by Dana Fredsti
“Half a moment!” Harcourt wheezed. “Hold up, you louts!” Cam and Blake halted to allow the Victorian to catch up to them. Panting, Harcourt leaned over for breath, propping himself on his thighs. “It’s all well and good for you soldier-boys to gallop away like a pair of Percherons, but these calisthenics are most unbecoming of an English gentleman!”
Blake raised an eyebrow. “Is that what you’ll tell the posse when they catch us?”
“Be reasonable, man,” Harcourt scoffed. “What is the chance they’ll even take notice until breakfast-time?”
Blake opened his mouth to respond, but was distracted by a pair of bright spots appearing in the distance behind them. They didn’t move like lanterns carried by men on foot or horseback.
What the hell? he thought.
They moved like headlights. That could only mean…
“They’re coming!” he said. “Run!”
Terror lent the three a second wind as they sprinted for the woods. Eerily, their pursuers made no sound—neither the familiar clomp of horse hooves nor the roar of a German war engine. Still, the lights of the vehicle drew closer at a frightening rate.
Lungs on fire, Cam and Blake bolted as fast as they could toward the relative safety of the trees ahead. Even as they drove themselves forward, though, both men knew with growing despair they had lost any chance of entering the woods unnoticed.
* * *
Harcourt worked his skinny legs madly, like a broken-winged bird struggling to lift off the ground. It was no use. He could scarcely match half the other men’s speed.
“Wait for me!” he called, then wailed with an incoherent cry of alarm when he saw them disappear into the dark of the forest. He was still a hundred yards out, utterly abandoned and completely exposed. And then he was caught in the lights from the approaching hunters.
* * *
Breaking past the edge of the woods, Cam and Blake each took cover behind a tree, fighting to catch their breaths. Harcourt was still wailing from the prairie, and Cam risked a look back. The lights of their pursuers were blindingly bright now, clearly outlining Harcourt in his flapping coattails and top hat, their unmistakable beacon.
“They’ve spotted him!”
“Of course they have,” Blake said impatiently. “We need to keep going.”
With a pathetic yelp, Harcourt tripped and fell flat on his face.
Blake shook his head. “There’s nothing we can do. Come on.”
“We have to help him,” Cam insisted.
“He’ll lead them straight to us.”
“So there’s no use hiding now,” Cam said—and dashed back toward the light.
Blake swore, gritting his teeth. Fighting the urge to punch the tree trunk in anger, he could only watch helplessly as the reckless Celt sprinted to Harcourt’s rescue.
* * *
The few seconds it took Cam to reach Harcourt felt like forever. Rushing up, he held out a hand to help the man to his feet. Harcourt took it.
“I-I thought you’d left me.” His voice was pitifully grateful.
“Never,” Cam replied. “Now let’s—”
A blaze of fire came out of the night, as a burst of automatic fire cut him off.
47
Nellie and Hypatia froze in terror. The blue-skinned ogre towered above them, his outstretched arms allowing no room to slip past him for the safety of the forest. That left only the lip of the precipice behind them, a sheer drop to the death.
He leaned in closer.
“Yūshoku no jikandesu.” His low voice rumbled, deep as a dragon’s. Time for dinner.
“Wait now!” Nellie cried out. The ogre raised an eyebrow the size of a stretching black cat.
“Oh ho! You speak English! Fee Fi Fo Fum!” He laughed, a terrifying sound like battleship chains scraping anchor on the bottom of the sea.
“Please…” Nellie fought to keep her voice from shaking. “Please don’t eat us.”
He seemed to consider her request.
“I am most hungry, and you two will make a delicious meal—but first, I will let you take your picture with me before I throw you into my cooking pot.”
Nellie gaped at him in confusion. “Take… a picture? But we have no camera… or photographer.” Even as she spoke the words, she recognized how ludicrous they sounded.
“Hmm, very well. Then I shall let you go this time—but you must promise to attend my performance at the Sapporo Pavilion. Four o’clock this afternoon.”
