by Dan Koboldt
Kiara sighed. She almost seemed to agree. “Some of our superiors are concerned because we’ve all been working with Holt for a long time. He knows our tactics. Our tendencies.”
Ah—the reveal at last. “But he doesn’t know me,” Quinn said.
“Exactly,” she said. “And given their preindustrial technology level, your talents for illusion might be useful in a tough spot.”
“It certainly is an interesting way to go,” Logan said.
Kiara frowned at him.
So they did want a performance out of him. “The logistics would be tough,” Quinn said. “I’m used to working on a stage.”
“You’ll have substantial company resources at your disposal,” Kiara said. “Materials, schematics, a fully trained engineering team. Pretty much whatever you need.”
“I guess I can draw up some ideas,” he said.
“They don’t even have to be your own. If any of your competitors have something that would be useful, we can have the details for you in twenty-four hours.”
“Good luck with that,” Quinn said. “Magicians are a secretive lot, from what I hear.”
“You’re one of the most secretive, and we got you here in, what, fourteen hours?”
“Touché,” he said.
“We’ll provide you with virtually anything you need to create the best magic that you can muster. And trust me, it’ll have to be convincing.”
Something about her seriousness raised his hackles. “Why is that?”
“Because Alissians have the real thing.”
“I never went for craps or blackjack or poker. If I want to take a gamble, I do it onstage.”
—ART OF ILLUSION, OCTOBER 6
CHAPTER 3
HAZARDS
Two weeks later, Quinn clung to the pommel while his mare plunged through the snow after Kiara’s. Chaudri rode behind him, followed by the packhorses. Logan brought up the rear.
God, it’s cold here. He tried to pull his fur-lined riding cloak tighter around him. The snow blanketed everything perfectly, like a Thomas Kincaid painting. And the air was completely still. There was only the sound of their horses’ hooves as they crunched into the snow.
Kiara reined in suddenly. “Something’s wrong,” she said.
Besides the fact we just walked through some kind of dimensional portal?
But Quinn knew what she meant. He pushed down his hood for a better look around. They were on the top of a small rise, with tall, leafless trees towering above them. Wintry landscape fell away in every direction, into an endless sea of semi-open forest. Not a trace of movement anywhere. Not a sound.
“There’s no wind,” he said. “Is that unusual?”
“Very,” Logan said. He made some kind of hand signal to Kiara.
“Earbuds,” she said softly, and pressed a finger to her ear to activate hers. Quinn fumbled off one of his gloves and activated his own. The tiny speaker crackled as it came to life. These little gems had come out of the company’s prototyping lab. Rechargeable, encrypted frequency, and a range of about two miles. You could even mutter into it and be heard clear as day.
Kiara’s voice seemed to whisper right in Quinn’s ear. “We’re going to ride down into the trees for some cover. Keep your eyes open.”
They set a good pace down the slope, but slowed as the trees thickened around them. Kiara took them along what appeared to be a game trail among the trees. When the cave had fallen from view, she halted. “Logan, check our backtrail.”
He wheeled his horse and broke away from the track they’d been following, moving northwest to come at the cave from another angle.
“Approaching the clearing,” came his voice, a baritone that buzzed in Quinn’s ear. “No sign of pursuit. No hiding our tracks, though. Should I lay some false trails?”
“Not there. I don’t want you out in the open,” Kiara said. “It would be obvious that we’re headed south in any case.”
“Who do you think might be after us?” Quinn asked.
“Hard to say. Could be a competitor, or the government. Or any number of protest groups that are constantly railing against the company and its practices.” She frowned, as if weighing a decision. “Logan, check the gate.”
“Yes, Lieutenant,” Logan said. A moment later he checked in again. “I’m in the cave. Looks clear.”
“Set a couple of proxies,” Kiara told him.
“Already on it, Lieutenant,” Logan replied.
Quinn looked at Chaudri and mouthed, “Proxies?”
“Proximity sensors, I think,” Chaudri said. “Infrared motion and heat detectors. They’ll go off if anyone comes after us.”
Logan’s voice came again. “The gate is blocked.”
“Say again?” Kiara said.
“The gateway is nonfunctional.”
Quinn felt a stab of terror. He looked at Chaudri, who was wide-eyed and probably thinking the same thing. No way back.
Kiara pursed her lips. “Get back here right away,” she ordered.
They waited in uncomfortable silence for half an hour, while the horses snorted white puffs of air. At last, Logan’s horse trotted into view.
“So?” Kiara asked.
Logan shrugged. “I went to stick my head through the gate. Couldn’t cross the threshold. It was like trying to walk through Plexiglas.”
“Foxtrot protocol?” she asked.
“Must be.”
“Wait, I’m sorry,” Quinn said. “What is Foxtrot protocol?”
“A security lockdown procedure,” Kiara said. “We have means to physically seal the gateway from the other side.”
“For how long?” Quinn asked.
“Until the threat has been addressed,” she said.
“What if we drag Holt all the way back here and it’s still locked?” he demanded.
“It won’t be,” Kiara said. She sounded confident, but how could she know?
