"Destroyer of Worlds"
May. 25th, 2022 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dochermes"Destroyer of Worlds"
11/1- 11/4/2000
I.
At the end of the second day, they had still found no survivors. Nothing remained of the city of Pak Du except stone rubble and charred wood, scorched earth and blackened bodies. It was the same as it had been in the village they had first found when entering the realm. The destruction was complete.
Picking his way through the debris, even Jeremy Bane was numb with disbelief. He thought he had seen a lot of horror in decades of the Midnight War, but it had always been on a smaller, personal level. This was hard to deal with. The Dire Wolf had the visor of his helmet up, revealing his narrow face and the grey eyes were distant. What could have done this? Technology of an Industrial Age level would not function in this realm by the will of Jordyn, or else Bane might have suspected someone had detonated a nuclear device here. Yet it had been less than a week ago that a messenger from Pak Du had come to him asking for help.
As he stood over a pile of broken masonry from which a single black wooden beam stood up at an angle, Bane's horror began to give way to anger. Thousands dead. Not a single survivor. And whatever had done this was still out there somewhere, perhaps ready to strike again somewhere else. He straightened up, unaware his fists were clenched, and turned to his two teammates.
Almost within arm's reach, Josef Jubilec was wearing a field suit identical to Bane's, but without the helmet. In one hand, he held a longbow he had fashioned himself and one his back was a Y-shaped leather quiver holding twenty arrows. The Blind Archer had a lined, weary face that made him look older than he was, since he was still under thirty. Across his eyes was tied a black silk band that acted as a blindfold, and he slowly turned his head in all directions as if peering through the material. Bane knew the Blind Archers enhanced their perception by cutting off normal vision, enabling them to zero in on an enemy's lifeforce. This why their arrows seldom missed.
"Anything?" Bane asked.
Josef took a second to answer. "No, captain. No people. Not even small animals or birds. All I'm sensing are the three of us." He untied the silk band and rubbed his dark blue eyes. The sandy hair was damp with sweat from standing in the smoldering rubble. "I can't imagine what did this."
Sable picked her way through the debris toward them. She held her war helmet in the crook of one arm, and she had her free arm raised for balance. Lauren Sable Reilly was not more than twenty-two, of medium height and slim. Her glossy black hair was tied back and her dark eyes moved restlessly over everything. With an effort, she straightened up and took a deep breath. "Captain.. no survivors. Not one. The same as the village."
"Any clues?"
"The heat was intense. Some of the stone has been melted. That blob of metal over there was a bronze statue. This could not have been natural fires started by invaders. Maybe thermite or incendiary bombs, but I thought modern weapons won't work here." She wiped her forehead with the back of a gloved hand. "Sorry I can't be of more help."
Bane faced his partners grimly. "Back to the CORBY. There's nothing we can do here. Our duty now is to find what did this and prevent it from happening again." He started striding through the debris toward an open paved road with a surface pitted by heat. Just within sight sat the black stealthcopter CORBY.
As they walked over toward the craft, Sable mumbled, "All these poor people... Captain, who were they? Where did they come from?"
"This realm was inhabited by a branch of the Chujirans," he said quietly. "Toward the end of the Darthan Age, Pak Du broke away from Chujir, something about feuding royal families. They were given this realm for themselves. Pak Du was a relatively small realm, only a hundred miles or so to each side but enough for a city and some farms and villages. All gone now." He opened the hatch to the CORBY manually, since its power source was inoperative here, and climbed into the pilot's seat.
Sable went around and took the co-pilot chair, while Josef climbed into the rear compartment just behind the cabin and dropped down on the bench. He lowered his head and pulled a bottle of water from its strap beside the bench to sip it slowly. He had thought he was tough emotionally, but spending two days in a burned-out city had shaken him.
Once the hatches were closed, Bane reached up and pressed his palm to a pale blue gem set just above the front windscreen. "Give me a hand here, Sable," he said, and she placed her own fingers to the Eldar travel crystal. Blue light flared up to envelop them in a silent haze, and they were gone from Pak Du.
As the blue radiance faded, the CORBY sat on its place in the hangar of the tenth floor of the KDF building on 38th Street. Bane hopped out, pulled up restraining chocks behind the landing gear and made sure the copter was secured. As his teammates climbed down to stand near him, the Dire Wolf tugged off his helmet and turned wearily toward them. "I'll tell the team we're back. You two take a break. Shower and rest for a few hours. There will be a meeting later today to discuss our next move."
"Thanks, captain," said Sable numbly as she headed for the door. Josef paused a second, unstringing his bow and shrugging out of his quiver harness. He placed his equipment in his locker and then left also with a nod to his leader.
Left alone, Bane tugged off his gloves, placed them and his helmet on a counter and went over to the corner where a small table and a few chairs sat beside a waist-high refrigerator. He took out a bottle of cold water and began to drink it slowly. Taking the Link from his belt, he set it to PA and said, "Attention, everyone. We're back, all safe. I want you to assemble in the conference room for a briefing, I'll be there in fifteen minutes." Clicking off, he returned the Link to its holding plate and left the hangar, going down the steps to the ninth floor which was a high as the elevator reached.
Bane rode down to the third floor, entered his private quarters and stripped off the field suit. He used the toilet, took a hot shower that he turned cold at the end and shaved over the sink. Feeling a bit back to normal, the Dire Wolf rinsed out the flexible Trom armor and left it to dry over a rack. In his room, he towelled dry and put on a fresh suit of the black slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket which was his trademark. Before showering, he had unstrapped the two silver daggers which were worn on his forearms and now he replaced them under his sleeves, hilts out for a quick draw. Brushing his still damp hair with his fingers, the Dire Wolf walked into the hall and down the stairs to the second floor where the conference room was.
He felt tired, something so rare for him with his enhanced metabolism that he almost didn't recognize it at first. The experience in Pak Du troubled him more than he would have expected. Bane went through the door of the conference and saw four familiar faces watching him from around the long oak table. Unicorn. Argent. Trom Girl. Black Lion. All so young, they looked liked kids to him.
"All right," he said without preamble. "Nothing but bad news. Pak Du is a ghost realm now. Everyone there has been killed, an estimated seven thousand in the city and maybe another two thousand in the villages. I don't know how it was done. Everything has been burned to the ground. Five days ago, a messenger from Pak Du told us that its baron Cha-Mi wanted to meet with me because he felt his realm was under some threat, that's all we know." He glanced up at the clock over the video monitor. "The away team needs rest. I'll call a full council in four hours, say six o'clock tonight. Until then, I want everyone standing by and available. That's all for now."
Without taking questions, he simply turned and left the room, hurried up the stairs to the third floor again and locked himself in his quarters. Kicking off his boots and dropping his jacket over a chair, Bane stretched out on his double bed and was sound asleep within seconds. He had nightmares for the first time he could remember.
II.
At a quarter to six, Unicorn was already in the conference room, strolling back and forth with her hands clasped behind her back. Just turned twenty, Ashley Whitaker was less than a inch over five feet tall, a curvy platinum blonde full of life, with shiny blue eyes and perfect features. Today, she was dressed all in white... boots, snug jeans, a long-sleeved pullover with a V-neck collar. Propped up in one corner in its leather sheath was the three foot Unicorn horn that gave her both her abilities and her name. With the horn, she could remove gralic force from people and objects, rendering even the greatest warlocks powerless and breaking up the most baleful spells.
Ashley had dug out the huge volume FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE, compiled by Kenneth Dred himself over sixty years and had dug through it for information about Pak Du. Not much there. She found the whole thing hard to wrap her mind around at the moment. She had never been there, never known anyone from there, and Bane's blunt announcement of its destruction didn't seem quite real to her. It was like seeing a glimpse of earthquake or flood on TV news and not catching where it had happened.
Trom Girl appeared in the doorway, wearing as usual a dark jumpsuit with oil stains and scuff marks all over it, and she was wiping her hands on a rag. She annoyed Ashley sometimes because Megan was basically cute, with a tousled head of black hair and large dark eyes in an inquisitive face.. but she did nothing to work with it. Evidently, the Trom who had raised her as a Human orphan might be scientific geniuses but had never heard of even basic make-up. Now, she went to the sink in the corner and started to scrub her hands and face with liquid soap and steaming water.
"Building a submarine?" Ashley asked innocently.
"No. Maintenance on the CORBY," said Megan with complete seriousness. "I could use an assistant."
"Don't look at me. I have trouble putting batteries in the remote control. Hey, Megan, you want to go shopping for clothes? You've been wearing the same four outfits since you signed up."
The Trom Girl dried her face and regarded Unicorn thoughtfully. "Yes. That is a good idea. You know about these things."
"Great, do you know what a thong is...?"
She was interrupted as the rest of the team began to come into the conference room, all in casual civilian clothing. Sable and Josef, then Sheng Mo Yuan, known as Argent. Finally Levon Bingham appeared. They stood around about uncertainly.
"Three minutes after six," Argent announced finally. "When has our fearless leader ever been late before? Pak Du must have shaken him up more than I would have thought. He's getting old."
"You weren't there," snapped Sable. "You don't know. Everyone, might as well take our usual places at the table. Josef and I will fill you in one what we saw."
The team settled into their chairs on either side of the table. One at the top right was where Sable normally sat, but now she stood at the head behind the empty chairman's seat and leaned forward to rest her weight on stiff arms. Quickly, she recounted the events of the past few days. The emissary from Pak Du with his plea for help, Bane's having to wait until an ongoing case was resolved before entering that realm with herself and Josef. What they found there, no one left alive, not even the smallest cabin left unburned to the ground. Two days of searching and finding not a single survivor.
As she listened, Ashley started to feel queasy. Sable made it all so vivid the way she described things. The blonde Unicorn gulped and look at her teammates. They were all listening with complete absorption. Even in her distress, she noticed Levon's eyes were continuing to change color. It was odd to see a black man, especially one so dark, with bright green eyes and she wondered if he was going to physically change in other ways. She swung back to watch Sable finish up.
"So, we returned here. As you can imagine, we were stressed out and both Josef and I really needed some sleep. Now, I think we'll be okay but I can say that I for one will never go back there. As for our captain..."
"I'm here," said Bane from the doorway. "I heard most of your briefing. Very good, Sable, you gave the needed information without going too deeply." He walked over and she automatically took her place at his right while he dropped down into the chairman's seat. "So now everyone is up to speed on this situation."
The Dire Wolf placed his hands palm down on the table and seemed to be studying them. "I've been thinking over what might have caused all that destruction. Nuclear weapons or even conventional bombing is out. Modern tech won't work there. As far as Midnight War causes, all I came up with as an explanation would be a group of Dragons."
"Dragons...?" repeated Sheng. "We are supposed to have a few surviving back home in Chujir. But none of them shoot flame. I thought that was a myth."
"No such luck. There are at least two breeds that can emit dragonflame, hot enough to melt steel. A Dragon of the Garmiri breed is formidable certainly, but not even one of them could lay waste to an entire realm. That's why I suspect a group of them... a swarm of Dragons." Bane leaned back and surveyed his team grimly.
