“Five of us? You’re discounting my mate here, the Austeyer F88,” I said, holding up the rifle. “A semi-automatic assault rifle, capable of fully automatic fire; in the space of five seconds, I can put thirty bullets into you.”
“Bullets?” he visibly blinked. “Whatever they are, they would be no match for a hand-crafted Scathian steel blade, laminated over 16 times–” I brought the rifle up, looked down the sight and squeezed the trigger. Blam! Bullets hit the blade, jerking it from his paw, leaving it to clatter to the ground, though the blade was barely scratched. He bent down to pick it up, jaw locked tight, but I sent out a short spray of bullets, forcing him to jump back. I could hear the growl form in his chest before he roared at his troops. “Take these idiots out, but don’t kill the females. The prince wants that pleasure.”
Through the sight I watched him turn and head back through the door. I tracked the back of his head, easily able to put a bullet through it and blow his brains to smithereens. I was tempted, my finger itched to do it, but taking someone out when their back was to you, that was a sniper kind of cool and I was no sniper. I preferred the heat of battle and I was just about to get it. The guards looked a little lost, not sure what to do now they faced an actual armed opponent. “Now!” Mellor's order came from the other room and they began to stumble forward.
Coming towards me with a raised weapon? All bets were off now. I started to shoot, taking out the first few guards in a blaze of bullets, blood and fur. That disconcerted some of the others, they looked at each other, obviously not having trained for this. Others squared their shoulders, figuring Mellors was more of a threat than we were and rushed towards us in a charge. “Backs against the main door!” I shouted. “Can we secure it?”
“Putting the bar across!” Natty called back. I didn’t dare look, trusting they had this as we backed up, shooting as we went, taking out as many as we could. The sight of so many casualties was certainly affecting morale. I didn’t bother shooting the ones who milled at the door, pacing restively, paws clenched around weapons. I was saving my bullets for actual hostiles.
“What’s outside?” I yelled.
“A lot of people. Can’t tell if they’re guards or staff,” Flea said. “If they decide to come through these windows, we’re fucked.” The room did feature long floor-length windows on either side of the door. It wouldn’t take much to break the glass and get in close quarters. Tess sighed, taking a step forward as if she was gonna join the fight.
“No fucking way, princess,” I said, “stay here, stay safe. This is not the time for a show of girl power. Save it for your women’s studies book club.” I shoved her back against Natty, hoping he’d take the hint and keep her contained.
“We go back up the stairs? Try a different route?” Gabe asked, standing by my side and picking off the last few brave ones, but when we looked up, more soldiers were coming down.
“Nope,” I snapped. “We need to seal this area off, stop 'em from surrounding us. Flea, Natty, break one of the top window panes and toss out some grenades, far as you can. See if we can clear what’s behind the door. Gabe, we’ve got to focus on area denial. Keep these fuckers back and hope they give up.”
“We got enough ammo?” he asked.
“Let’s fucking hope so.” The guards at the top of the stairs took advantage of the fact we were taking care of a few of the stragglers on the ground floor to try and creep down. A few choice shots, waiting until they were half the way down had them turning tail real quick, but more furries were coming through the door on the right, obviously reinforcements, sent to do what their brothers couldn’t.
“There’s more coming, we gotta think of . . . oh fuck!” Gabe said. Two of the doors on the left jerked open and guards poured in, each armed with crossbows, a matching group appearing on the other side.
“We’re sitting fucking ducks!” I said. “Lob some grenades, as far as you can up each side. Call out when they are thrown. Everyone is to get down as close to the ground and the door as we can. Meat shield around Tess, got it?”
