The Crucible of the Dragon God (10 page)

"That? Oh, don't worry about him. He wasn't real."

Far behind Ding, the old man sighed, not with relief but in an attempt to calm himself down and, as Kali and Horse looked on, his ogur physique began to dwindle until he had returned once more to his half ogur form. Done, he looked around the remains of his shop and then stared at Horse and Kali. His eyebrow rose.

"You could have knocked, young lady."

"Mmm, sorry about that. These things attacked
en route
, tearing up Horse pretty badly, so we had no choice but to jump here. Should have been outside, of course, but obviously he's not quite himself and overshot." She looked guilty. "A tad."

"A
tad
?"

Merrit Moon walked slowly forward, feet crunching on broken vials and crushed souvenirs, shaking his head. Despite his obvious dismay about the state of his shop, however, his brow furrowed in concern as he approached Horse. Gently, he ran a palm over the wounds on his armoured flanks - wounds that bled slowly and made the huge beast wince beneath his touch.

"His armour should be stronger than this," Moon observed. "There's a discolouration in it that doesn't look right."

"I know. I think it's something to do with his diet - or lack of it."

"His diet?"

"Worgles. Won't eat anything else. But they've disappeared since these bastards came out of nowhere."

"Really?" Moon said, intrigued. He looked at the tumbleweed like bodies that littered the shop floor. "I take it, by the by, that these are the infamous k'nid?" Kali looked at him and he added: "Oh, yes, I've heard the rumours. I may even have
seen
them, earlier, out on the plains."

"Yep, that's where they hit us."

"Ah, that was you," Moon said absently. He turned back to Horse. "Well, let's see if we can get some of this fixed up." He collected some balms and a cloth from around the devastated shop began to gently rub them into Horse's armour.

"Hey," Kali said. "I'm injured too."

"What? Oh, yes. Yes, yes, of course you are."

Kali threw up her hands but smiled. The fact was, since escaping the mine, which she now realised must have been inhibiting them somehow, her recuperative powers had worked wonders on her leg and, while not perfect, it would do. Horse was the patient now, and it was nice to see the old man tending to him so carefully. Because, despite her elation at finding he still lived on the Dragonwing Cliffs above Martak, there was one thing she'd dreaded, and that was informing the old man that his own beloved horse - the original Horse - had perished during the course of that adventure.

Constant companions, until the day she'd inherited him from the retiring artefact hunter, she'd never known a relationship between man and beast be so close and knew the news would be shattering to him - hells, it had been shattering enough to her. It was during the telling of it, however, that Horse Two had begin to gently nudge the old man's shoulder, and that not only seemed to alleviate the impact of the news but also create the same kind of burgeoning bond that she herself had felt with Horse's more.... unusual replacement. Over the intervening months, either with Merrit visiting Horse's grave above the
Flagons
, or they him, here in Gargas, that bond had grown until she had begun to think once more that the old man cared more about Horse than he did about her. Or maybe it was just because he was part of
her
that he cared. That theory made her feel a little better, anyway.

"Old man?" She kicked the remains of one of the k'nid, exposing its soft underbelly - red, turning now to grey. "What are these things?"

Moon regarded them as he continued to soothe Horse.

"First impressions? Hostile. Wrong."

"Hells, old man, I could have told you that."

"No, what I mean is, they don't belong. They're not a part of the order of things."

Kali kicked the k'nid again. "At least they don't seem as indestructible as the rumours make out."

"Ah," Moon sighed. "I wouldn't chance too many arms on that particular theory. These
specimens
were transported here with Horse, remember. Forcefully separated from their pack. I believe that together they might be far more formidable opponents. Certainly the number of reported deaths reflects that."

"What? So you're saying they're some kind of group entity?" Kali fought for a comparison. "Like fussball fans?"

"You never did like that game, did you?" Moon mumbled. He patted Horse, finished with his ministrations, and moved over to the k'nid, examining it. Suddenly he pulled his finger back with a hiss and flicked a clear liquid from it, which made a small patch of floor warp and burn.

