Daughter of Hauk (The Raven Chronicles Book 1) (17 page)

Chapter Twenty-Four

            
 
A
rwenna and the others rose before dawn, sending messengers around their forces in preparation for battle. Barek and Y’Dürkie darted into the tent shortly after sunrise while Arwenna did a visual scan to make sure the clerics were in place along the rear of their forces. There were enough clerics of a high degree that they should be able to keep the larger warriors fighting. Wounds that couldn’t be healed quickly, like severed limbs, would be taken to the healing tent behind those lines.

              Interspersed with the healing clerics were those who, like herself, knew the best way to deal with evil or undead creatures. She had a few wands handy, to help keep Barek and Y’Dürkie alive if she didn’t lose track of them. Fighting in a cavern with just a few of them was one thing; trying to locate those two out of the thousands on their side alone would be a bit more of a challenge.

              A small smile lit up her face for a moment as she saw Joss slowly working his way towards her, bowl in one hand and goblet in the other. She scribbled a hasty response to the message in front of her as he placed the items down beside her. The aromas wafting from the bowl were extremely tempting, and her stomach protested when she didn’t devour the contents immediately. Once the message was done and handed off, she took a moment, hurriedly eating the contents. Between bites, she managed to dart out a quick thank you to Joss. His smile warmed her in ways the food couldn’t. She turned back to the mass of paper in front of her. She barely had time to wave goodbye to him as he mentioned quickly that he was going to check in with Lian and Irini.

              Arwenna looked up and saw Barek and Y’Dürkie as they emerged from the tent, geared up for war. Another warrior painted a blue mark on the shoulder of each of them, making it easy for their own troops to know who was friendly. She walked over to Y’Dürkie and gave her a quick hug. “Be careful out there, Sis. I want you back in one piece.”  Y’Dürkie answered with a tight grin.

              “You be careful as well, Arwenna,” Barek’s low voice carried the short space between them. “I’m still not sure what all you’ll be doing, but I don’t want you any nearer to the fighting than absolutely necessary. Once I’m done doing what I plan on, I’m heading back up here to help this bunch,” he nodded at the various soldiers still in the tent, “keep an eye on you. I don’t trust Senyan not to send someone after you.”  Her face matched the glare in his as he finished strapping on one of his vambraces.

              “I’m going to be fine, Barek. Joss and Irini are staying close to me as well. You and Y’Dürkie go do what you must. If I can find Senyan and the rest of them, I’ll do what I need to do.”  She tried to keep her tone light to calm him.

              A horn blast shattered the early morning calm, sending a flock of birds scattering through the cloudless dawn. Barek motioned to Y’Dürkie and they strode out of the tent to join the rest of the army. Another horn sounded, responding to the challenge.

              Arwenna quickly gathered up the rest of her gear and headed to her position on the rear line. The armed escort consisting of warriors from both Barek and Y’Dürkie’s clans moved with her. Joss and Irini were already there; ready to lend her their strength if she needed it. She reached out to squeeze Irini’s hand, and then turned to give Joss a quick kiss. Her eyes scanned the field below, looking for Barek and Y’Dürkie. Once she found them, she focused her attention on the enemy line.

              Senyan had sent out a massive force of undead, a mistake on his part. He knew firsthand how good she could be against them. It took her a few minutes, but she finally pinpointed him near the rear. The raven was sitting on his shoulder as always. There were others near him, her gut told her they were the same people who had led her down a very misleading path years ago.

              Drawing a deep breath, she spoke quietly. “I can see them now. I’ve got to start the spell now, in case they get too far apart during the battle. Just stay out of my way until I’m done, please.”  She looked over to Irini and Joss, giving them the signal to get ready. The soldiers surrounded the three of them with weapons drawn, ready to repel any who might interrupt the working.

