To Well And Back (The Deep Dark Well) Read Free

the floor.  She landed
lightly on her feet, blocked another blade on the flat of hers, then sliced
through chain mail, flesh and bone to leave another man-at-arms dead.
    [Get the hell out of
there,] yelled Watcher over the link, his tone alternating between anger and
fear.  [What the hell are you trying to do?]
    [I’m trying to kill me
a son of a bitch,] said Pandi, glancing around.  She saw that her robots were
sweeping the rest of the hall with sonic stunners.  The other celebrants would
wake with headaches, but no other harm.  As she watched a warrior brought a
battle-axe down on the head of a robot that looked like a body servant.  The ax
rebounded into the air, and the robot’s head took superficial damage to the
outer covering.  The man stared in horror as the mechanism swept its arm around
and hit him with a stunner.
    Pandi looked back to
locate the King, the one she was most interested in.  She saw him disappear
through a doorway, and a half dozen men-at-arms form a wall before that
egress.  I could have the robots stun a way through , she thought, then
dismissed it in an instant.  The King could go anywhere in the time it took to
get the robots up here, so she couldn’t grant him that time.
    “Get out of my way,”
she yelled at the men at arms, running full speed at them, her sword held back
for a strike.
    “Kill the witch,”
yelled the leader of the men, bracing his shield and raising his sword
overhead.
    Pandi thrust her blade
through the shield, the super sharp sword made up of advanced materials held in
place by a strong electromagnetic field pushing into the wood and metal  like
it wasn’t there.  It continued through the chain mail and into the body of the
man.  Pandi pulled the sword free with a draw cut, and the lifeless man fell to
the floor.
    Two swords quested for
the woman, but she moved much too quickly for either man to target her.  One
swished above her head, while the other pushed forward, missing her as she
stopped in place.  She batted one sword aside and sliced through the other,
then flicked her blade in like a striking rattlesnake.  And then there were
three frightened looking men between her and the King.  And they’ll die in
place before they let me through , she thought.  I really don’t need to
kill all these people, who are just doing as they are ordered .  She
remembered that there was another way, one she had forgotten in the excitement
of the moment.
    With that thought she
pulled a small object off of her belt and aimed the front toward the men.  The
ovoid shape vibrated in her hand, and the men went down, eyes rolling up, then
closing as consciousness left them.
    Something hit Pandora
in the back, hard, right between the shoulder blades.  The leather vest she
wore under her dress hardened to the consistency of steel and repelled whatever
it had been, but it still hurt.  She turned with pantherish grace, her sword
coming around, to see an old man with a dagger in his hand.  There was a
shocked expression on his face, and his eyes kept darting from Pandi to the
dagger and back again.  Pandi shook her head, then punched the man in the face,
knocking him down and out with her augmented strength.
    Now to get me an
asshole ,
she thought, turning and leaping over the downed men-at-arms, heading through
the passageway beyond.  She looked left, then right, catching a glimpse of the
robes the King was wearing disappear through another entrance.  She ran to the
opening and found a set of stairs going up.  Pandi took the steps two at a
time, leaping into a hall with several thick doors set on each side.  The one
furthest down the hall slammed shut as she watched, and she heard a heavy bolt
slam home.
    Got you , she thought, running
to the door.  She ignored the entreaties of Watcher, her friend and lover
trying to dissuade her from her self-assigned mission.  Pandora Latham was
having none of it.
    The stout iron trimmed
wooden door would have stood up to a ram