by Gabi Moore
She starred off into space, then returned her attention to Dion. “Don’t you find it a little strange the bus full of women writers broke down next to the tower before the second group of Azuroth appeared? They still haven’t given me an adequate reason for being in this part of the kingdom. The only decent road runs from the entrance of the pass to our tower. It was built hundreds of years ago to supply the garrison that used the tower. The only reason anyone uses that road is to visit us. We hardly ever see people up in these hills.”
“I thought they were too much of a coincidence too,” Dion agreed with her. “But I don’t get any bad feelings from these women. All of them seem to be transparent as far as their personalities go. However, I’m new to this world. What is your feeling?”
Susan, still wearing her basic red gown, put her hands on her hips and looked at the weapons again. “I don’t know what to think. They don’t seem to have much in common, which is what you might expect from some tourists. The only thing that unites them is a love of books. I’m scared to let them near the library, since it’s too close to those creatures at the top of the tower. Part of me wonders if they’re connected with the government in some fashion. The sovereign has used some creative methods to track down criminals in the past. This is just the sort of thing she would do.”
“And still no sign of the fifth element grandmaster,” Dion brought up to her. “Even if she was just an excuse my uncle could use to bring my parents and myself here, I wish she’d make an appearance. If nothing else, my uncle would no longer be able to hide his trued intentions from her after we show her this gun cache.”
“How do you not know the fifth element grandmaster is working with your uncle?” Susan asked him. Dion could see by the determined look on her face she was serious.
“It’s never happened,” Dion pointed out. “The elemental grandmasters have to be chosen with care. The other masters have to trust her with their lives. I can’t even conceive of a scenario where they’d risk someone who was capable of doing this. It would wreck their positions.”
“Too many coincidences,” Susan continued. “Too many things that don’t add up.”
Chapter 16
Dion wanted to agree with her, but he knew so little about how her world functioned. It was time to ask her a few basic questions. It was the only way he would ever find out anything about it.
“This sovereign of yours,” he asked, “Does she have a name? I’m sorry I have to ask, but the government functions differently where I come from in the other world.”
“Princess Menisha,” he was informed by Susan. “Guardian of the faiths, Lady of the Kingdom of Gwensea. She has about fifty official titles, but I doubt you want to hear them all.”
“That is quite alright,” Dion told her. “How is she chosen?”
“Chosen?” Susan looked at him with a combination of amusement and surprise. “She’s the oldest daughter of the previous Sovereign. That is the way it has always worked and always will work. Do you mean to tell me they choose your sovereigns differently where you come from?”
Dion decided not to go into the whole concept of a democratic republic to her. It was an alien concept, he could tell. Better to find out what he needed to know and leave without the creation of a footprint in this world. Perhaps the same thing had taken place in his world’s distant past. It would account for many things.
“So the story about trained dragons is true as well?” he added. “Sorry, but they don’t have them in the place I call home.”
“We don’t see too many of them around the tower,” she told him. You might see one or two patrolling the skies, but not often. The whole reason our family was able to take a lease out on his tower was the dragons. Any army which tried to attack the kingdom through the mountain pass would be spotted and vulnerable to the dragons in the air.”
“I just wanted some confirmation on that one,” Dion told her. How could she possibly understand that dragons were mythical beasts in his world? Although larger lizards once existed, no one could ever find one that belched fire.”
“I’m going to leave these men here to guard the weapons,” Susan announced to him. “If you speak the truth, your uncle intended to use them against us eventually.”
Dion didn’t tell her his fear that his uncle didn’t plan to leave any survivors. It was too much of a speculation. It was also too much of an evil concept for his uncle. But it would eliminate the need to worry about witnesses. If projectile weapons were a capital offense in this world, his uncle was prepared to risk everything by using them. Whatever he planned long-term, it had to be worth the wrath of both governments. Right now, Dion didn’t want to speculate on it.
“I need you to come back upstairs with me,” Susan told Dion. “We have to confront your uncle and demand an explanation for these weapons.”
“My guess is that he’ll deny everything,” Dion responded. “He might even try and blame me for their being in the warehouse.”
Susan ruffled around in her gown and pulled out a piece of paper. “I found this in one of the crates,” she said. She handed it to Dion. “Does this mean anything to you?”
The paper was an invoice for three crates of machine parts made out to Seth Bach’s company. The delivery address was the mall in Ohio and the shipper was some company in Germany. Dion suspected the German company would turn out to be a fake address or a firm that specialized in discreet customers. The dimensions of the crates matched the ones on the invoices.
“It’s an order for three crates of machine parts,” Dion told her. “Appears to be the method they used to get them past the customs inspector.”
“He’ll deny it was sent to him, of course,” Susan spoke up. So far, the household servants hadn’t moved one bit from the crates.
“Not too easy to do. The shipment address is the shopping mall he owns in our world. Plus, the sizes of the crates match the ones over there. Any investigator would conclude the paperwork was written just to hide the true nature of what he was importing.”
