Chapter 23

Dola Ray’s map of the world was extremely simple.

There were four continents arranged in an arc from north to south.

At the northern end of the arc lay a continent called Dalektis—the homeland of the Dreurgs and of another race even more powerful than they were.

Farther south along the arc was the second continent, Holika.

Holika was inhabited by many races: humans, elves, dwarves, halflings, and numerous others.

It was Holika that the Dreurgs had conquered by force, enslaving some races and exterminating others entirely.

Now the Dreurgs were gathering their vast horde, scattered across Holika, and preparing to sail farther south, where the continent of Arkonia lay.

The Kingdom of Arkonia occupied that entire continent.

And farther south still, at the opposite end of the arc, lay the last of the four continents—Frinian.

Frinian was home to dozens of peoples divided among an even greater number of kingdoms. With the continent fragmented among so many different states, its inhabitants were incapable of assembling a single unified army powerful enough to resist the Dreurgs.

And so the entire continent was counting on Arkonia to stop the Dreurg invasion.

Arkonia was the last hope of what remained of the civilized world.

“What is your world called?” Sol asked Dola Ray.

“Planet,” the woman replied.

“The first thing we need to do is verify what we’ve been told about the Dreurgs,” the Painter suggested.

“From the way the King described them, even approaching them is dangerous,” Anka said. “The King said diplomacy with them is impossible.

“If they regard humans as animals, I don’t think we should try to make contact with them.”

“Then I’ll approach the Dreurgs,” Sol said. “Let them see that I’m not human. Perhaps they’ll be willing to speak with me.”

“Sol, they either kill people or enslave them,” Anka said. “You’d be putting yourself in serious danger.”

“I’ll take a rifle with me, and if there’s trouble, I’ll be able to defend myself,” Sol said. “You and Archer can stay nearby on the flying motorcycles.”

“Dola Ray, what do you think?” Archer asked. “Is contact with the Dreurgs possible?”

“If by contact you mean a civilized conversation, then yes,” Dola Ray said. “It is possible.

“But that doesn’t mean they won’t try to kill you afterward.”

“How far away are the Dreurgs by sea?” Archer asked.

“It takes an entire month to reach them by ship,” the ambassador replied.

“Sol, what’s the maximum speed of our motorcycles?” Archer asked.

“About six hundred and twenty miles per hour in the air,” Sol said. “We can reach them within a day.”

“Then we should leave as soon as possible,” the Painter said.

“Dola Ray, may we borrow your white flag?”

“Yes, of course,” she said. “But don’t assume a white flag will guarantee your safety.

“You’re dealing with a completely different way of thinking.

“They understand what a white flag means.

“They simply don’t recognize it.”

“Right,” Archer said. “So if we approach them carrying a white flag, they’ll understand that we want to talk. Correct?”

“Yes,” the ambassador replied.

“Good,” the Painter said. “Then let’s go.”

“Please be careful,” Dola Ray said. “All of you.”

Archer smiled at her.

“Thank you for the information, Dola Ray,” Sol said.

The trio returned to the platform where they had left their motorcycles.

Archer returned Dola Ray’s flying disk and took her white flag.

Then the three Ankarians mounted their motorcycles and took off, heading due north.

They climbed above the clouds for a more comfortable flight and accelerated to maximum speed.

Far below the clouds lay the continent of Arkonia, but after an hour of flight, the land disappeared behind them and gave way to an endless ocean.

Day turned to night.

Night turned to day.

And then the continent known as Holika appeared ahead of them.

They began slowing down and descended low enough to see what was happening on the ground.

“The motorcycles have powerful built-in cameras capable of identifying and classifying objects on the surface,” Sol said. “Activate scanning mode and you’ll see what I mean.”

Archer activated the scanning system mentally through his neural interface.

Objects on the ground began to appear highlighted in his field of vision.

There were very few artificial structures below.

Only a single dirt road.

“I see a road,” Archer said. “Let’s follow it.”

They flew high above the road at about 250 miles per hour as it wound between tall hills and black mountains whose peaks were covered in snow.

