Swords of Waar (38 page)

I knelt and looked. The bottom of the door was a chisel-shaped wedge that slotted into a little groove in the floor. Anything under it when it dropped would be chopped in two—cups, plates, fingers, toes. I got a little spine shudder just thinking about it. Next?

I looked around the little room. There was just nothing. The cot was molded into the wall. It had no sheets, pillows or blankets. The toilet was a hole in the floor. There were no pipes or cables I could pull out and use as a weapon, and the damn place was so narrow I wouldn’t have had room to swing ’em even if there were.

Wait.

Maybe that was it.

I looked up at the ceiling. It went up a good three feet higher than the top of the door.

That was it. That was all I needed.

***

I tried to sleep for a bit, but I couldn’t, so I exercised instead, stretching and doing push-ups to try and work out the weird stiffness that Duru-Vau’s mind blast had knocked into me. Then I just sat there and strained my ears for the guard.

Instead, I finally heard Lhan. He was far off, or behind a lot of walls, or both, and I wouldn’t have heard him if I hadn’t been sitting completely still.

“Jae-En! Are you here! Do you live? Jae-En, answer if you hear!”

I jumped up and stepped to the door, then put my hands together like a megaphone. “Lhan! I’m here! Stay put! I’m gonna… Well, just stay put!”

His voice echoed to me again. “I will, beloved. But only because you ask.”

I laughed. Good old Lhan. Even FUBARed all to hell, he still had his sense of humor. Kinda choked me up a bit.

I settled in to wait again, and this time I guess I did doze, because suddenly there were footsteps coming and I was jerking my chin up off my chest. Fuck! I had to get into position!

I stood and put my palms on one wall like I was assuming the position, then reached back with my feet and put them one at a time on the other wall. An average Waarian probably couldn’ta done it. Most of them weren’t taller than five-ten or so, but at six-one, I just made it. I started to spider up the walls, hands walking up one, feet walking up the other.

And just in time too. I only just cleared the top of the door when the guard stepped in front of it with another mug and plate. I kept climbing, wedging myself as close to the ceiling and front wall as possible so I’d be out of his line of sight.

He stood there, looking into the empty cell for a long second, like if he stared long enough I’d suddenly appear. Then he stepped back until all I could see from my angle were his feet. Was he going to call for help? Was he drawing his weapon?

He stepped forward again without the plate and mug and pressed himself against the glass, looking left, right and up. I squeezed closer to the wall, hoping that, since I could see just the tip of his nose, but not his eyes, that he couldn’t see me. I guess he couldn’t, because I heard him draw his sword, then the doors whooshed open and he stepped in.

A hidden speaker squawked just as I dropped. “Mar-Gan, do not go into the cell! She hides above!”

Fuck! They had cameras in the cells! Fortunately poor old Mar-Gan had been too stupid to call back to the desk for a remote check, the dumb fuck. He yelped and tried to back out, but I squashed him flat, half in, half out of the doors, then rolled into the hall. The doors whooshed in again and pinched him at the ribs—hard. I heard bones snap as he shrieked.

“Open it! Open it!”

The doors opened again and I pulled him out, then stripped his sword from his hand. He was in too much pain to resist. The voice came over the speaker as I grabbed the guard by his harness and started dragging him down the hall in the direction he and Wainwright had come.

“Return to your cell, demoness. There can be no escape for you.”

I raised my head. “You want me to go back, come in and put me back. Meanwhile I’m just gonna sit by the door and eat poor Mar-Gan.”

“E-eat him?”

“What else do you expect from a demon?”

Mar-Gan started wailing as I pulled him along. “Captain, please! Save me! Seven protect me from all unholies!”

There were two more cells along the right-hand side of the hall, but both were dark. No Lhan. Then it ended in another glass door with some kinda central guard room beyond it. I lifted Mar-Gan to his feet and set him in front of it.

“Open it.”

“I—”

Mr. Voice squawked again. “It will not open, Demoness. I control it from here.”

Of course he did. Dammit! Why did these fuckers have to live in a space ship? Breaking outta shit was so much harder when it was high tech. If this was a typical Waar castle all I’d have had to worry about was deadbolts, bowmen and guys with swords. Sci-fi sucked. Maybe I could cut my way out. Well, not with this toothpick. Where was my sword? And my clothes? Had they thrown them away?

