Sac'a'rith (42 page)

I came in low, putting my good shoulder low into his back and lifting as I hit him. He went flying over my back and slammed into the ground. Raquel was on him in an instant and kicked him hard in the temple. His eyes rolled around in his head and she leaned back and raised her hands, chanting in a language I didn’t recognize.

The sorcerer started to get up, and I was about to pound him when I saw vines come up out of the ground and wrap themselves around him. He tried to break free of them but more and more came out of the ground and pulled him back down, squeezing him against the solid ground. He screamed and cursed in pain as the vines squeezed tighter and tighter around his body. I took a step back in horror, watching as his shield failed and his body was crushed under the pressure.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw Raquel collapse to the ground, looking even older than she had before. I ran to her side and scooped her up. At some point during the battle Ragnar must have arrived; he was propping up Shira, who looked exhausted.

“We have to get Raquel back to Alpha World,” I said. “We can bring everyone; just get them to the gate room.”

The adrenaline that had kept me going during the fight was fading and my legs were growing weak. My breath was ragged, and for the first time I noticed I was badly burned and my armor in tatters around my chest.

“Get yourself in there. I can handle these two,” said Ragnar.

“Marcus is a lot heavier than he looks,” I spat out between gasps. Fighting pain and fatigue, I forced myself to walk to the ramp of the Night Wisp and up to the gate room. Someone had already placed Purwryn and Crivreen in there. They lay there looking lifeless. I was too weak to reach out and see if they were still alive, so I decided to assume they were.

I laid Raquel down and saw Marcus float in while Ragnar helped Shira walk behind him.

“The engines are destroyed, and more enemy troops are incoming,” said Ragnar.

“What happened?” I asked.

“As far as I can tell, while we were in the city wondering where the sorcerers were, they were out here blasting at our engines,” he said.

“Was that the last of them?”

“Yeah,” he said. “What’s our next move?”

“Call Phareon and order the air strike. We’ll all go through the gate and figure out our next move another day,” I said. “After you make the call, gather what food and supplies you can. I don’t know how long we’ll be there, but it could be some time.”

Ragnar left to get the supplies and I walked over to the gate and activated it. Shira stood up and walked through. I lifted Raquel and followed her. We came out deep underground in a tunnel I hadn’t seen before, just as I had hoped. I laid Raquel down by the wall and got ready to go back for the others.

“Where are we?” asked Shira.

“Under the central tower,” I said. “Last time we were here I updated our map and drew the gate there. Looks like the builders took the hint.”

“Wow,” she said and sat down next to Raquel to rest. “Do you think she’ll make it?”

“I don’t know,” I answered and took a few moments to rest. I was battle-weary beyond words and none of my wounds had received the attention they needed. Eventually I forced myself back through the gate and found that Ragnar had all three of them floating, along with our supplies. “Ready?” he asked.

“Yeah, it’s safe on the other side. Go through. I’m going to lock up the Night Wisp and follow you shortly,” I said.

I worked my way up to the command station on the bridge and turned on the exterior sensors. It was as Ragnar had said: the enemy mutants were approaching the Night Wisp. I flipped the screens to show me the Phareon tactical network and saw their troops pulling out. They would start bombardment operations soon.

“Phareon command, this is Night Wisp,” I said over the comm.

“Night Wisp, Phareon command, go ahead,” they responded.

“Our ship is overrun with enemy forces, but we have another way out. Just make a crater out of what’s left. Immediately.” I hated to give the command, but I couldn’t risk the gate falling into the hands of sorcerers, or indeed any of a dozen other enemies out this way.

“Acknowledged. Bombers on their way. Phareon, out,” they replied.

I punched in commands to seal the craft and wipe its memory stores just in case anything survived, then slowly and painfully made my way back to the gate, which thankfully was next to the bridge.

