by P. R. Adams
A light flashed at the northern end of the raised platform, and a high-pitched scream shattered the quiet.
Meriscoya stepped out of the glow, one hand wrapped around a length of chain, the other grasping his staff. The chain stretched back into the light, hanging in the air, attached to…nothing.
He pulled.
And then the scream came again, and a human form staggered from the glow as well.
Pulled by the chain.
Javika connected to Riyun. “I see the wizard.”
Riyun searched for the Biwali warrior but still couldn’t find her. “Hold position. I see him, too.”
“I can make a run at him.”
“Hold position. Silver is moving her team to the cave entry.”
“He has a prisoner. A woman.”
The winged form circled above the platform now. It was too small and fast for a clean shot from Riyun’s position. “Are there chains on that pillar?”
“Yes. Hooks and manacles.”
The skeletons. The dark arts. “She’s a sacrifice. She must mean something to him.”
“Not much. He chains her now to the pillar.”
The chained woman screamed again. She sounded terrified, as if she could see the circling thing, or perhaps she’d seen a previous sacrifice.
A sudden urge hit Riyun: He needed to charge the platform and strike the wizard down. It would be suicide. It would compromise the mission and put his team at risk. “What’s going on now?”
“The wizard speaks some strange language to the thing in the air.”
“Can I risk moving closer?”
“He is distracted, not deaf.”
“And I’m not that noisy. See if you can connect to Eagle and Tank.” Riyun pushed up and slowly made his way through the ruins, trying to remember the path Javika had followed.
“Why do you advance? It is easy for me to kill him.”
“See if you can connect to Eagle.”
Javika disconnected.
Her path barely showed on infrared, a function of her armor and boots. It was enough for him to get to her position, and to get a better look at what was going on between Meriscoya and the winged thing. They seemed to be communicating, just as Javika had said. The chained woman—dressed in tattered robes—turned her attention from the wizard to the creature.
She could see it with her eyes, unassisted.
A rival wizard? A student?
Javika connected. “I have reached Eagle.” She connected the sergeant.
There was still a faint hiss, but Hirvok’s voice came through. “Hey! I gave up on you guys.”
Riyun caught the edge in the sergeant’s voice. “The same interference as—”
“Yeah, yeah. I already got the scoop. Look, Whisper says Meriscoya’s down there, but I don’t see him.”
Magic. Riyun tried to tag the wizard in the tac-net, but he didn’t show up. The flying thing did, so Riyun tagged it. “Are you seeing this? The thing I tagged?”
“Sort of. It’s a speck of dark blue.”
“That’s all you need to see. It’s…like a human, but then it’s not.”
“Nice. No regrets blowing the shit out of that.”
“No regrets killing anything helping Meriscoya.”
Hirvok snickered. “His head would be a red mist if I could see him.”
“Let’s focus on what we can see.”
“You think a fragmenting round might work?”
“Maybe an explosive round.”
“Loading one now.”
Javika shook her head. “All that matters is killing the wizard.”
It was a hard position to argue against, and Riyun felt like an idiot for not opening fire right then. But his instincts said that the other team needed time, and the odds of taking the wizard out just seemed too slim. “Eagle can’t see him.”
“I will finish him.”
“Wait for my signal, then we—”
The strange glow appeared again, and Meriscoya strolled toward it. The flying thing landed on top of the pillar and began to crawl down toward the woman on disproportionately long hands while its strange, spindly legs hooked alien feet to the marble above.
Javika raised up on her haunches and drew her sword. “He escapes!”
Riyun drew his knife. “Wait! Leave him!”
She padded from cover. “I told you, I will kill–”
But the glow flashed brilliantly, and the wizard was gone.
Their opportunity was lost. Riyun was frozen between relief and fury.
Then the chained woman screamed again and the inhuman thing leapt onto her.
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Riyun was committed. Two steps out of cover, with an innocent victim about to be slaughtered by some terrifying monstrosity, and with Meriscoya gone for the moment and Javika frozen in place…
What else was there to do?
So Riyun sprinted up the marble steps in the paltry moonlight, boots slapping against the slippery stone when he jumped to the top of the raised platform. “Take the shot, Eagle!”
“I shoot, and she’s dead. Switching to standard.”
Explosive round. That had been Riyun’s call. He bolted across the platform, blade raised, a growl bubbling up from deep inside.
The thing’s head came up, and it pulled its wicked claws free from the woman’s hair. It must have heard Riyun’s growl despite his helmet, because it emitted a distorted roar that was far deeper than something so small should have been able to manage.
It launched from the sacrifice’s head, wings flapping and spindly arms flailing.
Not much bigger than an infant. Four arms. Wings.
And it hit like a sack of bricks.
Riyun doubled over, all breath knocked from him, and an improbable weight pressed against him through his chest piece.
Claws raked across the gold Juggernaut armor Riyun had once thought impervious. Now, the claws squealed as they dug into the surface. All while thick globs of gelatinous spittle dribbled from the horrific creature’s misshapen, tooth-filled mouth.
When Riyun tried to punch the horror, it deftly dodged aside. When he tried to grab his knife from the stone, the otherworldly terror leapt atop the weapon.
