Thief of the Ancients

by Mike Wild

  Kali took a step forward and then stopped. “Are you decent?” she said warily.

  Dolorosa gave her one of her killer looks. “I amma stuck, notta the senile old bat, Kali Hooper.”

  “Sorry. Okay then, let’s see what I can do.”

  Kali clambered over the debris and saw that the thin woman was indeed entangled in a mesh of aquatic weed, but nothing that couldn’t be handled. She pulled her gutting knife from its sheath and began to cut at it with sawing strokes. The growth was larger than it looked, part of a mass that had climbed the wall of the tunnel itself. It took quite some effort and a number of tugs from both of them to free it. Unfortunately, when at last it did come free, it did so unexpectedly quickly. Kali found herself suddenly flying backwards towards the canal, plunging through the algae covered surface. She emerged safe, however, and gagging and choking, swam to the side and waded back out, her hand outstretched to Dolorosa for help.

  “You arra the mess once more,” Dolorosa declared as she heaved her up. “We cannota take-a you anywhere.”

  “Hey!” Kali objected, loudly. “It was you that –”

  Kali stopped in mid-sentence and then, as Dolorosa started to protest, hushed her with a wave of the hand.

  Without another word, Kali began to walk forward, gazing up, and Dolorosa gazed where she gazed, and gasped.

  Because the mass of weed that they had pulled away had had a knock on effect on the weed that covered the tunnel wall, and part of that now lay exposed for the first time in no one knew how long.

  And it was covered in symbols. Great, golden symbols from some iconography that Kali had never seen before. She pulled away more of the growth and the symbols seemed to go on for as far as the wall did.

  “Gods of the Sea,” Aldrededor breathed, joining them.

  “What arra those? Do they belong to one of your olda races, like those, what issa it they arra called - dwelfs?”

  “Elfs, Dolorosa. I mean elves. There were two races, elves and dwarves, tall and thin and short and bulky, not difficult to tell apart. But these don’t belong to either of them.”

  “So, you arra saying there is a third race?”

  “No… maybe… I don’t know. It’s just that…”

  Kali trailed off, running her fingers over one of the symbols, generating a strange keening vibration as she touched the metal. This she ignored, more concerned that she was tracing a familiar pattern, even though she hadn’t seen the symbols before now. One of the shapes was a dead ringer for the creature she had encountered in the murky waters beneath Martak – the strange, water-breathing life form that had known all about her.

  “Boss lady?” Dolorosa said, prodding her.

  “Hush, woman!” Kali snapped.

  She wouldn’t normally have been so short with her but her mind had suddenly gone into overdrive. Fish symbols here? she was thinking. But if that was the case that probably meant that fish people had built these canals. But why in the hells would fish people want a set of tunnels that stretched everywhere under the peninsula? What purpose would they have served? What did the fish people want here?

  “Boss lady?”

  “I thought I said –” Kali began, spinning on her, and then stopped.

  Because she suddenly realised that Dolorosa hadn’t been trying to interrupt her, she’d been trying to alert her. Something was coming. Something big.

  Not that they could see anything, yet. It only manifested itself in the form of a distant roar. The surface of the canal had begun to undulate, like a tide coming in their direction, as if something massive had stirred it.

  “Both of you get inside the Mole. Now!”

  Dolorosa stood her ground. “I may have letta you down at the Flagons but do notta worry,” she said, slipping her stiletto from her boot. “Whatever thees theeng is, I will – heeeeeeeee!”

  The tall, thin woman made a sound like an expiring goose then promptly fainted, fortunately straight into her husband’s waiting arms, who then swept her up and did as Kali had instructed. Kali herself remained where she stood for a second longer, just enough time to take in what had prompted Dolorosa’s abrupt departure from consciousness.

  What she saw was not the creature itself but the creature announcing its presence with its shadow as it emerged from a side channel far up the branch. A shadow that, despite the distance, filled the arched thoroughfare completely, looming like a fast approaching night.

  Make that Long Night, Kali thought. Because the shadow went on and on and on.

  There was another deafening roar and the tunnel began to pound and shake, as if the unseen creature were slamming itself against the sides of the canal in fury. And then, fleetingly, she did see it, emerging from the water, to flash at incredible speed up and around the roof of the tunnel, negotiating a full three hundred and sixty degrees before it reached the other side and slipped beneath the surface again. Not all of it disappeared at once, though and, briefly, its long shadow flitted here, there and everywhere, impossible to keep track of, before then it, too, disappeared. Kali suddenly found herself awash with the canal’s sluggish water all the way up to her chest.

  It was coming right at them under the water.

  “Two-Faced Bob called it the yhang-dor!” Aldrededor shouted as Kali waded as quickly as she could towards the Mole. “He thought it was elvish for ‘That which never ends.’”

  “Actually, it just means big bastard!” Kali shouted back as she forced herself forward against the wash. She stared at the bobbing ridge of weed and algae moving disturbingly fast down the centre of the canal, realised she couldn’t see its end, and swallowed. “Aldrededor, get the Mole moving, now!”

