Wizard Gigantic (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 9)

by Rodney Hartman

  That’s strange, Richard thought. I’d expect the color to match the blue color of the gem in the Lady’s staff.

  “Actually, the green color does not surprise me. According to what little you remember, the time-bubble at the Dragars’ spaceport was created by three dragon eggs. One was green, one orange, and one purple. Based upon the color of the shimmer, I calculate the high priestess’s spell is creating an access point to the green time-bubble.”

  Richard continued to watch the shimmering in the air. Within a dozen heartbeats, the green tint solidified into an opening resembling a two-meter diameter, green-outlined circle in the air. The area within the opening was dark. The smell of death came from it.

  Tracer, Grapeon, and Skylark started forward with bows at the ready.

  Having finished her spell, Mia stepped in front of them. “No. I will be the first to enter. I have lost too many under my command as it is.”

  “Like hell you will,” Richard said. “The rest of us are expendable. You’re not.”

  “The human is right,” said Lord Derander. “I shall be first to enter the opening.”

  Amir shifted his hammer to his left hand and pointed at the opening with his right. “You declared me Elf Friend. It is my responsibility. I shall go first. If it is safe, I will—”

  “Commander, no!” cried Mia as she started toward the opening.

  Turning away from the arguing Derander and Amir, Richard caught sight of the three remaining Kreorian guards stepping through the access point. He reached out and grabbed Mia by the shoulder before she could follow them.

  “It’s too late,” Richard said. “They’re already inside. All we can do is wait and see what happens next.”

  “That’s not true,” came Nickelo’s thought. “Everyone could enter after them. I would not advise that, but it is an option.”

  Richard didn’t feel like trying such a low-success option at the moment, so he waited.

  Shrugging Richard’s hand off her shoulder, Mia also waited. She glared at him. “Never do that again. Do you hear me?”

  Richard nodded. “Loud and clear.”

  As Richard and Mia glared at each other, Tracer placed half the lancers in a semicircle facing the rear with bows at the ready while the other half faced the opening with swords drawn. Then they waited.

  After a full minute, Richard felt the ring on his finger becoming warmer. The heat grew to the point of burning. Just as he was grabbing his ring finger with his right hand in preparation for removing the ring, he sensed an emotion coming through the ring. It was full of hate. It wasn’t hate at him, but the unexpected emotion was enough to make him leave the ring in place. The emotion was accompanied by a flow of Power, a lot of Power, and a demand for something.

  What’s going on? Richard thought. I don’t need Power right now.

  “Maybe you do not,” said Nickelo, “but I calculate whoever or whatever is on the other side of that gem does. They fed you Power when you needed it. I calculate whoever it is expects you to do the same in return.”

  Drawing the Power into himself, Richard felt it double in size. “Maybe I should keep it for myself. I’m probably going to need it when we enter the time-bubble.”

  Before Nickelo could give his opinion of the subject, Richard sensed an emotion of desperation coming from the ring. An image of silver eyes and silver hair flashed in his mind. On impulse, he sent the Power back through the ring’s gem, holding none back. Power returned back to him through the link, more than he’d sent. As soon as the returned Power touched his reserve, it doubled again. He sent it back down the link a second time, then a third and a fourth. Each time the Power made a round between him and whoever was on the other side of the ring’s gem, it increased incrementally. The Power returned for a fifth time. When the Power doubled again, it reached a point where Richard nearly lost control. He sent the Power back a fifth time. It did not return for a sixth round.

  The warmth in the ring faded until the paper-thin metal was cool once more. Try as he might, Richard detected nothing on the other end of the ring. “It’s like it just disappeared. Do you think whatever’s on the other side died?”

  “Insufficient data to tell one way or the other,” replied Nickelo. “My suggestion is to worry about your own problems. By the way, something is coming back through the access point.”

  A hand and arm appeared in the dark opening followed by the rest of Meshanahl’s body. The young monk had a rag tied over his mouth and nose.

