Wanderers 3: Garden of The Gods (The Wanderers)

by Richard Bamberg

  “Yeah, I guess, but there are already more than enough participants for my taste,” Tess answered.

  I gave her a wink and a grin. “This is why we’re paid the big bucks.”

  “That line is getting old, Rafe. But thanks, your confidence makes me feel better.”

  I gave her a broader smile and nodded. “Good, now let’s get this party started.”

  Taking out another ball bearing, I loaded my sling and cast the bearing into the sky. As I triggered my Cub Scout salute tat, I saw that several of the gods had begun casting spells of their own. Many of the spells were similar to my own–lightning, fire, energy blast, etc.–but here and there, I saw spells cast that I’d never seen before. One god on our right vanished in a swirl of black smoke. When the smoke cleared, there was just an empty spot in their battle line. On our left, the ground shook, knocking several gods off their feet, and then the earth opened beneath two of them. They fell into the chasm, and a moment later it snapped back shut with a thunderous boom.

  Rowle’s dragon landed behind the line of gods on our left, and he dismounted.

  While my metal ball gained altitude and energy, I moved to bring up one of my tricks that I hoped Rowle couldn’t counter.

  “Tess, I may need your strength to help me on this one. Keep pulling all the power you can from the ley lines while I cast this.”

  “You’ve got it,” Tess said as she took my right hand in her left. I immediately felt a surge of power as I drew on her own reservoirs of energy.

  I triggered the portal tat on my right calf while I focused on the memory of the location I wanted to access. I pictured the frozen ground, the ice floes, the wide valley, and the river. Simultaneously, I triggered my levitation tat on the front of my right thigh, and we floated up. We didn’t need much altitude, twenty feet was plenty.

  My portal formed behind where we had stood a minute earlier, but I placed it a few dozen yards to our west. It was a large portal for me, maybe eighty feet across, but it wasn’t the size that caused so much energy to rush out of me. It was the mass of water that flowed through it. Flowing water grounds out magic, and this spell only worked because I had anchored the portal in the air to either side of the waterfall.

  “Head up, Joe!” I shouted loud enough to be heard over the battle.

  The great bear turned toward us, saw my portal beginning to form and moved through the mass of creatures he was fighting on a trajectory that would take him out of the path of devastation. His foes were eager to see him depart and made little effort to stop him.

  The morning filled with thunder that drowned out all other sounds as the great waterfall fell through my portal, parallel to the ground, and flowed toward Rowle’s original portal.

  Swirling mist hid the water from our foe’s view for a few seconds, until the first ranks were already overtaken by the rushing water. All creatures were swept off their feet as the rushing flow scoured the land clean of everything in its path. The waterfall had already fallen nearly a thousand feet by the time it reached my portal, and nothing movable could resist its flow.

  Most of the creatures, even those capable of flight, had no opportunity to escape the tumult before they were swept away and back through the portal to whatever world they came from.

  My portal wasn’t perfectly lined up with Rowle’s portal, and the river tried to spread out across the land. The line of gods to our right drew their battle line closer together, and I saw a shield wall form in front of them. The mass of water swirled toward them, picking up all manner of creatures. It reached their shield and broke against it. Their shield held and forced the rising waters to continue toward Rowle’s portal.

  The other line of gods had been closer and directly in front of where I’d opened the portal. They’d had no time to generate a formidable shield wall. Several levitated above the floodwaters, but many others were swept along with the tide.

  Maybe a quarter of the flow still missed the opening and swept past it into the rest of the park, carrying some creatures, trees, and boulders with it. Those creatures I’d have to locate and remove when everything else was settled.

  Maintaining the portal was a tremendous drain on both my and Tess’s energy, but I had to hold it open until the land between the two portals was free of interlopers. The river, once on the far side of Rowle’s portal, was no longer constrained. It must have spread out and gathered up the mages who were holding the portal open. I saw their portal beginning to flicker, a sure sign it was about to fail. The muddy river looked clear of anything but ice floes and debris. I canceled my own portal and then tried to close the other portal again. This time, it collapsed in on itself and winked out of existence. I kept energy in the tattoo until I was sure the portal was locked. That would keep anyone from creating another portal between our world and theirs at this location.

