Kal Moonheart Trilogy: Dragon Killer, Roll the Bones & Sirensbane (10 page)

BOOK: Kal Moonheart Trilogy: Dragon Killer, Roll the Bones & Sirensbane
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IV.v

 

Invasion

 

 

 

Kal scrambled up the final slope. Five thousand feet above sea-level, the summit of the mountain was a flat, circular plain about a hundred feet in diameter, as if a conical peak had once been lopped off by a destructive giant. There was not one, but several fissures in the black rock of the mountain, from which columns of grey steam drifted upwards into the still, blue sky. The smell of brimstone made Kal want to gag, and it was very, very hot: standing between the mountain and the brutal sun was like being caught between a hammer and an anvil.

Looking back, Kal could see the faint green blur of the mainland on the northern horizon. While she waited for Rafe to join her, she walked slowly round the edge of the summit and looked down on the opposite side of the mountain to which they had arrived. There was a natural harbour below, formed out of two massive arms of rock that threatened to touch, but allowed just enough room that a skilfully navigated vessel might be able to slip through. She couldn’t see Darklaw’s sloop, but there were five larger galleys moored up. A cleared channel led inland through the swamps, and a series of locks and gates rose to where a scattering of wooden structures at the foot of the mountain marked the entrance to the gold mine.

Rafe caught up with her. ‘So if it’s not magic then,’ he asked her, ‘what
is
it made of?’ He was still thinking about the story that she had been telling him on the climb up.

‘Bloodsteel, or so Ben told me,’ Kal said. ‘The gods apparently had a forge at the very top of the Improbable Mountain, and they made blades from the red ore they mined there.’

Rafe whistled. ‘The Blade of Banos! What I wouldn’t give to fight with it.’

‘It’s too old and brittle now,’ Kal said. ‘I wouldn’t trust you with it, the way you fight. You’d probably break it on a hobgoblin’s collar bone. Forget about the sword and let’s see if we can find a way down into this mountain.’

They approached the largest of the fissures. As well as the steam, a hot wind was blowing up out of it too. As they stood there contemplating the void, the mountain trembled, and tongues of flame briefly licked at the air above the hole. They didn’t spurt as high as the ones Kal had seen earlier when she was climbing to the cave, but they were hot enough to cook anyone who got too close.

Rafe gave her a nervous look. ‘Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea …’

‘It was a
great
idea,’ she told him as she took her rope from her shoulder. ‘Did you notice how the flames formed
above
the hole; the gases must only ignite when they hit the air. I bet that we will be safer down there than up here. Give me your rope.’

Kal tied both of their ropes together with two overhand knots, looped them over a solid rock, then let both ends drop down into the darkness. She took two small items out of a pouch at her belt and handed one to Rafe. He examined it carefully; it was a steel tool forged in the shape of a figure of eight.

‘Loop the rope through like this,’ Kal instructed, ‘and then hook it to your belt. The friction will slow your descent.’ With a torch in her left hand, she hopped backwards into the fissure and started walking confidently down the sheer rockface. ‘Hold the rope here by your hip to control your speed,’ she called up to Rafe, ‘and don’t let go!’

A hundred feet down, Kal found a ledge that was safe enough to stand on. When Rafe eventually made it down too, she tugged on one end of the rope. The other end shot upwards, passed around the anchoring rock at the top, then fell back down into her hands. She wiped the sweat from her brow and smiled at her companion. ‘Ready to do that again?’ she asked as she looped the rope around a new anchor.

Rafe didn’t look quite so anxious this time. ‘Of course,’ he said. ‘I was just getting used to it.’

Kal kissed him before she dropped down deeper into the dark mountain.

At the bottom of the next descent they found themselves at a junction of several tunnels and chasms. They shouldered their ropes once more and decided to explore the route with the gentlest gradient. A hot wind blew in their faces as they walked, and it threatened to extinguish their torch. The rock was almost too hot to touch; they could feel its heat through their boots. Kal was sure that she heard voices being carried up on the wind, too. After another couple of spots where they had to use the ropes, she reckoned that they must be approaching the level of Darklaw’s cave. But they could hit a dead end or too narrow a gap at any moment; there might not be a way through after all.

Kal didn’t want to think about that. There was no way back up if they ran out of options. But then the hot air and vapour had to be coming from somewhere down below, and if nothing else then surely they would eventually find the tunnels of the gold mine at the foot of the mountain.

