The Unkindness of Ravens

by Cory Huff

  Liam grabbed Sophronia’s hand and followed her down the passageway. In the light of her glowing globe, he could see the shovel marks in the rough-hewn earth. There were supports spaced every 10 feet or so.

  Liam heard the barbarians open the trap door and drop down into the tunnel. “We should run,” he said. “I don’t think it worked.”

  “We don’t know where this ends or how long it is. We need to save our energy,” responded Sophronia.

  “We can fight them one at a time,” murmured Aidan. “They’re big and will have a hard time in the tunnels.”

  “Ok, but we can at least hurry,” snapped Liam.

  Liam estimated that they had traveled about a half-mile underground. They were walking quickly, and it had been at least 10 minutes. This tunnel couldn’t go on for much longer. He was considering how they might fight in these close quarters.

  “I think this is it!” Exclaimed Sophronia up ahead. “Yes, the tunnel ends here, and there’s a ladder up, thank the Creator. Let’s get out of here!” They came to a halt in a widened area similar to the one they left, though slightly smaller. More of a staging area to escape the tower thought Liam. Whoever had built it had probably widened this area of the tunnel just enough to install the ladder and trap door.

  Sophronia clambered up the ladder, balancing her light ball. There was another trap door at the top of this ladder. She pushed, but it didn’t move at all. She growled and pushed again. Nothing. She changed her position on the ladder and got higher up. She pushed her shoulders up into the trap door. He could see her straining against the trapdoor from the ladder, gasping for breath. The palms of her hands pushed up, and the ball of light disappeared as she did so. The pitch blackness enveloped them.

  “It’s stuck. I can’t open it.”

  Liam could hear the Thir warriors running and yelling. It was getting louder. How many were there? They made much noise.

  Aidan stood at the entrance to the room, sword, and ax out, facing toward the imminent fight.

  Liam spoke up, “Let me try. I’m bigger than you. It might work.”

  Sophronia lowered her palm, and the light came back, casting a soft glow. She came down the ladder and nodded at Liam.

  Liam slowly climbed up. Too slowly for Sophronia. “Hurry up Liam.”

  Liam didn’t acknowledge he’d heard her. He was thinking about how he would build this kind of door. It might not be a straightforward hinge. There could be a trigger mechanism or a lock. “Can you make that light brighter?”

  Sophronia quipped, “You don’t need light to open a door Liam, just push on it hard.”

  He grunted, “I’m trying to see if there’s a lock or switch. I need more light.”

  She concentrated, and the ball of light glowed brighter. Sophronia swayed on her feet and steadied herself against the cold earthen wall.

  “Whatever we’re doing, we better get that door open quick,” said Aidan. He could see a burning torch in the distance. “They’ll be here any minute.”

  Liam swallowed his fear and looked around the edges of the door. There was no visible handle. He didn’t see a latch. He could see roots growing around the crack in the door. “I think the grass or something must have grown over the door. If the same society that built Atania built this, it could be hundreds of years old. Who knows what’s on top of this?” He looked down at Sophronia, who looked stricken.

  He watched Aidan set his jaw grimly and accept what was happening. There were too many of them. They were going to die. Suddenly, out of nowhere, Aidan smiled. “Blast it open Liam.”

  “What?” From both Sophronia and Liam.

  “You threw that woman down with some magical blast, right? Do it again, but aim up,” said Aidan.

  “It’s not that easy,” said Sophronia, “he doesn’t know what he’s doing, and doing something like that was an act of desperation.”

  “We’re about to get really, really desperate,” Aidan said quietly. “Draw your sword.” He nodded to the shortsword at her hip.

  They both looked at Liam. He stared at them for a second, then turned around and tried pushing. He used his hands to clear away as much of the root structure as he could, dirt raining down on him as he did so. He didn’t see what could be holding it down.

  Aidan spoke, “Here they come.”

  Liam looked, and he saw a flaxen-haired warrior charging towards Aidan. Black tattoos depicting ravens in flight spread across his chest. Teal powder covered his eyelids. His face twisted in the rage of combat. He shouted a wordless snarl as he barreled down on Aidan.

