“No one’s called. I may get to sit this one out.” Meladee stood on the basement steps. She propped her elbows on the bannister and shifted from foot to foot. Missing a fight was fine by her.

Eva waited further up the stairwell. She pressed herself to a wall as a Groazan hurried down the steps. The man looked like he had been out walking. He was no anthropologist. He hurried past Meladee.

She jabbed a thumb in his direction. “He’s got the right idea. We should go deeper.”

“We’re sufficiently protected in the stairwell.” Eva craned her neck and looked through the door’s small window.

“See anything?”

“A few more people coming.”

Meladee crossed her arms and put her back to the wall, leaving a generous amount of space for the cowards to pass. Deep down, she cheered them on. “Benham had better not be in this fight. He better be hiding.”

A man and a few women ran down the steps. Their panicked voices covered the last of Meladee’s words.

One woman stopped before Eva. “They breached the planetary defenses.”

Eva’s face held a healthy amount of horror. “What?”

“Just in a couple of places. Some have landed in Presereme, just down the street. If you…”

“We’ll go,” Eva promised.

The woman hurried past Meladee and seemed not to notice Meladee’s gaping mouth. The woman fled into the basement, with a whispered thank you.

“I just love what you’ve done,” Meladee said, putting as much sarcasm into her voice as she could. “What do I have to do to skip a battle? Get knocked up?”

“It’s worked for Camellia.” Eva climbed the last two steps to the ground floor. “Come on.” She shouldered the door open and held both gun and crystal staff at the ready.

Meladee trotted up the stairs. “I get it now. I get why some people have kids during wars. It’s a great way to keep from getting drafted. Fuck. I had enough of this crap from Ul’thetos. And, those were mindless thralls. This is going to be way worse.”

“We’ll take one together. Summons?” Eva ran down the AAH’s dim hall, just ahead of Meladee.

Meladee tried to keep pace, as she passed murals of vampiric and elven space travelers. “You know it.”

Eva burst through the front door. She leapt down the steps. Meladee followed in her wake and bounced down, taking each step with a spring.

As Meladee squinted in the strong sunlight, she cast her first circle. Her dragon blazed into existence, wearing its colors of ice. Eva waited as Meladee followed that spell with her giant basan. The basan wore its colors of ice as well. Though, even without Meladee’s enhancements, the basan possessed a cold fire – harmless in its natural state. The bird ran into the street, stopped, and bobbed its head towards Meladee, remembering that it needed orders.

Eva started off. “This way,” she told the basan.

“Hold on! One more.” Meladee stopped in the middle of the road and cast a final summons.

Her frozen pizza man stood on the sidewalk, wearing a grimace of aggression.

“Why?” Eva asked.

“He’s weird. He’ll distract them.” Meladee ran out ahead, with her basan and dragon. “We might as well get this over with.”

Eva outpaced Meladee in a matter of steps. It was her place to bring up the vanguard anyway as she was better suited to close combat than Meladee. To Eva’s surprise, the dragon and basan kept near Meladee. It was the pizza man that kept pace with Eva.

Eva inwardly shook her head. Creativity could go too far.

Few clouds drifted in the calm, blue sky, and the streets were clear. Some carriages remained on the sides of the road, but they didn’t block travel.

Eva heard a horse complain of being left. Its whiny traveled around the corner. Eva rounded that corner and saw that the horse was not alone. A Volanter tried to pet the beast, having cleared the street with his fearsome figure. Why he paused for something so inconsequential was beyond Eva.

Eva shot him and got his arm.

The horse reared and blocked her next shot.

Eva took that moment to note the Volanter ship that rested not far from her reach. It parked atop a crumbled wall, and the remains of an iron fence stuck out beneath light green metal. If he needed that small ship, the man was no familiar rider, and with any luck, that vessel wouldn’t go home.

It might have a computer for Eva’s taking.

A complex series of runes spread, in a single ring before Eva.

She stepped back.

The pizza man screamed, spun through the air, sailed past the runes, and over the horse.

The spell died.

“What great luck!” Meladee called. “We got a Bract. His spells are slow but powerful, so don’t let him finish.”

Eva frowned but didn’t spare a glance for Meladee. The Volanter had ducked behind the carriage, and she watched that space hard. “Hiding,” she said.

“What?” Meladee ran to Eva’s side. “No hiding.” She gestured ahead. “He’s a snail. Let’s just run up and crush him.”

