by J. J. Green
“And once you’re inside?”
“I want to search it. I think there may be information there that’s useful to me.”
“From what I understand, this place is very large. Searching it thoroughly will take a long time and it doesn’t sound like you know exactly what you’re looking for.”
Carina didn’t have a good answer for the lieutenant colonel. She reached out and stopped the globe. “According to what my brother remembers, the Dirksen headquarters must be somewhere in this mountain range.” She pointed at the place in the landscape. “He says he’ll recognize the route if he goes there again.”
“So we have to approach during daylight,” said Cadwallader. His expression was doubtful.
Carina hoped he wasn’t going to back out. The protocol for accepting work had changed since she’d left the Black Dogs: no more suicide missions, no matter what the payment. Her history with the band wouldn’t have any influence. She knew if Cadwallader thought the assignment too dangerous he would refuse it, and the men and women would follow his decision regardless of any friendship with her.
“We won’t be relying entirely on your support,” she said. “Don’t forget we have unusual capabilities ourselves.”
“Hmm, yes,” said Cadwallader, “your ‘special powers’.” His tone was skeptical.
They were alone in the mission room. Carina looked around for something she could use for a demonstration. She didn’t like the idea of Casting just to prove a point, but she needed Cadwallader to believe her if they were to factor the mages’ abilities into their planning.
As her gaze roved the room, a lump suddenly came to her throat and her vision blurred.
“Is something wrong, Carina?” asked Cadwallader.
He’d never called her by her first name before. It made her feel worse.
She rubbed her eyes with the heels of her hands. “The last person I had this conversation with was Captain Speidel.”
“You told John about these powers too?” Cadwallader’s usually deadpan expression broke. He looked taken aback.
“I made him swear never to tell anyone,” said Carina. “I said my life depended on it.” She’d guessed that Cadwallader and Speidel might have been more than fellow officers.
She swallowed and continued, “It was how I knew exactly where Darius was when we went to rescue him. I had the tracker the Dirksens had cut out of him. I used it to Cast Locate to find him. But I had to tell Speidel how I knew the location of the child or he would never have authorized the mission.”
“I remember,” Cadwallader said softly. “He was hazy about the intel, which wasn’t like him. I trusted that he knew what he was doing.”
Carina hung her head. “I’m so sorry he died.”
A silence followed, an informal moment of remembrance.
“John was no fool,” Cadwallader said. He sighed and then appeared to draw himself together. “I’m prepared to be impressed. When you’re ready, Lin.” He spoke briskly. The wall was up again.
Carina had seen an interface screen that she could Transport, but then she had an idea for something more impressive. It would make Cadwallader realize how useful the mage children could be during the infiltration of the mountain castle. She comm’d Darius.
“Hi, Carina,” he piped in reply.
“Could you come to the mission room?”
“Sure!”
“I want him to show you something special,” Carina said to Cadwallader. “You might be surprised to hear it, but Darius is the most powerful mage among us—probably the most powerful mage in this sector.”
“Darius is the little boy who was kidnapped?”
“That’s right.”
“That is surprising. So this ability is nothing to do age or training?”
“It does require training, but basically you’re born a mage or not. My youngest sister, Nahla, has no ability at all. Most of the rest of them are like me—we needed to learn and practice our skills. Darius is naturally gifted. He can even invent his own Casts, something I’d never even heard of.
“I guess this is a good time to tell you about Castiel too. For a long time, everyone thought he was like Nahla, entirely without any mage powers. But when he hit puberty his ability suddenly developed. It was a bad sign. I don’t know a lot about it, but from what I understand that usually happens if the person is a Dark Mage.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not. For a long time, Castiel has lived up to the image. He’s done some terrible things. Now he says he’s come over to our side and wants to be a part of the family again… but I don’t believe him. It’s pure expediency to get what he wants.”
“And what’s that?” Cadwallader asked.
