Chapter 63

Day 250

Very early in the morning:

A white-robed woman popped into existence between two stone columns on the west side of the Great Pyramid. She froze for a moment, then whispered something too quietly to hear. Her robes disappeared, replaced by a strange suit of dull gray armor with a couple of flashing insignia on it. That was quickly replaced again by functional, insignia-less (save Red wings on her helmet) Valkyrie armor.

Veronyka quickly moved south along the outside of the line of stone pillars. Dim light from the metal lamps that the Boon guards maintained all night cast shadows beside each opening. Once she was out of eyeshot from her starting point, she stopped and pulled something from a pouch at her waist.

Though she hadn’t wanted to, her group had all decided that using their dragon mounts around the Pyramid carried too many risks. None of the poor things had been able to stretch their wings since they entered the dust cloud. If she hadn’t been carrying all the ‘eggs’, Veronyka would’ve let Ream’ch out and used the portal stone to speed up her journey. But since the other ‘eggs’ were technically John’s, not theirs they’d decided also that whoever was stationed to watch for him should carry them. And return them as soon as he appeared; a task she’d obviously failed to complete.

So, she was going to take the risk and use Ream’ch to fly around the Pyramid. Hopefully they could stay outside the College lamps’ range while they flew. In her need to conserve energy, she’d only Moved to between one and two hours prior to dawn. Memory Movements were the hardest, and hurried ones were the most prone to error. Hopefully she hadn’t misjudged her timing.

Ream’ch sprang up once she tossed the dragon’s ‘egg’ onto the sand. Veronyka jumped into her saddle and strapped in quickly.

“Up, up and around the Pyramid.” She instructed. “We need to hurry.”

A running leap and they were airborne. Once they were at a good enough height, she was able to enjoy the view. The entire ring of tents, lights and stone columns looked beautiful in the pre-dawn hours.

They skimmed the Pyramid’s slanted south-facing surface before diving to a spot Veronyka indicated outside the eastern pillars.

“Stay here, I’ll be right back.” Veronyka whispered. “Then we’ll go fly again.”

She sprinted toward the gates and slipped into the lee behind one. Spooky and Ellis had both confirmed, with Ben voicing his agreement that they were constantly being watched. Djinn, Nomads, even Be’d’yin were always around. They followed every person, wherever they went. The Djinn who’d been her minder earlier that coming day must have been the one to summon the guards, because she hadn’t seen him after linking back up with John.

Hoping that whoever carried the task overnight was asleep after weeks of no activity, Veronyka crept though the opening, doing her best to stay in the shadows. She now had better control of the Lance, and extended it silently. Holding it by one end, she reached out to tap the boot closest to their tent’s entrance. That should be Spooky or Ben, since Sygraid always slept beside Deni at the back. She did it that way so that if they were ever attacked, she could keep the Pyramid’s side right behind her and let everyone else form up to her sides.

Her second foot-tap was greeted with a black hand grasping the end. Spooky quickly realized what he’d gotten ahold of and let go right away. She retracted it and hissed wordlessly. It really was nearly impossible to see him in the dark, so she motioned until he slipped out of the tent.

They moved silently, with her in the lead until they were back beside Ream’ch.

“What are you doing?” Spooky asked in a low tone after eyeing the dragon. “We agreed not to ... Wait, how did you get out of the tent without me knowing?”

Veronyka shook her head as he glanced back to where the others were sleeping. “Because I didn’t leave the tent. I’m still there.”

Spooky’s head whipped around. “You came back in time? What happened?”

Veronyka sighed. “We got ambushed. Today, John comes out of the Pyramid. I saw him right away, but on our way to link up with you guys we got taken prisoner by the Boon thugs.”

“John is here, now?” Spooky sounded excited.

“Inside, presumably.” She confirmed, pointing at the Pyramid. “I can’t imagine he was any quicker than one of us.”

“Good.” Spooky rubbed his hands together. “I can’t wait to see him.”

“That’s the problem.” She told him. “An entire guard patrol took him and me prisoner. They forced us to go all the way around to the west side, and John went through a gate over there. We got into a fight as part of it, and all three of us killed at least one guard. John’s gone, I don’t know where to, and if I go through any gate after that fight...”

Spooky nodded grimly. “You’ll get diverted somewhere bad, I remember the warning.”

“I killed the Porter so no one could follow; trying to give John a fighting chance on the other side.” Veronyka continued. “But that closed the gate in my face. So, I came back here to give you the other mounts and take the gate, or one next to it as soon as the Porter wakes up this morning.”

