“I’d rather not know, Ginger.” Tess retorted.
The second shot landed behind them and it sounded like it knocked over a tree or two.
“At a guess,” Chass ventured, “I’d say Sajani will know we’re coming.”
“Five gold says she doesn’t think we made it.” Tess said.
“You’re on.” Chass said. “And five more says they think I’m the one that gave us away.”
“No deal.” Tess said. “No one will think I was the dumb one.”
“I think they might.” Ginger said.
There wasn’t time for Tess to glare at him.
The third shot hit a tree just before them and it began to fall slowly. Ginger and Chass changed course to avoid it, but Tess called out for them to follow her as she charged beneath it. Ginger hesitated, but Chass didn’t. They’d just run past it when it hit the ground behind them with a roar. “Are you trying to kill us?” Ginger shouted.
“No,” Tess returned almost calmly, “but they are. Keep moving. Maybe it will slow them down.”
“Or,” Chass added almost casually, “maybe they’ll just go around the smart way, like we should have.”
“You going to wait and find out?” she asked with a smirk.
“Nope.” Chass responded. He was beginning to sound a little winded.
That made her turn back and look for Ginger, who was losing ground quickly. She slowed to allow him to catch up slightly and then they continued on. “You can do it,” she encouraged, “just a little bit further.”
They burst into the camp and Tess began frantically looking for Sajani. “Where’s the lady?” she screamed. No one seemed to know, so she took charge. “To the vehicles, now! Have your weapons ready.” Everyone began scrambling. “I want them moved into a half circle around my point. Dig in and be ready.”
They weren’t quite finished when the elven behemoth crashed through the trees. An elf stood with his head poking through a hatch near the front. “Lay down your weapons!” he shouted in broken common. He raised the mounted rifle before him to emphasize his words.
Tess didn’t wait for him to bring the weapon to bear. She fired a shot at him, but it ricocheted off his helmet. It did knock him back slightly. He grabbed at the rifle again.
Tess hunched down a little bit and closed her eyes, but the shots never came. Daring to open a single eye, she peered up just in time to hear Sajani say, “I’m betting you’re not immune to being stabbed through the neck.”
The Copper Wolf was standing over the elf with her blackened saber pointed at his neck. It looked like he didn’t understand what she said exactly, but he was holding very still. He moved his hands away from the rifle in front of him. He tried to duck back down into the vehicle, but was answered with a quick thrust from Sajani that nearly severed his jugular. He slowly fell back though the hatch.
An electric hum signaled the movement of the behemoth’s main gun. It would have knocked the Lady down, but she managed to scramble quickly over it, then unslung a rifle from off her shoulder and fired repeatedly into the hatch. Shots could be heard ricocheting around for moments after she released the trigger and then all went silent. The only sound in the camp was the sound of the behemoth’s electric motor.
“Toss me a charge.” Sajani ordered.
Ginger tossed her a satchel from off his shoulders.
She pulled the pin from the charge, dropped it down the hatch and closed it quickly. Tess saw her jump from the vehicle and run towards her position. There was just enough time for Sajani to lay flat near her when the muffled sound of the explosion echoed through the camp. The hatch flew back open with a puff of smoke, but the electric hum of the engine didn’t stop.
Tess felt exhilarated and ecstatic. She looked over at Sajani—a huge smile crossed her face. “Lady,” she said with a laugh almost on her lips, “you are the most wonderful person on the planet.”
Sajani didn’t respond to that. Instead she quickly got to her feet and began issuing orders. She stationed soldiers behind the rear hatch and attached explosives to the handle and hinges. They all stood back as Ginger detonated the charge.
They could hear a large clang as the heavy metal hatch dropped to the ground. Tess waited anxiously as the smoke cleared to hear any kind of shooting, but none came. Once she could see clearly, she saw why. The satchel charge had done its job well. All that was left of the elves inside was their corpses.
Tess couldn’t help herself. She started cheering and clapping. All but Sajani soon followed suit.
“It was really an amazing feat, my Lady,” Ginger was saying as they stood examining the remains of the behemoth. These, um…cannonballs… big bullets…not sure what to call them. They’re surprisingly stable and they were stored a little away from where the explosion happened. It looks like your satchel charge landed on the cannon’s breach though, which was open.” He motioned to the bit of mangled metal that had been the cannon’s rear hatch. Any other equipment, except the two simple levers used to drive the behemoth, was in a similar state. They’d cleaned out the bodies and there was a small crew busy burying them nearby.
“It was too much to hope for, keeping the whole thing intact. I was more worried about keeping my people intact.” Sajani said flatly. The engine was still humming quietly. “I guess there’s not much point of keeping it. Even its ammunition is pointless without a way to fire it.”
“I’m sorry,” Ginger said with obvious regret. “Given a full workshop and a lot of time, I might be able to make something that could use the ammunition, but I still wouldn’t be able to fix this.” At some point, the metallic cat had come into the behemoth and was batting playfully at some random wires that were hanging down.
Tess turned to face Sajani. “What do we do with this thing? It’s not much use so maybe we should just move it somewhere out of the way and leave it.”
