Travelers

Avalon 4.2: part 2 of 6, The Silk Worm

M G Kizzia 2 Comments

You don’t have any wings,” Boston pointed out to the dragon something the others were being polite not to say.

“No need,” The dragon responded.  “I can fly well without wings.  This is not my natural form.  I am a greater spirit of the wilderness, or I was once.  My um…  My er…  My mate and I took this form to honor those magnificent beasts.”

“Your mate?”  Alexis now became curious.

“Indeed.  I was charged by Brama to open the way between the Tien Shan and the Zagros Mountains.  Tien of Heaven asked me to continue the work all the way to Longjo, the western edge of the Hsian world.  I have been many times to Lake Bosten.”

“Hey!  That is my lake,” Boston interrupted.dragon 1

The dragon smiled, which is something no one knew she could do.  “Yes, little one,” she said, and continued.  “But I have only been once to the small forts of Tufri, Hami. Axi, and Wewi.  I have never actually been to Longjo.”

“Your work stops at the Zagros Mountains?” Katie was the historian and a bit of a geographer, as far as that went.

“Indeed.  The Masters Enlil and Enki praised my work but said it was enough for one.  They have others in Elam and Susania, and through Mesopotamia to the great western sea that will make a way, and have finished the great silk road.  Though it be a long time, perhaps centuries before this road becomes filled with caravans, it is ready.”

“The only thing missing is road signs,” Decker joked.  “Maybe a stop sign where the road from the south meets the main highway here.”

“Indeed, no, Major,” the dragon smiled again. “Lady Devya has stressed that I must not import future things to this age, though road signs would help.  Sadly, none in this age really know how to read.”

“But your mate?” Alexis got back to her question.

“He has from this village that Devya calls Bukhara, through her village of Palishkul, that she sometimes calls Bactra to the gap in the mountains she calls the Khyber, and by the invitation of the Great Varuna, down into the land of the Indus, where she was born.  I have not been that way.”

“Your voice sounds very familiar,” Mingus said, curious.

“I was going to say that very thing,” Elder Stow agreed.

“But your mate?”  Alexis seemed to be stuck there.

Nuwa and Fuxi“Fuxi,” the dragon said.  “He once joined with Fuxi, and for a time the two became as one being, like a great serpent-man, and thus my mate became Fuxi the idiot.  I miss him, but not that much.”

“Nuwa,” Lockhart named the dragon, and the others nodded.

The dragon Nuwa also appeared to nod.  “When Nuwa and I became as one being, we built the twelve Quans, the forts along the Huang He made to defend the river people from the Qinjong and other nomads who come into the river valley for any reason other than peace.”  Nuwa’s dragon eyes became moist and a couple of tears fell, steaming hot to the ground.  “When Nuwa and I were one, I saw far too much of the future, and her future, or his especially.  The poor Kairos.  How can any god be so cruel to burden her with so much responsibility, so many impossible tasks.  I weep for her every night.”

“People,” Decker interrupted.  “We got company.”  Two dozen men were riding out of the little village on step ponies, and they appeared to be armed.  Obviously, the travelers had been spotted on the road, and it looked like the locals were wondering if they were friendly or trouble.  The travelers watched the Nuwa dragon become visible and held their ears against the roar.  The fire was just a warning, but the locals turned their ponies as fast as they could and raced home, no doubt to lock their doors, if they had locks.

“Maybe we better not stay the night in this village,” Lockhart said, as he yawned to clear the ringing in his ears.

“Please do,” the Nuwa dragon said.  “The people will not bother you in the night.”

“But we usually try to make friends,” Alexis complained.

“Yes, I am sorry, but I can say this much, Boston!”  She yelled her name and smiled again.  “I am sure Devya will say it again when you see her.”

Boston grinned and moved her horse, Honey, toward the village.  The others followed, and Nuwa moved with them, invisible again to all but the travelers.

###dragon 0

When the morning came, they wished the Nuwa dragon well and she returned the blessing.

“I will be moving slowly toward the village Devya calls Merv.  I will move slowly because I smell trouble, and I dare not be far from her if she needs me.”

“I don’t sense any enemies near,” Katie said.

“Lincoln is usually the one with the suspicious instinct,” Alexis added, but Lincoln shrugged.

“And Lockhart,” Boston said with a grin.  “He can’t get that police training out of his system.”

“I sense something uncertain,” Mingus said.  “Like something that should not be, but it is vague and unclear.”

Lockhart thought hard, but in the end he shrugged like Lincoln.  Decker spoke.  “Elder Stow, stay sharp,” and he rode out to his position on the wing while Elder Stow moved more slowly to ride on the other side.

It was just before lunch when they got approached by a dozen men on ponies.  The men did not pause on seeing them, but rode straight to talk to the travelers.

“Glamours everyone,” Lockhart reminded his crew as they rode up from the rear and in from the flanks to present a united front.

The men rode to within twenty feet, and one rode to the front.  He looked twice at the travelers before he spoke.

“Good elves, did you pass anyone between here and Bukhara?”

“Did my glamour slip?” Boston turned to Mingus who hushed her, kindly.

nat nature 2Lockhart pushed forward, Katie beside him.  “We passed no one,” he said.  “What seems to be the trouble?  Maybe we can help.”

The man turned to look again at Eder Stow.  “You are a strange people.  Red hair and yellow hair.  Big monster horses with seats you sit upon and holders for your feet.  Your dress is strange.  I have not seen the like, and I have been up and down the whole silk road.  I think you need to talk to my wife.”

“Avi?” Lincoln asked.  When the man stared hard at Lincoln and nodded.  Lincoln returned the nod and added, “Devya’s husband.”  He tapped the database in his hand.

“But tell me, why are you looking for people on the road?”  Lockhart asked, his police instinct finally acting up.

“The amulet has been stolen,” Avi said.  Both Boston and Katie reached for their amulets in a moment of panic.  Avi saw and shook his head at them.  “I am speaking of the amulet of peace and prosperity.  Come.”  The locals turned around and the travelers joined them.  They skipped lunch and rode hard to make the village by nightfall.  Katie called the village Bactra or Balkh, but the locals said it was Palishkul which meant Sanctuary.

Avalon 4.2: The Storm Overhead, part 1 of 6

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After 2335 BC, Sanctuary on the Silk Road.  Kairos 48: Devya, First Daughter of the Indus.

Recording …

The travelers came into the time zone under a heavy cloud.  It was a rough and rocky place.  The hills were strewn with stones and patches of tall scrub grass turned dry and yellow in the late summer.  There appeared to be a grassy path that pointed in the direction they were headed, and more than one of them remarked how like a road it was.  They pointed to places here and there where others traveled that road and left signs of their passage.

“The only thing we are missing is the occasional road sign,” Lincoln joked.

“I don’t like the looks of that cloud,” Alexis spoke up.  Her eyes were not down on the grass.  The black cloudcloud was very dark and low in an otherwise bright, blue sky.  It looked suspicious, if clouds can look suspicious.  Lincoln studied it, but said nothing.  Lockhart and Katie looked, having overheard.  They were not talking to each other much at that point, so they were happy to have the interruption.

“It appears to be moving off, same direction, but much faster than us,” Lockhart said.  He turned to consider the sun and concluded they were headed southwest.  They would spend the afternoon riding into the sun.

“No telling the wind speed at that elevation,” Katie said.  “Maybe it is hurrying to catch up with the rest of the storm before unloading.  It looks heavy with rain.”

“I doubt the cloud thinks,” Lockhart said.  He did not mean for it to sound as disagreeable as it sounded.

“I don’t know,” Katie hedged.  “I used to believe the world was full of what Lady Alice described as dead, empty matter and energy, the way moderns think of it, but since coming on this mission, I have come to realize that what Alice said is true.  The whole universe is more or less alive in one way or another, and we humans are just too thick and stupid to perceive it.”

“More or less,” Alexis butted into the conversation, since Lincoln went back to read in the database.  “It is unlikely that cloud, or any given cloud is sentient, but it has enough life to respond to a word of power, like a creative word of the gods or magic, you know.  After all, this whole universe was created out of nothing by the Word of God.”

Lockhart and Katie gave Alexis a funny look, and Katie responded.

“You were born and raised an elf.  I would not have expected that from you.  Boston maybe, but not you.”

Alexis 2“Since I became human, I’ve become a good Methodist.  I don’t know.  Boston is right.  I am a serious liberal about most things, but when you realize the universe is alive and growing and changing everywhere, the idea of a creator makes a lot more sense than everything happening by freak accident.  Besides, we have met some of the gods, and everything leads me to believe even they will have to answer some day to someone or something greater than them.”

“Very well said,” a woman responded, but it went in and out of the traveler’s ears like a thought so they made no effort to look around to locate that woman.

“The silk road,” Lincoln raised his voice and distracted everyone.  “This is not the Indus Valley.  Obviously there are no Harappan villages around here.  I might have to revise that if we run into any stray Dravidians, but I would guess we are probably somewhere between Merv and Smarkand.

“Samarkand.  There is a name of legend,” Katie grinned.

“For the record,” Lockhart said.  “I didn’t like the looks of that cloud either.”  Lockhart stopped, so the rest stopped.

Father Mingus and Boston came up from the rear.  “Time to walk the horses?” Mingus asked.

