Mercenary Mage - A Dark Space Fantasy (Star Mage Saga Book 4)

by J. J. Green

  Carina recalled the words of Calvaley, the high-ranking Sherrerr officer she’d encountered on Ithiya and then again on the Sherrerr flagship, Nightfall. He’d opined that the clan’s influence brought control and order to chaos, and with them came civilization. Ostillon was testament to his delusion.

  Atoi raised a hand and the line halted.

  Castiel opened a comm to Carina. “It’s around the next bend. I’m sure of it.”

  Atoi said, “Car, you, me, and the kid should go take a look.”

  “I’m coming up,” Carina said. She edged passed the mercs in the line along the narrow track. When she reached the front she joined Atoi and Castiel as they split from the group to walk the final few meters.

  At a sharp edge of the protruding slope, Castiel squatted down. “This is the place the skimmers would turn before heading directly into the mountainside.” He spoke in an unnecessarily soft tone. “Or at least that was how it seemed. In fact, they passed through the illusion and landed in the bay. There were always guards around but not many.”

  “Never any outside?” Atoi asked.

  “No,” Castiel replied.

  “I’ll send in a fire team,” said Atoi. “See what they find.”

  “Wait a minute,” Carina said. “I just thought of something.” She comm’d the whole platoon and her siblings. “There’s gonna be some noise. Don’t panic.”

  Scanning the canyon, she found a boulder. Then she closed her eyes and sipped elixir. After sending out the Transport Cast, she opened her eyes. The small shift in the boulder’s position was all it needed. The rock fell, bouncing down the canyon wall, scattering stones and vegetation, and making enough of a racket to attract the attention of anyone nearby.

  They waited. No one appeared through the illusory wall Castiel claimed to exist or from anywhere else.

  Assured they wouldn’t be ambushed, Atoi picked her fire team and sent them in. Castiel directed the men and women to an exact location, but when they arrived there they stood still, looking around as if confused.

  “Castiel,” said Carina, “you’re going to have to find the wall yourself. I’ll come with you.”

  “But if Sable or Kee see me they’ll recognize me immediately.”

  “Your visor is down, dummy,” Carina replied.

  Castiel still seemed reluctant but he got up. Atoi waited with the remaining mercs while he and Carina walked down toward the supposed opening to the mountain castle.

  When she arrived there, she could see the source of the fire team’s confusion. The division between the real mountain and the illusion was invisible to the unknowing eye. Even Castiel couldn’t find it at first. He moved sideways, pressing his hands to the upright surface as the trail faded away, leaving nothing except vertical slope and a deep drop to rocks below.

  Then his arm slipped into nothingness.

  “It’s here!” he exclaimed. “I found it. I told you it was here.”

  The invisible entrance was almost impossible to walk through. It was easy to understand why the Dirksens had used skimmers to enter and leave the headquarters. Only a tiny fragment of path remained at the edge of the illusion. They were already down to single file. In order to go into the headquarters they would have to walk on tiptoes.

  “Is it solid floor once you’re through?” Carina asked Castiel.

  “Yeah, we’ll enter into a large bay.”

  “All right, go around me. I’ll go in first, followed by the fire team. You return to Atoi and the others.”

  Castiel didn’t need to be told twice. He ran up the slope and disappeared around the rocky protrusion.

  Carina pointed her pulse rifle forward and stepped into rock.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  The entrance chamber of the mountain castle rose four or five stories high and was wide enough to hold five or six skimmers. The marks of that many vehicles were plain to see on the rock floor.

  The place had clearly been created and hadn’t formed naturally, though no marks of cutting tools or drills marked the surface. Carina couldn’t imagine what had carved the chamber. The walls were smooth and polished like the pebbles Nai Nai used to make, the stone highlighted with subtle colors and grains.

  She guessed that at the time the chamber had been created, the walls had been beautiful, but the dust of ages had overlaid them and skimmer exhaust had burned the floor.

