The Raven's Warning

by A. E. Rayne

  ‘They’re strong, then?’

  ‘Just a bit.’

  Axl looked worried, not feeling very strong himself. ‘Well, I hope we have enough of it. Edela mentioned that we were getting low on niter.’

  Jael bent over, her ears buzzing again, thinking that she might need to go and find Astrid for more of that tincture. ‘We’ll have to make do with what we have. Fire arrows are what we need now. I’ve been at the fletchers, and they seem to be working hard. The blacksmiths too. The fire arrowheads are the best. More accurate. I’ve got them making more of those.’

  Axl nodded. ‘I agree.’

  ‘And what about Raymon Vandaal? Gant mentioned that you’d arranged to meet him in Rissna?’

  ‘Mmmm, I thought we should meet to formalise our alliance. He needs to know how serious things are. How essential his men and weapons are to our attack on Hest. To build a big army, we need more men.’

  ‘We do,’ Jael agreed, lifting her head slowly. ‘And hopefully, he’ll give us his.’

  ‘Give?’

  ‘Well, he can come along too,’ Jael grinned.

  Axl was too distracted by the enormity of what was coming to smile. ‘How will we do it, though? Take an army all the way to Hest? If the sickness is a curse and the woman on Helsabor’s throne is a Follower, we’ll be facing a double threat now.’

  ‘We will. But we have our own book, and that book will help us stay safe. Don’t worry. Edela will find a way.’

  Edela wanted to throw the book out the open door.

  It had seemed simple enough: finding counter symbols to break the three Briggit had used when she threw the curse.

  But it was not.

  And Edela’s sleepless night was starting to catch up with her. She found herself dozing occasionally, the book open on her lap, her grainy eyes unable to focus for long, and eventually, closing altogether.

  But within moments she was jerking awake, panting, grabbing at the book as it slid off her knee, onto the floor.

  She’d had another dream.

  17

  ‘You look better,’ Thorgils grinned. ‘On your feet, even.’

  Jael stared at him. ‘For now.’

  Thorgils was happy to see her. ‘Well, don’t you worry, if you fall down again, I’ll pick you up. Carry you to bed. Tuck you in.’

  ‘Is there something you wanted?’ Jael grumbled, walking away from Thorgils towards the harbour. She wanted to see how Entorp was managing, moving everyone into the fort. ‘Shouldn’t you be with Isaura? Or training? Something useful. I think we’ve latrines to dig out.’

  ‘You have many good suggestions there,’ Thorgils nodded, looking serious. ‘Think I’ll take the first one. Sounds like the most pleasant way to spend the afternoon.’

  ‘Perhaps, but it won’t help us when the dragur come charging down the hills and over the walls. We’re all going to need somewhere to go and shit then.’

  Thorgils burst out laughing, clapping Jael on the shoulder. ‘You’re back, then. I’m glad, but I’m not going to dig out your latrines. I think my cousin is looking for a job, though. I’ll go and find him. Think I saw him with Bram.’ Thorgils’ eyes twinkled, happy that his uncle was on his feet again.

  ‘I’m sure Fyn would thank you for volunteering him.’

  ‘I’m sure he would!’ And with a wink, Thorgils disappeared after Fyn or Isaura... he couldn’t make up his mind.

  Jael’s smile was quickly replaced by a frown as she spied Karsten Dragos lurking outside the ship sheds. He saw her and turned away. ‘Karsten!’ Jael called, quickening her pace.

  He stopped, irritated to have been seen.

  By her.

  ‘Are you going in?’ Jael wondered as he turned around. ‘To see your wife? Perhaps you could carry her out? They’re moving everyone into the fort to keep them safe from the dragur.’

  Karsten glared so fiercely at Jael that she could almost see inside his soul. She could feel his grief, buried deep inside. He had lost so many people recently, and she could feel the pain throbbing inside him, desperate for a release, which would be useful if he could keep it inside for the dragur.

  Though that appeared unlikely.

  ‘My wife?’ Karsten snarled. ‘What do you care about my wife? Or my father or my brother? Or his wife?’ He stepped towards Jael, peering into her eyes. ‘What do you care about any of us?’

