by Rick Cook
###
Charlie brought the Colt around in a wide, easy turn. He lined up on the white expanse between the rows of leafless trees and settled to the snowy earth lightly as thistledown. The big biplane rolled perhaps a hundred feet across the field before it stopped.
Malus stood at the edge of the field, blowing on his hands to warm them. As the plane rolled to a stop he crunched across the snow to meet Charlie.
“Still feels a little funny on the controls,” Charlie told the tubby little wizard as soon as he stepped down from the door. “I don’t think you’ve got the center of lift quite right over the wings yet.”
“I can adjust the spell again,” Malus said.
“No, it’ll fly fine the way it is. If it ain’t too broke, then don’t go fixing it, that’s my motto.”
“Is there aught else then?”
“Yeah, one thing. The propeller. It doesn’t rotate.” Malus spread his hands. “It is not necessary that it should spin. Magic now moves your craft through the air.”
Charlie looked at him. “Just do me a favor. Make it spin.”
###
Gilligan was in the “war room,” going over the details of the air operation and the scheduling software with Jerry when Bal-Simba entered.
“Merry meet, My Lord. How goes the plan?”
“Well enough, I guess,” Gilligan said with a sigh.
“What is worrying you?”
“You mean in general? Nearly everything.” He grinned. “That’s part of my job.”
“Specifically, then.”
“Well—” He hesitated. “Has it occurred to you that this might be another trap? That the whole purpose of this thing might be to lure as many of us as it can into those caves so it can snap us up?”
Bal-Simba’s smile had no warmth. “Constantly. It is our greatest fear. Yet we have little choice. We must strike soon and with all our strength or this thing will overwhelm us. We have taken what precautions we can, but this still remains the best course of action.” He looked at Mick. “Is there aught else?”
Mick sighed. “Charlie. He isn’t a programmer, he isn’t a magician and I don’t think he’s ever really flown in a combat environment before. He’s going to have a lot to do up there. Do you think he’ll be able to handle it all?”
Jerry looked at Mick and smiled. “Taj and I have rigged up a custom user interface to help him.”
###
It was getting colder. Except for occasional spots like the hot springs or the lava tunnels, the caves had never been really warm but now they were getting more and more frigid. Wiz could see his breath in puffs before his face and he hugged his cloak tighter about him to try to keep out the frigid chill.
He tried not to think how hungry he was. Since their discovery that they were cut off, the group had been on “half-rations” that had grown steadily skimpier. Glandurg was not eating at all and Wiz suspected that half of Danny’s ration was going to June.
They were even short on monsters. It had been nearly two days since the last attack. Wiz wondered if that meant they were headed in the wrong direction, but the new Moira seeker was pointing resolutely the same way.
Wiz went around the corner and came face to face with a cloaked, hooded figure. He drew back and Malkin’s rapier sprang free before they realized they were seeing a reflection. Motioning Malkin to stay on guard, Wiz advanced, staff ready, toward the mirror. As he drew closer he saw it was no mirror. Instead there was a rough reflective coating on the rocky wall of the tunnel.
Wiz touched the glistening surface. “Ice,” he called back to the others. “Ice under a volcano.”
“Perhaps our enemy likes it cold,” Danny suggested as the group came close.
Malkin arched an eyebrow. “Makes it easier to keep the zombies fresh, no doubt.”
Wiz drew his hand under his cloak to warm it. “Or maybe it just makes things more uncomfortable for us.” He looked around. “Well, let’s get going. They say exercise helps keep you warm.”
There was more ice as they went along. Here it glistened as a thin film on the rocky walls, there it made a treacherous coating over the floor of the tunnel. Occasionally there would be a solid vein of ice, filling a crack in the stone like some strange glistening mineral. Now the air was so cold the adventurers could see their breath before them.
Glandurg seemed unfazed, but the others kept then-cloaks wrapped tight around them. Still the cold seemed to steal through to sap their very strength and leave them weak and shivering.
Nor did the tunnel cooperate. It seemed as though every few steps they had to crawl over a pile of frozen debris or climb a slope so steep they must go on all fours or squeeze between unrelenting walls of rock. Places with level footing were few and far between. Even without the ice and cold it would have been difficult. With them it was exhausting. They saw and heard nothing for the rest of the day, save the occasional drip, drip, drip of not-quite-frozen water. Still, their senses were alert and straining and that added to their fatigue.
###
Malkin was on watch, staring out into the dark, thief s senses alert. She neither turned nor moved as Danny came up behind her, but he knew she sensed he was there.
“Anything?”
She didn’t turn, only shook her head slightly.
With a slight scrape he slid in beside her.
“How do you stay warm like that?”
Malkin flicked a bit of a smile. “I don’t.”
“I can’t sleep,” Danny said softly.
Malkin nodded, but said nothing.
“Malkin,” he said at last, “do you think we’re going to be able to rescue Moira?”
“That’s what we’re here for. That and to settle some scores with this thing.”
Danny gathered his courage. “Yeah, but do you think we’re going to be able to do it?”
