Roberta smirked. “Coffee. You seem to like it.”
He nodded.
“Do you and Karen have any idea what you wil do?” she added, changing the topic back to what they had previously been discussing.
He and Karen had given her a brief description of what they had learned the night before, but the implications had been too large for any of them to make any decisions. Karen had excused herself for a shower when her aunt started the coffee brewing, since she wasn’t a fan of the bitter drink.
Matthew’s personal opinion had been growing firmer as he assimilated what they had learned, and he could see only one course. “Karen has to leave this world.”
Roberta didn’t say anything at first; merely stared into her cup. When she looked up, it was not at him, but at the view from her kitchen window where a riot of English ivy was highlighted by the morning sun. “You know, she’s my only close relative, and I’ve never had much chance to spend time with her. When you two showed up here, I thought to myself, ‘Now’s your chance, Roberta.’ I always wanted a family, but it never seemed to work out for me.”
“I could bring you as wel. My family would welcome you.”
She granted him a sad smile. “That’s sweet of you, dear, but what would I do in that world of yours? I’m far too attached to coffee and
modern plumbing. Here I have a job and a few friends. In your world, I’d just be another mouth to feed.”
“It might be dangerous for you to stay,” he cautioned.
“They don’t even know you’re here,” she scoffed, “and I doubt they have much interest in an older lady such as myself. I’l be fine.” A whine from under the table caught her attention, and she reached down to stroke Annie as the big dog laid her head across her lap. “I think you’re right, though. Just promise me you’l take good care of my niece. She seems tough on the outside, but I suspect she’s much more tender on the inside than she would have you believe.”
Matthew had already sensed her approach, so he wasn’t surprised when Karen stepped into the kitchen doorway, wearing a soft robe and
with a towel wrapped around her hair. “Take care of me how?”
“I want to take you to my world,” stated Matthew.
“I’ve been there once already,” said Karen.
“You know what I mean,” he clarified. “To live there—for good.”
“As what?” she asked. “I’d have no money or other means of supporting myself, and not to be offensive, but your world didn’t make the best impression on me last time.”
“You haven’t seen the best parts of it yet,” he countered. “And you wouldn’t need to worry about money. I would make sure that you had a
place to live, money, a comfortable life.”
Karen’s lips curled into a mocking smile, “What would that make me, a concubine? No, thank you.”
“Of course not,” he protested. “I would never expect that of you. You would be free to marry whomever you wished, or not. In my world, you would be revered and sought after.”
“Whomever, huh? But not you, naturaly; you’re too royal for me.”
Matt rose from his chair, feeling his inherent stubbornness coming to the fore, “I didn’t say that, and I’m a noble, not a royal. Besides, I’ve been thinking: you may possess a rare gift, one that has long since vanished from my world, and even if you don’t have the Mordan gift, wizards are stil very rare. You could do a lot of good, or even found a new line of mages with the Mordan talent.”
Karen’s eyes narrowed, “So, you’re saying I’d be highly sought after as a brood-mare.”
“Stop putting everything I say into the most negative light!” said Matt, his voice starting to rise. “You’re not the only one that would have that problem, you know? I’m the first mage born of my family, so the thought of being expected to serve in that fashion is hardly new to me. I had to grow up with that hanging over me from the time I could walk.”
She knew she wasn’t being fair, but her blood was up, “Huh, I figured you had servants to carry you around, since your family survives on the sweat and tears of peasants.”
Matt growled, “You know nothing about my family or the sacrifices they’ve made for the people they steward!”
“At least you have a family!” Karen shot back. She started to say more but her words turned into spluttering as a thin line of water hit her squarely in the face. “What was that?!”
Roberta was standing by the sink, a plastic sprayer in one hand. “I’ve heard about enough of that. You’l act like civilized human beings if you’re going to talk in my kitchen.”
Matthew snickered, “Maybe you can talk some… hey!” His words cut off as Roberta turned the sprayer on him, delivering a quick watery
burst.
“Shush,” she reprimanded him. “You aren’t helping.” Roberta directed her next words at Karen, “Dear, you aren’t being honest here. I know you’re scared, but you’re letting your fear get the best of you. You’re lashing out at the person trying to help you.”
Karen held her breath for a moment, eyeing the sprayer stil in her aunt’s hand. Finaly, she let it out. “There may be a grain of truth there,” she admitted with resignation. Then she noticed that Matthew’s face was stil dry. “You didn’t even get wet!”
He sneered at her. “If you had practiced your shielding the way I keep teling you, then maybe you…” He stopped as Roberta took the half ful coffee cup from in front of him.
Roberta’s saccharine sweet smile was folowed by soft words, “Matthew, if you’d like to have any more coffee then I suggest you play nicely.”
He lowered his eyes and put his hands in his lap, making a show of contrition. “I defer to your wisdom, Lady. If I have done aught to offend, I would beg for your forgiveness.”
Karen’s aunt pressed her lips into a firm line as she considered his mock sincerity. “Hmmm…” She held firmly onto the mug of coffee, though.
