Finley nodded. “If that changes, please inform me immediately. They're annoying, but it’s my responsibility to keep the oversight committee functional—and that certainly includes making sure the members stay safe.”
Bryant nodded, and their conversation turned to more pleasant affairs for a few moments before the senator departed for his next meeting. Bryant noted him checking his smartwatch as he left—a disguised ARES model—and made a small request to the universe. Please don’t let Finley be implicated. He rose with a sigh and set his cup on the tray provided for used crockery. He took the long way out of the building, strolled through the public spaces, and admired the hustle and bustle of the government at work. Once outside, he tapped his comms and called Diana.
She sounded harried. “Hey, Bryant. You just caught me. I was on my way out. What’s up?”
He couldn’t resist. “Do you have a hot date?”
She laughed and a little of the tension he’d heard evaporating with the sound. She deadpanned her reply. “Yes. With Nylotte. She and I are a couple now. Didn’t I tell you?”
He grinned and failed to keep the laughter from his voice. “Well, then, in fear for my life, I will nobly step aside. I wish you two only the best. But if you’d pass on a message to your roomie for me, that would be great. Let her know we’re on for the game.” It was the code phrase they’d agreed upon to indicate successful delivery of the virus.
Diana laughed again, but it was forced. “She’ll be so glad to hear that. When she gets her teeth into a deathmatch, she’s beyond fierce. I wouldn’t want to go up against her.”
“We can only hope she does us proud.” The line dropped, and he sighed. And that the traitors we discover on the committee are the ones we already know about.
Chapter Fifteen
Diana stepped out of the corner of her bedroom at home and into the corner of the bedroom in her stronghold on Oriceran. She and Nylotte had worked to fortify its defenses and to stock it with supplies against the need to spend significant amounts of time there during their pursuit of the last missing part of Rhazdon’s Vengeance, the sword Fury. The Drow had also taken great pains to scrub away the stench of the place’s previous occupant with liberal applications of magic. The torture and research rooms had been cleared, as had almost all the furniture except for a few bookshelves, the dining table—which was a truly gorgeous piece crafted from a single large slab of wood—and the desk made from the madness-inducing trees of the forest.
The agent had procured and delivered enough gear to fully outfit any four agents and was diligent about keeping the supplies fully stocked. Unlike the metal lockers at the base, however, the weapons and defensive pieces rested on armor dummies and in opulent display cases. When she’d asked Nylotte why she’d selected those items, the Drow had shrugged. “Part of your heritage is an appreciation of beauty. There’s no time to start embracing that like the present.” The Dark Elf had laughed and gestured at her hair. “You can begin there. It’s all lopsided.”
She had frowned and retorted, “Okay, next time, you fight the crazy wizard and his henchmen, and I’ll set up an appointment at the salon.” Her teacher hadn’t been impressed.
The bedroom was empty, and she gazed with true longing at the heavy blankets and plump pillows on the bed. It was always cold in the bunker, exactly the way she liked it best. A small, carefully hidden part of her looked forward to when she would be able to share the renewed space with Rath, Cara, and the rest of the team. But things will need to be much more stable than they are now for that to happen. At the moment, anyone here is a target. While she was comfortable wearing a figurative giant X on her chest, she wasn’t about to risk others in her pursuit of the sword if she could avoid it, given the destruction they’d narrowly avoided in the cavern that had been home to the daggers.
The agent wandered the halls, threading a path toward the office that took her through the other rooms. She had to admit, the Drow’s sense of style matched her own very well. Or maybe she chooses the items based on my tastes specifically. Either way works. Nylotte's mentorship, however acerbic and annoying it might be at times—which was very acerbic and annoying—had become a true gift and was now one of the pillars that her personal foundation of being rested upon. Her happy thoughts were invaded by the object of her thoughts, whose sarcastic welcome greeted her as she stepped into the armory area. “Oh, you’re finally here. How wonderful. Waiting for you was not boring at all.” The Dark Elf reclined on the elegant wingback leather chair she had placed in the room so she could harangue her student as she prepared.
“It’s lovely to see you too, most honored teacher.” She set her backpack, filled with supplies, carefully to the side to unpack later. There was little preparation needed aside from her armor. She already wore her tactical pants, boots, and under tunic, plus the necklace that kept her connected to Lisa and the charm bracelet around her right wrist. The illusion detection band rested above the watch on her other hand. She wore her comm, but only for its enhanced sensing capabilities. She couldn’t connect electronically with the other planet, and since Nylotte was able to speak into her mind, there was no need for her to wear one. Diana had made the offer on Earth, and the Dark Elf had merely raised an eyebrow and stared, which had effectively conveyed her opinion of that particular notion.
She shook her head at the memory and started to pull the armor pieces from the nearest full-body mannequin. “So, where are we off to today?”
The Drow straightened and pointed. “Your buckle is twisted.” Diana rolled her eyes and the other woman smiled. “Not too far, actually. There is a keep nearby that was once the home of someone high up in Rhazdon’s hierarchy. It’s the next most likely holding place for artifacts from the time before the war.”
