The Call of Kerberos

by Jonathan Oliver

  "Yes Brother Incera, something is wrong." Querilous descended from the telescope and fixed the astronomer with a determined, yet disturbed, gaze. "I will assign several advisors to work with you as we chart the progress of this... thing. You will report back to the Anointed Lord and I on a daily basis. And, if I were you, in the meantime, I'd make this place somewhat more habitable."

  Querilous strode from the room, scattering cats in his wake.

  Brother Incera listened to his footfalls as they descended the spiral staircase and knew that the thirty years of peace he had enjoyed were now over.

  Ioannis's body rode the waves - a tiny barque on the fierce seas - before a sudden swell washed him under.

  Father Maylan closed his well-thumbed prayer book and sketched the symbol of the Many Paths in the air with his right index finger. The words that he had said as Jacquinto and Ignacio had committed their friend's body to the sea had seemed to resonate with the two men and, for a while, they prayed together in silence.

  Ioannis had died while Silus and Katya had been entangled in the grip of the leviathan. Kelos had desperately tried to help him cling to life, but there had been nothing he could have done. Ioannis's wounds were so severe that his bleeding couldn't be staunched, and what few medicines and poultices there were on board had proved to be next to useless.

  Jacquinto and Ignacio watched the place where their comrade's body had been swallowed by the sea before emptying his tobacco pouch and hip flask into the water.

  "Go well, my friend." Ignacio said.

  Father Maylan placed a hand on his shoulder. "All paths lead to Kerberos."

  Beyond the three men the rest of the crew stood at a respectful distance, having already said their goodbyes and not wanting to interfere in the intimacy of the ceremony. Silus held Katya close and, beside him, Kelos supported a pale but sufficiently recovered Emuel, while Dunsany stood with his head bowed.

  They all looked up at the sound of a rope snapping and falling heavily to the deck.

  Ignacio swore and raced to the prow of the ship, where he tried to stop the rope going over the side. He managed to catch it before it slipped over the rail, but his strength was as nothing compared to that of the creature on the other end, and his hands were badly burnt as the rope was jerked violently into the water.

  "Silus, can't you do something?" Ignacio shouted, stuffing his sore hands under his armpits. "It's your bloody pet!"

  Silus stood at the prow and looking at the leviathan that guided the Llothriall under harness, he urged it to slow its pace. As the creature responded, the ropes that led from the ship to encircle it lost some of their tension.

  "I can tell you now that I'm not going down there to bring that rope back up and re-secure it. It was painful enough the first time." Ignacio said, looking over the side of the ship. "Who's idea was it to use this creature anyway?"

  Belck was not angry, though the manner in which Findol delivered the news of the ruroth's failure suggested that he expected some severe reprimand. But they had not failed, Belck considered. Not really. They still knew exactly where Silus and Katya were. The fact that Silus had managed to break through the conditioning of the ruroth and tame the creature showed that he was changing faster than any of them could have hoped. Their plan may have to evolve a little, but it had in no way been broken.

  Besides, now was surely not the time to wallow in defeat, for their God had finally come amongst them.

  Belck could sense the excitement of his kin as he donned his ceremonial raiment and made his way to the temple. In all the history of the Chadassa they had never been so close to the time of the Great Flood. The time when all reality would become the dark sea from which the Chadassa had sprung and to which the Chadassa would soon return. The Old Races were all but extinct and now it was the turn of the humans to follow their ancestors into the night.

  That a human would help to bring about this new era wasn't entirely lost on Belck. Yet Silus was not human, not entirely. It was Chadassa blood that ran in his veins and it was his seed that would produce the new breed; the Land Walkers who would devastate Twilight.

  Even through the thick stone doors of the temple, Belck could hear the song of his people, their voices raised in the complex tonalities of ancient song to welcome the arrival of their God.

  As the last verse of the song faded away, Belck gestured with his hands and the doors of the temple swung slowly open.

