No Regrets

by Jan Stryvant

  When the order came to pull back, it wasn't because they were being overwhelmed, but because the areas to the east and west, where the terrain was less of an obstacle, were.

  Street by street they moved south until they crossed the Truckee River.

  Again, for Sean, it was just too surreal. They retreated past the casinos he'd worked at as a poor boy growing up, living with his mother in a hand-to-mouth existence. Then it was past the place where he'd killed those four mages from the Ascendance who had been trying to capture him. On and on, past more places he'd worked, then they moved past the Plaza, which was still set up as a heliport, only no one was flying in there anymore, as the entire city government had been evacuated last night. They crossed the river next, but set up once more to do as much damage as they could to the invading army. The river was a much more difficult barrier for the djevels to deal with than the interstate had been, as it was currently running with water.

  They all saw him then, King Sladd. He was near the front of the lines now, spurring his troops on as they got to the bridge, and stepping out on the other side to meet them was the First, leading his pride, swords drawn as they came out to do battle.

  "Don't blow the Center Street Bridge!" Sean called over the radio. "No matter what! Don't blow it!"

  "What the hell is going on over there?" Chad called back.

  "The First is going to kill their king. So don't blow the bridge! That's an order!"

  "Is that Markey? What the hell is he doing down here?" Roxy exclaimed.

  Looking over where Roxy was looking, Sean saw it. It was…well, it had to be Markey, because six-foot tall rabbits weren't all that common in Reno. Only, he looked…different. He was wearing what Sean could only describe as 'Samurai Armor', with two sheaths stuck in his belt, one of which was obviously a katana. He was approaching quickly, but did not seem rushed.

  When Markey got to the bridge, everyone parted ways for him, and he spoke then, calling out to the First and his wives in that soft, cultured voice of his.

  "First, this is my fight. The spirits of the Earth have been here longer than you and yours. We have the privilege of first rights, and I am here to claim them on this day, in this fight."

  The First turned and looked at Markey, and then surprised the hell out of Sean by saluting him with his sword and bowing.

  "We will guard your flanks, but we will strike no blow to interfere with the honor of your combat, Seann Spiorad Crèadha."

  Markey bowed in response and moved to the front of the group as the First and his wives spread out to block the bridge.

  "Come on," Sean said and, slinging his rifle, he drew his sword and headed for the bridge.

  "Yeah, I wouldn't want to miss this for the world!" Roxy laughed, doing the same.

  "Who is that?" Estrella asked.

  "That's Markey. He's a Pooka," Cali told her.

  "A Pooka?"

  "A mischievous spirit of the Earth," Sean told her.

  "Well, if Dad respects it, I'm not going to second guess it. I just hope it knows what it's doing."

  Sean led the girls over to the left side of the bridge, allowing Sasha, Dienna, and Nibisa to shift around to the other side, giving them better coverage of the bridge overall.

  For their part, King Sladd was gathering his troops on the far side, and once he had them back in order, they charged.

  Sean threw up a shield spell to protect them from any magical attacks Sladd might throw their way, then he was too busy fighting ridders and biskops to really worry about anything else. Sean didn't know whether Sladd had run out of bonde, or if the troops in front of him were always made up of powerful djevels, but they were now, so he had no choice but to deal with it.

  But this time all the others standing with him, Estrella, Roxy, Cali, the First, Keairra, Peym, Sasha, Saf'kij, Jipouet, Dienna, and Nibisa, were all expert swordsmen. Though obviously Keairra and the First were the masters of the group.

  Then there was Markey. Sean knew Pookas could be dangerous, deadly even; they were not spirits with which to trifle. However, with a katana in his hands, Markey was without a doubt the best swordsman in the fight, and he was killing the djevels so quickly and efficiently that their line was starting to move towards King Sladd and his guards.

