by T J Trapp
Alec and Zalla went to the shed to attend to the two wounded, focusing dark energy on their injuries. The guard with the concussion soon came around. The guard with the gash took a little longer before she was back on her feet. Both would be able to fight again in the next encounter.
Erin searched the bodies of the fallen elves, and removed their rings and amulets. A couple had sidearms and she took those as well. “Apparently their death rods were only for show, because they certainly did not use them in battle,” she said to Alec.
“Rings and dark energy diffusers on the clutchmen,” said Alec, fingering her finds. “They were equipped for serious opposition.”
“They might have been well-equipped, but they were not as prepared as the elves we fought back home,” Erin said. “This first batch was well-armed but not battle-hardened. These elves haven’t experienced much resistance from anyone here on your world.”
She stood up, and called to Zalla, “Time to take on the others.” Now that my troops have tasted battle, we can tackle the tougher bunch with a little more confidence, she thought to Alec.
✽✽✽
Alec walked over to the shed. The door was still locked; he opened it and saw with relief that his crystal array for the transporter had not been disturbed. He stepped inside and looked closely at it. Everything appeared to be as it was earlier in the day, when he had checked it.
Erin came to look. “Is it broken?”
“I will want to check everything before we use it tomorrow, but I think they were reluctant to touch anything. Handling these crystals wrong could release the stored dark energy and could have destroyed everything around the back-gate area, including all of them. That is why we put the area back here in the first place,” Alec replied.
“First things first,” Erin said. “We must win this battle tonight before we worry about tomorrow. If we do not win tonight, tomorrow does not matter. These elves know they are more than we can handle in a straight fight. They expect us to flee. I suspect they have the authorities in the surrounding area ready to help capture us if we do. We need to fight, and use your plan.”
Alec nodded.
Erin whistled for Zalla to regroup the fighters into position. The fighters followed Erin as she started down the path towards the barn. The moon continued to rise in the sky, glowing and casting soft shadows through the trees. Erin sensed the elf position. Then she addressed her troops.
“You did well in your first battle. The next fight will be harder, so don’t become over-confident. By now the elves know we won the first fight, and know that we are returning to fight them. They are very sure of themselves. I sense that they are arrayed to engage us as we emerge into the pasture behind the barn.”
One of her men replied, “It was a good thing you forced us to practice against you for all of those hours. Before the empath mother went down, those elves were as fast as you. If we hadn’t practiced teamwork against you, we would have been sliced and diced before we had a chance to respond.”
Erin again sensed the mother’s deployment. “From the pattern they are using, I suspect we are facing four mothers with twelve clutchmen, and about twenty-five or thirty other warriors.
“I sense that three of the mothers are coercers, and one is an empath. They will try to mentally control you. Your elf rings will protect you, but you will feel the effect of the mother’s attempts in the back of your mind. Focus on the fight. You will be better fighters than the clutchmen who are not aided by the empath. As you noticed, my consort remained behind, so, Zalla, I need you to help me to negate the coercer mothers. The Great Wizard will have his surprises in store, so I want all of you to be ready.”
They walked silently down the lane towards the pasture gate. The serene quiet and beauty of the moonlight on the wildflowers seemed to belie the threat of the violence they were facing.
✽✽✽
As they reached the edge of the pasture, they could see the elves in the half-light of the moon playing across the grass and the bluebonnets. The mothers were hidden in the shadows close to the barn; Erin would not have known they were there if she had not been able to sense them. A row of clutchmen were in front of the mothers and the other clutchmen were deployed in groups on each side. Without a sound, the clutchmen started towards them with spears held at the ready. A repeated click sounded as one of Erin’s fighters instinctively tried his rifle, with no results.
Zalla felt her medallion hanging coldly against her chest. She focused and concentrated dark energy as Alec had taught her. Erin whistled a double whistle. At the signal, all her fighters shielded their eyes. Suddenly the sky lit brighter than the mid-day sun. The elves were caught by surprise and were temporarily blinded by the light.
Erin whistled a discordant tone. “Attack!”
Erin’s fighters engaged the clutchmen, using the team training that they had practiced. She watched with pride as her troops battled the recovering clutchmen. Then Erin felt the lines twisting around her, and could tell that the lines were sliding around her guards. She felt for the lines and started to twist them.
“Feed me energy,” she said, and Zalla focused and let dark energy soak into Erin. The four mothers twisted the lines against her, and for a few seconds the lines moved around her, but Erin took the energy that Zalla was providing and focused on the lines, concentrating on a vision of a little red stone. The twisting of the mothers’ lines stopped and the lines hung suspended in the air. The mothers could not move the lines, but Erin could not move them either. Erin and Zalla continued to concentrate, but they remained in an eddy where the lines did not move.
Erin’s fighters were doing their best to overcome their adversary, and for a while they were able to hold their own against the non-empath clutchmen. However, even with her force fighting as a team, Erin could sense that the empath clutchmen were gaining the upper hand. Time for your act, oh Great Wizard, she thought.
