by R S Penney
Reality twisted around the Weaver as she was yanked back to her uncle’s camp. She had been trying to keep her distance. The outcome of this battle was of no concern to her. She was certainly not going to put herself in danger just to prove the might of the Eradian Empire or some such nonsense.
The blurriness faded, and she found her uncle standing in front of a large tent with the glowing crystal in hand. By the look in his eyes, he was ready to skin her alive. “And where have you been?” he demanded. “You delivered those men to the hilltop almost five minutes ago! You should have come back here!”
“I take it the battle isn’t going well?”
“See for yourself.”
She ventured a glance around the tent and realized that her assessment had been a serious understatement. Men in black coats raced up the hill only to be met with gunfire and explosions. Over a dozen bodies floated in the swamp, blood pooling around them. There were wounded as well.
She saw men at the medical tent whose feet were nothing but a mass of red blisters. Others were crawling back to the camp, unable to stand after wading through the scalding water. Some had turned tail and run in any direction, as long as it was away from that hill. They would not be returning here. They knew the price of desertion.
“Do something!” Timothy demanded.
Rounding on him, the Weaver clasped her hands together behind her back. She tilted her head to one side with a sweet smile. “And put myself at risk?” she asked. “You saw what happened the last time. Tommy cut me off from my power.”
Timothy flinched at the sound of a distant explosion, gasping for breath. Perhaps he had learned to fear Aladri magic. “Your power is no good to me if you will not use it,” he growled. “Do something.”
“As you wish, uncle.”
A break in the shooting gave Desa an opportunity. She peeked out from behind the tree and found that most of the black-coats were lying on their bellies at the base of the hill. A few were starting to rise. Just the distraction she needed.
An instant later, Desa was on her feet and charging down the slope, heedless of the slippery mud beneath her. A few of those soldiers looked up, their jaws dropping in shock when they saw her.
Desa leaped, grabbing the drooping branch of a nearby tree. She swung her body like a pendulum, slamming her feet into the chest of a man who noticed her a second too late. The poor bastard fell onto his ass.
Releasing the branch, Desa back-flipped through the air, dropping like a pin to land in ankle-deep water. The others wasted absolutely no time surrounding her. At least six of them closed in.
One came up behind her.
Bending her knees, Desa drove her elbow into the oaf’s stomach, producing a sharp wheeze. She brought her hand up to strike his nose with the back of her fist. And then he toppled over.
A large, pale man with a thick mustache towered over her, drawing his belt knife. His breath stank of whiskey.
Her hand flew out toward him, tossing another pinch of black pepper powder, and with the Force-Source in her ring, she propelled it right into his face. The man sneezed, dropping his weapon and covering his face with both hands.
She turned to her right just in time to see a lanky fellow with hollow cheeks and ropey arms coming her way. He was bent double, charging like a bull.
Desa jumped, using her Gravity-Sink for extra height, and rolled like a log over his back. She made a large splash as she dropped back into the water. When she looked up, a brute with a scraggly beard stood right in front of her.
He threw a punch.
Ducking low, Desa let his fist pass over her head. She sent a pair of jabs into his belly and then followed that with an open palm to the chest, augmenting the blow with a burst of kinetic energy.
The bearded man went flying backwards, screaming as he crashed into a tree. He fell to the ground a moment later, landing face-down in the swamp.
She turned around to find the others staring at her in wide-eyed horror. One of them was holding a knife; another had a rifle with a nasty bayonet, but they were all afraid to attack. No one wanted to fight the demon woman with her black magic.
The rifleman threw down his weapon and fled, kicking up water as he sprinted away from the hill. It took the others all of five seconds to decide they wanted to follow him. Desa snorted as she watched them go.
Now, where was Adele?
It occurred to her that the Eradians must have been controlling the other woman somehow. Adele Delarac was much too self-absorbed to dedicate herself to a cause. She would only fight for the Empire if she had no other choice. If Desa could get her hands on whatever it was they used to restrain her…
She was about to reach for the Ether, to search the battlefield for her enemy, when a hissing sound made her look up. Fireballs streaked out of the heavens like comets, igniting the trees they struck. In seconds, half the hillside was burning.
Desa’s first instinct was to go find the others – she could put out those fires with Heat-Sinks – but that would be a tactical error. Tommy could snuff out those flames as easily as she could, and Kalia would lend her support as soon as she got here. They didn’t need a third Field Binder.
But if she put down Adele once and for all…
Desa took off through the swamp, bolting for the enemy camp. Some of the black-coats gasped when they saw her coming, but no one tried to stop her. They were wise not to try. She had only one goal.
And nothing would stand in her way.
Kalia screamed as she watched the ground rushing up to meet her. Why had she let Desa talk her into this insane method of travel? Human beings were not meant to fly! She could feel the Sink in her belt buckle feasting on gravitational energy. It was the only thing preventing her from breaking every bone in her body in a devastating crash.
She saw a collection of haphazardly-placed tents sprawled out across the hilltop. Some of them had been flattened by cannonballs. It dawned on her that she didn’t have a good place to land.
