The Former Baron led the way as Ellis and Annabella hurried
after him through the darkening, maze-like streets of the Colony. Ellis was, it had to be said, rather
confused. Von Spektr had sent him back
to the 'Grand Chateau' to collect some extremely heavy duty gloves, a sort of medieval helmet and something which
resembled a full vest of chainmail, although it appeared to made out of some
kind of blackened metal - steel infused with black sand, if Ellis had to
guess. No explanation of the task at
hand was, as yet, forthcoming, however, and so, bemused and a little concerned,
Ellis had carried the items from the chateau back to the library and thence
from the library into the warren of streets which threaded between the older
buildings of the Colony, those venerable piles who could date their
construction back a whole eight or nine months.
Annabella remained tight-lipped also, with nothing but an
odd grin to show she knew anything about the job he was about to commence at
all. He tried to talk to her along the
way, but she just giggled and told him to wait and see. It was more than a little disconcerting.
Eventually they arrived before a sort of warehouse, built,
like most of the early Colony buildings, from some of the unburnt timbers of
various ruined shops and houses. It was
particular unkempt and makeshift, even by Colony standards and seemed to have
been forgotten about in the move to build newer, safer structures further down
the hill. To be honest, Ellis couldn't
recall having ever seen it before.
"Well, here we are at last," the Former Baron said
as he stopped just short of a set of wooden panels serving in lieu of a door.
"And just where is here, exactly?" Ellis enquired.
"I can't remember what I called it at the time, the
Great Holding Shed, perhaps, or maybe the Wyrmarium. The Pit of Terrible Doom rings a bell also,
but that might have been something I was dreaming about last night, you know
how it is."
Ellis' nodded, but his eyes had grown wide with concern for
his own safety.
"Just what is it you are 'holding' in there," he
asked, "and what do you want me to do with it."
"Them. With
them. There's a breeding pair of slow-wyrms
and you, my dear Allsop, are going to feed them."
Ellis took a step back.
"What's a slow-wyrm?"
"It's a kind of wyrm - surely even you can work that
out - and they are so-called because they are very, very slow-"
- Ellis let out a little sigh of relief -
"-when it comes to killing and devouring their
prey. They can take hours, tearing bits
off there, gnawing at limbs, batting torsos around the place. They're really rather playful."
"Oh," Ellis said, paling, "and you... you
want me to..."
"To fetch a few pigs from the pen over by the dairy and
bring them to the wyrms for their dinner.
It's several months late, I believe."
Ellis felt his mouth drying out and swallowed to try to
summon up some moisture. The Former
Baron eyed him up with no small amount of amusement.
"Don't worry, my boy," he said, "I would have
done it myself but I'm just a little tired and sore at the moment." He
rubbed reflexively at his stomach.
"It's not nearly so arduous as it sounds, not when you've got the
right equipment."
"Of course," Ellis replied, trying to sound more
confident than he was. I've fought Lakhmaspawn in droves, he
thought, how hard can a couple of
underfed... whatever these are actually be?
"Excellent," the Former Baron replied with a
smile, then stared pointedly at Ellis when he did not move right away. The he began tapping his foot and finally he
sighed, pointed down a winding side street and said, "the dairy is off in
that direction Elso!"
Fifteen minutes later Ellis was back, hauling a large grumpy
pig along the street by the thick rope strung around its neck. It was not in any way surprising that the pig
was grumpy, given the fate it was about to receive, but nevertheless Ellis
wished it could have been a little more cooperative.
"My goodness, boy," the Former Baron said from his
position leaning up against the side of the warehouse like a discarded plank,
"how long does it take you to subdue one pig?"
"I don't think that pig is subdued," Annabella
added. She was sitting in the dust a few
feet away, doodling with a an old rusted nail.
"These pigs are particularly surly," Ellis said
defensively, giving the rope another tug to bring the animal up to the
makeshift doors.
"Surly?" the Former Baron snorted, "Wait
until you see an underfed slow-wyrm, my boy, then you'll understand the meaning
of surly!"
"You really aren't filling me with any confidence about
this, you know. And why am I doing this
anyway, especially at this time of night?
Don't you have other lackeys these days?"
"We're doing it at this time of night, as you so
vaguely and inaccurately describe it, because I have only just remembered and
where underfed livestock are concerned soonest acted upon really is soonest
mended. You are doing it because, whilst
being defacto mayor of the Colony means I do have more 'lackeys', you, my dear
Alamo are my favourite!"
There was an awkward pause in which the Former Baron avoided
Ellis' gaze as long as possible, until Ellis started pushing the doors open and
muttering, "Gee, thanks..."
The inside of the barn was, unsurprisingly, completely unlit
and the light from the Former Baron's not-entirely reliable hypostatick street
lamps lit no more than a thin wedge of the overall space, revealing little but
crates and, at the very edge of illumination, the vertical slashes of
rusty-looking bars. More informative was
the smell, which was intense, both bitter and sour and extremely nauseating. Ellis took one deep, unexpected breath of it
and staggered backwards coughing.
