Less than a minute later the four of us were sitting around Ara’s small candle down a different but still fetid alley[93]. This time Blood had thrown her caped arm across the candle and was half concealing the flame in a cage made from her fingers keeping the light angled towards the ground.
Blood was apparently unaware that her gloved skin was continually being licked by the flickering flame and I could see that Skull was desperate to start writing notes and considering hypotheses. But Ara wasn't in the know so she restrained her curiosity with visible effort.
For her part Ara looked very different to the last time we saw her. She was still the swaggering laughing gangster girl but she had an air of seriousness about her that seemed entirely divorced from the way she had previously acted. She was wearing as mentioned a long leather cloak that covered her tail and flattened down her head spikes complimented with a piece of very fine steel chainmail that wrapped around her chest and hung down across her thighs[94].
What I noticed first however was that she was wearing her mask again just like when we first saw her. Honestly it’s not impressive you could (and in fact she does) make it yourself in about twenty seconds with just a length of rope but it’s functional.
“God I hate the alleys around here.” Ara muttered, waving her tail through the air to dislodge some thankfully unidentifiable piece of grime then sighing and hunkered back down again. She sat across from me and Skull and was actually cuddled up next to Blood with an arm around the tiny girl’s shoulders. Blood part genuinely didn’t seem to know how to handle this and so was simply sat in petrified silence. After a moment I decided to fill the silence.
“I didn't really get a chance to see it last time but your mask looks good on you.”
Ara reached up and pulled her mask down until it hung like a necklace and beamed at me. “Thanks! I make it myself.”
“Surely you mean made?” Asked Skull.
“Unlike you three cutie pies I don't have a posh permanent mask I just grab a rope off my shelf and wind it around my face,” Ara said obviously amused. “I only wear it when I'm expecting trouble.”
“And you’re expecting that now I take it?”
Ara nodded and looked around. “Well you three colourful crazy cuties have turned up again so yes.”
I grinned despite myself then pointed at the now slightly more distant warehouse. “We think the Crawlers are based in that docks... are we wrong?”
Ara shook her head, “I doubt it. I’ve always thought the Crawlers had a base around here but I’ve never been able to actually find it,” the older girl raised a finger and pointed at the ocean across from us, “I was only scoping it out now because I saw a weird light under the water over there when I was on my way back to check on you girls. Not sure what it was but it looked like it was headed this way, I dived and had a look but there wasn't anything down there,” she stopped for a moment and gave us a considerate look. “How are you by the way, I take it you won?”
We spent a few minutes telling Ara about our fight, meeting the watch Captain being told about the dock and deciding to fight the Crawlers and most importantly about the impending doom of the district.
Ara looked shell-shocked and shook her head slowly, “I can't believe they’re going to try that,” she whispered. “The Crawlers have informants; they'll be long gone before the guard arrives. They’ll just be butchering innocent people.”
“We aren’t going to let that happen.” I said firmly which caused the older girl to smile.
“You three are adorable,” she said. “So determined to fight the good fight and save the world.”
“Yeah... what happened to Lydia... shouldn't ever happen again,” I said looking as determined as I could (that nobody else could see thanks to the mask of course). “Do you want to come in with us Ara? We can use all the help we can get.”
Ara smiled widely showing four rows of grey square teeth. “I'm always happy to help out little cuties like you.”
I could feel Blood blushing next to me probably because I was blushing as well. Skull just sighed with exasperation as Ara turned her grin on her. “Try to keep up.” The black clad girl muttered as archly as she could.
As the four of us slunk out across the wharf towards the distant dock I confess I was worried Ara might give us away but of course I was being stupid. Ara was a smuggler after all, literally a professional criminal and one doesn’t survive that without being able to be very sneaky.
Whilst I clumped along in the darkness with the subtlety of a steam coach Ara vanished into the shadows like a ghost. She moved her whole body including her tail in time with the faint motions of the wind so that she simply seemed to fade into the background of the city. Even Skull seemed impressed as we padded down alley after alley past huge stacks of stinking crates and old crab nets towards dock 9, as we slunk from shadow to shadow Ara told us her plan.