  Jael was caught between making things worse or better. Tiredness had a way of quickening her temper, and Karsten had a way of getting under her skin. ‘I don’t,’ she said coldly. ‘I don’t care about any of you. I care about killing your bastard brother. I care about taking the book from him and Draguta. I care about killing Morana Gallas and her brother, but I don’t care about any of you.’

  Karsten stepped back, surprised by Jael’s anger.

  It dampened his own.

  ‘I imagine your wife would like to know that you cared about her, though. She might like someone to hold her hand and make her feel less alone. Someone like her husband who seems more interested in sticking his knife through my eye to make himself feel better, and less interested in how she feels.’ And with that, Jael disappeared into the first shed, leaving Karsten staring after her, his mouth hanging open.

  Usually, it was a simple enough spell, and Draguta wondered if she had over thought it. But Jaeger was powerful, his soul almost entirely consumed by the book now. It would not be easy to command it herself. To bind him to her. Control him. Take him away from the Book of Darkness and make him hers.

  But that was what she intended to do.

  Evaine had brought her everything she needed of Jaeger’s, and between the three of them, they had gathered the herbs, stones, and bits of creatures that she would require for the ritual. And though she didn’t have an ancient stone circle to enhance the power of her spell, she felt confident that come dawn, Jaeger Dragos would belong to her, just as Eadmund did.

  Evaine had been of no use and was more of an irritant than any actual help, so Draguta had sent her back to Eadmund, happy to enjoy the welcome silence with just Brill beside her, dutifully doing as she was bid without complaint.

  Brill, it appeared, had no thoughts at all. Certainly none that Draguta could hear and she was grateful for that as she watched her grinding the tiny henbane seeds in the large copper bowl.

  ‘We will go to the tower tonight,’ Draguta murmured. ‘It will not be ideal, but we do not have the luxury of waiting for a full moon. Not if we want to return home quickly. I must take Jaeger now before he causes any more problems. Before we are riddled with bed bugs. This is not the place for us, is it, Brill? No, we must return to the castle and see how poor Morana is. And we shall, soon.’

  They had disappeared into the winding gardens, hoping to be far enough away from Morana so she couldn’t hear their conversation or listen to their thoughts. Meena wasn’t convinced that she could really do such a thing, but the way her aunt stared at her sometimes made her feel as though Morana’s fingers were in her head, digging around.

  Else was trying to be helpful, but she didn’t know what to advise.

  She felt as confused as Meena.

  ‘It’s a choice between two equally terrible things,’ she panted, the path rising before them as the late afternoon sun beat down strongly overhead. ‘It’s like asking yourself, would I prefer to be eaten by a wolf or a mountain cat?’

  ‘Or a bear,’ Meena added, thinking about Jaeger.

  ‘The book is the problem,’ Else decided. ‘Without it, things would be much simpler, wouldn’t they?’

  ‘Yes, but to steal it or destroy it would have me killed by one of them. To run and take it would have me followed by all of them. There is no way to get rid of the book without dying that I can see,’ Meena insisted, heading for a stone bench, reminded of her grandmother who would always need to sit on it to catch her breath. ‘And if I’m dead I can’t help anyone.’

  Else sat down beside Meena with a thump. She had slept poorly since she’d been st
aying in Morana’s chamber; worried that the evil dreamer would suddenly come to life in the night and kill her. Her dreams were filled with dark thoughts that had her waking up in a sweat, unable to find her way back to sleep. ‘And you really see Draguta returning?’

  ‘I do.’

  ‘Should we try to break Morana out of her cursed state, then? Ask Dragmall to really try?’

  Meena nodded reluctantly. ‘I think so. I cannot keep us safe from Draguta. Perhaps Morana can’t either, but she is stronger than me. She can read the book. I can’t. I’ve looked at it every day. Every day! It still makes no sense to me. I recognise some of the words and symbols, but I don’t know what to do with them. The book was not meant for me.’

  ‘I’m glad to hear it,’ Else smiled, patting Meena’s leg. ‘But what will Morana do with it? If we manage to bring her back?’

  Meena looked worried. ‘I’m not sure. But I imagine she would want to stop Draguta from returning. From trying to kill her.’