“He’s hiding. That’s what I meant. And, very well at that.” Eva looked beneath the carriage and didn’t see any tentacles. She searched the surrounding street but saw only grey buildings, not the sharp contrast between black and white that marked every Volanter.

Curtains over the carriage window obscured her view inside, and she didn’t know if the Volanter had slithered through the unseen carriage door. She suspected he portaled himself somewhere else entirely.

The song of a spell started. Eva could tell it wasn’t Meladee’s. The spell resonated deep and alien. Plus, Meladee stood idle beside her.

Meladee pushed Eva’s arm. “Oh shit.” She looked up.

Eva looked up too. She saw a ring of complex runes. “We shouldn’t let that finish.”

“I don’t know counters. Just run. Let’s not be here when it goes off.” Meladee ran back the way they’d come.

Eva followed. Ahead, the dragon’s tail whipped back and forth as it fled, and beside Eva, the basan clucked and bobbed its neck, a panicked look in its eyes. Its legs worked as fast as any chicken’s.

Meladee stopped and turned. “Okay, far enough. I’m going to cast a shield, and it’s not going to be big so huddle up.”

The dragon tucked close to Meladee and curled. The basan pulled its neck and legs into its feathers, brushing Eva with some of its down. Eva stood arm to arm with Meladee.

Three rings appeared around Meladee, Eva, and the summons. Meladee’s spell finished, and half a bubble shimmered up from the road, crested the tallest member of their huddle – the dragon – and shimmered back onto the road behind. Meladee said it wouldn’t be a big shield, but it was big. Nothing small could house the dragon, so when Meladee said the shield wouldn’t be big, she must have meant it wouldn’t be big enough. Eva did not have personal space.

The Volanter’s spell completed. The runes changed to bright light, and the light flared strong. Eva closed her eyes. When she opened them, she saw bright light on the other side of the bubble, and she felt heat.

“Oh god. Bad spell.” Meladee pressed into Eva but did nothing to reinforce her completed shield. “This is where we die.”

Eva squinted and watched the light eat the runes and their bubble. As quick as it flared, the light winked out. The bubble remained. The buildings on either side of the street wore scorch marks or had deep curves carved into their stone and brick. The carriages were gone, including the horse.

“Now, we hide,” Eva said.

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Don’t have to tell me twice.” Meladee dispelled the bubble. She spotted the area where the horse used to be. “That bastard.” Then, she ran.

The dragon and basan already sought hiding places. As Eva fled for cover, she hoped they wouldn’t keep their original spots. The Volanter obviously had a way to watch them.

Slippery bastard, probably slithered into the sewer. Meladee started to sweat. She could see the headlines of the future now – should they be able to fight their way out of this situation. Volanter found living in sewer. Be careful of Volanter coming up through your toilet.

Meladee felt the corners of her mouth twist down. She’d found a snake in a toilet once. A Volanter would be too much for her, curled up among the pooey water.

Meladee glanced at Eva’s hiding place and found that she had moved. Of course, Meladee didn’t keep her original place either, but she still wanted to know where Eva was.

Panic coursed through Meladee, and she took a handful of shuddering breaths. She paged through magic circles in her mind’s eye, but it was as if she held a real book and flipped the pages too fast to catch the details. Meladee could not decide what to cast.

A circle appeared near Meladee, too far for the guy to demonstrate his knowledge of her hiding place, but probably close enough for whatever bombastic spell he had in mind to incinerate her.

Shit. Meladee cast her shield and lit up her location.

The spell did explode, but her shield caught the bulk of it. By the time her shield failed, Meladee just got a wave of sand.

She shook out her hair and eyes. Ahead, she saw a small crater in the road and a couple of scorched storefronts.

The Volanter man slithered out from behind a food composter. His wound was bound in something brown.

“Uh…I hope you didn’t use anything from that bin on your arm.” Meladee nodded to the composter. She felt kind of good getting to use her Volanter on a native speaker.

The Volanter scowled. “I can tell garbage when I see it.”

Meladee’s dragon popped up from the back of a wagon.

Meladee jumped. How the dragon got itself beneath the tarp, unnoticed by any of the other combatants, Meladee couldn’t say. But, she praised her beast with a clap.

The dragon blew ice on the Volanter man. He conjured a quick shield, just a simple one-ringed spell, minus his crazy runes. The dragon also shimmered in magic, and Meladee thought it might be covered in the result of a tracking spell. Poor dragon. It spewed ice on the Volanter till it built a little dome of snow.

The basan bobbed into view, also shimmering in magic.

