“Why?” came the voice of the human’s battle computer over his helmet’s external speakers.
The supreme leader sensed the human glance down at her before speaking.
“Because I have an alternate plan.”
Chapter 35 – Aftermath
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The oldest representative of the Long Wing tribe, Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds, listened to the admiral’s report along with the other members of the inner council. She ignored the twisting knot in her stomach as best she could. As much as the news of the loss of her friend hurt, it would not do to let her political rivals hear her emotions. She sent out a sonic wave to encompass the cavern. The meeting cave supplied by the Blood Claw tribe for the inner council was small at only four wing spans across, but it was large enough to hold the twenty-five members of the council plus the admiral as long as no one was foolish enough to try and spread their wings.
“So there were no survivors?” asked the Blood Claw rep, Spear-Through-Your-Heart.
“No, Counselor,” replied the admiral. “Two of the pirate ships and the royal yacht must have been vaporized in the explosion. We did locate part of the bridge of Gaze at the Stars, but other than that one section, we found nothing of the yacht. Based upon the rest of the debris, the master computer calculates two destroyers and a transport attacked the Gaze at the Stars.”
Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds swiveled her ears to take in the other twenty-four tribal reps of the inner council. From their sounds, they all seemed devastated by the news of the loss of the supreme leader. All but Spear-Through-Your-Heart, she thought. The Blood Claw tribe was resentful that they were not chosen to select a member of their tribe as the supreme leader. I have no doubt the death of my old friend is looked upon with favor by the Blood Claws.
“Be that as it may,” said Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds’s fighting-computer in their shared space, “you are the eldest among the inner council. You must take charge of the situation until a new supreme leader can be selected.”
Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds mentally hissed. “I do not need you to remind me of my duties. We have been together many long years, but never think that I require you to remind me of my duty.”
“The thought would never cross my mind, Scout,” replied her fighting-computer in a tone less respectful than Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds would have liked.
Forgetting about her sometimes frustrating fighting-computer, Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds turned her attention to the admiral. “Your report has been concise, and your assessment is no doubt accurate, Admiral. Please wait outside for further orders.”
The naval officer nodded and walked out the cave’s only door. Once it shut, Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds stood. All ears swiveled on her.
“The news of our supreme leader’s loss is hard, but we are Crosioians. We must go on.” Turning to Spear-Through-Your-Heart, she said, “Astaris is the Blood Claw’s home planet. The inner council will leave it up to you to continue with preparations for the tournament. We—”
“Are you now giving orders?” asked the Blood Claw rep. “The recon of the rift is no longer important, if it ever was. We must select a new supreme leader. My tribe came in second during the last selection process. The Blood Claws are prepared to assume—”
“I have no doubt you are,” said Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds feeling her chest grow warm, “but that is not the way it is done. I am the eldest of the inner council. In the absence of the supreme leader, I speak for her. We will—”
“The supreme leader is dead,” said Spear-Through-Your-Heart as she stood and tried spreading her wings. Her attempted show of dominance failed miserably when her wings buckled against the bats around her. She hastily drew her wings back before saying, “You heard the report the same as the rest of us. The royal yacht was destroyed. There were no survivors. I demand—”
“Enough!” said a large bat wearing the tunic of the Bent Wing tribe. “We have rules for speaking in the assembly, least all of you forget. As for who is in charge, no one is until we determine if a new supreme leader is required.” When the Blood Claw rep started to speak, the leader of the Bent Wing tribe raised her aged hand. “The ancient tribal rules are law, and any tribe attempting to circumvent those laws is to be considered enemies by the remaining tribes. Is the Blood Claw rep suggesting the laws be circumvented?”
Her chest turning gray, Spear-Through-Your-Heart sat down. “Of course not. I was merely trying to speed up the process for the good of the Crosioian tribes. We are at a point of juxtaposition. Our final victory over the hated Empire is near at hand. All indications are that they are taking the bait. Their fleets are massing to make a rescue attempt on Estos. We must be ready.”
