Chapter 34
It was great to be back on top.
With nobody around to read my mind, it was okay to think things like that again.
The air was still sulfury, but at least I was no longer trapped in the nine levels. That would take years of “therapy” to unravel, if I was lucky.
“Nobody was hurt or anything, right?” I asked as I gave my crew the onceover.
They all shook their heads.
“Good.” I looked off toward the tower that housed our resident wizard and his fake girlfriend. “We have to get over there and stop that warped dragon chick from doing whatever it is she’s planning on doing to Warren.”
“That’s a long walk,” said Rachel, standing a good distance from me.
That was odd.
“And it’s not like there are any taxis around here,” noted Felicia.
“No,” agreed Turbo as he fluttered in front of everyone, “but there is a transit system, of sorts. It was installed during the age before the Badlands seceded from Netherworld Proper.”
“Where is it?”
“I’m not certain,” he said. “I’d have to get my bearings first.”
With that, he whipped out a small device and started tapping it, hitting it, and cursing at it. I wasn’t one who was known for being top of the class when it came to technology, but I got the feeling that the only action that was of any use was the tapping.
Turbo flew off in a couple of directions while yelling at the—as he called it—“infernal device!”
Finally, he came back and landed on Harvey’s shoulder. Harvey was still partially in werebear mode. Since he wasn’t fully bear, he looked kind of like what you might expect Bigfoot to look like.
“Okay, it’s that way.”
“Toward the tower?” I said.
“That’s where I’m pointin’, Chief.”
I sighed. “Right. How far?”
“About five miles.”
We all turned to start walking and then stopped.
“Sorry, did you say five miles?”
“Yep.”
“So you are telling us,” began Griff, “that we are to walk five miles in that direction, which clearly overshoots the tower by at least two miles, in order to acquire transportation so that we may come back to the tower after passing it on foot?”
Turbo adjusted his little tie. “Well, when you put it that way…” He trailed off.
“All right, fine,” I said after staring at Turbo for a couple of seconds, “get your guns ready. Mages, keep your magic to a minimum. We may need it. Harvey, if you could keep the partial bear thing going, that’d be a good idea, too. We need your strength, but we also need you to have your wits about you.”
He nodded and grunted in response.
Close enough.
I took point and started heading toward the tower. Distances were tricky on planes like this because everything was almost uniform. It was like looking at a mountain and thinking it’s only a mile or so away but it turns out that it’s more like twenty miles away.
Hopefully Turbo’s device was correct.
“Harvey,” I called back, signaling him forward, “how good is your nose for stuff like this?”
Grunt.
“Okay, I don’t speak werebear, so one grunt for yes, two for no. Got it?”
Grunt.
“Good. Is your nose good for smelling and tracking and all that?”
Grunt.
“As good as a werewolf?”
Grunt grunt.
I glanced back at Felicia, thinking it may be best if she changed over to her werewolf form. But I needed her to keep her Desert Eagle at the ready. She couldn’t do both, and I wasn’t sure how good Harvey was at using weapons.
Hopefully Harvey’s sense of smell would be good enough.
“It’ll have to do,” I said. “Keep your nose in the air and let us know if you catch scent of anything that isn’t us.”
Grunt.
“I think he understood me,” I said to the team through the connector.
“I did,” answered Harvey back through the connector.
I stopped and bit my lip.
He turned around. “What?”
“If you could speak without grunts through the connector, why didn’t you just do that in the first place?”
“Oh, yeah,” he replied with a sheepish grin, which looked pretty funny in his partial-bear situation. “Sorry.”
I motioned for him to continue leading the way.
We moved slowly and consistently across the terrain, keeping our eyes, noses, and whatever other senses we could use actively set to scan for trouble.
“Hello there,” a grizzly voice said from the top of a small cliff to our right.
Everyone spun and trained their weapons on the creature standing above us.
He or she or whatever it was put its hands up.
I hadn’t seen one of these things in a long, long time, and even then it was only in pictures. In fact, those pictures were shown to us by way of paintings or drawings because nobody had any actual photographs of the things. Or if they did, they were kept pretty tightly under wraps. In a nutshell, this creature was to the supernatural community as aliens were to normals. Some people believed they existed, but there was no generally available physical evidence to prove it, meaning that everyone who claimed to see one was either nuts, discredited, or both.
The beast was roughly the size of Harvey, meaning it was pretty tall and quite burly. Its eyes were black and its skin was brownish green, where you could see skin. Most of it was covered under a tan robe that was kept in place with a large, wide leather belt. It carried a gnarled staff that had a skull on its end.
But the things that really stood out were the tusks sticking up from its lower jaw.
“That’s a fucking orc,” Jasmine whispered. “Right?”
Grunt.
Chapter 35
The orc jumped from the cliff face and landed with a loud thump, barely bending its knees upon impact.
Impressive.
From our new perspective, it was clear that he was much larger than Harvey. About a half-head taller and nearly twice as wide. The damn thing’s arms looked like my thighs.
