He lay back. Closed his eyes against the spinning world, although even then the feeling did not leave him. He moved a little down the hill, then searched in his pockets, finding his tiny medical kit, and as he waited the long, long hours until nightfall, he busied himself with a tiny brass needle and a length of thread made from pig-gut. He sewed himself back together again. And afterwards, after vomiting, he slept.
Kell came back into a world of consciousness slowly, as if swimming through a sea of black honey. He was lying on a metal floor, and a cold wind caressed him. He was deeply cold, and his eyes opened, staring at the old pitted metal, at the floor, and at the mud beyond streaked with swirls of snow. He coughed, and placed both hands beneath him, heaving himself up, then slumping back, head spinning, senses reeling. And he felt…loss. The loss of Ilanna. The loss of his bloodbond axe.
Kell flexed his fingers, and gazed around. He was in a cage with thick metal bars, and outside, all around him, were similar cages containing twisted, desecrated cankers. Most slept, but a few sat back on their haunches, evil yellow eyes watching him, their hearts ticking unevenly with bent clockwork.
Kell rolled his shoulders, then crawled to his knees and to the corner of the cage, peering out. He was back in Leanoric’s camp, only now there were no soldiers of Falanor to be seen; only albino guards, eyes watchful, hands on sword-hilts. Kell frowned, and searched, and realised that the two camps had been made to blend, just like a canker and its clockwork. The Army of Iron had usurped the Falanor camp.
Darkness had fallen, and Kell realised he must have been out of the game for at least a day. He peered out from behind his bars, could just make out the edges of Old Skulkra, with her toothed domes and crumbling walls. Beyond lay Valantrium Moor, and a cold wind blew down from high moorland passes carrying a fresh promise of snow.
Kell shivered. What now? He was a prisoner. Caged, like the barely controllable cankers around him. “Hey?” growled Kell to the nearest canker. “Can you hear me?” The beast gave no response, just stared with the baleful eyes of a lion. “Do you realise you have a face like a horse’s arse?” he said. The canker blinked, and its long tongue protruded, licking at lips pulled back over half its head. Inside, tiny gears made click click click noises. Kell shivered again, and this time it was nothing to do with the cold.
“Kell.” The voice was low, barely above a whisper. Kell squinted into the darkness.
“Yeah?”
“It’s Saark. Wait there.”
“I’m not going anywhere, laddie.”
There came several grunting sounds, and a squeal of rusted metal. The side of the cage opened, and Saark, skin pale, sweat on his brow, leant against the opened door.
Kell strode out, stood with his hands on his hips, looking around, then turned to Saark. “I thought you would have come sooner.”
Saark gave a nasty grin. “A ‘thank you’ would have sufficed.”
“Thank you. I thought you would have come sooner. And by the way, you look like a horse trampled your face.”
“I ran into a bit of trouble, with Myriam and her friends.”
Kell’s brows darkened; his eyes dropped to the bloodstains on Saark’s clothing. He softened. “Are you injured?”
“Myriam stabbed me.”
“She had Nienna with her.”
“She still does. I’m sorry, Kell. She’s taken Nienna north, to the Black Pike Mountains. She said to tell you she will wait at the Cailleach Pass. She knows you will come. I’m sorry, Kell; I could do nothing.”
The huge warrior remained silent, but rolled his neck and shoulders. His hand leapt to where his Svian was sheathed; to find the weapon gone. “Bastards,” he muttered, looked around, then turned and started off between the cages.
“Wait,” said Saark, hobbling after him. “You’re going the wrong way. We can head out through Old Skulkra; I think even the albinos won’t travel there. It’s still a poisoned hellhole; stinks like a pig’s entrails.”
“I’m going to find Graal.”
“What?” snapped Saark. He grabbed Kell, stopping him. “What are you talking about, man?” he hissed. “We’re surrounded by ten thousand bloody soldiers! You want to march in there and kill him?”
“I don’t want to kill him,” snapped Kell, eyes glittering. “I want Ilanna.”
Saark gave a brittle laugh. “We can buy you another axe, old man,” he said.
“She’s…not just an axe. She is my bloodbond. I cannot leave her. It is hard to explain.”
“You’re damn right it’s hard to explain. You’d risk your life now? We can escape, Kell. We can go after Nienna.”
Kell paused, then, his back to Saark. When his words came, they were low, tainted by uncertainty. “No. I must have Ilanna; then I find Nienna. Then I kill Myriam and her twisted scum-bastard friends.”
“You’re insane,” said Saark.
“Maybe. You wait here if you like. I’ll be back.”
“No.” Saark caught him up, his rapier glittering in the darkness. “I may be stuck like a pig, but I can still fight. And if we split up now, we’re sure to be caught and tortured. Damn you and your stupid fool quest!”
“Be quiet.”
They eased through the nightshade.
It watched them. It crept low along the ground, and watched them. When they looked towards it, it hid its face, in shame, great tears rolling down its tortured cheeks as it hunkered to the ground, and its body shook in spasms of grief. Then they were gone, and it rose again, jaws crunching, and paced them through the army of tents…
Only once did Kell meet two albino guards, and the old man moved so fast they didn’t see him coming. He broke a jaw, then a neck, then knelt on the first fallen guard, took his face between great paws, and wrenched the guard’s head sideways with a sickening crunch. Kell stood, took one of the albino’s short black swords, and looked over at Saark.
“Help me hide the bodies.”
Saark nodded, and realised Kell danced along a line of brittle madness. He had changed. Something had changed inside the old warrior. He had…hardened. Become far more savage, more brutal; infinitely merciless.
They eased along through black tents, past the glowing embers of fires, and Kell pointed. It had been Leanoric’s tent, in which Kell had stood only a few short hours before. Now, Kell knew, Graal’s arrogance would make him take residence there. It was something about generals Kell had learned in his early days as a soldier. Most thought they were gods.
Kell stopped, and held up a blood-encrusted hand. Saark paused, crouched, glancing behind him. Slowly, Kell eased into the tent and was gone. Saark felt goose-bumps crawl up and down his arms and neck and went to follow Kell into the tent but froze. He glanced back again, and as if through ice-smoke General Graal materialised. Behind him marched a squad of albino soldiers, heavily armed and armoured, this time wearing black helmets decorated with swirling runes. Graal stopped, and smiled at Saark, and a chill fear ran through the dandy’s heart like a splinter.
“Kell?” he whispered. Then, louder, eyes never leaving Graal, “Kell!”
“What is it?” snapped Kell, emerging, and looking at Graal with glittering eyes. “Oh, it’s you, laddie.”
“Looking for this?” said Graal, lifting Ilanna so moonlight shimmered from her black butterfly blades.
“Give her to me.”
Graal rammed the axe into the ground. Behind him, the albino soldiers drew their blades. “Tell me how to make her mine, and you will live. Tell me how to talk with the bloodbond.”
“No,” snapped Kell.
Graal stepped forward, head lowered for a moment, then glanced up at Kell, blue eyes glittering. “I will grow unhappy,” he said, voice low.
“I have been pondering a strange puzzle for some time,” said Kell, placing his hands on his hips and meeting Graal’s gaze. “How is it, lad, that you have the face and skin and hair of these albino bastards around you…and yet your eyes are blue?” Kell scratched at his whiskers. “I see you have the fangs of the vachine, and yet the vachine are tall, most dark haired, not like these effeminate soldiers behind you. What are you, Graal? Some kind of half-breed?”