Tasha was only too glad when they neared Port Freedom. The harbor was abuzz with ships coming and going, as well as a great many that seemed on the verge of action. What the action was she couldn’t tell. Tasha stood on the low bow deck eyeing the activity while Rosh manned the sails above and behind her. She relayed signals from the small boat that had been dispatched to guide them in.
“They’re putting us with the elves,” Tasha called back. She’d suspected as much, they sailed what had once been an elven ship. A large section of the harbor catered to elven vessels, many of them large enough to carry dozens of men. On the other side of a large wooden walkway that segregated the elven section she saw a motley collection of ships, the majority of them human. Further away she saw a shallow pool where vessels that were only equipped to dock in water could safely land.
“Seems like the elves are busy,” Rosh responded.
Tasha’s eyes were drawn back to the elven ships. After a moment she felt her own hunch confirmed. Elves were carrying aboard supplies to the vessels. Nothing unusual, save that nearly every ship was being loaded and some of the items being carted or carried were unduly large. “They’re leaving,” she gasped. She repeated herself, giving volume to her voice for Rosh to hear. His response was a grunt.
Volera and Rosh set the ship down so smoothly Tasha was surprised to find both of them joining her on the bow deck. She peered over the side, reassuring herself that the Second Chance was resting on the dirt and rock ground.
“Busy place,” Rosh said, eying their remote location. He pulled out a panel to reveal a cubby with a ladder coiled up inside of it. He lashed it to pegs on the railing then tossed it over the side.
Tasha cursed and rushed back to her room, drawing a startled glance from Rosh. She’d expected a harbormaster to visit them before they’d be granted access to the city, giving her plenty of time to put her armor on. Whatever was happening at Port Freedom seemed to make the common procedure a luxury.
She emerged from the companionway to find an empty bow. Tasha bit back an oath and adjusted her grieve before stepping to the ladder and peering over the edge of the rail. Rosh and Volera awaited below, speaking with a man who carried a roll of parchment and a quill. Perhaps the harbormaster had come calling after all?
She climbed over the railing and descended the rope ladder, thankful yet again to the elders for making her armor less cumbersome. Such a task would have been impossible before. She left the ladder behind and joined Rosh and Volera in time to see a dazed looking harbormaster turn and walk away.
“Problems?” Tasha asked.
Rosh nodded at Volera. “Naw, she addled his wits enough he didn’t even bother worrying that humans got an elf ship.”
Tasha looked at the almost condescending smile Volera wore. She suppressed the shudder and looked away. “Where too?”
“Rolxoth’s involved, let’s start with the city guard.”
“You want to walk into the city guard’s office and just start asking questions?” Tasha’s discomfort around Volera was forgotten. Instead she stared at Rosh in disbelief.
“Yeah. I ain’t got the time to be wasting asking questions. Don’t expect they do either.”
Tasha glanced heavenward, wishing foolishly that the Voidhawk would miraculously appear and pull her away from the madness about to unfold. Dexter, Jenna, and Xander were probably wishing the same thing, she realized. She let out a breath and prepared to follow Rosh when something caught her eye in the sky above.
“What ship is that?”
Rosh and Volera glanced upwards, searching the sky until they saw the shape that grew steadily larger. “Federation,” Rosh growled. “Big one too. What’s Dexter been up to?”
Tasha glanced at him. “Dexter? Why do you think it was him?”
“Why the hell else would a Fed warship show up here? Even before the elves took it they had nothing to do with this place.”
“I think it’s the same one we ran into when we left the Elven void behind. Ora’s Bounty. The Captain dropped a few hints about changes coming here.”
Rosh swore. He glanced at Volera but her only response was to wink at him. “Damn fool’s gonna to get himself killed yet. Let’s go!”
A cry went up in the harbor. It was echoed and shared by others rapidly as they took notice of the Federation warship approaching. “Hope that armor’s as thick as it is pretty,” Rosh said to her. He broke into a run, pulling away from the surprised woman. Volera moved easily beside him. Tasha scowled and took off after them, intent upon proving that her armor wouldn’t hinder her in the least.
