Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(126)

Jes came. "Papa?" He stiffened, looked at Seraph, and the Guardian asked, "What's wrong?"

"Willon is here," said Tier. "It looks as though he might have taken Lehr and the rest."

The Guardian drew a deep breath. "I want to go after them."

"No," said Hinnum. "You have no chance if you meet him alone."

"Go," said Tier, knowing full well that he might be sending his son to his death. "We'll follow as fast as we can. We'll head straight to the Owl's temple."

The Guardian flowed into wolf form, shook himself once, as if to get a feeling for the shape of the wolf, then ran.

Hinnum threw up his hands. "You would feed your children to the Shadowed one by one."

"No," said Seraph. The rage she felt was so strong her voice shook with it. "Jes is almost immune to magic. He'll buy us the time we need to get there."

"I'm ready," said Hennea swinging onto her horse.

"Wait," said Hinnum. He stared at his feet for a moment, then knelt before Hennea. "I failed you once, lady. I'll not do it again. Like the Guardian, I'll go to hold off the Shadowed until you get there, or die in the attempt. I think it foolish. I don't believe it will work. But I will go."

"You've never failed me," said Hennea, her voice tender. "Never once."

Hinnum stood and then, like Jes, he changed form. A magpie, ebony-winged and black-eyed, replaced the boyish form, and then took flight.

"Wizards can't change form," said Tier. "Not even Ravens."

"Hinnum can," Hennea said. "Hinnum can do a lot of things other wizards never dreamed of."

Rinnie watched in shock as Phoran fell off the wall. She'd been so glad to see him, though she'd known, really, that he couldn't rescue her from the Shadowed.

Something cold grabbed her by the shoulder and jerked her to her feet. "Fly, Cormorant," hissed the Memory in her ear. "Fly!"

And he threw her off the tower as the Shadowed screamed his rage after her.

The winds that had been comforting her ever since Ielian had dumped her on the floor of the guard tower caught at her hands and feet.

Trust us, they said, and then, like Phoran's Memory they said, fly, Cormorant, fly!

And she did.

"Help Phoran," she demanded of her winds and they let her speed down the tower, down the cliff, all but falling so that she didn't lose sight of him. She landed, overbalanced, and then tripped and stumbled, trying to keep her feet. She landed on her knees not ten feet from Phoran's body. She didn't bother to stand up, just crawled to where he lay.

There's no blood, she thought, surely there would be blood if the winds hadn't obeyed her fast enough. If he was dead there should be blood. But if he wasn't dead, he should be breathing, shouldn't he?

"Phoran?" she said.

His eyes popped open in an almost comic expression of surprise. He still didn't seem to be breathing, but he rolled to a seated position. His eyes watering, he sucked in air shallowly - and Rinnie sagged with relief. She recognized the signs, having fallen out of the rafters of the barn a time or two.

"You've just had the breath knocked out of you," she said. "You'll be all right."

"The Shadowed is coming," said the Memory from somewhere just behind her.

Phoran, still not breathing quite right, got to his feet. Rinnie grabbed his hand hard when she saw what lay just beyond him.

Ielian wasn't going to be stabbing anyone again.

She turned away, but was caught by Phoran's hand briefly. "Wait. He had an amulet - no, don't look."

He left her for a moment and returned, shaking his head. "No use," he said taking her hand again and setting off at a jog.

"What were you looking for?" Rinnie asked him.

"An amulet that was supposed to release the Shadowed's spell."

"How did you break free?"

He smiled at her, though his eyes were tired. "No one commands an emperor," he said. "It is unbelievable, inconceivable."

Rinnie tried to put his answer with her question, but she couldn't see how they connected.

"His spell was an illusion," said Phoran helpfully. "When I didn't believe it anymore, I could move."

"He hurt some people before he took me," Rinnie said. "I remember blood and Gura barking."

Phoran's hands tightened on hers. "Rufort's dead. Kissel, I think, will be all right. I bandaged Gura, but he'd lost a lot of blood."

"Look, there's Lehr," said Phoran.

Rinnie looked ahead and saw her brother running toward them. Phoran straightened a little more and sped up until they were running. Lehr caught up to them and turned to run with them.

"The Shadowed is coming after us," Phoran told her brother. "We need to get out of here."

Being able to breathe again made Phoran more aware of his surroundings, so he saw Toarsen and Kissel before they saw him. Toarsen had managed a more professional bandage than Phoran had taken time for, and Kissel was on his feet.

Kissel didn't look like a man about to die, which was terrific. On the other hand, he didn't look as though he was going to be running back to camp either.

"Gura," Rinnie ran to the shaggy, black beast, but it was ominously still.