Silver Ravens

by Jane Fletcher

  A tight maze of stairs, alleyways, and buildings was carved from the living rock of the mountain, until the buildings blended with the sheer cliffs on either side. These had been shaped and tunnelled into, triggering Lori’s childhood memories of Petra, except the stone was granite rather than red sandstone. Drifts of snow spilled from unused doorways. The blank eyes of empty windows were festooned with lashes of icicles.

  A door at the side of the gatehouse was open. The sentry had not closed it when he climbed the stairs for the last time, back when he had been alive and expecting to come down again. Now there was only a body up above, waiting to feed the crows. Lori could not push the image of the fay sentry from her mind, his frozen, blank expression and empty eyes, just like Gaius’s…

  Exactly like Gaius’s.

  The fay sentry had been enthralled. Suddenly, Lori was quite certain of it. Which meant—

  Tamsin was a few steps ahead, rifle at the ready, about to lead the way forward.

  Lori scuttled to her side. “I need to go up and see the sentry’s body.”

  “No point. Just forget about him.”

  “It’s not a guilt trip. Something’s wrong. His eyes. I…” She drew a breath. “It’s what you said. ‘If in doubt, check. If not in doubt, check anyway.’ We need to check.”

  Without waiting for a reply, Lori headed through the doorway. An open stairway ran up the inside wall. Like everything else in the castle, it was carved from solid granite, without ornamentation or handrail. When she glanced back, Tamsin, Hippo, and Finn were following. The others remained at the bottom.

  She stepped out onto the platform over the gateway. The body lay in a heap on the snow. Lori knelt, grabbed the fay’s shoulder, and rolled him onto his back. Violet eyes stared upwards, set in a pale blue face. Green blood trickled from a small pit on his cheek. The pellet had broken the skin, but would normally count as just a minor wound.

  The others arrived on the roof. Finn looked condescending. Hippo looked embarrassed. Tamsin was harder to sum up.

  Lori pulled the knife from the sheath on her belt. “This is silver, isn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  Ignoring any qualms, Lori grasped a limp blue hand. When she sliced the palm, the dead flesh parted but did not bleed.

  “What do you—” Hippo stopped.

  Already, the figure was changing, shrinking in height while growing stockier. Skin darkened from light blue to dull green. The face widened, teeth lengthened, hair withered. Within seconds, a boggart lay dead before them.

  “Shit.” Finn spat the word out.

  “Not a sentry. An alarm bell. Gilwyn even has a bag of shapeshifter dust to speed things up.” Tamsin stood over the body. “He knew we’d come, and now he knows we’re here.”

  “Will he have been keeping a watch on the sentry?” Lori asked.

  “Count on it.” Tamsin drew in a breath. “We need to change plans.”

  Hippo headed for the stairs. “I’ll let the others know.”

  “What are you thinking?” Finn asked.

  Tamsin was silent for a while. “My betting is that he’s going to flee, rather than make a stand, though I don’t doubt he’ll leave a few surprises behind to slow us down. Take Shorty, Hippo, and BH. Go back to the camp and get airborne. Me, Widget, and Lori will make as much fuss as possible—make him think we’re all on his tail. We’ll see if we can’t flush him out.”

  “Right, Captain.” Before leaving the roof, Finn met Lori’s eyes and gave just the faintest nod of approval, then he was gone.

  Lori got to her feet, still looking at the dead boggart. “Poor sod.”

  His death had not gone unnoticed after all, but Gilwyn and his friends had not cared. The life lost was merely an alarm bell to help them save their own skins. Maybe boggarts were not sweet, innocent, babes in the wood, but they ought to matter more.

  “What made you suspicious?”

  “His eyes. They were just like…” Lori stopped. There was no point naming Gaius. Tamsin would not believe he existed. “They were soulless. You could tell there was no one home.”

  “You should give us lessons sometime. That’s a good trick.”

  Lori shrugged. “Thanks.”

  Tamsin placed a hand on Lori’s shoulder. “You couldn’t kill him. That’s because you’re not evil. None of us found it easy at first. If you want to stay in Annwyn, I can teach you how to kill, but I can’t teach you how to be a better person. And to be honest, I like you the way you are.”

