Rise of Shadows (36 page)

“Master, because I was almost pulled in the last time I was there. If I go back it will just happen again,” I said.

“Spectra? Any way to stop him from falling in?” asked Master Shadow.

“Master, he won’t as long as he stays in a corporeal form. I believe he was being drawn in because his Night Form is very close to a wraith, but if he stays as a Parrinian he will be safe,” said Spectra.

“Great, that handles at least one of our problems, but we still have two more to solve,” said Master Shadow.

“Master, once those explosive charges go off, there will no longer be a need for stealth, so Spectra could gate me directly to their engineering, and I could take out their primary power grid,” said Darius.

“Sounds very risky,” said Flame. “I don’t like you going at that alone.”

“Yes, Master Flame, but I suspect the rest of you will be needed elsewhere. Our numbers are too small to pair up everywhere,” said Darius.

“Perhaps. Let’s set that aside for now and figure out what we are going to do about the tear itself. It is different from the last tear in that this one goes to a whole different realm, so how do we close it?” asked Master Shadow.

“Master, it wants to close. All we have to do is free it,” said Spectra.

“What do you mean?” asked Master Shadow.

“Master, I can feel the tear calling me. It’s begging to be free of the magic that is keeping it open. I think if we can dispel the spells that have opened it, it will seal itself,” said Spectra.

I looked back into her deep green eyes and sent, “
I can feel it too.”

I felt her smile back and send, “
I know.”

“Interesting, so then what do you propose?” asked Master Shadow.

“Master, if you can unweave the power on this side of the tear, I can travel to the spirit realm and work on the other side. Between the two of us, we should be able to seal it,” she said.

“That would leave both of us vulnerable to attack. Phoenix can shield me, but what about you?” asked Master Shadow.

“Master, I believe I can enhance Dusty’s Night Form to make him truly a wraith, and then he can come with me and guard me,” said Spectra.

“That just might work,” said Master Shadow. “That ties four of us up with the tear and leaves Darius to attack engineering. Coverage is a bit thin, but that appears to be the hand we have been dealt, so it will have to do.”

“I could go help Darius in engineering,” said Flame.

“No, I need you here at the helm. Shea and Leslie will be no match for a sorcerer if one tries to board and cut off our escape,” said Master Shadow.

“Oh, I did not think about that,” said Flame, a bit crestfallen.

We talked for a while longer and worked out the details, then over the next few days Phoenix and Darius worked on manufacturing the charges for the mission, while Spectra and I worked out the specifics of her making me a wraith. Also during this time Master Shadow and I made regular trips into the station to place the charges on the containers. By using Night Form to get in and then changing to Shadow Form once inside, we were able to place the charges safely and without being detected.

The days seemed to drag on and on as we spent most of the time just waiting. Darius explained to us that that was just how war was. The stories of war were always about the great battles, but most of time you sit around waiting for your next move. It seemed that war was a much more boring affair than I could ever have guessed.

It was not all bad though, as our preparations required that I spend a lot of time alone with Spectra, which was a joy in itself. It would not be long until our waiting would turn into high stakes combat, but until then I was satisfied with what I had.

“Master Shadow, I think I’ve got something,” said Spectra.

After all our preparations and planning were complete, the day of the Aleeryon naval attack had finally come. Dusty and I had placed all the charges well ahead of schedule, and we were as ready as we could be. The biggest problem we faced now was not having any idea when the attack would happen. All we had from Bill was a broad window, and because of that we were all sitting on a hair-trigger, jumping at any possible sign of attack. I wanted desperately to stretch out my awareness and look for the bombers, but I did not dare do anything that had any chance of spoiling the surprise attack.

So far, the pirate fleet seemed completely unaware of the pending attack. I was still concerned that this was an elaborate trap of some kind, but there was no indication of that at all. Everything was exactly as I expected it would be if the enemy was unaware of our presence, and yet it was one of their own number who gave us the tip about this secret base.

“What do you see, Spectra?” I asked.

“Master, for a moment I thought I had a glimpse of a fleet of small ships jumping in, but it’s gone now,” she said.

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“Master, I am sure I saw something, but nothing is there now,” she said.

“Excellent!” I said, then said over the comm, “All hands, battle stations!”

“Master, there is nothing there,” said Spectra.

“Right, which is exactly the behavior one would expect from a fleet of stealth bombers,” I said. The mundanes had the same problem that we had with jump space: that is, they could not come out of it under cloak, so there was a brief moment when they could be detected before they could cloak.

“Of course!” she said, then locked her station and moved to Dusty’s side in preparation for their date in the spirit realm. Dusty looked very scared, but having Spectra next to him seemed to calm him a little. I knew he had grown a lot during this mission, but he still lacked that warrior spirit. In a way, I was glad he still had his tenderness, as there was no returning once war made you hard. I was sad for all of my team; they would all one day become cold, calculating warriors when faced with battle. That would be a good day for the safety of the realm, and I knew that it was my job to forge them into the weapons necessary to protect the realm from the rising tide of darkness, but it would be a sad day for them. The taste of war will forever alienate you from the life of peace. It will either destroy them or change them, permanently.

Darius came on the bridge with his staff and in his full battle armor. His armor was not as good as the armor we had, but it would still be a while before we could get him his own suit. He locked on his helmet, which would allow him to operate even in the extreme environment of outer space. Unlike the rest of my team, he was perfectly calm and ready for battle. He needed no hardening, as he was already a warrior in the truest sense. In a way, he represented what I had to make my people into: a fearless fighting machine.

Flame moved to the command chair on the bridge and began routing all the controls to that station so that she could control the ship alone, if need be. I was glad we had a good excuse to keep her out of the fight. I liked her the way she was and did not want to see her change.

