by Jamie Davis
———
Winnie woke with a start.
It was dark.
What time is it?
She checked her watch. She heard a noise — a snuffling grunt coming from the kitchen.
Winnie reached down and drew Excalibur as she stood.
The grunting drifted out of the kitchen again, this time followed by the clatter of metal on metal.
Something had fallen to the floor, probably the peanut butter knife.
Winnie tiptoed to the kitchen doorway then peered around, trying to see in the dark. A huge, hairy shape hovered over the kitchen table. In the dim light coming in the nearby window, she saw a clawed hand dip into the open peanut butter jar, then disappear.
And again, the snuffling grunts.
The thing was eating — or inhaling — the peanut butter.
Winnie raised her blade over her head to strike at the dark shape. But she stopped at the sound of additional grunts coming from the garage.
Winnie backed up into the living room and looked around. Seelie was still curled up, asleep on the pillow. Her backpack lay on the floor beside the chair.
She bent down and scooped up the pack, slipping her arms through the straps. Then she picked up the pillow and moved towards the front door.
There was no way to know if more of the creatures waited outside the house, but Winnie knew she couldn’t stay inside.
Creeping step by step toward the front door, Winnie turned the knob.
Thankfully, it yawned open without a creak.
She stepped onto the porch and looked around before moving farther.
Nothing moved in the dark.
Winnie glanced over her shoulder then darted into the shadows, holding the pillow and the still-sleeping Seelie in front of her.
Ten minutes later, Winnie settled in some shrubs down the street. She set the pillow on the ground and tapped the sleeping fairy.
Seelie’s wings unfolded as she sat up on the pillow, looking around and trying to get her bearings. A soft glow formed around her.
“No, Seelie, don’t light up. It isn’t safe.”
Her glow dampened then disappeared. “Where are we? Why are we outside?”
“I fell asleep,” Winnie admitted. “Some of Kane’s creatures got into the house. I managed to sneak us out before they found us. We’re down the street about a block away from the house.”
“I’ll check to make sure that no one followed us.” Seelie hovered above the pillow to gather her bearings, then she zipped away, flying back up the street and disappearing into the darkness.
Winnie drew in some magic and held it, ready to release a defensive spell if required.
It was five long minutes before she returned. Winnie heard the soft whirring of Seelie’s wings before she saw the fairy hovering in the darkness beside her.
“We’re safe for now.”
“Good,” Winnie said. “It’s time we get moving. We still need to find a gap in the outer defenses.”
“It’s going to be hard.” Seelie pointed to the south. “Not only are there troops manning the line out there, there are traps everywhere, too.”
“We don’t have a choice. I have to get in there. There must be a gap somewhere. If we’re patient, we’ll find it.”
“Then we need to use the darkness now,” Seelie said. “I’ll lead. You cast your masking spell and follow me.”
“Be careful, Seelie,” Winnie whispered. “I don’t want to lose you.”
Seelie smiled, then turned around and flew to the south. Winnie stood and followed, slinking away under the cover of her masking spell.
They moved through another few residential streets until they reached a broad open area of demolished homes and buildings. There, across the opening, lay the fortified positions of Kane’s army.
Winnie looked both ways and saw the lane of flattened buildings and open ground stretching as far as she could see. The cleared area was a hundred yards wide.
A noise to the left.
Winnie and Seelie pulled back into a basement doorway and crouched.
After a few moments, a six-soldier patrol walked by, all of them wearing some sort of night-vision goggles.
Winnie shifted her vision to the magical spectrum and saw a complex charm laid atop the leader’s gear: his goggles were enhanced to recognize any magic in use.
They waited for the patrol to pass, then came out of hiding and scanned the open ground again. Winnie and Seelie crept back to the edge, still looking for a way across.
Seelie pointed and Winnie saw an opening, maybe an alleyway between buildings on the other side. There was some rubble across the opening, but not too much to scramble over. Guard posts lined either side, each about twenty or thirty feet away.
Not much of a gap, but it was the only one they could see in this section of the defensive line. If they could make it there unseen, then she and Seelie could slip through. The challenge was getting there.
It would be difficult hiding while crossing that space, even with Winnie’s masking spell in place. She’d either have to move slowly so her mask could cover her, or opt to run at full speed during a moment of distraction.
Both plans had their problems.
If Winnie opted for the slow approach and a patrol came along, they would surely spot her. Even if she inverted the flows so the magic was invisible to detection, her mask wasn’t perfect. They’d see her if they got close enough.
Running offered its own challenges. The human eye was drawn to movement. Even if distracted, some guard could catch movement from the corner of his eye and look Winnie’s way.
She was trying to imagine the best possible distraction when the first explosions ripped through the distance, far to the east.
The night sky was suddenly alive with a massive fireball.
Winnie watched in wonder as a tiny mushroom cloud bloomed in the distance, illuminated by the red glow of fire beneath and inside it.
She looked down the recently passed patrol, now standing with their goggles off, staring skyward.
