by Scott Baron
Ten guards exited the staircase, Niallik following close behind. She had thought to make a run for it with her prize pet, but it seemed someone had let the little woman out of her cage. No matter, her men would take care of the interloper while she reeled in the young woman herself.
Niallik cast her shocking spell.
Henni stood tall, unaffected.
Niallik had a moment of confusion before her eyes realized what she had missed at first glance. Henni was not wearing her collar. Somehow, she had forced it off. And that should not have been possible. The girl was dangerously powerful. But worse yet, it seemed she was now armed.
A quick shift in tactics was called for.
“Kill them both!” she bellowed, her guards reacting immediately, charging into the fray.
Bud and Henni, however, were in their element, and the two played off one another like two parts of the same beast, slashing and slicing, advancing and retreating, each striking down attackers with a blinding flurry of blows.
Niallik pulled up her magic. It was frowned upon, using it while her own people were still in its path, but sometimes friendly fire happened, and stopping the girl was far more important than a few guards.
She spoke the words of her spell, casting with all the force she could muster. If this didn’t stop them, nothing would.
The spell blasted down the corridor, slamming her guards to the ground with its force. But somehow, Henni and Bud remained standing, totally unaffected. Bud looked around, confused. The woman down the hall had just cast a killing spell, and at close range, even though her own people were in its path. Yet he had survived. But how?
“Henni, what just happened?”
The young woman’s eyes sparkled with her power. “Jinnik said it. I may not be great at offense, but I’ve got a knack for defense,” she said. “Now step aside, I’ve got something to do.”
She didn’t hesitate a moment longer, racing down the corridor, daggers flying along with spells. Niallik desperately tried to defend against the multi-pronged attack, but she was unaccustomed to this sort of fighting. Others did the grunt work for her while she cast from a safe distance.
There was no safety. Not now. And there was no distance, as her former captive was upon her in a flash. Henni’s daggers lashed out in a frenzy, a blur of silver quickly changing color in the mist of blood they unleashed. This was not merely removing an obstacle or opponent from their path. This was far more visceral than that. Cathartic.
Henni’s pinwheeling arms slowed, then finally stopped. The woman had been dead for a while, but Bud was not about to get in the way of his young friend’s revenge.
Henni ripped free a relatively clean piece of Niallik’s clothing and wiped the blood from her face. Next, she cleaned her weapons and returned them to their sheaths. Slowly, she stood, staring down at the very deceased woman at her feet. She turned to Bud, the rage that had been burning within her tempered quite a bit.
“So, about that rescue,” she said. “We gonna get out of here, or what?”
Chapter Fifty-Two
Given the immense power that typically flowed through Visla Jinnik’s body, seeing him twitching on the hard stone of the stronghold’s passageway floor was disquieting, to say the least. A fine gleam of sweat had even broken out on his brow from the exertion.
This wasn’t him simply being a tired man pushed to move quickly for his escape. This was a man whose control collar had activated but who was either too proud or too stubborn to admit it. Either way, it was clear he would not be able to go much farther under his own power.
“Visla, your collar,” Hozark finally said as the man tried, and failed, to rise from the ground.
Jinnik looked up at him, the pain in his eyes clear in spite of his best efforts.
Hozark simply nodded and reached into a small, hidden pocket within his tunic. As a Ghalian assassin, he had countless items hidden on his person at most times, and this was no exception. In fact, given where they were going and what they were about to attempt, he had even packed a particularly rare item for this occasion.
The flash of soft gold caught Jinnik’s eye as Hozark pulled a slender ribbon of the brightest, most iridescent material he’d ever seen. Tired as he was, he knew at once what it was. And what Hozark intended to do.
“Hold still. I shall have this resolved momentarily,” Hozark said, carefully working the end of the ribbon under the visla’s collar, then wrapping it around and around until the entire circle was covered.
He gently tied it off and stepped back to assess his handiwork.
“Better?”
Visla Jinnik rolled his neck and took a slow, deep breath, forcing his muscles to unknot now that the pain was gone.
“Yes, much,” he replied, gingerly rising to his feet. His fingers lightly touched the material around his collar. “Ootaki hair ribbon. And powerfully charged at that,” he said appreciatively.
“Kept for emergencies.”
“Such as this?”
“Indeed. I thought it might be of use. I am pleased to see that it was.”
Ootaki hair was a rare enough item as it was. To possess even a few long strands of the golden, power-storing locks was considered a fortune. But the truly wealthy, on rare occasion, had it woven into fabric. Some in the order even wove it into their clothing, providing additional power in dire circumstances.
Hozark had more in his personal, hidden storage facility, but the length of ribbon was all he had with him when they learned of Henni’s location. There was simply no time to travel to retrieve the rest.
But the hair did what it was intended to do, effectively cutting off the control collar’s spells for a time, though it had been something of a roll of the dice given how strong the collar was. Of course, it was restraining a massively powerful visla. It was only natural the collar should be equally strong.
The hair, Hozark noted, was already growing warm from its clash with the collar’s magic. That could prove problematic if it continued at that pace.