  As the congregation turned to watch him Belck realised that they were all relying on his guidance, his judgement for the days ahead. After all, he was the avatar of their God. The enormity of the task before him cowed Belck for a moment, but as he took to the pulpit and signalled his acknowledgment to the elders seated to either side he tried not to show his fear.

  Raising his arms he allowed the hope of his people to strengthen him.

  "He is the Great Ocean and he has come amongst us!"

  "He is the endless sea." The congregation replied.

  "He heralds the time of the Great Flood."

  "And we will swim together, in eternity."

  "Brothers and sisters we will indeed swim together for the Great Flood will soon be at hand. The half-breed will join in communion with our Queen and together they will give rise to the Land Walkers. This new breed of Chadassa will stride across Twilight, slaying all in their path and when they reach the mountains at the edge of the world they will tear open the very earth. Then the Great Ocean will pour its dark waters into the exposed heart of this world and unleash the power of the Flood! All reality will be bathed in the waters of the Great Ocean and the Chadassa's empire will know no ends."

  For all the certainties contained in his proclamations Belck was somewhat dismayed that he still felt an edge of doubt. It was the same doubt he had felt at the summoning ceremony, when the dark face of their God had been revealed to them. In fact, he realised, it was a doubt that had been with him for a very long time.

  Belck had studied the ancient texts. He had listened to the council of the elders and born witness to their testimony concerning the work of their God amongst them. But when they had started to talk about the purpose of the Great Ocean and His plans for the Chadassa, Belck had begun to feel a flaw begin to work its way through his faith.

  After all, who were they to say what the Great Ocean's purpose really was?

  In all the times that Belck had communed with the God he had sensed nothing to link him to that consciousness, nothing that said to him: 'I have created you for a greater purpose and for a greater glory.'

  There was only that dark, terrible presence. Older than Belck could ever imagine, and unknowable.

  Those who had led the Chadassa before Belck had accepted the presence of the Great Ocean without question. They praised him and expected nothing in return. They had spent their lives preaching from the ancient texts just as they had been set down and prophesying the time of the Great Flood, which they had known would happen long after they died. And so, they had never had to come face to face with the reality of the God himself. They had never had to stare into that dark and pitted surface and wonder what the realisation of the prophesies would bring.

  But Belck let none of this doubt taint his proclamations.

  "He is the Great Ocean. Brothers and Sisters, gaze upon the face of your God."

  Above them the ceiling of the temple rippled, as though they were looking up at the surface of a vast pool. And then, they were staring into the face of Kerberos. Yet the azure disk was marred by a dark tumour and, as the Chadassa realised that this black sphere was the face of their God, they raised their voices in song.

  As Belck joined his congregation, he wondered if any of them actually really knew what the Great Flood was. Whether any of them could say that they truly knew what the plans of their God meant for them.

  Belck couldn't.

  And that scared him more than anything.

  Ever since Kelos had shown Silus how to open his mind to the creatures of the sea, he had been awa
re of the abundance of life that moved beneath them. But it was not the only life he could sense now and he soon realised that the urgent whisper that he had been hearing, that seemed to underlie everything, came not from the sea, but from Katya's womb.

  Katya clutched Silus's hand as a contraction gripped her. It was the second in the last hour and he could tell that she was beginning to panic.

  "Not long now and I promise that you'll have something more stable than the deck of a ship beneath you."

  "I really hope so. I have a feeling that this one isn't going to want to hang around."

  Silus knew. The urgent whisper had grown in volume. In fact, the voice was so clear now that he could tell that they were going to have a son.

  Katya breathed deeply as the pain passed. She looked exhausted and Silus wished that he could take away the fear that he saw in her eyes.

  "You should get some sleep," he said. "You've gone through more than any expectant mother should endure. But when our son is -"

  "We're going to have a son? Silus, how do you know?"

  "I... I can hear him. He's speaking to us."

  "Like you could hear the creature that's towing the ship?"

  "Something like that."

  "What's he's saying?"

  "It's not words I can hear, so much as the voice of his urgency. He's almost ready to come into the world."

  "How can you hear these things Silus? Where did this power come from?"

