EPILOGUE OF THE PART ONE

The head of the Bridgeport Technical Corporation had an excellent seaplane. Big enough to fit us all. Me, Shani, Tus, Dina, Harrison, and his telepath. The latter turned out to be the second person present in the booth. This one could read thoughts as if they were words. A rare breed indeed. A Listener. Dina informed me of this immediately.

I pushed both Zingaru off the seaplane’s float into the sea. They should have had no problem swimming to shore. They swim remarkably well. And even if not, I couldn’t care less at that moment.

Harrison was an excellent pilot. We circled over Bridgeport, then turned in a wide arc. No one shot at us. And there was no anti-aircraft defense in Bridgeport, which, considering the imminent war with the magical kingdoms, was quite reckless on the part of the Technical Corporation. Bridgeport’s magical adversaries had dragons with armed riders!

To throw off our pursuers, we flew in a completely unexpected direction.

“To the Gates of Agartha,” I ordered, settling comfortably into the co-pilot’s seat. If necessary, I could have piloted this contraption. I hadn’t flown a seaplane before, but I had quite some experience with the soviet An-2.

“Do you want to land on Izvra,” Harrison’s tone was an inexpressible relief.

Izvra – a river flowing near the Wall. Harrison was afraid I would tell him to fly over the Wall. Behind the gates of Agartha, he was enemy number one. Zero chance of survival. The fact that I agreed to land on this side of the wall was an incredible relief to him. He realized he could return alive from this predicament.

“Relax, Harrison. I’m not planning to engage in air battles with the dragons guarding the Wall. You’ll leave unscathed once you drop us at the gates,” I assured him.

“But there’s our post there. The border guards...”

“Then hope they recognize you. Newspapers do get delivered to that wilderness, as far as I know.”

Harrison shook his head with a sigh. Apparently, his own safety would be a priority for him in the future. So easy to let oneself be kidnapped...

We landed before dawn. Splitting the quiet surface of the lake with our ski-floats, where the swift Izvra flowed on its way to the sea. If there was a pursuit, it was at least an hour late, probably even more. If they even understood where we had flown off to. It seemed we had plenty of time.

I had been here before. The famous gates of Agartha. Besides, I had seen the black-and-white newsreels shot here. The magical part was sometimes shown in the black-and-white cinema sessions, like a journal before the movie. The film industry in Bridgeport was quite underdeveloped. Although Shani loved going to the screenings, I, spoiled by Hollywood blockbusters with computer effects, accompanied her solely for her sake.

The imposing sight of the gate came into view. An arch in a monolithic stone wall, a good hundred meters high. The gates of Agartha were comparatively small. A truck could pass them easily. But the main feature wasn’t the gates themselves. It was the guards! Giants guarding the gates! Not just any minor giants like Ronkas, but true behemoths – five to six meters tall. In monstrous armor, so heavy it could probably withstand bullet strikes. True, a DshK or some other heavy-caliber machine gun would penetrate it, I had no doubt. But still, they looked terrifying in that heavy yellow-bronze armor. There were always two of them on guard, armed with serrated spears that could also slash with side blows. Massive rectangular shields behind which one could easily take cover even from heavy-caliber rounds. One of them had a bow. A heavy iron bow. With arrows nearly two human heights long! Who was he planning to shoot with those? Bridgeport’s armored vehicles? About two hundred meters before them was a post of the local border guards, which looked quite pitiful in comparison to the giants’ imposing presence. But first impressions were deceiving. They had some light field artillery. Two recoilless rifles and a heavy-caliber machine gun. The giants, though they didn’t realize it, stood no chance. In a skirmish, they could only resort to some magic. Or attack under the cover of a moonless night. Night vision equipment hadn’t been invented here yet.

The entire post was fortified with sandbags. A well-constructed bunker, concrete slabs on the road. The border guards, of course, didn’t stop us. We passed their inquisitive gazes without any trouble, slipping under the yellow and black barrier. They silently watched our motley group with a light bewilderment, which only seemed strange at first glance. There was a reason for it. They were tasked with protecting Bridgeport from external invasion. Whether to let us onto the magical territory or not was the giants’ decision. We would become their problem if we had come from the other side of the gate. Perhaps they were even betting on whether they would kill us immediately or torture us first.

“Sorry, but we won’t go any further!”

