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that thing at me then, you
dolt! Who the Abyss heard of a hand cannon? Cannons are, well...
they're bloody huge."
    "Not this one."
Leresy pointed it skyward and pulled the trigger, but nothing
happened. "Not loaded. I reckon you place miniature
cannonballs into it, then go shooting down dragons."
    "Leresy!" Erry
stamped her feet and tossed down her own hand cannon. "The
muzzles on these things are tiny. I can barely fit my finger in.
How will a cannonball this small kill anyone?"
    "The same way a crossbow
bolt does. With a lot of speed and power." He grinned. "But
this weapon here, my darling... I wager it has more power than any
crossbow. Why use a string when you can use gunpowder? Let's see if
we can find some rounds."
    He kept climbing, moving between
the rocks and fallen trees, searching for the miniature cannonballs.
He wanted to try this weapon. Instead he found another strange
object, one whose purpose he could not determine.
    "Hello," he said,
placed down his hand cannon, and lifted the new contraption. "And
who are you?"
    It looked like a scroll formed
of tough, hardened leather bolted together. A round, wooden lid
sealed each end of the tube. When he unscrewed the lids, he revealed
glass circles like the bottoms of jars. Leresy had never seen
anything like this.
    "What is it?" Erry
demanded and reached out for it. "Give it here."
    He stepped back. "No
touching." He brought the contraption close to his eye. "Let's
see then. A cylinder of boiled leather, glass at each end. A
container? Maybe the ammunition is in here."
    He peeked through one glass
circle, trying to see inside, and sucked in his breath. A grin
spread across his face.
    "Bantis, you bloody old
genius," he said.
    He aimed the cylinder at the
sea, still holding it to his eye. Through the glass, the distant
batch of islands, which should have appeared as mere specks, loomed
large enough for him to count their trees. He lowered the cylinder,
raised it again, and laughed.
    "Give it here!" Erry
demanded, leaped up, and snatched the cylinder. She stared through
it and gasped. "Bloody piss pots! It's magic."
    She spun in a circle, staring
through the cylinder at the sea and the hill behind her.
    Leresy shook his head. "Not
magic. I don't think so. Bantis said he's an inventor, not a
magician."
    She
lowered the cylinder and narrowed her eyes. "Well, how the
bloody Abyss do you invent glass that makes things bigger ?"
    "I don't know." He
shrugged. "How do you invent clocks? Or gunpowder? Or steel?
Damned if I know. So long as it works. But it's not magic. Magic
feels... different. You know how you feel when we shift into
dragons? How it sort of... tickles, like soft light, but you can't
really feel it? At least, not how you feel a feather or a blanket or
heat. You sort of feel it inside you, whispering. That's how magic
feels. This?" He took the cylinder from her and stared through
it again. "This is clever and I don't understand it, but it
feels... mechanical. It's an invention like the great clock back at
Castra Luna."
    Erry tapped her thigh. "So
is this the big weapon? Portable cannons and a magnifying machine?"
She scrunched her lips. "Good weapons for Tirans, perhaps.
They need the help. But we're Vir Requis. We can turn into dragons.
I'd take dragonfire any day over these hand cannons."
    Leresy
shook his head again. "No. Bantis said he was digging for
something. Digging for a big weapon." He gestured at the hole that loomed above. "That's
where he was digging. Let's take a look."
    He shoved the cylinder under his
armpit and lifted one of the discarded shovels. They continued
climbing the hillside. They reached the hole—it loomed about the
size of a doorway—and peered inside.
    "Nothing but dust and
rubble," Erry said. "Damn old man was crazy, I told you."
    "Crazy enough to invent a
magnifying machine and portable cannons. If he says there's a weapon
here, I'm digging deeper." He climbed into the hole, thrust his
shovel down, and scooped pebbles and