Dak lapsed into a worried silence as they began to climb the road. Although it was not steep, the day was hot and she was soon panting with exertion as she tried to keep pace with Maddock. She was half a metre taller than him, but still she struggled.

The road was quite empty, many of the workshops they passed were closed and there was not the usual cacophony of activity.

"Why's it so quiet?" Maddock asked. "The Engineers don't celebrate the Ascension Day of Glok do they?"

Dak took the giving of her answer as an opportunity to stop and gain her breath.

"No," she panted. "It is not Glok's day in the Workshops. They are honouring Kvorta."

"Honouring what? Is it some sort of holy day? I didn't think you had holy days and gods and all that stuff."

"No, we do not. But we remember our ancestors that have gone. Those who have marked significant accomplishments in our past."

"Really?"

"For sure. Yeltov, for example, we hold in the highest regard, because of his many accomplishments, the greatest of which was uniting all Engineers into the Guild, but he is not a god."

"So what's so special about Kavorter?"

"Engineer Kvorta's accomplishments and Glok's are linked. Do you have knowledge of Glok's story?"

"Not really. He was a great knight who died doing something mad, wasn't he?"

"Some say that he was the first ever knight. He was a Communicant first, but was made a knight posthumously."

"Post what?"

"After he was dead."

"Oh. So what's his story?"

"He dwelt for many years at the temple in the Sanctum-fortress at Naddaran. It is said that one day he heard the voice of Fortak and it commanded him to ride west. This was centuries ago, when all the lands around Naddaran were yet to be tamed. The Admiral gave him soldiers and supplies, and he rode west. After many adventures, he crossed the river Siceria into these lands and found an Oracle."

"An Oracle? Like the one at the bailey temple?"

"Yes. The Oracle in the temple is the self-same one that Glok discovered all those centuries ago, because this is where he found her; on Klinberg's hill. A temple was built in her honour and later a fort was built on the hill's summit to protect her, but that was some decades after Glok's death."

"So where does Kavorter fit into all this?"

"Engineer Kvorta was the Guild's representative to the expedition. Glok had insisted that she accompany him because he valued her skills and her wisdom. Not much is written about her in the Order's histories, but without her, Glok would be somewhat less revered, because even though it was he that heard the voice of Fortak and was guided to the Oracle, it was Kvorta's knowledge that awoke her."

"Ah," said Maddock, though by the frown on his face, Dak made the assumption that he was not really understanding the things she was telling him.

"The first thing that the Oracle did was give Glok a warning. His expedition was about to be attacked."

"By who?"

"The herredna tribes that inhabited the plains. Though it was not understood at the time, it has now been discovered that the place where the Oracle was found was sacred to them."

"So they weren't best pleased then?"

"No, they were not. Glok and his soldiers climbed the hill and made fortifications. It is Glok who has been awarded the credit in the Order's histories, but in the truth of it, it was Engineer Kvorta who designed the defences. They were rough and hastily made, but they were enough to repel the creatures. Communicant Glok died in the fighting, but the hill was defended."

"So Glok got all the glory and Kvorta was forgotten?"

"Not by the Engineers. She is remembered on this day."

"But how is she remembered?" asked Maddock, looking around. "It's so quiet."

"Follow me up. It is not all quiet."

* * *

They continued their journey up the road, and Dak was right. As they climbed, Maddock became aware of a noise slowly growing above them, and as they rounded a bend where the road turned upwards, it increased in its intensity. It was the noise of many voices raised in high spirits and laughter.

They followed the road until it opened out into a wide plaza beneath an outcrop, where the raw rock of Klinberg's hill struck out between the surrounding buildings. The facade of rock facing the plaza was sheer, and in it a high door had been opened. Windows had been cut on either side to reveal a cavernous space beyond. In the rough angles of the cliff face above, balconied openings had also been cut, their heavy balustrades carved out of the rock.

Maddock had seen the place before, but on his other visits the building had been quiet, with only a few of the balconies being occupied by small groups of Engineers deep in conversation. Others would be sitting at the tables in the plaza below, in solitary study of some book, or maybe with a scattering of diagrams spread out on the table before them.

On that day, things were much different. Every balcony was crammed, wide shoulder to wide shoulder, with Engineers. The plaza was equally crowded, so that Maddock could barely see past them. When he did manage to catch a glimpse through the building's high door, he saw a room jammed with a further mass of people. They filled the space and its suspended terraces, and even crowded the many staircases leading to the levels above.