“Lunch,” Lockhart announced.  He got down and spoke more softly for whoever was listening.  “There is some good grass here for the horses, and we have a good trail for as far as I can see, so let the horses rest and then we can ride until the trail peters out.”

“It is a good trail,” Katie said, as she watched Decker and Elder Stow come in from the flanks to join them.  She was listening.  She also looked at Lockhart with an expression that said she was sorry for whatever she did.  Lockhart got busy getting out the remains of breakfast.

Mingus and Boston were in charge of the fire.  They could both start a fire by magic, even in the fire campfire 1worst conditions.  In this place, they had to be careful not to set the dry grasses on fire, but they found a good location, and soon the fire was roaring.

Lincoln and Alexis were in charge of checking the area for any edibles to enhance their meal.  Alexis had the vitamins that everyone took in the morning, so there was no danger of scurvy or any other such sickness, but Alexis had her limits on a diet of deer, deer, elk and deer, as she called it.  She and Lincoln usually found tubers or berries or something, and Alexis normally did not have to resort to her magic to help.

Decker and Lockhart took over the hunting duties after Roland was taken from them.  Elder Stow with his scanner and Katie with her military rifle took guard duty.  Katie complained at first, saying she could take a turn on the hunt, but Lockhart reminded her of her duty.

“You are an elect, strong, tough, gifted to fight with or without weapons, able to sense danger and when an enemy is near.  I thought since Neolithic times it was the job of the elect to defend the home and guard the women and children when the men went out to hunt.”

“Yes, but,” Katie hedged.  “We don’t have any children.”  As she said that, Boston came running into the camp at about 50 miles per hour, testing her elf speed, and whooping like a teenager on the last day of school.  “Point taken,” Katie said.  So she and Elder Stow defended the camp while Lockhart and Decker hunted.

On that afternoon, no one needed to hunt.  They had leftovers, and Alexis found some berries and some greens she could boil.  The berries tasted sweet while the greens had a bit of a bitter taste, but Alexis said the greens were like spinach, full of iron, so everyone ate some.

Avalon travelers horses 3When lunch was over, Lockhart whistled.  The horse he had named Dog came trotting up, and the other horses followed.

“You do that very well,” Katie told him.  Lockhart made no response.  He slipped his arms around her and kissed her hard, and she kissed him right back.  The words between them were not spoken out loud, but they did not have to be.

It was less than an hour after lunch when the travelers came across three things.  The first was a very small village, actually only a few huts close together in a valley just below their position.  The village was nestled up to a hillside and the planted fields, now fallow after the harvest, spread in every direction from there, but for the road.  From their viewpoint, the travelers could see where the road continued to the west-southwest beyond the village.  It stood out like a clear border between the fields.

Second, Boston shook her amulet and rode to the front to report.  “I have never seen this happen before,” she said.  “We were headed perfectly on the road, but suddenly the target turned to the south-southeast, almost like we are supposed to turn left in the village there.”

“Maybe one of the gods took…Devya?”  Alexis began, and Lincoln nodded to the name.  “Maybe one of the gods took Devya on a ride, you know, instant teleport.”

“I don’t think so, maybe,” Boston said as she continued to tap her amulet, and Katie got hers out to confirm the direction.

“I can see where a new road covers that direction,” Decker said as he joined the group.  He pointed.  “There, where that barn-like building sits on the edge of the village, by the fields.”  Several saw.

“But how can it just change direction like that?” Katie asked.

“I did that,” they heard a woman say.  “You would have struggled to get over the mountains.  I thought it would be easier to go around the mountains on my road.”

“Who is speaking?  Where are you?” Alexis asked.

“Right here,” the voice said.  “Devya calls me the Great Silk Worm.” A great, wingless dragon, a truedragon 6 worm still sporting feathers like a young one, appeared beside the travelers, bigger than any imagined a dragon should be.  It was Smaug sized, and looked able to swallow a horse and rider in a single gulp.

The people all gasped.  Elder Stow let out one expletive and checked his scanner since the dragon appeared on his flank.  But the horses did not show any concern, and the dragon explained., without moving her lips to match her words, Lincoln noticed

“No, the horses cannot perceive me, and neither can the village people.”

“Just as well,” Lockhart tried to pull himself together.  “The Y. M. C. A. hasn’t been invented yet.”

Decker let out a rare grin.  Katie spoke, accusing.  “You’ve been saving that one.  How long have you been saving that one?”  Everyone smiled a little and tried to relax, but then the dragon got it and let out a laugh which was probably not as frightening as a roar, but close enough.

Avalon 4.1: part 6 of 6, Mikos and His Dad

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Blueblood and sevarese fighters moved in a pattern impossible to follow. Obviously they were computer controlled for random, evasive maneuvers while gunners fired at every chance target, but to anticipate and guess a move in that dogfight appeared impossible.  Shots went everywhere, and the land below took a beating.  The travelers were protected behind elder Stow’s screen, but the seals suffered.  They appeared to be abandoning the beach where there were explosions here and there as random shots hit the dirt.

“But the sea there is presently full of sharks,” Cletus objected right along with Alexis and Boston.

“And they are with young,” Alexis pointed out.Seals on rocky shore

“Between the rock and the hard place,” Mikos mumbled.

“From the frying pan to the fire,” Lincoln added his own mumble.

Two sevarese fighters went down fairly quickly, but two blueblood fighters followed when they broke off to attack the transport ship and found the transport heavily armed.  The transport looked ready to enter the fray, but a blueblood transport came in from the north and landed just over a small rise in the ground where the two transports would be hidden from each others weapons.

The fighters hardly had time to worry about the ships beneath them.  At the same time, though, it was beginning to look like the various computers were adjusting for the work and speed of the gunners.  No one was making close to a good shot.  And all this while, Mikos stood with Elder Stow’s scanner in his hand, until at last he yelled now and threw a switch.

Everyone felt the wind, like the sudden inrush of air to fill a vacuum.  Two sevarese and one blueblood fighter crashed into a wall of force that sprang up suddenly between the combatants.  The fighters backed off, each on their own side.  Several shots were fired, but they reflected back and endangered the shooter, so that quickly stopped.

“What did you do?” Alexis asked.

“A wall to separate the combatants,” Lockhart responded as he waited on Eder Stow.

“Sevarese coming out of the transport,” Katie shouted from behind the rock where she had an eye on the combatants.

Stow 2Elder Stow shook his head.  “I don’t know how he did that.  The scanner is not built for that.”

“Bluebloods on the hill,” Decker added from his position.  Renglar tapped Decker’s shoulder and pointed.  One of the blueblood fighters landed.

“Here.”  Elder Stow handed his communicator to Lockhart and Lockhart spoke into it like he was speaking into a police megaphone.

“Bring all your ships to the ground.  The battle is over for now, and anyone who tries to continue the fight will be shot,” he spoke in sevarese.  “I want commanders from both sides to come here and we will discuss a mutual withdrawal from hostilities.”  Lockhart nudged Elder Stow and pointed up as he switched to the blueblood frequencies to repeat his message in the blueblood tongue.

One of the sevarese fighters began to gain altitude, like he wanted to try and go over the wall of force.  Elder Stow aimed carefully with his hand weapon and clipped the fighter wing.  It came down a bit hard, but at least it did not explode.

“Let us hope that is it,” Elder Stow said.  “I admit it was a lucky shot.”

“They are discussing it,” Boston reported.  “I can’t hear either side very well.”

“I can,” Mingus stood.  “They will come to hear what you have to say.”

Mikos readjusted the scanner so the protective screen once again covered the group.  He stepped to the edge of the screen between Decker and Katie, and called Cletus to join him.  Lockhart and Elder Stow came on their own.

“I love your red hair,” Cletus had to say it once more before he hurried.

Before the commanders arrived, Renglar interrupted everyone.  “Lord Akos, your dad is here.”  He pointed.  Everyone dutifully looked where he pointed.  A man had Katie bent back and his lips were locked to hers.  She looked to be struggling, but maybe not too hard.kiss of passion 1

“Dad!” Mikos shouted.

The man let go and stepped back with a smile on his face.  Katie named him.

“Ares.”

“Katherine,” Ares bowed slightly.  “You Amazons make my blood boil.”

“Dad, you were told to stay away from my Amazons.”

“I’m not technically an Amazon,” Katie said.

Mikos stepped over to grab Ares by the arm.  “You are by adoption,” he told Katie.  “Zoe says that is the way all of the first Amazons joined the Amazon nation.”

“What?” Ares asked, but he was not moving from his spot.

“I could use your help to get these morons to stop fighting on this planet, and to help me send their war back out into space where it belongs,” Mikos spoke frankly.

“What?” Ares repeated himself, but he allowed Mikos to drag him over to the meeting with the sevarese and blueblood commanders.  “I was just getting into the fight when you stopped it.  Good trick, putting up that wall of force, by the way.  I’m tempted to follow them into space so I can watch them blast each other.”  He looked up at Decker.  “Major, do you realize my son here invented naval warfare.  I’m so proud of him.  Okay, Nalishayas started the whole pirate thing, but my son made the first marine boarding party. He put rams on the front of his ships, and all sorts of things.  I used to think the sea was just a big waste of space, but now I see it has a warfare aresunique to itself.  It is fascinating.”  Ares eventually ran down.