Winnie tapped Seelie on her back and pointed across the gap.
She didn’t know what those explosions were, but this was their chance.
Winnie crouched down and ran over the uneven terrain, praying she didn’t trip and fall in the darkness.
Before she knew it, she was scrambling up and over the rubble at the mouth of the alley.
She saw the startled soldier the second he spotted her.
Winnie reacted without thinking.
Her hand rose to her shoulder, drawing Excalibur.
She swung the enchanted blade downward in a desperate slashing blow.
The sword crashed into the man’s shoulder and slashed down across his chest. He fell backward with a gasping sigh as his entire chest was laid open by the blade. And then he was silent.
Winnie choked back a surge of vomit at what she’d done, looking around for a second attacker. She’d killed Kane’s creatures up close with the blade, but never person. Now she’d be seeing that man’s startled expression in nightmares forever.
Winnie pointed to the opposite end of the alley, then to Seelie. The fairy nodded, flying off towards the end of the tiny street. Winnie held the blade and followed, ready with sword and magic to counter anyone stupid enough to try stopping them.
At the far end of the alleyway, Seelie paused then waved Winnie forward. She darted across the street to a narrow gap between two buildings on the other side then disappeared into the shadows.
Winnie could still hear distant explosions, but the soldiers were no longer distracted. They were preparing to take action. Vehicles were roaring to life nearby.
Winnie reached the end of the alley and looked both ways. Soldiers were running around in either direction, but none were coming her way.
Winnie ran across the street to the gap, turning sideways to fit inside.
A truck zoomed by a moment after she wormed into the other side.
“Winnie,” Se
elie whispered from behind her. “This passage opens into a backyard and what appears to be several blocks of abandoned residences, all heading in towards the center of the city.”
“Good, let’s go. We can take advantage of the chaos here to get farther inside the city before they start patrolling again.”
More explosions to the east. Winnie caught glimpses of the fires lighting the horizon as she ran from house to house.
That had to be her Dusters.
Part of her wanted to join the fight, but surely they were there to help her.
Winnie felt a pang of guilt. She’d forced them into this reckless attack by running off on her own. She forced the emotion down then locked it away.
No time for that now. Not with a job to do.
Winnie had to reach Kane. The sooner the better.
With a last glance at the red glow lighting the eastern horizon, Winnie ducked low and ran deeper into the city.
CHAPTER 27
“Keep firing!” Maria shouted. “We have to pour it on them! Pull as many of the enemy forces here as we can. Then the B-Team can slip through and find Winnie.”
The lieutenant nodded then dashed off to the lines to relay the order.
“I can help,” Elaine said. “Let me pull the elites together for a spell we’ve been working on.”
“What’s it do?” Maria asked.
“It’s a force multiplier, I guess you’d say. It will make our forces seem a LOT larger than they are.”
“That will certainly attract more of the enemy here to counter us. But we’ll also be even more outnumbered.”
Elaine gave Maria a grim smile. “Don’t worry. The elites and I have more than one trick up our sleeves. I promise we can hold them off.”
“I hope you’re right.” Maria turned back to the battle, scanning the lines with her binoculars.
They’d caught Kane’s troops and Red Legs flat-footed. The enemy was reeling in an uncoordinated reaction to an unexpected attack, and one they likely thought they’d never have to face.
It was Maria’s job to keep them off balance as long as possible. Once the enemy regained their composure, the opposing forces would fight back with interest and the Dusters would be forced back on the defensive.
More explosions erupted across the enemy lines as Dusters magically enhanced mortars fired again. Maria wished for another one of the bunker buster bombs they’d used to initiate the attack.
They’d only managed to capture one of those during their earlier raid on the military stores. They weren’t that common and she’d been lucky to find the one.
A bullet ricocheted off a stone wall, passing close to her head.
She ducked, searching for the source of the shot. “Tris, how much longer until we have a shield over this position?”
“I’m working on it. It’s a lot harder without a perimeter!” Tris was crouched with her techs. Most had their heads down, concentrating on their magic, trying to erect a shield around their forces.
Morgan entered the courtyard, crouched and ran to Maria’s exposed position.
“Get out of here Morgan. You shouldn’t be this close to the front line.”
“I wanted to tell you that we’ve spread our available supplies to all the units. And we found some enhanced claymore mines in that last armory. Where do you want them?”
That got Maria’s attention.
“How many did you get?”
“A pallet full. They were at the back of the warehouse. We almost left them behind, but someone on my logistics team made a final check and found them.”
“That’s almost six hundred,” Maria said.
Morgan nodded.
Maria pulled out a map of the capital with their positions sketched in pencil. She stabbed the spot where the enemy had shown the greatest resistance, where the counterattacks were likely to originate. “Put a third of them here, another third on this side of our lines, and keep the rest here in reserve.”
Morgan eyed the map, memorizing Maria’s positions.
“Got it, I’ll make sure they get delivered. Do you have any orders for their use once I drop off the mines?”
