escape from the cage. Cin was already leading them there when dozens of raiders began searching the cargo near the ramp.
As if sensing something was off, Cin stopped and turned to the ramp just when a huge barbarian looking man entered the ship. The man’s dark, piercing eyes searched the dim interior like he knew where they were hiding.
“Don’t move an inch,” Cin whispered.
Suppressing a shiver of dread, Lanie held her breath, wondering if the strange barbarian with the long bushy beard really could see them or sense their presence. Her theory was proven correct only seconds later.
“Stay vigilant and watch where you shoot!” the barbarian warned. “There’s magic and more afoot in here!”
Cin waited until the man turned to talk to another raider before urging Lanie to run. They reached the barrier with the others, and Lanie was surprised to see everyone hiding inside the container.
“Can the Seer detect your portal?” Dar asked the moment they were close enough to hear him.
“Oh, yeah,” Cin admitted with a huff of frustration.
Linq and Tanq allowed themselves to reappear in front of everyone and grinned. Lanie wasn’t sure what they were smiling about since it sounded like they were getting ready to battle when the brothers moved to the back of the container.
They returned, holding up the soft skins that Lanie and Bob had laid on before their rescue.
“We can wait them out then!” Linq handed a skin to Adamo, who shed his invisibility, took the skin, and wrapped himself in it.
Everyone else did the same, and Cin wrapped one around Lanie then pulled her close to his side. “This will last only until they reach this container. Where’s Kace?”
Everyone looked around for the Madean, but he was nowhere in sight.
“Fuck!” Cin snapped.
Cindrac ran outside the container in time to watch the Seer and several other raiders get hit with a mechanical boom that fell on them from above. Looking up, Cin saw the Madean sprinting along the catwalk that ran over the ships in the docking bay of the spaceport.
“Fuck!” Cin groaned when the raiders started shooting upwards.
Not even trying to hide anymore, Cin covered himself in armor and started firing at the raiders, drawing the heat from the Madean. The other warriors, including Lanie, quickly came out of the container and joined him.
Unfortunately, the Madean’s efforts were in vain because half a dozen more Seers ran into the cargo bay. Between the warrior’s weapons fire and the Seer’s, the raider’s knew where they were hiding and trying to flank them.
“We’ll hold them off while you guys go through the portal!” Tanq called out before leaving his hiding spot with his weapons firing. His brother Linq followed.
“I believe a message is in order,” Adamo’s eyes flashed in anger before he and the other elves stepped out and began firing arrows on the raiders and seers.
“I’m with you on that.” Dar quickly joined everyone.
Lanie shed her invisibility, grinned apologetically at Cin, and checked her armor. She stepped out and fired her weapons at the raiders. Figuring it was a good a time as any to try out her cool new technology, Lanie shot with one hand and tried creating a bomb with her other.
Once the device was completed, Lanie threw it as hard as she could and sighed in frustration when it only went about twenty feet in front of her. She wasn’t going to make any more when the first blew up, taking nearly half a dozen raiders with it.
“Damn, girl,” Linq cackled with laughter. “Make a few for me! I’ll get them to the cargo door.”
Continuing to fire, Lanie made another small bomb and handed it to Linq. Unfortunately, the device skittered out the door and exploded outside, killing a wave of raiders trying to get inside.
“So,” Linq shrugged. “We keep trying!”
Thrilled the bombs were working, Lanie started making another one while Gabe and Cin began creating and throwing their own.
Niama made her way over to Lanie. “Make one for me.”
Lanie did as she asked and was shocked when the elven princess attached it to one of her arrows and shot it perfectly between the wall and ceiling above the middle of the cargo bay door. Seconds later, Niama patted Lanie on the back as the entire roof area collapsed into the doorway.
With reinforcements unable to get in, the raiders trapped inside the cargo bay with Cin and the warriors ran to hide behind whatever they could find. The raiders fired periodically to keep Cin and the others from getting