I glanced back down the hall. There were no doors in it except the cell doors. How about in the guard room? Bingo! There were lockers in the far wall, and I saw the long hilt of my sword sticking up out of one of them. The damn thing was so big the door couldn’t completely close. Of course, it was useless to me out there. Hmmm.

I raised my voice. “Hey! Buddy! You wanna save your friend’s life? Open the—”

A door on the far side of the guard room whooshed before I could finish, and a bunch of guards and a priest ran in. It closed behind them again as they crossed to my door and stared at me through it. One of the guards had a wand of blue fire. I gave him the finger as he aimed it at me.

Then the priest raised his voice. “Ru-Kol, be ready to open solitary door one at my order.”

The speaker crackled. “Ready.”

I pulled poor Mar-Gan in front of me and shouted. “Now, Ru-Kol! Open it now!”

The door whooshed open. I laughed, amazed that had worked, and charged through, shoving my hostage at the wand guy and slashing at the others with my stolen sword as the priest backpedaled, wide-eyed and screaming.

“That wasn’t me, you fool! That was her!”

I bashed through the guards without doing much damage, then threw the little blade aside and ran to the half-open locker as they regrouped behind me. There was no time to mess with the trying to open the fucking thing. I just grabbed the hilt of my sword and pulled as hard as I could as they came in. The locker wanged open and I whipped the big bastard around behind me. Unfortunately it was still in its scabbard, so I didn’t cut anybody in half, only cracked heads and slapped aside spears.

It still drove ’em back, and I bashed through them again toward the door, shouting, “Open solitary door two!”

“I can see you speaking this time, demoness! You will not fool me twice!”

I ripped my sword from its sheath and put it to the priest’s neck. “Okay, how about straight up threats? Open it or I kill his reverence!”

“I—I must not.”

The priest swallowed, shaking like a leaf. “Open the door, Ru-Kol!”

“I’m sorry, your reverence. Have you not told me that the rules are not to be—”

“Damn the rules! Open the door!”

“I—I’m sorry, your reverence. I will not.”

Well, fuck. Just my luck Ru-Kol was a fucking by-the-book weenie. How the fuck was I gonna do this?

Then I saw the answer right in front of me. The wand guy was on his feet again, aiming at me.

“Ha! You’re the guy I want.”

I whipped the priest at him and knocked him flat, then stepped to him and ripped the wand from his hands.

“Actually, I just want this.”

I held it out and raised my sword over it like I was a butcher and it was a salami. “Open the door or the wand gets it!”

The whole room gasped, and I heard Ru-Kol suck in a breath on the intercom. The priest held out a hand.

“Demoness, you must not. It is a holy relic.”

“Oh yeah? What’s this one’s name? Slave Killer? Love Truncheon? Doom Cock?”

“That is Beast Queller, and you must not—”

I lowered my sword to it and started sawing, grooving the plastic. Ru-Kol shrieked in the speakers and solitary door two opened. I ran for it and it started to whoosh closed again as soon as I reached it. If I’d been wearing my usual loincloth getup it woulda got caught. Lucky I was naked.

“Nice try, Ru-Kol.”

Lhan was standing at the door as I reached his cell. He was naked too.

“Jae-En! Again you perform miracles.”

“Don’t call it that until we’re free. Now, stand back.”

I leaned my sword against the wall and aimed the wand of blue fire at the door. Lhan’s eyes widened and he backed to the side of the cell. I squeezed the trigger. Nothing happened.

“Goddamn it! Is it out of juice? What’s wrong?”

I glanced back down the hall. The paladins were staring at me through the closed door, and I could hear the priest shouting at the intercom guy.

“No, fool! Do not sound the alarm! Do you not recall the punishments after her last escape?
We
will handle this!”

Ha! Good to know.

I looked at the gun. It really wasn’t much more than a white plastic tube. There was a trigger—more like a big button—on the underside of it, and a row of three smaller buttons and lights further up the barrel on the side.

“Hmmm. Maybe that’s some kinda safety. Maybe the trigger doesn’t work unless I’m holding down one of these.”

I aimed again and held down the first button. Nothing. Second. Nothing. Third. Nothing.

“Fucking thing! How do you work?”

