Starlight (The Dark Elf War Book 1)

by William Stacey

  She stood, speechless.

  Alex gripped Buck’s forearm. “Boss, we’ve got two sections of tier-one assaulters. We’re armed with enough ammo and explosives to bring down a battalion. And we’ve got two mag-sens, one of whom can throw lightning bolts while the other can heal injuries. We’re good. We’re real good. We can still do this thing, especially if we move before the elves discover we’re here. We’ve got the momentum now, and the surprise. Let’s take advantage of it.”

  Buck stared long and hard at Alex and exhaled deeply. “I don’t like you, Newf. I never did. I think you’re weak, too concerned about what the troops think of you. But you’re right about one thing. El Salvador. I do owe Colonel McKnight. He was there when I needed him, and I don’t want to leave him, not if there’s still a chance. Besides, maybe, just maybe, if we come back with the colonel, we can still turn this all around and keep our jobs. So, here’s what we’re gonna do: we’ll give it a try. See if the dog-thing idea works. But when the time comes, I make the call. And if I say no, it’s over. Got it?”

  “Got it. You’re in charge.”

  “No shit, I’m in charge. Okay then, two teams. You take wolfy boy there and Blondie—”

  “My name is Cassie.”

  “She’s not good for shit, but maybe she can be some kind of magic detector, give us an edge for a change.”

  Cassie sighed. “Thank you. You’re too kind.”

  “Follow the dog, but stay away from the riverbank. If the natives have boats, I don’t want to be seen. I’d rather not be hunted again.”

  Alex nodded. “Got it.”

  “Let’s be clear. The locals see you, we’re going home—got it? I’ve lost enough men on this shit-hole world.”

  “Got it,” Alex said. “We’ll be ghosts.”

  “See that you are.” Buck folded up his map, stuck it in a pocket.

  Alex climbed to his feet, grabbed Cassie’s sleeve, and led her away. “Get ready. Can you really control the dog?”

  She snorted. “I don’t have a clue.”

  Elizabeth approached them, tugging on the sleeve of the Brace. “What about me?”

  “You’re going with the main group, the assault team,” Alex said. “It’ll be me and Cassie and three others. And Clyde.”

  “When?” Cassie asked.

  “In about two minutes. Get some water into you. We’ll be moving quickly, and it’s easy to become dehydrated here.”

  Elizabeth gripped her hand. “Be safe.”

  Cassie nodded then dropped down on one knee and whispered into Clyde’s ear. “You, my shaggy friend—I’m counting on you. We’re all counting on you.”

  Clyde licked her face.

  Chapter 48

  Alex quickly picked the other three members of his recon team: Clara Anderson and Michael Toombs, fellow Canadians who had come over with Alex from Joint Task Force 2; and Paul Winters, an American Delta Force operator. He had served in Afghanistan with Clara and Michael and trusted both of them with his life, and so far, Paul had shown himself to be a solid soldier. But most importantly, all three were experienced jungle fighters who could move quietly through the thick brush, not an easy feat even for Special Forces.

  Alex patted himself down one final time, satisfied that everything was where it needed to be. Cassie approached him, Clyde trotting along beside her. “You all set?” he asked.

  She nodded, looking unrecognizable with her GPNVGs covering her face.

  He didn’t say it, but Alex thought they were going to look pretty stupid if the dog sniffed McKnight’s sock then sat on his butt. Alex pulled the wool sock from his pocket.

  “He doesn’t like the basilisk,” Cassie said, kneeling down beside the dog and stroking his head. “He may not want to follow it.”

  Alex snorted. “Neither do I.”

  Bending over, he held the sock out to Clyde. Clyde cocked his head, staring suspiciously at Alex and the sock. He sniffed it once, then looked away, clearly uninterested.

  “Go on, Clyde,” urged Cassie. “Go find McKnight. Hunt.”

  Clyde sat down on his bum and yawned.

  “Come on, buddy,” said Alex, aware that the others were watching them. “Go.”

  Clyde looked up at Alex, his canine eyes looking as though they were glowing green in the glare of Alex’s GPNVGs. A sick feeling began to spread through Alex. “This isn’t going to work, is it?”

