Emergence: Return of Magic book 1 (14 page)

Kurien rode in the front with John on point.  He could
hear the voices of the four ladies following behind as they chatted about many
things that bored him to death.  The new bearer of the mantle of balance
was not what he had expected at all.  He’d grown up with stories about the
serious and staid Merlin, who never let his voice rise, and every word spoken
was wisdom.

Katie… smiled and joked constantly, was irreverent, and was
gossiping with Arielle and Bria like they were still children playing
games.  In short, nothing like he’d expected, at all.  Still, she was
young, in elf years she’d still be a preadolescent, and she’d only been aware
of magic for less than two weeks. 

It wasn’t that he didn’t like her, because he did.  She
had a pleasant voice, a ready friendly smile, and had obviously extended the
hand of friendship to all three of them.  She wasn’t hard to look at
either, her looks were a bit strange and exotic, her face heart shaped, small
delicate ears, full lips, and warm hazel eyes that sparkled when she
laughed.  She was beautiful, in her own alien way.

No, it wasn’t that he didn’t like her, or thought she should
be different, it was just that she was a source of continual surprise as she
failed to meet his expectations.  He needed to reconcile his
preconceptions, it was his failing, not hers, but he was finding that more
difficult to do than he’d have thought.  That young laughing woman back
there was responsible for the very world, it was hard for him to merge those
two realities in his mind.

His hawk spotted the large gathering of humans on the road
ahead, maybe two miles up.

He turned to John, “Those soldiers we told you about, are
coming up in a couple of miles.”

John grunted, “We should be okay.  The last group we
ran into let us though without too much trouble.”

He shook his head, “Perhaps, but you didn’t have two elves
and a dragon along at the time.”

John nodded slowly, “I could see where that might be a
problem, if the groups commanding officer is paranoid, we may be stopped.”

“Paranoid?”

John blew out a breath, “Some would jump to the conclusion
your race was a possible threat, and try to find out where you were, and how
many.  I don’t believe most would, but humans are capable of… bad things.”

He frowned and nodded, “None of us are all of a mind. 
There were some elves and dragons who would rather have stayed and made war on
humans than to choose a voluntary separation.”

“Let’s hold up a minute, and let the ladies weigh in.”

He nodded and pulled up on the reigns, and waited for Nim,
Katie, Bria, and Arielle to catch up.  Once they caught the ladies up on
what was going on they chimed in.

Nim urged, “Perhaps you could circle around in the trees,
while the three of us talk to the soldiers at the roadblock.  We shouldn’t
have a problem, but I could see where the three of you could cause fear, which
might make them do something stupid.”

Arielle frowned, “Why don’t we all just sneak around? 
Kurien and I can cloak the sounds, can’t Katie cloak us from sight?”

Bria looked dubious, “Sneaking around might be less of a
risk, but only if we aren’t caught.  Sneaking could make things much
worse.  Some humans do have magic after all, not all of them but…”

Katie nodded, “It could go either way, we might end up
having to run for it either way we try.  Most of the government is gone
with the cities, apparently the governor of Oklahoma lived and has deployed
troops, but we don’t know what happened elsewhere.  I don’t think they
have any specific orders in regards to magic yet, or we’d have been stopped at
the last checkpoint.”

Kurien sighed, “Elves and dragons need to eventually make
contact with people like your governor, but right now we don’t have time to be
held or questioned.  Let’s split up, and we’ll meet you on the other
side.  Based on the people we met, it could go either way, and it seems a
bad time to make a gamble.”

No one objected, so he, Arielle, and Bria moved off the road
to the north.  It wasn’t wooded this time, just a flat field, so he led
them for a little over a mile before turning to the west.  It felt a
little too easy though, and he wondered why they would set up a… check point
Katie called it, in an area so easy to travel around.  He connected with
the Eagle, and there were no patrols that he could see.  His worries never
came to light, and they cut back to the road after passing it by at least three
miles.

Then they waited, and waited some more.  After an hour
he started to feel uncomfortable about how long they were taking, and the three
of them shared a quick lunch.  After two hours he started to truly worry,
something had happened.

Arielle interrupted his musing, “What do you suppose is
happening?”

He shook his head, “I have no idea, according to the eagle
the men are just standing around, things are calm.  Other than that I
can’t get any details.”

Bria was about to speak, when Katie appeared in front of
him.  He opened his mouth in shock, but she just smiled.

Katie said, “I’m not really here, this is a communication
spell.  It’s the first time they left me alone, and of course without tech
I can be sure the room isn’t bugged.”

He frowned, why would bugs in the room matter?

