The Crucible of the Dragon God

were done' bit. The truth of the matter was, she didn't have a clue what was to be done, because she didn't have a clue what to expect when they got where they were going.

The party arrived at last at the base of the Dragonfire and, standing beneath it, a somewhat breathless Kali found she could not crane her neck back far enough to take it all in. That the Godhead was awe inspiring was beyond question and their proximity to it had the effect on the four yassan that she had anticipated. Their heads bowed and eyes lowered, they diligently cleared its base of detritus and arranged their offerings of mountain flowers and intricately woven fetishes in rock bowls, their manner reverent and vaguely fearful. It was clear they dared not look upon the Dragonfire itself, let alone climb higher and actually approach it, which was handy for she and Slowhand because they could slip away without much attention being paid to them. Kali wasn't particularly happy that she had been less than truthful with the yassan, but if on the way up the rockface she suffered any unchosen one like falls, it was perhaps best they didn't see.

For a while as she and Slowhand clambered up the lower parts of the vast sculpture, she began to wonder whether that might indeed be their fate, because even though the wind whistled more harshly about them with each yard they climbed, it was as nothing compared to the roaring that reached them from above — from where the Dragonfire itself roiled into the world. It did indeed sound like the exhalation of some angry God, and only the fact that every bone in her body told her that it couldn't be stopped her turning back to rethink her plan. Slowhand reached the level of the fire before her and pulled himself up onto a ledge before it.

'Keep back!' she shouted up. 'The heat could — '

To her surprise, Slowhand merely turned in a circle before it, his arms outstretched. 'What heat? Hooper, it looks like fire, it roars like fire, but it isn't fire! It's just an illus — '

His words were cut short as his rotation brought him too close and the Dragonfire, rather than burning him, blew him back across the ledge. The archer thudded to the ground with an oof!

Kali flipped herself onto the ledge and made sure he was all right. 'Serves you right. Idiot.'

'Hey, how was I to know? You told me illusions are a favourite trick of the Old Races, right? Like the dancing beds at Cannista.'

'Dancing heads,' Kali corrected. Gods, he really did have a one track mind. 'And I probably tell you far too much.'

She offered a hand to help Slowhand up, and he grabbed it — the pair yelping as a spark of residual energy from his blow-back arced between them.

'Fark,' Kali said, shaking her hand

'The power of the Dragon God?' Slowhand mused as he rubbed his own tingling fingers.

'More like the power of ancient technology. Some kind of force barrier. Very old and much weaker than it probably once would have been. Otherwise, you wouldn't be standing here now.'

She stared up at the Dragonfire. The area over which it roiled was massive. Large enough, she realised with growing excitement, to permit an airship to pass through it.

'You're not telling me the yassan built this thing?'

'No, only the Godhead around it. The fire thing goes part of the way to explain their choice of deity, though, don't you think?'

'I think a better question is, is there any way through?'

Kali examined the area. 'Doesn't seem to be any way to shut it down so I guess anything meant to pass through it, like an airship, must be recognised somehow — perhaps some kind of onboard, runic key.'

'Doesn't do us a lot of good, then. All out of airships and runic keys.'

'True, but maybe we can fight the magic with magic, force it to recognise us.'

Slowhand spread his hands, looking around. 'Except we seem to be lacking a mage.'

'But we do have this,' Kali said, unslinging her crackstaff. 'It made a hole in the Expanse's echo of the Three Towers so maybe it can do the same here.'

Remembering the force with which Slowhand had been blown back, she eased the tip of the staff into the Dragonfire, intending to build its charge slowly. 'Better hide,' she advised, feeling the tingle of the force barrier running through her body. 'Don't want this blowing all your clothes off, do we?'

'Oh, funny,' Slowhand said. Kali sensed him disappear from her side, then heard, 'This do?'

Kali looked at him looking at her, his face wavering on the other side of the barrier. 'Yes, that's fi — ' she began, then stopped when she realised what she was seeing.

'Not so much of a know all, then,' Slowhand said, with a grin.

'How in the hells did you — ?'

'Think about it, Hooper. If the ancestors of the yassan — who obviously didn't inherit the place because they're out here — and the k'nid escaped the Crucible, then they had to have a way out, right?' Slowhand looked insufferably smug and then cocked his thumb left. 'Spotted it a moment ago. A small fissure just over there.'

Kali looked where he indicated. 'Dammit.'

'Nice hairstyle,' the archer commented as she retrieved the crackstaff and made her way to his side. 'Vertical.'

Kali patted down the stiffened stack. 'Shut it.'

Slowhand pretended to stagger back. 'Are you sulking?' he asked, and glanced at the fissure. 'Just because I found — ?'

Kali slammed her hands on her hips. 'I am not sulking.'

'You are. You're sulking.'

'Look, can we just get on with this, please?'

'Fine, fine,' Slowhand capitulated, then winked. 'But you'd best let me go first, eh? Just in case you miss anything.'

Kali growled and elbowed him out of the way, taking the lead into the tunnel. Her initial stomp soon turned into a slower and more awed tread, however, her neck craning again as she gazed upwards, realising just what a tunnel it was. Absolutely circular and clearly cutting right the way through the mountain, it was easily the size of one of the Lost Canals of Turnitia. The perfect smoothness of it indicated it had been bored using technology similar to the dwarven Mole, except on a much more ambitious scale. Hers was not the only mouth to hang open as she and Slowhand walked its length, their way lit by the same massive glowing tubes as had lit the waystation. Their passage through the mountain took some considerable time but, as they neared its end, they began to glimpse slivers of sky ahead, obfuscated by what appeared to be a mass of thick vegetation, possibly the tops of trees. That there was such growth here was surprise enough, but exactly where it grew was what took the proverbial redbread.

'Hooper,' Slowhand said as they finally reached the tunnel's end. 'Are you seeing what I'm seeing?'

'Oh, yeah,' Kali responded, breathlessly.

They had emerged half way up another cliff-face and spread out before them, here in the highest heart of the Drakengrat Mountains, was a lush jungle valley. Completely surrounded by impassable and overlooming peaks — between which appeared to roil another barrier like the one they had passed through — it was a strange and fully verdant lost world that sat amongst the clouds. And there were structures in it. Structures that were not part of the jungle but had been overgrown by it. It was difficult to make out the details of them from where they stood because much of what they saw was obscured by the jungle itself, but both Kali and Slowhand got the impression they were looking at a number of worlds.

'The Crucible of the Dragon God?' Slowhand hazarded.

'Why don't we go ask him?'

'That looks as if it might be easier said than done.'

Slowhand was right. The structures loomed high in the jungle and so they were going to have a problem accessing them. There was another problem, too, though one that was more theoretical than practical. It was now clear to Kali that this valley — these worlds — were meant to be reached only by air, and as a consequence of that only by those with the technology for air travel, and that troubled her. That they were here, so remote, so hidden, and that the force barrier at their only entrance was