Wizard's Blood [Part Two] (52 page)

Single file, they moved deeper into the town. Fortunately it wasn’t that big a place, and the pilot hadn’t mislead them. They came to a large field that had been cleared and on which Jolan could see three parallel strips extending into the distance. Runways. He didn’t know what had been used to get the flat smooth surface, but they looked almost like something he’d see back on Earth. Off to the right side were several large buildings that Jolan was willing to bet were the hangers. While there were smaller buildings a bit closer, only two of the structures looked large enough to hold the gliders.

The moons were up now, and gave a bit more light than they liked, forcing them to stick to the deepest of the shadows. They made their way around the perimeter until they came to the first of the buildings, and then started slipping past the smaller structures toward the suspected hangers. They had passed three structures, when voices could be heard in the structure to their left. They froze, erecting shields and concealment.

They held their position for five minutes, finally seeing a glow bulb go out on the second level of the structure. While they waited, Jolan had been scanning the other nearby structures for possible enemy, and realized they were holding a position adjacent to the building the captured flyer had described as the pilots’ barracks. It was currently dark suggesting that the men were asleep inside. Jolan’s eyes were about to move on, when he caught a small hint of movement on an upper level. He turned his head slightly for a better view and realized a man was standing at a railing and looking in their direction. Jolan watched to be certain, but the man’s position remained unchanged. He was clearly looking almost directly at the place they were holding their concealment. He must have seen something earlier. Jolan tapped Luzoke and one of the spy-mages and used finger language to indicate the situation. Luzoke tried to tap their leader and pass the warning, but the man had decided it was safe to move and dropped his concealment before he could be warned. Jolan watched as their observer straightened suddenly at the movement of the man on the ground. They’d been seen!

Decision time. The man would clearly sound a warning in a matter of seconds. Jolan could sense he’d already raised a shield, so the man was a wizard as expected. Jolan or Luzoke could certainly take him down with a spell, but there would be nothing subtle about doing so, and would most likely be detected. Someone would have to notice the sudden sharp draw of power associated with such an action. They had the spring-loaded darts, but the range was simply too great to reach, especially with any accuracy. He could see that Luzoke had reached the same decision. They’d have to risk it. Doing nothing would be certain to result in their being exposed.

Jolan had decided to let Luzoke take the wizard. His beam spells could punch through almost any shields. He was expecting to see the bright beam erupt from Luzoke’s position when suddenly an almost inaudible whoosh could be heard followed by a meaty “thunk”. The wizard slumped as something seemed to pin him against the wall, then he fell slowly forward, pitching off the balcony and falling to the soft ground below. Jolan could see a straight thin object sticking out of the wall where the man had been standing.

An arrow! It took a certain special kind of arrow to take out a wizard who’d already raised his shield. Jolan knew one person who had such arrows, and watched as a familiar figure materialized at the side of the building behind them and silently flowed in their direction. Asari gave Jolan a guilty grin, then continued past to check on the downed man. Jolan followed, and after they confirmed the man was dead, he helped Asari pull the man into the bushes where he’d be out of sight long enough for them to complete their mission.

Jolan wanted to unload on Asari for following them. His presence could have risked the mission. At the same time, it was hard to find fault with someone who had most likely saved the mission instead. They’d have to have a talk at a later time. He’d be real curious how Asari had gotten past the barrier.

Jolan and Asari slipped quietly back with the others and the group continued on to their target destination. The first of the structures was large, some kind of barn. It was made of old and dried wood, and Jolan suspected it would burn well. While it worked well to conceal the planes, it had not been designed to be a secure structure, and they had no problem making their way inside. Four of the gliders sat inside. Five of the remaining gliders, assuming their count was correct, were missing. That was the same number that had been used in the attacks to the north when Ale’ald had taken Belth. Unless they were in the other building, some of the aircraft would escape their intended actions this night.

While the three spy-mages made a check for guards, Jolan, Asari and Luzoke had a look at the other contents of the barn. Along the sides of the barn were all the supplies needed to keep the gliders flying. There were several hundred of the launching rockets, JATO bottles in Jolan’s mind, although these were squat and had wheels. It was immediately clear how the gliders were mounted on top of the mini-rockets for their run down the runway. The wheels on the “rocket modules” would make moving some of them around inside much easier, since they were heavier than he’d expected.

It was also clear why such care had been used on the runway. Without rubber tires available, the harder wheels being used needed the very smooth surface for maximum performance. There were also spare tires for the gliders, lots of lubricants and, along the north wall, huge lead-acid battery modules stacked next to a charging station. They had been lucky, Jolan realized, that flights had been suspended for a time. If the aircraft had been flying regularly, someone would have probably been here charging the cells. As it was, the place was quiet, except for a couple of guards that wouldn’t be waking up. The three spy mages had returned and indicated their status.

In a room off to the back they found the deadly payload. At least a hundred of the deadly gas canisters were stored in a separate room. Normally the gas and the rocket modules would have been stored in separate, carefully controlled bunkers, but Ale’ald was making do with what facilities they could find in the interest of expediency. Each canister appeared to have come from the factory fully charged, so they weren’t attempting to fill the canisters locally. Each was packed in a straw filled wooden box for protection. They could simply roll a number of the large booster assist rockets into the room, knock off the nozzles and maybe split a few cases, and the whole lot would go up in flames when they torched the structure. Some would probably explode and release some of the gas, so it wouldn’t go well for anyone too close when that happened.

While Jolan took a quick look around for anything that might tell him more, the others quickly set about inflicting mortal damage on the four aircraft. They had planned how to do this based on the glider they had downed and studied. Then they surrounded each of the aircraft with the launch modules to ensure a combustible mix. Once everything was arranged so a single mage could use
Firespell
to set the whole building ablaze, they prepared to move on. One spy-mage remained behind, while the rest of them made their way to the second building.

