Dust of Dreams

  The Destriant shrieked—her mask of determination shattered and in its place the raw truth of comprehension and all the horror that followed. Her puny fists beat at Gunth Mach’s neck and shoulders, and for an instant it looked as if Kalyth would throw herself from the First Daughter’s back—but their speed was too great, the risk of broken limbs, or indeed, a broken neck, defeated the impulse and forced her to hold tightly to Gunth Mach’s neck.

  They had gone a third of a league when Rythok’s savage hiss burst into their skulls—the blistering acid of sudden, frenzied battle. Blades striking home, impacts reverberating like thunder. A crackling, terrifying sound, and all at once blood was gushing from the K’ell Hunter. A piercing cry, a weaving stagger, burning pain and then baffled anguish as Rythok’s legs gave way.

  Ribs cracked as he struck the ground. Sharp rocks tore and stabbed the softer hide of his belly as he skidded.

  But Rythok was not yet done. Dying would have to wait.

  He rolled, twisted round, blade lashing back into his wake. The edge struck armour, chopped through it, and bit deep into flesh.

  Phlegm and blood spattered, stung like fire in Rythok’s eyes—a sudden image, brutal in its clarity, as a massive axe swung down, filling the Hunter’s vision on his left side.

  An explosion of white.

  And death made the two fleeing K’Chain Che’Malle stagger. A moment, and then, with unyielding will, they recovered. Glistening with grief, rank with battle oils.

  The Destriant was weeping—shedding her own oil, thin, salty, all that she could muster.

  She humbled Sag’Churok. Had his hide grown slick with sorrow when he killed Redmask? No, it had not. Bitter with disappointment, yes, he had known that. But greater the icy grip of intransigent judgement. He and Gunth Mach had been witness to humans slaughtering each other. The fire of battle had raged on all sides. Human life was, it was clear, of little value—even to the humans themselves. When the world is swarming with a hundred million orthen, what loss a few tens of thousands?

  Yet, this frail alien creature wept. For Rythok.

  In moments he would wheel. He would do as Rythok had done. But not precisely so. There was little point in attempting to kill. Maiming was a more useful tactic. He would wound as many as he could and so diminish the numbers capable of pursuing Gunth Mach and the Destriant.

  He would employ skills Rythok had not yet learned and now never would. Sag’Churok might not be a Ve’Gath Soldier, but he would surprise them nonetheless.

  Gunth Mach.

  ‘Yes, beloved.’

  Sag’Churok whetted his blades.

  ‘No!’ Kalyth shrieked. ‘Do not dare leave us! Sag’Churok—I forbid it!’

  Destriant. I shall succeed where Rythok failed. My life shall purchase you a day, perhaps two, and you must make it enough.

  ‘Stop! I have prayed! Do you not understand? They said they would answer!’

  I do not know of whom you speak, Destriant. Listen well to my words. Acyl Nest shall die. The Matron is doomed, and all those within the Rooted. Gunth Mach carries my seed. She shall be a new Matron. Find your Shield Anvil and your Mortal Sword—the three of you shall be Gunth Mach’s J’an Sentinels, until such time as she breeds her own.

  Then Gunth Mach shall free you.

  This is not your war. This is not your end—it is ours.

  ‘Stop!’

  Sag’Churok prepared to speak to her once more, despite the growing effort it entailed. He would tell her of his admiration. And his faith in her—and of his own astonishment at feeling such emotions for a human. They were paltry things, too weak to be considered gifts of any sort, but he would—

  Figures in the distance ahead. Not the enemy. Not born and bred of matrons either. And not, Sag’Churok realized, human.

  Standing, readying an array of weapons.

  Fourteen in all. Details assembling as Sag’Churok and Gunth Mach raced ever closer. Gaunt despite the blackened, gnarled armour encasing their torsos and limbs. Strange helms with down-swept cheek-guards that projected below their chins. Ragged camails of black chain. Thick, tattered and stained cloaks that had once been dyed an intense, deep yellow, trimmed in silver fur.

  Sag’Churok saw that seven of the strangers held in their gauntleted hands long, narrow-bladed swords of blued steel, basket-hilted with half-moon knuckle-guards, and ornate bucklers. He saw two others with heavier single-edged axes and embossed round shields covered in mottled hides. Three with broad-headed, iron-sheathed spears. And two more, standing behind the rest, preparing slings.