She continued, “The captain here has been questioning us,
once he determined we weren’t raiders, he seems to think it’s too dangerous for
the three of us to be travelling alone.  I’ve been trying to explain the
importance of things and if worse comes to worse, we’ll escape tonight, but the
strangest thing is two of the men glowed for me.  They felt… like they
were connected to the issue with the balance.  Have you ever heard
anything like that?”

He started to shake his head, but stopped, “There are
stories that Merlin could sense who he needed to deal with problems of the
balance when he couldn’t handle it on his own.  Maybe you need them for
something?”

She frowned and shook her head, “How the hell am I supposed
to do that?  I just got a lecture about how I was a foolish girl for
travelling with only two other people in a time like this, humans of this time
have no idea what the balance is, much less know or respect who the bearer is
and…” she cut off her rant, took a deep breath, and said in a more even tone,
“I got the same impression, but I’d hoped I was wrong.  Go ahead and set
up camp, if I can’t make any headway we’ll have to escape and get moving, hopefully
we can figure out a way without them if it comes to that.”

He nodded, “Contact me if you need help?”

She sighed and nodded, and then disappeared.

He looked up and Bria and Arielle were looking at him
strangely.

Arielle asked, “Who were you talking to?”

He sighed, and filled them in on what was going on.  He
begrudged the time they would lose, but he didn’t have a choice but to trust
Katie and that they could make up the time.  They set up a light camp, the
rain seemed to have passed for the foreseeable future, and they wanted to be
ready to move quickly.  Just in case Katie was forced to escape and they
needed to make a run for it.  The last thing he wanted to do was have to
fight these humans who were in authority, and going after the dregs of their
society.

They’d made good time, Mateerans were fast runners, and they
reached the closest town that they’d known about.

Tarrock had taken over a house as his command, and had been
disappointed to find out it was deserted, and he wouldn’t be able to take out
his frustrations on a human victim.  What had happened to them out in the
mountains was embarrassing, and had harmed moral, but he’d given orders, and he
expected that to change once they were ready to return.

His science officer was right now scouring the town for the
chemicals he would need to revenge his slain crewmembers.  At first,
Garrock had been dubious at the plan, but now a sense of excitement seemed to
go through his second, as well as the crew about the plan.  The only
question was, if they would be able to locate the correct mix of chemicals and
equipment.  Electronics were a lost cause, but chemical processes
although… skewed a bit, either slowed down or sped up affecting volatility,
still worked.  That left… possibilities. 

He knew it would take time, hopefully his crew would find
people in this town, he would need something to entertain him for a few days.

Katie held back the sigh she felt coming on as she stared at
the walls of the tent.  It’d only been a couple of hours since she’d
talked with Kurien.  No wonder Merlin failed if this is what he had to
face all the time.  How was she supposed to convince Captain Freemont to
not only let her go, but to also lend her a couple of soldiers? 

She couldn’t just say she needed them for a task, or bad
things would happen.  She didn’t even know why or what, so… why would they
listen?  She didn’t even have the instant credibility that Merlin would
have back then, even showing a little magic hadn’t impressed the captain.

She’d tried to explain the aliens had been sighted up there,
and she was on her way to help stop them.  It’d seemed like a good idea at
the time, but she’d just been laughed at.  Explaining about elves,
dragons, and other purely magical races like sprites and dryads hadn’t gotten
her very far either.  He’d questioned her for details, which of course she
didn’t have.

Regardless, she was getting frustrated with it.  She
couldn’t even get him to agree to let them move on, much less hand over two
soldiers to her care and authority.  She hadn’t even brought up that part
yet.  Her staff was taken, John and Nim were being held somewhere
else.  She could actually feel both of them, and her staff, but she felt…
naked without it in her hands.

She’d been doing a lot of speculating the last hour, as
she’d been left alone in a tent with two guards outside.  She’d been
thinking about the idea of what would happen if she failed.  If the aliens
succeeded in whatever they were doing, she doubted it would destroy the world
or anything like that, but it would affect the balance and push them that much
closer to that destruction.  And if they did it there, they might search
out other magical settlements and repeat the process.

It wasn’t as if the one in Colorado was the only settlement
after all, elven tribes were spread throughout the world.

Still, it would be the first step toward a fall, if they
managed to destroy one settlement, and she couldn’t imagine the aliens were
planning anything less, they may move on to others and do the same.  It
also occurred to her, whatever they did might destroy the inheritance Merlin
had left behind for her.  His spells, books, and notes, that Nim had told
her about.

While she was, and could, experiment and learn on her own,
the loss of all that knowledge and wisdom would be a crime, and she’d have to
learn it all the hard way.  While possible, it would be easier if she
could learn from the ones that came before her.

The truth was, she started to feel a little overwhelmed by it
all.  She was a twenty-year-old woman, how the hell was she supposed to
keep the world in balance?  She’d made the decision to do it, but now… she
couldn’t even convince an army captain to allow her to go off on her own. 
It was easier said than done, and she felt the weight of it on her shoulders.

