War of the Raven Queen: The Goddess Prophecies Fantasy Series Book 6

by Araya Evermore

  Asaph took her hand, his eyes saying everything—that he wished she would stay and yet he did not want to be without her. With her other hand she laid a finger on his lips. He took that too in his hand and kissed her fully.

  Ehka got to his feet from his cosy nest by the fire. Ruffling his feathers, he reluctantly looked up into the darkening sky.

  ‘He’s right,’ said Issa as she helped Asaph throw snow on the fire. It sizzled and fought against the onslaught, then with a whining hiss, succumbed and went out.

  ‘Right about what?’ asked Asaph. ‘I didn’t hear anything.’

  ‘He says we should go ahead first and scout out the area. In fact, I shall insist upon it as a condition.’

  Asaph grinned at her, ‘I knew you’d find something to insist upon.’

  ‘I don’t know what you mean,’ Issa huffed, feeling her cheeks warm. ‘I just like to have a say in stuff, that’s all.’

  ‘All right, but half an hour and no more. It will give me time to think,’ said Asaph, stamping his feet to keep warm. ‘But any longer, and I shall come breathing fire. I’ll meet you on the beach where we discussed. We must move quickly; our presence may already have been detected.’ He scanned the evergreen forest as if half-expecting a Life Seeker to burst out from the gloom.

  ‘Half an hour,’ agreed Issa. ‘But what do we do about that?’ She pointed to the dragon harness slowly covering with snow.

  Asaph shrugged. ‘We’ll have to leave it here, I daren’t leave it any nearer to Draxa. Anyway, there are no paths here, and look, we’re surrounded by mountain and forest. No one will find it.’

  Issa nodded, hoping they would live long enough to retrieve it. She looked up at the sky, taking a deep breath she touched her raven mark, felt the rush of the change come upon her and instinctively beat her wings. Ehka followed her into the air. She watched Asaph looking up at her until he was lost in the darkness below. Through falling snow, she cloaked their presence and headed west where the sky was a little lighter.

  The enormous city of Draxa emerged through a snow cloud complete with three Dromoorai circling the towers.

  Issa slowed, strengthening her cloaking magic and trying to ignore the fear chilling her blood further. Maphraxies marched the turrets and courtyards, and lined the inner and outer walls. There were hundreds of them, their black armour stark against the grey stone and white snow.

  I’ll bet the bastards are impervious to the cold, too, she thought.

  She watched a unit march through the great iron gates, flanked by bigger, higher-ranked Maphraxies with swords and followed by a Dromoorai passing low above them. The sound of their boots thudded loudly on the ancient cobbles. The number of enemies dismayed her. Was this to be a hopeless, suicidal battle? It would certainly be the hardest. Diredrull had not been easy but they’d had an enormous army.

  For all the years that had passed, the castle remained mostly unchanged. She could see where sections of walls and towers had been rebuilt so they were not all uniform, although one still had no peak but had, instead, a ragged wall around it.

  Though the castle’s original structure was largely the same, she could not say that about the town. In the place where houses, taverns, and market stalls had once stood, were now erected the ugly, squat, square buildings of Maphraxie barracks. And beneath them, a warren of crawling Dark Dwarf tunnels, she thought. It was just as Diredrull had been.

  She circled high, keeping her distance. Ehka circled even farther away. And where are the houses beyond the city walls? Where are the farmsteads, the breweries, the grain houses, the sheep flocks and horse paddocks? Where are the fields of corn, oats and wheat? There is nothing, it’s all been destroyed. This disgusting, cancerous army creates and rebuilds nothing, and they’re not even alive!

  A particularly cold wind gusted, piercing through her feathers, making her shiver. She headed to the north-western edge of the city where the walls stacked high upon rock, creating an unforgiving drop of a thousand feet or more to the sea below.

  Between the towering cliffs, she spied tiny shingled coves where Asaph would meet her and where Marakon would hopefully dock. She descended cautiously, scouting the place for enemies. She dared to land and release her raven form but kept her shield up.

  It was the flame ring growing warm on her finger that alerted her to Asaph’s presence, but she could not otherwise detect the arrival of the huge dragon and all she saw in the Flow was the faintest wobble in the energies.