“My name is Trezgel,” he said while holding out his hand to Harvey. “You must be the leader of this team?”
Grunt grunt.
Trezgel pursed his lips as best as a tusk-jawed orc could. “I’m sorry, I don’t speak grunt.”
“I’m the leader,” I said, stepping up. “My name is Ian Dex.”
“You are the leader?” His eyes ran over me. “That’s impressive.”
“Why?”
The orc motioned toward Harvey. “Because this one looks to be capable of besting you in most any challenge.”
I was going to argue the point, but from an orc’s perspective, physical prowess was the primary indicator of power…at least according to what little information there was on the beasts. It was said they fought to the death to determine who would rule and that any orc may challenge that leadership at any time. Of course, the records also noted that before the Badlands seceded from Netherworld Proper, the orcs had been completely eradicated.
Apparently not.
“Looks can be deceiving,” I said without malice. “Now, how may we assist you?”
“I believe it is I who can assist you, Ian Dex.”
“Just call me Ian,” I said, growing tired of everyone down here using my full name. “And how can you help us, again?”
Trezgel nodded with a slight bow and turned slightly to the side while bringing his arm up in a wide arc.
“You seek the tower,” he stated.
“How’d you know that?” asked Rachel.
The orc jolted and gave me a strong stare. He looked as though he’d just eaten one too many tacos.
“You allow your females to speak?”
“He allows us to speak?” Rachel snarled.
“Careful, orc,” Jasmine stated darkl
y.
“I’ll put my foot in your ass,” agreed Felicia.
By now the orc appeared as though he’d been kicked right in the marbles. It was clear that orcs hadn’t caught up to humanity in the realm of equality.
“It seems as though our cultures are vastly different, Trezgel,” I said, trying to hold back my mirth. “Let’s just say that we try to consider ourselves equal in every way. We don’t always succeed, and there are those of us who are less evolved than others, but we do try.”
His brow creased. “Was that an inference that orcs are not as evolved as your kind?”
“Not at all,” I replied with haste, although it frankly was an inference that humans were more evolved. “I was merely comparing members of our own kind to each other.”
“You’re certain that’s what you meant?”
“I’m certain.”
He stepped up and began peering into my eyes, leaning his head this way and that as if seeking to discover whether I was telling the truth or not. I continued staring back into his eyes, not glancing away even for a moment.
“Okay,” he said with a slow nod. “Okay.”
It didn’t seem as though he really believed me, and he was right not to. Fact was that I wasn’t a fan of people who worked to diminish the role of others due to gender, race, sexual orientation, and so on.
“Anyway,” I said, looking past him and up at the tower in the distance, “you were saying that you could help us?”
“Indeed,” he replied, softening a bit. “I can guide you to the tower.”
“Why would you do that?” said Rachel.
Trezgel flinched again and looked at me, but then after clearly wrestling with some internal conflict, he said, “Because you will not survive the trip without my protection.”
“And why would we need your protection?” said Chuck.
Grunt, agreed Harvey.
“This land is overrun by various creatures who will do what they can to destroy you.” He stood tall. “They fear me, though, and will therefore allow you safe passage.”
“But why?” I asked.
His eyes darted about. “I just told you why. They fear me and therefore—”
“Sorry,” I interrupted, “I mean why would you help us? What’s in it for you?”
“Ah, I see,” he said with a firm nod. “As to that, I would ask for two things.”
Here it comes. “Go on.”
“Your wrist ornament,” he said, pointing at my Calibre de Cartier, a watch that wouldn’t possibly fit him, “and that one’s hat,” he finished while pointing at Chuck.
“Chief?” Chuck said through the connector without saying anything aloud. “I can’t give up my hat.”
“Would you rather give up your life?” I countered.
“Damn it.”
Something told me that this orc wanted more from us than my watch and Chuck’s hat, but that just meant we’d have to stay on our toes. And maybe, just maybe, Trezgel could get us safely to the tower. If he did, he could have exactly what he’d asked for. Hats and watches were easily replaced; members of my team were not.
“Fine,” I said finally. “We have a deal.”
Trezgel’s eyes lit up.
“Excellent,” he said as he spun on his heel. “Follow me.”
Chapter 36
The trip to the tower was brisk because Trezgel’s stride was crazy long, even though it seemed like he was going out of his way to walk slowly.
“Obviously we can’t trust this guy,” I said through the connector. “I’m assuming all of you have your weapons and magic ready?”
There was a general consensus.
I then targeted the connector to Rachel.
“You okay?” I asked. “You’ve been acting a bit odd since we met back up by the basilisk.”
“I’m fine,” she replied, not sounding fine at all.
“You sure?”
“I’m fine.”
That solidified it. She wasn’t fine, but I wasn’t going to push it either.
“Okay,” I said. “Just making sure.” I then connected to Felicia and Jasmine. “Something up with Rachel that you guys know about?”
“What do you mean?” asked Jasmine.
