‘My mage?’

‘I have to talk to Senedai. Excuse me.’ Barras walked on to the ramparts that ran across the gate. The DemonShroud’s evil was all but within reach. Well beyond it, three Wesmen guards sat around a small fire in the centre of the open area sandwiched between the College and first city buildings.

‘I would speak with your Lord!’ called Barras. The Wesmen looked up. Barras could see them frowning. One stood up and moved closer, cupping a hand behind his ear.

‘I must speak with your Lord,’ said Barras. He was greeted with a stream of tribal Wes and a shrugging of the shoulders.

‘Imbecile,’ muttered Barras. He straightened and spoke loudly. ‘Senedai. Get Senedai. Yes?’ There was a pause that seemed to last for eternity before the guard nodded and scurried off, passing an aside to his colleagues who both laughed and looked at Barras.

‘Laugh while you can,’ said Barras, smiling back and giving a little wave. He wasn’t waiting long before Senedai strode from the shadows into the firelight, augmented now with the first murk of dawn. ‘You cut it very fine, elf,’ said Senedai, once he had stopped a safe distance from the Shroud. ‘I trust there will be an orderly surrender.’

‘Ultimately, Lord Senedai, but not at dawn. We are not ready.’

Senedai snorted. ‘Then fifty of your people will soon be dead.’ He half turned.

‘No, Senedai, wait.’ The Wesman Lord spread his arms wide and swung back.

‘I’m listening but it will make no difference.’

‘You don’t fully understand our situation.’

‘Oh but I do. You are desperate. You have no way out and you are trying to buy some time. Am I right?’

‘No,’ said Barras, knowing his attempt, a long shot at best, was now almost certainly doomed to failure. ‘Put yourself in our position. We have much anxiety in here. Our people are scared. We need more time to calm them, to assure them of your honourable intentions. But more than that, we have to put our affairs in order.’

‘Why?’ demanded Senedai. ‘You can bring nothing with you and all that you leave will be ours. Your people are right to be scared of our strength and ferocity, but the only way to prove to them we are not wanton destroyers of those we conquer is to put them in our hands.’

‘I’m appealing to your humanity but I am also appealing to your good sense and your reason,’ said Barras. ‘We can calm our people and that will help both you and us, but we need more time. That’s one thing. But far more important to you is that the College is safe when you finally walk through the gates in triumph. Mana is a dangerous force to those who do not understand it. If you come in now, without a mage, I could not vouch for your chances of survival.’

‘Are you threatening me, mage?’ Senedai’s voice rose in volume and hardened in tone.

‘No. Merely telling you the truth,’ replied Barras calmly.

‘And yet you wait until the new day to tell me this truth.’

‘I am sorry, Lord Senedai, but we have never been in this position before and had no idea of the length of time it would take to close down the source of our magic. But do it we must or not just you but this whole city could be lost.’

Senedai shifted his position, made to speak and then stopped, doubt creeping across his face. Barras seized his chance.

‘What I am saying is this. You can start killing innocents if you want but we will not open the gates and remove our protection. This will not be because we don’t care for our people. This College must be made safe for existence without mages and in the end, our responsibility is to the whole of Julatsa, not to those of its population you choose to execute. I am imploring you, Lord Senedai, to believe my words.’

Senedai stared long and hard at Barras, his face betraying his doubt and the fact that he didn’t have the knowledge to test Barras’ words.

‘I must think,’ he said eventually. ‘How long will it take you, this closing of your mana source?’

Barras shrugged. ‘Six days, maybe more.’

‘You must think me stupid,’ snapped Senedai. ‘Six days. And I have no proof of the truth of what you say. What can you give me?’

‘Nothing,’ said Barras evenly. ‘Save to say that we have nothing to gain by lying to you. There is no help coming and we have no means to arrange any. I am aware of your impatience to be on your way but surely you need to be secure here first. Until we are ready, you will not be so. What we are doing will help us all.’

‘If you are lying, I will have your head myself.’

‘I accept the bargain.’

‘Six days,’ muttered Senedai. ‘I might grant you two or three. I might grant you none. The screams of the dying will tell you when my patience is exhausted.’ He began to walk away but turned again. ‘You play on my ignorance of magic. Perhaps I’ll question one of my captive mages. Gain myself some knowledge.’

‘I understood them all to be dead.’

‘Like me, you should not believe everything you are told.’ He summoned a guard to him and walked from the square.

‘Now that,’ said Kerela, ‘is the negotiator’s touch.’ She and Kard stood with Barras in the southernmost Long Room while the subdued crowd gathered to hear the General speak.

‘What exactly do you have to do to dismantle Julatsan magic, then?’ asked Kard, a wry smile on his lips.

‘I’ve absolutely no idea. Nothing, so far as I am aware,’ replied Barras. ‘Though I must say I was surprised he knew so little about the random nature of mana and the harmlessness of its natural state.’

‘Good on you.’ Kard clapped Barras on the back. His expression sobered. ‘He won’t give us six days, you know. He’s not that stupid.’

‘Even one day saves us one hundred and fifty lives,’ said Kerela.

‘Don’t dismiss the mindset of the Wesmen. Magic terrifies them at a very fundamental level. Senedai knows he’s won, or thinks he does. A few more days will make little difference,’ said Barras.

‘Terrified he may be, but that didn’t stop him sacking the city.’ Kard adjusted his uniform, tugging down his jacket. The crowd began to quieten. ‘I hear what you are saying but his impatience will soon get the better of him. His prisoners mean nothing to him, particularly those who can’t perform heavy labour. Expect young girls and the old to be the first into the Shroud in no more than three days.’

‘I tend to agree,’ said Kerela. ‘He can’t verify anything you’ve said, he’ll assume you’re lying and he’ll sacrifice in the Shroud even if it’s only to hurry us along.’

Barras nodded. He could see he would have to talk to Senedai again. The flush of his minor victory faded. Kard began to speak to the group of about three hundred in the Long Room.

‘Thank you for your attendance and your patience. By now, some of you will have heard what is happening outside the walls. But for those that haven’t, here is the situation and I would ask you to keep your questions for later . . .’

Barras let his mind drift. Three days. They were outnumbered probably eight to one in absolute numbers, more than that comparing fighting strengths, but at least the mages were rested. Help was coming from Dordover but the Shroud prevented Communion as it did every spell from penetrating its borders. Meanwhile, they had to make their own plans. He wasn’t going to surrender the College meekly.

Now the population within the walls was aware, the real talking could begin. If Julatsa was going to fall, it would be in a battle that would live in legend forever.

Chapter 11

The Raven, or at least Ilkar and Thraun, heard a faint sound from the Wesmen encampment long before they could hear water lapping on the western shore of Triverne Inlet.

It was night, six days after their parting from Darrick and Styliann. The Raven, under Thraun’s guidance and drawing on The Unknown’s experience, had travelled quickly over increasingly hostile terrain in the foothills of Sunara’s Teeth, the dominant northern range. Forced to take little-used trails away from villages and Wesmen staging posts, they had picked their way over sheer cliffs, through dense forest valleys, across great shale slopes, collapsed rock formations and cold hard plateaux.