Matthew rose and then went down on one knee before her. “Please, dearest, sweet Roberta, if you could find it in your heart to forgive me, to let the coffee gods smile once more upon me, I would be eternaly in your debt.”
Roberta placed the coffee back on the table in front of his chair. “I could get used to that,” she said with a wink.
They al took their places at the table, and after a long pause Karen spoke, “I’m sorry for what I said about your family. That was uncaled for.”
Matt nodded in acceptance, but said nothing.
Karen waited, but in the end she gave up and prodded him, “This is the part where you apologize too.”
He frowned. “For what?”
“How about for suggesting I be your concubine, or a brood-mare?!”
“You said those things,” he countered, pausing to hold up one hand as Roberta went to get the sprayer again. “Let me finish. I didn’t use either of those words, but if offering to keep you safe was offensive, I apologize.”
Karen glanced at her aunt, who merely shrugged and put the sprayer down. “He has a point,” said Roberta, taking her seat once more.
Karen narrowed her eyes but didn’t argue the point further. Instead she asked, “So, supposing I let you take me to your world, what then?
Your family welcomes a strange woman into their home?”
“Actualy, I was thinking of taking you to the capital first, to put off questions from my mother until…”
Roberta broke in, “Not to throw oil on the fire, but it sounds as though you are trying to avoid embarrassment.”
“That’s not it at al,” argued Matt. “I’m worried my mother wil try to stop me from returning. The capital is removed from my home by some
distance, and though they can send messages within a few hours, I’l be able to see her safely settled before Mom can try to nail my feet to the floor.
Karen opened her mouth, but Matthew wasn’t done. “Let me finish,” he said. “You wouldn’t be staying there in secret. Queen Ariadne is my
c
ousin. You would be an honored guest.”
“So, you want to drop me off in a strange world and then come galivanting back here to do—what exactly? We haven’t found anything at al
regarding your father here. What if something happened to you? It’s bad enough I would be surrounded by strangers, but you might get kiled. You might never come back!”
“I’d make certain Ariadne knew your situation. She would see to your wel-being—forever, if need be…”
Karen’s face was starting to turn purple again, an interesting product of her angry flushing and her blue skin. “I’m not talking about my damned safety. It’s you I’m worried about! Can’t you get that through your thick skul?”
“Karen…,” he began, looking exasperated.
“Nope.”
“Just listen to…”
She turned her head away. “Nope.”
“If you’d…”
“Nope. Not gonna happen,” she told him. Rising from her seat, she walked around the table to him. She saw a faint flash as his personal shield was lightly reinforced. “Take that stupid shield down, I’m not going to hit you.”
Matthew gave her a dubious look but then lowered it.
Leaning over, she kissed him on the lips, hard. “Get this through your head, stupid. I’l go, but if you want to come back, I’m coming with you.
Got it?”
“But…”
She kissed him again. “Got it?”
He tried to reply again, and she repeated her treatment.
Finaly, Roberta intervened. “Ahem”
Karen saw her look and went back to her seat, somewhat embarrassed.
“I know things are a little different these days, but I was raised in a less ‘expressive’ manner, so I’d appreciate a little more tact in my presence,” said her aunt.
There are an exceptional number of those metal people in the area, Desacus’s mental voice said to Matthew. They seem to be dressed like the other civilians I’ve seen, but they are definitely acting oddly.
Matthew stood up. “Desacus thinks there may be trouble. There’s a lot of extra people in the area.” Extending his senses, he explored the area around the house. With Desacus across the street and the time they had been there, it was definitely easier , probably due to an increase in the ambient aythar in the region, but his range was stil limited. There was no one present in Roberta’s yard, but there were at least eight or nine walking the streets of the neighborhood.
Karen headed for the bedroom. “I’l get your things.”
“Let’s not overreact,” suggested Roberta. “There may be a perfectly reasonable explanation.”
But Matthew had pinpointed the location of several more strangers. Those on the other streets bordering their block had stopped, and there were at least four stationed at each corner. The group out front had stopped as wel, and two began walking across the yard to approach the front door. He relayed his findings to Desacus, who because of his separate location probably couldn’t sense the ones on the side of the block farthest from him.
There are more than that, responded the dragon. I’m sensing a larger group in the distance on this side, beyond your range.
Then there are probably more in the other directions as well, posited Matthew. They’re closing a noose around us.
Should I reveal myself? asked the dragon.
No, stay where you are. When we leave the house, we’ll head in your direction. Hopefully they don’t know you’re there. If so, it will
help surprise them when we take flight. Matthew wished he had his armor on, but he had grown relaxed over the past week and a half. I should have expected something like this, he thought bitterly.
A knock at the door brought him back to the present.
“I’l answer it,” said Roberta. “You go with Karen. Maybe I can stal them while you get out.”
He doubted it would make much difference. The house was surrounded, but perhaps it would give him time to put his armor on. Matt nodded
and headed for the bedroom. Karen met him coming the other way. She was holding her backpack. “I shoved everything in there,” she told him.
