Accounts Payable

by Blaise Corvin

  “Do it now, create the funnel.”

  Jessica nodded and expertly motioned with her wand, exerting her will and using some of her magic power. Tall, thick walls of earth shot out of the ground, their ends only about ten yards ahead of us, creating a “V” to channel all the angry lizardmen directly toward us. The walls would box them in, condense them. Some of the creatures hadn’t even noticed the new walls at first, but the ones that had didn’t care. We weren’t blocking them from us, after all.

  “Okay, it’s all you now, boss,” said Jessica, her face flushed. Such long, high walls had obviously been difficult for her to make so quickly.

  I tapped on my teamtalk device. “This is Flight One. Walls are up. Commencing checkmate. Flight Four, prepare to help us with cleanup in the next few minutes. Flight Five, prepare to move out with Six through the breach and support us. Flight Three, stay in the settlement and protect the civilians after Five and Six move out, over.” Christopher wouldn’t be happy that I’d just ordered him to stay in the settlement, but he’d understand why.

  Five clicks let me know everyone had heard me, even Jessica touching her stone next to me. I muted my stone again and prepared to act. Eneus would just get in my way, so I minimized the spear, letting it hang around my wrist.

  The horde of lizardmen got closer, but I stayed still, not wanting to let them know what was about to happen. They probably assumed that Jessica would use her flamethrower wand again, something they could push through to murder us, or even shoot their crossbows through. It was possible they weren’t thinking clearly at all, but none of it mattered.

  They were already dead; they just didn’t know it yet.

  When the time came, my fist came up and I triggered Pewpew, my deadly enchanted ring. A violet beam of destructive energy lanced out from my hand, scything through the ranks of thundering lizardmen like a spatula through thick cream. Even after all this time, the beam was hard for me to control, but I’d had a lot of practice. Immediately after the first blast, I triggered a second before the after-effects could hit me. I was tough now, much more resilient than I’d been in the past, but I still didn’t want to suffer through more than two Pewpew attack aftershocks at once.

  It still hurt to use the ring and took a lot out of me.

  Waves of exhaustion and agony slammed through my body. The familiar price for using the ring would be too much for a normal person to endure, but I would be fine in a few seconds. I blew out a breath, steadying myself as the backlash grew fainter.

  I’d destroyed more than half of the remaining lizardmen in less than a couple seconds.

  Jessica watched me with concern in her eyes, but nodded briskly, stepping forward and leveling her flamethrower wand again. Some of the lizardmen would still be stupid enough to push forward, and be burned alive for their troubles. I could already smell charred flesh and hear the popping of bodies rupturing from heat. Focusing on the individual enemies dying wasn’t necessary right now, so I didn’t. Tuning out carnage around me while still remaining alert had been a skill I’d developed fairly quickly in my military career.

  The rest of my team would be moving to the rear of the “V” that Jessica had created, killing the lizardmen trying to escape that way and mopping up around it too, hunting down any of the creatures that hadn’t been caught in the trap.

  I took one last look at Jessica, looking a question at her. She nodded at me, telling me without words that she’d be fine. I nodded and kicked off the ground, moving into the sky to watch the rest of the battle unfold from above. My armor would stop any lucky crossbow bolts, but I still kept a vib-shield up just in case. Careful soldiers stayed alive.

  The enemy was on the run, and I could see Benjamin in the distance, closing with a small group of lizardmen, ready to rip them apart with the huge claws of the giant leathery monster he’d turned into. The fight was already won, and while there was no real safety on a battlefield, it was unlikely that the handful of surviving lizardmen would seriously hurt any of my people. Lieutenant Chen was new but could still handle this level of monster threat with us. Like Jessica had said, these were just lizardmen.

  I wished my nervousness would go away, that the tickle would stop. With a shake of my head and a sigh, I rose higher into the air and drifted over the battlefield, slowly heading for the settlement.

  Maybe after meeting the colonists, I would be able to figure out why my feeling of unease kept getting stronger.

