by P. G. Thomas
“Ryan, I needed to get your attention and focus. We don’t need somebody else doing something stupid. Yeah, even though we were lucky that Panry found Sam with Hope, Zymse has picked up our scent now! With that, you can be damned sure he wants to know who burnt down his house of horrors and took those wolves. If Panry had told us about his stealth technology, taking you, me, and the Kid, then maybe right now, not only would Sam and Hope be free but also your daughters. What happened is a classic example of when an agent goes rogue: they screw up the mission!”
“Then why did you let him come back here?”
“To separate him from you, giving you a chance to cool off!”
“It didn’t work, so how do we unscrew this?” asked Ryan.
“I’ve been reliving some of my old—assignments, trying to figure out if there are elements that I can use from them. We’re going to need to trick Zymse, not bad enough that he disappears, but so that he reacts the way we want him to. Like what Eric told those archers to do on the wall in Alron, where he had all three crossbows fire in succession at the same trollmare. Dodging the initial threat, it would be surprised by one of the next. We need to do something similar to Zymse, but first, we need to find all three of your daughters.”
Ryan nodded.
Steve already knew he couldn’t tell Panry what to do, and even though he was uncertain how to get this mission back on track, he was hoping to keep Ryan’s anger in check. “What we have to do is make sure that he doesn’t pull another solo act.”
“That’s going to be hard because Mother told him to find those Earth Mothers, and to my knowledge, no Earth Guard has ever failed her. Panry I can assure you won’t want to be the first. You’ve no idea what happened when Lauren crawled into the attic, or the extents he went to save her when she was captured.”
“Think of it this way, Kid. The next birthday party for your daughters, do you want to bring out three cakes, two, or one? We don’t go all in until we know we have the winning hand. From now until then, we ante up, watching the cards played, and see how the others react to what they’re holding. It’s a waiting game right now.”
Ryan nodded, “Again.”
*******
When Zack was flying back to Gayne’s, with the second sun setting, he spotted Zymse New Age Academy of Insight and landed on the roof. Transforming into a squirrel, he scurried around it, finding a wall vent to gain access inside of the freshly renovated structure. The inside resembled a church, having a large wooden vaulted ceiling that was two stories above the main level. The inside was octagonal shaped with each wall having a window fifteen feet tall, being only two feet wide to illuminate the spacious interior. At the top of each, a similar large vent that had allowed him access, having a chain attached to it that allowed one to open or close it, regulating the temperature. Climbing down the chain, the squirrel changed into Zack at the bottom. Quickly running around the large room, after opening each vent wide, he changed back to climb up to the roof. Once there, he transformed into an Eagle, squawking numerous times. As it was getting late, he knew the multitude of birds in the Bright Coast would enjoy a warm place to keep dry for the night. With a few powerful strokes of his wings, he took flight into the rainy dusk, heading back to the house.
*******
It had been two days since Bor had discharged Dax Steelfire, Siletz Deepmine, Jakel Goldfinder, and Kraj Silverbright from the Granite Guardians. On this morning, when Dax rolled over, he saw Siletz tending their small fire, but the other two still slept.
“Steelfire is troubled? Fast is our journey, and we have seen no trollmares.”
Dax looked up, “Of my clan I was thinking.”
Siltex rolled out of his bedding, “Your clan is last. Are you worried you will be travelling alone? To my clan come, and I will, arrange an escort for you.”
“Deepmine to Steelfire offers help? You will make arrangements, but not for an escort, a long stay instead. All know our clan leader is my brother by marriage, and from me, like ore mined deep, your clan will try to extract the secrets of Steelfire.”
Siltex shook his head, “If on the field of battle we took you prisoner, your stay would be different. Until you are safely with your clan, we will remain granite brothers.”
Dax shook his head, “Both clans have broken their Granite Peace. While your intentions maybe honest, your Clan Leader and Battle Marshals will see the advantage.”
“You can wait in spot secure. If they do not agree, I will signal you.”
