The Sac'a'rith (31 page)

“Okay,” said Crivreen, and the two of them headed off.

“Now, Byron, that armor should keep you safe, but I should warn you that we don’t know yet exactly how strong it is,” I said. He was wearing a set of armor which I had enchanted for him.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“Well, this armor has not seen much field testing yet. It has held up well under one or two attacks, but beyond that we do not know,” I said.

“The armor, plus these swords, will give me the same ability to fight wraiths that you have naturally?” he asked.

“The swords can kill the wraiths, yes, but my scales and your skin are equally useless against their claws. Only this armor gives us both a chance,” I said.

“So I should not take off my helmet,” he said.

“Not if you like living,” I replied.

We moved deep into the station but found no indication of the wraiths. There were scores of dead bodies and sentries marching everywhere, but no wraiths. I knew they were on the station somewhere; I could sense them.

“So what are we looking for?” asked Agent Byron.

“Wraiths,” I said.

“I know that, but how will we find them?” he asked.

“We don’t. They find us. They are like animals, and we are their prey; sooner or later they will come for us,” I said.

“How many are here?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Narcion is much better at sensing that than I am. I would guess at least three, but I don’t know for sure,” I said.

We traveled a bit more, getting deeper and deeper into the station, when an idea struck me. “Do you have a map that shows where all the people are being held?”

“Yes, here,” he said and brought up a map on his datapad.

“Can you take us to the largest grouping?” I asked. “It’s possible they are hanging out there, waiting for the shields to fail.”

“That’s right across the station from here,” he said. As we walked towards our new destination he asked, “Who is this Ragnar?”

“He belongs to a tribe I came across; a tribe that Narcion used to live with,” I said.

“So he is family?” asked Byron.

“Not in the sense you mean it, but they see him as one of their own,” I said. Before he could ask any more questions we came across a group of walking dead, which filled the hallway in front of us. “Let’s not waste time. Fall back and go around.”

“Good plan, but they have already cut us off,” he said.

I turned around and saw another group of them marching up behind us. We were trapped. “Any sentries nearby?”

“No, but I can get some here pretty quickly,” he said.

“No, don’t bother. Follow me,” I said and charged the line in front of us. The walking dead were stupid and slow, not to mention too weak to stop a Zalionian in full battle armor charging their line at full speed. I knocked bodies to the side as I forced my way through.

Agent Byron followed behind, firing his blasters on both sides of me, thinning the pack a bit. Once we broke free I flipped an incendiary grenade behind me and called out, “Run!”

The corridor started to fill with black smoke from the burning dead, but thankfully our armor provided plenty of clean air to breathe. It was a risky way to stop them, but it didn’t seem right to leave them walking around. The dead should rest.

We ran down the corridor and through a blast door shortly before it was slammed shut by the station’s automatic fire containment systems. I assumed the oxygen was being vacated from that area, which would quickly kill the fire. I hoped that the bodies would be destroyed enough to prevent having to serve again before that happened.

“Interesting tactic: set the whole place on fire and run?” he said with a chuckle.

“They are not following us any more, are they?” I asked.

He looked back at the sealed doors and said, “No, I don’t think they will bother us anymore.”

We set off at a brisk pace heading towards the highest concentration of life on the station. We turned a corner and two wraiths started drifting towards us. I could feel the fear wash across me as they turned their gaze on us. Two more came up behind us. We turned back to back and drew our swords.

“Remember, the armor works. You just need to cut them down with the swords,” I said.

“Okay, but we don’t know how long the armor will hold up under an attack,” he said.

“Correct, so move fast,” I said.

They slowly drifted towards us, and I could feel the fear rising up in me. I did not know how Agent Byron was coping. The fear attack could be paralyzing, and the longer we waited the more powerful the effect would be. “Charge!” I yelled and went straight for the two in front of me.

I hit them with my armored body and they went flying back into the wall. I quickly stood, spun, and slashed through the closest one with my sword. The other tried to retreat, but I managed to swing my tail around and slam the wraith into the wall. This time it fell to the floor and faded away, dead.

