Our story thus far: Lord Marshal Riddick, for reasons we have not explored but likely were nihilistic and perhaps a tiny bit oppositional defiant, ordered the entire Necromonger fleet into the Threshold of the Underverse. Subsequently, our Riddick woke, naked, in a young lady's parlour. In another universe. Susan, the young lady in question, was not pleased, as Riddick's presence signaled that her grandfather, the anthropomorphic embodiment of Death, had gone on walk abouts, leaving the family business – represented by The Pale Horse and The Scythe – to her. Mounting the Pale Horse, Binky, she brought Riddick, clothed, to Death's realm in an effort to investigate. Riddick discovers he likes Binky, who, he learns has the ability to go anywhere. Anywhere. Insert dramatic eyebrow waggling here.

As Susan is researching her Riddick troubles in Death's Dark Study, Lobsang, Susan's boyfriend and the son of the anthropomorphic embodiment of Time arrived with grave news that Riddick's attempt to give the Necromongers what they want may be shredding the multiverse. He also lets slip that the Underverse is a real place where Necromongers go when they die. Realizing that Jack might in fact be rescuable, Riddick decides to ride forth and save her. After mysteriously agreeing on "nine minutes," Susan slays Riddick with Death's own scythe. Our tale then took us to the Underverse, where we learn Jack was in fact reborn in the Underverse after dying saving Riddick's life, and has sadly fallen into the hands of people who are not overly solicitous of her welfare. We returned to Death's study. Time has rolled back nine minutes. Riddick is not dead – yet – and instead is given dinner and a comfy bed.

The next morning, Riddick explores the grounds and wanders into another realm and meets Morpheus, the Lord of Dreams, guest staring from Neil Gaiman's Sandman. After unsuccessfully whapping Riddick over the head with clues, Morpheus sends Riddick back to Death's Dark Pasture, where Binky awaits an apple or three. After a picnic with a horse, Riddick returns to Death's Dark Stable, where Susan announces that Riddick has afflicted them with dragons. She takes him to a village that has not survived the dragony onslaught. Our story continues . . .

Chapter Eight: In Which We Speak of Cabbages and Kings, and why the Sea is Boiling Hot – oh, Wait, No, Dragons. We're talking about Dragons.

Sto Helit was dense with the stink of cabbages and people who thought Susan was royalty. Both gave Riddick a headache. After the children had been safely stowed away with an overawed relative, and dragon-oriented messages sent via some primitive signal flag based technology, Susan headed back for Binky. Riddick got there first.

As they were mounting the horse, Riddick snapped at her, "This is not my fault."

"Of course not." She held out a hand and, without thinking about it, he helped her mount. Irritating.

"Where we goin'?"

"Ankh-Morpork."

"Why?"

She turned around on Binky's back and glared at him. "That dragon that you unleashed on my universe is on its way there. The one that's not your fault."

"There's only one universe."

She snorted. "Yeah. No. The wizards say that's definitional. There's one universe. Ponder calls it the 'multiverse.' But there are different layers. All stacked on top. Or intertwined. Ponder was a little unclear."

"Ponder?"

"Stimmons. He's a wizard. Makes more sense than most of them. Helped me out once. I went and talked to him. He told me that sometimes, they . . . get twisted, or break into each other. That's what you did. You made one get too big, and it's eating things." She made a strange hand gesture, and for just an instant, they were standing at the edge of a whirlpool in space. "That's – that's sort of it."

Black hole? He thought. I turned the Underverse into a black hole? Out loud he said, "So?"

"So if one universe is full of dragons, and one is full of flammable beautiful maidens, there's going to be a problem when the walls come tumbling down."

Riddick closed his eyes. Something about the word 'maiden' bothered him. He was sure Susan did not know that. Real sure.

"There it is," she cut through his thoughts. Binky began a long graceful spiral downwards.

The dragon was big. Real big. Shooting flame out of its mouth. That's why the town burned, Riddick realized abruptly, feeling foolish. Not weapons' fire. Dragon fire. Dragons shoot fire. Right. Why didn't I know that?

