Chapter 7

The ride was long and arduous for the children, but it was filled with grim resolve for the others.

They followed Tarrin, whose wings were unnaturally bright, lighting the way and illuminating everything around him, and anyone who got close to him could feel the heat emanating from him, even noticable in the hazy summer night. His wings were a beacon that drew every eye to them, and not all of them were friendly.

Not that it mattered. On two separate occasions, small roving patrols caught the light of Tarrin’s wings and moved to investigate, and were summarily wiped out. Tarrin didn’t even allow anyone to so much as draw a weapon. He simply rode forward on the six man mounted patrols, then incinerated them where they stood with a hellish inferno that raged from an open paw, horses and all. The display frightened the children and concerned the others, for they had never seen Tarrin use his power like that before, nor had they seen such a display of it. Tarrin very rarely used his divine abilities, and even when he did, they were always tightly controlled, focused, and never any stronger than what was necessary to get the job done. But this was a naked display of overwhelming power, an extension of his anger. Sometimes it was easy to forget that Tarrin had that kind of power without using any of his magic, since he was so reluctant to use it.

The trip through Dengal was quick and tense, but there was no major warfare. Instead of going around they city wall, Tarrin led them right into the destroyed gate, and the guards inside were wise to get out of his way without a fight. The fact that he blasted the two outside the city gates to ash when they moved to impede him was all the motivation they needed to get out of his way. He then led them straight through the city, as soldiers ghosted their route on other blocks, watching but not interfering. Word had obviously reached the east gate as well, for it had been opened well before they arrived, allowing them to leave without having to knock it down.

Once they were on the east road, they picked up into a canter and rode throughout the night. Tarrin kept his sword out, and the entire time it continued to glow with that ghostly radiance, as if he was using it to do Sorcery, and Dolanna rode right beside him. But that was not what he was doing. The sword allowed him to reach across the dimensions and touch the Weave from home, but with no Weave here, it meant that any use of Sorcery would be extremely limited. He could use no weave that manifested anywhere but from him, since there was no Weave to carry the power, no other place to push flows out of the Weave. That did give him some range, since the flows would come from the sword, but not the kind of range with which a Sorcerer was used to working. Without the power of the Weave to call upon, they were limited to what weak power the sword would provide, or what they could hold.

Both of them were building up the magical energy of Sorcery, drawing it off the sword, and holding it. A well trained Sorcerer could hold power for a good deal of time, but a Weavespinner, immune to the heat that the power introduced into the body, could hold the power for however long they wanted. In fact, since there was no Weave, the power literally had nowhere to go until it was actively used. It couldn’t bleed off, and an incidental contact with a strand wouldn’t drain the stored power away by giving it somewhere to go. So, through the night, both Tarrin and Dolanna siphoned the power of Sorcery from the sword, storing it away to be used at a later time.

Over the night, both of them had managed to build up a decent amount of power. By dawn, creeping over a low range of hills to the east and staining red a bank of ominous clouds on the western horizon, Tarrin could sense that Dolanna had managed to build enough power to unleash one relatively strong spell. They were forced to use normal Sorcery without a Weave to work with, working only with the power within, but that would be more than enough. Dolanna had enough power built up to last her a while, so long as she rationed it wisely. And so long as she stayed near the sword, she had the ability to replenish that magical energy, albeit very slowly.

Strangely, Tarrin’s absorption of that power seemed faster than Dolanna, and unlike her, it seemed to have a visible effect on him. Zyri pointed it out when they stopped for the morning, to rest a while and eat before continuing on, pointing at his back. “Your wings are turning white,” she announced.

Tarrin looked back and saw that she was right. The upper edges of his wings were indeed white, all the way to where the joint would have been, were they real wings, a stripe of white along the top edge that extended down into the interior of his wings in a ragged, patchy manner. Immediately, he sensed that it was because of the Sorcery built up inside him. That power wasn’t resting in him, it was drawn into his wings. In a way, that made a kind of sense. They were magical constructs, a manifestation of his divine power, and they were inexorably linked to the sword, which was also nothing more than an exterior aspect of his divine power. The sword seemed to be the gateway to Sennadar, a bridge back to the Weave…perhaps, in their own way, his wings were also linked to the Weave, in a way that made them more receptive to containing the power of the Goddess.

Or maybe that was Niami’s doing.

Either way, that white coloring was indeed being caused by the power of Sorcery, almost like the ghostly magelight of High Sorcery staining his wings.

But he paid it little mind. He just nodded absently at Zyri, then immediately sat cross-legged on the ground and put the sword in his lap, which still glowed with ghostly radiance even after he took his paw off the hilt. He closed his eyes and put the palms of his paws on the blade, then tried to open himself more to the power of the sword. He wanted to draw in power until he absolutely could not hold any more, and for him, that was a considerable amount of power, because he was a sui’kun. The strong wash of Dolanna’s scent over him preceded feeling her put her hands on his paws, and he opened his eyes to see her seated before him, hand on his paws, eyes closed and a look of serene concentration on her face. He could feel her open herself, as if opening herself to the Weave, but instead directing it towards the sword…exactly as he was doing. He closed his eyes and bowed his head, then tuned out the entire world to work on gathering as much power as he could for the short time that his attention wasn’t required to guide his horse or keep his eyes open for attackers.

“What are they doing, Mistress Miranda?” Zyri asked the Wikuni curiously.

“They’re soaking up magic from the sword,” she answered. “Both of them can do a type of magic that we didn’t think could be used here, but it turns out that Tarrin’s sword is going to let us bend the rules. It’s complicated, so let me just say that using this kind of magic is going to make them draw it from the sword before they can do anything with it. Usually they wouldn’t do it this way, but since there’s no Weave here to power their magic, they have to build the power up first and just hold it until they use it.”

“They’re going to hold that power?” Ulger said in sudden concern.

Miranda nodded.

“Oh, nevermind. I forgot, Dolanna’s a da’shar. It won’t hurt her.”

“Since when does a Knight know anything about magic, Ulger?” Sarraya asked with a wicked lilt in her voice.

He grunted. “It’s a Knight’s duty to know how Sorcery works. It lets us work with Sorcerers better. Any Knight who’s won his spurs knows as much about how Sorcery works as a Sorcerer.”

“We had classes when I was a cadet, on Sorcery. That lets us know if the Sorcerer is about to do something dumb,” Azakar added.

“Well, those two are going to be out of it, so let’s just work around them,” Haley announced. “We have horses to feed and water and breakfast to arrange. Let’s get ourselves together.”

“Azakar, Ulger, horses. Miranda, breakfast. Haley, Sarraya, Fireflash, scout. Zyri, Jal, help Miranda,” Mist commanded in short, tense words, as she took up an erect posture near her mate and Dolanna. She looked ready to kill the first person who came within ten spans of them, and seemed to instantly forget they were there.

