The Unknown released her, keeping hold of Jonas. ‘I—’
‘No time for dreams or lies,’ said Diera, stroking his face.
‘I want to believe it,’ said The Unknown. ‘The Gods know it’ll be the one thing that keeps me going.’
‘But your head says what?’
‘That we’re going against an enemy so powerful it has all but overrun the four colleges and controls Balaia. That in all probability, we will all die attempting to liberate our country. That what sort of husband and father would I be if I didn’t at least try?’
Unexpectedly, Diera smiled, this time with warmth and humour. The Unknown smoothed away her tears.
‘You know, when I was growing up, I dreamed I’d have a husband who was a true hero. Someone who I’d wave off to fight for me and welcome back time and again. I got my wish, didn’t I? Almost.’
‘Looks like it,’ he said. ‘You should have chosen better.’
‘And be a demon-slave or dead,’ she said. ‘I’ll take the heartache.’
‘There is that.’
‘I can’t wave you off. Not again.’
The Unknown nodded. He unhooked Jonas’s grip from his shoulder and brought the boy in front of him. Jonas regarded him quizzically.
‘You look after your mother, won’t you?’
Jonas’s sombre nod dragged a chuckle from The Unknown’s dry, sore throat where he’d been swallowing hard. He kissed the boy on his cheeks and handed him back to Diera.
‘Goodbye, Sol,’ she said, tears falling anew. ‘I love you.’
‘And I love you. With every beat of my heart,’ he said. ‘Keep believing.’
‘I’ll try.’
He leaned in and kissed her on the mouth, a tender, lingering touch. Their tongues met briefly, firing passion, and pulled away. He stepped back, let his hand brush her cheek and then forced his legs to turn and carry him to the waiting longboat.
Sha-Kaan had stayed in the Klene a very long time. He had cursed the conspiracy of circumstances that had taken the eyes of the Kaan from the Balaian dimension. But he knew also that there was little the brood could realistically have done. The Xeteskians had dabbled once too often with the power of dimensional space and now they were all paying the penalty. Contact with Dragonene mages was sparse and difficult. Soon it would cease altogether. The demons grew stronger every day.
He was unused to the fear he felt at what he had to do. His brood urged him not to travel alone but he really had no choice. A flight of Kaan dragons would be seen as a threat and destroyed. Further, he still could not afford to take able dragons from the defence of his Broodlands while the newborn were so weak.
So it was that he flew high and alone for the Broodlands of the Naik, his fiercest enemies. He already knew he could rely on the Veret to support him. Long-time allies, they had foresight that the Naik had never displayed. His greatest fear was that the Naik would see this as an opportunity to destroy the Kaan, as indeed it was. But if they did, it would consign them to death also. The question was, could he persuade them of that fact?
One factor was of some comfort. Should he fail, the enemy would not be long following him to the dead lands.
No Kaan knew the exact location of the Naik Broodlands but they all knew in which part of Beshara they would encounter attack. Sha-Kaan prepared himself for the inevitable challenge. His flame ducts were full and lubricated should he need them. The Vestare had spent days massaging balms and oils into his scales and the old muscles at his wing roots to give him increased flexibility; and he practised in his mind what he would say to buy him life enough to at least face Yasal-Naik, their brood leader.
And once he was prepared, he pulsed a message to Hirad Coldheart that he was among enemies and dived through the high cloud, barking loud to announce his presence.
For a while, he saw nothing in the skies. Below him, a vast desert fled away to distant iron-grey mountains. The great ocean was far away to his right and behind him the lush plains of Teras were a distant memory. He saw them first as a cloud like a sandstorm brewing ahead and close to the ground. The cloud boiled upwards, spiralling fast towards him, resolving itself into six rust-brown Naik dragons. All were young to his eyes, all desperate to reach him first, all charged with aggression and hate.
Sha-Kaan watched them come. He made sure he displayed no aggression himself. He circled slowly, his belly scales fully displayed, his neck straight and his wings deployed. Their formation worried him. It was by no means a holding pattern. It was an attack chevron.
