“So do you feel funny strange?” Jason prompted.
“Yeah,” Kira admitted. “I guess it’s because I’m tired. Sometimes it’s like I’m seeing the same thing twice.”
He spun about, watching her, concerned. “Double vision? Kira, that’s—”
“No, not double vision. It’s like I’m seeing the same thing two different ways at once. Or maybe one way and then another way? It’s hard to describe.”
He kept watching her, eyes intent with worry. “You can think okay?”
“Yeah. That part’s fine.”
“Kira, are your Mage powers still loose?”
“What?” She shook her head, feeling the warm breath of the mount she was leading gust across the back of her neck. “I haven’t let them loose at all.”
He frowned at her. “How did you do that stuff yesterday, then? Knowing when lightning was going to come, and spotting that Mage on the road?”
Kira shook her head again. “I don’t know. Jason, my Mage powers are locked down. It’s not them.”
“But you can still sense Mage stuff?”
“Yeah. I guess I need to ask Father about that.” Kira inhaled deeply, then coughed when some dust from the road drifted into her throat. “Hey, I just thought of something. If my Mage senses are working even when my powers are locked down, I should be able to sense when we’re getting close to Mage Ivor.”
Jason nodded, glancing back at the carbine in his saddle. “Tell me where he is and I’ll show him how to hit something. So your powers haven’t flared up lately?”
“No. Not since a minor thing the first night at the tower. They didn’t try to act up at all yesterday.”
“Huh. I guess that’s good. You’re sure they’re locked down?”
“Let’s stop for a moment and I’ll make sure.”
They both stopped, the horses gratefully coming to a halt as well once their humans ceased moving. Kira closed her eyes, probing, testing. Everything seemed fine, no flaws in the barriers holding her powers in check.
She suddenly had the strange sensation of being in her house. Home. Standing in the front room, the kitchen off to her left. Something was in the basement, though, something that slammed against the floor in a futile attempt to escape. She looked down at it, feeling something angry and trapped, but despite her own aversion to being confined she wasn’t even tempted to yield to its attempts to escape.
The moment and the image vanished. Kira shook her head and opened her eyes, seeing Jason watching her.
“Kira?”
“Yeah,” she said. “It’s me. My powers are locked down. Definitely. In the basement.”
“The basement?”
“Of my home. I know. It doesn’t have a basement. The home I just saw inside me does have a basement, though. And that’s where the powers are trapped.”
“Okay.”
“Are you just accepting any weird thing I say now?”
“Yeah, pretty much,” Jason said. “This is all outside anything I know.”
She ran her free hand through her hair in a vain attempt to order it. “I must look awful.”
“You’ve never looked more exotic,” Jason said.
Kira couldn’t help laughing as they started walking again, the horses plodding in their wake, the heights to either side of the road eerily silent, nothing else moving that they could see but the occasional sway of scrub brush in a sudden breeze. “Are you all right, Jason? I’m surprised you can joke about stuff today.”
He shrugged, a shadow passing over his expression. “I guess it’s how I keep from being too scared to think. Make a stupid joke instead of thinking about what could happen, you know?”
“So you are scared?”
“Yeah. You?”
“Oh, yeah,” Kira said. “But we’re still walking. Are we numb or crazy or brave?”
“Maybe all three,” Jason said. “Used to be, when I played those games, I thought real brave would be some kind of rush. A really great feeling. But if this is what brave is like, it feels a whole lot like afraid.”
“Mother and Father used to tell me that being brave was just being afraid and doing what had to be done anyway. I didn’t believe them,” Kira added. “I thought they were hiding something. But they were right.”
“Kira?”
She glanced over at him as they walked and saw Jason looking not afraid but nervous. “What?”
“Do your mom and dad really like me? I mean, since we’re maybe not going to make it through today, you can tell me the truth. I’ll be okay. Because I know I’m not a hero and I know I’m not special.”