“The ends of the docks dip down into the water as you know,” she whispered to us as we passed a dosing sentry. “But what most people don't know is that there is a lip going around the end of the actual dock. If you’re small and careful you can walk right into the warehouse.”
“Is that safe?” asked Blood with an unusually worried tone.
“And are we going to fit?” asked Skull indicating Ara and herself with a wave of her hand. “Bright’s about normal height and Blood's titchy but we’re both...”
“Oh yeah I can't fit,” said Ara with a grin and a tail flick. “But I can just swim around the end underwater, works twice as well”
Blood hissed at Skull and poked her with an elbow. “I'm not short! I'm only a little shorter than average.”
“By a head and a half.” Teased Skull prompting another jab of an elbow.
“You can borrow my grapple-mace if you need it, Skull,” I said waving the implement in question at my friend who shook her head. “I’ve got a few little tricks.” was all she would say on the matter[95].
Following Ara’s lead we skirted a final patch of light and circled around the huge courtyard we had previously seen directly in front of the warehouse. It was a good hundred metres wide with a fountain in its centre place there in happier more prosperous times. Now it was being used as cover from sea spray by a pair of armed operatives who stood hunched and bickering under the outstretched wing of a chipped stone angel. Neither looked up as we passed them by; concealed in the deepest shadows.
Finally after what felt like hours of painfully slow sneaking we passed the Earln wood bulk of the warehouse and reached the raw sea behind it.
“Here,” said Ara finally as we drew level with the massive gaping aperture at the back of the dock, sized to fit a whole cargo ship inside itself, “the stone lip is just under the water, even at low tide, you’ve got to know it’s there and aim your foot just right but here’s the real trick.” She pointed at the wall. “See the mooring chains? Grab them for purchase and press your feet into the base of the wall as you walk so that way you won’t slip.”
With that Ara winked at us, turned and dove right into the churning white flecked waters. For a second her tail broke the surface flicking up a plume of water then she was gone, vanished into the deep.
We stood in silence for a moment just watching the water then Blood turned to me. “Let’s get a move on; can't leave her alone in there right?”
“Right!” I said suddenly snapped back into action mode. Looking down at the roaring ocean I took a deep breath and sticking a foot out plunged it into the water. For a second I was terrified my foot would just keep going and take me with it but, just like Ara promised, my descending shoe instead hit a solid stone surface just under the water. With the solid (but also incredibly slippery) foothold to balance on I turned quickly and grabbed the hanging chain. Then just like Ara told me to do, I pressed my feet into the base of the wall and clambered along slowly; the top of my head brushing the ceiling.
Blood was just behind me which I remember finding slightly odd even back then since usually she took the lead. For once she seemed to be having real trouble sliding back and forth her legs skittering on the stone like a newborn foal trying to stand. I think she was trying to walk upright rather than the diagonal pose I had adopted but I still thought she’d make it even if it wasn't gracefully. But then came the moment of panic.
As she let go of one of the shorter chains to complete the turn around the end of the wall, she slipped. As she plunged forwards she shot a hand out and caught hold of one of the oldest rustiest looking chains with a vice-like grip. For a second she hung there suspended on this ancient chain. Then with a faint metallic *crack* the iron links beneath her fingers finally lost their battle with rust and metal fatigue and shattered. Blood plunged backwards into the inky water and vanished with barely a ripple.
I stared at the rough choppy surface for a second waiting for her to surface again. I couldn't see Skull[96] and I didn't want to land without any of my friends.
“Blood?” I asked the air with an edge of impatience. “Why aren’t you... what... wait...”
A terrible thought had just occurred to me, one that barely made sense for a sea city like Prasus but which I thought all the same. “Blood!” I screamed, panic gripping me as I realised I had never actually seen her do it had I? And she’d always vetoed plans involving it hadn't she?
I was readying myself to dive into the ocean after my best friend (currents and riptides be damned) when a few metres ahead of me the water began to bubble. For a second I thought maybe Blood was trying to burn her way out of the sea itself as the rippling grew ever more rapid. I was about to jump in anyway when, with a final surge of foaming froth, Ara exploded out of the water ahead of me and landed on the very end of the inner pier. In her arms was a damp bundle of red cloth which was making strange choking noises.
