Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (42 page)

“
We didn’t go into Kimlelm, but Seret is still friendly territory. I’ve had Asari and Ronoran working part time at trying out the technique there to see if there are any refinements needed before we try it inside occupied areas. As we expected, the portals are haphazardly marked, even on the maps that supposedly locate them. People mostly didn’t care about them, not knowing their function. Also, the current layout of the cities and towns are usually quite different than shown on the maps of old, so it is impossible to use the older maps other than to know there are a certain number of the portals in a given area. From the listings, and what we understand of the old language now, we can usually open a portal in the right general area. The team goes through, determines the location and which of the portals in the area they are most likely at, then closes it and goes searching for others. Once they find it, they open it, get the identifier, and mark that along with the location. Three or four in an area are enough, at least for now. Once they have that many, they return home, and target another area. It’s slow work, but seems to work reasonably well.”

“
Aren’t we concerned someone might happen to see them activating a portal and learn the spells?” Vaen asked.

“
That’s one place your team exploring the Mage’s language has come through. I asked them a while back if they could modify a spell so that a mage could completely mask a spell being executed. We now have the ability to hide the execution of any of our spells from even the strongest of wizards.”

It wasn’t often that Jolan was able to learn something from Vaen’s people that she somehow hadn’t already become aware of. He enjoyed the surprise on her face. He also knew she would be looking in on them before the day was out, and would certainly praise their efforts and encourage further investigations. She had a gentle touch that made those under her want to perform.

“
I want to organize some spies,” Wylan said, changing the subject. “As soon as we have some portals available inside Kimlelm, we need to start gathering intelligence. It might already be too late.”

“
Whom do you have available for that?” Vaen asked.

“
We have men that have been trained. But I also want to tap some of the Kimlelm refugees. If we simply send in some of our people, we will be far less effective than we can be by sending in people who have friends and contacts still in Kimlelm. There is no reason for someone in Kimlelm to talk to one of our people, who could be an Ale’ald agent in disguise. They might be far more open to someone they know from before the war.”

“
That means showing the portals to people who are not well known. It opens up the chance of the secret getting out already.”

“
I realize that, but some of these people have lost everything; family, business, homes, fortunes. They have good reason to hate the Ale’ald invaders. I’m certain I can find a number who would be willing to die without giving up the secret. We have to take some risk if we are to learn what we need to know.”

“
How would you work the mission?” Jolan asked.

“
I’d send a team through one of the portals. A mage wouldn’t need to go. There would be agreed upon times for a return at the various portals in the area. At the appropriate time, we could remotely activate the portal for group transfer. They could simply pop through. They would never have to know how to use the portals. Once they are recovered, we close the portal behind them.”

* * * *

Luzoke and Kavel materialized into the portal room where Jolan and Wylan waited. Luzoke walked casually over to Jolan with a nod indicating they had been successful. Kavel was dressed as usual for one of the nighttime missions. He had the butt of the Mini-14 sticking out over and above his right shoulder, held in place by some kind of scabbard he had made himself. On his right hip was the Kimber Tactical Elite that Jolan felt he should have, given his function and leadership position. The TE wasn’t as pretty as the pistols the leaders of the sniper teams had, but it was every bit as functional. Sitting atop his head was a pair of the night vision goggles. Being a mage Luzoke didn’t need the night googles, but the non-mages were amazed by their capability. In addition to the equipment, Kavel carried an unconscious man over his left shoulder. Unceremoniously, he let the man drop to the floor.

For the past week, Luzoke and Kavel had made multiple drops behind the lines into Kimlelm as they mapped out useful portals located in many of the major cities and along the river that bordered Seret. They now had over a hundred portals located and named, which would be used to run missions once hostilities started.

They had run missions both during the day and after dark. Daytime missions were usually into areas where it was less likely to encounter the enemy, and all of the nighttime ones had been in the high risk areas. Only once had they encountered the enemy, and Luzoke had been forced to blast the men with an
energy wrap
that reduced them to so much ash. They had been fortunate where it had occurred, and no one would have a means of tracing the mission men back to one of the portals, even if the ash were recognized for what it was.

They were now ready to begin sending their teams on a number of intelligence missions, but had stumbled across information that Ale’ald had been commandeering a large number of ships and gathering them in the port city of Wint. They had made a brief check of the port and found that an unusually large number of vessels were indeed located there. It had taken a bit of careful questioning of Kimlelm dock hands, but they were able to identify a wizard that should be knowledgeable and decided it was worth the risk of arranging a talk with him.

“
Good evening,” Kavel had said when the unprepared wizard had stepped from the tavern into the dark street of the Kimlelm port. Kavel had the spring driven dart launcher in place a few inches from the man’s neck as he spoke, and triggered the device driving the dart into the man’s neck. Moments later the soup of Karonabark, anesthetic, and truth serum was flowing into the man’s blood stream. Gene had been playing chemist, and had some of the local medical mages making up various combinations for him based on the materials he was able to research via the large database of files he’d brought from Earth now that all the computer systems were up and running. All of the behind the line teams would be equipped with both injectable and aerosol versions of the concoction. Added to the abundant alcohol already in the wizard’s blood stream, the man was out in minutes, and they were able to carry him away for questioning.

“
He’s going to need some encouragement,” Kavel said in his husky voice. “Bastard’s been at the ale, and the drugs hit him pretty hard.”