Before long, the motorcycle’s camera began detecting numerous artificial objects ahead.

It was a settlement.

Archer cycled through the different scanning modes until he reached thermal imaging, which displayed humanoid figures in yellow against the dark gray background of everything around them.

The thermal scan revealed dozens of living beings in the small settlement.

They were moving around.

Working.

“I suggest you wait here,” Sol said. “I’ll go the rest of the way alone.”

Archer slowed his motorcycle and brought it to a stop in midair.

Anka and Sol stopped beside him.

The Painter took the white flag from his motorcycle and tossed it to Sol.

Sol caught it.

“I’ll stay in contact,” Sol said. “And I’ll transmit everything that happens between me and these creatures directly to you.”

“Understood,” Archer said.

“Be careful,” Anka said.

Sol flew ahead, transmitting everything he saw directly to Anka and Archer.

As he approached the village, he discovered that it was inhabited by halflings.

At the sight of an unknown flying object, the villagers began running away and hiding inside their homes.

Sol landed his motorcycle in the center of the village and dismounted, holding the white flag in one hand.

He removed the helmet of his space armor, revealing his inhuman face, and called out loudly:

“My name is Sol. I’m looking for the Dreurgs.”

No one answered.

Sol repeated himself, just as loudly.

“My name is Sol. I’m looking for the Dreurgs,” he said. Then he added, “I’m not going to hurt anyone. And the sooner someone speaks to me, the sooner I’ll leave you in peace.”

Silence was his only answer.

Then the door of one of the houses opened slightly, and a halfling peeked outside.

“You can come out,” Sol said. “You’re in no danger.”

The halfling stepped out of the house.

“Greetings, sir,” he said. “My name is Ifirian. But you can call me Ifi.”

“Hello, Ifi,” Sol said in his normal voice.

He lowered himself onto one knee so that he was at eye level with the man.

“I’m looking for the Dreurgs. I’ve heard that they’ve conquered this entire continent.

“What can you tell me about them?”

“Yes, that’s true,” Ifi said. “The Dreurgs came to our village.

“They killed many of us, seemingly for amusement. For no reason at all.

“They questioned us. Asked whether we were hiding any humans.

“We told them no. There have never been any humans here.

“And once they realized we truly weren’t hiding any, they lost all interest in us.

“Before they left, they merely told us that from then on, all of us—and everything we owned—belonged to them.

“But that happened a long time ago. More than a year ago.

“Since then, the Dreurgs have occasionally passed by our village. Huge numbers of them.

“But they looked at us as though... I don’t know. As though we weren’t worth their attention.

“The last time we saw them was about two months ago. They went that way.”

The halfling pointed east.

“There were so many of them.

“So many,” Ifi repeated.

“Thank you, Ifi,” Sol said, rising to his full height. “That’s all I wanted to know.”

Ifi bowed slightly to Sol, returned to his house, and closed the door.

Sol mounted his flying motorcycle and flew back to his companions.

“You heard him,” Sol said over the radio. “The Dreurgs went east.”

The trio gained altitude and headed east.

They followed roads, flying over hills and mountains, rivers and forests, and other settlements.

After only an hour of searching, their motorcycles’ cameras detected a massive concentration of warm-blooded creatures.

Around a hundred thousand Dreurgs had gathered on a vast plain.

From the trio’s altitude, they could see the strange geometry of their formation.

The Dreurgs had formed hundreds of enormous circles, and every one of them was walking around and around.

At the center of each formation stood a single Dreurg.

About six feet away from him began the first circle of Dreurgs. Beyond that was a second circle, then a third, and so on—up to twenty concentric circles in all.

Every circle moved clockwise.

Each Dreurg kept one hand on the shoulder of the one walking ahead.

“Looks like some kind of ritual,” Sol said.

Anka and Archer couldn’t find the words to describe what they were seeing.

Archer was still viewing everything through thermal imaging.

He could see that only the Dreurgs on the plain were participating in the strange procession.

