by Wen Spencer
Tinker triggered the first spell that pumped the filtered stored magic out. It was a relief to feel the magic start to pool around her feet. Tinker had told the astronauts that she needed silence, and they had taken her seriously. They watched now, silent, fearful. More than one had their eyes closed, and lips moving in prayer.
Esme indicated that they were at the one-minute mark.
Tinker made sure her fingers on both hands were in the correct position, and then stood, waiting.
Esme held up her fingers then and counted the last ten seconds down silently. When she nodded, Jin—with Tinker's right hand nearly touching his mouth—and Xiao Chen—on Tinker's left—pronounced the activation words for the Wind and Stone Clans.
Magic flooded through the connection. Tinker let it run for thirty seconds by Esme's silent count. She could feel the purity of it, but the edges were starting to tangle, caught by the magnetic field of the ship. She dropped her hands and the tengu went silent.
The activation word for the dragon spell was simple. She spoke it into the tense silence.
The universe went dark and formless.
It wasn't the sense of falling that she always felt during Startup and Shutdown. This was like death. All Tinker could feel was growing terror that she had just pulled her greatest fuckup. She had killed herself and all the astronauts. Then light and sound and gravity returned, tumbling Tinker and the others into a pile of bodies. The "floor" now formed walls up to the matching bulkhead ceiling. They untangled themselves, laughing with relief.
"It worked." By the tone of her voice, Xiao Chen hadn't expected it to.
Tinker wanted to say, "Of course," but the way her life had been going, the mind boggled as to all the ways it might have screwed up. "We're on a planet, but which one?"
Esme glanced upward to the window far over their heads. "Don't know yet."
"We landed well." Jin headed up the ladder. Tinker followed.
"That was not a landing," Esme called after them.
"We're on the ground," Tinker said. "Engines down, bridge up. That's good enough for me."
"You do realize that this ship is nearly a half mile long?" Esme said.
Oops.
Jin reached the window. He turned his head this way and that, studying the view intently, before announcing. "Trees. Nothing but trees."
"It's not Onihida or Earth then," Tinker said. "I hope it's Elfhome, or we ended up someplace totally new."
"That was the point of the colonization program as far as the humans were concerned," someone said from below.
"There's an airlock at midsection." Jin kept climbing upward. "We might be able to get a better view."
Tinker only gave the window a passing glance. The trees looked like ironwoods but it was difficult to tell. They were ten or twenty feet above the canopy. If this was Turtle Creek, then she had just erected the tallest structure in Pittsburgh—for however long it remained standing.
The airlock opened to summer dusk. There was a narrow ledge that wrapped around the ship. Tinker carefully picked her way around and found what she most wanted to see—Pittsburgh. Clouds boiled over Oakland, but no lightning flashed from them. Was that a good sign or bad? Had Malice killed Windwolf?
They had "landed" in Turtle Creek, neatly replacing the Ghostlands with the massive bulk of the ship's engines. The Dahe Hao would have taken out the center section of the Westinghouse Bridge if it hadn't already fallen. The remaining spans of the bridge butted up against the side of the ship just ten feet down from the ridge she stood on.
And like one of her impossible dreams, Pony stood on the bridge, looking up at her. He lifted up his arms and motioned for her to jump to him. Relief flooded through her like a weakness. Her legs started to buckle, so she leapt to him.
Pony caught her and pulled her close. "Domi."
"Oh, Pony, I was so scared that you were killed." She hugged him tightly, burying her face into the warmth of his neck, smelling his scent.
"I thought I lost you." His voice was husky with emotion.
She kissed him on the strong line of his jaw. He turned his head and captured her mouth with his and kissed her deeply. He tasted of the enclave peaches; the sweetness poured through her like warm honey; she clung to him, letting the feeling push out the fear and worry.
Tinker realized that Stormsong was beside her. She burned with sudden embarrassment at the way she was acting. Knowing that neither elf would see it as wrong didn't help.
She broke the kiss but couldn't bring herself to let go of Pony. With one hand, she reached out to Stormsong to pull her into a three-way huddle. "And you too. I was worried sick about both of you."
"What? I don't get a kiss?" Stormsong teased.
Tinker laughed and kissed her quickly on the lips. Then holding them close, she whispered. "Is Windwolf all right? Where is he? What's happened?"
"We can not get close enough to the museum to look for Wolf," Pony said. "Malice, though, appears to be searching for something, so we think that Wolf has eluded him."
"The oni have stolen the dreadnaught and taken it down river," Stormsong said. "Our greatest fear has been that while Malice kept us busy, the oni would push an army through the Ghostlands."
"Well, I stopped that." Tinker gave a weak laugh.
As Pony and Stormsong updated her, Cloudwalker, Rainlily, and Little Egret joined them at the end of the bridge. She greeted them with hugs. It felt good to be surrounded by her people.
