Shadow of the Raven (The Reckoning Book 1)

by Ward, Matthew

  She reached down once more, and again I caught her arm before she made contact. "And of course, there are no paranoids on the council, or working for the council?"

  "Please don't be tiresome, Edric," she said impatiently, pulling her hand back. "What else do you suggest?"

  "You're the mage. Can't you tell if this is protected?"

  "No, well, not easily. As I told you, I'm not at all experienced, and I wouldn't even know where to start looking for something like that. We'll just have to take the chance."

  "I'm not sure I like the sound of that."

  "It'll be fine, trust me."

  With that she reached into the crate and hoisted out the urn.

  Scarcely had it cleared the lip when the cavern reverberated to a sound I could liken only to the largest and most dolorous bell in existence. So mournful and insistent was the noise it set my teeth on edge and shook coins from a nearby hoard. Caught unawares by the sound, Arianwyn lost both her footing and her grip on the urn. Arianwyn I caught, and received a grateful glance for my trouble. The urn shattered on the floor, and the portalstone fragment skittered away.

  Again the sound rang out, scattering more treasure to the ground. A colony of bats, disturbed from roosts high above our heads, swept out of the darkness and vanished into the depths of the cave – presumably seeking refuge from that awful noise.

  Arianwyn yelped as the bats swarmed past her, but I had no thought to spare for either. I wanted the fragment. As the third and final knell rang out, I scooped the precious portalstone into my pocket, then cursed. Our lantern, already precariously balanced on the chest, had tumbled to the floor and gone out. Darkness and silence descended.

  "Edric?" Arianwyn spoke in a very small voice. "It appears I was mistaken."

  I bit back a very obvious, and ungentlemanly, retort. "It doesn't matter. Can you find the lantern?"

  "No, I think it... no, wait. Here it is."

  A few paces away, the lantern glowed into life.

  "We can be thankful for small mercies, at least. I've got what we came for. What's the best way to get out before the entire praetorian guard comes crashing down on us?"

  Arianwyn looked thoughtful. "The stairs. I don't know whether the alarm tells them where we are, but we'd better hurry..." She was staring over shoulder, her face taut.

  "What?

  "Edric. The lions."

  A familiar sense of dread settled over me. "What about them?"

  "They're gone."

  I pinched the bridge of my nose and walked towards her. "I'm fairly sure they haven't."

  "I tell you, they've gone. There are just two empty plinths..."

  "That's not what I meant," I hissed. "Please be quiet, I'm trying to listen."

  I heard a slight scraping sound behind me. I'd been expecting something of that kind and flung myself forward, bearing Arianwyn to the ground. As we fell, something large and powerful passed over my head and slammed into a stack of crates.

  Planks split under the impact, spilling a king's ransom in sapphires and rubies onto the cavern floor. Our stalker, none the worse for what must have been a clumsy landing, got to its feet. It was indeed one of the lion statues, and it was moving with a power and poise worthy of the real thing. This, presumably, was the fate met by unlucky would-be thieves.

  "Quickly." I dragged Arianwyn to her feet. "We need to get back to the door."

  The lion was stalking us now, its verdigrised muscles rippling and flowing as it prowled forward. I shuffled backwards, never once taking my eyes off the creature. "Slowly now. Don't turn your back on it... and don't rush."

  "Why isn't it attacking?"

  "It's a cat. It wants us to run. We're no fun at the moment." I risked a glance behind. Twenty paces to the stairs, or thereabouts. I edged slowly around one of the empty plinths, pulling Arianwyn with me.

  "Or maybe it's just trying to keep us busy until the praetorians arrive," she suggested.

  "Do you want to put that to the test?" The statue's mouth opened, showing a mouth full of savage teeth.

  "Not really. You do know there's another one somewhere?"

  "I'm trying not to think about it." I shuffled backwards as quickly as I dared.

  The lion slunk forward with its head low over its forelimbs, readying for the pounce. It reached the plinth and padded onto it, the harsh sound of metal-on-stone loud in the cave.

  "I only ask, because I get the distinct feeling we're being herded."

