Winds of War

by Dennis Morrow

  “We’ve tried everything,” Steve said. “All the curses and all the spells. Nothing works. I think we may have met our match.”

  “Maybe T-Bone will have an idea when he wakes up,” Matt said.

  “Yeah, if he wakes up,” Steve said in his usual sarcastic way.

  “I think we need to turn in for the night,” Matt said. “Maybe we can think of something after we’ve gotten some sleep.”

  They all agreed.

  Chapter 41

  Small Red Vial

  As dawn broke on the third day of the battle, the mother ships moved inland from the coast. The Oar-7s and ground troops moved under their protection, leveling all structures and killing all people in their path.

  “They’re showing no mercy,” Colonel Smith said to General Wisecoff. “We have to get the shield down or the entire West Coast is lost.”

  “How is Starritt’s work coming along?” General Wisecoff asked. “Is he any closer to finding a solution?”

  “He’s close, General,” Colonel Smith said. “He’s close.”

  The door to the control room swung open, and Captain Starritt rushed in. “I have it,” he announced. “I have the algorithm. We can upload it right now.”

  General Wisecoff became animated. “Upload it now, Captain. Call all forces. The shields are coming down.”

  Captain Starritt sat down at a computer station and plugged in his flash drive. His fingers raced across the keys. He looked at the general. The general nodded, and Starritt pressed the Enter key. They watched the monitors. After fifteen seconds, the shields began falling.

  Cheers went up in the control room and across every military facility.

  “We’re back in business. Hit ’em hard and fast,” came the order across all branches of the military.

  ~~~

  The Alliance continued to pull everything out of their knapsacks. The sheer volume of trinkets and other things was astounding. They worked all morning, trying each item, logical or not. They started trying the same ones over again.

  Finally, Steve pointed to Jesse’s belt. “I can’t believe we haven’t tried your dagger, Jesse.”

  “I must be an idiot,” she said. “I’ve been looking everyplace but right here.”

  Steve poked Jeremy in the arm. “So much for the intellectual giant.”

  Shaking her head, Jesse pulled out the dagger. “I guess it was too close to see. Now that I think about it, this dagger has its own powers. When it was in Gregory’s chest, it preserved him. No one commanded it to do that. When I faced Torron during our first trek, I didn’t command the dagger to shoot lightning and fire at her. It did it on its own.” She held up the dagger. “I remember what Gregory said just before I took the dagger from his chest. I asked, ‘Can it be used like a magic wand?’ He said, ‘Yes, but it must be used wisely. All you need to do is point it or throw it and think or say the spell, and it will be. You must be very, very careful. Once you learn how to use it, it can become an ultimate power. Thus, this ultimate power can lead to corruption. Use it sparingly. It is a dangerous, two-edged sword. Use it only when there is no other way.’ Maybe this is the answer.”

  “You remember that word for word?” Jeremy asked.

  “Yeah, why?” Jesse asked.

  Jeremy smiled.

  “Yeah, so much for brain power,” Steve said impatiently. “If it works, we’ve wasted valuable time. Try the dagger.”

  She took the dagger and slid it under the black rope. It didn’t cut the rope.

  “Maybe it’s not supposed to cut it,” Jeremy said. “Maybe you should use it like a wand and command it.”

  “We can’t command it,” Jesse said. “Remember? We have no magic. We’ve been trying commands on all the other trinkets, but remember what Hagred said. Once the cords are around our waist, we cannot perform any magic. Who should I try it on?”

  “Try it on me,” Matt said. “What are you going to do if you can’t command it?”

  “Simple,” Jesse said. “I’ll point it and see if it knows what to do on its own.” She pointed the wand at Matt’s ropes.

  They waited, but nothing happened. As Jesse was about to give up, a small red spark jumped from the tip of the dagger, then a yellow spark, then a blue spark. The sparks began flowing from the tip—red, yellow, blue—and became bright, shimmering ribbons of light surrounding Matt. When they stopped, the black rope around Matt’s waist had turned back to the braided red, yellow, and blue rope.

  The streaming ribbons continued. They encircled the other three until all the black ropes had turned back to their original red, yellow, and blue. Then, without warning, the four individual ropes unwrapped themselves from around the waists of the Alliance and became one rope. It coiled itself up into Jesse’s hand. She put the cord into her knapsack.

  Slipping the Dagger of Valdar under her belt, she said, “I’m keeping this where I can get to it in a hurry.”

  Steve used his super strength to tear open the cages.

