Wizard Rebellion (Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles Book 5) Read online

  Wizard Rebellion

  Book Five

  Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles

  Rodney W. Hartman

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to my stepson, Jake. I am very proud of you, not only as a son, but as a man. I thank God for allowing me the privilege of being a part of your life.

  Copyright © 2017 by Rodney Wayne Hartman

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Cover Design by Angie Abler

  Proofreading service by The Pro Book Editor

  ___________________________

  Books by Rodney Hartman

  Intergalactic Wizard Scout Chronicles

  Wizard Defiant Book One

  Wizard Cadet Book Two

  Wizard Scout Book Three

  Wizard Omega Book Four

  Table of Contents

  ______________________________

  DEDICATION

  Copyright

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1 – Emerald

  Chapter 2 – Ambush

  Chapter 3 – Trap

  Chapter 4 – The Visitors

  Chapter 5 – On the Defiant

  Chapter 6 – Dren

  Chapter 7 – Three Against One

  Chapter 8 – Ceril

  Chapter 9 – The Destroyer

  Chapter 10 – Two Against One

  Chapter 11 – The Children’s Lab

  Chapter 12 – Guided Tour

  Chapter 13 – The Empress

  Chapter 14 – The Meeting

  Chapter 15 – The Oracle

  Chapter 16 – Portalis

  Chapter 17 – The Inn

  Chapter 18 – Orders from the Past

  Chapter 19 – Allies

  Chapter 20 – King Hamerstine

  Chapter 21 – Unexpected Side Trip

  Chapter 22 – A Cave of Gas

  Chapter 23 – Siege

  Chapter 24 – Equipment from the Sky

  Chapter 25 – Donner’s Gap

  Chapter 26 – The Assault

  Chapter 27 – Gaston

  Chapter 28 – The Circle

  Chapter 29 – Shuttle Fighters

  Chapter 30 – The Oath

  Chapter 31 – Fenmar the Armorer

  Chapter 32 –The Gift

  Chapter 33 – Politics

  Chapter 34 – Jeena and the Oracle

  Chapter 35 – Keka

  Chapter 36 – Back From the Dead

  Chapter 37 – Reprogramming

  Chapter 38 – Training

  Chapter 39 – Tube-train

  Chapter 40 – Accusation

  Chapter 41 – The Elf and the Defiant

  Chapter 42 – The Secret Comes Out

  Chapter 43 – Sacrificial Gift

  Chapter 44 – Armor and Weapons

  Chapter 45 – Holo-square

  Chapter 46 – Raiding Party

  Chapter 47 – Hidden Message

  Chapter 48 – Secret Tunnel

  Chapter 49 – The Dalinfaust

  Chapter 50 – Demon Plots

  Chapter 51 – Telsa

  Chapter 52 – Boredom

  Chapter 53 – Vampires

  Chapter 54 – Lord Cancontus’s Plan

  Chapter 55 – Ancient Dragon

  Chapter 56 – Dragon-Friend

  Chapter 57 – Decision Time

  Chapter 58 – Enthralled

  Chapter 59 – A Canteen

  Chapter 60 – Rearguard

  Chapter 61 – Escape and Rescue

  Chapter 62 – The Black Hole

  Chapter 63 – The DNA Gas Bottles

  Chapter 64 – Equipment Request

  Chapter 65 – Request Approved

  Chapter 66 – The Dome

  Chapter 67 – Final Mission

  Chapter 68 – Success and Departure

  Chapter 69 – Merged

  Chapter 70 – Cleanup

  Chapter 71 – Another Mission

  Chapter 72 – Why Not?

  Chapter 73 – A New Time-Commando

  Chapter 74 – New Drepdenor

  Chapter 75 – Out of Tolerance

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Chapter 1 – Emerald

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  [Begin Transmission]

  “Hurry!” shouted the deep-bass voice Emerald had come to love so well. It was the voice of her father. It was the voice of the dwarf king.