  "I don't know. It just seems to have been awoken somehow."

  "You're changing?"

  Silus thought of the vision that the Chadassa ancient had shown him and the vision of the battle at the underwater citadel, how he had felt the joy of the fight overtake him.

  "I'm still me," he said and kissed Katya's forehead. "Still the fisherman from Nürn you fell for."

  But something about the look that Katya gave him told Silus that she was no longer so sure.

  Katya's waters broke on the third day after they had harnessed the ship to the leviathan, and Silus immediately went into a state of full-blown panic. Fortunately Father Maylan had helped deliver children in his parish on many an occasion and was fully conversant in dealing with fearful new fathers.

  "First thing Silus - and this is very important - drink this."

  Silus took the bottle of flummox and necked half the contents. Beside him Katya shot her husband a filthy look.

  "In case of emergency drink first huh?" she said. "Great advice. I'd always wanted to give birth on a ship with a half-cut husband by my side."

  "Now Katya, don't say anything you don't mean," Maylan said, before rolling up his sleeves.

  "Okay, in that case I won't say I wished that Silus had never met Kelos and that I wished we'd never been forced onto this voyage."

  Silus gripped Katya's hand and kissed her on the forehead. "I'm so sorry Katya. Father Maylan will see us through this. Don't worry."

  Katya screamed as another contraction hit and Silus looked at the priest, urging him to do something.

  Maylan knelt down and hooked a pair of spectacles over his ears. "Oh yes, all quite normal down here I can assure you. Nothing to worry about at all. Now Katya, I want you to start to push... now."

  Silus cried out in pain at the same time as his wife, as his hand was crushed in her grip.

  "That's it Katya. Breathe. Breathe. Breathe."

  Father Maylan did something with his hands and Silus was alarmed to see him wipe blood off them a moment later. The priest caught the panicked look on Silus's face and shot him a reassuring smile. "Really Silus, don't worry. The blood is all part of it. You're going to have to get used to a certain level of mess. All part of the magic of childbirth."

  "Magic!" Katya shouted. "I'm sure you wouldn't say that if you were in my position."

  "Don't worry Katya. We'll soon be there. And another big push. One, two, push."

  The sweat was pouring off Katya now and Silus brushed the hair out of her eyes. Every time she screamed out, every time she had to give another push his heart lurched and a terror gripped him that something would go wrong. He knew women who had died giving birth. Strong, healthy women. And here was Katya, miles out at sea with not a midwife overseeing proceedings, but a priest on the run from the Final Faith.

  The ship shuddered and the light coming in through the porthole dimmed as the sun moved behind Kerberos.

  "That's it, I can see the head. Another big push now Katya."

  The ship lurched again and Maylan stumbled into the wall. Above them the lamp swung wildly on its fastening and the flame within died.

  And then Silus and Katya's son gave voice to his arrival in the world.

  Maylan got to his feet and staggered over to Katya. He reached between her legs, urging her to push one more time as the cries of the infant grew in volume.

  "You've done it Katya," Silus said. "We have a son. My gods, we have a son!"

  "You do indeed," said Maylan, a grin on his face, holding aloft the child, his arms coated in birthing fluids.

  After cutting the umbilical cord he gave the boy to Katya. The child struggled in her arms for just a moment, until she helped him find her breast, and then the only sound in the room was the gentle, content sound of his suckling.

  Silus looked at their boy and, instantly, it was love. In Katya's eyes was the self same look.

  Father Maylan was the first to break the quiet.

  "And have you thought of a name for the wee chap?"

  Katya looked up at Silus and he said: "Zac. His name is Zac."

  "Zac," she repeated as though trying it out. And then: "Yes. Zac."

  "Congratulations. Both of you."

  "Maylan. I really can't thank you enough." Katya said.

  From above them there was the thunder of feet on deck. Silus heard ropes creak as somebody scrambled up the rigging.

  And then there was the call they had so desperately been hoping for these last few days.

  "Land Ahoy!"