Over the door and the crowded plaza hung a massively wrought hammer, its head wreathed in deep purple flames, clear despite the brightness of the noon sun.

"The Hammer and Flame," said Dak, shouting over the noise. "It is our tavern."

Maddock simply nodded, still taking in the spectacle of so many Engineers making so much noise. He was used to Engineers, and thought he knew their character well. They could laugh loud when the mood took them, and they could shout even louder over the sounds of the forge, but mostly they were quiet and reserved, contemplating and discussing matters between themselves, their faces often grave and their heavy brows lowered.

"How exactly do you honour your ancestors?"

"We raise a cup to them," shouted Dak, before looking around the plaza, her brows lowered in that same familiar way. "And then we raise another."

"And then?"

Dak shrugged.

"The honouring is getting a little repetitive after that."

"I see," said Maddock.

He looked up and watched as, at one of the higher balconies, a tray of drinks that had been balanced on the stone balustrade was knocked by the press of people and tumbled down into the massing crowd below, with the sounds of both consternation and mirth.

"We should be going," shouted Dak. "It can be getting quite unruly later on in the day.

She led him around the plaza's edge, sometimes stepping into doorways to avoid the more boisterous of the crowds, who had clearly been honouring Kvorta for a good part of the morning.

"Will your father be here somewhere?" asked Maddock as he stepped carefully over the shards of a broken cup.

Dak looked back up at the seething tavern.

"Yes," she said, once more with lowered brows.

They continued their climb up the road and the noise of revelry faded, though not for long. As the road switched back, the noise grew again, and soon they reached the upper plaza, where the summit of the outcrop housing the tavern had been cut flat into a wide terrace. The place was filled with another mass of Engineers. From the edge of the plaza, the tavern continued to rise in a tower of heavy blocked stone, faced with more balconies and windows, before tapering to a narrow roof that supported an arch from which, by heavy chains, hung another flaming hammer.

"They sure like honouring Kavorter," said Maddock. "I've never known the place so noisy."

"Yes," said Dak as she led him to a steep stair that climbed directly up the hill, away from the plaza. "It seems that we celebrate our special days the opposite way around to the Order's. Today is their day of quiet and abstinence. Tomorrow it is here that will be quiet and no work will be getting done."

"Yeah, I reckon not," said Maddock as he watched two Engineers begin a race up the side of the tavern's tower. One of them was jumping quite nimbly from balcony to architrave, while she called insults down to her much slower competitor, while both were being cheered on by the jubilant masses below.

They soon left the noise behind, and the Workshops descended once more into their strange quiet. As they climbed, they met a few Engineers making their unsteady way up or down the hill. Once, they passed through a courtyard where a group of older Engineers sat at a table, each with a cup at their elbow, honouring Kvorta in their own quiet way. Apart from that the Workshops were silent, until they reached the upper guild-yard, where a centilon of Forge-guard were being paraded in the space between the two rearing war-engines. They wore their thick tragasaur armour, and each had a double hand-axe sheathed at their belt.

"Not everyone's celebrating then?"

"They will raise their cups later," said Dak. "The Workshops must be guarded, especially today when everyone is..."

"Drunk?"

"Importantly engaged. Come on. We are nearly there."

From the upper guild-yard they passed through the rest of the Workshop defences, and eventually came to where they met those of the fortress. After stepping through a gate, beneath a heavy portcullis, they found themselves above a deep square void, spanned by a metal-bound double drawbridge. Dak set off across it straight away, but Maddock found himself struck by sudden apprehension.

While climbing about among the branches of the kernik trees at harvest time, he had never been worried by heights, but there was something about the sheer walls surrounding the empty space, and the way they fell down into utter darkness, that made his insides twist. He did not let his anxiety show, because Dak seemed totally unperturbed by the sheer drop beneath them as she walked close to the edge of the metal bound bridge.

"Have you been into the fortress before?" asked Maddock, to take his mind off the darkness beneath them.

"Many times, but they have been mostly times when I have accompanied my father. Have you?"

"No."

And it was true. Maddock was used to the presence of the fortress, towering on its hill, but he had not once stepped inside the place. They finally left the double bridge behind, and as they climbed the wide stair beyond, he was awed by the indomitable size of the fortress walls, and by the dark brooding quality of the passageways leading through its countless defences.

