Stolen Destiny

by Jamie Davis

  The van exploded behind her.

  Plumes of greasy blue and red raked the ugly orange sky.

  Winnie looked around. It looked like everyone made it out in time on this side. She hoped Garraldi was clear on the other.

  She started to stand, but someone tackled her.

  “Stay down. Cast a masking spell to hide yourself,” Kripke shouted over the gunfire. She tried to see where it was coming from.

  Some of the Dusters were returning fire on advancing forces.

  “We’ve got to get everyone back to the Fort,” Winnie shouted, struggling to stand. “And get off me. I promise to stay down, but I have to see what’s happening.”

  “Cast your mask first,” Kripke said.

  Winnie did, but bullets were kicking up dirt all around them.

  One flew past her ear with the sound of buzzing hornet.

  She turned and looked back down the lane. The line of vehicles had stopped about a hundred yards away. Soldiers were leaping from the vehicles by the dozen, then advancing in a line on their position.

  Garraldi dashed beside Victor, through the incoming fire.

  They crouched beside her in the brush.

  “We have to get out of here and back to the fort!” Garraldi shouted. “We’re getting slaughtered.”

  Winnie looked at Garraldi. “You go to the other side of the column with Fannie and Parnell to help you. I’ll start down here with Victor, Bullock, and Kripke. Tell the troops to run for the force field. Hopefully Danny hears the noise and realizes that we need to get back in before they pin us against it.”

  “Got it, boss,” Garraldi said. “You stay safe.”

  Winnie watched Garraldi grab Fannie and Parnell, then darted between the second van and the next truck. Then she turned to Kripke and Bullock.

  “We’ve got to get back to the fort. Let’s collect everyone and … ”

  Still in a crouch, Winnie dodged from her covered position back toward the rear column of vehicles. Most of the ones she could see were burning from being hit by incoming fire from the advancing soldiers.

  She hoped most of her Dusters got out before those missiles hit.

  Winnie was about to reach the first group of cowering recruits when something smacked into her back and slammed her to the ground.

  She screamed, her eyes stinging and ears ringing.

  “Boss, are you alright?” Kripke said, kneeling beside her.

  “I think I’ve been shot in the back,” she gasped, chocked, gasped again.

  “There’s no blood or any sign of a wound,” Kripke called out over the increasing noise of the incoming gunfire. “You have to stand. They’re getting closer.”

  Victor came running back. “What happened?”

  Kripke explained. “Something knocked her down, but I didn’t see it what it was. She’s winded and maybe injured, but I don’t know how.”

  Winnie ached everywhere, but managed to get on her hands and knees.

  “Shoot back at the bastards and hold them back. Winnie’s injured!” Victor called to Kripke and the surrounding troops. “Bullock, pick her up. Get her out of here. I’m right behind you!”

  More gunfire erupted and the Dusters returned fire.

  Strong arms were suddenly around her.

  And then she was flying down the road, wincing with every step pounded beneath her.

  “Thank you, Bullock,” she whispered.

  Victor ran right behind them, shouting orders as he went.

  They were about halfway down the column of burning vehicles when a ripping snarl to her left in the brush preceded a series of roars and howls.

  Winnie turned. Her blood froze.

  A horde of demons bounded from the brush. Worse followed.

  Some of the nightmares had horns on their heads, and others spikes. Their filthy bodies were covered with the same patchwork of scales and coarse matted fur.

  Before anyone could warn them, a horde of the creatures was charging through a group of Dusters. They reduced them to ribbons without even slowing.

  Bullock dropped Winnie as one of the larger beasts charged on all fours toward them. He stepped between Winnie and the creature.

  It was a rhinoceros crocodile, covered in scales, a horn protruding from its serpentine snout. Bullock didn’t flinch as he pulled in magic and hurled a spell at the charging monstrosity.

  Fire sprouted from his fingers in a stream, thick as his arm. It punched into the beast’s chest and burned a hole right through it.

