by CM Raymond
CONTENTS
Dedication
Legal
Map
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Epilogue
Notes LE Barbant
Notes CM Raymond
Notes Michael Anderle
Social Links MA
Series List
Series List MA
DEDICATION
To Family, Friends and
Those Who Love
To Read.
May We All Enjoy Grace
To Live The Life We Are
Called.
The Gods Beneath Team
JIT Beta Readers
Alex Wilson
Kelly ODonnell
James Caplan
Paul Westman
Sarah Weir
AbH Belxjander Draconis Serechai
John Findlay
Micky Cocker
Peter Manis
Kimberly Boyer
Larry Omans
Joshua Ahles
Keith Verret
If we missed anyone, please let us know!
Editor
Lynne Stiegler
THE GODS BENEATH (this book) is a work of fiction.
All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Sometimes both.
Copyright © 2017 CM Raymond, LE Barbant and Michael T. Anderle
Cover by Mihaela Voicu http://www.mihaelavoicu.com/
Cover copyright © LMBPN Publishing
LMBPN Publishing supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.
The distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.
LMBPN Publishing
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First US edition, October 2017
The Kurtherian Gambit (and what happens within / characters / situations / worlds) are copyright © 2017 by Michael T. Anderle.
PROLOGUE
“You’re nervous for them.”
Ezekiel stopped mid-stride. His long legs had propelled him back and forth across Lilith’s chamber for the past half hour, his wooden staff tapping with every other step. He turned toward her metal frame.
“Is it that obvious?”
“I have spent centuries observing human behavior,” she said, a laugh hidden in her voice. “If it were still possible, your pacing would make me dizzy. You should relax. You’ve chosen a capable leader. There is a high degree of probability that they will return having been successful.”
He sighed and sat in a huff. “I know that. There’s more talent and experience in the BBB than I could have ever predicted finding when I started my search. Decades I spent searching for someone who could help us, someone who had power that I didn’t. And to think I’d find it in a young pickpocket from the Boulevard! She has a better chance of succeeding than I would have had. And yet—”
“And yet you worry,” Lilith finished his sentence.
“Does that make me crazy?” he asked, looking down at his wrinkled hands. “I am getting older. Maybe all the fighting has addled my brain. I’ve finally taken one too many knocks.”
“I sense no mental degradation, beyond the typical limitations of your species.” Lilith said. Ezekiel could have sworn she was smiling inside her shell. “But your irrational concern for her is indicative of a malady far worse than insanity.”
She paused, and the air in the room grew thin. It was a game they often played. Even when he was a kid, Lilith would pick at him and goad him until he relaxed. Despite her stilted Kurtherian upbringing, she could cut deeply with her wit and sarcasm. It probably had to do with the fact that she had learned human speech from a Norse shield maiden and a Cossack warlord. Her tongue wasn’t a knife, though. It was a scalpel that peeled back his fears and inhibitions.
To keep moving forward despite the odds—that was the most valuable lesson she had taught him.
“Well,” he said finally. He was a patient man, but compared to a being who lived for millennia he was no more than a mayfly. “What malady am I suffering from?”
“You care for her,” she said.
He got to his feet and started pacing again without noticing it. “Of course I care for her. She’s my student, and we’ve been through quite a lot together. I’d have to be a monster not to feel—”
“No,” she said with a matter-of-factness bordering on blunt. “It’s more than that, and you know it. You cannot lie to me. You love her. She is the child you never had.”
He stopped pacing again and smiled. “What gave it away?”
“You let her call you ‘Zeke.’ I thought I was the only being allowed to call you that.”
“It drove me mad at first, but now... She really does grow on you.”
“Despite the senselessness of that human expression, I have to concur. Even though I only interacted with her briefly, I could sense the greatness in her. And I should know—I’ve spent much of my considerable life around great people.”
Ezekiel paused. “Like the Laughing Queen?”
“You know that name is inaccurate, not to mention distasteful. But yes, even ‘Laughter-Brings-Meaning-To-Life.’ She was once the best of my people. Intelligent, inventive, and curious, but also kind. These last centuries trapped on your planet have changed me—mostly for the better. But whatever happened to her has turned her into a monster far greater than the Skrima you have encountered. I will need to deal with her firsthand before this is all over, but in the meantime we would be fools to underestimate her.”
Ezekiel stepped toward her and placed a hand on the machinery that housed her mind. “Whatever you need. I will always be by your side. And whoever you were before you came to Irth, you are no fool. Your former colleague is out of her mind if she thinks she can waltz in here without a fight. I’ve seen what happens to those who underestimate Hannah. Their limbs get scattered across the planet.”
