Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2

by Doug Dandridge

  Ellandra felt the power flow into him, the gift from the Goddess. He visualized the valley in which the strangers had sheltered, and imagined them sickening and dying within that valley. The stink of rotten bodies filled the spaces in his mind, and he saw the thousands that were buried. In the valley he felt his will and the Goddess’ power merge, and a deadly contagion took form. In hundreds of soldiers, in thousands of civilians, a deadly new virus took form, and began its horrible work. Of reproducing and spreading, until it would burst from the bodies of the slain to infect new victims, and death stalked the land.

  * * *

  Major Antwoine McGurk watched the fortress through his glasses as he prepared for the next segment of the attack. All day the special ammunition round had been on the road, and had arrived at his artillery battery position just a half an hour ago. Now it was prepped and ready, and the Major was prepared to see if the magic of the natives was equal to the power of the atom.

  “Everybody get under cover,” he ordered over the com, watching men get behind thick earth or into vehicles that had backed down to reverse slopes. He left his own tank hull down on a ridge that was at least eight kilometers from the fortress. His helmet was buckled down and he was low in the hatch.

  He looked down for a moment at his guests. The four Ellala prisoners were in a fighting position with a couple of rifle armed guards. The heavy goggles that allowed one to watch a nuclear blast were on their faces, and army helmets were buckled onto their heads. Their hands were tied in front of them, their fingers swaddled tightly so they could not make the magic gestures needed for their sleep spells. They kept looking up at the guards, probably wondering if they were to be shot. The guards kept directing their attention back to the fortress, sitting at the far end of the valley under a shimmering screen.

  Kill two birds with one stone, thought the Major, remembering his orders from the General. Destroy the fortress. And ensure that there were enemy who witnessed the destruction, so that the enemy would have one more thing to worry about. The Captain had wondered if the fortress really warranted the use of one of their three nukes. But the General had made a point about using them or losing them. So he was going to use one to hopefully its best effect.

  “All stations report clear,” came the voice of the Sergeant Major over the circuit.

  “This is Zulu Foxtrot November,” said McGurk over the circuit back to his attached artillery battery. “Authentication One Niner Seven Tree. Fire Mission. Target, Fortress at location Alpha Niner Delta. Set for air burst, twenty kilotons.”

  The artillery net repeated the orders back to the Major, after acknowledging that his authentication was correct. All this had been said before between him and the Battery Commander. But especially when dealing with nuclear weapons in was better safe than sorry. Because sorry could really be bad.

  “Shot off,” yelled the soldier on the net. McGurk looked at his watch, counting off the seconds while the round winged its way to the target. At the count of eighteen seconds there was a bright flash on the other end of the valley, a light too bright to look at, followed in about eight seconds by a thunderous roar.

  * * *

  The fortress was actually an outpost of the Imperial Army of Ellala’lysana, and not a stronghold of some lord. It housed a couple of regiments of cavalry, a regiment of Ellala infantry, and a squadron of dragons. Over five thousand of the Elves called the structure home, including service and support staff. The walls were of Dwarven fused granite, making it as hard as the mountain it was built on. And it boasted a full two score of dedicated battlemages, as well as numerous priests. The Ellala felt confident in the ability of the fortress to withstand any attack mounted by the strangers and their weapons of war. And the Mage summoned protective field over the fortress added to that confidence.

  The Airmage in the fortress had already learned, during the bombardment earlier in the day, to feel the rounds of the enemy projectile launchers as they cleaved the air on their way to the target. But the one he felt now was different in some way. It made a knot in his stomach as it came in, as if it represented some deadly danger.

  “Hold the shield,” she yelled to the other mages who stood on the walls, their heads below the crenellations that protected the ordinary soldiers. “Put all of your power into it.”

  The other mages, a score of wizards who were drawing on the power of the mountain and the air to erect the shield, grimaced in concentration as they reinforced the spell. Most thought that the spell would surely have to keep out whatever the strangers were sending toward them. For only the power of a larger group of mages, or some mages of immense power, could crack the shield. And they knew that the strangers did not have either numbers of mages or powerful mages. Or the power wielded by a God. That could crack the shield. But again it was known that the strangers did not have that kind of divine connection.

  The Airmage could tell when the projectile was a second away, and added her own powers to the shield, bringing up the blowing winds to try and move the shell from its trajectory. It probably moved the shell twenty feet from where it was going to strike, which mattered not with the weapon they were about to receive.

  The shell detonated with a bright flash, then a painfully bright flash that instantly blinded all of those outside the fortress, whose attentions had been caught by the initial light. The shield held out the hellish flame that roiled away from the fortress, and a thunderously deep rumble came to those within the castle. The mages could feel the energy of the shield being used up like firewood in a fire. The energy levels dropped precipitously. They tried to throw in more energy, but they couldn’t match the building power of the nuclear explosion, especially when they were all in agony because of their melted eyeballs.

