by Adam Witcher
“Gregor, how did you...” She looked up at the exposed tunnel in the ceiling. “How are you...” She looked at his impressive physique. The Princess was at a loss for words.
“It’s as I’ve always said, your highness,” Gregor bowed lightly. “I would do anything to protect this family.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Where did Petra go?” Anton shouted over his shoulder.
“According to her biosignature, she and Thaddeus are now on a lower level. She appears to be in a chamber with several other people now.”
“Dammit!”
They pursued Matteo through the castle. Despite losing track of the princess, it felt good to get this reptilian scum on the run. Sweat streaked through Matteo’s hair, and he kept looking over his shoulder for lasers and needles coming for his head. They made it worth his effort. Each time the Draconian prince started to slow down, they blasted more at him. None of the shots had connected with his head yet.
The shapeshifter turned a corner, and when Anton and Ana rounded it, he let out a terrible laugh. He was no longer alone. A group of the Draconian forces greeted them, plus several of the king’s guard. They faced a group of a dozen, their eyes all glazed with bloodlust. Yet only Matteo wore the energy absorbing armor. The rest had sets of simple iron armor, some were clad only in chainmail. Eliza was not among them.
“Ready to die, magician?” Matteo sneered.
“You know we still have guns, right? Ana, let’s kill these fuckers.”
Ana and Anton raised their weapons to fire, but Matteo was ready. A hulking Draconian guard handed him a strange device. It looked like a thick, round rifle, but the thing was made of glistening silver and covered in blinking lights and buttons. Matteo clutched its trigger. Whatever it was, it certainly hadn’t come from this planet.
“Shoot!” Anton said.
Matteo beat them to the trigger. He fired the strange weapon, and a bass-heavy pulse of sound shook the hallway. The weapon flashed in a dizzying display. When Anton pulled the trigger of his own weapon, nothing happened. He pulled the trigger again, but the gun still didn’t respond.
“Shit, Ana, shoot them!”
Ana didn’t respond. Anton looked over to see that Ana was motionless, her eyes dark.
Oh my god. This can’t be happening.
“What the fuck did you do, Matteo?!”
The reptilian just sneered at him.
“Why, this device is magic, Anton. You’re the magician, why don’t you tell me?”
“Modified electromagnetic pulse,” Anton murmured, shaking Ana by the shoulders.
Holding back tears of anger, he put his pistol back in his vest and pulled out his dagger. It felt meager in comparison to the broadswords and battleaxes that his enemies carried.
“These weapons, barbaric though they are,” Matteo said, “do have their place. Get them!”
The guards charged, bellowing battle cries with their weapons at the ready. Anton glanced at his knife, then back at Ana. There was no way he could fight them off on his own, much less while grieving the loss of his dearest companion.
He turned and ran. Returning the dagger to his pocket, Anton lifted Ana’s body and slung her over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. He was thankful she was so small and made of such a lightweight metal. He bolted away from his opponent’s, trying desperately to remember where he might find something to fight them with. Without proper weapons training, he didn’t find it likely that he could take down more than one or two, but he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.
An image entered Anton’s mind. Two golden swords crossed in front of a coat of arms. The treasury wasn’t very far away. As fast as his legs would take him, he carried Ana toward the room where he’d first met Queen Orpha one-on-one. They were there a few exhausting moments later.
Anton slammed the door behind him, locking it shut. He turned and lowered her gently to the floor. The room was stripped even more than the last time he’d been there, but he found what he was looking for. The two golden broadswords still hung on the wall in front of the Prothero family crest. Just as he grabbed them, the men outside began to pound on the door. He took a deep breath, preparing to fight, when a thought hit him.
Tunnel access?
The first time he’d been here, he hadn’t even known about the tunnels. He dropped the swords and jumped up on one of the shelves, sending an ornate bowl crashing to the ground. When he was on top, he frantically pushed upward on the tiles, trying to find one that would give.
Voices sounded outside, and the men stopped striking the door. Anton still searched the tiles. He only hesitated at the sound of metal against metal. The voices outside the room became frantic and angry.
Petra.
He jumped down from the shelf.
He couldn’t let her fight alone.
Anton picked up both golden swords and flung open the door. Petra, as elegant as ever, was battling three guards all at once, twisting her body like a dancer as she parried each blow and retaliated with expert swordsmanship. Her dress was torn, her sleek muscles visibly contracting as she engaged in the dance of death.
Beside her was someone Anton never expected to see again. Gregor the manservant looked more like Gregor the barbarian now. Shirtless, shredded, and soaked in blood, the old man swung a massive battle axe around, sending opponents half his age and twice his size sputtering backward and nursing wounds. Anton didn’t know why this was happening, but he was damn glad that it was. Standing back, shocked at the battle’s developments, Matteo watched the fray.
Anton slipped out of the room and quickly sank one of the golden blades into a Draconian guard’s neck. This got the attention of two others, who looked back and forth between the opponents that now flanked them. Anton lunged forward, catching one of the blood-drunk human castle guards right in the tailbone. The man screamed in agony, so Anton put him out of his misery with a slice to the jugular.
