The Call of Kerberos (6 page)

"You know what? I think that was my last throw," said Officer Stinton. "Besides, it's probably time that I went on patrol."

"And I think that it's probably time that you sat back down and gave me all your money." Officer Tolley said, leaning back in his chair and giving his friend a condescending smile. "Come on Stinton, don't be such a pussy just because you lost a couple of pieces."

"Yeah, we'll give you a chance to win it all back, honest." Officer Bardsley said, his gold tooth catching the light of the lamp as he smiled

"To be fair to Officer Stinton," said Officer Springer. "We do have a job to do."

"Yeah, and that job is to take Stinton's money and then go and get pissed." Office Mooney grinned, looking at the wealth that he had gathered that evening.

"Really, I'd love to be a further part of your games, but Nürn is not going to police itself."

As Officer Stinton left the barracks he could see someone running towards him. It was the fisherman, Silus, and he looked to be in some distress. Stinton made sure that his sword was secure and then went to meet the citizen.

"Ring the alarm bell now." Silus said as he struggled to regain his breath. "Summon every volunteer you can. We're under attack."

"Silus, calm down. Attack from
whom
?"

"From the sea. They're coming from the sea."

"Who are coming from the sea?"

But Officer Stinton's question went unanswered as Silus ran for home, and he was no closer to understanding whom their assailants were when they burst from the waves.

The alarm bell was ringing and, as Silus rushed Katya from their home, they could see a plume of smoke rising above the harbour.

The first body that they came across was Officer Springer's. He knelt on the cobbles as though in an act of penitence, his head on the ground turned at an angle that shouldn't have been possible. A shard of vertebrae protruded from the back of his neck. From the cracked stones of the road beneath him it looked like he'd fallen from a great height. It was almost as though he'd been thrown.

Silus knelt beside the fallen guard and prised the sword from his stiff fingers, passing the weapon to Katya before unsheathing his own blade.

"We may have to fight," Silus said. "There may be no other way to protect our child. We'll try and make it to the
Ocean Lily
and get to Vosburg. We'll make sure that you're safe there and then we'll get help."

Katya nodded and kept a tight grip on Silus's hand as they ran towards the harbour.

The clash of weapons and the cries of the injured - both human and inhuman - were clearer now. Flames had started to spread to more of the buildings and, as Katya pulled Silus to a halt, they saw the roof of The Necromancer's Barge cave in. Someone flailed out of the building, a human torch that screamed so shrilly it could have been either a man or a woman. The blazing figure got only a few feet from the tavern before it keeled over in the street and was still.

A hideous form emerged through the smoke shrouding the end of the street. Katya cried out as it put one huge, clawed foot on the skull of the burning corpse. The noise that echoed off the walls with a sharp, yet wet, report as it stamped down was not something they would ever forget.

"Stay close to me!" Silus shouted, raising his sword as the creature advanced.

His first blow skittered across the beast's scales, deflected by tough hide. As he moved in again, Katya swung her own blade at its ankles, but the creature stepped out of the arc of her attack and raked its claws across her face. Had she been a step closer Katya would have been blinded. Instead four wet, red lines opened up on her cheek.

On seeing his wife's injuries anger boiled up in Silus. With a yell he put all of his strength behind his next attack. He could see himself in the pitch-black orbs of the thing's eyes as he leaned in close, the tip of his blade catching in a gap between scales. For a second Silus thought that the flesh there was too tough to penetrate, but then there was a sound like lobster claws cracking and the creature howled in pain. But before he could withdraw his blade, Silus's head was caught in the creature's claws and he went over with it as it fell.

They landed heavily in the street, Silus sprawled across its body. Hot, sour breath blasted into his face as the creature increased its grip and began to speak.

The words were guttural, harsh and not in a language that he understood. Silus fought to pull away but the pressure on his skull increased. The pain that arced between his ears was worse than anything he had ever experienced and he let out a keening wail, not quite believing that such a sound could be coming from him. The darkness that crowded his vision streamed from the creature's eyes and into his. The thing's words were clearer now and, just before Katya plunged her sword into its left eye socket, two broke through Silus's darkening consciousness.