  “They’re in the western corridor,” he said to the soldiers around him. “Keep everyone moving.”

  “They’re in the eastern corridor as well,” shouted a second dwarf who was dressed in dented and bloodstained, full-plate armor. “We’re trapped.”

  “Most of our soldier’s weapons can’t harm them, sire,” said a third dwarf wearing chainmail and carrying a large war hammer.

  Emerald recognized the second and third voices as those of General Fenmar and Colonel Granos. She headed in the direction of their voices, struggling against the press of dwarves around her. She hated being a child. Everyone was so much larger than her, and they were all moving in the opposite direction. She needed to see her father. As she wormed her way through the panicking crowd, a flash of blue light caught her attention.

  I know that blue, Emerald thought. It’s the gem in Thoagmar’s Hammer. Where my father’s hammer is, he’ll be.

  Like a moth to a flame, Emerald pressed onward. Before long she caught sight of the well-muscled hand of her father, King Lokanstanos, rising above the heads of the crowd. His hand grasped the dark wooden handle of the king’s magic hammer. She followed her father’s arm downward, trying to glimpse his face, then lost sight of it when the crowd shifted. Emerald shoved against the crowd in frustration. If she was going to die today, she wanted to be with her father.

  Renewing her efforts to move forward through the swell of bodies, Emerald followed the deep, strong voice of the dwarf king.

  “This is it!” shouted her father over the cries of the milling crowd. “We make our stand here. Those with magic weapons protect our rear. Magic users line up at the front with me. Those without weapons get the children to the center and protect them as best you can. Move! Now!”

  Rough hands of well-meaning adults shoved Emerald toward the center of the two thousand plus dwarves in the crowd. Other children congregated around her, carrying her along in their wake by sheer force of numbers. Many of the youngest dwarves were crying at the forced separation from their parents.

  “No!” Emerald shouted as she struggled against the flow of children. “I want to stay with my father. I want to fight!”

  The shouts and cries of the crowd overwhelmed Emerald’s senses. With great effort, she forced herself to concentrate on the task at hand. She needed to find at least one of her parents. She wanted to fight. Since the path to her father was blocked, Emerald changed direction. Through force of will and a strength born of necessity, she bulled her way through the larger adults until she succeeded in reaching her mother, Queen Saphiria. She looked up at her mother with pride.

  Queen Saphiria stood strong among the frightened crowd. Dressed in gold-trimmed armor embedded with the Holy Metal, she was surrounded by her shield-maidens.

  Her moth
er looked every bit the warrior queen she was. Emerald sensed the ebb and flow of strong magic in the battle-axe carried by her mother. She’d often seen the weapon hanging on the wall in her parents’ bedroom. The battle-axe had defended the Drepdenoris dwarves for over fifty thousand years. From the determined look on her mother’s face, she was confident it would do so again this very day.

  “Mother!” Emerald shouted over the fear-struck crowd. “Give me a weapon. I’ll fight by your side.”

  For the first time in her life, Emerald thought she saw fear in her mother’s eyes.

  “Emerald, no!” said her mother in an unusually harsh voice. “Now’s not the time for your arguing. I told you to stay with the other children. Now go!”

  “But I want—”

  A loud explosion silenced everyone as a flash of fire reflected off the stone walls of the dimly-lit cavern. The smell of brimstone assailed her nose. Her father’s magic users had unleashed their spells.

  The enemy must be close, she thought.

  A series of smaller blasts followed as fireballs and lightning bolts leaped from the hands of the black-robed mages of her father. Emerald tried to follow the tracks of the magic to spy their intended targets, but try as she might, the attackers were out of her sight.

  Why do I have to be so short?

  “Stay strong!” shouted her father.

  Even in their panic, the people responded to the voice of their king. Their shouts lessened as they strained to hear his orders.

