by TR Cameron
After the initial barrage, the gang members became a little smarter and began to coordinate their fire, a strategy that eliminated two more of their enemies. The numbers were about even, and Cali put her hand on Tanyith’s shoulder, ready to dart out and join the battle. Before she could move, however, a wave of agitation came from Fyre and suddenly, another dozen New Atlanteans appeared. She imagined this was how non-magicals felt when magicals did things that seemed impossible. One minute, they weren’t there and the next, they were. Their veil had been so perfect that even the Draksa hadn’t detected them.
The new arrivals annihilated the remaining Zatora soldiers in an instant as fire, force, and shadow overwhelmed any possibility of defense or retaliation. The survivors among the invaders gathered in a circle, presumably to talk.
“What the hell do we do now?” she whispered,
Tanyith’s voice held the fear she felt. “Back away slowly and find another place to fight. We can’t face that many.”
She shook her head barely an inch to each side. “If we move, they’ll see us.” She felt a poke from Fyre but not as intense as before. “Wait. Something’s happening.” She heard footsteps coming from Decatur and pulled Tanyith with her to the other side of their cover so they wouldn’t be seen from that direction either.
A group of Zatora soldiers, harder-looking than those who had first engaged the raiders, marched together toward the New Atlanteans. The main rank in the rear consisted of a dozen or so people arranged in three rows, and three individuals walked before them. Everyone was clad in what looked like body armor. A step back from and flanking the lead person were the two who had followed her before. In front of them was Grisham’s lieutenant, the smaller man who had stood closer to the bar when they’d visited the Drunken Dragons.
“Hey, scumbags,” he shouted. “You’ve had your fun. This is your chance to leave. If you don’t, we will hunt and kill every last one of you. And we’re gonna take our time with it.”
One of the New Atlantean reinforcements stepped ahead of the others and his people fanned out behind him in a line. “Ah, Grisham’s pet. I’ve looked forward to meeting you. We won’t go anywhere.”
The man shook his head. He was visually unimpressive and in his black tactical outfit, he looked even smaller than he had before. His hair was brown, his eyes were dull, and he radiated a sense of palpable boredom. But his smile carried a wicked edge that made it seem like he possessed a depth beyond what was visible at the moment.
His next words reinforced that impression. “Then you die.”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Magic exploded out of the New Atlantean contingent, aimed at the man and the force arrayed behind him. With a negligent wave, he shielded all of them, and when the attack stopped, not a single Zatora had been hurt.
"What the actual hell is up with this dude?" Cali whispered.
The humans and their magical leader boiled toward their adversaries with a loud chorus of shouts. Pistols barked, and the invaders’ formation changed as those in the front summoned shields and those behind them lofted fireballs above their protectors. The Zatora mage intercepted their attacks with blasts of ice, which resulted in a cold rain that spattered everyone, including her and Tanyith. The man was a dervish and defended against assaults from half the assembled enemies on his own.
“He won't be able to keep that up for long,” her partner muttered. “There's no way.”
She had to agree and had no idea what his strategy was, other than buying time. For what? A magical monster of their own? That would be a really bad sign if suddenly, New Orleans was ground zero for Kaiju battles. The answer became apparent when the duo closest to him angled out to each side and drew weapons that had hung from straps around their necks, hidden behind their backs.
Each carried an assault rifle—she didn’t know what kind, but they looked like what the military used. The ammunition magazines were wrapped in a stripe of blue tape, which seemed odd. They waited for the next round of fireballs and the moment when everyone’s eyes would track them—except for Cali, who couldn’t tear her gaze from the weapons. Their muzzles flashed and New Atlanteans fell. Four of them were down before they realized what was happening. The rest repositioned and those at the edges took a step back to bring the shields in line with the weapons.
Well, that’s that, she thought and tensed, ready to race out and join the fray. She had already decided to use the same tactic and hunt around the fringes. Before she could act, the weapons discharged once again. She was possibly only slightly less surprised than the targets when the next round of bullets punched through their magical shields without stopping and killed the defenders. Tanyith hitched a breath. “Holy hell. They are using anti-magic bullets. They shouldn’t have those.”
Cali growled with quiet rage. “And if they did, they damn well should have brought them to use against the bloody octopus. Bastards.” The rare ammunition changed the equation considerably. She didn’t have anything to protect herself with against the rounds, so exposing herself to the battle now would be beyond stupid. Instead, she sent a message to Fyre and told him to fly higher for fear the anti-magic ammo might negate the innate protection he had that allowed him to shrug injuries off.
The Zatoras calmly obliterated the enemy with a combination of bullets, blades, and sweeping magical attacks by their leader that struck with lethal intensity. Whoever he was, he was far more than the persona he presented. Which has to be a deliberate choice. Damn Grisham. He’s a clever bastard to have his own personal mage in hiding.
Fyre sent a warning from above and she felt him surge eastward, following Decatur. The Zatoras were reorganizing over the bodies of their enemies and the leader seemingly broke them into groups to send in different directions on a hunt for more of the invaders. She shook her head in dismay. Something has to be done about all this. I don’t know what it is, but something. She grabbed Tanyith by the shoulder and said, “Follow me,” then ran to the exit of the Square farthest from the Zatoras.
