‘How is it survival? You’ve torn apart their homes, burned their wings and bodies, shattered their ledges and brought darkness and lightning to the sky in daytime. I don’t suppose they’re impressed with your justification being a need for survival since I don’t suppose they’d heard of the Brood Kaan yesterday.’

‘But they have heard of the Skar. And they serve the Skar. For that, they were against us, however unwittingly. This is a war and they are an ally to an enemy. They took a side that was not ours.’ If Sha-Kaan had been able to shrug like a human, he would have done so. Instead, he raised his bony brows. He saw Septern shift, some of the tension leaving him.

‘But did they, the Avians I mean, know that?’ he asked.

‘The Skar should have told them everything about dragons, and the reasons they were chosen to serve. As shall you be.’

‘Thank you, I’m sure,’ said Septern. ‘First, tell me how the Avians could operate as allies to the dragons. It doesn’t make sense.’

Sha-Kaan moved his head, beginning to raise himself.

‘That is not a simple request to answer,’ he said. ‘And we should move to a safer place. My attendants will give you food and provide escort. I will await your arrival at the Kaan Broodlands.’

‘Who says I’m going anywhere but back through that rip?’ demanded Septern. At last, Sha-Kaan’s eyes fired and he knocked Septern from his feet with a fuel-less breath.

‘I do,’ he said, his voice loud. He saw Septern wince and raise hands to his ears, his face pale and scared. ‘You and your dimension can be of great benefit to the Kaan and, in return, we can protect you from other, less tolerant Broods. And believe me, fragile human, one day another Brood would have found you, had you not so fortuitously fallen to me.

‘Now, I will await you at the Broodlands and you will attend to speak to the Ancients of the Kaan. The Vestare will help you but they will not speak your language and you may not be able to pick up their thoughts. Until we meet again, calm your mind and let it open, because this world is far bigger than you can possibly conceive.’

And he had unfurled his wings and flown away, feeling Septern’s eyes in his back and fighting himself not to probe the human’s mind. He was a great human, of that there was no doubt. He understood the magic of dimensional travel, he could control it and that made him an incredible prize for the Kaan. He had looked back once, curling his neck under him as he flew onwards. The Vestare were there. They would see him safe.

Sha-Kaan had bellowed his pleasure and flown for the Broodlands.

Chapter 9

Kard, Kerela and Barras stood silent in the ankle-deep mist of dawn behind the shifting evil of the DemonShroud, through which faceless pale-blue phantoms shot and curled. Dormant during Balaia’s hours of darkness, the shapes added a new level of deep unease to the feeling of dread the Shroud evoked. Lookouts above the North Gate had reported Senedai walking alone towards the College walls, through streets where, so recently, the peaceful business of Julatsa had been conducted. Now, those streets belonged to the Wesmen and their Lord was about to deliver judgement on the Julatsan Council’s decision.

At a signal from Kerela, the gates were opened and Julatsa’s military and mage elders stood across the Shroud from Senedai. This time, there were no flags, no archers and no guards. The meeting was likely to be brief.

‘I see your friends keep you company this pleasant morning,’ said Senedai, his smile sneering from beneath his moustache, the tone of his voice falling dead against the Shroud.

‘I see little pleasant in our situation,’ said Barras shortly. ‘General Kard and High Mage Kerela are with me to hear your response to our decision.’

‘Good. So tell me the result of your discussions.’

‘We will never surrender our College,’ said Kerela flatly.

Senedai nodded and there was a trace of regret on his face.

‘I expected nothing more. I respect your decision but it leaves me no choice but to force you from behind your evil mist by means other than negotiation.’

‘That’s what you called yesterday’s ultimatum, was it?’ Barras growled.

Senedai ignored him. ‘As you can see, I have come unarmed and unaided because I want you to believe my words. If, after I have spoken, you choose to strike me down with one of your spells, then so be it. But what I am about to tell you will merely be quickened as a result.’

‘Here it comes,’ muttered Kard.

‘Tell us about the state of any prisoners you hold,’ demanded Barras.

‘Alive,’ replied Senedai. ‘But they are prisoners. They have no standing.’ He paused. ‘There are no mages amongst them. Not now anyway. I couldn’t trust them not to cast the moment my back was turned.’

‘That’s a bluff,’ said Kard, speaking low, his face away from Senedai. ‘There’s no way he could tell the difference in a crowd. He’d have to see them cast.’

Senedai clapped his hands, the sound echoing dully across the small cobbled courtyard in front of the gates in the quiet of the early morning.

‘No more talk. Here is what will happen until you agree to surrender. At dawn, midday and dusk each day, fifty prisoners will be brought to these walls and made to walk into this barrier you created. Any attempt to stop us will result in a further three hundred prisoners being executed and their bodies brought to you for burial. Unfortunately, since we cannot pass these bodies, or those who walk the barrier, to you, they will have to be left to fester and rot in full sight of anyone who cares to look down from your walls.

‘Furthermore, as each day dawns, the number of prisoners walking into your mist each time shall rise by fifty. You can stop this repatriation—’ he smiled at his choice of words ‘—simply by hanging your flag of truce or surrender from this gate and then removing the barrier. The first fifty prisoners will be here at dawn tomorrow. I give you one more day to make the right choice. Don’t make me prove my words.’ He spun on his heel and strode away.

Barras and Kerela looked at Kard.

‘He’ll do it,’ said the General, nodding gravely. ‘Have no doubt. In fact I’m surprised he gave us another day.’

‘Damn the man,’ said Barras.

‘But you can’t fault his thinking, can you?’ said Kerela. ‘This is very public. And our people will see their own killed by something we created.’

‘But his is the force, Kerela,’ protested Barras. ‘We’re the innocents. ’

‘Yes indeed,’ said Kerela quietly. ‘But it is within our power to halt the murder and in a very short time I can see our people turning against us. We must be prepared for that.’

‘You’re not suggesting surrender?’ said Barras.

‘No. But remember, most of us within these walls are not mages. They do not have the same desire to preserve the College because they have no conception of what it would mean to lose it.’ Kerela chewed her lip and began walking back to the Tower. ‘We must work out what to say to our guests.’

Sha-Kaan stretched his jaws in the quiet of Wingspread, feeling through slight vibration in the walls and floor the scurrying feet of his attendant. There was much to tell him and a journey would have to be made. So much of what was to come to Keol and then to Teras was similar to the arrival of Septern all those long rotations before. But there was a key difference.

Septern had been able to produce the help they needed through his intimate understanding of the nature of the dimensions. Sha-Kaan had no such confidence in the abilities of Hirad Coldheart and his Raven.

And yet he wondered whether it wasn’t all simply a fate over which none of them had any control. Skies knew it felt that way. But who could have foreseen the other chain of events that Septern’s arrival at the Broodlands had set in motion?