Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (37 page)

Randy followed right after him, blocking Asari who had pulled the pistol and was slipping into the classic two-handed hold for a shot.

“
Wait!” Randy said, and hurried after Ryltas, handing the dart pistol to Asari as he ran past. Moments later Randy saw the wizard run through the kitchen and out the back door. He’d been stupid, Randy realized. He should have stepped back and let Asari take the shot when Rytas had turned back into the house. A single report would most likely have gone unnoticed here on the almost empty street. They could have stepped inside, closed the door, and it would have been over. They might have even had time to look around while they waited for things to settle down before they walked away. Now Ryltas was running down the back alleyway and might get away. If he managed to escape, Randy had no idea how he’d find him in a place like Los Angeles. Somehow Ryltas seemed to be resisting the drug from the pistol.

Randy raised his
shield-pair
, knowing that Ryltas would be using some of his power to try and watch for the normal shield. He ran out the door and hurried down the alley the same way Ryltas had gone. As he approached a corner in the alley, he sensed a weak power about fifty feet down the alley. Ryltas appeared to have dropped his own shield for the moment, whether to conserve power or to try and hide his location, Randy didn’t know. Knowing he would be seen if he made the turn, Randy considered his options. He could probably withstand anything Ryltas could throw at him, and the man’s supply of power had to be draining away, but a power battle could draw attention he didn’t want, and he had already misjudged the situation. Ryltas could have another surprise waiting for him. As he approached the turn in the alley, Randy climbed over a small fence and darted through a couple of yards, finally slipping back into the alley beyond where he’d sensed the power draw.

He could see Ryltas waiting behind a large trash container fifty feet ahead of him. As silently as possible, Randy closed the distance. Ryltas looked a bit wobbly, so maybe the drug was finally starting to have an effect. Randy could tell that Ryltas wasn’t still holding his shield. He suspected that power was too dear, and the wizard was trying to conserve what little he had for the actual encounter. He watched as Ryltas swept back his coat and checked something at his side, which Randy realized was a pair of the power storage crystals. Without hesitation, Randy dropped his own shield and wrapped the strongest shield he could around the power source, cutting it off from the wizard. Even as he was locking the shields into place, Randy charged the wizard. Realizing he was suddenly blocked from the only thing that he could use to fight, Ryltas turned toward the sound of Randy’s approach, but was slammed against the trash container, where he hit his head and collapsed.

Moments later, Asari’s head peeked around the far corner, and he headed toward Randy when he saw the fight was over. As Asari approached, Randy called another glamour, which made the two of them appear as policemen. He probably had the uniforms wrong, but doubted anyone would notice. He reached down and stripped the nearly depleted power cells from the wizard.

“
Watch him,” he said. “I’ll get the car.”

A few minutes later Randy returned with their “police car”, and they loaded the unconscious Ryltas into the back seat. They climbed into the car, and Randy drove away, dropping the glamours as they pulled out into the street at the far end of the alley.

“
What about the house?”

“
We can’t take the chance. Someone may have called the real police. We need to get out of here. Vaen will have to have her people drag the information out of this bastard. Shoot him again with another dart. The first one didn’t seem to work very well.”

“
Are you sure it’s safe? How much of this stuff can he take?”

Randy shrugged. Asari turned and shot Ryltas with another dart, then he put the pistol on the floor of the car. As they drove away they could hear sirens in the distance headed their way, but sirens here were common and Randy had no idea if they related to their encounter with Ryltas. They didn’t see any police and made it back to the airport unhindered.

They had been able to park well away from the buildings at the Torrance airport, so they were able to load the unconscious and bound wizard aboard the plane without being observed. After placing the rest of their gear aboard, Randy returned the rental car and walked back to the plane. They had refueled on landing, so they only needed to get the proper permissions and depart. Normally he would have spent some time in the control center and checked on the most recent weather changes, but something told him he’d best get on his way.

For some reason traffic had been light, and they had only a short wait before they were passed instructions and given clearance to take off. As they cleared the pattern a short time later, Randy turned toward Utah, and climbed to his cruising altitude. They had a number of hours of flying, but hopefully no more surprises. They could monitor the wizard, and hold him unconscious with drugs or the power.

The winds helped them on their flight, and they made their final approach into the Boulder airport almost an hour earlier than Randy had expected. It was still near midnight, and he turned on the landing lights of the deserted airport, and made his landing unobserved. They taxied over to the rental office, and parked the plane in its usual slot. Randy walked over to where he had parked the car and drove it over to the plane. After offloading their passenger, the guns, and everything else they had accumulated, Randy locked up the plane and dropped the keys in the slot in the door of the rental office. The staff would find them in the morning and log in the plane’s return.

They drove through the silent streets of Boulder back to the house. Randy was surprised to see the lights on, indicating Janie was probably still up. He parked the car in the garage which would make handling their passenger easier. They could take him through the back door directly out to the yard. He left Asari with Ryltas and went in to tell Janie they were back and that he’d be leaving soon.

“
You’re on television,” was the first thing she said when he walked into the kitchen. She had been watching the Los Angeles news feeds via the Internet and had picked up on the police report.

Someone had gotten his picture. From what he could see when the news repeated the story, it must have been taken when he was sneaking through the back yards trying to get behind Ryltas. They didn’t get one of Asari, or if they had, it wasn’t being shown.

“
They don’t seem to know who you are, at least not yet.”

That would change. It would take them some time, especially since he was still officially listed as being dead. The police could be thorough, and sooner or later they would come here with questions. It was time to get back to Gaea.