  With the closing of my portal, I felt my energy beginning to increase through my tap on the ley lines.

  Releasing Tess’s hand, I turned to her and smiled. “That worked better than I hoped.”

  She returned my smile. Her face was filled with lines from the sudden loss of energy, but she’d recover quickly. We all did when we could tap ley lines from this close.

  The line of gods on our right began taking out the surviving gods on our left but many of those escaped through portals rather than face their opponents much greater numbers.

  I looked for Rowle. I didn’t think he’d be foolish enough to get caught by my trick, but I could always hope. Then I saw him, levitating over the muddy field that had been his army. He was gliding toward us.

  “Heads up, Tess. The real fight is about to begin,” I said.

  “The real fight? What was that we just did?”

  “That was the preliminaries. Rowle is the real threat. Until he is defeated our world will never be safe.”

  A lightning bolt came from the overcast sky and slammed into our shields.

  While concentrating on reinforcing my shield, I slipped a hand into my pocket and took out the three copper rings.

  Rowle kept up the lightning until the local charge dissipated. It would take a little time for the charge to rebuild.

  I had surprised Rowle with one of my meteors once, and I didn’t expect him to fall for that one again. Still, I started my last meteor back toward us. If I timed its impact well enough, I might penetrate his shield.

  “Don’t aim at him with your crossbow until he’s too close to miss. I don’t want him realizing what kind of broadheads you’re using.”

  “You think he knows they can penetrate a shield?” Tess asked.

  “Maybe, but even if he doesn’t know it, you’ll only get one shot, and you’ll have to be ready to aim and fire before he thinks about it,” I added.

  Our energy levels were rising, but as long as I had to keep shoving power into my shield, I’d never get back to full strength.

  Rowle was gliding toward us, still about twenty feet, or so above the mud. I lowered us back to dry ground and slipped the three copper rings onto my left ring finger.

  I activated my wind tat and sent it swirling, slowly forming a tornado as I had during my last fight with Rowle. I didn’t expect the same trick to work twice, but you never know unless you try.

  Rowle spotted the funnel as soon as it began to pick up speed. He activated his own wind tattoo and set another cyclone to spinning opposite of mine. That was a neat trick. This side of the equator cyclones, tornados, or whatever spin counterclockwise. To force the wind clockwise was impressive.

  He was still moving toward us. In another minute, he might be in range of Tess’s crossbow.

  I raised my left hand and activated my lightning tattoo. A bolt of electricity split a jaded path across the sky and struck Rowle’s shield. It didn’t slow him down.

  I considered using night magic, but he was still outside the range of effect. I’d have to get him closer. The trick with the waterfall wouldn’t serve me again; he’d see the portal forming and levitate above it.


  Rowle floated lower as he neared our position. Could he want to talk? I didn’t really care to talk with him again. Surely, by now he understood that I’d never join him.

  Rowle was fifty feet away and about ten feet above the mud when Joe Leatherneck appeared at his side and swung a massive forepaw at him.

  The impact didn’t penetrate his shield, but it sent him careening into the mud. Joe chased after him. Rowle may have been surprised by the bear’s attack, but when he hit the ground, it was feet first. His face had darkened in anger, and he raised a fist toward the spirit bear. “Leatherneck, you old fool! You should stay out of matters that don’t concern you.”

  Joe didn’t respond, verbally. He rose up on his hind legs to his full height of nearly twenty feet. Joe’s lower legs sank up to his knees in the mud. Stretching out his paws, Joe placed one on either side of Rowle’s shield as if he were going to bear hug him. I thought Joe must be out of his mind.

  But then Rowle’s features changed from anger to fear. Joe was actually pressing his shield inwards.

  Rowle raised his right hand, and a tattoo glowed black.

  Damnit, I’d seen him use that spell before.

