Call to Quarters (A Gaeldorcraeft Forces Novel Book 1) Read online

  Published by Raconteur House

  Antioch, TN

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

  CALL TO QUARTERS

  A Gældercræft Forces Novel

  A Raconteur House book/ published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Raconteur House mass-market edition/September 2016

  Copyright © 2016 by Honor Raconteur

  Cover Design by Honor Raconteur

  Red Rock Canyon by CO Leong and Katja Gerasimova/Shutterstock

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage electronic piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.

  Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information address:

  Raconteur House

  3425 Daisy Trail

  Antioch, TN, 37013

  www.raconteurhouse.com

  Other books by Honor Raconteur

  Published by Raconteur House

  THE ADVENT MAGE CYCLE

  Book One: Jaunten

  Book Two: Magus

  Book Three: Advent

  Book Four: Balancer

  ADVENT MAGE NOVELS

  Advent Mage Compendium

  The Dragon’s Mage

  The Lost Mage

  Warlords Rising

  Warlords Ascending*

  SINGLE TITLES

  Special Forces 01

  The Midnight Quest

  Kingslayer

  THE ARTIFACTOR SERIES

  The Child Prince

  The Dreamer’s Curse

  The Scofflaw Magician

  The Canard Case *

  DEEPWOODS SAGA

  Deepwoods

  Blackstone

  Fallen Ward

  Origins

  KINGMAKERS

  Arrows of Change

  Arrows of Promise

  GÆLDERCRÆFT FORCES

  Call to Quarters

  *Upcoming

  As long as one keeps searching, the answers come.

  -- Joan Baez

  —As explained in chapter 2, in 1857 a massive earthquake rocked California along the San Andreas Fault. This would not be the only massive earthquake to shake California because of that fault line.

  In 2008, it was noted by several experts that the San Andreas Fault was “locked, loaded, and ready” for another large earthquake. Simulations showed what the effects would be but they anticipated that the effects would spread south, covering the area between Los Angeles and San Diego. Because the San Andreas fault system is the boundary between the Pacific Plate and the North American Plate, the conclusion experts reached was that while the cities were in danger of being shaken up, the plates were moving horizontally past one another, so that no part of California was in danger of falling into the ocean.

  These calculations proved to be incorrect in 2021 when the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Barbara abruptly cracked from the mainland. Experts are still not sure if the San Andreas Fault was entirely the cause or if this was a continuation of the mantle pieces breaking off that they had already witnessed in Virginia in 2011. Regardless, both seaboard cities wrenched free entirely and started sinking into the ocean at a steady rate.

  Panic was widespread, but there was no way to escape from either Los Angeles or Santa Barbara except by boat or plane.

  A national emergency was immediately placed in effect, and the Gældorcræft Forces were on scene before the dust even settled. In a herculean effort that has never since been rivaled, the entirety of the Forces took both cities on and, through magic and willpower, kept them from sinking entirely. Engineers and architects were called in, and a system was hastily cobbled together to support the cities. A network of generators and buoyancy machines were attached to the cities. One head engineer observed that if they had been given the task before the cities actually broke off, it would have taken several years to manage this. As it was, in two short weeks, the system was online.

  Perhaps because of the haste in which the system was set up, it was not perfect, and it could not keep the cities completely above the water. The Gældorcræft Forces decided to rearrange their organization, and established exactly thirty-six teams dedicated to keeping both Los Angeles and Santa Barbara afloat. Between their tireless efforts and the network of generators and buoyancy machines, the seaboard cities were stabilized enough to live on.

  There is still a movement in the government that suggests relocating the inhabitants of both cities as some legislators feel that the resources needed to keep the cities afloat is a waste and could be put to better use elsewhere. So far this movement has gained no traction.

  Excerpt from The History of California Earthquakes

  Written by Bryce Moon 2026

  Ground Zero

  “Adams, Brian,” a burly looking sergeant barked out.

  “Oh, another male Mægencræft, that’s rare. I thought Teddy was the only one here at boot camp,” Tye commented. She raised up in her seat a little to take a better look at the person called. There were two rows of seats between them, so it took her a second to get a clear look. “How did we miss seeing him?”

  “Easy,” Sam answered, not even glancing up from the packet in her hands. “He was in a different group than us and he’s male. We wouldn’t see him in the dorms.” Flicking a finger against the file she demanded, “They don’t really expect us to read through this whole thing before we leave camp, do they?”

  “No,” Noriko assured her, “we’re expected to read through it before we reach our assigned station.”

  “Phew. About had a heart attack.” Sam finally looked up and peered ahead. “Why are we testing our levels, anyway? After this much schooling they surely know by now.”