She felt… like a little girl that had been sent to her room
by the way the captain had been treating her.

It was frustrating to say the least.  What gave him the
right to decide what she did?  He’d implied holding her was for her own
good, her own safety, and what she wanted seemed to have no impact on his
opinion.  She really didn’t want to leave behind a military unit on bad
terms, but it looked more and more like she would need to escape.

She also felt embarrassed at the way she’d had a meltdown
earlier and whined at Kurien, and wondered what the elf must think of her
now. 

Worse, she was going to have to do some magic without the
staff, which meant she probably shouldn’t use any more after that until they got
where they were going.

Through the magic, she felt her horse start to move to the
east, and a surge of anger filled her.  She stood and marched around the
table and opened the tent flap.

The two soldiers looked at her in an intimidating manner.

She growled, “What the hell are you doing with my horses.”

One of the soldiers lost his countenance, obviously
surprised she knew any such thing.

“The captain has seized the horses and they are now property
of the U.S. government, and we are using them to pass messages.  There’s
nothing you can do about it, we’re under martial law, and you’re being held for
your own safety.”

She raised an eyebrow, he was so wrong about her not being
able to do anything about it, and she channeled magic directly and intoned
within her mind, “
Sleep,”
and a wave of magic emanated from her
body.  It was more magic than she’d ever channeled before, and she could
sense it through the magic’s flow as all two hundred and sixty soldiers fell to
the ground where they stood.

She grabbed the side of the tent as she swayed, she knew
she’d overdone it by quite a bit, and she felt unsteady as she walked to the
tent that had her staff, which still had some magic left in it.  She
entered the tent, and spared a glare for the captain as she grabbed her
staff.  He was collapsed on the ground, and she hoped he woke up with a
headache.

She used a small trickle of magic from the staff to summon
the horses, she hoped the riders hadn’t gotten hurt too badly when falling off,
it wasn’t their fault after all the bastard had stolen her horse.

John and Nim came out of the tents they were in and she
waved them over.

John asked, “What happened?”

She filled them in as their horses arrived at a trot.

“Bastard decided to steal our horses, and were going to hold
us indefinitely.  He forced my hand when I felt the horses leaving
camp.  I decided to put them all to sleep since they aren’t really our
enemy.  Do you think I went too far Nim?  It took a lot of magic, and
they should wake up in about four hours.”

Nim frowned and looked her over, “I don’t think so, but you
shouldn’t do any more magic for a few days.  Leave that to me, and the
elves.  Not even enough to activate the staff.”

She blew out a breath and nodded, she didn’t think of
herself as a vain person, but she really didn’t want to age unnaturally fast.

“Just one more thing and we can go.”

She closed her eyes and used her sense of the balance to
find the two soldiers that glowed for her earlier.

“Come on, we’re kidnapping a couple of them.”

John raised an eyebrow, “Is that a good idea?”

She grinned, feeling a bit more confident again in her
abilities now that they were on the move again.

“Probably not, but we need them.  If they’re entirely
unreasonable, we can leave them behind and let them walk back.  Either way,
I want the opportunity to talk to them directly about it, and let them decide
instead of their captain.”

He frowned, “We only have three horses.”

She shrugged, “I can share a horse with you, and we can put
them on mine… unless you want me to share with Nim instead?” she asked archly.

John shook his head giving up on the argument, “Nope, I
don’t mind.”

She grinned, she didn’t think he would.  They found the
soldiers, Hendricks and Davidson according to the patches on their uniform, and
tied them to her horse’s saddle.  It wasn’t perfect, but it would
do.  It also took them a little time to find the rest of their gear, the
saddlebags had been filled with correspondence and rations for the
riders.  Once all that was sorted, she mounted up in front of John and he
wrapped his arms around her, and she melted against his chest.  Nope, she
was sure he didn’t mind sharing a horse, she knew she didn’t…

It only took a few minutes once they arrived for Kurien and
the others to roll up their camp, and they made good time with the remainder of
the afternoon and evening until the sun started to get low in the sky. 
She’d noted the mile markers, and they’d gone a little over thirty miles. 
She wasn’t looking forward to the conversation, but Hendricks and Davidson came
around shortly after being untied, sitting in front of their campfire.

The men looked a little wild eyed, as they woke up in a
strange place, and they were very nervous when they noticed two elves, and a
woman with silver hair and yellow eyes.  She gave them a moment to settle,
and was relieved when they didn’t jump up and run for it, or attack.  She
handed them some food.

“We need to talk, but enjoy the meal and get your bearings
first, we don’t mean you any harm, but your captain left me very little
choice.”

