Sac'a'rith

by Vincent Trigili

  “The staff will be out of power soon,” she said.

  Raquel gasped deeply and arched her back. She began to cough violently. I went to her side and helped her sit up. Her eyes were vacant at first, but little by little she seemed to grow stronger and more aware. Soon she seemed to come to her senses, although confused.

  Shira doused her staff and said, “Raquel?”

  Raquel took a moment to shake out her limbs, stretch, and look around. “Where are we?”

  “Are you okay?” I asked.

  “Yes, I’m fine again, but it’s almost sunrise; what happened?” she asked.

  “You never told us how to activate the rocks,” said Shira.

  I told her what had happened while she was unconscious.

  “I didn’t know that needed to be done,” she said to Shira. “May I see your staff?”

  Shira hesitated and then said, “Sure, but it needs to be recharged and I don’t know how.”

  Raquel stood up and smiled. She spun the staff over her head several times and then brought it down on the stone, calling out a word in a language I didn’t recognize. The staff glowed dimly and slowly brightened until it was as bright as the midday sun. I had to turn away because it blinded my night-adjusted eyes. Blobs of light bounced around my vision for a bit but eventually went away.

  “There, it’s as good as new,” said Raquel.

  “You recharged it!” gasped Shira as she took back her staff.

  “Yes, that’s a fitting staff for you to have. Many of those were crafted here when this castle still stood. Anytime you need to recharge it, return here and repeat what you saw me do.”

  Raquel stretched out and said, “It’ll be light soon. Once the sun is above the horizon we can travel back to the gate. I have my power back, so I can just gate us from here.”

  “Wait,” I said. “Every time you cast a spell you use up some of your life, and have to return here to recharge?”

  “Yes,” she said. “But please keep this between the three of us.”

  “Of course, but Shira will gate us back when it’s time. How did this happen?” I asked.

  She turned her back to us and walked to the edge of the wall. “A choice, long ago,” she said softly.

  I started to press her for more information but Shira stopped me. “Let it be. She’ll tell us when she’s ready.”

  “Just how dangerous is this place?” I asked.

  “If we leave the protection of this fortress before sunrise, it’s unlikely we’d survive long enough to active the gate and get home.” She paused and stared off into the distance. “Someday, Zah’rak, someday we must find a way to repair this world.”

  We sat in silence after that until shortly after sunrise.

  “We should get going. All the activity last night is sure to have drawn the wrong kind of attention, and not all of it fears the sun,” said Raquel. “I’m not confident the little power that remains here could hold up against some of the more powerful inhabitants.”

  I looked over the forest one last time, wishing we could stay here. Once this mission was over, we must come back and explore. I hoped to find a less dangerous place, so that we could spend some time among the natural life of the forests.

  Shira nodded and cast her gate. When we were all through I asked, “If something were ever to happen to you, how would we get back here?”

  “This is the home gate. Any Sac’a’rith can open it from any other gate,” she said and unlocked the gate back to the Night Wisp. “Quickly; trouble can’t be far off.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Aboard the Night Wisp, I contacted Crivreen over the ship’s internal comm. to let him know we were back.

  “Get up to the bridge! We’ve got trouble,” he said.

  “Great!” I groaned.

  The gate room was right next to the bridge so we were there in a moment. Crivreen was at the tactical station and Ragnar was at navigation. The ship was running in low power mode, and the main tactical screen was tracking multiple threats.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “With Ragnar’s help, I’m hiding the Night Wisp as best I can,” said Crivreen. “I didn’t want to risk jumping until you were back, but we’ve got pirates sweeping the area looking for us.”

  Ragnar looked drained, and sweat soaked his shirt. I doubted he was scared, so he must have been exerting himself doing something. Perhaps he was using his runecasting to stay one step ahead of the pirates. I made a note to ask him later; first I had to deal with the pirates. “Can we jump clear?” I asked.

  “Now that you’re back, I think so, but I’m not sure where to jump to. The next jump will put us in a gravity well where we’ll be trapped.”

  I pulled up a map of the region and was searching for options when Raquel asked, “Why aren’t we fighting?”

  “None of us has any real experience of a dogfight,” said Crivreen. “Plus we’re outnumbered four to one.”

  “Yes, but how do their ships compare?” she asked.

  He looked over the tactical. “They’re light cruisers. I think maybe we could take any of them one on one,” he said.

  “We don’t have to fight,” I said. “There’s a jump route we can take out of here that they won’t guess and will keep us clear of the gravity well.”

  “Fine, we can run - but is that wise?” she asked.

  “What do you mean?” I responded.

  “Narcion was never attacked like this because word had spread of how deadly he was,” she said.

  “Sure, but we’re nowhere near as deadly as he was, and they know it,” I replied.

  “Then let’s change their minds about that,” she said.

  “What are you proposing?” asked Ragnar.

  “Shira gates Zah’rak and myself over to their lead ship and we take them down,” said Raquel. “Then we contact the other ships from the bridge there and tell them to leave before we do the same to them.”