  “Is this where I say I like you too?”

  “You might as well do it now, because I’m leading you into a trap. We’ll be playing the role of bait in a high stakes game. By the time we get out…if we get out, you might not think so kindly of me.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  If the open air section of the castle was a maze, inside the mountain it became a warren. Halls and stairways interlinked dozens of rooms, hollowed out, one on top of the other, like an apartment block designed by Escher. Most of the castle had been deserted for decades, home only to birds and wild animals. However, people had passed through recently. Multiple sets of footprints disturbed the layer of dust, feathers, and droppings.

  Widget scuffed the trail with his foot. “Don’t think we’ll be needing BH.”

  “She’d be more use here than me.”

  What role was she supposed to play? Widget had returned the normal rifle to her, but why? She was not going to shoot anyone, although admittedly, holding the weapon made her feel safer. She tightened her grip on the stock. Of more use were the sets of ear defenders he had also handed out. One pair was currently around her neck, on top of the torc. If shooting started underground, they would go deaf without them.

  “Don’t fret, pet. If Gilwyn makes a bolt for it, BH will track him down. She can follow a fart through a blizzard. All we need to do is make a lot of noise.” He spoke in a whisper.

  Even so, Tamsin frowned at them, holding a finger to her lips. Clearly, it was not yet time to be noisy.

  They crept on, around the edge of another large hall. The walls were flat and featureless, devoid of decoration, not even flakes of old paint. The castle was purely military, with no concession to comfort. The windows were narrow arrow slits along one wall, letting in light and an arctic breeze.

  An archway at the corner gave access to a staircase spiralling down into the rock. Tamsin flatted herself against the wall and peered around the corner. Widget slipped over to the other side and Lori tried to keep out of the way. Then she heard it, voices echoing up from below. She forced her hands to loosen their grip on the rifle. Her fingers were aching.

  Tamsin crept down, a step at a time. Widget urged Lori into the middle position. She would have preferred being at the rear, until she saw him looking back, rifle at the ready. Of course, they did not want to get caught in an ambush from behind. Maybe she was better where she was. The daylight above faded, while a flickering yellow glow blossomed below.

  At the bottom of the staircase, Tamsin used a periscope to check the next room. She made a series of hand signals that obviously meant something to Widget. He nodded and lifted the defenders over his ears, before flipping the catch on his rifle to fully automatic. Lori took the hint with the ear defenders, but she assumed she would play no part the shooting. However, Tamsin tapped her gun and pointed back up the stairs. All we need to do is make noise. That much was easy.

  Three. Two. One. Tamsin gave the countdown on her fingers. In unison, she and Widget leapt through the doorway, guns blazing. Lori stayed where she was, firing up the stairway at nothing.

  Making noise was not an issue. Lori could scarcely pick out the screams and shrieks over the gunfire. Even with the defenders, her eardrums were ready to implode. The sound was so loud it made her insides shake. Flakes of stone pelted her. She turned her face away.

  The shooting in the room stopped. Lori let her finger relax. Her hands were shaking. Her heart pounded loud in the silence, even with the ringing in her ears.
She took a step back and looked over her shoulder. Loose rock chippings dropped from her hair.

  In the light of burning torches, a barricade of barrels and broken crates bisected the room. Tamsin and Widget stood on the other side with a prisoner face down at their feet. Three other boggart bodies lay amid splatters of green blood. Everyone else had fled, leaving a collection of wooden spears, bows, and silver tipped arrows behind. Lori pulled off her ear defenders and scrambled over the barricade.

  Tamsin tapped the gibbering boggart with her boot. “Stop that and answer some questions.”

  “No, no, no. I didn’t mean it. I didn’t want to fight you. Lord Gilwyn forced us.” The words were muffled between the ground and the arms wrapped over the boggart’s head.

  “I’m sure he did, because you didn’t stand a chance. He wasn’t here risking his own skin. So answer my question and you can go.”

  “I had no choice. None of us. We are—”

  Tamsin grabbed a fistful of shirt, hauling the boggart around to face her. “Two questions. Where’s Gilwyn? And how many fay does he have with him?”

