Karl waved her off, muttering something under his breath about the damned oversized lizard.
“There were a lot of those bastards,” Parker remarked as he stepped between Karl and Hannah. He holstered his magitech spear and put his hand on the small of her back. “Something’s got them all riled up. Wonder if something’s wrong?”
Karl laughed. “Somethin’s bin wrong as long as I bin breathin’, Arcadian. I have a feelin’ that fightin’ these damn rifts is our new normal. Makes me miss our days of kickin’ Adrien’s ass or climbin’ them mountains out east. At least then there was a real goal in sight. Now, we’re fuckin’ cursed ta roam the land cleanin’ up mess after bloody mess.”
“At least you get to roam and fight with me, Short Stuff.” Aysa giggled as she approached. The thick red blood of the Skrima she had felled stained her shield. As usual, there was a spring in her step and surly words on her tongue. Hadley and Vitali followed her. She gave Hannah’s dragon a rub on the side of his head. “Thanks for saving Karl, Sal. Again. He’d be dead ten times over it wasn’t for you.”
Something between a growl and a purr rolled in the dragon’s throat.
Karl’s retort was cut short by a creaking voice behind them. “How...how can we thank you?”
The Bitch and Bastard Brigade turned in unison to find the owner of the voice standing behind them. The local man towered over them at nearly seven feet tall, but his thin limbs shook like a scared child’s. Behind him were a group of his people, each taller than the last. They looked like Aysa’s distant cousins, except their faces were ghostly pale. Whether it was fear or just their nature, Karl couldn’t tell.
Hannah’s team had seen countless places just like this since they had left New Romanov nearly two years earlier. Their mission was to protect the people of Irth from the rifts, and the Skrima that poured out of them. It had begun to seem like a never-ending task, even if it was one the BBB was uniquely suited for.
Hannah looked at the willowy, humble leader and smiled. “No problem. It’s all in a day’s work.” She reached up to shake his hand, which lay cool and wet in hers. “But since you asked, it would be nice to get some food and not sleep on our ship for a night. The Unlawful’s been feeling a little cramped lately.”
The man nodded slowly. “It would be an honor to host our saviors for the evening. Please follow—”
A deafening crack cut him short. Karl knew the noise all too well, and his hammer was unslung from his waist and at the ready before he could even turn toward the just-closed rift.
“Run! Now!” Hannah shouted at the locals, her eyes changing from their chestnut brown to fiery red.
“Uh, Hannah, I thought you took care of it already?” Aysa asked, a hint of condescension in her voice.
“I did,” Hannah replied. “But it looks like hell isn’t done with us yet today.”
The rift started as a glowing red pinprick; innocuous enough. But then the hovering dot split and spread like a crack in a rock wall torn by the forces of nature, only faster.
Much faster.
“Aye, thought I’d be drinkin’ a damn pint or six by now,” Karl quipped, glancing at the others.
Vitali let loose a deep growl, a knife in his right hand and claws out on his left. “No rest for heroes, rearick! But when this is over, the first round is on me.”
Parker laughed. “Guess I can’t tell them to come back tomorrow. I’m a little too tired to play right now.”
“Suck it up, sweetheart.” Hannah shot him a glance.
“Sweetheart?” He raised a brow. “You’re basically the Matriarch reincarnated. I’m but a simple boy from Arcadia trying to make his way.”
“Hey,” Aysa teased, “if the boys are too tired, they can go back and take a nap on the ship. You and I can show them how real women fight.”
“Aye, ya let me know when a real woman shows up.” Karl snorted.
The Baseeki balled up her giant fist and moved toward the rearick.
“Not now, Aysa.” Hannah laughed. “As much as I’d love to see you take Karl down a peg, you should save the fight for what’s about to come.”
The split reached nearly twenty feet in height before it stopped and began to widen. A figure hovered on the threshold between their world and hell as if preparing for battle.
Team Triple-B decided to beat it to the punch.