  ‘Yes, she would. And surely that is the biggest problem of all? For if Draguta comes back, Morana won’t be alive for long. And when she’s dead, what will become of the rest of us?’

  The clouds drifted across the sun, and suddenly everything felt much darker, and Meena found herself shivering, wondering the very same thing herself.

  ‘I will try and break the curse tonight,’ Edela announced with some confidence. She had woken up from her doze with the realisation that she had muddled the order of the symbols. And fixing that mistake had made it much easier to find the answer to breaking the curse in the Book of Aurea.

  Entorp looked hopeful.

  Biddy was nervous.

  Eydis felt excited. ‘Can I come?’

  ‘Of course. You are a powerful dreamer, Eydis. I will need you for sure. We will go to Furia’s Tree. It is the most sacred place in Andala. The only place I can think of to do it.’ She dug into Biddy’s basket, pleased with what she had collected, including the dead rats. ‘I will need to ask you to skin one of those poor creatures, I’m afraid,’ Edela said, looking at Biddy who shuddered, not liking rats at all. ‘I need to draw the symbols onto it. Just as Briggit did. I must take her curse and renounce it in the same way. Bury it in the ground, as she did. In a sacred place, asking for the gods’ help. In magic, I believe, there must be balance. It is the same with healing. Hot and cold. Sweet and sour. And tonight I will add my weight to the scales, and we will have balance again. And hopefully, no more curse.’

  ‘What can I do?’ Entorp asked.

  ‘You must carve symbols as soon as you’re able,’ Edela said. ‘The stonemasons have been building up the hole in the wall. As soon as there’s wall enough to join from one side to the other, you must add the symbols onto that new piece of wall. It doesn’t matter how tiny you have to carve them. A symbol doesn’t need to be large to be powerful. And with the gates closed and the symbols around the walls, we will have a complete enclosure once more. And though it will not protect us from Draguta, it should keep us safe from Briggit and her Followers. They cannot see past our symbols, I’m sure. They are not as powerful as Draguta is,’ Edela said, smiling confidently, though her insides twisted with doubts.

  Karsten looked over at the huddle of whisperers. He wondered what they were talking about: Jael’s grandmother, her servant, the blind girl.

  What were they up to?

  Sighing, he looked back at Nicolene, realising that he was trying to distract himself.

  He didn’t want to be here.

  Having finally decided to stop avoiding the sheds, he had entered the one he believed Nicolene to be in, only to be told that she had already been moved into the fort. She had gone downhill rapidly, quicker than anyone they’d seen apparently, and Karsten suspected that Nicolene had been ill for some time but hadn’t wanted to say anything. He hoped not. He didn’t want to think that any of the children might have caught it.

  Other husbands and wives sat around on the floor, kneeling, squatting, sitting. Karsten wanted a stool, but they were all being used by the whispering huddle, and he wouldn’t have been able to hold Nicolene’s hand if he’d been sitting on one.

  He wasn’t sure he wanted to hold her hand at all.

  He couldn’t keep still, finally kneeling, swallowing, looking everywhere but at his wife, until, eventually, he reached out and almost snatched at her hand.

  It dropped into his.

  There was no life in it at all, and that’s when his tears came.

  Karsten couldn’t remember when he’d last felt powerful. Untouchable. As though he walked with the gods themselves. It was a feeling that had lived in him as naturally as blood flowing through his veins. Now it felt as though the gods had abandoned him; ripping his family away, one by one.

  And Karsten wasn’t sure that he wanted to be the last one standing.

  ‘Where are they?’ Axl felt impatient as he stood alongside his sister on the ramparts. The sun was sinking, and the air was cooling, and there had been no sign of the dragur yet.

  ‘I don’t know,’ Jael admitted, worrying for the first time that her instincts were wrong. The dragur had been chasing them, she was sure. Just as they had tracked them from Hallow Wood. Just as they had run out of the burning shell of Harstad after them.

  But she thought they would have been here by now.

  Jael wondered if Draguta had other things on her mind? In the end, she decided that no matter what plans Draguta was making, she would not let them be. She would not let them keep the Book of Aurea. She would send her blue monsters after it one day soon.

