by Peter Hartz
“We must trade knowledge, my friend. I will teach you what I can of magic, and you will teach me of your fire arms. But, on to what we must do. Shall we revive these miscreants and be on our way?”
Dave’s smile went away quickly. He nodded, acknowledging and agreeing to the trade then looked loaded his gun, sliding the magazine home, and released the slide to chamber a round. “Go ahead. I’m ready.”
Allison nodded, holding her gun with both hands, finger off the trigger, with the gun pointed to the ground. “I’m ready, too. Let’s do this.”
Giltreas closed his eyes, and briefly wondered if he was doing the right thing. He had no desire to carry dead bodies, even in such a magnificent carriage as what he had rode in back to this clearing, but he had no signal from his patron… never mind, there it was. Very well. His patron must have plans for these worthless brigands. He hoped whatever it was that it would be was painful for them. Very painful, and not short-lived.
The magical energy rose more quickly this time than it ever had before. A small part of him wondered if it was because he would be attempting to revive four dead, one after another, but his concentration didn’t waver, and he focused his attention on the first of the dead forms before him
To the watching Dave and Allison, it seemed as if Giltreas was suddenly glowing, bathed in a red light from an unknown source that seemed to cling to him like a mist. Then Giltreas raised his arm towards the bodies on the ground, and the red light jumped from Giltreas to the first of the four. But it didn’t stop there. The red glow seemed to congeal on the body, and then it gathered itself and flowed to the one next to the first, until it had lit all four dead bodies, in less time than it took to draw a breath.
Then something happened.
First one gasped, then another, then another, until all four were breathing. Allison realized that she had been holding her breath, and let it out. Damn! Neat trick! She hadn’t realized she spoke out loud until Giltreas turned and smiled at her. “I want to learn magic, too. Not sure what I have to trade, though.”
Giltreas merely smiled at her. “I will be glad to teach you what I can, Allison.”
Then the body on the ground that breathed first, shifted and groaned. Soon enough, all four were awake, squirming and struggling to get free, and blinking against the bright midday sun that filtered through the trees above into the small clearing, while trying to figure out where they were and what was happening.
Dave had left them lying on their faces when he secured their hands behind them. Now he spoke up, the conversational tone of his voice completely at odds with the words he spoke. A shiver ghosted down Allison’s back. She had never heard him like that before, but she agreed with it. The Modern Warrior she had met in Bagdad was back with a vengeance. The thought raised her adrenalin and keyed her up.
“I see you have all rejoined the living. Literally. Let me make something clear. You attacked my sister. Bad choice. I happily would have left you dead, but I need to cover up what you did for now until I can figure out who ordered this. Explaining dead bodies is a bit of a challenge around here. The one that killed you in the first place brought you back from the dead so we don’t have to carry your corpses. You can walk to wherever we stash you.
“If any one of you object to what is happening, though, someone will kill you again, and your friends will carry you. And this time, I won’t ask him nicely if he will bring you back again.” The conversational tone in his voice was a surprise to Giltreas, but his words were not, not that he objected to them. The impact of what he said and how he said it, however, was profound. One did not spare niceties with these types. He walked in front of the four to where they could look up and see him, crossed his arms in front of him, and glared at them. He said nothing, however. He had no reason to waste words on dirt.
“So, a couple of more things before we get started. If you value your worthless lives, you will not move unless I or someone other than you four say so, or I will start hacking off fingers and/or toes. If you don’t follow direction very well, I will start to hack off larger, unnecessary body parts. If you talk out of turn, I will pull out your tongue and cut it off. Do you understand?” He never raised his voice, or forced any words out.
All four froze in fear as heads nodded in quick, spastic jerks.
“I have gone through everything on you, and taken it all. Your hands are wire-tied behind you, and you should look at your feet before we go. Then we are going to take a trip to where my friend is from, where we will leave you in a dark little hole to rot until we decide what to do with you. Who knows? They may even feed you once in a while, if you behave. But from now on, you will do exactly what I or anyone else says, or things get ugly. Do you understand?”
Four heads nodded again in fear.
Chapter 9
Jack was still disoriented. He was not sure what was happening. The last thing he remembered was the grey man lifting him off the ground with only one hand, and then his world went dark. He knew what the plan was, and how things were supposed to turn out. This was so far from the plan that it was laughable. He glanced at the others on the ground next to him, and heard the fear they all felt in their shallow, rapid breathing.
Then the grey man reached down, and lifted him easily off the ground and stood him on his feet in the clearing in the sunlight that filtered through the treetops above them. He guessed that it was somewhere around midafternoon, but he couldn’t see his watch. From the feel of his wrist, he was no longer wearing it anyways. He glanced around, and saw another woman – Allison, Dave’s wife, he guessed. She was holding what looked like a Glock, and from the look of it, she really knew how to use it. The totally blank expression on her face scared him more, for no readily apparent reason. Who were these people? He had been incredibly sloppy, badly underestimating them, not even bothering to check out their backgrounds to see if they were a threat. Apparently that was a fatal mistake. Then things got worse as another woman stepped in front of his field of vision, dressed in a bath robe.
