by Tom Larcombe
“If you throw a spell at these doors, it will go badly for you,” Djordji warned.
“I have the keys,” Merlin said.
Silence ruled in the hall for another minute as Merlin forced himself to wait until he thought Gunter and Johann were at the truck.
He opened the three doors, the one holding Verruckt last.
“The key for my chains isn't on there,” Verruckt said.
“Well then, tug as hard as you can.”
Merlin looked deep within the stone that the chains were bolted to. When he found tiny flaws and fissures in the stone, he widened them. Within moments, the first chain was free, although still around Verruckt's wrist. The second one followed soon after.
“Sorry, can't do anything about the chains themselves at the moment,” Merlin said.
“They'll make a good weapon to smash in that wizard's face if he shows up.”
Merlin went back out into the hallway, followed by Verruckt. The other two were standing there, waiting. Djordji was an older man, apparently in his forties, Pitti was younger, only in his late teens.
“Follow me and we'll get you out of here,” Merlin said.
He went back up the corridor towards the guard room. When he reached it, the door to the exit was closed.
“Wait. I left that door open and my friends wouldn't have closed it.”
Merlin split his awareness and peered at the door with his Sight.
“There's a spell on the door. It's going to discharge into anyone who opens it,” he said.
Verruckt looked at the door, then reached out and opened it. A bright flash of light filled the room when his hand touched the knob. Merlin looked towards the door with afterimages of the light dancing in his vision. For a moment Verruckt appeared different, much shorter and stockier. But when Merlin's vision cleared, the man looked normal and the chains were flickering with a blue-white light.
“Idiots, they chained me so I wouldn't drain their energy but never considered that I might be able to do the same to their spells.”
He opened the door and stepped into the hallway with Merlin close behind. The other two followed along after a few seconds. Before Merlin was halfway down the hall, unwelcome company arrived.
An SS officer stepped out at the far end of the corridor, between Merlin and the exit. A second man moved to stand beside him. The second man looked familiar, very much like the projection Merlin encountered during his scouting.
“The one in back is a wizard,” Merlin said.
“No, the both of them are,” Verruckt replied.
Verruckt stepped away from Merlin. He grasped the chains where they attached to the cuffs and began to spin the loose ends. Merlin braced himself for an attack, erecting physical and mental shields.
The SS officer stared intently past the swinging chains. Merlin could tell he was trying something and split off a tiny bit of awareness to use his Sight. He Saw small bolts of energy darting at Verruckt but evidently Verruckt did as well. The pattern the chains were swinging in changed, striking the energy and sending it smashing into the floor and walls.
Merlin Saw that the second man was forming a projection of himself. It coalesced slowly and began to move down the hallway. He ignored the projection for the moment and focused on the SS officer.
After his first attack was thwarted, the officer tried changed tactics. Merlin saw, with both his eyes and his Sight, a sphere of purple and black energy forming in the officer's hands. The sphere drifted away from the officer, floating purposefully down the hallway. Verruckt advanced to meet it.
Merlin turned his attention back to the second man. His projection was now halfway between his body and Merlin. A shimmering object formed in the projection's hand, solidifying into the form of a sword. As the projection advanced, it raised the sword high.
Merlin looked at the projection and then at the man's body. With a sigh, he sent his awareness to the body. The opposing wizard was using so much of his self in his projection that his body was relatively unguarded. A small bit of Merlin's power was sufficient to cause a ragged piece of cloth from the man's clothing to apport into his throat. The projection reached Merlin's body and brought the sword crashing down, only to find that Merlin's shields were sufficient protection to stop it from touching him.
The projection raised the sword again before realizing that its body was in distress. It vanished and Merlin Saw the man's self become resident in his body once more. The man's hands went to his throat but his airway was completely clogged. He collapsed a few seconds later without making a sound.
Merlin turned back to the officer and Verruckt. The officer was controlling the sphere, making it dodge the attacks from the chains. Verruckt had a bluish looking spot on one side of his face with a crust of rime surrounding the discolored portion. The sphere was smaller though and as Merlin watched it was struck by a chain.
The chain discharged a blue-white flash of light and the sphere responded by shrinking. Merlin moved his awareness beside the officer and found that there was a connection between him and the sphere.
He's controlling it mentally. I can break that, Merlin thought.
Merlin interposed his awareness between the officer and the sphere. He snapped a mental shield into place around his awareness, breaking the contact between wizard and sphere. Merlin glanced back to see a chain shatter the sphere into tiny fragments that immediately dissipated.
Verruckt came down the hall at a run, chains spinning at a dizzying speed. Merlin snapped his awareness back into his body just in time to see the chains strike the officer. The SS officer dropped quickly but Verruckt continued to strike.
Merlin cautiously approached him.
“You can stop now, he's no threat any more.”
Merlin had to repeat himself twice, louder each time, before the message got through. The other two former prisoners caught up to them while Merlin was repeating himself.
“So he isn't. I hope he's dead,” Verruckt said.
