The closest of the creatures, orcs on what had to be wargs, slowed but did not stop their advance toward us.
“Last warning,” Rafe said, once again loud enough to hurt my ears.
There was laughter from some of the orcs. A gravelly voice snarled, “You do not frighten us wizard. We have a Wanderer leading us.”
Rafe triggered his shield, and I could see it shimmer in a half-sphere immediately in front of us. He began to unwind the sling from his left wrist. I triggered my own shield and focused it into another half-sphere at our back, bringing it toward us until our shields touched.
Rafe loaded his sling with an iron ball and set it to spinning.
The lead orcs raised metal-rimmed shields into a guard position.
Rafe released the iron ball and raised his left hand in a Cub Scout salute. Magical energies leapt up from the earth and cascaded into the metal ball as it flew higher. I sensed rather than felt the wind that Rafe called to push the ball higher until it reached the line of clouds that were moving in from the west. The clouds parted and changed their flow as Rafe’s wind pushed his meteor past them until it gradually faded from sight.
Rafe reloaded his sling and set it to spinning vertically at his side again.
The lead orc screamed something that I couldn’t understand and a hail of arrows arched through the air toward us.
Rafe released the second metal ball into the sky as the first of the arrows reached our shields. The arrows struck and fell to the ground along the front edge of Rafe’s shield.
I felt Rafe reaching out for the group of ley lines that seemed to intersect at the site of the portal. He began pulling energy into him, topping off what little he’d expended so far. I had never stopped sucking in energy from the ley line we’d followed here and I was feeling a lot better than I had just after triggering that earthquake spell. I wondered if that spell would be useful in a fight, but with people standing in the open I didn’t see how I could hurt them without breaking open the earth to swallow them. Maybe as a last resort, but it would weaken me to the point of being useless after that.
I felt an impact of magical energies against Rafe’s shield. The power behind it was impressive, as strong as anything I’d sensed to date, but Rafe strengthened his shield even as the energies played against it. I tried to spot who was casting such powerful magic our way, but I couldn’t see anyone who looked suspect.
Rafe must have spotted something, though, for he raised his left hand into a fist and a tattoo glowed. Lightning split the morning sky and raked across a group of creatures a few hundred feet back from the front line. When the bolt finally faded from sight, scores of creatures lay unmoving on the ground. In their center was an undamaged circle that contained two creatures that I couldn’t identify at that distance. But obviously, these were the wizards who had attacked us.
“There you are,” Rafe said.
He pointed at the figures and then waved his right hand as if in greeting.
The only response was another wave of energy washing over Rafe’s shield. It did no damage to us, but three of the orcs closest to us burst into flames and turned to ash in seconds.
“Maybe we should just stand in the middle of everyone and let their misses kill off their allies,” Rafe said with an evil chuckle.
I didn’t see anything funny about our situation, but Rafe was the experienced one. If he found this amusing, who was I to gainsay him?
I spotted a fiery streak arching down from the layer of clouds a thousand feet or more above us. It was one of Rafe’s meteors.
Rafe was already loading a third iron ball into his sling when the first one impacted the wizard’s shield. The ground heaved against our feet, knocking more orcs from their mounts and causing dozens of the winged beasts to take to the air. A small mushroom of fire and debris rose from where the wizard had stood. When the wind moved it away, there was nothing but a crater where the wizards had stood.
Releasing another metal ball into the sky, Rafe performed his Cub Scout salute again, held it long enough to get the bullet glowing with energy and then switched to a fist.
Lightning struck the nearest orcs, wargs, and other creatures that had been moving toward us. For a dozen or more seconds, bolts of incandescence played across the creatures. When the lightning faded, dozens were down, unmoving.
“Does this seem a little too easy to you?” Rafe asked.
I looked toward the portal where hundreds more of an even wider variety of creatures were marching through. Easy?
“You think this is too easy?” I questioned.
“It’s not the number. As long as we’re this close to ley lines, I can fight creatures like this all day. This can’t be Rowle’s primary force. I’m guessing he’s still trying to distract us with cannon fodder while his main force is moving into range. Keep your eyes out for something nasty trying to get close to us.”
“You mean like dragons?” I asked as I pointed to the west.
Rafe followed the direction I indicated and nodded. “Well, hell. Yeah, that’s trouble. Things are about to get interesting.”
That’s when the nearest half-dozen or so of the red dragons drew back their heads and spit what looked like globs of molten lava at us.
Chapter 28
Raphael
A full half-dozen fireballs arced over the front line of creatures charging us. I’d recently encountered this same breed of dragon, but that didn’t make them any less of a threat. For some reason, their damn fireballs stuck to the surface of my shields. In my last skirmish with them, that property had given me a lot of trouble.
The lesser creatures were drawing closer, but they were hardly a threat, as long as…
“Tess, switch your shield to cover us both, I have an idea.”
I saw her shield immediately reform into a hemisphere, just behind my shield.
