A Flicker of Steel

by Steve McHugh

  “I’ll go get her,” Layla said, looking around the town. It was like something out of a painting. All of the wooden bungalows along the perfectly maintained, snow-covered streets were beautiful. Large creatures that looked like a combination of ox and horse—but were much larger than either species—pulled massive carriages up and down the roads. The beasts were different shades of black and brown and all had huge antlers on their heads. People milled around as if they didn’t have a care in the world. It was tranquil, peaceful, and beautiful. Layla looked up at the crisp blue sky with not a cloud in sight, her breath visible in the cold.

  “If possible, we want her alive. But if you can’t get her back here, kill her. Those are pretty much the only choices we have.”

  Olivia’s words brought Layla back to the here and now. “I never assumed otherwise.”

  “But she can’t be allowed to get to the second realm gate on the other side of the forest,” Tommy said. “Olivia, Hades, and I will go to the second realm gate. If she gets past you, she won’t be getting past us.”

  “She’s one clone,” Remy said. “How long was she around before you spotted her?”

  “A few hours, why?” Hades asked.

  “You sure she’s the only one?” Remy asked.

  Hades shook his head. “We thought of that, too. Those in charge of this town are going through all of the refugees and trying to find out who is, and isn’t, on our side. It’s a long process, but they’re not allowed to leave until we’re satisfied.”

  “And where are they being kept?” Layla asked.

  “There are plains to the west of here, hundreds of miles of nothing. They’ve been taken there. They’ll be allowed to stay or leave the realm as soon as we can vouch for them.”

  “The realm gate we came through is destroyed,” Zamek said. “So at least we know no one else is coming through. I’m not sure how long it’ll be before the gate heals itself—only the ancient dwarves knew that secret—but it’s going to be a while. Like all of life’s problems, everything can be solved with alchemy.”

  “All of them?” Layla asked with a slight smile.

  “All the ones that dwarves care about,” Zamek replied, wearing a smile of his own. “We’ll find this clone and stop her from escaping, but if she’s not the only one who came through the gate, we might have some problems in town.”

  “Best of luck,” Hades said.

  Layla was introduced to one of the giant creatures—called a bordox. A carriage with a single female human driver took her, Zamek, Remy, and Diana out of the town. The carriage was painted black and gold, and the interior had the same color scheme. It moved slowly at first, and Layla got to look out of the open window at the town around her. All of the two-story buildings, most of which appeared to be Victorian in design, sat apart from one another, each with their own snow-covered gardens. The Victorian theme stretched to the clothing, too, although the women and men wore similar outfits: trousers and shirts, with thick winter jackets of various colors.

  Children played in a snowy park close to the houses, and, to Layla, no one seemed to mind that thousands of refugees were just a short distance away.

  “It’s nice here,” she said. “Peaceful.”

  “These people have lived here for thousands of years,” Diana said. “They’re probably living in the most peaceful realm I’ve ever been to. They really seem to believe that they can do great things if they work together. It’s a big change from Earth, or Olympus, or frankly any realm.”

  The moment the bordox left the town limits, it opened up its trot to a full-on run, throwing Layla back in her seat. “Holy crap,” she said, grabbing the belt that was attached to the soft seat. “I guess I now know why these are necessary.”

  They sped past countryside. Open fields of wheat changed into orchards of large fruit trees, all under a beautiful blue sky. After a few minutes, the bordox reached the huge, dark forest that had been in the distance and shadow engulfed the carriage. Layla could no longer make out anything but a blur of trees and the blanket of multi-colored leaves that littered the forest floor. As small drops of water began to pelt her through the open window, Layla pulled the blinds. Partially to stop getting wet, and partially to ensure she didn’t have to see just how close to the trees the bordox was getting.

  A short time later, the bordox stopped and the occupants of the carriage stepped outside.

  “Holy shit,” Remy said. “That’s a prison?”