Davidson drawled, “Lady, you’re in deep shit.  You
kidnapped two soldiers of the United States…”

She laughed a little harshly interrupting him and her voice
was icy, “This is a new world, billions are dead, nothing works the same, and your
tinplated dictator stole the horses of a goddess, a sorceress, and the wielder
of a magic sword.  We are on our way to fight aliens to protect elves,
dragons, and other magical races, lest the balance fail and our world be
further threatened. 

“Do you really think I give a shit about kidnapping two
soldiers?  Join us, and I’ll give you two boys a shot to get even with the
aliens that fucked up our world.  If not,” she pointed, “Thirty miles that
way to get back to your unit, you’re free to leave anytime.  So shut up,
eat, and think about it.  If you have questions fine, but don’t even think
about threatening me again, I’ve had enough bullshit today and you have no
power here at all.”

She knew the stress was getting to her, but she felt a bit
better now, after getting all of that out.

Hendricks asked, “What did you do to our unit?”

She sighed and said in her normal voice, “Same thing I did
to you, they just took an afternoon nap.”

Hendricks pointed, “And you two are elves, what are you?” he
asked, pointing at Bria.

Bria smirked, “Might as well get past your disbelief, your
captain thought Katie was a little girl with delusions, I’m telling you she is
perhaps the most important being on our world, and you would do well to do as
she asks.  She doesn’t have an easy task.  As for what I am, it’s
easier to just show you, I need to hunt anyway, and now is a good as time as
any.”

Hendricks looked confused as Bria got up and started to
strip.

She watched too, fascinated, it would be the first time
she’d ever seen a dragon as well.  When Bria was down to nothing, she
walked away from the fire, and then shimmered. 

For Katie it was much more than just a visual shimmer that
got larger, the moving magic that laid like a blanket over the world became a
violent whirlpool of power, focused on Bria as magic was quickly absorbed and
used by the dragoness to fuel her transformation.

A few moments later, less than fifteen feet away, was a
large silver dragon as big as a house.  The firelight reflected off of her
scales, and glinted in the dragon’s eyes which swirled in a storm of golden
light, she though Bria was beautiful, and said so.

Bria’s voice was smooth, but rather loud as she extended her
neck toward them, with a head as big as a small car, and said, “This is the
truth of our world.  Katie has told you the truth of elves and dragons,
the proof is before you, maybe you should consider the rest of what she
said.  She seems to think you can be of some use, I wouldn’t dismiss it
lightly.”

Bria turned and walked off far more gracefully than she’d
have expected.  She was at least fifty feet away before she spread her
wings and jumping into the sky.  The wind generated by Bria’s wings was
forceful, and she squinted her eyes as the fire sputtered and jumped.

Davidson said in shock, “Holy shit, that didn’t just
happen.”

Hendricks snorted, “This isn’t a dream Davidson.  She
was kind of smoking though wasn’t she, I mean before the change, the naked
part, do dragons and humans…” he trailed off.

Davidson shook his head, “Are you serious?  She turns
into something that could eat you in one gulp.”

Hendricks shrugged, “So?  That’s not any scarier than
my bitch ex-wife, and the dragon is much hotter.”

Katie laughed and shook her head with disbelief.  Men!

“So… what do you guys say, want to harass civilians and wait
for raiders to show up, or do you want to come with us and fight the murderous
aliens.  I’m not sure what skills you have that are needed, but my magic
tells me you are needed for the fight ahead.  So think about it, you don’t
have to decide until morning.”

Davidson asked, “Where did the dragons and elves come from?”

Kurien answered that one, so she just tried to relax, and
ate her meal, while he explained where they had been, and why they had been
brought back. 

There were more questions after that as well, but she was
content to let the others field the questions, and after things wound down, she
turned in and fell asleep in John’s arms.

She woke up with the dawn, and went outside.  Hendricks
was already awake and at the fire, she looked around but didn’t see Davidson
anywhere.

Hendricks nodded to her, “He’s gone, took off about an hour
ago on foot.  He tried to steal one of the horses, but I stopped him.”

She nodded slowly, “But you’ve decided to stay?”

He smiled, “Yes ma’am, what you’ve said is absolutely nuts,
but then so is two elves and a dragon.  I figure maybe I can make a real
difference if I stick around.  Hopefully one of us is enough, you think?”

She shrugged, “I really don’t know, maybe.  I hope so,”
she added softly.  “How did you convince him not to take a horse.”

He laughed, “I told him he couldn’t outrace a dragon on a
horse, and the color drained from his face.  You had to be there, it was
pretty hilarious.”

Kurien came out of his tent, “It’s just as well, the horses
wouldn’t have listened to him anyway, I told them not to last night as a
precaution.”

Hendricks raised an eyebrow, “I see.  We should
probably get going soon, the captain probably sent out a squad or two after
us.”