Rash'Tor'Ri (Soulguard Book 4), page 12
He saw us standing in the center of the plaza and no attackers. Sheathing his swords, he looked at us with a quizzical expression that just screamed, 'What the Hell?"
"Master?"
"Sorry 'bout the scream, I guess you'd call it. I assume you heard the news?"
"Yes. I didn't quite expect you to react as quickly," He answered. "They are sending the signal to open the gate as we speak. As for the summons, you could make it a little less…robust."
"Guess I need to work on that."
"Pelin can show you a great deal about control of it, Master."
"I'll get with her about that, and don't call me Master."
"Yes, Master," he said with a smile. Every one of them knows it irks me to be called Master. And the every one still do it. Maybe I shouldn't have included that particular sense of humor in the Mark.
"Perhaps not," Gorvelis returned.
"Now, you guys have to stop doing that," Lyrica said. "I get half or less of a damn conversation around you."
Perhaps we should include you in it? Gorvelis projected.
"Use your words," she said. "That's just weird."
He laughed, "As you wish, Kilnyeri."
"Kilnyeri?"
"There is a creature on Kresh called the Kilnyeri. It has been known to kill other animals that dwarf it in size when it or its own are endangered. Most of the time they are a peaceful creature that would be, in the words of your world, 'Cute and fuzzy'"
"So he gets to be life ender? And I'm one of the cute and fuzzy bunnies?"
"It seems so, Kilnyeri," he said with a grin. "But there is no shame in it. I doubt there is another creature on fifteen worlds as fierce as the Kilnyeri."
She grudgingly accepted his words.
The gate opened behind us.
"Well, my cute and fuzzy bunny, let's be on our way."
"I may stab you."
"Whatever do you mean, Your Cuteness?"
"With a knife."
"But my little Bunny."
"In your sleep."
Gorvelis was laughing loudly behind us as we walked back through the Gate, and I felt the Kresh outside of the facility. They were in chaos, fighting one another as they tried to reestablish their own hierarchy. I felt the familiar presence inside me try to claw its way out. I could feel its longing to Lash out at the chaos and make it his own.
Lyrica's hand landed lightly on my shoulder, "Calm it down, my love. We'll be past this in a few minutes."
"I'm not sure I can ever get past this," I returned. The only place I can find complete peace is among those we're leaving behind us."
"I know, I've seen it over the last few days. When this is over, we'll come back. We'll come back to stay."
Chapter 23
"I can feel him," I said. "He's over there."
I pointed toward a point all the way across Hub.
"His mind is like a damn Behemoth," I continued. "We have to get out of here before he gets close enough to mark me."
"Get a move on then."
"I hear that, Milady," I returned as I jumped across the span to land on the next to the last building between us and the Doran Facility.
We ran across the roof top to jump again and landed on the next roof.
"I hope they had time to do what I asked 'em to do."
"What's that?"
"When we got to Cerres, I asked Gorvelis to cycle through the gates and find out where they open. He said it takes a bit of time to do a cycle so we may have another location or two."
"It's a good idea."
"I thought it might be good to know."
"Let's hope they got us a few."
"I'm afraid it takes almost a week to do a cycle," I said. "I was hoping we would get enough time to get two cycles but it looks like things got cut short. At least we'll have one maybe."
As we landed on the roof of the Doran Facility, a Shak'Tar exited the door to the stairwell. She came to meet us.
"We have almost finished the cycle, Rash'Tor'Ri," She said. "We haven't had enough time to cycle the gate to any more settings besides this one."
"It's one more we'll have, Saara."
"The gate will be ready in less than one hour."
"Are you the highest ranking Shak'Tar, here?"
"Yes, Master."
"I want you all out of the facility before he gets here. No fightin' this guy. Pull everyone out and get to Cerres or Parlais. But there's somethin' I want done before you leave."
"Yes, Master."
I grinned, "Here's what I want you to do…"
***
"You're lucky you left that phone with the Shak'Tar," Lyrica said, looking over the wooded valley below us. The gate had opened on the valley floor.
"I wonder why they're always in a valley or plain," I said. "Maybe it's just easier to travel through there."
"Could be a little harder on a mountain peak."
"And, as far as the phone goes, Jacobs suggested it when we talked about this little plan that didn't pan all the way out."
"At least we found this one," she said. "According to the GPS, we're in northern Argentina."
"True," I answered. "I suppose we can work on the shields for this while the Mages get here."
"Will ninety of them be enough? The last time we did this, we used over three hundred."
"It should work. It didn't take much to blow me off a mountain. But, in the worst case we have to pull some more from Kansas to do it. We still got time, the gate will be cyclin' for five more days. Then we'll see if the trap gets sprung."
"What makes you think Hal'For'Radolin will fall for it?"
"He's a giant. He's not had any fear in him for a thousand years. That would have to breed arrogance, wouldn't you think?"
"Probably so."
