The only thing that Kali could think was, no wonder the dwarves wanted rid of them.
Well, that was precisely why she was here, wasn't it? But before she made a move she needed to work out a route.
Kali studied the juggennath further. On a colossal scale, the creature resembled the primates of the higher World's Ridge Mountains — the ogur, for example — and was covered almost entirely in hair, muscular arms and legs concealed by the thick and straggly coat. In places jagged sections of rusted and tarnished metal clung to its body, some pieces still bearing the remains of the spikes that had once covered it. They would come in handy. The remains of some of her party were strung and slung about its massive frame, at least thirty men and women bounced lifelessly against the juggennath as it shifted, and whether they were worn for decoration or for food, Kali almost turned away seeing the state they were in.
She had seen what she needed, and was ready. All she had to wait for now was for the juggennath to move again.
It did so, the trees and branches about it thrashing and breaking as a wave of shrikes and razorbeaks circled its head, at least twenty of them taking it in turns to dart at the giant figure as it flailed against their attacks. The giant batted them out of the air but there was no way it could stop them all, and they dived for its flesh, returning with chunks of bloody flesh and matted hair held in their beaks. The juggennath roared in irritation and frustration, the wounds insignificant, but the attacks had clearly been going on for some time — and the reason that they had commenced them was, she believed, the same reason that the rest of the wildlife had emerged from its cover in the forest. For the first time in its impossibly long life, the juggennath had been injured — slashed by Gabriella DeZantez and the Deathclaws — and the great beast that had so far held dominion over them had seemed weak, as they had smelled its blood.
Kali almost felt sorry for the ancient creature, the bemused beast once king of its domain, but there was little she could do to help it. Wouldn't have helped if she could, in fact. She was banking on the distraction to make the next part of her plan easier.
She had to act quickly.
If the juggennath decided to flee its tormentors, went pounding off deeper into the Sardenne, she might never catch it again.
It was time to hitch a ride.
Kali burst from the treeline and raced across the glade. She made it with only a couple of minor scratches into the shadow of the juggennath itself. Only one, particularly persistent brackan tried to take a slice out of her, but with a running twist she managed to manoeuvre it into the path of a hackfire toad and, with a cheery wave, it was goodnight stickface. This done, she threw herself upwards with a grunt, grabbing two fistfuls of the matted hair on the giant's legs. She hauled herself up onto the limb proper and took as firm a purchase as she could, the giant pounding about the glade in its efforts to defend itself, and was flung to the left and the right like a small doll, but she gradually scaled the phenomenal creature. Kali doubted that the giant even recognised her presence.
Kali rose higher and higher, aiding her climb with a couple of somersaults from spike to spike, and at last she found herself on its shoulder, headed for the neck and clung onto the nape as she might cling to an exposed rockface. There, she took a breath.
Before she could move further, Kali found herself snatched from the juggennath's neck by one of its giant hands, swung around to the front of the creature and held before its face. If, that was, it could be called a face. She had never actually considered what a juggennath saw if it shaved in a morning. There was no nose or mouth as such, only a twitching orifice where both should be, and above that a single, bar-shaped eye that stretched almost across its forehead from left to right, giving it a perpetual frown.
"Gods, you're ugly."
Kali struggled in the giant's grip as she stared into its looming eye, and wondered why everything had gone suddenly quiet, the attacking shrikes and razorbeaks gone. Then she realised that the eye, previously a feral brown, had become as white and dull as those of the soul-stripped, so that she felt as if she were held before a cold, snow-filled sky. Whatever intelligence the juggennath possessed — and Kali suspected it wasn't much — seemed to have been replaced by another.
The fist of the juggennath tightened ever so slightly around her.
"Who are you, girl?" A voice boomed. "What are you doing in my forest?"
The voice was arrogant, cold and cruel. Bastian Redigor, it seemed, was introducing himself.
"Hello, Baz," Kali said. "You don't mind being called Baz, I hope?"
"I asked you a question. What do you want?"
"Er, world peace? A cure for the hic? No — how about an all-over tan?"
The fist tightened.
"Okay, okay, just breaking the ice." Kali leaned forward and peered into vast orifice. "Dark and smelly in there, huh?"
"I am not here, stupid child. This beast is but a means of communication."
Kali rolled her eyes and tutted. "Farking hell, I know that, elf. I should have known the Ur'Raney would have no sense of humour."
Redigor laughed. "So you know who I am. Would it surprise you to know that I, in turn, know who you are… Kali Hooper?"
Actually it did, but Kali didn't let it show. Maybe there was something in what Fitch had said about Redigor's gaze being so penetrating it could read minds. She concentrated on keeping her true thoughts — and plans — to herself.
"I see the little girl, wide-eyed with stories that I would come for you," Redigor went on. "I sense the fear, the desire to run and curl beneath the bed…"
"Forget it, Redigor. I wasn't afraid then, I'm not afraid now."
"I would not say that. I can feel your sweat leaking onto this creature's pores."
"You sure it's my sweat?" Redigor's laughter was a rumble this time. "Listen, Puce Lord or whatever your name is, I've been in tighter spots."
"Really?"
The juggennath's grip tightened suddenly, not enough to crush her but enough to squeeze all of the breath from her lungs. She had no doubt that Redigor could have crushed her had he wished, but was enjoying playing with her. Knowing his predilections she wouldn't be surprised if the immense fingers of the giant he controlled soon started to peel away her clothes.
"I ask you again," Redigor's disembodied voice said. "What are you doing in my forest?"
"I've come to stop a dirty old man returning his perverted rule to my world."
"Bel'A'Gon'Shri is sealed and the exchange will soon begin. And I hardly think you are in any position to stop it."
"No? You don't know me very well, do you?"
Kali suddenly rammed her gutting knife into the tender flesh of the juggennath's palm and, with a roar of pain, the creature opened its hand. She had gambled on the fact that, even though Redigor was ostensibly in control of the mammoth creature, its reaction to pain would remain instinctive. Of course, she'd hoped that the giant's grip would simply loosen enough to allow her escape from it, and hadn't expected to be dropped.
Time to improvise.
As the juggennath's other hand swept around to swat her from existence, Kali twisted in mid-air, booting herself away from it, and once more found herself heading towards the hairy hide of the beast, somewhere about its midriff. She struck, clung, and began another slow climb.
She didn't want to know what it was she was climbing up and as she ascended the thick, matted hair she instead concentrated on what mattered — that it was getting her where she needed to go. One way or another she had Bastian Redigor by the short and curlies, and when she had finally returned herself to the juggennath's neck she told him so, whispering into the beast's ear, "Redigor, I'm coming."