The Raven Collection

by James Barclay

  Freezing-cold air hit his face and a sour odour drove into his nostrils. He opened his eyes.

  ‘Oh, shit.’

  They weren’t on the ground but they were about to hit it. Hard.

  Chapter 42

  ‘Break! Break!’ yelled The Unknown.

  He pushed himself hard away from Hirad and felt the loosening of the grip on his waist. They plummeted groundwards towards a glistening green some twenty feet below. A stench arose from it that assaulted the nostrils and fogged the mind. He hardly had time to register what it might be before he struck.

  Just about turning his shoulder against the impact, he ploughed into the fetid mud, water and reeds. He rolled for what seemed like an age, keeping his mouth tight-closed and forcing air out of his nose to keep the stagnant slime from driving up his nostrils.

  He slowed to a stop and came quickly to his feet, checking his weapons as he looked around him for the rest of The Raven. His mace was still in its bracket and his sword in its sheath. One of his belt-sheathed daggers had broken and his pack had torn from his back. It lay a little further back along the path he had dragged through the swamp.

  He flicked his wrists to shake off the worst of the stinking mud then wiped down his arms and legs with the back of his hands. The Raven were scattered around him, all in various stages of coming to their feet.

  ‘If he wasn’t dead, I’d kill him myself,’ muttered a voice alongside him.

  He looked round. Hirad was smeared from head to toe in black mud. His eyes peered from his face like stars in the night-time sky and the ooze dripped from his braided hair. He wiped at his mouth and nose with one filthy sleeve.

  ‘Yeah, but at least it was something soft,’ said The Unknown. ‘Come on, let’s help everyone up.’

  ‘Do I smell as bad as you look?’

  ‘Probably.’

  The Unknown reached down a hand and Erienne grabbed it, pulling herself to a sitting position.

  ‘Terrific,’ she said. ‘Where’s Denser?’

  ‘He’s here.’

  ‘You all right?’

  ‘Yes, love, never better. Nothing I like more than bathing in putrescence.’

  The Unknown scanned around him in more detail, seeing the four elves and Thraun making their way over. Ark was shaking his head to clear it. At least no one was hurt. At least not badly.

  ‘What have we got?’ asked Hirad, coming to his shoulder.

  ‘You know, I’m not at all sure,’ said The Unknown.

  Up above him, the sky was loaded with deep-grey cloud. A dull light was cast on ground that in some ways was little different from parts of Balaia. There were hills to their left and an open plain that ran away to their right. A quick look behind revealed shale running up gentle slopes with steeper ground beyond. Directly ahead, the land levelled out and what looked like it might have been a settlement lay at the edges of his vision.

  But it was dead. All of it. Silent. Still.

  The Unknown looked down at his feet, ankle deep in sludge. What he had thought were reeds were long ribbons of algae floating in the stagnant water. Underfoot, the mud was soft and yielding. They had had a lucky landing. Less fortune would have seen them on the shale and their mission would have been over before it had begun.

  Everywhere, the colours were drab. From the grey of rock to the dull brown of the plain sprinkled with the odd patch of palest yellow. He couldn’t see the petal of a single flower anywhere he looked. There were no cart tracks, no animal trails. There were no trees. Not as far as the eye could see. But for the undulations of the land, it was completely featureless. And it was cold, very cold.

  The breath clouded in front of their faces and dissipated upwards. Tracking it, The Unknown looked into the empty sky. No birds, no insects. No demons either and that was a blessing. He wondered how long that would last. He glanced left and right. Erienne had her arms wrapped around her and was shivering. Denser was doing the best he could to warm her but his own nose was pale with the cold and there were only tiny dots of colour on his cheeks.

  A wind blew at them from the direction of the hills behind. It mourned over the rock and sent icy gusts into their bodies. It wasn’t exactly the popular vision of hell but it would do just as well.

  ‘We must be the only souls still here,’ said Erienne.

  ‘Which should worry us,’ said Thraun. ‘Ours will be like a beacon fire to the demons.’ He sniffed the air. ‘I can’t smell anything above this stench.’