People pointed and cried out in the streets as panic took hold of the populace. For all the panicked shouting and frenzied scrambling, true chaos didn’t erupt until skiffs and small craft launched from the warship carrying Federation soldiers. Rosh yelled and, on occasion, used his massive arms to force his way through the growing crowd of excited people.
Smaller ships were rising into the void, some even trailing lines and ladders as they sought to make an escape from the pending conflict below. Tasha caught glimpses of four elven ships rising to challenge the Ora’s Bounty, though they were all far smaller than the human warship. Tasha winced as the first volley was exchanged, the elves firing ballista and catapults rigged for direct fire while the Ora’s Bounty fired massive bombards that echoed across the city.
Shrapnel from the battle fell across the docks, scattering people and destroying equipment. Tasha scowled at the unnecessary danger to innocent people. Or people that were undeserving of an anonymous death, at least. She doubted anyone in Port Freedom was truly innocent, given what she’d heard of it.
“There!” Rosh bellowed, surging through a lull in the crowd towards the reinforced door of Port Freedom’s sheriff. Volera was close behind him carrying a sword in her hand with a blade made of blackened steel. Tasha noticed the woman’s outfit had changed, instead of her previously indecent clothing she wore black leathers that looked just as inappropriate, though they covered more of her flesh.
Rosh smashed the door in, wasting no time in trying the handle to see if it was locked. He sent the reinforced wood and iron door off its hinges and onto the floor. He stepped in, drawing the same great sword she’d seen him wield in the past. It had once seemed so large that even the mightiest of men would be troubled to swing it with two hands. Now that she’d been forced to reconsider what the mightiest of men looked like, she realized that the weapon fit him well.
Tasha stepped into the room and saw a scene that made the chaos in the streets seem calm. The bodies of elves and humans were scattered about the room, many of them in pieces. Most of the corpses were on the floor but a few lay slumped over tables and chairs. Tasha slammed the visor on her helmet down instinctively, but it did little to stop the stench of spilled blood and death from reaching her.
“Come!” growled Rosh, heading across the room to an open door that led to stairs down into the dungeons.
“Master, I smell them. This place reeks of my kind.”
Rosh pulled up short. “More of them she-devils like you?”
She shook her head. “Lesser beings, but there are many. Rolxoth must have a force of them at his command.”
“Demons?” Tasha repeated.
Rosh glanced at her and nodded. “Stay here,” he advised. “We can handle them.”
“No!” Tasha spat out before she realized it. She hesitated as she considered what she was getting into. Fighting demons was beyond anything she’d ever imagined. She’d faced incredible odds both on her home world and on the Voidhawk, but those were mortal threats. Flesh and blood enemies that she could strike and defeat. What lay ahead of them was something entirely different, if the tales she’d heard were true. She stiffened her back and nodded. “It’s time I put this armor to the test.”
Rosh grinned before turning back and leading the charge down the steps into the dungeon below.
* * * *
“Just like old times, eh?” Dexter asked after h
e flicked his magical sword to send the steaming demonic ichor off his blade. Rolxoth had relocated them to a cavern deep beneath the sheriff’s office, promising a reunion with Jianna. It had been a lie, Jianna was nowhere to be found, only the beginnings of a magical bridge between dimensions.
“Those weren’t ‘good’ old times,” Jenna spat back.
Xander grunted, the attempt at macabre humor lost on him.
“You was fine,” Dexter replied. “That cursed fellow only scratched you, the curse was spread through a bite.”
“You left me in the cargo hold for days!” Jenna accentuated her words by kicking the gray skinned demon hard enough to make it stagger towards Dexter.
Dexter’s blade slashed across the creature’s back hacking deep enough to add a fresh acrid tang of burnt demon flesh to the air. Hissing cries came from its giant toothy maw then it collapsed in on itself in a puff of sulfurous smoke.