A lack of shouts in response told her they’d made their escape cleanly—or that the human forces had decided not to pursue them. It was arrogant of the New Atlanteans to come in matching uniforms. That gave their enemies clear targets. I’m sure they won’t make that mistake again. A trickle of despair moved through her when she realized there would almost certainly be another attack. And another, and another until someone stops them at the source.
She put that future concern out of her mind and accelerated into a sprint as she sensed the emotions she associated with combat coming from Fyre. The creature was a born warrior based on the surging confidence and pleasure she felt from him whenever he fought. They arrived at the scene to find the Draksa in a complicated series of airborne maneuvers to distract five blue-uniformed New Atlanteans from the cringing and wailing citizens they’d trapped in an open-air restaurant.
With a shouted curse, one of them turned to target the huddled crowd and was instantly battered by a force bolt from her and a shadow bolt from Tanyith. The double attack hurled the man six feet away to land hard on his back on the pavement. The remaining four spun to face them. They broke in separate directions, him to the left and she to the right, and summoned shields to protect themselves from the shadow attacks that assailed them. The impact of the bolts on her magical protection pulled at her power, an indication that this group was stronger than many of the others she’d faced.
But not as strong as we are. While the enemies were distracted by them, Fyre swooped in, breathed frost on one, and scraped another with his claws. He didn’t manage to fully ice the first, however, and the man broke free and fired a shadow attack at the Draksa. He dodged it easily with a graceful twist and a surge. His amusement filtered through the connection between them, and she sent, Don’t get cocky. More amusement followed.
She called up another shield to block a force bolt as two of the invaders focused on Tanyith and one on her. The fourth, whom Fyre had clawed, was down and bleeding, and the
fifth lay moaning from their attacks. She was preparing to counterattack when a shadow burst from her foe and she was forced to crouch behind her shield again.
When the tentacles reached around it and grasped her, Cali panicked. She tried to yell the command word for her shield charm, but one of the strands of shadow magic covered her mouth and rendered her mute. She’d never heard of magic shaped into such a form and for a few moments, she wasn’t able to believe it was happening. The tendrils lifted her off her feet, and she struggled against them with no success. Below, the duo pressured Tanyith and forced him to retreat so he couldn’t help her.
Frye hurtled from above with an angry screech and clawed at the magical arms, but they vanished under his touch to be replaced by new ones almost instantaneously. They squeezed and she screamed against the one in her mouth. The enemy they’d knocked to the ground had found his feet and now fired blasts at the Draksa in an effort to drive him off. She looked through the stars in her vision at the man who slowly choked the breath out of her.
The arrogant grin on his face released a surge of rage through her, from the tips of her toes to the top of her head. Oh, hell no. There’s no way I’ll go out like this. She locked every thought in her brain into sections and sealed them off with caution tape until only the enemy and her power remained. Then, she released her restraint.
Magical fire exploded out of her, consumed the shadow tentacles, and traveled along them to her enemy. He attempted to shield but the flames seared through his defense and in an instant, he was simply no longer there. She fell and without conscious thought, caught herself with force magic to slow her descent and touched the ground with no more impact than if she’d taken a step. Ahead, the two Atlanteans with Tanyith spun in alarm. She blasted the one on the right with force and catapulted him away, and her partner did the same with the man on the left. Fyre focused on the injured man who had made it to his feet and rejoined the fight and froze him into an icy statue.
The power suddenly drained out of her, and Cali staggered, then forced herself upright. Tanyith ran to her and touched her arm. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head to clear it. “Yeah. The one who had me—he’s gone, right?”
He nodded and she took a deep breath. She’d never killed someone before and had never wanted to kill anyone—for any reason. Nausea surged within her, but the practical voice in the back of her mind came to her rescue. If you’d waited any longer, he would have killed you. He had every chance to stop. It was his choice, not yours.
She shook her head at the voice but knew it was right. She forced herself to speak clearly. “Call Barton to arrange for someone to pick these bastards up. We need to check on the Dragons.” She sent a message to Fyre to ask him to look for trouble along the way but if it wasn’t urgent, not to worry about it. She’d fight again if she needed to, but all things considered, she’d had more than enough action for one night.
Chapter Thirty
Rion Grisham was deeply and truly upset. He couldn’t recall a time when he had been so angry—ever. To have a random group of alien bastards attack his organization without provocation was infuriating.
He paced in his office, not yet able to speak. His three trusted lieutenants sat on the couch and waited for him to break the silence, and the two who had assisted Ozahl in the battle against the New Atlanteans stood guard outside his door. He was off-balance, unsure who to trust, and worst of all, uncertain as to how to respond.
“What happened to the bastards who weren’t killed?” he snapped. “Some must have only been wounded, right?”
Colin Todd, his suit mussed from the work they’d all done during the event, was quick to answer. “Yes, several, and our people are tracking them now. It looks like all of them—injured or captured—are being moved to Polk.”
