Edda by Conor Kostick

altogether, though, so this may be a while.”
    Tap, tap, tap.
    “Welcome back, Anonemuss. All good on your side?” There was a cheerful note in Erik’s voice now, and Ghost smiled to herself. He was the perfect comrade to have alongside you in battle; he’d kept his composure and his plan sounded like it might work.
    Tap, tap.
    “What’s two taps mean?” asked Ghost. “Neither yes nor no?”
    “I bet it means Gunnar was acting the maggot again, but that he has gone to talk to Milan, right?” Despite the risk of being heard by the remaining riflemen on the hill, B.E. evidently couldn’t resist offering his negative estimate of Gunnar’s likely behavior.
    Tap, tap, tap.
    “Ha,” chuckled Ghost.
    “Stay hidden, wherever you are, Anonemuss,” said Erik. “I’m taking out the soldiers on the hill with my bow while trying to keep these horsemen focused on me. I’ll let you know when it’s clear, and then you can join B.E. and Ghost up at the portal.”
    Tap, tap, tap.
    For a while there was just a faint hiss over the coms. Then Cindella came into view again and Ghost lay flat and still. Arrows flew overhead as Cindella released shots, firing over her shoulder. There were distinctly fewer bullets flying past than there had been on Erik’s last circuit. The huge numbers of cavalry, though, were still intimidating, and the ground shook as they rode by.
    A few more minutes passed. Above her the sky was clear blue apart from a wispy cloud that drifted past, far above the carnage on the hillside. It was a good idea to warn Milan to stay clear. He probably had been getting ready to come through and he almost certainly would be dead if he had. Athena, too, if she couldn’t bear waiting on her own.
    “I’m clear.” All of a sudden B.E. spoke up in his normal voice. “You just killed the last of them from around me.”
    “Great, but don’t open fire till I’ve eliminated the other riflemen. It won’t be long now, and it would be a shame if they shot you after all this running around.”
    “Will do.”
    Another appearance of Cindella and her long tail of riders. It was eerie how they all rode in the same pose, with an upraised spear in one hand, and it was peculiar too how their horses all ran with the same gait. These NPCs were not particularly sophisticated in their programming.
    “Right you are, B.E. Give it a go. If any barbarians break off to attack you, please jump back through the portal. Ghost, Anonemuss, if you are clear of the riders, maybe now would be a good time to get up to the portal.”
    At once Ghost leaped up and sprinted as fast as she could up the hill, her senses alert all the while for incoming fire. But it was true: the riflemen on the hill were dead and all the vehicles seemed empty of crew. Panting, she arrived at the top, where B.E. was methodically firing his pulsar weapon. He paused just for a moment to nod a greeting to Ghost, then drew a line on the cavalry once more. Down below, Cindella was in plain sight, leading the horsemen as though they were a great dark cloak spread out behind her. Where they had been riding around the hill, a wide muddy circle had been drawn in the grass.
    Anonemuss, the scout, ran up.
    “Where were you hiding?” asked B.E.
    “I was holding on to the underside of a troop carrier.”
    “Hah. Neat.”
    “Hey team, I see you.” Cindella gave them a wave and Ghost waved back before trying a shot with her handgun. The red bolt of energy streaked away but expired before it reached the rider she had aimed at. Dropping the gun, Ghost went over and picked a rifle up from a dead enemy soldier. It was a very crude piece of programming, a simple device. The bullet it fired would do only a fraction of the damage of an energy bolt, but at least it would reach the target.
    “Got one.” B.E. was kneeling now and Ghost could see the regular pulses of his shots at the edge of her vision. “I don’t believe it, after that mess we were in, but I think we’re going