“Tell whoever is in command of those sectors to deploy them defensively, and to expect a counterattack.”
“How soon?” Morgan asked.
“As soon as the leadership wakes up enough to start coordinating their defenses again. So far we’re fighting the nightshift. But the rest of Kane’s forces are waking up and heading down here to see what’s shaking the earth. We get a senior commander on the scene and we can expect a major assault. They’ll want to push us back, and we have to be ready. The claymore mines are a godsend.”
Morgan smiled. “I’m on it. They should be delivered and ready for deployment within the half-hour.”
“Faster if you can,” Maria said. “They’re off balance right now, but that can’t last much longer.”
Morgan sprinted back towards the supply cache and her logistics staff. Maria watched her go and then returned her attention to the fluid lines before her.
She had held back a quick-reaction team: her best troops, ready to plug any holes in the line. The trick was to spot the break before it happened. Then reinforce it so there weren’t any breaches.
Duster forces were holding their own, dealing a surprising amount of damage. Most of their opponents had been human, with only a few pockets of Fell beasts, easily flushed with a flurry of bullets.
Maria was worried what would happen when the first of the chimeras appeared. Even the dragons had trouble killing them, and there weren’t any dragons with them now.
If Winnie was here, she could have called them.
But then, that was the point.
Explosions and gunfire just kept getting louder. Surrounding them. Making Maria want to choke. She turned to the nearest tech. “I want a report. Now.”
The techs turned to the miniature surveillance wall—multiple windows floating in midair to one side, showing muzzle flashes all along the lines and troops advancing on the Duster positions.
Other surveillance windows showed overhead views of the surrounding area. Other enemy units converging on their position from three sides.
Maria looked for Elaine. She found her and yelled, “How’s that surprise coming? Later might be too late.”
“Cutting it loose now. Anywhere you want us to concentrate?”
“Come here. Look at the troops approaching our flanks. Can you do something to stop that?”
Elaine walked over and looked at the screens. A wicked smile crawled across her face. She pointed to a cluster of chimeras advancing near a crowd of advancing soldiers. “Let’s start with them.”
Elaine closed her eyes and whipped her arms around, raising them high above her head. Her brow furrowed. Then she shouted and pointed to the west, toward the advancing chimeras and government soldiers.
It took a moment, then a round of gunfire rented the air. Explosions followed.
Looking at the overhead view, she had to double check it was the right one. There, between the chimeras and government troops was a platoon of Dusters firing in opposite directions at the two enemy factions.
“There aren’t supposed to be any of our troops out there. They’ll get slaughtered, crushed between the two enemies.”
“Don’t worry, Maria.” Elaine’s smile widened. “They aren’t really there. Just keep watching.”
The chimeras turned first, charging the illusion.
The government followed with bullets.
And now Maria was smiling, too.
Elaine said, “Those chimeras aren’t going to like that very much, are they?”
“No they’re not.” Maria pointed to the window.
Bullets sailed through the illusion. They ripped into the chimeras, dropping two like a hiccup. The beasts reared up then charged the mirage, passing right through to the true source of pain.
The troops realized their error too late—forced into battle against their former allies.<
br />
Maria nodded, appraising Elaine with fresh, admiring eyes.
“You’re a devious one when you want to be.”
“I’m a mother with my daughter in danger out there. I’ll do anything in my power to help her survive.”
“Can you do that again?”
“All night long,” Elaine pointed to another of the flanking attacks and closed her eyes again, repeating the casting.
The illusion appeared on-screen, this time with opposing troops opening fire on each other. Commanders called for reinforcements from either side, adding devastating fire to a confusing battle.
Bullets rained and soldiers fell in procession.
Elaine hadn’t stopped there. All along the enemy line, illusionary attacks popped up between Kane’s forces, causing them to turn and fire on their comrades before they knew what they were doing.
A young messenger approached with a salute. “Reports are coming in from our front lines: Enemy fire is slackening.”
“Tell everyone to conserve their ammunition. Fire only at confirmed targets. Only shoot back when fired upon. Got it?”
“Hold fire unless fired upon.” The runner saluted, then turned and left.
Elaine kept casting illusions wherever she spied an opening in the enemy forces. Soon, Maria heard explosions far in the distance where there weren’t any Dusters at all.
Kane’s troops fired all they had at Elaine’s shadows, from here to there and all along the perimeter on this side of the city. They had less than five hundred rebels, but Kane’s commanders would imagine countless thousands assailing the city.
“You’re amazing,” Maria said.
Elaine lowered her arms. Sweat had soaked through her blouse. Hair plastered her head. “I can do more. Just give me a second to rest.”
“Take as long as you need. Kane’s forces will be busy fighting ghosts for a while.”
Chaos reigned on-screen. A mass of Fell beasts overran a government position, the battle quickly devolving to hand to claw combat. A government mortar barrage wiped out an entire platoon of Kane’s troops. An entire battalion ran right into a quarry.