SOLAR KNIGHT

Dain set a steady pace and he and Cinder trekked over the desolate starlit landscape. Though they had each separately employed the service of a guide to reach the city, leaving was a much simpler proposition. One only needed to pick a direction and stick to it. Eventually one would reach the outskirts of the wastes and from there the usual navigational techniques could be applied. As the moon in the south peeked from behind the cloud cover, Cinder rumbled in agitation, a sound equally similar to rolling thunder and an alligator's growl.

"I don't think this is the right way," he mused sarcastically. "Anyone might think you're lost... or that you're not really heading towards the road to Baystone at all."

"I know where I'm going," said Dain. "Just because it's not the route you would choose doesn't make it incorrect."

"Be that as it may, I still think I should hold at least one of the artefacts," said Cinder, "for safekeeping. Besides, I can tell by the way you move that your leg is still troubling you after being nipped by that little minx. Let me alleviate your burden, if only a little."

"Your injuries are graver than mine," replied Dain. "I daresay a mere mortal would not even have survived, much less be able to endure them as stoically as you have. I will keep hold of the keystone and the scroll. Tellius entrusted them to me. Don't you trust him?"

"Of course I trust Tellius," asserted Cinder insolently, "but, I don't. Trust. You."

"It's wise not to trust anyone, which is precisely why I'm holding both the artefacts until we reach the fort."

As he finished his sentence Dain realised that he could no longer hear Cinder walking along just behind him. He stopped and looked around, staring into the murky dark of night. Cinder had vanished. Then, as he deliberated whether to react or count himself lucky to be alone, he was blindsided by an impact that sent him sprawling into the dust.

"Give me the scroll!" snarled Cinder, embers spraying like spittle as he pinned Dain to the ground by the throat. Dain swiped wildly at Cinder's face, talons of flame blossoming out from his gloved fingertips and raking his eyes. Cinder hissed and flinched, but did not loosen his grip, so Dain followed with a kick. Dain felt his foot strike something solid, and he broke free as Cinder stumbled back. He took off at a sprint, not looking back, but he knew that even wounded Cinder would outpace him. As he heard his pursuer catching up he controlled his breath as best he could without slowing his pace, then as he could almost feel Cinder's claws on his neck once more he spun around to face him, skidding back in the dust. At the same time, he exhaled a gout of fire that drenched Cinder in light and heat. Cinder howled and retaliated with his own fire breath, but when the flames receded both were left standing. Though neither had inherited complete protection against such attacks, this was a fight that would be settled by fang and claw.

"You really thought you were better than me?" goaded Dain, though his throat was dry like ash. "That you were stronger just because you submit to your instincts like an animal? There's a reason why the first lesson the people of my clan teach their children is restraint."

Dain tore off his gloves and flexed his own previously concealed claws. Cinder charged again but Dain pivoted, tripping him and plunging his claws into a barely scabbed-over wound in Cinder's torso, pushing him to the ground. Cinder fell backwards into a shallow depression, one of the few features in this area of the wastes, but before Dain could capitalise he lashed him at his tail, dragging him down after him. Dain quickly regained his balance however and carried the momentum into a tackle, slamming Cinder into the earth at the bottom. The ground gave a little as they landed, as if the space underneath was hollow. The significance of this was lost on Cinder, but not on Dain. If he was right, he had led Cinder right into a trap like he had intended all along, but it was a trap that might yet snap close with him still in it.

With Dain practically on top of him, Cinder roared and spat fire once more. Dain recoiled from the intense flames, but not fast enough to avoid Cinder's follow-up as he lunged for Dain's neck, his maw still sparking with hellfire. Dain struck down on Cinder's snout with a flaming fist, and Cinder's fangs sank into his shoulder instead. As the wound burned with a foul and profound heat Dain thrashed desperately trying to dislodge his assailant, their struggle churning the dust beneath them together with blood and ichor.

A faint tremor shifted the ground beneath them. Cinder was deafened to it by the throes of his blood-lust, while Dain was only barely aware of it. If he had not been waiting for such a sign, he too would likely have missed it completely in such circumstances. As it was, he renewed his efforts to escape with still more urgent vigour. He thrust claws crowned with fire into Cinder's eye-sockets, and the iron grip of Cinder's jaws lessened enough for Dain to break free. He bolted away as Cinder lurched after him. Then, as the earth trembled again, Dain forced himself to a complete stop. Cinder continued staggering after him, ichor dripping from scorched eye-sockets, his fangs wet with blood sizzling under the moonlight. Dain held his ground, not moving, barely daring to breathe.

The ground opened up and a long monstrous form erupted out, swallowing Cinder up in a heartbeat. A lurid orange glow bloomed inside inside it like lantern light occluded by curtains, then faded back to darkness as the colossal beast lowered itself back to ground level. Its head plunged back into the earth. Its body flowed past Dain as it retreated back below the surface.

Dain held his ground.

Though the great worm was no longer visible, the tremors continued unabated. Dain could sense it circling the area, hunting for that second irritating little creature that had so rudely vanished earlier but could not have travelled far. He had counted on it losing interest once it could no longer perceive any prey but this was turning out to be a miscalculation. He measured his breathing, gripped tight at his shoulder where Cinder's fangs had pierced his scales, willed his racing heart to beat quieter.