  Perhaps, Jael realised as a thought took hold, perhaps the book was the only way Draguta could find her sister? If she hadn’t already.

  ‘They will come,’ she insisted. ‘Whether tonight or next month, they’re out there somewhere. Roaming Osterland. We need to remain alert. Be ready.’

  ‘I have to leave for Rissna,’ Axl said. ‘Raymon Vandaal will be there soon, waiting to meet me.’

  ‘You? You’ve decided to take over, then? You don’t need me anymore?’

  Axl shook his head. ‘No. It’s just... you weren’t here.’

  ‘But now I’m back, so I’ll be coming with you,’ Jael said. ‘You and Raymon Vandaal have likely got one battle between you. Neither of you are equipped to lead a great army into the fight we’re about to head for. We have no idea who we’re going to be facing. What we’re going to be facing.’

  Axl couldn’t disagree. ‘Well, then, I didn’t think I’d ever say this, but I hope the dragur come soon. I don’t want to leave the fort exposed. If we do, we’re likely to come back and find everyone dead.’

  Jael frowned, knowing that there was a real possibility of that happening. ‘I hope so too,’ she said, inhaling the smell of fish as it wafted in from the harbour on a stiffening breeze. The ships had come in that morning with an enormous catch, and the smell of it was everywhere.

  Fish, yes, but no dragur.

  Eadmund opened the door with only a fur wrapped around his waist.

  Brill blushed, staring at her boots. ‘My mistress wants Evaine to come. She is to help her tonight.’

  Eadmund looked back into his new, pokey cottage at Evaine who was hidden in the shadows beneath the other bed fur. ‘Why?’

  That stumped Brill. Her long face appeared to lengthen further as her mouth hung open, her brows furrowing anxiously. ‘She... requires her to come. There is a spell. Evaine must be there to help.’

  Eadmund nodded, finding himself unable to argue against anything Draguta required, as much as he often felt the urge to. ‘She’ll be there,’ he said, closing the door on Brill who took a deep breath before turning around and trudging away into the last sunshine of the day.

  ‘I don’t want to go,’ Evaine protested, popping up from beneath the fur, her hair tangled all around her like a snow-covered bush.

  And looking at her body, Eadmund was ready to agree, but he could almost see Draguta’s face, red with displeasure, and he dropped hi
s fur and picked up his tunic, shrugging it over his head. ‘You have to go. I’m sure you won’t be long, then you can come back. We have all night. It’s still early. And maybe I can get some sleep. I might need it,’ he smiled.

  Evaine didn’t smile as Eadmund searched the cottage for the clothes he had ripped off her. They were filthy and needed a wash after her journey, but they were all she had for now, so, sighing dramatically, Evaine shuffled to the edge of the bed and started dressing. ‘Why are you so keen to please Draguta?’ she asked. ‘What has she done to you?’

  ‘She brought me here so you would come. So you would bring her what she needed,’ Eadmund said, retrieving Evaine’s boots from by the door.

  ‘But you’re doing all this training. Trying to please her. Why would you do that? You’re a king. She is not even a queen. Not anymore.’

  Eadmund was momentarily confused. Part of him could see that it was indeed strange for him to be doing Draguta’s bidding, but that thought evaporated before it took hold. ‘I may be a king, but I’m not in my kingdom, am I? Neither of us are. Here is where Draguta rules. Hest is her kingdom, queen or not, and we are hers to do with as she wishes. Both of us. We are hers, Evaine. We must help her get what she wants.’ And leaning down, Eadmund kissed Evaine’s pouting lips. ‘Come on, the quicker you help her, the quicker you’ll be back in bed with me.’

  But Evaine didn’t move as she stared after Eadmund who was already opening the door, wondering what Draguta had done to him.

  Where had he gone?

  The King’s Hall was packed to the gunwales, ringing with the sound of loud voices, and Jael felt the urge to escape to her bedchamber, not wanting to face the people who were almost lining up to speak to her; none more so than her own mother, who she had so far managed to avoid. But now she found herself trapped between a wall and Gisila, and there appeared no quick exit, not unless she wanted to squeeze her way past Rork Arnesson, who was not inclined to move once he had a cup in his hand.