Rise of Shadows Read online

  Slowly and carefully, I moved away from the area. I now knew where the bridge was, and I needed to go there. I would not be able to cast Night Form again for a while yet, but I did not need it to get past these blundering mundanes. I continued down the hall at a slow pace until I was sure I was out of their sight. Then I cast Shadow Form, which would give me a greater degree of concealment and allow me to move faster through the ship. Without Night Form I could not travel through the walls, which forced me to work my way though a maze of corridors, all the way dodging security patrols that appeared to be looking for me.

  I am not sure how long it took, but eventually I reached the entrance to the bridge. I knew that once there I would be more likely to find out something useful. I watched the door to the bridge for a while, waiting for someone to open it so I could slip through. I knew I just had to be patient; sooner or later the door would open, and I would have to move fast to make it through.

  For a brief while I wondered if I should report back in to Shadow. By now they must be wondering if all was going well. The problem was now that they were looking for me, I did not dare reach out telepathically, as it could blow my cover if any sorcerers were on this ship. I had come too close to being caught in that weapons locker.

  While I was mentally debating that, the door to the bridge slid open. Moving as quickly as I could without revealing myself, I slipped inside. The bridge was even more of a disaster than the rest of the ship. There were control panels laid open with parts hanging out. Trash was gathered in piles in various places, and I would guess less than half of the equipment even had power, never mind any level of functionality. Men and women of various races ran to and fro from station to station shouting words in a jargon that I could not follow. I slowly moved into a place where I could watch and listen, confident that I could stay hidden indefinitely in this mess.

  I found a place on the bridge to hide for a while and set my datapad to record everything being said. I understood very little of what they were saying. They were talking in the common language of the Empire, but they just were not using words I knew. I do not know how long I waited there, but eventually something did happen.

  One of the men called out, “Sir, we picked up an encrypted message!”

  “From where?” answered the man who I assume was the captain by virtue of how the others acted around him.

  “It was a burst transmission, sir. No way to tell,” said the first man.

  “Then the Dust Dragon is here for sure. Get that message decrypted fast!” ordered the captain.

  “We will need to contact the others,” said a person that might have been the second-in-command, based on his proximity to the captain.

  While this was happening Spectra contacted me. “Dusty, we have to get you off the ship. Bombers are incoming from the Aleeryon Navy,” she sent.

  “I take it you just got that message via some encrypted burst message?” I sent.

  “Yes,” she sent.

  “I am on the bridge here, and they intercepted it but have not been able to read it yet,” I sent.

  “All the more reason to get you out of there,” she replied.

  Before I could respond I felt power building in the room. I looked towards the center and saw a gate open. Three men came out of the gate on to the bridge. In truth it was hard to call them men, as they had a vile and disfigured appearance. The stench of death permeated the room as they entered. There was viscous darkness around them such as I had never seen before. Sorcerers!

  “Not now,” I replied and sent an image of what I was seeing.

  “Speak!” said one of the sorcerers.

  “Master, we intercepted a message from the Aleeryon Navy to the Dust Dragon,” stammered the captain.

  “Well? What does it say?” demanded the sorcerer.

  “We have not been able to decrypt it yet,” he responded.

  “Show it to me,” said the sorcerer.

  “Dusty! Get out of there! Those are necromancers! The most vile of the vile,” sent Shadow.

  “I can’t risk that just yet, but do not wait for me. Get out of here, and I will do what I can to get clear in the meantime,” I sent.

  “We have already started leaving. Stay hidden and as soon as you can get clear we will pull you out,” he sent.

  “But, Master, it cannot be read. It is …” started the captain, who was cut off by some unseen force throwing him in the air. He hit the deck with a sickening thud and did not move.

  The lead necromancer then turned to another man and said, “Show me the message.”

  This fellow rushed to a computer terminal and brought up the encrypted message on the screen. The necromancer then raised his hand and said a command word. Immediately power leaped from one of the many rings on his fingers, and the message on the screen was instantly decrypted.

  “Shadow, they decrypted the message!” I sent.

  “Dusty, get away from those necromancers so we can gate you out. Shadow is telling the navy to send the bombers now since the cover has been blown,” responded Spectra.

  Before I could respond the necromancer said, “Do not send any messages.”

  “Master, we need to retreat or those bombers will destroy us all,” said one of the men.

  “No, not yet. The Dust Dragon must be fleeing the area. That means we should be able to find them,” said the necromancer, who then turned and said something to one of the others in a language I did not recognize. The other necromancer then started to cast some kind of spell, but was interrupted before he could complete it by alarms going off all over the room.

  “Dust Dragon spotted!” someone called out.

  “They see you!” I sent.

  “Don’t worry! It’s too late for them! Just get to someplace where I can gate you out without those necromancers interfering, NOW!” Spectra sent.

  “Where?” demanded the necromancer.

  “15 mark 30 point 7 degrees and burning away at high speed,” responded one of the men.

  “Stop them!” ordered the necromancer.

