Dragon and High King dipped behind a hill to the north.
One of the Great Ravens drew up almost at Spinnock’s feet.
‘Crone!’ Spinnock coughed and spat blood. ‘I’d have thought… Darujhistan…’
‘Darujhistan, yes. I’d have liked to. To honour, to witness. To remember, and to weep. But our Lord… well, he had thoughts of you.’ The head tilted. ‘When we saw you, lying there, Kallor looming as he so likes to do, ah, we thought we were too late-we thought we had failed our Lord-and you. We thought-oh, never mind.’
The Great Raven was panting.
Spinnock knew that this was not exhaustion he was seeing in the ancient bird. You can shed no tears, yet tears take you none the less. The extremity, the terrible distress.
The dragon that had returned now landed on the grasses to the south of the track. Sembling, walking towards Spinnock and Crone and the haggle of Crone’s kin.
Korlat.
Spinnock would have smiled up at her, but he had lost the strength for such things, and so he could only watch as she came up to him, using one boot to shunt a squawking Crone to one side. She knelt and reached out a hand to brush Spinnock’s spattered cheek. Her eyes were bleak. ‘Brother…’
Crone croaked, ‘Just heal him and be done with it-before he gasps out his last breath in front of us!’
She drew out a quaint flask. ‘Endest Silann mixed this one. It should suffice.’ She tugged loose the stopper and gently set the small bottle’s mouth between Spinnock’s lips, and then tilted it to drain the contents, and he felt that potent liquid slide down his throat. Sudden warmth flowed through him.
‘Sufficient, anyway, to carry you home.’ And she smiled.
‘My last fight in his name,’ said Spinnock Durav. ‘I did as he asked, did I not?’
Her expression tightened, revealed something wan and ravaged. ‘You have much to tell us, brother. So much that needs… explaining.’
Spinnock glanced at Crone.
The Great Raven ducked and hopped a few steps away. ‘We like our secrets,’ she cackled, ‘when it’s all we have!’
Korlat brushed his cheek again. ‘How long?’ she asked. ‘How long did you hold him back?’
‘Why,’ he replied, ‘I lit the torches… dusk was just past…’