by Pam Uphoff
Uhba was holding a girl who stayed a girl. He stopped fumbling at his holster, his hand flashing up to kill her. A loose girl jumped and grabbed his wrist. Uhba tried to backhand her, but she was dangling. The first girl squirmed loose, the second girl released his hand, then a dragon was all over him. Blood spurted and Edmo felt the team bond writhe with the first death.
Girls were forming up in trios all over. Can they act together?
Edmo lunged, tried to touch Inja. If we can form a compass . . .
A black and silver dragon leaped at Edmo. His hand fumbled for a second at the empty holster, then darted for the knife. The dragon was too quick and had his arms and legs trapped in four of her six limbs. No, he was stronger than she was. He forced his arms up, then her jaws tightened over his neck and squeezed without puncturing, much. He was bigger than she was, but she whipped her tail around his legs to take him to the ground, and she braced the wrist joints of her wings to keep him from rolling while she choked him halfway unconscious. As his vision dimmed he muzzily thought that for fighting purposes, dragons actually had eight limbs.
"Primo! Bite them! You've got a mouth full of teeth now!"
He resurfaced, sucking in a huge lungful of air as the dragon released her bite. He could feel his team, all of them struggling against these creatures. Good. They weren't going to be killed, they could turn the tables on these . . . things . . . they were just little girls, after all. He threw a push spell and it bogged down in a general suppression spell. One! He stopped blocking communications and concentrated on a single spell, a simple spark to hit this creature.
He could hear Tromp was laughing. "Eat them, dragons! Eat them! No, no! Fuck them first!"
His dragon released his neck to eye Tromp, then turned back to consider him. He strained, but the leverage of her wings kept him pinned down. Her muzzle shoved into his face and she inhaled, sniffing.
"He smells pretty good. Maybe he can do it." The dragon had no difficulty with speech. To his horror she started carefully tearing his clothes off with her wing claws, arching her neck up and out of his reach as he overpowered her arms. He threw slice and fireball, and they both fizzled. He started to roll, but she caught them with an extended wing.
In his limited vision, the magic girl was clutching her head and backing away. She's about wiped out, any second now she'll collapse and we'll kill these monstrous children. He forced his arms forward again. Choking should work. Tried to force a spark, a fireball, a push through the suppression.
The girl backed further. "God of War!" Her shrill voice sent a chill through him, and he wrenched, trying to get loose enough to hit this dragon girl, she couldn't weigh but forty kays . . . He tried rolling, now that her wings weren't braced, but she just squeezed her hands and feet.
Edmo surged up, and screamed as the dragon's claws bit in. She snapped her jaws around his neck and choked him again. No, it wasn't him, it was one of the team. The dragons had most of his men pinned down. Kids were swarming over another figure, and someone, Amgo, was still on his feet. A piece of his own self shriveled as Ugsi died. He caught a glimpse of the little red dragon dropping out of the air . . . Ijma ripped out a piece of the Team's soul as he died. He couldn't feel, he couldn't feel too many of the Team.
"Mine's dead. No fair!" One of the dragons whined.
"Come get this one."
The dragon leapt into the air and swooped down on Amgo. Edmo heard a faint scream as he blacked out.
He resurfaced, weird erotic dreams about a dragon . . . There was a dragon on him, he was, he couldn't be! Someone was laughing as he blacked out again.
He surfaced, to see a warrior in armor, riding a huge black stallion. He was looking around in perplexity at what had become a dragon orgy.
Edmo would have giggled if he could have breathed. Didn't the God of War know about orgies? He needed to terminate himself, it was their duty to never be taken, never give out information. He tried to pass that on to the team. The dragon's jaws tightened and his mental discipline slipped away into blackness and ecstasy.
He surfaced again. Lots of people were coming, slowing in consternation, milling about. Voices penetrated the darkness.
"Well, Nil. I hope these men fit your required criminal characteristics, because I doubt the girls will release them."
"Can we have one for questioning?"
His dragon raised her head and snarled at that.
He could feel what was left of his team; their distress and horror overwhelmed his training. "By the One! Save us!" He tried to throw a spell. Push quivered in the air as the dragon turned and this time her jaws bit deeply.