Alec stepped onto the portal at the shed. The light dimmed, went black and returned; then he was standing in the portal in the back of the barn near the pasture. Need to be quick before they realize I am here. Alec ran out the barn door and saw a dozen or more drones pulling a heavy cart up the long driveway. He could feel that dark energy was coming from the cart.
Focus. A cart-sized sinkhole opened up in the gravel drive, and with a loud crash, the cart slipped into the hole. Alec could hear a sound of shattered glass, and could sense that the jostling had broken something in the cart. The dark energy flow from the cart stopped. That did it, he thought. The oscillations that knocked out our power here have stopped. The dark energy in the background seemed to waver as the undulations became disorganized.
Be quick! he thought to Erin. You only have a few seconds before they can reestablish the dark energy flow. He hoped that his message did not come too late.
Yes, my Great Wizard, Erin thought back, and could sense his relief that she responded. She reached for the small holster on her side, and pulled out her little Stubby. She pointed the pistol at a dark spot at the edge of the moonlit field; she let herself feel the rightness before she pulled the trigger. The little pistol spit out a single death pellet for her, and she could feel one the of coercer mothers fall. One down, two to go. Twice more she pulled the trigger, twice more a single death pellet found its mark. Only one coercer left, she thought, and again aimed Stubby at the darkness, seeking to find the right spot. There. Erin squeezed the trigger, but Stubby responded only with a hollow click! Time’s up.
She slid the little pistol back into its holster and found Zalla’s hand. “Time to take on the last mother,” she hissed. Erin let the dark energy from Zalla flow into her and then she sensed the lines and twisted. With the empath mother gone and only one coercer mother twisting, the lines were not being held as firmly. Erin twisted and the lines started to spin. She could feel when the mother lost control and slipped into a perpetual fog.
Erin sensed the battle. As soon as the empath mother died and her clutchmen lost their guid
ance, Erin’s guards were gaining the upper hand even though they were badly outnumbered. Erin pulled out her sword and nodded to Zalla. “Be my second and guard my back while we finish them off.” The sight of Princess Erin expertly wielding her sword against a fierce knot of warriors inspired her troops, and they redoubled their efforts.
The clutchmen had organized into an effective resistance with their backs to one side of the barn. Erin whistled three short notes for her troops, then added, “Prepare in three!”
Alec created three gold balls over the line of clutchmen. The resulting scavenging of the air created an intense downdraft that staggered the elves. Several fell to the ground and the others lost their balance from the unexpected gust and staggered out of position.
Erin led a charge against the reeling elf forces, but in the swirling debris from the downdraft found herself momentarily separated from Zalla. Suddenly she felt a large elf fighter stagger into her, emerging from the shadow of the barn; unable to reach her sword, she pulled her knife to engage him – but he also had a knife. He lunged at her, catching her shirt with his blade. Now off-balance herself, she felt him grab her belt, knocking her blade from her grip. She reached for his neck, trying to summon enough mental energy to stop him, but her struggle against the elf mothers had sapped her ability to concentrate. The battle-hardened elf reached for her neck and his fingers tangled in the silver chain holding her elf rod. With a loud cry, he ripped it from her neck, instinctively clutching the crystal rod in his hand as a weapon, and reared back to thrust it into her eye socket. No longer in contact with the elf, Erin crouched and braced in a defensive position, but suddenly the man let out a blood-curdling scream and fell over backwards, his eyes rolling upwards behind his lids, and fell to the ground motionless, the glowing crystal rod still held tight in his fist.
Suva’s warning, Erin thought. She said the rod was dangerous – and could kill.
“Princess!” she heard Zalla yell.
“Here,” she grunted.
Zalla rounded the corner of the barn and ran over to the elf, spear raised, to put her foot on his chest and finish him off.
“Don’t touch him!” Erin screamed, and jumped up to push Zalla away just as she closed in on the fallen man. Zalla fell back and looked at Erin in surprise. Erin quickly knelt by the man, jamming her knee into his wrist to pull her rod from his death grip; she grabbed the rod and its silver chain and managed to pinch the broken chain back together so she could again wear it around her neck. “Now it’s safe,” she said to Zalla, “but you need not bloody your spear. He is gone.”
“Princess, the fight has turned in our favor,” Zalla said, and soon the battle was over. Erin’s guards had prevailed.
✽✽✽
“Follow me,” Erin called to Zalla, and ran across the front lawn to the heavy cart. The drones had managed to pull it out of the hole that Alec had created, and were again moving it towards the ranch house. Alec caught up with them and said something in Dronish, and the drones stopped, making no effort to resist.
“Move away from the cart,” Erin directed as she ran towards the cart, speaking in Elvish.
“Yes, mother.” The drones complied with her request without question, and stood quietly, awaiting directions.
“What is in the cart?” Erin asked.
“Mother, we have a special disrupter in the main part of the cart. We also have bands for the captured orbs as well as chains to contain them.”
She turned to Zalla. “Take the metal neckbands off of these drones, and destroy the bands. We will see if these men can gradually be returned to society.”
