Away from the settlement and surrounded by farmland enclosed with wooden fences, sat an empty patch of land. Thrice the size it needed to be, there was a steady stream of oxen with full laden carts bringing crates unloaded from the grounded ship.

  Mathias paced in the centre, a crude map of the island held in his hands as he muttered to himself, mind working at the problem as he mentally adjusted the calculations in his head. Which was enough, for the moment, it would be later that he would spend days or even weeks on calculations that had to be exact if the engine was to work.

  A group of sailors, surly and casting dark looks his way, were tasked with unloading the goods as they arrived, which they did will little relish. Their dislike of the wizard was plain, though if Mathias noticed, he gave no sign of that.

  “Not there!” he snapped, barely turning his head as a sailor set down a small chest. “Over there!” He jerked his head to a far corner of the clearing where a few smaller crates and chests had been set.

  There was an order to the cluttered chaos in the clearing, and considering all that those crates contained, there was a need to have them stored correctly. It would delay any work if the labourers couldn’t find the parts they needed to continue the construction.

  So, on the south and west were the crates filled with the parts that would make up the body of the machine, while on the west were for those internal parts. Those pistons, and gears. The crankshafts and chains.

  Along the northern side, were those magical items. Enchanted and covered with spell work that would allow the engine to function as more than just a machine. They would be put in place by Mathias himself.

  The sailor, grunted, and lifted the chest in both arms, muscles straining from the weight of it. He carried it slowly across to where the wizard indicated and set it down with a heavy thump.

  “Careful, you fool!”

  Mathias stormed across to the chest and knelt. He pulled a black iron key from a pocket on his robe and unlocked the chest before opening it. The sailor looked on, puzzled and irritated but curious enough at the contents to stay and look over the wizard’s shoulder.

  Thick wool created a soft cocoon inside the chest, and buried within, were three black, obsidian, tablets inscribed with hundreds of small runes that glowed with a golden light. Three tablets that held the instructions for the spells.

  It was to these that all other spells of the engine would be linked, and were the directions that would give those spells purpose. Without them, the Aetherchain Engine simply wouldn’t work. They were the linchpin holding the entire magical construct together.

  If they broke, they would be almost impossible to replicate.

  Mathis lifted each in turn, grunting at the weight as he inspected them for damage. Only when he was sure that each was intact did he replace them. Then, with an irritated glance at the sailor, he closed the chest and re-locked it.

  “Careful, you lummox! The contents of these chests are irreplaceable and if you damage any of them with your lack of care, I’ll see you fed to the Black.”

  The sailor dropped a hand to the knife on his belt, lips twisting. Another sailor grabbed his arm and jerked his head away from the wizard as he pulled at his mate’s arm. The two sailors moved away, though not without more dark glances at muttered words between them.

  Mathias ignored it, his mind consumed by the task at hand.

  How to build an Aetherchain Engine in three months.

  The machine itself was packed away in the various crates and chests being unloaded and transferred from the ship. Assembly of the machine would be time consuming, but not especially difficult as it was just a case of taking out the parts and fixing them together.

  That was something that could be accomplished with the right amount of people and time to do so.

  No, the difficulty came form the magical aspects of the machine.

  While much of the spell work had been done whilst aboard the ship, the runes engraved onto the appropriate pieces and fuelled by mana. There were still parts that could not be done without the calculations and knowledge that could only come from being on the island.

  Those were the parts that would take time and study, of which he had too little.

  Knowledge of the island’s descent had added an extra layer of trouble to the work, as the preliminary calculations worked on with Adept Carlyll were based on the island being in a location it no longer inhabited.

  He would need to work out the rate of descent and adjust the calculations sooner rather than later and then redo them one final time before activating the machine to adjust for any changes between now and then.

  Adding to his problems was the map, which was crude and only partially completed by Wizard Higate before his death.

  As distracted as he was with his thoughts, he didn’t notice the approach of a man twice his age, with a broad chest and wide belly. He carried tools with him in a wooden carrier that clanked and rattled with each step he took.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  Sour of face, his skin was weathered and his hair thinning at the crown. He stopped beside the wizard, one large hand slipping behind his belt comfortably, as he sucked on his teeth.

  “Yes, out with it man?”

  “Walter,” he said by way of greeting. “His lordship sent me.”

  Mathias gave an exasperated sigh and looked him over, taking in the unshaved chin and worn work-clothes. He cocked a brow, “And to what purpose, sir?”

  “I’m here to oversee construction…” he glanced around the clearing at the stacked crates and chests. “Such as it is.”

  Mathias grunted in acknowledgment and rolled up the map before stuffing it back into the cloth bag hanging at his hip. He rummaged around in it for a moment and came up with another, tightly rolled paper.

  He gestured for the overseer to follow him and unrolled the paper on one of the crates. He picked up a handful of pebbles from the ground and used them as weights to hold the paper in place before he gestured.

  “You can read blueprints, I hope.”

  “Aye, lad, that I can.” Walter peered down at the spread blueprints and scratched at his chin. “There’s other pages?”

  “Good,” Mathias said, reaching into his bag and pulling two more rolled sheaths from it. “You can read it well enough for that, then.”

  Walter didn’t respond, he had no need to argue. He was the only overseer on the island and the next available was three months away by airship. Not that he would miss out on the chance to build such a machine.

