Midnight, Tower of the Raven Wives, Island of Ayyergsoun, Coast of Ireland

In the forest surrounding the Tower of the Raven Wives, no beast nor bird moved. They left the place alone. They had seen what happened to those who ventured near it.

Likewise, those lived in the fishing village of Ayyergsoun avoided the Tower, along with the hill, The Violent Rise, and the forest, The Jagged Wilds. They had seen what happened to those who went near it. The Little Peak Metal Institution for the Criminally Insane was filled with the youth of the village who had gone near the tower. Those who had returned always committed some horrible murder and were locked away in the Institution for life.

And if the residents of Ayyergsoun had known what horrific entities lived in the Tower of the Raven Wives, they would hav known why.

All this was running through the mind of Gdalicanu von Horn, Lord of the Black Spire, and Master of Hell’s claws. The moonlight barely illuminated his features so that you could only catch a glimpse of him, but a glimpse was enough. He stood tall-well over seven feet-and would have looked handsome, except for his face. His skin was chalk-white, as if all the blood in him had disappeared. He had heavy eyebrows, a small, sharp nose, and a thin, lipless mouth that was drawn into a straight line. No smile had ever graced his features, and no smile ever would. His eyes were drawn into a slant, like a dragons’ and were a glossy black. No white, no iris, just solid black. His pupils were a stark crimson, like his pupils had been removed in some horrid experiment and replaced with drops of blood. He was dressed in a fine black suit with red lining. He had a cloak fastened around his neck with a golden clasp shaped like a dragon. The gold did not look beautiful. Instead it glinted coldly the way it does when you find a gold bar and then the next morning you find it stolen. His cloak was the same shade of black as his other clothes, and the inside was a velvet the same color as his pupils. Over a dozen bats and wolves followed him through the forest. He had no fear of the forest, the hill, of the tower. They were his home.

As he walked through the woods, he sighed. This was taking far too long. He passed through another shadow.

And vanished.

Out of the shadow came a large bat. It had the eyes of Gdalicanu. It flew off through the night to the Tower of the Raven Wives. The cloud of bats that had been hovering about Gdalicanu flew after it, leaving the wolves to howl to Mother Moon.

***

The cloud of bats flew through the air toward the top of the Tower of the Raven Wives. The large bat with Gdalicanu’s eyes passed through a shaft of moonlight and vanished. In its’ place was Gdalicanu again. He fell with expertise onto the top of the Tower. The Tower had no roof. Instead, there was an open, flat area with no wall, open to the elements. On the roof were thirteen stone thrones. The residents of Ayyergsoun speculated that they were spikes the Raven Wives had put on their tower to make it look more threatening. They were not far off. Each throne except the thirteenth was shaped like the fang from some primeval, alien beast. The thirteenth was at the north side of the tower, facing south. It had the fang that all the other thrones had, but twelve more spikes, six on each side, stuck out to make an enormous, fanged, spider-like throne. On the floor in the middle of all the thrones was a moon, carved into the stone. Surrounding the moon carving, at the foot of each throne was carved an arcane symbol. Gdalicanu took a seat it the largest throne and waited for the others to arrive.

The first to arrive was Ciarán MacBrady, Master of Raven Obelisk, in the form of a raven. He flapped up, nodded a greeting to Gdalicanu, and took a seat in the throne to the south, or the Southern Fang, as it was known. Then came Moldark Garlath, King of the Throne of Blood. Then Melchior Lewis, Baron of Fangs. One after another until all the thrones were filled with beings with the skin, eyes, and clothes of Gdalicanu, but different facial features. When the last one (Cassius Vasile, Duke of Flesh) had seated, Gdalicanu stood, looked into each of their eyes, and nodded.

“I pronounce this meeting of Hell’s Claws..” He paused. His voice was thick but clear.

“Open.”

In the distance, a storm was brewing.

***

Thunder boomed in the distance as Neil O’Dunn’s boat, The Wonderful Barrage, sped through the waves toward Ayyergsoun Bay. Peter Stout looked back nervously. Neil noticed him look and laughed.

“Looks like quite a storm, don’t it, lad?” O’Dunn asked him. Peter, who was fifteen, looked at him.

“Yes it does, Mr O’Dunn,” said Peter, ignoring his repeated requests to call him Neil.

O’Dunn chuckled. “Don’t you worry, lad. We arrived in the nick of time!”

Peter’s sister, Brittany pointed to a black shape on the top of a hill. “Look, a tower!” she cried. “What is it?”

O’Dunn looked to where she was pointing. His face paled and he crossed himself. “It’s, er, nothing,” he stammered. Peter saw that the old man was frightened of the tower and changed the subject.

“What’s that building?” he asked. “Is that the hotel?” O’Neil’s face, if possible, paled even more.

“No child,” he said. “That’s the asylum.” The look on his face prevented Peter and Brittany from asking any more questions, but as they parked the boat at the dock, Peter wondered why the town needed its own asylum.

***

The Stout family walked along the boardwalk until they got to the inn. Asking for two rooms, they then went for a stroll around the town.

“What a precious town!” exclaimed Peter and Brittany’s mother. “Isn’t this the perfect vacation!”

While they were at a café, the kids had time to talk.

“There’s something weird about this place,” Peter hissed to Brittany. “Did you see the man’s face when you asked about the tower? And what kind of town needs its’ own asylum?”

Brittany nodded. “I know,” she said. “And have you seen how few kids there are around here? Where are they?”

“Here’s one.”

Peter and Brittany looked up to see a boy about Peter’s age with curly brown hair standing over them.

“And the reason there are no others is because they’re all in the asylum.