The Unkindness of Ravens

by Cory Huff

Liam raised his arm and laid fingers on his arm, changing the sequence to spell out the four letters. He looked at Sophronia expectantly. “Feel anything?”

  Sophronia laughed again. “Are you trying to make me itch?”

  He smiled and nodded.

  “It’s not working,” she said. “Try again, but focus on how you feel on the inside, where your emotions are. For me, it centers in my chest and my gut. When you feel a glimmer of power, grab it and throw it at me. Just don’t throw it very hard.” She grimaced.

  Liam stopped. He closed his eyes, concentrated, and took several deep breaths. He spelled out the letters on his arm with his eyes closed, and nothing happened. He opened his eyes, “Nothing.”

  “Hey you two, you’re falling behind,” Aidan shouted back at them. They rushed to catch up.

  When they stopped to rest that night, Liam and Sophronia sat together and watched Aidan train with the Bloodstone warriors. Days before, Sophronia told Liam, Aidan had asked them to spar with him, and they all laughed. He was so small that they didn’t want to hurt him; she said. Aidan claimed he was a trained warrior and could keep up. When they told him they didn’t believe him, he challenged one of them to a wrestling match.

  Aidan had surprised the warrior whom he wrestled. He had approached Aidan slowly, but Aidan charged straight in, diving for his leg and catching an ankle. He tripped the big warrior in just seconds, and then he had pounced on his back and twisting his arm up behind him, using leverage to drive the wrist up into the middle of the back, wrenching his shoulder. The warrior tried to muscle out of it, and Aidan pushed harder, driving him back to the ground and forcing him to tap out.

  Since that first wrestling match, the other warriors were amused by Aidan. They treated him like a precocious younger brother, showing him tricks with their axes that Aidan had not learned from the Knights of the Creator. The tall Bloodstone clan members were fast and strong. Aidan continued focusing on learning their techniques in personal drills, but when it came to sparring, he constantly surprised them with diving attacks, spinning attacks, and misdirection. He was, and it enraged the warriors he sparred while eliciting hoots of laughter from observers.

  By now, everyone seemed to think Aidan was some fighting prodigy. They all lined up to spar with him, and Aidan had begun to take a beating here and there. They were learning his tricks, and tonight he approached Liam and Sophronia with a split lip and a black eye. When they looked at him with horror, he grinned and then winced at the pain in his split lip. Then he laughed.

  “Glad you’re laughing,” said Sophronia. “You look like someone took you behind a woodshed and beat the hell out of you.”

  “Pretty much,” laughed Aidan. “But I gave as good as I got. I’m getting better. A lot better.”

  By the second week with the Bloodstones, Liam was feeling well, and they made a much faster time. Sophronia kept trying to teach Liam about the Ogham, but after that first day, he didn’t have much interest. He made a few half-hearted attempts, but nothing came of it. After three days, Sophronia stopped trying to teach him.

  He was secretly grateful. He hoped he could control the power but every time he approached using it he panicked, thinking about the near disasters of the recent past. He couldn’t risk something like that happening again.

  As Kaufman promised, two weeks into their journey, they crested a hill in the afternoon and saw Ghealdar laid out before them. In the distance, perhaps a mile away, across a vast river, lay a dark shadow that reminded Liam of Atania. They just had to figure out how to cross the river, and they would be there.

  “The Great River. I’ve dreamed of seeing it,” said Sophronia. “I’ve never left Atania, but the river exists in so many stories. The Hartland Forest and Dragonspine mountains are where the river begins and joins with other smaller bodies of water, creating this massive river more than a mile wide. So many stories about ancient people and their civilizations.” She paused a moment, considering, “Why isn’t there a bridge?” she asked.

  “Why would there be a bridge?” asked Aidan.

  “There were an ancient people that built that huge city, not to mention all of those towers,” responded Liam, nodding. “It makes sense that there should be a bridge.”

  “There was a bridge,” responded Aliah, walking up the hill with Neill. “The bridgehead is down there.” She pointed to the bottom of the hill, and Liam could see a massive pile of stone that looked like it might have been a structure at one time.

