Joshua sighed. It seemed like everyone was always threatening to kill him. It made him miss the old days when he was just a computer programmer. Back in his world the most he had to worry about was someone spitting in his food at the taco truck on the corner.
Those days seemed like a lifetime away now.
“I found him for you, your highness,” Rangor said, “That’s worth something, isn’t it?”
The King’s crazy eyes didn’t leave Joshua. “It’s only worth something if this piece of shit gets me into the vessel.”
“Well, I’m sure he’ll do a right smart job of that, won’t you, red?” Rangor said.
“What’s in it for me?” Joshua asked, “It looks like you’re about to get your ass handed to you by a superior fighting force. I don’t think you have time to torture any secrets out of me.”
Hurdroth pulled him nose to nose. His breath stank like he had gargled raw sewage. “Don’t be so sure of that.”
“Your Majesty, if I may be of assistance.”
Hurdroth pulled back. Lord Fortune stood by them now. He gave Joshua a wan smile.
"I'm sure our red-haired friend does not wish ill to come to his friends," Fortune said, "Perhaps we could all come to an arrangement that would be beneficial to all."
Hurdroth let go of Joshua’s coat. He glanced at his guards. “Take all of them to the vessel. Now.”
“Wait!” Fortune said.
A soldier grabbed him and half dragged him away. Hurdroth spun on his heel, shouting orders to soldiers. Rangor took Joshua’s arm.
“Well, I guess that’s that, isn’t it?” he said, “Come along, let’s go see this silly vessel the King is so bonkers about.”
Seventy-Eight
Joshua
Joshua scanned the towering pine trees as they were led into the box canyon. Kojanza had to be out there somewhere. When would she make her move? He was so busy looking he didn’t see the ship until they were almost upon it. It was Lou’s sharp intake of breath that brought him around.
“Where the holy hell did that thing come from?” Lou asked.
Joshua turned and stumbled as he saw the ship. It was huge.
Once, when he was ten years old, his Gramps had taken him to see a Navy destroyer docked in Portland for fleet week. Standing on the dock, craning his head back as the ship towered above him, he had thought it was awesome and beautiful. And a little scary.
This isn’t one of the big ships, Joshie, Gramps had said, You should have seen one of the old battleships like the Missouri. Or an aircraft carrier. Those are big.
The sleek black ship nestled in the canyon was bigger than the Naval destroyer. It was bigger than maybe two or three of them. It was curved and angular at the same time. Looking at it, trying to make sense of its design, hurt his eyes.
There was one thing he recognized immediately. This ship wasn’t an innocent research vessel like the poor Seattle. Even sitting still, it looked dangerous. It looked lethal. Death in a shiny black carapace.
“Well that’s an impressive looking boat, isn’t it?” Rangor said.
A small group of soldiers stood at the base of the ship. Rangor pulled him toward them. Joshua twisted his head back toward Lou.
“You ever see a ship like that?” he asked.
"No, but that thing has to be hardcore military, wherever it came from," he said, "Scares the hell out of me."
"I can't believe this was sitting a stone's throw from us all these years," Pete said.
One of the soldiers slapped his head. “Shut up.”
Joshua couldn’t take his eyes off the ship. Part of it was hidden by an overhang of rock at the end of the canyon. The ship had to have been there for decades, maybe centuries. Pine trees had grown up around it. Some of Hurdroth’s men were busy chopping the trees down.
For some reason the ship reminded him of Gram’s painting. It had the same sinister look to it. What was the connection between her and the ship?
“Hey, where’d the kid go?”
Rangor stopped, yanking Joshua to a stop as well. “What?”
Joshua looked back. The four crew members of the Seattle were there. Fortune was there. As was the bloody and dour-faced Dovd. Vazsa was there, rage flashing in her eyes.
Cray was not.
“Which one of you louts was in charge of him?” Rangor asked.
