It’s great, Yar thought, throwing a probe at the dome of the Palace of Capture. It flashed briefly and then seemed to evaporate. He scanned carefully over all the space leading to the castle.
Wow!
There were neither guards nor patrol detachments, only animals with neutral marks that sometimes slipped through the barrier.
Yar didn’t manage to penetrate through the protective barrier quickly, as well as to obtain detailed information on the dome. All Yar’s energy probes burned like thin straws that touched a blast furnace. The only thing he understood: the power of the Palace was much greater than that of his tower. The dome was solid in the form of a huge ball, and under the ground, it wasn’t different from the upper part.
What power! What are the sources? he wondered.
“Well,” Yar said softly. “Looks like I’ll have to take advantage of the Gap Spindle. Yar touched the ground, and it turned out to be suitable for his idea as it didn’t contain any small pebbles.”
Yar continued quietly thinking aloud, “It’s better to pierce this dome sixteen feet from the surface. The soil is not stony and doesn’t seem to be an obstacle, but it will be a good shelter from the bright light of the Spindle cutters.”
He looked around and found a suitable place for entering—it was thirty-two feet from him behind some thick hazel bushes. Yar and Blacky crawled to the shelter of the bush and stood up fully. Yar was surprised when he saw a lot of hazelnuts—the size of a good apricot—on the branches, and he was glad to have the chance to do anything he wanted behind this dense shrub. No one would notice him.
Before using the compound spell, Yar decided to look around again with an atomic scan, just in case. He immediately came across something unknown.
What’s that? Yar accidentally illuminated the place where Blacky and he had just been. He cursed. There, crossing the power circuit, was the widely smiling, multi-toothed Gelic, moving like a lizard toward them. His appearance was horrible, of course, but it was Yar’s homegrown horror.
“How could I? I began to forget what my faithful friend looks like,” Yar said, getting annoyed, hitting his chest with a fist.
“Shit! I’m not only shameless but also stupid. Of course… the defense of the Palace is aimed at people and, most likely, at our weapons. Come on, Blacky, try not to think—except about food, of course.”
Black Rainbow passed unnoticed and easily through the dome.
The smiling Gelic crawled closer and rebuilt into his usual form of a pseudo-person. After a short pause, Yar’s transparent friend reported in.
“Master, I have gained valuable information.”
At the same time, Yar received mental confirmation from Blacky.
Leader, I’ve passed through the dome. I don’t see anything disturbing.
Okay, Blacky, look at the walls, how are they? Try not to reveal yourself. Don’t fight, just watch.
Having finished communicating with the huge cat, Yar hugged his friend with words that were full of regret, “You know, Gelic, I’m sorry. I was so busy in the last few days that I completely lost sight of you. Moreover, you seem to have overdone it with the invisibility. I ask you from now to coordinate all your intelligence initiatives either with me or with Uyu Elsi. Got it?”
“Yes, Master! Gelic understands the Master very well,” the amorph replied, nodding.
Yar exhaled with relief. It seems he was not offended.
“Now, come on, buddy, tell me, what valuable information do you have?”
Gelic grinned widely.
Yar thought, It seems that my friend has one good feature: he is always happy with everything-
“Master, I’ll show you everything now,” the scouting amorph interrupted Yar’s thoughts.
Yar didn’t want to behave in this way, but his body reacted reflexively so that he jumped back a couple of yards with a noisy sigh. He was surprised he hadn’t turned gray by surprise when Gelic suddenly turned into a perfect copy of the elven Palace of Capture. Moreover, he spoke using the main entrance as his mouthpiece. Yar was in shock but not for long. The value of the image made it worthwhile.
Against this background, Yar thought, It’s clear that the amorph was developing his skills along with me in the Dark World, and he will clearly surprise me with his capabilities as we move forward.
Yar thoughtfully looked at his transformed friend, becoming more and more amazed. The jelly-like Gelic had depicted the palace down to the smallest detail. Yar gazed at the huge building—which seemed to rise to the very sky—and whispered,
“This is a striking similarity. Gelic can model palaces much better than I can manage.”
