Deadly Wands (26 page)

“As the only legitimate heir to the English
thrown, and as the grandson of a Queen Ann, King Richard has sent
me to halt the fighting between those seeking to become the High
King of Ireland. Without the Stone of Destiny, no High King can be
crowned, so I hope the ambitious will stop killing their neighbors
trying to fulfill a position that no longer exists.”

If he wanted to shock the nation, destroying
the only thing they fought over did the trick.

“If the pointless warfare does not end, my
grandfather has sworn to invade Ireland like Queen Margaret always
wanted.

“The alternative is to change the system of
150 petty kings to something grander. Legal scholars sent by
American Jack have worked with Irish experts for years to educate
you on how representative democracy works. You can either unite
Ireland under native Irish rule, or watch Richard forcibly unite
Ireland under English rule.

“I assume you’ve heard that I’m giving away
the equivalent of ten gold kilos to every blood relative. That gift
is contingent upon your support for a new democratically elected
government.

“I’m also here to offer employment: a kilo a
year for twenty years for powerful quads willing to fight for an
Irish Republic governed with the consent of the people.

“I’ve created several accounts for the new
government at Global Bank, with a gold ton for the new legislature,
judicial system, and executive branch. Kings today could become
governors tomorrow if they earn the votes of their people. I’ll
also spend a ton of gold in each kingdom -- Muster, Leinster,
Connacht, Meath, and Ulster -- to build roads, bridges and ports,
creating jobs and facilitating commerce -- if those kings support
The Irish Republic.

“I also wish to mate with Irish super-quads
so that our children can prolong the peace I hope to foster. Every
mother will receive a kilo a year for eighteen years for every
child they have with me. Anyone interested should contact
Emily.”

Billy and Emily toured Ireland, meeting
leaders and giving speeches. His long term employment contract
quickly gave Billy a battalion of the best quads in the country,
which kept the warring parties in check while the government slowly
got off the ground.

Opposition leaders from across the country
banded together under Ruaidhrí Ó Conchobhair, who descended from
the last guy claiming to be High King. They met at the Hill of Tara
to settle their differences and, after hours of argument, they
remain convinced their only solution was the violent death of the
new government.

Billy offered his solution: “If you cannot
live with free elections, I propose we settle this in the old way:
I challenge all of you to a duel to the death. Kill me and opposing
the new government gets safer.”

The offer stunned them. “Was this your plan
all along? To bring us here under false promises so your battalion
can murder us?”

The more Billy studied their reactions, the
more comfortable he became. “I, alone, will fight all of you who
cannot live with representative democracy.” They did not look like
they believed him. “Come on. All of you against just me and the
winner gets to be King of the Hill.”

Billy flew away before they cut him down and
landed on the rim of the crater he created. He watched them huddle
together. Some, apparently, were not ready to die for the old ways.
After several arguments, a few hundred quads fanned out around the
mound. Billy foresaw how this would likely play out.

They charged as one. The strongest faced him
to fix his position. The largest group attacked him from behind, so
Billy flew towards the weakest group and chopped them down with
long swords as he raced down the hill. He flew around the bottom to
attack those slowest to fly up.

Those on the summit rallied and charged him.
Once they committed themselves, he sped away and hunted down other
quads, finally popping up above the crater. The attackers split up,
each going around the base of the hill, as he attacked the closest
group from behind.

The remaining fifty rushed him, so Billy flew
straight up. Instead of swarming him as a group, the fastest left
behind the slowest. Billy stretched them out, while using his
larger, hotter, faster fireballs to swat them out of the sky, until
the slowest fled in terror. The leader, whose name he couldn’t even
pronounce, was burnt beyond recognition. His family had to take
Billy’s word as to which smoking corpse was his.

Billy dived low enough to gesture to Emily,
who ordered the battalion to surround the remaining few thousand
opposition members. He landed before the provisional government
leaders and offered a suggestion:

“To avoid civil war, I propose these
agitators be held hostage among the families of our biggest
supporters within each of the provinces until their relatives no
longer threaten the peace. I’ll fund the cost of their living
expenses.”

