Vinnie bowed low at the waist. “Let’s get a drink,” he offered. “I have some good ale.”
“I’d like that,” Gormer agreed as they headed to the new war room in Vinnie’s office.
The light in the space was warm and soft. Vinnie had couches brought in and arranged in a wide square. Low tables in front of the couches held food and drink.
Gormer froze for a split second at the sight of Astrid reclining on a couch with her head on Jiri’s chest. The mystic poured a drink, raised it to them and took the first sip in a silent toast.
Moxy and Tarkon cuddled on another couch, while Tracker lay naked on the floor with his arms crossed behind his head and his blowpipe resting by his side.
The floor shook when Vinnie dropped down onto his custom-built couch—built to handle his weight—with an ursine sigh.
Gormer topped everyone’s mugs before he took a seat beside Moxy and Tarkon. Hanif had headed home to his estate to prepare it for a potential attack.
“Too bad Hanif couldn’t be here,” Gormer complained. “That guy kinda grew on me.”
“Where’s Boone?” Gormer asked.
“You didn’t see him?” Astrid asked. “He was hanging from the rafters in the middle of the shop.
“That guy’s weird.” Gormer chuckled.
“I think he’s still a little out of sorts,” Vinnie supposed. “I asked him if he wanted to—”
The door creaked open, and a shadow crept into the room. It had four arms and eye stalks.
“We were just talking about you,” Astrid remarked.
Gormer tensed before Boone poked his head around the corner and spoke. “Looks like home,” he observed. “We do this between the rocks. We gather with hatchlings and old shells and mates.”
“Hey, Boone,” Astrid said. “If it looks like home, it is home, get in here.”
Boone took a tentative step, then another.
“Have you eaten?” Vinnie asked. He crossed the room to retrieve a bowl full of soggy paper. “I made this for you.”
“You...made…” Boone’s eye stalks came together and pointed at Vinnie. He stepped closer until the segmented chest shell nearly touched Vinnie’s belly. “I don’t understand. Why are you doing this?”
Vinnie handed him the bowl. “Eat. Please.”
“Boone,” Gormer added. “It’s just what we do. Just don’t kill us in our sleep.”
“Where is your sleep?” Boone asked. “So I know not to kill you in it.”
Gormer sat straight. “Did you just make a joke?”
The Skrim wiggled the fingers on his lower arms and scraped the other set of fingers along the lines of his shell.
Gormer noted. “You’re so weird. I’m starting to like you.”
“Tomorrow, Boone,” Tarkon added. “We will show you why we are doing this by fighting what is evil.”
“I go with you tomorrow. Boone doesn’t want to die anymore. He wants to kill Varkos.”
Everyone drank to that, and Boone slurped the paper pulp with his wolflike face.
Dawn of battle
Astrid woke first with her reliable internal clock that never failed to rouse her in time for a good fight. She startled when she noticed Boone hanging from the rafters with all his arms and both of his legs.
“Good morning,” Astrid said. “Did you sleep well?”
Boone released his hold and dropped to the floor without making much more than a rapid clicking sounds. His long fingers and toes acted as shock absorbers.
He stood and pointed his eye stalks at her in the way that made her realize he didn’t understand. “You do sleep, don’t you? Rest? You lose consciousness…”
“Rest, yes,” Boone replied.
Slowly, everyone started to wake. Gormer, who’d slept on the opposite end of the couch from Tarkon and Moxy, stood with a loud yawn and stretch.
“Finally,” he sighed. “A good sleep.”
The kitchens supplied them with a simple breakfast in the work area that was strangely free of activity.
“I gave everyone the day off,” Vinnie explained.
“Just a day?” Gormer needled. “So generous…”
“I had to argue with them to take it,” Vinnie replied. “Most people have been working nonstop, three days in a row.”
Vinnie scarfed down most of the food, while everyone else preferred to eat light and take some for later.
“Well, this is it, everyone,” Astrid said. “You all have your jobs to do. Good luck.”
“That’s it?” Gormer asked. “Have we been doing this so long that all this death-defying mission gets is a ‘good luck?’”
Astrid arched an eyebrow. “Yes.”
They split off to see to their responsibilities. Gormer fell in beside Astrid as they headed to the Arboretum where they would pretend to load Charlie into the wagon.
“You’re sure you can create this illusion?” Astrid asked.
Gormer cocked his head. “It’s not like you to fret. Especially over something like this.”
“I’m allowed,” she pointed out.
“I can do it,” Gormer reassured her.
And he did. Not many people turned out to see Charlie go into the wagon. Mostly it was the guards who’d been on duty all night. Gormer created the illusion of Charlie departing while Astrid snuck him into the passages that led to the hidden chambers beneath the Fortress. Once he was settled, she joined the convoy.
He checked every mind he could reach to make certain they believed what they saw before he released the magic. He double-checked the canvas for gaps where it covered the extra-wide wagon bed.
Instead of Charlie weighing the wagon down, Elise, Jakub and Cole were in the back accompanying the essential parts of the big machine, the collector mast, and the emitter. Vinnie and Boone rode along as well.
This was the most important wagon in the entire convoy.