“As we will be,” Charge-In-The-Face-Of-Great-Odds said while giving a nod of approval to the Bent Wing tribe’s leader. “We will be ready because we are tribes of laws and rules. We will dispatch technicians to the location of the Gaze at the Stars destruction and collect samples. If traces of the supreme leader are found, then we will begin the selection process for a new leader. In the meantime, the inner council will take charge in the supreme leader’s absence. The military will continue preparations for the Estos battle. The Blood Claws will prepare for the tournament. If the supreme leader is indeed dead, her loss will be hard, but it will not be insurmountable. The tribes will go on. They will continue to thrive as they always have. That is the way it must be. That is the way it will be.”
Chapter 36 – Hell’s Gate
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Ten days of slogging through increasingly difficult terrain had taken its toll on Telsa’s friends. While her battle suit made climbing and descending the treacherous terrain relatively easy, her gnome and elf companions had a much tougher time.
Reaching the valley floor after a particularly difficult descent from one of the many active volcanoes in the region, Telsa called a halt. “Maybe we should rest here for a few minutes before continuing? I, uh, I’m a little tired.”
Rembis sat on a blackened rock and wiped his soot-covered face with an equally soot-covered hand. “You don’t have to coddle us, Wizard Scout. I’ve been around technology enough to know that your suit’s doing most of the work for you.”
Sitting on the rock next to the old gnome, Master Jathar stretched his right leg before rubbing his knee. “A liberal use of levitation spells would make our traveling easier, but—”
“No,” squeaked the purplish imp as it hopped onto a boulder ten meters away and peered down the valley. “We are close. No magic. Must stay hidden.”
“I did not say I was going to use magic,” said the elf mage. “I said it would make the traveling easier.”
Leethor sat down on a convenient stone and stared down the valley, in the direction the imp was looking. “You know, you have been telling us for the last week and a half that we were getting close. I am beginning to get the feeling that your idea of close and mine are two different things.”
Telsa had been coming to the same conclusion. While the imp hadn’t caused them any problems since its capture, it hadn’t exactly provided them much in the way of benefits either. “How many more days of walking will it take to get to this rift of yours? I’m starting to think we might be better off just wandering around on our own.”
The imp hissed what Telsa had come to recognize as its laugh. “You wander, you die. Trip taking longer because I have to avoid patrols that would eat foolish mortals. Not everyone your friend like me.”
Telsa snorted. With her battle helmet sealed, the sound came out more like the grunt of a rutting pactar than the sign of disbelief she’d intended. “Yeah. With friends like you, who needs enemies? Besides, we haven’t detected any living thing besides you in the month we’ve been in this place. I’m starting to wonder—”
“Oh, there be others,” replied the imp still straining to see down the valley. “Patrols use good stealth shields. Almost as good as mine. One at end of
valley now.”
Facing the direction the imp was looking, Telsa reached out with her passive scan but detected nothing. “Max zoom,” she told her battle computer in their shared space.
“Compliance.”
The end of the valley zoomed in close via her visor’s display. Telsa saw nothing other than the same endless black rock and glowing lava. The flickering movement of a shadow against the red background of a river of lava caught her eye. She leaned forward, straining to make out the shadow. It moved. Three other shadows moved past the same point of the lava river.
“Demons,” said Raj. “I calculate the imp was right about patrols.”
“Calculated that all by yourself, did you?”
“Affirmative,” replied Raj.
Telsa started to snort again but stopped short when she remembered what the noise sounded like. “The imp’s right,” she told the others. “We’ve got company at the end of the valley.”
Master Jathar stood and started to move his hands.
“No,” hissed the imp. “No magic. They do not know we are here. Do not give us away with your magic.”
The old elf stopped moving his hands. “I am surprised you do not want your friends down there to find us.”