“Uh, I’m not arguing with her,” Haley said in a low voice, then chuckled. “Well, we’ve been given our orders. Let’s get moving!” He then hunched down and shapeshifted into his handsome gray wolf form, then loped off into the high grass by the road, quickly vanishing from sight.

“Okay, Fireflash, you go that way, I go this way,” Sarraya pointed as she instructed the drake, who was on the saddle of Tarrin’s horse. “Don’t go far, and come back if you see humans.”

Fireflash chirped in understanding, then turned and vaulted into the air, then flapped off in the direction Sarraya had indicated. Sarraya’s body wavered into invisibility, and the buzzing of her wings indicated that she was flying off in the opposite direction.

Miranda cut some dried meat and cheese for them, but they didn’t get the chance to eat it. Haley came bounding back mere moments after leaving, shifting into his human form in midair. “There’s a patrol of soldiers coming this way!” he shouted. “Call it, Mist!”

She looked down at Tarrin and Dolanna, who did not even move. “Fight,” she growled, her eyes exploding from within with greenish radiance. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”

“Uh, you’re not going to take on an entire patrol by yourself, are you Mist?”

In response, Mist held up her arms, displaying her Cat’s Claws, and then extended the narrow blades. The metal flowed over the backs of her paws, then down over her fingers, to form two-span long, delicate little edged blades that were attached to her fingers.

“I’d take that as a yes, Ulger,” Haley said smoothly. “Do you want me to help?”

She snorted disdainfully, then loped off in the direction from which Haley had come.

“That’ll be ugly,” Ulger grunted. “She’s been in a mood ever since we found out what happened to Kimmie. You know she’s going to boil over on those soldiers.”

“I think it will do her some good. I’d rather her vent on them than us,” Haley noted.

“True enough,” Ulger agreed.

“Will Mistress Mist be alright, Master Ulger?” Zyri asked fearfully.

“Honey, worry about those soldiers, not Mist,” Miranda chuckled humorlessly. “Mist is every bit as tough as Tarrin is, and unless they have someone who can do magic with them, they can’t even hurt her. That complement of soldiers had better pray that they have a Priest with them, or they won’t stand a chance.”

“Not even a Priest is going to matter,” Azakar said bluntly.

“True, but he’d slow her down for a minute.”

“Not even a minute,” Azakar countered.

“I’m going to angle off and check over there,” Haley said, pointing at a small grove of trees to the southwest. “Make sure they don’t have scouts trailing us from a distance.”

As Miranda and the children prepared something to eat, the sound of Mist’s arrival at the patrol reached them. First it was startled shouts just over the little hill to the south, then it was confused shouting and cursing mixed in with the screams of the injured. Then it turned to chaos very quickly, and the shouting and cries began to fade as, from the sound of it, the patrol broke and ran to escape from the infuriated Were-cat.

She came back about the same time Haley returned. Blood matted her arms, and it was spattered all over her clothes and face. Her eyes were still glowing green, as if the expression of her anger had not been nearly enough to calm her down. “I’ll fill a bucket so you can wash off,” Miranda told her calmly. “I think the blood smell isn’t doing you too much good.”

“Are you alright, Mistress Mist?” Zyri asked in concern.

“They were a bunch of frightened little rabbits,” she growled. “They won’t be following us again.”

“Did any get away?” Ulger asked.

Mist gave him an unholy look.

“I didn’t think so,” he said, then he chuckled. “Good.”

As the others did what they could, Tarrin continued his deep contemplation of the sword. Dissatisfied with the rate at which he was drawing power, he submerged himself into the sword directly, exploring it, seeking to cause it to deepen its connection to the Weave. He was linked to the sword body, mind, and soul, but he found that the sword was resistant to any attempt to breach its outer boundaries and discover the power inside. The sword was a part of him, but he found it very intent to remain distinctly separate, even attempting to hide itself from him. The sword did not want him to look inside it. The sword did not want him to know how it was touching the Weave. The sword did not want him to see how it worked. He found that the harder he pushed, the more resistant it became, until it became obvious to him that he was not going to win this little battle. Unable to deepen his connection to the Weave by forcing his sword to open up to it more, he instead reached through the sword, trying to draw directly from the Weave, much like how he reached through the Cat to touch the All.

That worked. Tarrin found the power on the other side of the sword, and though it was distant, it was familiar power, the power of the Goddess, and it heard his call. Power surged into and through the sword, whose dim glow suddenly flared to brightness. It was still little more than a trickle compared to the kind of power he could draw if he had direct contact with the Weave, but it was more than he could draw before, and that was good. Dolanna’s eyes snapped open suddenly, then she smiled and then closed them again, friming her grip on the backs of his paws.

Moments became minutes, and minutes became hours as Tarrin and Dolanna sat there, as the sun rose higher into the sky, and was then covered over by a bank of ominous clouds. The others became more and more impatient, but none of them would dare attempt to disturb Tarrin. The only ones who could do so without risking injury were Mist and Dolanna, and neither seemed inclined to do so. Dolanna was also absorbed in what she was doing, and when Miranda delicately breached the idea of getting Tarrin to stop so they could move, she waspishly retorted that Tarrin would move when Tarrin bloodly well wanted to move.

“We’re losing time, Mist,” Miranda pleaded. “And it’s just giving them more time to get soldiers here. If we don’t move soon, we’ll have a few hundred soldiers to deal with instead of just a roving patrol.”

“We’ll leave when Tarrin is ready, and not a second before,” she replied adamantly. “You think I like sitting here when we can be moving? I don’t,” she snorted. “But we have to trust Tarrin. He wouldn’t hold us up unless he had a damned good reason. He knows what he’s doing.”

“Honey, I think we need to have a little talk, very soon,” Miranda sighed, but she gave Mist a cheeky grin.

“It’s going to rain,” Azakar announced, looking at the sky. “If we’re stuck here until Tarrin and Dolanna snap out of it, then let’s at least get something over them so they don’t get wet.”

“Or us either,” Ulger grunted. “We don’t have time for tents, but we can set up some lean-tos with the tent poles and some canvas. We’ll be able to knock those down in less than a minute when Tarrin’s ready to go.”

Ulger, Azakar, and Haley set up a trio of crude shelters, then Haley ranged out again to keep watch on the area. Sarraya and Fireflash returned from time to time to report in, Fireflash having to wait impatiently for someone who could understand him to return, until he growled in frustration from Miranda’s shoulder and began hissing in a strange manner.

“What’s the matter, Fireflash?” Miranda asked in concern as the drake continued its strange hissing.

“Ssssssssssspeaths”

Miranda started, then snagged the gold drake from her shoulder and held him before her. “Fireflash!” she said in shock. “You’re talking!”

