Lann closed his eyes, but the image of what had been done to the young animal was seared into his brain. Feeling his gorge rising, he pushed past the others to get out of the ice house, gulping in the fresh air outside. The others quickly joined him.

‘What monstrosity is responsible for this?’ Fleya asked.

‘The creatures of the Void are many and varied,’ Storren replied. ‘But I would suggest this is the doing of an asghoul.’ The god turned to Astrid. ‘Your cousin, the young necromancer, is meddling in things he does not fully understand. The dark majik he is trying to perform is allowing monsters that have long waited for a chance to cross over into this world to do so. Whatever killed that calf and took the young girl must be stopped.’

‘Is she still alive?’ Lann asked.

‘She is. For now.’

Fleya spoke. ‘We have no time. We must reach Kelewulf, and fast, or this will only be the first of many terrible incidents.’

‘A girl is missing!’ Astrid cried. ‘We can’t just leave her to her fate.’

Fleya bit her lip in frustration. ‘Then we have no option but to separate. The pair of you will go looking for the asghoul and the child it has abducted. I will go on alone to face Kelewulf and the lich before they can do much more harm. Join me when you are able.’

‘You will need me,’ Lann protested. ‘The blade, at least …’

‘The majik that the lich Yirgan possessed will be Kelewulf’s to wield now. But I have a few tricks up my sleeve yet.’ She leaned closer to him, her next words for him alone. ‘You must do this, Lannigon. You must save the child. I knew this moment was coming. I had a vision that the two of us would be separated before the end of this journey.’

‘And did your vision also show you your own fate?’

She looked deep into his eyes before replying. ‘It did.’

‘What did you see?’

‘I can’t tell you that, nephew.’

Lann turned to ask Storren a question, but the god was no longer there. Turning back round, he was not entirely surprised to find his aunt, too, had disappeared.

It was at this moment that the voice of the sword started up inside Lann’s head again, the word all too familiar by now.

Nir-akuu.

Monsters.

Vissergott

31

Two more blocks were all that stood between Kelewulf and the completion of the vast, arched portal to the Void.

How long it had been since they’d started? He had no idea any more. But it had taken a terrible toll. He was painfully thin now, with dark haunted eyes set in a drawn face that had changed to such a degree that he’d been shocked when he’d caught sight of himself in a mirror the previous day.