The Crucible of the Dragon God

'Actually, I too might…' Aldrededor said hesitantly, then smiled and shrugged.

'Pirates!' Kali cursed as the two squeezed by her. She sat there for a second, looking out of the hatch, and then thought what the hells, let's have a look. It was a good excuse for her to stretch her legs, anyway.

Trying to ignore the conspicuous head of Dolorosa behind a pile of debris and a whistling and flexing Aldrededor against the wall in the opposite direction, Kali stepped out onto the bank of the canal and took her first good look around since they had entered the network. She tried not to breathe in too deeply because, frankly, whether they were in an ancient wonder or not, the Lost Canals of Turnitia stank to the high clouds, worse even than a sludgestrider's socks. The reason for that was possibly as a result of its collapsed sections or simply because it had been long unmaintained. But whatever the cause, the whole system of canals had stagnated. Not only did thick moss — glistening and pungent — cover the walls of the tunnels like a thick skin, but the canals themselves seemed not to be filled with seawater but dark green vegetation. The entire surface looked thick enough to walk on. Despite all that, though — and something beeg or not — the arches that led off into tunnels in the distance pulled at Kali but, again, she knew that now was not the time. She looked towards Aldrededor and Dolorosa, willing them to hurry up, but while the former was already nearing her with a sigh and declaration of how much better for that he felt, the latter had not moved from behind her pile of debris. In fact, she seemed to be waving at her to join her with quite some desperation.

Gods, Kali thought. What now?

'I amma stuck,' Dolorosa confessed as she neared. 'My feet, they havva become caught in the weeds.'

Kali took a step forward and then stopped. 'Are you decent?' she said warily.

Dolorosa gave her one of her killer looks. 'I amma stuck, notta the senile old bat, Kali Hooper.'

'Sorry. Okay then, let's see what I can do.'

Kali clambered over the debris and saw that the thin woman was indeed entangled in a mesh of aquatic weed, but nothing that couldn't be handled. She pulled her gutting knife from its sheath and began to cut at it with sawing strokes. The growth was larger than it looked, part of a mass that had climbed the wall of the tunnel itself. It took quite some effort and a number of tugs from both of them to free it. Unfortunately, when at last it did come free, it did so unexpectedly quickly. Kali found herself suddenly flying backwards towards the canal, plunging through the algae covered surface. She emerged safe, however, and gagging and choking, swam to the side and waded back out, her hand outstretched to Dolorosa for help.

'You arra the mess once more,' Dolorosa declared as she heaved her up. 'We cannota take-a you anywhere.'

'Hey!' Kali objected, loudly. 'It was you that — '

Kali stopped in mid-sentence and then, as Dolorosa started to protest, hushed her with a wave of the hand.

Without another word, Kali began to walk forward, gazing up, and Dolorosa gazed where she gazed, and gasped.

Because the mass of weed that they had pulled away had had a knock on effect on the weed that covered the tunnel wall, and part of that now lay exposed for the first time in no one knew how long.

And it was covered in symbols. Great, golden symbols from some iconography that Kali had never seen before. She pulled away more of the growth and the symbols seemed to go on for as far as the wall did.

'Gods of the Sea,' Aldrededor breathed, joining them.

'What arra those? Do they belong to one of your olda races, like those, what issa it they arra called — dwelfs?'

'Elfs, Dolorosa. I mean elves. There were two races, elves and dwarves, tall and thin and short and bulky, not difficult to tell apart. But these don't belong to either of them.'

'So, you arra saying there is a third race?'

'No… maybe… I don't know. It's just that…'

Kali trailed off, running her fingers over one of the symbols, generating a strange keening vibration as she touched the metal. This she ignored, more concerned that she was tracing a familiar pattern, even though she hadn't seen the symbols before now. One of the shapes was a dead ringer for the creature she had encountered in the murky waters beneath Martak — the strange, water-breathing life form that had known all about her.

'Boss lady?' Dolorosa said, prodding her.

'Hush, woman!' Kali snapped.

She wouldn't normally have been so short with her but her mind had suddenly gone into overdrive. Fish symbols here? she was thinking. But if that was the case that probably meant that fish people had built these canals. But why in the hells would fish people want a set of tunnels that stretched everywhere under the peninsula? What purpose would they have served? What did the fish people want here?

'Boss lady?'

'I thought I said — ' Kali began, spinning on her, and then stopped.

Because she suddenly realised that Dolorosa hadn't been trying to interrupt her, she'd been trying to alert her. Something was coming. Something big.

Not that they could see anything, yet. It only manifested itself in the form of a distant roar. The surface of the canal had begun to undulate, like a tide coming in their direction, as if something massive had stirred it.

'Both of you get inside The Mole. Now!'

Dolorosa stood her ground. 'I may have letta you down at the Flagons but do notta worry,' she said, slipping her stiletto from her boot. 'Whatever thees theeng is, I will — heeeeeeeee! '

The tall, thin woman made a sound like an expiring goose then promptly fainted, fortunately straight into her husband's waiting arms, who then swept her up and did as Kali had instructed. Kali herself remained where she stood for a second longer, just enough time to take in what had prompted Dolorosa's abrupt departure from consciousness.

What she saw was not the creature itself but the creature announcing its presence with its shadow as it emerged from a side channel far up the branch. A shadow that, despite the distance, filled the arched thoroughfare completely, looming like a fast approaching night.

Make that Long Night, Kali thought. Because the shadow went on and on and on.

There was another deafening roar and the tunnel began to pound and shake, as if the unseen creature were slamming itself against the sides of the canal in fury. And then, fleetingly, she did see it, emerging from the water, to flash at incredible speed up and around the roof of the tunnel, negotiating a full three hundred and sixty degrees before it reached the other side and slipped beneath the surface again. Not all of it disappeared at once, though and, briefly, its long shadow flitted here, there and everywhere, impossible to keep track of, before then it, too, disappeared. Kali suddenly found herself awash with the canal's sluggish water all the way up to her chest.

It was coming right at them under the water.

'Two-Faced Bob called it the yhang-dor!' Aldrededor shouted as Kali waded as quickly as she could towards The Mole. 'He thought it was elvish for 'That which never ends.''

'Actually, it just means big bastard!' Kali shouted back as she forced herself forward against the wash. She stared at the bobbing ridge of weed and algae moving disturbingly fast down the centre of the canal, realised she couldn't see its end, and swallowed. 'Aldrededor, get The Mole moving, now!'

'Kali Hooper, you will not make i — '

'I'll make it, Aldrededor! Do it!'

Aldrededor sighed and the Mole began to move forward, slowly at first, fighting against the wash, but gradually picking up speed.

Kali stopped wading and threw herself into a crawl, head splashing left and right, spitting out small clumps of weed and algae as she swam. She was about a yard from the tail end of The Mole and she doubled her efforts to