by Mike Wild
But the horde did not close in. Instead, as one, they collapsed to the ground.
Slowhand's surprise was as great as the Anointed Lord's, but their interpretations of the unexpected development differed. Obviously concluding her efforts had somehow won the day, Makennon's heavy breaths turned into shuddering gasps of relief, and slowly she raised her gaze to him, displaying flaring and victorious eyes. The archer was considerably more wary. Puppets, Fitch had called these things, and if that was the case their strings had just been cut. But he seriously doubted that, with such an advantage, this First Enemy - whoever he was - would have cut them in defeat.
Something was wrong.
Every one of the horde that remained intact began, slowly, to laugh. They didn't stir from where they had collapsed, and their faces showed no more emotion than they had before, but from each of their upturned, gaping, black mouths came the sound of laughter. It was a cold and calculating laugh that echoed throughout the now otherwise still battlefield, and it seemed to come from very far away.
Makennon turned in a circle, her eyes on the collapsed forms, her axe ready to be wielded once more. And as she turned, she faced the tunnel.
She stared into the darkness. Something darker still seemed to grow there.
And then that darkness exploded in her face.
Kali stirred, blinked in confusion. After the clout she'd taken from DeZantez she guessed it was normal to see stars, but the Enlightened One's clout had clearly been an Almighty Clout because she was seeing balloons, bunting and flags as well. There was also a worgle right in front of her nose, staring at her in what seemed to be a very accusing way. Worgles had no eyes but it still stared, conjuring up flashes of Horse's darting tongue and a pang of guilt she'd never realised she'd felt.
Kali shook her head to free it of weirdness, then groaned. She was surrounded by the stuff of festivals and fun, but the way DeZantez had turned on her she wasn't feeling much like either. Wincing at the pain in her bruised temples she gently picked herself up off the floor to see she'd been confined in a small storeroom with a tiny window and solid wooden door. She tried to open the door but, naturally, it wouldn't budge, no doubt barred on the outside as there was no lock within. She pulled a crate under the window and climbed up. The window was too small for even her lithe frame to squeeze through but at least the view enabled her to glean where she was and how long she'd been out.
By the look of the sun, it was just after midday, and she was in Solnos - what was left of Solnos anyway. The storeroom had clearly been sturdy enough to survive the quake - which explained why it was serving as a makeshift jail - but outside was devastation. She was looking out onto the town plaza, which was now deserted, many of the tables and chairs upturned, plates shattered, the remains of meals scattered across the mosaic floor. There was smoke everywhere, a pall of it pouring from a jagged rent that split the plaza in two. Beside the rent was the body of a small dog.
Kali craned her neck so that she could see beyond the plaza. The destruction that the machines and the quake had wrought had flattened almost half the town, spreading as far as the second square, where, though the well and church had survived, the adjoining graveyard had disgorged its dead, many of the coffins lying broken in the sun, others half sunk in the river along its edge.
A few people were gathered around the well, cleaning and caring for the wounded as best they could. More simply cradled those who were beyond care, slowly rocking them back and forth. The only sounds were those of distant coughing and gentle weeping.
Kali sighed. If there was one small mercy, it was that it all seemed to be over. The quake had ceased completely. The strange machines, still dominated the horizon, and as she narrowed her eyes to discern the spinning objects against the brightness of the sun, she thought she could make out pulsing waves radiating from them, as if the inaudible sound they made was almost physical.
What the hells are these things? she found herself wondering once more. She had to find out. But that wasn't going to be easy in her current circumstances.
Kali considered her options. Horse had to be somewhere nearby, likely constrained like herself, and for a moment she considered whistling for him. Little would hold the bamfcat for long and, at full gallop, his armour would make short work of even these walls. She quickly rejected the idea, however, knowing that if she used the steed to instigate a jailbreak it would only confirm her guilt in the minds of her captors, however the hells they had concluded she was responsible in the first place. No, she had no desire to have her face on bounty posters all across Pontaine. It was better to get things cleared up.
Speaking of which, figures were moving towards her from the church right now: DeZantez and some fat, shaven-headed, jowly guy in fancy Final Faith robes. With him were a pair of meatheads, Faith again, who appeared to be his bodyguards. What a Faith dignitary was doing in Solnos she had no idea, but while she was never pleased to see one of Makennon's lackeys, if he was coming to sort this mess out, fine.
Kali heard the sound of a bolt being drawn back and the door opened, light momentarily flooding the room. Then fatso filled the gap, plunging it into shadow.
"I'm sorry about what's happened," Kali began. "but -"
"My name is Randus McCain," the fat man said, speaking over her. "It is my honour to be the Overseer for this region."
Kali's eyes narrowed - she didn't like to be interrupted. What she liked less, however, was the detail she could now see on her visitor's fancy robe. The usual crossed circle of the Final Faith was present but at its centre the pattern had been interwoven with the symbol of a wide open eye. Kali felt a tug of concern. She knew the Faith hierarchy fairly well but the eye and this 'Overseer' role were new ones to her.
"Nice eye, Randus," she said. "What's that about, then?"
