Nest Under Siege: A Middang3ard Series (Dragon Approved Book 4) Read online

  The HUDs in Middang3ard had an amazing feature that allowed their users to gauge what their likelihood of success or failure was going to be. All you had to do was look at a situation that you were thinking about, and the HUD gave you your success ratio.

  Over the last few months in VR, Alex had become extremely dependent on that little percentage. It made all the difference in whether or not she would engage in a battle. She wished that she knew what her likelihood of survival was right now.

  Gill groaned, frustration dripping from his voice when he spoke. “Damn it, there are so many back ends, I don’t even know where to start. Maybe I should just try to isolate the hallways. No, that doesn’t make sense…”

  Alex walked over to Gill and took a seat beside him. “What if you just knocked out the whole network? Just kill the whole Nest.”

  Gill rubbed his cheek as he thought it over. “I guess I could do that,” he admitted. “But I don’t know how it’s going to affect the Nest as a whole. The fact that no one has done it before makes me unsure if it’s a good idea.”

  “No one else has done it because they don’t have an ace up their sleeves like I do.”

  “What do you mean?”

  Alex pointed to her eyes. “You kill the lights, I can lead us out of here,” Alex explained. “I don’t need to see anything. Old habits die hard, I guess. I’ve been memorizing every corridor since I’ve been here. I can get us around the orcs.”

  Brath nearly sneezed and caught himself. “Have you seen what the orcs are wearing? They have night vision for sure.”

  “But we have another ace up our sleeve. Manny can cast Darkness, right?”

  The Beholder nodded. “I can.”

  “Night vision or not, they’ll be blind, and unable to navigate the corridors like I can.”

  Brath nervously tugged on his beard. “Okay, but that only solves one problem. How are you going to get around the orcs? If we accidentally bump into one of them, we’re dead.”

  Alex pulled out her blindfold and wrapped it around her eyes. “Trust me,” she assured Brath. “I lived my entire life moving through darkness. I can do this. We get out of the room and make our way to the stables. Then we take back the Nest.”

  Gill and Brath exchanged glances before Brath nodded.

  Taking the cue, Gill spoke up. “All right, you heard the lady. Let’s do it,” he said before pulling his visor back down and starting the hack.

  Manny floated forward, his tentacle eyes moving about rapidly. “I’ll cast Gloom. That way, it won’t be total darkness. Then I’ll link everyone’s eyesight together so you can see through my eyes. We should be able to make each other out. That way, we can follow Alex easier, but we’ll have to stick together. Real close.”

  Gill cleared his throat and said, “I can help too. Drows have darkvision. Mine isn’t that strong since it matures with age, but I should be able to pick up on the heat signatures of the orcs if they’re close by. I’ll take the front with Alex. And you guys better get ready. It’s going dark in three, two, one.”

  The lights in the hallway flickered again and then went off. There were startled sounds from the orcs outside, followed by another flurry of words that Alex couldn’t make out.

  Manny floated in the middle of the circle of kids. “All right,” he whispered. “Jollies, Brath, you two ready?”

  “Ready,” they both replied.

  Manny’s body started to vibrate, and beams of light shot out of his eyes. The same beams shot out of Jollies’ and Brath’s eyes.

  Brath leaned forward, his hands out in front of him, and yelped as he caught himself. He slammed his hands over his mouth and tried to keep his balance.

  Gill stood up from his seat and walked over to Alex. He slid his hand around Alex’s and squeezed tightly. “This way, we won’t get separated,” he whispered in her ear.

  Alex’s heart was racing. She wouldn’t have thought it could have beaten any faster than when she’d first seen the orcs, but she was wrong. “Yeah, that works perfectly,” she mumbled.

  Get it together, Alex, she thought . You can have a crush later if you survive this.

  Alex reached out as she had her entire life and inched toward the room door. She knew exactly where it was without realizing it, since her and Jollies’ room was the same. Glad to know that muscle memory didn’t go to waste, she thought as she instinctively concentrated on the door opening slowly.

