the moment he had forced a breach that would have made all that had happened since an irrelevance. Balaia had been so weak at the time. One rabble had been fighting the other and breaking the spirit of the whole. How easy it would have been to invade at that moment.
But dragons had become embroiled in the dispute. And so had this group of humans and elves that so went against all their teaching about the weakness of the spirit of those from Balaia's northern continent. This Raven. To find they were still a thorn in the side <>l conquest and dominion had hastened his departure.
And so, rather than sit basking in the warmth of the mana flow and see to the needs of the masters who maintained the gap and focused the stream, he was here. In the heat of the Balaian dimension. Smelling their foul air and hearing the pathetic excuses as to why the land they had identified was not yet sanctified for habitation. Why so many humans, elves and damned Wesmen ran free to cause them trouble rather than build, breed and die at their pleasure.
Hiela hovered outside the walls of the city known as Xetesk. He was aware of the activity within its boundaries. Of the lift the withdrawal of forces from its people had given them. It bothered him very little. He had overflown the city before agreeing to the order to defend the borders and had found them broken. Even those still nominally at liberty within their spells were cracked and their wills close to collapse. He could hasten that inevitability by the destruction of those who came to their aid. Hence the arrangement of his forces as a welcome. Latterly, though, this tactic had been somewhat complicated.
'They are within, you are sure?' he demanded.
'Yes, Master Hiela,' said the messenger. 'All of them.'
T see.'
He turned to his advisers. Incompetents all but with more knowledge of the developing situation at present.
'Tell me, any of you, why this force should be so keen on driving to the heart of a college which we have so effectively sealed from the outside?'
Hiela regarded them, waiting for one to speak. He scratched at the beard he still preferred to sport. It was a legacy of his grudging respect of the Julatsan mages of old. Men and elves of some strength and spirit. Those who would have been a challenge to break.
'It is their way,' said one. 'They group together for strength in times of duress, believing their best hope for survival lies in their numbers.'
'Hmm.' Hiela nodded. 'But there is more, isn't there? The Raven are with them now. These are not men who come merely to extend their lifespans. These are men who expect victory and travel only to the places where they believe that chance exists.'
Silence.
'Idiots. Isn't that why you crave their souls? Isn't that why they fascinate you yet more than a mage or an elf? Within diem is that life force that is so exquisite it burns us not to be able to touch it. Do you believe such as these would join a hopeless defence?'
'But even for them there is nothing to be done,' said another. 'We will prevail. It is a question of time.'
'Even at the time of our burgeoning strength there lies risk,' said Hiela, letting his colour drift to a brighter blue. 'You swallow too much of what you are told by the masters. They have not dealt with these people before. I have. And this is not a futile gesture. There will be a purpose.'
'But surely there is only one . . .'
Hiela snapped around in his position, floating in their midst, to stare hard at the long-fingered cerebral that had uttered the words. He let the import sink in.
'Yes,' he said. 'And can you think of another reason why the Julatsans would leave their college - the one place where we had doubts about our ability to dominate - and travel to the heart of dimensional research and understanding of our race? And why do the Wesmen still watch? Why are they so close?'
There was a wind blowing across the open lands. It brought a welcome chill though the assembled company barely acknowledged
it. Hiela turned a slow rotation in the air, making sure they all heard him.
'Out there, travelling towards us, are those who are capable of beating us, should they receive the help they need. We can suppose that this is why they are travelling to Xetesk. And you can suppose this is why we are ranged here. Because they shall not make the walls of the college. And they shall not ask for what they need, let alone find it.
'This is no longer a battle to defeat the will and farm the souls of those who approach. This is an order to destroy. We have all we need here. Never mind the sweetness of its taste, let us kill that which we can live without. We must focus on this and this alone. What is the state of our conflicts to the south and the college of Lystern?'
'The resistance is weakening in both places but it still holds. These are determined men,' said Drenoul, master of the Xeteskian battle front.
'So they are but that must end. I know your commanders will want the prized souls of those within but we need their strength of numbers here to keep die Wesmen from causing us delay while we face Julatsa and Xetesk combined. Order them to extinguish that which will not be cowed and travel here with all haste.
'It is time to deploy the destructors.'
'Surely they will be too weak yet. The mana density is not high enough,' said Drenoul.
'But not for long and they are many,' said Hiela. 'Summon the karron.'
The malevolence was causing panic throughout. The others were packed far away from the pulse of pure hate that was spreading. Like a battering on the door to their world. And it was getting louder and stronger. He had struggled with the concept of there being a force wanting to harm them. But then he had travelled to a place where the sense of evil intent and salacious desire washed over him in a wave.
While searching for The Raven he had seen in a moment of clarity that the threat was genuine and that they in their countless number were helpless against it. Those who could have heard him in his
homeland were gone from there but one had resurfaced near The Raven. It would be his brother, he was sure. It was logical, if logic held sway here, that they were aware of the threat and were battling it.
But did they really know the extent of it? And did they know where to travel? He knew. And now here he was, unsure how to proceed. He had the battering pulse filling his mind and soul. He had The Raven, bright lights surrounding one that dazzled. And he had the sense of the destination. It was a place of enormous power that ebbed slowly as if that power was being drained. He could feel it pass him like a wind through his being and tracing it back had found its source in an otherwise cold and dead land.
The Raven had to go to there and nowhere else in that land. He needed a way to contact them that was not the loose meeting of subconscious minds that he had managed so far. So often, Hirad had almost grasped him but each time the fluidity of dreams had snatched away what he was trying to say.
He concluded that he had to get closer, if closer was possible. Before him, indeed all around him, the battering was weakening the Spirits within. The anxiety had spread through all of them and communication was laced with terror and the knowledge that they had no defence against those wanting to break through. There would come a moment when the door would fall and the panic would overflow and communication would be impossible. But until that time, he had to believe in his own safety and in the strength of the Spirits that wished him success.
He forced himself to concentrate. There was a point between The Raven, the place where they had to go and the door through which they must pass. It was a place of great risk, where the boundaries between worlds were weak and the malevolence waited its chance. But it was the only place he was sure he could make a difference.
Letting the light of his friends suffuse him and protect him, he journeyed on.
Chapter 32