Eventually, they passed through a final archway, andentered the central-courtyard of the fortress. The place was shadowed andchill. The cold metal bulk of the keep rose up to the clouds on one side, and thick layers of battlements and towers swept from behind it to surround the courtyard on each flank. The two towers and the gates of the main barbican dominated the remaining side, and even though the sun was passed its noon height, the enclosing walls were of such stature that the stone flags of the courtyard were barely touched by its rays and the furthest corners lay in permanent shadow.

"There she is!" whispered Dak, as though unwilling to disturb the quiet of the place.

At first Maddock could not see what Dak was talking about, but then she pointed towards the far side of the courtyard. There, a stone stairway spiralled up a wide pedestal and stopped at its top, where a heavy drawbridge joined it to an odd five sided door, set in the side of the keep between two guard towers. Sitting on the edge of the bridge, her feet swinging over the fall to the courtyard flags, sat Tahlia.

She waved at them and Dak quickly hurried over.

"You are already here?" she called up when she reached the base of the steps.

"Yes," said Tahlia with a mischievous grin, which Maddock recognised from their previous meeting and was quickly coming to dislike. "I have been especially well behaved this morning so my mother did not mind me slipping away. And I see you have brought the boy."

She turned her smile on him as he trailed after Dak.

"She didn't bring me," he said, not even trying to hide the peevishness in his voice.

"She did not bring me, my lady," Tahlia corrected him. "And anyway, you are here so it appears that she did."

"We had plans today before you started your interfering."

Tahlia sighed.

"Is he always this rude?" she said, turning to Dak.

"No!" said Dak before catching Maddock's eye. "I mean, I am not saying that you are being rude now, at all. It is just, well..."

She trailed of in the face of their combined and conflicting glares.

"Anyway," said Tahlia, jumping to her feet. "Come on up the two of you. I have something to show you and it might even teach you to be a little more respectful and a little less rude, Field-hand."

Dak immediately set her foot on the first of the drawbridge pedestal's steps. Maddock shook his head irritably before following.

Tahlia was already through the strange shaped door before Maddock caught up with her, Dak only a short way behind him. They followed her quick steps through a narrow tunnel, with heavy portcullises poised over each end, overlooked by enclosed battlements, and with its arched roof pitted with death-holes. Beyond was another larger chamber, battlemented with metal and stone on all sides, with a narrow stair leading upwards to a crenelated balcony.

"The Engineers did an outstanding thing when they were constructing this fortress' defences," said Dak as she craned her neck to look upwards.

"Klinberg has never fallen," said Tahlia, her voice effusive with pride. "In the last great battle with the Predation, the enemy breached the fortress-bailey, and even captured the access-keep, but they went no further than that."

"These defences have never been needed," said Dak as she began to climb the steps after Tahlia. "Though the Engineers that built them did not stint in their construction."

After the chamber, the nature of the keep changed. The harsh stone walls were softened with painted plaster, and were hung with rich tapestries.

"This way," said Tahlia as she led them through ornately decorated corridors, windowless but lit by rippling glow-lights.

Eventually they came to a tall door, heavy and double leaved, its wooden surface intricately carved.

"This is the hall of arms," said Tahlia, grasping one of the door's heavy handles, which was wrought in dark metal. She pulled, and the door swung open easily, despite its height and Tahlia's small stature. The space beyond was dark.

"We must be quiet. This is a special place."

"No shouting then," said Maddock, his voice purposefully surly.

"Of course not."

"Or screeching. Don't want to cause any commotion do we?"

Tahlia gave him a cold glare before slipping through the door and reaching for the glow-light lever.

Any further comment that Maddock might have made concerning Tahlia's ability at silence was quelled by the sight that greeted him when the lights rippled on. Their brightness cascaded from one glow-globe to the next, and spread out in an ever widening double spiral. The lights revealed a round room of massive proportions. A domed ceiling arched high overhead, and the whole space was filled with colour. Bright banners hung upon the curving wall, and opposite those was a second wall of banners, facing outwards to form a wide aisle that encircled the room. Ahead stretched yet another twin line of banners on tall metal bound staffs, each one heavily bolted to the stone floor.

"What is this place?" asked Maddock, forgetting to hide his awe.

Tahlia grinned, probably at the slack jawed look on his face.

"These are the banners of the noble houses," she said. "The ones that formed the Order."

"But I've seen the Order's flags; Sir Galder's demon skull, and Grand-commander Morath's tree, and the rest."

