Ravensoul

Chapter 37

Densyr picked his way over the rubble having already scared himself a dozen times on the way up the remains of the spiral stair to his formal dinner chambers. He was amazed the tower still stood. Holes had been blown in the walls in too many places to count. Several timber floors had collapsed, but it was testament to the original builders that all the stone floors, placed to strengthen the tower in key areas, remained intact.

He looked up to the open sky, mercifully clear of Garonin machines, and wondered at the sheer level of the destruction and whether they could possibly rebuild. A matter for the future, should they have one. Meanwhile, he and Brynar moved aside beams, shelves, burned portraits and tapestries on their way to where Dystran still sat in the chair next to Septern’s abandoned borrowed body. A body that looked very suddenly about ten days dead.

‘Doesn’t smell too good, does he?’ said Brynar.

‘Strange. Presumably, the returned soul holds off decay but only to the extent of hiding it. I wish I knew how that worked.’

Dystran was partly covered by a beam that had fallen across his chair. Coming closer, Densyr could see that the beam had lodged between the back and side panels of the chair, which had broken its fall and stopped it from crushing the old Lord of the Mount’s skull.

‘How close we came to ultimate defeat,’ breathed Densyr.

‘Then you think he’s still alive?’ asked Brynar.

‘Of course he’s still alive, idiot. If he wasn’t, the Heart would have been destroyed by mana feedback.’

‘Oh right, yes.’

‘Gods drowning, Brynar, you really ought to meet Hirad Coldheart again. You’d get on like a house on fire with your similar-sized intellects.’

Densyr helped the young mage shift the beam and blow the dust from Dystran’s face. He looked very peaceful. His breathing was deep and sure and his body was uninjured so far as they could see. Densyr knelt by him and took his hand, dropping into the mana spectrum right by him.

Dystran’s aura pulsed strongly where it rested as a perfect buffer to the loose mana charging around the ruined grid. Densyr could see that Dystran had done good work in allowing some peripheral areas of the grid to feed back into the Heart under control. But still enough remained to do severe damage and most likely destroy it.

‘My mother would have said it is like unpicking a woollen knit,’ said Dystran, making Densyr jump. ‘You have to retain the integrity of the pattern, you see, or else the whole lot just falls in a knotted heap. Something like that, anyway.’

‘It’s good to hear your voice,’ said Densyr.

‘Told you they’d not see me here.’

‘Well, I’m not sure that’s entirely true. Have you seen this place? It isn’t how I left it.’

‘A little more untidy, is it?’

‘You could say.’ Densyr waved in Brynar’s direction. ‘Have a look round, see if by some miracle any water has survived in a container.’

‘Bless you, Densyr. Tell me, how are we doing?’

‘Average to awful,’ said Densyr.

Dystran managed a dry chuckle. ‘You really must go back to your propaganda classes.’

‘Only when I can issue blindfolds to all the sceptics too. The college is in ruins. Two towers are gone. This one and Nyer are on the verge of collapse. The other three are relatively sound but only because binding work went on all through the attacks. The dome is rubble, most of our outbuildings are destroyed and the population are scattered and, we presume, chased by Garonin.

‘Sol is dead and, again we presume, travelling with The Raven and with Auum’s TaiGethen cell, who also took their own lives down in the catacombs.’

‘Oh. Ynissul deciding that enough is enough, I suppose.’

Densyr shook his head. ‘You and Vuldaroq really had too little to do down in your rathole of a suite, didn’t you? Too much time to study ancient elven lore and history.’

‘No, no, no. We did all this during the Elfsorrow crisis, trying to work out how they manage to live so long. Not my fault if you never bothered to consult the popular texts on the matter.’

‘I was otherwise engaged, if you recall,’ said Densyr. ‘The question I need you to answer for me now is, can we move you? We are assuming the Garonin are chasing The Raven but we don’t really know why since the mana in our Heart is enormous compared to anything they have around their souls. But in any event the Garonin will surely return to complete the job. And you have to be somewhere safer.’

‘Very thoughtful of you.’ Dystran’s aura pulsed as he tested his mind. ‘All I will say is, be gentle. And I’d like to go back to my chambers if you consider them safe enough. Rathole or not, they smell good.’

‘Consider it done.’ Densyr turned to Brynar. ‘You heard the man. Bring up a stretcher party, though they might want to just pick up the chair with Lord Dystran in it. Less mucking about, I’d say. And ask them not to drop him. There would be… repercussions.’

‘Yes, my Lord.’

‘And Brynar.’

‘My Lord.’

‘Your antics out in the city earlier. With The Raven.’ Densyr paused and let Brynar sweat. ‘Good work.’

Brynar’s smile was broad. ‘Thank you, Lord Densyr.’

‘Sentimental nonsense,’ muttered Dystran.

‘I remain lord of this pile of redesigned stone and wood,’ said Densyr. ‘And hence I shall be as sentimental as I like to whomsoever I choose. Thank you very much for your input. Time to relax. Help is at hand.’

‘Did the young pup find any water?’

‘Apparently not.’

Densyr made his careful way down the stair, already feeling nervous about Dystran’s journey to the catacombs. He passed Brynar’s team on the way up and favoured them with what he hoped was an encouraging smile. At the base of the tower, guards and mages were at work trying to make a path to the shattered complex doors and to clear the rubble-strewn mess that cluttered the entrance to the catacombs.

The evacuation alarm still sounded across the city, and while it had merged into the background for a while, Densyr heard it loud and clear again now. He clapped his hands for attention.