Alec pulled back the cover on the cart. Four round globes were stacked in a pyramid, glowing slightly. The globes were connected to a long tube. Alec focused and felt the dark energy flow.
That tube is a dark energy storage battery, he thought to Erin. It has enough dark energy to keep the globes running for some time. The globes themselves are combining the dark energy around here in a way that stops rapid reactions from occurring. That is why bullets don’t work, why cars don’t work, and why the portals are behaving differently.
Alec focused and redirected the flow of dark energy. The dark energy stopped flowing from the tube, and the four globes stopped glowing. He motioned to two of the drones.
“Disassemble this stuff and then I will show you where I want you to store it.”
“Yes, Master,” the lead drone said, and the drones started busily working.
Erin went back towards the pasture and whistled, and her guards assembled around her. “Again, you have done well. The elves are arrogant. They don’t think there is any opposition on this world, but you have shown them how wrong they are.”
Don’t worry, came a snarky thought from Alec. They are smart, and they will quickly learn – every time we defeat them will make it that much tougher for us next time.
Erin gave him an annoyed look. Then she directed her guards to pile the dead elves in the open pasture and remove their rings and amulets. Alec focused, and soon a large rock was the only indication that three dozen bodies had ever been there.
“Time to inspect the remainder of our property,” Alec said. “Zalla, take four guards with you and go dispose of the elf bodies from our fight at the back gate. You saw how I turned them into dust. The rest of you come with us.”
They entered the portal in the back of the barn. Alec focused; the world went black, and then they were at the front gate of Queen’s Wood. The guard in the gate house was soundly asleep.
Erin shook the guard’s shoulder, and he woke with a start. He saw Erin looking at him and started to blurt out some excuse, but didn’t have one.
“It’s not your fault,” Erin said. “The elves did this to you.”
“How did they get here?” Alec asked. Then they saw that three large driverless vehicles were parked on the grass beside the gate.
Erin sensed around. No one else is near.
Good, thought Alec. I’ve seen enough elves for tonight.
“We should not leave any trace of the elves,” Erin said. “Can you destroy their wagons without leaving any sign?”
Alec thought for a few seconds. “Sure.”
He focused on the vehicles, gently glowing in the moonlight, and slowly converted the vehicles to an icy patch of carbon dioxide. The remains of the vehicles billowed as the gentle night breeze whisked the evaporating gas away. “By morning, there will not be anything remaining here. I hope there are no others around to notice their absence.”
Erin looked at him. “Consort,” she said sharply. “We survived and prevailed against an overwhelming force of elves, and you worry about whether or not others will notice something that is not there.” She shook her head and put her arm around him. “Come, my Great Wizard. Let us go and collect Celeste, and recover from the damage vested upon us this evening.
“I tire of these elves – I desire to go home and see my children.”
The End of the Second Book
Continued in
The Dark Energy Chronicles:
The Grand Cull
The Third Book
Background Information
Lists
The following lists of characters, places, and other terms may aid the reader’s understanding of this book.
List of Characters
Alec; Alec Holden - Scientist; dark energy user; consort of Princess Erin
Alder; Dr. Alder - Alec’s former mentor for dark energy studies at NAI
Amah - Leon and Ariana’s nursemaid or nanny
Ariana; Ari - Erin and Alec’s daughter
Becky - Daniel’s sister
Celeste; Celeste Alder - Alec’s daughter
Colin; Lord Colin - Erin’s brother; Prince of Theland
Consort; Consort Alec - Husband of the Princess of Theland; see ‘Alec’
Daniel - Alec’s employee; mechanical engineer; dark energy user
Drone Master - Elf mother responsible for training drones
&n
bsp; Erin; Princess Erin - Princess of Theland
First Mother; First Queen - Lian, the ancestral First Queen of Theland
Frederick - Alec’s employee; business manager
Grandmother - Queen Therin
Great Wizard - Erin’s nickname for Alec
Holden; Dr. Holden - Alec’s name on Earth; see ‘Alec’
Leon - Erin and Alec’s oldest child (son)
Lian - Ancestral elf; First Mother or First Queen of Theland
Linda - Alec’s employee; inventory manager
Om - Elf Mother; dragon surgeon; coercer
Original Five - Five ancestral elves who founded Theland over 500 years ago
Pequa - Elf Mother; coercer; Colin’s captor
Polly - Pequa’s nickname; see ‘Pequa’
Princess - Erin, Princess of Theland
Professor Smidt; Professor - See ‘Smidt’
Rand - Erin’s lead rider
Reuben - Theland rider
Sarah - Alec’s former girlfriend; Celeste’s mother (deceased)
Smidt; Dr. Herman Smidt - Physics professor and dark energy specialist at NAI
Suva - Elf Mother; Erin’s captor; coercer
Sylvia - Alec’s employee; chemist; dark energy user
Syna - Ancestral elf; mother of Lian
Thelander - Last name used by Alec and Erin while on Earth
Therin; Queen Therin - Ruler of Theland; mother of Erin and Colin
Uncle Al - Celeste’s uncle