"Bring her," the Overseer ordered the two bruisers. He moved back into the sun and the two men grabbed Kali roughly by the arms.
"Hey, now, wait," Kali protested, struggling in their grip. Her instinct was to nut one and knee the other but the sound of sharp metals being unsheathed halted her action before it began.
Gabriella DeZantez stood in the doorway, head slightly bowed but gaze fixed on her, twin blades ready for use in her hands. Kali paused, she could see how perfectly posed for combat the woman was, how honed her muscles were, and, quick as she knew herself to be, realised that to challenge her would be folly. What affected her more than anything, though, was again the appearance of her cat-like eyes. They had an arresting presence about them - a genuine presence, that was, not the kind affected by fatso - that made her feel that, if she could appeal to anyone here, it would be her.
"What's happening?" She asked her, swallowing slightly.
DeZantez didn't answer, merely continued to stare, jaw muscle twitching. Randus McCain loomed behind her.
"You are charged with the manipulation of forbidden artefacts," he said. "You are to answer for your crimes."
Forbidden artefacts? Kali thought. McCain could only be referring to the machines. So the Faith were taking it upon themselves to police Old Race finds now? They really were arrogant bastards.
"Look, I keep trying to tell you -" she tried once more, but the Overseer merely nodded to his guards and she found herself being dragged from the storeroom.
Gabriella DeZantez stood aside as she passed but Kali sensed her immediately swing back into position behind her. Herded as she now was there was little chance of escape. Just one of DeZantez's blades could sever her spine before she managed a step.
It wasn't just the presence of the woman she sensed, though. There was more than a whiff of resentment coming from her, too. Resentment directed not at her but McCain. That was interesting and something she might be able to use when she found out what was going on. For the time being Kali allowed herself to be marched towards the church, noticing two things. The first was the fact that DeZantez faltered slightly as they came within view of the graveyard, as if someone close to her had suffered the uphea
vals there. The second was that Horse was chained beyond the well, guarded by more goons who had presumably escorted McCain into town. The bamfcat registered her predicament as she drew closer and began to snort and pull against his chains. Kali knew he could snap them in an instant but stared into his flaring green eyes and shook her head. Horse calmed.
Prisoner and escorts reached the church and paused. McCain turned to DeZantez.
"Wait outside," the Overseer ordered. "Ensure we are not interrupted."
DeZantez protested. "I am the Enlightened One of Solnos. My place is inside the church, where I should witness these proceedings."
"I have given you an Overseer command, Sister of the Swords of Dawn. Need I remind you that yours is a temporary position and that our office holds jurisdiction over your own."
DeZantez's face darkened, her hands tightening on the hilts of her blades. "Need I remind you that your office did not, until recently, even exist. This town has been my responsibility for months and I have lost many of my people today."
Kali noticed McCain's goons go for their own weapons but the Overseer shook his head. "Very well. But you are to take no part in these proceedings, do you understand?"
DeZantez glared but nodded briskly. Kali could hardly blame her for her attitude. If she'd just had her authority stamped on like that, she'd be pitsed off too. The irony was, DeZantez could have whittled both goons down to a knucklebone in a second but, as a Sword of Dawn, the Faith's chains of command were sacred to her, whoever rattled them.
The interior of the church was pleasantly cool as Kali was ushered in. The wooden door was shut firmly behind her, DeZantez taking up position before it, and Kali looked around. Where she had expected some one-to-one questioning from McCain she found herself instead confronted by a number of townsfolk filing into pews as if to act as a jury. And when the Overseer stood in a shaft of light at a podium before which she, in turn, was forced to stand, she knew exactly that a jury was what they were going to be.
Hang on, she thought. Things were getting a little out of hand here. Moving a little too fast for her liking.
This was no questioning.
This was a trial.
"Kali Hooper, you stand accused -"
"What the hells is this?" Kali shouted over him. "I've done nothing to be tried for."
"Nothing?" McCain retorted. He pointed at the jury, raising his voice. "The loss of this community's loved ones at your hands is 'nothing'?"
Kali faltered. She was being charged with these people's deaths? Oh no, this was wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. She stared helplessly at the jury and then steadily at McCain.
"You're talking about the appearance of those machines. I had nothing to do with that. What happened was as much of a surprise to me as to you."
"A surprise?" McCain repeated. "A surprise? You make it sound like those machines were nothing more than some cheap trick gone wrong!"
There was a mumbling in the jury, shaking of heads, and Kali swallowed. Scant few hours had passed since the disaster, and these people's horror and anger were still raw. Even though she knew she shouldn't have to, she sought another choice of words.
"A shock, then."
McCain let her response hang in the air a second. "A shock," he said, nodding to himself. "A shock. What are you girl, an adventurer? One of those tomb raiders who make their living scrabbling for shiny things in the dirt?" He paused and gripped the sides of the podium, rattling it until his jowls shook. "In doing what you do," he thundered, "how many other shocks have you caused by sticking your nose where it doesn't belong?"