‘I’m speaking loudly because the evacuation alarm is, as you are aware, intrusive. Exactly as it is designed to be. Now, as you also are aware, evacuation is a term meaning leave, run, go away, don’t look back and any number of colloquialisms that put together lead to the conclusion that the city should be cleared of its entire population.

‘This leads me to my question, which is: what the hell are you all still doing here?’

Densyr found it difficult to keep the smile from his face such was the pride he felt at the efforts still being made on behalf of himself and Xetesk. There was a moment when every man and woman inside the devastated complex thought his verbose utterance was in all seriousness. One by one, however, he saw them begin to relax. One spoke up.

‘General Suarav asked if we would stay and help the fight. This is our college. So here we stand.’

‘And I am more proud of you than I can say. Thank you for your courage and your strength. With people like you standing firm, this college and city will survive, rebuild and be great once more. But right now my advice to you is to rest. Mages, your stamina reserves must be low. Guards, your arms must be tired, your every muscle crying out for pause. There will be plenty of time to clean up this mess when our victory is complete. For now we have to assume the Garonin will return. Rest. For there is still much work to be done.’

They cheered him on his way out through the doors of the complex, and he had never felt more like a fraud in his life. Suarav was waiting for him.

‘My Lord Densyr, it is joy to see you alive and well.’

‘And it is joy to be so.’ Densyr walked forward and clasped arms with his trusted friend. ‘I always knew you to be a great man. But even I had no idea about the depths of your courage and your powers of persuasion. How is the college still standing?’

‘I’ll explain later, if there’s time,’ said Suarav. ‘For now I need to give you a situation report.’

‘Do I want to hear it?’

Suarav shook his head. ‘You can learn most of it just by looking around you.’

There were not enough survivors to clear away the dead and the scattered body parts strewn across the courtyard. Smears of blood stained every surface that wasn’t touched by the scorch-marks of Garonin weapons. Brave Xeteskians were abandoned in the grotesque poses of their deaths. Survivors were moving through them, searching for any who might still be breathing.

It would have been impossible to drive a wagon across the courtyard to the east gates of the college, which themselves stood open revealing the destruction of the city beyond. Rubble and debris covered the ground. Two out of three long rooms were flattened. The mana bowl existed only as a crater and the living quarters, refectory and medical buildings were all holed and partly collapsed.

Densyr turned a slow circle and drew in a sharp breath at the parlous state of the tower complex. Its symmetry was destroyed by the wrecking of Prexys and Laryon. His own tower was leaning to the north and Nyer was in even worse shape.

‘Only binding magic holds any of it together now,’ said Suarav. ‘The structure of the complex and its foundations are essentially unsound. When this is over, it will all have to come down.’

‘I’m sure the Garonin will be only too happy to help in that regard, ’ said Densyr, feeling a bitterness that surprised him. ‘So what do we have besides rubble and ruins?’

‘I have twenty-seven mages able to cast. I have fifty or so fit sword guards and another thirty injured but prepared to fight.’

‘That’s all?’

‘And that represents a good survival rate given where we started. Don’t forget, you can add to that the entire catacomb defence. What’s that: fifty personal guard, the Circle Seven and the research teams plus people like the Communion Globe team. Thirty mages in all working down there?’

Densyr nodded. ‘Yes. Not as many as we’d have liked but clearly the weight of numbers had to be up here. We’re going to need to be clever with spells. We can bind the catacomb ceilings and walls as far as possible and take them on down there unless you have a better plan.’

‘Not on the face of it but my concern is that they will not try and walk through the front door. Looked to me as if they were trying to come straight through the top. Means that binding is all very well, but should they breach it, we have nothing because they can just reach in and grab the Heart.’

Densyr glanced up at his tower, wondering how far Dystran had got down the stairs.

‘There is one thing we can keep up our sleeve. It’ll stop the Garonin getting the Heart for sure.’

‘There’s a but, isn’t there.’

‘We won’t have it either.’

‘Still preferable.’

‘Agreed. All right. Look, you’ve done an extraordinary job thus far, General, and I would not presume to alter your plans. Have who you need from the catacomb defence. Strengthen where you see fit and just tell us all what we need to do. Fair enough?’

‘The best I could hope for.’

Densyr clasped arms with him again. ‘We can do this. If The Raven are successful, we can be sure the Garonin will be weakened and it gives us a chance.’

Densyr heard his name being called. Brynar was picking his way out of the complex, waving as he came. He tripped, fell flat on his face, got to his feet and ignored the scrapes evident on his hands as he ran on.

‘Good to see you looking better,’ said Densyr. ‘What can we do for you?’

‘Brynar, take a deep breath,’ said Suarav.

‘Communion Globe. They’re Korina, it’s there them.’

‘Brynar,’ said Suarav, his tone commanding this time. ‘I am unused to repeating myself.’

‘Sorry. Sorry.’ Brynar stared at Suarav and took a deliberate deep breath. And then another three. ‘The Communion Globe is active, my Lord Densyr, General Suarav. Korina is still there and still fighting. They are surrounded but the enemy is not moving. They say the Garonin are waiting.’

‘For what? I wonder.’ said Densyr. ‘Brynar, tell Sharyr I want communications open as long as is humanly possible. In fact longer. Suarav, the floor is yours. I’ll be in Dystran’s chambers until the Garonin return.’

‘If,’ suggested Brynar.

‘Until,’ repeated Densyr. ‘Just accept it.’