Champions Battle for the Fate of the Future!: The Wild Finale of (Swords Versus Tanks Book 5) (9 page)

Jasmine picked out the longship, cutting across the white-topped breakers at fifty metres. She raised her field glasses and used one hand to shield the lenses from the rain. There was Maud, mailcoat glittering in the storm-light, the wind making her red tresses snake.

Mary Schumacher's voice pierced the din. "Why couldn't we shoot it down?"

"Plain old magic," said Jasmine. She lowered her glasses. "You did well, Mary", she said, and realised how hoarse she sounded.
I'm a grizzled veteran, now.
She grinned.

Schumacher tucked a sodden lock of hair into her crash helmet. "You don't seem awfully bothered they got away, Field Marshal."

"When we arrived," said Jasmine, "it was them or us – our way or theirs. Now whoever wins won’t look much like either of the original sides."

"Oh... Will
we
be able to go home?"

Jasmine shrugged. "At least there are no Aliens here."

She turned back to her people and found herself looking beyond the grey-uniformed soldiers to the ancient stones of the Holiest House and thinking of the history that would have been – uniformed armies raping the shattered Empire in the name of God, smoke-belching factories rearing up across the landscape and consuming the forests, then the Great Economic Collapse, and the Egality and the Elitists battling to the death like twins fighting in a dying mother's womb. Whatever happened now would be different. Perhaps Ranulph was right.

And perhaps, when next she met the sorceress and the knight...

"Fancy a comfort shag, Field Marshal?" asked Mary Schumacher.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

The
Dragon Twins
passed out from under the rain clouds and Ranulph found himself staring up at the naked sky where the Red Planet — the old Ilian War God — glowed like a hot coal amidst the coldly luminous stars.

The flying longship hove-to and as the motion ceased, Maud left the steering oar to stand over him. "I had a good mind to leave you to it," she said.

Ranulph laughed. "You could have interrupted at any time." He caught her behind the knees and drew her down so that she landed astride him.

Maud tossed her head to flick back wet strands of hair then ground her hips. "You enjoyed kissing her."

"You enjoyed watching," said Ranulph. He fumbled with the strings of his hose — how had his fingers got so cold?

"Indeed I did," said Maud. She lifted, then slid down like a well-oiled scabbard sheathing a blade — except that it was supposed to be the blade that moved. Her green eyes widened. "I have my magic now."

“You always did, my love,” said Ranulph.

#

And far away to the west, the noonday sun pounded steam out of the jungle-drenched mountains.

A scream cut off with a gurgle.

Smiling demurely, Wisdom-at-Night placed a still-beating heart on the offering tray of the Dancing Earth Fish.

The pyramid juddered, bucked.

Priestesses and eunuchs screamed and clung to the fly-haloed idols. Wisdom-at-Night merely sprang onto the altar to stand astride the victim as the pyramid lurched skyward.

All over the city, and the surrounding jungle, pyramids heaved out of the mud to join it.

Wisdom-at-Night raised her blood-soiled arms, threw back her head and laughed. "Jasmine has done the will of the Dancing Earth Fish! Now Earth conquers Air, and the Tolmecs shall conquer all..."

#

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SWORDS VERSUS TANKS!

Keep an eye out for the follow-up series…

SWORDS
AND
TANKS VERSUS MAGIC

Coming in 2017!

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