  The shield went down suddenly. One instant it was there, blocking the waves of heat and radiation, forcing the blast up and away from the fortress. The next it was not, hundreds of thousands of degrees of heat vaporizing those Elves on the battlements and out in the courtyards of the fortress. The blast effect tossed anything that was not securely fastened to the mountain, in many cases torching things that did not ordinarily flame, then blowing them out in the next instant. Rock melted, then was blown apart. The fronts of structures in the inner wards blew in, the heat and fire blasting down doors and through long tunnels. Even the dragons died in almost painless instantality, from fire that Dwarfed their own internal flames, or objects that were thrown at thousands of feet per second. There would be a few survivors, a pitiful couple of score that huddled deep in the fortress, really into the heart of the mountain. But the combat power of the garrison, and the defensive power of the fortress, was a memory.

  * * *

  The Ellala in the fighting position sat up as the flash of light turned into an expanding ball of fire. They tensed for a moment while the fire lapped at the magical shield, seemingly repelled. They almost jumped out of their skins when the thunder of the blast wave reached their sensitive ears, followed by the hurricane winds that tore at the tops of the trees on the ridge. Two screamed out when the magical shield failed, the fire swept into the fortress, and the mushroom cloud reached up high into the sky.

  The Major allowed them to watch the entire spectacle. The forest in the valley burned, and flaming timber was thrown into the air. Ash started to rain down from the sky, and McGurk felt himself cringing just a bit from the fallout. It was a relatively clean weapon, but the Major still thought it would be a good idea to decontaminate the vehicles and allow the men to wash their clothing and themselves after they left this area.

  If the Ellala died of radiation later in the week, or cancer much further down the road, that was not his concern. As long as they conveyed to their superiors what a bad idea it was to face the strangers from another world. Kind of like the Japanese in World War II, thought the officer. The Japs didn’t know that the United States only had a couple of weapons at the time the two were dropped on Japan. Maybe the Ellala would not know that the humans only had three weapon
s, and would, in their fears, multiply in their minds what the Earth people had to use against them.

  After the cloud started to fall from the sky, folding into itself, the Major crawled out of his tank to walk over to where the Elves sat in the fighting position.

  “Take them to their horses,” said the Major to the guards. “Make sure there are at least a half dozen men there when you untie them. Then set them on their way.”

  The guards nodded. Hustling the Ellala to their feet they moved them down the ridgeline, while the Battalion Commander considered what his next move would be in this area.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The column of unicorn mounted riders had reached the trade road and were waiting just out of sight as they watched the vehicles moving along the stone path. The eyes of the Ellala were wide with wonder at the wagons that were moving without anything pulling them. And their noses wrinkled at the odor of the smoke the vehicles were putting out.

  Vogel Kreigel sat his unicorn next to the mount of the commander of the cavalry, Fenris Hallanta. The unicorns took the strangeness of the nearby noisy monsters better than their riders, standing calmly under the trees. The six wolves were out on the fringes of the column, still scouting, after the human had sent them a quick warning to stay out of sight of the other humans. He was sure they would see the wolves as a wild threat, and might shoot at them.

  [I guess this is as good a place to make contact as any, friend Vogel,] said the Ellala in the mind of the human. The wolves were still acting as facilitators, and the Ellala had told the German it would probably take several days for their minds to begin understanding each the other. The healer had cast some kind of spell that allowed him to speak halting German, but the mind link through the wolves was still ever more efficient.

  [Do you want me to go down first and prepare them for you?] thought the German, looking over at the leader in his fine armor, sitting on his beautiful riding beast.

  [That might be best,] thought the Commander in return, a sense of irony in the transmission. [I would not be serving my King if I were splattered all over the landscape by one of those great machines. And I ever wish to be of service to my King, especially when I am allowed to survive the duty.]

  There was a bright flash to the north, and the unicorns began to snort and move around restlessly. The Elves looked in that direction, shielding their eyes from the ball of fire that was rising into the sky. Kreigel recognized it for what it was and felt a panic coming on.

  [What is that, friend Vogel?] thought Fenris at him while he patted the neck of his mount and whispered calming words to it. The ground started to shake, and the humans on the road ran around looking for cover.

  [It is a terrible weapon,] thought the human in reply. [It is a weapon made to destroy a large city. One of its kind sent me and the wolves here. Others sent the other humans.]

  The ground shook more violently, and a few of the unicorns reared. An Elf was thrown from his saddle. But overall the human was impressed with the steadfastness of the animals when confronted with a new situation. The mushroom cloud continued to climb into the air, but the spreading base was hidden from sight.

  [Probably thirty kilometers or more away,] thought the human, using the hills to estimate the scale and realizing that it had to be a tactical weapon. [We are not at risk here, except maybe for some residual radiation and fallout.]

  [What?] thought the Regimental Commander.

  [Things that can kill you if you ingest them, or spend too much time exposed to them,] thought the human, watching as the cloud began to fall in on itself. [With the prevailing winds coming from the south and the mountains, we probably don’t have much worry there as well. I just wish the Americans hadn’t used one of those damned things on this planet.]

  [If they’re using it against our common foe, then I am for it,] thought the Ellala.

  Looking down on the road they could see that the people were starting to calm down some. The men in uniform, who probably had been told what had happened, were moving among the civilians and answering questions. The traffic was starting to move again.

