“You’d best hurry, young hero—every quest starts with an onerous task, and yours lies in the kitchen!”
***
Elaine Prathion stood beside him in the transfer-house, waiting on Gareth’s arrival. She wore a plain woolen dress that was fairly practical by her standards, lacking extra embroidery or decoration, though it was dyed a deep crimson. Despite its simplicity, the dress was well tailored, showcasing her figure. Matthew might have preferred it if she had worn trousers, given the dangers of their task, but Elaine would only make so many concessions when it came to hiding her femininity.
“Somehow, I thought he would be the first one here,” she said.
Matthew considered it for a moment; he had thought the same thing, but now he wondered. “Well, he is a thousand years old, and most of that time he was a dragon. Maybe his sense of time is a little eccentric.”
She chuckled, “That’s a kind word for him. He’s almost as scary as your father.”
“Scary? Dad?” Matthew had trouble imagining that. If anything, Gareth was far more intimidating.
“Maybe it’s because he’s your father, but he was my teacher. Not to mention the first time I met him, he was fighting Celior.”
He guessed seeing something like that might have an effect on someone. For himself, he had missed seeing almost all of his father’s legendary battles. Some had happened before he was born, and for those that came later he and Moira had usually been ushered to safety. Growing up, he had always thought his Dad was pretty amazing, but in part it was because everyone else seemed to believe it. The reality he lived with was an older man who stopped pretending to be an adult the moment he was out of the public view.
Matthew nodded. “I’ll share the truth for you then. He’s a complete klutz. He’s never met a wall or a piece of furniture he couldn’t run into or trip over. When he isn’t busy falling down, he acts like a randy teenager around my mother. If he didn’t shield himself constantly, she’d have beaten him black and blue by now. It’s really embarrassing. He also has a habit of wandering around the house in his underclothes, and that’s if you’re lucky.”
Elaine giggled. “I guess our homes are more alike than I realized.”
“Some things cannot be unseen,” agreed Matthew in mock horror.
It was then that Gareth Gaelyn appeared within the teleportation circle. He eyed them before speaking, “I hope you two will be able to take this seriously. This isn’t a summer outing.”
Elaine lifted her chin and graced him with a smile. “Not to worry, Lord Gaelyn. I’m certain we will both be doing our best when we arrive.”
The older wizard ignored her reply and turned his eyes to Matthew. “Where will we be leaving from?”
“Right here is fine,” he replied. “I should warn you both, though—I can’t predict exactly where we’ll arrive in the other world. I left a circle near Karen, so once we get there I’ll need to make another so we can get to her location.”
“This should be easy then,” observed Elaine, “as long as we don’t appear in the middle of your enemies.”
“Or the ocean,” added Gareth.
“That’s happened to me once already,” he admitted before continuing. “I also need to introduce you to the fourth member of our team.” He held the PM out in front of him with the screen facing in their direction, “Gary, introduce yourself.”
The screen lit and a face appeared, “Good morning, everyone.”
Both of the other wizards frowned and Matthew could sense their focus on the PM. They were examining it not only with their magesight but more actively with faint aythar probes.
“How is it talking?” wondered Elaine out loud.
Gareth squinted. “There’s no magic in it, and I sense nothing from him either.”
By ‘him’ he obviously meant Matthew. If they hadn’t both been mages, they might have been awed by the sight of such strange technology, but they were used to seeing unusual things. They only wanted to know how it worked.
“He’s Karen’s virtual father,” said Matthew. “Similar to your wife, Lord Gaelyn, but without using aythar.”
“The term ‘thinking machine’ might be easier to understand,” suggested Gary.
“How does it know our language?” asked Gareth.
“While Matthew was learning our language, English, I also kept close notes of his usage of his native tongue. You call your language ‘Barion,’ correct?”
They nodded.
“Since, I’ve been here, I have had a lot of time and opportunity to listen to your language. Some of the syntax and colloquialisms still confuse me, but I believe I have a grasp of at least eighty percent of it now. That will improve dramatically when we return to my world and I can upload the data I’ve collected to my larger self. I’ll be able to integrate the information much more quickly then.”
Elaine and Gareth simply stared at the device in Matthew’s hand, trying to sort through what it had said. The language had been Barion, but the usage and vocabulary had been put together in ways that were unfamiliar.
Matthew cut in, “He has a strange way of speaking, since he isn’t used to our language yet.”
Gareth snapped out of it first. “Will it be useful to us?”
“Very,” assured the young man.
Gary made an observation in English, “He’s rather rude, isn’t he?”
Matthew replied in the same tongue, “He’s a practical man. Do your best to stay on his good side. He’s the one that can heal Karen.”
“Noted,” said the AGI.
Elaine was frowning as they spoke, but said nothing. Gareth showed no such restraint, “Stick to our language. I don’t like being in the dark.”
It took a few minutes longer, but eventually Matthew finished the explanations and they were ready to leave. Elaine and Gareth stood on either side of him. She took his left hand and Gareth rested his hand on Matt’s shoulder. The world blurred, and they fell into the timeless abyss between worlds.
