Raven's Hand (24 page)

“Dear Horatio, you must not fret so,” she
said. “The time is coming when I must go to my master. My time as
priestess draws swiftly to a close.”

The dragon suddenly withdrew his snout from
her. Shalindra caught herself before she stumbled. Horatio looked
indignantly at her, his ruff coming up around the crown of his
head. He shook his head and gave a barking cry of distress.

Shalindra went to him, her hands beckoning
for him to calm down. However, Horatio would not listen. He gave a
barking cry again.

“My friend, can I turn the Creator from his
course?” she asked, pleading with him. “Can I determine in better
fashion what way his plans must turn? The wind and seas obey him.
Indeed, all that exist live under his dominion. Who am I to answer
against my lord? Who are you? Our time in the world is fleeting at
best. We must all return to him at some time or another.”

Horatio gave a cry of exasperation, one that
conveyed both his dismay at the thought of losing her and his
apology for his outburst. She approached him and his great head
came down to nuzzle her again. Shalindra stroked and patted his
muzzle scales as she intertwined herself among the bony horns that
ringed his face.

“You, Horatio, have been my true friend,” she
said. “I will miss you only in this world.” She looked into his
large violet colored eye. “You, however, must protect the one who
is coming to take my place. You must give her your loyalty and love
as you have me.”

Horatio searched her face. Surely, there
could be no replacement for Shalindra. Surely, he could never love
a human like he loved her.

She knew his thoughts, and he knew hers. “If
you love me, then you will do this thing,” she said. “The peril
that is coming to the kingdom of men is far more than I have faced
in my time. She will become Eliam’s new priestess. You must help
her with what is coming. She will need your wisdom, and your great
cunning, if she is to succeed in my place.”

Horatio brooded for a long while under her
caressing after that. His alarm and sadness at this news was easily
known by his mistress, but she did not scold him. Instead, she sang
to him, humming wordless tunes that he could not fathom. These had
always worked to calm his savagery, to make him feel more at
ease.

Finally, however, Horatio asked her in
thought the question that had been waiting. Shalindra smiled when
she perceived his query. “Who is she and how will you know?” she
voiced for him. “She is a Daughter of Eliam. When I am no more, she
will come suddenly to the temple in the Brine Wood. There you will
find her. You will know her by her hair which is the color of a
raven’s wing.”

Killian and I had gone not to the gate of the
city, but to his home in search of his family. Despite Esmeralda’s
presence in the palace stable, Killian had hoped beyond hope to
find his father, Radden, safe at home. However, only his mother
remained when we arrived.

The woman, middle-aged but still quite
beautiful, ushered us inside as soon as she realized her son had
come home.

“What has happened?” she asked almost
hysterically. “There are soldiers everywhere. Your name is being
circulated around. It will only be a matter of time before they
come here looking for you. And where is your father?”

Killian attempted to calm her down. “Please,
Mother,” he said. “Let me explain.”

Then she saw the gown I was wearing. Her
expression became panicked as soon the royal crest caught her
attention. She knew what I was.

Her index finger wavered in my direction. She
was unable to actually speak for a moment. Then it came.

She looked at Killian. “What have you done?
Do you not know who this girl is? The Queen will have us all
executed just for harboring her!”

“Mother, she has been abducted by House
Rainier,” Killian said. “This is the girl I have seen in my dreams
for months. This is Raven.”

“This girl is the bond of Prince Nathan!”

“I am a slave!” I said, interrupting. I did
not mean to disrespect the woman, but I had had enough.

“Where is your father?” she said without
acknowledging me.

“I believe he is still at the palace,”
Killian said. “We found Esmeralda there. I intend to rescue him,
Mother.”

“You intend? There can be no intention….You
must go straightaway,” she insisted.

“He will have been taken into custody by
now,” I pointed out.

Killian’s mother shot me an angry look that
said, do not interfere. I ignored this. We had no time for
emotionalism.

