Twin Soul Series Omnibus 2: Books 6-10

by McCaffrey-Winner

“We should be able to deploy the next brigade tomorrow,” Major Gelicott reported to General Tashigg that evening at their headquarters near the train station outside Kingsford. The troops, of course, were billeted outside the city. Major Gelicott had heard that the lands had belonged to the traitor, Rabel Zebala. There was a forge, a stable, and the ruins of a farmhouse. Beyond, through a small stand of trees was a field of wyvern’s flowers — now mostly trampled and crushed under the soldiers’ tents. Not that anyone cared.

  General Tashigg grunted in acknowledgement and turned back to his map.

  “Any more news from Walpish?” Tashigg asked, looking at the marks that showed the location of the cavalry. “Has he got the town?”

  “Nothing, sir,” Gelicott replied.

  “I expect he’s too busy celebrating,” General Tashigg said to himself. He glanced up through his bushy eyebrows at his staff officer to gage his reaction.

  “Undoubtedly,” Gelicott agreed. But the set of his jaw showed concern.

  “What is it man,” Tashigg growled. “Spit it out! You’ll only make a fool of yourself here with me and that’s much better than on the field where everyone will notice.”

  “S-sir,” Gelicott began slowly, “do you think it was our best notion to send General Filbert out first?”

  “Why not?” Tashigg asked, his bushy eyebrows beetling. “He’s commander of the first brigade and that’s the order of battle.”

  “But… he’s a bit of a stickler, sir,” Gelicott said, trying to speak as circumspectly as possible.

  “He’s not one of our best, I agree,” Tashigg said. “But he doesn’t stop when he gets going.”

  “Even when it’s in the wrong direction,” Gelicott muttered. Tashigg snorted. On their last maneuvers, General Filbert had famously led his troops in an assault on their own artillery — much to the surprise of the king, General Gorgos, General Tashigg himself and, most certainly, the artillerymen.

  “With luck, he’ll get himself killed and we’ll be earning the king another couple of chests of gold,” Tashigg replied.

  “I suppose there’s that, sir,” Gelicott agreed glumly.

  “But his orders are easy enough, even he shouldn’t get them wrong,” Tashigg said. “He’s to march through Korin’s Pass, take the village of the same name at the north end and await for the rest of the division.” Tashigg snorted. “It’s not like there’s any artillery to distract him.”

  “I suppose there’s that,” Gelicott agreed.

  “I shall turn in,” Tashigg said, rising from his chair and moving toward the bedroom in the inn that spymaster Hewlitt had so obligingly provided him. “Check on the troops, check with the station, and call me at first light.”

  “As you wish, sir,” Gelicott said, rising from his chair and giving the general a brisk salute.

  General Tashigg waved away the salute and shooed him to the door.

  #

  “Captain of the guard!” General Filbert called out. “Drat the man, where is he?”

  A sound of running boots approached and Captain Welless braced to attention. “Sir!”

  “What are you still doing on duty?” Filbert demanded. Before Welless could reply, he waved a hand. “Never mind! Just report. Why were you so late?”

  “I was investigating something, sir,” Captain Welless reported. “I’ve delayed my relief while I was doing that.”

  “Investigating?”

  “Yes, sir,” Welless said.

  “Aren’t you supposed to be the captain of the guard?” Filbert chided. “What on earth would you be investigating, particularly at this hour!”

  “My men reported noises, sir,” Welless replied with a tight voice.

  “So they should, they’re guarding us, after all,” Filbert said. A moment passed and he added, “What noises?”

  “That’s the problem, sir,” Welless said.

  “What?”

  “There were three sets of noises and it took us a while to sort them out,” Welless said.

  “Three?” Filbert demanded. When captain nodded, he continued, “And what did you determine, captain?”

  “There are noises come to the east of us and we can’t figure them out, they’re very faint and distant,” Welless said.

  “Where are they coming from?”

  “Some of my men think there are coming from the ground… sir,” Welless confessed.