Kira gasped a laugh. “You already know the truth. Yes, they like you. Jason, they didn’t want me looking for a hero. Father told me a few weeks ago that he’d always hoped I’d find someone who truly loved me, and respected me, and treated me right. And he was happy that I’d found someone like that. But you know what? I found a special hero, too.”
He shook his head, looking down at the rough surface of the road. “I just don’t want to ever disappoint you. Or them.”
“You haven’t. You won’t.”
It was probably close to another hour before Kira felt something up ahead. “He’s there,” she murmured to Jason. “I can feel him.”
“Where at?” Jason asked, pretending to rub his neck again so he could raise his head and look around.
“Almost directly in front of us. I can’t tell how far, but he’s not close enough to attack us.”
Jason nodded. “It looks like about two kilometers ahead of us the road cuts into the side of another mountain. That’s two thousand meters, or, um, a thousand lances.”
“That’s not too far ahead.”
“Yeah. We’re facing almost a straight stretch, only slight curves until the road meets that mountain and turns. And at that point there’s a steep dropoff to the right and a steep cliff to the left. If they hit us there, we’d be sitting ducks, out in the open with no cover anywhere near. Nothing like that overhang that saved us yesterday.”
Kira had kept her gaze lowered to avoid revealing that she’d sensed danger ahead, but now stole a glance ahead as they kept walking. “That drop doesn’t look like something we’d survive going down.”
“No. Definitely not a slope. So what are we going to do?”
“I don’t want to tip them off that we know he’s there,” Kira said. “Hey, do you feel like resting for a few minutes? We’ve been walking for a while.”
“Resting?” Jason gave her a puzzled look, then nodded. “Oh, yeah. Perfectly natural to rest for a little while. How about right here? We can lean against the rise on the left side, and a little way below the road on the right there’s a nice huddle of big rocks in case we need someplace to hide.”
Kira made herself stumble. “Great. Yeah. Act like you’re totally exhausted.”
“I know how to do that.”
They let the horses stop, reins left loose, the ends resting on the road. The horses, tired as well as injured, didn’t take advantage of their freedom to do anything except look around hopefully and vainly for anything to eat or drink.
Kira sat down against the base of the rise on the left side of the road. Jason pulled the carbine from his saddle, pulled out extra cartridges for it that he stuffed in his pockets, and then joined her, moving as if he could barely walk.
They sat together for a moment before Jason spoke again. “At least we haven’t heard any shots. We know they let the corporal and the other two soldiers through so that they could nail us when we got here. Achievement unlocked. Now what?”
“We think of another plan,” Kira said.
“If we move ahead, even if we try to climb up off the road, they’ll see us and be waiting.”
“Yeah. But we can’t just sit here. If we’re still out here when night falls, they’ll be able to trap us on this road.” Kira felt the warm sun, the heated rock at her back, and her own tiredness after the day and night before. “It sounds crazy, but I might actually f
all asleep.”
Jason startled her with a small laugh. “You’re a genius, Wonder Woman.”
“I am? And stop calling me Wonderful Woman.”
“Okay. What do they do if they see us fall asleep sitting against this rock?”
Kira thought about it, stealing a glance up the road toward where she could barely sense the lightning Mage’s presence. “They won’t wait forever. They let the corporal and the others through, so they know help will be coming. Or maybe the sound of the fight yesterday reached someone who sent a warning, and a relief column could already be part way here. They’ll see us, asleep, out in the open. Perfect targets, if they come close enough.”
“You’ll be able to tell if the lightning Mage gets closer, right?”
“Yes.” She looked at the two horses, standing with heads drooping. “The mounts screen us from shots from the other side of the road. The ones with rifles will have to come closer along this side. Will they try long shots? No,” she answered her own question. “Missed shots would alert us. They’ll get close enough to be sure of hits before they fire. And Mage Ivor will want to get in the killing blow. If he has any authority among them, he’ll insist on that.”
Jason nodded, his head leaning back against the rise of rock. “So the plan is, we lure them out of concealment by pretending to be asleep until we think they’re almost close enough to kill us?”