  The illusion was maintained on the inside, where an interior wall appeared to rise to the ceiling in the space the skimmers would enter. On closer inspection she realized the patterning was a facsimile of the right hand wall. At the rear of the chamber stood an arched doorway from which no light shone.

  The fire team stepped through the wall behind Carina. She gestured to them to halt and increased her external audio to maximum, but all she could hear was the movement of the night air.

  Returning the audio to its regular setting she walked with the fire team to the far side of the cavern, where an unlit passage led upward from the arched doorway.

  Carina comm’d Atoi. “The place seems deserted. I think it’s safe to bring everyone in.”

  Was she really standing in an underground castle created by mages thousands of years ago? It was too early to tell but the thought sent her heart into her throat.

  One by one, the rest of the mercs stepped through the illusory wall into the skimmer bay. Had the mages even used air transport to reach the place? It seemed unlikely so the trail that petered out at the edge of the entrance would have been only an emergency measure. The mages would have Transported into and out of the place.

  Atoi walked up to Carina. “I’ll send out teams to search the place. You said they should look for paper documents containing star maps, strange writing, that kind of thing, right?”

  “Or anything that seems odd, I guess,” Carina said. It was hard to give clear instructions when she didn’t know what she was looking for herself.

  “If the worse comes to the worst and we don’t find what you need,” said Atoi, “we might find some Dirksen intel we can sell to the Sherrerrs. I can’t imagine they would have been too careful about clearing such a well-hidden site.”

  As she began to divide up and instruct her soldiers, the mages and Bryce appeared through the cavern wall, followed by the remainder of the mercs. The children seemed impressed, standing still and gazing at the ceiling and walls.

  Carina comm’d them. “Hey, we have a job to do, don’t forget. We need to focus.”

  She worried it was mean to hurry them. She knew how they felt. When you grew up differently from everyone around you, separated and cut off from regular life and the dominant culture, to suddenly find yourself in the home of your ancestors, a place where you would have belonged, was an amazing feeling.

  But the mountain castle had also been the Dirksen headquarters on Ostillon. It would never be safe for them to linger there.

  Atoi’s teams were running up the passage out of the chamber. When the kids joined Carina near the doorway, she told them to wait while the mercs checked the interior was empty.

  After several minutes, Atoi said, “Car, from the reports I’m getting back this place is huge. Do you want to wait while we check it top to bottom or start searching it yourselves now?”

  “I don’t want to hang around,” Carina replied. “We’ll begin our search.”

  As she led the children up the passage into the main area of the castle, she said, “Castiel, are you absolutely sure you don’t have any idea where something secret might be hidden?”

  “I already told you I don’t remember anything like that,” he replied. “All I know is the older parts of the castle are different from the areas the Dirksens built.”

  They emerged into a second large chamber, about four times the size of the one at the entrance.

  “This is the great hall,” said Castiel.

  Carina noticed the temperature level on her HUD suddenly drop.

  “Whoa,” said Oriana, “it’s really cold in here.”


  “Yes, it always was,” Castiel said.

  A blackened fireplace stood in one corner and next to it a large, comfortably padded armchair and a small, three-legged table. The rest of the hall was empty.

  “How many floors did you say there are here?” asked Carina.

  “I didn’t,” Castiel replied. “Lots, though.”

  “Are there any below this one?”

  “Yes, but the Dirksens built it. That’s where they put their prisoners.”

  “We aren’t going to find anything the mages may have left down there,” said Carina. “This seems to be the hub. The mages may have created a secret safe somewhere in here. Let’s start by examining these walls.”

  It occurred to her that mages wouldn’t have needed to install a lock or any other external device to open a secret repository. All they would have required was the knowledge of where something was located. They would have been able to Transport the item in and out.

  “Look for a pattern or carving on the walls that might indicate something is behind it,” she added.

  She jogged to the farthest wall and inspected the surface. Like in the entrance chamber it was smooth. She couldn’t imagine what had created the effect. Perhaps the mages of olden times had known more Casts.