The sekasha shifted to face crew members picking their way around the edge of the ship. It was Esme with Jin and a handful of the tengu crew members.
"It's okay. I've taken the tengu as my beholden."
"Are you sure that's wise?" Pony asked.
"Yes." She took a deep cleansing breath. She pressed her palms to her eyes and considered current obstacles and possible tools. If Malice was hunting Windwolf, then they would have to hunt Malice. The EMP spell that she had used to clear the ship should work on Malice. They needed, however, a big gun to take advantage of it—a very big gun. She could think of only one place they could get such a gun. "Okay, we're going to need the dreadnaught."
"What's a dreadnaught?" Jin asked.
"I suppose you could call it an attack helicopter on steroids," Tinker said. "It's more a flying fortress. It's armed with a variety of heavy guns, from machine guns to cannons, and can carry a large number of troops into any location. The elves built them with magic in mind—so they're very low tech, and thus extremely clunky."
"And you want us to take it out?" Jin asked.
"No," Tinker said. "We need it to take on Malice."
"Take it over?" Stormsong said. "Are you fucking insane?"
She held up her hands to ward off Stormsong's objections. "While we were at Aum Renau, I got inside of the dreadnaughts. I think it was part of me being the pivot—they didn't know what I would need to stop the oni, so they told me anything I wanted to know—full access to everything."
"Yes," Stormsong hissed, her eyes going soft and vague. "The pivot keeps turning until the door is fully shut."
Tinker shivered. "Oh, that creeps me out. I took detailed notes and I scanned them into my datapad – I was thinking of making a few for the Wind Clan."
"You would," Jin murmured.
"The big question is—do we have anyone that knows how to fire the guns?" Tinker expected that they would need to track down some the Fire Clan crew. Surprisingly, all the sekasha pointed to themselves.
"We were all taught how when we were in Aum Renau," Pony explained. "After you showed an interest in the airship."
"They didn't miss a trick with me being the pivot, did they? How the hell did I miss—never mind, don't answer that."
"We will need a pilot," Stormsong said. "The oni killed the dreadnaught's crew."
"How close is it to Earth's aircraft?" Esme had worked her way down to the bridge. She spoke Elvish, which surprised Tinker and also made her realize that Jin had been speaking it too.
; "The controls are modeled after a helicopter's," Tinker said.
"I'm your pilot then." Esme noted Tinker's surprise. "I'm the best fucking pilot you're going to find. It's the magic. On Elfhome, I can fly blindfolded." Tinker remembered Stormsong's ability with the hoverbike and realized that Esme probably had the same type of talent. "Taking over controls midair might be tricky—but should be a piece of cake compared to some of the NASA simulations."
"You know," Durrack called out of the gathering twilight, announcing the NSA's arrival. "We're going to have to reclassify you to 'force of nature.'"
"Oh good," Tinker said. "We're going to do an assault on the dreadnaught and we could use your help."
Briggs laughed as she joined Durrack. "And she's not even trying to be scary."
Tinker kept losing count of their numbers. They would need a tengu to get every non-tengu up to the dreadnaught while it was in flight. The problem was that she kept forgetting to count herself, or she added herself to both elves and humans. It was really starting to bug her.
"Eighteen," she hissed to herself. "Nine tengu and nine people without wings."
While the elves and the NSA agents arranged transportation and weapons, and the sekasha magical supplies, she and the ship tengu gathered high-tech gear.
"I found the dreadnaught," Durrack called as Jin winged her down to the bridge. Dusk was deepening into night. "The oni took it downriver to Shippensport and took over the nuclear power plant."
"Without power, the humans will be crippled." Pony pointed out the logic of the oni's attack.
As if we didn't have enough to worry about. "Did they damage the nuclear plant?"
"No, they haven't. They just took it off the grid. EIA has dispatched a team to take it back, but they don't have any way to fight Malice. They're leaving him to us."
"Did you find everything?" Getting a nod, she motioned toward the yellow delivery truck that the NSA had produced. "Let's go."
Malice cocked his head, as if listening carefully.
Suddenly there was a massive boom, loud beyond description. A shock wave of air suddenly blasted through the streets, and a moment later, there was an echo under foot.
What was that? Wolf wondered.
Someone looped an arm under Wolf's and pulled him to his feet.
"Shhhh," a male hissed, and then added in English. "Don't use magic."
The male was an Asian human. He tucked in under Wolf's arm, supporting him.
As Malice crashed loudly through the rubble, the man guided Wolf backward, unhurried. Malice scanned the room, swinging his head back and forth, as if searching for them without seeing them. What magic was this that the man had?
A cold chill went down Wolf's back as he realized that the male's ears were furred and pointed like a cat's. This was an oni like Lord Tomtom. Judging by Malice's seemingly blind search, the oni was keeping the dragon from seeing them. But why was the oni helping Wolf?
