Portals of Infinity: Kaiju Page 23

  Loomis managed to shoot me a second time, in the shoulder, as I dodged behind a desk, after I let go of the now rapidly expanding stick heading his way.

  Swearing loudly he raised the hand with the pistol in it, to deflect the stick from his head, dropping the pistol as it hit him rather solidly in the arm.

  He backpedaled, now off balance, and juggling the device in his other hand, trying not to drop it, taking his eyes off of me, but while still trying to concentrate enough to open up the portal back to his temple.

  Taking advantage of this I grabbed the desk with my good hand and jumping back up I table flipped it at him, hoping to distract him further, as I charged him, screaming in anger and pain.

  Loomis got a solid grip on the device as I charged him, easily dodging the desk and without hesitating he grabbed the carbine, which he was still carrying on its sling, and pointing it at me he pulled the trigger, unloading the entire magazine into my chest, stopping me just short of reaching him, as the portal opened behind him.

  My last sight of Loomis was him jumping through the portal, as I fell to the floor.

  I came too with Suzona looking down at me, "What happened, William?"

  "Loomis shot me, took the weapon," the words were pretty garbled; the side of my face and mouth was still a mess. I was in a lot of pain; the 'non-lethal' rounds apparently weren't that 'non-lethal'. I could feel several broken ribs and I was bleeding from several gunshot wounds in the chest, not to mention the one in the shoulder and the one along the side of my face.

  I heard the sound of the recoilless rifle firing its last round then.

  Suzona put her hand on me and healed the worst of it.

  "Open up a portal and get out of here, William."

  I groaned and rolled over onto my hands and knees, then started to concentrate. I heard Evean and Suzona both start shooting with their pistols.

  "Loomis shot William and took the device," I heard Suzona tell Evean. "You need to get out of here, I'll hold them off."

  I was still dragging myself towards the portal when I felt someone grab me by the scruff of my neck and the belt around my waist, and the next think I knew I was flying through the portal.

  Twenty-one

  Saladin - Rivervail

  I came out of the portal and after healing my wounds I picked myself up off of the floor and looked around; this wasn't the main temple in Hiland city. It was one of Fel's temples; I wasn't sure which one however.

  "Fel, where am I?"

  "Rivervail," Fel's voice said as I looked around the room.

  "Rivervail?" I repeated looking around surprised. "I thought I could only appear in your main temple?"

  "Right now, this is my main temple," Fel said.

  "What? What happened?" I asked worried.

  "In order for you to be closer to the monster when you brought the device to destroy it back, everyone was supposed to come back with you. So I temporarily relocated my main temple here, to cut down on the travel times. Originally we had all agreed on Fordessa's temple, but with Jane having to return, that plan had to be changed."

  "Loomis has the device, and he didn't come with me, he went back to Quzelatin's temple."

  "I know," Fel said, and I could tell he was not pleased. "Everyone was supposed to come back with you."

  "So now what?"

  "You go and destroy Quzelatin's temple, that's what," Fel said rather angrily.

  "What?" I didn't like Loomis, but this was definitely a surprise.

  "Quzelatin is refusing to release the device, so we're at war now. I guess he saw this as too good a chance to pass up, with my main temple now being in a city that is probably going to be attacked soon. I guess he figures with me weakened he can expand further into my domain.

  "So I need you to ride as fast as you can to his temple, and do whatever you can to get the device, and then portal back here, so it can be used."

  "What about the others?" I asked.

  "Jane will meet you along the way. Evean is on her way there as well, Roden's temple being to the north of Quzelatin's."

  I nodded and thought about that for a few minutes. I guess this meant that Loomis had been selling us out all along, but I had to wonder a little about Evean, she had to have realized what Loomis was up to.

  "Don't be too sure of that, William. There were a lot of politics going on, there still is, but everyone had agreed early on that destroying the monster was more important than anyone of us getting an advantage over the others."

  "So, the other gods are all mad at him too?"

  Fel sighed, "Not exactly. They are displeased; they do not like his making a power play. If it only hurts me, they probably won't say much, I'm still not all that popular with the older gods here, and Quzelatin is an older god than I am.

  "However, if this causes other problems, or allows the monster to escape, Quzelatin may find himself on the receiving end of a holy war rather shortly."

  "If I take the army with me, Quzelatin will see if coming, won't he?"

  "Yes, he will. However, I think I have something you might appreciate, William."

  "What?" I was curious now.

  "Go out into the nave of the temple."

  I nodded and grabbed the weapon's harness that was there with my usual compliment of swords and knives, plus a sledgehammer, which made it fairly clear just what Fel wanted me to do. I got it all in order putting the large hammer in a holding ring on my back and went out through the door to the nave as I belted it on. As I came out into the room, a large group of males came to attention. I stopped and looked them over, they were all fit, wearing light armor, and armed heavily.

  They were also all wearing Fel's device.

  "Fel?" I asked looking back towards the altar.

  "Remember that conversation we had about warrior-priests?" Fel said in a voice so smug that I could feel it.

  I smiled, "For me? You shouldn't have."

