Soul Stealers: The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles

PRAISE FOR KELL'S LEGEND : BOOK I OF THE CLOCKWORK VAMPIRE CHRONICLES

"Violent is really not the right word for this spare-no-detail fantasy monstrosity. Insane? Maybe. Really, the only way to describe Remic's
Kell's Legend
is with a phrase: a bloody, violent, fantastic journey through carnage, terror, and a downright epic tale that makes
Underworld
and every zombie movie look bad… Remic is the Tarantino of fantasy, and if that isn't a compliment, then I don't know what is."

– Fantasy & SciFi Lovin'

"
Kell's Legend
was awesome – a fun, hectically fastpaced and brutally action-packed novel with plenty of awesome characters and inventive worldbuilding. If you're a fan of colourful characters, plenty of blood and gore, and an interesting and memorable take on a phenomenon that you may have had your fill of already (I don't want to spoil it), then this book is definitely for you and is guaranteed to keep you up late, flinching, cheering and fevered. 9 out of 10"

– Dave Brendon, Fantasy & SciFi Weblog

"
Kell's Legend
is an iconoclastic melange of themes that incorporates devices from various genres – Moorcook/ Gemmell heroic fantasy, steampunk, and horror. It is an exciting, brutal novel, soaked in testosterone and paced like a roller coaster. The sex and violence is visceral and the action is non-stop."

– Red Rook Review

ALSO BY ANDY REMIC

The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles
Kell's Legend

The Spiral Series
Spiral
Quake
Warhead

Combat-K
War Machine

Biohell

Hardcore

ANDY REMIC

Soul Stealers

BOOK TWO OF THE
CLOCKWORK VAMPIRE
CHRONICLES

ANGRY ROBOT

A member of the Osprey Group
Midland House, West Way
Botley, Oxford
OX2 0HP
UK

wwwangryrobotbooks.com
Bite me!

Copyright © Andy Remic 2010

Andy Remic asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN: 978-0-87566-068-8

EBook set by ePub Services dot Net

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated without the publisher's prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

This book is dedicated with the utmost love,
affection, humour and joy to my wonderful
little boys, Joseph and Oliver.

PROLOGUE

Soul Stealers

It was an ink-dark dream. A razor flashback. A frozen splinter of time piercing his mind like a sterile needle. Nienna, beautiful Nienna, his sweet young granddaughter; they stood by the edge of a wide, sweeping river, spring sunshine warming upturned faces and glinting like diamonds amongst swaying reeds. Kell was teaching her how to fish, and he guided her hands, her long tapered fingers a contrast to his wrinkled, scarred old bear paws, hooking the bait (at which she pulled a screwed-up face) then casting out the line. They sat, then, in companionable silence, and Kell realised Nienna was watching him intently. He turned, scratching his grizzled grey beard, eyes meeting her bright gaze, and she smiled, face radiant. "Grandfather?" "Yes, little monkey?" "Isn't fishing… you know, unfair?" "What do you mean?"

    "Well, it's like a trap, isn't it? You dangle the worm on a hook, and the fish swims along, unsuspecting, and you whip him out and eat him for supper. It's really not fair on the fish."

    "Well, how else would I catch him?" said Kell, frowning a little. He chuckled. "I could always throw
you
in – you could
swim
after all the little fishes, catch them in your teeth like a pike!" He moved as if to grab her, to toss her into the deep waters, and she squealed, backing away fast up the bank and getting mud on her hands and clothes. Nienna tutted. "Grandfather!" "Ach, it's only a little mud. It'll wash off."

    What Kell had wanted to say was that
all life
is a trap, a deceit, a bad con trick from a clever con artist. Life leads you on, life dangles tantalising bait on a dulled hook of iron – the bait being happiness, good health, wealth, joy – and you reach with both hands, mouth gaping like a slack-brained jester in the King's Court, but Life is a
bitch
and just when you think you've found it, found your dream, the line snags and you're yanked by your balls, guts and brain. Hooked, and slaughtered. That was Life. That was
Reality
. That was
Sobriety
. But Kell kept his mouth shut. Kept it shut tight. He didn't want to spoil the moment, this simple joy of fishing with his talented, optimistic granddaughter beside the Selenau River.

Now, Kell and Saark stood on the high rooftop of the shattered, teetering tower block in Old Skulkra. This was their trap. The bait had been laid by General Graal, his Army of Iron, his disgusting twisted
cankers
, and they had been snagged like fools, like naïve hatchlings, cornering themselves in Old Skulkra with an impossible task and a terrible fight.

    Kell clutched his black axe Ilanna to his chest, gorespattered knuckles white, face iron thunder, and Saark was tense, slim rapier wavering before him, his face a shattered silhouette of half-broken fear.

    Below, in the bowels of the old stone block, something ululated, high-pitched and keening and far too feral to be human. It was followed immediately by a flurry of snarls, and growls, and heavy thuds and a scrabbling of brass claws clattering and booming through velvet black.

    It was the cankers… and they were coming for fresh blood.