  Neill spoke, “When a foolhardy warrior wants to prove himself in Ghealdar, he crosses the river at those stones. The remains of the bridge lie on the floor of the river. You can use them to brace yourself, but the river is powerful. You will probably die before you can even test yourself.” Liam looked at him to see if he was joking. He did not smile.

  “What’s so dangerous about Ghealdar?” asked Sophronia. “You’ve said several times that it is dangerous, but you haven’t told us why.”

  Neill snorted in response. “You didn’t ask,” said Neill. “I assumed you knew. You go into this danger wholly unprepared. You truly will die.”

  “Help us be prepared,” responded Sophronia, “tell us what’s in there.”

  Aliah spoke softly, “Monsters.”

  Everyone got quiet.

  “Monsters of all sizes, shapes, and strength. There is a tradition among the tribes that a warrior who wants to win acclaim and respect, or who wishes to receive a vision from the spirits, will spend a single night in Ghealdar. Most never return. The ones who do return never speak of it other than to say that they fought for their lives.” She paused as if deciding how to pick her next words. Neill turned and walked down the hill. “Some shout about monsters in their dreams.”

  They returned to their camp to rest for the night, before making the river crossing in the morning. After Aliah’s warning, Liam suggested they wanted as much daylight as possible when they entered the city.

  Laying there preparing to go to sleep, Liam thought about what monsters might be in Ghealdar. He thought about the goblins and the water creature at the beach. He shuddered when he considered Mindee, the murderous Tuatha assassin. Would it be worse than that? There would be no Elder Kaufman to bail them out. Would they be able to survive and find the help they needed? Liam fell asleep and dreamed again about disturbing things.

  4. The Ruined City of Ghealdar

  Despite his physical recovery, Liam hadn’t been sleeping well. He hadn’t told anyone about his recurring nightmares. He kept waking up in a cold sweat. It was happening nearly every night.

  Liam dreamed of being buried alive. The cave collapsed on him, suffocating him and making him panic. He started awake, breathing heavily than calming down. He fell asleep again.

  He dreamed of lying face down in the forest, his face caked with dirt, blood, and vomit. Spasms of nausea racked his body and he seized. He stopped shaking, and belly crawled to a stream, where he tried to submerge just his mouth and drink. Tonight the stream turned into a raging river, grabbing and dragging him under by his head. He struggled to right himself underwater, unable to orient himself and push to the surface. As the last bubbles of his air floated to the surface, he surrendered to the blackness.

  He was about to take his first breath of water when the water exploded in agitation. A flurry of black wings and taloned feet frothed the water around him. The talons grabbed his flesh, gripping painfully but pulling him out of the water. There were dozens of crows, flapping as hard as they could, pulling him out of the water. They dropped him on the shore, and he gasped for air. The crows cawed and flapped, and he swatted at them out of instinct. His mind tried to analyze the dream, thinking they were Blackraven warriors bent on his destruction.

  However, they were crows, not ravens. He spent a fair amount of time with carrion birds trying to steal meat scraps from the skins he cured. He recognized their caws, which were different from the low croaks of ravens. Their tails were different as well.

  The crows hopped
off of him, indignant at their treatment by the person they had just rescued.

  The crows parted, and a single crow stood on the ground making eye contact with him. He heard a woman’s grave, low voice, “Are you afraid of me?”

  Liam sat there, dripping and heaving. He nodded — no use in denying it.

  “Why? You are the first Sidhe-blood to approach Ghealdar in a very long time. Though you are but a baby, I long for time with my people, even a mixed blood like you. I must warn you: do not approach Ghealdar near the hours of darkness. I look forward to meeting you. Don’t worry about the Ravens. The crows have always protected this place, and there are more of us than there are of them.”

  She leaped into the air. The other crows stayed on the ground in a circle around Liam. The caw of additional crows descending from the sky to greet her was suddenly deafening. Liam saw a large black raven flying toward him, and dread filled his breast. How could he make this dream end?