Malice stilled and the oni froze in place. The dragon cocked its head again as if listening closely. The oni male tightened his hold on Wolf as if worried that Wolf could act. Wolf, however, was under no illusions as to how useless his magic was at the moment.
The great beast grumbled, its voice like thunder, and it sniffed deeply. The massive head turned toward them and Malice stared long at where they stood. The oni stared back, gripping Wolf tightly.
Was the dragon truly fooled, or was Wolf the one being deceived? It was an uncomfortable thought—as was the awareness that the oni had hold of his good hand, making him totally helpless.
Malice stalked forward, muttering deeply. The dragon stopped again, now only a dozen paces from them. Malice rumbled out, seemingly in disgust; its breath washed over them. The oni pulled a container of red powder out of his pocket, and silently emptied it onto the floor. Malice sniffed deeply again, forming runnels in the dust at their feet breathing in the red powder. The dragon flung back its head, gave a series of deep coughing roars, and shuffled back suddenly, away from them.
The oni jerked Wolf backward and they hurried to a staircase at the corner of the room, and down the steps into darkness. Behind them, Malice smashed loudly, roaring, but Wolf couldn't tell in which direction the dragon was heading—after them or away. In the complete darkness, they made a series of quick turns. Either the oni could see in the darkness or was running blind with one hand on the wall.
"What is that red powder?" Wolf asked.
"Cayenne pepper."
They turned again, and the black gave way. A grate stood half-open to a dimly lit tunnel crowded by three pipes thick around as an elf. The oni pulled Wolf into the tunnel and shut the grate.
"This way," the oni male said.
The floor was curved, making walking difficult. A hundred feet down, the tunnel joined another. Wolf knew that they couldn't be inside the museum anymore.
"What is this place?" Wolf asked.
"You ask a lot of questions."
"I like knowing where I stand."
"Yeah, nice when you can get it." The oni kept walking. "These are the old steam tunnels that used to heat all of Oakland."
"Who are you?"
"My name is my own to have," the oni said.
"That makes it awkward to thank you."
The oni paused to look at him. Finally, he said, "You can call me Tommy."
"Tommy," Wolf bowed. "Thank you."
Tommy grunted as if surprised.
"You are Lord Tomtom's son?" Wolf asked.
Tommy started down the tunnel without seeing if Wolf followed. "His bastard. Don't think that you did a disfavor to me by killing him. Quite the opposite. I would have killed him myself if I thought I could have gotten away with it."
"I see."
"No, you don't. You have no idea. He raped my mother just to see if he could get a human pregnant. It took him months to get her knocked up, and he kept her tied to the bedpost the entire time. Even after I was born, he'd come to our place and beat the snot out of both of us and rape her again, just because he could."
"Is that why you helped me?"
Tommy glanced at Wolf, ears laid back. At the next intersection, he paused to ask quietly, "What am I?"
"You? You're an oni."
"The fuck I am. I'm a human."
"Your father—"
"Was a sadist pig." Tommy stalked off. "So my good, kind, beat-to-death mother doesn't count, even though she contributed half my genes, gave birth to me, and raised me to be a man? A human man. I'm not one of them. Not that that means shit to you elves."
Wolf had never considered that the half-oni would think of themselves as human. How could he refute the difference that mind-set made in a person? Making Tinker an elf had not changed her basically human outlook. If the half-oni had the capacity for human compassion, then it had to be logical that they could be revolted by the oni's lack of it.
"It means something to me," Wolf told Tommy.
Tommy stared at him again, as if trying to see into the inner workings of his mind. Perhaps he could. "We know that the plan is to kill all of us mixed-bloods alongside of the oni, but we're more willing to gamble on you elves being humane than the oni."
How ironic, that both sides were looking for humanity in the other.
"We don't want to be their slaves," Tommy continued. "We've had thirty years of that shit."
"Then why didn't you leave? There's a whole planet for you 'humans' to go to."
Tommy made a sound of disgust. "It's all so black-and-white to you elves? I don't get how you can live so long and not realize the world is full of grey. We didn't leave because we couldn't."
"Why couldn't you?"
"You can't just walk out at Shutdown. The UN has fences and guards and you have to have the right papers or they throw you in prison. And even if you get past the guards, you need a birth certificate and social security numbers and high school diplomas to live in the United States. And you need money, or you're out on the street and starving."
"And you
don't have these things?"
"The oni are masters of keeping power to themselves. They've got all the paperwork. They try to keep us from learning how to speak and read English. They know how much money we're making, and they'll beat us half to death if they even suspect we're trying to keep a little on the side. We don't know how many oni there are in Pittsburgh—who is a disguised oni and who isn't—so we can't even turn to the humans for help. The oni spy on us as much as they spy on you."