Do Or Die [Nuworld 4] (47 page)

up.

Meah smiled and then dived toward the ground. She’d studied many battles where

ground attacks happened simultaneously with air attacks. If there were any ground

troops trying to create a diversion in the sky so they could sneak by, she would be

ready.

Surveying the ground wasn’t as easy as she thought it would be. Hills were covered

with dense foliage, and rocks protruded out of nowhere in the increasing rain and

heavy clouds. It was a struggle to see through her dome and the thought that hundreds

of warriors could be traveling through the woods, and she’d never see them, didn’t sit

well in her gut. The landlink gave no indication that there was anyone down there but

she wasn’t sure she could trust her readings. It became clear that she would have to

scan the area more thoroughly before she’d conclude there was no one down there. She

ordered one of her smaller squads to the ground and issued orders that she wanted the

ground searched thoroughly for any enemy troops trying to sneak by.

Meah dropped very close to the ground and forced herself to a snail’s pace as she

eased across the rough ground.

“What are you doing down there?” Gilroy’s voice sounded in her ear.

“You should come down here. This land is so dense anyone could creep past us and

we’d never notice.”

“I’ll be down in a moment. I’ve got a lock on your transmission…don’t turn it off.”

Meah wasn’t taking orders from a Gothman. But she and Gilroy were of equal rank

and Runners and Gothman were sworn allies. It only made sense that she would confer

with him concerning the conclusions she’d drawn. Besides, Gilroy wasn’t like Andru.

He was…well, he was different. And for some reason, his telling her to leave her

transmission open didn’t bother her. There was no time to dwell on that now, however.

Tall evergreens appeared, and Meah slowed to the point where she lowered her

wheels and moved to the ground. She checked in with the scouts spread out alongside

her and verified they’d done the same. The trees blocked the intensity of the rain

making it easier to see. It was a dark, dreary day, though, and long shadows still made

scanning the area visually difficult.

“What is this?” Meah pulled her glider to a quick stop and slid off silently. She

moved through the thick undergrowth toward the edge of a cliff she’d noticed at the

last minute. If the clouds had been just a little thicker she could have driven right off the

edge. She reached up to her comm so she could notify the scouts to be careful when her

hand froze in midair. Meah dropped to the ground instead and inched her way closer to

the edge of the cliff.

The cliff dropped no more than ten feet or so where she was, but as she looked

across the sunken valley surrounded by a natural rock wall, she noticed the cliff rose as

high as thirty feet in some places. That observation took only a second and barely

merited any serious attention among her thoughts. At the moment, her conscious

thinking was literally frozen in terror as she stared across the hidden valley that

currently housed the largest camp of Gothman she’d ever seen.

What were they doing here? Had Lord Darius sent them here? He had to, there

were simply way too many of them for his lord not to be aware of their presence here.

But did Andru know about it? Was this some personal army of his? She looked around

the dense area to see if Gilroy approached her yet. She didn’t dare try to contact

him…or anyone…on her comm. She would assume this camp was friend, and not foe,

until confirmed otherwise. But her instincts compelled her that it would be wise to not

make her presence known yet.

Gilroy squatted on the ground not ten feet from Meah. She hadn’t noticed him, he

was certain of that much. What he wasn’t sure about was who in the hell all these

Gothman were? And what were they doing down here in this hidden valley so far from

Gothman land? Gothman didn’t travel and these men were far from home.

A group of she-witches walked below them, cackling and teasing some of the men

they passed. One of the Gothman stood up and grabbed one of the women and threw

her to the ground. Immediately, several Gothman were on top of her while the

remaining she-witches as well as other Gothman stood around laughing and cheering

the threesome on. Gilroy glanced over at Meah and saw the horror-stricken look on her

face. She’d read the stories of these people, now she was seeing it firsthand. He wished

she’d put her headscarf on so she wouldn’t be as easily identified. She might not realize

it, but the stories were quickly spreading about her too. The heir of Gothman had finally

taken a claim…and she was with child. Whoever these people were, he knew they

weren’t fighting on the same side. And Meah would be one hell of a hostage if caught.

Gilroy watched Meah as she crawled over the rocks and he wished she would lie

still. There was no way he could crawl over to her with all those people so nearby. Then

he remembered how Ana started to have problems lying on her stomach after she’d

been pregnant for a while. Meah’s baby was growing and it occurred to him she would

have to be pulled from the front line before long.