“He’s always understood, he’s just never spoke,” Mist told her shortly. “I’m think he’s sick of waiting for Haley or Sarraya to translate for him.”

Miranda gave her a surprised look.

“Tarrin always said that Fireflash had the ability to talk. Tarrin said he’s as smart as any human. He’s just never had the compunction to try until now, I guess. When he lived with us, we always knew what he wanted.”

Fireflash nodded vigorously. “Thrass no hhhumahhsss.”

“He said there’s no humans,” Zyri announced, then she blushed slightly and assumed a meek posture.

“Well, since it seems you’ve got an ear for figuring out what he’s saying, I say it’s your job to translate for us,” Miranda winked. “Fireflash, report to Zyri when you come in.”

The drake nodded, then he wriggled until Miranda let go of him. He swooped into the air and then flapped away towards the south.

“I didn’t realize that you were so fluent in Sulasian, Zyri,” Miranda winked at her. “I couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was saying.”

Zyri blushed and returned a sheepish smile. “Mistress Miranda, I’ve been meaning to ask a question.”

“Sure, honey.”

“Why is it you can do your magic when Tarrin can’t?” she asked. “He said he was a Priest of his Goddess, but he can’t do that magic here. But you’re also a Priest, and you can. Why?”

“Well, let’s just say that I defy the rules,” she winked. “I’m a little different than Tarrin. My relationship to Kikkalli is a bit more direct than his is to his Goddess. The special circumstances of our relationship lets me use my magic here.”

“How is it different?”

“Honey, I don’t think you’d understand it. It gets very, very, complicated.”

“You make things too complicated on purpose, Miranda,” Mist grunted. “It’s simple, child. Miranda is an Avatar.”

“What is an Avatar?”

“She has a direct connection to Kikkalli, because Kikkalli blessed her when she was born,” she answered. “That special blessing lets Miranda use her magic anywhere she goes. That’s something that other Priests can’t do, because a regular Priest can’t use magic on a world where his god isn’t worshipped. That’s why Tarrin can’t use his Priest magic here, but Miranda can.”

“My, that is a pretty good way to explain it,” Miranda chuckled ruefully. “I didn’t know you knew so much about it.”

“I don’t speak, but I do listen,” Mist told her flatly. “And I’m not stupid.”

“I never thought you were,” Miranda told her.

“Well, why can’t a god just give that blessing to a Priest?”

Miranda smiled. “Because they have to do it when the Priest is born,” she answered. “I guess my goddess had the feeling that I might be needed some time in the future, so she blessed me when I was born.”

“Well, don’t gods know who they’ll need later?”

Miranda laughed. “Gods aren’t as all-powerful as they want mortals to think that they are, honey,” she winked. “They want mortals to believe that they are, though.”

“Why?”

“Well, it gets complicated, honey, but I’ll try to make it easy to understand,” she said, with a sly little look at Mist. “There are two kinds of gods, I’m sure you remember Tarrin explaining that. There’s the ‘creator’ god, and then there’s the other gods in a world. The creator god is apart from the others, because he was here first. But all the other gods, like the One, are only here because the people living on the world want him here.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Give me a minute, honey, I’m trying to fill in the background a little bit. Gods like the One are created because regular people decide that there’s a need for him, and that belief causes him to come into being. The One will live as a god as long as people believe that he is one. When no one believes he’s a god anymore, he’ll disappear.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

“I don’t think I explained it very well,” she said with a grimace.

“Gods depend on mortals for their very existence,” Mist interrupted. “They’re created when mortals develop true faith in them, and they exist as long as people have that faith. Gods are created by mortals, and they depend on the mortals who believe in them.”

Zyri’s expression was still a bit muddled. “Doesn’t that mean that gods aren’t really gods?”

“I told you it was complicated,” Miranda grinned. “Gods are gods, honey, with powers far beyond the mortals who believe in them. But that power comes from the mortals who worship them. The more mortals there are that worships a god, the stronger he is. As long as one person out there believes with all his heart in a god, that god has power. But when there are no more mortals who believe in a god—“ Miranda snapped her fingers— “poof. They’re not gods anymore. The relationship between a god and a mortal who worships him is pretty complex, but it boils down to ‘you comb my fur and I’ll comb yours.’ The god gets power from the belief of the mortal, and the mortal gets a god to believe in. People need that, they really do. Our belief in our gods is one of the cornerstones of just about every mortal society I know of. Us mortals like having someone up there to watch over us, I suppose.”

“That’s why the One is conquering everything,” Ulger added from the other lean-to, where he was sitting on the ground, sharpening his sword with a wetstone. “He wants more power, and one way to get it is to force people to worship him. Kind of like the K’Tar subversion that took place in middle Nyr some five hundred years ago. The One is pulling the same stunt, but on this world, there are no Elder Gods to step in and pull his leash.”

“I don’t think she knows about Sennadar history, Ulger,” Miranda winked.

Dolanna blew out her breath and stood up, then smoothed out her dress. Jal ran over to her, and she put her hand on his shoulder with a smile. “Are you alright, Dolanna?” Ulger asked.

She nodded. “I am carrying such an amount of power that I think my hair is standing on end, but I am well,” she answered. “It has been so long since I did this, I have forgotten how it feels. Had I a Weave to work with, I could Teleport with the power I hold. So long as I ration its use, it will last me quite a while.”

Jal screwed up his face in concentration, and a small glittering flower made of ice appeared in his hand. He offered it to Dolanna, who took it with a gentle smile. “Thank you, dear one,” she told him. “It is too bad it will melt. It is quite lovely, one of your best works yet.” She passed her hand over it, and the ice flower shimmered briefly. She handed it back to him, and Jal felt it with confusion. Zyri came over and touched it, then she gasped.

“It’s glass! She changed it into glass!”

“Transmutation,” Ulger chuckled. “You’re back, Dolanna.”

“It feels good to be back,” she smiled. “That little exercise cost me power I cannot afford to waste, but on the other hand, a test was in order to ensure it would work as it should.”

“Is Tarrin nearly done?” Miranda asked.

“I know not, but I would doubt it,” she answered. “Tarrin’s capacity far exceeds my own, but he is drawing power faster than I was. His wings are nearly halfway white. I would assume that when they are fully white, he will be finished.”

“Odd that it shows like that on him. That’s not entirely a good thing,” Ulger grunted. “If someone can see how much power he has built up, they might have an advantage.”

“Tarrin can change the color of his wings at will,” Dolanna assured him. “He can mask it easily. Where are Haley and Sarraya?”

The rain started abruptly as they explained what they were doing, and they all had little to do but hunker down and wait for it to end. Haley, Sarraya, and Fireflash remained out in the rain, scouting, returning occasionally to report, but they all watched Tarrin’s wings as they visibly expanded the white which was the indication of the power he had built up. In the span of another hour the white completely infused his wings, all they way down to the very tips, until they no longer resembled looked like solid fire. When it was done, they looked like solid magic.