"Who could accomplish such a thing?" demanded Sheng. Coming from Chujir himself, with his tawny skin and coarse black hair, he looked like a Han Chinese. But the eagle-beaked nose and higher cheekbones made that identification uncertain. "I didn't think any warlock could command even a single Dragon."
"It's been done," Bane told him. "Arem Kamende had one under his control years ago. So did Wu Lung at one point. But assembling a swarm of those brutes and keeping them under control... I can't think of any of our enemies capable of such a thing."
"Maybe someone new," said Sable. "The next logical question would be, why was Pak Du decimated? Who would gain from it?"
"Again, no one comes to mind," Bane answered. "Wu Lung hated the people of that realm, he regarded them as renegades who didn't deserve their own realm. But he was destroyed over a decade ago... or maybe not. It's hard to explain but the Wu Lung we fought in 1987 was an ancient spirit inhabiting the body of a modern Chinese man. Nebel expelled that spirit but he never would guarantee that it might not return eventually."
Sheng Mo-Yuan shook his head softly. "It is said that Wu Lung was tyrant of Chujir at the close of the Darthan Age. They say that when Jordyn placed Chujir in its own realm, Wu Lung went with it but he swore to return to conquer the world of Men and place it all under his rule."
"All these vague indicators point toward Chujir," Sable put in.
Ashley Whitaker jumped to her feet and slapped the table. "What are we waiting for? Next stop, Chujir!"
"Sit down, Unicorn," said Bane calmly. "But yes, what little we have to go on indicates Chujir and Wu Lung. We may be way off course with this and heading the wrong way, but if anyone has any other ideas, the floor is open. I want everyone in full field suits. We will be leaving in one hour."
III.
With a swirl of blue light that cast new shadows in the gloom, the CORBY appeared five hundred feet above the forests of Chujir. Its rotors spun almost silently, the Trom-designed craft could not be heard from the ground in normal operation. With its solid black shark-shaped body and no identifying numbers or visible lights, the CORBY was an ominous presence in the night sky.
Behind the control sticks, Megan Salenger kept the craft dead steady. She gazed down through the windscreen which was set to light-amplifying and seemed satisfied. "Arrival complete, captain," she announced. "We are at the coordinates you provided." Trom Girl was wearing a dark field suit, but one with even more pouches and pockets. Her helmet had a cable attached at its back that tied into the ship's systems. "Awaiting instructions."
"Hold steady for the moment," Bane told her. He shifted in the co-pilot seat to study the landscape below. "That road leads to the village where Ming teaches. Sheng, everything look okay to you?"
Argent leaned forward from the rear compartment to peer past Bane at the windscreen. "Yes. Nothing seems to have changed. That white post there is the Imperial marker where messengers meet. Sifu Tang's cottage is a few miles up that road." He sighed. "I have not been here in months, it feels strange to come back."
Still sitting on the bench in the rear compartment, Unicorn folded the empty wrapper of a granola bar and tucked it in her field jacket pocket. "Looks like northern California to me. Same kind of trees." She stretched past Sheng to get a better look. The rest of the team had remained on standby at the headquarters back in the world. Ashley now was wearing as black field suit, as was Sheng, and her talisman was fastened to straps on the bulkhead beside her.
In the co-pilot seat, the Dire Wolf leaned back. "Okay, Megan, select a good spot to secure the CORBY while we explore."
"Already decided," she answered, edging the stealthcopter forward and making a gentle landing in a clearing, then taxiing in under two large trees tall enough that the rotors did not touch them. She rolled a bit closer as the blades slowed to a stop, then began to power down. "All systems nominal," she announced as the pastel yellow and blue lights blinked out on the consoles all around her.
"Let's get out, team," Bane said, popping his hatch and leaping out into a brisk autumn night. The air was crisp and dry, there was no moon but the stars were brilliant in a sky which had no city lights to compete with. He turned to take in the scene, then went to the rear storage compartment and dragged out a folded tarp with camoflauge patterns. With Sheng's help, Bane drove some pegs into the ground, covered the CORBY with the tarp and fastened everything in place. Breaking off some branches and loose dry leaves helped concealed the craft better. Megan locked the tarp to itself. The tough material would be difficult to cut through even if anyone did stumble upon the copter.
Standing off to one side, Ashley buckled the sheath holding the real Unicorn horn across her back, the strap crossing down diagonally between her breasts. The talisman had been given to her by her mother, the original Unicorn. Ashley herself had no superhuman abilities as the others did. It was the horn that qualified her to be a peer with them, so naturally she was very protective of it.
She was standing ten feet away from where the others were finishing up with the CORBY, holding her helmet in one hand and looking up at the mountains in the distance. Unicorn turned her head slightly and saw someone standing silently right behind her. She let out a yelp and jumped aside, almost falling.
The others reacted instantly, both Megan and Bane drawing their weapons while Sheng moved forward with fists raised. Then the Dire Wolf lowered his dartgun and said reassuringly, "Whoa, stand down everyone. It's okay. This is Tang Ming."
The tiny Chinese woman inclined her head in a polite bow. "Jeremy, good to see you again. As always, you come when you are needed most."
"Don't ever DO that!" screamed Ashley Whitaker at her. "Give me a freaking heart attack, why don't you?"
"I am sorry," Ming told her. "I am stealthy by nature and I fear all my training has made me difficult to detect when I approach." The former KDF member smiled and hold out her open hands, palm up apologetically. "Please forgive me."
"I suppose," Ashley muttered as she watched the Chinese woman. Tang Ming was about the same size and build as Unicorn herself, five feet tall and one hundred pounds, with short shiny black hair. In the dim light, all that could be seen was a face with delicate features and huge dark eyes. She was wearing a Tel Shai uniform, black slippers and baggy trousers and long-sleeved jacket of blue cotton. In another second, Unicorn got over her scare and grinned. "So you're Tang Ming, eh?"
"The same," Ming answered, turning her attention as Bane strode up. "Captain! How did you know your help is desperately needed?"
"We were following some clues," the Dire Wolf told her. "Ming, you've just met Ashley Whitaker, the new Unicorn. You knew her mother. Your student Sheng is with me, and this is Megan Salenger, Trom Girl, a Human raised by the Trom."
"The members of the new Kenneth Dred Foundation," said Tang Ming. "Congratulations! The realms need heroes like you. Chujir in particular."
"Have you heard what happened in Pak Du?" asked Bane.
"No. What happened?"
"Something bad. We need to discuss it, and you need to tell us how Chujir is in trouble," Bane told her.
"Let us talk as we proceed," Tang Ming said. "It is a mile or more to my school, and we can fill each other in as we go."
They set out along the simple dirt road, with ruts dug deep by ages of horse-drawn carts. Ming listened in grave silence as she heard about the destruction of Pak Du and the loss of life. "Out of nowhere," she said. "All those people dead in so short a time. It's like wars in the real world, where bombers flatten cities, but the adjacent realms never see such destruction. Until now, I suppose."
"My guess is that some warlock has somehow managed to corral a group of Dragons, Garmiri most likely, and used them as weapons. I can't think of anything else that could cause such carnage," Bane told her. "But I also don't know any sorcerer who could control more than one Dragon at a time."
"Perhaps a waking Sulla Chun could have destroyed Pak Du?" Ming wondered. "But no, the baleful effects would still be there and you and your team could not have survived there more than a few minutes. I believe you were right to come here, captain. Chujir is threatened by an impending clash between two warlords. One is Wu Lung, who we have fought before."
"Oh yes," Bane growled, still walking beside her as the other teammates followed and listened. "He's hard to get rid of permanently. His spirit eventually entered a willing host here in Chujir, then?"
"Yes. A fang shih warlock named Kwin Yu suddenly became much more learned and skilled. He began gathering followers and soon usurped control of a town to the north. Since then, he seems to be building an army for some reason and the Imperial forces have not moved against him yet." Ming made an exasperated noise. "Chujir is a large realm, about the size of your Texas, and our Imperial City is several hundred miles away. Perhaps the Emperor has not fully learned of the threat yet."
"Sounds like Wu Lung, all right," Bane snapped. "Up to his same tricks. When we catch him, I have an idea how to make him harmless. And who is the rival warlord you mentioned?"
"The Manchurian."
Bane actually stopped in his tracks. Ming paused and stared up at him in the starlight. "The Manchurian?" he repeated. "He fell through a gate into Maroch. Everyone assumed he was dead."
"Evidently not. The descriptions match what I have read of him in the KDF files. He has established himself in the mountains, taking over a Ko-Wan monastery. The Manchurian has not been raising an army as Wu Lung has, but strange sights have been reported in his vicinity and villagers nearby have been driven mad by nightmares until they have moved miles away."
"Whew." The Dire Wolf started walking again. "This is bigger than I expected. It must have something to do with the destruction of Pak Du, it's too much for coincidence. Megan! Argent! I want you two both to go back to the CORBY and return to our headquarters. Bring the rest of the team here and meet us at Ming's school. Sable, Josef, and Levon in full field suits and combat ready."
"Understood, captain," Trom Girl said and took off at a run back down the road with Argent right beside her. Bane turned back to Tang Ming, "You could have come to the world to meet with me about this, Ming."
"I was about to go soon. I put it off until something more definite happened. Chujir has had many battles between warlords. It's just these two are warlocks and I fear they will unleash forces they can't control." She sighed. "And I came here to escape the Midnight War."
IV.
After dropping off Sable's team near where Wu Lung was reportedly headquartered, Bane swung the CORBY around and sped back toward Ming's school. He did not know why technology worked in Chujir but not in many other adjacent realms. That was a decision of Jordyn, the Halar who was Regent of the world, and Jordyn never explained. The Dire Wolf wasn't sure he even believed in Jordyn as a being, maybe the name just had been attached to natural forces working on the cosmic level. In any case, having the copter was a huge advantage in this situation. He reduced speed and lowered the landing gear, coming to a soft landing in the field behind the simple wooden building where Tang Ming taught Fu Jow and Fang Lung. Her own cottage was a tiny one-room structure right behind the school. His four team-mates were waiting outside.
Although the current KDF members were wearing the black field suits with all the built-in weapons and gadgets, they had not brought one for Tang Ming. Hers had been put in storage years ago and no one had thought to dig it out before leaving for Chujir. It was just as well. Ming's powers of perception and timing were innate and she claimed that the armored field suit threw her delicate balance off. Instead, she was still wearing the Tel Shai uniform of blue cotton trousers and long-sleeved jacket. Bane knew that under that jacket, the Dragon of Midnght pendant hung on an ensalir chain around her neck.
As soon as the wheels touched down and the rotors slowed, the Dire Wolf triggered the hatches on the passenger side and for the rear compartment. Air hissed as the pressurized cabin opened. Tang Ming sprang lightly up into the co-pilot's seat as if she had never been gone. Ashley and Levon climbed into the back and claimed spots on the bench, strapping themselves in with restraint belts. Bane asked, "Everyone secured?", got affirmative answers and brought the CORBY off the ground again. He turned its nose to the north, where blue mountains rose in the distance, and rose up to two thousand feet for lower visibility from the ground.
As they sped along at low cruising speed of three hundred miles per hour, Bane asked, "Something troubling you, Ming?"
