it be desired. Kild’aar stepped forward, her face severe.
‘As a child of this village, you are welcome, as is the child of Drech with you,’ she said, cocking her head at Ren behind him. ‘But these strangers must go. Now.’
Ilkar started at Kild’aar’s vehemence.
‘What I ask affects us all,’ said Ilkar. ‘Calaians and Balaians alike. Julatsa stands on the verge of extinction. The Heart is buried and not enough mages remain on Balaia to raise it to beat life through the college again. What consequences for the elves of Calaius if it should fail? Please, let us all get out of the rain and talk.’
‘Julatsan magic has nothing to do with those who stand near you,’ said Kild’aar.
‘Until you hear me, you will not know how wrong you are,’ said Ilkar. ‘Kild’aar, have things changed so much in my absence that you cannot even begin to extend the hand of friendship?’
‘Perhaps they have,’ said Kild’aar. ‘A great crime has been committed here. Strangers are to blame. And now illness is sweeping the village. You saw the fishing boats tied up; it’s because there are too few fit to crew them. Who’s to say the strangers didn’t bring the sickness with them? Who’s to say those you stand with don’t support the desecrators?’
Ilkar held up a hand. ‘Wait, wait. You’re losing me.’ He looked at Kild’aar and then past her into the scared and angry faces of those behind her. ‘We saw evidence of illness in Ysundeneth when we landed there three days ago, but what’s been desecrated?’
‘Ysundeneth has sickness?’ Kild’aar ignored his question and looked around at her village folk. ‘Strangers visit there.’ She shrugged.
‘But not here,’ said Ilkar. ‘And it may not be the same sickness. Why don’t you let our mages see? We helped elves in Ysundeneth.’
Kild’aar sighed. ‘In truth, we’re stretched,’ she said. ‘We can’t find a reason or a cure and it strikes at random. Tomorrow the victim could be me, any of us. Our people have started to die.’
‘Then let us try and help you,’ implored Ilkar. ‘These people behind me, they’re much more than just friends. I love them like family. They are good people and I swear on every creature in the forest that they have nothing to do with any desecration.’ He paused. ‘Kild’aar, what has been desecrated?’
The elven woman looked older and more exhausted as she looked at him then, biting her lip. ‘Aryndeneth,’ she whispered.
‘What?’ Ilkar’s mouth was suddenly dry, the drumming rain on his head forgotten. ‘How?’
‘We don’t know,’ said Kild’aar. ‘But we know Al-Arynaar have been killed.’ She stopped. ‘One moment.’
Ilkar nodded and watched as she turned and spoke in low tones to a group of young and old elves. He saw nods and shakes of heads, he saw fingers being pointed and he heard sharp tones. In the end though, it was clear Kild’aar had got her way.
‘Take your friends, if such they are, to your father’s house. They can take drinks from the firepot if they are so inclined. I’ll wait for you. There’s something you have to see.’
‘And what of my parents?’ asked Ilkar, knowing it was the question she had been waiting for and he had been avoiding.
‘What do you think, Ilkar? You’ve been away too long.’ She shook her head. ‘We needed people like you here and you didn’t even send word that you were alive.’
She turned and walked away, taking the crowd with her, a murmur growing as they dispersed into smaller groups. Ilkar turned back to The Raven, catching Ren’s eye as he did.
‘Did you hear all that?’ he asked her.
She nodded and put a hand on his arm. ‘Are you all right?’
‘We didn’t get on,’ he said. ‘Or else I might have come back when I was supposed to.’
‘That wasn’t what I asked.’
‘I know,’ he said, but in truth he wasn’t sure how he felt. He hadn’t worked out whether he expected his parents to be alive or not; and finding out they weren’t had left him immediately saddened but hardly gripped with grief.
‘Hey!’
Ilkar looked over at Hirad. The barbarian was standing with his arms outstretched and palms up, his long dark hair dripping with the rain that still fell with no sign of letting up.
‘Sorry, Hirad.’
‘When you’ve quite finished nattering in elvish, I wondered if there was any danger of you letting us in on the big secret. Are they going to run us through or let us dry out a little?’