The Crucible of the Dragon God

by Mike Wild

  Speaking of time, she had estimated that at their current rate of progress it would take The Mole about two days to navigate the canals beneath the Anclas Territories. Not as quick as other methods that might have gotten her to the Drakengrats but the only one she had.

  When her unwanted passengers had joined her she'd imagined the journey was going to be interminable but Aldrededor had, in fact, turned out to be amusing company, sharing more of his tales from the high seas. As pleasant company as he was, however, the same had not turned out to be the case with Dolorosa.

  Crammed behind them in the cabin, not only was her habit of smoking cragweed cheroots sending the air scrubbers into overdrive, but it had not taken long for her to start complaining that she was suffering badly from the bone-ache. This was only one of, what turned out to be, a series of complaints. Interruptions that included frequent prods in the back accompanied by suggestions of which way to turn, whether to slow down or speed up and, on occasion, louder cries of "stupid-woman-watcha-out-forra-that-bump ahead." There had also been repeated questions along the lines of "Are we there yet?" Last but not least, she had emitted an ear-piercing shriek when she had discovered there was a dried dwarf's head beneath her seat. This then promptly, and unexpectedly, ended up on Kali's lap, causing screeches from both she and Aldrededor and reducing everyone to a nervous wreck. Admittedly, Kali had forgotten about the head, and she might have given Dolorosa that one were it not for what happened next.

  Dolorosa leaned forward and whispered something in Aldrededor's ear, but it was just loud enough for her to hear.

  "You want what?"

  "She wishes to answer the call of nature," Aldrededor whispered diplomatically. "To powder her wart. To enhance the realm of the gods of the sea..."

  "I know what she means, Aldrededor! But hells, woman - can't it wait?"

  "Eet issa the shock of this theeng, eet has sent my plumbing into spasm," Dolorosa objected, pointing at the dwarf's head and shaking her own. "No, I can notta hold it any longer. I warna you, Kali Hooper."

  "Fark, haven't you got a bottle or something?" Kali said with exasperation.

  "I cannotta - and willa notta - tinkle while you listen!"

  It wasn't a thought that appealed much to Kali, either, and the fact was she doubted she could last two days. "All right, all right!" she said, sighing heavily. She squinted through the observation slat, looking for a suitable parking space and then, with a grinding of levers, brought The Mole to a stop. The hatch hissed open. "Go. But don't go far and make it quick."

  "Actually, I too might..." Aldrededor said hesitantly, then smiled and shrugged.

  "Pirates!" Kali cursed as the two squeezed by her. She sat there for a second, looking out of the hatch, and then thought what the hells, let's have a look. It was a good excuse for her to stretch her legs, anyway.

  Trying to ignore the conspicuous head of Dolorosa behind a pile of debris and a whistling and flexing Aldrededor against the wall in the opposite direction, Kali stepped out onto the bank of the canal and took her first good look around since they had entered the network. She tried not to breathe in too deeply because, frankly, whether they were in an ancient wonder or not, the Lost Canals of Turnitia stank to the high clouds, worse even than a sludgestrider's socks. The reason for that was possibly as a result of its collapsed sections or simply because it had been long unmaintained. But whatever the cause, the whole system of canals had stagnated. Not only did thick moss - glistening and pungent - cover the walls of the tunnels like a thick skin, but the canals themselves seemed not to be filled with seawater but dark green vegetation. The entire surface looked thick enough to walk on. Despite all that, though - and something beeg or not - the arches that led off into tunnels in the distance pulled at Kali but, again, she knew that now was not the time. She looked towards Aldrededor and Dolorosa, willing them to hurry up, but while the former was already nearing her with a sigh and declaration of how much better for that he felt, the latter had not moved from behind her pile of debris. In fact, she seemed to be waving at her to join her with quite some desperation.

  Gods, Kali thought. What now?

  "I amma stuck," Dolorosa confessed as she neared. "My feet, they havva become caught in the weeds."

  Kali took a step forward and then stopped. "Are you decent?" she said warily.