Beyond the plain were smaller camps of the black creatures, where the Dreurgs simply sat around campfires.

“I see smaller Dreurg camps outside the plain,” Archer said. “I suggest we make contact with one of those instead of approaching the horde.”

“Agreed,” Sol said. “I’m going down. You two stay in the air.”

“Good luck, Sol,” Anka said.

Sol guided his motorcycle downward toward one of the smaller Dreurg camps.

He reduced his speed until the motorcycle was almost silent and descended as quietly as possible.

That allowed him to land beside the camp without provoking an immediate reaction.

Only when the motorcycle touched the rocky ground did the Dreurgs respond to the sound.

They rose from around their campfires and simply stared at Sol and the white flag fluttering in the wind.

Their almost complete lack of reaction made it impossible to tell what they thought of the stranger’s arrival.

“You’re not human,” one of the Dreurgs said.

“No,” Sol replied. “I’m not human.”

“What are you?” the same Dreurg asked.

He began circling Sol, examining the artificial man closely from every angle.

“My name is Sol. I’m a visitor from another world,” Sol said. “I’ve come to learn who the Dreurgs are and what you intend to do over the next few years.”

“And how exactly do you intend to learn that, Sol from another world?” the Dreurg asked.

“Through dialogue,” Sol said. “Let’s simply talk.”

“We’re already talking.”

The Dreurg continued circling Sol.

“Are you planning to wage war across the ocean to the south?” Sol asked.

“I can only give that answer to someone worthy,” the Dreurg said.

“And how do I prove that I’m worthy?” Sol asked.

“In combat,” the Dreurg said. “Defeat my brother in a fight.

“Or at least survive.

“If we like the way you fight, we’ll answer your questions.”

“All right,” Sol said.

Sol attached the white flag to his motorcycle, drew the automatic rifle from his back, switched it to nonlethal mode, and said:

“I’m ready.”

The Dreurg stood silently for a moment.

Then he pointed at one of his companions and gestured for him to attack Sol.

The second Dreurg crouched low, dug the claws of his hands and feet into the rocky ground, and launched himself directly at Sol with a sudden leap.

From a standstill, he cleared thirty feet or more.

But Sol reacted in time.

He fired, striking the Dreurg squarely in the chest.

The creature managed only a cry before the impact hurled him all the way back toward the spot from which he had jumped.

He crashed to the ground and lay motionless for a while.

Then he began to stir.

Slowly, he started getting back to his feet.

“What kind of weapon is that?” the first Dreurg asked.

“I can only give that answer to someone worthy,” Sol said.

The Dreurg immediately charged.

All Sol had to do was aim his rifle and fire.

The first Dreurg met the same fate as his companion.

The shot hurled him fifteen feet backward. He tumbled several times from the force of the impact before crashing to the ground.

The Dreurg immediately got back to his feet, recovered from the blow, straightened himself, and simply stared at Sol.

“You are worthy,” the Dreurg said. “What do you want to know?”

“Are you going south across the ocean?” Sol asked.

“Yes,” his opponent replied.

“Why?”

“We must destroy all humans.”

“Why?” Sol asked.

“To stop the prophecy,” the Dreurg said.

“What prophecy?”

The Dreurg was silent.

“What prophecy?” Sol repeated.

“The prophecy we must stop at any cost,” the Dreurg said. “If we fail to stop it, all living things will perish.”

“And what?” Sol asked. “There’s no other way? You have to kill every human?”

“Killing every human is the most reliable solution,” the Dreurg said. “In truth, only one human needs to die—the chosen one, the magician, the deceiver.

“But we don’t know which human it is.

“Perhaps even he doesn’t know.

“So the simplest solution is to kill them all.

“And if we cannot kill them all, then we must kill as many as possible.

“That is how we will fulfill our duty to Mother Nature.

“Otherwise, we are unworthy.”

“Sol,” Archer said over their private radio channel, “ask him what would happen if we found the chosen one and removed him.”

“What if I find this chosen one and remove him from your world?” Sol asked.

“You speak nonsense,” the Dreurg said. “How would you find the chosen one?”