I scrambled the rest of the way in a daze barely noticing Skull (who I swear fell off the ceiling[97]) and landed next to Blood, who was coughing on her hands and knees. Water and spit ran out of the gaps around her mask. She had obviously decided not to risk removing it even under these circumstances.
Ara was patting her firmly on the back as we arrived and she gave us a reassuring nod tinged with a slight air of annoyance.
“She’ll be fine... but...” she paused to slap Blood on the back again before turning to glare at us. “...Why didn't you tell me she couldn't swim? I’d have stuck closer to the wall if I’d known.”
“Because we didn't know until she fell in either,” replied Skull levelly as she knelt down to give Blood a once over. “Your idiotic overblown pride will kill you one day you know? And that certainly isn’t perfect.”
I’m pretty much certain Skull said it that clunky way deliberately because after a second more coughing a weak voice replied from the floor. “I am.... perfect... water... just evil.”
“Blood you...” I couldn't find the right words to describe just how worried I was about her. “You’re ok right?”
Blood nodded and coughed again. “Yeah yeah... sorry... I’ve basically ruined our stealth mission.” Said younger girl trying to wring out her cape one handed.
“Oh I wouldn't say that.” Replied Ara with a grin, she pointed away from us back towards the front doors of the warehouse a few hundred metres away. It was only then that I noticed the light and heard the... chanting?
“For the red gods we fight, for the red gods we die, lords of earth and sea and sky.”
“Their bounty is ours!”
“For the red gods we fight, for the red gods we die, lords of earth and sea and sky.”
“Death to the heretic!”
“For the red gods we fight, for the red gods we die, lords of earth and sea and sky.”
And so on and so on. I honestly don't remember how many times they repeated their chant, a hundred unseen deep voices chorusing over and over in near perfect unison. The non-repeated lines were delivered in a far more unusual voice; male but high pitched and oddly sweet sounding like a young child.
I picked Blood up from the floor and we moved away from the water filled dock. Together the four of us peered into the darkness. For a moment it was nothing but impenetrable blackness then as my eyes adjusted I could see the lights. They were faint and far and their source obscured by distance and discarded cargo but even as I watched every shadow in the warehouse spun and danced as the light swung back and forth... like it was being carried.
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And it was.
I felt my mouth drop open in awe as I saw the distant procession; for that is what it was even I could tell. Men and women wearing suits of bone and red cloth marched in three abreast around a small pyramid[98] just inside the main doors of the warehouse. Each of the marchers carried long torches set atop poles held upright in front of their faces like a knight would hold a sword (and with the same reverent air I may add). In the middle of their marching lines atop the ziggurat stood another figure. So small and distant I couldn’t even make out their gender but from the way they were gesturing grandly at the surrounding Crawlers I assumed they were the man who had been counter chanting earlier.
But even the marching men and the ziggurats mysterious figure faded into the background as my eyes adjusted fully and I saw what lurked in the darkness. In a dozen concentric circles around the ziggurat, just on the edge of the torchlight, were ferals. Thousands and thousands of them, but these weren’t howling and fighting; they were silent and still kneeling in shadows with their foreheads touching the ground. Like they were praying.
This was no gang I realised with a start; this was something far more dangerous. This was a cult.
To say I was scared would be an understatement; I was terrified... I was nearly shivering with fear[99].
Look at this from my perspective ok?
Me and my three friends, two of which I’ve known for a few months and one I’ve known a couple of hours, have snuck into this huge warehouse/dock building expecting to snoop steal and maybe stab a guard in the leg before running off into the night with some expensive trinkets and baubles.
Instead we were presented with a full blown cult complete with optional blood-soaked sacrificial ziggurat, crazed chanting leader and hundreds of trained religious fanatics with advanced weaponry... oh and thousands of super strong utterly inhuman drug addicts who would kill anyone or anything for their next fix which only the crazy chanting guy could give them.
We were so outclassed it wasn’t even funny.
I remembered thinking I’d have almost preferred to run into an Inquisitor (which caused me heart palpitations and I instead decided I’d rather fight every Crawler in the world unarmed at the same time than fight a single Inquisition) which was when I remembered. We learned to repress who we were so instinctively that sometimes even we forgot. They had us outnumbered and outgunned yes; but we had them outmagiced[100].
