The Unkindness of Ravens

by Cory Huff

  Liam felt something stuffed into his mouth, and he came wide awake. He realized he had been screaming out loud, not just in his dream. His heart was racing, and his body was thrashing, scratching at the ground.

  Aidan was shaking Liam hard enough that he bounced his head on the ground. Liam’s eyes opened, and he looked around desperately seeking confirmation that the world was not burning. He tried to stand up or scramble away. Aidan grabbed his shoulder, holding him down on one side while Sophronia held him down on the other side. “Liam! Liam, it’s us, your friends. Stop!” Whispered Aidan forcefully.

  Liam stopped thrashing, eyes still wide. He was breathing heavily, tears streaming from his eyes, snot coming in and out of his nose as he breathed rapidly. He looked back and forth at them. For a long couple of minutes, he breathed, making eye contact with the two of them. He finally calmed.

  “I’m going to take the gag off. You ok?” Asked Sophronia. Liam nodded. She took the shirt out of his mouth and sat back to let him sit up. “What happened?”

  Liam watched the little sparrow, Ean, hop around on the ground in front of him. It was looking at him the way birds do: head cocked to the side with one eye watching him. He thought the bird looked concerned and for some reason that made him feel a little bit better.

  “Forget what happened for now, we have to move,” Said Aidan. “That screaming makes us vulnerable. I know a spot that will hide us.”

  Everyone stood up. The three of them were deep in the woods on the East side of the city. In a section near the wall on the North end of the woods. There were far more Willow and Oak trees here. It was a quiet area that people from the city never visited. It was calm and quiet when Liam wasn’t screaming.

  Aidan looked around as he gathered up his things. It was beautiful. Powerful and mysterious and old. They had been hiding here since the fight at the gates, occasionally venturing out into the city to learn about what was happening.

  In the three days since arriving back, Aidan had expressed frustration that they had not been able to make contact with the church. He had gone out among the people in the city, without his weapons. The army had imposed martial law. The soldiers took anyone left outside after dark and summarily threw them in a makeshift jail in what had come to be called Old Atania. In the week since the army had arrived, nobody had seen anyone who ended up in jail.

  The army was looking for the people who had killed their soldiers. Aidan had smiled when he came back and told them about overhearing the people tell the soldiers they didn’t know anything about what had happened. The soldiers had just turned up dead they said.

  Liam pondered all of this as they moved swiftly through the woods to a new spot that Aidan thought would work as a hideout.

  In his peripheral vision, Liam saw someone emerge from behind a tree. It was a woman with a stunning, wild mane of blonde curly hair. The hair, along with the rest of her, was strewn with leaves, dirt. She carried a well-worn bow, and a quiver slung over her shoulder. She also had a sword. She emerged from behind the tree with her hands out and empty, but with confidence, totally unafraid and defiant. Despite her unkempt and fierce quality, or perhaps because of it, she was also beautiful - like a wild animal.

  Then he noticed she had pointed ears. No point in remaining quiet. He shouted, “another assassin!” Aidan and Sophronia both whirled, ready to spring into battle.

  The woman started laughing, and her throaty laugh rang out, amused to no end. She held her hands up higher. “The Spirits bless everyone here but the cat,” she said. Aidan did a double take. What was this woman doing? Aidan leveled a sword at her.

  “Who are you and state your business,” Aidan said.

  She looked at him with a smile on her face. “Which one of you is Liam? Badb sent me here to help you. My name is Celestina. I understand we have some orcs to kill?”

  Sophronia quietly crept down an alley. She was in her element. The Ogham radiated from her, distracting anyone who might look down this alley, making them look at the sky or the buildings. She watched the scene in front of her, waiting for the signal from Celestina, who positioned herself on a roof across the square.

  The green-skinned Sidhe soldiers at the end of the alley were watching the crowd, looking for anything that might be amiss. The soldiers were alert even though the crowd shuffled along listlessly. The people of Atania were still reeling from the sudden invasion and occupation. Their faces were blank. They looked at the imposing warriors indirectly, watching them for sudden movement. They were allowed to travel to the market each day during daylight hours. Otherwise, they imposed martial law, and everyone stayed in their home.

