Rift in the Races (82 page)

The colonel came to Altin an hour after the war council had dispersed. The two of them would have left that moment had Altin’s arm not still needed healing spells.

But, now, less than a day later, they were here and nearly ready to get it done. They just needed that infernal blinking light to appear on a map showing where the tracking chip implanted in Orli’s arm was. That’s where she would be.

Altin completed another pass across the pilothouse and once again stared down into the control panel display. Waiting.

The lights were on, but there were no blinking dots.

Colonel Pewter sat down in the pilot’s chair. He tapped in a few commands. “You boys ready?” he asked, leaning into the com as a young man’s face came into view.

“Damn straight,” said the man who answered, his grin wide above a square and dimpled chin. “About time we blew the dust off these things.” Altin could see rows of large mechanized battle suits,
mechs
they called them, behind the man.

The com went blank and the colonel tapped the console and brought up a different display. Altin recognized Orli’s name in the alien type—this ship did not have an advanced translation enchantment, and so he could only understand what they had to say, and that only due to the locket he wore amongst the tangle of amulets around his neck.

The image of Prosperion suddenly shifted to one showing the continent of Kurr, which then zoomed in directly through gray clouds into the Five Forks area northeast of Crown City. A red dot began to pulse at what he gauged to be a few measures inland, on the north bank of the northernmost fork of the Sansun River.

“Well,” said the colonel. “Know where that is?”

“Can you get closer?”

The image zoomed down, shaping farms and fields and a large lake beside a small patch of forest. As it continued to expand, it showed a spectacular mansion on a gentle hill surrounded by paddocks and beyond them vast open country all of which overlooked the river to the south.

“It can’t be ….” Altin muttered, barely audible. “But why?”

“What? What is it?” the colonel asked, his impatience sounding in him like a revved engine.

“That’s Northfork Manor. Thadius Thoroughgood’s home.”

“That’s the tall guy that looks in on the Tinpoan mines, right? With the ponytail and the feathers in his hats?”

“Yes, that’s him. He’s Baron Thoroughgood’s son, nephew of the Earl of Vorvington, and related to the Queen, though by blood that runs pretty thin. But why would she be there?”

“Well, if she’s safe, who cares? Maybe we’re too late for the rescue—the boys will be disappointed—but I’m happy to make it in time for the party. Just so long as she’s okay.”

Colonel Pewter tapped on the console and brought up the Marine with the dimpled chin. “Tell them to stand down. It looks like she’s already been found. One of the royals got her.” This news was followed by whoops of relief from the deployment bay.

“Roger that, sir. Would have been nice to give some fifty-cal love to them green bastards, but it’s better that Orli is all good.”

The colonel nodded and let the com go blank. “Let’s go pick her up.”

They landed in a horse pasture flanking the carriage road, a gravel strewn lane that split from the main road and ran up to the front doors of the manor house. The Marines spilled out of the ship and began throwing a strangely made brown ball around, a
football
they called it, and commenced to tackling each other violently to the ground, which Altin found odd and pointless. Meanwhile he and Colonel Pewter made their way to the front door.

They hopped the fence and soon found themselves pounding on the massive double doors. The brass knocker fell like a battering ram against the matching plate and the sound of it thundered throughout the hall inside.

A short, wheezing man in Northfork Manor livery opened the door. He looked startled as he took the measure of the two of them, but he recovered of an instant. “Welcome to Northfork,” he said. “Sir Altin, I’m sure Lord Thoroughgood will be delighted to see you. And …,” he left off, allowing Altin to introduce the colonel.

“Colonel Pewter,” said Altin. “Miss Pewter’s father. We’d like to see her immediately.”

Confusion withered his brows too quickly to have been a ruse, and he asked the question naturally. “Miss Pewter? But we haven’t seen her for several weeks.”

“What do you mean you haven’t seen her? She’s here. We just saw her from the ship.”