  The murder of crows wheeled and banked, flying straight for the raven.

  Liam woke up, and it was the middle of the night. He heard distant animal screams, a predator killing its dinner. He sat up. Aidan, Sophronia, and Aliah were sitting up near him, all looking toward Ghealdar. The screams abruptly stopped, fading away into echoes across the water. Sophronia whispered, “monsters indeed.”

  As they all laid back down Sophronia murmured, “This will be a great opening to the song of Ghealdar.”

  In the morning, just after sunrise, Liam stepped into the water next to the stone bridge. He had sandals on, and not much else. The barest of loincloths protected his nether region. All of his clothes and possessions were in a pack across his back, cinched up high. Aidan was similarly stripped down. Sophronia too, with her shirt still on in a nod to modesty. They were fording the river. Aliah told them that this was how other warriors did it, usually in groups, sometimes solo. The solo warriors almost always died.

  He turned back and looked at the tattooed warriors watching them from further up the bank. He was struck again at the strange coincidence of their tattoo and his family’s possessions. No time to figure it out now. He turned back to the river.

  It being late Summer, the water was cool, but not cold. The current was nearly nonexistent here at the edge of the river. Liam took his long walking stick and probed in front of him. Aliah said they needed to stay close to the stones of the collapsed bridge hidden just under the water. The major problem was the middle of the river. It was deep enough that the rocks would not form a helpful base for them to brace. The challenge there was to swim as fast and hard as they could, hoping to catch the slow eddy on the downriver side of the bridge and swim back up. If the currents in the middle of the river were too strong, everyone could be swept downriver, and they would either swim to shore as best they could or be pushed out to sea.

  The crossing was mostly uneventful for the first half mile or so. The water was all the way up to his waist. Sophronia and Aidan were at chest height, struggling and leaning heavily on the submerged stones. More than once, Liam watched them slip and catch themselves on the river-worn building blocks sitting just under the water. He had slid a couple of times himself, but nothing too dangerous. Even so, it was hard going.

  Liam stopped to rest for a moment when they reached the center of the river. The bridge had collapsed unevenly, leaving a significant gap in the safety barrier. The water was significantly colder. Sophronia’s teeth were chattering. Aidan was shivering. Liam was trembling himself. They couldn’t wait long. He looked at them. “You ready?”

  They both nodded, grim looks on their faces.

  Liam stepped up onto the stones, took a deep breath and hesitated for a second. This was insanity. Why was he jumping into this river? Neill had said he would die.

  “One,” he called out.

  Liam remembered the days of torture on the forest floor. He remembered the dirt caving in on him.

  “Two,” he continued.

  He wanted the nausea and the pain to go away.

  “Three,” he shouted. Then he dove into the water, jumping as far away from where he was standing as he could and began swimming for his life. Liam was fit from working with hides. He wasn’t a great swimmer, but he knew the basics. He kicked for all he was worth, holding his stick out in front of him. He thought he heard the splash of the other two jumping in, but he didn’t want to chance getting distracted by looking back over his shoulder. Up ahead, he could see the crumbling ruins of the bridgehead on the far side of the river. He aimed for the upriver side and kept kicking. The current was too powerful. He kept his eyes fixed on the spot he was swimming to and realized that he was being pushed downriver. The gap in the underground barrier was a quarter mile, which was where the water was too deep for the collapsed bridge to be near the surface.

  Liam watched the bridgehead and pushed for all he was worth. He was breathing hard and trying to keep his face out of the water. After fifteen minutes of exhausting kicking and paddling, he had been moved just to the downriver side of the bridgehead. He saw it, just under the water, several large stones. He jammed his walking stick between two large blocks and pulled himself over, holding against the milder, shallower current. He looked back. Aidan and Sophronia were both not far behind him. As Aidan approached, Liam leaned and held out his hand. He just missed Aidan’s grasp, but held out his stick and Liam grabbed that. He pulled himself onto the top of the stone, in knee deep water. Aidan was right behind him.

