As Jape and Nalia climbed the steep, flimsy steps at the far corner of the scaffold to perform their controlled experiments, Scrornuck turned his attention to their surroundings. Eight gargoyles, each a ten-foot-high head of Spafu, faced outward, and a stout railing filled the space between the leering dragons. He stepped atop the railing to make sure nobody was hiding. From there, he inspected the slender flying buttresses running down from the gargoyles to eight smaller towers. Straining his enhanced vision to its limits, he saw that each buttress sprang from its tower just above a narrow walkway, right next to a small metal service door.
A bell rang, shrill and insistent. Drawing his sword, Scrornuck sprinted down the stairs just in time to see a dozen or more heavily armed soldiers burst through a door labeled EMERGENCY EXIT ONLY—ALARM WILL SOUND. One irritated pike-carrier stabbed his weapon upward, ripping the bell from the wall as the leader of the troops doffed her black helmet and smiled at Scrornuck. “Hello, Dizzer."
His jaw dropped. “You should be dead..."
"I could say the same about you, demon,” the Captain replied, most certainly alive despite many bruises and burns. “It seems we're both rather hard to kill."
How did she—? In perfect clarity, the scene came back to him:
The soldiers squirmed and doubled over as the subsonic undertones of Scrornuck's “incantation” churned their guts. He finished the second chorus and crashed to the floor. As he pulled Nalia closer, he got a glimpse of the Captain staggering behind the support pillar, upchucking violently. Then Jape said the final word and brilliant white light surrounded them.
"I'd like to thank you for saving my life,” she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
"You're welcome, bitch."
She stepped forward, inspecting him with a mixture of awe and disgust. “I see you've stopped pretending to be human. May I ask just what kind of abomination you are?"
"The kind that eats lizards for breakfast.” Very slowly, keeping his eyes locked with the Captain's, he started backing up the stairs. This is bad, he thought—there were at least twenty soldiers in the room, with more stepping from the emergency exit every second.
"Blasphemer! You shall pay for this..."
"Yeah, yeah, going to try skinning me again?"
"In fact, I've been practicing.” The Captain followed slowly, careful to stay just beyond Ol’ Red's reach. “So have my helpers.” With a flourish, two of the soldiers removed their helmets, and Scrornuck saw they were Servants of Spafu that he'd beaten up in Taupeaquaah. “I believe you've met?"
"Where's your pal Ferinianne?” Scrornuck spat. “Still trying to blow his nose?” He backpedaled further, reaching the rooftop deck. Where's Jape, he wondered, risking a glance over his shoulder. As he expected, the Ranger and Nalia were on top of the rickety scaffold, engrossed in their examination of the Orb. As he took another step back, he looked closely and realized that the scaffold was little more than a pile of shipping pallets. Maybe, if he could signal Jape and Nalia to come down, he could collapse the whole bloody thing, including that damned Orb, onto his enemies...
A sour-sounding horn suddenly blew, the crowd of soldiers parted, and a black-robed, black-masked man marched up between them. The Captain bowed and escorted the imposing figure to the top of the steps.
"So this is Lord Draggott?” Scrornuck said disdainfully.
Ignoring Scrornuck, the black-clad warlord looked up to Jape and called, “Good morning, James. We are pleased to meet you again."
"Pleased to meet you, too,” Jape said, hurriedly heading for the scaffold's stairs.
Draggott's voice was whiny, wheezy, somehow familiar. “When you set off on that wild goose chase to the south, we feared we would not have the opportunity to—"
He stopped in mid-sentence and stood unmoving. An instant later, Jape, frozen in mid-step, toppled over the edge of the scaffold. “Shit,” Scrornuck whispered, sprinting a few steps to catch the falling Ranger. As he carried Jape away from the scaffold and set him down in a safe place, Scrornuck saw that the Captain and her soldiers were also silent and still. He strained his ears and heard nothing—the sounds of battle in the courtyard had ceased.
"Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!" he shouted, knowing what he would see when he looked up at Nalia. She stood by the Orb, oblivious to the world, her arms buried in its electric-purple glow, as tendrils of energy caressed her shoulders, back and head. Crap, I'm just a dumb sword-swinger! he thought, I'm supposed to kill dragons and fight off armies, not figure out what to do with a mind reader and a—a—whatever that bloody thing is!
