Refuge: Kurt's Quest

  Refuge:

  Book 4:

  Kurt’s Quest

  by

  Doug Dandridge

  Dedication

  This collection is dedicated to Kim Code, one of my biggest Refuge fans. Kim was of immense help in proofing the first two books of this series. Not a science fiction fan, she had proven a loyal follower of this fantasy series.

  Contact me at BrotherofCats@gmail.com

  Follow my Blog at http://brotherofcats.com

  Follow me at @BrotherofCats

  Copyright © 2014 Doug Dandridge

  All rights reserved.

  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 Exodus 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 those who sent emails or commented on blogs about how much they have enjoyed this series. Your kind words gave me the impetus to continue through the not so kind words left in some reviews. Refuge will continue into at least the near future, though how far, I cannot say at this time.

  Prologue

  The Half Lich Emperor Ellandra Mashara stared at the map of his Empire. It covered most of the K’Ellysius subcontinent, the large piece of land that linked two large continents to each other. His was an impressive Empire, if not the largest in the world. It may have been the most powerful, and he had been hopeful that it might spread much further than it had already.

  Until the damned Germans came, he thought, glaring at the red sections of the map that represented territory he no longer controlled. And their damned American allies. And the French, and the Poles. He looked to the Western part of his Empire, where more splotches of red showed. And the damned English, and the Russians, and whomever else they brought with them from their Gods forsaken world.

  And from what he had learned, it was a world forsaken by the Gods, at least the ones he was familiar with. A world they had all but destroyed with the God weapons they had brought with them. There war machines were fearsome. The gutting of three armies and the all but destruction of his Dragon Corps proved that. But they also had a limited life span on this world, and that time period had passed.

  And then I thought we could finally destroy them, since they were not as competent with our weapons as my Ellala warriors. Not even as competent as my Grogatha spear fodder. But then the humans had pulled yet another trick on him, coming at him in a formation unseen on his world. And with allies that lent weight to their army. Other Ellala, the Conyastaya, the Elves of the Forest, and all the types of Dwarves, the Gimikran and Dimikran. And they were rolling over his armies as if they were made up of crippled children.

  Armies are not going to stop them, he thought, glaring at those red areas on the map. Only magic will do the job, and only the magic of the Gods will be powerful enough.

  * * *

  Brigadier General Ismael Levine looked at the map on the table, taking in how much territory they had already taken. And how much remained for them to take. There was a multitude of river crossings and fortresses between the Army of the Alliance and the capital city of the Empire of Ellala’lysana. And while the Army he served with could take any number of Ellala and Grogatha out in the open, fortifications were another thing entirely. They could still take them. The Dwarven engineers had proven that much. But the loss ratio was less in their favor in such fights, and they could not afford to let this army bleed to death on this campaign.

  Levine was not the leader of this army, though many thought he should be. He was the oldest of the human Immortals, having been born in Roman Palestine in the year 43 Before Christ. The American general who commanded the alliance did not entirely trust the Immortals, who the locals saw as the fulfillment of their ancient prophecy. Especially Kurt von Mannerheim, himself a Brigadier General in this army, and a veteran of the bloody fight on the Eastern Front during the Second World War.

  The American General, Lieutenant General Zachary Taylor, was not a bad man, not one who wished any of the people under him ill. But he was a man who was feeling the pressure of fighting a war he had never been trained for, and sometimes his decisions were not in keeping with using his resources to their greatest advantage. Major General Walther Wittman, Commanding General Second Legion, and acting Corps and Field Army Commander, was a different proposition. He believed wholeheartedly in his native allies, and their prophecy, and would have had no trouble serving under Kurt or Levine. Unfortunately, he deferred to the ranking NATO commander on the planet, which meant he deferred to Taylor’s judgment.

  But none of this will matter if Kurt does not succeed in his quest, thought the oldest human who had ever lived. His eyes looked to the north on the map, to the grasslands where nomads rode and the Poles fought for supremacy, to the Northern Sea, and the huge peninsula across it, where the fabled Crown of the Lost Gods was said to be hidden. A head piece that allowed the wearer to control the minds of millions of beings at once. The alliance did not want the crown, but they were determined that the enemy not get their hands on it as well. If that happened, the war was lost. And our success depends on the efforts of one German Immortal, who the native peoples believe came to save them. If he fails, the prophecy was a lie, and we will be lucky if any of us escape this region with our lives.

  Chapter One

  Kurt looked into the mesmerizing glow of the small fire, fascinating as always to the mind of most humans. The fire was not large, something that Fenris had insisted upon. Actually, he had not wanted a fire at all, thought the big Immortal. But the night is cold, and we needed some kind of warmth.

  “Food’s ready, I think,” said Garios na Gonron, turning the rabbits over the spit. The Dwarf looked over at the German and smiled. “It’s almost unfair to hunt the way we did.”

  “My stomach tells me that I’m not going to complain,” said Jackie. She licked her lips as she handled the army mess tin that she had waiting. “I mean, it’s all well and good to go stalking the rabbits, but so much easier to let the little rodents come up to you.”