  The crystal door pulled apart, hardly making any noise. To the untrained ear, it was probably not even noticeable.

  Alex scanned the hallway. It was a habit she’d acquired since she had been able to see, but it was pointless in this situation. She knew the orcs were close. They hadn’t been too far off in the video feed.

  Alex didn’t need to see to know exactly where the orcs were, though. She could smell them since they didn’t smell like anything else in the Nest. A sour, acrid scent rose off of their skin, and Alex was happy she didn’t have to see them up close.

  It only took the slightest tug on Gill’s hand to guide him. The drow stepped lightly as if the lack of light didn’t bother him at all. Alex could hear Brath struggling to walk forward behind Gill.

  Alex assumed that whatever Jollies and Brath was seeing, it wasn’t too different than the sight Manny had first given her. It should have been more than enough to make their way through the hallway.

  But Alex was saying that as someone who knew how to navigate the dark.

  Brath and Jollies were probably struggling to pick up what little detail they could using Manny’s vision. You’d think for someone with so many eyes, his vision would be better, even in the dark, Alex thought.

  The smell of the orcs faded as Alex guided Gill and the rest of them down the hall. Alex had a fairly good idea of where they were. Even with how mazelike the Wasp’s Nest was, she had been able to develop a sense of location and proximity by walking down the halls due to the crystal walls.

  Hopefully, the confusion of the Nest would work to their advantage. Cadets had a hard enough time moving around and finding where they were trying to go. The orcs must have been having an even harder time navigating the Nest.

  What were they here for, though? The only thing Alex had seen was murder. Jollies had said orcs had attacked training camps before, but was it really as simple as murdering all the new cadets? They could be here for the dragons, Alex thought.

  But what good were dragons to the Dark One? It wasn’t like any of them would have followed him, even though Alex had been told he’d had at least one dragon. Maybe he was trying to get more.

  Alex squeezed Gill’s hand, signaling for him to stop. They all stood very still in the darkness. She could smell orcs ahead. She knew that they were at a four-way intersection in the hallway. That made it impossible to tell which way the orcs were coming from.

  Alex pulled Gill up against the wall, and Manny and the rest of them followed. They stayed there as the smell of the orcs approached.

  Gill guided Alex’s hand upward. He pushed down all of her fingers except for her index and pointed to the left, signaling which direction the orcs were coming from.

  All five of them froze and held their breath. Alex squinted, tempted to pull off her blindfold and see if her dragon eyes granted her any abilities to see in the dark. It was too much of a risk, though. The sudden shift from being blindfolded to being able to see might be too much.

  Alex didn’t need to see the orcs to know they were walking past. Her nostrils filled with the smell of rancid meat and decomposing bodies. How could any living thing smell this bad? Alex thought. Are these orcs or the undead?

  The orcs continued past Alex and the rest of them. Apparently, orc eyes were just as bad as human eyes in the dark. They didn’t take any notice of the gnome, drow, pixie, or human who were squashed against the wall, nor did they smell them.

  Alex could see the outlines of the orcs through the gloom. She saw that they were holding very long, curved scimitars and had what looked like rifle
s across their backs. This surprised Alex, but she was growing used to weapons other than medieval fantasy warfare.

  They were still a ways from the dragon stables, and if there were going to be this many orcs in the halls, it was going to be slow going. There had to be a faster way to get from point A to point B.

  Unfortunately, it wasn’t the best time to discuss that. The orcs were still lazily walking down the hall. It didn’t seem as if they were in any rush. This made Alex wonder again what they were doing at the Nest.

  If this had been as simple as “kill all the cadets,” you would think the orcs would be acting with more urgency. The way they were slowly moving through the corridors didn’t support that, though. So, what were they here for?

  Once the orcs were out of earshot, Gill and Alex moved the group forward. Alex thought they needed to take a moment to regroup. Their initial plan was going to get much more complicated.

  Alex guided the group to the mess hall. Gill checked to see if there were any orcs in the immediate vicinity, and Alex was certain that she couldn’t smell any of them. All she could smell was the food in the hall.

