Raven Flight by Juliet Marillier

brother Manus were in my team from quite early days,” he said. “They were captured by the Enforcers while on a mission, and subject to beatings and worse while the king’s men sought to break their will and extract their secrets. After two nights they managed to escape and headed off into the woods. But Manus was severely injured and could not move quickly. A day later, while Andra was fetching water from a nearby stream, the Enforcers found their makeshift shelter and recaptured her brother. He was by then too weak to talk; no use to them. It was Andra they wanted. So they strung Manus up and began to kill him very slowly.
    “Our folk are supplied with certain substances that can be taken in such an extreme to end their own lives. But the king’s men had removed the bags Andra and Manus had when they were first captured, and with them the two lethal doses.
    “The cause comes first for all of us, no matter what. That is the rebel code. Andra could not save her brother. If she had tried to rescue him, she herself would have been recaptured. The Enforcers would have worked on her further, perhaps subjected her to enthrallment. Manus, now weakened to the point of death, would have beenconsidered of no further use to them, and killed. So, from a place of hiding, Andra watched her brother die. Then she slipped away into the deeper concealment of the forest, and at length brought the tale back to Shadowfell.”
    Utter silence. Andra was so still she might have been a warrior of stone, her strong features set grim. I thought of my brother, Farral, who had died in my arms after the raid on Corbie’s Wood. At least I had held him; at least I’d been able to say goodbye.
    “Aye,” said Hawkbit eventually. “Aye. Ye want an undertaking we’ll keep this secret? Ye have it.”
    A subdued chorus of ayes from the circle.
    “If we want the support of the most influential chieftain, we must confront the king at the next Gathering but one,” Regan said. “The midsummer after next. We’ll have to achieve a near miracle. But then, it is most rare for our kind and your kind to work together in cooperation. If we can do that, I believe the mission will succeed.”
    At this point, Milla brought the platter back around with a fresh supply of sweetmeats. Red Cap helped himself to a small confection, then divided it neatly into five, passing a piece to each of the tiny folk, who seemed to have taken a fancy to him. When the infant squalled in protest, Woodrush bid it rather sharply to hush, then handed it the honeyed violet from atop her own sweetmeat.
    “So far, so good,” murmured Sage.
    “You’d best tell us the plan,” said Hawkbit. “The Gatherin’—’tis held at the king’s stronghold by Deepwater, aye? In the Watch o’ the West?”
    “That’s right, at Summerfort,” I told him. “The chieftains attend with many of their household retainers. Ordinary folk come too. In the past it was an opportunity for the clans to mingle, celebrate, play games, and do business. Under Keldec it has become something very different. All of his court will be there, and every troop of Enforcers.”
    The Northies’ guard moved, coming over to seat himself beside Regan. He did indeed have the look of a badger, though his features were those of a young, sturdy man and he wore a shirt and trousers of old, soft leather over his black-and-white pelt. “Name’s Bearberry,” he said by way of introduction. “What you’d want is a sort of ambush, aye? Your own folk planted in the crowd, disguised as farmers and washerwomen and travelers. And you’d be wanting these chieftains to have their fighters all ready to back you up. If not, the king’s men would make mincemeat of you before you could say a word.”
    “Enforcers would cut ye doon like barley stalks in autumn,” said Vetch.
    “If they tried it now, aye,” Bearberry said. “But there’s time. Remember what Whitlow told us—the Caller has to travel to the Big Ones; without