  It had been just a few days since Sophronia and her friends had slaughtered the soldiers at the gates of Atania. There was a tall being standing with the green-skinned soldiers here in the square. She hadn’t seen one of these before. She caught her breath. It was an imposing, fearsome being with the disconcerting face of a cow, made even more terrifying by its gleaming, intelligent gaze. More than seven feet tall. It had sharpened, curving horns over six inches long on top of its head. It was covered in rich brown fur and dressed in silks. Scars burned into its back and face. She recognized at least some of the scars as Ogham characters. This creature was heavily protected by magic. Celestina had said these creatures were called Minotaurs. They didn’t just live in mazes like the stories. They were a seafaring race strong in Ogham magic. Very dangerous. Leave them to me, she had said.

  She saw eight snaggle-toothed, green-skinned soldiers. Celestina had called them orcs, with a look of amusement and disgust on her face. Easy enough to kill she had said, as long as you didn’t let them get organized.

  Suddenly the loud, piercing, whistling sound of a signal arrow snapped Sophronia out of her reverie. The arrow’s whistling sound caught the attention of everyone in the square. Before they could identify exactly where it came from, the sound was cut short. The signal arrow buried itself in the chest of the majestic Minotaur. He - it? - grunted and staggered backward.

  Sophronia sprang forward, daggers out. She saw another arrow, this one lacked the piercing whistle, slam into the chest of the same Minotaur. Her magical glamour protected her from enemy eyes until she was right next to one of the soldiers. He jerked as she stabbed him twice in the stomach. She had to push extra hard to get through the chain mail. He felt the pain, and her glamour popped, allowing him to see her. The guard’s training kicked in, and he shoved her away, pushing backward. He drew a short sword and shouted. His eyes were wide with fear as he cradled his wounds with his off hand.

  His fellow soldiers were looking for the source of the arrows. The crowd began screaming and running in every direction. Several people ran between her and the guard. One of his fellow soldiers was suddenly there, pushing through the crowd at Sophronia. She heard more arrows and saw the Minotaur go down to its knees. The other orcs were shouting and pointing at her and at the roof, where Celestina was standing. Celestina raised her bow, screaming with her thick Tuatha accent, “Long live the Bloodstone family. Long live Atania!”

  Sophronia timed a gap in the streaming crowd and threw a dagger at the pursuing orc. It bounced off of his armor, but he flinched, and Sophronia ran. As she did, she saw Aidan cut down an orc from behind who had never seen him coming. Sophronia smiled and sprinted down an alley.

  Aidan walked through the crowd wrapped in a voluminous brown cloak. He’d borrowed it from a friend of the family.

  The signal arrow fired and Celestina shouted something about the Bloodstones. What did that mean?

  He dropped the cloak and took one of the orcs from behind at a run, driving his shortsword through the orc’s mail in the creature’s lower back. Aidan ended his life with an ax chop to the back of the head.

  The guards were distracted trying to take cover from Celestina’s arrows and grab Sophronia. They didn’t even see Aidan’s takedown. Dodging through the crowd, Aidan was on the one running after Sophronia before anyone noticed him. An ax to the side of
the head dropped another orc like a pile of bricks. Aidan smiled a little wondering if the church’s brick master missed his help.

  Aidan saw two more orcs charging him, swords out. The element of surprise was over. He feinted a step towards them, they prepared to meet his charge by stopping, and Aidan immediately took off back the way he’d come.

  Suddenly Liam was next to him, “Look out!” Liam grabbed Aidan and shoved him as something whooshed by his head. They both went down in a heap, Aidan doing a somersault and immediately coming up balanced. The Minotaur, three arrows sticking out of its chest, blood soaking the fine silks hanging around its torso, was pointing a hand at Aidan. It made gestures with its other hand, and he felt the air around him begin to crackle with energy. The hair on the back of his neck and his arms stood up.

  “Aidan, to your right!” Liam screamed. He snapped his head to the right and saw the orcs coming. He’d nearly forgotten about them.

