Before the Dawn (28 page)

"Stop flirting with what's mine and go kill
something!" Raven snarled as he rode up to them. He stared at Meran
with concern. "Are you well?"

She couldn't speak just yet, but Trevor
didn't have the same problem. "Why don't
you
stop flirting
and go kill something?" he shouted at Raven in his nervousness and
Rogan guffawed.

"We're doing what we can," Raven snapped.
"We've killed three Lords so far, but there are five left in the
field. There should be two more in the castle, I believe, since I
don't see them anywhere here. Silverhaven has powerful Lords, and
they have the added incentive of not wanting to die to fuel their
defense. It's going to take us a while to cut through the ranks of
these five and get to the lake, where I'm sure Benwyr and the
remaining Lords will have more nasty surprises in store for
us."

"Are we having a council in the middle of a
bloody battle?" Brannon demanded furiously, reining in his horse
quite sharply before them and giving each of his brothers a
murderous glare.

"I wouldn't mind taking a brief rest,"
quipped Kaemon as he appeared by Brannon's side along with Kei and
Orland.

Baydr joined them a few seconds later. "What
is happening here?" he asked with a frown. "Are we having a
council?"

Brannon was so furious now he looked like he
wanted to explode. "What are all of you doing here?" he roared, his
face completely red. "Who is fighting the Lords when all of you are
here?!"

"Lady Ceirdwyn," Orland replied simply.

They all looked to where he was pointing.

Lady Ceirdwyn was, indeed, fighting the five
remaining Lords all by herself. And she was doing a very
awe-inspiring job of it. She moved like liquid, each graceful shift
of her body landing a blow or cutting through flesh seemingly
without any effort. Her eyes had turned completely red now and her
beautiful face had the most serene expression. In the fury of war,
she was calm—a battle maiden unlike any other the Strangelands had
ever seen.

"Raven, I think I just fell in love with your
mother," Rogan declared dreamily.

"I think I feel the same way," Brannon
announced.

"You. Shut. Up." Raven was tight-lipped with
anger. "You. Never. Talk. About my mother."

"How is she even doing it?" Orland marveled.
"She's not using magic at all, but they can barely touch her." He
looked like a love-struck schoolboy.

"Oh, I'd like to touch her," Kaemon said with
a leer. Eyes twinkling, Kei nodded his agreement.

"Do not. Talk. About my mother. That way."
Raven was gritting his teeth so hard Trevor was a bit worried his
gums would start bleeding.

Rogan smirked. "They say battle maidens have
complete control over their bodies and they can do the most amazing
physical feats if they so choose." His tone was thick with
innuendo.

"I suddenly envy Father for knowing the truth
of it," Baydr said.

Raven faced his brothers with amber eyes that
were beginning to shine with a ruby glow. "Your mother," he spat at
Rogan, "was born with a red mark under her left breast." He turned
to Brannon. "Your mother is very ticklish." Then he looked at
Orland. "Your mother has a filthy mouth whenever she is feeling
passionate." He shot Kei and Kaemon a glare. "Your mother enjoys
being bound." Finally, he gazed at Baydr. "Your mother has four
tattoos on her thighs, two on each."

There was an outcry from his brothers. "What
the bloody hell are you implying about our mothers?" Rogan's face
was pale with shock.

Raven's grin was smug. "Oh, I'm not implying
anything," he told them. "I'm saying—I bedded
all
of your
mothers."

Then he raised his sword and spurred his
horse forward to get back into the battle while his brothers roared
and followed behind him.

***

Chapter 28

Even one of the most skilled battle maidens
to ever be born could not indefinitely withstand the full might of
five Lords determined to crush her. So even as Lady Ceirdwyn dealt
a fatal blow to one Lord, the other four threw all their powers of
destruction right at her and finally managed to knock her backwards
and bring her to her knees. But still she had enough strength to
stand up once more and sneer her contempt for them before they
redoubled their efforts at subduing her.

Finally, she could no longer stand. Her right
arm was broken and her sword was wrenched away from her. Even her
considerable magicks failed her, too, when she resorted to using
them. So the Lords prepared their killing move and she laughed at
the fate that awaited her. But death did not come for Lady
Ceirdwyn.

