Pepper grinned. “I do like excitement.” She snuffed the cigarette and put it behind her ear. “Let me think about it.” She hopped to her feet. “We’d better get moving if you want to catch your train.”
Alessandra rose and took one last look around. The sun was shining, but the shadows were long. She didn’t see anyone waiting in them. But that didn’t mean they wouldn’t be there tomorrow, or the next day. Shivering slightly, she followed Pepper to the cab.
She had a train to catch.
Epilogue
Darkness
In darkness, it slept. Aching from the sharp light of the fire and its long confinement, it had dug itself deeper and deeper, seeking refuge. Deep into the dark, where the light and the heat could not reach.
And there, it curled tighter and tighter in on itself, making itself as small as possible. In the dark, it could rest and regain the strength that had so long been denied it. It had fed, though not well. But it would feed again, once it had rested. It would rise up, once the light had faded, and would feed and feed and feed–
A sound. A call.
It stirred. The call came again. The old words. It paused, listening.
Then, unable to help itself, it answered.
It dug through the loose soil, burning a passage upwards through the sediment, tasting the fading heat of the conflagration and shying away from it. Though the fire was gone, the memory of it still stung.
When it reached the surface, it thrust itself upward, spreading and stretching itself, glorying in its freedom. It rose over the warmbloods who gathered in the ruins of the house below. They were not the same as those who had trapped it – betrayed it. They were smaller things, weaker and more fragile. Younger, as it judged such things.
That they knew the words was surprising. But it felt no fear of these little ones. It had been caged once – they would not do so again. Could not. The wisdom was not in them. It undulated above them, listening as they spoke, wondering which it would consume first. There were so many of them, and all pulsing with heat and life.
One of them raised a limb, as if in greeting, and spoke in the tongue of the warmbloods of K’n-Yan. “You are even as the old texts claimed, ancient one. Like a fold of night come alive.”
It paused in its calculations. The speaker noticed this hesitation, and a smile spread across his face. “Magnificent… but not a brain in the gelatinous skull. Mr Swann – the binding wand, please.”
“Yessir, Mr Sanford,” another said. It did not understand the meaning of these words, but it sensed the threat. It lunged at the first to speak, intending to consume him. But he flung up a hand, and spoke words of light and pain. They stung it, disorientating it. It lashed wildly, trying to escape the tormenting words. But more words rose, as the other warmbloods spoke. Too many words, rising like fire.
Then there was a new pain – an old pain. It reared, trying to stretch itself higher and higher, to escape the pain. The one who had spoken held a rod that glowed with cold light. The light encircled it, forcing it to shrink, to fold down. It could not escape, no matter how much it raged. As it shrank, it heard the voice of its new master.
“Settle down, settle down. There’s nothing for it now. You’re caught.” He leaned over its shrunken form, smiling widely. “But it’s not the end of the world…” The smile faded.
“Not yet anyway.”
About the Author
Josh Reynolds is a writer, editor and semi-professional monster movie enthusiast. He has been a professional author since 2007, writing over thirty novels and numerous short stories, including the wildly popular Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Warhammer 40,000, and the occasional audio script. He grew up in South Carolina and now lives in Sheffield, UK.
joshuamreynolds.co.uk
twitter.com/jmreynolds
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Paperback ISBN 978 1 83908 011 1
Ebook ISBN 978 1 83908 012 8
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Table of Contents
Wrath of N'kai Cover
Welcome to Arkham Horror
Title Page
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Epilogue
About the Author
By the Same Author
The World of Arkham Horror
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