The Raven's Shadow Read Free

plans have not changed.’
    ‘You assured me those forts were empty, Ytha.’
    ‘When I looked, they were.’ And she had believed they would stay that way. She had trusted what she’d been told, that the iron men were gone and would not be coming back, but oh, there would be a reckoning for this, if she had any say in the matter! ‘Situations change, and we must adapt to them.’
    ‘How is doing nothing adapting ?’ He threw up his hands, prowling again. ‘The Empire knows we are coming – we have lost the advantage of surprise!’
    Patience wearing thin, Ytha hardened her voice. ‘Stiffen your sinews, my chief, or you will be undone before you even draw your sword.’
    ‘Aedon’s balls, woman, we may be undone already!’ He aimed a kick at one of the abandoned cups and sent it spinning across the tent in a spray of ale.
    She raised an eyebrow. His mouth opened to say something and she arched her brow a little higher, daring him to challenge her authority. Dark eyes flashed but he stayed silent, though his fists clenched and unclenched at his sides.
    Her thoughts raced, turning over the clansman’s news whilst trying to keep her face calm, her voice cool. There had to be some way to . . . ah.
    ‘Be easy, my chief – all is not lost. This news is unwelcome, true, but if we play it carefully, it may even work to our advantage.’
    That pulled him up short. ‘How?’
    ‘As long as they remain unaware that we have discovered their presence in the mountains, perhaps we can manipulate them,’ she said. ‘I will need to scry to be sure, but if they can be induced to concentrate their defences on the low pass in the east, they may leave the others more lightly defended.’
    He stared at her, and slowly his expression brightened as he realised where she was leading. ‘Allowing us to strike where they least expect it.’
    She allowed herself a thin, satisfied smile. ‘Precisely.’
    Drwyn began pacing again. ‘We must call the chiefs together and put this new plan to them.’ He rubbed his chin, whiskers rasping against his palm. ‘The Scattering is almost over – we could ride out tomorrow.’
    Ytha held up her hand. ‘Patience, my chief,’ she said. ‘One step at a time. If we leap straight in, we may trigger a trap that the Empire is laying for us.’
    Clearly frustrated, he growled, ‘When, then?’
    ‘A day or two after the Scattering ends. I still have to bind the other Speakers, and I must scry out the passes before we can move. Besides, the war band cannot be assembled in the space of a day.’ He’d served his time as a war captain; he should not have needed to be reminded of that. By now thoroughly vexed, she pushed herself to her feet and leaned on her staff. ‘I need to think this through. When the time is right, we will bring the chiefs together and let them believe that this new plan was our intention from the start, but until then,’ she levelled a finger at him and dropped her voice to a hiss, ‘don’t breathe a word of this to anyone or so help me I will stop up your mouth so tightly you may never speak again.’
    Drwyn bristled mutinously. ‘I am the Chief of Chiefs, Ytha.’
    She drew her mantle around her. ‘Believe me, that fact attends me my every waking moment.’
    He scowled, restless fists flexing down by his sides. ‘I will not be mocked, woman!’
    Ytha’s hold on her temper snapped. She marched up to Drwyn and drove her finger into his chest. ‘Then hear me, Chief of Chiefs. I did not spend years perfecting these plans to see them thrown into disarray by the first stone in the road. If you want to be the man your father could not, if you want your name to be sung down through the ages as the leader who brought the clans home again, you will hold your tongue and stay the course .’
    She punctuated the words with sharp jabs of her finger, forcing him to back up a pace. He turned his ankle on a discarded ale cup and staggered, barely righting himself before he fell, then