by P. R. Adams
Sapphire light sparkled along the side of the drone. “This is an unfortunate development.”
Riyun gritted his teeth. “Mind sharing what this means?”
The wizard sucked his bottom lip. “It’s from darker days. There were tales of echoes in the abyss, ripples that were from the time of formation. Some believed that those echoes were the voices of great powers from far beyond. It’s said the dragons are aware of these powers because of their direct connections with the magic from the depths.”
Great powers from far beyond. That sounded a lot like something Beraga’s team might use to continue influencing the world. Riyun could tell by Quil’s reaction that he was thinking along those same lines, but they would need to talk to be sure. “And this is uncommon?”
Once again, the pale light sparkled along the drone’s sides. “It was warned of in prophecy. ‘The betrayer will see the darkness beyond and will enter it willingly.’”
“And—” Fassyl hooked his thumbs in the twine belt pressed tight against the bottom of his belly. “—it is uncommon. Unheard of for millennia.”
Alush’s motor hummed for a second. “Troubling.”
Naru was at the back of the group, sticking close to Symbra. Riyun jerked his head toward them. “Quil, we’ve got some updates to pass along.”
They drifted toward the back of the formation, slowing when Lonar raised his head. “Lieutenant? What’s going on?”
“Nothing to worry about.”
“You got the brain trust going up there. Leaves the rest of us worrying.”
Riyun waved Quil on and fell in at the tweak’s side. “I think we surprised our local guides with what we saw last night.”
“That dancer? She was an eyeful. I wish we hadn’t hurried out.”
“They’re more concerned with what she told Quil.”
The big man stomped on a clump of grass, releasing a sharp, mineral smell. “Don’t really like this place with all its weird things. This dirt, it’s mostly sand. Did you notice that?”
“I did. Is that really what you wanted to talk about, Lonar?”
“It’s this Meriscoya. I keep hearing he’s some sort of special guy. Hirvok said you think he’s a clone of Beraga.”
“He looks like it to me. And it goes along with what we’ve heard about him being special. He could be tweaked to be special.”
“That’s what I hear. A pseudo and a tweak, maybe.” The big man winced.
“Is that going to be a problem?”
“Huh? Oh, you mean would I hesitate to shoot?”
“We need to know that we can count on you.”
The heavy weapons expert patted his autocannon. “You got my support. It’s just…”
“Yes?”
“Well, if I’d been born special—you know, a Silver or a wizard or whatever—I wouldn’t imagine wasting that opportunity to be…good. You know, you’ve got a chance to do the right things, but you choose to hurt people?”
“People are hard to figure out sometimes.”
“I know.” Lonar glanced at Hirvok, who was out on the eastern edge of the formation. “Still makes me want to try, though.”
“That’s good. So long as it doesn’t slow you pulling the trigger.”
“Not for a second.”
Riyun patted the big man’s shoulder and fell back to where Quil marched beside Naru, a few steps ahead of Symbra. It was quaint the way the young man stole furtive glances at the hacker and sad the way she seemed to ignore him. Riyun would have to pull the pseudo aside and explain her situation. Hopefully, it was nothing more than the previous connection waiting for her that led to her behavior. If it were a problem with Quil being a pseudo…
When Riyun settled between Symbra and the hacker, he spotted Javika drifting in from the west flank. If there were a problem, she would have been running or would have radioed, so he had to assume she was curious.
Or she once again felt compelled to stop his imagined flirting with Symbra.
That was fine. He could update her just as easily now as later. “Quil update the two of you yet?”
Symbra sighed. “I’m not sure what to make of it, but yes.”
“Well, if there’s any consolation in it, I don’t think anyone feels good about this development.” He nodded at Javika as she took up a position on the opposite side of the Onath woman. “We were just updating everyone on what the seer told Quil last night. Apparently, she wasn’t just some scam artist after all.”
The Biwali warrior stared off to the west. “You often justify your prostitutes as information sources.”
“They sometimes are, but it’s not really relevant here.” Riyun avoided Naru’s gaze when she glanced back at him. “What we’ve learned is important.”
“What is that?” Javika deftly sidestepped a hole in the ground.
“Apparently, Meriscoya has sought out some sort of new magic beyond wizardry.”
After a moment, Javika grunted. “This job continues to worsen.”
“We couldn’t have known it would be like this when we took it.”
“No. But it feels as if we were never intended to be paid.”
“I did what I could to vet Yola.”
“There is no vetting a liar.”
“A—” The word stung until Riyun realized Javika was talking about Yola Tromon. “I’ve told you, I think she sincerely wants her daughter back.”
“And she could want Beraga’s company.”
“Zabila’s our only concern. If we can find her, we will.”
Symbra sucked in a breath. “With the difference in how time passes between this dimension and ours, she could have died years ago. Without a communication network, I can’t imagine finding her here.”
“We’re not giving up. Quil, you said they must have used the Golgar Portal technology for all this. Could that be behind the time shift they used to speed up the universe creation?”
The pseudo had been staring at the hacker while she was distracted, and now he quickly looked away. “N-nothing else could explain the creation and evolution process, assuming they began the project ten years ago.”
