Raven's Strike

Chapter One

"Get that bucket filled for me, Lorra. Tole, bring more charcoal." Aliven knew his voice was harsh, but the world was a harsh place, with no room for people who did not work.

He watched out of the corner of his eye as his daughter snatched the wooden bucket from its place near the forge and left the smithy at a brisk walk for the well.

He would lose her soon, he thought, as he sorted through his store of metal. He'd two offers for her hand from neighboring farmers, but she hadn't made up her mind yet. He hoped she chose Daneel, who was soft-spoken and old enough to have proved his mettle, but she'd been showing a preference for Sovernt's youngest.

He would be happy to see her settled with either, though it would leave him only Tole and Nona, neither of whom were big enough to carry the bucket full of water or half a dozen other chores required to keep the smithy running.

"Step up, Tole," he said to his son who had only half-filled the forge coal-bed. "The morning won't wait on your dawdling."

"Yes, Da," muttered the boy in a tone just this side of insolence.

"You watch your-"

Lorra's shrill scream cut through his voice.

"It doesn't look like much of a village, Papa," said Lehr.

Tier smiled at his youngest son, who had somehow crossed over from boy to man these past few months. His ash-blonde hair, a legacy of his mother's people, was mostly tucked under a hat, but anyone with an eye to see could tell that there was Traveler blood in him.

Lehr's long strides had no trouble keeping up with Skew, though Tier's old warhorse was walking briskly. Tier shifted in his saddle, hoping to alleviate the steady ache in his right knee. He might believe the adage that any wound that hurt was a sign he wasn't dead yet, but that didn't mean he had to enjoy it. He took a deep breath of cool forest air to remind himself that he was free and on his way home: a little pain was a small price to pay.

He squinted at the small cluster of buildings in the little green valley. "It's small, but see that first building? There's a kiln behind it. It's either a pottery or a bakery."

"But Papa," said Tier's older son Jes who walked on Tier's other side, "Benroln said we need grain not pots or bread."

"Very true," agreed Tier. "But so near to a great road, they will have trade goods too."

"There are farms all around here," explained Lehr. "They'll bring grain here where they'll see higher profits from it than if they had to transport it to a bigger market."

Jes gave a puzzled frown. It might have been that he found Lehr's explanation too complex -- or something else had distracted him.

It was ironic that Jes, who looked as Rederni as any village son, would be the one to pay the highest price for his mother's Traveler blood. The lesser part of that price was the slow thoughts and slower speech that set him apart as a simpleton -- though he wasn't, quite.

"It doesn't look right," said Jes after a moment.

"What doesn't?" asked Tier. Jes's conversations sometimes were as difficult to follow as a hummingbird's flight.

"The buildings." Jes stopped abruptly and stared ahead.

Tier stopped Skew and tried to see what might have attracted Jes's attention.

"There's no smoke from the smithy," said Lehr.

"That's it," said Jes, nodding his head with his usual exaggerated motion. "Smithies have smoke."

"Maybe the smith isn't working today," Tier said. "We'll be there soon enough." Urging Skew forward, he squeezed a little too enthusiastically with his legs and couldn't bite back a yelp.

Shadow take these knees, the wizards who broke them, and the Traveler healer who can't fix them any faster.

That last wasn't fair and he knew it. Brewydd had told him that riding Skew rather than one of the carts was making his knees take longer to heal than necessary. But it was bad enough to have to ride while most everyone else proceeded by their shoe leather -- he was not going to sit in a cart.

"Are you all right?" asked Jes his hand hovering just over Tier's leg. "Mother told me to watch out for you."

"Just my knees." Tier gave his son a smile despite the way his right knee was throbbing. "They're taking a long time to heal up -- I must be getting old."

"Mother says you push too hard," said Jes frowning. Obviously Tier's smile hadn't been as convincing as he'd intended.

They had all taken to fussing over him, which Tier found both touching and annoying. He'd rather nurse his hurts in private if he could.

"Brewydd says that your mother is fretting too much," replied Tier.

"And Mother says to leave healing to the Lark," added Lehr, though he was looking concerned as well. "Brewydd knows what she's doing."

Jes frowned.

"I'm all right," Tier said again.