  Cassie slapped Clyde’s flank, then pointed to the jungle around them. “Go, Clyde, go. Find McKnight.”

  “Come on, boy,” said Alex. “Hunt. Track.”

  Clyde dropped down onto his belly.

  Alex sighed, crossed his arms, and considered the dog. “I don’t get it. The scent should still be strong, right?”

  “There’s something we’re missing,” said Cassie, stroking the dog.

  Buck approached. “Something I need to know, Newf?”

  “We’ll figure it out,” Alex answered. “Just give us a minute.”

  “This is stupid. I should never have—”

  Cassie’s head jerked up. “Kaanetaah,” she said, excitement in her voice.

  Clyde jumped to his feet, wagged his tail, and then began to pace back and forth across the clearing, his nose to the ground, sniffing in quick, short inhalations.

  “What’d you do?” Alex asked.

  “I paid attention. Clyde only works in Dane-Zaa, Athapaskan.”

  “You speak Dane-Zaa?”

  “No. But I watched Paco back when we hunted the hellhounds.”

  At that moment, Clyde ceased his back-and-forth pacing and began to move more slowly, taking longer sniffs, focusing on one area of the clearing. Then he stopped. His body became erect, standing very tall. The German shepherd turned, stared at Cassie, and barked once, loudly.

  “He’s onto something,” Alex said.

  Cassie stepped closer. “He’s got it. Good boy.”

  “What now?”

  Cassie shook her head. “I’m thinking.”

  “Is there another—”

  “Shh.” She stood in place, watching Clyde, who stared back at her, waiting.

  “Cassie.”

  “Shh.”

  Buck took a step closer, but without turning, Cassie raised her hand, palm pointing toward Buck, forestalling any attempt on his part to speak. Alex smiled. Even from here, he could feel the other man’s anger.

  “Aha!” Cassie suddenly seemed to stand taller. “Dehdzat,” she exclaimed, pointing in the direction the dog had been facing.

  Clyde turned and trotted into the jungle, following one of the many large game trails. Alex, smiling, pulled his carbine into his shoulder. “Let’s go,” he said to the others. “Cassie, you’re with me. Danger close, everyone.”

  * * *

  Alex followed Clyde through the thick jungle with Cassie and the others just behind him. They had been following the dog for over an hour. Alex had expected a tough go through thick vegetation, but the dog stuck to the animal trail. Had the basilisk and the dark-elf woman also taken this trail? Was it even wide enough for a creature that big? Certainly, a giant lizard would be at home in the jungle. Alex was no tracker. For all he knew, there could be spoor all around him, and he just wasn’t seeing it. Or maybe the brush just grew back so quickly it had already covered the evidence of the basilisk’s trail.

  Maybe I just don’t know what the hell I’m doing. Once again, Alex wished Paco were with them. He didn’t say anything to Cassie, but the truth was that they really knew almost nothing of Rubicon. The first trip Alex had ever made had been the last one. And then, he hadn’t made it off the LZ. Obviously, the dark elves had managed to train the hellhounds and the basilisk, but what other predators lived in this jungle that they had yet to run into?

  Just ahead, Clyde had stopped and now stood silent, staring at the trail. Alex saw nothing but still felt very uneasy. Something was wrong, he knew, but he couldn’t put his finger on what. Clyde growled a low, menacing rumble.

  Alex slowly pa
nned left and right, looking over the top of his M4. He saw nothing but jungle. Holding the weapon by the pistol grip, he raised his other hand and motioned for the others to stop. Then he slowly dropped down on one knee, lowering his silhouette. Clyde remained like a statue, still growling, his large bat-like ears standing straight up. Glancing over his shoulder, Alex looked at Cassie, wondering if she had detected any magic. She stared back, unrecognizable in her helmet and GPNVGs. She said nothing about mana.

  They stayed like that, unmoving, for several minutes. Beads of sweat trickled down Alex’s face, around and under his GPNVGs. The lenses were beginning to fog, always a problem in the jungle. Still, he saw nothing. Clyde had yet to move. The dog was far better equipped to detect threats, Alex knew, especially in an environment like this. But unlike Alex, who was constantly scanning back and forth, Clyde was staring directly ahead at the trail in front of them.

