Stone Soldiers 5: Black Knight Down (18 page)

Green light flared as the spinning maelstrom of air smashed into the Colonel. He was thrown against a wall, air grasping around his neck like hands made of flesh. The swirling air lifted the Colonel high into the air, nearly to the roof of the chamber, glowing a bright green as his innate ability to counter magic burned against
B’
Yabsha
w’
s magical, elemental body.

Finally B'Yabshaw could stand the no longer. He suddenly reverted to his fleshly blue form, and both men plummeted to the marble far below.

Ah-moowatt grabbed at her swords, wrenching them from the prone werewolf's chest. She leapt at Kenslir, all swords held high, ready to skewer him where he had crashed down onto the floor.

A red and multicam blur streaked across the chamber and Laura Olson was suddenly standing over Kenslir. The swords of Ah-moowatt punched through her body- emerging out her back.

From his position on the floor, Kenslir had just drawn the submachinegun on his right thigh. He fired the OA-93 on full auto, disgorging a stream of 5.56mm incendiary rounds straight into Ah-Moowatt's face. The burning phosphorous obliterated the Titan's flesh and threw her backwards onto the floor.

Laura Olson dropped to her knees, the Titan's swords still skewering her body. The Colonel spun the vampire around, assessing the damage. One of the four blades had pierced the vampir
e’
s heart.

"Hold on!" Kenslir said.

Laura Olson just smiled- then her head flew off her shoulders. B'Yabshaw had arisen, scooping up one of the Bowie knives Kenslir had dropped. With a ferocious slice, he removed the vampire's head from her shoulders. The head bounced once then turned to dust, scattering on the floor. By the Colonel, the vampir
e’
s body did the same- pouring like sand out of the multicam uniform she had been wearing.

Mark Kenslir turned toward B'Yabshaw and drove his right hand out at an impossible speed- fingers held flat and rigid like a knife. His fingertips smashed into the Titan's soft stomach, parting blue skin.

Green light flared and the Titan's eyes went wide.

Kenslir stood up from the ground where he'd been crouching, arm buried to the shoulder inside B'Yabshaw's abdomen. The Titan tried to speak as he was lifted off the floor, but only blood poured out of his mouth.

The Colonel jerked his arm back out of B'Yabshaw's body, his hand clutching the Titan's heart. B'Yabshaw collapsed in a heap, resting on his knees. The Colonel squeezed the heart, a bright green glow bursting from within it as the muscle split under the pressure. Like a grenade, the heart exploded with a green flash.

"No!" Ah-moowatt screamed. She had just risen to her feet, her face still half-melted from the phosphorous rounds she had been shot with. She staggered over to B'Yabshaw, dropping to her knees beside him. The Titan clutched her husband and began to wail.

The disk in the fountain was spinning so fast now that its markings were a blur. The electrical discharges crossing back and forth were nearly constant. A bright flash erupted from the disk- a shockwave erupting outwards a split second later.

Ah-moowatt suddenly leapt to her feet, holding her dead husband in her arms. She hissed at the Colonel and dove backwards through the spinning ring, now filled with bright, white light.

"The portal is open!" Hercules yelled. He was at the top of the steps to the colonnade, checking on Josie Winters.

Movement on the other side of the spinning disk caught Kenslir's eye. The red robed Titan, the last of the group alive, was running for the portal. The Colonel sprang forward as well, trying to reach the disk first.

B'Yamaw dove for the bright light at the last minute, leaping over the edge of the fountain, hands outstretched, clutching his staff. At the same time, Kenslir thrust his right hand into the light within the spinning ring of metal.

An explosion of light filled the chamber, blinding everyone. The Colonel felt himself flung backwards. He landed roughly on his back, stunned for a moment. His vision went black. Several seconds passed.

"Colonel? Mark?" Josie Winters voice called out.

The Colonel opened his eyes slowly. His vision was blurry and his ears were ringing. He reached up to rub his eyes and saw that his right hand was gone- a clean line just above his wrist marking where it had been removed. Already the stump had turned to gray stone.

"Mark!" Josie yelled.

"Allright, allright," Kenslir said, gathering his wits and standing slowly. His strength was slow to come back.

"What happened to your hand?"

The Colonel looked around the chamber. The spinning disk was slowing down now, wobbling like a coin. Great chunks of it were missing on the inside and outside. It was burnt black in many places, and sparks poured out of cracks in the metal. It finally crashed down loudly in the fountain- producing a hiss of rising steam from the water.

Sticking out of the pool was the lower half of the red-robed Titan's body- severed from his left shoulder down to his right hip- his body sliced in two just like the Colonel's wrist. The upper half of the body was nowhere to be seen.

“
I think you broke it
,”
Josie said, holding on to the Colone
l’
s arm, to help his stand.

The Colonel looked around. Jimmy was slowly recovering- leaning against a wall, blood covering his once-more human chest. Hercules was kneeling by the remains of B'Ashmayaw, checking for signs of life.

"Priest!" Kenslir yelled.

Hercules stood slowly, a somber look on his face. "Yes?"

"Is this water?" Kenslir asked, pointing with his left hand at the pool the disk had fallen back into.

