She fired. Connie grabbed the legendary shield of Ajax from the ground and rolled behind it. The heat ray burned against the shield. Connie charged Peril, ramming her with the huge shield. It only staggered Peril, but Connie followed up, kicking the gun out of Peril’s hand. It bounced over the edge and into the abyss.
Peril glowered. “Stubborn to the last. I shouldn’t be surprised.”
Connie said, “You made one mistake, Peril. The same mistake you always make. You’ve got me right where you want me. Like you have before. And we both know how it ends. You, presumed dead. Me, stopping you.”
“There is one difference this time.” Peril pointed to the vase containing magical powers.
“Two differences,” said Connie, adopting a combat stance. “This time, you won’t be presumed. You’ll just be dead.”
In a blinding flash, Lady Peril ripped the shield from Connie and threw it to one side. Peril hit Connie with a glancing blow that still sent her tumbling back.
“I’m not a fool, Connie. I know you’re a formidable opponent. It’s why I made sure you were exhausted. You’re slow and clumsy and careless.”
“I’m also surrounded by magical artifacts.” Connie picked up a cursed black scimitar. It whispered horrible thoughts into her mind, wanting blood. She was happy to oblige.
“If you’re so eager to fight to your last breath.” Lady Peril knelt down to grab a rune-laden battle axe. “So be it.”
• • •
On the other side of the chasm, Byron watched helplessly as Connie and Lady Peril clashed. Larry kept an eye on the guards, though Apollonia had knocked most of the fight out of them.
“We have to do something,” said Byron.
Apollonia fired a short burst from her rifle. The bullets exploded in tiny sparks at the circle’s edge. Nothing outside of it could affect anything inside of it.
“Are you crazy?” he asked. “You could’ve shot her.”
“I could’ve. I didn’t.”
She checked the biometric scanner that operated the bridge.
Connie’s and Lady Peril’s steel met, and each strike sent shockwaves through the chamber. The otherworldly light below flashed with each clash of metal against metal. All the magic warmed the air. Byron wiped the sweat from his brow and looked away from the fight. Connie was doing okay right now, but she was only holding her ground. Just barely, at that.
“I don’t get it. If you were on our side, why were you willing to let Lady Peril feed me to that mutant?”
“Larry never mentioned anything about protecting you. Doing so would’ve been stupid and counterproductive.”
“Oh, it would’ve been counterproductive,” said Byron. “Why didn’t you say so?”
An ambitious henchagent reached for a gun. Apollonia cast a glance his way, and he changed his mind.
“It was an acceptable risk,” said Larry. “Apollonia is the only person I can trust here. She always has my back. I’m sure she was behaving in the best interests of her orders.”
“Are you sure you’re not an evil genius?” asked Byron.
The room crackled with cosmic power as thunder rumbled. Or something like thunder, since it didn’t make any sense for there to be thunder inside a mountain.
Larry said, “Maybe I’m more like Mom than I realized, but you’re alive, aren’t you? Right now, our priority is to get that bridge working.”
Apollonia gave the scanner a few swift kicks. She put a deep dent in the side, but the metal held.
“Don’t do that,” said Byron. “You might break it.”
“It’s biometric,” she said. “We can’t use it.”
“Maybe we can rewire it,” said Larry. “But we’ll need something to open it up.”
“It’s a long shot.” Apollonia ran her fingers along a seam. “I don’t suppose anyone has a screwdriver handy.”
Byron held up his Swiss army knife. “Flathead or Phillips-head?”
• • •
Their weapons locked together, Lady Peril pushed Connie down to one knee.
Peril looked down her nose. “Why do you continue to fight? You’ve lost. The powers of science have enhanced my strength and speed beyond anything you could match. You’re barely standing.”
Screaming, summoning every ounce of strength, Connie shoved Peril away. The cavern screamed with her.
Lady Peril lowered her axe, and Connie, exhausted, lowered her scimitar.
