Raven's Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet Read Free Book Online

stormcloak.”
    Krawg lurched from the blankets. Warney’s whimpers returned. “Where—”
    “Think I know?” he snapped. “Don’t expect me anytime soon. And, Warney, don’t let anyone take my bed.”

    The stone underfoot gasped at the rain’s beating, and the streams that washed over the clawed feet of six groaning vawns were heavy with sludge from the quake.
    Did you come to Barnashum because I called for you?
    Cal-raven closed his eyes and tried to remember the creature. Its scales had rustled like leaves of ivy layered on a stone wall. Its wings had struck at the air like great sheets shaken free of dust. He had called; it had appeared. He had asked for guidance. If he could befriend it, summon it for help….
    Lightning shattered night’s dark glass. The flash revealed two figures advancing from the cliffs—Tabor Jan with his hand fastened on Krawg’s shoulder.
    The one riderless vawn in this half circle of six sneezed a spluttering hello to the shadows that approached. The animal seemed eager for a rider so they could all charge north to the shelter of the forest.
    Tabor Jan shouted back toward the descending path. “Wynn! I won’t say it again.”
    Again? Pugnacious, that merchants’ orphan
. In the next faint flicker, Cal-raven glimpsed the boy standing still on the path.
    Wynn’s fierce voice cut through the rain. “I gotta talk to the king!”
    Tabor Jan’s tone made it clear that his forbearance was at an end. “You’ve got your own tasks. Go back to the stables. This work’s for men, not boys. Soldiers’ business.”
    No
, Cal-raven thought.
This isn’t even soldiers’ business. This is in that uncertain region between revelation and madness
.
    The next storm blast rang out like a threat.
    “Fine!” the boy barked. “I won’t tell where to find the missing soldiers.” With that, he turned and ran back up into Barnashum’s heavy shadows. Cal-raven scowled down to Tabor Jan.
    “I’ll look into it, but I suspect it’s just another lie, my lord. Merchant trickery. He’s used to getting what he wants.”
    Uneasy, Cal-raven surveyed the companions he had chosen.
    He could read Shanyn’s face. She was wondering why he didn’t just trim the boy from Abascar’s story. Shanyn never liked unnecessary fuss, especially before a ride. He liked her bold, blunt counsel, and he depended on the strength of her sword arm in matters both military and practical. For a bonfire, she’d shear all the branches from a cloudgrasper in the space of a song. Nobody knew if she had sharp spurs or a gift for wildspeaking, but steeds responded to her with speed no other could inspire.
    Bowlder shifted in his saddle, staring at Shanyn. Women were his only fear, and one so confident and strong set his broad, pulpy face to twitching. Cal-raven had chosen Bowlder for his muscles more than his mind, in case they stumbled into trouble.
    They would also need accurate arrows, so Cal-raven had called on Jes-hawk as well.
    Without explanation, Cal-raven had also summoned Snyde, his father’s ambassador of Abascar’s arts for thirty years before the collapse. But Snyde was no trained traveler; he bundled the reins tightly in his hands as if he might fall even before the vawns set out.
    Tabor Jan waited beside the last vawn, hesitating to help Krawg into the saddle. “Are you sure about this, master?”
    “Remember when we first arrived, Captain? I trusted you to ride out and investigate the smell of smoke. You were gone a long while. But, true to your word—”
    “True to my word, I returned with good tidings,” Tabor Jan interrupted. “Your trust in me was well placed. That’s why you should take
me
, my lord.”
    “My trust
is
well placed, Captain. That’s why I need you to stay. The quake unsettled us all. The people need a leader they trust.”
    “What is so important,” snapped Snyde, “that we ride out in this tempest while the people are troubled?”
    “We ride to find chillseed,” said