“I think that’s—“ Ulger started, but Tarrin’s sudden movements startled him into silence. Tarrin immediately stood up, knocking the lean-to over, and snapped his wings out. He lifted into the air as the wings expanded to five times their normal size, then stared down at them with eyes that made all of them uncomfortable, for they glowed with an incandescent white energy, the power of the magic which was within him.

“Everyone under me,” Tarrin ordered in a distant yet intensely focused voice.

“Tarrin, what are you doing?” Dolanna called to him.

“Going to Pyros,” he answered. “Now.”

“Now? But—“ Dolanna started, but then she sighed. “Very well. Give Haley, Sarraya, and Fireflash time to return, they are out scouting.”

“What is he going to do?” Azakar asked Dolanna worriedly.

“I do not know, but he obviously thinks that it is possible, and I am not going to argue with him. That is quite impossible right now. He will not listen to anyone.”

“Is it possible?” Ulger asked.

“Tarrin’s powers are much stronger than mine, Ulger,” she answered. “Yes, I think it might be possible, but without a Weave to work with, I do not see how he is going to do it. I will simply have to wait and see what he has managed to come up with.”

“Sarraya! Haley! Fireflash!” Tarrin’s voice boomed, shaking the grass and clearly audible by people a league away. “Return!”

“Well, at least he’s keeping us dry,” Ulger grunted, looking up at the huge wing which was shielding them from the rain. “Let’s get this stuff packed before the others get back, Zak.”

Haley bounded in first, shifting into his human form and shivering. “I hate it when my fur gets wet. I’ll feel all clammy and musty for days,” he grunted. “What are we doing?”

“Tarrin thinks that he can get us to Pyros right now,” Miranda answered. “So we’re going to hitch a ride.”

“Everyone mount,” Tarrin ordered in that same intense voice.

“Hmm, now it gets interesting,” Miranda said, as she moved towards her horse.

By the time they were all mounted, Sarraya and Fireflash both had returned. Sarraya immediately sought out Dolanna’s shoulder, while Fireflash landed on Mist’s saddle. “I see he’s all cranky again,” Sarraya grunted. “What are we doing?”

“He thinks he can get us to Pyros, so we are waiting to see what he does,” Dolanna answered.

Tarrin’s body rose up a bit more into the air, until they were all in front of him, then he looked down at them with those eyes that glowed white with the power contained within him. “Hold onto your reins,” he ordered, even as he extended a paw forth and presented his open palm to them all.

There was a blinding flash of light, and a series of tendrils of ropy magical energy burst forth from his open paw, each one seeking out a horse. It touched each horse in the forehead, above and between the eyes, and it caused each of them to shudder and whinny in shock. The magic infused each horse, causing them to suddenly glow with incadescent light. That light bulged on their backs ahead and to each side of the saddles or packs on them, just over their front legs, then suddenly shot out at surprising speed. Those spikes of light bent, then grew longer, then ended and caused the spikes to grow down, elongating along its width, flaring out.

The light faded quickly, and it caused all of them to blink. Dolanna gasped, Miranda laughed, and the others just stared mutely at their horses, whom Tarrin had infused with his magic and altered at their most basic level.

Every single horse, be it mount or packhorse, now had huge, feathered wings protruding from their backs, just over the shoulders of their front legs. In unison, they all beat those wings once or twice, then calmly folded them to their sides, covering the legs of their riders with feathers.

“He Transmuted the horses!” Dolanna gasped. “They’re now Pegasi!”

“Pega-what?” Ulger asked in surprise.

“Pegasi, an extinct animal from Sennadar, which died out in the Blood War. Horse-like animals with wings!”

“You mean these things can fly?” Ulger asked in shock.

“Yes,” Tarrin answered flatly. “All of you strap yourselves to your mounts. You’ll find lashing straps on the saddles and on the stirrups. I made them while I was changing the horses.”

They all moved quickly to do so, Ulger wrapping his straps as tightly around his armored body as he could while swearing and muttering under his breath, then leaning over to tie the straps that would go over his lower thigh. “Does this thing know it can fly?” he asked Tarrin acidly.

“It knows,” Tarrin answered, as the white of his wings flared brightly, then was replaced by the usual colors of red, yellow, and orange that were normal for them, though now there were scattered spots of white, as if the individual licks of flame that resembled feathers, each its own color, now had a new color added to the mix. “It was born to fly,” he added cryptically.

“Not only do we have to bloody fly, we get to do it in a soaking rain,” Ulger growled under his breath as he cinched the knot around his leg so tightly that it would have cut off the circulation in his leg, were he not wearing armor.

“I think it’s brilliant!” Sarraya laughed brightly. “Since he can’t carry us all, he found a way to find something that can! They can’t follow us now!”

“The flying Demons can,” Tarrin said in a focused voice. “But they don’t want any part of me in the air.”

“Why is that?” Haley asked curiously.

“They fly depending on their wings. I don’t,” he answered. “I can fly rings around them, and now that I have my Sorcery back, they can’t Teleport to save themselves or ambush us.”

“There’s no Weave here, dear one,” Dolanna reminded him carefully.

“Wards don’t need the Weave,” he answered, staring at her.

She opened her mouth, then laughed. “I stand corrected,” she said with a light smile.

“What is a Ward, Mistress Dolanna?” Zyri asked, who looked a bit shaken from seeing her horse change right underneath her…but her sense of shock had been getting numbed after so many days around the magic-users which made up Tarrin’s group.

“A magical barrier of sorts,” Dolanna answered her. “Tarrin will set it so the Demons cannot use their magical powers anywhere near us. They will be forced to fly to us and attack us with nothing more than claws or weapons, and under those conditions, Tarrin is quite right in that they stand no chance against him. His mastery of flight is too insurmountable.”

With little more than a thought, Tarrin wove out the Ward from the power within him, setting it so its boundary was a thousand spans out from him in every direction, truly a huge Ward that would take a great deal of power to create. He set the Ward so it would stop all magic inside its volume except for Priest magic and Sorcery; doing so sacrificed his own ability to use Wizard magic, but he didn’t think that he’d need it all that much, and the fact that a great many Demons knew some Wizard magic as well as their natural magical powers made it important to stop it. The Ward wouldn’t interfere with his divine powers in any way, so that was not even a worry. He could see the flows extend out from his wings, flow out to the determined distance and then branch out like spiderwebs as he wove them together to form the Ward’s boundary. He charged the flows of the Ward so it would last an entire day, which drained nearly half of the power he had siphoned from the sword, and then snapped down the weave and released it. The air some distance from them shimmered visibly, and then returned to normal. “The Ward is set,” Dolanna announced.

