The Trials of Trass Kathra
Page 30
Kali’s foetal position tightened, her knees rising, her fists clenching, her head dipping into her chest.
“What,” Dolorosa shouted, “have you done to my girl?”
The piratess moved towards Fitch but Slowhand grabbed her and held her back.
“Don’t,” he warned. “He’s too dangerous.”
“Dangerous, but leaving.” Fitch said. “It’s been a long, long time since I have been able to delegate my more unsavoury tasks. I miss that.”
Slowhand glared at him. “And what exactly are you delegating?”
“Your deaths, of course.”
A sneer formed on Slowhand’s lips, but faded as Querilous Fitch began to retreat from him. Because the psychic manipulator – the fishman – glided once more, this time backwards down the beach, towards and then into the sea.
Staring at them all the time, Querilous Fitch receded beneath the waves, the water lapping about his waist, his chest, his head, until he was gone. And as he disappeared, in his place, other figures waded by him from the depths, at least twenty of them, sloughing dark water and seaweed from their muscular forms as they came. Forms green of skin and scaled, and even without their talons, armed to their very sharp teeth.
“I think,” Jengo Pim said, “that we should get the hells out of here.”
“I’m open to suggestions,” Slowhand responded.
“Back up the steps. We can make a stand on the cliff.”
Slowhand nodded and pulled Kali’s slumped form to its feet, supporting her as they began the climb. Pim, Brundle and Dolorosa brought up the rear. The old woman hissed at the fishmen as they crossed the beach in pursuit.
The climb seemed to take forever, and night closed in, but there seemed to be more than shadows in the rocks and ancient ruins around them. Hisses and sibilant rattles punctuated the darkness, and shapes flitted here and there, preternaturally fast, leaving a peculiar dampness in the air. Every member of the party cast uneasy glances as they rose higher and higher, but it was down to Brundle, as they at last reached Horizon Point, to voice what they all feared.
“They’re everywhere, yer know,” the dwarf said. “There must be hundreds of ’em.”
It was true. As Slowhand, Pim and the others formed themselves into a defensive huddle on the highest point of the island, those that Querilous Fitch had sent from the sea to be their executioners emerged from all points of the compass, up the steps, from behind rocks, out of the shattered remains of the Thunderflux’s cap, and over the lip of the cliff behind them.
All of them swarming onto Trass Kattra in search of their prey.
“It’s over,” Kali said, lying weak in his arms.
Slowhand started at her words.
“That doesn’t sound like the Kali Hooper I know.”
“That’s because I’m not the Kali Hooper you know. Not any more.”
“The dra’gohn magic,” the archer said. “We’ll get it back. Finish the job.”
Kali stared over his shoulder to where the blood red orb that was the Hel’ss hung in the sky. It was almost touching Kerberos, now. She shook her head. “Too late. Just like last time, too late.”
“Not if I have anything to do with it,” Slowhand said.
“Make that we,” Brundle rumbled.
“I’d go with that,” agreed Jengo Pim.
Dolorosa nodded. “We will make sure these feesh havva their cheeps.”
Slowhand lowered Kali’s head to the ground. “I have to leave you now. Just for a while.”
“What the hells are you doing? This is suicide.”
Slowhand grinned. “Hey, I’m your sidekick, aren’t I?”
He rose, pulling Suresight from his back and notching an arrow, the tension of it creaking in the night. Beside him, Brundle unslung his battleaxe from its scabbard with a sching and hefted it before him. Pim drew a short sword and Dolorosa twin daggers, slashing the air with their blades.
Slowhand stared at the surrounding circle of fishmen, jaw clenching as it began to close in.
“Bring it on,” he said.
MIKE WILD
Mike Wild is much older than he has a right to be, considering the kebabs, the booze and the fags. Maybe it’s because he still thinks he’s 15. Apart from dabbling occasionally in publishing and editing, he’s been a freelance writer for ever, clawing his way up to his current dizzy heights by way of work as diverse as Doctor Who, Masters of the Universe, Starblazer, ‘Allo ‘Allo! and – erm – My Little Pony. Counting one Teen Romance, one ABC Warriors and two Caballistics Inc, The Trials of Trass Kathra is his eighth novel. However, only his beloved wife and tuna-scoffing cat give him the recognition he deserves.
“THERE’S A WHOLE WORLD OUT THERE... AND IT ISN’T OURS!”
The words of her mentor inspire Kali Hooper to explore the lost places of Twilight, unearth the secrets of its past and discover the fate of the vanished Old Races. But when an unexpected encounter in the deadly Spiral of Kos brings Kali head to head with Twilight’s all-consuming Final Faith, she finds herself in a race for the keys to the Old Races’ most terrifying secret yet – the mysterious construct known as the Clockwork King of Orl. Everything Kali knows is about to change. She’ll lose old friends, gain new ones, learn a devastating secret about herself, and come face to face with a threat she must stop at any cost. Because while the Final Faith believe what they are about to unleash is their true destiny, Kali knows it is not only their future but the whole of Twilight’s that hangs in the balance. She has seen the fires, the deaths. She has heard the marching. The marching that heralds a sea of blood...
A KALI HOOPER ADVENTURE
www.abaddonbooks.com
“IS THIS WHAT HAPPENED TO THE OLD RACES? MY GODS, IS THIS HOW THEY DIED?”
Hordes of a deadly and unknown species of predator swarm across Twilight, killing and destroying everything in their path. Where have they come from? Is there a connection with the Final Faith airship in the Drakengrat Mountains? What was ‘the mistake’? Exactly what are the k’nid – and how can they be stopped?
New questions for Kali Hooper and her friends to answer – but doing so will prove far from easy. From a labyrinthine dwarven deathtrap to a besieged and battle-torn city, a haunted ancient limbo at the end of time and the aquatic lair of a vast serpent, Kali must battle her way to a place in the clouds that legend calls the Crucible of the Dragon God. There she must confront the past itself, for the Crucible holds a secret kept even from the Old Races – a secret so staggering that Kali is about to discover the true reason her world is called Twilight...
A KALI HOOPER ADVENTURE
www.abaddonbooks.com
“THE SENTENCE IS DEATH...”
Giant dwarven sirens rise from the ground and, all across Twilight, magic stops. Blamed for the emergence of these machines, Kali Hooper faces execution until a mysterious stranger offers her a deal. In order to keep her life, Kali is to help find the tyrannical head of the Final Faith, Katherine Makennon, who had been abducted by the Pale Lord.
Kali joins old enemies and unexpected allies in an epic quest that pits her against the dark machinations of the Pale Lord and reveals secrets not even she could have guessed at!
A KALI HOOPER ADVENTURE
www.abaddonbooks.com
Title
Series
Indicia
Map of Twilight
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Mike Wild
'The Clockwork King of Orl' by Mike Wild
'Th
e Crucible of the Dragon God' by Mike Wild
'Engines of the Apocalypse' by Mike Wild
Table of Contents
Series
Indicia
Map of Twilight
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Mike Wild
'The Clockwork King of Orl' by Mike Wild
'The Crucible of the Dragon God' by Mike Wild
'Engines of the Apocalypse' by Mike Wild