'I-' His mouth would barely open, such was the pressure from The Unknown's hand.
'Do you understand me?' He relaxed his grip.
'I hear you.'
'Good.'
'What a shame, though,' said Ranyl.
'I beg your pardon?' asked Denser.
'You could have been so much more.'
'Who?'
'You, Denser. The Circle Seven needs you. And you, Sol. You could have been the leader of the Protectors.'
The Unknown leaned in further, his smile carrying no humour.
'I already am.' He straightened. 'So talk. The research.'
Ranyl breathed in deeply. They had handed him control though they appeared not to realise it. Anything to keep them here a little longer.
'We are testing our theories night and day in the catacombs below my Tower. I am the Circle Seven mage sponsoring dimensional research. Kestys is my lead man.' He shrugged. 'You know where to go, Denser. Take it, if you think you're able.'
'Do we need to know anything else?' asked Hirad.
Denser shook his head. 'No. He's telling the truth.'
'Why would I do otherwise?' said Ranyl. 'I have so little still to lose.'
'Let's go,' said The Unknown. 'Denser. Ranyl looks tired.'
'No problem.'
Denser began to cast. Ranyl knew he would. There was no point in raising an objection and, in truth, a large part of him looked forward to a few hours of blissful, pain-free rest. He felt a twitch in his mind. He smiled.
The Raven prepared to leave. Their big, blond, silent and clearly troubled warrior put an ear to the door and shook his head. Lystern's greatest loss, Ry Darrick, went to his shoulder, others followed him.
'Ready for this?' asked Denser, voice a little faint with the effort of sustaining the casting, simple though it was.
'I am,' said Ranyl.
The spell was never cast. Ranyl's bed exploded in torn cloth and feathers. His familiar screamed its fury, taking the air on leathery wings, mouth slathering, eyes burning with hatred of the invaders.
The reaction was instantaneous. Denser turned, dismissed the sleep spell and began to prepare again. The Unknown's sword was out of his scabbard, pointed towards the familiar, his free hand pushing Erienne behind him.
'Fly!' shouted Ranyl. 'Ignore them, fly!'
'Block the window!' Hirad was already running for the open windows on to the balcony. 'Thraun, we've got to stop it.'
The blond warrior, Thraun, growled. Ignoring his weapons, he ran to the centre of the room, putting himself between the familiar and the window. Around him, the elven mages were preparing too. Darrick kept his attention on the door, another elf had a bow ready, arrow nocked, looking for a clear shot.
The familiar flitted above their heads, circled the small chandelier. It flew at Thraun, raked a claw across his face and laughed as the blood began to flow.
'Denser, we need you!' Hirad's voice cut across the laughter.
Thraun made a jump, quick and powerful, catching the familiar by surprise and closing a fist around its trailing leg. It squealed. Thraun dropped back down, dragging the creature with him.
'Hold it, hold it!' roared The Unknown. 'Denser.'
'Time,' gasped Denser.
Ranyl kicked out a foot. It caught Denser in the back of the leg. He flinched. It was enough.
'Damn you!' he grated. 'Rebraal, keep this man quiet.'
Thraun was struggling with the familiar. The size of a monkey, it had a strength far greater than its stature. It swivelled in his grip, head biting down, jaws clamping on Thraun's wrist. The warrior yelled, fingers uncurled.
'No!' spat Hirad.
The demon flew back into the air, screamed again and dived for the balcony window. Hirad launched himself at it. It balled a fist and lashed it into the barbarian's face, snapping his head back. Hirad still laid a hand on it but it was too strong, flying out into the night, chittering and screeching, calling the college to arms.
Hirad dragged himself to his feet, a hand feeling the side of his face below his right ear. He stared out after the familiar before turning to meet The Unknown's grim face.
'Oh, shit.'
The alarms began to sound.
Chapter 19.
Auum ran back out into the library from the archive chamber, the Aryn Hiil inside his tunic, its comforting presence had brought a glow to his whole body. He had felt energised, vindicated. Every elf would benefit. They had taken back something so precious and could return home to talk about what might come next.
But so quickly, his mood had evaporated. Outside the library, alarms were sounding. Even through the thick walls and the cloying quiet, they could hear the shouts of men and the chilling call of demon familiars in the sky. The college was awake, it knew the raiders were inside and TaiGethen were at risk out in the open grounds. Perhaps it was they who had been discovered. Somehow he doubted it.
He couldn't afford the time to get back to the roof and led his people towards the doors.
'Answers,' he said as he ran. 'Windows?'
'Not viable. Fixed, large and spell-maintained,' said Sian'erei from behind him.
'Door, then. Check quickly.' Sian and Vinuun paced away. 'Marack, defend our right. Eye to the sky. You cannot kill the demons but you can hold them off. Duele, Evunn, bows. Yniss save us.'
'Trouble,' said Sian. 'This door is locked by metal and spell. Those men we killed were in here for the night. The spell is a WardLock, timed to release at dawn. We can't counter it.'
Auum cast his gaze to the heavens. The area above the doors caught his eye. Five richly-coloured circular windows ringed the portal. Decorative, probably telling a story judging by the depictions upon them and definitely a weakness.
He snapped his fingers and Duele followed his gaze.
'We can all climb there,' he said. 'Tais, we move.'
Dystran cast around for something to punch. Not confident about the state of his knuckles if he threw one at Myx, he chose instead to smash his glass in the grate of his dying fire.
'How? By all the Gods drowning, how?'
'We do not know,' said Myx. 'We will discover. Mages are investigating. '
'Well, bugger that for now,' said Dystran, grabbing his cloak and swinging it around his shoulders. 'Come on. And pass on these instructions as we go.'
'My Lord.'
'Ranyl is available, I suppose?'
'I do not know,' said Myx.
