Skirmish (The Stork Tower Book 8)

by Tony Corden

  “H▽: It is not so much an insight, as information on one who was at one time close to you. Rana, daughter of Namus, who was once your companion, was filled with remorse and despair when she learned that you were not responsible for the atrocities done to Clan Molven. Vowing to make amends, she set out in search of you. Unfortunately, her path took her into the area known by many as Kansisi, the Valley of Mists. She was captured by those who call the valley home and suffers greatly at their hands. She is weary, and even as we speak, her hope of rescue fades.”

  Before even as the last of his words were typed out on Leah’s finger, Umut disappeared.

  59

  December 29, 2073

  DUNYANIN

  Stunned, Leah didn’t move for several seconds. Finally, the restlessness of those around her made her skin itch. She took a deep breath then turned to face Brin and the army.

  “Brin, I accept your oath and declare you to be my Paladin. As such, I charge you to lead this army. You have at your command those from Clan Guàn, a contingent from the Günahkâr clans and the dwarven mages of Clan Kraliçenin Çekiçleri. I name you Lady Brin, High Commander of the Imperial Clans.”

  Leah took a chest from her backpack and handed it to Brin, then continued, “Inside, you will find my gifts to thank you for your service and to help you in your task.”

  Leah then handed Brin one of the rings to control the Arch and said, “As my Paladin, I honour you. I will be open to your counsel and seek only to set before you tasks that support Clan Guàn and the Empire’s values. I will steadfastly, in good faith and without deceit, show, and observe all respect toward you. This ring is a symbol of my oath. With it, you will control my arch for the benefit of the clans and the Empire. I name you Defender of Atherleah’s Arch.”

  Brin placed the ring on her finger, then gathered the four chests and stepped forward to stand beside Leah. Facing the army, she said, “B☼: Empress Atherleah, I thank you for the trust you have shown me. Clans, once you are dismissed, gather your goods. I want to be on our way within the hour. Dismissed.”

  As the army turned to prepare for departure, Leah took the choker which controlled the demonic megapede from her backpack and handed it to Brin. She said, “This isn’t really a gift so much as a loan. I think it’s best left with you and should help with the logistics.”

  Brin studied the choker, then placed it around her neck. Leah said, “It is over twenty metres in length, so make sure you visualise it in an open space.”

  Pointing to a large open area, Brin willed the megapede to appear. Brin took half a step back when the megapede appeared. Leah continued, “I’ve checked the forums, and nothing mentions what it eats, but I suspect you’ll find out along the way. When I got it, it was at a higher level than its owner, so I suspect it can grow larger than it is. If nothing else works, I have some growth hormone you could try.”

  Brin stepped forward and, touching the huge creature, willed it back into the choker. Leah said, “Also, the spells on the arch were designed so the arch itself can be transported similarly to pets. With the ring on, you should be able to concentrate and will the arch to shrink. Set the size in your mind so it’s small enough to carry pretty easily.”

  Looking at the arch, Brin tightened the hand with the ring and willed the arch to become a small statue. The arch shimmered and disappeared. A replica, which came to Brin’s knees, appeared in front of her. Brin picked it up and said, “B☼: Thank you for this. Are you still OK with where I decided we’d head to first?”

  “Absolutely. I imagine the clan will love it. Just don’t forget to set up one of the portable resurrection stones. Also, everything there is dangerous and will attack at the first opportunity, so don’t let your guard down and don’t trust anything.”

  Brin stepped away a few minutes later to make sure everything was packed up and let people load the megapede with their belongings. Yürek asked, “Y☼: How long before you want the rest of us to leave?”

  “Almost immediately after the army leaves would be best. Lord Umut passed on some information that means we need to move even faster than I’d planned. When I next travel in my dreams, I’ll check the clues for the Merkize quest to see if there are any vital quests between here and a place called the Valley of Mists. Even if there are, we may not stop; it depends on what they are and if they’re at all time-sensitive. I’d like to be halfway across the Yabani Wastelands before we stop for the night, so we’ll take to the air. Mĕi, Mìng and I should be able to carry the team and the guards.”

  While she waited for the clans to finish getting ready, Leah wandered through the camp, greeting people she knew and taking time to meet new people as well as encouraging those who’d performed well the day before. Finally, the clans were ready and lined up, ready to run through the arch once it was open. Leah reminded Brin that the size was controlled to some extent by her visualisation.

  When Brin was ready, she took the statue of the arch from her bag and willed it to appear, but visualised it slightly larger than it had been when it was created. Once it was standing in front of the army, she touched the ring and cast the spell to open the portal. The spell itself was a double combination spell that first used Enunciation and Intention to create the portal. The second spell focussed on Evocation and Intention to choose the end location. Leah had been embarrassed by its final form. Still, the handbook had set out the necessary parameters, and this was the least embarrassing of all the options. Brin said, “B☼: By mana freely given, for Atherleah, Clan and Empire, open the way.”

