Mark Chadbourn - Destroyer of Worlds

'Food, please,' one of them said. 'Just a crumb. My mother is dying. A crumb will keep her spark alight for another hour.' It sounded like a line to elicit sympathy, but the savage emotion in his face offered an unbearable proof.

'We haven't got any food,' Veitch said too harshly. 'Clear off and bother someone else.'

'A coin, then. It does not matter what kind. One coin will buy us a day more in the Far Lands.'

'I am sorry,' Shavi said. 'We do not carry money.'

'Don't bleedin' engage them in conversation. We'll never get rid of them,' Veitch said with frustration.

His feelings already rubbed raw by the misery he had witnessed, Shavi was touched by the children's plight. Bending down, he tried to offer words of advice and support, but it only encouraged more children to cluster around, hands grasping the air for any sustenance he might be offering, and that brought the attention of passing adults who kicked at the children and rolled them into the gutters to get first chance at any offerings, the crowd pressing harder and harder so that Veitch and Shavi were trapped at its core.

'From now on, you do nothing until I say so,' Veitch grumbled. 'You're a bloody liability.'

A man who towered a good two feet above everyone else, his barrel chest bare, thrust his way through the cluster with arms so muscular they appeared to be made of wood. He loomed over Veitch and Shavi, peering at them with blinking, piggy eyes.

'It is!' he exclaimed. 'Two Brothers of Dragons!'

'Bleedin' great,' Veitch said, trying to push through the tight knot without much luck.

'Here, here!' the ox-like man announced to the entire street, beckoning wildly. 'We are saved! The Brothers and Sisters of Dragons are here, in the Court of Endless Horizons!'

Veitch's protests only drew more attention. The crowd around them swelled from one side of the street to the other, and the words Brothers of Dragons could be heard rising from awed whispers to jubilant shouts.

A woman in a black headdress with a third eye in the centre of her forehead clutched Shavi passionately. 'Brother of Dragons. You will free us from the yoke of the Enemy. You will deliver us to salvation.'

'You will ensure that the prophecy of these Last Days does not come to pass,' another woman cried.

Veitch was stunned into silence by the sudden ignition of hope he saw in the faces gathered around him. Fingers brushed his clothes with the awe one would reserve for a great leader or a religious figure. Struggling to comprehend, he stared blankly at one outstretched hand wavering before him, and then gently took it. Someone else took his other hand, and within a moment he was forced to reach out and touch hand after hand, shocked by the relief he saw rise up in everyone he graced with a fleeting contact.

'We will do what we can,' Shavi began, to try to curb expectations, but the cries only rose up louder: 'They will help.' 'The Enemy is doomed.' 'We are saved!'

'How do they know about us?' Veitch asked Shavi.

A bearded man in white robes answered. 'We have always known of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons, in the oldest stories of the Far Lands, in the tales of all peoples from all places. The champions of Existence who will rise up to become the greatest heroes of all-time, all-place. In the earliest days, they were whispered by mystics, and then told to children for the entertainment of young minds, but few truly believed. And then… oh, wonder of wonders!.. Jack, Giant-Killer, stepped into the Far Lands and began his exploits, and the truth became known, and the legend of the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons spread from mouth to mouth.' His voice grew shriller as his passion grew. 'And the tales of other Brothers and Sisters of Dragons in the Fixed Lands reached our ears, and we realised there was hope for us… the great prophecy of the Devourer of All Things could be averted.'

Caught up in his passion, the three-eyed woman continued, 'And so when the shadow of the Enemy began to spread across the Far Lands, we offered up our prayers, and our incantations, and we wished… oh, how we wished… for the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons to be sent to us to help us in our darkest hour. And our calls have been answered. You are here! We are saved!'

Veitch was dragged from the adoration by a glimpse of Shavi's shattered expression. 'All right, we're trying to keep a low profile here!' he shouted. 'This isn't helping.'

But his words were drowned out by the cries, which were growing louder by the moment as more people herded into the street. Soon the commotion would attract more unwanted attention.

Finally, Veitch put his head down and rammed a path through the crowd, no longer caring if he bowled people over. Shavi followed in his wake, the wave closing behind them, attempting to turn in their direction. For a moment, it appeared they would be dragged down, but then Veitch broke through the ranks of those who had recognised them and they were running and dodging back through the flow, not slowing until they were two streets away.

In the shade of a warehouse that smelled of beer, Veitch gripped Shavi's shoulders tightly, desperately wanting to drive away the upset expression on his friend's face.

'Look, mate, so they trust us to do the job, so what?' he said.

'How can we meet those expectations?' Shavi replied. 'Destroy the Devourer of All Things? Change a prophecy of final destruction that has been around since the beginning of time? They are treating us like some kind of messiahs, but we are only human.' He shook his head. 'So much hope invested in us. They offer up their lives to us, to save, because they know they cannot save themselves.'

'Of all of us, I never expected you to give in to despair.'

'I am not giving in to despair,' Shavi said adamantly. 'But I am pragmatic, Ryan. All our plans have failed. The chances of progressing are slim, and even then…' His voice trailed off.

Veitch gave Shavi's shoulders a brief, firm shake. Deep inside he felt something swell, growing stronger, bright with the energy of the Pendragon Spirit; he had never felt its like before, but he knew it was something he had wanted all his life. 'Listen to me — we're going to be the heroes they want us to be. We can't let them down. We don't have the luxury to be soft.' He planted his thumb and forefinger in an L on his forehead. 'To be losers. We've got to be hard, whatever the cost. And we've got to win, not for us, but for them, because that's the job we've been given. All right?'

Shavi smiled, but in his eyes Veitch caught a hint of pity at Veitch's naivety. That only made Veitch more determined, and for the first time he had a clear vision of his own role. Despair was starting to infect all of them, unsurprising given the scale of the threat they faced. It was down to him to stop that despair spreading, to turn them around and show them the right direction. This was where he could finally transcend the person he had been all his life. The swelling emotions grew so strongly, he thought he might burst.

A hubbub rose up from the end of the street and they realised word was spreading rapidly about the Brothers and Sisters of Dragons in the city. 'They want us to save them, but they're going to end up getting us killed. That's… what?… irony, right?' he said with a note of pride at his use of the term. 'Come on, let's get out of here before we're hanging from a lamp post.'

With the shouts and cries drawing closer, they hurried down a deserted alley until they came to a secluded inn few would have known was there. The sign above the entrance to the Wolf's Surprise showed a man's face with unmistakable lupine qualities. Out of place amongst the sleek metallic lines, it was a squat building with a corbelled flint wall and small bottle-glass windows that caught flickers of lamplight within, but reflected only darkness. Veitch and Shavi ducked into an atmosphere of ale and smoke, sweat and damp, but the coolness of the interior was inviting. They kept their heads down and averted their eyes until they found an obscure spot at the end of a curving bar.