  The Unknown nodded. ‘We need to get out of sight and into some shelter. Not just because of the demons. We’re cold and we need to warm up and dry off.’

  ‘Can’t see much firewood lying about,’ said Hirad.

  ‘There are other ways of providing heat,’ said Denser.

  The Unknown turned to the elves and raised his eyebrows. While Eilaan had a good covering of the cold mud and slime, the warrior trio had little more than splashes up their trousers and over their boots.

  ‘You need to know how to land when you fall hard,’ explained Auum, seeing his expression.

  ‘You never taught me,’ said Hirad.

  ‘You could never be with us long enough to learn,’ replied Auum.

  ‘What can you see?’ asked The Unknown.

  Auum pointed ahead of them. ‘Tumbledown settlement. All but dust now. Just a few stones. The plain is broad and barren. Behind, there will be shelter. The land is folded. If we are lucky, we’ll find a cave.’

  ‘That would be very useful,’ said The Unknown. ‘That way it is, then.’

  He stooped and dragged his pack out of the mud and icy water. One strap remained and he slung it over his left shoulder. He felt a great stiffness in his hip and shook his head.

  ‘I’m too old for this.’

  Hirad clapped him on the back. ‘Don’t worry, big man, it’ll all be over soon.’

  ‘Hirad, you are no comfort whatsoever.’

  Auum and his Tai led the way, clearly ill at ease. The stagnant water continued for over a quarter of a mile before they began to travel up slope. The drier ground beneath their feet was a welcome change and the slope afforded some protection against the biting wind. Even so the elves set a cruel pace, driving up the shale at close to a trot. And while their every pace found firm purchase around the loose stone, The Raven slipped and slithered continually, adding grazes and bruises to their shivers and aches.

  ‘Whose idea was this?’ grumbled Hirad, picking himself up and brushing shards of stone from his now gauntleted hands.

  ‘Yours, I think,’ said Denser. ‘Unless my memory fails me, it was you who arrived on Herendeneth and said that something had to be done.’

  Herendeneth. The Unknown felt sudden sadness welling up. Every day, his wife and son would stand on the rock overlooking the anchorage awaiting his return. He brought images to his mind of Diera’s smile and the wind blowing her hair about her face. And of his son, shouting with wild excitement as he toddled towards his father’s open arms. And there really was no going back.

  ‘It’s for you,’ he whispered. ‘This is all for you.’

  They continued to climb. Beyond the slopes they could see from the swamp, others revealed themselves, giving the truth to Auum’s assessment of the land. The higher they went, the colder and more barren it became; and after an hour’s walk, there was no vegetation around them whatever. It was a desolate scene. With their backs to a damp crag that towered hundreds of feet above their heads, they stood or sat to rest.

  The Unknown crouched by Rebraal, the two friends looking back over the way they’d travelled.

  ‘Just look at this place,’ said The Unknown.

  ‘Small wonder the cursyrd covet Balaia,’ said Rebraal.

  ‘Well, for Balaia’s vistas today, substitute this glorious view in a few years’ time.’

  ‘Unless we put a stop to it.’

  ‘Right.’ The Unknown turned to him. ‘So, what do your eyes tell you?’

  Rebraal shrugged and gazed long out ove
r the decayed landscape. ‘It meets exactly the expressions of desolation in the texts in Aryndeneth. This is what the cursyrd do and it is why the sanctity of the dead must be maintained. If it is not, all dimensions will ultimately fall to this state.

  ‘There is nothing out there, Unknown. The settlement we could see that is just so much dust and rot is the only one as far as any of us can see or sense. The only break from the wind that we can gauge is the hills at our backs. So the topsoil is eroded and the vegetation has died because it has no purchase. There are no trees. Unknown, there are no trees. So the low-lying land will flood as it rains and more and more is leeched from the earth. And so it dies. As will the air because the vegetation provides the last part in the cycle of life.’ He shook his head. ‘If this scene is repeated across this dimension then soon it will not be possible to breathe here. And where is the power source my brother said he would set us near? It is not out there.’

