'I'm too old for all this racing about,' he said.
'Well you should die and pick yourself a younger body,' said Hirad. 'It does wonders, you know. Anyway. Where are we, exactly?'
'South-east corner of the city. Not too far from the east gates. This used to be a pretty rich area until the demons came. It never got rebuilt and all people did was steal the stone and wood to repair elsewhere. I think Denser wanted it to be some form of remembrance park or something. As you can see, dreams are yet to become reality.'
'We ride around here quite a lot,' said Jonas.
'Didn't I tell you not to because of the risk of injuring your horse on all this loose stone? Full of holes, this place.'
Jonas shrugged. 'Probably. Anyway, we're lucky we didn't appear in the middle of the college or somewhere like that, aren't we? At least I can tell you every way out of here that takes us away from most patrol routes.'
'Yes, but where are we going?' asked Ilkar. 'Back to where the dead were? Auum won't have stayed there.'
'Yes, but he said he'd be in the eastern quarter somewhere,' said Sol.
'Diera's relatively close to here, so Sha-Kaan said.' Sirendor was walking in small circles, scanning the Xeteskian night.
Sol nodded. 'I have no doubt at all that Denser would use her as a hostage if he had to. So if she's calm and safe as we are told, that means she's away from him and we can assume Auum has been as good as his word yet again. The question is, where would he hide her and himself?'
'Some place with trees. With high-sided buildings and plenty of routes in and out,' said Hirad. 'When I was running with the TaiGethen back on Calaius, he used to keep going on about keeping every option available for as long as possible and having height on any enemy. Easy in the rainforest, not quite so easy here because he doesn't know it so well. How's Xetesk off for parks?'
'Well, there are a good number of squares with gardens. There's the old Park of Remembrance but that's just lawns and grazing these days. Jonas?'
'There are three or four squares a short ride from here,' said Jonas. 'The park is way over the other side of the city and it's too open if Auum wants what Hirad says he does.'
'Can you take us to these squares?'
'With my eyes shut, Father.'
Sol stood up slowly and grimaced at the state of his body.
'That won't be necessary. Lead on. Hirad, up front with him just in case you remember some of your Tai training on markers and tracks.'
'Fat chance,' said Ilkar. 'He has trouble walking and breathing at the same time most days.'
'Can we keep it quiet?' asked Sol. 'We're not welcome here.'
Jonas led them to a wide street that ran away in the direction of the east gates. Every house, every tenement and business, was shuttered and quiet. No lights could be seen, no noise could be heard close by.
'This place has been evacuated,' said Sirendor quietly.
Sol nodded. 'I presume Septern's ward grid has been laid by now. No doubt Denser was planning to squeeze the entire population into the western side of the city beyond the college. I hope he's right about which gate the Garonin come through. He's taking a big gamble.'
'It won't make a damned bit of difference,' said Hirad. 'It's not a gamble, Unknown, it's a guaranteed defeat.'
'I want everyone to stop right now.' Ilkar's voice brooked no dissent.
'What's up, Ilks?'
'Well, I don't want to alarm anyone, but if we're about to walk into a ward grid, our chances of walking out of it again are slim in the extreme, wouldn't you say?'
'The elf in man's clothing has a point,' said Hirad.
'But you go right on walking, Hirad. Test my theory, why don't you?'
'Touchy, touchy.'
'Focus,' hissed Sol. 'Ilkar, what I know is that Septern was intending to tune out anything man-sized. He was also going on about leaving the grid dormant until the Garonin got here. Something about maintaining cohesion of wards and retaining mana stamina; does that make sense?'
'Kind of. And easy enough if you're a genius, like him. Put it this way. If he hasn't done the things you said he was talking about, every step could be our last.'
'Can't you detect them as we approach them?' asked Sirendor.
Ilkar's face was glum. 'Not now. That kind of fine work is denied me. Our turn to gamble. How big was this grid going to be, anyway? '
'The whole eastern half of the city if we had time,' said Sol.
Ilkar whistled. 'Now that is something I'd like to see.'
Hirad began walking. 'Well, if the Garonin get here before we're done, you're going to get your wish. Come on, Raven, and sons of Raven, let's get out of here.'
'Hirad, be careful.'
'How?' asked Hirad over his shoulder. 'If I can't see it, how can I avoid it?'
Jonas fell into step with him, and at an indication from the boy the two of them turned left. Sol spread his hands and began to follow. They'd turned into a wide residential street that led towards the eastern grain store. Ten yards along it, Ilkar gasped.
'Whoa,' he said, dropping to his haunches and blowing hard. 'That is not good.'
'Jonas, Hirad. Stop moving. Ilkar? Talk to me.'
Sol's eyes darted left, right and up. Nothing out of the ordinary.
'Something . . .' Ilkar closed his eyes and reached out with his hands. 'Something.'
'What?' Sol thought he heard a whisper on the wind. A sound from his distant past.
'There's-' began Ilkar.
'How interesting,' said a voice from above their heads. 'Even without a college Heart, a Julatsan may still feel a construct should it contain enough power, I see.'
Two figures descended slowly into view, hovering thirty-odd feet away. Denser and Septern.