Forcing himself to breathe slowly and calmly, he recalled Jape's plans to conduct “controlled experiments” with the Orb. The top of this tower, surrounded by a hostile army, hardly seemed “controlled.” Jape hadn't told Scrornuck what he intended to do once Nalia was in contact with the Orb, and now he was in no position to say anything.
Think this through, Scrornuck told himself, overriding the instincts that screamed at him to pull her out. At least thirty soldiers blocked the only way down, but if he could capture Draggott and the Captain while they were still in a trance, he'd gain the upper hand. Well, he thought, the last two times Nalia touched that thing, it didn't seem to hurt her. She could wait a few minutes. Pulling the last red bandanna from his boot, he bound the Captain's hands tightly behind her back and looked around for something he could use to tie up Draggott.
A loud, electric crackling suddenly filled the air, followed by creaks and pops as the unsteady scaffold shifted. Scrornuck looked at Nalia and froze—a storm of purple lightning surrounded her as the Orb ponderously inched closer, and he realized that in a few seconds the thing would ingest her completely.
"Shee-ee-yit!!” he cried, “Don't I ever get a break?” Propping himself against the stair railing at what he hoped would be the right angle, recalling how he'd learned never, never, never to attempt an angled jump, he triggered the boots. He soared over the scaffold, cracking his knee painfully on its corner, as tendrils of purple-white lightning shot from the Orb's surface to meet him. Gasping for breath, muscles jerking and cramping from the jolts of energy, he collided with Nalia and struggled to hold on. In a cloud of smoke and violet sparks, they rolled and slid over the edge of the scaffold.
He struggled to get the boots beneath him before he hit the floor, and Nalia landed hard on top of him, knocking the wind from his lungs. Well, it's a landing, he thought. Slowly, he rolled out from under Nalia's unconscious form, and got to his feet. He reeked of smoke, and when he leaned against the scaffold to catch his breath, the scorched shoulder-guard of his jacket crumbled into ash. Sighing, he slit the jacket's laces with one of his claws and tossed the charred garment aside.
As he carried Nalia over to the spot where he'd left Jape, he heard some soft, confused grunts. Great, he thought, just great. The Captain's soldiers were waking up. He slapped Jape a couple times, but the Ranger remained unconscious. Gotta get out of here. He glanced over the rooftop's edge, at the small service door atop the tower at the far end of the flying buttress. As much as he disliked the idea, this appeared to be the only escape route.
The Captain shook her head groggily, got a look at Scrornuck, Jape and Nalia, and shouted, “Seize them!” As the first few bleary-eyed soldiers advanced, she irritably added, “And somebody untie me!"
Scrornuck put a shoulder against the heap of pallets that made up the scaffold's stair, and pushed with all his strength. With a satisfying crash, the stair toppled, sending the soldiers scrambling. A moment later, the whole scaffold creaked and popped as its far corner sagged and the Orb shifted. The Captain barked orders, and the groggy soldiers struggled to shore up the scaffold before the whole unsteady structure collapsed.
Throwing Jape and Nalia over his shoulders, Scrornuck muttered a prayer for good balance and stepped onto the flying buttress. The thing swayed and wobbled under his weight, and he realized it was purely decorative, just a cable covered in foam and stucco. He staggered as his f
oot broke through the thin crust and sank several inches into the soft plastic. Shit, he thought, Dad didn't raise me to be a tightrope walker.
"Yurgh...” Hands dug into Scrornuck's back as Jape awoke. “What? How?"
"Same as always—Nalia touched that balloon and you all played living statues. Only this time the bloody thing tried to swallow her."
"It can move?"
"Yeah” Scrornuck concentrated on keeping his balance and stepping gently so as not to break through the faux stonework's flimsy crust. “Thing had her about halfway in when I grabbed her.” He felt a vibration in the cable. “Are they following us?"
"Afraid so,” Jape said.
"How many?"
"At least a dozen."
"Shit. Are they gaining on us?"
"Yes—they're crawling on all fours."
"Bloody hell.” Scrornuck attempted to pick up the pace, and the buttress responded by quivering more violently. “We're going to have to fight them. I need my arm free—can you hang on?"