  The patterning seemed natural, arising from the rock of the mountain itself, and she couldn’t see any irregularity in the smoothness that would indicate carving.

  She moved quickly along the wall, scanning it and running her hand over it to feel for something she might not see. The children and Bryce were doing the same, but the hall was huge. It would take them a while to check all the parts they could get to, but most of the height of the towering walls was unreachable. And the hall was only one part of the castle.

  A sense of fear and defeat began to grow in her. The task she’d set seemed hopeless. Even if her guess that the mages had left something behind was correct it might take them years to find it.

  Suddenly, Atoi ran back into the hall and crossed toward Carina.

  “What’s happening?” Carina asked her.

  “I think the Dirksens may have left some prisoners behind.”

  “You’re kidding.”

  “Come and see for yourself.”

  Carina told the others to keep looking, and if they didn’t find anything, to try the next level up if it had been declared safe. Then she ran after Atoi, who had disappeared through one of the hall’s openings. She found the other woman waiting in an elevator. They went down together.

  When the elevator doors opened Carina saw three mercs standing in a narrow hallway. The air was hazy and her HUD told her it contained products of combustion. Opened steel doors ran across the passage but the doors in the walls on each side of the soldiers were sealed. Carina heard faint thumping and cries from within.

  “Can’t get the door open, Captain,” said one of the mercs to Atoi. “Tried everything. We can’t even blast them open. The material’s too tough.”

  “Where are the sounds coming from?” asked Carina.

  The woman indicated a door.

  Carina sipped elixir and Cast Unlock. A metallic click was followed by the door swinging slightly ajar.

  “Food,” said a frail voice. “I need food.”

  The merc pulled open the door. Inside the cell, an old man lay on the floor. His body was skeletal, the skin stretched over bones that barely held scraps of flesh. The man’s eyes stared from round, hollow sockets.

  Despite his terrible state, he looked faintly familiar to Carina.

  “Are you Sherrerrs?” the man asked. “Did we win?”

  A bolt struck Carina as she finally recognized him. “Calvaley?” she said, astonished.

  “I am Admiral Calvaley. Who are you?”

  In answer, Carina lifted her visor.

  His features remained confused.

  “How long have you been here?” asked Atoi.

  “I don’t know. Weeks. There is water here but no food. That bitch Sable Dirksen left us to starve.”

  “Us?” Carina said. “There are more of you?”

  “At least one more, but I think he’s dead.”

  Carina stepped out of the cell and Cast Unlock on the remaining doors. In the cell next to Calvaley’s lay another man. He must have once been large. He was very tall, but the weeks of starvation had left him cruelly emaciated. It was the man’s thick black beard and hair—now streaked with white—that clued her in.

  Jace.

  Chapter Forty

  Carina walked heavily into the hall of the mountain castle. The children were standing in a group with Bryce, their visors up.

  On seeing her, Parthenia said, “We can’t find anything here. We’re going up to the next level.”

  “Not just yet,” Carina said. “I have some news. When the Dirksens left the castle, they didn’t take their prisoners with them. They left them to die in the cells on the lower level.”

  “How terrible!” Oriana exclaimed. “Those poor people.”

  “Well, one of those poor people is Jace,” Carina said.

  Seeing Parthenia’s face begin to crumple, she added hastily. “He’s still alive. The medic is with him now. And another prisoner survived, a Sherrerr called Calvaley. You might remember him from the Nightfall. Both of them are very, very ill.”

  “I want to see Jace,” Parthenia said.

  Carina knew there was no point in trying to stop her. Parthenia had formed a special connection with the ranger after he’d helped her and Darius when they first arrived on Ostillon.

  “Go ahead,” she said, “but I warn you he’s almost unrecognizable.”

  Parthenia quickly stepped over to the opening and through it.

  “Shit,” said Atoi over Carina’s comm.