  ‘Then we must hope it is behind us.’ The Unknown looked down at Erienne and Denser. Both were struggling with the cold. ‘Come on, let’s move on. Can’t have The Raven’s mages catching cold.’ He helped the pair to their feet. ‘Not far now.’

  ‘I hope you’re right,’ said Denser. ‘My cloak wasn’t made to carry this much mud.’

  ‘I’ll have a servant clean and dry it the moment we arrive.’

  Denser smiled. ‘And have him draw a bath too, would you?’

  Auum trotted down a shallow slope to the right of the crag. Beneath his paint, the elf’s face was impassive but The Unknown thought he could detect the ghost of a smile.

  ‘What have we got?’

  ‘Shelter,’ said Auum. ‘This way. But quick and quiet. The cursyrd are beyond these hills.’

  Hovering behind his new karron force, Ferouc berated Blackthorne for his stupidity and cursed him for the time he was wasting. It merely served to fire his spirit. He led his warriors out of the castle keep and down the steps, driving headlong into the karron taking lumps out of his walls. He carried long sword and kite shield, his armour was his ceremonial chain and in his belly his anger was a cold knot.

  Blackthorne thundered his shield into an enemy, knocking it backwards. It flung out a pincer but didn’t connect. The Baron stepped after it and drove his blade into its gut, wrenching it sideways before dragging it clear. The beast died at his feet, belching dark blood.

  He roared his approval and swung hard at the next. Its hammer limb sheared off.

  ‘Yes!’ His shield blocked a pincer and he reversed his blade into its face. ‘Keep them moving backwards!’

  Twenty men had run out with him to stop the destruction of his castle. The shields half of them wore represented all the armoury had to offer. But all carried swords sharpened or maces that gleamed in the half-light.

  At his right-hand side, one of his men struck out, catching a karron on the side of the head. Its skull was crushed but still it came at him. One pincer gripped his shoulder and the spike limb flashed in, driving straight through his chest. The man was flung back to slide on the marble floor of the keep. The karron died under a welter of blows.

  Blackthorne cursed and struck out again. His shield thumped into a karron left and his sword flicked out right, nicking a pincer limb. Gore sprayed into the evening air. The limb coiled quickly and snapped out at him, glancing into his side. He felt the air knocked from him but his armour held. He rebalanced quickly, fending off a hammer and striking right to left, carving into unprotected flesh.

  Above the karron, reavers screeched their displeasure.

  ‘Beware overhead,’ warned Blackthorne.

  To the left of his tight line on the steps and under the overhang of the grand door stones, one of his men took a hammer in the side and was flung into those next to him. Three men went down. The karron, moving faster than they had any right to, bounded up the steps and slaughtered the trio where they had fallen.

  Blackthorne’s eyes narrowed. He flung himself left. His sword drove through the chest of a karron rising from its bloody task and his shield jabbed up and took a second under the chin, the force snapping the creature’s neck. A third swung at him but he caught the blow on his shield, bracing his feet and chopping down through the karron’s shoulder.

  Reavers prepared to dive on them. Left and right now, the karron attack was faltering. More were massing but Ferouc hadn’t ordered them in.

  ‘Back off!’ ordered Blackthorne. He pointed his sword at Ferouc. ‘One day it’ll be you, Fidget. For every man that dies, we take six of yours. Sound familiar, you bastard?’

  ‘You fight against the inevitable, Blackthorne. Two days and you are crushed.’

  Blackthorne made sure he was the last man inside. Five of the twenty lay dead. Some of their weapons had been snatched away but their bodies would have to lie where they fell.

  ‘Your ambition is not matched by your ability, Fidget. You won’t beat us. You don’t have the will.’

  He stepped back inside the castle and the doors were swung shut behind him. He handed his sword to a footman and clapped the man on the back.

  ‘Another bloody nose, eh Daniel?’

  ‘Yes, my lord,’ agreed Daniel.

  But Blackthorne could see in Daniel’s eyes the futility of their actions. He wrapped his arm around the boy’s shoulder and walked with him back towards the kitchens, the only place they were truly safe.