She held out the three other ‘eggs’ and dropped them into Spooky’s cupped palms.

“Why don’t we just have everyone be with you when you greet John?” He wondered.

“Because if you change your actions based on this conversation,” she explained tiredly, “you’ll mess up my Memory. That starts a whole sequence of things that’ll turn today into a real mess. I’m pretty sure the main dragons can tell when it gets to that level. Let’s stay beneath their notice.”

He sighed. “Paradox. Of course that would be a thing, since you can time travel. Nothing comes for free. What would you have us do, instead?”

“A Dwarf named ... uh, something with a ‘D’ sound and ‘hand’ in his name, will come running to the tent. When he tells you that we’ve been captured or whatever, chase us. You’ll have to go all the way around to the west side too, but if you’re fast enough you’ll be there in time to see me come back here. What you do after that is your choice, but I’d move down to the next Porter and have him gate you out as closely as he can to the one you see me disappear from.” She suggested.

“Then hop on the dragons and come looking for you.” Spooky completed.

“Or John. I’ll be looking for him too.” She added. “I don’t know what he and the other guy faced on the far side, but hopefully I can get there in time to lend a hand since it probably wasn’t friendly.”

Spooky shook his head. “Definitely not. Sounds like the guards were bribed.”

Veronyka pointed at the southeast corner, where the portal stone stood.

“If we can’t find each other by four days from now, find a portal stone somewhere out there and start coming back here every morning at dawn. I’ll do the same.”

Spooky nodded approvingly. “That’s a good plan. Only three of us can use the mounts at a time anyway, so that’ll give us flexibility and a way to stay in touch.”

She glanced at the sky. “It’ll be dawn soon. I need to get back over there so nobody notices me.”

Spooky clapped her shoulder. “It wasn’t an easy road getting here, but nothing you’ve said indicates you could’ve done it differently. Thank you for keeping us in the loop.”

She smiled then climbed up on her mount. “Oh! Speaking of in the loop, I met a guy from Earth who was with John.”

“What?” Spooky sputtered.

She gave him the summary. “He was in a Djinn body, said his name was Chief Brown. John said he was in an elite SEAL unit, and they’d known each other for a long time.”

Spooky blinked, thinking. “He’s from Six? Plugged in? That means JSOC has the cube and most of the project materials.”

“I guess so.” She allowed.

“Where was he during all this?” Spooky wanted to know.

She pointed back at the portal stone. “He went home while we were coming to get with you, before everything went to hell. His plan was to return tomorrow sometime. I don’t have a way to link up with him, but if you want to...”

Spooky nodded again. “Did he know about all of us?”

“He asked about you and Ben only.” She informed him. “I told the truth about him, of course. But I lied and said you didn’t finish the Tower.”

Spooky’s smile turned feral. “Good job! I’ll tell the others. Keep that story going, for now. We have no idea who’s looking over Chief Brown’s shoulders. Even if John knows him, it doesn’t mean he’s in control of what they do with the info he collects.”

“Yeah.” She agreed. “I think John gave me a signal leaning that way today.”

“Good to hear he hasn’t gone soft in the head.” Spooky approved.

“Okay, I have to go.” She urged.

“Stay frosty.” He waved, stepping back. “See you on the flip side.”

She landed back on the west side right before it started getting light. She quickly shrank Ream’ch again, and tucked her away. Wearing her Valkyrie armor was likely to make her memorable, but she was afraid the Porter would say something different than she remembered if she activated the robes instead.

Hopefully he doesn’t say anything to the guards, she thought.

But her Lance didn’t answer.

The Porter she needed was one of the lazy ones. He was still lying down asleep in the tent across from his gates long after dawn broke. She marched up and kicked his feet impatiently. His sleepy eyes widened in shock when they landed on her.

“Yes mistress?” He scrambled to his feet, somehow bowing the whole time.

“I need to take that gate.” She pointed.

“Uh, mistress, that particular one?” He whined. “I am afraid that the guards have said—I”

“Yes, that one.” She frowned.

They didn’t have a lot of money, and she hated to part with what she carried in case she needed it on the other side. But threatening him wouldn’t work, so she dug out twice the usual amount for a trip with the maximum distance covered. The Porter’s eyes tracked the shining coins hungrily.

“How far can you send me for this?” She asked, when he didn’t say anything.

He glanced to the side in both directions. No guards were along their section.

“Half way.” He stated, reaching.

“Three fourths.” She bargained, holding her hand back.

