Deadly Wands (43 page)

“I didn’t enjoy killing the Irish like I
enjoy killing Mongols. I have never killed anyone not pro-Mongolian
before. Every time I kill a Mongol, I feel one less threat to my
life. The more Mongols I kill, the safer I feel. In contrast,
killing Irish felt necessary, but unpleasant. I didn’t care for it
at all.”

Susan had an ugly scar across her face and a
patch where her left eye used to be. “Emily fought like a lion. She
must love you very much to throw away her life like that.”

Billy’s love for Emily was deep, but not
intense like for Princess. And he sure didn’t want to discuss his
feelings with her great-grandmother.

“You lost an eye because of me.”

“I lost an eye defending my family. I’d
rather die fighting than let babies become orphans.”

“Please have Richard double their monthly
payments. Do they now know my other identity?”

Susan sighed. “I don’t think so. The hill
distorted your scream and the ladies ran out of mercy when one of
the attackers said they planned to rape us and kill the babies.
They may as well have kicked a cub in front of a bear. We ran down
every one that fled.”

“How vulnerable are we here?”

“The English mothers guard us while the Irish
mothers hunt down the loved ones of those who tried to murder their
babies. The press is calling this a Bitch Hunt. Nobody has ever
seen so many women in a killer mood, with the capacity to act out
their revenge. We’ve actually lost more mothers since the battle
than in the battle. Usually the Irish fight between families,
tribes, or kingdoms, but this time everything is confused. You
should know that they have been killing the children of the
ambushers on sight, which is triggering bloody payback. This could
start a war that no one wins.”

“Tell the Irish mothers I’m want to meet them
in England, then find a way to keep them there. The angriest will
continue until they’re killed, but we can save the rest.”

The rebels not only lost the battle, but the
war. Their surprise attack on mothers and newborns horrified
Ireland, forcing even those who agitated for the old ways to
denounce the ambushers for fear of being associated with Baby
Killers. It didn’t help that five hundred men couldn’t defeat fifty
women. Anyone who opposed the new democratic government was called
a Baby Killer, regardless of its veracity.

Billy needed his family to enforce the peace,
so he founded a parent company that bought land and started
businesses, and a political party that’d institutionalize his
vision of a representative democracy.

In particular, Billy bought uninhabited
islands off Ireland and England so he could have somewhere to hide.
He had houses built, wells dug, and gold buried.

Just in case.

CHAPTER 57

By the time he found Princess, she had
already given birth to a beautiful baby and was eager to start
another. What surprised him was how much Princess looked like a new
woman. Her short hair and scarred neck made her appear older, with
a harder beauty. No one would mistake her for a girl now. Knowing
she would scrutinize his reaction, Billy greeted her like nothing
had changed and swept her off to the bedroom.

"Wow," she said afterwards. "You really
missed me!"

"Just wait until I'm rested," he warned
her.

“Blade, Diva, Mali, and a few dozen other
mothers have been waiting nearby to get pregnant again. You haven’t
been going without, have you?” she asked sternly.

“No, your majesty. Your prized stud has been
rotating them as you arranged.”

Princess never told Billy this, but she
didn’t expect either of them to live long. Few who lead forces
against the Empire last long. Her parents sure didn’t. Princess
bonded with the other mothers and made them vow that the survivors
would take care of the orphans.

Some of those pregnant quads, and those
hoping to get pregnant, now served as their bodyguards,
babysitters, and midwives. This killed several birds with one
blast. Princess listened in horror as Billy told her what happened
in Ireland.

“Are you still gonna marry me?” Princess
asked, afraid the ambush changed his mind.

“Not even Genghis Khan could stop me.”

What he didn’t pick up is that Princess
wanted them to get married. Like, now. She thought he was two years
older, and thus of age, but a wedding never crossed his mind
because he was just turning sixteen.

Unfortunately, while Billy left the war, the
war found him within just a week.

Late at night, Princess got up again to nurse
the crying baby, singing softly to put the beauty to sleep. She
opened the patio door overlooking a canal to catch a breeze. Often
she’d pace on the patio late at night until baby Elizabeth fell
asleep.