“I remember visiting you in there, too,” Dexter pointed out. The remaining eight demons hesitated outside of the magical sphere Xander had erected, hissing and scowling at them but coming no closer. “You finally figure out how to keep them away from us?”
“My shield doesn’t stop them!” Xander answered. “I’d need more time and better materials. At best I can only slow them down and cause them pain. If you’d like you could step out there and face them instead.”
“This is fine,” Dexter said. He studied his blade, noting that the caustic blood made a lot of fuss but it seemed to do no harm to his magical sword. Unlike Jenna’s longer blade—she’d managed to impale a demon with it but within seconds her blade had burned through and fell apart.
Above them they heard a rumble that grew until they recognized it for a roar. “Gods of the void,” Jenna whispered with her eyes cast to the roof of the cave. “What evil has Rolxoth summoned?”
“Don’t matter,” Dexter told her. “Only matters that we can find a way to kill it.”
“You can’t kill these things,” Xander said over the increased hissing of their captors. “Destroying their bodies sends them back to the realm they came from, that’s all.”
“That’s a fine start for me.”
“Dex!”
“Well let’s be honest with ourselves, I don’t expect none of us to go chasing them back to their—what is it, a world? Anyhow, been over thirty cycles and this be the first I’ve seen such things. I can go another thirty just fine.”
“No, Dex, I mean look!” Jenna repeated herself. She pointed with the broken stub of her sword.
A creature stepped out of the burning portal to the dimension the demons came from. It was massive and looked like it had emerged from the burning magma of a volcano. Thick legs supported a massive body that was as wide as it was tall. Burning red eyes rested on each shoulder above a gaping mouth with teeth that looked designed for crushing rocks. It possessed two arms capped with what looked like claws at first, until they opened and revealed themselves to be mandibles surrounding a mouth in the palm of each hand. The volcanic demon stepped forward, each foot crashing into the ground and making the rock vibrate.
“Care to freeze up another one of my bullets?” Dexter asked after trying to figure out what could defeat such creature.
“No,” Xander shook his head. “The last one was more dangerous than I realized. I fear I may have created an anomaly in the void that is slowly draining the energy from that region into the ether.”
Dexter blinked and shook his head to rid Dexter’s babble from it. He turned to glance at the wizard. “That’s bad?”
“Yes, Dexter. Very bad.”
Dexter cursed. The smaller gray skinned demons turned, their hissing taking on a delighted pitch. They parted to allow the ponderous beast a path. “All right, we do this the old fashioned way.”
“I’m not afraid to die,” Jenna said softly. She reached out to squeeze Dexter’s hand. “But we can’t, not while they still have Jia’s soul.”
Her husband grinned at her. “That wasn’t the old fashioned way I meant. I was thinking we run like we got the Elven Navy chasing us.”
A smile flickered across her face, but it fell quickly. “Dex, they’re between us and the cave up to the dungeons.”
“A distraction would come in handy,” Dexter peered about the cavern, searching for anything he could use to his advantage. The walls, floor, and ceiling had been worn smooth in preparation for the ritual of summoning a small army of demons. Not even a puddle of water remained. “You got anything, Xander?”
“I’m a wizard, not a conjurer of parlor tricks!”
“Settle down, bookworm,” Dexter said with far more calm than he felt. “Right now a little sleight of hand might do just fine.”
Xander scowled, then began to mutter to himself in an attempt to think up something useful.
“This cave’s too small to run around them or draw them after us,” Jenna said.
“Aye, damn shame we don’t have Keshira with us.”
“I’d even settle for Rosh.”
Dexter eyed the approaching magma-monster. He nodded. “Rosh might slow him down a bit.”
“Damn!” Xander uttered, surprising them all. They turned to spare a brief glance, drawing hi attention. “What? Oh, I was just thinking that I should have never abandoned my attempts to open a portal to transport the water from that reservoir to another place. It might have come in handy now, allowing us to a magical bridge between here and somewhere else.”
