was trampled flat in a wide circular area that told him the camp’s boundaries. Fire pits sat in their stone rings, ash scattered by the wind. Post holes dotted the perimeter where yurt stakes had been driven and pulled. Depressions in the earth marked where the heavier shelters had sat, the ground beneath them still darker where moisture hadn’t reached during the weeks of occupation.

He landed at the edge of what had been the main clearing. His boots pressed into soft earth that held the memory of a few hundred people.

Droney settled above his shoulder and beeped. An update. Exactly thirteen days since Keda had sealed the gateway. The little drone tracked the countdown to the second, a constant timer running in the background of its processes.

Seventeen days left.

Alexander walked through the empty camp. It was strange to see it like this. When he’d been here, the place had been loud with the voices of adults and children, along with the noise of livestock, the clatter of tools and the hiss of cooking fires. Wargah’s booming laugh cutting through the noise whenever one of his children said something funny.

Now it was just grass and silence and the wind.

But what caught his attention was what they hadn’t left behind.

The fire pits held ash and charred stone, all of which would wash into the soil with the next rain. The post holes would fill on their own. The trampled grass was already recovering at the edges, new growth pushing through where foot traffic had thinned. Animal dung had been scattered rather than left in piles, already half-absorbed into the dirt.

He crouched beside one of the larger fire pits and ran his fingers through the ash. No metal scraps. No bone fragments left to attract scavengers. No discarded food or broken tools or forgotten personal effects. Every single thing that wouldn’t rot on its own had been packed and carried.

Alexander sat back on his heels and looked across the empty site.

He’d been living rough in the mountains for over a week, and he’d gotten better at it. Droney’s hunting tutorials, the fire-starting, the skinning and gutting. He’d figured out shelter, water, warmth, and how to leave a light footprint.

But these people had been doing it for generations. They moved through the land and left it behind them as if they’d never been there. Another season and the valley would show nothing. The grass would close over the fire pits, the post holes would fill and seed, and the depressions would level out. There would be no trace.

Droney beeped. A query.

Alexander stood. “Yeah. Smart move on their part.” He dusted ash from his fingers. “We showed up to their world uninvited, fought a fire-breathing maniac, brought a dead wizard’s vengeance along with us, and then left in the middle of the day and never returned. If I were Wargah, I’d have moved the camp too.”

Droney beeped again. Agreement, tinged with something that might have been guilt.

“Don’t worry about it. We’ve been careful. And we know the Empire can’t track the staff and spellbook directly, or they’d have found us at Harborhill when we used them to gain entry.”

The trail leading out of the valley was about as subtle as a highway. Hundreds of people, livestock, and whatever they used to haul their shelters had beaten a path through the grass heading southwest. Even a child could have tracked them.

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Alexander rose into the air. As he climbed higher, he pushed Electrokinesis through his Core, enhancing himself, and sharpening his vision until the beaten path was easily visible from the sky. He pulsed Metallokinesis, accelerating hard, but keeping his pace to within Droney’s own top speed.

He checked the trail every few minutes, but for the rest of the time he just flew.

A cloud bank drifted ahead, columns of stacked whites and grays. Alexander grinned and banked left around the first one.

Droney punched straight through it. The little drone burst out the other side trailing vapor, beeped once, and immediately dove into the next one.

Alexander rolled around it, cutting close enough that moisture kissed his face, and met Droney on the far side. They fell into a rhythm. Alexander wove between the clouds, banking and rolling through the gaps, while Droney carved through them in straight lines, exploding out the far side each time with a satisfied beep and a thin trail of mist clinging to its chassis.

Of all the things he could do with his powers, flying was easily his favorite. He couldn’t imagine it would ever get old.

***

An hour later, Alexander sensed the first bioelectrical signature entering his range. He dipped beneath the clouds, which had thickened and turned gray, and found himself flying through a light drizzle that quickly soaked into his clothes.

The grasslands had flattened into a broad open plain, treeless and wide, stretching to the horizon in every direction.

Dozens of thin columns of smoke rose into the air ahead.