I turned to see Byron sheathing his sword. “You know, these swords would be easier to handle if they were strapped to our belts instead of our backs.”

“True, but where would you strap your blasters then? We need them far more than the swords,” I said.

“I will have to think about that one. One of the wraiths got away; it just flew through the wall as if the wall was not there,” he said.

“Odd,” I said.

“Odd?” h
e asked

“Yeah. I slam them into walls all the time, but I am realizing now that they can fly through walls at will. That doesn’t seem to make any sense,” I said.

“I’ve wondered about that for some time now, as you can clearly see it happening in the videos of your fights. Any idea why?” he asked.

“It must the same phenomenon that makes normal materials effective against them when they are in my hands,” I said.

“Hmm, maybe. So one got away. Is that the last one?” he asked.

“I think so, but we won’t see it again for a while now. It will run and hide until its hunger drives it back out to hunt,” I said.

“You were not kidding about their fear attack. Even with all my training and experience, I found myself wanting to freeze in fear,” he said.

“I know what you mean. The first time I went up against them I felt the same way. Narcion seems immune to it, but I am certainly not,” I said. “We should catch up with Ragnar and Crivreen and see how they are doing.”

Once we found Ragnar and Crivreen I asked, “Did you find anything?”

“Yes. She is definitely gone, but it was the same magus here. She did not cast and move around as much as before, probably because you were not here, actively fighting. I am quite sure she is a human, and from this area,” said Ragnar.

“How big a region do you mean by ‘this area’?” asked Agent Byron.

“I am not sure, but roughly the same region that most of the residents of the last stop were from. Zah’rak and Crivreen are not from this area, nor are you. Does that help?” asked Ragnar.

“Yes, it does. Did you find out anything else?” asked Agent Byron.

“Hey, I’ve just thought of something,” said Crivreen. “While were we walking around, you said we were following in her path, right?”

“Yes, more or less,” said Ragnar.

“Agent Byron, if Ragnar indicated a place where this magus stopped and cast a spell, can we search the station’s video logs and see her doing it?” asked Crivreen.

“But why wouldn’t she hide from the cameras, like you taught me?” I asked.

“Because a magus can’t hide while casting,” said Crivreen.

“Excellent idea, Crivreen. I am sure we can, even if we have to sit and watch a couple of days’ worth of footage. Then we can get a positive ID on this gal and intercept her before she launches her next attack,” said Agent Byron.

“Are we still sure she is working alone?” I asked.

“I am not as sure as I was,” said Ragnar. “She has access to a seemingly unlimited supply of creatures that she cannot conjure up on her own. There must be a necromancer involved somehow, but I see no trace of anyone besides the one magus.”

“So the necromancer stays behind the lines and sends this magus in to do his dirty work,” said Agent Byron. “That means capturing the magus might not yield much. It might be better just to follow her for a while and wait for her to contact the necromancer.”

“It’s worth a shot, at least,” said Crivreen.

“Okay, Ragnar; show us a place where she cast a spell,” I said.

We followed him through the station and into a discreet, back room. He stopped there and drew on the floor. After a few moments he said, “The magus came in that door over there and walked to this spot. Here she cast at least a couple of spells, and then she left by that other door.”

“That is more than enough information. We should be able to find her in the videos. Then we will have to decide what to do with the information once we have it,” said Agent Byron.

“Well, we need to … ” began Crivreen.

“Down!” yelled Ragnar.

As Crivreen dropped, Ragnar drew and threw a dagger, which hit the wraith sneaking up behind Crivreen and killed it.

“Nice throw,” said Agent Byron.

“Thanks,” said Ragnar as he pulled the knife free from where it had buried itself in the metal floor.

“That was the last of them. Let’s get back to the ship,” I said. I wondered about that dagger. It killed the wraith and cut into the heavy, metal floor like it was paper, so it also must have been enchanted. I decided I really must learn how to enchant weapons.

