“What is it, Mérilla?”
“We’ve got airborne incoming.” Her voice was shaky. “It looks about the same size as a B-21, and… mon dieu! It’s a dragon, boss. Shooting down dragons is most definitely not in my job description.”
“Adapt and improvise, Mérilla.”
“I’m not a marine, Max,” the sniper said in a cold voice.
“Ah, but you are. You are a member in good standing of the First Aeyaqar Marine Detachment.”
“Give the honor to Xia. She’s a better shot than me.”
“Sorry, Mérilla. Xia is down, so you’re it.”
“Merde… un moment s’il vous plaît.”
There was a pause and a heavy boom as the Barrett fired, followed by three more booms in rapid succession. Max waited perhaps ten seconds, and through Mérilla’s mic, he heard a distant crash. A moment later, the castle trembled under his feet.
“Uhhh, boss?” Mérilla said in a small voice. “I think you’re going to have to find another way out of here. The dragon fell on the ferry.”
“Fuck!” Max shut his eyes. “Your job is done. Meet us in back of the castle as soon as possible.”
“What are you going to do?”
“I have no idea.”
“Adapt and improvise, boss.” Mérilla repeated his words, sounding smug.
“You are a fount of wit,” Max replied dryly.
An idea struck him as he approached Oewaelle and his team standing on the rocky shore. Xia’s body lay in repose on the small tug, propped up and tied down against the remainder of the unused equipment while weakened former inmates sat or held on to the trundling cart. He stroked Xia’s cold cheek.
“How did our Canadian sniper do?” Moses asked.
Max smiled. “Well, she can now paint a dragon on the barrel of her long gun. Unfortunately, the dragon then fell on our transportation off this rock.” There was nothing he could do as he watched the expressions of concern spread through the crowd like ripples in a pond from a thrown stone. Turning to a small spit of sandy beach, Max waded out knee deep and calmly opened a gateway to the wooden dock at Bexley Landing. Splashing to shore, he gave Oewaelle a wide smile. “They warded the entire archipelago against gateways, right up to the waterline—but not beyond. Once you get to Bexley Landing, you can transport the former inmates anywhere you like. Although it’s a mess, Sloobork will probably be the last place the supreme governor will look for you.”
“You sound like you’re not coming along.” Her voice was thoughtful.
Max ignored the angry buzz of conversation among the team members. “I’m not,” he admitted. “Tell Xia, when she wakes, that I’m on to plan B.”
“What will you do?” Shyilia asked, stepping closer.
“I’ll put an end to this supreme governor and his army. Once that is done, the local resistance can take out the provincial governors and their bands of hoodlums.” He looked at the worried faces of his friends. “The less you know, the better, at this point.”
There was a flutter in the air, and with the sparkle of bright wings, Lenora Mosswood alighted on his shoulder. “I think that I will stay with you too, Maximilian. I can’t let humans have all the fun, can I?”
Max shot her a dark look. “They will catch you, and they will swat you like a mosquito.”
Lenora smiled. “No, they won’t. They caught my patrol unaware, without our normal wards in place. It won’t happen again.” She turned to face him, hands on her hips and her tiny face set. “Anyway, I can help. I can carry messages and keys too.”
“Who would you carry messages to?”
Lenora rolled her blue eyes. “I just fly out a few feet over the water and open a gateway to wherever. I return the same way. It’s easy once you know the secret, and you figured out the secret.”
“Can you move people with you?” he asked, his excitement rising.
“Sorry, only nixies or creatures of like size.”
“That’s okay. You can stay.” Max looked around, his eyes settling on the body of Styvius Cluzax. “I’m going to need a change of clothes, and those would do.” He couldn’t keep the revulsion he felt changing into a dead man’s clothes out of his voice.
Oewaelle touched his shoulder, her look sympathetic. “Let me help.”
