I gaped. I couldn’t even speak her name; I was so shocked. Brushing herself off, R?ven looked up at me with a dazzling smile.
Grabbing R?ven by the shoulders I brought her towards me and hugged her tightly. I felt her delicate arms squeeze me gently.
I had first met R?ven several months ago at the postal shop in Frost Arch. This probably explained her presence in Flamethroat, she travelled a lot, delivering letters all across the country. There were two amazing things about R?ven. First, was her ability to shape-shift into a large, black bird with brilliant tail plumage. The second was her voice, R?ven’s voice had anaesthetic qualities, causing the listener to become temporarily dumbfounded. It was true that the sound of her voice affected each person differently and that a single note could potentially kill a man. This was why R?ven hardly spoke, but when she did, it was always in a soft whisper.
‘What are you doing here?’ I exclaimed, holding her at an arms length to get a better look at her. She was tiny compared to me. Slim, feminine and slightly duck-footed as though she was better suited to flying than walking.
R?ven held up a scroll of parchment. As I had suspected, she was on a delivery job.
It had only been a few weeks since I last saw R?ven, but it felt like a lifetime ago. She and Jack had rescued me from the Human dungeon in Frost Arch, nursed me back to health, given me somewhere to stay and helped to rescue Hawthorne from Elvira Frost. I was certainly in her debt and felt awful that I had left Frost Arch so hastily.
R?ven indicated to a small shop off the street that sold pastries and coffee, where she sat me down at a table bathed in sunlight and ordered us some drinks by pointing at the menu.
‘Oh, you don’t have to-’ I began, but she held up a hand to silence me.
Once there were two cups of tea in front of us and Hawthorne was lapping up a bowl of milk, I turned to R?ven. ‘Tell me what you have been doing,’ I said immediately, ‘How are you? Is Frost Arch any better?’
She smiled. R?ven’s blue-black hair shined in the sun, bobbing just above her shoulders. Her cat-like blue eyes seemed to stare through me. Her skin, like porcelain, shone white in the sunlight. I understood why Jack had been rather taken with her all those months ago. She was breathtaking. Beautiful, in an unusual way. She reminded me of a feline.
I braced myself for the melodic words that would flow from her lips and knew the effect they would have on me. Yet nothing ever prepared me for it.
‘The sun shines in Frost Arch once again. The snow is slowly melting and the grass is beginning to sprout’ she said in nothing more than a whisper.
Those two sentences were all it took. I felt lightheaded. Drugged. Giddy. I steadied myself on the table.
‘That’s great!’ I smiled dopily, ‘Really great.’
‘The Forsythe man still seeks you.’
‘That’s … bad,’ I said.
‘Where is Jack?’ asked R?ven.
‘Who?’ I had never heard of this Jack character before.
R?ven smirked, ‘The man you left with, remember?’
‘Oh. Him.’ I vaguely recalled that other people existed, apart from R?ven and I. This was the effect her voice had on me. Some people even passed out when they heard her.
‘He is in Flamethroat?’ she asked, sipping her tea.
I nodded. ‘Yes, of course.’
‘Are you living here?’
‘No.’ I set my cup down and glanced around warily to make sure no one was listening to our conversation. ‘We are trying to find my sister.’
R?ven leant forwards. ‘She is missing?’
‘We know where she is,’ I said in an undertone. ‘But it’s getting her that is the problem.’
‘Why? Where is she?’
I bit my lip. R?ven did not know that my sister was a Human. Did I dare trust her with this precious information? She had proven to be a useful friend thus far and had done a lot for me, but I didn’t know what her stance on Human rights was.
I decided on the half-truth. ‘She is being held captive at the Martinez manor,’ I said quietly.
R?ven blanched. ‘Have you told the guards?’
I cringed internally. ‘No. No, we can’t do that.’
It occurred to me that R?ven would be very useful in an attack on the Martinez Manor. I’d even wager that she could do it alone.
‘You’re not telling me something,’ she said softly.
I closed my eyes and tried to think straight. Sighing, I looked at R?ven. ‘Can you come back to the Inn I am staying at?’
‘I must deliver this message first. Then I can meet you there.’
I told R?ven where Jack and I were staying and what room. She promised to fly to our window within the hour. I felt that trying to enlist R?ven’s help would be greatly beneficial for H.E.L.E.N.A, but whether R?ven wanted to join was another matter.
Hawthorne and I jogged back to the Inn around the corner from the Martinez Manor and arrived in time to see Jack walking up the steps to the front entrance.