  “That does sound like something Narcion would do,” I said. I hated to admit it but she was right. Narcion must have faced situations like this before he became known as deadly, and I suspected he’d left only a few survivors to tell the tale.

  “We can walk away … no, fly away from this fight,” said Ragnar. “I see no reason anyone should have to die today.”

  “They’re pirates,” snapped Raquel, obviously annoyed. “That’s reason enough.”

  “Is that what a wizard would do?” asked Crivreen. “They don’t seem like the type to go around killing people randomly.”

  “This isn’t random,” said Raquel. “They’re trying to kill you!”

  “Maybe we can deliver a warning?” came in Shira’s timid voice.

  “What did you have in mind?” I asked. I was surprised to hear her pipe up. Tempers were starting to flare, and even before Raquel came on board Shira would disappear when that happened.

  “We could just throw some explosives through a gate into their ship and then send a message from here,” she said.

  “I still don’t understand why we need to kill anyone. Let’s just leave, and leave now,” said Ragnar.

  “How are you going to gate there, anyway?” asked Crivreen. “You’ve never been on the ship.”

  “Good question,” said Raquel. She took a deep breath and regained some of her composure. “She can cast a site-to-site gate if you can align our ship so that she can have clear line of sight through the airlock windows.”

  “If we get line of sight I can just teleport over,” I said. “Let’s do that. I’ll teleport over, place explosives someplace that will draw attention and teleport back. Crivreen, get close to the lead ship. Ragnar, you’re in charge until I get back.”

  I quickly left the bridge before anyone could argue and headed to the mission room to put on my armor. Shira followed me down and started to suit up also. “What are you doing?” I asked.

  “If you get in trouble you might need a gate ou
t. I want to be ready,” she said.

  I wanted to send her away, but she was right; I might need her. Besides, last night she had proven to be pretty handy in a fight.

  I pulled out some explosive grenades from the equipment locker. “Should be easy. I pop in, toss these grenades and pop out.”

  “It would be safer to throw them through a gate,” said Shira. For the first time I noticed that when it was just us and no one else, she was much more open. Raquel said she saw me as family, and I was starting to understand that better. She obviously trusted me completely, but I wasn’t sure what I had done to deserve that. I would have to be careful not to lose it, as such trust is not easily earned back.

  “Yeah, but then we can’t place them where we want,” I said, deliberately switching to the plural so that she would feel included in my plan. I clicked on my helmet and teleported out of the ship via the airlock window. Once outside I secured myself to the hull and waited for Crivreen to fly into position.

  Shira joined me and once I had a good line of sight she sent, “Be careful!” I could feel the worry in her mental voice. I guess what I was about to do was dangerous, but it was far from the most dangerous thing I’d done that week, or even that day.

  I teleported over to their hull and worked my way around to their airlock. I set the delay on the grenades to give me enough time, and placed two of them into each of the three airlocks I found. Before they could go off, I teleported back to the Night Wisp’s hull.

  “You didn’t go beyond the airlock,” commented Shira.

  “When I got there, I figured that blowing open their airlocks would cause all their air to rush out. They would have to seal blast doors all over the craft, preventing them from moving about. That should make the point without hurting anyone.”

  I watched as the grenades detonated and the doors flew off the airlocks in eerie silence. The cruiser pitched as the air rushed out and tossed them off course. The ship’s stabilizing thrusters fired to counter the effect, but that would be the least of their concerns as their atmosphere was being emptied into space. “Message sent,” I sent.

  We got back on board and headed to the bridge. “How does it look?”

  “Well, you got their attention all right,” said Crivreen.

  “Open a broadcast channel and send this message,” I said. “Pirates, as we have just demonstrated we can board your craft at will and destroy anything we wish. You cannot stop us. Do not attempt to follow us, and we will allow you to live. End transmission.”

  “Okay, message sent,” said Crivreen.

  “Jump then, but come up short in case we have to run.” Once we were clear of the post-jump hangover I said, “Did they follow?”

  “Doesn’t look like it,” said Crivreen.

  “Okay. As discreetly as you can, get us out of here,” I said.

  Shira slipped off and presumably headed back to hydroponics. Raquel stood watching the tactical screens, but no threat materialized. Ragnar slumped into his seat, looking greatly relieved. I sent him to his quarters for some rest, planning to question him when he was rested.

  “Now that that is behind us, I’m going to head back to the mess hall,” I said.

  “Wait, there’s one more thing,” said Crivreen. “That Phareon guy called, looking for you. He didn’t seem happy.”

  “What did he say?” I asked.

  “He just demanded that you call him on your return,” he said.

  “Really?” I was getting tired of his attitude and didn’t appreciate the way he treated Crivreen like a second-class citizen. Dealing with him was just one more reason to retreat to the woods and forget this life for a while. “Well, put him up on the big screen and let’s see what he thinks is so important.”

  “He’s not going to like that,” warned Crivreen.

  “Good,” I said, cutting him off. “Put the communication through.”

  It took Crivreen a few minutes, but eventually he was able to raise the commander. “Zah’rak, I see you’re well,” said the commander.

  “Yes,” was all I said.