“It would be best to be far from this place should the Ootaki hair fail,” Hozark said. “I know you are tired, but we must get moving immediately.”
“No. There is more to do.”
“Bud is rescuing Henni, do not fear.”
“No, not that,” the visla said. “They’ve been draining me for some time. Putting my power into weapons to use against innocents. And now they’ve figured out how to pull power from Henni as well.”
“We have encountered these konuses,” Hozark noted. “An unusual amalgam of magic.”
“Then you understand we cannot allow those to be sent out to Maktan’s forces. They must be destroyed.”
Hozark paused in thought a moment. “How many are there?”
“I can’t say for sure. Hundreds, no doubt. Perhaps more. The time has all begun to blur together here.”
Hozark put the visla’s arm around his shoulder and began walking again. “I will contact our allies to see if they have any weaponry aboard their ship that might be capable of destroying them.”
“Wait. There’s another way. And it’s already here,” Jinnik said. “When Niallik first pulled Henni and my magic together, it combined into a highly unstable mix. Just a tiny mistake and her lead weaponsmaker was killed, his smelting lab destroyed in the process.”
Hozark could see where this was going. “Do you know how much of this power has been stored?”
“Not a precise amount, but unless they’ve already managed to force it into konuses, there should be more than enough for our purposes.”
It made sense. The smelting and forging of each konus took time, and the bonding of its initial magical charge with the cooling metal was a very tricky and very time-consuming task. There was simply no way to rush the process. And that meant that while some of the stolen power had been used, most of it was likely sitting idly by, barely contained and ready to burst out.
It was perfect.
“The bulk would not be stored anywhere near the
smelting facilities,” Hozark mused. “Too volatile a location to keep that sort of power.”
“It will almost certainly be in Niallik’s chambers,” Jinnik replied. “Knowing her and her distrustful tendencies, she would have only kept it close.”
Hozark had a decision to make. The Ghalian disliked ever using skrees for communication simply because they were privy to the fact that the devices were not as secure from eavesdropping as people believed. But in this instance, the risk was worth it.
“Bud, Demelza, anyone. Have you found Henni?” he sent out to all of their people.
There was a long silence. Finally, one voice replied.
“I’ve got her, Hozark. We’re almost to my ship,” Bud said, obviously winded from running.
“Good. Then we are leaving. Everyone evacuate to your ships and leave this place immediately.”
“No time for any more pillage?” Lalaynia asked over the skree.
“Only what you can haul off with you at once.”
She knew better than to question the man, and his tone only reinforced that. “Okay. Everyone, back to the ships. Take what you can and get out.”
The ground team had actually managed to overcome the crew of one of the disguised Council ships outside the fortress walls and quickly launched it into the sky, taking their booty up into space where it could be properly sorted through at their leisure.
“You need me to come get you?” Laskar asked. “I can be there in three minutes.”
“No. Stay clear. We shall come to you in orbit. Exit the atmosphere and meet us there.”
Laskar had no idea what was going on down there. From the sound of it, Hozark and the others were being forced into a hasty retreat. Perhaps the ground forces were tougher than they’d expected. In any case, he followed his instructions and pulled higher, popping through the atmosphere into the vacuum of space.
“Do you know where this woman’s chambers would be?” Hozark asked the visla.
“No. I was always kept in the cells. But it would be something regal. She had that attitude about her. She wouldn’t stay in just any quarters.”
Hozark knew the type all too well. A little too full of themselves for his taste. But that cockiness made finding her rooms easy. He simply moved upward until he was clear of normal staff chambers, then looked for the most ornate decorations.
With the visla slowing his pace, it took far longer than he wanted. There was little time before possible reinforcements might arrive. But Jinnik was right, the weapons had to be destroyed.
“There!” Jinnik pointed down a hallway.
It was a tapestry worth more than many people’s cities. They were in the right place. Hozark put the visla in a chair and quickly raced through the connected rooms until he came upon a very well-hidden vault. He retrieved the visla, not about to leave him on his own, then began working on the warding spells.
It was tricky, but this was not a visla or even an emmik who had secured it, and opening the spells would not take too long. But it would require quite a bit of power. Hozark drew his vespus blade and pulled magic from it, shattering the spell, though at the cost of a quantity of his carefully saved reserves. The situation, however, warranted it.
“That’s a magnificent weapon,” Jinnik said. “And obviously a worthy owner.”
Hozark nodded once and set to work, opening the vault and sifting through its contents.
The stored magic was readily apparent. A swirling mix of glowing power, barely contained within a robust magical flask. Hozark couldn’t know for sure, but it felt like there was enough stored magic to power a thousand konuses.
But he felt something else as well. The sheer danger of the unstable mix. Jinnik had been right. The perfect weapon to destroy this place was in his hands. Now he just had to get it to the armory without accidentally triggering all of their demise.
“The weapons are stored near the lower-level smelting facility,” Jinnik said. “We go down there and it will be apparent. I saw them when they would take me to and from my cell.”
“Thank you,” Hozark said, then carefully carried the deadly flask in one hand while assisting the visla with his other.
