Dragons on the Sea of Night (35 page)

He launched himself at the Chaos beast, catching it in the middle of reintegration. His shoulder struck Lorcun in the side, staggering the beast. It used its tail to balance itself and, as it did so, Moichi recalled in a flash the spot where the Râs Gharib was vulnerable. Syrinx was closest to Chaos, as Bjork had said. Perhaps its creatures, too, possessed some Chaos attributes.

Pulling out his copper-handled dirk, he plunged the tip of the blade into the base of Lorcun's tail. The beast howled even as the edge of the blade glanced off the scaly hide, and Moichi used his shoulder again, kicking out with his back leg. Lorcun lurched heavily toward the rock outcropping.

Sardonyx leapt back as yet another lightning bolt cracked, shooting downward to strike the exposed ore. A great flash of sparks shot upward, this time inundating Lorcun.

It shrieked in pain, collapsing to the snow. Moichi fell upon it, digging the point of his dirk into its cold black eyes one by one. Lorcun writhed and screamed and almost threw him off it. But another bolt showered it with sparks and it began to convulse. Moichi knelt, hauling on Hamaan's shoulders, trying to pull him away from the Chaos beast.

But Lorcun's tentacles were tenacious and, unlike the base of its tail, they were impervious to Moichi's attack. Then Sardonyx's booted foot came down upon the back of Lorcun's neck. A heavy snapping sound caused the beast to arch up. It was stinking from its many burn wounds. The sparks had burrowed their way beneath the hide and were eating into the thing's viscera.

When Lorcun rolled over, Hamaan came free.

‘It is dead,' Sardonyx said.

Moichi cradled Hamaan in his lap. His brother's face was a mass of red sores, suppurating a liquid Moichi did not recognize. Hamaan jerked and spasmed even while Moichi tried to comfort him. His eyes, frightfully wide and staring, were focused on something far away inside himself.

‘You must kill him,' Sardonyx said, kneeling beside Moichi.

‘No, no.'

‘But you must,' Sardonyx said gently. ‘Look how he suffers. The process of reintegration has gone too far. You cannot bring him back, and neither can I.' She rose, looking down at him. ‘You know what is best for him now.'

Moichi was grateful, at least, that she turned her back. Everything she said he knew to be true. He only need use the evidence of his eyes. How Hamaan was suffering! It would be a mercy to kill him, the quicker the better.

‘
That is not a comforting thought, brother, to be offered up to God like a sacrifice
,' he had said.

‘
I have freed you of all obligation
,' Moichi had replied. ‘
Do as you will
.'

That Hamaan had done. Moichi freed a dirk from its scabbard – the one he had not used on Lorcun and, saying a prayer for Hamaan's soul, plunged it to the hilt through his brother's heart. Immediately, the spasms ceased, and Hamaan released a long-held sigh. His eyes fluttered into focus for an instant.

‘Hamaan,' Moichi whispered. ‘You saved my life again.'

Hamaan's bloodless lips opened as if to reply, but they froze in that position. His eyes were fixed in their stare up at his brother.

From behind him, Moichi heard Sardonyx's voice. ‘More of Chaos is coming through the Portal.'

He looked up. It was true. The flickering shadows had darkened and now that horrific howling they had heard when Lorcun Crossed Over reverberated anew among the shattered rock formations. And now, out of the Portal emerged the warriors of Chaos, each bent on reintegration. They crowded out of the Portal, shrieking long pent-up rage for retribution. Such a horde as Moichi had never before seen, even on the bloody plains before Kamado at the Kaifeng. He stood up, holding Sardonyx's hand. How were they to stay this torrent of Chaos when they were all but done in by a single beast?

‘
WE WANT WHAT IS OURS!
' the host of Chaos bellowed as one. ‘
GIVE US OUR DUE!
'

And at the head of this malefic army strode a creature of singular countenance. While the rear of its torso was carried horizontally on four fleet-hooved legs, the front part rose vertically like a human being's, from which a pair of powerful arms extended, bearing claws the length of a warrior's sword. Its head was horizontal, long and as scaly as the hide of Râs Gharib, save that these plates rose up and out in a vicious curve that was razor sharp at its edge. Its eyes were faceted like a startled insect, and they peered at the brave new world into which it had entered with a terrible avidity, as if it harbored a burning desire to consume all it beheld.

The profound chill creeping down Moichi's spine told him he was looking at the new Chaos-master, heir to the power of the Dolman.