  Dolorosa gave her one of her killer looks. "I amma stuck, notta the senile old bat, Kali Hooper."

  "Sorry. Okay then, let's see what I can do."

  Kali clambered over the debris and saw that the thin woman was indeed entangled in a mesh of aquatic weed, but nothing that couldn't be handled. She pulled her gutting knife from its sheath and began to cut at it with sawing strokes. The growth was larger than it looked, part of a mass that had climbed the wall of the tunnel itself. It took quite some effort and a number of tugs from both of them to free it. Unfortunately, when at last it did come free, it did so unexpectedly quickly. Kali found herself suddenly flying backwards towards the canal, plunging through the algae covered surface. She emerged safe, however, and gagging and choking, swam to the side and waded back out, her hand outstretched to Dolorosa for help.

  "You arra the mess once more," Dolorosa declared as she heaved her up. "We cannota take-a you anywhere."

  "Hey!" Kali objected, loudly. "It was you that -"

  Kali stopped in mid-sentence and then, as Dolorosa started to protest, hushed her with a wave of the hand.

  Without another word, Kali began to walk forward, gazing up, and Dolorosa gazed where she gazed, and gasped.

  Because the mass of weed that they had pulled away had had a knock on effect on the weed that covered the tunnel wall, and part of that now lay exposed for the first time in no one knew how long.

  And it was covered in symbols. Great, golden symbols from some iconography that Kali had never seen before. She pulled away more of the growth and the symbols seemed to go on for as far as the wall did.

  "Gods of the Sea," Aldrededor breathed, joining them.

  "What arra those? Do they belong to one of your olda races, like those, what issa it they arra called - dwelfs?"

  "Elfs, Dolorosa. I mean elves. There were two races, elves and dwarves, tall and thin and short and bulky, not difficult to tell apart. But these don't belong to either of them."

  "So, you arra saying there is a third race?"

  "No... maybe... I don't know. It's just that..."

  Kali trailed off, running her fingers over one of the symbols, generating a strange keening vibration as she touched the metal. This she ignored, more concerned that she was tracing a familiar pattern, even though she hadn't seen the symbols before now. One of the shapes was a dead ringer for the creature she had encountered in the murky waters beneath Martak - the strange, water-breathing life form that had known all about her.

  "Boss lady?" Dolorosa said, prodding her.

  "Hush, woman!" Kali snapped.

  She wouldn't normally have been so short with her but her mind had suddenly gone into overdrive. Fish symbols here? she was thinking. But if that was the case that probably meant that fish people had built these canals. But why in the hells would fish people want a set of tunnels that stretched everywhere under the peninsula? What purpose would they have served? What did the fish people want here?

  "Boss lady?"

  "I thought I said -" Kali began, spinning on her, and then stopped.

  Because she suddenly realised that Dolorosa hadn't been trying to interrupt her, she'd been trying to alert her. Something was coming. Something big.

  Not that they could see anything, yet. It only manifested itself in the form of a distant roar. The surface of the canal had begun to undulate, like a tide coming in their direction, as if something massive had stirred it.

  "Both of you get inside The Mole. Now!"

  Dolorosa stood her ground. "I may have letta you down at the Flagons but do notta worry," she said, slipping her stiletto from her boot. "Whatever thees theeng is, I will - heeeeeeeee!"

/>   The tall, thin woman made a sound like an expiring goose then promptly fainted, fortunately straight into her husband's waiting arms, who then swept her up and did as Kali had instructed. Kali herself remained where she stood for a second longer, just enough time to take in what had prompted Dolorosa's abrupt departure from consciousness.

  What she saw was not the creature itself but the creature announcing its presence with its shadow as it emerged from a side channel far up the branch. A shadow that, despite the distance, filled the arched thoroughfare completely, looming like a fast approaching night.

  Make that Long Night, Kali thought. Because the shadow went on and on and on.

