The Raven Collection

by James Barclay

  ‘Just a little longer,’ said Rebraal, his hand on the young mage’s shoulder. ‘You’ll make a fine Al-Arynaar.’

  ‘They have no idea what’s about to happen,’ said Hirad. ‘No idea at all.’

  He could feel the closeness of Sha-Kaan. The great dragon brought with him the largest assembly of his kind ever to fight together. It was going to be some spectacle. They were all homing in on Hirad’s position and they all knew what they had to do. The only question remaining to be asked was whether they would prove to be enough.

  They were just about to get their answer.

  ‘Ready, Raven,’ said Hirad. ‘Here it comes.’

  Hirad felt the jolt through him as Sha-Kaan entered the demon dimension. He heard the bark of the Great Kaan taken up by a thousand throats and the dragons joined the fight for survival. Shadows passed over the darkening landscape. Demon voices stilled then raised in alarm. Flame swept across the mouth of the cave and in a swath forty yards at least down the slope away from them. The demons in its path were simply obliterated, scorched to ash by the extraordinary heat. Never mind their mana protection, nothing withstood dragon breath.

  ‘Yes!’ Hirad punched the air. ‘Come on Sha-Kaan.’

  His mind warmed again. ‘We are with you. You have safe exit.’

  ‘Raven! Raven with me!’

  Rebraal squeezed Eilaan’s shoulder and the mage dispersed the ForceCone. He was dragged to his feet and the run began. Auum and Evunn sprinted from the cave and turned immediately right and away. The Raven followed in standard formation with Rebraal and Eilaan bringing up the rear.

  The noise outside the SoundBell was a shock but not as much as the heat. Dragons had fired the air hotter than inside the cave. Rock was scarred black and smoking, dirt and stone had fused and where any vestiges of plant life had clung, they had been snuffed out in an instant. The ground was hot underfoot.

  Of the demons who had been massed outside the cave there was no sign. Nothing at all. Hirad had time to shudder at the power the dragons generated and thanked the gods they were on his side.

  Up in the skies the battle had already commenced. The heavens were darkened further by the mass of scale and wing that had appeared in the dimension and the element of surprise was being used to the full. Hundreds of reavers were in the sky with them but were being taken apart by flame and claw, crashing to the dead earth. And on the ground in front of The Raven, the demons were being swept aside as flight after flight screamed overhead, fire gushing from their mouths. Beyond the hills too, and out of sight, they could see the flare of flame brightening the sky. Dragons climbed above the horizon, chasing packs of winged demons, panicked into misguided attempts at escape. They might have been masters on Balaia but everywhere dragons went, they were undisputed lords of the skies.

  It was glorious.

  ‘Keep the pace up,’ called The Unknown. ‘They’ll get themselves together sooner or later. Come on, Denser. This is what Darrick had you swimming round the ship for.’

  They were heading up a steep slope. The stone was smoking from dragon fire and presented a hot and slick surface.

  ‘Don’t put your hands down,’ warned Hirad. ‘Keep moving.’

  ‘Sound advice,’ said Denser. ‘You’ll be sure and tell me when we get there just in case I don’t realise.’

  ‘Concentrate,’ snapped The Unknown. ‘No accidents. Not now.’

  Reavers had gathered in the air ahead and they plunged. Forty winged demons diving headlong, heedless of their lives, desperate to kill those that threatened them. Hirad raised his mace to a defensive position knowing it wouldn’t be enough. He slipped almost immediately, planting the weapon in front of him to break his fall and push himself upright. He looked back to where the reavers were coming, saw the flash of scale to his right, and a blast of flame brushed them from his sight, squealing as they died, tumbling helpless from the sky.

  The dragon pulled a tight circle and flew close, head snaking down.

  ‘At the top of the next rise,’ said Sha-Kaan. ‘Where your elves have reached already. Wait for the signal. There are many enemies.’

  And he was gone with a beat of his wings that almost knocked Hirad over. He reached flatter ground and looked after the mighty dragon, still in awe of his grace and speed. He ran on up the shallow slope to where Auum and Evunn waited, looking down.