Realizing he’d just killed a man Petra might have known her entire life, he briefly looked to her for a reaction. He was reassured when she plunged both of her swords into another castle guard’s side.
Matteo staggered back, seeing that his men were losing the upper hand. He clutched his EMP device in one hand while pressing his other to his ear.
“Eliza, Eliza,” the reptilian hissed and clicked in his native language. “Come in. Where the fuck are you?”
He growled, realizing that all his devices were disabled, too.
Raging, Matteo ripped the tiny device from his ear and threw it to the ground.
Anton, Petra, and Gregor were still locked in battle. Gregor was going head to head with the biggest Draconian guard left, ducking and swinging his battleaxe and clashing it against his opponent’s sword. Petra was on a human guard’s back, trying to keep him from bucking her off while she slipped a blade into him. A Draconian brute lunged at Anton, who blocked the blow with one sword, while plunging the other into his neck. Anton was showered with green gore as the Draconian transformed and died.
“To hell with all of you!” Matteo turned his attention back to his EMP gun and fiddled with it. Another bass sound rattled the hall.
It felt as though Anton were watching in slow motion. Matteo dropped his EMP and gripped his needle pistol with both hands.
“Thank god, he reversed it!” Anton yelled, running back into the treasury.
Ana blinked mechanically as she raised herself to sit.
“My spatial-temporal functions must be-”
Anton helped the android to her feet and embraced her.
“Don’t worry about that right now,” he said, “I need you.” He handed her a golden sword as they turned to exit.
Matteo stood in the doorway, his gun pointed directly at Ana. Anton pictured her circuitry melting together, her gorgeous features spewing sparks and smoke. His stomach lurched at the threat of losing her again. His own pistol suddenly felt heavy in his pocket.
Anton dropped the sword and fired his gun
just as the needles escaped Matteo’s pistol. Red lasers collided with purple projectiles mid-air, and the effect was a compounded explosion that sent everyone reeling.
Doing his best not to become disoriented, Anton kept his gun focused on Matteo’s. He fired again, and this time, he hit his target. The needle pistol burst apart as Anton’s laser pierced it.
The shocked Draconian stared at his now empty, bloody, hands for a moment before looking down at the EMP gun again. A barbaric desire to pummel the fiend who tried to kill his companion overcame Anton. Fueled by vengeance, he charged at him with all his might. Matteo managed to pick up the EMP device and stagger backward before he got slammed.
Anton’s armored shoulder collided with Matteo’s breastplate, and the reptilian was airborne. His weight crashed into a ceiling-to-floor window in the hallway, and a crack shot up through the glass as he slumped against it.
“Ana!” Anton cried. “Light him up!”
Dropping her sword to wield her pistol, Ana emptied the gun of its needles. Matteo managed to block his head, but the needles covered his armor from neck to legs.
Anton grinned in anticipation. He looked over at Gregor and Petra, who were finishing off the last of the guards. When he had her attention, he nodded toward Matteo. He wanted her to see this.
The needles exploded, and the force caused Matteo to surge backward, breaking the glass, sending the screaming reptilian flying out into the abyss of the night.
Petra cheered.
“Serves you right, you creepy bastard!”
“How far is that drop?” Anton asked.
“Go take a look.”
Anton looked down through the shattered window. The castle was situated at the top of Jagari’s highest hill, so the stone walls created a sheer drop into the town below. The Draconian plunged into the inner city. Anton only wished he could have watched the cretin splat against the sidewalk.
Ana, Petra, and Gregor joined him at the window.
“We did it,” Petra said. “My God, we killed them.”
“Not all of them,” Anton said.
He suspected most, if not all, of the Draconian guard was dead, but there was still one important reptilian to dispose of. Eliza had been disturbingly quiet during the assault. Matteo had even tried to call her for help to no avail.
Suddenly, the castle shook, but this time, the feeling was far too powerful to have come from an EMP device. The floor rattled, the remaining windows vibrated.
“An earthquake?” Anton asked hopefully.
“This castle has not seen an earthquake in at least forty years, sir,” Gregor said. “I suspect our new queen is up to something dastardly.”
The castle shook again.
Eliza’s dark, brooding voice rang through the halls of the castle as if she spoke through the walls themselves.
“Come see me in the gardens, Anton. I’ve been waiting for you.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I’ve got a bad feeling about this,” Anton said. “Where’s that bitch been this entire time?”
“I’ve been observing her for several days,” Gregor said. “She has not spent much time with her fellow… people. She’s spent much of her time holed up in her bedchambers, but I observed her emerge, screaming in frustration earlier tonight. When I crawled through the tunnels and peeked into her room afterward, I saw something strange. The woman appears to have set up her palanquin in her chambers. Most unusual.”
Anton stroked his chin.
“Earlier tonight… she must have had her surveillance set up in there. Gregor, she’s had cameras all over this castle since she arrived.”
“Cameras, sir?”
“She’s been watching us… with magic.”
“Gregor,” Petra interjected, “You knew about the tunnels. How?”
The old man gave her a grandfatherly smile, and Anton couldn’t help but laugh at the contrast with his blood-soaked, shredded physique.
“Child, I have served this castle far longer than you have been alive. I know its secrets.”