“We will need help, especially against Kane,
Evelyn’s assassin,” I said. “He is possessed of a Malkind
Spirit.”

Kane nodded to me and then held his mother’s
imploring gaze. “We are going to Shalindra.”

“The priestess? But she never leaves the
Brine Wood.”

“She knows more about what is going on in
this world than anyone,” Killian said. “She knows Eliam’s plan for
the kingdom.”

His mother laughed harshly. “Plan? What plan?
I see no evidence of any plan. The Malkind worshippers rule us.
That has not changed for centuries.”

“This sword is evidence of something that is
coming; a change in the world,” Killian said touching the hilt of
the sword. “Eliam bonded the weapon to me instead of the prince. I
saw him in a vision, or at least I was held in his presence.”

“A dream my son,” she said.

“It was no dream,” Killian retorted.
“Shalindra said as much.”

“Then a collective hallucination,” she
answered. “I don’t know. All I do know is that your father’s life
is in jeopardy. I cannot lose him, Killian.”

“If Killian attempts to face Kane alone, you
will lose them both,” I interjected. “We must have the priestess’s
help in order to have a hope of rescuing your husband.”

Killian nodded his agreement, and his mother
seemed to finally concede the point. She slumped down upon a chair.
Tears began to run down her cheeks.

“In the meantime,” Killian added, “you must
leave our home. The queen’s soldiers will come here. I cannot
undertake two rescues. Father would kill me for letting anything
happen to you.”

This drew a slight smile from his mother. She
nodded. “I can go to Hagar’s home on the southern wall. They would
not know to look there. As a matter of fact, Hagar can probably let
you down the wall from one of her windows. If you can evade the
night watchers, then you should have no trouble arriving at the
Brine Wood by morning light.”

Killian smiled. “Then we must make haste and
be away, all of us, while we still can.”

Shalindra remained with Horatio’s until the
inevitable happened. Her large friend had still to this day never
admitted to the fact that he fell asleep every time his mistress
stroked the sensitive scales of his muzzle. She had attempted on
numerous occasions to convince him, but he had always claimed to
have been awake the entire time.

When Shalindra walked away from him, Horatio
remained asleep on his large pad of soft grass. Steam hissed gently
around them, venting at various places among the surrounding rocky
ground. Horatio snored gently, dreaming dragon dreams.

Smiling, Shalindra turned from the great
white dragon. She waved her hand in the air, creating a portal like
a pane of shimmering glass. Beyond its surface, she saw the temple
at home in the Brine Wood.

Here with Horatio, it had been night for
hours. There it was already early morning. Dawn light was just
spilling through the trees. Shalindra turned to look at her friend
one final time.

“Goodbye, dear Horatio,” she said and walked
through the portal, immersing herself in the energy that connected
these lands with home.

Arriving at the temple, she allowed the
portal to dissipate behind her. The air was crisp and cool at this
early morning hour. Normally, the calls of waking birds would have
resounded in the Brine Wood around the temple. However, this
morning those same raucous fowls remained silent.

They knew something was wrong here, and so
did Shalindra. She had not seen the future, exactly. Eliam had not
given her that ability. Though she had seen visions relating to
particular events, her own fate was not included. Still, she did
understand that whatever she was about to face would lead to her
end as Eliam’s priestess, one way or another.

The tumbled-stone ruin of the old temple
stood around her as always, but now there was a new scent on the
breeze. Animal and man combined. The Cindermen had come to the
Brine Wood. They had come to end her, and this time Eliam would
allow them to succeed. Change was coming, and her time had
ended.

It had been Shalindra’s predecessor by two
previous high priestesses who had been Eliam’s servant when the
terrible sorcerer, Cinder, had first conceived the abominations
known now as Cindermen. He had hoped to build an army and thus
overtake the great houses of the time. Had Eliam not defeated his
purposes through his high priestess, Cinder surely would have
prevailed and taken over the entire kingdom.