“Then let’s go,” Tarrin announced. “I want to be halfway to Pyros by nightfall.”

“Can these things go that fast?” Ulger asked.

“A Pegasus is one of the fastest things there are with wings,” Tarrin snorted. “We could be there today if we left this morning instead of now. Now let’s go.”

“Er, how do we make them fly?”

“They know what to do,” Tarrin told them impatiently. “And they’re much smarter than horses. Just get them going.”

Hesitantly, Dolanna shook her reins. “Alright then, my friend. Let us be off,” she told the winged animal. It whinnied excitedly and spread its wings, and then vaulted into the air with a single powerful thrust. Dolanna gasped and gave out a surprised cry as the Pegasus lanced into the air, gaining speed and altitude with each stroke of its wings.

Without urging, all the Pegasi vaulted into the air as well. Zyri screamed in fright, clinging to the neck of her Pegasus, but Miranda and Haley looked strangely unruffled by this amazing change in their mounts. Ulger kept a death-grip on his reins, but Azakar simply patted his monstrous black-coated mount on the neck as its large wings pulled them higher and higher into the air, as the Pegasi started to circle to gain altitude before turning to the north. Tarrin rose straight up, looking both majestic and terrible with his fiery wings and his glowing eyes and the look of icy fury on his face, then he turned to the north as the lead Pegasus did the same.

They were everything Tarrin said that they were. The winged horses cut through the air with incredible speed, and the land beneath them seemed to blur as they travelled longspans in a single minute. The wind in their faces was strong and sharp, and the raindrops struck with stinging force, causing them all to wrap up in cloaks and caused Ulger and Azakar to clap down their visors and depend on their armor to stop the stinging rain. But the rain didn’t last long, as they flew out from under it and steadily moved into skies with groups of thick clouds with gaps between them, pouring sunlight in golden shafts down on the land below. Zyri and Jal seemed mesmerized by the sight of it, and they weren’t the only ones. Haley looked down on the land below with dreamy interest, but Ulger kept his eyes locked straight ahead.

“Look!” Haley called, pointing down at the ground. They all looked down at an armed column of men wearing the uniforms of the Church, riding hard to the north. Many were pointing up at them.

“I think the One is sending out his orders,” Dolanna said. “That means we should expect an attack soon, as soon as he summons Demons who can fly and they realize that they cannot teleport into our midst. I doubt he expected us to do this,” she chuckled.

Dolanna was right. About an hour after she predicted it, five twelve span tall vrocks appeared before them. They were huge Demons, with a vulture-like body and large feathered wings on their back, each carrying a black metal glaive. Tarrin immediately brandished his glowing sword and surged ahead of the others, his wings flaring brightly with reddish light as the appearance of the Demons gave his anger a visible outlet. All five seemed to flinch when they entered the boundary of the Ward, but they levelled their glaives like lances and locked their wings as they hurtled towards the Were-cat.

They were quite shocked when the Were-cat’s trajectory suddenly changed, and he dropped under their glaives, changing so sharply in midair that it could not possibly be natural. They realized quickly that Tarrin’s method of flight was magical in nature immediately on seeing that, but the lead vrock didn’t have the opportunity to dwell on its significance. Tarrin changed again, flying directly under the Demon, while his sword quite literally sliced it in half from head to foot, cleanly down the middle of its body as he went by and underneath. The two halves tumbled from the sky with its glaive as Tarrin turned so sharply that it almost defied belief, literally turning back on his own path and coming up on the tails of the Demons with no loss in his speed. He overtook them before they registered that one was already dead, and he cleaved his blade right into the back of a second one. It squealed in pain and dropped away from the others, black blood spraying from its mortal wound as it fell from the air, still clutching its glaive. The other two on the outside veered away in opposite directions, turning sharply to evade their nimble attacker, while the third doggedly kept on a straight line for the flying horses.

Tarrin accelerated to kill the one racing towards the others, but a blinding bolt of lightning lashed out from the host and slammed into the Demon face first. It caused its head to literally explode, and the body tumbled from the air like a rag doll thrown from the top of a tree. Dolanna pulled her hand back, still with arcs of lightning dancing around it, and she gave Tarrin a vicious smile. “This is not Sennadar, dear one!” she shouted. “Sorcery is an alien magic here!”

And so it was, he realized. Since Sorcery was not a magic of this world, then Demons summoned to this world were not immune to it. Dolanna turned and unleashed another blast of lightning on the Demon to her left, striking it in the wings. The blast seemed to paralyze it, and is fell from the sky with a shriek of pain.

The final Demon, realizing that it could not fight back against a magician and an aerial foe with vastly superior maneuverability when its own powers were effectively neutralized, dove for the ground, seeking to escape. Tarrin reared up and wove a weave of Fire, Water, and Air, then snapped it down and released it from his open paw. A jagged blast of lightning, the same spell Dolanna used, arced through the air between them, then struck the Demon squarely in the back. It shrieked in a horrid manner and lost control of its dive, spinning and free-falling towards the ground. Unlike the others, though, the Demon’s image vanished when it fell a certain distance, and Tarrin knew that it had Teleported itself to safety.

“I think they got the message,” Ulger grunted.

“I think so,” Miranda agreed confidently. “Just don’t even bother trying. They’re just lucky Dolanna got to them first. I was already starting my banishment spell.”

“I forgot that you could do that,” Dolanna called to her.

There were no more interruptions, and the Pegasi made fast time flying through the summer day. By nightfall, when the land beneath them had changed into a vast, slightly hilly grassland of lush green rather than brownish tan with stands of trees dotting the landscape, they were fully halfway to Pyros. They had passed by a good sized town just before landing, but were at least three leagues away, more than far enough to avoid local patrols. Tarrin landed just off the road, within sight of a large, sprawling farm nearly a longspan to the west, and folded his wings as the Pegasi circled as they descended, then reared up and landed gracefully one by one. Ulger was the first one out of his saddle, nearly tearing the straps in his haste to get away from the flying horse. Everyone did join him, though, stretching cramped muscles and working out the kinks of being mounted all day. Haley laughed and summed up how they were all feeling succinctly.

“I would guess that it’s going to be a race to the nearest bush?”

Miranda laughed. “I’ve been looking for a nice bush for about an hour now,” she agreed. “Let’s just say that the bush over that rise is the gentelmen’s bush, and that little shrubwall over there is the ladies’?”

“Why should we have to walk farther?” Haley asked with a sly smile.

“Because you have less clothes to work around,” she replied frankly.

Haley chuckled and bowed gracefully. “As always, your logic defeats me,” he said with an outrageous little smile.

“I’ve always been a gracious winner. Now excuse me while I run to the little girl’s shrub.”

And she did. Literally.