"What is that? Acid?"

"No, some kind of
destabilising
agent," Moon mused.

He had used many, many substances in his alchemical experiments but this was a new one on him. He studied the k'nid more closely and frowned.

"This isn't right," he said. He took a small vial from his pocket and sprinkled its contents over the corpse. Nothing happened for a few seconds but then the dead creature began to wrinkle and twist, shrink in on itself, until it became utterly unrecognisable.

"Now that
was
acid, right?"

Moon shook his head. "It's the same potion I use to limit the influence of the ogur upon myself - to hold the change in check, as it were. Except, of course, that I just gave the k'nid far more than is safe to use on myself."

"So, what? You're saying this k'nid was
changed
like you were? That your potion reversed the changes, made it what it was before?"

"Exactly."

Kali pulled a face. "But look at it, old man - it's just a mess. It isn't
anything
."

"That's what worries me." Moon stood and sighed. "I saw something happen in the Drakengrats this morning. A great explosion."

"Well, don't look at me. I was nowhere near it."

"For once," Moon said, smiling. "The point is, Kali, the k'nid are swarming from the west, are they not?"

"Moving down in a fan shape from what I've seen. Freiport, Volonne, Miramas, now here. Merrit, do you think there's a link? That this explosion somehow
created
the k'nid?"

Moon shook his head. "Reports of their appearance precede that. But there may be still be a link. Something
else
up there."

"Any idea what?"

Moon hesitated. "There's a legend of an Old Race site I came across during research into my own condition. It spoke of a place in the clouds where the Old Races played at being gods. A fearful, unapproachable place. They called it the Crucible."

"A place in the clouds? You think that means the Drakengrats?"

"It seems a likely contender."

"And this 'crucible'? You think that's where the k'nid came from?"

Moon sighed. "Kali, if I'm right I think they might have been
born
there."

Kali took a deep breath. "Then, old man, I guess I'm going to the Drakengrats."

"And I'm coming with -"

The old man stopped as there was a distant sound of tolling. "That's the town's sentry alarm. The guards have spotted something on the plains."

"K'nid. They must be spreading faster than I thought."

"There's one way to find out. Come with me."

Kali trailed the old man up the spiral staircase, avoiding falling pictures and ornaments as she climbed, until the pair reached the attic. Moon uncovered the telescope, adjusted its warp lenses, and then tipped it down so that it was aimed towards the town's walls. He peered into the eyepiece.

"Not k'nid," he said. "Not yet."

"Then what?"

"Take a look."

The old man stood aside and Kali took a look, focusing on the main gate of the town through which a great many soldiers were marching. Their grey canvas and lace epauletted livery marked them out as Pontaine militia, forces financed by the local land barons as a kind of home guard, and guarding the home was clearly what they seemed to be doing - quite zealously.

Ranks of them were organising the civilians near the gate into small groups, keeping them in place with what seemed the unnecessary threat of their weapons. Unless the militia had suddenly decided to become a dictatorial force, there had to be a reason for their uncharacteristic behaviour. Kali tipped the telescope upward slightly, focusing first not far beyond the town walls, and then further out, at the almost featureless agricultural plains that surrounded Gargas. She could see them stretching away for leagues, or at least
would
have been able to were it not for the dark fog that covered them like a shroud.

Except it wasn't a fog, she knew. It was the same pack of k'nid she and Horse had become caught up in. If pack was the word to describe the hundreds and hundreds - if not thousands - of them she could see. It was almost as if,
en route
, the strange creatures had been
replicating
themselves. She muttered something with four letters under her breath.

"K'nid?" Moon said.

"Oh, yeah. They're here."

The old man urged her aside and peered into the scope. "By all the gods, they
are
fast."

"Here within the hour, I reckon."

"Then it's time that we were on the move."