I looked at Harrison and his secretary. I almost forgot that he was supposed to stay here. It was evident he was afraid to approach the giants.

“Fine. Stay here,” I said indifferently. There was no need to drag him to the other side, even near the gates.

About thirty steps later, Harrison called out to me:

“Wait, Max! We need to talk, without witnesses, before you leave.”

I turned around, gestured to the others to continue towards the gates, and walked back to where he had stopped.

“Well, speak Mr. Bray.”

“Is it true that you’re from Earth? From the world of the engineers?” I glanced at his secretary-telepath. Dina wasn’t wrong. A mind-reader, reading thoughts as if they were words, had caught my thoughts about Earth somewhere along the way, made an instant conclusion, and now conveyed this information to Harrison. I didn’t even know his name. Why would someone who reads souls, the most dangerous of wizards, serve anyone? “My name is Klein Girva. And I don’t serve Harrison. I am his friend.”

I smiled weakly. He responded to my unspoken, internally directed questions.

“So it’s true! This changes everything!” Harrison’s voice rose with excitement, almost unrecognizable. “You, you! You have no idea what an honor this is for us! You can’t just leave us!”

“Why not?”

“Why not?” Harrison was stunned. “How? We’ve been waiting so long for new engineers to come. We’re not progressing. Only engineers can make true discoveries. It’s not given to others...”

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“You’re mistaken, Harrison,” I interrupted his impassioned speech. “Any talented and educated person can invent machines. You’ve limited yourselves and led to stagnation. There was no need to deify engineers.”

“Still. Whatever it may be, return to Bridgeport with us. And don’t worry about Zingaru. We’ll take care of ensuring they don’t bother you. We’ll give you everything you wish. This is, this is...”

“Futile, Bray,” the telepath interjected this time. “He’s already decided. We can’t dissuade him. However,” Klein turned to me, “there’s something you should know.”

“What?” I asked.

“Two days ago, a Master of the Semenites arrived in Bridgeport on a secret visit for negotiations. If you had known about this, he could have lifted the curse from you and saved your life.”

My jaw dropped. Damn! Damn! Damn! So that’s why Auda said that time – I remembered his brown face under the light circle of the lantern a second before I killed him. The curse is not a problem, he seemed to say. The Zingaru already knew then about the Master’s secret visit. Of course! And they really could have helped remove the curse! Although it wasn’t certain they would have…

“Is he still in Bridgeport?” I asked, with a flicker of hope. I’ll have to return with them if he’s there. Even if they lock me in a cage. Dead, I’m of no use to anyone.

“Unfortunately, no, Earthling. The Master left last night on his white dragon, to the Kingdom of Kabeyn, as far as I’m informed. He’s on a tour of all the kingdoms.”

“Why?”

“He’s trying to prevent the looming war.”

“How can I intercept him?”

Klein shrugged helplessly.

“Beyond the Wall, only dragons and their riders can fly. We can’t help you with that. Try negotiating with them.” Klein gestured upwards with his gaze.

Following his gaze, I saw it. The rider and dragon, perched atop the wall, altered my initial assessment of the situation – border guards ‘versus’ giants – by a complete 180 degrees. With such aerial support, the giants could easily overpower the border guards. A well-placed boulder dropped from above, not to mention a fiery attack, and the giants could easily finish off any remnants of the checkpoint. Poor border guards always live on the edge of life and death, dying first in time of enemy invasions. But negotiating with dragon riders? Let’s say I get to this Kabeyn, but the Master is already in the next city. How would I find out where he flew next? It was a secret visit, after all.

“Alright, capitalist comrades, I need to go,” I said, addressing the two bigwigs of Bridgeport.

They exchanged glances, not understanding my words, wondering if I was joking.

I turned and quickly walked towards my group, ignoring Harrison’s pleading shouts. My entire entourage of companions was waiting for me on the other side of the gate. They had been let through without any problems. However, nothing was surprising about that. Wouldn’t a mage, a fairy, and a small giant be allowed onto magical territory? And the baron’s daughter, who lived there, was sure to be let through. The only potential problem could have been with me. With a tremble in my knees, I approached the gates. Shani waited for me a few steps away with a calm smile. Pars looked embarrassed. The fairy had healed his bruises. It seemed he wouldn’t see his university again. Tus looked distinctly gloomy, biting his lip. And Dina was cheekily smiling. Nothing could dampen her spirits. A strange company indeed. And I had completely forgotten all of them, except for my savior Shani. I couldn’t remember how I had met or spoken to them. They behaved naturally around me as if we had been friends for a thousand years. This evoked a peculiar feeling in me – to make friends who knew me inside out, while I knew nothing about them. What could be stranger in human relationships?