Vitali sprang forward, knife in hand, while Aysa launched her bolas. The weapon flew with deadly accuracy, but some force caught it in midair and redirected it backward. The bolas wrapped around Vitali’s ankles, dropping him to the ground.
“What the hell?” Aysa shouted. “That seemed like magic. I didn’t know the Skrima could do that.”
“Whatever that is,” Hadley murmured, “it isn’t a Skrim.”
Karl raised his hammer, but Hannah placed a hand on his shoulder before the rearick could charge.
“Stand down,” she told him. “I’ll take care of this.”
Hannah moved toward the rift. It was hard not to feel bad for whatever was waiting in there. Since he’d met her, Karl had watched the girl from the Boulevard take down all sorts of men and beasts. She was the most powerful being he had ever laid eyes on, and she could do some damage when she was in the mood.
And judging by the way she walked, the mood had struck.
Hannah created a pair of giant blue orbs of pure Etheric energy, one in each hand. “Go back to Hyrrheim or die an Irthly death.” She drew back an arm, ready to launch the first assault. Karl could feel their power from where he stood.
The figure raised its hands, and Hannah faltered.
Karl watched as his leader stood frozen, straining against the strange power emanating from the rift. Whatever it was, it had enough juice to hold even Hannah at bay.
That thought made the battle-hardened rearick go a little weak at the knees.
But Hannah wasn’t done yet. Gritting her teeth, she leaned forward. She took a slow step, her strength overcoming the energy trapping her. Then she took another.
The magic in her hands burned darker, as did her eyes.
“That’s it,” she ground out. “Time for you to die.”
But before she could launch her attack, the figure stepped out of the rift and deep laughter filled the air.
“That’s no way to greet an old friend, now is it?”
Everyone fell quiet except for Hannah.
“Fucking Zeke?” she asked.
With a wave of his hand, the figure sealed the rift. The red light from Hyrrheim disappeared, and Karl and the team just stared slack-jawed at the old man.
“In the flesh,” Ezekiel said. “Who’d you think it was?”
“A freaking monster,” Aysa shouted. “Not your saggy old ass.”
Ezekiel laughed, and to Karl, he didn’t seem old at all. The last time anyone had seen Ezekiel, he and the Kurtherian Lilith had crossed through the rift near New Romanov to fight the good fight on the other side. But his time in Hyrrheim seemed to have altered him. His body was trim, and the lines on his face were not nearly as deep as they had once been.
Most notable were his eyes. They burned a brighter red than before, and they maintained their hue even as the wizard walked toward them.
“Aye, wizard, what the lass means ta say izzat we’re glad ta have ya back. There’s plenty of fightin’ ta do, an’ it wouldn’t hurt to have yer help.”
“Good to see you, my rearick friend. It is good to see all of you. And speaking of help, that’s precisely why I’ve returned. Not to offer it, unfortunately, but to ask for it. The fate of Irth hangs in the balance—and only its heroes can save it.”
Chapter Two
By the time darkness fell, Team BBB was alone in a guest house in the center of town. The locals were simple folk, and as kind as the mines of the Heights were deep.
Hannah had saved a lot of asses since she had started her quest, but none of them were more grateful than these. The spread of local fare—meats, steaming hot breads, and roasted ve
getables of all shapes and colors—and a finely brewed elixir demonstrated their thanks.
Karl was already at the bottom of his third mug of the brew. “Aye, it’s damn good.” He belched. He scrubbed the liquid remnants of the draught from his beard with the back of his hand.
The rest of the team passed the jug, filling their glasses to the brim. Bodies were sore and tired, but the weariness didn’t even register. All eyes were on Ezekiel, their older mentor. The man they had thought might never be seen in Irth again.
Ezekiel looked at Hannah and Karl. His presence brought the girl peace. Not only had her teacher returned, but he was as calm as a sleeping newborn babe. But there was something else… His time beyond Irth had changed him—she could feel it. And how could it not, after all? You couldn’t pass through hell without smelling like smoke.