  "Quzelatin won't be able to track them, because they're all priests."

  I looked at the group, "How many are there?"

  "Seventy three, almost half of them haven't completed their training yet, but this was too important, so I ordered them all here."

  I nodded, "This gives me a really nice idea," I grinned, "Several really nice ideas."

  "I thought it would. Now go, William, time is of the essence."

  "Who is senior among you?" I asked them.

  "I am, Champion," one of them males said stepping forward, "I am Hess."

  "Do you all have mounts, Hess?" I asked.

  "Yes, and we have your mount with us as well, Champion."

  "Great, call me Will. Now get everyone mounted up, we'll be riding out of here shortly. Who is the ranking military member in the city?"

  "General Holse is still here with the army, Will." Hess told me.

  "Good, take the men at a walk down the road towards Tradeson, I'll catch up with you soon. Does everyone know where we're going?"

  "Yes, Will."

  "Fel, could you please tell me where I'm going?" I grinned.

  The route we were going to take appeared in my mind. Very handy that.

  "Okay, get going," I told them all and jogging out of the temple I hopped up on to Tom's back and rode off to where the military headquarters were in Rivervail.

  "William!" General Holse said and came up to me, touching palms. "Does this mean you have the device?"

  "Not yet, Holse. Apparently one of the other gods has decided to be a bit of an ass."

  "What?!"

  "I'm off to go get it, but I need a favor."

  "What do you need, William?"

  "Send the Army off Bronsard, to attack the main temple of their god, Quzelatin."

  "William, I can't do that!" General Holse said looking at me, "The queen would skin me alive!"

  I looked at Holse and for the first time in my life I growled at him, he looked rather shocked.

  "I am ordering you as Feliogustus's Champion, the Queen's representative, and Rachel'
s Husband, to send off your army, all of it, immediately. Keep the cavalry with the main body, leave only what forces here you think would be needed to help with an evacuation of the city."

  I stared Holse down for probably the first time ever and the expression on my face was not a pleasant one. "I have no time to explain, I'm sorry, Holse, but those are your orders and I will remove you from command if you do not follow them."

  "And just how are you planning on removing me, William?" Holse said standing straight, "Only the queen has that right."

  "By killing you," I growled softly, "Don't mess with me now, Holse, I need you and we don't have time for this."

  General Holse nodded, "Just needed to know that you were serious, I'll order it immediately."

  "Do you so swear in the name of Feliogustus, and our Queen?" I asked him

  General Holse blinked then and looked even more shocked.

  "Yes, William, I do swear by our god and our queen. This sounds bad, I better get started."

  I turned and jogged out of the hall and remounting Tom I rode out of the city gates to catch up with my new men. If we pushed it, we could be there in three days. The fastest Holse could get there with the army would be in six, and they'd probably be tired when they got there.

  I had three more days until the monster struck, if it stuck to the pattern that it had developed so far. I hoped it was going to strike Riverbend again, but it could very well be moving up the river to Rivervail. I wouldn't know until then, and once it did attack, I'd have to wait until the attack was over and it returned to the water to use the device.

  I caught up with the men half an hour later, and we all picked up speed to a trot from that point on. I remembered what Dezba had taught me the last time we'd had to push our mounts to their limits, and I made sure everyone followed those rules now.

  We left the road and struck off immediately for the mountain pass we would be using. I only knew of it because of my time riding with the Mowoks, it not being a pass known to anyone but them. I wondered if Fel would have been able to show it to me if I hadn't already known about it?

  I'd ask him later if I remembered. Right now the goal was to get there and grab the device and gate back to the temple.

  What the men did after I left, I really didn't care.

  We caught up with Jane after midnight as we were riding along the foothills; she was standing by her wolat waiting for us. She had a slightly shorter ride than we had to get here.

  "Been waiting long?" I asked as she grabbed her mount's reins and started to walk along side me. We were giving our mounts a rest right now.

  "Not really, maybe an hour, if that. Who are all these guys?"

  "Warrior-priests," I said grinning.

  "Alright, I'll bite: What's so important about warrior-priests?"

  "Gods can't track them, just like they can't track us."

  Jane smiled back at me in the moonlight, "So they won't know we're coming."

  "Oh, they know we're coming, we have no choice but to come, and they know that. I've got the real army behind us; they'll be several days behind us when we get to the border. Quzelatin can see that army of course. So he'll have his eyes on that thinking that's were you and I are."

  Jane nodded slowly, "Smart. So are we going to storm in, or parley first?"

  "I'm going to ask them, once, politely. Because the sooner we get out of there and back home, the better. However if they refuse." I growled. "I just may add another god's death to my reputation."

  "If you don't, I surely will," Jane growled along with me. "When this thing was just killing those people in Barassa, I didn't care as much, because they unleashed it, so they deserved it. But when it hit Marland, none of those people had anything to do with it. They were still digging out bodies, Will, when I left. It ate hundreds, and probably crushed thousands."

  I nodded, "I'm sorry about Felecia, I liked her, she was very brave."

  "She liked you too; I was surprised you never put the moves on her."