  The building was a mass of gray-and-white stone and glass and gave the appearance of being carved from solid granite. To Layla, it was beautiful. A dozen huge columns—each one fifty feet tall—were carved from a rock almost blue in color. Glass domes crested the part of the prison that was outside of the mountain. Layla couldn’t tell where the prison ended and the mountain started, so good were the architects.

  “The dwarven ancients did this,” Zamek said. “It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen.”

  The entrance to the prison was behind two thirty-foot-high metal doors. Even from where she stood, Layla could tell that one of them was ajar. “The clone is here already.”

  There was a roar from somewhere inside the prison, and the bordox kicked at the ground, scared of whatever had made the noise.

  “Get it out of here,” Remy said to the driver. “We’re going to need Hades, Tommy, and anyone else you can find.”

  The driver didn’t need to be told twice and took off back toward the town.

  “Okay, she could have at least tried to talk us out of this,” Remy said, only half mocking.

  One of the doors to the prison moved slightly, and a huge hand appeared around it. The skin was yellow and red, as if there were fire just beneath its surface. It took hold of the door and tore it free, then threw it at Layla and her friends with enough force to land it only a few feet away from them.

  “It threw that door two hundred feet,” Diana said. “What the hell can do that?”

  “I have a very bad feeling about this,” Zamek said.

  The creature stepped out of the shadows of the doorway and roared in anger. It was twenty feet high with yellow-and-red skin all over its body. Its eyes blazed orange and it cracked its knuckles as its gaze settled on the four people in front of it. The top of the creature’s skull was ablaze, as if it wore a crown of molten rock.

  “That’s an eldjötnar,” Zamek said.

  “A what?” Layla asked as the creature roared again: a noise that she could feel in her bones.

  “A fire giant,” Zamek said. “A species who aren’t exactly known for their intelligence and easiness to get along with.”

  “So we need to take it down?” Remy said. “You got a nuke in your pocket?”

  The giant took one huge step toward them.

  “Oh good, it’s seen us,” Remy said.

  “They’re slow and strong,” Zamek said. “We need to find a way to cool it down.”

  “And then what?” Diana asked.

  “It’ll be calm once cooled,” Zamek said. “A lake or stream would be great.”

  “I’ll get right on it,” Remy shouted.

  The giant tore free one of the pillars and hurled it at the group, who scattered to avoid it.

  Layla looked up at the snow-covered peaks above the jail. “Avalanche,” she shouted.

  “That’ll do,” Zamek said.

  “You two keep it busy,” Diana said. “Layla and I will go get the snow.”

  “Be fast,” Remy shouted, avoiding a slow-moving arm as the fire giant reached out and tried to grab him.

  Layla ran toward the prison and saw Kristin’s clone leave. She looked at Layla and smiled before running off into the woods.

  “Go get her,” Diana said. “I’ll deal with the avalanche.”

  “I have a better idea,” Layla said. “Get to the columns.”

  Diana did as Layla suggested, and Layla reached up with her power, taking hold of the metal inside the rock above the prison. There was so much there; so much metal, so much
that she could do with it. She felt the power flow through her, reached down, and touched as much of the metal as she could. She knew she didn’t have to move a lot, but the rock was a hundred feet above her head; she’d never managed to manipulate metal from such a distance before.

  She twisted the ore in the rock and heard it groan, heard the very mountain complain, then felt the metal give way. The avalanche began slowly, just a few rocks tumbling down the mountain and hitting the glass domes with enough force to break them had they been made of normal glass, and not created by powerful dwarfs.

  “Remy, Zamek,” Diana shouted.

  Both Remy and Zamek had been running circles around the lumbering giant, trying to throw it off balance, but with every blow that landed on the ground, a small fountain of fire erupted around it. Zamek and Remy needed to be extra careful.

  “What about the clone?” Diana asked Layla, who was about to reply when the most awful sound she’d ever heard shook the very slabs of stone she stood on.