There was a loose group of armed . . . men and women? Something about that seemed not quite correct – loosely circling the dragon. Behind them were very old and very fat men seeming to be wearing dresses, and a woman of a certain age who seemed to be in charge. She seemed to have a bodyguard of . . . baby dragons?

Susan nudged him with an elbow. "Don't be surprised if the humans can't see you," she said, quietly. "Looks like maybe it's been contained, at a cost. Looks like I've got grandfather's business to take care of. Humans are very good at ignoring those on grandfather's business." Binky landed lightly, not far from the fight. She dismounted and marched grimly towards the thick of things. Riddick followed more slowly.

The dragon had wings. Improbably, it appeared to have been grounded by an orangutan, who was bouncing up and down on the thing's back with what appeared to be glee. Clearly, they were working something out.

Riddick turned to the biggest man among those confronting the dragon. Bulging muscles. A shock of red hair. Every inch a hero. Riddick despised him instantly.

The woman beside him . . . now she was another thing entirely. She had a sword in her hand but looked like she would have been just as deadly with her teeth. Susan was approaching her grimly. Feeling oddly protective, Riddick found himself catching up, locking himself behind Susan's shoulder. They passed close enough to the two fighters to touch them.

Hero boy's eyes passed right over them, unseeing. But the woman – she saw. Their eyes met. The woman's eyes widened slightly. Riddick kept going, staying close to Susan.

Susan had found what she was looking for, a very short, very old man wearing a dress. She swung the scythe, and a much younger man stood up from the corpse.

"Bugger," he said.

Susan held out a hand. He looked at it suspiciously. "Can we hold off for a few minutes? Gotta make sure the spell holds. I'm a wizard, you know."

"What spell?" Susan asked, mildly.

"I made the dragon think the librarian is its chick. And the watchman its mate."

Susan blinked rapidly. For the first time since Riddick met her, she seemed utterly flummoxed.

"Gosh," she finally managed.

Almost despite himself, Riddick turned to look at the dragon. It's a she. Alrighty. Wonder which one is the librarian?

Are there hero librarians?

Makes more sense than orangutan librarians.

This place is fucked up.

Susan finally managed, weakly, "I think it's going to be okay. You died a hero."

Riddick's attention was suddenly pulled to the sky. Women on horses were hovering there impatiently.

"I'm entitled to Death's personal attention," the man said, weakly defiant.

"I know," she repeated. "And you're getting it." She simply took his hand and both of them vanished into a hole in the world. The women on horseback followed. Riddick felt like there was something important going on he was missing.

He turned towards the dragon, which now seemed to be purring.

This world is really fucked up. He walked closer to the dragon, which seemed queerly kitten like. The orangutan was actually scratching it behind an ear with a spear.

"You're with Death?" someone said in his ear. The woman. He'd never heard her move. She was staring at him as if she could see him.

"Just along for the ride," he murmured. Hero Boy was climbing up the dragon, who appeared to be helping. Very disturbing.

"Hm." She was looking at him sidelong, most of her attention on Hero-boy. He felt the stirrings of something warm and green inside.

"Name's Riddick," he offered.

She smiled at him. "Angua."

They watched the dragon.

"So I'm guessing you have something to do with the sudden growth in our dragon population?"

"What makes you think that?"

"Call it . . . Watchman intuition."

He took a moment to untangle that. "You're a cop?"

A lupine smile appeared quickly, and was quickly gone. "Among other things. What brings you here, Riddick?"

"Just passin' through."

"Just passing through On the Pale Horse?"

What's with the capital letters? Oh, what the hell. "Lady, I'm not from around here. But buy me a beer, and I'll tell you all about it."

Angua paused. Looked over at the hero boy who was, improbably, clearly urging the dragon to take off with him a dragon back. She smiled a wolfish smile. "What the hell. I'm almost off duty anyway, and looks like Carrot has everything under control. As usual."

"Carrot?"

She jerked a shoulder towards the dragon. "Our dragon rider. My boy. So to speak. Think your horse will take two?"

Riddick followed her gaze over to Binky. Then he smiled a long slow smile. "My horse? He can take thousands."