“Well, it’s been weeks here. We have to assume Beraga and his team have only experienced the passage of a short amount of time. Maybe that ends up being an advantage for us?”
Javika nodded. “A chance to plan.”
“Yes. Once we kill Meriscoya. Assuming we have an opportunity to return home, maybe we can do so before Beraga has a chance to ready himself.”
Naru squeezed her eyes shut. “All I want is to get back home, away from all this death.”
“I’ll get you there. Remember, though, this is war. We were hired to retrieve Zabila. We’ve done what we can to avoid collateral damage. Those escaped slaves attacked us.”
“I know. But those dragons…”
So many cities and towns and villages they’d seen burned to the ground. “If we get a chance, we’ll stop this madman. At least now we know where he’s staying.”
With each step, the Kramirya Mountain range drew closer, less than a week away. The ruins of Quayir Yvar were on this side of the mountains. If Meriscoya was still there when they arrived, what traps would he have readied for them? They were no longer protected from the dragons, at least according to Naru and Quil’s theory about legends and games.
Riyun had sworn he would get his team home, but he was losing confidence now. The mad wizard was working with new magic, he was in a protected valley, and he knew his enemies were coming.
They needed advantages if they hoped to kill the mad wizard. Lots of advantages.
And Riyun couldn’t think of one.
52
There was no easy access to the valley that held the ruins of Quayir Yvar. Riyun accompanied Javika on three scouting runs, and each time they aborted before getting into the valley proper.
They tried the southern entry first, but gave up when they reached a hidden bog that nearly dragged them both beneath the foul, frigid water. Going arou
nd the bog required climbing sheer walls and negotiating treacherous rock fields.
Their second attempt was the north entry. That proved just as bad, littered as it was with hidden pits and rock slides.
With the light of day fading, they tried the eastern valley wall, but they quickly abandoned that when cover proved inadequate and what had appeared to be promising ledges turned out to be unsteady and dangerous.
So now they observed the valley from the western wall, the only apparent point of access for the team. Heavily loaded, needing to move with speed, and concerned about cover in case of discovery, they had to proceed carefully.
With darkness less than an hour away, it was up to Naru to convince Alush to make a recon flight over the quiet valley.
Riyun tested his cable as he listened to the hacker and the prophet–drone arguing. At his side, Javika shifted her rear around for the descent.
“How is it possible?” The Biwali warrior shook her head.
“Getting into the valley? It seems—”
She grunted. “For a machine to be a coward.”
Riyun grinned. “I’m sure there’s a good reason.”
“Nothing has moved down there all day. The slightest sound reaches our ears, it is so quiet. Why must it be so worried?”
“It’s going to make noise.”
“Hmph.”
Hirvok crawled up toward the top of the western ridge, stopping once to stare at the drone before coming to a stop beside Riyun. “You’re thinking of using that thing for recon?”
Riyun wasn’t in the mood for a Hirvok argument. “You have a better idea?”
“I sure do. How about we find where that wizard is hiding, and I set up a little sniper roost until he shows his pretty, cooked face again.”
“He can apparently move around without physically crossing spaces.”
“Pshaw! You really think what you saw in that dancer’s place was real?”
“Why wouldn’t it be?”
The sergeant studied the valley floor. “You and Quil. Some pretty thing shakes her hips, and you two—”
“Why would she fake that? What did she gain?”
“How about that bag of coins your pseudo gave her, huh? That had to be a nice chunk of change.”
“He never promised her anything more than a coin or two. But you would know that, if you’d bothered to ask.”
“Whatever. Even if this guy doesn’t walk around much, all I would need would be a few seconds of him out in the open. Then it’s a soft squeeze, and all our problems are solved.”
“Except they wouldn’t be.” Riyun glanced over his shoulder at the top of the ridge. “We kill him, we still have to worry about those dragons.”
“So you get the explosives ready. When they show up, you toss everything you’ve got down on top of them.” Hirvok made a fist and wrapped his other hand around that, then pulled them apart and made the noise of an explosion. “Then we’re stocked with dragon burgers for the winter.”
“That won’t work. Not on the big one, and that’s the one that matters.”
“We get it down to just that one big dragon, and I like our odds.”
Riyun would take those odds, too. The problem was, there was no way they would get so lucky. Maybe Hirvok could get a shot at Meriscoya. Maybe it would kill the wizard. But that wasn’t going to get rid of the dragons, and those were just as deadly.
They needed to know where the wizard and the dragons were hiding.
Javika crawled to the ridge top and edged along the wall, stopping when she found a place to secure her cable. “Those ruins, they are on this side of the lake.”
What had Fassyl said? This was a twin city to his home, Awurda?
Riyun joined her at the ridge line. There was definitely a similarity between the two sets of ruins, with ancient, weather-aged limestone foundations and columns built along the western edge of a huge lake.
That should have been disturbing and maybe even frightening, but Riyun was becoming immune to surprise. After all, Naru had said that many legends, stories, and games had elements of improbable coincidence. Was it really so great a surprise that the prophet would take them to the ruins where their best hope lived, only to discover that their enemy had set himself up in essentially the same ruins a little over two weeks away?
