***
It didn’t take Yon long to set the Machine up. There wasn’t really any set up to speak of. He opened the leather case to reveal what looked like an oversized camera. The brass tube on the front where the lens would have been on a camera instead housed a dark colored glass bulb. Yon lifted the whole thing out of its case and buckled it to his chest with a series of leather straps. Next he pulled a small metal box and set it carefully down on the ground.
“What’s that?” I asked as he knelt down beside it.
“That is a very expensive Carinodite Stone. It is what provides the relative resonance that is then enhanced by the spectroscopic field.”
I think he said it was what made the Machine work, but I wasn’t sure. He opened up a smaller compartment on the machine and a drawer slid out. Inside the compartment was a depression of the exact shape of the stone Yon took from the box. He placed it carefully inside and slid it back into the Machine. Standing up, he turned toward the corpse and flipped a switch mounted on the side of the gadget.
I don’t know exactly what I expected, but what happened next was not it. The Machine began to hum and increase in pitch as it cycled up in power. The sound increased in volume until suddenly it gave a small pop and then went quiet.
“Did you break it?” I practically yelled over the ringing in my ears.
“No, Boss. It’s working,” Yon played the purple light emanating from the Machine’s brass tube over the corpse. “This is amazing.”
“What?” I asked. All I could see was a purple glow that made the grisly visage of Elsa Davenritch that much worse.
“You see here?” Yon indicated an area just to Elsa’s left shoulder. “That was the spell the Old Timer saw.”
“I don’t see anything, Yon.”
“It’s right…oh. That’s right. You can’t see it. It’s out of your visual spectrum.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know. What do you see? Was it Elven Magic?”
“Well that’s what it looks like,” He replied absentmindedly. He fanned the air in front of him as if waving away smoke. “Sensational.”
“Well, why can this contraption pick it up and the ‘Magic Sniffers’ couldn’t?”
“Carinodite is more sensitive to magic than a hound’s nose.” Yon answered in a voice that implied that everyone knew that. “That’s interesting…”
“What?” I was coming to realize I didn’t like not being able to see in the infrared.
“There’s a spectral trail.” Yon answered as he moved around the corpse.
I glanced over my shoulder to see how close the Captain and his men were.
“Can you follow it?” I asked in a low voice.
“It’s kinda of faint here, but I bet it gets stronger the closer we get to the source.”
“The source being the Elven Artifact. Right?”
“Absolutely,” Yon answered.
“Then let’s.”
“What about Captain VanDarn? Shouldn’t we tell him?”
“If it is an Elven Artifact, I’d rather not have a bunch of Civil Watch Soldiers handling it. Besides, my client is still missing. I bet when we find the Artifact, we’ll find Mr. Jerrit,” I said quietly.
“What if we run into an Elf Warrior. The Old Timer said he saw one.”
“I’m packing the piece you made me, with the Heavies for ammo. I could take down a Trollkin. We’ll be okay.”
“You’re the boss, Boss.” Yon moved off away from the crime scene following a trail I couldn’t see. Maybe, after this, I could get Yon to make me some infrared spectacles.
“I was right,” he said. “The trail is getting brighter.”
I followed along behind Yon as he led the way with the eerie purple light guiding us closer and closer to the edge of Hammertown. Soon we had wandered away from the crime scene and down a side alley. The surroundings gradually changed as we proceeded, becoming less and less respectable. Houses were vacant more oft than not, until we found ourselves among the sparsely lit foundry warehouses that used to be the busiest part of the city. Now they stood like ghosts from a lost age of prosperity.
Glass from busted streetlamps crunched under our feet as Yon continued across a good sized parking lot towards a dingy-looking structure that might have once been a breakroom or a bunkhouse for the surrounding stockyards. Yon was navigating by infravision. I was following the light from the Scrying Machine. I had drawn my gun a few blocks back, thinking that the surroundings and circumstances warranted that I carry it at the ready.
The pungent smell that wafted out of the doorway was awful. I almost vomited from the sickly-sweet aroma of rotting meat. I could hear rats scurrying away into the dark as we entered.
“Slow down, Yon,” I whispered. “Some of us can’t see.”
“Huh? What was that, Boss?” Yon whispered back.
I grunted, a little frustrated. I didn’t want to announce my handicap too loudly without any way of knowing who or what we were following. Or how close they were.
There was a slight pop, a hissing sound, and then sparks flew from the casing of the Scrying Machine. Yon yelped and fell backward into a heap. The light from the Scrying Machine went out, plunging us into the smothering darkness.
