The Riders of Thunder Realm Read online

  The electricity struck the Champion’s Blade, and Kade gasped.

  ‘What the –’ he said, staring in disbelief as the golden sword crackled in Joss’s grasp. And Joss was just as stunned. He couldn’t quite believe what he was seeing as he waved the Champion’s Blade in front of him, the electricity spiralling up and down its length. He had no idea how such a thing was possible, but it didn’t really matter. If he could somehow use this to advantage …

  ‘Hey, Kade!’ Joss called out to the bandit. ‘Catch!’

  Swiping the sword through the air, Joss sent the lightning bolt flying back at Kade, just as he’d hoped. The bandit had to scramble as the bolt ripped towards him, before fizzling away into nothingness. Joss frowned with disappointment. He’d been hoping for something far more explosive than that.

  BWA-FOOOOM!

  Clods of dirt rained down on Joss’s head. The smell of gunpowder and ash choked the air and stung his eyes. Through the explosion’s lingering echo, he could hear a heavy set of wheels advancing. It was the battle mek, having stirred itself to start rolling towards them all. Smoke was pouring from its cannons, and it had Joss in its crosshairs. But even with the powerful display it had just staged, it wasn’t the mek that made Joss freeze in place.

  ‘I admire your spirit, kids. I really do,’ the Grim Rider said, one blade against Zeke’s throat and the other pointed at the group. ‘But my patience has its limits.’

  He was standing near the smoking husk that Kade had made of the tree trunk, his feral raptor just behind him and Zeke’s cycle upturned at his feet, with Zeke held in front of him as a human shield.

  ‘So tell me – which one of you is carrying it? Eh? Best tell me now, before my hand slips.’

  He pressed the blade into Zeke’s skin, drawing a small red bubble of blood. Joss took a faltering step forward, his mouth opening and closing as his jaw wobbled. What could he say, what could he do?

  ‘Don’t do it, Joss …’ Zeke gasped from behind the bandit’s blade.

  The Grim Rider chuckled through the gaps in his bone helmet. ‘Joss, is it?’ he asked. ‘Joss, you might not know it to look at me but I’m a fair man, so I’m willing to make you an offer. Give me the Constellation Key or I open your friend’s throat. And if that’s not enticement enough, I’ll remind you that with a click of my fingers I can have my mek friend Warhead here blast you all to the Ever After. Now, I don’t much feel like sifting through rubble to pilfer from bloody corpses, so what say we end this little stand-off here and now and all head our separate ways? Does that sound like a good deal to you, Joss?’

  Joss scowled. Never taking his eyes from the Grim Rider’s gruesome mask, he pulled on the chain around his neck.

  ‘Sarif, don’t be a fool,’ Hero said, her hands full with zamaraqs, ready to counter the arrow that Parsefal still had drawn and pointed at her. ‘We can take them.’

  The Grim Rider shook with laughter. ‘Oh, sweetheart, know when you’re done. Trust me, life’s easier when you do.’

  Pulling the Constellation Key free, Joss held it in the air above him. ‘Here. Take it,’ he said, the silver rod sparkling at the end of its chain.

  The Grim Rider stared at it intently but didn’t move from his spot. ‘Kade, be a good man and relieve the Blade Keeper of his burden,’ he said, the satisfaction in his voice enough to fill the pit of Joss’s stomach with a burning rage. That rage only intensified when Kade swaggered into view.

  ‘I’ll be taking that,’ the bandit said, and yanked the Constellation Key from Joss’s hand. Mute until now, this small exchange proved highly entertaining to Parsefal, who broke into a snorting laugh. One look from the Grim Rider was all it took to silence him again.

  ‘Hey, boss,’ Kade called out, never taking his eyes from Joss. ‘What say about his fancy sword? Could fetch a pretty penny …’

  The Grim Rider tilted his head to consider. ‘Reckon I might keep it for myself. How often can you claim the Champion’s Blade as a trophy?’

  ‘You can’t,’ Joss said, staring down both Kade and the Rider in turn. ‘It’s not mine to give.’

  ‘But it is mine to take. Or need I remind you the cost of trying to keep it?’ the Rider jerked his hand back. The sharp of his blade forced a gasp from Zeke’s throat.

  Joss glared at the masked bandit, then unfastened his sword-belt and handed it to Kade.

  ‘Much obliged,’ the younger bandit sniggered as he looped the key’s chain around his neck and threw the belt over his shoulder, the Champion’s Blade dangling across his chest.

  ‘Well, I would say it’s been a pleasure doing business with you, Blade Keeper,’ the Grim Rider said, while Kade handed him the sword-belt. ‘But I have to admit the real pleasure was in making you squirm. Let’s do it again sometime.’

  He finished by throwing Zeke into Joss and Azof, the raptor screeching as Zeke got tangled in his reins. Using the distraction to his advantage, the Grim Rider jumped up into his saddle and galloped for the bridge.

