The knights of Erador closest to him broke away from their master and swarmed the Centaur. All the while, Alijah became aware of new wounds he couldn’t explain. He didn’t recall being hit by any of those he had faced since entering the fray, but such was the turmoil of battle. His previous injuries had slowed him down and likely given his enemies more than one opportunity to land a blow that couldn’t quite pierce his armour.
A shockwave of magic rippled through the battlefield, turning Alijah away from his wounds. He watched half a dozen knights fly skywards in a flash of blue light. Focusing on the source of the magic, the king tried to see between his protective circle. It could have been any of the elves, but they all appeared too exhausted to have used such a powerful spell. That left Inara and Gideon, though Alijah couldn’t imagine the old master using what magic he still possessed.
Inara then.
As the knights guarded him against incoming attacks, he finally glimpsed his sister amongst the chaos. Her red cloak flowing around her, Inara was a maelstrom of devastating power and fury. Her Vi’tari scimitar, Firefly, was in constant motion, twisting and turning in her grip to deflect and attack almost simultaneously. When she wasn’t using a double-handed attack, her free hand was expelling destructive magic.
Behind her, The Rebellion rallied. Alijah could see them all, an alliance of species, sweeping up behind her. She was the tip of the spear leading them all to the dig site.
Focus! Malliath chastised.
The king looked up to see his companion weaving between Athis and Ilargo’s attacks, forcing them to change their flight path at awkward angles and chase him up into the clouds. Malliath was right. They were so close now. Falling back on his lessons, he heard The Crow’s words in his head.
“Fear is not real, it is simply a product of the mind. Danger is real.”
He had nothing to fear from his sister. He could overpower her, injured or not. But she posed a real danger to his work in the pit. Taking the lead in front of his knights, Alijah put his sword to use again and forged a path to the dig site. He had to get there first and see his task completed.
Inara saw him, fleeing like a coward. She had been directed to him, guided by his use of magic. And now, surrounded by his undead fiends, the would-be king of the world turned from her rather than face the consequences. It turned her blood to fire.
“I have him!” she called, drawing Galanör’s attention.
“Where?” the ranger demanded, swiping Stormweaver across a Reaver’s torso.
“He must be making for the site!” she reasoned, throwing her hand out to engulf a group of Reavers in flames.
“We have to stop him!” Galanör urged.
Inara set her sights on the path she intended to take. “We will,” she said determinedly to herself. “On me!” she cried, rallying those behind her.
Elf, dwarf, and Centaur heard the Guardian and none hesitated to follow in her wake. She had more energy than all of them and her command of both magic and sword was vastly superior. Relying on the strength of her elven half, Inara flipped in the air and landed in the midst of the Reavers. Swifter than they could respond, she ducked down and swept her blade round in an arc, taking out their legs. On the ground, they were prey to the rushing dwarves of Dhenaheim as hammer, axe, and spear came down on them with a vengeance.
Before they were crushed into the dirt, Inara was already moving, gaining ground on her brother. Flashes of his jade scimitar pushed her on until she was stepping over the corpse of a Reaver and entering the campsite where the dwarves had been imprisoned.
A pair of Centaurs galloped in behind her, clearing one of the tents in a single leap. Against Inara’s warning, they rushed the group of Reavers covering Alijah’s back. One of them succeeded in cutting down a pair of the fiends, but the other received a sword to the chest, thrown by one of the Reavers. It was Alijah himself who turned and killed the surviving Centaur with a clean swipe of his Vi’tari blade.
He found Inara across the campsite and their eyes locked.
They each held a promise in their gaze. Alijah warned his sister that he wouldn’t hesitate to kill her should she interfere. Inara assured her brother that there was nothing he could throw at her that would prevent her wrath from coming down on him. One of them was going to die today.
The Reavers closed ranks again and Alijah disappeared behind a wall of black knights. From her vantage, Inara could see that they were now on the lip of the dig site, meaning her brother was likely on his way down already.
They were out of time. “Are you with me?” she asked, glancing at Galanör.
The elven ranger assessed the Reavers blocking their way. “We can take them,” he declared, turning to Aenwyn beside him. She flicked up her scimitar and nodded once with conviction.
Inara tried again to reach out to Gideon through their dragons’ bond, but Athis and Ilargo were too occupied to bridge a connection between the four of them. She knew her old master was out there somewhere after having been separated by hours of battle. But she couldn’t wait for him now. If Alijah had, indeed, found a way to open a doorway down there, he was, perhaps, only minutes away from destroying the source of magic.
Leading the way, Inara charged across the dwarven camp with Galanör and Aenwyn. Behind them, those
