Myx reached out his hand to the handle.

‘Whoa!’ hissed Denser suddenly. ‘Are you sure about that?’

‘This door contains wards for explosion and lock. I am tuned out of them both. Once opened, the wards are disabled.’ He turned to The Unknown. ‘Be ready, brother.’

‘Raven, let’s concentrate,’ said The Unknown. ‘Nothing good in here, all right? Thraun, you stay outside ’til it’s clear.’

Myx opened the door. Lantern light flooded the corridor. He cursed and slammed it quickly shut again. The roar of a spell shivered the timbers and the air outside chilled dramatically.

‘Three targets,’ he said. ‘Go.’

This time he put a foot to the door and kicked it back. He ran in, plucking his weapons from his back, The Unknown and Hirad directly after him.

‘Myx, no!’ shouted The Unknown, seeing the former Protector falter on raising his axe to strike. ‘Clear the path!’

In front of them were two mages and another man, neither mage nor soldier. Half skidding on the ice of the spell they’d cast, The Unknown closed in on the mages, who abandoned their attempts to cast again and turned to flee. He didn’t have time for the niceties of combat and clattered his blade through the midriff of one mage before he’d taken a pace. On his shoulder, Hirad swiped at the trailing leg of the second, his blade carving into bone and sending the mage down screaming in pain. Before they could turn to attend to the non-mage, an elven arrow had punched him from his feet.

The Unknown finished off the crippled mage and looked about him.

‘It’s clear, Thraun, in you come. Last in, close the door.’ He raised his eyebrows at what he saw. ‘Where the hell did all this come from?’

To all intents and purposes, they were standing in the hallway of a house. It was wood-panelled like the passage outside, hung with tapestries. Tables along the walls were littered with ornaments, some now broken by the fall of the unfortunate mages. Three doors led off the hallway and at the end of the hall, a stairway led to an upper landing.

‘Laryon always was a man apart,’ commented Denser.

‘Sol, I am sorry,’ said Myx.

‘Don’t be. Your training is ingrained. You direct, we’ll fight when we have to.’

‘Through here, the whole way,’ said Myx. ‘Dystran keeps a big research team in here and a standing guard. Something important is going on.’

To emphasise his point, there was the sound of movement from up the stairs.

‘Any other ways out of here?’ asked The Unknown.

‘Three,’ said Myx. ‘All up the stairs.’

‘Up?’ asked Hirad.

‘Don’t forget, we are underground. It may look like a house but there are no windows, no gardens.’ He turned back to The Unknown. ‘We should clear the rooms on this level.’

‘Darrick, any thoughts?’

‘House clearance was never in my training, Unknown,’ said Darrick. ‘But I’d be guarding door and stairs while we did it.’

‘Agreed. Rebraal, can you do the honours. Thraun, Denser, stay with them. We need one mage with us to operate a shield. Let’s move. They aren’t hanging around upstairs.’

Myx indicated the single door left. ‘Research room.’

The Unknown nodded and led Hirad and Darrick forward. Behind them came Sian’erei, already casting.

‘Shield up.’

‘Keep it that way,’ said Hirad. ‘And stay behind us. We can’t risk you.’

‘You need a bowman,’ said Rebraal. ‘No arguments.’

‘None offered.’

The Unknown kicked the door at its handle, the timbers cracking, the catch bursting and the door shuddering inwards. He and Hirad crouched, Rebraal covering the area within. It was empty of life but dominated by a long table covered with papers and a complex wooden model.

‘Turn,’ ordered The Unknown. They backed and turned. ‘Thraun, in there. Denser, cover them. Myx?’

‘Drawing room, both doors.’

‘Rebraal, left hand, take the angle, we’ll draw any fire.’

The Unknown led them across the corridor, past the waiting TaiGethen. Not a flicker crossed their expressions, their bows tensed and ready up the silent stairs. Defending mages had shields cast.

‘Ready?’

Hirad nodded, choosing to unlatch the door and push it wide. A crossbow bolt buried itself in the wall opposite.

‘Left edge, single target, red chair!’ shouted Hirad, running into the room in front of his comrades.

The Raven warriors were presented with rugs, chairs, sofas, low tables and even a fire place. The crossbowman was crouched behind a chair, reloading. Mages stood by him, three of them. They cast but to no discernible effect, their arms quivering with effort, their faces betraying their anxiety.

‘Oh dear,’ said Hirad, hurdling a sofa, Darrick matching his move while The Unknown curved right.

Rebraal’s bow sounded, taking the crossbowman in the hand, pinning it to the stock of his weapon. The elf followed into the room, reloading. Hirad landed, bringing his sword through from above his head and carving through the neck of the nearest mage. He went down in a welter of blood. Darrick, ever less dramatic, simply speared his target through the heart. The Unknown chose a similarly efficient path.

Three more dead, one soldier incapacitated. The Unknown hauled him up by his leather jerkin.

‘Talk. How many in this complex?’

‘I don’t know. Ten?’ Blood was pouring from his wound and he tried to support it, clutching the crossbow close and whimpering in pain. ‘We were told to stay. You won’t get out. They knew you’d come this way.’

‘Who?’ The Unknown shook him hard, drawing a gasp from him.

‘All of them.’ He managed a smile.

The Unknown dropped him, Hirad crashing his sword hilt into the side of his head, knocking him unconscious.

‘Think he was telling the truth?’

‘Every likelihood,’ said Myx, looking into the room from a doorway.

‘We’d better get out of here. We can’t wait for—’

From the hallway, there was a shout of alarm. They heard the twang of bows and saw the glow of an Al-Arynaar FlameOrb. The volley was answered by shouts from above, the snap of crossbows and, lastly, a blinding bright blue light. Myx had taken half a pace into the room and turned just as the spell impacted. The detonation cracked the walls. The Protector was hurled across the room, thumping into the far wall and slumping down it. A gout of blue flame scorched the door frame.

Out in the corridor, they could hear the screams of the TaiGethen trapped outside. A burning elf staggered past and collapsed.

‘What was that?’ Hirad started towards the door but Sian’erei stopped him.

‘We’ve lost the flow again,’ she said, her eyes full of tears. ‘They had no shield.’

Footsteps, a lot of footsteps, were clattering down the stairs.

Auum led his Tai deeper and deeper into the catacombs. Denser had been right. The place was a chaotic structure but although it was below ground, their prayers had given them strength and he was treating the confusion of passages and directions like the rainforest paths. No outward logic but animals left their marks on their best routes and humans were no different.

They had established the direction The Raven were taking and had chosen a path that ran above them and to their right. While there was no direct route, the Xeteskians had left plenty of signs. Less dust on the ground, grease marks from fingers on walls, shinier surfaces where clothes had brushed past. Easy to miss unless you knew what you were looking for.

Auum was five paces ahead of Duele, Evunn a further five behind him. His Tai had bows ready while he had unclasped his jaqrui pouch and had a short sword in his right hand. He was concerned that his Tai were running short of shafts and, even with those he had given them, a prolonged hunt would exhaust their supply.

There were men ahead of them, there were men behind. The Tai moved without sound and without speech, their signals and gestures all the communication they needed. Auum upped his pace. He wanted to pick off those ahead. They were moving with some urgency, twenty or more, making no attempt to hide their advance, assuming they were the hunters not the hunted.