‘Talk to me, Kal,’ Rafe said as they picked their way through. ‘What happened next with the dragon?’

‘Let me concentrate on where we’re going,’ she said. ‘Do you want me to twist an ankle? I’ll tell you all the stories you want when we get home.’

Rafe carried on regardless. ‘Oh, so you’ll still want to know me when we get back then? I don’t have such an exciting life back in Amaranthium, you know. Organising guard duty rosters, mostly.’

Kal stopped and sighed. She turned around and faced him. ‘You’ll be a hero when we get back!’ she said. ‘And of course I’ll want to know you. You’ll be the first person I’ll call on if my loft gets infested by trolls.’

Rafe laughed. ‘I’m qualified for that! Me and some lads in the Guard once had to chase off three sea trolls that had tunnelled into the city. Now that
was
an exciting day!’ He noticed something over Kal’s shoulder. ‘Kal, look,’ he said. ‘There’s light ahead.’

She smothered the torch and they both waited in silence while their eyes adjusted. Sure enough, there was a flickering glow coming from further down a tight, narrow tunnel. Kal led the way on her hands and knees. She thought she could hear the voices nearby. The glow was shining up through a crack in the floor. She lay down and put her eye to the crack. Below her was a cave that was flooded with torchlight.

Rafe shuffled up beside her. ‘It’s him!’ he breathed after taking a look.

They could see down into a cave that had been carved and flattened to make it more habitable. Animal skins were spread over the floor, and torches were set in alcoves in the walls. A large wooden table took up most of the space in the centre of the room, and a detailed map had been rolled out across its surface. Gron Darklaw, still in his black and gold armour, laid his helmet down on the corner of the table and addressed the soldier—one of the half-man, half-goblin brutes—who was with him.

‘The Senate have sent a replacement governor; his ship is due to arrive at noon tomorrow. Take a squad of some of the most restless men and intercept the ship
here
.’—Darklaw indicated on the map with a thick finger—‘Kill everyone on board and then set fire to the ship. The new governor may have brought his family—women and children. I know how depraved some of the men are, Gurik; this job should quench their appetites for the time being.’

The hobgoblin named Gurik nodded. ‘Yes, Sir,’ he growled.

Darklaw scratched his chin as he thought aloud. ‘When the town council gather to discuss the tragic news, I will offer them my services: money to build defences, and troops to protect them from the dragon that they think is terrorising Balibu. It will be an easy, bloodless invasion. Do you think the men will be able to restrain themselves? I am sure that in time I will be able to find some discreet outlets for their vices.’

The hobgoblin made a noise that might have been a grunt or a laugh. ‘They want to fight most of all, Sir,’ he said.

Darklaw’s finger traced the coastline around Balibu. ‘And they will. It won’t be long before the Senate sends an army to take back the town. The peninsula will force any army to pass through
here
. A spot like that will cost them … what do you think, Gurik? Ten of their men for every one of ours?’

Gurik laughed for sure this time: a horrible croaking cackle. ‘Yes, Sir!’

‘Good!’ Darklaw seemed pleased with his plans. ‘Go and prepare the men.’

The hobgoblin saluted and left the cave through a thick iron-banded wooden door that covered the entrance to a tunnel. Darklaw remained standing before his map. Kal and Rafe watched as the big man looked slowly around the room, making a strange sniffing noise; his broad, flat features taking on a bestial aspect.

‘You can come out now, Dragon Killer,’ he said. ‘I can smell you and your mate.’

 

 

 

 

 

 

IV.vi

 

Forever Under the Stars

 

 

 

Darklaw looked up. Kal jerked her head back, but not before their eyes had met. She couldn’t help but gasp: the last time she had looked him in the eye, over the card table, she remembered his eyes being a deep black. But now they were a bright gleaming yellow.

Darklaw immediately left the cave below. It was barely a minute later that Kal and Rafe heard smashing and pounding noises, as if someone was breaking through the rock with a pickaxe. ‘We can’t run or fight in these tunnels,’ Kal told Rafe. ‘We’ll just have to try and talk our way out of this.’ Rafe nodded in agreement.