“Yon?!” I cried out, still trying to be quiet. “Yon?! Are you okay? Yon!?”
There was a scuffling sound in front and to the left of me, but I couldn’t see what it was. I moved forward with my gun extended, groping my way slowly over to where I had last seen Yon. Without warning, something hammered into my forearm. My hand went numb and my piece clattered off into the room somewhere. Stars exploded in the blackness as something that felt like a brick hammered me in the jaw, and pain lanced through me as more blows rained down from the darkness. I stumbled, and then fell. I think I was blacking out, but since it was already too dark to see, I really couldn’t tell.
“Stand down and back away slowly!” Boomed a voice from the doorway.
The scratch and hiss of a match lighting echoed in the room, and suddenly harsh orange light blazed to life. I could barely see. My left eye was swelling shut, but at least I could still see out of my right one. There, standing over me was a real, live elf with my blood dripping from the runed metal straps encircling his leather clad knuckles. He was dressed in thick black animal hides and wearing a jacket with a metal guard covering his right shoulder. Strange runes were painted in red around the edges of his outfit, and there, on a cord around his neck, was the artifact that Kenson Jerrit had described to me.
“You okay, Locke?” Fendleton asked from the doorway. He stood there with a scattergun aimed at the Elf’s belly. “You, back up.”
“Yon?” I crawled over toward the wall where Yon lay in a crumpled heap. There was blood all over his face from a gash in his forehead, and there was enough of it that I couldn’t tell how bad he was injured. “Yon? Talk to me.”
“Can we get a medic in here?” Fendleton shouted over his shoulder and moved forward into the room. Another Civil Watch soldier, one I had never seen before, eased into the room carrying a twin to Fendleton’s scattergun.
Yon groaned and shifted. I let out a relieved breath. At least he was alive. I looked back at the Elf just as the Artifact around his neck lit up.
Red light flashed out from the edge of the disc, and the sigils engraved in its face glowed like molten metal. The Elf snatched the cord from his neck like it had suddenly burned him, and cast it into the center of the room. Both of the Civil Watch scatterguns went off at once, as it flared up and out into an oval of shimmering red. The air was suddenly filled with the stone shrapnel blasted out of the back wall from the scatterguns, but the Elf had already moved.
“Stratus Verdus!” The Elf screamed and green fire burst forth from the runes inscribed on his gloves that were still covered with my blood.
The blast of heat was intense. I covered Yon as best as I could as the blistering flames rolled above us. The green fire caught
the two Watch soldiers off guard. They hadn’t had too many dealings with magic. Probably none with combat magic, so it took them completely by surprise. The flames only lasted for a moment, but it was enough to incinerate poor Fendleton and his partner.
I scrambled around the floor, looking desperately for my dropped gun as two more Elves emerged from the glowing vortex that had appeared over the Artifact. One was definitely a female, but I couldn’t tell about the other one because it was clad in armor. The female was carrying a longbow, with an arrow nocked and ready, and was dressed in black leather similar to the male. The only difference was the runes. The runes were golden on the female elf’s outfit. The others’ armor was also trimmed with golden runes, and a winged helmet with the visor down covering its head. It carried a shield and a wicked looking silver mace, also with matching runes. The female immediately dodged to the left as her companion peeled off to the right.
I finally found my gun as Captain VanDarn and two more Watch Soldiers poured into the room.
“Take cover!” I screamed at them through torn and bloodied lips. “Elves! Elves! Three of them and they’re armed.”
VanDarn immediately went low, and for a dwarf that’s saying something. The other two Guards were a little slower, but they followed their Captain’s lead, getting low and scrambling in to opposite sides of the room.
The Elven male had disappeared through a doorway in the back of the room, just as two black arrows buried themselves into the door frame. The other two Elves immediately flanked each side of it, the Huntress nocking another arrow. I aimed at the nearest, but something about the way these two acted stopped me from pulling the trigger. I didn’t think she had accidentally fired at the Male Elf.
Apparently, the Guards hadn’t noticed. Another scattergun blast sent more brick and mortar shards into the air, spraying the two new comers. The armored Elf turned back towards us. We had suddenly warranted their attention. The runes around the edge of its shield lit up in sequence and as the circle was completed a bubble appeared around them.
“Don’t fire!” I shouted at the Watch Guards. “I think these two are after the third.”
“I don’t care if they’re bloody cousins, Locke!” Captain VanDarn bellowed back. “They’re bloody ELVES!”