              Drawing in a calming breath, Arwenna turned inward, gathering her magic into the complicated knot of sigils necessary to sever the familiar bond between Senyan and Corse, his raven.               Reaching back into her memories, she stretched her mind out towards Senyan in search of the magical rope she helped create years ago.
There it is
, she recognized the shimmer of her own magic as her mind found it. She thinned the magic in her control to a fine point and started to slowly pick away at the rope. It’s thicker than she remembered, but time had strengthened the bond. A thin trickle of sweat began to make its way down her face as her concentration increased. About halfway through, she felt the onslaught of someone trying to combat what she was doing. Her hand twitched slightly, giving the prearranged signal to Irini. A new magic thread appeared at the edge of her senses, bent on protecting her. The other presence faded under Irini’s onslaught, leaving Arwenna alone to continue the unraveling.

              From nowhere, another mind came slamming into hers with enough force that she cried aloud and dropped to her knees. She managed to keep a tight hold on her magic, though. A presence that she knew as Joss threw up a shield around her.               Breathing hard from the exertion, she brutally hacked through the last threads and fell prone, stunned by the backlash from the severed bond.

              The sounds of combat and her name being called slowly invaded her brain. Opening her eyes, she saw Joss trying hard to get her to stand up. Irini wavered unsteadily on her legs. The soldiers around them tightened up their stance.

              “Arwenna! We have to move from here! As soon as you collapsed, a group of soldiers started to charge this way. They’ll be here any second, there’s too many for this group to hold.”  Arwenna blinked, trying to comprehend what Joss was telling her. Her mind was exhausted, though, and she couldn’t seem to focus. A scream pierced the fog. Her mind cleared as she realized she was the one screaming. Bohrs was charging up the hill at her.

              Blind panic took hold of Arwenna and she furiously tried to find her footing. The soldiers Barek had assigned to her fell quickly beneath Bohr’s onslaught. Irini charged at him, sword raised high, trying to block his charge. He swung a massive backhand blow at her head with spiked gauntlets, sending her flying. The sickening thud of her friend’s body as it hit the ground rang in Arwenna’s ears. She saw Irini, lying still, as Joss shoved her behind him. Bohrs’ laughter echoed in her ears as she desperately searched for some place to run.

              Barek’s voice bellowed a challenge, causing her to look up. The huge barbarian charged past her, intent on his target. Grabbing onto Joss to steady herself, she watched as Barek methodically picked Bohrs apart.

              The fight was almost over before it started. Barek was obviously the superior warrior, and he fought as if possessed. With a final roar, Barek’s great sword buried itself deep within Bohrs’ body. The blessings she placed on it the night before began to tear apart the magic animating him as one of the undead. Without a sound, Bohrs slid off the end of Barek’s sword and fell to the ground. Barek growled out another ritual between gritted teeth, barking the words at the corpse like weapons. As a final insult, he spit on the corpse. “Now it’s over,” he stated to Arwenna.

              Arwenna looked down at Bohrs’ corpse, a sense of relief flooded through her. There was no way he could come after her again. “Barek, he hit Irini hard. She’s over there. I don’t know…,” her voice trailed off, half afraid of what Barek would tell her.

              Barek nodded. He stepped over towards Irini’s body and checked for a pulse with a massive hand. “She’ll live.”  He called back over his shoulder to her. Arwenna let out an explosive breath. The effort to stand was becoming harder.               She staggered slightly, grateful for Joss’ supporting arm.

              Y’Dürkie came charging up the hill, a look of horror on her face. She halted next to Barek, whispering something in his ear that Arwenna couldn’t hear. Barek nodded, and then looked towards her and Joss. “Get them inside, Joss. I’ll make sure the tent is guarded and send a healer for Irini. Don’t come out until Y’Dürkie or I return. Arwenna’s done fighting today, even if she doesn’t like the idea. Tie her to a chair if you have to.”  With that, he charged off after Y’Dürkie at a dead run screaming orders as he went.

              Arwenna watched with tired eyes as a warrior came over and lifted Irini off the ground. Holding onto Joss tightly, she managed to make her way the short distance back into the command pavilion and onto a cot. Her weary mind overrode her will and she drifted off to sleep.