  The boggart, a female, gulped. “Three friends. Lady Gowyna, Lord Elphen, and another one. Haven’t heard his name. He came the day before yesterday. I don’t know anything else.”

  “Gowyna and Elphen. Now, there’s a surprise.” The names were clearly known to Widget.

  Tamsin kept her eyes on the boggart’s face. “Right. The other question. Where’s Gilwyn?”

  “In his room, maybe. Maybe he’s gone. He has a secret way out. A passage.”

  “Gilwyn does love his secret passages. Do you know where it goes?”

  The boggart looked as if she was trying to nod and shake her head at the same time. “The other side of the mountain, I think. There’s a stable with flying horses. I take food to them sometimes, but we go over the top of the mountain. Maybe the passage goes there.”

  “Where is this passage?”

  The boggart held out a shaking hand. “Along there. Down the steps. You will see the way. Lord Gilwyn has nice rooms.”

  Tamsin released her grip on the boggart’s shirt. “All right. You can go.”

  The boggart did not hang around. She dived over the barricade and fled, head ducked, as if still fearing attack.

  “Gilwyn is all set to do a runner,” Widget said.

  “That’s what it sounds like. We just need to keep him too busy looking back to see what’s in front of him.”

  The pathetic bodies of the dead boggarts claimed Lori’s attention, and her conscience. Gilwyn sacrificed their lives to buy himself time, but Tamsin and Widget were the ones who had pulled the trigger. Had their deaths been necessary?

  “We were aiming high. They got in the way of ricochets.” Tamsin must have noticed her expression. “We didn’t shoot them on purpose. Apart from anything else, it works better for us if they’re running around creating havoc.” As she spoke, Tamsin removed the magazine from her rifle. “Okay. Reload and move on.”

  * * *

  The underground section of the castle where Gilwyn had set up base was lit by torches set in wall sconces. The flames wobbled and twisted in drafts. Shadows leapt across the walls, beneath smoke blackened ceilings. The boggarts they encountered put up even less of a fight than the first group. Mostly, they ran squealing or tried to hide. The occasional volley of shots that Tamsin and Widget let off were purely so Gilwyn would know they were coming.

  Identifying his private quarters was easy. They were the only rooms where the floors had been swept clean. Food and other supplies lay scattered, speaking of a hurried flight. The table and chairs were the first furniture yet seen in the castle. In the adjoining darkened room a bed was piled with blankets and furs. One wall even had a hanging tapestry, although of dubious quality and subject matter. Lori would still not have described the room as nice, but if Mud Town was anything to go by, boggarts did not have high standards.

  Tamsin looked around. “The passage starts here.”

  “How can you tell?” Lori asked.

  “Two things. Firstly, Gilwyn wouldn’t risk being cut off from his escape route if he was asleep when we got here. And secondly…” She pointed at the empty wall sconces. “Four torches are missing. Gilwyn has taken his friends with him.”

  “You recognised their names?”

  Tamsin nodded. “Their parents were supporters of Bronwen. Queen Rianna gave them a second chance. They abused her trust.”

  Or maybe it was less about trust and more that if Rianna killed everyone she had reason to doubt, she would be the only fay left alive in Annwyn.

  “How do we find the entrance?”

  “Easy.” Widget pulled aside the tapestry, revealing a wooden door. “As secrets go, it’s not up there in the top rank, you know.”

  “Is it locked?”

  “I imagine so.” He pulled on the handle. “But luckily I have a universal key.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes. It’s called gelignite.”

  Lori and Tamsin retreated down the corridor. No one else was in sight. The boggarts had all fled.

  Widget joined them, grinning broadly. “I’d recommend putting your ear defenders back on.”

  The blast, when it came, shook the ground, bringing rolling clouds of dust so thick Lori could not see past her knees. She covered her mouth and nose, trying not to breathe it in, but could still taste the strangely sweet rock. The gust blew out most of the torches in the hall. Between the darkness and the dust, it was impossible to see a thing.