VanDarn rose up and fired the scattergun at the doorway, but the glowing bubble seemed to deflect the shot harmlessly around them. Seeing it had no effect, he fired the second shot just for good measure, and then dropped back down to reload behind the rubble pile he had been using for cover.
The armored Elf said something to the Huntress. She nodded and swung around the doorway and into the blackness beyond.
“This is of no concern to you, human,” It said to me. The voice was female and her Common Speech had a weird accent to it. “We shall deal with the Taker.”
Armor propped the shield up next to the door and spun through after her partner. I noticed that the runes on the shield were going out slowly one by one in the same order that they had lit up in.
“I need some help, Captain. Yon’s hurt pretty bad, and I can’t drag him to the door.” Gnomes and dwarves have very thick bones and hides. That made them heavier than men. It was why they stayed away from large bodies of water. They had a tendency to sink like stones. Gnomes weren’t quite as bad, but they were still heavier than they looked. I had moved away from Yon, and was now closer to the shield than I was to him. I didn’t want to turn my back to it when trouble could emerge from it at any second.
“Duggins, get over there and haul the gnome out. Shims, you cover him.”
“Yes, Sir.” They both responded and went to work.
VanDarn zigzagged across the room over to where I sat propped up against the wall.
“How did you find us?” I asked.
“’Magic Sniffers’,” He replied, still watching the doorway.
“I thought the trail was too cold for them.”
“Aye. It were for them, but the trail from that Machine of yorn ’twas really fresh.” He said, eyeing me, “Are ye a’right?”
I nodded.
“Good. Cuz when we get outta this, I’m gonna…”
The last rune on the shield went out and a shaft of black energy shot through the doorway, stabbing through VanDarn’s shoulder plate and knocking him backwards. I rose up and fired off a quick three rounds, taking no time to aim. It was more just to drive the attacker back to cover than anything else.
“Grrrargh!” VanDarn grunted through clenched teeth. “That pinches a wee bit.”
The shaft of energy had vanished and blood poured out from under the armor. I’m not sure how much a dwarf can lose before he bleeds out, but at the rate he was going I don’t think it would take long. The light from the Artifact had died and it lay there in the glow from the exposed wood that had caught fire earlier. Duggins and Shims had gotten Yon through to safety during the lull, and now I could see them peeking around the main door.
“You, Duggins, same drill,” I waved at VanDarn. He nodded and started back inside.
“I ain’t goin’ anywhere, ya bloody daft human…” Captain VanDarn whispered, but he had already turned pale and the effort it took to speak was too much. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he went limp.
I reloaded and stayed there covering them as Duggins dragged their boss across the rubble. The back rooms had gotten really quiet, but no one emerged.
“How many of you are there?” I asked Shims, who had come up beside me to help me cover the door.
“We’re it,” He said a little shakily. “What’s worse is no one knows we’re here. The Captain was pretty hot when he found out you had gone off on your own. He didn’t even take the time to call it in.”
“So nobody’s coming to the rescue, then.”
“Nope. We got your friend in the patrol wagon, he’s not in too bad a shape. He needs medical help soon though, and I’m not sure about the Cap’n.”
“Okay. It’s gotten awfully quiet back there, and I’m not sure if there is a back exit to this place. So you go back out and get with Duggins. One of you take our two injured and get them to a hospital. Call it in from there and give them our location. The other one of you needs to circle around the building, and if there is a back exit, cover it. We don’t want a bunch of Elves terrorizing Hammertown. And make sure of who you’re shootin’ at. I don’t wanna chase them out the back and get shot by friendly fire. Unless you’ve got a better plan…”
“Sounds good.” Shims nodded and backed toward the door.
I scrambled over to where the artifact lay, now cold and lifeless. I still didn’t know how true the stories were about these things. So I picked it up with the kerchief from the pocket inside my coat, being careful not to touch it with my bare hand. Wrapping it up, I stuffed it back into that same pocket.
Instincts took over and I ducked down as there was a huge clanging boom from the back room. A brief flash of green light followed close behind it. That made me think, it was really dark back there. Elves also had infravision, which left me once again handicapped by heredity. I was definitely going to see about getting me some infravision spectacles. Maybe goggles, I thought. I wouldn’t want them flying off during the action with all the rolling around that I was doing.