"Ugh, are you sure they didn't die in here?" he
called back to the spindly figure silhouetted behind him.
"No, no," the Former Baron replied, covering his
mouth, "they always smelled like that, if I recall correctly."
"Great," Ellis muttered and, covering his mouth
with one hand and dragging the increasingly distressed pig with the other, he
ventured further inside.
"Do you have a lantern or something?" he called
after a few more feet, "I can't see anything in-"
A shadow lurched suddenly out of the corner of his eye,
making him spin towards it and yanking the poor pig around with him. Peering into the darkness where he had sensed
the movement revealed nothing, however.
He felt his skin beginning to chill and tighten.
"Everything alright in there?" the Former Baron
called, "can you see them?"
"Possibly," Ellis replied sheepishly, "but...
I don't think they are in the cage..."
Another lurching patch of darkness made Ellis spin on the
spot once more, almost twisting the pig's rope around his ankles.
"How many of them are there?" he called, feeling
deeply unsafe now.
"Just the two," Von Spektr replied, "are you
sure they aren't caged?" There was
a note of panic in the old Philosopher's voice now and Ellis realised that he
might be in even more danger than he had feared. Another shadow slid past his line of sight
and, without even thinking of it, he began to back away towards the doors. His grip on the rope loosened...
The pig bolted with a feral squeal, causing Ellis to let out
a shriek of his own before he realised that it was just the animal that he had
dragged with him and not the horrible creatures he had begun imagining. His relief was short-lived, however. The pig had just made it within a foot of
freedom when a shadow the size of a small car cut away from the overall
darkness, opened it's enormous maw and then, with a tangle of clawed,
many-jointed limbs, grabbed hold of the pig and pulled it in. The abrupt cessation of the squealing and
crunch that followed was more than sickening and left Ellis standing in the
monster's shadow, too afraid to move.
"Oh, well I guess even slow-wyrms eat their food
quickly when their hungry enough," came the musing, if still obviously terrified voice of the Former
Baron from somewhere beyond the beast.
"I don't think Ellis will find that very
reassuring," Annabella replied.
Meanwhile, the shadow was turning, revealing its sizeable
bulk and a silhouette which seemed to combine elements of many creatures at
once: the head of a crocodile, the body of a slug and arms like spider-legs
with the clawed hands of a tyrannosaur.
It was an insane creature by anyone's standards and Ellis was really
starting to wish he had never even heard of it.
The slow-wyrm advanced without haste, as if, having eaten
now, it could afford to take its time on the next mouthful. Ellis took a step backwards, then another,
suddenly painfully aware that all he had was some flimsy armour and no weapons. It was clear this wasn't going to end well.
There was a sound like metal fatigue, like something bending
and the air ahead of him seemed to... tear... slightly. Ellis' eyes widened and he froze where he
was. The slow-wyrm advanced.
Something flashed through the air just ahead of the
now-invisible rip, an arc of light and air, the shockwave of which Ellis could
just feel like a soft, hot breath against his cheek. The slow-wyrm paused, then advanced again and
the flash came again, twice in succession this time and the second one seemed
to hit. The creature howled, something
thick and dark splattered across the floor, and the giant, slug-like body began
writhing across the floor. Another two
quick slashes, followed by the sound of metal fatigue once more and the
creature stopped twitching and lay still, a low shadow in the light from the
doorway.
"There," came Annabella's voice, "I've saved
you now. I think that makes us
even."
Ellis sighed in relief, but a sudden movement out of the
corner of his eye made him jolt and dash towards the door.
"The other one is still very hungry!" the Former
Baron shouted, "quick, get outside and help me barricade the door
again."
Ellis did not need to be told twice. He skidded past the
remains of the dead wyrm, nearly slipping on its oozing ichor, and darted out
into the light of the streetlamps. Von
Spektr and Annabella were already trying to manoeuvre the makeshift doors back
into place, although, having seen the creatures they had once contained, Ellis
was no longer sure they would be sufficient.
"Don't worry about it," the old Philosopher said,
catching something of Ellis' doubt in his expression, "just cover the exit
and we'll be fine. Trust me, my
boy!"
Ellis did as he was told, rushing to the old man's side and
hauling the big sheets of wood back into place to cover the entrance to the
warehouse. As the last inch was covered
he saw the second wyrm inching its way into the sliver of light, it's mouth
wide to begin devouring its former companion.
"The dead wyrm will keep it happy for the time
being," Von Spektr said, dusting himself off and realigning his stovepipe
hat.
"And what about after that. It's knows were out here now and surely it
can knock that bit of wood out of the way in a second."
"It probably can.
But I was not unprepared for this eventuality."
"Apart, that is, from forgetting to feed them in the
first place," Annabella observed.
"Yes, yes, never mind all that! There's a machine rigged up in there to
euthanize the poor beasts if they ever got out of hand and the switch is out
here somewhere." He gestured vaguely around them. "Well?" he asked, clicking his
fingers, "Get looking!"