“Bilden, but he’s–”
An arrow appeared in the man’s throat. Before he could fall, arrows hissed out from several directions. Rangor dropped to the ground, rolling and coming up with his ax in hand.
Arrows whizzed toward him. He swung the ax, batting them away.
“Show yourselves, cowards!” he shouted.
Joshua crouched and ran back to the crew of the Seattle. Arrows were still flying, but they were being aimed at the soldiers. Kojanza must have found some friends.
“Run for the ship,” he said.
“I don’t want to go near that thing,” Dr. Fran said, “It looks evil.”
Joshua heard shouting. He turned. More soldiers were running their way.
“Stay if you want,” he said, “I’m going for that ship. I think it’s our ticket out of here.”
He didn't wait to see if they were going to follow. He sprinted for the black ship. From the forest he saw dark-skinned people in leather running, bows in hand. Vazsa's people. Where had they come from?
Another thing he didn’t have time to wonder about.
A roar behind him made him turn his head. What he saw made him stumble.
Hundreds, maybe of thousands or warriors were pouring into the clearing. They immediately engaged each other in battle. Hemsdell’s army and Hurdroth’s. Metal rang against metal, echoing up the canyon.
Joshua kept running toward the ship.
“Help!”
He looked back. Dr. Fran had fallen. A soldier was standing over her, foot on her back. Pete and Tony were throwing snowballs at the man. To little effect. Lou and Vazsa were fighting another soldier with sticks.
Joshua glanced back at the ship. A part of him knew that all he had to do was get inside and he’d be safe. He might even be able to go home.
But...
Are you going to help your friend, Joshie?
“Shut up Grams,” he said under his breath.
He launched himself at the soldier pinning Dr. Fran down.
The soldier swung his sword. Joshua dived under it, hitting his legs. The soldier lost his footing, falling into the snow. Joshua jumped on him. He punched the man in the face.
The man’s head bounced back and his eyes rolled up in his head. It surprised Joshua a little. He looked at his fist. Was this the same delicate hand that used to spend all day typing code?
“Joshua!”
Dr. Fran was getting up. She was trembling.
He got off the man and tossed Dr. Fran over his shoulder. “Get to the ship!” he yelled to the crew.
There were more soldiers coming now. They were fighting each other, scrambling toward the ship. Arrows zinged from the forest as Vazsa’s people joined the fray.
The unholy din of it made his head ring. Metal clashing on metal, men shouting, grunting and screaming. Horses flew by in every direction, hooves thundering.
There were too many of them. Joshua kicked a soldier who came at him, knocking the man down. Joshua snatched up the man’s short sword. Slashing and kicking, he tried to fight his way toward the ship.
“I never signed up for this!” Dr. Fran screamed.
“You think I did?” Joshua shouted back, “You think I wanted to be in some Braveheart movie?”
“What are you talking about!”
It didn’t seem like a good time to explain. Two soldiers came at him with battle axes. Joshua tossed Dr. Fran off his shoulder and dived between them, slashing at their legs.
Another soldier landed on him, knocking the sword out of his hand.
“The General wants this one!” the soldier said.
A bolt of blue lightning
flashed overhead. Something exploded behind Joshua. The soldier looked up. Joshua rammed his knee into the man's crotch. The man grunted and Joshua rolled him over, slamming his head against a rock. The soldier went limp.
Joshua got into a crouch. Another bolt of blue lighting sizzled across the clearing. It hit a cluster of men, exploding them in a spray of red.
The plasma blaster from the Seattle’s robot. He located it. A group of men was maneuvering it for another shot. Soldiers from the other side were trying to rush it.
He looked around, trying to locate the crew. They were backed up against a rock wall. Pete was clutching one arm, red running down his sleeve. Lou, Tony, and Vazsa were holding off a group of soldiers with some spears they must have found.
Dr. Fran was cowering in the snow where he had dropped her.
A horse whinnied somewhere behind him. He jerked his head around. It ran out from the trees. Joshua jumped up and ran for it. He grabbed the reins, and swung himself up on it. There was something tied to the saddle that took his breath away.