Picking up a plank that was still burning, I tossed it through the back doorway and into the darkness beyond. It gave off enough light to see by, but just barely. Armor was down. I could see her in the flickering glow. I didn’t know if she was dead, but she wasn’t moving. I darted into the room and took cover behind some old metal shelving that was laying there. I expected an attack of some sort, but the other two Elves must’ve been too busy trying to sneak up on each other to worry with me.
Armor lay flat on the ground, away from any possible cover. Her helmet had been knocked off during the battle, and her armor looked like it had taken a direct hit from whatever magic Elfboy had been throwing around. I knew fr
om stories that Takers could pack some pretty nasty spells. She was still breathing. I didn’t know if that was a good thing, her being an elf and all, but these two hadn’t tried to beat me to a bloody pulp when we first met, so I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. She was too exposed where she was at, but she wasn’t a threat to Elfboy at the moment either. I glanced around and didn’t see anyone so I eased over to her side.
Her face was bruised and battered, but very beautiful. Even with the ugly Elven Runes tattooed around her left eye and down on her cheek. She groaned as I touched her neck. I looked around for her mace, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“Foolish human.” Came a voice from the shadows. “Compassion is for the weak. Exactly why your kind will fall to my own. Your weakness has become your end.”
The air shimmered and Elfboy was abruptly standing in front of me with one hand raised to cast and the other holding a small bubble of energy identical to the one the shield had produced, only smaller. I froze.
At that moment a scattergun blast echoed over my head, and I ducked down out of reflex. Bits of flesh and blood blew out from the Taker’s leg. He screamed and dropped to one knee. The hand he had been preparing to cast a spell from switched targets from me to the door behind me. I turned just in time to see Captain VanDarn, pale as death, stumble in carrying a smoking scattergun. His momentum carried him on over behind the shelves that I had taken cover behind earlier. Dark shards of black energy riddled Shims as he came through the door behind the Captain. Shims screamed and fell back, disappearing into the front room.
The Taker started spouting more of those Elven words as VanDarn whirled out from behind his cover and fired again. A giant ghostly hand appeared in the air and pulled the ground up between them. The scattergun blast hammered into the Earthen Shield, scattering debris out in a harmless puff of dirt. The hand vanished and the ground sank back into place. VanDarn went down to one knee and scrambled to reload, favoring his wounded shoulder.
Elfboy smiled and eased forward. He still held his shield. His hand was once again extended to cast. I’d like to say I acted out of bravery. I’d like to say I had thought the whole thing out. Truth is, I just reacted. I raised my own pistol and pointed it at the Taker. I could see him grinning through the energy barrier that formed his bubble shield. Knowing it was useless, I fired off all four rounds in quick succession.
I’m not really sure who was more stunned, the Taker or me. Sparks flew as the first round hit the shield. Then again as the second and third round hit. The fourth round hit and the bubble of energy flickered and winked out. The look of surprise was pinned to his face by the black arrow that suddenly sprouted from his throat.
Huntress walked out of the darkness, still drawing and firing. Two more arrows buried themselves in the Takers chest. She fired one last arrow into the body as it crumpled over.
“Enough, lady. He’s dead already,” I said in exasperation.
“You can never be too sure with Takers,” She replied in perfect Common Speech. She didn’t even have an accent. “Thank you for drawing his fire.”
“Don’t expect it to happen again,” I tried my best to cover the fact that I hadn’t even known she was there. “Captain VanDarn?”
“Call me Orin,” VanDarn called back weakly. “Is he ded?”
“Yeah, I’d say so.” I replied, never taking my eyes off the Huntress.
“Good. I’ll kill ye later, Locke. I’m too bloody tired right now.”
“Okay, Cap. Just hang in there.” He groaned and mumbled something in reply that I’m not going to repeat. “So how do we resolve this?” I asked her.
“You could just let me use the Gate Anchor and I could leave.”
“You mean the Artifact.” She nodded. “That would be one way, but I have a problem with that…”
“And what might that be?” she asked. I’m not sure what it was, but it was as if I was suddenly very close to danger. She never changed her stance or demeanor, but I knew the next words out of my mouth might determine whether I lived or died.
“The dwarf that was carrying that Gate Anchor…He’s still missing.”
The tension was suddenly gone.
“The Taker captured him. They sent him through the gate. He is beyond your help now.”
“What happens to the Gate once you’re through?”
“Once it collapses you can lock it away, or destroy it. It matters not to me.”
“Why were you and Armor there…”
“Haibo Ardinvare, and I am Talim Kender.”
“Nice to meetcha, m’am. I’m Sebastion Locke. Now, why were you and Haibo there hunting down a Taker? Aren’t you both on the same side?”
