menacing. Caitlin noticed the barely perceptible shift of their expressions, the way they clutched their knives tighter, moved close against the rail. Unbidden, the skiff began to drift towards Sunchaser.
'It was nice to meet you,' Caitlin said to them. She glanced at Matt, who was watching her carefully for any sign. Without drawing attention to himself, he notched an arrow. 'But we have to be on our way now.'
'Stay a while, Sister of Dragons. Let us talk some more.' The skiff continued to drift towards them. 'We so rarely have the chance to talk with Fragile Creatures. Tell us news of the Fixed Lands. We miss our old home.'
One of the crew at the back surreptitiously lifted his knife, ready to throw. Instantly, the air whistled as Matt's arrow rammed into the centre of the little man's forehead. The crew member squealed as he was thrown backwards wearing an expression of shock.
His comrades erupted in fury. 'At them!' the leader roared. A knife embedded itself in the mast just to the side of Caitlin's head. The skiff picked up speed. Caitlin loosed an arrow, spiking the leader in the throat. There was no blood. She notched another arrow with a speed that surprised her and fired again. Matt was firing too, while Mahalia yelled a stream of four-letter obscenities and brandished her blade ferociously. Caitlin couldn't comprehend what was happening. Her body appeared to be moving of its own accord, her hands rapidly notching and loosing as if she were an expert archer; a part of her observed what she was doing with a detached amazement.
The arrows tore into the little men, but still they stood, like pincushions.
'He's right — we can't kill them!' Matt yelled.
The leader snapped off the shafts of the arrows penetrating him, his face contorted with rage. The words that streamed from his mouth were now incomprehensible, but clearly filled with venom. The skiff raced towards Sunchaser, and when it came within a few feet, the little men leaped the gap. Caitlin fell back, wishing she had a sword. But Mahalia was there before her, slashing back and forth like a veteran with her Fomorii blade. It raked open the face of one of the little men, knocked another back against the rail.
Even Crowther stepped forward, brandishing his staff, which was tipped with iron. He rammed it into the stomach of the leader and tried to lever him over the side.
But it quickly became clear that the little men would overwhelm the travellers in no time. Though their bloodless injuries mounted, nothing hurt them. They were an unstoppable wave of wild activity. Matt's forearm was opened up by one of the knives. Crowther went down with one of the attackers straddling him, arm raised, knife ready to plunge into the professor's throat.
Caitlin backed against the starboard rail, her mind racing. Her only option was to make Triathus ram Sunchaser into the shore in the hope that it would unseat the little men and give the rest of them — whoever survived — a chance to escape into the forest.
But before she could move, she smelled charred metal on the breeze and an intense white glow burned on the periphery of her vision. She turned to see Jack pressed against the rail, distraught, tearing at his hair as tears flowed down his cheeks. The burning light was emanating from his stomach. It was as if it had opened up to reveal a furnace, but the illumination moved out from him in waves that had the glassy appearance of a heat haze.
He howled, in physical or emotional pain, and the molten light erupted from him in a blast. It hit each of the little men full on, sending them flying through the air, over the rail and cascading into the river. The light slowed, twisted into tendrils and hung for a second, before lashing out in a second wave. It smashed into the skiff and tore it into matchwood.
And just as quickly, the bizarre display sucked back into Jack's stomach and winked out.
Jack collapsed to his knees in dismay, stifling sobs. Mahalia, confused and troubled by his state, rushed to comfort him, but he forced her away. He looked broken.
Triathus rushed up from below deck, while the others scrambled to their feet, dazed, trying to comprehend what had happened. The remains of the skiff disappeared beneath the slow-moving water.
Appearing oddly elated, Crowther staggered to the rail, gasping for breath. 'If they can't be killed, they should be surfacing any minute. We need to get this old tug moving.'
Triathus took his position at the prow and Sunchaser obeyed his silent command to move ahead quickly.
The water astern remained placid. 'They're not coming,' Crowther said. He turned back to Jack. 'What has he done to them?'
Once they were sure the little men would not be surfacing, Caitlin, Matt and Crowther gathered round Jack, who sat with his head pressed against his knees.
'Leave him alone,' Mahalia snapped. 'Can't you see he's upset?' She was upset herself, though hiding it as well as she could.
'What happened, Jack?' Caitlin asked softly. Jack looked up at her with tearful eyes. 'They did it to me… in the Court of the Final Word.' 'What did they do?' Matt asked. 'They took me apart and put me back together, trying to find out how I work. That's what they do with all humans.' Jack choked back the words. 'Only they didn't leave it there. They turned me into a weapon. They put something inside me. Not… not physically inside me, but bonded to me somehow, on some level.' 'Do you know what it is?' Crowther asked gravely. 'A Wish-Hex.' Jack bowed his head again. Crowther blanched. 'What is it?' Mahalia said with a desperate voice. 'The Wish-Hex is the ultimate weapon,' Crowther replied. He dropped a comforting hand on to Jack's shoulder, and that simple act from someone so undemonstrative underlined the gravity of his words. 'As the atomic bomb is to us, so the Wish-Hex is to the gods. It can destroy all reality.' 'But why did they put it in this… this lad?' Matt said. 'I'm a secret weapon,' Jack said bleakly. 'Because no one would suspect you, you could get right into the heart of the enemy,' Matt said. 'And then they'd… detonate you.' 'All right.' Mahalia looked as if she was about to burst into tears. 'There's no need to go on about it.' 'Who were they planning to use it on?' Caitlin asked. 'Surely not their own kind?' 'I don't think so,' Jack said. 'It was for some time in the future, for some big threat, a last resort…' 'A doomsday bomb,' Crowther explained, 'that would take all of Existence out with them, because they couldn't conceive of anything carrying on if they were ever defeated.' Matt glanced back to where the skiff had been. 'That didn't look so bad.'
'I only used a tiny fraction of the power,' Jack said with dismay. 'Only a tiny, tiny fraction. But it still shouldn't have killed them. I can't understand it. Where are they?'
They all moved aft to stand at the rail. There was definitely no sign of the little men. The sun had almost disappeared behind the tree line and the bats were now loosing themselves from branches to skim across the water, scooping up the flurrying insects.
'Something's wrong here,' Crowther said.
Chapter Ten
'Because I could not stop for Death, He kindly stopped for me, The carriage held but just ourselves, And Immortality.'
The moon glinted off the water like glass. Sunchaser rocked soothingly on the currents, moored for the night in mid-stream. Ahead lay a steep-sided gorge where the river turned white and turbulent as it gushed through rapids so dangerous Triathus would only navigate them in the light of day.
For the first watch, Caitlin had taken a position aft on a carved wooden chair. The tranquillity of the night did not move her, for she could not escape the feeling that something was amiss. She watched like a hawk, shifting her gaze from one bank to the other, paying attention to every splash and gurgle, every movement of branch and leaf.
At the same time, her mind worked overtime trying to understand her mysterious skill at archery. She had trained at it before, but her display during the attack had been that of a master, her reactions instinctive. All she could think was that it had something to do with her heritage as a Sister of Dragons, whatever that really meant. And then she recalled the casket she had come across in the Wildwood. The plaque said it belonged to a Brother of