In addition to the impressive detailing, the presentation was interactive. If desired, Yar could count all those who were in the palace, and he could track all their movements. He saw the detachments of guards, plying on the walls, and the elven garrisons in the combat towers.
“Great!” Yar enthusiastically exclaimed as he continued to study Gelic’s creation.
The designation had been implemented traditionally: the enemies were highlighted in red, the allies were marked in green. There were a few incomprehensible characters in a pale red and several more in yellow. The whole colorful swarm moved in different directions, and it was fascinating to the eye. The number of green marks surprised Yar in that there were a lot of them, and they had another difference from all the others—they were static and located at equal distances from each other as if they were in a special formation.
Yar stared at these green figures, thinking, Who are you, those marked by emerald green? Most likely, they are prisoners.
His assumption was confirmed almost immediately. A red sign flashed before Yar’s eyes:
White Kinsley, 7 years old
Cleverness: Unicum
Specialization: Energy Manipulator
Condition: Depressed (Artificial sleep)
After inspecting several more captives, marked in green, Yar came to a disappointing conclusion: they were all highly gifted children, who were to be sent to other planets as a valuable commodity.
Having received new information, Yar decided to change his plans.
He quickly switched to a tactical map and transferred the Shadows top commanders and Ran Row through the portal. He was more than a little worried about the dwarf’s attitude because Ran might not like such an impolite transfer. However, everyone showed composure and silently surrounded Gelic as he took the form of a castle. Yar squinted at the gloomy, battle-ready dwarf, impatiently clutching his hammer.
Yar quickly explained to his companions, pointing to the gel copy of the castle, “This is Gelic. As you see, he has obtained a new, valuable ability.”
Uyu looked on with genuine interest, noting, “With your permission, Master, I find this ability phenomenal and very useful for the clan. I ask that your friend be the Head of the Information Gathering department in my reconnaissance detachment.”
“Yeah, I don’t mind that at all. It seems this post suits Gelic perfectly—if, of course, he agrees.”
“I agree,” the happy amorph gurgled. “It’s an honor for me to be useful to the whole clan.”
Yar nodded and continued, “Well, we can settle everything at another time. The current circumstances are rather complicated, and the old plan has fallen into oblivion.” Yar’s comment immediately confused all those who had arrived.
He pointed to the green tags, explaining, “These are children. Very talented children from all over the world. We don’t know how many of them the elves have already taken from our planet. But we must assume that it is a lot. Ten years from now this fact will greatly strengthen the White Branch clan. Therefore, we can’t just destroy all those present in the palace. The priority of our operation is changing. First of all, we must return all of these gifted children to Earth. Therefore, all the highest light elves should be captured, rather than killed outright. This, of course, doesn’t apply to the Governor and the Chief Magician—their verdict is final and
not subject to revision. Next, we follow the plan.”
“It’ll be done, Master,” the commander assured in a low voice.
“Would you allow me to speak, Master?” Uyu said, smiling kindly. “We have a small but fair addition.”
She looked at her friends — Mist and Geir. The beautiful elf-girls also smiled charmingly.
“Of course, Uyu, speak.” Yar nodded and smiled, too.
Uyu continued, “Master Gelic, can you tell me how many fighting elves are present in the Palace?”
The amorph shuddered at such respectful treatment. “A few more than eleven thousand, Commander Uyu.”
The dark elf nodded respectfully before continuing. Her unquenchable, millennial thirst for justice, forged by terrible sufferings in the Dark World, was felt in her peremptory voice.
“We propose to cut down all the elves in the castle, without exception. They’re having a ball there while thousands of children are languishing in a painful dream. Let them fall from the heights and know what death is.”
“Death!” all the Shadows repeated.