There were six camps, each with hastily but expertly erected animal pens and shelters. Each one was easily as large as Wargah’s, some larger, and all keeping a healthy distance from its neighbors. They were spread out in a circle, with streams of people flowing back and forth from each camp to a hub positioned at the center, between the camps.

It looked like a gathering of nomadic clans. Even from a mile away, he could make out tents and stalls and the flicker of large bonfires. People danced around the fires despite the rain, or perhaps even because of it.

And at the center of it all, rising above the surrounding tents like a monument, stood a yurt the size of a small warehouse back home.

Alexander swept the encampments with Electrokinesis. Thousands of bioelectrical signatures dotted the plain. Most were baseline, though a handful were stronger, scattered across the different camps. Each clan had at least two Tier 2s, though the largest of them had four.

He found Wargah’s Tier 2 signature at the center of the nearest camp, along with one he didn’t recognize. Minlah’s smaller signature, and that of her grandmother, were there as well.

Alexander adjusted his descent and dropped toward them. Seconds later, he landed not far from Wargah and the others, drawing gasps from the people around him.

“Alexander!” Minlah said. “We thought you had returned to your world.”

Minlah’s grandmother, Selvah, as he’d learned before leaving the camp, turned a toothless grin on him, but said nothing.

“I went to check the fortress,” Alexander said. “But I ran into some problems and didn’t want to bring them back here. I’ve been staying in the mountains.”

Droney translated, while Wargah looked him up and down.

He was still shirtless, and his pants were a bit worse for wear. But with only two pairs of clothes, plus some borrowed wizard attire, he was making do.

“That explains why you look such a mess, my friend,” Wargah said. He gestured at one of the nearby people. “Bring some clothes for the man.”

Someone from the nearby watching crowd split off.

The other Tier 2 had turned, studying Alexander. “Is this the invader the Stars are hunting? I sense no magic about him.”

Wargah gestured. “This is Alexander.” He pronounced the name awkwardly, but it was good enough. “Alexander, this is Tresko. He leads one of the Great Clans.”

Alexander held out a hand. “Good to meet you, Tresko. I’m sorry to interrupt, but I really need to talk to Wargah and Minlah.”

Tresko looked at the hand oddly, then clasped wrists with Alexander instead of shaking. “You are welcome at the Gathering of the Sky, Alexander the Invader, as are all.” He turned to Wargah. “We will speak further when the leaders gather.”

Tresko departed, and a few sharp words from Wargah scattered the crowd that had gathered around them. People moved on, though more than a few glances lingered.

“What brings you back to us, Alexander?” Wargah asked.

“Something that concerns all of you. But it’s not a conversation for out in the open.”

Wargah studied him for a moment, then nodded. He turned and led them through the camp without another word. Minlah fell into step beside Alexander, with Selvah a pace behind, the old woman’s shuffling gait somehow keeping up without visible effort.

Wargah ducked through the entrance of a hide-covered tent near the camp’s center. Droney’s translation hovered between ‘council tent’ and ‘place of speaking,’ but the meaning was clear enough.

It was where decisions were made. That made it a good place for what was about to be discussed.

The interior was simple. A fire pit at the center, unlit, and a wide opening above both to let smoke out and light in. Around it were woven mats. Wargah settled onto one, and Minlah took another. Selvah lowered herself as well and folded what remained of her hands in her lap.

Wargah gestured for Alexander to take the one opposite him. “You may speak.”

Alexander settled himself. He could see that the others were curious, but there was a wariness there as well. It hadn’t been there when he first woke and found himself in the camp.

“Before I begin, I want you to know that I’ve been very careful. I waited so long to come back just to make sure that the Empire of Stars wasn’t able to track me.”

Selvah nodded. “It would be difficult for them. You have no magic in your soul.”

He didn’t really see much of a difference between superpowers and what the wizards could do in terms of ‘magic’, but he didn’t argue.

“The Empire is hunting me for a few reasons now. Obviously, as far as they’re concerned, I’m an invader. But also because I am in possession of a few staves and one of their spellbooks. In particular, a staff and spellbook that was powering a Discipline Ship.”

All three clan members reacted differently. Wargah’s expression tightened. Minlah tilted her head, eyes widening slightly.

Selvah cackled.

Loudly.