The Curse of Credesar, Part 1

  Chapter 15: The Oracle of Murakan

  The company didn't go more than a mile before piercing screeches split the air as three dark, winged shapes swooped down and attacked Kelden. They tore at him viciously with beaks and claws. They were tower ravens.

  One attacked the Altan bulls, probably seeking to drive the creatures into a frenzy. But the bulls couldn't be intimidated. They snorted and drove their horns at the bird to try to impale it. Renstad's men fired their crossbows, but the ravens were fast and elusive. They swooped in and out of the mist, their barbed claws seeking Kelden's throat.

  A raven dug its talons into Kelden's arm and tore up his flesh. He cried out, struggling furiously to pull the bird free. Meanwhile, he left his throat unprotected and another raven took a dive at it and almost made deadly contact. Try as they might, neither Dameon nor Renstad could land a blow on the birds.

  Another raven ripped its claws into Kelden's chest, drawing blood. Kelden seized the bird's neck, his magic instinctively springing to life. He snapped his hand shut and expected to feel a crunch of bone. But his hand closed on empty air, as the raven somehow pulled loose and soared off into the fog.

  Then one of Renstad's men nailed one of the beasts with a lucky shot. Critically injured, the raven flopped around in the grass for a moment before soaring off low to the ground with the arrow sticking out of it. For an instant all the birds vanished into the mist, and it seemed the attack might be over.

  They waited in tense silence. Moments later, all three birds--including the wounded one--swooped out of the fog straight for Kelden. But Dameon and Renstad were ready this time. Renstad hacked one down with his axe, cleaving it in two. Dameon struck a raven with his mace, and the creature caught fire in an explosion of sparks and flew off to burn into a pile of ash.

  Only the wounded one remained, but it could no longer fly. In settled into the grass and bled the last of its life away. Meanwhile, Kelden slumped back, clutching his torn chest. The pain burned hot, and his tunic was soaked in blood.

  "Now can I ride in the back?" he said.

  His face grim, Renstad nodded.

  Kelden's wounds weren't life threatening. While Renstad patched him up with ointment and bandages, Dameon paced about excitedly in the grass.

  "There is your proof," he said. "Tower ravens. They had the stink of evil about them. They must have been sent by Jarvin from Iragantheos to slay Kelden."

  "Maybe," said Renstad, "but I too own a tower raven. They're rare outside the Legaran keeps, true enough. And this does seem to indicate your story is true. But it's not absolute proof."

  "But you believe us," said Dameon. "I can see it in your eyes." He took a step toward the wagon, and his legs suddenly buckled. He dropped down to one knee.

  Renstad frowned. "Are you hurt?"

  Dameon shook his head. He knelt there panting for a moment, and then with a groan, lumbered up. "Just my legs bothering me again. I can't seem to rid myself of this ailment. A former seer shouldn't be subjected to such discomforts."

  "Even a seer is still flesh and blood," said Renstad. "There are healers in Murakan who might be able to help you. If we get there alive."

  They moved on again. The stubborn fog refused to clear and give them a glimpse of the Strengleth Mountains where Murakan awaited. As Kelden gazed out through the iron bars in the back of the wagon, he found himself wondering if some spell had been cast over the land just to conceal his enemies. Of course, fog was not rare in the battered landscapes of Americk Dreeth, where strange and stormy weather was frequent. There was a reason some called this region the Fog Lands. But Kelden was suffering paranoia from his ordeals and saw threats in everything.

  When Kelden had used his sorcery to crush the rock in the cave, he'd felt powerful and confident. But this latest attack had left him feeling weak and useless again. Renstad and Dameon had been forced to protect him from the tower ravens or the birds would have torn him apart. It didn't help that Kelden was sitting near the massive Hetheope warrior that was Renstad's ever present companion. The creature was a mountain of lean muscle and plated armor. Every bit of it screamed of physical power, from its snarling bull-head and glowering eyes, to its metal-tipped horns. It was designed to intimidate, a sullen brute bearing a club that Kelden wasn't sure he could lift.

  "Are you okay?" Theodus asked him.

  Kelden nodded. "At least I'm alive. My enemies failed again."

  "Not your enemies," said Theodus. "It's important to remember that these assassins are after Credesar."

  "I am Credesar," said Kelden. A shock surged through him the moment he said that, followed by crushing dread. He wished he'd not uttered those words.

  The Dar fiend said nothing. His bat ears twitched with dark emotion.