by Rob May
‘He is here now—and his name is Gron Darklaw!’
* * *
‘You are one of the few people who have shown me no fear, Kalina Moonheart. You and your captain; I will honour him with a statue in the centre of Balibu. As for you, I told you that I have an offer to make. I will not try to hide the fact that you impress me: you fight well; you gamble with cunning and control; you have an adventurous spirit, daring to come here despite the warnings; you are young, fit and healthy …
‘If you accept, I would make you my wife!’
V.iv
Promises
Kal stopped chewing halfway through a mouthful of fish. Despite the heat of the lava chamber, a trickle of cool sweat ran down her neck. ‘No,’ she replied. ‘Never.’
‘No?’ Darklaw stood up and loomed over Kal, his fists on the table. ‘Why not? Kalina, I would raise a palace for us over the ruins of the governor’s villa in Balibu. You would want for nothing! I would even let you fight by my side. I would want you to fight by my side.’
Kal spat out her fish and stood up to look Darklaw in the eye. ‘I could never marry a killer,’ she said.
Darklaw looked surprised. ‘You are a killer, too!’ he said, leaning closer.
‘I only kill killers. You kill anyone who stands in your way. You killed Vanrar the merchant; he was a friend of mine. And you’re sending a ship out today to murder the new governor!’
Darklaw shrugged and waved the accusations aside. ‘Pah! Merchants and politicians are warriors of a sort, too; it is just that money and influence are their weapons, not blades. I heard that Vanrar had a business rival poisoned once. I have heard many worse things about senators.’
‘What about the new governor’s family? You told your men to kill them, too.’
Darklaw scowled. ‘If people insist on bringing their family and children into battle; well, then their lives are forfeit. That is a lesson that I have learned myself; one that will forever pain me.’
The big man turned away abruptly from the table and went to the edge of the lava lake, where he stood staring out into nothingness, one hand clutching his stitched-up side. Kal sighed. She couldn’t decide if she felt revulsion or pity for the man. She walked around the table and cautiously approached him. It would be so easy to spring forward and push him into the lava. Could she do that to him? She had done worse things to people …
She stepped up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. ‘Gron,’ she said, ‘call off the attack on the governor’s ship. Send your army back home. Come with me to Amaranthium, and I promise …’
‘You promise what?’ Darklaw said, turning his head towards her. There was both pain and hope in his voice.
‘… and I promise that I’ll make sure you get a fair trial. I know people high up in the Senate …’
Without warning he lashed out with his powerful arm, sending Kal flying backwards across the island so that she landed painfully on her back with her head out over the edge of the rock. She felt her hair singeing from the heat of the lava that bubbled just a few feet below.
Darklaw advanced on her with tears in his eyes. ‘Damn the Senate to hell! Your promises are worthless; the Senate is a nest of vipers that will most likely betray us both. And I will never submit to any authority. I take what I want, and I want you. If you will not be mine by choice, then I will take you by force!’
Kal struggled to her feet and ran and put the table between them. She hurled the silver domed food cover at him as he advanced on her; it bounced harmlessly off his shoulder. She took up the silver platter that the fish had lay on and tossed it at him like a discus; Darklaw swatted it away with his forearm.
Then he grabbed the heavy wooden table in both hands and hurled it away to one side. It hit the lava and burst into flames. Kal took the opportunity to lift a chair by its back and smash its legs in Darklaw’s face. It barely slowed him; he advanced on her with a mad fury in his eyes. As she retreated, Kal tripped on the uneven ground; she was forced to scuttle backwards on all fours like a crab. She reached the narrow bridge that spanned the lava, and kept backing onto it. She didn’t dare take her eyes off Darklaw—if she ran and he threw something at her as she retreated, she would end up taking a very hot bath.
Darklaw stood and watched from the island. He took deep breaths to bring his body back under control. When Kal reached the opposite shore of the lake, she stood and stared him down. ‘You’re insane!’ she shouted across the lake.
