The Raven Collection

For Sol they gathered, and for Sol they would fight.

Images played out across the sky above them while the Garonin weapons blinded them head on. Erie

‘Don’t do it,’ he said. ‘Face front or close your eyes.’

‘I . . . No. NO!’

Erie

‘Please no,’ said Erie

Denser. Ru

‘Don’t believe it. Don’t trust it.’ Sol’s voice sounded loud but even his tones carried a tremble to them. ‘Be strong and we will save them all.’

Garonin burst through the opaque shield to the left, ru

‘Stop, Hirad,’ boomed Sol. ‘More coming at you. Hold the line, Raven.’

Ilkar stood up behind Erie

Duele whispered past Auum. He ducked a stream of energy fire, bounced back up and hammered his blade into the ribcage of his enemy. The man fell against the last of the four invaders. Weapons were triggered reflexively. White tears ripped into the walls of the edifice. Cracks ran away along its surface.

Auum jabbed his blade into the gut of his victim. Without pause, he grabbed a jaqrui and threw. The keening wail was brief. The razor edge sliced through the arm of the last attacker. His weapon fell from his hand. Duele leapt to carve his blade into the Garonin’s faceplate. Auum followed up his jaqrui and buried his blade two-handed into the gut of the wounded man. Ilkar heard the blade shriek as it exited his back and scraped the edifice behind.

Another howl from Thraun. The wolf sprang up and ran right. Ilkar followed him. Garonin had pushed through the barrier. White light filled the space. Ghaal ducked but not quickly enough. He took the full force of two streams of fire in his face. His head was engulfed in flame. His body juddered and was thrown back to slide across the floor. Ilkar had to turn away. Ghaal’s neck smoked, his skull was blasted to shards.

In front, Hirad called a warning. Ilkar heard the clash of weapons. But to the right was the greater threat. Thraun had his jaws clamped around the leg of a Garonin soldier who was beating the wolf’s skull with the butt of his weapon. Evu

‘Get this wrong and it ends here,’ he said to himself.

Ilkar hurled his blade. It caught the Garonin in the right thigh. The soldier stumbled, slowed and regained his feet. He ran on, a shout of victory ripping from his alien lips. He reached out to Sol, to touch him and render everything the great man had died for a waste.

The Garonin did not make contact. An axe materialised in the air before him, swinging across with frightening power. Behind it the body of a huge man in jet-black armour washed into being. The blade savaged straight through the Garonin’s neck, taking his head clean off to bounce across the floor towards Ilkar.

The elf blinked to dispel the illusion but it didn’t shift. There stood Ark. Protector and Raven. He was carrying the sword and axe of Xetesk’s dread calling. He wore their colours but without the mask that bound them to the demons. Ark roared. His arms shook and his fists ground against his weapons. His face cleared and he stared square at Ilkar. Blood dripped from his axe.

‘We are come.’

Hirad pushed the Garonin’s weapon to the left and swung his sword high. The edge slid from the man’s shoulder and clattered up into the side of his helmet. The Garonin stumbled. Darrick’s reverse sweep carved a gash deep into his chest. The Garonin gasped. Hirad thrust up under his chin strap.

Hirad was aware of shouting from behind him and resisted the urge to turn. More Garonin came through the barrier in front of him. To his right Sirendor ducked a stream of white tears, swayed left as he came back up and jabbed up into the armpit of his attacker. Hirad paced forward. He switched his sword to his left hand, dropped to his haunches and swung the blade low across him, feeling a satisfying co

The sound of ru

Garonin surged through the barrier again. Hirad smiled as they faltered in their charge.

‘Good to see you, Ark,’ said the barbarian. He beckoned towards the enemy. ‘Come and get it, boys.’

Ark and the entire Protector line stepped forward. Axes came through left to right, low to high. Swords came the other way, chest-high. Garonin screams filled the air. The weight of fire on the shield intensified still further. Hirad felt the pressure of souls crammed into the small space. At last he turned. The shield was full of Protectors. Hundreds of them materialising in front of Sol and spreading across the space.

‘Bloody hell. Brought a few friends with you too, did you?’ Hirad’s voice rose to a shout. ‘We have to spread the shield. Ilkar!’

Abruptly, the sky darkened once more. The sound of white tears splatting against the cobbles of ruined Xetesk was replaced by silence. Simultaneously, the deluge against the shield ceased. Protectors moved out of its compass, forming a line four deep, stretching across the face of the edifice.

Hirad heard Erie

‘That’s not the future; it’s the past,’ he said. ‘And we all still grieve for your boys. Don’t let them beat you. Don’t let our new world become another graveyard for us.’

‘I couldn’t save them,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t save Lya

‘Erie

But Hirad could see she was crumbling. Above their heads images played of storms lashing the coast of Balaia and of a little girl in the centre of them, calling out for her mother. Erie