  Liam sucked in his breath in terror as he watched Aidan about to be bowled over.

  There was no way Aidan was going to stop this heedless charge. The massive warrior had six inches and at least fifty pounds on Aidan. However, Aidan didn’t try to stop him. At the last second, just as the warrior was about to hit him with a short chop of an ax, Aidan dropped horizontal, bracing his shoulders and legs between the narrow passage. The warrior was caught entirely by surprise as Aidan dropped and shouted, “Now Sophronia!” The Black Raven tripped over Aidan’s braced body, booting him heavily in the left ribs as he did so, but going head over heels into the wider room.

  Sophronia dove in and stuck her sword in the warrior’s back before he could get up. He roared as her sword struck home between his ribs, but she dropped a knee next to the blade, using her downward momentum to drive the sword in further and keep him on the ground.

  Liam watched in horror as blood spurted all over her and the ground.

  Liam started when another warrior roared and charged Aidan who was seemingly defenseless on the ground. However, in a fantastic act of nimbleness, Aidan pulled his knees back, rolled his body over his feet and exploded up, shortsword point leading in his right hand, and ax handle aimed to bat away the warrior’s swing. His shortsword caught this warrior off guard and plunged into his diaphragm. Liam watched him die with a look of disbelief on his face.

  Liam turned to tear at the door frantically. He willed himself to summon whatever power was within him, but nothing was coming. He did what Sophronia had done, bracing his shoulders against the door and pushing down on the ladder with all of his might. He thought something moved a little bit, and then with a loud crack, the metal ladder rung snapped and Liam fell to the ground next to the first dead warrior.

  He looked up just in time to see Aidan get bowled over as the next warrior in the column slammed into the back of his dead brother, brute-forcing his way into the room. Aidan fell backward with the momentum, perhaps attempting a backward somersault, but stumbled backward into the wall and Liam heard the air blast out of his lungs. The warrior charged straight at Aidan, but Sophronia was there, having just pulled her sword out of the warrior she’d killed. She swung at him, and he dodged aside. Another warrior came through the tunnel and tried to hack at her torso. She parried the ax and took a left-handed punch to the face. She staggered backward, tripping over Liam as Aidan pounced forward next to her.

  Liam struggled to avoid being trampled. He tried to stand up, but there were too many legs and weapons to figure out how not to get in the way. So he scooted and scrambled, dodging as best he could.

  Aidan presented his shortsword with a leading thrust. The first warrior knocked aside the shortsword with all of his might, but Aidan let it swing out wide as his left hand brought his hand ax up to the left, scoring a brutal hack into the warrior’s exposed side. When the warrior reflexively brought his sword arm back, Aidan brought the shortsword back in and finished him with a thrust to the heart. Blood again spurted everywhere.

  The next warrior to enter the room advanced on Sophronia. She was unbalanced from trying not to step on Liam. He was trying to get out from under her when he saw the warrior advance. His vision swam as he shouted out, “No!”

  He felt a thunderous rush of power shoot out from his hands. That power grabbed the Black Raven and threw him against the corner of the tunnel and larger room. He flew with such force that everyon
e heard the crack of his back breaking. But even more astonishing was the rush of power made everything in the room vibrate, sending a massive cloud of dust up and away from Liam. The deep thrum of the vibration rebounded from the impact point, and the wall and cracks instantly spread out. The corner immediately dissolved, dropping the body and a massive amount of earth on the ground at the entrance to the tunnel.

  Everyone paused for a second, looking at the ceiling. One of the warriors, their leader, shouted from further up back in the tunnel where he couldn’t see what was happening, “Why are you stopping? You have the advantage! Kill them! For The Raven!” The warriors shook themselves and started forward, more cautiously.

  Liam stood up, or he tried to. But he was suddenly seized with massive cramps and nausea. He realized this was going to be a repeat of what happened in the forest the first time. He could see how much dirt was still falling. The initial clump had dropped, but now more and more dirt was falling, like a faucet being turned on. He tried to call out to Aidan and Sophronia to warn them as they pushed forward to stem the tide of the barbarians.