Apparently, Tess didn’t get it. She shoved her way past Natty and Flea. He was too gone on her to keep her in line and now she was going to get killed. I watched her pull a glowing green crystal ball from her bag, then saw several guards raise their crossbows and load them. “Fuck! Tess!” As I threw myself in front of her, time seemed to slow. I watched her toss the ball, lobbing it like some kind of bowling ball down the left-hand side, bouncing on the marble floor, sparks flying with each slam into the stone and then–whoosh!–green fire whipped across the marble, consuming guards and crossbows and arrows sent hurtling towards us, a momentary glimpse of twitching skeletons visible before they were completely burned up. The guards on the stairs scuttled back, not wanting to be caught up in the spreading fire and then Tess made one of those weird movements like she had when learning how to open the portal. The fire seemed to follow her directions like a loyal hound, zipping along the stone to take out the wildly scrabbling guards who fought to get back through the doors. “More,” she hissed, “burn this fucking place to the ground.”
“Uh . . . Tess, we’re still in this fucking place,” I said, watching the fire tear through the building, up the stairs, down hallways, screams letting us know where it passed.
“We need to get out of here,” she said, turning to me, before pulling out a short staff with a huge amethyst crystal on the top. “Let’s go.”
“We need to plan this–”
“Open the door, now, Natty,” she said, her voice containing a thunderous echoey quality. I frowned as the bar was lifted and the door was opened, but despite my misgivings, we walked out into the light.
It was weird, everything had been so contained and focussed on managing such a narrow area, seeing the boundless sky above me had me flinching. I needn’t, it was fucking chaos outside. Buildings burned, the fire had evidently spread, jumping to the outbuildings. Some of the buildings had holes blasted out from the grenades, bodies littering the grounds. People were running everywhere, out into the grounds, tugging spooking horses from stables, some trying to lead herds of pinkies from sheds. Others ran where we wanted to go, towards the main gate. We needed to get clear of the house, the whole building was alight with green fire, though it was weird because there was no smoke. “Looks like everyone’s distracted,” I said, “we need to make a run for it.”
“Yes,” Tess said, glancing up at the sky where clouds were beginning to darken and shift. She turned to me, looking me straight in the eye and said, “We really need a means to get out of here quickly.”
“I will call Miazydar,” I said, closing my hands around my familial spear. I reached out to my heart’s mate, searching for his essence in the incoming tempest. “He comes.”
“He? What the fuck–?” the blond human with the long light-coloured hair did not get to complete his comment, a host of Sirian warriors streaming out from the wreckage of the Damorican prince’s manor, followed by His Highness himself. I noted the weapons in the hands of the host and flicked my thumb over my spear’s activation pad, watching the light-blue light zip along the cutting edge, then shifted until I was in front of the group, my spear at the ready.
“Where the fuck do you think you’re going? What the fuck have you done to my manor! And how in the name of the gods did you find an Aravisian dragon rider?” It was odd, seeing the expression so clearly on his now humanoid face. It was a mask of anger and fear, his features curled into something ugly, his chest heaving. I had heard around the court that His Highness was under a curse, but it was difficult to believe until now. He went to take a step forward, against the advice of his second in command who plucked at his sleeve, then let it fall when His Highness looked back in anger.
“Not a true rider,” the second said. “It’s the woman, McKinnon in their dress.”
I stiffened when he took another step, spinning the spear, so it formed a diagonal across my body. His Highness noted this, stopping in his tracks, eyes going to the plasma blade. While he sported a very fine Scathian blade, nothing stood against a plasma spearhead. “You are right, and you are wrong,” the prince said to his second, shifting where he stood. “The people with you, you will surrender them. They are prisoners here, taken as such on sovereign land. To take them would be to declare war against the Damorican host.”
I did not smile, keeping what I felt from showing on my face. The ‘host’ was led by quite a different master now, slaves to the new government rather than the royal family. He relied on me being unaware of the power shift in Damorica, hoping to bluff his way through this negotiation. Are you close, my love? I sent my thoughts winging out into the sky.
Somewhat, a storm is making the currents unstable.
We’ll have four others to pick up. All are inexperienced with riding a-dragon back.
I could hear my beloved’s sigh along our mental bond. And we must take them?