The Devil's Deuce (The Barrier War) (52 page)

As the sun sank on the third day, exhaustion had taken its
toll on their energy and their numbers. Ten more denarae had died that day, but
still Shadow Company stood firm before the unrelenting assault. They slept once
more, and now Gerard had to worry about them collapsing into unconsciousness
when they were cycled out of the fighting to rest. Partners were assigned to
keep each other awake, but soon even that began to fail. They began to nod off
to sleep while they stood, so depleted they often did not awaken when they
struck the ground. The fourth day only eight more died, because Gerard kept
them solidly in place before the central gate in their original wedge, allowing
most of the reluctant creatures to break around them rather than baiting them
once more.

The fifth day Gerard had them slip back into the central
courtyard to sleep once more, huddled together for warmth, and this time they
slept from shortly before noon until night was nearly upon them. A force of
paladins and Nocka defenders stood guard over them at all times, ensuring not
only that nothing broke through the lines to harass them, but also that other
units did not disturb the slumber of the worn out company. That they slept
through the tumultuous din of the surrounding battle was a sign of just how
exhausted they all were.

- 4 -

As the sun sank on the horizon behind them, the Hellish army
fell back again to lick its wounds, allowing the mortal forces to do likewise.
Refreshed by their long slumber, Shadow Company slipped back outside the walls,
but now they were joined by two battalions of regular city defenders. Their
commanders approached Gerard and told him they had left the city without
orders. They refused to see Shadow Company face such odds again without
support.

 “Stand on your head if you’re surprised the orders for
people to come help us went awry,” Flasch commented. Garnet lifted a hand, but
didn’t bother smacking his friend. The bitter truth of the comment hit too
close to the mark.

Included in their new group was the force of the Elan’Vital
elves that had accompanied Birch from the elven isles under the command of
El’Siran. Gerard welcomed them all and told them how to deploy so they would be
most useful ─ he kept the elves closest, recognizing their value ─
then asked them to keep a space warm for his men when they returned.

Shadow Company was returning to its element.

The denarae crept out, invisible in the deepened darkness of
the night. The moon was hidden beneath a thick layer of clouds, which had
prompted Gerard to make this excursion. That, and a discovery by the denarae
during the battle.

“We can sense their thoughts,” Trebor had told Gerard when
the other army had withdrawn.

“The demons?” Gerard said incredulously.

“They’re not demons,” Trebor said, shaking his head. “What
we’re fighting are, or at least were, humans and demi-humans. They’re damned
souls that have been twisted to resemble monsters.”

“That explains how non-paladins are able to destroy them so
easily,” Gerard mused. After a moment of silent thought, he waved Trebor to
continue.

“Their minds are nearly as warped as their bodies, and the
fact that they’re dead makes it more difficult for us,” the denarae officer
said. “All we really get are shadowy impressions of their thoughts, not clear
kything, and only from those who were once human and denarae. But it’s enough.”

Gerard considered the implications that the enemy was
sending only damned souls against them, but decided at this point it really
didn’t make much difference if they sent the damned or whole platoons of
powerful demons against them. They still had to fight, no matter what they
faced. But this was, perhaps, a weakness they could exploit. The demons would
be unlikely to post sentries, overconfident in their massive size and
overwhelming strength.

Who would be insane enough to attack a force their size?

Gerard smiled at the thought. It would be child’s play for
Shadow Company to sneak in and wreak havoc, if they were cautious.

But what could they do that would have significant impact?
Gerard sent hurried messages to several contacts within the city and listened
to suggestions from his officers, and it was from Danner that the answer had
come.

“Faldergash, the gnome we live
with in
the city most of the time, has been playing with fire and incendiary devices
his whole life,” Danner said. “Let me go talk to him. I know for a fact he’s
got several dozen devices all around his house which could easily be converted
into something destructive. Or rather, more destructive than they already are.”

“You want me to trust a gnomish device?” Gerard said
doubtfully.

“Trust me,” Danner said with a smile. “
Fal
is unusually gifted for a gnome. And at the very worst, whatever we use will
inevitably explode anyway, we’re just putting it to a more practical use than
blowing out the odd window or wall.”

Two hours later, Danner returned in a buggy with a gnome at
the wheel and met Gerard just inside the inner gates of the center courtyard.
The buggy had a large box loaded in the back that was covered up with canvas.

“I thought there might be a need for just this sort of
thing, commander Gerard, sir,” Faldergash said in his high-pitched,
gravely
voice. Gerard had never seen an overweight gnome
before, but if the yellow-skinned
halfling
had
something useful for him, Gerard was willing to serve the man a twelve-course
meal with his own hands. “Gabby and I’ve been working on these babies for weeks
now, waiting for
Danno
here to get back so I could
get them to the right hands. I guess those are yours.”

“What are they?” Gerard said, lifting the canvas to peer
into the box. The area was evacuated, a standard precaution whenever a gnome
was present with examples of his inventions.

“Well, you know the hand-held bombs some idiots use to blow
things up?” Faldergash asked. The black, roughly ovoid object he lifted from
the box was about the size of a child’s head. “These are similar, just a bit
bigger and
much
more powerful. You place them like so,” the gnome said,
putting it on the ground. “It looks more or less like a rock, so in the
darkness no one should be able to tell the difference. Then you put one of
these little things here,” he fitted a small box into a slot in the rock-shaped
bundle, “and push the button and run like Hell.”

“How long do we have after we push the button?” Gerard
asked, frowning.

“I figure there’s about an hour or so on each one,”
Faldergash said. “Pushing the button starts a chemical reaction, so give or
take about ten minutes. Just be careful how and when you place them. You really
don’t want to be anywhere near them when they go off.”

“And you’re sure they work properly?” Gerard said.