  And, surrounding them all, spreading down from the faint rise on which they waited, frost sparkled on earth and stone.

  Disbelief struck Sag’Churok like a hammer-blow.

  This was not possible. This was . . . without precedent. Impossible—what cast these strangers? Foes or allies? But no, they cannot be allies.

  Besides, as all know, Jaghut stand alone.

  ‘There!’ shouted Kalyth, pointing. ‘I prayed! There—run to them—quickly! Guardians of the Gate!’

  Destriant—hear me. These ones will not help us. They will do nothing.

  ‘You’re wrong!’

  Destriant. They are Jaghut. They are . . .

  . . . impossible.

  But Gunth Mach had altered her course, was closing directly upon the waiting warriors. Sag’Churok fell in beside her, still shocked, still confused, uncomprehending—

  And then he and Gunth Mach caught the stench wafting from the Jaghut, gusting out from the frozen ground encircling them.

  Destriant, beware! They are undead!

  ‘I know what they are,’ snapped Kalyth. ‘Stop, Gunth Mach—stop retreating—right here, don’t move.’ And then she slipped down from the Daughter’s back.

  Destriant, we do not have time—

  ‘We do. Tell me, how many pursue us? Tell me!’

  A Caste. Fifty. Forty-nine now. Four wield Kep’rah, weapons of sorcery. A Crown commands them, they flow as one.

  She looked to the northwest. ‘How far away?’

  Your eyes shall find them shortly. They are . . . mounted.

  ‘On what?’

  Sag’Churok would have sent her an image, but she was beyond such things now. She was closed and closing. Wrought . . . legs. To match our own. Tireless.

  He watched as the Destriant absorbed this information, and then she faced the Jaghut.

  ‘Guardians. I thought to see . . . familiar faces.’

  One of the spear-wielders stepped forward. ‘Hood would not want us.’

  ‘If he had,’ said the swordswoman beside him, ‘he would have summoned us.’

  ‘He would not choose that,’ resumed the first Jaghut, ‘for he knew we would not likely accede.’

  ‘Hood abused our goodwill,’ the swordswoman said, tusks gleaming with frost, ‘at the first chaining. He knew enough to face away from us at the next one.’ An iron-sheathed finger pointed at the Destriant. ‘Instead, he abused you, child of the Imass. And made of one his deadliest enemy. We yield him no sorrow.’

  ‘No commiseration,’ said the spear-wielder.

  ‘No sympathy,’ added one of the slingers.

  ‘He will stand alone,’ the swordswoman said in a rasp. ‘A Jaghut in solitude.’

  Sag’Churok twisted round, studied the glint of metal to the northwest. Not long now.

  The swordswoman continued. ‘Human, you keep strange company. They will teach you nothing of value, these Che’Malle. It is their curse to repeat their mistakes, again and again, until they have destroyed themselves and everyone else. They have no gifts for you.’

  ‘It seems,’ said Kalyth of the Elan, ‘we humans have already learned all they could teach us, whether we ever knew it or not.’

  A chilling sound, the rattling laughter of fourteen undead Jaghut.

  Then the spear-wielder spoke. ‘Flee. Your hunters shall know the privilege of meeting the last soldiers of the only army the Jaghut ever possessed.’


  ‘The last to die,’ one added in a growl.

  ‘And should you see Hood,’ said the swordswoman, ‘remind him of how his soldiers never faltered. Even in his moment of betrayal. We never faltered.’

  More laughter.

  Pale, trembling, the Destriant returned to Gunth Mach. ‘We go. Leave them to this.’

  Sag’Churok hesitated. They are too few, Destriant. I will stay with them.

  Fourteen pairs of cold, lifeless eyes fixed on the K’ell Hunter, and, smiling, the swordswoman spoke. ‘There are enough of us. Kep’rah never amounted to much of a threat against Omtose Phellack. Still, you may stay. We appreciate an audience, because we are an arrogant people.’ The ghastly grin broadened. ‘Almost as arrogant as you, Che’Malle.’

  ‘I think,’ observed the spear-wielder, ‘this one is . . . humbled.’