“You mean the Night Wisp,” said Crivreen.

“Yes, our ship,” I said, shaking my head.
I guess ‘Night Wisp’ is going to stick whether I like it or not,
I thought to myself. It was a pretty silly name, but at least it seemed to make Crivreen happy.

As we boarded the Night Wisp, Agent Byron reported in and told the station guards that the wraiths had been eliminated. This brought a round of cheering from the inhabitants. I knew that the celebration would be dampened once they realized the number of corpses they would have to deal with throughout the station. At least now the bodies would not get back up and attack.

“Crivreen, take us out to a parking orbit until we figure out where we are going next,” I said.

“Sure thing!” he said and hurried off.

“What is our next move?” I asked.

“Can you show me this video you spoke of, that shows the magus?” asked Ragnar.

“Well, we have to find her in the footage first,” started Agent Byron. “Tell me, do you know what a video is?”

“You were honest about your race, so I guess it is our turn. Ragnar is from a very primitive area, and had never seen any technology before I brought him here,” I said.

“I see. Where is this area?” asked Agent Byron.

“Let me explain, if I can,” said Ragnar. He then went through the entire multi-realm thing again, which I still found hard to follow, but it seemed to set Agent Byron at ease.

“That clears up a lot of things. Thank you. Here, let me show you how this works,” said Agent Byron. He brought up the video on the screen and showed footage of us walking through the station.

“Is this how you watched us on the other station?” asked Ragnar.

“What do you … ? Oh, you mean when you were in the room where Narcion was taken. Yes, you can watch things as they happen, too, the same way,” said Agent Byron.

“I see. So, can you show me what this magus looks like?” he asked.

“Well, here is the room where you said she was. All we need to do now to find her is to watch this room until she appears. We can speed up the replay a bit to make it easier,” said Agent Byron.

They watched the recording for a bit, and Ragnar continued to ask questions about it. Agent Byron patiently explained and asked questions in his turn about where Ragnar was from. I was not able to follow their conversation and was about to leave when Ragnar shouted, “There!”

Agent Byron froze the screen and said, “Yep, that must be her.” He allowed the video to play for a little longer and we watched her cast a few spells, then vanish. She appeared to be a young human woman, but I was never good at telling the ages of other races. She was dressed in normal traveling clothes and would not stick out at all in a crowd. Her entire appearance was quite normal. I do not know what I was expecting, but she definitely was not it.

“Now we know what she looks like, we should be able to find her,” said Agent Byron.

“A slave,” I said quietly.

“What?” asked Agent Byron.

“She is a slave. She does not want to be part of this and is in considerable pain,” I said.

“How can you tell that?” asked Ragnar.

“I was a slave all my life until Narcion freed me. I can see it in her eyes,” I said.

Agent Byron backed up the video and zoomed in on her eyes. Tears were streaming down her face as she cast. She looked incredibly sad.

“Zah’rak, you think she is being forced to do this?” asked Ragnar.

“Yes, she is,” I said. “We must help her.”

Agent Byron started to say something, then stopped himself. He looked again at the woman on the screen, just staring for a long time. “Let’s run her image through the computer and see who she is,” he said.

Moments later many more images of her appeared on the screen as the computer pulled every image of her out of the footage. Agent Byron watched carefully as each image appeared and went away. Ragnar pulled out his writing implements and was drawing on the floor. I just sat there and waited. I couldn’t get her image out of my head.

“It seems she uses her ability to teleport to avoid using an ID,” said Agent Byron.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“She bypasses checkpoints, airlocks, and patrols so that she never has to show an ID,” he said.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

“It means I have not been able to find out who she is,” he said.

“Teleportation is short distance, line-of-sight only. If you check all the docking arms, we should be able to figure out which ship she got onto,” said Crivreen, who had rejoined us.

“Good thinking,” said Agent Byron.

“She is not far. She may even be in this parking orbit with us,” said Ragnar.

“What!” I exclaimed.