I strode confidently towards the gate’s arch, thinking I would pass through unimpeded, when the giant on the right leaned over and blocked my path with his fearsome spear, more resembling a telegraph pole in diameter and length than the intended weapon.

The giant leaned in close, his pockmarked face roughened by sun and wind only partially visible through the slits in his helmet, reminiscent of ancient Greek design. Perhaps the kind Achilles might have worn. I froze. My nerves stretched taut like a guitar string being wound tight.

For a whole minute, the behemoth scrutinized me with the attentiveness of an ornithologist who had just spotted an unknown species of bird.

It lasted about ten seconds. I didn’t know what to say. Suddenly, Shani intervened. She approached the giant and, placing her hand on his spear, calmly said:

“If you don’t let him pass, I will turn you both into frogs. I would really hate to do it, but I can. Believe me, for his sake, I will.”

The giant stared in shock at the blue-skinned fairy, then shifted his gaze to his companion, and rumbled in a voice like a tank’s diesel engine:

“The fa-ai-ry threatens!”

His voice carried a mix of bewilderment and hurt. Apparently, as a defender of magical territory, it was doubly offensive to hear this from her. Besides, as I heard, giants fear wizards.

“Leave the ingineers’ weapons here! They reek too much of ingineers!” the second diesel engine rumbled at a similar frequency.

I pulled out my revolvers, which had served me so well in Bridgeport, and tossed them aside, not without regret.

“Now may I pass?” I asked, raising my empty hands.

“He still has a shadow with horns,” the diesel engine rumbled again.

I looked down, puzzled, and only then noticed what they meant. The wall’s light fell only from one side, casting a clear shadow ahead under the arch. The shadow was very odd, if not downright frightening. It was horned, in the shape of a demon’s silhouette. No matter how I moved, the shadow mimicked my actions, proving it was real and belonged to me. The result of an absolute curse from the long-dead royal spellbinder dynasty called Dan-Dan-Flors. Curse them! Looked like, King Nimode’s spell disrupted Ita’s incantation, as Kulu-Kulu predicted. The demon Malgib had awakened to claim its intended victim. At least, that’s what Dina told me. I couldn’t remember a damn thing. Neither how the curse was cast nor how it was slowed by some incantation of that Ita, whoever she was.

“This is not your concern,” Shani’s voice turned icy and dangerously sharp. I had never expected anything like this from her. But now, I was almost certain – despite the suicidal pacifism of her race, which had allowed itself to be slaughtered by a bunch of cutthroats – that she would carry out her threat. Urban Bridgeport had somehow influenced her. Or maybe it was my stories about movies and Earth? A mystery I couldn’t fathom. The spear of the giant leaning towards me suddenly turned to ash and crumbled. Shani’s eyes began to deepen into a solid violet color, dissolving her pupils into this dark lilac abyss. Like plasma welding, raising the flame temperature from hot to unimaginably hotter – blue, lilac, violet! A mesmerizing sight, I tell you – the wrath of a fairy.

“Hey, hey!” rumbled the tank engine diesel again, stepping back and shaking off the ash remnants from his hand. “We’re not going to hold him back. Take him. He’s as good as dead anyway.”

“It’s not your concern,” Shani cut him off. “I’ll handle that. Myself. Let’s go, Max.” She grabbed my hand, and like a strict teacher leading a mischievous teenager to the principal’s office, she ushered me to the other side. Into an uncivilized magical world. A world of fairy tales and dreams. What was I going to do here?

The rest of the group approached us. Everyone was excited. Tus pulled out a thick notebook from his capacious pocket and handed it to me.

“What’s this?” I asked.

“These are your notes, Boss. Before the curse, you wrote down everything important that happened to you, on Rufus’s advice.”

I opened the notebook and read the first sentence that caught my eye:

“I rode my motorcycle about two hundred miles away from Bridgeport...”