  His companion shrugged. ‘Into the twilight of a species comes humility, like an old woman who has just remembered she’s still a virgin. Too late to count for anything. I am not impressed.’ And the swordswoman attempted to spit, failed, and quietly cursed.

  ‘Sag’Churok,’ said the Destriant from Gunth Mach’s saddled back, ‘do not die here. Do you understand me? I need you still. Watch, if you must. See what there is to be seen, and then return to us.’

  Very well, Kalyth of the Elan.

  The K’ell Hunter watched his beloved carry the human away.

  Battered armour rustled and clanked as the Jaghut warriors readied themselves, fanning out along the crest of the hill. As they did so, the frigid air crackled around them.

  Sag’Churok spoke: Proud soldiers, do not fear they will pass you by. They pass by nothing they believe they can slay, or destroy.

  ‘We have observed your folly countless times,’ replied the swordswoman. ‘Nothing of what we are about to face will catch us unawares.’ She turned to her companions. ‘Is not Iskar Jarak a worthy leader?’

  ‘He is,’ answered a chorus of rough voices.

  ‘And what did he say to us, before he sent us here?’

  And thirteen Jaghut voices answered: “ ‘Pretend they are T’lan Imass.’ ”

  The last survivors of the only army of the Jaghut, who had not survived at all, then laughed once more. And that laughter clattered on, to greet the Caste, and on, through the entire vicious, stunning battle that followed.

  Sag’Churok, watching from a hundred paces away, felt the oil sheathing his hide thicken in the bitter gusts of Omtose Phellack, as the ancient Hold of Ice trembled to the impacts of Kep’rah, as it in turn lashed out—bursting flesh, sending frozen pieces and fragments flying.

  In the midst of the conflagration, iron spoke with iron in that oldest of tongues.

  Sag’Churok watched. And listened. And when he had seen and heard enough, he did as the Destriant commanded. He left the battle behind. Knowing the outcome, knowing a yet deeper, still sharper bite of humility.

  Jaghut. Though we shared your world, we never saw you as our foe. Jaghut, the T’lan Imass never understood—some people are simply too noble to be rivals. But then, perhaps it was that very nobility they so despised.

  Iskar Jarak, you who commanded them . . . what manner of thing are you? And how did you know? I wish you could answer me that one question. How did you know precisely what to say to your soldiers?

  Sag’Churok would never forget that laughter. The sound was carved into his very hide; it rode the swirls of his soul, danced light on the heady flavours of his relief and wonder. Such knowing amusement, both wry and sweet, such a cruel, breathtaking sound.

  I have heard the dead laugh.

  He knew he would ride that laughter through the course of his life. It would hold him up. Give him strength.

  Now I understand, Kalyth of the Elan, what made your eyes so bright on this day.

  Behind him, the earth shook. And the song of laughter went on and on.

  The swollen trunks of segmented trees rose from the shallows of the swamp, so bloated that Grub thought they might split open at any moment, disgorging . . . what? He had no idea, but considering the horrific creatures they had seen thus far—mercifully from a distance—it was likely to be so ghastly it would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life. He swatted at a gnat chewing on his knee and crouched further down behind the bushes.

  The buzz and whine of insects, the slow lap of water on the sodden shoreline, and the deep, even breathing of something massive, each exhalation a sharp whistle that went on . . . and on.

  Grub licked sweat from his lips. ‘It’s big,’ he whispered.

  Kneeling at his side, Sinn had found a black leech and let each of its two suckers fasten on to the tip of a finger. She spread the fingers and watched how the slimy thing stretched. But it was getting fatter. ‘It’s a lizard,’ she said.

  ‘A dragon.’

  ‘Dragons don’t breathe, not like we do, anyway. That’s why they can travel between worlds. No, it’s a lizard.’

  ‘We lost the path—’

  ‘There never was a path, Grub,’ Sinn replied. ‘There was a trail, and we’re still on it.’

  ‘I preferred the desert.’

  ‘Times change,’ she said, and then grinned. ‘That’s a joke, by the way.’

  ‘I don’t get it.’

  She made a face. ‘Time doesn’t change, Grub, just the things in it.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘This trail, of course. It’s as if we’re walking the track of someone’s life, and it was a long life.’ She waved with her free hand. ‘All this, it’s what’s given shape to the mess at the far end—which was where we started from.’