It was sad leaving the first home I’d ever had, but I couldn’t take the time to say goodbye as it would soon be a smoking ruin. The gateroom was empty and I walked through the gate. When I reached the other side, I closed and locked it.

Using a wall to prop myself up, I looked over what was left of my team. We were in sorry shape. Only Ragnar could still stand up straight, and I was fairly sure that he was hiding the effort it took him.

“Shira, can you gate us to the top?” I asked.

She nodded and used her staff to help her rise, then opened the gate and walked through without comment. Ragnar had everyone else floating now and he pushed them through. I followed him and hoped that I had gambled right that I could heal us all.

I stood in the vacuum of space in orbit around the planet where Zah’rak and his team fought. I desperately wanted to go down there and help, but I knew that would be foolish. At the sight of the grandmaster wizard, the sorcerers would run and we would lose any chance to establish what was happening here.

Raquel fought her sorcerer to a standstill but did not push her attack. She was far more powerful then he, and could have defeated him if she had focused on the fight. As she was fighting him, however, she was using her power over nature to search the fortress. The toll of doing both at once was taxing her to the extreme; I could almost see her aging in real time before me. It made no sense. She should have killed the sorcerer and then searched, but for some reason she did not.

Zah’rak fought with another sorcerer and the others took on the third. I winced as I saw Marcus fall, but he was considerably tougher than he looked. He might have been able to rejoin the fight, but he was quickly set upon by many of the sorcerers’ foul creations, managing to beat them off and go to help Zah’rak at great cost to himself.

“Grandmaster, I have it!”
sent Raquel.

“Good, then concentrate and finish the fight!”
I ordered.

“Too late for that,”
she sent.
“I’ll get the others safely home, don’t worry.”
Then she sent me the information she had gathered when she should have been focusing on the fight around her. After reviewing this information I knew that some of it must have come from the minds of the sorcerers, which explained why she had kept them alive while searching.

“I am worried about you,”
I replied.

“I know, but it was too late for me before you were even born. Let me finish in my own way, I beg you,”
she sent.

I sighed.
“Very well.”
As she was in battle, I could not risk her being distracted by an argument with me. She had insisted over and over before the battle began that I should let her team fight. I relented, but had not realized the toll it would take on them. Now I regretted that decision.

I watched them fall back to the Night Wisp, defeat the last sorcerer and board the ship. I intended to call Kellyn and gate down there, but before I could I detected the ship’s gate opening.

“Safely home,”
Raquel had sent. They were gating out of there, but to where?

Just then I detected an energy shift that told me Henrick was on his way. I expanded the air pocket in which I was standing in to allow room for him. He did not need it, but I considered it the polite thing to do; besides, it would allow us to talk.

“Hello, Vydor,” he said as he appeared.

“Hello, Henrick,” I replied.

“It seems that Raquel’s group did well down there,” he said.

The Phareon forces were pulling out now and bombardment would begin soon. “Yes. There is nothing left to concern me now,” I said.

“Yet you’re still here,” he said.

“Of course. It would have been rude to leave before your visit,” I said with a smile.

He chuckled. “You know, it is camps like this one that Korshalem blames you for.”

“Blames
us
,” I said. “Yes. He fails to see the proverbial genie is out of the bottle already.”

“It will be his downfall. Sorcerers like those below will continue to learn our technology and it won’t be long before they take that realm,” he said, “especially now that they are becoming more organized.”

“Then you have heard?”

“Yes, they chose a grandmaster,” he replied.

I nodded. “I feel sure that I will be blamed for that also,” I said with a smile.

“Honestly, Vydor, I fail to understand why you fight to keep the treaty alive. You have already gained all you can from him,” he said.

“I do not expect you to understand.” He was not a wizard and did not understand the concepts of honor and integrity. I promised my friend Mantis I would try to keep the peace, and that was reason enough. Henrick would think it a foolish promise to keep, and perhaps he was right, but foolish or not it was a promise.

