Everyone except Jeena dove for the parts of the bench seats that were still usable and began buckling in. There wasn’t room for everyone. Stella and Red Wing wrapped their arms around Calatron and Kester and locked them in place on their laps with lines of Power. Safe in the arms of the two scouts, the gnome mages continued feeding their Power into Jeena, adding some levitation to her heat shield around the plummeting X-shuttle.
Something exploded on the outside of the shuttle, causing it to fall faster.
Jeena’s stomach rose in her throat as her feet left the shuttle’s deck. Her head slammed into the ceiling. Red stars danced before her eyes before turning into solid black.
As Jeena became aware of her surroundings again, she felt Snowy busily licking her face. The ache in her head disappeared and the blisters left her skin. Glancing around, she noticed that the half-destroyed ramp at the back of the shuttle was down.
“What…what’s happening?” she asked as gray, rough-skinned arms picked her up off the floor.
“Explain later,” said Stella as she flung Jeena over her shoulder and ran down the ramp. Once the wizard scout’s feet touched the ground, she carried Jeena through a jumble of downed trees and broken limbs.
Jeena suddenly realized her hands were empty. She looked back in time to see green and purple flames explode out the rear of the X-shuttle. “No! The Lady’s staff.” Jeena struggled to get off Stella’s shoulder but to no avail. “Put me down,” she ordered. “I have to go back and get my staff.”
“Already got,” hissed Red Wing as she ran past carrying the Lady’s staff in her left hand. “The destroyer is heading our way. We have to get some fighting room.”
How Red Wing thought they were going to fight a Dragar destroyer on foot, Jeena didn’t know, but she didn’t argue. She’d been around her bondmate too long to give up without a fight.
After thirty seconds of alternately running and climbing over downed trees, Jeena had more than enough of being carried. Reciting a single word spell to make her skin oily, she slipped out of Stella’s grasp and landed on her feet. She looked around. They were now in a clearing about a hundred paces across. Felspar and his dwarves were spacing themselves out on the side of the clearing opposite the burning X-shuttle. Their weapons were pointing skyward. She glanced at Stella and Red Wing. The two scouts were in the process of taking up a position in the center of the clearing while staring up into the sky.
Looking up, Jeena saw a massive chunk of black metal approaching from high in the east. The Dragar warship leveled off five hundred meters above the trees and continued straight toward them.
“What did you expect?” came Danny’s thoughts. “The smoke from the X-shuttle is marking our location better than any signal flare. If I were the Dragar captain’s combat computer, I would recommend that he come to a hover above the clearing, open the bay doors, and drop a few hundred storm troops with anti-grav belts in our laps. I calculate that would do the trick.”
“Why not just nuke or blast us with a disintegrator beam?” Jeena asked. “That would be even easier.”
“Negative,” replied Danny. “They could have destroyed our shuttle when they first spotted us, yet they chose to disable us instead. I calculate they either need one of us alive, or we have something they do not want to risk being damaged.”
“What could we possibly have that they would not want damaged?” Jeena asked.
“Weelllll,” said Danny. “I would prefer to think it is me. That might mean I was going to get out of this alive. However, based upon current data, I calculate that is probably not the reason.”
“Jeehana,” said Red Wing as she waved the arm holding the Lady’s staff. When the Crosioian scout saw Jeena look at her, she tossed the staff in her direction.
Reaching out with a no-word levitation spell, Jeena floated the blackened staff into her waiting hands. As soon as her fingers wrapped around the wood, she sensed the barest hint of a line of Power leading from the staff back toward the incoming destroyer.
“What is—” she started before the frequency in the line of energy caused her fingers to tighten around the staff. Primeval hate flared to the surface as the image of a sneering dark elf came to her mind. She drew Power from her reserve and fed it into the blue gem at the top of the Lady’s staff. The gem responded with a burst of blue light so bright both Red Wing and Stella were forced to turn away.
