Refuge: Book 5: Angels & Demons Read online

  Refuge:

  Book 5:

  Angels and Demons.

  by

  Doug Dandridge

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to Kim Callan, probably the biggest fan of the Refuge series out there. Kim has been instrumental in helping to make the book and series better, and if not for her encouragement, this book may never have been written.

  Copyright © 2013 Doug Dandridge

  All rights reserved.

  Follow my many characters and settings at http://dougdandridge.net

  Contact me at [email protected]

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  Please respect the hard work of this author. If you found this book for free on a pirate site, please visit Amazon and buy a copy of your own. I feel that I charge a reasonable price for this work.

  For more information on the Refuge Universe, visit http://dougdandridge.net for maps, sketches and other details of this work.

  Acknowledgements: I would like to thank all of my fans, especially Kim Callan, who help to edit and proof read this book.

  Please read to the end of the book for information about future Refuge books and the future plans for the series.

  Books by Doug Dandridge

  Doug Dandridge’s Author Page at Amazon

  Science Fiction

  The Exodus Series

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 1

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 2

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 3: The Rising Storm.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 4: the Long Fall.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 5: Ranger

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 6: The Day of Battle

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 7: Counter Strike:

  Exodus: Empires at War Book 8: Soldiers

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 9: Second Front.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 10: Search & Destroy.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 11: Day of Infamy.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 12: Time Strike.

  Exodus: Empires at War: Book 13: Retaliation.

  Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Exploration Command:

  Exodus: Tales of the Empire: Beast of the Frontier.

  Exodus: Machine Wars: Book 1: Supernova.

  Exodus: Machine Wars: Book 2: Bolthole.

  Exodus: Machine War: Book 3: Death From Above.

  Exodus: Machine War: Book 4: Retribution

  The Deep Dark Well Series

  The Deep Dark Well

  To Well and Back

  Deeper and Darker

  Theocracy

  Others

  The Shadows of the Multiverse

  Diamonds in the Sand

  The Scorpion

  Afterlife

  We Are Death, Come for You

  Five By Five 3: Target Zone:

  A Fistfull of Credits Anthology.

  Lockdown: Zombie Anthology.

  The Prometheus Saga: A Science Fiction Anthology

  Apocalypse: A Fiction River Anthology.

  Fantasy

  The Refuge Series

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 1

  Refuge: The Arrival: Book 2

  Refuge: Book 3: The Legions

  Refuge: Book 4: Kurt’s Quest:

  Doppelganger: A Novel of Refuge

  Others

  The Hunger

  Daemon

  Aura

  Marathon

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  Cast of Characters

  Half Lich Emperor Ellandra Mashara. Four thousand year old Emperor of the Death worshiping Empire of Ellala’lysana. Nearing the end of his race’s natural lifespan, he has embarked upon an attempt to become undead in order to “live” forever.

  Garios na Gonron. High War Priest of the Kingdom Under the Mountain.

  Killiastofa Valdaris. Conyastaya High Priest of Yanon.

  Brigadier General Kurt von Mannerheim. Ex Wehrmacht officer, Captain of Panzergrenadiers. Born 1912. Seriously wounded by fire at the battle of Kursk and recovered with no apparent injuries. Has not aged since the apparent age of thirty. Prophesized Leader of the forces of light.

  Brigadier General Ismael Levine. The Wandering Jew of legend. Born Year 43 BC under the Roman Empire. The oldest know human Immortal.

  Colonel Paul Mason-Smyth. Former Major, British Army of the Rhine (BAOR).

  Colonel Jacquelyn Smith. Former First Lieutenant U S Army.

  Colonel Izabella Kozlowski. Four hundred year old Polish Immortal.

  Colonel Gregor Babich. Former Russian Army officer.

  General Zachary Taylor. Commanding officer of the Alliance. Highest ranking NATO officer to be transported to Refuge.

  Lt. General Walter Delgado. Commanding General of the First Legion.

  Brigadier General James Harris. Army Chief of Logistics and former Intelligence Officer.

  Colonel Antwoine McGurk. Commanding Officer of First Cavalry Regiment (Heavy).

  Colonel Jonathan Wainwright. Legion Brigade Commander.

  Major Jessica Stuart. Dragon Rider and Flight Leader, First Air Wing.

  Captain Paul Baurieth. Former Special Forces Sergeant and Warpriest of Arathonia.

  Colonel Cliff Jackson. Former Senior NCO, U S 3rd Armored Division, Current Siegemaster.

  Warrant Officer Three Dirk Winslow. Bard and leader of The Tarantulas.

  Peter Steiner, Wolfgang and Reinhold Schrenker. Warrant Officer Bards, The Tarantulas.

  Captain Beate Terbourg. Priestess of Yanon, God of Healing.

  Prince Harrakihn kil Marizom, Mo'orican Commander of the First Cavalry Brigade.

  Sergeant Dieter Klausman. Legionnaire and one of the Protected.

  Sergeant James Bubbuh Whitaker: Legionnaire and one of the Protected.

  Private Tim Humphrey: Legionnaire and one of the Protected.