'Of course you don't.' Dystran hurried out of the office in his tower and took the stairs at a trot, knotting his cloak as he went. 'I want the reserve in here, combing the ground. I want every available Protector back from the walls. Get me the Circle Seven in Ranyl's tower quicker than they've ever moved before. And get every guard off the damn walls. Blind as they are, they might as well help look, even if it means they pat the ground with their hands.
'Damn those bloody elves!'
Dystran simply could not believe it. What had he missed? How long had the elves been inside? Ranyl's familiar had been apoplectic with rage. Unable to answer anything coherently and beside itself with anxiety about its master, Dystran had dismissed it before starting to break the glassware. All he really needed to know was that the raiders had got into Ranyl's tower. And if they'd got there, they could have breached anywhere.
'Last thing. Double the library guard. Do it now. Oh, and get me Suarav. He has some explaining to do.'
'Go!' shouted The Unknown. 'Get out, now. We can still make the escape.'
'What about him?' Hirad pointed at Ranyl.
The Unknown grabbed his arm. 'Hardly matters now, does it?' He glared at the dying Circle Seven mage. 'What I said about my family? Remember it and believe it.'
'You aren't getting out of here,' said Ranyl.
'No?' The Unknown turned and spread his arms. 'Raven! Raven with me!'
He led the charge from the top of Ranyl's tower. Long sword in his right hand, he took the stairs two at a time, ignoring the pain in his hip and bracing himself on the outside wall, the spiral unwinding in front of him.
'What about the wards?' he called over his shoulder.
'Straight through,' said Denser, puffing at the effort. 'What's another couple of alarms, eh?'
'What indeed.' The Unknown ploughed on, hurdling the bodies of Ranyl's personal guard on the second and first landings. 'Hirad, you there?'
'Right behind you.'
'Hit anything that comes at you. I think it could be interesting in the dome.'
'No problem.'
They were a few strides from the base of the tower. The wards would start tripping the moment they moved into the curving corridors that led to the centre of the complex.
'Ready, Raven,' warned The Unknown. 'Rebraal, your mages need to deploy shields. Erienne, anything you like; Denser, something like a ForceCone?'
He heard the answers and focused ahead. His boots, still wrapped by strips of cloth, made muffled slaps on the stone. He spun off the base of the spiral stairs, up a short rise to a sharp left and into a longer, tight curve upwards. At the end of the curve, the way down to the catacombs, now denied them in the chase to escape. The Unknown didn't spare it a look, running by, triggering an alarm ward which shrilled painfully in his ears.
He burst through the curtained alcove, the second ward sounding, a flat tone repeating again and again. The Raven surged out into the dome behind him, Hirad taking up station to his right, Darrick and Thraun left, the Al-Arynaar in a loose group behind Denser and Erienne.
'Down!' snapped Denser.
Hirad and The Unknown ducked. A ForceCone played over their heads, knocking two Xeteskian swordsmen from their feet. The Raven ran into the gap left, heading for the dome doors. One of the Al-Arynaar split off, aiming for the office entrance they'd come through.
'No,' shouted Denser. 'We can't go back that way! Stop.'
'Rebraal, call him back,' ordered The Unknown, not taking his eyes from the doors. They were opening. 'Do we have a SpellShield? '
'You do,' Rebraal confirmed before shouting in elvish.
'Keep it tight, Raven.'
The Unknown tapped his blade on the ground in front of him as he advanced. The first of the Xeteskian guard spilled in, seven forming up with more filling the space behind them, expecting to be confronted by elves. What they saw, for those who recognised The Raven, was worse.
'One pace and duck,' said Erienne.
Tried and tested, the warrior line did as instructed, barely pausing while the IceWind howled over their heads, slicing into the oncoming soldiers. A shield flared deep blue, feeding the power of the Dordovan spell over its surface and away into the floor. Even so, the line faltered. Rebraal's bow thudded, an arrow found its mark and the first guard died.
'Tight form, Raven, let's go,' called The Unknown.
Using the central column as a pivot, The Raven spaced to the outer wall and moved in, Darrick the man on the flank watching for the expected flanking moves. Denser was with him, a second ForceCone poised.
'This needs to be quick!' Hirad's voice echoed off the dome ceiling.
The Unknown brought his blade up and parried a heavy blow from a huge guardsman whose eyes peered from beneath a metal helm, his hands engulfing the hilt of his sword. Beside him, Hirad lunged straight forward, weight to the left, anticipating the block and maintaining his balance.
But it was the left of the Raven line where the damage was most quickly wrought. Darrick was far too fast for his opponent, feinting left by the tower base and striking right, his blade piercing chest armour and ripping into ribs and heart. And Thraun didn't bother with subtlety. Clearing his head with a howl from his wolven side he swung overhead, one-handed, crushing the skull of his first attacker and moving on a pace to pile his left fist into the face of the next, flattening nose and driving him back into his comrades.
'Come on!' yelled Hirad, seeing the carnage to his left. He battered his blade in across his body, seeing it parried away but leaving his attacker open. The barbarian moved into the space and shoved the man back and off balance with a push to his chest, following up with a strike into his left leg, chopping deep into flesh and bone. The man went down screaming.
'HardShield up,' said Erienne.
'Rebraal, how many more can you see?' The Unknown was happy to keep the big man in front of him quiet while he marshalled the move. He dropped in a low strike left to right, saw it parried but clumsily. The man might be powerful, but he was slow. 'Any time,' he whispered.
'Five in front,' replied Rebraal. 'Five behind.' The sound of another arrow. 'Four. Mage down.'
'Denser!' called The Unknown, blocking another massive overhead blow, turning the blade aside and slashing in with his dagger, forcing the enemy back. 'Round left. Darrick, watch him. Rebraal cover. Pushing Raven.'