Its glare felt like a laser boring through Riyun’s helmet.
A foul smell filled his nose: Something disgusting was cooking—his brain!
He howled, and the pathetic sound filled his helmet.
But he was aware enough to see the thing twist around…
Too slow to avoid Javika’s sword stroke.
The winged abomination tumbled away, making a sound that was part gurgle and part chuckle. It flapped its wings and flipped back to its feet.
Then Hirvok’s rifle thundered, and the thing’s head exploded.
The sergeant whooped. “Clean kill!”
Javika skipped over to the corpse and hacked through its narrow waist, then kicked the torso off the platform. She spun around on Riyun, favoring the leg she’d kicked with. “Now the wizard knows we are here.”
Riyun rolled onto his side, retrieved his knife, and hurried to the pillar where the chained woman stared in disbelief. He sheathed the blade and pulled off his helmet. “I know you can’t understand—”
The woman shook her head. “Six Saviors! You came to rescue me?”
He froze. Was she…? No. There was no resemblance to the images of Zabila, and this woman was older. “You’re an Outworlder?”
“Kilani Dohlar.”
“Riyun Molliro. Are you a wizard?”
“A designer. Didn’t Uzir tell you? Oh, Hollow Hills! He exiled you here, didn’t he?”
“Exiled isn’t quite…” Riyun waved Javika over. “Lift her up.”
The Biwali warrior wrapped her arms around the other woman’s hips and lifted her off the platform high enough for him to free her chains from the hook embedded in the column above her head.
“That lying—” The freed woman held up her wrists. Dark, wavy hair framed a forgettable,
round face twisted by impatience. “Can you get me out of these manacles?”
“Not right now. That looks like some pretty good steel.”
“You can’t leave me like this.” She rattled the chains. “He’ll just come for me again!”
“No, he won’t. We came to kill him.”
“Kill—?” The woman hooked long strands of hair behind a big, protruding ear. “Meriscoya? Do you have any idea what you’re going up against? The main design team—”
“The boss fight.”
The rescued woman snorted. “Not a boss fight, no. This guy, he’s figured it all out.”
“The wizard?”
“Yeah. But he’s more than that now. He’s seen all the story development, all the code, everything that went into creating this world and the others.”
That sounded worse than Riyun had expected, and the way Javika squared her shoulders said she also hadn’t quite expected to hear that Meriscoya was… What? “What does that mean? He knows all the code and all the story. Did that just drive him mad?”
“I think it opened his eyes. He understood that his whole life was a construct, a lie.”
“Does he know he’s a clone of Beraga?”
The woman rocked back, piercing eyes wide. “How did you—?”
Meriscoya knew. “Well, Kilani, I’m really sorry that he’s figured out everything he thought was true was a lie. That’s a tough realization to deal with. But he’s tried to kill us one time too many, so we intend to return the favor.”
“With that?” Kilani pointed to Riyun’s assault carbine. “You know how many times Uzir’s people have tried that?”
“No, but it sounds like a few. They weren’t my team.”
“Well, thanks for saving me. Really.” The woman looked around. “How did you get down here? I tried escaping once, but he has everything blocked off.”
Riyun pointed to approximately where the cables were from the bottom of the west wall. “We climbed –”
“Ropes? Seriously? Whatever. I’ll take it.” She bunched the chains in her hands and darted to the southern end of the platform. “Good luck with the assassination!”
Javika pressed the palm of her hand against his chest when he took a step after the freed woman. “The wizard.”
Riyun scanned the sky, then the ruins. Why hadn’t Meriscoya shown up yet? “She might—”
“Leave him to me. You help with the dragons.” She wasn’t making a suggestion.
“All right. Once we have them pinned in the caverns, I’ll join you.”
Javika sprinted to the north end of the platform and jumped to the ground, no longer favoring her foot. She was lost from sight in seconds.
Riyun connected to Hirvok. “Cover Whisper as long as you can.”
After a momentary burst of static, the connection broke, then Hirvok reconnected. “Got her.”
Riyun hurried toward the lake, trying not to breathe too deep. His ribs ached where the winged terror had crashed into him. When he spotted Fassyl crouched a short distance from the north tip of the lake, Riyun jogged over.
The fat wizard turned around, eyes bugged out. “That noise!”
“Necessary. We need to get up to the cavern entrance.”
“But he knows now. Meriscoya will have heard that.”
“And if he shows up again, he’ll hear that roar one last time.”
It was a struggle getting, then keeping, the old man moving. He wheezed and gasped and stumbled long before they reached Symbra’s team. He used the artifact to keep himself upright. “We’ll never reach them—”
“Hurry!”
But the old wizard was right. On infrared, Riyun could see the others. They were sprinting away from the cavern opening, and something big was lumbering through the dark entry.
He shoved Fassyl to the ground. “Stay down.”
A large dragon–not quite so big as the wounded ancient—came to a stop halfway out of the entry and craned its neck to search the night.
Had they managed to get the explosives planted?
Riyun brought his Devastator up. He had to assume they’d done something.
