Wen Spencer - Wolf Who Rules

"He's coming at you!" Oilcan said.

"Keep him back!" Wolf shouted at Earth Son and started another call.

Earth Son locked into place, both hands set into shields. He was holding a force wall set half a block around them and another shield wrapped tight around himself. The lightening flared again and again. Wolf could feel the thunder in his bones. Malice stepped through the brick house, coiling like a ghost snake. His eyes gleamed blood red. Down Malice's left flank was a massive smoking wound.

Wolf felt twin spikes of magic flash through the area and a moment later a fire strike bloomed around the ghost Malice. The dragon ignored the flames, rushing toward Earth Son's force wall. Wolf focused on the growing potential, waiting for it to hit the critical point. He could only cast the spell, though, if Earth Son kept the dragon at a distance.

The lightening died and darkness closed in around them.

"He's through your shield!" Oilcan cried. "He's through your shield!"

Malice must have stepped through Earth Son's shield the same way he had walked through the house. There was no time for Wolf to change to spells.

"Earth Son, cover me damn you!"

In the dark, the ghost Malice was a presence felt, not seen or heard, bearing down on him. A fire flare went off, lighting the area. Malice loomed over them, transparent as smoke. As the dragon snapped into solid form, a shield wrapped around Wolf. Forest Moss was protecting him.

The dragon struck him. The shield held, but the ground underneath didn't. The pavement under his feet lifted, and he was airborne.

He had a dozen heartbeats to realize that Forest Moss had been able to save him from the blow, but that he wouldn't be wholly protected at the landing. And then he hit.

"Windwolf! Windwolf!" Oilcan shouted over the radio. "He's still after you! Can you hear me! Malice is coming for you!"

Pain shot up from Wolf's right hand. Hissing, he looked down and found his fingers bent at impossible angles. He cursed, hunching over his hand. He could attack or defend, but not both now.

"Windwolf?" Oilcan called to him again.

"I hear you."

"The oni are attacking the dreadnaught."

Wolf cursed. "Get a message to True Flame. Tell him to deal with the oni. I'll keep Malice busy."

A backup source for magic was shielded, the spells were printed off and floated in place, the computers were turned off, and the crew was gathered around her. She cast the magical magnetic pulse spell and it flashed through her like a cold wind, leaving her feeling strangely empty. With sudden panic, she realized that her body might be a living computer.

Oh gods, I hope that didn't destroy my ability to call the stones!

Esme powered up the workstation beside her. "Well, it didn't kill our computers. We're coming up to spell stone range in two minutes."

Tinker triggered the first spell that pumped the filtered stored magic out. It was a relief to feel the magic start to pool around her feet. Tinker had told the astronauts they needed silence, and they had taken her seriously. They watched now, silent, fearful. More than one had their eyes closed, and lips moving in prayer.

Esme indicated that they were at the one minute mark.

Tinker made sure her fingers on both hands were in the correct position, and then stood, waiting.

Esme held up her fingers then and counted the last ten seconds down silently. When she nodded, Jin - with Tinker's right hand nearly touching his mouth - and Xiao Chen-on Tinker's left - pronounced the activations words for the Wind and Stone Clans.

Magic flooded through the connection. Tinker let it run for thirty seconds by Esme's silent count. She could feel the purity of it, but the edges were starting to tangle, caught by the magnetic field of the ship. She dropped her hands and the tengu went silent.

The activation word for the dragon spell was a simple. She spoke it into the tense silence.

The universe went dark and formless.

Gravity tumbled Tinker and the others into a pile of bodies. The "floor" now formed walls up to the matching bulkhead ceiling. They untangled themselves.

"It worked." By the tone of her voice, Xiao Chen hadn't expected it to.

Tinker wanted to say "Of course" but the way her life had been going, the mind boggled as to all the ways it might have screwed up. "We're on a planet but which one?"

Esme glanced upwards to the window far over their heads. "Don't know yet."

"We landed well." Jin headed up the ladder. Tinker followed.

"That was not a landing." Esme called after them.

"We're on the ground," Tinker said. "Engines down, bridge up. That's good enough for me."

"You do realize that this ship is nearly a half mile long?" Esme said.

Oops.

Jin reached the window. He turned his head this way and that, studying the view intently, before announcing. "Trees. Nothing but trees."

"It's not Onihida or Earth then," Tinker said. "I hope its Elfhome, or we ended up someplace totally new."

"That was the point of the colonization program as far as the humans were concerned." Someone said from below.

"There's an airlock at mid-section." Jin kept climbing upwards. "We might be able to get a better view."

Tinker only gave the window a passing glance. The trees looked like ironwoods but it was difficult to tell. They were ten or twenty feet above the canopy. If this was Turtle Creek, then she just erected the tallest structure in Pittsburgh - for however long it remained standing.

The airlock opened to summer dusk. There was a narrow ridge that wrapped around the ship. Tinker carefully picked her way around and found what she most wanted to see - Pittsburgh. Clouds boiled over Oakland, but no lightening flashed from them. Was that a good sign or bad? Had Malice killed Windwolf?

They had "landed" in Turtle Creek, neatly replacing the Ghostlands with the massive bulk of the ship's engines. The Dahe Hoa would have taken out the center section of the Westinghouse Bridge if it hadn't already fallen. The remaining spans of the bridge butted up against the side of the ship just ten feet down from the ridge she stood on.

And like one of her impossible dreams, Pony stood on the bridge, looking up at her. He lifted up his arms and motioned for her to jump to him. Relief flooded through her like a weakness. Her legs started to buckle, so she leapt to him.

Pony caught her and pulled her close. " Domi."

"Oh, Pony, I was so scared that you were killed." She hugged him tightly, burying her face into the warmth of his neck, smelling his scent.

"I thought I lost you." His voice was husky with emotion.

She kissed him on the strong line of his jaw. He turned his head and captured her mouth with his and kissed her deeply. He tasted of the enclave peaches; the sweetness poured through her like warm honey; she clung to him, letting the feeling push out the fear and worry.

Tinker realized that Stormsong was beside her. She burned with sudden embarrassment at the way she was acting. Knowing that neither elf would see it as wrong didn't help.

She broke the kiss but couldn't bring herself to let go of Pony. With one hand, she reached out to Stormsong to pull her into a three-way huddle. "And you too. I was worried sick about both of you."

"What? I don't get a kiss?" Stormsong teased.

Tinker laughed and kissed her quickly on the lips. Then holding them close, she whispered. "Is Windwolf all right? Where is he? What's happened?"

"We can not get close enough to the museum to look for Wolf," Pony said. "Malice, though, appears to be searching for something, so we think that Wolf has eluded him."

"The oni has stolen the dreadnaught and taken it downriver," Stormsong said. "Our greatest fear has been that while Malice kept us busy, the oni would push an army through the Ghostlands."