Part 5 (1/2)

He rotated the elves' crystal until its long axis was vertical, like that of the cavern's crystal. Moving it back and forth until he could ascertain the place where the elven crystal vibrated most strongly, he placed it on the cavern floor, propping it upright by tucking the satchel around its base. Then he stepped back in wonder as the crystals began to sing to each other.

7.

Kham's position let him look down into the clearing where the elves had set up their magical apparatus.

He watched as they blindfolded the j.a.p kid and led him over to the stream. Then he watched Neko squirm down into a hole and disappear. Seeing the perfor- 72.mance Kham wondered if the kid didn't have a separate deal with the elves.

Once Neko had disappeared underground, the elves returned to the clearing, where they fussed with their magic junk for a while. One of them, the more angular one who Neko had dubbed the Dark One, squatted down in the center of a triangle marked out by three tall poles. After setting up some occult devices of crystal and silver wire, the elf began to chant over them while his partner walked around the poles shaking a wand and scattering powder. Magic stuff, no doubt about it, but it didn't look to Kham like anything he'd ever seen Sally Tsung do.

The Light One finally settled down halfway between one of the poles and the hole where Neko had disappeared. As the elf crossed his legs and stretched his arms wide, Kham thought he could see a faint green light outlining the mage's hands, but he couldn't be sure. The Dark One remained squatting in the center of his triangle, singing. Kham could make out the tune, a strange awkward thing, but none of the words were clear; they sounded foreign.

Kham knew that magic rituals sometimes had to be performed in certain places and at certain times. Sally had told him. So, this crazy run was starting to make sense, as much as anything connected to magic made sense. These elves wanted mundane protection while they did their stuif. The spells would warn them of magical trouble, which was just as well because they were the only ones out here who could handle that drek, and the runners would cover the real world, protecting the elves against any mundanes b.u.t.ting in.

Kham couldn't see the connection with Neko crawling into the hole, though. Maybe it had some kind of ritual symbolism.

The glow around the Light One's hands became definite. With a flash that startled Kham, a spark leapt 73.from each of the elf's hands and converged on the pole behind him. The crystal at the top of the pole kindled to life, flas.h.i.+ng beams of jade light to the crystals topping the other two poles, kindling them also.

In the glow of the crystals, the clearing was bathed in a wan, iridescent light, as the strange a.s.semblies of silver and crystal situated at the midpoints between the poles began to hum. Kham had the sense of a generator sparking to life. ”I got movement out here,” John Parker whispered excitedly on the radio link. He was on the eastern edge of the perimeter.

Kham tore his eyes from the spectacle of the ritual working and tried to see John Parker's position, but trees blocked his line of sight. Out beyond the perimeter the forest seemed quiet. ' 'Injuns?''

”Naw,” John Parker responded. ”Not unless they're coming to visit in a tank.”

”If dey was in a tank, we'd hear it. Can't be.” John Parker sounded unconvinced. ”Whatever it is, it's big enough to be a tank.”

”Maybe it's a tank stealthed like the elf car,” The Weeze offered.

Greerson broke in. ”If it is a tank, they been listening to your chatter. Dump it until you've got a good ID.”

Kham watched Greerson cut across the clearing and disappear into the woods in the direction of John Parker's position.

”Everybody hold yer position,” Kham ordered. ”Dwarf's right. Keep it down till ya know what yer lookin'

at.”

Kham considered swapping the magazine in his AK-74 for the one with explosive bullets. If it was a tank coming, the sh.e.l.ls wouldn't penetrate the armor, but they might decouple a tread on a tracked vehicle, or jam a thrust vent if it was a hover type. If it wasn't a tank, then it was trash; the sh.e.l.ls would wreak fine 74.havoc with anything unarmored. On the other hand, maybe it was just that John Parker was jumpy and the explosive sh.e.l.ls overkill, and overkill was expensive. Before he could decide, Sheila was on the radio net.

”Got an aircraft coming in from the southwest,” she reported.

”That ain't a plane,” one of the cyberboys contradicted. ”It's organic.”

”Movement on the west,” the other cyberboy reported.

That could be bad. John Parker was on the eastern perimeter and Sheila to the southwest. They had activity in at least three directions. If they were all hostiles . . . ”Fraggin' drek! It's a wyvern!” Sheila yelled. Kham heard her without benefit of the radio. He also heard the automatic weapons fire and the hissing bellow of the beast. Tracers lit the sky to the southwest with trails of orange fire. In their light, Kham made out the snakelike body and bat wings of the creature. It was headed toward the clearing, straight toward him and the elves.

Kham didn't bother climbing down from his perch; he just jumped. His heavily muscled legs took the strain with ease and he bounced up and ran for the clearing. He hit the open s.p.a.ce just as the monstrous beast cleared the treetops opposite him.

The Light One spoke without turning from his work. ”Do your job, ork.”