  “You’re Drepdenoris dwarves,” said the king. “Our halls have stood for fifty thousand years. They will not fall today. Stay strong, my soldiers! You are the dwarves of Drepdenoris. The winged devil Cancontus and his servants will rue the day they tested their strength against the halls of Drepdenoris. Stay strong, my brothers and sisters! Stay strong!”

  Pride swelled in Emerald’s heart as she sensed Power flow outward from her father to the dwarves around him. His Power linked with that of his subjects.

  He’s forming a Circle.

  She felt her father’s Power flow over her and her mother, continuing on to her mother’s shield-maidens. The dwarves’ Power responded to that of their king and boosted her father’s strength while sending the Circle on to touch other dwarves in the crowd.

  The strength of her father surged through the interconnecting lines of Power. Courage swelled within Emerald’s soul as it did in the souls of the other dwarves around her. Many in the crowd began to sing the battle songs of old as the king’s courage took hold. Buoyed by the strength of the Circle, their previous cries of fear were forgotten.

  The Circle grew ever larger until it encompassed the entire crowd. Emerald had often heard tales of the kings of old and how they had formed Circles during times of darkest despair. Circles were the stuff of legends. The last one had been formed thousands of years in the past. The legend was happening once again, and she was a part of it. She wanted to fight. The Circle gave her the courage to fight. She feared no enemy; the Circle wouldn’t allow it. She sensed the Circle giving her an unnatural strength as it flowed through her limbs. Her senses grew sharper. She instinctively knew her reflexes would be quickened when the need arose. She was part of the Circle.

  A second series of explosions echoed throughout the chamber. The darkness momentarily gave way as the light from a dozen fireballs and lightning bolts flickered across the cavern walls. The spells of the dwarf mages seemed larger, more powerful than normal.

  Even the abilities of the spellcasters are increased by the Power of the Circle.

  Emerald heard the rallying cry of her father as he led his personal guard against the minions of Lord Cancontus. The sound of steel on steel echoed from behind Emerald. The sound was much too close. She turned in time to see the bloodied form of an armored dwarf rising out of the stone floor. He was almost translucent. The word ‘vampire’ echoed in Emerald’s mind.

  Before anyone could react, the dwarf-vampire grabbed a nearby child and sank his fangs into her throat. The young dwarf-girl screamed as those around her tried to pull the bloody vampire away from the child. The rescuers’ hands and weapons passed harmlessly through the vampire’s body.

  Emerald remembered the stories of the elders. The vampire is in the void. Only powerful magic can harm it.

  “Be gone, foul creature,” shouted Emerald’s mother. Her battle-axe rose, then sliced downward into the vampire’s back. Even the void couldn’t prevent the Holy Metal and the magic of the battle-axe from cutting the snarling vampire in half. The two halves of the vampire shifted back into the physical dimension and dropped to the floor.

  The wounded dwarf-child fell to the floor, screaming. She thrashed and twisted about grasping her neck with both hands. Then the screaming stopped. The child rose and growled at those around her. Her eyes shone with red fire. Long fangs glistened in the torchlight as the newly-formed vampire reached out to grab a child nearby. Before she could pull the screaming victim to her mouth, the battle-axe of the queen cut the child-vampire’s head free of her body.

  The intended victim backpedaled away from the blood spewing out of the headless corpse.

  The dark form of another vampire rose out of the stone floor just behind the frightened dwarf-child. This vampire had the body of a human. He grabbed the child and tore out her throat.

  Dozens of dark forms, both short and tall, began rising out of the stone floor. Others emerged from the walls of the cavern.

  The jostling crowd knocked Emerald from one side to the other. The dwarves around her fought as best they could. The Circle gave them abnormal strength and courage. However, even the dwarves’ enhanced abilities did no good without magic weapons. The vampires were in the void.

  The dark shape of a human vampire dressed in rags rose out of the stone floor near Emerald. It made a grab for her, but Emerald was fast. She’d always been fast. Dodging the blood-thirsty monster’s outstretched hands, she slipped to the side and began moving forward as fast as possible. She heard a scream as the vampire found another victim instead of her.