  “From the ground?” Filbert repeated. “What sorts of sounds?”

  “Like people digging,” Welless said.

  “So you sent a party out to investigate and they found what?”

  “Nothing, sir,” Welless replied. “I told them to go no more than a mile from camp and return.”

  “And the noises stopped?”

  “No sir, they grew louder but just a bit.”

  “So the sound is far away.”

  “That’s my belief, sir,” Welless replied. “But there has to be a lot of digging to carry this far, doesn’t there, sir?”

  “I wouldn’t know,” Filbert said with a shrug. “Do we have anyone who digs in the troops?”

  “None on patrol,” Welless said. He licked his lips. “Except —”

  “Except what?”

  “One of my men deserted,” Welless said. “He never came back with the patrol. His name was Slater, sir.”

  “So he worked stone,” Filbert guessed. Not that last names always kept their meaning. “Did he say anything before he disappeared?”

  “My ensign said that he was scared out of his wits and swore that it was the Zwerg, sir,” Welless said with much reluctance.

  “The Zwerg?” Filbert scoffed. “They’re nothing but tales to scare children.”

  “The ensign tells me that Slater was scared for his life,” Welless said. “He left Slater where they’d stopped and went forward himself to scout the last tenth mile and, when he returned, Slater was gone.”

  “Should have taken him with him,” Filbert declared.

  “He tried, sir,” Welless said in defense of his nameless ensign.

  “Well, so we’ve one less mouth to feed,” Filbert said. “You said three things?”

  “Yes sir, we picked up some men who claimed to be from one of the airships,” Welless said.

  “I remember that,” Filbert said with a dismissive wave.

  “No, sir, I mean that we picked up three more men,” Welless said. “There were in pretty bad shape.”

  “Assign them to a platoon — give them to that ensign of yours — they can’t be any worse than that deserter,” Filbert said.

  “One of them claimed to be an officer,” Welless protested.

  “Was he wearing a uniform?”

  “They were all in tatters,” Welless said. “Two of them have broken limbs.”

  “Oh, bother!” Filbert growled. “Leave them for the second brigade, then.”

  “As you wish, sir,” Welless said.

  “That’s two distractions,” Filbert allowed. “What was the third?”

  “I’m afraid there was a disturbance down at the pasture,” Welless said.

  “The pasture?” Filbert repeated. “My horses?”

  “It seems that some of them weren’t properly hobbled and they seem to have disappeared, sir,” Welless told his commanding officer miserably.

  “WHAT?” Filbert roared. “How many are gone?”

  “There are six left,” Welless reported.

  “Six? Six!” Filbert shouted. “There were twelve!”

  “I’m very sorry, sir,” Welless said miserably.

  “You will be,” General Filbert promised. He pointed toward the opening of the tent. “Leave me.” As the hangdog captain went through the canvas opening, he added, “And send for my man, Gibbons!” The canvas settled back into place hiding the miserable captain, as Fil
bert added, “That is, if you haven’t lost him, too.”

  Chapter Three

  “He must be dead,” Jarin said as he joined the others back in human form, after ferrying them to the ruins of the fort. “Nothing could survive that.”

  “He is old,” Rabel said with a thoughtful frown. “He might surprise you.”

  Jarin snorted. “Old is nothing against…” the young man swayed and crumpled to the ground.

  “Jarin!” Ellen cried, rushing to his side. She nudged his shoulder and looked up to Rabel with tears in her eyes.

  Rabel knelt beside the lad, joined shortly by queen Diam and Granno. Rabel felt under Jarin’s nose for breath, examined the color of his skin but it was Diam who spoke first.

  “He’s exhausted,” she said. She glanced from the teen dragon to Rabel and Ellen. “You’re all exhausted.”

  “He saved us and he carried us,” Rabel said gruffly. “He ate into his strength more than we.”

  “Will he die?” Ellen asked nervously. Her fingers reached to the bulge in her blouse where she kept one of the blue light demons, clearly thinking of the death of captain Ford.

