'Well, it'll give our warriors something to tell their grandchildren, won't it? Taught batde tactics by General Darrick of The Raven,' said Blackthorne.
'And the more they listen, the more likely it is they'll actually be able to relate it,' said Darrick. 'I'll need them in squads of twenty or thirty or it'll get too ungainly.'
'I'll see it's organised for you. Or rather, Luke will.'
'There is one more thing,' said The Unknown.
'Really. That makes three, doesn't it?' Blackthorne was smiling a litde more easily now.
'He never was too good with numbers,' explained Hirad.
'Gods drowning, hark at that,' said Erienne, stirring herself from Denser's shoulder. She looked very tired. Her eyes were a little sunken but they still held their mischievous spark. 'The barbarian looking down on another's numeracy.'
'Isn't it time you turned in?' said Hirad. 'I'm sure you and Cleress have much to talk about.'
'I don't think she can hear me, Hirad,' said Erienne, sobering. 'I can't feel her in my mind.'
Hirad frowned. 'But I thought . . . ?'
'I was on Herendeneth for two years, Hirad. I wasn't tending the garden all that time. I learned things.' Erienne's tone was testy, impatient. 'I can hold it back without her now. It's hard but I can do it.'
'What else?' he asked.
'The rest we'll just have to wait and see, won't we? You'll know if I do it wrong, that's for sure.'
Hirad shook his head. T don't understand.'
'No, Hirad, you don't.' Erienne rose and moved towards the doors of the hall, all eyes on her. 'You don't know what it's like to go to sleep at night and wonder what state your mind will be in when you wake. You'll never have to experience the dread of using a magic you barely comprehend and that has the capacity to destroy you utterly. And you'll never once wonder, when you uncap the power, if the casting you make will help the people you love the most or instead kill them in an instant. That's me, Hirad. Me.'
Hirad listened to her footsteps echoing away towards the stairs to their two small rooms; all that Blackthorne could spare.
'Sorry, Denser. I didn't mean . . .'
'It's all right,' said the Xeteskian. 'She's finding it difficult right now. When she gets used to Cleress not being there, I'm sure she'll be less moody.'
'Sure?'
Denser looked squarely at him and sighed. 'Actually, Hirad, I haven't got a clue. That's the most she's said about the One for ten days. I think you might even have done me a favour.'
'We're all here for her, you know,' said Hirad, feeling guilt grip his heart.
'She knows that. But sometimes I think she's so alone in her mind that not even we can be of any real use. That's hard.'
'Here,' said Blackthorne, pushing the decanter across the table. 'Fill your glasses. I don't pretend to understand any of what I've just heard so I'm going to change the subject in as obvious a fashion as I can muster.'
He waited for all their glasses to be charged then lifted his. The crystal caught the candlelight and the smooth red liquid within danced and sparkled.
'I'd rather Erienne were here but still, there's always tomorrow. To The Raven. To mankind across Balaia and to the endless support of the elven nation. May we all live to look back on this when we're old and infirm.'
They drank. It didn't ease Hirad's sense of guilt about Erienne and what he had forced her to reveal but it did lighten the mood.
'So,' said Blackthorne. 'What was this third thing?'
'It's a difficult one,' said The Unknown. 'There's something we're going to need you to consider very carefully. It may never come to this but if it does, you'll receive a message, I promise you that.'
'Go on.'
'It's something you must do. You must make contingency for abandoning Blackthorne and for travelling north to Xetesk with everyone you can save.'
Blackthorne's glass had paused midway to his lips. 'Gods drowned, Unknown, why?'
'Because if we don't make it, it could be the only chance the rest of you have to give the demons one final bloody nose. Now, I know you say you've heard nothing from any other pockets of resistance. But not all of your scouts have failed to return, surely?'
Blackthorne smiled. 'There are always methods of getting information. I'll tell you what I know.'
Chapter 20
The Unknown Warrior watched the three Protectors jog away up the western side of the Bay of Gyernath, the elven mage Vituul with them. Ahead of the group was a journey nominally the lesser of two evils. They would have to avoid contact with Wesmen and take one of the mountain passes to the north of Understone Pass to bring them within a few hours of die walls of Xetesk.
Ule, Ryn and Qex had made dieir goodbyes to their brothers Ark and Kas, and to Sol the one to whom they all looked now they were free. For his part, The Unknown felt as they did, that it was unlikely that they would all stand together again. By the time The Raven reached Xetesk, he couldn't conceive that they would all have survived.
'We can't afford one error,' said The Unknown when the longboat had put in to the bay to head back to the Caiman Sun. 'If Blackthorne's information is anywhere near accurate, Balaia is in a far more desperate position than we feared.'
'They will not fail us,' said Ark.
'Dammit but we're so thin on the ground.' The Unknown scratched his shaven head. T wish there was some other way.'
'Don't think that way,' said Darrick, who had accompanied them to issue final orders and check they understood exactly what they were to relay to Dystran, assuming the Lord of the Mount still lived. 'We've passed the point of no return. We can't afford to worry at the corners of what has been decided. A change now could be catastrophic. And even if they don't make it to Xetesk, we have to be confident we'll make it, though vital preparation time will have been lost.'
'You're right, I know,' said The Unknown. 'But there's no contingency. No back-up.'
'Like there was when you went to cast Dawnthief, you mean, or when the Noonshade rip was closed?' Darrick's tight brown curls blew about his head in the offshore breeze.
The Unknown raised an eyebrow. 'Funny, but it seemed different then. For all the risk we faced, I didn't give any serious thought to failure.'
'And you do now?'
'Yes,' he confessed. 'For some reason, the stakes seem higher for Balaia. Stupid, I know, but they do. After all, destruction or domination have always been the cost of failure.'
'But not for the scattered dimensions too,' said Darrick. 'Not for the dead, not even for the dragons. And it's more personal to you, Unknown. You have a family beyond The Raven and that changes everything.'