“Hi. Remember me? I know I look a little different now…” He stared at her, then comprehension dawned. Michelle Wilhelm! What –
Her hand came out of nowhere, and pain shot through him as the edge of her hand connected with his throat, and he suddenly found himself unable to draw a breath as the strike momentarily paralyzed him. Gasping, he realized that he was on his knees, choking.
A green light flashed over Jack, and he could breathe again. He looked up just in time to see Michelle twist out of Dave’s grip, and kick out to Jack’s right, connecting with the now-standing specialist’s groin area, and he winced as the hit went home dead-center. Then the grey man lifted his hand, and Michelle seemed to levitate up from the ground until she was a good foot above the ground, floating back away from the four bound men.
“Kajzhtaka zhemfik donameck, sondemm?” The words were in a language Jack had never heard before, and they were so utterly foreign he had no idea where it came from.
Michelle glared at him a moment, then nodded, the fight going out of her. But as she was lowered to the ground next to Allison, her next glance at Jack said volumes: this is not over, not by a long shot. Jack winced internally. From his briefings, he never guessed that Michelle was capable of even a hint of physical violence. This whole situation just got worse by the moment. If they had not surprised her so completely, things could have gone very differently. Of course, she looked insanely different now, and incredibly hot, and he could not even guess as to the cause. Then realization dawned, and he looked at the grey man, and swallowed hard. For some reason, the thought that he had somehow changed... restored the Wilhelm woman in this way scared him even more. What was he capable of? What wasn’t he capable of? No limits came to mind, and that was the worst of all.
Another green light flashed, and the imported specialist stopped dry-heaving and writhing on the ground in pain. Dave stood him up next, and he continued to shake in fear, breathing harshly.
Aaron was stood up nex
t, and squinted in the light. He turned to look around, and Jack saw that his eye, where the thrown knife that had killed him had struck, was milky white. Apparently, his eye was not completely repaired. Jack also noticed that Aaron’s earlier fear had subsided, and seemed to slowly be replaced with something else that Jack couldn’t quite put his finger on.
Bill was the last to be stood up, and then they were marched down the small path to where the Suburban was parked, along with another SUV that Jack recognized from his obviously incomplete briefing files as belonging to the second target, Dave – a late model Toyota 4Runner. The rope that stretched between all of their right ankles made walking a bit of a challenge as it dragged on the ground and occasionally caught on something. It was just short enough that the four had to walk close together to be able to move. Smart. There was no way they could run with their hands tied behind their backs and tied together like that. His estimation of Dave’s intelligence and capabilities went way up. He was almost glad he didn’t have to go up against him.
The way Dave and Allison handled themselves seemed to indicate that they were both former military, and had at least some combat experience. Dave had obviously seen his share, but Allison was way more deadly than he expected. If he lived through this… what a stupid thought. He realized with a start that he had no control over what happened to him from this point on, and where he was going. He almost lost control of his bladder at the thought.
The back door on the Suburban was opened, and the four of them were forced into the back seat, stacked one almost on top of the next. It was not comfortable, but no one asked his opinion. He looked around, and saw that the Suburban had been picked clean of any potential weapon or tool they could use for escape, before he remembered that he and his team had done precisely that before they picked up Michelle and brought her out here.
The grey man stepped into the front passenger seat, after setting his sword and pack on the floor in front of him. He strapped himself in, then turned to watch them silently.
Dave opened the back of his 4Runner, and then set the garbage bag containing bloodstained coat Jack had once worn and all the belongings from the four attackers in the back. He wanted those items (especially the weapons, but the cell phones, too) in a different vehicle so that they couldn’t be used to free themselves. He took a moment to remove the batteries from the four cell phones, rendering them, he hoped, completely inert.
He then turned to Michelle, who was in the driver’s seat, and said “I’m not sure where we will be going to open this gate, but keep your eyes open, ok?”
She just nodded, no smile on her face.
He got into the Suburban, and turned to see Giltreas mumble something, and he looked at Giltreas in surprise as the other reached out his hand. Without thinking, he took it, and as he did, a slight shiver went up his arm. Then Giltreas spoke up.
“Can you understand me now? If so, answer me back in the same tongue.” The language was new, the same as what he spoke to Michelle in back at the small clearing. Surprised, he nodded, and said “I do understand.”
“In order to sow confusion amongst your enemies, we must travel some distance away from here before opening the gate. I wish to make it seem that these animals accomplished their goal before leaving, and then disappeared. Do you know a secluded place much like this that would be appropriate for calling a gate?”
Jack listened in surprise as Dave also seemed to know the language the grey man spoke, and even answered back in it, leaving Jack with even more questions about the capabilities and experiences of his one-time targets. The conversation continued as Dave backed up the Suburban, turned it around, and drove back to the cottage. The 4Runner followed as they passed the cottage, took the long driveway out then went back out to the main road.