  He watched with horror as the faucet of dirt turned into a cascading waterfall of earth, and his jaw clenched, and body shook as he watched the tunnel itself collapse. His world filled with earth. It covered his face, and he closed his eyes. It went up his nostrils, in his ears, forced its way between his clenched lips, went down his shirt and covered him. He was being buried alive, along with Aidan, Sophronia, and the warriors. His last thought before losing consciousness was a conviction that he was right. The Ogham was too dangerous for anyone to be using.

  Interlude: From the Ashes

  It was late at night in the streets of the city of Atania. The moon was nearly full in a cloudless sky. It was hot. There was a pile of rubble. Nobody was watching it. It moved a little bit. I seemed to pulse. Once. Twice. A hand shot out of the wreckage. It reached, searching for purchase. Failing to find anything, it disappeared back down the hole. Noises emerged from the hole. Grunting. Sliding. Cursing.

  Finally, the hand emerged again, followed by a woman’s pale head. The head was shaved to stubble and ears were pointed. The woman spat debris out of her mouth and grimaced in pain. Her left arm rested on the rubble around her. She couldn’t see anyone around. Why would there be? This house had stopped burning. It had collapsed. Everyone in it should be dead. They would dig through the rubble and find the bodies when they got around to it.

  Dubhain, as she thought of herself, should probably be dead. The roof had fallen in, a flaming beam hitting her right shoulder. She was positive that her collarbone was broken. She couldn’t pull herself out of this hole with just her left arm. She was stuck.

  Use the Ogham.

  Dubhain started at the thought. Dubhain didn’t usually control the body. Recently that had been Mindee. Mindee had disappeared. Maybe dead. She possibly fled to the nether regions of consciousness. She wasn’t sure who had thought that. Caile? Seinne? The Tuatha parts of her rarely spoke to Dubhain. Dubhain was the human part of her. She usually held at a distance so the rest could prove themselves to their Tuatha cousins.

  Dubhain never fronted so never had the opportunity to use the Ogham. She knew how. They all did. It was core to their being. The power had reached down into all of them. They all craved that thrill that came when the power filled your being. She thought of what she could do. She thought briefly about reigniting this rubble around her. There was a great deal of charred wood. It would burn, and she could finally be free.

  Someone is coming.

  Caile or Seinne again. She turned her head and looked down the street. She shuddered when she saw a person out of her nightmares: Mindee’s tutor in the Cumhnantach, the shadow cabal that had tasked Mindee with keeping the Ogham out of the hands of humanity. He streamed power like black smoke. He was menacing when he wanted to show himself. He was deadly when he didn’t. But more than that, he was a master manipulator. He made people see whatever he wanted them to see. He was here for Mindee. He would want to know if she was dead, to see if he had wasted his time training her.

  Dubhain had no interest in more of the Cumhnantach’s treatments. She would indeed use the Ogham. She gestured with her left hand, drawing a rapid succession of slashes in the air and quickly incanting. The power of the Ogham infused her body, and she disappeared from the rubble with the smallest glimmer of light, no more than a ripple of heat in the moonlight.

  3. The Arms of the Clans

  Aidan scrambled, bursting above the flood of earth. He spat the dirt out of his mouth and sucked a deep breath into his lungs. He choked on the particles of dust in his throat, coughing it back out. He scrambled the rest of the way out of the dirt, climbing up and out. His head slammed into the earthen ceiling, and more dirt fell on him. He only had about two feet of clearance right here. But he could see the opening where everything had collapsed down into the room. He could get out. He crawled on his hands and knees in the loose earth, sinking, near panicking, to get out of the cave-in area.

  His hand touched warm flesh. It was an arm, half-buried, but flailing. Without thinking, he grabbed and pulled. Sophronia emerged from the dirt, hacking and coughing. They both looked around wildly, hoping to avoid their enemies. They had been swept back towards the ladder by the force of the falling earth. Aidan had mostly managed to keep himself near the top of the wave of earth, only falling below it for a moment there at the end. He was surprised that Sophronia had managed to stay so close to the surface. Liam…

  ”Where’s Liam?” he gasped.

  Sophronia shook her head as she continued to cough out bursts of dirt.