“The same way I defeated you,” Sol replied. “By using tools from another world.”

The Dreurg considered this.

“Yes, Sol. I concede that possibility,” he said. “Perhaps you could succeed.

“If you find the chosen one and remove him from our world, we will have no reason to sail south and kill all the humans.

“If you accomplish this, you will be a friend of the Dreurgs forever.”

“I can do it,” Sol said. “Will you stop your invasion?”

“Do it first,” the Dreurg replied. “Then the invasion will stop.”

“How much time do I have?” Sol asked.

“A year,” the Dreurg replied. “Maybe two.”

“Sol,” Anka said over the radio, “try threatening him with the destruction of their fleet.”

“What if I told you that you’ll never make it across the ocean?” Sol asked. “What if I demonstrated that every one of your ships would be destroyed at sea?”

“Then we would sail anyway,” the Dreurg said.

“But you would all die.”

“Yes. We would die,” the Dreurg said. “To die while fulfilling our duty to Her is a great honor for a Dreurg.

“We are glad to die.”

“What else can you tell me about this chosen one?” Sol asked. “What would help us identify him?”

“I already told you. He is a magician and a deceiver,” the Dreurg replied.

“Wouldn’t it be simpler to remove all the magicians instead of killing every human?” Sol asked.

“You ask weak questions. I won’t answer them.”

“All right,” Sol said. “Then tell me one last thing.

“What is your name?”

“No,” the Dreurg said. “Go back where you came from.

“Find the chosen one, if you can.

“Remove him from our world.

“Stop the prophecy.

“Our conversation is over.”

Sol slung the rifle across his back, mounted his motorcycle, and rose into the air.

The group of Dreurgs returned to their campfires as though nothing had happened.

Sol flew back to Archer and Anka.

“Excellent work, Sol,” Archer said when Sol drew alongside them. “The conversation may have been short, but we learned a great deal.”

“I agree,” Anka said.

“What are we going to do with this information?” Sol asked.

“I think we should tell King Akbert,” Archer said. “Maybe it’ll change the situation somehow. Maybe Akbert could gather all the mages... I don’t know...”

“And then what?” Anka asked. “Akbert kills all his mages?

“Mages who haven’t done anything wrong?

“And we don’t even know whether that would work. We don’t even know if the prophecy is true.”

“I agree,” Sol said.

“Yes. Yes, you’re right,” Archer said. “That’s not a solution.

“The question is what our role in all of this should be.

“Now we’ve heard directly from the source that the invasion of Arkonia is going to happen. We know that a powerful, warlike race intends to commit genocide against the humans of two continents.

“Shouldn’t we stop them?”

“We don’t have to answer that question right now,” Anka said. “We still have a year or two before the Dreurgs cross the ocean.”

“We shouldn’t delay,” Sol said. “And perhaps we’re asking the wrong question.

“We’re asking whether we should stop the Dreurg invasion.

“But what if the prophecy is real?

“What if all living things truly are at stake, as the Dreurg said?

“Shouldn’t we investigate that question first?”

“Maybe,” the Painter said. “But how?”

“We need a new tool,” Sol said. “Something that can help us find answers. Something that can help us find the person from the prophecy.”

“A technological tool or a magical one?” Archer asked.

“Magical, I think,” Sol said. “We could use the brush to create something.

“I just don’t know what yet.”

“Maybe we should learn more about Dreurg culture and society,” Anka said. “I think that would help us understand the situation better.”

“From the Dreurgs themselves, or from someone else?” Archer asked.

“We can try both,” Anka said.

“It’s worth trying,” Sol said. “King Akbert mentioned that the Dreurgs had been fighting another race—one they were unable to defeat.

“Perhaps we should speak with them.”

“And we should talk to Akbert again,” Anka said. “We’ll tell him what we learned.

“Maybe he can tell us something useful too.”

“Then we’re going back,” Archer said.

He pulled the brush from the mechanical compartment on his thigh.

“We’re going back,” Sol repeated.

“Yes,” Anka said.