Luck was with them. Inside sat the five remaining gliders. Quickly they set about duplicating their efforts and soon two more guards were dead and the second set of gliders were no longer capable of being flown. They would soon be incinerated into ash. A quick search of the building showed nothing of interest remained. There might be items in some of the other buildings, but they didn’t have time to take the risk. The gliders were the target, and before long the whole city would be awake when the attacks started along the waterfront. They left behind another of the spy mages to trigger the fire at Jolan’s signal or if anyone discovered their presence before that.

There was one more distasteful task remaining. The aircraft were weapons, but so were the pilots. Without pilots, Ale’ald wouldn’t be able to use new gliders even if they were delivered. If nothing else, eliminating these pilots would slow any future activities. Moving quickly, the four remaining men returned to the barracks building. It was a simple matter to gain entrance. These men had felt secure. They found the men sleeping in a large room on the second floor.

A mage can kill a non-mage easily in many ways. These were wizards, but they were asleep and had gone to sleep without shields. That made them as vulnerable as any non-mage. They weren’t innocents, Jolan reasoned. They had to know what poison they were dropping onto Seret, and flew mission after mission, many which killed thousands of noncombatants. Steeling himself against killing defenseless men, Jolan drew the small amount of power required and ended the lives of fourteen sleeping men. He knew it had to be done, but it still made him more than a bit queasy.

Jolan nodded to Luzoke, who quickly radioed the two spy-mages back at the two barns. They would set the fires, and make their way back here so the group could escape as a team. By the time they were downstairs, they could see the huge flames flickering over the top of an adjacent building. The two men came hurrying along moments later.

The fires hadn’t gone unnoticed. Getting out of the area was going to be much more difficult than getting in had been. They could see the movement of hundreds of men as teams rushed toward the burning buildings. Jolan knew that the guards would be on alert, and most likely additional patrols would already be moving into place. The direction they had come was a beehive of activity. They’d simply have to find an alternate route out. The possibility had been considered, but they hadn’t expected the enemy to react nearly so quickly.

“
This way,” Asari whispered, pulling Jolan in a direction that seemed destined to take them away from the river.

“
River’s that way,” Jolan whispered back, surprised that Asari, who seemed instinctively to know his bearings, could have gotten turned around.

Asari pulled him again. “Portal,” he said into Jolan’s ear.

Jolan looked at him for confirmation.

Asari nodded.

Jolan motioned the others and they headed in the indicated direction. Their current path resulted in motion that crossed the direction of the advancing men rather than directly opposed them. That made their movement a bit less suspect, but it was not enough to completely eliminate encounters. They had crossed to the far side of town when they encountered a relatively senior wizard. Their raised shields had not generated suspicion as they passed though the areas closer to where events were happening simply because almost every wizard had his shields raised as well. Jolan and his team had gone to the classic shield rather than the
shield-pair
so as not to advertise that such a thing existed. In this case they were moving away from the fires and excitement, and not only did Jolan and Luzoke, who were posing as wizards have shields, but the others who were dressed as senior military did as well. They’d been lucky before, but this time the obvious disconnect was observed.

The wizard called out to Jolan and demanded he identify himself. Jolan knew he wouldn’t be able to pass close scrutiny and, seeing they were in a relatively secluded area, lashed out with his strongest
Firewrap
spell. The wizard had been prepared against attack, but hadn’t been expecting anything quite so intense, and was unable to withstand the onslaught. His shield failed almost immediately, and the man inside was consumed by the intense fire that Jolan had unleashed.

Unfortunately the fire and the use of power had attracted other attention. An intense energy blast struck Luzoke’s shield. Had it been anyone else the result would have been instantly fatal, but Luzoke was no slouch when it came to shields. Still, the beam rivaled anything Jolan had seen to date, and had caused Luzoke’s shield to glow slightly pink. Jolan’s eyes followed the attacking beam back to the source instinctively. Luzoke was already firing back, the strength of his
energy beam
so intense the air literally crackled as it blasted toward the enemy. His beam had little effect, and seemed to splash off and be absorbed easily by the stout shield around the three wizards standing together.

A triad, Jolan realized, having seen the same thing during the encounter at sea. This was the second time he’d seen wizards linked like this. He hoped this wasn’t a skill that was readily learned and was becoming a cornerstone of the Ale’ald wizards. Something special was going to be required here if they were to get past these three men. He sensed his full power added to Luzoke’s wasn’t going to break the shield of the triad. The spy-mages with Jolan and Luzoke scattered, seeking some kind of cover. They knew their own shields would not stand up to such an assault.

Taking a chance on something he had only briefly experimented with, Jolan formed a ring of no-magic around the triad, using the spell he’d learned from Oscar’s crystal. It didn’t seem to help. Jolan could sense the impossibly strong shields were still in place. It might never do him any good, but he’d just learned that an existing condition didn’t seem to be affected by the no-magic zone. Jolan was expecting another blast from the three when once again Asari came into the fray with one of the arrows. The wizard on the left suddenly crumpled as the arrow flew through the shield and passed through the man’s chest. As he died, so did the triad’s shield. The remaining two wizards tried to recover and quickly raise their own individual shields. They were confused when nothing happened. Not wanting to give them a chance to think about what might be the cause or allow them the opportunity to simply move out of the dead zone circle he’d created, Jolan blasted the one on the left out of existence. Luzoke followed suit with an intense
energy-beam
, and dispatched the other even before Asari could release the second shaft.