The Crucible of the Dragon God

reach it with a grunt of exertion. She managed, with one stroke, to grab onto a rail on the vehicle's rear. Kali looked back and couldn't shake the feeling that the monster was going to swallow the lower half of her legs at any second.

Desperately, she twisted in the water and managed to grab a second handhold before heaving herself up onto the body of The Mole. The surface of the vehicle was slick beneath her feet and she slipped twice, each time looking back to see how much space they had — or hadn't — gained on the yhang-dor. The Mole seemed to be holding its own for the moment, but they really needed to get the vehicle out of the wash to escape its drag, because the thing seemed to become more determined with each second they eluded its clutches.

She looked up and saw that there was a rise in the bank up ahead, and hoped that Aldrededor had noticed the same thing. Thankfully, the ex-pirate proved to be as reliable as always and, a second later, The Mole veered up the bank, its tracks churning and sloughing liquid and weed as they went. Kali threw herself through the open hatch of the vehicle.

Aldrededor immediately swapped places with her, allowing Kali to take control of the levers, but not before activating the one to seal the door. Before it closed something long and serpent-like hove into view outside the hatch, overtaking The Mole. Suddenly, all that was visible through the observation slat was what appeared to be a large reptilian mouth filled with thousands of tiny, razor sharp teeth.

Oh no, Kali thought. One bloody great gob trying to eat me is enough for one week, thanks very much.

Kali quickly yanked and pushed levers, a combination of moves that threw The Mole into a skidding u-turn and shook the cabin, awakening Dolorosa just as the rear end of The Mole slammed into the body of their pursuer, before racing off in the opposite direction. Except that racing wasn't quite the right word. Because even though they were once more free of the drag effect of the canal water, The Mole was a machine built for tunnelling, not for speed. Only the fact that the lengthy creature seemed to need a few seconds to literally catch up with itself bought them distance. The trouble was, that distance would be eaten up in seconds. Kali decided to use the only advantage they had and steered the Mole towards where a number of branch junctions left the main canal. She hoped to use them and subsequent branches to stymie the creature's manoeuvrability, constantly shifting position to lose it in the maze of tunnels. But to do that she'd need to know the creature's location at all times.

'Dolorosa, open the rear slat. I need you to keep an eye on that thing.'

'Whatta theeng?' Dolorosa said, shakily attempting to light a cheroot.

'The bloody great theeng outside!'

'Eeet was real?'

'Yes, Dolorosa.'

'Eeet ees following us?'

'Yes, Dolorosa.'

'Heeeeeeeeeee…'

'Oh, crap. Aldrededor?'

'I am doing it, Kali Hooper,' Aldrededor said, climbing over his seat to stub out the cheroot and flip the observation slat. 'My beloved,' he said by way of apology, 'she had the embarrassing experience with a large slithering thing many years ago.'

'I'm betting I don't want to know the details, right?'

'You are correct, Kali Hooper.'

'Hokay. Where is the bastard?'

'It has just finished turning towards us. Moving now.'

'Then hang on — we're going right.'

Kali spun the Mole, skewing it as she tried to eke as much speed as possible from the machine.

'Where is it now?'

'Turning into the junction. It does not look pleased.'

'I don't care if it's suicidal. Aldrededor?'

'Still with us and gaining, Kali Hooper.'

Kali spun the Mole into another u-turn.

'Turning left again, straight on, right,' she warned her shaken passengers. 'Sharp left, coming up… now!'

'Kali Hooper, what is this thing?' Aldrededor asked, clinging on. 'Despite the tale of Two-Faced Bob, I do not recognise it as a serpent of the sea.'

Neither did Kali. She'd seen a couple of such beasts in her time and this resembled neither of them, reminding her more of some worm than any subaquatic behemoth. From what detail she had managed to see, the thing was certainly the shape of one, though covered, along its considerable and most unworm like length, with a thick coating of barbed bristles that appeared not only to give it traction on any surface to which it adhered but also propelled it along. From the amount of collisions it was shrugging off, it had to be quite hardy. She imagined that beneath the bristles there was a protective coating that was more shell than skin. Its bulk was another thing. No creature designed like this should be as big or as wide as it was. Kali was starting to suspect that the k'nid were not the only unnatural creatures she had encountered in the past few days. Its whole physical make-up and the fact that it had seemed to first be drawn to them when she had touched the symbols on the wall had actually begun to make her wonder whether the creature had not always been such as it was. Perhaps once upon a time it had been some tool of the tunnels' builders — a life form that kept their canals clean and navigable, perhaps — but, in the unimaginable length of time since they had become sealed and disused, it had nurtured itself on what it had once removed, mutating as it did into what they faced now. In that case, in a sense, it had every right to not look pleased, because it had lived here longer than humans had walked the peninsula. This was its home.

Kali was suddenly flung against the control panel as the Mole was impacted hard from the rear. Outside, there was a loud roar that sounded almost like one of triumph.

'Aldrededor?'

'Apologies, Kali Hooper. A sudden spurt of speed. It seems our friend is becoming more adept at the chase.'

'Then let him chase this,'

Kali said, gritting her teeth. Suddenly she was pushing and pulling the levers as if she had used them all her life. The Mole started to buck wildly as she threw it through a number of accelerations, decelerations, sudden twists and skidding turns that the unwieldy creature could not possibly hope to keep up with, screeching at last to a halt in tunnel.

'Aldrededor?' Kali asked over the stressed rumbling of the engine.

'No sign, Kali Hooper.'

'Then it looks like we're out of the… oh fark!'

Kali stared through the observation slat at a branch of the canal that was branchless, stretching ahead of the Mole for as far as its headlights could penetrate, which made it look like forever. And for all she knew, it might go on just that far. In other words, there would be no dodging left or right and no u-turns here. If the creature managed to catch up they would be totally exposed.

'Kali Hooper?' Aldrededor said again.

'What, Aldrededor? Can you see anythi — '

The creature slammed into the side of The Mole and sent it crashing from the bank into the canal, overturning it until its buoyancy righted it once more. In the cabin, Aldrededor clung on to Dolorosa, while Kali squeezed herself tight between seat and control panel. Outside the cabin, the creature roared while the rest of its lengthy form followed its head into the tunnel.

'Dammit!' Kali shouted, gunning the engine of The Mole, riding it up onto the canal bank. 'Doesn't this thing ever stop?'

Aldrededor sighed. 'It is as persistent as my wife's advances and there is no way we can elude it now.'

'Wanna bet?' Kali said.

She was as fired up as The Mole itself. She rammed her foot to the floor and the vehicle responded by accelerating to the speed it was designed for, even she realised that with their current limitations and