  ‘There are many enemies, it almost seems hopeless,’ she said silently in the Daluni animal speak before he could change form and lose the ability to commune silently.

  ‘It was always going to be this way,’ the dragon’s deep voice rumbled in her mind. ‘If you look carefully along the cliff, you’ll see the steps up. I’ll go first but I won’t be able to speak or use magic. Can you shield us both?’

  ‘I can, but it will make us easier to detect.’

  ‘So be it. Through memory, and the Recollection if I must, I can guide us once we’re inside.’

  ‘What do we do then?’

  ‘Kill Vornus,’ said Asaph, a deadly tone to his voice.

  ‘What if he isn’t in there?’

  ‘He is, I can smell him. After, we continue the killing through stealth and magic. Inside, it’s vast, even bigger now the dark dwarves are here. I know hidden rooms that may still exist where we can hide and rest. If we get caught we’ll hold out until Marakon comes. We must secure an entrance for him. He will not be able to open the door from the outside, only I or my kin can enter…until I break the code. For now we’ll secure and protect the beach with magic and light a guiding beacon that only a human wizard can see.’

  Issa did not feel good about any of this. She bent down to Ehka. ‘Where we go you cannot easily follow. Find the seers; tell them what we’re doing. Find Freydel, wherever he is. I saw him… he’s out there somewhere. But we need them now more than ever, all of them.’

  Ehka nodded but did not immediately leave. He was scared, too.

  Silently, she helped Asaph protect the beach with magic wards and beacons, praying every moment that no necromancer was near enough to feel their magic. When they were done, the beach shimmered in the Flow, visible to any wizard searching the fields of magic. Hopefully it was invisible to anybody who used the Under Flow. It was a risk Asaph was prepared to take. She had never seen him so cold, so driven. It frightened her.

  When he released his dragon form she quickly shielded him with magic. It was a slow but manageable drain on her reserves. If they could find safe places to rest, she would hopefully cope. She followed Asaph up the steps, palm sweaty in her glove as she gripped Illendri. Already she wished she were far away from this place.

  The steps ended at a blank piece of rock. If she stared hard she could just make out the fine outline of a door. She looked up the sheer drop of the cliff to the turrets thousands of feet above. It was a long way to go in tunnels of darkness filled with Maphraxies and all the horrors of their most hated and feared enemy. Perhaps this was foolish. There had to be another way!

  ‘Look, we don’t have to do it this way. It feels…reckless,’ she said, then felt cowardly.

  Asaph whispered back. ‘I know how you feel but I’ve thought this through and through. Vornus is a coward, he’ll flee at the first sign of battle, just like he’s done before. I can’t let him go again.’

  ‘But we’ll end up getting killed, too,’ she blurted. She’d promised to stand by him, and she would, but… The look on Asaph’s face told her he was not turning back.

  She sighed. ‘All right…’

  ‘Ready?’ Asaph asked.

  Swallowing, she nodded.

  Excitement, fear, adrenaline, fury—all these washed through Asaph as he placed his hands upon the stone door.

  For all that he could not feel or use magic in his human form, he felt the enchantments on the stone door respond to him, as if welcoming him home. The door ground inwards, making him wince at the
noise, then slid to the left.

  Wind howled past them into the pitch-black entrance. He grabbed Issa’s hand and pulled her inside.

  ‘What about the sudden wind?’ she whispered. ‘It will alert anyone.’

  Asaph shrugged. ‘We can’t help that. Can you break the door? Otherwise it will seal shut behind us.’

  ‘I can try.’ Issa placed her hand on Illendri and her other on the stone. A loud crack sounded as the door broke into two.

  She grinned. ‘The enchantment I couldn’t break but the door can no longer close.’

  Asaph nodded. ‘It will do.’

  He peered into the darkness. Slowly his keen dragon sight adjusted, and he could make out the faint steps leading up between damp, narrow stone walls. He closed his eyes, remembering hurtling down these steps in Coronos’ arms. Had he known then as a babe that he would return this very same way? How funny destiny is.