"I'm hopin' he is. Arrogance breeds stupidity. We marked all the clans that came here last time, so he can't read 'em if we pull 'em back to Cerres. We keep all of ours well away from him. Then, either he has to take the time and research what's happened or he charges in blind. If we're right about him, I think his arrogance will push for the latter."
"And that's why you set the cycle to the Kansas gate."
"Exactly," I said. "If he charges through that gate, he'll deserve what he gets."
"Then we need to get this done quickly and get back there. I'm going to need to set up the infirmary, immediately."
"Paige is already gettin' it set up for you. She said she would as soon as I told her what was happenin'."
"She really was a good choice for her position," she said.
"Very true."
"She's still afraid of the amount of power her stream gives her."
"It's understandable. She's got more raw power than anyone on the planet, but if her focus slips for an instant, nuclear meltdown."
"I wish there was something we could do for her."
"We could restrict her stream back down some, but then there's the 'most powerful leads' policy."
"Which is the stupidest way to choose a leader I ever heard of," she shook her head.
"I agree. I have to wonder what they were thinkin' back then."
"They talked of a change to a voting system, but they haven't brought it back up since."
"They're worried about a change in leadership while this is still goin' on. Paige is doin' a great job with the governments, and they don't want to risk that. You can bet they'll bring it up when the war is done. Provided we're still here when it's over."
"We have to be," she said. "I need to go back to Cerres and get my dress."
"I pity the ones who would stand in the way of that, my cute and fuzzy bunny."
"Damn Kresh and their stupid animals," she muttered. "I bet you had a hand in this, didn't you?"
"I have no idea what you're talkin' about."
"You did, didn't you?" her eyes narrowed.
"How could you even think that?"
"It's that damn mark," she said. "It makes them more like you. I knew it was your fault."
"Really?"
I heard the engines of the plane and muttered, "Thank god."
"What was that?"
"Nothin', Honey," I answered. "Just happy the Mages are here so we can get this done."
"I thought so."
I turned toward the incoming aircraft with a grin.
"How do you want to do this?" she asked.
"Just before the shield meets the ground, I'm thinkin' we need to put a rupture point like the fireball launcher they taught us to build at the Academy. We steer the power in and let it build until it bursts and we have more like what we had in Romania."
"That sounds simple enough," she said and began building her shield that would cup the right side of the valley.
I began building mine on the left.
It wasn't long until the Mages arrived. I stopped the construction of my shield and turned toward the forest behind us. The first to exit the canopy was a tiny woman, less than five feet and small. Her Soulstream was at least as big as Lyrica's. She glowed with power.
"Miss Renauld," I nodded, "Welcome to the party."
"It's Zeenia," she answered. "You must be Rourke and this must be Jayne."
"Colin, if you don't mind."
Lyrica finished her shield and turned around, "Call me Lyrica, Zeenia. It's good to meet you. We've heard much but never had the chance to visit the Academy here."
"I wish I had been allowed to come north during the second wave but I was needed here."
"We couldn't afford to pull everybody in and leave the others unprotected," I said. "Lord knows, it had to be frustrating."
"To say the least," she answered. "So, what do you need to close this thing?"
"We'll need half of you to Pull and steer the power above me, the other half to steer the power above her. We'll take it from there and steer it into these shields we're makin'. Then the fireworks begin."
"We'll need several supports apiece, as well," Lyrica added.
"That doesn't sound too complicated."
"It's not. We just need a lot more power than we could Pull on our own."
"Let me know when you are ready, I will get my people settled."
"Great," I said. "I'll finish my shield."
"If someone could focus better they could have finished their shield while talking," Lyrica said.
"Yeah, yeah."
I returned to my shield and continued building the cupped form that rested against the left side of the valley we faced. It resembled a cupped hand. When it was finished I pushed it outward into the valley walls, deep enough to hit the rock underneath. I saw Lyrica do the same.
"Ok, Zeenia, we're ready."
"Pull!" she ordered.
The hair stood up on the back of my neck and the familiar feeling of someone Pulling from the Source came over me. A Pull of this size would be felt from a great distance.
Forty streams of Soulfire poured into the sky above me and I reached out with my mind to seize it. One big gout of power formed and I steered it into the feeder of my shield. The pressure built up inside the feeder.
"Now," I said.
We released the power from the rupture on the other end of the feeder and a massive amount of power surged into the cupped shield. The key to this was the power inside of the shield occupying the same space as the solid rock. As long as a shield is connected to a person or even connected to the Source as a construct, it didn't have this effect. But if you steer the raw power of the Source into the space inside, well, you get a different effect all together.
The ground shook under our feet as the walls of the valley lurched. Then there was a massive explosion as the walls of the valley slammed together.
"Madre de Dios!"
I heard several exclamations behind us.
"Cease!"
The Pull ended and everyone stared at the destruction that used to be a verdant green valley.
"Damn," I heard Zeenia mutter. Then in a louder voice, "Very impressive, Mister Rourke, Miss Jayne. I had heard the descriptions of what you did in Romania but it didn't really do the act justice. How did you even think of something like this?"
