Even as he laid his eyes on it, the barbarian heard the whimpering stop. He looked up into the feral, now yellow eyes of the beast as it rose to its feet, new hand growing out of the healing end of its arm.
‘Dear Gods,’ muttered Hirad.
The creature staggered slightly and clutched at a shelf to balance itself. Hirad snatched a dagger from his belt and hurled it forwards as he launched himself at the creature. The gleaming metal blade whirred through the air, catching the creature’s gaze. It traced the dagger’s flight, eyes narrowing until they all but disappeared under its brow.
Hirad moved forwards across the few feet that separated them, slashing at the creature’s neck as it switched its attention to him. The dagger, forgotten, slapped harmlessly into the wall of the building. The creature dodged the blow and whipped its tail into Hirad’s legs, tripping him. He fell, rolled and sat up on his haunches. The beast came on, still unsteady. Hirad scrambled to his feet and the two faced each other.
The creature bellowed, blowing hot, stinking breath into the barbarian’s face. Hirad stepped back a pace at the sound, so deep and powerful from so small a body. He switched his blade between his hands, three times; it finished in his left hand. He clamped his right hand above his left, stepped in again and brought the blade through in an upward left-to-right arc. The creature failed to follow the movement, its hands were too slow coming to its defence and the blade crashed into its pointed jaw, Hirad roaring as he forced the blade through its face to exit from its left eye. The split face sprayed blood and gore as its head snapped up and back on its neck, and the creature screeched and fell backwards, clutching at the sides of the gash.
Hirad stepped up, looked down on it, shuddered and drove his sword through its heart. Another screech and the creature jerked spasmodically and lay still.
‘Burn it.’
Hirad spun round and saw Denser sitting up, leaning against the door frame, massaging his side, his cat nuzzling his face from a perch on his shoulder.
‘Burn?’
‘Now. It’ll recover if you don’t.’
The barbarian turned back to the creature and saw immediately that it had begun to breathe.
‘I don’t believe it,’ he said. He sheathed his sword and scrabbled in his belt pouches for an oil flask. He pulled a tiny phial out along with his flint and steel.
‘Here,’ said Denser. A much larger flask rattled to the floor by Hirad’s feet.
‘This won’t burn properly, it’s lamp oil, isn’t it?’ said the barbarian, snatching it up.
‘Trust me, it’ll burn.’
Hirad shrugged and ran over to the creature. He sprinkled the oil over its furred body, spread some tinder on its chest by the wound in its heart, which was closing even now, and struck the flint and steel next to it. A sheet of flame instantly smothered the body. Hirad leaped back, wiping at the heat on his face.
The creature’s eyes flickered and opened. An arm twitched.
Hirad shook his head. ‘Too late.’ He drew his sword and repeated the stab to the heart. The beast lay still. He walked backwards, watching the fire take hold. Wood crunched under his foot. He glanced down and saw he’d trodden on the large part of the shattered chest. His foot was right next to the parchment; he stooped and picked it up.
‘Is it damaged?’ asked Denser from behind him.
‘No, I don’t think so. How about you?’
‘I’m all right, just winded.’ He rubbed his side. ‘We were lucky it was a parchment and not a crystal or something. That blow of yours would have finished our job rather abruptly, wouldn’t it?’
Hirad raised his eyebrows, ambled over and handed the parchment to Denser, helping the Dark Mage to his feet. Denser looked over his shoulder and nodded.
‘What was it?’
‘Sentient conjuration,’ said Denser. ‘It takes so long to cast, I never really bothered with it. Obviously Septern did.’ He turned his attention to the parchment.
‘Why was it a girl to start with?’
Denser stopped reading. ‘Well, a sentient conjuration is created for a specific purpose, in this case to protect this parchment. While they have no actual life, they can reason to a degree and that allows them to assess situations and react accordingly. I would guess the girl we saw was the image of a relative of Septern’s, because if the mage has clear memories, the image requires much less mana to create and sustain.’
‘But why—’
‘Hold on, I know what you’re thinking. The girl would have been the “at rest” manifestation, because the beast, something out of his nightmares by the look of it, would take too much mana to sustain, see?’
