'We all here?' His voice sounded muffled but at least he could speak.
He heard murmurs and presumed they were assent. He tightened his grip on The Unknown and felt the reassuring tug on his belt that meant Erienne was behind him still. It was an odd sensation. A controlled fall. It was just a pity he couldn't see the destination. But perhaps stranger than that was the realisation that he wasn't at all fazed by the experience. His life had been punctuated by extraordinary events. Dimensional travel, links with dragons, speaking with the dead . . . and this was just another. To be endured and remembered.
Abruptly, their path was buffeted. They were flung from side to side and only then did they realise they were within walls.
'Hold on, Raven!' he called.
He heard wind whistling outside the confines of the tunnel, as he now thought it to be. And he fancied he could hear the calls of demons but it was probably just his imagination. He fended off the wall once more, feeling it give like taut cloth, and felt a surge of energy through his body. He jerked.
'Hirad, you all right?' asked The Unknown, his voice distant despite his proximity.
'I think so, I . . .'
There was a presence in the tunnel with them. No, two of them. Hirad had the sense that they were floating ahead. He fancied he could see something in the pale light, like shadows of shadows. Indistinct yet with purpose. He felt a warmth, like the touch of one thought lost.
'Do you see it?' he shouted. 'Ahead. Do you see it?'
Clearly, no one did. But the voice was something all of them could hear.
'You're going the wrong way, Coldheart. As usual.'
Hirad heard laughter behind him. Erienne closed and hugged him with her free arm. Her lips were at his ear. 'It's him. It's really him.'
Hirad wiped at eyes suddenly brimming with tears. His heart surged in his chest and he was infused with pure elation. He could feel him too. Almost smell him.
'Where are you, Ilks?'
'You're looking straight at me, idiot,' said Ilkar. 'I am a little insubstantial as far as you're concerned but I'm hurt you don't see me.'
'A little? I can see a ghosting ahead. Nothing more.'
'Well, it'll have to do. I've brought a friend. He hasn't worked out the talking bit yet but I'm showing him. Thanks for sending him, Auum. I wouldn't be here without him.'
'I said for you to get somewhere safe,' said Hirad. 'This doesn't seem much like it.'
'Begging your pardon but I thought dead would be safe. But apparently, the living have screwed that up too.'
'Xeteskians,' said Denser.
'Might have known. Never trust a Xeteskian, eh? That's why I'm here. Gods, Hirad . . . Raven . . . but we're in trouble. The enemy are inside. We know the source of their energy but we can't reach it. So far we can hold them off but they're growing so fast.'
'Well, that's why we're here,' said Hirad.
'I knew you'd come. I knew you'd help. The Raven never leave their own to suffer. But you have to be quick.'
Hirad felt the emotion wash over him. The relief and the love mixed with the fear of threat.
'Hey, Ilks, we're going as fast as we can. Haven't tried this sort of transport before.'
'And like I say, taking it in the wrong direction. Gods drowning, but I can't leave you alone for a moment without you taking a wrong turn, Hirad.'
'Ilkar, if it is you, stop this and tell us what to do. What do you mean wrong direction? We weren't offered a choice.'
'Ah, Unknown, although I feel I should call you Sol now. It is me. And believe me, this is as weird for me as it is for you. This isn't possible, you understand, but for the fact that the fabric of my world is weak and I can feel you enough to be with you. Now you're here, anyway. Don't think it'll last.'
'And where are we?' asked Erienne.
'At the junction of every dimension, or three of them at least. Yours, mine and the demons'. The Wesmen portal sends you to a single point in the demon dimension but you don't want to go there. They'll be waiting for you like they have all the lost souls banished there.'
'So take us where we need to go,' said Hirad.
'With you it is always so simple, Coldheart,' said Ilkar. 'Lucky really, that your outlook mirrors your intellect.'
'Dear Gods, but I've missed you. Denser is no substitute on the abuse front.'
'I am peerless,' said Ilkar. 'Now listen, all of you. Rebraal, are you there?'
'You know I am, my brother. I can feel your strength through the touch of our souls.'
'Yniss provides for us all that which we need in the direst of circumstance.' Ilkar paused and for one awful moment Hirad thought he was gone. 'Rebraal, remember to keep hold of the knowledge of the ancients. It will bind you all.'
'I understand.'
'What are you talking about?' asked Hirad.
'It's not your concern. Now listen. The path you're taking will drop you right where they expect you. You don't want that-'
'Always the gift for understatement,' said Hirad.
'I learned it all from you. Now, we can break the path before you arrive but it'll be a little rough. It'll drop you beyond their immediate influence but they'll sniff your souls or magic quickly and be onto you.'
'So what's the catch?' asked Denser.
'While I can get you nearer the energy source, I can't guarantee where exactly you'll appear.'
'So long as you land us on something soft,' said Hirad.
'I'll see what I can do.' Ilkar's voice was full of doubt.
'How do you know all this?' asked The Unknown.
'Ah well, Duele and I caught a demon and, you know, asked it.'
Hirad laughed. 'You never change, Ilks.'
'Yniss did indeed have a greater destiny for you, Duele,' said Auum. 'Why did I ever doubt him?'
'When is all this going to happen?' asked Thraun.
'Pretty much right now,' said Ilkar. 'It's been wonderful, my friends, but it's time to go. I doubt we'll have this sort of contact again. But hey, Coldheart, you know where to find me.'
'I'll drop by as soon as I can.'
'Not too soon, eh, old son?'
