Resurgence of Ancient Darkness (20 page)

Before I could do anything I saw Spectra swing her staff in an upwards arc, and power flew out of it. The energy hit the creature, causing it to fall back. Before it could get the chance to recover, Spectra reversed her swing, and another line of energy slammed into the creature. I quickly cast my spirit bolts, which slammed into the creature with much greater force and speed than I had yet seen them do.

The creature rolled clear of our attacks and got back up on its feet. “Foolish mortals, you have no idea with whom you are dealing!”

“No, it is you that is mistaken,” said Spectra in a tone that I had never before heard her use. The malice and venom in it was almost tangible. She threw her hands up in the air, arched her back, and called out something in a language I had never heard before. Power flowed into her body, seemingly from the very air around her. “This is my realm, and you are not welcome!”

The creature suddenly fell back in terror and called out, “It can’t be! You were killed!”

Spectra laughed and looked at the creature. She seemed to be gathering power to smite it with, and it must have known that, as it took that opportunity to open a gate and flee.

“
Dusty, we have to get back and destroy that table!”
sent Spectra.

She then moved directly in front of me and cast her spell to open a gate. As she finished casting, she collapsed against me. Instinctively I caught her and ran for the gate.

I stepped out of the gate on to the bridge of the Shadow Fox and said, “Phoenix! At the coordinates we were given is a powerful magical table: you must destroy it! Use everything we’ve got; just destroy it now!”

“Dusty . . . ” he began.

“No time! I have to get Spectra to sickbay. Take the Fox and go destroy that table!” I said and teleported to sickbay. Spectra was so light in my arms, and I could not feel her breath at all. Once in sickbay, I called out “Shea!” but there was no response. “
Shea!
” I sent out.

“
Yes, Master Dusty?
” she sent.

“
Please hurry, I think I’m losing her!”
I sent.

“
Where, Master?”
she asked.

“
Sickbay!”
I sent.

“
On my way!”
she sent.

I stood there holding Spectra against me, willing her to live. More than ever I wished I had Master Kellyn’s powers to heal. Her body felt so lifeless and cold in my arms. The fear of losing her washed through me, stealing my strength and paralyzing my limbs.

“When they get here, send them to sickbay right away,” said Shea over her comm as she came running into sickbay. She looked at me and said, “Master, place her on one of the beds.” Her voice gave me the strength to carry Spectra just a bit farther. When I had rested her on the bed, Shea asked, “What happened?”

“I don’t know. We were fighting some powerful creature, which ran off. Then she opened a gate home and collapsed,” I said.

Shea examined her for a few minutes and then said, “Master, she must have tapped into her own life force in that fight.”

“That’s really bad, right?” During our early training we learned that a wizard could use his own spirit as a way to power spells, but we were strictly warned not to attempt it.

“Extremely. I don’t think she can recover on her own,” said Shea.

“What can I do?” I asked.

“She has you listed as her husband. I don’t care why you two chose to keep that secret. What really matters is that I need you to make a decision.”

“Husband?” I mumbled. I wondered when that had happened. I always thought there was some kind of big ceremony or something. How could I have forgotten that?

“Dusty, I need you to focus. She might not have much time. I have an experimental treatment I could try. It might save her, or it might make her worse. I need you to decide if you want to try it.”

“Experimental?” I was trying to get my mind around too much at once and was having a hard time keeping up.

Shea started to try to explain the treatment, but I couldn’t follow it. I just collapsed there with my head in my hands. She placed her hand on my back, and I looked up into her gentle eyes. “Shea, I trust you. Do whatever you think is best.”

She nodded and then injected something into Spectra’s arm. “This should help jumpstart her system. If all goes well I’ll give her another dose in four hours.”

“Thanks,” I said and pulled up a chair to sit by the bed.

She placed her hand on my shoulder and gently said, “What about you, Dusty? Were you hurt at all?”

“No, I’m just worn out,” I said.