‘Kind of, but even so, three hundred years . . .’
‘Yes, quite. I can’t believe that even Septern, powerful though he must have been, could create a sentient conjuration able to exist for anything more than forty years at the absolute outside. Presumably the rips provided it with enough static mana to keep it going.’ Denser went back to the parchment, leaving Hirad to walk back towards the rip a few paces. All was quiet. He frowned and jogged further on.
‘Ilkar?’ he called. ‘Ilkar!’ Nothing. No answer, but no villagers either, and as he moved to the border of the village, he could see why. They had all dropped maybe eighty paces from the village, forming a carpet of bone. A line of cold ran up Hirad’s spine. If The Raven had managed to kill them all, then where were they? And if they hadn’t, then why had the skeletons fallen?
He turned a quick full circle, acutely aware of his isolation. Above him, the dark cloud boiled along, chased by an awesome wind he couldn’t hear. Below, flash followed flash as lightning deluged the lands beneath, while dotted across the skyline, like sentinels of some ancient doom, the other plateaux loomed, their shapes dim against the blackness, their presence fraying his courage. Where were The Raven? He prayed that they had returned through the rip. The alternatives were unthinkable.
‘Denser?’ He half-ran back to where the Dark Mage had been reading, but he wasn’t there. A spear of panic stole his breath before he spotted the Xeteskian walking in the other direction, towards the rip at the opposite end of the platform.
‘Denser!’ The mage turned. Hirad could see his pipe smoking gently. The cat was in his cloak, head alert, and Denser was stroking its head. Of the parchment there was no sign. ‘Have you read it?’
Denser nodded.
‘And?’ Hirad was still walking.
‘I couldn’t read it all. Ilkar’ll have to have a go too.’
Close to, Hirad could see something was amiss. Denser’s gaze seemed unfocused and he glanced now and then over his shoulder at the rip.
‘Are you all right? The Raven and the skeletons are all gone. Are you sure that thing didn’t hit you on the head?’
Denser raised his eyebrows slightly. ‘I’m sure they’re fine.’ He paused. ‘Hirad, have you ever just had to do something? You know, something your curiosity just wouldn’t let you forget?’
Hirad shrugged. ‘Probably. I don’t know. What are you on about?’
Denser turned and carried on towards the rip. For a moment, Hirad was confused. Just for a moment.
‘You have got to be joking!’ He set off after the mage.
‘I have to know. It’s just one of those things.’ Denser’s step quickened.
‘What has got into you?’ Hirad broke into a trot. ‘You can’t do it, Denser. You can’t afford to. We’ve got—’ He put a hand on Denser’s shoulder. The cat slashed at it with a claw, missing as he snatched it back. The Dark Mage turned a hard-set face to him. His eyes were lost, adrift in his churning mind.
‘Don’t touch us, Hirad,’ he said. ‘And don’t try to stop us.’ He turned his face away, strode to the rip and jumped into it.
Seconds later the cat was back. It fell from the rip in an ungainly jumble of limbs, hit the ground and sprinted behind Hirad, scattering stones and grit.
The barbarian stared at it, its coat ruffled and flecked with dust, stomach heavi
ng as it dragged air into its lungs. Its tail was coiled tightly under its hind legs and its eyes were fixed on the rip, waiting. It was shaking all over.
‘Oh, no,’ Hirad breathed. He took half a pace towards the swirling brown mass before a shimmer in its surface stopped him. Denser plunged out and sprawled in the dirt. His face was sheet-white.
‘Thank the Gods,’ muttered the barbarian, but his lips tightened in anger. He helped Denser to a sitting position, feeling the mage quivering beneath his hands. He slapped some debris from his cloak.
‘You satisfied now?’
‘It was black,’ said Denser, gesturing with his hands, not looking up. ‘It was all black.’
‘Make sense, Denser.’ The mage locked eyes with him, his pupils huge.
‘Burned and burning. It was all ruined, cracked and black. It made this place look alive. The ground was all black and the sky was full of Dragons.’
It was a line straight from Hirad’s dream. The barbarian straightened and took an involuntary pace backwards. He swallowed hard and gazed at the rip. Beyond it, his nightmare lived.