  Looking around, Meshanahl spotted Mia and gave a half bow. “Commander Astradis sends his greetings, High Priestess. He says it is safe to enter.” He pointed at the rag across his face. “You may want to prepare yourselves. The air is very foul.”

  Taking the monk at his word, Tracer gave the command to her lancers to tear strips from their cloaks and cover their mouth and nose. The two mages along with Amir and Mia followed suit.

  Nickelo chuckled. “Kinda makes me glad I do not breathe. I calculate you are fortunate that your battle suit is a self-contained environment. You will not have to breathe whatever noxious odor the monks have found on the other side.”

  Richard activated his battle suit. In less time than it took for his heart to beat once, the suit converted from its leather form to high-density armor. He did a quick function check of the suit’s seals. The check came back positive. Glancing to his left, he checked to make sure the transition to full armor wasn’t going to set off Amir.

  The big man glared at him, but after a second, he nodded his head, raised his hammer and shield, and stepped next to Richard. “We will go in together.”

  “Agreed,” Richard replied.

  Before Richard could take a step, Mia lifted the Lady’s staff and stepped between them to take the lead. She was followed by Meshanahl and the two mages. Richard was about to fall in behind them when Tracer shoved him out of the way and moved forward with her lancers.

  Glancing at Amir, Richard shrugged. “I guess we’re tail-end Charlie.”

  The big man smiled. “If that means we’re last, then I believe you’re right.” He waved his hammer at the now empty opening. “Shall we?”

  Stepping forward, Richard entered the access point with Amir close behind. It was dark inside. That mattered little to Richard since he had his night-vision filter in place, but Amir stumbled a little as his eyes adjusted.

  Richard found himself inside a large cavern. Tracer had the elf lancers in a half-circle facing the center of the cavern. Two of the elves were on their knees making retching sounds. The same sound came from behind him as Amir went down on one knee and began throwing up his meal from the night before.

  “Hmmm,” said Nickelo. “Based upon the reactions of Amir and the elves, I calculate a one hundred percent probability you should be thankful you do not have to breathe the air. I also calculate the source of the odor causing their reaction lies at your ten o-clock position.”

  Turning to his left front, Richard spotted a thirty-meter long lump of rotting flesh. It took him a moment to make out the body as that of a black dragon with a long neck with nothing at the end. He spotted what was left of the dragon’s head a dozen meters away. He glanced around the rest of the cavern. Smaller bodies were piled against the cave’s walls as if they’d been swept there by a giant broom.

  A memory came flooding into Richard’s mind. In the memory, he was also in a cavern. It was dark. A black dragon that wasn’t a dragon was taunting him. Lightning flashed behind several boulders followed by the glow of exploding fireballs. The explosions stopped. Someone came running around the boulder carrying a staff with a blue gem at the top. The someone was a female elf with silver hair and silver eyes.

  “Shandria,” Richard thought. “I know who she is. I can remember.”

  The images continued. As the elf charged forward, she sent blast after blast of magic at the demon-dragon. The great beast drew back. As it did, the Richard in his vision levitated forward and placed something at the base of the dragon’s ne
ck. The images ended.

  “Nick, did you—”

  “I saw it. A section of my databanks has just become accessible. This cavern is where we completed our first mission for ‘the One.’ We are in the same time-bubble where you found the blue seed part. The elf in your vision was Shandria.”

  Parts of Richard’s memory that had been previously blocked came back to him. He remembered ‘the One.’ He remembered his mission in the time-bubble. As the images from his memory had flowed into his mind, he’d remembered how Shandria told him that each of the three seed parts were stored in separate time-bubbles by demons. The memory of his battle against the demons and the undead in the time-bubble where the blue seed part was located washed over him.

  “Shandria had a red and a yellow sphere,” Richard told his battle computer. “Do you think the yellow sphere was—”

  “No, I do not, Wizard Scout. Those three spheres were seed parts, not gems. I calculate Mia’s quest is to find a yellow gem.”

  Richard searched the part of his memory that had come back to him. “I don’t remember seeing any gems in this time-bubble.”

