Engines of the Apocalypse

spending the rest of eternity as some three-handed, twenty-fingered thing.'

'Be a bit more optimistic. We might end up joined at the groin.'

'Yeah?'

'Dammit, we are not going to end up either way, okay?' Kali said, but Slowhand still seemed unconvinced. 'Fine then. Go by yourself.'

'If we end up on a different planet…'

Kali had had enough, and pushed him through the portal. She materialised beside the archer a second later, turning away quickly when she saw him looking down and squeezing himself unashamedly. She looked up; the pillar of souls was considerably closer. The portal had worked.

Spurred by their success, another portal followed, and another, and another after that, by which time the party had progressed so far into the Sardenne that Kali was certain she could smell the faint tang of the long burnt-out shell of the Spiral of Kos. The forest felt different from when she'd fled the explosions that had destroyed the Old Race site, however, wildlife still conspicuously absent. What had been a vital, if life-threatening, region of the forest back then now felt abandoned, as if every participant of its predatorial food chain had deferred to a far greater appetite and retreated into caves and broad burrows, or beneath large stones. Even those creatures who hunted not for food but fun had disappeared. The worst thing was, Kali sensed it was neither the soul-stripped or Redigor that had caused this, but something else.

She had to admit to being quite relieved when Gabriella DeZantez joined her at the front of the ranks. The Enlightened One was fully armoured once more and recovered from Fitch's attack. They walked together in silence for a while, but then Kali found herself broaching a subject that just had to be broached.

'That fireball thing last night. You feel like telling me what that was about?'

'I wondered how long it would take you to ask.'

'Well, hey, a fireball brushed off as easily as a nibble from a worgle? People tend to notice such things.'

'Does anyone ever interrogate you about the things you can do?'

'Things?'

I saw you in action in the library, remember? And some of the eye witness accounts of your exploits in your file — well, let's just say they raised eyebrows.'

Kali faltered. 'Generally I try not to show off.'

'Show off what?'

'I wish I knew.'

Gabriella seemed genuinely surprised. 'You don't know?'

'Hells, no.'

'And yet you always seem to show up where your abilities are most useful. Almost as if it were — '

'Don't say it,' Kali interrupted. 'Predestined? Well, if it is, I wish to gods someone would tell me, because believe me, all I do is make it up as I go along.'

The two of them lapsed into silence again. But only briefly.

'It's happened before,' Gabriella admitted. 'In Solnos. A fireball full in the face and… and nothing. There was another time, too, when I was a child, in some ruins south of Andon. We… that is, my friends and I, used to play there.'

Kali's eyebrows rose. 'The Seventeen Steps? Every level is an inaccessible deathtrap.'

Gabriella nodded. 'Because of the Dust Curtains.'

'So named because they strip to the bones anyone who comes within fifty feet. I've been trying to crack them for two years.'

'Not me.'

'I'm sorry?'

'The Dust Curtains. I walked right through them.' Gabriella took a slow breath. 'My friends didn't react well to that and it wasn't long after I signed up for the Swords of Dawn.'

Kali felt her heart thud. After all her efforts, all she should have wanted to ask was what lay beyond the Dust Curtains but what DeZantez had just admitted to her was a revelation that made the secrets of the Seventeen Steps utterly insignificant. She turned to face Gabriella, and grabbed her by the shoulders.

'Are you trying to tell me you're immune to magic?'

Gabriella swallowed. 'I guess I am.'

'Hells.'

'Hells? That's all you have to say?'

'What do you expect me to say or do?' Kali hissed. 'Abandon you like your friends — turn you into some kind of freak, outcast, pariah? We're more alike than that, remember?'

Gabriella stared at her, then nodded. 'And I'm not sure we're the only ones.'

'What?'

Gabriella sighed, but it seemed a relieved sigh because she could finally talk to someone about what she knew. 'I told you I sneaked a look at your file in the Faith record but what I didn't tell you was that next to it I found one on me too. And two others.'

'What the hells are you talking about?'

'Two other files, each relating in some detail the strange abilities of their owners. A thief based in Turnitia, by the name of Lucius Kane. And another, a mariner called Silus Morlader.'

'Kane?' Kali said. 'I met him. He was something more than your average thief.'

'Exactly. And from what I read, this Silus isn't your average fisherman, either. You heard anything about him?'

Kali shook her head.

'Apparently, he now commands a ship by the name of the Llothriall. A ship stolen from the Final Faith. What's more, the Llothriall is an — '

'Elven ship,' Kali finished.

Gabriella shrugged. 'I suppose the clue's in the name.'

'Not really. I found the plans for it.' Kali sighed. 'This world gets smaller every day.'

'I don't understand.'

Kali paused. 'What if I told you that a year or so ago I had an encounter with something beneath the waves? Some form of water dweller, who spoke to me in my head. Mind to mind.'

'Water dweller?' Gabriella said.

'Water dweller,' Kali repeated. 'Most of what it said was couched in riddles, about it being part of the Before, the After. But it also spoke about a group of people known as 'the four'.'

'The Four?'

''Four known to us. Four unknown to each other. Four who will be known to all.' That was what it said.'

'And you know what that means?'

'Haven't the remotest idea. But it's one pretty big coincidence, don't you think?' Kali paused, frowned. Despite her reservations about discussing the subject with Gabriella, the situation had clearly changed and she deserved to know something more. 'In fact, it's two.'

'Two?'

'Tharnak, the dwelf creature I encountered in the Crucible, also spoke of 'four.' In his case, of four humans who were being prepared to travel to Kerberos — alive, that is.'

'In that ship you found? But why?'

'To save the world, I think. The point is, these four had been changed, altered, somehow physically manipulated so they could survive the journey. Their abilities had been enhanced.'

'Surely you're not suggesting…'

'Gabriella, I'm not sure what I'm suggesting — but what I know is the Faith is keeping files on you, me, and two others. Four. The question is, why?'

The Enlightened One was silent for a second, then said, 'Maybe the person who holds the halo versions of the files has the answer.'

'Halo versions?'

'Faith security classification. Halo files contain additional information. More