The soft hum of the drone’s motor brought Riyun around.
Alush hovered a few feet back. “What can be seen by the systems in this machine can be ascertained through other means.”
More excuses. Riyun pulled his binoculars out of his backpack. “You were the only fully equipped reconnaissance drone we had space for. None of our gear has the sophistication or range of your cameras.”
“This machine makes too much noise in such silence.”
“You don’t have to fly into the valley. Let Naru run the optics remotely, and all you have to do is fly up there—” Riyun pointed to the clouds overhead. “—over the valley. One hundred, two hundred feet up from this position, and you’ll get imagery that will answer all of our questions.”
Javika pressed her forehead against her upturned palms. “I can go into the valley and return before it gives us what we seek.”
Riyun shushed her. “Alush, there’s no more risk to this than simply being up here on the ridge.”
The drone emitted a sound that could have been a sigh. “Giving the young woman access to this machine’s optical systems seems a safe approach to take. We have consulted about this possibility. Now, I will perform the requested reconnaissance.”
Alush spun around and sped back downslope until past where Fassyl and Lonar rested, then the drone shot south, slowly gaining altitude as it went. By the time it had reached the southern entry into the valley, it was at least fifty feet higher than Riyun’s position.
Javika groaned. “We should pry out its cameras and use them ourselves.”
It was an appealing idea, but it would mean blinding the prophet. “Let’s see what Naru can do.” Riyun waved to the hacker, who waved back distractedly. She must already be running the optics.
Seconds dragged by, then the drone—mostly hidden in low clouds—made a slow pass over the valley. It descended several feet when it reached the edge of the ruins. Nothing moved below, and the lake surface seemed black and smooth as glass.
The drone stopped at the north end of the valley, hovered for a few minutes, then retraced its path. This time, it flew a little lower and slower. Then it flew back to the north end of the valley before finally dropping from sight. It rejoined them several minutes later.
Riyun slid down the slope, then hurried over to Naru. “What’ve we got?”
The hacker chewed her bottom lip. “It’s not good.”
“It made three runs. Is there some sort of interference?”
“I mean that you’re not going to like it. What you see.” She handed her tablet over to him. “I’ve marked what I think you’re looking for.”
A still image of the valley filled the display. Shadows obscured many sections, but the relevant details were clear enough. On the north side of the lake, a strange structure had been erected: a marble pillar set upon a broad limestone slab. Three sets of steps rose up to that slab—north, west, and south. About four hundred feet to the northeast, Naru had circled a particularly dark shadow at the base of the eastern valley wall. Almost parallel to that, but on the western side of the valley, she’d circled another dark shadow.
Riyun drilled down on the larger eastern shadow. “A cave entrance?”
“I think so.” The hacker looked over his shoulder. “I think the one on the left—the west wall—is actually something built into the rock. The other one…”
“A natural formation?”
“Or at least it looks natural.”
Two different places for their enemy to hide. It made sense, what with the natural animosity between human and dragon, Riyun had been hoping for something easy for once. “One day, we’re going to get the perfect job: an idiot target we can
take out with minimal effort, and an even dumber customer who pays us ten times what the job is worth.”
Naru squinted. “Are you serious? Does that ever happen?”
“Only in my dreams.”
“Oh.”
He gathered everyone around. “All right, we have our answers. Our targets are hiding in caves on either side of the valley. When it gets dark, we descend the western wall. We do like we did at Awurda: Use the ruins for cover as we advance on our target. Hirvok, you and Lonar have overwatch.”
Lonar held up a huge hand. “Won’t we be limited in what we can cover if we’re on this side?”
“There’s only one wizard, and I’m betting he’s in the western cave.”
“So, we’re only worried about keeping an eye on the dragons?”
Riyun wrestled with how to address those concerns, then settled on his typical approach: openness and honesty. “If what we saw in that seer’s bowl was real, then Meriscoya can move around unseen or without covering physical spaces.”
Symbra’s brow furrowed. “Teleportation? You can’t be serious.”
“Tarlayn transported us out of the catacombs.”
“Did she?”
“It seemed like it. Anyway, it’s no more outlandish than a wizard riding dragons and…” Riyun pointed at the artifact in Fassyl’s chubby hands.
The fat wizard tugged on his beard. “Covering great distances in an instant can be done. I haven’t seen it, but there were a few wizards rumored to have this knowledge. And with someone who consults with a dark patron…” He shrugged.
That seemed to rattle the young Onath. “But if he can teleport, how do we even kill him?”
Riyun caught the irritation in Javika’s eyes—she would rather descend to the valley alone than deal with the process. He cleared his throat. “Meriscoya has to occupy space at some point. He didn’t just show up at the Lyceum and blow it up without us seeing him. He’s not completely disappearing from this world.”
Hirvok patted his long weapon barrel. “Flush him out, and I’ll take care of the rest.”
Although such confidence was misplaced, Riyun appreciated the effect it had on the others. “Once we get into the ruins, we split into two teams. Symbra, you take Naru and Quil and head for the eastern cave entrance. Set the explosives up there, then get back to cover. If the dragons are in fact inside, the more of them we can incapacitate, the better.”