DAWN WATCH

93

Prologue

A hush fell over the rolling foothills and plains that led to the sea. It was night. Clouds covered the stars but the air was still. Heavy. If anyone had been present to taste that air, they might have noted that it tasted like iron. Expectant. Electric. As if a storm was on its way. But there was no storm and no one to notice the strangeness.

The battle-scarred mountain slopes of Havi were beginning to heal. Green shoots had burst through the scorched and blackened earth with the last rains. The tumbles of stone and rock had settled. Birds had returned to the crags. The bloodstains had long since soaked into the earth, nourishing new life. Only the scars on the rock face would remain in mute testimony to the violence of the last battle.

For a brief moment the sky was illuminated by brilliant gas clouds in hues of pink, and green and turquoise. A herd of aurochs in the distance lifted their heads. A few birds took flight. The clouds melted away to be replaced by the dazzling whirl of stars that usually illuminated the skies of the Night Nation. But there was no one there to notice. Just as there was no one to see the shadow crawling out of the rock pile. First one hand, scrabbling to get purchase, a desperate claw transparent as moonlight, then a thin body. The shade pulled itself free, wavering in the darkness as if it was weak. It was so insubstantial it looked as if a puff of wind might blow it away.

Slowly the shadow turned its head. In the distance the aurochs fell to the ground. The flesh melted from their bones, the blood vanished from their veins leaving behind only dry husks, a few bones picked clean in an instant.

The shadows pooled, stretching and growing. They solidified into the shape of a pale, antlered woman, who looked out over the deserted valley.

She smiled and walked into the night.