Embers at Galdrilene (60 page)

Kirynn’s zarhi carved a shield around her. Her mind centered, she ignored everything but the task at hand. Kojen rose up against her and fell. Heat burned through her body and sweat trickled down her face. Blood soaked both blades of her weapon. Exhaustion crept along the edges of her focus. A flash of red drew her attention. A knot of Defenders cut through the Kojen to her left. Defenders? Here? She shrugged, never one to second guess good luck in a battle. Ahead, a young man walked toward her, a twisted, confident smile on his face. The Kojen parted before him. A Shadow Rider. She set herself to take him on. He suddenly stopped several paces from her, his eyes wide. A scream tore from his throat and he dropped to his knees, clawing at his face.

Stunned, Kirynn watched in fascinated horror as the man withered before her eyes. His skin became thin, gray parchment stretched over his bones. She barely had time to process it when Mernoth landed with a ground shaking crash next to the shriveled man. The dragon opened his mouth and poured fire on him. The heat from the flames were so intense, Kirynn thought her own skin might burn.

Mernoth turned from the pile of ash the man had become and launched into the air once more. Uneasiness settled into the pit of Kirynn’s stomach. Why was Mernoth there? What would make him go through agony to come here?

A new wave of Kojen interrupted her thoughts. The knot of Defenders went down screaming, some clutching their heads, others dying on Kojen swords. Even with the Defenders and the dragons, there were too many. They had to do something soon, or they would never make it out alive. They were outnumbered. Everywhere she looked, Kojen surged like waves of a purple-skinned sea. She reached out to Syrakynn,
“I need you.”

Tellnox reached Mckale and cleared a space around his rider with flame and the sharp spade-like end of his tail. Sending a thank you to his dragon, Mckale turned his attention to Maleena. Her closed lids were shaded purple in her too pale face. The dark circles under her eyes only accentuated it.

“She needs to wake up,”
Tellnox sent.

“Why?”

“Kirynn has need of her magic,”
came Tellnox’s sending.
“We are overwhelmed. Only two mages are left, Emallya is gravely injured and will die soon without healing. Mernoth is here with Defenders, but even with them it is not enough. Everyone sustains injuries. Kirynn believes she can get us out if Maleena can wake up and bind together Kirynn’s Fire magic and Kellinar’s Weather magic. She needs the strength of the wind to fan the flames of the weave she plans to use. Without it, she is not sure we will make it out of here. There are too many Kojen. I trust her assessment.”

Mckale looked across the battlefield and saw thousands of Kojen with the massive shapes of sparring dragons rising above, the night alternately lit by orange flame and green flame. Somewhere his companions fought for their lives in that sea.

He knelt next to Maleena and called her name, gently patting the uninjured side of her face.

Maleena swam through the dark toward consciousness. Clanging metal and roaring filled her ears. Someone called her name while they drove spikes into her head. Her lids fluttered open. Mckale’s worried face filled her view. In her mind she felt Nydara, fighting for both their lives.

“Maleena, you have to wake up. We need your magic. Without it we may all die.”

She tried to get her voice to work, but her body didn’t want to respond to her commands. Finally she was able to mouth the word, “What?”

“You need to bind together Kellinar and Kirynn’s magic. Kirynn says she can help us if you can bind the two and hold it.”

Maleena nodded and pulled on her last reserves to reach out for the rivers of power flowing into her two companions. The effort seemed too great and her first two attempts faltered. On her third try, she grasped the rivers of magic. It felt like trying to lift a dragon. She took the rivers and wove them together so tight they blended into one. She held the binding together and sent the power rushing toward Kirynn.

Fire bloomed in the center of the battle. Blindingly bright, it began to swirl and expand outward. The Kojen fell back from it. Kirynn, with her arms up, blood running down the side of her face and her dragon behind her, were visible in the center of the expanding firestorm.

Maleena watched Vaddoc’s river of magic divide into separate streams as he threw shields around each of them. Before the fire reached where she lay in Mckale’s arms with Tellnox and Nydara nearby, a shimmering, translucent wall of light sprang up around them. Seconds later, fire raged all around the shield. Black dragons screamed and fled out into the desert with their riders on their backs. Kojen trampled each other in their attempt to flee and were swept up in the flames.

Kirynn held the firestorm until the Kojen were nothing more than charred mounds and Syrakynn sensed the Shadow Dragons were well out into the desert. She allowed the flames to dissipate and Maleena let the bind unravel. The sudden silence was deafening. In the darkness lit only by the full moon, Kirynn swayed on her feet. Vaddoc caught her around the waist before she could fall and eased her to the ground. “Are you okay?”

She waved him away. “I’m fine; it just took a lot of energy. Make sure the others are okay.”

Vaddoc ran over to where Serena kneeled next to Bardeck and a prone Emallya. “We have to go, now. They won’t stay gone long.”

Serena shook her head. “Give us a minute. If we don’t do something right now, she’ll die.”

He looked down at the older woman as Serena closed her eyes and laid her hands on Emallya. He’d seen wounds like that before. He doubted she would live no matter what Serena and Bardeck did. “Do what you can in the next couple of minutes. I’m going to help the others. When I come back, we are leaving.”

In a haze, Maleena saw Vaddoc help Kirynn on Syrakynn’s back and secure the safety straps. Then he grabbed Loki and placed him on Namir. The boy clung to the front of the saddle with wide eyes. Vaddoc moved to help a woman Maleena recognized as a Weather mage up into Nydara’s saddle and secure the straps.

Then he was there, taking her from Mckale so he could secure himself on Tellnox. She cried out at the pain that lanced through her when Vaddoc handed her up. Then she was in Mckale’s arms again and he was pulling more pain from her. She looked across the battlefield from the height of Tellnox’s back. Serena and Bardeck, secured on Miya’s back, held the unconscious form of Emallya in front of them. When did Bardeck get there?

Kellinar staggered and grabbed for Shryden’s side to steady himself. Blood ran down his side and one arm was burnt and blistered. Taela, bleeding from her own wounds, ran to help him.

At first, Maleena thought she was dreaming. Thousands of bright luminescent threads flowed from Kellinar and Taela. They reached for each other and wove themselves together tight. For a moment, Maleena was in another time. She stood on a road in a freezing downpour, looking up into Mckale’s silver eyes in the lantern light as glowing threads wove together around them.

“Maleena?” Mckale’s voice seemed distant and she looked up into his beautiful eyes. “Tellnox is getting ready to take flight. It’s going to hurt, my love. I’m sorry.”

“Kellinar is her shield. They are bondmates,” she whispered. Tellnox thrust his wings down and her world faded.