"Pak Du. I can't help thinking about those people. And I am worried the same destruction might be headed here. Chujir has been my home years now. It must not be blotted out as Pak Du was." She held her hands folded loosely in front of her, gazing down at them. "It is not how I wished for us to meet again, Jeremy. I wanted to visit your new team in Manhattan, to chat over supper in some restaurant, to stay up late reminiscing."
"Never that easy for us," the Dire Wolf said.
"No. The ancient winds of trouble call our names." She straightened up. "But we would not have it any other way. There, look. Half way up the mountain. The Ko-Wan monastery." Through the light-amplifiers in the windscreen, the night outside was clearly visible and they saw a cluster of long low stone buildings set on a huge ledge on the mountainside. There was a courtyard behind each building, some cultivated areas set on terraces, and a larger than life bronze statue of a scholar in long robes standing with face raised to the sky.
"These guys are like Shaolin back in China?" asked Bane.
"Oh, no. They are not warriors at all," Ming answered. "They pray and meditate. The monks grow their own food and make their own clothes and are seldom seen by other Chujirans." She pointed to the largest courtyard, which had been covered over by cloth sheets sewn together. "Something dangerous is concealed there, captain. I can perceive it. Alive, powerful, malicious..."
In the rear compartment, Levon touched the ancient talon which hung on an ensalir chain around his neck. The great Cat's-Claw felt hot to the touch. "You are right," he declared suddenly. Levon had been silent so long that everyone gave a start when he spoke. "Wakimbe's Claw warns me. We approach something ancient and hateful." The young black hair clapped his hands together softly and lowered his head.
Below, dark figures in loose ground-length robes began to appear in doorways, staring up at the strange silent shape that circled in the night sky. Bane selected a courtyard and touched down. "Unicorn, take the stick for the moment. If I call you on your helmet, be ready to lift off and come get us."
"Got it," the little blonde said. As Bane and Ming exited the cabin, she squeezed through the space between the seats and plopped down in the pilot position. Ashley took the command cable and screwed it into the access port in the back of her helmet so she could receive data from the copter directly on the inside of the visor. "I'll be standing by, captain."
With Levon joining them, Bane and Ming stepped away from the CORBY and started striding toward the wide stone steps to the entrance of the nearest building. Faces were appearing as every window had its shutters pushed outward from within. The architecture had a vague Asian styling to it, with lacquered tiles on the roofs and wooden porches encircling the stone buildings. Oiled paper lanterns hung on hooks at intervals.
Abruptly, Tang Ming whipped her arms up to face level. She was holding an arrow in each hand, stopped inches before they would have struck her. The tiny Chinese woman placed both shafts together and snapped them with a sharp cracking noise that rang out in the still air. "They are fools who try such games with me," she called out.
Two of the monks were holding short massive bows, with a container of arrows tied to their waists. As they saw what had happened, they dropped to the knees and pressed their faces to the stone flagging, keeping in that position. Behind them, a small wiry figure in a pale green robe appeared. Seeing him, Bane's hand leaped to the butt of his dartgun holstered at his left hip.
The Manchurian appeared to be very old. His face was wrinkled and his back bent, but he walked confidently without a cane. The sorcerer had a shrivelled face with skin a bright lemon yellow from decades of Alchemical serums keeping his vital, and jet eyes barely visible in their swollen folds. His gnarled fingers had long curved nails. Strangest of all his ears rose to distinct blunt points.
"Lo," he said in a sibilant hissing voice. "Knights of Tel Shai. Always you come unbidden where you are unwelcome. You are bad guests and my hospitality is not extended to you." He gestured sharply with a talon. "Begone!"
"You've got some nerve," Bane answered. "No one invited you to Chujir. You are not native to this realm. When the Manchu dynasty was overthrown, you escaped with your life. And for more than a hundred years, you have caused nothing but grief and tragedy. That comes to an end now."
The Manchurian chuckled almost inaudibly. "The blithe confidence of a child. You have much to learn about life and history. I advise you, leave now while you still may take your life with you."
The Dire Wolf folded his arms in front of his body. To anyone who knew him, this was an ominous sign as he placed his hands near the hilts of the silver daggers. "We have been to Pak Du."
"It's an improvement," leered the ancient warlock. "Cleansed, you might say. As the Old Ones prefer it for their return. Those Who Remember understand this. But you have not mentioned Gamulkor. No, I see in your foolish faces you do not know about Gamulkor."
Bane stiffened, his eyes narrowed. "Gamulkor. Realm of the Dwarfs."
"Or so it was," the Manchurian laughed. His shrivelled face contorted with a malicious smile. The bright yellow skin shone in torchlight. "But Gamulkor has gone where the snows of last winter go. The Dwarfs sleep with their ancestor."
Tang Ming was stand just behind and to the side of Bane, and now she took a step forward. "All those people...."
"Ah, it awaits us all, child. How many empires have fallen into dust? How many great nations are not even memories any more?" The Manchurian raised a hand with forefinger extended and burly guards in dark uniforms began to assemble behind him, stepping from doorways and between buildings. "But enough. As the new Abbot of this monastery, I order you off its grounds. Go home. Enjoy what time is left to you."
Standing well behind his teammates, Levon Bingham winced as the Cat's-Claw on his chest suddenly flared up with a heat that stung his skin. Something dangerous was very near. He resisted the desire to call upon the Black Lion, to shape shift, to become his god. Next to him, Unicorn watched the look on his face change. "Hey, Lev, you okay?"
"We are in great danger," he whispered. Levon raised his head and the bright green eyes stood out vividly against the dark face. "Get ready, Ashley."
Hearing the urgency in his voice, the little blonde frowned. Unbuckling the leather strap across her chest, she brought the sheathed Alicorn around in front of her and cupped her hand on the silver cap on its based. Immediately, she felt better. With the Horn, she felt capable of dealing with everything. Ashley glanced over at the tense Levon, they nodded to each other.
Bane had not moved. "Manchurian, I am placing you under arrest on my authority as a knight of Tel Shai. You're coming with us to answer lots of questions. Don't think your bruisers behind me will even slow us down."
Tang Ming's enchanced perceptions jolted her into new awareness. Cold fear hit her in the chest, made her catch her breath and draw herself stiffly upright. Behind the monastery building where they stood... immense hatred and force was stirring. She stared at that building as if trying to see through it.
"Foolish boy," the Manchurian hissed, "you have not met my friend. Yfel?"
Every person in that courtyard froze motionless as a great dark shape rose silently behind the monastery and peered hatefully down at them. Yfel stood taller than the two-story building, a vast bulk of leathery hide that shimmered in the starlight. The manlike body had a thick tail that stood out behind it and swung angrily from side to side. The long serpentine neck ended in a horselike head bigger than a man's body, crested with horns and adorned with two fleshy mustaches that drooped down on either side of the wide fanged mouth. Batlike wings were folded flat across the broad back.
Huge amber eyes shone hotly down at the figures far below it. When the Dragon spoke, its voice was deep but intelligible. "You have come far only to die."
Bane said in a low voice, "Ming, get the CORBY." Instantly, the Chinese knight spun and raced back across the courtyard. No one noticed. Everyone was paralyzed at the sight of the giant beast that stared down at them. The Dragon snorted and hot foul breath rushed over the Humans beneath him.
With a completely steady voice, the Dire Wolf called up, "So I guess we know now what destroyed Pak Du and Gamulkor. You? As Dragons go, you're good-sized."
"I am Yfel, Father of all Dragons, old as the mountains. I am the Destroyer of Worlds."
"So I gather," Bane said. "And you're taking orders from the Manchurian here?"
"NO! I serve no one! Do not summon your death sooner than it need be, little one." Yfel stretched his neck out to lower his head down to where Bane could see every detail, from the many old healed scars to the ridges that ran down the muzzle.
"Look to me like he thinks he's in charge. As if you're his pet." Bane shrugged. "But if you don't mind...."
"What?" screamed the Manchurian. "Yfel, don't listen to him. Can't you see what he's trying to do? Stay back. You stupid lizard, I said stay back!"
"You have said TOO MUCH," rumbled the Dragon. He drew in a breath and launched a white-hot stream of gralic force from his mouth that hissed down fast as lightning. The Manchurian only screamed for a second as he disappeared in that fireball, along with four of his guards who were standing too close. The stench of burnt meat was sickening.
As soon as he saw what the Dragon was about to do, Jeremy Bane whirled and grabbed both Unicorn and Levon around the waist, dragging them off their feet as he leaped far back from the scene. A surge of heat swept over their backs, but the tough material of the field suits mostly protected them. All three of them hit the stone flagging hard, but they each rolled and were up again instantly. Ashley had kept her grip on the Alicorn the whole time.
"I always heard Dragons were suckers to manipulate," Bane muttered as he got back up and saw the array of blackened charred corpses still smoldering near the monastery door. The CORBY came down without a whisper almost at arm's length. Strangely, the rotors hardly made a noise and were rotating too slowly for a normal helicopter to stay airborne with.
"Jump in, quick now!" yelled the Dire Wolf, he himself hopping up into the co-pilot seat. In a second, the hatches were sealed and Tang Ming pulled back on the control stick. The CORBY rose straight up rapidly. "Just above his head level," Bane directed her.
Yfel cracked his wings open with a sound like thunder. Their ribbed batlike expanse spread out to cover the courtyard. Hysterical monks and guards raced away in all directions, stumbling and falling and rising again in their panic. The ancient Dragon leered down at them, wisps of smoke escaping from a corner of his jaws. Yet he held his flame and turned his attention to the strange metal bird that hung motionless in the air, almost within reach. The inside of his mouth shone white, getting brighter...
Inside the CORBY, Bane looked over his shoulder at his two teammates in the compartment behind him. "Levon, get the hatch open and hold it. Ashley, this is your time." The Black Lion immediately threw the lever on the inside door and slid the hatch open. Kneeling in the opening, watching the Dragon's staring eyes not fifty feet away, Unicorn slid the horn from its sheath and held it out in both hands. With the loudest, most ringing voice she could summon, she cried out, "With this horn I remove thy power!"
The results were comic as the great beast threw its horned head down and sneezed violently. No flame came out. The huge wings lowered and folded shut again. With a look of unspeakable hatred, Yfel roared with a sound louder than thunder and reached out for the helicopter but Tang Ming had already swerved the craft away.
"Good work, you guys," Bane told them. "Levon, you can close the hatch. Unicorn!How long until he gets his gralic charge back?"
"Beats me. Something that big... I'd guess a couple of hours?" The little blonde returned the horn to its leather sheath and got back up on the bench. "I never hit on something that big before. He doesn't look real, I can't take it in that something could be sixty feet tall."
"He's quite a sight," Bane agreed. "Okay, Ming, I want you to swing around him just out of reach. I'm going to tease him with the guns."
Yfel glared at the black copter as it came around toward him. His wings were useless without their gralic charge that enabled him to fly and his flame had been damped. The ancient beast had never been so enraged in his millenia of life. With the back of one paw, he smash over the highest building of the monastery, sending it to ruin in a shower of bricks and wood. "Come closer!" he bellowed, "Yes! Come closer!"
