Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(111)

Phoran rolled up the sleeve on his left arm; his right had been aching all day today, and that was his sword arm. He didn't remember the ache lingering as long when the Memory had fed before, but he might just have forgotten it.

But it felt worse again as the cold mouth closed over the wound it had made in his arm. The icy chill was more pervasive, the pain more intense than last night. Surely he would have remembered if it had been so bad last night.

Phoran found himself seated on the ground, half-leaning on Lehr.

"By the taking of your blood," said the Memory, its voice as dry as old leaves. "I owe you one answer. Choose your question."

"Phoran?" It was Lehr's voice, intensely quiet, like it got sometimes when they were nearing their prey on a hunt. "Look between those two houses across the square. Do you see them?"

Feeling dizzy and slow, Phoran stared at the houses Lehr was pointing at. Vaguely conscious of the dog, growling at Lehr's side.

"Yesterday, Hinnum warned us not to be here at night," Lehr was saying. "I'd forgotten - I'd wager Mother and Papa have as well. Hinnum said the streets belonged to the dead."

It looked almost human, thought Phoran. It was the right height and shape, but some primal instinct told him that whatever it was that watched Lehr and him from twenty yards across the cobbled avenue had not been human for a very long time.

"How do we survive this?" asked Phoran, looking at the dead man who had haunted him for better than half a year and never, ever, scared him as much as the thing - no, his eyes finally told him, Lehr was right there was more than one of them - things, then.

"Go inside," it whispered. "They are coming, and I have no power over the dead. They will come demanding a gift or your lives."

"What kind of gift?" Phoran asked. But the Memory had evidently given him his answer, such as it was, because it said nothing.

Still holding his arm, and staggering a little, Phoran stood up. "I hope your mother knows something about the dead," he said.

"I know about predators," said Lehr. "Don't turn around until we reach the door. Keep your eyes on them - and don't hurry."

Abysmally slowly they backed the few feet to the library door. Lehr opened the door, and Phoran took a last look at the gathering things slowly blending into the shadows of the buildings as twilight faded and darkness held sway on the streets of Colossae. Then he was inside, the wooden bulk of the door between them and whatever hunted them.

For the first time, the library struck Phoran as welcoming, the gentle glow of magicked lights tucked unobtrusively behind bits of carving in the ceiling and walls providing a sense of protection from the dark.

Seraph didn't hear the door open or shut over the babble of voices, but she saw Jes stiffen and look toward the stairs.

"Lehr, Phoran, and Gura," he said. "They smell of fear and blood."

His voice was loud enough that Hinnum and Hennea stopped the calm-voiced argument - an argument so heavy with unspoken guilt and anger that Jes had been forced to leave Hennea's side and stand alone away from the rest of them.

Phoran topped the stairs holding his left arm as though it hurt. Lehr stood just behind him with Gura. The dog's hackles were raised, and it kept looking behind them.

"It's night," Phoran said. "There are dead walking the streets. And I am hoping that's not as bad as I think it might be."

"Magic has no hold on the dead," said Hennea, speaking quickly, though there was no panic in her voice. "Hinnum, can they get in here?"

"They haven't bothered me before," said Hinnum. "But you, they will follow. The door might hold them for a while, but not after they've smelled blood. Magic can work on them a bit, no matter what the stories say, Hennea. Seraph, you will know what I mean when I tell you they are creatures of spirit."

She did. Difficult to work, but if the Shadowed managed to cloak his magic in spirit, then something could be done. As long as there weren't many of them.

"Of course," said Hennea, sounding rattled. "I'm sorry. I had forgotten. Like at the Mountain of Names. It's hard to remember everything. Jes, come back away from the stairway."

"I have safeguards that can keep them out of the library," Hinnum said. "But I haven't used them since your Willon left, and I cannot raise them as I am. I have no need of the safeguards myself; the dead are after flesh and blood, and, in my present form, I have none to tempt them."

"What happens if they find us?" asked Ielian. He'd gotten to his feet and loosened his sword. Steel worked against some creatures of a magical nature, but it wouldn't help against the dead.

"It's not a good thing for the dead to touch the living," Seraph said, giving them the extent of her knowledge. Her old teacher had been more worried about mistwights, water demons, and the like.

"There are a few ghosts in Colossae," said Hinnum. "But they are largely harmless and stay near their homes. I don't have a name for these - necromancy was never an art I was drawn to."

"I don't remember much about the dead," said Hennea.

"They killed all the wizards who chose to stay here with me after the city died," said Hinnum. "Running doesn't work; neither does most magic. It took me long time to learn how I might shield my apprentices, and it will take me too long to try to teach it to you. We have minutes before the doors give way, not days."