The angry yet inexplicably beautiful Uyu continued in the same tone, mirroring a Valkyrie, “We’ll keep killing these obstinate bastards as long as we need to. We will stand with our swords until these parasitic butterflies accept their new reality. There are eleven thousand creatures who consider themselves to be gods. We are a little more than three thousand outcasts. They have a head start. So, everything is fair, and they have all the chances.”
Yar’s chest went cold. Oh, light elves, what a formidable enemy you have cultivated with the help of hatred, greed, and pride! You will pay for all the suffering you have caused.
Ran Row puffed up his chest, barely holding back, and seemed to look at Uyu in a special way, something akin to paternal love, as he added in his quietest and hoarsest voice, “That’s right. Well done, Uyu. I support your position. We must conduct a sobering execution of the light elves. It will be great to rob them so, and only then, I think, will it be possible to negotiate the exchange of the prisoners.”
“Master, please allow me to speak,” one of the centurions said as he raised his hand.
“Sure, Ava.” Yar nodded and routinely looked at the elf’s hand, noting that the restored power nodes worked as expected.
Ava continued, “It will be difficult for us to rob them.”
The centurion explained confidently and competently, “Most of the higher nobility used to withdraw their funds in the structures not subjected to the Intergalactic Magic Matrix system for many years. I don’t think it is likely that that has changed now. The light elves have been violating the rules for a long time—hence the rejection of the oaths fixed by the System. They also have abolished Guardians. There are only servants now.”
Yar finally figured it out!
Yes! For sure! This is another reason why the System helps us gradually — the violation of the rules of the game by the elves, he thought.
“We will punish them. You can be sure of that,” the dwarf rumbled more loudly. “Yar, as always, will come up with something for them. Right, Bro?”
Yar sighed somberly.
“You have already figured out how to do this, Bro?” he responded, putting his finger to his lips as he did so, making it clear to the dwarf that he needed to speak more quietly. “Let’s work as we agreed: beat, cut, and then rob.”
The dwarf waved his hammer and smiled. “Stop talking! I can’t wait to hurt a pretty elf with this hammer with all my might.”
Yar felt cold again as Gelic distracted him. His thin hand emerged from the layout and pointed somewhere toward the bottom.
“Master, this is the first goal of our quest. The second is the reactor.”
The hand then indicated exactly where it was. The amorph, apparently for clarity, additionally highlighted two dots with white marks—and the room where it seemed the energy heart of the Palace of Capture was beating.
Yar looked at them. Gelic is right. They are the elves I need.
The two white marks were located deep in the dungeon of the Palace. It was the Princess and her Mentor.
I didn’t pay any attention to them in this flickering swarm of marks, Yar thought.
“Thank you, Gelic. Well done! Follow me!” Yar applied a collective cure spell and turned into a dragon.
Having made one jump and hovered in the air for a few seconds, without flying up above the creeping fog, Yar flew through the power shield, without feeling anything. Then they walked with a certain cautiousness: the amorph was walking a hundred yards ahead. Gelic turned out to be a magnificent intelligence agent. Yar followed him, scanning the space, just in case. Finally, they reached their goal. Yar stood for a while and touched the fortress.
“Here you are, this nest of light fiends. It all started from here,” Yar whispered, passing his hand along the monolith of the wall of the Palace.
Chapter 25. Release from Captivity
I t’s bad, Goh thought coming to his senses. He didn’t feel his right hand at all. The wizard increased his heart rate and almost immediately felt pain, but there was no severe blood loss, so he gingerly smiled.
Goh listened. Most likely, it was the casemates, and there was no one around except his ward, Heiro. He felt her breathing from the very beginning.
She’s sleeping like she is at home. This is good, Goh the Gray Raven thought, opening his eyes. His reality was about the same as he had expected. The wizard tried to reach his source — but failed.
Collar , he understood. Bastards! They’ve completely lost their honor.
Goh tried to twitch a couple of times but to no avail, only the pain intensified. Well, that’s OK .
“Mentor! Mentor! Glory to the gods, you came to your senses,” the awakened Princess cried out.
“Heiro, don’t make noise in such places. It looks like you have something to say to me?”