  The snow moved quicker than Layla had anticipated; it flowed down the mountain like a raging river. Zamek and Remy made it to the prison’s columns just as the snow smashed into the ground before them. Huge pieces of rock hit the landscape as the snow continued to rush across the clearing in front of them, tearing up the nearby trees and carrying them off as if they weighed nothing at all.

  As powerful as the giant was, it was defenseless against the force that smashed into it. Its red-and-yellow skin dulled, becoming a light gray as it was buried under the snow.

  The whole thing lasted only a few seconds, but when it was over, the clearing before them was buried a dozen feet beneath thick snow, rock, and ice. The giant was on its back at the far edge of it, no longer able to cause a problem.

  “Well, that was terrifying,” Remy said.

  Diana sniffed the air. “I can’t track the clone—she has no scent.”

  “Zamek, can you clear a path?” Layla asked.

  Zamek placed his hands on the stone in front of him and the earth shook as steps erupted out of the snow, forming a bridge.

  Layla ran across it, dropping down beyond the snow to the part of the forest that they’d arrived through. The clone had fled that way, but Layla knew she couldn’t have gotten far on foot through dense forest, especially with an avalanche right behind her.

  “Clones can bleed,” she said.

  Remy sniffed the air. “Fresh blood at three o’clock,” he said.

  “I’ll stay with Zamek,” Diana said. “We’re going to need to put the giant back in the prison. I think it’s still alive. You two go find the clone.”

  Remy smiled. “Let’s hunt.”

  24

  Layla and Remy ran through the forest: Remy slightly in front as he tracked the bleeding clone toward the second realm gate. Layla was more than a little impressed that, despite suffering an injury, the clone had not only managed to survive the avalanche but continued to run without pause. On the plus side, she knew that the clone wouldn’t be able to keep its pace up forever, and when she’d fought the last one, it had gone down just as easily as a human would have.

  True to Layla’s thought, the clone started to slow after a few hundred feet. Remy stopped and held up a paw for Layla to follow suit.

  “What’s up?” she asked.

  “I smell something. Oil. And something else.” Remy sniffed the air. “Explosives.”

  Layla flooded the area with her power and found the thin wire that stretched across two trees. She crouched down and pointed it out to Remy.

  “She must have come this way before going to the prison,” Remy said.

  A bullet smashed into the tree beside them. They flung themselves low as a second bullet slammed into the tree just above Layla’s head.

  “You ever wonder what happened to the people Hades sent after me?” Kristin’s clone called out.

  “I assume you killed them,” Remy said.

  “They woke the giant,” the clone shouted. “Something had to. It was guarding Mammon. Did you kill it?”

  “Go back and poke it,” Remy said. “Find out.”

  “I’m getting through that realm gate,” the clone said. Her voice had changed place.

  “She’s circling around,” Layla whispered.

  Remy nodded. “I don’t like that idea,” he said. “Let’s piss her off.”

  Remy was up in an instant and vanished from view as he ran around the tree.

  “Nice trick,” the clone said.

  Layla concentrated and searched for the gun that the Kristin-clone was using. She found it quickly and pulled it apart.

  “Goddamn it,” the clone shouted.

  Layla kept searching and found a second gun on the clone’s hip. Layla forced the gun to fire three times: each one coincided with a scream.

  Layla stepped over the wire and found Remy, his sword drawn and pointing at the clone’s throat. She was bleeding heavily where the bullets had struck her in the leg.

  “Kristin will kill you,” she told Layla.

  “She can try,” Layla told her. “I think she might find it harder than she would have a few days ago.”

  “You caused the avalanche. I hadn’t expected that.”

  Layla shrugged. “Is Mammon in there?”

  The clone nodded. “He’s in a state of suspended animation.”

  “We’re going to check, you know,” Remy said.

  “The dwarves built that place to last,” the clone said. “You know that Kristin is with Abaddon now.”

  “Kristin killed Nergal, didn’t she?” Layla asked.