“God of war?” Decker was just checking.

Yes, that’s right.” Ares said

“Dad.”  Mikos finally got his attention.  The sevarese and blueblood commanders were waiting as patiently as they could.  Ares turned to the aliens and spoke suddenly like his words were on fire.  The visage of the god alone was enough to make everyone cover their eyes and tremble.

“Much as I would enjoy it, there will be no more fighting on this planet.  Not now.  Not ever.  We will be sending you back into space, either on your ships or as space dust.  The choice is yours.”  Ares took a step back and grinned.

Three of the four sevarese fainted, and one looked like he might be dead.  One blueblood was screaming and running for his life. the other three buebloods appeared to have soiled themselves.  Lockhart, Decker, Katie and Elder Stow were no strangers to the anger of the gods, but they all felt glad that was not directed at them.  They trembled, and Elder Stow seemed to have a bit of trouble closing his mouth.

Mikos spoke quickly.  “Renglar, watch the ship.  Lockhart, stay here.  The time gate should come to Mikos 2you.  Goran and crew, you can return to your ship on the transport.  Cletus, you are with me and get your eyes off Boston.  She is married.  Dad, keep your hands off Captain Harper.”  Ares glanced at Katie and smiled.  “Sevarese first,” Mikos finished, and all the sevarese, their ships and equipment vanished along with Ares, Mikos and Cletus.  They would no doubt reappear far in the east beside the sevarese main ship.

“My.  People do come and go so quickly around here,” Alexis said, and she and Lincoln put their hands to their ears as if listening for something

“What?” Boston asked as she got the amulet out to see exactly where the gate was and how far away.

“We are waiting for the munchkins to giggle.”

“Wizard of Oz, right?” Katie guessed.

“Yes, of course,” Lockhart said.  He turned with a word for Alexis and Lincoln.  “We are still working on generational differences.”  He lifted his hand to wave to Goran, Clomb and Lulu who were returning to their ship on the transport parked over the rise.  He noticed a cut on the back of his hand, and felt the need to scratch it.  Katie saw, grabbed the hand and growled.

“What?” Lockhart said, sounding very much like Ares.

“As long as she is not near any human women to transfer the pregnancy, I figure nine months from now there will be a half-blueblood, half-Lockhart baby born somewhere in space.”

“What?  I think I banged it on Decker’s rock over there,” Lockhart said.

“That Lulu better not come back here.  I may have to kill her.”

“Oh, yeah.  I’m sure Ares would be glad to teach you any number of ways to do that.”

Lockhart and Katie turned away from each other, and Lockhart checked Boston’s amulet.  The time gate was just down the narrow rocky beach down from the seal beach. She imagined it the edge of the water, but it might have been out in the surf.

the-wizard-of-oz“We best go now,” Lincoln said. “It might not take Mikos long to settle with the sevarese and move to the blueblood ship, at which point the time gate might shift to almost anywhere.”

“Pack up,” Lockhart agreed.  He looked at Katie, but Katie ignored him.  Boston smiled for Alexis and wanted to say that Wizard of Oz comment was great, but Alexis ignored her.  Meanwhile, Elder Stow talked to Decker, but he did not appear to be talking to anyone else.

Father Mingus, an empathetic elf with mind magic no less, caught all of the confusion and upset.  He decided they might as well head into an ice time zone.  It would not be any colder that the feelings he was getting right there.

************************

There is no place like home, but without ruby slippers, getting there can take a while.

Next Monday, Avalon episode 4.2, The Storm Overhead begins.  Something comes with the rain.  See you then, and Happy Reading…

a a hr calvin 2

 

Avalon 4.1: part 5 of 6, Seal People

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The travelers ended up camped on the small rise they were already on, the one that looked down on the seal covered beach.  The ship they had seen came into the bay, but opted to anchor there and apparently the captain had in mind to come to shore in the morning.  Lockhart borrowed Decker’s binoculars before sundown, and fired his shotgun twice into the air, thus telling whoever was aboard the ship that there were people on the ridge.  He and Katie watched, and saw someone wave a flag from the deck of the ship.  It was clearly a signal of some kind.  Whether it was the Kairos, or just someone attracted to the loud, cracking sound, who maybe spotted them, or their horses, or their smoky campfires, they could not say.

“We will find out who it is in the morning,” Lockhart said, and everyone settled in for another nightseals 3 in the wilderness.

When he morning came, the travelers and their blueblood companions watched a boat come ashore, and spoke quietly while they waited.

“Those horses are no doubt marvelous creatures,” Goran said, as he shifted in his seat to find a more comfortable position.  Clomb and Lulu nodded and looked to be fairly uncomfortable as well.

“Feeling stiff this morning?” Alexis asked, with a broad smile.

“How well I remember,” Elder Stow nodded.

“Yes, well, we are not used to such physical exercise, you understand.”

“Trying to live in the wilderness like this would kill many of our people,” Clomb spoke up, and finally stood up to get off his butt completely.

“Too much time at a desk, sitting in a comfortable chair,” Alexis said, and gently punched at her hips, expecting her butt to get smaller now that she was no longer doing that very thing.  “The spread,” she called it, and Boston giggled

“Coming ashore,” Katie said.  Everyone looked, and a few stood to get a better eye on the event.  Alexis borrowed Katie’s binoculars and Lincoln borrowed Decker’s, and then shared them with Goran.

The crew from the ship that was anchored off shore consisted of seven people, two of whom Boston, with her good eyes and elf senses insisted were female.  It was impossible to tell which was the captain until the seals did something no one expected.  They backed away to make plenty of room for the humans, and then two dozen of the big ones transformed into men.

seals 1“Seal people,” Mingus named them.  “I thought there was something different about them.”

One member of the boat crew stepped forward and spoke to the seal men.  It was not a long conversation before the crew turned and headed toward the rise, flanked by the seal men.  Obviously, the seal men did not want the humans to get into the colony where they could interfere with the females and children.  The seals stayed down below when the crew climbed the rise.  Many of them returned to where they were before they transformed back into seals.  When they were finished, it was hard to tell exactly which seals had temporarily been men, but by then the ship’s crew arrived and there were introductions.

There were two couples, young and curious, that looked like they were out on an adventure, and an older man, Renglar, the sail master, who sounded and acted a lot like Decker.  The Kairos was Mikos, of course, who was billed as the emperor of Minos, called Akos, which was Crete, and Mycenae, which was mainland Greece.

“And most of the islands in between,” Renglar added as an aside.

There was also an elf names Cletus who was traveling along with the Akos, no doubt to serve as interpreter when they came across a people whose language Mikos did not know.  Cletus acknowledged his elder elf, MIngus, but kept his eyes glued to Boston.  “It’s the red hair.  It’s just the red hair,” Cletus kept saying.  “I have never seen such a beautiful elf with red hair before.”

Mingus got overprotective, Alexis got jealous.  Lincoln tried to stay out of it.  And Mikos pulled Lockhart, Elder Stow, and the three bluebloods aside.  Katie thought it was safer to follow them.

“You didn’t look like a stranger to the seal people,” Katie noticed.

“You are right.  Katie, please translate for the bluebloods.”

“What?” Katie had to think a minute to separate Mikos’ language from the blueblood language.  “Okay,” she said, and she translated word for word.Mikos 1

“An Akoshian merchant used to come here and started clubbing the baby seals for their skins. As soon as I found out, I ordered him to stop, but like most of the Akoshian nobility, he thought the rules did not apply to him.  Perverts is what Nalishayas used to call them.  So I gave him to the seal men and I think they fed him to the sharks.”  Mikos shrugged and looked at the blueblood Goran.  “Just remember, you are not above the rules.”

“Sire,” Goran said with lowered eyes.  It was the blueblood way of saying yes sir.

“Clomb and Lulu,” Katie introduced the other two.

“And I bet she is,” Mikos said as he watched Lulu and Lockhart glance at each other and saw the growl form on Katie’s face.  “Eder Stow, can I see you communication device?”

“Of course, but it is tied to Gott-Druk frequencies not yet discovered by these, er, other people.”  They all saw Elder Stow choke on the word primitives.

Mikos nodded and took the back off the communication device as Boston came up and stuck her nose in.  Cletus was making her uncomfortable.  Mingus got the young male elf to sit with his other daughter, Alexis, and her husband.  They were sitting with the young couples from the crew and talking about the weather.

“So here is the rule,” Mikos said, and gestured to Katie so she translated.  “I have told my people you have blue skin and are cold to the touch because you are walking dead people.  They did not doubt what I said.  I said they would be all right as long as they did not touch you.  You are not allowed to so much as touch them.  Got it?”

“Oh,” young Clomb spouted.  “We were told that this world is off limits and we are strictly not to blueblood 4breed.  Breeding is a death offense.”

“I’m not interested in any of your people,” Lulu said with a long look at Lockhart.

Katie translated and then added her growl in Lulu’s face.  Mikos looked up and grinned, but Boston got his attention back.

“What are you doing?”

“Lunch, Boston dear,” Mikos said. “What say we do lunch.”

“Lunch,” Lockhart announced with more volume.

