Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(29)

Hennea led - mostly, Seraph thought, to stay away from Jes. Lehr walked beside Seraph, giving her his arm. Among other things, Brewydd had taught him to mind his manners even with his own mother. It made Seraph want to smile, but she restrained herself and tucked her hand in the crook of his arm.

The Rederni greeted them as they climbed up the zigzag streets, mostly with shy smiles and averted eyes. When Hennea started directly for the new temple, Seraph caught her elbow.

"We need to talk to Karadoc. I should have talked to him while we had him at our home, but I didn't think of it. Ellevanal told me that he used Karadoc to destroy the Shadowed's summoning rune. He might know something interesting. I also want to stop and tell Tier what we're doing."

"Ellevanal?" Hennea stopped dead and stared at Seraph. "You believe a god directed the priest Karadoc?"

"That's what he told me."

"The priest?"

"Ellevanal," said Lehr with a small smile. "Didn't Mother tell you that she had a conversation with Him?"

"Ellevanal's the forest king," said Jes unexpectedly. Seraph hadn't known that he'd realized that much. "I don't know about being a god, though."

"He told me he was only a little god," Seraph told him.

"There are no gods, Seraph," said Hennea softly, almost to herself. "They are all dead."

Travelers did not believe in gods - demons and shadowed in all forms, but not gods.

Seraph shrugged, her years in Redern had softened her attitudes toward gods. "Hennea, this village has worshiped Ellevanal since Redern was settled. Ellevanal is most certainly the forest king - ell vanail means lord of the forest. From what he said to me, I think he was originally a Keeper or perhaps just an elemental who escaped the devastation the Shadowed King brought upon them. When men settled here after the Fall, Ellevanal used the forest to protect them from the shadow-touched things that escaped as well."

"He is no god, no matter what he told you," Hennea said.

Seraph shrugged. "I don't worship him, but I'm grateful that he fights at our side and not against us. If he wants to call himself a god, I can't see the harm in it. Come, we need to talk to Karadoc before we start messing around in the temple."

They found Karadoc wrapped in blankets and banished to sit in the sunshine outside of the temple while a number of people were cleaning inside.

"Greetings, Seraph Tieraganswife," he said with a mischievous grin that made him look more battered and pale in contrast. "Greetings also Jes and Lehr Tieraganson, and Rinnie Seraphsdaughter."

Seraph bowed her head. "Priest Karadoc, may I make you known to my compatriot Hennea, Raven of the Clan of Rivilain Moon-Haired."

"Priest," said Hennea in a low voice.

Karadoc tilted his head, and replied, "Welcome, daughter. I've seen you before, I think. In the new temple?"

She nodded. "I served the would-be-Priest Volis."

"Until she had Mother kill him," added Lehr in an undertone. But the old priest heard him.

"Yes," Karadoc said. "You look much healthier than you did that night." He turned back to Seraph. "How is it that I might serve you, daughter?"

That "daughter" grated. Even after all these years in Redern, the tendency of the menfolk to diminish any woman and patronize her bothered Seraph. Especially after the past months spent in Travelers' company.

Lehr's hand touched her shoulder - likely he knew just how she felt, having tasted something of the same treatment in the Traveler camp. Karadoc didn't mean to demean her, Seraph knew, but still it grated.

She squatted on her heels in front of him - something she wouldn't have done if she'd been wearing her Rederni skirts as she should have been, because they tended to tangle in her feet and make it difficult to rise again. The move put her head level with his, and gave her time to quash her temper. Anger had no place in the heart of a Raven - though it resided full often in hers.

"I need you to tell me about the new temple and how you stopped it from calling more tainted creatures to it," she said baldly.

He leaned back farther in his chair, and the merriment faded from his face. "Do you now? Why is that?"

"Because when Hennea and I went through the temple that night we saw no magic that should have called to the shadow-touched. Either we missed it, or it wasn't there then. That rune was drawn by the Shadowed."

"The Shadowed died five centuries ago," he said, not arguing exactly, more as if he were horrified than as if he didn't believe her.

Seraph nodded. "The Unnamed King died at Shadow's Fall. But he is not the first to contain the Stalker's curse, and, unfortunately, he won't be the last. We have a new one - ask Ellevanal if you do not believe me."

He stared at her and pursed his lips. But he didn't ask her what the Stalker was that its curse could create the Shadowed, he just said, "We'd already been having trouble - mostly with the kinds of things we'd usually only see in the outlying areas - goblins and the like. They killed a few goats, scared some boys who were too near the new temple. Then the bigger things started coming - an ogre that Ciro's grandson killed with that axe he's so proud of. We'd just finished burying one of the boys who died in the battle when Ellevanal called me to him."