The Crucible of the Dragon God

once more, right? Fine. I'll go get it.'

'Then you must do so with all speed. There is little time.'

'There should be hours yet.'

'Until the next birthing cycle, yes. But that is not the threat you face.' The dwelf's eyes closed, as if he were sensing something far away. 'The Final Faith have returned. They have their own airships. And sorcerers who, even now, are attempting to break through our force barrier.'

'Airships?' Slowhand said. 'There was only one airship.'

'Gransk,' Kali said. 'I think Jenna had a telescryer in her party, sent them the information how to build them.'

''I'll glide this thing into Gransk', Jenna said,' Slowhand remembered. 'Hooper, what the hells is Gransk?'

'Final Faith shipyards, on the coast between Turnitia and Malmkrug. Top secret.'

'Right.'

Kali turned to the dwelf. 'How long do we have?'

'The force barrier weakens. They will gain access by dawn.'

'When they'll blow this place to bits,' Kali said.

'Sounds good to me,' Slowhand said. 'So why don't we get the hells out of here right now?'

'The prism,' Kali said.

'Fine. Then we get the prism and then get out of here.'

'I cannot allow you to leave this place, Killiam Slowhand,' the dwelf said, unexpectedly. 'Not yet.'

Slowhand raised Suresight without hesitation, an arrow pointed unwaveringly at the hybrid.

'Yeah? Difficult to see how you'd stop us with this sticking out of your forehead.'

'Please. I do not intend my words to be a threat.'

'Sounding pretty pitsing much like one to me.'

Kali raised an arm and lowered Suresight, much to Slowhand's consternation. ''Liam, wait. Let's hear what he has to say.'

'Hooper, I do not see the problem. Whether this guy's on our side or not, it was his people who caused this mess in the first place. You tell me — what exactly is wrong with having the Crucible destroyed right now? Isn't it what we came here for?'

'Because there's something else, isn't there, Tharnak? There has to be.' She thought back to Slowhand's comment about the yassan, and about the atmosphere chambers and other strange rooms the two of them had seen. The dwelf had said that they were creating the life form but he had also said 'that and those who could deliver it to its goal.'

The dwelf nodded and, across the chamber, on a shimmering patch of air, a view of the Kerberos sphere appeared — in its centre the glamour field.

'We learned early in our experiments that we, the elves and the dwarves, would not survive the journey to the heavens but that humans — changed humans — would. We were creating four such travellers when the end came.'

'What happened to them?'

'I do not know. It was necessary that I reverted to my hybernartion state to survive the end and when, finally, I awoke they, like the races which sired me, were gone and I was alone.'

Slowhand saw the disappointment cloud Kali's face. He knew she needed to know exactly how the Old Races had died.

'In other words, you were here when it happened but you missed it because you were asleep?'

'In essence, yes. But perhaps you will be able to glean some knowledge from this …'

In the Kerberos sphere, the glamour field began to dissolve.

'In my solitude I became guardian not only of this place but what remained within it, hidden from view for countless years. But now my time is over, and another guardian is needed.'

Kali and Slowhand stared.

'Is that what I think it is?' Slowhand gasped. 'I mean, I'm not sure what I think it is… but is it?'

'Oh, my Gods!'

Chapter Fifteen

Kali knew right at that moment that everything was going to change — fundamentally change — and life would never be the same again. She didn't know how it would change, she didn't know when it would change, but this was the beginning. She knew it.

The resulting numbness she felt had barely wavered even when, in the image the dwelf had called forth, Kali could see two familiar piratical figures clambering into the Kerberos sphere; having presumably come to warn them of the Faith only to end up gawping at what had been revealed, as she was. Because in that same moment she had been back in the Warty Witch in Freiport, having her first conversation with Merrit Moon, he the twinkly eyed exponent of the world's lost past, she the wide-eyed girl. The topic had, of course, been the Old Races and the wonders they had produced. In his cataloguing of such wonders the old man had cited one whose seemingl sheer implausibility had haunted her ever since.

'Tales from the Final Age,' he had said, 'tell of them actually preparing to send ships to the heavens. To explore Kerberos itself.'

Ships to the heavens.

In truth, she had never really believed they could exist.

But now she was looking at one.

She and Slowhand worked their way in a daze down to the Kerberos sphere — there reuniting with Aldrededor and Dolorosa — and now the four of them were gazing up at what was clearly the ultimate achievement of the Old Races.

Sitting on some kind of fluid, semi-organic cradle, the ship was a great flowing, sweeping creation that was unlike any mode of transport Kali had ever seen, human or Old Race. The main part of its hull the length of ten cattle carts and the breadth of four, it widened further where its wings curved majestically and seemingly without join from port and starboard down to the hangar floor. As Kali and the others drew closer, they saw that the wings, like the hull, were seemingly made up of, but in fact overlaid with, hundreds of small and overlapping sets of fluted funnels, like flattened panpipes. Combined, these gave the impression the ship was covered from bow to stern in rippling scale. The impression that it was some kind of living organism was further enhanced by the fact that every one of the funnels was inscribed with delicate runics resembling the porous flaws of skin. They, in turn, rested on a membranous, flexible underlayer that was soft like flesh. Kali stroked one of the wings almost reverently, realising that here was another reason why the yassan had chosen what they had as the basis for their religion. They were not misguided, their ancestors had simply been mistaken in what they had seen. Because by accident or design, the Kerberos ship looked for all the world like some stylised dragon ready to take flight.

'A thing of beauty, is she not?' Aldrededor observed with a heavy sigh.

'As beautiful as I, my 'usband?'

'Ohhhh, definitely not.'

'But, er, what is it?'

Kali smiled. 'I guess you could call it a… spaceship.'

'A space ship?' Dolorosa repeated. 'What kind ovva space?'

Kali pointed upwards — straight upwards — and the tall, thin woman inhaled sharply. Then her eyes narrowed and she stared with great suspicion. 'You take-a the peees, yes? You havva the laugh atta