  They reached the door of the mess hall, and Alex extended her hand to open the door with the crystal datapad. When the five of them were inside the mess hall, Alex guided them to a table and sat down.

  Brath looked around, trying to figure out where he was.

  Manny’d had a harder time adjusting to the dark than he had been prepared for. “Is this the mess hall?” he asked. “By the realms, how were you ever able to see like this?”

  Alex laughed despite herself and their current situation. “Trust me, it’s not any easier if you’ve never seen anything before,” she replied.

  Jollies, who had been riding on Brath’s shoulder, tried to flutter over to sit down on the table but got turned around and ended up on the floor. “Why did you bring us here?” Jollies asked.

  “Because I realized there is a huge flaw in our plan,” Alex explained. “This place has got to be crawling with orcs. There’s no way that we’re going to be able to sneak past all of them to get to the stables.”

  “Wait, what do you mean?”

  “I don’t think the orcs are here just to attack the cadets. You know, if this was a raid, I’d be busting my ass to get to the end as soon as possible, especially if the raid was on a super-secret base with tons of dragons. But they’re taking their time, almost like they know something we don’t.”

  Brath reached out, trying to find the table, and tripped over his feet. He got up with Manny’s help. “What do you think we should do?” he asked.

  Gill pulled up his HUD visor, and it glowed dimly in the dark as he scrolled through it. “There are orcs all over the Nest, and they seem to have stopped attacking people. Most of the cadets are holed up on the other side. Guess it was just our hallway where the orcs were killing people.”

  For the first time since Alex had arrived at the Nest, she was glad she hadn’t gotten to know anyone else. It would have killed her to have been close to any of the other cadets who got hurt. She knew everyone else must be hurting. She’d seen Jollies, Brath, and Gill with some of the kids on their floor.

  If Gill was upset, he was hiding it very well. His voice was even and neutral, devoid of any emotion when he spoke. Alex wondered if that was a drow thing. “I don’t think we should focus on rescuing anyone. The instructors are capable of that.”

  Jollies squeaked loudly, and her skin became brilliant red. “Wait, are you saying we should just leave them?”

  Brath shook his head. “I’m saying we never planned to do any sort of rescue to begin with. And we are also unarmed unless you want to count my knife. The instructors must know what’s going on. It would be stupid to try to do what they should be doing. We should stick to trying to get to our dragons.”

  There was a loud clatter of steel pots and pans in the mess hall, followed by shouts in orcish. All of the kids froze, staring at where they thought the noise had come from. There was someone else in the mess hall!

  Gill grabbed Alex’s hand and pointed in the direction of the orcs. He leaned over and whispered into Alex’s ear, “There are two of them, smaller ones than the others. I can’t tell what they’re doing, though. I think they might just be eating. They might not know we’re here.”

  Alex turned to Brath. “Give me your knife.”

  Brath gasped quietly. “Are you kidding me?” he asked. “No. It’s my family’s—”

  “Here,” Gill said, pulling a small curved dagger from his side. “I have two. What are you—”

  Alex took the knife and pointed toward the orcs. “I’m going to take care of them.”

  Brath gulped. “We should run. Hide.”

  Gill pursed his lips before unsheathing his other knife. “No, she is right. This is our home, and it is under attack. We should do what we can. All right, Alex Bound, I shall follow you. I’ll help. Brath, you coming?”

  Brath shook his head. “I can’t see well enough,” he admitted. “But we’ll stay here in case they slip past you. Maybe Jollies can light up the area enough to see if I need it.” Alex noted that although there was fear in his voice, there was also disappointment. Brath was smart, and he wanted revenge on the Dark One more than anyone here. He would have come if he hadn’t felt it was a suicide mission.

  Oh, God, Alex thought. I hope this isn’t a suicide mission.

  Manny hovered in front of her. “You can’t go. You’ll get killed.”

  “Manny,” Alex said, “I have to. Gill and I are the only ones who have a chance, and if we don’t take them out, we’ll all die. Let me do this. Please.”

  “And if you fail?”