“
The team will be here in a minute,” Wylan said. He’d sent word by radio when he saw Kavel and Luzoke coming through the portal with the man. The military medical team would be coming through the tunnels that opened up into the lower levels of the Council Building for the man. They had a couple of hours to stimulate the man and wring whatever information out of him they could. This time, the wizard would be lucky. They wanted him back in Wint before daylight where he could recover from his “drunk”. It would be best if no one knew he’d been missing to reveal what he knew. Of course, if he didn’t know anything, there would be no need to be so gentle and bother returning him.

The past few months had gone quite satisfactorily and Cheurt was looking and feeling well. Despite a number of surprises, surprises that could have gone very badly for him, Ale’ald’s forces had managed to conquer Kimlelm, a feat that hadn’t been accomplished in hundreds of years. That accomplishment alone had elevated his status and given him the authority and power to further the war pretty much as he wished. During the winter months he had been busy, but not challenged. There had been new products to get out of the various factories and shipped to the war front far away. A few surprises should be in store for his opponents once hostilities resumed.

About the only major setback had been his attempts to capture or kill the man from Earth. He still had his girlfriend, although he’d had little time to spare to think about what to do with her of late. He kept her around as bait and a potential lever against Randy should he resurface. Cheurt couldn’t figure out where the man kept going. After his team made their assault, he’d expected to be able to entice the man into his reach with the woman. But he’d learned the man had left Cobalo, although no one seemed to know where he had gone. Even the Councilman who had a hand in forcing Randy out of Cobalo hadn’t been able to provide any insight into where the man had gone when they captured him after his removal from office and drained his memories. The man knew surprisingly little that was useful, although he did provide interesting insight on how the Earther had developed. He was a formidable adversary it seemed.

The fact Randy had disappeared made Cheurt’s hostage almost worthless. He’d considered simply killing her and being done with it, but something had prevented him from doing so. After all, he’d spent a great deal of effort and lost several valuable wizards getting the cursed woman here. Maybe she’d prove useful eventually. At least she was a docile captive and didn’t take much management. That was especially true since they had relocated into the new quarters here in the castle itself. Recently he’d received word that the man had been seen back in Cobalo, although he seemed to disappear for extended periods somehow.

At the moment Cheurt was eagerly awaiting word from his men that had once again made the long journey into the Land of Giants. He wished there were a way to make that trip less of an issue. Ryltas was due to make a very important delivery this time and he was anxious to have it in hand. Ryltas had promised several items that would be significant improvements and make their winning the war before the next winter almost certain. His team should have met with him almost a week ago now and be well on their way back to Ale’ald even now.

Cheurt smiled. He liked his new location. Now he was getting the respect and power he deserved and was living in the castle along with the rarified few who ran the country. Most of the meetings were held in rooms nearby, and as often as not they were held here in his quarters, the people coming to him rather than distract him any more than necessary. In addition to multiple rooms for his personal living space, which included a full kitchen with his personal chef, he had a very spacious office and a large meeting room. There was also the room where he’d had the modified restraining cage installed for the woman, and the smaller room where his aid and the communications people spent the day.

He heard the machine start making its familiar clicks and clacks indicating that a message was coming in. That was one thing he owed the Earther. The telegraph system was clearly something Randy had established here on Gaea. When Ale’ald had captured Kimlelm, despite attempts to destroy the equipment, enough had been retrieved to set up a working system. They now had sufficient locations operational that he could communicate easily with his people in several parts of Ale’ald, the key cities in Kimlelm, and the regional commander that held the forces in Trailways. Once Ale’ald managed to start building their own equipment, the system could be significantly expanded, but even as it was, its availability had made it unnecessary for him to move all the way to Kimlelm to coordinate the war. He had expected that would become necessary, and then this miracle was given to him. That was when he made the move into his rightful place in the castle.

Minutes later his aide brought him the message. Something in the man’s demeanor told him this wasn’t going to be good news. He wondered what could have gone wrong now. Hopefully it wasn’t too serious.

“
Impossible!” he shouted aloud when he read the message. “Are you sure this is correct?”

The telegraph operator shook slightly but nodded.

“
Send a reply asking them to retransmit it,” Cheurt demanded.

As the man hurried away, Cheurt reread the message. Unexpectedly, it was from the Trailways facility. Ranul had written to tell him they had found Ryltas’ oddly light body resting on the node of the Nexus when they had arrived. He was quite dead, appeared to have been there for some time, and though he appeared not to have been bothered by animals, his body oddly lacked mass. Ranul had headed to Trailways to report the anomaly rather than return. He wanted to know what Cheurt would have him do.

Why would Ryltas have been there for some time? He wasn’t due to make the trip until fairly recently. Had something happened on Earth to prompt him to make an earlier trip? And what could have gone wrong? The transition had been made dozens of time without issue.

Cheurt continued rereading the note. Even more disturbing than the loss of his friend and resource on Earth, was the statement from Ranul that the Nexus, which was easily detected by anyone with the power once they got close, appeared to have disappeared. Ranul had been there many times, and knew exactly what to expect. If he said the Nexus was gone, that meant he was unable to detect the familiar mental pressure that marked the site. Could that explain what had happened to Ryltas? Had a failure in the Nexus itself somehow occurred while Ryltas was making the transition between worlds?

Dragons, this was bad. Cheurt accepted the piece of paper containing the retransmitted message from the man who scurried away as soon as possible. Cheurt didn’t bother to look at it, knowing it would be the same as the one he already held. Ryltas being dead would be setback enough. It would take many months for another to replace him, and would require a great deal of Cheurt’s personal time, and probably a trip to Earth by him as well. Time that he didn’t have at the moment. He’d also hoped that others would be making all the trips to Earth. He’d decided he didn’t like going there. Worst, however, was the news about the Nexus. If true, that meant trips to Earth would no longer be possible. They would have to make do with what they already had.