The Crucible of the Dragon God

after the initial volleys ended, appeared to be having very little effect on the k'nid at all. It seemed, in fact, that for every k'nid that was pounded by the defensive assault, another two appeared. As prepared as it was, Andon looked as though it was about to be overwhelmed. Sure enough, only seconds later, the first wave of k'nid reached the walls, scaled them and rushed straight into the ranks of the now panicking mages and soldiers.

As men and women fell flailing and screaming, their cries muting as they were enveloped, spasming, within the k'nid, Kali knew that Andon's walls were already lost and the city itself would soon follow.

There was nothing she could to help these people now but she had to help her own — and quickly.

Kali raced back down the steps and quickly enlisted Moon and the Greenwoods to help marshal the people through the tortuous maze of twisting and jinking streets that led to the Andon Heart. For though the city guard had informed her that all accommodation was taken, she knew of one particular hotel that did not normally open for business that might be able to provide them with sanctuary. If they could get there in time. Because, with most of its residents barricaded behind their doors, the city was strangely quiet, making the sound of the continuing k'nid assault ever louder.

Screams were actually coming from the side streets around them now and, among them, they could hear officers barking desperate orders to their men and the crackle of magical discharges as mages made one last, desperate stand. The k'nid assault was, it seemed, relentless. As the walls around them turned rainbow-coloured with flashes of weapon fire and energy bolts, all Kali could say to her charges was: 'Run!'

This they did without hesitation, and Kali led them to the Andon Heart, and there towards the alleyway that led behind two deserted market stalls to the entrance to the Underlook.

As Kali neared the mouth of the alley, a crossbow quarrel thudded into the wood right beside her, stopping her in her tracks. She stared at it, and then up at the window from which it had been fired, and then at the other windows which lined the alley. Like the first, they were occupied by the figures of a man or woman aiming a weapon in their direction.

What the hells? she thought. This was hardly time for Pim and his guild to be playing their secret headquarters games.

'These people need shelter!' she shouted. 'Tell Jengo Pim they're with Kali Hooper!'

The only answer was another crossbow quarrel embedding itself firmly in a wall next to her head.

Dammit.

'Kali Hooper!' she shouted again, but her voice was lost in the clamour that was taking over the city.

'Forget it,' Merrit Moon observed. 'The place is a veritable fortress.'

'Yeah?' Kali said. She studied the alley anew, weighing it up. The last time she had been here — immediately after the 'death' of the old man and before her trip to Martak — she had been escorted along its deadly length, but at that time she had still been learning of her new abilities and what had seemed impossible then now seemed less impossible.

'Stay here, old man,' she said, and before Merrit Moon could respond, she was gone.

The first of the window sentries didn't even see her coming, Kali already having worked out her trajectory so that she could leap off some piles of rubbish to the alley's side and springboard herself off the wall above to its opposite number. There, her momentum allowing her for a second to actually run along the vertical surface, she flung herself forward, grabbed a drainpipe and slung herself around for a leap back across the alley. Somersaulting in mid air, she hit the first wall again with her feet, kicked off and propelled herself backwards towards the window that now lay opposite, jack-knifing herself as she went so that her legs wrapped themselves around the neck of the sentry positioned there in a scissor grip. Thus anchored, Kali allowed herself to flop loosely, hanging upside down from the window with her back to the wall. As she did, she jerked her legs so that the sentry was flipped forward and out. She opened her legs and he screamed as he plummeted to the ground, hitting with a dull thud.

Five or six crossbow quarrels slammed into the wall where Kali hung, but she was already gone, dropping down to the ground and pinwheeling on her hands across the alley's width.

Back on her feet once more she leapt straight upwards, directly beneath the second window, grabbed and twisted the front of the crossbow that was wielded there, then quickly pulled the trigger so that its quarrel impaled itself in the shoulder of its bearer.

Only seconds had passed since she had begun to run the gauntlet, but it was long enough for those sentries who remained to realise that she would now be coming for them. Shouts and cries of alarm bounced back and forth across the alleyway.

Kali went inside now, pulling herself through the window she had just vacated, knocking the groaning sentry cold then running through the room beyond, along the corridor, and into the adjacent room. She didn't slow her pace, however, indeed she accelerated, then launched herself straight through the room's window. Straight as an arrow, she flew across the width of the alley, waving a casual 'hi' to the stunned occupant of the window opposite, before slamming into him and winding him so severely that he sat down with an oomf.

The oomf became a groan as Kali wasted no time knocking him cold.

Here she changed her tactics, grabbed the sentry's crossbow and threw herself to the side of the window she had just entered. Then, with two perfectly calculated shots a second apart, fired a quarrel through the forearms of the next two sentries she could see from her position. Both cried out in agony and their weapons fell from their hands to clatter and break on the alley floor. Now, only one sentry remained, but she would be the most difficult to take out, and Kali quickly studied her surroundings, looking for a way to finish the job.

Old building, she thought. Unused, neglected, probably riddled with woodworm and dry rot. Fine, that was the way to go.

Without hesitation, she leapt upwards, straight into and through the ceiling of the room, spitting dust and splinters as she broke through plaster and slats. Heaving herself up into the roof space she ran a palm over the underside of the roof itself, found a weak spot and then punched through the tiles. Half a second later she was on the roof, racing along its sloping surface towards the end of the alley and the last sentry post in her way. Calculating when the window would be beneath her, she lay down on the roof surface and let herself slide down it headfirst, dropping off the edge of the roof and plummeting straight down. There was a gasp of surprise as she hit and grabbed the outstretched arms and crossbow of the last sentry, and then a cry of alarm as she realised Kali wasn't intending to let go. Weighed down by her mass, the woman was pulled from the window in to Kali's embrace. The two tumbled towards the ground, Kali wrapping herself around the Grey Brigade member to protect her, and then they hit the ground in a cloud of dust, the woman exhaling loudly as much from shock as the impact. Kali pulled her up. The two of them were standing directly in front of the main entrance to the Underlook.

The woman stared at Kali, gasping in disbelief.

'The door,' Kali said. 'Get it open. Now.'

'It will do you no good.'

'I got this far, didn't I?'

The woman shrugged and rapped on the door, a code that had changed from the one Kali remembered. As it opened, two men appeared on the threshold and Kali despatched them swiftly with punches to the nose. Moving inside, she worked her through the corridors of the old hotel until she came to its ballroom — the centre of operations and throne room of Jengo Pim.

As expected, Pim sat on his makeshift throne, and regarded her coldly as she entered.

'Pim, what is this?' Kali said.

'Kali Hooper,' the thieves guild leader replied slowly. 'So, which of my people dies horribly this time?'

Kali was somewhat thrown by the tone of her reception. Pim had understood the death of his man during her incursion into the Three Towers had been unavoidable and no fault of her own.

'I don't understand.'

'Tom Daly!' Pim snapped. 'You do remember how you got him turned to stone?'

Oh yes, Kali thought, I remember. But I also remember that his name was Kris Jayhinch — and that was not something Pim himself was likely to forget.

Something was wrong here. And now that she knew that, she was suddenly aware of the tension in the room — the beads of sweat on Jengo Pim's face and, more importantly, those on the faces of the men who surrounded him. She studied the man right behind Pim — a man she did not know — and saw how his arm was tensed, as if holding something to Pim's back. A knife, it had to be. It wasn't Pim who had closed his doors to the refugees, it