  For a man who had spent the last two years overseeing the construction of a small settlement, the chance to work on something complex and important was all too exciting for him to ignore. A settlement, for all its difficulties, was still simple.

  An Aetherchain Engine was something else entirely. It had been two generations since the last was built, and it was an opportunity that would not come around again in his lifetime most likely. Which is why he was determined to ensure it went well.

  The overseer looked over all three sheets of paper in turn, before sighing and shaking his head, then turned to look over the stacked crates. Another cart was making its slow way to the clearing laden down with more crates.

  “What is it, man?” Mathias snapped.

  “Complex machine. You have all the parts here?”

  “Yes.”

  Walter reached for his pipe, pulling it from a pocket of his jacket and tapping it against the side of the wooden crate beside him. He pulled a small pouch of tobacco from another pocket as he thought.

  “That’s good. Means I just need to build it,” he said, tamping down the tobacco, to hide his nervousness. “Rightly so, it can be done.”

  “You are aware, sir, of the urgency of this task?”

  “Aye, lad. His lordship was clear,” Walter agreed, lighting a match and putting it to the pipe’s bowl as he put the stem in his mouth. “I’ll have it built in plenty of time.”

  “Good.” Mathias breathed a soft sigh of relief and felt some of the tension he’d been carrying leave his shoulders. “How long?”

  Walter blew a cloud of smoke and pulled his pipe from his mouth, using it to point around the clearing as he gestured.

  “Site prep and foundation work is one week. The main tower skeleton,” he sucked on his teeth, thinking. “Four to six weeks.”

  He blew another cloud of smoke as he turned, watching the cart arrive with the crates. The sailors began to unload, stacking them atop the others. Mathias grimaced at the timeframe presented.

  “Installing the machinery.” Walter shook his head. “Heavy, moving parts that need affixing in place carefully. That, I can get done in three to four weeks, though five would be better.”

  Mathias counted quickly. That was twelve weeks in total, meaning they would be brushing right up against the deadline Lord Browett had given. Added into that was the two to three weeks of work he needed to do himself to add in and attune the magical components, and that put him well over.

  His hand’s clenched into tight fists and he resisted the urge to pound them against the nearest crate. There was more at stake than his finishing his apprenticeship piece and with the ship grounded, and no avenue of escape, his only hope was to get the machine working in time.

  All was not lost. He reasoned that much of his work could be done at the same time as the machinery was installed. It would be awkward and dangerous, the forces involved in his part were not to be trifled with. But it could be done.

  Still, that left them too little time.

  “What about the anchors?” he asked, lifting the edge of one of the blueprints.

  “Depends, lad. How many and where do you need them building.”

  “Two, at least,” Mathias said. “Perhaps three and I have yet to determine their location.”

  Walter chewed on his pipe stem; face scrunched up as he considered.

  “Them there are not too difficult,” he said finally. “The building of them can be done by my lads well enough, though getting to where they’re needed might be hard.”

  Mathias turned his head to look across at the forests edge in the distance. It was ancient with few paths between the thick tree trunks. There were brambles and brush between, and any passage would be difficult for a man alone.

  For a wagon laden with parts, it would be impossible.

  But that was a problem he was working on.

  “Leave the how of that to me,” he said, stiffly. “The anchors will need to be built at the same time as the engine. There’s no time for after.”

  “Can be done,” Walter said, puffing on his pipe. “Though, I’ve no understanding of the need for such haste.”

  “Not your place to know.”

  “True enough, lad. True enough.” Another puff on his pipe as his eyes flicked up to monitor the sun’s passage across the sky. Then he looked at the lines of braziers that filled the space between fields. Once lit, they illuminated a large area. “We can work late into the night on most days.”

  “And on the others?”

  Walter shrugged. “When the beasts come, there’ll be none outside their homes but those with musket and blade.”

  Which was another problem to add to the ever-growing list that accompanied the project. Mathias seethed at every potential interruption to the work. He had a limited timeframe to accomplish his task, and failure was not an option.

  Not now that he knew it meant not just the lost chance to study at the Arcanum, but the loss of his very own life. Something that he dearly wanted to avoid.

  He had a plan, and dying was not part of it.

  Mathias rolled up the papers and passed them across to the overseer.

  “I shall be monitoring your work.”

  “As you will, lad,” Walter said, stiffly, finally becoming irritated by the wizard’s manner.

  “When will you begin.”

  “We can bring most equipment out today.” Walter squinted up at the sun again and grunted. “Though will be a short day.”

  “It will! Why?” Mathias snapped. “Must I impress upon you once again the need for urgency in this task?”

  “Impress away, wizard,” Walter spat back. “Tonight is the fourth since the last attack.”

  “And this means you work less?”

  “It means,” Walter said, blowing smoke angrily. “That by order of his lordship we will be behind the palisade and locked inside our homes before night comes.”

  And before the Shadowbeasts come, Mathias realised.

  His cheeks coloured. So consumed had he been with the project that he had forgotten about that danger entirely.

  “Might be that you should be inside yourself,” Walter said.

  “Yes,” Mathias mused, jaw set. His eyes flashed as he looked back at the forest. When they came, it would be from there. “Mayhap I will.”

  Though he had no such intention.