  ‘Come on, boys! We got a rendezvous to keep! Hyah!’ Just as Kade had jumped clear of the lightning bolt that Joss had thrown at him, Joss and the others now had to leap out of the way as Warhead hurtled towards them. Parsefal and Kade remained in the mechanoid’s path, springing up at the last possible moment to grab hold of his shoulder joints. With the bandits now clinging to the mek’s frame, all three followed their leader across the bridge, which splintered under their combined weight.

  ‘The bridge!’ Hero cried out as she cracked Callie’s reins, the sabretooth roaring. ‘We have to stop them before they –’

  The Skeleton Crew had only just reached the other side of the river when Warhead’s cannons thundered for a second time, and the bridge was torn apart in a furious blaze. Joss and the others could only watch in dismay as the Grim Rider and his gang escaped with both the Constellation Key and the Champion’s Blade, hooting and hollering as they went.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  A WINDING SERPENT’S TAIL

  JOSS stared at the smoking ruin of the bridge. It stretched before him, a shattered wreck, leading nowhere. Just like his future as a paladero. How had it happened? How had he lost both the Constellation Key and the Champion’s Blade? And what could he possibly do to retrieve them? The thought sizzled in his brain like raw meat on a hotplate, hissing and spitting so loud that he could hardly hear the others as Hero threw down her zamaraqs and cursed, ‘Shoda’s pits! We’ll never catch them now!’

  ‘There must be something we can do,’ Drake said as he helped Zeke up.

  ‘There is,’ Zeke croaked, rubbing his throat. ‘We can quit.’

  ‘What are you talking about?’ Drake asked.

  ‘There’s no sense in losing our lives over this,’ Zeke said, examining his hand to see if the blood had dried up, only to come away with a bright red palm. ‘What’s the worst that’ll happen? We have to wait a couple of years to go on the Way again?’

  ‘You honestly think they’ll ever let us become paladeros if we lose the Constellation Key?’ Hero groused, having slipped out of her saddle to retrieve her zamaraqs. She had to wipe the dirt off on her thigh before tucking the weapons back into her bandolier. ‘We’ll be lucky if we end up working a
s fieldservs for the rest of our lives, if we’re not just outright banished to live as Nameless. Though you actually have to have been a paladero in the first place for them to accept you, so that just leaves begging on the streets.’

  ‘A rendezvous …’ muttered Joss, now staring down the track where the Skeleton Crew had disappeared.

  ‘What did you say, Joss?’ Drake asked.

  ‘The Grim Rider.’ Joss turned back to face the others. ‘He said they had a rendezvous to keep. It must be with whoever hired them to steal the key from us …’

  ‘What makes you think someone hired him?’ Zeke asked, rummaging through his pack to pull out a box of medical supplies. Keeping one hand pressed to his throat, he picked out a box of alcohol wipes and started trying to rip it open with his teeth. Watching him struggle, Drake reached out to tear it open for him. Zeke didn’t know where to look as he gratefully accepted the antibacterial napkin from Drake and pressed it to his throat.

  Watching the two of them, Joss kicked a rock that was lying in the road before him. It curved high into the air and landed in the stream beside them, where it was quickly submerged. It was clear now that he would have to reveal something that he was still not certain had actually happened. Whether or not the others would believe him, he couldn’t hope to guess.

  ‘The night before the binding ceremony, I was approached by a stranger in a stone mask and a black hood,’ he said, scrutinising the steel caps of his leather boots. ‘He called himself “Thrall”, and he asked me to give him the Constellation Key so that he could pass it on to the Stitched Witch. I know it must sound crazy, but …’

  Finally looking up, he saw that Drake and Hero were both staring at him as if he’d ripped his face off to reveal the ghoul beneath. ‘What?’ he asked, shifting his weight from one foot to the other.

  ‘He approached me too. That same night,’ Hero said, her entire body rigid. ‘I turned him down.’

  ‘He came to me the afternoon before. He was furious when I told him I wouldn’t do it,’ Drake said. All three of them turned to look at Zeke.

  ‘What, the freak in the mask? Don’t tell me you all took him seriously! Do you have any idea how many delusional crackpots come to Tower Town in the vain hope of stealing the Constellation Key? I laughed right in that goon’s stony face,’ Zeke chuckled, then winced. He pressed the napkin harder to his throat.

  Joss’s jaw clenched. ‘Why didn’t anyone say anything?’ he demanded.

  ‘Why didn’t you?’ Hero shot back, crossing her arms. ‘You’re as guilty of hiding it as any of us.’

  ‘I wasn’t hiding anything! I was –’ Joss paused to consider, ‘uncertain.’

  ‘There you have it.’ Hero rolled her shoulders, the act stiff and uncomfortable. ‘The truth is, none of us knows each other. Not really. And who’s going to confide in someone they don’t know about something that sounds so – so –’

  ‘Crazy?’ Drake suggested. He seemed to have taken no offence at Joss’s questioning, which just gave Joss all the more to ponder.

  He only spoke again when he’d mulled everything over enough to feel confident in what he was saying. ‘Thrall has to be the buyer,’ Joss said quietly. ‘And he must have hired the Grim Rider. If the Rider and his goons were smart they’d have taken us for everything we had, so it was less obvious it was only the key they were after.’