  The horrible truth of Arianwyn's remark hit me like a hammer. I spun around to face the door. There, dark against the stairs – so dark I'd missed it the first time I'd looked – was the second lion, gathering itself to spring.

  "Arianwyn?"

  "Yes?"

  "We're in trouble."

  The lions pounced.

  Eighteen

  The lion near the stairway sprang first. There was no sound, just a blur of motion.

  Fortunately, there was nothing wrong with Arianwyn's reactions. She threw her arms upwards and shouted a single beautiful word. The lion dropped to the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, shattering a pair of ancient stalagmites. In the same moment, Arianwyn hurtled backwards, caromed off a pile of crates and ended up sprawled across a toppled statue.

  The second lion pounced. I dived clear, hitting the ground with enough force to jar the breath from my body. The lion, forelimbs pawing at empty air, sailed clear over my head and slammed into the wall next to the stairway. I heard a rumbling and cracking sound and, a moment later, the lion vanished under a pile of falling masonry.

  For a moment I felt like cheering. Then I realised that the rocks that buried the lion had, a short while before, formed the stairway by which we'd entered the vaults. There'd be no escape that way.

  The first lion was still down. Its great metal limbs twitched, but it was otherwise lifeless. As for Arianwyn, she was very much alive, although nursing what was doubtless a new and painful cluster of bruises along her back and side. As an extra blessing, the lantern was intact. Darkness would have worsened our predicament a dozen times over.

  I reached down to help Arianwyn to her feet. She shook me off and stood unaided.

  "I'm fine..." She belied her words by staggering a pace. "Goodness, but they take a lot a stopping."

  "Well, if it helps, one seems to have been stopped permanently," I said, nodding at the forlorn metal paw protruding from underneath the stairway's rubble. "The only bad news is that the way out is now very, very blocked."

  "And the other lion?"

  "Over there. I don't think it's done for yet."

  "Ow!" Arianwyn rubbed her back. "What did I land on?"

  "Looks like a particularly fine statue of Sidara." I didn't take my eyes off the remaining lion. Its movements were growing increasingly vigorous. We didn't have long. "Presumably placed through divine intervention."

  "Do be quiet, Edric," she replied crossly.

  "Only if you tell me how we're going to get out of here."

  The lion braced its forelegs against the ground, and heaved itself to a sitting position.

  "It'll have to be the sea gate, but I don't think we can outrun that thing."

  "Then we'll have to find a way to deal with it, won't we?" The lion lurched upright and advanced slowly towards us. "Come on, this way."

  I ran back past the crate in which we'd found the urn, coming to a halt only when I reached a ladder serving one of the galleries. Arianwyn skidded to stop beside me, and I shooed her up the ladder. She didn't need telling twice and had soon hauled herself up onto the platform high above my head.

  The lion had resumed its steady hunting advance. I was struck by a horrible thought: what if it was advancing slowly because it was herding us towards yet another of its kind? Just because we'd only seen two didn't mean there weren't others lurking in the darkness. Deciding to worry about that if it happened, I turned back to the ladder and scrambled up.

  I emerged onto a wide, tiled platform. One side was open to the
rest of the cavern, the other butted up against the wall. Or at least, I assumed it did – the rear of the ledge was hidden beneath the now familiar milieu of treasure and trinkets.

  "I'm starting to think there's more coin here than in the city."

  "Edric..." Arianwyn began.

  I held up a hand. "Sorry. Just an observation."

  Her expression grew exasperated. "That's not what I meant. Look behind you."

  I'd assumed that our pursuer would have to double back to one of the stairways. I'd miscalculated. The lion leapt from crate to treasure pile, each jump bringing it closer to our level. Three more, maybe four, and it'd be on us.

  I spun back to Arianwyn. "Go."

  "Where?"

  I looked around. Behind Arianwyn, a flight of stone steps rose to meet another ledge. It was better than nothing. "That way."

  "Do you have a plan?"

  "I'm open to suggestions."

