Dark Warriors: A Dark Lands Anthology (Darklands) (21 page)

“What is this?” Ellyn demanded sharply. She gasped when Dagon joined them, looking darkly satisfied. “What are you doing?” she gasped as Dagon backhanded her so hard she crumpled to the ground. No one caught her.

Nikon looked mildly surprised, but kept his counsel.

“That was for my wife, and for the women you would have murdered out of spite,” Dagon said coldly. “You’ve never had a hand laid on you in your entire life, and you’ll not have another. Guards, take her outside and shoot her. Burn the body where it falls and scatter the ashes outside the city in the barren lands. She’s not worthy of a proper burial.”

“Dagon,” Ellyn whimpered as the guards prodded her with their guns. “Son!”

“You have none,” he said coldly. “You gave them to the woman you tried to murder.” Composed and deadly, he watched as she was forced away, his eyes glittering dangerously in the night.

“Now what?” Nikon said when only two guards remained. “Aren’t you going to kill me, too?”

Dagon glanced at him. “You weren’t part of this plot. I’m even grateful you chose to draw her out.”

Nikon relaxed a little. “Least I could do, since I knew you had to be watching. She mentioned another, though. Don’t you want to question her to find out who?”

“No need. He’s been dead for weeks. It was the medic Vana took such a dislike to. A former spy, too.” Dagon stared at Nikon.

Nikon raised his hands. “I had no part of their plot. I didn’t want the women harmed.”

“I know. That’s why you’ll live. You’ll leave tomorrow and receive the women I promised you. They’re being fetched from Earth as we speak.”

Nikon took a deep breath and expelled it slowly, shaken from his legendary control. “Thank you,” he said gruffly.

Dagon inclined his head. That part of his story had closed. Taking a deep breath of his own, he left to find his wife.

Vana listened silently and released a shaky sigh. “So it’s over. She’s dead.”

“She’s dead,” he said gravely. A part of him bled: he’d ordered his mother’s death that night. It had been a just punishment, and his honor, his sense of justice, were firmly satisfied. It would take time for the man inside to heal, though. Perhaps it would never truly happen.

Vana took one look at his face and came to him, laying her head on his chest, stroking him slowly with her hands, soothing him even as she sought comfort. “It will be all right,” she said softly. “It will be all right.”

Author’s Note

Vana’s prediction came true. In time she gave birth to many daughters; sweet, beautiful girls who grew into strong women. Though she never got to bear sons of her own, she watched in satisfaction as first her adopted sons, then her blood children, bred both granddaughters and grandsons of their own. Though she never lifted a sword, both Vana and the women of her generation managed to save an entire race from destruction.

As for their enemies, Nikon’s twisted nation, they eventually grew old and died out, unable to produce issue. Perhaps that was justice and mercy enough.

Autumn Dawn

Dey leaned against a giant tree and watched the Beasts ride in. There were six of them this time, and all rode hover sleds shaped like animals. The glowing eyes of their fantastical beast-headed helmets made them look alien and dangerous. Dey was one of those who watched them with suspicion. Allowing the Beasts to come in, even for trading day, was a bad idea.

One Beast turned his head to stare at her. A shiver kissed her spine as he continued to watch her. Unwilling to provoke a scene, Dey turned and walked away.

One month later.

Good. The bad moon was rising.

Dey drew in a deep breath, quelling her adrenaline rush into something more malleable. Legend might have it that the bad moon was the undoing of maidens and favored only wild young men, but tonight this moon was going to open a door to untold treasure.

Sweet, wild night air filled her lungs, laden with the scent of blooming swamp plants. The tree she was perched in swayed gently with a mild spring wind, causing its leaves to rustle and whisper. Below her a river, swollen from the winter storms, had cut a new channel dangerously close to the ziggurat on its banks. One day the rushing waters would engulf the ruins entirely and destroy the prize within.

That was all the more reason for them to steal it first.