“I’m going to adjust this communicator, if I can, to pick up the blueblood frequencies.”  He stuck his hand out to Eder Stow.  “Scanner,” he said.

“Careful,” Eder Stow said.  “The scanner is set to put up a screen in case the sevarese attack.”

Mikos paused.  “I guessed it was bluebloods and sevarese, you know.  Hebat came and told me there was fighting going on over here, but she says she can’t tell one alien from another.”

“What did you tell her?” Boston asked.

“I told her I am married so forget it.  It is about time for her to get a husband anyway.”  Mikos sat on a log by the fire and Boston and Elder Stow sat on either side of him.  Mikos traded places through time with Martok the Bospori, but continued speaking like he was the same person, which he was.  “I miss my wife, or rather Mikos misses his wife.  Sasha is his or my soul mate, if you know what I mean.”blueblood 6

It did not take long before everyone heard the blueblood radio chatter clearly over Elder Stow’s equipment.  Goran got up to speak.  He gave a reasonable telling of their story, fudging only a few details of their escape, figuring his commander would not believe the tale about earth spirits coming to their rescue.  He pinpointed his position as well as they could, and then Martok turned it off.  He showed Elder Stow how he adjusted the communicator to pick up the alternate blueblood and sevarese frequencies, and handed it back.  He held on to the scanner and said he had more work to do with it.

It was hardly two hours later.  People finished eating, and got packing to travel.  Lockhart had explained to Mikos how the time gate appeared to be somewhere out at sea, and Mikos just finished explaining that his ship was not big enough for all the horses, and he would have to arrange something, when the sevarese attacked.

Six fighters came roaring out of the noon-day sun.  They attacked the group, but Mikos put Elder Stow’s screen up and it easily deflected the sevarese weapons.  Elder Stow only had a small device, what he called a child’s toy, but it was of a sophistication and power more than 4,000 years beyond anything the sevarese or bluebloods imagined.

seals 2Several Sevarese shots went into the seal colony and both Boston and Alexis objected.  “Couldn’t you have extended it to cover the seals.  They are people, you know.”

“Not exactly,” Mikos confessed.  “History never quite decides where the seal people fit on the scale of people-hood, if I can use that word.”

A big sevarese transport came moments later, and parked not far from the camp.  Decker and Renglar both agreed the sevarese probably had ground troops in there, and they prepared themselves to repel an attack.

One sevarese fighter took aim at Mikos’ ship, and cracked the mast while setting a small fire, but moments later, a half-dozen blueblood fighters showed up and it looked like the battle was going to be on.

Avalon 4.1: part 4 of 6, Setting Things Straight

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Katie stayed between the blueblood female, Lulu, and Lockhart.  She laid down beside Lockhart in the night and sat up with him when he was on watch.

“I thought the sevarese might try something as soon as they found us back around midnight, last night.  At least I thought they might try to take us after the sun came up,” she said.

Lockhart just looked at her briefly before he turned his eyes out again toward the dark.

“They seem to be keeping back for some reason,” she continued.  “Do you think they expected us to escape, since they did not bother to strip us in the first place?”

“Something like that,” Lockhart agreed.Katie a2

“I am sure they did not expect a group of dwarfs to tunnel into our cell and bring us out the back of the mountain.  That probably confused them for a while.  Still, the found us fairly quick in the night once we retrieved the horses and started out, but then they have kept out of visual range and probably think that we don’t know they are there.  What do you think they are doing?”

Lockhart looked at Katie with a straight face as he spoke.  “I have no interest in Lulu.”

Katie looked away and tried to answer in kind.  “I know that.”  They sat in silence for a few minutes before Katie continued. “Anyway, I am sure they don’t know that we have Elder Stow’s scanner so we know exactly where they are, and Eder Stow’s screen device to block their green knock-out ray, whatever it is, or any other heat ray they might have, as you call them.  Heat rays.”

“Uh-huh,” Lockhart agreed like he was half-listening, but his attention was all hers.

“I think they are following us with the hope that we take the bluebloods back to their mother ship.  Once they have the location pinpointed, they will be able to launch a strike.  They have no way of knowing that the blueblood honestly don’t know where their mother ship is.  All Lulu knows is they went south, and a little east so the ship should be north and a little west.”

“Bluebloods lie like elves, but they aren’t as good at it,” Lockhart said, to suggest the bluebloods might know exactly where their ship was.  “Not that I am saying Lulu is lying to you.”

Katie nodded.  “You know, all she needs is a touch, or a scratch, just a piece of your skin to get your DNA, and she can fertilize her egg.  Then she can plant the egg in the first innocent human woman we meet, and nine months later we have a half-blueblood, half-human child to deal with.”

“Half-blueblood, half-Lockhart child.” Lockhart grinned, and watched Katie look up at him with big blue eyes.  “Don’t worry,” he said quickly.  “I’ll let you know if I ever get interested in any woman other than you, but I don’t expect that I will.”

Katie sat beside him in silence again for a while before she slipped her arm around his and held his hand.

fire campfireSeveral hours later, Lockhart and Mingus went back to bed and Boston got up to sit with Katie and take the morning watch.  They built up the fire before they sat side by side, facing east so they could watch the sun rise.  The sevaree were hiding in the east, out of sight.

“According to Lincoln, we are somewhere in Turkey,” Boston began.

“Anatolia, Asia Minor,” Katie nodded.  “But near the coast.”

Boston returned the nod and got out her amulet, so Katie got hers out as well.  They compared them again, and Boston pointed out several improvements in hers as compared to the prototype Katie carried.

“I’ve gotten pretty good at seeing where the Kairos is at the center of the time zone,” Boston said.  “In this case, he appears to be moving, somewhere out in that direction, but toward us, I think.”

Katie nodded.  Her prototype was not that sophisticated.  All she could tell was the distance between them and the next gate was slowly shrinking.  “You realize the sevarese main ship is right near the time gate where we came into this time zone.  It was like they took us all the way back to the beginning and we had to start over.”

Boston nodded and looked back into the camp, her good elf ears having picked up a sound of movement.  It was just one of the bluebloods turning in his sleep.  “The sevarese probably saw us enter this time zone and tracked us to where they picked us up,” Boston nodded, before she looked back again at the sleepers.

“What’s wrong?” Katie asked.

“Nothing.  Nothing,” Boston repeated herself.

“Father Mingus giving you a hard time about something?”

“No.  He is sweet.  I don’t understand why Roland and Alexis sometimes think he is not.”

“They grew up under his watchful eye,” Katie suggested.  “I think all fathers treat their children different from the way they treat everybody else.”

“He says I’m his daughter now.”Boston 2

“Yes, but you are full grown,” Kate smiled.  “It is different when you are a child and growing up.  I know my father treats me different.”

Boston said nothing, so Katie tried again.

“So if it isn’t Father Mingus, then what is it?”  She reached for Boston’s hand, but Boston did not give it. She looked up, but chose to worry her hands in her lap instead.

“Alexis,” she said.  “It is like ever since I became an elf she had been giving me the cold shoulder.  No, I mean ever since Roland got pulled back into the future.”

“Did you think maybe she is jealous?  Father Mingus is spending a lot of time with you,” Katie said.  When Boston shook her head and shrugged, Katie added, “Did you talk to her?”

“I don’t know what to say,” Boston said.  “I know, me, not knowing what to say, ha, ha.  But I don’t know what to say.”

“Well, I can say Alexis does not dislike you, so maybe you just need to ask her what is the matter and what you can do to make it better.”

Boston shook her head and shrugged again as the sun came up.

###

Shortly after noon, the travelers with their blueblood passengers reached the southwestern shore of the Aegean Sea where Boston and Katie both affirmed the time gate was somewhere out to sea.  nat Caspian sea 1That brought everyone together for a brief meeting.  This circumstance had come up a couple of times, but this time the Kairos did not appear to have made an easy way, and there was no convenient village where they might arrange a ship for passage.

“Great,” Decker spouted.  “I don’t suppose Elder Stow has a gadget for that.”

“No,” Elder Stow admitted with a frown.  “But there seems to be many life forms not far up the shore.  Maybe it is people who can help us construct a proper boat.”

“Ship,” Decker corrected.

“Our battleship should be north, up along the shoreline,” Goran spoke around Lockhart’s shoulder where he was riding behind.  “Maybe we can help you reach your destination.”

“I’ll take it under advisement,” Lockhart said, and turned the group up the beach.  It was not far before they climbed a small rise and found the many life forms down the other side.  There were thousands of seals, they covered the sand, and they were active and noisy.

“Your scanner can’t tell the difference between people and seals?” Alexis griped.  Everyone knew she was in a bad mood, but all the same, Elder Stow was beginning to feel picked on.

“Wait for it,” Boston said, as her eyes darted back and forth between her amulet and a single mast ship that appeared on the horizon.  It looked to be headed toward the seal bay.

“Pirates?” Katie asked as she pulled out her binoculars.

“The Kairos, I think,” Boston said with a shrug as to whether or not this Kairos was a pirate.ship 1

“Mikos.”  Lincoln read from the database.  “It is either a bunch of young kids looking for help to find their way to Crete, or the ruler of Crete come to settle things between … a bunch of things.”  Lincoln looked and nodded at the bluebloods, but he did not explain.  Lockhart caught the look, but knew they would have a wait, so he said something unrelated.

