The drones, the things made of bugs and robots, launched themselves at Sara. She heard the clicking of their mandibles as she retreated to the staircase. She heard them behind her and knew she was surrounded.

She took a quick glance around and thought she might have an escape route if she got lucky.

But first, didn’t the guard say the tube worked on things with good hearing?

She pulled it out and pushed the button on the side. Little explosions marked her efforts as the mechanical parts in the drones blew out, the locks caught in her beam as she waved the wand around unlocked, and what looked like a computer made of insects started projecting gibberish into the air.

That worked better than I thought it would.

Sara ran underneath the skylight she had seen earlier with her take-in of the room’s features. She flung the threads from her lion’s paw up at the rafters running across the angled ceiling. She yanked on the lines to make sure they were secure. The threads retracted and pulled her along.

She kept the sonic beam playing around her as she lifted off the floor. She didn’t want one to latch on and bite her. She didn’t know if the dog would heal such a bite, and didn’t want to find out.

She reached the rafter, and pulled herself over the metal beam. She pointed the wand at the skylight and it cycled open in its round frame. She had to get through that, and she could try to get over Voit’s wall from there.

She took a moment to look at the floor below. Belsin had her hands over her ears, pieces of her creations were everywhere, and the computer had decided to just put a blank blue screen on the air.

Sara crawled along the beam until she could reach the edge of the skylight. She put the wand away so she could use both hands. She scrambled through the opening before Belsin could get it together long enough to close the window and hold her in place.

She got to her feet and ran to the connecting bridge between the two dominions. The gamble with the sound wand had given her a chance to get into the tower and look around before Voit mounted his counterattack. She had to be faster and keep the advantage.

She hadn’t know it would unlock doors, but that part of things was fantastic.

The connecting bridge was sealed in with long, narrow windows inset in metal

framework. The roof was wide enough for two people to walk beside each other. She didn’t see skylights. If she wanted to get inside for the safer footing, she would have to shoot out one of the windows, and hang down from the roof and swing inside.

Did she have time for that?

She decided to chance the roof. She pulled out the rooster plaque and ran across the bridge with pistol drawn. If she fell, the stone should keep her from dropping too far, and the dog stone in her boot would heal her if she couldn’t float down to a landing.

Spinnerettes came to life at the other end of the bridge. Voit would have a defensive gun array. She needed a way to counter, but she couldn’t think of anything.

She hoped that the dog would heal getting shot by a heavy duty turret and a fall to the ground below.

She shot at one of the turrets with her pistol. The bolt bounced up and away after leaving a small scorch mark. She winced and put the blaster away as she kept running. It wasn’t going to do her any good here.

Maybe the sword could help her.

She pulled the blade as the turrets shot webbing at her. She hopped over the rubbery looking nets with the help of the rooster. The streams of slime tried to track her in the air as she sailed over their arc of fire. She dropped down on the other side of the automated machines and they turned in their housings to shoot at her.

She swung the blade of her sword at the spinnerette on the right. It was closer, and she was already turning in that direction. The sword sliced through part of the connections feeding the turret motive power. It locked down in place.

The other turret turned to shoot at her. She pointed the sword at it. Lightning blasted the inside of the muzzle. Globs of slime blew out the seams.

The guards had said Voit liked to mummify freelancers. At least she didn’t have to worry about him trying to kill her at first.

Did she want to get inside his tower, or go around to the gate? Both seemed like bad options.

She decided that she could go around faster than fighting through whatever was inside the tower itself. She just needed to be on the lookout for the turrets on the walls.

Sizzling interrupted her thoughts. She looked behind her. More of the cyborg crabs flowed out of the window she had used and were crossing the bridge to get at her. If she went around, they would be there with the turrets to complicate things.

She didn’t have time to fight enemies on two fronts. And the crabs had the numbers on their side.

The crabs shot her with beams of light. The sheer number was enough to punch her off the wall despite the absence of impact. She came apart under the fusillade.

Luckily, she still had the dog stone in her boot, and the boot still clung to her foot. She hit the ground and winced at the pain running through her system. The dog stone put her back together in seconds.

The crabs descended the inside of the wall as she rolled over. She grabbed the sword and staggered to the tower. She reached for the sonic device in her jacket. She realized it was gone, destroyed by the intense concentration of firepower, or lost through the many holes in her jacket.

She had to get inside the tower and get some kind of cover if she wanted to get away. Standing out in the open made her the perfect target.

The sonic device would have been perfect for this. Too bad it was shot to pieces.

Sara needed a way into the tower, but she needed cover first. She foresaw losing the dog and horse stones if the crabs decided to cut her feet away instead of shooting at center mass. So she had to get away from the minions before she did anything else.

She raised her sword. She heard it roar as the red spotlight blasted out in front of her, lifting above the wall. The crabs paused at the roar of a big cat in the air. She threw out threads from the paw to grab a turret above her. The gauntlet pulled her up off the ground. She was able to step on a ledge beside the turret as the talons fully retracted into the device.

There had to be an access to get inside if someone had to come out and work on the turret. Did the devices needed to be worked on? She would worry about that later. If there was no door, maybe she could get around the building and get down to the gate.

An explosion roared out of Belsin’s factory. She took a second to glance over that way. A cloud poured up from the building. Something had punched a hole in the roof to let the smoke go its way.

She was curious about what had happened, but the crabs below weren’t being recalled so Belsin was still ordering them to do her bidding. If they stopped chasing her, she knew whatever was going on was a serious threat to the Dark lord.

Sara edged along the wall of the tower. She stepped over two more turrets. They tried to fire at her, but didn’t have an angle. She supposed there wasn’t much need to shoot up and back into the wall.

She reached a small port to get inside the tower. She had taken a few hits from below but nothing serious enough to stop her. She put up her sword and leaned on the door. It refused to open for her.

How did she get in?

The sonic device would have opened the door for her, but it was gone. What was plan b? Maybe she could open the door with the strength plaque in her bag. If that didn’t work, maybe she could use the rooster to fly over the wall while avoiding getting shot.

She actually didn’t have to fly over the wall. She only had to reach the gate at the base of the wall. That would be a little harder.

Was it better to go inside and face the unknown, or stay outside and get chewed up until she lost all her weapons?

Voit made the decision for her. He drifted from the top of the tower on two giant wings of iron and fire. She spotted him dropping down and knew she didn’t want to face him.

She grabbed the ox plaque and punched the door as soon as she felt the strength pour into her arm. The metal bent away from the impact. She pushed inside as green fog drifted down toward her. She started running, putting the plaque back in the bag.

Didn’t she have a plaque for extra speed? That was something she needed now as she ran through the hall. She heard the sound of wind rushing behind her in the corridor. She reached a giant room at the end of the hall. She groaned. What did she do now?

The room had been carved out of the center of the tower. She spotted a ring at the top of the cylinder, supported by struts hooked to the walls. Tanks filled a lot of the space. Hoses ran from those tanks to the walls. She spotted statues along the walls of the chamber, but her glance made her think they weren’t really statues. Catwalks ran around the central space so people could reach the tanks without trouble.

She didn’t see any minions so that was a good sign.

Something smashed into her from behind and she flew out over the tanks and headed for the ground below.