“I’ve beaten stronger and faster,” she said. Her hoarse voice surprised her.
“You can’t think this will accomplish anything. My victory is inevitable.”
Connie smiled. “That’s what they always say.”
Connie charged forward, bringing her scimitar down against Peril’s axe. The enchanted weapons exploded with power, flying away with such force that neither could keep hold of them. The plateau quaked as fissures broke across it.
Connie unleashed a kick that should’ve broken a rib or two, but Peril barely moved. Connie followed it up with a pair of nerve strikes. Peril’s only reaction was a mild grunt. Connie threw a smashing uppercut hard enough to almost break her hand. She swept Peril’s legs. It was like uprooting a tree, but Peril fell, giving Connie enough time to put some distance between them.
Laughing, Lady Peril stood.
“Is that it? Is this the glorious death of Constance Verity? Fighting on against impossible odds? How futile. How pathetic.”
She advanced, and this was it. Connie couldn’t survive another attack. Her legs ached. Her vision blurred. She was slow, clumsy.
She was done.
• • •
It only took thirty seconds for Larry to rewire the biometric scanner. The longest thirty seconds of Byron’s life as he watched Connie struggle to stay away from Lady Peril.
The bridge extended, one foot at a time, and Byron, Larry, and Apollonia ran to the plateau.
“We should be careful,” said Larry. “It might have some sort of—”
Byron jumped onto the plateau. A sharp pain ran through him for a moment, but he made it. Larry and Apollonia hit an invisible barrier. They pressed against it but couldn’t cross.
“What’s happening?” asked Byron.
“I don’t know,” said Larry. “I didn’t make the spell.”
Connie sluggishly dodged Peril’s attacks.
“Don’t do anything stupid,” said Larry. “We’ll figure it out. Just give me a minute.”
Connie didn’t have a minute. Byron grabbed an old book among the scattered relics. There was probably something better, but he didn’t have time to figure that out. The book was thick and heavy. It could do some damage. Offer a distraction. Something.
He ran forward, screaming like an idiot. Once he was close enough, he threw the book at Peril’s back. It tumbled through the air, falling a few feet short, hitting the ground with a thud.
Lady Peril glanced behind her.
“Really?”
He thought he should say something defiant, but damned if he could figure out what that might be.
“Get away from her.”
It sounded stupid.
Peril turned her attention away from him. He was still beneath her, and as much as he hated to admit it, her contempt was justified.
The book had other ideas.
It opened itself and a swarm of smoky batlike things erupted from its pages. They swirled around Peril. She flailed at the screeching, distracting beasts.
Connie ran to him. “Are you okay?”
“Me?” he asked. “What about you?”
“You have to go back. Let me handle this.”
“I’m not going to stand by while a supervillain kills you,” he said.
“You’re just going to get in the way.”
“Maybe I want to be in the way.”
She leaned against him. “Byron, this is probably it. If you don’t get out of here, you’ll die.”
“No, I won’t,” he said. “I’m beside Constance Verity. That has to be
the safest place in the world to be.”
The chamber surged as the power crystals flared and the standing stones floated a few feet off the plateau. The magic carvings flashed with a rainbow of colors. The abyss howled below as the plateau rocked, tilting at a slight angle.
“I love you,” she said.
She kissed him.
The smoke bats dissolved. Peril shook her head. “You’ve proven even more troublesome than I expected. But you always have.”
“You’ve gathered too much power here,” said Connie. “It’s all going to come crumbling down. What good is stealing the caretaker mantle if you die moments afterward? You were never this stupid, Peril.”
“I don’t care.” Peril’s uncontrolled laughter echoed through the chamber. Connie had never seen Peril like this. She was out of control. All her propriety and decorum gone, replaced by a mad ambition.
“This ends here and now. This is the last adventure of Constance Verity. And your little boyfriend, too.”