Panels on the two stubby vanes midway back on the CORBY fuselage slid open and the chain guns clicked into place. Bane watched through the targeting concentric circles which appeared on his inside visor and thumbed the firing button. One hundred 40mm shells tore through the night air and slammed home all over the Dragon within a few seconds. The huge brute staggered, raising his arms to protect his face, then straightened and roared defiance. The shells could not penetrate that thick hide unless they happened to hit a particularly vulnerable spot but they certainly hurt.
Ming pulled back away from the beast, who was trying to grab the helicopter. "I don't think we can kill him with the chain guns, captain."
"I'm not trying to finish him off," Bane answered. "Just getting his attention. He loosed another two-second burst, sending the shells crashing all over the Dragon. Yfel surged over the courtyard, still trying to seize the tiny craft which was hurting him. "That should do it. He's a little ticked off now. Ming, head toward where we dropped the other team off. Go slow enough that this monster thinks he's going to able to grab us."
"To the other team..?" repeated Ming, as she swung the CORBY around. "Captain, are you planning to do what I think you are?"
"I knew it!" squealed Unicorn in delight. "When does Jeremy NOT have a plan?"
IV.
On a ledge barely wide enough to hold the four of them, Sable watched her team make themselves as comfortable as they could. Before leaving the CORBY, she had taken the time to unpack some additional equipment that seemed like it might be useful. This included four coils of silk cord, seventy feet long, with a loop on one end and a hard plastic hook on the other. If not for the tough gloves of their field suits, none of them would have been able to climb on those cords without cutting their hands to be bone but they had made their way up the back face of the mountain quickly enough.
It was in situations like this that Sable's perception proved invaluable. At first, it seemed to some of the team that being able to enhance vision or hearing or smell would be useful in combat situations and they questioned why Bane had quickly made her team leader in his absence. But tonight, she had led them through the gloom as if it were bright sunlight, she had spotted every loose stone that might have rolled underfoot, she had picked the best route to the top. Before they could possibly have been seen, Sable heard the breathing of a sentry behind a boulder and sent Josef to dispatch the man with a blunt-headed arrow. It had taken hours, but now they were perched on a ledge overlooking the camp of Wu Lung's army.
While Sable relied on her enhanced perception and Josef on his Blind Archer senses, both Argent and Trom Girl were wearing the field helmets. The light amplifiers in the visors were not as good as Sable's perception, but they could still see hundreds of peaked white tents set out in rows, corrals of short hairy-legged horses, campfires where men stood roasting meat. Hundreds of feet below them, sentries marched in pairs on their rounds.
At the near end of the camp, against the base of the mountain itself stood a tent much larger and more ornate than the others. It was bright red with silver trim, and a triangular pennant flew from its center post. This was a yellow dragon on a black field, symbol of Wu Lung.. the Dragon of War. Two guards stood before this command post with spears in hand, and a messenger slept on a blanket in case he would be needed.
Sable studied the scene in silence. After a long ten minutes, Argent asked, "What, no plan to attack yet?"
"Sheng," she said quietly, "Jeremy puts up with your insolence because he thinks you'll outgrow it. but I don't have his patience. If you have nothing useful to say, keep quiet."
He immediately changed his tone. "Sorry, Sable. I certainly don't see any way to get at Wu Lung, either. He must have a thousand warriors around him."
"I estimate four thousand, eight hundred and thirty, with a margin of error because a few of those tents appear to be empty," Megan said. "Sable, I could fly down there and snatch Wu Lung to carry him here if he shows himself."
"It's tempting," their team leader reflected. "But no. Wu Lung is a powerful warlock, his gralic bolts could kill you even through your protective suit. And he is a Kumundu master. We must draw him out or create a distraction to get most of these troops away. Josef, could you nail Wu Lung if he shows?"
"Not from here," the Blind Archer answered. "Beyond even my range."
Sable kneeled by the edge of the stone shelf and gazed down with eyes that saw through the darkness and distance with perfect clarity. "We only have an hour before dawn. Perhaps a landslide. Josef, you have explosive warheads for a few arrows. Let me study the geology of this cliff. I think I see a few places where a detonation might send several tons of rock down on our enemy...."
Megan suddenly sat up and adjusted the right ear pod. "Sable, put your helmet on. Jeremy is calling us."
Unfastening the helmet from where it was fastened to the back of her collar, Sable lowered it over her head. Instantly, the visor interior lit up with faint displays. She turned her right ear pod two clicks and the hard voice of the Dire Wolf came through, "Sable, are you reading me? Reply. This is urgent."
"I hear you, captain," she said into the microphone built into the mandible of the helmet. "Proceed."
"We're on our way with a big surprise. How close are you to Wu Lung?"
"About two hundred and eighty feet above him. We're sitting on a ledge on the mountain overlooking his camp," she said. "What kind of a surprise?"
Bane's voice had no humour in it, but he said, "A big one. I think you should stay put for the moment and watch the fireworks. ETA twelve minutes." With a click, he broke the connection.
Sable explained the conversation to Josef, who had not had his helmet on. "I would love to know what he's up to," she said. "But we only have a few minutes to wait."
Faint streaks of light were beginning to show in the eastern sky. The team huddled on the ledge and watched the camp below as two riders galloped up on their short-legged horses and were admitted to Wu Lung's tent. A second later, the tent turned yellow as a lamp was lit within. Sable wondered what message the riders were bringing that compelled them to dare wake the warlock at such an hour.
She glanced up as a black sharklike shape came hurtling through the night sky. The CORBY rushed low over the camp at just under the speed of sound. Its violent backwash lifted many tents off their moorings and knocked men off their feet. Instantly, the camp was an uproar of shouting and cursing as the Chujir warriors came rushing out. The CORBY swung around to hover at fifty feet.
Then Yfel stomped into sight.
VI.
Some of the damping effect of the Unicorn horn had begun to wear off. The immense wings had spread and were beating, but not strongly enough to lift the Dragon off the ground. Inside the wide jaws, white light had begun to flicker as his flame returned. Although he had run for hours in pursuit of the black copter, Yfel was not weary in the least. He loomed up over Wu Lung's camp and roared, waking what few of the warriors who had remained asleep.
The CORBY shot straight up and was lost from sight. Yfel growled deep in his leathery chest as it vanished, then he noticed dozens of arrows were glancing off him. The Dragon glared down at the camp as the Chujirans drew and loosed shaft after shaft, to his amusement. By chance, one arrow lodged on the inside of a nostril, where the flesh was tender and he felt its sting. A blinding blast of white-hot force erupted from his mouth to set most of the tents ablaze, and sending men rolling on the ground in agony as they burned to death. Still the puny little Humans attacked, throwing spears and even racing toward his feet with axes. Yfel began to crush them by the handful, stamping down hard to kill two or three under each broad foot, seizing men by the handfuls and squeezing them into pulp which he flung aside. Their weapons could annoy but not seriously harm him. The Dragon moved through the fiery camp like the Destroyer of Worlds he claimed to be.
Meanwhile, Tang Ming had spotted the other team and brought the CORBY to hover close to the rocky ledge, just keeping the rotors inches from hitting the mountainside. From within, Unicorn opened the hatch and the four members leaped inside, caught by Levon's strong hands. The rear compartment had not been intended to hold six people and it was a tight squeeze that had them pressing up against each other but they were glad to get inside.
"Captain, what IS that thing?" Sable demanded. "I thought I knew the breeds of Dragon."
"New to me, as well. I never heard of anything that big. He calls himself Yfel, Destroyer of Worlds." From the co-pilot seat, Bane told everyone, "The Manchurian is dead. Somehow he managed to make an alliance with this monster, but that fell through. We got the Dragon annoyed enough to follow us. I figured, why not let him do the fighting for us?"
"Sounds good," Argent laughed. "Look at him go. The only question is, what happens when he's done with them?"
Bane watched the carnage below grimly. "I have a few ideas."
Within minutes, the few surviving Chujir warriors had scattered. Yfel waded ankle deep through burning tents and piles of dead men. Of Wu Lung, there had been no sign. As the great beast moved slowly through the destruction, suddenly a burst of machine-gun fire rattled off his hide. Again? He rumbled in his anger and swung around to see the CORBY hovering nearby. Before the Dragon could loose a blast, the helicopter began to rise up again. Yfel flapped his batlike wings, tried again, and leaped clear of the ground. No wings could lift a bulk that enormous by themselves. It was his inborn gralic charge that enabled him to fly, although he did not understand that and it would not have mattered to him in any case.
"This is going to be tricky," Bane said to Tang Ming. "Keep out of reach but not so far that he gives up. Good. That's it."
"Hope he doesn't try to cook us!" Argent yelled. "I don't like the way his mouth is glowing."
"Steady," said the Dire Wolf. "A little higher, Ming. He's faltering a bit. I think he's hitting his limit."
"Three hundred twenty feet," said Tang Ming. "He's definitely slowed to a halt."
"Okay then. Open the rear hatch. Ashley, take him down again!"
As the hatch slid open and Argent held her around the waist for safety, Ashley Whitaker leaned far outside with the Alicorn in her hands and shouted, "With this horn I remove thy power!"
As quickly as that, Yfel tumbled and fell headlong to the ground hundreds of feet below. He hit with a crash that actually did dislodge loose stones on the mountainside and send them rolling to the base. The giant brute rolled over after he struck and then was still.
"Life signs terminated," Trom Girl told everyone as she took readings with the sensors built in her suit. "Brain waves flatline. No respiration. Body temperature starting to drop."
Bane let out a deep breath. "I'm glad that worked. I didn't really have a back-up plan. All right, Ming, you want to land nearby and we'll take a look?"
The Dragon was indeed dead. Megan's examination decided that the beast had broken his neck in the fall, and numerous internal injuries would have finished him off in any case. No one was in sight. Those who had survived the Dragon's attack were miles away by now.
There was no trace of Wu Lung. Evidently he had fled prudently at first sight of Yfel, which meant he would be still at large. His tent had been reduced to ashes, which meant to possible clues of his plans would be found.
"The Destroyer of Worlds," Bane said as he stood by the gigantic hulk. "Well, we can't bring back the people of Pak Du or the Dwarfs of Gamulkor, but at least we avenged them. This guy is not going to be invading any other realms."
"Are we done here?" Unicorn asked in a tiny voice. Dead bodies in all directions was something new to her and she was standing close to Sable as if for support.
"Wu Lung hasn't been accounted for," Bane said. "He might have fled Chujir altogether. Tell you what... Sheng, what do you think about remaining here for a few weeks? Keep an eye out for reports of Wu and alert us to come back if he's spotted."
"I'd like that, captain," said Argent. "Thank you. I have missed my homeland a bit, to be honest."
"It would be good to have my best student back for a while," Tang Ming added. "Perhaps he can help out at the school."
Levon Bingham had been standing by the huge carcass and finally he said, "I wanted to test the Black Lion against this creature. Some adventure. Most of us were just along for the ride. We didn't get to do anything."
"Roll of the dice," Ashley said with a sudden grin. She smacked him playfully across the back. "Once again, the Unicorn saves the day!"