    Kell's face was a thunderstorm filled with bruised clouds. Saark's face was hard to read, battered from a beating at the hands of Myriam's men, and his blood seeped through a torn and dirt-smeared shirt from a recent stab wound. Kell took a deep breath, nose twitching at fire from distant funeral pyres in the wake of the recent battle; he lifted Ilanna, and seemed, for a moment at least, to commune with the battered axe. The cankers drew close. The two men could hear the beasts' heavy breathing on the stairwell.

    Suddenly, a
pulse
seemed to pound through the ancient, deserted city; through the world. It was subsonic, an esoteric rumble; almost an earthquake. Almost. Saark allowed breath to hiss free between clenched teeth. His fear was a tangible thing, a stain, like ink. He glanced at Kell. "We're going to die up here, aren't we?"

    Kell laughed, and it contained genuine humour, genuine warmth. He slapped Saark on the back, then rubbed thoughtfully at his bloodied beard, and with glittering eyes said, "We all die sometime, laddie," as the first of the cankers burst from the opening in a flurry of claws and fangs and screwed up faces of pure hate.

    With a roar, Kell leapt to meet them…

    As the first canker leapt, so Kell's mighty axe slammed down in a savage overhead blow, splitting the head in two, right down to the twisted spine-top. Flesh, brain and skull exploded outwards, and mixed in there with muscle and bone shards were tiny, battered clockwork machines, wheels and cogs twisting and turning, clicking and shifting, clockwork gears clacking, and in a blur Kell stepped back, dragging his axe with him as the first canker corpse hit the ground and he swayed from a swipe of huge claws from the second snarling beast, Ilanna
singing
as she hammered left now, butterfly blades horizontal, cutting free the canker's arm with a jarring
thud
and a shower of flowering blood petals. The beast howled, but a third heaved and shouldered past, huge and bulky, the size of a lion, a disjointed, twisted lion with pale white skin bulging with muscle, like overfull bowels pressing against maggot flesh in an attempt to break free of a pus-filled abdomen. The canker was covered with a plague of grey fur, tufted and irregular, and its forehead was stretched right back, its huge maw five times the size of the human mouth which had formed its template, skull open like an axe-chopped pumpkin showing huge brass fangs which curled down from rancid gleaming jaws and were decorated with knurled swirls, like fine etchings in copper. The canker's body was covered in open wounds, and within each wound thrashed clockwork, a myriad of tiny, spinning wheels, gyrating spindles, meshing gears, but whereas the
pure
vachine was perfect, and noble, and secure in its Engineer-created arrogance, this canker – this deviation, this
corruption
– showed bent gears and levers and unmeshed cogs, and in a blur Kell leapt sideways, Ilanna carving a parting line of muscle across the canker's neck, like an unzipping of flesh. Despite pain and squirming, unreleased muscle, its sheer weight and bulk carried it forward across the scattered concrete beams of the tower block's flat roof, where it slammed into Saark as his rapier stabbed frantically, slashing open more huge curved wounds. They both staggered back, fell back, and Kell turned from Saark allowing the wounded man to deal with the dying canker in a hiss of steel opening flesh and a
gush
of severed arteries.

    A fresh flood of cankers burst through the opening, forcing Kell towards a grim-faced Saark, and the two men stood side by side, shoulder to shoulder, faces grim and splattered with gore, weapons flickering skilfully to open savage wounds as the cankers formed an expanding wall of flesh, an arc of solid muscle, as more and more surged through the opening to reinforce their ranks until there were ten, fifteen,
twenty
of the huge beasts ranged against them, hissing and grunting. Kell gave a sardonic snarl, teeth grinding, and rubbed his grey beard. At his feet lay five dead cankers, a feat for any mortal man – for each canker was a terrible foe. Kell's eyes glittered, dark and feral, and his gore-slippery axe lowered a little as he realised – realised with a
bark
of laughter – that they were waiting.

    "What's the matter, lads?" he boomed. "Left your bollocks at home with your pus-ugly wives?" The cankers growled, huge puddles of drool descending from wide stretched maws where brass fangs curled like scimitar blades. Behind Kell, Saark was panting, long curly hair in lank strips filled with bits of bone and flesh, his beautiful face now a tapestry of agony.

    "What are they waiting for?" he whispered, as if afraid his voice would accelerate them into action. Kell shrugged. "I reckon we'll find out soon enough." Within seconds, the line of quivering flesh, of tufted fur and deviant clockwork was heaved aside, and a massive canker forced its way through the throng. Kell could smell hot oil, and fancied he could hear the steady, tiny
tick tick tick
of off-beat clockwork. "Now we die," muttered Saark.