Ellis, still more than a little shaky from his narrow
escape, began pacing around the outside
of the warehouse, looking for something which might resemble the switch of some
hypostatick machine, but the makeshift building was so surrounded by debris and
crates of refuse that it was very hard to discern anything of use at all,
especially in the dark. From inside he
could hear the sound of the remaining slow-wyrm devouring its companion and he
wondered just how long that would keep it occupied. The pig had certainly been a very brief
distraction.
"Well, have you found anything yet?" the Former
Baron called and, for just a moment, Ellis found himself wanting to hit the old
man. Why couldn't he just search for it
himself?
"I think I may have something," Annabella's voice
piped from the other side of the warehouse.
"Excellent!" the Former Baron replied, "I'll
be there in just a mo-"
There was a loud banging noise from the front of the
warehouse. Ellis rushed back round to
find the Former Baron lying in the dust, staring at the planks which served in
lieu of doors.
As Ellis watched the banging came again and the doors
shook. Only their relatively hefty weight
prevented them from tumbling over straight away, but it was obvious they
wouldn't hold the beast inside for very much longer.
He ran to the Former Baron's side, knelt down and did his
best to lift him back onto his feet.
Worryingly the old man was clutching at his stomach and whilst he was
trying to put a brave face on it, he seemed to be in quite a bit of pain.
"Are you alright?" Ellis whispered as he stood up,
hauling the Former Baron with him.
"I'll be fine. I
just got a jolt, that's all."
"In your stomach?"
"It's a muscle too, you know! Now help me get round to that switch. We don't have much time."
The slow-wyrm served to emphasise the point by trying the
doors once more.
"Okay, okay!"
Supporting the Former Baron under one arm, Ellis made his way around to
the other side of the warehouse as quickly as he possibly could. Annabella was staring at them, chewing her
lip. She was standing beside a pipe
which rose up out of the ground and then passed into the side of the building
via a large valve.
"That's it!" Von Spektr exclaimed through gritted
teeth, "It just needs turned a few times anti-clockwise and then the
poison will be let into the warehouse."
Ellis glanced at the poor-constructed building, the many
gaps between the planks.
"Will is affect us?"
"Oh, no, not at all, at least, not unless you're
allergic to peanuts."
"I... don't think so."
"Well, you might want to cross your fingers-"
there was another loud bang from the front of the warehouse, "-but not
until after you've helped me turn that valve!"
They each grabbed at a section of the metal wheel and began
to turn. It was stiff with lack of use
and a fair amount of rust brought on by the sea air, but after a few seconds
the thing began to move, slowly at first and then with increasing ease. A smell like peanut butter and almonds began
to fill the air.
"Is that it?" Ellis asked, dubious.
"It should be," the old Philosopher replied. "Let's just wait a moment." He propped himself up against the valve,
taking deep breaths as he rubbed at his stomach.
From inside the warehouse there came a sort of snorting
sound, followed by something which very much seemed like a guttural cough, then
a moments silence.
"Is that-?" Ellis began, but before he could utter
another syllable the slow-wyrm began to let out a horrible howl, much worse
than the one before it had managed before its demise.
"I'm afraid it's not going to be pretty to clear up in
there," the Former Baron said with a grimace as he shifted his position to
stand a little straighter.
"What I don't understand," Ellis said, anger
rushing in to replace the panic he had felt mere moments before, "is why
you had those creatures in the first place!?”
“It was for the good of the Colony,” the Former Baron
replied.
“The good of the Colony!?
Those creatures nearly escaped – indeed they probably would have if we
hadn’t got here when we did and that was sheer luck. What on earth made you think the Colony needed
a pair of vicious monsters?”
“I just thought…” the old man trailed off, staring away from
the warehouse at all the new houses around them.
“You thought what?”
Ellis demanded, not backing down.
“I thought we might need them sometime soon…”
Ellis couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This was
the man they had allowed to lead them?
Someone who kept deadly creatures in unsafe containment because he thought they might be useful. Something was seriously wrong here, he was
sure of that. Perhaps the Former Baron
was no longer mentally sound enough to be in a leadership position, perhaps-
“Ellis! Ellis are you
around here somewhere?”
The voice – Ellis recognised it as belonging to a girl named
Daisy who was a member of the Colony’s small militia – was coming from around
the front of the warehouse.
“I’m round here,” he shouted in reply, unable, try as he
might, to keep the anger out of his voice.
“Oh, thank goodness,” Daisy said, poking her head around the
side of the building and sounding quite out of breath, “I didn’t think I was
going to find you, but some of the others said they’d seen you come this way
and…” she paused, frowning, as she caught the expressions on the faces of Ellis
and the Former Baron. Annabella stood a
little distance away, arms folded and looking rather upset.
“… and anyway, “ she continued hurriedly, “I’ve been trying to find you
to let you know that the Ebon Crest
was spotted heading into harbour.
“Siren’s back,” she said with a huge smile, “she be back on
dry land any minute now!”
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