“Lunch.”

Lockhart dismounted right away and helped Goren get down, stiff and worn as he was.  Lincoln also dismounted right away, and came right up to Lockhart to let him read what was written in the database.  That left Clomb to awkwardly climb down off the horse by himself.

Avalon 4.1: part 3 of 6, Bluebloods

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The travelers left the interview and got escorted under a wing of the sevarese mother ship to a different place on the mountainside where the sevarese had parked and camouflaged their presence.

“By the book means the next visit, they will probably take one or two for more thorough questioning,” Decker said as they walked.

“Torture,” Katie nodded and agreed.

“I wonder if they waterboard,” Lockhart joked.

“Not funny,” Lincoln, the former CIA operative who went to work for the Men in Black in the early seventies did not laugh.cave entrance

They came to a cave that was not a natural cave.  It looked like it had been carved out of the cliff, or maybe blasted out by a careful use of the sevarese main gun.  It had a wooden door attached, made out of a whole tree, and while it was locked with a simple outside latch, there would be no breakout.  The sevarese needed something like an earth mover to open and close the door.

Inside the small cell-cave, the travelers found three blueblood prisoners, one old man, one young man, and one woman.  The bluebloods stared at them and backed away to a corner to give these strangers plenty of room.

“Will they feed us this time?” Alexis quietly asked her husband.

Lincoln shrugged.  “The ones in Etana’s time said they liked their flesh raw.  I wouldn’t expect them to cook anything.”

Lockhart stared at the bluebloods and listened in to their whispers before he decided it was rude to eavesdrop.  “You don’t look like three witches to me,” he said in reference to the defensive robots typically used by a crashed blueblood ship to secure the area.

“Witches?” one of the blueblood men looked up, and the bluebloods all looked surprised that this human understood their language.

“The three robots you people send out to drive back whatever local people might interfere with repairs or rescue operations,” Katie explained.  She had turned from trying to find a way out of the cell.  Decker was still looking when Katie turned to Alexis and Lincoln and added, “Like we found in Iddin-Addad’s day.”  Lincoln and Alexis nodded.  They remembered.

“How long ago was that?” Alexis asked.

Lincoln patted his shirt.  “How should I know?  The database is gone, remember?” He sounded blueblood 6frustrated.

The bluebloods looked at each other before the older one of the men appeared to figure it out.  “The Hammashine,” he said and smiled, like he was pleased to remember the name.  “We haven’t outfitted ships with Hammashine in four or five hundred years.”

“The ones we had to destroy seemed pretty effective,” Katie said, with a nod from Lockhart.

The old man agreed.  “But the Pendratti in the old war found a way to remotely reprogram them and turn them against us.”

“A good reason to drop the technology,” Decker said, having finally given up trying to find a way out of the cave.

“So why haven’t you tried to impregnate us?” Alexis spoke up rather rudely and pointed at herself and Katie.  “I thought the blueblood way was to secretly impregnate the local population until the locals died out and were replaced with blueblood children.”

“Oh, no,” the young blueblood male looked at the ground, raised his hands and shook them.  “We were warned that this world is off limits.  We were strictly told that any attempt to impregnate the local humans was a death offense.”

The female looked directly at Lockhart as she spoke.  “You even look like us, and your warm blood is immensely attractive. It is a compulsion, but we can fight it.”

“I am Goran,” the old man interrupted.  “My companions are Clomb and Lulu.”  Lulu was the female.  “We piloted a three man scout craft sent to search out the sevarese, and we found them.”blueblood 4

“You are humans?” Lulu asked Lockhart as they locked eyes.

“Three man craft,” Katie said with a touch on Lockhart’s arm to get his attention, and a hard glance at the blueblood.  “Probably based on the old Balok design.”

“Probably,” Lockhart said as he looked away.  He chose to look at Decker.

“No way out I can find,” Decker reported.  “We might as well relax for now.”

“I’m sorry, but they took our weapons,” Goran admitted.  “We might have basted our way out if we had our weapons.”

“They took our weapons as well,” Decker said, flatly, and tapped his hip as if feeling for something that was not there.

“But our weapons couldn’t blast us out,” Lockhart admitted.

“No good if they could,” Katie said.  “That much noise would just attract the sevarese.”

“Alexis?” Lockhart looked at her.  She shook her head.

“My magic is not strong enough to budge that tree,” she said.  “I might as well try to move the blueblood 2mountain.”

“Magic?” young Clomb sounded surprised and a little afraid at the thought.

“It would take some magic to repair our battle cruiser,” Goran said.  “We took a risk coming here because it was close and because it is well known to be off limits.  We hoped the sevarese would not follow us.”

“Glory Cata sounded determined to get you, and he is not convinced as to why this world is off limits to all space races,” Katie said.

“So, you met the sevarese commander,” Goran responded.

“He doesn’t believe in the gods or the Kairos,” Lockhart nodded.  “He probably doesn’t believe in magic, either.”

“The Kairos,” Goran knew the name.  “We came here in part hoping we could find this one and he or she might help us repair our ship.  Some of us thought that was like walking into the Pragodda mouth.  Our records show in the past she was not kind to those who broke the rules.”

“Weret,” Katie remembered that time zone.

“Like walking into a lion’s mouth,” Alexis interpreted.lincoln 9

“He in this age, I think,” Lincoln said and shrugged.  “How should I know?”

Everyone paused at the dim sound of picks and hammers.

“Hush,” Decker said it out loud, but everyone was quiet.  Someone was behind the back wall.  “They are coming for Lincoln,” Decker said as everyone moved away from that wall.  It took a few  minutes before a rock fell from the wall.  There was a small hole.  Then a big section of the back wall collapsed, and the travelers and bluebloods shivered from the sound of a voice hidden somewhere in the dark.

“Is that okay?”  It was a troll voice.

“Look out, Shredder.”  That was Boston’s voice, and a second later she appeared in the cave, or more accurately, she became visible as she spoke.  “Look, Alexis.  I learned how to do invisible.”  She confided to Lockhart who was inching behind Katie and Lulu who stood on either side of him.  “I was motivated, but it is so draining.  I can’t keep it up for long.”

Mingus came into the room and walked straight to Lincoln.  “Here.  You lost this.”  He handed over the database.  “At least this time you didn’t lose your wife.”

“I never lost her,” Lincoln yelled.  “You stole her.”

Alexis took Lincoln’s arm to calm him.

Elder Stow stuck his head in and reported.  “The horses and all of our equipment is safe.  We will gather the horses at sundown and escape.  I have arranged to cover us with a screen to protect us as we move, assuming my equipment works correctly.  We will have to stay together, though, and Dwarf 1not spread out too far—”

“Got to get moving,” a dwarf head poked into the room and interrupted.  “It takes time to back fill, and we want to leave a good mystery for the birdmen when they show up.”

“Coming?” Lockhart said to Lulu as the other started into the tunnel.  Katie butted between the two.

“You can ride behind me,” Katie told the blueblood female.

************************

Only three posts this week, and three next week to conclude Avalon 4.1 A Time for War

Don’t miss it… Happy Reading

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Avalon 4.1: part 2 of 6, Prisoners

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The horses stayed in the cargo area while the people got carried into the inner halls, disappearing behind the doors.  Both Elder Stow and Mingus stopped Boston from following.

“We need to keep track of the horses so we can be ready to go when we help the others escape,”  Mingus said.

“I’m picking up strong sub-light capability and good gravometric balance, but I doubt this little Stow 1transport will be headed off world,” Eder Stow said.  When he saw that the elder elf was not interested in his techno-babble, he added, “I doubt the others will be harmed before we reach the main ship, wherever that may be.”

Boston shouted from the small window.  “I just like flying.  All those trees down below.  Look, a herd of animals.  They look like ants.”

Elder Stow looked at Mingus as he spoke.  “She keeps things in perspective.”

Mingus nodded.  “She focuses on the important things.”

###

Katie was the first to wake, but Lockhart and Decker were not far behind.  Lockhart at least had the good sense to groan as he sat up.  Alexis and Lincoln took a little longer, and Lincoln stayed dizzy for a bit.

“Just lie still and relax,” Alexis told him.  “It doesn’t look like we will be going anywhere soon.”

They were locked in an inner room with several small cots and a small table with two small chairs.  Their guns, knives, belts, and Alexis’ medical bag had all been taken from them.

“Not giants,” Decker nudged a little chair and spoke the obvious.

“The ones I saw in Etana’s day were four or five feet tall,” Lincoln said as he sat up and put one hand to his head.  “Flesh eaters, as I said.  They had developed a taste for human flesh.”

“We all saw them in Hadj’s day,” Alexis reminded everyone.

“With the Pendratti,” Katie remembered.  “That was two or three time zones ago, maybe a hundred and fifty years or so.  Do you think they are still fighting each other?”

lincoln 1Lockhart shrugged and everyone looked at Lincoln who patted his pockets.  Lincoln’s eyes got big and he sat up suddenly wide awake and said, “It’s gone.  The database.”  He stood to more thoroughly check his pockets.  “I was reading it when we were struck.  I must have dropped it.”  He hoped the sevarese did not take it.  The information in the database could change the whole course of history.

