The Raven Collection

Another pause in surprise at what they had uncovered. The sounds of approval chilled her to the bone, but when the grips on her arms loosened instinctively, she reacted on the instant, turning her wrists and releasing the bolts. One man was taken under the chin, the other bolt glanced off a head and away. Both men fell back, but there were so many others.

They dragged her to the ground, yells of animal pleasure filling the air as the clothes were cut and torn from her body. Hands pawed her, scratched and clawed her, blood oozed from a dozen cuts. She squirmed and fought, keeping a determined silence as they pi

A single voice shouted a command and the mob quietened and parted, admitting a Shaman. He was middle-aged, clad in heavy cloth and with his greying hair tied in a ponytail at his neck. Selyn’s terror stilled, replaced by the calm of certainty, and she gathered herself to stare him square in the eye.

‘Well, well, well, my pretty,’ said the Shaman, loosening his belt and kneeling between her legs. ‘Perhaps death won’t come quickly enough for you.’

The rape was brutal. He thrust hard inside her, his hands gouging at her sides and breasts. She winced as he pushed up, a cheer rising from the watching crowd. She closed her mind to the humiliation and the pain and picked her head up to catch his gaze a second time.

‘They will have to cut me in half to release you,’ she said. She bit down hard on her back tooth and convulsed. ‘Goodbye, my love,’ she whispered. The nerve toxin from the broken tooth cap acted instantly, every muscle in her body contracting with extraordinary violence. The last sounds she heard as the mana pulse fled eastwards were the screams of the Shaman.

Chapter 26

Stylia

The chairs were back, arranged in a shallow crescent on one side of the trestle, which was now clothed, candled and decked with food and wine. Stylia

There was no set agenda. A day ago, this meeting would have been unthinkable. But it was a measure of the deterioration of the situation to the east of the Blackthorne Mountains and Understone Pass that The Raven had agreed to submit to a discussion about their next move.

Hirad sat forward, leaning on his elbows, hands supporting his chin. Denser had adopted a more relaxed posture, while Ilkar sat stiffly upright, in awe of the seniority of the mages opposite him.

Stylia

‘They have taken Selyn from me,’ he said. ‘They will suffer.’

‘I am sorry, my Lord.’

Stylia

‘No,’ said Hirad.

‘I beg your pardon?’ Vuldaroq spluttered. All the delegates had tensed.

‘Some tact, please, Hirad.’ Ilkar sounded suddenly strained. ‘What he is trying to say is that—’

‘We aren’t telling you anything because for one, you don’t need to know and that makes us all safer, and for another, we don’t know ourselves until we get close enough to see what we’re up against. Once we get through the pass, we’ll head for the Wrethsires, as you know. After that, we’ll be on our way to the Torn Wastes.’ Hirad poured himself a goblet of wine. ‘What can I say? We’ll be in touch.’

There was silence around the table. The delegation’s was down to sheer disbelief, The Raven’s due to trepidation. Only Hirad seemed unaffected.

‘What?’ He spread his hands and looked at his friends. ‘What’s the problem?’

‘The problem, Hirad Coldheart,’ spat Stylia

‘Well, it strikes me you’ve been doing your level best to screw it up ever since you recruited us.’ Hirad leaned right into Stylia

‘Calm down, Hirad,’ said Ilkar. ‘This isn’t helping.’

‘I don’t care. Look, it’s quite simple. You let us do things our way and we’ll succeed. Interfere and we’ll more than likely fail.’

Stylia

‘I’m not challenging your authority,’ said Hirad. ‘I’m just telling you how to give yourself the best chance.’

‘I think it is about time we moved on,’ said Heryst. ‘I am sure we all agree that The Raven can best deal with the Wrethsires on their own. But I do think it would be wise if we - that is, the four-College delegation - held the two catalysts found so far until the third is recovered.’

‘I’m sure you do.’

‘Why are you smiling?’

‘Because you must think I’m an idiot, and that’s what idiots do all the time.’

‘Hirad,’ said Ilkar, ‘tell me you haven’t done what I think you’ve done.

Denser clapped Hirad on the back and started laughing, though he surely could scarcely feel like doing so. ‘Oh, very well done, Hirad, very well done,’ he said.

The delegation looked on, Stylia

‘Explain,’ said Vuldaroq, his face reddening by the second. ‘I hate to feel I am being laughed at.’

‘Let me assure you I am laughing at nothing but Hirad’s capacity to surprise. Tell us all where the catalysts are, Hirad, please.’

Hirad shrugged. ‘Somewhere between here and the farm we stayed at. I don’t think I’ll be any more specific. And before you bluster and shout, let me explain that I am sick and tired of people trying to run my life and so I have given The Raven a little bargaining counter against further betrayal.’

‘But surely you know that was a rogue Master from Xetesk!’ Vuldaroq thumped the palms of his hands on his chair. ‘And now the most valuable pieces in Balaia are unguarded.’

‘And untraceable,’ said Hirad. ‘And I don’t care who it was that was coming to kill us. The fact is that there are only three mages in the entire world that I trust and they are all sitting with The Raven.