***
A light blinked on Aiseman’s desk. Nodding and issuing a mental command, he accepted the channel. The face of Major General Gardner appeared across the desk from him.
“We have a signal,” said Gardner.
“Where?”
“In Honduras.”
Aiseman nodded. “Resolution?”
“Less than a mile, Director,” reported the General. “It’s very close to a place that used to be known as Dulsuna.”
“That’s good,” commented the Director. “ANSIS has improved our accuracy by a factor of at least ten.”
“As we get more signals and data, we should be able to do even better,” agreed the General.
“How long before we can respond?” asked Aiseman.
“It’s seven minutes for the nearest missile assets, Director. Eighteen minutes for air support, and twenty-five if you want units on the ground,” reported Gardner succinctly.
The Director paused, thinking for several long seconds. The plan was to respond with an immediate missile strike if the response time was five minutes or less. Seven was close, but not close enough. “Send in drones and air support. Get the armor on the move. I don’t think they’ll reach the area in time, but it’s best to be sure. We’ll have to hope they move as we expect.”
He glanced toward the ceiling of his virtual office, as though wondering if an invisible god were listening in. I didn’t say too much, he thought.
“You have your orders General. We’ll speak again in ten minutes,” commanded Aisemann, cutting the link.
I can’t even say something as simple as ‘secure channels,’ he thought sourly. With a sigh, he rose from his desk and prepared to send himself to the Gulf Coast UN Cybernetics facility. He hated being forced to download into a physical body, but if their suspicions were correct, it was the only way to avoid having their communications intercepted.
He would meet General Gardner and Deputy Director Wong there, where they could coordinate their ANSIS assets directl
y, without relying on the network. He could only hope that Dr. Miller wouldn’t decide to join them.
Chapter 32
Matthew was almost used to the disorientation that always came after shifting, but it was the first time for Elaine and Gareth. The former looked decidedly green as she swayed on her feet, while Gareth unceremoniously bent over and vomited onto the ground.
Elaine jumped back, hoping to avoid letting vomit land on her shoes or the hem of her dress, but the sudden movement almost made her lose control of her own stomach.
Matt ignored them both, taking a couple of casual steps away and using his power to clean his boots while he waited for them to regain their composure. Scanning the area, he was struck by its beauty. The landscape was dominated by rolling hills, with larger mountains on the horizon. Their immediate vicinity was a verdant grassland, but there was a heavily forested area within a half mile of them to the north. Gazing south, he saw signs of more forest there.
Gary spoke almost before Matt could finish looking around, “We have trouble. The military is already moving. They know your location.”
“That was fast,” observed Matthew. “Are you sure?”
“They’ve grown very cautious. They’ve stopped communicating through military network channels. Most of their leadership is convening in cybernetic units in North America,” said Karen’s virtual father.
“You’ll have to explain what that means,” said Matthew. He was still coming to terms with the broader implications of the world’s technology.
“It means they suspect I have infiltrated military-encrypted channels. They’re going to the trouble to download into cybernetic bodies for their meetings in order to avoid me overhearing them. It also means they expect that what they are saying on secure channels will reach me, so we have to assume that what I have learned may be deliberate misinformation,” said the AGI.
“So, they’re paranoid,” said Matt. “What do you think they’re doing?”
“They may have missiles in the air already. If so, this area will be obliterated in less than five minutes. The best-case scenario is that they were telling the truth; in which case drones and other offensive air capabilities will be here in around fifteen minutes,” reported Gary.
“Shit,” swore Matthew. “Why does everything happen so quickly in this world?” He didn’t wait for an answer, though. There wasn’t time. Using his aythar to direct the soil beneath him, he cleared a five-foot by five-foot area and started drawing a circle.
Four or five minutes wasn’t long. Elaine stepped closer. “Are we in that much of a hurry?”
He nodded, too busy to bother talking.
She could see the concentration on his face, and that was all the answer she needed. Drawing out one of her wands, she poked him with it to get his attention. “I’ll do the outer and inner geometries—I’m faster. You focus on the runes and the keys, since I don’t know them.”
Matt stared at her for a second. “Good idea.” She was already beginning the outer ring, so he started inscribing the runes that went between it and the inner ring, trusting her to complete the lines that would enclose them.
Gary spoke again, “I should also warn you that they have something else planned. They’re expecting you to move if they don’t hit this location quickly enough, and they think they have an idea of where you will go. As far as I can estimate, that means they suspect you will either try to reach the egg or return to get Karen.”
Matthew heard him, but he was too focused on his work to reply. Somewhere in the back of his head, though, he tried to assimilate the new warning.
Meanwhile, Gareth was still having trouble adjusting to the new world. The older man’s nausea had subsided, but he was deeply affected by the complete lack of ambient aythar. He continually turned his head, first one way, and then the other, as though he were listening for something. “I don’t understand,” he muttered to himself.