  ~~~

  “Our shields went down again, Smalik (T-Bone),” Torron said as she pointed to the monitors in the room. “We’re giving them a good fight, and we outnumber them. We’ll win because of sheer numbers.”

  Smalik (T-Bone) was looking at several monitors showing the battles around the mother ships. “A mother ship is falling.”

  “They’re expendable,” Torron said. “Once the shields were compromised, they had no real purpose any longer. Let them fall and destroy more of the cities below them. You can see from the monitors, the green area in each city is held by the earthlings, and the red is held by my army. You can see that we’re having a lot of success on the ground. Follow me.” Torron walked out of the control room to her private quarters. “You were supposed to bring Hagred and Margot to me. Instead, you brought Mr. Hill (Smalik). Why?” Torron was livid.

  “In my search for Hagred and Margot, I ran into T-Bone, Mr. Hill to you. It’s a pretty good chance he would have a connection with the Alliance. I thought I would bring him here and then go back out and continue my search for Hagred and Margot,” Smalik (T-Bone) said.

  “They were already here,” Torron said, looking at Smalik (T-Bone) carefully to see his reaction.

  “Here? When?” Smalik (T-Bone) asked.

  There was an explosion in the control room. The queen pushed Smalik (T-Bone) ahead of her as they went to her control room.

  Steve had the Wand of Wongate in his hand, Matt had the wand of Cetrekap, Jesse had the Dagger of Valdar in her left hand, Jeremy held the ax of Norrid in his right hand and the Shield of Innocence in his left. Jack had the Torron army weapon at the ready.

  The main door had been blown off its hinges as the Alliance entered. Steve used the Wand of Wongate to hit the Mega-Crystal. The images of the battles raging on the West Coast vanished as the ball cracked in several places. The cracks continued to grow until the ball burst into a thousand pieces, and the liquid inside the ball exploded into the air. The Alliance ducked as the liquid headed in their direction, but to their surprise, the liquid evaporated before it hit them. The cloud of vapor, initially white, turned yellow before dissipating.

  Jeremy was busy throwing the Ax of Norrid, killing the soldiers in the room. Quick and efficient, the ax would hit its target and would return to his hand.

  Jesse used the Dagger of Valdar to destroy all the monitors in the room. In a matter of seconds, the room was destroyed and cleared of any opposing enemy.

  The door to Torron’s quarters opened, and Torron pushed Smalik (T-Bone) into the room ahead of her. Surprisingly calm, she walked straight to her throne and sat down. “You are either very brave or very stupid. Either way, you will die today.”

  “Either way, you can’t get the Symbols we have,” Matt said, stepping out in front of the others. “You lost this battle before it started.”

  Torron smiled. “You still have no clue who you’re dealing with, do you? I have powers given to me by Zolog, the ultimate ruler of the universe.”

&nb
sp; “You and Zolog are evil,” Jesse said. “Your goal is to enslave the creatures of the universe, to use and abuse them.”

  “You’ve seen the creatures on Gandoral,” Torron said. “There are no contentions there. No issues.”

  “There are no contentions and no issues because anyone who complains is killed,” Steve said. “You use ethnic cleansing to rid the population of any dissenters, like you’re doing right now to the Imphogs.”

  Matt, Jesse, and Jeremy looked surprised at the revelation.

  “Acting against the treaty you made with them, you’ve destroyed the Celestor and are currently rounding up all the Imphogs to execute them,” Steve said. “Are the Rocpeans next?”

  “How would you know that? Who told you that?” Torron became suspicious.

  “No one,” Steve said. “I saw it myself. Your lies and deceits are only surpassed by your treachery. You are evil and can never be trusted, even when you make treaties that you say Zolog has authorized. You can’t help yourself. You’re a pathological liar.”