Max saw the flicker of a runespell then heard the whisper of a word he thought might be air, and he was standing in the blue mage’s clothes, his chameleon suit and armor folded neatly at his feet. Instead of heavy boots, he wore the mage’s sandals. Looking up at Oewaelle, he raised an eyebrow.
“I took care of everything. As you might say, this isn’t my first rodeo.”
When she smiled thinly, Max noted that she was bouncing the small bag of gems and gold she had given him at the start of his adventure in her hand. Her violet eyes were sparkling. “You haven’t spent much of what I gave you.” She raised an arched eyebrow.
“‘Waste not, want not,’ I was taught. Why don’t you just hang on to that? I’ll pick it up when I get back.”
Oewaelle caused the bag to disappear into her frayed and dirty robe.
With a somber face, Max picked up his clothes and handed them to Casey. “I’ll be back for these, someday, I hope.” He looked at the others. “You should go now. That blocked stairway won’t hold them long, and they can always walk around the castle.” He looked up at the sight of a familiar figure jogging around the far side of the castle, long gun strapped over her shoulder. “Like Mérilla had to.”
There was a clatter in among the rocks, and the pieces of a shattered arrow arched out into the water.
“Get people moving before they get killed!” he shouted to Oewaelle and Shy. “Move it!”
There was a sharp crack of a weapon, and a long, despairing scream as the archer fell from the castle wall.
“Easy as shootin’ clay pigeons, ” Moses murmured as he snapped off another shot.
There was another scream, then a third arrow arced from the castle to fall harmlessly into the sea. Max could hardly believe that the opposition was shooting arrows without exposing their heads to return fire. They were shooting without looking at all.
Mérilla touched his arm. “Oewaelle, your mage friend, just spoke with me and said that you should probably eat before you do whatever you have planned.” Handing the long gun to Casey, she calmly rolled up the sleeve of her chameleon suit and held out her bare arm. Max frowned at her then shot a questioning look at Oewaelle.
The mage laughed dryly. “Biting someone’s neck is a myth, propagated by your Hollywood, Maximilian, and is actually very dangerous. Use her wrist.” Her smile turned knowing. “If you want erotic, you might try your donor’s thigh.” Chuckling, Oewaelle turned away, but not before Max saw the blush rising out of the collar of her robe to stain her fair cheeks crimson. His impression of the master mage went up a notch as he turned back to Mérilla.
“Thank you, Mérilla.” He gave the woman a little bow as he brought her arm to his lips, licked, and bit. The Canadian woman gasped and would have fallen, if Max hadn’t been ready for the reaction and wrapped a strong arm around her waist. As he had with Xia, Max removed only three hundred milliliters of the woman’s blood. Unlike Xia, he felt no rush of orgasmic pleasure, but simply the refreshing vitality that came from a good meal. Withdrawing his fangs, Max wiped his mouth and gave the blushing Mérilla a smile. “That was good.”
Her face became troubled. “Will I become a vampire now?” she asked in a shaky voice.
“No.” His smile became sympathetic. “There’s a bit more to it than that.” He looked at her curiously. “As long as you kept your free will, would it be such a bad thing?”
Mérilla looked troubled. “I don’t know,” she admitted at last.
“Good answer.” He glanced at the dwindling line of escapee
s. “You should head for the beach now, and tell Moses that I’d like to see him.”
Leaning over quickly, Mérilla gave him a quick kiss on the cheek. “Be very careful, Maximilian.” She laughed. “Xia would be a bitch to deal with if something permanent were to happen to you.” She turned away before he could even frame a reply.
Moses turned his way a moment later as Mérilla waded into the water. “What’s up, boss?”
There were perhaps twenty more people left to pass through the gateway.
“I’m going to set off a small charge back where the governor’s troops are digging through. I want you lean to a rock over on me and knock me out, as if I were setting the explosion and something went terribly wrong.”
The big man’s face went hard. “They will find you, boss.”