A plasma rifle.
He looked back to the forest. There wasn’t anyone to see.
It had to be from Kojanza, though.
He yanked the horse’s head toward the crew, digging his heels into the horse’s side. The horse sped toward the men. Joshua pulled the plasma rifle up and screamed a battle cry.
They looked up, then scattered as the horse ran through them.
“Go for the ship!” Joshua yelled.
He brought the horse around. The soldiers were regrouping, starting to run after the crew. He ran the horse through them again.
The soldiers scattered. Joshua turned back and sent a blast of blue lightning over their heads. They dropped to the ground.
The crew had reached Dr. Fran and were pulling her to her feet.
“Put her on the horse,” Joshua said.
Lou eyed the plasma rifle. “Where’d you get that?”
Joshua shrugged. “It came with the horse.”
The horse stomped its hooves in the snow. Then it let out a noisy blast of gas from its hindquarters.
“No,” Joshua said, “It can’t be.”
The horse turned its head trying to nip at his leg. It had a white ring around its eye.
“Damnit!”
It seemed he and the horse were destined to be together.
Lou shoved Dr. Fran behind him on the horse.
“All right, I’m going to blast a path to the ship,” Joshua said, “Stay close behind me.”
He looked down at their faces. Tony and Pete looked terrified and exhausted. Lou and Vazsa looked tired too. But resolved. They would fight with him. He looked to the forest. Kojanza was out there somewhere, staying out of sight. He knew she would appear when he needed her most. He hoped.
He lifted the plasma rifle. “Let’s go.”
He slapped the reins on the horse. He leveled the rifle toward the mass of warring soldiers blocking their way. The air reeked of blood and fear.
It surprised him that he wasn’t scared anymore.
Seventy-Nine
Lord Fortune
For once Lord Fortune’s advanced age worked in his favor. In the melee, neither side’s soldiers bothered with an old man. Through the clashing metal, through the stench of blood and sweat, Fortune slunk past the outskirts, through empty pockets of space.
He knew the red-haired man was heading for the vessel. Every now and then he caught a glimpse of him. He seemed to be trying to help his friends. Noble, but pointless if he should get killed.
Neither side seemed to understand the red-haired man's true importance. Hemsdell thought he could just smash his way into the vessel and take the weapons. Hurdroth may have had a better appreciation of situation. But Fortune saw he was lost in the bloodlust of battle at the moment. He could see the King slashing at Hemsdell's soldiers with wild abandon. Trying to cut away at the memory of his humiliation.
Yord had disappeared into the trees when the fighting began. Fortune hoped the forest people hadn't killed him. Dovd was behind him. His face was bloody and misshapen from the beating he had received at the woman's hands. Fortune had little faith in Dovd's fighting ability anymore. From what he could see across the battlefield, the red-haired man was holding his own.
Fortune's only hope was negotiation. Maybe the red-haired man would have the power to end this conflict as Amaya had so many years ago.
Then maybe the clash of metal on metal would stop. Maybe the scent of blood would not taint the air. Maybe winter’s snow would once again be white instead of stained with the lives of men.
The black vessel was close now. The strange vessel had struck Fortune as looking like some twisted bird of prey when he first saw it. Its angles and curves came together in a form that screamed danger. He did not judge its form to be evil, but he knew the creators of the vessel must have been fierce warriors.
With some of the pine trees around it chopped down, the vessel looked even more sinister. Fortune saw most of the soldiers guarding it had joined rapidly approaching battle.
It wouldn’t be long before Hurdroth’s and Hemsdell’s forces were fighting right at the vessel itself. Even Hurdroth’s terrible lightning weapon had not held Hemsdell’s forces back.
Of course the weapon was badly positioned and not very maneuverable. If it had been Fortune’s decision, he would have positioned the weapon closer to the ship where it could protect a smaller area.