But good thing she didn’t because she clearly
heard her bedroom door shut and lock. Alarmed, she left Elizabeth
on the floor and ran while taking out her wands. She blasted the
door lock and extended steel.

Princess burst through the door as it swung
off its hinges and she impaled a beautiful pregnant super-quad they
called Blondie right through the gut. Blondie, with both wands
drawn, looked like she was searching for his heart or throat to
finish Billy off without waking him.

He sure woke up now, as Princess levitated
Blonde into the ceiling. By the time she hit the floor with a loud
thud, they both sliced her arms because one blast would signal the
enemy to attack. Billy kicked the traitor in the face, then sent
electricity into her head. Princess ignited the fireplace to signal
for help while calling the others:

"Southie, Unibrow, Babysitter -- wake up!"
she yelled downstairs. "Squinty, Sunshine, Smiley." She couldn't
remember what the last one called herself. Something long and hard
to pronounce. "Dumbass! Stay with the babies in the basement."

"Why?" Billy asked the assassin. "You’re six
months pregnant. You were about to get a ton of gold and the
offspring of the Red Baron. Why kill the father of your child?”

"The Mongols took my entire family, including
my other children," Blondie explained unapologetically. "A bastard
named Stinky from my village sold me out. He made me volunteer as a
midwife." She turned to Billy. "Sorry, Red. It was nothing
personal."

"How many are out there?" Billy demanded.
"And what signal are they waiting for?"

"A lot. I have to give a thumbs up when I
leave, then fly north. Oh, and whoever is on guard duty is probably
dead."

That’d be Ivan’s favorite granddaughter. They
called her Bones because she was so skinny. Her growing belly was
bigger than her chest.

"Who's behind this?" Billy asked.

"Ask Stinky. He must be out there because he
doesn't get paid unless I deliver. Please don’t kill me until I
give birth. Think of our baby!”

Billy stepped on her bleeding belly to let
her know what he thought of that. “I must document the deaths of
everyone you love to deter future attempts on my life.”

Just as Blondie started to warn those
outside, Princess bashed in her head to minimize bloodshed.

"Put her clothes on over your armor," Billy
told Sunshine, a really fast blond who could pass for Blondie. "Go
out the back door, give a thumbs up, then fly north. Once they
follow you, we’ll hit them from behind. Does anyone know what
Stinky looks like?"

Unibrow raised her hand. "I do. We voted him
ugliest in the battalion, a contest which had a lot of competition.
He always wanted Blondie, but she had plenty of better offers than
that pig."

Billy covertly watched the ever-cheerful
Sunshine fly north. One hundred quads from around their house
quickly followed. He caught up to cut the slowest Mongols.
Sunshine's speed made them follow as fast as they could, but some
inevitably flew faster than others, stringing them out. After
several free kills, the next quad suddenly turned, shot at him,
then banked away at maximum speed. Billy fired into the backs of
the next quads, waved Princess onward, and chased him, soon
spitting him like a roasted pig near the Piazza San Marco.

He didn't need to ask who they were, though.
Under their deel overcoats he recognized the uniform of the Kashik,
the imperial guard who gang-raped his mother. Since Genghis wanted
him to know who was after him, Billy resolved to rape someone that
Genghis really cared about.

Preferably female.

Sunshine sped east into the Adriatic to put
their backs to her team. Billy sought cloud cover since he had time
before the rest of his team overtook the enemy. And there were a
lot of them. Maybe too many.

So the sight of the other mothers shocked the
Mongols almost as much as Billy. Blade, Champa, Diva, Mali, and
others pounced on the tail of the Mongol threat like mothers
protecting their newborns. The Mongols had to break off three
squads just to deal with their fury.

Just as Princess attacked, Billy dived. His
ladies carved up a few each before one of their wounded fired back,
warning the others. Billy now fired four wands into those who had
their backs to him, burning several. Those in the front continued
after Sunshine while the back half turned to fight him. With Billy
a few hundred meters above his team, the enemy had to split again
to meet both threats, while absorbing losses. The two dozen who
rose to meet Billy had to fly into four wands pouring fireballs at
them. Billy crossed over them at full speed, then dived upside down
to attack before they could reposition themselves.