  ‘Then we’re going back in time?’

  ‘No. That would be the wrong direction, wouldn’t it?’

  ‘Get that thing off your fingers before it sucks you dry.’

  She held it out and he tugged it loose, which wasn’t as easy as he would have liked. The puckered wounds at the ends of Sinn’s fingers bled freely. Grub tossed the creature away.

  ‘Think he’ll smell it?’ Sinn asked.

  ‘He who?’

  ‘The lizard. My blood.’

  ‘Gods below!’

  Her eyes were bright. ‘Do you like this place? The air, it makes you drunk, doesn’t it? We’re back in the age when everything was raw. Unsettled. But maybe not, maybe we’re from the raw times. But here, I think, you could stay for ten thousand years and nothing would change, nothing at all. Long ago, time was slower.’

  ‘I thought you said—’

  ‘All right, change was slower. Not that anything living would sense that. Everything living just knows what it knows, and that never changes.’

  She was easier when she never said anything, Grub decided, but he kept that thought to himself. Something was stirring, out in the swamp, and Grub’s eyes widened when he studied the waterline and realized that it had crept up by a full hand’s span. Whatever it was, it had just displaced a whole lot of water. ‘It’s coming,’ he said.

  ‘Which flickering eye,’ Sinn mused, ‘is us?’

  ‘Sinn—we got to get out of here—’

  ‘If we’re not even here,’ she continued, ‘where did we come from, except from something that is here? You can’t just say, “Oh, we come through a gate,” because, then, the question just shows up all over again.’

  The breathing had stopped.

  ‘It’s coming!’

  ‘But you can breed horses—and you can see how they change—longer legs, even a different gait. Like turning a desert wolf into a hunting dog—it doesn’t take as long as you’d think. Did someone breed us to make us like we are?’

  ‘If they did,’ hissed Grub, ‘they should’ve given one of us more brains!’ Snatching her by the arm, he pulled her upright.

  She laughed as they ran.

  Behind them, water exploded, enormous jaws snapped on empty air, breath shrieking, and the ground trembled.

  Grub did not look behind them—he could hear the monstrous thrash and whip
of the huge lizard as it surged through the undergrowth, closing fast.

  Then Sinn tore herself free.

  His heels skidded on wet clay. Spinning round, he caught an instant’s glimpse of Sinn—her back to him—facing a lizard big as a Quon galley, its elongated jaws bristling with dagger-sized fangs. Opening wide and wider still.

  Fire erupted. A conflagration that blinded Grub, made him reel away as a solid wall of heat struck him. He stumbled to his knees. It was raining—no, that was hail—no, bits of flesh, hide and bone. Blinking, gasping, he slowly lifted his head.

  A crater gaped before Sinn, steaming.

  He climbed to his feet and walked unevenly to her side. The pit was twenty or more paces across, deep as a man was tall. Murky water gurgled, filling the basin. In that basin, a piece of the lizard’s tail thrashed and twitched. Mouth dry, Grub asked, ‘Did you enjoy that, Sinn?’

  ‘None of it’s real, Grub.’

  ‘Looked real enough to me!’

  She snorted. ‘Just a memory.’

  ‘Whose?’

  ‘Maybe mine.’ Sinn shrugged. ‘Maybe yours. Something buried so deep inside us, we would never have ever known about it, if we weren’t here.’

  ‘That makes no sense.’

  Sinn held up her hands. The one that had been streaming blood looked scorched. ‘My blood,’ she whispered, ‘is on fire.’

  They skirted the swamp, watched by a herd of scaly, long-necked beasts with flattened snouts. Bigger than any bhederin, but with the same dull, bovine eyes. Tiny winged lizards patrolled their ridged backs, picking at ticks and lice.

  Beyond the swamp the land sloped upward, festooned with snake-leafed trees with pebbled boles and feathery crowns. There was no obvious way around the strange forest, so they entered it. In the humid shade beneath the canopy, iridescent-winged moths fluttered about like bats, and the soft, damp ground was crawling with toads that could swallow a man’s fist and seemed disinclined to move aside, forcing Grub to step carefully and Sinn to lash out with her bare feet, laughing with every meaty impact.

  The slope levelled out and the trees grew denser, gloom closing in like a shroud. ‘This was a mistake,’ muttered Grub.