“Soon now,” her friend Luna whispered. She checked her laser gun one last time.

“The sooner the better.” Dey rubbed the chill bumps on her arms vigorously. She hated these nighttime raids, but not enough to give them up. Her part of the booty could be had no other way.

She eyed Luna, thinking that one of them had to be crazy to keep this up. “Creepy old temples.”

Luna grinned. “If you think so, why do you come?”

For my maps, and to save your silly behind if something goes wrong. “For the thrill, of course.”

The shadows on the moon dial of the flat-topped pyramid inched closer to their goal. Only at the full rising of the bad moon, when the parent moons were fast asleep, did the opportunity come to raid this ziggurat. It had taken them weeks of clambering all over the jungle-claimed heap and careful digging, but they’d uncovered the hieroglyphics and ancient warnings. Thanks to them and Luna’s sister’s careful research, they’d known what to expect.

Dey grinned. Big sister had never intended her research to be used for this.

She glanced at her partner. Moonlight glinted off Luna’s blond hair, bleaching it white. Tomb raiding was in Luna’s blood. Nothing excited her like stealing a piece of her birthright from those who’d spawned her. It was revenge, and for her it was fun. Had Dey not volunteered to accompany her she would have come alone and risked herself for the thrill.

Not that anything living still haunted these piles of crumbling stone. No, the guardians of these temples had long ago forsaken them for other pastures.

Well, most of them.

A soft chime split the air as moonlight hit full upon the moon dial, reflecting off the silvery fin on top to a precisely placed mirror set in one of the broken columns that had once held the roof. A concealed door slid open. This was it!

Dey jumped out of the tree after Luna, flexing her knees as her boots hit the gritty stone. Laser gun drawn, she watched as Luna yanked a thick rod from her tool belt, held it in the doorway and thumbed a release switch. It telescoped, jamming the stone door so they wouldn’t be trapped inside.

Provided they survived, of course.

The moment they crossed the threshold the door tried to grind shut. The bar quivered, but held. A faint vibration in the delicate bones of Dey’s ears warned her of danger as she donned her night vision goggles, stolen from another buried site.

Luna needed no such augmentation.

With the utmost caution, they descended the ancient stone staircase, testing their surroundings with senses honed by danger to razor sensitivity. Five steps down, Luna stopped.

“Paranoid little beasties, weren’t they?” Dey whispered with graveyard humor. The subtle buzz in the air had increased to a subsonic whine that raised the fine hairs all over her body.

The corridor in front of them remained dark.

Luna took a pebble from her pocket and tossed it into the quiet stairway. Instantly it flashed red and evaporated.

She nodded. “Motion-sensitive diffuser beam.” She drew a faceted, mirrored ball from the same pocket and tossed it in the hall. “Let’s see you eat this,” she muttered. There was a small explosion of white light and a loud, zap!

The ball clunked to the ground, unharmed. Satisfied, she strolled forward, picked it up and stuck it back in her pocket.

Ten steps down the stairway ended in a black chasm ten feet wide and the width of the passage. On the other side the corridor stretched, ending in a faint golden glow.

A false end, Dey thought as she watched Luna turn to her left, close her eyes, and feel along the wall. The joining was very smooth, but her sensitive fingertips must have picked up the outline of a door. Further searching revealed the catch.

Luna smiled and drew her gun, hit the release on the door and jumped back.

The panel exploded against the opposing wall with the force of a battering ram, shattering against the stone. Red eyes glowed from inside the swirling dust, just beyond the black square where the door had been. Fear and thrill sped through Dey’s veins as the robotic guardian, still for uncounted years, rushed them. They fired. There was a Pop! Ping! Thwang! The beast-headed giant crumpled to the ground, trailing smoke.

Luna stood over it in disgust. “We barely hit the thing, and look! The smoke’s not even coming from there.”