Chapter Sixty-eight
Summer 1365
Ash, Kingdom of the West
Lefty only thought he'd been appalled by the dragon orgy. The dragon dinner was much, much worse.
"Did you hear him? 'By the One.' These must be from that One World the Earthers are fighting." Elegant's clear voice rose over the ripping and gulping.
"Why this attack out of nowhere? All the kids are sure they didn't give them cause. That these men grabbed them and threatened their lives." Happy hadn't been in the meeting, but she, like every magician in Ash, had heard the children.
Lady Gisele was bent over Swish. "Stabbed. I've got it, she'll be fine."
Delight had her own daughter gathered up in her arms. "Whoop was hit with a stun spell! Are they Mages?"
Beck Butcher looked around in disgust. "Hardly! The question is, what were these men up to?"
"They wanted to destroy all the native magic. Ash must have looked like a good place to start." Lefty stepped over to the Auld Wulf and took the thing he was holding out.
"The laser pistols differ from the Earther's in detail. Unicorn symbol on the handles." The Auld Wulf's voice was cold and hard. "Why did they pile them over here?"
"Did they want to capture the children alive? Just kill the adults?" Answer frowned back at the bloody meadow.
"Only eighteen of them, but if they were trained commandos . . . I need to teach the kids to be more vicious."
"They did very well. I'll never snip about your training program again; only one child was seriously injured. They all knew how to block, how to back away, how to break a grip."
The Auld Wulf snorted. "Enough of them knew how to shield, that the men must have thought their spells couldn't work. I think you'll find there were some sudden breakthroughs among your youngsters, tonight."
Answer looked around at the huddled girls being anxiously checked by their mothers. More than a few were rubbing aching heads. "Indeed."
Lady Gisele left the injured girls to their mothers and leaned over one of the few intact bodies. "Interesting X chromosome; it's been a long time since I've seen this variant of the witch/wizard gene." Her forehead crimped suddenly, as if with a head ache. "I can't recall where I've seen it, though."
Lefty looked around. "Rufi'll have my hide for not finding out more."
Dydit chuckled suddenly. "Can I watch when you report to Rufi that a serious attack by the One was just defeated by a pack of randy teenage dragon girls?"
The Auld Wulf looked around the clearing. "This isn't a good way to convince anyone we're harmless. What's better now? A completely mysterious disappearance, or should we make it public, but make it sound like the whole village of two hundred barely held off eighteen attackers?"
While they batted ideas around, the Mayor chivvied the girl dragons into order and they all flew off. Lefty suspected she wanted the girls gone before anyone started thinking about dragons that raped, killed and ate people. He certainly didn't want to think about a dozen hungry teenage dragons. He frowned. Only ten dragons in the sky. Had the boys fled? Probably a good idea if this was standard draconic mating behavior.
Lefty, Harry and the Auld Wulf collected gadgets from the . . . leftovers.
The witches lifted chunks of ground and they shoved the remains into the holes before they let it down again. Someone said something about returning in the
morning to bury whatever they'd missed. Their voices quieted as they escorted the reduced, and rather shocked, group of teenagers back to the village, or in Nil's case, back to his tower, walking backwards as he herded all the goat boys. Reluctantly, as he was eyeing the huge black horse.
Because the Auld Wulf hadn't left, he was kneeling by a bush.
"Little Rustle, what on the World have you done? Overloaded and overstrained yourself, it feels like. What did you do?"
Never and Dydit swapped looks and kept quiet.
The light little girl's voice answered. "I figured I'd better sneak down and make sure nobody got hurt. When those men came, I used a light warp, and went down and took all their laser pistols." The girl inched partway out from under the bush and the Auld Wulf touched her forehead briefly. Her shoulders relaxed. "That feels better. I tried to block all their spells."
"Ah. Tromp thinks she did it all."
"Well, she did a lot. She broke the human spell on the dragons." Rustle looked down and away from him. "At least two men ran off south."
"And you did something else you don't want to tell anyone?"