Mist looked to Tarrin immediately, but the Were-cat said nothing. He immediately sat down where he stood, cross-legged, wingtips bending against the ground, tail curled around his legs, and put his sword in his lap. He put his paws over it and closed his eyes, tuning out the world in his communion with the power within his sword. Mist scowled, but then moved to the pack horse and started unpacking her cooking supplies.

“He needs to eat,” Miranda fretted, looking at him. “This can’t be good for him.”

“You will leave him alone, Miranda,” Dolanna warned. “Look at him. Look at Mist. Both of them are but one step from losing control. This is how Tarrin deals with his rage, my friend. He shuts out the world and broods, and though it is not good for him, it protects everyone else from him. Mist seems to deal with it by keeping herself occupied with small matters.”

“I noticed that he’s been, well, distant since last night,” Ulger grunted. “Even this morning, he never said an extra word, never made a single move that didn’t have purpose.”

“That is his way,” she affirmed. “He will act thus until we reach Pyros.”

“Then?”

“Then, my friend, we will see what happens,” she sighed.

Mist cooked a hasty meal as the others changed out of clothes that had been soaked and then dried by the wind, leaving them a bit scratchy, but the dinner was still good. She then paced back and forth at the edge of the camp while the others rested a bit before seeking their tents. Tarrin had not so much as moved the entire time, looking like a statue, even when Fireflash landed on his shoulder and nuzzled his neck. There was a calm to the night that everyone noticed, a lack of wind, a stillness, a quiet even among the animals and insects of the night, almost as if they sensed Tarrin’s simmering fury and feared to draw his attention.

Then once again, Tarrin snapped to his feet without warning, startling most of them. He opened his eyes, which still blazed with incadescent white energy, and extended his paw to his side. He again wove a Ward of Sorcery, causing it to curtain over their camp, then he snapped it down and released it. The air around them shimmered, and then returned to normal as the Ward became active. He then put his paw to his amulet. “Phandebrass.”

“I say, I’m here, lad,” he answered immediately. “I have much to report, I do.”

“Go ahead.”

“They’ve moved Kimmie to the main cathedral,” he began. “That was done this morning. It was done in an awful hurry, it was. Something must have happened that has them spooked.”

“I’d say we know what that is,” Miranda chuckled.

“There’s also about half an army of Demons here now,” he continued. “I say, the One must have his archpriests summoning Demons in a chain. They’ve taken to patrolling the streets, they have, and there’s been some rather messy incidents. People are getting nervous, they are. They’ve also put a ridiculous number of Hunters on the streets, they have. Every patrol has a Hunter in it, almost like they know we’re here and they’re trying to find us. They can’t find the Elementalists as long as they stay underground, they’ve discovered over the years, so they’re relatively safe, they are, but they can’t leave their complex.

“Now, as to the cathedral, I’ve managed to find out that they’re holding Kimmie in the dungeon underneath it,” he informed them. “There’s only one way in or out, there is, through the basilica itself, but I’m not sure exactly where. I say, finding a map of the main cathedral has been impossible, it has, and the Demons on the streets makes using magic extremely dangerous. As long as they’re out there, I can’t get a lock on Kimmie with my magic.”

“Phandebrass, tell everyone there that you care about to get out of Pyros,” he ordered in a voice seething with pent-up anger. “I’ll be there at sunrise the day after tomorrow. There won’t be anything left when I leave. Do you understand me?”

“That soon? I say, how did you come so far, so fast? Did you fly ahead of the others, lad? Are they alright?”

“They’re with me.”

“I say, lad, I’ll do my best. It won’t be easy to convince the Shadows that I’m serious, it won’t, but I think I can get them to leave. Since we’ll have a whole day to do it, we will, we should be able to filter out of the city tomorrow without attracting attention. We might have a problem getting the Elementalists out with all the Hunters, but we’ll do our best, we will. I say, what’s the plan?”

“The plan is I get there and raze the city to the ground. We take Kimmie, and then we leave. That’s all the plan I need.”

“Lad, they’ll kill Kimmie the first time you set fire to a building. We need to get to Kimmie before you start rampaging, we do.”

“Just stay out of it, Phandebrass. Get out of the city. I promise you that Kimmie will walk out of Pyros alive and well. Just leave it to me.”

There was a protracted pause. “Very well. I leave it to you, lad. We will vacate Pyros immediately, we will. I hope that what information I managed to gather helped.”

“Phandebrass, you just saved Kimmie’s life. Now get out of Pyros.”

“I say, I’ll be out in the morning. Where will we meet?”

“We’ll find you. Now go.”

“I say, very well. Good luck, and may the holy might of Azur and the Lorekeeper bless your thoughts with purity.”

Tarrin took his paw off the amulet and sat back down. He was quiet a long moment, and the others stared at him. “The One eavesdropped on our last talk,” he announced, then he looked up. “Mist, this will all hinge on you.”

“What did you have in mind?”

“I can get you close to Kimmie, but I can only send you. If I can get you in there, can you get to her and get her out by yourself?”

“Easily,” she snorted.

“Timing will be everything, Mist. I have to send you well before we get to Pyros. You have to get to Kimmie after I engage the One, and get her out before I reach the Cathedral. That means you’ll have to stay there without being found for some time, and there won’t be a large window of time when you act. I can’t make it look like I’m stalling, and the One absolutely must believe that I’m coming to the Cathedral to get Kimmie.”

“Get me within a longspan of my daughter, and I’ll have her safely away before you can draw another breath,” she answered intensely.

Tarrin’s eyes narrowed, and the light and heat of his wings suddenly intensified.

Miranda gasped, then laughed. “Tarrin! You really think it’s there?”

“Where better to put it?” Tarrin answered here evenly. “The One is arrogant and overconfident. He’ll have it sitting in the nave of his main cathedral for everyone to see, even if they don’t know what it is. I’ll bet my life on it.”

“Won’t that cause problems for Mist getting to Kimmie?”

“He won’t know that she’s there, and that will let her get to Kimmie,” Tarrin answered.

“What are you two about?” Ulger asked.

Miranda laughed. “Is it safe to talk?”

Tarrin nodded. “The Ward I put up blocks the One. He can’t see us or hear us in here. He overheard what me and Phandebrass said, but nothing more.”

Miranda gave him a wolfish grin, then turned to Ulger. “When the One moved Kimmie to the cathedral, he gave Tarrin a chance to come right to it and not be obvious about what he was doing. So, when we get there, Tarrin’s going to charge straight to the main cathedral, and the One is going to think he’s coming for Kimmie. But Mist is going to get to Kimmie first, so when Tarrin gets there, he’ll be free to do what he really means to do.”

“What is that?” Ulger asked impatiently.

Dolanna’s eyes brightened, then she too laughed. “Dear one! That is clever!”