9/30/2014
11/1- 11/4/2000
I.
At the end of the second day, they had still found no survivors. Nothing remained of the city of Pak Du except stone rubble and charred wood, scorched earth and blackened bodies. It was the same as it had been in the village they had first found when entering the realm. The destruction was complete.
Picking his way through the debris, even Jeremy Bane was numb with disbelief. He thought he had seen a lot of horror in decades of the Midnight War, but it had always been on a smaller, personal level. This was hard to deal with. The Dire Wolf had the visor of his helmet up, revealing his narrow face and the grey eyes were distant. What could have done this? Technology of an Industrial Age level would not function in this realm by the will of Jordyn, or else Bane might have suspected someone had detonated a nuclear device here. Yet it had been less than a week ago that a messenger from Pak Du had come to him asking for help.
As he stood over a pile of broken masonry from which a single black wooden beam stood up at an angle, Bane's horror began to give way to anger. Thousands dead. Not a single survivor. And whatever had done this was still out there somewhere, perhaps ready to strike again somewhere else. He straightened up, unaware his fists were clenched, and turned to his two teammates.
Almost within arm's reach, Josef Jubilec was wearing a field suit identical to Bane's, but without the helmet. In one hand, he held a longbow he had fashioned himself and one his back was a Y-shaped leather quiver holding twenty arrows. The Blind Archer had a lined, weary face that made him look older than he was, since he was still under thirty. Across his eyes was tied a black silk band that acted as a blindfold, and he slowly turned his head in all directions as if peering through the material. Bane knew the Blind Archers enhanced their perception by cutting off normal vision, enabling them to zero in on an enemy's lifeforce. This why their arrows seldom missed.
"Anything?" Bane asked.
Josef took a second to answer. "No, captain. No people. Not even small animals or birds. All I'm sensing are the three of us." He untied the silk band and rubbed his dark blue eyes. The sandy hair was damp with sweat from standing in the smoldering rubble. "I can't imagine what did this."
Sable picked her way through the debris toward them. She held her war helmet in the crook of one arm, and she had her free arm raised for balance. Lauren Sable Reilly was not more than twenty-two, of medium height and slim. Her glossy black hair was tied back and her dark eyes moved restlessly over everything. With an effort, she straightened up and took a deep breath. "Captain.. no survivors. Not one. The same as the village."
"Any clues?"
"The heat was intense. Some of the stone has been melted. That blob of metal over there was a bronze statue. This could not have been natural fires started by invaders. Maybe thermite or incendiary bombs, but I thought modern weapons won't work here." She wiped her forehead with the back of a gloved hand. "Sorry I can't be of more help."
Bane faced his partners grimly. "Back to the CORBY. There's nothing we can do here. Our duty now is to find what did this and prevent it from happening again." He started striding through the debris toward an open paved road with a surface pitted by heat. Just within sight sat the black stealthcopter CORBY.
As they walked over toward the craft, Sable mumbled, "All these poor people... Captain, who were they? Where did they come from?"
"This realm was inhabited by a branch of the Chujirans," he said quietly. "Toward the end of the Darthan Age, Pak Du broke away from Chujir, something about feuding royal families. They were given this realm for themselves. Pak Du was a relatively small realm, only a hundred miles or so to each side but enough for a city and some farms and villages. All gone now." He opened the hatch to the CORBY manually, since its power source was inoperative here, and climbed into the pilot's seat.
Sable went around and took the co-pilot chair, while Josef climbed into the rear compartment just behind the cabin and dropped down on the bench. He lowered his head and pulled a bottle of water from its strap beside the bench to sip it slowly. He had thought he was tough emotionally, but spending two days in a burned-out city had shaken him.
Once the hatches were closed, Bane reached up and pressed his palm to a pale blue gem set just above the front windscreen. "Give me a hand here, Sable," he said, and she placed her own fingers to the Eldar travel crystal. Blue light flared up to envelop them in a silent haze, and they were gone from Pak Du.
As the blue radiance faded, the CORBY sat on its place in the hangar of the tenth floor of the KDF building on 38th Street. Bane hopped out, pulled up restraining chocks behind the landing gear and made sure the copter was secured. As his teammates climbed down to stand near him, the Dire Wolf tugged off his helmet and turned wearily toward them. "I'll tell the team we're back. You two take a break. Shower and rest for a few hours. There will be a meeting later today to discuss our next move."
"Thanks, captain," said Sable numbly as she headed for the door. Josef paused a second, unstringing his bow and shrugging out of his quiver harness. He placed his equipment in his locker and then left also with a nod to his leader.
Left alone, Bane tugged off his gloves, placed them and his helmet on a counter and went over to the corner where a small table and a few chairs sat beside a waist-high refrigerator. He took out a bottle of cold water and began to drink it slowly. Taking the Link from his belt, he set it to PA and said, "Attention, everyone. We're back, all safe. I want you to assemble in the conference room for a briefing, I'll be there in fifteen minutes." Clicking off, he returned the Link to its holding plate and left the hangar, going down the steps to the ninth floor which was a high as the elevator reached.
Bane rode down to the third floor, entered his private quarters and stripped off the field suit. He used the toilet, took a hot shower that he turned cold at the end and shaved over the sink. Feeling a bit back to normal, the Dire Wolf rinsed out the flexible Trom armor and left it to dry over a rack. In his room, he towelled dry and put on a fresh suit of the black slacks, turtleneck and sport jacket which was his trademark. Before showering, he had unstrapped the two silver daggers which were worn on his forearms and now he replaced them under his sleeves, hilts out for a quick draw. Brushing his still damp hair with his fingers, the Dire Wolf walked into the hall and down the stairs to the second floor where the conference room was.
He felt tired, something so rare for him with his enhanced metabolism that he almost didn't recognize it at first. The experience in Pak Du troubled him more than he would have expected. Bane went through the door of the conference and saw four familiar faces watching him from around the long oak table. Unicorn. Argent. Trom Girl. Black Lion. All so young, they looked liked kids to him.
"All right," he said without preamble. "Nothing but bad news. Pak Du is a ghost realm now. Everyone there has been killed, an estimated seven thousand in the city and maybe another two thousand in the villages. I don't know how it was done. Everything has been burned to the ground. Five days ago, a messenger from Pak Du told us that its baron Cha-Mi wanted to meet with me because he felt his realm was under some threat, that's all we know." He glanced up at the clock over the video monitor. "The away team needs rest. I'll call a full council in four hours, say six o'clock tonight. Until then, I want everyone standing by and available. That's all for now."
Without taking questions, he simply turned and left the room, hurried up the stairs to the third floor again and locked himself in his quarters. Kicking off his boots and dropping his jacket over a chair, Bane stretched out on his double bed and was sound asleep within seconds. He had nightmares for the first time he could remember.
II.
At a quarter to six, Unicorn was already in the conference room, strolling back and forth with her hands clasped behind her back. Just turned twenty, Ashley Whitaker was less than a inch over five feet tall, a curvy platinum blonde full of life, with shiny blue eyes and perfect features. Today, she was dressed all in white... boots, snug jeans, a long-sleeved pullover with a V-neck collar. Propped up in one corner in its leather sheath was the three foot Unicorn horn that gave her both her abilities and her name. With the horn, she could remove gralic force from people and objects, rendering even the greatest warlocks powerless and breaking up the most baleful spells.
Ashley had dug out the huge volume FORBIDDEN KNOWLEDGE, compiled by Kenneth Dred himself over sixty years and had dug through it for information about Pak Du. Not much there. She found the whole thing hard to wrap her mind around at the moment. She had never been there, never known anyone from there, and Bane's blunt announcement of its destruction didn't seem quite real to her. It was like seeing a glimpse of earthquake or flood on TV news and not catching where it had happened.
Trom Girl appeared in the doorway, wearing as usual a dark jumpsuit with oil stains and scuff marks all over it, and she was wiping her hands on a rag. She annoyed Ashley sometimes because Megan was basically cute, with a tousled head of black hair and large dark eyes in an inquisitive face.. but she did nothing to work with it. Evidently, the Trom who had raised her as a Human orphan might be scientific geniuses but had never heard of even basic make-up. Now, she went to the sink in the corner and started to scrub her hands and face with liquid soap and steaming water.
"Building a submarine?" Ashley asked innocently.
"No. Maintenance on the CORBY," said Megan with complete seriousness. "I could use an assistant."
"Don't look at me. I have trouble putting batteries in the remote control. Hey, Megan, you want to go shopping for clothes? You've been wearing the same four outfits since you signed up."
The Trom Girl dried her face and regarded Unicorn thoughtfully. "Yes. That is a good idea. You know about these things."
"Great, do you know what a thong is...?"
She was interrupted as the rest of the team began to come into the conference room, all in casual civilian clothing. Sable and Josef, then Sheng Mo Yuan, known as Argent. Finally Levon Bingham appeared. They stood around about uncertainly.
"Three minutes after six," Argent announced finally. "When has our fearless leader ever been late before? Pak Du must have shaken him up more than I would have thought. He's getting old."
"You weren't there," snapped Sable. "You don't know. Everyone, might as well take our usual places at the table. Josef and I will fill you in one what we saw."
The team settled into their chairs on either side of the table. One at the top right was where Sable normally sat, but now she stood at the head behind the empty chairman's seat and leaned forward to rest her weight on stiff arms. Quickly, she recounted the events of the past few days. The emissary from Pak Du with his plea for help, Bane's having to wait until an ongoing case was resolved before entering that realm with herself and Josef. What they found there, no one left alive, not even the smallest cabin left unburned to the ground. Two days of searching and finding not a single survivor.
As she listened, Ashley started to feel queasy. Sable made it all so vivid the way she described things. The blonde Unicorn gulped and look at her teammates. They were all listening with complete absorption. Even in her distress, she noticed Levon's eyes were continuing to change color. It was odd to see a black man, especially one so dark, with bright green eyes and she wondered if he was going to physically change in other ways. She swung back to watch Sable finish up.
"So, we returned here. As you can imagine, we were stressed out and both Josef and I really needed some sleep. Now, I think we'll be okay but I can say that I for one will never go back there. As for our captain..."
"I'm here," said Bane from the doorway. "I heard most of your briefing. Very good, Sable, you gave the needed information without going too deeply." He walked over and she automatically took her place at his right while he dropped down into the chairman's seat. "So now everyone is up to speed on this situation."
The Dire Wolf placed his hands palm down on the table and seemed to be studying them. "I've been thinking over what might have caused all that destruction. Nuclear weapons or even conventional bombing is out. Modern tech won't work there. As far as Midnight War causes, all I came up with as an explanation would be a group of Dragons."
"Dragons...?" repeated Sheng. "We are supposed to have a few surviving back home in Chujir. But none of them shoot flame. I thought that was a myth."
"No such luck. There are at least two breeds that can emit dragonflame, hot enough to melt steel. A Dragon of the Garmiri breed is formidable certainly, but not even one of them could lay waste to an entire realm. That's why I suspect a group of them... a swarm of Dragons." Bane leaned back and surveyed his team grimly.