  They both looked back, breathing heavily. She was the lightest of the three, and the current had pushed her further downstream. She wasn’t going to make it to their spot. She yelled out, “Go! I can make it ashore!” She tossed aside her stick and pushed hard, chopping her hands into the water. Liam and Aidan watched in astonishment as she powered through. She didn’t fight the current but instead angled herself towards the shore and kept swimming.

  They both turned and made their way along the broken, submerged bridge. Liam frowned when he realized he and Aidan would have to hustle to get to shore before her. Liam suspected that she was using the Ogham and he shook his head. She was going to get herself killed. But not today, apparently.

  Liam considered again how much Sophronia knew that he did not. Perhaps in Ghealdar he would learn what he needed to match her. Not that it was about that. He suppressed a need to compete with her. That’s not what they were here to do.

  Liam and Aidan hustled the last few yards through the water along the top of the submerged bridge stones. Aidan was, and he passed Liam, who was naturally more cautious, as they hurried to get ashore and catch up to Sophronia downriver. Just as they were reaching bridgehead, Liam looked up and saw figures moving along the shore upriver of them, the opposite direction of Sophronia. They looked like more tribal folk, and they were flat out running toward them. There were six of them. Another figure was further up the shore, walking quickly with a quarterstaff and a feathered cloak.

  Liam shouted, “Black Ravens! How did they cross before us?”

  Aidan dashed ahead in their direction, starting to draw his weapons, but then he hesitated. Aidan ran ashore and veered downriver, looking over his shoulder at Liam several times. “Let’s go!” he yelled. Liam realized they stood a better chance together. He sprinted after Aidan, in Sophronia’s direction. She was standing on the shore waiting for them. Liam glanced over his shoulder and realized the Black Ravens were closing the gap. These plains warriors were faster than them. They needed to find a place to hide or make a stand.

  Ghealdar rose above them to the East. The Black Ravens were just behind them. They couldn’t outrun them. Maybe they could lose them in the city. The towering silhouettes of the buildings rose against the rising sun, some rising as high as ten stories. All of the buildings were covered in vines, surrounded by towering pine and deciduous trees. The foreground was a lush, young forest full of smaller trees and undergrowth. They could see the shadows and shapes of buildings mostly reclaimed by nature.

  Liam remembered wh
at Sophronia had called Hidden Atania, the ancient part of the city where they had researched the Ogham. It looked harmless but terrifying, bloodthirsty creatures lurked within the woods. On the other hand, certain death awaited them out here.

  Liam shouted while pointing to the forsaken city, “In there! Let’s lose them in there!” He and Aidan veered towards the wood, and Sophronia, who had her hand up shielding her eyes from the sun, watched them turn. She looked upriver, and Liam watched her see the Black Ravens for the first time. She sprinted to meet Liam and Aidan.

  Aidan, the fastest, plunged into the wood without hesitating. This forced Liam and Sophronia to do the same lest they lose him in the ferns and berry bushes. Liam was already tired from fording the river, and they needed to find a place to go to ground. Aidan charged ahead with the energy of the young teenager he was. He dodged thorny bushes, and Liam saw him look into a shed. It had creeping vines up the side and top. The windows were broken open, and the roof looked like it was perhaps caving in. Aidan looked back, shook his head and kept going.

  Liam and Sophronia suddenly emerged from the brambles into the alley behind Aidan. It was narrow, just five feet across, and the buildings that framed it were both about ten feet high. Vines laden with black, juicy berries grow over the top of them. It was quite dim. They could barely see the other end of the alley, perhaps forty feet away. The trees and buildings overhead shielded this alley from the sun. They could use that to their advantage.

  Aidan stopped at the opposite end and spoke, “There’s a wider street that goes left and right. There’s another alley parallel to this one just a few feet down on the opposite side.”

  Liam was breathing hard, and he noticed Sophronia was too. They had just sprinted nearly half a mile after swimming a river. “We need a place to hide and rest,” gasped out Liam. “Is there anything?”

  Aidan looked around again. The buildings both had open doors. “These buildings might work, but are they too close to the edge of the city? Should we go deeper in?”