“Tarrin is going to attack the One’s icon,” Miranda told Ulger. “If he can destroy that, then the One will lose his connection to this world, and it will just about make him and all his Priests powerless.”

“As long as it’s there,” Ulger grunted. “But then again, even if it’s not, it’s not like it will be a total loss. Tarrin gets the chance to flatten the center of the One’s power. This church is huge, and if you destroyed its headquarters, I think it would put the entire thing in disarray.”

“You see the point,” Tarrin announced in a low voice. “Tomorrow morning, I’m sending Mist ahead so she can get into position. Sarraya, you’re going to be Mist tomorrow, so anyone who looks sees that she’s still with us.”

“How am I going to pull that off?” Sarraya asked, flitting up to his face. “There’s just a little bit of a height difference!”

“Mist, give me your belt,” Tarrin ordered, holding his paw out to his mate.

Miranda laughed. “Clever!” she praised. “Can you shrink it without damaging its magic?”

He shook his head. “It won’t work that way. If I shrunk the belt, it would just make a Sarraya-sized Mist. I’ll have to go from the other end.”

Sarraya glared at him indignantly. “Don’t you dare make me taller, Tarrin!” Tarrin fixed the Faerie with a withering stare, which brought her up short. “Well, uh, I can be put back to my rightful size, right?”

Tarrin snorted shortly. “Mist, I’ll need to change your amulet,” he commanded. “You’ll need some defense against fire for me to send you ahead. I’m going to copy the weave that the Goddess put into Camara Tal’s amulet so you’ll be safe from it. It’s about time you got that anyway.”

“I can’t take it off, my mate,” she reminded him.

“I know, so you’re in for a long night,” he answered her, sitting down cross-legged on the ground. She sat down in front of him, but he immediately reached down and grabbed her by the legs, then scooped her up and put her on his lap. He took hold of her amulet in his paw, and immediately set to work.

“I wonder how he’s going to pull this off,” Ulger grunted as Tarrin closed his eyes.

“If there is anything I have learned about Tarrin over the years, my friend,” Dolanna told him soberly, “is that you should never underestimate him. If he thinks he has found a way, then odds are, it will work.”

It was one of the hardest things he had ever done. It would not have been had he been at home, but this was not home.

He had to alter a complex weave set down by his own Goddess in order to add something, and do it in such a way that it did not destroy its other functions.

It took him literally all night. He had to expand out the weaving of the amulet and study it for a long time, come to understand how it worked, then start inserting his own weaving into it that would allow it to do what he wanted it to do without interfering with anything else. Half of that time entailed finding just where to make his weaving, then going through the long and complicated task of weaving it in. He had to use the power within himself, constantly siphoning more off from the sword, to create the permanent weaving and then seal it so it would not dissipate. Flow by flow, he interlaced his own addition into the amulet, moving with infinite care and caution, until he was finally finished. An hour before dawn, as Ulger stood silent watch over the camp in a warm, stiff wind that whipped over the grassy plain, Tarrin carefully withdrew his power from the amulet, allowing the weaving to return to its normal state, which included a new addition. Then he sealed the weaving once more, rendering it permanent.

He opened his eyes and saw that Mist was sleeping, sleeping sitting upright and stock still, her paws on his shoulders for balance. He felt Fireflash on his shoulders, draped across them, also sleeping peacefully. He shook her gently, and those glorious eyes opened immediately. “Done?” she asked.

He nodded. “Now it’s time to test,” he said.

They both stood up gracefully, though Tarrin’s knees and back popped from an extended period of time in one position. Fireflash He raised a paw and caused fire to come forth, dancing in his palm, and held it out to her. “Slowly.”

She looked at him a moment, then understood what he wanted. She extended her paw towards the fire, then pushed it inside. “I can feel the heat, but it’s not burning me,” she announced. “There’s no pain.”

“Good. That’s what I wanted. Now I can send you ahead without it frying you to a crisp in the process.”

“Exactly how are you going to do that, Tarrin?” Ulger asked curiously.

Fireflash erupted from the tent that Zyri and Jal shared, then landed on Tarrin’s shoulder and nuzzled him exuberantly. Tarrin patted his drake on the head absently, then took him in an arm and stroked his sleek scales with his other paw. “Fire is connected to itself,” Tarrin told Ulger in an absent manner. “Fire may be here or there, but it is all simply fire.” He pointed to the dying coals of the campfire. “I’ll send Mist into that fire, and join it to another somewhere else. She’ll come out of the other fire. I can sense many fires a great distance to the north, and from the number of them, that just has to be Pyros. I’m going to pick one, take a look through it, and if it looks good, Mist goes through. It’s not Teleporting, but it’s almost as good. The only drawback is that if you’re not immune to fire, you’re going to get burned going through it. That’s why I had to make Mist immune to it, the way me and Dolanna are.”

“You can do that?” Ulger said in surprise.

Tarrin nodded. “I’m not sure how, or how I know that I can, but I can,” he answered. “It’s like I always knew, but I never really thought about it because I never needed to use it before.”

“How will Mist find Kimmie once she’s through? We don’t even know what building she’s being held in.”

“I’ll find her,” Mist told him brusquely. “I know where they’re holding her, after all. All I have to do is find some lone human and drag the location of the main cathedral out of him.”

“True,” Ulger agreed. “Are you going now?”

Mist looked to Tarrin, then she nodded. “The more time I have to get into position, the more certain it’ll be that I’m where I need to be when the time comes,” she announced. “When do I act, my mate?”

“When you hear me coming,” he answered. “Trust me, you will not miss it.” He reached into his belt pouch and handed Mist a tiny book, his Gnomlin Travelling Spellbook. “When you free Kimmie, she absolutely must get you out of there. The Shadow Step spell is in this book. If she’s forgotten it, she can read it right off the page. When you free her, she must get you two out of there, you can’t come back out through the cathedral.”

“I understand,” Mist said soberly, putting the book in her belt pouch.

“That’s why you’re sending Mist,” Ulger realized. “If Kimmie was immune to fire, you could just use fires to find her, then reach out and grab her and bring her back,” he said brightly.

Tarrin gave Ulger a long, steady look, but it was slightly amused, and a bit respectful.

“Well, why not find Kimmie with fires, then send Mist or Dolanna right to her?”

“Because the One will feel it if I start poking around his cathedral,” Tarrin answered. “I’m going to drop Mist at the edge of the city, and she’ll work her way in. If I tried to reach right into his cathedral, he could interfere. And I’m not risking the life of whoever gets caught between us as we fight over control of the gateway.”

“Oh. I forgot.”