“Crendemor is here!” Jeena shouted. “He is on the destroyer. We have to destroy it.” The gem’s blue light dimmed slightly as she began chanting her most powerful offensive spell: a beam of magic designed to disintegrate anything in its path. She’d never tried using the advanced spell before. All too often it proved as dangerous to the caster as it was to the intended target. In the heat of the moment, Jeena didn’t care. Her hatred for Crendemor drove out all sense of fear or caution.
He killed my mother and father. He gave my sister as a sacrifice to the Dalinfaust. I will kill him if it is the last thing I do.
“Do not forget your mission,” said Danny, interrupting her thoughts. “You and the others have to get into the time-bubble. Now is not the time for revenge.”
Jeena no longer cared about the mission. Her only desire was to kill the one who had destroyed her family. Crendemor had to die. “Stella, Red Wing. Feed me Power,” she shouted. “Calatron, Kester, give me everything you’ve got. I am taking that destroyer out and Crendemor with it.”
Whether it was blind loyalty or the sight of the massive destroyer coming to a hover overhead, Jeena didn’t know. Regardless of the reason, four lines of Power began feeding her energy. She added the additional Power to that coming from her reserve and from the gem at the top of the Lady’s staff. Completing her spell, she sent a line of green magic at the open bay door of the destroyer. The disintegrator spell’s beam made contact with the destroyer’s force field and exploded in a blast of green energy.
The warship’s force field held firm. The disintegrator spell fought Jeena for control, seeming to want to reflect back and devour everyone in the clearing. She focused all her concentration on the spell, forcing it to do her will. The green beam continued exploding against the warship’s defensive shield. The ship’s force field started to shimmer, but it held firm.
Beams of red, blue, and orange energy shot down from the destroyer as the ship’s crew returned fire from their anti-aircraft weapons.
Jeena felt the Power from Stella and Red Wing leave her as a translucent shield formed over the small clearing. The destroyer’s energy beams exploded against the scouts’ defensive shields, protecting those below. The scouts’ shields bent downward, but they didn’t break.
“You mean they are not breaking yet,” said Danny. “The two scouts’ Power reserves are finite. I calculate the destroyer’s weapons will overwhelm the scouts’ defensives shields in fourteen point three seconds.”
Jeena continued focusing on the hovering warship. Through the destroyer’s open bay doors five hundred meters overhead, she caught sight of dozens of soldiers in black armor lining up in the cargo hold in preparation for jumping out. Mixed in with the soldiers were humanoid-looking lumps of golden metal the size of ogres.
“Recon-golems,” said Danny. “They are the Dragars’ equivalent to the Empire’s smaller UHAAVs like the Warcat and Tomcat. If you are going to do something, I would recommend you do it before those assault troops reach the ground.”
Despite the removal of Red Wing and Stella’s Power, Jeena sensed the warship’s force field weakening. Only a little more, she thought. I can do it.
Just as the ship’s force field seemed on the verge of failing, additional Power flowed into the destroyer’s energy shield. Jeena sensed Crendemor’s frequency. The force field strengthened.
The line of magic from Crendemor to the Lady’s staff tore at Jeena’s connection to the staff. For a brief moment, the dark elf’s control seemed to win out. The blue gem at the tip of the staff dulled in color, and the disintegrator beam weakened.
/> An emotion of victory coming from within the hovering warship was accompanied by an image of Crendemor’s sneering face in Jeena’s mind. She remembered how he’d looked in the lair of the Dalinfaust when he’d left her there as a sacrifice. She remembered the time in the Presence of the Lady when he’d gloated about how he’d killed her family and given her sister as a sacrifice to the demon-dragon. Hatred raged in her soul—hatred beyond anything she’d ever felt. The ring on her left hand tingled and grew warm. In desperation, she reached through the gem and fed half the Power left in her reserve to her bondmate along with an emotion she hoped told him she needed more. With the additional loss of Power, her disintegrator beam weakened even more.
The first of the Dragars’ soldiers jumped out of the destroyer’s bay doors along with two of the golden golems. Down they came, slowing their fall with anti-grav spells as they added their firepower to that of the warship’s antiaircraft batteries against Red Wing and Stella’s defensive shields.