  Chapter Fifteen

  The city sat atop a rock plateau, supported by the sheer walls of iron green cliffs rising from the sea.

  As the leviathan drew them closer, Dunsany could see something moving down the cliffs. He focused his telescope and what he saw just didn't make sense

  What he had taken to be walls of green stone were in fact the sides of a vast wall of water. The city was not supported by a series of cliffs but, instead, was riding on the crest of an enormous wave, frozen in the moment just before it would have fallen into an avalanche of frothing surf. And the things descending the wave, moving swiftly down its vertiginous sides, were ships.

  The leviathan brought them to the foot of the wave and the ship keeled to port as they stopped side-on to the water. The creature gave a great shudder and expelled a plume of spray. As it let out a bellowing call, Kelos moved to the prow and looked down.

  "It's time to part ways with our friend. Ignacio, Jacquinto, give me a hand with these ropes."

  Together they unharnessed the creature from the Llothriall.

  It didn't leave immediately. Instead, it regarded them for a moment with its many eyes, running its tentacles over the Llothriall - one briefly brushing against Kelos - before it turned and swam away. They watched as the creature submerged, its great tail the last to disappear in a crash of spray.

  "It's a shame Silus wasn't here to say goodbye," Dunsany said.

  "Goodbye to whom?" Silus said, emerging from below, followed by Maylan.

  "The whale thing just swam away." Ignacio said. "It sends its regards."

  "I have some news. Katya has given birth to our son. Zac."

  "A healthy baby boy I'm pleased to say." Father Maylan said.

  "Congratulations!" Dunsany said. "That's terrific. I'd propose a toast but I fear that we may not have time to drink it before those ships are upon us."

  "What ships?" Maylan said.

  "Look up."

  "Gods! What is this?"

  The ships were almost on them, sailing
down the vertical drop as though gravity was none of their concern. There were four vessels, simple in design, looking much like Allantian trading ships.

  As Dunsany watched their approach, his sense of perspective suddenly shifted and - for one vertiginous moment - he felt that he was about to fall out of the Llothriall and towards the ships. The horizon spun and he could no longer tell which was sky, sea or the ship beneath him. He closed his eyes and when he opened them again, he forced himself to look at the planks below his feet and - taking deep breaths - willed his world to be the right way up.

  "Are you alright?" Silus said.

  "Fine. Fine. It's just that you don't see something that doesn't make sense everyday."

  "Ho there!" Came a call, and they looked up to see the prow of a ship not more than twenty feet above their heads. "What seas have you traversed to find yourselves at Morat?"

  What seas? Dunsany thought. What does he mean what seas? Surely there are only these seas?

  "The Twilight seas," he said.

  "Twilight must be very far away indeed, for it is not a place I have heard of."

  "You are on Twilight. This is Twilight."

  "No friend, this is Morat."

  "Look," said Jacquinto. "Wherever we are, our ship has been damaged and we need shelter while we try repairing her."

  "Of course, tie on and we'll guide you to port."

  A rope dropped down and Jacquinto and Ignacio secured it to the Llothriall.

  "Sorry, one moment." Dunsany said, as they made preparations to unfurl the sails. "How are we supposed to follow them to port? I don't know whether you've noticed but we are at the foot of a vertical wall of water. How are we supposed to traverse that?"

  "An interesting argument friend," said the man above them. "But to my eyes, it is your vessel that is clinging to the side of a sheer wall."

  "You know what?" Ignacio said. "I think we should just go with this. If you begin to question it, it may hurt your brain."

  "Okay. Okay." Dunsany said. "Bring us about."

  As they brought the ship round to face the wall, the rope tying them to the vessel above pulled taught and Dunsany was convinced that they would be dragged into the wave, crushed beneath the weight of all that water. Instead, there was another moment of intense vertigo as the horizon tilted. Kerberos wheeled in an arc across the sky and, as it tumbled past him, Dunsany thought he saw a dark spec moving across its face. He closed his eyes against a sudden, dizzy nausea and when he opened them again, they were sailing across calm waters.