  “Nor I,” said Nickelo. “Then again, we did not search the upper levels. The demon that was the dragon over yonder forced us back to the lower levels after you met the elf.”

  Richard remembered the battle. He remembered Shandria being bitten by a ghoul and subsequently being paralyzed by its poison. He’d found a secret chamber with the blue seed part. They’d stayed there for months recovering as Shandria trained him in shields and links.

  “Nick, I’m confused. I know that I’ve only got the part of my memory back that includes our stay in this time-bubble, but I think that was an awful long time ago. Yet that dragon and the bodies against the walls are only half rotted. How’s that possible?”

  Nickelo laughed. “We are in a time-bubble. I calculate the flow of time here has little to do with the flow of time outside the bubble. Based upon the deterioration of the dragon’s body, I calculate it died about a month ago.”

  A hope came to Richard. “Do you think Shandria is still here?”

  “Doubtful,” said Nickelo, splashing cold water on Richard’s hope. “From the information in my databanks, she was desperate to get the seed parts back to her village of Silver. She told you she had a spell that gave her access to the time-bubbles. I calculate she would have left after the demon-dragon was killed.”

  “Rick!”

  The urgency in Mia’s voice brought Richard back to his surroundings. The two elves and Amir were no longer on their knees. The blue gem at the top of Mia’s staff shown bright, illuminating the body of the headless dragon.

  Richard looked at Mia. “Did you say something?”

  “Yes,” said Mia. “I said where do we go now? Is this what you expected?”

  “No,” Richard admitted, “but I remember being here before. We need to go up.”

  Lord Derander narrowed his eyes. “What do you mean you have been here before, human? Have you led us into a trap?” He placed his free hand on the hilt of his sword but kept it in its scabbard as he stepped between the high priestess and Richard.

  What’s with him? Richard wondered. Does he think I’m going to attack Mia?

  Reaching out with her left hand, Mia forced the mage aside. “The decision to enter was mine, not Rick’s.” She stepped close enough to touch Richard. “I trust you. If you say we must go up, then up we will go.”

  When Lord Derander started to draw his sword, Master Freestrod placed a hand on his fellow mage’s arm. “How about casting a night-vision spell on Amir?” said the old mage. “He is the only one of us that cannot see in the dark now, and I am anxious to get out of this cave.” He touched the cloth around the lower part of his face. “It stinks down here. Perhaps if we go up like Rick suggests, we can find fresher air.”

  Lord Derander stared at Freestrod for a couple of heartbeats before nodding his head. He let his sword slide back into its scabbard, then walked over to Amir and mouthed a chant. A soft, blue glow appeared over the big man’s eyes.

  Mia nodded at Richard. “Lead the way.”

  Richard glanced a final time around the cavern. His memory of his first mission for ‘the One’ was back, but most of his time in the demon-dragon’s cavern had been spent in pitch-dark. Plus, it had been a long time ago. Things looked a little different than he remembered.

  “Relax,” said Nickelo. “That is why you have me. I have access to the information in my databanks about our first mission. Fortunately for you, I made a map. The exit out of this cavern is to your three o’clock.”

  Heading toward the exit with Mia and the others strung out behind him, Richard led the way into the tunnel beyond. The walls were covered with soot. The tunnel led down, not up, but it was the only way to go.

  “It will start heading up soon enough,” Nickelo assured him.

  Richard was about to make a snide comment when he felt the ring on his hand tingle. The connection to the whatever was at the other end felt stronger than ever. “I guess it’s not dead,” he told his battle computer. “Strange how the link between me and what’s on the other side of the gem feels stronger. I’d think being inside a time-bubble would’ve made it weaker, if anything.”

  “So would I,” agreed Nickelo. “I would recommend worrying about that later. Right now, we have things to do.”

  Following his battle computer’s suggestion, Richard concentrated on moving through the tunnels. Before long, the tunnel took them to a five-way intersection. Three of the tunnels were partially blocked by rubble. One had a jagged ceiling, and its floor was covered by small stones that made walking difficult, but at least it led up.