  Unlike the lords Sean had faced before, who did not seem to relish any sort of challenge, Sladd drew his weapons and moved forward to engage Markey, pushing his minions out of his way

  "Ah! A challenge at last! I will feast on your essence! I will eat your soul! I will take all that you are, Warrior!" King Sladd called as he attacked, with an Egyptian khopesh in one hand, and a mace in the other.

  Markey did not speak a word, but simply engaged Sladd, fighting with an effortless style that in some ways reminded Sean of his wife Cali's fight with the betrayer demon some months ago. Only this was faster, and far more intense. Sladd was armed with two weapons he was wielding with such skill and speed that Sean wouldn't wanted to have faced him.

  But Markey was not only parrying and dodging his attacks, he was scoring hit after hit upon the big djevel.

  Sean was too busy fighting his own battle to do more than spare a glance that way now and again, because every time he killed his opponent, another one stepped up and took its place. He could see that Roxy, Cali, and Estrella where facing the same problem. There were many of the enemy, far more than there were of them. Sean could only hope they could hold out long enough for Markey to win his fight.

  #

  "Good morning, Mr. President," Steve said as he and Tisha were escorted into the room. Instead of the Oval Office, today they were in a conference room with no windows, several large displays on the walls, a long table, and a lot of comfy chairs. Steve suspected they were also underground, mainly due to the elevator ride they took to get here.

  "Steve, Tisha," the president said. "You know Josh, General Baker, Jill from Homeland, Carl and Vincent from the Secret Service, and Tom from the NSA."

  The president then went on to quickly introduce the rest of the room, which was four more generals, the head of the FBI, and some civilian advisors.

  "Thank you, Mr. President," Steve said as he and Tisha sat in the seats they'd been shown to.

  "I assume you know why you've been asked here this morning?"

  "Of course, Sir. I was going to request an audience as well. Sean will be requesting the code for a second bomb sometime today."

  "Sean, not Chad?"

  "No, Sir. This one is going to be a bit more…" Steve paused and looked uncomfortable, because he didn't like it much himself. "Difficult, shall we say? But let's not get ahead of ourselves. You want to know what happened to the gateway."

  Steve noticed everyone either sat up straighter or leaned in closer.

  "Exactly, Steve. According to our real time sources, it's now closed?"

  Steve nodded. "Yes, it's closed. Permanently."

  "Can you be sure about that?" General Baker asked.

  "Oh, we're positive about that, General," Tisha said. "It's closed, and it will never be reopened."

  "Just how did that happen?" Jill, the director of Homeland, asked.

  "Apparently they figured out a way to destroy the gateway mechanism, partially by accident, it would seem."

  "How does that happen?" she asked, looking incredulous.

  "Very easily," Steve said, picking back up. "You see, they'd managed to tap into the monitoring system for the gates. The whole thing, the gates, their controls, all of that, had been built by a very advanced—but sadly now extinct—race, eons ago. The demons had no idea how any of it worked; they're not exactly technically advanced.

  "But Sean, his wives, the First and his wives, they all understand a fair bit of it. They managed to tap into the system after discovering a control node. They discovered King Sladd was coming through, and at that point decided they needed to leave immediately so they could fight against him.

  "While triggering the controls to set up a special one-time gateway home,
they stumbled onto a way to cause the system to shut down, with of course the benefit of using a large amount of high explosives that were brought along for just this purpose."

  "And the demons can't repair it?" General Baker asked.

  Both Steve and Tisha shook their heads.

  "They're not smart enough. But that's not our current problem."

  "Which is?" the president asked.

  "A djevel king, one King Sladd, was able to get through the gateway, along with a fair number of his army, while the gateway system was collapsing. They couldn't shut it down like flipping a switch, and no I don't know why. But at this time they're getting ready for him to attack Reno."

  "I see. And your reason for wanting the codes for the next bomb?"

  "You know we staged the final evacuation of Reno two days ago, after it became clear we couldn't hold it much longer. Mainly due to the intelligence that had been provided to the enemy by that suborned general."

  The president nodded, and Steve noticed all the military officers at the table winced.