  “Then tell me, what in the Emperor’s name is Felix up to?” he demanded.

  “That’s not really your business,” I replied.

  “He emptied all his accounts and disappeared while under contract with us. That makes it my business,” he said.

  “Commander, you haven’t paid for the last two missions we completed for you. That means you are in breach of contract and Felix owes you nothing,” I said.

  “Look – ” he began.

  “No!” I interjected. “You are in breach of contract. There will be no negotiations until you pay what you owe. Is that clear?”

  He cursed and closed the channel.

  “I think we might be unemployed,” I said.

  Crivreen chuckled. “You think so or hope so?”

  “He’ll pay,” said Raquel. “He has no choice.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “He needs you. I checked on current events before meeting up with you. Things are developing which would normally lead them to seek Narcion’s help,” she said.

  “You mean more undead?” I asked.

  “I don’t know,” she said. “All they know is that there are mysterious circumstances which other teams have failed to return from investigating.”

  “But why does he care about Felix?” asked Crivreen.

  “He’s a controller, and Felix just walked away from him,” she said. “We’ll hear from him again, but the last report I had was that he was sending a team of magi to check one of the stations in question. I suspect it will be another team like Criveen, Jasper and Felix.”

  “Crivreen, set best speed to Siden. I would like to have the supplies to make better armor before we accept any new missions.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The flight to Siden passed without incident. Raquel worked with Shira, training her in the skills which Narcion had taught me at first, and Shira slowly accepted that Raquel wasn’t planning to kill her. Crivreen and I studied the spell book that we had acquired from Master Dusty and his team. As time passed and I came to know Raquel better, my unease started to fade.

  She was different from Narcion in some ways, but mostly she resembled him. Her instinctive behavior was to fight, and she was very cryptic when questioned on subjects she didn’t want to discuss. It was obvious she was from a different time and a different world. Before waking up in our era, her life had been lived under the constant shadow of war.

  “Okay, Zah’rak,” said Crivreen, “we’re in a geosynchronous orbit over the ruins of the necromancer’s castle.”

  “Any sign of life?” I asked.

  “Nothing on active or passive sensors, but we still haven’t upgraded the sensor array.”

  I chuckled. Narcion had rarely depended on technology, so our ship was far from cutting-edge, a fact that bothered Crivreen no end. I didn’t see the problem, since most of the time the Night Wisp was just a mobile home. We relied on other tools far more than on the ship.

  “Everyone to the mission room, except Crivreen,” I said. “Crivreen, I need you to take Felix’s place and stay with the Night Wisp.”

  “I guessed as much,” he said. An expression of relief passed over his face, as if he were happy to be left behind.

  In the mission room we all suited up in our armor. Before clicking on my helmet I said, “Standard penetration formation. I’ll go first and break left. Ragnar, you’ll follow and break right. Raquel, you follow and make sure our rear is clear. Shira, once we give the all-clear you come through and close the gate. Everyone understand?”

  “Yes,” said Raquel. “But what are you expecting to find?”

  “I have no idea, but we’ve jumped into plenty of unknown situations as a team. We can never assume a gate is taking us to a safe place.”

  She smiled and nodded in understanding.

  I clicked on my helmet and disengaged the safeties from
my blaster. Ragnar and Shira also engaged their helmets. They would depend on wands which Crivreen had crafted for them, but I still preferred the feel of a solid blaster in my hands. Crivreen’s wands were just too small and flimsy for my taste.

  I looked to Raquel, who nodded and pressed a button on the collar of her armor. A helmet automatically unfolded and surrounded her head. Once it was locked in place her armor deepened from its purple color to an almost perfect, flat black. No light at all seemed to reflect from it. Even in that well-lit mission room she was hard to see. It was like looking into a hole with no light. It was there, but you had to infer that from the blackness instead of seeing it directly.

  “Ready,” she said.

  “Shira, open the gate, please,” I said.

  Shira cast her gate and I charged through. As I came out the other side I dove to the left and rolled behind some cover. After a quick scan of the area I called out, “Clear!” on the comm.

  Ragnar came through with a wand in each hand and found cover to the right. “Clear!” he reported.

  I expected to see Raquel come through next, but no one came. I was about to say something over the comm when she called out, “Clear!”

  Shira came through then and closed the gate, quickly running to my side.

  “Hold cover,” I said. After checking the environmental conditions with my armor’s sensors, I pulled off my helmet and tasted the air to see if I could catch any scent of life around us. Closing my eyes I used my power of Sight to sweep the area and saw no threat.

  Using Sight I was able to see Raquel crouched behind cover with her back to our position, watching our rear just as I had asked. I sighed with relief. “Looks clear.”

  “Where’s Raquel?” asked Shira.

  “Here,” said Raquel, who shimmered into view as she walked up.

  “Adaptive skin?” asked Shira.

  “No,” she said. “I don’t have the concealment line of magic. This is a camosuit.”

  “What’s that?” I asked.

  “My armor automatically changes color and texture to match the environment, making me hard to see,” she said. “It’s an invention I picked up while traveling in another realm.”