  There was another deafening roar and the tunnel began to pound and shake, as if the unseen creature were slamming itself against the sides of the canal in fury. And then, fleetingly, she did see it, emerging from the water, to flash at incredible speed up and around the roof of the tunnel, negotiating a full three hundred and sixty degrees before it reached the other side and slipped beneath the surface again. Not all of it disappeared at once, though and, briefly, its long shadow flitted here, there and everywhere, impossible to keep track of, before then it, too, disappeared. Kali suddenly found herself awash with the canal's sluggish water all the way up to her chest.

  It was coming right at them under the water.

  "Two-Faced Bob called it the yhang-dor!" Aldrededor shouted as Kali waded as quickly as she could towards The Mole. "He thought it was elvish for 'That which never ends.'"

  "Actually, it just means big bastard!" Kali shouted back as she forced herself forward against the wash. She stared at the bobbing ridge of weed and algae moving disturbingly fast down the centre of the canal, realised she couldn't see its end, and swallowed. "Aldrededor, get The Mole moving, now!"

  "Kali Hooper, you will not make i -"

  "I'll make it, Aldrededor! Do it!"

  Aldrededor sighed and the Mole began to move forward, slowly at first, fighting against the wash, but gradually picking up speed.

  Kali stopped wading and threw herself into a crawl, head splashing left and right, spitting out small clumps of weed and algae as she swam. She was about a yard from the tail end of The Mole and she doubled her efforts to reach it with a grunt of exertion. She managed, with one stroke, to grab onto a rail on the vehicle's rear. Kali looked back and couldn't shake the feeling that the monster was going to swallow the lower half of her legs at any second.

  Desperately, she twisted in the water and managed to grab a second handhold before heaving herself up onto the body of The Mole. The surface of the vehicle was slick beneath her feet and she slipped twice, each time looking back to see how much space they had - or hadn't - gained on the yhang-dor. The Mole seemed to be holding its own for the moment, but they really needed to get the vehicle out of the wash to escape its drag, because the thing seemed to become more determined with each second they eluded its clutches.

  She looked up and saw that there was a rise in the bank up ahead, and hoped that Aldrededor had noticed the same thing. Thankfully, the ex-pirate proved to be as reliable as always and, a second later, The Mole veered up the bank, its tracks churning and sloughing liquid and weed as they went. Kali threw herself through the open hatch of the vehicle.

  Aldrededor immediately swapped places with her, allowing Kali to take control of the levers, but not before activating the one to seal the door. Before it closed something long and serpent-like hove into view outside the hatch, overtaking The Mole. Suddenly, all that was visible through the observation slat was what appeared to be a large reptilian mouth filled with thousands of tiny, razor sharp teeth.

  Oh no, Kali thought. One bloody great gob trying to eat me is enough for one week, thanks very much.

  Kali quickly yanked and pushed levers, a combination of moves that threw The Mole into a skidding u-turn and shook the cabin, awakening Dolorosa just as the rear end of The Mole slammed into the body of their pursuer, before racing off in the opposite direction. Except that racing wasn't quite the right word. Because even though they were once more free of the drag effect of the canal water, The Mole was a machine built for tunnelling, not for speed. Only the fact that the lengthy creature seemed to need a few seconds to literally catch up with itself bought them distance. The trouble was, that distance would be eaten up in seconds. Kali decided to use the only advantage they had and steered the Mole towards where a number of branch junctions left the main canal. She hoped to use them and subsequent branches to stymie the creature's manoeuvrability, constantly shifting position to lose it in the maze of tunnels. But to do that she'd need to know the creature's location at all times.

  "Dolorosa, open the rear slat. I need you to keep an eye on that thing."

  "Whatta theeng?" Dolorosa said, shakily attempting to light a cheroot.

  "The bloody great theeng outside!"

  "Eeet was real?"

  "Yes, Dolorosa."

  "Eeet ees following us?"

  "Yes, Dolorosa."

  "Heeeeeeeeeee..."

  "Oh, crap. Aldrededor?"

  "I am doing it, Kali Hooper," Aldrededor said, climbing over his seat to stub out the cheroot and flip the observation slat. "My beloved," he said by way of apology, "she had the embarrassing experience with a large slithering thing many years ago."

