Dark Gate Angels Complete Series Omnibus

by Ramy Vance

  Terra went down to the dining hall. The rest of the fighters were gathered there as well, talking quietly to each other. Nib-nib was sitting next to Cire, sharing a plate of food. Terra sat with them.

  Cire looked at Terra bashfully before sliding over the plate of food and pouring Terra a cup of mead. Terra recognized that look. She knew the orc was trying to cover up a crush, which seemed asinine seeing how either of them could die within the next few hours.

  Nib-nib chittered away as she ate. Terra was still surprised she understood some of what the mantiboid was saying. “Big fight. Big, big fight today. Biggest since…long time ago.”

  Terra pointed at Cire. “I’m assuming your little magic hand thing is why I can understand her now, right?”

  Cire didn’t answer instantly, staring down at his cup and swishing it about before saying, “You’d be correct. There are some things that are imparted through the ritual,” he explained. “You can’t be certain, but we take a little bit of each other. We share.”

  “What did you get from me?”

  Cire smiled weakly and said, “Your heartbreak.”

  It was Terra’s turn to be embarrassed. She shifted away from Cire and looked down at her food. Being known was a terrible experience. Even worse when it happened accidentally in a weird-ass healing orgy. But it could have been worse. At least Cire was cute.

  Terra decided to leave that bit of information alone and turned to Nib-nib. “How big a fight?” she asked. “You got any details?”

  Nib-nib gobbled up another mandible of chow. “Big monsters. Bigger than before. And you go all alone. They kill if we try. They kill all.”

  “Oh. That’s fucking great. Just fucking great.”

  “You say we fight, we fight. They kill all, but we fight.”

  Terra gulped her wine. It burned all the way down. That was what she needed. Something to burn and take away the stress. “Is she for real?” Terra asked Cire.

  Cire gestured to the other fighters in the hall. “We’ve all talked it through. What they’re doing is beyond unfair. It spits in the face of orc tradition. The arena isn’t a killing floor, it’s a place for champions to rise in fair combat. But besides that, we’ve watched you, Terra. If it wasn’t for you, we’d all be dead. We’d gladly lay our lives on the line for you.”

  Terra waved away his words. “That’s stupid. I’m not going to ask you to risk your lives for me,” she replied. “You risk your lives for yourselves. Did you hear anything about what I’m going to fight? How bad can it be as long as it doesn’t have three heads.”

  Cire sighed as he shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “The guards were joking about a dragon.”

  Terra’s heart went cold, and she choked on her food. After forcing it down, she coughed loudly. “Oh, a dragon,” she said. “That sounds bad.”

  “There are worse things than dragons.”

  Terra laughed bitterly. “Yeah, I can imagine.”

  “As I said, we are all willing—”

  “No, no. This is for me. No need for anyone else to die.”

  Nib-nib looked up at Terra, her eyes glistening brightly. “Not die. Win. Always win,” she chittered. “You win. We win. You live. We live.”

  Cire placed his hand on Terra’s. “There is one last thing. I’d like to give you a gift. Much like before.”

  Terra checked over her shoulder to see if the other orcs were watching. “Is it going to be in front of a crowd again? ‘Cause I feel like you have to warn a girl about that.”

  “Why? All orcs perform healing rituals together.”

  “Oh. Uh, never mind. What is it?”

  Terra felt the bones in her hand warming up, and her entire body tensed. It was followed by a wave of relaxation. Then came the pain. It was like Terra’s mind was on fire. She felt swords cutting into her body, and heat as if she were aflame. Then it was gone.

  “What the hell was that?” she cried as she jerked her hand away.

  Cire poured himself another cup of wine and said, “It is my pain. Years of battle. Memories. Lives taken, and lives of those I loved and lost. Now that knowledge is yours.”

  “What do you mean, it’s mine?”

  Cire smiled as he drank his wine. “You’ll see the moment you pick up a weapon.”

