Champions Battle for the Fate of the Future!: The Wild Finale of (Swords Versus Tanks Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A
Author: M Harold Page
destination date for the Trans-Temporal Liberation, I knew it was my destiny to rescue Her. I... pulled strings. Called in favours. This is as far back as we could come, but it will do."
Jasmine blinked. " You sent us back here? To this time? Where magic works?” Her grip tightened on her Stormgun.
"Marvellous isn't it?" Ibis-Bear nodded. "I even learnt the High Language of the Painted People — Mhaorsh marish socha mhoarsh delibishion! " Her tone became confiding. "But when I led my people to rescue the High Priestess from their dungeons, we found only a trail of carnage. It was as if the Karmic Energy of our coming had released Something Ancient."
Jasmine hardly heard her.
They could have picked a different era… even arrived at the start of the war and used their modern tanks to swing things quickly in the Egality’s favour. Now the plan to beat the Aliens was in jeopardy. Her civilisation was probably doomed. This mess, this mayhem, all the deaths, including Marcel’s, could be laid at the door of Stella Ibis-Bear and her occult dabblings. And the same woman had spread her intellectual cancer through the Artillery Brigade. Jasmine almost brought up her Stormgun. Instead she said “So you want to take Lady Maud alive because she’s the hereditary high priestess of an ancient witch cult?”
“Yes,” said Ibis-Bear.
“OK...” Jasmine thought for a moment. Ibis-Bear’s second-in-command seemed to know what she was doing. “I think you should leave your staff officers in charge, and ride like Hell to get there first and talk to her,” she said.
Once the crazy old woman had gone, Jasmine vaulted back onto her tank. “Mary! Get hold of Colonel Cromwell and tell her to watch out for the priests and detail a couple of tanks to give them back up.”
#
Overhead, a seagull squawked.
Maud shivered and drew in her robe tighter. Her legs were still wet and cold from the long wade ashore. Worse, she could feel the priests rolling back her fog and it was like having unwanted hands walking up her thighs. Her grip tightened on her spear and she grinned. “Let them come.”
Thorolf’s face contorted into one of his disturbing not-smiles. “You do not need the weapon.”
It was just the two of them sharing this bubble of visibility in the midst of the magical fog that cloaked their movements from even the Invader’s airborne spies. They could have been alone in the world, though Maud knew that the longship was drawn up in the shallows behind her, and that somewhere ahead the ridge rose above the beach then extended into the sea to become a headland.
The longship had brought them to little bay that had served as the haven for the monks who had settled Holy Mount at the end of the headland. This put them nicely to the rear of the left flank of the Invader’s position, with the ridge ahead of them.
“They will think it is a wizard’s staff,” said Maud, jiggling it to further hide the winged head in the wet sand. When Thorolf said nothing, she said, "This is a battle. A spear would seem to be an appropriate accessory." She had a dagger on her belt, but any sort of polearm would be so much more visible from a distance. Nobody was going to think she was a mere spectator. Besides, how hard could it be? All that grunting and stabbing? She’d read the classic works on the subject of War. It had always really depended, not on great warriors, but on having a strategic advantage from the start.
Now the sound of singing escaped the smothering fog bank; dozens of male voices chanting the psalms in close harmony.
Thorolf said, "You are Ranulph's woman. When they come, run for Seasnake .”
Maud shook her head. She let the cloak fall open a little to reveal the scandalously short mailshirt. “Do you think I am scared?”
"No. Not trained," said Thorolf. "Pretty long legs, yes. But in fight, you is seal-bait. You run and we do the killing!"
Maud glared at him.
The grizzled Northman quailed and touched his hammer
Jasmine blinked. " You sent us back here? To this time? Where magic works?” Her grip tightened on her Stormgun.
"Marvellous isn't it?" Ibis-Bear nodded. "I even learnt the High Language of the Painted People — Mhaorsh marish socha mhoarsh delibishion! " Her tone became confiding. "But when I led my people to rescue the High Priestess from their dungeons, we found only a trail of carnage. It was as if the Karmic Energy of our coming had released Something Ancient."
Jasmine hardly heard her.
They could have picked a different era… even arrived at the start of the war and used their modern tanks to swing things quickly in the Egality’s favour. Now the plan to beat the Aliens was in jeopardy. Her civilisation was probably doomed. This mess, this mayhem, all the deaths, including Marcel’s, could be laid at the door of Stella Ibis-Bear and her occult dabblings. And the same woman had spread her intellectual cancer through the Artillery Brigade. Jasmine almost brought up her Stormgun. Instead she said “So you want to take Lady Maud alive because she’s the hereditary high priestess of an ancient witch cult?”
“Yes,” said Ibis-Bear.
“OK...” Jasmine thought for a moment. Ibis-Bear’s second-in-command seemed to know what she was doing. “I think you should leave your staff officers in charge, and ride like Hell to get there first and talk to her,” she said.
Once the crazy old woman had gone, Jasmine vaulted back onto her tank. “Mary! Get hold of Colonel Cromwell and tell her to watch out for the priests and detail a couple of tanks to give them back up.”
#
Overhead, a seagull squawked.
Maud shivered and drew in her robe tighter. Her legs were still wet and cold from the long wade ashore. Worse, she could feel the priests rolling back her fog and it was like having unwanted hands walking up her thighs. Her grip tightened on her spear and she grinned. “Let them come.”
Thorolf’s face contorted into one of his disturbing not-smiles. “You do not need the weapon.”
It was just the two of them sharing this bubble of visibility in the midst of the magical fog that cloaked their movements from even the Invader’s airborne spies. They could have been alone in the world, though Maud knew that the longship was drawn up in the shallows behind her, and that somewhere ahead the ridge rose above the beach then extended into the sea to become a headland.
The longship had brought them to little bay that had served as the haven for the monks who had settled Holy Mount at the end of the headland. This put them nicely to the rear of the left flank of the Invader’s position, with the ridge ahead of them.
“They will think it is a wizard’s staff,” said Maud, jiggling it to further hide the winged head in the wet sand. When Thorolf said nothing, she said, "This is a battle. A spear would seem to be an appropriate accessory." She had a dagger on her belt, but any sort of polearm would be so much more visible from a distance. Nobody was going to think she was a mere spectator. Besides, how hard could it be? All that grunting and stabbing? She’d read the classic works on the subject of War. It had always really depended, not on great warriors, but on having a strategic advantage from the start.
Now the sound of singing escaped the smothering fog bank; dozens of male voices chanting the psalms in close harmony.
Thorolf said, "You are Ranulph's woman. When they come, run for Seasnake .”
Maud shook her head. She let the cloak fall open a little to reveal the scandalously short mailshirt. “Do you think I am scared?”
"No. Not trained," said Thorolf. "Pretty long legs, yes. But in fight, you is seal-bait. You run and we do the killing!"
Maud glared at him.
The grizzled Northman quailed and touched his hammer
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