'I wondered how long it would be before you came back here to get your wife and completely bugger things up, Sol. Did you really think a dragon opening a second Klene corridor in one day could go unnoticed in my city?'
'I will do what I came here to do, Denser, and that includes beating you to a bloody pulp. One punch for every time I considered you my trusted friend. That's a lot of punches.'
'A couple of points, if I may. First of all, no, you won't lay a finger on me, and I'll tell you why in a moment. Secondly, and it's a small thing, but I have, um, adjusted my name. Just to aid the record keeping of the college, you know.'
Sol felt a rush of sadness, the end of possibility. A closing-down on the potential for redemption.
'You've taken the "y", haven't you?'
'Yes. So it's Densyr, not Denser.'
'Makes no difference to me,' growled Hirad. 'You're still a traitor to The Raven and Balaia and you will die for it.'
Densyr chuckled. 'How I have missed your idle threats, Hirad. Now, as Ilkar will be able to tell you when he gets his breath back, you have walked into the middle of a cell of explosive fire-based ward constructs which, as luck would have it, Septern was able to make active when we spotted you. These wards, like all of them across the city, have been tuned to include moving shapes of your size, but I'll leave it to you to decide whether to believe that or not. I don't really have the time to care.
'Should you stay exactly in the positions you are, you will come to no harm. Not until the Garonin blunder into them in a day or so, anyway. I'm sorry it has come to this and I truly don't want to kill any of you. So the choice remains yours. To try and get out of your current predicament or to come voluntarily into custody and let me decide your fates when the battle is won.
'I'll leave you for a few hours to make up your minds. I trust I don't need to demonstrate what happens when a ward is triggered?'
'Not for my benefit,' said Ilkar.
'Good. Until later then.'
Septern and Densyr rose quickly into the night and were lost, missing much of Hirad's colourful volley of abuse.
'Do you mind?' said Sol. 'My son is standing next to you.'
'It isn't like I haven't heard all those words before,' said Jonas.
'But perhaps not strung together with such alacrity and with the multiple repetition of certain choice terms, eh?'
'So do we believe that bastard?' asked Sirendor, who was standing next to Ilkar.
'Ilkar?' asked Sol.
Ilkar, who had recovered from the shock of the surge of mana all about them, scratched at his chin.
'I think testing if he's bluffing would be incredibly stupid.'
'Can't we just throw something at one of them?' asked Hirad.
'Must I repeat myself? You haven't studied Septern. There are very interesting passages and witness testimonies discussing his death, and more than one talks about wards triggering other wards in chain reactions. Big chain reactions. Throw one stone, bring down the whole street, that sort of thing. What I need is a little quiet and I'll see if I can divine any wards, triggers or linkage lines.'
'I thought you said you couldn't do that any more,' said Hirad.
'Got a better idea?'
'Nope.'
'Then shut up.'
Diera came to, lying on her back with her head cushioned by a cloak. The images she'd seen, so real and so terrifying, began to fade, and the relief of waking from a dream washed over her.
'Welcome back,' said a voice.
She turned her head. Baron Blackthorne was kneeling by her. His kindly face wore lines of worry.
'What happened?' she asked. 'Where's Hirad?'
'He's safe. Thraun is showing him not to be scared of wolves. As for you, well you were complaining of a headache, and the next we knew, you'd collapsed. You muttered some strange things about dragons and your son. You said they were coming. You said that over and over. Who did you mean?'
Diera shook her head. 'Can you help me up?'
Blackthorne supported her to a sitting position and waited while her blood settled and the faintness passed.
'I don't remember too much. It was just a dream. Jonas and Sha-Kaan being attacked somehow. There was wind and darkness. It's nothing. Just a mother worrying about her son.'
'I don't think so. Neither does Auum. He is out there now, looking for Jonas and Sol. You said they'd come for you. We believe they have.'
'Based on a dream?'
'And elves know the perspicacity of dreams.'
Diera hugged her knees. 'I hope they're right.'
'And let's hope they get to them before the guards do. Altogether too many roaming the city right now.'
'Will they find us here? The guard that is?'
'Eventually,' said Blackthorne. 'But we'll be ready for them.'
'I don't really understand what we're doing here. Shouldn't we be going west?'
'Auum has high ideals and I share them until my courage falters.' Blackthorne chuckled at his own joke. 'He aims to break the college hold and get people away from here before it's too late.'
'He doesn't have much time and very few here to help him. What can he do?'
'He is waiting for an opportunity to present itself.'
'And will it?'
'When the battle starts.' Blackthorne raised his eyebrows.
'But surely that will cut things too fine.' Diera searched her memory. 'Sol wanted everyone away days ago. You know what he's planning to do, don't you?'
'Rumour has it that there is some thought we can escape to a new home. Seems a distant prospect to me. But I know that staying here is folly. I've seen this enemy, and a few spells set about the city will not stop them.'
There was a brief commotion at the gates to the garden. Auum barked an order and ran in. Diera had never seen worry on his face before. Blackthorne stood.
'Auum?'
'We have a problem.'
Away to the south and east of the city, a ClawBound panther called out. It was a disquieting sound. Auum listened to it and his frown deepened.