  Terra’s hand was still tingling, and she looked down at it. “Huh. Sounds like a pretty good gift.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Martin had been compiling everything he could find on the hadron collider for the last two hours. Abby was poring over it, her eyes moving faster than she could ever remember. The nanobots were obviously getting into every nook and cranny of her anatomy.

  Anabelle was still in the lab, reading through briefings and whatever else Myrddin had given her. Abby wasn’t sure. Creon hadn’t shown up at the lab yet, and it was nice to have someone else to work with for a change. Martin was never much of a talker.

  Abby turned to Anabelle and asked, “Why do we use hadron colliders? If Myrddin is such a powerful wizard, why doesn’t he just magic things to where he wants them to go?”

  The elf looked up from her briefings. “The collider is specifically for human transportation to the other realms. Humans can’t use magic unless they’ve been bound to a familiar…a being that lives inside a host and allows them to use magic. Existing in most of the realms requires magic. Getting there without it is impossible. The collider gets humans there and also coats them with a little magical residue. Keeps them from getting kicked back to Earth. Or exploding.”

  Abby was trying to figure everything out. There were still gaps in her understanding of how the magical realms and the creatures within them worked. “So, what about orcs? Why would they have a collider? Aren’t they magical?”

  “They used to be. Kinda like humans. But over time, they stopped using magic. Got stuck in their own ways. We weren’t sure how the Dark One was transporting them between realms. However he was doing it, it obviously wasn’t good enough since he decided to upgrade to using a collider.”

  Abby thought it over. If orcs were using the collider the way humans had to, there was a good chance she wasn’t going to have to calibrate it to work differently for Terra. All the schematics she’d read so far hadn’t mentioned anything about the colliders only working with a certain kind of DNA.

  It seemed like the only real issue with the collider was getting it to turn on. Also, finding a way to get Terra to the collider, or vice versa. That was assuming the Dark Gate they had seen was actually working. There was always a chance it was only a prototype or a defective model. Someone had tucked the collider away in what looked like a room of junk.

  Anabelle stretched her legs and stood. “You want a cup?” she asked, waving a hand at her coffee cup.

  Abby pulled her eyes away from the computer screen. “Yeah, that’d be great. I could use a break.”

  Anabelle returned with two cups of coffee and handed one to Abby. “Did you used to do stuff like this at home?” Anabelle asked. “You know, the whole nerd thing.”

  Abby chuckled as she considered the question. “Sort of,” she answered. “Spent a lot of time doing chores. But, give me a free moment, I’d have my head in a book. That was ‘til Pa let me start tinkering in the back. My ma thought it was a terrible idea. Said I was gonna blow myself up.”

  “She ever change her mind?”

  Abby hadn’t thought about her mom in a while. She didn’t realize how much she missed her and her sisters until she’d started talking. Missed them almost as much as her father. After a few moments, Abby replied, “Yeah, she changed her mind. Saw how happy it made me. Didn’t have a problem after that.”

  Anabelle’s brow darkened as she looked to be slipping into thought. “Sounds like you got a pretty solid family. You’re lucky.”

  “What about you?”

  Anabelle almost jumped at the question. “Me? What do you mean?”

  Abby had never seen an adult look so old and so young at the same time. “I meant your f
amily. What are they like?”

  “Oh. I don’t know. I don’t know what they’re like.”

  Abby and Anabelle sat in silence. Then Martin blinked onto the holoprojector. “So, when I’m gone, it’s talk-about-your-emotions time? You know, I might want to be a part of that. I’m a recently created life form. There’s a lot of feelings in here, but if you organics want to be exclusive or whatever…”

  Abby was taken aback by Martin’s tone of voice. He actually sounded like he was hurt. Honestly, she hadn’t even thought about Martin having emotions. “You wanna join in?” she asked. “Been told I’m a great listener.”

  “Maybe some other time. I got important information for you two. Figured out how to get that bad boy running. And yes, it was difficult if you were wondering. But if we get your tracker to that Gate, we can rewire it to open up to HQ. Kinda like how we cracked the chips. Actually, we could open it to any place that has a hadron collider.”