              The sounds of armor being thrown aside and cursing woke her from her sleep a few hours later. Joss and Irini slept nearby. The steady rhythm of her friend’s breathing relieved Arwenna. She raised her head and saw Y’Dürkie and Barek slowly removing their armor, tossing it into piles. Barek’s deep voice was still muttering curses, some in languages Arwenna had never heard before. She sat up slowly, giving herself a moment to gain her equilibrium. The movement caused the room to spin briefly. Gingerly, she stood up, testing her legs before making her way slowly across the tent.

“What happened?”  Arwenna tried her best to keep her voice even.

              “He broke the rules! That’s what happened!” Barek threw a steel gauntlet across the room in a fit of rage.

              The calm in Y’Dürkie’s voice was almost as chilling as the anger in Barek’s. “Senyan did not leave the live troops in reserve like ve thought, Arvenna. He had them sneak around the back of our camp and start slaughterink all the male children they could find. He vent after the
children
!” Y’Dürkie’s face contorted with rage as Arwenna stared blankly forward in stunned disbelief.

              The enormity of the deed sank into her soul. “How many did they kill?” Her voice was a whisper. Arwenna moved one hand, finding a chair to collapse into.

              “Hundreds, maybe up to a thousand. Too many for the clerics to bring back in time, especially with most of them tapped dry from healing the wounded or fighting back the undead all day. Even if we had the magic, we don’t have enough of the seeds.”  Barek’s tone was filled with sorrow.

              “Dear Gods, how can we fight him when he does things like this?” Arwenna took a shaky breath. “We have to send them home, Barek. Let them leave with what’s left of their families before entire villages are laid to rest.”

              “There’s got to be a way to defeat him. If I could’ve gotten close enough to put a bloody blessed sword through his rotting flesh, it’d be over.”  Barek paused, looking over at her. “Were you able to break the link?  It looked like something went on just before I got there. You were barely able to stand.”

              She rubbed her forehead with her hand, trying to stop the headache that was trying to form. “The link’s broken. I’m not sure what good it did, I wasn’t in much of a position to try and find him and the damn bird again once I finished. If Corse has found another way to communicate with him other than through the bird, all I managed to do was give him a headache most likely.”

              Silence dropped over the room, the impact of the battles of the day settling over them like a lead weight.

              “There may be a vay.”  Y’Dürkie’s voice broke the silence, perking Arwenna’s ears up a bit. “I heard a tale once, about a gem. The Gem of Tiren it vas called. It vas a relic of great power that vould only allow one person at a time to vield it. It chose the Vielder, and vould not be used by anyone it did not deem vorthy. Grandma D’Mitta told me last night that there is a monastery not far to the east that had a great collection of books. The monastery itself vas destroyed, but there may yet be a book or two vithin the library that can help us find it.”

              “What does this Gem do exactly, Y’Dürkie?  I’d hate to go find something only to find out I’d lost another friend along the way. We’ve already lost enough as it is.”  Arwenna’s voice throbbed with pain for those who had died needlessly.

              “I do not know exactly, Arvenna. All I know is that it should send Corse back vhere he belongs and keep him from coming back for a very, very long time.”  Arwenna read the unspoken decision in Y’Dürkie’s eyes. She was going after the Gem, even if Arwenna told her not to. Something else nagged at her brain. There was something in how Y’Dürkie wasn’t looking at her when she talked about this Gem
. I must be more tired than I thought
, she decided,
I’m jumping onto things that aren’t there.

              Joss’ voice cut across the room, making her jump. “Sounds like a good idea to me. When do we leave?”  Glancing over, she smiled at his raised head looking their way.

              “That makes four of us. We’ll need a few more though.” Arwenna noticed some kind of unspoken exchange between Y’Dürkie and Barek. Another voice piped up before she could question either of them about it.

              “Arwenna’s still my patient, so I’m not letting her out of my sight.”  Irini’s voice carried across the room, though her form remained huddled beneath blankets.