  Twists and Turns

  While still technically on a battlefield, there wasn't much risk to me anymore, at least not for the time being. I deactivated my armor to conserve power. It made sense to save it for when I might really need it.

  I decided to walk to the settlement, and since I didn’t know where the actual gates were, I headed for the hole in the wall. The earthen barriers Jessica had made were wide, stout, and would probably exist for longer than anything the settlers would build.

  Sometime these sorts of thoughts still settled deep, started messing with my relax switch. In a few seconds, after a single decision, my friend had created a landmark. As a girl, I’d had to dig for food in trash heaps. Now I commanded a team of people who changed the face of the world.

  I shook my head and spit. Deep thoughts with no answers or real direction weren’t worth thinking about. Right now there were real problems to deal with—I didn’t need to make any more up.

  A few lizardmen were still alive as I approached the wooden palisade. I caught motion out of the corner of my eye and turned to watch Benjamin as he helped clean up the last of the enemies. He’d changed one arm into a tentacle that had completely enveloped a struggling lizardman. Its arms were pinned to its sides, and the tentacle’s grip seemed tight enough that the monster had dropped its crude mace.

  Another enemy rushed the tall, bearded man, but his other arm transformed into a stony, insect-like pincer. He batted the lizardman’s halberd away, then his limb flowed again, shifting to a new form in the space of a single breath. After the new change, his arm ended in a terrifying demon wolf head. Like the big, fanged weapon it was, the head-hand caught the lizardman by the throat, tearing it out. Then Benjamin used the partially shifted limb to kill the struggling lizardman in the tentacle arm, biting its head off.

  I nodded my head in approval. Benjamin could use his partial shifts with deadly effect; I should know, I’d helped him learn to do it.

  When I reached the breach in the wall, I returned Eneus to its spear form, then let myself float up and forward through the hole. On the other side, a group of exhausted, bloody Terrans and a few Areva warily watched me. Directly in front of the breach were two orks I’d seen before.

  This close, the two monsters were truly impressive. Bigger and taller than the average Terran, lumpy ears, and slits for nostrils, they practically rippled with muscle. One wore a topknot and the other had shaved himself bald. Both were the mottled blue and brown of their kind. The ork with the topknot held a big shovel. The bald one had armed himself with a lizardman sword in either hand.

  I regarded the motionless group for a while as they stared at me. To one side, Christopher spread his hands and made a face; he didn’t know what was going on either. Finally, as the silence had stretched a few more seconds and I lost my patience, I asked, “Who is in charge here?”

  “Ah, that is me,” said a middle-aged man in a dirty, tattered smock. The bags under his eyes suggested many sleepless nights. His salt-and-pepper hair might have been neat and tidy in the past, but now it looked like a bird nest. I conceded his hat was nice, though; it had a feather in it.

  “I am Captain Hazard of the Tolstey Army,” I said. “You are?”

  “Olivare Smith. I am the village chief.”

  A village, eh? I thought. That sounds awfully independent for a colony mission. It wasn’t my problem if government employees started putting on airs, though. I asked, “Can you tell me what is going on with these orks, Smith?” My eyes moved to the monsters standing in front of me.


  The bald ork spoke quietly out of the side of his mouth, “This female destroyed all the weak creatures very quickly. She has great power. Do not make any sudden movements.”

  The one with the topknot said, “I know, Fiveslayer. This is obvious. Should we drop our weapons?”

  “No. If we are to die, we will die as Plains People, proud and strong. Besides, the Agent of War, Han-ri, would disapprove.”

  “Truth,” said Fiveslayer.

  I hadn’t really understood what the two orks were talking about, so I didn’t say anything, just cut an impatient gaze to Smith.

  He stammered, “These two came to our village to, uh, preach a couple weeks ago. We weren’t sure what to do with them. They were being completely non-violent and our biologist, Doctor Pluwa, was against killing them.” He nodded to an exhausted-looking, older Areva woman with a bandaged arm. “She could communicate with them some in Quadrant, and they willingly agreed to be, uh, imprisoned.”