    "No," snapped Kell, "for if we die, then Nienna dies, if we die, then we cannot hunt down her kidnappers, we cannot seek justice and revenge! So, Saark, will you
shut up
and focus!" Kell fixed his gaze on this new creature, this towering beast, eight feet tall, heavily muscled, with glowering red eyes and an accompanying stench like desecration. Its skin was terribly pale, corpse-flesh waxy and entirely without hair. Kell's eyes narrowed. It was almost like… almost like this
beast
was merged with the albino soldiers from Graal's Army of Iron. Kell's glittering gaze scanned the wounds in the canker's flanks and chest, where deep inside brass clockwork spun and meshed. He grinned, but his eyes were dark and unfriendly. "Gods, lad, you stink like a ten-week corpse after dysentery and plague. What the hell's
wrong
with you beasts? Don't answer that. It's nothing my axe can't put right." He gestured flippantly with Ilanna, eyes watching, and perceived the canker's understanding.

    Snarls and growls echoed up and down the line, and Kell knew these unholy beasts could comprehend. They were intelligent, and that frightened Kell more than any display of corruption. It was when this huge, dominant creature suddenly spoke that Kell took a step back, boots thumping the concrete beams, surprised despite himself; although he fought well not to show it. "I am Nesh," said the canker, forming its words with care; despite impedance from curved fangs, its accent was Iopian, and that shouldn't have been possible. The whole mass of corrupted flesh and clockwork shouldn't have been possible. It was nightmare made real. "My General, the Warlord Graal, requires the honour of your presence. Indeed, he grants you
life
in exchange for your cooperation. You may agree now, little man." The canker grinned, more saliva pooling to the shattered, ancient beams of the high roof.

    Kell took another step back. Saark was beside him, and Kell glanced at his friend with hooded eyes. He muttered, "Have you found an escape route yet?
    "There's no way off this roof!" said Saark. "We're trapped!"

    "We're going to have to fight our way free, then."

    Saark eyed the twenty or so cankers, and could see the shadows and hear the snarls of more on the stairwell below. He shuddered, fear a dry dead rat in his throat, a snake of lard in his intestines, a fist of iron in his belly. Saark, ever the dandy, a lover of life, women, wine and any narcotic that could swell the hedonistic experience of all three, knew deep down in his darkest most terrible nightmares that he was going to die here, knew he was to be ripped apart by those huge fangs, torn into flesh shreds, into streamers of muscle and skin spaghetti, and there was nothing he could do to avert this fate. "You're joking, right?"

    Kell threw him a dark glance, and growled, "I never joke when it comes to killing. Now! Follow my lead! You understand, boy?"

    Saark nodded, sweating, hands gripping his rapier tight. Nesh, growing impatient, moved its angry red gaze from one warrior to the other, then back. Kell moved his own eyes over the waxy, pale flesh; he shivered. The creature had hints of humanity in its twisted corruption of skin and bone, but there, any similarity ended. It was a distortion, not just of humanity, but of albino and vachine; a creature of no place, despised by all. Strangely, a thread of sympathy wormed into Kell's mind. He cut it savagely with a mental blade. This beast would show no mercy, nor compassion. It was here to kill. "So, man? Will you come?" growled Nesh, and Kell could see other cankers straining at the leash; they could smell blood, and fear, and even remnants of Saark's distant flowery perfume. Kell grinned, baring his teeth as his face screwed into a ball of hostility. "Tell Graal he can shove my axe up his arse!"

    Saark groaned… and readied himself for attack…

Winter had finally come to Falanor.

    Snow fell in blankets from iron clouds beneath a pale, albino sun. Violent storms flung folds of white to cover Falanor's valleys and rolling hills, her forests and rivers and ragged, towering mountains. From the savage flanks of the Black Pikes to the north, down through recently conquered cities, from Jalder to Skulkra, Vorgeth, Fawkrin and the southern capital of Vor, winter knew no obstacle and arrived early, with a ferocity not seen in the world for two centuries. Within three days all northern passes were blocked; an ideal situation in the normal running of the country, for it meant many of the brigands, deviants and Blacklipper smugglers who oft troubled northern towns were trapped like bears in their mountain hideouts until the following spring.

    It also meant General Graal, and his albino Army of Iron, were trapped in Falanor, blockaded far from their homeland in the heart of the Black Pike Mountains, severed from the vachine civilisation occupying Silva Valley, seat of power for the High Engineer Episcopate and Engineer Council, the Engineer's Palace and revered resting place for the Oak Testament. Graal had successfully brought his vachine-sponsored army of albino subordinates south, seizing the cities of Falanor, kidnapping Queen Alloria, murdering the heroic Battle King, Leanoric, and routing his armies, including the previously unconquered Eagle Divisions. He had done this using cunning and a merciless swift descent. And by utilising blood-oil magick.

    In the wake of the successful invasion, and within hours of snow blocking the Black Pike Mountain passes, Graal's Harvesters had brought forth the Blood Refineries: huge angular machines not unlike siege engines, pulled by teams of horses and cankers and using, in a twist of final irony, of calculated mockery, the fine, wide roads built by King Leanoric for transportation of his own military divisions. Graal camped his army outside Old Skulkra, and the great blood refineries had come to rest on the plain before the deserted city just hours before heavy falls of snow rendered further transport from the north impossible.