As we watched, the fleet began to release its bombs from orbit. The falling bombs passed through the atmosphere, heading for the planet’s surface. As each successive wave hit the ground, a larger and deeper crater was created. They were being thorough, and I could see no way for any of the mutants to survive.

I sighed. “Well, it looks like that is over.”

“For the present,” he said and took his leave.

I considered the information that Raquel had sent. There were a dozen more locations like this one in which the sorcerers were actively trying to use our technology to breed a new type of soldier, one resistant to all kinds of damage and requiring very little in the way of supplies or support. They would be cannon fodder which could be dropped into the middle of enemy forces without fear of losses.

The sorcerers had always tried to avoid showing up in battle themselves, and these soldiers would mean they did not have to. When the sorcerers finally deployed these new forces into their own realm, they would no doubt arm them with blasters and rifles from this realm. The death toll would be horrific, but Korshalem refused to accept this and believed he could prevent this technology from reaching his realm by cutting off his only access to those who could help him counter that threat.

I understood his position, as it would mean the death of his people’s culture. Once technology started to flow into their realm, life as they knew it would change dramatically forever. I would like to think it would be an improvement, but I have seen too much violence in my own realm to think that finer material things mean a better life.

Stepping out of normal space into the weave, I traced the route which the gate from the Night Wisp had taken. It had exited in this realm, about two-thirds of the way out on the far spiral arm in a completely unexplored section of the galaxy.

‘Home’, she had called it. I wondered what was out there, but without a precise endpoint I could not follow. I would have to wait until we heard from her again to know where they had gone. Meanwhile, I must see to the remaining camps that Raquel had found and at least delay the inevitable.

It had been many days since we’d left the Night Wisp, long dark days of sadness and mourning as we buried our friends Crivreen and Purwryn. Shira told me that they had used their bodies as shields so that she could cast the gate and get everyone out of the city. Then, when the sorcerer came to their new location, they spent all the power they had left holding back the creatures so she could focus on him. Had they not stood between her and the line of foul beasts, everyone might have been lost that day. They will be honored as heroes when the tale of our battle is finally told. I will make sure of it.

Ragnar, Raquel, Shira and I stood over their graves one last time. Over our heads foul undead creatures screamed their rage at our presence, but were powerless to prevent it.

The builder had done a remarkable job with the fortress, and it was back to full strength. As long as we stayed within its walls we were safe, which made it effectively a prison. A large and spacious one, but a prison nonetheless, and which I must admit I was anxious to leave.

Raquel ran her hands through her silver hair. We had returned her to the tower in time to save her, but for some reason her hair had never recovered. She looked older and wiser now. She had taken on too much at once in that last battle, but without her we would never have made it.

Crivreen and Purwryn had given their lives in that battle, and they were dead before I could attempt to heal them. In truth, they were probably dead before I had even rejoined Shira and Ragnar, but no one wanted to admit it at that time. After learning that they were already gone, I still wanted to try to heal them, but Raquel stopped me; she asked what I thought I might accomplish. Their souls had moved on and only the empty bodies remained. Nothing could change that now.

I sighed and turned back to the central tower where we have all been living. Marcus walked up to me. In a way, I think he might have preferred death to the healing I did on him. Most of his implants had been destroyed and were beyond my ability to replace; all I could do was to heal organic parts. I had actually considered letting him die, in the belief that he might be happier, but in the end I couldn’t bring myself to do it.

All he had left of his former superhuman self were his core processing units, sensors and memory nets. With Raquel’s help and the last of our healing potions, we were able to restore his body. For the first time in his life he was walking on two healthy, normal human legs, and I knew he hated it.

“I’ve checked and we’re completely out of food now. Either we risk hunting or we leave via the gate; assuming, of course, that starving to death isn’t an option on the table,” he said.

I looked over to Raquel. “Does the builder know our situation?”

“Yes. I told him last night we would have to leave soon, but that we’d be back someday with forces sufficient to reclaim the world.”