Byron’s cell rang. He pulled it from his pocket, then yelped as the hot plastic burned his hand. The cell bounced off the floor, exploding in a shower of sparks as an alien warrior materialized. She wore alien battle armor made of interlocking, shifting plates that changed color depending on the angle of the light.
The helmet retracted, and Tia, queasy from the interstellar transport, retched. She managed not to vomit and ruin her entrance.
“Oh, thank god,” she said. “It worked.”
Lady Peril’s rage swallowed the last of her composure. She jumped Tia, who blasted her away with a percussive bolt from a gauntlet.
Peril staggered but stayed on her feet. She grabbed a spear that bristled with magical lightning. “You will not—”
A small cannon popped out of Tia’s shoulder and fired a mini-missile. It exploded under Peril, launching her into the air. She hit the ground a dozen feet away, lying unmoving on the ground.
“Did I kill her?” asked Tia. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t really have time to learn how to use this thing properly.”
“Where did you come from?” asked Byron.
“There will be time for explanations later,” said Connie. “We have to claim the caretaker mantle before this whole place collapses.”
They checked the alabaster vase, glowing with power.
“What do we do?” he asked.
“When in doubt,” said Connie, “break something.”
They touched it, but before they could shove it over, it shattered on its own. The pieces fell away, and the caretaker destiny flared in all its unharnessed glory. It should’ve been blinding, but they had no problem looking at it.
A large portion floated up and away, dissolving into nothingness. The bulk of the remaining power settled on Connie. A few stray rays of light passed onto Tia, and one or two glittering particles fell into Byron. They absorbed the magic.
Lady Peril staggered forward. “You cheated.”
The influx of magic filled Connie with fresh energy. She still glowed a little.
“I didn’t make the rules. And neither did you. You wanted to prove yourself worthy. Well, you blew it.”
“You would’ve never beaten me on your own,” said Peril.
“Who ever said I had to?” asked Connie.
The arcane energies in the abyss surged up from below as the standing stones whirled wildly about. An Atlantean power crystal exploded, raining fine powder. Cracks ran up the chamber walls as the edges of the plateau crumbled away.
“It’s over, Peril,” said Connie.
Every last drop of rage and hate dropped from Lady Peril, replaced with her normal cold calm. “Yes, it is. Well played, Connie.”
A massive chunk of ceiling fell, cracking the plateau in two. Silently, Lady Peril plummeted into the burning energies.
“We really should get out of here,” said Larry.
He and Apollonia ran down the bridge, barely avoiding a boulder that smashed the section they’d been standing on. Connie, Tia, and Byron struggled to stay on their feet as the plateau broke apart.
“I got this,” shouted Tia. “I think.”
She put her arms around Connie and Byron and jumped for it. Wings extended from her back, rockets fired, and they flew in wild circles.
“I didn’t have time to train,” she said, barely navigating the swirling storm of artifacts. A tentacle springing from a magic mirror almost grabbed her ankle.
“Look where you want to go,” yelled Connie. “Not where you’re going.”
Tia flew to the platform. The landing was hard, but nobody broke anything.
The last of the plateau disappeared into the abyss. The potent magic shook the earth for miles.
“How do you feel?” Byron asked Connie.
“Better,” she said. “And you?”
He touched his chest where the lingering warmth of the bits of destiny had settled. “Not different, but sort of different. It’s hard to describe.”
“It always is,” she said.
“So, is anyone else concerned that we’re trapped in a base, surrounded by hundreds of enemy henchagents?” asked Byron. “Or is that just normal?”
“You all saw my mom die, right?” asked Larry of the dumbfounded henchagents standing together to one side. “I don’t suppose you’d be cool with telling everyone else that I’m back in charge again?”
The mountain roared as it collapsed over their heads.
33
They blasted out of the self-destructing mountain in one of Siege Perilous’s experimental antigravity aircrafts. Ten minutes later, Connie sat alone in the cockpit, watching the landscape whiz by below.
Apollonia stepped into the cockpit. “Larry wanted me to check if you needed relief.”
