Veil of Shadows

by Walker, Shiloh

  “Cagey, crafty woman,” Kalen muttered, shaking his head. He looked at the others and cocked a brow. “Thoughts, my friends?”

  “Do it,” Syn said. She jerked a shoulder in a shrug and said, “I’m tired of feeling like we’re flying solo here. They want to ignore the ugly truth here; let’s force them to look at it.”

  Lee nodded.

  Bron drummed his fingers on his thigh and said, “At this point, I don’t think it can hurt. And if anybody can work those bastards, it’s going to be Elina.” He glanced at her. “No offense.”

  “None taken.” Elina smiled. “Because of my husband, my grandfather, I know how the military is playing this, and I think I know how they will react. Any unwise decisions on their part will reflect badly on them and the elected officials in the government who have control over the military factions. They won’t want the world’s population aware of the fact that they’ve abandoned us.”

  The smile on her face grew sad and she sighed. “These people know who I am, too. I may not have been the focus of the media the way you were, Kalen, but the world knows who my family is. They know Eira; they know of my husband, my father, my grandfather. If I go public, the world is going to listen. Trust me.”

  Syn had the pleasure of watching as Elina delivered her ultimatum to the head general of the AMC, Aishen Militia Corps. He was flanked by his counterparts from the Aishen Navy and the Aishen Air Corps, as well as several high-ranking government officials. Elina’s contact from the para-science division was visible on the monitor as well.

  Elina had planned well, and it took only three minutes of the “plea for help” vid she’d created before the general agreed to routinely drop shipments of food and the various supplies they needed for weapons, clothing, repairs.

  He also requested that she destroy the vid, but Elina had just smiled. “Now, why would I do that? Not that you’d trust my word anyway. Rest assured, General. It’s in safe hands, and as long as you uphold your end of the bargain, my contacts won’t share that footage with a soul.”

  “What guarantee do we have of that?”

  Elina smirked. “My word. Which is a hell of a lot more reliable than your word, General. I remember when you were assigned to your position—you promised to defend all the citizens of Aishen, with fervency, with passion and with respect. But you’ve left us here to rot. I’m quite certain we’re still citizens . . . unless this area defected without my knowledge.”

  A few more comments were exchanged, Elina with a cool smile and the general’s face hard as stone. A date, time and location were established and then Elina ended the vid-conference in the middle of a comment from the general. She flipped the monitor off and murmured, “Oops.”

  Kalen snorted. “I’m sure you’ve endeared yourself to that man, Elina.”

  “Oh, he hated my guts before he heard my demand.” She shrugged and added, “My grandfather had more than a few run-ins with the general, back when they were both serving in the infantry. The general always had his sights set high and had no problems trampling on the backs of others or wading through their blood.”

  Kalen grunted in acknowledgment and moved to stand by Syn. She was studying the map, particularly the coordinates Elina had given the general for the drop. Slanting a look at him, she murmured, “I don’t particularly like taking this route, you know. I wish there was another option.”

  “As do I.” He ran a hand down his stubbled jaw. “But I like the thought of my men starving even less. And the idea of us running out of powercells and the materials needed to repair and build new weapons.”

  “Damn.” Syn glanced over her shoulder at Elina and said, “Next time you speak with them, suggest that we could use some ‘new’ weaponry here. New weapons—not just the raw materials we need to make our own.”

  “Getting greedy.”

  “No. It’s a matter of being practical. Why waste so many men on repair detail, trying to patch together pulsars that were outdated five years ago? They’ll have newer weapons, better weapons.”

  Elina grimaced. “He agreed to all the ‘extras’ you already added in. Let’s just be thankful for that.”

  “Oh, I am.” She smiled and stared at the map, but she was no longer studying the coordinates for the drop shipment. She was studying the lands west of the camp. She had a plan, one that she had been thinking through for quite some time. But she’d never given it serious thought—they lacked the materials needed and had no way of getting them without outside help.

