The Crucible of the Dragon God

their covering — except for a subtle but complex flexing of their hands.

'Are they what I think they are?'

'Yep. League of Prestidigitation and Prestige. Saw them with the soldiers at the gate. And they're weaving. In fact, they're brewing up the storm.'

'But why on Twilight would they do that?'

'Perhaps to disguise what's inside it.' She nodded forward, into the storm itself. There was a distinct glow visible inside, a swirl of energy that Moon recognised instantly.

'My Gods, they're creating a warp portal. They're going to teleport these people to Andon.'

'Without them even realising it,' Kali said with a twinkle in her eye. 'It wouldn't do to let the general public know just how much magic was around them, now, would it?'

'These people aren't stupid, they'll realise.'

'They're scared, tired, hungry and facing the unknown. When they arrive in Andon, they won't even care enough to ask.'

'You knew what you were doing all along, didn't you?'

'Oh, aye.'

Kali, Moon and Horse continued forward and soon entered the storm. Cloaks or hands raised against their faces to protect themselves from the swirling dust, no one other than Kali and her companions realised what was happening. Even when the teleportation magic took hold of their bodies, causing a slight tingle of the flesh, a barely noticeable buzzing in the bones, as they suddenly left one place to arrive in another. Or at least they thought no one else had noticed. Because as the marching refugees emerged from the other side of the dust storm, finding themselves amidst the skeletons and ruined machines of war that littered the outskirts of Andon it was, ironically, Harmon Ding who noticed something amiss.

Towards the front of the line, the small twitchy man sniffed the air and bobbed his head from side to side, his brow furrowing in confusion and consternation and his fingers rising as if to question the soldiers and the mages at the forefront of the march. Thankfully, they ignored him for the most part, but then Ding's continuing and questioning gaze looked back down the line, spotted Kali, Moon and Horse in its ranks, and his face whitened. He grabbed one of the soldiers and pointed in their direction.

'This we can do without,' Kali sighed. 'Excuse me.'

She began to work her way down the line, and the closer she came to Harmon Ding the clearer his entreaties to the soldier became.

'Don't let them into your city! They're not normal. This crazy woman has, well, a thing, and her friend, the old man, he isn't an old man at all, he's some kind of monster. A big, green monster. They're in league with those other things, I tell you. Armoured horses and big green monsters and crazy women and… and gloves that fire circles in the air.'

'Excuse me officer,' Kali said in an approximation of a backwoods accent. She could tell from his expression that the soldier had already decided he was dealing with someone less than a full tenth, so that made her task a lot easier. 'Is cousin Ding botherin' you?'

'He seems to think your grandfather is a big, green monster, ma'am.'

Grandfather, Kali thought with a smile. Oh, the old man was going to love that.

'Pssshh,' she said, dismissively. Kali extracted a bottle of thwack she had palmed from the Greenwoods on her way down the line and shook it at the soldier, feigning clumsiness as the cap she had deliberately loosened came off and the noxious brew splashed all over Harmon Ding. 'Sorry, cousin,' she said. 'But at least you can't stink of it any more than you already do.'

'But — but I haven't touched a drop!' Ding protested. 'Not a dro — '

Kali looked at the soldier and shook her head sadly. 'Denial,' she said, and rammed the neck into Ding's mouth, whacking him subtly in the stomach as she did so he couldn't help but gulp the thwack down. 'There, there. You know it makes you feel better.'

The bottle extracted, Ding sucked in a gulping breath. 'Armoured horsh,' he said, dribbling thwack while his eyes rolled. 'Big, green monshter, gloves that — that…'

'I'm sure you have enough to deal with, so I'll take him off your hands,' Kali said to the soldier. 'I'll look after him, now.'

'Thank you, ma'am.'

'No problem.'

Kali took Ding by the arm and force-marched his protesting form back towards Moon. As they neared Horse she took a quick look around to make sure no one was watching and then suddenly elbowed Ding in the face, knocking him cold. She slung the body over Horse and then fell back into step with Merrit Moon.

'Nice work,' the old man commented.

'Shucks, it were nothin'… grandpa.'

The old man turned to protest, but then thought better of it as the exodus neared the walls of Andon itself.

They were formidable — and it was immediately clear why the barons had chosen to evacuate the populace here — because in addition to the normal ranks of catapults, trebuchets and giant crossbows that lined their tops, additional defensive weapons had been added to their number. Some, by the look of them, magical in their design. If — make that when — they came, the k'nid would certainly have a battle on their hands.

The soldiers at the front of the line called out and, with a massive rumble, the gates began to open. Gradually, the line filed beneath the stone arch, until it was the turn for Kali, Horse and the old man to enter.

It was then that the first of the problems Kali had envisaged hit them. Inside the city walls, refugees not only from the northern towns but, by their local dress, Fayence to the south-east, milled about in an ever thickening crowd, threatening to block the main thoroughfare. Nor did they just mill. Many were crying in fear of what they had been told might come; others beseeched the soldiers for help they could not give; still others protested volubly about the situation they had been forced into. It was, in short, chaos, and the soldiers looked as confused as they did.

Kali approached one of the city guards, asked what was to happen next.

'To be honest, Miss, it's kind of every man for himself. All accommodation is already taken, and the situation isn't helped by the fact that many have already barricaded themselves in their homes, threatening to put a quarrel through the heart of anybody who approaches. Frankly, the barons have made something of a mess of all this. All I can offer you is stabling for your, er, horse. We're stabling all the beasts in the bunkers in the city walls, should be safe enough there.'

'Can't these people use those bunkers?'

'They could Miss, but try persuading them. If you knew things straight from the hells were heading for the city, would you hide in the first place that might be breached?'

The soldier had a point. For that very reason, she wasn't happy leaving Horse there either. But there was no other choice and he would, when it came down to it, be safer there than out in the open. Kali slipped Harmon Ding's unconscious form from her mount and patted Horse on the neck, before handing the soldier his reins.

'Could you see to him for me? I need to find some shelter for our peop — '

Kali's words were drowned out by a sudden series of urgent cries from the city walls and a flurry of activity above as soldiers took up positions. There were mages amongst them too, standing tensed and slightly hunched, their faces dour, fists balling and beginning to flare or crackle with energy waiting to be unleashed. Within seconds there was barely an inch of space left on the walls as Andon's defenders readied themselves.

'They're coming! Seal the gates!'

My Gods, so soon?

Kali raced up the steps to the walls, needing to know what the city was facing. Pushing her way between soldiers she stared out over the Killing Ground — or at least, what she could see of it.

The advancing swarm of k'nid completely obscured the abandoned battlefield as they tumbled, rolled and scuttled rapidly towards Andon's walls. As the k'nid came, Andon's defenders responded with devastating force, unleashing a rain of missiles and magical bolts that should have created an impassable wall of death but which,