The Raven Lord | Book I

XXVI. The Shadow Pass

Silas stood wrapped in a cloak, his half beast-like canines glinting in the last rays of the sun. 

"What the hell do you want?" 

He looked offended. "Why, I'm here to help you save the world! Is that not what you heroes do?"

I spat at the ground, a layer of foul tasting smoke coating my mouth. "I've had quite enough of the Corvus bloodline for the next century, thanks very much." 

The half-beast scoffed. "Don't do that."

"What?"

A growl-like sound erupted from his chest. "Act indifferent!" For once, his beautifully sharp features twisted into disgust. He studied me, his icy blue eyes fluttering over my face. As if it was his own doing, he muttered, "He broke your heart, Kaira."

I laughed from deep within: a broken, cracked sound. "It was shattered long before I knew him."

Silas studied me more, as if I were wounded and dying. "You screamed." He said it so softly that it could have been carried away on the wind.

I looked at him then, and found a mirror looking back. 

It was my turn to scoff. "You shouldn't have come. What I do next is my choice. What Lex did and did not do plays no part in it, nor does your opinion on the matter."

"Pick up the blade." His icy eyes were trained on the Blade of Nimueh as he took another step forward. "Dawn the blade and help me help our people."

"Our people?"

Silas nodded. "You are one of us more than you are one of them." He tipped his chin toward the docked ships and the masses of people now boarding their salvation. My hesitation was enough to encourage him to speak again. "There will be battle in eight days time. If we leave now, we might just be able to make it through the Shadow Pass in time to help." 

Eight days? To travel and arrive on time without Folding would be nearly impossible. 

I shook the gathering tempest of thoughts from my mind. "Even if we could get through the pass, what difference would the two of us make?" 

He smiled toothily. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you." 

"Can't you just fold back? Your damned cousin only just left." 

He clucked his tongue. "All closed up. Your mortal king is a quick one, I'll give him that."

I stared at the man before me, his usual princely composure remaining, only beneath a layer of grime and dirtied furs. "What happened to you?" I muttered. 

He shrugged. "Figured I'd get out of the city. Get some fresh country air." 

A topic for another time then. 

I looked back to the harbor. Just there, not two miles downhill was a small opening of hope. It was a promise of light and of new beginnings. If I chose, I could be aboard a ship and away from this place, my past and its burdens, within a day. I could be sailing toward a new future. 

But would that future ever truly be safe if threats always loomed, no matter how far away? 

I looked to the blade now stuck in the earth: the wind blew around it, letting a sweet metallic ring fill the air. The blades of grass seemed as if they were attempting to climb it. 

"Venatrix." 

"What?"

Silas stepped toward the blade, running a finger lightly over the whorls of the hilt. "The witches of the Prime Clan call it Venatrix: Witch Hunter."