The Princess seemed to falter.
“Well ... how did you know that?” she answered with a question of her own.
Her Mentor exhaled with sadness. “It looks like I’m right. I understood it due to your breathing, Heiro.”
He didn’t have time to complete his sentence. There was a subtle, high-frequency sound.
“Heiro, can you hear that?” The Mentor managed to ask before the monolithic stone wall seemed to move apart, passing through something frantically rotating and just as fiercely luminous that filled almost the entire space. Goh clearly heard a slap; the strange object fell apart and smelled sharply of fresh, cool air.
The wizard recognized Yar Dark at once, despite the fact that the guy had noticeably matured. Goh the Gray Raven was considered one of the best graduates of the Altarum School, but he was surprised at not being able to count a large number of healing spells affecting him.
“Phew,” the wizard exhaled, he hadn’t felt so well for a long time.
They were healing spells formed in blocks and instantaneously implemented. Well, that’s great. Goh admired the spells mentally, studying his state with interest.
“Hi,” he heard a voice say. “Were you nailed to the tables or what?”
***
He had chosen the right direction unmistakably, but he had to tinker with a clear hit. The prison cell turned out to be too narrow for the Gap Spindle spell, so Yar had had to go around it almost in a circle to prevent the System from hitting high-born prisoners. Therefore, the Spindle flashed several cameras with other prisoners, and only after another turn did it arrive exactly where he was aiming.
I hope the neighboring prisoners won’t make any noise, Yar thought with dismay, dispelling the spell. I’m lucky it seems, he added.
The prisoners in the neighboring cells were smart and seemed to have decided to keep quiet because Yar didn’t hear any shouts or noise. I can safely deal with the case.
Heck! Yar continued. Glory the system. It’s a good job that I’m a little adapted to elven beauty and sexuality. Otherwise, I would be standing with shaking legs and an
incomprehensible aching feeling in my chest right now.
He wanted to scratch his head. Obviously, something had gone wrong. He didn’t need to be a psychologist to understand that his appearance somehow had excited both captives thoroughly. Well, Yar wanted to cheer them up.
“Hi! Were you nailed to the tables or what?” Yar said with mocking gaiety. The Princess was laying crucified, like a rare butterfly, pinned with golden pins. In this case, they were staples driven into a wooden couch. Heiro had three staples on each finger.
“Wow, this is liritii.” Yar confirmed his hunch.
“Greetings to you, Yar Dark. I’m Goh the Gray Raven. I wish to introduce you to my student. Her Highness, Crown Princess Heiro Kamir the Sun-Scorched,” the wizard wheezed as if on his last gasp of air. “Thank you for the cure.”
“Please don’t listen to this secular rubbish. I’m Heiro,” the Princess almost screamed.
Yar waved his hands soothingly. “Okay, I will try,” he agreed. “Call me Yar. Gelic, please free the captives from these pieces of iron,” he asked his friend.”
Five minutes later, they were free.
“Thank you, Yar, for our salvation. The dark throne won’t forget it,” Heiro, the goddess of beauty and seduction, said in a meaningful voice as she hugged her Mentor with ardor. They both froze beside Yar, smiling stiffly, glancing at Blacky with a mix of fear and admiration. She was lying quietly against the wall and waving her tail slightly.
Meanwhile, Yar contacted the Shadows, notifying them that the first part of the plan had been completed successfully. While he was talking to Uyu and her brother, Goh the Gray Raven was the first to come to talk.
“Yar, can you introduce us to your friends?”
Yar nodded.
“Get acquainted. This is Gelic. He is an amorph and a magnificent scout. This is Black Rainbow—the strongest scrad of the Dark World. They are two of my closest military allies and are both members of the Midnighters Clan.”
Yar was sure this information would astonish both ex-prisoners of the dark elves.
Heiro tilted her head awkwardly, touching the hated collar, and Yar immediately reacted, “Sorry for my tactlessness. I forgot to remove your collars.”
Dark Legacy Page 13