“I’m not really sure how to fly this thing. I was mostly winging it on takeoff, and I think it’s been on autopilot for the last six minutes.” Connie released the control wheel, and the craft carried on flying. “I was just taking the time to think about things.”
“Where is it flying to?” asked Apollonia.
“Don’t know. We should probably figure that out. You’re welcome to take a crack at it.”
Apollonia sat in the copilot chair and scanned dials and buttons.
“You were on Larry’s side the whole time?” asked Connie.
“Don’t make a big thing about it,” said Apollonia. “He pays better than Lady Peril. That’s all.”
“Sure, sure.”
“Also, Larry may be a terrible mastermind, but he isn’t likely to kill me to set an example for the other minions.”
“I always thought that was a stupid policy,” said Connie. “So, you don’t like Larry at all.”
Apollonia flicked a switch, and they waited for the craft to react. It didn’t plunge from the sky or change course.
“He’s all right. You know Larry. He’s a nice guy. Hard not to like him. But in the end, it’s still about the money and the job security.”
“Very practical.” Connie pushed a button. The craft shuddered, but nothing else happened. “I guess we’re not going to fight, then?”
“Doesn’t make sense, since we’re on the same side. This time.”
“This time,” said Connie with a smile. “Just promise me you’ll look after Larry.”
“That’s what he pays me for.”
“Right.”
Connie left Apollonia to figure out the controls. She walked among the other passengers crammed in the cargo hold. They’d picked up two dozen straggling minions and employees they couldn’t leave behind to die. Most were technicians or maintenance crew. The few security personnel weren’t in the mood to fight. The craft was meant to haul cargo, so it didn’t have seats. They sat on the floor in small color-coded groups.
She found Larry and pulled him aside.
“I’m sorry about your mom,” she said.
“No body,” he replied.
“We saw her die.”
“I’ve seen her die before,” he said. �
�I’m not assuming anything, but if she’s dead, she went out the way she would’ve wanted. Well, actually, no. She would’ve wanted to take you with her. I’m glad she didn’t.”
“How much did you know about her master plan?” she asked.
“More than I let on,” he said. “Not as much as I should’ve. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you the truth from the beginning.”
“You did what you thought was right. It all worked out in the end.”
“I still used you.” Larry glanced at his hands. “Not to mention my ulterior motives . . .”
She took his hand and gave it a squeeze. “We all do stupid things. Who knows? In different circumstances, you and I might have worked out. We didn’t, and in these circumstances, it was stupid. Incredibly stupid.”
“Yes.” He shrugged. “Stupid.”
“You’ll be fine, Larry. You just have to stop looking back. Trust me. I’m learning that lesson myself. What are you planning on doing now?”
“Don’t know. If Mom’s really dead this time—a big if—then I guess I’m still in charge of Siege Perilous. Now that you’ve defused most of the bombs she left behind, I guess I could give masterminding a chance.”
“I’ve seen worse masterminds,” said Connie. “But can you turn a global-extortion and world-domination organization into something good?”
“I can try. And if things go wrong . . .”
She shook his hand and followed it up with a hug.
“You know where to find me.”
• • •
Tia was in the back with Byron and the shark/tiger hybrid. The giant mutant, lulled by the thrum of the anti-grav engines, lay sleeping in the corner. Tia and Byron were struggling to get her out of her alien power armor, but it wasn’t cooperating. Byron tugged at a gauntlet. He placed his foot on her stomach and pulled. The suit zapped him with a jolt, and he jumped back.
“Damn it,” he said, “Every time.”
“It resembles Grubian technology,” said Connie. “That stuff usually bonds to the wearer until death.”
“Great,” said Tia. “I don’t even know how to go to the bathroom while wearing this thing.”
Connie borrowed Byron’s Swiss army knife and inserted the corkscrew attachment under a plate on Tia’s back and gave it a twist. She stepped back as the suit’s many plates fell to pieces on the floor.
Constance Verity Saves the World Page 27