“Aye, that might’ve come in handy. Remind me to tell you what a lousy wizard you are when we get out of this.”
“Somebody decided to fight the Elven Navy and needed me to focus on other magical tasks!”
“And all I ever seen you do was burn things up! You think fire’s going to do much against that thing?”
Xander snorted. “It’s hot enough, what good’s making it hotter going to be?”
“None!” Dexter all but shouted. “He’s less than twenty feet and I’m feeling warmer already! Make him hotter and he’d just start burning holes in the ground too!”
“A rock floor? It’d need to be hotter than a forge!”
“Aye, mighty hot.”
Xander eyes the demon nearing the edge of his shield. He nodded his head slowly. “Why don’t I try that then?”
“Jenna, might get a bit toasty in here.”
“I’m an elf, hot and cold doesn’t bother me.”
“This will,” Xander said with a dark chuckle. He chanted and thrust his hands out. A spiral of fire curled around on itself, forming a tube of flames as it burst away from him and struck the creature just above the mouth on its head.
The demon roared and rose up, letting the fire hit it square in its open maw. The noise coming from its mouth sounded like the grinding of rocks and the sloshing of liquid. It slowed until Xander’s spell ended, then it came towards them.
Jenna cried out in surprise and backed up to stand beside Dexter. “Hot,” she muttered, drawing a grim smile from him.
“Hit him again!” Dexter challenged.
Xander threw his arms out in a new pattern of bizarre movements, chanting different nonsensical sounds. A line of flames leapt from the ground in front of him and reached out to the creature, creating a wall of fire that began at Xander and ended at the creature. It walked through it, ignoring the flames and even passing through the defensive shield Xander had created. Unlike the smaller demons the lava-monster seemed unfazed by the magical defenses.
“Again!”
Xander’s next spell was fan of flames the curled over the demon as it approached. A mortal man’s skin would be blistered and roasted from his bones but the demon emerged seemingly unscathed. Dexter and Jenna continued to back up until they stood beside the wizard. Still the demon advanced. Behind it the gray skinned lesser demons cheered and danced.
“Got anything else?” Jenna asked the mage.
Xander, breathing hard and sweating from more than just the heat radiating through the cavern nodded. He pu
lled his sleeves up his arms. “You might want to back up,” he warned them.
Jenna grabbed Dexter’s hand and pulled him back with They retreated until they were near the far edge of the protective sphere and waited. Xander was already making arcane gestures and summoning a fresh spell. He stepped back as he called upon his magical knowledge, retreating two steps for every one the creature took. Each step the demon took left flames and smoke rising from small depressions in the rock floor.
With a final shout of power Xander brought his hands together palms first. The magical energy that coalesced in each palm joined and burst forth in a miniature comet that struck the demon in the chest. Upon impact it exploded, driving the creature onto its back.
Dexter picked himself up and blinked as he tried to make sense of the room. The flames marking the portal had died down and all of the demons had been knocked from their feet. They rose up, hissing and sputtering. Even the superheated creature at the epicenter rose up, planting one toothy hand into the rock to rise up.
“Come on, it’s now or never!” Dexter hissed.
Jenna groaned beside him. She rose up and took in the scene, then scrambled to her feet. Dexter glanced at her and saw the blackened soot stains on her skin and clothes. Her hair was singed, making him wonder at how he’d faired. His face felt tight, but he was spared any sign of a major injury.
“Grab Xander.” Dexter stepped past Xander, ignoring the smoke that rose from the wizard’s body. Dexter held his sword out and swatted the first lesser demon that rushed at him, hacking deeply into its neck and sending it back to the hell from which it had spawned. The others were coming forward now too, though their movements were sluggish. They seemed to recover with each step, moving with agility that made Dexter despair. He realized the translucent shield that had surrounded them was gone.
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