  Apparently she'd no better ideas, so we took off again, moving as fast as we dared across tiles made treacherous by the damp. When we reached the bottom of the stairs I felt, rather than heard, our pursuer land on the ledge we'd just vacated.

  As Arianwyn scurried up the steps, I risked another backward glance. The lion was still coming, advancing at that steady, confident pace.

  I scrambled up the steps, hoping once again that we weren't simply rushing into the arms of another guardian. I walked straight into Arianwyn, who stood stock still a handful of paces beyond the top step. She wobbled and grabbed at my shoulder to steady herself. I soon saw why. Part of the gallery had collapsed for a span of twenty feet or so directly ahead. This left a gap far too wide to jump.

  I cursed under my breath. "We're just made of luck tonight. I don't suppose you can stop that thing."

  Arianwyn winced. "I doubt it. It's big, strong and very heavy. Blocking it earlier took everything that I had."

  I peered over the edge. The platform running directly below ours was also partially collapsed, with huge chunks of stone missing from its span. I wasn't at all certain the surviving structure would take our weight. If the lower platform gave way, we'd likely have nothing but a long drop and a hard stop to look forward to, but we were fast running out of options.

  "Climb down to the next one."

  "No. You first."

  There was no arguing with that tone of voice, so I knelt down, got a firm hold on the platform's edge and lowered myself over. For a moment my feet kicked against empty air, then I dropped the short distance to the ledge below.

  "Stand back!"

  Arianwyn practically threw herself off the upper ledge, the momentum of her jump carrying her over my head. Cursing, I ran to catch her or at least cushion her fall. As it turned out, I needn't have bothered. Her descent was as serene and graceful as a leaf on the breeze.

  I swallowed my half-considered admonition when she fixed me with a pointed look and pointed upwards. The lion stood in the space she'd occupied moments before, head outstretched as it reckoned its chances of making the descent.

  "Sorry about that," Arianwyn's tone was utterly bereft of regret. "I ran out of time."

  The lion chose that moment to drop down to our level. The clang of metal upon stone was ominous. The platform's shudder was even worse. Cracks spread outwards from the lion's feet. Chunks of stone broke away, spinning lazily into the darkness.

  Arianwyn started running without waiting to be told, striking out for the intact span behind her. The ledge gave way beneath the lion's hindquarters. Metal claws scrabbling uselessly, it slid backwards into space and vanished from sight. A muffled clang rang out. Presumably the descending brute had collided with a rock outcrop. I didn't see. I was too busy running to escape the same fate.

  For a half-dozen paces I thought I'd left it too late. Twice I braced my feet against seemingly solid stone, only for my footing to fall out from beneath me. Twice my momentum was sufficient to carry me onwards. Not so the third time; my foot sank from beneath me, my shin scraped on the jagged stone, and I met the same fate that had claimed the lion. Or I would have done had not Arianwyn, now on solid ground, grasped my outstretched hands and hauled me to safety.

  "Thanks," I said, taking a deep breath. "Now we're almost even for you setting that alarm off."

  Arianwyn gave me a cold look, but left it at that.

  "What were those things?" I asked.

  "Father never mentioned them. What are you doing?"

  I wandered further down the platform and found another ladder. "I want to take a look."

  "What if it's still prowling?"

  She had a good point; I had to give her that. "Then I'd like to know now, rather than when it springs at us out of the darkness."

  We soon found the lion, whose prowling days were over. Its back had broken on a rock, and its body had ruptured. I saw now that it wasn't solid metal, but a thick alloy skin cast over some kind of skeleton.

  "How do you suppose it moved?" I asked.

  "I assume that magic took the place and function of sinews."

  "And when the skin was breached, the magic bled away?"

  "It's possible. It's not really something I know a lot about."

  A thought struck me. "Could Zorya be something similar?"

  Arianwyn frowned. "I don't think so. Zorya's a living, thinking being. These were just animated guardians."

  I shook my head. "You don't know that. They could just be a simpler, less sophisticated example of the same process."

  "You have a point," Arianwyn conceded. "But who made them, and why?"

  "The council?"