  What am I missing?

  The trail was empty. Other than a small pile of leaves rotting just ahead of them, there was nothing. He considered passing the dog, letting Clyde follow. Immediately, he changed his mind. What’s the point in bringing a dog if you’re not going to trust its senses?

  With his left hand, he let go of the forestock of his rifle and pulled an M-84 flashbang free from his webbing. He brought the cylindrical grenade next to the hand holding the pistol grip of his rifle, taking his finger off the trigger just long enough to pull the pin. He still held the arming lever in place with his left hand, so the grenade wouldn’t arm until he threw it, which would then release the lever.

  Still watching his front, he held the flashbang up high for the others to see until he heard three distinct clicks through his MBITR—three individual acknowledgments that the others understood what was coming.

  He let go of his pistol grip once again, letting the weapon hang from its sling, then tossed the flashbang at the trail ahead of them. He turned his head away quickly, closing his eyes as tightly as he could and sticking his fingers in his ears.

  Sorry, Cassie. Sorry, Clyde. He didn’t know how much Cassie would know about flashbangs, and there was no way to prepare the dog. Flashbangs produced a blinding flash of light, followed by a hundred-and-seventy-decibel bang, activating all of the human eye’s photoreceptor cells while at the same time forcing all the fluid from the inner ear, resulting in a complete loss of balance. Those within the blast radius—especially if they were unprepared—would be blinded for seconds, their vision literally frozen to the image of whatever they had been looking at when the grenade detonated.

  There was a popping sound as the arming pin spun free. Then the flashbang hit the path with a clunk. A moment later, it went off, the blinding flash still visible through Alex’s tightly closed eyelids. The flash was accompanied by a senses-shattering bang that shocked him even though he knew it was coming.

  It took a moment for the optics to readjust, but when they did, his heart pounded wildly. Not fifteen feet away, a massive spider thing, at least ten feet from pincerlike leg to pincerlike leg, with a torso as large as Clyde’s, burst out of a trap hole in the center of the trail that had been covered by the rotting pile of leaves. The spider chittered angrily as it spun about, its legs thrashing madly. Clyde lay on his side, stunned by the flashbang.

  To his credit, Alex’s revulsion only made him pause for a moment, and then he opened fire, making sure he shot over the stunned German shepherd. He hit the spider with a quick burst of auto-fire that pinned it to the ground. It tried to rise again, but Alex switched his fire selector to semiautomatic and put multiple aimed shots of 5.56mm subsonic ammunition into it, shredding it. Pieces of spider splattered the jungle. Two of its legs, each at least the width of a tent pole, were cut loose from its body, as it stuttered to a jittery, bloody halt. Despite the effects of the flashbang, despite its wounds, the spider had still been trying to reach the helpless Clyde.

  Alex shuddered.

  “Enemy left, enemy left,” someone called out from behind him.

  A moment later came a long burst of suppressed fire. He glanced over his shoulder just in time to see another spider rushing them from the left side of the trail and then coming to a halt under the impact of bullets.

  “Enemy right, enemy right,” Clara called out, followed a moment later by more shots.

  Jesus, I’ve led us right into a trap.

  He snapped his attention back to his front. In an all-around defense, each of them needed to watch their own interlacing arcs of fire. His responsibility was to the front. He’d have to trust the others to do their own jobs. Another spider, seemingly coming from nowhere, was rushing at him. He opened fire again—perhaps a tad wildly this time, but he still hit it, dancing it back down the trail. Then he forced himself to slow down and put aimed shot after aimed shot into it. When he pulled the trigger and nothing happened, it came as a surprise. He canted the weapon to the side and saw the firing chamber was locked all the way back. He was out of ammo.

  Focus, Alex. Focus. Stop acting like an amateur, and start counting rounds.

  He ignored the dying spider as his fingers ran over his webbing, seeking a new magazine. As he did, he looked for new threats. Left to right, he saw nothing. Behind him, at least two of the others were still firing short bursts and aimed shots.

  How many of these things are there?

  Now Clyde began moving again, the effect of the flashbang wearing off. The dog shook his head then climbed to his feet, fell over again, and finally stood back up. He began to bark furiously, spinning in place. Alex ejected his empty magazine, let it fall to the jungle floor, and began to insert another.