The purple on the imp’s face faded to a near gray. “No. No friends. They are cold demons. I fire demon. No like cold.”
“Cold and fire demons?” asked Leethor who had stood to get a better view of the valley. “Are you saying they use ice and you use fire?”
The imp turned away from the end of the valley to look at the elf commander. The imp’s face took on a more normal purple color. “Silly mortal. Many demons use ice and many use fire. That does not mean which faction you belong. My master is fire. I like warmth. Those demons’ master is cold. They can use fire, but they prefer lack of warmth.” The imp shivered. “They want all warmth to be gone, but my master is too strong. The cold demons use rift to trick foolish mortals. They want the three galaxies for themselves, but my master is too smart. He knows what they do. He sent me to spy…uh, watch for others in our lands. He tell me to take others to rift when I find. You are the others.”
Rembis stood. “Are you saying you purposely allowed yourself to be captured?”
“Uh, no, not captured,” admitted the imp. “No matter. I here with you, and rift is close. I must take you to rift.”
Despite the fact that she’d been trying to reach the rift between dimensions for the last ten days, the idea of going suddenly lost its appeal to Telsa. “Are you saying some master demon wants us to go to this rift of yours? Why?”
The imp shrugged its wings. “Uh…I did not say my master is master demon. Uh…my master is my master. My master is powerful. That is all you need to know. You ask why he want you to go to rift? My master does not tell me why. He says do, and I do. Does it matter?”
“Oh, it matters,” Telsa said. “Believe me. It matters a lot.”
The imp took another look down the valley before turning back to Telsa. “You want to return to lands of mortals. Rift only way. Main gate is too well guarded. Smaller gate not guarded, but it is still closed. Rift only slightly guarded. You might get through. Your choice.” The imp bared its teeth in what Telsa took to be an attempt at a smile. “I only serve and obey. So where you go?”
“Why is this rift of yours only slightly guarded?” asked Rembis. “If it is open like you say, I would think that your army would be using it instead of waiting at the main gate. I assume this main gate of yours is the one under our Tree of Light. I know it’s closed because I helped close it.”
Flapping its wings and taking to the air, the imp flew and landed two paces to the gnome’s front. “Mortals so foolish. Your dimensions soon belong to demons. Rift too small for armies. Only a few demons at a time can go through rift. Gates are needed for armies. My master says gates will be open one day. We wait. One day come soon enough.”
Telsa glanced at Leethor and the two mages. “What do you think? If our imp here is doing the bidding of some powerful demon, we’re probably walking into a trap. Maybe we should make our way back to the New Drepdenor gate and hope for the best.”
The imp hissed and flapped its wings. “No. You must use rift. My master wants you to take gem back to your friend. Gates either too dangerous or closed. Rift is only way.”
Eyeing the imp, Telsa said, “What’s this about a gem? Are you talking about the yellow gem?”
“Yes, yes,” said the imp. “Yellow gem is close. Just past end of valley. You get, then we go to rift. It close too. Soon you be back in lands of mortals with delicious blood.” Licking its thin lips, the imp bared its teeth again.
This time Telsa didn’t think the little demon was trying to smile.
“If the imp is telling the truth, and I calculate it is, then you cannot pass up a chance to get a yellow gem,” said Raj in their shared space. “According to the information in my databanks, imps do not lie. I doubt it is telling you everything it knows, but there is a ninety-seven percent probability what it is telling you is factual.”
Telsa glanced at her companions. All three of them nodded. “All right,” she told the imp. “The rift it is, so let’s get going.” She lifted the barrel of her M12 in the imp’s direction. “But if you’re leading us into a trap, I swear you’ll be the first one to die.”
The imp hissed. “No trap. Dangerous, but no trap.” Waving one paw in a follow-me motion, the imp began flying toward the end of the valley. “Come, patrol gone. I show you gem. You see. I your friend.”