She hunched her shoulders, and stared at the ground. "I changed their essences to dragon. I thought the girl dragons might attack them like they always pick on their brothers."
"You changed their essences."
Lefty bit his lip. She's only twelve! The Auld Wulf's shoulders were shaking. Was he laughing?
"I've been studying the dragons, but I never ever did anything to them. But I figured them out. So I knew what to do. And they killed them all."
"Little Rustle, you are just a bit scary. Come out from under this bush, and let your parents take you home."
She crawled the rest of the way out, and staggered a bit as she stood up.
"You've seriously strained your brain, little witch. You eat well and get a lot of sleep for the next few days." He was a faint gleam of starlight on silver hair and beard, and then he was gone altogether, and the horse too.
Never swooped down to grab Rustle and realized she was crying. "Are you hurt? No? Honey, armed men sneaking around in the night and attacking people need to be killed."
"Even Answer won't give you much grief over them." Dydit stroked her hair.
"But I didn't even know who they were. Or why. Maybe we scared them. I don't think they'd ever fought magic people before. And I made the dragons want to kill them. And Answer said I had to ask her before I did anything to a live animal. And never ever even think about doing something to a person."
"What a list." Never murmured. "Catching up for all those years of being so good?"
"Scared people run away, they don't snatch children and threaten to kill them. I think Answer will understand." Dydit scooped her up and headed up the hill. She was crying harder than ever. "What, Rustle?"
"And His hair’s all white. He'll be too old for me," she wailed, and buried her face in his shoulder.
Never and Dydit stared at each other.
Lefty somehow managed to keep his face straight. "Well . . . she's almost thirteen. About on schedule for hero worship to turn into Puppy Love."
Never winced. "Rustle, it will probably be at least ten years before you are given permission to advance. You should decide then who's too old or too young."
"Yes. Ten years from now. Maybe fifteen." Dydit headed up the hill. "Twenty."
Lefty shook his head. He turned and followed Nil and Goat Boys, trotting a bit to catch up.
They were excited and planning a horse hunting expedition first thing in the morning. "They must have ridden here, and tied the horses somewhere. So, I figure, finders, keepers, right?" Joffe looked from Nil to Lefty.
Lefty looked around at the quiet night. "Losers, weepers. But we get to examine all the tack and keep the papers. I think I must have dreamed all this." He turned into the gated courtyard where the corridor was attached. "Rufi is not going to believe it. Whatever plans we had, it's now up to pure chance. I have no idea what they'll think about their Action Team disappearing."
Chapter Sixty-nine
1365 Summer
Fascia, Auralian Empire
The female servants in the Amma's Palace wore uniforms that apparently rendered them invisible, gave them entry everywhere, and made them easy pickings for the guards. So, while their illusions gained them entry nearly everywhere, Oscar had to send at least one guard a day off with a fantasy tryst stuck in his brain. It was unfortunately obvious that a lot of the Oner's decisions were coming out of the Amma's harem, so it was time to assault the last bastion of privacy in the building. A basket of wines from the Amma's cellar was the first legitimate opportunity.
As he approached the door, the enormous guards knocked on the door behind them, and a brown haired women looked out, and nodded. "Finally. The Princess asked for more wine yesterday. Don't dawdle, girl."
Oscar was really glad he hadn't just shown up and tried to bluff his way in. He followed the woman up a flight of stairs to an airy chamber with the windows open on a view across the grounds. A breeze swept in and up spiral stairs to an open hatch. No doubt a roof top patio for the Princess. The Princess turned away from the window and he gawped. Blonde hair so pale it was nearly white, crystalline blue eyes, striking in a deep tanned face of exquisite beauty. Glow. Old Gods! What a glow! He got his mouth closed and followed the brown haired woman to the wine rack. He placed the bottles carefully, reds, roses and whites.
"Well, finally a servant who knows how to handle wine. Open a bottle of the Chardonnay."
Oscar pulled the cork as a bell tinkled. The brown haired woman frowned, but was sent off by the Princess. Old Gods! An opportunity like this didn't come along every day. While the Princess made a deal out of examining the cork, Oscar slipped a jot of wine from his flask into a glass and poured a bit of Chardonnay into it.