  The steps went up forever, and it was slow going as each footfall was carefully, silently placed. He recalled all his stealth training with the Kuapoh, now called the Navadin—they would be here with him soon.

  A scratching noise came from ahead, then a loud sniffing noise followed by a growl. Asaph paused and motioned for Issa to stop.

  ‘Death hound,’ she mouthed silently, her face paling.

  Asaph nodded and wondered how many. With his fingernails he scratched the wall lightly. More sniffing noises came and another low growl, then the sound of claws on stone padding closer. It caught scent of them and barked, picking up the pace.

  Asaph lifted his sword. A black shape leapt in the darkness, its yelp cut off as Asaph’s sword severed the beast in two. Another shape followed but was unable to dodge his sideswipe. With a whimper it rolled, and Asaph severed its throat.

  They waited in the darkness, listening for more as the patter of black blood dripped off his sword and the gagging smell of the undead assailed their noses.

  Silence.

  They tiptoed up the steps until they came to a wooden door the hounds had been guarding.

  ‘They’re clearly not expecting us,’ Asaph snickered.

  Issa let out a held breath.

  He pushed on the door. It didn’t budge. He slammed his shoulder against it, breaking the simple hinge and lock and falling inside. Another rock hewn tunnel led ahead, and a faint glow of light came from somewhere around the corner. There would be some shallow rooms, mainly for storing ropes, oars, and all sorts of boating equipment, then more stairs and rooms. He remembered this place clearly, the memories so detailed they almost overlaid his sight.

  ‘What is it?’ Issa asked, peering ahead.

  ‘It’s nothing… I just remember here.’ He swallowed. And what if he found it? What if he found her chamber? Would the memory come upon him again? Would he be forced to relieve her final moments? A torturous rape of the worst kind—mind, body and soul? Maybe he was not ready to find it.

  ‘Find what?’ Issa asked.

  He looked at her, wondering how much he’d spoken aloud. ‘My mother’s chamber…I don’t know if I want to find it.’

  Voices came.

  They dropped back into the previous tunnel.

  The voices came closer and the light moved as someone walked in front of it.

  ‘…the dogs sensed something, I felt them,’ said a high-pitched, almost hissing voice.

  Ignoring Issa pulling on his arm, Asaph leant forwards and peaked around the corner. The alabaster face of a necromancer swathed in black robes flashed into view. He fell back and turned to Issa.

  Necromancer, he mouthed. Issa held her breath. Slowly, he dared to peer again as another voice spoke, deeper and gruffer.

  ‘They’re barking at ghosts again. They’d better have done their job and seen them off. Master Hameka will not waste any more guards on this exit, or “the arsehole of this place” as he calls it. I told you never to leave it.’

  Beside the necromancer walked a squat, heavily armoured dwarf, his mace swinging at his side.

  Asaph thought fast. Make quick work of the necromancer before it cast any spells. Issa could distract the dwarf long enough. She wouldn’t use the Flow, it would alert everything to their presence.

  ‘The ghosts here have solid substance and a malice unlike any other,’ hissed the necromancer. ‘The dogs are no match for them.’

  Gripping his sword, Asaph held his breath and got ready to spring. The dwarf came around the corner first, his yellow eyes seeing clearly in the darkness as he lifted his mace. Asaph grabbed hold of the nearest thing, which happened to be the dwarf’s beard, yanked and used it to leap over his head. He smashed the pommel of his sword into the face of the necromancer. It had barely raised its hands to cast its spell when its face crumpled into the pommel, watery blood spurted, and it fell, smoke billowing up around it. Before it even hit the floor, the necromancer was gone, its robes just an empty smoking pile on the stone.

  He spun around to see Issa grimacing, sword embedded in the dwarf’s exposed neck, and her boot on its shoulder as she wrenched it free. The dwarf fell, and Asaph caught him to stop him clattering on the floor. Quickly, he dragged the body down the steps into the darkness. They waited again, panting, listening for any noise.

  So, this was how it was going to be, inching through the darkness, taking out the enemy one by one. If it took him a year to clear the place in this manner, he would do it.

  Issa wiped the sweat from her brow, hot despite the frigid cold of the tunnel, and tried to relax her taut shoulders.