  ‘Right,’ he said, reaching them ahead of the rest of The Raven. ‘What have we . . .’

  His voice trailed away, caught in his throat. He sensed the rest of The Raven come to his sides and he felt their hearts sink.

  ‘How the hell did we ever think we could achieve this?’ asked Denser.

  Hirad would have berated him for his lack of faith but couldn’t find it within him to disagree. Stretched out below them, across a plain maybe half a mile long and four times that in width, was a carpet of demons. Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, it was hard to tell in the half-light. It was a shifting mass, ordered and with one purpose. It moved towards a massive low edifice on which stood hundreds of spires angled out like the spines of a hedgehog. Each spike glistened and flashed at its end, and closer to the roots a maelstrom of colours danced and clashed.

  The entire front of the edifice was open to the air. Hirad could see light within it and watched as demons entered its shadow and were lost in the brightness. Countless karron moved across the plain. Reavers flew in complex patterns overhead while strike-strain cavorted amongst them. The long-fingered albinos issued slowly towards the edifice, trailed by the mana gliders. And around the periphery masters floated on their tentacle beds, directing the remorseless advance.

  But there was consternation in the ranks of the enemy. Not every demon was intent on its goal and eyes had been turned behind from where a threat had risen quite without warning. Even now, cohorts of karron were racing for the rise on which The Raven stood. Great clouds of reavers chattered and grouped, flying high to assess, and strike-strain bunched and flocked.

  ‘Dear Gods,’ said Erienne. ‘At least it’ll be over soon.’

  Above, the sky darkened and a wind blew straight down on their heads. Hirad looked back and a smile crossed his face. There they were, moving serenely across the heavens in drilled formations on two levels. He recognised Kaan colouring in the vanguard with Naik red flanking them. He saw Veret blue in the upper skies mixed with sand-yellow and deep green from broods of which he had no knowledge. They were poised.

  ‘It’s never over,’ he said. ‘Raven. Once again. Let’s be ready to run. But first, I think we should crouch or we’ll be blown away.’

  The dragons attacked. Sha-Kaan’s bark echoed loud and was washed away in the beat of three thousand wings. Hundreds of dragons power-dived down the slope, passing just a few feet above their heads. Fire belched from their mouths left, right and always down. The karron approaching up the slope were destroyed in the blink of an eye but the attack did not pause there. Sha-Kaan led his legions onto the plain and the demons scattered before them.

  Fire gorged again and again. From every mouth, heat singed the flesh from demon backs, blew them aside in their hundreds and drove an expanding wedge all the way to the edifice. Above them, the second wave stormed into the attack. Keeping high, they took reavers and strike-strain from the sky, the bodies falling like rain on the packed earth.

  Hirad could only stand and stare at the extraordinary force ranged above him. Flame banished the dark, orange after-echoes ringing his vision. The sky was full of the huge bulk of dragons, the roar of a thousand mouths and the panicked cries of demons being slaughtered in their homeland. The fight in the sky waged as far as he could see in every direction until the dark swallowed it. The stench of burned flesh assaulted his nostrils.

  On the ground the demon armies were scattered and running; and watching it all, The Raven and a handful of elves. Pitifully few looking for a way through this battle of ancient enemies. Two species locked in war across dimensions and the centuries, facing each othe
r in mass conflict for perhaps the first time.

  Hirad felt indescribably small. He shivered despite the heat beating in from all around him and brought himself back to their immediate situation. Reavers were flying in from every point of the compass, rising from hiding places surrounding the plain. And despite the dragons’ awesome power, their flame without fuel was finite. The time to move was now.

  ‘Go! Go!’

  The Raven and TaiGethen surged down the slope at full tilt. Ahead, the dragons had reached the end of their run and already the demons were crowding back into the centre of the plain, running for the only safety they could see. The Kaan led the glide up into the air and down they swooped again. More fire, more death, more screams of demons echoing unheeded into the air.