  A clear, clean, pure sound rang out from the arch as the centre was filled with mist, which slowly resolved to show two discs suspended in what looked like silver energy. One disc was a replica of the marble disc, which represented Vatan. The other was a replica of that created to show Çaresiz. Leah couldn’t hear the sound, but she could feel on her skin the images as they formed in the mist. Brin concentrated on the disc of Çaresiz until it expanded to fill the arch. Very few details were evident as not very many had yet been able to find a way to the demon realm, and very little had been mapped. Through the centre of the arch was a line which showed where Leah had been on her visit. Brin concentrated on one end—the one Leah had said marked the end of her journey.

  As Brin focussed on the end, the centre pulsed twice. Then, everyone could feel the temperature change as the arch opened a tunnel to the warm, arid, red-orange wasteland of the demon lands. Here and there, they could see some vegetation with brown and black leaves with Çaresiz’s distinctive red edgings. In the centre of the portal, they could see a volcano rising to the sky several leagues away, jutting up into the purple sky with streaks of green cloud moving overhead. A smile filled Brin’s face, and lifting her sword, she yelled, “B☼: For Atherleah, Clan and Empire!”

  As the army echoed her war cry, she ran through the now open portal followed by the combined clans. In less than three minutes, the entire army had run through the portal. Leah could feel them spreading out into the wasteland, already setting up a defensive position. Brin had stopped just on the other side of the portal. When the last member was through, she waved then cancelled the spell. The centre of the arch pulsed with light, and then disappeared.

  Thad turned to Leah and teased, “T: Did you make up that new war cry? For Atherleah, Clan and Empire—do we have to yell that too?”

  Leah turned so her empty eyes stared at him, then turned away, completely ignoring the comment. Still on the mountain were the members of her quest team, Thad, Granite, Val and Shaman. With them were Wisp, Amy, Mist, Melez, Mĕi, Mìng and thirteen Günahkâr. Leah said, “Is everyone ready?”

  After noting a positive response from everyone, she said, “Then climb aboard.”

  As she finished typing, she changed into her dragon form. Amy, Wisp and Melez, with three guards, climbed onto Mĕi. Mist, Granite, Val and Shaman with five Günahkâr guards climbed onto Mìng while the rest climbed to rest on Leah’s back in front of her wings. She formed seats for the
m among her spikes. Once everyone was in position, Leah leapt off the edge of the cliff with Thad screaming out, “T: For Atherleah, Clan and Empire!”

  Leah dove almost vertically down the edge of the mountain for several hundred paces before flaring her wings to level out. The three flyers spiralled upward until they caught a westward air current, then began speeding toward the pseudo-horizon several hundred leagues away. Leah was still the slowest, so she led the way, followed by Mĕi and then Mìng. Even with the air current, Leah calculated they were managing almost forty leagues an hour. This was about what she’d planned, so after two-and-a-half hours she began to search ahead for a place to rest. She was tired and needed a break before another stint which would hopefully see them crossing the region known as the Yabani Wastelands.

  The wasteland itself was largely unexplored. While it was called a wasteland, this was more to do with the wildlife and population’s savagery and hostility than as a description of the vegetation. The wastelands were a place where civilisation of any sort had disappeared. A place where small primitive tribes of fierce vicious warriors eked out an existence as they tried to survive the environment while protecting their territory from others. There were dozens of tribes, some human, some elven. There were dwarven tribes as well as tribes from the dark races. Each tribe venerated a different predator; this served as their totem and symbolised their honour.

  Being in a hurry, Leah was hoping to skirt the edge of the wasteland and not get caught up in any quests. She was sure that if she came into contact with the different tribes, it could get out of hand. She was also confident that the AI overseeing her position of Empress had any number of storylines to explain her appearance. This was sure to be the case as, when she’d rung the Bell of Ascension in Dag Tarafind that led to her claiming the Empire, it had reset the loyalty of the different tribes so they would acknowledge Leah as their ruler.

  Leah finally noticed an upthrust of rock that appeared devoid of any life forms to her senses. It rose several hundred paces above the surrounding forest. It had a reasonably flat top with what looked like a circular pond near the centre. She hesitated briefly but decided there was nothing else that gave as much protection, so she slowly circled down towards it. Once the three fliers had landed, everyone dismounted to stretch their legs. As they rested, Leah, back in her half-elf half-human form, wandered around the top of the spire as she chatted with Thad and Wisp. The Günahkâr had spread out around the edge while both Mĕi and then Mìng lay on the warm rock and dozed. The others talked quietly or lay on the warm rock to rest.

