moving toward the castle.
Kenneth, at the head of his group, squinted at what lay ahead. Fortuna,
what a mess! he thought. The wizards had been able to bring them no closer
than a league to the castle because of interfering magic. They would have
to cross the distance on foot, possibly under fire and almost certainly
against enemies.
Kenneth felt especially naked without comrades at either shoulder. But
they had been warned that concentrations which gave defense against sword
and spear would only serve as targets for the weapons of these foreign
sorcerers.
Well in front of the attacking forces a half dozen football-shaped metal
containers popped into existence and split open on the red sand. A dark
cloud poured out of each of them and dissipated in the air.
That was the signal. Kenneth raised his arm and motioned his men to move
forward.
I wish I had a drink, he thought.
“Mikey! Mikey!” Craig beat on the door frantically. Finally it opened a
crack.
“Yeah?”
“Why the hell didn’t you answer the net? I’ve been calling you for fifteen
minutes.”
“I told you. If you have business with me, you come to me. I’m not
answering your goddamn pager.” The door started to swing shut.
“Goddamnit, we’re being attacked!” Craig yelled. “We’ve got dragons and
infantry and shit all over the place.”
The door swung open and there was Mikey wearing only a pair of pants. In
the back of his mind Craig realized he looked terrible, all thin and sort
of stretched out. He moved like a speed freak, all jerky, uncontrolled
energy. There was a predatory gleam in his eye that Craig didn’t remember
seeing before.
“Yeah?” Mikey said. Then he paused as if listening to something that only
he could hear.
“Come on, man! I need all the help I can get.”
“You keep them busy. I’ve got something to set up.”
Craig nodded and raced for his command center.
“We have isolated their control links,” one of the Watchers called out to
the group on the dais.
“Transfer the characteristics to my station,” Judith called back.
Instantly the Emac sitting cross-legged in front of her began to write in
the air.
Judith smiled tightly. “Time to jam.” She turned to the Emac.
“backslash”
“?” the Emac responded.
“blackwatch exe”
The Emac gabbled and several dozen demons appeared on the table. They were
fashioned like men but each wore a skirt and shawl of dark green patterned
with black. Several had drums and the rest had odd contrivances with
several shiny black tubes extending over their shoulders. The leader
carried a silver-tipped staff near as tall as he was and wore an enormous
hat made of some black fur.
“Give them ‘The Black Bear,’ ” Judith commanded. “Then ‘Scotland the
Brave,’ ‘The Highland Brigade at Maggersfontein,’ ‘The Southdown Militia,’
‘The Earl of Mansfield’ and ‘Lord Lovett Over The Rhine.’ After that use
your imagination.”
The tiny drum major nodded, turned to the demons behind him and raised his
staff. The pipers inhaled as one, the drummer struck the beat and the
skirl of the pipes reverberated off the stone walls.
“Let’s see them even think through that,” she said viciously.
“I hope it is as effective on the enemy as it is on us,” Bal-Simba boomed
over the noise.
Judith looked up and realized everyone in the command center had stopped
work and was staring at the table. Several of them had clapped their hands
over their ears. Judith made a gesture and the sound died to a whisper.
“Sorry Lord, I keep forgetting it’s an acquired taste.”
By the time Malus’s dragon approached the castle the fat little wizard was
half-seasick and thoroughly miserable. Normally a dragon could not carry
two people for very long. But the wizards had added their magic to the
animal’s natural flying ability so they were able to keep up with the
other dragons.
Not that it was much comfort to Malus. He was strapped into a second
saddle back on the dragon’s shoulders. The beast was too wide to straddle
comfortably at that point and the insides of his thighs ached terribly.
Although the straps holding him to the saddle were secure, the saddle