“Maybe Elder Stow picked it up,” Katie suggested, before she explained to everyone.  “I saw him go invisible right before I passed out.”  Katie pulled out the amulet they needed to point to the next time gate, and also the necklace she never took off.  That necklace was a camera, matched to the one on Decker’s ring.  They transmitted to a part alien digital device she carried in her pack.  She imagined the recorder would hold several years of recording, twenty-four hours a day, before it ran out of room.  Last she checked it was not a quarter full.  She quickly put her things away, but Alexis noticed.

“At least they did not strip us when they took us prisoner,” Alexis said.

Katie nodded.  “They probably thought the amulet was just a decorative piece.  That is how it is Katie 5disguised.”

“That Neanderthal is quick when his skin is on the line,” Decker interrupted.  He was checking the walls to see if there was a crack in the construction.

“I hope Boston, Mingus and Elder Stow are all right,” Katie said.

Alexis sighed some unexplained unhappiness.  “Me too.”  Then she added, “And Misty Gray, wherever the horses are.”

“I imagine the horses may be supper,” Decker said as he turned from the wall and took a seat on one of the small chairs.  “I instructed Weber to give indigestion to whoever eats him.”  Decker fidgeted a little, like he felt half naked not having a gun and knife at his side.

Lincoln sat back on the cot, leaned his head to the wall, and put a hand back to his forehead.  “What do you imagine they will do with us?” he asked.

Decker 7“The ones we saw in Hadj’s day seemed pretty military,” Lockhart said.  “I imagine they will go by the book and interview us first.”  He looked at the Major and the Captain.  Katie nodded as if to say that was right.  Decker quipped with a look at Lincoln.

“Maybe they like to play with their food first.”

###

The five travelers stood quietly and waited while the sevarese at the table looked at what might have doubled for a computer tablet.  Decker looked around the inside of the small cave and counted the sevarese that surrounded them with guns drawn.  Lincoln looked for cracks and openings in the back wall of the cave, a habit he had picked up on their journey since he did not like to be surprised by whatever goblins, trolls or dwarfs might be hiding back there.  Lockhart, Katie and Alexis examined their host, his small stature, beak-like nose, and feather-like hair. and they waited politely until he spoke.

“Oh, this is telling me nothing but mythology and the delusions of my ancients,” the sevarese at the table spoke with a clear sound of frustration in his voice.  He set the tablet on the table rather roughly and looked up at the humans.  “I am Glory Cata, and my claw trailed a Blueblood ship to this world, and you appeared.  We know the bluebloods have gotten into our historical records and corrupted many things.  Your appearance is too much for coincidence, but the bluebloods missed one key point.  Your species does not live that long.”UFO Birdman 1

“I don’t know what record you are looking at that mentions us, but if it does, it probably notes that we are time travelers,” Lockhart tried to be helpful, and friendly.

“Yes,” Glory Cata made a face that they all guessed was a smirky little smile.  He showed no teeth, but he had three tongues that looked like they could tear things up pretty well. “But we know that time travel is impossible, so the obvious conclusion is you are blueblood spies.”

“To what end?”  Lockhart asked.

“I don’t know,” Glory Cata went back to sounding frustrated.  “To draw us out.  To discover our base of operations.  To detonate yourselves.  Who knows?”

“Excuse me,” Lincoln interrupted.  “If you have any record at all of this world, then it should show that this word is off limits.  You should not even be here.”

“The bluebloods came here, so we came here.  Once we have wiped them out then we will leave and neither of us will be here.”

UFO Birdman 3“I don’t think the gods will accept that bit of ill-logic,” Alexis said.

“That’s another thing,” Glory Cata yelled as he picked up the tablet.  “This fantasy of my ancestors speaks of spirits in the earth and the sky and some with powers like gods.  Who can believe such tales?  Look here, what is a ghu-ail?”

“Ghoul,” Lockhart corrected, quietly.

“And who is this Kay-ro … ros?”

“Kairos,” Lockhart continued.  “He is one who will be seriously unhappy that you have prevented us from continuing our journey.”

“He makes the Kairos sound like syrup,” Katie whispered.

“And I suppose this imaginary Kay-ros and his imaginary gods will come and enforce the off limits for this planet.”

“I don’t know about that,” Lockhart said, “But I suggest you figure out why this planet is marked off limits before you do something drastic that you may regret.”

Glory Cata paused with his mouth open.  His tongues clicked against his nose-beak like he was fishing out some string of food that got caught up in there, like a person might pick their teeth.  Suddenly, the severese raised his feather-covered hands and returned to his bad attitude.  “It is a blueblood trick.  It must be.”  Glory Cata gave the travelers his best, mean stare.  “Where are the blueblood located?  Where is their battleship?”

Glory Cata picked up a stick and touched Alexis with the other end of it.  Alexis gasped and shook,  She squeezed her eyes tight while everyone jumped.  Lincoln pulled her away and felt the electrical charge, like a shot with a taser.  Gory Cata spoke again while Alexis caught her breath.

“Speak up.  I will not ask so nicely again.”  When the travelers said they had no idea where the bluebloods were located, Glory Cata added one more word.  “Lock them with the others until I decide what to do with them.”

“Our horses?” Katie asked while they were escorted out of the room.

“Locked away for now,” the sevarese answered.  “I heard they are poisonous.  Too bad.”Alexis 6

“Father Mingus,” Alexis smiled and whispered to the others while Lincoln helped her move.  “He must have convinced the sevarese the horses could not be eaten.  He is pretty good with mind magic.”

“Not as good as a ghu-ail,” Lincoln joked, and Decker and Lockhart both gave Lincoln a look that said how dare he steal their line.

Avalon 4.1: A Time for War, part 1 of 6

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After 2395 BC around the Aegean.  Kairos 47: Mikos, Akos of Akoshia

Recording …

Katie checked the amulet that had been placed in her hands, and pointed a little to their left.  It was the prototype, not as sophisticated as the one Boston wore around her neck, but it pointed well enough to the next time gate, and that was all that mattered.  To be honest, she hardly gave it a thought as her mind was occupied with another matter.

“I’m worried about Elder Stow,” she said out loud.  “He is being so quiet.  I remember Lincoln read from the database that Neanderthals, I mean, the Gott-Druk are naturally gregarious and very family oriented people.  I thought he was finally starting to open up and accept us as family, but suddenly he has gone back to being all stiff and formal.”

“I don’t know,” Lockhart said.  “He isn’t human.  I don’t think we can judge him in human ways.”

Katie nodded.  “If he was human, I would say he is acting like a petulant teenager.”

Lockhart nodded.  “But he isn’t.”

“But Mingus and now Boston are not human, either.” Katie did not finish her thought.avaloncover1

“Yes, but Boston was human,” Lockhart responded.  “Besides, I have come to accept that elves, dwarfs, and even dark elves and the rest are still native to this planet.  The Gott-Druk are no longer welcome here, at least not since the flood.”

“Do you think there really was a flood?”

“We saw the boat on the mountain.  That is some pretty hard evidence.”

“And the tower of Shinar, we saw with our own eyes.” Katie nodded with glee, but one eye went to look at Eder Stow who was dutifully riding out on the flank.

“Speaking of Mingus and Boston,” Lockhart said to distract Katie’s attention.  “Are they keeping up?

Katie looked back.  Father Mingus was instructing his new daughter.

“Now Miss Riley, invisibility is hard, it takes some real concentration, but I am sure you can do it,” Mingus encouraged her.  “Let the end of your wand be the focal point for your magic.  That is what wands are good for.”

“It’s hard,” Boston complained, sounding like a young child.  “Besides, I’m afraid I’m going to set myself or Honey on fire.”

“Now, I know the Amazons called you Little Fire,” Mingus spoke kindly.  “But you should not fear the spark inside you.  I have looked with the mind magic, and you have a fine roaring flame, but invisibility comes from a different section of your brain, and I have seen that you can do it.  You must trust, and not me.  You must trust yourself.”

Boston nodded, but she did not look too sure.

Alexis, riding in front of Mingus and Boston, spurred her horse to catch up to where Katie and Lockhart were watching out ahead.  She left Lincoln to read whatever he was reading in the database, and made a face of disgust that Katie noticed.

“He is treating her like a porcelain doll,” Alexis groused.

Alexis t2“Not the way you remember your childhood?” Lockhart guessed.

Alexis shook her head.  “Okay, it was the eighteenth century, but I got whippings with a switch when I got something wrong or didn’t do what I was told.”

“Whippings?” Katie sounded shocked.  She could not imagine light elves doing anything of the kind.  She still thought they were all peaceful, loving vegetarians, despite her experience of watching them in battle.

“Maybe not whippings, but near enough.  People don’t realize that the little spirits of the earth parallel human behavior much more than any want to admit.  The magic and all seems like such a great divide, but we all think and feel the same.  We marry after a fashion, and have families.  We all raise our children to do what is right, more or less.  And we share emotions like love, hate and fear.”

“I suppose that is true,” Lockhart said.

“I really hadn’t thought of it that way,” Katie admitted, and one eye went again to Elder Stow.

“I am not downplaying the differences, which in some ways are profound and eternal, but we share more in common than most know or admit.”

“And right now you are jealous of Boston?” Lockhart was seeking clarification.