"Half-breed."

The creature's arms fell away, releasing Silus's head. Katya helped him to his feet and he staggered a little, almost losing his balance as he pulled his sword free of the corpse.

"Are you okay?" He said, seeing the blood running down Katya's face.

"For now, but if we stay here we'll die."

"I'm sure that the Nürn guard will have at least started to drive them back." But he wasn't, especially not when he remembered how Officer Springer had been kneeling in the road. "I love you Katya. We'll get through this. Come on, we don't have far to go."

It was hard to see what was going on as they emerged into the open space before the harbour. The smoke was so thick in places that it obscured the fighting and the glare from the flames made it difficult to make out much more than the gleam of steel and the shine of wet scales. Three of the Nürn guard were squaring up against one of the creatures beside a nearby warehouse. Silus saw the short work that was made of the men - their blood arcing high up the planks of the building - and prayed that the creature didn't turn their way.

It didn't. Instead it cocked its head to one side as though it were listening to something and then loped off into the smoke.

Silus pushed Katya to the ground as the whoosh of a blade cutting through the air came perilously close. But no attacker barrelled from the smoke and he saw only a confusion of shadows as they got to their feet.

One of the shadows stumbled into Katya and Silus was just in time to block the sword that swung towards his wife. Officer Stinton glared hatred at him before he realised that what he was seeing was not one of the demons from the sea.

Silus gently lowered Stinton's blade with the flat of his palm. "Easy. Easy. We're comrades not enemies."

The guard was covered in blood but most of it was not his own. The only wound that he seemed to have sustained was a long ragged gash on his left thigh. In his eyes, however, was a look that had gone beyond battle rage and into something that Silus didn't think the guard would ever recover from. He knew that look well. His uncle was a veteran of the last war between Vos and Pontaine and he had that self-same stare.

"Officer Stinton, we need to get to the
Ocean Lily
." Silus said. "There's no way that Nürn can hold out against these things. If we can get to Vosburg we can come back with reinforcements."

Officer Stinton didn't seem to be listening, unable to take his eyes off Katya. "I almost killed you."

"Samuel, it's fine." Katya put a hand on his shoulder. "You didn't know. But we need you now. All three of us."

The guard looked at the mound of her belly and, seeming to realise what a fragile position Katya was in, came back to them a little.

And then there was a sudden stench and the sound of scale on stone as four sea demons stepped out of the smoke to surround them.

Running at the creature nearest to Katya, Officer Stinton swung his sword, connecting with the thing's side and carving a gash that ran with oily, black blood.

The creature staggered into one of its comrades, but its reach was long and it tore into Stinton's sword arm. Despite his wounds the guard retaliating with a cry, hacking at the creature again and again until its guts were coiling down around its legs. Finally the pain overcame him and he dropped his weapon.

Katya stepped forward to finish the beast that had attacked Officer Stinton, ducking as it made a grab for her, driving her blade up into its throat.

Silus shot her a warning glance to stay out of reach as he took down another of the creatures. He was surprised at the ease with which it fell and he wondered why the guards hadn't had more success against the sea demons. As he squared up against another of them it seemed almost reluctant to strike, instead backing towards its brethren.

They showed no such reluctance when it came to Officer Stinton.

He tried to reach for his sword, but was stopped when a taloned fist punched deep into his sternum. He was dead before he hit the ground. Katya cried out and swung at the creature but overbalanced with her attack, and soon the thing stood looking down at her.

Silus was too slow to prevent his wife from being grabbed and now the fight was on a different footing. The two remaining creatures watched him, unblinking, making no move to finish what they had started. Around them the sounds of battle had stopped. The smoke was beginning to clear as a strong wind came in off the sea, revealing the smouldering ruins of buildings and corpses.

"Let her go!" Silus yelled. "I know that you can understand me, one of you spoke to me. I'm telling you to let her go!"