“If he's not, he's close enough. We need to leave. We have transportation and can get you away from this base but I'm afraid we'll have to drop you off after that. Our next mode of transportation is going to be overcrowded already.”
“Get me out of this place and I'll never be returning.”
“Yes, please get my son and myself out,” Djordji said.
“Follow me then.”
Merlin left the building and led the three ex-prisoners to the truck.
* * *
Chapter 19
On the way out they passed through the well-lit entryway. Merlin noticed that both Djordji and Pitti were wearing brightly colored silks, worse for wear, as part of their clothing.
“Djordji, the sound of your name and your clothing lead me to believe that you are Rom, is that so?”
Djordji nodded.
“Yes, I am.”
“I was given a message to pass to your people. I was asked to tell you that the beggar boy in silks came to a good end. Although, I believe the end he was speaking of will not fully occur until later this morning.”
“What is this? Plamen was the beggar boy in silks but he disappeared several months ago with his entire group.”
Merlin told him of his dealings with Plamen, summarizing as quickly as he could.
“There is more to the story than that, I can tell. But if what you say is true then the Rom owe you a debt for taking vengeance for Plamen and his people. What is your name? I shall spread the story among the Rom.”
“Merlin.”
Verruckt cackled.
“and they call me a madman? I always thought Merlin had a beard.”
Merlin's hand moved up to stroke his bare chin.
“I did, until a short while ago. I was among those who went bare-faced and I followed their custom so as not to appear suspicious. I was already viewed with distrust and saw no reason to stand out over something that I could replace in minutes,” Merlin said.
Verruckt shook his head.
“Verruckt, you are a wizard of sorts, are you not?”
“Yes. A highly skilled one although some say it came at the cost of my sanity.”
“Use your other senses to view me. Then tell me what you think.”
In the brief pause that followed Merlin noticed that all three of the wizards were following his advice.
“Maybe it's true. If so there is more of a tale than you are telling,” Verruckt said.
“There's no time for the whole tale. The Germans found and woke me. When I discovered their true nature I arranged an escape. The very one that is now being delayed.”
“I am known as Verruckt Bergmann and I tell you that I am in your debt. Should you have need of me I will assist as I may. I hope that if my aid is required, you will tell me the rest of your story.”
“Done and thank you. Now please climb in the truck, all of you. My students are in the back, as is the man we came here to rescue. You'll ride with them for now until we find a safer place to drop you off.”
The three wizards climbed in the back of the truck as Merlin slid into the cab.
“We've delayed too long Merlin. I saw soldiers moving towards the gatehouse,” Gunter said.
“But it will only be soldiers. The two wizards that were here will be unable to assist them.”
“You took care of them?”
“They won't be a problem to anyone any more. Drive please, we have a schedule to keep and one extra stop to make now.”
“Why?”
“Two reasons. The first is to let the wizards I just rescued go on their way. They can't join us, there isn't enough room in the plane. The second is so I can set up a spell to transfer the basic knowledge of piloting from Johann.”
“That assumes we make it out of here alive,” Gunter said.
He put the truck in gear and accelerated towards the distant gate.
{Dieter, make sure everyone that can puts up physical shields. There will be bullets flying soon. If all of you can work together, you can shield the entire back of the truck. If not, use individual shields but make sure Johann is shielded as well.} Merlin sent.
{We'll do it.}
Merlin started working on a large scale shield for the front of the truck. He planned it in a wedge shape, sweeping away to either side of the hood. He thought it would send the bullets away from the truck at an angle with that shape. When the truck hit the gate, the shield would absorb most of the impact and then dissipate. After he was satisfied with the shield design, he waited before actually creating it. The drain on his energy would be high and he wanted to hold the shield for the least amount of time possible.
As the truck raced towards the gate Merlin saw that there were many more guards there now. When the first of them put his rifle to his shoulder, Merlin poured energy into the spell structure of the shield. There was nothing to see with his eyes until the first bullet struck it. Then the view shimmered as though it were being seen through waves of heat rising off a hot roof.
It wasn't long before the view was constantly shimmering from bullets striking the shield in rapid succession. Merlin slid a hand into his satchel to make contact with the crystal containing the death magic. He needed nearly all the power from it later, but that assumed that they lived until then. If necessary he would siphon some of the power from the crystal to reinforce his shield.
Gunter kept the truck accelerating throughout all of this, except for a momentary slowing when the first bullets were fired at the truck. When he saw the reaction of the shield, and realized Merlin was protecting them, he resumed acceleration. He was determined to get the truck going as fast as he could before impact.
The guards at the gate realized that their fire was having no effect. The bullets hit the shield in an almost constant stream and the shield glowed like a translucent foxfire. When the guards saw the truck still coming at them in a straight line, now tipped with a glowing wedge, most of them lost their nerve and cleared out of the truck's path.
Two of the guards remained at their station. One continued to fire his rifle with mechanical regularity. The second one held up something wooden with a metal cylinder on one end. He hurled it into the path of the truck and then he, and the other remaining guard, threw themselves to either side of the road.
