Raven's Strike (Raven #2)(61)

The one person they didn't find was Brewydd. Lehr didn't find that a hopeful sign. Doubtless she'd been out trying to heal someone when the madness had taken the townspeople.

"There are too many for us to bury," said Lehr helplessly. "But we can't leave them like this."

The Guardian stared around them. "I remember... battlefields thick with bodies. Honorable soldiers who deserved better than to be carrion for the vultures. Come here, Lehr. Beside me where you'll be safe."

Lehr got as close as he dared, until the cold of his brother's talents bit his fingers, and dread made it hard to breathe. Cornsilk flattened her ears in distress, but she stood beside Lehr. Apparently they were close enough because the Guardian began singing, a strange atonal sound more akin to a wolf's howl than to any song Lehr had ever heard.

It hurt Lehr's heart, and the tears he'd been fighting fell from his cheeks as if he were a child no older than Rinnie. He'd known these people - hauled firewood with them, fought beside them. And they were all dead. Had died trying to save this town, who had killed them.

The ground shook beneath his feet in answer to the Guardian's song.

Magic surged up through Lehr's feet in a sudden, almost-painful wave that left his ears tingling. All around him the earth broke open around the bodies of Travelers and townsfolk alike and swallowed them down, leaving only turned earth to mark where they had been.

The Guardian's song ended.

"What - " Lehr abandoned his question and set his shoulder beneath Jes's as his brother, pale and sweating, started to fall. Jes sobbed hoarsely as Lehr helped him to a crude bench beneath a small maple tree.

"Shh," he said, kneeling in front of him, wishing he could do more. But Jes had pulled away from him as soon as he sat on the bench, and Lehr knew that no touch of his could comfort his brother. "They'll feel no more pain now, Jes. Nothing more can hurt them."

Jes raised his dark eyes. "So much sorrow," he gasped. "Brewydd, I think. Nearby."

Lehr remembered then that Jes was an empath.

He stood up and looked around slowly. If Jes felt Brewydd hurting, it meant she was still alive. His eyes fell on a small covered cart that could be pulled by hand or horse - Brewydd's karis.

He put Cornsilk's reins in Jes's hand. "Hold her for me," he said. "She's probably unhappy, too, Jes."

His brother leaned forward until his forehead rested against her front leg. The mare turned to lip the back of his shirt.

Deciding he'd left Jes cared for as best he could, Lehr made his way to the karis - mindful to avoid the places where the earth was soft.

When he opened the door, he was met by the smells of illness. Brewydd took up so little space he almost dismissed her as an odd lump in the bedding before she moved.

"You came, boy," she said. "I worried you would come too late, but then I felt the earth welcome her children home by a Guardian's call. I knew you were here then."

He gathered her into his arms and took her out into the sunshine, hoping its warmth would aid her. She looked as though she'd lost half her body weight since he'd seen her last.

"We should have come with you," he said. "Rinnie was safe with Aunt Alinath. If we'd come with you, this wouldn't have happened."

She reached up to touch his cheek, then patted it gently, and he realized she was blind.

"Who knows what would have happened? That is already written, boy, and not for you or me to change."

"Brewydd?" Jes had left his bench. Lehr looked up and saw that whatever had been tearing at his brother was better now. "We'll take you home, and Mother will fuss over you like she does Papa."

"No, boy," she said gently. "I stayed to talk with you. One of my gifts was farseeing - a weak gift, but it told me I had to wait. Don't mourn me, Lehr - " She brushed away a tear with her thumb. "I'm an old, old woman. Too old to see this illness for what it was. I should have: I knew there was a new Shadowed."

"What went wrong?" Lehr asked. He carried her over to the maple tree and its bench and sat, cradling her as if that might protect her somehow.

"I healed, and they were back the next day worse than before. It was shadow plague, boy. Deaths to feed the Shadowed's power. I knew what to look for, but I'd forgotten, old woman that I am. By the time I thought of it, I was sick myself and half the clan with me. Healed them, then healed myself, but it was too late. The healing took more than I had to give, so I'm dying anyway. Just as this town all died. Shadow-killed. I saw it."

"Mother said Lark can't see shadow," said Lehr, his voice gentle.

She shook her head. "Can. We all can a little, it's just hard for us who don't have Hunter eyes or Guardian instincts. Orders have more in common than not, for all that the Ravens like to pretend differently."

"The Shadowed killed this city," said Jes.

Brewydd nodded. "Those who weren't killed by knife or club. The Shadowed will be up to full strength now. Tell your mother to be careful of him."

"It is a man?" asked Lehr.

She shook her head. "Don't know. Shouldn't assume anything. Could be anyone. You had questions for me to answer. Important enough for me to stay for them, I think."

"Phoran's Memory isn't gone," said Jes.