“My thought exactly,” Sajani said simply and added, “Have the troops get ready to move. I’ll need one of our backup drivers on this.”
Tess looked surprised and asked, “We’re taking it with us?”
“We still have those supply vehicles to take out and then I have big plans on where to leave this thing.” She paused briefly. “So… do we have any red paint?”
“I can make something like it.” Ginger offered helpfully.
“Good,” Sajani replied cryptically. “These elves seem to scare pretty easily so far, and I’d like to make it easier still.” She told her basic plan to Tess and Ginger and they all got to work.
Just as dawn was breaking, the behemoth with an escort of five transports coming up behind it, approached the convoy that Tess, Chass, and Ginger had scouted out earlier. The behemoth had a huge red wolf’s head painted on the front of it now and a Copper Wolf flag hanging from the cannon barrel. The elven soldiers seemed to be putting together breakfast. They had more guards posted than they had the previous night. One of the front guards caught sight of them and moved from his position before he noticed the flag. His face went noticeably pale.
Sajani popped out from the forward hatch and smiled at him, making sure her teeth were prominent. She motioned for the man to drop his weapon and raise his hands in the air. He did and so did the rest of the camp. She hadn’t even had to speak a single word.
She poked her head back in for a moment and spoke to Tess, “I guess they didn’t expect any real resistance in this war. They’re ready to be tied.”
“That easy?” Tess sounded skeptical. “Is it safe?”
“Should be.”
And it was.
First, she made sure that the captives were properly tied and being watched. They seemed very calm about the whole thing. Ghenis later reported that they had heard that if they didn’t struggle, she’d let them live. It made her feel sorry for them in a way.
The convoy had been hauling a little more than the last few. This one included some replacement rifles and copious amounts of ammunition, also some odd looking boxes of stuff that Ginger said was explosives. They lo
oked like undried bricks to her. There was also more (bad) food. At least her troops wouldn’t starve.
She had as much fuel as possible removed from the transports and had their cargoes moved to their own vehicles or into the one vehicle they were taking with them. A lot of what they captured had to be tied onto the outside of their transports.
Once all that was taken care of, Sajani, Doc and Ginger entered one of the convoy’s transports. She sat at the chair in front of the communications screen and waited while Ginger made some adjustments. Doc cast a spell on her.
General Sestus lightly dabbed the towel on his face as he followed the charge of quarters soldier to the communications tent. “Your sergeant knows better than to fetch me over just anything,” he told the poor frightened woman. “But in case she forgot, you should know that I will hold her completely responsible.”
The soldier nodded quickly. “Thank you, sir,” she managed.
He knew better than to take his frustration out on the messenger, but a little fear in the subordinates never hurt.
“Squad, Attention!” the charge of quarters shouted as he entered. The communications area was kept dark and only lit by the many screens throughout it. The people in it jumped up and stood rigid for a moment.
“At ease,” he said after a short interval. The soldiers returned to their duties.
“It’s the Copper Wolf,” the sergeant said before he had a chance to ask. “She closed the channel when I told her you weren’t available, so we weren’t able to track her, but she said she’d contact us again in five minutes.”
“You know what system she called from? It was from one she’d captured?” The general asked slowly.
The sergeant looked hesitant. “We were able to identify the unit she called from, yes sir, but,” she added with noticeable regret, “it was not one of the units she captured earlier. It was assigned to a supply convoy.”
“I thought,” he said carefully, “I ordered all supply convoys to have behemoth escort.”
“You did, sir. The assigned behemoth stopped broadcasting last night and when the supply convoy asked for additional instructions, it was told by Major LeBene to hold its position until we could send…”
“Hold its position? Why didn’t they go after it?”
“The major felt that whatever had taken out a behemoth would be able to take out a supply convoy.”
“Of course,” the general nodded reasonably. His curiosity had gotten the better of his judgment. He would have to make sure the major was made aware that her caution had slightly redeemed her of prior sins in his eyes.
“The Copper Wolf is signaling again.” A communications worker called, “Should I patch her through, sir?”
“Begin getting a pinpoint on her position. Let me know if she’s in artillery range by holding up one finger and if she’s not, hold up two fingers where I can see them.”
The soldier nodded that he understood.
“Patch me through.” The screen filled up with an image of the rust colored vykati he’d seen earlier. She was still dressed in black leather armor. There was a smile on her face that he wished he could wipe off.
“General Sestus,” she said in perfect elven. “Good to see you again.”
“What do you want wolf?” He didn’t bother hiding the contempt he felt for her. He’d have liked to consider her a worthy adversary, but she looked too much like a dog.
“Since you ask, I’d like you to go back to where you came from.”
He refused to dignify that with a response and just waited for a moment.
“No?” she answered with a sickeningly sweet tone to her voice. “Well, I guess I just wanted to let you know that there’s a fatal flaw with your behemoths.”
“Really?” he said with skepticism.
“Yes,” she answered without a trace of deceit in her voice. “Took one out all by myself. You can try to reach it if you want, but here’s its communications device.” She held up a tangled mess of metal and glass. It looked like it might have been a radio once.