  Aidan scrambled back down the earth, towards the now-redundant ladder. “Liam!” he shouted, then he wondered if the warriors were still nearby. If they were, tons of earth had collapsed on them, and they weren’t getting out without help. Aidan used his hands to dig down into the loose soil near the ladder. Perhaps Liam had been near there? Just six inches down, Aidan’s searching hand found warm flesh again. As soon as he touched Liam, he felt movement, struggle against the earth. “I found him! Help me!”

  Sophronia crawled over to help dig. They worked furiously, coughing and trying to clear their airways as they went. After a moment, they had removed enough earth around Liam; they could see his hands clutching the ladder. His body was curled up in a tight ball against the ladder, his head down. He’d been trying to raise himself when the dirt buried him. “Liam!” Whispered Sophronia. She reached her hands down into the earth and found his hair, then his face. She wrapped her hands around his jaw and under his armpit and tried to pull him up. The dirt clung to him. “He’s stuck! Dig more!”

  They both dug and dug, clearing his shoulders, and they were able to pull him out. He was struggling to breathe and twitching. They laid him out on the slope and Sophronia rolled him on his side. She pounded on his back, and he coughed, spraying dirt like the rest of them. He continued to twitch. “Liam, are you ok?” Asked Aidan. He didn’t respond and continued to twitch and quiver.

  “I think its the Ogham sickness. He must have done something to preserve himself, and now he can’t come out of it. He told me this has happened to him before,” said Sophronia.

  Aidan nodded, coughing again, and sucked in a deep breath. It was getting better - he didn’t feel like he was breathing through a hollow reed anymore.

  He heard a noise. Yelling? The Black Raven tattooed warriors? He listened again, looking at Sophronia. She nodded. Yes, they could hear the faintest sound of shouting. She spoke very quietly, “How far down do think the tunnel collapsed?”

  Aidan shook his head. He spoke just above a whisper, “We have to get Liam out of here. We’ve got to run. Now.” She nodded and looked around. Their backpacks were nowhere. A couple of her Ogham books were in there. Buried under the dirt. “What about our packs?”

  Aidan looked around too. He shook his head. “I have no idea. We have to get out of here though. It won’t take them very long to backtrack and run us down.
”

  She nodded again. Hooking an arm under one of Liam’s shoulders, she indicated Aidan should do the same. They clumsily crawled their way out of the collapsed room, hauling Liam’s shaking body. They took a second to breathe, look around, and orient themselves. They were in a small valley between two of the endless rolling hills on the Thir. The sun was directly overhead. It was hot. They couldn’t see anything but hills covered in sparse grasses and flowers. They could hear the ocean.

  Aidan ran part way up the Western hill, dropping to his belly before cresting the top, and slowly inching his way up. Sophronia was so anxious she didn’t even tell him to be careful. She rubbed Liam’s twitching back and made soothing sounds, trying to help him calm down.

  A minute later Aidan was standing next to them again. “The tower is probably a quarter mile away. I don’t see any signs of pursuit yet. The ocean is just South of us over that rise, and there’s nothing but endless hills North and East.” Sophronia looked up at him and looked grim. She nodded and took a deep breath.

  “Let’s at least drag Liam over the next few hills before we figure out what to do next.” Said Sophronia. They hooked arms under his shoulders and walked as quickly as they could over the next two hills, anxiously looking over their shoulders for signs of pursuit.

  They stopped, huffing and puffing. Liam was thin, but he was still heavy for two people as slight as Sophronia and Aidan. “This isn’t working,” said Aidan. He was doubled over, hands on his knees. “We need a stretcher, or we need some way to hide. This is too hard with him moving and twitching.”

  Sophronia nodded, looking back in the direction they’d come from, “his dragging feet are creating a trail right to us.”

  With no other options, Sophronia and Aidan gathered up Liam and dragged him around the next hill. They went around at an angle instead of over the top because they didn’t want the Blackravens to see them, but it made everything more awkward and difficult. Aidan, on the uphill side, was carrying the bulk of Liam’s weight, while Sophronia pushed up and tried to steady him while he shook and twitched. She didn’t think she was doing a great job of steadying him, but Aidan didn’t say anything.