Only a dim blue glow remained in the gem at the top of the Lady’s staff.
Jeena sensed a feeling of pending victory from Crendemor as he sought to wrest the last of her control from the staff. A feeling of desperation swept over her.
“Lady, help me,” Jeena prayed, unsure if the Lady of the Tree of Light could even hear her two million years in the past as she was.
Whether the Lady heard or not, her bondmate did. The ring on Jeena’s left hand grew warm to the point of burning. Power flowed through the ring and into her. She sent the Power back, expecting and getting more in return. Three, four, five times the Power bounced back and forth between her bondmate and her.
When the amount of returned Power was at the point of bursting out of her control, she fed it into the gem at the top of the Lady’s staff. The blue gem shone bright with Power. Crendemor’s control over the staff faded away. A wave of blue energy shot out of the gem and into the green disintegrator beam of Jeena’s spell.
Boom!
The destroyer’s force field exploded in a violent blast of green and blue. The two falling golems and most of the descending troops were caught in the blast and burnt to ash.
Something shot up from the center of the clearing, streaking into the warship’s now defenseless bay door.
Boom!
A blast of red and purple fire shot out of the cargo bay as the Dragars’ destroyer shuddered. A score of black-armored soldiers along with a handful of golems fell out of the open bay doors.
Jeena glanced at the center of the clearing and spied Red Wing standing there with wings spread wide, lowering a two-meter-long metal tube from her shoulder.
Baring her fangs in the scout’s version of a smile, Red Wing glanced at Jeena and said, “I would have summoned a nuke from my dimensional-pouch, but I thought it might be overkill. I used a blast rocket instead.”
“Watch out,” yelled Felspar from his position at the edge of the clearing. “The ship’s going to fall on top of us.”
Glancing up, Jeena caught a glimpse of fire and smoke coming out of the destroyer’s open bay doors.
The warship plummeted down. Anti-grav thrusters fired in a vain attempt to stop her descent. Armored soldiers and golems jumped out of the bay doors, desperately trying to reach the ground before the warship crashed.
With nowhere to run, and no time to escape, Jeena cast the spell she’d been taught by the Lady. A dark opening lined with an orange glow appeared in the center of the clearing.
“In there,” Jeena shouted, praying that all in the clearing could hear her words above the roar of the destroyer’s sputtering engines. “It’s our only hope.”
Making sure the others got through the opening first, Jeena sensed the massive black hulk of the warship coming down directly on top of her. She dove into the access point and into the time-bubble beyond. As soon as she did, the ring’s connection to her bondmate disappeared.
I’m alone again, she thought as everything went black.
Chapter 48 –Purple Time-bubble
____________________
A purple halo surrounded the dark opening as Shandria finished casting her spell. Lowering the Lady’s staff, she turned and looked at Telsa, Emerald, and the others. “Shall we?”
General Fenmar tugged his gray beard. “Is this the same access point created by the lich? Will it be waiting on the other side for us?”
High Priestess Shandria shrugged. “Who am I to say? This is a new opening. The access point created by the lich will always exist, but that access point allows entrance and exit four hundred years in the past. The one I have created will enter the time-bubble in the same place but at a different point in time. As to whether the lich will be there or not, only the Creator knows. Time works strange in a time-bubble, as I am sure you can imagine. My access point might be entering the time-bubble ten minutes after the lich entered or a million years before.”
Queen Emerald tightened her grip on her battle axe. “Then I say we enter and find out one way or the other. Is everyone ready?”
From the looks on the other’s faces, Telsa had a feeling no one was, but none of them were going to admit it. When no one moved, she stepped forward. “I’m a wizard scout. Recon is my job. I will go first.”
“No!” said Rembis.
Hmmm, Telsa thought. If I didn’t know better, I’d say he was scared.
“Oh, he is scared,” said Raj, “but not for the reason you think. He is worried about you.”
A warm feeling spread throughout Telsa.
“I should be the one to go first,” said Rembis. “I’m a mage. I’ve worked with time-bubbles before. Your battle suit will not stop creatures in the void.”