‘Yes, Sakkourn!' a voice resounded from behind the Chaos-master. ‘You will get all that is rightfully yours!'

And through the Portal burst the Dai-San, cape billowing. He was riding a Kaer'n and behind him, emerging in great numbers, were more Kaer'n. As they came, the warriors of Chaos turned and, stumbling, slipped down the icy slope. They cried out as one when they saw the Kaer'n and its leader, brandishing his longsword,
Aka-i-tsuchi
. The weapon sliced the head off one Chaos beast.

As if that were a clue, the Kaer'n broke off into well-disciplined twos and threes, attacking the Chaos horde. Leading them, Moichi saw, was not only the Dai-San, but a Kaer'n that was subtly different from the rest. Its eyes were long and almond-shaped, and the mane that grew from just behind its ears was plaited in a Bujun warrior's queue.

Just like Chiisai, Moichi thought.

Sakkourn whirled and, in a stunning burst of fury, clawed down the nearest Kaer'n. Its great talons impaled the Kaer'n and when it turned its head to bite, it sheared the Kaer'n's head from its neck.

A blood-curdling cry went up from the assembled host of Chaos, and they redoubled their efforts against the Kaer'n. The shout came again as Sakkourn broke the Kaer'n's back and flung the carcass high into the air for all to see.

Moichi broke toward the beast, hurling a dirk toward one of its eyes. The blade clattered against the armored scales along the ridge-line of Sakkourn's cheek and it swung its baleful head in his direction.

That was when the Dai-San leapt from his position astride a Kaer'n. He landed atop Sakkourn. The Chaos-master reared upward, its head swiveling one hundred and eighty degrees. Its jaws snapped shut on the Dai-San's shoulder and began to grind down through the armor into skin and flesh.

Moichi leapt onto one of Sakkourn's legs, plunging his remaining dirk toward its eyes. The beast's protective lid closed down, and Moichi's thrust glanced harmlessly off it. The Dai-San began to pant from the grip Sakkourn was exerting on him, as the beast's fangs penetrated deeper, spurting toxins as they did so.

Moichi had drawn back his arm for another attempt, when he felt a presence beside him. Sardonyx, he saw, had climbed up beside him. Now she jammed the point of her sword through one of the beast's unprotected nostrils. Sakkourn screamed as a fountain of powdery blood spurted upward.

Freeing his arm, the Dai-San drove the point of
Aka-i-tsuchi
into the base of Sakkourn's neck. The sorcerous blade pierced the armored hide and plunged inward. Sakkourn screamed so that the entire summit shook. In so doing, it released the Dai-San's shoulder.

In a flash, the Dai-San grasped its neck between forearm and fist, forcing it backwards. Sakkourn's body thrashed and whipped from side to side. Sparks flew as its long talons scored down the Dai-San's armor, searching for a weak spot. Its jaws clashed and snapped, attempting to regain its grip, but the Dai-San continually smashed his Makkon-gauntleted fist into the Chaos-master's snout.

For a long moment, the two antagonists were locked in what seemed a timeless struggle. They barely moved, but the intensity of their conflict could be measured in the grinding of metal upon metal, the crackling of bone joints brought to maximum strength and beyond. Sakkourn yowled and roared, its outline shimmering and pulsing as it brought all of its power to bear against the Dai-San.

The sky was aflame with blood-red lightning bolts, an inferno of kinetic energy, bursting so quickly that it seemed the entire summit was bathed in its fiery heart. The ground shuddered and shook and, once, an entire rock formation peeled off, thundering down in an immense cloud of icy crystals and metallic fragments.

Moichi was high enough to see the Dai-San peering down into the beast's eyes. What was it he was looking for there? he wondered.

Then, with a fierce multiple cracking, Sakkourn's vertebrae sundered, splintering beneath the inexorable pressure. Moichi and Sardonyx had the good sense to leap free as the beast's body convulsed, its arms and legs flailing about with stupefying speed.

Now the Kaer'n drove into the Chaos horde with true fury, ripping and rending, consuming beast after beast as they went. It was a sheer feeding frenzy. They clawed great gobbets of viscera from the Chaos warriors, chomping down with sharp-toothed mouths, beheading and dismembering, then ravaging the torsoes, cutting a swath through the monstrous legions.

‘God of Iskael,' Sardonyx breathed, ‘what is happening?'