  “Too late, bombs are already incoming. We have to leave now,” said an officer just before he was thrown into the wall with great force by some unseen power.

  “Fools, you are letting them get away,” said the necromancer with a curse. “Now get your men out there and stop them!”

  Before they could get a message out, I risked a spell, a fast and easy spell that concealed languages. Soon everyone on the bridge was talking a completely different language and unable to read the displays or controls, as they were all also scrambled. That will slow them down a bit. Hopefully, enough, I thought as I began to make my way to the exit. I needed to figure out how to get clear so that Spectra could pull me out before the Dust Dragon got out of range of her spell.

  The necromancers looked around at the chaos that was resulting from the language spell and said something that I was sure was some vile curse in their language. One of them began to cast as I slowly backed up. I was much too close to them for comfort, but I had to slip by them to get to the door. Suddenly I felt myself falling backwards and was soon wrapped in the calming azure energy of jump space.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  As I fell out of jump space, I felt my body crash into something smooth and hard. Acting on instinct, I quickly rolled away and jumped to my feet. In front of me I saw two men. One was an older gentleman that was dressed as any well-to-do traveler might dress. He had the look of a typical successful businessman. The other must have been some kind of bodyguard. He was hard and cold-looking, with unnaturally gray eyes that bore right through me. My cloaking spells had been broken when I fell through the gate, as had my magically heightened awareness. Otherwise, I might have noticed the necromancers come in. Instead, all I felt was a sudden sharp pain in my back, and I crumbled to the floor in pain.

  “He is under my protection now,” I heard the old man say.

  From my new vantage point on the floor I co
uld see the three necromancers turn to face him. I saw two of them begin to cast as the third said, “Then you too will join our undead forces.”

  Their spell leaped forward toward the old man, but the steel-eyed man stepped in between and caught their blast on his forearms, which he had crossed in front of himself like a shield. Once their attack was completely absorbed, he snapped his arms down to his sides and began to chant. A few short command words was all it took as he snapped his arms up and pointed at the two necromancers that had cast. Each of his arms acted like a cannon, turning back the spell they had cast on him, but with much greater force.

  I decided at this point I had seen enough and slowly gathered darkness around myself. The pain coursing through my body prevented me from pulling off any of my better cloaking spells, but I just needed enough cover to make it out while they were distracted trying to kill each other. I attempted to stand, but the pain in my back was too great, so I began to crawl. I saw a door across the room and made for it. If I could just get a few minutes to re-gather focus I could cast Night Form and be safe. As I reached the door I noticed that the sounds of fighting behind me had died off. I looked back and saw a gate had been opened and what was left of the three bodies of the necromancers was drifting through it.

  “There, that should send them a nice, clear message that we do not want their kind around here,” said the old man. “Don’t you agree, Dusty?”

  These men had just defeated three powerful sorcerers, necromancers at that, so they must be magi of some kind. That meant the low-level cloak I had managed to cast was useless. Using the wall for support I slowly stood and turned towards them. They both stood there calm and completely unharmed. Had I not seen the battle myself I would never had guessed that they were wielding such power just moments before.

  “Come, Dusty, let us see to your wounds,” said the old man.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  “For now, think of me as a friend,” he said with a smile. It was a reasonable request. After all, he seemed like a nice enough person, and he had just saved me from a fate worse than death at the hands of necromancers.

  “Sir, how did I get here?” I asked.

  The man with the steel-grey eyes walked towards me, helped me to a seat, and then said, “Nice armor. It seems to have protected you from most of their spell. Still, it must have felt like you were hit with a sledgehammer.” He then walked around, looked at the old man, and said, “He will be sore for days. He may have some trouble breathing for a while and will develop a large bruise, but other than that he is fine.”

  “Thank you,” he said to the steel-eyed man, then turned to me and said, “I brought you here, and they followed uninvited.”

  “Spectra? Shadow? Anyone out there?” I sent, somehow knowing I was too far away for my limited telepathic powers to reach them. I was on my own for a while. “Well, I guess I owe you for saving me, then, but I would like to rejoin my team on the Dust Dragon.”

  “That is not possible right now. As you can guess, they had to leave quickly too, and we lost track of them when the bombs went off,” he said.

  Of course, Shadow would have cloaked the Dust Dragon as soon as they cleared jump space, I thought to myself and then said, “No matter, I can meet up with them at Aleeryon Prime.”

  “No, not yet. You need to rest and heal. You will be my guest for a while,” he said. “Do not worry, you will be well taken care of.”

  “Thank you, but that really is not necessary,” I said.

  “Oh, but it is. Besides, I have a wondrous library of spellbooks you must see. I am quite proud of it and would be offended if you did not at least visit it while you were here,” he said. He then went on and described other wonders he wanted me to see.

  I knew I should argue and insist on leaving, but there was something about the way he talked. I could not help but be interested in what he was saying. As he was talking, the steel-eyed man brought me some raw aupessi, a rare delicacy and extremely expensive. The fish is native only to my homeworld and is my all-time favorite food. Back home I could hunt for them myself, but sadly I had not even seen one since I left to join Alpha Academy. I could not help myself when he gave me the fish. I dug right in. The fish tasted even better than I remembered. Eating helped to clear my head a little, and I felt a measure of healing from that simple act.