He walked to a chest in the corner of the attic, opened it and extracted an equipment belt similar to her own, a few unidentifiable odds and ends which he stuffed into his pockets and then a pink, woollen cloak he slung about his shoulders. Kali couldn't help but smile. The old man had been wearing that cloak the day they'd first met and she hadn't seen it since the day he'd retired - and it
still
stank of Horse. This was beginning to feel a little like old times. As Moon began to descend the stairs she too dug into the chest, extracting a new bodysuit she'd asked him to keep there for emergencies, and quickly slipped it on.

"What about your shop?" she asked as she followed Moon down. "You know it'll be at the mercy of those bastards."

"I doubt a thousand k'nid could make much more of a mess of it than you did, young lady."

Kali reddened. "For all the Gods' sake, when will you stop treating me like a bloody chil -"

She quietened. There was a soldier at the bottom of the stairs. Another behind him. And another behind him.

"Come with us," the one at the front said.

"Excuse me?" Merrit Moon responded.

The soldier's face darkened. "You are ordered to come with us.
Now
."

"The shop," Moon said warningly, "is
closed
."

Kali looked at him, coughed gently and pointed out the front door of the shop which hung buckled and ajar, then a part of the wall which had started to collapse during their battle with the k'nid.

"Actually," she pointed out, "I think you could say you were still open."

"Funny. You know they aren't here to buy things, Kali. They're here to interfere, as their kind always do."

Kali patted Moon's arm. Much as she shared the old man's healthy disrespect for authority of any kind, there were things going on that they both had to take into consideration - not least the clearly scared and trigger-happy militia. Besides, Moon's temper had become noticeably more
fiery
since the Thrutt incident and, for obvious reasons, she needed to keep him calm.

She approached the soldier and, despite already knowing what was approaching, asked: "Why are you here?"

The soldier was blunt and to the point, although a slight bobbing in his throat revealed his nervousness. "Gargas is now under martial law. A curfew has been imposed and any transgressors will be summarily executed. The population is to be evacuated to Andon."

"Andon?" Moon said. "That's ridiculous... madness! The journey will take days!"

"We go with them, old man," Kali said, to his utmost surprise. "We go with them. No arguments."

"Young lady?"

Kali patted his arm again, this time squeezing it softly but reassuringly too. Because watching the militia enter through the town gate she had noticed something that he had not. But now was not the time to share it with him.

"Trust me," she said after a second. "We go with them, and we do everything these nice gentlemen say."

Chapter Six

"Young lady," Merrit Moon said, with evident disappointment, "I am very,
very
surprised. It is most unlike you to capitulate so readily."

Kali smiled. "Oh, I'm not capitulating, old man. You know I never do. I'm just looking after our interests. Ours and everyone else's."

"And how is that exactly?" The old man stared ahead at the snaking line of people, hundreds of them, six abreast, being marched across the plains, then back at an equal number in similar formation behind them. He snarled at the soldiers who marched alongside, effectively herding the people of Gargas like cattle, as they had been doing for hours. "As I believe I pointed out, this is madness."

"Old man, I think they're genuinely trying to help," Kali said placatingly. "If only to guarantee the land barons next year's taxes. It's just that they've never experienced a situation like this before."

"As you say. But what the hells are we doing
with
them?"

"For one thing, there's no way we could have reached the Drakengrats directly - you saw the k'nid swarm yourself. For another, it
does
take us closer to the mountains, albeit with a slight detour to the south west. But lastly," she added with a prod, "it's your best chance to get across the plains with your scowl intact."

Moon harumphed and stared into the distance. For the moment the horizon was clear but, having seen the speed of the k'nid with his own eyes, he knew that situation could change at any second.

"Horse could have had us to the mountains in three jumps," he said.

"Maybe, if Horse were up to par," Kali patted her mount as he plodded alongside, still weak but recovering from his injuries. Green eyes rolled. "Besides, whether Andon has the best defences in the region or not, I'm a little dubious about the logic of corralling all these people in one place. I want to make sure they're all right."

Merrit Moon sighed and shook his head, but Kali could tell she'd been forgiven. "You want to make sure they're all right. An admirable sentiment, but I don't really see what you can do to help and, I repeat, this is madness. Do you honestly think we can avoid the k'nid for the three or four days it will take us to reach Andon?"