Lehr, he could have just told to leave it alone, but once Jes got something on his mind he could be amazingly stubborn. So Tier caught Jes's dark eyes with his own and said firmly, "Even your mother agreed that I was fit for a visit to a village to negotiate for supplies -- that's what we Bards are supposed to do. We owe this Traveler clan more than we can repay, but I can get them good prices on the things they need and ensure that they'll have a welcome here next time they pass through. My knees still bother me, and will for a month or two more, but they are a fair bit on their way to normal." It helped that he told the truth. Jes would hear it in his voice.

"I don't like those wizards," said Jes, and for a moment there was something dark, something alien in his voice.

"Nor I," agreed Tier, having no trouble making the connection between his knees and the wizards who'd caused them to be broken, because he'd just been thinking the same thing. "But they are gone for good and can do no more harm to anyone."

"We rescued you," said Jes in sudden satisfaction. "And you will be fine, and we are going home. Rinnie will be happy to see us. I wouldn't have wanted to stay with Aunt Alinath."

"Your aunt's a good person," admonished Tier. His sister was uncomfortable around Jes's oddities, and because of that, she mishandled his oldest. Nevertheless, she was his sister and he loved her.

Jes set his chin stubbornly. "She is bossy and rude."

"Like Mother," said Lehr with the sudden sunny smile that he used all too seldom.

"Mother is Raven," said Jes, as if that explained and excused those faults, which, Tier thought, was largely correct. "And she is only rude to fools."

Lehr laughed. "And that's most of people she meets."

Tier shook his head. "She's not usually rude, just intimidating."

"If you say so," said Lehr. "Weren't we going to negotiate with someone to buy some grain? Or are we going to stand here all day gossiping like old women?"

Jes grinned shyly and ducked his head. "Papa will negotiate and you and I can watch. I like watching."

"Right. Just mind you don't say anything about Travelers unless Papa does."

Tier urged Skew forward again, this time with his weight and a click of his tongue. The patch-work colored gelding paced forward with his usual glass-smooth walk.

There were three huts, the smithy, a small pottery and a handful of small buildings in the village that Benroln had sent them to. But there was no answer from inside the potter's shed when Lehr knocked, nor did anyone come out at his shout. He opened the door and briefly peered inside.

"No one here."

So they went to the next building.

The smithy was a three walled, open-face shed and appeared as empty as the pottery had been. Tier threw a leg over Skew's back and slid -- slowly for the sake of his stiff knees -- to the ground. He dropped the gelding's reins to ground-tie him and limped into the building, Lehr and Jes beside him.

Inside the smithy, tools were hung in an organized manner on one wall, rough steel lay scattered on the ground next to the forge, as if someone had just dropped it there. Tier put a hand over the bed of coals and then touched them cautiously, but not even the memory of fire lingered.

"What can you tell me about this, Lehr?" asked Tier. "How long have they been gone?"

It was an unreasonable question to ask of even the most seasoned tracker. The roof of the smithy kept the rain off and the walls protected the dirt floor. Tier wouldn't have been able to tell how long the steel had lain on the ground, abandoned to tend to whatever emergency had called the smith away.

But Lehr, like Jes and Tier himself, was an Order Bearer -- and his Order was Falcon -- the Hunter.

Lehr cast his Falcon's eyes over the scene and Tier felt the rise of magic as his son read the traces left by the people who'd lived here.

"No one's been in this building for at least two days, maybe as long as three," he said finally. "But there were chickens here until yesterday."

They'd seen no chickens when they rode up.

"There are people here still," said Jes after a moment, his voice crisp and alert. "I can smell them."

Something about the deserted place had alarmed his oldest son. Jes, his sweet-natured slow-speaking Jes, was gone as if he had never been, and in his place was the deadly predator who sometimes looked out of Jes's eyes. Jes's Order was a heavier burden that the others. Jes was Guardian, and the magic-induced dread that accompanied his secondary nature, unique to the Eagle's Order, sent chills of fear up Tier's spine.

Lehr didn't even look up from the ground just outside the smithy. "Something ate the chickens."

"What kind of something?" asked Tier.

"I don't know," Lehr answered. "It's not very big -- about the weight of a small wolf. See, here's a print."

Tier peered at the faint trace in the dust of the small trail. To his eyes it could have been any of a number of animals. "Could it be a raccoon?"

Lehr shook his head. "It's not a raccoon. No racoon has claws that size."

"Can you see where the people went?"