  “No!” Diam snorted. “He needs rest.” She frowned. “A lot of it.”

  “He’s a dragon…” Rabel began slowly.

  “Oh, I know what you’re thinking!” Diam said, pushing herself back up to her feet. She glanced down at the dark-haired teen fondly. She exchanged looks with Granno who did not look pleased but her expression hardened and he sighed. “We will take him,” she told Rabel.

  Rabel got to his knees and bowed to her. “Your majesty, you won’t regret it.”

  “Of course,” Diam said irritably, waving for Rabel to rise to his feet. She turned to Granno. “I need you to get to our people, send a party here to meet us.”

  “Your majesty!” Granno exclaimed, glancing from her to the others.

  “Take Imay, she’s got the longer legs,” Diam said. She smiled at her daughter. “Granno is correct in thinking that it’s unwise to leave all the royal family unguarded.”

  “I’ll guard you!” Ellen said rising to her feet and standing protectively before the zwerg queen.

  “That’s very —” queen Diam began politely but stopped as Ellen produced a ball of fire in the palm of her hand. “I suppose you can, at that.”

  “And I,” Rabel said.

  “Indeed,” Diam agreed. She gestured to Ellen. “Save your strength, child, in case you need it.” She turned to her eldest daughter and gave her a quick hug. “We’ll be safe until your return, as you have just been shown.” Imay hugged her back tightly, locked eyes warningly with Rabel who nodded solemnly in response, then gestured for Granno to lead the way.

  Diam watched them trudge off into the distance and then turned back to the others. “While we’re waiting, we should see what we can discover.” She nodded to Lissy and Ellen. “Why don’t you two guard Jarin while Rabel and I look around?”

  Before they could protest, queen Diam took off briskly toward the base of the ruined fort. Rabel started toward the ruins of the top.

  The towers and turrets of the fort had all shattered on impact, leaving piles of rubble at the top but, surprisingly, the walls further down had survived. Rabel took himself to the nearest one and looked at the rocks. He frowned, moving one rock down from the pile and then another, looking to widen the gap enough that he could peer inside. He had just gained enough of an opening that he could see the darkness inside when a light — faint and distant — winked on far in the tunnel that was the stairs of the ruined turret.

  Intrigued, he summoned a small ball of fire and sent it down the tunnel. It impacted about halfway down, brightening as it burned against the stone and then winked out.

  Another light winked on for a moment deep in the tunnel.

  “Hang on!” Rabel shouted through the hole. “We’ll come for you! We’ll get you out!”

  #

  “And you have no idea have far down the turret they are?” Queen Diam asked when she met Rabel.

  “Not precisely, no,” Rabel said with a sigh. “But I think we could start —”

  “The turrets have spiral staircases, as I recall,” Diam said. “How do we know they have not collapsed and will block us?”

  “The light —”

  “They might be open enough to let light through,” Diam said, “and not humans —”

  “But the zwerg —”

  “It is not enough to get zwerg in, you must get whoever is there out,” Diam interrupted. “And your metal man was large, even by human standards.”

  Rabel could only grunt in agreement.

  It was getting dark. A line of lights — torches — approached from the distance.

  “Ellen,” Rabel said warningly. He needn’t have worried, the girl stood beside him, ready to throw fireballs at his command. He turned to Diam. “Your majesty —”

  “Let’s see if we need worry, first,” Diam said. She moved in front of the two humans and raised her voice to shout, “Identify yourselves!”

  “Mother!” Imay’s voice came back.

  Diam turned a relieved smile toward Rabel —

  “It’s a trap!” Imay’s voice cried, cut off suddenly with a cry of pain.

  “Your majesty, stand back!” Rabel said, sweeping the zwerg queen behind him. He said to Ellen, “They were carrying the torches too high for zwerg.”

  Ellen nodded. “What do we do?”

  “I’m going to wake Jarin,” Rabel said, turning and putting his words into action. “I’ll have him get the queen to safety.”