Alexis lowered her eyes to think, but everyone else lifted their eyes to look overhead.  Decker rode in from the flank and pointed up.  It was a good sized ship of uncertain markings, and unfortunately, there was no cover to which they could run and hide, only a few small trees over where Elder Stow stopped in the shadows to watch.

The ship flew in a big arc before it circled back toward the travelers, who dismounted but did not move from where they were.  What was the point?  They were obviously seen.

“I don’t recognize the markings,” Decker said.

“I don’t either,” Lockhart confessed

“Just coming to it.” Lincoln had the database out.

“What do you suppose they want with us?” Decker asked.

“Don’t know that they do,” Katie responded before Lockhart explained, drawing on knowledge gleaned from his years with the Men in Black..UFO battle 1

“We are an unusual sight in this day and environment.  They may have scanners that picked up the worked metal content of our weapons, for example.  I’m guessing they are just interested in a good look.”

“They might have as much interest in the horses as us,” Mingus suggested as he rode up and got down to join the group.  Boston stood in her stirrups and waved before she got down.

“Not Marzalotipan, I hope,” Katie frowned at the thought of another visit by those interstellar used car salesmen.

“No.  The marking match sevarese markings,” Lincoln said.  “They are bird men, too, but very different.  The last ones I met, in Etana’s day, were flesh eaters, human flesh.”  Before he could explain further, a green light came from the ship and bathed the travelers.  All of the people, fell unconscious.  The horses were stunned, but remained on their feet.

“Quick as you can,” Mingus said and grabbed a groggy Boston’s hand.  They ran at super speed to the trees and bushes where Eder Stow was just then turning himself invisible.  “Now, girl, get invisible,” he ordered, and Boston was motivated.  She succeeded as Elder Stow’s horse wandered over to join the others.

When the ship landed, the sevarese rounded up the horses and people to bring them aboard.  “Follow me,” Elder Stow said, and he snuck, invisible, into the ship.  Mingus and Boston, who could still see him and hear him, followed.  Elder Stow could not see the elves until Mingus made a window so just the Elder could see him.

“An advanced lesson,” he told Boston.  Boston nodded.  She had enough to do to keep herself from suddenly appearing and being seen by everyone.

Boston LF1

Avalon 4.0: part 7 of 7, Fire

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Gingsu ran to form up his men in the face of the oncoming hill people.  Yuan ran to ready his elves, though elves were much like marines in that respect.  They were always ready.  Bogda sent a mental message to his dwarfs in the rocks to keep down until the human passed so they could come up on the humans from behind and hold the high ground with rocks for cover.

Decker snapped the scope on his rifle.  Katie had her rifle at hand, and found her own scope while Mai-Lyn pulled her bow.  Katie patted her horse’s neck for luck.  The horses stayed back, being Avalon travelers horses 2obedient creatures, each tied to his rider by almost magical strings.  Being mustangs from the American West, they were no strangers to gunfire.  Sadly, they were also getting used to men running, screaming, and dying all around them.

Boston practiced puling her bow from her slip.  It looked to human eyes like she pulled it from nowhere.  Lockhart and Lincoln had their pistols out, and Lockhart fetched his shotgun, again with the hope that the enemy would not get close enough to need it.  Mingus grabbed a half-dozen of Boston’s arrows from her never empty quiver.  He began to rub the arrows and sprinkled some sand from his feet on them to make the magic work.

“We need a few grenades,” Decker said.

“Just working on that,” Mingus replied.  He made Alexis get out her bow as well, over her mild objections, and handed her some of the arrows while he reached for more.

Decker and Katie began to pick off targets on the hillside.  They did not expect to have much impact, except maybe to unnerve some of the men around their targets.

Elder Stow let loose with his sonic device.  The rocks on the hillside rumbled, and some of them started a few small rockslides.  No doubt, men were injured, and some perhaps killed by the rocks, but again, it would have no great impact on the battle other than what the few with broken limbs screaming for their fellows might do to the enemy morale.

dwarves a2“I hope we didn’t catch any dwarfs in the rocks,” Lockhart apologized to the dwarf king who moved up with Lin and Mai-Lyn to stand with the travelers.

“With luck Tuku got hit in the head with a big rock and it knocked some sense into him.” Bogda responded as he cradled his axe and waited.

“Oh, I am sorry,” Elder Stow admitted.  “I was just thinking what I could do.  I didn’t think—“

“It’s all right,” Lin interrupted his litany.

Tien showed up.  “You know, you could set up a one sided screen around the group where we can shoot out, but they cannot shoot in, like you did in Nuwa’s day.”

“Of course,” Eder Stow said in an embarrassed tone.  He got out his scanner and apologized again.  “I am sorry but it will not cover the soldiers.  It will not stretch that far and remain single sided.”

“Just do your best,” Lockhart said.

“Bogda and Mai-Lyn stay here,” Lin commanded, and both the elect and the dwarf groused.  TheyLin Mai-Lyn 2 figured the enemy would not be able to get to them for real combat and they wanted to join the fighting.  Bogda mumbled something best not translated as he got out his bow and a dozen arrows.

“Yes,” Tien said to the Elder.  “I’m surprised you did not do that when facing the ghouls.  They might have been able magically to pass through the screen, but even invisible, you would have known exactly where they were and could have shot them before they got up the rocks.”

Elder Stow looked at Katie who was still firing at the oncoming men, and turned his head to Lockhart.  “My father, I apologize.  I did not think of that.”

“Neither did I, or anyone else, so don’t worry about it.”

“But I should know my own equipment.”

“And Boston should always know who the Kairos is, but it doesn’t work that way.  We just each do our best and hope we survive long enough to get back to the twenty-first century.  That is all any of us can do.”  Lockhart raised his pistol as the enemy broke out from the base of the hill and charged, screaming death.

“Ready,” Lockhart yelled.  “Fire.”  It was pretty quick.  There was not much ground the lead group had to cross.  The elves appeared in front of the soldiers, and they rarely missed with their arrows.  Lin, Mai-Lyn and Bogda also sent some arrows from the small group at the side of the army ranks, but the devastation came from the guns.  Decker and Katie especially switched their weapons to automatic and took down two and three men with each burst of fire.  The guns would never run out of bullets.  It was one of the things the Kairos arranged when the travelers left Avalon to begin this impossible journey, but they still had to be careful not to overheat the weapons.  Parts could break, maybe even melt.

lin army attack

Boston and Alexis also kept up with the archers, but the arrows treated by Mingus exploded on contact, whether they hit a man or the ground, and the explosion was indeed like a grenade, far more powerful than the little firecrackers Boston was firing before.  Men were knocked off their feet and into the air like rag dolls.  And when the treated arrows were gone, Boston had an idea.

She pulled her wand, and this time she grabbed Mingus’ hand to borrow his magic.  She then sent out a stream of fire like a flame thrower.  When Alexis put her hand on Boston’s shoulder, the added air increased the intensity and distance of the flame.  The enemy by then was moving away from the group on the end, which shoved the whole enemy line into the face of the soldiers.

The elves pulled back at that point, and the soldiers in a solid line, five men deep, began to move forward.  The men in front had shields and long knives, not unlike a Roman formation.  The two rows of men behind them carried spears which made something like a spiked wall that moved forward slowly, but inexorably.  The brigands had no answer for that, and they began to break.  Those who tried for the hill found the dwarf axes waiting.  Those who squirted out the sides managed to escape, but they were a broken and utterly defeated army.

“There, I’ve got it,” Elder Stow said, and Mai-Lyn put her hand in front of Boston’s face.  The arrow flamethrowerintended for the flamethrower entered Mai-Lyn’s hand and stopped inches from Boston.  Boston immediately turned the archer into a crispy critter.  No enraged dragon could have done more.  But Alexis let go and immediately took Mai-Lyn aside.

She broke off the arrow and pulled it right out.  “Nice catch,” Alexis said.  She let the wound bleed out the splinters and caught the hand in both of hers,  Her hands began to give off a warm, golden glow, and with some relief from the pain, Mai-Lyn passed out, never having so much as uttered a peep.  It took a long minute before Alexis could let go.  The wound looked completely healed from the outside.  “But there is still internal and muscle damage that needs to heal,” Alexis said to whoever might be listening.  “At least she won’t bleed to death and it won’t get infected.”  She got out some gauze and wrapped the hand tight.

“Hey!” Boston turned on Elder Stow.  “I thought the screen was up that whole time.”

“We all thought that,” Katie admitted.

“That was as fast as I could make it,” Elder Stow shouted back.  “You asked me to make the equipment do something it was not designed to do.”

“Go easy,” Lockhart stepped between them.  “How is she?” he asked, and all eyes turned to Alexis.

“She will be fine with time.  She is an elect, so I expect she will heal completely.”

Lin was watching, but nodded on that word and went out to give the grizzly order.  The soldiers needed to kill any enemy wounded on the field.  It sounded barbaric, but it was actually a mercy.  She came back to the others in a bad mood.Lin 4

“You need to go,” she told the travelers.  “You should be able to catch up with Captain Sushang pretty easily, and I would appreciate if you traveled with them, at least until you reach the next time gate.

“And what will you be doing?” Lincoln asked.

