‘So what is it like being dead, then?’ asked Denser. ‘It seems you all find it hard to put into words.’

‘Well that’s because death doesn’t conform to anything anyone living thinks it might be,’ said Darrick, his new voice rich and full toned.

‘Exactly,’ said Ilkar. ‘There is nothing to see, there is nothing to do in the way you would understand it. But the souls of those you love are always close and there is no risk that you will ever be separated from them. At least, there wasn’t. Can you imagine the comfort that brings? We have memories; we communicate but not through speech. We drift, I suppose. Time does not exist. Every moment is both a lifetime and the tiniest spark.

‘I know what you’re thinking, Denser. It sounds terribly boring. Interminably so. And standing in this skin and breathing the air of Balaia, I can see why you’d think that. But it isn’t. It’s, well, bliss, I suppose you’d call it. Endless bliss.’

‘Good job, Ilks,’ said Hirad, and he was not alone in having a mist of tears in his eyes.

Denser was frowning. ‘But you cannot see, hear, feel, taste or smell. There is no colour. There is no music. How can it be bliss?’

‘That’s exactly what Darrick was saying,’ said Ren, her young voice chirpy and bright. ‘You cannot apply the joys you experience as a living person to your existence after death. There is no comparison, barring the deepest feelings of love, friendship and intimacy. ’

‘You’ll have to take our word for it,’ said Hirad. ‘It’s not just enough, it’s everything.’

‘Coming from you, that is some statement,’ said Sol. ‘So how do we get you home? Presumably ridding ourselves of our latest enemy would be a good start.’

Silence inside the meeting room. The Raven dead could not look at him.

‘Did Hirad not tell you?’ said Ilkar, his voice quiet, the pain in his body intensifying. Heat was flooding him and the gale of the void threatened suddenly to sweep him away, such was the despair that surged over him. ‘You cannot beat them.’

‘He did say that but we are not bound to believe him,’ said Denser.

‘And even if you could, the land of the dead lies ruined. There is no going back.’

The words, like ice on Ilkar’s tongue, rolled over the room.

‘You’re stuck here?’ said Sol.

‘Oh great,’ muttered Diera. ‘Mouldering Raven has-beens cluttering up my inn.’

‘That would be the least of our concerns,’ said Sol sharply.

Ilkar winced at the expression on Diera’s face.

‘He’s right, Lady Unknown,’ said Hirad. ‘Our souls no longer have a place to rest.’

‘So what?’

‘So where do you think yours will go if you die?’

Diera put her head in her hands. ‘You know, I’ve seen and heard a lot in my time. Being married to The Unknown Warrior and the first, albeit reluctant, king of Balaia means I can’t get away from it. But this is too much. And I’m worried that I’m starting to believe you, like my daft husband and the Lord of the Mount do. So I’m going. Home. To open up.’ She shot a glance at Sol. ‘Let me know what hare-brained scheme you end up with. Meanwhile I’m going to spend some time with our boys.’

Diera got up to leave, ignoring the hand that Sol put out towards her. Hirad pushed himself from his chair and opened the door for her.

‘It is us,’ he said. ‘Just look at our shadows and say you don’t recognise them.’

Diera gazed at him. ‘This is Xetesk, city of magic, home of the Dark College as was. You think this couldn’t be some spell? Give me some credit, won’t you?’

‘Keep your boys close, Diera,’ said Hirad. ‘Be ready.’

‘You know we named the youngest after the real Hirad Coldheart. There was a man we could all love. You? I don’t know what you think you are.’

Hirad’s face cracked into a huge grin when the door had closed.

‘You’ve got a boy called Hirad, Unknown?’

Sol nodded, the beginnings of a smile on his careworn face. ‘We have.’

‘Hirad.’ The barbarian’s eyes sparkled. ‘Not Ilkar, then. Or Sirendor, or Darrick. Hirad.’

‘All right, Coldheart, we get it.’ Ilkar felt his mood lift despite himself.

‘Never mind, Ilks. Perhaps if they have a few more and are really scraping about for a name, yours might surface like a bloated corpse in Korina Bay.’

‘Can we concentrate on what we are here to discuss?’ said Ilkar. ‘I don’t know about you but every breath I take is shot full of needles, or so it feels. What happened to Hirad and me last night should also be concentrating our minds, don’t you think?’

‘It’s the knowledge that my name will live on in a younger generation that I find so gratifying.’

‘If we are to believe you, Hirad, there is to be no living on,’ growled Sol.

Hirad sobered. ‘We cannot let any of our names go to dust.’

‘That is what I invited you all up here to avoid,’ said Denser. ‘And we have got nowhere fast. So why don’t you, any of you, tell me what you know about whoever it is that is coming here to do whatever it is they’re planning to do. Because I, for one, do not wish my soul to be casting around for a resting place when I die.’

‘It’s worse than that, my love,’ said Erienne, the little girl’s voice dripping with weary experience. ‘We think that any souls unable to reach their birthplace are already lost in the void between dimensions, and that is an eternal screaming purgatory no one should have to suffer.’

‘So talk to us,’ said Sol.

‘We can’t tell you about their strengths, weaknesses, modes of attack and goals,’ said Darrick. ‘It doesn’t work like that. Where we’ve come from there is nothing but certain knowledge and intense feeling. So all we know is, they have destroyed the dead dimension and they are here now and will do the same to Balaia. So everyone who wants to live and everyone who wants to die in peace has to leave because there is no point in trying to fight. This much we know.’

Denser kneaded the bridge of his nose, feeling a weight of frustration beginning to build.

‘At the risk of repeating myself, go where?’

‘I think that should be self-evident,’ said Ilkar. ‘Out of this dimension. Out of every known dimension, come to that.’

Denser threw up his hands. Sol held up a hand to still his protest.

‘Even if that’s possible, it doesn’t help you much, does it? Where will you go?’

A short silence followed Sol’s question. Hirad shrugged. Sirendor looked blank.

‘We don’t know,’ said Ilkar. ‘We hope to find another place to rest but we don’t know. We aren’t here for us. We’re here for you, to try and save you. Stop you dying and being lost to the void. Believe me, you want to avoid that.’

‘I’m not getting this,’ said Denser. ‘You’ve told us that the dead dimension is gone, but that to save us we should all leave for somewhere . . . else, right? So what happens when we die in this wonderful new home of ours? Where do our souls go?’

‘We have to believe that a dimension beyond those we know will bring with it a new dimension for the dead,’ said Ilkar. ‘The theory is that the elves enjoy a different resting place now to that which they had in their home of millennia past.’

‘Theory.’

‘Yes, Denser, but it represents the only chance for all of us. The living and the dead.’

‘And that is just plain ridiculous. Look . . .’ Denser paused, seeing the expressions on all their faces. ‘I really appreciate your passion and your belief but you’re all a decade out of date. So much has happened here in the last ten years. So much strength has been built by so few but it is so solid. There is no more conflict here. Not with the Wesmen, not between colleges or barons. We can’t afford it, the demons took so very many of us.

‘We have worked together to make sure no one can threaten us again and we will not run away because our departed loved ones tell us we must on the basis of old information.’