He fired. It was a short burst—on target, grouped around the reptile’s forehead.
And apparently, he hit.
The thing pulled back into the cavern slightly and shook its head the way a human might when bugs stung. It opened its mouth, ready to roar its displeasure.
But an explosion tore off its wings where they pressed against the ground.
Blood spurted from the wounds, then the thrumming cycle of Lonar’s assault cannon preceded another burst of blood from the creature’s chest, and it retreated out of sight.
More dragons rushed toward the entry, these smaller and quicker.
And vulnerable to small arms fire.
Symbra connected to the team. “Light them up!”
Riyun joined his carbine to the wondrous thunder of weapons fire.
The dragons crumpled to the ground with surprising ease. But they kept coming. Six of them. Ten. Twenty.
He emptied two magazines into the reptiles before they stopped.
Silence replaced the cacophony of weapons fire.
Fassyl blinked rapidly. “You…killed them.”
“The little ones. Those are easy. But the big one…”
“I can deal with that.” The wizard got to his knees, then to his feet, then waddled toward the opening. He held the artifact over his head. Brilliant, diamond-pure magical energies coiled around the staff, lighting the portly old man like a star. “Come! Come, Niyalki, and face your end!”
Riyun thought there might have been movement in the cavern, but he wasn’t sure. “Eagle? Do either of you see anything in the cavern?”
Lonar chuckled. “Lots of dead dragons, Lightning.”
“I thought I saw movement.”
Hirvok whistled. “Yeah. It’s the big one. Just inside enough that I can’t get a clean—”
A strange warbling flooded the line, followed almost immediately by an explosion.
Not from the cavern mouth, Riyun realized, but from the northwestern end of the valley.
The overwatch roost!
Magenta energies slithered up and down the wall, then a deafening pop echoed through the valley, and the entire valley face tore free and plunged through the bright, arcane energies before coming to rest in a smoking heap.
Riyun keyed his mic. “Eagle! Tank!”
But the radio was dead.
Fassyl seemed unfazed by it all, shouting even louder than before. “Come! Face me, ancient beast!”
The giant dragon stuck its head out, exposing its good eye. There was something in its mouth, something large…
Another dragon! The big, wounded one!
Another explosion shook the valley, but this time it came from the cavern mouth. Fassyl was knocked backwards and onto his ample butt by the force, but the energy from the artifact seemed to protect him.
One of the demolition rounds had gone off. Symbra had triggered it, but had she gotten her target?
The old wizard scrambled to his feet, once again raising the artifact over his head. “Your reign of terror has come to an end!”
Quit talking, and blast it! Riyun sighted on the reptile’s good eye. The neck of the other dragon hung from Niyalki’s mouth.
A shield. It used the other one as a shield! It suspected more explosives!
Before he could squeeze off a shot, one of the weird portals appeared behind Fassyl. Meriscoya stepped out, far too calm for someone who was seconds away from being dead.
Fassyl spun around with surprising speed, staff pointed toward the other wizard. “Just as well you show yourself now.”
Meriscoya stopped and rapped his staff against the valley floor. “Fassyl. How surprising to see you throw your lot in with common assassins.”
“Not assassins but those summoned by destiny. As with me.”
Riyun slapped a fresh magazine into place and tried to sight in on the mad wi
zard. There was nothing in the tac-net display.
Illusion? If so, it was affecting everyone, because no one was firing.
Fassyl waved the artifact in a slow circle. “For what you have done–for killing Tarlayn—you must pay.”
The younger wizard waved his hand casually, and a ball of midnight flashed from his fingertips to the old wizard’s artifact. Where there had been white, pure energy surrounding the ancient staff, now there was only the ripple of darkness. “I have already paid the price.”
A flash of movement from the cavern opening caught Riyun’s attention: The giant dragon’s head flashed out, and its huge mouth snapped over the old man, engulfing him and crushing him with a nauseating crack.
Now they faced the deadliest dragon and the mad wizard.
Riyun opened fire on Meriscoya. He didn’t need the tac-net to know where center mass was.
The others opened fire on the dragon, which raised its gory head to the sky and coughed.
It was getting ready to breathe.
Meriscoya turned toward Riyun. “Another misguided assassin sent to waste his life in the service of a false creator. My father grows desperate.” The wizard raised the hand that had nullified the artifact.
But before he could do anything, a form separated from the shadows.
And Javika’s blade nearly cut that hand off, slashing through robe and flesh. The hand sagged limply.
The wizard gasped and pressed the wounded limb against his chest, where black blood spurted onto his shirt.
He backpedaled.
Before Javika could swing again, he was gone in a flash of light.
That still left the dragon, although it had retreated into the cavern.
Riyun ran to Javika’s side. “How did you—?”
She pointed her weapon at the western wall. “There is a labyrinth. He hides within it.”
“He blasted the cliff face where Hirvok and Lonar were perched.”
“I heard.”
Symbra jogged toward them. “What do we do? Neon has the artifact—”
The hacker was running toward them, trying to shake something from the staff. “I think we have to pursue Meriscoya into the labyrinth.” She shivered. “Th-that’s what would make sense. The boss fight.”