"Who could accomplish such a thing?" demanded Sheng. Coming from Chujir himself, with his tawny skin and coarse black hair, he looked like a Han Chinese. But the eagle-beaked nose and higher cheekbones made that identification uncertain. "I didn't think any warlock could command even a single Dragon."
"It's been done," Bane told him. "Arem Kamende had one under his control years ago. So did Wu Lung at one point. But assembling a swarm of those brutes and keeping them under control... I can't think of any of our enemies capable of such a thing."
"Maybe someone new," said Sable. "The next logical question would be, why was Pak Du decimated? Who would gain from it?"
"Again, no one comes to mind," Bane answered. "Wu Lung hated the people of that realm, he regarded them as renegades who didn't deserve their own realm. But he was destroyed over a decade ago... or maybe not. It's hard to explain but the Wu Lung we fought in 1987 was an ancient spirit inhabiting the body of a modern Chinese man. Nebel expelled that spirit but he never would guarantee that it might not return eventually."
Sheng Mo-Yuan shook his head softly. "It is said that Wu Lung was tyrant of Chujir at the close of the Darthan Age. They say that when Jordyn placed Chujir in its own realm, Wu Lung went with it but he swore to return to conquer the world of Men and place it all under his rule."
"All these vague indicators point toward Chujir," Sable put in.
Ashley Whitaker jumped to her feet and slapped the table. "What are we waiting for? Next stop, Chujir!"
"Sit down, Unicorn," said Bane calmly. "But yes, what little we have to go on indicates Chujir and Wu Lung. We may be way off course with this and heading the wrong way, but if anyone has any other ideas, the floor is open. I want everyone in full field suits. We will be leaving in one hour."
III.
With a swirl of blue light that cast new shadows in the gloom, the CORBY appeared five hundred feet above the forests of Chujir. Its rotors spun almost silently, the Trom-designed craft could not be heard from the ground in normal operation. With its solid black shark-shaped body and no identifying numbers or visible lights, the CORBY was an ominous presence in the night sky.
Behind the control sticks, Megan Salenger kept the craft dead steady. She gazed down through the windscreen which was set to light-amplifying and seemed satisfied. "Arrival complete, captain," she announced. "We are at the coordinates you provided." Trom Girl was wearing a dark field suit, but one with even more pouches and pockets. Her helmet had a cable attached at its back that tied into the ship's systems. "Awaiting instructions."
"Hold steady for the moment," Bane told her. He shifted in the co-pilot seat to study the landscape below. "That road leads to the village where Ming teaches. Sheng, everything look okay to you?"
Argent leaned forward from the rear compartment to peer past Bane at the windscreen. "Yes. Nothing seems to have changed. That white post there is the Imperial marker where messengers meet. Sifu Tang's cottage is a few miles up that road." He sighed. "I have not been here in months, it feels strange to come back."
Still sitting on the bench in the rear compartment, Unicorn folded the empty wrapper of a granola bar and tucked it in her field jacket pocket. "Looks like northern California to me. Same kind of trees." She stretched past Sheng to get a better look. The rest of the team had remained on standby at the headquarters back in the world. Ashley now was wearing as black field suit, as was Sheng, and her talisman was fastened to straps on the bulkhead beside her.
In the co-pilot seat, the Dire Wolf leaned back. "Okay, Megan, select a good spot to secure the CORBY while we explore."
"Already decided," she answered, edging the stealthcopter forward and making a gentle landing in a clearing, then taxiing in under two large trees tall enough that the rotors did not touch them. She rolled a bit closer as the blades slowed to a stop, then began to power down. "All systems nominal," she announced as the pastel yellow and blue lights blinked out on the consoles all around her.
"Let's get out, team," Bane said, popping his hatch and leaping out into a brisk autumn night. The air was crisp and dry, there was no moon but the stars were brilliant in a sky which had no city lights to compete with. He turned to take in the scene, then went to the rear storage compartment and dragged out a folded tarp with camoflauge patterns. With Sheng's help, Bane drove some pegs into the ground, covered the CORBY with the tarp and fastened everything in place. Breaking off some branches and loose dry leaves helped concealed the craft better. Megan locked the tarp to itself. The tough material would be difficult to cut through even if anyone did stumble upon the copter.
Standing off to one side, Ashley buckled the sheath holding the real Unicorn horn across her back, the strap crossing down diagonally between her breasts. The talisman had been given to her by her mother, the original Unicorn. Ashley herself had no superhuman abilities as the others did. It was the horn that qualified her to be a peer with them, so naturally she was very protective of it.
She was standing ten feet away from where the others were finishing up with the CORBY, holding her helmet in one hand and looking up at the mountains in the distance. Unicorn turned her head slightly and saw someone standing silently right behind her. She let out a yelp and jumped aside, almost falling.
The others reacted instantly, both Megan and Bane drawing their weapons while Sheng moved forward with fists raised. Then the Dire Wolf lowered his dartgun and said reassuringly, "Whoa, stand down everyone. It's okay. This is Tang Ming."
The tiny Chinese woman inclined her head in a polite bow. "Jeremy, good to see you again. As always, you come when you are needed most."
"Don't ever DO that!" screamed Ashley Whitaker at her. "Give me a freaking heart attack, why don't you?"
"I am sorry," Ming told her. "I am stealthy by nature and I fear all my training has made me difficult to detect when I approach." The former KDF member smiled and hold out her open hands, palm up apologetically. "Please forgive me."
"I suppose," Ashley muttered as she watched the Chinese woman. Tang Ming was about the same size and build as Unicorn herself, five feet tall and one hundred pounds, with short shiny black hair. In the dim light, all that could be seen was a face with delicate features and huge dark eyes. She was wearing a Tel Shai uniform, black slippers and baggy trousers and long-sleeved jacket of blue cotton. In another second, Unicorn got over her scare and grinned. "So you're Tang Ming, eh?"
"The same," Ming answered, turning her attention as Bane strode up. "Captain! How did you know your help is desperately needed?"
"We were following some clues," the Dire Wolf told her. "Ming, you've just met Ashley Whitaker, the new Unicorn. You knew her mother. Your student Sheng is with me, and this is Megan Salenger, Trom Girl, a Human raised by the Trom."
"The members of the new Kenneth Dred Foundation," said Tang Ming. "Congratulations! The realms need heroes like you. Chujir in particular."
"Have you heard what happened in Pak Du?" asked Bane.
"No. What happened?"
"Something bad. We need to discuss it, and you need to tell us how Chujir is in trouble," Bane told her.
"Let us talk as we proceed," Tang Ming said. "It is a mile or more to my school, and we can fill each other in as we go."
They set out along the simple dirt road, with ruts dug deep by ages of horse-drawn carts. Ming listened in grave silence as she heard about the destruction of Pak Du and the loss of life. "Out of nowhere," she said. "All those people dead in so short a time. It's like wars in the real world, where bombers flatten cities, but the adjacent realms never see such destruction. Until now, I suppose."
"My guess is that some warlock has somehow managed to corral a group of Dragons, Garmiri most likely, and used them as weapons. I can't think of anything else that could cause such carnage," Bane told her. "But I also don't know any sorcerer who could control more than one Dragon at a time."
"Perhaps a waking Sulla Chun could have destroyed Pak Du?" Ming wondered. "But no, the baleful effects would still be there and you and your team could not have survived there more than a few minutes. I believe you were right to come here, captain. Chujir is threatened by an impending clash between two warlords. One is Wu Lung, who we have fought before."
"Oh yes," Bane growled, still walking beside her as the other teammates followed and listened. "He's hard to get rid of permanently. His spirit eventually entered a willing host here in Chujir, then?"
"Yes. A fang shih warlock named Kwin Yu suddenly became much more learned and skilled. He began gathering followers and soon usurped control of a town to the north. Since then, he seems to be building an army for some reason and the Imperial forces have not moved against him yet." Ming made an exasperated noise. "Chujir is a large realm, about the size of your Texas, and our Imperial City is several hundred miles away. Perhaps the Emperor has not fully learned of the threat yet."
"Sounds like Wu Lung, all right," Bane snapped. "Up to his same tricks. When we catch him, I have an idea how to make him harmless. And who is the rival warlord you mentioned?"
"The Manchurian."
Bane actually stopped in his tracks. Ming paused and stared up at him in the starlight. "The Manchurian?" he repeated. "He fell through a gate into Maroch. Everyone assumed he was dead."
"Evidently not. The descriptions match what I have read of him in the KDF files. He has established himself in the mountains, taking over a Ko-Wan monastery. The Manchurian has not been raising an army as Wu Lung has, but strange sights have been reported in his vicinity and villagers nearby have been driven mad by nightmares until they have moved miles away."
"Whew." The Dire Wolf started walking again. "This is bigger than I expected. It must have something to do with the destruction of Pak Du, it's too much for coincidence. Megan! Argent! I want you two both to go back to the CORBY and return to our headquarters. Bring the rest of the team here and meet us at Ming's school. Sable, Josef, and Levon in full field suits and combat ready."
"Understood, captain," Trom Girl said and took off at a run back down the road with Argent right beside her. Bane turned back to Tang Ming, "You could have come to the world to meet with me about this, Ming."
"I was about to go soon. I put it off until something more definite happened. Chujir has had many battles between warlords. It's just these two are warlocks and I fear they will unleash forces they can't control." She sighed. "And I came here to escape the Midnight War."
IV.
After dropping off Sable's team near where Wu Lung was reportedly headquartered, Bane swung the CORBY around and sped back toward Ming's school. He did not know why technology worked in Chujir but not in many other adjacent realms. That was a decision of Jordyn, the Halar who was Regent of the world, and Jordyn never explained. The Dire Wolf wasn't sure he even believed in Jordyn as a being, maybe the name just had been attached to natural forces working on the cosmic level. In any case, having the copter was a huge advantage in this situation. He reduced speed and lowered the landing gear, coming to a soft landing in the field behind the simple wooden building where Tang Ming taught Fu Jow and Fang Lung. Her own cottage was a tiny one-room structure right behind the school. His four team-mates were waiting outside.
Although the current KDF members were wearing the black field suits with all the built-in weapons and gadgets, they had not brought one for Tang Ming. Hers had been put in storage years ago and no one had thought to dig it out before leaving for Chujir. It was just as well. Ming's powers of perception and timing were innate and she claimed that the armored field suit threw her delicate balance off. Instead, she was still wearing the Tel Shai uniform of blue cotton trousers and long-sleeved jacket. Bane knew that under that jacket, the Dragon of Midnght pendant hung on an ensalir chain around her neck.
As soon as the wheels touched down and the rotors slowed, the Dire Wolf triggered the hatches on the passenger side and for the rear compartment. Air hissed as the pressurized cabin opened. Tang Ming sprang lightly up into the co-pilot's seat as if she had never been gone. Ashley and Levon climbed into the back and claimed spots on the bench, strapping themselves in with restraint belts. Bane asked, "Everyone secured?", got affirmative answers and brought the CORBY off the ground again. He turned its nose to the north, where blue mountains rose in the distance, and rose up to two thousand feet for lower visibility from the ground.
As they sped along at low cruising speed of three hundred miles per hour, Bane asked, "Something troubling you, Ming?"