“Put as much as you can into it,” I added as I moved my own shield and reformed it into a wide wall between us and the oncoming fireballs.
The globs of sticky dragon spit hit my shield, and the impact forced it back toward us. I pushed power into the shield until it stopped moving backward and held its position above the second rank of approaching creatures. When my shield had absorbed the momentum of the fireballs, I canceled the shield and then reformed it into its original shape in front of us.
The fireballs obeyed the laws of gravity and fell among our advancing foes. At least a hundred creatures were enveloped in liquid fire. Most didn’t even have time to scream as the fire consumed their weapons, their armor, and their flesh.
“I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” I said.
“What?” Tess asked.
“Old movie reference,” I said, glancing at her.
Tess frowned and rolled her eyes.
Everyone is a critic.
I turned back to the job at hand. Enough creatures died screaming that the first rank of the enemy stopped advancing to look what had befallen their comrades. For at least a half minute, they watched until the flames began to fade. Then they turned back toward us and charged.
“That worked better than I thought it would,” I said.
Tess didn’t comment but moved her shield back into its original shape at our backs.
I raised my left hand again, made a fist, and called down the lightning. It played across the advancing soldiers for a dozen seconds before the local charge was dissipated. I lowered my hand and waited to see what was next on the menu.
The column had split around the site of the dragons’ fireballs. From what I could see, they were all avoiding an area where the earth still boiled.
“Good job, but the portal is still open, and there doesn’t seem to be any end to these things,” Tess said.
The boulder I’d chosen as our spot in this drama made it easy to see that the massive portal was still disgorging creatures. For the first time, I noticed that there was a steady breeze coming from the portal. There had to be a pressure gradient between Colorado Spring’
s six thousand plus feet of altitude and the land on the other side. That was okay, it would take a long time for the gradient to affect the local atmosphere, and I wasn’t planning on leaving the portal open any longer than I had to.
“Well then, why don’t I see about putting a stop to that,” I said.
I’d already spotted a few wizards on either side of the portal who had prevented me from closing it. Now that we had a little time before the next batch of creatures reached us, I could do something about them.
I raised my left hand again and formed the Cub Scout salute once more, as I summoned my meteors back.
The glowing orbs punched through the overcast simultaneously. They no longer bore any resemblance to the metal ball bearings they had started the day as. Their matter had already been altered into the fourth state of matter, plasma. I poured more magical energy into the plasma balls as they swept down toward the portal.
The mages holding the portal open saw the threat coming and raised their hands in what I took as a futile gesture to avoid death.
The impact was impressive.
Smoke, fire, and debris filled the sky around the portal. Body parts and entire bodies flew through the air, raining down around the countryside and a red mist of vaporized flesh and blood settled onto everything. For once, more than the rocks of the park were red.
When the dust and smoke moved off with the breeze, I saw the spot where the wizards had been was now a pair of craters.
However, the portal was still open.
I cursed under my breath and then said, “Hell, there must be other mages on the far side of the portal helping hold it open. We may have to cross over to get it closed.”
“I’m with you,” Tess answered.
That’s when another portal opened a hundred yards in front of us and to the left of the line of marchers. It opened across the road, in the line of scrub oak that filled much of that area of the park. It wasn’t as enormous as the original portal, but I really hadn’t been expecting more company.
“Heads up,” I said to Tess and pointed toward the new gateway that was opening from somewhere.
“Another one? Isn’t the one big enough for all of them to come through?” Tess asked.
“I had thought so. This may change things. Hold your position and concentrate on your shield. Let’s see what comes out before we start shooting again.”
A few seconds passed while the horde that faced us hesitated, apparently as unsure of the new portal as we were.
Then we heard trumpets and the stomp of feet. Ranks of golden armored beings marched from the new portal. I couldn’t identify who had joined the fray or whether they were friend or foe. They marched through quickly, and the portal closed behind them. Leaving perhaps a hundred fighters standing four deep in even lines facing the horde.
I heard helicopter rotors and took a moment to glance upward, half expecting to see another of Armstrong’s attack copters. Instead, a sleek blue Bell helicopter with a local television station’s logo, KRDO, prominently displayed was flying toward the battle site from our rear.
“Well, this one is going to be difficult to cover up,” I said aloud. Over the years, I’d spent a great deal of time and effort to hide my actions, and those of supernatural creatures. Now my biggest fight ever was going to be on the morning news. Assuming someone out there didn’t decide the helicopter was a threat and shoot it down.
“I guess you won’t have to clean up after yourself today,” Tess said with a laugh.
I glanced at her and winked.
She smiled. “When it rains it pours, right?”
“Damn straight, now if this new group will just provide some kind of hint as to their intentions we can get on with–”
I saw the shimmer of yet another portal opening. This one opened to our right, again between us and the original portal, and opposite the second portal.
“What? Did someone send out invitations?” I said.
Someone in the horde noticed the new portal and a portion of the creatures in front of us turned toward it. A few seconds passed and then another group of armored warriors marched onto the battlefield. Much like the group on our left, this group bore mostly swords and re-curve bows. When they were all through and lined up opposite the previous group, their portal also closed.