  Or rather, materials she didn’t have yet.

  In another seventy-two hours, however, the rules were about to change.

  “Will it work?” Syn asked as Gunner continued to study the info on the data pad.

  “Hmmm.” He made a noncommittal grunt under his breath and pushed back from his desk, leaving the small office in front of the weaponry storehouse. He started making his way through the materials that had been dropped into the camp the day before.

  It wasn’t enough—nowhere near enough, but it was a hell of a lot more than they’d had available to them twenty-four hours earlier. Off in the workroom, some of the weapon-tech men were making progress on the needed repairs that had been piling up over the past few months.

  She’d seen people grinning at one another as she made her way to the weaponry. Elina’s little plan had managed to restore some of the hope that had been dying bit by bit.

  Tapping her foot, Syn watched as Gunner stopped by one crate and lifted the lid, peering inside with a thoughtful expression. “Hmmm,” he muttered again, tugging on his lower lip.

  “Gunner.”

  He glanced up at her, a distracted look on his face.

  Narrowing her eyes, she said mildly, “If you don’t give me some sort of answer, I’m going to scream. Just so you know.”

  “No, you wouldn’t.” He smiled at her and pushed his spectacles back onto his head. Age was starting to show on the older man and he could no longer see close objects with clarity unless he wore the corrective lenses. His faded blue eyes danced with humor as he slid a look toward the workroom. “Your man is in there. If he hears you scream, he’s going to come running. You’re too much the soldier to distract him unless it’s really necessary.”

  Syn rolled her eyes. “Damn it, Gunner, would you stop being so damned obtuse and just give me an answer?”

  “Am I being obtuse?” he mused, cocking his head. He pushed the lid back onto the crate and made his way back to the entrance, stopping just a few feet away. He held her data pad up to her and said, “It’s an idea with merit, there’s no doubt about that. But it’s risky. I don’t completely understand the technology they used to rig the barrier line and from what I can see, these devices you want to build work on a fairly similar platform.”

  He sighed and ran a hand through thick, grizzled gray hair. “I’m self-taught on damn near every weapon we currently use, Captain. You know that. Now, my second, Egan, he attended the Air Corps Academy, and he knows his way around all that tech—far better than I do. Perhaps you should talk to him.”

  “I plan to.” She took her data pad, studying the notes and sketches she’d made. Then she looked up at him. “But I wanted your input as well. This is . . . well, it’s a gamble. There’s no way to know how many we could take out until we do it. And it’s dangerous.”

  “Yes. But these days, it’s dangerous simply to leave the base camp.” He flicked a finger toward the data pad and said, “If the Raviners are trying to unite the rest of the demons, trying to get them to work against us, we have so many problems, I don’t even know where to start. This could be that start—one that cut down on their numbers substantially. And for those of them capable of higher thought, it will serve as a warning. They think they have us cowed. That’s not good for us. You know that.”

  Kalen eyed the huge whiteboard across the room and then closed his eyes. With his head leaning back and his eyes closed, he looked like he was in the mood for a nap. Syn had to shove her hands into her pocket
s to keep from fidgeting.

  Xan leaned by one of the windows and he shot a faint smile in her direction.

  Elina and Lee were studying the whiteboard. Lee looked curious. As always, Elina’s face was about as easy to read as a blank sheet of paper—her expression revealed nothing. But Syn could feel her excitement.

  She liked the idea.

  Both of her fellow witches did.

  Egan waited by the desk, side by side with Syn.

  He’d liked the idea, and more, he had a design in mind for some detonators that would work ideally. They could be rigged to have a limited, focused range, so they could hopefully minimize the damage.

  “Getting them all planted in the key locations is going to be very dangerous,” Kalen said quietly, finally opening his eyes and studying Syn. “We wouldn’t be able to send out large units—too likely we’d clue the Raviners in that something was going on.”

  “Absolutely.”

  He nodded and then leaned forward, bracing his elbows on the desk. He glanced at Elina and Lee, then at Syn. “Somehow, I get the feeling you don’t have my witches in here just to keep them updated.”