"Pak Du. I can't help thinking about those people. And I am worried the same destruction might be headed here. Chujir has been my home years now. It must not be blotted out as Pak Du was." She held her hands folded loosely in front of her, gazing down at them. "It is not how I wished for us to meet again, Jeremy. I wanted to visit your new team in Manhattan, to chat over supper in some restaurant, to stay up late reminiscing."
"Never that easy for us," the Dire Wolf said.
"No. The ancient winds of trouble call our names." She straightened up. "But we would not have it any other way. There, look. Half way up the mountain. The Ko-Wan monastery." Through the light-amplifiers in the windscreen, the night outside was clearly visible and they saw a cluster of long low stone buildings set on a huge ledge on the mountainside. There was a courtyard behind each building, some cultivated areas set on terraces, and a larger than life bronze statue of a scholar in long robes standing with face raised to the sky.
"These guys are like Shaolin back in China?" asked Bane.
"Oh, no. They are not warriors at all," Ming answered. "They pray and meditate. The monks grow their own food and make their own clothes and are seldom seen by other Chujirans." She pointed to the largest courtyard, which had been covered over by cloth sheets sewn together. "Something dangerous is concealed there, captain. I can perceive it. Alive, powerful, malicious..."
In the rear compartment, Levon touched the ancient talon which hung on an ensalir chain around his neck. The great Cat's-Claw felt hot to the touch. "You are right," he declared suddenly. Levon had been silent so long that everyone gave a start when he spoke. "Wakimbe's Claw warns me. We approach something ancient and hateful." The young black hair clapped his hands together softly and lowered his head.
Below, dark figures in loose ground-length robes began to appear in doorways, staring up at the strange silent shape that circled in the night sky. Bane selected a courtyard and touched down. "Unicorn, take the stick for the moment. If I call you on your helmet, be ready to lift off and come get us."
"Got it," the little blonde said. As Bane and Ming exited the cabin, she squeezed through the space between the seats and plopped down in the pilot position. Ashley took the command cable and screwed it into the access port in the back of her helmet so she could receive data from the copter directly on the inside of the visor. "I'll be standing by, captain."
With Levon joining them, Bane and Ming stepped away from the CORBY and started striding toward the wide stone steps to the entrance of the nearest building. Faces were appearing as every window had its shutters pushed outward from within. The architecture had a vague Asian styling to it, with lacquered tiles on the roofs and wooden porches encircling the stone buildings. Oiled paper lanterns hung on hooks at intervals.
Abruptly, Tang Ming whipped her arms up to face level. She was holding an arrow in each hand, stopped inches before they would have struck her. The tiny Chinese woman placed both shafts together and snapped them with a sharp cracking noise that rang out in the still air. "They are fools who try such games with me," she called out.
Two of the monks were holding short massive bows, with a container of arrows tied to their waists. As they saw what had happened, they dropped to the knees and pressed their faces to the stone flagging, keeping in that position. Behind them, a small wiry figure in a pale green robe appeared. Seeing him, Bane's hand leaped to the butt of his dartgun holstered at his left hip.
The Manchurian appeared to be very old. His face was wrinkled and his back bent, but he walked confidently without a cane. The sorcerer had a shrivelled face with skin a bright lemon yellow from decades of Alchemical serums keeping his vital, and jet eyes barely visible in their swollen folds. His gnarled fingers had long curved nails. Strangest of all his ears rose to distinct blunt points.
"Lo," he said in a sibilant hissing voice. "Knights of Tel Shai. Always you come unbidden where you are unwelcome. You are bad guests and my hospitality is not extended to you." He gestured sharply with a talon. "Begone!"
"You've got some nerve," Bane answered. "No one invited you to Chujir. You are not native to this realm. When the Manchu dynasty was overthrown, you escaped with your life. And for more than a hundred years, you have caused nothing but grief and tragedy. That comes to an end now."
The Manchurian chuckled almost inaudibly. "The blithe confidence of a child. You have much to learn about life and history. I advise you, leave now while you still may take your life with you."
The Dire Wolf folded his arms in front of his body. To anyone who knew him, this was an ominous sign as he placed his hands near the hilts of the silver daggers. "We have been to Pak Du."
"It's an improvement," leered the ancient warlock. "Cleansed, you might say. As the Old Ones prefer it for their return. Those Who Remember understand this. But you have not mentioned Gamulkor. No, I see in your foolish faces you do not know about Gamulkor."
Bane stiffened, his eyes narrowed. "Gamulkor. Realm of the Dwarfs."
"Or so it was," the Manchurian laughed. His shrivelled face contorted with a malicious smile. The bright yellow skin shone in torchlight. "But Gamulkor has gone where the snows of last winter go. The Dwarfs sleep with their ancestor."
Tang Ming was stand just behind and to the side of Bane, and now she took a step forward. "All those people...."
"Ah, it awaits us all, child. How many empires have fallen into dust? How many great nations are not even memories any more?" The Manchurian raised a hand with forefinger extended and burly guards in dark uniforms began to assemble behind him, stepping from doorways and between buildings. "But enough. As the new Abbot of this monastery, I order you off its grounds. Go home. Enjoy what time is left to you."
Standing well behind his teammates, Levon Bingham winced as the Cat's-Claw on his chest suddenly flared up with a heat that stung his skin. Something dangerous was very near. He resisted the desire to call upon the Black Lion, to shape shift, to become his god. Next to him, Unicorn watched the look on his face change. "Hey, Lev, you okay?"
"We are in great danger," he whispered. Levon raised his head and the bright green eyes stood out vividly against the dark face. "Get ready, Ashley."
Hearing the urgency in his voice, the little blonde frowned. Unbuckling the leather strap across her chest, she brought the sheathed Alicorn around in front of her and cupped her hand on the silver cap on its based. Immediately, she felt better. With the Horn, she felt capable of dealing with everything. Ashley glanced over at the tense Levon, they nodded to each other.
Bane had not moved. "Manchurian, I am placing you under arrest on my authority as a knight of Tel Shai. You're coming with us to answer lots of questions. Don't think your bruisers behind me will even slow us down."
Tang Ming's enchanced perceptions jolted her into new awareness. Cold fear hit her in the chest, made her catch her breath and draw herself stiffly upright. Behind the monastery building where they stood... immense hatred and force was stirring. She stared at that building as if trying to see through it.
"Foolish boy," the Manchurian hissed, "you have not met my friend. Yfel?"
Every person in that courtyard froze motionless as a great dark shape rose silently behind the monastery and peered hatefully down at them. Yfel stood taller than the two-story building, a vast bulk of leathery hide that shimmered in the starlight. The manlike body had a thick tail that stood out behind it and swung angrily from side to side. The long serpentine neck ended in a horselike head bigger than a man's body, crested with horns and adorned with two fleshy mustaches that drooped down on either side of the wide fanged mouth. Batlike wings were folded flat across the broad back.
Huge amber eyes shone hotly down at the figures far below it. When the Dragon spoke, its voice was deep but intelligible. "You have come far only to die."
Bane said in a low voice, "Ming, get the CORBY." Instantly, the Chinese knight spun and raced back across the courtyard. No one noticed. Everyone was paralyzed at the sight of the giant beast that stared down at them. The Dragon snorted and hot foul breath rushed over the Humans beneath him.
With a completely steady voice, the Dire Wolf called up, "So I guess we know now what destroyed Pak Du and Gamulkor. You? As Dragons go, you're good-sized."
"I am Yfel, Father of all Dragons, old as the mountains. I am the Destroyer of Worlds."
"So I gather," Bane said. "And you're taking orders from the Manchurian here?"
"NO! I serve no one! Do not summon your death sooner than it need be, little one." Yfel stretched his neck out to lower his head down to where Bane could see every detail, from the many old healed scars to the ridges that ran down the muzzle.
"Look to me like he thinks he's in charge. As if you're his pet." Bane shrugged. "But if you don't mind...."
"What?" screamed the Manchurian. "Yfel, don't listen to him. Can't you see what he's trying to do? Stay back. You stupid lizard, I said stay back!"
"You have said TOO MUCH," rumbled the Dragon. He drew in a breath and launched a white-hot stream of gralic force from his mouth that hissed down fast as lightning. The Manchurian only screamed for a second as he disappeared in that fireball, along with four of his guards who were standing too close. The stench of burnt meat was sickening.
As soon as he saw what the Dragon was about to do, Jeremy Bane whirled and grabbed both Unicorn and Levon around the waist, dragging them off their feet as he leaped far back from the scene. A surge of heat swept over their backs, but the tough material of the field suits mostly protected them. All three of them hit the stone flagging hard, but they each rolled and were up again instantly. Ashley had kept her grip on the Alicorn the whole time.
"I always heard Dragons were suckers to manipulate," Bane muttered as he got back up and saw the array of blackened charred corpses still smoldering near the monastery door. The CORBY came down without a whisper almost at arm's length. Strangely, the rotors hardly made a noise and were rotating too slowly for a normal helicopter to stay airborne with.
"Jump in, quick now!" yelled the Dire Wolf, he himself hopping up into the co-pilot seat. In a second, the hatches were sealed and Tang Ming pulled back on the control stick. The CORBY rose straight up rapidly. "Just above his head level," Bane directed her.
Yfel cracked his wings open with a sound like thunder. Their ribbed batlike expanse spread out to cover the courtyard. Hysterical monks and guards raced away in all directions, stumbling and falling and rising again in their panic. The ancient Dragon leered down at them, wisps of smoke escaping from a corner of his jaws. Yet he held his flame and turned his attention to the strange metal bird that hung motionless in the air, almost within reach. The inside of his mouth shone white, getting brighter...
Inside the CORBY, Bane looked over his shoulder at his two teammates in the compartment behind him. "Levon, get the hatch open and hold it. Ashley, this is your time." The Black Lion immediately threw the lever on the inside door and slid the hatch open. Kneeling in the opening, watching the Dragon's staring eyes not fifty feet away, Unicorn slid the horn from its sheath and held it out in both hands. With the loudest, most ringing voice she could summon, she cried out, "With this horn I remove thy power!"
The results were comic as the great beast threw its horned head down and sneezed violently. No flame came out. The huge wings lowered and folded shut again. With a look of unspeakable hatred, Yfel roared with a sound louder than thunder and reached out for the helicopter but Tang Ming had already swerved the craft away.
"Good work, you guys," Bane told them. "Levon, you can close the hatch. Unicorn!How long until he gets his gralic charge back?"
"Beats me. Something that big... I'd guess a couple of hours?" The little blonde returned the horn to its leather sheath and got back up on the bench. "I never hit on something that big before. He doesn't look real, I can't take it in that something could be sixty feet tall."
"He's quite a sight," Bane agreed. "Okay, Ming, I want you to swing around him just out of reach. I'm going to tease him with the guns."
Yfel glared at the black copter as it came around toward him. His wings were useless without their gralic charge that enabled him to fly and his flame had been damped. The ancient beast had never been so enraged in his millenia of life. With the back of one paw, he smash over the highest building of the monastery, sending it to ruin in a shower of bricks and wood. "Come closer!" he bellowed, "Yes! Come closer!"