  Black ooze began to flow from the ground around Joe’s bear form. At first, Joe ignored it, but it flowed up his legs, twisting about him as though it were a great serpent.

  “Joe get out of there!” I yelled.

  I couldn’t use an offensive spell while Joe was standing between us. I dropped my levitation spell long enough for us to drop back to dry earth. Then I reactivated it and focused it on Joe. For a moment, I thought it wasn’t going to work on him, but then his body began to rise.

  The black tendrils followed him up. They spread around his torso as I tried to get him high enough to escape the blackness.

  Then, as if reaching some elastic limit, Joe was snapped back to the mud and the blackness finished flowing over him.

  “No!” Tess screamed.

  “Damn you, Rowle!” I yelled.

  I held up my left hand again and activated the spell burned into the three copper rings. Lightning leapt from my palm. It cut a jagged path between my hand and Rowle’s shield.

  Rowle disappeared behind a brightness that was impossible to look at. I squinted my eyelids down and held the lightning on him. Drawing from three separate locations on the distant mountains gave me access to far more charge than I’d ever controlled before. The thunder from the initial stroke faded, but the bolt held with a loud crackling of electrical discharge. The mud between our positions smoked, and then it began to glow and bubble. Still I held the bolt.

  I brought back my last meteor and crash it into Rowle’s shield with an explosion that drowned out all other sounds.

  “Tess, get ready,” I said. “When the lightning stops, shoot the bastard.”

  “With pleasure.”

  I felt Tess moving to my right to get a clear line of sight.

  Finally, after more than a minute, I felt the charge weakening. It was now or never.

  I dropped the spell.

  “Now,” I said.

  For a moment, I still couldn’t see Rowle; the afterimage of the lightning had hidden him better than any glamour. Then my eyes adjusted and I saw him kneeling behind his shield. His head came up, and I could see the age lines across his face. I’d weakened him.

  I activated my own night magic tattoo and sent the swirling black energy flowing across the intervening space. Rowle saw what was coming and he raised a hand to activate a tattoo to block my spell.

  The twang of Tess’s bolt release was sharp in my ears.

  The bolt flew true, passing through Rowle’s shield as if it were mist. The broadhead penetrated his upraised hand and then embedded itself in the center of his chest.

  The shock on Rowle’s face was soon replaced by pain.

  “Great shot,” I said. I had no idea how my apprentice had become so skilled with the crossbow, but I was definitely liking it.

  The mass of blackness reached Rowle. His shield was down, and my spell engulfed his torso in blackness.

  There came a shout of warning from Beast. I looked up, searching the sky for another threat. Rowle’s familiar, the black dragon, was diving toward Tess. There was no time to deflect its path; it was too massive, too fast, and too close. I shoved Tess away from me and triggered my levitation spell while pushing at her with an energy blast. The dual spells shot her fifty feet away in a second.

  I moved my own shield into an umbrella of energy above me and braced for the impact.

  The dragon’s mouth opened wide as it swerved toward me, and I realized it meant to devour me. I remembered how this creature had killed Walt, my mentor, my friend, and rage filled me.

  Its jaws struck, snapping shut around my shield.

  In hindsight, I should have had my shield in a sphere around me.

  The dragon’s teeth, each nearly as long as my forearm, snapped shut just above my knees.

  The pain was beyond incredible. I screamed in agony and concentration escaped me as I fought to remain conscious. My senses tat no longer functioned, and the inside of the dragon’s mouth was nearly pitch black. I could see a red glow at its gum line, but that was it.

  My healing tattoo activated. It would slow, if not stop the blood loss, but I had to get moving.

  I felt myself being lifted to the horizontal and then beyond. Its rough tongue moved against me, and I understood that I’d even let my shield drop. I put my hands out and clutched at teeth on either side of me. Its tongue shoved me right and then left as its jaws parted slightly. It either was trying to slide me under its teeth for another bite or was trying to swallow me whole.

  Either way, I was having none of it.