He barked again, a sound of submission, but they still drove on unchanged, their calls a challenge to him and his brood. He held station a moment longer until it became plain their pace was going to take them straight through him. Barking his irritation, he beat his wings hard, propelling himself up and north of them, forcing them to break formation to intercept. One was ahead of the others. Sha-Kaan saw its mouth open.
He had not survived so many cycles without being a master of timing his dives. The Naik drove onwards, sure of his quarry. Sha-Kaan saw the breath draw in and the neck swell around its flame ducts. Orange fire washed the space where he should have been but he had furled his wings and dropped like a stone, bringing his head round to pour flame over the young dragon’s flank.
In the next instant, he spread his wings wide, braking his fall dramatically. He roared loud. The remaining dragons faltered in flight, watching their brother plummet groundwards. Perhaps for the first time, they realised who it was they faced. This was no ordinary enemy. This was Sha-Kaan.
The five remaining fanned out around him where he hovered, again beating his wings gently, displaying his scales, hanging perpendicular to the ground thousands of feet below.
‘Do you know nothing, or are you so full of anger you cannot read the signs of your visitors?’ Sha’s voice carried across the winds of heights. He saw them hesitating, caught between their awe of him and their knowledge that together they might just take him down and strike a decisive victory.
‘You are alone, Old Kaan,’ taunted one. ‘Vulnerable.’
‘That I am,’ said Sha-Kaan. ‘And perhaps your minds should turn to wonder why that is? Had I come to challenge you, I would not have come alone.’
‘We are unsure that you are alone,’ said another.
Sha-Kaan looked long and slow at the skies all around them. The clouds he had come through were ten thousand feet above their heads. There was nowhere to hide.
‘Then you should open your eyes, whelp. Now take me to Yasal-Naik, I must speak with him.’
‘We will not. It is a trick to gain access to our Broodlands.’
Sha-Kaan sighed. ‘Then bring him to me.’
‘We do not take orders from the Kaan.’
Sha-Kaan rumbled in his throat. ‘It is a request.’
‘State the reason.’
‘Because if he doesn’t come and he doesn’t listen to me, the Arakhe will soon destroy us all.’
There was a pause while they digested his statement and no doubt spoke among themselves, pulsing thoughts and ideas.
‘There is no evidence to support this. Yasal will not thank us for disturbing him but he will thank us for bringing back your carcass.’
‘And you will condemn your brood to extinction.’ Sha-Kaan beat his wings once and extended his neck before bringing it back to a respectful ‘S’ shape. ‘I ask you to believe me. I am Sha-Kaan and I have travelled alone to speak to Yasal. Let him decide my fate. I will abide by whatever he decrees.
‘The choice, my young Naik, is yours.’
The Unknown didn’t say much for a day. Hirad left him to it. The big warrior, limping a little more heavily, spent most of the time leaning on the aft rail, gazing back across the open water. He watched the Ornouth Archipelago diminishing towards the horizon. It was a beautiful sight with the sun still catching white sand or the azure shallow waters and throwing vibrant patterns onto the haze in the sky.
But Hirad knew he wasn’t seeing t
hat. All he could see were his wife and child disappearing beyond his reach and he had no real expectation of ever seeing them again.
It was dawn on the second day of their voyage back to Balaia. Hirad was on the wheel deck looking down on The Unknown’s shaven head. Behind him, Jevin was guiding his novice helmsman. The elf’s gentle voice little more than a murmur as he described the nuances of steering his sleek vessel.
Hirad felt a hand on his shoulder. Denser.
‘Hey, big fella. Thinking too hard?’
Hirad turned briefly. ‘Look what I’ve done.’
‘He knows he’s in the right place,’ said Denser. ‘Just give him time.’
‘I’ve torn him from his family. It’s unforgivable.’
‘True but you can’t think of it that way. Take it back as far as you like. Like I say, I’m more to blame. I’m a Xeteskian.’
‘No you aren’t. You’re Raven.’
‘I believed them for long enough.’
The Unknown turned and stared up at them, his face stone.
‘Neither of you are helping me with your feeble angst,’ he said. ‘I have my own mind. I exercised it. Now let it drop.’ He returned his gaze to the ocean.