Hannah looked at the food laid carefully before them, then at her friends. All eyes were on her, although from time to time each pair cut to Ezekiel. “What the hell are you waiting for? For three years now, not even the Bitch and the Bastard themselves could keep the lot of you away from grub.” She laughed. “Now Zeke comes back from beyond, and you’re waiting for me to say grace or something?”
“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Aysa snapped as she reached for a giant drumstick. The rest followed suit, except for Hadley. He sat quietly, looking from Hannah to Ezekiel.
She couldn’t blame the mystic for being a little gun-shy around anyone or anything that had come through a rift. The mystic had been through one. Well, his mind had. He’d seen the shitstorm on the other side, and it had left a mark.
Hannah stood and grabbed the jug. Stepping over to Hadley, she leaned in and filled his glass. “Remind me how the mystics like to drink?”
He cracked a smile and looked at her over his shoulder. “You trying to take advantage of me again, Princess?” He gave Parker a quick wink and looked back at her. “I thought we had gotten over ourselves ages ago.”
She placed a hand on his shoulder. “I’m pretty damned sure that Karl will shave his beard before you ever get over yourself, Hadley. Now, bottoms up like a good boy.”
Her companions hooted and laughed as she moved back to her spot at the head of the long table, opposite Ezekiel. As she eased into her seat, she tried to jump into Hadley’s mind for a second to check his mental pulse. With the Matriarch’s blood running through her, it was like her magical powers were in overdrive. Even so, she didn’t make it far into the mystic’s thoughts. He had raised a shield, a damn strong one.
Laughter filled the room as her companions told the story of the day’s battle against the Skrima. Recounting—and often exaggerating—tales was a tradition the company never missed, and seldom rushed.
Aysa pointed out Sal’s rescue of Karl for everyone to hear. In response, the rearick grabbed what remained of a giant roast from the table and tossed it across the room. Sal, whose giant presence had been accommodated by much shifting of furniture, snatched it out of the air and swallowed it whole before curling back into a scaly ball by the fire.
“Aye, he’s a damn good beast after all.” Karl grinned and leaned back in his chair. “Saved me backside, ‘e did—an’ there’s no shame in admittin’ it.” The rearick was always more gracious with a full glass in his hand.
“Scheisse, Karl,” Aysa replied in the best half-drunk rearick accent she could muster. “Seems ‘e saved yer front side as well.” Everyone laughed, and Karl turned red. “Not that there was much to save.” She held up her pinky finger and waved it in the air.
“Eh, screw off, ya Baseeki freak.”
The din died down after a few more jokes at Karl’s expense, which he enjoyed as much as the rest of them. Finally, Hannah looked at Ezekiel. A thin smile formed on his lips as he tamped some weed into the bowl of his pipe. Turning his index finger, he produced a flame from its tip which danced over the bowl. The old wizard drew long smooth pulls, and a red glow came to life in his pipe.
His eyes, still covered in a film of red, never left hers. “Yes, Hannah,” he told her, having read her mind. He blew a stream of smoke over the table. “I do believe it is time to share my tale. Well, at least to begin it. It would take a fortnight to recount all the adventures Lilith and I have had since we left Irth.”
Ezekiel’s face took on a strange glow when he said her name. Hannah knew there was a special connection between the two of them, and now that the Kurtherian had a body, she wondered if it had become something more than a friendship.
The wizard blew another mighty plume of smoke over the table. It hung there until he swirled his hands over it, gathering it into a perfectly tight orb. The glow of his eyes increased, and with a clap of his calloused hands the smoke vanished, leaving an image of him and Lilith stepping through the rift on their way off Irth.
“You know this part, but what you could not know is what it looked like on the other side.” He twisted his long fingers in complicated motions. The images morphed into a place that looked like hell itself, or at least how they imagined it. Ezekiel looked at Hadley. “Well, at least most of you.”
He let the image tell the tale for him, taking the chance to drink from his mug and enjoy his pipe. All eyes watched the play he projected on the table before them. On emerging through the rift into Hyrrheim, Ezekiel and Lilith met a swarm of Skrima. There were all kinds, some with the heads of bulls and bodies of men, others were winged giants. Strange forms of men mixed with monsters, each challenging the imagination of the onlookers.