The gang leader growled in annoyance at the mention of the Army base. Fort Polk was large, annoyingly distant, and essentially out of his reach unless he wanted to cash in every favor owed to him. “Then we need to nab some before they get there. Ozahl, make it happen.” The mage nodded an acknowledgment.
Anger welled inside him again, and he forced himself to speak in a measured tone. “I want to know everything about this. I want to know who was behind it. I want to know how they got here. I want to know who they were. I want to know where their families live. I want to know where their children go to school. Do you hear me? I want to know everything.”
Silence reigned for a few moments before the wizard spoke. “What do you plan to do, boss?”
Grisham gave a thin smile. “I will rip them to pieces in every single way possible.”
The mage looked thoughtful, then said, “I’m behind that idea and I’ll do whatever I can to make it happen. But they might not be the greatest threat to us right now.”
Everyone in the room, including him, stared at the magical in their midst. “What?” he demanded, his tone low and fierce.
Ozahl sat straighter on the couch. “I said this might not be our greatest threat. Let me explain.” He held his index finger up. “One, this wasn’t a fight for territory. They couldn’t hope to eliminate us all in a single night, so the intent was to make a show of force, not to create something that would last. Well, we sent them packing, and they’ll need time to regroup and consolidate before they can attack us again.”
Grisham nodded. That tracked with his own thoughts on the matter.
The other man raised a second finger. “Two, we still have our current enemies to consider. The Atlantean gang in town could easily see this as a moment of weakness and make a push to take what’s ours. We need to guard against that, first and foremost. We have to get our presence back on the street, continue to target their dealers, and recruit replacements for those we lost.”
Again, he nodded. His anger had begun to cool into logic, and the mage had valid points.
He raised a third finger. “Finally, we’re running low on a number of things we really need—including chemicals for our own drug trade and, more importantly, anti-magic bullets. If we can get enough of those, rather than keeping them in reserve, we could use them to wipe out the Atlantean gang once and for all.”
The Zatora leader laughed. “You might as well ask for the world on a plate. Those are really tightly controlled. It’s not even that they’re expensive. There’s merely no one to buy them from.”
The mage smiled. “But, with a little effort, maybe we can find somewhere to steal them from.”
A matching expression spread slowly across Rion Grisham’s face. “Tell me more about that.”
It felt like ages since Usha had last walked the streets of New Atlantis. When the Empress had summoned her, she’d wracked her brain for something she might have done wrong to require a personal meeting. In the end, she hadn’t been able to think of anything, so she was cautiously hopeful she wouldn’t receive a dressing down and that a positive reason lay behind the summons.
She’d considered bringing Danna to introduce her but had decided it would be inappropriate at best and insulting to her ruler at worst. Instead, she’d arrived at the portal landing zone alone and wearing her finest dress, which shimmered in turquoise. A large pearl ring glimmered on each of her index fingers, and she wore a dozen bracelets of coral on her left arm and gold on her right. A simple shell necklace encircled her throat. She walked through the streets of the central dome, which were laid out on a plane that bisected the sphere into a top and a bottom. If she looked up, she peered into the ocean where sea creatures of every kind swam in abundance. Humans think the stars are beautiful. They have no idea what true beauty really is.
The Empress’s palace stood in the exact center of the space, its high central spire visible from almost anywhere in the city. This part of New Atlantis was about fifteen miles in diameter, with more than enough territory for the city’s well-to-do citizens to spread their living areas. The inner-circle nearest the palace was separated into nine equal sections, one for each of the allegedly noble families. Those o
n the rise or those whose wealth was built through generations and served to give them influence with the nine occupied the remainder of the residences in the central dome.
Usha shook her head and muttered a curse. Her own humble beginnings outside the dome were not something she wanted to think about. Even worse, she didn’t want to consider what failure would mean—that she would be banished out there once again. Those thoughts kept her mind occupied during the long walk to the palace.
When she finally arrived, she was recognized and permitted to enter without challenge. That’s a positive sign. Remaining in the Empress’s good graces was the primary goal of her entire existence. The hallways were lavishly ornamented, decorated with coral and gems and gold and every other treasure the sea held. Left to her own devices, she would be content to simply stare at them for hours. But she had a purpose and it would not permit even a second’s delay.
Once, she had come as a commoner. Now, she could walk through the building with her head held high, a successful champion and a favorite of the Empress herself. She entered the throne room and immediately after she crossed the threshold, fell to one knee with her gaze lowered and her head bowed. She waited in silence. The first time she’d done this, she’d had to wait for hours and had felt like every second was a victory celebration.
Now, she only had to wait for her ruler to dismiss her other servants. The Empress’s melodious voice commanded her to rise and approach, and she complied. She halted at the base of the nine stairs that lead to the dais and looked at the woman she owed everything to.
The most important person in New Atlantis smiled at her. “Things are changing, Usha. It is time we reconsidered our approach. Fear not, though. You will be the architect of our victory, exactly as I promised.”