The enormity of Denser’s action hit him like a runaway horse. He switched his stare to the mage, who was on his feet.
‘Feeling better?’ he asked.
Denser nodded, half smiled. The barbarian’s punch caught him square on the jaw, knocking him down hard.
‘What the—’ he began.
Hirad leant over him and grabbed the neck of his cloak, pulling their faces close.
‘What did you think you were doing?’ the barbarian rasped, his anger burning, his brow a thundercloud. ‘You could have thrown it all away.’
‘I . . .’ Denser looked blank.
Hirad shook him. ‘Shut up! Shut up and listen to me. You took the parchment through there. What if you’d never come back? Your precious mission would have been over, and my friends’ - he drew a deep breath - ‘my friends who died for you would have died for nothing.’ He dropped the mage back into the dirt and placed a foot on his chest. ‘If you ever try anything like that again, I won’t stop until your face is inside out. Understand?’
Hirad heard a whispering sound behind him. Denser looked past him, his eyes widened and he shook his head. Hirad turned, removing his foot from the supine mage. Denser’s cat bored a stare of undisguised malevolence into him. He flinched, then grunted.
‘Your cat going to sort me out, was it?’
‘You’re a fortunate man, Hirad.’
The barbarian swung round. ‘No, Denser, you are. I should kill you. The trouble is, I’m beginning to believe you.’ He stalked away through the village towards the first rip and, he hoped, The Raven. If there was anything left of it.
Chapter 12
Dropping to the ground in Septern’s study, Hirad caught Ilkar’s eye. The elf smiled. To his left, Talan stopped in the act of shouldering his pack. Hirad gathered his thoughts as his heart rate returned to something approaching normal.
‘I said not to come back,’ he said.
Talan shrugged. ‘You’re Raven.’
Hirad sucked his lip, nodded his thanks.
‘Did you find anything?’ asked Ilkar.
Hirad inclined his head.
‘Where’s Denser?’ Richmond was frowning.
‘Thinking hard, I hope,’ replied Hirad.
‘What about?’
‘His responsibilities. And how he treats The Raven - alive or dead.’
‘What are you talking about?’
Hirad didn’t reply immediately. He dusted himself down and turned to the rip. Its surface shimmered.
‘Perhaps you’d better ask the great explorer himself,’ he said.
Denser emerged from the rip, his cat right behind him. He studiously avoided Hirad’s cold gaze, choosing to examine the floor as he steadied himself. Presently, he rose to his feet. The cat jumped into his cloak. Denser rubbed his chin, pulled the parchment from a pocket and handed it to Ilkar. The elf examined the reddening area on the point of Denser’s jaw. He pursed his lips and looked past the Dark Mage to Hirad as he took the parchment. Hirad flexed the fingers of his right hand.
‘This is it, is it?’ asked Ilkar. Denser nodded. ‘Well?’
‘Some of it’s Julatsan lore, just like the amulet. I need you to help me understand it.’
‘I see.’
The two men walked over to Septern’s desk, where a lantern cast light enough to read by.
Hirad sat down. Talan and Richmond came over and squatted by him, wanting answers to questions. Hirad obliged and sketched in the events in the village, always with one eye on the mage pair, whose body language and hurried voices suggested problems. Hirad also had questions of his own, and The Raven warriors’ shaken heads and dulled sword blades provided ample answers.
It wasn’t too long before Denser and Ilkar had finished and moved back to the centre of the rip in front of the three fighting men. Ilkar held the parchment, his face troubled. Denser stared impassively at Hirad. The barbarian ignored him and addressed Ilkar.
‘So, what’s the plan, my friend?’ he asked.
‘Well, there’s good news and really really bad news. The good is that we know what we have to do. The bad is that we have next to no chance of doing it.’
‘He’s always been good at making things sound attractive, hasn’t he?’ Talan raised his eyebrows.
‘A master,’ said Richmond drily.
‘Spell it out then,’ said Hirad. ‘No pun intended.’