  [Friend Vogel,] came the transmission of the wolf, White Paws. [There are men moving in from the direction of the setting sun.]

  [What kind of men?] thought the German scientist.

  [Soldiers of your people,] returned the wolf. [Two paws worth.]

  [Keep a watch on them. But stay hidden, so that they don’t shoot you as wild animals.]

  Kreigel transmitted what the wolves had told him to the Elf, then cautioned the man to keep his troopers hidden as well, since the only Ellala the soldiers were likely to have knowledge of were enemies. He then dismounted his unicorn and headed toward the soldiers, whistling loudly and keeping his hands in plain view.

  “Halt,” yelled out a voice as Kreigel neared the skirmisher line of the patrol. He stopped in his tracks, not making a move except for his breathing and his eyes.

  A man in field gray cammies walked crouched out of the line of trees, his eyes moving constantly, his rifle pointed just a little off of the scientist. Kreigel knew that there were other weapons pointed at him. The man, a Private, visibly relaxed as he saw that the scientist was a human.

  “You may put down your hands, Mein Herr,” said the soldier, making a waving motion with his hand. When the scientist lowered his hands a pair of soldiers stepped into view, one with a rifle, the other with a shorter sub-machine gun slung around his neck. That man had the insignia of a Feldwebel, and was obviously the leader of the patrol. That man walked over, his eyes locked on Kreigel, obviously trusting the rest of his men to keep watch for any others who might be in the vicinity.

  “Welcome, Mein Herr,” said the Sergeant, gesturing for the other soldiers to move past him. “I am glad that you have found us.”

  “I would hold up your men for a moment,” said Kreigel, “before I let them walk too much further.”

  “And what do you mean by that, Mein Herr?” asked the Sergeant, his eyes narrowing, then looking over the scientist’s shoulder into the further woods. “Are you in league with our foes, and issuing a threat?”

  “Nothing of the sort, Sergeant,” said the scientist, looking the man in the eyes. “I was injured several days ago, just when I arrived here. And the ugly ones attacked me.”

  “Then you are lucky to be alive, my friend,” said the Sergeant, looking at the man’s blood stained shirt. “And you do not move like you were injured too badly.”

  “I found friends that helped me,” said Kreigel with a smile.

  “The Wood Elves no doubt,” said the Sergeant, looking past Kreigel at the woods beyond. “They have been of great help to us all.”

  “Something like that,” said the scientist with a nod. “They were Elves, and they were very helpful. I don’t think I would have survived otherwise. They were true friends, and wish to be seen as friends by all of us.”

  The Sergeant narrowed his eyes again, and Kreigel wasn’t sure he should have made such a roundabout statement.

  “You have news of the Earth?” said an excited Private who had come within earshot. “What is happening there?”

  “The war goes on,” said Kreigel in a sorrowful voice. “Men and women die. But it is of this world which I must speak. There are almost a thousand Ellala cavalry in the woods behind me.”

  The German soldiers all went into immediate tense alert, weapons brought up to shoulders as they scanned the woods. The Sergeant started talking into his radio, a worried look on his face.

  “They’re the friends I talked about,” said Kreigel, raising his voice. “They healed me from what would have been mortal wounds, and then took me with them as they searched you out.”

  “The only Ellala we have seen thus far have been a deadly danger to body and soul,” said one of the troops, while the Sergeant told whomever was on the other side of the radio to hold on.

  “You say they are friendly?” the NCO asked the scientist. “How do you know they did not use you to find us?
To talk your way past us?”

  “In the first place they healed me,” said the exasperated scientist, wondering how long it would take to convince this seemingly hard headed man. “And I did not know where you were. They came here, and asked me to talk with you so there would be no misunderstandings. If they wanted to attack you, there you are, stretched out on the road as perfect targets. If they wanted to spy on you they would not have let me come talk to you. But perhaps there is a better way to prove they are friendly. Let me bring their leader forward. I can send him a mind message and let him know it is safe to come forward. As long as it really is safe to come forward, that is.”

  “Tell him to come,” said the Sergeant, pulling his sub-machine gun forward. “We will not shoot if he makes no hostile moves.”

  The Sergeant looked back at his command.

  “No shooting unless they shoot first,” he said out loud, making sure that all the men within sight nodded. “OK. Tell your friend to come in, alone. We’ll see that he is safe first before we see the rest of them.”

  [You can ride in Fenris,] thought Kreigel, using the wolves to amplify his limited ability.

  A moment later the elegant Elf warrior rode his shining white unicorn stallion from under the trees. Kreigel was delighted to see the animal again, and watched the eyes of the soldiers as they stared at the creature. There were several smiles plastered across faces as they admired a beast they had only heard of in mythology.

  “Is that a…” The Sergeant stammered for a few moments as the Ellala Lord dismounted from his beast, which stood behind him perfectly serene.

  “That is a unicorn,” agreed Kreigel, nodding his head. “And it will only be of service to those in the cause of good.”

  “I must contact my officer immediately,” said the Sergeant, looking wide eyed at the scientist.

  “Go ahead and contact him,” agreed the scientist. “And then I have something else to tell you.”