Chapter 37 – Bad News
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The thin, orange arm of the imp shimmered before working its way past the force field surrounding its cage. The rest of the demon’s body began shimmering as it also passed through the cage’s security field. Once free, the imp stopped shimmering and froze in place. It scanned the laboratory on the Planet Buster as if making sure its escape hadn’t been noticed.
Four white-coated technicians at the far end of the lab were huddled around a computer monitor, heatedly discussing the displayed data. A young, curly-haired boy was bent over a hand-held halo-pad as he sat at a cluttered work desk. The hologram of a splice of DNA slowly turned 360 degrees as the boy made notes on a second electronic pad.
The imp eyed the boy while doing its best to keep its hatred of the life form that had stolen its knowledge under control. It would not do to advertise its escape with a stray emotion. The imp fixated on the pulsing artery on the boy’s neck and licked its lips. Slinking forward on the work table that held its cage, the small demon made its way to the workbench’s edge. Raising its wings, it bent its legs in preparation for a leap that would take it all the way to the boy’s throat.
“No!” came shouts from the lab’s door followed by a blast of green energy that slammed into the demon’s chest and knocked it back a step.
Recovering quickly, the imp hissed a word as a ball of magic formed in its right paw. Before the demon could complete its spell, another beam of green energy shot forward and struck the ball of magic.
Boom!
The exploding magic sent shards of razor-sharp ice in all directions, with the brunt of the ice going into the imp’s chest and face. Tia and Matthew ran forward from the lab door they had just entered. With ice daggers sticking out of its chest and throat, the imp fell off the workbench and landed on the floor. Keeping an eye on the frozen imp, Matthew approached the fallen demon and kicked it in the side. The imp shattered into a hundred jagged pieces.
“Are you okay?” Tia asked as she helped Brachia up from the floor. Except for a few icicles hanging from his curly hair, the boy appeared fine, but she was taking no chances. Turning to the four technicians hiding behind their overturned work table, she ordered, “Get medical down here. Now!”
Shaking free of her grasp, Brachia said, “I’m fine. I’m not hurt.” He pointed at the shattered remains of the imp. “What’d you do that for? I wasn’t finished with my experiments.”
Matthew looked away from what remained of the miniature demon and back at Brachia. “We just saved your life. Are you crazy?”
“Uh, no,” said Brachia. He seemed to take a closer look at Matthew and Tia, then scratched his head. “You don’t have any weapons. How’d you kill it?”
Tia stepped away from Brachia and faced Matthew. “That’s a good question. How did we do it? Something happened with my ring. It drew Power from my reserve, and I used it against the imp.”
Matthew nodded his head and looked down at his ring. “Same here. It was almost like the gem in my ring mixed my Power with something else before the green beam shot out and hit the imp’s ball of energy.” He glanced at Brachia before looking back at Tia. “I think it was magic.”
“The green beam?” asked Brachia brushing the last of the icicles out of his hair.
Shaking his head, Matthew said, “No. Not the beam. Well…maybe, but what I really mean is whatever my Power mixed with. It’s like the ring, or rather the gem, took my Power and turned it into a form of magic. It was pretty strange.”
“Really?” asked Brachia, drawing closer to Matthew and peering down at his ring. “I’ll bet I could set up some experiments and—”
Four medical personnel rushed in through the lab’s door. The chief medical officer took a quick look around the room before keying in on Matthew, Tia, and Brachia. “Who’s hurt?”
“Nobody,” said Brachia.
“He is,” said Matthew pointing at the boy. “He was knocked down during the explosion.”
“I fell,” insisted Brachia. “I wasn’t knocked down. I’m fine. I don’t need any help.”
The chief medical officer suppressed a grin. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that? I’d hate to think all those years of studying medicine at the university were for nothing.” Nodding his head at one of his assistants, he said, “Now, this nice young man is going to take you to sick bay. After we give you a thorough checkout, you’ll be back here running your experiments in no time.”
Wizard Defender (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 8) Page 32