‘Right,’ the Julatsan began. He glanced at Denser, who motioned him to continue. ‘Septern, as we keep saying, was very clever. When he constructed the spell and worked out how powerful it actually was, he wrote three catalysts into its lore without which it would not work. Catalysts can be any number and anything the mage chooses; Septern could have chosen a mug of beer if he’d wanted. The point is that once the lore is written, it can’t be changed, and Septern chose three catalysts he knew it would be all but impossible to bring together in one place.
‘This parchment is the complete spell, and while it doesn’t tell how the catalysts underpin Dawnthief, it gives their names and locations as he knew them.’ He paused. The room was silent. ‘You ready for this?’
Richmond shrugged. ‘I doubt it,’ he said.
‘So do I,’ said Ilkar grimly. He referred to the parchment. ‘The first is a Dordovan Ring of Authority. Now, all four Colleges have these. They are worn by Lore Masters and are signs of rank and seniority. All Rings of Authority are individually designed and cast and are only ever worn by the one Master. When he or she dies, the ring is buried with them. The particular ring Septern names belonged to the Lore Master Arteche, and so will be in his tomb in Dordover.’
Talan shifted. ‘So we have to go into a College City, break into their Masters’ mausoleum and take this ring, right?’
‘That’s about the size of it.’ Ilkar had the grace to appear apologetic at least.
‘Can’t we just ask them to hand it over?’ asked Richmond.
‘Come on, man, think!’ snapped Denser. ‘We’d be asking a College to desecrate its tombs and we couldn’t tell them why because they’d try to control the spell. It has to be a theft and they mustn’t know until afterwards.’
‘Going to give the ring back later on, are you?’ Talan’s laugh was dismissive.
‘I expect I will be forced to, Talan, yes.’
‘Too bloody right you will,’ muttered Hirad.
‘Can we discuss this later, do you think?’ Ilkar waved the parchment. ‘There’s more, and it doesn’t get any better.’
‘I can’t wait.’ Talan stretched out his legs.
‘The second catalyst is the Death’s Eye Stone.’
‘I’ve heard of that, haven’t I?’ Richmond aimed the question at Denser, who nodded.
‘I expect you have,’ replied the mage. ‘It’s the centrepiece of the Wrethsires’ religion.’
‘That’s right. Death worshippers, aren’t they?’ His brow furrowed. ‘
Don’t they have some magic?’ He ground his teeth, thinking hard.
‘Oh, yeah, “the fifth College”.’ Denser glanced across at Ilkar, his face all but dripping contempt. Ilkar huffed. ‘They have no lore, no history and no mana ability. That they presume to liken themselves to the four Colleges is not only outrageous but a slur against magic itself.’
‘But you’re right, Richmond,’ said Ilkar. ‘They do worship Death in the belief it’ll free them from eternal damnation, or something like that, and they do have some form of altered magic which they don’t fully understand. It makes them dangerous.’
‘They’re going to love us, aren’t they?’ grumbled Hirad. ‘Stealing their most important artefact.’
Ilkar shrugged. ‘Denser never said we could pick the sodding things up from the market, did he?’
‘No, he didn’t,’ said Hirad. ‘He never wanted to tell us anything at all. I didn’t choose to get involved in this and have my life totally screwed up, so if I want to moan about things I have to do that seem beyond my control; or about how he—’ he stabbed a finger at Denser, ‘has been responsible for the deaths of my friends, I will bloody well do so.’
Denser sighed. Hirad tensed but made no move.
‘Have you got a problem with that, Xetesk man?’
‘No, he hasn’t,’ said Ilkar quickly. ‘Now then, the third catalyst.’ He scanned The Raven, daring anyone to speak further. ‘Right. Now this one poses a problem of location, because it’s the Badge of Office of the Understone Pass Guard Commander.’ There was a contemplative silence.
‘But the Korina Trade Alliance lost Understone Pass nine years ago. There isn’t a commander any more,’ said Talan at length. He took the parchment from Ilkar, frowning at the lore script it contained.
‘Exactly,’ said Ilkar. ‘So where is the Badge?’
Another silence. Hirad tried hard to suppress a smile but failed. He gave a short laugh and stood up.
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