“Are you so sure she wants to be rescued?” Malkin asked slowly.
“Of course Moira wants to be rescued.”
“Moira herself might, but this thing has only Moira’s body. The will is the Enemy’s. I am not sure it will turn her loose that easily. The Enemy went through a great deal of trouble to get her. He obviously had some purpose.”
“Yeah. Bait.”
Malkin nodded, eyes never leaving the corridor. “Perhaps that too. But I think Moira, or Moira’s body, plays a greater role in the Enemy’s plans than mere bait.”
“What are you getting at?”
“That we may not be able to rescue her. But I do not think we can afford to leave her here.”
“Jesus,” Danny breathed. “That’s awful! Have you talked to Wiz about this?”
“He has problems enough and this is one he isn’t going to think clearly upon.” She turned to face him. “But we must think upon it, and decide what we’re to do, should it come to that.”
She turned her head to face down the dark passage and neither said anything for several minutes.
“That’s a hell of a choice,” Danny said at last.
“Hard choices must still be made.”
“And you think we . . .”
“I doubt Wiz will be ready to make such a decision when we find her. Do not try to decide now. But think about it. And think about how to do what we must do if it comes to that.”
“It won’t come to that,” the young programmer said firmly. “Wiz will find another way, or I will, or someone.”
Malkin’s expression did not change. “I hope you are right.”
###
It could not be said to be anyplace, really, for it had no sense of self as we know it. There was a nexus, but its senses were spread over more than a continent. There was no feeling for where it left off and others began, because in a very real sense there was no “other”—mere was only that which had not yet been absorbed and turned to its purposes.
It had discovered the strategy long ago, in the brutal battles that had led to its supremacy. Better to absorb and adapt than to destroy, to incorporate and use rat
her than smash. It was a superior strategy and even if it had the gift of introspection it would not have troubled about the consequences. This frozen corpse contained magical knowledge it could incorporate. With that came a burning hatred seared soul-deep, a hatred that set it on its present course, but that was of no moment. Later the gleanings of a soulless husk far away reinforced that animosity as well as adding knowledge. That too was of no moment. They were simply things to be absorbed and put to use. That was enough.
###
Wiz awoke still groggy, with an ache in his head and someone’s foot in his face. From the way the rest of the pile shifted and grumbled he got the feeling they weren’t in any better shape.
“Hmf,” Danny grumped as he disentangled himself from the pile. “Another day, another monster.”
“Not many of those,” Malkin said.
Danny quirked a smile. “Hell, I even miss the lobster.”
“I’m not so sure I’d go that far,” Wiz said.
“I would,” Malkin put in. “We could eat for a week off that bug.”
Wiz really wasn’t quite ready to go that far, but he could understand the sentiment.
Carefully he measured the grain and a little of the vegetables into the cooking pot and added ice. Then he gestured and a flame sprang up among the rocks. He set the pot with the ice on it to melt. He crouched over it, hands extended to soak up the warmth.
“That will tell the Enemy where we are,” Malkin said, eyeing the magic flame and not quite protesting.
“The Enemy probably knows where we are already,” Wiz growled. “He’ll be in a lot better shape to face him if we’re warm, rested and fed.”
After breakfast the group continued on. Wiz was right. If conditions were no better this day, at least they felt better for the hot meal.
Wiz had Danny take the lead with Glandurg behind him. Actually that meant Danny and June were in the lead and Glandurg following them. Malkin brought up the rear and Wiz stayed in the center of the formation for a change.
Just before the break for the noon meal Wiz pulled Malkin aside. “I want to talk to you.”
The tall thief saw his expression and nodded. “You heard last night?”
He gave a tight little smile. “I don’t sleep real well when I’m cold.”
Malkin cocked her head, waiting.
“I’ve been thinking about it ever since.” Wiz drew a deep breath. “I just wanted to tell you, I think you’re right. I think we can still get Moira out, but if we can’t . . .” He stopped, gulped another breath and went on. “If we can’t I want you to know I understand if you do . . . what has to be done.”
“You want us to take action, then?”
“I know that thing about shooting your own dog, but I can’t.” He tried to smile again and the effect was ghastly under the bluish magic light. “Just don’t do it unless you’re absolutely sure, okay?”
Malkin nodded slowly, not trusting herself to speak.
“Now let’s catch up with the others.”
###
“He heard us,” Malkin whispered to Danny later when she contrived to get him and June off to one side.
“And?”
“He does not like it but he sees the force of the argument. He only asks that we do it should it become necessary.”
“I’ve been thinking about this too,” the young programmer said. “I think maybe there’s an alternative.”
“If there is, well and good,” Malkin told him. “But we do not dare leave Moira, or Moira’s body, here.”
###
“They say you’re coming with us.”
Mick looked up from his planning software to see Jerry and Taj standing before him. “There’s nothing more useless than a staff officer when the battle’s joined. So yeah, I’m going with you.”
“We figured you’d need a weapon,” Jerry said, handing him the box.
Mick opened it and inside was a military-issue Beretta semiautomatic pistol with a couple of clips of ammunition and a shoulder holster like the one he had worn in the attack on Caer Mort.
