Sac'a'rith (8 page)

He stuck out his hand and said, “Deal.”

I shook his hand and went to work on the remaining robots. The rest of the crew was skeptical for a while, but as more and more of their robots returned to functional status they warmed up to me. It was as I had expected. These were working men and women; they cared little for talking or boasting and were more convinced by actions than words.

It took several days to get the liner loaded with gear and to perform the maintenance that the massive vessel needed, during which time I lived on the vessel and worked on all of the ship’s robotics. They had a virtual army of robots to maintain the large vessel and it seemed that some were always breaking down. There would be no shortage of work for me on this trip.

On the fourth day since leaving Zah’rak’s team, I finally left the station on the liner. It was a Resden-chartered vacation cruise liner headed to the Phineary region, which was perfect. I could finally start over with no ties to my past. I dreamed of setting up a small robotics repair shop in a high-class town where fine dining and entertainment were readily available. After years of living in the underground, I wanted out and I wanted it badly.

The trip through the first jump was uneventful. Thanks to my skill at robotics, I was becoming well-liked by more and more crew members as time went on. I bartered priority order on my repair list for favors and special treatment. The kitchen staff let me eat the food that was normally reserved for the paying customers, and in general the staff treated me like royalty. It felt good to be wanted and liked. All I had to do was stay out of trouble for a few months and I was home free. That should be easy; the
Paradise
was, after all, a high-class vacation cruise liner and not a war ship or pirate vessel like so many of my previous stations.

The liner was massive and could cover great distances in a single jump, but took days between jumps to recharge the drives. During one of these recharge times, I was relaxing in my quarters looking at a movie on my computer terminal when a man appeared in my room.

Instinctively I sprang to my feet and jumped away from him. He was dressed in body armor which appeared almost liquid in texture. The armor moved with him as if it were a second skin. His steel-grey eyes seemed to bore right through me and threatened to drain my will even to stay upright.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“Come with me,” he said.

“No!” I said. “Get out of my room!” There was something about him that sent icy fear through my veins. It wasn’t logical, but I had no time to question that feeling just then. My mind searched frantically for options. All of my weapons were securely hidden, so there was no way to retrieve them without giving him plenty of time to stop me.

“My master wants to speak with you,” he said emotionlessly. “You will come with me.”

I decided I had to risk blowing my cover and exposing myself as a magus. As fast as I could, I cast my mage bolts, sending fire towards him. He didn’t even flinch as the bolts came his way but to my horror he seemed to absorb them, completely and effortlessly.

“Very well,” he said, raising his hands and pointing at me.

I threw a shield wall between us just as a beam of energy left his hands and headed towards me. The wall held, but I knew it couldn’t take much more. I wrapped myself in as much protection as I could and teleported behind him.

Before he could turn I cast a mage bolt again, this time aiming at his back, but he absorbed this also. He turned to fire his beam weapon again, but I switched tactics and used telekinesis to throw a table at him. It caught him off guard and sent him flying into the wall.

While he was still down, I ran out the door into the hallway where several crew members were talking. Before I could shout at them to run, the stranger came out of my room and fired another bolt at me.

This one hit me square in the back and my shielding absorbed most of the energy, but the force of the impact knocked me down. I hit the deck hard. Yelling in pain, I started to get up and saw the men running for cover. Then another bolt hit me, and my world faded from red to black.

“Zah’rak, wait!”
sent Shira as I started to get up and run to Raquel’s aid.

Down by the river, the lizard creatures were about to grab Raquel when she disappeared.

“What happened?”
I asked.

“Look across the river, up on the bank,”
sent Shira. There was Raquel, just where Shira had indicated.
“She’s a traveler, like myself. They’ll never catch her.”

“Zah’rak, Shira, head downstream until you find a place to cross unseen, then turn back so that the setting sun is behind your right shoulder. I’ll catch you up soon, after I’ve led these away,”
sent Raquel.

