Kal Moonheart Trilogy: Dragon Killer, Roll the Bones & Sirensbane (41 page)

The beast squeezed its sinuous body through the gate. Its head was the size of a horse, and the neck that followed was two yards thick; not even Cassava’s axe would dispatch this one in a single blow. When the dragon dragged through its wings and unfurled them, the crowd gasped and there were more than a few screams. Kal heard the stamping of feet as some terrified folk made for the exits.

But Kal stood her ground. She could see the thick iron collar bolted around the dragon’s neck that seemed to weigh down its head; and trailing from the collar, a heavy iron chain passed between the dragon’s two hind legs and disappeared into the darkness beyond the gate.

Cassava shook her axe one-handed above her head. She screamed, ‘There can only be one
dragon killer
!’ and charged the monster head-on. The dragon opened its jaws to meet her, and Kal was sure that the general was going to get herself bitten in half. But the chain pulled tight and the dragon’s head was yanked back. However, its long tongue flicked out and whacked Cassava with such force that she was lifted from the ground and flung ten yards to one side. She pulled herself to her feet with an insane grin on her face.

Adrenaline coursed through Kal, and she too found herself running at the dragon the second she saw it turn its head to face Will. But with eyes on opposite sides of its skull, the dragon was never going to be caught off-guard. A dark slit of a pupil rolled backwards and spotted Kal. She slid to a halt in the sand, and was about to hop back, when her feet were taken out from under her by the bony claw at the tip of the dragon’s arm. Kal tried to roll away as a leathery wing was dragged over her. When she finally got clear she found her left arm and leg slick with the dragon’s oil. Sand from the arena stuck to her as if she had just emerged from the sea.

The dragon had turned its attention back to Will. Kal guessed he was running around to try and confuse the beast, for she could see it awkwardly trying to shift position, dragging its chain as it turned to attack. The dragon was slower and clumsier than Kal had expected, and she could see why: there were patches of missing scales on its neck, where cuts and lacerations leaked black blood. She could even see a broken spear-tip poking out from its shoulder.

Cassava was circling around towards Kal now, also positioning herself behind the dragon. Both Kal and the general had to keep an eye on its thrashing tail, which whipped about unpredictably. Cassava turned to Kal and bared her teeth. ‘It’s
mine
, Moonheart. And then
you
are mine!’

Kal didn’t reply. There was a time and a place for backchat, and this wasn’t either.

Then Will made his move. Kal saw him suddenly appear as he dived forward and rolled under the dragon’s belly. The dragon twisted and tried to bring its jaws to bear on its tormentor, but it only succeeded in getting itself tangled up in the chain. As the dragon kicked at Will with one great taloned foot, the chain pulled taught and its head was yanked down to the sand. The dragon’s jaw slammed shut on its tongue, biting a good yard off the end of it.

But Will didn’t pause to allow the dragon to regain its senses; instead he dashed straight back at it … and then hopped up and stamped on its head. With arms held out for balance, and with the crowd shrieking in delight, he scooted
up
the dragon’s neck, onto its back, and then hurled himself into the air.

Will managed to grab the top of the wall around the arena and pull himself up. He turned and extended an arm back down. ‘Kal!’ he yelled, his palm open for her. ‘Come on!’

Kal started over to him, leaving Cassava facing-off with the dragon. But then she stopped. ‘Wait!’ she shouted up to Will. ‘One minute!’ And before Will could reply, she changed direction and sprinted across the sand, leaping over the dragon’s swishing tail as if it was a skipping rope. She plunged into the gloom beyond the dragon’s gate, and followed the chain back down a sloping passage.

At the bottom of the dragon’s pit, two handlers were operating a huge metal wheel, around which the chain was wound. They fled as Kal approached, fury in her eyes, her dagger held out in front of her. She kicked the handle that unspooled the chain, and released the hook that held the end to the framework of the wheel. The chain immediately flew up the tunnel as the dragon pulled free.

Kal ran back up the slope, and without looking at the chaos she had unleashed, turned and launched herself up at Will’s outstretched hand. He easily hauled her up into his strong arms, and they held each other as they looked back out over the arena.

