They hurried out the front door. The Serpent’s appearance had caused quite a stir among the populace, on top of the stir caused by everything else. With only the most rudimentary organisation in place for a mass of thousands and thousands of confused people, the air reeked of the potential for disaster. But of course that was where Analia’s gifts came in.

Myrina was almost to the gate when the woman leapt up. She’d never been the greatest at the physical arts, but still made it on top of the wall easily enough. There she brought her violin and bow out of their case and began a song. The air filled with calm and focus, and the din of voices took on a less worrying tone.

“Savalan!” Petyko shouted and the horse turned to face their approach. The grand animal sensed that more fighting was coming and Myrina detected a distinctly un-horselike eagerness in him. Petyko hopped up into the saddle with smooth skill, followed by Jonelik. The man took hold of Petyko for the sake of staying on top of the mount, and Myrina in turn held onto him. There was no saddle left to accommodate her rump and she cringed at the ride she was about to endure.

“It’s the beast!” Alma shouted at them as Petyko manoeuvred his steed to face the bridge. “I remember now! The terrible Serpent of the Abyss! It was meant to be imprisoned for all time!”

“Well, all time is a long time,” Petyko said. “Now please stand clear.”

He let out a sharp whistle.

“Stand clear!” he shouted so that more would hear, and started Savalan off into a trot.

The crowds parted like water before a boat’s bow and soon enough they had enough space for the horse to run. Analia ceased playing. Myrina looked back, and though she couldn’t hear words the woman was clearly giving out instructions.

It was always equally strange to her how someone who didn’t fight was so indispensable.

The serpent roared yet again in the distance, with what Myrina suspected was frustrated fury at being held back from wreaking havoc across the river. But the Deceiver was in charge of it and he wanted protection. He had other things for assault.

The sky started crackling in places, much like Myrina’s own lightning. There were streaks of light, like small tears opening and closing in a fabric, as their enemy was driven to desperation and the illusion suffered ever more for it. She heard the rumbling of the shadow-beasts that had posed as men and the chattering of less defined things as they began converging for a mass-assault.

They were in the shadows and in the windows of buildings, drawn from the power of the Deceiver’s great spell. Some crawled out from beneath the bridge as they had before, hunched and twisted and horrid; things summoned with utter malice.

Jonelik aimed his rod to the right and threw a green blast at a beast that poked its head up a little too near them, and his scorching shot turned it into ash before it turned back into nothing. Myrina held onto him with one hand and aimed her other one up ahead and to the left, blasting another one with lightning. They were coming in fast and the sky crackled ever more up above them as their foe got ever more desperate, but Savalan carried them across like a bird in flight.

They were back in High Town, and however altered it was, Myrina felt a certain thrill now that she recognised it as her home. It turned into a very different kind of thrill as the Serpent roared again. It knew they were here, and sensed a shot at revenge.

“Well, here we part!” Petyko said as he brought Savalan to a stop.

“So we do,” Jonelik said and hopped off the horse.

Myrina turned around after dismounting herself. They’d just barely made it across the bridge before it got thick with beasts, but they seemed a bit undecided on whether to charge them or take part in the mounting assault against Analia and her army. The sound of the Serpent’s movements echoing between the buildings seemed to settle the matter, and they shrank away from High Town.

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“Don’t be TOO brave,” she said to Petyko.

He threw her a smile as he drew his sword.

“You know me, Myrina.”

“Yes I do!”

A moment later the horse had carried him nearly out of sight, heading towards the sounds of a massive, scaly body coming their way.

“So, the rooftops?” Jonelik asked.

“Oh, absolutely.”

They ran to the nearest building, a stately eight-storey, and leapt. He touched his feet down on a balcony on the third floor, while Myrina leapt off a windowsill. Next they both sprang off separate windowsills and landed on the roof. She caught a glimpse of the Serpent, as its tail finished going around a large office building, but she ignored it in favour of their goal.

There up ahead, almost directly in front of them, was Sentinel Tower. It loomed over everything else in the entire city, tapering in steps from a wide base to a narrow top like the world’s most awe-inspiring podium. It was bathed in lights cast up from the ground. It was, in all, a glorious sight. And now it would be their salvation.

They broke into a run again, sprinting across until they reached the roof’s edge, and leapt onto the neighbouring one in unison.

# # #

Intercepting the Serpent was the easiest thing Petyko had done in a long time. The sound of thousands of scales grinding into stone and cement with the weight of hundreds of tons was a very distinctive one. Savalan bore him through previous signs of the monster’s passage, torn-up streets and battered buildings, damage it had done simply by moving around. The horse didn’t need any encouragement to mind the holes and dangerous debris but Petyko still kept his eyes open for them. This was no time for a stumble.

The two of them went down a boardwalk flanked on both sides by a decorative, man-made river, a pretty enough area that was nevertheless a mockery of how this place should look. The Serpent had utterly crushed the little bridge that had allowed foot traffic over the river, but Savalan cleared it with a jump.

On the other side was a big round square, whose centre dot was a well-tended trio of trees. It was here that the Serpent’s head came around a tall building of white stone. Its eyes were level with the third-storey windows and fixed on him with the kind of conscious hate one did not see in a simple animal. The face was long, sharp-featured, and marked by the scars of their last encounter.

It opened a maw lined with multiple rows of teeth and the ground seemed to shake with the force of its angry snort. Then it came his way, slithering around the building and onto the square.

Petyko drove Savalan onwards, who reacted like the war steed that he’d been bred to be. Meanwhile, Petyko steeled himself as the warrior he’d been trained to be, and reminded himself that he had faced this terrible foe before. Sadly, the reminder came with the knowledge that that time he’d been backed up by footmen and Analia’s music, but then the point here wasn’t a simple victory by arms.

The Serpent’s body slithered about like a cord being waved, even as its head stayed as focused as a missile in flight; fixed on the one mortal it hated more than anything. He’d almost forgotten how fast this gargantuan beast could move, in utter defiance of its weight, and he saw that little twitch of its jaw that preceded a strike.

But fast though it was, the Serpent wasn’t nimble, and just as the head finally moved for an attack Petyko chose a direction and nudged Savalan into it with his knees. The horse darted to the left and the massive head went past him with a strong gust of wind and snapped at nothing. Petyko swung at the body on his right and put power into his blow. With a blue, crackling release of energy the blade sliced through the scales, sending chips flying into the air.

The Serpent growled angrily and tried to crush the two of them simply by flexing a section of its body his way. But Petyko had studied his foe before their previous battle, and like then he saw the move coming. Savalan carried him into another sharp left-turn and they escaped the crushing blow. Then it was simply a furious gallop away from the monster.

Of course, a predictable straight line meant a predictable attack, and Petyko turned in the saddle to see the exact moment it came. This time he sent Savalan to the right, and even managed a strike directly at the Serpent’s head in passing. More scales flaked off in the slicing blast, and then the horse carried him into a narrow alley.

Flexible though a snake’s body was, it was simply too big to enter. Instead, after a moment’s hesitation, Petyko heard a great crashing noise behind. As the two of them emerged from the alley they shifted along a wide street, and two seconds later the Great Serpent came smashing through the building behind them, roaring as it went.