The Crucible of the Dragon God

it was aimed towards the town's walls. He peered into the eyepiece.

'Not k'nid,' he said. 'Not yet.'

'Then what?'

'Take a look.'

The old man stood aside and Kali took a look, focusing on the main gate of the town through which a great many soldiers were marching. Their grey canvas and lace epauletted livery marked them out as Pontaine militia, forces financed by the local land barons as a kind of home guard, and guarding the home was clearly what they seemed to be doing — quite zealously.

Ranks of them were organising the civilians near the gate into small groups, keeping them in place with what seemed the unnecessary threat of their weapons. Unless the militia had suddenly decided to become a dictatorial force, there had to be a reason for their uncharacteristic behaviour. Kali tipped the telescope upward slightly, focusing first not far beyond the town walls, and then further out, at the almost featureless agricultural plains that surrounded Gargas. She could see them stretching away for leagues, or at least would have been able to were it not for the dark fog that covered them like a shroud.

Except it wasn't a fog, she knew. It was the same pack of k'nid she and Horse had become caught up in. If pack was the word to describe the hundreds and hundreds — if not thousands — of them she could see. It was almost as if, en route, the strange creatures had been replicating themselves. She muttered something with four letters under her breath.

'K'nid?' Moon said.

'Oh, yeah. They're here.'

The old man urged her aside and peered into the scope. 'By all the gods, they are fast.'

'Here within the hour, I reckon.'

'Then it's time that we were on the move.'

He walked to a chest in the corner of the attic, opened it and extracted an equipment belt similar to her own, a few unidentifiable odds and ends which he stuffed into his pockets and then a pink, woollen cloak he slung about his shoulders. Kali couldn't help but smile. The old man had been wearing that cloak the day they'd first met and she hadn't seen it since the day he'd retired — and it still stank of Horse. This was beginning to feel a little like old times. As Moon began to descend the stairs she too dug into the chest, extracting a new bodysuit she'd asked him to keep there for emergencies, and quickly slipped it on.

'What about your shop?' she asked as she followed Moon down. 'You know it'll be at the mercy of those bastards.'

'I doubt a thousand k'nid could make much more of a mess of it than you did, young lady.'

Kali reddened. 'For all the Gods' sake, when will you stop treating me like a bloody chil — '

She quietened. There was a soldier at the bottom of the stairs. Another behind him. And another behind him.

'Come with us,' the one at the front said.

'Excuse me?' Merrit Moon responded.

The soldier's face darkened. 'You are ordered to come with us. Now.'

'The shop,' Moon said warningly, 'is closed.'

Kali looked at him, coughed gently and pointed out the front door of the shop which hung buckled and ajar, then a part of the wall which had started to collapse during their battle with the k'nid.

'Actually,' she pointed out, 'I think you could say you were still open.'

'Funny. You know they aren't here to buy things, Kali. They're here to interfere, as their kind always do.'

Kali patted Moon's arm. Much as she shared the old man's healthy disrespect for authority of any kind, there were things going on that they both had to take into consideration — not least the clearly scared and trigger-happy militia. Besides, Moon's temper had become noticeably more fiery since the Thrutt incident and, for obvious reasons, she needed to keep him calm.

She approached the soldier and, despite already knowing what was approaching, asked: 'Why are you here?'

The soldier was blunt and to the point, although a slight bobbing in his throat revealed his nervousness. 'Gargas is now under martial law. A curfew has been imposed and any transgressors will be summarily executed. The population is to be evacuated to Andon.'

'Andon?' Moon said. 'That's ridiculous… madness! The journey will take days!'

'We go with them, old man,' Kali said, to his utmost surprise. 'We go with them. No arguments.'

'Young lady?'

Kali patted his arm again, this time squeezing it softly but reassuringly too. Because watching the militia enter through the town gate she had noticed something that he had not. But now was not the time to share it with him.

'Trust me,' she said after a second. 'We go with them, and we do everything these nice gentlemen say.'

Chapter Six

'Young lady,' Merrit Moon said, with evident disappointment, 'I am very, very surprised. It is most unlike you to capitulate so readily.'

Kali smiled. 'Oh, I'm not capitulating, old man. You know I never do. I'm just looking after our interests. Ours and everyone else's.'

'And how is that exactly?' The old man stared ahead at the snaking line of people, hundreds of them, six abreast, being marched across the plains, then back at an equal number in similar formation behind them. He snarled at the soldiers who marched alongside, effectively herding the people of Gargas like cattle, as they had been doing for hours. 'As I believe I pointed out, this is madness.'

'Old man, I think they're genuinely trying to help,' Kali said placatingly. 'If only to guarantee the land barons next year's taxes. It's just that they've never experienced a situation like this before.'

'As you say. But what the hells are we doing with them?'

'For one thing, there's no way we could have reached the Drakengrats directly — you saw the k'nid swarm yourself. For another, it does take us closer to the mountains, albeit with a slight detour to the south west. But lastly,' she added with a prod, 'it's your best chance to get across the plains with your scowl intact.'

Moon harumphed and stared into the distance. For the moment the horizon was clear but, having seen the speed of the k'nid with his own eyes, he knew that situation could change at any second.

'Horse could have had us to the mountains in three jumps,' he said.

'Maybe, if Horse were up to par,' Kali patted her mount as he plodded alongside, still weak but recovering from his injuries. Green eyes rolled. 'Besides, whether Andon has the best defences in the region or not, I'm a little dubious about the logic of corralling all these people in one place. I want to make sure they're all right.'

Merrit Moon sighed and shook his head, but Kali could tell she'd been forgiven. 'You want to make sure they're all right. An admirable sentiment, but I don't really see what you can do to help and, I repeat, this is madness. Do you honestly think we can avoid the k'nid for the three or four days it will take us to reach Andon?'

'I don't think it's going to take three or four days. Look ahead.'

Maybe a tenth of a league further on, a dust storm was beginning to brew on the plain, vast spirals of flotsam thickening moment by moment. 'Oh, wonderful. We'll be blinded too.'

'I don't mean the storm. I mean what's causing it. The people at the front. Look.'

It was then that Moon noticed the gestures being made by a group of six individuals leading the march. Garbed in thick, plain cloaks but with hints of far more colourful robes beneath, they appeared hardly to move under