She frowned as she strapped her arm guards on. “It hasn’t already been ransacked? It seems an obvious location.”
Her teacher nodded. “True. But I came across a well-hidden reference that suggests a cavern under the dungeons that may still lie undiscovered.”
Diana lowered her vest over her shoulders and secured the straps to tighten it in place. This version was a little heavier than normal as it had an undercoating of tiny chain links made of titanium. The likelihood of blade combat was increased on Oriceran, based upon her experiences with the planet so far, and the addition might at least give her an edge. She checked her Ruger to verify its load and the cylinder’s action and slipped it into its holster. Her Glock slid into position at her hip, and she draped her carbine across her chest, the barrel pointing down to the left. She turned to Nylotte. “How do I look?”
The Drow snorted as she rose to her feet. “Like…what’s his name? Rambo, only less attractive.”
“Cold. Really cold.” Her teacher was dressed in her own battle attire, and Diana had to admit it was more stylish than her own. Leather straps covered her legs and arms, and a long chest piece of chainmail and more leather split into a skirt at her waist that reached to above her knees. She wore a belt over it with pouches similar to hers but it, too, was much more attractive. Her mane of white hair was bound in two ponytails. One pulled the top and sides together high on the back of her skull, and the other gathered the remainder at the nape of her neck. She looks like an illustration from a book about gods and goddesses. Her internal voice poked her. “Jealous?” Diana took another look and nodded. Yeah, actually. Her internal voice replied with something like a sigh, “Me too.”
Nylotte gestured with her arms and twitched her long fingers to summon a portal. When it was complete, the illumination spilling into it revealed a creepy looking corridor of roughhewn rock. The agent frowned. “So, straight into the dungeon, then?” The Dark Elf gestured her forward. She tapped her glasses to switch them to low light and stepped through.
The place smelled as old as it looked with decaying vegetation seemingly crushed where it poked through cracks in the rough-hewn blocks to either side. It proved to be barely taller than the elf as she followed and dispelled
the rift behind them. The narrow space felt claustrophobic in the extreme. They traveled only a short distance before they entered a large room with stone tables set in a triangle in the center. As a gesture from the Drow, long extinguished torches flared to life to reveal the room’s low ceiling and rocky walls—and the bloodstains that covered each of the large gray slabs. Diana sighed. “You always bring me to the nicest places. Was this guy an asshole torturer, too?”
Her companion laughed. “It was a woman, actually, and the record suggests she mainly worked with cadavers—admittedly, very recently dead cadavers. The book makes no mention of her creating her own, however.”
Looking around the room at the various weapons that hung from the walls and surgical instruments that lay on trays along one side, Diana concluded that history had probably treated the woman too kindly. She was distracted from the thought by the sight of Nylotte near the far wall where she crouched to touch the ground. She crossed to kneel beside her teacher. “What is it?”
The Dark Elf waved a hand parallel to the floor, and a set of runes materialized to outline a small circle. “This appears to be the trigger for something, but I can’t sense what it’s connected to.”
“Is that normal?”
Her teacher nodded. “For something this ancient, yes. But it does increase the degree of danger considerably if it’s a trap.”
Diana sighed and stood. “Tell me what I need to say.” It was her quest, after all, and the risks should be hers. Nylotte rose as well and pushed her away from the circle with a grim shake of her head. “I am better equipped to deal with the assorted magics that might be involved with such a trap.” She paced the perimeter of the circle and stared at it before she gave a decisive nod. “I think it is simply the lock to a hidden door. I want you to cast force barriers around and above me as soon as I cross the boundary.”
She nodded and created force walls on all sides, as well as one overhead. The Dark Elf chuckled. “Remind me, assuming we survive, to teach you that circles are far stronger than angles.” Without another word, she stepped onto the circle and spoke a command in a language Diana didn’t understand. The area within the force box began to glow, occluding the sight of her, and the agent stared into it, hoped the woman was okay, and feared the result if she was not. In only a few moments, the light diminished and a grinding sound emanated from within the triangle demarcated by the slabs.
Nylotte dismissed the force barriers and stepped free. “As I thought. It’s simply a lock. It took a few moments to divine the right key.” Diana nodded and followed her teacher as she crossed to the hole in the floor. The Drow summoned a ball of flame and cast it inside to reveal the rock of the promised cavern far below. Low moans rose from the room, sounding like beings in pain. They were interspersed with snarls and the sounds of movement. She looked at her companion with a half-grin. “How unexpected. It appears things are alive down there after all this time. Or perhaps the fire woke them.”
Diana leaned gingerly over the opening and peered down. Below, the ground itself seemed to writhe and move. She backed away a step with a sigh. “Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?”
The other woman shrugged. “So, it’s more dangerous than we expected. Are you willing to give up the pursuit of the sword?”
“Absolutely not. I have one related question before we go, though. Do healing potions work as anti-venom?”
Her teacher rewarded the inquiry with a wicked grin. “I have no idea. Let’s find out.” She hurled several fireballs through the opening, leapt in behind them, and vanished instantly from view.
The agent shook her head. “I have a bad feeling about this.” She stepped over the edge before she could reconsider.