He just stood there, glowering at her. Kal shrugged and turned to leave … and found that two guards had come down the tunnel to the chamber and were standing right behind her. One grabbed her by the wrists, and the other took her ankles. She hung between them, twisting helplessly.
‘Take her away,’ Darklaw commanded. ‘And chain her up this time.’
* * *
The guards took Kal back up the tunnel. It was humiliating, being carried swinging between them like a carcass. She hissed and spat, but her captors ignored her. They passed the door to her previous luxury prison and took a turning that led them nearer to the noise of the mine. Some goblins carrying pick axes shambled past and looked at Kal blankly. Those poor, small creatures had a dumb animal look in their eyes, but it was relatively friendly compared to the cruel aggression that she saw behind the eyes of the bigger hobgoblins.
The next people they passed were a group of soldiers going in the opposite direction. ‘You coming?’ one of them asked the pair carrying Kal. ‘Ship’s leaving any minute to go get this new guv’nor. Should be fun!’ One of Kal’s guards grunted an affirmative. ‘Just give us five minutes and we’ll be there.’ None of the others seemed surprised that they were hauling a prisoner down the tunnels. Perhaps this was normal routine around here. Where were they taking her?
It turned out to be a small chamber that had a stone block at its centre. Chains and manacles were bolted to the ground at all four corners. Other than that, the space was bare; just four walls of roughly hewn black granite. Kal noticed blood stains on the ground, though. A chill ran through her that turned to panic.
‘No,’ she gasped, struggling harder. If they managed to shackle her then it would all be over.
She twisted and writhed as the guard at her head clamped one manacle over her left wrist. The rough iron was tight and bit into her skin. The guard at her feet secured her right ankle. Kal tried to kick out with her left foot, but the hobgoblin just laughed and slapped her leg away.
But Kal was more flexible than either brute suspected: she lifted her hips and rolled back on her shoulders as much as the chains would allow, bringing her free left leg up past her head to smash into the jaw of the guard who was trying to chain her other wrist. He let go of her right arm and she reached quickly down to where her dress gathered at her waist …
… and then brought the concealed fish knife up and into his brain via his eye socket. As the dead guard fell away, the other one moved in to try and take Kal’s weapon away from her. She looped the chain that trailed from her left wrist around his neck and yanked it tight. He fell to his knees, choking. As he struggled for air, Kal reached down his body and pulled his sword out of the scabbard at his belt. There was no room to swing it, so instead she slid the blade along the chain down to the guard’s neck and started sawing away. It was hard work killing him, but eventually he stopped moving. Kal threw down the sword and lay back on the stone block in exhaustion.
The fish knife proved to be a useful tool when it came to unlocking the manacles. Once she was free she rubbed her wrist and ankle. Both were sore, but at least the skin had not broken. She was going to bruise all over after banging herself around on the stone block, though. Kal smiled grimly as she buckled the guard’s sword belt around her waist over her torn satin dress. Oh well. It had turned out a lot worse for those two.
She armed herself with two long daggers, which would serve her better in a fight than the guards’ longswords. She tried on their boots but they were far too big, and their heavy leather
jerkins would just weigh her down. So in the end she left dressed as she had arrived: but this time ready for both dinner and for war.
The mountain trembled again as Kal stalked the tunnels; the hot wind sucked back momentarily, then blew harder, pulling at her hair and dress. You should have killed me instead of trying to woo me, Darklaw, she said silently. I’m going to put an end to you and your invasion.
But this time I promise you that you’re not going to get a fair fight.
V.v
The King Without a Crown
Kalina and Ben walked at a relaxed pace along the rushing waters of the Green Beck. If it wasn't for the sleeping dragon that they had left three miles behind them, they could have been on a quiet moonlit stroll. The only sounds came from the river and from the crisp night breeze that blew upstream and shook the leaves in the forest around them. They had not seen or heard any signs of animals: no owls hooted, no foxes or rabbits ventured onto the path. The forest was usually teeming with life, even at night. Now it felt abandoned.