“I hope you’re right,” Quinn said. He damn well didn’t want to spend the rest of his life in this place. It might be pristine, but he doubted they had a strip like Vegas.
It wasn’t long before they encountered the first of Holt’s little surprises. Twilight was already approaching; according to Chaudri, the days and nights between here and Earth were never quite in sync. Logan gave no indication that they’d stop even in darkness. They had LED globes disguised as torches, for when it came to that.
They were riding single file in dense woods when Logan collided with an invisible barrier.
“Oof!” The impact of it nearly tossed Logan out of the saddle. Kiara sawed her gelding’s reins to keep from plowing right into him. Quinn jerked back on his, as did Chaudri. It was like a medieval six-horse pileup in slow motion.
“What?” Kiara demanded.
“What the hell—” Logan nudged the horse sideways and kicked out with a leather boot, getting a dull thud for his effort. Then he had his sword out and probed at it. “There’s some kind of a barrier here.”
Quinn saw it now, a slight distortion of the forest ahead of him, as if looking through an old leaden window. It appeared to extend left and right as far as he could make out. Logan dismounted, stepped close to give it a look. “Not sure what I’m looking at.”
Kiara’s face was a mask of concern. “Let’s backtrack and try another way.”
Logan jumped back on and spurred his horse past them. They all wheeled and followed. A quarter mile away, some distance to the southwest, they hit the barrier again. Same thing to the southeast.
“It wasn’t here two months ago,” Logan said. “Our scouting party came right along this trail.”
He made a dedicated effort with his sword, and then a crossbow. Nothing could penetrate the barrier.
Kiara dismounted. She found a branch and threw it at the barrier; it boun
ced off harmlessly. She stepped close to inspect it. “Alissians don’t even have lead-free glass yet. Must be some kind of magic.”
Finally, Quinn thought. A problem that Logan and Kiara couldn’t solve right away. Time to show that he could be a team player. He’d been waiting for a chance to try out some of the equipment anyway.
He wound up his right arm like a pitcher and made a throwing motion. A melon-sized ball of fire flew from it, roared through the air, and slammed into the barrier. It made for an impressive show, even if it had little effect on the barrier itself. And caught part of his sleeve on fire, which he quickly patted out.
“Wow!” Chaudri said.
“Impressive, Bradley,” Kiara said. “Unfortunately, I don’t think it helped us.”
“It was worth a shot,” Quinn said. He wound up and threw another fireball, this one at the leaf-strewn ground beneath a tall conifer near the barrier. The needles and dried twigs flared up immediately.
“Your aim needs a little work,” Logan said. He moved over to stomp out the flames.
“Leave it,” Quinn said. He slid out of the saddle. “I want the smoke.”
Logan grunted and stood back. The fire grew. When enough of the brush had caught, Quinn snuffed it out with handfuls of snow. Steam rose with a hiss, hugging the inside of the barrier. It rose straight up but then began to curl over their heads, back in the direction from which they’d come.
“See that? It’s concave,” Quinn said. “Like a bubble. Whatever made this thing is probably right in the center of it.”
“Good thinking, Bradley,” Kiara said.
Logan was already mounted again. “Based on the curvature, the central point should be this way.”
It was near dark by then. A pale yellow moon shone between the trees. Quinn heard the yipping of some animal; it sounded almost like a hyena. Another one yipped back at it. “What is that?” he asked.
Logan and Kiara exchanged an ominous look. “Alissian wild dogs,” Logan said.
“Should I be worried? They’re just dogs, right?”
“The Alissian version is bigger than a wolf. Pack hunters, too. Sounds like they’re inside the barrier. I’m guessing that’s no accident.”
Oh. Perfect.
“We need to get that barrier down,” Kiara said.
Ah, yes, ordering the obvious. She was ex-military for certain.
Logan spurred his mare to a gallop, and the others followed.
They rode in open woods near the cave clearing; the epicenter of the barrier seemed to be just north of it. More yipping rose to the left, and then to the right. The pitch was higher now, almost excited.
“They have our scent,” Chaudri said. “They’re hunting us.”
Quinn thought about making a break for it then. He could probably find his way back to the cave, if the dogs didn’t catch him. This whole mission was a mistake. Logan was right. He wasn’t safe here, not by a long shot. And yet even with the danger, his curiosity overcame his survival instinct.
Ahead was a small clearing, awash in yellow moonlight.
“This should be it,” Logan said. He approached the edge, slowing his horse to a canter and loosening his sword in its scabbard. “Whoa!” He yanked his horse around at the tree line. “Fall back!” he whispered fiercely.
A moment of confusion followed as they got the horses turned around and backed up. Logan signaled that they should dismount. Then he put a finger to his lips and led them up to the edge of the trees.
Logan pushed aside a branch so they could see into the clearing, which held a massive nest the size of a dump truck. Perched above it was a green serpentine creature whose body shone like metal in the moonlight.
“What the hell is that?” Quinn whispered.
Even coiled up, it was the biggest reptile he’d ever seen. By a factor of ten. The body was muscular, the neck thick. It had to be, to support that big triangular head. A thick line of spikes ran down the spine to the tail, which whipped back and forth like a snake’s.