  Colonel Baron Karl von Hasslehoff. First Wing Commander, former Luftwaffe pilot.

  Commodore Steffan Hauser. Commander of Alliance River Fleet.

  Captain Ellysar Kelliosos: Ellala commander of the steamship New Berlin.

  Dr. Vogel Kreigel, Biologist, Geneticist and creator of the Neowolves (New Wolves).

  Earnst Grueber. Ex-Krupp Engineer and the man called the Wizard.

  Stephan Neigal. Schizophrenic on Earth. Firemage on Refuge.

  Katherine Heidle. Schizophrenic on Earth. Weathermage on Refuge.

  Marcus Strom. Schizophrenic on Earth. Naturemage on Refuge.

  James Drake. Exchange student from London, Doctoral candidate in Physics and Schizophrenic.

  Major Francois Roy. French Officer

  Prologue

  The Half Litch Emperor Ellandra Mashara stared down at the map spread across the table, a grimace on the illusion that served as his public face. He had been so sure they could stop these new humans. His people had outnumbered them ten to one. Most of his fighters had been warriors for multiple centuries, some for millennia. The newcomers had no one with that kind of skill at arms, and his people had magic, which the newcomers lacked.

  So if all of the advantages lay with his people, how had he lost? Because they had something he did not have, technology. Their war machines had been awesome, and he had lost entire armies to their weapons. Then, when the technology had no longer worked, either because their motive power was no longer accessible, or they ran out of the ammunition needed to make the weapons work, they marched forth with tactics
that the people of this planet had never seen. Added to that were the allies they had gathered, the Ellala elves of Lianardas, the Conyastaya, the Grimikan dwarves, mages and priests and many others, all willing to fight with the newcomers to topple his empire. Which also added their own homegrown wizards, along with those damned immortal humans who were like nothing this world had ever seen.

  "We think we might be able to stop them at this river, my Lord," said the officer sent by the general commanding his largest field force. The point on the map the elf was pointing at showed a wide river, the same one that ran right outside the walls of the city to the east, merging with another north of the walls. The river was deep but not very swift, and it was crossed by a number of stone bridges that had been erected to ease passage across that barrier.

  "You think?" growled the Emperor, his eyes glowing red as he glared at the officer that the general had sent so he wouldn't have to face the wrath of the ruler. "You thought you could take them in their valley. You thought you could stop them when they marched out. You thought you could stop them with forts, and rivers, and huge field armies. And they marched through you like you were children, and not fierce warriors who took my gold."

  The officer cowered and mouthed apologies for things he had not had fault in. The Emperor did not care. He needed to take his anger out, and this elf was convenient. e murmured the words to a spell and reached his hand out to touch the man on the face. The fear on the face turned into a look of horror as the elf realized that his life force was being drawn from the body.

  The Emperor felt much better after he had drained the energy from his victim. That he had sent the soul of the elf to a thousand years of torment before his rebirth was a plus. And he hadn't had to worry about the danger of trying to drain one of the adherents of their insane religion. That was asking for a quick and brutal death as their god immolated those who dared to try to touch the souls of his followers. He turned to look at another of the soldiers in the room.

  "You," he growled, pointing at the man. "You will take this message to the general. I expect him to stop the Germans and Americans before they can cross the river. He had better give his life in stopping them if necessary. If he survives, I will make sure he regrets it into the next life. Now go!"

  The man nodded and ran from the room, happy to get away from the threat of his ruler. Ellandra smiled as he watched the elf move as quickly as he could. Ellandra ruled by fear, and seeing that emotion in others made him feel powerful. Now, if only he could elicit that reaction in the newcomers and drive them away from the heart of his empire.

  * * *

  "That's the way into the heart of his empire," said the Conyastaya scout, standing by the table and pointing to the river on the map, the symbol of a bridge showing across the line. There was another forested area, and another river further on.

  The first river was marked with the Ellala name Zontalis. The further was called the Elladdril, the river of the Elalla.

  Lieutenant General Walter Delgado looked down on the map which showed a bride. On the map the river was a line, but in reality it was a wide body of water. Both sides were controlled by massive forts, both of which would have to be taken if the bridge was to be theirs. There was no telling what the enemy might do to that bridge if they thought they were going to lose it.

  He was the field commander of this army, in charge of making the immediate decisions regarding their movement and deployment for battle. He had led through the last attack, when Walther Wittman, the commander of the other legion at the time, had died, and he had been elevated to a command he really did not want. It was his now, and the success or failure of the campaign now rested on his shoulders. Well, maybe not completely on his shoulders.

  "What do you think, General Levine?"

  The tall slender man standing next to him looked down at the table. Delagado thought the man, with a hundred times more military experience than himself, should have been leading the army. However, General Zachary Taylor thought otherwise. The ranking NATO officer to come across the dimensional barrier, Taylor had at first refused to let the immortals have any authority. Suspicious of kings and emperors, the American had wanted to establish a democracy among the Germans and Americans he led. Only their other allies, the peoples of this world, insisted that Kurt von Mannerheim was their prophesied ruler, and the other Immortals would be his nobility. Taylor had finally given in somewhat and had bestowed upon all of the Immortals high rank, though not high enough to suit the elves and dwarves.