  She didn’t like hiding and stealth fighting at all, especially not underground and in enclosed spaces. She preferred her battles outside, even against an entire army. She became aware of an unusual, unnatural presence, and small hands pressing into her calf.

  ‘Maggot?’ she whispered.

  Only his eyes glowed in the darkness and then his ugly face and protruding tooth materialised.

  ‘You can’t be here,’ she said. ‘It’s dangerous.’

  ‘That’s why I came. Does Issy need Shadow Demon warriors? King has them ready for you.’

  ‘Not yet, Maggot, but soon,’ said Issa.

  A strange emotion stole over her. The demons had betrayed her parents, her trust had been undermined and there were questions that needed answering. Would they betray her too in the end? Never trust a demon…And yet when she looked at the evil, innocent face of Maggot—a demon who had always been loyal, always her friend—how could she doubt them? I guess I have to take them one at time, judge each on their own actions. It didn’t make life easy, but she would have to trust them for now.

  ‘Can we trust him?’ Asaph asked, echoing her thoughts as he peered down at the little demon. Maggot shrank from his gaze.

  ‘He won’t hurt you, Maggot.’ Suddenly she had an idea and crouched down to bring her face closer to his. ‘How do you feel about doing something courageous? It will be dangerous but…rewarding. There’ll be maggots, hundreds.’

  Maggot laid back his ears, clearly not keen on doing anything brave. Issa continued anyway.

  ‘We’re looking for a man, a changed man. He won’t smell like us, though he’ll look similar. You remember the black drink I told you about? You know the smell of Maphraxies? Well, he’ll smell like them but look similar to us. Asaph, you tell him.’

  ‘You think this is a good idea?’ asked Asaph, and she nodded. He rolled back his shoulders and looked at the demon. ‘I guess it’s worth a try. His name is Vornus. He’s tall like me, but slender and older. He has dark hair smoothed back.’

  When Asaph had finished, Issa said, ‘Come back to us when you find him. You don’t need to do anything else.’

  Maggot nodded reluctantly then faded, slithering into the shadows ahead.

  ‘He’ll be all right,’ said Asaph, gripping her shoulder reassuringly. ‘If anything happens he can disappear straight back to the Murk, unlike us.’

  She gave a half smile. Letting out a breath, she followed after Asaph, inching slowly forwards through th
e tunnel towards the light ahead.

  32

  Fighting Traitors

  A single brazier lit up the hallway.

  At the end, steps led up to the dark entrance of another corridor. Issa kept an eye on the Flow, continually looking for signs of danger. Cautiously, she followed Asaph as he sidled into the darker hallway. They paused as the sound of voices carried towards them, but they were distant and soon faded away.

  Asaph rubbed his chin for a long moment before speaking. ‘Up eventually leads to the main hall; we can’t go that way. If I remember rightly, there should be a room with a trapdoor that leads down. We’ll have to go down to use a quieter route. Come on, this way.’

  They slowly made their way through almost pitch-black walkways, their hands trailing on walls or holding each other’s. Issa tripped over some fallen masonry, barely stifling a yelp. Asaph helped her up.

  ‘Just bruised,’ Issa whispered, rubbing her leg.

  As Asaph seemed to be able to see even in the darkest places, she let him lead her. Looking into the Flow helped a little, but she couldn’t see details in the fields of magical energy.

  A strange distant boom came, followed by another. Magic or weapons or something evil they could only guess at. On they went, ears pricked; often she wondered how long they had been down here, and how far away Marakon was. Mostly she wished she was out in the open air, even the frigid night would be better than down here.

  Asaph paused suddenly, breaking her thoughts and making her hand drop to her sword. He visibly shivered.

  ‘What is it?’ Issa asked, alarmed.

  ‘Can’t you hear it? That awful sound.’ He rubbed his eyes.

  She strained to hear and caught a low, continuous hum. Not a hum – chanting, she realised. The more she focused on it, the more her skin crawled.

  ‘What is it?’ she whispered.

  Asaph took a deep breath. ‘You remember the red robes? The New Order priesthood? It’s them, I’d recognise that noise anywhere.’