The Crucible of the Dragon God

To an outside observer they would now look like nothing more than a small rise in the snow.

'We used to-a use the sails to secure our cargo inna the bad storm,' Dolorosa whispered in what, Kali had to admit, were quite cosy confines. 'Eet issa what gave-a me the idea.'

'You are a genius, my wife.'

'I havva my moments, yes.'

'Hang on,' Kali said. 'All we've done is hide under a big piece of cloth. Do you really think that'll fool the k'nid?'

'Whya not? Itta fooled Short Jack Copper when thatta slimy bastardo boarded our ship. We-a waited for his men to come aboard and then sprang from beneath the sail like-a the… like-a the — '

'Springy things?' Kali offered.

'Like-a the springy things, yes! And thenna we keelled them all witha oura very sharpa knives! It wassa horrible!'

'A-ha. Dolorosa, why are you whispering?'

'So-a the k'nid do notta hear us, of course.'

'Dolorosa, they're hurtling murderously down a mountainside towards us, probably causing an avalanche as they come. I doubt they'll hear — '

'Be silent now, Kali Hooper,' Aldrededor interrupted. 'They are upon us.'

Aldrededor was right. Distracted as she had been with her surreal exchange with Dolorosa, the approach of the k'nid swarm had somewhat taken a back seat but there was no mistaking it now.

The sound of their approach was audible even over the winds blowing through the pass, and it was building second by second to a level that would soon be deafening. The sound began to approach a crescendo and Kali, Aldrededor and Dolorosa remained utterly still, in readiness.

The sensation of the k'nid passing was difficult to describe — like being massaged by a horde of heavy insects, each and every insectoid leg discernable as a fleeting touch to the very bone — and for the few seconds it took for their numbers to progress over their hiding place, Kali felt every nerve in her body scream out with a desire to leap up and flee from her frozen position. She did not, of course, because that would have meant instant death, though resisting the desire was a struggle. Next to her she could see Aldrededor and Dolorosa suffering in the same way. The only way that they could communicate was with their eyes, but the message they sent to each other was nonetheless clear.

Do not move, do not cry out.

They remained that way for what seemed to be an interminable time but was likely only seconds and then, miraculously, it was over.

Even so, Kali waited a few seconds before moving the piece of cloth off their prone forms. It was heavier than she expected, laden with a layer of snow that the k'nid swarm had caused to avalanche over them, but Kali wasn't complaining as that snow had likely offered an extra layer of protection.

The three of them stood and stared down the mountain pass, catching view of the tail end of the swarm as it moved out across the peninsula.

Kali turned her gaze upward, biting her lip. 'No doubt now where they're coming from. You two okay, ready to move on?'

'We are ready, Kali Hooper.'

'Wait,' Dolorosa said. 'There ees something…'

The thin woman moved ahead of them, bending to pick up something glistening in the layer of fine, disturbed snow. It was some kind of band and Dolorosa bit it and turned it in her hands, shrugging, before handing it to Kali.

'What issa this theeng?'

Kali held the band up to the light. It was old, possibly of elven origin, and inscribed with a series of runics so small she couldn't make them out. It appeared to be, though, only decorative. 'Some kind of bracelet, but how in the hells it ended up here is anybody's guess.'

'May I see, Kali Hooper?' Aldrededor asked. 'Hmm, yes. I have seen something such as this before.'

'You have? Where?'

'The Ramar'Est. The wreck of an elven ship many believed haunted, for from within the sealed cabin of its captain, many, many centuries after he died, his voice could still be heard.'

'I take it wasn't a ghost?'

'No, Kali Hooper. It was this.'

The Sarcrean held out the bracelet and rubbed its side with his thumb. Kali and Dolorosa jumped back as the figure of a young woman materialised before them. Garbed in a cloak of the Final Faith, attractive and with a mane of long blonde hair, the figure was ghostly, flecked with the snow that penetrated its form, but Kali knew who it was.

'My name is Jennadayn Freel,' she began. 'Eleven years ago I was abducted by agents of the Final Faith under the command of Katherine Makennon's first lieutenant, Konstantin Munch. Since that day I have been stripped of my individuality, my liberty and free will, bent to the cause of the Faith through the machinations of the mindweaver Querilous Fitch. He is with me — he is inside me — always, and it is only in rare, stolen moments such as this that I am able to remember who and what I once was. This bracelet enables me to record my thoughts at these times. This I do under my own conditioning, so that when Fitch's influence reasserts itself I will remember nothing of the bracelet's capabilities or what I have said.'

The figure flickered and faded for a second, and then reappeared in slightly different garb. It began to speak on another matter, one that seemed to have been recorded some time later, but the mountain pass in the middle of a snowstorm was no place to listen to what was said. Kali signalled Aldrededor to thumb the bracelet again, and the image disappeared, He handed the band to her.

'Who issa that woman?' Dolorosa asked.

'Slowhand's sister.'

'The Slowhand? The one witha the snake-like hips and the cute-a ar…'

She trailed off, whistling and kicking her heels, looking sheepishly at her husband.

Kali coughed to hide a smile. 'Yes, Dolorosa, the Slowhand. But the question is, if this bracelet belongs to Slowhand's sister, what in the hells was Jenna doing up here?'

'Perhaps,' Aldrededor said, pointing, 'something to do with that.'

Kali and Dolorosa turned. What neither she or her companions had noticed until now — distracted as they had been by the k'nid swarm — was that further up the pass, high on its left hand side, smoke trailed from a gaping hole in the rockface, curling lazily and looking as if it were the dying tendrils of an explosion from some days before.

How about three days before? Kali thought. Because she had little doubt that was she was looking at was the aftermath of what Merrit Moon had seen through his elven telescope back in Gargas.

She had to find out what was up there, but she was not going to do so now, as the light of day was already fading into azure twilight, bringing with it a deeper cold that would make any route up to the mysterious gap in the rocks doubly treacherous. Instead, Kali yomped with Dolorosa and Aldrededor further up the pass, to a point perhaps a tenth of a league from where the hole loomed, and there found a small cave where they were able to make camp for the night. More surprise stew butties were consumed for supper and her two companions were soon wrapped up in their furs together, sound asleep and snoring. Kali took the opportunity to examine Jenna's bracelet once more, thumbing through her recorded entries and getting to know a little more about the woman who, until a few months before, she had never known existed.

It was a tragic and troubling tale, relating the abduction, years before, that Slowhand had told her about, and Jenna's subsequent indoctrination into the ranks of the Final Faith. But, more intriguingly, there were accounts of the various tasks she had thereafter been asked to perform on their behalf. Investigations into the strategical advantages of a considerable number of Old Race discoveries, some of which Kali knew about or, indeed, had beaten them to. There were other entries, too, but they were clearly meant for her brother alone and so Kali skipped through them quickly, until she came to the last entry of all.

Recorded only a week before, it detailed Jenna's last assignment and as Kali played it through she wandered, frowning, to the cave mouth and gazed up at the smoking remains of what she now knew was the first stage to