Night Calls the Raven (Book 2 of The Master of the Tane)

by Thomas Rath

  “If the stories we’ve heard as babes are even half true, then swords of steel would be no match for one such as Master Thane anyway.” He said it with a slight smile and a nod to Thane and Dor and suddenly a collective breath seemed to be let out throughout the room as everyone obeyed and took their seats.

  Jack then spoke, his face a hard mask of controlled anger. “I will add my word to Thane’s that he means no harm to any of us. In fact, we should be grateful to have him and his companions here instead of leaving for home as they had originally planned. They may be what turns the tide in this war yet.”

  Ranse raised an eyebrow at Jack’s declaration and turned his look to Myles who only shrugged noncommittally.

  “And where might home be?” Dainz asked.

  Thane made to answer but Jack cut him off. “Somewhere safe, Captain.”

  “For the moment, that is,” Thane added almost under his breath.

  The room fell silent once more except for Dor’s muffled whispers to Tam as he translated what was being said. Tam’s face seemed to have paled somewhat but she kept her expressions neutral. Finally, Ranse spoke again. “Well, it would seem that with old mother’s tales of dragons becoming true and actually flying about our lands we should be thankful that other tales of the Chufa and their magic have also come true and that they seem to be on our side and not that of our enemies. Jack’s word has never been questioned in all the time that I have known him so I will rest my trust on that.” Inclining his head toward Thane, he continued. “You will forgive my doubting of your word alone, I trust, Master Thane, since our acquaintance is short and muddled with tales of terror from long forgotten generations and the stories they passed on.”

  Thane just nodded, though Jne still shook her head in disgust and derision.

  Ranse smiled slightly. “Then it is settled. Though I still would ask many questions of our newfound friend, our time may be very short so let us continue with the business which this meeting was intended, shall we?” No one seemed to object to Ranse’s words though Thane found it strange that this man should command such authority in the face of the colonel who had charge of Haykon. He determined he would have to ask Jack about it later.

  The planning moved along quickly from there though Thane noticed Dainz shooting him quick glances every occasion he thought he was not looking. At first it made him feel a little uncomfortable but he quickly realized that the looks lacked the intensity of mistrust and hatred that had filled the captain’s eyes earlier. No, these looks seemed more out of curiosity now than anything else.

  There really was not much left to plan. The wall in the canyon was their only real hope of survival in this fight and everyone knew it. A small force was all that would be needed to defend the wall and troops would be rotated from the city on a regular basis to relieve the fighters there and to resupply the wall’s defenses. The bulk of the army would stay within the walls of Haykon should the need arise to protect the city, though the numbers described by Jack and Thane made the idea of defending the city against an open assault ludicrous. The main drive of the army then would be to protect an evacuation as best they could, if it came to that.

  “If it should come to it,” Ranse said, “we will quit the fort and make for Calandra as best we can. There is no other hope for any of us otherwise.” Everyone just nodded, the same dark thoughts brooding through all their minds that the evacuation should have started long past.

  “And what if they should choose to attack at Gullet’s pass instead?” Jack asked.

  All eyes turned briefly to Jne before dropping to the table. Braxton sighed and shook his head slightly. “We cannot afford the man power to send right now to shore up the pass that leads into the Enn.”

  Jne smiled slightly. “The Tjal do not ask for your help.”

  “Whether they attack the wall or bleed out of Gullet’s pass doesn’t really matter does it?” Dor added voice to the conversation, no longer content in merely translating for Tam. “Whether you can afford the men or not, something needs to be done about the other pass. It’s like leaving the door at the back open to the thief. If he cannot break through the front, he will soon tire and try the back, if he even tries the front at all.”

  “Dor is right,” Jack said. “All of our work will be for not should they choose the Gullet’s pass.”

  “But the pass into the Enn is not like that on our end,” Dainz argued. “It is wide and more sloped at the mouth. It would take months to build another wall there.”

  The hopelessness of their situation seemed to be mounting. There was just no way to stop the horde once it decided to move. Whether at Nomad’s pass and the wall or down through the Gullet, the gathered strength of Bedler’s army would eventually make it out and override the land with their filth and hatred.

  “Be warned,” Jne added, “that should they attack into the Enn, you can be guaranteed no help from the Tjal.”

  “Should they choose that route,” Jack said, “then we will bring our armies to your aid there.”

  Colonel Braxton glanced at Ranse who just looked down at his hands. The colonel sighed and shook his head. “I’m sorry, Jack, but we cannot help if the attack comes to the plains first.”

  “What!” Jack was livid while Jne seemed unbothered by the colonel’s declaration. “You can’t be serious, Myles. We sit here begging for the Tjal to help us while in the same breath declare them on their own should the battle come to their door first?”

  “There is nothing he can do,” Ranse said, coming to the colonel’s aid. “You know the king’s orders.” Ranse looked at Jne, his face revealing the inner turmoil he was feeling. “I am sorry, but we cannot help.”

  Jne regarded him briefly, her face a blank mask before she simply responded, “We didn’t ask for it.”