  As I was eating my food, it occurred to me that I needed to be thinking about getting back to Shadow and the others. I finished my meal and stood to leave, when the old man said, “Ah, then, you are feeling better. Come this way.” He then walked towards the back of the room.

  I did not move at first, but my curiosity was going wild from all the stories he had told me of what he wanted to show me. I looked back towards the door. There was nothing between me and the door, a simple sprint and I would be gone. Even as I thought this I felt myself almost involuntarily turning back towards the old man and starting to follow him. I just had to know what was in that library, and was there really an ocean just outside this room with aupessi swimming free?

  I felt much stronger after eating the fish and quickly caught up with them. My head was a bit fuzzy again, but I figured that would pass in time. It did not take long to cross the room, and once we did the old man spoke a command word, and the back wall parted to reveal a beach with blue sand, just like home. As soon as I saw the ocean I sprinted past them and dove in. Oh, the freedom of the ocean! What a wondrous feeling! The cool water flowing into my lungs helped rejuvenate and clear my head.

  I do not know how long I swam for, but eventually I returned to the beach. The two magi were not there, but they had left a couple of chairs and some drinks behind. There was no sign of the door we used to get here, nor any indication that there ever was a building of any kind. I found our tracks in the beach sand and followed them until they abruptly ended.

  It must be hidden, I thought to myself and then cast a reveal spell, which failed to reveal anything. Next I cast a spell that would give me heightened magical awareness, which should reveal anything that was either hidden or previously here, and still I could find no trace of the door I knew we came out of.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  I wandered back to the chairs and relaxed for a short while, sipping on one of the drinks. As I rested there contemplating my situation, it dawned on me that I was stranded on a beach with no idea where I was and that I was completely at the mercy of whoever the strange magi were. They obviously were not working with the sorcerers, since they had just killed three of them, but I did not recall ever seeing them around Alpha Academy either.

  The swim had done wonders for my head, and I could think clearly for the first time since falling through that gate. I looked around, knowing that I needed to find a way out of here before the magi returned. Something deep inside me was warning me that I could not trust them. I could not think of any reason why, but I learned long ago to trust my instincts. The beach I was on ran up against a forest that stretched away as far as I could see. In all my swimming I had not come across any other sign of land, so that was either an ocean or a massive lake. It had plenty of fish in it, so I could survive out there a long time if need be, but my goal was still to return to Shadow. I decided to follow the tree line for a while. If this was a populated planet, then a beach like this would be valuable, and at some point I should come across something.

  After walking for a long while, I stopped to rest. Looking behind me I could no longer see the chairs, yet the scenery in either direction was unchanged. I decided to climb a tree and see if I could see any further. Once up in the tree I could see smoke rising in the distance. Civilization! I thought to myself, Or a forest fire. Either way, it was better than the endless hike I was on.

  I pulled some darkness around myself to prevent being spotted by any predators that might be in the woods and recast my heightened awareness so that I had a chance of seeing those predators first. It took most of the rest of the day to reach the source of the sm
oke. As I approached the scene, my stomach dropped. There were bodies everywhere and what looked like burnt-out remains of primitive huts and small houses.

  Looking from my vantage point hidden in the woods by both my cloaking spell and the deep darkness, I watched as a group of men dragged out a woman by the hair and threw her brutally on the ground. She was screaming at them as they spat and kicked her. I had seen enough and jumped out of the woods with a loud cry.

  “Thyella pagou!” I called out as I landed and slammed my hands together in front of me with my arms stretched out towards the men. Suddenly a wall of razor-sharp ice shards flew from my hands and slammed into the men, forcing them to the ground in pain. Not wanting to lose my advantage, I cast it a second time as they tried to recover, causing a couple of them to fall a second time and stay down. One of the men called something out, and those that could stand ran off.

  I moved quickly to the side of the woman, who had slipped into unconsciousness, and checked her wounds. My training as a first responder told me she would be okay but needed medical attention as soon as could be managed. I cast a spell to levitate her body and quickly headed into the woods before the men could come back with friends. Once I thought we had gone deep enough into the woods, I lowered her to the ground and treated her wounds as best I could. All I had to work with was some water in my canteen, so it was not much, but I was able to stop her bleeding and put her clothes back together in a more modest fashion than they had left her.

  I put a cloak around our hiding spot and waited for her to come round. I could not leave her alone out here; there could be any number of dangerous beasts in these woods, and who knew if those men would come back? As I sat there keeping watch, I wondered about my current situation. Those dwellings were very primitive, and there was no sign of the normal technology that might be found in any town. In all my travels, I had never even heard of a place that was this backward. I wondered if it was some kind of commune or wacky religious outpost. The biggest question was: why was it attacked, and what had driven those men to brutally beat this woman?