“I’m terribly sorry, Sir Altin, but she left some time ago. Slipped out in the night, apparently. Lord Thoroughgood said she’d been taken back aboard her ship.”

Altin and Colonel Pewter exchanged glances, neither looking pleased.

“She’s here,” said the colonel, pushing past the man and drawing his side arm as he stepped into the house. “Orli,” he called. “Orli, where are you?”

The doorman made no attempt to stop them or stay their progress through the house. He simply chased after them, trying to convince them that Orli was not at the Thoroughgood home. “I assure you, I have not seen her in days and days,” he kept repeating, almost frantically, between glances at Altin and the blaster glinting menacingly in the colonel’s hands. One did not have to be from Earth to fathom the nature of that thing.

Colonel Pewter moved through the house with the efficiency of someone well trained in house-to-house and room-to-room combat. He barged into each room, checked every corner with quick, falcon-like movements of his head, and moved to the next. “Orli Pewter, where are you, girl?” he yelled.

Altin accompanied him, calling out as well, and it wasn’t long before Thadius Thoroughgood appeared.

“Well, if it isn’t
Sir
Altin Meade,” he said, coming from behind them as they were leaving the grand dining room and headed for the kitchens. “To what do I owe the pleasure, old man? And why are you shouting your way through my house? Hardly good manners, I should say.”

“We’re here to get Orli. The ship’s detection machine showed us she is here. So where is she?”

Thadius’ expression didn’t change, but his Adam’s apple bobbed like a creature running up and down inside a sock. “I dare say, I can’t fathom what you mean.”

Altin knew him well enough to spot him working out a lie.

“Thadius, I swear to Mercy and everything she loves, I will melt you like pork fat if you speak one word of the deceit forming on that forked tongue of yours. So help me, I will.”

Colonel Pewter’s hand flexed visibly upon his gun, the tendons moving beneath his skin like restless souls. He wasn’t quite sure what was happening just yet, but he trusted Altin well enough to follow his lead. He took a few steps to the side, giving both himself and Altin room to fight if it came to that.

“Oh my,” said Thadius as if surprised by the tension coming off his two visitors. “Gentlemen, this has gotten off to quite a bad start, don’t you think?” He gestured to the table and some chairs. “Please, sit down. Both of you. Let’s have a glass of wine and discuss whatever it is you two are all a-fluff about.”

Altin started chanting.

“Altin Meade, I dare say if you conjure even a candle flame in this house, I’ll have you locked up for assault.”

A fist-sized ball of fire formed above Altin’s hand. He glared at Thadius. “Where is she?”

“I really don’t know what you are talking about.” His eyes slid to the fireball crackling above Altin’s palm. “And you really do need to put that out.”

Altin threw the fireball at Thadius, who barely dodged it by diving to the side and rolling nearly into the corner of the room. The flaming projectile crashed into the wall, splashing like a burst bladder and setting fire to the wainscoting, a tapestry and a polar-bear-skin rug, which immediately began to fill the room with acrid and oily yellow smoke.

“How dare you, you insolent commoner,” fumed Thadius climbing to his feet. “You will remember your place, or it will be your head.”

“Where is she, Thadius? She is here. We saw her.” He flashed a glance at the colonel, just to be sure that the detection machine really was adequate evidence for what he’d just begun.

The colonel nodded. She was here. He leveled his weapon and trained it on Thadius. “I don’t think you can dodge this one,” he said.

Thadius had seen the weapons operate before.

“Gentlemen, please. Let’s be civilized.”

The colonel tapped his com badge. “Krakowski, go get me a fix on Orli’s position in the house.”

“Sir?”

“Just do it. We were expecting better hospitality than we’re getting in here.”

“Roger that.”

“I assure you,” began Thadius. “You are making a terrible mistake.”

“She’s below the house, sir,” came Krakowski’s voice a moment later. “Fifty-one meters northwest of your position. Thirty-one-point-oh-eight meters down. Looks like some kind of cave. She’s on the far east side of it if the soundings are right.”

