The Siege Against Tolkeen

"Sir, we've found something," said the red-suited forensic scientist, as he sifted through the assorted machine parts at the Naruni garage. He held up an ancient CD, and looked at it in the dim light of the garage. "Prints," the scientist said, smiling blandly. "Human fingerprints."

Lucius Mallen walked over, rubbing his eyes blearily. He hadn't slept in a couple of days, and had only talked to his wife once or twice in the past week. This damn case was putting a hell of a strain on their marriage. But it couldn't be helped, really. The paperwork for this situation was incredible, and he had had Uzieth's funeral to attend. The Wolfen detective gulped down the remnants of his rapidly cooling coffee as he peered at the disc.

"Can you put those fingerprints into the criminal database?"

"Sure thing, sir," the scientist said, tucking the CD away into a sterile plastic baggie. "If I go back to headquarters right now, I can have the results for you in fifteen minutes."

"Go," said Lucius, his weariness creeping into his voice.

"With all due respect, sir, you don't sound so good," said the scientist, as he began to leave the room. "You can't solve a case when you're so tired. Sleepy people make mistakes."

"I must have been pretty damn sleepy when I joined the force, then," growled the Wolfen, under his breath.

"Errgh," groaned Hubert Possman, as he slowly rolled out bed. "What a friggin' headache I've got. Isn't that just typical? I get crazy nightmares about being trapped in Tolkeen and and I wake up feeling like crap." He laboriously got onto his feet, and walked out of the small, dark room he was in.

Suddenly, he found himself in the HFA beer hall, surrounded by city rats and terrorists who were fiddling around with crazy gadgets. "Just friggin' typical," he groaned. "It wasn't a dream."

"How are you doing?" asked Perrin, walking over to the dazed ranger. "You've been asleep for quite a while, buddy!"

"Just a few hours more, please."

"It's okay if you're still tired. We've still got a couple of weeks left before the solstice. As long as you're up and on your feet by then. We'll really need your help on that one. You're the only one who's seen the inside of that pyramid, so you'll have to be the one who guides us through."

"Great. Going back into that den of evil was the first thing I thought about doing when I woke up. I'm really excited about letting them shoot at me again."

"Just think of it as payback."

"Too mild. I don't like to just do payback. I like to do vengeance on a cosmic scale. Call back when we've got some nukes."

"We've got the next best things! Courtesy of the NGR." Perrin gestured around, displaying the variety of complex gadgets and devices which lay about the place.

"Yeah, what is all this shit? I was wondering about that."

"Some German flyboys got shot down by Tolkeen. But we managed to save one of them, and he let us have all of the power armor, ammunition, and electronic countermeasures onboard."

"Decent of him. Where is the guy? I speak a little Euro."

"Went shopping. The fellow didn't have much in the way of street clothing, and didn't feel like walking around Tolkeen in his uniform."

Suddenly, there was a little cry of joy from the rear of the room. Sonja rushed over to Possman, and gave him a little peck on the cheek. "Glad to see you're awake!" she said happily.

"Glad to be awake," he said, looking appreciatively at the Juicer. "There any coffee around here? I'm never any good in the morning without my pot of coffee."

"Thought you said you were going back to sleep," said Perrin, fetching a chipped mug from a cabinet. "Changed your mind?"

"To hell with more sleep," said Possman triumphantly, casting a sideways glance at Sonja. "There's work to be done."

Shaard, the ancient ice dragon, kneeled in the center of a circle of black flame in a place of darkness. A grimoire with an unpronounceable name, bound in the flesh of demons and inked in the blood of a god, lay before him. The ritual components of his spell were neatly laid out. This spell could be catastrophic if cast poorly.

The dragon chanted a brief prayer in a tongue that predated man, and a small rift between dimensions tore open before him. He grabbed up a massive handful of soil, and then carefully opened up an old wound in one of his claws with a ritual knife. Drops of freezing cold blood dripped down and mingled into the dirt. Shaard reached into a small bowl to his right, and carefully scooped out a little bit of thick blood from an extinct species. He mixed it into the dirt, and then did the same thing with a bowl to his left. The dragon steeled himself against the pain, and shoved the handful of soil into the rift. Searing magical energies shot up his arms, but he ignored the agony and skillfully shaped the dirt. Massive amounts of mystical energy flowed into his creation as he formed it, endowing it with some sort of life. When Shaard felt content that the thing in his hands contained enough power, he pulled his burnt arms out of the rift. The tear in dimensions sealed itself off a moment later.

The dragon then looked down at what was in his hands, and smiled. A nude human woman, burning with the energies of life, lay before him, recuperating from its creation. The workmanship had been perfect. The spell had gone exactly as planned.

"Who's your lady friend, my liege?" asked a deep, fiery voice from the shadows. The dragon turned, and saw his personal Sunaj assassin standing outside of the circle, in full body armor. The assassin's gauntlets were stained with blood.

The dragon thought about telling the Sunaj to stay away during rituals, but then thought better of it. The assassin knew the risks involved in disrupting a ceremony, and had far too much self-interest to ever take those risks. "I would like you to meet Elisabeth Perrin," said the dragon, with a little flourish. "I have greatly improved her from her days as a creature of flesh."

The woman looked at the assassin, and suddenly her eyes glowed red, and her teeth elongated into savage fangs. But a mere moment later, she was back to her normal beauteous self, as if the horror had been only a mirage.

"Very nice," the assassin said, visibly impressed. "My liege, I have just returned from the front. The defecting officer that you told me about has met the fate that he richly deserved."

"I shouldn't have wasted your precious time with that fool," said Shaard. "The war with the Coalition doesn't even matter any more. The only one with the power to stop me is Perrin, and the steps that I have just taken have assured his doom. Tolkeen, my legacy, is secure."

Next Chapter

By David Haendler.

Copyright © 1996, 1997, 1998 David Haendler. All Rights Reserved.

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