“And then we dive for cover in those rocks.”
“That’s really crazy,” Jason said. “It’s a good thing I’m crazy, too.”
“We could head back toward the others,” Kira said.
“But then the relief column might get ambushed,” Jason said. “What about those badly wounded soldiers? They need a clear road.”
“I guess that means we have to clear it,” Kira said, reaching one hand as if scratching herself but reassuring herself that her pistol was ready and secure in its holster.
“We get the worst jobs,” Jason said. “Okay. Do we both fall asleep?”
“No. We’re not stupid. We’re worn out.” Kira breathed slowly, thinking. “If I stay awake they’ll be less likely to feel safe coming at us even if they see me apparently fall asleep. I’m the dragon slayer.”
“And I’m the sidekick,” Jason said. “The bumbling sidekick kid from Earth who’s supposed to be on watch but falls asleep because the writers are lazy and want the good guys to get in serious trouble using that easy plot device.”
“What the blazes are you talking about now?”
“Stupid characters. Which, as you say, we aren’t.” Jason put the carbine across his legs. “I’m on watch. Have a nice rest.”
“Make sure I don’t actually fall asleep.” Kira slumped back, letting her head drop.
At first it felt relaxing. Eyes closed, the warmth, no weight on her tired feet. The rock beneath her butt wasn’t exactly soft, but then neither was a saddle. She soon realized, though, that pretending to sleep was a lot of work. She kept feeling the urge to move and to open her eyes to watch for trouble.
After several minutes, she felt Jason’s body next to hers begin to relax. He pretended to fall asleep by stages, gradually sagging next to her. She felt his head jerk up once, then a little later once more. His breathing deepened. “Jason?” she murmured without moving her lips much.
“Yeah?”
“I was afraid you’d really passed out. Sorry.”
“And the Oscar for stupid sidekick goes to Jason of Earth,” he barely whispered in reply.
She resisted the urge to demand he tell her what that meant.
Perhaps half an hour dragged slowly by, the sun lulling her but occasional insects making Kira wish she could slap at them. Her powers stayed passive, surprising her, but she had no trouble keeping track of the lightning Mage’s faint presence.
Her drowsiness vanished as she felt something. “He’s moving,” she whispered. “Coming closer.”
“Yay,” Jason murmured. “They’re coming to kill us.”
“Hush. It’s hard for me to tell how much closer he’s getting.” Kira tried to guess where the lightning Mage was. She barely cracked one eye, seeing the horses still standing where they’d been left, heads hanging down, reins trailing onto the road. Straining her ears, she heard nothing but the buzz of insects and the faint rush of the wind.
Had that been a clatter of rock? Impossible to say.
“Kira?” Jason breathed.
“Getting closer.”
How much longer could she wait? How close did she dare let them come?
Kira felt it then, the sudden rush of power being drawn on nearby, the sense of a powerful spell building. One of her hands pushed her away from the stone at their backs and the other shoved Jason forward. “Move!”
Chapter Ten
The sense of a spell being formed peaked as she and Jason leaped to the other side of the road past the startled horses, who shied backwards in alarm.
Lightning tore into the road surface just behind them as she and Jason dove off toward the rocks a little downslope. Kira felt the electrical charge in the air above her as she dropped, saw the brilliant flash of light casting her and Jason’s shadows on the ground beneath them.
The horses snorted, panicked, the sound of their hooves rapidly diminishing down the road as they bolted.
She hit the ground painfully, rolling, jumping up, running, and pulling herself into the cover the rocks provided, looking for… “Jason!”
He’d paused outside the rocks, aiming upwards with the carbine.
Kira yanked out her pistol and snapped off a shot at a figure with a rifle who was aiming at them. Jason fired once before rifle shots from other spots sounded and bullets went cracking past overhead. She rose up far enough to grab Jason and pull him into cover.