  “Well, I am who I am. I put my goals and Zolog’s goals ahead of all else. First, I’ll get a major foothold on Earth, and then I’ll return to Gandoral to cleanse that planet of any dissenters.” Torron stood up and pointed a wand at the Alliance. “I will rule over two perfect civilizations. Before I kill you, I have something to show you.”

  As she raised the tip of her wand, the brilliant green moon Symbol around Matt’s neck began to rise up. It continued to rise until it eventually came off of Matt, it didn’t turn white but stayed green.

  Matt snatched it out of the air and put the chain back around his neck.

  “You see . . . I can get the Symbols. You are not invincible. You die now.” Torron pointed the wand, and a barrage of lightning, laser light, and fire shot across the room at the Alliance.

  Jeremy jumped in front of Matt and held up the Shield of Innocence. A force field spread across the room, with Jack and the Alliance behind the shield. The shield deflected the oncoming attack and splintered in all directions. One of the deflected splinters from the blast hit Smalik (T-Bone). He lay motionless on the floor, with smoke rising from his clothing.

  Once Torron realized she was facing the Shield of Innocence, she twisted her wrist to the right, and the blast turned into a concentrated cobalt-blue laser beam. The concentrated energy began to affect the barrier put up by the shield.

  Jeremy looked over his shoulder. “The force field won’t hold much longer. Are you ready? We attack on three. One, two, three.”

  The force field came down at the same time that Torron twisted her wrist back to the left and brought the full force of the attack back on to the Alliance. The Alliance shot back. Jeremy threw the Ax of Norrid. Torron put up her left hand, stopping the ax, and the ax returned to Jeremy’s hand.

  Torron was fully engaged with Jesse, Matt, and Steve. The fire, lasers, and lightning from Torron’s wand were met with the lightning from the Wand of Cetrekap, the Wand of Wongate, and the Dagger of Valdar. The two forces pushed back and forth, seemingly equal. However, Torron’s power began pushing the collision point of the two forces closer and closer to the Alliance.

  Jeremy went unnoticed by Torron as he stepped aside and began building a huge ice wall behind the queen. Once the wall was complete, Steve flew behind it and pushed it over, crushing the throne and landing on top of Torron.

  The Alliance started celebrating, but it was too early to celebrate. From under the heavy ice wall, a blue glow began to grow until it made the entire wall shimmer in a blue hue. Water began to run from underneath the wall, and then a hole broke through and Torron rose into the air above the Alliance.

  “Now you’ve made me mad,” she said. “Are you so naive that you think dropping a wall of ice on me would somehow kill me or get rid of me? You are mistaken. I’ve lost my patience. Let’s get this over with.”

  She pointed her wand again, but this time, a flow of energy ten times that of the first energy flow came streaming out of the tip. The Alliance was sorely overpowered. While Steve, Matt, and Jesse used their powers, Jeremy rained lightning down from above. Surprised when the attack came from above, Torron used her right hand with the wand and raised her left to protect herself. While dealing with both, she sank back down to the floor. Even with the addition of the lightning from Jeremy, she was still winning the battle. She was getting closer and closer to the Alliance.

  Smalik (T-Bone) stirred and sat up against the wall. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and clarify in his mind what was happening. Then he jumped to his feet. No one noticed him. He pulled a small red vial from his pocket and walked closer to Torron. She glanced at him but ignored him as she continued to push on the Alliance. He threw the vile hard at the queen’s feet. The vile exploded with a blast so great, it knocked Smalik (T-Bone) and the Alliance to the ground.

  The powers of both the Alliance and the queen stopped. The explosion had created a thick red smoke cloud around the queen. The smoke cloud didn’t move like a normal cloud.

  Jeremy got up and walked to the cloud and touched it. “It’s like a balloon,” he said as he pushed on the surface. He turned to Smalik (T-Bone). “I don’t understand. First, why did you turn against your own queen, and second, is she dead?”

  Chapter 42

  Red Balloon?

  While Steve and Matt held their wands pointed at Smalik (T-Bone), Jesse rushed to Jack’s side. He had been injured during the battle with Torron and was bleeding badly.