Raven bore down on the Lords with a scream of
rage. His sword flamed with scarlet fire and its blade bit through
the arms of the Lord unlucky enough to be caught in its path. The
Prince leaped free of his horse and flew through the air with his
burning sword pointed at the Lord he had maimed. He landed on the
ground with the man's body cushioning his fall and his sword
impaled through his victim's face. Then he turned his fierce gaze
on the other Lords as his brothers came to his aid and pressed the
attack against Silverhaven's forces once more.

Lady Ceirdwyn staggered towards the chariot
that bore the mortals. She shouted a command at the automaton
guarding Meran and Trevor, and they watched with wide eyes as the
clockwork soldier grabbed her broken arm and, with a brutal move,
set it back in place. She growled something that sounded like a
curse and clenched her eyes shut, then when she opened them again,
the red glow had faded and they were amber once more. She looked at
the two humans who had similar expressions of fear and alarm on
their faces. "Come," she said, jumping into the chariot with them
and taking the reins from the automaton, her broken arm healing
rapidly. "The time is running. We must get to the lake and trust
that my son will join us shortly."

With a cry, she urged the horses forward and
they whinnied and sped their way out of the battlefield. Trevor
turned to look back over his shoulder and saw that the fighting was
still fierce, but the Princes seemed to have finally gained an
advantage over Silverhaven's Lords. He witnessed Brannon and Baydr
take down a flying monstrosity together. While Brannon ripped its
wings off with his bare hands, Baydr sliced through the creature's
throat with his curved dagger. When the monster stilled after its
death throes, Trevor saw the broken figure of a Lord emerge from
its melting husk. He also saw Rogan grab Raven back from attacking
another Lord and point towards their speeding chariot. The two
brothers exchanged shouted words and, though he could not hear
them, Trevor guessed that Rogan was urging Raven to go and complete
the task they had set out to do. The younger Prince looked torn for
a moment, then eventually he nodded and summoned his mount. As he
rode after them, Rogan also shouted something at Orland and the
other Prince immediately turned his horse in the chariot's
direction and followed Raven.

"We are almost at the lake!" Lady Ceirdwyn
announced, glancing back at her passengers for a moment. "The water
is rising. Those bloody bastards in the castle are going to try to
drown us!"

Trevor saw that she was right. The dark
waters of the lake were gathering and creating one huge wave that
could sweep them all away. Lady Ceirdwyn reined in the horses
sharply and they stopped a few feet away from the edge of the lake
where the water was quickly receding and continuing to form the
gigantic wave. Hovering over the water were the two remaining Lords
of Silverhaven, both of their eyes flashing with power.

"Mother!" Raven called out as he finally
reached their side. "Be ready to get to the castle!" He turned
momentarily at the sound of hoof beats and saw that Orland had
joined them, too. "We must kill those Lords before we can get to
Benwyr," he said.

"Aye," his brother responded, "but that wave
has to be dealt with first. We can't allow it to touch any one of
us or we are done for."

"I'll take care of the cursed water," Raven
said as he looked at the mammoth wall of dark liquid that soared
hundreds of feet into the night sky. "You hold those Lords back
from trying to throw a killing curse at my back."

Orland nodded in agreement, and then the two
Princes gathered their magic and unleashed it in force.

Trevor knew that Raven was a seventh son. He
had heard the stories about the power possessed by seventh sons and
he had been told that such beings were beyond compare when it came
to wielding the forces of magic. But he quickly realized that he
had had no true idea of what that really meant until he saw Raven
stride forward with full confidence and wrench control over the
wave that two of Silverhaven's most powerful Lords had
painstakingly crafted. In an eye blink, he turned the water to ice.
Raven accomplished this task with incredible ease, and Orland took
advantage of the Lords' momentary distraction to attack them with
fire and wind.