The women stared at each other.
Madness upon madness, Nellie thought.
“Then we shall,” Hypatia said with all sincerity. “You have our word.”
“Excellent!” the ogre exclaimed. “I shall not eat you today. My Oni brothers and I shall perform our wondrous Ainu Demon-Dance, brought to you by Sapporo. You shall be amazed at my agility and thrill to my feats of strength!”
Nellie raised a hand. “Pardon us, Mr. Ogre—”
“I am Kon’iro Kyojin, King of the Oni! ” he thundered. “Disrespect me at your peril!”
“I… I beg your forgiveness,” Nellie stammered, “but can you just tell us—where is this pavilion?”
The Oni king held out one big blue palm, the nails of his fingers resembling blackened shark teeth. A shimmering ball of pearlescent light sprang to life in his hand, reflecting back from his huge eyes, and resolved itself into the glowing figure of an elegant fairy princess, one foot tall. She appeared to be Asian. Japanese, Nellie thought.
“Welcome to Ezo-Land, the enchanted Ainu realm of Hokkaido!” the pixie-voiced princess exclaimed with a courtly bow. Like a magician’s assistant, she held up her hands broadly, showcasing a glowing translucent map that appeared between them.
“You are at the Demon’s Cave, here. You must be very brave, and beware the fierce demons! To reach the Sapporo Pavilion, kindly take the stairway to your left to Mononoke Hime Station. The magic monorail arrives every fifteen minutes, and will take you to RoboMech Paladins Station, where the Sapporo Super Ninja Adventure Pavilion is only a short walk away. Thank you and enjoy your special day!” She bowed again and disappeared along with her map.
Nellie and Hypatia looked around, seeing no trace of the promised stairs or station, or anything of this Ezo-Land that had filled the whole valley on the princess’s magical map. There was nothing but snow-streaked forest.
* * *
Gazing out over the rugged yet beautiful vista, becoming clearer as the day became brighter, Hypatia scarcely knew what to make of the demon and the fairy princess, or the vanished land of which they spoke. She turned to Nellie to ask what she thought.
Something was wrong.
“Nellie? Are you—?”
Nellie seemed caught in a trance, staring out into the empty vastness of air spread before them. She opened her mouth as if to speak. Then her eyes closed, she raised her fingertips to her temple, wavering unsteadily.
“Nellie!” Hypatia gasped as Nellie suddenly toppled forward. She tried to catch her, but the momentum was too great, carrying them both off the ledge.
Air whooshed past them, then twin blue streaks caught them up and brought them back. Kon’iro Kyojin had grasped them in midair with surprising speed and deftness, lifting them back up and gently setting them back on their feet at a safe distance from the precipice.
“Are you in distress?” the giant asked. “Would you like me to summon a nurse from the first aid center?”
“I… I’m not certain,” Hypatia said, still dazed from the drop and the rescue.
“I apologize, there is a delayed response from Guest Services, but I will stay here with your party until a medical professional arrives. In the meantime, may I offer you a drink of water?”
She found the fierce ogre’s reassurance as touching as it was unexpected.
“Thank you,” Hypatia said, distracted by concern for her friend. “Nellie? Are you alright?”
Standing somewhat upright, but still supported by the Oni’s great blue fingers,
Nellie nodded absently.
“I’m fine,” she replied to no one there. “You just caught me by surprise, and I had a dizzy spell at a bad place, but we’re alright!” She nodded, and seemed to be fighting back tears. “Yes. Me too.”
Hypatia stared at her. Though Nellie’s eyes were open, she was miles away.
“Nellie? What are you saying?”
Then, a moment later, she turned to Hypatia, eyes gleaming.
“Hypatia! It’s Amber! She’s found us!”
* * *
“NELLIE!”
“We’re still here,” Nellie replied. “We hear you! Please don’t shout. It’s overwhelming when you do.”
“Sorry! I keep cutting in and out. But listen! I’m losing rovers— they break apart if we try to keep the portal open for very long. I need you two to jump through now before I lose you altogether.”