“I appreciate your offer, but I have thoughts of returning to Ironhouse.”
Kraj raised himself from his bedroll, “The day next my clan welcomes me,” and then he smiled, “With us, you should stay a few days.” Then he headed into the woods to relieve himself with his war ax in one hand, and several large leaves in the other.
Jakel was the last to rise, who then started to prepare their simple meal. “What did you forget at Ironhouse?”
“I forgot nothing. What I want is my beard to grow back.” Dax raised his hand to his chin, “Two days and it still is bald, not even any stubble.” Then he removed his helmet with one hand, and running the other through his long thick oily hair, he pulled out a large clump, “The penalty of desertion is true.”
Jakel shook his head, “You worry too much. Your beard will soon be back.”
Siltex felt his chin, “I will be Honest, as I have had similar thoughts. My wife, she must shave every day, and I just thought my beard was stubborn.” Pulling off his helmet, he looked at the tangled mass of hair that remained inside of it.
Before any could speak, Kraj came back into their camp, who had a horrified look on his face, “Back to Ironhouse all must go.”
Siltex looked at him, “Head bald also to you happens?”
Kraj shook his head, holding up a large handful of long hairs, “From my head this is not. Ass and chin, both are bald!”
In turn, the other three dwarves reached behind themselves, into their breeches, extracting a large handful of hair.
The four never exchanged a word, nor did they put out their campfire. They simply saddled their ponies, headed north, back to Ironhouse traveling fast.
*******
That same morning, entering the dining room, Lauren, hearing a strange laughter from the study, went to investigate. She found Steve acting like a young child on Christmas morning, looking at all of the presents under the tree, wondering what each one held, but in his case, he was staring at the six magic mirrors. Her introduction was cold, “Do you see any hostages in your new toys?”
“Zymse is going to have other secrets because guys like this always do. Sooner or later, he is going to slip up, and with these, we’ll be able to see the first signs that something has gone wrong.”
“I’m not interested in signs, I want to know how we free my—the hostages, ensuring they do not get hurt.”
“Everybody’s working on it, but you need to get that root feeding the people, so they start talking to Mother. Right now, our best chance, our only chance, is her telling you where your children are.”
John walked in, “You have to tell me what you told Gayne and Mirtza, as they said it only took five days.”
“They never told me what they did, so I guess you’ll have to ask them.”
They all headed back to the dining room where the rest waited. Mirtza and Gayne advised that they would be at the school if anybody needed them. Jasmine informed them that Panry was still watching Zymse. After Lauren had inquired to John about the trollmare amulets, he explained what he could, adding he had no interest in seeing if he could activate one unless he were at Ironhouse.
“Zymse has about one hundred bastards in that prison,” Zack began. “He has them in dirt cells, but I don’t know what he’s doing with them. I did overhear one of the guards, who said six should break soon.”
“That’s not good,” advised Steve. “Can you find out anything about how many men are stationed there? What they’re doing?”
; “Dude, just free them. When you’re done, burn the wooden support beams, so it’ll all come down. You have Raging Hard, the Champion, and an angry mother. Take some of Gayne’s wagons, a portal bracelet, bust them out, and go to Alron. Quit wasting time.”
Steve slammed the table, “NO! If one more suspicious accident happens, Zymse could separate those three girls to ensure that we can’t get to him, or he could do worse, threatening them if we don’t meet his demands. If and when we move, we need to be sniper-precise, making sure he doesn’t suspect anything.” Standing, he started to walk around the table. “This guy is what happens when you take three shots of crazy, four shots of insanity, five shots of imagined wrongs, and pour them into a one shot glass. After you push a stir stick named martyr through a cherry, add it to the drink. It makes a mess, a big fanatical effing mess. Worst of all, the guy is smart. He took out Mother, has these trollmare amulets, and his brand. He has some sort of grand plan that he has invested a lot into, and there’s no way he’ll innocently give up, walking into the sunset, or here, the sun sets.”
