Engines of the Apocalypse

thing of indeterminate shape, a storm cloud streak that moved at breakneck speed, whose outlines writhed before the eye. A shifting, octopus-like morass and an insane blur at the same time, as seemingly insubstantial as shadow as it shot straight at Makennon and whipped back towards the tunnel, wrapping about her as it did, absorbing her in its mass and carrying her away. In that instant — and only that instant — it was almost identifiable, as a black carriage drawn by wild-eyed, snorting horses from the pits. A moment later the shape and Katherine Makennon with it were gone.

'Farking hell,' Kali said, as the image from the sphere flickered and died.

Gabriella DeZantez was a little more controlled. 'What in the name of the Lord was that?'

'Interesting, isn't it?' Freel said. 'All I can say is that it — and the preceding events — were repeated at twelve other locations across the peninsula. And in each case the leader of that community was taken by that… thing.'

'By previous events, I presume you mean the attack from the soul-stripped?' Kali said.

Fitch looked surprised. 'You know of the First Enemy?'

The First Enemy, Kali thought. Only the more senior of the Final Faith called him that, those who remembered. DeZantez seemed not to be one of them, and so for her sake -

'Why don't you remind me, Fitch?'

Fitch shrugged. 'The result of a conceit of the first Anointed Lord, Jeremiah Nectus Dunn. He mistakenly believed the teachings of the Faith could be taken to the farthest reaches of our empi… of the land.'

'The Sardenne Forest you mean.'

Fitch nodded. 'But Dunn was wrong. The people who live in that forsaken hinterland have greater things to fear than the Lord of All, as our people discovered to their cost.'

'My, my, Querilous Fitch, that's almost blasphemous,' Kali chided.

Fitch could have been talking about any of the multifarious creatures that called the Sardenne home, and it would have served Dunn's missionaries right if they had encountered them and not come home as a result. But he wasn't talking about them, she knew. It wasn't the bogarts and beasties of the great forest coming out of there that they had to worry about — the assault on Scholten Cathedral was far too coordinated for them. This was without doubt the work of the one ruling intelligence that called the Sardenne home. In an area called Bellagon's Rip.

Most people called him the Pale Lord.

'He was the first serious resistance our Church encountered,' Fitch continued. 'A sorcerer of power unprecedented, then and now. He found the presence of our people in the forest — in his forest — distasteful, and made that distaste abundantly clear. Those who 'survived' the encounter remain with him, I imagine, to this day. In the end the Faith and he made a truce. The Sardenne would be left alone and, unless we attempted to return, so would we.'

Kali nodded. It was pleasing to see that some things made Fitch sweat as profusely as his victims. But with good reason. In Pontaine, at least, the Pale Lord had become something of a bogeyman. A necromancer by the name of Bastian Redigor, he had been banished from civilisation long ago and had retreated into exile in the depths of the Sardenne Forest, whereafter occasional sightings of his almost albino features and tall, thin, cloaked figure — who never seemed to age — had earned him the nickname of 'the Pale Lord.' It was what the Pale Lord did during these sightings, however, that had earned him his fearful reputation over the years. People near to the forest began to disappear, first in ones and twos and then in ever increasing numbers. If these people were ever seen again it was as a fleeting form glimpsed among the trees, empty and grey and engaged in mysterious business. These people had become slaves of the Pale Lord — he had taken their souls for purposes unknown — and they became known as the 'soul-stripped.' As the years had passed, more and more had been taken — the soul-stripped themselves taking people on their Lord's behalf — so much so that unruly children were sent to bed with a promise that, if they did not behave, the Lord or his growing army of minions would come to 'kiss them' and take them away into the night.

Oh yes, Kali knew that, because she'd been one of those children who'd lain awake night after night, peeking out fearfully from under the sheets. Thankfully, rather than turn her into a gibbering wreck, it had eventually instilled in her a curiosity for the unexplained that had defined the rest of her life.

But why, after all these years, and as the Faith hadn't returned to the Sardenne, was the Pale Lord attacking them?

And how the hells had he been able to do what he did?

'I thought your tunnels were shielded,' she said. 'Weaved so powerfully nothing, not even the Pale Lord, could get through.'

'They are. Or rather, were. The shields collapsed before the assault began. Just vanished. As, incidentally, did the abilities of every mage or shadowmage in the complex.'

Kali's eyes narrowed suspiciously. 'Vanished how?'

'We don't know. They just — '

'Fizzled out,' Kali finished, and sighed. 'Just like Quinking's Depths.'

'Quinking's Depths?'

'Below Solnos,' Kali said absently. 'The same thing happened there.'

'Then I imagine you're thinking that the reason the shields collapsed is related to the appearance of the machines near Solnos. And you would be right. But only partly so.'

'Oh?'

'Those machines are not the only ones of their kind. There are three groups of them.'

'What?'

Fitch moved to a map of the peninsula, pointing out three locations. 'Three groups of three machines rising from beneath the ground at precisely the same time. Their appearance was reported to us by our senders, just before their abilities… left them.'

Kali hesitated. 'Wait one minute. Are you trying to tell me this phenomena is peninsula-wide? That magic has been cancelled out everywhere?'

'Yes. Our theory is that these machines have been activated from some central location by forces of the Pale Lord for just that purpose. It is with this that we need your help.'

Kali folded her arms. 'I thought that's where I might come in. You want me to find out where this location is and shut these things down right?'

Fitch nodded. 'Only then would we have an effective defence against the First Enemy. Only then would we be able to effect a rescue of the Anointed Lord.'

'And the others who were taken, of course…'

'Of course.'

'Okaaay,' Kali said. 'And just what do you lot do in the meantime?'

'Try and find out more about what the Pale Lord is planning,' Freel said. 'To that end I ordered an Eye of the Lord despatched to the Sardenne.'

Kali was impressed. She doubted very much that such a course of action would even have occurred to Fitch, who could think of nothing to do with his new toys other than spy on his flock.

Sometimes you just needed to think, as it were, outside the collection box.

'Show me,' Kali said.

'I will,' Freel reassured her. 'But the journey to and from the Sardenne takes time. We expect the Eye's return in the next couple of hours.' The enforcer shrugged, half-smiled and spread his arms. 'In the meantime, I suggest you make yourself at home.'

Chapter Six

Make yourself at home, Freel had said. How exactly did you do that in the bosom of the most intolerant religion the peninsula had ever seen? Kali had contemplated popping upstairs to do a few numbers with the Eternal Choir — maybe something with a bit of a beat — or perhaps sneaking into Makennon's quarters to grab herself a nice, hot bath, but she didn't want to give Fitch a chance to