Whilst I was psyching myself up and trying to forget that with Ara around we couldn't use our magic I noticed something, something both odd and extremely terrifying. Next to my face balanced atop the crate we were sheltering behind was a loose rivet (nothing unusual there) but as I had leapt out from behind the crate it had begun to... dance. I can't describe it any other way I really can't. It was shaking and shimmying and bouncing across the wooden surface and after a moment it flicked off the edge and landed with a faint *plink* on the floor.
I reached down and picked it up, then I looked across the room, my eyes drawn by some sixth sense to the water in the dock, the water we had clambered across, the water which was now writhing.
As I stared I felt a strange sensation in my bones and bowls, a quaking, as if my whole body was being shaken up and down. It reminded me of one too many steam carriage rides that had left the mind dull and the posterior aching.
Ara swore (I think); a deep low snarl that I realised wasn’t a human language but which Skull obviously spoke as she nodded sharply, “you can say that again.” She replied, whistling low and long.
In the water of the dock bay a shadow was growing just under the surface, a shadow the size of a horse, then a house, then larger and larger. Contorting and flickering as it stomped towards us.
Stomped was the right word. The shaking and the rumbling was coming from under the water. Only now did I notice it had a specific rhythm like a giant tap-dancing in steel boots. I could hear the pattern in my bones as the shadow grew and grew and... Exploded.
That's what I thought for a second but then I saw it was just the eruption of water tricking my eyes. Before us the ocean fountained upwards in a vast geyser as something huge broke the surface and strode out onto the stone floor of the dock bay only a dozen or so metres away from us.
It was a crab. A crab the size of a street but a crab nonetheless. It had three legs on each side of its vast shell and a pair of titanic pincers which clacked even as I watched. Its mottled grey brown carapace shone oddly in the light and strings of seaweed and the occasional stuck fish fell off it in coils. For a second I wondered what exactly the Crawlers had done to enslave this leviathan, what they had given it, what they had done to it... then I noticed the huge gears on its back clicking and turning.
“A golem,” breathed Skull. “It's a gigantic clockwork golem!”
That was when I truly saw it. The armour plating did make it look like a crab but it was a golem, the largest I had ever seen or even heard of. Its legs were huge pistons and its pincers looked like cargo lifters. The gaps in its armour showed gears and cranks not flesh and sinew and I saw that the grey brown was only sea slime and weed, underneath the caked-on grime was flashing golden alloy that shone in the dim light.
As the leviathan emerged the chanting reached its peak. The man on the ziggurat was nearly horse with his shouted exaltations. The ferals climbed solemnly to their feet and reverentially, even fearfully, formed a path for the crab to walk along. As it approached the ziggurat we heard a hissing and then a sudden rush of air as its mouth-like armour plate opened. As it halted at the base of the stone stairs the cult leader barked a command and about half of the procession dropped their torches and banners and began to stream inside the golem. They emerged seconds later laden with sparking weapons or half open crates filled with shining technology or darkly gleaming narcotics.
“No wonder the navy couldn't find them,” muttered Ara. She sounded... a mixture of offended and deeply impressed to be honest. “Underwater smuggling! They actually walked along the ocean floor, even Ladorian’s would have trouble finding them....”
“But a golem is able to make a journey like that alone...,” interrupted Skull. “...I’ve never even heard of one that smart! It must have cost tens of millions of Lire to build; an entire noble house couldn't afford one! How in the Abyss did a dock gang get it?”
“Maybe it fell off the back of a cargo ship?” Quipped Blood but her attempt at levity fell flat in the face of the vast clanking monstrosity ahead of us.
“Well at least we know why they’re called the Crawlers now,” I was vaguely astonished that my voice didn't break. “That must be the Crawler itself.”
“The odds are heavily against us and any rash action we take now will most likely be fatal,” said Skull matter-of-factly, “especially with Red-Razor himself arrayed against us.” She pointed at the figure on the pyramid and I slapped myself for not realising who he was earlier. I had seen his wanted poster after all.
“So what do we do?” I asked quietly hoping the answer wasn’t “get closer.”
“Steal every crate we can,” said Blood. “Then run like the Abyss is drawing us in.”