Chapter Sixteen
The pillar of energy she summoned to control her descent created a wave and she rode it down and pushed the teeming mass of creatures on the floor away. They seemed to be a combination of bugs, rodents, and snakes, all of which displayed irritation at their presence. The Drow was already waiting on the bottom and tapped her foot impatiently. A force shield covered her skin in a mostly transparent barrier.
Diana landed in balance and raised her carbine. Nylotte summoned another pair of fireballs and made them hover to provide light in overlapping circles to either side of them. A rat-like creature about as large as a wolf appeared to the left, and the agent dispatched it with several rapid shots. Her teacher stared at her and she shrugged. “Rodents of unusual size are never friendly. Don’t you ever watch movies?”
The Dark Elf shook her head, clearly despairing of her student’s sanity, and led the way forward. Force and fire cleared the path, but the sense of being surrounded was constant and disconcerting. Occasionally, something large enough to be threatening would appear, and she would kill it or send it scurrying away with a few rounds from the carbine. By the time she’d emptied the first magazine, they still hadn’t seen a sign of anything useful in the cavern.
The moaning noises drew closer—or, more accurately, they moved closer to the sounds. After another couple of dozen feet, her teacher nodded to gesture ahead. The far wall was finally visible. A tunnel led through it away from the teeming vermin but toward the moans and growls. Diana sighed. “Why does it seem we’re always moving toward areas of more danger? Wouldn’t intelligent beings choose differently?”
Nylotte’s ponytails bounced as she shook her head. “Not intelligent beings with a purpose. And, really, a being without a purpose can hardly be called intelligent.”
“What’s your purpose, then?” The question was flippant but also sincere. She always wondered about the other woman’s motivations.
The Drow laughed. “To see what you are capable of becoming, of course. After all, you are an evolutionary branch of my species. All Drow are related. Although your ongoing fascination with mundane weapons will probably stunt your growth.”
“Shut up or I’ll shoot you.” She followed her into the narrow tunnel. Her teacher paused and cast a wall of force over the entrance behind them, then moved ahead again. Damn. Managing to keep that up while also being ready for the next fight is impressive. Especially since it’s out of her line of sight.
As if she’d heard the thought, Nylotte explained, “You will learn to see differently. It is simply a matter of using other senses and separating a portion of your mind to focus on an existing spell. It’s not hard.” She snorted inwardly. What the Drow considered simple was often still beyond Diana’s best efforts.
Her partner came to a sudden stop, and she crouched and sighted along the barrel of her M4. There was a glow up ahead that didn’t come from the fiery spheres floating nearby. A wave of her teacher’s hand dismissed the orbs, and the duo moved forward cautiously. The tunnel opened into a wide, meandering hallway large enough to fit four people walking side by side. Torches flickered at intervals on both walls, disturbingly asymmetrical. Nylotte growled. “So the arrogant bastards wanted us to know they were here first?”
“What?”
With an exasperated sigh, she gestured at the torches. “They’re burning. Obviously, since we haven’t seen any others alight, they had the ability to deal with the darkness without them. So they lit them as a message that this place was not as secret as we thought.”
“Do we turn back then?”
“Hardly. We have no way to know how long ago they were here, or whether they were successful. It could be those moaning sounds are animals feasting on their remains.”
Diana shuddered. “That’s a pleasant image. Thanks. Much appreciated.”
A ghost of a smile flickered at the corners of her teacher’s lips. “Forward, protégé.”
Two turns later, they discovered what the moaning sounds were. Half-decomposed corpses shambled around, generally limping and universally hideous. The smell they gave off was disgusting, and Diana covered her mouth and nose with a sleeve. She hissed, “What the hell are those?”
“Necromancy. It’s not usually considered a polite form of magic. These were prob
ably animated long ago—and imperfectly, to judge by the level of decay.” She sounded professionally disappointed at the use of imperfect magic. It was a sound the agent had heard in her voice a seemingly endless number of times. “Our predecessors appear to have avoided them, rather than engaged with them.”
“So what’s the plan?”
The Dark Elf turned to her with a grin. “I hear burning is an appropriate method for dealing with such leftovers.” She gestured at the shambling crowd. “Make it so.”
She let her carbine fall on its strap and concentrated to calculate the right balance between power preservation and expenditure. When ready, she raised her hands and summoned her will, and washes of fire that mimicked the output of a flamethrower erupted from each. She tracked the blazes over the hallway to ensure that all the disgusting vestiges of life were targeted. The screams were horrifying, but her mind put an edge of gratefulness or resignation into them, as she definitely wouldn’t want to spend eternity working for some evil wizard or witch. When the flames burned down, the corridor had been swept clean and even the ash reduced to nothing. A heavy door was now visible at the end of it.
Nylotte led the way as they hurried forward to flank the wooden barrier. She closed her eyes and seemed to be concentrating, so Diana did the same, trying to extend her senses through the wall. She heard some muffled sounds but couldn’t make out what they were. When she opened her eyes, her teacher stared at her with an amused expression that carried into her voice. “Did you hear anything?”
She shrugged. “Something’s on the other side, but I can’t tell what.”
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