The rockface ahead of them collapsed and sunlight came streaming through to their hiding place. Kal and Rafe crawled the last few yards towards the light and stepped out into the open. Small goblin workers wielding hammers and tools stood aside to let them through, and Kal and Rafe found themselves at the back of the enormous cavern that housed Darklaw’s flying machine. The canvas and timber dragon loomed over them, and all around it were hundreds of Darklaw’s larger hobgoblin soldiers. They sat in alcoves around the edges of the cave and stood around in groups, paused in the middle of weapon training exercises. They perched on wooden scaffolding and in the framework of the dragon itself. And in the centre of the cave, waiting to meet his new guests, was Gron Darklaw himself.

He sneered at Kal and Rafe. ‘I might have guessed that you would find your way here,’ he said in his deep growl. ‘You’ve had a small taste of my wealth and gold, and now you’ve come for more, is that it?’

‘We’re here on behalf of the Senate,’ Kal began. ‘We can negotiate a peaceful solution to—’

‘As Captain of the Senate Guard I challenge you to single combat,’ Rafe interrupted. ‘If I win, then we walk out of here alive.’

‘I accept,’ Darklaw replied instantly.

 

* * *

 

Ten minutes later, Kal and Rafe were in Darklaw’s armoury. He had graciously allowed Rafe to choose whatever arms and armour he required before their fight. Rafe seemed genuinely grateful, but Darklaw’s supreme confidence was eating at Kal’s nerves.

‘You’re taking an awful risk, doing this,’ she told Rafe as she adjusted the straps on a breastplate for him. ‘We know relatively nothing about this Gron Darklaw. We don’t know how well he fights.’

Rafe shrugged. ‘I know how well
I
fight. Darklaw probably
imagines
he fights better then he actually does, just as he imagined that he was the greatest card player in town the other night at the Croc. That’s his weakness, Kal: he wants to be this amazing fighter, general, governor, sailor, gambler … but he’s reaching too far. I knew that he wouldn’t be able to refuse the ultimate test of valour, especially when I challenged him in front of his men. He’s made a big mistake agreeing to take me on.’

‘Maybe …’ Kal was conflicted. She wasn’t the greatest judge of character, but was Rafe? ‘I just hope that you’re right. There: you’re all set.’

Rafe stomped about and swung his arms to test his range of movement. A forty-pound suit of armour, its weight spread evenly, was not much of a hindrance to a fit, strong man like Rafe. ‘It’s fine,’ he said. ‘It’s not my own suit, but it will do the same job. I’m not the sentimental type!’

‘Really?’ Kal said, ‘So you won’t be needing this then.’ She held up Rafe’s blue Senate Guard surcoat.

He bent his head to allow her to put it on over the armour. ‘This is different,’ Rafe said. ‘Armour is armour, steel is steel, but this shows that I represent the Senate; that my cause is just!’

Kal handed him something else. ‘And what about this? What does this represent?’

Rafe was thrilled with the offering. ‘I may wear the armour of sub-human monsters, but I now carry the weapon of the gods,’ he said, strapping Kal’s dagger to his belt on his right side. He attached his own steel sword to his left side and was ready for action.

‘Let’s get this over with then,’ Kal said.

 

* * *

 

Escorted by guards, they walked hand-in-hand back down the sweltering tunnels to the giant cave. More and more hobgoblins had filled the space now, as well as many of the smaller regular goblins; short shambling primitives, milling around half-naked as was their wont. One of them carried a stone pitcher and gold goblet across the cave to where Darklaw was waiting. The big man took the drink and then sent the goblin away with a pat on the head that looked almost affectionate.

Darklaw had moved over to the mouth of the cave, where the low afternoon sun glinted off the black in his armour and set the gold in it on fire. The crowds formed a semi-circle around the shelf of rock that jutted out from the cave entrance. Darklaw had created an arena with a deadly drop-off at its edge. Kal frowned as they pushed their way through the mass of goblins and hobgoblins; was there a reason for this, or did Darklaw simply have a flair for the dramatic?

Rafe walked right up in front of Darklaw and gave him a cordial nod. Darklaw grinned, took a slug of his wine, and beckoned another goblin. This one came over staggering under the weight of a giant scabbard. Darklaw took up the fifty-inch bastard sword in one hand and made a show of inspecting the blade. Kal half expected him to lick it.

‘So we face one another once again,’ Darklaw said to Rafe, belatedly returning the nod. ‘But this time the stakes are rather a lot higher than those at the card table.’

BOOK: Kal Moonheart Trilogy: Dragon Killer, Roll the Bones & Sirensbane
2.28Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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