  “Kali Hooper, you will not make i –”

  “I’ll make it, Aldrededor! Do it!”

  Aldrededor sighed and the Mole began to move forward, slowly at first, fighting against the wash, but gradually picking up speed.

  Kali stopped wading and threw herself into a crawl, head splashing left and right, spitting out small clumps of weed and algae as she swam. She was about a yard from the tail end of the Mole and she doubled her efforts to 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 as the vehicle responded by accelerating to the speed it was designed for, even she realised that with their current limitations and circumstances they had no more chance of fleeing their now immediate pursuer than one of the Hells Bellies would have outrunning a shnarl.

  “Kali!” Aldrededor said with uncharacteristic seriousness

  “Aldrededor? You don’t get out with me much, do you?”

  “I do not.”

  “You don’t really know how I work, do you?”

  “I have a feeling I am going to find out.”

  “The fact is, Aldrededor,” Kali said, making a slight course correction and ramming levers forward, making the Mole lurch, “I make things up as I go along.”

  “Kali Hooper, you are heading straight for the tunnel wall.”

  “Oh, yeah,” Kali said, nodding determinedly.

  Kali aimed the Mole at the wall and then, at the very last second, swerved. Instead of hitting the wall head on, the vehicle careened against it along its side, stripping away weed and algae until metal grated hard against the stone beneath. Rather than pulling away, Kali teased the Mole even further to the left, again and again, as if she were trying to smash through the wall. In fact, wasn’t her intention at all.

  Inside the cabin, a rather confused Aldrededor steadied his insensible wife while the Mole vibrated so much it seemed in danger of coming apart. Kali, however, seemed little concerned. She rammed the vehicle again and again against the wall and, as there was a series of judders and snapping and clanking sounds from its lower regions, it at last clicked with the ex-pirate what it was Kali was trying to do. She was not trying to destroy the whole vehicle, but only part of it.

  Aldrededor turned to look out of the rear observation slat, directing his gaze right and groundward, and sure enough the tracks on the vehicle’s left hand side were breaking apart, their connecting links buckling and separating as the bolts holding them together sheared and loosened. As he watched, the individual plates of the tracks folded, piling up against the hatch, and then the whole lot came loose, flapping away behind the Mole like a discarded belt.

  The Mole dropped onto its metal wheels on its left hand side and was in danger of going into a spin. However, Kali handled it expertly and instead quickly plunged the vehicle through the canal to a rise onto the opposite bank, wh
ere she began the same process again. A minute later, the tracks on the Mole’s right hand side joined their discarded opposites. Dropping fully onto both sets of wheels now, the vehicle accelerated along the canal bank, spurting a shower of sparks and leaving a rather confused looking yhang-dor in its wake.

  Both Kali and Aldrededor were flung back into their seats.

  “Wahoooo!” Kali shouted.

  Behind her, Dolorosa stirred slightly. “My ’usband, what is ’appening?”

  Aldrededor shrugged his arms helplessly and smiled. “Kali Hooper, she is making it up as she goes along.”

  The Mole continued its flight along the canal bank, three or four times its original speed now that its wheels had been freed of the constraining gears of the tracks. Kali smiled as the compass on the control panel informed her they were heading west, exactly the direction they needed to go. Her smile faded, however, as Aldrededor informed her that the yhang-dor was once more in pursuit. Now that it had a perfectly straight tunnel to traverse, it wasn’t gaining on them as fast as it would had the tracks still been present, but it was still gaining.

  “Okay, I’ve had enough of this overgrown toothbrush,” Kali declared. “Aldrededor, take the levers.”

  The ex-pirate scrambled back over the seat. “Kali Hooper, what are you doing now?”

  Kali flicked the hatch lever and grabbed the crackstaff she had stored beneath her seat, then climbed towards the opening, wind whipping at her hair.

  “Just keep on in this direction, Reddy! Back in a mo...”

  “You’re the boss, Kali Hooper.”

  Kali heaved herself out of the now opened hatch and steadied herself against the side of the Mole, its passage far from smooth now that it was running only on metal wheels. Nevertheless, she managed to lock herself into a secure position so that she was staring back along the side of the Mole, and raised the crackstaff. Some two hundred yards behind the vehicle, seemingly untroubled by the shower of sparks the Mole still trailed, the yhang-dor roared, its maw opening, displaying its countless razor teeth.

  Somewhat hampered by the fact that she had to cling on for dear life with one hand, Kali steadied the crackstaff as best she could and fired, loosing a bolt of energy that ricocheted off the canal bank and into the ether, while simultaneously almost blowing her off the Mole with its recoil. She anchored herself and fired again. This time the bolt impacted with the weeds on the wall, frying them before again ricocheting back down the long, dark tunnel. Trying not to look at the tunnel floor, as it raced blurringly by immediately below her, Kali fired once more. The bolt careened off the tunnel roof and back down at forty-five degrees into the stagnant water, where the canal erupted with a sudden geyser of steam.