Stretching her hand toward the ground, Kalia triggered the Force-Sink in her bracelet. It would not take energy from Kalia’s body except in cases where she was hurtling toward a much larger object. Motion was relative. In a way, the bracelet was slowing the Earth as it approached her. Sadly, she had activated it a second too late.
Kalia hit the ground and bounced along it like a stone skipping across the water. A string of curses escaped her as she rolled through the narrow space between two lines of tents. “I am going to kill you, Desa Kincaid!”
Eventually, she skidded to a stop.
She looked up to find Miri standing nearby with a rifle in hand. The other woman shook her head in amusement. “Haven’t got the hang of it, huh?”
Kalia sat up, touching fingertips to the side of her head. She grimaced at the aches and pains throughout her body. “Shut up.”
The trees at the edge of the hilltop were burning! How had she failed to notice that? For that matter, how could she have been oblivious to the fireballs raining down on them from above?
Kalia forced herself to stand.
Tilting her head back, she blinked as she took in the sight. “Adele?” she asked. “This is her doing?”
Miri shrugged and then turned her head, staring off in the direction of the Eradian camp. “She seems to be holding a grudge,” she said. “We could use your help.”
“Of course.”
Miri took off down a crossing street, and Kalia made to follow, drawing her pistol. She had learned more about Field Binding in the last few months than she had in the previous five years, but a good six-shooter would always be a sheriff’s best friend. If Adele decided to make an appearance, a well-placed bullet would do her in as well as anything else. Which was to say not very well at all. The bitch just refused to die.
Gun in hand, Kalia crept around the corner and saw that Miri was gone. She was alone on a long street between two rows of tents. And she couldn’t shake the feeling that danger might come rushing out of any one of them.
Without warning, Adele appeared in front of her, about fifty feet away. The woman cocked her head and smiled. “Oh, it’s you,” she said. “I was hoping for…Well, I suppose killing you will suffice. I never could abide another woman taking what’s mine.”
Adele extended her scaly hand, a stream of fire flying from her fingertips.
Kalia threw herself to the ground, rolling across the width of the street. She flopped onto her belly, raised the gun in one hand and fired.
The other woman vanished an instant before the bullet went through the space where her head had been. Now, where could she have gone to? Kalia muttered a few more curses. How did you fight someone who could be miles away in the blink of an eye? She forced herself to get up.
A sudden whoosh of air made her turn around, and she found Adele standing in the intersection between this street and the other one. The woman raised her hand, but Kalia was quicker.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Every bullet became a puff of smoke before it got within an inch of Adele’s body, but the evil woman still danced backward as if she were afraid of them. As well she might. This was just a distraction. Adjusting her aim, Kalia fired a single shot into the ground at Adele’s feet.
And then she triggered the Force-Source.
The ground exploded. Adele was thrown backward by the blast, somersaulting in the air. She landed with a grunt, breathing hard, and when she looked up, there was murder in her eyes. “This no longer amuses.”
She tried to shoo Kalia away with a dismissive flick of her wrist.
Raising her left hand, Kalia triggered the Force-Sink in her bracelet, and the kinetic wave that should have hurled her sideways into a tent was absorbed by the Ether. “Nice try,” she said. “But I’ve watched you fight. And I know your tricks.”
“Do you?”
Adele raised her scaly hand, fingers curled as if she held an invisible ball in her palm. Something changed. Kalia felt as though she had lead weights strapped to her arms and legs. She couldn’t breathe! Her body was so heavy.
Fighting her way through the panic, Kalia focused her thoughts and triggered the Gravity-Sink in her belt buckle. Just like that, the crushing weight was gone. She wasted no time getting to her feet.
Kalia leaped, intending to tackle Adele from above, but the other woman stretched her hand out, and Kalia was suddenly suspended in midair, held aloft by invisible strings. One of those ropes coiled around her neck. She felt it squeezing. Her vision went dark, silver flecks dancing before her eyes. What a fool she had been to think she could win against this creature.
Abruptly, Miri stepped out from between two tents, raising her rifle and pointing it at Adele. Kalia could only see her as a blurry figure, but she heard the roar of the rifle’s discharge. Those invisible ropes vanished.
Kalia landed on her knees, clutching at her neck.
Striding forward, Miri worked the rifle’s lever to eject the spent shell casing. And then she fired again. The second shot went through Adele’s chest, causing the woman to stumble.
Adele doubled up, pressing a hand to the wound as if trying to hold her guts inside her body. She looked up at them with anguish on her face.
Then she vanished.
“Are you all right?” Miri asked, offering her hand.
Kalia took it, allowing the other woman to pull her up. “Yes, I’m fine.” It came out as a croak, but ten minutes in the Ether’s embrace would sort that out. Assuming that she survived long enough to get ten minutes alone.
The trees were burning; she could smell the smoke, feel it burning her eyes. “The fires,” she panted. “We have to put them out.”
“Yes,” Miri agreed. “We need Heat-Sinks. Please tell me you have some.”
Kalia nodded.
“Good. Come with me.”
