The Raven Collection

Hirad would have berated him for his lack of faith but couldn’t find it within him to disagree. Stretched out below them, across a plain maybe half a mile long and four times that in width, was a carpet of demons. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, it was hard to tell in the half-light. It was a shifting mass, ordered and with one purpose. It moved towards a massive low edifice on which stood hundreds of spires angled out like the spines of a hedgehog. Each spike glistened and flashed at its end, and closer to the roots a maelstrom of colours danced and clashed.

The entire front of the edifice was open to the air. Hirad could see light within it and watched as demons entered its shadow and were lost in the brightness. Countless karron moved across the plain. Reavers flew in complex patterns overhead while strike-strain cavorted amongst them. The long-fingered albinos issued slowly towards the edifice, trailed by the mana gliders. And around the periphery masters floated on their tentacle beds, directing the remorseless advance.

But there was consternation in the ranks of the enemy. Not every demon was intent on its goal and eyes had been turned behind from where a threat had risen quite without warning. Even now, cohorts of karron were racing for the rise on which The Raven stood. Great clouds of reavers chattered and grouped, flying high to assess, and strike-strain bunched and flocked.

‘Dear Gods,’ said Erie

Above, the sky darkened and a wind blew straight down on their heads. Hirad looked back and a smile crossed his face. There they were, moving serenely across the heavens in drilled formations on two levels. He recognised Kaan colouring in the vanguard with Naik red flanking them. He saw Veret blue in the upper skies mixed with sand-yellow and deep green from broods of which he had no knowledge. They were poised.

‘It’s never over,’ he said. ‘Raven. Once again. Let’s be ready to run. But first, I think we should crouch or we’ll be blown away.’

The dragons attacked. Sha-Kaan’s bark echoed loud and was washed away in the beat of three thousand wings. Hundreds of dragons power-dived down the slope, passing just a few feet above their heads. Fire belched from their mouths left, right and always down. The karron approaching up the slope were destroyed in the blink of an eye but the attack did not pause there. Sha-Kaan led his legions onto the plain and the demons scattered before them.

Fire gorged again and again. From every mouth, heat singed the flesh from demon backs, blew them aside in their hundreds and drove an expanding wedge all the way to the edifice. Above them, the second wave stormed into the attack. Keeping high, they took reavers and strike-strain from the sky, the bodies falling like rain on the packed earth.

Hirad could only stand and stare at the extraordinary force ranged above him. Flame banished the dark, orange after-echoes ringing his vision. The sky was full of the huge bulk of dragons, the roar of a thousand mouths and the panicked cries of demons being slaughtered in their homeland. The fight in the sky waged as far as he could see in every direction until the dark swallowed it. The stench of burned flesh assaulted his nostrils.

On the ground the demon armies were scattered and ru

Hirad felt indescribably small. He shivered despite the heat beating in from all around him and brought himself back to their immediate situation. Reavers were flying in from every point of the compass, rising from hiding places surrounding the plain. And despite the dragons’ awesome power, their flame without fuel was finite. The time to move was now.

‘Go! Go!’

The Raven and TaiGethen surged down the slope at full tilt. Ahead, the dragons had reached the end of their run and already the demons were crowding back into the centre of the plain, ru

Hirad felt the heat on his face. His legs and arms pumped and his eyes sca

They hit smouldering flat ground. Sha-Kaan and his wave soared over their heads and climbed again, themselves the targets of reavers now. Karron closed on the ground. Albinos sprinted in front of them, scampering stride driven on by powerful hind legs.

‘Don’t look back!’ yelled Hirad, doing exactly that.

The ranks had closed behind them but above, dragons were coming in. Sha-Kaan had broken his wave into three. One shot straight overhead, scouring the path clear once more. The beat of wings weighed down the ru

The second and third waves passed by left to right, one in front, one behind. Fire lashed across their path and Hirad felt the heat bloom behind them as well. He didn’t risk a glance back this time, imagining the carnage that would have been created in an instant.

They were closing on the edifice but now the dragons were begi

The flame was guttering now. Less and less, the night was lit by new fire from dragons’ mouths. More and more they were fighting with tooth, tail and claw. And that was a fight they would not necessarily win.

Hirad upped his pace, gaining a little on Auum and Evu

He could make out the detail of the edifice now. Its open front was crowded with demons, looking out at the destruction wreaked by their enemies. The stone above the wide entrance was decked with swirls and scratches, as if some great claws had raked across it while it was forming. The spines atop it throbbed and glowed, attracting mana to them. He could see clouds of the fuel coalescing in the air and felt swaths of cold in between the heat of dragon fire.

But one thing was absolutely certain. They weren’t going to get inside.

‘Sha-Kaan!’ he yelled, pulsing simultaneously, trying to hang onto his limbs and keep ru

Karron closed in. Ahead, Auum swayed left and struck out, sending an enemy sprawling. On the next pace he leaped into the air, coming into a full tuck and rolling over the karron’s head. He landed behind it, spun and kicked out, catching the back of its head. It fell flat on its face and the TaiGethen turned and ran on. In his wake came Hirad. The karron raised its head only to take the barbarian’s mace square-on. He felt the satisfying crush of bone.