Shalindra could not help but feel a little
envious. Eliam had allowed her predecessor to defend the kingdom in
her day and drawn down terrible power against the wizard. Now, she
was about to give her life and leave the kingdom in peril before a
gathering enemy. Her only consolation was the knowledge that Eliam
had chosen Killian Radden-son as a defender, and another priestess
would come after her.

Little did Killian, or almost anyone else for
that matter, know just how important he was. The royal line was
safely hidden away in more than just those living within the
palace. Even a half-born son carried the bloodline in his veins. A
grandson to the king himself was no different.

Radden knew this, but getting him to talk
about it was next to impossible. She had attempted to discuss the
matter with Killian’s father on a number of occasions. Prince
Nathan was not the only heir. He wasn’t even the oldest heir.

But Radden would never commit to the truth
that Shalindra already understood. Radden was the bastard heir to
the throne. He had been born to one of Steven’s concubines before
he ascended to the throne. Had Evelyn ever known of his existence,
she would have had him hunted down and killed.

Fortunately, Steven had been young, and
Radden was nearly the queen’s same age. She had no idea, and
Radden, though knowledgeable, wasn’t talking. He was perfectly
happy to remain anonymous and, as he argued, keep his family
safe.

After her last effort to persuade him, Radden
had stopped coming to have weapons blessed. Killian, it seemed,
would become his stand-in. He was making it clear that the topic
was closed.

Shalindra had even heard the ridiculous story
he had concocted for the sake of his family—some impropriety during
a ritual as the result of his wife’s cooking. As disappointed as
she had been at the time, she still laughed when she heard the
false story of their falling out.

Whatever Eliam’s plan concerning the kingdom,
it almost certainly had something to do with Killian. Why else
would Eliam have charged the boy and given him the weapon necessary
to fight against the Malkind?

Alas, none of these matters concerned her any
longer. Her time in Eliam’s service was coming to an end. Shalindra
did not fear passing through death. She had no desire for
experiencing pain, but there was hardly anything she could do about
that. Her enemies were here somewhere. There was no going back.

Even from so great a distance, she could feel
Horatio’s distress. He had awoke since her departure moment’s ago.
She had bonded herself to the dragon years before. In her mind’s
eye Shalindra could see him flying at breakneck speed toward the
Brine Wood. However, the distance was far too great. He had no hope
of arriving in time to fight for her.

Dark figures began to move out of the shadows
of the trees surrounding the temple. Faces out of nightmares
appeared from behind the ancient ruined walls. The abominable
children of the dark sorcerer, Cinder, had come for her.

Swords tarnished with dried blood and rust
hung in claw-like hands. Wild visages came toward her in the forms
of lions and reptiles and wolfs and bears and tigers. Their teeth
gnashed and saliva foamed in anticipation of tasty human flesh.
They not only intended to kill her, they meant to savor the prey
after the deed was done.

Eliam had decided. Yet, that didn’t mean
Shalindra had to go quietly. Her power came to the surface of her
being instantly. She called for the trees to come to her aid.

Branches swung down to swat at the Cindermen.
They cried out in surprise as boughs batted them off their feet.
Some of them attempted to counterattack with swords, chipping out
pieces of wood, but to no avail. The majority simply rushed at
Shalindra, escaping the trees altogether for the relative safety of
tumbled-stone walls.

Lightning forked out from her outstretched
fingertips, as a line of Cindermen charged across the cobblestones.
Several went down, but the others rushed over their fallen comrades
unabated. She had hoped that they might halt out of fear, but these
abominations were known for rarely showing fear at all.

Spears were hurled in her direction with
expert precision. Shalindra waved a hand and dashed some of the
wooden shafts to splinters against the stones. Still, there were
too many. She was quickly forced to flee back through the
temple.

Arrows spat against the walls, clattering
like a handfuls of stones. Shalindra evaded, attempting to make
herself invisible to them, but still they followed. She remembered
that they could smell her as well as see her. Invisibility wouldn’t
work.