“Then what do we do?” asked Logan.
“I’m starting to feel like my favorite radio station, which just keeps playing the same old songs over and over. Plan one is Mother. Plan two is Intel. Plan three is go back to plan one. Ryan, Eric, Logan, you three are watching Zymse today. Zack, I need more Intel on those Bastards. I’ll be here today watching the magic mirrors.” Picking up his mug of cold bean juice, he headed to the study.
*******
As Steve watched the mirror, the splendid carriage pulled up in front of the New Age Academy of Insight, and he saw Zymse walk up to the front where two young girls, with branded arms, opened the doors. Then all three jumped back when hundreds of birds fled their sanctuary in shock.
“SONS OF A BITCH!”
Lauren, John, and Jasmine rushed into the study.
Steve pointed at the magic mirror, “Did Logan do this?”
John could see the slightly out of focus seats covered in bird excrement, and the floor covered in feathers of every color, “I don’t think so.” He smiled. “Isn’t this a good thing? We didn’t want to see him open up his little shop of branding horrors?”
“No, you told me that birds were in Sister’s Domain, so if he didn’t do this, did she?”
John looked puzzled, “Lauren?”
“NO, SISTER!”
“I’ll go get my cell phone, as I have her on speed dial. How would I know?”
Steve was still pointing at the mirror, “Look at his face, he’s pissed. Building in his fortress burns down and now this. We need to tell everybody to go dark.”
“Dark?” asked Jasmine.
“Absolutely no interference, just observations. With one more incident, there’s no telling what he could do,” advised Steve, who then sat down, and resumed staring at the mirrors.
Turning to John and Jasmine, the look on Lauren’s face suggested they had other business elsewhere. When she was alone with Steve, she just stared at him until he looked at her. “We’re going to talk, and you’ll never repeat this conversation to anybody. Is that clear?”
During his many years of service, he had been involved in hundreds of conversations that never happened, nodded.
Taking a deep breath, she turned her back to him so she would not have to see the lies in his eyes. “What’re our chances of freeing all of the hostages?” Hearing her voice tearing up, before he could reply, she added, “And don’t lie to me!”
“They’re good.”
“Should there be sufficient power left in my staff, what mirror would you like to live out the rest of your life?”
Steve glanced at the mirrors, the one with the brothel catching his eye, then turned back to Lauren, “There are two people here who know where all three are; Zymse and Mother. Plan one is still Mother. Two things happen at that point; the first being we know the location of your daughters. Second, Tranquil and Fury will be able to join the fight.”
“They could be anywhere in these lands, or even—”
“I don’t think so,” interrupted Steve. “While Zymse may feel persecuted, might even be crazy, he’s not stupid. Let’s say he had sent one of your daughters to Alron for his safety net. Then he has two here with one most likely acting like a decoy, the second to secure his own safety. If something went wrong, and we saved—when we saved both, capturing him, all he’ll have left is his words. He won’t be able to get to the last one.” I hope. “It’ll just take us some time to make him tell us where she is, but everything will be a bluff.” Please let it be a bluff. “Before you ask, I don’t think he completely understands what you six can do. Hell, I don’t even think you all do. To go to the extremes, I don’t think anybody comprehends anything here. With one conversation with Gayne and Mirtza, look at what they did in just a few days.”
“I don’t know whose worse, John with his short answers, or you with your long winded replies that sound like a dwarf story.”
“Short version then. Zymse has already thought out an exit strategy with numerous contingencies. If we move too soon, he’ll rabbit with all three, but if we strike at the right time, we can have all three before he knows what happened. However, somewhere in the middle, he has created numerous plans to protect himself. Let’s face it, you coming back here, finding him with your daughters, it’s his worst nightmare. Even though he might think he has the situation under control, there are too many unknowns. He’ll keep them close, so if something goes wrong, he can get to one to protect himself. Our best chance is waiting for Mother’s Intel.” Steve had a flashback to one of his missions, quickly shaking it off, “First, what we need to do is to locate them, in case he moves faster than we expect.”