‘Where’s Erienne?’ asked Hirad after an uncomfortable pause.
‘Resting. She and Cleress are still working on that casting.’
‘Will it work?’
‘We’d better hope so,’ said Denser. ‘Or this is going to be a very short attempt to save the world.’
Hirad chuckled but he didn’t feel the humour, more Denser’s unconscious adoption of Ilkar’s turn of phrase. ‘It could be that anyway. ’
‘How so?’
‘Sha-Kaan pulsed me before dawn. He’s trying to speak to the Naik.’
‘Ah,’ said Denser. He scratched at his neatly trimmed beard. ‘Tricky.’
‘Yeah. And if I don’t hear from him again before we sight Balaia, we can assume he’s dead.’ Hirad didn’t believe the words as he spoke them.
‘Do you think he was serious when he talked about how he felt the dragons had to help us?’
‘Denser, he is not given to talking bollocks, unlike your good self.’
‘Just asking.’
‘Tell me something, Denser.’ It was The Unknown again. ‘How long can Erienne keep this casting going?’
‘I’ve no idea. It’ll be draining. All the One castings are.’
‘You two want to join me amidships? We need to think about tactics.’
Hirad smiled and gestured Denser to precede him. This was The Unknown he wanted. Reluctant, maybe, but thinking. The three men sat on netted crates under the mainmast.
‘You understand what I’m getting at,’ continued The Unknown. ‘It’s all very well when we’ve evened the odds under Erienne’s casting. What if she is unable to cast for any reason?’
‘Well, we won’t be able to take down a single demon,’ said Hirad.
‘That’s not strictly speaking true,’ said The Unknown. ‘What it will be is a question of keeping them distant enough for Denser to destroy with spells, right?’
‘That’s not something we can keep up indefinitely either,’ said Hirad.
‘Correct, but we have to work on the premise that we won’t have to. It’s a contingency until we can find shelter or Erienne can cast herself.’ The Unknown must have seen the cynicism in Hirad’s expression. ‘Put it this way, if we are in a situation where Denser is our only effective weapon, we’re already dead.’
‘Thanks a heap,’ said Denser.
‘You know what I mean,’ growled The Unknown. ‘We’ll be working to buy time and space, right? I’ve had an idea we should work on.’
‘And there was I thinking you were back there mooning over your family,’ said Hirad.
The Unknown almost smiled. ‘Only ninety-nine per cent of the time. Go and get the others except Erienne. Auum and Rebraal too, we need them to act as demons.’
Hirad pushed himself off the crates. ‘I hope this master tactic of yours protects us from a demon’s touch. It only takes the one.’
‘Been thinking about that too,’ said The Unknown.
‘Busy, this one per cent of your mind, isn’t it?’
‘Yes, Hirad, you should try it some time. Think about it. Rebraal says they are impervious because their religion gives them a single focus, a group belief. The Wesmen are apparently protected by the Spirits whom they worship and revere. The two are similar to my mind. It’s about having something greater than yourself surrounding you. Something that binds you to the mass, gives you the strength of everyone who is like you.’
‘Fantastic. I’ll convert to elvish immediately,’ said Hirad.
The Unknown’s hand slapped him hard on the forearm. ‘No! Bloody hell, Hirad, you can be truly stupid sometimes. This should have occurred to you already. Remember when the demons got at Will in Sha-Kaan’s Klene that time?’
‘Yeah. I remember he died. So what?’
‘Couldn’t steal his soul though, could they? Will died because they chilled his life and he wasn’t strong enough to resist. Why don’t you think his soul went to the pit, eh?’
Hirad shrugged and looked at Denser who was smiling at him. ‘Something funny?’
‘Only that I’m about to quote to you something you’ve quoted at me so many times I’m thinking of having it tattooed on my forehead. ’
‘What? That he was Raven and that makes a difference?’
‘Stole my thunder.’
And even as he opened his mouth to object, Hirad could see The Unknown was right. He had felt it the moment they had sat together as The Raven in the Al-Drechar’s house a few days before. You couldn’t bottle it, it was just there. He could feel it now. Strength. Belief. Spirit.