  The creature stumbled a few feet closer then collapsed into the dirt at Bullock’s feet.

  Victor shouted, shoving his hands palm at a pair of demons approaching from the side. They screamed in almost human voices before they were dust in front of his spell.

  Winnie stumbled to her feet and pulled at the two men.

  They needed to flee. There was no way to hold off these things without getting back inside the force field.

  Despite the agony, Winnie ran back towards the fort with Victor and Bullock, gathering refugees along the way.

  Winnie spared a glance back, looking for Kripke and the rest of her security team. But she only saw a horde of charging monsters swarming over and through the convoy.

  Any Dusters still in the brush were surely already dead.

  With the charging beasts at their backs, Winnie, Victor, and the retreating Dusters cleared the back of the column of trucks and vans.

  Everything was on fire. The wafting heat scorched one side of Winnie’s face as she ran past. A hundred yards to the force field. She wanted to call Danny, tell him to open it, but she would have had to stop and open a window.

  So she could only pray that he heard the explosions and came to investigate.

  The remaining Dusters clustered in small groups as they ran through the brush on either side of the lane, working to reach the fort.

  There was no coordination, no chance to organize any sort of defense once they got there. They would either make it back inside or get slaughtered first.

  The first group reached the field.

  An opening appeared and a group of Duster troops spilled out in a firing line.

  Danny stood in back of the line, calling out orders.

  The troops knelt and took positions, pouring coordinated gunfire into the advancing line of soldiers and Red Legs on one side of the column, and the charging creatures on the other.

  Danny’s rear guard was having an effect. Demons and beasts hit the ground as bullets turned them to carcass. They were so close behind, it was a miracle none of her Dusters were hit.

  Winnie turned. Garraldi was bringing up the rear of the other side.

  A grim smile: at least he’d made it back.

  The retreating Duster force ran back through a gap in the two lines of firing troops under Danny’s command. Winnie skidded to a stop by his side then watched the last stragglers struggle to get back ahead of the charging monsters.

  The soldiers and Red Legs had ceased their advance, content to let the nightmares finish them off.

  Looking around for a way to get the rest of their forces back inside the force field, Winnie saw Bullock, Fannie, and Parnell.

  “Come on,” she called out to the chanter elites. “We need to meld our power, create a moving force wall that will hold those monsters back until we’re all inside the main field. Concentrate. Feed your power through me.”

  Winnie gathered force as the chanter elites sent streams her way.

  Directing the flows outward, she formed a wall of force two hundred yards wide, angled so it anchored on one side against the fort’s primary force field. If she worked things right, Winnie could swing it closed like a door behind them. Seal the entrance before the beasts could work their way around its edges.

  She felt a dull thud of pain every time a creature hurled itself against her wall. Some stopped, then started throwing magic of their own, darker ribbons of power than hers.

  The magic wall was beginning to weaken.

&nb
sp; She poured more of herself into it.

  Danny tapped her on the shoulder. “Everyone is inside. We need to pull back.”

  “Good,” she said through gritted teeth. “Let’s step back nice and slow.”

  It took an eternity.

  By the time they were all safely back, dark magic had turned the wall to cheese. But back inside, Danny’s group of techs closed the gap in the force field and immediately began to repair it.

  Winnie collapsed.

  She heard plenty of words all around her, but had no idea what anyone was saying.

  “Danny,” she finally said. “Have Tris get the techs on rotating shifts to reinforce the force field. Those creatures have dark magic of some kind. They will eventually break through. Give her whatever she needs.”

  She looked around for Garraldi and the others. She could see Bullock and Frannie and Parnell crouched nearby, all of them spent. Garraldi stepped out from behind a group of milling Dusters, speaking with Maria.

  “Garraldi, Maria,” Winnie called. “I need help. Get me back to the main building. I have to eat something. We need to be ready. They’re coming.”

  She looked back at the edge of the force field, and the demons and nightmares milling on the other side.