  “Imprisoned?” I asked. Something else the man had just said tickled my brain too.

  “Yes. And we let them out after the lizardmen attacked. They helped us defend the village.”

  “That was brave,” I said, and meant it. Orks had a terrible reputation on Ludus, right up with bat men, and were some of the most dangerous demons seen in Tolstey.

  Smith wrung his hands before he realized what he was doing and put them in his pockets. “Well, Doctor Pluwa assured me they would help, and they did.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  The bald ork, Fiveslayer, asked the other one, “Deeproots, do you understand what they are saying?”

  “Some. They are talking about us. Maybe we can tell these soldiers about the Great Quest, about Tartooth and Kay-jah on this world. They can know of the god too!”

  “Perhaps,” said Fiveslayer. “We need to survive this, first. These soldiers are powerful. Try to look weaker. Suck in your tusks.”

  The exchange had been fast, but when Smith answered, he still ended up talking over Fiveslayer a bit. “Doctor Pluwa, you have spoken with them. You can answer better than I can.”

  “Yes,” said the Areva woman, stepping forward. “Before I answer, I suppose I should thank you and your people for saving Temple Hills.” She shot a look at Smith and he blanched.

  “Temple Hills?” I asked.

  “The name of this village,” she said.

  “This is settlement 54.”

  “We named it, wouldn’t you if you lived here?” The woman’s voice seemed to be more haughty by the minute. I wasn’t sure Areva could help themselves.

  Behind me, my team must have almost been done cleaning up the lizardmen. Even with my enhanced hearing, I wasn’t registering much more fighting. My patience was beginning to run out again, and it must have been obvious when I snapped, “Tell me about these orks.”

  “Ah, yes. Well, they seem to be missionaries, telling us about—”

  “Tartooth, yes, I just heard them say so.”

  All the villagers looked at me funny, and even the ork named Deeproots gave me a strange look. I didn’t change my expression as I reasoned out what happened—the orks hadn’t been speaking Luda, or even Quadrant. Now that I thought about it, the language was completely new to me, but I understood it. Damn Enheduanna! I mentally growled. This was a hell of a strange place to find out something so basic about my own abilities.

  Orb-Bonded people usually received knowledge of a new language when they are first ‘Bonded. For years now I’d just assumed I hadn’t gotten one. However, I just now found out that I could speak whatever language the orks spoke...a demon language.

  “Do you—” Smith began asking, but I silenced him with a look.

  I fixed the orks with a glare and in their language said, “You two are going to stay right here until I figure out what is going on. Deeproots and Fiveslayer, yes? You will also drop your weapons, now.”

  The orks gaped at me, but Fiveslayer found his tongue. “We must hold to—”

  “Did I stutter? No. The rest of my team is about to arrive, and I would like to avoid any misunderstandings. Some of them are a lot scarier than me.”

  The orks dropped their weapons.

  “How do you know—” began Doctor Pluwa. I ignored her.

  I asked, “Chief Smith, what is going on? Are more lizardmen coming?”

  The man wet his lips. “We don’t know. They first came and attacked about a week and a half ago, each group getting larger than the last. Everyone is tired, but we were holding out, especially with the help of John and Visto over there.” He gestured at a small, mustachioed older man dressed in casual clothing, and a tough-looking woman who gave off adventurer vibes. She had on a simple set of boiled leather armor, and had a giant crossbow in one hand, a sword on her hip.

  “Who are you?” I asked them, but the moment I actually got a good look at the woman, I heard a chime in my head and words began scrolling over my left eye.

  Visto Hollace, Ludan, Tolsteyan

  Dolos Orb, Strength and Endurance, Generation Four

  First Rank

  “Oh,” I said.

  The woman smirked and nodded at me. “Visto Hollace, first-rank strength-based orb-Bonded, as you no-doubt know now. That’s a neat trick, the mask,” she said and pointed at my face. “It never occurred to me.” She gestured at the older man. “This is John Irving, a fire mage.”

  “Ah.” I nodded. These two helped explain how the defenders had been holding out for so long.

