Chapter 2

  Dalex carefully watched the soldier in the pressed officer’s uniform. He did not give Dalex his name. The beastkin’s rodent-like ears—Dalex couldn’t tell if they belonged to any particular species—were laid back in what was either a fearful or aggressive posture, and Dalex knew either one was dangerous.

  Dalex gestured to the churning mist inside the portal. “So, how does this work? Do I just walk through and end up on Gaia Zeta?”

  Hitasa peeked around the ring and into the portal’s depths. “I have heard it is always open, day or night.”

  “Should I give it a try?” Dalex asked, stepping closer to the portal’s threshold. No one in the resistance had been through the Waterfall Portal. Ostensibly, Gaia Zeta was the land of the beastkin, but all the beastkin he knew personally had been born on Gaia Eta.

  “It looks dangerous,” Hitasa said. “But supposedly hundreds of people use it every day. Sometimes thousands.”

  “Do not approach the portal!” the beastkin officer shouted. Thus far, the other soldiers around the Waterfall Portal had not noticed Dalex and Hitasa’s presence. Several of them turned at their commander’s voice, curious as to who he might be talking to. The officer raised his voice even louder, “Watchers of the Ulenbeter Guard, the enemy is here. Prepare to defend your city!”

  Dalex waved a hand at the officer. “There’s no need for that. I’m just here to take a peek and then close the door.” He turned to Hitasa. “Can you handle them while I look around?”

  Hitasa took a deep breath and nodded. Suddenly, she was surrounded by a pale blue set of armor that matched Dalex’s own. She turned to face the officer as the soldiers under his command came rushing toward the portal platform.

  “Do what you must,” she said. “I will keep them occupied.”

  Dalex turned on his heels, walking through the portal entrance. The crimson clouds surrounded him, flowing over his body without touching him. His senses felt fuzzy. Behind him, he heard Hitasa speak to the assembled soldiers.

  “We are not here to hurt anyone. Please remain calm and do not interfere.”

  The last thing Dalex heard was the shing of a sword coming loose from a scabbard, a shout, and then an electrical discharge. After that, he only heard muted sounds of violence.

  His passage through the portal wasn’t instantaneous. He walked through a gloomy tunnel for about a hundred feet toward a point of light in the distance. The swirling cloud matter to his left and right concealed the walls of the tunnel, assuming there were walls at all. Who knew what lurked in the clouds? Maybe monsters hid in the gloom, or maybe the sides dropped away into an endless abyss. Dalex didn’t feel like finding out.

  The point of light resolved into the tunnel’s exit and the other side of the portal. He took one step out into the light and found himself on a ruby platform surrounded by an open expanse of charcoal black paving stones. A dozen guards stood watch at the edges of the portal, looking away from him.

  “Excuse me?” Dalex said.

  A few of the guards turned. One of them, a wolf-eared beastkin in a uniform similar to the officer Dalex had just left, squinted at him.

  “Who goes there?” he demanded. “I was told no one would be traveling from the Eta side of the portal.”

  “I apologize for the confusion,” Dalex said. “I just wanted to confirm something.” He pointed at the ground in front of his feet. “Is this Gaia Zeta? It doesn’t look that much different from Gaia Eta.”

  “Who are you?” the new officer asked. “Your hair is… strange. And your eyes.” He paused in thought. “It couldn’t be…”

  Dalex turned to one of the other guards, a younger-looking beastkin with cat ears. “Would you tell me? Is this Gaia Zeta?”

  The young guard nodded reflexively. That was good enough for Dalex. He walked a few more feet out into the open and stretched his back, looking up at the sky.

  “The clouds are different,” he muttered to himself. “It really is a new world.” He turned away from the guards and raised his voice. “Well, that’s all I wanted to confirm. I’ll probably be back later, but you lot can sit tight for now.”

  He started back into the portal, walking toward the Gaia Eta side. He had a decent understanding of how the portal worked. Knowing that the two rings were connected by the ethereal corridor of red clouds, Dalex felt confident his plan would work.

  He heard the officer behind him shout, “Halt! Stay where you are!” but then Dalex was among the cloud matter and the irate voice vanished. He walked in silence for a moment before he heard footsteps on stone behind him.

  “Careful!” the officer’s voice returned. “He could be the target.”

  Dalex had known there was a good chance they would follow him. He turned around to see ten of the guards following him through the gloom. Dalex held his hand out with the palm up and said, “{Basin of winds}.”

  His armor appeared over his body and the {astral mortar} slipped off of his raised gauntlet, forming into a small plaster bowl. Dalex gripped both sides of the bowl and pointed the open end toward his pursuers. Howling gusts of wind poured out of the bowl and crashed against the beastkin soldiers. They stopped in their tracks and raised their arms, leaning forward as they tried to keep their feet. A few were knocked over regardless, sent sliding back over the polished floor toward the Gaia Zeta side of the portal. The officer in charge attempted to take a step forward, but his boot slipped on the floor and he fell on his face.

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  Dalex set the bowl tilted on the ground facing the struggling beastkin and walked away. The {basin of winds} would stay active for another half-hour or so before finally turning off and dissolving into the {mortar}, at which point it would burn up before anyone could touch it. Dalex supposed there was a chance someone strong enough might push through the gale and get ahold of the bowl, but he didn’t think it would do them much good.

  He walked through the portal gloom until he emerged on the Gaia Eta side. Hitasa stood in her armor among a dozen crumpled bodies. The beastkin on the ground occasionally shivered, and Dalex saw a visible electric current run over their skin and along the seams of their uniforms. Another hundred soldiers lay scattered across the stone of the plaza, similarly incapacitated.