“I honestly don’t know. All I know is we mustn’t ever trust him. He could turn on us any minute. Of all the kids, he’s the most like his father, and his father was a monster.”
“Okay, noted.” Cadwallader turned his attention to the mountain range on the holo of Ostillon as they waited for Carina’s youngest sibling.
A few moments later, Darius arrived.
“Hey, Carina,” he said as the mission room door drew back. He ran up to her and gave her a hug, though it had only been a couple of hours since they’d seen each other at breakfast.
“Hey, sweetie,” she replied. “Could you show the lieutenant colonel one of your Casts?”
“Okay! Which one do you want me to do?”
“I was wondering if you could Cast Guise again.”
“Of course I can. Who should I Cast it on? You?”
“I thought maybe you could do it on him.”
Cadwallader looked concerned. “Um…What does this entail exactly?”
“You don’t have to do anything,” said Carina. “And, don’t worry, it won’t hurt.”
“I hadn’t imagined it might hurt until you said that.” Cadwallader seemed to be joking.
Darius was studying the man carefully. He wasn’t as familiar with the mercs as he was with Bryce, Carina supposed, so he needed time to take in his appearance. It was something worth remembering if she wanted Darius to impersonate someone during the attempt to infiltrate the Dirksen headquarters.
Her little brother took his elixir canister from his belt and drank some of the liquid.
“I wondered why you all carried those flasks,” Cadwallader said.
Darius’s eyes closed. Then he became Cadwallader.
The real one swore and stepped backward, stumbling over his own feet. He turned so white Carina thought he might faint or vomit.
“It’s only an illusion,” she said. “Nothing more.”
Cadwallader tried to regain some composure, straightening his jacket, but he continued to stare at Darius/Cadwallader. Carina wondered if she’d gone too far. She hadn’t intended to frighten the officer. She guessed she’d forgotten he’d never seen even the simplest Cast before, let alone one of Darius’s off-the-wall extravaganzas.
“Remarkable” Cadwallader said finally. “I presume he can change back? Having two of us around might be confusing.”
“Casts are temporary,” said Carina. “He can’t change back at will—or I think you can’t, can you, Darius?”
The copy of Cadwallader shook his head.
“But the Cast will fade soon,” she continued, “and then he’ll be back to normal.”
“I can’t deny it’s extremely convincing,” said Cadwallader. “Can I touch you, Darius?”
“Sure,” he replied. “I don’t mind.”
The merc approached Darius, reaching out a hand. He touched ‘his’ chest, and his hand disappeared. “There’s nothing there. I can’t feel a thing.” His tone was wondrous.
His arm moved downward.
“That’s my head!” Darius exclaimed.
Cadwallader chuckled. “Extraordinary.” He turned to Carina, withdrawing his arm from his fake twin. “He appears to be altering light somehow, creating an illusion.”
“It seems to be a f
undamental law of Casting that we can’t create something from nothing. We can only alter or move what’s already there.”
“Is this what helped you to be a good soldier?” asked Cadwallader.
“No,” Carina replied. “I hardly ever Cast while I was on duty. It was too dangerous for me. I didn’t want to get found out. Once people know what you can do, it just brings a whole world of trouble, believe me. That’s why I’d appreciate it if you and the rest of the Black Dogs never tell anyone else about us.”
Cadwallader nodded.
Carina was relieved she didn’t have to go to the effort of trying to convince him of the truth of her words.
“You understand I can’t guarantee that, however?” he said. “Soldiers get injured and retire or they simply leave. I can’t police what they do when they’re no longer under my authority.”
“I know. If I find what I need on Ostillon, me and my family will hopefully be far away before word gets out.”
Suddenly, Cadwallader’s mouth dropped open. “The defense of the embassy! The enemy soldiers disappearing. That was real. It was you!”
“I didn’t have a choice,” Carina said. “We would all have died if I hadn’t done something.”
“Huh! I didn’t believe it for a minute. I thought it was battle stress making the troops hallucinate.”