  ‘Don’t lose faith, youngster. We have very determined friends out there. They won’t let us down.’

  It wasn’t much of a cave but they could at least get out of the worst of the chill sweeping across the land. The space was dank, dark and cold but sitting close together they shared warmth. The indent in the crag that Auum had found went back no more than ten feet but was overhung by a further six, making it reasonably defensible from air attack. He and Evunn stood just in shadow at the entrance, looking out over the bleak landscape and searching the sky for evidence that they had been discovered.

  Just within earshot and above the wailing of the wind, they could hear the low rumble of demon activity. It was the sounds of calls and orders mixed with the whip of thousands of wings and the tramp of innumerable feet.

  ‘So he did get us close then,’ said Hirad.

  ‘Very,’ said Rebraal. He smiled. ‘He did well.’

  ‘Except we all smell absolutely terrible.’

  ‘Makes a change from it just being you, doesn’t it, Hirad?’

  ‘My, my, Xetesk-man, I admire you for still trying. But like I said to Ilkar, you have a long way still to go.’

  Under his right arm, Erienne was shaking. ‘Still cold?’

  Erienne snorted. ‘No, Hirad,’ she managed. ‘It tickled me, that’s all. I think Ilkar would have been proud of that one. Remember those furs you used to wear?’

  Hirad nodded. ‘They weren’t the most fragrant.’

  The Raven laughed.

  ‘All right,’ said The Unknown. ‘Let’s get serious. We need to do several things. Hirad, you have to contact Sha-Kaan, bring him here as soon as you can. Eilaan, confirm that the mana is concentrated where we think it is. Denser, do what you do best and warm this place up a little, would you? We might as well be comfortable. Thraun, Ark, see about preparing some food. Erienne, get yourself some sleep when the temperature goes up. We’re going to need you.’

  She looked up at him and all the doubt was back in her eyes. ‘I hope I don’t let you down.’

  ‘No chance,’ said The Unknown. ‘Now listen, everyone, we seem to have been fortunate up until now but if there’s one thing guaranteed to bring on demons, it’s spell casting. I don’t see there’s any harm them knowing we’re here. A ForceCone will keep them out of the cave until the dragons arrive. But if any of you want to empty bowels and bladder, I suggest you do it now. We don’t know what length of wait we’ll have. Denser will pause until you get back. Any thoughts?’

  There were no dissenters.

  ‘Good, then let’s get to it.’

  The group brok
e up and immediately the biting cold returned. The Unknown put his back to a wall and beckoned Erienne over. He held his arms out and she moved gratefully into his embrace.

  ‘Gods falling, but I hope people aren’t too long taking a leak,’ she said.

  ‘You don’t feel the need?’

  ‘Too cold to be out there,’ she said, snuggling in closer. ‘Good job my husband’s not the jealous type.’

  ‘How do you know he’s not?’ Denser’s voice carried back to them from just outside the cave.

  ‘It’s just the impression I get.’

  ‘I see.’ Denser buttoned his fly back up and walked back inside. ‘Convenient how The Unknown organises everyone else to work and leaves himself free to get fresh with you.’

  ‘Perk of the job,’ said The Unknown.

  Denser chuckled. ‘I’ll set about this spell then. Make yourselves comfortable. Don’t think to help or anything.’

  ‘We won’t,’ said Erienne.

  The Unknown watched Denser collecting stones from outside and arranging them in the centre of the cave. He was very precise in the shapes and sizes he chose and in the way they were arranged.

  ‘It’s all about reflecting the heat from the spell,’ said Erienne in answer to his question. ‘The mana will bounce around for longer if the stones are placed right. Keep the heat in for longer, you know.’

  ‘I see.’ He paused. ‘How are you feeling?’

  ‘Warming up.’

  ‘That isn’t what I asked.’

  ‘I know.’ She sighed. ‘Look, Unknown, I know I can do it. In the playhouse, I had no doubt. But look how many of us there were and how relatively few of them. We could afford a mistake and so I didn’t make one. Now the stakes are higher. One slip and it isn’t just us that’s gone, it’s everyone. That’s a burden.’