  Kurt nodded his head, agreeing with the woman that he knew he was falling in love with, and sure that he would agree with most things she said just to make a good impression. But she knows what she’s talking about here. The wolf calling the food allowed us to travel further this day without having to waste time hunting. Is it really unfair taking advantage of an asset?

  Jackie was staring into the fire, and Kurt noticed a tear rolling down her cheek.

  “What is wrong, Fraulein?” he asked, putting his hand on her shoulder.

  “I was just thinking about my folks,” she said, turning her ice blue eyes his way. “Daddy used to go hunting all the time. We were always eating rabbit, or better yet deer or pig.” The woman looked away and sighed. “I just wonder what has happened to them.”

  “It was bad on your world, yes?” asked Fenris Hallanta, The Ellala High Commander of the elite border cavalry of the Kingdom of Lianardas. “Before you came here?”

  “It was bad, yes,” said Kurt, looking over at Jackie and seeing her nod in agreement. “Two billion dead, more. Maybe as many as six billion. The world may become an irradiated wasteland, incapable of supporting any life beyond plants and insects.”

  “Six billion?” said a wide eyed Garios. “There were that many people on your world? That crowded?”

  “That crowded,” said Kurt, nodding. “Probably closer to eight and a half. We had out of control population, and not enough resources for everything. So things were already headed for the crapper before the Russians started a
cting like madmen.”

  “And the Arabs, and the Koreans, and the, you name it,” said Jackie, kicking at a root on the ground. “We were such idiots.”

  “But some of you made it to here,” said Fenris, a smile on his face. “Where you are safe. Or as safe as can be.”

  “And how did you make war on each other?” asked Garios, his eyes narrowing. “With these God weapons you brought with you?”

  “Much worse,” said James Drake, staring at the fire, moving the fingers of his right hand and making tendrils of flame move along with them. “Those weapons were toys compared to what we used against ourselves. In our wisdom we sent warheads a thousand times more powerful into the hearts of our largest cities. Cities of ten million or more, vaporized in an instant in the fires of hell.”

  The Elf and the Dwarf looked at the young mage with expressions of shocked disbelief.

  “He knows what he’s talking about,” said Kurt, pointing at James. “His discipline was the physical world and its laws.”

  “So, you made those things?” asked Fenris, a frown on his face.

  “Not a chance, dude,” said James, shaking his head. “I was working on looking into the elementary particles of the Universe. Not making weapons that could murder billions.”

  “But your research could have eventually led to bigger and better weapons,” said Jackie, glaring over at the young man. “That’s the problem with you scientists. You do something because you can do it, not because it should be done.”

  James glared back at Jackie, and the fire flared for a moment, sending flame eight meters into the sky.

  Shit, thought Kurt, looking over at Jackie and shaking his head. [Don’t antagonize him, dear. He’s as dangerous as a dragon, you know.]

  [And I thought he was on our side,] said Jackie. [I refuse to walk on eggshells around anyone.]

  “I am truly sorry, Jackie,” said James, bowing his head. “I have to learn to watch my temper. But I truly believe that information and knowledge are not bad. What we do with them can be.”

  “And why did you come along on this quest, Master James?” asked Garios. “I know that you would have preferred to stay at the Refuge, or maybe with the army. You could have refused.”

  And not added yourself to the list of people who might not come back, thought Kurt, remembering his own dream conversation with the Goddess, Arathonia. All had been picked by the Goddess, with the warning that at least one of them would not come back. But all of them had been capable of refusing.

  “And let that asshole who wants to kill us all have this world’s equivalent of the hydrogen bomb,” growled James, glaring at the fire and making it flare again. “I will destroy that artifact before I let it out into this world.”

  “It is a God artifact,” said Garios, shaking his head in the human manner. “It cannot be destroyed.”

  “We will see,” said James in a quiet voice, making the fire flare again.

  “I wish you would stop doing that, young man,” said Fenris, glancing out into the darkness, then back at the mage. “We chose this position for the concealment it offered, but shooting flames into the sky is destroying that concealment.”

  “Christ,” said James, giving the Elf a look of disbelief. “There’s nothing out there. And if there were, the wolf would sense them before they ever got close enough to do anything. So why don’t you just relax a bit. Take off that damned armor, like me and the other Earthers have.”

  “That is not a good idea,” said Garios, running his hand down his thick chest, covered by a sir coat over Dwarven scale mail. “When in the wilderness, like we are now, it is best to be ready for a fight. As I told the two Immortals. It is best to give up a bit of comfort to be ready for the worst.”

  “What a bunch of crap,” said James, sneering at the Dwarf. “Like I said, the wolf is out there keeping watch. And this is about as out in the middle of nowhere as we can get. There can’t be too much going on out on this grassland. I bet…”

  [Horsemen are coming this way.] came the powerful broadcast from the wolf.

  [How many?] sent back Kurt, jumping to his feet and grabbing the chain hauberk he had been wearing while his plate rode on the packhorse. Jackie was also on her feet, running over to where she had left her own armor and grabbing at her hauberk.

  [More than many hands and feet of digits,] beamed the animal. [They will be at your camp in minutes.]