The communications worker held up two fingers.
“Why do you bother telling me this, Lady Sajani?” he asked. He found that he really meant that question. Doing this made no sense to him.
The wolf laughed and it sounded a little like a dog bark to him. The screen went blank.
“Send the position to fire control. I want an airstrike there as soon as possible,” Sestus ordered calmly.
The communications soldier barked some instructions into his headset and hit some buttons on the console in front of him. “Fire control has an ETA of 20 minutes, sir.”
“Then make sure they have a visual before firing.”
“What are they looking for sir?’
“A behemoth escorting a supply convoy.”
The soldier spoke some more into his headset.
“Fire control says that current safeties won’t allow them to fire on our own forces.”
The general could feel the anger rising in him like a slow burn that started at the base of his neck. “Safeties be damned!” he shouted. “Take out that wolf!”
And then, with the strange will power he was known so well for, he regained perfect composure. He saw something he hadn’t before and came to a realization—an important realization. The wolf had been telling the truth. The general turned to the charge of quarters. “And make sure that the hatches on all behemoths are battle-locked from now on. Our crews are getting lazy.”
The airships were very fast and rarely seen in Terahn skies. The elves guarded them jealously and only used them when they really needed them. Of all the elven war machines, they were the most vulnerable to native technology and magic. The four machines flew on wings that seemed far too short and left trails of clouds behind them.
A set of flames ignited, one under each wing and rockets shot out ahead of them to land in the jungle far ahead. Where they landed, the jungle exploded into a wall of fire and debris. Turf launched into the air and didn’t return to the ground for almost a full minute. The flames and smoke would continue over the area for days to come.
The airships flew through the blast and then circled back around once after the smoke had mostly cleared. There were five masses of melted metal in the center of the blast area, but no signs of movement or life. They circled yet another time and then headed back the way they came, disappearing over the horizon.
Sajani and her crew watched from about two kilometers away. A large clearing near a fairly high hilltop gave them a decent view, while their vehicles stayed hidden in the undergrowth. They were able to see the blast and some smoke overtook them after a few minutes. “Why do you taunt them like that, my Lady?” Tess asked. “We could have just left the machines and been done with it.”
The Lady of Rust stood silent for a long moment. She had a slight smile of satisfaction on her face and seemed to be enjoying the light breeze the explosion had brought on.
“Sajani?” Tess prompted.
“Vengeance is a terrible task master,” she said quietly. “I want him to know it. I want him to know it very well.”
“It will make it worse for us.” Tess offered.
“Maybe,” Sajani answered, “But every shot he fires at our ghosts is a shot he can’t use against us or Vharkylia. Besides,” she said, her smile growing broader, “angry people do stupid things.”
Ginger approached them respectfully. He had a pair of goggles with many lenses sitting haphazardly on his forehead. A slightly distracted look on his face told her that he’d been deep at work on something in one of the transports. As usual, his cat was perched on his shoulder. “What news do you have?” Sajani asked him.
“I think I figured out how to track the elves.” He spoke slowly, as if he wasn’t sure.
“You’ve already been tracking them.” Sajani said patiently.
“They apparently mark convoys based on what they’re carrying, so we can tell in advance, but that’s not all.” There was excitement entering his vo
ice. “One of the codes they use on supplies is for gold. There are none moving right now, but my guess is that it’s only a matter of time before we find one. They have to pay their people somehow.”
So far, it was all she could do to keep the soldiers fed, pay would be welcome. She was just beginning to become very hopeful about the whole endeavor when she realized that what Ginger was talking about was going to be much harder than they originally thought.
“And when we do find it, how many of those behemoths will be escorting it?” Her comment noticeably dampened their spirits.
“Tenner and I are working on something right now that might help a little, but in the meantime, I’m sure you’ll think of something Lady Sajani,” Ginger offered.
And therein, at times, was the problem. The spirit and ingenuity (and copious amounts of luck so far, she added to herself) that allowed them to succeed so far, was all provided by her. So far it had been relatively simple, but she really needed someone else’s input. This is where Simon used to shine, in the days before she went back to being a responsible adult.
A spa that advertises that it’s good enough for a god can afford to have whatever type of bouncer it wants. Apparently the “god” that frequented the place wanted a mix between something human and more gorilla-like. Standing about three feet higher than the tallest of the small group of people, they looked like well-proportioned body-builders from the neck down. The face was gorilla ugly.
Simon was shocked to hear the one nearest him speak in perfect common, “You don’t belong here. Move along.” He could hear the uncomfortable shuffling of his companions behind him. They were finally one step away from the information they’d been seeking for weeks. It looked like it would take their combined weight in gold to get in. The bouncers noticed their discomfort and started to move menacingly forward.
Simon sighed deeply within himself. They always depended on him to do the talking. Oh well, they could chide him later for his dishonesty, just as they did almost every time they allowed him to do the talking. Sajani, with her holy knight background, would be the loudest, he was sure.
“Whatever are you talking about my dear man?” he asked. The gorillas stopped and looked at him directly.
Wolf's Pawn (Sajani Tails Book 1) Page 13