  Hirad felt the heat on his face. His legs and arms pumped and his eyes scanned the ground ahead, looking for anything that might trip him up. Occasionally, he glanced upwards and each time he did, he saw the fight beginning to balance. Reavers had organised themselves into attack groups and were falling on dragons from above and behind. Ten and twenty on a single back, clawing and biting. They tore scales out by the root while strike-strain confused their prey, clawing at muzzles, necks and softer underbellies. He saw his allies begin to falter, attack runs break up as thousands more reavers appeared from hiding behind the edifice, screaming challenge.

  They hit smouldering flat ground. Sha-Kaan and his wave soared over their heads and climbed again, themselves the targets of reavers now. Karron closed on the ground. Albinos sprinted in front of them, scampering stride driven on by powerful hind legs.

  ‘Don’t look back!’ yelled Hirad, doing exactly that.

  The ranks had closed behind them but above, dragons were coming in. Sha-Kaan had broken his wave into three. One shot straight overhead, scouring the path clear once more. The beat of wings weighed down the runners, the heat from dragon fire burned into their lungs. Each of them stumbled more than once but always there was a Raven hand to keep them up and forward.

  The second and third waves passed by left to right, one in front, one behind. Fire lashed across their path and Hirad felt the heat bloom behind them as well. He didn’t risk a glance back this time, imagining the carnage that would have been created in an instant.

  They were closing on the edifice but now the dragons were beginning to fall. A mournful roar to their right and a Veret thudded into the ground, sending vibration through their feet. Nearby another flew low, spiralling in the air, trying desperately to shake off the reavers that tore at its body and wings. It failed, ploughing into the earth and sending up a spray of mud, stone and demons. A third plummeted straight down, landing just off the path ahead. Too many, too regular.

  The flame was guttering now. Less and less, the night was lit by new fire from dragons’ mouths. More and more they were fighting with tooth, tail and claw. And that was a fight they would not necessarily win.

  Hirad upped his pace, gaining a little on Auum and Evunn who ran at the periphery of the fire-blasted path, blades out and held against an onrushing enemy. Again, the dragons came in. Fewer this time as more were tied up in the battle overhead. Sha-Kaan was still there. Hirad saw his mouth open and fire lash ahead. He saw demons flung burning into the sky, others disappear in the melt of the flames and still more dive aside, rolling and burning.

  He could make out the detail of the edifice now. Its open front was crowded with demons, looking out at the destruction wreaked by their enemies. The stone above the wide entrance was decked with swirls and scratches, as if some great claws had raked across it while it was forming. The spines atop it throbbed and glowed, attracting mana to them. He could see clouds of the fuel coalescing in the air and felt swaths of cold in between the heat of dragon fire.

  But one thing was absolutely certain. They weren’t going to get inside.

  ‘Sha-Kaan!’ he yelled, pulsing simultaneously, trying to hang onto his limbs and keep running. He stumbled. Thraun caught his shoulder and steadied him. ‘Sha-Kaan! The entrance. You have to clear the entrance.’

  Karron closed in. Ahead, Auum swayed left and struck out, sending an enemy sprawling. On the next pace he leaped into the air, coming into a full tuck and rolling over the karron’s head. He landed behind it, spun and kicked out, catching the back of its head. It fell flat on its face and the TaiGethen turned and ran on. In his wake came Hirad. The karron raised its head only to take the barbarian’s mace square-on. He felt the satisfying crush of bone.

  ‘Don’t stop. Keep running!’

  Hirad felt a warmth spread across his mind.

  ‘Be ready to duck,’ came the voice of the Great Kaan.

  Six dragons flew overhead, Sha-Kaan leading them. His fire scorched the ground and he pulled up, the last remnants of flame shrivelling spines on the roof of the edifice. But the other five had no such intentions. They drove on, unflinching. Mouths open, disgorged killing fire into the entrance. And in they followed it. Wings caught in stone, bodies connected with the massive lintel and they crashed hard, sliding inside, bellowing pain. Stone shivered and fell. Wrecked spines were shaken from the roof to shatter on the ground. Dust filled the air. They had almost done too much. Five Kaan all but sealed the entrance. Up in the sky, Sha-Kaan barked respect for their sacrifice.

  ‘Do not let it be wasted,’ he toned in Hirad’s mind.

  ‘Raven let’s go!’