The Princess sipped. "Lovely!" Oscar poured more and then set the bottle on the table. Old gods, she had a glow like no one he'd ever seen . . . no. She glowed like the Goddess of Fertility in her maiden aspect. And she saw Oscar's interest.
"You're no woman. What are you doing here?" Her eyes narrowed as she put the glass down and stalked him. He backed away until he came into contact with an overstuffed sofa. "Actually, you are just what I need, right now." She shoved him down on the sofa and straddled him. Oscar heard a heavy masculine tread outside the door and saw the perfect opportunity to unsettle an alliance. He threw an illusion over himself. Instead of a blonde fellow in a rucked up maid's dress, the Oner commander of the troops . . . his pants down.
The Princess jerked back in shock.
The Amma walked through the doorway.
Oscar tossed the Princess into the Amma's arms, then threw about five spells of misdirection, fog, disorientation, trip and slow as he dashed for the door and threw a light warp around himself. Screams, angry yelling and a slap rose behind him, then the alarm was up, eunuchs with swords were running everywhere, and he wound up sitting on top of a book shelf for three hours before the opportunity to get out the doors came around.
He sought privacy, and let the light warp go, and spent the rest of the afternoon nursing his aching head in an underutilized dining room.
Bran finally found him. "What on the World happened? The Amma has thrown the Oner Ambassador in the dungeon and executed the troop commander. Everyone's running around in a complete tizzy."
Oscar snickered. "I saw an opportunity and grabbed it. I only wish I could pretend it was a deeply laid plan instead of a half panicked flash of inspiration." He grinned and told the tale.
"That was epic. Even for you." Bran wasn't even trying to not grin.
"From what you say, we're done here. It's time to go home." Oscar pried himself off the floor.
"Correct. Now get up and let's get started." Bran hauled him up and led the way.
Chapter Seventy
15 Qadah 1367 / late Summer 1365
Karista, Kingdom of the West, Target World Forty-two
Ajha was walking
up the street toward the warehouse when he heard his name called. Egto thumped his weary horse, then gave up and slid off. Idre was behind him and half fell off as his horse staggered to a halt. Ajha's stomach dropped. They were alone.
"Egto? Idre? What happened? Where are . . . "
Egto grabbed his arm for support. "They're dead, all of them."
Idre nodded. "The dragons ate them."
Ajha dragged them inside.
"Usse, trouble!"
Egto and Idre made a beeline for the downstairs water tap.
Then they sat down and tried to give a coherent tale. They didn't succeed.
Usse was having trouble maintaining his calm. Ajha gave up trying. Idre and Egto had ridden their horses into the ground, getting away from Ash. The rest of the Oners weren't going to come back. An entire expanded Action Team, eighteen men highly trained in fighting both magically and physically. And Idre and Egto were both babbling on about teenage girls who turned into dragons, and how they'd had to flee into the thickest forest to escape them.
Ajha had a sinking feeling that perhaps the local magic wasn't as strictly physical as they had supposed. Illusions, and hallucinations of this strength took immense power. They must have been able to group and gang up on the team, or rather, the individual members. Surely, if the team had been able to form compasses, or even circuits, they couldn't have been so easily overwhelmed.
Usse stared at Egto. "You say there were thirty-six of them? And the team was defeated in minutes? There were twenty of you."
"Those kids all knew how to fight, they had training, including bare handed against knives. And magic. One of them raised a magical suppression spell, and even Edmo couldn't break it. It even fogged the team bond a bit; we couldn't join forces. If we could have touched . . . But I still saw and felt what happened to them. It was the ones that turned into dragons that were the real danger." Egto's eyes were wide with remembered terror. "We were set to guard the road, keep them from escaping!" A hysterical cackle burst out of him, turned into a sob. "We faded back and observed. No one saw the weapons go, but I, someone, started seeing empty holsters, and I, someone, tried to warn Edmo, but it was too late, all the guns were gone. Then this girl appeared out of nowhere, and told one of the hostages to release the dragons."