Fortune stopped and looked back at the writhing mass of fighting men. The forest people were harassing both sides from the edges of the forest, to little effect. Queen Amaya’s treaty was shattered. But the Queen had not returned to punish them. Had the treaty always been an empty threat?
He looked back to the black vessel. It did not seem like an empty threat. It seemed to be waiting.
Blue lightning sizzled nearby. Fortune dropped to a crouch behind a boulder. It wasn't the big weapon. Something smaller and very close.
Men were screaming. The lightning sizzled out again and again.
Fortune peeked over the boulder. The red-haired man was charging through the writhing wall of soldiers. He had a weapon in his hand, bolts of blue lighting shooting from the end.
The stench of burning flesh came to him. Was this one of Amaya's weapons? He didn't remember anything like it from the earlier wars. It had to be something from the other group. The people the red-haired man was now leading to the vessel.
Fortune didn’t have time to wonder where they had come from. They were yet another group vying for control of Amaya’s legacy.
He stood and sprinted for the ship. There was a door near the back. It was the only entrance that he knew of. He had to beat the red-haired man there.
Suddenly snow swirled beside the vessel. It turned and turned, rising up into the sky like a whirlwind. The snow flew out from the whirlwind and the whirlwind turned red.
The air cracked like a thunderclap. For a moment all the fighting in the canyon stopped. All eyes turned to the whirlwind.
The red wind went away with a snap.
Standing on the now bare rock beside the vessel was a tall, broad-shouldered man and a smaller figure in a black cloak.
The small figure held a long, gleaming sword.
A blade familiar to Lord Fortune. His blood ran cold.
Sonomorte. The blade of Queen Amaya.
The black cloaked figure raised a hand and pulled the hood back.
A gasp went through the soldiers below.
It was a woman with blood red hair.
Eighty
Joshua
Joshua reined Damnit to a stop as the red whirlwind dissipated. The sudden silence of the battlefield made him think he’d gone deaf for a moment. Leaving only the stench blood and sweaty leather. He glanced back. Thousands of eyes were staring at the ship.
No, not at the ship. There was a man and a person in a black cloak standing on a rock next to the ship. The cloaked person was holding a wicked looking sword. The m
an was blinking, looking confused. The other person pulled the hood off.
It was a red-haired woman.
The soldiers gasped.
“Queen Amaya!”
The words were whispered over and over, spreading like a wave through the gathered men.
Joshua looked hard at the woman. She looked familiar, but she definitely wasn’t Grams.
“It’s the Captain!” Lou shouted.
At the sound of Lou’s voice, the man turned and a broad grin opened up on his face. “Lou!”
The crew of the Seattle ran for the man. Even Dr. Fran slid off the horse and ran for him. They crowded the man, hugging him, slapping his back.
Joshua noticed the soldiers were murmuring, getting restless now that the initial shock had worn off.
He saw someone pushing his way through the mass of soldiers toward the ship. Hurdroth. He spurred the horse forward, quickly closing the gap.
The red-haired woman was staring at him with wide eyes.
“I cannot believe it,” she said, “You never told me.”
Joshua slid off the horse. “We need to get in the ship,” he said, “These guys aren’t going to stay shocked and awed very long.”
He had a million questions, but no time to ask. Whoever these people were, they needed to move. Of course there was a very important question that couldn’t wait.
How the hell was he going to get in the ship?
“Joshua!”
At the far end of the ship, Kojanza was waving to him.
“Come on,” he said to the crew and the young woman.
“Stop them!” Hurdroth screamed, “Don’t let them into the vessel.”
The soldiers stirred. They seemed uncertain.
"Hurry!" the red-haired woman said, "We must get into the ship!"
“I think I already said that,” Joshua said.
Dozens of dark-skinned forest people came out of hiding, running up between them and the soldiers. They held bows, arrows nocked, pointing at the soldiers. Cray was one of them.
“Cray!” Vazsa called.
“Go!” Cray shouted, “You belong with them!”
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