They huddled among the rocks as bullets tore past overhead or spanged off the stones. “Don’t ever do that again!” Kira yelled at Jason over the sound of rifle fire.
“I thought I could hit him,” Jason argued, flinching down as stone chips flew from a nearby hit.
“Don’t do it any more! Promise me!”
“All right, I promise I won’t do that anymore. I thought I could hit him,” Jason repeated defensively.
“Did you?”
“No.” He lay next to her, holding the carbine. “Our plan worked. What’s the new plan?”
“We don’t die,” Kira said.
“Great plan.” Jason looked around. “If they get way up there on the right they might be able to shoot down at us in here.”
“That’d be a hard climb,” Kira said. “Let’s hope they can’t.” The rifle fire fell off except for an occasional single shot.
“What do you think they’re doing?”
“Wait.” She felt it, another spell, and knew what it was. “There’s at least one more Mage with them. He’s using the invisibility spell. Coming this way.”
“It’s not the lightning Mage?”
“No. Different guy. He feels different. I can’t explain it to someone who’s not a Mage.” Kira tracked the route of the second Mage. “He’s coming around this way, on my side.”
“What are we going to do? If you show that you know he is there, they might figure out you have Mage powers.”
“Can’t be helped,” Kira said. “Here he comes.” She raised her pistol, aiming.
A glowing pillar appeared around one of the rocks, less than a lance away.
She fired into the center of the pillar, lined up her sights and fired again, the Mage appearing with a jolt after the first shot and just in time for the second shot to knock him back and down.
They huddled down again as the rifles opened fire once more.
“Is he dead?” Jason asked.
“Yeah,” Kira said, thinking of the soldiers that Mage had helped kill yesterday. “He sort of… went out. That’s how it feels.”
“Weird.” Jason, lying full length on his back, raised his carbine to aim toward and above his feet, resting the barrel on the sid
e of a medium-sized boulder next to him. Kira watched a distant figure appear, struggling up the slope on the right of the road with a rifle.
Jason fired. The figure jerked at the sound of the shot, missed a hold, and went sliding back out of sight. “That should discourage any more of that,” Jason said.
“Let’s hope,” Kira said, just before sensing a powerful spell building again. “Get your barrel down! He’s going to try to use that as a lightning rod to get you!”
Jason rolled onto his stomach, the carbine beneath him, as lightning flayed the rocks above him and Kira. She had her pistol buried under one shoulder, not breathing until the lightning stopped, leaving after-images dancing in her eyes.
The rifles opened up again: careful, single shots trying to bounce bullets off rocks and into the tiny sheltered area where Kira and Jason lay.
She closed her eyes, trying to get a feeling for what the lightning Mage was doing. He wasn’t moving, but Kira could sense the amount of power in this area. The two lightning strikes had drawn it down a lot. There was only enough left for maybe one more. That was encouraging.
She’d stopped trying to figure out how her Mage senses could be working when her powers were suppressed. Without that inexplicable phenomenon ,she and Jason would be dead.
But the lightning Mage had to be wondering how Kira had known just when to dive for cover, how she had been able to target the Mage using the invisibility spell, how she had been able to warn Jason to get his barrel down just before the second strike hit.
That all made it look very much as if Kira had Mage powers. Would the lightning Mage accept that? It was supposedly impossible, after all. She was carrying and using a pistol, which Mages couldn’t do. And even though Mages could do things judged impossible by the science of Mechanics, Mages also clung to their own rigid rules for how their arts worked.
Because of that, was it possible he would assume Jason was the Mage? Jason was an unknown element, after all. Sure he was using that carbine, but he’d come from Urth. And at least some Imperials believed him to be a demon summoned by Mari to be Kira’s partner. If this bunch was working for Maxim, they’d have heard that.
And she knew from her own experience that if one Mage didn’t know another particular Mage, if there hadn’t been any physical meeting between the two that extended long enough to establish who each was in the mind of the other, then sensing the identity of the other Mage could be difficult.