'Yes, but-' began Denser.

'But what?'

'When I suggested something similar back in Arlen, I was shouted down.'

'That was different,' said Hirad.

'Oh well, that clears it all up, thanks,' said Denser, beginning to turn away. Hirad clamped a hand on his shoulder and hauled him around.

'I'd do it for you,' he said. 'I'd do it for any of us. This time it's The Unknown.' He glared into Denser's face. 'Take a good look at him, Denser. He left his wife and child behind to help you find yours. He didn't even question it. And see what it's cost him.

'Now we will help him. I won't see him a cripple. He's Raven.'

'So is Erienne,' muttered Denser.

'And we're getting her too. The time wasn't right then. They were ready for attack back in Arlen. They won't be now.'

Denser regarded him solemnly for a time before his mouth turned up into a wry smile.

'You're right. We'll probably die, but you're right.'

'Good!' Hirad clapped him on the shoulder. 'Now, you need to commune with Sytkan in Arlen so he knows who of the Protectors we have on board, before punishment is invoked. Then see if you can get to Erienne. Ilkar, with me. We'll speak to Ren'erei, see what we can persuade Jevin to do. Then you can talk to me about Thraun.'

He turned and opened the door but Denser's voice stopped him.

'Hirad?'

'What?'

'I'm sorry. In the forest, you know…'

Hirad shrugged, finding in Denser's face a genuine sorrow. He shrugged.

'Me too. But it worked out didn't it? If we hadn't scrapped, I'd have been captured by Darrick too. So let's forget it, eh? Now let's get your wife, fix The Unknown and save your daughter. Then maybe we can work out how to send the Kaan home and I'll forgive you anything. Get communing.'

'I'll be in here,' said Denser.

Hirad nodded and led Ilkar out of the cabin.

The small Protector force was quartered in the forward hold where the Dordovans had been due to billet themselves for the uncomfortable crossing of the Southern Ocean. Twenty-four had survived more or less unscathed. None that were too injured to fight after the journey had come aboard.

They stood in a circle, hands clasped in front of them, masked heads bowed, swaying with the motion of the ship. The silence of their contemplation was matched far away in Xetesk, where the Soul Tank, deep in the catacombs, was dormant. Every surviving Protector grieved for the souls that had departed but celebrated their freedom from thrall.

Every death lessened the whole but every released soul gave hope. For Aeb, it was a confusion of emotion, suppressed for the most part but finding voice in the silence. He knew it was the same for them all. They craved the companionship of the tank while hating the forces that had put them there, ripping their living souls from their bodies and inserting the linkage that kept them alive. The DemonChain.

Every Protector wanted freedom from the DemonChain. None wanted to lose his brothers in so doing. Sol was the only living example and in him were all the dangers of freedom. The brotherhood could feel him and he, them. But they could not connect. He was, and would always be, one of them but outside of the net of support they shared. Yet he stood as an icon of hope, and they revered him.

'We are one,' said Aeb, his voice filling the hold, speaking rather than pulsing as was their right when not in battle psyche.

'We are one,' the Protectors intoned.

'Sol lies grievously injured, his condition closed to us as is his soul. We move away from our Given. I have requested that we be assigned to Denser, the Dawnthief Master. It will be an honour we will celebrate in the Soul Tank with our brothers.

'Prepare yourselves, near ones. Hone your blades, bathe your wounds, harden your minds. Our enemies would destroy that which would make Xetesk dominant. We will protect.

'We are one.'

'We are one.'

'By the lore of the Chain, and to the mercy of the Life beyond

Brotherhood, I call upon He who guides us to watch us wherever we may be. We are one,' said Aeb.

'We are one,' they responded.

Another short contemplation followed. Aeb returned to pulsing now action was demanded.

Xye, we must have hot water. The elves may have cloth and balm. Ken 'erei has the ear of the Captain.

It will be done.

Aeb looked around the circle. He could feel the tiredness there. They had been running for days and now, after the fight, they had no Given to channel recuperative energies along the DemonChain.

Sit, brothers and let the air play on your faces. Fin, the door. Brothers, let the dark hide us.

Fin moved to the hatch and slid it shut. It would open only for Xye. One by one, the lanterns were hooded, and as the blackness became complete, Aeb heard the unbuckling of straps as he pulled at his own.

His mask came away and the blessed air played across his raw face. Smooth though the ebony was, sweating skin broke beneath it. He lowered his head, not daring even to catch the glint of a brother's eye. To do so when unmasked brought bad luck and death in the next conflict.

It was the way things were.

'So what have we got?' asked Hirad.

The Baven plus Ren'erei and Darrick were sat around the Captain's table while topside Jevin was talking to his first mate and navigator.

'Good news and bad news,' said Denser, first to respond. 'Sytkan has passed the Bight of Giving for the twenty-four Protectors on board to me. I'll talk to them later but suffice to say that you'll be able to use them as you need to on Herendeneth. They'll be speaking freely and will be as untethered as Protectors can be.'

'Meaning?' asked Ilkar.

'They won't wait to engage in pre-emptive offence if the opportunity arises, they will inform you if they believe you are not making best use of them and they will be in automatic charge of their own formations unless otherwise directed.'

'So the bad?' Hirad drank a mouthful of tea. On plates across the table were hard cheese, bread and dried meat. The galley hadn't been forthcoming with vegetables.

'Balaia is a mess. Politically, it's degenerated into something approaching inter-College warfare. There are skirmishes across the mage lands though so far Arlen's the only non-mage place hit.' Denser paused for breath. 'But that's nothing to the elements. Sytkan's talk with Xetesk revealed reports of tornados in Korina, volcanic activity in the Blackthorne and Balan mountains, more hurricanes to the north and flooding all the way along the Southern Force.

'Balaia's all but run out of time.'

'And Erienne?' prompted Hirad.

'Hold on,' said Denser. T haven't finished the other bad news yet. Sytkan also reported that a Dordovan fleet has sailed from Gyernath in the last couple of days.'

'How big and when?' asked Darrick.

Denser shrugged and poured a fresh mug of tea. The ship rolled slightly, the mug sliding against the raised lip of the table but not spilling.

'Details are sketchy. Gyernath itself has seen flooding,' he said. 'Sytkan will try to contact me in the next two or three days if he finds more information.'

'Can we call on more reserve?' asked Hirad.

'That's something else Sytkan is trying to find out,' said Denser.

'It'll make no difference,' said Darrick. 'Unless my intelligence is badly astray, there are no significant Xeteskian forces within ten days of any southern port and Korina is out of action completely. That's excepting the Protector army, of course, and even if they ran back to Arlen and took ship there, they wouldn't be able to leave for a day or they'd starve at sea.'

'And who do you think it is in charge of the Dordovans?' asked Denser.

'Vuldaroq,' said Darrick immediately. 'That fat idiot was due in Arlen days ago but never arrived. I have a feeling he might have run into trouble in the mage lands.'