  Not Jack, not Jack, Jesse thought. He’s been so helpful and has become a good friend. Not Jack. He’s dying. His heart is going so slow, it’s hard to believe any blood is getting to his brain. She pulled him into her lap and concentrated. Please God, help me with this . . . I can’t let him go.

  “I’ll ask again,” Matt said insistently. “Why did you turn against Torron?”

  “I’m not Smalik,” he said, a smile crossing his lips. “I’m T-Bone. I traded places with him to get close to Torron. She’s not dead. Her capability to create curses and spells and to command her wand is severely limited, but not totally gone, so she can still be a menace.”

  “How do we know you really are T-Bone and not Smalik?” Steve asked, then looked over at Matt.

  “Smalik would never cross Torron,” Matt said. “Never, ever.”

  Jesse was sobbing. “Matt, I’m losing him.”

  Matt motioned for Steve and Jeremy to join with him. The three sat down next to Jesse and put their hands on Jesse’s shoulders. Energy from all four began flowing into Jack until his heart rate and breathing returned to normal.

  Jesse looked at the others with tears rolling down her face. “It’s working.” She squeezed out a little smile from underneath the tears.

  Jack regained consciousness and sat up.

  “We almost lost you, Jack,” Jesse said.

  “We’re glad to have you back,” Matt said, and the others agreed.

  “What do we do with Torron?” Jeremy asked, moving on.

  “We should kill her here and now,” Steve said. “Before she can do any more damage.”

  “You really haven’t figured this out, have you?” Smalik (T-Bone) said. “You can defeat the queen, but you cannot kill her.”

  “I don’t remember hearing that rule,” Steve said. “The rules change all the time. When did this rule take effect?”

  “When we were originally being instructed by the first Alliance, I asked how we defeat Torron,” Jesse said. “Oar said, and I quote, ‘Good question. You must first retrieve all four Symbols. You will be battling Torron during each trek. You must hone and perfect all of your new skills. Depending on your strength and skill level, the final battle will either be fought in the Underworld or in the human world. The place for the battle will be determined by your abilities. If you are strong, the battle will take place in the Underworld. If you are weak, it will be fought here, in the world you know and live in. Because you were weak when you entered this Safe Haven, Torron was able
to break into this world and wage war against you here. When you finally get all four Symbols, and if you are strong enough, you will be able to drive her advancing army into the Underworld, and the final battle will be waged there. This would be the best situation. If you are not strong enough to keep the battle in the Underworld, it will continue in the human world, and a worldwide conflict between good and evil will ensue. In either case, you must push the battle back into the Underworld. Once there, you must push Torron and her wicked army back through the Gates of Horgon. These gates must be closed, locked, and sealed with the four Symbols. Once the Symbols are in place on the gates, Torron, her army, and Zolog himself will be locked up behind them forever. Then man will be free to make his own choices between good or evil.’”

  “Okay, you say that was word for word,” Steve said sarcastically.

  “Yes, word for word,” Jesse said.

  “They never told us we couldn’t kill Torron,” Steve said. “They always leave out some small detail. Why?”

  “Well, they did tell us how to defeat her,” Matt said. “We need to move forward. What should we do next? Torron is in this balloon. Should we cut her out?”

  “No, we want Torron’s high priest to cut her out. Smalik will believe she’s dying and order the Torron troops back to Gandoral,” Smalik (T-Bone) said. “I’ll get us out of here. This little trick, the switch of identities, could be wearing off at any minute. Let’s go.”

  Smalik (T-Bone) led the way. As the various guards started to approach, he merely waved them aside, and they let the Alliance, Jack, and Smalik (T-Bone) walk right out of the dome.

  ~~~

  T-Bone (Smalik) began to stir. He groaned and sat up. He looked around, dazed.

  A guard nearby poked a rod through the cage and hit T-Bone (Smalik) hard on the head.

  Surprising the guard, T-Bone (Smalik) grabbed the rod and pulled the guard to the cage. “Why do you have me locked up here?” he asked.

  “Her Majesty ordered you to be locked up in the cage, Mr. Hill,” the guard said sheepishly.