Seconds ticked by as Gary continued, trying to share as much information as he could before they teleported, “While you were gone, I did manage to locate the dragon egg’s precise location, but since it is within the CC center in England I can guarantee that it is heavily guarded. As far as Karen’s location, I estimate a very high chance they have found her. While all military assets are disconnected from the network, I’ve analyzed recent satellite imagery and found evidence of an unusual amount of men and materials being moved in the region.”
“It’s as though the world is dead,” said Gareth, still talking to himself. “There’s nothing; it’s just silence.”
Elaine finished the larger portion of the teleportation circle and stepped back. “It’s just your part now, Matthew.”
Matt felt sweat forming on his brow as he worked. This last part couldn’t be rushed; every rune had to be correct. He could feel Elaine’s eyes on him as he progressed, and Gareth was still mumbling in the background.
“What’s that?” she said suddenly, looking at the sky and shading her eyes with one hand.
“I don’t hear anything,” Gareth said to them, as though emphasizing some point they should already be aware of.
Gary misunderstood his remark, though, thinking he referred to what Elaine was seeing, “You don’t hear them because they travel at hypersonic velocities—Mach five to be specific. You’ll be dead before the sound gets here.”
“Done,” announced Matthew. “Step inside the circle quickly! What were you saying, Gary? I couldn’t pay full attention.”
“I think they’re waiting for you,” summarized the AGI.
Elaine had her hand on his forearm already as Gareth took his final step into the teleportation circle. He put his hand on Matthew’s shoulder. Physical contact wasn’t really necessary as long as they were inside the lines, but it communicated their readiness more quickly than words.
“Make us invisible,” ordered Matthew. He waited another second while Elaine did so, and then he activated the circle.
***
They arrived in darkness, courtesy of Elaine’s invisibility shield. It was one of the main drawbacks to invisibility—since it routed all light around the user, it meant being effectively blind. She hadn’t blocked aythar, though. In a world without mages, they didn’t have to worry about being spotted by someone with magesight, so they could still see a short distance using their arcane senses.
Unfortunately, due to the relative paucity of aythar, that meant they couldn’t sense much of anything beyond about twenty to thirty feet. Even so, Matthew immediately knew something was wrong. The one thing that should have been very visible in such a low aythar environment was the stasis field he had left behind.
It wasn’t there.
Then the world exploded around them.
Matthew’s shield held, but Elaine was surprised enough that she lost her grip on the veil she had around them. Light flooded in, showing them a world of flames and dust. While the explosion had caused the ground to jump beneath them, it was eerily silent, thanks to Matthew deciding to block sound as well as physical attacks. He had learned his lesson regarding that back at Roberta’s house.
“They were definitely waiting for us,” said Gary, stating the obvious.
“We’re exposed, girl!” shouted Gareth. “Let me out and I’ll distract them while you find the woman.”
He was already moving, so Matthew opened the shield to let him pass and then closed it again. Elaine covered them with her invisibility veil once more and he pulled on her arm, making sure she stayed close to him as he headed in the direction of where the stasis enchantment had been.
Gareth’s body flowed like water as he passed beyond the shield, reforming into something distinctly reptilian. He looked like no animal Matt had ever seen as the archmage dropped on all fours and sped forward, metallic scales gleaming silver in the sunlight.
Their position couldn’t have been worse. Being at the bottom of the canyon, their enemy had taken up positions along the rim thousands of feet above. They were probably on the other side
as well, but that was too far for Matt to tell. In the immediate vicinity there was a variety of small groups consisting of three or four cybernetic soldiers equipped with automatic rifles and grenade launchers. While the invisibility shield had been down Matthew thought he had seen larger vehicles in the distance, but now that he was once again limited to the short range of his magesight, he couldn’t be sure. He kept walking toward where he had left Karen.
The creature that Gareth had become moved with frightening speed. It raced across the distance to the nearest soldiers and proceeded to rip them mechanical limb from mechanical limb. Weapons fire rang out from every direction, but it had little effect on his heavily armored body.
His speed took the soldiers by surprise, and once he had reached the first group they had to take care not to use their heavier weapons for fear of destroying each other. Gareth had no such constraints, though. He destroyed everything within reach, and after he had dismantled the first group, he sprang toward the next.
As Gareth ran for the second group, they began firing heavier weapons, and while some of the shots glanced off, others hit him squarely, exploding on impact and tearing large chunks of flesh from his massive form.
It slowed him down, but other than that it didn’t do them much good. His flesh flowed and reformed whenever he took a substantial injury, even replacing a lost limb from a blast that had sent him sprawling into the dust. Then he was on the second group.
Matthew and Elaine had a much easier task, since the enemy seemed to be focusing their efforts on the foe they could see rather than the one they couldn’t. However, after traveling only twenty feet, they were struck again by another explosion, one that came from beneath them. Matthew nearly lost his shield, and Elaine’s veil flickered again.
“That was an anti-personnel mine, I think,” noted Gary.
“Mine?” said Matthew in confusion.
“A bomb in the ground,” explained the AGI. “They anticipated you would try to reach the place you left her, so they’ve set it up to kill you when you do. There are probably more of them close by.”