“For once I agree with the child” said Skull ignoring the hiss of indrawn breath and the poking that accompanied her remark. “We’re thieves not an army. We’ve seen their biggest secret so now we should just focus on distributing that information, perhaps to this Old Guard gang Ara knows. Hopefully they’ll rally the troops and step in.”
“They would,” agreed Ara instantly, “it would be worth the risk to get their hands on half this gear or that big golem. They’d gathered up every single gang in the spur and hit this place hard enough to turn it into a crater especially knowing that if they don't the districts are going to be flattened.” She smiled at us with a big grey goofy grin that made her look much younger. “You’ve all done great but it's time to step backwards and let us deal with our problem ok? You grab some gear and your friend and get her back home and I’ll get the Old Guard to deal with this lot ok?”
I was more than happy to agree but next to me someone seemed to feel differently, “I bet I could take that thing down,” Blood was, I believe, still smarting over the child remark. “And then it would be easy enough to beat them right? I could just...” I reached out and pulled her back away from the Crawler and hugged her to me. She writhed and hissed for a second but without any real fire; more out of obligation than anything. (She isn’t as impulsive as she seems sometimes, and if she hadn't let me pin her I couldn't have).
“I wonder if we could sneak back in,” murmured Skull. “It wouldn't be too difficult to get back in through the dock and we may be able to supply a very necessary advantage to Ara’s side during the initial attack by launching a flanking action, how would...” I tuned out the girls' plot and, making sure I had a grip on Blood to prevent her wandering off (honestly she's worse than Roland sometimes), gestured at Ara and Skull.
“Let’s get moving.” The others had just nodded and we had begun to slink backwards into the shadows when a single word echoed through the warehouse that stilled the blood in our veins.
“INTRUDERS!”
As I'm sure you can imagine I very nearly ruined my outfits’ elegant pantaloons. Panic gripped at my heart as I flinched around eyes darting wildly back and forth looking for whoever had spotted us. Without a word the four of us had drawn our weapons and backed further into the comforting darkness until we stood pressed together back to back in a four pointed star, blades raised and readied, peering eagle eyed into the gloom, waiting for the first flash of metal or sign of motion. For a long moment we stood their hearts hammering and skins sweating before Blood summed up the situation pretty accurately.
“Where in the Abyss are they?”
After a moment of stillness Skull scurried forwards, peeked over a crate and shrugged “They... aren’t even looking at us.”
She was right, not a single gangster, operative or feral seemed even vaguely interested in our hiding place. Nobody was looking at us or heading towards us, in fact the remnants of the procession seemed to be moving directly away from us towards the base of the Ziggurat. Around the room the ferals had clambered to their feet in a mass but a few bellows by their attendant operatives had them cowed and cowering again in seconds.
“INTRUDERS?!” Nathanial stood atop his ziggurat like a king on a castle. Now that the last of the procession was clustered around him I could finally see his face lit up by their torches. He was shorter than I expected, clad in a deep red waistcoat and white silk pantaloons with two shining clasp steel razors stuck in his waistband. But his face was the strangest and most horrific part even to this day I have never seen anyone else that looked remotely like he did. His face had been powdered white and daubed with aristocratic makeup (rather amateurishly) but still just visible through the powder and the gold paint were innumerable ancient scars that criss crossed his cheeks, forehead and throat. They looked like they were ritualistic rather than battle wounds (don't be impressed, Blood told me that later, at the time I just thought he looked messed up) and even as we watched they flushed red with anger.
“Well... one intruder!” said a distant voice, its tone suddenly filled with uncertainty, “we found him lurking around the square boss, what should we do with him?” As the minion spoke the four of us sagged with relief and stumbled back into the shadow of a line of crates.
“Bring him here!” Said Red-Razor his voice was strange; it was a false-falsetto and sounded old.
The crowd parted in front of the ziggurat to reveal a half dozen hulking operatives in long black leather storm coats with their clockwork crossbow stowed across their backs. They were obviously trying to drag the prisoner to their boss with the approved level of moving menace that large thuggish evil minions are known for but it fell rather flat, partly because the man they were hauling was on the skinny side meaning that only two of them were carrying him and four were just stood around glowering, but mostly because the man was backwards and upside down. As his face dragged across the smooth stone of the warehouse we could hear a distant (and obviously somewhat muffled) refrain emanating from the man that sounded a bit like “ow ow ow ow ow ow”.