Chancee stepped forward. “Nor will that cloth robe of yours, old man. I’ve been here before. I will be the one to go first.” She touched the scar on her neck. “I owe the lich. If he’s there, I’ll make him pay.”
“Nay,” said Shandria. “I am familiar with this purple time-bubble. I spent a year of my life wandering its halls. I shall go first.”
“Not without me,” said her bondmate High Lord Carndador. “I will not let you go a—”
Queen Emerald pounded her shield with the head of her battle axe. When she had everybody’s attention, she laughed. It was almost a maniacal laugh. “Save your eagerness for the lich and whatever else we may find on the other side of this portal. No one shall go first. We shall enter together.”
Waving Chancee, Shandria, Carndador, Telsa, and Rembis forward, Emerald said. “The six of us shall enter as a solid line. General Fenmar, have Major Nekash deploy your troops in teams of six and follow us. Secure our flanks and rear. Assign two teams to hold the far side of the opening. We may need to leave fast.”
The fifty dwarves quickly formed lines of six behind Emerald and the others. Within seconds, all were ready.
Telsa noticed the dwarf queen take a final look around before stepping into the opening with Chancee by her side. Telsa stepped forward also as Rembis, Shandria, and Carndador did the same.
Everything went dark for a single heartbeat, or maybe it was an eternity. Then Telsa’s vision cleared. She and the others were in a brightly lit cavern at least two hundred meters across. A creature more skeleton than man stood in the center of the cave holding a war hammer with a handle of dark wood. A blue gem gleamed at the top of the hammer.
“I calculate that is Chancee’s lich,” said Raj. “I see he has brought some friends.”
A hundred corpses in varying stages of decay stood on either side of the lich. Mixed in with the zombies were two score vampires.
As the teams of dwarves began coming out of the opening behind Telsa, she sensed life forms in the stone below begin emerging from the cavern floor.
“There are vampires in the floor,” Telsa shouted. “They’re coming up below us.”
“It’s a trap,” yelled Fenmar. “Get out while you can.”
Telsa didn’t need her battle computer to tell her that warning was too late.
&
nbsp; As more dwarves rushed through the access point, they forced the ones before them farther into the cavern. Dark hands with vicious-looking claws reached out of the stone, grasping at the dwarves in an attempt to pull them into the floor. The Holy Metal in the dwarves’ armor did its job, preventing the vampires from reaching the flesh contained within.
Down came swords, axes, and hammers as the dwarves fought back.
Scores of vampires from a myriad of races rose out of the floor dressed in armor and carrying weapons of their own. Vampire blades hit shields of Holy Metal. Major Nekash tried forcing his way to the access point, but multicolored bands of energy crisscrossed the opening preventing any hope of escape.
“You shall all die,” shouted the lich in a voice that was more of a scream than a shout.
Bolts of electricity left the skeletal hands, heading straight for the dwarves.
Shandria and Carndador raised their staffs as one and formed a blue wall between the lich and the dwarves. The bolts of lightning hit the shield and reflected to the ceiling twenty meters overhead, bouncing this way and that before dissipating into nothing.
Drawing Power from his reserve, Rembis shouted words Telsa heard but quickly forgot. A beam of green left the old gnome and headed straight for the lich. With a flick of its hand, the skeleton creature formed a shield of magic to its front. The green beam deflected off, disintegrating half a dozen zombies and two vampires as it went.
The loss of eight of the enemy mattered little. Dozens more of the vampires came floating out of the floor as scores of additional zombies and other undead came streaming out of two tunnels leading into the cavern.
A vampire came up behind Rembis and grabbed the gnome by the shoulders, pulling him back toward the undead creature’s glistening fangs. Before the monster could bite the mage’s neck, Telsa pulled out her Deloris blaster and put two phase rounds in its eyes. The vampire released its grip and turned toward Telsa.
“Have you forgotten how to fight vampires?” asked Raj in their shared space. “You have to either destroy the virus in their heart or cut off their head. Two phase rounds in its eyes will not do the job. See, it has already healed its wounds.”
Wizard Gigantic (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 9) Page 41