  "I'm betting I don't want to know the details, right?"

  "You are correct, Kali Hooper."

  "Hokay. Where is the bastard?"

  "It has just finished turning towards us. Moving now."

  "Then hang on - we're going right."

  Kali spun the Mole, skewing it as she tried to eke as much speed as possible from the machine.

  "Where is it now?"

  "Turning into the junction. It does not look pleased."

  "I don't care if it's suicidal. Aldrededor?"

  "Still with us and gaining, Kali Hooper."

  Kali spun the Mole into another u-turn.

  "Turning left again, straight on, right," she warned her shaken passengers. "Sharp left, coming up... now!"

  "Kali Hooper, what is this thing?" Aldrededor asked, clinging on. "Despite the tale of Two-Faced Bob, I do not recognise it as a serpent of the sea."

  Neither did Kali. She'd seen a couple of such beasts in her time and this resembled neither of them, reminding her more of some worm than any subaquatic behemoth. From what detail she had managed to see, the thing was certainly the shape of one, though covered, along its considerable and most unworm like length, with a thick coating of barbed bristles that appeared not only to give it traction on any surface to which it adhered but also propelled it along. From the amount of collisions it was shrugging off, it had to be quite hardy. She imagined that beneath the bristles there was a protective coating that was more shell than skin. Its bulk was another thing. No creature designed like this should be as big or as wide as it was. Kali was starting to suspect that the k'nid were not the only unnatural creatures she had encountered in the past few days. Its whole physical make-up and the fact that it had seemed to first be drawn to them when she had touched the symbols on the wall had actually begun to make her wonder whether the creature had not always been such as it was. Perhaps once upon a time it had been some tool of the tunnels' builders - a life form that kept their canals clean and navigable, perhaps - but, in the unimaginable length of time since they had become sealed and disused, it had nurtured itself on what it had once removed, mutating as it did into what they faced now. In that case, in a sense, it had every right to not look pleased, because it had lived here longer than humans had walked the peninsula. This was its home.

  Kali was suddenly flung against the control panel as the Mole was impacted hard from the rear. Outside, there was a loud roar that sounded almost like one of triumph.

  "Aldrededor?"

  "Apologies, Kali Hooper. A sudden spurt of speed. It seems our friend is becoming more adept at the chase."

  "Then let him chase this,"

  Kali said, gritting her teeth. Sudde
nly she was pushing and pulling the levers as if she had used them all her life. The Mole started to buck wildly as she threw it through a number of accelerations, decelerations, sudden twists and skidding turns that the unwieldy creature could not possibly hope to keep up with, screeching at last to a halt in tunnel.

  "Aldrededor?" Kali asked over the stressed rumbling of the engine.

  "No sign, Kali Hooper."

  "Then it looks like we're out of the... oh fark!"

  Kali stared through the observation slat at a branch of the canal that was branchless, stretching ahead of the Mole for as far as its headlights could penetrate, which made it look like forever. And for all she knew, it might go on just that far. In other words, there would be no dodging left or right and no u-turns here. If the creature managed to catch up they would be totally exposed.

  "Kali Hooper?" Aldrededor said again.

  "What, Aldrededor? Can you see anythi -"

  The creature slammed into the side of The Mole and sent it crashing from the bank into the canal, overturning it until its buoyancy righted it once more. In the cabin, Aldrededor clung on to Dolorosa, while Kali squeezed herself tight between seat and control panel. Outside the cabin, the creature roared while the rest of its lengthy form followed its head into the tunnel.

  "Dammit!" Kali shouted, gunning the engine of The Mole, riding it up onto the canal bank. "Doesn't this thing ever stop?"

  Aldrededor sighed. "It is as persistent as my wife's advances and there is no way we can elude it now."

  "Wanna bet?" Kali said.

  She was as fired up as The Mole itself. She rammed her foot to the floor and the vehicle responded by accelerating to the speed it was designed for, even she realised that with their current limitations and circumstances they had no more chance of fleeing their now immediate pursuer than one of the Hells Bellies would have outrunning a shnarl.