Lyrica smiled, "It started when this genius blew himself off a mountain…."
Chapter 24
"I knew it," Paige said. "I told you it would happen when you left."
"It's not my fault," I returned.
"It never is."
"This time it really wasn't me," I said. "I didn’t do it. Lyrica did."
Paige turned to Lyrica, who had been quiet up to this point, "Was it his fault?"
"Of course it was. If he'd been training his focus, I wouldn't have had to kill it."
"I told him what would happen," Paige looked at me with narrowed eyes. "Whenever he makes one of these jaunts of his to the other side of the gates, bad things happen soon after."
I sighed and just looked at her.
"Nothing more to say?"
I shrugged, "Not much point in it, now, is there?"
"You're learning."
"I'll pick my battles," I said. "This ain't one of 'em."
"Speaking of battles," Lyrica said. "I'm going to the infirmary and checking it out. I'll see you this evening, Dearest."
"Love you," I returned with a smile.
I turned back to find Paige smiling one of those knowing smiles that women seem to all have when something happens that I have no clue about.
"What?"
She just shook her head with that smile on her face.
"So what do you know about Hal'For'Radolin?" she asked.
"He's supposed to be one of what they call the Elders. They've been around since the beginning and they're stronger than anything we've ever seen before. He has a horde of Kresh under him that dwarfs any of the ones that came before. And he isn't afraid of anything."
"Doesn't sound very good."
"But we have the plan," I said. "If what we have in Kansas can't stop him, we're screwed anyway."
"If he falls for it."
"True," I said. "There are no guarantees. He may just cycle the gate again. If he does we get another week's grace period."
"There is that, anyway. Do you think he'll send forces through small gates like they did before Second Kansas?"
"I don't have a clue," I said. "If he's smart, he will. But who knows how the fact that he doesn't have anything to go on will affect his decisions. The first wave didn't, and they paid for it. I can't really predict what he'll do. I couldn't risk getting near him while he was marking Jas'Por'Kadin's clans. His power would have marked me too. The mark I have on the others was fueled by the power of all of 'em. I just have me in here."
I tapped the side of my head.
"Can't risk him marking me," I continued. "I don't even know what would happen then. Don't know if it would carry down the chain with the way the mark was done."
"That is particularly worrisome," she said.
"Even worse," I said, "If he sends forces through as soon as the gate finishes cycling, they'll be the ones he just marked from Jas'Por'Kadin's clan. We won't even thin the numbers of his original clan with the trap."
"Whatever he sends will thin his numbers."
"I'm just a little disappointed we didn't manage to mark those clans and get 'em back out of the way before he showed up. He's messin' up my plans."
"Gregor is fond of telling me that no plan completely survives contact with the enemy. That's why they're the enemy."
I chuckled, "Rictor always had somethin' like that to say."
"I bet he did," she returned. "Speaking of Rictor, did you get to see him while you were over there?"
"Unfortunately, he had gone back to Parlais. Gorvelis said he was supposed to be back by the time we were supposed to be there. The early trip kind of screwed that one up."
"That's a shame," she said. "I know how much you were looking forward to seeing him again."
"Just knowin' he survived is enough," I returned.
"Still, it would have been nice."
"True enough."
"And how are the others? Jack, Darrell?"
"They're turnin' out Guards at an astonishing speed. Using telepaths to teach is a hell of a boost to that," I said. "I expect Darrell will be movin' to Krongis before long."
"Krongis?"
"I sent the new clans to take the facility that leads there. After that's done, I think they're plannin' to open another Academy there. Or they may move into Parlais first. I left the operations in their hands. I just told my clans to take both worlds' facilities."
"You were busy."
"Actually we spent the week lounging in the penthouse of the Cerres Citadel. We've got good people over there and they don't need much guidance to do what they need to. My part only took a few minutes and Lyrica's took even less, although it was the most important thing done while we were there."
"She stopped Jas'Por'Kadin from killing you."
"No, she showed a telepathic race that couldn't read her that she is worthy of taking over if I fall. She may not be able to mark 'em but they damn sure know she can handle herself. To them, it's one of their founding ideals. The strongest of the Kresh are the ones who lead. She just proved that she could take out one of their most powerful Farrara'Ti, single-handed. It's the first step in the direction I want them to go. I want them free of the Mark at some point in the future. Lyrica gives them an example."
"Lofty goals," she said. "Admirable goals."
"The mark is a form of slavery, and I don't like it in the least. It feels right to me when I'm over there or even when I visit Oklahoma. That's why it scares me. I don't want that power over people, even as it feels so comforting to have them near."
"I'm still not sure what that mark is going to do in the future."
"Me too," I said.
I stood up from the seat across the desk from Paige, "I gotta have a meetin' with Marco and Polo. The new guns arrived today."
"New guns?"
"I had Warren send every one of the guns we already had built out here. I'm hoping to set up a few more before Hal'For'Radolin sends his troops through the gate."