Before she could say anything else, the doors to sickbay opened to admit Cymeion carrying Darkstone. I didn’t pay much attention, but I know that Shea went to help them. Cymeion came over to me at one point and said something, but I was not sure what.

Hours passed, and Shea administered another treatment. She seemed to be pleased with the results so far and told me she would check back soon.

“Dusty, man, how is she doing?” asked Phoenix, startling me out of a half-sleep.

“Shea thinks she will make it, but it was close there,” I said.

“Great!” he said. “I just wanted to update you on our status.”

“Oh, yes, sorry,” I said. “I should not have left my command.”

“Bah,” he said. “Anyway, we did what you said; flew down in range of the table and fired everything we had. The dust cloud is still too thick to see what remains, but I expect there is only a very large crater left where the table was. Three waves of anti-matter torpedoes and multiple shots from our grand stave canons don’t leave much behind.”

“I just hope it was enough,” I said. “Pull out to a safe distance and keep us hidden, but get some drones to watch that site until we can verify it was destroyed.”

“Man, that table has you worried,” he said. “What happened down there?”

“We fought some kind of creature. We must have killed it a least a dozen times, but it kept coming. All of us drained most of our power just trying to keep it dead long enough to escape.”

“How did you get away?” he asked.

“I’m not sure. Spectra forced it into the Spirit Realm, and we fought there for a short bit, and it retreated,” I said. Then it occurred to me that I did not know the condition of the rest of my team. “How are Darkstone and Cymeion?”

“We picked them up before making our attack run. Darkstone was pretty beaten up, but he will be fine. Cymeion came through uninjured, but they are both sleeping right now,” he said.

“Man, I really failed there, didn’t I? I should’ve stayed at my post,” I said.

“Perhaps, but you had me here to cover, and Spectra needed you. Now get some rest. Rocky and I can handle watching some dust clouds settle for a while,” he said.

“Thanks, Phoenix,” I said. “Oh, I guess we should report into Master Shadow.”

“We can’t just yet. We are both cloaked, so any reports will have to wait until the agreed-upon time.”

“Yeah, that's right. He is traveling in cloak too,” I said.

“Dusty, don’t worry about a thing. We have this covered. You get some rest,” he said and then left.

“
Zal, you in position
?” I asked.

“
Yes
,
Ramsong
,” he sent.

I was hiding in a pile of garbage on some Emperor-forsaken trash hauler as my reward for successfully leading our last operation. We were looking for the box that had escaped us during that mission. We had no idea what that box was, but whatever was in it was deadly. Master Dougherty thought that I had proved myself on that mission and moved me from training to active duty.

“
Okay, stay low for now,”
I sent.

The plan was simple: the navy was stopping and inspecting all ships in this area and randomly placing wizards on some of them, hoping to spot something along the way. Zal and I were fortunate enough to end up on a trash hauler.

“
What exactly are we looking for, again?
” asked Zal.

“
Any sign to indicate that this might be the hauler with that box on it,
” I sent back.

“
And why exactly would a trash hauler be a good choice?
” he asked.

“
I don’t have an answer for that one, but orders are orders,”
I sent.

Since we were stowaways, we were not warned when the ship was about to enter jump space, so our conversation was cut off right then as the cool azure of jump space wrapped around us.

Once we returned to normal space, I sent “
Zal, we need to find some place where we can hear what is going on. You try to get to engineering. I’ll head for the bridge.
”

“
Roger,”
he sent back.

Using the basic power of concealment possessed by all magi in this realm meant that we did not have to worry about the security systems on the hauler detecting us, but that would not help at all if anyone saw us. This meant we had to move slowly and carefully through the ship, dodging any and all crewmembers.

I was heading down a side corridor when three men rounded a corner. Before they could see me, I slipped in to another passage and then into what had seemed to be a supply closet. What I found in the room, however, was not supplies, but hundreds of men and women of various species gagged, blindfolded, and chained to the floor. Many showed signs of having been heavily abused.