  One would think. Noriko was also a little puzzled by this. When a child tested positive for either Dwolcræft or Mægencræft talents, they were immediately tested for general power levels before even being put in school. Then, throughout their schooling, they were tested on a religious basis. Not just because they were growing, either. Ranking was only in part based on power level—knowledge and visualization skills also played heavily into it. The more information that they knew, the more magic they could wield. Or to be more accurate, that a Dwolcræft could wield. A Mægencræft was a conduit that channeled energy to her partner. They couldn’t actively use that magical power themselves.

  More’s the pity. Noriko sometimes lamented that she was born a Mægencræft. Out of her family of six, it was only she and Haru that were Mægencræftas. Takako, Kyou, Shigure, and Ryou were Dwolcræftas. It looked like they would all join the Gældorcræft Forces too. Their parents lamented over this, as they had chosen the civilian side of things and were both teachers, so naturally they wanted at least one child to follow in their footsteps. But none of them were inclined to do so. Even the youngest, Haru, wanted to be actively in service.

  Even now she wasn’t sure what it was about being part of the Force that had drawn her to sign up. It wasn’t the lure of being in uniform. Well, they had a uniform of sorts, if one could call the red windbreakers and tan cargo pants a ‘uniform.’ Maybe it was the unpredictability of the job. On the civilian side, her options were limited to building or teaching, and both of those had steady routines. Noriko didn’t really want a
set schedule that remained the same day to day. She wanted something outside the norm. Being part of the GF was the perfect way to do that as they supplemented the police and fire stations, often having office space inside police stations. Criminal activities, fires, natural disasters—they were expected to help with all of it.

  Hopefully she wouldn’t end up in the middle of nowhere, where nothing ever happened. Not that she wanted to be in a hotbed of trouble, either, but somewhere in the middle would be nice.

  Sam was still going through the packet they’d been handed. “There’s forms in here to apply to the legal department, medical department, tech department, or for active service. I thought we’d made our choices clear before even coming to camp?”

  “They don’t have enough people signing up for either legal or medical,” Noriko explained, her eyes actively trained forward. A hologram display slowly cycled through names, and more than trusting her ears to hear above the chattering crowd around them, she watched it, waiting for her own name to appear. “Although I can’t figure out what the incentive would be to join the other departments. Legal and medical both require more schooling than active service.”

  “Probably why most people choose active service instead,” Tye observed. “Shame they don’t have a culinary section. I’d be all over that.”

  Noriko privately seconded that as Tye was an amazing cook. But she understood why things were organized the way they were. The Gældorcræft Forces were a paramilitary organization run by the government. They had all of the benefits, cons, and quirks of many other government organizations because of this. They were unique in one thing only: they were mostly in charge of themselves. The power they handled had unique elements to it that were undetectable by modern science, and so the average human could feel the effects of it but could not discern it directly. Medical treatment had to be given by a fellow Mægencræft and Dwolcræft. Trials, too, had to be handled inside the GF. It made some people nervous, to have the guardians guard themselves, but there was little way around the problem.

  “Arashi, Noriko.” Her name popped up in bold black lettering on the hologram even as the caller boomed out her name.

  “My turn.” She stood with a certain level of nervousness.

  “You’ll do fine,” Sam assured her. “We’ll meet up on the other side. Don’t take off without us, okay?”

  “I won’t,” she assured both of her friends before marching straight for the evaluator, an older woman that looked like a very well-preserved sixty. The name tag on her windbreaker read “Barrett.” Noriko went into parade rest and greeted, “Instructor Barrett.”

  The instructor had been speed reading Noriko’s chart through her holograph shades, but at this greeting focused in. “Miss Arashi. Your English is impeccable.”

  “Born in the United States, ma’am.” Used to this reaction, it didn’t bother her. She might have been the first generation born here, but she looked fresh off the boat. It was her parents who had accents, although they spoke English very well, and knew the United States like the backs of their hands after living in there for twenty years.

  “I see.” The instructor went back to reading and she frowned at the chart.

  Noriko mentally groaned. She knew exactly where the woman’s eyes had stopped reading even if she couldn’t see the holograph display. She’d had this problem before when listing out her three preferences in stations. Just because she was 5’3” and a hundred pounds soaking wet didn’t mean she was weak. She could handle more than routine work. After semi-raising five siblings, she knew that for a fact.

  This time there were no questions—instead Barrett continued to scroll. “Test scores are excellent, congratulations for passing fourth in your class.”

  “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “Visualization skills are above average as well, I see. Let’s test your power level.” Barrett waved a hand to the testing apparatus behind her.

  To this day Noriko couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being tested by a giant thermometer. There was a giant hollow ball at the base, then a clear glass tube that went straight up for about ten feet. Each foot was marked clearly with a level in bold black numbers. The gauge rested at the very base, Level 10, and it was entirely up to her to get it toward the upper levels. The scale went all the way up to a one, although it was extremely rare to have a Level 1 Dwolcræft or Mægencræft. They had to be able to use a megamerlin of power to attain that rank, a near impossible feat for a human being to attain.