Another clap of thunder echoed through the warehouse. Dion looked around it and noticed the entrance to the lion’s cage on the far end. The eyes of the big predator stared out at him and he heard the beast make a low growl. Maybe they could release it if Queen Lilith and her minions became more of a threat. The sisters seemed to have it under control. However, a lion was still a wild animal and unpredictable.
“Don’t move from these crates,” Susan told the servants. “We’ll be back. If you are needed upstairs, close them up and push them back to the racks.”
“What if we need to use the bathroom?” one of the men asked.
“One at a time. One man can use it while the other keeps these weapons under watch.”
Dion and Susan took their time going up the stairs. Dion felt the musty cold and damp air inside the stairwell. It was worse at the bottom of the tower. It must be due to the dampness rising from the flooded-out landscape. He prayed the foundation of the tower would withstand the constant barrage of rain. If this was the first time a storm lasted so long in memory, had one ever been so bad before? This tower was massive, he could think of no equivalent one back in his world. Most of the watchtowers in on Earth were much smaller and built less than five hundred years ago. Most were abandoned when their reason to be there vanished. A watchtower wasn’t needed when you had aerial reconnaissance. As it stood by itself, such a tower became target practice for cannons and guided missiles.
They emerged into the great hall to discover her sisters arguing with his uncle. His parents were sitting further away than the last time and pretended not to take part in the conversation.
“It was your idea to open the gate,” Kiley pointed out to Seth Bach. “You were the one who appeared out of nowhere and had this fantastic plan which would solve our financial problems. Now we have to figure out what to do about those things in the tower over us. I did not inherit this position just to watch the tower fall into ruin. If the sovereign finds out what hap
pened, she’ll have us all removed and the tower placed under her direct control again.”
“I swear,” his uncle sent back, “that I had no knowledge as what was to happen. They caught me off guard just as everyone else. Had I advance warning what was to happen, I never would’ve gone through with it.”
“I don’t know about that, Mr. Bach,” Susan said, who had emerged from the shadows with Dion. “I think you may have planned this invasion all along.” Her eyes of fire contrasted with the rest of her, an effect that Dion hadn’t noticed before.
“That is absurd,” Dion’s uncle shouted to her as he spun around. “Why would I sabotage my own process? What possible reason could I have for doing such a thing?” Dion’s uncle sat straight in the chair he occupied at the table, the picture of righteous indignation.
“Perhaps you can tell, us,” she replied. Susan stopped a body length in front of him and towered over the man. “I just found three crates we didn’t know about in the first level warehouse. Do I need to tell my sisters what were in those crates?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about!”
“Talk to us,” Kiley Mahen demanded. Dion watched her eyes flush red too.
“The servants found three crates the other day which were not on the inventory list of the first level warehouse. They had me come down and look at them when just now when the crates were opened because they wanted one of us to have a look. I didn’t recognize what was in them, so I had his nephew brought down to see them. Dion tells me those crates contained projectile weapons, deadly enough to kill everyone in the tower, both human and otherwise. Isn’t that right, Dion?”
“More than enough to do it once,” Dion agreed. “There is enough ammunition down there to kill everyone in the tower several times over.”
Her sisters were livid. “Projectile weapons in our tower?” Kiley gasped.
“If the sovereign ever finds out,” Loris managed to speak, “we’ll lose everything and be turned out in the streets.”
“Only if she doesn’t have the three of us executed,” Susan added. “It is a capital offense to own one of those things.”
“Lock him up!” Kiley Mahen yelled to a few of her people who stood near the table. “Take him down to the spare room next to Draco’s pen! I will figure out what to do with Mr. Bach later.”
“You have no proof!” Dion’s uncle was pleading as three of the tower retainers hauled him down the stairs.
“Dion thinks he planned on using Queen Lilith to clear us out of the tower,” Susan Mahen explained to her sisters.
Kiley looked puzzled. “Why would he do that?” The air took a slow chill, as the temperature in the great hall seemed to lessen by a few degrees.
“He would reveal the weapons when the Azuroth were about to break through,” Dion explained. “You would have no choice but to allow him to use them against the invaders. He has people in this tower who are experienced with them. I’ve even heard them complain about their lack of weapons. Once they had their hands on them, the Azuroth, and their queen, would be mowed down faster than grass under a blade. Sure, you would have had to allow him to use deadly and banned weapons to do the job, but all of you would still be alive. You would also be forced to let him have his way with the tower or risk discovery by your sovereign.” He didn’t mention his fear that all of them could easily be eliminated as witnesses by one burst of those automatic rifles.
“What are we going to do with those weapons?” Loris questioned. “What happens if they are ever discovered here?”
“You can send them back with us,” Dion explained to her. “Or bury them some place. I’d recommend sending them back so there is nothing to show they were every here.”
“What about the guards who are holding the Azuroth back?” Kiley brought up. “Will they still listen to us if they know their employer is being held in the warehouse?”
