by Dawn Chapman
Body 1
Soul 1
Mind 1
They were still all a 1. I swallowed my pride and dropped the required 3 Karma points into each to get an advantage.
Body 3
Soul 3
Mind 3
I was quick then to locate the debilitating poison in my system from Riezella’s killing bites. Then I dropped 5 Karma into it, and the poison was no more.
The relief that washed over me from this huge upgrade was the most intense feeling I’d ever experienced. My legs gave way and nausea followed. I wretched, though nothing much came up, the food I had digested well. I just used over half my allotted Karma that in itself terrified me. What have I done?
Dalfol’s voice echoed in my mind.
Maddie, what did you just do?
I have no idea. I guess I expanded.
Steve placed his hands on my shoulders. “It’s okay, I’m here. Keep going.”
I managed to choke out, “I can’t. We need to get to the village, complete this quest. I’ll make the other decisions soon, I promise.”
When I looked up into his face, John was standing by him. “I’ve never seen anything like it ever.”
I took Steve’s offered hand so that he could pull me up. My legs shook, but as I tested their step, they felt stronger. I patted my thighs, my slacks now tight against the new muscles. “I feel like I’ve put on about ten pounds.”
“What did you do?” Steve asked looking me over.
“I raised my Body, Mind, and Soul to three Karma each.” The tightness around my waist actually dug in where the button was. I reached under my shirt and frowned as I undid it. “Hope I don’t lose my trousers in the midst of battle.” I laughed.
Steve’s eyes widened. “No wonder your legs gave way. That’s one heck of a jump in skill sets.”
I looked at where the buildings started to clump together. “Come on. We have no more time for messing about like this. Let’s keep going.”
When I set off this time, there was no pain from my hip. I had a renewed amount of energy, and conquering Dail was the only thing on my mind.
Chapter 11
I didn’t want to go into a bar, or in fact, any other shop or establishment. If my memory served me right, there was only one place I thought I might get some answers—a marketplace on the inside of one of the main buildings. Slap bang in the centre of the town. It was a good street market. One I had been to many years ago, but no sooner had we started to walk towards it, something ran across our path. I got a very brief view of him. He was about sixteen, well dressed, and quick. He stopped briefly before me and beckoned me to follow him. Then he was off again.
“Quick,” John called and followed him. Where John got that quick blast of energy, I had no idea. With the walk into the village in the main heat of the day, sweat had soaked my clothes. But Steve was after the two of them with just as much speed, so I focussed and made my best attempt to keep up.
The young man flittered from house to shop then to the rooftops. We all followed until we finally stood panting and watching each other with careful glances to the streets.
John was the one to approach him first. I listened. “Why the goose chase, kid?”
The young man wasn’t out of breath, his tanned and lithe form athletic enough to know where he was and how far to push himself. “I needed to be sure you were who I thought you were.” He pointed out towards the skyline.
There in the distance, I could see Dalfol’s shadow. “You know what that is?” I asked him, stepping closer.
He shook his head but spoke clearly. “I’ve never seen one in person. I’ve never left the village grounds. I’ve heard stories, though.”
“So how did you spot him?”
The kid lifted his hand. On his palm was a mark. “I was born in the desert. My mother said I’d been gifted at birth with Tromoal sight. I’ve never been this close to have it spark to life.”
Steve caught my attention. “There are several crowds gathering to the far left of the town.”
“They already know you’re here. There was a watch call put out in the village earlier today.” The kid said.
“Yet you brought us up here?” I raised an eyebrow.
“I know they planned to trap you in the market hall. Bring in the Tromoal, kill him, and gain favour with Dail.”
I sucked in a breath. “Dail’s in this village?”
When the teen nodded, I felt a smile cross my lips and hope spread within. I looked at John and Steve. “We’ve got to do this now. We have to go in while they’re still expecting us.”
“It’s a trap.” Steve warned.
The young lad coughed. “I can tell you where his main guards are stationed. Dail’s in one of our village’s forges. He was going to stay near the main market, but someone persuaded him not to.”
“Who was that someone?” John asked, his hand settling on his belt. I could just make out the sleek shape of his weapons hanging beneath his coat.
Lowering his head to John, he looked at me. “My name’s Yehu. I am also the son of the village leader.”
Steve frowned, and when I looked at him, he pulled me away from the conversation, towards where we could see the town folk gathering a street down from us. “Do you think we should trust him?”
I glanced back, seeing that John was talking intently with Yehu. I noted his strong back and the way he held his head high. He had noble intentions, so I moved away, back to their conversation. Steve whispered behind me, “I guess that’s a yes then.”
When I reached their side once more, John pointed to the far wall. “There are four traps as we’d have headed to the market. The largest one being just before where Yehu stopped us. Be thankful he was on the ball and managed to get away from his father’s watchful eyes earlier today.”
“Thank you, Yehu. I don’t know if we’d have gotten this far without you.”
I saw his face flush.
John slapped my arm. “Look what you made the boy do.”
I laughed and glanced at Steve. “What?”