“And apparently you’ve been training, too?”
“King Gareth is a good but simple man,” Gregor said. “If I am to protect this house and this family, I must be prepared to do so by force.”
The castle shook again. All four of them gazed in the direction of the gardens. A breeze wafted in through the shattered window and chilled them, as if even the wind beckoned them toward whatever the reptilian queen had planned.
“Ana, can you do one last bioscan?”
Ana produced the hologram.
Several human biosignatures remained in the dungeons, likely the king and queen as well as any noblemen or women who had resisted the blood ritual. Yet there was one human who joined the three reptilian biosignatures in the gardens.
“Who could that be?” Petra wondered aloud. “Another guard?”
Anton knew. The reptilian bitch queen had watched him every step of the way, and she knew exactly who would provide her the most leverage.
“Sabina,” he muttered.
“Sabina?” Petra asked. “The court scribe? Why?”
“She and I, well…”
Eliza’s booming voice interrupted him.
“Anton, I don’t believe your harlot will survive much longer if you do not heed my beckoning. She’s so afraid. Won’t you come and save her?”
“Shit, come on. Let’s get this over with.”
Anton led the group in what felt like a death march. He clutched his dagger and gun, his only lifelines, dreading what the reptilian woman had planned for them. When they reached the first window that looked onto the gardens, he took a deep breath and peeked around it. At first he could see nothing. There seemed to be no movement.
Then he saw it. Eliza’s palanquin, flanked by two Draconian guards in full armor. The last two, he hoped. But there was no sign of Eliza. The palanquin sat motionless in the aisle where Petra and her late husband had said their vows only two days prior.
“That’s it?” Petra asked, looking through the windows as they walked down the hallway. “We can take them easily.”
“Easily?” he said. “She’s been ahead of us from the start. It’s a trick. Ana, check your bioscan, are Eliza and Sabina in the palanquin?”
“Affirmative. Also, my tech scan indicates some highly elaborate system in there with them.”
Eliza’s voice sounded out again. Despite her location now being within view, the voice sounded as if it was coming from the walls. Even more technology she apparently had.
“You have thirty seconds, Anton, before I melt this worthless woman’s brain into a pile of mush.”
“Let’s go,” Anton said.
He led them around the corner and marched straight for the door. No more hiding, no more deception. Rage pulsed through him at the thought of Eliza hurting Sabina. He was ready to end her wretched existence.
“I’m here, Eliza,” he shouted as he pushed through the door. “Let her go!”
The two guards tensed as they walked out, drawing their swords and eyeing him through their helmets. Yellow eyes glinted through the visor, and Anton detected fear in them. But were they afraid of Anton and his group, or something else entirely?
“Anton, stop!” Sabina’s voice cried from inside the palanquin. “She’s trying to trick…”
A loud cracking sound emanated from the litter, and Sabina shrieked in pain.
The castle rumbled again.
“Pathetic humans!” Eliza thundered. “You’ve got no idea what you’re up against.”
Vibrations echoed through the ground, but this time, they seemed to come directly from the palanquin. It rumbled violently. Sabina continued to cry from inside it. The two guards turned their attention from Anton and backed away slowly, watching the thing shake.
Suddenly, bright lights covered the palanquin, iridescent white and yellow dots all over the surface. It lifted off the ground. Metal legs unfolded beneath it, boosting it upward until it was nearly twenty f
eet tall. As it rose, smoke billowed out from beneath it.
“Lovely theatrical effects, Anton,” Eliza cackled. “That chronosphere must be a real piece of work. When you’re dead, I’ll have a lot of fun with it.”
“Anton, what is that thing?” Petra trembled beside him.
“I don’t know… I’ve never seen anything like it.”
The device continued to grow. Four mechanical limbs sprouted from the sides, twisted gears and joints glistening in the chronosphere’s lights. Each ended in bulbous appendages. They watched as two of these opened into claws with razor sharp tips, while the other two appendages opened into massive, modified versions of the needle pistols. The two guns were long, round and narrow, completely surrounded by the volatile purple projectiles.
Finally, the monstrosity sprouted a head. Eliza, now in her true reptilian form, sat in the machine’s cockpit, surrounded by buttons and levers. Though she shared the same jagged teeth and scaly green skin of other Draconians, her body was covered with features that Anton had never seen before. Her neck was frilled with a red and purple hood of scaly flesh, and her green scales were interspersed with gold inlays that carried a bioluminescent glow. Though it was hard to tell from below, she also seemed to be a head or more taller than other Draconians.
Sabina hung from the cockpit, her arms bound by white rope and attached to a piece of metal. Her green dress was torn, sweat glistening on her exposed cleavage. Tousled red curls waved in the cool night breeze. She screamed, which only encouraged Eliza.
“You’re smart Anton,” Eliza said, glaring, “But you’ve made a terrible mistake. I am no ordinary woman of Draconis. I am T’liah, queen of the Mordegons, the underground Draconians. For decades, we have lived beneath the surface of our planet, banned by the high councils from seeing the light of day. We have bided our time, developing technologies far beyond the capabilities of the surface dwellers. I have come to claim this planet for my people. You will not stand in my way!”