  “The outer points are going to be the most dangerous, and the witches are best equipped to protect a small group.”

  He grimaced. “How small?”

  “Just two.” She swallowed and pulled her hands from her pockets. Her palms were damp with sweat, and she resisted the urge to swipe them down the front of her pants. “One witch, one combat-trained soldier. I want to take the caribins as well.”

  The caribins were rocket fast, but they were also dangerous. The vibrations from their engines were noisy—the sort of noise that attracted wyrms.

  Kalen’s mouth twisted in a scowl. “I like that idea about as much as I like the idea of having my eyeballs plucked from my skull, you know.”

  “I don’t like it, either.” She met his eyes, held his gaze. “But we need to move quickly with this; otherwise, it won’t work. The baerns just aren’t quick enough and if the devices work, the blast will terrify them. The caribins are the best choice.” Kalen nodded, then looked away from Syn, and studied Elina, then Lee.

  Shoving away from the wall, Lee moved to stand by his desk. “This could work,” she said quietly. “I mean, I’m not the military genius in this room, but it could work, right?”

  He looked at Lee, then at Syn. Then he stood.

  “Yes. I think it could.” Shifting his focus to Egan, he said, “Get to work on the detonators. We’re going to blow those demons straight to hell and back.”

  ELEVEN

  Syn rested a hand on the comm-unit at her waist. She checked the time, made sure they were still moving on schedule. She guided the caribins through the woods with ease, following the familiar path that would take them around the heaviest pockets of demon life, while hopefully keeping them far enough out of reach that the demons didn’t make any move to pursue them.

  So far, so good.

  The caribins moved fast enough that the only real concern were the wyrms, and fortunately the big, ugly bastards didn’t move as easily in this isolated part of the forest. Like Sojourn Gap, the soil was thinner, rockier. The forest life here mostly consisted of skinny, tall pines that could settle deep roots despite the lousy soil and smaller vegetation. The soil itself was littered with rocks, some no bigger than pebbles, but there were sheets of rock in the earth the size of a small house.

  “Check the reading,” she said to Xan.

  He pulled a palm-sized scanner from his belt and flicked it on, studying the readings. “No sign of any life other than humanoid.”

  Humanoid could be Anqarians, demons or rebels—not the wyrms. The wyrms were too fucking big, and nothing remotely humanoid. The only thing they really resembled were colossal, armored earthworms. Brought over by the Anqarians, the ugly behemoths had dug into their soil, and with little competition as far as predators, the things had grown so huge, just one of them could decimate an entire settlement in seconds. They could grow upward of a hundred feet long, and Syn had seen them almost twenty feet wide.

  The one good thing about their existence—they might be able to burrow through dirt and mud, but not rock. They couldn’t go too far west because of the Roinan Mountain range, and the barrier on the outer limits would vaporize any wyrm . . . or demon . . . that crossed it. As the major Gates fell, the world’s military forces were able to eradicate the population until only the Roinan range still suffered the infestation. Syn had hopes they could do the same here, but first they needed to deal with the demons.

  She flicked another look at the time and then glanced up, feeling Xan’s eyes on her. “We’re making good time, Captain,” he said, a soft smile on his face.

  “Yeah, I know.” Then she glanced at him and added, “You know, we don’t have anybody around. You could call me Syn.”

  He stroked a hand down her back. “I like calling you Captain.” Then he leaned in and pressed a kiss to her neck, murmuring, “I like calling you Captain and thinking about how you tore up my back with your nails last night.”

  “Pervert.” A blush rose up to stain her cheeks red and she was damn glad they were alone right now. To distract herself, she grabbed her comm-unit and sent out a relay to Elina and Lee. Elina had Egan with her, and Kalen had accompanied Lee, despite arguments from some of the other high-ranked leaders within the camp. They felt the commander should be in the camp . . . safe.