“Well,” I replied, noting the distance that Rachel was walking away from me, “look at her. She’s usually right next to me.”
“Huh,” Felicia said. “You’re right. I hadn’t noticed that. Why don’t you just ask her?”
“I did. She said nothing was wrong, but it’s obvious that something is wrong.”
“Yep,” agreed Jasmine. “You want me to—?”
“No,” I interrupted. “She’ll know it was me who asked you to ask her. I’ll just let it go. If she doesn’t want to tell me what’s up, I’ll respect that as long as it doesn’t interfere with our work.”
I opened up to the group on the connector again, but I didn’t say anything.
It was obvious that I’d done something wrong. Seemed I always did. But I had no idea what precisely that was. If I was to guess, though, I’d have to say it was because she knew I’d gotten laid along the way in the nine levels. That was when she seemed to get all irked at me.
Ah, well, nothing I could do about it.
Besides, we were in the middle of the Badlands and I had to focus on things a little more pressing than why Rachel was pissed off at me at the moment. There’d be plenty of time to delve into that if we made it out of here alive. It wasn’t like this was the first time she’d been irritated at me and—unless we met our final doom here—it wouldn’t be the last.
I picked up my pace until I was walking alongside Harvey and Trezgel.
Harvey was padding beside the orc as if he were the thing’s pet. It was kind of odd, but Trezgel either didn’t mind or didn’t care. I had the feeling it was a bit of both.
“Forgive my ignorance,” I said as tactfully as I could, “but I was under the impression that orcs were snuffed out via genocide.”
“Almost,” he said, clearly not offended. “As you can see, the mission to obliterate my race was not completely successful.”
“Indeed.”
He continued on in silence. It seemed that nobody was interested in providing much detail with me at the moment.
That was fine. I’d just scan the horizon and gain my bearings.
The Badlands were surprisingly comfortable as far as temperature went. I would have expected it to be searingly hot—it was very red, after all. But the climate was nice. Warm, yes, but not unpleasantly so.
It was like the desert without the blazing sun and without all the sand. The ground was firm, mostly. There were cracks here and there and the occasional mud pit could be seen bubbling, but there wasn’t all the fire and brimstone like they taught in Netherworld Proper. There were even kids’ shows that warned of the burning heat, slithering monsters, and firestorms. Not like the firestorms they talked about in California, either. These were the type of storms where literal fire came down from the sky.
That made me look up.
Being in the Netherworld, Badlands or not, you wouldn’t think there’d be a sky. But there was. That’s because this wasn’t a place located inside of Earth. It was a dimensional shift. A thin coat of reality that separated the two worlds. If that reality ever merged, both sides would be in for one hell of a ride. Fortunately, according to the best scientific minds, the merging of the two realities was impossible.
“Halt,” said Trezgel as he came to a stop, holding out his staff.
We complied.
The tower wasn’t far now, and it was massive. It was the kind of tower you read about in books where wizards ruled worlds and dragons hoarded fine jewels. It was the kind of tower you knew contained rituals where people were sacrificed so that the powerful could gain more power. The place was evil. I could feel it. Hell, I could see it. The walls were obsidian with streaks of red that led all the way up to its point. Evil, I tell ya.
“Before we proceed,” said Trezgel in a w
ay that made me think he was having second thoughts about helping us go any farther, “explain to me why you wish to enter the tower.”
I glanced at the others but decided to go ahead and let Trezgel know why we needed to get there. I couldn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t know.
“My lead wizard has been taken by the dragon known as Charlotte,” I answered. “I don’t know what her purpose is, but I can’t imagine it’s good.”
“No,” he agreed, “it won’t be. Charlotte is evil incarnate. Just look at her tower.”
“Yeah, she does seem like a real bitch.”
“You don’t know the half of it.”
He sighed and seemed to sag. Then he looked up at the black building, back at us, and then down at the ground. Finally, he began rubbing the back of his neck with his free hand.
“I have an admission to make,” he said in a drawn voice.
“Okay?”
“I have no use for your wrist adornment or that man’s hat,” he said slowly. “I have brought you here because the dragon queen instructed me to do so in the event that you somehow bested her children.”
I had Boomy out in a flash.
Chapter 37
Trezgel didn’t even put up his hands. He merely gazed down at the weapon and then pointed to his right.
We all looked over the lip of the hill that connected to the tower.
“Shit,” I said.
“Damn,” agreed Jasmine.
“Fuck,” Felicia hissed.
“Golly,” stated Griff.
Grunt.
There were easily five thousand orcs in the valley below. They were all standing like frozen soldiers waiting for battle.
“There’s some type of magical sheen over them,” Rachel said through the connector, glancing at everyone but me. “My guess is that they’re in some kind of stasis.”
“It’s actually a refraining shield,” Griff corrected. “These require a wizard’s touch due to the amount of preparation and building of power. My assumption is the fellow who brought Warren to this tower masterminded it.”
Blood Bane Tower Page 14