  Which could mean any second, thought the Immortal, pulling the hauberk over his head. And could be anything from a score to a hundred riders. The wolves were very bright animals, about chimpanzee smart. And they got even smarter in numbers. But a single wolf was not very good with numbers.

  [Stay out of sight, and be prepared to act on my order,] sent Kurt, settling the chainmail onto his shoulders and starting to work at the ties. The wolf sent acknowledgement as Kurt looked over at Jackie, who had also pulled her upper body armor on and was reaching for the straps that held her twin blades. There was not enough time for the woman to put on her chain pants or other armor.

  “My apologies, gentlemen,” said Kurt, looking over at the Elf and Dwarf, who were already dressed for combat with the addition of the helmets they were strapping to their heads. “You were right. And what can we expect to see coming at us?”

  “It could be Orcs,” said Fenris, who was most knowledgeable about the grasslands, as they bordered the northern part of his kingdom. “But I would bet on Mingalans, the local nomads.”

  “Could they be Poles?” asked Jackie hopefully. “They were moving into this area, weren’t they?”

  “I would think not,” said Fenris, buckling the strap holding his quiver into place, then reaching for his bow. “The Poles are still concentrated to the east of here, except for the ones marching to join your army. And they should be quite a bit south of here.”

  James stood staring into the night, his eyes glowing with mage sight. Fenris’ ears perked up, and a moment later he could hear the sounds of riders approaching, the jingle and creaking of their harness and the whinnying of their horses. It sounded like a large party to him, and he was beginning to think that two or three score could be correct. Their own well trained mounts were completely silent on the other side of the fire, the Elf bred horses having little in common with the normal mounts the nomads would use.

  “Here they come,” yelled Fenris, as the heads, then the bodies of the horsemen appeared above the lip of the small depression they had set the camp in.

  Firelight glinted on the heads of lances, on the helms that some of the riders wore. Some of the riders had bows in hand, arrows pointed at the people in the camp. Still others had no weapons out, but gripped the hilts of blades sheathed by their sides. All of the riders had leather armor over their upper bodies, and leggings made up of some kind of fur. All looked down with cruel, yellow skinned faces, not like the skin tone of Asians on Earth, but of a deep yellowish bronze.

  “We wish no trouble,” yelled out Fenris in a tongue that must have been that of the riders, coarse and guttural. Kurt was surprised that he understood it at first, and then realized that Fenris was sending the translation into his mind through thought transmission.

  More riders gathered around, until there were two score surrounding them, with the sounds of others moving out beyond the light of the fire. Kurt noticed that there were a few that carried staffs that emitted a slight glow. Magic users, thought Kurt, glancing over at James and hoping the mage saw them as well. The glint of the mage’s eyes as he looked at what had to be shamans let Kurt know that he had.

  “You are on our lands, without our permission,” said an older looking man who had to be the leader of this group.

  “We are willing to pay for passage across your lands,” said Fenris, bowing low to the headman. He looked back up. “As I said before, we are not looking for trouble.”

  The headman smiled, and the other nomads laughed. The headman held up a hand and glared at the Elf. “Trouble has found you, looking for it or not.”
Fenris started to open his mouth to speak, and the headman raised his hand to cut him off. “I know, you can pay. And so you shall. With everything you have, and your heads will decorate spikes in the morning to warn others of your kind not to venture into areas where they are not welcome.”

  “You’re making a mistake,” said Fenris. “A really big one.”

  The headman reared his head back and laughed at the sky. When he looked back at them there was no humor in his expression. “Keep the woman alive, so that we might use her later. Kill the rest.”

  Kurt went into speed at the moment the word kill left the headman’s lips. His sword swished from its sheath, its glow lighting the night. Jackie’s swords came from her twin sheaths in a blur, one glowing red, the other blue. And James started to raise his staff into the air, a word on his lips.

  Fifteen bowmen loosed within a second. Eight of the arrows headed for the mage, two each toward the Dwarf and the Elf, three for Kurt. Fenris loosed, reloaded and loosed again before the nomad arrows had left their bows. He then ducked in a fluid motion under the shafts that were headed his way. Garios raised his shield and took the two arrows coming at him on its face, bouncing them into the night. Jackie stepped in a rush toward James, her flame blade taking out one of the arrows heading for Kurt, then reaching to take out one of the arrows heading for James.

  The word left James’ mouth, and a blast of hot air spread out to his front, knocking the arrows from their courses. “The mage,” yelled the headman, pointing at James, and all of the archers turned toward him and loosed. All but the two who were falling from their horses, Fenris’ shafts in their chests.

  Thirteen arrows streaked toward James, who yelled at Jackie to duck while he dropped his staff to the ground and pointed his hands toward the archers, thumbs touching. Jackie fell to the ground in a roll that brought her back to her feet behind James, her twin blades striking out and slicing through the four arrows coming in from the archers on that side of the mage. The fire left James’ hands in a fan of flame, and the arrowheads fell to the ground as their shafts and fletchings turned to ash. The flame continued on to immolate a trio of bowmen, their smoking bodies falling from their rearing, panicked horses. The other bowmen and some of the lancers raised their hands over their faces, dropping their weapons to the ground.