In frustration, I jammed down all the buttons at once, then jumped like a spooked rabbit as a beam of blue white light shot out of the thing and carved a smoking black trench in the wall and the glass. I dropped it, squeaking like a chew toy, and it clattered to the floor, the beam snapping off as soon as my fingers came off the buttons.

“Mistress! Are you injured?”

It was hard to talk. My heart was going a mile a minute. “It’s okay. I got it now. Jesus.”

I picked up the wand again and aimed it at the door, depressed the three buttons on the side, then pulled the trigger. The blue fire erupted from the barrel and instantly started melting a line in the glass. I was expecting some kind of kick or push back, like a gun or a fire hose, but there wasn’t any. Only a humming vibration, like an air conditioner on high. Fifteen seconds later I’d cut a square in the left-hand door and kicked it out. The wand was ticking like a cooling engine block.

Lhan ducked out, looking at the smoking edges of the glass in awe. “Neatly done, Mistress. I would not have had the courage to touch such an instrument.”

“Better behind it than in front of it. Come on.”

“Know you a way out?”

“We’re not going out.”

He looked a little uneasy at that. “Oh?”

“Got something to do first.”

“Would you care to enlighten me?”

I gave him a look. “I don’t know. You might think it’s too dangerous for a Dhanshai.”

He grunted, annoyed. “Jae-En, there is no option open to us which is not dangerous. Tell me.”

I stopped at the guard room door and leveled the gun again. Behind it, the priest and the wand guy scattered. I hit the buttons and started blowtorching it just like before, then glanced at Lhan.

“I met the Wargod. He came to my cell.”

Lhan blinked. “Truly? He still lives?”

“Well, he’s getting on some, that’s for sure, and….” Did I want to tell Lhan all about Wainwright offering me his job? Later maybe. Now was not the time. I finished my horizontal cut, and started the vertical one. “Well, he was bragging that he ran all the moisture gatherers in Ora from right here in the temple. Some control room upstairs. If we can get up there we can shut ’em all down and end all this water stealing shit once and for all.”

Lhan’s eyes went wide, then he tightened up his jaw and straightened his shoulders. “Yours is the noblest heart that beats upon Waar, Mistress. You head to certain death for the good of a world not your own. I will be proud to die at your side.”

I swallowed. “I, uh, was actually hoping to escape afterwards.”

Lhan nodded. “One must always hope, though the outcome be inevitable.”

“Cut it out, Lhan! You’re gonna make me change my mind!”

He laughed like I was kidding, but before he could say anything more, another squad of guards ran into the guard room, then scattered out of line of sight as they saw the blue beam cutting through the door.

Two seconds more and it was done. I lowered the wand. “Ready?”

“I could wish I had a weapon, but I am ready.”

I held the wand out to him. “Here.”

He edged back. “A wand is the holiest of holies. It is death for a layman even to touch one. Besides, I know not its use.”

“It’s just a gun, Lhan. They just put the hoodoo on it so nobody tries stealing one. Here, it’s easy. Aim that end at the bad guys, hold down these three buttons, then push that one to fire. How’s your aim?”

“I have been told I have a good eye.”

“Good, then lay down some covering fire. I’ll take care of the close-up work.”

He looked like I’d handed him a live cobra. “I shall do my best, Mistress.”

“Right. Here we go. No, wait.” I turned to him. “When we get out there, say something out loud about going to the, uh, the nineteenth floor. Got it?”

“The nineteenth floor. Aye, Mistress. But why?”

“Because we’re not going to the nineteenth floor.”

“Ah. Misdirection. Of course.”

“Okay. Let’s go. No, sorry. One more thing.”

I kissed him, just like I had back on Ku-Rho’s airship. And just like then, he stiffened, then gave in.

I pulled back. He was looking at me, his eyes bright.

“Mistress, I—”

“Save it ’til we get out. Come on.”

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

JAILBREAK!

I
kicked out the square of glass and dove through the door, tucking and rolling as I hit the guard room floor, then came up near the door to the outer hallway. Everybody turned my way, swords and spears out. One guy had another wand of blue fire. Fuck! I thought these things were supposed to be rare!

“Wand on your left, Lhan!”

Lhan ducked out of Solitary Two with the wand at his shoulder like he’d been doing commando raids all his life. He fired at the guy with the wand and melted his head off. Yikes! I was thinking more along the lines of winging the guy, but okay.