The jury stirred angrily, and glared at Kali. She, in turn, glared at McCain. And he had the gall to accuse her of cheap tricks, the fat bastard. McCain didn't care about these people's feelings, wasn't interested in meting out justice for them. All he wanted to do was manipulate them, and her. The shaft of light, the shouting, the flair for the dramatic - McCain, wherever in the hells he'd sprung from, seemed to have his own little travelling roadshow, and the trouble with roadshows was that they always ran to a script. Just as well, then, that this hadn't been a 'one-to-one' discussion because she would have been wasting her time. If she was to avoid being rail-roaded into whatever outcome McCain had in mind, she'd need to appeal to the jury directly. And to DeZantez.
"You were there this morning," she said to the Enlightened One, and then turned to the jury, "some of you people too. You saw how I tried to help. Ask yourselves - would I have done that if I had caused the quake in the first place? Why would I have wanted to cause the quake? To hurt you? Again, why? It makes no sense."
Faces remained impassive.
"These... machines," Kali continued, "I want to know why they've destroyed your town as much as you do, but to find that out the first question you should be asking isn't who's responsible, but what in the hells are they?"
"Exactly that, tomb raider," McCain said from behind her. "Instruments from the very Pits of Kerberos. From the hells themselves. Instruments which you made rise from where you plotted beneath the ground."
Kali whirled to face the Overseer. Though his office might, as DeZantez had suggested, be new to the Faith, McCain himself clearly wasn't. His jowls and girth evidence of a number of comfortable years in its hierarchy. As such, he'd know very well that he was talking bollocks, that his so-called 'instruments from the pits' were Old Race technology, whatever their purpose might be. This wasn't something he'd necessarily care to share with the people of Solnos. After all, the Lord of All Himself might struggle to create such wonders and He couldn't be seen to be inferior in their eyes. But that didn't explain why McCain was pursuing her with such zeal. He might still think her guilty, yes, but why not deal with her quietly rather than persist with this whole charade?
There was only one reason she could think of. McCain enjoyed it. The fat bastard had been tempted to stir from behind his dinner table by the chance to play god.
"How did you know?" She asked McCain. She and Slack, had, after all, headed to the cave when no one was around and had told no one their destination. "How did you know I was underground?"
McCain smiled. "Because, Kali Hooper, the Eyes of the Lord are everywhere."
"Of course they are." But what she'd meant as a flippant response took a darker tone when McCain addressed the jury.
"Would you like to see, my children?" He asked. "Would you like to see what this woman has done?"
In response there was a murmuring. Kali, meanwhile, looked about in confusion.
McCain thrust both hands towards Kerberos. "Then let me show you what the Eyes of the Lord beheld!"
Oh, for fark's sake, Kali thought, enough!
But then she froze. Because, between herself and the jury, an image had flickered into view and before their eyes they saw Slack leading her towards the cave and out of sight.
The view segued to show the machines burrowing from the ground, starting the quake, and then fleeing and terrified townsfolk, trying desperately to escape the effects of the catastrophic machines. Again the image segued, and this time showed Kali alone, emerging from the cave, moving across the crumbling hillside towards Horse, and then mounting him and riding away. There was a collective gasp from the jury as she did, both at what the recording implied and because Horse, with his armour fully deployed as it had been, was something of a disturbing sight.
The images began to loop, showing themselves again and again, and with every loop the jury shifted more uneasily in their pews. McCain certainly knew how to charge an audience, allowing the images to play a couple more times before raising his hands to stop them.
"With your own eyes, people of Solnos, you have witnessed how this careless adventurer and her pits-born beast activated the machines that destroyed your town. With your own eyes you have seen her guilt!"
"Hey, fatso!" Kali shouted. "Horse is no pits-born beast, he's a bamfcat, okay! And your little performance here proves nothing! The destruction of your town began while I was underground, yes, but that doesn'
t mean I started it!"
"Really?" Randus McCain said slowly, and once more an image appeared.
This time the image zoomed into Kali's face in a sudden close-up, dusty and bloodied after her ascent from the cavern, and recoiling, wide-eyed, in shock. "Do you see the blood?" McCain went on. "Proof she murdered your own kinsman lest he interfere with her plans! Do you see the startled look upon her face? Proof she believed she could deliver this act of evil upon us without realising that the Eyes of the Lord see all!" He paused again. "Ask yourself, people of Solnos, why would the Lord of All reveal such things to you unless he wished this evil act to be punished!"
"But that isn't what happened!" Kali shouted.
She was about to launch into an attack on McCain that would reveal him to be the charlatan he was but then realised she was taking the things she had seen in her stride. It had been immediately obvious to her that the images McCain had presented to the jury had come from the dark sphere she had fleetingly encountered on the hillside, but how was she to explain that to the people who, thanks to McCain's manipulation, held her fate in their hands? Explaining the presence of such technology to them was like explaining magic to Slack. Here, in this once idyllic town, they simply had no knowledge of it, and the Old Races were stories for children.
Kali looked around. True enough, it was reflected in their faces. Even the face of Gabriella DeZantez. The woman was clearly intelligent, but she was also a dedicated Sword of Dawn, and the Faith carefully chose what they exposed the Swords to. Without something tangible to contradict it, why shouldn't she accept what she had just seen?