Rift in the Races (84 page)

“Now what? This kind of thing is out of my wheelhouse,” admitted the colonel from a safe distance inside the door, watching the rain of giant icicles and reflexively touching his hastily bandaged arm.

“If Thadius is casting that, he can’t hold it for more than a minute. Especially not dropping them that big. He’s only an E-ranked conjurer. Those are huge.”

“Can’t you cast a shield or something? Like that thing you put on your tower?”

“I don’t have any glass beads.”

“Well think, soldier.”

“Did you see how many of them there are?”

“No. I didn’t see anything.”

“Let me look. Cover me.” He immediately started casting a seeing spell, and it was a matter of seconds before he spotted Orli, alive, in a cell at the far end of a row of them, most filled with howling, frightened animals. His relief was so great he actually lost the spell.

“She’s alive!” he cried, taking the colonel by the arm and shaking him so hard it made him grunt. Altin realized what he was doing and released it immediately, glancing down at the bandage and grimacing. “Sorry,” he said. “But Orli is alive. I knew it. I knew she would be all right.”

Neither would ever admit what they feared they might find when they finally got to the spot of that red dot on the map, the spot that hadn’t moved the entire flight down. The colonel only nodded and grit his teeth in pain.

Altin recast the seeing spell and once more pushed his vision into the room. He wound his way back through the cages and up the slight incline to where he’d seen Orli before. He saw that Thadius was taking her out of the cell, as if she were his prisoner like these other creatures were.

There was another man, a clean-shaven wizard, casting something. Altin recognized the gestures as those required for an illusion, not a conjuration spell. He didn’t recognize the man, and he had no idea how long he could keep it up, but he was convinced the ice storm wasn’t real. Watching the door beside the magician was another man in Northfork Manor colors with a longbow at the ready.

Thadius pulled Orli along behind him, dragging her by the wrist, rushing up toward the farthest wall. There was nothing up there, though, so Altin felt relieved that they might have Thadius cornered if they hurried. He knew Thadius couldn’t teleport, but he wasn’t sure about the other mage.

He scouted through the rest of the room, checking everywhere, but found no one else. He looked back to where Orli and Thadius were. Thadius had given her a flask and was speaking urgently to her, his gestures emphatic and with lots of pointing right at her face. She appeared to take whatever he was saying calmly enough, and after a few moments, she drank from the flask, tipping it back and emptying whatever was inside. Meanwhile the wizard continued to maintain the ice storm, or the facsimile of one, while the archer crouched behind the cover of an outcropping of rock.

Altin let the seeing spell go.

“All right, Colonel. There’s three in there with her. Thadius, another mage, and an archer. Far back wall. I think they’re going to try to teleport out because Thadius has pulled Orli up into a dead end. My guess is that the archer will try to cover while the wizard casts. He’s on the left, behind an outcropping of stone. Thadius might try to cast something too, but he’s got a hold of Orli, so he might not be able to lest he risk her getting away or breaking up the spell. So, that means the archer is the problem. If he’s any good, he can get off several shots a minute, so we have to be very fast.”

“What if the wizard isn’t trying to get them out?”

“If that’s the case, then he has to die right away as well. The good news is I think he’s an illusionist, not a conjurer. Those icicles are way too big, and he’s using illusionist’s signs. The spells take about the same amount of energy, which I’m betting means he doesn’t have ice at all. I think we risk saving him for last and adjust if we discover I am wrong.”

Colonel Pewter’s expression was an amalgamation of determination, trust and blind obedience.

“Just get that archer behind the rocks,” Altin said in the way of encouragement. He nodded down toward the arrow lying at the base of the stairs. “Unless you want to add one of those to your list of puncture wounds.”

“Pass.”

“We still need to figure out how we’re going to get inside,” said Altin. “That’s your area of expertise. I’m not too sure I want to just go charging in.”

“Why can’t you do that thing you did with the tapestry? I’ll charge, get him pinned down with laser fire, and you turn him into half a rug.”

“I can try, but if he moves, it will miss. I can’t see him once I’m in the spell, and it’s a slow cast. If he’s smart, he’s going to make a point of moving. Thadius knows what I can do.”

“Can’t you do it from here, before they see us coming at them?”

“Maybe, as long as he hasn’t moved.”

“Worth a shot. Let’s hurry.”

“I need something to teleport. A rock or a bit of wood. Something big enough to stop his heart.” He looked down at the arrow lying there, but would have to risk being in the line of fire to get it.

The colonel reached back and pulled out a small canister. “Use this.”

“What is it?”

“A flash grenade. That way if you miss, we’ll still be able to get into the room. They’ll be blind for a few seconds. That or the archer will be dead. Either is good for us.”

“Give it to me.”

Once inside the mana stream, Altin could see the curve of current sliding toward the wizard casting it. He noticed it begin to fade, and knew unconsciously that the magic had stopped, which meant he needed to hurry before the magician got off a teleport and took Orli away.

He cast the spell. The flash grenade appeared right where Altin wanted it to, the space where he’d seen the liveried crossbowman ducking down, specifically sent to the place where his head had been. But, as expected, the archer had moved. Fortunately, the colonel’s fallback plan worked, and the grenade went off with a loud
poof
and a blinding white flash of light. The colonel rushed in and ran straight down the nearest row of caged animals, with Altin only a few steps behind.

The creatures began to shriek and growl even more excitedly as the sound of the grenade and the bright flash it had made agitated them further than they already were. The rush of even more people added to that.

The colonel could see as he ran that the man in the robes was standing still, stooped and facing off toward the wall rather dumbly, clearly having taken the worst of the flash grenade. He took the time to aim and fire a shot. A mist of blood erupted from the wizard’s thigh where the laser beam hit him, and he fell, rolling down the gentle slope into a stand of decorative bushes at the base of an empty cage.