When are we going to tell them about the lie? Gormer’s voice sounded in her head.
When we clear the last checkpoint, we’ll rally.
What was the final count on the fighters? Gormer asked.
Sixty Movers, eighty rifle troops and we will pick up another wagonload of thirty-five armed with rifles at the halfway point.
“Are you kids OK in there?” Gormer whispered through the canvas cover.
“We’re not kids. Shut up before someone gets suspicious,” Cole spat.
Gormer and Astrid rode on the running boards of the Charlie wagon until they met the others at the main gates.
“I miss Bika,” Gormer lamented as he took the reins of a tough-looking black stallion. Astrid climbed up on a horse that could have been its twin. “I can’t get a read on this guy.”
“These are war horses,” the stable hand answered. “Reliable and obedient. Take care of them, and they’ll take care of you.”
When they joined with the wagon train heading south, Astrid took her place in the lead.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chance of Battle
The wagon train passed down the switchback road and into town. There was no attack. The measuring devices Vinnie’s crew monitored, detected no spikes in portal creature energy.
Not many people paid attention to the wagons. The workday had just begun as they passed the last checkpoint. Still, energy readings were low.
They rode along in vigilant silence until they reached the halfway point. Astrid turned to face the wagon train and gave the order to halt.
The driver in the nearest wagon made eye contact with her and nudged the soldier beside her. “This is the part where she tells us this was all a ruse designed to draw an attack.”
Astrid sat in her saddle like a statue for a moment. “Who told you?” she asked.
The driver smirked. “Nobody. With all due respect, Astrid. We are far from stupid. We kept the real nature of the mission secret, and we came prepared.”
“Well, that’s more breath that I don’t have to waste.”
CRACK!
&nb
sp; Thunder sounded in a cloudless blue sky. A small portal opened a hundred feet in front of the wagon train.
“This is it!” Astrid shouted, but the small army was already answering the threat.
The rifle troops poured from the wagons and formed a bristling circle around the convoy. The extra wagon scheduled to meet them thundered across a field to the right.
Black lightning and blue sparks shot from the portal as it tore a hole in reality, leading the road into a shadowy forest. Nothing came through. Movers lined behind the magitech rifles, ready to charge.
The world on the other side of the portal was still.
Tarkon galloped to her side and skidded to a halt. “What is this?” he asked, with a pistol in one hand and his reigns in the other.
“We got motion!” somebody shouted.
An oblong object flew through the portal and landed in the dust of the road. It rolled to a stop and sat motionlessly. Another followed, flying farther, then another.
“A portal beastie?” Astrid asked. “What the—”
An instant later, the mouth of the portal vomited forth a tremendous stream of portal critters. They shot high into the air and fanned out around the portal. The stream gained focus, and soon the critters landed at their feet.
A few of the hard, red objects near the portal began to glow. They flowered with sudden violence, and white tentacles waved frantically in the air before another portal cracked open.
These openings were much different. Their edges were sharper than the larger portal, and the air around them was blurred like glass smudged with dirty fingers.
But still, nothing came through. The stream slowed when they were surrounded by thousands of the creatures.
“This is bad,” Tarkon exclaimed.
“Wasn’t expecting this,” Astrid had to admit. She drew from the Well as she jumped from her horse and brought her rope dart to the ready.
More of the creatures began to glow and opened like nightmare orchids.
“Open fire on these things!” Astrid screamed. “What are you waiting for!” She smashed the nearest one with her foot.
The cascading sound of hundreds of magitech rifles firing at once rippled across the landscape. Portal creatures were vaporized everywhere, and more began to open around them. Some of the bolts shot into the portals. Killing the portal-makers after they had opened did not close the rifts.
More bad news, Astrid thought.
Vinnie ripped back the canvas wagon cover and stuck his head out just in time to see the portal erupt.
The machinery clattered and whirred as Elise worked its dials with expertise beyond her years. Her new goggles allowed her to do so at arm’s length.
Jakub scribbled down numbers from the readouts while Cole made sure power flowed from the makeshift supply built from rifles.
“I’m getting so many signals!” Elise called nervously. “I can’t find one with a consistent pattern.”
“Keep trying,” Vinnie directed with a calm voice despite what he saw. Sweat pooled behind the armor chest plate he’d worn for the occasion.
“I think I have something,” Elise announced. Her voice was calmer. “Give me more power, Cole.”
A crack-flash went off beside their wagon, and a portal opened just feet away. Vinnie jumped down and quickly pulled twenty fighters from the crowd.
“You guard this wagon at all costs,” he demanded. “This is the key to victory today.”
Then, he turned and faced the unknown. It was difficult to tell the difference between the portals opening and individual rifle blasts. More than a hundred portals surrounded them now, but behind them, there was nothing but ominous, verdant stillness.
Astrid must have given the order to cease fire because the crackling of rifles stopped.
Instead of vicious remnant coming out of the portals, a booming voice emerged.
“General Varkos will accept your surrender,” it declared. “You have no hope of victory here. You are defeated by your arrogance.” Most of the portals were no larger than a doorway. As the voice spoke, a single remnant filled each one.