‘You know it,’ said Hirad.
The Unknown stood and stared him in the eye. ‘And I’ll tell you something, Coldheart. I’ve already had my soul taken from me once. And nothing and nobody is going to part me from it again.’
‘We can do this, can’t we?’ said Hirad, believing for the first time.
‘Course we can,’ said Denser, his face splitting into a grin. ‘We’re The Raven!’
Their laughter echoed out across the open sea.
Chapter 15
Yasal-Naik circled Sha-Kaan very slowly, eyes following the Great Kaan as he spun on his tail, displaying his belly scales at all times. A gesture of respect, of peace and of submission. Sha-Kaan bit down hard on his pride, knowing that to gain audience with this most aggressive of brood fathers was more than he had genuinely believed he would achieve. To jeopardise that with a petulant display of superiority now would be truly calamitous folly. They both knew Sha-Kaan was the stronger dragon. This was not the time to demonstrate it.
The five young Naik circled nearby, keeping watch on the open skies, searching for the Kaan attack that would never come.
‘You have killed one of my brood,’ said Yasal-Naik. ‘That alone is enough to see you taken from the skies with flames as your final companion.’
‘The whelp attacked me despite my attitude and bearing. I had no choice but to defend myself.’
‘And your intrusion into my skies is punishable equally severely.’
‘Then carry out your sentence, Yasal. My only regret is that I would not live to see you confront your blindness.’
The Naik brood father continued to circle, aware of Sha-Kaan’s discomfort.
‘It is an action I can take at will, is it not?’
Sha-Kaan rumbled deep in his huge chest. ‘Then hear me, since you have nothing to lose. Know why it is I have come here alone to speak with you.’
Yasal ceased his circling finally, clicking the back of his tongue. The rattling echoed in his cheeks. Sha-Kaan flicked his wings in acknowledgement, returning to horizontal flight.
‘Let us fly, Great Kaan,’ said Yasal. ‘You have my attention.’
‘I am grateful to you.’ Sha-Kaan took up station beside Yasal and followed him in a lazy
glide. ‘Your decision demonstrates maturity.’
‘From you that is a compliment,’ said Yasal. ‘But don’t mistake maturity for conciliation. There is none.’
‘Just listen to me,’ said Sha-Kaan. ‘I am tired of your threats.’
The two dragons’ eyes met across the narrow gulf between them. Yasal’s burned with an anger Sha-Kaan recognised in himself as a younger dragon.
‘Speak.’
‘Yasal, I am not here to surrender, I am not here to challenge you. I have travelled alone as a demonstration of my veracity. You may always have hated the Kaan and despised me in particular. That is natural. All broods desire dominion and one day we will assuredly return to that state.’
‘ “One day”? What is wrong with today?’
‘Because today that battle is rendered pointless.’
‘One of my escort mentioned something similar. Explain.’
‘The Arakhe have taken Balaia,’ said Sha-Kaan.
‘Surely a cause for celebration.’
‘You know what that means.’
‘Yes, Sha-Kaan. That your melde will soon be shattered, that the Kaan will dwindle. That I need not spill one more drop of Naik blood to beat you. Merely bide my time.’
Sha-Kaan feathered his tongue in humour. ‘All these things are true. But can you fly a little further?’
‘Where else do I need to travel? I will have achieved the Naik’s destiny. I will rule Beshara unopposed.’
‘Idiot youngster,’ snapped Sha-Kaan. ‘Think.’
‘About what? You have promised me victory.’
Sha-Kaan sampled Yasal-Naik’s tone, smelled the odours of his body, faint in the wind. He was sure he was being toyed with but the Naik’s bearing suggested interested neutrality.
‘Should the Balaian dimension fall, the Arakhe will have everything they want. Doorways to this dimension, the dead, and thence to everywhere. Your melde, every brood’s melde. You have heard the prophecies and the warnings. They are as much Naik lore as they are Kaan or Gost or Veret. They have to be stopped now.’
‘You have controlled your melde dimension poorly,’ said Yasal.
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