“That’s the idea. All the rest of the mages capable of traveling will have escaped, and they will be left with me. Oh, I’ll hold out as long as I can, but eventually, I’ll break down and take the supreme governor and his little army just where I want them to go.”
Moses stared at him for a moment then smiled. “Canada is pretty damned cold at this time of year, boss.”
“It is that,” Max agreed, turning toward the castle. “After you stage me and knock me out, get through the gateway and tell that mage I was speaking with to close the gateway behind you.”
“I don’t like this, boss.”
“Neither do I, but do you have a better plan… in thirty seconds or less?”
Moses ducked as he passed through the shattered doorway. “No, I don’t.”
There was a blur of wings, and Max looked up. He’d forgotten about his small observer. “You!” he said, pointing to the flying creature. “You heard the plan. Stay hidden or cloaked or whatever the hell you do to ensure you’re not seen. Understand?”
Lenora nodded, her eyes even larger than normal.
“Good.”
“Where do you want the last charge, boss?” Moses asked as they approached the collapsed stairwell.
He could hear the sound of voices, almost clear enough to understand, and the sound of digging.
“There!” Max said, pointing to a low section of stairwell. “That will knock a few stones loose but won’t bring the whole castle down on my head.”
Moses placed the charge and turned back to Max. “Done.” He held out his massive hand, his face serious. “Luck, my friend. You’re going to need it.”
Max shook the offered hand. “Thanks. Now hit me, and make it look like the blast caught me. Blow the charge as you step outside. Xia is going to be pissed when she finds out what I’ve been up to.”
Moses grinned. “Dat she is.” He studied Max’s face for a long moment. “Dis is going to hurt you a lot more than it hurts me. Sorry.” The haymaker struck Max in the side of the head, slamming him into the iron bars of the nearest empty cell, and the room went black.
Max woke slowly and painfully. For a single blazing moment, it felt as if he’d been beaten on every exposed part of his body. When he recalled why and how he’d come to find himself in his current position, he guessed that the beating had, most likely, been real but thankfully unremembered. Moving his limbs to take stock of his injuries, he quickly discovered two important facts: he was bound ankle and wrist to the cold stone floor, and the bed was simply a pile of well-used straw. His blue robes had been removed, and he’d been garbed in little more than rags of indeterminate color. A knotted length of rope held up his pants. He sniffed the air slowly, coming to the immediate conclusion that he wasn’t apt to be released to use the nonexistent chamber pot.
“Good morning,” a thin, reedy voice proclaimed from only a short distance away. Max lifted his head, wincing at the pain above his left eyebrow.
A man in golden robes sat on a cushioned chair in the corner. With receding dark hair shot with gray at the temples, he wore a thin circlet of gold on his head. His nose was small and rather pudgy, which described most of the man’s body as far as Max could see, and his chin was weak. His dark eyes, however, were as sharp and bright as those of a crow, and as caring. He was, Max decided, a very dangerous man. “My name is Caius Cincius Livianus, and I am the Supreme Governor of Aeyaqar.’” He paused for effect. “And you are?” He raised a shaped, almost effeminate eyebrow.
“Smith,” Max croaked, trying to swallow. He would have killed for a drink of water.
“Of course, you are, Mister… Smith. It’s a shame your friends abandoned you to your fate.” The governor’s smile spoke eloquently of past cruelties and never reached his eyes. “Your vestments were those of an apprentice mage of the blue robe. Is that what you are?”
Max thought about it for a long moment. He’d played this dangerous game before with the North Koreans, who were much more skillful at it than this clown. This idiot, Max mused, probably still relied on the rack to get answers to certain questions. “I am an aardvark,” Max said in a level voice. “A very thirsty aardvark.”
The pleasant demeanor faded from the governor’s face. “What the hell is an aardvark?” The voice, Max noticed, had become somewhat shrill.
“According to the great Wizard Wikipedia, who everyone knows is the sole repository of all knowledge, an aardvark, also known as the earth pig, is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa.”