Panels on the two stubby vanes midway back on the CORBY fuselage slid open and the chain guns clicked into place. Bane watched through the targeting concentric circles which appeared on his inside visor and thumbed the firing button. One hundred 40mm shells tore through the night air and slammed home all over the Dragon within a few seconds. The huge brute staggered, raising his arms to protect his face, then straightened and roared defiance. The shells could not penetrate that thick hide unless they happened to hit a particularly vulnerable spot but they certainly hurt.
Ming pulled back away from the beast, who was trying to grab the helicopter. "I don't think we can kill him with the chain guns, captain."
"I'm not trying to finish him off," Bane answered. "Just getting his attention. He loosed another two-second burst, sending the shells crashing all over the Dragon. Yfel surged over the courtyard, still trying to seize the tiny craft which was hurting him. "That should do it. He's a little ticked off now. Ming, head toward where we dropped the other team off. Go slow enough that this monster thinks he's going to able to grab us."
"To the other team..?" repeated Ming, as she swung the CORBY around. "Captain, are you planning to do what I think you are?"
"I knew it!" squealed Unicorn in delight. "When does Jeremy NOT have a plan?"
IV.
On a ledge barely wide enough to hold the four of them, Sable watched her team make themselves as comfortable as they could. Before leaving the CORBY, she had taken the time to unpack some additional equipment that seemed like it might be useful. This included four coils of silk cord, seventy feet long, with a loop on one end and a hard plastic hook on the other. If not for the tough gloves of their field suits, none of them would have been able to climb on those cords without cutting their hands to be bone but they had made their way up the back face of the mountain quickly enough.
It was in situations like this that Sable's perception proved invaluable. At first, it seemed to some of the team that being able to enhance vision or hearing or smell would be useful in combat situations and they questioned why Bane had quickly made her team leader in his absence. But tonight, she had led them through the gloom as if it were bright sunlight, she had spotted every loose stone that might have rolled underfoot, she had picked the best route to the top. Before they could possibly have been seen, Sable heard the breathing of a sentry behind a boulder and sent Josef to dispatch the man with a blunt-headed arrow. It had taken hours, but now they were perched on a ledge overlooking the camp of Wu Lung's army.
While Sable relied on her enhanced perception and Josef on his Blind Archer senses, both Argent and Trom Girl were wearing the field helmets. The light amplifiers in the visors were not as good as Sable's perception, but they could still see hundreds of peaked white tents set out in rows, corrals of short hairy-legged horses, campfires where men stood roasting meat. Hundreds of feet below them, sentries marched in pairs on their rounds.
At the near end of the camp, against the base of the mountain itself stood a tent much larger and more ornate than the others. It was bright red with silver trim, and a triangular pennant flew from its center post. This was a yellow dragon on a black field, symbol of Wu Lung.. the Dragon of War. Two guards stood before this command post with spears in hand, and a messenger slept on a blanket in case he would be needed.
Sable studied the scene in silence. After a long ten minutes, Argent asked, "What, no plan to attack yet?"
"Sheng," she said quietly, "Jeremy puts up with your insolence because he thinks you'll outgrow it. but I don't have his patience. If you have nothing useful to say, keep quiet."
He immediately changed his tone. "Sorry, Sable. I certainly don't see any way to get at Wu Lung, either. He must have a thousand warriors around him."
"I estimate four thousand, eight hundred and thirty, with a margin of error because a few of those tents appear to be empty," Megan said. "Sable, I could fly down there and snatch Wu Lung to carry him here if he shows himself."
"It's tempting," their team leader reflected. "But no. Wu Lung is a powerful warlock, his gralic bolts could kill you even through your protective suit. And he is a Kumundu master. We must draw him out or create a distraction to get most of these troops away. Josef, could you nail Wu Lung if he shows?"
"Not from here," the Blind Archer answered. "Beyond even my range."
Sable kneeled by the edge of the stone shelf and gazed down with eyes that saw through the darkness and distance with perfect clarity. "We only have an hour before dawn. Perhaps a landslide. Josef, you have explosive warheads for a few arrows. Let me study the geology of this cliff. I think I see a few places where a detonation might send several tons of rock down on our enemy...."
Megan suddenly sat up and adjusted the right ear pod. "Sable, put your helmet on. Jeremy is calling us."
Unfastening the helmet from where it was fastened to the back of her collar, Sable lowered it over her head. Instantly, the visor interior lit up with faint displays. She turned her right ear pod two clicks and the hard voice of the Dire Wolf came through, "Sable, are you reading me? Reply. This is urgent."
"I hear you, captain," she said into the microphone built into the mandible of the helmet. "Proceed."
"We're on our way with a big surprise. How close are you to Wu Lung?"
"About two hundred and eighty feet above him. We're sitting on a ledge on the mountain overlooking his camp," she said. "What kind of a surprise?"
Bane's voice had no humour in it, but he said, "A big one. I think you should stay put for the moment and watch the fireworks. ETA twelve minutes." With a click, he broke the connection.
Sable explained the conversation to Josef, who had not had his helmet on. "I would love to know what he's up to," she said. "But we only have a few minutes to wait."
Faint streaks of light were beginning to show in the eastern sky. The team huddled on the ledge and watched the camp below as two riders galloped up on their short-legged horses and were admitted to Wu Lung's tent. A second later, the tent turned yellow as a lamp was lit within. Sable wondered what message the riders were bringing that compelled them to dare wake the warlock at such an hour.
She glanced up as a black sharklike shape came hurtling through the night sky. The CORBY rushed low over the camp at just under the speed of sound. Its violent backwash lifted many tents off their moorings and knocked men off their feet. Instantly, the camp was an uproar of shouting and cursing as the Chujir warriors came rushing out. The CORBY swung around to hover at fifty feet.
Then Yfel stomped into sight.
VI.
Some of the damping effect of the Unicorn horn had begun to wear off. The immense wings had spread and were beating, but not strongly enough to lift the Dragon off the ground. Inside the wide jaws, white light had begun to flicker as his flame returned. Although he had run for hours in pursuit of the black copter, Yfel was not weary in the least. He loomed up over Wu Lung's camp and roared, waking what few of the warriors who had remained asleep.
The CORBY shot straight up and was lost from sight. Yfel growled deep in his leathery chest as it vanished, then he noticed dozens of arrows were glancing off him. The Dragon glared down at the camp as the Chujirans drew and loosed shaft after shaft, to his amusement. By chance, one arrow lodged on the inside of a nostril, where the flesh was tender and he felt its sting. A blinding blast of white-hot force erupted from his mouth to set most of the tents ablaze, and sending men rolling on the ground in agony as they burned to death. Still the puny little Humans attacked, throwing spears and even racing toward his feet with axes. Yfel began to crush them by the handful, stamping down hard to kill two or three under each broad foot, seizing men by the handfuls and squeezing them into pulp which he flung aside. Their weapons could annoy but not seriously harm him. The Dragon moved through the fiery camp like the Destroyer of Worlds he claimed to be.
Meanwhile, Tang Ming had spotted the other team and brought the CORBY to hover close to the rocky ledge, just keeping the rotors inches from hitting the mountainside. From within, Unicorn opened the hatch and the four members leaped inside, caught by Levon's strong hands. The rear compartment had not been intended to hold six people and it was a tight squeeze that had them pressing up against each other but they were glad to get inside.
"Captain, what IS that thing?" Sable demanded. "I thought I knew the breeds of Dragon."
"New to me, as well. I never heard of anything that big. He calls himself Yfel, Destroyer of Worlds." From the co-pilot seat, Bane told everyone, "The Manchurian is dead. Somehow he managed to make an alliance with this monster, but that fell through. We got the Dragon annoyed enough to follow us. I figured, why not let him do the fighting for us?"
"Sounds good," Argent laughed. "Look at him go. The only question is, what happens when he's done with them?"
Bane watched the carnage below grimly. "I have a few ideas."
Within minutes, the few surviving Chujir warriors had scattered. Yfel waded ankle deep through burning tents and piles of dead men. Of Wu Lung, there had been no sign. As the great beast moved slowly through the destruction, suddenly a burst of machine-gun fire rattled off his hide. Again? He rumbled in his anger and swung around to see the CORBY hovering nearby. Before the Dragon could loose a blast, the helicopter began to rise up again. Yfel flapped his batlike wings, tried again, and leaped clear of the ground. No wings could lift a bulk that enormous by themselves. It was his inborn gralic charge that enabled him to fly, although he did not understand that and it would not have mattered to him in any case.
"This is going to be tricky," Bane said to Tang Ming. "Keep out of reach but not so far that he gives up. Good. That's it."
"Hope he doesn't try to cook us!" Argent yelled. "I don't like the way his mouth is glowing."
"Steady," said the Dire Wolf. "A little higher, Ming. He's faltering a bit. I think he's hitting his limit."
"Three hundred twenty feet," said Tang Ming. "He's definitely slowed to a halt."
"Okay then. Open the rear hatch. Ashley, take him down again!"
As the hatch slid open and Argent held her around the waist for safety, Ashley Whitaker leaned far outside with the Alicorn in her hands and shouted, "With this horn I remove thy power!"
As quickly as that, Yfel tumbled and fell headlong to the ground hundreds of feet below. He hit with a crash that actually did dislodge loose stones on the mountainside and send them rolling to the base. The giant brute rolled over after he struck and then was still.
"Life signs terminated," Trom Girl told everyone as she took readings with the sensors built in her suit. "Brain waves flatline. No respiration. Body temperature starting to drop."
Bane let out a deep breath. "I'm glad that worked. I didn't really have a back-up plan. All right, Ming, you want to land nearby and we'll take a look?"
The Dragon was indeed dead. Megan's examination decided that the beast had broken his neck in the fall, and numerous internal injuries would have finished him off in any case. No one was in sight. Those who had survived the Dragon's attack were miles away by now.
There was no trace of Wu Lung. Evidently he had fled prudently at first sight of Yfel, which meant he would be still at large. His tent had been reduced to ashes, which meant to possible clues of his plans would be found.
"The Destroyer of Worlds," Bane said as he stood by the gigantic hulk. "Well, we can't bring back the people of Pak Du or the Dwarfs of Gamulkor, but at least we avenged them. This guy is not going to be invading any other realms."
"Are we done here?" Unicorn asked in a tiny voice. Dead bodies in all directions was something new to her and she was standing close to Sable as if for support.
"Wu Lung hasn't been accounted for," Bane said. "He might have fled Chujir altogether. Tell you what... Sheng, what do you think about remaining here for a few weeks? Keep an eye out for reports of Wu and alert us to come back if he's spotted."
"I'd like that, captain," said Argent. "Thank you. I have missed my homeland a bit, to be honest."
"It would be good to have my best student back for a while," Tang Ming added. "Perhaps he can help out at the school."
Levon Bingham had been standing by the huge carcass and finally he said, "I wanted to test the Black Lion against this creature. Some adventure. Most of us were just along for the ride. We didn't get to do anything."
"Roll of the dice," Ashley said with a sudden grin. She smacked him playfully across the back. "Once again, the Unicorn saves the day!"
9/30/2014