The Irish had long used hostages to enforce
peace agreements. They lived as guests with families, rather than
being locked up as criminals. When Billy returned to London, his
grandfather still wasn’t happy.

“If the Irish make democracy work, then the
English will want to import it here,” King Richard angrily
complained.

Billy was not sympathetic. “If England had
democracy, my father would still be alive.”

CHAPTER 32

The newly graduated 3rd Marathon Division
arrived in Ireland with the 2
^nd
. After the success of
the previous year, Jack couldn’t steal any fliers from him. Jack’s
African division would need another year, so Billy had time to kill
before kicking the Mongols from Spain.

The 2nd Division returned to the Pyrenees to
weaken the enemy in Europe. The 3rd he took to Russia to draw the
Mongols west. Hopefully Genghis didn’t know he now had three
marathon divisions.

His father left trainers, wands, and coin to
turn the Russians and Scandinavians with the greatest endurance
into marathon divisions. They earned more training than if they
worked for the Mongol Air Force. Billy gave the weakest fliers
better wands and put them through basic maneuvers. They didn’t have
the skill or endurance to raid in Mongolia, but they were good
enough to take on the Mongol units in Russia that survived their
previous raids. Billy bloodied them on smaller enemy units and
rewarded them by emptying Mongol banks. They fought so well that
Billy sent them raiding in the Stans to force the Khan to chase
them.

As Billy hoped, Genghis himself led a
quarter-million quad force, including several marathon divisions,
to confront the Baron’s American, Scandinavian, and Russian
divisions.

Genghis and William had different definitions
of marathoners -- for Genghis, anyone who could fly a thousand
clicks got in; William, in contrast, required them to fly a
thousand kilometers a day for one hundred straight days. Like
running a marathon, this took years of practice.

But, instead of fighting the Khan, Billy just
wanted his marathoners to keep Genghis far from home while Billy
raided Mongolia.

Billy flew to the Kamchatka Peninsula in
Siberia, where his 1st Marathon Division and one hundred
near-marathon divisions waited for him. They anchored ships every
five hundred kilometers between the last Aleutian Island and the
Kamchatka coast so they could leapfrog into enemy territory
undetected. To keep the blocking force at the Bering Strait busy,
Billy had his two hundred thousand half-marathoners start harassing
them daily.

As Billy hoped, Genghis took all his good
quads with him to Russia. Those left behind were more targets than
threats. Billy sacked Mongol cities and sent golden wagons towards
his ships. What Billy didn’t know is if Genghis would give him the
two months his caravans needed to get within a day’s flight of his
growing fleet.

Billy destroyed a dozen enemy forces by
either surprising them or by wearing them out before engaging. Most
of his casualties were caused by small, hidden units that ambushed
them. Mostly, though, Billy faced barely organized militia when
sacking cities.

It ended up taking Genghis three months to
return with his armada. After avoiding combat for months, Billy’s
three marathon divisions now attacked the slowest Mongols as
Genghis raced east. Still, Billy didn’t want to face Mongol
marathoners with weighted down near-marathoners, so they raced
Genghis to the Strait, where they surprised the exhausted blocking
force from behind. The Americans got several million Mongols and
several thousand tons of loot in just one summer. Even more
valuable was showing the world that the Baron could make Genghis
Khan look like a fool every year.

Billy had several months to kill before the
next spring campaign and needed to deter Genghis from crossing into
Alaska. So he flew to Siam to see if he could get the emperor’s
Millennial Wands.

A few centuries before, the Khan’s brothers
conquered the tiny nation. Then, armed with Millennial Wands, the
grandson of the Khan’s brother Khasar multiplied Siam by conquering
his neighbors. Two centuries later, the Siamese Empire was second
in strength only to the Mongol Empire. His brothers’ descendents
were highly sensitive to their independence, and protected
themselves by marrying the Khan’s most powerful daughters.

