Raven's Shadow (Raven #1)(116)

"What?" he managed, the emotions and pain of the battle raging around him raw without the Guardian's protection.

Hennea smoothed her hands over him and the worst of the clamor faded until it was manageable. The Guardian would have been better, but Jes couldn't let him loose until he had a moment to calm down.

"Look on the stage," Hennea whispered. "What do you see?"

There had been wizards on the stage when he'd carried Hennea's message to the Emperor. Five stood in plain view, but the other held to the shadows. When his father had lost control of them, they, like Hennea, had stood back from the battle and aided their people as they could.

Now four wizards lay crumpled on the ground, and something - something that caused the Guardian to take control again - fed on the fifth.

"What is that?" asked the Guardian.

"A Raven's Memory," she said. "A vengeful ghost - though I've never seen one so substantial. It's almost alive."

The sixth wizard, anonymous in his robes, slipped off the stage and toward the destroyed wall. No one looked at him, though he passed a few men quite closely.

"One of the wizards is getting away," the Guardian observed to Hennea, calm again.

"Where?" she asked, but when he pointed, she didn't see him.

"I'll follow him," he decided and Jes, anxious to get away from the battle, agreed with the Guardian's decision. Neither of them listened to Hennea's protest as the great cat leaped over a heap of rubble to follow the escaping man.

Seraph blew her hair out of her eyes wearily and kept moving forward. The large young man who had been so helpful in dispatching that first Raptor had stayed by her side as she used whatever means necessary to push through the battle.

There was a limit to her magic, and after the first blast won her only a few yards before the fighting spread into the cleared area she'd made, she decided that she was going to have to use more subtlety and less power. With a sword she scavenged from the floor, she used magic to lend force to her blows until the blade slid through bone as if it were water. She'd taken the time to add her own see-me-not spell to Hennea's efforts. Blood covered her from the elbows down, weighting down her clothes with more than physical burden - but she wasn't here to fight fair. She needed to get to Tier.

"You know it's true what he said," panted her young friend Kissel.

"What's that?" she managed, dropping another Raptor who was raising his sword to attack a blue-robed man from behind.

"A man would be smarter to face an enraged boar than to cross my wife." The boy managed to imitate Tier's style.

"Huh," she grunted, kicking an unsuspecting man behind his knee and dropping him onto his opponent's blade. "How flattering."

The boy grinned wearily. "He doesn't seem to mind."

"Can you see him yet?"

"No," he said. "But I can see Toarsen on the stage - he'll do his best to keep him from harm."

Tier knew that he should get to his feet and claim a sword, but he just couldn't manage it.

As if he read his mind, Toarsen said, "It's all right, sir. Just having Avar in here fighting for the Emperor took most of the heart out of the Raptors. All the Passerines called out his name as soon as they saw who it was - even that squid you've had Kissel and me watching was attacking the Raptors. Remind me never to let him behind me with something sharp. All that's left now is just a few of the Raptors and mercenaries who didn't leave fast enough. Avar will call quarter in a minute, as soon as he thinks that his men have had enough of killing."

Sure enough, through the sounds of battle - all the louder for being inside the cavernous chamber - came a bass rumble still distinguishable as the words: "Quarter give quarter! Surrender or die!" picking up in volume as more voices took up the cry.

"Waste of time," murmured Tier, just before he passed out. "They're all guilty of treason - Phoran will have to hang 'em all."

He wasn't actually out all that long because there were still clashes, as a few desperate men continued to fight, when he woke up.

He opened his eyes just as an old, quavering voice said, "Woo-eyah. I see that those giggling twits were right about solsenti men."

Tier stared at the oldest woman he'd ever seen, then grinned. "You must be Brewydd," he said, "the Healer."

"And it's a good thing for you, young man," she agreed. "You must be the Bard that woman's been so upset about. Now let me see what this old biddy can do about making you want to stay with the living."

She clicked her tongue against her teeth when she saw what they'd done to his knees. "Good thing you did this with a Lark nearby," she said. "If you'd done it somewhere else you wouldn't be walking on these again."

"I'd give you a kiss," said Tier, then he had to stop and grit his teeth as her touch brought burning pain that was worse than the original blows had been. "Except that my wife would finish what the Path began."

"It is good that a man knows his place," said Seraph comfortably from somewhere behind him.

He hurt too much to turn so he could see her, so he gave her a vague wave.

She crouched down on her heels beside him. "So," she said, "I know where there is a white robe you can have - but that might make you a target. On the other hand, parading around in nothing at all might make you a different sort of target."