Merlin couldn't identify the item that was thrown but Gunter saw it as well.
“Merlin, grenade!”
That was one of the things he warned me about before. What did it do? Oh, Demon Shit! I remember, Merlin thought.
Merlin drew on the power from the crystal, reinforcing his shield. The grenade was struck by the shield and swept to the side before it exploded. The shield absorbed most of the concussion, but the truck still rocked from the remainder. Merlin was slammed into the passenger side window when his shield absorbed the impact and part of it was transferred to him.
He held on to the shield desperately.
We'll hit the gate in another second. If the truck hits it directly with no shield in the way, we won't be driving any farther this morning, he thought.
Merlin was buffeted again. This time he was slammed against the back of the seat as his shield struck the gate. The shield dissipated as planned. But first it breached the gate and got the broken pieces moving. The truck hit the remaining portions hard enough to bounce around some more but not hard enough to do any serious damage.
Gunter kept the truck going as fast as he could while maintaining control. They raced away from the base at high speed and at the first intersection he took the turn leading to the airstrip.
“I'll say it again Merlin, you can be quite scary. I'd hate to have you angry with me.”
“That would be difficult. I keep my anger and rage contained. It takes a lot to release them.”
“Like I said, I'd hate to have you angry with me. I imagine it's neither pretty nor safe to be around you when they're released.”
Merlin's voice wavered slightly as he answered.
“Probably not, that's why I keep them in check.”
Gunter turned to look at Merlin
“You're bleeding Merlin. Are you injured?”
“Maybe, my head's throbbing right now. I'll examine the wound as soon as the headache fades some.”
“We're only about twenty minutes from the airstrip so I hope your headache fades quickly.”
“If past experience is any indicator, it should fade in five or ten minutes. If you see a good place to let our extra passengers off, one where they can find cover quickly, then pull over please. It doesn't look like anyone is following us yet so we can spare a minute or two.”
Gunter grunted in reply but kept his eyes on the road.
A minute later Merlin's headache started to subside.
{Dieter, is everyone alright back there?}
{Bumped around a bit but no-one is injured thanks to your warning to shield. The fabric over the back looks like moths have been at it though.}
{Good, we'll try to find a place to drop off our extra passengers shortly.}
Merlin kept scanning the area, looking for some terrain feature the freed wizards could disappear into. A few minutes later he pointed to a side road.
“Go up there Gunter. It looks like there are some wooded hills a few miles down the road. That'll be perfect for concealment.”
“Do we have the time?” Gunter asked.
“We can't take them with us, and just leaving them at the airstrip is likely to get them killed.”
“As you say Merlin.”
Merlin could tell that Gunter hated the loss of time. He took the turn anyhow and the truck jounced up the poorly maintained dirt road to the base of the hills.
“Stop here Gunter,” Merlin said, “The trees come all the way down the hill. We'll just get them under cover and then continue on our way.”
Merlin slid out of the truck and called the freed prisoners out.
“We're going to leave you off here. There's good cover for hiding. I'm sorry I can't do more but we can't take you with us, there isn
't enough room.”
“Thank you Merlin,” Verruckt said, “No need to be sorry, you got us out of that hellhole. I won't be going back again, I'll tell you. When they took me, I was more amused than anything else. I thought they'd realize they made an error and let me go. Then I found out there was no error, they were targeting any wizards they could find. Next time, I won't go peacefully.”
“Merlin, you're bleeding. May I?” Djordji asked.
Merlin nodded.
Djordji reached a gentle hand to the wound on the side of Merlin's head. Merlin felt a warm prickling and when he reached up the wound was closed. The remaining discomfort of his headache fled, washed away by the healing.
“Thank you. You should go now though if you wish to be into heavy cover by dawn,” Merlin said.
“We will be fine. These hills have trails known to the Rom. I believe they are still unknown to the SS. We will follow them, find our people, and leave this country,” Djordji said.
“Thank you,” Pitti piped in, “I may not be an elder but if you need any assistance that I can provide, simply ask me.”
“My son shames me. It is the way of the Rom to avoid debt when possible. I thought, when you claimed to be Merlin, that you were mad and I sought to avoid acknowledging the debt. Now I think that you are not mad and that the world is stranger than I believed. In this case I think my attempt to avoid debt shames me even more than my son has. If I may be of assistance to you, I shall do so. Other Rom may also help should you tell them what you told me of Plamen. My name is not unknown to them either.”
“My thanks again, but now you need to flee and we must continue with our plans. If they work, there will be both more and less trouble for those with magic in this country. Djordji, if you would tell any other wizards you see in Germany that it is not a safe place for them now?”
Djordji nodded.
“I would have done so without your request.”
“Verruckt, please tell any others that you know of with magic what has transpired as well and urge them to flee the country.”
Verruckt chuckled.
“I see you don't mention wizards to me. You've seen through my disguise haven't you?”