While he kept the wave frozen, Raven also
aided Orland's efforts to subdue the two Lords as they attempted to
fight back. He shielded his brother when one of their opponents
called forth lightning and struck Orland where he stood again and
again. However, the energies of the bright bolts were simply
consumed by the shield, then Orland retaliated by conjuring a
whirlwind that chased the Lords through the air. But the Prince was
suddenly knocked off his feet when the earth beneath him rumbled
and split open without any warning, and the whirlwind he had
created quickly lost its power and fury. He yelled out in surprise
as he fell through the dark hole and Raven echoed the sound,
flinging out a hand to try to help his brother. But Lady Ceirdwyn's
automaton was quicker, and it was able to grab the Prince before
the earth could swallow him completely. It pulled Orland back up
and was still helping him to stand when it was suddenly blasted
into pieces by a bolt of lightning that did not come from one of
the Lords. Orland fell on his back again with a surprised cry.

Trevor’s eyes narrowed in anger when he saw
who had joined the fight. Standing on the dry bed at the deepest
part of the frozen lake was Benwyr.

He walked towards them calmly, his expression
giving no sign that he was worried or that he was even aware that a
violent battle was raging in his domain. While he walked, the earth
beneath his feet flowed and shifted until the rocky lake bed evened
out with the shore and the wet mud dried up and took on the hard
sheen of stone with the wave of ice jutting out from the ground
like a black sculpture. He had set the stage for a confrontation
with his brothers. His pale eyes were steadily locked on Raven’s
face as he came nearer and nearer, and there was even a hint of a
smile on his lips. He stopped just a few feet away from where
Orland was still trying to get to his feet and, wordlessly, he
reached out a hand to help the other Prince. Orland cursed and
moved away from him quickly.

He chose to ignore this and instead spoke
directly to Raven. "Brother," he said, "I have not seen you in a
while. I heard you had exiled yourself to the mortal realm after
you were freed from my service."

"I needed the time away," Raven replied
simply.

Benwyr nodded. "But you have finally
returned. And you are here now with the rest of our brothers,
acting as the King’s executioners." There was no reproach in his
tone, but Raven’s eyes clouded with guilt.

"I do not wish to kill you," he said, his
voice low. "If I could do anything to change what is to happen, I
would."

"But there is nothing you can do," Benwyr's
slight smile became sharper, uglier. "So, go on." He held out his
arms in mock surrender. "Here I am, Raven. Go ahead. Kill me. I
won't try to stop you."

Raven suppressed a burst of bitter laughter.
"Please. You wish to die about as much as I do." He shook his head,
suddenly pensive. "This was not how it was supposed to end. How did
we ever get to this point, when we are now enemies?"

"Well," Benwyr shrugged, "I guess if you live
long enough, everything will eventually happen to you. But it has
been a good life, you know. Other than my own blood wanting me
dead, I really have no regrets about anything." He paused
thoughtfully, then continued, "Except maybe this one thing." The
look he gave Raven was suddenly murderous.

"You betrayed me."

Both Lady Ceirdwyn and Meran screamed when
Benwyr blasted Raven with fire and lightning. Immediately, the
frozen wave of ice began to crack and chip away at its edges, and
Trevor flinched away in alarm when a sudden gale blew a few drops
of water his way and almost splashed him in the face. Orland cursed
hoarsely and hurried to grab at the wave with his magic. He barely
managed to take hold of it before Benwyr laughed and knocked him
off his feet with a gust of wind. But Benwyr abruptly stopped
laughing when an invisible force lifted him up into the air then
suddenly, painfully, slammed him back against the hard, dried
earth.

Raven came charging back into the field with
his eyes completely red. He looked at his mother. "Go!" he roared.
"Get to the castle!"

Lady Ceirdwyn sprang into action immediately.
She whipped the horses into a frenzy and they went rushing off to
the dark castle that towered and brooded over them in the
distance.

"You will not take away what's mine again!"
Trevor heard Benwyr snarl. He didn't bother looking back to see
what was going on with the battle. All he wanted right now was to
get to Aline and get her safe. He had seen enough of magic.

Raven's mother drove the horses furiously and
their chariot crossed the frozen lake in a few minutes, all of them
ignoring the loud explosions of thunder that boomed behind them as
Raven and Benwyr fought. She made the horses leap over the guards
who were standing at the lowered drawbridge and the soldiers yelped
as they frantically tried to get out of the way. As the chariot
flew past the men, she flung a hand behind her and a wall of
blinding white fire sprang up from the ground, preventing any
pursuit in their wake. Then they were in the castle, where darkness
and silence waited for them.