“Any guys around here would take one look at you and fawn all over the place.”
I glimpsed down at myself not knowing what the heck they were talking about. “Maddie, I’m going to point you in the direction of the nearest shop window or mirror as soon as I can.”
Yehu actually pointed back behind us. I turned around and could see where, at the top of the building, was a small door. There was a glass section to it. I ignored their calls as I stomped over to it. Expecting to see myself in the reflection but, when I caught the view, I almost took a step back.
It wasn’t just that my trousers were tighter, everything was. I also took a double take at my hair, the length was still there, but the colour where it was dark and silken right through, now there were two shades. To my right, a fiery red and my left was pure white. Sitting on top of my head as it had usually wrapped around in a bun or plait, it had snaked through looking wild, and I admit, extremely different.
Steve came up behind me. “That’s the first sign of a powerful mage, you know.”
I looked back at him and once more in the mirror. “My whole physique has altered. My ass is bigger, my hips… even my...” I stuck my chest out pointing at them.
“And that’s why you’d make anyone fawn over you, Maddie. You were stunning before, but now. There are no words.”
I laughed. “Can I retract those Karma points?”
Rolling his eyes at me, John and Yehu came over. “We’ve got to go. The gathering at the end of the street is starting to move out. If we want to keep this small element of surprise, we need to hit them now.”
I breathed out, feeling the zip underneath my button hitch. “Well, after this, you guys are taking me for some new clothes, right?”
They laughed as I reached for my daggers. I sparked the energy inside myself, feeling it flow into them.
It was time I learned how to use the new daggers, the feel of them slightly different i
n my hands than my usual set. I hadn’t thought it would alter my fighting stances, but their weight felt better. The energy I was putting to them seemed to enhance the blade edges. I liked how they looked now, silvery glints and black shadows.
“Then, Yehu, take us as far as you can, then you need to turn your ass back home and stay clear of the fighting, you understand me?”
The kid looked like he was about to bust but he nodded. “I just want to help,” he said.
I glanced through the door’s mirrored section. “Seems this is a good way to get down. We’ll find the street closest to where the mob headed off from, and Yehu can take us as close to Dail’s men as he dares.”
Steve’s eyes sparkled. He’d already enhanced his mana capabilities with the black ensemble and the power oozing off him now was electrifying. “I hope we have a fighting chance, Maddie,” he said.
“Don’t worry. We have more than a fighting chance. We just need an upper hand as well, and a little luck Yehu’s got the job right and not actually leading us into a trap”.
Deep in my heart, though, I already knew this wasn’t going to be what the young boy had hoped. His father and Dail would have found the best way to lure us in. Dail knew I had a soft spot for anyone who was different, for anyone who showed their true colours. And this boy was taking us right into the lair of the man we wanted to kill, and they were expecting it.
Steve watched me carefully, and John raised an eyebrow. They both knew what was coming, and I smiled at them. Then I opened the door and slowly, one by one, we followed the kid into the building and down the stairs.
The building itself just looked to be a storage facility. Once through and into the opening segments of the main structure, we could see out into the large rooms that the building housed. They were harvesting grain and other products. Storage for the coming winter months, I suspected. Something that would keep this side of their town in not only food but in trading goods, so they could ask for other needed items from their neighbours.
What baffled me was some of the machinery in here. I’d not seen anything like these before. They were huge. Much larger than the Hog. I wondered only briefly to their mechanics and purpose. Then I noticed something and had to do a double take. At the front of one of the machines protruded a large metallic horn. I stopped where I was and leaned over a small set of railings to get a better look. In the end, John leaned over with me.
“What is that, John?”
I saw the look on his face, and when his gaze met mine, there was a pure worry there. “That isn’t something you want in this world.”
“Why?” I asked. “What are they?” I noticed now that the building actually contained several of these things. They were larger than a house, and then it sank in. “They’re for the Tromoal caves, aren’t they?”
John tugged my arm. “Let’s keep moving. We can deal with this later, but we need to get out of here.”
The stairs around us lit up with flames and rapid gun blasts. I ducked just as a bolt of energy came hurtling towards my face. Ambushed. I thought about it, but I hoped this wasn’t going to happen, either.
Yehu sank beside me, his face pale, flushed. “I don’t understand?” he questioned shaking his head.
Putting a hand on his, I patted it. “Don’t worry. I am not blaming you at all. This was going south way before you even came along.”
John’s eyes met mine. “You need to get back upstairs, my friend.”
But Yehu’s eyes changed colour. His face reddened all the more. “No,” he almost shouted. “They think they can play me, and I won’t retaliate.”
Then I saw something else. This young boy was more than just talented. He was strong, very strong. And he had obvious skills as a mage. The irises of his eyes sparked with orange energy, and it started to spread out, like fire through his veins. In fact, I was almost sure there was a living flame passing through him. His hair seemed to burst free, fiery tendrils spreading outwards.
“You should come down now, son before you get injured with these traitorous fools.” A voice boomed. Of course, I had no idea who it was, but I could take a guess. His father.
