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?’