“We were stressed, but it was real.”
The second Cadwallader disappeared and Darius stood in his place, looking pleased with himself. The original squatted to get down to his eye level and ruffled the boy’s dark brown mop of hair. “You’re a smart boy, aren’t you? Your sister’s proud of you. She doesn’t say it, but I can tell. And so she should be. You’re going to be a big help when we pay the Dirksens a visit.”
Cadwallader stood up. “It’s time your siblings received some basic training if you intend for them to take part in this mission. They’ll need weapons as well as their powers if they’re to defend themselves against armed soldiers. Unless you have a Cast that stops pulse fire?”
“No. Not even Darius can do that. But I’ve already given my siblings some weapons training. And Bryce went through Basic with the Sherrerrs.”
“Good. Then all we need to do is get them working as a team with the troops.”
“Oh, I didn’t think that would be necessary.”
“You didn’t?” Cadwallader asked. “Then what was your plan? You haven’t detailed anything.”
Carina sighed. “That’s because I don’t have one.”
“The powers you and your family possess are impressive, but they aren’t all you need more than that to get inside the Dirksens’ mountain castle and keep you safe while you search it. Otherwise you wouldn’t be paying for our services. I’ve noticed you seem to be going to some effort to keep your siblings and the Black Dogs apart, but the only way you’re going to succeed in your endeavor is if both parties work together.”
“That’s what I was afraid of,” Carina said.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Telling the Black Dogs about the mages’ abilities had been unavoidable. Carina had realized that before she made contact with them. Working in proximity, it was inevitable that the mercs would see the mages Casting. She’d gotten the information out in the open right from the start, but the act had weighed heavily on her. Nai Nai had conditioned her to deeply fear exposure, and for good reason: the old woman had lost her son and daughter-in-law to a trap laid by Stefan Sherrerr.
In the end, Carina had decided that the risk was worth it if it meant they could discover the information they needed to find Earth. If they had that they could leave the sector forever, hopefully before the mercs could turn on them.
It was the period between the telling and the leaving that worried her. Bryce had shown her that not all non-mages were out to exploit and enslave her, and she trusted certain members of the Black Dogs, like Stevenson, Cadwallader, and Atoi. However, to many of them she was nothing more than an ex-merc. They had no history with her, no comradeship or sense of obligation. She couldn’t predict what they might do once they had thought through the possibilities. Others, like Chandu, she didn’t trust at all.
So it wasn’t only Bryce’s concern about Parthenia’s vulnerability that had motivated Carina to keep her siblings away from the mercs, it was also a fear of familiarity between the two groups. She didn’t want her brothers or sisters to feel comfortable and relax their guard around the military men and women.
But Cadwallader’s logic was faultless: she couldn’t expect to get into the Dirksen headquarters without a coordinated plan including the mages and the mercs. They would have to try out plans and rehearse the steps together.
The problem was, they had nowhere to practice. Neither the Duchess nor the Zenobia had facilities for military training. When Carina had been with the Black Dogs they had trained in uninhabited regions of sparsely populated planets. But as far as she knew, no such places existed between them and Ostillon, and she didn’t want to waste time with a diversion. Each day that passed ate through the value of the goods in the hold.
Several days after their first discussion about the assignment Cadwallader asked Carina to join him again in the mission room.
“I asked Stevenson to keep an eye on the scan data for a place we could use for a rehearsal,” he said as she entered the room. “He found this.” Ostillon had been replaced on the holo display by another world she didn’t recognize. “We’re three cycles out from it. With the opportunity to train it allows the diversion will be worth the extra time, I believe.”
“I don’t think it’s safe to set down on an inhabited planet,” she said. “I don’t want to take the risk.”
“It isn’t inhabited,” said Cadwallader. “It’s a rogue planet.”
“No kidding.” She stepped closer to the spinning sphere. “What liquid is making up those oceans?”
