by TR Cameron
Zeb laughed. “It’s good to see you caring about your appearance for a change.”
Without turning away from the small mirror she used, Cali extended a single finger at him and drew a heartier laugh.
Tanyith said, “Do we need to go over the plan one last time?”
Fyre snorted, and she sighed. “No. We’ve all got it. We go. We watch. If we see the gangs only chatting to people off the ship, we leave it alone and keep watching. If they cause trouble, we go in and cause more trouble for them. If we see both gangs…well, we improvise.”
He nodded. “And if something big happens?”
“Run like hell and let the Drow and Barton handle it. What did she say, by the way? Or did you spend the whole time being lovey-dovey?” He had excused himself from the Tavern to make the call, which allowed her and Zeb to laugh at him behind his back.
With a growl, he said, “We are not interested in each other. Get it through that thick slab of bone that stands in for your brain. She appreciated the heads-up and will take, quote, adequate precautions.”
So many jokes leapt to her mind, but she decided to spare her partner, who seemed to be fragile over the issue. She changed the subject loudly. “So, Zeb, you’ll be able to handle the bar and keep an ear out for our arrival?”
He nodded and pointed at two walls. “I’ve installed motion sensors. If you portal in, I’ll get a flashing light upstairs so I can come and make sure you’re not dead.”
“Excellent.” She snapped her fingers. “Tanyith, I had an idea. You should ask Nylotte if she has healing and energy potions that will work on Draksa, just in case.” She thought about it for a second, then corrected herself. “Healing only. Fyre on an energy potion wouldn’t be good for anyone, really.” The Draksa snorted at her from his position atop a stack of crates, but Zeb’s presence kept his sharp tongue quiet. She wasn’t quite sure why he’d chosen to speak in front of Tanyith but not her boss, but that was a mere drop in the bucket of the things she didn’t understand about her companion.
“I can do that.” He pulled more unfamiliar items out of the satchel that had been delivered a half-hour earlier, as the Drow had promised, and which had provided their jackets. The next to emerge were three straps with a small box on them. He handed two to her. “Locators of some kind. She told us we needed to wear them.”
Cali frowned. “Are they magical?”
He shrugged. “Who knows? Magical, half-and-half, all technology—it could be any of them.”
“Why does she need us to have them?”
He strapped his over the arm of his coat. “I don’t know, but if she says we should do it, I’ll do it.” She mirrored his actions.
Zeb chuckled. “That is always a good attitude when working with that one.” He took the longer strap from Cali and moved toward Fyre.
She asked, “You know Nylotte?”
The dwarf put the locator around the Draksa’s neck, pulled the Velcro apart, and reset it twice before he was satisfied. “I know of her. She ticks Invel off. He thinks she’s too much of a ‘free spirit.’” He made finger quotes in the air. “Of course, he probably thinks anyone born after him suffers from the same malady.”
They laughed together at that, and Tanyith withdrew the final items from the bag and tossed it aside. Two hard cases contained what looked like sunglasses. She accepted hers from him and put them on, and the slightly dark cellar was suddenly as visible as being outdoors at high noon. She peered into all the places where shadows had held sway. “Oooh. Night vision, kind of.” He waved his hand in front of his eyes.
“But without all the icky green ghostly stuff you see in video games. Nice.” He took his off and put them carefully into their protective carrier, then slipped it into a pocket. With a heavy exhale, he checked the straps of the backpack he’d donned and said, “I think we’re ready.”
She nodded. “Me too. Fyre?” His snout dipped in agreement. “Okay, Zeb, let’s make it happen.”
The dwarf rotated one hand in a circle and a rift appeared in the air. On the opposite side, Vizidus, the wizard who had brokered the meeting with the two gangs in the tavern, waved at them to come over with a cross look on his face. They complied, and the passage closed the instant they were through.
Their escort was surprisingly spry, given his aged appearance. Cali considered asking him if he used magic for energy and if he could teach her to be faster or stronger, but decided it wasn’t the time. Next time he’s in the Dragons, though, we’ll have a chat. He led them along a series of side streets and finally paused and pointed ahead. “We’re roughly in the middle of the docks. The ship should pull in soon. It was seen farther up the river a while ago.”
Before them was the terminal building and on the opposite side, they could see the lights of the docking space. Tanyith thanked him and launched himself into the air, followed immediately by Fyre. She sighed, not willing to try her indifferent abilities at force flying on such an important occasion, and headed forward to find a good place to climb. When she reached the wall, a knotted rope slithered down the side, and she used it to ascend quickly. Together, they crossed the roof, careful to avoid all the skylights that might betray their presence, and crouched behind the ornamental ridge that ran along the edge facing the river.
They waited and watched for roughly ninety minutes before the large ship eased alongside the dock. Almost instantly, once it was tied into place, openings appeared in four different areas and cargo and people began to appear. It was one of the most impressive things Cali had ever seen, a bizarre combination of overall order and small-scale chaos. Her glasses turned the entire scene to daylight, so it wasn’t difficult to locate the Atlanteans when they made their appearance. A group of them came around one corner of the terminal. They separated and half headed directly toward what looked like a crew gangplank on the far side, while the others followed the direction of the main flow of people disembarking roughly amidships. She pointed it out to Tanyith and he replied, “Now look at the other side.”