  "I doubt it. More likely they just found them somewhere and put them to use."

  I dragged my attention back to the immediate problem. "Which way to the sea gate?"

  "Hmm? Oh, sorry," Arianwyn was still examining the fallen guardian. "This way, I think."

  We travelled as quickly as we could through the cavern, which was nowhere near as quickly as I'd have liked. When the praetorians in the palace discovered the collapsed stairway they were sure to make for the sea gate. Every frustrating minute we spent threading through the cavern was a minute in which our retreat could be cut. Presently, we happened upon a canal, its sides shored up with evenly-cut granite blocks, and followed its route through a tunnel and into a much smaller cave.

  "I thought you said this was an underground river?" It was certainly more sluggish than any such river I'd ever seen.

  "It is, sort of," she replied absently. "It enters the cavern much higher up and there's a sluice that regulates the flow. Can you imagine getting a cargo barge up here otherwise?"

  "True."

  Up ahead I made out a bridge, and behind it a large wooden gate spanning the cave mouth.

  Arianwyn pointed to a small door let into the rock face on the other side of the canal. "We should be able to get out that way."

  We crossed the bridge, which thankfully was nowhere near as fragile as it looked, and came to the door.

  "Stay here," I said. "I'll take a look."

  She nodded and I slipped through the door into an antechamber whose confines were almost entirely taken up by stacked crates. There was only one other exit. After listening intently at this door for a moment, I convinced myself no one awaited me on the other side. Opening the door, I entered the room beyond.

  The chamber was indeed empty and even smaller than the previous one. To my right stood a beneficent-looking statue. To the right of that stood a thick wooden door, bolted and barred against whatever intruders might enter via the tunnel. A small window had been let into the rock wall. Through it, I saw the still waters of the canal glimmering in the lantern light. In the distance I saw another gate across the canal and another gatehouse.

  But none of this commanded my attention as much as the small group standing on the canal bank, clearly visible through the bars in the window.

  Inevitably, Quintus stood at their head, an expression of grim satisfaction on his face and a lion's head amulet glittering dully on his
breast. Behind him stood a pair of constables, each holding a lantern and a lumber axe. Most worryingly of all though was the enormous presence of Balgan, now dressed in praetorian livery, looming at the back of the group. All were facing me.

  Predictably, it was Quintus who spoke first. "Greetings, my lord. I'd a feeling we'd find you down here."

  "What's with the axes?" I asked. "Someone forget their key?"

  "In a manner of speaking." He sounded bitter. "The door that stands between us, as the council equerry has just this night informed me, is always kept locked from the inside – a sensible precaution against intrusion, as it requires someone to enter the vaults from the palace before this gate can be opened. Unfortunately, the palace entrance seems to have collapsed. Though you, I'm sure, had nothing to do with it."

  "It met with a slight accident."

  "Actually, I'm surprised you didn't meet with an accident. The vault's guardians are nothing if not overly protective."

  From somewhere out of my sight-line, a bronze lion padded to Quintus' side and stared attentively at me. That I hadn't expected, but I'd be damned if I'd let Quintus know it.

  "So they can behave in a civilised manner?"

  "If you've the proper knack, yes," Quintus replied. "So, are you going to be a cooperative fugitive and unbolt the door?"

  "I wasn't planning on it," I rejoined. "You got here quickly."

  Quintus' expression flickered. "A little bird whispered in Lord Solomon's ear, and here we are."

  That was interesting. My thoughts turned to Constans. Had he really gone back to the tower, or had he been going somewhere else entirely? "You're still taking that snake's orders then?"

  "Such is my duty."

  "I don't suppose you'll turn your back for five minutes, for old times' sake?"

  I knew the answer even as I asked the question, but it would have been poor form not to go through the motions. Besides, there was something odd about this conversation, though I couldn't work out what.

  "Breaking into the palace vaults?" Quintus laughed. "I don't think so. Besides, my debt to your lordship is long paid, and justice awaits her reckoning." He patted the lion at his side. Quintus, master of the heavy-handed metaphor, was at work again.