“What do I do to you people? That was your short answer? How do we free the hostages, so I can hold my daughters?”
“We need to change the game, making Zymse move where we want him to.”
“Better, but how?”
“I’m not sure exactly. I’ve been thinking about some old—business arrangements, wondering if there might be a way to redeploy—use those similar transactions. For lack of a better term, my mind is sort of constipated thinking about all of the different possibilities, but right now, you just need to concentrate on Mother.”
Lauren nodded. “Think faster, and should you ever call my daughters hostages again, more than your mind will be constipated, and I’ll be without a staff.”
After she had left the room, Steve let out a slow breath, as he briefly considered his current mental blocks, and the potential threat of a new lower one. There’s a second way to get somebodies attention, but only fresh meat in a prison understands that lesson. Note to self, be nice to mother—both of them.
*******
With the rain in the Bright Coast moving out to sea, Zack floated on the winds feeling the heat on his back. Then he saw the Bastards prison, but when he banked to the west, he saw Zymse fortress in the distance, headed towards it. He circled it for an hour, watching the events acted out in the large courtyard. From his vantage point, it was easy to see the hundreds of large crude humanoid shaped sculptures of different sizes, which silently stood against the walls. Inside the compound, hundreds of would-be soldiers were undergoing tests in the hopes that they would be hired, as numerous black-clad guards manned the walls. Moving between the shadows, he saw several dog-like creatures that were larger than wolves, being even superior to the extraordinary mounts the Granite Guardians rode.
Numerous buildings filled the compound: barracks, stables, and more. At the north end stood a large four-story, flat-roofed stone house with numerous closed windows. He landed on the ledge, transformed into a squirrel, and then scurried to the edge. Trying to grasp the wall, he felt the unpretentious defense used to protect against thieves: grease. Other than the standard tubs to collect rainwater for the indoor plumbing, there was only one wooden building on the roof. He moved to the front of the house, watching the various events in the courtyard below. Nu
merous groups of fighters were demonstrating their abilities, and he could easily identify the ones that would fail. It was an hour later when a carriage arrived, stopping in front of a long wooden building, and six young male teenagers dressed in black exited. When the building door opened, another youth dressed in black stepped out, and walking up to the six, greeted each, giving them a hug. The words that Zack heard caused a cold shiver to run down his feathers, as each received the other with ominous words, “Welcome, Black Bastard.”
*******
“Earth Mother, Earth Mother. Your staff has reached the desired height.”
Pulling her mind back from the image of the plant, Lauren turned to Jasmine.
“Earth Mother, you told me to interrupt when your staff reached height small.”
Picking up the short staff, being nothing but a shadow of its former height, she thanked her Earth Guard captain before heading to the front room, as hearing John talking to the Ironhouse dwarves had caught her attention.
“Unchosen, dwarf mastered metals, but we had no use for large numbers.”
“What’re you talking about?” asked Lauren.
“I was asking Jaykil and Breax about the Granite Guardian Mountains,” began John, “and they started to explain their history. I think Bor tried to tell us this story the last time we were here. They said before they found Mother, Father had ruled the lands for just over a hundred years.”
Jaykil looked at Lauren, “Numbers up to one-hundred only dwarf knows. I tried to explain years of one-hundred by four times the number of my fingers. That is the number of years legends were birthed in the granite mountains.”
Math, I hated it. “Try to explain it again, using beer mugs,” suggested Lauren.
Breax whispered under his breath to his Ironhouse brother, “You should use smaller numbers. He may have unlocked mithril, but like dwarf, he is number challenged.”
“Hey,” protested John, “I was the one that helped Aaro and Bor calculate the number of Darkpaye soldiers killed at the final battle.”
“You do not have that many fingers and toes,” began Jaykil, “Five rows of mugs, four long.”