“And where the hell, exactly, is this Africa?” The governor’s cheeks were taking on a pink, slightly veined appearance. This, Max knew, was a man who could be goaded.
Max smiled. “Africa is a continent to the southeast of North Carolina.”
The plush chair fell with a bang as the governor surged to his feet. “What sort of an idiot do you take me for?” he hissed.
Max wisely remained silent.
“You may find that a few hours on the rack will loosen your tongue somewhat.” He turned away. “Open!” he shouted at the door, which was promptly swung open by a guard in burnished armor. The governor stormed through, and the door boomed closed.
“That was a pretty stupid thing to do,” a small voice said from the window. Max turned his head as much as he could to see the small flying creature sitting on the rough sill of the stone window, the iron bars to her back. “I still have the key to the door locks, whenever you wish to leave.”
“You miss the point, Lenora. I’m exactly where I want to be at this moment.”
“I think your big dark friend hit you too hard… or not hard enough.” She shook her head. “Are you insane, or do you like pain?”
Max coughed, laying his aching head back down on the straw. “No and no. Would you have water?”
“I could probably manage a cup of water,” Lenora replied dubiously.
“That would be appreciated,” Max whispered.
She was gone for thirty minutes before he heard the sound of struggling wings, and Lenora appeared on the sill with a small leather skin of water, “small” being a relative term. Although the bag held only a cup of water, it was greater than the nixie’s entire body. Landing on his chest with a puff of expelled breath, she uncorked the top then poured a trickling stream into his mouth. He swallowed gratefully. From the residual flavor, Max guessed it had once contained something much stronger... like brandy.
When he had swallowed half the contents of the bag, Lenora stopped. “You should save something for later.”
“Keep pouring. The safest place for the water is in my body.”
She poured until the bag was empty then took it back to the windowsill. “You sound like you’ve been in this situation before.” Her small voice was dry.
Max shut his eyes, remembering the past. “I have. An operation I was on went… sideways, and I was caught.” He laughed dully. “The people that caught me, called the North Koreans at that particular place and time, were much more professional.” He shuddered in his restr
aints. “I still bear the physical and emotional scars from that interview.”
“What happened?”
“They had me for seventy-two hours and would have broken me if my team hadn’t pulled me out. You know Xia, Moses, and Casey. The fourth member of my old team was killed in an operation, and Mérilla Jalbert, an explosives expert and sniper, was brought in as his replacement.”
Lenora was silent for some time before she spoke. “This must be your hardest operation.”
Max chuckled. “Weirdest, yes. Hardest, not by a long shot. That one where the North Koreans caught me was the hardest.” He glanced over at Lenora. “Are you aware that Aeyaqar is a planet that orbits the sun?” He pointed to the bright orb in the sky.
She gave a derisive little sniff. “Of course. We have advanced schools here.”
“On that operation, we were launched into space and had to free-fall from orbit to land behind enemy lines.”
“Is that when you were caught?” she asked in a breathless voice.
“No. One of our local contacts sold us out once we were down.”
“So, you failed your mission?”
It was Max’s turn to snigger. “No. I was caught as we exited the operation. We got in, found out what we needed to know, relayed that information home, and left. Twenty-four hours after I was rescued, a large nickel-iron meteor a hundred meters in diameter fell from space to hit a certain military installation, destroying it utterly.”
Lenora stared at him for a long while. “You and your people scare me.”
“Good. If this asshole Caius Cincius Livianus attacks my homeworld, he will fail, and Earth will be made aware of the existence of Aeyaqar. After that, it’s only a matter of time before Earth figures out how to access the gateways, and then Aeyaqar will fall.”
“Oh,” Lenora said in a voice that was little more than a faint buzz of sound. “Someone is coming! I’ve got to go.” Grabbing the waterskin, she dropped from the windowsill and was gone.
Destiny of the Vampire (Adventures of the Vampire Book 1) Page 19