The Raven Collection

It had been good news Gorstan had given him as they’d stood at the mouth of Arlen Bay and he’d ridden hard for the town to set about hiring ships and crews and buying provisions. But there’d been a nagging anxiety. It was one thing knowing where the bitch and her abomination of a daughter hid. It would have been quite another getting there through the famously treacherous rock and coral straits. Many men would have been lost and he didn’t know how many, if any, he could afford to lose.

He’d dismissed the mage who’d bought him the latest, far finer news and now sat alone in front of an open fire, a rug beneath his bare feet, mulled wine steaming on a table in front of him and the other three chairs in the tapestry-hung room empty. He enjoyed the peace, broken only by the crackle of flame.

He relaxed, feeling the anxiety slip away. He was not a keen sea traveller and the thought of danger he couldn’t see lurking beneath the water at Ornouth made him nervous.

Now, though, the answer to his prayers was sailing up the Arlen River. And he would be waiting at the dock to welcome her.

He sipped his mulled wine, then took a long swallow, draining the glass. Gods, but it tasted good.

Denser ceased his probing, released the Communion shape and opened his eyes. The Raven were around him and the concern on their faces told him he’d shown facial expression during his search for Erie

Ilkar laid a hand on his shoulder.

‘That didn’t look comfortable, Denser. What happened?’

Denser filled his pipe and lit it, suppressing an unwanted smile at Ilkar’s choice of words. The Communion hadn’t merely been uncomfortable. It had been like searching in a hailstorm. He felt battered and a little confused by what he had encountered in the mana spectrum.

He knew he’d searched the right area and he knew Erie

He looked up into Ilkar’s face and past him at Hirad, who was examining the blade of a dagger, apparently uninterested.

‘I couldn’t reach her,’ he said quietly. ‘Couldn’t even feel her. There was something in the way.’

Ilkar frowned. ‘How do you mean?’

‘Well . . .’ Denser fought for the right words. He scratched his head and took a draw on his pipe, the smoke fu

‘What shape was it?’

‘That’s why it’s so confusing, there was no shape. It was a coalescing of mana, like a wall.’

‘Produced by another mage, though?’ Ilkar frowned.

‘Presumably.’ Denser shrugged. He sighed. ‘I guess it doesn’t really matter. The fact is that I can’t contact her.’

‘Not now, anyway,’ said The Unknown. ‘Come on, we’d better get away. Try again when we stop this evening.’

Denser nodded. ‘Yes. It’s unlikely to be a long-lived effect. Or I hope it won’t.’

‘Unless it’s a deliberate obscurement,’ said Ilkar.

‘Hmm. How, though? It’s not a structure I recognised. It wasn’t right, though.’ He bit his lip, frustrated.

Hirad sheathed his dagger and got to his feet. ‘It’ll be all right, Denser.’

Denser blew out his cheeks. ‘Nothing like a non-mage to give you confidence, is there?’

Erie

Ren’erei had stood just far enough away to give her comfort but not too near to crowd her and add to her acute embarrassment. As Erie

‘It isn’t seasickness,’ she said. ‘How can it be after this many days?’

‘I know,’ managed Erie

‘It must be something you ate,’ she said, helping Erie

Erie

Erie

It had crossed her mind that she had fallen victim to a mana sickness. There were always claims bouncing around the Colleges that mana within a mage could become somehow infected. Erie

But as the hours passed and she regained some rationality, she’d ignored the notion in favour of hard fact. Her nausea had come on her like a blow from a hammer, and stirring her head like thick soup so she couldn’t focus on her hand in front of her face. It had provoked a reaction in her body that was nothing to do with any physical sickness. And it had gone on long after she’d established in her own mind that there was nothing wrong with her mana capabilities.

So there was no infection, there was no food poisoning and there was no focused drain on her mana stamina.

This was something no textbook had ever covered. It was what happened when someone who knew your signature launched spells at you without knowing exactly where you were. Enemy or friend, Erie

The realisation rocked her. It was a powerful weapon. It made her defenceless. Fortunately, she’d be meeting Denser in a couple of days.

He would know what to do.

It was the same that night. While the fire burned and The Raven waited, Denser tried and failed to make contact with Erie

He dispersed the Communion and lay still, desperation begi

‘Denser?’ It was Ilkar. He didn’t open his eyes. He could feel the fire warm the left side of his body as he lay, its flickering glow orange on his eyelids.

‘C’mon Denser. I know you’ve released the spell. There’s tea here for you. Herbal. It should help you sleep later.’

Denser opened one eye. Above him, through the trees that part sheltered them from the strengthening wind, he could see cloud tumbling across the sky. It was darker than the night it covered. There was going to be heavy rain. Very heavy.