  “Begin.”

  Noriko drew up every bit of power from the ley line under her feet. In this particular section of North Carolina, there were many fault lines and, as a result, any number of ley lines to choose from. The earthen energy that flowed between the fault lines ran warm and pure. The one directly below her was particularly strong and felt strangely a little sticky. Or was that just because of the humidity today? It felt akin to tugging liquid honey out of honeycomb.

  A reporter on the news once described a Mægencræft as a walking battery, something that could draw and hold a charge of power until it was ready to be used. Especially during these tests, that’s exactly what she felt like, as she drew power from the ley line and ‘charged’ her own aura. Once she had all that she could hold, Noriko shot it into the glass tube. It always felt strange, putting power into an object, instead of feeding it steadily to another human being. A partnering between Dwolcræftas and Mægencræftas was give and take, the Mægencræft giving what power the Dwolcræft needed to work with, the Dwolcræft actively reaching out for that power and accepting it. Shoving it into a glass beaker like this felt alien to her and wrong.

  These tests only evaluated the absolute maximum power that she could draw out in a split second, not what she could sustain. After that second, she let her connection with the ley line go. The power in the glass stayed steady, showing where her level measured at. It had shot up past the Level 10 mark and now hovered near the top, somewhere between 4 and 3. The outcome actually surprised Noriko a little, as before she had come into boot camp she had been just under a 4. Had she grown that much in just three months?

  “You originally tested at a 5,” Barrett noted, typing in the result with a quick hand. “But I see that it was barely a 5—you were nearly a 4 at the time. You have improved, Miss Arashi. Congratulations, we always like to see that result.”

  Noriko nearly beamed with pleasure. “Thank you, ma’am.”

  “Well. Considering these results, and your preferences, I think we can station you in a good place.” Barrett unbent enough to lean forward and whisper, “And I do think that you can make it to a Level 3 in about five years. So keep up the good work.”

  Really? She was very glad to hear it, not only because the pay grade would be better, but because her options of choosing where to be stationed improved. “I will work hard, ma’am.”

  “A true Japanese response.” She winked at her before drawing back. With a finger, she stabbed at the holograph display to activate a different screen before she tapped something in. “Go to the table under the blue sign over there to pick up your station assignment.”

  “Yes, ma’am. Thank you, ma’am.” Almost bouncing in anticipation, she left the testing area and rounded the cordon before weaving her way toward the blue flag. As she went, she passed many other boot camp graduates either celebrating their station assignments or bemoaning loudly to anyone that would listen. Noriko fervently hoped she wouldn’t be joining the latter group.

  The table had six men manning it, all of them with holograph glasses on and stacks of envelopes in cubby holes behind them. The cubby holes were all tagged, some of them with a city and state designation, others with city and a numeric code. Noriko assumed that those were for the larger cities only, ones that had multiple stations, as she wasn’t able to figure out the whole system with the peeks she was getting.

  A line two deep waited before the table, so she had time to worry before it became her turn. Please, please, nowhere cold. She did
not do well with cold.

  The slightly harried officer at the other side looked up and demanded, “Name?”

  “Arashi, Noriko,” she responded instantly.

  He scrolled through the screen display right in front of his eyes (although from here it looked like he was pawing at thin air), found her, then ticked it off. Turning, he went to the far right and ducked down toward the ground before pulling out a packet in a nondescript manila envelope and handing to her. “Good luck. Next!”

  It was probably mean of her to open it on the spot. Noriko knew good and well that she should have waited for Sam, Tye, and Teddy, but she just couldn’t contain her curiosity. Opening the top, she drew out the top sheet for a peek.

  Tehachapi, Station 1.

  Noriko blinked at it stupidly for a long moment. Where in the world was Tehachapi?

  1st Merlin

  After three days on the job, Noriko could hardly claim she knew what she was doing, but she at least knew everyone’s names. The Tehachapi Station was not a large one, nor had she expected it to be. The whole city had a population of fifty thousand, and if it weren’t for the fault zone that ran right through the Tehachapi Mountains, it wouldn’t warrant the three stations it boasted.

  She’d initially spent her time unpacking and getting familiar with the ley lines in the immediate area. Her knowledge of them, and their quirks, would be vital later on. Hopefully much later on, although she couldn’t count on that. California was famous for its earthquakes, after all.

  Right now she was at her new desk, glued to the files hovering above it as she tried to memorize everything she could about this new area. The other Mægencræft, Charlotte, had given her a stack of files to go through on her first day, and she was still plowing through them. Noriko was grateful, though—they were giving her a good idea of the history of the area.