  The Dusters could only hold it so long.

  The wall would eventually fall.

  CHAPTER 30

  Two hours later, the command team met in the war planning room.

  Attacks on the force field had intensified. The army’s armored vehicles pelted the barrier with shells, smashing it from the outside.

  It was deafening inside the dome. Everyone had to shout amid the constant bombardment. Fortunately, it also mostly drowned the screeches and howls.

  Winnie stared out the window, watching the defensive preparations of the remaining Dusters outside. She turned that stare to her core group. They’d been with her a while, if not from the start.

  Her mother, Tris, Danny. Garraldi, and Maria DeSantos stood to one side. Garraldi had a bandaged arm. Victor, Morgan, and Cricket were there as well.

  Everyone looked worried or frightened.

  She got right to the point anyway. “So, what have we lost?”

  Garraldi cleared his throat. Twice. “The convoy had a force of almost eight hundred troops loaded on the various vehicles. We’ve counted everyone who made it back to the fort. A bit over three hundred. Nearly half of them are wounded. The menders will get us report. But good news isn’t coming. I expect that most of them won’t be returning to the lines any time soon. All told, we have maybe two-hundred and fifty troops to watch the perimeter and hold the wall.”

  Winnie winced. “Status on the force field?”

  Tris shrugged. “It’s holding. But don’t ask how long. One of our techs passed out from the strain of maintaining and reinforcing the barrier. We’ll need more shared magic from other chanters if we hope to hold them off for more than a few hours.”

  Winnie nodded. “Talk with Garraldi and Mom. Between the chanter elites and the chanters among the surviving troops, we should have enough people to make something happen.”

  “Great,” Tris said. “I can rotate them in.”

  “Did anyone see Kripke after we closed the barrier?” Winnie asked.

  Everyone shook their heads.

  Victor laid a hand on her shoulder. “Kripke fought to make sure you got away safely. Honor his sacrifice. He wouldn’t want you to cry for him now. There will be time for that later. Now we’ve a fight to get through.”

  “Have we tried talking to them?” Everyone turned toward Elaine. She continued. “I’m not suggesting that we surrender, only that we try and stall them we can get help from outside.”

  “That’s a great idea, Elaine,” Cricket said. “Problem is, all the help is hours away. Cleaver’s already checked in. He’s gathering every warm body he can find, but he’ll never make it in time based on what Tris is saying about the shield.”

  “Then we have to come up with something else.”

  Winnie paced away from the group and went back to the window.

  Outside, a female Duster leaned down to pick a clump of wildflowers. She carried it over to lay on the shrouded form of a body on the ground, and then she did it again. And again.

  A tear fell down her cheek.

  The girl would have plenty of flowers to choose from. The flowers were …

  Something hit her hard.

  Winnie turned around and looked at her friends. “The Fae.”

  “What about them?” Danny said.

  “We have to call on them to help us. They’re the only ones close enough to do anything. The crater is only a few hours away.”

  “How do we know they can even help us?” Victor asked.

  “We don’t know they can’t,” Winnie argued. “And I don’t understand the magic these creatures are using to try and get inside. The Lady of the Lake might be able to help me.”

  “So, you’ll just open a comm window and hope that she hears you?” Tris asked.

  “No. I need to go there and bring help back. I have to talk to her in person, holding Excalibur. There’s something they wouldn’t tell me about this sword. But now I’m going to make them tell me.”

  Garraldi shook his head. “I’m not sure we can muster enough troops to break you out of the perimeter and still hold the fort when we’re finished.”

  “I won’t go through the perimeter. I can open a portal, remember. I’ll go to Artos first since I don’t think the magic will let me reach the crater directly. I’ll ask Brigid for help from the Fae.”

  “Do you think it will work?” Morgan asked. “The Fae have never seemed interested in getting involved.”