  Jack opened his mouth to say something more but then shut it with a snap, his face red with the anger that boiled, almost to overflowing, within him. Once again, regret crept into his mind at choices made at a younger age. Could this all have been stopped if he’d not…? No. He pushed the idea out of his thoughts. The horde would still be gathering to attack. However, what was happening in the face of it made his stomach turn. He wasn’t sure which was worse, the enemy preparing to attack or the king’s seeming lack of interest in his people’s survival.

  “Now,” Jne continued, “if you have all talked enough, I will take my leave so that I may return all the sooner. I would hate to miss an opportunity to play at swords with trolls and goblins.”

  Colonel Braxton glanced at Ranse who nodded slightly before addressing the Tjal woman. “Yes, I believe we have nothing left to discuss. Again I apologize. Were things different…”

  Jne raised a hand to stop the colonel but then cut into his words before he had a chance to continue. “Again, we do not look for you to help us. I will rally as many as will come to my call and return as quickly as I may. Whether I return alone or with others will yet to be seen. But I will return.” She glanced at Thane for a brief moment as if trying to make a decision and then quickly spoke. “Na j’ovta j’udak’yoek bak svaj jafna te. T’ikt jon’te ya’kabuj’keah’onjar.”

  He returned a puzzled look, a question on his lips, but Jne was already rushing from the room. He made to get up and follow her but Jack caught his arm and shook his head. “She’ll be back.”

  He stared at his friend for a moment and then looked to the door that was now filled with Jace’s large frame filing Ranse through and then out.

  “Don’t worry,” Jack continued, “we’ll talk.”

  He had no idea what Jack was talking about but just nodded his head in consent.

  * * *

  Thane played with the potatoes on his plate moving them back and forth with his fork as if checking them to make sure they were done. Soon after their meeting with the others, Jack had ushered him into one of the corner inns for an early supper and his promised conversation. Even though Jne had left only short hours before, he found himself strangely distracted by
her absence. He wondered how far she’d gotten and whether she was well or not. He’d wanted to track her way on the winds but had not been afforded an opportunity to be alone since she’d left.

  He knew it was foolish to worry about a Tjal-Dihn riding in the open plains of her home, but he still felt a strange anxiety for her. He was also feeling restless since her departure. He needed something to do or he felt he would go crazy locked inside a city full of people.

  He maintained his guise as a Tjal-Dihn agreeing with Ranse and the others that no one else ought to know about him, Dor, or Tam’s true identity. It was bad enough people thought him Tjal. It did have its advantages when dealing with the multitude of people and finding prime seating in a crowded inn but other than that he was tiring of the hooded eyes and hushed whispers that seemed to surround him wherever he went.

  He’d hoped that he could spend the evening with Tam and Dor and talk more about what adventures they’d seen and reacquaint himself with them, but Jack insisted that their conversation was private, giving the other two a weak excuse and sending them off on an invented errand he assured them was of dire need.

  Thane sighed. At least he would not have to fight with his feelings for Tam, though they seemed to have been strangely crowded out some since Jne’s departure.

  Jack returned to their table nestled back in the deepest corner of the inn where they would be afforded the most privacy. With the crowds that were filling the city, the inn’s raucous noise alone would be enough to make even the closest person hard pressed to hear anything the two said to each other, Jack was still cautious. Haykon was bursting with the large influx of people who’d been pouring in daily from the surrounding countryside only adding to Thane’s desire to be out.

  Jack placed a pint of ale down by his plate and a flagon filled with water next to Thane’s. He had not forgotten about Thane’s little performance at Hell’s End Station. Thane frowned. That part of his life seemed so long ago and so far removed from who he was now it almost seemed like it had happened to someone else.

  Jack drew a long draught from his mug leaving a line of foam in his moustache, which he wiped off with his sleeve before fixing Thane with a steady gaze. “So let’s get to it then,” he said drawing Thane’s attention away from the barely touched food on his plate. “Do you know what Jne said to you before she left?”

  He was somewhat put off by the question. Was that why Jack was so intent on getting him alone and talking to him, because he wanted to know what she’d said? Why the secrecy? “Yes, for the most part. Tjal is not as hard to learn as common tongue. Why? Do you want me to tell you? It was kind of strange I…”

  “I know what she said,” Jack interrupted. “Do you know what it means?”

  He shrugged. “Well, I’m assuming that her telling me to keep my blade bloodied is her way of telling me to be careful, although I have to confess that I don’t quite understand what she was talking about when she said she’d bring back a svaj for me.”

  Jack sighed heavily. “I thought not,” he said, rubbing a hand through his beard and then taking another long drink of ale.

  Thane watched him, picking up the agitation in his behavior and suddenly feeling a rising tremor of concern forming in his gut. “What?” he asked. “What’s a svaj?”

  Jack’s voice got suddenly very quiet. So much so, in fact, that Thane had to lean in just to hear him. “It’s sort of an earring that the Tjal men wear.”

  Thane chuckled. “Is that all? Why Jack, you had me getting all tensed. She’s been hounding me ever since we left the plains about what it means to be Tjal and the customs and culture that I would need to learn and abide. I can’t say that I’m much for wearing one of those things, but if it will keep her from harassing me more, I guess I can live with it.”