  More fire swept across and behind them. Right above his head he felt the beat of wings and the snap of jaws. A Naik dragon soared away, reavers in its mouth. It bit down and spat the pieces to the ground. But while it flew free, so many of its brethren were weakening under the concerted attack of many thousands of reavers.

  Auum and Evunn had made the entrance. They found a path through broken dragon bodies and picked their way through the fires that pitted it. Inside, Hirad could see demons moving but he wasn’t sure how many.

  ‘Mages, we’re going to need you.’

  One last glance behind. They were all with him. The Unknown and Thraun either side of Erienne. Rebraal with Denser; and Ark, a flap of skin hanging from his cheek, shepherding Eilaan. Hirad ducked inside the edifice. He squeezed by the flanks of two Kaan, letting his hand trail across their cracked scales, feeling their lives ebb away. He whispered words of thanks but had no time to stop to pay them proper respect. The Raven followed him in.

  Inside, it stank of burned flesh and dragon, sharp oil and wood. It was thick with smoke and he coughed each time he drew a heaving breath. He took quick stock of direction but there was only one way to go.

  The edifice was one huge room, dominated by the shimmering brightness they had seen from the rise. It cut a slash clear across the bedrock floor, wall to wall. Light danced in the air and off the crude murals that adorned every vertical surface. He didn’t need to be told what the shimmering was, that much was obvious. All he cared about were the two stone pathways that crossed its centre and the sight that greeted him on the other side.

  ‘My friends, you are in big, big trouble.’

  He turned and yelled for Erienne but behind her every demon left standing was trying to get inside.

  The light was fading but the ferocity of the demon attack had not abated. The Wesmen had been driven back across the courtyard and were now in possession of just half of it. They had lost both barracks and long rooms plus the ColdRoom mages therein and now the library was once again threatened as was the mana bowl on the other side of the complex.

  Dystran watched from his tower while his fury turned to admiration and his arrogance to shame. Down in front of the steps, Tessaya, Chandyr and Suarav fought side by side. The Wesmen lord was indefatigable. His axe in both hands, he chopped an ul-karron in two, shoulder to waist, and had turned to strike at the next before it had directed its pincers to hold him.

  Suarav was a man possessed. His head was a mass of blood but he fought like a fresh entrant. His sword snaked out, piercing karron eyes, his dagger weaved in front of him, chopping at pincers. He duck
ed, twisted and swayed, defying hammer or spike to touch him, and he roared his disdain at them. Put furs on him and you would have sworn he was a Wesman.

  And lastly Chandyr. He was the skilled fighter. The one in Ry Darrick’s image. He and three other Xeteskian soldiers fought as a tight quartet, each targeting a separate point in the enemies they faced. Chandyr focused on the killing thrusts while his men blocked pincer and limb with axe and mace. It was mesmerising but ultimately it would be futile. Above the shell, the masters floated, directing their forces in ever more focused attack. Reavers were taking their toll on the back of the lines now, looming out of the gathering darkness to split skulls, rake throats and steal souls. And outside what was left of the walls, ul-karron paced forwards while more of their number spilled from the gap in the sky to glide quickly down on gossamer wings that stowed in folds of flesh as they landed hard.

  A single shout of alarm echoed up the tower. It was Chandyr’s voice. Dystran’s gaze snapped round and down. One of his men had taken a spike through his head. He was stuck on the limb and his corpse was thrashed through the air. It swept into another of Chandyr’s men not fast enough to duck. Cruelly exposed, Chandyr bounced to his feet, blocked away a second enemy but, with Tessaya’s axe slicing through the air to his defence, was unable to escape the third. The hammer came down on top of his skull and drove his body to the ground. The ul-karron exulted; and died.

  Dystran tensed. ‘All my fault,’ he muttered.

  He looked across to his left around the balcony where Pheone and Dila’heth stood. Their mages were already outside the college backed by elven warriors. He had seen spells light up the evening. IceWind and FlameOrb destroying enemies only for more to take their place. No, something more drastic was called for.

  Dystran looked right instead. ‘Sharyr, who’s the heavier, me or you?’ Sharyr dragged himself from the fight below. He was living every sweep of Suarav’s sword. ‘You, I think.’