Having healed Kori, who rose with fury on her face, Aeron again seemed to whisper, one hand rising to the sky. That surprised Matt. A necromancer would reach for the earth to get dead things to rise from it. What was up there to care about? He found out when a loud screech split the air and a green dragon flew over the courtyard, barely above the buildings, a rider upon its back. Both were close enough to see that they were dead, large puncture wounds in the dragon’s neck, ghastly ones in its body, and a broken wing hampering its flight. Just as Matt recognized Sebast and the missing Novir, they turned toward Jolian and spat a fountain of green liquid at her. The red dragon ducked behind a building as steaming acid began melting everything around her. She seemed unscathed and leaped into the sky to pursue the undead dragon.
“Holy shit,” said Ryan, turning to them. “Did you see that?”
“More like unholy shit,” said Eric, reaching into a pocket. Matt saw one vial of green acid he’d collected from Sebast’s corpse hidden in the rogue’s reappearing hand, so he turned and sent a blinding flash of light from his staff at the Lords of Fear, who shielded their eyes. Eric threw the vial, which smashed on Garian’s leg. Horrible screaming erupted as it ate away the sorcerer’s flesh so quickly that the bone had already appeared. Lord Garian staggered and fell, Aeron running for him even as the sorcerer’s blazing eyes turned toward Eric, the Dragon’s Fire Wand raising. Matt ran to Eric and put up an invisible wall just as sustained blasts of lightning struck, crackling the air amid thunder that deafened him. From the corner of his eye, Matt saw movement, as did Eric, but neither were fast enough to dodge the knives that Kori threw at Eric, one hitting his shoulder, the other his leg. The lightning cut off from Garian cut off. Anna ran to Eric. Matt swung the top of his staff in anger, causing a half circle of fire to roar up from the ground in between the combatants.
He glanced down at Eric, relieved to see Anna succeeding at healing the rogue, but there was no time to feel satisfaction. The sound of heavy footsteps preceded Lord Voth running through the wall of flames directly toward Ryan, who advanced.
“Matt,” yelled Eric, “drop the flames. We can’t see what they’re doing.”
“Right.” He killed the spell and swore. With Jolian gone, the enthralled warriors had advanced, and the ones that had gone around were now entering the plaza from the sides. Undead would soon surround them except from behind. Aeron had healed a livid Garian, who now strode toward them, the dark Orb of Dominion in one hand and the wand in the other. To one side, Kori had drawn her sword and ran at Eric, who quickly drew his.
“Fall back!” shouted the rogue. “To the hall! Anna! Matt! Keep the enthralled away.”
The loud clang of Ryan’s sword blocking Lord Voth’s split the air as they traded blows, Ryan steadily backing up and risking glances at the others to as if to measure the pace of their retreat. A flurry of more frequent and lighter clangs sounded on Matt’s other side as Kori and Eric fought. Garian raised his wand at Ryan and Matt threw a brief shield up, so close to the sorcerer that the energy wave meant to strike the knight rebounded and knocked Garian into Aeron so that they fell in a heap. Matt smiled despite the tension in the air. Somehow, Eric and Kori were now fighting without swords or knives, each spinning, kicking, punching and sometimes throwing the other, still moving steadily toward the Hall of Worlds. Matt thought to get Eric’s dropped sword for him,
3 but there was no time.
A scream of warning from Jolian made him look up as Sebast bore down on them, a blast of Jolian’s fire into his path making Sebast bank to avoid it, his spray of green acid missing the champions and striking the stone behind them. The green dragon had fresh burn marks on his head and one wing, but Jolian seemed unhurt. On his back, Novir was too small to see much of from here.
As Garian and Aeron tried to rise, green grass rose from between the stones beneath them, wrapping around their arms and legs, pulling them down. Startled, Matt turned and saw Anna with her arm extended toward them, fist closed and surrounded by white light. He moved toward her to protect the priest as the grass grew longer, blades encircling Aeron’s throat but not Garian’s. This suggested that the necromancer was the true source of ire for the goddess of life Anna was channeling. But Aeron shouted a word he didn’t understand before being strangled into silence. Some of the enthralled who were approaching ran at them, and Matt realized that each was undead.
Anna saw it, too, her eyes wide. Matt thought maybe she could just make more grass spring up and grab each of them, but she dropped her hand before turning it on the undead to one side. Those undead staggered as white light suddenly shone from their eyes, mouths, and ears. They stumbled and fell face first, unmoving. Anna whirled around and did it again to those on the other side, and then the ones running up behind Garian and Aeron, who had freed themselves and began to rise.
“Thank you,” said Matt, reaching into his pocket for the vial of dragon ice water. Then he saw Sebast circling back toward them, Jolian once again in pursuit. “Anna, do you think you could hit the dragon with that?” To one side, Ryan appeared to be holding his own against Lord Voth, retreating steadily.
With a gleam in her eye, Anna said, “Let’s see.”
She made the same gesture at Sebast as he neared. The white light