“There is a small faction, very small, that believes what the Elven Nation is doing is wrong. We are part of that faction.”
“What are Takers doing in Hammertown? There is nothing that could possible interest you here,” I asked as I walked over to check on VanDarn. The bleeding had stopped, but he was still extremely pale. Talim checked on her friend too.
“How did you get enough ‘umpfh’ to get back in the fight anyway?” I whispered to him. “You looked like you were done for.”
“Dwarven magic, me friend. A trade secret,” He grunted back. “Maybe one day I’ll tell ye.”
“On the contrary…” she called over her shoulder. “You have what the Elven Nation is running in very short supply of.”
“What is that?”
“Blood Sacrifices,” Talim replied in a neutral voice. “The magic of the Elven Nation is Blood Magic. Sorcery. The more powerful the spell, the more blood that is needed. The Elven Nation is getting low on sacrifices. So it sends out its Takers. I actually do not think Hammertown was the target. I think the Taker was summoned prematurely. Perhaps by accident.”
I stood up and turned around in shocked silence unsure as to how to reply to that. I had never really thought about how their magic worked. I walked over to the doorway where Shims had been hit. He groaned, but didn’t move.
“Where’s Duggins, Shims?”
“He took the gnome to the hospital. Cap’n wouldn’t go…” he said weakly. “ Cap’n took some stuff from his medkit…said he’d be fine.”
“I know. It’ll be okay, we just have to wait for help to arrive. Just hold tight.”
“I am sorry I could not stop the Taker sooner,” Talim said from behind me.
“Cripes, Lady!” I spun around, startled. “Stop sneaking around.”
“I am sorry.”
“Look. All I want to know is how to keep them out of Hammertown. Tell me that, and you can go back to wherever you came from.”
“I do not know how. We disrupt the small expeditions when we can, but we haven’t discovered a way to keep them from sending Takers out.”
“Do you have any way of warning me then? So at least I know when to gear up for trouble.”
“I cannot guarantee anything, Sebastion Locke, but what warning I can give to you I will. Here.” She reached inside her jacket and withdrew a small, clear gemstone about the size of a coin. “This stone will glow bright red when a Gate Anchor is used close by.”
“That sure ain’t much, lady. Hammertown is a pretty good sized piece of real estate.”
“It is all I can offer.”
I nodded and took out the artifact, handing it over to her as we walked back to where Haibo Ardinvare still lay. I watched Talim as she placed it on the ground. Then she picked Haibo up in her arms and cradled her like a mother would a sick child. Haibo murmured and struggled weakly.
“Quiet, Haibo,” She whispered as the Gate flared to life. “Soon we will be back at Charon’s and she will take care of your wounds.”
“Try not to get yourselves killed,” I said as she stepped into the Gate. “We need all the allies we can get.”
“Are we allies then, Sebastion Locke?” She asked.
“I hope so, Lady. ‘Cause you would make a
dangerous enemy.”
“Farewell,” She carried the unconscious Haibo into the Gate, and disappeared. As the light faded, I wondered what would happen next. The Artifact was still warm when I picked it back up. We would have to find a way to secure it. I wasn’t sure how many of the little Gate Anchors there were in Hammertown, but I could at least make sure this one didn’t surprise us again. Elves in Hammertown. I shook my head. Nothing would be the same after finding that out.
The ambulance came and hauled Duggins and Captain VanDarn away. The medics said they would get the best care available. I told them I was fine, and they looked at me like I was crazy.
“Have you looked in a mirror, Mister?” one of them asked as he shook his head.
“I always look like this,” I smiled. Or tried to. It hurt to smile.
“Suit yourself.”
“Can you give me a lift back to Blacksmith’s?” I asked.
“Sure.”
I don’t remember the ride back. I don’t remember driving back to the office. But I do remember the next morning’s paper. The headline read; ‘New Captain of the Watch Foils Elven Invasion of Hammertown.’ The story was well written. That was the only thing I could say about it. Once I sorted out the actual facts from the crap, I learned our glorious new Watch Captain was in decent shape, and would be back on duty in a couple of weeks. I also learned the owner of Johnson’s Delivery had somehow vanished without a trace, leaving all his worldly possessions to the city and putting a lot of people out of work. My name or Yon’s wasn’t even mentioned in the article. The Scrying Machine was busted beyond repair, and to top it all off, I never got paid.
There Shouldn't Be Elves In Hammertown Page 4