  After half-an-hour, Leah reluctantly called an end to the break and transformed back into her dragon form. Once everyone had climbed aboard, Leah pushed herself into the air then used her powerful wings to climb back up to the fast-moving air current they’d been using to speed the flight. Forty-five minutes later, Leah felt a change in the land beneath her and realised they’d almost reached the wastelands. Leah started calculating their speed when, between one breath and the next; not only did the image on her body change, but her body was suddenly fully human, and she was sitting on the sofa in the Tower. She was completely disorientated as her mind continued to move her arms as if flying, but her body did nothing except sit without moving on the sofa. It took several seconds for her mind to realise she wasn’t flying and to stop trying, either to fly or stagger to her feet. When Three realised she understood where she was and had her body and mind in sync, it relinquished total control of Leah’s body back to her.

  It took Leah almost half-a-minute to slow her heart rate from the sudden rush of adrenaline. Finally, she said, “What happened?”

  “3: The connection to the multiverse was cut. All of Guàn Enterprises has been disconnected, including backup cables and wireless connections. There is a hard connection to Jimmy Loo at the Switch which appears to work, but I cannot connect to the multiverse even using that connection. All forms of electronic access to the multiverse have been severed.

  — END OF BOOK 8 - SKIRMISH —

  Excerpt from Book 9 - War

  December 29, 2073

  REAL WORLD

  Leah took a deep breath to calm herself, then asked, “Do you have any idea why we’ve been cut off?”

  Gèng appeared opposite Leah and said, “4: We had no warning, but I suspect it has to do with the interview you gave. Erica sold her first segment just over four virtual hours ago, and it went viral. The most significant reaction was in the lower-class areas, but it had reached almost half-a-billion views when her second segment hit the air two hours ago. When the second segment came out, Erica was restricted from the multiverse and arrested by the Australian Federal Police on the orders of the Australian Federal Communication, Entertainment and News Security Operations Registrar. She was subsequently charged with inciting violence in the community.

  “The authorities ordered her to withdraw both segments from viewing, but she’d sold the ‘Authority to Broadcast’ rights, and she had no way of restricting people from watching. Her contract included a per-view royalty fee. The authorities have upgraded the charge to include receiving money for acts of terror. They’ve made it illegal to broadcast or view the segments inside Australia’s virtual borders. Since then, the authorities have discovered that Erica had already completed and pre-sold the last two instalments. The Australian Federal CENSOR initiated court action seeking injunctions against the news agencies who’d bought the other segments hoping to prevent their broadcast. Just before our access was cut, there was an announcement that the International Court had ruled against the Australian regulator’s request.

  “Sharon had contacted Olivia even before the first segment was broadcast, and Olivia was ready when there were calls to censure you. She had prepared statements by leading linguists, lawyers and political commentators, which showed that regardless of how Erica had framed your comments, nothing you said could be construed as either inflammatory or anti-government. Olivia was still in court when we lost access.”

  “Ask whoever is overseeing security now that John’s not here if they can contact Jimmy and find out how widespread the cuts are. I’ll take a break and then spend some time reviewing the plan Lacey and John have prepared. Is that set to go?”

  “4: Yes.”

  With that, Leah logged out of the Pod.

  After a shower and dressing, Leah made her way to the kitchen. She wasn’t surprised to sense that almost all the pod users had logged out and were congregated in the communal space. Leah made her way past the different groups. Several people turned to ask her questions. She simply shook her head and said, “Sorry, at the moment, I don’t know much more than you do. Let me get a handle on what’s happening, and then I’ll let you know.”

  Lin had seen Leah approaching and filled a plate with sandwiches. Lin said, “Here, take this. Come sit with the family.”

  Leah thanked her mother then headed to a corner table where she sensed her dad and Conner were sitting. Saoirse was sitting on Conner’s knees and playing with his fingers. Nothing much was said until Lin arrived then Michael asked, “D☼: So, how does being shutdown affect your plans?”

  “It definitely isn’t helpful, but just how much will depend on what else is happening. I can’t answer until I hear back from Jimmy about how widespread the lockouts are and what else is being done.”

  “D☼: I bet the government is madder than ever. I saw most of the first interview you did with that reporter. The reporter not only showed your answers but added details she’d picked up from other sources. It wasn’t so much what anyone said as the way she made you think that there was more she could ask but wasn’t. The unspoken questions were pretty pointed.”

  Gèng interrupted the conversation, “4: Leah, Jimmy just sent word that both John and Isabel were located and arrested after leaving here to head for the rendezvous. Also, even though Olivia won the case in court, the authorities are on the way to arrest you. You need to leave for the Switch if you want to get away.”