“Oh, but we’re miles away. We’ll hurry, but we need more time to get to you.”
“Damn it!” Silence. “Okay, I’m sending a rover to find you.”
“Wonderful! The portal is in a cave, but we’re in the mountains a few miles due north of it. We’ll leave at once to rendezvous with your robot.”
“Hurry Nellie, I can’t—”
“Amber? Amber?”
She was gone again. Nellie turned to Hypatia.
“We have to leave for the seal cave at once. Amber is going to send one of the ship’s little flying satellites to search for us and help lead…” Her voice trailed off. “Oh.”
“What is it?”
Nellie pointed down over the lip of the precipice. A gleaming dot was floating up the mountainside toward the top. The rover had already found them.
* * *
The softball-sized obsidian sphere stopped and hovered in the air before them.
“This is the Ship,” it said. “Ms. Bly and Lady Hypatia, it is urgent you follow me immediately down to the portal.”
“Marvelous!” Nellie exclaimed. “How did you find us so quickly?”
“I have been in search mode for three hours and nineteen minutes.”
“But… I was just talking to Amber a moment ago. How could you possibly…?” She shook her head. “Why do I even bother asking questions anymore? Never mind. Let’s just be off.”
The rover set off toward the trees, back in the direction Imekanu had brought them up. Kon’iro Kyojin seemed to take no notice of the drone whatsoever, but when they started to leave, he raised a hand to stop them.
“So sorry, but it is very important you remain here until medical personnel have arrived to confirm that you are alright. They will be here soon.” For a giant horned and fanged blue monster, he sounded quite protective.
“Why don’t you come with us?” Nellie said. “We could use your company.”
“No, please, I must insist that you both remain here until a nurse arrives.” He shifted slightly, making a wall of himself. The flying drone turned around and sailed back to them.
“I’m afraid we don’t have time to discuss this with such antique and obsolete neurohardware,” the rover said. It emitted a beam of greenish-amber light which struck the giant’s face. Kon’iro Kyojin froze in place, and then his forehead—horns and all—slid back like a rolltop desk, exposing an interior filled with intricate translucent grillwork and tiny blinking lights. The drone moved closer, emitting needle-thin beams of light in rapid bursts. A few moments later, the rover retreated and the giant’s skull slid seamlessly back into place.
“Come!” he said, rumbling back to life again. “I shall take you on a fabulous tour of Ezo-Land before I cook you up for dinner!”
* * *
With the rover as guide and Kon’iro Kyojin as escort, Nellie and Hypatia made good time retracing their route down from the precipice as their breaths puffed out in the cold midmorning air.
Though she knew it was foolish in light of their situation, part of Nellie hoped this route would take them back by the village so they could thank their hosts and say goodbye. It was a shame they’d had to ruin the festival by disappearing the way they did. Then again, they couldn’t very well expect a warm welcome with the giant blue ogre in tow.
The going was rougher for him, ducking under the tree canopy or bulldozing his way through, keeping his palm held open so that his holographic princess could act as a rather odd tour guide, pointing out features of a park that no longer existed.
They reached a small clearing in the forest, the glade formed by the crossroads of two trails, and the rover abruptly paused. The others halted as well, and the ogre closed his hand, snuffing out the princess in mid-sentence.
“What is it?” Nellie whispered.
The rover was silent for a moment. “I detect—”
Sudden commotion broke through the trees to their right, sending a flock of birds bursting into flight. A herd of terrified deer came bounding toward them, charging through the undergrowth in great waves, kicking up snow as they ran. The women ducked behind Kon’iro Kyojin for shelter as the herd thundered past them—disappearing again just as quickly as they had appeared.
“That bunch was certainly in a hurry.” Nellie laughed as the two emerged from behind their oversized protector.
“But what set them to flight?” Hypatia asked.
As if in answer to her question, lines of armored men began to fill the glade from the north.