The ground shifted beneath him. There was no option but to make a run for it. As he prepared to sprint for his life, there was a rattling, clattering sound behind him, and something lifted him off his feet. He cried out, partly in pain as sharp talons dug into the puncture wounds left by Cinder but also at the sight of the ground where he had been standing falling away as the worm burst through it. It reached out to him, a living tunnel leading to darkness and death. It threatened to engulf him, then receded away as he was borne skyward by his unknown rescuer.

"What do you want us to do with him?" asked a voice Dain recognised as Kaellatch.

"Just dump him somewhere just outside the city," said Azinax. "Somewhere that's near enough that the waste creatures won't bother us, but the city people won't interrupt us either."

Adrift in a sea of darkness, Dain felt whatever entity was carrying him bank around and settle into a cruising pace. Before long he spotted the light of habitation ahead and moments after that was tossed unceremoniously to the ground. He rolled over and sat up just in time to see Kaellatch scamper down the side of a wyvern with scales that pointed slightly up and out, causing it to resemble a partially opened pine-cone. Following Kaellatch was Azinax, who slid down to ground level somewhat less decorously and landed with a grunt.

"Cinder's dead. The worm got him," said Dain. "He wanted the keystone and the scroll I was carrying."

"We already saw that. Tell us something new and you might get to live," said Azinax, approaching with a stilted gait and drawing her sword. "What were your plans for those?"

"Tellius wanted us to take them down to the Baystone fort. Apparently he had some kindred spirits waiting there for him. You should probably follow that up at some point. Anyway the keystone is used as part of the reactivation ritual for the precursor machines, but I don't know what he wanted the scroll for. I was never going to help him to begin with, but even if I was I would have changed my mind after seeing that thing. It was what Clan Giltflame sent me to retrieve in the first place, and I knew I needed to get close to Tellius to get it, since he knew where it was. I was supposed to bring it back to Khaldur but having seen it I think no one should have it. I suppose I should apologise for earlier. I never meant to leave you in the lurch like that."

"I'm sure you didn't," remarked Azinax. "You know, before we set off for Arancalen I got a message from the priest of Antikasmai who sent me out here in the first place. He ordered me to kill you after the mission was over." Kaellatch glanced up at Azinax in surprise, but said nothing as she continued. "I'm fairly certain he was acting in his capacity as an Essokian official rather than as a zodiac priest, so against my better judgement I'm going to give you a chance to give me a reason why I shouldn't do exactly what he told me to and strip both artefacts from your corpse."

"I'll give you two," said Dain. "First, you're a Phaetusian worg knight. You don't answer to that guy and anything he gets from you is a favour he doesn't deserve. Second, I'll give you both for free right now." He tossed out the keystone, which resembled a matte black polyhedron, and the thin metal tube containing the scroll. "I know what you think of me. Some of it is even justified. But I tell you this in complete earnest, there's something evil about that scroll. If I had to hazard a guess, I'd say that was what lashed out you during the ritual."

"And you took it outside the protective seals," snapped Azinax, reaching cautiously for the metal case. "Avert your eyes," she warned Kaellatch. "Don't let the wyvern see it either." She popped off the end cap and tilted it as everyone else turned away. A rolled-up slice of translucent grey false-glass slid out. As it unfurled with the stagnancy of air wafting from a freshly reopened tomb it revealed a surface embossed with the raised marks and shapes of precursor language. They shifted and warped languorously in front of her eyes, and her field of vision shrank until she could see nothing else. The marks swarmed like a murmuration, the surface of the scroll shifted, and the precursor symbols refactored themselves into draconic script.

DEFILE. DEMOLISH. REMEMBER. FORGET. OBLITERATE. PARASITIZE. LIBERATE. HARMONIZE. BEAR WITNESS TO A PERFECT WORLD. FIRST OF THIRTEEN STARS. FIRST BETRAYED. FIRST DISFIGURED. THE TRAITORS SANG THEIR WRETCHED HYMN AND THE WORLD WAS PERFECT NO LONGER. I KNOW YOU HEAR IT STILL IN THE SUN WOLF'S HOWLS.

With a tremendous effort Azinax wrenched her gaze away and turned the scroll over with the tip of her sword. Dain looked up at her, waiting for her to act. The silence hung like smothering fog. Then, it was broken by a shriek and a crack. Dain saw Azinax's sword raised high, blazing with divine light, and he flinched away, closing his eyes on reflex. The silence resumed. Dain opened his eyes slowly. Azinax stood before him, leaning on her sword planted through the scroll. Sickly flames spread out from the centre of the scroll where the sword had pierced it, licking at the alien material as it melted away and diffused into noxious smoke.

"Phaetusia had her chance to kill you three years ago and she rejected it," said Azinax. "I'm not going to go against that. Now get out of my sight." Dain rose to his feet, his vivid orange eyes wide with incredulity. "Get on with it, before I change my mind!" With little choice but to take Azinax at face value, he hustled off into the city and vanished down one of the dimly lit streets.

Azinax reached out to Razorfang through their link. "You still alright?"

"The girl woke up," replied Razorfang. "We're headed back to the city. I didn't say anything earlier because I could tell you were busy."

"Good." Then she spoke to Kaellatch. "I think that just about covers everything for the moment."

"Agreed," said Kaellatch, but it immediately became clear that Azinax had not heard. She took a single awkward shuffling step towards Kaellatch, then with a clatter and a thud collapsed at her feet.