  “Above you,” Cassie yelled out.

  Alex’s gaze darted up—just in time to see the spider on the tree branch above the trail, not six feet away. He rushed to finish loading and hit the holding-open device. It slammed forward, loading another round into the firing chamber, but it was taking too long, way too long. Any moment now, the spider would launch itself at Alex.

  Can my armor stop its teeth?

  But then, a small ball of fire, no larger than a baseball, struck the spider in its multi-eyed face, knocking it backwards off the tree branch. The spider shrieked as it struck the ground, landing on its back, its legs thrashing in the air. The stench of burning hair was foul. He raised his weapon to fire, but before he could, Clyde, a flash of green-hued fur and fangs, ripped into the spider, snarling and biting. Alex moved around them, trying to find a firing angle where he wouldn’t hit Clyde, but he couldn’t tell where the spider ended and the dog began.

  So be it. Clyde is on his own.

  He risked a glance behind him, doing a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree scan of his team. He counted three soldiers, all on one knee, all still alive and watching their surroundings. Three other monstrous spiders lay dead on the ground; the closest had come within several paces of their left flank before it had been stopped. Cassie, still standing, held her hands out in front of her as though she were about to throw a volleyball. She rushed forward, trying to get around Alex, to come to the aid of Clyde.

  “No!” He grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

  She couldn’t do anything to help—she’d only get in the way or get hurt. With relief, he saw that Clyde didn’t need any help anyway. The shepherd snarled and yanked his head back and forth, ripping free a massive chunk of the spider’s body, including several of its legs. The rest of the body went flinging off into the jungle.

  Clyde tensed, preparing to go after it.

  “Clyde, stop!” Cassie yelled.

  Impossibly, the dog came over to stand next to her, panting, spider blood dripping from his teeth, looking guilty. Alex looked around them again, now watching the trees above as well. He saw nothing.

  “Call it,” he said to the others.

  “Nothing left,” Michael reported.

  “Clear right,” Clara reported.

  “Clear rear,” Paul reported.

  Alex sighed in relief. Thank you, God. That was more luck than
he deserved.

  “Reload and get ready to move again,” he said. “Clara, call the contact in to Buck’s team, and warn them to watch out for spider holes along the trails.”

  “Ack,” Clara said as she loaded a new magazine into her weapon and began to communicate through her MBITR to the assault team.

  Beside him, Cassie dropped down on one knee and hugged Clyde against her chest. Then she began to pat down the animal, searching for wounds.

  “He okay?” Alex asked.

  It took her a few moments, but she nodded. “I think so. Good boy. Good, good boy.”

  Alex snorted, prodding the carcass of the first spider with his carbine’s silenced barrel. “No, that’s a great boy. He saved our lives. If those things had hit us as we were walking over them…” He shuddered then faced Cassie. “And you. I didn’t know you had it in you. Fireballs?”

  She grinned, her teeth flashing beneath her GPNVGs. “Neither did I. The mana is crazy powerful here. Elizabeth would have burned it to a crisp, though.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short. That was amazing.”

  “You’re lucky I didn’t set you on fire.” She stood back up, confronting him, her hands on her hips. “I was still seeing two of everything. A little warning next time.”

  He slapped her on the butt as he walked past to check on the others. “Next time I hold up a flashbang, that is your little warning.”

  Chapter 49

  Clyde led them down the trail for another forty minutes or so. On their left, Alex could now hear the river. There was a settlement nearby, he knew. Buck and his team had reported it while on an earlier mission—although, at the time, they had kept their distance. Luckily, it was still dark; there shouldn’t be anyone awake—unless the locals were nocturnal. In truth, they didn’t have a clue about the habits of the locals.

  On occasion, the trail they followed ran into other trails, some leading to the river, others moving deeper into the jungle. At other times, they ran across what looked to be more spider holes, but fortunately they turned out to be nothing. Each time, though, stopping to check them out slowed the party down, and Alex warily watched the lightening sky. Rubicon’s day-night cycle was similar to Earth’s. And like Earth, it circled a star at just the right distance for life. All too soon, that star would begin to rise, greatly increasing the chances they would be seen.