The dragon had risen twenty feet above the sand, treading air as it beat its powerful wings. Cassava stood below it, screaming insults and challenges, but the dragon’s gaze was swinging back and forth over the crowd, most of whom were on their feet applauding. They were convinced this was the greatest show they had ever seen.

‘Go!’ Kal shouted to the dragon. ‘Fly away!’

But the dragon’s attention was fixed on two of Cassava’s soldiers who were trying to ward it away with spears. Did it recognise its tormentors? The dragon twisted its lower body forward, spread its legs, and let loose a wide-angled spray that drenched the soldiers, as well as thirty or so members of the audience in the front row of the terraces. There was a moment of stunned silence, after which the soaked spectators all began clapping and laughing again.

Then the dragon scraped its clawed wing tips forward along its scaly thighs and followed up its spray with a shower of sparks. When the sparks hit the flammable excretion, the group of cheering people were turned instantly into screaming human torches. The excitement around the arena turned quickly to terror as the flames began to spread.

Kal felt a sudden stab of guilt.
She
let that happen. No—
Cassava
let that happen! She was the one who had brought a wild animal into a public place. Kal turned to Will. ‘We have to get out of here,’ she said.

Will was transfixed by the flames. ‘Um, yeah …’ he agreed, snapping out of it, and they both turned to run. But the exits were jammed with a mass of panicking people, while armed soldiers kept watch for the escaping prisoners.

Kal scanned the crowds. Nim had appeared out of the door to one of the four watchtowers that rose from the perimeter of the amphitheatre.
What had she been doing up there?
Kal ran along the wooden benches to get to her, and Will followed. The dragon, meanwhile, had landed on the opposite side of the terraces, and was chewing on one of Cassava’s soldiers who had dared to approach it.

‘Kal!’ Nim exclaimed when they met. They all had to move clear of the fire that had spread to the litter and debris beneath the stands, and was chasing people out of their seats with hungry licking flames. ‘Hello again, Will! This is crazy! Who brought that poor dragon into the city?’

‘Nim! What are you doing here?’

‘Oh, I’ve been going back and forth between the university and Ben’s house all morning, delivering those explosives you wanted. You know, for that underground adventure you were talking about. Ha ha, I had to steal the ingredients bit-by-bit from the chemistry lab—’

‘Nim!’

‘Oh, sorry, Kal—Ben’s having an election drinks gathering at the mansion for all his senator friends. I overheard someone saying that you and Will had been caught! Ben sent me over to try and help you out.’

Kal swore. Ben was fooling around with other senators—
potential murder victims
—when he should have been keeping a low profile all day! ‘I have to get back there!’ she said.

‘You mentioned you’d come to help Kal,’ Will reminded Nim urgently.

‘Oh yeah! Well, if you can’t find a way out at ground level, I’ve left a little something for you at the top of that tower!’

Kal didn’t have time to ask what. A gang of soldiers had spotted them and were fighting through the crowds to get closer. Kal ran for the tower with Will hot on her heels. ‘Thanks, Nim!’ she called back as she went.

A wooden stair spiralled up the tower. Kal kicked open the door at the top and found herself outside on a five-yard-square platform, two hundred feet up, the sole purpose of which seemed to be to support a guard and a flagpole. The guard lay unconscious before her, a small dart sticking out of the side of his neck.
Well done, Nim!
Next to him was what looked like a parcel wrapped in canvas with rope handles. Kal saw a note attached that read:
JUMP!!

She stood there, contemplating the package. Smoke and screams drifted up from the pandemonium below. The whole amphitheatre shuddered as the dragon rampaged through the terraces. Will appeared at the top of the tower and started looking around the parapet.

‘No escape wire?’ he asked.

‘Not this time,’ Kal said, showing him the package.

Will looked doubtful. ‘We can’t trust our combined weight again this high up,’ he said. ‘I’ll find another way out.’ He looked at the short sword he had managed to hold on to. ‘Don’t worry—I’ll try not to hurt anyone too bad.’

Kal nodded. Killing outlawed cultists like the Dragonites was one thing, but killing citizens, let alone soldiers of the legions, was wrong, no matter how crazy their general was.