CHAPTER ONE
Its screaming face burst into flames as Hannah shoved a fireball down the remnant’s throat. She kicked hard, sending it sprawling off the side of the Unlawful.
Damn it, Gregory! Get us out of here.
The brief pitstop had quickly turned into a shit show when a horde of remnant attacked the ship almost as soon as she landed. Apparently the giant floating craft seemed like an easy target to them.
The remnant couldn’t have been more wrong
, although they were still a pain in the ass.
Before Gregory could fly them away, a storm more violent than any Hannah had ever seen sprang up seemingly out of nowhere. The sound of thunder drowned the battle cries of the remnant horde.
Hannah felt their airship rise a little, but a gust of wind pitched the craft from side to side, spilling her crew across the deck. She saw Karl go green at the movements, but he kept whatever sickness he had to himself and channeled his anger into his hammer. He crushed one remnant after another.
I’m trying, Gregory responded in Hannah’s mind from the cockpit below. But if we take off into the storm it could rip us apart. Laurel needs to quell this thing, or only the Matriarch knows what will happen!
Hannah turned her eyes toward the bow. Laurel was there, her eyes flashing green and her arms open wide as if she were embracing the storm. Hannah couldn’t be sure over the sounds of the fight, but it seemed like the druid was laughing.
Parker stood in front of her, wielding his magitech spear like a madman. He blasted any remnant foolish enough to get close to the druid, but, despite the space he provided, it didn’t seem like her magic was working.
Hannah grinned as she dodged a clumsy spear-thrust and countered by shoving her knife into the remnant woman’s stomach.
Well, she’s your girlfriend, Hannah continued, as if Gregory were sitting right next to her. Maybe you can make her responsibilities aboard this ship clear to her the next time you two are sucking face down below. A gust hit them from the starboard side, almost knocking her off her feet. And besides. I don’t need to be the Matriarch to know what will happen. Karl is gonna kick all our asses if we crash out here.
“Yeehaw!” Laurel screamed. “I freaking love this.”
Hannah raced over to the druid and gripped her arm like a vice. “Let’s save the fun for later, please. Gregory says he can’t take off until you stop this storm.”
Lightning crashed off the stern, close enough for Hannah to feel the tingles of its current in the air. Laurel’s eyes opened wider. Looking over her shoulder, she yelled, “Are you shitting me? This... This monster you call a storm is bigger than me. I’m not even sure I’m slowing it down, let alone stopping it.”
Hannah nodded. Laurel was as tough as they came, but that didn’t always equate to more power. Storm magic was still new to her. Ezekiel had shown her what he knew during their trip to New Romanov and she had spent any free time she had practicing by calling on the wind and asking for rain.
But this was a different situation entirely.
This storm had rolled in from the west and was unleashing its fury directly on top of them. Rain and wind pounded them, and the whole damned mess was lit by constant flashes of lightning. Fighting off power like this was more than she was ready for.
But Hannah couldn’t accept that. She was the leader of this team, and if they were going to survive this they needed to outperform their own expectations.
“Laurel, we’re all counting on you. Get it done.”
The druid gritted her teeth and turned back to the storm. Her laughter turned to insults as she began to exert more energy than she knew she had.
It might have been Hannah’s imagination, but she thought she felt the rain lessen.
“That’s my girl,” Hannah yelled. “Keep it up.”
She turned toward Parker and pitched a spear of ice into a remnant creeping up on his right side.
“Thanks.” He looked at her, hair drenched and clinging to his forehead. “But I saw him coming.”
She shook her head. “I wish your powers of perception had been working when we chose to land here.”
“You said you wanted to stretch your legs. Is this not what you had in mind?”
“Oh, yeah,” she yelled back. “What a lovely afternoon for Team Triple-B.”
“I gotta admit it makes me wish Ezekiel were here.”
“No shit,” she said. “And I wish you were a few inches taller, but I’m making do with what I’ve got.”
“Hey, now’s not the time for personal critiques.” He gave her a grin, but his were eyes still narrowed to protect them from the storm. “What do you need?”
She looked up at Laurel, then back to him. “No matter what, you don’t leave this post. Protecting Laurel’s ass is your job, hear me?”
“Aye aye, Captain,” he screamed back as he sent a burst of blue energy into a pair of attacking remnant. “You know, you’re really sexy when you’re giving orders.”
Hannah smiled. “We make it out of this and you’ll see how sexy I can be—when I’m ordering you to clean the remnant blood and guts off the deck.”
He laughed. “I had to fall in love with a sadist.”
She gave him a wink, then dove back into the thick of the fight.