Ben was beginning to sober up. He looked like he was about to throw up in the forest undergrowth, so Kalina directed him to the river. ‘The last thing we want is the dragon getting a whiff of your last meal,’ she told him.
‘I’m sorry,’ he said when he had finished. ‘I swear that after this I’m never touching another bottle again. I’m a terrible drunk.’
‘Don’t be too hard on yourself,’ Kalina said. ‘You were never drunk when you were teaching the children. What you do in your spare time is nobody’s business.’
Ben smiled. ‘Thanks, Kal. You always did see the good in everyone.’
‘I saw the good in you when you plucked me out of the dragon’s nest,’ she laughed. ‘With your legendary sword! What were you babbling on about back in the cellar? About the Dragon hunting you and your family?’
Ben sighed. They walked in silence for a moment, then he seemed to make up his mind about something. ‘Do you remember any of the things I told you about my life before I arrived in Refuge?’
Kalina nodded ‘All that exciting stuff about you being the son of a fortune teller and a thief lord?’
‘Yes,’ Ben said. ‘Well … none of it was true.’
‘I never thought that it was, Ben! I didn’t care, though; nobody asks questions about anyone’s past in Refuge. Hell, I think I was the only person living there who wasn’t trying to put some old secret life behind them.’
‘I know that,’ Ben said, ‘but I thought a crazy lie might help disguise an even crazier truth. Kal, my family does have a secret; one that drove my father to an early grave.’
Kalina was intrigued immediately. ‘This sounds like one of the stories you tell in class. Are there gods and monsters involved?’
‘Of course. How did you guess? It was my father who filled my head with all those old stories of Arcus, Draxos, Pescipus, Mena and the rest. My father …’ Ben paused for effect ‘… told me that he was a descendant of Banos himself.’
Banos. The warrior god. Together with his close friend Arcus, the two immortals had waged war on the armies of monsters for centuries. They defeated the three hundred trolls of Hagaroth without any help from others; they snatched the Eye of the Titan from the Chasm of Bad Blood; they saved the world on countless occasions in times of war … and provoked many a conflict in times of peace. They were the last gods to fall finally to the Dragon a thousand years ago …
… and between them they fathered scores of long-forgotten children, thanks to their relentless assault on the virtues of adoring mortal admirers. So Kalina wasn’t particularly impressed by Ben’s claim. ‘Banos wasn’t exactly fussy about who he got it on with, Ben. I’ve met sheep who can claim to be his direct descendants, too.’
‘Were any of these sheep descended via the Godsword line of kings and queens?’
Kalina whistled quietly through her teeth. That was different. That would change everything. ‘Are you certain?’ she asked.
‘Well I haven’t got a crown-shaped birthmark, if that’s what you’re asking,’ Ben said, ‘but I do have this. Take a closer look.’
He handed her his massive sword. Kalina didn’t have to draw it from its scabbard to realise that it was heavier than the prop that she had always assumed it to be. She drew the blade an inch and felt the edge.
‘And you let the children play with this?’ she said, sucking her bleeding thumb.
‘Only if they behave. It’s the real thing, though: the Blade of Banos. It’s bloodsteel; the gods forged it out of the hardest ore from the highest peak of the largest mountain in the world: the Improbable Mountain. Banos passed it down to the daughter that he gave Queen Oulia. King Aldenute killed himself with it five hundred years later. His descendants have continued to pass it down through the generations, despite living simple lives far removed from gods and monarchs. My father gave it to me the day he died.’
Kalina was amazed. ‘But Ben, that would make you—’
‘It makes me nothing, Kal. We have a republic now; I have no more right to wear a crown than you do. It was something else that my father died trying to find. My great-great-many times great-grandfather King Aldenute was the richest man in the world, but the last thing that he told his family was that he had hidden his vast wealth where his enemies would never find it.’
‘Did you ever find out where?’ she asked Ben.