Yehu stood up, and two large fire bolts hit him in the chest. He didn’t flinch, but all I could smell was scorched clothes and flesh. My nostrils twitched. “If you think I’m backing down, Father, then you’re mistaken. There’s no way I’m letting you take them in for Dail to just murder!”
Murder. Yeah, I guess he would if he managed to catch me. How had this turned so nasty? Someone I thought I knew and trusted just turned bad. I couldn’t get my head around it no matter how much I tried.
“You’re surrounded.”
Yehu’s energy sparked all the more, and with a flick of his wrists, he started sending out fiery blasts. Not towards the enemy men, though. Instead, he turned it on the machines that were inside the building. “I won’t let you do this, Father,” he screamed.
John and Steve both looked at me, and I motioned down the stairs. This was a perfect distraction. A father and son one-on-one, but it would keep all eyes on them, and hopefully, we could slip on past.
I did exactly that, hunkering down nice and low. Sneaking past.
Yehu was really going for it above us. The kid fought like a small demon. I was kind of blown away by the energy he contained, but the men surrounding his father were also pretty well protected. Yehu had the higher ground and was slowly picking them off.
We escaped to the far side of the building where there was a doorway. I managed to place my hand on it and pushed it open. The view of the street was clear, but this overwhelming feeling of impending doom sank in.
Steve poked his head out beside mine. “We’ve no choice, Maddie.”
I smiled at him and stepped out into the street. Nothing happened.
Walking straight across and melting into the opposite cover of the street, I looked back at the building we had been in. It wasn’t just big. What bothered me was that these machines were being stored there. Things that John looked very wary over. I guess I didn’t need to worry too much about them anymore. The fiery blast from inside had started to increase.
Fire then burst out from the rooftop, and two men ran through the same door we’d just exited from.
One of them screamed out. “Damned kid’s going to blow the whole street apart.”
I pointed in the opposite direction to where they were sprinting too and started to run myself.
The explosion that rocked everywhere was intense. Fire burnt the back of my ass and sent me flying high into the air. The wind was sucked from my lungs, and my knees scraped the material from them as I finally skidded to a halt, bashing my head on the side of a wall. Blood trickled down the side of my face as the dust cloud hit. I tried to cover my mouth and eyes, but the blast was so furious, I wasn’t quick enough. Something hit me in the shoulder, a brick or some sort of debris, and then everything around me went black.
Chapter 12
I don’t know how long it took me to wake up. It was dark. I tried to move, but I couldn’t. My hands ached, but the bonds that kept them from moving were worse.
I coughed. My shoulder hurt and so did my throat.
I forced my eyes open, looking around where I was. I could just make out Steve and John. They were both alive, but barely by the looks of it.
I coughed some more, spitting out blood.
Checking my health, I noticed I was more injured than I’d first thought.
HEALTH - 25%
What the heck had that kid done? Was he still alive?
I doubted it. If we had been blasted off the face of Puatera, then there were no survivors from the inside that building.
Outside, I could hear footsteps. I closed my eyes once more and waited.
A door creaked, and a light pinged on. It wasn’t very bright in here, but I could see a little more as I peeked through my lashes.
The man that had us tied up was Dail. I could see the scruffy brown boots and the rip in his trousers that sti
ll exposed his burnt leg. So I opened my eyes.
“Good to see that you’re awake, Maddie,” Dail said. “The other two are drugged, but you I can’t drug anymore without further risks to you or to what I’m about to try to do.”
The voice, it grated on me. There was something different about it.
I looked closer.
It wasn’t. . . It couldn’t be?
Above Dail’s head was a Visitor tag. All this time, Dail had been a Visitor, someone who could change the face of my world, go home and not worry about a damned thing he’d done. How had he managed to keep that from me all these years? Or were they years? Was all of this just stupid programming?
I felt a hand on my cheek, and I looked up and into Dail’s eyes.
“Oh, shocked, are you? Finally, you can see the truth. And know that I’m the one who has you tied down now, strapped up and at death’s door once more!”
I swallowed, not quite wanting to believe what I now knew to be the truth. “You couldn’t be... you can’t!”
He laughed. “Can’t what, Maddie? Want to get to the bottom of what you are? You’ve no idea how much investment I have salted into this. You’ve no idea how much you have ruined everything!”
I coughed again, seeing my health fall a little more. I must be bleeding somewhere internally. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t be. I was dying though.
“Dail, what are you going to do with me?”
“I’m not going to do anything but let you die, Maddie. I’m doing nothing. Not one thing. Then I’m going to get one of my programmers, not Dresel, though, to drag your code through the ringer, and somehow manage to scrub every part of you from the system.”
“Why?”
“Why?” he almost screamed at me. “Because you’ve been the biggest pain in my backside I’ve ever had to deal with. You didn’t listen to my proposal the first time. I hoped to keep you clear of all of this. To stop your interfering in the plans to drill under the desert. I wanted to get in, get that loot, and sell it all for as much as I could out in the real world. My world.”