Aysa spun her bolas, doing her best to smash remnant hands and faces as they tried to climb the Unlawful’s side, but there were too many of them. Just as the young Baseeki girl was about to be overrun, Sal swooped in and pushed a bunch overboard before darting back into the clouds.
“Thanks, ya big dumb dragon,” Aysa yelled with a smile.
As Hannah watched her partner fly, she realized the sky wasn’t as dark as it had been a minute ago. The rain had lessened, too.
She’s doing it, Hannah thought. Before she could celebrate, another wave of remnant clambered over the side. She threw a fireball, and another, then focused on Gregory.
I hate to say this, but it’s now or never. We’re giving it everything we’ve got up here. It’s time for you to carry your weight, Chief Engineer.
Gregory didn’t respond mentally, but she felt the ship begin to move.
“Yes!” she yelled. “Everybody grab onto something.”
The Unlawful bobbed for a second like it was stuck, then Hannah fell to the deck as the ship rocketed skyward.
Laurel was still standing and screaming at the front. Parker had wrapped one hand around the railing of the ship and gripped the druid with the other.
A second later they burst through the dark clouds into the clear sky above.
Bright sun hit their eyes, and everyone looked around in shock—including the two remnant who had remained on board.
They looked at each other, dumbfounded, realizing that they were now outnumbered.
Hannah smiled. “Karl, I believe we have some trespassers. Please show them the way out.”
“Aye, with pleasure,” the rearick said. He charged forward with his hammer, and one of the remnant chose to jump over rather than face Karl’s wrath.
The second followed a moment later, his body launched over the rails by Karl’s hammer.
Hannah’s team dropped to the deck, exhausted and soaked to the bone, but nevertheless pleased to be on their way.
“Man overboard!” Karl shouted, as he watched the remnant bodies spiral into the storm clouds below.
****
Team Triple-B had fought off the monstrous creatures from the hellish planet Hyrrheim over a week ago. In the chaos that surrounded the fight, Lilith and Gregory had somehow devised a way to close the Rift and keep the Laughing Queen and her Skrima out forever.
Lilith had tried to explain the details to Hannah, without much success.
“When I first suspected Laughter’s nefarious plans for our world,” Lilith had said, “I knew we were in trouble. So I turned to the best help I could find—Bethany Anne.”
Hannah shook her head. “But you said the Matriarch had gone off to fight on other worlds.”
“Exactly,” Lilith said. “But that didn’t mean she left us alone. Before she departed, Bethany Anne used the best of what you call old-world technology to create a defense perimeter—a shield of sorts—to prevent more of my kind from invading. This shield surrounds us even now, in orbit around the planet.”
“I don’t understand,” Hannah said. “If the Queen Bitch built this perimeter to protect us, then how is the Laughing Queen getting in?”
“Well, the Rift was an unforeseen complica
tion. Think of it this way: Bethany Anne built a wall around Irth, and the Rift is an interdimensional tunnel Laughter dug under the wall.”
Hannah smiled. It seemed like a move Parker would use.
“So,” Hannah said. “How does this help us? You said you figured this out years ago.”
“Precisely. And my hypothesis then was that if Bethany Anne’s shield was strong enough to repel invaders from space, it was strong enough to repel invaders through the Rift. I promptly set out to bring down pieces of the shield.”
“You what?” Hannah said.
“Not enough to compromise our interplanetary safety. Just enough to shore up loose ends like the Rift. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the tools I needed to bring down the satellites safely. Most were lost or destroyed on impact, but at least one landed safely. We’ve been so busy fighting off Skrima that I’ve never been able to send someone to retrieve it. But with your skills and your airship…”
“We’re the perfect pick-up service.”
“Precisely.” Lilith said. “It’s in a land southeast of here called Kaskara. And it just so happens that there is an ample source of energy to power the device in a nearby mountain range.”
****
Hannah laughed to herself, thinking back to that conversation. The Oracle had made it seem so simple. As Hannah scanned the BBB, weary from battle, soaked to the bone, and crashed on the deck of their ship, she realized that no quest Lilith sent them on would ever be easy.
After catching their breath, they did whatever they could to dry out from the storm that had nearly ended them. Laurel started to wring out the front of her shirt, and Devin escaped its folds to land on her feet and shake drops of water out of her fur.
Hannah couldn’t help but smile at the sight. “We made it. Barely, but we made it.” She turned toward Gregory, who had just come up on deck from the cockpit. “Hell of a job, G. You got us through one bitch of a shower. And Laurel…” The druid stood and took a bow. “Nice work.”
“Nice work?” Karl snorted, still looking a little sick. “Between his drivin’ and yer crazy witchcraft, I can’t believe we’re still floatin’. Thought me arse was goin’ overboard wi’ the remnant.”
