Jack considered options as he let the Vision go. The three of them had enough raw

power to destroy the fort, and kill all of the enemy between them. The guy guarding

the dungeon might still be able to get to Fass’s uncle while they were ripping the top

of the place apart.

And Eric said the fort was important to the Army and shouldn’t be destroyed over

something like this.

How did they do things without letting everything get out of hand?

“I can get inside and get rid of these bandits easy,” said Mister Warner. “I have

Phantasmo on my watch. It will be nothing for me to get through the walls with him.”

“I know,” said Jack. “I can punch through the gate if I can get close enough, or fly

over the wall as the Falcon. We have a lot of options.”

“I think the best thing would be to get Eric’s uncle out of the way, and find this

artifact,” said June. “I vote for the phantom infiltration.”

“I also vote for the phantom infiltration,” said Eric.

“That’s what we do then,” said Jack. “Do you need some kind of distraction with

this? I’m going to assume you have plenty of time to fight the whole fort.”

“Give me five minutes to get inside and explain to the adventurers what’s going on,”

said Mister Warner. “Then do whatever you plan to do to pull them away from the

dungeon and toward the gate.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” said Jack. “Go ahead. It’s going to take me five

minutes to walk up so I can talk to someone.”

“What am I supposed to do?,” asked June. She frowned at the other champions of

order.

“Stand ready with Kami if we need some kind of aid, or use Bond to look at the fort

from here,” said Jack. “He should have some kind of binoculars you can use, right?”

“I think I have a rifle with a scope,” said June.

“Don’t shoot me,” said Jack. “The rest will take care of itself.”

“I can be a distraction too,” said June. “I can be a better distraction than you.”

“I would like to see it,” said Jack.

“Fine,” said June. She took off her jacket to reveal a T-shirt from Gold’s Gym with

a picture of a weightlifter straining to lift a bar. She handed the jacket to Eric. She

pulled the front of the shirt out and tied a knot in it. She rolled the bottom of her

sweat pants up as far as they would go on both legs. She closed her eyes and tried to

imagine the picture she presented. “Five minutes?”

“That’s all it’s going to take for me to get rid of the guard in the dungeon,” said

Mister Warner.

“If something happens, just get out of there,” said Jack. “I know Kami can wreck the

fort, but we don’t want anything like that.”

June ran her fingers through her hair to straighten it out. When she was fighting, she

bound it in a braid. She hadn’t thought she would need to do that on Reed World.

“I got it, Jack,” said June. She smiled at her younger brother. “You don’t have to

worry about me.”

“I feel like I do,” said Jack.

“She has to know,” said Mister Warner. “She has to know what this work is like.”

“I don’t have to like it,” said Jack. He frowned at his sister. “Any real trouble, blow

up the fort as a distraction. I’ll be there a second later.”

“I got it, worrywart,” said June. She smiled. She started down the road toward the pile

of stones in a jog. She hoped she looked frightened to the lookouts on the wall.

“My turn,” said Mister Warner. “Don’t do anything drastic. I will be cutting the

bandits down as soon as I clear the dungeon. June will be safe.”

“I know,” said Jack. “I don’t have to like it.”

Mister Warner touched his watch. He became a legless floating image of a thing. He

sank into the ground and headed for the fort.

“This part is the part I hate the most,” said Jack.

“She will be fine,” said Eric. “They will want to talk to her at length about why she

was running down the road. Once she is ready, I am sure she can hold off any normal

fighter.”

“I just don’t want to explain all of this to the folks,” said Jack. “There’s no magic

back home. They are not going to take June running off and getting killed for a

organization of do-gooders well.”

“Just keep your eyes open,” said Eric. “If things go bad, you can still do something

from here.”

Jack grimaced as he watched the fort. He spotted men on the ramparts pointing at

June running toward them. He wondered what Mister Warner was doing. He decided

that he should keep his watch charging in case he needed something to get to the fort

fast to help June.

Mister Warner had already shown what he could do with the Dart.

June stopped running within shouting distance of the wall. She pointed behind her.