  “This is the intersection where you fought the trolls,” said Nickelo. “You closed all the tunnels with explosives after the fight. The gas explosion you made in the dragon’s cavern must have cleared out this tunnel and the one we came through. The good news is, this tunnel will lead us past the door to the secret room where you stayed with Shandria. After that, it should take you to the stairs that lead to the upper levels.”

  Richard remembered the fight and the stairs. “The stairway was blocked when the ceiling caved in.”

  “True,” replied Nickelo. “But Shandria and you were in the secret room for months. I calculate there is a good chance the previous inhabitants of this place cleared the rubble from the stairs. I am more concerned about what we may find upstairs. That is new territory for us. We ran into demons and undead down here. What we will find upstairs is anyone’s guess. To top it off, we do not have a map of the upper levels.”

  They walked for several minutes without encountering anything or anyone. Richard recognized the point in the tunnel where the secret room was located but passed by without stopping. Before long, the tunnel widened out into a sort of antechamber with roughhewn walls. Parts of the stone in the roof had large chunks missing as if from a cave-in, but the rock floor was clear of debris. Twenty meters away was a set of stone steps leading up.

  “This is where the ghoul bit Shandria,” Richard said. “Strange how I can remember details now.” He looked at the stairs. “Those were blocked with tons of rock last time I was here.”

  “See,” said Nickelo. “I told you it would probably be clear.”

  Richard stopped and turned around. Mia and Commander Astradis were side by side behind him with Amir and Lord Derander close on their heels. The others were strung out in a double file. Richard could just make out Tracer and Master Freestrod bringing up the rear. He motioned for everyone to gather around.

  “We’ve been lucky so far,” Richard told the others. “The lower tunnels were filled with demons and undead the last time I was here. We pretty much cleared them out then. Upstairs may be a different story. If we run into demons, our best bet is to let the magic users, Amir, and I handle them.” He pointed at Tracer. “Your lancers will do the most good by keeping any undead off the magic users. You need to give them time to cast their spells.”

&n
bsp; Since no one argued, Richard assumed his makeshift plan met everyone’s approval. He glanced at Lord Derander. The glare he got back told him not everyone approved.

  Piss on him, Richard thought. I’ve got bigger fish to fry than worrying about whether he trusts me or not. He turned to Mia. “You ready?”

  The high priestess nodded. “We are ready. Let us pray the upstairs are as empty of the demons and undead you have told us about as are these lower tunnels. Let us also pray that if we do find enemies, that we will also find allies.”

  Richard was about to tell her that he was pretty sure allies were the last thing they’d find in this Creator-forsaken place when the sound of distant booms drew his attention.

  Everyone became instantly alert.

  “What’s that?” asked Amir. “It sounds like thunder.”

  Richard drew his phase rod and activated it in destructive mode. As the meter-long rod of red phase energy popped out of the handle, he took off running for the stairs. “That’s not thunder! It’s gunfire.”

  Chapter 47 – Crash Landing

  ____________________

  The plastic bench seats nearest the back of the X-shuttle began melting as raging flames of magic and phase energy did their best to turn the ship and everyone in it into a ball of molten metal streaking through the atmosphere. The only thing preventing the flames from reaching the shuttle’s crew as they huddled in the cockpit was Jeena’s magic. The shimmering blue heat-resistance spell kept the flames and most, but not all, of the heat at bay.

  Ignoring the blisters on her arms and face, Jeena continued chanting as the gnome mages Calatron and Kester fed her Power from their reserves. Even the dolgar pup Snowy got in the act by sticking her head between Jeena’s legs and growling at the flames. Jeena extended the blue magic of her spell around the hull of the X-shuttle. The green and purple flames at the back of the shuttle flickered a couple of seconds before going completely out.

  The orc pilot Timerman touched several icons on the pilot’s console before yelling over his shoulder, “I’ve lost control of the shuttle! Buckle in. We’re entering the atmosphere and going down fast.”