The sound of a staff tapping out a regular rhythm approached them as another of the sea demons stepped into view.

Though this one was larger than its brethren it was stooped, its hide was tarnished and encrusted in places with barnacles and other molluscs. One of its eyes was a milky white and scars criss-crossed its chest as though it had faced battle many times.

The creature approached Silus, laid a finger on his chest and regarded him intently with its one good eye.

"What are you?" Silus said.

"We are the Chadassa." The creature said. Its voice reminded Silus of the sea breaking on shingle. "I am Belck."

The thing gestured for Katya to be brought forward and crouched down before her, running its hands over her belly, making strange crooning noises at the back of its throat. Some of the molluscs clinging to its hide opened up at the sound of its pleasure. Katya tried to draw away from Belck's touch, but she stopped struggling when her arm was forced further up her back by the Chadassa restraining her.

Silus rushed Belck then, burning with the desire to cleave the creature's head from its body, but one gesture from Belck's hand halted the fisherman and another sent the sword tumbling from his grip.

As the aged sea demon straightened and turned to Silus, Katya spat at it. "You touch me like that again and I'll break your neck! Nobody but my husband touches me like that."

"This man is far more than just your husband. Our blood runs in his veins."

"Silus is nothing like you freaks. Trust me, when Vos finds out about your little invasion you're going to wish that you had never left the sea."

"Ah, but with the help of Silus we shall soon leave the sea behind anyway. All of Twilight shall be ours, and then shall come the time of the Great Flood."

"Listen," Silus said. "I don't know what you're talking about and I'm not about to help you. I've no idea who you think I am."

"No, you really don't do you? Allow me to offer an explanation."

Belck stepped in close to Silus. The light of Kerberos faded from the creature's eye as he watched, the darkness intensifying until it was all he could see.

And then Silus was looking back at Nürn, but it was not the place he knew. The church of the Final Faith did not dominate the town square here and the old stone forts that dotted the coast no longer looked so old. What had once been crumbling, lichen encrusted brick now looked almost newly laid.

Silus found himself standing by the rock pools not far from the harbour. In front of him a woman was collecting mussels. He called out to her but she didn't turn round.

Having filled her pail she turned to leave and, as she did, she failed to spot the thing curled within the deepest of the pools.

It rose up to meet her as her shadow fell over it.

The woman screamed and staggered back, dropping her pail as the creature forced her into the sea,

Silus didn't move but his point of view changed and he found himself following the Chadassa and the woman down beneath the waves.

She struggled in the creature's grip, thrashing like a caught fish, but the thing didn't let go. It swam with her into a dark gash in the seabed, before surfacing from a pool in the centre of a vast cave.

The woman was carried through an echoing darkness, illuminated by the glow of thousands of tiny thread-like worms which writhed over the cavern walls. Soon she stopped struggling and lay limply in the creature's arms. Her eyes spoke of the turmoil within, but she made no sound as the creature laid her on a bed of seaweed and cuttlefish bones.

The Chadassa tore the remains of the woman's clothes away and then unfolded itself and embraced her like an octopus cloaks its prey.

And now Silus saw her crawling from the sea, sobbing and naked. Blood trickled down her thighs.

And now he was watching her lying on a bed and he could feel her thoughts as she screamed and sweated, the nuns surrounding and fussing over her urging her to keep pushing. But she didn't want to push and she prayed for death rather than the chance to see whatever foul progeny would emerge from within her.

When the nun handed her the struggling, mewling thing, however, she didn't hesitate to hold it to her breast, overwhelmed with relief that this tiny creature was a he rather than an it. Silus sensed her fierce resolve as she swore to raise the child as her own, in defiance of that which had been done to her by the creature.

Silus blinked and he stood before Belck once more.

"Your ancestor," said Belck. "That child was your great great great grandfather. Our blood has been running in your veins for all these generations. Only now, however, has the line grown strong. You are special, Silus. You belong with us."