“
Asari and I are going to leave now. It looks like I shouldn’t be here for a while. The police are going to get around to talking with you eventually. Answer anything they ask. Tell them I reappeared a few months ago, and told you I had been out of the country. Tell them I said I’d cleared things up with the police about my being missing, and I hung around for a few months, but left the other day after telling you I had to make a trip. Just don’t tell them about Gaea, or about the Nexus. That would cause you lots of trouble, and might make it hard to use it in the future. Don’t try to hide that I was here. They will find out. They can’t do anything to me and can never get to Gaea.”

“
Will you come back?”

“
Not for some time. There’s too much to do on Gaea right now, and I need to find Shyar. Later maybe I’ll send Tishe or somebody to see what it’s like here. Eventually I should be able to visit. They can’t keep watching this place for very long. They’ll lose interest.”

She nodded, but looked nervous.

“
Janie, thanks,” he said, giving her a hug. “You really helped me. You may have helped save a world. I don’t think you’ll see anymore people in the yard. There’s about fifteen thousand in cash up in my room. There’s also a fair amount left in the bank in the account Gene’s Dad set up. He arranged for two accounts. One is private and held the funds from the converted gold. He transferred money into the active account we used for purchases as needed and back adjusted the initial deposit amount. I doubt the money in the private account can be traced. Ask him for those funds as well. You should have it as a backup.”

Janie followed them out, and watched as they moved their few belongings onto the node, and then pulled Ryltas from the car.

She nodded to herself when she got a look at his face. “That’s him,” she said unnecessarily.

They lowered Rytlas to the ground, and after a round of hugs where Janie told Asari he needed to come again sometime, they returned to the knoll and made the jump back to Gaea.

“
What happened to him?” Chancellor Vaen asked Jolan when they got back together a day after his return to Gaea.

“
I don’t think anyone knows for sure, but I’ve heard several theories expressed,” he replied. When he had returned from Earth with Asari and the unconscious Ryltas, they found him quite dead and mysteriously light. It was as if much of his body mass had been lost during the transition.

Vaen indicated he should continue.

“
He transferred to Earth using the two-way spell, and his return was still open or active. We know that he had at least two months before it would expire because he typically waited that long between trips. We never have learned how they might have extended the length of stay allowed, but it is clear they have found a way. When Asari and I brought him back to Gaea, he was included in the two-way spell I initiated with a different target destination. One of your experts has suggested that the Nexus somehow acted on both spells involved in making the transfer when I activated our return spell.”

“
That would have done exactly what?”

“
The thinking is that it might have tried to return him to two locations simultaneously. He normally returns to the pseudo node that Cheurt discovered, and we were returning to the true node in Tilano. It is possible that two versions of Ryltas now exist, both quite dead. We have the one body. There could well be another at the site that Cheurt normally uses.”

“
This body would also exhibit this strange loss in mass?”

“
I think that’s why they think there might be two bodies. We don’t know exactly what Ryltas’ weight was, but the body we have is consistent with about half of his expected mass. The rest of the mass could be in another incomplete body up in the Land of Giants.”

Vaen was quiet for a moment. “That could work well for us if the body was left alone. It is likely that some creature will drag it away before the next planned visit.”

“
It is still winter, and it is possible that won’t happen. If Cheurt or his wizards were to arrive, find the odd body of Ryltas along with no sign of the Nexus, they might jump to a very wrong conclusion. They could think the Nexus failed while he was transitioning. Even if the Nexus is not completely shielded, which we can’t know without going there, they might be very uncertain about attempting to make the trip.”

“
Let’s hope it works out that way,” she said. “It’s unfortunate. I would very much liked to have known what he has been doing.”

“
Actually, I think we can consider ourselves lucky,” Jolan said.

Vaen raised an eyebrow.

“
We could have all ended up being delivered to multiple sites instead of just Ryltas. Or, after all of our hard work, he could have been delivered whole to the alternate site, free to tell Cheurt what we are up to. That would have been upsetting.” Jolan also had a moment’s idle thought about what might happen if someone tried to return from Earth with the Nexus blocked. Would they simply not transfer, or would they end up in some kind of limbo? All of this reminded him that they had become far too casual about using something they really didn’t understand.

“
You got nothing from his residence?” Vaen asked when he was silent for a moment.

“
We didn’t have a chance to look around. When Rytlas bolted after we shot him with the Karonabark, we chased him down. By then it was likely the police had been called. It was clear later that had happened, and as I told you the other day someone got my picture. Eventually the connection will be made.”

“
Maybe that extract isn’t as strong as the original,” she suggested.

“
It is actually far stronger. I’ve tested it since getting back. Ryltas knew Cheurt’s secret for resisting the drug.”

“
That’s another bit of lore that it would be nice if you passed along. It appears that we have lost any opportunity to learn what he has been bringing back. It also seems that you probably won’t be making trips for a while, although that was the plan anyway. What are your immediate plans now that you are back to stay? How about your plans for blocking the Nexus? Has that happened yet?”

Jolan nodded. “Last night we went back out to the Nexus and moved the copper painted barrier in place. It seems to work. I couldn’t sense the presence when I moved into areas where I’d been able to sense it before. I even put in a large ladder so I could climb up above it. The field is extremely weak there, so I suspect it isn’t detectable at all where Cheurt normally goes.”

“
What about your friend?”

“
I need to coordinate with Gene. I talked briefly with him, and he and Tishe made his short return home. He is serious about staying here, so he will be able to handle many of the technical matters I might have been tasked with. He will be better at it than I, and has already impressed Buris. I also need to get with Major Wylan and Samm. I ran into Rifod, and he told me the team you have at Ygooro has already made progress.