  "The plan is to let the djevels 'win' Reno. Let them push our people out—it's not like we can hold it much longer anyway—then set the bomb off and kill as many of them as possible."

  "There are still people in Reno!" Jill said.

  "No, Ma'am, there's only food in Reno now," Tisha said. "Well, once we pull our fighters out. That is the cold hard reality of the war we're fighting. But at least we'll never have to fight this one again."

  "If the French did it," General Baker grumbled, "we can do it, too."

  "But the French didn't do it to their own poeple!" Jill protested.

  "Actually, seeing as they're all members of the EU, you could make the argument that they did," Steve pointed out. "However, that doesn't change things. Now it looks like you have a nice picture of Reno on the display over there, why don't we just sit back and watch what happens. Who knows, maybe we'll get lucky."

  The next several hours were both the most exciting, nd the most boring, Steve had ever spent. The imaging equipment they were using was apparently mounted in an aircraft of some kind high above, and it was able to resolve things a lot better than Steve would ever have expected. It didn't take them long to find Sean, the girls, and even the First, whom Tisha pointed out.

  All that was missing was the sound.

  When it came to the fight on the bridge, one of the advisors swore.

  "Is that the demon King?"

  "Yes," Tisha said.

  "Damn, he's big! Wait, what the hell is that coming towards him?"

  "It's a pooka," Steve said.

  "What's a pooka?"

  "Haven't you ever seen 'Harvey'? Carl chuckled.

  "What the hell is 'Harvey'?"

  "Jimmy Stewart movie; watch it if you want to know what a pooka is."

  "Well, why the hell does he look like Usagi Yojimbo?"

  "Just lucky I guess," Carl said with a shrug.

  "Why don't they just shoot him?" one of the generals asked as they watched the fight unfold.

  "I'm guessing because he's too powerful to be brought down by something like steel bullets," Steve said with a shrug. If he'd thought the previous fight had been long, this one was a lot longer, and now he was on the edge of his seat as he watched it play out in real time on the monitor hanging on the far wall. Then again, those were his friends he was watching down there, fighting for their lives.

  #

  Sean found himself at times pulling on his lion powers for strength and having to occasionally give Roxy a hand with her fighting, and he noticed Estrella was doing the same for Cali. Time had lost all meaning to him; he had no idea how long he'd been here fighting, nor how many he'd killed. Glancing over at Markey and Sladd, he could see that Sladd's armor was all but gone, and there were many wounds on the king.

  Markey himself was not unscathed. His armor was damaged, and he appeared to be wounded as well. But he was still fighting as well as when this had started. Sladd, however, was not.

  Turning his attention back to his own fight, Sean killed his current foe, and stepped forward slightly to cover Roxy.

  "Catch your breath!" he yelled and, drawing a pistol with his left hand, he shot his opponents with one hand while using his sword with the other. Apparently Roxy got the message, as she drew her own pistol and helped shoot several of the demons they were fighting, easing the load on the four of them for a few moments as Estrella pushed Cali, who was panting as heavily as Roxy, back behind her.

  Sean put his pistol away when he ran out of bullets. He couldn't take the time to reload, as it would take both hands. Plus, lion power or not, even he was starting to feel weary. He noticed that, at some point, the bridges to either side of theirs had been destroyed. He marveled that he hadn't even heard it. There was fighting going on at the riverbank, as his people tried to hold the djevels off, but there were so many dead djevels that there were now piles of tar for them to stand on, making their fight easier. There was no doubt in his mind that this fight could not go on much longer.

  Apparently Markey must have realized that, or perhaps it was just a matter of timing, but Sean noticed the big Pooka had suddenly redoubled his fighting and was actually pushing King Sladd back. The First was fighting by him on one side. with Keairra on the other, and they were continuing to keep other djevels from interfering, but Markey's blade would, on occasion, reach out to either side and slay one of the djevels there.

