“And weapons.” The halfling nodded at the single open crate with red handles. The giant launcher the orcs had fired at Maleshi lay on the ground beside it.
“And weapons.” The Nightstalker woman grimaced in bitter frustration and went to the red-handled container.
“This crap…” She lifted a smooth metal cylinder half the width of a soup can and tossed it in her hand. “We stopped using these halfway through my prematurely ended term of service.”
“But it worked.”
“Yes, it did.” Maleshi’s shoulder blades drew together at the still-fresh memory of the projectile unleashing its attack across her back not half an hour ago. “This is more magic and less tech. Blood magic, but on a race-wide scale.”
“Okay.” Cheyenne folded her arms and frowned at the canister in the Nightstalker’s hand. “Pretend I’ve never been to Ambar’ogúl and don’t know a thing about race-wide blood magic.”
The Nightstalker snorted and jiggled the canister. “These things are loaded with potions, kid. Fire one of these, and it’s like a heat-seeking missile. Only in this case, it’s seeking a magical race and the specific magical signature that goes with it. If Corian had been any closer when they fired this thing, it might’ve gone for him instead. You never know. This shit is unpredictable at the best of times. Packs a punch, too.”
“You look pretty okay to me.”
“I’ve had a lot of practice being shot at, kid. A lot of practice being shot, too.” Maleshi’s silver gaze dropped to the halfling’s right hip for a split second. Then she gazed around the clearing at the dozens of crates and shook her head. “This isn’t everything. They’ll try to get more across. Maybe not today. Maybe not after my seal breaks over that portal wall. But they will try, and we don’t have the kind of resources or manpower we need to keep them from succeeding.”
Cheyenne frowned at her friend, her fists clenching and unclenching at her sides. “We can’t just walk away and let them keep bringing this over.”
“We can’t stop them either, Cheyenne.”
“Bullshit. There have to be thousands of O’gúleesh on this side who would stand up to fight this. I’m pretty sure those born Earthside wouldn’t want a foreign monarch shipping weapons and machine parts into our world. That’s part of why the FRoE’s around, isn’t it?”
“Maybe.” Maleshi shrugged and stared at Corian and Persh’al, still arguing on the other side of the clearing. Lumil and Byrd stalked back and forth in front of the O’gúl soldiers, their magic at the ready as they kept an eye out for any idiot stupid enough to make a move. “But this portal can’t possibly be the only one popping up around the world on its own. And I have a feeling it won’t be the only one spilling the in-between out on this side.”
“But this one’s right here.” Cheyenne stared at the Nightstalker as Maleshi made her way toward the arguing O’gúleesh. “We make a stand at this one because we know about this one. Hey, don’t walk away from me.”
Maleshi whirled, her silver eyes glinting fiercely. “I’ve always loved your spirit, kid. You’re a lot like me, and I seriously appreciate your dedication to acting in the moment, based on what you know right now. But today, while we’re here, I wouldn’t repeat the mistake of telling me what to do.”
The halfling swallowed. “I’m not one of your soldiers, Mattie.”
“But I’m the one calling the shots, so let me take care of it until we know more and can put together another plan.” That feral grin spread across the Nightstalker ex-general’s face again before she shot Cheyenne a devious wink. “And relax, huh? There’s more than one way to skewer a drow.”
Chapter Eighty-One
“We need to figure out where they were planning to take this shipment.” Maleshi, Corian, Persh’al, and Cheyenne huddled in the center of the clearing while the goblins kept up their patrol over their O’gúleesh prisoners.
“And which asshole figured out how to make all this crap work over here,” Persh’al added. “Put me in a room with whoever it is, and I’ll have every single piece of information stripped from his brain. Only need half an hour.”
Corian shot the troll a warning look. “One step at a time, friend.”
“Yeah, but it’s the one step ahead that gets me excited.”
“Don’t get too excited just yet.” Maleshi glanced over her shoulder at the tied-up magicals who served the Crown. “I don’t think we’ll get anything out of them.”
“We should try anyway.” Corian cocked his head with a dangerously playful smirk when the ex-general raised an eyebrow. “I used to trust your judgment implicitly, General, but we’re both four hundred years out of practice with that one.”
Maleshi hissed out a laugh. “At the very least, it might be just as fun as tying them all up in the first place.”
“Nah. I like this part better.” The Nightstalkers exchanged vicious knowing glances before splitting away from the huddle and taking off toward opposite sides of the clearing.
Cheyenne stepped after Maleshi toward the far side of the clearing with the weapons crates, but Persh’al stopped her with a loud clearing of his throat.
“I’d sit this one out if I were you, kid.”
“Are you telling me whatever those two are about to do is worse than that shitshow of a fight you and I barely had time to join?”
The troll cocked his head with a one-armed shrug, the tips of his gelled orange mohawk dropping unnervingly close to the halfling’s face. “Yeah.” He nodded at the closest group of loyalist prisoners. “For them.”
“Time for interrogations, huh?” Cheyenne folded her arms and turned to see Corian squat, his fur-tufted fist clutching the front of a sneering goblin’s uniform shirt.
“You gonna have a problem with that?”
“Not really. I’ve seen it before.”
Persh’al jerked his chin with a curious smirk. “And you were the one asking the questions, weren’t you?”
The halfling shrugged and didn’t say anything else. Durg’s the only one who told me something