“
Zal, this is no garbage hauler,”
I sent and told him what I had found.

“
Yeah, I just found another room like that,
” he sent.

“
New plan: when you reach engineering, let me know; we are taking control of this ship,
” I sent.

I moved back in to the corridor and headed towards the bridge with greater urgency. I did not know what they meant to do to those people, but I knew it could not be good. I reached the bridge quickly and hid nearby until I heard from Zal: “
Ready.
”

“
Move now! Take control!
” I sent.

I sprang out of hiding and blasted the doors off the bridge with a pair of wands. The crew scrambled to respond, but I had an ice storm ready and they were pelted back as shards of ice cut through their numbers. I ran in after the storm and froze anyone I saw moving.

“
Engineering secured. There were only two, and they are both dead now,
” sent Zal.

I moved towards where the captain was hiding. He drew a weapon as I approached, but a quick flick of telekinesis and he was disarmed. “Tell your crew to surrender, or everyone will die.”

All the color had left his face, but he moved to comply. Without taking my eyes off him I instructed the comm officer to call the navy and tell them I was requesting assistance. “Zal, secure engineering, and should anything happen to me, set the self-destruct mechanism and teleport off the ship,” I said over the ship’s comm.

“
Yeah, right,
” he sent back privately. “Yes, Master!” he said over the comm.

“Now, Captain, why do you have all those people down there chained up?” I asked.

“I swear it’s not my fault!” he said.

“Really? So they just beat themselves, and then stripped, gagged, and blindfolded themselves?” I said.

“It wasn’t me! I beg you, please don’t make me talk!” he said.

“Oh, you’d better talk!” I said as I cast a minor frost spell on his hand, which would cause intense pain, but not do any lasting damage.

He screamed, “But they will find me!”

“Who will find you?” I asked.

Before he could answer, he fell over dead. I looked around the bridge, and everyone else was dead too. “
Zal, you okay?
”

“
Yeah, what’s up?”
he sent.

“
Everyone up here just died,
” I sent back. I ran over to the security officer’s station and pulled up the internal cameras. All of the crew throughout the entire ship were dead. The prisoners looked fine, or as well as could be considering their condition. I quickly filled Zal in on what I saw.

“
Now what?
” asked Zal.

“
We stay alert and wait for help. Make sure engineering is secure. No one gets in till the navy comes,
” I sent.

“
Who would try? Everyone is dead,
” he sent.

“
Someone or something killed them, so be alert,
” I sent. I looked around the bridge that was now full of dead mundanes and hoped someone would come soon. It was one thing to kill someone in a fair fight, but for everyone to just die like this and to be stuck here with the bodies made me uneasy, to say the least. I did my best to put them from my mind and focus on finding help from the navy.

“
Shadow, we have your back,
” sent Rigal.

“
Thanks
,” I sent back.

I looked over the Zalionian that stood before me. I had two choices. I could either fight him, or do my best to run away. If I fought him, it would draw more attention to us than I cared for. If I ran away, it would hinder our ability to get information. I did not have a lot of time to think about the best option, so I decided to try for the impossible: a middle ground. “Sorry, we did not know this table was taken.”

“You best get out of this bar and never come back, if you know what’s good for you,” he said.

“
This is going to be awkward , but try not to use any magic, if you can. We do not want to give ourselves away because of the actions of a stupid bar-room bully,
” I sent as I stood up. “Sir, again we apologise for taking your table. We will move on.”

“You better do it fast,” he said as he moved to block my only path of exit. He did not seem to be open to my plan of a peaceful withdrawal.

“If you would not mind stepping aside so we can get out, we will move on,” I said.

“You will crawl under the table,” he said.

I was not foolish enough to lower my guard enough to do that. “It would be simpler for everyone if you just stepped aside and let us yield the table to you.”

“
It’s too late, Master,
” sent Rigal.

I looked around and saw the crowd gathering in tight, making a ring out of the floor. They even began moving the tables and chairs out of the way. “
This does not look good.”