  “Then you, Brath, and Jollies haul ass and hide.”

  The Beholder considered for a moment before finally nodding. “Don’t fail, then. Myrddin will kill me.”

  Alex touched the Beholder and nodded, then tugged Gill’s hand. “Come on. You drows are supposed to be good at sneaking, right?”

  Gill smiled, his sharp incisors glimmering in the darkness. “You could say that. Come on. We have to move fast.”

  There was another clatter and a sharp shout in Orcish.

  Alex crouched, and Gill did the same. They slowly made their way toward the orcs, Gill occasionally stopping to point in the direction they needed to go. Alex’s ears and nose were good, but Gill’s darkvision was a godsend.

  They were closing in on the orcs, who were now chattering loudly. She was right—whatever the orcs were planning, they were in no obvious rush.

  As Alex and Gill got closer to the orcs, Alex’s heart jumped up to her throat. What was she doing? She wasn’t an assassin. She’d never even been in a real fight. How was she going to ambush two orcs and kill them?

  This wasn’t the time to be thinking like that, and Alex knew it. If she had thought like this during the joust, she would have lost. She didn’t know if her instincts were any good, but all she could do was follow them. It was better than waiting to die.

  Alex and Gill leaned against the wall. The orcs were in the back where the lunch folk usually cooked and passed out food. It seemed like they hadn’t noticed the human and drow sneaking up on them.

  Gill took Alex’s hand and pointed to one of the orcs, then to himself, and then to the other orc. Simple enough. Alex was going to take the one on the right. Gill was going to take the one on the left.

  Alex looked down at her knife. This was the first time she could remember ever holding a weapon, and she was going to use it to kill an orc. The thought made her stomach turn, but then she thought about the dead cadets she had seen in the hallway.

  Alex squeezed Gill’s hand and pointed forward. It was time. She crouched as low as she could to the floor, moving slowly, listening to the smacking lips of the orcs as they chewed on whatever food they had found.

  From the corner of Alex’s eye, she could see Gill’s shape. He wasn’t joking; he was good at sneaking. Alex pulled up the corner of her blindfold. She could
hardly tell the drow from the shadows.

  God, that kid is hot, she thought before remembering there was a full-grown orc ahead of her who was sorely in need of a knife in the back. All right, I got this. I got this. I got this!

  Alex went forward, concentrating on making as little noise as she could. Gill was only a little way ahead of her.

  The smell of the orcs was nearly overpowering. Alex thought Gill was lucky his sense of smell wasn’t as good as hers. Both Alex and Gill reached the orcs. It was now or never.

  Alex leaped onto the nearest orc’s back and wrapped her hands around its throat. The orc screamed in shock as it tried to grab its sword.

  Gill slashed at his orc’s ankles, severing both of its Achilles tendons. The orc fell to the ground, screaming as it pulled out its rifle.

  Alex squeezed her orc’s throat as tightly as she could with one arm and raised her knife, then brought it down into the thing’s neck. She couldn’t believe how strong she was. There was something about being in Middang3ard; she was stronger than on Earth. Faster, too.

  Like Captain America or Marvel, except without all the hand blaster stuff. God, that would have been cool.

  The orc spun, its arms waving wildly as Alex stabbed it again and again, trying to keep from screaming as she hacked at its neck.

  At her side, the surviving orc got hold of its rifle. It fired two shots that lit the room like a crack of lightning. In the brief period of light, Alex saw Gill’s eyes flicker as he stepped into the shadows, his face covered in orc blood.

  The orc turned to face Alex and aimed his rifle. Alex backed up, holding her knife in front of her, trying to figure out if she could close the gap between her and the orc before it fired. Then there was the sound of ripping flesh.

  The orc fell with a knife in its back. Gill stepped forward, still hidden by the shadows, and grabbed his knife. “Don’t forget yours.”

  Alex reached over to pick up the knife. Her hands were trembling, and she was struggling to breathe. She realized her shirt was covered with blood, and her face was wet and sticky with it. The acrid smell of copper filled her nostrils. “We…we did it,” she mumbled.