Raven's Ladder by Jeffrey Overstreet Read Free Book Online Page B

grubs.
    “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “Cal-raven’s brought us this far.” He looked up at Barnashum, envisioned Cal-raven standing in many places at once, exhausted from sealing one tunnel after another, from toppling giant stone columns down upon the beastmen attackers.
    “Remind me one more time about how he saved us from the siege, and I’ll knock out your teeth.” Brevolo dug an elbow in just below his ribs. “His stonemastery’s a gift. We’re all grateful for it. But it’s still a mad gamble to follow him.”
    He said he saw the Keeper. Right here
.
    A prickling crept up the captain’s spine, a sense that he would never see his friend riding back toward Barnashum.
    “He still hasn’t told me how he knew the beastmen were coming or how he knew exactly when they would charge. I wish he would. He carries burdens he needn’t bear alone.”
    “Come inside.” Brevolo took his hand and pulled him toward the tunnel. “Tomorrow will be a busy day. We’ve overstayed our welcome here. Don’t you think Abascar should get ready to leave before Barnashum gives us another warning?”
    He shivered and cursed, trudging after her. This would not be the night he had wanted it to be. A wedding would certainly raise the people’s spirits. But this was not a good time to ask Brevolo to join him in burning tattoos on the backs of their hands. It was an old fireside rumor that promises made in stormy weather would never last in sunlight.
    Very well, maybe I am a bit superstitious
.
    It was lonely out here. And Brevolo was as beautiful when she took off her armor as she was frightening when she put it on. When he sparred with her in swordplay, he came away with scars, just as he did when she kissed him. He would postpone his plan awhile longer. But only as long as he could stand it.
    “If there is a Keeper,” he said as they stepped into the corridor, “I hope it brings the king back safe. I’m tired of surviving. I want to start living.”
    She kissed him. They watched the storm worsen. Beneath the sky’s flickering canopy, the thrashing trees of the Cragavar danced—dark, wild, out of control.

4
T HE S ECOND S IEGE OF B ARNASHUM
    T he touch of tiny fingertips on her forearm, light and cool as snow-flakes, woke Say-ressa to orange candleglow. Three pairs of tearful eyes gleamed down at her where she lay in the healing cave. She was accustomed to seeing worry and grief here, but not for her.
    “Luci, Madi, Margi,” she whispered through the cobwebs of her illness.
    “Can’t you make yourself better?” Margi mumbled.
    “Healers need strength,” she sighed. “It will take time for mine to return. But don’t be afraid. The king’s gone to find chillseed. I’ll be back on my feet soon.”
    The triplets were clad in their handmade animal costumes—a cat, a rabbit, and an owl. They exchanged worried glances, then bowed so that their long yellow hair veiled some unspoken shame.
    Behind them, a familiar silhouette towered in the doorway.
    “Is that you, my love?” she asked.
    Her husband, Ark-robin, was not as he had appeared so many times in her dreams, draped in a mantle of dust and rubble from House Abascar’s collapse. This time he was a silhouette illuminated through a shroud. Diamonds fell from his eyes.
    “Release me,” she said to him, “or give me something to do. I’m useless here. A burden.”
    She felt that touch on her arm again. Lifting her head from the pillows, she gasped as if rising to the surface of a dark lake.
    The glowing figure in the door faded.
    She had been mistaken. These girls had not come to comfort her.
    “I’m listening.”
    “We’re scared,” said Madi, her cloth rabbit ears flopping beside her face.
    “Tell the guards what scares you. They’ll put your minds at ease.”
    “We’re scared to tell the guards,” said Luci, eyes wide in the large painted circles of an owl’s watchful face.
    The feline, Margi, only nodded, fingering the curling stone claws of her