“Perhaps we should back off and let these people fight it out,” Tess said.
“Not a bad suggestion,” I agreed. “But which group is which and are any of them on our side?”
“Does it really matter who’s side they’re on if they annihilate each other? We can come back and finish off the victors.”
“That’s a little cruel if some of these people are friendly toward us,” I said without inflection.
“Maybe, but I don’t see you fighting three different groups at one time.”
I shrugged. “But if one of them is friendly, we’d only be fighting two groups. Now, if we just had some indication of which one to support and not attack.”
I heard a shout from Beast, and there was movement in the trees at our back. We both turned to see what the hell else was joining the fight.
It was a grizzly. The biggest damn grizzly I’d ever seen or heard of. The damn thing was at least ten feet high at the shoulders, on all fours. It was easily the size of an SUV.
“Oh, frak!” Tess said.
The bear stomped toward us; dust flew up each time its massive paws struck the ground.
Tess raised her crossbow to her shoulder. I reached out and pushed it back down.
She looked at me quizzically.
“I don’t want you to piss it off,” I said.
I had been studying the bear’s aura. Normal mundane creatures have mostly green auras, as they are part of the natural world. This bear’s aura was intensely green, but it had streaks of white running throughout.
“This isn’t a normal bear,” I said.
“You think?” Tess said sarcastically.
“Wait for it to show us what it’s here for,” I said.
The bear stomped toward us, but as it drew nearer, it angled slightly to our east side. It climbed the boulder beside us, stopped, and watched the horde and the two ranks of fighters.
Then its head shook slowly. “Raphael, you sure manage to get yourself into the worse jams.”
The bear’s voice was human and familiar.
“Joe?” I asked.
“You may still call me that,” the bear said.
“Joe, you’re a were-bear?” Tess asked.
“No, young one. For now, I am just a bear. After today’s fight, well, we shall have to see what I am then.”
“I don’t understand,” Tess said.
“That is understandable. I am now one with my spirit totem. Whether I will ever be just a man again has yet to be revealed to me.”
My eyes widened. I’d heard of great shamans becoming spirit totems, but I thought it more a metaphor for death and traveling on to those happy hunting grounds I heard about as a kid.
“Joe, you can see we have more company than I was expecting. Do you have any idea what’s going on out here?” I asked.
“Apparently, not all of the gods were ready for Ragnarök to begin today. Some are here to support Rowle and others are here to prevent him.”
“Wait, you mean those guys are gods!” Tess said.
“Yes, young one.”
“But doesn’t Ragnarök begin when the gods start fighting?” Tess asked. “I thought that’s what the whole thing was about.”
I turned back toward the horde and the two lines of gods. “Do you have any idea which group is trying to prevent Rowle from starting this?”
“Not a clue, you know all your white man gods look alike to us,” Joe said. He made a coughing sound that racked his body with great shudders.
“Joe, are you sick?” Tess asked.
“No, that was him laughing,” I said.
“Oh.”
Beneath our boulder, in the area between the two ranks of gods,
the horde had made up their minds. They turned east, toward the second rank of gods to arrive.
“I guess we know who’s who now,” I said.
As the horde began their charge, several of the gods released arrows that flew straight and true and did not slow down upon striking their initial target. After passing through dozens of creatures, the arrows impacted shields held by the opposing rank of gods. Some of those gods were drawing similar bows and loosing arrows. Rather than shooting through the mass of the horde, their arrows arched over the horde and fell upon their opponents.
Two volleys of arrows and except for a few dozen dead creatures added to the mass of bodies on the battlefield, I couldn’t see any effect.
“I guess we’d better start helping,” I said as I raised my right hand and sent a wide shaft of fire into the closest ranks of creatures. Fire is a devastating weapon to use on creatures with no protection. The ones with fur ignited immediately and continued to burn after I cut out the tat and prepared to switch to lightning.
Dozens of the creatures turned toward us and began to charge, ignoring the rank of gods for now.
Joe, in his spirit bear form, did not wait for them to reach us. He charged forward, covering the hundred feet or more before I could even shout for him to hold. The bear impacted the nearest warg-riding orcs and scattered a half-dozen or more just by slamming into them. Then he reared up on his hind legs and began striking around him with tooth and claw. The orcs tried to fight, but their weapons did not seem to draw blood.
Over the din of combat, I heard the sound of great wings beating the air.
I looked toward the higher foothills that made up the western side of the Garden of the Gods. Above the trees, the massive form of a black dragon rose into the air. The rider on its back was the only person I’d ever heard of who rode a dragon.
Rowle had arrived.
“Hail, hail, the gangs all here at last,” I said.
I felt apprehension in my apprentice for the first time that morning.
“No worries,” I said. “He had to make a fashionably late appearance to maintain his ego. The battle couldn’t finish without him being here.”
Wanderers 3: Garden of The Gods (The Wanderers) Page 29