Damn. His first spell dropped some kind of tracking on us. Meladee got an urge to try invisibility, but only if she planned to flee. Speaking of fleeing where was Eva?

Eva slipped a tool between the fighter’s windshield and cockpit wall. She worked the seam up and down, till she popped the emergency release button. The cockpit sprang open with a hiss.

Eva jumped inside. The interior only had three seats: two in the front, one in the back. Eva sat in front, in what she thought was the pilot’s seat. She pressed a button, and the hatch closed.

Emerald green light cast itself over the console. The shade came from the hatch’s tinted glass. Eva looked through the glass to see if the Volanter knew her whereabouts. He rose on writhing tentacles and faced off against Meladee and the two summons.

Eva looked next at the console. She ignored the piloting controls and searched for the triggers. Runic writing labeled key aspects of the board.

She had studied Volanter writings, courtesy of the AAH, but she didn’t know these writings. At least, not well. It seemed she’d found a different dialect. Still, she noted some similarities.

Eva pressed a button and a projected display drew a target over the windshield. Eva nudged the ship’s guns, and her target slid over the Volanter. Meladee stood on the edge of the bullseye, a little too close.

Eva took a joystick in hand. She felt a pressure sensor click beneath her grip, and a new display animated a blast radius over the target. A yellow band moved from the center out and repeated. Meladee was well within the damage zone.

She let go of the trigger.

A light blinked near the com, and Eva realized it had always been there. She leaned close to the console label and read what she could.

Remote – tracker? Caller?

Eva straightened. If the Volanter could call the ship back, with or without its pilot, she would lose her prize.

Eva glanced up and checked on Meladee. Spells fired between the two combatants, but mostly, the Volanter battled the basan and dragon. They did all they could to interrupt his spellwork.

Eva looked back to the console. She could not let the ship leave. To prevent such an occurrence, Eva would disable the engine. If she disabled it, she could get it working again, and someday learn its secrets. She found another button and swore it said engine access. She hit it.

A soft pop from somewhere in back of the ship rewarded her efforts.

Eva activated the hatch and jumped out. She slid down the ship’s light green exterior, landed on pavement, and ran around to the ship’s rear. She reached the engine and open panel. She glanced at the large exhaust ports and eased away from their influence by pressing close to the hull.

Inside the panel, Eva found a mess of wires, arranged into the shape of a tree. She widened her eyes at the waste put into the design. Then, she got to work.

Meladee’s dragon finally ran out of breath. It backed up, while Meladee worked to dispel the tracking effect. She couldn’t find a way.

The basan and dragon watched the dome of ice. Both kept their heads low, and their legs tensed.

The dome collapsed. The summons jumped.

A spell hummed behind Meladee. She whirled to face the Volanter, as he cast another of his large spells.

“What the hell did you do to my pizza man?” she shouted, belatedly remembering the warrior slice’s battle cry.

The Volanter’s spell faltered. “Pizza man?”

Meladee cast a quick ring of fire and caught the man inside. She also put the fire over his runes, hoping that his lack of view might kill the spell entirely. Meladee’s dragon and basan spewed ice over the flames.

The song of magic petered out, and Meladee heard it anew behind her. She turned again to find the Volanter man across the street.

He shook snow out of his hands and head tentacles. He’d taken a quick portal. “Why do all your beasts vomit on me?”

Meladee had never thought of it that way. “We’re kind of gross on this planet, you sure you want to stay?”

“Meladee, duck down that alley!” Eva shouted.

Meladee did one better. She dived down the alley. Her summons followed.

A blast rocked the street.

Meladee lay on her stomach in the dark space between buildings. Her arms covered her head. Slowly, she raised her head and turned. She checked on her feet and found them both attached. The dragon’s blue tail curled into the alleyway, sporting some scorch marks. The basan cowered on Meladee’s other side. It pushed to its feet, flapped its wings, and shook the dust from its feathers.

They were all okay, not that it mattered for the summons. They could die and come back, so long as Meladee lived.

Meladee pushed up on her elbows and twisted. She sent her gaze across the street and found the Volanter man a pile of simmering flesh. He fell to the ground.

Eva blew smoke off her gun – the large barreled one. “I wanted to use the ship’s gun on him, but I thought I might as well make this weapon earn its keep.” Eva placed the gun on a nearby stone wall, on a part that hadn’t crumbled. She held her palm up and examined it. The gold skin looked dark. “It just wasn’t designed for a setting that high.”