  Anabelle’s sharp ears twitched. “How could you open it to any collider?”

  Martin turned to Anabelle. “Whoa, didn’t even know you were here. What are you doing here? I thought this was the nerd corner.”

  “Just answer the question.”

  “Whatever. The colliders have a unique energy signature and dump out a bunch of shit when they turn on. They leave a trail. I can scan through different realms and galaxies for that, adjust the teleportation frequency, and voila. Any more questions?”

  Abby felt the first genuine hope that there was something they could do for Terra. “Better get started looking for those other frequencies,” she said.

  Martin was already fading from the screen. “Oh, I’m already scanning. It’s kinda a no brainer.”

  Anabelle leaned over Abby’s desk, looking through the complicated mathematical formulas on the screen. “You actually understand this shit?”

  Abby didn’t bother looking away from the screen. “Yep. Kinda like another language. Math, I mean.”

  “All right, kid, I’m outta here for a bit. I gotta go check up on the other mission going on. Call me if you need anything. But I’ll be back later.”

  “Okay. See you then.”

  Anabelle left Abby alone with her thoughts. They were too numerous to start trying to sort through. She was happy Anabelle had come by. She’d be even happier to get Terra back to Earth.

  Sarah supervised the gnomish resistance fighters as they split into their different groups, four groups of five. She was taking the most experienced, not that she needed them, but because her route was the most dangerous. Anyone who didn’t know what they were doing was dead.

  Kravis had left earlier to take care of another mission. They never gave each other long goodbyes. That would make it seem like there was a possibility that neither one of them was coming back. Instead, they limited themselves to a brief kiss and a promise to be safe.

  The resistance fighters were going over their supplies, double-checking if they had everything they needed. Sarah preferred that they know the truth: You could never be certain you had everything you needed. But it didn’t make sense to bring them down. She almost wished she had the positivity of a gnome.

  Once everyone was situated, Sarah left with her four team members. They were going to make their way east, over the first ridge of defenses. Then it was a straight shot through the three defense rings. They had intel that their route was the least patrolled, which meant they would get to the inner command center the fastest. Lucky for Sarah, that was the most dangerous spot.

  They were going to be traveling by foot in the veil of night, hiding in the shadows and hoping the intel Sarah had received was good.

  Sarah and the gnomes left the camp without fanfare. She was glad. That showed that the four kids on her team had some idea of secrecy. They traveled for an hour in silence, Sarah leading the way, stopping on occasion to check for tracks, referencing the intel she’d been given.

  On two separate occasions, they found recent orc tracks. It was hard to tell how long ago they were made, but they were further out from the ring. Could have been from weeks ago.

  By the end of the second hour, they were nearing the first defense ring. It wasn’t much of a defense—a wall guarded by sentries that extended indefinitely in both directions.

  Most of the defense rings Sarah had seen before had an artistry to them. This was just a wall, and most everyone had already realized walls didn’t keep anyone out. Ever. Hell, people like Sarah considered them to be an open invitation.

  She motioned for the team to spread out. Hopefully, the gnomes knew how to act without orders. That was one of the most important things in teams like these—the ability to make independent decisions and still work together without alerting anyone.

  Focus couldn’t afford to be split between every team member, so Sarah focused on herself. She picked her point of entry. Two guards were up ahead, perched on the wall. Sarah pulled out her binoculars and glassed the two guards, gauging their line of sight, trying to get a better handle on their weapons.

  It was too early to use her cloaking device. The limited battery life made it worth holding onto. Besides, Sarah hadn’t gotten so rusty that she couldn’t make it to the wall. This would give her a good measure to see how the rest of the mission was going.

  Sarah raced to the wall, her eyes on the guards stationed atop the stone structure. She ran off to the left, keeping herself hidden in the grove of trees, taking note of the bushes and undergrowth around the base of the wall. Before approaching the bushes, she climbed into a tree and glassed the guards, checking in which direction they were facing.