Dey toed it cautiously. “Huh. Guess not even the ancient Beasts could make a device that lasted forever.”

Luna shrugged and sheathed her gun. Eager to get her hands on the unguarded technology of ancient civilizations, she entered the now-lighted passage.

Dey followed slowly, alert for danger. According to the ancient warnings the robot had been the last menace, but one never knew. Just beyond the darkened hallway she could see the sealed room she knew was full of weapons and machinery that would bring a pretty price from the collectors in their settlement. Even though none of them chose to fight in the far-off Beast Wars, they were eager to arm in the unlikely event that the conflict was ever brought within the boundaries of their swamps.

Just as Luna’s foot landed on the threshold, Dey looked up, and yelled. Something huge and heavy dropped down on her from above. Dey fought like a madwoman, kicking and twisting until her teeth found purchase.

“Ow! Little witch,” a familiar male voice complained.

Surprised, Dey let go and looked up. “You!”

“Hello, midget.” Keg grunted as the little fireball stomped his instep in fury and tried to bite him again. “Glad to see you, too,” he grumbled as he spun her around and pinned her to the wall for a quick frisk.

“Get your hands off of me, you goon!” She tried to strike back at him, but was foiled when he twisted her arm behind her back, held it in a particularly uncomfortable position and flattened her to the wall.

“Go easy on me, will you?” he asked with as much humor as his exasperation would allow. Who did she think she was, a war goddess? “I’m afraid of pain.”

She mumbled something especially uncomplimentary.

He grinned behind her back. “What? I can’t hear you with your lips on the wall.” She grunted, but relaxed enough to show her willingness to cooperate, so he released her arm and patted her down.

“That’s not a weapon,” she grumbled when his hands brushed impersonally against her small but firm breasts.

“Maybe in the right hands,” he murmured appreciatively, and slid his hand inside her bodice to withdraw a tiny grenade. “But I think this is, don’t you?”

She shut up, and her sullen silence continued as he relieved her of explosives, her gun and assorted sharp objects. The woman was packing enough for a small army. Her good behavior ended abruptly when his hands brushed over her personal area, strictly as a matter of course. She tried to hit him, but he pressed his palm against her back, keeping her to the wall.

“Relax, little girl,” he said soothingly as he slowly eased off and let her turn around. “Just checking for surprises.”

Her eyes narrowed behind her blue goggles as she yanked them down around her neck. “There’s nothing there that you need to know about, swamp rat.”

Keg shook his head and gave her a small, guiding push toward the light. “Trust me, midget, I wouldn’t want to know.” That wasn’t strictly true, of course, but his healthy male interest wouldn’t interfere with his job just now. Dey and Luna had been crossing too many lines lately. It was time to put a stop to these adventures before somebody got hurt.

Dey gasped as she caught sight of her friend stretched out on the ground in the lighted chamber, surrounded by Keg’s friends. “You didn’t kill her, did you?”

Armetris, the man at Luna’s side, ignored her question and felt for a pulse. His face relaxed, telling Dey that all was well. He scowled at Razzi, the warrior who’d brought her down. “You didn’t need to be so rough, you lug. You know her symbiont is just for show.”

All eyes turned to the silver wristlets he spoke of. Though they were filigreed in the pattern of the living creature it resembled, they didn’t move to heal the slight swelling at the back of Luna’s head, as a true symbiont would do for its human host.

But then, Luna was a little something more than human.

Unfazed by the criticism, Razzi shrugged his massive shoulders. The movement made the light flash on his symbiont, the same as they all wore. “I thought the goal was to give her a scare to keep her out of the old temples. Her finds are stirring up too much trouble. I couldn’t do that by giving her a long kiss goodnight.” His gaze moved to Dey as he spoke.

Keg chuckled and she glared at him. He could almost read her mind. Anal male humor, he thought as she wrinkled her nose with disgust.

The humor left him as he looked at Luna’s unconscious form. This was no light matter.