“A mistake, Thadius?” said Altin having just conjured another fireball. “Are you going to take us to her, or do we burn this place down one room at a time?”

“Oh, Altin. Always the dramatic one. Of course I’ll take you to her. We’re just having a bit of fun. A surprise, that’s all. Come, let me show you to her now.” He went to the door nearest him. Opening it, he smiled and pointed out. “Come on. This way.” He stepped through it. And ran. He barked two words as he went and the door swung shut, the edges of it sealing with a smoky hiss and a pale purple light. They could hear him shouting down a hall, calling for his guards and someone named Annison.

“Don’t touch it,” Altin warned as the door seemed to settle back to its normal state, but the colonel didn’t have to be told. He’d seen it too. Instead, he went to the door that he and Altin had been about to exit through before Thadius arrived. That door was also sealed, evidenced by the wisps of smoke rising to the ceiling and the scent of sulfur and thyme. Colonel Pewter didn’t have to be a sorcerer to know better than to try opening that one either.

Altin sent a fireball at the door Thadius had just gone through. It washed the wall in brilliant flames and then snuffed out, not catching like the first one had.

“It’s all warded,” he said. “I can’t break it down without a backlash. Casting anything else might be a bad idea.”

“What’s he up to?” the colonel asked.

“I have no idea. He’s always been a chimera of the first order, but this is devilish beyond anything I’ve ever seen from him.”

Colonel Pewter tapped his com. “Krakowski. You guys suit up and break this fucker down. We’ve been captured.”

A moment’s delay was followed by, “Say what, sir? Break into the house?”

“Pull it down, Marine. Just keep an eye on me.” He turned to Altin. “Better stay close, since they can’t see you without a chip.”

“I was informed I have one.” He tapped his arm. “Captain Asad ordered it when I was asleep.”

The colonel made a face and shook his head. But there was time for that later. “Come on.”

He turned his blaster on its side and thumbed a button there, switching from laser to ballistic rounds. He aimed and fired into the door. Wood splintered and flew as three bursts hammered into it. The colonel kicked the remnants of the door down. “He didn’t ward against that,” said the colonel. “Let’s go.”

They ran down a short corridor and into a huge kitchen, startling several cooks and scullery maids. One woman, barely more than a girl, was caught by the momentum of their rush and found herself between them and a door. From the expression on her face, she thought they were going to kill her where she stood.

“How do I get down to the cavern below?” the colonel demanded.

“The what?” She stammered as she spoke and her whole body shook with fear. Altin could tell she had no idea what the fearsome Earthman was speaking of.

“Downstairs. How do we get to the lower floors?”

That she could answer, and she had no inclination of holding out. “Through here. Down the hall and left at the second intersection. Right at the end, then through the white painted door.”

They sprinted to it, exactly as she had said, and plunged down the stairs. They emerged in another hall that seemed to mirror the one above. They went back down it and, where the kitchen was above, here was a large storage room filled with covered furniture, covered shapes that could only be paintings, several large stuffed animals, including one that looked to the colonel like a dinosaur, and more than a few weapon racks. On the far end of the room was another door.

They rushed to it but slowed before opening it. Colonel Pewter motioned Altin to silence as he cracked it open and peered into the next room. Light came through and drew a line of gold across the dusty floor. Shouts could be heard from the other side.

Colonel Pewter quietly shut the door. “Four. Crossbows.” He mouthed the words and shaped the rest of the idea with his hands as he came back across the room to stand near Altin to confer.

Altin closed his eyes and chanted the words to a seeing spell. He pushed his vision through the door. His sight revealed the collection of antique weaponry on the other side. Several rows of armor, standing erect and on display. Weapon racks along each wall and tapestries, shields and battle pennants hanging above them all around the room. The men were spread around the room, clearly standing guard. But guarding what?