Squads of medieval Japanese foot soldiers swarmed toward them, lacquered leather cuirasses and conical black helmets gleaming like beetle carapaces. The front rows bristled with long polearms tipped with spearheads, sword blades, and hooks. Behind the lines of spearmen marched archers and sharpshooters, long muskets on their shoulders.
Alongside them, two surly, rhinoceros-like beasts pulled a platform. Each was nearly the size of a stagecoach, their massive, hunchbacked bodies covered in shaggy white fur and boasting two sharp horns, the foremost as big as a scimitar. Atop the platform rode a grim-faced Japanese officer with a shaven head. He wore a dark blue military uniform and cap much like the European armies of Nellie’s time. Beside him stood a sturdy metal tripod. Nellie recognized the instrument it supported—a Gatling gun.
Nellie gasped. “Japanese samurai! They’re terrifying warriors.” Suddenly she made the connection.
Shamo—Samurai…
The dreaded Shamo had arrived.
48
The shot went wide, sending the targets diving to the ground for cover.
“I have them!” Shanks hollered, raising the Tommy gun to fire off another burst.
“No!” Kha-Hotep yelled, shoving the firearm away as he slammed on the brakes, spoiling a second barrage. “Seshuw heset net Selkis!” Kha hissed at the startled Redcoat. “The scorpion goddess shrivel your worthless throat! I said we take them alive!”
“Get you hence!” Shanks snapped. “Besides, I was only shooting at the savage!”
“Jackal! I said we kill them only as the last resort—the very last! Mind my words or suffer the consequences—and mind your ammunition, the bullets come dear.” At the prices Cahokia paid Laclede’s Landing for their hand-tooled bullets, they may as well have been firing diamonds.
Behind them, Crows elbowed Rockwell and pointed to their quarry. The two had already slipped out of the headlights’ glare into the dark.
“They’re getting away,” Rockwell said. “Do you want us to shoot them, or not?”
Kha-Hotep said nothing, flicking the switch to vent the boiler with a sharp hiss, and then took up his own Tommy gun.
“Not yet. Come. We pursue them on foot.”
* * *
Even while diving for cover under fire, Harcourt’s precious hat had somehow managed to stay on his head. They kept up their desperate belly-crawl, moving sidelong out of the beams of light, until they heard the doors of the horseless carriage crack open.
“We have to run!” Cam urged. “Come on, get up!”
“No!” The professor shook his head. “They’ll gun us down!”
“T
hey’re only getting closer.” Taking him by the arm, Cam hauled the Victorian to his feet and the two sprinted into the woods. The shouts of their pursuers followed as they ran almost blind, their only illumination the dappled bands of the carriage’s lights shafting through the trees.
“Which way do we go now?” Harcourt asked breathlessly. Cam shook his head, his sense of direction uncertain. With the sound of their hunters closing in, he chose the darkest path available and pulled Harcourt with him.
“Not that way.” Blake emerged from a different pool of shadow. “Follow me.”
The three crashed through the near dark, more concerned with speed than stealth, while the hunting party seemed to be fanning out—their echoing shouts seemed to come from every direction. In front of Cam, Blake came to an unexpected halt and then angled back sharply to the right, into a small break in a stand of oaks. Enough moonlight knifed down to illuminate a welcome sight—a trio of arctic parkas laid out like directional beacons.
There was no sign of any portal.
Blake paced back and forth like a leopard in a cage.
“Damn it, Amber,” he muttered, “come on.”
Cam closed his eyes. “Amber, we’re here at the doorway.”
Her voice came rushing back.
“Cam! I can see you! Come through!”
“Amber!” he said aloud. “She’s here! Amber, we can’t see you. Where are you? Where is it?”
“Turn around, and go slightly to your left.”
He followed her lead.
“Wait! You just passed it! Back up and try again.”
“Are you sure? There is nothing.”
“Trust me!”
He tried again, walking slowly with hands outstretched.
“There’s nothing here!”
“We’re running out of time,” Blake muttered. “They’re close…”
“Amber, I can’t—”
“Hold on, I’ll send the rover.”