"I think so."
"Okay, one, two, three...” Scrornuck bent his knees, dropped slightly and pulled Jape's backside forward. Jape slid up over his shoulder and ended up face-to-face with Scrornuck, arms around his neck and legs wrapped firmly around his waist. It was still an awkward position, with one passenger clinging to his chest and another out cold and thrown over his shoulder, but at least he had his sword arm free. Fake stone crumbled beneath his feet as he drew Ol’ Red and delicately turned to face the soldiers. “All right,” he muttered, “let's dance!"
And then the fake-stone beneath his feet gave way completely. His leg dropped, the cable bounced to his left, and he fell to his right in a shower of plaster chunks and powdered plastic foam. Desperately, he squeezed Ol’ Red's grip. The fibersword's blade sprang out in two pieces, the inner a fat rope that slashed through the remaining fake stone and wrapped itself firmly around the cable, the outer doubling back and forming a fine network of fibers around his forearm, reaching back to his elbow, wrapping around the root of the bony spike.
"Hang on!” he yelled, and with a jolt that felt like it would tear his shoulder from its socket, the sword caught. Scrornuck swung wildly below the crumbling buttress, his right arm clutching Nalia against his shoulder as Jape clung to his neck and waist. His closest pursuers screamed as they lost their purchase and fell to the stone floor far below. The buttress bounced again as waves shot down the cable, sending two more soldiers falling. Chunks of disintegrating fake-stone pummeled Scrornuck as he struggled to hold on. Thin trickles of blood dribbled from the places where the sword's fibers cut into his skin. Nalia regained consciousness and screamed.
"I see you're awake!” Scrornuck shouted. “Jape, can you hang on to her?"
"I think so...” Wrapping his right arm more tightly around Scrornuck's neck, Jape grabbed hold of Nalia's waist with his left. “Got her!"
"What's going on?” Nalia wailed.
"Tell you later! For now just hang on!” Scrornuck realized he was talking as much to himself as to Nalia.
Finally, after seconds that felt like days, the thrashing cable settled down. Scrornuck shifted his grip, and the sword obediently hoisted him up to the buttress, which was now little more than a naked cable. He wrapped his right arm around the cable, put Ol’ Red away, and slowly worked his way down the bare cable until the fake-stone resumed. “All right, Jape..."
"I'm moving.” The Ranger clambered off Scrornuck's shoulders and knelt on the phony stone surface. “Okay, I'm up here. Nalia..."
"Uh-huh.” Nervously, she released her hold on Scrornuck's arm and let Jape help her up onto the remains of the buttress. Slowly, they both crawled the last thirty feet to the bottom tower. Scrornuck then swung himself up over the cable and made his way down to join them.
"I think I've figured something out,” Jape remarked. “You know how Nalia's a powerful mind reader, but she can't read your mind at all..."
"Told you, there's nothing there to read.” Scrornuck hurriedly swung Ol’ Red at the remains of the buttress, cutting through the fake-stone and severing the support cable. Atop the tower, the Captain watched as another half-dozen of her men fell, screaming, to their deaths. She fixed Scrornuck with an icy stare and slowly made a rude gesture. He ignored the gesture and muttered a brief—very brief—prayer for the dead.
"The Orb is an artificial mind-reading device,” Jape continued, fiddling with his rings. “And that's why you don't go into a trance when Nalia interacts with it—the thing doesn't know what you're thinking."
"You want to know what I'm thinking?” Scrornuck asked, increasingly irritated with Jape's musings. “I think we're at the top of a tower, surrounded by bad guys, and I don't have a clue what we're supposed to do next!” He looked down into the courtyard and saw the warriors shaking off their stupor. The Setron was silent. Bad, he thought, knowing the Army of Taupeaquaah wouldn't hold together long without it. “What's the plan, Ranger?"
"Get out of this castle and get some serious weaponry,” Jape replied. “Draggott's better-armed than I thought."
"I thought the world ends tomorrow—” Nalia protested.
"So there's one day left,” Jape said. “We've stashed some real weapons inside the Sunset Stone—stuff that could level this castle, if that's what's necessary."