“How long do you think we have?” asked Flame.

“Not long, in fact they may have already launched the first wave of bombs,” I said. The bombers would move as fast as they could into their attack run, under the assumption they had been spotted and only had a brief window to attack before their targets could react to their presence.

Shea came on the bridge with bags of potions, which she gave out to each of us. I was grateful for them because they could give us an edge in any close battle, especially since the enemy would have no knowledge that we now had access to potions. She also gave each of us a blessing, which I was completely unaccustomed to, but I could feel real power in it. It was a very odd kind of power, a kind I had never seen before. It was the purest of white and had no discernable signature to it. Had I not seen Shea cast it, it would have been impossible to tell where it came from. As the white power wrapped around me, I felt my mind get sharper, my strength increase, and I even felt more agile than I have ever felt before.

“Thank you, Shea. When we have time, I would love to know more about this strange power you wield,” I said, but she did not get the chance to respond, as at that moment our tactical alarms started going off. A quick glance at the screen showed that the first wave of bombs had started to detonate. “That is our cue, blow the charges!”

Flame pressed the innocent-looking button on her control panel that sent a remote command to all the charges we had planted on the station, telling them to blow. As we stood there on the bridge of the Dust Dragon, explosions were rocking the fleet outside the station from the Aleeryon naval attack, and deep in the core of the station many more explosions were wreaking havoc on the interior.

In addition to the charges on the canisters, we used some of our extra time to plant charges at key junctions around the station to cut off any reinforcements from making it to key areas when the next phase of our attack rolled out. As we stood there, all over the populated section of the station large explosions were ripping huge holes in corridors, cutting power lines, and destroying elevator shafts. Only the hardiest of troops could prevent the chaos and panic that those explosions would be causing right now.

“It is time, Darius, go!” I said.

Immediately Spectra opened a gate, and Darius charged through. As soon as he was through and the gate was closed, I opened my gate to the tear chamber, and Phoenix called out, “Let’s do this!” as he locked on his helmet and charged through the gate. I was a bit worried about him on this mission, as he wanted vengeance for Dusty’s capture, and vengeance was not something that a wizard should embrace.

“Dusty, Spectra, you are on!” I said as I locked on my helmet and followed Phoenix through the gate. Once I was clear of the gate, Phoenix cast his shield around me in preparation for any counter-attack.

The charges we placed had done their job superbly. All of the canisters that had once been filled with great power were nothing more than broken and charred debris. The power they once held was pooling around the room and slowly being drawn into the tear. The lightning that we had seen the last time we were in there was far more chaotic, as if it was searching for the canisters that it once serviced. Phoenix’s shields were soon taking a heavy beating from them, as they began to be attracted to the shields. It was as if they thought of us as new canisters to fill.

I grabbed some of the pooled energy and fed it into his shields, weaving it into a reflecting layer that caused the lighting to arc even more chaotically around the room. That, at the very least, should discourage anyone from bothering us while I worked on the tear.

I had spent the better part of a week studying the power that was keeping the gate open, and I was still a bit concerned about my ability to unweave it in a controlled manner. Everything about it screamed of barely-controlled chaos, where one false move could have disastrous results.

I took a deep breath to steady my focus and began to work. I looked over the powerful bands that were pulling the tear open and chose what I hoped was a key band. I strained to fold it back on itself. As I finally got part of the band of power disconnected from the tear, the rest of it snapped back like a rubber band that had broken. The tear shuddered and shrank slightly as the power from the band was released and bounced across it. Spectra was right! All we had to do was free the tear, and it would heal itself.

I knew that somewhere through the tear in a realm whose horrors I could not even imagine, Spectra and Dusty were counting on me. At the same time, I knew that Darius was fighting for his life against an unknown number of enemy forces while he tried to take control of engineering. All three of them would be lost if I failed my part of the mission. I had to move very quickly, as no matter what else happened, time was against us. The longer we stayed here, the more likely sorcerers would be assembled to counter us. I could not both fight them and close the tear at the same time, so all would be lost if they attacked, as Phoenix could not stave them off alone.

I watched Master Shadow charge through his gate, and watched as it winked out behind him with a degree of terror, as I knew this meant it was time for me to head to the realm of the spirits. I turned to Spectra and asked, “Ready?”

“Yes, Dusty,” she said. Her confidence was amazing. We were about to embark into one of the foulest realms in all of known existence to do battle alone, and she was as cool and collected as ever. No, there was something more: there was a hint of excitement in her eyes, as if she was looking forward to it.

Together we began casting. It was a complex and graceful dance around each other as she cast a potent spell known as Wraith Form, and at the same time, I was casting Night Form. Our dance took us through the walls of the Dust Dragon into space as we flowed and weaved together with our spells intermixing, blending, and intertwining. I could feel her mind inside mine as we drew closer and closer together in our dance. Suddenly with a flash of light, reality melted away from around us, and both of our bodies melted away, leaving us as wraiths and banishing us to the spirit realm. Too soon the dance was done, and we were in the land of tortured spirits, the land where ghosts, wraiths, specters, and all manner of vile spirits were banished to in the days before the Vydorian Realm was even created.

I could still feel Spectra in my mind, and she sent, “
Hold on to my thoughts, Dusty. We must not get separated here.
”

That was an easy command to follow, as I never wanted to leave her side, especially not here! We moved swiftly through the realm at the speed of thought until Spectra found the tear. Once there she sent, “
Dusty, we need to clear our side of the tear, as these spirits are helping to keep the tear open. They want to escape this realm and take over ours. We can’t let that happen.
”

More spirits were assaulting the tear than I could even begin to count. I could not even begin to guess how many different kinds of beings were attempting to break through that tear into our realm. “
Spectra, what is holding them back?
”