Tarrin gestured at the coals of the fire absently, and they roared into flame at his command. They burned high and bright and hot, rising up as high as Tarrin was tall. Tarrin handed Fireflash over to Ulger, then he and Mist walked over to the fire, and then Tarrin closed his eyes and put his paws into the flames. He reached into the fire, into the core of it, reached into the core of his own power. He extended his wings, which flared with bright light as he accessed powers that he had never used before, but also inherently, instinctively, knew were there and knew how to use. He then reached out with that power, the power within him, that defined him, the power of fire, feeling the location of every single fire for a hundred leagues in every direction. Every farmer’s fire, the flames of every soldier’s campfire, the licks of flame on the wicks of lanterns and candles on every bedstand, on posts on streets, every cookfire, they all were known to him in that instant. He found a large concentration of fires far to the north, a very large number of them, and then picked one at the fringe of that concentration at random and opened himself to it.

He saw in his mind a hazy image, distorted by the heat of the flames, of a small, almost crude room that looked to be the entirety of the structure. There was a single standing form in it, a woman in rough clothing, her back to the fire. Two figures slept on pallets near the fire, and the hovel’s doorway was open, showing a street beyond that looked empty and deserted.

Perfect.

“Mist, cat form,” Tarrin said distantly as he deepened his connection to the fire. Mist shifted into her cat form immediately as the fire’s flames shuddered, and then stopped as Tarrin reached into the fire, then reached through the intervening distance to the other fire, joining fire to itself and creating a union of fire with itself, causing to separate fires to become one. He had no idea how he did it, but he did. The fire again started moving, but its flames turned from reds and oranges, to blues and whites. “Go. And the Goddess be with you.”

“See you soon, my mate,” Mist replied in the manner of the Cat, then she bounded fearlessly into the fire. The union of fires caused her to exit from the fire on the other side, and he saw her immediately scamper through the room and out of the open door before the woman in that room turned around. Tarrin withdrew himself from the fire, which caused both fires to return to normal.

“She’s through,” Tarrin told Ulger.

“Not much of a goodbye,” he noticed.

“It’s not a goodbye,” Tarrin told him. “We’ll see each other again tomorrow. And neither of us are in the mood right now for affection. It’s our way, Ulger.”

“You think she’ll be alright?”

“Stop thinking of Mist as a woman, Ulger,” Tarrin said bluntly. “Women are not as helpless as you tend to believe. Mist will do exactly what she needs to do, and do it well. Nothing can stop her, because she won’t let it.” He folded his wings behind him, and slashed his tail a few times. “When I get to Pyros, Mist will be exactly where she needs to be. I have faith in her.”

“Not misplaced faith, that’s for certain,” Ulger chuckled.

“Faith in Mist is never misplaced,” Tarrin answered evenly, as the Knight handed Fireflash back to him. He stared into the fire, his glowing eyes a mystery of complex emotion. “Wake the others. It’s time to go.”

The others were surprised to find Mist already gone when they awoke, but Ulger was sure to describe how Tarrin did it in lustrous detail as Miranda cooked breakfast. Tarrin sat nearby with his sword in his lap, eyes closed and distant from the world, even oblivious to Fireflash’s insistent nudges with his nose for attention. “It is alright, little one,” Dolanna told him, patting him on the head as she went by. “He will be back to normal in just another day or so. He is just worried about Kimmie, that is all.”

“I’ll play with you, Fireflash,” Zyri announced, coming over to Tarrin. “I know how it feels to be alone. I miss him too.”

Fireflash vaulted over to her shoulder, then flicked his serpentine tongue in her ear, which made her convulse slightly and giggle uncontrollably. Jal however, came over and sat in front of Tarrin, his hands on the Were-cat’s shins, staring at the sword intently. He then lifted his hands and produced a sculpture in ice of Tarrin’s sword, which immediately started to melt when exposed to the radiant heat of Tarrin’s wings.

“Yes, he’s very hot,” Haley chuckled. “It’s the wings. They always radiate heat, but here lately, since he’s been so worried about Kimmie, they’re hotter than usual.”

Jal pointed at Fireflash.

“Oh, him? He’s immune to fire. It’s because he’s a drake. He breathes fire, sprout, don’t you think he’d be immune to it too? If he wasn’t, he’d burn his mouth every time he did!”

Jal seemed to ponder that, then looked back to Tarrin. He extended his hands, a look of intense concentration on his face. Then a wave of cold emanated from his hands.

The result was a bit startling to the boy. Fog instantly formed around Tarrin and Jal, a thick, heavy fog that was cool and a bit clammy, but also was quickly torn apart by the stiff wind blowing across the plain. Jal had a wild look in his eyes, then he actually giggled aloud.

“That’s what happens when cool, wet air meets warm air, kiddo,” Miranda said with a cheeky grin.

“That is a rather clever little trick, though,” Ulger chuckled. “Instant smokescreen.”

Azakar finished saddling the Pegasi, patting his huge one on the neck fondly and getting nudged with the horse’s snout in return. Only Azakar’s massive charger had the strength to move the equally massive Mahuut. “Will this wind intefere with us? I’m still new to this.”

“I think we all are,” Dolanna said with a light smile. “But I think it will not be an issue, my friend. These animals know what they are doing. They will carry us safely through this wind.”

The camp was broken down after breakfast, before the dawn, just as the false dawn’s light faded from the eastern horizon. Tarrin stood up suddenly just as the last flap was tied on a pack on one of the pack Pegasi, as if he’d been aware of everything going on in the camp even with his eyes closed. “Mount,” he ordered. “Sarraya, come here.”

“Aww,” she growled. “I was hoping you’d forget.”

“Dream on,” he grunted as she landed on the ground before him, such an incredibly tiny thing, not even coming up to his ankle. “This might tingle.”

“What are you doing exactly?”

“It’s a Wizard spell. It will last until sunrise tomorrow, or until I cancel it. It will just grow you, it won’t change you any other way. But I doubt you’ll be able to fly.”

“Probably not,” she sighed. “Alright, go ahead. Let’s get it overwith.”

Tarrin began chanting in the discordant language of magic, his paws forming five distinct gestures before him as he did so, each gesture occurring at a precise point in the incantation. He then pointed at Sarraya and uttered the final word of the spell, and he felt that alien magic from elsewhere surge into and through him, then affect Sarraya in the manner in which he intended.

Very quickly, Sarraya began to grow. She grew a span in a matter of seconds, as her auburn locks crept higher and higher in comparison to Tarrin. Her dress of gossamer cobwebs enlarged with her as she expanded, growing at an astounding rate, until her curly cap of hair was level with Tarrin’s lower chest. Still she grew, getting taller and taller, until she was eye to eye with Tarrin.

“Put on the belt,” Tarrin ordered.

Sarraya looked at her hands, then laughed. “I don’t look any larger, at least until I look around,” she told them. She looked at her feet, then all around her. “I’m used to this point of view, since I can fly. It’s just odd to see from up here while my feet are on the ground.” Miranda handed her the belt, and she buckled it around her waist. “How do I make it work?”