As the monsters came, the warriors responded. Ezekiel attacked with a swinging staff and powerful magic. He moved with the ease and grace of a man half his age. While he fought off a horde, Lilith shredded another set of beasts with the powerful body Hannah and her friends had created for her. Their art of war was a masterpiece, and their opponents were soon overwhelmed.
The picture blurred into swirls of deep red, purple, and blue. “It went on like this for…well, too long.” Ezekiel shook his head, taking time to look at each of his friends. “Felt like damn near a lifetime before we secured a little region for ourselves.”
The swirling colors stopped their motion and coalesced into a picture of Ezekiel and his partner alone on a boulder, looking out over a vast formless red landscape.
“They would still come, and we would fight them off, each time securing more land. But it was Lilith who decided that this couldn’t go on forever; that we needed to stop the hellish beasts at the source. That was when we captured one and learned about the plans Laughter had set in motion before she died. Under, well...duress the Skrim even told us about the General that Laughter left in charge. General Bile. He’s been using rifts to break into Irth. The very rifts you have been fighting off, one by one.”
Karl snorted. “Aye, woulda bin nice if ya’d taken them bastards out a year ago.”
Ezekiel nodded. “And if we could have, we would have. But their army is innumerable, and growing. He has a powerful new ally by his side, and they’re preparing for a final worldwide invasion. This is the very reason I came back. I need your help, but it will take all of Irth’s heroes to vanquish this villain.”
The Bitch and Bastard Brigade exchanged looks. Finally, it was Vitali, the newest member of the team, who spoke up. “We’re in. When do we leave?”
Ezekiel reached into his robes and pulled four parchment envelopes from its folds. He spread them out on the smooth oak surface of the table where his images had just danced. Each one had a name written in large scrolling letters. “Like I said, Lynqi, we are going to need all the heroes. It’s time you learned just how big your world is.”
Chapter Three
The Badger trundled along the faint remnants of an ancient road and pushed down small scraggly pine trees to make its way through the midnight forest at walking speed. Vinnie had found it necessary to drop the armor plates over the side portholes as the trees scraped by.
The metal could take it, but he was careful. He didn’t want scratches. The armor prot
ecting the Badger’s front glass was only partially deployed, and Vinnie peered through a narrow slit as he drove.
Astrid, the Wellspring Knight, had little idea how Vinnie guided the vehicle. She guessed it had something to do with the bewildering array of lights, levers, switches, and dials that took up every square inch of the consoles that surrounded the driver’s seat on three sides.
He had explained the instruments to her many times, but she only understood a fraction of what the scientist mage described. She only knew one of those instruments was a compass, and it looked like its needle had shifted to the northeast. They were trying to go northwest.
“Are you sure this is the right way?” Astrid asked, swaying to and fro in her jump seat as the Badger’s suspension dealt with the uneven ground. It felt like less than half of its six wheels were on the ground at any given time.
Vinnie turned around in the swivel chair mounted dead-center in the Badger’s rounded nose section. The two steering levers on either side of the chair jittered when Vinnie let them go.
“We are past the point where Boone scouted. It looks like the road has turned,” Vinnie replied.
“Ah…” Astrid pointed forward. “Drive, maybe?”
Vinnie gave a chuckle and stroked his long-pointed beard. He leaned back and rested both hands on his immense belly as if it were a table. “As I explained earlier, my new invention is working just fine. The pathfinding apparatus is performing well. I hardly need to steer at all now. The sensors do all the work.”
At that, Gormer looked up from the card game he had been struggling to play with Boone. It was a challenge to make the game work as the vehicle rocked. It was also no easy feat staying in the jump seats bolted to the metal walls.
“All the same,” Gormer added and shot Boone a hard look. The Skrim had tried to angle his wolf-like head and extend his eye stalks to see Gormer’s hand. “I’d feel a lot better if you kept your eyes on where we’re going.” He turned back to Boone. “And I saw you trying to get your snaky eyeballs on my cards, you bastard.”
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