Ilkar was gone and they were falling. The light had changed from its pale tint to a startling blue and it grew in intensity around them. Hirad closed his eyes but it made no difference. He felt suffocated for a moment, a huge weight crushing down on his chest. He fought to breathe but nothing came into his lungs. He tightened his grip on The Unknown, seeking what solace he could from the big man's presence. Around him he heard screaming and realised it was all of them, the sounds torn unbidden from their mouths. Momentarily, he experienced the sensation of his skin being dragged from his body. The pain was extraordinary. But at least it was brief.
Freezing-cold air hit his face and a sour odour drove into his nostrils. He opened his eyes.
'Oh, shit.'
They weren't on the ground but they were about to hit it. Hard.
Chapter 42.
'Break! Break!' yelled The Unknown.
He pushed himself hard away from Hirad and felt the loosening of the grip on his waist. They plummeted groundwards towards a glistening green some twenty feet below. A stench arose from it that assaulted the nostrils and fogged the mind. He hardly had time to register what it might be before he struck.
Just about turning his shoulder against the impact, he ploughed into the fetid mud, water and reeds. He rolled for what seemed like an age, keeping his mouth tight-closed and forcing air out of his nose to keep the stagnant slime from driving up his nostrils.
He slowed to a stop and came quickly to his feet, checking his weapons as he looked around him for the rest of The Raven. His mace was still in its bracket and his sword in its sheath. One of his belt-sheathed daggers had broken and his pack had torn from his back. It lay a little further back along the path he had dragged through the swamp.
He flicked his wrists to shake off the worst of the stinking mud then wiped down his arms and legs with the back of his hands. The Raven were scattered around him, all in various stages of coming to their feet.
'If he wasn't dead, I'd kill him myself,' muttered a voice alongside him.
He looked round. Hirad was smeared from head to toe in black mud. His eyes peered from his face like stars in the night-time sky and the ooze dripped from his braided hair. He wiped at his mouth and nose with one filthy sleeve.
'Yeah, but at least it was something soft,' said The Unknown. 'Come on, let's help everyone up.'
'Do I smell as bad as you look?'
'Probably.'
The Unknown reached down a hand and Erienne grabbed it, pulling herself to a sitting position.
'Terrific,' she said. 'Where's Denser?'
'He's here.'
'You all right?'
'Yes, love, never better. Nothing I like more than bathing in putrescence.'
The Unknown scanned around him in more detail, seeing the four elves and Thraun making their way over. Ark was shaking his head to clear it. At least no one was hurt. At least not badly.
'What have we got?' asked Hirad, coming to his shoulder.
'You know, I'm not at all sure,' said The Unknown.
Up above him, the sky was loaded with deep-grey cloud. A dull light was cast on ground that in some ways was little different from parts of Balaia. There were hills to their left and an open plain that ran away to their right. A quick look behind revealed shale running up gentle slopes with steeper ground beyond. Directly ahead, the land levelled out and what looked like it might have been a settlement lay at the edges of his vision.
But it was dead. All of it. Silent. Still.
The Unknown looked down at his feet, ankle deep in sludge. What he had thought were reeds were long ribbons of algae floating in the stagnant water. Underfoot, the mud was soft and yielding. They had had a lucky landing. Less fortune would have seen them on the shale and their mission would have been over before it had begun.
Everywhere, the colours were drab. From the grey of rock to the dull brown of the plain sprinkled with the odd patch of palest yellow. He couldn't see the petal of a single flower anywhere he looked. There were no cart tracks, no animal trails. There were no trees. Not as far as the eye could see. But for the undulations of the land, it was completely featureless. And it was cold, very cold.
The breath clouded in front of their faces and dissipated upwards. Tracking it, The Unknown looked into the empty sky. No birds, no insects. No demons either and that was a blessing. He wondered how long that would last. He glanced left and right. Erienne had her arms wrapped around her and was shivering. Denser was doing the best he could to warm her but his own nose was pale with the cold and there were only tiny dots of colour on his cheeks.
A wind blew at them from the direction of the hills behind. It mourned over the rock and sent icy gusts into their bodies. It wasn't exactly the popular vision of hell but it would do just as well.
'We must be the only souls still here,' said Erienne.
'Which should worry us,' said Thraun. 'Ours will be like a beacon fire to the demons.' He sniffed the air. 'I can't smell anything above this stench.'
The Unknown nodded. 'We need to get out of sight and into some shelter. Not just because of the demons. We're cold and we need to warm up and dry off.'
'Can't see much firewood lying about,' said Hirad.
'There are other ways of providing heat,' said Denser.
The Unknown turned to the elves and raised his eyebrows. While Eilaan had a good covering of the cold mud and slime, the warrior trio had little more than splashes up their trousers and over their boots.
'You need to know how to land when you fall hard,' explained Auum, seeing his expression.
'You never taught me,' said Hirad.
'You could never be with us long enough to learn,' replied Auum.
'What can you see?' asked The Unknown.
Auum pointed ahead of them. 'Tumbledown settlement. All but dust now. Just a few stones. The plain is broad and barren. Behind, there will be shelter. The land is folded. If we are lucky, we'll find a cave.'
'That would be very useful,' said The Unknown. 'That way it is, then.'
He stooped and dragged his pack out of the mud and icy water. One strap remained and he slung it over his left shoulder. He felt a great stiffness in his hip and shook his head.
'I'm too old for this.'
Hirad clapped him on the back. 'Don't worry, big man, it'll all be over soon.'