With much of the city watching, the ladies
attacked in a line, like a ship firing broadside, concentrating
fire on those closest to them. As the two groups closed, one of the
pregnant ladies fell from the sky. Princess, at the center, spent
an minute dodging heavy fire before finishing off the last two with
long swords. The years she spent dueling paid off since her victims
assumed they were out of range.

Sunshine had circled around and skimmed the
Grand Canal to keep them focused on her rather than the sky behind
them. The ladies dived and Sunshine banked towards them at the
perfect moment for them to strike the enemy. Sunshine executed an
upward U-turn and popped the two Mongols closest to her before a
blast from a third sent her spiraling in a burning ball into the
water.

Billy just lost his fourth unborn baby. And
he really like Sunshine. She had a smile that sucked the poison out
of him.

Another ten, apparently flying a patrol,
dived at Billy, so he flew past his ladies. The Mongols could
either attack the ladies or show their backs to them. With just a
split second to decide, they split up evenly. Princess led her
ladies straight up to take them out of the Mongol's arc, while
Billy let them come out of their dive, then rose sharply after
slowing their momentum. He knew he could out-fly them, so used his
superior speed to position himself above them to fire all wands in
a controlled fall. Worried about his ladies, he even took a weak
blast from the last survivor, using one wand to shield him while
the other spliced the guy’s guts open.

The mothers positioned themselves faster than
the Mongols. Just before the two groups flew within range, Billy
screamed to make the enemy turn and look. Hundreds of Venetians
below recorded it. The ladies exploited the opportunity to wipe
them out over the island of San Giorgio Maggiore.

"Find Stinky and our missing ladies," he
yelled before he searched for someone to torture. While Smiley
carried Sunshine back to the house, Princess raced back to find
Bones with her head cracked open and her facial expression full of
pain. She recorded it to show her grandfather, who’d seek revenge.
Blade and the others turned up, ready for blood. Diva had knocked
Stinky unconscious and carried him on her shoulder for the longest
night of his life. Mali alone looked eager for more.

Billy, meanwhile, electrocuted the genitals
of the surviving enemy until he learned who sent them: Hulagu, the
Khan's favorite grandson.

“I’ll kill him,” Billy vowed, his whole body
tingling with rage.

CHAPTER 58

Billy reached the Mongol capital, pre-paid a
room for a month, then filled several backpacks with food to hide
outside the city.

He cursed his predictability. That’s how he
got his mother killed. They should have left Venice as soon as he
landed. His mistake burned him like a fireball. The need to lash
out at his enemies drove him like a bull seeing red.

The Khan hated buildings and famously never
stayed in one long. Since the Americans destroyed the
sira-ordo
(Golden Residence), his famous "felt palace," one
hundred thousand quads guarded it and the capital. This was the
core of the Khan’s rapid reaction force to counter the American
raiders. But they couldn’t deter one lone flier.

After a good night’s sleep, it took him all
morning to find his next target. Billy shrieked a greeting before
landing in the huge rural estate. "We got him!" he yelled
excitedly, holding up a box while pocketing his hand wands to
appear non-threatening -- now would be a terrible time to get
blasted by accident. “The Red Baron is a dead baron.”

A dozen quads stood outside drinking. Buddies
instead of guards, one of them shouted for Hulagu like an old
friend. The conqueror of Persia and Arabia emerged from the mansion
with a drink in his hand to see what everyone was yelling
about.

"What the hell is that stench?" he
demanded.

Billy held up the box. "Proof! The Red Baron
is now deathly white!"

Hulagu took in Billy's imperial uniform, the
size of the box, then yelled in joy. As the men gathered around,
Billy set down the box and took off the top for Hulagu. The Khan’s
grandson reached in past the melting snow and pulled out a head by
the hair, examining it closely. Everyone focused on the face, so
Billy sidestepped to position himself while launching his wands. He
impaled the closest with his boot wands and the rest with his hand
wands. It ended without a single blast.