  I managed to trigger my fire tat, with no focus flame erupted all around me.

  Without my shield, only my spelled leathers kept me from becoming a fireball. Wanderer’s magic doesn’t affect Wanderers as much as it does others, but my face and hair still crackled from the heat and my healing tat was unable to keep up with the additional damage.

  I canceled the fire and tried lightning. I heard thunder, but the dragon didn’t act as though it had been hurt. When the thunder faded, I heard shouting. Tess was shouting something, but I couldn’t understand her through the layers of flesh and bone.

  I tried an energy pulse and knocked off a chunk of tooth the size of my fist.

  The dragon didn’t like that and shook its head, slamming me from side to side into its teeth.

  Its head reared back, and I was head down. I started sliding down its tongue. Flesh slapped against the top of my burned scalp–an enormous uvula?–I activated my shield and pressed it outwards with as much energy as I had left.

  My slide stopped.

  I triggered my night magic tat. The darker blackness of its energy poured from my hand and onto the beast’s tongue. Where it struck, flesh glowed, but it did no damage.

  Frak! Black dragons were immune to night magic! Why hadn’t I known that?

  The dragon shifted its mouth, partially opening its jaws, and I could see for a moment. Then its head shook as it tried again to swallow me.

  I tried to think of another tat that would make it at least keep it from swallowing me.

  I heard more shouting from Tess. Hell, she was going to try to fight it. I couldn’t let her. The dragon would kill her.

  Then I remembered her comment about my rock eater tattoo. That might work. It wasn’t as if range was an issue.

  I triggered the spell on my left bicep, moved my shield to leave an opening above me, and then forced my right hand against the roof of the dragon’s mouth as my hand began to glow.

  The effect was unnoticeable at first, and I slipped farther down its maw.

  Then I realized my arm was sinking into its flesh.

  The dragon opened its mouth and roared. Hot moist air smelling like a charnel house swept over me and then it tried to spit me out.

  Nope, too late for that. I was weak from both ener
gy consumption and blood loss. I needed to finish this now. I’d never get another chance. I dropped my shield, triggered my levitation tattoo, and pushed up as hard as I was able into the roof of its mouth. My arm sank to the shoulder.

  I could see light past my arm and wondered if I’d miscalculated and punched through the side of its mouth. Then a bucket full of glistening green snot dropped onto my face. I’d broken through into its nasal cavities.

  The dragon roared again and shook its head harder. Gallons of blood flooded over me, threatening to wash me from its mouth, but I caught the edge of the wound with my left hand and held on. I moved my right hand in a slow arc across the top of its mouth, disintegrating flesh and bone as I went. It was slow work, the spell only affected what my right hand encountered, and for the effect to reach more than an inch or two I had to hold my hand steady as the spell gradually lengthened. It wasn’t fast by any means.

  I was nearly drowning in blood. I must have severed a major artery. I held my breath and tried to form my shield into a bubble around my head. It helped. I didn’t have more air, but at least my mouth and nose were clear of its hot blood.

  The dragon was nearly delirious from pain. I knew just how it felt, but I pressed on, reaching for its brain.

  It roared again, but weaker this time. I couldn’t tell if I was going to be able to reach its brain or not. My arm was only so long, and the hole still wasn’t large enough to get any more of me in.

  I wished for my katana, but I was pretty sure that my boots and knife were no longer with me.

  A shudder went through the beast, and it felt like I was falling.

  Uh-oh, had it flown off after grabbing me? My levitation spell couldn’t keep anything this massive in the air.

  I canceled the rock eater tat and focused my remaining energy into my shield, just as a tremendous impact hit me.

  I remained conscious, barely, and the dragon had stopped breathing. The torrent of blood that had nearly drowned me had slowed to a trickle, but I was still in its mouth.

  How was I going to get its jaws open? My energy levels were so low that I no longer thought I could push even slack jaws apart. This sucked. We stopped Rowle, and I killed his dragon after it tried to swallow me, but now I was going to suffocate inside its mouth?