He took a few steps along the aisle ahead of him, craning his head back to look up at the banners towering on either side. The colour and design of them was staggering in their variety. There were devices of all kinds; castles, swords, lances, shields, mountains, clouds and stars. He recognised many plants and animals on the banners, interwoven into their designs; kernik trees, olap berries and eroni flowers, tragasaur, volus and boak. As well as those, there were so many more that he had no way of recognising; strange creatures, all of them quite outlandish and fearsome. Combined with them, or standing alone, were strange abstract designs, which curled about the borders of the flags and around the devices in their centres. Some were simple, others awfully complex, their coloured fields divided and sub-divided in colour and design.

Before he knew it, he had walked the length of the aisle and found himself in the centre of the room, where five more rows of flags radiated outwards, and where six single banners stood, each facing one of the branching aisles. He recognised the banner in front of him instantly. Its field was of green and black check, and on it was emblazoned a red crak with a sheaf of plains grass grasped in its talons.

"That is the banner of Katchewan Chapter," said Tahlia from behind him. "Sir Unsaethel is their Pride-commander. His old house's banner is over there."

Maddock turned to look at the tall flag that she was pointing at. It showed a field of blue sky with a bestial eye in its centre.

"I don't understand."

"Of course you do not," said Tahlia. "You are uneducated."

Dak was standing at her shoulder.

"Tahlia!" she said in an embarrassed tone.

"Do not worry," said Tahlia. "I am going to educate him."

She turned back to Maddock and smiled, her hands clasped behind her back.

"At the start of the war with the Predation... You have heard of the war with the Predation have you not?"

"Of course I have!"

"Good. Well, when the Predation wars began, the Provinces stretched from the northern mountains to the southern deserts, and from the fire lands in the east to the western archipelagos. They were governed by the families; the noble houses of knighthood that had been granted their lands by Admiral Harper in Naddaran during the Wars of Conquest. He was Fortak's representative, head of the Ecclesiastical Senate and his power was absolute. Are you following this?"

"It's not that difficult," said Maddock.

"Good. So, the wars had been going on for over a hundred years, and the Provinces were losing. There were many reasons for that, but chief among them was a problem with the command of our armies."

"The noble houses could not always agree on things," said Dak helpfully.

"Yes, thank you, Dak."

"They were always fighting over who should be in charge."

"I said, thank you Dak!"

Dak turned her eyes swiftly to the floor.

"Sorry, Tahlia," she mumbled.

"The trouble was that the families were always vying for power with each other," Tahlia want on. "The battle of Hebden Gap was lost because the head of one of the noble houses held his reserve troops back for too long. Some say that he did it on purpose, so that other noble houses would be weakened, but we will never know the truth of what happened because he is dead.

"At Inglobrastan, a knight of one of the lesser houses refused to commit his troops to a counter strike, because the lord who commanded it had refused his daughter's hand in marriage to the man's eldest son. That sort of thing was happening all the time, until there came a great battle here at Klinberg, which was plagued by similar disagreements and squabbles.

"Our armies were devastated and the fortress near destroyed. After the battle, the heads of the six greatest houses met in the ruins, and they looked at the devastation around them and vowed that things must change. They realised that the Predation would never be defeated if the families continued to put their own desires before the safety of the Provinces, so they consulted the Oracle and spent ten days praying, and after those ten days they had an answer. They would unite under Fortak and pledge themselves wholly to the protection of the Provinces and the destruction of the Predation, and so the very first Order of Fortak was formed.

"They took Klinberg as their base and the Engineers rebuilt it into what it is now. Is that not right Dak?"

"That is right," said Dak. "Though it went through many phases, and it took many hundreds of years before it became as you see it now."

"Yes, thank you, Dak."

"The six most powerful houses each formed a chapter, and their names have continued, along with their mantle of arms."

She pointed to the green and black banner above them.

"Katchewan."

She then led them around the inner circle of banners, first pointing to a blue banner that showed a long brightly coloured vesk with two crossed lances behind.

"Asquith."

They passed a grey banner with three moons circling on it

"Bannoc."

Maddock recognised the next banner easily. It was white with a spreading Cherossa tree in its centre. He still associated it with Grand-commander Morath, even though he was dead.

"Jacob."

They passed a yellow banner with a thick red stripe down its centre, surmounted by a curling Karabok horn.

"Dolphus."

Maddock was also very familiar with the next banner. He had seen it enough times when Pride-commander Galder visited the farm. It had a burgundy field with a horned demon's skull in its centre, a curved sword lying underneath.

"And Vikas."

They had completed the circle of flags and had returned to the green and black checked banner of Katchewan Chapter.

"The rest are nothing but memory."