"Yes- fed by a mountain str-"

The Colonel thrust his stump into the water, then sat down heavily on the edge of the pool.

Josie knelt by her grandfather. He looked exhausted. "Colonel? Where's Laura?"

Kenslir pointed with his left hand. "Over there. Do me a favor and scoop her up, will you?"

"Scoop?" Laura turned and then saw the ashes half spilled out of the vampire's uniform.

"We can't leave her here," Kenslir said
.“
Try and get as many as you can."

He reached up to one of many pockets on his tactical vest. The material was melted together but he was able to rip it open. He pulled out a clear plastic bag and held it out.

"What?" Josie asked, taking the bag.

"Just try and fill this."

Jimmy was up on his feet now and limped over. Even though he had turned back to human form, he was battered and bruised and looked like h
e’
d been run over by a truck. He sat down heavily on the fountain's edge next to Kenslir. "Did we win?"

"Father?" Kenslir said looking up at Hercules.

"Ah-moowatt- the woman- she escaped."

Kenslir lifted his right arm out of the water. A gray stone hand had formed at the end of his arm, in a few minutes it would turn to flesh. He formed it into a fist, one thumb up and pointed it back over his shoulder. "So where does this thing go?"

"Mars."

EPILOGUE

Ah-moowatt pushed her husband's body off of her and climbed slowly to her feet. She began to brush at the thick layer of dust now clinging to her body, held
in place by the perspiration covering her blue skin.

The Titan looked around the chamber she was
in- it was a smaller version of the one on the World, surrounded by with columns and made of the same glowing white marble as the chamber she had watched her brother B'Ashyamaw die in. Wall sconces held gold torches that flickered orange and a thin layer of dust lay on the floor.

In the center of the chamber, the transport ring was slowing down now, sparking along its outer edge and singed her
e and here with black. Unlike the first ring, this one was held on a marble platform, remaining upright when not in use- assuming it could ever be used again. The blast of light and energy that had thrown her to the floor was not a normal part of travel along the passage between worlds.

At the base of the platform, Ah-moowatt saw the upper torso of a charred body. A few curls of white hair remained, and she recognized it as the body of her brother B'Yamaw.

She crossed to the body, kneeling and prying the jewel-encrusted staff from hands that crumbled like ash. Behind her, a door began to open.

Ah-moowatt whirled and aimed the staff at the slowly opening marble door.

A blonde haired man in a short white tunic stood in the doorway, eyes wide with surprise. He held a golden harp in one hand, and a goblet in the other.

The blonde man said something in a language Ah-moowatt could not comprehend. Seeing she did not understand, the man tried other languages. Eventually he spoke a word the Titan understood. "Hello?"

The language of the mortals.

Ah-moowatt lowered the staff and walked closer, the harp-bearing man watching her
hips as she moved toward him.

"Drink?" the man asked, offering his goblet.

Ah-moowatt accepted the goblet and pressed it to her lips. Wine- the drink of a mortal.

"Welcome to Olympus," the man smiled widely. "I have not seen your kind before."

Ah-moowatt reached up with her right arm, and the man noticed for the first time the stump where her one of her other arms had so recently been removed. The Titan caressed the man's cheek gently with her blood-stained fingers.

"Are you all right? Do you need attention?" he asked.

Ah-moowatt smiled, then swung the golden staff of B'Yabshaw, smashing it into the man's head. The man gasped like a woman, dropping his harp and falling to one knee. Blood poured from a gash in the side of his head.

The Titan dumped the wine out of the goblet she held in her lower left hand and then pressed the empty cup to the man's head. When enough blood had accumulated in it, she
raised it to her lips and drank while the man cowered at her feet.

"Please! Don't hurt me!" he whined.

"Hurt you?" Ah-moowatt said, holding the goblet against the man's bleeding wound again. "You are not the one I wish to hurt."

Ah-moowatt pushed a finger into the gaping wound, causing more blood to flow. The cowering man screamed loudly.

"Please!" he wailed.

The Titan pulled the goblet away and drank deeply of the blood within it.

"What do you want?" the man pleaded.

"For centuries my brothers and sister and I waited for our children to awaken us. For
millennia we slept high above the world- betrayed by the children of B'Ashmayaw who never came."

"B'Ash.. who?" the cowering man asked.

"What do I want? I want you to take me to that traitorous son of my brother.

"Take me to Zeus."

THANK YOU FOR READING!

If you liked the story, please consider leaving a review at your e-tailer, or at an online website like Goodreads.com!

Comments, questions and criticisms for the author are always welcome!

Visit
www.StoneSoldiers.info
for more info on the series!

The Stone Soldiers will return in
ARMAGEDDON Z

Coming soon, in 2013

READ THE NOVEL THAT STARTED THE SERIES!

MYTHICAL

Colonel Mark Kenslir is the last of the cold war-era supersoldiers... and he’s just come back from the dead. With no memory of who killed him or how he came to possesses superhuman strength, the Colonel sets out to regain his memories.

With the help of two teens who find him in the Arizona desert, the Colonel soon remembers his last mission: stop a prehistoric, shapeshifting giant who steals the form, memories and power of victims by eating their hearts.

Can the Colonel stop the killing spree of the shapeshifter, or will it kill him again?

Available now in print and digital format!