Faldergash’s
beard bristled in
indignation, and he thumped his ample chest with one meaty fist. Gerard
absently noticed the gnome was missing a finger on that hand. Somehow, he
wasn’t surprised that a gnome who invented explosives was missing a digit.

“You have my word,” the gnome replied, his eyes flashing.
“What do I look like, a dwarf? Do you think I’d give you anything that might
put Danner’s life in danger?”

“My apologies, master inventor,” Gerard replied, inclining
his head. “I believe you have just given me exactly what I wanted.” Gerard
grinned wickedly, and for once the expression didn’t make Danner cringe. He
even mimicked his commander.

Shadow Company moved out shortly before midnight, half of
them loaded down with one of the gnome’s explosive devices and a detonator to
go with it. They had all been instructed not to place the detonator in the
device until it was in place, lest they accidentally push the button and
incinerate themselves. Since they were all toting a gnomish device of explosive
design, none of them were willing to risk doing anything but
exactly
what they were ordered.

The ground in front of the Barrier was frozen solid and
covered with a thin layer of mud-churned snow, but the farther they moved away
from the giant wall, the warmer the ground became. By the time they neared the
demon armies, there was no sign snow had ever fallen, and the air itself felt
warm enough to be comfortable.

Gerard’s instincts had been right: there were no sentries
posted to guard the enemy army. Unfortunately, they were also not necessary.
The legion of damned souls was not asleep. Not exactly anyway.

Trebor reported that they were all in a sort of vegetative
trance that was somewhere between awake and asleep. It meant their thoughts
were more difficult to pinpoint and maneuver around, and they would be slightly
more alert than if they were actually slumbering. Gerard gave the go-ahead
anyway, knowing they might never get another chance at this. Even if they were
discovered and attacked, it was worth the risk if they could get even some of
the explosives in place.

Gerard waited in silence with Garnet, Marc, and Michael at
his side, their platoons arrayed behind them and ready to move at a moment’s
notice. Flasch, Danner, and Trebor accompanied the rest of the company into the
enemy camp. The waiting grated on Gerard’s nerves, but he held himself calm,
knowing that to give in to his anxiety was to invite disaster.

“Fifth platoon reporting in, both squads are clear,”
a mental message came, followed soon after by a report from second platoon. By
the time all six squads had checked in, Gerard’s heart was racing. Each moment,
he expected some sort of uproar to signify that someone had been discovered, or
their explosives had been noticed. But he stopped short of releasing an
explosive breath and ordered them all to fall back to the Barrier. When they
were a safe distance away, they broke into a run, wanting to gain the safety of
the other defenders before the explosions detonated, which risked the
possibility of an immediate retaliation.

Shadow Company slipped through their ally’s sentry lines as
easy as breathing and scared the wits out of a platoon of humans when they
suddenly appeared right in front of them. The other commanders came to confer
with Gerard, but he simply told them to look west and wait.

A few moments later, the sky itself seemed to catch fire and
the ground shook as dozens of explosives went off at the same moment. Two
companies had coordinated their timers with their thoughts to ensure the
explosives all went off near each other. Now, a wave of heat swept over them
all, and Gerard nearly howled in laughter as he thought of what it must feel
like in the middle of the inferno. The other human commanders jumped back and
all but hid behind Gerard, then crept out abashedly as they saw he was unmoved
by the sudden holocaust erupting in the midst of their enemies. They looked at
the furious glee that lit his face and shuddered. Siran watched the fires burn
and the corner of his lip turned up in a smile, then he turned away as though
bored.

The explosions continued for another twenty minutes, during
which the defenders of Nocka watched in amazement as fire swept the distant
plains. Occasionally several would go off at once, and a large explosion was
heard, sometimes with a rush of heat, but nothing equaled the initial devastating
blast.

The legions of the damned did not come that next day, nor
the day after that.

If you want to understand a woman, ask a woman. If you want to
understand a man, ask a woman.

- Jayne & Alec
Tirtron
,

“The Modern Woman” (567 AM)

- 1 -

When the third day without fighting had passed, Gerard gave
Shadow Company permission to stand down and take a leave of sorts. None of the
denarae was willing to go into the city for fear that racial antagonism might
get the better of some citizens and cause difficulties, but they mingled freely
with the soldiers nearby. The defenders of Nocka looked on the members of
Shadow Company with tremendous respect in spite of their race, and the denarae
were welcomed almost everywhere in the other camps around the Barrier. Even
some of the Merishank soldiers were seen socializing with the denarae – not
many, but a few.

Gerard also gave the officers, meaning Danner and his
friends, permission to seek entertainment elsewhere. The squad leaders would be
responsible for discipline and care for their units, leaving all the officers a
chance to go out as one, something they hadn’t done in months. The six youths
felt the weight of leadership and their cares about the war and recent past all
slip away, and they joked and wrestled as they ran aimlessly through the
streets.

“So, where are we going to go?” Flasch asked, breathless
from wrestling on the ground with Trebor. The two young men stood, covered in
snow and grinning foolishly like children released to play after a long
restriction. Ignoring the looks of disdain from his cousin, Trebor had rubbed
in the special chemical that made his gray skin look human, if a little pale
and sun-starved.

Marc raised one hand and started to open his mouth.

“We already know where
you
want to go,” Flasch said.
“Aunt Delia’s.”

Michael’s attention perked up, and it was clear from his
face that was his location of choice as well.

“Are they even open now? Given, well you know,” the Yellow
paladin asked, gesturing vaguely behind them toward the Barrier.

“Are there any objections? Or other ideas?” Flasch asked,
looking around.

Danner hesitated, uneasy about going to a skin bar while he
was currently involved with Marc’s sister. The Orange paladin must have seen
his concern on his face, because Marc threw an arm around Danner’s shoulder and
pulled him close in a conspiratorial manner.