  “But he’s too —”

  “He’ll do it, your majesty,” Ellen cut across the queen’s protests. She knelt on the far side of Jarin and gently shook him. “Jarin, the queen wants you.”

  Nothing.

  “Tell him I’ll bring him to a bed of gold,” Diam said in a low voice.

  Jarin’s eyes popped open. “Gold?”

  “Yes, brave dragon,” Diam said with a laugh in her voice. “One of my treasuries. You shall rest and guard it until you are well.”

  “When do we go?” Jarin said, rising to his feet.

  “Now would be good,” Rabel said, gesturing to the torches in the distance. “Someone has captured Granno and the princess.”

  “We’re going to free them,” Ellen said. She put an arm on Jarin. “You’re too tired, take the queen, Lissy, and go.”

  Jarin gave Rabel a troubled look. “And you?”

  “We’re going to teach these people fear,” Rabel told him grimly. He reached down and grabbed Ellen’s hand. “Go on, we’ll be fine!”

  #

  Robin Slater still couldn’t believe his luck, even after he’d met the mage. The mage said his name was Tirpin and he needed help. He was escorting a seriously injured man who he claimed was the captain of the airship Vengeance but the injured man looked Sorian, so Slater had his doubts.

  “We’ve got to get back to the king,” Tirpin had said, forcing Slater to help him prop up the injured ‘captain’.

  “The railway’s closed,” Slater said. “They’re using the trains elsewhere.”

  “Hmph,” Tirpin grunted. “How did you get here?”

  “Train,” Slater said tersely. “Came up with the first brigade.”

  “And Walpish?”

  “Who?”

  “Colonel Walpish of the cavalry,” Tirpin said in irritation.

  Slater shrugged the shoulder that wasn’t supporting the Sorian captain. “They probably came up before us. I never saw them.”

  “How many men are with you?”

  “Me?” Slater said in surprise. “Just you two and only if you’re heading my way.”

  “Which is?” Tirpin prodded.

  “Toward the trains,” Slater said. “I’m heading back home, never wante
d to be a soldier.”

  “Deserter,” the Sorian captain groaned.

  “And you’re lucky I am,” Slater said. “Or your buddy would have to carry you himself.”

  “Why’d did you go?” Tirpin asked.

  Slater jerked his head to indicate behind them. “I heard there were zwergs up ahead. I won’t have nothing to do with them.”

  “Zwergs?” Tirpin repeated. “The cave dwellers?”

  Slater snorted. “Their ‘caves’ are finer than any palace I’ve ever seen. They don’t like us ‘sky-touchers’ much, particularly if we’re in their territory. And I heard them digging.” He picked up his pace. “Anywhere they aren’t is where I want to be.”

  “Gold,” the Sorian murmured.

  Tirpin pulled up short, jerking Slater beside him and causing the injured captain to groan in anguish.

  “What did you say?” Tirpin asked.

  “Zwergs have gold,” the Sorian said. “Capture one, get a fortune in ransom.”

  “Try to capture them and die,” Slater said. “They’re vicious and used to defending themselves.”

  A sound startled them and before they could react, they were surrounded by mounted men.

  “Hold!” A voice called loudly in the night. “Name yourselves!”

  “I am mage Tirpin of the royal airship Vengeance, this is Captain Martel who requires aid,” Tirpin said, drawing himself up in his tattered clothes. He clamped a hand on the startled Slater. “And this man is our prisoner!”

  Slater’s face fell as he recognized the mounted man: Captain Welless.

  “Slater!” Welless hissed. He waved to the men around him. “Take him! And have these others brought back to camp!”

  #

  “What are we going to do?” Ellen asked Rabel nervously when the two of them were left alone with the torches and the captive princess in the distance.

  “We’re going to show these people fear and a reason to leave our friends alone,” Rabel told her. “First, we need to find out how many there are.”

  “How do we do that?”

  “They have torches,” Rabel said. “How many?”

  “Six,” Ellen said after a quick count. “So there are six of them?”

  “Some of them have to be holding Imay and Granno,” Rabel said.