Planeshift: Invasion Cycle Bk. II by J. Robert King

Author:J. Robert King [King, J. Robert]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast Publishing
Published: 2018-03-27T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 19

Homecomings

Smoke rolled into the black sky over Kaldroom. Even the burning Phyrexian laboratory did not light the darkness. Its glow was sucked away into soot.

Only Weatherlight’s ray cannons lit the scene. Docked on the garrison grounds, she hurled fire to the distant hills. The blasts cooked Phyrexians wherever they gathered. Between ship and Phyrexians lay a minotaur army. They were not dead nor truly alive. Their wide-open eyes glowed with cannon fire.

The crew of Weatherlight rushed among them like ants. Pairs of workers rolled minotaurs onto litters and carried them up the ship’s gangplank. Everyone except the gunners worked—even Multani and Karn and Tahngarth. Multani configured his body into a kind of ambling stretcher. Karn carried a minotaur slung over either shoulder.

Most effective of all was Tahngarth. The minotaur could not be kept in gun traces while his people lay below. He carried a compatriot over either of his massive shoulders and a third draped in his arms. It was a feat made possible only by his Phyrexian physique—a feat performed as penance. Each time Tahngarth approached a warrior, he bowed to the perfect form of his people. Each time he lifted one, he put himself beneath. Each time he laid one on the deck, he rescued a minotaur from Phyrexian transformation.

Sweat matted his forelocks, stung his eyes, and flowed like tears.

Minotaurs filled every space on Weatherlight. They lay like fish spilled from a bursting net.

It was unwise. Weatherlight was torn from stem to stern. Breaches riddled her hull. Her airfoils hung in tatters from folded spars. Heat stresses formed a fine network of cracks along engine manifolds. She was not battle worthy, perhaps not even sky worthy, but even so, she was overloaded with a thousand comatose minotaurs.

Gerrard and Sisay had tried to broach the subject with Tahngarth, but the minotaur wouldn’t listen. Tahngarth wasn’t just saving his people. He was saving himself.

At last, he hauled the final three minotaurs on board.

“All right, that’s it!” Gerrard punctuated the words with a pair of blasts from his ray cannon. Monsters advanced across the garrison grounds. Into his speaking tube, he shouted, “Posts, everyone. Ignite the engines. Prepare for liftoff.”

“I’m not sure we can lift off,” Sisay said from the helm. “Not this heavy. Not without airfoils. Not without Hanna.”

“Yeah,” Gerrard responded grimly. He felt the absence of the ship’s navigator every day, every moment. “Well, we can’t do anything about Hanna or the airfoils. The only other option is—” Gerrard glanced over his shoulder at Tahngarth, who gingerly stepped among his country folk. The look in the minotaur’s eyes was both intent and fragile. “The only other option is to planeshift without taking off.”

“What?” Sisay asked.

“How far do you need to reach planeshift velocity?” Gerrard asked.

“How far?”

“Yes, how far—skating across the ground on our landing spines—do you need to reach planeshift velocity?”

“I don’t know,” Sisay replied. “A thousand yards.”

From the speaking tube came Karn’s voice, metallic and dour, “We have five hundred yards to the garrison wall and three hundred more to the hills beyond.

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