Will kissed her goodbye and turned back to the tower. Kal could hear the footsteps of the soldiers as they ascended. Across the amphitheatre, as flames raced up one of the opposite towers, a soldier jumped to his death. Elsewhere, there was a crash and a chorus of screams as one of the seating stands collapsed. Kal hoped Nim had gotten out already. She trusted Will would find a way.

She took a deep breath and wrapped her wrists in the rope handles of the canvas pack. She had to get to Ben and the other senators before the killer did. Without Cassava’s help, she would have to stand between them and the killer alone.

Over all the noise and voices, Kal could hear Cassava’s voice ringing out, shouting for Kal over and over. Kal shook her head.
Sorry, General. Got to go.
She stepped back to the corner of the platform, muttered one final expletive, then took a running leap into the unknown.

* * *

The dragon left the amphitheatre at the same time Kal did, except that as it was soaring upwards towards stormy skies, Kal was plunging to the city streets. But then the parachute snapped open, and Kal found herself gliding west above the rooftops, wafted away from the burning amphitheatre on a lucky updraft of hot air from the fire. She looked up: the chute had opened in a pyramidal shape, two yards square, held together by a frame of bamboo rods.

The dragon flapped off to the north, in the direction of the distant Starfinger Mountains. ‘Fine!’ Kal yelled after it. ‘Leave me to sort out this city’s problems on my own, why don’t you!’

She laughed as she flew: laughed at her own joke; laughed at the sheer exhilaration and relief of her escape; laughed at the sudden surge of power and confidence she felt as she traversed the city like a super-powered god. She also laughed as she wondered if Nim had personally tested her latest creation before entrusting it to Kal.
As if!

Kal found she could steer a course by yanking on the handles of the chute. She passed by the Snake Pit, and shouted down when she spotted Zeb and Gwyn outside. They didn’t look up, and Kal passed on by, crossing the Embankment, the Cold Flow, and finally touching down on the university lawns at the foot of Arcus Hill.

A gathering of astonished students watched as she cut herself free of the chute with her dagger. ‘Don’t try that without at least three large drinks beforehand,’ she advised them as she hurried past and up the Hill.

Kal made it to Ben’s mansion five minutes later, a mere fifteen minutes since she had turned the tables on Cassava and freed the dragon. She could see that the lights were on inside, despite it still being early afternoon. As she ran breathlessly up the gravel drive, she could also make out the silhouettes of Ben’s guests behind the ground floor windows. There was no sign of the Senate Guard who were supposed to be on duty outside. Kal picked up her pace—

—and was stopped suddenly in her tracks as a blinding yellow light flashed from behind every window. For a split second the silhouettes inside were picked out in sharp contrast, before fragmenting into thousands of pieces as all the glass windows shattered.

Then the mansion exploded with an deafening
BOOOOM
, and Kal barely had time to drop to the ground before chunks of stone and marble began to rain down on top of her.

V.iv

Tumbling Dice

Ben!
Kal’s shock lasted mere moments, before avenging fury took its place. She brought all of her anger to the aid of her muscles, and heaved away the splintered wooden beam that had her pinned to the ground. Masonry and smashed furniture fell away as Kal stood up in a cloud of dust.

She had been transported to another world; instead of the sunlit tranquillity of the previous day, the peak of Arcus Hill was now a vision of hell. Roiling black clouds hung so low they were almost within reach. Rising plumes of dust and smoke obscured the horizon, and scattered flames played freely among the grey rubble that lay everywhere. There was nothing human, nothing recognisably man-made, within sight.

Kal cringed as a zigzagging bolt of lightning flashed through the sky, revealing the nearby bulk of the Basilica as it grounded itself on the spire of the dome. Kal knew that the thunder would follow, but even so it still made her quail as it echoed all around. She felt it rattle her bones.

What had happened here to turn her world upside down? An accident? Nim had mentioned that she had been storing explosives at the mansion. But Nim was far too professional to be careless. Someone else must have seen an opportunity to wreak havoc. Kal had foreseen death today, but not on this scale.

She started to pick her way through the remains of the mansion. Kal had wanted the explosives for an expedition she planned to lead into the caves below the city. Well, that looked like it was going to be a one-woman expedition now. But at least she no longer needed the explosives: she had picked up something in town today that she hoped would allow her to access the mysterious door deep underground that bore the mark of Feron Firehand.