He licked his lips. “Two thirds.”

“Done.” She said, dropping the coins in his palm.

“Quickly,” he urged, scurrying across to put his hand on the column left of the gate she needed.

“No.” She corrected. “That one.”

He sighed, slumping. “Yes mistress, I’m sorry.”

Uh-huh. She grumbled to herself.

Without another word to him, she strode through the gate.

Later that day:

John charged through the gate and found himself running up a sandy dune. At the top were a quartet of the strangest mounts he’d seen in this world thus far. It was as though someone had taken a rhinoceros, made it taller and slimmed it down to a racehorse’s build. The rough hide’s thickness was beefed-up even more and giant boar tusks curled out of its mouth. Last, whoever created such a monstrosity went on to replace the lower legs with three-toed feline feet. Worn leather saddles, packed with bulging storage containers and festooned with weaponry, covered a large portion of each one’s back.

One rhino-horse carried a rider and two more individuals were standing at the top of the slope looking down at John. All were tanned, dark-haired, muscular humans wearing familiar Legionnaire armor and pointing hard eyes in his direction. Their uniform coloring was black and green, but the kite shields each carried bore the same stylized lightning bolt done in the same hue and accented with the golden ray sunburst.

The mounted man pulled out a strange bow with a narrow box connecting the wooden handle with the string itself. It was too large to be a crossbow, and the archer handled it like any normal recurve. John figured the box carried an arrow of some kind, because the archer pulled on a handle attached to the back of the box and as it slid rearward, took the string with it. The way he pointed it at John made the Nord quickly restore his helmet, activate his shield and slow to keep its round bulk between them.

John heard footsteps coming up behind, and glanced back to see Ariel churning up the sand to catch him. The reborn Paladin had his heater shield out, with a silver-rune-decorated, Damascus-patterned longsword blade in his other hand. As John slowed to let Ariel catch up, he began taking impacts on his shield. Returning his attention to the enemy, John found the mounted archer sliding the wood box back and forth as quickly as his arms could move. With each extension to the rear, another arrow flashed out to hammer into John’s shield. Within seconds five missiles had all been fired, practically freezing the pair of them in place.

After that, the archer flipped his bow sideways and pulled out a small block with five more arrows lined up in a groove. A quick push, and the box was reloaded. The block went back into a pouch and a cocked bow was again pointed John’s way. It had taken the archer less than five seconds to reload.

John was amazed. “That’s a repeating bow! With a reloading clip!”

Ariel growled. “The plains cavalry is known for their very fast shooting bows and large stocks of arrows. Their favorite tactic is riding in a circle, shooting arrows at the target without pause from all sides. Given enough of them, I have seen entire formations, with shields on all sides and above fall to pieces under a barrage. I doubt that officer is out here with only two others. Expect more nearby.”

“John-Morgan!” One of the soldiers standing beside the mounts called. “I know that is you! If you refuse to surrender, I will bring all of my men and pepper you with arrows until you cannot walk.”

“Helmet, off.” John muttered, then lifted his chin.

“And if I do surrender?” He shouted back.

The officer, John could confirm his gold insignia now, replied, “Then I take you prisoner with far less pain.”

John growled wordlessly.

“I’m really getting tired of these guys.” He finally said to Ariel. “Being their prisoner is no picnic.”

“Being anyone’s prisoner is not enjoyable.” Ariel said philosophically. “But if they take both of us, our chance to escape might increase. If I am correct about more in the vicinity, fighting on foot here would only lead to our deaths.”

“And what about my friend?” John hollered.

The officer shrugged. “If he attacks one of us, his life is forfeit. If not, he will be free to go after we depart.”

“Do not worry,” Ariel whispered, “I will follow.”

“Can you keep up with those mounts? What are they called?” John asked.

“I cannot, yet. But unless that man is in a hurry, which I do not believe him to be, I will find a way to catch you.” Ariel assured him.

Sighing, John deactivated his shield as well. Ariel re-sheathed his sword, and leaned his shield on his leg while John tossed the Tooth in front of him and stepped back. The officer and his second walked down while the rider kept his bow aimed their way.

“You are wise to surrender peacefully.” The officer said, picking up the Tooth.

It took him two tries. John could hear her hiss of disgust when the officer managed to put his hand on her haft. He handed it off to the other man, who exchanged it for a set of arm manacles. The officer fitted them to John’s wrists, then activated some runes which flashed briefly.

“There, now you will not be getting your weapon back until we allow it.” The officer chuckled.