The Crucible of the Dragon God

yes, it seemed that was exactly what he was doing, using the threads as physical things, manipulating the world itself to his own ends. She had never seen any — any — shadowmage do that before.

He was looking back down at her and grinning.

Bastard!

Despite their predicament, he was clearly throwing down a challenge and, with a roar of determination, she kicked off after him, booting two k'nid out of the way. She used the subsequent scramble of the pack's bodies as a launching pad to throw herself up against one wall and then another, each time higher and higher, repeating the process until she had caught up with Kane.

Kali flipped herself over the edge of the roof.

'Not very gentlemanly,' she gasped, 'leaving a helpless girl alone like that.'

'You're no helpless girl, and you know it.'

'That's as maybe but — ' Kali stopped suddenly, and it was her turn to shout a warning. 'Kane!'

Somehow, one of the k'nid had managed to follow them to the roof, and was leaping for the shadowmage as she shouted. Spotting it, Kane's arm shot out and, for a moment, Kali thought he was about to unleash another elemental bolt, but that wasn't what he was doing at all. Instead, he punched the k'nid solidly as it came, but instead of knocking it back, his fist disappeared inside its chitinous shell so that the creature was caught, dangling, thrashing and impaled, on the end of his arm. Impossible enough that the man had somehow penetrated its natural armour, Kali thought, but what he did next actually made her stagger back. His mouth twisting into a grimace, his eyes widening and staring at the creature directly, Kane seemed somehow to suck the very life from it. The k'nid crumpled and decomposed in seconds, leaving behind a brittle and lifeless husk.

The shadowmage shrugged the remains off and crushed them beneath his boot. Clearly, what he had just done had been nothing to him.

Kali stared.

'Who are you?'

Silhouetted by the fiery oranges of the ongoing bombardment from the Three Towers, Kane stared back. And when the shadowmage spoke, somehow Kali knew his words were as much about her as they were about himself. What was more, she saw reflected in his eyes the same inner torment that she had felt ever since the day she had begun to realise that she was… different.

'That,' he said, 'remains to be seen.'

With those words, Kane turned and manoeuvred himself over the other side of the roof. Their brief liaison had been, it appeared, just that.

'Wait!' Kali said. 'What plans do you have now?'

Kane inclined his head towards the Three Towers. 'I have business at the League of Prestidigitation and Prestige. Suggestions that might help the current crisis. And you?'

'Like you. Try to stop these bastards. But first I have to find the old man.'

'Old man?'

'A friend. He went missing during the assault.'

'And what is this friend's name?'

'Merrit Moon. Bad haircut, beard, pink horse blanket. Or, actually, he could still be big, green and roaring. It's, um, a long story. Have you seen him?'

'No. But I might be able to help you find him.'

'Be glad of any help.'

'Call it a professional courtesy.'

'You're on. How about I take the west gate and you the — ?'

'Not physically. Have you anything that belongs to the old man?'

'No, I — ' Kali began, then thought again. 'Wait.' She dug in her equipment belt, pulling something out from its very bottom and shoving it in Kane's hand. The shadowmage regarded the mouldy, half eaten pie with an unfathomable expression.

'He baked it for me,' Kali said. 'About four years ago.'

Kane smiled slightly and, without elaborating, moved his arm out above the rooftops in a gesture that looked half salute and half as if he were sowing seeds, and Kali swore that some kind of fine, shimmering dust took to the air. Kane waited for a few seconds while this dust settled and then pointed in the direction of the city walls, where a faint glow could now be seen rising from street level like a beacon. 'There. Your friend is there.'

'How in the hells did you — '

But Kane was gone.

'There one minute, gone the next,' Kali shrugged, and smiled. 'Lot like myself, really.'

Wasting no time, Kali took a few steps back from the roof edge and then ran, leaping the gap between the building and its neighbour, reckoning that the safest and quickest way to reach Moon's beacon was by rooftop, avoiding the battleground below. Thankfully, her progress towards the city walls was taking her away from the epicentre of the k'nid invasion, the creatures — with the help of the towers' fireballs — having already devastated this part of Andon and moved on. Thus it was that when she finally dropped back down to street level, she found herself in an area of relative calm in the shadow of the city wall itself. There a few scattered guards and civilian survivors had set up a makeshift field hospital that, so far, had gone unnoticed by the k'nid. Still, they were close and while those who tended tried to help those they could, or comfort the maimed and dying where they couldn't, they were forced to stifle their moans or sobs with their hands as they worked.

The old man wasn't among them, but he was nearby. Kali found him in the doorway of the bunker where she had left Horse, talking to the beast. But her relief at the discovery that the two of them were still alive was lessened somewhat by the appearance of the old man.

Kali bit her lip as she approached, taking in the fact that he was all but slumped in position. The shallow breathing and raised and pulsing veins on his arms, coupled with his bloodshot eyes, were testimony to the fact that he had only recently recovered from a full Thrutt transformation.

But, by the look of things, Thrutt had sated himself before he had burned out. The bloodied and cracked remains of various k'nid covered the old man's clothes, along with a considerable amount of blood from the old man himself.

'We are losing this battle, young lady,' Moon breathed, wearily.

'I know, old man.' She only hoped that those she had despatched back to the Underlook were not facing their last stand. 'I know.'

'It is good to see, however, that you have not become one of its victims.'

Kali smiled. 'Not for the want of their trying. The k'nid and the pitsing League.'

Moon sighed. 'I don't think the latter will be a problem any longer. Observe, young lady.'

Kali turned and, as she did, noticed two things — that all of those who were able in the makeshift hospital were turning to look the same way, and that the incessant thrumming and pounding of the fireballs from the League had ceased. And with good reason.

As the people around her stared, muttering curses, words of disbelief or even prayers to their Gods, she saw that the Three Towers had given up on its offensive. Its soaring and majestic towers were doing something she had never seen them do before, or even knew they could do. They were twining around each other, apparently for protection, looking for all the world like the tails of whipped curs.

And, even from this distance, Kali could see swarms of k'nid skittering up their heights, scrabbling for a way in.

'If the Three Towers has fallen, Andon has fallen,' Merrit Moon said, matter-of-factly. He eased himself up with a groan, to stand by his protege. 'It's up to us, now, young lady. We must reach the Drakengrats and stop these things at their source, find a means to destroy them. And we must hurry.'

'You think more of the k'nid are coming?'

'Oh, that I don't doubt — but more coming is not the only problem. I saw it when I fought them, when Thrutt fought them. When the k'nid have consumed a certain amount, they