  He looked back and saw Celestina running out of the alley. She was running full out, kicking up dust around her as she ran, which went into her pursuers faces, causing them to cry out, cough, and choke. Aidan swept into them while they were incapacitated and began wreaking havoc.

  Liam was slower to get up than Aidan had been. He ignored the aches and pains. It seemed like he was always the last to rise. Running everywhere with these young ones was a reminder that his body wasn’t so spry anymore, and the strain of his tannery had taken its toll. He looked at the minotaur as he stood up. He and his friends would destroy this one and all of the others. Then he would track down the proof Badb had sent him to find.

  Amidst a pulsating energy, the blood dripping down the front of the minotaur began to float into the air. Suspended in space, it started rapidly coalescing. Liam was so horrified that he watched as it turned into a long cylinder. The end collapsed to a point and Liam suddenly realized a spear was forming in the air in front of him. The energy surrounding the minotaur reached a crescendo.

  Liam willed Ogham power. He thought something stirred, but he couldn’t get that force to uncoil. He felt the potential. But nothing. The spear was complete, and the minotaur made a forward gesture.

  Liam’s heart rate spiked and suddenly that potential unleashed. The Ogham exploded out of him in a beam of pure, white light. The blood spear disintegrated instantly. The heated shaft of incandescence incinerated a hole through the minotaur’s chest. The light hit a building, leaving a scorch mark on the stone.

  Liam smiled in satisfaction when his vision cleared, and he saw the minotaur laid out with a huge hole burned in its chest. Then his eyes rolled up in his head as he fell to the ground and began seizing.

  Aidan hacked the legs of the first two orcs in the group. The dust in the air blinded them, but for some reason left Aidan unaffected, and they offered no resistance as he cut them down. That left four of the original eight.

  Two arrows cut down two more, and the final two turned and retreated. Aidan made to chase them when he heard Celestina bark, “Aidan, no, let them go and tell everyone what happened, sow fear about what we’re doing. We need to get Liam out.” She was on the street now, bow in hand. She ran to Liam, slinging her bow over a shoulder and grabbing Liam under the shoulders. Aidan hefted his legs.

  They ran for the alleyway as the whistles of Gabalifix’s reinforcement guards sounded.

  “These are my friends and neighbors Celestina. People I’ve known my whole life, and they are dying.” Liam was lying on his bed of leaves, his head pounding. He had seized for two days while his friends kept him hidden in the woods. Now he slowly stood up. His legs wobbled, and he immediately sat back down.

  They were back at their camp in the woods. The forest provided forage for eating. Aidan had gone back into the city each night and came back with reports of retaliation. The army hung a half-dozen people in retaliation for their attacks. Their bodies hung in the public square next to the palace that had suddenly revealed itself as part of Atania. Aidan had grated at the fact that the carrion birds were picking at the bodies. However, Celestina had insisted that they had to let the Emperor grow worried about when the next attack would come.

  Celestina responded in a cold, calculated voice, “Of course they’re dying Liam. This is war. You are a liability. We can’t carry you out of a fight like that again. We have to be able to hit hard and get out fast.”

  “You expect me just to let them die,” groaned Liam. “Not when I can do something to stop it.”

  “If you go out there again, you will die. You can’t die. You are a symbol, and we need people to know you are that symbol and that you are alive.”

  Liam shook his head. “What are you talking about?”

  “You are a Bloodstone. I can see it in your face. You are, aren’t you?”

  Liam looked at her, “Yes.” He thought about the Bloodstone clan on the Thir and what he and Badb had discussed. He could be the heir to the throne of Atania. People followed him. The Sidhe believed his ancestor had betrayed them and started a genocidal war. He felt his gut tighten as he watched her watch him. She weighed him, considering his worth. Ean was suddenly there on his shoulder. He chirped once.

  Celestina stared at the bird, giving it a puzzled look, then finally spoke, “Rebellions and resistances are built on more than fighting. They need an organizing principle to rally around. For the last two hundred years, your people have been kept in the dark about their history. Your grandparents’ memories were wiped clean by the Sidhe.”

  Sophronia whispered fiercely, “I knew it.” Aidan nodded grimly.