Billy dominated dueling arenas in Siam,
killing Mongols and hiring the non-Mongols that he spared. He sent
mercenaries to recruit more mercenaries. He paid native militias to
join him, promised revolution to nationalist groups, and partnered
with criminal organizations.

The royal palace was their first target
because it united his troops: some wanted revenge on the emperor,
most wanted to topple the government, and others wanted the
priceless treasures that accumulated in the palace over two
centuries.

Billy’s force raided the capital’s munitions
depot and bombed the division that protected the capital. Billy
knew he couldn’t beat them in the air, so he caught them asleep
after they returned from a long training exercise. The next day
they beat several battalions that flew in from neighboring bases.
The Baron introduced himself in a video offering huge bonuses for
Siamese in the Air Force who changed sides. The discovery of the
Red Baron promising riches tripled his original force, despite
their heavy losses. Every poor quad in the kingdom rallied to his
banner.

Now to get his damn Millennials.

They bombed the palace after sunset. At dawn
he rotated in the half that he didn’t mind losing, knowing that the
enemy’s formation fliers would annihilate them in the daylight.
Billy probably killed as many as the rest of his troops put
together. At noon the better half took over to exhaust the Mongols
while Billy napped in a safe house.

Billy ate an early dinner before going to
work. The enemy won, as he expected. Bodies littered the palace and
smoke still rose from fires when he landed before the main gate and
politely asked to speak with the emperor. In beautiful armor made
more glorious by copious blood stains, the tired emperor soon
peered over the ramparts. He looked like he had been up for the
last few days.

“Yes? What is it?”

“I’ll leave Siam if you duel me for
Millennial Wands,” Billy said, holding out his famous sticks.

Quads, who had been going in and out of the
main entrance, now backed away in a hurry. The gate fell before
some of them even got inside. An alarm rang out and troops soon
lined the fortress walls.

“So you’re the famous Red Baron. I’ve done
nothing to you. Why do you make trouble for me?”

“I want your Millennial Wands. And many of
your descendents married the Khan’s descendents, and therefore must
die. But I’ll leave today if you duel me for Millennials.”

“Then you’re out of luck, Mr. Baron, because
I gave them a few years ago to my only descendent more powerful
than me.”

If Billy knew that, he wouldn’t have flown
here in the first place. “Then I won’t be leaving you in peace
after all. I’ll tell you what: to keep things fair, I’ll duel you
with my backup wands.”

Billy’s backup wands, however, were also
Millennials, and therefore their duel would not be fair. While
non-fatal contests like wrestling should be fair, war is about
power -- who controls what -- so it’d be stupid to not tilt
everything in your favor when the lives of millions are at stake.
It’s why Billy exhausted the bastard before challenging him.

As expected, a few hundred quads soon flew
from the palace. Billy rose straight up while humming a nursery
song his mother sang to him. Her singing always calmed him.

Billy flew high to fight just several at a
time. Then he’d dive down to pick them off. Those having trouble
breathing were the easiest. This tactic only worked because they
didn’t have enough rested troops to rotate; otherwise, they’d just
wait him out or chase him down.

All too soon, Billy landed before the gate
again. But this time he removed the smoking armor that protected
his left leg, then soaked up his wands to ease the pain. His left
boot looked cooked and he walked with a limp.

The emperor didn’t see any point in sending
more troops after the Baron, so he walked out the gate and sized up
his opponent. He didn’t venture far from the protection of the
troops lining the battlements, so the emperor wasn’t interested in
fair fights, either.

The two eyed each other warily, their fingers
twitching. Billy hadn’t felt this alive since he lost his
virginity. The emperor was famous for his fast draw. Speed kills,
went the old mantra, because whoever fired first forced the
opponent to concede the initiative. Duels, battles, and wars were
won by those who shaped events, not by those forced to respond to
them.

People called him “the” emperor not because
he was the only emperor, but because of how he got the title.