  "I think it would be better to cross the river at another point," said the oldest of the immortals in a deep voice.

  Levine had been alive for thousands of years. Born at the time when Rome controlled Judea, he had lived through the centuries, the Wandering Jew of legend. Not always a soldier, he had still been in enough wars to make the careers of a dozen professionals. He had seen more of this kind of warfare than all but a few of the extremely long-lived elves.

  "We don't have the boats," said Delgado, who had already thought of that. The river was said to be almost a kilometer wide at the point of the bridge, and that was the narrows for several hundred kilometers in each direction. They were over seven hundred kilometers from the Northern Sea. The general had to wonder how wide this thing was at its mouth. Amazon size? Larger? Whichever, it was going to be a bastard to get an army across.

  "I see there are some more bridges to the north and south."

  "And they're guarded by forts, much the same as this one," said the scout.

  "Were they that afraid of invasion?" asked Delgado, thinking of all the resources that must have gone into building the chain of double forts up and down this river. Looking at the map, he saw the other massive river closer to the capital city, and a large river to the north of the city, flowing into that one. And more bridges marked with forts.

  "Not so much invasion as revolt," said the scout. "My people, the forest and mountain dwarves, the Halflings, even the Dark Elves, all were essentially good people at heart, who chaffed under the rule of the evil Ellala. Even the Ellala of this land for the most part opposed the Emperor, but the evil bastard had the army, and the dragons."

  "They don't have them so much anymore," said Levine, pulling out his pipe and starting to pack it with the tobacco they were growing in the Refuge Valley.

  "They still have some," said the general, recalling how they had taken out over eighty percent of the Empire's flying monsters back when the humans first came to this planet. The Empire still had some, but Lianardas, the Ellala kingdom to the east, now had just as many. In fact, they had been battling the enemy dragons all the way to this point, stopping them for the most part from raiding the army supply lines, and had been getting the better of the mostly smallish beasts the Empire still had.

  The people have been revolting in mass ever since the NATO forces had first started marching, proving that they could take on the Imperial forces and win. While not professional soldiers, every man and many women of the native peoples had war training as part of their upbringing. They had taken down garrisons, stormed small fortifications, kept the tribute of the land from flowing into the capital region of the empire. All because the Army of the Empire was occupied with trying the stop the newcomers and their direct allies from marching into their heartland. Trying, and failing.

  "Kurt should be here any day now," said Levine, looking behind him, up the slope to the ridgeline. "Maybe he will have some ideas."

  "He's been gone too damned long as it is," said Delgado, thinking that Taylor might not agree with him. Taylor had made his peace with the prophecies of the natives, but he still didn't like the idea of hereditary nobility, being a real American.

  [We're coming, Ismael] came the telepathic transmission into all of their minds.

  The image of a large man, centimeters taller than the tall Levine, and much heavier, came to their minds. His short blond beard and his long hair marked him as a northern European from Earth. His ice blue eyes were unlike those of
any people of Earth. He wore finely made armor of a magical nature, the hilt of a two-handed sword over his left shoulder. The sword was Lenoris, a Godblade of Arathonia; it had been created for use by Paladins, holy warriors. Kurt was not a holy warrior, but the blade had gravitated toward him anyway. By his side was a tall woman with light mahogany skin, not as dark of those of pure African descent, long black hair, and the same ice blue eyes as the man she traveled with. The hilts of twin katanas thrust over her shoulders. The one with the red jewel on the hilt was fire, a blade of volcanic heat, while the blue jewel marked ice, a sword of arctic cold. Both moved with almost the grace of elves, though they could move much faster when needed.

  [So, that's the next obstacle,] said the man, Brigadier General Kurt von Mannerheim, in a deep voice, looking through Levine’s eyes. [Doesn't look so tough. We still have some time before we get to it.]

  [Says the man who spent four years on the Eastern Front,] sent the woman in a melodic tone that came through the transmission. In her image her eyes twinkled as she looked at the man who was her official consort, and no one could miss the love in her gaze. Jacqueline Smith had been a first lieutenant in the United States Army, and was the youngest of the Immortals. Now she held the rank of colonel, all of her kind being considered senior officers due to their abilities.

  [But we don't have our modern weapons,] said Levine, smiling. [Not even the tanks the Wehrmacht had in that horror of a war.]

  Kurt sent a smile back, a melancholy look. Kurt was the third oldest of the Immortals they currently had with them, the Polish woman, Izabella Kozlowski, being the oldest at four hundred years. Paul Mason-Smyth and Gregor Babich were both older than Jackie, and younger than Kurt. They were still hoping that more of their kind might join up, but they also had resigned themselves to the possibility that they were all there would ever be.

  [Does Paul have an opinion?]

  [He wants to do a commando raid, with all of us acting as the commandos,] said Levine, shrugging his shoulders.

  [That might work,] said Jackie.