'Much of what you ask is in hand. But following will prove difficult. We have already lost them; however we do know with some certainty where they are headed. We can be waiting.'

'She's the ultimate weapon in this war,' said Heryst. 'I will not lose her to Xetesk. Nor Dordover. Right. See that our forces are alerted to The Raven. Use Darrick as the reason for their recapture.'

'What about Izack?'

Heryst raised his eyebrows. 'Put it this way, I don't think we can rely on the cavalry to be available to help.'

'But if it's a direct order-'

'Oh, he won't actually refuse or hinder our efforts. But we're a long way from the battlefield. Expect him to be otherwise engaged.'

Darrick brought The Raven to a halt in a quiet side street deep in an area of warehousing. He slid from his saddle and marched up to Hirad, dragging him into an embrace.

'Thank you,' he said pulling back, a surge of relief flooding every cell of his body.

Hirad shrugged. 'You're Raven. Leaving you wasn't an option.'

'We've done well,' observed Denser, moving across to Erienne, who The Unknown had handed down from his horse. 'We've turned you from respected general and hero of the people to deserter and now outlaw. Good going.' Erienne clung to him. 'Are you all right, love?'

' 'Course I'm not bloody all right. I've just been passed about and flung around like a bag of rags after casting a spell I probably shouldn't have tried.'

'Why not? The Al-Drechar were there, weren't they?'

'Sort of

'Erienne?'

'Look, they didn't think I was ready. They said my casting wouldn't be honed enough and that it would take too much out of me. They were right.'

'What did you do, exactly?' asked Denser.

‘Iremoved constituent elements. Just left dry dust in simple terms. Unpicking the physical lattice, mind you, that's difficult.'

'Impressive, though,' said Darrick. 'And I am forever in your debt, Raven or not. Now, can you ride, Erienne?'

'So long as it's not too far. I'm exhausted.'

'We have to get out of the city and well away before dawn. I know a place a few miles east of here where we can rest. We're heading for the Al-Arynaar, I take it?'

'Let's get ourselves going and talk on the way,' said The Unknown. 'We'll take it easy until we hit open ground, give Erienne a chance to catch her breath a little. Anyone carrying an injury? No? Then let's get moving.'

They mounted up, The Unknown and Hirad riding forward with Darrick, the horses at little more than a walk, through the quiet early morning streets. They could hear no pursuit.

'They won't bother,' said Darrick. 'They'll guess where we're heading. We haven't got any other realistic choice.'

'This complicates matters,' said Hirad.

'Every non-elf can now be assumed a potential threat – barring Izack perhaps but even he will have orders.'

'You think they'll come after us aggressively?' Hirad looked across at Darrick.

'You heard Heryst,' said the former general. 'He wants to control Erienne and more than that, he'll not want her taken by Xetesk or Dordover.'

'Hmm.' The Unknown chewed his lip. 'And if the ripple has been felt elsewhere we'll find ourselves hunted by everyone when they work out what it means.'

'I don't understand,' said Hirad. 'It's a different magic'

'But it draws on mana first,' said Erienne. 'The real power of the One is what else you can bring to bear.'

‘Ibelieve you,' said Hirad. 'Just take care of yourself.'

'Don't you worry about me,' said Erienne, but Darrick could hear the affection in her voice.

Hirad turned in his saddle.

'It's my job,' he said.

The Raven rode out of Lystern.

'Tell me what it means,' demanded Dystran.

He was standing in an archive room just above the catacombs, and all the laboratories and research chambers they contained. Like every mage in the college, he had been rudely awakened by the ripple in the mana, coming to with a sense of deja vu. He had wrapped a cloak around his night shirt and run barefoot to the archive room where his spectrum guards spent their days and nights. He was tired but excited and, little over an hour after the incident, impatient for answers. One answer.

'It is difficult to be certain. The effect was only faintly visible in the spectrum though even that was strong enough to wake us all,' explained the middle-aged mage, a man whom Dystran had never come across before.

'But it came from Lystern,' said Dystran.

'Undoubtedly, my Lord.'

'Humour me now,' said Dystran. 'And take your best guess. I understand your desire for exactitude but I have to plan. I, after all, am in charge. What do you think caused this ripple or polarisation, whatever the term you prefer to use?'

'It felt familiar, my Lord,' said the analyst. 'Unpleasantly so. If you pressed me, I would say, and I must beg leave to verify, but I would say we had experienced a casting of the One magic. All the signs that we learned so well from the Nightchild's devastation were there but this was ordered. Under control.'

'Yes!' Dystran clapped his hands together. 'Correct answer. Verify away. Don't sleep until you have the proof you need and don't fear being wrong. I need the truth more than I need lies dressed up as good news.'

Dystran called his advisers to him and strode from the room.

'Get me whoever it is that's in charge on Herendeneth. I need to know why the hell the Al-Drechar haven't revealed there was another practitioner. And get me Chandyr and Myx from whatever front they're defending. The march on Julatsa might have to be postponed.

'Oh, and get me an update on our dimensional experiments based on the information those two women supplied us. Gods, there's so much to do.'

He turned a corner and took a spiral staircase, going up two steps at a time.

'Ranyl,' he said to himself. 'You'll have to postpone dying. I need you more than the darkness does.'

In Dordover, the night's rest was over for every mage capable of reading the signs in the spectrum. Vuldaroq had received powerful and urgent Communion from Lystern shortly after midnight. The news had sent him surging from his bed, his overweight body sweating as he ran, wiping a cloth at his puffy red face.

Even in his dreams he had felt the unease that had whispered through the mana spectrum and on hearing the report from his delegation and his experts, knew his feelings were grounded in truth.

'Be absolutely sure,' he instructed the research team. 'But be quick about it. I want to know how this is possible. And at first light, I want to see the Lystern delegation. In the meantime, I want every spare man hunting The Raven. I think it's safe to assume, as our delegation suspects, that Erienne carries the One, if indeed we are facing that power again. I want her here, where she belongs, as a child of this college.'

He sat back in his chair. 'Dear Gods falling, The Raven. Praise the day when they stop making my life so bloody difficult.' He sighed and looked around him. 'Come on, we've got work to do.'