  I shrugged, "I think I'm past the point where I want to bed every hot woman I run into."

  "But not to the point yet were you won't sleep with the ones who offer?"

  "You'd probably be surprised at how many I turn down. I'm more than happy to stick with the lovers I've already got, because all of them are pretty special to me."

  I smiled slightly then. "What about you? I notice you seem to have roped Shin in pretty well."

  Jane chuckled at that, "It's like what I heard Joseph telling you, I want a strong powerful man. It's hard to find one stronger than me these days."

  "But don't you come from a society were women rule?"

  "Yes, but we still like our men to be strong and powerful. They're supposed to be our warriors and defenders after all."

  "Well, he seems nice enough. Of course living out there on the ocean somewhere probably means you won't get to see him often."

  "Time will tell," She admitted. "Right now I'm more worried about getting the device back, sooner or later that monster is going to come back down the river and Marland won't be able to run it off a second time. Maybe you should have grabbed two of them?"

  "They were one to a bunker, and they only had two completely assembled. Even if we could have gotten both, they'd had to deal with these things before; I didn't want to leave them defenseless in one came back soon."

  "Good point. So when do you think we'll get there?"

  "Hopefully in three days, we have another day of riding just to get to the pass I want to use, then a day to get through it. In a couple of hours we'll stop and camp. Let everyone get a hot meal, and a few hours sleep. Then we'll push through until we hit the pass.

  "Once we hit the border it's about three hours hard riding to get to the temple, and I want to make that ride as fast as we can so no one can get a message there before us."

  "What about local churches?"

  "It's supposed to be pretty sparse coming out of the mountains, so hopefully we won't run into any. I'll send a scout or two ahead to make sure however."

  "I just hope we're not at war with Bronsard after all this is over."

  I nodded, "Me too."

  We arrived at the border to Bronsard a couple of hours before midnight two days after we'd left Rivervail, which was quite a few hours sooner than I'd expected to get there. I decided to press on until we were far enough past the border so as to not run into any border patrols.

  Then we made a cold camp, no fires, no shelters, we even had the wolats lay down to sleep after we'd fed them. Everyone was tired by now, so I wanted to make sure that everyone got a good five hours of sleep, including our mounts. Tomorrow was going to be an important day, and I needed the men as rested as possible.

  We awoke with the first glimmers of the false dawn, the men quickly donning their gear and readying their mounts.

  "Listen up a moment," I said, my voice raised slightly and gaining their attention immediately.

  "This is where I have to give the speech that I wish that I did not have to." I said looking at them, "Not because I don't have faith in you, but because I do. I know you will give your all, because I know you have all dedicated your lives to Feliogustus. It is because I have the warrior's dislike of war, but I also have the warrior's commitment to do what must be done.

  "We are all about to enter into a dangerous battle, the most dangerous and the most important one you will ever face in your life. Many times before have I invoked Feliogustus's name as I rode into combat and told those with me that we were fighting in his name.

  "Well today we are doing more than that; we are fighting for our god, for Feliogustus. His eyes are on us, his will is what has brought us together, and it is for him that we are here today. Many of us will die today, in our god's service, and all of us will be making sacrifices, both big and small. It will be tough, it will be hard, I know that, you know that, and even our god knows the difficultly of what we face. But you can be assured that our god cares for you, cares about you, loves you, an
d will celebrate your devotion when you go to meet him.

  "I know our god, I know him as well as any champion has ever known his god, perhaps even better. So hear me when I say this to you: Our god, Feliogustus commands us today to fight, to win, for him. This is not just a fight for our people, this is a war between gods and we will be victorious! We shall not be denied, and we shall not be defeated! Let this be our finest hour, and do not let fear slow your arm or stay your blows, victory today will belong only to the bold, to us, and to our god who is with us always!"

  "So be it!"

  The men all cheered with me then, even Jane looked a little impressed, and we mounted up and started riding in at a trot.

  When we started to come across some scattered settlements, we kicked them up to a gallop and rode them hard for the next hour. We hit the edge of the city that the temple was in just as I was about to order a walk, but I could see the gates then and decided to push our wolats just a little farther.

  We came at the gates so fast that we were able to ride through them before the guards could even start to close them. Two minutes later we stopped before the temple, and dismounted, our mounts tired and gasping for breath.

  There was a barricade in front of the temple; it looked hastily constructed, and still unfinished with several gaps and weak spots. We'd obviously gotten here earlier than expected, which was what I had hoped for. This was going to be a hard battle, gods had a lot of power in their main temple, I expected our casualties to be high.

  As we started towards the temple, several people and a lot of guards came spilling out to man the barricade and bar our way. Behind the line of guards I saw Loomis and I started to growl, and then stopped as I saw Evean was with him. Most of the guards I noticed where wearing the colors of Quzelatin, but all of the ones standing near Evean were wearing Roden's colors.

  "Give me the device Loomis, the monster draws near and must be killed." I demanded, growling rather loudly as I stopping just before a weak spot in the barricade which was guarded by a dozen men as Jane picked another spot and readied herself to attack.