  Jack’s face looked a little pale as he shook his head. “You don’t understand, Thane. The svaj is the male portion of the Tjal wedding ceremony.”

  “What!” Thane said it so loud that half the room suddenly went quiet and turned to stare at them. Some even went so far as to push their way to the door and quickly leave as if expecting blood to be shed any moment. But Thane was too shocked by Jack’s words to notice the commotion he’d created. When no steel was drawn, most took up their loud shouts and laughter again and the din returned quickly. “What do you mean, wedding ceremony?” he said more quietly, leaning in closer to hear Jack’s reply.

  “It’s part of Tjal culture,” Jack answered, his voice revealing a slight irritation as if this were all Thane’s fault. “The Tjal male wears the svaj in his right ear until he gets married. The women wear a svan in their left nostril. When a match is made, the woman pierces the man’s right nostril with her svan and the man does the same with his svaj into the woman’s left ear. That is the sign that they are wed.”

  Thane laughed nervously. “So? That doesn’t mean anything. I told you, she’s just trying to make me into a Tjal.”

  Jack raised his eyebrows. “The fact that she mentioned it, and in her own tongue, just before she left, carries more meaning than I think you are willing to admit. Just be careful, Thane. As you already know, Tjal honor is a prickly patch to crawl through.”

  He swallowed hard and reached for his water, taking a long drink to wet his suddenly dry throat.

  * * *

  Leaning back against one of the inn’s many brick chimneys, Thane positioned himself for comfort and to make certain his body would not fall and drop to its death before he returned. He’d been climbing up from his bedroom window and tracking Jne’s progress across the plains for the past two days often gliding along beside her horse. She’d made good time and it appeared that today she might finally make it back to her Tja.

  All was quiet at the wall. He’d made the distance to Gullet’s pass the day before but found nothing to suggest that Zadok’s army would make their first assault there. He’d wanted to pass over the mountains to get another look at the numbers in the valley and see if they were preparing to move, but had decided it best that he stay clear of the dragon that might catch his scent and again come after him. He didn’t want to start this war any sooner than necessary, yet, at the same time, waiting for it to happen was almost just as unbearable.

  Tam had insisted on more training now that she was up and around and feeling better and both she and Dor wanted to get more practice in with a sword. He was happy to have someone to practice against but he missed the skill and intensity Jne brought to the sparing arena. Both Dor and Tam had made tremendous improvements, even in such a short span of time, but all agreed that Tam would be better used shooting her bow instead of mixed up in any hand-to-hand combat.

  Luckily, their arms play was filling most of their days so Thane had not found himself in another awkward situation alone with Tam. At the moment she seemed content with spending most of her day with Dor. He was happy for his friend, of course, but it still hurt to see them together. And he still knew that day would come when he would have to turn Tam away. He sighed. So much pain in such a beautiful world and what was it all for?

  Closing his eyes, he let his mind go and almost immediately felt the pull of the wind as it gathered around him begging him to ride. Releasing himself into its arms of promised flights of freedom, he answered its call.

  Lifting from the confines of the roof and his body, he willed himself higher and higher wanting to shout with the ecstasy it was to float on the currents of air that rushed to his call, playing with him, urging him on faster as they reached dizzying altitudes. From such a height he could see over the mountains and down into the valley beyond where the black mass of bodies stained the tortured basin floor. It caught his breath; the sheer numbers that created such a terrible army. He watched it, grossly fascinated by its tremendous size like a great mass of living sludge swelling and heaving from one end to the other.

  His breath suddenly caught in his throat as he realized that the undulating ripple that pulsed through the camp was the army on the move. Though appearing as th
e painful gyrations of a hulking beast he could now see that the army was moving forward; slowly at first but quickly finding its speed. He continued to watch for a moment, fascinated by the motion that was like a black tide rushing forward to inevitably break against the mountains when the realization of what it meant finally caught up to him. It is too soon!

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  Thane pushed past the guards who were still yelling at him as he shot through the door into the colonel’s office. Jace was on his feet and with his sword half out of its sheath and positioning himself in front of Ranse before the door was fully opened. Thane ignored the large man and his threatening look instead focusing his attention on Colonel Braxton who was in the process of perusing a map laid out on his desk.

  “They come,” he shouted. “The army. They march.”

  Braxton’s head popped up. “When? Where?”

  “Now,” he answered. “They head for Nomad’s pass and the wall.”

  Braxton looked at Ranse who was now on his feet. “So thus it began,” he said. “Now we shall see if the preparation of men is enough to turn back the evil lust of beasts. Jace,” he called as he brushed past his guard and pushed by Thane to reach the hall, “let us prepare. I would see the fighting at the wall.”

  Jace just nodded and followed him out pausing only long enough to eye Thane suspiciously.

  Braxton also got to his feet. “Where is the rider?”

  Thane’s face showed his confusion. “What rider?

  Braxton grabbed his arm, taking him into the hall where the outer guards waited, their anger obvious at his previous disregard of their authority. “The rider. The one who brought the news.”

  Thane shook his head. “There is no rider. I saw it myself.”

  Braxton paused. “You? But how?”