Bomb Lance
BOMB LANCE. (See also, EXPLOSIVES, HARPOON) The bomb lance is an instrument originally introduced in the whale fishery, bearing both a fixed blade and a spring-loaded harpoon, being shot into the body of the whale, in which it explodes. A large rending blade is fixed to a long wood shaft, allowing for further reach than with smaller bladed weapons. Below this blade rests the harpoon, which it propels forwards with considerable force. The harpoon, being hollow, is filled with an explosive charge which detonates once inside the body of the target, making it a gruesome weapon, but useless for the fishing trade. A bomb lance is suitable to controlled deployment at close range, though not all accounts would praise the reliability of its use in close combat. The effort required to manipulate its weight has, furthermore, prevented widespread use outside of the fishery.
Unpublished manuscript, "Bad As They Seem
Author: Hayden Collins
Undated
Bleached paper, typewritten, 8.5x11 in
-10-
In the fire of the forge, the flames twisted into snakes, and the hissing of damp wood was transformed into the mad tongue of serpents.
Fin stood paralyzed, entranced. Behind her, her sister Jos, her mirror image, stood with the striking hammer, waiting for her sister to return the blade of the harpoon they had been asked to repair to the anvil. But Fin did not move. The snakes, the flames, the whispering hisses... sounds droned in her skill, the images filling up her entire field of vision.
"Fin." Jos spoke impatiently. Letting the metal cool now could weaken its substance. Yet her sister did not move. "Fin!"
Fin swung around abruptly, the cooling blade falling to the floor beside her, and faced her sister with eyes gone blank, all white and no pupil. Do not award your allegiance so easily. You do not know her, and you do not belong to her. You belong to each other. Your allegiance is yours to give or take. Your second initiation begins today, and ends when you find me again. A barking laugh forced itself from her throat, and she began to choke, falling to the floor as her body struggled for oxygen.
Jos kneeled beside Fin's gasping form and looked up toward the fire to see an enormous canebrake snake uncurl itself from the flames and slide toward them. It was a living snake; it was more shadow than substance. Jos reached for her rifle, never far from her hands now, and shot at the canebrake, but the bullets passed through it as if through a mist. Yet when it sunk its fangs into her thigh, they injected real poison into her blood, enough to kill within the hour. The hour of the snake.into her blood, enough to kill within the hour. The hour of the snake
Unpublished manuscript, "Bad As They Seem
Author: Hayden Collins
Undated
Bleached paper, typewritten, 8.5x11 in
-11-
A snake could just as well be ally as assassin. Could just as well be mother as killer. Ogun, for example, was a god of metal work and warriors, and the twins, blacksmiths and hunters, were fitting patrons. But chaos and chance were gods more powerful than he, masters of all.
When the flames had turned to snakes before Fin's eyes, her head filled with a terrible orchestra of hisses and snarls. She did not know who or what had spoken through her that night, nor whether she had been targeted by purpose or chance.
Lynch found Fin and Jos sprawled on the stone floor of the smith, both delirious. Jos' leg had swollen and smelled of rot at the site of the snake bite. Fin lay motionless and cold to the touch, and the bomb lance, repairs half finished, lay beside them on the stone floor. Lynch recognized the bite on Jos' leg and focused her attention on suctioning poison from the bite. The fire was long out, and she could not cauterize the wound. In her own visions she had seen signs that the twins were important to her cause, though the details were obscured. Should the twins be ill-prepared or killed, the cards had told her, their effect would be inverted. They must survive.
Pulling out a deck of cards wrapped in dark silk, Lynch began to mark the floor with chalk. A ritual might revive them, or at the very least contain their spirits and keep either from crossing over. They would be of use to her yet, but for that, they must live