"Think any of that stuff's strong enough to whack the Orb?” Scrornuck asked, jiggling the service door's handle. It was locked from the inside. He hacked through the door in a shower of sparks, exposing a dimly lit staircase.
"I don't know,” Jape said, “I just don't know. I've got to read the stuff that came in this morning."
"Seven hundred pages?” Nalia asked.
"The answer's in there somewhere. I'll read every page if I have to."
Scrornuck looked over the railing, and saw Draggott's warriors running along the castle wall, toward a bridge linking the wall to the tower. “Shit!” he muttered. “They're coming for us!"
Jape frowned. “We won't get all the way down before they reach the bridge—it's a good seven stories. Let's see how much charge I've got left.” He held his hands over the edge and said, “Fire!” five times. Three balls of white fire shot from his hands and exploded against the bridge, damaging but not destroying it.
"Out of gas?"
"Afraid so—I've still got a Dragonsneeze, but that won't help us here."
Scrornuck kicked the railing. “Reinforced concrete,” he muttered, drawing the fibersword. “Should be heavy enough.” In a shower of sparks and foul-smelling smoke, he sawed loose a ten-foot section.
Jape watched nervously as Draggott's forces approached the bridge. “Better hurry."
"Feel free to help.” Scrornuck shoved with all his strength. Jape and Nalia joined in, but the section of railing didn't budge.
"Are you sure you cut it all the way loose?” Jape asked.
"Yeah, I'm sure.” Scrornuck sat on the narrow walkway, back against the wall, knees bent, heels against the chunk of railing that he sincerely hoped he'd cut all the way loose. “Here goes nothing—” He wiggled his toes. The boots groaned, his shoulders crunched into the fake-stone, his knees felt like they were being torn apart—and the section of railing fell. The ten-foot chunk of concrete bounced off the tapering side of the tower, leaving an immense white gash in the fake-stone, and crashed into the center of the bridge, taking it down.
"Ever considered going into demolition?” Jape asked, inspecting the remains of the bridge.
"Every chance I get."
They descended quickly, Scrornuck trying to ignore the pain in his knees and back as they took the stairs two and three at a time. The staircase ended at the level of the destroyed bridge, and arrows clattered against the steel door the instant he started to push it open. “Shit, we still have a problem,” he muttered, braving the arrows for a second and getting a glimpse of Draggott's soldiers crowding the walkway on the far side.
Two quick strokes of Ol’ Red severed the hinges, and Scrornuck he
ld the door as a shield as the three stepped out of the tower. They climbed over the remains of the railing and stepped onto a decorative ledge barely a foot wide. Slowly, as arrows clattered off their makeshift defense, they worked their way around to the far side of the tower.
The marble-colored concrete floor was a good thirty feet below—not a great landing spot when jumping with a passenger. Still, seeing no other choice, he picked up Jape and said, “Okay, here we go..."
"Hey, did you hurt yourself again?” Jape said, pointing at Scrornuck's right boot.
"Huh?” Scrornuck paused to inspect the red fluid dribbling down the leather. “Please, oh please, let it be blood,” he muttered. It wasn't: hydraulic fluid was leaking from a blown seal somewhere in the network of mechanisms that covered the boot. Sheeyit, he thought, these things are enough trouble when they're working right. With a silent prayer, he stepped over the edge.
The landing was awful—the damaged boot fired late and Scrornuck's leg took the full impact. He felt a ripping in his knee as he wrapped himself around Jape and rolled across the concrete. “Oh, crap,” he said between clenched teeth, “I think I tore something."
"You did.” Jape quickly shot something from the first-aid kit into the knee. “We'll have to get it fixed when we're done here."
"When we're done, yeah.” Slowly and carefully, Scrornuck got to his feet. The knee hurt and felt unsteady, but it supported his weight. “Where's Nalia?” he asked, looking up and not seeing her.
"Right here,” she said, and he almost jumped—she was standing behind him. “I just climbed down.” He looked at her, and at the tower, and shrugged; he didn't see any footholds, but obviously she'd found them.
They hurried toward the Army of Taupeaquaah and the gate. Without the Setron's song, the Army milled about, disorganized. Nalia rubbed her forehead as if suffering a headache. “These guys are terrified."
The Last Protector Page 40