  It was at that point Sean realized Sladd was going to lose, and those around him began to hang back as that uncertainty somehow made itself felt in the air.

  Sladd panicked then, and pushed forward in what Sean could only guess was an attempt to grapple with Markey, who had his sword drawn back in a one-handed grip. Unfortunately for Sladd, Markey had drawn his wakizashi with his other hand, and drove it through the king's body, stopping him.

  King Sladd looked down, a look of shock and outrage on his face, then he looked up just in time to see Markey's katana come around and take his head off. Sladd's head tumbled through the air and out of sight off the side of the bridge as his body just stood there, trembling.

  Quickly cleaning his swords off on the side of the still-trembling corpse, Markey sheathed them, stepped back, bowed, and disappeared from sight.

  Sean noticed the djevels were still standing there in shock.

  "I think it's time to go," the First said in a soft voice.

  "My thoughts exactly," Sean agreed, and they started to back away from the center of the bridge where they'd been fighting.

  The moment they set foot off the bridge, King Sladd's body toppled over, and with a scream of pure outrage, the djevels on the other side surprised them by charging out onto the bridge, which then dropped into the river as a series of charges went off, severing all support.

  "All units! Retreat!" Chad's voice came over the radio. "Retreat! Retreat! Form up into units and make your way to the South McCarran line! Commanders! We are evacuating the city! Pull back!"

  "That's it? We're just letting them have the city?" Peg grumbled when Sean and the others caught up with them.

  "Yes," Sean said, panting. "We're going to let them have it, suck as many in as we can, and nuke the hell out of it."

  Peg flinched at that, and Sean sighed and gave her a hug as they ran. "Trust me, I don't want to do it, either. But if we're lucky, we may just get those two princes and all their lords as well.

  "Now, let's get our asses down to the southern defensive line and see if we can get a ride out of here."

  "How long until…"

  "Once we're sure everyone is out of the area, I'll deal with it," Sean said with a sigh. He wasn't looking forward to pushing that button. Too bad Adam wasn't here.

  #

  Prince Talt felt it the moment King Sladd died. It was…unexpected. He'd been sworn to King Sladd for so long, the idea that he was gone was one he had trouble dealing with, for all that he'd been planning on killing Sladd and taking over himself for several hundred y
ears now.

  He could tell that many of the others under his command felt it as well, especially his lords. They'd all had a connection to the king, much as they'd all had a connection to the land. When the gate had closed, suddenly cutting him off from that latter connection, the first had become much more important to him.

  And now that was gone as well.

  "Huvudskydd!" he called.

  "Yes, my Prince?"

  "We are retreating. With the king gone, I have no desire to fight Skarm for the rights to the city! He is stronger there, so he can take it. Send a messenger to let him know I'm withdrawing to the west so he doesn't waste his forces on me. Send others to Lords Afgift and Forrude, tell them to follow, and close up immediately!"

  "Yes, my Prince! Immediately!" Huvudskydd said and rode off to comply.

  Turning his head west, he bid his biskops, ridders, raseri, and mindre to follow as the bonde and råge fell into place, along with the rest of his host.

  There was another reason for withdrawing quickly, beyond not wanting to get into a contest with Skarm. The lions would undoubtedly be planning a counterattack to try and retake the city, now that King Sladd was dead and his forces were in disarray. Prince Talt had learned too much respect for them to take them on in any sort of a standup fight that was not of his own planning.

  King Sladd's attempt on Reno had been purely based on numbers, power, and overwhelming a city whose defenses had already been reduced dramatically. As plans went, it was a good one, but somehow the king had decided to engage in combat when he should have been letting his troops cut his enemies down to size. A decision that had obviously been ill conceived.

  "My Prince!" Lord Hjul called, riding up near him. "The defenders are withdrawing! We should give chase!"

  "Why would they withdraw when they have just succeeded in taking our king?" Prince Talt called back. "Do you not recognize a trap when you see one?"

  "But surely…" Lord Hjul started to reply.