The lizards had swum back across the river and were heading up the bank towards her. They were not much bigger than humans and looked no more dangerous. I couldn’t see why Raquel was so worried.
“But there are only three of them,”
I protested.

“Go,”
she sent.
“This is their woods and soon we will be vastly outnumbered.”

“Okay,”
I replied.

Shira and I fell back a bit deeper into the woods and slowly made our way downstream.
“Do you think she’ll be okay?”
I sent.

“Yes, she’s a traveler,”
Shira sent. She said that as if I should know what she meant and be comforted by it. I decided not to question it right then, as it was good to keep a positive tone. Besides, if Raquel was lost there was nothing to do but go home, and I didn’t want to do that just then.

We stopped and I made use of the trees to see the river.
“Looks clear here. Let’s take some water and cross quickly.”
We turned toward the river and as we came out I sent,
“You top up the canteens, and I’ll keep watch.”

She moved to the riverbank and I followed her, tasting the air with my tongue and sweeping the vicinity with my eyes. The river was deep and appeared to have a strong current. Tree limbs, leaves and other forest debris went floating by at a good speed, but there was no sign of trouble.

The strength of the current made it unlikely that there would be anyone hiding in the river, but if the small lizards were amphibious they might be able to arrive quickly, using the current to cover their movements. That was probably how they’d surprised Raquel earlier.

“Okay, that’s done,”
she sent and then teleported across the river.

I joined her on the other side and we slipped back into the woods.
“What do you mean by: ‘she’s a traveler’?”

“It appears that her primary spell line, the one we’ve seen her use, is dimensional, just like mine,”
she sent.

“Okay, but what does that mean?”
I sent.

“Well, as an elite traveler she can always get away,”
she sent
.

“You weren’t able to get away from us,”
I sent. When she was still a slave to the necromancer and under his complete control, we had trapped and captured her. Ragnar had used some of his runes to put her to sleep, and we kept her in stasis until we could remove her slave implants. It was a gamble; she might have run right back to her old master, but it had paid off.

“I’d hardly call myself an elite magus,”
she sent.

I suspected she was underestimating herself quite a bit, but I didn’t know what justified the title ‘elite.’ Raquel was by far the most powerful magus among us, but I suspected Shira could easily take the number two spot if put to the test.

We traveled on for a while without talking, using the sun as our guide. Eventually we came out of the forest into a large clearing. This stretched out for quite a distance, but in the direction we were heading it slowly turned into rolling hills.

I had started to speak when I heard something behind us. I turned and saw a green hand emerging from some bushes, reaching for Shira.

I caught that hand, pulled it out of the bushes and threw it to the side. It belonged to one of those small Zalionian-looking creatures. He went tumbling and sliding across the ground, too surprised by my action to catch himself.

Shira teleported away from the forest into the clearing as another one of those creatures came out of the forest. This one had a sword and came at me. I drew my own swords and easily parried his first attack.

“Behind you!” yelled Shira.

The lizard I had thrown was charging towards me with his own weapons. I couldn’t disengage from the lizard who was pressing his attack in front of me, so I let the one behind me get close, then used my tail as a whip and spun around quickly.

These two, having tails of their own, must have recognized the move as they merely jumped out of range and then rushed back in, but it allowed me to get out from between them. My superior reach allowed me to keep them at bay, but it was apparent they were more skilled in swordplay than I was. They were able to keep me on the defensive despite my greater reach.

“More coming!” called out Shira and I looked to the forest to see several more coming out with swords drawn. “Teleport away!”

I had to admit I was outmatched and retreat seemed to be the only option. I swung my tail around again to buy some time, and as they jumped back I was able to focus and teleport to Shira.

Shira cast a gate spell and tried to push me through it. I took her hint and went through the gate. She followed me and we came out in the forest again.

After she’d closed the gate I asked, “Where are we?”

