‘I would be keen to hear how you propose to stop me,’ said Styliann.
‘It isn’t a question of what I can do now,’ said Hirad. ‘It’s a question of what the Kaan will do when you arrive. They don’t need your Protectors and what they don’t need, they tend to destroy.’
Styliann gestured around him. ‘Destroying almost five hundred Protectors isn’t easy.’
Hirad stared at him. He felt a constraining hand on his shoulder. Ilkar’s. He nodded and breathed deeply before speaking.
‘You saw the size of Sha-Kaan, Styliann. He could do it on his own and you know it. I am just trying to save you wasting their lives, such as they—’
The Protectors moved, came to attention and marched slowly away towards the long barn, Cil at their head. Denser and Styliann stared slack-jawed. Hirad, when he realised where they were going, chuckled.
‘Perhaps they won’t listen to you anyway,’ he said, breaking the spell of silence.
‘Come back!’ ordered Styliann. ‘Now. Cil, you know your calling. Return to my side or face your nemesis.’
‘I don’t think you want to do that,’ said Denser quietly.
‘I beg your pardon?’ Styliann stared on at the retreating backs of his erstwhile Protectors.
‘You heard me,’ said Denser. ‘It would make The Unknown very angry. And right now, you’re very much alone. They’ll come back.’
And come back they did, with The Unknown at their head, his face set, his determination returned.
‘I take it we’re ready to go,’ he said. ‘Styliann, you may take six Protectors with you. The rest will guard the Manse.’
Styliann’s jaw moved but no words came. His face, flushed and reddening, quivered with rage.
‘Guard against what, exactly?’ asked Hirad.
‘I may? Who, by the Gods bleeding, are you to tell me what I can and cannot do with my Protectors?’
‘You will understand soon enough,’ said The Unknown shortly.
‘Unknown,’ said Hirad. ‘Guard against what?’
‘The Wesmen are coming here,’ said The Unknown. ‘They must not bury the entrance to the workshop or we will never get back.’
‘Why would they do that?’ asked Ilkar.
‘Julatsa has fallen,’ said Cil, breaking the conditions of his thrall. ‘They know everything.’
‘How could you possibly know?’ demanded Ilkar of Cil. ‘I have felt nothing.’ His voice was desperate, his eyes searching that mask for any clue and his ears reddening as he fought the emotion that washed over him.
‘And maybe you won’t,’ said Styliann. ‘Your mages fell one by one under the swords of the Wesmen; their mana ripples won’t combine. And we must presume the Heart was successfully buried. I am truly sorry Julatsa has fallen but perhaps you are the lucky one. After all, you are about to leave this dimension.’
‘Lucky?’ spat Ilkar. ‘Those bastards have destroyed the home of every living Julatsan. Lucky, my arse.’
Denser cleared his throat. ‘Styliann’s words were ill-judged but accurate, I suspect. Any ripples through your spectrum at all are unlikely to carry as much force where we are going.’
‘Well you’d better hope there’s some, otherwise this spell, whatever it turns out to be, won’t get cast.’ Ilkar stared meaningfully at the sheaf of papers in Styliann’s hands.
‘Eh?’ Hirad frowned.
‘No ripples, no mana,’ explained Erienne.
‘It’s all irrelevant conjecture,’ said The Unknown. ‘What we have to do is go. Now.’
‘Not until I find out how you know Julatsa is lost,’ said Ilkar.
‘Cil, you may speak freely,’ said Styliann, plainly interested. Cil was silent for a time, his breath controlled as he thought through his reply. When it came, it was short and efficient.
‘The demons are watching. When we are together as one, we can sense what they see.’
‘Fascinating,’ said Styliann. ‘The side-effects of creation are an endless surprise.’
‘Enjoy them while you can,’ said The Unknown, his face a blank to mirror the masks of his former brethren.
Styliann half smiled. ‘Are you threatening me, Unknown?’
‘Call it heartfelt advice.’
Hirad came to The Unknown’s shoulder and demanded attention. ‘All right, that’s enough playing around. There’re a few things you should know, Ilkar and Denser excepted, about what happens when we enter the rip.’
He reassured them about the pain of travel, the drop on landing and the devastation of the Avian dimension The Raven had encountered in their search for Dawnthief. He described the walking dead lest they should rise again, the silence though the sky boiled with cloud and lightning above and below, the disorienting height and the other platforms in the sky, standing atop rock columns. And he reminded them that it was Kaan dragons that had caused the destruction and that the same fate awaited Balaia should the Kaan falter or the spell, when it was determined, fail to close the rip.
Finally, he told those that mattered that they were Raven and that, strange though it may appear, not just Balaia but countless dragons depended on their success.
‘And now,’ he said, ‘now we will go.’
But inside the Manse ruins, there was a new problem.
‘What the hell has happened here?’ Ilkar looked squarely at Styliann and away from the open entrance to Septern’s dimensional workshop.
‘It wasn’t always like this?’ replied Styliann, seeming genuinely surprised.
‘No it wasn’t,’ said Ilkar shortly. He crouched by the entrance, set in the middle of the floor. Denser dropped to his haunches by him and was joined by Erienne.
‘I don’t think Styliann is responsible,’ whispered Denser.
‘So what has happened?’ asked Erienne.
Ilkar scratched his head. ‘Without a key or forcing, there’s only one answer to that. Septern’s spell has collapsed.’
‘A consequence of the rip, you think?’ said Denser.
Ilkar shrugged. ‘Can you think of anything else?’
‘What does it matter?’ said The Unknown. The mages turned to him, plainly irritated at the interruption. ‘The fact is that we can no longer seal the rip against the Wesmen. If they should defeat the Protectors, they can travel it too and I have no doubt that they will.’
‘We can’t afford a Wesmen force in the dragon dimension,’ said Hirad. ‘No matter the power of the dragons, they could still find and catch us.’
Ilkar rose and dusted down his knees. ‘So what do you suggest?’
‘Reinforcements,’ said Hirad decisively. ‘It’s our only option. Darrick must be heading north by now.’ He turned to Denser. ‘Sorry, Denser, but we need a Communion from you.’
The Dark Mage sighed and nodded. ‘What do you want me to say?’
The Raven stood at the rip to a new dimension under a boiling sky and in the remains of the devastated Avian village. Below them, far below them, harsh red lightning sheeted and flared. It was a rip through which only Denser had passed, returning in terror, jabbering about dragons. For Hirad, it was a case of already seen. His union with Sha-Kaan gave him clear visions of what lay before them and, with a memory of curious clarity, summoned a subconscious thought that had lain hidden since Denser’s ill-advised journey. Even then, he realised, he had known he would have to travel the rip himself. To face his nightmares and beat the demons of his mind.
Hirad turned to the company, Raven to the front, Styliann and his six Protectors behind.