“Who says we have to tell them anything?” Susan offered. “Besides, they are busy with the hordes. None of them can run out of here, where would they go in this storm?” Another flash of lighting punctuated her statement.
“What about reopening the gate?” Susan asked. “Can we do that? It might be possible to get the Azuroth back into the abyss if we open up the gated to it. Do we have the means to do it?”
As they talked, Dion turned and looked at the group of women who’d arrived on the bus. All of them were in the far part of the great hall in the middle of several conversations. From what he could hear, it was all about books. They were in danger both within and without. Didn’t their situation register to these women? At least a few of them were aware of the threat from the invaders over them. Whey didn’t it seem to concern the rest? What was he missing in this picture?
Dion heard a cry next to the open elevator shaft and saw one of the servants listening in to the speaking tube, which projected from the wall near it. He called out an acknowledgement into the tube and ran to the table where the sisters were still trying to figure out what to do about the latest revelation.
“Ma’am’s,” he began respectfully, although Dion thought this was an odd title to use, “those things have broken down the door to the sauna. They’re on the move down to our level.” As soon as he finished another clap of thunder rocked the great hall.
“We have to do something now,” Kiley said as she leaped up from the table. “Have the men get our armor out of the warehouse and have it brought up here. This is about to get bloody.”
“They’ve stopped them for the time being,” the servant explained. “The guard I talked with said the creatures halted at the stairwell to the kitchen. I don’t know how they did it, but it’s worked for the moment.”
“Go up and check on the situation,” she instructed him. “I’ll have the rest of the men bring out our armor and weapons.”
Loris stood up from the table as well and Dion could sense the mood change inside the hall. All three women went from bored aristocrats to responsible guardians of the tower. It hadn’t occurred to him they might have martial training as part of their background. It would make sense, as only their particular group of people would have the time to engage in the training needed to use edged weapons. The tower might not have any military value, but the family who leased it was still expected to defend it, and the people under them, whenever they had to do it.
And right now, they were needed.
Chapter 17
“I’ll go upstairs with him,” Dion volunteered. “I still have two sets of elementals I can use. I’d hate to deploy them right now, but I will if the Azuroth break through again.” He didn’t think the fire salamanders would have much trouble pushing them back to the top of the tower if he had to use them.
As Dion hurried away from the concerned looks of his parents, he ran after the steward who was headed up the stair well. The man was much older than Dion, definitely in his forties, although age patterns were something else he knew nothing about in this world.
“Right behind you!” Dion called to the man as he followed him up the stairs. “I didn’t catch your name.”
“Miles,” he told him. “You’re the one they call Dion?”
“Correct. You’ve been around this tower for a long time?”
“All my life. It might not be the best job in the world, but the family treated me fairly and the pay is good. I’m worried the sisters are up against something they can’t handle.”
Dion could hear the air wheeze through the man’s mouth. He was a little over-weight and the stairs were hard on them both. It was a good thing they didn’t have to up the top of the tower.
They were about to step out on the sixth level, the kitchen, when they heard a clanging sound behind them. Since he had no idea what caused it, Dion started to summon one of the elementals. In this enclosed space, the fire salamanders would not be a good idea. This left the water nymphs, although there might be a problem in using them too. Dion reached out and found the location of the elementals he needed in the other world. Sudden
ly, the source of the noise became visible to Miles and himself.
It was Kiley Mahen in a full suit of body armor. It had to be her because the armor was coated in black.
She walked past them, a short spear in one hand a small round shield slung from the other arm. Dion noted the shield had a slight curve in it to deflect any weapons used against it. They stopped to allow her the opportunity to walk past in her full metal plate.
“They got me ready just in time,” she told them as she lumbered past. “Time to do a little demon hunting. I hope their blood cleans up better than the last bunch did.”
The armor was fitted to her and allowed Kiley to move in any direction she wanted without fear of a gap. She had a helm strapped to her head, which rotated inside a bevor. It protected her neck from any thrusts or slashes. Dion didn’t see the least bit of chainmail on her. Kiley moved with the armor in place as if it was a second layer of skin. It was obvious to Dion she’s spent plenty of time training inside the armor.
They stepped out from behind her to see a scene of complete abandon.
The guards were not as in control of this floor as they had pretended to be. The door on the other side was closed, but the Azuroth on the other side of it were busy. Dion watched as the guards attempted to reinforce the door, with hammers and nails busy pounding more boards in place. Most of the guards were from his uncle’s former mall security officers, but there were plenty of men with them attached to the tower.
“Give me a report,” Kiley, her voice muffled by the helm. “I need to know what is happening.”
They broke through a few minutes ago,” one of the guards said. “We heard them start up on the door, but knew it was better prepared by those little men Dion brought in to help. When it started to go, we grabbed what we could and ran down here. We started securing the doors leading down on the levels above us even before they broke through. But I don’t know how much longer we can hold them. Is that a real suit of armor?”