  The clone nodded again. “Nergal tried to kill us. Abaddon gave her a way to avenge that insult.”

  “How altruistic of her,” Remy said.

  “They’re going to take Nergal’s Texas compound.”

  “When?” Layla asked.

  “Once Canada is Avalon’s.”

  “Why tell us this?” Remy asked.

  “Because I know that you’ll go there, and Kristin will get her chance to kill Little Miss Perfect here.”

  “Little Miss Perfect?” Layla asked.

  “Loving parents, loving friends, loving life. You had everything. Your father loved you; he trained you, made you better. You are what I would have been if I’d had that love.”

  Layla wasn’t really sure how to respond to that statement. “My father is a serial killer.”

  “Who still loves you,” the clone said. “He helped you become what you are. And you want to know something even better? Abaddon has a surprise for you. A big surprise. A masked surprise.”

  “You want to tell me what it is?” Layla asked.

  Kristin’s clone shook her head. “You’ll find out. And then you’ll die. Nice knowing you.” She snapped her head forward, as fast as possible, onto the point of Remy’s sword and fell back dead. Her body dissolved a few seconds later, until there was nothing left on the cold forest floor.

  “Well, that could have gone better,” Remy said. “At least she didn’t get to the other gate.”

  Layla continued to stare at where the clone had been; she knew that this was far from over. She sighed and went back with Remy to find that Hades, Tommy, and Olivia had arrived at the prison. With Zamek and Diana, they’d managed to pull the giant back inside.

  “How did it go?” Olivia asked Remy and Layla.

  “Better than having to drag a giant back inside there?” Tommy said, jerking his thumb toward the prison. “I’m going to smell like a giant’s loincloth and feet for weeks.”

  Zamek was using his alchemy to reattach the door as Hades walked out with Diana.

  “The people I sent to track the clone were killed by the giant,” Hades said, “but the ancient runes used to keep the giant in suspended animation were still there. We shouldn’t have any more problems. Fire giants aren’t naturally evil or anything, and it looks like it was just a guard doing its job, so I’m glad you didn’t have to kill it.”

  “It took a mountain to hurt it,” Remy s
aid. “I think the poor injured fire giant is fine.”

  “It’s not as good as it was,” Zamek said. “But the door will hold.”

  “We need to get back to the Earth realm,” Olivia said. “Did the clone say anything?”

  Remy and Layla relayed her words.

  “We have to stop Abaddon from getting that compound, if we can,” Hades said. “All of those spirit scrolls, all of those innocent people nearby.”

  “Do we even know where exactly the place is?” Remy asked. “Texas isn’t what I’d call small.”

  “I know where it is,” Hades said. “It’s about thirty kilometers southeast of a town named Cornudas, in Hudspeth County.”

  “Okay, and where is that?” Diana asked.

  “The closest big town is El Paso,” Olivia said. “I’ve been to El Paso. It’s Avalon-controlled. And not in a small way.”

  Hades nodded. “That’s true. And we have to go through El Paso to get to Nergal’s compound?”

  “That seems like a bad idea,” Remy said.

  “I’d agree, but I have some friends in Las Cruces, New Mexico who owe me more than a few favors. If we can get to them, we can get anything we need before we drive the rest of the way.”

  “What about Avalon?” Tommy asked.

  “Avalon’s influence in New Mexico is minimal at best,” Olivia said. “Same with Arizona. They concentrated on California and Texas when it first became apparent how important they were, and sort of ignored the bit in the middle. It’s a trend that continues to this day. We’ll have to go through El Paso, but if we keep our heads down and don’t draw any attention, we should be okay.”

  The group returned to the village and, upon arrival, Hades walked off to talk to the elders about leaving the realm, while everyone else loaded into two of the bordox carriages. Tommy, Olivia, and Zamek were in Layla’s carriage.

  “You okay?” Tommy asked her.

  Layla nodded. “Do you think this is ever going to get better?”