Mick slipped into the shoulder harness and hefted the pistol. “Thanks, guys. But didn’t you say things like this won’t work in this world?”
“Things like that work just fine,” Taj said. “It’s guns that don’t work here.”
“What he means is, it isn’t what it looks like,” Jerry explained. “It’s actually a magic weapon that shoots lightning bolts. It just looks like a pistol.”
“We could make it look like a Star Trek phaser if you’d prefer,” Taj offered. “Or something really wicked.”
“I think I’ll stick with this, thanks.” Gilligan slipped the weapon into his shoulder holster.
“Anyway,” Taj said. “If you’ve got a few minutes we thought you might want to come down and watch the takeoff.”
Mick looked at the spreadsheet hanging over the map. There were still things to do, but he realized that most of it was make-work. The ball was about to start rolling and things were moving increasingly out of the war room and into the real world.
“Yeah,” he said, rising from his desk, “yeah, I’d like that.”
The three made their way down into the depths of the castle and into the echoing dimness of the dragon aerie. For Mick it was the first time he had been on the aerie floor since Karin brought him here the first day. He felt a pang at the realization.
Sitting in the middle of the aerie was Charlie’s AN-2 Colt, newly equipped with a top turret, tail gunner’s position and with what looked like science-fiction machine guns sticking out on the sides. The dragons eyed the newcomer and shifted and bridled uncomfortably. Clearly they didn’t like this addition to their midst.
“That thing looks like a bomber,” Gilligan said. “A B AN-2?”
“Actually it’s a more like an EW AN-2,” Taj said. “Except it’s magic not electronic warfare, so I guess it’s an MW AN-2.”
“Why do I get the feeling this is never going to make Jane’s All The World’s Aircraft?”
“Different world?” Taj suggested.
“Here he comes,” Jerry said. “And it looks like he’s got his, uh, user interface with him.”
Charlie stepped between the looming monsters and marched out to the group of waiting wizards and programmers. Trailing behind him were five bat-eared demons.
“My crew,” he said to the group.
The first in line was a fresh-faced demon in aviator sunglasses, an officer’s cap with a thousand-mission crush and a brown cowhide flight jacket with a Flying Tigers Blood Chit on the back and an Eighth Air Force patch on the sleeve. “Gerry O’Demon. My co-pilot.”
Jerry groaned and threw an anguished look at Taj, who merely spread his hands and shrugged.
The next demon was short and slovenly with an unshaven chin and beady little eyes that never seemed to look at anyone straight on.
“That’s Joe, my tail gunner.”
Next in line was an older demon wearing a baseball cap, coveralls liberally smeared with grease and chewing on a cigar stub that was disreputable even by demon standards.
“Kelly. He’s my crew chief and waist gunner.”
Next was a young demon in a fleece-lined leather jacket, baseball cap and a particularly goofy grin. “This is Sparks. He’s radioman and handles the other waist gun.”
Finally there was a slender, rangy demon wearing a leather flight jacket and a battered Stetson.
“Tex here’s the turret gunner.”
With introductions made, Charlie waved his “crew” toward the airplane. “Okay, boys, saddle up and let’s ride.”
“User interface, huh?” Mick said to Taj as they watched Charlie and the demons swarm over the plane doing last-minute checks.
“At least it ain’t Windows 95,” Jerry said.
“The best interface is the one that best fits the user,” Taj added. “Can you think of a better interface for this job?”
At last Charlie and the demons were aboard and in position.
Charlie slid open the cockpit window and signaled thumbs-up to the Flight Master, who controlled operations from the aerie.
As he had been taught, the Flight Master waved to Charlie to indicate all was ready. Charlie responded with a one-finger salute. The Flight Master turned to the door, dropped to one knee and brought his stiff arm down pointing at the entrance. On that signal Malus raised his staff and the big biplane shot the length of the aerie and out into the open air like an F-14 coming off the deck of a carrier. The cavern erupted into a deafening chorus of roars as the dragons protested an unfamiliar flying thing in their airspace.
As the grooms and riders fought to keep the dragons under control the plane disappeared below the rim of the entrance for a heart-stopping instant and then appeared again, climbing smoothly for altitude.
“Come, My Lords and Ladies,” said Bal-Simba. “We have our own work to do.”
With a final glance at the rapidly vanishing speck in the center of the patch of blue, Gilligan turned and followed the group out of the aerie.
“Where’s your girlfriend?” Taj asked as they climbed the stone steps back to the main keep.
“She left a little while ago,” Mick said shortly.
###
Deep beneath the ground the pale queen sat upon her ink-black throne. Light there was none, nor sound. Neither was needful.
Part of her was in this dark hall and other parts were in a thousand different places, sensing, observing and here and there acting. All of that was part of the dark queen just as she was part of all of it.
She could feel the pulse of the earth and the pull of the tides. She could sense the currents and eddies of magic which flowed through this place. She could sense her belly ripening even as desires ripened. All were good. All would come to fruition in the fullness of time.