Mark Chadbourn - Destroyer of Worlds

As the smoke finally cleared, the extent of the Caretaker's plight was revealed. Wounds gaped on his arms, his head sagged and more ragged cuts marred what skin was visible on his face. Jagged twists of barbed wire held his wrists and legs to the X-frame, and another had been fastened around his neck.

'Poor man!' Ruth said. 'It looks like he's been tortured.'

'He's not a man, is he, though?' Laura replied. 'He's… something else.'

'That doesn't mean he can't feel pain.' Ruth brushed away a stray tear. 'We have to help him. He's going to die there.'

Wrenching his head back painfully, the Caretaker said in a booming voice that would have carried three streets away, 'Brothers and Sisters of Dragons! If you can hear me, stay away! My time here is nearly done, and there is nothing you can do to aid me!'

'Did he hear me?' Ruth whispered, before realising, 'The Enemy must be nearby. He's saying it so loudly so they won't realise how close we are.'

The Caretaker sucked in a juddering breath of air. 'The Enemy knows you are here,' he continued. 'They wish to draw you out. You will not be allowed to get any closer to your destination. They fear you, Brothers and Sisters of Dragons. They fear the power that burns in your hearts.'

Ruth began to cry silently at the Caretaker's suffering. 'He needs our help,' she said desperately. 'We can't just leave him to die.'

'You must forget me,' he continued. 'The Oldest Things in the Land have attempted to help you as best we could during your long struggle. But that aid may well be coming to an end. We face our own battles, with our own kind, and now, as the great plans fragment on both sides, only chaos beckons. The outcome is uncertain.' Wincing, he took another deep breath. 'Your lessons are not yet complete, but this desperate time has brought the teaching to an end. We must all hope that you have learned enough to defeat the Enemy.' He paused, then repeated wearily, 'The outcome is uncertain.'

'You think we should risk it?' Laura asked. 'Whip out there quick, drag him down and bring him back? We might be able to get away with it.'

'We have to listen to him,' Ruth said dismally. 'He's right — there's too much at stake.'

A deep shadow fell across the ruined building, though the source was not visible from Ruth and Laura's vantage point. As they craned to see, a noise behind them alerted them to the approach of Veitch and Shavi.

'The lights are going out all across the lands,' the Caretaker intoned, 'and I will no longer be there to keep the last lamp lit.' His eyes flickered, and his head slumped forwards onto his chest.

As Ruth stifled a cry, Veitch put his arms around her to comfort her. 'If even they're dying…' he began, before catching himself.

An intense blue light burned where the Caretaker had hung from the X-frame, and when it finally cleared his body had gone.

The deep shadow remained, however, and grew stronger. Across the rooftops, something feline darted, its shape altering as it moved into an almost-human form. A mirror glinted in its hand. As they tried to perceive what it truly was, darkness folded around it and briefly blocked out the sun. Cold fingers of dread touched them all.

'I do not think it wise to stay here any longer,' Shavi said.

Although none of them knew the Caretaker, they all felt a deep grief at his death. Instinctively, they recognised that something good had passed and the universe was a worse place for it.

For a long hour, they had sat in a shady spot on the cafe terrace where they could not be seen by the other clientele, drinking cups of the hot, spicy drink and trying to make sense of what had just occurred. Ahead of them, the setting sun turned the desert the colour of blood.

'This is a right bleedin' mess. You don't know who to trust,' Veitch said.

Laura fixed a knowing eye on him. 'Very true.'

Veitch glared at her.

'I can't believe the Caretaker's dead.' Ruth's knuckles were white on her spear. 'Something so powerful, destroyed by the Enemy.'

'Janus is one of the Oldest Things in the Land,' Tom reminded her, 'and he has joined the Void.'

'So… what? This is a civil war?' Laura said.

'Could be.' As Church listened to the soaring dusk song of one of the many sects now occupying the city, he remembered a similar moment in Cairo, sitting on the edge of mystery in a hot, sprawling city, looking into the night and wondering what the future held for them. Would there ever be a chance for rest, or was this as good as it got — a brief interlude in the chaos of life before it wound down to failure and death? 'The Caretaker said the Enemy knew we were here. How?' He looked around the group carefully.

'The most obvious answer would be that someone told them,' Tom said.

Veitch sneered. 'You're saying one of us? Nah.'

'You would say that,' Laura said.

Church saw Veitch bristle and stepped in quickly. 'I'm not saying anything, except it's something we need to keep at the back of our minds.'

'That we can't trust one of us?' Veitch continued, growing more incensed. 'That defeats the whole point of the Five. A team, all together when it's backs-to-the-wall time.'

'That didn't stop you when you sold us out first time around,' Laura said.

'That wasn't me!'

'Will you two stop it?' Ruth snapped. 'Don't you get it? The Enemy knows we're here — they're not going to sit back, they're going to come looking for us… with something powerful enough to kill the Caretaker.'

Accepting the magnitude of Ruth's words, Veitch and Laura fell silent.

'So, should we leave the city tonight?' Shavi asked.

'And go where?' Church said. 'We came here to try to find a way into the House of Pain. We shouldn't leave till we've got the information we need. And it's a big, crowded city — the Enemy's going to take some time to find us. If we're smart.'

'I agree with Church,' Tom said.

'You don't get a vote, old man.' Laura swung one booted foot onto the table and stretched out, hands behind her head. The others remained tense.

Veitch sat up sharply, remembering. 'I forgot… I met a girl.'

'Did you hold hands and skip?' Laura asked.

'A girl from Earth.'

'You're sure?' Church asked.

'Looked like she'd just arrived. She was in a right panic. Being chased by something, she said.'

'Impossible,' Tom snorted. 'You know all the gateways to the Fixed Lands were closed by the Army of the Ten Billion Spiders.'

'She just got here, I tell you.'

Church thought for a moment, trying to contain his mounting excitement. 'That means there's another path back to Earth that we don't know about. We can go home.'

Ruth couldn't hide her concern. 'You're thinking about running away?'

His mind racing, Church ignored her, and the uneasiness the others were starting to exhibit. 'Drop everything else and turn this city upside down. We need to find that woman.'

The song of the cult reached a crescendo as darkness fell across the overcrowded city, stinking of sweat and misery and desperation, and filled with voices that never stopped. But with the fading of the light a new degree of misery was added. From the shadows, where nothing had been, shapes moved out into the population. No one saw them pass, but they felt them in their hearts, and the fear began to rise.

'Stand firm!' Decebalus bellowed as the Army of Dragons faced into a ferocious wind beneath a darkening sky. Amongst the roiling black clouds, the Riot-Beasts advanced, their eyes roving insanely. Bolts of lightning crashed randomly from them to sear the green plain.

'Sir. How are we supposed to get a bead on those things, if you don't mind me asking, sir?' Ronnie shouted above the gale. He'd polished the buttons of his army uniform ready for the battle and now wore the tin hat that had seen activity in Flanders.