‘This is truly the wrath of the God of my fathers,' Moichi said in wonderment. ‘Or the return of the balance between man and Chaos.' He wished Hamaan and Sanda were here to see this because, each in his or her own way had played a hand in this future that had now come to pass.

All around them, the feeding had come to an end. The Kaer'n swooped and played like innocent children, gliding delightedly between the bolts of pink lightning which were now diminishing into a rather mundane ice storm.

The Dai-San guided his Kaer'n to the snow-packed rock in front of Moichi, Sardonyx and the fallen Hamaan.

‘Bond-brother,' the Dai-San said, reaching out to grasp Moichi's forearm in the traditional Iskamen manner. ‘Again we meet upon the field of battle.'

‘It is always the way with us, Dai-San.' He introduced Sardonyx but was too preoccupied to notice the penetrating look the Sunset Warrior gave her. He was already entranced by the Kaer'n who had led the pack. He watched it closely as it arced down across the Portal. One of its wings entered the Boundary and all but disappeared, becoming insubstantial. A moment later, another Kaer'n bounded through, this one even more familiar than the first. The two of them made a series of complex passes across the Portal. A deep, almost subliminal rumbling filled their minds and, instantly, the red beacon-like light was extinguished.

‘The Portal has been resealed,' the Dai-San said, as the two Kaer'n landed beside him. They flanked him like guardian angels, their heads bobbing, their nostrils wide as they snorted with excess energy. One of them stuck its head out, lowering it until it was just above Moichi's.

He took a step forward but Sardonyx held his arm. ‘Be careful,' she said under the Dai-San's scrutiny, but Moichi shook his head. He felt the ice crystals dancing on his face and the wind that blew through the summit of the Mountain Sin'hai was fresh and invigorating.

‘There is no danger here,' he said, and he reached his hand up, touching the muzzle of the Kaer'n. ‘I have met you before,' he said in some wonderment. ‘I know you.'

The Kaer'n's head bent further and he held on to one of its curving horns so that he could look into one immense eye. What he saw there sent a shiver right through him. He turned his head to his bond-brother. ‘Dai-San, can this be so?'

The Dai-San's high helm glittered as he nodded his head. ‘It can, Moichi, and it is.' He gestured to the Kaer'n. ‘This is Sanda, transformed, yes, but still your sister.'

‘Sanda,' Moichi whispered. ‘You came to me in a dream I had in the Mu'ad. You told me to find Bjork, the last of the Shinju, and I did.

Beloved brother, do not weep for me
, the voice came in his mind.
My spirit lives within this new body. Now Chiisai and I have a chance to change the old order
.

‘Chiisai?' He turned his head to the Kaer'n on the other side of the Dai-San, the one with the warrior's queue. ‘What happened?'

She told him briefly of her encounter with Kaijikan and the reanimated Tokagé. He nodded dumbly, too stunned to speak. The wind blew soft petals of snow through the peaks of the summit and no one said anything for a long time. At last, Moichi stirred and, still holding on to Sanda, took her to where Hamaan lay, cold and dead.

‘I was asked to judge him, Sanda, but his crimes were too many, too intimate and I could not. I prayed for you to come and do what I could not.'

God will judge him now
, she said, lowering her head to press her muzzle against Hamaan's shoulder.
We must bury him here on the summit of Sin'hai
.

Moichi took his brother's corpse in his arms and climbed upon Sanda's back. The Dai-San came up to him, offered up his sorcerous longsword.

‘It will make your work that much easier,' he said.

‘My thanks, but no,' Moichi told him. ‘This is one task that should not be made easy.'

Near the great rift, he dismounted. Snow was swirling in great plumes toward a green sky. Sunlight reflected off uncounted ice crystals, making the light prismatic.

Sanda and Moichi began to excavate, pushing snow aside, hacking through the dark ice beneath. Despite the cold, he began to sweat.

They had dug down perhaps three feet when he saw something out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to see the long predatory muzzle of a Wolke'en. It was, like all its kind, snow-white. Its ice-blue eyes watched them with canny intelligence. Could this be the same one that had come into their camp the night Hamaan had threatened to slit Moichi's throat? It was Moichi's opinion that Hamaan had seen something in the Wolke'en that had made him change his mind. Staring fixedly at the corpse it licked its chops.

Noticing where he was looking Sanda said,
Under the circumstances I think it best we bury Hamaan very deep
.