She did and noticed a small group of people loitering at the end of the terminal building, just outside the pools of light that illuminated the rest of the dock. They appeared human and looked intently at the passengers leaving the ship. She nodded. “Okay, I see them. What are they waiting for?”
He sounded focused and angry. “If I read it right—and I’m not sure that I do—there’s a contingent that expects to be picked up. Those are the ones coming through the crew area. But there must be some who still need convincing or who are hiding among the passengers because the second group of Atlanteans is headed toward the middle. I think the woman who almost speared you is with them.”
“Good. Maybe I can get payback. What’s up with the humans? They have to be Zatoras, right?”
“Or members of a lesser gang hired on or maybe others who sell the people they capture. I don’t know. But if your point is that they’re probably here to kidnap someone, I would say you’re right.”
They watched the scene play out below. The first group of Atlanteans did indeed escort a line of folks away from the crew gangplank and disappeared around the corner with them. The ones in the middle waited, occasionally talking to people and pointing them over to a waiting area where one of their members stood. They still couldn’t act because there was no indication that anything bad was happening. Everyone seemed fine with the situation.
Tanyith’s expression seemed to mirror Cali’s growing boredom until raised voices emanated from the center of the docks. A group of people coming off the ship walked quickly away from the waiting gang members and toward where the humans were positioned. When the woman in the suit and her cronies followed them, it was clear that a conflict was imminent. She asked, “Now?”
“Now. Let’s go clean up the trash.” He nodded, satisfaction in his voice.
He and Fyre leapt from the building, and she ran to where they’d arranged the rope for a speedy descent between illuminated areas. I really need to work on my entrances.<
br />
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Tanyith veered toward the Atlanteans, so Cali approached the humans. Maybe it has something to do with his cover story. Or maybe he simply wants revenge. Either way, I won’t argue. She stayed near the terminal building and tried to get close before they noticed she was there. Ahead and to the right, the four Atlanteans—two women and two children, it appeared from this distance—continued to move in the direction of the darkness at the edge to avoid the entreaties of the Atlantean gang members.
At a loud honking behind her, she twisted her head as a large semi-trailer stopped next to the cargo gangway. There were already pallets on the way to it. She didn’t know much about how that kind of thing worked, but she’d thought the existence of the terminal building, with its docks on the opposite side sized properly for the big vehicles to pull up to, meant that the truck shouldn’t be there. She shrugged, dismissed it, and focused instead on the four—no, there were six now, with another six about a hundred yards behind but moving in the same direction—humans in front of her.
She waved at Fyre, who dipped a wing to acknowledge the gesture and pointed at the trailing half-dozen. He swooped in that direction, and she put them from her mind, knowing he’d at least delay them and probably take them out of the fight altogether. The rest were on an intercept course and sauntered without apparent intent on a trajectory to meet the Atlantean newcomers outside the lit area of the docks. She charted her own path to intercept them about three-quarters of the way there and stepped into the light. It was almost ten seconds before they saw her and the guns appeared. A trio turned toward her and the rest continued toward their prey.
Oh no, you don’t. Shouts rang out from behind, considerable swearing punctuated by the word “Dragon.” Go, Fyre, go. She summoned her full-body force shield and attacked. The gunfire echoed from the buildings but it was far enough away from the main activities that those engaged in cruise ship procedures probably wouldn’t notice, which was good for everyone involved. The bullets met her barrier and ricocheted or fell, depending on the angle at which they’d struck it. When they fired dry, the gang members reloaded and holstered the guns. Two of them drew combat batons and the third two large knives. They spread into a semicircle to await her approach.
She had only seconds before she’d reach them, and she wondered if she should focus on the other group instead. Still, there was time as long as she dealt with these quickly, and she didn’t want them at her back. She let the shield fall, drew her sticks, and targeted the one on the left with a ferocious grin on her face.
Tanyith had hoped he could reach the gathered enemies without betraying his presence, but they noticed him almost immediately when he broke into a run. As one, they turned and raced across the gangway into the cargo area of the ship. His speed slowed as his brain tried to process that decision, and he decided it didn’t matter. Cali has a handle on protecting the people who came off the ship, so all I need to do is find these jerks and deal with them. He increased his speed again and his boots rang as they clanged along the metal slab that connected the vessel to the shore.
He launched himself inside when he reached the end of the plank in case they were lying in wait. His path carried him over a forklift and numerous people who moved things with hand jacks and he landed on a stack of plastic-wrapped boxes on a pallet. The free-standing stacks were only about eight feet high, but there was a huge scaffolding system set up deeper in the ship that would allow for several pallets to be slotted in to fill the full height of the four-story area.
A blast of shadow magic struck the side of his support stack, toppled the boxes beneath him, and flung him back. The slide of containers cushioned his fall but it was still an awkward landing, and he smacked his knee hard on the metal deck. He cursed and forced himself into motion in time to avoid the follow-up attack, a line of force that sliced a nearby box in two. Hastily, he summoned a force shield attached to his left forearm and barreled into the open.