  I have to find my mother, Emerald thought as she wormed her way through the milling crowd of dwarves.

  Images of steel weapons slicing through the dark forms of vampires without effect assailed her senses. More often than not, any dwarf swinging a non-magical weapon quickly fell victim to their intended target. Within seconds, the downed dwarf was transformed into a new vampire who began attacking former friends.

  I need a magic weapon.

  Emerald sensed no weapon of magic within range that wasn’t already in use by one of the dwarf defenders remaining. All her horror-stricken eyes could see were the forms of her friends and neighbors lying on the ground with vampires sucking at their bleeding flesh. Emerald knew the luckless victims would soon be rising to add to the carnage. Without the courage of the Circle, she would’ve fallen to the floor in fear.

  Without warning, strong hands grabbed Emerald from behind and lifted her high into the air. Even with the courage of the king’s Circle flowing through her, Emerald screamed and struggled to no avail. The hands grasping her were too strong.

  “Take this,” shouted a feminine voice in Emerald’s ear.

  One of the hands holding her let go and thrust a dagger into her right hand. Emerald felt the Power of the Holy Metal flowing through the blade. The dagger was magic.

  With a sense of relief, Emerald realized her captor was shield-maiden Osglow. She’d always been kind to Emerald.

  The shield-maiden lifted her higher into the air and tossed her toward the cavern wall. “Run! Live and avenge your people!”

  Even as Emerald flew through the air, she saw a wave of dark forms overwhelm the shield-maiden and drag her to the ground. She hit the wall of the cavern and groaned as the air was forced out of her lungs. “Umph!”

  Sliding down the rock wall, Emerald fell into the rushing waters of a small underground stream. The fast moving current carried her into a black opening in the cavern wall. All sight and sound
of the ongoing battle between the dwarves and vampires disappeared. Her body was racked with the pain of a thousand icy knives as the cold stream swept her along its underground passage. Emerald tried to breathe, but couldn’t force her collapsed lungs to draw air.

  She struggled against the rushing water, but her battle was as hopeless as that of the handful of remaining dwarves against the horde of vampires. Despite the odds, Emerald continued to fight for her life. She had to; the strength of the Circle still flowed through her body. It wouldn’t allow her to do otherwise.

  Hope swelled in her heart. My father must still be alive.

  The knowledge gave her mind an anchor point against the pain of the icy water. The strength of her father wouldn’t allow her to give up.

  Spots of red flashed before Emerald’s eyes as her oxygen-starved brain began to shut down. Just before she blacked out, her head hit the ceiling of the underground passage. For a moment, her head was above water in a pocket of stale air. She reflexively drew in a gulp of the life-giving oxygen. All too soon, she was plunged back beneath the waters. Just as her head went below the water’s surface, she felt the Power of her father’s Circle disappear. Despair swept over her. Her parents were dead. Just as she prepared to give her own life over to the icy grip of the stream, she was thrust into the light of the sun. The stream dropped her into a swirling pool of water. She knew the place. She was in the Pool of Hope.

  “Swim, girl,” said a voice.

  Emerald recognized the voice as her own. She swam. Just when she felt she could swim no more, her feet touched bottom. She fell forward onto her hands and knees and crawled out of the shallow water onto dry ground.

  Emerald shivered, partly from cold and partly from fear. The sound of screams and visions of bloodied bodies fresh in her mind, she forced herself to stand. She had to keep moving.

  There will be time to grieve later.

  Suddenly, Emerald sensed the approach of pure evil. She stumbled into the forest. Half-running, half-crawling, she tried to put distance between her and the unknown pursuers. She knew she wasn’t fast enough. They’d be on her in seconds. Spying a small clearing to her left, Emerald made for it. When she reached the center, she turned to face her enemies. She was the daughter of a king. She refused to go down without a fight.