The wyvern swooped up, rising high over the center of the clearing. The serpentine body writhed as it twisted in a tortured spiral, higher and higher. Then it snapped its wings up and darted its head down.

Body followed head in a rush like a speeding bullet train. The beast screamed as it came, its jaws gaping wide. Wings beating, it dove on the elves. Kham fired, and the slugs from his AK ripped divots 75 from the beast's flank, but still it came on. Behind him Kham could hear the elves talking.

”Deal with it,” the Dark One said.

The Light One's response sounded worried. ”But the spell?”

”I will manage.”

His weapon dry, Kham fumbled for a clip with one hand while he popped the release lever to eject the empty. As his fingers closed on the magazine with the explosive sh.e.l.ls, he heard the elf moving behind him. The wyvern slapped its wings down in a mighty stroke, suddenly arresting its progress. Wind tore at Kham, staggering him. The beast pulled its head back, neck arching in a sinuous curve.

”Drek! It's gonna breathe.”

Kham's suddenly sweaty fingers fumbled with the magazine. He couldn't get it loaded in time. Turning, he readied himself to barrel through the elf's position. Maybe he could carry them both out of the beast's line of fire if he was fast enough. Seeing that the elf was standing still, staring up at the beast, his hands glowing with arcane energy, Kham rethought his plan; he didn't want to get caught between fire and magic. He turned again and raced away. If the elf wasn't bright enough to take cover, Kham knew one ork who was. As hard as he could, he ran for the trees, his precious magazine of explosive sh.e.l.ls clattering on the ground behind him.

Turning his head to look back as he ran, Kham stumbled and fell. He twisted, trying to get his shoulder under him into a body roll, but he didn't make it. He hit hard and flopped on his back, stunned.

Above the clearing the wyvern seemed to fill the sky.

Flames and a billowing cloud of sulfurous smoke burst from its open maw. The Light One stood firm as [the fire crackled toward him. Then he raised his hands, 76.the arcane energy around them shooting out to form a barrier between the elf and the monster. The beast's flames hissed as they struck the faintly glowing s.h.i.+eld, rivulets of flame sliding along the surface of the magical barrier and falling to scorch the earth in a circle around the elves and their ritual apparatus.

Smoke roiled above the clearing, boiling up in a cloud that hid the wyvern.

Kham scrambled to his feet, grabbing the AK from where it had fallen. The sounds of weapons fire and strange crashes and howls were coming from the woods to the west of the clearing. That had to be John Parker and Greerson engaging whatever had spooked John Parker. Kham could also hear fire and b.e.s.t.i.a.l roars from the cyberboys' position on the west.

With a thunderous noise, something large and armor-plated smashed through the last trees and bushes on the east, bursting into the clearing. It might have been a tank, but Kham had never seen one so big nor one that ran on four legs. The new beast halted, seemingly taking in the scene before it. Its toothy jaws gaped wide, dripping with saliva. Above them the beat of the wyvern's wings sounded like thunder. But, for a moment, nothing happened. The respite gave Kham a chance to slap in a new magazine. Ordinary rounds, but better than nothing.

This new creature was alive, which meant it had to have some soft parts; the eyes at least.

Firing, he dodged as the beast charged. As expected, his slugs had little effect. The beast crashed into the arcane barrier the Light One had erected. It howled in fury and lashed its tail. Too close, Kham was caught by the tail and lifted from his feet. He sailed through the air, directly toward the center of the clearing. Expecting to be smashed into the barrier, he was surprised as he flew through its perimeter in a 77.flicker of green light, landing ignominiously on his b.u.t.t next to the dark elf.

The Dark One's magical mask was gone, and Kham could see his features contorting with the effort of his concentration. Despite his earlier casual a.s.surance, he was having trouble maintaining the spell he and his companion had set into motion. Kham checked the other elf. The Light One's mask was gone, too.

The conjuring the two elves were now doing obviously required all their strength and concentration, leaving insufficient energy to maintain their disguises.

Neither was familiar to Kham, but he marked their faces.

Greerson appeared at the edge of the woods, his weapon raised. Though he was aiming at the armored beast, Kham could see that Sheila, emerging from the trees on the opposite side of the clearing, was in his line of fire. Kham shouted a warning, but it was drowned out by the beast's bellowing. The scene flickered before his eyes, lit by the strobe flashes of the Light One's lightnings as the elf scoured the sky and ravaged the wyvern screaming overhead.

The dwarf fired.

Sheila fell howling. Flesh and blood exploded from the armored critter's neck in a fountain, covering Sheila's p.r.o.ne form with gore. Unmindful of his previous bas.h.i.+ng by the beast's tail, Kham leapt over the thras.h.i.+ng member and ran to her side. She was alive. Scorched by the explosion of the dwarfs rocket, but alive.

”You crazy halfer, you could've hit me!” Sheila screamed.

”I didn't.” The dwarf popped the one-shot launcher from his weapon and replaced it with another. ”If you'd been doing your job, you wouldn't have needed my help.”