  “They’ve never been at risk of losing everything,” Winnie said. “The time for them to stand by while humans fight their battles is over. We need answers. And the Fae will know about those creatures.”

  “You’re not going alone,” Victor said.

  “You can come, but no one else. We can’t afford any attention. Artos can have Mr. Gunderson drive us. Besides, have you seen the number of soldiers and Red Legs surrounding this place? Kane must’ve stripped every spare soldier and Red Leg he had in order to bring that many people here. There can’t be more than a token force holding Baltimore. And we’ll be on the fringes.”

  “I don’t suppose you’d consider just one or two others?” Garraldi asked.

  “No,” Winnie said. “You need every person here to defend the fort. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll bring the Fae back with me.”

  “When are you leaving?” Elaine asked.

  “The sooner I go, the sooner I come back with help.” Winnie looked at Victor. “Are you ready?”

  Victor nodded.

  Winnie sketched a glowing blue rectangle and opened a portal into Artos’s study. She touched Excalibur, then motioned for Victor to join her.

  Then they stepped through without a pause.

  CHAPTER 31

  Winnie and Victor stepped from the portal onto the plush carpet of Artos’s bunker hideout. A man cleared his throat behind her and she turned to see an amused Artos sitting in a padded leather chair with an open book in his lap.

  “Well, hello Winnie. So I see that you’ve learned to turn your communications windows into teleportation doorways.”

  Winnie looked at the old man, annoyed. Why wasn’t he more shocked to see her appear out of thin air in this office. Why did he always get under her skin?

  “There’s trouble at the hospital,” she said. “It’s under attack. Kane has the Army, Red Legs, and some sort of creatures I’ve never seen. Demons and worse. And their magic is dark, Artos. Darker than Sable. I can sense it for sure, but I know if it touches me, it might just take me, too.”

  Artos leaned back in his chair and sighed. He closed his book.

  “I was afraid of this,” he said. “Ever since Kane started dabbling with Sable, he began seeking more power and fewer restrictions.”

  “So
you’ve seen these things before?” Victor asked.

  “I believe that you speak of Garbarians—creatures that serve the Fell, an ancient enemy of the Fae. The two have been in battle since before humans occupied this world. I’m afraid this is grave; it means that Kane has made some sort of deal with the Fell.”

  “What does that mean?” Winnie asked.

  “The Fell is the basis for the Devil in human mythology. And now Kane’s made a deal with the Devil himself. From what little I know of the Garbarians, they are extremely powerful and difficult to destroy. This has escalated quickly, Winnie. And now you’re here with Excalibur and too many questions.”

  He gave her a tired smile, feigning as though he was fatigued more than frightened. But Winnie could see right through it.

  “We need to reach the crater,” she said. “See the Fae. I need their help. I want to know more about this sword, what it can do, and maybe how it can help.”

  “If you open this door you can never go back.”

  “So I’m not supposed to fight?” Tears filled her eyes. “We lost, Artos. Hundreds of people dead. Just today. I can’t bring them back, but I can try to preserve the survivors, and turn the tide before things get even worse.”

  “There is always a price to be paid when enlisting the Fae. And it is usually much greater than one can afford.”

  “You clearly know more than I do,” Winnie challenged. “How about you save me a trip?”

  Artos shook his head. Another sigh. “It is not my place to reveal this. The Fae will tell you what you must know. Mr. Gunderson can take you to the steel mill. I’ll fetch him now.”

  Artos stood and left. Winnie called out behind him.

  “Thanks for all the info, Artie!” She turned to Victor. “Why does he have to be so cryptic?”

  Victor shrugged. “He’s warning us, Winnie. He’s not telling us no, but he’s saying that we shouldn’t take yes as a given. Both he and the Lady are reluctant to share what they know. Why? What are they so afraid of?”

  “We’re about to find out, Victor. I’ll do whatever I can to stop Kane. I’ll do it to save the people we love, and because he has to be stopped. The things he’s bringing into this world will destroy it if we don’t—”