  Safe, while his wife made a dangerous run into demon territory.

  He’d told them what to do with that idea, and it wasn’t anything pleasant.

  Leaving the camp in Bron’s capable hands, he accompanied his wife to their designated location.

  “Report,” she said after Elina responded. Lee checked in a few seconds later.

  “I’m almost to my location,” Elina said. Through the unit, Syn could hear her voice lower as she murmured to Egan, and then Egan’s voice respond back. “ETA less than a half an hour.”

  “Lee?”

  “Forty-five minutes,” she responded.

  “I’m at forty-five minutes, too,” Syn said, checking her monitor. “Report back in when you hit your location, Elina. Lee, the same to you.”

  Elina ended the relay. Lee lingered long enough to say, “Don’t know why I need to report in, since I know you’ll be sending another relay out in fifteen minutes, give or take.”

  Syn rolled her eyes and ended the relay herself. So she was nervous—it was perfectly understandable.

  She continued to maneuver the caribin one-handed through the undergrowth, aware of Xan’s eyes. She slid him a look and saw the grin on his face. “I’m entitled to worry.”

  “Yes.” His smile faded and he said softly, “It sounds as though the three of you are close.”

  “Elina, Lee and me?” She jerked a shoulder in a shrug. “Yeah, I guess. Common bonds and all of that.”

  “How long have you been friends with them?”

  “With Elina, most of my life. She was the one who found me and my brother after my mother was taken.” She focused on the path ahead, refusing to let herself think about that time. “She was a teacher of mine for a while, up until she decided she wanted to take her kids back east. She offered to take me, too. But I didn’t want to leave. I already knew I belonged here.”

  “And Lee?”

  “Not long.” She frowned absently, thinking back to her encounters with Lee over the years. Up until Lee had shown up in the camp in the middle of broad daylight a few months earlier, Syn had only seen Lee sporadically. She’d thought maybe the other witch was something of a recluse, living alone in the forest and only showing up to kick a little ass from time to time. She hadn’t established any kind of friendship with the woman, not until recently. “Right up until things started to come to a head with Anqar, I hardly ever saw Lee. She didn’t come here very often.”

  He grimaced and said, “Please tell me that woman wasn’t living in these mountains alone. That’s suicide.”

&
nbsp; “It’s a long story,” she said, shaking her head. One that seemed to go better when accompanied with a nice, cold glass of wine. Wine . . . A grin curled her lips and she said, “Hey, I wonder if we could get Elina to request the general send some wine with the next drop. Something other than the home brew we can make around the camp.”

  “Wine.”

  Syn sighed. “Yes. Good wine. I miss a good glass of wine every now and then.”

  Xan stroked a hand down her back and kissed her shoulder. The caribin hummed as she slowed it down. Just ahead, the trail narrowed. The wind kicked up, bringing with it a familiar stench—rotting flesh. The foul odor tended to appear in areas thick with Jorniaks. Syn lifted a hand and pressed her finger to her lips, catching Xan’s eye.

  The Jorniaks might or might not associate the loud purr of the caribin with human presence, but she wasn’t taking any more chances than necessary.

  The rest of the trip dragged on. The forty minutes seemed to take three times longer than normal. She flicked a glance at the time as they jumped off the glider. Xan had the device in his pack, and she took up position at his back as he got to work.

  She kept her senses peeled, listening for any slight noise, a breath, a tree branch.

  Her heart almost jumped out of her chest when Xan touched her shoulder just moments later. “Done?” she asked quietly. He nodded.

  Just as she lifted her comm-unit, the others chirped.

  Elina and Lee, almost in sync, each said, “Done.” Lee added in, “This baby is locked and loaded.”

  Syn shook her head and muttered, “Don’t refer to the device as a child, Lee.”

  Lee just laughed.

  “Just need to get this set,” Syn said, ignoring Lee.

  “Once we set them, we have forty-five minutes to get clear and then these little bastards go boom.”

  “I’m ready,” Elina said.