“We will be heading into the hills to end this struggle.  I have sent out two dozen trains to fetch the opium.  This, after eight years, is the second to return.  I do not blame the hill people for all of our loses, but some, yes, some.  The least we can do is secure this north end of the silk road.  I think Gingsu’s family may build a fort and settlement here on the lake.  I think Devya may build a settlement in the center to anchor the road, but that remains to be seen.”

“Who is Devya?” Boston asked.

“Me,” Lin answered, and helped Mai-Lyn walk back to their tent.

“Mount up,” Lockhart said.  They had to ride to catch up and a long way to go to the next time gate, not to mention the trip back to the twenty-first century.

************************

MONDAY… Avalon 4.1 A Time for War.  The travelers find themselves in the Aegean area, only this time, it isn’t humans fighting.  Some people just don’t have enough sense to keep their quarrel in space where it belongs.  Happy Reading…

UFO battle 4

Avalon 4.0: part 6 of 7, What Was and May Be

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“So,” Tien began his tale.  “I confessed to Mai-Lyn, the one who acts like Mother Lin’s right arm, that the caravan was not far away, but under attack from the people of the hills.  She ran to the empress and they grabbed their horses, which by some miracle were already saddled and ready to go.”  Tien paused to smile.  “They grabbed the thirty horsemen who were practicing sitting on a horse and stabbing a target with a spear at the same time, not that they were any good at it.  Together, we all rode out to the caravan, but like you folks had things in hand, the two elves and the witch had already driven off the hill people.”

“Two elves and former elf,” Lincoln interrupted.  “Alexis is a bit touchy about the word, witch.”asian boston

“Witch is a good thing in this day and age,” Tien said.  “But in any case, when we arrived, Lin and Mai-Lyn dismounted right away.  Poor Boston was stymied.  She knew the Kairos was a woman, but she could not tell which one.”

“You see, young Mary,” Mingus spoke kindly.  “When the Kairos is a human it isn’t always easy to tell her from the other humans around her.”

“But I should know,” Boston objected.  “I should always know.”

“But it doesn’t always work that way.  Sometimes the Kairos does not want to be known by us.”

“Sometimes it is a mystery,” Alexis added.

“But—“ Boston began, when Lin interrupted her.

“Boston.  Where are Lockhart and the others?”

tien 2“There is a ghoul ambush set up a few miles back,” Alexis said.  “The others went to ambush the ambush.”

“Lin turned to me.  “Tien?  Those ghouls have to go,” she said, as she opened her arms so Boston could run into them.  It was heart warming to see a god lavish such love on her charge, and very instructive.”

“Not a bad way to go about business,” Lockhart suggested, but quieted as they came to the camp and Boston ran straight into Lockhart’s arms for another hug.  Then he added a thought.  “Hugs also work for friends.”

Alexis and Lincoln also hugged, but said nothing as Lin and Mai-Lyn approached with five men.  Lockhart guessed one of the men was Gingsu, lord of the far western lands of the empire and defender of the border.  One was Shanjo.

“Elect,” Mai-Lyn spoke first and directly at Katie.

“Second in all the world, after Zoe,” Lin nodded, and Mai-Lyn got down on her knees and looked ready to prostrate herself before Katie, but Katie caught her arm and lifted her back to her feet.

“We don’t do that,” Katie insisted.  “We need to be more like sisters.”

“Mai-Lyn is my bodyguard,” Lin said proudly.Lin Mai-Lyn 1

“Good choice,” Katie responded as Lin got to introducing her commanders.  Gingsu they had heard of.  Yuan, the elf of the desert was there with a hundred unseen warriors, and Bogda was the dwarf king from the mountains.  He had the base of the foothills littered with his people, all prepared for war.

“And Captain Sushang has sixty men on horse, but I expect to lose fifty of them as soon as I send Shanjo and the opium to safety.”  Then Lin felt the need to justify herself.  “Try to understand.  What passes for medical treatment in this age is a joke.  The wounded rarely recover.  At least with the opiates, they should not have to suffer in their last hours.”  Lin looked ready to cry and everyone there offered all the comfort and sympathy they could.  Then she turned on her captain.  “That is why you must defend the opium to the last grain and get it safely to the capital, and for god’s sake, keep it out of the hands of the Shang.”

“Yes, Lady,” Captain Sushang bowed to her in a way that was almost worshipful, and well beyond respect.

Tien sighed and slipped his arms around Katie and Mai-Lyn.  “Would that I commanded such devotion,” he whispered.  Katie was uncomfortable under the arm of the god, but Mai-Lyn looked like she and Tien shared some other moments.  “Two elect in the same place and time.  It is a wonder the earth doesn’t explode.  Strong as any man, expert with or without weapons, hard to injure and quick to heal.  Made to protect all the women and children left behind when the men went off hunting or to war, but here you both are getting ready for war.

“No,” Katie said.  “I suspect we will be leaving with the caravan.  The Kairos usually won’t let us stick around and get involved with local, temporal problems.”

tien 1Tien nodded and vanished, but Katie and Mai-Lyn both read the look on his face.  Both concluded that the travelers might not have time to get away before things started.  They went to tell Lin, but she had taken Boston and Alexis down by the water.

“I named it lake Boston,” Lin said.  “I hope you don’t mind.”

“No, as long as I don’t have to die to have it named after me,” Boston said with a grin.

“Lady—” Mai-Lyn started to speak but Lin hushed her.  She looked at Katie and went away from that time and place so Doctor Mishka could fill her place.  All of the women had seen the Kairos trade places through time, as she called it, and become what appeared to be a completely different person.  They knew it was actually another lifetime the Kairos would live somewhere in history.  In this case, they all knew the good doctor, but even so, Boston and Katie gasped, while Alexis and Mai-Lyn briefly lowered their eyes, like a visual bow, in acknowledgement of one who was counted among the gods even when her life was completely human and mortal.

“Alexis, please open your medical bag,” Mishka said.  Alexis had taken to carrying her medical bag like a purse, like she first carried it before they got the horses.  She said she was carrying it to counter the men who carried their weapons everywhere.

“Oh, but I don’t think—“

“Hush,” Doctor Mishka hushed her, just like Lin hushed Mai-Lyn, a strong suggestion that Mishka and Lin were indeed the same person on the inside even if they outwardly appeared like two different persons.  “You will find in there three small packages, one for you, one for Boston, and one for Katie.  They each contain a small pill tailored to your unique chemistries.  I have made it soBoston 5 Boston’s will still work despite her becoming an elf.”  Mai-Lyn raised an eyebrow on that revelation, but did not doubt that Boston was an elf.

“But what is it?” Boston was the curious one.

“Birth control,” Mishka said.  “Barak in the last time zone said he was not going to get into it with the three of you.  He said that was a woman’s job, so Lin got the call.  I am just here to make sure you have no adverse reactions.”

“One pill?”  Katie wondered.

“Magic?” Alexis asked.

“Science,” Mishka answered.  “It is actually a contraceptive implant taken the easy way.  It will insert itself where it needs to go and be near one hundred percent effective for three years or until I give you what you might call the cure.  But magically guaranteed to keep you from becoming pregnant.  Please take them.”

Alexis did, but Boston complained.  “Roland is not here, and I have no interest in doing that with anyone else.”

“But you have been nearly raped a couple of times so far,” Alexis reminded her, and Boston took her pill.

“But I’m not sleeping with anyone right now,” Katie said, and everyone, even Mai-Lyn gave her looks which said they all knew better.  They watched her head turn to look at Lockhart.  Katie took her pill.  “If we were home, I would never have imagined spending time with him.  But I have gotten to know him, the real him.  I think he is my heart.”  She used that fairy expression, and all four women took turns giving her hugs.

“Everything appears normal,” Doctor Mishka smiled.  She had a stethoscope of some kind in her hands.  No one saw where it came from, but she was able to use it to check their hearts and pulse.  “I should probably check your blood pressure as well, but this early in the time stream I haven’t had the equipment built yet.  Everything seems normal, but I will be around.”  Doctor Mishka and her stethoscope vanished and Lin came home to her own time and place.

donkey packs 1“But shouldn’t we know what side-effects to watch out for, just in case?” Alexis asked.

Lin shook her head.  “There should not be any since they are tailored to each of you, individually.”  She hugged Alexis, Katie and Boston.  “I missed the hugging part,” she added as she started them walking back toward the camp.

Alexis and Katie said nothing.  They appeared to be thinking very hard as they walked.  But Boston had something to say, even if it was quietly mumbled.  “Now I really wish Roland was here.”

“Okay,” Lin yelled as the women walked up on the main counsel where the men were arguing about the best deployment of the various groups of soldiers  “Captain Sushang.  Shanjo.  You better get moving right now.  You can make it half way to the end of the lake by nightfall, and hopefully that will be far enough to prevent you being followed.”  Shanjo and Sushang looked at each other.  “Now.  Go.  Get moving.” Lin shooed them off.

“We should go too,” Lincoln said, and Mingus nodded, though he was not about to be caught agreeing with Lincoln out loud.

“The time gate should be in the same direction the caravan will be traveling,” Boston said, with a quick check of her amulet.

“I don’t think we are going to have time for that,” Katie said, and Mai-Lyn nodded vigorously, and pointed.  There were men coming down the hill, about five hundred of them.

pep army 1