Robe

Chapter 27

The smoke was back, and it was relentless. After gathering their scattered weapons, the six of them backtracked, away from the destruction wrought by Shah's Rig, to an intersection a short distance away. They passed buildings that were on fire, licks of flame pouring out of cracked walls, while smoke coalesced in billowing grey-black clouds, smothering everything. But the thick atmosphere didn't seem to be affecting Dresden or the others, and Shah asked why.

"Our helmets protect us, Shah," Dresden said. "Without them, we cannot breathe."

Tayra examined Shah's fully-exposed, un-helmeted head. "How are you breathing here, outsider?" she asked, amazed.

"I am a... mage, captain," Shah said. It was as good an explanation as he could offer.

Her eyes widened. "I see."

They turned at the intersection and continued on through broken streets. There were corpses of both Hepsguard and Gol'ur-Klem brutes, as well as the occasional larger specimens that Dresden said were the "Klem-Core, the most dangerous of them all." Shah paid special attention to these. They were larger than the brutes, their armor thicker and made of proper metal rather than the chain-linked stone plates of the lesser beasts. The few Klem-Core bodies he saw were surrounded by dead brutes, as though they were shielding their 'leader' to the last. He thought about the solitary creature that had passed him when he arrived in this Universe, the look of distress on its visage as it fled. The brutes mightn't be inherently bad. Following orders, 'mindless as brombeasts', is what the Custodian said to Sonic...

"Most of the invaders have moved to the right-of-Line quarter," Tayra was saying as they paced the road. "It is an encirclement. They are to be herded into the Common."

"Why?" Shah asked.

"The Queen's orders," she replied. "Mayhaps the Custodian will use the Robe of God once more."

At this, something tripped for Shah, a shared memory... what did Sonic show him? Ah, that's it. Sonic had seen the Custodian's efforts during the last invasion of the Gol'ur-Klem, when he stood within the fountain at the heart of the Common and performed 'great magic' to counter the invaders. But... the captain seems to think the Custodian is still around to provide an encore performance, Shah thought. Don't they know the treacherous fat fart's working for the enemy now? Why the heck not?

He was thinking how to ask this question as diplomatically as possible ('treacherous fat fart' was hardly a complimentary name for the 'Protector of the Hepstraad') when they encountered another battalion of spear-carriers along the road, around twenty soldiers in total.

Tayra asked them of the Gol'ur-Klem.

"A handful, captain Tayra, nothing we couldn't handle" replied the battalion leader. He was a squat man in ill-fitting armor, with a single copper-colored pauldron on one shoulder (a mark of lower rank, Shah assumed). "What happened in your quarter? And Captain Finas? We heard the sound of great thunder..." He paused to wave his lance in the air, "...then strange things fell from the sky."

"I cannot explain," Tayra replied, quickly glancing at Shah, "but the quarter has been destroyed. Many brutes were killed, a Core too, along with... along with Captain Finas and his company."

"Captain Finas and his company?" the battalion leader repeated, aghast. "All – all of them?"

"They have passed unto the Highest," Tayra said. "But our fight is not over, so it is not the time to mourn."

"I... understand, captain. We are moving to the Common now. As are you?"

"Yes."

The leader nodded, and held one hand out. "I am yours to command. Lead the way."