Demonstorm

'Oh, right.'

Sha-Kaan rattled phlegm in his throat, the sound echoing in the chamber and startling Jonas who clutched his mother tight.

'But in the fullness of time, we will hang-the walls with tapestries, if it bothers you that much.'

'Not for me to say, Sha-Kaan,' said Hirad. 'I just have to be at one end so you can use this thing, I don't necessarily have to look at it.'

'I fear we are straying from the point,' said Sha-Kaan, a hint of irritation in his voice. He looked beyond Hirad to those grouped in front of him. 'I remember the days when I considered all humans except the Dragonene mages to be unworthy of the attention of dragons. Hirad Coldheart changed that assumption and you before me are examples of my folly.

'It makes it all the harder then to ask one more task of you. I am not surprised to see the elves represented by their best. You understand in a way humans do not the link between the living and the dead. Cleress, your presence honours me. Those who were Protectors, I am the happier to be able to gaze upon your faces. And The Raven. My friends. The fears that Hirad expressed to me are well founded. Our position is already desperate. Many will be involved in defence and attack; you will be the spearhead. And for that necessity, my heart is heavy with fear for you.'

'You're selling it well so far,' said Denser.

Sha-Kaan's head snapped round to regard the mage with slitted pupil narrowed.

'Would you rather I lied about the challenge ahead, frail human?' he asked. 'Would you rather begin your journey one-eyed?'

'Not at all,' said Denser. 'But you have to understand that for most of us we had no inkling of any problem until Hirad put to shore. I'm still getting round the shock of it.'

'Then let me explain what has happened.' Sha-Kaan breathed heavily, the air rushing over their heads, sour and sharp. 'Kaan birthings began a little more than two cycles ago, a little less than two years for you. It is a time when our efforts are focused solely on

our brood and when the paths of inter-dimensional space are closed to us because the resonance set up by the brood at birth upsets our directional sense. It is the time when the Vestare repair and improve the Klenes.

'But you will understand that it is a time when we are most at risk from attack. The brood has fought in the skies every day of the birthings and the damage we sustain can only be salved by the ministrations of the Vestare. The fight has left us weak but the enemy broods of the Naik and the Skoor have not been able to break us and for that we give thanks. Now we are building our strength again. Our young are strong and, like Jonas, they grow fast and are confident, unafraid.'

He paused, reflective. Darrick searched his face for expression but the mass of scales obscured anything but a tightening of the muscles around his eyes.

'Our joy has been tempered, though, by what we found when the Klenes were opened again and we tried to communicate with our Dragonene partners here on Balaia. Many were simply not there. And those that were, were in a state of such panic their minds were barely coherent. Worse, the Kaan have been attacked in their Klenes by the Arakhe, who are marauding in inter-dimensional space. They are strong and getting stronger and that only happens when they find a new home. That home is here.'

Sha-Kaan's last words hung in the air, resonant and laden with ruin. Darrick felt a chill in his body despite the heat of the chamber. He'd heard all this once already but first-hand from Sha-Kaan made it so appallingly close.

'So the demons have invaded Balaia?' said Denser.

'Yes,' replied Sha-Kaan. 'And they will enslave every man, woman and child in this dimension. Then they will bleed them dry of their souls and when the land is spent, they will move on. They must be stopped.'

'I still don't understand why this affects the dead,' said The Unknown.

'Balaia is a key dimension for the demons and you must understand their nature. They are nomadic. They exist outside the boundaries we understand, taking dimensions where they can to

increase their strength and, like I said, moving on when they are spent.

'But Balaia is different. They need it for the long term and that is why they have chosen enslavement rather than massacre. It marks a departure in their nature. A mode of organisation that is worrying to us all. Another reason they need Balaia is the links that both elves and Wesmen have with the spirit dimension. If they can break the will of either race, they believe they will have free access to the dead and all their myriad souls. I believe them to be right. As, I am sure, does Cleress. And the dead are under greater pressure than at any time in their fight against the Arakhe. From what the elves tell us, that much is clear. What do you say, Cleress?'

'It is a future I have seen, though it is uncertain,' said Cleress. 'There is still hope, therefore.'

'So why didn't they attack Calaius or the Wesmen directly?' asked Erienne.

'For two reasons,' said Sha-Kaan. 'They have been waiting for a way in for millennia. Xetesk finally gave them that way in by meddling with powers they did not understand and causing a breach in the fabric of the Balaian dimensional shell. The souls of mages are prized and will give them great strength for battles to come. Second, they are attacking the colleges and the wider east of your country first because if they can remove magic, then none in this dimension have a weapon against them.

'The Brood Kaan, and through us every brood on Beshara, is at risk. The Arakhe are our enemy of eons. We cannot afford to grant them access to our home or they would overwhelm us as they will Balaia.'

'They are that strong?' questioned The Unknown.

Sha-Kaan said nothing. Darrick watched him see everyone digesting the situation as best they could. Darrick couldn't see all their faces but those he could told him they believed. Gods, they had to.

'Xetesk has a great deal to answer for.'

It was a heartbeat before Darrick realised who had said that.

'But no one blames you, Denser,' said Hirad.

'Every Xeteskian mage is to blame, and I am one,' he said. 'We all swore the oath that brought us to Xeteskian magic, we all wanted to

see the development of dimensional spells and we all gladly accepted the deal with the demons that brought us the increased mana flow.'

'There will be a reckoning if there still is a Xetesk when the Arakhe are beaten,' rumbled Sha-Kaan. 'Your guilt is natural but Hirad is right. You cannot be to blame for that over which you have no control.'

'It doesn't make me feel any better.'

'Then use your anger,' said Sha-Kaan. 'Fight.'

'But how?' Denser threw up his arms. 'It sounds as if we are already too late.'

'Not yet.' Sha-Kaan shifted again, his claws grinding against the stone floor. Diera shushed Jonas who had become restless.

'Perhaps you should take him back outside,' said The Unknown.

T need to hear this,' said Diera. 'For me and for him. I have to be able to tell him what happened if you don't ever come back.'

The Unknown looked pained. He drew a hand down her cheek. T always come back. I promise you this will be no exception.'

'You promised you would never leave again unless I was with you,' said Diera though there was no accusation in her tone. 'Why did I marry a Raven warrior, eh?'

'We cannot choose who we love,' said Sha-Kaan. 'In that if nothing else, we and you are the same.'

Diera knelt by her boy. 'Will you be good for me and your father? We need you to be quiet just a little longer while Sha-Kaan speaks.'

'Then will he fly away again?' asked Jonas, his bright eyes on his mother. She shrugged.

T expect so, darling. He can't stay in here all die time.'

'How will he get out?'

'Well,' said Diera. 'He'll probably use the doors like we will.'