Jack couldn’t make out the words, but he assumed she was saying something like

bandits or monsters had attacked in the trees.

What would they do with that news?

He doubted they were going to send out a party to investigate the claim. Why would

they? Only real adventurers would do something like that. Bandits would hunker

down and hope the other group didn’t make a play for their own temporary

headquarters.

“Time’s almost up for Mister Warner,” said Eric.

Three of the five men on the ramparts of the fort’s outer wall fell over the side. That

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alerted the survivors that they were not alone. It was already too late by then. The

flying arrow doubled back and took the last two watchmen before they could get

cover, or throw themselves off the wall.

“It looks like he took the outer guards,” said Jack. “Let’s see if he really took the

place from the inside.”

Jack stepped out of the concealing woods. He headed for the fort. He felt better when

the gate lowered to let them in. He doubted any bandit was going to do that unless

they thought that June was in on whatever was going on.

And they wanted to express their displeasure about it.

June edged forward to look in the central courtyard. She paused at the men holding

weapons at the main hall.

The group held June at arm’s length. They looked at the dead bodies littering the

courtyard. Their rescuer had killed them all in a matter of seconds once he got going.

Jack joined June at the gate as one of the older men took over and arranged a funeral

pyre for the dead. They couldn’t let the bodies sit where they lay. That would attract

too many scavengers.

“Uncle Errol?,” called Eric. “I got your message and came to see what was going on.”

“Eric?,” said Errol Fass. He looked at his nephew with one normal eye, and one milky

one. His mane of white hair retreated from the scowl he wore, and the intenseness of

his gaze. “I thought the messenger hadn’t got through.”

“I was going to come down with my party, but the champions of order agreed to help

me,” said Eric. “Why are you here, Uncle?”

“I’m looking for a formula for a healing potion,” said Errol. “We have a contract with

an alchemist to look for it here in Devermore.”

“Did he tell you about the giant spiders?,” asked Jack.

“We haven’t seen anything like that,” said Errol. “There wasn’t anything at the local

town.”

“I ran into some a long time ago,” said Mister Warner. “They had a tunnel system

under the fort. I collapsed part of it down to keep them from surfacing and eating

whomever was stationed here.”

“We’ve camped here for a bit, and haven’t found what we’re looking for,” said Errol.

“We were about to call it quits when this crowd showed up and got inside the gate.

They said they had proper orders from the guild, but when I lowered the drawbridge,

they attacked us.”

“Looking for the same elixir formula?,” asked Jack.

“Yes,” said Errol. “I’m glad they are dead.”

“Pack up your stuff, and we will give you a lift to Hawk Ridge,” said Jack. “You can

get checked out there and the Guild will put you up until you are ready to come back

to look again.”

“I don’t want to give up like that,” said Errol. “It has to be here.”

“It doesn’t have to be here,” said Mister Warner. “It doesn’t have to be anywhere.

Your alchemist might have hired you for something he knew you wouldn’t be able

to find.”

“Josie could find it with one of her birds,” said Eric.

“She’s up north,” said Jack. “But we can call her and see if she can help us from up

there. Do you want to try that? If it’s not here, I will be glad to arrange for you to

travel with us back to Hawk Ridge.”

“This Josie can do what we can’t do without being here?,” asked Errol.

“She is the terror that flaps in the night,” said Jack.

“Call her,” said Mister Warner. “Then we can get this show on the road.”

“All right,” said Jack. He triggered the button for the Enterprise. “Enterprise?”

“Communication received,” said the machine.

Jack paused. How far could he reach the Enterprise from the ground? Was it line of

sight? Was it some kind of magic wave band?

“Can you connect me to Josie?,” asked Jack. “I need to ask her for a favor.”

“Connection opened,” said the machine.

“Jack?,” asked Josie. “What’s going on?”

“I’m here with Eric Fass’s uncle,” said Jack. “He is looking for a secret formula in

Fort Devermore. I was wondering if one of your birds would be able to find it for him

so we can pull out of here without doing something drastic.”

“I can try,” said Josie. “Secret formula?”

“Yep,” said Jack.