Giltreas looked around in awe as the carriage exited the wooded area and paused. The road in front of them was a smooth, flawless white/grey expanse that was wide enough to allow two such vehicles to move side by side. It went as far as could be seen in both directions, flowing with the low rise and fall of the ground, and was painted with a solid white stripe closest to them, a line of dashes down the middle in that same white, and a yellow line was on the far side. Beyond that, a low depression down from the road lay, with another road still beyond. And on both sides and in between was an expanse of green grass that seemed to be well maintained. The trees of the forest they had been in stretched onwards in both directions on both sides of the fantastical road, following as it curved out of site in either direction.
Dave looked to his left, and waited as some few others similar to this amazing carriage passed them at great speed. A small, low, red one, with only two doors, a white one nearly as big, and two others, one with only one door on each side, and an open area with things he didn’t recognize stacked in the back, tied down with rope. Then the black Suburban pulled out, and accelerated with surprising ease until it matched the pace other carriages had held. He turned, glancing at the four men behind him, and looked back to see Dave’s carriage behind them, keeping pace. He noticed that the roadway on the far side held carriages of all different shapes, colors and sizes heading beyond them the other way. One very large carriage even pulled a huge box on wheels, making a tremendous roar as it passed.
They followed the road some short while, possibly more than a quarter of an hour Giltreas guessed, when both carriages moved over to the left side, and Giltreas watched both the world around them and the men behind him.
As Giltreas observed, they slowed, and crossed the depression in between the two road ways on a higher path of dirt and rock, turning towards the roadway that headed the other direction. After a brief wait to allow other carriages to pass, a time that was clear afforded itself, and both carriages crossed the amazing roadway onto another dirt path on the opposite side of the double roadway.
They headed down the slight incline from the hard road into the trees once again, following the dirt path as it lead this way and that until Giltreas could no longer see the roadway again, and pulled into a clearing deeper in the woods.
Giltreas stepped out, noting with satisfaction that the path ended here in a clearing some thirty paces across and to the side. More than large enough. He turned, walked over Dave’s door, and to his surprise, the window moved down. His thoughts moved back to the matter at hand quickly. Questions could wait until the current situation was settled.
“I will open the gate. I will walk through to ascertain if it is safe and where I expect to be. I will step back through, and wave for you to go if it is clear. On the other side, move forward so that Allison and Michelle may follow in the next carriage, but do not move much beyond until I come through and dismiss the gate. We will then follow the roadway to the city,” Giltreas finished, all the while speaking in the new language.
“Very well. Whenever you are ready,” Dave returned in the same language, then asked, “What language are we speaking?”
“This is the tongue of my mother’s race.” Giltreas turned to the other carriage, and walked up to the door on Michelle’s side. The window once again moved down, and Sadie stuck her head out before Michelle could pull her back inside, her front paws on the back of the seat Michelle was sitting in. The same explanation was given then he walked around to the other side.
Allison rolled her window down, and watched as Giltreas murmured something, then a light warmth briefly flowed through her. Then Giltreas held out his hand. She took it carefully, and another sensation went through her as Giltreas spoke.
“Do you understand me, Allison? Answer back in the same tongue, if you please.” The soft look on his face was surprisingly gentle as he spoke words that were both new to her and understood at the same time.
Realization dawned, and she smiled as she spoke up, “Of a certainty. Was that a spell?”
Giltreas smiled at her. “Yes. You have learned the language of my mother’s race. You will need it where we travel, as no one I have ever met afore has knowledge of your tongue.”
Allison thought about it, and then asked, “Are you going to help the four fools like that?”
Giltreas shook his head with a smile at her characterization. “I see no reason to. Others will learn their language in the same manner. They, however, can learn new languages as a child would do so, since they have shown that they cannot act properly around civilized adults. This will prevent or at least slow them from gaining comrades that might assist them with further mayhem.”
Allison’s laugh was echoed by Michelle. Sadie, surprisingly, woofed once as well, then laid her head back down on the back seat of the 4Runner.
Everyone in both cars watched as Giltreas walked to the front of the vehicles and took several more steps. Then he stopped with his back to them, and held out his arms away from his body with his hands forward as if inviting embrace. Had they seen his face, they would have observed that his eyes were closed. The hair on the backs of everyone’s neck stood up as a strange, electrical sensation washed over them: Giltreas was drawing in a huge amount of energy as he concentrated.
The engines in Suburban and the 4Runner both struggled for a moment as if the vehicles were running hard, or towing a heavy load, then they went back to a normal idle as the draw ended.
Giltreas was deep in spell-trance, completely focused upon the gate he was calling, and how to make it wider and taller. He had done such a thing before, when transporting a wagon and team of eight oxen, which actually required a larger gate than the one he was forming in his mind. He was also picturing both ends of the tunnel between the gate, and where he wanted the other end located in relation to the Elvish city that was home to the Queen of the Forest. Too close to the city walls, and it would be perceived as a threat. Too far away, and the travel would be more difficult; he knew not how well the ground was, and how well these metal and glass carriages could traverse difficult ground. They seemed capable enough, but one could not judge such things carelessly when time was of the essence. He settled on the distance beyond a bowshot, and released the spell to complete.