  ‘I’m sure you don’t need reminding that they took the Champion’s Blade as well …’ Drake said.

  ‘Of course I don’t!’ Joss snapped, his frustration getting the better of him for a moment. What am I going to tell Sur Verity? he thought. And what will she say to Lord Malkus? He closed his eyes to gather his patience. ‘But that wasn’t part of their plan. They were here for the key. The sword was just a sweetener. And trust me, it’s going to cost them.’

  ‘How exactly?’ Zeke said, rocking his jet-cycle back and forth in an attempt to get it up and running again.

  ‘Simple.’ Joss stomped over to Azof and pulled himself back up into his saddle, his feet finding the stirrups with ease. The noise in his brain had settled now. His focus was clear. ‘We take back what was stolen from us.’

  ‘Oh, of course. Why didn’t I think of that?’ replied Zeke, his cycle thumping onto its belly. A few quick jabs at the controls and it was hovering again as if nothing had ever happened. ‘Ah, that’s right! Because we have no idea where they’re headed.’

  ‘No. But if they’re following that road then they’re most likely bound for Dragon’s Tail, just the same as we were. And if we start riding now, as fast as we can, we might just get there in time to keep them from making their deal.’

  Saddling up, the Bladebound headed off in search of another river crossing, finally finding a rope bridge half a league downstream. The bridge swayed beneath each of them as they dared only to cross one at a time, gathering together on the opposite side of the riverbank.

  The rocky terrain made the main road impossible to reach, so instead they followed a steep mountain trail towards Dragon’s Tail. The path was as curved as one of Kade’s lightning bolts and just as dangerous, with steel traps set on either side to keep it clear of wild animals. Joss had to maintain a tight rein on Azof as they inched ever upward, making sure that the raptor didn’t stray too close to the razor-sharp snares.

  As they negotiated their way up the mountainside, Joss also kept a close eye on each of his brethren. Zeke was too preoccupied with his wound to notice much else. Was he telling the truth when he said that he’d laughed off Thrall’s proposal? Bribing a member of Thunder Realm’s wealthiest family seemed an unlikely prospect. Hard-pressed to imagine what Thrall could have offered that Zeke would ever want, Joss turned his attention to Hero.

  Whatever she was thinking, it was impossible to guess with her face obscured by her goggles and her unruly hair and wide-brimmed hat. But maybe that was her intention. It would be much easier to bluff your way through life if you made a habit of hiding your face. Could she have struck a bargain with Thrall? Was her attempt to take them all on a path towards Covora her original plan to steal the key, with the Grim Rider a necessary alternative when that plot didn’t work out?

  Or maybe Joss was looking in the wrong place. After all, there was also Drake to consider. Watching him astride his tundra bear, Joss wondered what he’d seen when gazing into Thrall’s crystal orb. If Joss had been promised everything he could have ever hoped for, Drake would have been offered the same. What form had that taken, and how hard would it have been for Drake to refuse? The more Joss thought about it, the more troubled he felt. That sentiment only grew deeper when Drake caught his eye and then quickly looked away again.

  After hours of hard riding their trail joined with the Wyrmway, the main road leading to Dragon’s Tail. Crowds were streaming up and down its length, some in vehicles, some mounted, many on foot. Guards were posted along the path to ensure the flow of traffic, all of them wearing the dragon-styled armour that had for centuries been the uniform of the city’s wardens. The only concession they’d made to modernity was the shock rods they carried instead of spears, which they put to use by swiftly electrocuting a thief who’d attempted to swipe a lotus melon from a passing wagon.

  ‘Now there’s an effective bargaining tactic,’ Zeke noted dryly and to litt
le response.

  The entrance to the undercity was a cave mouth big enough to swallow a tyrannosaur whole, encircled by a winding serpent’s tail that had been carved from the rock face. The crowds were especially dense here, forcing the prentices to dismount as they joined the queue to enter the city.

  Their way was barred, however, by an oversized guardhouse placarded with warnings that anyone caught carrying weapons without a permit would face conviction. Reaching for his paperwork, Joss approached the checkpoint.

  ‘Says here you’re meant to be carrying a sword,’ noted the guard as he looked over Joss’s permits, the rush of a nearby waterfall making it difficult to hear him.

  ‘It was stolen,’ Joss explained, trying not to let too much bitterness creep into his voice.

  ‘Thieves are a growing concern around these parts.’ The guard shook his head and stamped the paperwork. ‘Keep clear of the catacombs and notify the wardens if you encounter any suspicious types inside the city. Though hopefully that won’t be the case.’

  ‘Actually, I’m counting on it,’ Joss muttered, consumed again by thoughts of what had been stolen from him. His words falling on deaf ears, the guard waved him on. When each of the Bladebound had passed inspection, they walked their mounts down a dark passageway that eventually opened up into a bright, palatial hall.

  As with the entrance, all the architecture had been chiselled from the cavern rock, the stony surfaces polished to a glistening sheen, the floors paved in tessellating white tiles. Granite beams curved up the walls and crested overhead like colossal wings, while extravagant chandeliers dangled from the vaulted ceilings to twist and sparkle in space.