  “There was a war. The Hartland War, your people, called it. But it was more of a genocide. A charismatic leader named Cyric convinced your people that the Sidhe were bent on the destruction of your entire race. The Tuatha, he told you, were their agents. He painted it as a fight to the death. One race or another would end. His stated goal was to annihilate the Tuatha and then invade the fey realm and annihilate the Sidhe.”

  Celestina turned back to Liam. “When Cyric was rising to power he was a general in the Atanian army. King Darian Bloodstone ruled your people.”

  Sophronia gasped. “This is my story,” she whispered excitedly.

  “No,” said Celestina. “It’s Liam’s story. Your ancestor was a good and righteous king. He forged strong bonds with neighboring lands, including the Tuatha Da Danaan, my people, and the Tuatha of the hills, the ones you call dwarves. Darian was a Paladin king, a righteous warrior of your Church of the Creator with the vision to allow for a variety of beliefs. Under his rule, Atania became a welcoming place where humans, Tuatha, and Sidhe lived together.

  The bonds between Atania and the Sidhe realm were so strong that Darian thought he could make them permanent. He married Dearbhail, the daughter of Queen Mab of the Sidhe. I knew their children, and you look just like Darian’s son.

  As a wedding gift, the Sidhe introduced the Ogham to more people than just Cyric. The Sidhe sent several teachers from the Filid, or the bards, to instruct your people on how to use the Ogham. Everything was going well.

  But, as the Filid say, Darian had a tragic flaw. He trusted too much. This trust was the basis for the relationships with the various kingdoms. Everyone knew he was a man of integrity, and he, in turn, believed the best of everyone.

  Some among the Atanians perceived that other kingdoms were taking advantage of Atania. Trade deals that were just a little bit in their favor. Other domains became wealthy faster than Atania had. Never mind the fact that Atania had been prosperous for decades. The success of Ghealdar, Kjeldor, and other city-states made the noble families of Atania - Broin, Conchobhair, Gallchobhair, Loinsigh, Conghaile, and Mathúna - feel threatened.

  These dissatisfied humans found their leader in Cyric the Warlord. He was Darian’s good friend. They had risen together in power. He had been Darian’s chief general, and first among the humans to learn the Ogham. At first, he listened to their complaints. Then he began organizing them. Then he convinced Darian to cut off contact wit
h the Sidhe and purify the human bloodlines. Alternatively, depending on whom you believe, he deposed Darian and took over.”

  Celestina grew agitated. She ground her teeth. “Cyric stoked the worst parts of humans. Your short lives push you to take quick action. Perhaps that’s why I admire you so much. Cyric used that to his advantage. With Darian either complicit or in exile, he passed laws banning the worship of the Spirits. He closed the borders, pulled out of treaties, then banned the Tuatha from Atania’s borders. Then he banned anyone with mixed human and Tuatha or Sidhe blood. Darian’s family fled the city, and Cyric had full control. He poisoned your people with lies about the Tuatha wanting to destroy them.”

  Celestina gritted her teeth. She was shaking. “I watched tens of thousands of Tuatha die. Cyric became so influential he even subverted the other Sidhe creatures. He turned the goblin and orc nations against the Tuatha. If we had only to fight humans, we might have prevailed. We were caught in a pincer between the massive human army and the endless hordes of goblins. I was the general of the Eastern Front, fighting the goblins. I watched my friends die. Each of them had lived for centuries.”

  She looked at Liam, still shaking, her voice barely in control, she spat, “You don’t get to tell me about your friends dying. You’ve known them for a paltry few years. My friends and I watched trees grow old together.”

  Celestina paused to catch her breath. Nobody said a word. The tension in the grove froze everyone in place.

  Liam was the first to speak. His voice was barely audible. “If this is my story, what is supposed to happen next? What would the Filid say?”

  Celestina looked at Liam. She looked tired. Haggard. At that moment, Liam imagined the pain and suffering she endured, watching everyone she knew die horribly. He imagined the burden of all of the times she had killed fighting for the survival of her people. Why was she here? How could she possibly be helping them?