“All right,” said Josie. “Let me change. I’ll send something to look for it. Hold the

line open, Enterprise.”

“Affirmative,” said the machine.

A few moments later, a firebird flew out of the com band. The adventurers had

expected some kind of magic, but they were still taken aback by the screaming

phoenix.

“Follow it, Juni,” said Jack. “See where it goes.”

June called on Deku and chased after the bird. No matter how fast it flew, she could

still chase it because she was faster.

It led her to a portion of the floor under an empty shelf. She pushed the shelf out of

the way, and saw the bird descend through the floor. She punched that section of the

floor and revealed a tunnel. She dropped down the tunnel, using her braced feet to

slow her descent. She fell into a wide open space and landed with a roll to ride out the

impact.

“This can’t be good,” said June. She looked around, her vision improving in the light

from above. She saw tons of cobwebs floating in the breeze. She grimaced at the fact

that she might be facing the same type of spider that Mister Warner had mentioned

upstairs.

The firebird came to rest on a skeleton in a heap next to the cavern wall. It had a pack

on the ground next to it. The spell burst apart when it knew that June knew where the

object of its search was.

June crept toward the bones. She looked in every direction as she moved. The last

thing she wanted to do was fight giant spiders on their home ground.

She decided that she needed to switch bodies if she wanted to get out of the cave. She

would grab the formula and then switch to Kami. The magician should be able to lift

her out of the hunting ground she was in fairly easily.

She didn’t like the idea of giant spiders sneaking up on her to turn her into a giant

snack. That was not something she was prepared to deal with at the moment.

And she was less prepared to tell Jack he was right about her not being able to handle

this new job she had talked herself into. He would gloat about it for years. She wasn’t

going to give him that satisfaction.

It was better to beat him at his own game.

June looked around before she committed to searching the pack of the skeleton. She

found papers and a sample bottle. She backed away from the bones. She could see the

webs around her shifting. Something was coming to talk to her about her trespassing.

She jogged over to the opening in the ceiling of the cave. She changed personas,

causing the papers and the bottle to disappear as long as she was Kami. She needed

to get out of the hole she was in.

She talked to the spirits in the webbing surrounding her. She asked them to change

their purpose enough to help her climb out of the hole. The strands bunched together

and threw themselves up through the hole in the ceiling. She tugged on the makeshift

rope she had put together and found it was anchored up on the surface. She asked for

the rope to pulled her up on its own.

Something moved as she ascended. She had no doubt she had glimpsed a giant spider.

It was huge and fast. She might have to turn and fight it. She decided that she could

just seal it off again.

She brushed the stone in the tunnel with her hand as she climbed. She willed for the

stone to defy itself and stretch across the opening below her. That stopped some of

the danger.

She had thought the job would be a little exciting, but being eaten by giant spiders

was a little too exciting.

She pulled herself out of the hole. She reached out and sealed the floor again by

grabbing several spirits of bricks and asking them to help her out. She moved the

shelf back in place and glued it to the spot.

“I hope you’re worth it,” said June, looking at the recovered goods when she let Kami

go.

“How did it go, Juni?,” asked Jack. He looked around, hand on his watch.

“The bird went right for this,” said June. She held up the items. “There was a skeleton

down there, and some webs everywhere. I think I saw a giant spider before I made my

way back up.”

“All right,” said Jack. “Let’s get away from this place as fast as we can.”

“How do I know this is the right thing?,” asked Errol. His nephew shook his head at

the question.

“Drink some of it,” said Jack. “We’ll make sure if your insides rot out that you’ll get

a decent funeral.”

“What kind of adventurer are you?,” asked Errol.

“The kind that doesn’t chase giant spiders in the dark so they will bite me,” said Jack.

“Get your stuff together. We’re pulling out of here, and you’re going to Hawk Ridge

until your fee is collected. Chop chop!”

“I don’t like you,” said Errol.

Ding went Jack’s head. Mister Warner nodded that he had got the same thing. June

frowned.

“I have jobs to do,” said Jack. “Let’s get it together. I have to get started on those.”