The 9th Fortress

dragon's nostrils, spilling over my ankles and covering the surface of this mountain viewpoint.

'She has a cold,' Bludgeon said. 'Poor thing needs a warm drink.'

'She?'

'Her name is Seppuku; her wings wither during winter so she lives with me until spring. She sleeps mostly, but when she wakes we have a bloody grand time smoking and playing cards — she's a hopeless gambler.'

'It… speaks to you?' I stuttered, gawking at the immense claws curving at the end of its fingers; 'you talk to a dragon?'

'She does the talking,' he grinned back. 'Dragons are the wisest of creatures boy, and have a say on every subject!'

The wind raced up my back and I had to shout for my next question to be heard — 'Do I have to fight this dragon? Is that your final exercise?'

'Fight Seppuku?' he laughed. 'Don't be stupid bloody daft! Dragon's are the ultimate predator — her farts could put you in a coma! Unfortunately, their skill makes them a trophy, and they are now an endangered lot. You ever want to become a saint boy, just you murder a dragon!'

'I don't understand…'

'George, Matthew, Martha, Leonard of Noblac — all of them made saints for slaying a dragon! Heaven's superstitious hierarchy loathe serpents of every kind! Hate them! But I'll die before they get their dirty hypocrite hands on this one!'

'Why are you showing me this?' I said, nervous. 'What you want me to do here?'

'When you leave Hell,' he said, still caressing the dozing lizard head; 'Seppuku here will be the first to greet you in the Distinct Earth. I will arrange for her to fly you and whatever baggage you collect to the Waiting Plain. She already has the scent from your old clothes.'

'You have a lot of faith. Expect me to do all that?'

'Course!' he said, insulted. 'I trained you, didn't I?! Now… to the matter of your final exercise.'

Bludgeon stopped stroking Seppuku to wade his hoofs through the sludge. Passing me, he moved toward a wall of hefty looking boulders, where a slim chain dangled down from the ceiling.

'That chain,' he said, aiming his thumb at it. 'I want you to give it a good old tug!'

'My final exercise?' I asked.

'Pull the chain!' he replied, tetchy. 'All will become clear boy. Come.'

Hesitant, I trudged through the mucus, passing Bludgeon to arrive at the chain. It blew against the wind, tempting anyone to have a pull on it.

'Yank speck! Yank it hard!'

My shoulders were strung up to my ears. I had screaming doubts, but no choice; so, wrapping my hand around the chain, I closed my eyes and concentrated on my life support. She would advise me best.

'Go on!' Bludgeon barked, breaking any hope I had of making a link with Missy. 'Go on! Pull!'

Opening myself to the worst, embracing it even, I took one last taste of the sleet then pulled hard on the chain.

Seppuku did not wake to wash me in a hose of flames; instead, the rocky wall began to rise in one piece, like an old James Bond movie. Bludgeon wore a crooked grin as that slab rose with trails of dropping rubble. It stopped suddenly after six feet, revealing another secret behind it.

'What the…' I muttered, squinting into a dismal inlet to something remarkable, someone I never expected to see again — a prisoner — a man. “Who is he?' I asked, leering in.

'Look closer speck! Go on! Closer!'

Thick chains stretched out this man's arms; his eyes were closed but his grunts told me he was alive.

'Can't be,' I whispered, looking past his bruises and dripping blood. 'Not… Kat?!'

Also dressed in a sheet of tarpaulin, this was not the same samurai warrior I last laid eyes on nearly two years ago. He hung here like a circus sideshow, stripped of his strength, dignity, sword, soul and honor.

'What have you done to him Bludgeon? What have you done? He was a giant. You've broken a giant.'

My master could no longer control his good behaviour. 'Giant you say?!' he yelled, voice echoing. 'Giant?! I caught this giant sneaking into my chambers not long after your sorry arse landed at the bottom of my stairs… he shattered my spear and damn near broke my bloody neck!'

I recalled Bludgeon's horribly gashed forehead one evening, and could hardly imagine the ferocity of their scrap.

'Tried to assassinate me!' he roared. 'In my own home!'

My pity for Kat quickly turned to hostility toward the centaur, 'Bullshit!' I argued. 'You’ve got this all wrong!'

'He's a cold blooded killer, on the order of a jealous wizard for my head! Scarfell! The most wretched piece of filth to ever claim the Distinct Earth! Your giant here naively thought the wizard could grant him a wish God could not! The desperate yellow fool!'

'How could you possibly know all that?' I asked, unconvinced. 'How could you?!'

'I was there!' he stated. 'Saw me yourself speck, stared directly at me!'

I took my mind back to that day in the woods. As I lay on the mud, a dead horse by my side and Scarfell's pig army surrounding me, I saw what I thought to be a stag or pony watching events unfolding between the trunks.

'Why didn't you help us? We needed your help!'

'I came to greet you boy — not kill a wizard for you. I was actually curious to see whom I would be training, and it was amusing to see petulance earn you a kick in the teeth! I had to snort back my bloody laughter.'

Bludgeon stomped through the dragon snot to join me in the inlet.

'Wake up yellow man!' he yelled, punching Kat several times in the stomach. 'Wake up! Wake up!'

I grappled Bludgeon's hairy forearm and he ceased. 'Afraid of my fists,' he said, 'you'd lock yourself in your room so the Kat would get that honour.' He shrugged off my hand then pushed me out of the inlet. 'A very strong man is Kat — a highly proficient killer, no doubt about it. You could only dream of reaching his level! Yes, I admit that I've enjoyed beating this assassin to bits; when Seppuku wakes… she will enjoy chewing him to bits.'

Coming round, Kat slunk up and I saw his bloated face covered with fresh cuts and older bruises. He did not seem to register the goings on, not recognizing me or the new me before him. A cold and clear intuition told me what to do next.

'Let him go Bludgeon,' I said, plainly. 'Remove those chains and let him go.'

The masters' brow curved upward, and his beady eye squinted down at me. 'Did you just give me an order speck? Did I hear right? Because if you did… I may as well piss myself!'

I met his stare, determined, serious, and unafraid. 'Kat is leaving this place. We both are, and you won't stop us.'

Bludgeon burst into a hysterical fit of laughter, spraying mouth spittle, but not quite pissing himself. I had heard this hearty howl a hundred times before, a theatrical bawl to an invisible crowd — an unnatural reaction forced from the guts.

'I give the orders speck!' he said, suddenly serious. 'Now… get up those stairs and start on those dishes before I really, really lose my temper!'

'No!' I exclaimed, standing my ground. 'I will not do another God dammed thing for you! Release this man! Or else…'

Bludgeon examined my face, his own on pause for some time.

'Did you hear me?' I said. 'Release him!'

Bludgeon bent forward now, touching noses against mine. 'Over-my-dead-body!' he hissed, his halitosis turning my stomach, but still I held his gaze. The both of us had drawn our lines and made our positions clear — there was only one thing left to do.

Never removing my eye from Bludgeon, I stepped backward into the inlet — and one lock at a time — removed Kat from his bonds. Despite him losing an obvious amount of weight here, I struggled to hold him up when he flopped over me. Thankfully though, Kat responded to my encouraging words with a smearing palm over my chest. Then, as if by a press of a button, the weight came back to his legs and he stood on his own two feet.

'Still stubborn as hell?' I said. 'Come on! We're getting out of here…'