The Gothman and she-witch finally finished their exhibition and some of the

onlookers began to walk away. Gilroy looked with horror as Meah slowly rose to her

feet. What was that fool woman about to do? He pulled himself up, not sure if he would

need to leap, run, back up or start firing his laser. When only the she-witch who had

just been taken by the Gothman remained, Meah stepped to the edge of the cliff quickly

and jumped down on top of the woman.

Gilroy couldn’t believe his eyes. In a flash, Meah pulled the woman to the ground,

ripped the cape and head mask from the woman’s body, then shot her in the side of the

head. She leaned the body forward quickly, so the blood would pour out away from

her. Then, she rolled the cape up in a quick ball and let the woman drop to the ground.

The damned woman then turned and looked directly up at him.

“Help pull me back up?” she whispered as she moved to right beneath him and

extended her free hand.

Gilroy reached down and pulled with enough force that she literally flew up

through the air and landed easily on the ground in front of him. He pulled both of them

back into the thick undergrowth and trees and then turned to face her.

“What in the hell did you do that for?” His hands went to his hips and he glared at

her. “You could have received a lot more than what that she-witch just got if they’d

captured you.”

“Trust me, I know what Gothman are capable of,” she hissed back. “But the way I

see it, it’s the only way we are going to be able to penetrate this army and find out who

their leader is.”

“We are going to penetrate this army?” He raised an eyebrow.

“Well, you don’t think I’m going to go into that camp all by myself after what we

just witnessed. That may be your idea of afternoon recreation but I prefer not to be the

object of someone else’s amusement. Besides, I needed some type of disguise. I don’t see

any Runners out there, do you?”

Chapter Twenty-Six

Gilroy made several rules very clear before agreeing to attend her on this mad

mission. The first thing he did was go back to his glider and reconfigure his coordinates

before transmitting a low-level signal to Gothman in hopes Torgo would notice it and

pick up the transmission. Minutes later he heard a faint voice through his comm. The

static was heavy but that was to be expected.

“Torgo, this is Gilroy. We’ve discovered a Gothman army buried up here in a

hidden valley. Can Lord Darius verify that they’re supposed to be here?”

There was silence and then the lord came on the line and spoke loudly.

“There are no Gothman that I know of up there other than the armies you

command, no. What is this?” Lord Darius demanded.

Gilroy described the camp to the lord and then told him what he and Meah planned

to do. Here was another person who wouldn’t make a move without getting someone’s

approval, Meah thought to herself. Andru sure had surrounded himself with perfect

people who would submit to him unconditionally.

“Understood, my lord.” Gilroy pulled the comm from his ear. He cocked an

eyebrow at her and his blue eyes seemed to glow in the darkening surroundings. “It

looks like we carry this plan of yours out.”

“I noticed that you failed to mention it was my idea to infiltrate their camp.”

Gilroy smiled and spoke in his best Gothman accent. “To be certain, if we pull this

off then I’ll be sure and tell them all it was your idea, I will.”

“Don’t mock me.” She scowled at him and crossed her arms over her chest. “I’m not

some dimwitted female who needs to be manipulated and controlled.”

Gilroy’s smile disappeared and he looked at her for a long minute. She held his

gaze and maintained her scowl but his intense blue eyes bothered her. The man was

determining something about her and since she wasn’t sure what it was, she didn’t

know what defenses to use.

He didn’t stop his silent evaluation of her but leaned forward and grabbed the she-

witch’s cape and then shook it out before helping her put it on. He stood back and

viewed her even more seriously then until she simply couldn’t bear it any longer.

“What is it?”

And then he made his next rule very clear. He moved so quickly she had no time to

react. He grabbed her by the arms and lifted her a good ways off the ground so her legs

swung out toward the ground. He held her so her face was level with his and looked at

her masked face. Her sea-green eyes spat fire at him.

“Do you realize what a she-witch is?” he whispered hoarsely.

“They’re thieves and con-artists who use herbal potions to manipulate others to do

what they want,” she whispered back.

“They’re more than that. They are women with no scruples, no values…they’re

whores. You may not wish to be controlled or manipulated but you will be protected.

And in order for me to protect you, you will follow my orders. I’m not manipulating

you and I’m not controlling you. But before this is all said and done I’m sure I’ll be

fighting to save your ass.”

“I do have some ability to protect myself, you know,” she retorted as her eyes

showed her continued scowl. “Ana has told great stories of her times with the she-

witches.”

It was the stories Ana didn’t tell that reminded Gilroy how serious it was that he