‘The sly old fool said that he said he had hidden it with Banos himself. But everyone knows that Banos is the only god who doesn’t have a tomb; it’s a mystery where his remains lie! My father eventually decided, for some mad reason, that Banos was frozen in ice in the Askulin Glacier. He came back from that adventure with a minotaur horn stuck in his chest. Before he died, he made me promise to continue the search … and I did, Kal, for a while at least. But eventually my dreams of riches faded, and the simple life of a schoolteacher started to look more appealing. I’m thirty now; too old to be exploring ruins and climbing mountains!’
Kalina smiled and handed Ben back his sword. They walked in silence for a while. Ben’s story had taken their minds off the dragon for a time, and Kalina was encouraged to see that they were almost at the juncture of the Green Back and the Cold Flow. She let her thoughts drift to other old stories and legends, anything to distract her mind from recent events. Every mile they travelled took them further and further away from the dragon and closer to the safety of …
She stopped suddenly in her tracks. Ben almost walked into her. ‘What’s wrong?’ he asked.
‘I know where it is,’ she said. ‘The tomb of Banos.’
Just at that moment, something stepped out onto the path in front of them. Ben drew his sword from its scabbard. The creature on the path froze when it spotted them. It was an albino deer, probably ignored by the herd and left behind when all the other animals had fled the forest. Kalina and Ben relaxed and the deer bounded off down the path.
‘You were saying—’ Ben began.
Before Kalina could reply, a familiar sound tore through the still night air: a screeching kyyyrrrrk that battered their eardrums. Back in the direction of Refuge, something had stirred.
‘Oh no, no, no,’ Ben moaned, holding his weapon out in front of him, point down like he no longer wanted it. ‘I told you that it was after me and the sword!’
The Blade of Banos glittered in the moonlight, except for some dark spots where the bloodsteel was dulled by stains. An odd tangy smell hit Kalina’s nostrils.
‘It's not the sword it can sense,’ she told Ben. ‘It can smell the blood of its young on the blade.’ She took the sword out of Ben’s loose grip and hurled it into the river.
‘Now run!’ she ordered.
Kalina sprinted off along the path. Ben snapped out of his daze and tried to catch up. ‘Run where?’ he shouted after her, breathlessly.
‘I know a place!’
They ran downriver at full pelt for half a mile, and made it to the grove of willow trees just in time. Kalina and Ben collapsed in the damp
dirt at the foot of Mena’s Mirror just as the dragon landed on top of the willows. The trees bent and creaked, but the branches were woven together too tightly for the dragon to get its claws down to them. It continued roaring and flapping around outside for some time.
Ben sat with his head in his hands. He looked defeated already. ‘What are we going to do, Kal?’ he said. ‘Trees aren’t going to protect us for long.’
Kal knew that they were doomed, yet for some reason she was calm. Maybe the terror had run its course. Maybe the sanctuary of Mena had a soothing influence.
‘You’re right,’ she said, ‘and we’re not going to be able to sneak out of here either this time, that’s for sure. Ben, you need to think back over everything you’ve ever read or heard—try and remember anything from history or legend that might be relevant. There must be something in one of your old stories that can help us.’
Kalina couldn’t believe what she was considering, but it was do-or-die time now.
‘If you ever want me to show you where your ancestor is buried, then I need to know how to kill this dragon.’
V.vi
Sabotage
The black rock tunnels were tight and suffocating. Kal’s mouth was bone-dry; the last time that she had tasted water on her lips was when she and Rafe were climbing the mountain. Gron Darklaw’s sharpfin supper had been succulent, alright, but heavily salted. She tried hard not to think about what it would feel like to gulp down cold clear spring water; dreaming of it would just make her feel worse.
And now she was lost. The twisting, turning tunnels all looked the same. There was noise and heat coming from all directions. It had been impossible to remember the route the guards had followed when she was being carried along, hung between them like a piece of meat, her nose sometimes scraping the ground. Somehow she had to find a way to stop Darklaw’s men from sailing off to murder the new governor. But how was she going to do that? There was no time to make her way back to the mainland to warn anyone. She could think of only one thing that would cause the hobgoblins to call off their attack.