Annie was barking in the living room as Roberta opened the front door. “Yes? Can I help you?”
Matthew hurried down the hal to glance out the window that faced the front yard, and then everything happened at once.
The glass in front of him exploded inward and something hard slammed into his personal shield. The world vanished in a storm of light and
sound.
They’re running toward the house from every direction, came Desacus’s mental shout in his mind, but Matthew was stil reeling from the assault on his eyes and ears.
As he recovered his senses, he realized he was blind, and the only sound he could hear was a strange ringing. His magesight showed him Karen standing close by, her hands rubbing franticaly at her eyes. In the front room he saw Annie leaping up to grab one of the figures that had thrust itself in past Roberta. He also noted that al of the windows had broken, not just the one in front of him, and there were metal cylinders on the floors of each room, spewing some sort of gas. His nose and throat began to burn, and he coughed as he inhaled.
They used something like my father’s ‘flashbang’ spell to blind us, he realized, and followed up with some sort of noxious gas. He altered his shield to filter out the gas, and a second later he placed a similar shield around Karen. She had erected her own shield, sloppy as it was, but he knew she was unlikely to know how to protect herself from the gas.
Despite the ringing in his ears, he heard a staccato-like sound coming from outside, and it was matched by something in the living room that was close enough for him to feel the vibrations in his chest. The figure Annie had attacked flung her across the room like a ragdol, and its companion was holding a long metal weapon, something he now recognized as a rifle.
Roberta’s body was shuddering and jerking as projectiles too fast to folow ripped through her, while Annie struggled to crawl back across the room toward her owner. Matthew felt more projectiles hitting his shield as smal holes appeared in the wals al around them.
They’re firing on the house, said Desacus, and I think it’s on fire. There’s smoke coming out of it from every window.
He was stil in shock from seeing Roberta’s death, but somehow he managed to reply, I noticed.
What do I do? asked the dragon.
Matthew had no idea, and now he could see that Karen was screaming. Neither his eyes nor ears worked, but his magesight showed her
standing stil, her body tense and her mouth open. It tore at his heart, and he was almost grateful he couldn’t hear the sound that must be coming from the depths of her soul. She had seen her aunt die. He began drawing on Desacus, using the dragon’s power to strengthen his shield and Karen’s.
Stay put, he ordered Desacus. He started to approach Karen, so he could merge their shields and try to make their way out, but at that point, she vanished.
In the same instant, he felt her reappear in the living room, standing over her murdered aunt. Unfortunately, she had left his shield behind, though she stil had her own with her. She’ll be slaughtered, he worried, and without thinking, he turned his own power on the interior wal that separated
him from the living room, blasting it apart so he could get to her more quickly.
Karen was stil screaming, and something emerged from her hands to slam into first one and then the other of the two metal androids that had entered the house. Whatever struck them was very hot, though it flowed like liquid as it ran down their torsos. Their bodies sagged and crumpled to the ground, smoking as they melted into twisted lumps on the floor.
She began coughing then and swayed on her feet, as though she might pass out, but Matthew reached her before she lost her footing. Wrapping his own shield around her, he caught her and kept her upright. He could tel by the flickering of her aura that she had probably overexerted herself.
Flames were running up
the wals, and more vibrations matched what his magesight showed him, as the upper floors of the house began to
come apart. More explosions, he thought.
It’s definitely on fire now, though I doubt they’ll leave it standing long enough to burn down, observed Desacus. I really suggest leaving the house soon.
Adrenaline and anger had built a slow fire in Matthew’s own heart, and now that the shock of everything that had happened finaly began to
wear off, he felt his resolve solidify. Though stil deaf and blind, he didn’t need eyes to see, and the aythar he was stil drawing from the dragon filed him with a heady rush of power; his anger welcomed it.
“Don’t be stupid,” his father had told him over and over again . “When you’re in the thick of it, sometimes your power will make you feel invincible; sometimes your anger will make you want to hurt your foes, regardless of the cost. Be smarter than me, son. Stupid never dies, but that doesn’t mean it won’t kill you.” For the first time, he truly understood what his dad had been trying to communicate—not just the words, but the feeling that lay behind them.
He sent his thoughts to Desacus, I’m coming out. Wait fifteen seconds or so, then come out of hiding and come straight for me. We’ll
shift out of here as soon as we’re together.
Channeling his power, he reinforced the shield around himself and Karen, shaping it into an angular pyramid that surrounded them with sides that sloped gradualy to a point above their heads to better redirect the enemy’s attacks. Then he created a mist, drawing the moisture from the earth and air around the house. It rose like a vengeful ghost, cloaking the entire block in a dense cloud impenetrable to normal vision.
“Borok ingak !” he incanted, blowing a large portion of the front wal of the house outward. Lifting Karen into his arms, he carried her out into the dense fog.
In spite of the fog, the enemy immediately began focusing their fire on them. He had learned enough of Karen’s world to guess they had