  “The hole is from earlier today,” said Smith, heat rising in his voice. “A group of...people, came right when these new lizardmen were beginning an attack and blew a hole in the wall. Then they walked in like they owned the place. We thought they were here to help us at first, but they wouldn’t talk to anyone. Then they found Miss Davies, our village merchant, and killed her. After that they killed two of our guards who tried to stop them, took an image with a magic recording device and left.”

  “They left while the lizardmen were attacking?”

  “More or less. This was before the monsters all knew where the hole was, so they just...ran away.”

  “What were you two doing while this all happened?” I asked, looking at John and Visto.

  Visto shrugged. “One of them was stronger than me. They were actually wearing masks kind of like yours. I didn’t put together the significance until now. Based on how they were dressed, they were probably mercenaries or adventurers, one or more might have been orb-Bonded. I got knocked into a bunch of crates and was out of commission for a while. John had to pick up the slack and defend the village with the orks after the adventurers left. By the time I woke up, the rotting lizardmen were almost through the wall and John was out of power.”

  “I see.” I frowned. “You said they killed a...Miss Davies? Do you mean Samantha Davies?”

  “Yes,” answered Smith, a look of dismay passing over his face, like he couldn’t believe what he was saying. Like the rest of the defenders, he looked like he might actually be in shock.

  I sighed and ran my hand over my face. Samantha Davies had been the contact my team was supposed to liaison with after arriving in the settlement, if it had still existed. “Is there anything more you can tell me about these people, the attackers?” From behind me, I could hear the remaining members of my team getting close.

  Visto crossed her arms. “They were wearing masks like I said so I didn’t get a good look at their faces, but there was one man three women. The one giving orders had a pistol and was wearing a lacy outfit, but probably had armor underneath. It was the man who defeated me, a big, armored, rotting bastard. He called the bossy woman Jialji.”

  These days I was really good at controlling my emotions and my face, but something must have showed, because a few people took a step back. That name. Old, buried memories of being on the run from Bittertown, of watching Durben die, of meeting Enheduanna, they all came rushing back. “Did you catch any more names, or have any more information?”

 
Visto swallowed. “I thought I saw some fire. One of the women might have been a fire mage or orb-Bonded.”

  “Yes, there was fire,” confirmed Chief Smith.

  Visto scratched her face, maybe a bit embarrassed. “The man I fought, I think his name was Ben.”

  “Ben or Ven?” I said, and wondered, What are the odds?

  “It might have been Ven, I’m not sure,” stuttered Visto.

  “Did he have anything on his helmet, or any Fideli decorations?”

  “I think so. It all kind of happened fast. Do you know them?”

  “Jialji,” I hissed, and felt old wounds open, memories that had given me nightmares for years. The past kept running through my mind in perfect clarity, each detail preserved. I suddenly remembered what it was like to die on a dirt roadway, a spear through my stomach again. “Which way did they go?” I snarled.

  Nobody said anything, and some of them edged back from me. I moved my gaze back and forth, waiting for someone to say something, hoping but also dreading that someone would actually know more.

  A young girl stepped forward hesitantly. “Miss Davies used to give me cookies, but now she won’t wake up.” A woman, probably her mother, frantically motioned for her to come back, but she shook her head. The girl bit her lip. She asked me, “Auntie, will you track down the bad people?”

  “I think so, yes.” I felt cold, but my blood pressure kept rising.

  “The adults told us to stay away from the walls. I wasn’t supposed to look, but I wanted to see out.” She paused, perhaps assuming she was in trouble, and I was able to look past my emotional turmoil to see the scared, skinny, dirty little girl before me. I pushed on my anger, my dismay, bottling it up as I knelt before the girl.

  “What is your name?”

  “Madje,” she whispered, passing her doll from one hand to another.

  “What did you see, Madje?”

  She started to cry. “Everyone was running around, and nobody was watching. I wanted to see out, I wanted to see the monsters. My mom was so scared. She spanked me when I came back to the building.”