FIRST INTERLUDE - KAI IMPRISONED

Kai came back to consciousness slowly and painfully, his whole body aching in a way that felt actively wrong. It wasn’t the pain of stretched muscles and joints, or the throb of an injury. It felt more as if the very air was toxic to him, and this was his body’s response.

His position didn’t help matters. He was lying face down over the back of a horse, his hands still shackled behind his back, breathing fresh horse-sweat with every nauseating gulp of air. The collar around his throat bound his power, restricting him to this human shape. He also had no idea where he was, or what was happening. But he could tell that he was in a high-chaos world, one far more repellent to one of his kind than any he had visited before.

His head swam dizzily, and he fought the urge to shut his eyes. He wondered how Irene would handle the situation if she was the prisoner. She would feign unconsciousness, he decided, till she had learned everything that she could, and then she would escape.

There was water nearby, all around this place, and even though it was polluted by chaos and he couldn’t touch it, he could sense its presence. Right. First fact gathered. There were people walking past. They were wearing bright clothing. Another observation. He could hear people talking in Italian. Italian and water: that should mean something, but at the moment he couldn’t work out what. He managed to lift his head enough to see what was happening ahead. Another horse, with a rider seated on it - the man who had kidnapped him.

Anger tightened in his belly. He would not endure this. He would - he would …

The world began to spin again and he lowered his head, trying to breathe steadily. The horses stopped, and voices came from ahead.

‘My lord Guantes, you are earlier than expected. May we enquire if there has been a problem of some sort?’

‘Nothing significant.’ It was the voice of his kidnapper. Kai’s lips peeled back in a snarl. ‘We had to accelerate the plan a little. My wife will be following on the Train. Is the Prison prepared?’

‘My lord, it is. We will be glad to take your captive.’

‘I think not.’ There was a firm arrogance to his kidnapper’s voice. ‘The dragon remains in my custody until he’s in the cell, and I keep the key to his collar.’

‘Do you doubt the Ten, my lord?’

Kai bit down hard on his tongue, trying to concentrate. There had to be something here he could use. He managed to lift his head again to get another look at his kidnapper. The Fae looked travel-stained, his grey fur mantle marked with dust and rain, but he still held himself with the hauteur of an aristocrat and a leader.

‘I doubt everyone,’ Lord Guantes said. ‘There is one person in all the worlds that I trust, and she is not here. Of course I have the greatest of respect for your Ten. But in the circles we inhabit, it is only natural for great men to suspect one another.’ His voice deepened, and Kai was conscious that other people were stopping to listen, swept along by the Fae’s presence and words. ‘My friend, we move towards a new and greater future, one where we shall march side by side until ever more worlds rest beneath our dominion. I do not speak of some far-off mystic vision. I am offering you - offering all of the Ten that rule this realm - a firm and concrete land of opportunity.’ He gestured widely, pointing to a metaphorical distant horizon. ‘We shall move forward. We shall wage open war against the dragons. The spheres will fall before the Fae and our allies, like wheat before the scythe. Our current scheme is the first of many victories. Those who obey me shall be exalted, shall be gods!’

He sounded utterly convincing. Even tied up as he was, bound, helpless and a prisoner, Kai could feel the urge to nod and accept what this man was saying - even to volunteer. This wasn’t the seductive glamour that Lord Silver practised. It was something that went direct to the command/obey root of the brainstem. Kai understood obedience to his elders and superiors, and this speech tried to play on the same urges. A dragon could resist it. Humans would be far less capable of fighting back.

The admiring chorus of murmurs that had been rising in the background broke off as an earthquake shuddered beneath them, fuelled by a wave of chaotic power. It shoved Kai back towards unconsciousness as the horses neighed, tossing their heads and stamping. The waters trembled in response, lapping up against their boundaries.

‘I do apologize,’ Lord Guantes said, not sounding at all apologetic. ‘I get a little carried away sometimes. I hope that your masters appreciate my enthusiasm.’

‘Of course, my lord,’ the other man said. ‘But I think they would prefer you to save your eloquence for its proper targets, rather than wasting it on their common citizens.’

‘Of course, of course,’ Lord Guantes said soothingly, that commanding tone back in his voice again.

Kai couldn’t breathe properly. The air was thick with chaos, clogging his lungs, and he was trapped in this weak human body. He fought against it, against Guantes’ voice, against the chaos permeating this world, which burned him like radiation sickness. But there was no firm place for him to stand, nothing that he could do.

He sank into the darkness again. Father. Uncle. He shaped the thoughts like a prayer as he tried to hold on to consciousness. Where are you?

Vale.

Irene.

Help me …

CHAPTER SEVEN

It was no surprise that Kai had quickly acclimatized to Vale’s alternate, Irene decided ruefully. It was just as polluted there as it was here. The main difference here was that people didn’t go around with scarves covering their faces. Either they were rich, and spent their lives inside private air-conditioned buildings, cars, heli-shuttles and estates, or they were poor and simply breathed the air - and presumably developed lung disorders. Flashing holographic advertisements offered transplanted lungs, force-grown from your own genetic stock. None of the advertisements mentioned magic, which Irene found interesting. Possibly there was no way to combine magic with technology here, or magic was illegal. She wished she actually knew a little about this world. Even two minutes with a public information pamphlet would have been educational, although she had been in similar worlds before. She’d have to assume the standard problems with this level of technology: too much public surveillance, and everything done electronically.