Stormborn by Eric Asher

Author:Eric Asher
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
Publisher: Eric Asher
Published: 2022-12-21T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Jacob stood on the cobblestones in front of Charles’s old workshop. The grass to either side had grown tall and started to drop seeds across the stone. The building itself could have been straight out of his memories, so unchanged but for minor damage to some of the roofing and gouges where invaders had stalked over it.

He took a deep breath, ducked to the left, leaving the locked door behind, and pushed through the high grass. His fingers still fit in the edges of the gap, and he slid the panel out of the way. A barrel sat just inside, but it moved easily enough with proper leverage.

Light leaked through a few gaps in the walls, but most of the workshop looked the same as the last time he’d seen it. Jacob spun the igniter on a small lantern, and it burst to life, the reflector casting a bright yellow glow all around the room. Two Jumpers weren’t thrilled with the sudden change, and Jacob could hear them scampering in the shadows.

He stood at Charles’s old bench for a while, basking in memories from a time he had far fewer worries. The surface showed gouges with freshly exposed wood, which Jacob had little doubt had happened when the workshop was raided.

But even those raids had missed what he’d come for. He ran his finger over the smooth surface of the workbench and turned around, walking to a barrel filled with various damaged springs and nails. Jacob pushed it to the side and bent down to the puzzle lock. The catch was easy enough to undo, but moving the stone proved a bit more problematic on his own. It didn’t require as much force as before, but it still wasn’t light. The stone thumped down, sending up a cloud of dust.

Once he knew the pattern of the dial underneath, it wasn’t nearly so challenging. Of course, that was partially because they hadn’t fully locked it, so it could be operated by one person far more easily. With the phrases lined up, it was little effort to lift the hatch, since the seal had been broken before.

Jacob clipped the lantern to a pocket on the shoulder of his vest and peered into the dark. His boots scraped the edge as he slid down to the ladder and made his way inside. The old armor still stood there, as if it had been waiting. Jacob had certainly been waiting since he found the entry in one of Charles’s journals. A suit of armor like an exoskeleton. A mad creation like a Titan Mech not much larger than a person.

He reached out and undid the buttons on the uniform, cursing himself that he’d missed it when they were all there before. He made it to the bottom button and pulled the jacket open. There were some things, no matter how ready a person thought they were, that could still shake them.

Underneath the jacket was a webwork of metal brackets and braces. The assembly could have been mistaken for a prototype of a Titan Mech.

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