Free Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes

Small, stupid . . . not quite as stupid as the rest of you, but still—’

    ‘Put me down,’ the Cragsman pleaded, ‘please. PLEASE! ’

    ‘Shut up,’ Kataria snarled at him. Her eyebrows rose suddenly. ‘Wait a moment.’ She knelt before him, looking into eyes that threatened to leap from their sockets. ‘Did you kill a silver-haired man?’

    ‘Looks kind of like a silver-haired child,’ Dreadaeleon piped up.

    ‘You’re one to talk,’ Asper replied snidely, ‘and he’s not that short.’

    ‘I . . . I didn’t kill anyone! I swear!’ the pirate squealed.

    ‘You’re only making this more unpleasant.’ Gariath sighed. ‘Shut up and see if you can’t die without soiling yourself.’

    ‘How come you didn’t watch him?’ Kataria asked the dragonman.

    ‘If he can’t watch himself, he deserves whatever happens to him.’ Gariath snorted. ‘Hold that thought.’

    ‘NO!’ the man screamed as his captor pried his legs apart with no great effort. ‘It’s . . . it’s all cultural! I was pressed into service! Please! PLEASE! ’

    One by one, groans of impending horror escaped the companions. No one dared to look up, much less protest, as Gariath drew his leg back like a hammer and aimed squarely between the pirate’s legs. Kataria stared for as long as she could, until the sight of the dragonman’s grin finally made her look down.

    There weren’t hands big enough to block out the crunching sound that followed.

    She looked up just in time to see a flash of red and brown as Gariath tossed the man overboard like fleshy offal. That, she knew, was about as much honour as he would offer creatures smaller than himself. That thought, as well as his massive, suddenly wet foot, kept her tense as she addressed him.

    ‘We have to go back,’ she said, ‘we have to find Lenk.’

    He glanced over his shoulder. ‘No.’

    ‘But—’

    ‘If he’s alive, he’s alive,’ he snorted. ‘If he’s dead . . . no great loss.’

    He’s right, you know , she told herself. It’s one human. There are many of them. You shouldn’t want to look back, shouldn’t care. It’s one human, one more disease.

    She sighed, offering no further resistance as he pushed his way past her, trying to convince herself of the truth of her thoughts as he moved through the companions. No one bothered to stop him. No one she cared about, at least.

    ‘So!’ Quillian placed a bronzed hand on her hip, unmoving as Gariath walked forwards. ‘The battlefield is further profaned by the presence of abominations? There is hardly any redemption for this—’

    ‘Shut up.’

    The dragonman’s grunt was as thunderous as the sound of the back of his hand cracking against the Serrant’s face. Her armour creaked once as she clattered to the deck and again as he stepped on and over her.

    ‘What . . . I . . .’ Asper gritted her teeth at his winged back. ‘I just pulled her off the ground!’

    ‘Don’t encourage him,’ Kataria warned. ‘Come on. We look for Lenk. Gariath handles the rest.’

    ‘Oh, is that all?’ Dreadaeleon pointed over her shoulder. ‘There’s one part of our problem solved, then.’ He coughed. ‘By me.’ He sniffed. ‘Again.’

    She turned, fought hard to hide her smile at the sight of the young man rushing across the deck. That task became easier with every breath he drew closer. For with every breath, she saw the blood on his sword, the uncharacteristic fury in his stride . . .

    The angry cold in his narrowed eyes.

    ‘Does this mean we have to help Gariath?’ Dreadaeleon asked, sighing.

    She ignored him, cried out to the other short human.

    ‘Lenk!’

    ‘Chain,’ he grunted as he sped past. ‘ CHAIN! ’

    It occurred to him, vaguely, that the voice snarling those words from his mouth was not entirely his. It occurred to him that she looked at him with those same, studying eyes and he had ignored her. It occurred to him that he was weary, dizzy, surrounded by death and rushing