Shadowrun Legends: Clockwork Asylum: The Dragon Heart Saga, Volume 2 by Jak Koke

Author:Jak Koke [Koke, Jak]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Catalyst Game Labs
Published: 2016-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

In the heavy morning air, the smoke from the small campfire sent dim, gray smoke into the canopy of pines. Off to the east, Burnout saw the dark mass of clouds, growing larger. A storm was coming, he could feel its tension in the muggy still.

It’s nearly upon us, he thought.

On the other side of the campfire, the Kodiak knelt on a gigantic bearskin, which just fit inside the large circle of talismana he had laid out on the rocky soil. His medicine lodge. Next to the Kodiak sat the Heart, gleaming yellow in a giant bear’s claw. The Heart seemed to glow dully in the darkening morning.

He glanced up at the Kodiak. The old man had started his spiritual journey almost an hour ago, beginning with soft chants, accompanied by a rhythmic rattle of a bone shaker. Now, his painted face was streaked with sweat, and he didn’t speak; instead, he simply swayed to some internal beat only he could hear.

Just like old times, thought Burnout.

Since the start of the ceremony, Lethe had said nothing, though Burnout could almost sense the spirit communing outside his perception. The longer they stayed together, the more attuned he and the Lethe seemed to be.

Burnout watched the approaching storm, and a feeling of apprehension grew in him. It felt like…like…

Mercury comes.

Burnout looked down at his ravaged body, the skin of his hands flayed to the chrome, dermal sheathing poking through the ragged hole in his coveralls. The telescoping fingers which had served him so well were mangled and twisted, severed in places and unable to effectively retract.

Burnout knew he was the most efficient killing machine tech and magic could produce. Both times he’d gone up against Ryan, the simple human—with no chrome Burnout could discern—had proven tougher than anything Burnout could have imagined. Each time, the man had scarred Burnout and come through alive.

Questions plagued Burnout with their unanswerable intensity. Why had this man been chosen by Dunkelzahn? What lay hidden beneath Mercury’s human exterior which made him a match for the best that science and the dark arts could produce?

In his peripheral vision, he saw that the Kodiak had stopped swaying and had opened his eyes. The Heart had darkened, and it lay quiet. The Kodiak heaved a heavy sigh and sat upright on the bearskin. Exhaustion lined his face as he spoke, “I have talked with Bear, my son. He has shown me the truth of things, both seen and unseen.”

Burnout leaned forward hungrily. “Yes, what did Bear tell you about the Heart?”

The Kodiak’s narrow eyes looked sad. “Of the artifact you call the Heart, Bear said simply that it follows its own destiny. It isn’t for you or any man to possess and control. It has a place in the sacred dance, and though it might be useful to you for now, it will fulfill its destiny.”

Burnout sat back, unsure of how to take what the old man had said. “Does that mean I can tap into it? That I can—”

The old man waved him off.

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