by P. R. Adams
Quil plucked the old wizard’s bloody hand from the staff. “It would make sense. Despite everything.”
Symbra bowed her head. “Or we could retreat and regroup. Maybe we can recover the sniper rifle and autocannon—”
“Recover our weapons?” Hirvok guffawed. He strutted out of the darkness, covered by dirt but alive. “You don’t give me and Tank enough credit.”
The heavy weapons expert limped toward the group. “Too tough to kill.”
Riyun spotted movement at the cavern mouth. “All right. Into the labyrinth. Maybe we can lose the dragon that way.”
Javika took off at a trot, but she slowed once she realized how banged up some of the others were. While they jogged along, Riyun kept an eye on the cavern entry behind them. Meriscoya was wounded, and Niyalki didn’t seem much better off, but the two of them were still dangerous. Killing the mad wizard would probably eliminate the other threat.
Quil huffed up to Riyun. “Lieutenant… Lightning. There is a possibility we have failed to consider.”
“A good one?”
“Unfortunately, no.”
“I guess that was asking too much. What is it?”
“In some stories–tragedies–the heroes fail.”
A part of Riyun wanted to laugh. “That’s it? This isn’t really a game built for heroes? Could Total Rewrite even sell that?”
“That is another possibility we have failed to consider: What if the purpose of the game is not what we thought?”
“What do you mean?”
“What if the design is intended as a one-way trip?”
“Kill the players?”
“Or at least leave them in this world.”
“We did consider that.” But Riyun now wondered if he’d been wrong to cast the idea aside.
Javika held her hand up as they approached marble steps that led up to a columned opening. Golden light flickered from somewhere deep inside. “I marked the path I took. I was close when he fled.”
Riyun swapped in a fresh magazine. “You saw him in there?”
“I saw a door and a chamber beyond. I heard him say something, then there was a bright light.”
That would have been when he blasted the valley wall, just before showing up in the valley to kill Fassyl. “And you think he returned to the chamber?”
“Where else could he go? He is wounded.”
Symbra put a booted foot on the first step. “This could be our best chance, I guess.”
Hirvok flicked a clump of dirt from his armor. “We gotta do this.”
Naru and Quil nodded. There really wasn’t much choice.
Riyun held his hand out for the artifact. It felt like it looked: solid, heavy. But it didn’t feel like an artifact. “Is the magic gone?”
Naru took it back. “I don’t think so. I don’t think you could undo something so powerful.”
“Well, it sure looks undone.”
“There’s still something in there. I can…”
Quil gently wrapped his hand around hers. “Feel it. Yes. There is energy within.”
The hacker smiled. “I think I can—” She bowed her head. “I think we can figure it out. If we have to.”
Something about the night shifted. It was like a pressure pushing against Riyun’s chest.
The dragon. It was out of the caverns. Would it come for them?
He rushed up the steps and stared through the entry. The flickering was fire. Torches, lamps—who knew what the wizard needed to light the place. “Whisper, you’re on point. Neon, you stay with me. Tank, you’ve got the rear. Stay sharp.”
Javika kept them moving, only once in a while pausing to show where she’d marked her path. Rather than tunnels cut from stone, they moved through narrow, carved stone block hallways lined with support pillars. Fires burned in braziers and sconces, giving off just enough light to make navigation possible.
It was unsettling the way a passage could seemingly go on, only to be abandoned. But Javika moved with confidence. She knew her way.
Before long, she waved for them to stop. “The door to the chamber.”
There was no mistaking it: a door of stone. Bright light came from the room beyond.
Riyun caught odd sounds—a hiss, a grating, whimpering. He signaled for people to take up positions on either side of the door, then readied to charge inside. Javika drew her sword and nodded.
She blazed through, and he followed almost immediately.
The chamber beyond was square, and it was huge. Candles and lamps revealed a luxurious bed at the center, and a bathtub against the far wall. Flashlights drove shadow from alcoves and niches, a desk and chair, chests and crates, rugs and drapes.
But there was no sign of Meriscoya.
Except…for dark droplets on the stone floor.
Javika knelt beside a few of the droplets, removing her glove to test the liquid. “Blood.”
Riyun waved the others in, then signaled for them to stop when he heard the whimpering again. Female. Not the wizard.
A trap?
He deployed the team so there were eyes on every opening that could hide someone. Then he and Javika began checking those openings. On the third one, she found a switch. Riyun waved the others closer as the Biwali warrior flipped it.
Stone ground against stone, and a door revealed itself. Beyond that door was another chamber with candles and lamps. It was equally large and square and had the same dark niches and alcoves that could hide so much, but it was unfurnished other than a few braziers with low fires. Four pillars stood in the center.
Chained to the closest, Kilani lay on her side. She shook her head and glanced at him with woozy eyes. “I warned you.”
Riyun hurried toward her, alert for Meriscoya. “Where is he?”
“Somewhere…in here.” An ugly welt was already swelling on the side of her head.
“Bring them in, Javika.”
The others filtered in, taking up positions to watch the alcoves. Keys hung off a ring that dangled from a hook set in one of the pillars. The third key undid the woman’s manacles. She was unsteady on her feet.
Riyun steadied her. “We’re going to get you out of here.”
The woman shook her head. “No one’s getting out.”
Firelight from the braziers took on a magenta tone, and Riyun caught the whisper of fabric. He spun around, just in time to see the wizard step from an alcove behind Naru. His staff glowed like a small, black sun.
Riyun brought his gun up. “Neon!”
The hacker spun around and gasped.
Meriscoya plunged the end of his staff through her chest as easily as if using a spear.
The artifact clattered to the floor, and Riyun fired.
But the wizard was already retreating, leaving behind only a small globe of coruscating magenta arcane energy.
That grew.
Heat radiated from the globe, and where the edge touched the fallen hacker, her armor disappeared with a sizzle and white smoke.
Quil ran to her. “Naru!” He stopped, holding a hand up to shield his eyes from the heat and light.
The power–the heat–coming from the globe would kill them all. Riyun dashed for the exit. “Let’s go!”
He stopped when the stone door slammed shut.
Then the heat and light grew as bright and terrible as the sun.
And he remembered Quil’s words: What if the intent is to make it a one-way trip?
Acknowledgments
Call of Destiny is the first trip into the Infinite Realms. The series explores a combination of military science fiction and portal fantasy in a way that I hope pays homage to the works of writers such as James Hudnall, the creator of Harsh Realm.
In the mid-1990s, when I was publishing comic books, James was one of the few industry professionals to reach out and provide welcome mentoring advice. He tried to warn me of pitfalls and dangers. What made this doubly cool was that I was a fan of his thanks to Espers, a series he’d done with Eclipse Comics (and th
en a few other companies). Imagine mixing psychic powers with espionage to get a feel for that.
I had hoped to reach out to James to write a forward for this series. Unfortunately, he passed away 9 April 2019, shortly before I completed the first draft.
For updates on new releases and news on other series, please visit my website and sign up for my mailing list at:
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About the Author
I was born and raised in Tampa, Florida. I joined the Air Force, and my career took me from coast to coast before depositing me in the St. Louis, Missouri area for several years. After a tour in Korea and a short return to the St. Louis area, I retired and moved to the greater Denver, Colorado metropolitan area.
I write speculative fiction, mostly science fiction and fantasy. My favorite writers over the years have been Robert E. Howard, Philip K. Dick, Roger Zelazny, and Michael Crichton.
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