“It’s water. Geothermal energy is keeping the place above zero degrees. It even has a magnetosphere and it’s retained a hydrogen and helium atmosphere. We would have to adapt some EVA suits for the children.”
“You can’t Cast in an EVA suit,” Carina said, tapping her elixir canister.
“I don’t see why not,” said Cadwallader. “A water supply can be fitted inside for long assignments. That stuff you drink is just another liquid.”
“Hmm. Good point. I guess I’d never thought about it. What’s the planet’s gravity?”
“That’s the catch. It’s one point six standard.”
Carina grimaced. The children were entirely unused to moving about while weighing more than fifty percent heavier than their regular weight. And the argument that training in high-grav made you fitter for fighting at lower gravities didn’t apply to this situation. You didn’t need to be fit to Cast.
“The troops have to rehearse somewhere,” said Cadwallader. “They’ve never worked with mages before, and probably won’t ever again, though that’s beside the point. You know the drill. It’s usually us versus combatants. But this time around there’s going to be a bunch of kids performing magic tricks, getting in the way most likely, and strange stuff will be happening that’s going to throw the soldiers off their game. They need to know what to expect. And do you want your brothers and sisters to be around a firefight without any idea of what’s going on? I don’t need to tell you how dangerous that is. It isn’t only the Black Dogs who need these rehearsals, it’s the mages too.”
“I know, I know,” Carina said. She took a breath. “Okay. We’re three days out, you say? That should be enough time to modify some suits.”
“Right. I suggest this area for the rehearsal.” Cadwallader pointed to a mountainous area on one of the globe’s continents. The data indicated there should be plenty of caves. “Maybe we can find a cavern to represent the mountain castle.”
***
The younger children became alive with excitement when they heard the news. Carina had brought them into her and Bryce’s cabin to tell them.
“Do we get to
fire weapons?” Oriana asked, her eyes shining.
“Probably not,” replied Carina. “Your role is to Cast, remember?”
Oriana’s mouth turned down in a pout. “But we will be armed, right?”
“Yes, you’ll be armed because you’ll be armed for the real thing since you need a weapon to defend yourself. But the aim of the exercise is to practice working with the mercs. They’re the ones who’ll be doing most of the shooting.”
“Cool!” Ferne exclaimed.
“Am I coming too?” Nahla asked.
There was an awkward pause. Nahla couldn’t Cast, and as a child she certainly couldn’t fight. There was nothing she could do except get in the way, and while the last thing Carina wanted to do was hurt her little sister’s feelings, she couldn’t afford to spare them when her presence could put others at risk.
“Not this time,” she said. “But when you’re a bit bigger I’ll teach you everything I know about fighting.”
Sweet-natured Nahla seemed satisfied with this response.
Then Castiel said, “You can’t join in because you aren’t good enough. You’ll just get in the way.”
Nahla’s eyes grew shiny and her chin trembled.
“Castiel,” said Carina through clenched teeth, “I swear, one more comment like that and you’ll be back in the brig, sharing a cell with that mutant in Lomang’s crew. I bet he hasn’t forgotten how you betrayed them.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” Castiel said. “You need me.”
“No, we don’t,” said Parthenia. “We can manage perfectly well without you.”
“Try me,” Carina added. “Have you ever known me not to follow through on a threat?”
Castiel glared at her but he said nothing.
“So what’s the plan?” Bryce asked.
Things between him and Carina had been at a stalemate since their most recent spat. They were civil but nothing more. Carina didn’t know if Bryce had stopped bothering her because he’d realized he was being an idiot or because he’d decided he didn’t want to be with her but was waiting for a good moment to tell her.
She still felt the same about him and would be heartbroken if he wanted to split up, but she knew she’d done nothing wrong and had nothing to apologize for. If anyone needed to apologize it was Bryce, for his unfounded, ridiculous, and shaming accusations and for embarrassing her in front of her friends.