“Hey, you smell pizza?” Meladee asked.

Eva made a face and looked to a spot on the street where the pizza man lay cooked, steaming still.

Meladee tsked. “Aw, pizza man. You shouldn’t have rushed in.”

He smelt good though.

Camellia stood in the doorway and blocked access to the Volanter com. She faced out and spread her arms to touch both sides of the doorframe. “Not in here. There’s a creepy statue in here.”

The refugees glanced over her head. Tears glistened in their eyes, and though they hid in a darkened basement, Camellia saw those tears well.

“Sorry,” Camellia said. “We don’t really know what it’ll do. Also, don’t turn on any lights down here. We’re hiding.”

The refugees wandered off, except one.

He glanced at Camellia’s abdomen. “Maybe someone else should guard the door.”

Camellia smiled. “No. An anthropologist has to do it. Anyway, I’m probably just going to write a sign and close it up as soon as I get a minute. I just need some paper.” Camellia gestured to the work bench, filled with restoration equipment. Packing paper rested in a neat stack.

The man nodded and left the hall.

Camellia rushed to the bench. She wrote: Haunted statue. Keep out.

She hurried back to the door, affixed the paper to it, and closed herself inside.

Camellia faced the room’s interior. She left the lights off, and there wasn’t anything suspicious about that, not when every other room remained dark.

Enough light from the long basement windows filtered in, making the scene bright enough for her liking.

Camellia’s eyes darted to the statue. It watched her.

“I’m just going to talk to him and see what he has to say about all this.” Camellia crossed the room and stood before the com. “It’s not dangerous, so don’t judge me.”

Camellia placed her hand on the pad. Are you still there?

In a giant battle, a Volanter might not be able to spare time to pose as some unknowable prisoner. If that were the case, then no one should answer. Then again, they might make it a priority. Camellia closed her eyes for a moment. She couldn’t decide a sure way to know who waited at the other end of the line.

I’m here. I’m glad you came back. We have much to talk about.

A bang sounded on the door. “Camellia? Are you in there?”

Florian!

Camellia removed her hand from the pad and clapped it over her mouth.

The door creaked open, and Florian stood framed in the doorway, with narrowed eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“I was…I was making sure no one would touch this.” Camellia pointed at the com.

“Does that include yourself?”

“I might have been thinking of testing it again.” Camellia lowered her gaze.

“I suppose that’s fine – since it doesn’t work. But, I’d rather you don’t.”

Camellia nodded. She felt sick. She willed herself to say she’d already tried a second time and a third. The com worked.

But, Camellia couldn’t bring herself to say it. What if Florian didn’t want to be married to her anymore? What if a committee deemed her unfit to care for her own child? All because she tried an alien com. Camellia didn’t think she’d found her new mirror, but no one else would see it the same.

Camellia started to sweat. She rubbed her forehead, but the sweat hadn’t reached beyond her hairline yet.

“Are you alright?” Florian started across the floor.

“Florian, I…”

“What are you doing man?”

Camellia and Florian jumped.

Another anthropologist stood in the doorway. From his stance, Camellia knew he was old. She thought she should know his name, but shadows hid his face.

The man pointed at the back corner of the room. “Florian, that statue is haunted.”

Florian tore his gaze from the man and glanced at the statue. He hurried towards Camellia.

“No, no!” The other anthropologist called. “Just come out. She’s fine. It’s the guardian of women after all.” The man waved Florian out.

“Camellia?” Florian froze, halfway to her, halfway to the door.

“I’ll follow you out.” She took the first step. Her heart slowed. She hurried to his side and pushed him ahead of her.

They both cleared the threshold, and the elder anthropologist pulled the door shut. Camellia’s sign announced what everyone should know. The man uncapped a marker and added: Dangerous to men.

Florian watched the letters, traced onto the page. He continued to watch them.

Camellia took Florian’s arm and led him away. “You need to be more careful.”

Florian’s head whipped to her. “What?”

“You could have gotten hurt by that statue.” Camellia started to smile. “I guess you have to learn to be more cautious when it comes to your own safety.”

Florian raised a hand and waved off Camellia’s remarks. He smiled too. “I might deserve this. I get the point. Enough.”

Camellia laughed, but it didn’t last. “Is it over?”

“I don’t know.” Florian stared at his feet. “I suppose I risked my life to run over here.”

Camellia smiled, but it went unseen. She let her heart rate rest, but in the back of her mind, she told herself that a time drew near when she would have to explain what she’d done.