  “Do you think Gilwyn will have heard that?” Widget sounded happy. “Should have given him a bit of a move on, don’t you think?”

  Something was pressed into Lori’s hand—a high-powered flashlight.

  Tamsin’s shape emerged from the dust. “Let’s see if it worked.”

  “How can you doubt me, Captain?”

  Widget had nothing to worry about. The door hung off its hinges. Scorch marks streaked the walls on either side. Splintered wood and scraps of smouldering tapestry were scattered around the bedroom.

  Lori’s flashlight probed into the tunnel as far as a curving bend. Swirls of dust glittered in eddies. The cave was not natural. Walls and floor were chiselled smooth. The air smelt dank and the ground was littered with chips of rock, probably a result of Widget’s explosion.

  “How far ahead do you think he is?” Lori asked.

  “Some way, I’d guess,” Tamsin said. “He’d have started running even before his decoy sentry was flat on the ground. It doesn’t matter. We don’t have to catch him, just make him think all the Silver Ravens are here.”

  With Tamsin in the lead, they advanced cautiously, keeping to the sides of the tunnel. Their footsteps echoed back from a long way off. The only other sounds were their breath and the occasional drip of water.

  After a couple of minutes, they reached a junction. “Which way?” Lori asked.

  “Just let me check. Here, hold this.” Widget passed over his flashlight. He pulled a pair of large goggles over his eyes. “Right. Turn the flashlights off.”

  The darkness was absolute, but Lori could hear him moving.

  “Righty-oh. You can turn it back on, pet.” Widget stood a few steps along the right-hand fork. “They went this way.” He grinned at Lori. “It’s why burning torches are a bad idea. They leave a hot trace on the roof, see. These goggles are infrared.”

  Tamsin slipped her ear defenders on and raised her rifle. “Before we go, we might as well let him know we’re still here.” She waited until Lori and Widget were equally protected before letting off a salvo.

  Over the course of the next hour, Widget had to use the infrared goggles thirty or more times. The route branched, twisted, and looped back, alternately climbing and descending stairways. The caves were literally a 3D maze, and without the goggles as guide, they would have been hopelessly lost. Fortunately, they did not have to deal with any other traps. The designer evidently felt navigating the maze was sufficiently haza
rdous in itself. The remains of skeletons they passed suggested the designer was right.

  They climbed another stairway, the longest yet. The suggestion of a draught touched Lori’s face. She took a few experimental sniffs. The air was definitely getting fresher, and a tinge of daylight dusted the walls ahead. They were nearly through.

  Around the next corner, the wall on the right-hand side of the passage fell away. They had emerged on a narrow ledge at the side of a huge natural cleft, piercing the mountain like a sword-thrust from the heavens. Fifty feet above, daylight spilled in through a rent in the rocks. Below, the crack sliced deep into the roots of the mountain. The breeze carried the scent of wet earth and pine trees.

  After the journey underground, the natural daylight was bright enough to make Lori’s eyes water. “Do you think we’re nearly out?”

  Tamsin nodded. “Which means this is where it gets dangerous. Keep alert.” She took the lead, back against the wall, sidestepping along the ledge.

  Lori leaned forward and peered into the depths. A glimmer far below could have been water, although the slope of the wall opposite, undercutting where they stood, made it certain you would hit the other side first if you fell.

  “Be careful.” Tamsin spoke in obvious alarm.

  “I was just looking.”

  “And I don’t want you just falling.”

  Had the ledge been chalk marks on a pavement, nobody would have given walking along it a second thought. However, Lori did not want to be provocative. She copied Tamsin’s cautious progress.

  The side of the cleft curved slightly. Only once they rounded the midpoint could they see where the path crossed to the other side of the chasm on a stone bridge, before disappearing into another tunnel. The twenty-foot span was clearly not natural.

  “What do you think of it, Captain?”

  “I don’t know. I can’t see a booby trap, but I don’t like it. Get a rope out. We’ll cross one at a time.” Tamsin pursed her lips. “Will you be all right with it, Lori?”

  “Oh, I’ll be fine.” The bridge was at least a foot wide. “As long as it doesn’t explode when I’m in the middle.”