  The only beastkin left on his feet was the officer from the tailor’s shop. He was bent forward, keeping himself standing thanks to the broken haft of a spear, a weapon he had not been holding when Dalex had entered the portal. Grim determination masked the exhausted beastkin’s obvious fear and pain.

  “Everything alright out here?” Dalex asked.

  “The [mass stunner] was most effective,” Hitasa said.

  “Do you mean {chain lightning}?”

  Hitasa shook her still-helmeted head. “I don’t know why you insist on giving all of our weapons new names. It only serves to confuse Seventh and Ring.”

  Dalex shrugged. “It’s just in my nature, I guess. I walk the path of the tortured genius.”

  “That is not what I would call it.”

  Dalex gestured to the officer holding himself up with the broken spear. “What about him?”

  “He and a few of his subordinates had publicized barriers strong enough to resist the [stunner],” Hitasa explained. She swept a hand to take in the crippled beastkin on the ground around her. “Pure strength was enough to deal with most of them, but their commander is more powerful.”

  Dalex walked forward until he was only a few yards away from the commander.

  The rodent-eared beastkin lifted his broken spear and stood straight, bracing his feet shoulder-width apart in preparation to fight.

  Dalex kept his distance, not wanting to provoke him any further, and cast, “{Mass detect maladies}.”

  A window appeared, showing him an abbreviated status of everyone in the plaza.

  Dalex scrolled through the list, checking to make sure no one was in imminent danger of death. All of the soldiers’ injuries were either minimal or easily treated. Hitasa had already distributed a few clouds of {astral mortar} among the wounded to mend broken bones and stitch closed cuts and scrapes. She and Dalex had agreed they wanted to cause the minimal possible harm during this mission.

  Dalex looked back at the commanding officer.

  “Like my friend said earlier,” Dalex explained, “we don’t want to hurt anyone. You’ll find all your troops are fine, just a little sore.”

  “The army garrison already knows you are here,” the beastkin said through gritted teeth. “You’ve seen the other side of the portal. You know what’s waiting for you over there. I don’t know how you snuck into the plaza, but you’re trapped now.”

  “Whatever makes you feel better,” Dalex said. “Don’t worry, I’ll be out of your hair soon enough.” He faced the portal again. “Seventh, go ahead and drop the {tomb seal}.”

  “Acknowledged,” Seventh’s voice came. “Delivery is enroute.”

  “What are you doing, fiend?” the beastkin demanded.

  “Something that you cannot stop, I assure you. What’s your name?”

  “I am Erban Tenggas, Second Captain of the Ulenbeter Guard, and I will protect this city.”

  “Second captain?” Dalex said. Where was the first? Erban seemed like the guy in charge. “Anyway, I have good news. Protecting the city is going to be a cinch from now on. But you’re gonna want to step back.”

  “I will not yield even a—”

  “Yeah, I get it,” Dalex said, and shoved him off the platform. Hitasa, already on the ground below the platform, caught him before he could hit the pavers. She had already moved the other beastkin to a safe distance. Dalex jumped down and walked away from the portal with Hitasa, clearing the area just in time for a massive flat disk of metal to slam into the obsidian platform, edge side down. It dug into the shiny stone several yards until the circle of the disk matched perfectly with the portal ring. Obsidian chips flew through the air, bouncing off Dalex and Hitasa’s armor. Hitasa turned around so her body shielded Erban from the shrapnel.

  As the chaos of the disk’s impact subsided. Erban stared up at the sky in shock. A moment later, he started struggling against Hitasa’s grip. She set him down as gently as possible and he scrambled away, falling back on his hands and behind. He looked past them at the giant barrier now blocking all access to the portal.

  “What— what is that?”

  Dalex climbed back up on the splintered platform and examined Seventh’s handiwork. Her aim had been immaculate. The disk was nearly flush with the edge of the portal. There was just enough room for Dalex to fit his unarmored pinky finger through the gap.

  No one would be traveling through the portal anytime soon. They would have to knock the {tomb seal} over, and Dalex was pretty sure even Drakko wouldn’t have been capable of such a feat. The materials in the disk were too heavy, and Seventh had installed a few features that would keep it in place, even if someone could conceivably counteract its weight.

  Satisfied that the seal was complete, Dalex hopped back down and stood next to Hitasa, who was keeping an eye on Erban.

  “I’ve locked the door,” Dalex said. “Don’t expect to see anyone from Gaia Zeta or anywhere else anytime soon.”

  “Do you know what you’ve done?” Erban said, his voice verging on despair. “Ulenbeter needs its connection to the other worlds. We get supplies from Gaia Zeta. Food, medicine, tools. Most of the people in this city have family on the other side of the portal.”

  Dalex wagged a finger at him. “All accounted for. Any essential items that you were getting from the other side, I can provide at no cost. If you can’t grow it or make it yourself, come to me and I can probably take care of it. And don’t worry, the {tomb seal} is temporary. I can remove it at any time. And…”

  Dalex paused to point a finger at the center of the disc to cast, “{Opensesame}.”

  An opening appeared in the face of the disk. Red light and fog spilled out of it.

  “I can make it permeable,” Dalex finished. “{Closesesame}.”

  The opening slid shut, sealing off the light and fog.

  “Why are you doing this?” Erban asked.

  “For privacy from prying draconic eyes. And because I’ve had enough of the Wolf Brigade and human heroes.” Dalex turned to Hitasa. “Are you ready?”

  She nodded. “I am satisfied.”

  They both cast {fly} and lifted out of the plaza.

  Dalex shouted down at Erban, “Someone will be along soon to tell you how to contact me. In the meantime, rest easy. No one can touch you.”

  Dalex and Hitasa rose through the air and into a descending snowfall.

  But it wasn’t snow at all. It was thousands of little strips of paper, each of them with the same sentence written on both sides.

  Drakko is dead. Feel free to cut loose.

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