Tahlia said the last bit in, what Maddock assumed, was her best enigmatic tone, and gestured dramatically with her arms outstretched, about the room.

"That's as may be," said Maddock. "But it don't explain why you made Dak bring me all the way up here."

"To show you this, of course."

Tahlia extended her arms again to indicate the expanse of the room.

"A room of old flags? You think this would impress me?"

Tahlia's arms dropped to her side.

"What I am showing you, you ignorant boy, is that you can never be a knight because you do not belong to one of these noble houses. You never have and you never will."

"Well who said that only this lot could be knights?"

Tahlia rolled her eyes.

"Have you not been listening? Admiral Harper bestowed the honor on them."

"Ah, who gave him the right to tell everyone what to do?"

"Admiral Harper was Fortak's representative on the world!"

"Fortak is god of the Orders. He has nothing to do with normal folk."

"Of course he does!" said Tahlia scornfully. "Do you know nothing! Fortak is the reason we are here. How could you ever have thought that you could be a knight if you do not know the simplest of things?"

Maddock grimaced.

"It's Terra who created the world. All I know of Fortak and his laws is that they allow the Order to take all the crops from the farm and give us nothing in return."

"How dare you even criticise the Order that has kept you common folk safe for hundreds of years!" exclaimed Tahlia. "Well I shouldn't be surprised at the ignorance of a mere Field-hand. You! Become a knight! You are just an ill-educated oaf. Come here!"

Tahlia stormed off down one of the aisle of banners and Dak obediently followed, but Maddock held his ground and stood staring at her retreating back.

After a few metres, Dak turned back to him.

"Maddock, please..."

"Why should I?"

"Could you not be humouring her? It is always easier."

"Don't know why I should."

"Please, Maddock!"

"Oh, fine." Maddock stomped past her, but as he did he growled. "You have to grow a spine, Dak!"

He felt instantly guilty about saying it, but his anger propelled him on to where Tahlia was standing beneath one of the towering banners.

The flag was dark green and bordered by grey mountains, with a sleeping ramrok in its centre.

"What?" he said, looking up at it.

"This was once the banner of my father's house."

"So?"

"It is the banner of House Layne."

Maddock simply looked at her and shrugged.

"Can you not guess who my father is?"

"I told you I don't care..."

"My father..." said Tahlia, her voice rising. "Is Sir Kralaford Layne, Pride-commander of Bannoc Chapter!"

Maddock struggled to hide his surprise. From what he had heard of Sir Kralaford, he had seemed to be all right for a knight; fairer and more reasonable than most. To find out that both this annoying little girl, and her thug of a brother, were his children made him wonder whether everything he had heard about the Pride-commander was really true.

"Well?" said Tahlia, looking at him expectantly.

"Well what?"

"I have just told you that my father is one of the most powerful men in this fortress and you give me 'well what!'"

"What would you like me to do, my lady?" Maddock replied. "You want me to fall to my knees and say sorry for being rude?"

"That would be a start!"

"Well I won't. You can take your fancy flags and shove them up your arse!"

Maddock spun around and found Dak standing behind him. Her face was bright red, and she had her hands pressed against her cheeks in shock.

"How dare you talk to me like that..!" Tahlia began.

"Come with me or stay here, Dak. I don't care," said Maddock, ignoring the Order girl's outburst. "Just remember that we had plans today."

Then he pushed past her and stamped off along the line of banners.

* * *

Tahlia was aware that her mouth way hanging open. She was dumbfounded at the boy's bad manners, but she knew she could not merely stand there with such an unladylike expression on her face. She snapped her teeth together, purposefully stuck out her chin, and went in pursuit of the rude child.

"You come back here this instant!" Her shout echoed about the room. "You come back here right now and..." The boy pushed his way out of the door, and it swung closed behind him.

Tahlia stopped beside the Commanders' banners, and gave an exasperated sigh.

She could chase after him, but that would be unseemly.

She took another deep breath.

"Well, we are best rid of that awful boy!" she said, turning her back on the door. Dak was looking at her with wide eyes, probably shocked at the Field-hand's unforgivable behaviour. "We can probably have more fun without him anyway. What would you like to do now?"

"Sorry, Tahlia," muttered Dak to her boots, before stumbling past her and running clumsily towards the door.

Tahlia spread her arms to either side.

"What?" she said, but Dak did not reply.

The only answer she received was the dull thud as the door closed behind her friend, the noise echoing up to the room's girder clad ceiling and returning to fall among the lines of banners.