He searched for the archer but couldn’t find him. He didn’t dare fire at Thadius because Orli was too close and the distance was still great.

Altin paused long enough to chant up a fireball, spending only the time it took to make it roughly the size of a cantaloupe, and then continued charging toward the back of the room. The colonel fell in beside him and both ran on.

Thadius recovered first from the flash grenade and began casting a spell.

The archer appeared from around the side of the cage where Orli had been, having moved down while they’d spent time discussing strategy. He let loose a shot that nicked the back of Altin’s hand as he threw his fireball. Colonel Pewter fired almost simultaneously, the streak of his laser lighting up the dimness between him and the liveried man for an instant like a glowing rope. The man’s left arm was severed by the beam a heartbeat before his leather armor burst into flames, Altin’s fireball having found its mark as well. He screamed and thrashed in agony, the metal rivets in his armor clinking so loudly against the bars of Orli’s vacated cage that they could hear it over the other noises of his death.

A fireball appeared above Thadius’ outstretched hands, not much larger than a frostberry, but still plenty big enough to kill if it hit its target in the right place.

“Cover,” cried Altin as Thadius let it loose. He realized as he dove that there was now an open passageway behind the nobleman.

The fireball flew over his head, and Colonel Pewter was up, quick as a cat, and charging up the slope before it hit the ground. Thadius pushed Orli through the small black space in the wall and followed right behind. The space quickly began to narrow as the door closed.

Altin ran for all he was worth.

Colonel Pewter threw himself forward, feet first, and slid into the opening, the door just clamping down on his booted foot, where it stopped.

Altin caught up a moment later and, to his relief, was able to push the door back, if barely, despite its being a full span thick and cut from solid stone. From the look of the deep deadbolt holes bored into the rock around its frame, Altin judged that they would not have gotten through it easily had the colonel not acted so decisively. However, had the door possessed a more powerful mechanism closing it, the colonel might also now be missing a foot. The arch of the colonel’s eyebrow and the low whistle he let out as Altin pushed the heavy door open suggested the colonel had reached the same conclusion.

“Let’s go,” said Altin as he reached down and helped pull the colonel to his feet.

They ran up the long corridor, the incline steady and not quite steep. They weren’t ten paces up it when the dim light behind them vanished to nothing as the door swung shut. Even in total darkness, there was no sign of Orli or Thadius, no sound, and no light up ahead to suggest that they were still in the tunnel or that the tunnel had an open end. The colonel pulled a flashlight from his utility belt and flicked it on, reaching out with it then, putting his arm across Altin’s chest to prevent him running off in pursuit the instant the light appeared.

“Easy, son. Let’s not rush into another fireball. We won’t help her that way.”

“He’s going to get away.”

“They’re headed up,” he said. “That’s where our help is.” He tapped his com badge. “Chang, what’s your status?”

“Rounding up personnel, sir. The house is locked down. What’s left of it.”

“Orli should be somewhere near my location. Get her beacon on everybody’s grid. Look for her and another man. Do not hurt my daughter, Chang. And I want that man with her alive if at all possible. And I repeat, do not hurt my daughter.”

“Roger, sir.”

He turned back to Altin. “Now let’s do this smart.”

Altin nodded that he agreed. He took a few deep breaths to calm himself and then chanted up another fireball, which he pushed out twenty paces in front of them to light their way. He could throw it just as easily from there. He followed the colonel upwards cautiously.

They wound their way through the darkness until, around one last bend, they saw a square of light in the ceiling up ahead. An open trapdoor. The light from above showed a short ladder leaning against the earthen walls. They’d found the tunnel’s end. They paused for a moment, the colonel crouching and trying to get at least an angular view.

“I can see it,” Altin offered in low tones, preparing to cast the spell. But the colonel waved him off.

“Takes too long. Just be careful,” whispered the colonel, flicking the switch on his blaster back to conventional rounds. He turned off the flashlight and returned it to his belt, then motioned for Altin to follow. Altin brought the fireball back to just above his hand.

The colonel got to the ladder first and climbed up cautiously, peeking out. Altin noticed bits of straw on the floor and figured the tunnel must emerge near the stables or in a barn, so he snuffed the fireball.

That’s when the colonel heard Corporal Chang’s voice on the com. “We’ve got them, sir. Except there are three of them.”

“Three?”

The colonel jumped out of the hole and looked around. He spotted the corporal’s mech unit just outside the stable doors. Sure enough, there were three figures standing there.

Altin climbed out and saw them too, which caused him to stammer, “What in the name of Mercy’s grace is he doing here?”

“Who’s
he
?”

“The royal assassin.”

“Ah.” The colonel put his gun away.

Chapter 67

A
ltin rushed to embrace Orli, but Thadius stepped in front of her protectively. The royal assassin pulled him back and looked as if he were going to tolerate no foolishness.

“Orli, are you okay?” Altin asked, looking over every inch of her for signs of what she had been through. Her clothes were filthy, though of good quality, a riding dress in keeping with current fashion in Crown but coated with grime and bits of straw. Her hair hung lank and oily, dark against her pale skin and looking as if it had been a long time since she’d last had a chance to bathe properly. She appeared healthy enough, despite all that, but with an odd giddy quality about her, an air of abstraction and a strange emotional dissonance given the circumstance.

“I’m fine, Altin,” she said. “Hello, Daddy.”

The colonel frowned. “Hello, Orli girl.” He glanced at Altin. They both knew something was different about her. Altin thought there was no music in her voice.

“Orli?” The question was obvious in the upward lilt of Altin’s tone.