  She thought the merc captain was going to report that Jace had died. But instead, Atoi went on to say, “Stevenson’s just reported he saw five skimmers heading this way.”

  “Five?” Carina said. “Stars, it’s the Dirksens. It has to be. Nothing else on Ostillon is moving.”

  “I know,” Atoi replied. “What do you say? Do you want us to evacuate or defend?”

  “The trail away from here is open to the sky so they’ll see us if we leave. We won’t have time to get under cover. There’s no time to Transport everyone out either.”

  Carina had another reason for staying. Someone among the Dirksen party might know something about ancient documents that had been found there.

  “So we stay and engage them here,” said Atoi. “I was hoping you’d say that. I want a chance to face the people who did this.” She’d remained in the prisoners’ cells with the medic. “I’ll bring everyone down to the hall and we’ll give the Dirksen troops a nice surprise. You get the kids away from the battle.”

  “No,” said Carina. “We can help.”

  “Up to you,” said Atoi stiffly. She closed the comm.

  “The Dirksens are coming,” Carina told the children. “Five skimmers are on their way.”

  “They’re coming here?!” Oriana exclaimed. “What are we going to do?”

  “Carina will protect us,” said Darius.

  “Even she can’t protect you from five skimmers full of Dirksen troops,” Bryce said. “What do we do, Carina?”

  “We should station ourselves in that corner,” she replied, pointing. “It isn’t visible from the door.”

  Mercs began to pour into the hall. Atoi emerged from the basement and her soldiers lined up along the walls nearest the entrance.

  “Darius,” Carina said, “do you remember when you helped me at the Mech Battle? Can you do the same again? Can you Transport the Dirksen soldiers hundreds of kilometers away?”

  “I’d love to do that!”

  “Excellent. The rest of us can do the same,” she said. “Even if we can’t Transport them as far, we should be able to prevent them from returning to the battle in time to be of any help. But wait until I give the signal.”

  They all nodded.

  “
Okay. Lower your visors.”

  “The skimmers are arriving at the bay, Car,” said Atoi.

  “Right,” Carina said to the children. “Remember to stay well back and let the Black Dogs do their work. Don’t Transport any of them by mistake, okay?”

  She gasped.

  “What’s wrong?” Bryce asked.

  “Parthenia’s still in the cells on the lower level.”

  She looked over to the doorway that led to the elevator. It was opposite the hall’s entrance. If Parthenia tried to join them she would be seen by the Dirksens and give the game away.

  “She’ll have to stay there until the battle’s over,” she said resignedly.

  A man in a soldier’s uniform but helmetless walked casually into the hall, his arms relaxed as he held his rifle with the muzzle pointing downward. Behind him strode a woman dressed in a simple, black, silver-edged pantsuit. Her dark brown hair was pulled tightly back in a bun. On each side of her and trailing her slightly were two more helmetless soldiers. A fourth soldier brought up the rear.

  None of the group noticed the mercs or mages spread out in their peripheral vision.

  Atoi was apparently waiting until the Dirksens realized they’d walked into a trap before springing it.

  “Carina, Atoi,” said Stevenson over comm. “Cadwallader’s just told me a corvette has arrived from outsystem and is heading toward Ostillon.”

  “Must be a taxi for the bitch,” Atoi said.

  More soldiers walked into the hallway. Carina couldn’t believe none of them saw the lines of people in armor stretched out on both sides of them. How couldn’t they feel the tension, stretching the air so tight she could almost strum it?

  The dark-haired woman was walking toward the exit that led to the lower level. Carina couldn’t let her go down there, where maybe only one merc and the medic could defend Parthenia. But before she could say anything, there was a movement at her side.

  Castiel was striding forward, his visor and arms raised.

  “Sable!” he yelled. “Watch out! It’s an ambush.”

  The woman, Sable Dirksen, whirled around to see where the voice had come from. Her mouth stretched wide in shock as her eyes took in the sight of a platoon of enemy soldiers in her headquarters.