“Wait . . . is that a goddamn dragon?” he asked.
“Looks like a northern wyvern,” Chaudri said. “Strange to find one with a brood here. Usually they nest in colonies up in the mountains.”
Logan had out his night-vision binoculars. “How much do you want to bet that whatever made the barrier is in that nest?”
Behind them in the shadowed woods, more of the wild dogs were yipping. They were close.
“We need a look at it,” Kiara said.
“I think the dragon’s going to have something to say about that,” Quinn said.
“Wyverns,” Chaudri corrected, “are territorial. Probably just moving into view in that clearing will be enough to bring her over.”
“Good idea,” Kiara said. “You and Bradley try to draw it off. Logan and I will go for the nest.”
“Wait, why do I have to act as bait?” Quinn demanded. He felt his survival instincts kicking in. They were screaming at him to stay as far away from the dragon, or wyvern, as he possibly could.
I’ve had my fill of curiosity.
“If you have better ideas, I’m ready to hear them,” Kiara said.
He racked his brain, but couldn’t think of anything on the spot. There was just no preparing for this sort of thing.
“Give us three minutes to get into position,” Kiara said. She and Logan mounted and started off.
“Wait, wait!” Quinn said. “What do we do once we have the wyvern after us?”
“Make it disappear,” Logan called. “That’s your specialty, isn’t it?”
Chaudri cleared her throat. “The wyvern will—”
“Will you stop calling it that?” Quinn asked.
“I’m sorry?”
“I know I’m not the world expert,” Quinn said. He pointed his finger out into the clearing. “But that thing out there is a dragon.”
“If Dr. Holt were here, he’d ask you to defend your position,” Chaudri said. She spoke as if making a wish.
“But he’s not here. Hell, for all we know, he’s the reason that dragon is here. I’ll play your game, though. For starters, it looks like a big reptile. It’s sitting on a nest. It has scales and claws. All we’re missing is a pile of gold.”
“And fire-breathing capability, which these do not have. Hence: wyvern.” Chaudri checked the wooden bracelet on her wrist. These were company issue, and concealed both a watch and a wrist-camera. “Almost time.”
Quinn shook his head, still in disbelief that things had gone this far. But he wasn’t about to let his first job become a failure. No matter how ridiculous it might be. “Let’s get this over with.”
They rode out from the trees; almost instantly, the wyvern was in a crouch, its massive head turning to track their movement. Two hundred yards of open clearing separated them from the nest.
“She’s not moving,” Quinn said.
“We need to get her attention,” Chaudri said. She put her hands to her mouth. “Hello there!”
“Hey!” Quinn shouted. He waved his hands like he was trying to land a jumbo jet.
Nothing from the wyvern. She just watched them with unblinking eyes. There was intelligence there, and curiosity.
“You said they’re territorial, right?” Quinn asked.
“Quite. It’s strange that she’s not moving yet.”
“Maybe she doesn’t consider us a threat. Draw your sword.”
Chaudri’s blade rasped as she pulled it from the scabbard. The swords they carried were actually hollow, with a titanium endoskeleton that made them strong but incredibly light. The blades were cast from a proprietary alloy right out of the company’s R & D lab, so sharp you could shave with them. Quinn had one, too, though Logan had made it clear that he should avoid a swordfight at any cost. More accurately, he’d said that even a twelve-year-old
from Alissia would “carve you like a turkey.”
But if I see any eleven-year-olds, watch out.
Quinn had something better anyway. He rummaged around in his saddlebags, until he found what he wanted: a metal cylinder about the size of a cigar. “I knew I’d have an excuse to use this.”
He held it up, found the switch, and flicked it on. A narrow beam of green light hummed into being, about a yard long and two inches wide. He slashed the air in a figure eight, wishing they’d had time to add the sound effects.
“I’m sorry, is that a lightsaber?” Chaudri asked.
“Like it?”
“I wouldn’t mind one of those.”
“They’re only for Jedi,” Quinn said. He couldn’t keep a straight face. The lightsaber had no substance to it; it wouldn’t even melt butter. It got the wyvern’s attention, though. Her catlike eyes had narrowed.
They urged their now-terrified mounts a couple of paces forward, and that was enough. The reptile crouched low and then leaped into the air. Wide, leathery wings unfolded from her back.
“It can fly?” Quinn asked.
“I guess I should have mentioned that.”
“Oh, shit!”
They turned their horses and fled back to the tree line. Quinn wasn’t sure they were going to make it. He could already feel the wind from her wings.
“Stay with me!” Chaudri shouted. She plunged down the trail they’d followed up here. The wyvern was still right over them, her claws just above the treetops. They lost the trail and got into denser woods. Branches started whipping Quinn in the face and body. One nearly slapped him right out of the saddle. He crouched low and just let his horse run.
Part of the last two weeks had been intensive horse training. At this pace, they risked breaking a horse’s ankle, but there was nothing to do about it. Any slower and the wyvern would drop down through the trees like a bird of prey. If he fell or the horse went down, that would probably happen anyway.