Nathanial ran his hands down his waistcoat making a show of smoothing away a non-existent crease then he made a sweeping gesture with a fingertip.
“Lights!”
I was nearly blinded by the burst of pure white light that followed the command. After blinking my eyes clear for a second I realised the gas globes along the walls had ignited despite the fact the building's gas supply was officially cut off. Ahead of us the marchers dropped and stamped on their torches (causing a few brief snatches of cursing and one scream, it’s not as easy as it looks) then they drew their weapons and tried to look menacing (not that easy with smoking feet).
“Up.” Intoned Red-Razor.
The men spun their captive and held him upright before their boss. The bound man blinked in the light for a second then turned to regard Red-Razor with a detached expression.
“Your floors are filthy,” said the man in a strangely familiar voice. “And I don't think much of your interior decorating either.”
“Oh by Koth!” Ara said her voice was flat and low. I turned to look at her but Red-Razor's reply drew my attention back.
“Ah excellent you still possess a sense of humour... this will be fun,” Nathanial lent in closer to the man and slowly unlatched one of his razors. “Let’s start with an easy question; what is your name?”
“Well Gaius Bryn Reynolds... but most people call me the Physician,” spat the Physician through bruised lips. “I was looking for my protégé but I believe I have missed her.”
Red-Razor laughed a long high pitched giggle that sounded truly disturbing coming from a man of his eons but at the time I barely noticed this. What I did notice was Ara trying to sprint out of our cover and Blood tackling her around the waist.
“No, not yet!” Hissed the smaller girl holding Ara tight in her steel strong arms, the half-breed struggled for a second then her eyes cleared and she nodded. As they helped each other up and clambered back into the shadow of a discarded figurehead I made up my mind.
“We can't just let him die,” I said. “How can we help him?”
“I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeves... but...” Skull gestured at the mob mutely. “I'm sorry Ara we can't fight this many trained soldiers not without a serious edge.”
“I know I know,” Ara looked up at us and gave me a sad smile. “Just get moving and tell the Old Guard about this. I’ll go and... try to get Phys out ok? Just... don't wait up.”
I stared at her for a second then I grabbed her by the shoulders and shook her. “NO; no way! That’s... that's wrong! You can't just... just give up! There’s got to be something we can do?”
“Please I don't want you three to get hurt but I can't leave Phys... I’ve never left one of my crew behind.”
“And I won’t let one of my friends die!” I snapped looking her in the eye. “Not now, not here, not ever! We are going to fix this... somehow.”
Ara looked at me, her wide black eyes suddenly swimming with unshed inky tears then she nodded and pulled her mask up.
At my side the unusually reticent Blood let out an enormous heartfelt sigh, “I'm going to have to, aren't I?” she asked the ceiling. “I hate hate hate hate my ideas sometimes.”
She pointed at me. “You'll run in when they start fighting.” Then without waiting for us to reply she turned on her heel and strode proudly out from behind our crates and directly into the light. Before I could even reach out to grab her she stuck her hands up under her mask and wolf whistled and a proper one at that, a high pitched scream that echoed off the walls.
I shrank back into the shadows instinctively as the entire gathering turned to stare at her. For a long heartbeat the entire warehouse was still... Then with a somewhat overly dramatic gesture Blood shot her arm out and from her sleeve shot the aether disruptor. I have no idea to this day when she took it off me or how she had attached it to her arm unless she’d taken the time to sow a pocket into her sleeve which would be both ridiculous and insane[101].
“Who are you? How did you get in here?!” Red-Razor asked, staring in awe at Blood. Remember that I was used to her way of acting and what she looked like. Imagine how surprised you would be to see a tiny heavily armed person dressed in a bright red costume somehow just appear out of the shadows in your home. It would at least cause comment.
Blood gestured at Red-Razor and bowed, “I'm a thief... and I'm a thief.” She said with an audible grin and then with a muttered swear word (that I was thankfully too far away to hear clearly) she activated the Disruptor... Have you ever heard the expression utter pandemonium? This was like that but times ten, in a shipwreck, on top of a volcano, during a solar eclipse, on fire.