Again, it was slower going than he would have preferred, but there was simply no other way. And now he had two things to worry about, and in each hand, no less.
But they did not encounter another soul as they descended. It seemed the fighting outside had drawn most of the guards, and those tasked with protecting the inner sanctum had been slain by the Ghalian and his friends.
Hozark took the flask and set it deep within the weapons chamber, setting a booby trap to agitate and detonate the vessel when a fake tripwire spell was disarmed. It was a rather inspired bit of trickery he had used on occasion, setting multiple tripwires tied to a series of dangerous, but small spells. They were concealed, naturally, but not too well.
They would be detected and disarmed, one after another, until those doing the disarming grew confident in their abilities. Overconfident. And when that one particular tripwire was severed, that would trigger the spell. But there were more than enough of the spells to disarm before the final one to ensure they would be able to reach his ship and fly free before anyone could clear them enough to reach their weapons stockpile.
“Can you run?” Hozark asked when he had completed his work.
“I’ll try,” Jinnik replied.
The two moved at a fast but loping pace. Even with Hozark’s assistance, the visla was fading fast. He simply had no energy left after his ordeal. In fact, Hozark realized, it was a miracle he’d managed to keep up so well to this point.
A trio of blades sliced through the air where the assassin and his weary prize had just been. His senses were sharp, but with the additional burden he had only barely gotten them both clear.
Hozark dumped the visla unceremoniously as he dove into a roll, springing to his feet back in the direction of their attackers as his vespus blade flashed from its scabbard. Two of the men mounted a brief defense after seeing their comrade sliced neatly in half.
A moment later, however, they joined him.
“There is no time,” Hozark said as he sheathed the blade once more. “My apologies, Visla. This may be unpleasant.”
He threw the man over his shoulder like a sack of grain and started running, his konus ready to blast out death upon any who stood in his way. Only one guard happened to be so unfortunate, and Hozark made it back to his ship just a few minutes later, a bit winded, but no worse for wear.
He dropped Jinnik into a seat and slid into his command chair, casting the launch spells in an instant. The ship blasted upward into the sky and out into orbit.
“Are we all here?” Hozark skreed his comrades.
“Present,” Demelza’s voice replied over the skree.
“Here,” Bud said.
“Yeah, I’m here too,” Laskar added.
“We’re all clear,” Lalaynia said.
“Then jump at once to our first rendezvous point.”
“But why are we in such a––” Laskar began to say when the fortress far below exploded into a massive eruption of magical fire, destroying the facility entirely. But there had been stored weapons there as well, and the compounding force of that magical destruction was sending shockwaves toward the outer edges of the atmosphere. And there was no telling if it would stop there.
“Jump now!” Hozark commanded the others, then jumped away.
Laskar was stunned, almost frozen in his seat, but his self-preservation instinct kicked in and he jumped. Moments later the others followed close behind, leaving behind charred fragments of the continent on which the fortress had once stood.
Chapter Fifty-Three
The small group of ships exited their jump several systems away at a rally point distant enough from Actaris to allow them to breathe easy and lick their wounds. It had been a tough fight, and Lalaynia had suffered a few losses from her crew.
She had also scored a rather significant pillage.
It was a costly trade off, but it was the pirate life her people had signed up for. And they wouldn’t have it any other way. The freedom of the skies was well worth that price.
Her captured Council ship was now flying with them as part of their little flotilla. It would take a bit of work to empty it of all valuables and convert it into a warship, but she had high hopes it would prove a useful asset in future raids and conflicts. After all, seeing a Council ship enter an engagement was enough to make most enemies think twice. And this one was all hers.
Hozark, Uzabud, and Demelza flew back to dock with Bud’s mothership now that they were in the clear. The larger craft would be a far more comfortable means of travel back to Inskip than their much smaller attack ships.
But as he docked, Hozark felt a renewed sense of concern. Visla Jinnik was weak. The constant fight with the collar fastened around his neck had taken a lot out of him. Now, even with the Ootaki ribbon shielding it, he could still feel the magical restraint struggling to regain its hold over him.
Hozark was both frustrated yet impressed. It was a most powerful collar, indeed. And if the Ootaki hair gave out mid-flight back to Corann’s home on Inskip, there would be little he could do for the man. He had to try something.
“There is a change of plans. Set a course to Master Prombatz’s home,” Hozark instructed the pilot as soon as he had set Jinnik up with a bed and made his way to command.
Bud and Demelza were both there already, having docked before him. Bud looked up from his seat.
“Why the new course?”
“Visla Jinnik is in a precarious way, and Prombatz is several jumps closer than Corann. I am hopeful his assistance might prevent the man’s control collar from regaining a grasp over him.”
“Oh, shit. We’d better get there fast, then,” Bud replied. “Laskar, plot it out and get us moving. I’ll skree over to Lalaynia and let her know what’s going on. We can meet up with her a little later than planned. We’re making a slight detour.”
“You got it,” Laskar said, beginning the calculations. “So, is the guy gonna be all right?”