“How are you doing in there?” Vinnie asked nervously.
“I’m getting a consistent pattern since the voice!” Elise exclaimed.
Vinnie heard the static snapping of the collector mast pulling in signals and the hum of the emitter. Bright blue electric colors danced across the wagon canvas.
“Something’s happening,” Jakub declared.
Vinnie bobbed his head and pursed his lips. “You could say that, Jakub.” He was glad the boy couldn’t see what he was seeing. “You just focus on your work. That’s what’ll get us through this.”
Astrid’s voice rose above the madness to answer.
“General Varkos, this is your last chance. Surrender now, and we may have mercy on you!”
She’s stalling. She wants to give us time. Vinnie thought.
“I am not General Varkos. I am but his voice and his arm.”
“I don’t want to deal with some pissant,” Astrid shouted to the unseen voice. “I want to talk to the big, tough, strong general himself!”
Another clattering emerged from the wagon. Vinnie peeked in and found Boone squatting down on his long legs with his arms wrapped around his knees.
“Don’t be scared, Boone,” Vinnie assured the Skrim. “We’ll find a way. We always do.”
“Not scared,” Boone replied. “Angry.”
Vinnie found it hard to gauge emotion from that voice, but he had other things to worry about.
“General Varkos is prepared to show mercy on you, should you surrender what belongs to him.”
“I thought everything belonged to General Varkos. Isn’t he the strongest? The smartest? Isn’t he the one who promises riches? The Arbori is right here,” Astrid lied. “All Varkos has to do is send in his slave army and take him.”
“General Varkos is generous,” the voice countered.
“Varkos is weak!” Astrid shouted.
“Weak,” Boone echoed inside the wagon.
“Ah, Boone,” Cole asked. “What are you doing?”
“Standing,” Boone replied.
Vinnie glanced inside the wagon to confirm what he’d heard.
“Varkos is a coward,” Astrid goaded. “Why does he need a pitiful servant like you if he is so strong. Let’s see him!”
“I definitely got it,” Elise said. Her voice was barely audible.
The machine hummed a bass note, and the portals began to shimmer.
“What is happening!” the voice exclaimed as portals began to wink out and the unopened critters sizzled and exploded.
“You must die now!” the voice screamed, then remnant streamed onto the field of battle.
She had tried to stall, but it was too late. The servants of Varkos attacked.
The rifles kept the hordes away from the wagons. Movers bombarded them with strong telekinetic attacks that pushed them back when they got too close.
The small doorways restricted the remnant to coming through one by one. For the time being, that was to their advantage.
Astrid found it curious that no remnant exited through the larger portal. Then she noticed that the view through the smaller fissures was much different. The trees were not the same, and the lighting was slightly different.
Different locations, Gormer projected in her mind.
I just realized that, Astrid thought back. Welcome to my mind again. She removed a remnant head with a vicious swing and pull of her rope dart. They were getting closer. Any second now, it would be a full-on melee.
I’m with Vinnie and the kids. They’re close to something.
They better hurry. We can’t take much more of this.
Where the remnant were too close to use the rifles, the soldiers used short swords, and the Movers engaged with both magic and swords.
I’ll be sure not to tell them that, Gormer replied.
A humming sound rattled Astrid’s chest. A moment later, all but the l
argest portal flickered and winked out.
They did it, Gormer announced in her head.
“Impossible!” the servant of Varkos screamed.
Astrid fought through a wave of remnant toward the last portal standing as motion appeared there.
She blinked a few times before she realized who was stepping out of the portal. She would recognize that vain hairstyle anywhere.
“Costin!” Astrid screamed in anger as her feet hammered the ground toward him.
He’s controlled! They all are! Gormer shouted in her mind. Don’t go near him!
They? Astrid thought. Too late, He’s gotta die.
Seconds later, an orange flash caught her eye on the left. Jiri was at her side with his glowing sword in one hand and his other arm cloaked in fire.
A moment later, Astrid realized why Gormer said “they.” A small army of Movers marched through the main portal.
The touchless strike that threw Astrid off her feet removed any doubt that controlled people still had magic.
She rolled with it and popped back up. Tarkon took her place on a rapidly-forming frontline made of Tracker and Moxy.
She wondered where Vinnie was until the soil collapsed beneath the feet of several controlled Movers. They disappeared as Vinnie popped up. And now, he was among the enemy.
“You’re on the wrong damn side!” Astrid shouted and charged in to help as the Movers turned the full weight of their magical attacks on him.
The big man swung his gauntleted fists at anything close enough. The punches caused severe damage wherever they landed.
“Where did you get gauntlets?” Astrid asked when she got close enough.
“Cole,” Vinnie answered and caught the sword arm of a Mover. He snapped it in half, then caved in his chest with a follow-through punch.
But Costin was still headed for her. He kept popping up like a bad coin. Being fucked by a mindfucker had made him a slave but had not diminished his fighting ability.
For a moment, Astrid considered trying to free him from the vile thing that controlled him. But in the end, she was too busy fighting for her life.
The rest of the Movers were focused on her now. She brought her rope dart around for another strike just as something hard hit her shoulder.
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