She gestured for me to be quiet and sent,
“Less than a half-hour walk from the clearing.”

From the woods nearby I could hear something crashing through the brush. I placed my hand on a nearby tree and expanded my awareness of the area.
“There’s a large group of those lizards between us and that clearing. They appear to be searching for us.”

“Now what?”
asked Shira.

“Let’s swing wide and try to circle back to those hills. Maybe by then they will have moved on to search another area.”

Using the sun as our guide, we walked parallel to the clearing for an hour and then turned back towards it. As we approached, I checked with the trees and made sure the area was clear.

“We’re losing light, we should hurry,”
sent Shira.

“Sure, but hurry to where?”
I asked as we entered the clearing.

“I think into those hills would be best,”
she sent back.

We moved quickly towards the hills, not knowing what we were looking for. Raquel’s warning about the danger of night travel spurred us on. After we’d crested the second one, we found her waiting in a valley between two hills.

“This way,” she said. She touched a spot on the side of the hill and a doorway opened. She gestured to us to enter, and when all three of us were inside she closed the door.

Beyond the door was a room with enough space to fit us and several more people comfortably. The walls were covered with a softly-glowing moss, providing ample light once my eyes had adjusted. The back wall was lined with boxes which I assumed contained supplies. Scattered around the area were what appeared to be sleeping mats.

“We’ll spend the night here and press on come morning,” said Raquel. “Sorry the accommodation isn’t as nice as home, but we’ll be safe here.”

“Where is ‘here’?” I asked.

She went over to the boxes, pulled out some jerky and shared it with us. “We’re still in Vydoria, but a long way from anywhere you’ve ever been. Get some rest. It’s summertime, so the night will be short and I want to leave at first light.”

I looked over at Shira, who merely shrugged and picked out a mat near the back wall. “I’ve slept on much worse for years,” she said.

“Do we need to set a watch?” I asked.

“No, the door and walls are sufficiently enchanted to protect us,” said Raquel as she prepared a mat on the opposite side of the back wall.

I took more jerky from the box and stretched out near Shira. Taking a bite brought a very pleasant sensation to my taste buds. “Hey, this is real meat!”

“Glad you approve,” said Raquel.

As I lay down and savored the spiced meat, Shira slid her mat closer to mine. She was small, even for a human, and only about as tall as my waist. My two-and-a-quarter-meter frame must have seemed enormous from her perspective. Raquel was fairly tall for a human, assuming she
was
a human, but still only reached about midway up my chest, making me the giant among the group.

Shira curled up in a tight ball and fell into a fitful sleep. I shuddered to think what kind of nightmares she might be having. I reached over and placed my arm around her, and that seemed to calm her. I lay there wondering what we were doing and why. I could see the changes in Shira and I knew it was helping her so I intended to go along with Raquel’s plan, but I’d have to talk to her soon about sharing her plans more fully in the future. Eventually I drifted off to sleep myself, to a night of dreams about life as a tree.

I was woken sometime later by the sound of Raquel slipping out of the cave. Shira had curled up against my side at some point, but everything else was just as it had been when I had fallen asleep. Carefully extracting myself from Shira, I got up and ate some more meat for breakfast.

I slipped outside as quietly as I could and took a deep breath, filling my lungs with the early morning mist. Around the entrance to the cave I saw a large number of tracks, but couldn’t begin to guess what manner of creature had made them. Something had come looking for us in the night.

I walked to the top of the hill and looked around. Off a little ways I saw Raquel doing some kind of workout. Her movements were smooth and flowed into each other in a manner similar to the way Narcion had always moved.

Watching Raquel reminded me that Narcion had urged me to do similar exercises every morning, but I’d fallen out of the habit since his death. I stood and began to work through what I could remember of his lessons. My joints felt stiff from spending the night on the floor, but with a little time I began to work them loose. Shira came up the hill and sat to watch as I worked through the last of the routines Narcion had taught me.