  When Sarah was comfortable, she dropped out of the tree and sprinted to the wall. Once there, she flexed her fingers and the gloves she wore transformed. The fingernails sharpened and extended while the palms sprouted small suction cups.

  Sarah began to climb up the side of the wall, moving as fast as she could, checking on the guards every couple of seconds. Usually, she wouldn’t just rush into a situation like this, but the wall appeared understaffed—most likely due to growing arrogance on the command leader’s part.

  The gnomish world had fallen long ago, so it wouldn’t be surprising if those in charge didn’t think the outer defenses were worth staffing.

  Once Sarah reached the top, she crouched, tucking herself into the shadows. She checked if there were any other guards close by. There weren’t—just the two she had originally seen.

  Sarah drew her dagger from the sheath at her side. It was a small, light weapon, hardly more than a few ounces. Sharp enough to plunge into a heart, and fragile enough to be snapped off and left in a corpse. The blade dissolved within an hour, making it impossible to trace. Sarah usually carried multiple daggers, but she would only need one to deal with these two.

  Across the wall, the two guards had moved closer to each other. They looked to be talking. This would make things a little tougher, but if Sarah moved fast enough, she could wrap this up quickly. Rather than thinking, Sarah allowed her body to move on its own.

  Sarah slipped from the shadows, staying as low as possible, running down the length of the wall. She flung her dagger at her target. The blade sunk into the neck of one of the orcs. As he slumped over, Sarah launched herself into the air, pulling the blade out of the first orc’s neck, tackling the second, and slamming the dagger into his throat.

  Both orcs lay dead on the ground. Sarah checked quickly over her shoulder to see if anyone else was coming. When she was satisfied, she opened the discus attached to her belt and withdrew a bag of white powder. She crouched over both bodies and sprinkled some of the dust on them. Then she lit a match and tossed it onto the first corpse.

  The orc’s corpse burst into flames and quickly extinguished itself, leaving only a pile of ash. Sarah repeated the process with the second corpse. Then she kicked the piles of ash into the wind.

  That was when Sarah remembered that she was part of a team. She looked back over the wall. Her teammates were only now making thei
r way past the trees toward her position. As Sarah waited, she crouched low, making herself invisible among the shadows.

  By the time her team caught up with Sarah, she was certain they weren’t going to make it through the defense rings. One of the resistance fighters stepped forward, his eyes ashamed, and said, “We didn’t even see you start moving.”

  Sarah apologized. “I’m not used to working with other people. I’ll try to move slower, but you’re going to have to keep up. Otherwise, we’re all going to end up dead.”

  All of the gnomes agreed. Together, they made their way over the wall, heading directly to a tunnel system that could be seen jutting out of the wall’s base. From what Sarah remembered from the map, it looked to be part of the straight-shooting path they had been trying to follow. She wished the intel would have specified whether or not the path was underground. Either way, they were taking the tunnel. Hopefully, it was the right decision.

  The crowd had assembled, and Terra could hear their chanting through the arena’s walls. She was standing in the darkened hallway, surrounded by the Dark One’s orcs. No one had spoken to her since telling her that it was time for her battle.

  Each of the orcs carried a weapon, swords, staffs, and the like, while some were holding shields. Terra figured the weapons were for her; otherwise, there wouldn’t have been as much variety.

  After taking her time looking over each weapon, she chose a katar, having grown partial to the blades. Then she grabbed a sword, slung it over her shoulder, and also chose a medium-sized round buster shield.

  The chants of “Not-a-Male” grew louder. Terra remembered that just a few days ago, she had loved hearing that chant. Had felt as if there were people who understood how powerful she was capable of being. Now she realized it was nothing but false hope. Those people didn’t give a shit about her. They were merely entertained by her attempts to stay alive.

  Terra had also been outfitted with armor for the first time. It was similar to what her orc guards wore. It was thicker than leather, probably made from a hide Terra wouldn’t have recognized, yet it wasn’t as bulky or heavy as the armor she had seen the Game Master’s guards wearing.