Ravenna Nightblade's Arc

Chapter 3 of 8

The black wax seal told Ravenna one hard truth. Her own blood had signed her death. Now the crest gave those orders the weight of law. Every hunter on the old roads knew her face. She could not walk a single mile without a blade seeking her. Scarlett knelt by the broken hunter and studied the map in his coat. "The safe paths run this way," she said. "But they're crawling with orcs. Nobody hunts there. Not even us." "Then that's where we go," Ravenna said. "A road full of orcs is a road empty of hunters." Fenrir rose from beside the direwolf. The wolf-man's blue fur bristled. "Orcs don't bargain," he said. "They fight or they eat. But where the direwolf walks, I fight." He fell in behind Ravenna without another word. They climbed into rough country by dusk. Ravenna smelled smoke first. Then she saw them. A warband filled the pass below, dozens of orcs with stone axes and clubs. Green muscle and gnarled teeth. Too many to kill. She dropped to a crouch behind a ledge. A small red cat sat on the rock beside her. Its crimson fur glowed like fresh blood in the last light. It stared down at the orcs, then back at Ravenna, calm. Scarlett went pale. "A blood cat. Hunters trained them once, to sniff out prey. That one belongs to no one now." Ravenna held out her hand. The cat pressed its head to her palm and slipped down the slope. It crossed the open ground toward the warband. The orcs turned. Their chief roared and pointed his axe. The whole band charged after the small red shape, straight past the ledge where Ravenna hid. "Now," she said. They ran the empty pass while the orcs chased the cat into the dark. Fenrir carried the direwolf across a scree of loose stone. Scarlett covered their backs with an arrow nocked. No orc looked their way. By the time the warband gave up the chase, Ravenna was through the pass and gone. She had crossed a road no hunter dared to follow. They stopped after midnight. Scarlett built a rough shelter from a stretched tarp and their bedrolls, then coaxed a small fire from dry twigs. The flames warmed the four of them. Ravenna spread the sealed order flat on her knee. She traced the twin ravens over the crown with one finger. "The hunters can't touch us out here," she said. "But this seal came from a hand I know." She looked up. "My brother. Finnian sits the throne. He wears our father's crest and sends orcs and hunters to take my head." She folded the paper and pushed it into her belt. "He named the price. Now I know the name. The next road runs to him."