Creeping through the enemy camp with her gun in hand, Desa peeked around the corner of a tent. She found black-coated soldiers scurrying about, some running, others hobbling. Her heart broke at the sight of the men who had been wounded. Some would lose their feet to severe burns or frostbite. She was half tempted to give away the last of the crystals she had taken from the Temple of Vengeance.
This had to end.
She stepped out into the open.
Men looked up, but instead of fighting, they fled at the sight of her. One or two of them even screamed. That twisted her guts in knots. The last thing she wanted was to be a figure who struck terror in the hearts of ordinary people. Wealthy and powerful people on the other hand…
It wasn’t hard to find the commander. He was a tall man, dark of hair, with flecks of gray in his mustache. He was standing outside a tent when she spotted him, staring off to the distant hill. Strangely, he didn’t wear a uniform. For a moment, she wondered if she had the wrong man, but she knew authority when she saw it.
Lifting her gun in one hand, Desa squinted at him. “Well now,” she said, striding forward. “Somehow, I get the impression that you’re in charge.”
The man turned his head and flinched when his eyes fell upon her. “How did you get in here?” he growled. “Why hasn’t anyone stopped this woman?”
“Who are you?” Desa demanded.
“Who am I? Who are you?”
Reaching up with her free hand, Desa tipped her hat to him. “The avenging spirit of Ithanar,” she said. “Here to collect a debt.”
“Kill her!” the man bellowed. “Kill her, you fools!”
The soldiers who hurried through the camp stopped in their tracks, trying to decide if they wanted to obey that order. One man tentatively reached for his sidearm, but he did not draw it. Desa almost pitied them. She counted about two dozen. Together, they could have overwhelmed her – at the very least, they could force her to flee – but they didn’t know that.
They knew only that many of their comrades had suffered injuries that might leave them unable to walk, that someone had boiled the swamp. Desa recognized a few of those faces. Some of them had been on the hilltop when she hurled lightning at them from above. Others had tussled with her in the water. For all they knew, she was as powerful as Adele. And they were afraid.
“Kill her!” the commander shouted.
Desa stretched her hand toward the open sky, releasing a bolt of lightning from her ring. The men who surrounded her backed away. “You are welcome to try,” she said. “But you won’t like the results.”
No sooner did she finish speaking than Adele appeared next to the commander. The other woman was bent double with a hand on her chest, gasping for breath. She didn’t even seem to notice Desa.
“About time!” the commander snapped. “Kill her!”
Adele looked up, her eyes widening when she saw Desa. “Perhaps you failed to notice, Uncle,” she began. “But I’m in no condition to fight anyone.” She put her hand on his shoulder, and they both vanished, leaving their men in the lurch.
Uncle.
So, the commander was Timothy Delarac. That explained a few things. Desa still didn’t know how he was able to control Adele, but at least she had a target. When she was finished learning whatever it was Mercy intended to teach her, she would go to Ofalla and settle this once and for all.
The Eradians stared at her in bewilderment, wondering what to do next. No one wanted to attack her, and well for her that they didn’t. She had used up most of her Sinks and Sources in the fight.
Sliding her pistol back into its holster, Desa heaved out a sigh. “Run,” she said in a rasping voice. “If you value your lives, throw down your weapons and leave this place. Your days as soldiers of the Empire are over.”
She was pleased when most of them heeded her advice.
6
Desa sat alone in one of the abandoned tents, resting. She had spent the last half hour Infusing new bullets along with her rings, bracelets and belt buckle. All in all, she had come out of this battle ahead. No major injuries, only a few scrapes and bruises. The Ether’s healing touch had made short work
of those, but she was still tired.
Tired and reluctant to see the others. She couldn’t quite put her finger on why, but something made her want to stay out of sight. Maybe it was the fact that she would be leaving in the morning. Tearful good-byes would only make that harder.
Grunting and cursing, Kalia ducked into the tent and knelt on the soft rug. The woman looked as if she had been riding hard for three days without sleep. “So,” she said. “Are we going to talk about it?”
“Talk about what?”
“Your decision to go after Adele instead of helping your friends.”
And there it was: the reason Desa had opted for seclusion. On some level, she had known this conversation was inevitable. She had been trying to keep her mind off of it, to busy herself with other things.
Tilting her head to one side, Desa raised an eyebrow. “Some would say I did help them,” she countered. “If not for me, the Eradian commander might have sent another wave of soldiers up that slope, and who knows what Adele would have done?”
“Perhaps.”
“Are you saying I was wrong to go?”
“No, I’m not,” Kalia answered. “I don’t know if you made the right choice. Maybe if you had stayed, we would all be dead now. But I do know you’re still fixated on Adele.”
Desa narrowed her eyes. “Adele is a threat to the world itself,” she said. “I love you and Tommy and the others, but I have a duty to mankind.”
“Are you sure it’s duty that motivates you?”
Something about that question irked Desa. She wasn’t in the mood for another lecture about letting guilt choose her path. Quite frankly, she had good reason to feel guilty. None of this would have happened if not for her.
Kalia stood up, heaving out a sigh, and then looked down at her. “Adele was here,” she said. “You went charging off to find her, and she decided to come to you. Miri and I fought her.”
“Are you all right?” Desa breathed.