Four enemies were in view, including the woman he’d fought in the Atlantean base. He shifted to the side to put one of her people between them and attacked a third who happened to be closest. The man thrust both hands out and a force ball streaked toward him, but he deflected it with his shield, generated a baseball-sized sphere of magical power in his right hand, and lobbed it at the man’s knee. It thumped home and his foe fell howling to the floor, clutching the damaged joint. One down, too many to go.
He barely raised the shield in time to deflect the spear thrown by the dark-suited woman. It returned to her as she advanced toward him with all the confidence and inevitability of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator.
Cali had intended to charge past the man and put him between her and his allies, but he stepped away to force her inside. She skittered sideways at a different target—the one with the knives. Her left stick chopped in and he managed to catch it on crossed blades, but the kick that channeled all her momentum into his stomach catapulted him away and out of the fight. His weapons clattered noisily when they fell.
She paid for the attack with a blow in the lower back from the middle man’s baton. Fortunately, she’d maintained her forward motion so its impact was blunted, but it was still enough to drag a cry of pain past her gritted teeth. She spun to her right and lashed out blindly with that stick to drive him away. It caught nothing but air as he backpedaled. Her desire to pursue was thwarted by the third man, her original target, who waded in with his own sticks flying.
They traded strikes and blocks, evenly matched enough that neither could get through the other’s defenses with a decisive blow. She tried aiming at his fingers, but he was wise to the trick and almost snuck a shot through to her face in return. When she backed away slowly, hoping to draw him forward, he followed and she suppressed a smile and focused on the cadence. At exactly the right moment, she hurled her right stick at the remaining man, who had attempted to sneak in from that side, then slipped ahead and to the left. She caught her foe’s wrist as his strike flashed past her and yanked him forward to break his balance, skipped back, and used the joint as a lever. Faced with the choice of a broken wrist or going with the motion, he chose the latter and she flipped him easily. She pistoned a foot into the nerve bundle in the side of his leg, knowing it would numb the limb and keep him out of the fight for a time.
If he’s smart, he’ll limp the hell away from here. She caught movement in her peripheral vision and whipped her left stick around to redirect the blow that arced down at her head far enough aside to miss her. Damn. I wish Sensei Ikehara had seen that. It’s evidence that I’ve actually learned something in our training sessions. She launched a sidekick into the man’s exposed ribs and followed it with baton blows to each of his knees when he doubled over. He fell, too, and she raised a hand to summon her thrown weapon. She turned in a circle and noticed an odd reflection in the distance. When she squinted and stared at it for a moment, she realized it was one of the enemies the Draksa had been fighting, frozen in place, and smiled at the prowess of her partner. Now, where did the rest of those idiots get to?
Tanyith wanted nothing more than to confront the woman who had almost impaled him twice, but her allies swarmed around and there was no way he could handle them all at once. He blasted one and then another with bursts of force that thrust them back but not out while he raced deeper into the storage area and finally ducked out of the line of sight behind a series of stacked pallets. In the increased darkness, the image in his glasses shifted to provide both the brighter view they’d displayed but also a smear of color that represented body heat.
It was the only thing that saved him from the veiled attacker who crept over the pallet beside him. His illusion was flawless with not even a visual ripple, but he hadn’t thought to mask his temperature. As he pounced, Tanyith avoided the tackle by taking a quick step away and blasted an upward kick toward the man’s groin. The assailant grunted and crumpled despite the hard plastic his foot had connected with, and while he was down, a follow-u
p kick drove into his temple.
The noise revealed his position, though—or the man had told them—because suddenly, he was confronted by two of his enemies. He summoned a force shield barely in time to block the shadow and flame that boiled out at him and ran forward to thrust the barrier into them. They fell back, but he screamed when the damned woman’s spear cut a line of fire across his calves. If she’d been a little lower, she would have nailed his Achilles and a little higher would have unstrung his knees. He said a prayer of thanks as he launched himself upward on a pillar of force and toward the door to the outside. I only need a second to take a potion. Then, we’ll continue this dance, you wench.
Cali neared the trio who had focused on the Atlanteans when they were still twenty feet from their target. She risked a blast of force to carry her up and over them and twisted as she landed to create alarm in the newcomers and elicit curses from her enemies. She gestured at the gangsters. “How about you boys turn around and go home? These folks don’t seem to want your attention.”
They looked at each other, and the center person said, “You should stay with your own gang, witch. Your magic won’t help you three on one.”
She grinned and thrust her hands out to spear the speaker with twin blasts of force, one aimed at his groin and the other at his solar plexus. They arrived simultaneously and she caught a glimpse of his shocked face for only a second before he careened ten feet away to land in a crumpled heap. She called, “I think you counted wrong.” The two in front of her drew pistols, and she leapt back and conjured a wide force shield to cover herself and the foursome behind her. “Get out. I’ll take care of these two idiots. Stay out of their firing lanes.”
